The Invisible Swordsman (1970) - Fantasy Film Review

Described as an 'unseen gem', The Invisible Swordsman is a high energy fantasy film that is far more goofy and non-serious than its poster and synopsis might suggest. Directed by Yoshiyuki Kuroda (Yokai Monsters: Spook Warfare), this tale of an invisible man may feel quaint and old fashioned, but it does have some charm, and a great looking set.

Taking place during the Edo-era, Sanshiro Yuzuki (Osamu Saka) is the son of a well renowned samurai master. He is a member of his father's dojo, but unfortunately for the boy, not only does he have no skill with weapons, but he is also a massive coward. After his father is murdered during a midnight raid on the village by a group of black clad ninjas known as the 'Phantom Thieves', Sanshiro pledges to get revenge, but laments his own lack of skills. An apparition from the underworld takes pity on the boy, telling him how to create a magical potion that will make him invisible. Using this potion, Sanshiro goes after those he suspects of being responsible, his lack of skill hidden by the fact that he cannot be seen by the people he attacks.

Not only was this family friendly, I would go even further and say this was designed as a children's fantasy film. There is some death over the near eighty minute run time, but these death scenes are without blood or gore. While there are plenty of action scenes, the protagonists methods are almost entirely non-lethal, such as fighting goons while armed with shoes as weapons, or scaring his enemies away by chasing them with objects that appear to the goons to be floating. Special effects are passable, but I did keep in mind throughout the age of the film, Floating objects are passable, as are the stop motion footprints that pop up when there snow is on the ground or water. The ghostly images of the apparitions felt quite creepy, but I don't believe that to have been purposeful. The cheerful and jolly soundtrack continues the feel of this really not intended to be a dark or serious movie. I did kind of come to respect Sanshiro's way of fighting. A highlight was a later scene where the goons are using floor mats and sheets to try and block the invisible man in.

The story was wafer thin, but at least that meant that the action stayed in the neat looking historical village setting. I had no complaints whatsoever with the lovely set design. Characters are many, but most fall into an extreme over the top way of acting. There are lots of people looking ultra shocked at the events transpiring around them, worst being the two comedy characters who work for the strongest warrior in the rival dojo. I enjoyed these very exaggerated acting styles, but that also stretched to the dialogue which has a grating habit of being shouted out by characters. Worst of these unfortunately was the lead, Sanshiro's cries for his father were so irritating to hear that I found myself reaching for the mute button on more than one occasion.

The Invisible Swordsman was an old fashioned and out of date family fantasy film that felt very much of its time. I appreciated this, but wouldn't go as far as to say I particularly enjoyed it outside of appreciating what it was going for. On June 23rd The Invisible Swordsman becomes available to stream on ARROW.

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Millionaires Day (2024) by Kit Power - Thriller Novella Review

My quest to make more of an effort to get through my vast backlog of book requests was helped by the next book I chose; Kit Power's Millionaires Day being a novella. The story here is based in Milton Keynes, UK, a surreal choice for me as that is pretty much the next town (while it has recently been made a city, it will always be a town to me) over from my own!

One day in 2019 (according to the synopsis), everyone in the UK woke up with a million pounds in cash under wherever they happen to have been sleeping. This novella charts the effects this has on the population by following a random selection of people from Milton Keynes. There is a neglected girl (Emma) with an imaginary friend who believes the money was a gift from Santa. A homeless man (Henry) with the desperate hope of re-starting his life somewhere else, a policeman struggling to deal with the unfolding chaos, and Pete; a lowlife criminal whose gang leader - Mental Mickey, enacts a plan to steal as much money as his gang are able to.

I always try and avoid reading the synopsis for anything I am going to read/watch on this blog. For me, I didn't expect things here to go as south quickly as they do. From the novella, it was never obvious that this weird event had occurred countrywide, it didn't even really feel like it had happened to many of the people in MK. With the almost supernaturally thick fog coating the town, this created a feeling of this particular set of characters having inadvertently stumbled into The Twilight Zone. I couldn't shake my thoughts of this, but it added to my enjoyment. The book is split into (if my memory serves me correct) three distinct parts, each part taking place over a different hour. Each part is then split into chapters, with the chapters being titled with the specific timeframe they are happening in. While the many protagonists don't know each other, there are some wonderfully timed moments in the story where by pure chance, the paths of all the protagonists cross. I loved seeing the same event play out from different perspectives, each viewpoint having a narrow reaction, based only on the information the particular character would have had.

