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: The Ape (1940)

Submitted by Nate Yapp on Mon, 2006-10-30 01:00

Some films are worth 1000+ words of analysis. Some films are worth 750+ words of snark. Some films are not The Ape or any number of other cheapie horror films made by Monogram Pictures in the 1940s. While there may be room for detailed analysis by an eye more discerning than my own, it is perhaps more beneficial to the film and its viewer to simply see the whole experience as an entertaining diversion -- nothing more and nothing less.(read more...)

Review: The Screaming Skull (1958)

Submitted by Julia Merriam on Sun, 2006-10-29 00:00

During the prologue to The Screaming Skull, a mysterious narrator warns us that this film is so terrifying, so overwhelming, that it just might kill us. However, the narrator assures us, the studio is prepared to offer funerals free of cost to any movie patrons who might “die of fright”. After witnessing the film itself, which parades many traditional horror elements artlessly combined in a fit of mediocrity, I have to wonder – does this offer apply to death by boredom?(read more...)

Review: Sleepaway Camp II (1988)

Submitted by Nate Yapp on Sat, 2006-10-28 10:26

Ah, the slasher sequel. So often the bane of the horror reviewer's existence, because, half of the time, the sequel has almost nothing to do with its predecessor. The other half, the sequel is such a perfect carbon copy that you might as well reprint your review of the original, with a few minor tweaks. Of course, every once in a while you get a movie like Sleepaway Camp II, which follows the events of Sleepaway Camp without repeating them. Sadly, however, this does not make the film all that interesting.

Please be warned -- the following review contains a massive spoiler for the first Sleepaway Camp movie. By continuing, you acknowledge that you have seen that film or that just don't give a fig.(read more...)

Review: Black Christmas (1974)

Submitted by Chris Justice on Fri, 2006-10-27 00:00

After viewing Bob Clark’s Black Christmas, horror fans will struggle to view slasher classics like Halloween, Friday the 13th, or Nightmare on Elm Street the same way again. Black Christmas solidified the template that established many of the subgenre’s conventions and tropes, and with Halloween, laid the groundwork for Carpenter’s future success. In fact, Clark claims he gave Carpenter the idea for Halloween to direct as a sequel to Black Christmas. Each film is important, and each added new layers and dimensions to the prototype, but due to chronology alone, Black Christmas deserves serious props for being ahead of the pack.(read more...)

Review: Little Shop of Horrors (1986)

Submitted by Nate Yapp on Thu, 2006-10-26 00:00

Sometimes there's not much to say about a film that's sat in your heart since you were very short indeed. You can make all the critical arguments for or against it that you like, but the fact remains that no such to or fro will have any effect -- and so it is for me with Frank Oz's horror-musical Little Shop of Horrors.(read more...)

Review: The Masque of the Red Death (1964)

Submitted by Julia Merriam on Tue, 2006-10-24 17:18

In the 1960s, Roger Corman directed a series of films based on the works of American Gothic author Edgar Allan Poe. While not always accurate to the source material, the Poe Cycle has come to represent the pinnacle of Corman's directorial career, and, of these films, The Masque of the Red Death is the piece de resistance. The most faithful of the Poe adaptations, Masque uses a combination of scenery and characters to explore the darker themes originally put forth by Poe himself.(read more...)

Review: The Exorcist (1973)

Submitted by Nate Yapp on Tue, 2006-10-24 00:00

I cannot stand listening to either William Friedkin or William Peter Blatty talk about The Exorcist. They have a tendency to speak at great length, not about what they intended, but what the film means to audiences everywhere. How it shakes the foundations of their faith, makes them question their reality, and turns their view of good and evil on its head. It sounds very nice, but even assuming that what Friedken and Blatty say is true, such statements limit the effectiveness of The Exorcist specifically to those people with a strong monotheistic religious bearing. Personally, however, I find it difficult to recommend the film to much of anybody.(read more...)

Review: King Kong (1933)

Submitted by Robert Ring on Mon, 2006-10-23 00:00

King Kong is like Moby Dick. Enormous animal theme aside, it’s one of those old great works that everyone knows about but that not many have actually seen for themselves. It has become such a household name that relatively few people seem to truly care about it anymore. They know the concept, so for some reason they don’t care to experience the film firsthand, or worse: they’ve seen a remake, so they accept it as a surrogate. Peter Jackson’s remake did do a noble job of retelling the story, but, as the cliché goes, there’s just nothing like the original, and I’m sure Jackson would agree with that.
(read more...)

Review: Blood for Dracula (1974)

Submitted by Nate Yapp on Sun, 2006-10-22 02:01

With all the revolutions in the film industry in the late 1960s and early 1970s, many of the older film monsters were starting to appear cliché, even trite. Dracula, long the enemy of Victorian standards, needed to be updated for a time when such standards had long passed. Leave it to pop artist/film producer Andy Warhol and director Paul Morrissey to do this by flipping the rules around and making Dracula the pathetic victim of permissive social mores.(read more...)

Review: The Mummy (1999)

Submitted by Nate Yapp on Sat, 2006-10-21 00:00

Whenever writer/director Stephen Sommers starts talking about his great love and respect for the classic Universal monster movies, I have to wonder if he's watching the same films as I did growing up. After seeing the The Mummy, The Mummy Returns, and Van Helsing, it's clear that he is more fond of the slightly goofier fare of the 1940s than the thoughtful horrors of the 1930s. Mind you, this isn't necessarily a bad thing, it's just that one wishes that Sommers would be clearer about his intent. Taken as pure summer fare, and not as a direct remake of any sort, Sommers' 1999 version of The Mummy is a complete waste of time -- which is exactly what it strives to be.(read more...)