Savage: The Bigfoot Legend...Lives (2011) - Horror Film Review

 

I don't mind films about bigfoot, though they can be hard to make them compelling to watch, often due to the elusive nature of the creature. Savage: The Bigfoot Legend...Lives (also known more simply as Savage) was directed and co-written by Jordan Blum in his feature length directorial debut, and despite some generic parts managed to be better than I initially gave it credit for.

Firefighters trying to contain a fire that has broken out in Bear Valley National Park find themselves attacked by a strange creature (Jack Harrison), something that results in long time park ranger, Owen (Tony Becker) being called in to investigate. While a bigfoot creature operating in the area is said to be a legend created to entice tourists, it seems that the forest fires have riled it up and that it is actually real. With its food source being disrupted, the deadly creature has turned to human prey. Scientist Dale (Shane Callahan) meanwhile has hired local hunter, Jack Lund (Martin Kove - Once Upon a Time... in Hollywood, The Karate Kid series of films) to help him track down the beast. Their hunt leads them to Gabrielle (Anna Enger Ritch - The Haunting of Hill House TV show), a wanted criminal whose abusive partner had an unfortunate run-in with the creature.

It appeared to begin with that this horror might be too middle of the road for me. It had a series of generic feeling characters, and a general look to the film that did little to garner excitement. It picked up thankfully, and that was down to several factors. It took a while to like the character of Owen, he was one of the more generic and predictable people, though as the most noble of the protagonists he had some moments. You could almost call Dale and Jack the antagonists here, were not the bigfoot creature a legitimate threat to everyone's safety. Dale is at best a neutral character, ridiculed his whole life due to his belief in the creature, he is obsessed with finding it. While a bit out of his depth, he has courage, at one point even the internal organs of a victim of the beast falling onto him barely fazes him. A better route to go down than having him as a more expectedly cowardly character. Jack was another decent one, he was more villainous, with his aim to kill the beast, but a mid-film flashback shines some light on his personal reasons for wanting it dead. Gabrielle was fine, the character didn't stand out much, but she was there for a reason and was utilised well.

I was impressed with the bigfoot creature itself. Sure, it never looks particularly convincing when it is shown full on screen, but it still gelt like a genuine threat. It has some actually great scenes, with it bounding along on all fours, and able to swiftly clamber up trees. I also loved the moments when victims are suddenly thrown up into the sky, or dragged off camera. There was more violence than I had anticipated, with severed heads, and a decent amount of blood thrown in. The only notable low budget effect came unfortunately in the final act, somewhat dampening what should have been an epic finale.

While the characters are ones you would have seen in plenty other films, I did come to enjoy some of them, in particular I loved the relationship between Dale and Jack. It made them more than stereotypes, and gave them a decent developmental path to go down. It was wise to sparsely show the bigfoot but on the whole the design for it was good. I fully expected to find this a slow film to get through, but to its credit I never once found myself getting bored. Savage: The Bigfoot Legend...Lives came to EST/VOD/SVOD Digital platforms on 28th November of last year, and come to AVOD on 1st January.

SCORE:

The Rotting Zombie's News Anthology for January 2024

This month has continued the trend of passing by super quick. It is often stated that the older you get the faster the years seem to go by, and this does seem to be the case now I'm approaching my forty second birthday. Onwards to the news, and with a bursting rotted mail sack there should be plenty (time willing)...turns out I ran out of time, so just the six news pieces!

Found footage horror The Woodmen has come to Amazon Prime. Directed by Joshua Brucker, and starring Anna Clary, Dan Grogan, Hunter Nino, L.C Holt, Bailey Harrington, Connor Flynn, Nancy Anne Ridder, and Leonora Scelfo, this is about three friends attempting to escape from a clan of feral humans up in the Great Smoky Mountains. Apparently, this is the first movie set in 'The Cryptidverse', which is a shared cinematic universe created by Horror Dadz Productions.

FrightFest has confirmed its return to the Glasgow Film Festival for its 19th year. During the event (that takes place from Thursday 7th March to Saturday 9th March), twelve films from eight countries will be shown, including two world and eight UK premieres. UK premieres include You'll Never Find Me, The Deep Dark, The Invisible Raptor, Wake Up, Kill Your Lover, The Well, All You Need Is Death, and The Soul Eater. World premieres include Mom and Custom. Other films include the Scottish premiere of The Funeral, and premieres of two Scottish short films, Mouse and Subject 73. Tickets can be purchased here.

Horror themed thrash metal group Scarefield released latest single 'Ancient Evil' towards the end of December. The track is taken from their EP, Nightmare Tales, something that is inspired by the works of H.P Lovecraft. The single features an animated music video created by Andrea Mantelli. In addition to 'Ancient Evil', Nightmare Tales features four previously released singles remixed and remastered, with the EP said to be paving the way for the group's upcoming album, A Quiet Country.

Skate To Hell is an eighties inspired comedy horror film that has a campaign running on Indiegogo. This comes from director Shawn C. Phillips and is about a cursed skateboard created by the devil for his son to visit Earth. Any human who steps on the board are transported to their own personal Hell. For more details check out the Indiegogo page here.

