Yes, I am a Vampire (2024) - by Stephen Kozeniewski - Horror Short Story Collection

In anticipation of getting a lot of reading done on a (so far) relaxing holiday to visit family in Australia I was sorting out my back log of shame. I have some books dating back to around 2014, including one from Stephen Kozeniewski (The Thing Under Your Bed) which to my embarrassment I noticed wasn't in a format that I'm able to use on my Kindle. It's a shame, as my favourite story in this short story collection (previously I would have called this an anthology but the author spells out the difference of that and collections here) is based in that book's world (that book being Braineater Jones) and it sounds like a grand world indeed. Anyway, Yes, I am a Vampire isn't quite as old as that book, receiving the eBook at the end of 2024. I guess that makes this quite a speedy turnaround!

Yes, I am a Vampire is a horror collection with a difference. From the title alone I imagined this to be an anthology collection of short vampire stories (doing my usual thing of barely skimming the synopsis of anything I am sent so as not to be spoiled on the contents). Not only is it the collected short works of Kozeniewski from 2013-2016, it is also half an autobiography. Each of the 12 short stories is followed by a lengthy afterword which not only talks about the inspiration for the story, but also goes into details of what was going on in the author's life at the time some of these were quite frank. For this review, I will follow a similar format, giving some unwanted and self indulgent background on where I was and what I was doing as I read these stories.

It all begins with microfiction piece 'Clockwork Offal', a one page story that at first went over my head, but each subsequent read it dawned on me more and more the horror being suggested. The afterword is where it became apparant that Kozeniewski really was dedicating half of this book on writing about his own trials and tribulations with getting his work published. He mentioned Braineater Jones here, and that sparked a memory that I thought I had a copy of this sitting in an email somewhere waiting to be read (as stated, I kind of did, but I hadn't bothered to check if it worked at the time). 

'The Thing Under The Bed' is next. I had previously reviewed the novella The Thing Under Your Bed, and almost skipped this one thinking it was just a repeat. Glad I did read this as it was a completely different and much shorter version of that neat story. Some of the awkwardly placed England references (this being set in London) are explained in the afterword, and it was there where Brian Keene's The Rising and City of the Dead is mentioned. I have fond memories of those two books, being some of the first zombie novels I ever read (the talking zombie lion at the zoo is forever burned into the undead appreciation part of my brain).

As may be apparent from this blog's name, zombies are by far my most favourite type of horror monster, so it was pleasing to see so many of the short stories here to feature the undead. The first of these was the crassly titled 'Exploding Sh*t Zombies' that as its title suggests, is one of the more grim zombie apocalypses. Many of the short stories in this collection are taken from the author's novels, this being one of those. I thought this story had a fun bait and switch at the start and was quite humourous. I was (very) indirectly mentioned in the notes for this one when Kozeniewski mentions sending his novel Braineater Jones off to a horde of various bloggers and reviewers back when it was first written.
This was the start of a bunch of undead tales, 'The New Dark Ages' was a bleak and grim one, starting off as a fantasy, before being revealed to actually be a Dungeons & Dragons game that a group of friends hiding out from an undead uprising were playing, before the rug pull of something far more twisted. The author in the notes mentions the cover for the anthology this one was originally published in was quite ugly. Having Googled the cover image; yup, it sure was a hideous cover!
'The Man With Four Scars' was a great story, a zombie story but one that takes place during caveman times. I have never read anything similar before, and having the story told from the perspective of a prehistoric human with his own way of talking and describing things was fascinating. I read this one in two parts, having crashed after drinking two strong cups of coffee in a row. The most exciting part of this somewhat haunting story picked up immediately from where I had paused reading, so I demolished this story upon getting back to it.

That brings me up to almost present day (at time of typing). The rest of the collection I read in the span of a day while out on holiday in Australia (where I will be until the end of March). I tried to read 'The Key to the Stars' back in the U.K while my best friend was staying at my house. I couldn't recall a word when I returned to it, so began again. I thought this was a charming story, and one of the most light hearted ones. A sci-fi story about a girl who encounters a holographic projection of an alien in the 1950's. It mixes this story with a real account of an alien encounter to wonderful effect. For me 'The Old Man and the Seesaw' was the highlight of this short story collection. Set in the Braineater Jones world, it is another that shows imagination, the titular 'old man' referring to a zombie fetus whose fortunate early immersion in an alcoholic based preserving formula led to it being one of the oldest surviving zombies in that alternate world where sentient undead have emerged who require alcohol to keep their faculties. The notes for this one particularly resonated to me, the authors hopes to one day be able to write full time and not need to have a bill paying day job echoing my desire to one day somehow be able to do the same, but with my blog.
The last zombie story follows with 'Cadaver Bite', showing an unusual form of execution used during a zombie outbreak. I was sat nearby a radio and got engrossed enough in this one that the words being spoken on the radio faded away to nothing for me.
This review is perhaps getting a bit self indulgent and lengthy so will zoom through the last four stories. 'The Quiet Life' is very similar to A Quiet Place, but as the notes afterwards say, this was actually written a few years before that film came out. The final three stories are all single page microfiction stories set around Christmas; 'Traditions', 'A Visit From...' and 'Brightly Shining' were all excellent and twisted in their own ways, a lovely finish to this collection.

I have always had a love of anthologies (well, in this case, collections), so with Yes, I am a Vampire I found yet another one that I enjoyed. Truthfully, there wasn't a short story I didn't like, but there were some that were in my mind much better written than others. I was of course also pleased that so many of these featured zombies, that is never going to be anything other than a positive thing in my mind. The autobiographical part was also very interesting. It challenged my baseless assumptions that all published authors are effortlessly able to get their stories out. 

