Classic-Horror.com | Reviewing the History of Horror Movies

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!

Review: City of the Living Dead (1980)

City of the Living Dead (Gates of Hell) poster

Submitted by Rob Wrigley on Wed, 2001-10-17 22:08

Italian exploitation director Lucio Fulci created a number of graphic horror films in the 1970's and 80's. Riding the coattails of George Romero's Dawn of the Dead, Fulci's films featured graphic gore and the 'living dead'. They were released in the United States under different names, often with the credits anglicized to disguise their foreign origin. They were also badly cut, and often released on cheap, grainy, third-generation prints. One of the most infamous of the these films, City of the Living Dead, has been recently restored and released by Anchor Bay, providing a fresh look at a flawed splatter classic.(read more...)

Review: Night of the Creeps (1986)

Submitted by Aaron Edgell on Fri, 2001-10-12 00:00

Detective Cameron: Well girls, there’s good news and bad news. The good news is, your dates are here.

Girl: What’s the bad news?

Detective Cameron: They’re dead.

This one exchange conveys the entire tone and mindset of Night of the Creeps. Wisconsin doesn’t have this much cheese and Crystal Lake doesn’t have this much camp and rarely is a horror comedy as much fun to watch as this movie is.

The movie opens onboard an alien spaceship. The ETs are fighting an unseen enemy and finally manage to jettison their foes from the craft. The unwanted passengers hurtle into space and eventually land on Earth in the late 1950s.(read more...)

Review: The Blood Spattered Bride (1972)

Submitted by Rob Wrigley on Sun, 2001-10-07 00:00

The Blood Spattered Bride (1972) is Spanish director Vicente Aranda's entry into the popular 'Lesbian Vampire' cycle of films popular in Europe at the time. It played to moderate success overseas, and was badly cut and retitled Till Death Do Us Part for the American exploitation circuit. Anchor Bay has recently released a remastered, widescreen, and uncut edition on video and DVD, showcasing a unique and disturbing meditation on sex and marriage.

The film begins as a study of a young brides fear of sexuality. Maribel Martin plays a naive and virginal girl, recently married to an older man (Simone Andreu), whose sexual desires frighten her. She even dreams of being raped, in a chilling early fantasy sequence.(read more...)

Review: Joy Ride (2001)

Submitted by Nate Yapp on Sun, 2001-10-07 00:00

Joy Ride was the second horror road movie (with The Forsaken) released in 2001. It follows two brothers, Fuller (Steve Zahn) and Lewis (Paul Walker). The former is a ne'er-do-well who has just been released from jail, and the latter is on his way to pick up a friend in Colorado, Venna (Leelee Sobieski), with the hopes that maybe they can make their relationship romantic. To kill time, the siblings decide to use their CB radio to have a little fun with a trucker known only as Rusty Nail (voice of Ted Levine, Silence of the Lambs). Their victim doesn't take their joke lightly, though, and embarks on a crusade of terror and humiliation against the two (and eventually three when Venna enters the picture).(read more...)

Review: Autopsy (1975)

Submitted by Rob Wrigley on Sat, 2001-10-06 00:00

Originally titled Macchie Solari (Sunspots), and retitled Autopsy by its American distributors, Armando Crispino's giallo has long been available on video, but little seen by the American audience. Anchor Bay's recent restoration and re-release on DVD and video has again brought this film to back into the spotlight, revealing a taught, beautiful, and grisly giallo.(read more...)

Review: Cannibal Ferox (1981)

Submitted by Rob Wrigley on Tue, 2001-10-02 00:00

Cannibal Ferox (1981) is what could be the 'last great' or 'last worst' film in the popular catalogue of Italian cannibal films. It is often a contender with Ruggero Deodato's repulsive Cannibal Holocaust as the most revolting film ever made. While neither of them have any right to that title, they are both two of the worst good films ever made. While Cannibal Ferox may not be everyone's idea of a good time at the movies, it is one of the grimmest, most harrowing horror films ever made.(read more...)

Universal Terror VIII: "Son of Frankenstein" and Beyond

Submitted by Jake Tucker on Mon, 2001-10-01 00:00

In 1938, in an attempt to gain profits, Universal re-released Dracula and Frankenstein. The gamble paid off; the re-releases were extremely popular. Universal then decided to make a third Frankenstein film. In 1939, Son of Frankenstein was made. Henry Frankenstein's son Wolf von Frankenstein (Basil Rathbone) returns to his ancestral village to claim his inheritance. Wolf, his wife Elsa (Josephine Hutchinson), and his son Peter (Donnie Dugan) are not welcomed by the villagers. The villagers remember his father's monster and the damage it did.(read more...)

Review: Vampyres (1974)

Submitted by Rob Wrigley on Mon, 2001-10-01 00:00

Vampyres (1974) is Spanish director Joseph Larraz's entry into the 'lesbian vampire' cycle of films popular in Europe at the time. Full of nudity and violence, the movies were exploitation house favorites, though most have fallen into deserved obscurity. Anchor Bay has recently released Vampyres as part of its 'eurohorror' line of videos and DVD.(read more...)

Review: Jeepers Creepers (2001)

Submitted by Matt Mulcahey on Mon, 2001-10-01 00:00

As stylish and smartly written as Scream was, its huge success, along with the success of subsequent, much less effective teen slasher fare like Urban Legend and I Know What You Did Last Summer, have buried the horror genre underneath a mountain of overly slick, increasingly redundant, over-budgeted garbage. With characters breaking down the illusion of reality with tongue-in-cheek dialogue, bad one-liners and self-referential nods that say, "Hey, we're in a horror movie and we know it is," truly frightening movies have become few and far between.(read more...)

Review: Innocent Blood (1992)

Submitted by Nate Yapp on Sun, 2001-09-30 00:00

Innocent Blood could have easily been titled A French Vampire in America (and it was in foreign release), as it not only features that cultural displacement, but it is directed by the man who brought us An American Werewolf in London, the incomparable John Landis.

Usually, Landis handles comedies (and we could list the good ones off for hours...and try to forget about the bad ones). Even AWIL had a touch of melancholy humor to it. Innocent Blood, with a few exceptions, is straight horror flick, and a surprisingly enjoyable one at that.(read more...)