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: Lisa and the Devil (1973)

Submitted by Nate Yapp on Tue, 2007-10-30 01:46

The story of Mario Bava’s Lisa and the Devil is the stuff from which cinema legends are made: brilliant auteur is given carte blanche to make his masterpiece, but the end result can’t find a distributor. To recoup costs, the film’s producer pressures the director to add scenes of demonic possession to cash-in on a popular American film (in this case, The Exorcist). The result of this tampering is released under a different name and, despite being an inferior work, becomes the de facto version for many years. Eventually, the original film resurfaces, much to the joy of the director’s critical proponents.(read more...)

Review: 5 Dolls for an August Moon (1970)

Submitted by Nate Yapp on Mon, 2007-10-29 01:18

5 Dolls for an August Moon is perhaps the most curious of Mario Bava's horror films. As with 1963's The Whip and the Body, Bava was hired on after the script and much of the rest of the production had already been set. Luck wasn't with him this time however, and he was stuck with a script he despised, his request to rework it denied. The resulting film is a whodunit that doesn't care who did it, a thriller lacking in actual thrills. It is also a strangely affecting experience that improves upon repeated viewings.(read more...)

Morbid Configurations: The Beauty of Bava

Submitted by Nate Yapp on Sun, 2007-10-28 01:01

Using the camera and some tricks of light and perspective, Mario Bava created artistic masterpieces that were beautiful in motion and often more beautiful seen at a halting standstill. It's one thing to create a phenomenal photograph and quite another to present 24 a second for 80-100 minutes. Herein we present some visually striking moments from several of Bava's films from within the horror genre and from without. Each still is taken from a DVD screen capture and most are presented without additional comment. (read more...)

Review: Naked You Die (1968)

Submitted by Nate Yapp on Sat, 2007-10-27 01:19

You know you’re in trouble when the film you’re reviewing opens with a song that’s heavily reminiscent of the “Batman” theme (campy 1966 version). Still, other horror films have overcome a ridiculous pop tune – The Blob beat Burt Bacharach, didn’t it? Unfortunately, Antonio Margheriti’s Naked You Die resembles its theme song in more than a couple ways. It is a fairly disposable, imitative affair, packed with more goofy pep than seems appropriate for a “killer among us” film.(read more...)

Alfred Molina, Hope Davis Set for "The Lodger" Revisit

Submitted by Nate Yapp on Fri, 2007-10-26 11:48

Alfred Molina and Hope Davis have signed on to star in The Lodger, an adaptation of the Marie Belloc Lowndes novel that also inspired Alfred Hitchcock's 1927 film. In this new version, set in modern-day Los Angeles, a police detective (Molina) tries to track down a killer while a landlady (Davis) takes in an enigmatic tenant. David Ondaatje is writing and directing the film, which is being produced by the Sony imprint Stage 6 Films.

Review: Kill, Baby... Kill! (1966)

Submitted by Nate Yapp on Thu, 2007-10-25 01:46

Certainly, there is no epithet of which I can conceive that accurately captures the beauty of Bava’s chilling period Gothic; it is a near-perfect synthesis of vision, sound, and plot that revels in ambiguities, role reversals, and sheer, unsettling atmosphere.(read more...)

Rob Zombie's "Halloween" Coming to DVD for Christmas

Submitted by Nate Yapp on Tue, 2007-10-23 17:37

Genius Entertainment will release Rob Zombie's Halloween, a remake of the 1978 John Carpenter classic, in separate rated and unrated two-disc special editions on December 18th, 2007. The rated disc will feature the film as it played in the theaters and buyers will have a choice between widescreen and fullscreen. The widescreen-only unrated version, which features 11 minutes of additional footage, is being touted as Zombie's director's cut. Features for all editions include:(read more...)

Review: The Whip and the Body (1963)

Submitted by Nate Yapp on Tue, 2007-10-23 01:46

It is impossible to simply watch Mario Bava’s The Whip and the Body. You can only hope to experience it, to let it wash over you and consume your senses. A sumptuous visual masterpiece dripping with sadomasochistic eroticism, The Whip and the Body is the most beautiful of all Bava’s films.(read more...)

Shocktober 2007: Mario Bava Week

Submitted by Nate Yapp on Sun, 2007-10-21 01:01

Each week in October this year, as part of our Shocktober Classics event, we'll be featuring a different director who has significantly contributed to the horror genre, with new reviews for that director's films from Monday to Friday of that week. For our final celebration, we look at the Italian Maestro of the Macabre, Mario Bava.(read more...)

Review: Zombi 3 (1988)

Submitted by Nate Yapp on Sat, 2007-10-20 01:08

Of the dozens of zombie films I have seen, from George A. Romero’s seminal Night of the Living Dead to Danny Boyle’s revisionist 28 Days Later, Zombi 3 is one of them. Far more notable for the stories behind its making than any quality it might possess, Zombi 3 isn’t exactly a waste of time if you approach it correctly. As a window into a particular period of Italian horror film production, it’s kind of fascinating, but as entertainment, it stinks like rotting flesh.(read more...)