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The Rotting Zombie's Round-up of Horror News for February 2026

I'm writing this monthly post with a self inflicted time frame. In a couple of days I am heading over to the land of the Road Train; Australia for an entire month. I am planning to get a lot of blog done while over there, on the assumption I can get decent internet at my relative's home. If there are no blog posts next month then that is why! Well that, or I have become a head on a stick. Hopefully there will be lots of posts though. To prepare, I have added my large reading list of shame to my Kindle, and am trying to burn through a few video games that I'm near the end of, while resisting the urge to start any new ones. Onwards to the news.

Indie horror, Bone Hill has been released on Digital platforms worldwide, including Amazon Prime Video. This supernatural thriller is set in the back county of Michigan and revolves around the awakening of an ancient Native American curse from a haunted burial ground. The filmmakers collaborated with the local Indigenous community for this to ensure the history, language and lore in the film remained respectful - kudos to that. The cast include Jeremy Koch, Abby R. Mooring, James Whitecloud, and Roger Callard.

Last mentioned by me back in December, zombie outbreak/serial killer horror, Air Shift now has a director's cut available on Amazon Prime. This new cut of the story of a small-town DJ held captive by a deranged killer is said to tell the definitive version of the story, from director Chris Maes, who is a former DJ himself.

Carissa Pierson has been announced as the director of Witchcraft: The Lanterne of Light, which is the next entry in the long running horror series. This film is going to be a found footage occult horror film that the press release states will draw from early North Carolina folklore and religious paranoia. Coming from Deathstalker Productions, this has Andrew Pierson returning as William Spanner, and will feature Kristina Lafser's first portrayal of legacy character Keli Jordan.

The cover star for this month's round-up is Sanguine Teeth on a Driftless Road, a cover star due to the very low budget looking poster (not a slight, love it). This is an R-rated indie comedy horror about four vampires on a road trip to a cabin in the woods. This horror stars Jason Horton, Charlie Mac, Jason Rouse, and DJ Fusion, and is available to watch now on FAWESOME TV here. Sanguine Teeth on a Driftless Road has won 6 awards across three film festivals, including 'Best Comedy', 'Best Director', 'Spirit Award', and 'Best International Feature'.

Despite over 90 emails sitting in my news inbox, that is it for this month as I really need to think about packing for my trip, and getting the Rotting Zombie HQ in order before I leave. Fingers crossed that March will be a bumper month for me, and not a barren wasteland on here!

Are You There? (2024) - Horror Film Review

Are You There? is a supernatural horror film that was directed by Kim Noonan, which felt like a relic from a decade or so back. It has some unexpected twists along its initially slow paced story, and I think I liked the actor who played the protagonist, but there wasn't much real substance here.

Rosa (Laura Sollet - Apocalypse Rising: A Zombie Saga) is a paranormal psychologist student who believes that experiences of the paranormal comes from the mind, rather than be an actual thing. With her housemate, Natalie (Eva Meyerson - Boneyard), she makes online videos where she explores different ways to contact the dead. After her beloved grandma dies (someone who had classed themselves as a white witch), she leaves Rosa a box of her belongings. Included in the box is a special candle and candle holder, with instructions that tell her niece how to use the candle to contact her from beyond the grave. Rosa is very surprised when she tries it and it actually works, the candle flame blowing left or right in answer to her yes or no questions. At first, Rosa is overjoyed that she has finally gotten proof of the supernatural, but as more and more sinister things happen around her, she comes to believe she hasn't contacted her grandma through the candle, but an evil spirit who wishes her harm.

For the first 40 minutes of this roughly 90 minute horror I was pretty bored. There was not much of note happening at all, outside of the candle flame blowing left or right. I thought Rosa was fine as a protagonist, if a little dull, but the story itself was almost mind numbingly dull. Then a change happens, and the rest of the movie plays out as one long nightmare sequence of Rosa trapped in her house, experiencing all sorts of unnatural terror. These take the form of sequences where she has travelled through time or space to earlier places and people in her life, encounters that she in unable to tell if they are real or not, and all sorts of paranormal activity, such as things moving on their own, and a stubborn candle whose flame refuses to go out even if submerged in water! The transition from slow burn snore fest to wild madness was sudden, it almost felt like they were two different films clumsily taped together. The second half is a lot better, and action packed. The midpoint scene where Rosa encounters an intruder in her home was the highlight of Are You There?, a stark and brutal excursion into real life horror, before it settles back into mad paranoid craziness. The eventual reveal of what has actually been going on was unexpected, but also not original, I have seen the same plot device used in countless horrors over the years, specifically earlier this century when that idea seemed to be all the rage. It also makes the first 40 minutes not really make a lot of sense in hindsight, hence it feeling like two films in one.

The horror, when it eventually arrives isn't bad, aside from one terrible looking CG effect of a flame blowing up into a perpetual fireball, it was fine. You have the familiar nightmare things, such as rooms opening onto impossible locations, or a character abruptly being yanked to a different location. It all looks good, especially with the previously mentioned mid-film break into home invasion terror. 
The story looks into sensitive topics, I had no problem with that. Everything revolving around the candle was a bit silly. I especially liked when Rosa looks on the internet for help with her situation and finds comically dark results. For a way to contact the dead that has such harsh consequences be so easy to do was humorous, I will admit, the crazed live streaming she does where she tries to warn her followers was excellently done, Sollet always did a fine job of appearing near insane with fear at some of the supernatural events she encounters, with the obligatory 'madness dancing in the eyes' look that never gets old.

Are You There? was an average horror that was let down by some strange editing techniques. I'm still not even sure if the wild prologue sequence was actually a part of the film or some sort of trailer before the screener I watched - wild disparate images that made little sense. Not the worst film out there, but there didn't seem like much originality with the story being told, and that first half was a real slog to get through. Are You There? releases second quarter this year via High Fliers Films.

