The Rotting Zombie's News Anthology for Tuesday 9th December 2025

After a week off doing posts on here (almost), I'm back and refreshed to once again pick up the mantle of the Rotting Zombie. In personal news, it looks like I am soon to be made redundant from my bill paying day job, so that's fun! Anyway, here are three terrifying news stories plucked from the depths of my bloody mail sack. Onwards to the news.

There are some new releases from Arrow Video US for January of next year. 13th January sees the limited edition 4K UHD release of Evil Dead Rise. I gave this film an 8/10 in my review back in 2023 where I stated '...I thought this was a solid and nasty horror film, one that doesn't shy away from allowing absolutely any character to become a victim'. The film is set in an apartment block where an earthquake leads to the discovery of a certain cursed book with the power to summon demons. The limited edition features a host of extras including a double-sided fold-out poster and a collector's booklet.

January 20th is when action/adventure thriller Snakes on a Plane gets its worldwide 4K UHD debut, featuring a brand new 4K restoration plus hours of special features. A Blu-ray release is also coming out the same day. The film does what it says in its title, with an FBI agent (Samuel L. Jackson - Pulp Fiction) getting caught in a trap from a major crime lord after a hundred poisonous snakes are released on a passenger plane where he is escorting an important eyewitness to the crime lord's crimes. I remember this film was ok, though I admit to never having had the urge to return to see it a second time.

Finally for today, anthology horror At Death's Door is now available on Tubi. Directed by Frank Palangi, this brings four stories based around the concept of how ordinary choices can lead to deadly situations. This stars Aaliyah Al.Fuhaid, Erica James, Frank Palangi, Jared Curtis, and Nicole Mecca. At Death's Door can be found here.

Anonymous Animals (2020) - Horror Film Review

Anonymous Animals is a French horror film written and directed by Baptiste Rouveure that tackles the topic of animal cruelty as well as the whole meat industry in a unique way (possibly 2018's The Farm did something similar but I haven't seen that personally). Despite being French made, the film can be perfectly understood in any language as there is zero dialogue here.

The movie takes place in a nightmarish world where anthropomorphic animals rule. There isn't really a story here to follow, instead there are a variety of different situations shown. A chained bearded man out in the woods gets captured and taken to a variety of different farm locations, at each one he is chained up and treated like an animal by his captors. Another section features a group of scared humans kept in an electrified pen in a large cattle shed, their captor, a bull headed creature using a stun gun on them.

It became quite clear early on that this is designed to show the horror of how some animals are treated by humans. By reversing the roles a strong horror vibe is created. The various humanoid animals have blank, expressionless faces, the noises they make are relevant to whichever animal they happen to be. The stag out hunting with a shotgun, the bear, the bull, the pack of dogs and more all have their own natural sounds that make them all pretty terrifying. Mostly these animal heads on the actors don't move, they don't blink or for the majority have any type of movement but this adds to the creepy factor. Early on I wondered if these were all humans wearing masks, but as the film played out it became apparent this was a nightmare world of humanoid animals.

Crawl (2019) - Horror Film Review

The majority of this review I am transcribing from a voice note I made while sitting in my car after having watched Crawl (directed by Alexandre Aja - Piranha 3D, The Hills Have Eyes), due to being busy later on in the evening I saw it. I watched the film at the same time as my sister, but didn't watch it with her, coincidentally discovering later that we had unknowingly been in the same screening as each other! That was useful as I got her and her boyfriends perspectives on the film too. I wasn't expecting much from Crawl, this was about my fifth attempt to go see it. I've never been too keen on horror films about animals, films like Lake Placid and Jaws kind of bore me, but surprisingly to me this film was actually very enjoyable.

Wannabe professional swimmer Haley (Kaya Scodelario - Maze Runner, Moon) gets a call from her sister warning about an incoming category 5 hurricane, and that she is worried about her father, Dave (Barry Pepper - Maze Runner: The Death Cure, Saving Private Ryan) due to not being able to get in contact with him. Hayley isn't really on speaking terms with her dad but decides to drive to his house to check in on him for her sisters sake. Eventually she tracks him down to their childhood home where she discovers him lying unconscious in the basement (which is nothing much more than a glorified crawl space). As she tries to drag him to safety she suddenly discovers just how he came to be injured, there is a huge alligator in the basement with them, and it is blocking the exit. Her father comes to and so the rest of the movie is them working together to try and escape before the rising flood water, or the alligator kills them.

