What We Do in the Shadows: Season 1 (2019) - Comedy Horror TV Series Review

I let myself down with my blog output last week. That time I blamed it all on a work night out that drained my life force. This time around I have more of an excuse for not sticking up five posts, due to getting a day-less weekend and so only able to work on my blog on this Saturday (at time of typing). Not that that is related to this review of season 1 of What We Do in the Shadows. I loved the 2014 film of the same name, and this ten episode season follows the same format of having events presented as a mockumentary, but the location is moved to a new location and with a completely new set of characters. Often TV shows based on films can be pretty bad, but watching this on and off over about the span of a year, it really wasn't bad.

The show follows four vampire housemates who have lived together on Staten Island for over a century. They are Nandor the Relentless (Kayvan Novak - Four Lions), married couple - Laszlo (Matt Berry - The IT Crowd) and Nadja (Natasia Demetriou), as well as energy vampire Colin Robinson (Mark Proksch - The Office). Each episode is mostly self contained, with an ongoing central plot going on to link them all together, and several minor subplots playing out. Nadja has discovered the latest reincarnation of her eternal lover and is secretly courting him. Nandor's much put upon familiar, Guillermo de la Cruz (Harvey Guillén) comes to suspect his true calling, while the vampires are visited by ancient vampire, Baron Afanas (Doug Jones - The Shape of Water), who tells the house they have been tasked with seizing control of Staten Island by the vampire council; something the group really don't want to have to do.

I loved the opening credit sequence to this show, always being something I watched even with the option to skip it each episode. It shows a montage of the vampires over the ages, starting with oil paintings and ending with photos of them. All of these cast members were great it has to be said. Berry is fantastic in every role I've seen him in, and that is no exception here. I love the way he speaks, and him yelling "bat!" whenever he transforms into one never got tiring. I thought he would be the scene stealer of the show but the rest of the cast capture the screen just as well. These vampires are petty and arrogant, but also innocent when it comes to understanding how the modern world works. The central plot may be about taking control of Staten Island but the episode to episode plots are much more low stakes. In episode 5 'Animal Control' for instance, the group have to rescue Laszlo, after animal control captured him while he was in a bat form, and in 'Citizenship' the main plot is about Nandor applying for American citizenship with comedic results. An unsung character was Guillermo, a toady vampire hopeful who actually gets the most character development by season end, even if it all comes in final episode 'Ancestry'. One trick pony Colin Robinson also delighted, it was fun having a non-typical vampire whose skill is boring people so much that he is able to drain their life force.

Each roughly half hour episode is full of dry humour and all follow a similar format. At times it was a little samey, and there wasn't a single episode in the first season that stood out as a highlight. The mockumentary format isn't overused; there are interviews with the characters and mild interactions with the film crew, but mostly that fades into the background a bit. I did like the editing, often with reference to events that have happened in the past there are silly little montages to show what is being referred to. The characters are anti-heroes and lethal, but on screen they are often shown as dense and mildly incompetent. There are deaths on screen, those veering more towards comedy than horror, but they looked good to my eyes.

Not my best review, but then I did watch the show over a one year period, so my memory of much of it is fuzzy. Season 1 of What We Do in the Shadows was a good starting point. I wouldn't say it was amazing, or as funny as the film it was based on, but it was very watchable even if I didn't personally find it binge-worthy. What We Do in the Shadows is currently streaming on Disney+.

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The Lighthouse (2019) - Horror Film Review

Oh boy. Due to not sleeping well last night (at the time of typing), I decided to watch a film of my own choosing for review. Seeing that the Robert Eggers (The Witch) directed and co-written folk horror The Lighthouse was soon to be leaving Prime Video, I thought I would check it out as have heard people speak highly of it. I feel this is going to be a hard film to review. Experimental and abstract and arthouse at times, this was fantastically made, but I'm not sure it's for me.

In 1890, an old lighthouse keeper (Willem Dafoe - Beetlejuice Beetlejuice) and his new assistant (Robert Pattinson - The Batman) have arrived at the remote island where the lighthouse they are due to work at is located. The keeper tells the young man that he is exclusively going to tend to the light during night shifts during the four weeks they are stationed there. This is seen as strange as it goes against regulations not to split the shifts, but it soon becomes clear that the old man sees the light as something almost religious, and jealously guards the entrance to it. After a terrible storm prevents the boat from the mainland coming to collect them at the end of their allotted time, the two men's sanity slowly erodes over being stranded on the small barren island.

I was enthralled with The Lighthouse from the beginning. The small non-wide screen view, the black and white footage, and the serious acting had me drawn in to this world. The film mainly features just the two characters, this becomes the most fascinating part of the movie as both iconic actors nail their roles, easily able to carry much of the film on their own shoulders. Dafoe as the wonderfully stereotypical sounding former sailor shone throughout. Pattinson was as good in different ways, but neither character was likeable or even intended to be. There became a feeling of all this being part of some metaphor with the increasingly surreal and hallucinogenic images, such as the assistant discovering a mermaid out on the rocks, or the keeper's strange worship of the lighthouse light. This increasingly descent into madness is reflective of the characters who both go very off the rails. The meat of the movie seemed to be the complex relationship they had with each other, almost like a dysfunctional father and son one. Vast chunks of the film felt a bit like a multi-episode Dragonball Z fight, instead of fists, the two adversaries taking it in turns to verbally decimate the other.