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Garten of Banban III (2023) - Horror Video Game Review

Another week and another review of a Garten of Banban game. Picked up alongside Garten of Banban II and IV, I have (as of typing) just this moment completed the third game in the series; Garten of Banban III. As always, unavoidable spoilers to follow.

After taking yet another downward elevator, you end up on yet another testing floor. You learn pretty soon that this is the last floor that was still in use when the event happened (where the staff and children of a kindergarten mysteriously vanished). It is here that you encounter the goliath sized psychic jelly fish monster; Stinger Flynn, perhaps the creature that is responsible for the missing children and the outbreak of the creatures.

Like I said in my last review, this follows the Poppy Playtime formula by having each instalment be larger than the last. My final play time for this third chapter was about two hours, I'm sure that included the many times I died. This time around there are four main areas, each accessed via a horizontal lift that travels over a vast chasm. It follows the by now familiar format of searching out key cards to open further doors into the complex. Stinger Flynn was an interesting antagonist, I particularly liked the trippy dream sequences you fall into when he psychically connects with you. It was fun to see the non-sentient objects from the second game make a new appearance here. There are the usual drone based puzzles where you have to press switches, including one that takes place as a boss fight against a two headed turtle. The beach cannon puzzle from last time around returns, the only difference here is that you are playing as Stinger Flynn in a flashback sequence, of which there were two, neither of which was particularly exciting . The text on the wall is again written really badly from what appeared to be MS Paint, this led to some annoyances with later puzzles simply for not being able to make out what the primitive looking diagrams were meant to represent. Best puzzle came towards the end, an escape room one where you have to keep resetting the room's look, so that your attempts at escape are not noticed by a patrolling creature. Another memorable one had you performing an operation on a creature, while balancing spinning plates (so to speak) as you did so.

I enjoyed playing this chapter, but I wouldn't say it was as jump scare filled as last time. In fact, while there are jump scares, not a single one made me actually jump. The main antagonist is the mostly static jelly fish, but the teacher creature, Jumbo Josh, and Banban all make returning appearances, as do the birds. The obligatory chase sequence this time around involves you riding on the back of a bird, that was different, if a little messy with how it controlled. The lore comes more from what Stinger Flynn tells you than files found around the place, though they too feature. I actually managed to play a found videotape, but it wasn't very impressive at all.
The game leads up to a fun end, but again, not a very memorable actual exit to the game.

Garten of Banban III was more of the same, it was neither better or worse than the second game, perhaps, with the jump scares not landing, and a few noticeable glitches, this was slightly worse thinking about it. Still, I again finished my playtime wanting to see what was next. I'm sure it will be underwhelming in a design way, but the thought of getting to see an unused floor of the mammoth underground complex has me intrigued. 

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Bad Voodoo (2026) - Horror Film Review

I don't read reviews until after I have seen whatever they are reviewing; whether it be films, books, or video games. That preamble is just to say that the feature length directorial debut of Andrew Adler and Andre Hepburn; Bad Voodoo, is a dramatic horror that really works if you go in cold. With no idea of the story, this was a movie that had twist after glorious twist, with it never really clear where the plot was going to go. So if you want to get the most of this film, go in without knowing the synopsis, and then come back if you want to know why I enjoyed this so much.

Late one night, Abigail (Cristina Moody - November Lies) gets a knock on the door of her house, opening it she finds Officer Marcus (Scott Sederquist - Ghostbusters uncredited) there. He tells her that there has been a breakout from a nearby prison, and that four convicts have managed to escape and are suspected to be in the area, after their car was found abandoned nearby. Abigail doesn't appear too bothered, thinking that the likelihood of the convicts coming to her home were remote. This turns out to be a bit naïve of her, as not long after the officer leaves, she learns all too late that the convicts have already broken into her home. The four desperate men; wildcard Nonzo (Alex Pires - The Punisher), strong silent Nice (Justin Genna - Project Z: History of the Zombie Apocalypse), wounded Smooth (Justin Lombard), and the leader; foul mouthed Doc (Manny Perez - Luke Cage) quickly take the woman hostage. A series of unexpected events leads to the tables being turned, and soon the men find themselves at the mercy of a revenge fuelled voodoo practising woman, whose voodoo dolls work all too well...

I had to butcher the synopsis a little bit just to paste over some of the twists that while occurring early, are still worth keeping a bit secret. Having not read a synopsis myself beforehand, I went into this with only the film's title as a clue as to what this would be about. From the start, this appeared it would be a relatively low budget home invasion horror, and I expected it to follow the story beats of the protagonist somehow getting free and viciously murdering her captors one by one over the course of the 85 minute horror. Expectations are soon changed, the twists coming early and remaining consistent from beginning to end. I found Abigail to be an irritating lead, even with righteousness on her side, I found it hard to root for her. A lot of this come from her stubbornness to do what she wanted, rather than to stick to her agreement with the person she had made quite a serious deal with. I can't really keep that part quiet, the voodoo part of the title comes from the appearance of Houngans (Haitian born Jimmy C. Jules - The Purge: Election Year uncredited). This character is a voodoo priest and is everything you would expect him to be, from his sudden appearances out of nowhere, to his eccentric mannerisms and theatrical way of talking. Over the top, but also quietly creepy, he steals the scenes he appears in, without seeming like he doesn't fit into the film world. The convicts were a little bit more stereotypical, but I enjoyed the performances regardless, Doc was exactly as you would imagine a hardened criminal to be, and I liked how Nonzo related a story that gave a hint at was what to come to his fellow escapees. That related story might have been a bit convenient, but it set up the idea that in this film world, voodoo was a real thing. I like to err on the side of caution when it comes to things like voodoo in real life. Much like I don't believe in ghosts but wouldn't want to spend the night alone in a haunted house, I think voodoo has a more scientific explanation, but still wouldn't want to be anywhere near people who practised such things; just in case, you know?

