Posts by Nate Yapp

In 1972, "Dark Shadows" creator Dan Curtis collaborated with famed horror writer Richard Matheson to bring an unpublished story by Jeffrey Grant Rice to the small screen as the television movie The Night Stalker. The film, about rumpled news reporter Carl Kolchak (Darren McGavin) and his investigation of a Vegas vampire, aired to outstanding ratings and strong critical response. Based on that success and that of the 1973 follow-up The Night Strangler, Universal commissioned a weekly television series that ran for 20 episodes in the 1974-75 season. Most of the cast from the movies returned for "Kolchak: The Night Stalker," and Rice took a creator's credit, but Curtis and Matheson declined involvement.(read more...)

In Cry_Wolf, director Jeff Wadlow probes what happens when a lie is taken too far. Unfortunately, in doing so, he crosses the fiction with the film itself, negating the irony required in tackling such a subject. As a result, Cry_Wolf implodes well before it hits the disappointing denouement.

At an elite private high school, the popular kids engage in a game of lies for their own amusement. When fresh-faced Owen (Julian Morris) enters their midst, leader Dodger (Lindy Booth) decides to take the game up a notch. Using a recent murder as a jumping-off point, they spread a rumor that a serial killer is stalking the school. It's all good fun until their killer shows up on campus...(read more...)

Asylum of Satan poses a critical quandary. How much should directorial intent and fulfillment of that intent affect the rendered opinion? It's hard to argue that Asylum is not a bad film, but it maintains a curious sense of non sequitur horror that pokes through the dreck despite first-time director William Girdler's best efforts.

Lucina (Carla Borelli) wakes up in a strange bed in a strange place. A nurse informs her that she's a patient at Pleasant Hill Hospital, in the care of the sinister Dr. Specter (Charles Kissinger). Haunted by strange encounters and confusing visions, Lucina soon suspects that all is not as it seems in this place. If her lumpy fianceé (Nick Jolley) can't save her, she may become a fresh sacrifice for Satan himself!(read more...)

J.G. "Pat" Patterson, Jr., sometimes magician and friend of cult cinema legends H. G. Lewis and William Girdler, put together a little gore film in the early 1970s -- a take on the Frankenstein legend, but with prettier girls and bloodier parts. He assumed six different roles in the production -- director, producer, writer, actor, makeup, and special effects. Never before has one man given so much of himself to produce so little...(read more...)