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!

Posts by Brandt Sponseller

Review: The Frighteners (1996)

Submitted by Brandt Sponseller on Wed, 2002-08-07 00:00

A marvelous blend of horror, humor and incredible special effects, The Frighteners is one of the better films of 1996, and certainly falls into any "must see" list of horror films from the 90's.

Since part of its effectiveness lies with the many unusual elements of the plot, I suggest that you skip over the next two paragraphs if you have yet to watch The Frighteners. Even though I won't give away real spoilers, it's best if you know nothing about The Frighteners the first time you watch.(read more...)

Review: Wishmaster (1997)

Submitted by Brandt Sponseller on Sun, 2002-08-04 00:00

Wes Craven's Wishmaster is darkly and nihilistically marvelous, an extremely enjoyable horror fantasy, even though it is heavily indebted to its influences at times as it treks through Evil Genie Land.

Beginning with a great sequence set in ancient Persia and showing the destructive power and tendency of the djinn (the Wishmaster/genie of the title), Wishmaster quickly moves to present day America. Robert Englund (the actor who portrayed Freddy Krueger) is an extremely wealthy collector of art and ancient artifacts and has imported a statue from Persia that unknowingly contains a jewel that is the key to awakening the djinn. After an accident, the jewel is revealed, stolen by a dockworker, and makes its circuitous way to our heroine.(read more...)

Review: Werewolf (1996)

Submitted by Brandt Sponseller on Sat, 2002-08-03 15:19

While not completely without merit, Werewolf suffers from a full complement of problems typical of direct-to-video releases. Unfortunately, these aren't all budget-related; some of the flaws are simply inexplicable.

Werewolf begins with an unlikely team of archaeologists on an unlikely dig in Arizona finding an unlikely werewolf skeleton -- completely intact. Obviously this isn't the movie to watch if you dislike implausibilities.(read more...)

Review: Tenebre (1982)

Submitted by Brandt Sponseller on Fri, 2002-08-02 00:00

Varying from pleasant exercises in gore and creepy thrills to sustained boredom and ridiculously bad filmmaking, Dario Argento's Tenebre sprawls like shiftless drunk passing out on a nice couch.(read more...)

Review: The Mothman Prophecies (2002)

Submitted by Brandt Sponseller on Thu, 2002-08-01 01:00

The bad news is that when it comes to flaws, The Mothman Prophecies seems to have lifted one too many from In Dreams. In Dreams arrived late in the 1990s, just when that decade's teen horror craze was emitting its dying breath (although we know that it's bound to get back up and chase us again as if it had never been stabbed). It was promoted as a return to `classic horror', although `classic versus teen horror' is more apocryphal than most horror fans admit, but instead it gave us interesting ideas wrapped in a drama package unpleasantly dipped in molasses and with a clichéd ending that you could see coming from the next state.(read more...)

Review: Leprechaun (1993)

Submitted by Brandt Sponseller on Tue, 2002-07-30 00:00

While my 25+ year horror genre viewing experiences unfortunately disallow me from claiming that Leprechaun is the stupidest film ever made, all else being equal, it should warrant that designation with, ahem, flying colors.

On the one hand, maybe writer/director Mark Jones intended for Leprechaun to be camp. However, intentional camp isn't the easiest mode to achieve, and it definitely isn't achieved here. Rather, Leprechaun comes across as a wannabe fright-fest that is just incredibly bad-acted and scripted even worse.(read more...)

Review: Lake Placid (1999)

Submitted by Brandt Sponseller on Fri, 2002-07-26 00:00

A superb blend of traditional monster movie excitement and irreverent sarcasm and humor in general, Lake Placid both thrills and titillates.

The point of the movie is simple -- it's a crocodile film. What Jaws did for New England beach towns and sharks, Lake Placid does for quaint Maine forests and, well, crocodiles -- not exactly the kind of beast you might expect in that setting. But unlike Jaws, which is a fine movie in its own right, Lake Placid is a twisted black comedy that usually cares more to uphold its comedy status than its aspirations as a monster movie.(read more...)

Review: It Lives Again (1978)

Submitted by Brandt Sponseller on Wed, 2002-07-24 00:00

So maybe the premise -- mutant babies with super-intelligence, super-strength, claws, sharp teeth and a penchant for overreaction -- is kind of silly and maybe the babies look like rubber blobs with a few pointy barbs the few times they are shown, but It Lives Again is actually a very good movie.(read more...)

Review: I Bury the Living (1958)

Submitted by Brandt Sponseller on Mon, 2002-07-22 00:00

Well, the video cover art on the copy I purchased was certainly misleading, but I Bury the Living is a pretty good film -- kind of a cross between a "Twilight Zone" episode (while preceding that show by a year) and a mystery with hints of supernatural horror elements thrown in for good measure.(read more...)

Review: Henry: Portrait of a Serial Killer (1986)

Henry: Portrait of a Serial Killer poster

Submitted by Brandt Sponseller on Sun, 2002-07-21 00:00

The aesthetic differences in director John McNaughton's Henry: Portrait of a Serial Killer are evident from the opening shot. We see the lower part of a woman's face. We can't tell what the context is. Slowly, the camera pulls out from the close-up and we discover that she's lying in a field, dead and naked.(read more...)