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

Hopefully all has gone well this week and blog posts have been appearing as usual. Otherwise, I'm in Belgium so can't really do anything about any issues I may be facing! Onwards and upwards to the news. Update: This was originally intended to be a small news post, I've adapted it slightly as my monthly news post due to not having enough time to write that last weekend.

The Boogeyman arrives exclusively on digital on 29th August, including such sites as Apple TV App, Sky Store, and Prime Video. This film, adapted from a Stephen King short story, is about two sisters and their therapist father who find that a desperate patient visiting the house has left behind a sinister entity that feeds on the suffering of its victims. This was directed by Rob Savage, and written by Scott Beck, Bryan Woods, and Mark Heyman and hopefully has nothing in common with Boogeyman, which really was an awful movie!

An official trailer has been released for Dale A. Stelly's The Boatyard. I mentioned this a month or so back, its a horror about five college friends who are rescued by a stranger after their boat breaks down in the middle of the sea. The man takes them back to his boatyard where they quickly discover he has evil intentions.

Scary Tales: Dead Zone has wrapped filming, with a worldwide release due this Halloween. This is the third entry in a series of anthology films, following on from 2008's Scary Tales, and 2014's Scary Tales: Last Stop. The wraparound has a couple whose car breaks down deep in the woods. Looking for assistance they discover a house, whose owner has some interesting stories to tell. Included among these stories are one about aliens, and one about a demonic serial killer.

My final news story in this much shorter than usual monthly round-up is about the release of the official trailer for horror movie Big Brood. This comes from Mad Angel Films, it is described as 'an alien horror film filled with body snatching goo that will leave you on the edge of your seat'. The synopsis has a man planning to propose to his girlfriend at a family 4th of July gathering. Unluckily for him however, a give queen alien crashed in nearby woodland the night before, and is now looking for the perfect host to takeover.
Big Brood is to release in two different editions. Standard Edition is priced at $24.99 and is full of special features. A Special Limited Edition Collector's Box is also available for $39.99. This one is signed by the director, Matthew A. Peters, and actress Stephanie Ward. The box includes a soundtrack CD, a signed poster, an in-depth booklet, an exclusive art print, trading cards and more. The film is due to be released on Blu-ray on October 13th 2023.

#ChadGetsTheAxe (2022) - Comedy Horror Film Review

#ChadGetsTheAxe was a comedy horror film that I suspected I might find insufferable from the cover image alone. Directed, edited, produced, and co-written by Travis Bible, this was a feature length version of his 2017 short film of the same name. What was included here was surprisingly interesting, and really felt modern, giving a lot of incidental critical commentary on the nature of social influencers. While it definitely had moments of nearly laugh out loud humour, this also had moments of genuine horror, always appreciated.

Four social influencers have agreed to team up to do a night time live stream at the site of a place nicknamed 'Devil's Manor', where some years previously a satanic cult had sacrificed some people. The group include Spicy Steve (Michael Bonini), who was still a bit salty after the titular Chad pranked him during a similar night time live stream at a reputed haunted house some weeks previously. It also includes the duo known as 'Spennifer', made up of couple Jennifer (Taneisha Figueroa) and Spencer (Cameron Vitosh - Walker TV show), and of course, Chad himself (Spencer Harrison Levin -#chadgetstheaxe), someone who basically appeared to be a fictional version of the irritating real life social influencer Logan Paul. It isn't long into the exploration of the manor that things begin to take a turn for the bizarre, and soon Chad and the others are fighting for their lives, with the survivors struggling to find a balance between trying to survive the situation, and keeping the viewers of the ongoing live stream engaged and watching.

So, this was found footage, and elements of this harked back to the found footage films of the early 2000s, while other elements brought this up to more modern style. One part of these type of films that can be distracting is why the person filming never stops recording. With a live stream, and with four egotistical streamers seeing the biggest viewing figures of their lives, that doesn't become a question. At one point someone comments (the entire film has a stream of viewer comments in the bottom right hand side corner) why Chad is still filming, with his reply summing up his conflicted reasons perfectly. The old fashioned style of found footage won't appeal to all, there is a heck of a lot of shaky camera footage as the characters run around, and the second half of the film has almost too much footage that is near pitch black.
The more modern style is one that doesn't make entirely cohesive sense, but works at having all the events edited together. Much like films such as Host and Unfriended, a lot of the movie takes place from electronic devices, it starts with a computer screen, and then the meat of the piece is shown from the perspective of the four live streaming friends via their mobile phones. Moments from outside of the live stream are also shown, such as when characters send texts to each other, and when they Facetime each other. Cohesively it doesn't make sense how that would all be stitched together, but was a far better way than purely including the live stream footage.

I wouldn't say this started off too strongly. As per my intro thoughts, I found the characters all super annoying, Chad in particular was a terrible character. Surprisingly, and to the immense credit of Spencer, Chad became a fantastic character, someone who I found myself rooting for to survive, and who was really hilarious. This actor carries the majority of the movie, with at least two thirds mostly being from his perspective. He was just such a funny spoof of real social influencers, such as the phoney way he interacts with his viewers, how utterly self centered and arrogant he is, and how his online persona really backfires on him when he needs help. Moments such as when he phones the police and they hang-up on him when they realise he is someone known for distasteful pranks, or when he texts various friends of his who all assume he is trying to prank them. One hilarious moment has him Facetiming his cousin, a chilled out idiot at a club who insists Chad signs an online contract for him before he will humour him and call for the police. Chad comes to realise that his persona is really affecting his ability to survive the night! Of course, as likeable as he becomes, it was funny how still wrapped up in his social media status he is, terrified at the danger he's in, but also super happy to see the most views one of his videos has ever had, and discussing the possibility of what he is going through being made into a movie, and who would play him in that.
On the horror side of things, there were some decent moments, but the hulking axe wielding antagonist came off as a bit generic, even if it was cool that this apparent killer also was down to using technology, live streaming themself, and texting Chad at various points. Not a bad twist at the end either, something I have seen before, but was still a neat turn of events. Shout out goes to the various comedic reaction videos to the live stream that play out over the end credits.

