The Rotting Zombie's Round-up of Horror News for July 2023

It's that time of the month again. With my best friend staying over every other weekend, I am struggling to find a good way to write my blog without seeming rude, as such, this week there is a reduced output.
In a few weeks I'm off to Belgium for a week with my father to visit the location of the battle of Waterloo, hoping that will give me so time to watch through a bunch of films, though also means probably won't be any posts that week.
In other non-horror news, I saw Oppenheimer, it lived up to the hype even if it did feel a tad overlong. To balance that I am off to see Barbie with my friend and her daughter in a few days (at the time of typing), hopefully will soak up some of the heaviness I'm currently feeling, though really isn't my type of film! (update: it wasn't terrible). Onwards to the news.

The 70th Anniversary Restored Edition DVD and Blu-ray of Robot Monster is now available from Bayview Entertainment. In the film, humanity has been obliterated by a 'cosmic catastrophe' and the final six survivors must work together to survive against the titular foe. This includes the 3D version of the film that can be played on 3D TVs, a version that you can play on any system or monitor using included glasses to watch, and a traditional 2D version. The Blu-ray includes over two hours of bonus content.

The Dark Room has had a second trailer released for it. Directed by Jake C. Young and Kenny Scott Guffey, and coming from the company that brought you Skinamarink and Duo of the Night, this is about a small town that is being rocked by a series of murders, with a photographer getting caught up in events after finding something troubling while developing photos for a local religious leader.

Crime thriller Rub comes to Cable VOD and Digital HD from Entertainment Squad on August 1st. Described as a '...erotic psychological thriller...', and written and directed by Christopher Fox, this is about a lonely incel whose life takes a turn for the unexpected after visiting a massage parlor. Rub had its world premiere at the Big Apple Film Festival, and the director won the Best Director Award at the 2023 Festival Internacional de Cine Independiente de Madrid.

New practical FX Japanese monster movie Bakemono currently has a Kickstarter campaign running. Inspired by John Carpenter's The Thing, and shot in Tokyo, this takes place in a cheap Tokyo rental apartment in a which a horrific creature resides. Directed by Doug Roos (The Sky Has Fallen, Rearranged), the film follows a non linear path, with the story told out of order. For more info check out the campaign page here.

Lesions is a new home invasion/monster movie that is due to be filmed between July 24th to August 11th in Lynchburg VA. A young couple flee a city to escape social unrest, but soon find themselves the target of a roving band of killers. The tables are turned when a killing machine is unleashed upon the killers. This stars Elsa Ames and Alexander McPherson (Scorn), and comes from writer/director/producer Codey Wilson.

Finally for this month's round-up, horror/thriller Fatal Justice and Scary Tales have both come to Tubi TV. The former sees a man in prison for murder released early due to police misconduct. Unfortunately for him, the murder victim's family are not best pleased and decide to capture the man and hold their own trial. The later was apparently a film thought lost, made in 2008, the horror includes zombies, demons and a werewolf.

8 Found Dead (2022) - Horror Film Review

To begin with, the Travis Greene directed 8 Found Dead seemed like it was going to be a traditional slasher movie. It soon become clear that this was going to approach the slasher genre in a slightly different way to normal. This was mainly achieved by having four separate interconnected mini-stories playing out at the same location but at different times, a plot device that led to the viewer constantly puzzling out what exactly had happened at the central location, and in what order the events transpired.

It isn't initially clear in what order the stories that take place are in, so rather than piece them together the synopsis will just mention them all. The prologue shows Air BnB host Jessie (Jenny Tran - The Walking Deader) arriving at her remote desert based property to clean up, but it isn't long before she encounters an axe wielding maniac. Meanwhile, in present day, two police officers head to the place after receiving an emergency call, it is here they discover five bodies. With the state police called, the two decide to spend the time before they arrive trying to work out what happened. At some point, social influencer Sam (Alisha Soper - American Horror Story TV show) and her boyfriend, Dwayne (William Gabriel Grier) arrive there, having rented it for the weekend. They are surprised to discover another older couple are already there, insisting that they had booked the place. The couple, former actors, Richard (Tim Semek) and Liz (Rosanne Limeres) invite the couple in, but their eccentric and creepy behaviour begins to make Sam and Dwayne uncomfortable. In another time, Carrie (Aly Trasher) and Ricky (Eddy Acosta) arrive at the same place, having been delayed due to car trouble. They too encounter Richard and Liz, and they too come to be concerned about their bizarre actions.

The best part of 8 Found Dead was solving the puzzle of exactly who were dead. The clues in the title with eight deaths, yet with an on-screen cast of nine characters, and with the police officers only discovering five bodies meant there was a lot unknown. It is established relatively early on that the old couple are the ones responsible, with both of the oddball characters being responsible for some of the murders. There is also a slow-drip reveal of who the victims were, with some shown implicitly on camera with the cause of death discussed, and some more obscured, such as a victim who has died face down on the ground. The death sequences were not bad for the most part, there was a strange decision to have the death scenes keep pausing. This made for a stilted feel which had a bit of a jarring effect, I'm not sure if this was done as a way to make the kills look more authentic, or if it was a stylistic choice, but I wasn't that taken with this editing method.

With the film mainly following the two different couples who had arrived to discover the psycho characters pretending to be normal, a lot of the film details the lead up to the killings. Both Simek and Limeres were great in their roles, over the top and perpetually grinning like the maniacs they were, yet not so over the top as to feel forced. With the back story they provide being that they were both former theatre actors, their eccentricity gets to be explained away a bit. Characters mostly all had fleshed out elements to them. Even the two police officers got backstory, with them being a separated couple still forced to work together. Sam secretly has cancer, something she is going to reveal to her friends, Carrie is an actress struggling for work now she is getting slightly older in looks, all characters get to be slightly more than just faceless victims.