From the strong start I had high hopes for this, but the horror I desired never really came. I actually found the first part prior to the breakdown in sanity to be the more enjoyable part. The crazed later scenes ended up going on for so long that they felt a little stretched out past my particular patience. I get it wasn't the point of The Lighthouse, but I wish there had been more of a storyline that reached some sort of conclusion. The mystery of what the deal with the light is, is never revealed, nor more major plot points.
On the flipside of the plot, the actual filmmaking was very impressive. At times this gave me a real vibe of old black and white drama films from the 1950s. This is much more a drama than a horror, but the absurdist characters give plenty of moments to put some humour in, even if that is always tinged with an element of malice. The manic binge drinking scenes were a real delight.

The Lighthouse was obviously a very impressive film, something that the filmmaking and acting combine to make happen. Personally, while it never got anywhere near as terrible as Mother!, this still ended up going on for longer than I desired it to be, the last half hour in particular where it became more abstract. The Lighthouse can currently be streamed on Prime Video, though it is due to leave the service in about a week.

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Killing Time (2019) - Short Horror Film Review

Killing Time is a short sixteen minute film that was directed and co-written by Scott Lake, and was a film that took me about sixteen minutes to locate on IMDB also, due to many many films coming out under that title!

A masked man sneaks around the home of a family one night where he systematically murders them all. Starting with the children, he then proceeds to kill the wife before waking the husband (Jay Allen Tucker - Pool Ghouls) up and taking him to the front room where he proceeds to try and explain his actions.

It is hard to really talk too much about this one as there are some pretty integral spoilers that would be needed to be known. Obviously filmed with an indie budget, there were elements  here that didn't look so great on camera, with an obvious lack of special effects. On the story side of things also there are parts you just have to accept and move past on. The integral twist is poorly explained within the short, mainly due to the short run time, both the viewer and characters are expected to just take it at face value despite the lack of much evidence.
Despite all that though, this told a captivating story, doing more with its silent moments than with its scenes of dialogue. He may be a man in a balaclava but there was something in the actors actions that made him seem familiar with the home he was in, leading me to guess the odd reveal before it happened. The first kill scene took me by surprise, though with just a sound effect to sell the kill it took me a few moments to realise it had even happened. After that I was more interested, the mystery of the piece keeping me wanting to know why the events were happening.

There was good atmosphere with Killing Time and credit is due for trying to tell a more 'out-there' story than you might expect. From the opening to the end I was engaged with this. There might have been some concessions to budget and story-telling time, but this was a decent short with a well paced tale and an effective soundtrack.

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Creepshow: Season 1 (2019) - Horror TV Show Review

A few months back I decided to make a convoluted method of randomly choosing what video game to play next, due to having such an insane backlog (that is literally thousands of games long). With that method a success I thought I would apply it to films and TV show also. The first pick that came up was the Creepshow series. Released in 2019, this series is obviously based on the cult classic anthology horror films of the same name (my Creepshow 2 review here). Currently streaming on Shudder, each season is made up of six episodes, with each episode featuring two short stories.

The show is presented as if it was stories that are taken place within the titular Creepshow comic. You get little wraparound segments featuring The Creep, either in puppet or cartoon form, and during the episodes there are sections when the action freezes and transfers over to a comic book format or vice-versa. Usually these comic book sections seemed designed to save on budget by having larger set pieces be in this form before heading to a more safe and static setting for the real life footage.
I initially watched the first episode a few years back and have to say I wasn't impressed much at all. I thought the effects seemed a bit poor and the stories didn't grab me. Thankfully, heading back I was delighted with many of the episodes, with rarely a bad story to be found. The season opens up with 'Grey Matter', an adaptation of a Stephen King story. Taking place during a tremendous storm, a boy recounts events that saw his alcoholic father transform into something...wrong. My notes from the time said that the creature effects actually did look good. It was also the first of many notable names to show up this season with both Tobin Bell (the Saw franchise) and Giancarlo Esposito (Breaking Bad, Better Call Saul TV shows) featuring in small roles. The second part of this first episode was 'House of the Head' which had an interesting premise. A young girl, Evie (Cailey Fleming - The Walking Dead TV show) gets a dolls house, but the dolls appear to keep moving around on their own, with it seeming that somehow this doll family's home is being haunted by a similar sized ghost. I thought that one was both clever and creepy, though didn't end on the most satisfying note.

Episode two opens with 'Bad Wolf Down', a werewolf story set during World War II. I loved the setting and thought this was enjoyable if a little predictable. It did show how varied Creepshow could be, that was something I really took from the first season - how many different feeling episodes there were. Following this is the delightfully demented 'The Finger'. Starring DJ Qualls (Z Nation TV show) as the fourth wall breaking loner - Clark Wilson, this sees him finding a weird monstrous looking finger and deciding to take it home. Over time the finger grows into a fully formed demonic creature who begins to kill in order to please Clark. I liked this one, the puppet looked great and there was a fun vibe, especially liking Clark who narrates directly to the camera, and even steps away mid scene to have a brief talk to the audience every now and again.
The third episode has two shorts that were both good in their own right. I loved 'All Hallows Eve' that sees a group of teens going 'trick or treating', with it slowly fed out over the episode just why everyone whose homes they visit are so terrified of them. 'The Man in the Suitcase' has to be the weirdest episode of season one. This has the surreal concept of a young man accidentally bringing home the wrong suitcase from the airport. Inside he finds a strange man painfully jammed into the luggage. The young man and his friends soon discover that pain causes the trapped man to vomit up gold coins, greed makes them do bad things to get more of this. It might have been a bit obvious where this was heading but it was unique feeling.

