Our editor-in-chief Nate Yapp is proud to have contributed to the new book Hidden Horror: A Celebration of 101 Underrated and Overlooked Fright Flicks, edited by Aaron Christensen. Another contributors include Anthony Timpone, B.J. Colangelo, Dave Alexander, Classic-Horror.com's own Robert C. Ring and John W. Bowen. Pick up a copy today from Amazon.com!

Thomas E. Richardson

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Posts by Thomas E. Richardson

Review: The Day It Came To Earth (1979)

The Day It Came to Earth poster

Lots of low budget indie movies are fun. Sometimes their own sheer inanity becomes their most endearing factor. Things like The Slime People, The Blob (the original) or Biohazard. Then again there are some Indies that just don't know when to quit (ie., The Milpitas Monster where, so the story goes, the entire town pitched in to help make the movie) or should never have gotten started in the first place. That is what brings me to tonights' subject matter.(read more...)

Homogenized Horror Part V

Now right about now many of you are thinking that I don't like franchise terror. Well, actually some of it is quite good. Britain's Hammer Films did rather well with their Frankenstein and Dracula movies. Okay, Evil of Frankenstein (1964) caused a bit of confusion by happening outside the chronology of the other films and Frankenstein Created Woman (1967) is open to debate by even the staunchest terror enthusiasts. After transplanting brains with such vigor why would the durable Baron (Peter Cushing) attempt to transplant a human soul? We could expect Colin Clive to try such a thing because despite his experiments he kept his religious convictions. I have to wonder out loud of Peter Cushing's character even believed that the soul existed.(read more...)

Review: Wolf Blood (1925)

Wolf Blood

Say "silent movies" to anyone under 30 and they are liable to respond "Boring!", but that is because they have never really seen one. Even worse, mention silent scary movies to anyone at all and they will most likely think Phantom of the Opera or The Lost World (both 1925) because those two are the prime examples. Actually, though, there have been scary movies since the very beginning of moving pictures.(read more...)

Homogenized Horror Part IV

Friday the 13th inspired, if that is the word, clones from all over the world and introduced the term "Franchise Horror" into the mainstream. Paramount was quick to capitalise on its new "star" Jason Voorhees and brought him back time and again. Nobody noticed, or cared, that it was virtually the same plot over and over again just so long as the murders were gory. The studio clearly was hoping the censors were looking the other way part of the time. Meanwhile others were copying the "knife wielding assassin in the woods" theme in movies like The Final Terror, Just Before Dawn, Mother's Day, The Forest, Forest Prime Evil, and Lisa Lisa.(read more...)

Homogenized Horror Part III

George A. Romero, at one time that name was the yardstick by which independent scary movies were measured. He did not climb on any bandwagon with his first feature, Night of the Living Dead, rather he started the bandwagon! Oh, yes, many people will say "Yes, but Herschell Gordon Lewis not only did explicit gore first, he did it in colour when Romero was still directing commercials." That is quite true, but we must remember that most of these people are speaking with hindsight. H.G. Lewis had audiences in stunned silence with Blood Feast, 2000 Maniacs, and Color Me Blood Red 5 years before Romero and company were even planning their premiere feature.(read more...)