 I had only seen the trailer a few times prior to seeing this, but I feel the trailer did a grand job of not spoiling a very early twist which raised the stakes a lot. Due to this I'm not going to spoil that little twist, but this will mean that I have to spin the truth a tiny bit. Needless to say, but the film is a lot more exciting than I gave it credit for, and there was actually a body count. While the father and daughter are the main characters there are a bunch of additional ones who seem to only appear in order to get eaten. I wondered at first why the film was titled 'Crawl' when it was set in a basement, but it turns out this is quite fitting, with the alligator of course crawling around everywhere, and due to the low ceilings the characters too do a lot of crawling. The way the film plays out, the basement itself is really only the start of the problems the characters face, with the rising water comes the rising alligator too, who is much more at home swimming about than being on dry land. Everywhere the characters go the blasted creature appears, the animals really are like real world monsters in the way they look. The constant threat of this creature had me coiled like a spring in my chair, I could feel myself so tense wondering where the next attack would come from.

Zoombies (2016) - Zombie Horror Film Review

When I first heard of Zoombies I declared it to be the best film ever made based on the fantastic title alone. Zoo animals turning into the living dead; it all seemed so perfect, yet this effort directed by Glenn Miller (Sharknado 2: The Second One, Sharknado 4: The 4th Awakens, Zombie Apocalypse) is sadly as terrible as it's title is great.

A strange virus has infected the monkeys at the privately owned Eden Wildlife Zoo run by Dr. Ellen Rogers (Kim Nielson). While they are being examined the simians attack and kill the veterinary staff and get accidentally freed to run amok in the park, where they quickly start to infect the other animals. Being a training day the only humans on site are a bunch of staff and newly arrived interns, and thankfully the virus cannot be passed onto them. On the bad side though the CDC have forbidden anyone from leaving the sealed complex and so soon the rapidly dwindling survivors must find a way to put an end to the unfolding horror.

The Shallows (2016) - Horror Film Review

Going in to watch The Shallows I found it very hard to not want to draw comparisons between this and Jaws. For me by the time I saw that in my teenage years I found it to be quite dull with not much happening. In actuality I found this movie to have far more in common with Open Water. At times in this review my tongue may be firmly in my cheek, so bonus points if you recognise those moments...

Blake Lively stars as Nancy; a med student on a holiday of sorts after the death of her mother. She has decided to go to a remote Mexican beach to do some surfing but unwittingly catches the attention of a giant shark. After a series of misadventures she ends up stranded 200 yards from the shore on a rapidly shrinking rock with a seagull she names Steven (Sully Seagull). Now the two most unlikeliest of friends must work together to outwit the killer shark and reach land.

Zombeavers (2014) - Comedy Zombie Film Review

Zombeavers is a film I had heard good things about, and at one point I did nearly end up buying it on DVD, but it just sounded a little too silly even if it is kinda about zombies. I am pretty sure the title was come up with long before any semblance of a plot was formed.

A canister of toxic chemicals is accidentally knocked into a lake, finally ending up at a beaver dam where the chemicals spray all over the creatures. Not long later Mary, Zoe and Jenn arrive at Mary's cousins log cabin by the lake for a weekend of relaxation (followed soon after by their boyfriends) but the group soon encounter a mutated beaver which they mistake for having rabies. The following day mutated beavers (zombeavers) attack en mass and the group end up barricaded in their cabin under assault from a pack of undead creatures. With one of their group missing a foot they desperately need to find a way to escape the evil things and get to a hospital...

Open Water (2003) - Horror Film Review

The problem with most horror is that it is not really 'feel good' stuff to watch. I decided to watch Open Water which turns out isn't really horror and is more of a survival/disaster film but also was not 'feel good'.

Daniel (Daniel Travis) and his girlfriend Susan (Blanchard Ryan) head to the Caribbean on holiday to do some scuba diving. They head out to the middle of the ocean with a scuba group. Due to an incorrect head count the couple are accidentally left behind, they come to the surface to find the boat gone and their troubles only go down hill from there.