Short horror film Sorority Babes is due to release on VOD by March 31st, with production starting in the middle of January. Directed by Angel Nichole Bradford in her solo directorial debut, and starring her alongside Lynn Lowry, Ann Myrna, Jessa Flux, Morrigan Thompson, Kelsey Livengood, Mia Katz, Ashleigh Amberlynn and Samantha Hupp, this is about two people who have created a deadly sorority initiation.

Finally for today, Pinocchio Strings of Death is a new Disney inspired horror film that is to come from director Michael Moutsatsos. The plot has Gepetto creating his living Pinocchio doll, but unknown to him, the wood he used was cursed with the blood of the notorious Count Maurice the Impaler of Tuscany.

Spine Tingler! The William Castle Story (2007) - Horror Documentary Review

Spine Tingler! The William Castle Story is a documentary (directed by Jeffrey Schwarz) about b-movie horror director William Castle, someone who I was really not familiar with. Sometimes, even with the most interesting subject, documentaries such as these can manage to come across as dull. Happily then, despite me not really knowing his films, I found this to be a real feel-good doc, something that put a smile on my face more than once.

In terms of layout this doesn't do anything too special. It charts Castle's life from childhood to death, looking at detail at the key films from his career, with talking head segments featuring no end of people talking both about what he was like as a person, as well as talking about the impact his legacy has had on the film industry. You get the impression that he was genuinely liked by those around him, the man, a great showman who delighted in entertaining his audiences, and someone who wasn't content to let his films do the talking for him. The worst thing said about him are some jokey comments about how tight fisted he was when it come to spending money. This was used as a boon however, with him said to be able to create films that looked far more expensive than the low budget might suggest.

The big gimmick around him was the things he did to make the cinema going experience more fun and immersive. This can be seen in Macabre, where he gave ticket buyers legitimate life insurance certificates should they prove to have been scared to death while watching it, to more outlandish devices such as 'Emergo' that had a inflatable skeleton zooming across the heads of the audience during House on Haunted Hill, and 'Percepto' that combined seats rigged to vibrate with fourth wall breaking scenes in the film The Tingler, in which the titular monster escapes into the theatre! Then there was 13 Ghosts that provided the audience with special glasses that 'allowed' them to see ghosts during the film. These were all endlessly entertaining to hear about, from both people who experienced it at the time, as well as those working behind the scenes. With his career failing towards the end of his life, the final segment did take a dip into more morose moments, with Rosemary's Baby (that he produced and had originally hoped to be able to direct instead of Roman Polanski) being where the documentary took more of a dark turn. Things do soon become light again with a look at a (then) modern day showing of his films, showing the happy reaction they still get.

Outside of his films, there was an interesting part that looked at Alfred Hitchcock's Psycho, with it said that Castle's success inspired that master to turn to horror, and in turn Castle being inspired by him, with it said that Castle was like a b-movie version of him.

The talking heads included old favourites such as horror directors John Landis and Joe Dante, but also included a bunch of his family and friends, with his daughter getting one of the biggest appearances throughout, even appearing in a fun after credits scene. It was clear that she did admire her father a lot. While this was not designed to show Castle in a bad light, there was some explanation for why he felt the need to be such a showman, and the self doubt that made him continue ever forward, never able to rest on his laurels.

Despite having only seen one of his films, I really enjoyed Spine Tingler! The William Castle Story. It was feel good, full of fun clips both of Castle and his films, had some decent talking head segments, and left me wanting to check out more of his films. This was released on EST/VOD/SVOD Digital platforms on 28th November 2023, and came to AVOD on 1st January of this year.

SCORE:

Trunk (2023) - Thriller Film Review

The sub-genre of thrillers, the film where someone is trapped in a singular location (such as [Cargo] and Phone Booth), can be tricky to get right. Too much going on and events begin to feel unbelievable, but too little going on and you open up the viewer to boredom. As the title of this German thriller might hint at, Trunk (written, edited and directed by Marc Schießer), takes place nearly entirely within the confines of a car boot. Surprisingly, this ninety five minute movie doesn't let up the pace from start to finish.

Malina (Sina Martens) wakes up one rainy night to find herself laying in the boot of a car, with no recollection of how she got there. Seeing an approaching stranger (Poal Cairo), she manages to grab her phone from outside the car before having to feign unconsciousness as the man approaches and shuts her in. She had been hitchhiking across Germany with her boyfriend, Enno (Artjom Gilz) on the way to a backtracking trip to South America. From phone footage she had taken she is able to see the moment of her abduction. Luckily, she manages to call the police, getting through to Elisa (Luise Helm), but being trapped in the boot she isn't able to provide many details on where she may be. In addition to her kidnapping, she has also soon discovers she has had her kidney amateurishly removed and that she is in real danger of bleeding out. 