I loved fourth episode 'The Companion' about a boy discovering a killer scarecrow, the effects for that scarecrow in particular felt very cool, I loved how his 'fingers' of hay stretched out like tendrils. While the first film in this episode was good, it could also be accused of being a little too straight forward. I personally thought that the next short - 'Lydia Layne's Better Half' was the best of the season. This sees an influential businesswoman accidentally killing her girlfriend during an argument. She puts the body on an office chair and wheels it to an office elevator, with the intention of taking it to her car and disposing of it. Unfortunately, while in the elevator there is an earthquake and the lift gets stuck between floors. This had some creepy moments to it, with it not clear for much of the run time if the corpse is actually moving of its own accord when out of eyesight, or if it is the stress of the situation getting to the protagonist.
The penultimate episode begins with a take on the classic 'monkey's paw' plot device (being a literal monkey's paw that grants wishes, but typically twisted versions of what the user had intended). As simple and predictable as it was, I thought 'Night of the Paw' was a decent short that told the story in a simple yet effective manner. 'Times is Tough in Musky Holler' was the worst episode of the season, more that it was too ambitious than it was a bad short to watch. It takes place against the backdrop of zombie apocalypse with the tables having been turned on Musky Holler's mayor and his followers (including the sheriff played by David Arquette - Scream series of films) who had gotten power hungry and ran the town as a brutal dictatorship in the name of protecting the citizens. The whole short is the lead up to and reveal of his and his followers punishment. The bad thing about this one was that a giant chunk of the story took place as a comic book sequence. The whole zombie outbreak and the mayor's abuse of power all played out this way, obviously due to the limitations of the budget for actually showing this in live action. Many of the cast were also killed offscreen, with a scoreboard used to show the viewer they are being killed. Despite the short comings, the zombie effects were cool, and this really reminded me of a short story I once read.
The final episode of season one was another mixed bag. I really enjoyed 'Skincrawlers' and was definitely the most bloody and gross short to be found here. It has a species of giant leech being used by a company as a weight loss tool, due to them having the ability to only suck fat out of bodies. I liked this one. 'By the Silver Water of Lake Champlain' had a decent idea behind it, but I don't think it was executed that well. Directed by Tom Savini and based on a story by Joe Hill, this features a teenage girl who is determined to find proof of the Loch Ness style monster that legend says resides in a large lake near her home. I liked that her determination for finding the creature came from her father being a previous victim of it, but this felt a little too small in scale, and I thought the mother character was intensely irritating.

Truth be told, I didn't expect much but found I actually really enjoyed Creepshow. I enjoyed the wraparound idea of these all being tales from a horror comic, I loved all the famous actors popping up throughout, and this had some great variation in the type of stories being told. It is also very cool reading about the scores of easter eggs hidden throughout each episode, with nods to iconic horror films and books. I look forward to one day getting around to watch future seasons.

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Paralyzed with Fear (2019) - Horror Film Review

Paralyzed with Fear is a supernatural horror written and directed by Glenn Berggoetz (Evil Intent). I hoped that despite its obvious low budget that it would still be something worth watching, especially as horror legend Kane Hodder (Shed of the Dead, Victor Crowley) starred as the antagonist. Some unexciting acting, limited locations, and bad special effects combined to make this one to remember for the wrong reasons.

Kathryn (Andrea Rabold - Evil Intent) became paralysed after a car accident that resulted in the death of her beloved husband. Now she lays in bed yearning for her misery to end. Hoping to lift her mother's spirits, her daughter Hannah (Haidyn Harvey) performs a ritual with the aim of summoning the ghost of her father. It initially appears to have been successful, with both mother and daughter experiencing supernatural events. After using a Ouija board however, it soon becomes clear that the spirit isn't of Kathryn's husband, but instead (and somewhat randomly), it is Chemock (Hodder), the evil spirit of a 15th century man who was the right hand man of Vlad the Impaler! This being wants only pain and misfortune to visit the family.

The indie horror took place almost entirely in the house the mother and daughter live in, even then, there are only really two rooms that are featured in any kind of detail, the bedroom where Kathryn lays, and the kitchen. While events do happen, it is over forty minutes into the horror that Hodder's character makes an appearance on screen. Despite him supposed to be a spirit from the 15th century, the man wears a modern black t-shirt for some reason. Hodder was perfectly fine, his role didn't really require him to do much other than stand around talking to characters. Much of his power happens when he isn't in a visible form. I found the distorted effect used on his voice made many of his lines near impossible to make out, I was catching every other word he said, could just be down to my hearing which isn't fantastic!

