Weapons (2025) - Horror Film Review

The second I saw a brief teaser trailer for the Zach Cregger (Barbarian) written and directed horror film Weapons, I knew I had to see it, it just looked so intriguing. Then I saw that my favourite zombie author David Moody (the Autumn series) had written a post recommending it. Even that didn't seal the deal, finally, it was my best friend saying that I needed to make more of an effort to see more popular horror films, that had me suggesting we go to the cinema. This is one of those films were I will have to dance around the general plot a bit, as the mystery was what so drew me to this in the first place.

Early one morning in a quiet American town, seventeen children inexplicably all suddenly leave their homes and run off into the night at the exact same time; 02:17. Despite a desperate search by the authorities in the coming days and weeks, no trace of these children are found, they appear to have vanished into thin air. It turns out the children were all from the exact same school class and that the only student who didn't vanish was quiet Alex (Cary Christopher). Despite being interviewed extensively, Alex is unable to give an explanation why the rest of his class all ran away from their homes. This has also caused a problem for their teacher, Justine (Julia Garner - Ozark TV show), with the parents angry and wanting answers, they have taken to blaming the teacher, convinced that she must have had something to do with what happened. Archer (Josh Brolin - Avengers: Endgame, Deadpool 2) is one such parent, more driven than most to find out what happened. After some strange events, Archer teams up with Justine, both determined to try and solve this baffling mystery.

I had heard that this played out a little differently to a single straight plot line, and in my head I figured this might even turn out to be a mockumentary in the vein of something like Lake Mungo. That didn't turn out to be the case but it still did something that I love in shows and films. The same stretch of a couple of days is shown from the perspective of several different characters. These characters each have a title card for their part of the film, and their storylines overlap with other key characters in neat ways. I guess technically you could argue Justine or Archer are the protagonists, but over the two hour film I would estimate they get around a third of the overall runtime. Other key characters include cop Paul (Alden Ehrenreich - Oppenheimer, Solo: A Star Wars Story), junkie James (Austin Abrams - Scary Stories to Tell in the Dark, The Walking Dead TV show), school headmaster, Marcus (Benedict Wong - Annihilation, Doctor Strange) and of course the young Alex. I really enjoyed this way of showing the film, with each of the anthology type segments ending on a cliff-hanger that makes you desperate to return to the individual stories.

Being rated eighteen, I expected there might be some moments of strong horror. There is a smallish body count, but each of the deaths are really quite violent and gnarly. From a car accident that has crushed the victim's head into paste, to people being torn limb from limb, there are some gross scenes that were a delight to see. Special effects throughout were good, adding to the bizarre film. Starting with a prologue (narrated by a character who doesn't even appear to be in the film outside of her opening and closing narration), the weird way the children all ran away with their arms out at their sides like aeroplanes was so interesting to see. The mystery is explained as best as it can be, and this turned into a different type of horror film to what I had figured it might be. While not scary, this has some freaky moments, typically involving a grotesque ginger haired woman appearing in the most unlikely of places.
Creggar has stated this was a kind of analogy for children with alcoholic parents, writing from personal experience of how scary and alien it can be to return to a home were the caregivers cannot be trusted. It leads to some very unsettling sequences involving screaming manic figures. Rather than getting more scary, the finale actually became quite cathartic, with me and plenty of other cinema goers laughing at the mayhem that unfolds in a satisfying fashion.

I enjoyed Weapons. I liked the parallel overlapping stories going on, and the make-up effects were impressive. I also liked how a story was made out of such a bizarre start, even if it never quite lived up to the lofty expectations I had built up in my head. Sometimes a little slow, Weapons nonetheless felt wholly original, and something that I think will remain quite memorable.

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The Rotting Zombie's Round-Up of Horror News for August 2025

I still cannot get over how quickly this year is going by. Each work week flies by in such a flash that it feels my life is spinning towards oblivion, day bleeding into day ever quicker. With that out the way, we are heading towards the end of a long and frequently hot summer, and onwards to the news.

The official trailer for horror The Boatyard has been released. The film is about five college students get stranded out at sea after the boat they had been partying on all day breaks down. They are rescued by a stranger (Mike Ferguson) who offers to take them to his boatyard, but he may have violence on his mind. This comes to streaming services in the UK starting 22nd September.

On September 30th, Blue Underground release British cannibal classic Raw Meat (also known as Death Line) in a brand-new 4K restoration from the original uncensored camera negative. I remember seeing that film about fifteen years ago, have fond memories of it. The synopsis has Inspector Calhoun (Donald Pleasence - Halloween) and a detective investigating the disappearance of an unconscious man in the London Underground. They come across an urban legend about a group of workers who became trapped after a tunnel collapse during the construction of the Underground, and to survive resorted to cannibalism, with their descendants still living there. Special features on the 4K UHD + Blu-ray film includes an audio commentary from co-writer/director Gary Sherman, producer Paul Maslansky, and assistant director Lewis More O'Ferrall, as well as a new audio commentary from film historians Nathaniel Thompson and Troy Howarth. Alongside plenty of other extras.

