9th Dawn Remake (2024-25) - Initial Impressions (PS5)

I've had a review copy of 9th Dawn Remake since April time, but it is the type of game which requires a lot of investment. This is a huge game, and so, rather than wait to finish it, I will give my initial impressions based on the first ten hours or so. 

Unsurprisingly, this is a remake of a much older game. How old I was unable to find out, You play as a character plunged into a nostalgic feeling, relatively basic looking fantasy world. The graphics were really charming and old school, but the game itself felt more fresh. The open world is absolutely gigantic, in my time playing this so far I have barely scratched an eighth of this massive world. It has one of the biggest map screens I've seen in a game to my recollection. I haven't mentioned the story yet and that's probably due to it being about the weakest part of 9th Dawn Remake. It is simple enough that I honestly have no idea what it involves, not helped by a quest screen that is extremely light on details. I love a story in video games, so this was a slight issue. Thankfully, due to the huge world I felt like it was 'open world' rather than just a big old school RPG. This world is to begin with quite a deadly place, my poor wizard was getting the stuffing beaten out of him. I later found an armoury that lets you upgrade your weapons, so that helped. Even more helpful was the amazing creature companion feature. Occasionally you stumble across eggs that when hatched give you a little pet who will battle alongside you. You can have up to eight of the critters at once, making it very fun to pounce on an enemy as a mob. As they level up, they can also evolve into better monsters. On my playthrough I've recently had a skeleton join my crew, love it.

Combat is very simple, requiring nothing more than to have you hold the analogue stick (playing this on Playstation 5) in the direction of enemies to auto battle them. Dungeons are literally dungeons here, all taking place under ground in various caves or sewers. This creates a combat loop of heading in a little bit at a time, slowly grinding out levels to make your team better suited to conquering the place. I enjoyed many an evening with a podcast on while doing this. As if this huge game wasn't enough, there are also some great little side games you can play. Head to the docks and you get a fun fish based Vampire Survivors clone you can play. Even better, by taking to the Card Master in each town you can access Deck Rock. I adored this side game. It has you as paper warriors fighting your way past paper monsters in castles in turn based card combat. Truth be told, I had more fun playing that side mode than the main course itself.

I was given a review code for this indie fantasy game so my words might sound false, but I think there is such a vast and impressive game to be found here. Having a game with such a charming retro look to it coupled with a massive world makes this something I could easily see myself sinking days and days into. 9th Dawn Remake is out on just about everything, from the major consoles to mobile phones.

The Invisible Swordsman (1970) - Fantasy Film Review

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

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

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

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

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

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The Rotting Zombie's News Anthology for Tuesday 18th March 2025

Happy Tuesday, without further ado, here is a trio of bloody news stories to tickle your proverbial fancies. This time starting with some music news. As an added note, you might notice this is my sole blog post of the week, that was down to me having a social life this past weekend, and then needing a day to recover my social battery.

Russian 'occult wave' duo Raven Said have revealed 'Desolation', the second single coming from their upcoming album. The press release states the track '...merges elements of goth rock and dark synth, creating a fusion of sensual and expressive energy'. 'Desolation' is available on all major streaming platforms including Spotify and Bandcamp.

A teaser trailer has been revealed for The Dark Domain: MVW Mickey VS Winnie. This versus horror film males use of the recent public domain unleashing of classic Disney characters. Taking place in Hell Forest (sounds like a lovely place), Steamboat Willie era Mickey (Daniel Wilkinson - Pitchfork) and Winnie-the-Pooh (Chris Boudreaux - Born a Champion) are reimagined as 'bloodthirsty killing machines'. Check out some still below.

Finally for today, Egerton Crescent Productions have announced that dark fantasy/horror film The Prince, the Sister, and the Serpent goes into production in the summer of 2026. The film follows the Greek Mythology of Cadmus, someone who was said to be the founder of Thebes. The story has the prince's bloodline being cursed by the Gods after attempting to rescue his sister from them.
The movie will be filming in the Mediterranean, with Omar Parker as director.

Devil's Knight (2024) - Fantasy Horror Film Review

This review of Devil's Knight was originally meant to go up last Friday but personal events led to me deciding to take some time off away from my blog to have some 'me' time. Having been less than ten minutes away from the film's conclusion, I couldn't really not finishing watching this one at the very least, I may well write another blog post or two this rainy weekend. Devil's Knight is a fantasy horror film directed and co-written by Adam Werth (Bermuda Island) that appears to be set during some type of time period similar to real world Medieval times in which monsters roam the lands. Featuring a huge cast of characters and some mainly good looking creature effects, this was an enjoyable fantasy piece.