Of the other characters in the small cast, they were fine in a bland way. Hannah's best friend Cami (Maya Grace), Kathryn's very religious sister Jennifer (Lauren von Engeln) were in the film about as much as anyone else. None of these characters left an impression, with Kathryn laying in bed the whole film (fair enough as she was paralysed, making up the 'paralyzed' part of the film's title), Hannah soon falling for Chemock for some bizarre reason, and Cami and Jennifer stating how scared they are yet constantly returning to the house.

I liked how female centred the movie was, but it was frustrating how empty the plot came to be. It follows a familiar format of discovering an evil is in the house and then seeking to thwart that evil, but then it seems to run out of ideas, taking the plot in quite a miserable and bleak direction. I guess I was surprised how this ended, but with so little run time left and nothing having been resolved in the slightest, I assumed it might end on an unimpressive note.
Many of the special effects are CG based, though you do get some poltergeist activity with characters getting stuff thrown at them from off screen. Elsewhere, Chemock has the ability to turn red in a terrible looking way and there are plenty of loud noises.

Paralyzed with Fear wasn't a good horror film. The limited locations and unlikeable characters left me bored, not really caring what happened to anyone in the movie. The lack of plot, especially in the second half, really helped to bring this down for me also. Bad effects, lacklustre performances, and a poor story did not a fun movie make. Bayview Entertainment have released the horror, with it available to rent/buy on Amazon Prime Video in the USA, while available worldwide on other streaming platforms.

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Charlie: A YA Zombie Horror Story [Zombie Slayer Book 1] (2019) - by Gayle Katz - Zombie Horror Book Review

Charlie: A YA Zombie Horror Story (Zombie Slayer Book 1) by Gayle Katz is a teenage horror novel that shares more than a few similarities with Buffy the Vampire Slayer. In fact, swap out the vampires for zombies and this is pretty much exactly that. It appears there are currently at least seven novels in the series now, this first one had a free eBook download, I guess to draw readers into the series.

High school student Charlie has moved across America from Texas to Portland to start a new life in a new town with her gran. This is due in part to her wanting to get away from her former life as a zlayer (a person given special abilities designed to help protect the world against the threat of zombie outbreaks). She hopes with the former zleader dead (undead can only thrive if the original one to turn them is still unalive) that there is no longer any danger to America. It isn't long until she discovers that is not the case, her former mentor, Mr. George, has travelled to Portland too, and he tells the girl of a new zleader turning up in the city. Teaming up with classmates Zan, another zlayer, and Owen, a truthspeaker, they begin their investigation into who the latest zleader is, so that they can put a stop to their chaos.

It soon become apparent this was geared towards teens rather than adult horror readers, and that is perfectly fine with me. Being in my forties, I had to often try and put myself more in the mindset of my younger self. If not for having been watching Buffy around that time in my life, I think I would have enjoyed this. There are lots of zombie outbreaks and attacks, with a decent bodycount, but it isn't a book designed to be scary. The biggest stumbling block was the simplicity of the story, with key plot points dealt with in an abrupt and sometimes underwhelming way. Take the eventual reveal of the main antagonist, within a chapter of this figure being identified, they had been dealt with and everything wrapped up in a nice bow. This is a world where characters are pretty black and white, if someone appears to be suspicious they are likely to be hiding secrets, if someone appears decent, then it isn't very likely they will turn out to have any skeletons in their closet. This did lead to me on occasion thinking more deeply into the story than was actually needed.

There was a bit of a dystopian feel to the world of the book, mainly with how people react to the amount of people getting killed. There are several sequences set during school field trips in which a fair number of students are killed, seemingly with no consequences for anyone involved. It seems the world is used to people randomly being murdered, but is never made entirely clear. At times, Charlie goes out of her way to hide the fact that zombies walk among us, at other times, it seems everyone is already aware of this. At one point when Charlie returns to the city after having been away, she is stopped at the city entrance and warned of a zombie outbreak happening by a soldier stationed there, at other times she is hiding corpses and making up fanciful stories to mask what is really happening. 
There is lots of zombie killing here, with several large scale events that Charlie, Zan, and Owen deal with very easily, in a typically unconcerned manner, it became hard to really feel any sense of danger with the breezy way these little situations are always dealt with. I did like the frustration that is present with Charlie unable to locate the real zleader, several half decent bait and switches for who is really in control.

Charlie: A YA Zombie Horror Story (Zombie Slayer Book 1) was probably something more enjoyable if you are not familiar with Buffy. The many comparisons in my mind made elements of this feel a little derivative, but the clear and simple chapters made this a breeze to get through.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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Immortal (2019) - Horror Anthology Film Review

I have a habit of trying to avoid any kind of synopsis before watching a film for review, and sometimes that works out for the best. I figured purely from the title that Immortal would be a vampire film and so I was very happy to find out that this was actually an anthology. I do love anthologies, and it had been a while since I last saw one, with Immortal you have four different short films, all revolving (surprisingly enough) around the idea of immortality.

There is no wrap-around story to be had here, but no wrap-around can be better than a poorly executed one and so that wasn't an issue for me. All four short films were written by Jon Dabach, and the first of these was Chelsea. Chelsea was directed by Rob Margolies (The Lodger), the titular character (Lindsay Mushett) is a promising athlete at her high school, but one day as she is leaving for home she is abducted. She awakens in dense woodland where a man (who claims to be immortal) informs her that he plans to hunt her for sport. This became something different to what I initially thought it would be, it made for an unexpected story, the standout actor was Dylan Baker (Trick 'r Treat, Requiem for a Dream) who played Chelsea's teacher to excellent effect. My one real complaint with this one was that it felt like it ended too early, I get an open end, but I felt like more could have been done with the twist.

