The Rotting Zombie's News Anthology for Tuesday 18th March 2025

Happy Tuesday, without further ado, here is a trio of bloody news stories to tickle your proverbial fancies. This time starting with some music news. As an added note, you might notice this is my sole blog post of the week, that was down to me having a social life this past weekend, and then needing a day to recover my social battery.

Russian 'occult wave' duo Raven Said have revealed 'Desolation', the second single coming from their upcoming album. The press release states the track '...merges elements of goth rock and dark synth, creating a fusion of sensual and expressive energy'. 'Desolation' is available on all major streaming platforms including Spotify and Bandcamp.

A teaser trailer has been revealed for The Dark Domain: MVW Mickey VS Winnie. This versus horror film males use of the recent public domain unleashing of classic Disney characters. Taking place in Hell Forest (sounds like a lovely place), Steamboat Willie era Mickey (Daniel Wilkinson - Pitchfork) and Winnie-the-Pooh (Chris Boudreaux - Born a Champion) are reimagined as 'bloodthirsty killing machines'. Check out some still below.

Finally for today, Egerton Crescent Productions have announced that dark fantasy/horror film The Prince, the Sister, and the Serpent goes into production in the summer of 2026. The film follows the Greek Mythology of Cadmus, someone who was said to be the founder of Thebes. The story has the prince's bloodline being cursed by the Gods after attempting to rescue his sister from them.
The movie will be filming in the Mediterranean, with Omar Parker as director.

Renfield (2023) - Comedy Horror Film Review

It is one of those rare moments on my site where I am almost up to date with movie reviews. I was originally going to watch a different film today, but decided to instead invoke the 'own choice' clause. The film I decided to watch was Renfield, something I had wanted to see for a while, mainly due to it starring iconic actor Nicholas Cage (Willy's Wonderland, Mandy).

Narrated by Renfield (Nicholas Hoult - Mad Max: Fury Road, Warm Bodies), this tells the story about how Count Dracula's (Cage) familiar Renfield was able to escape his masters control and reclaim his life. Set in modern day in a crime filled city, Renfield, both with the help of a toxic dependency self help group and by witnessing the courage of police officer Rebecca (Awkwafina - Raya and the Last Dragon voicework, Jumanji: The Next Level), decides to stop working for the powerful vampire, and to try and live a normal life. Upon learning of this however, the count decides to team up with a violent crime family led by Bellafrancesca Lobo (Shoreh Aghdashloo - Ghostbusters: Afterlife) in order to punish humanity for Renfield's betrayal.

The style of the film reminded me a lot of Zombieland, both featuring a protagonist who narrates the film, while using select flashbacks that include the use of freezeframe. The comedy here is also ultraviolent, with torrents of blood being spilt during the handful of some very over the top action sequences. These sequences were loads of fun, featuring assailants being decapitated, and limbs ripped off in amusing ways. All these scenes are made possible due to the power that Renfield has, by eating bugs he is able to briefly assume some of the power that Dracula has, given him super strength and speed. For me, these moments were nearly the highlight of the whole movie. Dracula looked great on screen, using some lovely looking special effects of him turning into bats or mist, and the make-up effects used for him were always really good looking. Despite being a bit of an idiot he is shown as all powerful. The use of flashback sequences to show his past battles with vampire hunters was neat. I loved that the flashback to when Renfield and Dracula first met was done in a black and white style, and as if old movie footage was being used (turns out it actually was old footage, with Hoult and Cage digitally added to the scenes!).

The plot is relatively straight forward, but it told its story in an entertaining way while introducing a bunch of fun characters. I expected Cage would steal the film due to his weird acting style and I have to say he doesn't disappoint, his wild expressions and the perfect delivery of his lines draw attention to him constantly, I loved how much he seemed to relish being the Prince of Darkness, albeit, one who may be all powerful, but is also shown to be a bit of a petty bully to Renfield. Hoult was good in his role also, I assumed he would be as I don't recall a film of his where he hasn't shined. I was also pleased to see Ben Schwartz (Sonic the Hedgehog voicework, Parks and Recreation TV show) playing a large part as the son of the crime boss, bringing lots of silly manic energy and over confidence to the role. Awkwafina did a solid job as the co-protagonist, and had some funny lines, though she was overshadowed by the other stronger lead actors.

I expected to like Renfield, vampires may not be my favourite movie monster, but I do like them, especially Dracula himself (outside of his portrayal in that terrible Buffy the Vampire Slayer episode). With oddball Cage playing the role, there was no way he would disappoint. Outside of the casting choices and special effects there might not be too much here to bring you back for a return trip, but I did have a blast watching this. Renfield is currently streaming on Netflix.