8 Found Dead became memorable due to the four stories all taking place in the same location at different times. Without this concept this wouldn't have felt anywhere near as good. It was fun how details of the story were drip fed to the viewer, and having killers be at the forefront of the movie, rather than silent masked lurkers. I didn't think the edited kill scenes worked too well, elsewhere the filmmaking had some fun moments, such as characters appearing to break the fourth wall at times with what they say, and one effective time when a character stares directly into the camera. With the antagonists being theatre trained actors and the protagonists being social media driven 'personalities', this could be seen as a literal conflict between old and new. It could just as easily be taken as a somewhat mindless, but still enjoyable slasher.

SCORE:

The Rotting Zombie's News Anthology for Thursday 27th July

Finally, there is a patch for PSVR2 horror game Switchback VR. That game was released earlier in the year in a most unsightly state. Namely, it had some atrociously ugly graphics. The update has cleaned it all right up so it actually looks good now, and that has made it much more fun to play.

Troma are celebrating its fifty year anniversary by releasing a new 4K restoration of The Toxic Avenger series. This eight disc ToxSet is coming to 4K Ultra HD and Special Edition Blu-ray on 29th August and includes all four Toxic Avenger films in their unrated director's cut versions, as well as a whole heap of extras.

Freestyle Digital Media have acquired French language horror, The Thing Behind the Door. This tells the story of a woman who is haunted by the death of her husband in the first world war. She turns to black magic as a means to bring him back, but instead something unspeakable appears. This is due for an August release on North American VOD platforms and DVD.

My final story for today, the Aaron Mento (Ugly Sweater Party) written and directed 16 BITS is now on Tubi TV. This follows the plot of an Adventure Time episode in that a guy befriends a street fighter character who has somehow managed to escape the video game he was in.

Children of the Corn (2020) - Horror Film Review

                    

Children of the Corn series has always been a series I have enjoyed watching. At least the first six films I enjoyed watching anyway, as there have now been eleven films in the franchise, most the later ones I have yet to see, so I am unsure as to their quality. The latest film in the series is 2020's Children of the Corn, the third film with that title, and the third direct adaptation of Stephen King's 1977 short horror story of the same name (this one directed and written by Kurt Wimmer - Ultraviolet, Equilibrium). I really wanted to enjoy this, and it was by no means a bad film, but this was let down by not going in the direction I was hoping for, and for keeping things a little too sedate and tame.

Boleyn (Elena Kampouris - Before I Fall) is an eighteen year old teenager who lives in a remote farming community which had relied heavily on growing corn. The decision was made in the past to start using pesticides and fertilisers to help the crop grow, but that proved to be disastrous, and now the fields are full of diseased and dying rows of corn. Her father puts forward a motion to get rid of the crops entirely, in exchange for government subsidies. Boleyn is determined to stop this by calling in a reporter who will expose to the world the shady corporation who sold the townsfolk the ruinous chemicals. Eden (Kate Moyer - Our House) is a young girl who has come to a different and far more deadly solution. Holding all adults responsible for the situation the town has gotten into, she comes to believe that they must all be killed. She worships an apparent supernatural presence in the cornfields, ominously referred to as 'he who walks behind the rows', and has recruited the rest of the town's children to her cause. Now Boleyn has to find a way to help the surviving adults, as well as find a way to stop Eden and her young cult.

For the longest time I thought that this was going to be a complete prequel, and it did look that way for the first two acts. The original film (and short story) had two adults stumbling across an adult-less town in which the children had already taken over. For the first two acts, and first hour of this latest film, it charts the rise of the children, and just how they were able to take over. This part was pretty cool, it was interesting to see a pre-supernatural horror setting, knowing what was to come. Sadly, this momentum is all dissolved over the final thirty minutes, in which all the set-up is torn down for an underwhelming story that is soon revealed to be its own thing entirely and not acting as a prologue for a different movie. I think it would have been so cool for the whole movie to be setting up the situation of the very first Children of the Corn story but it was not to be.
The characters were also mostly wasted, an ok protagonist and antagonist, but nearly everyone else was very underdeveloped, with a muddled script and story that never really seemed to know exactly what is was trying to achieve.

One thing I always loved about the original films was that you never actually ever saw the supposed supernatural antagonist, instead, it was always inferred, I recall in some films it was represented as a rustling behind the rows, in one film I believe it was something contained within a grain silo, and another it was a unseen force able to affect people's minds (my mind's a bit foggy but it may have at least appeared as monster in the third movie now I think about it). Here, the unwise choice was made to show it represented as a CG corn-man, something that rather than strike fear into my heart, made me think of Groot from The Guardian's of the Galaxy films, or even worse, the 'Jolly Green Giant' from the sweetcorn adverts. The reliance on CG in the later half of the film never worked, the CG while not terrible, still looked artificial, and the mystique is ruined by this monster-like creature rather than an unseen almighty demonic God. There was a bodycount, but mainly the film remained tame, many characters dying off screen, though a few nice moments, such as someone getting ripped in half vertically by the corn monster, and a brutal metal baseball bat to the head. The reliance on CG becomes more and more apparent, leading up to a ridiculous final twist that was laughable rather than frightening.

If this had stuck to being an origin story then I think things may have worked out for the best. I was on board for this, so was disappointing to watch the film flounder and try and become its own thing. This had some occasional good ideas, and it was fun to see Bruce Spence (Mad Max 2) in a side role, but overall I was left with a feeling that the film was too bland for its own good, and the reliance on CG and a limited number of locations really didn't help make this memorable. Children of the Corn comes to digital platforms on 31st July thanks to Vertigo Releasing.