The second film was Gary & Vanessa, directed by Danny Isaacs. This gave me heavy vibes of the old TV show Tales of the Unexpected, something that had a similar idea to The Twilight Zone, but with a more grounded and realistic approach. The story here actually felt quite current, dealing as it does with the cost of living. Gary (Brett Edwards - The Forever Purge) and Vanessa (Agnes Bruckner - Vacancy 2: The First Cut) are a loving couple who are expecting the birth of their first child. Wanting his child to have the best possible chance in life, Gary has came up with a plan to commit suicide but make it look like an accident, so that Vanessa will be able to get his life insurance, something that she has been clued in on. Things however take a dark and unexpected turn. There was something slightly ironic with how the events here played out. I liked how the early twist gets superseded by later ones. There was one lingering graphic shot that maybe was dwelled on too long, sometimes less is more, but other than that this was a strong entry.

Next up was Ted & Mary, directed by Tom Colley, and starring the legendary Tony Todd (The Crow, Candyman). It was great to see this actor here, as I had no idea he was going to be in the movie. It was the most sentimental of the shorts here, and tells a moving story. An elderly couple, Ted (Todd) and Mary (Robin Bartlett -Shutter Island, American Horror Story TV series) have a film crew round who are making a documentary about assisted suicide. Mary is terminally ill, and to save her from the pain she is in, the couple have taken the decision to end her life early. To say any more would ruin the chance for surprise, there was a neat transition from a heartfelt first half (with some great acting from the two actors playing the titular roles), to the horror of where this ends up. My biggest complaint is that this is essentially the exact same twist that Gary & Vanessa had, sure the story is totally different, but it ends up in the same place.

Finally is Warren, and thankfully avoided my fears that this too would follow the same format that others did here. This one was directed by the writer, Jon Dabach and opens with the titular Warren (Samm Levine - Inglourious Basterds) being seemingly killed in a hit and run accident. The man is surprised to find his fatal wounds somehow heal, and after a series of experiments he discovers he is unable to die. With the knowledge of his new found immortality, he sets out to find the person responsible for the hit and run and get his revenge. I enjoyed this one, had some fun moments to it, and a deliciously dark ending, it was a good way to close out the anthology.

As always, I enjoy a good anthology and here I enjoyed each of the different short films. While the second and third did follow a very similar format, they were still set apart by the acting skills of the main cast as well as the different vibe. Outside of that little issue, and the abrupt finish to the first short, this was a solid film, one that I enjoyed sitting through. Immortal is due for release on February 20th from High Fliers Films.

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The Elder Scrolls Online (2014-23) - Fantasy Video Game Review

I first intended to review The Elder Scrolls Online many years ago. This was the first MMORPG (massively multiplayer online role playing game) that I played and so far remains my favourite. My problem with reviewing this is that it isn't really possible to complete. There has to be thousands of quests and new content is always being released. Annoyingly the game never tells you exactly how many hours you have sunk into it, I estimate mine must be somewhere between a hundred to two hundred hours.

It has been literal years since I completed the main storyline in the game and so I can't really say what the story would have been. Something concerning demons and cults most likely. The way I play the game is like a roving adventurer. I go to wherever my next quest is, rather than head to an area and experience everything it has to offer. It's an irritating limitation that you can only have twenty five active quests at a time, meaning there are so many new quest givers I have to ignore and walk on by, with the hope to remember where they were so I can revisit when more convenient. My travels take me all around the game world but the haphazard way I play the game means no quest really means that much to me. One moment I can be helping a lizardman out in the swamps, swearing to retrieve a cursed object for him, the next moment I teleport myself off to Skyrim to uncover a plot concerning killing the Skald-King. My journey keeps everything always feeling fresh.

I have tried the Final Fantasy MMORPG, but despite liking that world more, the quests are far more bland, and I absolutely detest that you are forced to go into dungeons with other real people. Elder Scrolls for the most part, allows you to experience much of the game on your lonesome. There have been plenty of updates over the years, my favourite was the ability to get an A.I companion to always be by your side. There was an update some years back that made all the weapons much stronger, making playing the game so much more fun. It can be frustrating that you start some quests, only to discover three or four steps down the line it was intended as a group quest. The group dungeons are far too hard for someone to do on their own, but I have zero desire to play with real people.

The amount of quests is ridiculous, some are better than others, all feature fully voiced characters. From stopping an army of the undead, to investigating cults, travelling to the demon world and saving villages, there is always something to be doing. Best of all, and something which stopped me playing Final Fantasy, Elder Scrolls has no monthly subscription requirements. Sure you have to pay for expansions, but there is no monthly cost. For many years I did pay the subscription, this gives you all minor expansions for free, as well as an unlimited inventory size and in-game currency each month. Worth doing if this is your main game, but I tend to play this in fits and bursts, whenever I have the space on my Playstation 5 hard drive to have it installed.