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The Rotting Zombie's News Anthology for Thursday 13th March 2025

I am back with another round-up of three horror stories plucked from my mouldy news sack. Spring is here and is much appreciated, the persimmons may be not long for the stores, but cherries are on the way.

Lost Joy is a psychological suspense-thriller that is set for its digital debut for North American VOD platforms and DVD on March 18th. This follows a couple, Jane and Jon, who have headed to a remote woodland cabin in order to try and fix their struggling relationship. Further issues arise when Jane begins to experience strange sights and sounds, something Jon doesn't get himself. This is then further compounded when a stranger appears and claims to confirm the visions Jane has been having. This was directed by Jordan Laemmlen, who also co-wrote this alongside Winter Bassett, both of whom star in this alongside Vincent Catalina.

Director's Cut is a retro-style horror/slasher film that is also to come out on March 18th. Here, a Long Island punk band are lured to the woods by a mysterious director who has offered to shoot their first music video for free. After a night of heavy drinking, the director becomes increasingly unhinged, with him and his assistant's plan being to use the band members as unwitting stars in a snuff film. This was written and directed by Don Capria who stated the director character represents 'the evil in the music business'.

Finally for today, The Apex Predators Club currently has an Indiegogo campaign running. The synopsis sees a group of rich thrill seekers getting the chance to hunt actual monsters, but things soon begin to go wrong. Filming is set to start in June 2025 and will be coming from J.Horton (Craving) and the Mahal Empire. For more information check out the campaign page here.

Cold Road (2023) - Thriller Film Review

They say speaking to yourself is the first sign of madness, which is something I've never put much stock in as I frequently do that. With the idiotic protagonist of the Kelvin Redvers written and directed Cold Road I have been forced to reconsider my stance as the moronic lead doesn't shut up once over the hundred minute movie, despite spending 99% of that time pretty much all alone.

Tracey (Roseanne Supernault) is an indigenous Canadian who is driving down a long and empty road up in the remote Canadian North in order to pay her respects to her terminally ill mother back in her childhood town. She unwittingly attracts the attention of a semi truck driver (played by both Chad Cosgrsve - The Last of Us TV show stunt work, and C. Blake Evernden), one who has a psychotic hatred for the indigenous people. As she desperately tries to cover the vast distance in a car low on fuel, she is endlessly pursued by the faceless driver who seems intent on running her off the road whatever the cost.

I was immediately reminded of the Stephen Spielberg classic PG horror film Duel with this one, and the similarities are extremely noticeable. It even has a midpoint break where the protagonist ends up in a diner wondering which of the diners is the mad driver, the same as that film. The main difference here is the location. Duel was set out in the American deserts while this is the complete opposite, taking place in heavy snow.
Tracey made for an insufferable main character, someone who is constantly shown as being dumb and who keeps making the most stupid mistakes. My favourite error has to be her filling her car up with petrol. Rather than actually pay attention to the act, she leaves the petrol nozzle in her car and then walks off to have a phone call with sister Eve (Taylor Kinequon), with her back to the car as another driver sneaks up and fills his car up with her petrol nozzle. Rather than notice her car is only half filled, she sees the price and assumes it has filled up. It is then a long long time before she notices how little petrol she has! I don't know about other people, but I am constantly keeping an eye on my petrol gauge, especially during long journeys. It seemed so unbelievable, a fabricated plot device to try and ramp up the tension.
She makes so many stupid decisions over the course of the movie, not helped by how whiny the character is. An early phone call with her husband reveals he doesn't appear to like her, and then a call with her sister I got the exact same impression, couldn't say I blamed them. Then there is her equally stupid dog with the ridiculous name of 'Pretzel'. The whole chase begins because the dog decides to go and sit in the middle of the road when let out for a rest stop, which then causes it to nearly be hit by the lorry driver. Rather than own her mistake of not watching the dog, Tracey becomes infuriated that the lorry driver didn't slow down or stop completely. Real main character energy coming from this irritating woman. That isn't to say the actress wasn't good, she did as fine a job as possible, but you could hear in her voice the unnaturalness of constantly having to talk to herself. The dog seemed to be there to act as a reason for Tracey speaking aloud so much, but it didn't work, no one speaks to themself that much, I came to long for the few moments of silence.