SCORE:

The Rotting Zombie Interviews Alan Maxson

I recently was able to interview Alan Maxson, an actor whose notable roles include performance capture for King Ghidorah in Godzilla: King of the Monsters and the zombie in the opening sequence for History of Horror. He is also the director and writer of new indie sci-fi horror Alien Planet. I don't typically like sci-fi too much, but this one I found to be quite enjoyable, thanks in no small part to some great monster/alien design, and some likeable characters.

Welcome to The Rotting Zombie, and thank you for agreeing to an interview. What were your inspirations for Alien Planet, and how long have you had the idea for the film?

Alien Planet is my love letter to sci-fi. It holds all the elements of my favourite films and is meant to feel like it fits right in with movies like Enemy Mine, Alien Nation, Planet of the Apes, V the mini-series and many more from that era. I've had the idea for Alien Planet for about 5 or so years now, but I didn't officially write the script until 2020 when the pandemic sent everyone home from work.

While a sci-fi film, this also includes plenty of moments of horror, as well as far more gore than expected. How important was it for a reliance on practical special effects rather than computer generated ones, and was this intended from the start, or something that happened naturally? What was your particular favourite special effect used?

Practical effects were always intended. This was an extremely important part of the pre-production process. From designing the characters looks to scheduling and planning how much time we needed to build everything before the shoot. I think we spent 4-6 months in pre-production just simply sculpting, painting and building all the practical effects and makeup.
You mentioned it had more gore than you expected, we used about 11 gallons of fake blood as a fun piece of trivia. 

There was a good cast here, especially with the two main characters, though I found the puppet Giree to be the most enjoyable character. Was it hard to cast the right actors for the job, and was it a difficult task to give Giree so much visible on-screen personality?

It was not hard casting this movie. Like you said, everyone was so talented and such a fantastic performer, that it was very clear who my actors were when they auditioned. All slam dunks.
Bringing Giree to life was more time consuming than difficult. Our puppeteer, Naiia Lajoie was so awesome at bringing her to life that she nailed every take. The hardest part was spending months in post-production removing Naiia from the shot and adding digital blinks frame by frame. I think I spent 4 weeks straight just adding blinks to Giree and the Dweller.

Without going into spoilers, this had quite a bit of darkness to its film universe, both with the warring two alien sides recent history, and with the path the story took. Do you see any light that can be taken from this story? Do you see Alien Planet as a standalone story, or could you imagine a sequel or prequel one day being created?

I see a lot of light that can be taken from this story. I think we as viewers can see what paths lead to all of the movie's darkness, and use our conscience and morals to make sure we do better as humans. But sadly, this story is meant to mirror humans, so to me, we are this story.
This is not a standalone story. I have both sequel and prequel stories ready to be made. Hopefully the audience likes this movie enough to help another one happen!

What was the biggest challenge you faced while making the film, and what was the biggest highlight for you?

Challenge is always time and money. Making a movie is very expensive and this script was a large vision to do on an indie level budget. We only had enough budget to film for 14 days so I had to figure out how to accomplish that.

Finally, for people who haven't seen your movie, how would you best describe it?

This is a science fiction adventure film with deep meaningful social commentary. Topped with all the blood and monsters you could ever want.

Alien Planet is currently streaming on multiple channels and is available on Blu-ray. The Blu-ray includes exclusive behind the scenes and making of featurettes that can't be found on streaming. For more details check out the website, here. Thanks once again to Alan for answering my questions.

Hundreds of Beavers (2023) - Comedy Film Review

I can honestly say that I have never seen anything like the Mike Cheslik directed and co-written Hundreds of Beavers. In terms of how this black and white silent comedy adventure film was made I'm pretty clueless, it at times seems like it would have been impossible to make, yet made it was, and I have plenty of comparisons to help me describe just what this astoundingly bizarre film reminded me of. Sometimes a film doesn't have to be horror to get mentioned on this site, this frequently surreal movie is one such example, I could see this being a hard sell for anyone who wasn't completely on board for its absurdist slapstick humour.

Ryland Brickson Cole Tews (was also co-wrote this) is an applejack salesman in 19th century America. He loves his drunken lifestyle, but one day an incident involving beavers sees his business and home completely destroyed. Needing to find a way to survive in the harsh winter, the man decides to become a trapper, and it is at the local trading station that he discovers the love of his life in the form of the trading station owner's daughter. Before he is able to romance her, he must prove himself to the trading station owner (Doug Mancheski), so he becomes determined to become the best trapper that ever lived. Meanwhile, in the background, an army of beavers have begun construction on a gigantic fortress, and unknown to the man, his exploits will put him on a path to confrontation with these creatures...

I often thought that the reason cartoons like Looney Tunes exist is down to how impossible what happens within them would be to create in a live action setting. Hundreds of Beavers has dispelled that notion as this is basically one long Looney Tunes live action cartoon. The film operates with cartoon logic, it involves ridiculous Wile E. Coyote type traps, and the protagonist is shown to be almost indestructible with all the pratfalls and falling from vast heights he does constantly. Using a blend of real footage and animated details, this at times felt like a Monty Python animated sketch, and with its lack of dialogue, and characters with exaggerated facial expressions, I wondered more than once if this was where comedic silent movies of the early 20th century would have naturally evolved to if talkies hadn't come about.

The style never got old, but despite the borrowed originality that permeates the movie, I did find the whole second act to be a real slog to get through. The film is neatly split up into three acts, the first chronicles the applejacks transition to trapper, but the second one is devoted entirely to him hunting animals. For animal lovers that needn't be an issue as wonderfully, all animals are just humans wearing costumes. Whether beaver, rabbit, skunk, raccoon, dog or wolf, these animals all walk around on two feet, act like humans, and have very obvious fake suits on. This leads to a feeling of horror at times due to how creepy these creatures could look, especially when there are a large amount on screen. The film really finds its footing in the third act, that part was brilliant, it brought to mind the chaotic energy of Wallace and Gromit films, and mostly chronicles the man's infiltration and eventual escape from the gigantic wooden fortress the beavers have been creating all movie. This whole last 35 minutes or so was non-stop energy that was a pure delight to watch. I just wish the padded out middle act had been drastically reduced in size, as it did become to feel like it was never going to end.