This takes place in the realm of Veroka, a place where deadly monsters roam the lands. King Samuel (Kevin Hager - Bloodthirst, Night of the Tommyknockers) has been having particular trouble with a creature known as the Bone Devil (Ben Stobber - Bloodthirst, Bermuda Island), with many of his soldiers having fallen prey to the beast. In desperation, he decides to hire a group of monster hunting mercenaries to take it out. Things seem to be going to plan, but political intrigues and deadly secrets at the King's castle threaten the lives of both the mercenary group and his own people alike.

This features a plot device I always am a fan of. A strange scarred man (John Wells - Arena Wars, Bermuda Island) arrives at a camp in the dead of night. He reveals himself to have been Sigurd - one of the mercenary soldiers, and the film takes the form of a story he is re-telling. Every now and again during the movie events will stop and go back to this camp, before finally heading back for one last time at the end. I thought this would be a more straight forward story than it turned out to be, with the quest to defeat the Bone Devil seemingly dealt with around halfway into the film. The action then moves to the castle where there is a large cast of not very nice people. Monsignor Mustela (Greg Tally - Arena Wars, Craving)  is perhaps the chief dodgy person here, especially when it comes to the fact he has a monster secretly chained up in the castle dungeons. I say secret, but there are many flawed characters at the castle who are also privy to this fact, including twisted jester Culper (Alexander Hauck - Bloodthirst, Macabre Mountain), and even Princess Sabine (Chupacabra Territory), someone who seemed set up to be a protagonist, but is then dragged down due to intense flaws.

The mercenaries become collective protagonists and I did enjoy how tight-knit they all seemed. There were plenty of stereotypes, but also some decent characters to be found among them, chiefly the group leader Mathias (Robert Standley) and the heavily armoured John, who had an interesting backstory for who they really were). My favourite character though had to be Guard Captain Baldur (Kevin Sorbo - Without a Body), I loved this character in every scene he appeared in.

Thankfully the majority of the creature effects were quite impressive. These are people wearing monster suits, but they looked effective for the most part and made for some exciting scenes. I say mostly, as unfortunately, one of the more integral monsters didn't look as good, it gave me vibes of a villain from Might Morphin Power Rangers and stood out in a bad way as a result. Look past that and the other creature designs are cool, as are the scars on the characters that mostly look great. There is lots of action here, both with people battling creatures, as well as people battling each other. Fighting mainly takes the form of sword fighting, always was fun to see, and had some decent sound effects to sell this type of combat.

I enjoyed this fantastical, cast heavy horror film. Plenty of action and a story that is forever moving forward, this was only let down by the occasional less impressive moments. I am also not sure of the abruptly chaotic ending that changed track so fast that it almost came off as amusing. Devil's Knight is now available to watch on Prime Video.

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Diablo IV (2023) - Horror Video Game Review (Xbox Series X)

I've dabbled over the years with the Diablo series of video games. The original Diablo I had a demo for once, while I brought the Diablo II special edition though bounced off that one around halfway through. I did actually play Diablo III: Reaper of Souls to completion, despite giving it a healthy eight out of ten I really can't remember that one much at all sadly. With Microsoft buying Blizzard I decided to hold off from buying latest entry Diablo IV and instead waited for it to hit GamePass. This new entry is a far more dark and moody entry than the colourful one that came before, and it really looks great. Perhaps I was playing this incorrectly, but as this sixty to seventy hour story played out I became to find some giant issues with terms to how darn easy it all was.

Without fact checking myself here is the synopsis as I saw it. Diablo takes place in the realm of Sanctuary, a place where humans came to live after Lilith - a rogue demon and Inarius - a rogue angel created it during the eternal fight between the Burning Hells and their opposites the High Heavens. In Diablo IV, a sorcerer has managed to summon Lilith to Sanctuary. The man has fallen for her lies that she is the one being able to protect Sanctuary from the ongoing fight between angels and demons. With the power to sway people to her side, Lilith sets out to find a way to travel to the Burning Hells and steal her father's power. Meanwhile, Inarius being currently trapped on Sanctuary sets out to defeat Lilith, hoping that his success will compel the Heavens to invite him back from his banishment.
You play as a wanderer who had been captured by cultists of Lilith and fed her blood, escaping your imprisonment, you discover you are the best placed person to find and defeat the demon.