The Arrow Video US release schedule for September 2025 includes both Hellbender and Creepshow 2. Hellbender is a heavy metal supernatural horror that comes from John and Zelda Adams and Toby Poser. It follows teenager Izzy (Zelda Adams), someone who lives a simple life in a remote woodland home with her mother (Toby Poser). After meeting a new girl, Izzy learns something unsettling about her family history. The limited edition Blu-ray is due for release on September 16th and includes a variety of special features including a brand new audio commentary and video essay, music videos, a short film, and an illustrated collector's booklet. Creepshow 2 is released on September 30th in a brand new 4k restoration from the original negative. This classic anthology features three stories of terror, and the 4K release promises hours of special features.

Analog horror - The McKinney Family Home Videos Volume 2 premieres exclusively on streaming service FOUND TV on September 5th. The first film in the series arrived on the service in late 2024, and this sequel expands on the mythos built up previously by presenting a newly discovered tap that sheds more light on the workings of the Church of the Holy Mother.

Deathstalker Productions has teamed up with Vista Street Entertainment and Sterling Entertainment to produce Witchcraft XVIII, the latest entry in the long running direct to video supernatural horror series. Starting in 1988, this features warlock William Spanner in his never ending battle against his cursed bloodline to protect the innocent. The script for the movie is currently in development, with a crowdfunding campaign launching soon.

There was supposed to be more to this months news round-up but I forgot to actually finish writing this post, so professional. Now to find an image to use for the cover. See you next month!

Blood Red Beach (2025) - Comedy Horror Film Review

Blood Red Beach is the twenty third feature film from Mad Angel Films and is indie comedy horror at its finest. Obviously not the highest budget, but its enthusiastic cast combined to make watching this a blast. This was directed by Matthew A. Peters (Graveyard Shark, Big Brood) and written by Mark Joseph Peek (Axegrinder 666).

Three hundred years ago, a pirate named Captain Roderick Cross (Peek) was cursed by his former lover when him and his crew were burning her for witchcraft on a small deserted island. The curse killed his crew, and then the pirate was told that he was cursed to become a ghost for eternity, doomed to forever roam the island he was on. He was told that the only way to break this curse was to find every piece of his pirate's gold, but before dying, the witch told Roderick that she had hidden that away where he would never find it.
In present day, a group of friends have been invited to the new island based home of their eccentric rich friend; Preston (Berndale March - Graveyard Shark, Romeo 3000). The friends, who include among them Ruby (Stephanie Ward - Graveyard Shark, Big Brood), Kip (Graveyard Shark, Brackish), Austin (Jesse Wakeman (Summer of the Wolf), and his girlfriend Britt (Graveyard Shark) have a small party down at the beach at night. Preston introduces a strange woman; Cara Fey (Big Brood), she gives each of the friends a gold coin and then tells them about the legend of the cursed ghost pirate. Preston then tells the group that the next day he was arranged a treasure hunt for his friends. Split into groups and following clues, the friends are tasked with finding a chest full of gold that has been hidden somewhere on the island. After most the friends have gone to bed, the strange woman returns to the beach, where she performs a ritual that resurrects Captain Roderick Cross spirit into a zombie form, and tells him how to finally locate all the gold pieces of his missing treasure.

To begin with, when the prologue started, I was a bit concerned about the generic pirate accents and the predictable and well trodden dialogue. That concern lasted for all of about thirty seconds as I quickly realised this was all intentional. That then applies to the rest of the dialogue over the course of the eighty five minute comedy horror. Frequently cheesy and melodramatic, but said enthusiastically from a cast who appear to be having a blast. Best of all was March, he was the highlight of Graveyard Shark, and again his manic over the top character he played became a sublime highlight. His over exaggerated hand movements, the over emphasis he puts on his lines, it was just all so hilariously perfect. Peek was another highlight, it is always good to have a strong antagonist, and while a single pirate wandering around singing pirate shanties and attacking the friends doesn't sound like much, Peek brought to him a strange likeability, and gave the pirate his own twisted sort of code. Rather than being a wholly slasher type character, this bad guy is often as likely to leave his victims alive than to kill them. For him, the only reason he is after the group is to retrieve his coins that each of them holds. This creates some interesting scenes where you can't be sure that just by meeting the antagonist people will die for certain.
I found almost all the characters to be enjoyable to follow, from the token stoner, to Ruby and Kip. They all seemed a part of the film world and bounced off each other well. I wasn't so keen on the two couples within the group, but they still had some decent moments.

The death scenes were fun on the whole even if the special effects didn't look super realistic, but again, this fitted the light hearted vibe that saw survivors not really that bothered about the friends they lost. A throat slash, severed limb, and a death from a cliff were all neat looking, giving a bit of variation. The island setting might not have wowed, but it worked for the pirate theme. In terms of the story, this was as basic as they come, mainly a low budget homage to The Pirates of the Caribbean. It served its purpose but there were not many surprises to be found.