I have been to Milton Keynes many many times. Reading this made me realise that I had never really travelled anywhere in that (to my eyes) clean but soulless city, as I was never reminded of my experiences of that place. This version of the city is grimy and crooked, decrepit apartment blocks and dirty back alleys, of characters either corrupted or prey, and there isn't a lot of happy outcomes for many of these characters who appear. Of the three main plots going on, the homeless man story was almost a prologue, serving to introduce the character of a policeman whose journey would have him heading all over the city. The little girl's storyline is probably the most bleak, with her falling prey to a perverted security guard, and the one based around the gang was the most detailed, likely due to featuring the most characters. This gave the book a bit of a crime caper feel, I liked how it is shown to the reader the various subplots going on within the book. There are some very dark moments here, but this is balanced with the light in what became one of my favourite sections of the novella. There are lengthy paragraphs introduced later on that are first person perspectives of the story told from the viewpoint of a dog! Initially really confusing to read, I eventually settled into a decent pattern. These dog viewpoint sections really did create a fun feel for a simple character whose main drive is to be called a 'good dog'!

I loved this novella, especially with the story taking place so close to my doorstep. I enjoyed the more potentially supernatural elements here, and the wide variety of characters and events taking place. The stories occurred in an intelligent way that allowed things to ever move forward without becoming dull, though this isn't a feel good story at its heart, as it delves into the darker side of human greed, and just what lengths some people are prepared to go to, to achieve their desires. Millionaires Day is out now via French Press.

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Bleeding (2024) - Horror Film Review

Bleeding is a vampire film that does things a little differently, not so different that I couldn't find a film to compare it to. The tale of blood addiction of course reminded me of classic cult film The Addiction, though here the story is even more grounded, taking the action and drama to a backwater American town. Written and directed by Andrew Bell (Let Me Play) in his feature length directorial debut, this serious drama provided a stark portrayal of misery, addiction, and loss.

This takes place in a world where a highly addictive and dangerous drug known as 'blood' is doing the rounds. The drug is harvested from the blood of people infected with a disease that causes them an unnatural thirst for non-infected blood. The danger being, taking too much can pass on the infection, and with death being the only solution the authorities have came up to prevent the out of control infected from quenching their thirst for blood, this isn't a great thing. A year previously, teen Eric's (John R. Howley) older brother caught the infection and had to be put down. This caused his mother to fall into an intense depression, with Eric himself turning to drugs to deal with the pain of the loss. When Eric discovers his cousin and best friend; Sean (Jasper Jones) had his hands on some blood, with the intention to sell it, Eric is shocked. After the drug is destroyed by Sean's cop father upon discovering it, Sean reveals that this is a terrible thing, as now he owes small town psychotic drug dealer - Dustin (Bell) a lot of money, having been given the drug to sell off of him. Breaking into a rich person's summer home in order to find stuff to sell to help pay off the debt, the pair instead encounter missing girl Sara (Tori Wong), who herself has become infected by the blood disease, and who is seeking a way to escape the country and make it to Canada where it is hoped a cure can be discovered.

Vampires, this film deals with those blood sucking creatures of the night, but in a grounded way. The vampires here are those addicted to blood. Rather than grow fangs and seduce people, these blood junkies turn animalistic and out of control when needing to feed, as well as having a strong aversion to daylight, whose affect causes them to violently spasm. With a title screen of text explaining about the film's world, this begins its sombre and serious story. Much of the film centres on Eric and Sean, neither whom make for that likeable a pair. Both are swiftly shown to be addicts, though both are also given a somewhat sympathetic reason for why they are like they are. For Eric, it is the death of his brother and his broken mother. For Sean, it is his alcoholic father, with it implied the man may have turned to drink as a way to cope with having to murder the infected. The two protagonists had a good rapport with each other, though they spend much of the hundred and seven minute runtime bickering and pushing each other. Underneath all that, you can tell the bond they have. The film was light on characters, the remote woodland based town explains this, and with the story so focussed on characterisation rather than grand sweeping events, this worked out well. I really liked Dunn's Hank, the quiet way he spoke made me strangely like this antagonist. I also felt that Wong was great in her small role, especially the facial expressions she pulls when she is needing her fix of human blood.

Much of the film is dark and dingy, the characters morose and serious. Drug addiction is never presented as something 'cool', with characters under the influence near useless and odd behaving. There isn't much need for special effects, but these look decent on screen, lots of blood being spilt. Vampires here aren't really the focus, it is more centred on a world struggling under the community wide effects of substance abuse. Human antagonist dealers like Dustin are the real monsters here, seeing infected just as commodities to harvest from. There are scenes of action and gore, one early highlight being a found footage style scene of Sean's father's bodycam footage of dealing with an infected, shown from a first person perspective. The soundtrack was stripped down and often morose, the one inclusion of a heavy rock track worked in context of the scene where it was introduced, but was an off putting contrast to the depressive and bleak outlook of the movie when it began playing again over the subdued end credits.

