The Dead Place (2026) - Horror Film Review

With myself still recovering from a trapped nerve in my rotted back, I have had a much reduced blog output, it has gotten quite neglected these past few weeks. I hadn't actually intended to do any blog posts at all this week, but an email informing me two of the screeners I currently have for review were about to expire meant that I was forced into action! The first of these two films I watched was Horror Show Pictures, The Dead Place. This indie horror, written and directed by Michael Pickle (Stab Awake), had the big selling point of featuring an actor best known for playing the part of a particularly sadistic clown.

It begins with a serial killer, credited solely as 'The New Kid' (David Howard Thornton - the Terrifier series), heavily injured, after having taken a fatal blow from his final victim. As the killer slumps to the ground, he begins to lament his fate, and his sadness at not being able to kill anymore people. It is then that he hears a strange voice from a supernatural entity (Bill Oberst Jr. - The Man in Room 6, 3 From Hell). This voice offers the dying man a chance to kill again, all he has to do is give himself over to the being and give him his soul.
Meanwhile, high schooler Isaac (Idris Veliu in his film debut) has been having a tough time. Cursed with the gift of being able to see dead people since a young age, people around him find him weird, with even his own mother beginning to think her child needs psychiatric help. One day, the entity contacts Isaac also, interested in his special gift, it promises him great power should he also give himself over to it.

I really enjoyed this indie horror. For a change, I thought the main protagonist was a great character. Sure he is troubled, but at heart it is obvious he is a genuinely decent person, something that comes across with his interactions with other characters, such as the respect he shows for his wholesome father. Isaac's girlfriend Katharine (Lexi Graves) and younger brother play their parts well, but it is school trouble maker James (Nick Theurer - The Bell Keeper) and his gang who were the highlights. The running joke of James vehemently denying he is a bully despite all the evidence to the contrary somehow never wore out its welcome.

Thornton is great as the red hoodie wearing ghost killer. It was cool to see the actor in a speaking role, and with his way of talking, he came across like a Freddy Kruger style wise-cracking villain. This was fitting as the story of The Dead Place did feel a bit familiar to A Nightmare on Elm Street 2: Freddy's Revenge. This killer is missing from the film for much of the first act, but when he finally reappears he was fantastic to watch. I loved the gleefully evil way he spoke, and his manic ever present grin. The practical effect of his distended jaw looked ok, but was certainly better than some less than real looking CG blood sprays, but outside of that, there was a good amount of blood flowing. There was also a decent amount of kills, including some lovely looking throat slits.
The story kept my attention throughout, leading up to an unexpected finale that seemed to set up a sequel, rather than give any closure to this film's over arching plot, a minor annoyance.

The Dead Place can be a little rough around the edges at times, as can be seen with some of the less impressive effects. I did think both Thornton and Veliu were great in their roles, and of course it is always a pleasure to hear the voice of Oberst Jr. If a sequel does get made, then I will be interested to see the direction this goes in. 

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CAPA Ghostbusters: Director's Cut (2026) - Short Comedy Horror Film Review

I have reviewed a whole bunch of films from filmmaker Nicholas Michael Jacobs (Genevieve, Urban Fears) over the past years, but his latest is something a little different. As the title hints heavily at; CAPA Ghostbusters: Director's Cut is a director's cut of CAPA Ghostbusters, a film that Jacobs made with his friends in high school. The original film was around 9 minutes long, this director's cut, cuts this down to a lean 5 and a half minutes, remastered with updated special effects.

Four students at The Philadelphia High School for the Creative & Performing Arts (CAPA) are members of a Ghostbusters club. After the school's librarian encounters a ghost, the disbelieving principal; Principal Kaufman, gives them permission to go and hunt the 'ghost'. Luckily they are ready for this opportunity, having recently created uniforms and gotten their hands on some make-shift ghost blasting weapons.

I can't say I have ever been much of a fan of fan made films, though that is typically due to them being unnecessarily long. Obviously, that is not the case with this one. It tells a familiar story in a lightning fast paced short, including some iconic moments that are recognisable from the film series this was based on. Most obvious is the library based prologue. You also get the iconic theme music, and later, the recognisable proton beams, as well as slimer being the ghost responsible. I watched some of the original short film, and this one does have much better CG special effects. The comedy is never laugh out loud funny, the friends have a decent enough rapport among themselves, and I did smile during a montage scene of the busters getting ready when one of the zips on their suits jams during a close-up shot. The addition of a 'secretary' for the four person team was good in relation to making the female character a force to be reckoned with, but their inclusion didn't really seem to fit the more stream-lined short as the character appeared in just the one scene.