Blood Red Beach doesn't take its acting seriously, but that it is due to the remit being to be larger than life characters, so it works. I guess its indie look could also put some people off. In a world as frequently bleak as it seems at the moment, I found this was a great way to be whisked off to some goofy horror world for an hour or so, escapism at its indie finest. Not perfect by any means, but the fun was higher than the faults for me. Blood Red Beach is out now on Blu-Ray, DVD, VHS, and also as a limited collector's box set exclusively through Mad Angel Films website (here).

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Swamps of Sadness (2025) by Feu Follet - Music Album Review

Feu Follet is a French darkwave/synthwave project that began in 2019 with debut album Le Champ des morts. Originally instrumental, vocals were introduced with 2021's Beneath the Earth, and that has continued with latest album Swamps of Sadness. The album is comprised of nine tracks, featuring five different guest vocalists.

It begins with possibly my favourite track on the album, '21st Century Rats' that features the ever reliable Berlin based Vlimmer on vocals. This was a great start with a rocking track that is a statement of intent for Feu Follet's 1980's style sound. I loved the mix of electronic sounds giving the track a slight feel of music for a montage sequence in a film. Vlimmer returns once more for track six, 'Lemaire', another track with a good sound, and a neat meshing of vocals and layered music. Of the other four guest vocalists I was not familiar. Second track 'Claire's Vision' has a spy-like feel to it, with Pierre Bastien's voice adding to the once again great sounding music. Isabelle B. Baumann lends her voice to third track 'Alice' and penultimate track 'No Destiny'. The former is a dramatic track with a mournful feel, while the later begins almost industrial in sound. I don't know if it was just me (I do have bad hearing), but it felt slightly like the vocals were a little too quiet for the music playing here.

Fourth track introduces Thomas Schernikau, 'Dreams' bringing the pace down for a slower more dreamy sound, he returns once more for seventh track 'No Sorrow'. Sometimes the tracks felt like they would have worked better without vocals, and for some reason that second one fits that bill. Sometimes the music is so good here that the vocals (regardless of their quality) detracts ever so slightly from the sound.
This leaves just two tracks more to mention, both featuring Pat Aubier on vocals. 'Ashes in the Frost' has a trippy electronic sound to its start, the deep voice sometimes reminding me of Till Lindemann from Rammstein, though more stripped back. Pat also lends his vocals to album closer 'Return of the Sun'. This track had a jam session type feel to it, and reminded me of various gigs I have been to when the band go all out for the finish.

I ended up listening to Swamps of Sadness a good five or six times. The music itself in particular always impressed, but as mentioned, sometimes I was enjoying the sound more than the singing, and the tracks towards the end did have a slight similar feel to them. As always, I understand both this isn't horror related, nor do I have a clue what I am talking about. I do like eighties sounding music, and Feu Follet's latest melancholic album is another that I wouldn't skip if it came on during random play. Swamps of Sadness was released on 18th July.

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Night of Violence (2025) - Horror Film Review

Night of Violence is the feature length directorial debut of Illya Konstantin (The Void), who also co-wrote this alongside Christopher Lang. This indie horror was an enjoyable romp, but I will say that it isn't wholly original, as office based horrors are hardly a unique thing (such as Botched and Shredders). 

After winning a potentially devastating lawsuit, a shady pharmaceutical company decides to hold an office party at its New York based offices for its hard working employees. Joining the event are a group of catering staff, but they have ulterior motives; donning masks, they arm themselves with weapons and begin to butcher the workers. Mild mannered Eliott (Kit Lang), best friend; jokester Rudy (Vince Benvenuto - Daredevil TV show), kindly Janelle (Abria Jackson), and coked up Rudy (Russ Russo - 10,000 A.D: The Legend of a Black Pearl) manage to survive the initial assault and begin to look for a way to escape the building. They come to realise that it may be that the only way for them to survive is to fight back against the intruders.

This had a bit of a tonally confusing start. After a lovely little prologue that shows a masked man dragging a corpse across an office floor, the film switches gears for an over the top, almost cartoonish advert from the fake pharmaceutical company, advertising a new drug that includes some extreme side effects. This made me think for the longest time that Night of Violence was going to be a comedy horror, but weirdly, this outlandish advert is the only dedicated dive into humour. The protagonists are full of black humorous dialogue, but everything that occurs is more grounded (as grounded as you can be in a horror film like this). With that abrasive advert out the way, it settles into a traditional story of office block horror. Mainly this involves the survivors bumbling around the office block looking for an exit. They travel down various identical looking corridors, attempt to leave via the entrance, head to the rooftop, head to the basement, all while being hunted by the handful of attackers. The plot has the villains being somewhat justified, at least from their perspective, but for the most part these people remain silent, a lot of their justifications theorised by Eliott who has a bit of a suspicion that the company he works for isn't the most noble. That was about it for the story, the characters attempts at escaping making up the main plot for the film.