Graphically this isn't stunning nowadays, but at least on the newer consoles and PCs this loads really quick, and it certainly isn't an ugly game. This is one of the most popular games of its type, and if you like your straight faced fantasy then there is plenty here to appeal. It is a huge time sink however, and if you are the type of person who likes 'beating' games then this will frustrate. Overall though, I always come back to The Elder Scrolls Online, no matter how long I've been away, I love getting lost in the world.

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I Trapped the Devil (2019) - Horror Film Review

I Trapped the Devil is a horror film written and directed by Josh Lobo (in his directorial and writing debut), a film whose title sums up the entire premise. Upon watching this I was hit with severe deja-vu, questioning if I had somehow already watched the film before. I then realised that this shares an almost identical storyline with 2015's Pod. In that one, a man and a woman head to a remote house to check up on a brother who has had mental health problems in the past, they discover that he has apparently captured an alien and has it locked up in the basement, which leads to the visitors thinking he has gone crazy. Keep that synopsis in mind.

Matt (AJ Bowen - You're Next, The Signal) and his wife, Karen (Susan Burke - Southbound) turn up unannounced at the remote house of Matt's brother Steve (Scott Poythress - The Signal) to check up on him. Steve has had mental health problems in the past leading to an estrangement. They discover the man in a state of paranoia, and he eventually confesses to the couple a dark secret, that locked up in the basement he has allegedly trapped the devil. Obviously believing Steve to be ill, the two try to work out what to do, thinking that the man's claims cannot possibly be true.

I'm sure the similarities with the plot between those two films were purely coincidental but it did lead to a confusing opening for me, distracted as to whether I had already seen this. In terms of the plot itself, that lends itself more to the classic The Twilight Zone episode from 1960, The Howling Man, which had a similar set up of a man being told that the person locked up in a cell was actually the devil. I Trapped the Devil is an indie horror that I felt pulled its punches a little too early. The person trapped in the cellar (voiced by Chris Sullivan - Stranger Things) gets very little screen time, in fact they only get a couple of sentences of dialogue. Even that though was enough for me to come to a conclusion due to distortion effects used. With the set lit by red light, these basement scenes were some of the more effective moments, for a locked door it sure had an ominous feel to it.

All Must Die (2019) - Horror Film Review

All Must Die (original title Utdrikningslaget) is a Norwegian slasher that was directed and co-written by Geir Greni. It soon became clear upon starting the screener I had for this that there were no English subtitles. I decided as this was a slasher that I would watch it regardless, with the assumption that once the killing began it wouldn't matter too much that I couldn't understand any dialogue. Unfortunately, while All Must Die is indeed a slasher, it is also a dialogue heavy one, leading to me being avoidably bemused throughout. As such, take my musings on this with a pinch of salt, I am sure the actual release version of this will have subtitles. My synopsis is based on what I think it was all about and may differ from reality.

Gina (Viktoria Winge) is taken away by her four friends for a surprise bachelorette party at a remote cabin. The night begins well with plenty of alcohol and partying, then Gina finds herself in the lead role for a horror themed scavenger hunt. As she follows the clues she begins to notice that things seem a little too real, she keeps getting chased by a masked person (the mask creepily being of her face) armed with an axe, and the fake body parts she encounters seem a little fresh. Despite her friends assuring her this is all part of the game they have created for her, Gina can't shake the feeling that something really is not right with the evening.

The first forty five minutes of this eighty minute movie is the build up to the night of horror. It is all as you would expect, the five friends have differing personalities, with it feeling like there is an undercurrent of something not quite right, such as some voyeuristic camera angles used. When the horror does begin it is all stop and start, moments with Gina alone being chased and discovering what she believes to be bodies, balanced against more downbeat moments where she finds friends who don't believe her stories. With that part it helps that the killer is a considerate one who cleans up after themselves, so Gina trying to prove what is happening is constantly made to look like she has imagined events. It leads to a surprising third act in which past events are shown to have played out slightly differently that what had been presented to the viewer up to that point.

Bewere (2019) - Short Horror Film Review

Bewere is a short twelve minute horror that was directed by J. Budro Partida and written by Joy Y. Lin (99 Bottles of Beer). As the title slightly implies, this is about werewolves for are one of my least favourite movie monsters. This short wasn't bad, not taking itself too seriously, while putting some answers to questions about werewolves that I hadn't ever considered before.

Rich college kid Aaron (Andrew P. Logan) has managed to track down a man purporting to be a werewolf, a man named Oz (Joseph Fotinos). He offers him a substantial amount of cash for Oz to turn him into one himself. Once he is turned however, Aaron tells the man he has no intention of paying him and heads off, and it isn't long before Aaron has also turned his best friend, Drew (Ray Roberts II). In this cautionary tale however it may have been a good idea to have honoured his deal, as this may have resulted in Oz revealing some pretty essential information to the new werewolf and his pal.

While twelve minutes in length it is only around nine minutes of actual film excluding the credits, though is a quick after credit sequence. The cast of three hold this together well, though it is the character of Oz who is the essential one, and the person who was the more fleshed out of the three. The werewolves here are people who literally turn into wolves and so during that whole sequence it is actual wolves and other animals being shown, rather than people in hairy costumes. There was always something a little goofy about the film and this results in a third act which was both really quite gross as well as amusing. I can't really say much more for fear of spoilers, but I enjoyed where this ended up going, even if it was very messy, not one to watch while eating that's for sure!