I just can't envision how this film was made, it really is a cartoon brought to life, with all the zany and crazy elements that are born as a result. Inspirations from things like Road Runner and Bugs Bunny, and old silent films are magical in their creation, I just wish the slow second act had been trimmed down a bit. At an hour and near fifty minutes, this did outstay its welcome a little bit, but there really is nothing like this that I have personally ever seen. Hundreds of Beavers is due to premiere at the Fantasia International Film Festival on July 28th and 31st at the Salle J.A De Séve.

SCORE:

The Coffee Table (2022) - Comedy Horror Film Review

The Coffee Table (original title La mesita del comedor) is a Spanish horror film directed and co-written by Caye Casas which includes comedy so jet black that it can sometimes struggle to be seen. This vantablack comedy horror felt like a skit from surreal British sketch show Jam stretched out into a feature film. Annoyingly, the screener email requested that a very early film changing twist is not revealed within the review, so I'm going to have to do my best to dance around that particular elephant in the room.

Middle aged couple, Jesus (David Pareja) and María (Estefanía de los Santos) have recently had a baby, something which has caused them conflict in their relationship. The film begins with the couple at a furniture store looking at a hideous glass coffee table, something which Jesus is determined to buy from the sleazy salesman (Eduardo Antuña), as a response to feeling powerless in a lot of the other decisions made in his life. Once the table is delivered, Jesus discovers one of the screws is missing, so the glass top can't be attached to the base, he requests the salesman brings the missing screw around. Meanwhile, with Jesus' brother and new girlfriend coming round for dinner in the evening, María heads out to do some shopping, leaving her husband in charge of looking after the baby. It turns out buying that coffee table may well be the worst decision Jesus ever made...

The majority of the movie was like watching a car crash in slow motion. Something extremely terrible has happened, and Jesus is the only one who knows about it, and so in a farcical way does everything in his power to prevent others from finding out his secret. Even the viewer is not privy to the exact details as the biggest event in the movie takes place off camera. By the time his brother and girlfriend have arrived, as well as the nextdoor neighbours teenage daughter and her dog, the tension has ramped up to unsustainable levels. The horror comes mainly from the plight Jesus finds himself in, as the viewer it is obvious everything is going to come crashing down around all the characters, so it's an endurance race watching the horrific event play out. The subject matter is so unspeakably dark that at times you forget you are watching a comedy horror, but there are signs if you are looking out for them, such as with the baby's name (Cayetano), which everyone who hears it reacts with barely concealed dislike. There was also lighter comedy with the salesman, a fun performance from a well suited actor. The acting throughout while in Spanish, still seemed believable, Pareja in particular had a tough role to do, which he performed admirably.

The majority of The Coffee Table takes place within the confines of the small apartment the couple live in, with the pacing leading to events ramping up in a believable way. The camera work was perfect, often lingering on characters facial expressions, and the script was designed to be as obliviously cruel as possible, each line spoken innocent without context known, but pure agony knowing all the details. Jesus' torment is reflected by both visual and auditory hallucinations which really helped with bringing his inner turmoil to the forefront for the viewers.

I did not enjoy my time with The Coffee Table, but I was completely hooked watching it, a morbid curiosity meant I had to see how this would all end up. Very well shot, with great choice of actors, this supremely dark story is something that is sure to stick in the memory. The Coffee Table begins a limited theatrical run starting in Los Angeles at Laemmle Glendale on April 19th, and it will arrive on DVD and VOD on May 14th.

SCORE:

The Rotting Zombie's News Double Bill for Thursday 20th July

While the rest of Europe swelters in a likely man made summer heatwave, here in the UK we are thankfully experiencing quite a lot of heavy rain, without the loss of the humidity unfortunately. With that unrelated bit of info out the way, onto the news.

King Jeff's sci-fi horror film Troubleshooters is now available to watch for free on Tubi TV. Starring King Jeff and his brother Gorio, this takes place in the near future when worker robots malfunction and begin to attack their owners. 'Troubleshooters' are those brought in to stop the robots.

An official poster for upcoming horror film The Boatyard has been released. This has a group of five college kids whose boat breaks down while out at sea. They are rescued by a stranger who offers to take them back to his boatyard to fix their boat, but has murder on his mind. This one was directed by Dale A. Stelley and stars Amy Byrd, Megan Carrasquillo, Zachary Roosa, Jamal Averett, Caitlyn Rose, Mike Ferguson, Susan Lanier-Bramlett, Cody Duke, Brian Hall, and Keny.

Alien Planet (2023) - Sci-fi Film Review

Despite it not appearing to be a horror, ever since I heard of Alan Maxson's Alien Planet (he both wrote and directed this) I was intrigued. I think it was due to the film using all practical special effects rather than the modern reliance on either pure digital effects, or a combination of the two. The synopsis sounded like a film I saw many years ago as a teen, but this one was far more bloody. Despite a small cast I found myself drawn into the world.