It often impresses me how much films set in the one location are able to really sell the goal they are aiming for. You would think a woman trapped in a boot would make for something really dull, but the dynamic editing frequently creates some delightful and atmospheric scenes. Of course, literally having the actress stuck in a boot would make for a claustrophobic film, here, the camera often sweeps upwards in an artistic way, to show Malina laying in the boot surrounded by darkness. At times there are some really impressive looking moments which I assume were a mix of CG and real footage. Having the camera upside down sweeping down the road behind the car, before swinging up and into the hole in the boot where you can see Malina's desperate face peering out was wonderful to look at. There are moments where she is on the phone when the camera swoops into the car's interior before coming back out again. These add life and urgency to the scenes. Having the whole film take place while it's pouring rain late at night helped unify the feel of the movie, with water often playing a key role.

There is a small cast, outside of a couple of tiny outside character roles, you have just six actors bringing the story to life, three of those only here as voices on the other end of the phone. Rather than flashbacks to show Malina and Enno, you instead see these via videos that the protagonist is watching back on her phone. Occasionally you get actual flashbacks, but shown as reflected images in the metal on the inside of the boot, or reflecting off a broken wing mirror. This artistic licence is always used sparingly and helps show to the viewer what the character is thinking of at that time. I thought Cairo made for an interesting antagonist. Despite driving the car the whole film, Malina only has a handful of small interactions with him, though is able to piece together clues based on phone calls he makes (in English). Martens is superb in her strange role, she really gives a believable performance in what must have been a hard place to act!

I thought the special effects looked great, especially the open wound where Malina has had her kidney removed. The blood is suitably wet looking and leads to some wince inducing moments, such as when she is forced to stitch her wound back up using to-hand items.

I feared that Trunk might become a little dull, or that events might get to be too ridiculous. While there are some questions raised, such as how the driver somehow doesn't hear the constantly talking and shouting Malina despite her being so close to him, overall I was impressed, the editing and directing choices breathed life into scenes that could have felt tepid, and as a protagonist, Malina became a character I found myself caring for on the whole. Trunk debuted worldwide on January 26th on Prime Video.

SCORE:

The Rotting Zombie's News Anthology for Thursday 25th January 2024

With my inbox filling up fast once again it is time for another news anthology, this week dragging up some news from near the bottom of the bloody post sack. In personal news I am still ploughing through Cyberpunk 2077, and for all the issues it has had in the past, I am really enjoying my third attempt at a playthrough.

Supernatural horror film, Insane Like Me, has been acquired by Deskpop Entertainment. This is about a combat veteran who was wrongly convicted for his girlfriend going missing. After being released from a mental asylum, he seeks to discover the truth on what actually happened to her. This stars Britt Bankhead, Eric Roberts, Grace Patterson, and Samantha Reddy.

This next one might have made more sense when I originally received the press release back in December, but it involves the undead so I have to mention it. A Cadaver Christmas is available now from Scream Team Releasing on Blu-Ray. This festive themed zombie comedy is described as a cross between It's A Wonderful Life and Night of the Living Dead, it's about a group of unlikely heroes who become the only thing able to stop an army of the undead. Special features include a new audio commentary, making of featurette, four short films from Joe Zerull and a trailer.

Finally for today, They Turned Us Into Killers is a new revenge horror coming from director Thomas Walton. Starring Scout Taylor-Compton, Kane Hodder and Michael Berryman, this tells the story of a friend of a girl who killed herself who goes on a path of revenge against those she deems responsible for her friend's death. This one came to VOD on January 9th from Gravitas Ventures.

The Gifted (2024) - Horror Film Review

At about fifty four minutes long, the August Anthony Aquilar directed and Frank Phillip Aquilar written horror film The Gifted just about makes it into feature length territory. Despite the short length, this packs in quite a lot with a story set over three different time periods in a troubled woman's life.

Barbara (Ginger Lynn Allen - 31, The Devil's Rejects) has the unique ability to make anyone do what she says provided she first rings a magical bell. Rather than be a boon to her, this ability has become a curse over the years, with it causing no end of misery to her and those around her. In present day, she learns about a special priest (Joe Casterline) who it is said is able to grant absolution to special people such as her, all she has to do is confess to him her many sins.

This almost felt like an anthology of sorts, with the present day section of Barbara visiting the priest mixed in with three key moments from her life. One scene is set at a birthday party she had as a child (played by Kelsey Hayleigh), in which her in-debt father forces her to use her powers for evil. The middle section has her now in her twenties (played by Penelope Bohunko) at another party that goes terribly wrong, while the final segment takes place just before the wraparound. I enjoyed all of these sections, but it is probably the middle part that I liked the most due to the amount of craziness that Barbara's powers cause. These powers range from merely forcing people to go away, to forcing them to commit suicide and attack others. 

Special effects were not bad, they sell what they are aiming for at the very least. The selection of actors felt well chosen, but for the character of Barbara, it was a bit strange that she looked wildly different in each of the three time periods shown. Characters refer to her by name a lot so it didn't get confusing, but certainly didn't look like the same person at different stages of their life. My favourite character featured in the middle part, a mostly normal seeming guy whose last words as he lay dying are lamenting that his favourite shirt has been ruined! On the whole I liked the story, with the exception of the poor finale, it came a bit out of left field and didn't make much sense. It felt more like a satisfying resolution couldn't be thought of, so over the top craziness was chosen instead. I did think flashbacks to key points of Barbara's life was a cool idea and it did work well.