I recall that Diablo III took place within hub levels of cities, with the dungeons branching off of those, and each chapter taking you to a different city. At least that is how I remember it. Diablo IV is one huge open world environment, again split into chapters, but with you able to travel anywhere you wish. Alongside the main quest there are a heck of a lot of side quests that range from the simple (going to a specific area and collecting a certain type of item) to more story based ones, such as helping a woman with an uncontrollable curse that summons demonic creatures. The core story was one seen plenty of times before and it will come as no surprise that your travels to stop Lilith always have you arriving moments after she has left for the next place. The plot is kind of split into two, with a chunk of the story also revolving around stopping the sorcerer who summoned her in the first place (and who has ties to one of the friendly characters who helps you on your journey. The voice acting was all very good, most notable was Ralph Ineson (Brahms: The Boy II, The Witch) as Lorath. Each of the different character classes you can choose all have their own voice actors. For my run I played as a female necromancer and enjoyed her powers. There are just a couple of CG cutscenes but I have to say these scenes were amazing to look at, so were worth the wait between them.

The setting of the game is very grim-dark with no joy to be found anywhere. Locations are dark and dreary and often full of dead horses and destroyed buildings. There was more variety in the locations than I had thought there might be with deserts, swamps and woodlands all making an appearance. The enemy types are suitably varied with everything from human enemies such as cultists and cannibals to more demonic ones and wild creatures like wolves and walking tree men. About two thirds into the game you are given access to a horse which makes traversing the areas so much more easy and streamlined.
My biggest issue came with just how easy the game became. To begin with it was easy enough that I bumped up the difficulty to the next tier. By around the halfway point of the game even this became too easy and so I went to change it...only to find I couldn't. For reasons alien to me, you are not able to increase the difficulty anymore until the campaign is completed. This was an issue for me as with literally thousands of games in my backlog I had no intention of sticking around once the story was finished with. This meant that around half of my whole experience had me so overpowered that I would destroy enemies instantly whenever I saw them. Not only that, but I had so many spells and shields that it became very hard for enemies to even damage me. This led to an increasing feeling of tedium with me falling off of everything outside of the main story and side quests. I don't know the thinking behind locking adequate difficulty settings outside of the main campaign.
Playing as a necromancer was fun even if it gave for a more hands-off experience. I had eight summoned skeletons as well as a huge iron golem who would wade in and destroy enemies without me needing to get my hands dirty much outside of my skin flaying, skull spear throwing and blood wave attacks. Around two thirds into the game I was no longer getting any better equipment than what I had, so that became another aspect that felt wasted on someone who didn't want to do any end game content.

I did enjoy Diablo IV, it looks great and plays wonderfully. I do really wish it had allowed me to play it on a harder setting as it began to really drag due to the severe lack of challenge. A flawed game that had a lot going for it, but unless you are really committed to squeezing every last drop of fun out of this hack and slash it might leave you feeling a little hollow.

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The Rotting Zombie's Round-up of Horror News for August 2024

As always another month has flown by. Lately I have been getting far less time at the weekends to do my blog. It can be a challenge to balance a social life with doing this, especially when I do not have much time during the week to do anything due to working over ten hours a day four days a week (I do love the three day weekend this gives me though). On to the news.

Freestyle Digital Media have acquired Japanese fantasy-thriller The Divine Protector - Master Salt Begins. This is available to rent/own on all North American digital HD internet, cable and satellite platforms, as well as DVD from August 27th. The film is about an occult club at a girls high school in Tokyo who plan to summon a being known as 'Master Salt' in order to deal with a girl who has been cursed by an evil spirit.

Killer Tales is a three part anthology about normal people who are transformed into killers by circumstance. Directed by Frank Palangi and starring Aaron Lambert, Palangi, Teresa Tuttle, Erin Englehart, and Lori Tucker, this is now streaming on Tubi from Cinema Epoch.

Cryptid documentary Cursed Waters: Creature of Lake Okanaga debuted exclusively on Prime Video on August 13th and Blu-ray/DVD from Small Town Monsters. This looks at the British Columbia based lake and the legends surrounding a mysterious creature that has been sighted by many witnesses there over the decades.

Ripped to Shreds is a graphic novel adaptation of Michael Johnson's lost slasher screenplay from 1980. It was originally meant to be filmed that year, but after years of development hell the funding fell through and the production collapsed. Some forty five years later the story is finally getting told in graphic novel form, with the look designed to echo the eighties feel. The story has a group of friends searching Shadow Hills for a legendary maniac with a metal claw who they believe was responsible for the death of their friend. A Kickstarter for Ripped to Shreds is due to launch soon, details can be found here.

Coming from Scream Team Releasing is Worst Laid Plans, now available on collector's edition Blu-ray and VHS. This features three stories of vacation themed horror which has been adapted from the bestselling book by Grindhouse Press. 'Deep in the Heart' has a troubled family trying to reconnect while touring a cave system. 'You've Been Saved' is about two reunited friends whose road trip turns dangerous after one of them receives a cryptic note by a young girl. Finally, 'Taylor Family Vacation '93' is about a father who is trying to discover the identity of the person stalking his family, with the secret revealed within his video camera.