It might be a little breezy, but telling a complete Ghostbusters adjacent story in such a short time frame is impressive, kudos to the tight editing. Having seen Jacobs filmmaking work improve leaps and bounds after the past five or so years, it was interesting to see where he came from, and also where he is going to go next. The director's cut includes an after credits sequence that teases his next untitled project.

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The Rotting Zombie's Round-Up of Horror News for January 2025

It is a new year and full of possibilities, a time to get out of the groove and expand your comfort zone. At least it is for a die-hard introvert like me. I usually fail to get my blog finished within two days, meaning I tend to work most the weekend on it. This is my last post of the weekend, and am hoping that this month my news round-up returns to a more full look.

Fright Teck Pictures have released a special anniversary edition version of Hellweek on Amazon. The film is about a group of mask wearing psychos who decide to target a group of college kids who enter the warehouse where the crazies live, as part of a hazing ritual. Directed by Eddie Lengyel, this stars Robyn Griggs, Brenna Lee Roth, Karen Fox, Rob Jaeger and Michael Reddy.

Areas of High Strangeness: Pennsylvania is out now on digital platforms from BayView Entertainment. This documentary sees members of the Demon Hunter Society heading out to Pennsylvania to investigate reports of Big Foot, Dog Man, and other cryptids thought to either be long extinct or not real.

Streaming service NYX UK has announced that they will be having a 'zombie week' on their service that is due to run from February 3rd to February 9th. It begins on the 3rd with Lucio Fulci's classic 1979 horror Zombie. Subsequent days see The Crazies, Night of the Living Dead, Tombs of the Blind Dead, Return of the Evil Dead, Night of the Seagulls, Nightmare City, and The House by the Cemetary being added to the service. A lot of classics to be found there.

The Stone: No Soul Unturned is out now on digital platforms including on Xumo Play, via VIPCO & BayView Entertainment. This horror was the winner Best Foreign Film at the Mammoth Lakes Film Festival. The film's story concerns a team of soul searchers who unleash psychological and supernatural terror after discovering an ancient stone. Written and directed by Philip Gardiner, this stars Andrew Gough, Sarah Dunn and Layla Randle-Conde.

The official trailer and poster for Heart Eyes is available now. Coming to cinemas on February 14th, this is about a killer named the 'Heart Eyes Killer' who operates on Valentine's Day by going after romantic couples.

Finally for today, with my inbox once again empty, a teaser trailer has been released for Linnea Quigley's Trash's Revenge, part of the Return of the Living Dead universe. The set-up suggests that the original film was indeed based on true events, and that the character of Trash (played by Quigley) is now washed up, but does happen to have a canister of the zombie making toxin kept in her basement.

eVil Sublet (2023) - Comedy Horror Film Review

I am late getting around to watching comedy horror film eVil Sublet (written, edited and directed by Allan Piper) and I really can't blame anyone but myself for this tardiness. The title of the movie by the way is a reference to the sublet being part of east village. By a stroke of luck I woke up this morning feeling terrible, my whole body aches and I keep coughing (at the time of typing). That is admittedly not the best time to be watching a film for review, hopefully it wont colour my judgement of this fun but long comedy horror.

Reena (Sally Struthers - Gilmore Girls TV show) and her husband Ben (Charley Tucker) think they have struck gold when they discover an apartment in New York that is not only huge, but is also affordable. Unfortunately, as the estate agent informs them, the apartment has a dark history, with all former tenants at the place either dying in gruesome circumstances or fleeing in terror shortly after moving in. While Ben downplays the danger of the place, Reena gets increasingly freaked out by the ghostly goings on. With her husband away on business, she decides to look into the history of the place, discovering along the way that for each new tenant at the property, three lives will be claimed.