There is nothing feel good to be found in Bleeding. It also wasn't a film that I was at any point bored with. This is one of those types of movies that fall into the peaceful types. Character are often quiet and talking with each other, meaning for someone like me who had taken a powerful sleeping pill the night before (for insomnia), and was still suffering the effects, I often struggled not to fall asleep, though this wasn't due to boredom on my part! The idea here has been done before, but the misery of the film world kept me glued, fully expecting a bleak outcome for all the unhappy characters involved. Bleeding came to SCREAMBOX exclusively on June 10th.

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The Rotting Zombie's News Anthology for Thursday 12th July

It is nearly summer once again, not much has really changed here at The Rotting Zombie HQ. Recently got my hands on a Nintendo Switch 2, though I can't imagine there will be much horror adjacent stuff on it. Onwards to the news.

The Apex Predators Club is to be the last film from The Mahal Empire, due to the sad and unexpected passing of indie producer Michael Mahal. This high-concept horror-thriller had an Indiegogo campaign launched on June 6th, this was to raise the remaining funds to make the film as good as it possibly can be. Originally filming was due to start in July, but this has been rescheduled for September. I have seen many films from The Mahal Empire over the years, it was unhappy news hearing about Michael, hopefully the company will go out on a bang.

Reese Lightfoot's short horror film The Demon in the Motherboard has won Best Short Film at the Astoria Film Festival. The short follows Morrigan; a coder and cybersecurity expert by day, and who searches the dark web by night for evidence of a legendary relic that is said to either by a powerful A.I, or a mind-rewriting virus.

Finally for today, Yellow Brick Road has been added to the streaming service MoviVue. After an entire town's population walk up a mountain trail and disappear, a group of explorers decide to take the same route. It is there they discover an ancient evil within the New England woods. To find this and other horrors, head to the site and have a look.

The Protector (2025) - Post-Apocalyptic Film Review

It's been a while since I last viewed a post-apocalyptic film for review, so I was on board to give the Raul Gasteazoro written, directed, and co-produced thriller The Protector a fair chance. This may be cribbing from the homework of the Mad Max series of films, but offers a more hopeful spin on the end of civilised society.

This takes place in 2042, a time where a variety of factors have led to the fall of mankind. An incurable disease known as 'the rot' has killed much of the population, which has coincided with virtually everyone left being infertile. Added to the misery is a severe water shortage that is changing the world into a barren wasteland. Key (Marguerite Moreau - Queen of the Damned, The Mighty Ducks) is a prisoner of what is left of the corrupted government. Local government warlord Gael (Aryeh-Or - Charmed TV show, Siren TV show) knows that the last clean natural water source still remaining resides on a Native American reservation, but he is unable to get to it due to the land around the reservation being booby-trapped. With Key having been married to a Native American woman in the past, Gael frees her, on the condition that she show him a way past the many traps (due to her wife having revealed a way through to her before her death). Key's mission is made much more difficult when she discovers a young boy named Kellan (Mark Lane III) out in the wastelands and decides to become his protector. This immediately makes her a huge target due to the remaining government offering a substantial reward for the delivery of any child to their care for testing on.

The Mad Max vibe starts strong, initially in my head I was thinking of Key as 'Mad Maxine', though as the movie goes along she is shown to have more compassion and hope than that other wastelander. Her backstory is revealed via a series of black and white flashbacks, tragic, but also a little silly as it all revolves around a post-apocalyptic sport named 'dust jousting' that is as stupid as it sounds. Still, what sort of post-apocalyptic film would it be without its version of a fall of society sport. The present day stuff is your typical dust filled wasteland vibe. People going around wearing surely vision restricting goggles and face coverings. The good people often finding themselves at the mercy of Gael's violent and brutish henchmen, who travel around in a motorbike convoy. The impression of a wasteland is carried out well, but at times it did feel like a set of sperate locations rather than a sprawling world. I found the more hopeful feel of the storyline at times a little soppy, such as on two separate occasions when bad guys decide to become good guys purely from receiving a little hope. Protagonists were mostly decent, and while I did think Gael made for an intimidating antagonist figure, he got far too little screen time to really make too much of an impression.

Some of the special effects left a little to be desired. Chief of these was an early van explosion that had fire that really didn't look the most realistic. On the flipside, there are plenty of beautifully choreographed fight sequences that show Key almost effortlessly being able to take out scores of bad guys in close quarters combat as if she was some sort of apocalyptic Batman. These fight scenes packed a punch thanks to some crunchy sound effects, and never failed to look great. The best of these had Key and the people she was fighting all shown on screen as black silhouettes, lovely to watch! 

The Protector was a decent post-apocalyptic movie, though its story of hope didn't feel all that novel within the genre. It mostly worked well to the limitations of its budget, able to tell this slightly generic story in a well realised way. It might not be the most original film, but I had fun watching this regardless. The Protector came to theatres and On Demand on May 23rd, distributed by Vertical Entertainment in partnership with JD Beaufils of Blacktop International.