Z Dead End is a new horror film that comes from director Robert Resto and stars Kane Hodder (Friday the 13th series), Felissa Rose (Sleepaway Camp), Robert LaSardo (The Mule), Dave Sheridan (The Devil's Rejects) and John Fiore (The Sopranos). A deputy sheriff and a bunch of eclectic characters must survive against an onslaught of zombies who have came from the skies.

Finally for today, Mikki The Butcher begins production January 2025 and comes from Michael Moutsatsos. This horror is about a brutally disfigured man who having been tormented and bullied his whole life snaps, donning a mask of his favourite childhood cartoon character and heading out on a brutal rampage.

Acorn (2023) - Fantasy Film Review

Acorn is the latest film from David Axe (Bae Wolf, Lection), something that he wrote, directed, produced, shot, edited and mixed. It uses the concept of a film within a film, essentially telling two stories around the same theme in a clever way. I watched this early on a Sunday morning, I was quite hungover, and once end credits rolled I promptly feel asleep for three hours. I'm hoping those factors don't effect this review as I have a feeling its going to be a bit difficult to write due to the strange (but cool) way the film was set out.

Chloe (Morgan Shaley Renew - Bae Wolf) is a low budget film director who learns she has inoperable brain cancer and only six months to live. She decides as her last act she wants to make one last movie, and pitches an idea for a fantasy western titled 'Die Standing Up', a story that is to mirror her real life struggles and acceptance of death. Along the way she has to deal with a variety of issues, from troublesome actors, to studio interference and unfinished sets.

This opened in a strange enough way that I briefly wondered if I had been given a boot-leg version of the movie to watch for review. It shows the film within a film from the perspective of David Axe (I believe) in a theatre, so the screen showing the film is badly framed and only taken up about two thirds of the actual picture. Despite this, I was getting into the fantasy western that was playing on that screen, so was unprepared for Acorn to cut away from that around ten minutes in and reveal what the actual film was about. This was one of those times when I was glad I hadn't read the synopsis as I had fully expected the film within a film to be the actual piece. I know Axe as a director often uses a fantasy setting to tell his stories, whether it is the post apocalyptic Lection or the mythical setting of Bae Wolf. Due to that, a fantasy western wasn't something unexpected from him, and shares the DNA of a vaguely low budget look. Acorn itself is much more grounded and realistic, with Morgan doing a fantastic job in the lead role. Even here things aren't quite as they seem as not long into the first act the film again cuts away to show that Chloe herself is being filmed, with it seeming that someone is making a documentary about her last six months (David Axe).
As grounded as this part of the film was, there were some suggestive supernatural elements to the story, with Chloe having seen visions of a strange looking tree, which she is then shocked to find exists in reality close to the set where her film is to be made. This tree plays some important roles both 'on' and 'off' camera.

'Die Standing Up' is an integral part of the whole experience, after the start of the movie, the creation of this becomes the focal point of Chloe's story. We get to see scenes taken out of context, but are able to piece together the story for this. In this story, a lone wanderer (Mandy Applegate who also plays the actor character of Starr) is injured while trying to hunt down a monster terrorising a town. She learns that the toxins from the monster's attack has no antidote, and that she doesn't have left to live. Having heard rumours of a cursed tree that has the ability to perform miracles, she sets out to find it, but encounters the jealous guardians of the tree who are prepared to die defending it. As an analogy for Chloe's battle against cancer the similarities are obvious to see. I enjoyed this film almost as much as the core story, both share a great soundtrack (soundtrack highlight was a really creepy messed up version of 'Dream A Little Dream of Me'). In a somewhat odd twist, Chloe's story ends around half an hour before the end of this nearly two hour film. The final thirty minutes are an abridged version of the film within a film, complete with their own ending credits. I did enjoy both parts of Acorn as a whole, but was slightly jarring to have the main story finish so long before the actual end. I get why it was set out that way though as that created a type of meta-experience of watching the 'real' part of the film along with the director of it. 

I've managed to write this review without really talking about the film in a competent way. I thought the duel storylines playing out worked really well together. I found Chloe to be a sympathetic character with the topic of terminal cancer handled well, and I also liked the more generic lone wanderer character found in 'Die Standing Up'. With a superb soundtrack and some interesting editing decisions, and slightly fourth wall breaking moments, I thought Acorn was the best film of Axe's that I have yet seen, something special.

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The Rotting Zombie's News Anthology for Thursday 6th July

A second news post for this week, written last Saturday while still a bit hungover. First, with the arrival of season three of The Witcher last week, a little infographic from JustWatch about the various Witcher stuff on Netflix. Unsurprisingly, The Witcher live action series is by far the most popular, with it being eight times more so than the other two Witcher properties. In second place but far behind was the animated film The Witcher: Nightmare Of The Wolf, while animated series The Witcher: Blood Origin was 2.3% less popular than that one. To be honest, I had completely forgotten about both the animated show and series.