The whole chase part was at least a bit better. The lorry, covered in dirt, and able to get up to unnatural speeds had an intimidating look to it. Sure it was no Road Train, but it had energy enough that it felt more like the antagonist than the faceless driver inside it. Cribbing from the Duel textbook, the driver's gloved hands or legs were occasionally glimpsed, but the man and his motives remained mostly a mystery. The prologue scene did set him up to be someone potentially targeting indigenous people though. Some of the chases were fun, some of the chase sequences were a bit stupid. Going back to the apparent low intelligence of the protagonist, at one point she disguises her car by covering it in snow and smashing the break lights, but forgets a huge blinking light that conveniently is the only part of the vehicle she forgets to cover!
The climatic finale to this I will admit was better than the cliff dive sequence in Duel, going along a similar path but one that I found far more satisfying!

Cold Road suffered the most because of its unlikeable and ditzy protagonist. Her endless complaining and droning on didn't make her someone easy to root for, while the many mistakes and bad calls she makes were infuriating to watch. It somewhat redeemed itself at the end, but there were just a few too many bad decisions made around the plot and pacing to really say this is something to recommend.

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The Legend EP (2025) by Aiming - Music EP Review

Another day and another ill informed and ignorant attempt to review a music EP, music of which I am in no place to be able to adequately review. Aiming is a York based trio who formed in late 2023, united by a love of shoegaze, post-punk and ambient music from multiple decades. The Legend EP is billed as kind of a concept album, with the press release stating the four tracks are about small town life and not fitting in. The titular 'Legend' refers to a guy in a small town who goes out on the weekend looking for trouble.

With that out the way, onwards to butchering this review. The four tracks play out over a comfortable seventeen minute runtime. To my ears they sounded like a chilled sound of summery fun. It may only just be getting to spring time, but this year I have taken more of a note of the seasons, and so anything that reminds me of the sun is a good thing. It starts with opening track 'Brainiac' that to me sounded like Ash. That band did two fantastic albums and so that was not a bad comparison for me. 'The Legend' follows and a quick look at the lyrics show it alludes to the description from my opening paragraph. This one gave me slight vibes to the earlier work of The Cooper Temple Clause, another band I used to really like. Penultimate track is 'At Sea' with its fast paced eighties style sound, finally ending with the dreamy sounding 'Docile'.

Are Aiming in anyway related to horror? No, of course not. It fills a gap in between movie reviews though, and music is subjective. Personally, while The Legend EP didn't blow me away, I did enjoy my few listens of it, good company to cleaning my house (as I seem to perpetually be doing).

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A Woman Scorned (2025) - Thriller Film Review

Watching the Rebecca J. Matthews and Michael Hoad co-directed thriller A Woman Scorned it occurred to me that if it had featured a male protagonist then I likely wouldn't have reviewed it on this blog. I'm not sure if that points to a subconscious sexism on my part, but there is something about a woman being the one in peril that makes it fit more into horror. The female revenge genre of thrillers is one that can sometimes be hard to watch, but seeing a person perceived to be weak getting justice on her abusers is always satisfying. There have been plenty of good examples over the years, from the lows of such films as Even Lambs Have Teeth to the giddy heights of Revenge and Julia. This particular one might not be perfect, but it was very entertaining and satisfying to watch.

American siblings Jas (Megan Purvis - Don't Knock Twice) and Laura (Hannah Pauley - Monsternado) have gone away to the English countryside for the weekend to catch up, with it insinuated that Jas had been through a difficult time with an abusive ex. While exploring the countryside they chance upon a group of men, led by Randy (Aaron-Jon North - The Nun II). These men try to strike up a conversation with the sisters, but being suspicious of them, and with the safety of having a river separating them, Laura dismisses them and they leave. Later that day, while Jas has gone to the shop to buy some alcohol, Randy and his men turn up at the remote house they are staying at and forces his way in, with his men in tow. It isn't clear exactly what his intentions had been, but due to Laura fighting back, Randy shoots her dead in anger. Jas arrives home to the tragic scene and is distraught, but upon recognising the man left behind to dispose of the body as being part of the group her and Laura encountered earlier, Jas sets out for a night of most bloody revenge.