The basic plot for Open Water is actually based on a real life event that took place in Australia. The reason for being abandoned and a bit later on in the film use what actually happened as reference points. I don't know why but I figured there would be more of a horror slant to this. The quote on the front of the DVD box reads "Blair Witch meets Jaws' which made me figure some sort of supernatural type goings on. Meanwhile the blurb on the back of the box makes it seem like the two are at the mercy of nefarious people who are purposely playing with them. The truth is far more mundane.

The problem with having a film mostly shot in the middle of the ocean is that there is not a lot to look at. Even at a 77 minute run time I was done with it all ages before the end credits roll. It doesn't help that due to not actually being able to leave the actors all alone the shots used are all quite close up and you never really get the impression there is not a boat a few metres out of shot (which there would have been for the actors safety). The part of the sea they are in is quite busy so there always seems to be boats just out of reach and planes flying over to keep making the characters have hope.

Once the couple find themselves stranded the film seems to loose steam. Lots of things happen to the hapless duo to keep things interesting but it seems like a check list of problems is being crossed off. Jellyfish sting them, they get attacked by sharks, they fall asleep and drift off from each other, they argue with each other but these events all unnaturally flow together. You know things are not great when a mid film highlight is a character puking up.

Lots annoyed me about Open Water. Susan doesn't realise sea water is not a wise thing to drink for one; really? That completely baffled me and seems like it was put in as the script writer thought the audience would be imbeciles and so wouldn't understand why the two were dehydrated with all the water around. A lot of the scenes have something happening underwater and so one of the characters would have to wet their goggles, put them on, swim down, see the problem and come back up to explain to the other character. That got tiring fast and must have happened at least seven or eight times. On the subject of pointless things early on there is an aborted sex scene which I am certain was just put there to show Ryan's flesh off for some lazy titillation, this was just not needed.

The plot is unavoidably thin, it irritated me that no one would realise the two were missing but I guess as that was the part of Open Water that was based on true events it is hard to complain about. If I was given the film and asked to make a more streamlined version then I reckon I could easily cut it down to 10 minutes. The camera quality was also not the best, a lot of it, especially the land based sequences look like they were filmed on hand cameras, at least the special effects were all real and not CGI based.

When it comes down to it, no matter how awful being in that situation would be in real life, watching two annoying people floating around being miserable for an hour does not make for great entertainment. In the end it all seemed just a bit pointless.

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Where Evil Grows (2013) by S.Lawrence Parrish - Audio Book Review

I was contacted back in April of last year about reviewing an audio book by Stephen Parrish and it has actually taken me until last night to get through the whole thing due to having many podcasts also on my listening list. Where Evil Grows was my first example of an audio book.

It takes place in 1976 and centres on a bunch of teenagers and their daily lives. Justin Foley, Jerry, Matt and others are obsessed with the band Kiss and also are slowly entering into the world of drugs and alcohol. Meanwhile strange things are happening to the school they attend, a malevolent force has appeared, taking form in a legion of rats that are building up in the floors and walls of the property. This force is able to affect the minds of the young and soon lead the pupils to worse and worse acts.

Parrish himself reads the book and he has a unique sounding voice. I do not mean that in a negative way, I found the way he spoke almost hypnotic and he adds the right inflections and does a variety of voices for the different characters. I was unused to how long an audio book actually would be, certainly longer to hear a book than to read one, I estimate this story to be roughly twelve hours in length split into podcasts equalling on average 40 minutes in length each. The chapters and sides seem random for the start of each podcast and I found it fun to shout out my own guess at the side or chapter each time I went to listen to one.

When it comes to the horror I much prefer things of a scary nature to things of a gruesome or disgusting nature and for the most part Where Evil Grows falls into the later aspect. Rats infest the school and while they themselves are not supernatural in nature their actions lead to a lot of grossness, especially in a grim finale that left me feeling a bit queasy! The evil force affects people in different ways, and while the students get more and more depraved and violent it never built up to a state that was too menacing.

I actually far preferred the non horror parts to the horror bits. I loved following around the main cast of characters and I loved how for the most part they completely avoid the evil going on around them (they are too old for the force to affect them much). Having them miming to Kiss and starting to learn instruments, hanging out and doing drugs and drinking I felt like I was a silent observer and came to really like these characters. In that respect I came to fear for their well being, after all the book would not focus on these people if the horror wasn't going to catch up to them at some point and so when it came I just hoped and prayed at least some would come out smiling.

