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 Matt Mulcahey

Review: House of 1000 Corpses (2003)

House of 1000 Corpses

With House of 1000 Corpses, rocker Rob Zombie set out to make his first film a balls-to-the-wall, insanely over-the-top splatter fest of depravity and, despite the best efforts of Universal, MGM and the Motion Picture Association of America, he did just that.

While you have to admire Zombie's persistence, unless you fall into the small but loyal following of the sadomasochistic horror subgenre, House of 1000 Corpses isn't very good.

Which certainly can't be blamed on Zombie the director, who proves adept at visceral carnage and stylish camerawork. However, Zombie the writer leaves much to be desired.(read more...)

Review: Friday the 13th Part 2 (1981)

Friday the 13th Part 2 poster

The first of many sub-par follow-ups to a movie that was only average to begin with, Friday the 13th Part 2 purports to take place five years after the events of the original. While this is mainly due to logic (who would start another camp right next to Crystal Lake only a year after a dozen people got slaughtered there?), it can't disguise the fact that this sequel was thrown together half-assed in order to hit theaters in summer of 1981, less than a year after the first installment was a huge surprise hit.
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Review: Friday the 13th Part VI: Jason Lives (1986)

Friday the 13th Part VI poster

Damn you, Horshack.

Just when Jason was finally lying peacefully in his grave, Tommy Jarvis and Horshack from "Welcome Back Kotter" have to go and accidentally stick a lightning rod in his chest. Which isn't good because, in case you didn't know, lighting causes deceased mass murderers to come back to life.(read more...)

Review: Friday the 13th Part VII: The New Blood (1988)

Friday the 13th Part VII poster

There have been Friday the 13th films that have been dreadful. There have been Friday the 13th films that have been unwatchable (yes, A New Beginning, I’m talking about you). But Friday the 13th Part VII: The New Blood is the first one that’s been utterly dull.

The production values are solid, the acting is uneven but negligible and the script at least tries to inject some new ideas into the series. So what’s so wrong with the movie? Simply put, it isn’t any fun.
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Review: Friday the 13th: The Final Chapter (1984)

Friday the 13th: The Final Chapter poster

Just when it seemed the Friday the 13th movies would continue on a downward trajectory until they became so bad even indiscriminate teens refused to see them, along comes the first installment since the original that isn't a complete waste of time.

Picking up where Part 3 left off (with Jason's dead body lying in a barn and another dozen teens hacked to pieces), young Corey Feldman and his family (a mother, a sister and a dog) have picked the wrong day to move to a cabin on Camp Crystal Lake.

Of course it wouldn't be much of a slasher movie if the killer spent the entire flick chasing two kids, an old lady and a dog, so for the sake of the body count the cabin next door is occupied for the weekend by the cast of Porky's.
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Review: The Ring (2002)

Ring 2002 poster

Beginning amid the bedroom girl talk of two suburban high school friends, The Ring unfolds one of the genres' most well executed, utterly frightening pre-credit vignettes, as the conversation shifts from guys to a mysterious tape. The urban legend has it that after watching this tape, the viewers' phone will ring and a woman's voice will say "Seven Days." A week later the viewer will die. Utter terror eclipses the face of the second girl. She has watched the tape, and it has now been seven days.
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Review: Candyman (1992)

Candyman poster

As Freddy promised he was indeed dead and Jason swore he had retired to hell, the slasher genre found itself in need of a few new slashers. Before the search was rendered moot by Jason and Freddy's return from the grave (the lying bastards), horror fans were forced to suffer through such wannabes as Dr. Giggles and Leprechaun, with only 1992's Candyman appearing as a worthy heir to the throne that Scream would eventually claim.
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Review: Wolfen (1981)

Wolfen poster

Horror films have been melded with almost every genre imaginable, but Wolfen must be the first socio-political werewolf movie.

Yes, there are bloodthirsty wolves. But there's also points to be made about man's mistreatment of nature and the American Indians, the deterioration of the inner city and the burgeoning greed of 1980s corporate America, all wrapped up in a murder mystery involving New York City police captain Albert Finney.
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Review: Ghost Town (1988)

Ghost Town poster

Part of a string of high-concept, low-budget efforts from 80s schlock king Charles Band, Ghost Town features an intriguing premise and atmospheric photography, but little else works in this melding of the Horror and Western genres.

Beginning like so many other low-budget genre films set in the Southwestern desert, a single car on a lonely highway appears and disappears from view as it crosses the Arizona hills. The car's driver is Kate Barrett, the small town of Riverton's requisite spoiled rich girl, on the run from the marriage altar. To whom she was supposed to be married or why she changed her mind isn't volunteered.
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Review: Carnosaur (1993)

carnosaur_0

The master of cashing in on popular movies for a quick, cheap buck, schlock producer Roger Corman got this low-budget gorefest into a few theaters before Spielberg's Jurassic Park devoured the summer of 93's box-office. Better than most of Corman's 90's output of cheesy action and soft-core porn, Carnosaur features ridiculously awful dinosaurs effects, horrendous acting and an inane plot, making it a throwback to the classic films of Corman's New World Productions.
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