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Halloween Girl - Book Three: Gods & Monsters (2025) - Horror Graphic Novel Review

Richard T. Wilson's Halloween Girl series was a comic that I initially had low expectations for, but was something that quickly grew on me the more I read it. Halloween Girl - Book One: Promises to Keep brought together the first seven issues and was a great introduction. Halloween Girl - Book Two: Dead Reckoning was another great entry, especially when it came to the artwork. Due to the second book serving as a prequel though, Halloween Girl - Book Three: Gods & Monsters is a sequel to the story told in book one, and was another darn good read. Unavoidable spoilers for the other book to follow.

Halloween Girl is a series about a ghost called Charlotte and her supernaturally powerful friend Poe. With The Hollow no longer operating (a demonic group who were able to infiltrate the dreams of their victims), things have settled down a bit. Unknown to the pair though, some of The Hollow have found a new leader, bizarrely in the form of a young child named Kevin. Inhabiting the forms of toy figurines in the boy's playset, these beings not only worship Kevin, but are very prepared to go to lethal lengths to make sure his life is a good one. Realising that the boy is not to blame for this, Charlotte and Poe seek a way to convince him that these creatures are not good people, part of this help being to find a way to stop Kevin's abusive father from hurting him anymore.

Spread over four lengthy chapters, this tells a great story, better than I had expected. Despite being a bit murky on the details of book one, I pieced together what had happened there, something that continues to have an effect on Poe. The highlight of the whole graphic novel was again the art of Shahed R. The black and white illustrations are so wonderfully drawn and full of life, very expressive faces on characters which never look over the top, and some amazing shading going on.

I loved the story, and genuinely found the idea of toy figurines possessed by demons to be fantastic. I loved that these toys worshipped Kevin, and there are some strong moments of horror. This story again has a lot of heart to it, being sentimental without being overly so. It deals with death and grief in a mature way, making sure to always have a balance between the darkness and the light.

A great story coupled with great art and shading left me more than happy at what I had read here. It might not satisfy those wanting something more darker and mean spirited, but I always think there is something really uplifting about the stories told in Halloween Girl. Halloween Girl - Book Three: Gods & Monsters released June 3rd from Mad Shelley Comics.

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Faro (2025) by Harold Nono - Music EP Review

For the first time in goodness knows when, I am putting up a music review that is actually relevant to the genre of horror. Faro is a four track EP that comes from Harold Nono and features music that wouldn't feel out of place in a horror film.

The roughly seventeen minute long EP is made up of four tracks that straddle the line between soundscape and soundtrack. It begins with 'Raukar', the shortest track on the EP at three and half minutes, this was a moody and horror tinged soundtrack that felt like it would be perfect alongside a haunted house movie. Next up is 'Hour of the Wolf' that had more of a soundscape feel to it. Despite the title, this gave impressions of an alien landscape, especially with a heartbeat echoing throughout, and a finish that smoothly transitions into an electronic sound. Penultimate track is 'Broa Kiosken' with its morose cello conjuring images of a gothic mansion, and finally ending with what I felt was the best track, the sweeping grandiose 'Sketch for Faro' that was both a strangely uplifting and dramatic finish.

As the soundtrack to a lazy Sunday walk to the local shop, this worked in making everything seem just that little bit more mystical. With a short length the EP felt perfectly balanced, though is something that works as music to appreciate rather than music to dance to. Harold Nono's Faro was released at the end of April via Bearsuit Records. It can be found on Bandcamp.

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The Matriarch (2024) - Horror Film Review

It appears that next year I shall be going on vacation with my father to Australia for a month to visit family. What better way to celebrate this news than by watching an Australian horror film. The Matriarch was written and directed by Jayden Creighton (Kinks) in his feature length directorial debut. I had zero expectations for this, I imagined it would be some sort of drama/thriller, so I was pleasantly surprised to see this had far more in common with a slasher.

Thirteen year old Missy (Juliette Greenfield) lives in rural Australia with her psychotically mentally unwell mother, Annette (Kate Logan - Kinks). The pair are staying in the house of Annette's mother who has gone away on an extended vacation. Returning home from school, Missy is dismayed to see that Trent (Andy Sparnon), an old boyfriend of Annette's recently out of prison is there, and the two are deep into an alcohol and drug binge. Later that night, Trent forces himself into Missy's room and she has to defend herself with drastic results. The consequences of this tip her mother over the edge, in a furious rage she becomes determined to murder her daughter, and anyone else who happens to get in her way.

