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: Doctor X (1932)

Submitted by Nate Yapp on Fri, 2006-10-20 00:00

Stumbling onto Doctor X used to be like stumbling onto a 5 dollar bill in the street -- a rare occurence, definitely worth it, but you kind of wished it was a 10. While available on VHS, it was hardly a prominently placed tape. More likely, however, you found it through its occasional showings on Turner Classic Movies, especially after VHS faded away and a DVD replacement failed to show. However, now with Warner Video's "Hollywood's Legends of Horror" box set, we finally get the opportunity to view this curiousity in its full digital splendor.(read more...)

Review: I Walked with a Zombie (1943)

Submitted by Nate Yapp on Thu, 2006-10-19 00:00

Reportedly, I Walked With a Zombie was producer Val Lewton's favorite out of the nine low-budget horror films he produced for RKO Radio Pictures between 1942 and 1946. Disquieting, ethereal, and powered by shadow and suggestion, I Walked best displays the philosophy of terror that Lewton tried to imbue in all of his films. Perhaps it is this very fact that makes the film his least effective in terms of the horror genre, although it is a beautiful, admirable work in all other things.(read more...)

Review: Sleepaway Camp (1983)

Submitted by Nate Yapp on Fri, 2006-10-06 00:00

Quirky, cheesy, less violent than its peers, and frequently kind of sweet, Sleepaway Camp is not your average 80s slasher film. There's no reason it should be -- it was made towards the end of the first slasher cycle (which ran from Halloween until Silent Night, Deadly Night) and that particular subgenre was stretching for new ideas. Sleepaway Camp takes on a concept that should have been a natural for Friday the 13th but never quite worked that way -- using the frustration of summer campers' early adolescence as the background for murder. Toss in a terrifying ending, and you have a minor cult classic.(read more...)

Review: The Creature Walks Among Us (1956)

Submitted by Robert Ring on Wed, 2006-10-04 00:00

This review is almost unnecessary. Anyone who liked the first two films of the Creature trilogy will probably watch this move at some point just to see it, despite what is said about it. Anyone who did not like the second or, somehow, the first installment will likely never consider watching this one, which I unfortunately cannot recommend viewing. The problem with Revenge of the Creature, the first sequel to Creature from the Black Lagoon, was that it didn’t do anything new, even though it was pretty fun. The problem with this one is that it tries too hard. This film overtly extracts a symbolism from the creature and spends an hour and eighteen minutes plastering it to the screen, pleading, “Understand me!” This is unfortunate because the story itself is actually pretty interesting, and the(read more...)

Review: Left in Darkness (2006)

Submitted by Nate Yapp on Mon, 2006-10-02 00:00

Left in Darkness is a varicose mess playing with half-realized ideas that its makers do not seem to grasp at all. Unsurprisingly, it's produced by Stephen J. Cannell, who has created a small industry out of turgid, pseudo-intellectual horror films. So few films make me speechless in their awfulness, but this one wins that extremely dubious distinction.
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Apples and Blood Oranges: The Texas Chainsaw Article

Submitted by Nate Yapp on Sat, 2006-09-30 00:00

With the prequel Texas Chainsaw Massacre: The Beginning coming out on October 6th, 2006, I thought it was just about time to take a look at the original 1974 Texas Chainsaw Massacre and its 2003 remake (The Beginning is connected to the remake).

The Texas Chainsaw Massacre remake (henceforth referred to as TCM03) should come with a warning label on it. "Do not consume within 2 months of ingesting 1974 version." The problem is that if you look at TCM03 up against the original Texas Chainsaw Massacre (TCM74), the newer film will appear to be complete crap. The social commentary is gone, the story is juiced up with sex and drugs, and it misses the almost nihilistic "s**t happens, then you die" philosophy of Tobe Hooper's seminal classic.(read more...)

Review: Revenge of the Creature (1955)

Submitted by Robert Ring on Sun, 2006-09-24 00:00

Undoubtedly, this movie will go unseen by many people because it is the sequel to a great piece of horror cinema — a formula that usually results in mediocrity. Creature from the Black Lagoon is a classic, the best swamp monster movie to date, so how can you expect its sequel to be anywhere near as good? Well, realistically, you can’t. Revenge of the Creature works with an interesting premise, established in the original, but instead of studying that premise further, the film merely looks back at it.(read more...)

Review: Supernatural Season 1 (2005)

Submitted by Nate Yapp on Wed, 2006-09-20 00:00

It's been a hard couple years for those of us who championed shows like Buffy the Vampire Slayer and Angel. While there have been shows of equal interest -- spyfest Alias, island genre-bender drama Lost, and high school noir Veronica Mars all come to mind -- there have been few interested in picking up the folkloric roots from which both shows sprang. Supernatural is probably the most successful to date, and it takes that seed of pure storytelling and runs with it in an altogether different direction.
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Review: Them! (1954)

Submitted by Chris Justice on Fri, 2006-09-08 00:00

OK, let’s state the obvious from the start: movies about giant insects or reptiles, whether they are ants, tarantulas, scorpions, or lizards, are silly, sophomoric, and stupid. There, I said it. But some can deliver loads of fun and warrant critical acclaim. Them! certainly falls into both categories, not only because it was the seminal giant-insect creature feature film of the 1950s, but because amidst its surreal premises lurks an army of portents that foreshadow the absurd cosmological repercussions of the dawning Nuclear Age.(read more...)

Review: Cannibal (2004)

Submitted by Justin Goble on Mon, 2006-08-14 00:00

When I hear people talk about Canada, I think of Rush, Neil Young and the ubiquitous expression "eh." Beyond that, our "northern neighbor" hasn't done that much for me. But the country has been putting out a lot of horror films lately, such as the beloved Ginger Snaps series. Sharing the same straight-to-video U.S. fate as those films, festival stalwart Cannibal (aka White Skin) recently began showing up on video store shelves.
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