The story is well told and actually is nicely planned out with some nice little twists appearing now and again and an awesome final sequence that was so exciting to hear. It all ends with an epilogue that is crazy in it's scope and I did love it but it felt a bit rushed to be condensed into six minutes. Some H.P Lovecraft references are squeezed in in the most unlikely and clever of places which is not a bad thing as his books are some of the most unsettling ever written.

On some levels Where Evil Grows could be seen as a comment on underage sex and underage drinking, as well as the perils and pitfalls of recreational drug use with a lot of the horror involving these situations. At times I felt it was a bit too graphic with it's intimate description of certain acts, while at other times it just became too gruesome rather than creepy (a long description about Guinea Pigs eating each other was not pleasant to hear).

While a lot of the horror portion of this audiobook were not to my tastes I still got a lot of enjoyment out of this being as it is well told and with fleshed out characters who you come to like, Where Evil Grows is free for download on i-Tunes and Podiobooks so check it out if it sounds like your thing (also available to purchase as an e-book).

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Gila! (2012) - Horror Film Review

Gila! is a remake of the 1959 creature feature The Giant Gila Monster, it is directed by B-Movie legend Jim Wynorski (whose first film as director was of course The Lost Empire in 1985). I have never seen the original Gila film but if it is what I think it is then it would have been from the classic time of monster movies in which real animals were used and super imposed onto footage to make them seem like monsters.

Set in the 1950's in a small rural American town Gila! opens with a young couple being attacked by a huge lizard creature as long as tall as a bus. It appears that some small time criminals storing chemical waste in a remote cave for a quick buck may have resulted in the mutation of a lizard living there. Now the monstrous beast is getting ready to hibernate and so is searching out human victims to feed on. Local good guy mechanic Chase Winstead (Brian Gross) ends up being caught up in the mystery of just what is killing people and teams up with the Sheriff in order to stop the beast.

I was dubious when this started, especially as the Gila monster is created using bad CGI that looks terrible. I thought that if a serious film was attempted using this computer generated mess then I would be in for a rough ride. Thankfully and despite this only being made a few years back it is a decent B-Movie and a kind hearted look back at the creature feature genre of the 1950's. I found myself really enjoying this, the characters are all likable and features some pretty attractive females in the lead female roles (Madeline Voges as Chase's girlfriend Lisa, and Christina DeRosa as bad boy Waco Bob's girlfriend). I find having attractive leads always makes watching even the worst move more bearable.

It all follows a predictable format, at first the monster is unseen by the local populace and for the first half a few people try and work out the mystery of what is occurring, then there is the final half where the heroes try and defeat the beast. I will say that I did get slightly bored in the middle with characters travelling to various locations with little plot reason to do so. The CG at times is quite off putting and the amount of shots of the monster booming down roads with dust swirling about gets quite silly as it does not look part of the landscape in the slightest. The bad computer generated effects also are used for the death sequences of characters which while inventive (such as the monster's tail swatting a chemical filled drum which bursts over two men who then have their flesh dissolved off by the substance) always looks kinda silly. This does add to the B-Movie charm. Also a shame was that the creature never shows any damage, even when it has been blasted by thousands of bullets it shows no damage at all which does detract.

The soundtrack is all rock n' roll music, lots of muscle cars are used that are fun to look at, and again those two female leads make for an entertaining yarn that just about doesn't outstay it's welcome. It was a shame to leave the town the film is set in as it seemed such a nice place. In all honesty I would rather watch this over the snooze-fest that was Godzilla (2014) any day of the week, that film may have better creature effects but this is just a more fun film and didn't feel like a waste of my time to see.

Gila! does nothing at all original and has really bad special effects but it is feel good and a great B-Movie, the acting is decent also which is a big plus in my book! Gila! is out now on DVD.

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Witch Dog - Halloween News

The dog in its Witch costume might look cute but soon after this picture was taken it went on a rampage, killing 3 and critically injuring 4 more. It was eventually subdued when a S.W.A.T team were called in and after a tense battle its satanic powers were defeated. Police Commissioner for the Northampton Metropolitan Police commented on the incident saying "It is a shame when dogs like this one lose their way and turn to the dark arts, to be honest I blame the owners, the tell tale signs were all there".