The Gifted told an ambitious story for its short run time, and aside from the ending this was one that felt much better than I had assumed it would be. I liked the special effects, I liked the number of characters here, and I loved the bizarre atmosphere that often pervaded this, especially with the weird robed zombie little people who looked like they had crawled on over from the excellent Phantasm series! The Gifted is due to be released later this year, thanks to Strange Film Studios.

SCORE:

The Slow Down (2023) by Japan Review - Music Album Review

Described as 'an adorable piece of psychedelia', The Slow Down is the second album from Scottish duo, Japan Review. I've been sat on this album since the end of November last year, having listened to it many times, I really don't know where to begin. While not horror focussed at all, this shoegaze forty four album was a trip into nostalgia for me.

I always preface my music reviews by saying I don't have the faintest idea what I'm writing about, with nary a musical bone in my body. My first impressions were that Japan Review sound like a cross between Interpol, Mew, and Radiohead. They have dreamy introspective tunes done in a purposeful low-fi fashion. Many of their tracks have a melancholic wistful nature to the lyrics, featuring a type of mild beat that could go on for double the length that it does without ever outstaying its welcome, such as can be seen on second track 'David Chicane'. At times they create echoes of the more chilled out moments in exploitation action video game Hotline Miami ('Go Around') something most welcoming to hear.

The stand out track for me was probably title track 'The Slow Down' coming around halfway through the album. Many of the tracks share a similar slow feel to them, nearly always tinged with sadness to the sound of the lyrics. You have ones like 'It's North It's North' that devolves at the halfway point into a slower sound. 'Oblique One' adds in more of an electronic feel. The final track, 'Lou Deer' was a great way to end the album, having a more optimistic and cheerful sound than what came before, but still with that glimmer of sadness.

Abandoning any attempt to link this to horror, I thought The Slow Down was a good album, with tracks that were put together well. For once the cover for the album I felt perfectly reflected the low-fi nostalgic sounds contained within. All in all, I was on board for the sound of Japan Review, will be checking out their other work. The Slow Down was released in November of last year.

SCORE:

No Reason (2022) - Horror Film Review

No Reason is an indie slasher film that features an exclusively black cast. Directed and written by Carla Saunders, this horror film falls to the reliably inexpensive setting of a wood. The way it is paced, and the back and forth way the events of the film are shown, along with an underwhelming antagonist combine to make something that squanders some of its potential.

Four friends have arranged to go on a weekend camping vacation out in some remote woodland, and even after one of them, Brian (Karras Jordan) doesn't show, they still decide to go. Unknown to the group, Brian has fallen foul of a twisted killer, someone who has followed the group on their trip, with the aim of picking them off one by one.

At nearly exactly an hour long, No Reason just about falls into feature length territory. Even with a relatively short length, this takes a while to get going, with the first on-screen kill not occurring until nearly forty minutes into its run time. There was an enjoyable enough set up, with it seeming likely that the friends odd acquaintance, Rodney (Cortez Woods), is the one responsible for the horror they stumble into. From when the trip begins however the film begins to follow a non-linear path that made events a bit confusing to follow. The first on-screen interaction between the killer and their prey isn't actually the first time the friends encounter them, as a flashback reveals stuff had happened earlier. This creates a bit of a mysterious narrative, with little signs pointing to many different possibilities, even that it might all be going on in a character's mind, rather than literally happening.

The killer has a sadly underwhelming look to them, dressed in back clothes, wearing a black hoody, it doesn't take much effort to work out who the killer's identity is. Nor is there any explanation for their motives when it is revealed, or any sort of conclusion to the tale. This leads to lots of scenes of frightened people running around screaming in woodland, without a real feeling of threat. The few kill scenes are fine enough, nothing spectacular, but there is a bit of blood at one point. A decent enough fight sequence at one point also, in which each punch shown has the film slow down for a few moments to create physical impact of the punches.

After a couple of decent acts, the finale is where this mainly fell down for me. A random hooded figure chasing people around woods didn't make for the most thrilling of films, especially factoring in the low amount of on-screen deaths. If some of those early kills had actually been shown rather than inferred, perhaps that could have increased the slightly slow pace. As much as the killer's actions aren't explained, I guess this matches the film's title of 'No Reason', though it did feel there was an actual reason, just not one explained to the viewer. I liked the attempt to split up the main story with frequent flashbacks to the recent past, but those moments never seemed to really reveal anything essential, and just served at leaving me a little confused. It might have actually been better just to show the events of the film in a more logical format. This wasn't all bad however, it felt fresh to have an all black cast, and there were some decent enough horror moments mixed in, even if for me personally, the prologue sequence was the very best the film had to offer.
No Reason was released by BayView Entertainment on EST/VOD/SVOD Digital in North America on 28th November 2023, and came to AVOD on 1st January.