What had appeared to be a low budget horror was actually more polished than I at first assumed. This is very much a horror drama, the entire film takes place in Abigail's home, and there isn't a lot of action in a sense. Mostly, it is characters standing around talking, arguing, or occasionally having little scuffles with each other. The horror here is effective due to how food the effects are. Voodoo dolls feature heavily, and they work as well as you would want them to. The special effects sell this very well, with details kept fully on screen at points. An early scene where a character has their fingers broken via the doll looked fantastic. Elsewhere, parts that aren't shown in as much detail work due to the imagination being called into play. A scene right near the end conjured in my mind that horrific ending shot in the 1932 film Freaks. The film barely features a soundtrack, it had some atmospheric sounds at times, but no real music at all. Sometimes I did miss  a film score, but mostly, I thought the drama of this horror worked much better by not being accompanied by music to try and impart to the viewers what they should be feeling. This is also presented in an old style screen format, not widescreen, this contains the horror to a claustrophobic feeling box in the centre.

Despite not liking the protagonist character, I thought Bad Voodoo was a great little horror. I loved the horror elements and how they didn't overshadow what is at its heart a film about dealing with and processing grief. I loved the drama of this as well, I always find it interesting when a film could work just as well on a stage than from behind a camera. Bad Voodoo released on VOD and DVD on February 10th.

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The Killgrin (2024) - Horror Film Review

The effects of the sleeping pill I took the night before last has nearly faded now. That is good as it means I can pay proper attention to the films I am watching for review, without being in a dozy trance. The Killgrin is a by the numbers supernatural horror that was directed by Joanna Tsanis (Mourn). Don't quote me on this, but I think this may be a feature length version of her short film, Smile. The central idea of this horror reminded me a lot of the similarly titled Smile, but not done as well thanks to an uninspiring antagonist force and some goofy effects.

Miranda (Konstantina Mantelos - Smile, and a co-writer of this film) is not having a good time of it. First, her ex-boyfriend was such a big stalker that she had to have a restraining order put out against him, but now, her current boyfriend has committed suicide by leaping out their apartment window. She begins to look for answers for her misery, joining a therapy group, as well as looking more outside the box, such as heading to a fortune teller. It is at the later that she is told that she might be afflicted with a 'killgrin'; a supernatural entity that feeds off of suffering. Miranda doesn't pay that much heed, but as those afflicted with sadness start to die in horrifically similar ways around her, she begins to suspect there might be some shocking truth in the fortune teller's words.

This supernatural movie fitted all too comfortably into the horror sub-genre it was a part of. I had a constant feeling of déjá vu watching this, which wouldn't have been so bad if parts of this had been done better. My biggest bugbear was the design of the evil, and how it affected those it tormented. The design of the monster wasn't the best, it kind of looked like a guy in a monster suit, and brought to mind the deadite from the well at the start of Army of Darkness. I liked that it was constantly dripping teeth off its malformed body, but it didn't look great, nor did the CG heavy effects of it turning into black smoke. It didn't help that it is barely seen until the third act, the first two thirds all the viewer is treated to is the black smoke, perhaps a blessing when the reveal doesn't land very well. There was also an issue with the method of death. It forces its victims mouth into an inverted grin, eventually causing the jaw to dislocate and rip open. This leads to moments where the protagonist is in the clutches of this evil and has the most ridiculous silly effects to simulate this happening to her. It didn't look great it has to be said.

That was actually a shame, as the rest of the movie, while predictable and familiar, was not bad. I thought Mantelos was great in the lead role, special mention goes to alcoholic side character - Brian (Adam Tsekhman - One in Two People). I admit to thinking he might have been more evil than his innocent character appeared, but he brought light and sunshine to each scene he was in, and I personally loved the set design for his apartment. The less said about the sub plot of the two detectives investigating the strange deaths the better, I liked them, but it didn't make the horror seem any less stupid. An early death was awkwardly moved past by just not being mentioned, despite the outlandish way the victim died. Apparently a character randomly dying in their flat by their jaw being ripped off was just a 'tragic event' with no further insight than that! There were not really any bad characters to be found, no complaints with the casting choices, it was the story decisions that were at fault.

The best thing I can really say about The Killgrin is that at least it wasn't quite as bad as The Bye Bye Man. Similar in format, but with a better cast, this one had potential, it was at least neat for looking at the topic of depression and how that (literally here) can bring a dark cloud over you, but it didn't stick the landing, with an antagonist that looked more stupid than scary. When your main draw is such an ineffective creation, the movie just isn't able to function as an effective horror. The Killgrin releases in the second quarter this year thanks to High Fliers Films.

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Stranger Things: Season 5 (2025) - Horror TV Show Review

I will start as always with my obligatory statement about having been made redundant from my bill paying job just in time for Christmas. That is relevant as it coincided with the release of the fifth and final season of amazing horror TV show - Stranger Things. Due to the turmoil in my actual life, it was only on Christmas that I got around to watching this final season (binged watched the first 7 episodes over two days with my family), and with the way the show is being released, at the time of typing, the final episode has yet to be released. I believe it is coming out on New Years Eve. As much as I enjoyed season 4, I would be lying if I said there were not large parts of it I did have issue with. It sometimes felt in a bid to stuff as many characters in it as possible, some of those characters were given pretty abysmal storylines. On the flip side; it did have Eddie - one of the show's best overall characters.
Part of my hesitation for watching this final season was whether the ball would be dropped, whether all the characters growth and stories would come together for a blissful whole. Not having seen the final episode (at the time of typing this section), I can't yet answer that. What I can say is; there will be unavoidable spoilers for previous seasons.