The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim - Fantasy Videogame Review (X-Box 360)

Well after nearly a year and 93 hours later I am happy that I have seen as much of Skyrim and done as many quests as I felt the need to. I can't say I completed it as there is not an actual end to it as far as I can tell.  Sure you can get all the quests done, but the world of Skyrim will still be there to explore.

Skyrim sees you as a prisoner on your way to your execution when a dragon appears which everyone finds quite exciting as they thought dragons only to be legends. Through the course of the game you come to discover that you are 'dragonborn' able to use the magic 'shouts' only dragons can, and learn of just why dragons have come back. As always with these games though that is just the excuse for you to be in the world with side quests in the hundreds far out numbering the main plot. You get to join the Thieves guild, to join the Dark Brotherhood, to en roll at the Mages University, become a leader of a clan of Werewolves as well as carry out tasks for both Gods and Demons, but also simple village folk.

Skyrim looks beautiful, it is on the North of the continent and is an icy, snowy, mountainous region. The world looks simply stunning and feels like a place you would just wish was real. There are lots and lots of Towns and Villages dotted around, all with different feels to them and each stuffed to the gills with quests. Over 50 hours into the game and I still had not visited all the towns. The last game 'Oblivion' was not terribly exciting. It had a shed load of dungeons but they were all designed and looked the same.  Here the dungeons are much more interesting and varied and effort has been made to give a unique feeling between them thanks to journals and objects scattered around the dungeons. Some areas in these different caverns and forts actually made me gasp out loud in the level design. Usefully now also there is usually a secret passage at the end of each dungeon that takes you right back to the entrance without needing to back track.

The combat system is so much better this time. You can have magic equipped to one hand, a weapon to the other, or double hands of magic, or even a sword and shield, two handed weapon. All so easily selectable, so streamlined. Oblivion had a broken levelling up system that ended up turning enemies into nightmares, but this levelling system is sublime. Each time you level up you can increase either your health, magic, or stamina and then put one point into a billion different level trees (everything from archery up to lock picking, smithing, armour and speech).

I am struggling to write this, for me Skyrim was not a game, it was an experience, a chance to walk in a fantasy world, a living breathing place. Sure you have zero respect for anyone as they all behave so stupidly but you can just exist without the fear of violence. I would play this game intensely for about a month at a time, and then have a few months off before charging back into it. The shouts are a genius move, they do a variety of different things. For instance one shout gives you Jedi powers; the ability to fling enemies across the environment, by far my favourite shout as there is nothing more satisfying than flinging an enemy off a huge cliff (of which Skyrim has many). Other shouts include the ability to slow down time, move at lightning speeds, summon animals to fight with you, scare away enemies and even summon a freaking dragon to take on your foes!

Enemies are varied, a collection of bandits, soldiers, wizards, witches, zombies (many many zombies!), monsters and animals. Merely wondering around the world of Skyrim will see you assaulted by bears, ogres, wisps and even dragons who act as boss characters. Any fight with a dragon is epic, they attack at any time, in the middle of a swamp, up a mountain, they even attack you in villages where you assume you would have been safe. Killing dragons is important though as each dead one gives you a dragon soul which is used to get more shouts and upgrade your existing ones.

So at 93 hours I have for the time being ended my journey, taken a seat at the Ragged Flagon and put my feet up. There are still many many quests waiting for me, as well as the DLC that features a storyline revolving around vampires, and DLC that lets you purchase a house in the country and raise a family. I don't think I will ever be done with Skyrim, it is the ultimate open world game, even better than Fallout 3 which I adore. It just looks so good, so complete, so large and epic and so damn fun just to walk around in, whether your pushing your demonic horse to its limits (I never knew riding him off a cliff would lead to such a humorous but deadly accident!), bothering the neutral giants and their mammoth herds, collecting plants, or hunting wildlife this game just keeps on giving. Truly epic.

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Supernatural: Season 1 - Horror TV Show Review

A long while ago I reviewed the third season of Supernatural (here), I thought I may as well review the other ones as I have started watching them from the beginning again.

Two brothers; Sam and Dean Winchester became monster hunters along with their Dad after their mother was killed by a demon when they were very young. After their Dad goes missing while on a hunting trip Dean contacts Sam who had given up the life of the supernatural to try and lead a normal life. Together they set out to find their missing father as well as hopefully finally catch up with the being that destroyed their lives.