#ChadGetsTheAxe was a found footage comedy horror that really felt of the current time period. A cool use of modern social influencer techniques merged with somewhat traditional found footage moments led to a film that became increasingly entertaining and amusing to watch. The second act was a little too (literally) dark for my liking, and the antagonist was a bit dull and uninspired, but Spencer put a lot of life into the terrible character of Chad, making for a fun and clever movie. #ChadGetsTheAxe is released on major on-demand and digital platforms on September 1st.

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Blasphemous: Wounds of Eventide (2022) - Horror Video Game DLC Review (Nintendo Switch)

Blasphemous was a mind-blowing 'metroidvania' style platform RPG released back in 2019 (metroidvania of course being typically a 2D platformer/RPG adventure taking place over one gigantic level). I loved playing it, scoring it a great 9/10. With the sequel, Blasphemous II releasing last Thursday, in anticipation I replayed through the first game, something was important to do as the third downloadable content, named 'Wounds of Eventide', added a third ending to the game, an ending which is the canonical one. As my review will show, I did mess that up quite a bit, but I also managed to see some of the extra content added since the my first initial playthrough. The review will also mention some of the other DLC added, though I didn't play all of that, again due to lack of research. Mild spoilers for some base-game stuff to follow.

Blasphemous takes place in a Medieval style world in which a kind of religious apocalypse has struck the land. Basically, anyone who deems themselves to be guilty, or is found to be doing something bad will be punished by a supernatural event known as the 'miracle'. This causes no end of suffering, with many people's perceived guilt resulting in them being transformed into grotesque monsters. You play as a man in a metal mask, the last surviving member of a brotherhood of voluntary mutes that had been wiped out by the right hand of a pope-like figure, he had also been killed, but was brought back to life thanks to the power of the miracle. His journey sees him travelling across the fictional world of Custodia in order to kill the corrupt pope.

'Wounds of Eventide' was actually the third DLC released for the game, all of which were completely free I might add. It turned out that the first DLC, 'The Stir of Dawn' mostly contained content that could only be seen by playing the harder New Game + mode. I hadn't realised this and so I started a game from scratch again and missed out (I believe) on five extra bosses, and one new area. The second DLC was for things outside of the game, such as a boss rush mode. The third DLC is the one I will be mostly talking about, though some things added were likely from the earlier new content. There is a convoluted quest you have to do in order to see the new canonical ending. I did the steps correctly up to the penultimate boss. Messing that up resulted in me not seeing the new third phase to the boss battle, and also not seeing the new phase to the final boss, and of course the new ending. Twenty two hours in, and with the sequel releasing the next day, I just didn't have the time to re-do all this, so had to watch a YouTube video of the real ending.

The game added in a whole bunch of new items and magic spells, as well as some new characters to talk to. Key of these was a giant monk who in exchange for fervour and quicksilver would upgrade the strength of the healing flasks, though at the sacrifice of losing one. 'Echoes of Salt' seemed to be a new area, though I believe that came with 'The Stir of Dawn', so the real new area was an underground cave system where giant wooden sailing ships could be located. This was very hard and something I had to leave till the end to do. At the end of this area is one of the two new bosses, a giant snake, so large that the boss battle takes place on its back. The second new boss can be found off of the room where an old man displays relics you find. Find enough and a new room opens up where a fight against a quick moving woman can be found. Should you do this new quest, the midpoint boss is no more, instead he lets you pass without needing to battle him.

Having totally forgotten there was extra DLC content added, my second play of this game was a lovely experience, despite messing up the steps that would give me the real ending. With one of the DLC drops introducing a much swifter way of fast travelling (by donating fervour to a new church area), this led to much less backtracking. There was also the addition of a crossover quest with Bloodstained: Ritual of the Night, a cool addition but due to the intense difficulty in the five puzzle dungeons and slowdown on the Switch, I wasn't able to finish this quest line

I'm sure the second game is also going to get a lot of post-game content, and so when I inevitably go to re-play that one, I'm sure I will play through Blasphemous again, this time getting the proper ending and seeing all the new DLC. 

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Vestige (2023) - Short Horror Film Review

The Joseph Simmons directed and co-written short horror film, Vestige is due to get its world premiere at Frightfest on 28th August at 18:30 in London, just a little time away from when this is being published. It was apparent from the very start that this short film was going for quality and atmosphere over cheap thrills, something I was happy to see, as was the feeling of this being a partial homage to the works of H.P Lovecraft.

Teenager Lucas (Ben Hackett - Coronation Street TV show) has suffered a loss in his recent past, with his father apparently drowning in the sea. His father had been obsessed with cassette tapes, and had left his son some recordings on them, hoping he too will find the magic in them too. While exploring a coastal cave while listening to his father's voice, Lucas discovers a strange fossilised creature. He discovers that somehow, this fossil is able to affect the recordings, with a message being revealed on them that seems to suggest that Lucas' father is seeking his help. Lucas becomes obsessed with this hidden message, much to the despair of his granddad Samuel (Steve Evats - Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides), who sees the boys claim a result of the grief he is feeling.