The Matriarch takes little time to really get into the meat of its story. Before even twenty minutes of runtime has passed, Missy finds herself being stalked by her mother over one long (and blue tinted) night of terror. It was apparently Greenfield's first acting role, not that you would think that as she was by far the standout actor in the film. She has a vulnerability and innocence to her character that comes across as so natural. She also projects clearly the fact that despite her mothers derangement she does legitimately love her and wants the best for her. Being a young teen, there is a power mismatch, so Missy has to result to some Home Alone style tricks to impede her mother, such as putting broken glass on the floor, and using some type of insect repellent as a weapon. She spends much of the movie terrified and trying her best to escape the locked home. I wasn't completely sure about Logan's character of Annette. She obviously has mental health issues, seeing her daughter as corrupted and evil, and you could easily say the version we see in the movie is full of drugs and alcohol on top of that. She felt like a slasher villain, but with a more personal relation to the 'final girl'. The way she constantly growled and her guttural speech gave the impression of a mad dog. Sometimes this seemed almost over the top, but it worked, I especially liked the moments when she is trying to act normal around other characters, but is obviously tweaking and barely holding it together. Her internal cocktail of mental health issues and drugs also make her very irrational. Along the way there becomes a small body count, with an almost random way Annette is trying to hide her increasing crimes.
Little of the film dwells on the characters past, there was a prologue used to show the mother's mental state even when Missy was a baby, and there is a very effective split second shot of a camera flash to starkly reveal to the audience just why Trent is not a good person. I wasn't so sure about the later extended flashback of this scene, as I felt it had been perfectly summed up with that single inserted image in the first part of the movie.

The film looked fantastic, mainly set at night inside the large house the pair live in, there is plenty going on. At one point Missy ends up in the attic with her mother trying to axe the attic floor open, another time she is under the house. There are some good looking blood effects, Missy getting increasingly battle damaged over the course of the eighty minute film, and victims getting stabbed and bludgeoned with effective sound effects. One particular highlight was a gunshot - that was part of such a great scene. Annette had a bit of a movie maniac about her, coming back from things you would expect to have killed or severely debilitated her. 
Special mention goes to the films score and soundtrack. There was one moment where I could hear the sound of cackling kookaburras mixed into the dramatic music, very well done. I also enjoyed the end credit sequence with its very angry and shouty song playing. 

I loved The Matriarch, a near perfect blend of slasher and thriller with a bit of home invasion in the mix. Greenfield was very impressive in the lead role, you would never guess it was her first acting job, and Logan despite being slightly cartoonish, made for a fearsome antagonist. The Matriarch releases on June 10th from Studio Dome.

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Outbreak: The Hunger (2015) by Scott Shoyer - Zombie Horror Novel Review

Scott Shoyer's Outbreak: The Hunger is yet another book I have had for review for a ridiculously long time, having first received a copy back in 2015. At that time, a girlfriend had agreed to help me get through my backlog and read some books on my behalf. She did actually read this novel but soon after we split up, so I never found out her thoughts on it, unrelated I'm sure! Now, I have finally gotten around to reading this, and boy, I wish I had read this one sooner.

John and his young daughter Fi have gone on their monthly visit to the local zoo near where they live in Texas. This trip feels different than usual, with a weird atmosphere at the place. Many of the zoo exhibits appear to be empty, with the animals that are still there behaving very aggressively. John almost decides to cut the trip short when a nervous young man is witnessed being roughly detained by a group of soldiers, but his daughters love for the train that runs around the zoo has John agreeing to ride it with her before they leave. This turns out to be a terrible mistake as staff and passengers alike come under attack from vicious animals. In the unfolding carnage the train derails, John, Fi, and a small group of other families survive, and decide to follow the track back to the zoo. They soon discover that they are being stalked from the shadows by the animals, who are not done with the group yet.
Elsewhere, the survivor of a violent animal attack at an animal rescue shelter is taken to a secure facility by the army, with it revealed that animals had escaped from a government lab, caused a localised outbreak, and that this survivor is patient zero - the first human to be infected by whatever disease or virus has affected the animals so dangerously.

This is a sick book, and for those who aren't on board for a whole lot of animals attacking both adults and children in violent and sickening detail, you might want to get off the train now! There is a cruelness here, with the book often seeming to go into unneeded excessive descriptions of the violence being inflicted. That is not to say I didn't like The Hunger, instead, I thought this was a great novel that really did do something different than the traditional zombie story. Firstly, I thought it was a neat idea to have the whole novel just tell the story of the initial outbreak, before the infection had even spread to humans. There are a few human-like infected here, but mainly just in the more traditional patient zero based subplot rolling on in the background. The zombie animals act very different, even to other zombie animals that have appeared in other books. These ones are as a unit extremely deadly and also extremely fast. The initial attacks are so swift that characters aren't even sure of what is happening, and the animals have some odd behaviour, such as occasionally being found all passed out rather than moving around. These animals also exhibit an intelligence that is frightening to see. Far from acting like dumb creatures, these infected appear to be able to work together and make plans, such as automatically going after any human who appears to be trying to use their phone to contact the outside world.