I always see Supernatural as a less kiddy, more serious Buffy the Vampire Slayer (that's not to say Buffy is bad, I love that show). The show kind of follows the same formula in that they have their 'monster of the week' episodes and the main plot line episodes. This season sees the brothers battling a load of evil spirits as well as the grim reaper, vampires, and even a minor God. The show explores many urban legends, here legends looked at include Bloody Mary, the man with the hook, and phantom vehicles. The effects are mostly quite good, and action comes fast combined with a witty script that stays more on realism than the constant joke cracking of Buffy.

The two lead actors Jared Padalecki as Sam, and Jensen Ackles as Dean are fantastic together, really coming across as siblings, Dean forever looking out for his younger brother. At times their conflict comes across as a bit forced, especially in the way past issues keep popping up to create mini conflicts that last just the episode they appear in.  The acting in general is of a high quality with a host of great actors, and even some good child actors (quite a few children are dotted throughout the season). With the great car they drive the show has kind of a road trip feeling to it with a different area of America visited each episode.

The main story of the missing father is kind of a let down what with the Dad not really that lost, but by the end the main plot episodes get really exciting leading to a shocking cliffhanger that had me screaming for the 2nd season.  A great start to a great show!

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Pet Sematary Two - Zombie Horror Film Review

I have seen the first Pet Sematary and did like it, but I'm blowed if I could tell you what happened in it. It does have zombies of a sort in it, and so does it's bizarre sequel.

After his movie star Mum dies Jeff and his Dad move to a new Town. Jeff's new friend; fat boy Drew has his dog killed by his abusive step Dad. Remembering tales of an old Indian burial ground that legend says can bring dead things back to life he and Jeff decide to bury the dog there.  Soon the dog has returned, but it has changed, it is evil. The dead dog ends up killing Gus; Drew's step Dad and again not knowing what to do they bury him too. Gus returns, but has changed for the worst. Soon everyone is getting killed, killing, or bringing bodies back to life while Jeff walks around in a suit practising creepy smiles and thousand yard stares.

This is a real weird film. The first half is quite slow paced, it builds up characters, tries to slowly inch you into the horror but then half way through it is like someone wandered along, saw the film and thought to themselves that they quite fancied finishing it but had not the time to bother seeing what had already happened. The last half is just bizarre, Jeff turns creepy and evil with no explanation, then just as suddenly turns back into the hero. His dad wanders around the Town seemingly aimlessly; a zombie magnet, a completely unsuspecting hero with his nerdy looks. The main zombie Gus laughs sinisterly, doing random acts of violence while an awesome soundtrack plays.

To sum it up, the plot for this film just collapses on itself, no one really seems sure of exactly what it is they are supposed to be doing. An early highlight was a fist fight between John Conner of Terminator 2 fame (Edward Furlong plays Jeff) and one of the kids from Honey I Shrunk the Kids (Jared Rushton playing local bully Clyde) quite surreal to see these two people fighting.

I did enjoy this film but it is quite the piece of rubbish! From nightmares about a woman with a dogs head, to the attacks from a blatantly puppet controlled pretend zombie dog this film has a lot to make you laugh, and I think it is unintentional which makes it all the better. It is not a great review, but I really don't know what to say, this is one strange, lost film! And for the record Clancy Brown as Gus wins the creepy smile-off between him and Furlong (only just though!)

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Notable Horror appearances in videogames: Quackshot (Megadrive)

Quackshot is a Disney platformer on the Megadrive, starring Donald Duck. It s kind of a pastiche of Indiana Jones films. The game has a slight RPG twinge to it in that you can choose what level you wish to visit and if you can progress no further in one level you can exit it and explore another.

The plot of the game is that Donald has found a treasure map to the secret treasure of King Garuzia. To find it he follows clues that take him to a variety of locations around the world. The first horror themed level you encounter is Transylvania. After negotiating swamps full of bats you come across Count Dracula's Castle. As a kid I was always disappointed this was a Disney Count Dracula and not the awesome Count Duckula  from the 80's cartoon. The Castle is full of ghosts and bats that appear out of portraits. It also features a variety of coffins that open up to reveal skeletons. It ends in a battle against Count Dracula himself.