The initial massacre scene was lovely to watch, a montage of masked people hacking their victims into bloody chunks. Armed with swords, axes and knives, these silent maniacs were vaguely threatening, but I would say the low number of around five of them didn't make for a super strong feeling of peril. Nor did the fact that only one of these people was carrying a gun, though bizarrely, there were more hand grenades than guns. In such a large building it did feel a bit contrived that the masked assailants were constantly bumping into the hapless survivors. Also contrived were the mobile phones not being able to get a signal for some reason, and that there was no outside assistance to be found, despite a large explosion early into the assault. Special effects weren't bad on the whole, a couple of CG effects that looked a little bit obvious, but there were some decent scenes of bloodshed to be found here.
I enjoyed the eighties sounding somewhat cheesy soundtrack, it fitted the film well, and I also appreciated an additional mid-credit sequence that attempts to link this office attack to a larger battle going on.

Night of Violence was inoffensive. Obviously an indie horror, this might not have had many surprises, but the film was created competently. It might have been a bit mindless, but I enjoyed my time with this. The core motivations of the antagonists could have been better explained, and there should have been more of them, but this was a decent enough way to pass eighty five minutes. Night of Violence had its world premiere at FrightFest on 21st August in London.

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The Quiet Ones (2025) - Thriller Film Review

The Quiet Ones, directed and written by Nicholas Winter (The Imposters, House of Shadows), bills itself as a thriller but for much of its run time that isn't completely the case. It does eventually get around to doing what it says, and at least in the run up, the film has style in spades.

After the death of her father, Charlotte (Kelsey Cooke - The Sandman TV show) intends to move into his Spanish holiday villa. It is while she is there recuperating from an ankle injury that her sister; Alba (Alicia Grace Turrell - The Garfield Movie) visits with the news that their father was in a lot of debt, and that unless she can raise a couple hundred thousand pounds within three weeks, Charlotte will lose the villa. Looking for ways to get the cash in such a short amount of time, she ends up looking at online cam-girl videos, and decides to send one of the girls a message; seductive Danni (Sophie Ablett - House of the Dragon and Doctor Who TV shows). The two strike up a rapport, and Danni offers her a business proposition to make some cam-girl videos together. Travelling to the villa, she promises Charlotte that she can earn a lot of money for not having to do a lot. To increase her chances of getting the required money for the villa in such a short span of time,  Danni invites more people, competitive Brylee (Isadora Leiva - It Needs Eyes), former Russian mob call girl Fabienne (Alina Tamara - War Blade), and clumsy but eager Violet (Sofia Shallai - Evil Eyes). Danni and Brylee make a wager, whoever makes more money with their videos within two weeks will get to stay at the villa with Charlotte, while the other one will have to leave. This seems to be a win-win for Charlotte as she is promised that all the earnings for the next two weeks will go to her, but the competition between the two soon turns tense.

A lot of the movie wasn't really for me, but one thing I did love was the stylistic choice to have key moments represented by retro looking pixelated video game images. As an example; whenever a new character is introduced this is represented by a pixelated character select screen. There is also a slight comic book vibe, with key information displayed on screen with bright and vibrant text. This fitted the world well, and made the less interesting scenes more full of life. 
The movie started on an interesting note; Charlotte waking up handcuffed to an either dead or unconscious person. While there were some more thrilling moments throughout the film, it was with twenty minutes left in the eighty six minute movie that this finally changed gears. Much of the film leading up to this is the contest the girls have decided to have. Mostly all light hearted stuff, it features plenty of tame montages of the girls doing their cam-girl stuff, mainly dancing for the camera.

The final twenty minutes were enjoyable, I liked how things went in a slightly different direction to what I expected. The lead up to this was sometimes slow going. The stylish presentation saved this for me, but aside from one gloriously violent scene that unfortunately turned out to be a dream sequence, this was just a bunch of young woman bickering, doing drugs, and making videos together.  Due to this there wasn't much call for anything but subtle special effects, I thought the make-up for blood and cuts looked decent: this zombie is always a fan of the blood.
The story wasn't a topic that really interested me so through no fault of its own it left me cold for much of the runtime. Style alone kept pulling me along, and I appreciated the little dose of thrills given at the end.

I spent much of The Quiet Ones wondering just when the thrill part of this thriller would kick in. I admit that at some point during the film I did pause it to check IMDB that this actually was meant to be from that genre. The film looked the part with its attractive stylistic presentation for the viewers benefit, but the meat of the story didn't grip me very much. Maybe due to my age, but social media stars are something that I don't really get, so the main topic here wasn't one that could engage me. The Quiet Ones released on 5th August from The Horror Collective.

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The Rotting Zombie's News Anthology for Thursday 21st August 2025

I really can't get over how quickly time is passing this Summer. It feels like only yesterday it was the start of another work week, and here I find myself back at the weekend and doing another weeks worth of blog posts (at the time of typing). Onwards to the news.

The Justin Sulham directed Nashville creature feature, Big Bad Betty has been acquired by Screamify for worldwide rights. Originally envisioned as a sasquatch story and then a werewolf story, the film instead features an original creation. The story sees a young woman and her friends encountering an unknown creature while restoring her late grandfather's old ranch. Big Bad Betty will premiere later this year as a Screamify Original.