The fourth season ended on a heck of a cliff-hanger; with Vecna's (Jamie Campbell Bower - Twilight) plan successful, the hellish Up-Side down tore open gateways into the sleepy town of Hawkins. The fifth picks up roughly two years later, with a lot of the damage covered up by the military. Hawkins has become quarantined, with no one allowed out of the town, and only certain people allowed in. The cover-up is that the 'natural phenomenon' that flooded the area with ash, could have infected the inhabitants with a new type of a possibly contagious disease. In actuality, the military have used the quarantine as an excuse to send in lots and lots of soldiers. They sealed up the majority of the dimensional tears with vast steel plates, leaving one entrance left which they guard with heavy security. Going even further, the army have set up a compound inside the Upside-Down where experiments have been going on, the soldiers all answering to ruthless military scientist Dr. Kay (Linda Hamilton - Terminator 2: Judgement Day).
The heroes of the show have spent the past two years searching the Up-Side Down for signs of Vecna, with Hopper (David Harbour) sneaking in whenever the army open up their guarded gateway, but they have began to get disillusioned with their lack of progress as there has been no sign of the monster. That is until their latest expedition, when it becomes clear Vecna has resurfaced from his hibernation. He is back, and with a new plan that involves kidnapping certain children who are all of an age that Will (Noah Schnapp) was when he was first taken.

It felt a little dialled back how everything is in Hawkins compared to the season 4 finale, but viewers are soon brought up to speed on what is happening, mostly via a radio broadcast that Robin (Maya Hawke) is doing in her new role as the town D.J. With the age of the child actors ever increasing, this time skip was needed, and it works. With the trouncing that Vecna had, it made sense he needed time to recuperate from his wounds. One of my complaints from season 4 was how the huge cast of characters only came together right in the final episode. This time around it gets things right, with the characters reuniting at several points during the season, as well as going off in their often humorous or exciting groups. The story obviously begins in 'Chapter One: The Crawl', then never lets up. Each episode follows on directly from the preceding one, so it feels like one uninterrupted highly action packed story going on, rather than skips in time. Before, some of the characters were dealt dirty, appearing in pathetic side stories that had little bearing on the main plot. Here, the characters are handled much more sensibly, every side story here is relevant to the overall plot, with no filler to be found.
Despite a large cast of characters, even more new ones are added here, with two in particular really standing out. Early on in 'Chapter Two: The Vanishing of Holly Weaver', the titular Holly (Nell Fisher - Evil Dead Rise) is captured by Vecna's monsters and ends up in a fantastical dreamworld creation. She was a great new character, and she gets a substantial role as she explores the dreamworld, giving revelations to Vecna's origin that was last seen hinted at in the stage play - Stranger Things: The First Shadow. Another great new character was 'Dipsh*t' Derek (Jake Connelly), a big boned child bully who in the best Stranger Things fashion (see Steve - Joe Keery), was made very likeable, despite his many personality flaws. Returning characters are on the whole as enjoyable as they ever where, for better or for worse. Nancy (Natalia Dyer) and Jonathan (Charlie Heaton) are still my least favourite of the core cast, but at least this time around they are more relevant to the story (and the later finally redeemed himself in my eyes in the final episode). I thought the dynamics between Steve and Dustin (Gaten Matarazzo) was perfect here, and has some of the biggest feels, with Dustin still deep in mourning after the death of his idol Eddie last season. It felt like all characters here were treated well. Ones who had only ever had secondary roles are thrust right into the forefront of the plot, while new ones were given enough screen time to shine and make an impression.

There is plenty of action here right from the start. The iconic Demogorgons feature heavily in many of the these scenes, and the army act as a second enemy for the heroes to face, sometimes leading to thrilling three way battles where the different groups all end up in combat with one another. The soldiers are mostly presented as an enemy force, but I did feel a bit bad for the grunts who often act as cannon-fodder for the advancement of the story, with monsters and heroes alike blasting them away without a care in the world, when to me, the grunts just seemed like normal people trying to do the jobs they had been assigned. The special effects are on the whole amazing, with only certain scenes with large scale action scenes looking occasionally a little bit CG heavy.
Up to the final episode, you get psychic powers, gun battles, car chases, deep revelations as to the nature of the Up-Side Down, and surprising new insights into known characters, Will in particular really comes into his own, even if his core side-plot is dealing with his homosexuality, that to my (poor) memory had already been dealt with last season. The new friendship between him and equally gay Robin, was one pair-up that I didn't see coming, but which works fantastically well. Each episode manages to end on a big cliff-hanger that always brought me right back to find out what happens next. But what about that final episode, did it stick the landing, or did it Game of Thrones it smack bang into a wall? At the time of typing I do not know, it is just under a week until that final episode airs. This review will be continued in 2026, where I will write the last few paragraphs, to follow...here.

Having now seen that final two hour episode, I can say that for me it did stick the landing. Literally my only complaint was how long the epilogue section was; did we really need a 40 minute epilogue? I thought Bower's performance was astoundingly good in this finale. The show maintained its amazing pacing, making for me one of my favourite seasons, and ending on a loving note. I don't get the hate for this season, enough hate that the myth of a secret ninth episode that wraps up the story more satisfactory soon came to be believed. A near perfect end to a wonderful show, Stranger Things is a modern classic.

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Chicken Dinner Restaurant (2023) - Comedy Film Review

After recently reviewing surreal horror comedy Bluetooth Speaker, the director of that; Dallas Ryan, asked me if I wanted to check out another film of his. That film was the 2023 indie comedy Chicken Dinner Restaurant. He pre-warned me that it wasn't a horror, but figuring it would have the same surreal comedy his horror films do, I decided to check it out. I feel surreal comedy is a distant cousin of horror, both share a somewhat unsettling quality.