It all begins with a flash-forward that shows a bloody Jas standing over an injured Randy, pointing a gun at him. As the scene fades to black a gunshot rings out. I thought it was interesting to have the primary antagonist being shown to be killed. It certainly made me intrigued to know how events spiralled to that, but it also did take away some of the mystique and threat of the main bad guy. There is a lot to be found here that seemed a bit unbelievable, mainly with the character of Jas herself. She was played wonderfully by Purvis, and I would be lying my socks off if I said I wasn't rooting for her success every step of the way, but the way she was able to both dish out and take punishment was never that well explained. There was a throwaway comment near the start that she had taken up marital arts after a situation in her past, so I guess that explains how she is able to defeat a small armies worth of beefy men. Doesn't so much explain her bizarrely high tolerance for pain, she has a lot of bad stuff happen to her throughout the movie, everything from getting shot, electrocuted, beaten, knocked out, and battered. Each time though she just seems to channel her anger more and more, coming back from things that the antagonists never seem able to come back from. In my head canon, with her past not explained, I began to assume she was some type of highly skilled American agent!

Her battles with the various henchmen were the filling of the movie sandwich. I loved how incompetent the villains were, constantly underestimating Jas and reacting in horror to the scenes of carnage she leaves in her wake. With Jas attacking a room full of men while armed with a chainsaw before the film had even reached the half hour mark I knew that there would be a lot of exciting action to come. The pacing has Randy summoning up seemingly endless small groups of men to try and deal with the psychotic unstoppable woman, but them constantly being defeated due to over confidence. Some of these actors looked the part more than acted the part (a few dodgy line deliveries can be found throughout), but each has their own turn to have a fun, well choreographed fight scene with the frenzied woman who uses everything at her disposal to fight, from books and vases, to axes, knifes, and of course that chainsaw! I began to get a real John Wick feel with how battle damaged she got, while still maintaining the edge. It wasn't all perfect, with some plot holes that were never really explained. The biggest of these had Jas showing up at the bad guys HQ (some dusty barn somewhere) early on with no explanation as to how she knew that was where they were based. That fades away with the manic scenes of violence, plenty of excellent shots of blood pumping out of wounds, and dramatic death scenes. It only really let itself down during a kill that involved fire, the fire looking very CG, taking me out the story for a moment or two.

I didn't expect to enjoy A Woman Scorned half as much as I did. Jas might be a bit unrealistic, but her cathartic journey was a joy to behold, while the humorously ill prepared bad guys gave some black humour (such as when two men are listening at a door happily thinking their buddy is sexually assaulting Jas when in actuality the noises are from her stabbing the guy repeatedly!). Then you have North who was a fantastic antagonist to hate. This indie thriller might not be perfect, but it was a heck of a lot of fun to watch play out.

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Necromancer (2009) by Scott Harper

The shame, the absolute shame. Back in the beginning years of my blog I was all too eager to accept book after book for review despite having a terrible track record for the length of time it takes me to read such things. Back in 2012, author Scott Harper sent me some of his novels for review. It took me until 2019 to read Predators or Prey? Now, some six years later I have gotten around to reading the sequel to that book; Necromancer. 

Two years ago, former con-artist Wendy Markland discovered to her horror that vampires were actually real. That knowledge dramatically changed her, and now she scours the web looking for similar reports, having decided to dedicate her life to hunting the undead. Having recently found strange reports of the dead coming back to life in the small remote town of Pinewick, New Jersey, Wendy heads there, expecting to possibly once again encounter vampires. She is shocked to discover that this time around it is zombies causing chaos, another mythical monster she had not believed to be real. Despite not being what she expected, she is determined to find the source of the outbreak and stop it, but that source turns out to be something even more horrific than the walking dead.

I gave Predators or Prey? a respectable seven rotted zombie heads out of ten back when I reviewed it. This was despite my misgivings with aspects of the story. I had no idea that Necromancer would instead deal with zombies rather than vampires, I think if I had realised that I may have gotten to this one sooner. I disliked the protagonists of that prior book, but it was at least good to see Wendy wasn't quite so insufferable this time around, and I also appreciated that her former partner and love interest Jacob was out the picture. The book did a good job of bringing readers up to speed on what had previously happened, while it would be useful to have read that first novel, I don't think it is essential reading. Her determination and desire that no one else should suffer like she did made her more likeable and less selfish feeling, though she wasn't without her issues. I don't know if she is intended to be a narcissist, or if it is the author's desire to make her seem like the most beautiful woman who ever lived, but she is back once again shamelessly admiring her naked body in mirrors whenever she gets a chance, an off putting aspect of her character. This comes to a head with a few awkward sex scenes that went into a little too much detail for my liking, I even skimmed past the second one as it was not what I wanted from a horror novel.