I loved the atmosphere with Vestige, the coastal cave was suitably imposing, especially the entrance way which is shown with some nice cinematography. As for that title itself, 'vestige' has a few meanings, the one relevant being 'a trace or remnant of something that is disappearing or no longer exists'. This of course fits in with Lucas trying to hold on to the memory of his father by constantly re-playing his words from his cassette tape player. The central idea of a hidden message being in the tape collection was a bit hard to follow. With Lucas' thoughts kept to himself you get some montages of him cutting up the tapes and fixing them together, but without the context of why he is doing this, or how he knows what parts to fit together. This gave the sense that it could well be the boy was struggling to deal with his sorrow at his father's passing, something which is kept a mystery right up until the end. Lucas was ok as the protagonist, though I wished he had more lines to really explain what he was doing. Evats was great as his granddad, the more interesting character of the two. This all culminates with an effective scene, even if the CG was a little bit obvious. It made for an interesting way to finish things, though not that surprising.

I appreciated that this went to some lengths to tell a competent story over just trying to scare the viewer. The backstory was drip fed in an engaging way, and the performances of the small cast were effective. It is always impressive how a story with elements of depth to it can be created in such a short time frame, and this story flows into its twelve minute slot very well. More about Vestige can be found on its Instagram page here.

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The Rotting Zombie's News Anthology for Tuesday 22nd August 2023

While I am working on my blog this weekend (at the time of typing), I'm not entirely sure if I am going to be able to stick up any blog posts next week. I'm off to Belgium with my father to visit the field where the Battle of Waterloo took place. Last time I was in Europe my phone was pretty much unuseable, I'm hoping in the years since the networks have improved enough that I can actually do stuff while over there.

On September 5th, courtesy of Synapse Films, Spanish horror director Adrian Garcia Bogliano's Black Circle comes to Blu-ray. The interesting synopsis has two sisters whose play of a mysterious vinyl record results in duplicates of themselves being created. They are forced to try and locate the man responsible for making this record, in the hopes of being able to stop their increasingly powerful doppelgangers. Included amongst the many extras is the film's original soundtrack on CD.
Then on 26th September, Dario Argento's classic Tenebrae comes to 4K UHD, this film follows mystery writer Peter Neal, who is disturbed to discover a serial killer who models his kills on those described in Neal's latest novel. Included are many extras, including an alternate opening and ending credit sequence.

Scareplex is a new online streaming platform that has the noble goal of paying indie filmmakers (an 80/20 split). Created by Ash Hamilton (Holes in the Sky: The Sean Miller Story), this launched with over 200 genre titles that range from new films, to classics, to documentaries, series, and podcasts. It has also been designated the official home of paranormal show Monster Vision TV, and podcasts Shadow Initiative and Zompire Horde. The site can be found here.

Finally for today, Hex Studios have revived the iconic Amicus Productions, with the blessing of Amicus founder, Milton Subotsky. Upcoming film In the Grip of Terror hopes to not only pay homage to the classic studio's legacy, but also to create a strong new chapter in British horror. This anthology horror will include four short stories with a unifying theme of 'medical macabre'. The cast will include among them Laurence R. Harvey (Human Centipede II), Megan Tremethick (Ghost Crew), Jonathan Hansler (The Devil's Machine), and Michael Daviot (Revenge of Innsmouth). A Kickstarter campaign is due to begin in the middle of September.

The Last of Us (2023) - Zombie Horror TV Show Review

A nine episode adaptation of the post apocalyptic zombie video game The Last of Us came out to critical acclaim earlier this year, with both fans of the game and newcomers falling in love with it. I kind of missed the zeitgeist on this, mainly due to neither me or my friend having the channel it was showing on, and also, being unable to find a decent way to illegally stream it. Fear not, for I eventually decided to buy it on DVD, so most of it was watched in a legal fashion, even if we were a little late to the party.

Twenty years in the past, a worldwide apocalyptic event occurred that resulted in the near complete break down of law and order. A fungus mutated to have the ability to infect humans, able to turn them into zombie like puppets who exist only to pass on the fungus to new hosts. The resulting outbreak was near impossible to control, and now the land is split up between small communities, often ruled with an iron fist, and smaller sporadic groups of bandits. Joel (Pedro Pascal - The Mandalorian TV show) is a man with a tragic past who had gone down a dark path in the name of survival in this new harsh world. Him and his partner, Tess (Anna Torv) are hired by the leader of a revolutionary terrorist group known as The Fireflies, to escort a very important package across the wasteland of America. This package turns out to be a teenage girl, Ellie (Bella Ramsey), someone who is special due to being immune to infection from the zombie like creatures. Joel and Tess are instructed to deliver her to a medical facility, where it is hoped a vaccine can be created from the girl's blood. Initially hostile and resentful of his task, as the weeks and months pass, Joel and Ellie slowly begin to bond, with it beginning to seem to the two that each other are exactly what they have been searching for.