A big shout out to the apartment featured here as it is full of detail and life. My own house I see as a reflection of myself, I got a similar vibe here with the intricately decorated rooms. I liked the idea that the house is a mishmash of decoration styles, each new tenant adding to the décor but not getting around to redecorating fully. Sure, that also made it seem a bit weird that a couple would move into a new place and leave nearly every picture and piece of furniture intact, but it gave the house a feeling of malice. It is ghosts doing the haunting, but the home takes on a feel of its own. This tries to be very comedic, but regardless of that, this still has moments of genuine horror that wouldn't look out of place in a serious horror with a little tweaking. One of the key ghosts (a figure dressed in Victorian England style black clothes and wearing a paper-mache smiling head) looked effectively creepy, and there was a later staircase kill that felt like something out of a Hitchcock movie.

The humour verged on the weird more than the funny, but at least sex and bodily function jokes were kept to a minimum. A lot of the humour comes from dialogue, such as when a character is being attacked by a poltergeist and loudly exclaims something along the lines of "I'm sh*tting myself! I'm actually sh*tting myself!", there are plenty of dead pan moments also, such as with the estate agent discussing the dark history of the apartment, but Reena only picking up on the fact the apartment has a garden included with it. There are physical moments of humour used also, but like the verbal jokes these were a bit hit and miss. I didn't particularly find even the better jokes to be that funny, but did appreciate the weird and surreal vibe.
My biggest issue was that the one hour forty five minute runtime did feel every second of that length. The plot kind of got stuck in a holding pattern for a large chunk of the middle part of the movie. I couldn't help but feel it would have benefitted by being trimmed down slightly.

eVil Sublet had some decent moments of horror that delighted. If the humour had been more appealing and matched the inventiveness of the horror, and if this had been a bit shorter than I would have enjoyed this more than I did. I also would have if I hadn't been feeling so rotten at the time of watching for review however. eVil Sublet released on demand on October 1st.

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Alchemy of the Spirit (2022) - Film Review

I removed the 'horror' part from the title of this post as Alchemy of the Spirit only partially goes into that territory. Written and directed by Steve Balderson (Hell Town, Firecracker), this is a poignant and frequently melancholic study into the human spirit. As that may sound like, this is most certainly an arthouse movie, one that at times became almost like an essay brought to life.

Elderly artist Oliver (Xander Berkeley - Air Force One, Terminator 2: Judgement Day) awakens one morning to discover his beloved wife Evelyn (Sarah Clarke - Twilight, 24 TV series) has died in her sleep. Full of grief, the artist decides that rather than report her death to the authorities, he is instead going to try and preserve the body, in order to create his magnum opus, with her as his inspiration. With perfect timing, his manager Alex (Mink Stole - All About Evil, Neighbor) tells the artist that she has managed to get him the job of creating an art installation at a prestigious gallery, so he decides his latest work will be for that installation. Whether due to supernatural means or down to his intense sorrow, the spirit of his wife appears to him. She informs him that guides from the afterlife have told her that she will be able to spend five days with him, but after this time she will be gone forever. 

Having avoided reading the synopsis, it didn't take me too long to realise the type of movie this would be. Alchemy of the Spirit is an ultra slow burn, but one that thankfully avoids overstaying its welcome by rocking in at a ninety minute run time. For the lack of much that occurs within the film storywise, I didn't actually find it that dull at all. This is a movie with a dreamlike feel to it, where the fantastical and real merge in a way that made me unsure what was actual and which was within the mind of Oliver. Berkeley carries much of the film, though Clark's character Evelyn also features quite a bit. She is where it becomes most arthouse, with her descriptions of what it's like to be dead, and her spoken essays on the nature of reality and the human spirit mixed in with disparate images of her, such as her standing in a sun drenched meadow surrounded by artificial butterflies.

Outside of this metaphysical dreamlike fugue Oliver finds himself in, there is a more grounded story taking place in the background. First is the fact that the man has tried to preserve his wife's body in a bathtub full of ice. With his busybody manager constantly finding excuses to visit his house (and able to smell the decay which is never mentioned from Oliver's perspective), there was a low level feel of threat of him being found out. Like the more spiritual plot though, this itself felt airy, especially later on when it seems he is going to be found out but somehow isn't. This more real part of the film does however suffer from an ill placed reaction from one of the side characters, whose over the top startled exclamations sounded unintentionally funny to my ears. 
This may not sound much like a horror, but it does feature some moments. In particular, there are some nightmare sequences that impressed, such as one where Oliver accidentally tears through the self portrait he is painting, only for blood to start coming out of his own neck in the exact place the painting was torn. Then there is the ominous five day countdown, each passing day represented by a celestial star floating in a vast distant nebula. This gave a feeling of something bad on the horizon. There was one outdoors sequence that really stood out for me, a simple walk to the shop on a typical looking day somehow felt full of menace and peril due to the editing and visual effects.
The film is helped by some good artwork, in particular the death mask that Oliver is working on looked great. The plot was leading up to the reveal of what the artist had been working on, frustratingly that is never revealed on camera, but I can see how that probably wouldn't have lived up to the hype.