Thankfully, the horror part of the book was solid. Having expected a book about vampires, I unintentionally ended up reading two books at the same time that were about the walking dead, but they were so different in tone that this didn't cause me any confusion. The undead were wonderfully described here, and the zombie virus even spread to animals, giving some exciting moments. My very favourite part of the novel had Wendy and a few others battling a zombie bear out in the pouring rain. Was such a thrilling chapter! There is a definite antagonist creature for this novel, and he was written to appear fearful. My two complaints with him were firstly that he was supposed to have a mystery helper, but this characters identity was never really made much of a secret, meaning their eventual reveal wasn't shocking or that interesting. Secondly, with the book fast approaching the end and the story unresolved I thought maybe things would end on a cliff-hanger. Instead, the story is neatly tied up, but in a way that felt a little bit rushed with the climatic battle occurring within a brief chapter.

I don't particularly have fond memories of the first novel, so this knocked my socks off a bit with how enjoyable I found Necromancer. Sure, I could do without the sex scenes and Wendy's bizarre obsession with her perfect body, but the horror here was cool, the small town characters that Wendy befriends enjoyable, and the writing did a fantastic job of making the events come to life in my minds eye.

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The Plastic Men (2025) - Horror Film Review

Directed and written by Samuel Gonzalez Jr. (The Retaliators), The Plastic Men is a movie that is about coming to terms with your past, using horror as a device to explore that. Starting off light-hearted, I wasn't even sure I had been been provided with the correct screener, but things soon escalated into a post-Vietnam hellscape, the horror very much psychological.

Based on a true story (details of which are provided via some screens of text at film's end), this tells the story of Vietnam veteran Jonathan Teller (James Preston) as he struggles to adjust to normal life after his traumatic experiences during his time in the war. Haunted by severe hallucinations and flashbacks, the man is ready to end his life, but a chance encounter with a stranger changes his fate.

This takes a sympathetic view of veterans, with the director himself being one this was obviously going to be the case. I had expected a film in the vein of all time classic Vietnam veteran horror, Jacob's Ladder, something which it would be hard to beat. Without deep spoilers, that could be said to have a certain paranormal influence to what is actually going on, while with The Plastic Men it is shown to all be in the protagonists damaged mind. The story moves around in time, covering key points of Jonathan's life, though interestingly, the whole Vietnam section isn't shown, except as disjointed hellish flashbacks. It isn't clear what troubles the man so much, but the frequent hallucination of a little Vietnamese girl suggests darkness. I liked how this backstory was teased over the course of the film, little moments, such as Jonathan dropping a soup can in a store he was working at have a greater relevance later on. The hallucinations are where the horror is at, with various items frequently leaking blood, and certain scenes devolve into madness due to the perspective of the unreliable protagonist. One example is him shooting up a bus load of people, only for it to be revealed this only took place in his head.

The jumps in time are smoothed over by the narrator (William Fichtner - Independence Day: Resurgence, Elysium); an older version of Jonathan whose narration feeds into the true life aspect of the tale (the film being based on an unanswered mysterious Craigslist ad in which an unnamed veteran thanked a woman for saving his life many decades previously). Of the side characters, many were not really given any details to flesh them out, my favourite of these was Abbott (Aaron Dalla Villa - Immortal), a crazed antagonistic veteran who later comes to represent the more demented side of Jonathan's internal thoughts. He appeared in all my favourite scenes, his manic energy brought to life excellently by the actor.

The Plastic Men wasn't the film I thought it was going to be, the psychological horror all taking place in the main character's mind rather than an actual physical horror. It was a deep dive into living with your past, and how to move on from traumatic events, making for a story with a purpose, though one that even at eighty minutes felt quite slow paced. The constant shifting of time periods helped keep things feeling fresh, and while not entirely my type of film, I thought the story being told was decent enough. The Plastic Men releases on Amazon on March 11th.

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Diskomfort EP (2025) by Vlimmer - Music EP Review

Vlimmer (Berlin based musician Alexander Donat) is back with a new EP, Diskomfort EP, following on from last year's Bodenhex album. This new one brings together five tracks of goodness, with a lean and lovely runtime of twenty minutes. 

The five tracks making up the EP all share a similar style of a repetitive drum beat from start to end. The press release states this is more dreamlike than the darkness that could be found in his last album. Kicking off with 'Firmament', it follows into 'Ungleichgewicht', carrying on the drum beat sound. While the constant drums of a threading factor, each track has its distinct sound of often reflective sound, such as the eighties goth disco beat of 'Friedhofen', and the more introspective sounding title track 'Diskomfort'. It ends on the off-kilter sound of 'Nachleben' that was my favourite track on EP, one that certainly had a dreamlike feel to it, weirdly reminding me of the music of Jeff Wayne's musical version of The War of the Worlds!

