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!

Tags: mario bava

The Week in Classic Horror: March 21 - 27, 2009

Another week, another set of interesting articles and news bits from around the web. Inside there's more information on Rob Zombie's Halloween sequel, a controversy surrounding the English subtitles in the American DVD release of Let the Right One In, a few thought-provoking reviews, and more!

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Shiverin' 6: Awesome Winding Staircases

Shiverin' 6 logo

It's a sight both thrilling and familiar -- the winding staircase, especially when seen from directly above or below. Many directors and cinematographers use such shots for their guaranteed visual punch -- the landings create artificial frames, the spirals imbue the center of the screen with a sense of the infinite. Plus, the practical purpose of the stairway suggests a journey and not an easy one. Different films have used the winding staircase to evoke different things -- vertigo, insanity, a descent into hell, and even female genitalia. This Thanksgiving weekend, we give our gratitude to one of the great visual tropes in the horror-thriller by presenting six films with staircases we love.

As usual, click the thumbnails to open a larger version of the picture in a new window.(read more...)

Shiverin' 6: Great Italian Horror Movies

Shiverin' 6 logo

When we decided on "Foreign Horror" as the overall theme for our Shocktober review marathon this year, we made a conscious decision to leave out Italy for the most part, despite it having the second-highest horror output for a non-English-speaking country (after Japan). The fact is, we have plenty of Italian horror covered on the site, and we devoted two and a half weeks of last year's Shocktober to two of the country's best-known horror directors, Lucio Fulci and Mario Bava.(read more...)

Tim Lucas Interview

Mario Bava - All the Colors of the Dark by Tim Lucas

Scan through the reviews in Classic-Horror's Mario Bava Week and you'll see a certain name pop up over and over again: Tim Lucas, editor of Video Watchdog magazine. You'll also see plenty of references to "Mario Bava: All the Colors of the Dark", Lucas's self-published biography of the director, which came out in September.(read more...)

Morbid Configurations: The Beauty of Bava

Black Sunday review image

Using the camera and some tricks of light and perspective, Mario Bava created artistic masterpieces that were beautiful in motion and often more beautiful seen at a halting standstill. It's one thing to create a phenomenal photograph and quite another to present 24 a second for 80-100 minutes. Herein we present some visually striking moments from several of Bava's films from within the horror genre and from without. Each still is taken from a DVD screen capture and most are presented without additional comment. (read more...)

Shocktober 2007: Mario Bava Week

Shocktober 2007: Mario Bava

Each week in October this year, as part of our Shocktober Classics event, we'll be featuring a different director who has significantly contributed to the horror genre, with new reviews for that director's films from Monday to Friday of that week. For our final celebration, we look at the Italian Maestro of the Macabre, Mario Bava.(read more...)

Shocktober Classics 2007: The Masters

Each week in October this year, as part of our Shocktober Classics event, we'll be featuring a different director who has significantly contributed to the horror genre, with new reviews for that director's films from Monday to Friday of that week.

The schedule for the month is as follows:

Week of October 1st: Roger Corman
Week of October 8th: Wes Craven
Week of October 15th: Lucio Fulci
Week of October 22nd: Mario Bava
Week of October 29th: Mario Bava continued (through the 31st)

"Mario Bava Collection Volume 2" Cover Art

Mario Bava Collection Volume 2

We've received the cover art for Anchor Bay's Mario Bava Collection: Volume 2. This box set, set for release October 23rd, will contain eight of Bava's films, including Lisa and the Devil, House of Exorcism, Bay of Blood, Baron Blood, Kidnapped, Roy Colt and Winchester Jack, 5 Dolls for an August Moon, and Four Times that Night. Bava expert Tim Lucas (who recently released the definitive book on Bava, "Mario Bava: All the Colors of the Dark", available for order here) provided commentary tracks for Lisa and the Devil, Baron Blood, and Bay of Blood. A commentary for House of Exorcism by producer Alfredo Leone and star Elke Sommer has been imported from Image's previous release of the film.(read more...)

More Mario Bava Collected on DVD

In his Video Watchblog, Tim Lucas announced that Anchor Bay will be releasing The Mario Bava Collection Volume 2 on October 23rd, just in time for Halloween. This box will contain Baron Blood, Lisa and the Devil (and House of Exorcism, which is mutilated form of Lisa, with non-Bava scenes of satanic possession edited in), Roy Colt & Winchester Jack, Four Times That Night, Bay of Blood, and Five Dolls for an August Moon. Lucas has recorded commentaries for Baron Blood, Bay of Blood, and Lisa and the Devil (and reportedly did so over the course of a single night). House of Exorcism will feature the commentary by producer Alfredo Leone and star Elke Sommer that was first seen on Image's earlier release of the film. No word yet on any other special features. The set will have a suggested retail price of $49.97.

Death with a Brutal Kick: 10 Sadistic Ways to Die in a Horror Movie

Brutal Feature: Black Sunday 1960

Sometimes, we get contacted to do an article to coincide with the release of a theatrical film or DVD. Most of the time, we don't do it because we either don't have any ideas or there are no good ideas for that particular movie. The PR folks for Universal's recent remake of The Hitcher (coming out on DVD May 1st -- check the cover art at the bottom of the page) had something different, however -- a good idea. They said, "Hey, guys, we have somebody getting yanked apart by two semi trucks in our movie. What about listing off some other brutal and/or sadistic deaths?" I was intrigued, which is often enough to get me to put fingers to keyboard, so here we go.

The list presented below isn't definitive. These aren't necessarily the ten most brutal or sadistic deaths in a horror movie, just the ones we thought were notable. Your mileage may vary. Each entry is accompanied by a screencap that can be accessed by clicking the thumbnail icon below the film title.(read more...)

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