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!

John Dubrawa

John Dubrawa's picture
Staff Writer
I’m a late start to the horror movie scene. It’s not that I didn’t watch horror movies when I was a kid and hid under the covers during the scary parts, I just didn’t start appreciating the artistry behind the films until just recently. Since that time, however, I’ve fully immersed myself in the genre: I’ve been to horror conventions, started collecting memorabilia, gotten two themed tattoos (one of Freddy Krueger and one of Jason Voorhees with more to come), and had dinner with the one and only Gunnar Hansen.

"You like that kind of stuff?" That’s the most typical reaction that I receive whenever I tell someone that I write horror movie reviews. I don’t know if it’s a reaction to the genre in general or if it has something to do with me. I’m a twenty-something College graduate (nearly) that works at a theme park sitting behind the desk of a cubicle wearing collared shirts and slacks. I’m not what people expect a horror enthusiast to look like, but then again, did Damien look like he could be the Devil’s demon spawn? Okay, bad example, but hopefully you catch my drift.

As well as being a horror fanatic and somewhat of a buff, I’m also big into film in general, hockey (the New Jersey Devils, how fitting), comic books, and Star Wars. When I’m not starting longingly at the two eight-foot tall banners for the film "Freddy vs Jason" that I have hanging in my den, I’m either out with friends, playing video games, or writing. I’m currently majoring in Film with a minor in Creative Writing, so my mind is usually on my writing. One day, I’ll be making a living out of watching movies and critiquing them.
Posts by John Dubrawa

Review: Friday the 13th (1980)

Friday the 13th poster
Submitted by John Dubrawa on Fri, 2012-04-13 15:05

Sean S. Cunningham's Friday the 13th openly defies originality, borrowing liberally from John Carpenter's Halloween and Alfred Hitchcock's Psycho, but succeeds in spite of it. Although far from being the paradigm of the genre, the film nevertheless paves a succinct pathway through its boogeyman tale, striking a few familiar notes of its predecessors while creating its own unique beats along the way. It's a slasher flick stripped down to its most primal vices-sex and violence-and Friday the 13th unflinchingly bathes the audience in copious amounts of both. (read more...)

Review: House of Wax (1953)

House of Wax 1953 poster
Submitted by John Dubrawa on Mon, 2011-10-31 02:00

Call it an irrational fear, but wax figures give me the creeps. I recognize the artistic talent behind each of these seemingly lifelike sculptures, but the features have an off-putting radiance that resounds uncannily with me. Thankfully I must not be the only one with unease toward these waxworks given the effectiveness of André De Toth's House of Wax as a horror film. Building off the premise of 1933's Mystery of the Wax Museum, De Toth's remake similarly melds elements of mystery with images of the macabre into a satisfyingly frightful elixir.(read more...)

Review: Night of the Living Dead (1990)

Night of the Living Dead 1990 poster
Submitted by John Dubrawa on Sun, 2011-03-06 21:55

It's perfectly natural to want to cringe at the mere thought of a Night of the Living Dead remake — one shot in full color no less — but hear me out: Tom Savini's 1990 version of Night of the Living Dead does a respectable job of reworking George Romero's 1968 classic to a fit more modern archetype. Well-known for his make-up effects (on films such as Friday the 13th and Romero's own Dawn of the Dead), Savini understandably leans toward a more visceral revision to the already ghastly classic.(read more...)

Review: Cannibal Girls (1973)

Cannibal Girls poster
Submitted by John Dubrawa on Mon, 2010-12-20 03:48

All the right pieces are in place for Cannibal Girls to be a schlocky, comedic gem: a pre-Ghostbusters Ivan Reitman at the helm, the fresh-faced tandem of Eugene Levy and Andrea Martin in the lead roles working with a mostly impromptu script, and a cheesy "warning bell" gimmick that alerts viewers of a particularly gruesome death sequence. Yet the potential wallop that Cannibal Girls packs with its one-two punch of dark comedy and B-movie cheese never quite hits the intended mark. Despite the simplicity suggested in its title, the film's plot is unfocused at times and further mired with pacing issues. Though the humor provides temporary reprieve from the listless pace, the comedic bits are few and far between and typically hit-or-miss. Suffice to say, Cannibal Girls is middle-of-the-road schlock horror. (read more...)

Review: Leatherface: Texas Chainsaw Massacre III (1990)

Leatherface: Texas Chainsaw Massacre III poster
Submitted by John Dubrawa on Sun, 2010-10-10 23:21

Texas Chainsaw Massacre Month. As is apparent in the structuring of its title, Leatherface: Texas Chainsaw Massacre III is more concerned with building a franchise out of its titular villain than it is crafting a continuous chapter in Chainsaw lore, and the resulting film struggles to find balance between being both a remake and a sequel to Tobe Hooper's original. Admirers of the first film will have no trouble spotting the twists and turns of David Schow's script, which treats Hooper's original screenplay like a road map, stopping at all the familiar spots along the way to a dissatisfying conclusion. To his credit, director Jeff Burr tries to inject his been-there-killed-that film with copious gore expected of a movie with Texas Chainsaw Massacre in its title (ironic since the original film had little red stuff to show), but New Line Cinema's vigorous cuts prevent the film even from being enjoyed on a primitive level. What's left is a gutted, castrated version of the original Texas Chain Saw Massacre.

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