Alchemy of the Spirit was a beautiful and occasionally moving film, but one whose central idea wasn't something I could really get invested in. Despite the slow pace and lack of much plot, this was one that didn't get boring, mainly due to the wonderful acting, directing and cinematography throughout. Alchemy of the Spirit is now available on Prime Video and VOD.

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The Secret of Monkey Island: Special Edition (2009) - Comedy Horror Video Game Review (XBox 360)

With the amazing announcement that a new entry in the pirate themed comedy horror adventure series Monkey Island was being made (released on 17th September), I just had to replay the others in anticipation. This new game is only taking the first and second games as canon, ignoring the events of the third, fourth and episodic games (though apparently keeping some story beats and characters as canonical). The Secret of Monkey Island is a classic 'point and click' game that first came out in 1990. Back in 2009 it enjoyed a re-release and re-make, a game that let you swap at will between the beautiful pixel graphics of the original, and the ugly, uncompleted in feel look of the remake.

Guybrush Threepwood has arrived on the Caribbean island of Meleé with one goal in mind, to become a pirate. The pirate elders there give him three tasks to complete in order to become one. While exploring the island he comes to learn of a fearsome pirate named LcChuck, who was so infatuated with Meleé island's governor, Elaine Marley, that he returned from the dead as a ghost pirate to continue trying to win her heart. After Elaine is kidnapped by LeChuck and taken back to his base on the mysterious Monkey Island, Guybrush decides he must recruit a crew, find a boat, and go and attempt a rescue mission.

Monkey Island 2: LeChuck's Revenge is one of my favourite video games of all time. The Secret of Monkey Island is nowhere near as good a game, yet it is a pleasure to play through, despite being far simpler. I played these games back before the internet had become a mainstream thing, and so when I became stuck in the games I was really stuck. I would spend entire evenings playing these, trying to figure out on my own how to proceed. Because of this I have a deep affection for the series, the original game giving me large does of nostalgia. After about a fifteen year break I still mostly breezed through this. There were times when I was jumping ahead of myself, trying to solve puzzles that I wasn't yet actually able to do with where I was in the story. The game is split into chapters, each with a clearly defined goals. From completing the three tasks to become a pirate, to sailing to Monkey Island and hunting down LeChuck. 

Halloween Girl - Chapter 3: The Forgotten Boy (2022) - Horror Comic Review

Earlier this year in May I checked out the first two issues in the Richard T. Wilson created Halloween Girl series, which in itself had been based on a film and a web-series. This is issue is to be part of a seven issue series that makes up Halloween Girl - Book 1: Promises to Keep. The third chapter, titled The Forgotten Boy has now been completed.

Issue three is both a new story as well as moving forward the overarching plot. Eighteen year old ghost, Charlotte Williams, gets a new lead on just where her missing son Luke may be. The boy having been kidnapped by an evil secret society known as The Hollow, She discovers that a demon known as Jason (whose moniker is the titular 'the forgotten boy') may have him, and that for a favour he may release Luke. 

The story here is mostly set-up for future events but it does reveal more character story, especially with relation to Charlotte's spiritual friend Poe, who may have closer ties to The Hollow than she has let on. With dialogue the order of the day here there isn't much horror at all, but with an ongoing series it can't be dialled up to ten all the time. I've read a preview of the issue after this one and it provides a heck of a lot of backstory for Poe and just who she actually is.
The black and white art by Pietro Vaughan can on occasion combine to make really vivid looking art, especially when Poe and Charlotte are walking through woodland. Something I appreciated from before, the facial expressions, again I enjoyed, it is easy to see just what emotions characters are experiencing, which helps in giving life to the dialogue.

The Forgotten Boy may not be the most action packed issue of Halloween Girl but it is one that isn't afraid to focus on providing set-up for future events. I finished it with an impatience to see what happens next, something that I can only take as a good thing. The Kindle edition of this can be purchased here, releasing today, July 13th.