The next horror level is set upon a Viking Ship that is over run with ghosts. After entering the ship you battle a giant skeleton viking. The last horror section comes at the end of the game once you have come across King Garuzia's treasure which happens to be buried with the remains of King Garuzia. He comes to life and attacks you with a magical sword, I guess he could be classed as a zombie?

                                                                 

Anyway, Quackshot still holds up today and is a joy to play.

Indie Horror Videogame Review Round-up 2: The Return (X-Box Indie)

There are many bad Indie games as I am often want to say, and yet I feel the need to review them regardless of how little anyone cares, so here are a chunk of horror Indie games for your perusal...

Walketh

In Walketh you play as an adventurer stuck deep below ground in a dark dungeon. Much like In the Pit the screen is pitch black, you can guess your surroundings by the noise the adventurer makes when there is a wall in front of him. The game has a nice style to it, with some mournful title music. All in all it is a bit frustrating not really being able to tell where you are going or what you are doing.

Of Steel and Sorcery

Another fantasy style game, this time a old school turn based RPG. The problems first arise when you see the art style, it is all made up of hand drawn static images that while better than I could draw still look terrible. The game starts with a never ending fight against an awfully drawn giant eagle, then after a bit of story you have to fight a bad looking ghost. As I fought a slime in a swamp, and then a spider in a dungeon I realised this is a stripped back RPG. There is no exploration, shops, or other things to do, just a series of boring over long fights punctuated by brief story segments. Not too keen to be honest.

Silent Call

With a name so similar to Silent Hill I admit I did kinda hope it would be a survival horror. Instead Silent Call is an updated version of the old aski games. You are a tiny character on screen who must traverse mazes, fighting enemies and collecting items. You kill enemies (bugs, dogs and bats mainly) by walking into them, and your hunger meter is constantly depleting so you must regularly eat food to stop yourself starving to death. There is no music, and looks very basic but I was sad when the trial for the demo was over, kinda fun.

Night

First off; my house is infested with damn fruit flies. Anyway, Night is an artsy platformer in which you play as a man (who appears to have a sack over his head) running through cornfields and over bridges at night. There are snippets of story, it seems you are being pursued by monsters for some reason. There are platforms to jump over (aided by your ability to summon rocks out the ground), monsters to fight (you are able to summon a monster from your nightmares to defeat them) and lots of piano music. The whole thing has the feeling of a dream, the visuals look almost hand crafted, and the use of light and shadow is good. Intriguing.

WereWolf Hallow

This is a first person arena survival game. It takes place in quite a large dark wood, for an indie game it doesn't look bad, at least far better than most FPS games on the channel. The problem is how boring it all is. You occasionally get attacked by werewolves but your machine gun easily dispatches them, it was a bit tense at times but for the most part I was stood in one spot checking Facebook.

And now for the last in my Indie Horror games round-up for today...

True Exorcism

This starts with a warning screen saying it is not suitable for children (it is), then you get into the game. A floating possessed woman hovers around in front of you while button prompts flash on screen. Get them wrong or take too long and the woman floats closer. It looks nice with some comic book style visuals but there is just not enough to it, kinda boring. A nice touch is that when you die you get a message saying 'the power of Christ compels you to...' then gives you an option to quit or try again, made me smile.

So a lot of average games reviewed, but don't worry there is plenty more still waiting! Next time I may do an Indie Zombie Horror Videogame Review round-up. What an extravaganza that will be!

Trapped - Horror Videogame Review (X-Box Indie)

Been mopping up my old demos on the old 360, this one was right at the end so decided after many years to give it a try. I have said it before, and I will say it again: nearly all X-Box Indie games really suck. And after half an hour looking online I have been unable to find a cover for the game.

In trapped you play as your X-Box avatar. The pre-game sequence sees you enter a giant cave only to be trapped in after a boulder rolls down over the entrance. As you explore the cave you come under attack from the creatures of the cave (mainly giant bats and trolls it seems).

The good things first, it has a nice title that sums up the game. Now onto the bad. Your avatar looks completely removed from the dark surroundings you are in, the collision detection is awful, it looks awful, you make a very deep pained sound when you get hit, the controls are dodgy and it is not fun.

I don't know why I suffer the slings and arrows of outrageously bad Indie games, it's not like anyone cares about them anyway, it's just there are so many horror games on there that occasionally (very occasionally) a good one does come around (Dead Pixels, Decay, and The Pit spring to mind).

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