I admit I only include this next news piece due to the fantastic cover art, but electronic metal band The Browning have recently announced the release of new album; Omni (Ultra). This features the original ten tracks from Omni, plus recent singles including the cover of 'Blue (Da Be Dee)' and 'Overlord', and new remixes from Biohex, Jonny McBee, Kaixo, Kodeseven, Darksiderz, Machinyst, and Zardonic. Omni (Ultra) is due to be released on August 27th from FiXT.

Finally for today, a new teaser has been released for Illya Konstantin's horror film Night of Violence. The celebration of a legal victory for a corporation who recently launched a controversial drug is interrupted by masked brutes disguised as caterers. Trapped in their office block, a handful of employees must fight back against their aggressors to survive. Night of Violence has its world premiere at London's FrightFest 2025 on Thursday 21st August at the ODEON Luxe Leicester Square.

Brute 1976 (2025) - Horror Film Review

Marcel Walz's (Jurassic Reborn, Garden of Eden) Brute 1976 pays obvious homage to films like The Texas Chainsaw Massacre and The Hills Have Eyes with its tale of a desert based cannibalistic family, but it is wise enough to not try and hide this, with Chainsaw Massacre in particular being referenced early on (it exists as a film within this movie world). After a slow first half, things really improved, and was often ready to throw expectations on their head.

Unsurprisingly set in 1976, this follows the models and crew of a photo shoot who have headed out to the desert to take some shots for a magazine cover. They stumble across a ghost town and decide to have a look around, photographer Jordy (Adam Bucci - Garden of Eden) in particular inspired by the strange looking location. They soon encounter a mysterious woman who introduces herself as Mama Birdy (Dazelle Yvette - Garden of Eden), she tells the group that she owns the place, and is happy for them to look around as long as they stay on this side of the road. It turns out that Mama is the matriarch of a family of masked maniacs, and that they don't intend for any of the people to leave alive.

The film is almost exactly split down the middle in terms of the pacing. The first fifty or so minutes is an overlong set-up that introduces the cast both on the protagonist and antagonist side. Aside from a side plot featuring Raquel (Gigi Gustin - Garden of Eden, The Retaliators); a character captured during Brute 1976's prologue, this part remains mostly light on horror. The protagonist cast are decent enough, with some who stood out more than others. Roxy (Adriane McLean - Khameleon) is set up to be the main character, with her given slightly more backstory than the others. A few had so little to them that they didn't make too much of an impression, but nor where they off-putting or unlikeable. The location looked great on camera, and it helped at least make this first half enjoyable to watch.

The second half is where things begin to pick up. There is no secret this has been inspired by the classics, Zeus (Andreas Robens) may as well be called Leatherface with his silence, hulking frame, and fondness for a chainsaw, though the character has been split, with another of the crazies being the one who wears masks made of human flesh. There were a decent spread of antagonists but they did sometimes feel a bit random, seeming to be a mix of both the hillbilly stereotype and more surprising characters. I did like this change, how without masks some of these crazies would be able to legitimately pass themselves off as normal. Mama Birdy maybe a prime example. Sure, she was obviously creepy, but she wasn't the wild, over the top psychotic caricature you might expect.

So, cast and locations were both good, even if the first half was a little slow. The weakest part for me however were the kill scenes. There was a lot of blood, and there was a lot of violence, but there were also a whole bunch of lacklustre kills that didn't meet the potential. A whole bunch of characters are killed slightly off-screen, or partially off screen, and a bunch more are killed on-screen, but in an underwhelming and swift manner. For every decapitation and drilled penis(!) there are solitary stab wounds and kills so swift I didn't really see what happened. There were some entertaining death sequences, but this were interspersed with dull ones. For all the blood that sometimes is shown, there wasn't a lot of violence on characters shown in any kind of details.

Brute 1976 wears its inspirations on its sleeve, and it benefits from not trying to pretend it is something wholly original. I liked the general story, had some interesting parts to it later on, I thought the characters were mostly decent, and despite a slow first half the film wasn't boring. I did think there was some lost potential with some of the more tamer kill scenes, but this still had a few good ones. Brute 1976 has a limited theatrical release and is due to arrive on VOD from Cinephobia Releasing on September 30th, and I was also happy to see a sequel titled Brute 1986 is currently in the works.

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Atomfall (2025) - Post Apocalyptic Video Game Review (X-Box Series X)

Post-apocalyptic adventurer Atomfall has been described as an English Fallout video game. Both due to the setting and that comparison, I was excited to try the game, and so it was great to see it head to Xbox Game Pass. When the game first came out I played it for around forty five minutes, got to the village area and then left never to return to that particular playthrough. About a month back I retried it and this time it all clicked. I enjoyed this enough that despite not owning it, I purchased the first DLC for the game; 'Wicked Isle'. I will include that DLC within this review rather than doing a separate review for it.

