Editorials
Happy 35th Birthday ‘Yor, the Hunter from the Future’!
35 years ago Antonio Margheriti gave birth to Yor, the Hunter from the Future. This incredible movie is worthy of a huge birthday celebration.
Italian genre cinema is an art form all its own. Somehow many Italian films manage to both be wholly original and unique works of cinematic glory while also heavily ripping off popular and existing titles. It seems like a nearly impossible balance to maintain but they’ve managed to pull it off a lot of the years and were particularly successful back in the 80’s. One of my favorite original rip-offs is Yor, the Hunter from the Future, which recently turned 35.
Yor, much like love, is a bit complicated. The basic premise of the film seems quite simple — Yor (Reb Brown) is a warrior living during a prehistoric age where early man is living amongst dinosaurs and other prehistoric animals and monsters. Yor spends his days trying to discover his origin while partaking in your average barbaric activities.
Yor does all of this solo until one day he runs into a primitive cavewoman named Kala (Connie Cléry) and her protector Pag (Luciano Pigozzi). Kala and Pag are out hunting when they are attacked by a dinosaur that looks to be some sort of stegosaurus, but not quite a stegosaurus. Yor steps in, saves the day, kills the dinosaur and drinks the dinosaur blood like the total badass he is to celebrate his victory.
Kala and Pag take Yor back to their village to celebrate and he’s immediately treated like a king. The celebration doesn’t last long, however, because the village is attacked by what I’m assuming is a rival tribe. Yor, Kala, and Pag are the only three that survive and they embark on a journey across a prehistoric desert in hopes of finding out who Yor truly is. Along the way, Kala quickly falls madly in love with Yor and he seems whatever about it. Like he’ll make out with her, but if he doesn’t it’s whatever.
Where things really start to get interesting is that while they encounter other tribes and more prehistoric monsters they also come in contact with advanced technology and a spaceship. This makes one question what world the movie takes place in. Does the film take place in a true prehistoric age? Or have we gone so far into the future that Earth has destroyed itself with the luckiest humans escaping the planet via space travel while the rest of the globe is sent back to the beginning of man? Or maybe the film involves time travel and all the advanced technology and the spaceship found in this prehistoric world is from someone that traveled back in time? And how exactly does Yor factor into all of this?
Like all great science fiction films, Yor presents a lot of questions, and I guess that is sort of the point. Yor is trying to discover himself and all these possibilities are in play. The problem is that when the film resolves Yor appears to have discovered his answer but we don’t ever really know what that is. He eventually leaves on the spaceship he finds, which he immediately knows how to operate, so I guess he’s from space? Which presents another possibility — maybe Yor isn’t human but just part of a more advanced alien race that travels to Earth during the prehistoric era? But if that’s the case, why is Yor so confused the whole time?
The fact that I have so many questions and am generally confused about what the hell is going on in Yor, The Hunter from the Future may lead you to believe I don’t like this movie but it’s actually the opposite. I love Yor! And why wouldn’t I? It’s all kinds of incredible!
The film was based off a 70’s Argentine comic but as I stated up top Italian genre cinema tends to borrow heavily from popular films and Yor, despite having original source material, borrows quite heavily from some of the 80’s most popular franchises. Conan the Barbarian is the most obvious, on the surface rip off. Yor is like the swap meet version of Conan — he’s a muscular, greasy, half-naked warrior, but he’s not exactly Conan. Both take place in similar prehistoric worlds. In Conan’s case, he has to deal with sorcery while Yor squares off with science and technology.
That science and technology lead us to the next big source of “inspiration” — Star Wars. There are elements within Yor, like when they discover the spaceship and we meet the bad guy goons that are sort of Storm Trooper-ish that feel a bit like Star Wars. It’s not quite Star Wars like we know it though. It’s like if someone heard about Star Wars, saw an image or two and was like, ‘yeah, I got it,” which is probably what happened with Margheriti.
Part of what makes Yor so god damn charming is the fact that a movie like this has almost no shot of being made today. Not only would it be harder to rip off pre-existing properties in this day and age, but a lot of what makes Yor enjoyable is the practical nature of it all. A lot of the effects may look clunky or silly, but they’re practical. There is an element to them that is real and today that wouldn’t happen. When Yor fights the dinosaur at the top of the film it’s an animatronic sort of beast. The dinosaurs in this movie feel like something you would see on that train ride at Disneyland that takes you into the time of the dinosaurs. They obviously don’t look like real, breathing creatures, but they are real things you can touch. Today those would be digital and garbage and the movie would go from low budget and fund to cheap and trashy.
Another highlight of Yor is the award-worthy, Shakespearean like dialogue that is standard in all Italian films. Kala isn’t the only woman to fall in love with Yor. In fact, every woman he meets falls in love with him instantly. At one point Yor saves another girl, Tarita, and her father is grateful. In fact, her father is so grateful that when he meets Yor he says, “According to our customs Tarita’s life now belongs to you. She will be your mate.” Tarita is all for it, throwing herself at Yor, “Take me with you, stranger!” Yor passes because he already has a woman.
Yor is a blast, it really is. It’s one of those movies that should be more highly regarded amongst genre fans. We should all be gathering with our friends and midnight screenings and watching it together, some dressed as prehistoric warriors, others dressed as space travelers from the future. Fortunately, the film was recently released on a gorgeous Blu-ray courtesy of Mill Creek, so at the very least you (that’s right, I’m talking to You!) can pick up the Blu-ray and gather your friends at your place for your own midnight screenings. Costumes optional in this case.