I had heard that whether you were a fan of the games or someone who hadn't even heard of them, that this would be a special show. I would disagree in part due to how closely this follows the events of the game. From the very beginning I knew exactly what was going to happen, this sucked out a lot of the joy of discovery for me, as I knew instantly whenever a character was introduced what their fate was going to be. It meant the stakes were always low and there really wasn't much surprise to be found. I found both the first episode 'When You're Lost in the Darkness' and second episode 'Infected' to be really quite dull, I found it hard to separate this from my memory of the game. Thankfully it was third episode 'Long, Long Time' that really changed up the format. While the show never returned to such a big divergence, this still really stuck with me. In the game you encounter a character called Bill, who has set up a whole load of traps around the gated community he lives in. In the TV show, instead of this, the whole third episode takes place as a flashback. Over twenty years it shows the emergence of a loving relationship between Bill (Nick Offerman - Parks and Recreation TV show), and Frank (Murray Bartlett), which was just so beautiful and bittersweet to see play out. In the world of The Last of Us life rarely goes well for people, so it was sorrowful knowing where things would eventually lead up to. Despite Offerman only appearing in this one episode, he was perhaps my second favourite character of the whole first season.

The show is at its best when it is digging deeper into stories of the characters rather than just aping the events of the game. Two parter, 'Please Hold to My Hand' and 'Endure and Survive' was a prime example. In the game this was just another encounter with an evil group, but the show gives far more exploration of just who they were, making for a very interesting story. The DLC for the video game, Left Behind is fitted in here, and worked just as well as it did there. This did lead to a similar complaint I had with the game. Due to the road trip feel of this, often there can be weeks or months having passed between episodes. It can create a bit of a disjointed feel, and affected things such as Joel and Ellie's relationship which didn't get strong until the later half of the season, so didn't have too much screen time to really be demonstrated. It all culminates with 'Look for the Light', a decent season finale that was let down by feeling a little bit rushed in places.

The game has plenty of zombies, the show not so much. My younger self would have balked at this, but with the focus here on the humans I actually didn't mind the absence of much infected. Typically there are only one or two zombies in an episode, a handful of times a decent amount make an appearance. They looked suitably messed up, and the clickers in particular were a highlight. It was the human antagonists who left more of an impression, such as a late appearance of Scott Shepherd (El Camino: A Breaking Bad Movie) who played the religious commune leader David to chilling effect in penultimate episode 'When We Are in Need'. Best character of course was Joel, Pascal can just do no wrong, and the conflicted and complicated character is really brought to life by him. Despite him having done some truly terrible things, he is someone who was a amazing to follow. Initially I wasn't taken with the shows interpretation of Ellie. In the show she feels a lot more bloodthirsty and angry than in the game, while initially I found Ramsey's different look to be off putting. By the end though she did grow on me a lot, especially with the more light hearted scenes around her and Joel.

The Last of Us was a fantastic season, impressive casting choices, and also impressive how many of the locations looked identical to their video game counterparts. If not for being so familiar due to my many playthroughs of the game, I would have liked this even more, but even knowing all the story beats, I still found myself loving this. I really hope season two doesn't follow the bleak path of The Last of Us: Part II, though I am pretty certain it will do.

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Werewolf by Night (2022) - Horror TV Show Review

I loved the first round of Marvel superhero films, and it ended on the perfect note. This second round of films just isn't really doing it for me, there just feels like a spark is missing, outside of that fantastic Spiderman and Dr. Strange double bill. It's also annoying that the films are intended to be watched in tandem with the many TV shows. All that is to say I've only just gotten to Werewolf by Night, a Marvel TV special from last year, one that serves as a loving homage to the classic horror films of the fifties.

The wielder of a powerful and destructive magical gem dies, with instructions that the new owner of his gem will have to win a hunting contest against a terrifying monster before he can get it. A group of hunters arrive at the man's funeral, these include among them, the friendly Jack (Gael García Bernal), and Elsa Bloodstone, a character I last read about in Marvel Zombies: Battleworld (here played by Laura Donnelly), and who was the daughter of the original owner of the gem. The hunters soon head into a maze, where they are encouraged to take each other out in their quest to defeat the beast and claim the gem for their own.

This was mostly in black and white, with the homage to old horror films being very evident from everything to the font design and music, to the pacing of the story. It also meant that this was allowed to show more blood than you would typically expect for a Marvel show, which was nice. The fifty six minute special was split across two different sections. The first had the hunters in the maze hunting the mysterious monsters, it was here that it become clear Jack wasn't like the other hunters, when he is shown attempting to help the monster to escape. Elsa is shown to be a capable fighter, and also more noble than the bloodthirsty others. I'm assuming all the characters were from the comics, but their names were not really ever given, so it was only one or two characters I did actually recognise.

With 'werewolf' in the title, I felt it was obvious where this would head to, and it did, with the second part of this revolving around a character who is secretly a werewolf, culminating in an exciting fight sequence.

The black and white purposely dated feel to this made it feel a bit outside of normal Marvel stuff, not as grating as the tedious The Eternals was, but it didn't feel too much like Marvel. The story was fine, entertaining enough, if light on any kind of surprises. I wouldn't go as far as to say this was dull, but there was nothing here that would call me back for another watch, especially when it seems to have no bearing at all on the current overarching Marvel storyline. Werewolf by Night can be streamed on Disney+.

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The Callisto Protocol: Final Transmission (2023) - Sci-fi Horror Video Game DLC Review (Playstation 5)

It was by good coincidence that I happened to be nearing the end of my time with The Callisto Protocol  when the DLC Final Transmission was released. This two to three hours additional content adds on a final chapter to the game, including new weapons, new enemies and new areas of Black Iron Prison to explore. Being set after the end of the base game, there will obviously be spoilers to follow.

