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 Nate Yapp

Review: Nosferatu: Phantom der Nacht (1979)

Submitted by Nate Yapp on Fri, 2008-10-17 02:15

Nosferatu, F.W. Murnau's 1922 adaptation of Bram Stoker's novel Dracula, may be the finest of all vampire films; it's certainly one of the best horror films ever made. To even contemplate a remake of such a highly-regarded masterpiece would be thought of as pure folly. Writer/director Werner Herzog, never one to care what others think, mounted just such a remake in 1979. Filmed simultaneously in German and English, Nosferatu: Phantom der Nacht (American title: Nosferatu the Vampyre) is Herzog's endeavor – not always a successful one -- to recreate and reinterpret Murnau's film, hewing closely to the original's plot and visuals while adding color, sound, and a more complex reading of the central vampire.
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Review: The Door with Seven Locks (1962)

Submitted by Nate Yapp on Wed, 2008-10-15 01:01

Before the giallo, there was the krimi – West German crime films frequently based on the works of British novelist Edgar Wallace and his son Bryan Edgar Wallace. These movies were marked by their sensationalistic content and their tendency to skirt the horror genre when they weren't plunging headlong into it. Alfred Vohrer's The Door with Seven Locks (German title: Die Tür mit den 7 Schlösser) is a horror-skirter, but it also skirts nearly every other genre that doesn't involve bursting into song or traveling back in time. If it can conceivably be stuffed into a pulp crime novel, it's here. With so many weird plot elements flying around, The Door with Seven Locks often feels a little breathless, but it's quite enjoyable if you don't bother with thinking through its various twists and contrivances.
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Shocktober Foreign Frights: Germany

Submitted by Nate Yapp on Mon, 2008-10-13 01:00

For our third tribute to international horror, we set our reviewers on Germany. Arguably the country that lifted cinematic horror from the realm of melodrama, Germany's contributions to the genre extend from Expressionism to the krimi (in many ways a predecessor to Italy's giallo) and beyond. Here we look at two silent German horror, a krimi, a Gothic Poe semi-adaptation, and a remake of one of the greatest vampire films of all time.(read more...)

Breck Eisner Remaking Romero's "The Crazies"

Submitted by Nate Yapp on Fri, 2008-10-10 14:53

Variety reports that Overture FIlms will produce a remake of George A. Romero's The Crazies, to be directed by Breck Eisner (Saraha). Eisner will be working from a script by Ray Wright (Pulse '06) and Scott Kosar (The Texas Chainsaw Massacre '03). Romero will act as executive producer. The original film dealt with an insanity-causing virus infecting a small town, and the brutal tactics used by the governement to contain the outbreak.(read more...)

Sid Haig, Hammer Horror, and Dark Shadows at Shock It To Me! Classic Horror Film Festival

Submitted by Nate Yapp on Mon, 2008-10-06 23:54

For its fourth year, Shock It To Me!, San Francisco's Classic Horror Film Festival, is pulling in some excellent films and a few awesome guests. The festival, which runs October 17th and 18th at the historic Castro Theatre (429 Castro St. @ Market St.) is devoted to the Golden Age of Horror Cinema, and the organizers are showing their love with three double features.

Friday Night (10/17): Jack Hill's Spider Baby at 6:30PM, followed by George A. Romero's Night of the Living Dead at 10PM. Spider Baby star Sid Haig will be on hand for a live interview.

Saturday Matinee (10/18): Terence Fisher's Horror of Dracula (2PM) and Curse of Frankenstein (4PM).(read more...)

Kevin G. Shinnick Talks "Scarlet the Film Magazine"

Submitted by Nate Yapp on Mon, 2008-10-06 21:51

There's a new genre magazine on the block -- Scarlet the Film Magazine -- but classic cinema buffs might recognize something old in these pages. Scarlet is the spiritual successor of Scarlet Street, the now-defunct horror/mystery mag edited by the late Richard Valley. Scarlet publisher Kevin G. Shinnick was kind enough to talk with Classic-Horror about how this new periodical came about and the difficulties of putting out a print magazine in the age of the Internet.(read more...)

Review: The Awful Dr. Orlof (1962)

Submitted by Nate Yapp on Mon, 2008-10-06 00:45

Whether you believe that prolific multi-hyphenate Jesus Franco, director of over 150 films and writer, co-star, or composer of many of them, is an irritating hack or a secret genius, you have to respect his 1962 film, The Awful Dr. Orlof. You may not admire it, although I certainly do, but its place in film history is set. The first “true” horror movie produced in Spain, The Awful Dr. Orlof is a flash point in the turbulent transition of the horror film from the Gothic to the modern.(read more...)

Shocktober Foreign Frights: Spain

Submitted by Nate Yapp on Mon, 2008-10-06 00:40

For our tribute to Spanish horror, we're focusing on the works of three of the country's best-known directors (Jesus Franco, Narciso Ibáñez Serrador, and Paul Naschy) as well as two newer talents, Jaume Balagueró and Paco Plaza.(read more...)

Classic-Horror.com Sponsors the 2008 International Horror & Sci-Fi Film Festival

Submitted by Nate Yapp on Fri, 2008-10-03 01:29

Classic-Horror.com is pleased to announce itself as a proud sponsor of the 2008 International Horror & Sci-Fi Film Festival, taking place October 23-26 at Chandler Cinemas in Chandler, Arizona. The Festival kicks off Thursday night with a screening of the Sundance Selection Donkey Punch (2008). Then on Friday, the screenings start flowing and they continue throughout the weekend. In addition to the festival selections in the categories of horror (Farmhouse, Rapturious, and Rob Schmidt's The Alphabet Killer) and sci-fi (Alien Raiders, Jerome Bixby's The Man from Earth, and Ray Bradbury's Chrysalis), there are also a bevy of shorts. Not enough?(read more...)

Review: At Midnight I'll Take Your Soul (1964)

Submitted by Nate Yapp on Fri, 2008-10-03 01:03

Zé do Caixão (or as he's known in the United States, Coffin Joe) is something of a horror film legend and obscure cult figure all at once. The character, the creation of Brazilian actor-writer-director Jose Mojica Marins, is only infrequently included in books on the genre and only one tome (as far as I can tell) has been utterly devoted to him. Yet once you've seen him, you're not likely to forget him; from his all-black suit to his long, curved fingernails, he's an imposing figure. My first Zé do Caixão sighting came in the pages of Phil Hardy's Encyclopedia of Horror, in a publicity still from This Night I'll Possess Your Corpse, which had Zé leering over a female victim, all ten of his fingers hovering like talons over her eyes.(read more...)