In the not too distant past, two alien species went to war with each other, with the losers banished to a near inhospitable planet full of monsters. To assist them, they were provided with a vial of strange liquid that used sparingly had the ability to create a source of water. Brocheet (Hunter C. Smith - voicework in video game Star Wars Jedi: Survivor) is a trusted soldier from the winning side who has been sent to the planet the losers were banished to in order to retrieve this vial, for his species is close to extinction due to their water source on their home planet running out. Not long after landing he encounters Lock (Alexandra Bokova - Mermaid Down), with the two species sharing a mutual hatred for each other they come to blows, but their battle is interrupted by the arrival of a dangerous monster who captures them both and takes them to its lair. The two enemies soon come to realise that for any chance of survival they are going to have to try and put aside their differences and work together.

This began with a low budget B-movie feel, with the intro narration set to the backdrop of hand drawn artwork and still images. This worked in setting up the world but also looked a little bit placeholder. Once Brocheet lands on the planet my early concerns were washed away and I found myself getting far more invested in what was happening. There was a cast of around eight or nine, but by far it is Smith and Bokova who carry events forward. They were both good choices for their roles, but I was surprised to find out the complete scene stealer was a puppet! Giree (voiced by Maxson) is an intelligent pet of Brocheet who despite being a puppet had so much life and personality, as the film went on this became my favourite character by far, and it plays an integral role in the story. Another stand out character was the monster (Eric Prochnau - Clown Motel: Spirits Arise), it didn't do much more than lurch around, but it was visually impressive looking.

In general the practical effects were great, and there was far more blood than I expected. Within the first ten minutes of the movie I had seen more blood than many other films show over their complete runtime. I liked how watery, yet still blood like it appeared, and there were some nice touches, such as spilt blood dripping on the camera. The planet was home to vine like plants, and their vines were put to great use in some of the more action heavy sequences. The design of all the monsters and aliens was strong, in fact I would say that was the strongest element of the film as a whole.
In terms of the story, without going into too much detail this went into quite a bleak direction that I was convinced was going to be revealed to not actually be the case. If Alien Planet had been a video game, this would have definitely been a 'bad ending'. It felt quite cruel how this all played out, especially due to how much I came to like some of the characters. Usually I'm all up for darkness, I guess its to the credit of the cast and crew that I came to care so much about the characters.

Alien Planet was a film I feared would be a little bit dull, aside from obvious ones like Star Wars, I have never been too much into sci-fi. Blending in horror, as well as some fantastic alien and creature designs meant there was never a dull moment. This eighty two minute long indie sci-fi never lost sight of the story it was dedicated to telling and shone as a result.

SCORE:

The Rotting Zombie's News Anthology for Tuesday 18th July 2023

A quick news anthology for a Saturday in which my best friend is visiting. I feel like I've been phoning in my blog work recently, I have to admit the spark had faded a bit. With an inbox full of screeners I feel I need to drag myself out of this funk and fall back in love with the work I do.

Anti-Wonderful comes from MovingFast Pictures and the press releases describes it as '...a bizarre cinematic experience that seamlessly blends elements of horror and nihilistic humor'. Not sure really what type of film it is, other than the press release also states shows such as The Tom Green Show and The Eric Andre Show were influences on this. It is due to be released in a limited deluxe edition Blu-ray format, this will be a uncensored, uncut version of the film, with just 300 copies being made. It can be pre-ordered here.

Turn of the Screw is now out on Blu-ray from Bayview Entertainment. Directed by Alex Galvin, this surprisingly isn't a straight adaptation of Henry James' classic ghost story of the same name. Instead, this follows an actress, Julie, who has arrived at a theatre for a dress rehearsal of the famous play. As she performs her role and interacts with the other characters events begin to get increasingly scary, and she comes to believe that both the play and the theatre itself are haunted. Turn of the Screw can be purchased here.

Finally for today, anthology film Zombie Rage received a theatrical, DVD, Blu-ray and Digital film release on July 13th. This is made up of five separate stories from three filmmakers from San Pedro, California (Livid Media Films), Las Vegas, Nevada (Dark Park Films), and Winnipeg, Canada (The Internet Astronauts). The included stories involve a Canadian newscast, a bachelorette party, two stoners, a burglar, and a zombie outbreak in a public park.

Bird Box: Barcelona (2023) - Horror Film Review

I enjoyed 2018's Bird Box, even if I found it a little bit inadvertently derivative of A Quiet Place. It was only the other week that I discovered a sequel was in the works, an unrelated story set in Barcelona, Bird Box: Barcelona, so it was a pleasure to discover this had been released last week. Me and my best friend were both fans of the first film so we settled down to watch it, however it was only myself who managed to complete it, details of which are to follow later in this review.

Sebastián (Mario Casas) and his daughter Anna (Alejandra Howard) are introduced as survivors of the apparent invasion of creatures who have the ability to turn anyone who sees them suicidally insane. While out on the streets of Barcelona they come across another group of survivors, and so Sebastián tells his daughter to hide while he tries to find out if they are hostile or not. He befriends the group and is led to their hideout, an old bus station warehouse. That evening however, while everyone else is sleeping, Sebastián reveals his true colours, forcing all the survivors outside where they are quickly exposed to the invaders, for he is one of the special people who have gone insane, rather than suicidally insane. In his mind the invaders are angels, he believes he is doing God's work and that each person who dies has their soul free to ascend to Heaven, his daughter is actually a hallucination who promises he will be reunited with his dead wife and Anna if he carries on doing God's work. After befriending a different group of survivors he learns that there is a safe haven in a mountain top castle on the other side of the city, so he convinces them to make an attempt to head there. Initially he plans to kill them all, but his experiences during his journey slowly begin to make him question if everything he believed to be true is actually so.