With the facility self destructing, Jacob's (voiced by Josh Duhamel) fate doesn't look good, that is until he is contacted by Dr, Caitlyn Mahler (Louise Barnes) who reveals that there may still be a way to escape from the place, due to her knowing the location of a hidden escape vessel. The man isn't in good shape however, suffering short term amnesia, as well as visual and auditory hallucinations, a result of the stress and horror he has gone through. Mahler is partly responsible for all that has happened on Callisto, and so she hopes to reveal to the rest of the galaxy what has transpired there. She tasks Jacob with locating the various recordings she has made about her experiments enroute to the escape ship. Not everything is as it seems however.

I was a bit concerned about how good this DLC may be, but also hoped the time the studio have had to make this might improve it from the often dull story of the main game. In terms of the gameplay this is a ramp-up from the difficulty of the end of the base game, with far more enemies to battle, as well as a new enemy type in the form of infected robots, that really are quite powerful. At some point in the DLC you get access to a new melee weapon in the form of a kinetic hammer. This weapon was able to destroy most normal enemies in one or two hits, which meant you are attacked in much greater numbers.

While initially you are revisiting various locations from the main game, they still look different due to the amount of destruction the self destruct system has caused. The graphics are as great as always, making the dark environments really look spectacular at times. I wouldn't have minded a retread around the same places, but this spices things up with both a secret lab, as well as a robot factory to explore. There are new dangers, such as traps in the ventilation shafts, and new simple puzzles in the form of locks you must solve to open locked doors. There are a few minor boss fights, as well as a final battle that was a lot better than the boss fight in the game proper.
My biggest relief was that the story was more enjoyable. Jacob constantly hallucinating reminded me of the marker's effect from Dead Space, with literal ghosts of his past tormenting him, and his guilt of his past actions causing damning messages to appear on the walls in blood. At times the level changes shape around Jacob, making this DLC chapter a lot more weird than the more grounded sci-fi realism that came before. It all wraps up in a neat and unexpected way. Perhaps not the most original thing, but for a game that was so utterly dull in its story before, this direction was welcome.

I have read people giving Final Transmission a hard time, saying it was more of the broken same. I thought as an extra chapter it worked well. It didn't give the closure I might have expected for Jacob, but this also meant that it is not completely essential to play. The new enemies, new locations, and new melee weapon all delighted me, someone who was sure this was going to be pointless. It may never excel from the main game, but it fits that perfectly, making for a fun few extra hours. With the studio not in great shape, I wouldn't be surprised if this is the last we hear of The Callisto Protocol.

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The Rotting Zombie's News Double Bill for Tuesday 15th August 2023

With Catholic themed metroidvania horror video game Blasphemous getting a sequel towards the end of this month, I decided to give it another playthrough. In the time since I last played it has had a whole host of extras added to it, including new areas, extended areas, new boss fights, new items, new quests, as well as a new third ending. Best of all, all of that was added for free, which felt refreshing. Onwards to the news.

Hex Media Ltd has announced the release of its latest film, The Vance Institute which is directed by Lawrie Brewster (The Devil's Machine, Lord of Tears). The screenplay for this was done by David Joshua Laurence and Tom Malloy, who also are among the cast, which also includes Hannah New (Black Sails), Megan Tremethick, Courtney Warner, and Gordon Holliday. In the film, the attendees of a spiritual retreat find themselves victims of Tobin Vance, a man who coerces his patients to take part in deadly trials.
The Vance Institute is the UK version of Trauma Therapy: Psychosis with notable differences between the two films, with the US/International version being re-edited and including a short segment featuring the late Tom Sizemore, something that Brewster views as exploitative. The Vance Institute is available from Hex Media Ltd's store, and will soon come to Amazon Video On Demand.

The second of the two news stories for today is about comedic horror film Night of the Insolent Vermin which is now available from Bayview Entertainment. Directed by Gary DeJidas, and starring Kayla Strada, Jaydelise Volquez, and Anna Faith. A group of female friends decide to take shelter together when a huge hurricane comes to Florida. Unluckily for them, the storm has supernatural powers that affects people and insects alike, turning them deadly. After central Florida is put under martial law, the girls decide it is up to them to head out and save the state. It at least does something a little different with its trailer.

Wrath of Dracula (2023) - Horror Film Review

I think it is somewhat fair to say that indie film director Steve Lawson (The Mummy: Resurrection, Ripper Untold) creates horror films that are pretty mid-tier in terms of quality. Their small dimly lit sets, and scenes and scenes full of nothing much more than characters talking to each other gave them a unified quality that sometimes made it hard to tell individual films apart from each other. Within ten seconds of starting his latest horror, Wrath of Dracula, I was able to immediately identify that this was from Lawson. While there are certainly small dimly lit sets and lots of talking, this also happened to be the very best film from this particular director I've ever seen, the often theatrical way characters act really worked in the favour for a film about that most iconic movie monster, Dracula.

After Mina (Hannaj Bang Bendz - Dead Island 2 voicework) receives a concerning letter from her husband Jonathan (Dean Marshall - Peaky Blinders), she is forced into action. Her husband, a solicitor, had been abroad in Transylvania, visiting a wealthy client who wished to move to England. It turns out this client, a man known as Count Dracula (Sean Cronin - Mission Impossible - Rogue Nation, The World Is Not Enough), is holding Jonathan against his will in his mountain top castle. Mina swiftly travels to the castle, where she encounters a man who introduces himself as Van Helsing (Mark Topping - Jekyll and Hyde, Bram Stoker's Van Helsing). He tells Mina that he has been hunting Dracula for the past three years, and that he is a great evil that must be destroyed. Back in the local village he reveals to the woman that the Count is actually a vampire, a near unkillable agent of death and destruction. Initially hoping the woman will give up her quest and return to London, he soon comes to recognise the sheer determination and drive of Mina, and decides to enlist her aid in finally defeating his biggest foe.