I may not be a fan of werewolf movies but a short one like this I was perfectly fine with. It did something different to any other werewolf film I have personally seen, and best of all it's free to watch. Bewere premiered on the Dark Matters' YouTube channel on June 17th.

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DCeased (2019) - Zombie Horror Graphic Novel Review

It may have taken some time but the DC side of comics finally came up with their answer to the popular Marvel Zombies series with their six issue mini-series DCeased, in which zombie apocalypse came to Earth. Rather than be a carbon copy this went in a slightly different direction, more serious, and with a vastly different explanation for what was going on. The graphic novel includes both the six issue run, as well as A Good Day to Die spin-off.

It all begins with the Justice League defeating Darkseid and stopping his invasion of Earth. Before he returns to his homeworld of Apokolips he informs them that it was never about conquering the planet, but that he had been searching for something that he has now found. Back home, he tells a captured Cyborg that it was the second half of the 'Anti-Life Equation' that he was looking for, and that within Cyborg he has found it. He planned to use this formula to bridge the gap between electronic and biological viruses in order to be able to control everyone who was infected, but something went wrong and instead of control, the equation instead caused the infected to die and be reborn as the undead. With a zombified Darkseid on the loose on Apokolips, his sorcerer Desaad in panic sends the root of the virus, Cyborg away back to Earth hoping that will sever the connection. Back on Earth, the man is powerless to stop the virus within his body automatically uploading itself to the internet and pretty soon nearly the entire population of the world has become a mindless zombie due to the ease it spreads online.

First things first, I can't say I really understood the beginning of this. I gave up trying, needless to say, the virus spreads by people using their phones and using TVs and computers. The zombies here aren't so much flesh hungry as just supremely violent, but being braindead creatures their violence comes out in the form of teeth and claws. It follows the traditional rules in that anyone bitten becomes infected, eventually to turn, this even applies to ingesting blood of the infected. Superheroes and villains are what make this so different as you would expect. Unlike Marvel Zombies, which had most the superheroes quickly infected, here the main crux of the story is the surviving heroes battling to find a way to save Earth. In the Marvel run, eating the flesh of the living allowed the heroes to retain a degree of intelligence, still able to speak and to act somewhat rationally. Here, the zombies have nothing but base intelligence, even the superheroes become mindless creatures, albeit ones who are still able to use their powers in order to destroy. The speed at which the Earth falls is down to these superpowers, such as Captain Atom, someone who it appears has the power to explode like an atomic weapon, Aquaman who can control the creatures of the ocean and Giganta who becomes a fifty foot tall zombie.

Among the Sleep (2014-2019) - Horror Video Game Review (Playstation 4)

Among the Sleep is a game I have owned for years, yet I have never gotten around to playing it. The reason for the delay was that I recall there was a lot of interest when it first got announced, but upon its release it got a more muted reception than many people expected. It stands on its own for having the character you play as be a two year old child, but in a horror setting, seeing the darkness of their world through their eyes.

The game takes place on your second birthday, as one of your presents you are given an old teddy bear which you take an immediate liking to. Later that night, after you have been read a bedtime story and put to bed, you awaken in your crib to discover your bear has vanished. Managing to get out of your crib, you explore the house and discover the teddy inside the washing machine, which you manage to open. The teddy explains to you that something doesn't feel right, and that you should seek out your mother. This begins a journey through various different horror tinged locations as you seek out four items that relate to memories you have with your mother, in order to be reunited with her.

The idea behind the game is a good one, I've played games before where I have been a young child, but never in a first person horror setting such as here. This is a adventure game that is combat free, instead there are slight puzzles that must be solved, and some vague stealth gameplay in that each new location you visit has its own adult sized monster walking around in it. Playing as a toddler I expected it would be impossible to die, that isn't the case though don't expect any sort of gratuitous scene of death, instead the screen just fades to black. Death can come from drowning, or by being caught by one of the black smokey antagonists stalking the levels. As a child you don't really have any powers. You can drag stools and open drawers to climb up on surfaces, you can run, but do that too much and you will fall over into a crawl (actually kind of irritating). Then, for moments when things get too dark (fear represented by the screen shaking), you can press a button to hug your teddy bear which will create light.
Obviously you are a silent protagonist, you don't even cry out when scared, the story telling falls to the teddy bear, he is the one who sets out your goal of exploring these different levels. Story is also revealed by environmental details (packing boxes for instance suggest you have only recently moved into the house the game takes place in), as well as blurred flashbacks that feature a bit of muffled dialogue, I assume as the child wouldn't be able to understand what was being said.

Gates of Darkness (2019) - Horror Film Review

I will preface this by saying my head is not really in a good place at the moment. Even with that in mind however I don't think the Don E. FauntLeRoy (Anaconda 3: Offspring) directed demonic possession film Gates of Darkness could be described as anything more than subpar. While it takes a look at a real world issue (in this case the historic abuse of priests in the Catholic church), it is done in such a weird and unenjoyable way that it left me feeling more cold than than the characters in their supernaturally chilled dwelling were complaining to be.