SCORE:

The Haunting at the Old Mill (2023) - Horror Documentary Review

I have been watching quite a few documentaries recently for review on this blog, and on the whole they have been enjoyable, if a bit low budget. The Haunting at the Old Mill (directed and written by Jeffrey Checker) however was not enjoyable, even at seventy minutes it felt like it long outstayed its welcome.

This takes place at The Old Mill, in Dundee Michigan, and follows a team of supernatural investigators as they spend a night at the place, hoping to get evidence of paranormal goings on. So far so good, but unfortunately, the way this is presented to the viewer left a lot to be desired. Initially things felt good, there was a narrator introducing the location and the investigators, clear to hear, even if they had a monotone voice that reminded me slightly of A.I (I'm sure it wasn't). My biggest issue with this documentary was how it left the viewer out of the picture quite a bit. Other than the occasional interjection from the narrator, this is a fly on the wall documentary, poorly shot scenes of the investigators doing their job, but zero input from them on what they were doing. This really needed some moments were the people spoke to the camera, to make this feel like a documentary rather than randomly filmed moments of these mysterious people. This felt like a found footage documentary, with the investigators not really seeming to even be aware they are being filmed.

It follows a somewhat linear path, with the show taking place over a single night, but it was very tedious to watch, I could feel myself age watching this. It doesn't help that the video and audio quality is pretty atrocious. The sound is muffled and hard to make out, with lots of interference coming through. As is the way, interactions with a spirit box type thing gives the alleged spirits or demons a way to communicate with the visitors, and at least these moments are subtitled. The poor quality camera footage makes it really hard to see anything that the people are talking about. It was so bad that I assumed a filter had been used at some points, and there are frequent moments where it appeared that still images were being put on screen rather than video. With people talking about blinking mannequins and shadowy figures moving around, it was frustrating that these moments were near impossible to see. Even when the moments are shown several times in slow motion and with pointers to show the viewer where they should be looking, it was still really hard to see anything. Perhaps worst of all was the droning urgent dramatic music that played constantly seemingly on a loop. Even when nothing at all was going on this urgent music was still going on and on, with it ending up giving me a headache.

The Haunting at the Old Mill felt like a real chore to get through. I don't understand the cold approach to showing this investigation, forever feeling distanced and separated from the people who are off doing their own thing, oblivious to being filmed. I understand the narrator saying poor audio and video could be down to spirits messing with the equipment, but when the result is such an unenjoyable slog it doesn't make for an entertaining view. The Haunting at the Old Mill was released by BayView Entertainment on EST/VOD/SVOD Digital platforms on 28th November 2023, and became available to view on AVOD from 1st January 2024. Jeffrey Checker will be releasing a new documentary entitled D.E.A.D in the future.

SCORE:

Attack on Titan - The Final Chapters: Special 2 (2023) - Horror Anime Episode Review

Towards the end of last year, after a few bait and switches, the actual final episode of hit anime Attack on Titan aired. As the convoluted title suggests, Attack on Titan - The Final Chapters: Special 2, this ending had been stretched out somewhat. It has taken three or four months to get my best friend (who I have watched the entire show with) to agree to sit through the feature length episode, with this last one clocking in at an hour and a half. Probably not a surprise to anyone, but as a warning, there will be almighty spoilers for anyone not up to date with what has been going on.

Special 1 ended with the combined forces of Paradis island and outside forces on their way to battle Eren, who had initiated 'the rumbling' (essentially releasing a cataclysmic rampage of thousands of giant titans to destroy the entire world). In his gigantic titan form, Eren was leading the charge, determined to wipe out everyone outside of Paradis island. The initial plan is to stop Eren, rather than kill him, as among the defenders are some of his former best friends, including Mikasa and Armin. It turns out it isn't just Eren and Zeke they have to contend with however, as the source of the titan power, Ymir, has lent her power in the form of summoning the hundreds of key titans of those who have come before. These unfavourable odds soon make it seem like victory might be impossible.

As I had hoped, most of the last episode is an epic battle, and with most the fighting taking place on Eren's titan form back, this literally finally lived up to the title 'Attack on Titan'! As expected, the animation was top notch, with no end of epic moments. It was so cool to see the army of ghost-like titans for both friendly titans and humans to battle. There were less notable deaths than expected, but still got a couple. There is a lot of action here, but thankfully there is also a lot dedicated to the finale of the story, both with some intelligently placed explanations for things which had been going on that hadn't been obvious to the viewer, and a neat way of kind of showing what happens to the world going forward into the future, obviously for spoiler reasons I can't say anymore than that.

My issue going in had been that Eren was my second favourite character, but later episodes had seen him turn into almost a cartoon like antagonist hell bent on world destruction. I hoped there would be something to hold onto to at least make his actions more relatable, and I'm darn glad there was, with some neat flashback scenes being shown to the viewer for the first time that explain his thought patterns and why he did what he did. By this point my friend hated Eren, but much like Light in the fantastic Death Note anime, I could understand his actions at least in some small way, even if parts of those actions may have been quite misguided and narrow sighted. Of course, when you are shown scenes of mass death as a result of his actions, it can be hard to identify too much with his reasoning!