Often liking to base his films around famous period piece horror stories, such as The Mummy, Jekyll and Hyde and the crimes of Jack the Ripper, it was hardly surprising to see him take a stab at Dracula. With the excellent Topping having played Van Helsing in a previous film of Lawson, I'm pretty sure this is at least an indirect sequel to that film, with this Van Helsing being the same character as there. I imagined this would follow a similar path to Bram Stoker's classic novel, but instead this branches out on its own, taking time to transform the character of Mina into a strong and independent bad-ass. Rather than the story taking place both in Transylvania and London, this all takes place in and around Dracula's castle. Having been completely exhausted with Lawson's portrayal of Victorian England, it felt weirdly refreshing to have a film set elsewhere. The eighty five minute horror is near enough split into two halves. The first deals a lot with the relationship between Helsing and Mina, including some very cheesy, yet also very entertaining training montages, where Mina in the space of a week transforms herself somehow into a monster slaying martial arts expert. The second half is all about the duo's attempts to infiltrate Castle Dracula and defeat the vampire and his three vampirical brides. Special effects were sparsely used but effective, a little bit of blood mixed in with a little bit of action

There was a lot of cheese to the movie, but then there often needs to be where Dracula is concerned. A mild complaint was that the count doesn't really feature much, only really appearing properly towards the end. I do appreciate this was to keep up the mystique of this character, with Helsing providing plenty of details about him, such as his origins, and past encounters with the demonic being. He may have not got to do much, but Cronin was a decent choice, and seemed like a powerful antagonist. Star of the show was both Bendz and Topping, I loved how this two put so much life into their characters, Topping in particular really stood out, a very charismatic and likeable character he played. Mina felt very much of the modern time, with her character being very independent and more than a match for anyone really. Not so good was Jonathan, relegated to a small side role, this lame duck of a man was pretty pathetic, it seemed hard to see how Mina and Jonathan would have ever been a good match.
Most cheesy of all where the brides of Dracula who all hammed up their roles as per tradition. It led to a few fun fight scenes, albeit ones that were stuffed to the gills with cheesiness. It felt fresh for a Lawson film not to collapse into over the top dramatics and ridiculous twists in its third act, instead it hints at a possible sequel in the future, something I would be well up for seeing.

You don't go to a Steve Lawson film for high budget and high thrills, but with Wrath of Dracula his particular brand of dramatical characters really worked. Even things like the early 2000's sounding rock song that are somehow incorporated into the film worked out for the best, as did the decent soundtrack. I had a blast watching this, a pleasant surprise for sure.

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The Callisto Protocol (2022) - Sci-fi Horror Video Game Review (Playstation 5)

The Callisto Protocol is a spiritual successor to the legendary Dead Space, it was directed by the co-creator of that series, Glen Schofield. I had heard that the game, with a reliance on close quarters combat, could be frustrating to play, and that the location of a prison was uninspired. For me though, it was the utterly forgettable and generic story that really dragged this down.

Set in 2320, Jacob Lee (voiced by Josh Duhamel), and his partner are cargo pilots who have recently dropped off a shipment of supplies at the Black Iron Prison on the moon of Callisto. Soon after taking off they come under attack by a terrorist organisation, 'The Outer Way', a group held responsible for a recent biological attack on Europa. In the process of trying to protect his ship from the invading group, Jacob inadvertently causes it to crash back onto Callisto, with him and the terrorist leader, Dani Nakamura (Karen Fukuhara - The Boys TV series) the only survivors. Rescued by Black Iron's head of security, Captain Leon Ferris (Sam Witwer - The Mist), Jacob thinks he is saved, but is shocked to discover that the warden of Black Iron, Duncan Cole (James Mathis III - Dead Space remake voicework) has decided to imprison him along with Dani. At some point later, Jacob awakens in his cell, where he quickly discovers some type of horrific outbreak has occurred which has transformed many of the prisoners and guards of Black Iron into grotesque zombie-like mutants. Escaping from his cell, Jacob sets out to find a way to get off of Callisto.

First things first, I think The Callisto Protocol may be one of the best looking games I have had the pleasure to play. Finally, after many years, this was a game that looked like it was actually designed for current consoles. Use of light and shadow, and the incidental detail is strong. The enemy designs are disgusting looking, while the visceral combat was a joy to witness, with some really brutal looking finishers. The main location is the prison facility, and while hardly groundbreaking in terms of its design, it looked fantastic. There are a few different areas the game goes to, mainly industrial environments, but includes some levels set out in the snow (giving me Dead Space 3 vibes), and a great section set below ground where the abandoned first Callisto settlement was located. The great graphics do come at a cost, as much of the environment isn't destructible, the only places where supplies can be found are either in lockers, or neon blue glowing chests which are few and far between.

My biggest issue with the game was the bizarrely forgettable story. It is such a generic plot, so completely devoid of any surprises that I legitimately had to consult a Wikipedia plot guide each time I sat down to play this. I was just unable whatsoever to recall what on earth was happening with the game. It doesn't help that your objectives are never much more than to travel from A to B constantly. The game sets up twists and turns, yet it was all extremely obvious where this was going. There is no attempt to hide the warden being the antagonist, it was obvious that Dani wasn't the bad guy she was initially made out to be, while it was also super obvious that Jacob wasn't as innocent as he was trying to make himself out to be. Then it does the annoying thing that Dead Space 3 did, having the proper ending of the game locked away behind DLC.
Maybe the story could have been saved with some world building, but here, even the audio diaries you find dotted around the game are minimal and dull, usually amounting to a couple of unexciting lines of dialogue that failed entirely to make themselves sound interesting.