Chloe (Chloe Brewer - Bluetooth Speaker, Live One), Dallas (Dallas Ryan - Bluetooth Speaker, Live One) and Ryan (Ryan Vania - Bluetooth Speaker, Live One) are three employees at CDR (chicken dinner restaurant obviously). One day, on their lunch break, Dallas informs them that he found an old treasure map at his home, and that if they follow the clues on the map that they will discover the legendary lost gold of Fester Hopperfoot.

This indie comedy was easily identifiable as being one of the director's films. He has a unique style that has his comedy being played straight, yet being very weird at the same time. This was co-written by the three stars, and was apparently based on their TV show The Chloe, Dallas, and Ryan Show. From the clear story at the start, this descends into something more akin to a sketch show, with the three leads playing a variety of characters, many of these characters looking identical aside from wearing different clothing. Most the time, the characters even share the exact same names as one another. The story about the search for the hidden gold is a minor one within the film. The other subplots make up the rest of the film and include such bizarre moments as a news reporter trying to uncover what has happened to L.A's Tupperware, and three candidates for the position of mayor, who are all endorsing the use of drugs as part of their campaign pledge. That last one had the most screen time, with the three characters constantly giving speeches to the camera. Nearly the entire film is shot outside, mostly in and around parking lots, and much of this has characters directly talking to the camera, rather than to each other, with it inferred they are being filmed by a camera crew. The same actors playing identical looking characters means that title cards for each new scene are given, to give some background on who the characters were. I actually thought those moments, along with the chill music, were some of the more pleasant moments to be found here.

These scenes, and dialogues are all interspersed with the popcorn munching 'movie watcher' (Steve Bilecz - Bluetooth Speaker, Live One), a character outside the movie proper who represents the viewer, and who points out the inconsistencies and flaws of the filmmaking. From complaining about the loud background interference that plagues the outdoor scenes, to pointing out that the locations used and characters that appear all look very similar to each other, he speaks for the viewer. Usually, I find the films of Ryan to outstay their welcome, I was surprised then to see that Chicken Dinner Restaurant runs for a nice and lean 68 minutes. Even at this length, it felt almost a bit overlong, not helped by a chaotic edited finale that was a mishmash of images edited together with discordant music playing for around six of the final eight minutes.

The comedy isn't given via jokes and visual humour, instead it is via the random dialogue characters speak. Like the other films, it sometimes felt like the lines were being made up on the spot, with frequent repetition, and over empathising different words. This is compounded by editing techniques that include lines of dialogue being repeated over and over again (in one instance for literal minutes!), and characters motions being repeated. Sometimes with the view zooming in with each subsequent repetition, sometimes with the film speed slowed down. These were all odd but entertaining, if occasionally a bit indulgent. Elsewhere, where dialogue is edited it becomes really noticeable, with dead silence replacing the near constant background hum of traffic and people going about their days, rather than words beeped out.

This was a weird indie comedy that had all the hallmarks that I have come to expect from the director. This is a film that recognises its budget constraints, and even uses these as a way to further its comedy. More an extended sketch show than a film proper, it might have started to feel a bit samey by the time the end credits rolled, but this was a chilled affair, and one that remains consistent throughout. Chicken Dinner Restaurant isn't going to appeal to everyone, but it really wasn't bad. Chicken Dinner Restaurant can be viewed on Tubi.

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Garten of Banban II (2023) - Horror Video Game Review

It was about what I expected when I played through the first in the Garten of Banban series of video games last month. A mascot horror game that takes heavy inspiration from the much better made Poppy Playtime series. I did say then, that if I saw the subsequent ones on sale I would take a look of them. Less than a month later and those games are on sale, so I gave Garten of Banban II a try. Unavoidable spoilers for the first game to follow.

The first game ended with you descending on a hidden elevator into the depths of the Banban's Kindergarten, before getting attack by a giant creature. This one picks up immediately afterwards, the attack caused the elevator to crash, with you saved by the creature breaking the elevator's fall. You emerge into a secret underground complex, and it is there that someone spots you on the complex's camera system. A man's voice informs you that he has become trapped in the security room, and has asked for your assistance in finding the key card to free him. Can this man be trusted though?

Much like with Poppy Playtime Chapter 2, Garten of Banban II is more of the same but offers a larger experience than the roughly 45 minutes of the first game. It is hard to quantify exactly how long this one took, as I did have the game paused for minutes at a time due to texting a friend while playing. I reckon that this one took me just over an hour to complete, and at a once again dirt cheap price, I find it hard to complain about that length. Thankfully, while still obviously low budget (the signs on the walls and the notes you find still all appear like they were written on MS Paint!), this was a much better made game than before, and is made up of more than just one long corridor with branching rooms off of it. Again in first person, your main goal is finding key cards to proceed further into the labyrinthian underground complex. You still have a drone that you can send to press switches, though this seemed to be used less this time around. Puzzles were all easy, but they were fun to do, not so easy that they felt pointless obstacles to progress. These puzzles range from collecting a group of chick mascots and returning them to their nest, to pressing switches in a correct order, and one sweat inducing platforming section over a large pit, which was more fun than its similar counterpart in the first game. The highlight of this second game was when you find yourself inadvertently trapped in a classroom with a teacher mascot, having to answer the questions she gives you, with surreal break time mini-stories involving the other students, who were made up of non-sentient watering cans, bowling pins, and shade wearing basketballs! I really enjoyed that section, felt unique, doing something different in feel to Poppy Playtime at last.