The game takes place within an alternate timeline in which the very real fire in 1957 at the Windscale nuclear power plant (Britain's worst nuclear accident), resulted in a quarantine zone being set up around the plant. No one was allowed in or out of the quarantine zone, so everyone living in the area now find themselves cut off from the rest of the country, both due to being sealed in, but also due to the disaster causing a strange electromagnetic field that prevents messages getting in or out of the area. The army were called in, but too found themselves trapped within the quarantine zone, and now brutally enforce the areas they control, calling themselves 'Protocol'. Outside their area of influence, bandit groups arose, as well as a strange druid like cult who worship the land.
Five years after the disaster and quarantine was enacted, your player character awakens in a bunker within the zone with no memory of how they came to be there. An injured scientist in a hazmat suit trades your assistance for a special key card, they tell you that a secret facility known as the 'Interchange' is the key to escaping.

Atomfall is a first person adventure game that has light elements of the survival genre to it. You don't need to manage food, water and sleep, but you are able to craft various items such as health, bombs, and temporary stat increases. There is also a skill tree that requires B.A.R.D (British Atomic Research Division) upgrades to advance through. Skills you can unlock aren't particularly exciting, but they are useful. Think traditional stuff like increased skills with melee and ranged weapons, and the ability to craft items faster. Combat is one of the weaker areas of the game, and for much of my time I avoided it. I don't think it was the intention, but I ran rather than fought a lot of enemies until later in the game when I was better armed. This led to me speed running through certain areas, such as the cultists base in Casterfell Woods, meaning I likely missed parts of the game, even if it made sense for my character. Weapons are limited and basic, and ammo is in short supply, but enemies can be dealt with. Human enemies can be dispatched easily enough, there are also ghoul like infected humans that come in various types. Going back on the Bioshock influence, there are giant robots who can be battled to take their power cores. I didn't once engage in combat with the robots as I didn't really see the point. Then there are the animals, very basic looking rats and eels (and crows in the DLC) who attack you in packs in a bit of a lame way.
It isn't all gunplay, you get a hacking device that allows you to turn off gun turrets and restore power to doors, and a metal detector which can be used to uncover buried items. Enemy A.I isn't that great, the enemies tend to swarm you rather than using any other type of tactics, but with combat being not essential this wasn't an issue.

Is this really an English Fallout? Yes and no. It shares elements of that series with others such as Bioshock, and even this years Avowed. Rather than open world, the game takes place within six large areas (seven if you also include the DLC island). Central is Wyndham village, my favourite place due to being a safe area controlled by Protocol. Skethermore is also Protocol controlled, while Slatten Dale is bandit controlled. Then there is Casterfell Woods where the cultists roam, and including the island from the DLC, you have Midsummer Island that contains both cultists and bandits (and takes a more supernatural bend rather than sci-fi to its story). That is all without mentioning the Interchange. There is no fast travel option available in Atomfall, so this requires you to be intelligent in completing missions and side quests, as it can take a good while to travel from one side of the game world to the other. The Interchange is essentially a second way of travelling around the game, this vast underground facility allows you to pop up in any of the games areas (excluding Midsummer Island). A key part of the game is removing the lockdown from the facility, feeding into the end game task of visiting Oberon. With the lack of fast travel I caused more than a few headaches for myself, arriving at my destination only to realise I had left a key item behind back in the storage container system at the Interchange. It did add to the immersion not fast travelling.

The world building is fantastic, and is one of the stronger elements of Atomfall, it feels like a living breathing world that tells a lot of story just with how items have been arranged, such as crashed copters and roadblocks. As amazing as the world building is, unfortunately the main story really sucks. Your goal is to simply escape the zone, and pretty much all the quests revolve around helping various people who reckon they can help you escape should you assist them. You don't need to complete these various tasks at all, the free form mission structure means you could just side with one character and follow their path to the end of the game. Wanting to get the most out of the game, I played all the quests up to the end points, but I couldn't shake the feeling it was a bit pointless in terms of story, only important to me for getting to see more of the fantastic world. Your player character is a huge missed opportunity, it takes the old school approach of a silent protagonist who seems to exist purely as a proxy for the player to be in the game world. Anyone expecting any sort of grand reveal of who this player character actually is, or how they came to be in the quarantine zone will be disappointed, I know I was. It's a shame with a world as well built as this that the protagonist is such a dull nothing. I brought the DLC as I heard it was more of the same. It naturally integrates its new area without feeling like it doesn't belong in the pre-existing world. It added an extra five hours onto my playthrough, so when the end credits rolled I was at twenty two hours. I admit, I had imagined the game would be a good sixty to seventy hours, but with a wafer thin story, and a sometimes samey feel to what you do, I appreciated the shorter runtime.
Another strange thing were the power cores. These are set-up as if they are the game's version of Bioshock's 'Adam', yet despite much being made of securing these rare power cores, there are far, far more of them than you would ever need. It felt like a wasted opportunity, I wish they had been required more, or even used as a means to get through your skill tree.

I loved Atomfall, I thought the way the player is giving control of how they get through the game to be wonderful, and the British setting was fantastic. I wish the story had been more involved, it is so basic here that it almost feels placeholder, like the developers forgot to put the actual story into the game. The lore and world building is really good, making me able to look past the sometimes janky combat, but the main plot was so barebones as to make me feel that I probably won't return for a second playthrough as there wasn't a single engaging story beat. Some of the side quests were fun and added to the world, but far too many of the main quest lines involved fetch quests that had a similar feel. Despite that, I thought Atomfall was a very good game, perhaps just missing out on being an essential play.