At least the gameplay was fun, the decision to make 80% of the combat in the game reliant on melee attacks was an inspired choice, it leads to some violent scenes where you are getting covered in blood from the ever mutating creatures. Starting off as zombie like creatures, the enemies design evolves over the course of the game, so by the end, enemies are changing one or two times during a typical fight. Boss fights are less exciting, usually requiring you to wear the boss down using your guns before going in for the melee kill. The guns include pistol, submachine guns, shotguns and a magnum, but the sci-fi look made it pretty hard to tell which gun was which, while the way you change guns is very cumbersome, requiring you to mess around in a subscreen in real time where your attempts to change the weapons can be interrupted. You also have the ability to levitate enemies and fling them against walls, fine enough, but I found the metre that governed your power to do this was extremely hard to see, so I was never able to figure out if I had power to do the ability or not. Blocking was another mystery to me, apparently you are meant to hold down on the d-pad to block, but I was never able to figure this out.
The difficulty definitely increases over the course of the game, enough that there were many sections towards the end that took me multiple attempts to beat. Rather than frustrating, this actually felt a little old school, like how games used to be, so I appreciated the gradual difficulty increase. 

The Callisto Protocol is a beautifully ugly survival horror game, one that had some really fun combat to it. I however am someone who really enjoys story in video games, I found this bland as they come sci-fi horror attempt to really pull me out of what was happening, the boring unoriginal plot really made this game not as good as it could have been, and that is a shame. With a DLC chapter to wrap up the game proper, and a 'Riot' roguelike mode also added, there will be more for this game to follow in the coming weeks and months.  

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The Rotting Zombie's News Anthology for Thursday 10th August 2023

Another news post for this week, nothing more to say, so onto the news.

Industrial metal band, Our Frankenstein have released a video for their new single 'Illuminate'. The press release states the song is '...about finding the light that can exist in a barren and hopeless wasteland while building a better future for yourself.' The song is available on all major streaming platforms, including Bandcamp and having given it a listen, it isn't bad.

Next up, some notable Arrow Video US releases for August. First up is Weird Science that is due for release on August 22nd. This iconic sci-fi teen comedy sees two high school nerds who create the perfect A.I woman. The limited edition release includes a 4K scan of the original 94 minute theatrical negative in Dolby Vision, an extended cut coming in at 97 minutes, and an edited for TV version at 94 minutes. There are also interviews, trailers, image galleries, an illustrated collectors' booklet, a reversible sleeve, and even a poster.
August 29th sees the release of the 2009 remake of Wes Craven's 1970 grindhouse classic The Last House On The Left, which comes to limited edition 4K UHD. This features both the theatrical version as well as an unrated version, with many of the same extras as for Weird Science sans poster. I saw this one at the cinema in the early days of my blog and quite enjoyed it.

Finally for today, Italian psychological horror The Cage has wrapped production. This comes from writer/director Henry Secchiaroli and stars Nicola Grottoli, Daniele Borghi, Claudia Salvatore, Francesca Di Modugno, and Marco Florio. The story revolves around a secretive family under the control of the mother's 'iron will'.

On the Trail of Bigfoot: Land of the Missing (2023) - Documentary Review

On the Trail of Bigfoot: Land of the Missing is the latest documentary from Seth Breedlove (On the Trail of Bigfoot: Last Frontier, On the Trail of Bigfoot: The Journey). Like last year's Last Frontier, this one takes place in Alaska, and sees Breedlove interviewing various eye witnesses to apparent Bigfoot creatures. While the director begins by saying fear sells and that wasn't the point of this documentary, he later states that overwhelming accounts of aggressive creatures shaped the path this doc took. Initially planned to try and explain the huge number of unexplained disappearances in Alaska, this became more focussed on accounts of attacks.

As always, it is the people that Breedlove interviews that makes up most of the content here. Also as always, there was never a sense that the people being interviewed are making their stories up, they seem to genuinely believe what they are saying. This includes the more 'out there' story of a man forced to defend himself with a gun against a pack of Bigfoot while at a remote cabin with two family members one long night, and more measured stories, such as a park ranger who encountered a bizarre trail in the woods.
Breedlove is never firmly in the camp of firmly believing what he hears, he goes at lengths to say the idea of there being multiple species of Bigfoot seems a bit hard to believe, while he states that due to the huge number of disappearances in the area, to attribute even a minor number of them to Bigfoot killings would be too much. He does want to believe in the creatures though, with the amount of documentaries in the On the Trail of Bigfoot series, that backs up his interest.

Many of the people he speaks to believe in what they are saying, but there is often a balanced counterview. One section that detailed an account of a sixteen year old boy who went missing in 1975 is counterbalanced by an anonymous source saying it is far more likely the boy died due to the harsh environment, rather than his father's belief that Bigfoot was the thing responsible. For a documentary titled Land of the Missing, the focus is more on accounts of violent beasts. There is a little side tangent that talks of legends of little people and giants also in the area, as well as links to U.F.O sightings, secret military bases, and an intriguing legend of a gigantic black pyramid structure deep in the wilderness. Many of the testimonies are set to art of the creatures (art mainly created by Michael Broom). I thought at least one recreation would have been interesting. Outside of Breedlove's narration and interviews, there isn't much of him out exploring. It opens on his account of staying at a remote cabin for a few days, but that is never gone back to.