So, the part that made my friend stop watching this was the reveal that the protagonist is actually the antagonist. It was a brave decision to have that prologue twist as it made it a lot harder to root for Sebastián at all. My friend didn't like how horrible everything was, as the man does kill a lot of innocent and good people. Like Bird Box, the story is split between the present day and the past, but the split is a lot less even, with roughly ten percent of the movie being made up of flashbacks that reveal how Sebastián came to be infected. While he is a somewhat sympathetic character, there was no getting away from the fact that he was causing people to die, and good people at that, and so it was hard to care for him. Around the end of the first act there are two more protagonists introduced, and thankfully these two were a lot better. Claire (Georgina Campbell - Black Mirror - episode 'Hang the DJ') is an English speaking woman, and she is looking after a young German girl, Sofia (Naila Schuberth), who got seperated from her mother during the height of the invasion some nine months previously. They become the heart of the story, with their journey mirroring that of Malorie and her children in Bird Box. While the majority of the movie is in Spanish, I did find it slightly distracting that Claire was the only English speaker, it makes sense I guess, but was a bit jarring her speaking English when all around were understanding what she was saying and responding in Spanish which she too is shown to understand.

Up until near the end I had a slightly higher score in my head for Bird Box: Barcelona, but it was the similarities that brought this down a bit. Characters trying to make it to an apparent safe haven was an identical storyline to the first movie, and as this went on the comparisons felt more and more obvious. Outside of the initial twist that Sebastián wasn't a good person there wasn't really anything more, his path to redemption was of course going to happen, with events not really going anywhere different to what I expected. Much like the first film, you never see the invaders, something which is a very good idea, it creates in your mind something far more better than anything that could be shown on screen. There is a greater explanation for what happens to the people who see them, but thankfully there still isn't a concrete explanation. It seems each victim sees what they want to see, the twisted protagonist seeing them as angels, others seeing them as aliens and all manner of other things. Some fun news ideas were here, such as one group using blindfolded dogs to lead them through the streets. The death sequences are all lovely to see, each victim killing themselves in different ways, and the scenes of mass death, such as people in a subway station all throwing themselves onto the train tracks as a train is approaching were always fun and grim to see.

Get over the initial hurdle of having a bad guy as the lead character and there is a lot to enjoy here. It can be very dark at times, but it ends with a feeling of hope for those trying to survive. Very well made, this was a film I'm glad I decided to take off my blindfold and look at. Bird Box: Barcelona is currently streaming on Netflix. 

SCORE:

Serbian Dancing Lady (2023) - Short Horror Film

I have to admit, I was originally planning on watching a feature length movie for review, but going to see Blur at Wembley yesterday (at the time of writing) has zapped me of my energy. Due to that I decided to review a short horror, the Alex Magaña written and directed Serbian Dancing Lady being the first result I saw on YouTube. At just over two minutes long, this didn't have time to really innovate, but it had a couple of effective moments.

A young woman (Yaret Lora) is at a deserted mall when she notices the tannoy music abruptly changing to a strange sounding Serbian tune. She is then amused to see a woman (Cat Hamm) dancing to this music, and gets her phone out to film this oddity. Once the music cuts out however, the horror begins.

I really liked the start of this short, and I also thought the ending, while highly predictable, also wasn't bad. It was the middle part where this fell down a bit for me. The woman dancing, with her back to the camera was a bit creepy, as was the Smile type grinning face the woman pulls when she turns her face to the young girl. There was a definite supernatural feel to the woman, which makes the middle part more jarring. This middle section takes the form of a small chase sequence, in which the dancing woman pursues the other person while holding a knife raised high, echoing Norman Bates from Psycho. It inadvertently looked funny rather than creepy though, which the non-supernatural heavy footsteps also added to. Then there was a clumsy transition from the chase to the young woman arriving at her apartment for a traditional end.

There is a certain formula that short horror films often struggle to escape from, and Serbian Dancing Lady is one such example of that happening. What saves this from being forgettable is the strong opening that has genuine creepiness to it, and a perfectly fine finish. At under three minutes in length this is certainly worth a watch. Being based on an actual Serbian urban legend was a nice touch (something which had been doing the rounds on TikTok).

SCORE:

The Rotting Zombie Interviews Victoria U Bell

Victoria U Bell has recently directed her first feature length movie, Heir of the Witch, a movie that she wrote, directed, produced and starred in and which is the first full feature film from production company Pasha Entertainment. The film tells of a Moldovan woman living in America who finds herself haunted by her family's dark past, specifically her grandmother, who had been an evil witch. The story was taken from Bell's own personal experiences, and bizarrely more of this fantastical story is said to have actually happened than you might expect. I was able to get an interview with the director, to speak with her about this passion project of hers.

Hello Victoria and welcome to The Rotting Zombie. With elements of Heir of the Witch based partly on real life experiences, has creating the film helped you face the fears you had while growing up?

Bringing HOTW to life was a true "Come to Jesus moment". The whole process has helped me see things from a different perspective. A healing process of facing the monster and fear in my heart, soul and mind. Through this journey I have become stronger. I have recognized my power and I no longer suffer from the terror I had felt all my life. Creative art can be a true healing and cleansing process, but you have to be honest. You have to bare your soul and expose it. I no longer find the act of witchcraft terrifying. I know my truth. I found my light, and with that, I can conquer anything.

With this being your first feature length film as a director, how did it compare to the short films you have previously made, and were there any unexpected challenges you had to face?

Making a short film was a walk in the park compared to a feature film. Compounded by being made during Covid - it felt like an Ironman Triathlon. I learned more while making this movie than anything I learned in film school. It's an experience that is unparalleled with anything else I've ever encountered. Through it, I found my true love and passion in life - film. It was a lot of hard work, and there were constant challenges that would arise throughout the whole project, but we did it! I am very grateful for my team and everyone who helped bring this movie to life!

Aside from the real-life elements, what were the other inspirations for this movie? Were there any other films that influenced the direction and style you went for?