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What Lies Beneath (2000) - Horror Film Review

I try and visit my father once a week, so on Wednesday (at the time of typing) after a long, long day at work I went to his. Turned out he had brought some random films from a charity shop and asked if I wanted to watch any of them. Seeing one of them was a horror, I jumped at the chance, in my head, an ideal entry for next weeks film reviews. What Lies Beneath is a supernatural horror that for much of the runtime I was convinced I had once already seen. In fact, just writing that last sentence had me racing to my VHS collection to search through for it, that convinced that I had once long ago brought this. Directed by Robert Zemeckis (Forrest Gump, Back to the Future trilogy), this took a heck of a long time to get going, and had an increasingly obvious direction the story was going in. With my brain turned to mush after a long work day, I was happy for my eyes to glaze over and zone out to this mild ghost story featuring two big name actors.

Claire (Michelle Pfeiffer - Batman Returns, Scarface) has recently moved to the lakeside former home of the parents of her research scientist husband - Norman (Harrison Ford - Star Wars and Indiana Jones series of films). Obviously, being happily married, he has moved there with her, as well as their seldom seen dog Cooper. Norman has been busier than usual on a project at the University where he works, and so Claire has been left on her own and is feeling a little lost, even more so as her daughter has recently gone off to college. Odd occurrences start happening around the home, doors open on their own, a photo frame falls on the floor and shatters, and she sees a vision of what appears to be a young woman while investigating the bathtub which had inexplicably filled itself up. Claire increasingly becomes convinced the home is haunted, and she first suspects that it is the wife of her next door neighbour who she has become convinced was murdered by the husband. Norman meanwhile is getting ever more annoyed at Claire's antics, seeing her as being hysterical and getting in the way of his important work. Is Claire slowly going insane or is there something more supernatural at play?

My heart sank a little when I saw this was over two hours long, I had hoped for a shorter film to watch. Initial impressions were not good, nothing was happening. Time and time again it felt like something was on the cusp of occurring, but it never did. Slowly, much like the slow pace of the film, things begin to get more and more interesting. In the supernatural sense not so much. This may feature a ghost at the core of the story, but that part is used very sparsely. I didn't really mind, the times the ghost makes an appearance were well chosen. The lack of much paranormal activity may have been an issue if not for the red herrings going on. The first act has Claire barking up completely the wrong tree, but it was entertaining, and led to some amusing moments. I enjoyed the amount of characters that Claire interacts with, and while she might not be imagining the hauntings, she is hardly the epitome of balanced calmness, known to many around her as someone who gets a bit emotional about things.

Pfeiffer was a good lead, I enjoyed her character throughout the movie, even if there was some bad writing. The poor dog Cooper! He appears in literally about four scenes and really added nothing to the story. He may as not have been there as it became a bit distracting wondering where the family dog was for the majority of the film. Ford wasn't so much of a good character. Not really his fault, but Norman seems to have wild mood swings that make him a bit off putting, and Claire's meekness around him even when hidden secrets come out is a bit pathetic.
The story was predictable, I had worked out what was really going on a good thirty minutes before characters in the film work it out. It does lead to a thrilling finale though, I thought it had some good parts to it, especially the unique use of the bathtub as a weapon, a unique scene.

What Lies Beneath isn't something I would class as a classic. It is nostalgic due to the time it was made, the internet in the film is incredibly basic looking and no one has mobile phones (which would have solved a whole load of plot points if this had been made today). It was fun seeing two iconic actors, and in a horror film no less. The story really wasn't anything to write home about, but it was adequately satisfying to see play out. Well worth a watch if only for nostalgia, and can be a real slow burn at times, but overall, yeah, not bad. As a final word, I read that the director was inspired by Alfred Hitchcock's way of making films, I can really see that thinking back.

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Flesh of the Unforgiven (2024) - Horror Film Review

Flesh of the Unforgiven is an indie horror film that was directed and written by Joe Hollow who also stars. At its core there is a decent story I think, for whatever reason, I just could not follow what was going on in this. Not having the faintest idea what was happening didn't add to my enjoyment unfortunately. The synopsis will be based on what I believe the story might be.

Jack Russo (Hollow) and his wife, Sienna (Debbie Rochon - The Man in Room 6, Clinger) are going through a tough time. Three months previous, Sienna had cheated on Jack with his best friend, and while the couple have stayed together, it has caused many issues. Adding to Jack's stress is that he is a writer struggling with writer's block, and he is days away from the due date with nothing to show for it. Sienna starts to experience nightmares in which a masked man threatens her. Elsewhere, Jack receives a strange VHS tape in the post that promises to offer him inspiration for his writing, but which instead seems to show a man torturing a chained up woman.