Satanic Meat Cleaver Massacre has come to TUBI fifteen years are first being created. Originally released in 2008, this amusingly titled horror hasn't been on any platform since. Now, it has been digitally restored by archivist Gregory Hatanaka, and recut with new never before scenes, as well as a restored stereo mix. The horror was written and directed by Geno McGahee, and is about a masked slasher armed with a meat cleaver who carves up quite a bodycount. 

Finally for today, Scared Crazy is now available on Blu-ray from Bayview Entertainment. Cursed by his ex-girlfriend, a man finds himself haunted by a demonic presence one dark night. This was directed by Dwayne Hurt, and stars him alongside Madison Ames-Gilbert and Mitch Savage. The film can be purchased here.

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

This month felt like it really zoomed by, with the arrival of summer almost taking me by surprise. I have been neglecting my new PSVR2 unit, I need to get back into doing that as there are plenty of horror video games that are on there waiting to be tried out. Especially considering I have yet to play a scary game on the system. Blame goes to The Elder Scrolls Online that I continue to be addicted to.

A new teaser trailer has been released by MegaCity Media for sci-fi action adventure movie Space Goblins. Directed by Ams Overton, and starring Bill Hutchens (Curse of the Blind Dead), and Richard Blenkiron (Guardians of the Galaxy), this tells the tale of two brothers who find themselves pitted against hordes of terrorists and criminals that are attempting to overrun the universe.

The Only Ones is an upcoming indie comedy horror film, and an official teaser trailer and new poster art has been released. Directed by Jordan Miller (the award winning short film Three), this stars Nya Ford, Paul Cottman (Three), Emily Classen (The Forgiving), Zach Ruchkin (We Own This City), Nancy Anne Ridder (Scream), Christopher Inlow (Deer Crossing), Kim Krut (Dawn of the Dead), with voice over work by Brett Wagner (The Crazies). The press release doesn't reveal much, other than to say '...an exciting and original indie movie about distrust, isolation and what happens when situations spiral out of our control'.

Horror film Beneath Us All has been given an official release date of September 19th 2023, where it will be released on VOD and physical media from Painted Creek Productions and Deskpop Entertainment. This won Best Horror Fantasy Film at The International Horror Hotel, where director Harley Wallen was also nominated for Best Director, and Kaiti Wallen for Best Lead Actress in a Feature Film. Described as a 'retro fresh look at Vampires', this sounds like some hapless people will find themselves up against Viking vampires. The cast includes Sean Whalen (The People Under the Stairs), Maria Olsen (I Spit on Your Grave), Yan Birch (The People Under the Stairs) among others.

Dracula in the Hood is a new vampire film, directed by Will Collazo (Night of the Zomghouls). Telling a typical story, this has two best friends (David Perry and Collazo) forced to call on the skills of vampire hunter Van Helsing (Tim Hatch) after encountering Dracula. Filming is to begin this summer.

Author Shaun Hutson's novel Deadhead is now available in paperback and eBook formats. In this one, Nick Ryan, a troubled detective, finds his daughter kidnapped by a gang behind a series of disturbing murders. Nick begins a race against time to hunt down the people responsible and rescue his daughter. The press releases states '...is a haunting exploration of the depths of human depravity and the indomitable spirit of a father. With its relentless pacing and shocking twists, this novel is set to leave readers breathless and craving for more'.

'Haunting' is the new single from German synthpop project Meersein. The track is about memories of a love that is impossible to forget. The song is available on most digital platforms, including Apple Music.

Beach Day is an experimental fourteen minute long short horror film from Robin Johnson in their directorial debut. This stars Carly Jordan, Adam Grodman and Hannah Marie Fonder, and follows a young woman whose day of 'self care' at the beach goes to some strange places. The film completed post-production in February and has won awards at the Astoria Film Festival, Cooper Awards, and WRPN Women's International Film Festival among others.

Maid Droid is coming this summer from Cinema Epoch Classics. The synopsis has a man recovering from a break-up who decides to hire an android from the 'Maid Droid' agency. The creation is designed to serve the man's every wish, but soon it begins to learn human emotions, as well as recall memories from its past.

Finally for this month's round-up. Los Angeles based The God Bombs have released their latest single and video, 'Bleed', with the video described as a horror film about mental illness. Check out the gothic industrial track below. To me it sounds a little like Korn crossed with Placebo.

Fanga (2022) - Horror Film Review

Fanga is an Icelandic fairytale horror film that puts its own spin on the well known Beauty and the Beast story. Directed and written by Max Gold, this tells a familiar tale with a slight twist to it, and uses sparse, yet beautiful looking locations to tell that tale. Apologies to the actors here as I'm not entirely sure how to type their names the way some of them should be typed!