Before there were only the two mascot antagonists, and both barely featured. For this second game there were at least six of the creatures. I can't recall their names, but these included the return of the bird from the first game, the teacher mascot, a giant snail, a large spider, and a hulking great green monster among others. Similar to Poppy Playtime, some of these mascots are able to talk. The voice acting wasn't great, it felt like they had just dragged random people off the streets to read the lines. In the context of these normal voices coming out of vaguely creepy looking creatures though, the voice work grew on me. There were plenty of jump scare moments should you get caught in any of the sections where that is possible, unlike my first experience, here, I jumped a fair few times. The chapter culminates in a chase sequence, that while not original, was pretty cool, mainly due to the wonderfully massive Jumbo Josh. Dotted around the game world are letters and video tapes. I never actually got a chance to use the tapes, but the letters added a surprising amount of lore to what had seemed to be a wafer thin game story-wise. There are still many lingering questions, but I had far more of an idea what was going on than I did previously.
Level design is better here, but again, the game world doesn't feel like a realistic place, you have dark chasms that stretch into darkness, and this place if real, you would have to assume was created by a maniac, due to the amount of artificial puzzles and level design. It is after all a game though, so perhaps I'm being a bit harsh on that front.

Garten of Banban II was a lot more fun to play than the first. It is still obviously low quality, but I found this to be better designed in general, and I didn't really find any of it frustrating to get through. It also delighted by doing some original things, rather than just feeling like a copied clone. Even with those new ideas, I could never escape the feeling that this is just a poor imitation of a better series, but I would be lying if I said there wasn't some fun to be had here, and would be lying if I said I didn't immediately boot up the third game at the completion of this one.

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Blood Barn (2025) - Horror Film Review

I watched Blood Barn the day after I took a strong sleeping pill, due to a period of terrible sleep. It worked in finally giving me a great night's sleep, but it also meant I was in a bit of a groggy stupor the next day. In the case of this movie it added to the trippy vibe. Directed and co-written by Gabriel Bernini (Triple Thriller) in his feature length directorial debut, this out of time horror splatter fest felt like a remake of The Evil Dead, but one built from memory, and while under the effect of a healthy dose of LSD. This makes it something that feels a little familiar, but also stands out on its own. 

A group of camp counsellors decide to celebrate their last summer together before they part ways for college, by having a weekend break at a secluded barn that Josie's (Lena Redford - And Back Again) family owns. Not really a part of the core group, she secretly hopes this idea of hers will bring her closer to the rest of the tight knit teens. The group include Josie herself, alongside best friends; Amanda (Andrea Bambina) and Rachel (Chloe Cherry), and four others. The partying soon begins in earnest, with the group wild and disrespectful of the converted barn and its belongings. Unknown to all, there is a supernatural presence in the barn that is not happy at having its peace shattered, and seeks a way to punish those who have invaded its domain.

I really should have made a note of characters names as I was watching this, as it turns out I can't identify who a lot of the male actor's characters were. The cast of seven are introduced by a lovely montage/credit sequence of the characters dancing and goofing around in a car prior to arriving at the barn. This was the first of several montage sequences, others including one set at a small lake, and a later one showing a volleyball competition between the friends. These, coupled with later ones, often had an intimate close-up feel, with the hand operated camera swinging around in-between the characters, adding to the retro look and feel of the picture. With the saturated look and sublime upbeat retro musical score, and made for VHS feel, this seemed like a film lost out of time. A retro throwback to practical effects heavy horrors of the 1980s and before. Most notably, as mentioned in my prologue, this reminded me of The Evil Dead. The film features many moments where the unseen horror is shown in first person perspective rushing around the barn and the surrounding area. Completely its own thing, this nonetheless shares similarities, such as individual members of the group getting possessed by the evil and coming back as out of control psychotic zombie type creatures. There isn't much effort put into fleshing out the characters, they seem as wafer thin as their personalities suggest, the boys mostly over the top goofy and playful, the girls not much better. Their dynamic worked well, making the scenes of them partying work well, while making it clear that Josie, and the more introverted Simon (Simon Paris) are the only real rational ones. Of course, none of the cast actually look like they are in their teenage years, but this fits the style of this type of retro film, where cast members often looked far older than they were supposed to be.
There is backstory vaguely suggested for why the barn is haunted, but this is never explained in detail, with the briefest allusions from Josie that every family has their secrets, and that hers had more than most.

The horror flows thick and fast, and there is plenty of blood throughout, and fun practical effects. The evil mostly manifests by endless coils of possessed rope, which again, reminded me of the twisting vines from The Evil Dead (a character even meets their end in a gender swapped recreation of the infamous 'tree rape' scene from that other classic!). This is all shown by great practical effects, which always looked fantastic. From early scenes of character's clothes being sucked into the ground, to twisting ropes and ghostly bloody figures, this never skimped on the craziness. There are a lot of fun ideas here, and my only real complaint would be that the third act becomes a bit abstract and hard to follow due to the sheer insanity of the unfolding chaos. Scenes become bathed in thick red light, and locations become fluid and surreal, such as when a character gets pulled into a chest and emerges into a small red room where he is attacked by an assailant wearing farmer's clothes. When characters become possessed, they have the same white/grey waxy look from Evil Dead, and act in a similar murderous manner. The biggest difference being how weak the possessed become, taking lethal injuries that wouldn't have done much harm to a normal person. There are decapitations, partial decapitations, people dancing on ceilings, and leaping out of windows. It all looks absolutely manic and animated, and fits the hallucinogenic vibe of the film very well.

By recreating the feel of an eighties classic, Blood Barn succeeds with its wild story and practical effects, but also felt a little style over substance. Don't come here expecting well developed characters and a satisfying plot, but do come for some wonderful looking and absolutely chaotic scenes of comedically dark horror, with a healthy dose of blood thrown in. This all combines to make a wonderfully manic horror that doesn't waste a moment of its lean 76 minute runtime. Blood Barn had its L.A premiere on Friday 13th, and streams exclusively on SCREAMBOX, starting 17th February.