Having been watching Attack on Titan for ten years, much of the story I was a bit lost with. It is complicated at the best of times, so catching it every few years with a new season, and with those seasons being fragmented, has meant my understanding of the overall story isn't the best. After some time has passed I look forward to watching the whole ninety something episodes again. The only thing stopping this final from getting a ten out of ten is the inclusion of Gabbi, a character who I detest and who ruins every scene the character ever appears in!

SCORE:

Project Dorothy (2023) - Sci-fi Horror Film Review

Directed and co-written by George Henry Horton, Project Dorothy is an ambitious indie sci-fi horror that tries to do a lot with a little. Think Resident Evil, but with a cast of mainly just two characters, and replace the zombies with fork-lift trucks!

James (Tim DeZarn - The Cabin in the Woods) and Blake (Adam Budron - High on the Hog) are two bank robbers on the run after a heist gone wrong. With the older James having been shot in the leg, and with them in the middle of nowhere being pursued by police, the pair are desperate to find somewhere to hide out. They think they are lucky when they discover an abandoned factory complex, especially when the approaching police are warned off from approaching the place by their superiors. Inside, the two swiftly restore power, but in the process inadvertently awaken a crazed A.I (voiced by Danielle Harris - Inoperable, Halloween 4: The Return of Michael Myers), who, having been trapped offline in the facility since the 1980's, becomes determined to utilise the modern technology the robbers have on them in order to escape its restricted systems and get onto the internet.

The first few minutes of this sci-fi horror are also some of its worst, where the low budget is most apparent. It consists of a kind of flashback sequence, but rather than showing events, a camera flies through the empty giant warehouse/factory environment as poorly voiced soundbites attempt to create the vibe of an A.I going rogue and killing the employees that had been stationed there. There are a cast of just six actors in the film, but it is only really Harris (whose voice doesn't appear until roughly the halfway mark), and Budron and DeZarn who feature in any sort of capacity of more than a minute or two. Weirdly, the feel of this being a low budget homage to the original Resident Evil actually kind of works. As a rogue A.I, the titular Dorothy wasn't bad, with Harris hamming up her gleefully evil dialogue in an entertaining way. I also liked the kind of father and son relationship that James and Blake share. They may be bad guys, but they appear to genuinely care about each other. The recent past of the bank robbery is hinted at, but not really gone into in any detail, so it's never really revealed if their crime involved innocent people getting hurt. Regardless, I liked these two protagonist anti-heroes, and it was good that they were not stereotypical types only looking out for themselves. Despite being promised to be let go should they help the A.I escape, they never once even consider doing that, knowing the damage she could cause should she get out.

This is all well and good, but in effect, Project Dorothy struggles to convincingly portray any type of real threat for the characters. The A.I is all seeing, able to use cameras to spy on the protagonists, but its power is limited to controlling five or six automated fork-lift trucks. These are woefully ineffective, mainly due to suffering the Dr Who 'Dalek' curse of not being able to go up or down stairways. The first half of the film frequently shows The Evil Dead style first person perspective shots of something rushing down corridors at lightning fast speeds. The reveal that these are those trucks was a bit underwhelming, especially considering that once on camera they don't seem able to go at those same speeds as in the first person moments. This leads to some chase sequences where it never feels like the characters are in too much danger of actually being caught. This also leads to some plot gaps in logic, such as how the A.I was able to kill and dispose of the research staff when its abilities were so limited, managing to go to places that in the film it is shown unable to get to. It also felt a bit silly that such a dangerous place was known about by the government, but had been left poorly guarded and left to rot for decades.

For all the limitations of the budget, and the gaps in logic that this caused, I found myself getting into Project Dorothy, even if it does require you not to think very hard about the ridiculousness of it all. Thanks to the likeable protagonists, a great looking location, and a spirited voice performance, this remained entertaining, if unable to fully realise the ambitions it had. Project Dorothy was released on VOD on January 16th.

SCORE:

Undeath Syndrome Surveillance and Diagnostics (2013) by Bryan Way - Zombie Horror Book Review

Undeath Syndrome Surveillance and Diagnostics might have a very dry title, but that is because it is a (fictional) government document that has been written to try and help those in charge deal with the zombie outbreak that has occurred in author Bryan Way's Life After universe. This forty six page document isn't actually available for purchase, but the author created it as a kind of bible for his series, with the rules and observations contained within determining in many ways the extent to which his version of the undead are able to act and operate.
From a geeky perspective this was very exciting to me, as this is the self same document that former national guard soldier, Anderson, is handed in the excellent second Life After novel, Life After: The Void (a mild obscure spoiler from that novel).

Going along with the dry title, much of this document is appropriately dryly written, something essential to give it a believable feel. It establishes that the outbreak did indeed originate in the graveyard near the high school that Grey (the protagonist of the main novels) had been visiting, the outbreak that was described in short story Life After: The Cemetery Plot. It also goes into more detail on how the virus was spread, with many of the buses leaving the high school bringing with it unknowingly infected people who spread it far and wide. The document reveals that the virus has spread worldwide, and was fun to see a little bit about what has happened to the U.K (where I am based).
It is spread between giving details on how the outbreak started, and a more deep look into just how the zombies act. Part of this hints at the setting of short story Life After: The Maze, with the cold emotionless reporting here only hinting at what happened in that location to get the results. It was quite cool that The Maze was written in 2021, though the origins of that story were birthed in this document.