I liked this as much as I expected to, I especially liked how it seemed to improve with each listen, each track having a similar hypnotic repetitive beat to it but coming out with its own fresh sound. Diskomfort EP is another release from Vlimmer that is well worth a listen.

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It's Name Was Mormo (2024) - Horror Film Review

Another week and another found footage horror film for review, this time with the Mark Andrew Bowers directed Cyprus horror Its Name Was Mormo. A quick search of the word 'Mormo' states it was a female spirit in Greek folklore whose name was invoked by mothers to keep their children from misbehaving. This horror contains actual moments of horror, this made for a nice change, but the ninety minute runtime saw my interest waning before the finish.

The found footage is presented as if it is part of recovered evidence by the 'Truths: Criminal Psychology' group who are investigating the strange case of a family that resulted in the parents (Mark played by the director, Marcela played by Marcela Cardenas) found dead in the ruins of an old village, and their young child Mia (Mia Bowers) missing. The found footage takes the form of three recovered videos found at the scene and at the family's home, as well as audio recordings, dossiers, and photos. The three videos chart Mark discovering a strange box at the site of the village and deciding to take it home with him, with the subsequent videos showing the terror this unleashed, with the family home seeming to be haunted by an angry spirit.

First off, I did like the wraparound segment showing how this footage had been discovered. It felt more fresh than the typical screen of text explaining things. The three films almost created the feeling of an anthology, neatly splitting the film up into three distinct mood pieces. The first seventeen minutes show the day time discovery of the box. My initial annoyances were just why Mark decided to take the box in the first place! Covered in chains, and buried under a mound of rocks should have been warning enough, but failing that, the discovery that it contained a load of bones and old coins should have been a klaxon call to leave the damn thing where it was! I guess that wouldn't have made for an interesting film, but the decision to take the box irked me for the remainder of the movie. 

The second act falls more into Paranormal Activity type, with Mark opening this segment (that lasted around forty seven minutes) stating that due to weird stuff happening in the home over the past few months, he has decided to make video diaries, as well as set up cameras all around the property. You get all the usual things, such as doors opening and closing on their own, and unexplained sounds, but much like the rest of the film, this goes on far too long with little really being shown. I admit there was a decent almost Skinamarink feeling of constant terror here, mainly thanks to Mia, the best actor in the film, mainly due to her probably not even realising she was in a film. Second best actor was the dog, which just left Mark and Marcela. Marcela was great at sounding terrified, Mark wasn't so much, with his delivery of his lines feeling stilted and awkward. It led to me inadvertently laughing whenever he shouted out in fear or urgently called the names of his loved ones, which I am sure wasn't the intended response. There was some attempt to explain why the family hadn't looked for help (they didn't speak the local language), but no explanation again as to why they decided to keep that damn box, or why they made no attempt to not stay at their obviously now haunted home!
This leads to the final twenty five minutes which had plenty of pretty effective moments. Again though, this section was just too long, not helped by two different viewpoints of murky, near pitch black rambling through an effective looking location. I was impressed with the camera glitches that actually look authentic rather than the usual artificial looking effects, but for this final section to have worked it really needed to be cut down in size. The whole film would have worked in a much more lean format, each of the three segments had their moments, but all outstayed their welcome.

Its Name Was Mormo had great sound design, and some unsettling prolonged moments of horror. Where it let itself down however was with the long length for relatively little being shown, and the two adult characters who I frequently was unable to take seriously. This wasn't terrible by any means, but it was a bit frustrating to see a great found footage movie trapped under too much bloat.

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House of the Dead II: Dead Aim (2005) - Horror Film Review

I've owned zombie horror film House of the Dead II: Dead Aim for many years, but I had such bad memories of the Uwe Boll directed original that I had long put off watching this sequel. That original made the cardinal sin of being as dull as dishwater, even if it had a couple of inspired moments, such as editing in gameplay from the Sega video games it was based on during some of its more action packed scenes. In terms of quality, this Michael Hurst (New Blood) directed sequel is not better, but is more entertaining in that special way that only low budget zombie films can be.