With legends of hairy men dating back to Native American myths and legends, I like to think that there could have possibly been something there at some point in time but find it hard to believe there could be anything like that around today. Bigfoot is one of my favourite cryptids if only due to my father believing in them, a man that I respect a lot. Land of the Missing didn't do anything to change my viewpoint, but it was interesting to watch, adding more of an element of horror to what these docs usually provide. On the Trail of Bigfoot: Land of the Missing comes to Cable VOD and Digital HD from 1091 Pictures and is available on Blu-ray exclusively from Small Town Monsters on August 22nd.

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The Rotting Zombie's News Anthology for Tuesday 8th August 2023

So, I had a failed experiment last week in which I had a reduced output. My best friend stays over pretty much every other weekend at the moment and I had felt bad that so much of our time was spent with me locked away in my office doing my blog. Two blog posts in a week hasn't sat well with me however, so back to my usual five this week.

Devils Lake is now available on Blu-ray from Bayview Entertainment. Directed by Ted Pfeifer (Cabin Fever, Lockdown), this stars Justin Ament, Pfeifer, and Ryan Deal. It tells the story a Jake Barker, a man who returns to his troubled hometown of Devils Lake at the same time that a series of murders begins. From the trailer, the killer gave off Michael Myers vibes, at least in terms of the look.

1950's style sci-fi creature feature, They Came Back From Somewhere currently has an Indiegogo campaign running. It sees the saviour of Earth, the Gorkian Luma cloned, with his clone sent to Earth to locate his human girlfriend. After the Gorkian Supreme Leader discovers Luma missing, he sends a clone of his best warrior, Quasar to hunt him down and destroy him, But unknown to all, a deadly creature is about to be unleashed on Earth. For more information about this check out the Indigogo page, where over £3,000 has been raised so far for the £7,844 flexible goal.

Finally for today, psychological horror film Unseen currently has an Indiegogo campaign running. This is to feature Felissa Rose, Trinity Chase, Brett Wagner (The Texas Chainsaw Massacre), and Jaime Hill (Skinamarink). The story tells of a mentally unstable man who torments a woman with an abusive past during the aftermath of an unknown disaster. Unseen is to be directed by Steve Merlo (The Sawyer Massacre), and the campaign page can be found here.

Curse of Crom: The Legend of Halloween (2022) - Horror Film Review

The Rob York directed and co-written Curse of Crom: The Legend of Halloween gave off some real Stranger Things vibes to me, some of which just had to be purposeful. The cast of 'teenagers' may look like adults in their mid-twenties, but the film retained a fun charm to it, though its distinct lack of threat might put some people off.

Mary (Chelsea Jurkiewicz - Abigail Haunting) is a high school teen who does food deliveries as a way to earn money to get her into college. Fed up with her creepy Irish neighbour, Mr Murphy, (Cory Dangerfield - Templar Nation) ordering food that he then insists is left opened and uneaten on his doorstep, and then not tipping her, she gets into an argument with the man, and unknown to him dumps his order in the bin. That evening, Mr Murphy is attacked and killed by a spectral figure. It turns out that Mr Murphy's bloodline was cursed to forever having to appease an Irish entity named Crom with offerings of food, and now the man is dead the creature is given the opportunity to cause untold danger to the world if it isn't stopped before Halloween arrives. Mary, along with her friends, Harvey (Tanner Gillman), Steve (Halem Medina - V/H/S/99, segment 'To Hell And Back'), Georgia (Ariana Bagley), and Stephanie (Monica Moore Smith) realise it is up to them to try and find a way to banish this creature back to the world of the dead.

Any film that takes place around Halloween is welcome, and here that vibe is well represented with all manner of Halloween decorations and pumpkins, while the autumn leaves blowing around the town really gave me a vibe of the classic Halloween. In terms of the characters, outside of the blatant fact none of them were played by teenagers, they were a fun bunch, if reliant on stereotypes. Most distracting was Harvey who looked and acted like a cut-price version of Steve from Stranger Things. The fact that one of the friends was actually called Steve made me think this was originally meant to be his name, but it was felt that was a little too much on the nose. That isn't really a dig, Gillman's character has an impressive head of hair as that other character, and his unrequited love for Mary was portrayed well for what this was. Stereotypes are fine when going for a somewhat light hearted tone as shown here, I did think Georgia was the weakest of the bunch, her sullen and moody character really didn't do much. Smith was great as the princess of the group, even if the way she was treated was a little mean. Outside of the brief role that Cory Dangerfield played, the only adults of any note were Mary's parents, and with the dad (Colin Cunningham - Falling Skies TV show), I never felt like he really fitted the role well.

The actual moments of horror are the weakest element of this film sadly, with Crom looking decent enough for a Buffy the Vampire Slayer monster of the week, but not feeling like much of a genuine threat. It doesn't help that outside of Mr Murphy there isn't any death in the film. Each of the friends in turn find themselves in situations where Crom is after them, but none of them are ever in any real trouble. On the one hand I am glad that no one is killed off as the characters (with the exception of Georgia) were a likeable bunch. On the other hand though, the lack of threat became a bit of an issue, as did the muddy backstory and attempts to link the entity to Mary. It was the type of plot where the characters seem to invent the antagonists intentions and then act accordingly, with no real evidence to support their beliefs.

Curse of Crom: The Legend of Halloween was an enjoyable teen horror film that had a mostly great cast of characters. With a bigger kill count, and with a simplified explanation of what the monster was and its intentions this would have benefitted. As it was, this wasn't bad, but the weak antagonist isn't something that is likely to stick in the mind. The film is due for release on 11th September from High Fliers Films.

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