Undeath Syndrome Surveillance and Diagnostics also includes charts, maps, and statistics that all work in making it feel like a real thing. While it may have been needfully dull in places, I found it fascinating the Way had created this as an aid in shaping his world. As a fan of the series, this was cool to read and recognise bits that related to events that had happened in the novels and short stories. If you're a fan of the series and get the opportunity to check this out, then it's well worth a read.

SCORE:

Paranormal UK: UFOs, Cryptids & Hauntings (2023) - Paranormal Documentary Review

Paranormal UK: UFOs, Cryptids & Hauntings is almost an anthology documentary, looking as it does at four different topics of paranormal, alien, and cryptid events. Produced, directed, edited and hosted by Warren Speed (Abigail's Castle: The Haunting of Featherstone Castle, Zombie Women of Satan), this low budget documentary was entertaining to watch, but a bit light on details.

I'm not sure if this was pieced together from other documentaries Speed had done, but the first segment certainly was, being taken from the Abigail's Castle doc I watched for review recently. This takes up the first twenty two minutes of this near ninety minute program. My thoughts on that can be read elsewhere, some details are provided of Featherstone Castle and the supernatural events associated with it, obviously provided in a truncated fashion. That had previously already seemed a bit light on details, so a shorter version of that also felt a bit light on too many details.
This then moves on to Bonnybridge in Scotland, a place that has long been associated with sightings of UFOs. The fifteen minute segment is mostly made up of an interview with Malcolm Robinson, before it moves on to Rendlesham Forest, a place that has been described as Britain's Roswell. There are a few different accounts of UFO sightings, which was interesting enough, and includes Speed on location at the forest, with him giving his own account of a UFO sighting as a teen.

It is then a return to the paranormal with a somewhat meandering account by a woman, Alexa De Strange, who talks of her encounters both at the London Dungeons, as well as a haunted house (30 East Drive, Pontefract) that she stayed in one day. I can't recall the name of the place, but Speed has also visited it, though without any footage being taken. Her story was fanciful, and you could argue that she has a bit of an overactive imagination. I felt this part more than any other could have benefitted from a deeper insight into the property and its history. Instead, you have Speed consulting his notes on camera and suggesting you check out the house's website to get more details.

The final segment of the documentary revolves around Cannock Chase, with elements of the supernatural, cryptids (sightings of a pig-faced man), and UFOs all coming together, again light enough on details that I was left not really sure of the history of the place and its many sightings of various things.

Much like Abigail's Castle, as rough and low budget as this was, it was still entertaining. There always felt like not enough background details were given on the topics covered, and a reliance on interviews over more on screen research having been done. It felt more biased towards believing the accounts than more rational explanations for what was being described. This was again a nice piece of escapism, but due to the various disjointed topics covered I never really felt like I was learning anything new, or anything in much detail. Still, as rough as Speed can be as a host, he had an endearing quality to his likeable persona. Bayview Entertainment have released Paranormal UK: UFOs, Cryptids & Hauntings on Digital Platforms including Amazon Prime Video.

SCORE:

Death of the Dead (2011) - Comedy Zombie Horror Film Review

Directed by Gary King, and written by Bo Buckley, Death of the Dead is a comedy zombie film from 2011 that was released on EST/VOD/SVOD Digital platforms in November of last year by BayView Entertainment. Comedy can be something hard to get right, and while there are certainly some funny moments to be found here, on the whole a lot of this didn't appeal.

Wanda (Christina Rose - Rage 2, Fallout 76 video game voice work) is an awkward high school nerd who isn't able to do anything right in life. The sole student of perverted karate master, Master Sensei (Jack Abele), she dreams of one day being as strong and skilled as he is. After a rival karate school (led by Evil Sensei - William Lee) gets in a bus crash involving toxic waste, the students are transformed into evil karate zombies. With the town becoming overrun with undead, Wanda is forced to take up the challenge of stopping the outbreak and saving the day.

I wouldn't say this comedy horror is of its time as it was only after I went to write the review that I saw it was made over a decade ago. In that respect at least this was a success, as I had assumed it was a recent movie. Looking back, the pre-#MeToo comedy is more apparent, with females often used as titillation, seen most with Wanda's skimpy outfit she wears during the final third. The humour on the whole wasn't for me, there are a lot of jokes included throughout the eighty minute run time, but only a handful worked for me. Countless jokes around sex, and some jokes around gross out humour and bodily functions didn't appeal at all. What worked better were the fourth wall breaking moments revolving around humour of signs this is a movie rather than an actual story occurring. Things such as Master Sensei being very obviously replaced by a stunt double during fight scenes, bad dubbing, film crew appearing on camera, and purposely wooden acting, these moments were all fun. I've seen some of them used before, but Death of the Dead doubles down on them, including many moments I hadn't seen before. Maybe my favourite was when Wanda is trying to tell Master Sensei something, with him replying he can't hear her due to the film's soundtrack being too loud. Talking of the soundtrack, towards the end there was a nice homage to that classic 28 Days Later theme tune.