Everything is inspiration to me. From the fragrant flowers I smell on the sidewalk to the decaying body of a dead animal on the highway. From the great books I devour, to the multitude of movies that I have watched. My brain is a sponge; always hungry and curious for more information. I can't pinpoint one that that inspired me most, but when I was a child, I heard a story that a man in our village kept having dreams about his wife who had passed away. She kept telling him in his dreams that she's alive and trapped in her grave and that he had to save her. His request to have her exhumed was denied by the church. I couldn't help but wonder what would have happened if he had dug her up himself that night. In my audacious mind, I imagined that when he opened the casket, the woman had turned in her grave and her fingernails were embedded in the walls of the casket while trying to escape. That story stayed with me and translates in the film. So, you can say I've been a storyteller from an early age.

The protagonist, Anna, stands out due to the world of shallow and conceited people she finds herself in, while not without her flaws, there was a genuine feeling to her. Were you always planning to play the part of the protagonist, and did you put any of your real self into the character, or is she a completely invented creation?

If you believe Anna's agony, then it was real. I did not put myself into the character, but I did embody Anna completely. A few months prior to filming the movie I stripped myself of all jewelry, makeup, and any items that reminded me of me.
I cut my nails short, I wore the modest dresses that Anna wears, and I started to learn how to sow. I tried to leave everything of mine behind and I let Anna speak to me. She was gentle, kind, turbulent and lost. I did not judge her. I let her tell me her story and I embedded myself in her character. There's no way I could reveal her suffering authentically without walking in her shoes. Somehow, her shoes felt somewhat familiar. Growing up in Moldova, my feet were dirty from running in the fields with no shoes, but my heart was filled with big dreams. In each project I have the pure intention of serving the story. I'm always looking for who I feel is the best actor for each role. Anna - was the hardest role to fill and I knew I was the only one who could best serve her and bring her to the world.

The moments of visual horror in the movie were very effective. At times, featuring some scenes that surprised with just how bloody they were. What were your favourite special effects used during the making of these scenes?

We had a great make-up team and they worked wonders with every aspect of my intricate requests. One of my favourites is the decapitated body of one of the witch's victims. It looks and feels eerie and real. It took a lot of work from my team to create the same body type, size and skin tone - but the results were fabulous. In reference to special effects, the shower scene with the demon mist, and the spider shadow under the bed are 2 of my favorites.

Finally, for people who have yet to see Heir of the Witch, why should they check it out?

Heir of the Witch is unlike any other horror film you have ever seen before. The story and the theme are unique and different. The twists and turns keep you involved and glued to the screen. I've planted a lot of breadcrumbs, follow them closely! Enjoy!

Heir of the Witch is due to be streaming everywhere from August 4th 2023, a thank you to Victoria U Bell for her time answering my questions.

Heir of the Witch (2023) - Horror Film Review

Heir of the Witch is the first full feature film from film production company, Pasha Entertainment. It was written and directed by Victoria U Bell, who also stars as the protagonist, and the idea was created from Bell's own personal experiences. The press release states in real life her Moldovan grandmother was a witch with a dark reputation, with a family legend being that she was unable to die until she had passed on her powers to someone else. Sometimes truth is stranger than fiction! While this was the inspiration for the movie, Bell used her creativity to add elements to make it work better.

As a child, Anna (Bell) and her aunt left Moldova and moved to the United States, after an incident involving the death of her mother and the imprisonment of her father. Now grown up, the shy woman works as a seamstress for wealthy clients, living at the home of her elderly and terminally ill aunt (Vanessa Neff). Her work brings her to the attention of Chloe (Deanna Rashell), a conceited rich woman who sees the shy Anna as something of a pet project. Anna soon captures the attention of Chloe's husband, Nicholas (Ben Holtzmuller), and they secretly begin having an affair, which results in Anna getting pregnant. The woman holds a secret though, her grandmother back in Moldova had a history of witchcraft, and it is hinted that this is something that Anna has been fighting her whole life to get away from, and which is increasingly affecting her in the form of troubling nightmares, hallucinations, and dark thoughts.

After an intro screen of text describing a type of witch particular to Moldova, the film begins in earnest. Throughout the hour and a half run time this straddles the line between being a doomed romance plot, and the more horror based attempts by the evil spirit of Anna's grandmother (Lorayn DeLuca) to corrupt the girl. Frequent flashbacks reveal both what exactly happened with her parents, as well as the sinister ordeals she experienced at the hands of her grandmother. There was almost a dream like feel to aspects of the film, with it often, particularly in the second half, becoming hard to parse what was real and what was imagined. It all leads to a somewhat bizarre twist reveal, but one that I did think worked, especially with flashbacks to key scenes in the movie with a different perspective put on things.

Bell was great as the protagonist, though the character remained something of a mystery. She was prone to hysterics, with her coming across as not entirely balanced. I found the affair between her and Nicholas to feel a little off, I couldn't quite get on board with the idea she would cheat with a married man, and the way the film zoomed past periods of time with no indication of having done so, added to the strange feel. Between scenes for instance, Anna changes to being her normal self to being heavily pregnant. The way this often felt a bit dreamlike made this transition not as jarring as it could have been. I was never sure how this was all going to end up, thankfully it remained deliciously dark, even if I was getting a little lost prior to the big twist reveal
On the horror side of things I was pleased with what was shown. There was more blood than I had expected to see, and some fun death scenes, typically involving the ghost of an evil witch controlling victims into doing awful things to themselves, such as one scene that had a woman repeatedly stabbing a huge pair of scissors into her own leg. I thought the visual effects for these moments were neat, and the parts that had either the witch, or possessed people suddenly taking on a demonic look were fun, giving me Evil Dead deadite vibes.