The infected animals are the ghastly stars of the show, and being set in and around a zoo there are excuses for why there are a large assortment of these creatures. Everything from tigers, lions, and bears to goats, meercats and wolves. They attack in explicit detail with victim's body parts being ripped off and chewed up, again, especially distressing when it is happening to young children!
John, generic name aside, made for an engaging protagonist. The backstory of him surviving a dog attack as a child explains why he is able to lead the group, while his worsening vision, due to forgetting the eye drops needed after a recent operation on his eye, gives a sense of bigger danger. His determination to protect his daughter is well realised, and really there wasn't much bad about this part of the novel. The subplot was less interesting only due to secret army bases and experiments on infected being so part and parcel of the zombie genre. Occasionally the novel gets a bit carried away, with a few chapters, especially near the end, which seemed to just be there to pad out the length of the book rather than add anything new. Some of these mini-stories of characters meeting their end were worth reading. I loved the really cruel chapter that saw a man trying to find his children, unaware that not only were they already dead, but that unknown to him he had sustained a fatal wound himself. This just exemplified the jet black humour that would sometimes pop up.

I loved Outbreak: The Hunger, it genuinely hooked me, but at the same time, I sometimes had to take breaks due to the misery and horror of the story. This sets itself apart from other zombie novels by taking a wild deviation to the tried and tested expectations, but towards the end especially it had some twists that I would hardly say I didn't see coming from a mile away. This was the first in a planned trilogy, with a quick Google search revealing the other books in the series are now written and out, I may have to check those out on day (turns out I also have the second book awaiting review on my heap of shame).

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Doom Eternal: The Ancient Gods - Part Two (2021) - Horror Video Game DLC Review (Playstation 5)

Continuing my playthrough of the previous games on the path to Doom: The Dark Ages, I have played and beaten the second of the two story DLCs (also available as a standalone mini-game) for Doom Eternal, funnily enough, this one is called The Ancient Gods - Part Two. I didn't have high hopes due to the first DLC being neat in terms of lore, but exhausting in terms of incessant combat. Thankfully, the developers seem to have realised their error with a much easier, and albeit, shorter second set of levels that were much better designed and more fun to play. Unavoidable spoilers for both Doom Eternal and The Ancient Gods - Part One to follow.

With the Dark Lord of Hell resurrected by the Doom Slayer, all he has to do is kill him. It doesn't turn out to be that easy as the Dark Lord teleports away to the prime city of Hell, challenging Doom Slayer to meet him there if he wishes to battle. Part Two is therefore the journey of the protagonist to this city.

This again is made up of three levels, kind of anyway. There is actually a fourth level, but that is just a boss fight. My issue first time around was how combat heavy and dull the levels were. This time around the levels feel like they are in the same style as the base game levels, rather than being endurance runs. The challenge was much lower, I again played on easy (now in my forties my reactions aren't as great as they once were), but this time it did feel a little easy. There was a strange Halo vibe to this second DLC, with the levels feeling like they wouldn't be out of place in that game. Like before, the three levels all take place in different realms. Starting off out in the rocky countryside of Argent D'Nur, which includes a dragon ride and plenty of platforming, things then move to a post apocalyptic Earth city, before finally heading to the principle city of Hell. These all looked great, but there has been a steady shift from supernatural to science fiction. No longer does it feel like you are battling demons, but more like an ultra advanced futuristic society! The last level in particular had this feel, but it was countered by having it take place during a massive war raging in the background.

The new enemy types from Part One reappear here, and plenty of new enemy variants are introduced. You have stone version of imps, armoured versions of Hell beasts, zombies with indestructible shields, and a rarely used enemy that can curse you, the only cure being to hunt down the teleporting idiot and punch him. A new weapon appears here, a giant hammer that when used stuns all enemies around you. This weapon was ridiculously useful, meaning that there wasn't much fear when surrounded by hordes of enemies. A new platforming element is also revealed, there are now grapple points floating in the sky that you can hook onto using the super shotgun. Some of these platforming sections were a bit intense, thankfully you no longer lose health when falling to your doom (Doom?), making them perfectly fine despite not really having a place in the universe.
The story was basic, but again, the lore you can collect was excellent. I especially liked how the lore of the second level is then shown to be lies by the lore of the third level. Doom Slayer also finally gets to speak, something that was a lovely surprise!

I was prepared for another faintly boring collection of combat challenges, instead Part Two delighted by feeling much more like the base game. I'm glad I played through these, though I probably won't ever return to them. Enjoyable, and a fine farewell to Doom Eternal. At around two and a half hours long this is a shorter part, but it goes to show, sometimes less is more as this is superior to Part One.

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The Rotting Zombie's Round-up of Horror News for May 2025

I've had a blissful and very lazy week off of work this previous week, and that is reflected in my blog output that features zero film reviews. Those will be returning next week in full force I am sure. Onwards to another selection of stories plucked out of my bloody mail sack.