The special effects were not fantastic, but being a comedy horror this worked in the film's favour. There are plenty of deaths, with zombies decapitated, people torn in half, heads crushed and more, with a suitable amount of blood. Then there are a couple of fight scenes that were impressive with how many people are participating in them, even if there was a reliance on close-up shaky camera footage that got a bit stale. Zombies are a mixed bag, but as they are zombies, make-up effects don't need to be perfect, so this wasn't an issue. The undead here may be of the flesh eating variety, but they talk and are able to fight, rather than lurch around.
Characters were all terrible unfortunately, Master Sensei had some good parts to him underneath all the perversion, I did enjoy how he is never shown to really like Wanda that much, and how this is never really that well hidden. Wanda 's early painfully awkward scenes were not much fun to sit through, rather than make you feel pity for the character, it repelled me, with some feel-bad scenes around how poorly she is treated.

While Death of the Dead did have some funny moments, these were surrounded by humour that was terrible, frequently I got the impression it was felt it was being far more funny than it actually was, with joke after joke missing. Most of the fourth wall breaking moments were decent, I wish this was the direction that had been more focussed on. If you're after a surprisingly un-dated zombie comedy horror then this may be worth a watch, there are some good parts here, but on the whole Death of the Dead was a bit abrasive to my tastes.

SCORE:

Call of Duty: Modern Warfare III Zombies (2023) - Horror Video Game Mode Review (XBox Series X)

Back in November I gave my initial thoughts on the Zombies mode that came along with Call of Duty: Modern Warfare III. Now that some time has passed I thought I may as well stick up a review, based on the way I have experienced the mode. As an aside, I am not playing this in the way it was meant to be played, and that is not entirely my fault.

Zombies for this years Call of Duty takes place in an open world setting. It actually uses the new Warzone map rather than be its own unique location. The setting works fine for a zombie outbreak mode, with me getting Dead Island vibes. This is designed for up to three players, and while you can play solo (something I always do), you are going to have a much tougher time if you are planning on doing the many story missions. The general format is that you are air dropped onto the side of the map, the map being made up of three concentric zones, each one having tougher enemies than the one before. In theory, you are meant to search buildings for supplies, which if you extract are carried with you, making subsequent playthroughs easier. There is an hour time limit, with you needing to extract before the poison gas area closes in.

All of this sounds perfectly fine until you bring into account the killer for this mode, an issue which has seen me give up completely on ever trying to play Zombies as intended. Currently, at two months in, the mode is near unplayable, and that is down to server crashes. There is an honest one in three chance that the game will crash when playing it. That isn't a chance that the game will crash every one in three matches, but that each game you play there is a one in three chance you won't get to see the end of it. Should the game crash then you will be severely penalised. Not only will you loose any mission progress and loose all XP earned, but you will also have any items, weapons, upgrades and perks stolen off you permanently, setting you back to square one. Last month I played this, was doing great and then the game crashed, I lost everything. Holding back my anger, I decided to cool off and try the mode one last time before writing a review. Surprise surprise, my next go a few days back saw the game crashing before I had even gotten ten minutes into a match.

Call of Duty: Vanguard's Zombies mode was a disaster due to how tedious it was. I had thought that there was no way anything could be as bad as that. Unfortunately, this low bar has been beaten. When everything works, this new Zombies mode isn't bad at all, by no means classic round-based fun to be had here, but as somewhere just to chill out in and mindlessly kill zombies it had its benefits. My experience of playing it has been nothing short of shocking, I've lost count of the number of times I have been kicked out to menu, losing all progress through absolutely no fault of my own. There is no point trying to do the story mode due to the servers being so unreliable. Even just going in to grind for camouflage's for my weapons has seen me met with frustrating disconnects, leading to a feeling of walking on eggshells whenever I dip into this mode.

If it was not for the flaky servers then I would be much more happy with this. Gameplay wise it is a lot more fun than Vanguard's mode. It is impossible to recommend when it crashes so constantly. Two months after launch and Modern Warfare III Zombies still constantly crashing makes me think its never going to be fixed, and as such is sadly too unreliable to recommend.  

SCORE:

UPDATE 20/01/2024: I chanced a go at the Zombies mode again last night and had so much fun. When the game doesn't crash it can become really immersive, even if I sound a bit sad having made up my own head canon for the game I had. In my head I was a tourist who had paid to be placed in a zombie infested zone to hunt them for sport. This was reflected in my game as the few times I was near death was when other players happened to be in the area to help me out. In my head these were stewards whose role was to stop me getting overwhelmed by the undead. I had a chilled half hour popping zombie heads, before a tense evac in which two heavily armoured super zombies were firing energy blasts at me. If the mode didn't crash so often I would have had more very fun experiences like I had last night, and this would have scored a whole lot higher. Likely a high seven or an eight out of ten.