A university science professor trying to perfect a serum to resurrect the dead (a short but sweet role by cult actor Sid Haig - The Devil's Rejects) results in the accidental unleashing of a virus that turns the students and teachers of the university into flesh hungry ghouls. Catching the attention of a zombie hunting organisation known as A.M.S, they send two agents; Nightingale (Emmanuelle Vaugier - Saw II) and Ellis (Ed Quinn - Werewolf: The Beast Among Us) as well as a small group of soldiers to the place of learning. Their mission is to retrieve a blood sample from patient zero, with the hope a vaccine can be created from the blood. They are working against the clock however, the army planning to destroy the place by missiles in order to contain the contagion.

This was cheesy, predictable, and silly in a way that if not purposely done, was still a good reflection on the cheesy video games that the property spawned from. Over the hour and a half runtime there are many easily avoidable deaths, groan worthy one liners, and stupid ideas. One of the things I most love about zombie films is that it doesn't matter if the plot is particularly good, as long as there are enough undead I am going to be happy, content to switch off my brain and let the goofiness and mayhem wash over me. Unlike the first movie, this one remembers to be entertaining, from the start to the finish there isn't really a let-up, with the action forever increasing, and the odds of survival getting more and more ridiculous. Side characters mainly existed to be swiftly killed, it was funny how fast the soldiers were defeated, even one of them who stated he had fought the undead before, kept mistaking zombies for survivors until his luck ran out. Most memorable of these soldiers was Bart (James Parks - Kill Bill: Vol 1, Vol 2), a self serving and cocky man who was as entertaining as he was sleazy. I liked Nightingale and Ellis, they didn't have much to them other than tonnes of bravado and a willingness to be cold as ice when it came to dealing with the recently infected, but they did remind me of the protagonist duos you would see in the games.

Initially in small numbers, the amount of walking corpses increases as the film goes on. There did seem to be a bit of main character energy with the protagonists, as they are able to survive intense close quarters fighting of large groups without getting bitten or scratched, while the more expendable characters instantly get bitten. To be fair to them, by the end of the movie the zombie actors direction seems to be 'pretend you are in a mosh pit at a hardcore music festival' as they seemed to do little more than rush the heroes with their arms windmilling in large circles! There is plenty of blood, plenty of action, and a couple of references to the games. The games are not known for their deep stories, and this is the same, the plot is incredibly basic and fitted the vibe of a short and sweet arcade machine light gun game. Some later story beats were more silly than serious, but it gave a reason to increase the tension and threat level. Zombies were plentiful and looked the part, often appearing in huge groups. Nothing like the games, there were just zombies here and no other creatures, and those zombies look like former people rather than lab grown monstrosities. I was fine with this though, I was more than happy that the film was enjoyably dumb rather than a lesson in tedium. I also appreciated how this was linked to the first movie, rather than being a completely self contained story. Lastly, I enjoyed the bleak ending to this, always good to see in these types of movies!

With zombie films it is never so much 'is this good?' but more 'is this fun?' House of the Dead II: Dead Aim is not a good movie, but it was an enjoyable one. The university setting might not be the most original, in fact, there is little here that is original, but there are spirited performances from people who are likely all too aware of the level of film they are acting in. The story might be incredibly basic, but I kind of get the feeling that was the intention, and being from the early 2000s (that I have huge nostalgia for), this was a zombie film that did exactly what it set out to do, mindless entertainment.

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

2025 has been continuing unexpectedly interesting in my personal life this year, while I'm trying to keep my rotted beak out of Reddit too much as there is some terrible things happening around the world at the moment it seems. Also, I have to say, I really dislike the apparent Nazi in charge of Twitter, but due to having the most followers on that platform I am stuck having to use it. I am however on Threads and Bluesky now. With that out the way, onwards to the news...

New werewolf film Byte is now on Tubi. The weird synopsis states a group of friends discover a phone app that claims to be able to transform people into werewolves, which coincides in a series of gruesome attacks around town. Written/directed by Eddie Lengyel (St Patrick's Day: The Sluagh Awakens), this stars Kayden Bryce (An Intrusion), Marshall Vargas (Specter) and Carlie Allen (Shredded).

Final Days: Tales from the End Times is a new anthology that as the title suggests is based around the apocalypse. Five different directors bring five different tales of the end of everything, with the film starring Robert LaSardo (Bloodthirst), Kayla Kelly, Seth Boyer, and Rodney B. Snyder. It is currently available exclusively on Amazon Prime Video to rent or buy, and beginning March 28th 2025, Terror Films Releasing will be releasing it across a variety of digital platforms.