Emmett Loverdale's Without A Name is now available on Amazon Prime. This horror, which stars Jeff Wittekiend, Desi Cruz Brooks, and Deborah Kay Johnson, is about a teenager who gets caught up in a youth worshipping cult that hates adults.

On June 1st, found footage streaming platform FOUND TV is launching an Indiegogo page for one of its first ever FOUND originals: A Possession in Lincoln County. This is currently in development by 105ive Films and FOUND TV. While the film will be coming to the streaming service, the only place to get the director's cut (with extra scenes and an alternate ending) will be from the Indiegogo page, with copies limited to just 500 on DVD/Blu-ray. Pre-orders for this director's cut of A Possession in Lincoln County can be found on the Indiegogo page here.

Gothic industrial metal band, Our Frankenstein have announced the release of new full-length album, Magnum Spire Hotel, which is out now via Reclamation Records. This has a concept theme of a haunted hotel with the press release stating 'Each floor takes listeners deeper into levels of psychological depravity, all building towards a grand ball at the top-where YOU are the guest of honor'.

Bitter Souls came to Amazon on May 15th after a limited theatrical run. The film tells the story of a murdered teenage girl whose boyfriend becomes determined to find her killers. To help him, he gets the help of Father O'Reilly (Karl Barbee) and voodoo priestess Mahlet (Destiny Brown) in order to defeat the evil houngan Immanuel.

Premiering on SCREAMBOX on June 10th (and additional VOD platforms) comes Bleeding, which was written, directed, and produced by Andrew Bell. The film takes place in a world where vampire blood is harvested as a drug. The story follows teenager Eric, who is determined to prevent his cousin Sean from getting into this shady world.

Finally for today, Shiver is a Christmas themed slasher film that is currently in pre-production, and is coming from writer/director Robert Resto. Principal photography is due to begin in January 2026. Based at a snowy ski resort, this follows a group of friends away on a Christmas getaway who of course find themselves being stalked by an unknown killer.

Doom Eternal: The Ancient Gods - Part One (2020) - Horror Video Game DLC Review (Playstation 5)

With Doom: The Dark Ages releasing recently, I saw fit to make my way back through Doom, and finally get around to finishing Doom Eternal, a game I had initially bounced off of due to the hard difficulty. The Ancient Gods - Part One is the first of two story DLCs released for the game. It promised an even harder challenge than the base game, while giving loads and loads more lore about origins of the Doom universe to the plater. Spoilers for the base game to unavoidably follow.

Having defeated the Icon of Sin and stopped Hell's invasion of Earth, Doom Slayer doesn't get a moments break. With the Heavenly forces of Urdak defeated, Hell have invaded their dimension, allowing them to reignite their assault on Earth in the process. Working with Samuel Hayden and his team, Doom Slayer is tasked with travelling to a secret UAC base and reawakening an ancient being known as the Seraphim, someone who will be able to help the Slayer to resurrect The Father and end the madness.

I had heard that this DLC was even more chaotic and full of action than the later half of the base game. When the difficulty select screen mentioned that even on easy mode the challenge would be a lot harder I can't say that filled me with excitement. Boy, is this DLC full of combat. Part One is made up of three different levels, but with each one roughly taking an hour to get through, there was a decent amount of game to be found here. Things didn't start off that well. The first level set on a series of giant oil rigs out in the middle of the ocean looked impressive, yet being under a constant barrage of enemies for the entire level soon had me becoming bored. This felt like a continuation of the end of the base game, where the combat got so intense that there wasn't any room to breath.
Thankfully the second level calms things down slightly, given a map that had more of a puzzle element design to it. Taking place in a large swamp in Hell, this second level introduced a new enemy type in the form of ghosts who can possess enemies, and have to be killed while their spirit form is exposed.
The final level takes place in Urdak and while combat heavy, this had a lot of interesting lore that really delved deeply into the key players. This level featured a tough boss (even on easy), and another new enemy type; a flying one whose only moment of weakness being when they fire their energy beams at you.

I liked the introduction of new enemy types, and I also thought the the settings used all looked fantastic. Combat was never the highlight of the game for me, and there was far more than I would have liked. It was worth it for the story however, as it really changed up my thoughts of previous story beats. It might have been nice to have a new weapon or two, but I did appreciate the DLC acts as if you had gotten all the upgrades in the base game. With Doom: The Ancient Gods - Part One being quite tough I am a bit concerned about how even more difficult the second and final DLC pack will be. I guess I will soon find out! Also; this is available to purchase as a standalone game should you not want it as Doom Eternal DLC.

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Doom Eternal (2020) - Horror Video Game Review (Playstation 5)

In a tale as old as time, on my path to playing Doom: The Dark Ages (that is now out on Xbox Gamepass), I decided to play through the previous newer Doom games. Returning to Doom 2016 was a complete blast, that game just seems to get better with each subsequent playthrough. Doom Eternal is a different beast altogether. I brought this on day one, super excited to play. The game just didn't click with me, despite some amazing levels, I eventually crawled my way to the last third of the game and promptly gave up. Now, some five years later I have returned, deciding to play the game on easy mode so that I could finally finish this particular fight. In a film-less week, the two DLCs will be making up my other reviews.