Very awkward Goth teenager Stephen (Randy Shelly - A Gothic Tale) is becoming more and more distanced from his on the surface happy family, much to the worry of his mother and to the annoyance of his step-father (Elimu Nelson - The Summoning). Meanwhile, Stephen's devoutly religious twin sister, Michelle (Mary Mouser - Cobra Kai TV series) begins to experience sudden flashes of memory from her brother that hints he may be suffering from a real darkness from his past. Oh, and also Stephen may be possessed by a demon.

It felt at times that Gates of Darkness only grudgingly wanted to be a horror film. The many quickly edited flashbacks that Stephen/Michelle has hints at an obvious root cause for Stephen's current sullenness. It is only after the halfway point that a visible supernatural element is introduced, but even then, with objects moving around on their own the family still think the boy is just mentally ill. Much of the film follows Stephen in all hs dark and brooding phases, such as refusing to come out of his room, listening to loud music at night, and not helping with chores. To be fair to the character, he wasn't irritating, he definitely looked goofy with his dyed black emo hair and constantly wearing a spiked neckband but there wasn't any real malice to him. Other characters were both bland and bizarre. Towards the end of the first act for instance a character who had been acting weird in all their scenes suddenly, and very publicly kills themself, and then there is Father Dumal (Brandon Beemer - Damn Sea Vampires!) who stands around in the background giving piercing looks at various other characters but not actually doing anything until the story calls for it. The one saving grace Gates of Darkness has is Tobin Bell (the Saw franchise) who plays Monsignor Canell, he, by proxy stole all his scenes as he didn't have much competition. While he tries to do all the heavy lifting to make the movie somewhat watchable, it was a bit too much for just the one actor to achieve.

Black Mirror: Series 5 (2019) - Horror TV Show Review

I have long loved the dark anthology show Black Mirror, in my opinion the fourth season was quite possibly the best in terms of consistency. For this fifth and at the moment final season, the show has gone back to a three episode season length. The show is still good, yet this, compared to previous seasons, is far more mellow, and the stories not as dark and disturbing.

Starting off with Striking Vipers which explores just what it means to actually cheat on someone. Danny (Anthony Mackie - Avengers: Endgame) and his best friend, Karl (Yahya Abdul-Mateen II - Aquaman) have got a hold of a revolutionary new VR fighting game, the titular Fighting Vipers. When the two discover the intensely realistic virtual setting allows them to have virtual sex with each other it threatens to ruin the somewhat stagnant relationship Danny has with his wife, Theo (Nicole Beharie - Sleepy Hollow TV series). Much of this episode made me cringe in a bad way with how awkward it all was. So much so that it took me a good six months to pick my way through it. A look at technology that hasn't been done before in the show, yet it wasn't one of the darkest episodes out there and didn't really have much past its central idea.

The middle episode is Smithereens in which a desperate man, Chris (Andrew Scott - Sherlock), takes hostage a young intern from a Facebook like social media company (Damson Idris - The Twilight Zone TV series). This one was far more grounded in reality and explores today's societies obsession with social media, how people live within the internet rather than appreciate the world around them. This was my favourite of the season with a good performance from Scott that leads up to an ending that slightly confused me until I read up on just why it ended that way.

Stay Out Stay Alive (2019) - Horror Film Review

Stay Out Stay Alive was written, produced, and directed by Dean Yurke, a first for himself in all those roles. This didn't get off to a great start, some dodgy acting and a strange pace, as well as a really silly story all combined to make me have some trepidation. I was almost shocked to discover just how enjoyable a horror this actually turned out to be in the end. 

Donna (Sage Mears - voice work on DmC: Devil May Cry), her sister Bridget (Brie Mattson - Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D TV series) and her boyfriend Reese (Brandon Wardle - Bumblebee), as well as Kyle (William Romano-Pugh) and his girlfriend Amy (Christina July-Kim - Office of the Dead) have all gone on a camping trip in the redwood forest. On the first night Donna goes missing, the next day her friends discover her at the bottom of a hidden mine at the bottom of a ravine. She had fallen in and in the process managed to get her foot wedged under a large boulder. Initially the friends all decide to go and get help from the forest ranger, Susanna (Barbara Crampton - We Are Still Here, You're Next) but the discovery of a large amount of gold in the mine halts these plans. The friends, with Donna's blessing, decide to instead spend a few days gathering as much gold as possible, and only then going to get help for the trapped (and also I will add, pregnant) girl. As time passes the friends begin to change, becoming obsessed with getting as much gold as possible, and in their pursuit of this goal go to drastic lengths from which there is no returning.

The biggest hurdle I had to get over while watching this was the ridiculous concept that the friends would much rather steal gold than help out their trapped friend. This was made even more stupid in that Donna was perfectly happy to remain trapped for days on end for this to occur. Later in the film there becomes a supernatural element, a curse on the land is slowly changing the characters behaviours so that they become crazed with greed, but initially this isn't the case. This marred my enjoyment of the first act but things do become a whole lot better. The story does not take long to get going, in fact, within around ten minutes the heart of the film has been established. I liked that the horror here was an insidious one, there are ghostly figures to be seen but only fleetingly, instead it is the characters changing behaviour which carries a lot of the horror. Things got quite dark here with lines crossed that can't be uncrossed, I was surprised just how events played out, and I liked the rustic low-key music that played out over many of these scenes of darkness.