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!

Zombie/Reality TV Mash-up "Dead Set" Coming to IFC

Jamie Winstone in Dead Set
Submitted by Nate Yapp on Thu, 2010-10-14 15:57

In early 2009, one of our British correspondents, Simon Powell, reviewed a fascinating-sounding miniseries called Dead Set. Written by satirist Charlie Brooker, Dead Set mixed a zombie apocalypse with the reality television series Big Brother. Simon gave it a positive review, and I despaired that the show, which made its debut on the UK-based channel E4, would never see make it across the pond to the USA. Well, those worries are now dispelled -- Dead Set is making its American debut on IFC. Starting on October 25th, each of the five parts will air at 12:00AM midnight (Eastern time), with the entire series being shown in a marathon on Halloween night at 8PM Eastern. (read more...)

Review: Leatherface: Texas Chainsaw Massacre III (1990)

Leatherface: Texas Chainsaw Massacre III poster
Submitted by John Dubrawa on Sun, 2010-10-10 23:21

Texas Chainsaw Massacre Month. As is apparent in the structuring of its title, Leatherface: Texas Chainsaw Massacre III is more concerned with building a franchise out of its titular villain than it is crafting a continuous chapter in Chainsaw lore, and the resulting film struggles to find balance between being both a remake and a sequel to Tobe Hooper's original. Admirers of the first film will have no trouble spotting the twists and turns of David Schow's script, which treats Hooper's original screenplay like a road map, stopping at all the familiar spots along the way to a dissatisfying conclusion. To his credit, director Jeff Burr tries to inject his been-there-killed-that film with copious gore expected of a movie with Texas Chainsaw Massacre in its title (ironic since the original film had little red stuff to show), but New Line Cinema's vigorous cuts prevent the film even from being enjoyed on a primitive level. What's left is a gutted, castrated version of the original Texas Chain Saw Massacre.

(read more...)

Shiverin' 6: Meet the Sawyers

Shiverin' 6 logo
Submitted by Bruce Jordan on Thu, 2010-10-07 22:19

Texas Chainsaw Massacre Month. Greetings and welcome to another installment of Classic-Horror.com's Shiverin' 6. In sticking with our month-long celebration of The Texas Chainsaw Massacre series, we've decided to take a look at six members of the cannibalistic Sawyer clan. Demented, depraved and downright bizarre these characters inspired over the top performances from the actors cast to play them, and also provided the audience with many chill inducing moments thanks to their psychotic behavior. Now, in order of their appearance in the series, let's meet the family.

(read more...)

Roy Ward Baker (1916-2010)

Roy Ward Baker
Submitted by Nate Yapp on Thu, 2010-10-07 20:58

Roy Ward Baker, who directed several British horror films in the late 1960s and early 1970s, passed away in his sleep on Tuesday, according to Guardian.co.uk. He was 93 years old. Born in 1916, Baker worked his way up the the ranks of the British film industry in the 1930s and 40s, moving from minor jobs to assistant director (he worked with Hitchcock on The Lady Vanishes). In 1947, he made his directorial debut with The October Man, which he made for Two Cities Films in 1947. He directed a number of notable pictures in the 1950s, including Don't Bother to Knock (starring Richard Widmark and Marilyn Monroe) and A Night to Remember (which documented the sinking of the RMS Titanic). As part of his extensive television work in the early 1960s, Baker helmed the episode of The Avengers which introduced Diana Rigg's Emma Peel to the world. (read more...)

The Disused Fane: Who's Next?

Tales from the Crypt poster
Submitted by Nathan Sturm on Wed, 2010-10-06 09:36

"DEATH LIVES," states the trailer for Tales from the Crypt (1972), and with its pervasive images of skulls and corpses, one is inclined to agree. Revisiting this film I am struck by how morbid and vicious it really is. It deals not just with the fear of life's end, but with the fear of what comes after life's end. From their earliest days horror films and stories have dealt with death. The imagery of decay is repulsive, and the finality of loss (Grandma isn't coming back, ever) is terrifying. We all must die. How are we to accept this? The management of this terror has been one of mankind's greatest tasks, and frequently it has fallen to one of mankind's oldest institutions: religion.

(read more...)