This picks up fourteen years after the end of Doom, with no explanation whatsoever, Doom Slayer is now on a space station orbiting Earth (he was last seen fourteen years previously being teleported away to an unknown location), an Earth that is under supreme demonic assault due to the UAC (Union Aerospace Corporation) becoming completely corrupted by Hell. Dr. Samuel Hayden (a powerful robot with a human brain) had led a resistance, but had been defeated, so now the Earth is at the mercy of the legions of Hell, and the three Hell Priests leading the invasion. Your goal is to head to Earth and kill these three Hell Priests, with it hoped that will lead the invasion to collapse. Unfortunately, it appears that the demons have teamed up with an alien race named the Maykr, and the leader of this race; the Kahn Maykr is determined to stop Doom Slayer completing his task.

I have mixed feelings about this game. When it is firing on all cylinders there is nothing quite like it. There are a load of fantastic levels here. In the first game, the levels took place either on the Mars UAC facility or in Hell, with the former being much more fun to play through. This time around, the levels are either set on Earth (channelling the spirit of Doom II), or in various other planets. You have several set on the Sentinel (the alien race who helped Doom Slayer after the events of Doom 64) home world of Argent D'Nur for instance. These take place on sprawling maps which is basic Roman architecture turned up to eleven. These levels just were not as fun as the more logically designed Earth levels. The absolute highlight of Doom Eternal were the levels set on Earth, from an artic cultist base, to the epicentre of the demonic invasion in the middle of a huge city, these were all amazing. I also loved the detour that takes you briefly back to Mars, again, some lovely designed levels. In between most levels you return to a hub area set on the space station. I enjoyed this break in pace, even if there isn't really that much to do on the station, other than use energy cells hidden in levels to unlock power-ups.
A weird new addition to the series is the introduction of platforming sections. Doom Slayer is inexplicably now able to swing on poles and clamber up rock walls, throw in the return of a double jump, and the ability to dash forward twice in mid-air and you have a much more dynamic protagonist. These sections were fine, but they felt out of place (having now started playing Doom: The Dark Ages I can confirm there are mild platforming sections in this prequel).

Combat is the main focus of this sequel, and spices things up by having different enemies be weak to different weapon types. A lot of the enemies from Doom return, albeit with new looks and abilities, and a lot of new enemy types are introduced, many being ones that had appeared in Doom II. Mech spider creatures for instance fire missiles, but their launcher can be destroyed by rockets. The magma monster is suspectable to gatling gun fire, while the returning BFG can lay waste to multiple enemies at once. There are four key powers on a recharge meter that are essential to get the most out of the game. A flamethrower causes enemies to drop armour pieces, a chainsaw can be used on weaker enemies to create ammo pick-ups, a super punch can instantly kill weaker enemies or massively damage larger ones, while both ice grenades and normal grenades can be fired. All enemies can be stunned, which allows you to perform a gory execution kill for health. Being required to constantly change up your weapons depending on the enemy type, as well as having to constantly manage your ammo and armour might not appeal to everyone. That was actually me included, but by the end of the DLC missions I had started to finally appreciate this aspect.
Levels are full of secrets to collect, and grant points of various types that be used to upgrade weapons (each of which has two different special functions), or to upgrade your character, such as being able to see secrets on the maps, and increasing the damage of your grenades. The levels are mainly split into adventure sections and battle arenas. Unfortunately, the last third of the game is pure combat. The final four levels are all intensely combat heavy, as a result I got quite bored with this final section of the game. I understand one or maybe two levels like this to finish on (the manic final boss fight brought to mind a feeling of the similarly manic final boss in Doom II), but four in a row was a real test of endurance. The levels also get worse as they go on, the very final one gave an intense feeling of playing an Xbox 360 game, and not in a good way. The level design got more and more dull, almost as if the creators were running out of time to get the game finished.

Doom Eternal has some levels that match or even surpass some of those found in Doom. It also has its fair share of more bland ones, especially towards the end of the game. I loved the lore given here, I was delighted to discover Doom Slayer is meant to be the same character from the original games, and the drip-fed backstory as to what happened in the character's past was both awesome and fascinating. It was however, also weird how so little of what happened in-between games is explained, leading to lots of confusion. I had a tremendous amount of fun playing this, but I also had a less entertaining time than the first time around. Level design really suffers at times thanks to the unneeded inclusion of the gymnastic sections, and those parts really do not feel like Doom at all. Great story (for a mindless shooter at least), it looks and sounds fantastic, and the gameplay is solid. I wish that sometimes more care had been given to the level design, and that the final third had been improved upon.

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