The American Ripper is the latest horror film from ITN Movies. Said to be inspired by The Shining and Joker, this comes from filmmaking couple Chuck and Karolina Morrongiello who were responsible for all aspects of production, from acting to directing, the soundtrack, and editing. The synopsis has a newly married couple moving into a new house. It is here that the husband swiftly turns into a homicidal maniac, torturing his new wife, and killing anyone who gets in his way. The American Ripper is currently available on Tubi and Amazon.

Don't Get Eaten is a family horror-comedy set for digital debut for North American VOD platforms and DVD on March 4th 2025. The story is about a zombie apocalypse prepper whose wife is fed up with her husbands obsession with making zombie survival videos. On the advice of a couples therapist, the family head away for a technology free weekend, but it is here where an actual zombie apocalypse begins. Written and directed by George Simon and Joseph Simon, the cast include among them Justin Kilduff, Melinda Rose, Dale Dobson, and Reese Ravencraft.

Finally for today, March 11th 2025 sees the release of Troma Entertainment's Eating Miss Campbell on Blu-ray. This is a high school horror comedy about a vegan-goth introvert (Lyndsey Craine - Book of Monsters) whose affair with teacher Miss Campbell (Lala Barlow) results in the girl getting a taste for flesh and deciding to try and win the schools 'All You Can Eat Massacre' contest. Though not a sequel, Vito Trigo (Return to Nuke 'Em High), Lloyd Kaufman (President of Troma Entertainment), Dani Thompson (Video Shop Tales of Terror), and Laurence R. Harvey (The Human Centipede sequels) all reprise their roles from My Bloody Banjo.

Heretics (2024) - Horror Film Review

It had been a hot minute since I had last watched a found footage horror for review so I was ready to give the Jose Prendes (Monster Mash) directed and Ryan Ebert written Heretics a fair chance. This was very old school in how it was created and unfortunately that meant there was a lot to dislike here.

A bunch of teenage friends are having a drunken garden party one evening. With the alcohol flowing and the friends running out of ideas for what to do, one of them suggests that they head to the abandoned Simmons estate (no relation, my surname is 'Simmonds'!). It is a local place rumoured to be inhabited by crazy homeless people, which teens in the area visit as a test of their courage, to see if they can last the night there. Things briefly go well, but it isn't too long before the group find themselves under assault from a group of murderous demon worshipping cultists.

Firstly, I thought how the found footage aspect was presented was different to the normal way. There is some text at film's start but instead of stating the following was to be recovered footage found it is instead praising a demon named Lilith. I thought that screen and the one at the end of Heretics was probably the best idea here. This falls into all the usual generic tropes of the genre. It begins with a far too long introduction, twenty seven minutes of dumb teenagers playing drinking games and flirting might have intended to give the characters some fleshing out, but it just made me dislike them more than I would have without that part. By the half hour mark the teens have finally got to the abandoned house, I noted that it was thirty three minutes when the first moment that could be considered horror happened, and from here it is somehow all downhill.
Things progress predictably, lots of people filming for absolutely no reason, the scared teens constantly running into the basement rather than making any attempt to break the multitude of weak looking windows in the house proper, constant excuses as to why they shouldn't just try and escape, and then the third act. Third act goes full shaky cam, lots of really blurry and hard to see scenes put against static camera recordings that were so dark it was hard to make much out. This wasn't exciting, instead the most action packed section of the film felt plain dull.

There were too many characters to care about, none of which had much personality to them. Stand-out was Eva (Neeley Dayan), only because her being the only religious character made her easier to remember than the rest of the idiotic teens. I also enjoyed seeing prolific actor Eric Roberts (Devil's Knight, Down Below) in a small role here. I assume a lot of the dialogue was improvised as it was mainly made up of characters saying the same things in different ways over and over again. A bit where Jessica (Shelby Wright) films a video message for her parents while sniffling was a blatant homage to The Blair Witch Project, making me roll my eyes. The cultists unfortunately came across as comically cartoonish. When they first appeared, climbing through windows they briefly looked like a threat as it appeared they were wearing balaclavas so seemed intimidating. It soon became clear they were idiots too, black robed and wearing goofy black masks, it was hard to take them seriously, not helped by their bumbling around and Scooby-Doo type reveals of who they actually were. One thing Heretics does get right is the amount of on-screen deaths, with a large cast comes a large body count thankfully, and the sticky looking red blood looked good on screen.

Heretics had little bursts of good ideas but all too often it was content to be a derivative copy of found footages from before. This wasn't all terrible, and if for some reason you are in the mood for a brain dead found footage then Heretics will be right up your street.

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