Review: The Texas Chainsaw Massacre 2 (1986)

Texas Chainsaw Massacre 2 (1986)
Submitted by Nate Yapp on Sun, 2010-10-03 21:22

Texas Chainsaw Massacre Month. Back in 1974, Tobe Hooper changed the horror game when he made the original Texas Chain Saw Massacre as an independent auteur. However, like many of the horror wunderkinds who made their mark in the 1970s, Hooper eventually found himself working for The Man. In the mid-1980s, Hooper was under contract to mini-major The Cannon Group, for whom he had already made two box office disasters that saw more than their fair share of post-production meddling. Making a sequel that lived up to the daunting legacy of The Texas Chain Saw Massacre would be difficult in any circumstance, but with Hooper now beholden to short-sighted corporate overlords, the task became impossible. Hooper tried, though. In The Texas Chainsaw Massacre 2, he tackled (or attempted to tackle) such diverse topics as the socioeconomic landscape of 1980s America, the absurdity of family values, and the destructive effects of vengeance, all while trying to make a movie that Cannon would deem commercially viable. With so many different goals, it isn't surprising that The Texas Chainsaw Massacre 2 is uneven, a mish-mash of interesting ideas and missed opportunities, great moments and bizarre tonal shifts.

(read more...)

Texas Chainsaw Massacre Month (October 2010)

Leatherface in The Texas Chain Saw Massacre (1974)
Submitted by Nate Yapp on Thu, 2010-09-30 19:06

It began, legend says, at Christmas time. Tobe Hooper, a film director whose only feature credit had been a hippie drama called Eggshells, was standing in a Montgomery Ward, trapped by the bustle of last-minute shoppers. As he contemplated how to get through the mass of consumerism, he found violent inspiration in a display of chainsaws. Thankfully, he didn't act on his carnage-filled fantasy of bloody crowd control. Instead, he channeled the idea into his second feature, a low-budget horror flick about a quintet of young people who are beset by a family of cannibal hicks in the sweltering Texas summer. Although produced with working titles such as Headcheese and Leatherface, it was released in 1974 with the only name it would ever need: The Texas Chain Saw Massacre. This brutal cacophony of terror would go on to spawn three direct sequels, documentaries, a video game, several comic books, an official fan club, and countless pieces of collectible merchandise. Its imitators are innumerable. In 2003, New Line Cinema and Platinum Dunes released a remake which spawned its own prequel, merchandise, and comic books.

Review: Let the Right One In (2008)

Let the Right One In poster
Submitted by Rich Dishman on Sun, 2010-09-26 21:20

Love conquers all is a theme at least as old as Shakespeare, but in the last fifty years, it has rarely been explored in the context of horror films. Let the Right One In's singular accomplishment is that it captivates us with a fresh take on this venerable theme while simultaneously upending horror genre conventions at every turn. The memorable end result resonates long after the final credits. (read more...)

Cold Reads: The Turn of the Screw by Henry James

turn-of-the-screw-cover.jpg
Submitted by Jose Cruz on Sat, 2010-09-25 06:16

Spooky children have always been favorite stock characters of the horror genre. Starting as early as The Village of the Damned, blossoming in The Exorcist and The Omen, and bringing us to times as recent as the ones that witnessed Orphan, evil-natured children have always sparked our imagination and our worse parental fears. Henry James' novella The Turn of the Screw presents this now cliché story trope in a setting that may or may not be inhabited by the damned, creating an atmosphere of dread and terror. Although at times a bit of a tough read, The Turn of the Screw remains an icon of psychological horror in literature. (read more...)

The Terrophile: Love Shack of the Evil Dead (Fanvid)

Evil Dead poster
Submitted by Nate Yapp on Tue, 2010-09-21 23:00

Sometimes when I'm coming up with my fanvids, I think of the movie or television series I want to work with, and then come up with a song. Sometimes I like of a song and try to find a fandom to vid it to. However, with my latest creation, the song and source came at the same time in a burst of inspiration: The B-52's "Love Shack" paired with The Evil Dead and Evil Dead II. In hindsight, it's an obvious pairing. However, the actual editing process was less obvious. From start to finish, this video was a year and a half in the making. I hope you enjoy it.

(read more...)

Syndicate content

Classic-Horror is © by Answer 42 Media, 1999-present (Contact Form, RSS Feed). All Rights Reserved. Other materials are owned by their respective copyright holders, and will not be infringed upon herein.