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!

Missy Yearian

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Posts by Missy Yearian

Review: The Terror Within (1989)

The Terror Within poster

Once upon a time, a fella named Ridley Scott made a little film called Alien.  It is universally agreed (or it should be if it isn't) that Alien is only like the most awesome movie in the history of history, and a wee bonny horror fan like myself had her brain broken on brown shag carpeting in a living room in the Midwest many moons ago whilst watching it.  That little girl horror fan grew up into a full-grown horror nerd, but I have never stopped loving Alien.

And then along came The Terror Within. This Roger Corman-produced Alien wannabe has about twice the sleaze and half the scares, and while the mostly educated, judgmental little feminist in me might have a problem with that, I can't help but say the movie is a damn good time-despite its many faults.  Of course, if you're going to enjoy it, you have to view it with the right attitude.(read more...)

The Fruit Cellar: "All My Power… All My Beauty… All My Life"

Lesley Gilb as Lemora

It's a traditional criticism of the modern horror film that the world represented is sexist in nature. It's a simplistic argument, but one that a surface-level analysis of most horror films would confirm. After all, don't most depict women in peril -- from Halloween to The Texas Chain Saw Massacre to Suspiria? While it might seem like the most obvious of possible assessments, what this criticism fails to recognize are the areas in which the horror genre upends conventional depictions of women as victims.(read more...)

The Fruit Cellar: "Why Don't You Lay Back and Enjoy Being Inferior?"

Last House on the Left: Krug's Boys

Some years ago (before I became fully entrenched in the horror world), my father mentioned The Last House of the Left (1972). He didn't tell me what it was about or whether or not he even liked it. He just told me I should see it. Naturally, Best Friend and I went to the video store post haste. (It is a fervent belief of mine that watching a film like this on VHS is better than watching it on DVD.) We pulled the tape out of its translucent plastic case and popped it into the VCR. And it was an experience unlike any I'd had up to that point.(read more...)

The Fruit Cellar: From Body Horror to Identity Horror

Dead Ringers publicity still

Of his 1988 film Dead Ringers, David Cronenberg said, "It has to do with that element of being human. It has to do with that ineffable sadness that is an element of human existence." This statement is entirely true. His film manages to simultaneously question and confirm the humanity and weaknesses of its central characters; however, Cronenberg's assessment of his own film is surprisingly reductive. Upon closer investigation, Dead Ringers seems to be about so much more. It's a complicated discussion of identity-how we come to understand ourselves, what defines us, and ultimately, what destroys us.(read more...)

The Fruit Cellar: They Always Come Back...

Blood Spattered Bride still

I'll begin today's discussion with what I consider a statement of fact: Dracula is boring. That may be the most unpopular statement I will ever write, but I wholeheartedly believe it. How lucky are we, then, that twenty-five years before this abomination was published we were all blessed with another Irish vampire tale? Yes indeedy, I am talking about Joseph Sheridan Le Fanu's Carmilla. This sweetly concise and beautiful novella (or short story, as some prefer to call it) was published in 1872 and spawned an entire subgenre of horror: the lesbian vampire tale.(read more...)