I really struggled to follow the story and I'm well aware that was the intention. The movie has so many nightmare sequences that it is purposely hard to tell when one of these sequences starts and ends. You can be watching a scene thinking it's the real world before realising that no, it is a nightmare. I did like that part of the film. One thing you couldn't criticise Flesh of the Unforgiven for is lack of inventiveness, it has that in spades, there is constantly something new going on. I appreciated the many dream sequences, they were so sporadic that they felt like a mini-anthology within the film. The idea for the horror I think is that there is a demonic being known as the 'Death Dealer' who puts victims into deadly nightmares that they have to escape from to survive. There was a Freddy Krueger vibe to this part, though the antagonist figure of a masked man with a cartoonishly evil sounding voice didn't have the same impact as that legendary movie maniac.

The parts of the film that were likely taking place in the real world were also the most dull. Scenes set in a small bar, the unhappy couple bickering at home; none of this made me feel engaged with the characters. Both protagonists had huge faults that made it hard to care about either of them. I also wasn't a fan of the overly cheesy music. Likely an ode to the classic horror of the eighties, I found the tracks gave an almost comedic vibe to the scenes they appeared in. It wasn't all bad however, I did think the ending scene going into the end credits sequence was perfectly blended with an appropriate track, lovely stuff.
Obviously an indie horror, it sometimes felt hard to take scenes too seriously, parts of this I was wandering if it was purposefully over the top. It didn't help that some of the more digital special effects didn't really fit the film well.

Flesh of the Unforgiven had a lot of good ideas to it, and at times it brought an almost arthouse dream fugue type feel. The story I found too hard to follow, likely my own fault, but it still took me out of the experience when I was trying to work out what was going on and who all the random characters were. This sometimes veered too far into cheesiness, something that diluted a lot of the horror out of the scenes. There were certainly some great scenes to be found here at the very least.

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The Rotting Zombie's News Anthology for Thursday 14th August 2025

Writing this on a lazy Saturday afternoon, has been a nice day, and so to balance that, here is some horrific horror news for your perusal.

Tales From The Table is a horror anthology film that is available now on Digital Platforms from BayView Entertainment. From the press release it sounds like each story is based on an ordinary person stumbling into unsettling horror.

Sci-fi horror Somnium opens theatrically on August 29th in LA, September 6th in New York, and streaming on Digital HD from September 9th. The story sees a heart broken girl get a job at an experimental sleep clinic where patients are able to pick what they dream about. I said in my seven out of ten review back in June last year "I liked how the story was left up to viewers to decide on what was really going on, and I thought the character of Gemma was one who was very easy to root for".

Finally for today, Condemned Dreams is a philosophical horror thriller coming from director George Tsouris. It follows a disgraced journalist who gets involved with a story about a condemned transgender revolutionary. Sure it is more exciting than it sounds. The film stars Catherine Parish (Totem Chaser) and Soft Abilez (Dexter: Resurrection TV show). Condemned Dreams has premiere at the Cinema Village in New York City on Thursday September 4th.

Cover (2025) - Thriller Film Review

I really wanted to like the Cameron Francis starring, directed and written thriller Cover, his feature length directorial debut in fact. Early problems I had with the duel protagonists motives really got in my head and I ended up finding myself incapable of taking either of them seriously.

Trevor (Francis) is a travelling salesman who is on a cross country journey to go and sell some rare stamps known as 'covers'. Stopping in a diner for some lunch, he is disturbed by a young woman named Macy (Katherine Lozon in her film debut). She tells Francis that she is on the run from her abusive boyfriend, and begs the man for a ride. This begins an odd road trip in which two people, both suspicious and paranoid about the other, slowly start to get comfortable with each other's eccentricities. This, set to the backdrop of a mysterious car tailing the man.

Straight away I had a real issue with the main characters, both of which I both didn't like, and didn't trust. The way it creates a sense of paranoia that one of the two isn't being truthful was well done, it's just this mistrust stayed with me for the entire film. Even moments that are designed to be sentimental came across as fake and phony, and so that made the central 'buddy' style friendship fall flat. The characters dialogue and the way they said their lines felt grandiose and more wordy than they needed to be. The character of Trevor had a way of talking that often made me feel that Closer may be a comedy thriller, it always felt like he was playing to a crowd. Macy on the other hand was dodgy from the start. For someone apparently fleeing domestic abuse, Macy has a right attitude on her, and plenty of sass to boot.

Much of the film takes place out on the road, or at one of the various places the leads have stopped to rest, and for the first forty or fifty minutes things go along as expected. I did think the second act was a great idea, with events in the story rewound to show them playing out from a different perspective. As cool as that part was, there wasn't a smooth transition for key characters, so it made story beats feel very trite and forced. The thrills are relatively light here, but there was a fantastic looking late film death sequence, even if that follows into a bit of an abrupt and unsatisfying finish.

Cover was a film that just never hooked me. Due to the strange protagonists, I could never take anything they said seriously, which really affected my enjoyment of their journey. I spent most the film expecting twists and turns that never came to fruition. The story was fine, but there was just something a little missing here. Cover releases on August 26th via The Horror Collective.

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