And finally, if my words have convinced you to dedicate your life to the teachings of Yor, I leave you with the film’s theme song which will undoubtedly have you preaching to your new god!
There’s a lot of reading left to do in 2026, between the glut of summer releases and the approach of fall, when horror titles get a special push from publishers, but this has already been an incredible year for horror literature.
Some of the biggest names in the genre have turned in outstanding work, rising stars have made their mark, and we’re only halfway through the year.
To celebrate the midway point of 2026, with plenty of horror books still to come, we’re taking a look back at the best horror books we’ve read this year so far, listed alphabetically by author.
If you missed any of these books earlier in the year, consider this your reminder to catch up.
Japanese Gothic by Kylie Lee Baker
A student running from a crime he may or may not have committed escapes to his father’s country home in Japan, only to find himself haunted by strange apparitions, while in the past, a young samurai tries to find salvation for her family and finds a door to the future instead. Kylie Lee Baker’s Japanese Gothic begins with this dialogue between past and present, and then blossoms into so much more, a cross-time ghost story about old wounds and what it really takes to finally heal them. I got so happily lost in this one that I would have read at least 200 more pages.
Persona by Aoife Josie Clements
In this tale of shut-ins, sex workers, artists, and the horrors they both summon and recoil from, Aoife Josie Clements weaves something that feels less like a story to be experienced and more like a psychic wound to be endured, and I mean that in the most complimentary way possible. Evocative in its prose and nightmarish in its imagery, Persona is a story of the masks we wear, and the understanding that not all of our masks are particularly pretty or even easy to breathe through. It’s a dense, literary, unnervingly vicious book, and while it’s already attracted an audience, it deserves a much bigger one.
Dead First by Johnny Compton
Johnny Compton’s latest novel opens with a throwing down of the gauntlet, a sequence that made me instantly think “How on Earth is he going to top this?” It’s a story that begins with a billionaire hiring a private investigator to determine why, despite trying in many brutal ways, he cannot die. That premise, and the scene which sets it all off, is so alluring and delightfully gruesome that you almost can’t believe it’s the way a book begins, and then Compton just keeps going, delivering a supernatural mystery that I could not put down.
Make Me Better by Sarah Gailey
A woman grieving for the life she wanted visits a mysterious island renowned for the healing salt its residents harvest and sell, seeking renewal and relief. What she finds instead is a strange cult with a twisted history with surprising resonance in her own life, and a people who are more than willing to grant the relief she wants, for a price. Laced with beautiful prose and moments of profound realization alongside folk and even cosmic horror, this is vintage Sarah Gailey.
Partially Devoured by Daniel Kraus
If you love horror film history and analysis, Partially Devoured is an essential. Written by Pulitzer Prize-winner Daniel Kraus, the book is a deep dive into his favorite movie of all time, George A. Romero‘s Night of the Living Dead, complete with exhaustive research into the making of the film and passages of deeply moving memoir woven in. If you’ve ever wanted to know what the eerie music that opens the film is called while also bursting into tears at how horror movies can save your life, this is a must-read.
Wretch by Eric LaRocca
Our reigning King of Extreme Horror, Eric LaRocca weaves books of uncommon beauty out of the most nightmarish parts of humanity, and Wretch is no exception. The story of a grieving man who longs for relief and searches for it amid a strange support group that might be a cult, Wretch is a brutal journey into the darkest part of us all, and explores what salvation we might find when we get to the rotten core of the world and peel back its layers. LaRocca’s on a tear of great work right now that few other genre writers can match.
Headlights by CJ Leede
A mystery, a serial killer horror show, a tribute to Stephen King‘s The Shining. All of these things describe CJ Leede’s Headlights, and yet they don’t begin to cover the full breadth of horror awaiting you in this novel. The story of a former FBI agent drawn back into the cold case that haunts him most, it’s a shocker brimming over with vivid moments that’ll live behind your eyes. CJ Leede has now published three novels, and they’re all bangers, so it’s time to get on board if you haven’t already.
It Came From Neverland by Cynthia Pelayo
Cynthia Pelayo has been one of our finest genre writers for years now, but It Came From Neverland is my favorite thing she’s written, and it’s not even close. A dark take on Peter Pan from the perspective of an adult Wendy Darling living in World War I-era London, Pelayo’s book works as both a satisfying horror narrative and a rich exploration of what it really means to never grow up. The horror never loses its potency, but it’s the search for the meaning behind the Peter Pan phenomenon in our own lives, and what we can do about it, that sticks with me most.
Filth Eaters by Ito Romo
Ito Romo’s Filth Eaters is a slim volume, one you can read in just a couple of hours if you’ve got the inclination, but it has the feel of a generation-spanning epic. The story of a breed of vampires born in Central America, the European vampires who encounter them, and the offspring they eventually produced, it spans centuries and packs loads of juicy lore into its pages while never losing its grip on character and narrative drive. I would read hundreds more pages of this world, but I’ll settle for this uncommonly grand-scale novella for now.
Dead But Dreaming of Electric Sheep by Paul Tremblay
A former pro gamer gets a job at a tech company to pilot a brain-dead human body across the country, and so Paul Tremblay’s sci-fi-horror juggernaut begins. Indebted to Philip K. Dick, the primal snarl of Harlan Ellison, and the quirky comedy of The Big Lebowski, and yet wholly original, this is a towering and ambitious novel by one of horror’s most respected voices. What starts as a high-concept tech thriller soon becomes a startling meditation on the value of stories, who gets to tell them, and what happens when we cede too much control to machines we don’t understand. It’s a stunner.
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