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We Put the World to Sleep (2025) - Thriller Film Review

Be My Cat: A Film for Anne is one of the few films I have reviewed on my site where my opinion has changed over time. The found footage, that starred Romanian filmmaker Adrian Tofei as a fictional version of himself came at the tail end of a shift in found footage horrors where the antagonist became the leading character in the film. Other examples that spring to mind being Creep and A Guidebook to Killing Your Ex. The strength of these movies relies on the believability of the central character, and with Be My Cat, you had a mesmerising performance from Tofei. His latest film - We Put the World to Sleep has been a long time coming, with ten years of production that included four years of editing the hundreds of hours of footage into a cohesive feature length whole. This spiritual successor is a very very weird film, unsure at first, I came to love the dedication and bizarre direction this went in.
I try to avoid spoilers as standard, but with the director requesting not to spoil anything about the story, for this review, I will try to be even more careful than usual.

The 80 minute mockumentary begins as one thing and alters course, with a distinctly different second chapter that is referenced in teasers for the film. The film's title - We Put the World to Sleep, refers to central protagonists - Adrian Tofei (again playing a fictional version of himself) and his real life wife - Duru Yücel (Dura Yücel also playing a fictional version of herself) coming to believe that humanity would be better off if it didn't exist. Initially they planned to make a found footage type mockumentary about this, but then use the film as a pretext for actually bringing about the end of the world. That is the start of a meta and very convoluted descent into the rabbit hole, where the viewer is made to feel ever unsure what is real and what is part of the illusion.

Even more so than Be My Cat, We Put the World to Sleep adheres deeply to making the protagonists feel like real people, rather than actors. Both give performances that never once feel like the fake onscreen personas are fabricated, going at lengths to give this a feel of reality, such as scenes shot in actual locations like busy streets and airports around an unsuspecting cast of real background characters going about their real lives. This is a really weird film to talk about, with the characters within the mockumentary making a mockumentary, the actors blurring the lines between reality and fiction in an increasing brain hurting way. The first half was a different beast to part two, and sees the two heading to a variety of locations, from Romania, to Ukraine and Türkiye. Their story of trying to find a way to end the world was a bit hard to follow with its exploration of future tech and A.I, but that is just a slight part of it. Keeping to the imitation of reality, Tofei's previous horror is directly mentioned at various points, with him even returning to filming locations from that modern horror along the way. 
The second half of the film dials down the adventure, giving a different feel with a singular location, that revolves around a fascination with real life serial killer - Richard Ramirez. This second part feels disconnected in terms of the story telling to the first, but the themes of getting lost within characters, and the blurring of reality and fiction both resonate well with each other.

Going into this expecting a rehash of Be My Cat may leave you disappointed, as the horror here, if it could be called that, is far more slight. This isn't suggested to be found footage, instead, as frequent screens of text suggest, this is a mockumentary about the in-film characters trying to put together a movie. The two leads stay in character throughout and present a far more balanced and normal feel to them than the over the top unaware madness of Tofei in his first film. It is far more talky here, with a large amount of the movie being conversations between Tofei and his wife, including scenes of them just living together, with relatable drama. There are a handful of other roles, some of which are people the couple are talking to on their laptop. Of the technological side, that is another meta part of the film, with it opening as if an unseen person is finding the movie on a laptop and manually playing it, at times the film paused while the unseen person searches the internet for more information on things discussed. All very meta and all very convoluted in a way that I found increasingly fascinating.

We Put the World to Sleep is a very hard film to talk about. It stretches the idea of found footage and mockumentaries to its extreme, delighting with its ideas presented, while keeping a humorous tone that had me smiling with the absurd but not cringe inducing situations. At the start of this I feared it wasn't going to be for me. By film's end I felt like I had seen something special, albeit, something that might not have the same wide reaching appeal of the more simple first film in this thematically connected trilogy (Pure being the third film). Tofei was the standout star first time around, here, both Tofei and Yücel jointly share the limelight, impressive stuff. We Put the World to Sleep won a variety of awards last year, and this year comes more festival appearances, with the European premiere of the film happening at the Romford Horror Festival in London on February 20th.

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The Rotting Zombie's News Anthology for Thursday 12th February 2026

The second news post of the day I am writing (at time of typing). I found that using one day to watch the films, and the second day to write the news posts has worked out much better than trying to do bits every day. I had intended to watch 28 Years Later: The Bone Temple last Tuesday, but now that is scheduled for today, so fingers crossed I get to see it before it leaves the cinema! Onwards to the news.

As an exclusive world premiere, FOUND TV is going to be debuting Human Hibachi 3: The Last Supper on Friday, February 20th. Once again directed by Mario Cerrito, this latest instalment follows a man who forms a cult, and leads his followers to a ritualized 'last supper' where human flesh is no doubt consumed once again. Once mor in the found footage style, this third entry intends to '...blend(s) psychological horror with themes of religious extremism'. Back in 2023, I reviewed Human Hibachi 2: Feast in the Forest, giving it a respectable 6/10 and saying "...the characters mainly were decent enough, found footage horror films shown from the perspective of the antagonists isn't a new idea, but it does make for entertaining movies". More info for the third film can be found here.

Keeping on the queasy subject of cannibalism; Continuance has been released on Digital platforms worldwide (including to rent/buy on Amazon Prime Video) thanks to VIPCO & BayView Entertainment. Written and directed by Tony Olmos (Hemet, or the Landlady Don't Drink Tea), and starring Tony Gorodeckas, Noor Razooky and Teresa Suarez Grosso -  this tells the story of a cannibalistic serial killer, his wife, and their housekeeper who want to hide from society before an inevitable economic crash, but first need to do one last supply run. 

Finally for today, Italian horror; Through the Deepening Night has also been released on Digital platfroms via BayView Entertainment. Coming from award-winning director Davide Montecchi, this one is about a young woman who rents a remote house, and is then given a method for communicating with the dead from a mysterious woman. Things don't go well and the young woman finds herself in a battle for survival.