With a cast of mostly horrible characters, it was hard to root too much for anyone, with the exception of Anna, who herself was shown to be very flawed. The murkiness around the edges of the story sometimes left me more confused than intrigued. I did however think the moments of horror were effective, they had a strong visual look to them which did create some nice messed up scenes. Heir of the Witch is streaming everywhere from August 4th 2023.

SCORE:

The Rotting Zombie's News Anthology for Tuesday 11th July

Hello once again, I'm writing this on a humid Saturday afternoon, full of excitement as I am off to see my favourite band, Blur, play at Wembley Stadium tomorrow evening. I last saw them around 2005 at Reading Festival, so will be cool to see them again. Not horror related at all, though tangentially they did have a B-side track named 'No Monsters in Me'.

Onto the news. Dinner with the Devil starts production in July, this will be production company Koa Aloha Media's tenth feature film. This will tell the tale of six people who find themselves at a posh dinner party, with their host claiming to be the Devil himself! Three of the guests have already made deals with the figure, while the other three are hoping to make deals. Jason Zlatkus stars as Fenris Black, also featuring Crystal J. Huang (Shameless), Lorelei Linklater (Boyhood), Mike Ferguson (Amityville Uprising), Chris Giese (Impact Even), and Patrick Peterson (The Sound of Waves). Dinner with the Devil is written and directed by B. Luciano Barsuglia, he states "This movie will have plenty of shocking and horrifically bloody moments, but at its core, it's a story about the characters, human nature, and the decisions they make."

From the director and producers of Ash and Bone comes supernatural thriller The Devil's Left Hand. Written and directed by Harley Wallen, this is about a demonic entity that is inadvertently summoned by a spirit medium at a young couple's housewarming party. Feeding on the guests fears as a means to get more powerful, the guests must find a way to fight back. Wallen says of the film "My goal was to make a film that combined the different elements of horror with the focus on suspense and mystery, with a story and character focus. I feel our ensemble did exactly that!" This came to demand and digital on 1st July. I have previously reviewed this movie under the alternate title of Agramon's Gate.

Finally for today, Malice: Nu Gui is an Australian horror film that was inspired by ancient Chinese folklore. The story has a group of students who find themselves cursed by the vengeful Nu Gui. Keo is forced to look back to her past where she discovers a tragic connection to the spirit. This was written and produced by Chaz Fenwick, with directing from Fenwick, Gustavo Diaz and Joshua Evans, and is now showing for free on Tubi.

The Tunnel to Summer, the Exit of Goodbyes (2022) - Fantasy Anime Review

As this is my own blog I am sometimes happy to stray outside of the lines of what is tonally resonant with my mainly horror focussed content. I find the notion of time travel an endlessly captivating subject, so when I got the opportunity to check out a Japanese anime, the Tomohisa Taguchi directed and co-written The Tunnel to Summer, the Exit of Goodbyes (original title Natsu e no tunnel, Sayonara no deguchi) for a review I had to go for it. This was based on the novel of the same name, telling quite the bittersweet story of living for the past.

Kaoru Tono (voiced by Oji Suzuka) is a high school student who lives out in the Japanese countryside with his alcoholic father. His home life is unhappy, something that is linked back to the accidental death of Kaoru's younger sister some years previously, which led to his parents splitting up, and his father bearing an unfair grudge against the boy ever since. One day he encounters a strange girl at the local train station, Anzu Hanashiro (voiced by Marie Litoyo), she is new to the area and happens to be in Kaoru's class. One night, after an argument with his drunk father, Kaoru flees his home and accidentally stumbles across a strange tunnel. Heading into it he discovers his childhood pet bird returned to life, and upon leaving a few minutes later he is shocked to discover an entire week has passed in the outside world. There is a local legend about a place named the Urashima Tunnel, somewhere which is said to grant you your heart's desire at the cost of time off your life, and Kaoru comes to realise he has found this tunnel. He becomes obsessed with the idea of being able to bring his dead sister back to life by visiting the tunnel, but on his second visit he finds Anzu has followed him. With her own private reasons for wanting to visit the tunnel, the two form an alliance, to help each other achieve their wishes.

At its core this is a love story, not really something I typically watch. I do love anime though, so this was a delight to watch regardless. In Japanese with English subtitles, it was easy to follow, and despite a reliance on text messages by the two leads, I never felt like I wasn't getting information at the same time as the characters in the film. The time travel part was what most interested me, and bizarrely this most closely matches the idea used in the classic children's film The Flight of the Navigator (a personal favourite of mine). It seemed more nefarious than it actually was, as while people in the tunnel experience time at a far faster rate, they themselves don't age quicker. Much of the middle section of the movie was concerned with the two teens exploring the limits of the tunnel's time abilities, playing out as a montage of their experiments.

The bittersweet part of this anime comes from Kaoru and Anzu's growing attachment to each other, with Kaoru obsessed with being able to see his sister again, and Anzu's reason for visiting the tunnel more to spend time with the boy than anything, there was going to come a time when I felt the boy would travel deep into the tunnel. With the characters semi-joking that likely a thousand years would pass in any deep exploration, there come a feeling they would become separated by time.

The animation went for a realistic anime look, which worked well with the morose and serious story. I didn't really like the music choices, but it made sense for an anime to have somewhat soppy sounding love songs sung by a female singer. The focus is on the two protagonists, with other characters barely featuring, only really during a handful of school classroom scenes, and Kaoru's home. With the two both having absent parents, it skipped that aspect of regret, with the insular look more at how the time travel would affect them as a close pair.

Is there any horror? Of course not, there is a hint of the supernatural, and of course some interesting time travel, wrapped up in a bittersweet love story that I did find myself getting a little drawn into. The Annecy Award winning The Tunnel to Summer, the Exit of Goodbyes opens in over 120 cinemas nationwide in the UK on Friday 14th July.

SCORE: