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: Monkey Shines (1988)

Submitted by Nate Yapp on Mon, 2001-09-03 00:00

All great masters must occasionally fall to the Studio Compromise. George A. Romero is no exception. Monkey Shines is his first studio picture that looks like a studio picture. Though well directed, well written, and well performed, there's something missing from it, a dark heart, that would make it leap out like so many other films in the director's filmography.(read more...)

Review: The Birds (1963)

Submitted by Brandt Sponseller on Sun, 2001-09-02 00:00

An unusual Hitchcock film in many ways, including that it has little hint of plot twists, The Birds amounts to Hitchcock's masterpiece entry in the late crop of 50's monster films. At least that's one way to look at it. Another is as a precursor, much as Psycho was to slasher-mania, to Stephen King-like nature gone mad menaces, and the gradual psychological deterioration, and eventual modest triumph, of a small set of humans who we get to know intimately.(read more...)

Review: They Only Come Out at Night (2001)

Submitted by Nate Yapp on Sun, 2001-09-02 00:00

Modern independent horror film is a weird thing. In order to create something marketable, you either have to have something really bloody and/or nudity-filled (something Full Moon or Troma would release) or you have to be 100% original and scary (The Blair Witch Project comes to mind immediately). Dave Lawler is something of a renegade filmmaker in that he refuses to create either. Instead, he appears to be making movies purely for his own twisted amusement.(read more...)

Universal Terror VII: The New Universal

Submitted by Jake Tucker on Sat, 2001-09-01 00:00

The Raven was the last horror film to be produced under the Laemmle dynasty of Universal. 1936 would be a year of great upheaval for the studio. In 1936, the studio hit very hard times, yet friends and relatives of the Laemmle family still took home top salaries. The stock holders became angry and voted the Laemmles out. After Carl Laemmle's family was removed, Universal became known as the "New Universal". (read more...)

Review: The Mummy Returns (2001)

Submitted by Brandt Sponseller on Wed, 2001-08-15 00:00

Although it's not likely to gain any converts among those who disliked the first film, 1999's The Mummy, The Mummy Returns won't displease any of us who loved that magical bandage adventure, either. Director/writer Stephen Sommers makes all the smart moves, providing a film that retains the stylistic complexity and atmosphere of a proven success, while extending the mythology in a way that brings us further into a pleasant fantasy world and opens many doors for future Mummy-related films, one of which is already in the works.(read more...)

Review: The Resurrected (1992)

Submitted by Aaron Edgell on Tue, 2001-08-14 00:00

I knew this day would come. After countless hours wasted on drek like Cthulhu Mansion and Curse of the Blue Lights, I have finally found a film based on the works of H. P. Lovecraft that is both faithful to the source material and also very entertaining and genuinely creepy at times.(read more...)

Review: The Others (2001)

Submitted by Nate Yapp on Mon, 2001-08-13 01:00

Catharsis is a word I often use to describe why I love horror films. The fear and the tension build up, like an ocean wave, and then recede back from where they came, taking whatever else was laying on the beach of my mind, leaving me relaxed and calm... a blank slate of sand. With all the horror films I see, however, it becomes harder and harder to achieve this state.(read more...)

Review: Murders in the Zoo (1933)

Submitted by Nate Yapp on Wed, 2001-08-08 00:00

Some days I wish I was old enough to say that I remember the days when melodrama and horror were almost interchangeable terms. I'd point out a few key examples: Secret of the Blue Room, The Vampire Bat, and this little number, Murders in the Zoo. Containing as much drama and suspense as it does horror, it remains one of the more effective unsupernatural terror films of the early 30s.(read more...)

Review: Mighty Peking Man (1977)

Submitted by John W. Bowen on Sun, 2001-08-05 00:00

Stop me if you've already heard this one: a bunch of rugged-outdoors-types go traipsing off to a dangerous, exotic land in search of a legendary giant ape. The bete noir in question is soon located and, after a nominal amount of carnage, the silly buggers cart him back to civilization to get rich by exploiting his hairy butt in front of sellout crowds. Of course, it doesn't take long before the big fella decides that city life doesn't agree with him and goes...well...apes**t, bustin' loose and single-handedly implementing his own radical urban renewal program, and then...oh, so you're familiar with the tale, then?(read more...)

Review: Dead of Night (2000)

Submitted by John W. Bowen on Sat, 2001-08-04 00:00

When a boat full of convicts headed for a maximum-security island facility runs into trouble, the occupants are forced to take refuge in a lighthouse on a small island (hence the U.K. title Lighthouse). Serial killer Leo Rook manages to bust loose and spends the rest of the night stalkin', slashin' and stirrin' it up in classic Michael Myers/Jason Voorhees style. Sure, the plotline's derivative as hell, but British writer/director Simon Hunter takes an admittedly pedestrian premise and elevates it to heights rarely achieved since the original Halloween.(read more...)