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: 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...)

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...)

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...)

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...)

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...)

Review: A Lizard in a Woman's Skin (1971)

Submitted by Nate Yapp on Mon, 2007-10-15 01:38

After the success of Dario Argento’s brilliant giallo The Bird with the Crystal Plumage, the Italian film industry mobilized to produce a veritable bestiary of thrillers with animal-oriented titles, as if somehow that was the reason for Plumage’s box office numbers. One of the first imitators was Lucio Fulci’s A Lizard in a Woman’s Skin. Despite the similarity in titling, however, Fulci’s film is a distinct entity, with its very own illogical plot and inability to overcome its own inconsistencies.(read more...)

Review: Eyes of a Stranger (1981)

Submitted by Nate Yapp on Sun, 2007-10-14 01:43

Ken Wiederhorn’s Eyes of a Stranger is a calculated rehashing of moments from better movies, strung together by the thinnest of plots. It’s such a waste of time that reading about it (and, to my chagrin, writing about it) is a fairly worthless pursuit. If you have the time on your hands and nothing better to do, then please continue through the review. Otherwise, everything you need to know is in that first sentence.(read more...)

Review: Tales from the Crypt (1972)

Submitted by Nate Yapp on Thu, 2007-09-27 01:54

Memory is a funny thing. I remember distinctly my viewings of the Amicus horror anthology Tales from the Crypt as a teenager, back when all films were on VHS and cropped. Up until today, I would’ve bet hard money that it was Roddy McDowall portraying the heartless real estate prospector in Peter Cushing’s segment. McDowall is nowhere to be seen, of course – the actor in his place is Robin Phillips. Memories of the segments featuring Joan Collins and Patrick Magee have held up better, but there’s still a certain haziness to them. One thing I do remember with absolute clarity is my overall impression of Tales, and that stands against the reality without any digression: it is an uneven film with uneven direction, uneven writing, and uneven acting, but a bumpy road is sometimes more fun than a smooth one.(read more...)

Review: Alucarda (1975)

Submitted by Nate Yapp on Thu, 2007-09-20 01:44

It’s impossible to get a bead on Juan Lopez Moctezuma’s Alucarda. There are no clear-cut heroes or villains; nearly every character seems monstrous at one point or another. The film hops from one protagonist to the next, condemning each in turn. A dichotomy between reason and the supernatural, standard to many horror films, is established, and then banished.(read more...)

Review: The Oblong Box (1969)

Submitted by Nate Yapp on Tue, 2007-09-18 01:18

After Roger Corman ended his cycle of Edgar Allan Poe-based films with 1965’s Tomb of Ligeia, production company American-International tried to keep it alive with different directors. One such director was former “Alfred Hitchcock Hour” associate producer Gordon Hessler, whose Poe cycle debut was the in-name-only adaptation of The Oblong Box. In Box, Hessler takes a lackluster script and uses a little ingenuity to polish it up visually, resulting in a very good-looking but hollow film.(read more...)