With her father close to death, Belle (Andrea Snaedal) seeks the help of the local wise woman (Hana Vagnerová) to assist. The woman tells the girl that the only way to prolong his life is to seek out a magical rose that is said to be guarded by a beast. Belle finds the cave where the flower is kept, and encounters the beast, who turns out to be a man afflicted with a curse (Gudmundur Thorvaldsson). Surprisingly he allows her to take the rose, but upon returning home she is informed by the wise woman that unless she stays by the beast's side her father's condition will once again deteriorate. For the sake of her father, Belle decides to go and live with the beast, and comes to form a friendship with the man, as well as learning that the only way for his curse to be lifted is for him to fall in love.

While just over ninety minutes long, Fanga (translating as Prisoner) managed to be a real slow moving film. It got me thinking that maybe a lazy Sunday wasn't the best time to view it as I legitimately kept falling asleep trying to watch it. This hides its budget by having natural locations for the most part, rather than sets, and by having a very minimal cast. Rather than be an actual beast, the man is normal looking, if deeply troubled. When the urge takes over him however he becomes a mindless killer who feasts on his victims, with it insinuated that the curse means the only way he is able to eat is by consuming the flesh of his victims. There was a decent dynamic between the two main characters, with Belle never seeming to be afraid of the man, and him never really being a threat, only on the rare occasions when he transforms. The make-up effects are subtle, with his transformation being more in the way he acts than in the way he looks.

Most the film takes place in and around the beast's remote cave, surrounded by some beautiful and lonely looking scenery. Not too much happens in a horror sense, this has more of a feel of a fairytale than of a horror, but this has some moments, such as the creepy looking zombie like creature that stands guard at the cave's entrance, a neat scene where the beast's prior victims stand around him as ghosts, and some arthouse style nightmare sequences later on which stitch together a variety of disparate images. The beasts attacks include some decent sound effects, but mainly the attacks are not shown on screen, with the afterwards moments shown more keenly than the actual attacks.

There isn't really more to say about Fanga, a very slow moving story which does put its own unique spin on a classic story. For me, I found it to be a struggle to watch due to how slow and uneventful it all was, despite the competent filmmaking and the great locations used.

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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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Shadowrun Returns (2022) - Cyberpunk Video Game Review (XBox Series X)

Despite the title, Shadowrun Returns isn't actually a sequel, instead it is a video game adaptation of the Shadowrun board game. Further research suggests this may actually be a sequel after all, albeit, a sequel to a SNES/Megadrive game from the early 1990s. This game originally came out in 2013, but this year has seen the release of a remastered version of the game, alongside its two expansions (which were released as standalone titles). You may be wondering why a non-horror game is being reviewed here, that is for two reasons, firstly that dystopian futures are not too far removed from apocalypses (that are prime for being covered), secondly, I damn well love everything cyberpunk.

The game takes place in Seattle in the later half of the 21st century, a world where megacorporations run the world. So far so cyberpunk, the difference here is that the world of fantasy has been merged with it. Alongside hacking and cyberspace you also have magic and demons, as well as typical fantasy beings such as orcs, elves and dwarves. You play as a Shadowrunner (I think they are basically mercenaries) who has been sent a pre-recorded message from a former partner, Sam informing them of their own death. From beyond the grave they have requested that you bring their murderer to justice, with a large sum of money being the reward for doing so. It soon becomes clear that Sam was murdered by a serial killer, someone who has links to very powerful people who are set on irreversibly altering the landscape of the world.

So, Shadowrun Returns is an isometric tactical role playing game. Combat takes place on a grid system with your three action points allocated to moving your character around, shooting at enemies and using special abilities and items. The combat is basically the same as that of Gears: Tactics, but this part of the game has been merged with a more traditional RPG element. The game is split into chapters, each putting you and your team into a small area to either do some investigating or fighting enemies. This is dialogue heavy with conversations often being more detailed than you may expect, I kind of got Planescape Torment vibes. Rather than get experience points you instead are given karma points for doing actions such as completing mission objectives and surviving encounters. These points can be pumped into a series of skill trees that let you do everything from becoming better skilled at using weapons, to having better magic and better cyberspace skills. Talking of cyberspace, this is a whole different area of the game you can travel to optionally. Here you fight computer programs and can summon your own programs to fight alongside you.

The Rotting Zombie's Round-up of Horror News for May 2022

It has been another month and I am back with another news round-up. My blog has been more quiet on the film front lately, that is a lot down to me getting through various books and videogames that have eaten up slots in my five posts a week schedule.

Now, Shadows isn't really a film I would typically cover here as it is a crime drama rather than horror. Distributed by Midnight Releasing, Shadows is an indie film coming from Michael Matteo Rossi. This stars Rahart Adams, Krista Allen, Vernon Wells, David Labrava and Eric Etebari and is about a young man, Cody (Adams) who has to resort to low-level crime in order to survive. This eventually leads to him inevitably getting in over his head. This has won several awards, including Best Feature at the Santa Monica Film Festival and Best Score at the Silicon Beach Film Festival, and can be seen on a variety of streaming platforms including VUDU, iTunes, YouTube, GooglePlay, Microsoft and Verizon Fios.

Realm of Divinos is a 3D adventure game with visual novel elements that is currently running a Kickstarter campaign to raise funds. It has currently raised £4,079 of its £17,422 goal with fourteen days to go. This is a single player game that takes place in a war torn fantasy world. Able to customise your character, you are also able to aid either the heroes or villains. If funded, this will be released initially on Windows in October 2024. Check out the Kickstarter page here, and a payable demo can be found on Steam, here.

Kill Shelter (UK based alternative artist and producer Pete Burns) has announced a new single with Agent Side Grinder, The Necklace. This is taken from their sophomore album Asylum and is about 'a darkly energetic exploration of the quest for personal sanctuary in the face of constant physical and mental abuse'. This is said to be reflective of the upcoming album that looks into themes such as human trafficking, domestic abuse and disillusionment.
Following on from debut album, Damage, Asylum is the second in a series of collaboration albums featuring artists from around the world. Interestingly, the album is going to be available in two versions, with a different track listing in each territory. Metropolis Records in North and South America, and Manic Depression Records in Europe and the rest of the world.

Let's have a look at the notable releases heading to the Arrow streaming service for June. There are two films from Gaspar Noé, apparently the 'the arch provocateur of New French Extremity' whatever that means. Those two films are Lux AEterna and Enter The Void. June 10th sees the release of the excellent black and white thriller The Righteous, while the first of the month sees the release of all six Trancers films, I've never heard of them but apparently they are cyberpunk, a great genre. The bloody fun Intruder 1989 cult classic drops on June 13th while June 17th has the arrival of Maniac Cop 2 (US/CA) and Maniac Cop III: Badge of Silence (US/CA).

The sharktastic thriller Shark Bait is released on DVD, on altitude.film and other platforms from 6th June in the UK. This sees a group of friends being terrorised by the creature off the coast of Mexico. It includes among its cast Holly Earl (Humans TV show), Catherine Hannay (Doctors) and Malachi Pullar-Latchman (The Three Musketeers).

Coming from Synapse Films on June 7th is the Blu-ray release of the classic UK zombie film The Living Dead at Manchester Morgue. In this one, two travellers arrive in a small town where an experimental agricultural machine has had the unintended effect of bringing the dead back to life, meanwhile a detective thinks the travellers are Satanists who are the ones responsible for the dead's path of destruction! This comes from Spanish director Jorge Grau and is restored in 4K from the original camera negative. The Blu-ray of course includes a whole host of extras including two commentaries and a full length documentary.

Elden Ring (2022) - Horror Fantasy Video Game Review (Playstation 5)

I have always appreciated from afar the 'Souls-bourne' style of games that FromSoftware is a master of, yet the few times I have dipped by toe into Dark Souls I have found it a stressful and daunting experience. I did manage to complete Bloodbourne, but my memory of that is fuzzy. With Elden Ring, FromSoftware has taken all that they are good at and pulled it into an open world setting. I was hesitant to head into this, but boy am I glad I did, as without a doubt Elden Ring is a modern masterpiece.

The story presented here is obtuse, it is up to the player to decipher the game world via descriptions for items found, as well as the spare story drip fed by the various characters you meet. As such, this synopsis is very likely wrong, but it is my limited interpretation. Elden Ring takes place in the Lands Between, a place that was once ruled over by a Goddess known as Queen Marika the Eternal via the power of the titular Elden Ring. An event occurred long ago known as 'the Shattering' in which the Elden Ring was destroyed, with the offspring of Marika battling over the powerful shards left behind. Now the Lands Between is a desolate wasteland, in which the now mutated and corrupted demigods hold onto their shards. You play as a 'tarnished', an exile who has been summoned back to the lands by the Ring's grace. Your aim is to locate and defeat all the demigods in order to collect their shards, so that you can restore the Elden Ring and become the next Elden Lord.

The reason I have never really gotten on with the Dark Souls games is due to their high difficulty, and the way that experience works. Defeating enemies gives you experience points, but should you die you will drop these at the place of your death. Should you die before you are able to retrieve the points then they will be lost forever. The many many sites of grace dotted around the game world are where you are able to spend those experience points to level up your character, as well as carry out various other functions like equipping great runes, allocating mana and health to the flasks you collect, as well as assigning magic spells. Each time you level up the bar gets higher, meaning you need to collect more experience until you can do it again. By the time I finished playing (for the moment), I was requiring around 285,000 experience to level up. On that note, I didn't actually complete Elden Ring, I did however see virtually all the game had to offer. I sunk one hundred and eleven hours into this, making it all the way to the final boss, and having cleared nearly all the secret areas. I feel happy to review this as I have seen so much of the game.

Bae Wolf (2022) - Comedy Fantasy Horror Film Review

The films of David Axe may be low in budget, but at least with the ones I have seen they are high in ideas. It shows how weird these past few years have gotten in that it feels like much longer than 2019 when I first watched one of his movies, the excellent horror Shed, then it was only later that same year when I saw another of his creations, this time an indie dive into the post apocalypse with the intriguing and political Lection. Now he is back, and with another slight genre shift, as while Bae Wolf has horror elements, it is mainly a fantasy. Axe wrote, directed, shot, edited, mixed and produced the film, as always an impressive accomplishment. 

Loosely based on the Old English epic poem Beowolf, Bae Wolf takes place around the year 500 A.D. In the Queendom of Heorot a monster named Grendel (Josh Kern - House Monster) is causing havoc, repeatedly attacking the mead house and killing everyone there. In desperation the Queen's teenage daughter, Freawaru (Morgan Shaley Renew - Bad Girls, House Monster) hires a wandering hero, Beowolf (Jennifer Hill - House Monster, Lection) to slay the monster, but it turns out this hero has secrets of her own.

The press release for this makes much of the fact that this is a queer film, but I would say that is only incidental within the context of the story. There is a gay subplot going on but it is just that, a subplot that doesn't really have anything to do with the main story. Instead this is much more a film about attempting to end cycles of hate, and how appearances can be deceiving. Grendel is portrayed initially as a monster with no redeeming qualities, Beowolf as a fearsome battle experienced warrior, while the town drunk, and Freawaru's best friend Unferth (Aaron Blomberg - Lection, Shed) has secret aspirations of becoming the hero that he believes the town needs. This deceptiveness also applies to the main story itself , I read a synopsis of the original poem so had certain expectations which this then subverts.

A key part of Lection was the devolved society, so reduced that characters could barely converse. With Bae Wolf there is a return to dialogue, and it was occasionally surprisingly deep and meaningful. The writing was a hidden highlight of the film and was when Bae Wolf was at its most fascinating, combined with the soundtrack that had some wonderful synth tracks, led to some special moments. I wasn't surprised to see Matt Akers and Gauge Santiago had also composed the music for Shed as this shared many similarities.

The Witcher: Season 2 (2021) - Fantasy Horror TV Show Review

The Witcher was a video game series that I enjoyed playing through a few years back (The Witcher, The Witcher 2: Assassins of Kings, and The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt). At least that was my introduction to this dark fantasy world. The games were actually based on the Polish books by Andrzej Sapkowski, which the Netflix show also uses as a base. In my review of the first season of The Witcher I didn't say much as for some reason I declined to review it. A very quick review would be that it was good enough that my non-fantasy liking friend was fully on board, though perhaps wouldn't have been if not for Henry Cavill (Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice). Mild spoilers for the first season to follow.

With the Witcher Geralt (Cavill) finally having located the girl he had sworn to protect, Ciri (Freya Allan), he decides to take her to the safest place he can think of, the secluded Witcher stronghold of Kaer Morhen. Meanwhile, the sorceress Yennefer (Anya Chalotra), believed to have died at the battle of  Sodden instead survived, and finds herself a prisoner of the invading Nilfgaardian army. Elsewhere, a powerful witch sets plans in motion to escape the confines of the magical prison from which she had been sealed in centuries earlier by a group of Witchers.

A complaint people had with the first season of this show was how confusing it became with all the leaping around in time. Personally I thought that was quite a clever concept, one that was able to happen due to the principal main characters who don't age as normal humans do. Maybe taking that criticism in mind, season two follows a far more traditional route through its eight episodes run. The first season at times felt like each episode was a separate self contained story, which makes sense seeing as many of the The Witcher books were in fact written as a collection of short stories. Things start off similar here with A Grain of Truth, this taken from the first Witcher book, The Last Wish. It was an excellent start to the new season, showing the morally grey world where good and evil are forever shaded. Flipping all the way to final episode, Family I have to say how much better this worked than season ones finale. There you had what was essentially a flashback episode as Geralt lay severely injured and reflected back on his childhood, while this finale is a culmination of a grand overarching story.