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Halloween Girl - Issue 1 and Issue 2 (2020-22) - Horror Comic Review

Last week on April 30th the second volume of the Mad Shelley Comics' Halloween Girl was released. Now, I hadn't actually heard of this but apparently it is based on characters that appeared in the film The Halloween Girl and its sister web-series Under the Flowers. The star of this is an eighteen year old ghost named Charlotte, who, along with her supernatural friend Poe do their best to protect Charlotte's hometown of Crystal Springs from an evil secret society known as The Hollow.

Starting with issue 1 (VOL.1: Secret to Keep, Chapter 1: Candy From Strangers), this had a story written by Richard T. Wilson, with art by Stephen Mullan. While I wasn't a hundred percent clear on any of the backstory the story itself was easy to follow. After a trip into the 'In-Between', Charlotte is provided clues as to what she should be doing in order to protect her town. In this case it is a Halloween bucket in which a giant spider was dwelling. Back in the real world she spots a young boy wearing a spider costume being bullied and so makes herself corporal in order to intervene.
The art is in black and white and was crisp and simple. Panels were not deeply detailed but I liked the cleaness this created. A lot of the issue revolved around conversations but the panels remained interesting by utilising plenty of different angles so that instead of a static feel the panels felt dynamic, like the characters were actually moving around. The horror slowly introduces itself leading up to a cliffhanger finale that made me glad I also had the second issue to read!

Issue 2 (Charlotte's Web) wraps up this particular story and was more action packed then the first. Again at thirtish pages this was something I breezed through. This two issues almost reminded me of Buffy the Vampire Slayer in how they were paced out. A 'villain of the week' type situation that nonetheless ties into a greater tale. These first two issues worked at establishing Charlotte as the protagonist she needs to be, discovering powers she didn't know she had.

Halloween Girl was an enjoyable read, the clear art allowed characters to show their emotions on their faces, while the story was easy to follow. For me personally I would have preferred a darker story, but it certainly headed in that direction after its non threatening beginning. While the ongoing story didn't dig its claws into me there is potential for this to become greater. Vol. 1 is set to be comprised of seven issues, issue 2 is out now via Kindle Comics (Amazon), with a third one due out later this year.

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Ghostwire: Tokyo (2022) - Horror Video Game Review (Playstation 5)

I preordered Ghostwire: Tokyo long before I realised it was a first person game. I needn't have been concerned as despite that perspective this was a pretty laid back game. Closer to release I have to say I was very relieved to find out this wasn't a long game, as a child I always wanted a game that would last forever, but in this modern age of games being needlessly long a twenty five hour experience was a nice appetiser. Despite the relatively short length however this felt almost fit to bursting with padding, which even for someone who loves collecting things and doing inane side quests in an open world setting began to drag before I reached its climax.

Tokyo falls victim to a supernatural attack in which the spirit world and the real world are pulled together. For nearly the entire population of the city this is a disaster, the mystical fog that appears separates their souls from their bodies. Seemingly only a young man named Akito is sparred, and this is due to his body getting semi-possessed by a former spiritual detective named KK. They soon learn that a mysterious figure wearing a Hannya mask is behind it, with his grand plan being to unite the world of the living and that of the dead so that he can be with his deceased wife and child once again. Granted special powers due to KK's possession, and discovering Hannya (to abbreviate the antagonists name) has kidnapped his younger sister from the local hospital where she had been in a coma for many years, Akita sets out to defeat the insane man, in order to both rescue his sister, and hopefully restore Tokyo back to normal.

If you were expecting a horror game then you may well feel a bit deflated by Ghostwire: Tokyo, to me it felt like Yakuza if instead of fighting gangsters you were instead battling evil spirits. The game takes place entirely in Tokyo, I don't know how accurate a depiction it is but there were plenty of landmarks that even I recognised. The game as a whole looks pretty attractive, I wouldn't say the graphics were stunning but they were decent. The incremental rain that falls utilises the Playstation 5 controllers rumble function by simulating raindrops falling, a nice touch, as was KK's voice which comes out the speaker in the controller, as opposed to Akito's which comes out the TV speakers. Split into five chapters, the main game didn't feel like it had much to it. I finished the game after around twenty six hours and that included doing all side quests and gathering all the collectibles. Towards the end of the game I realised what a pointless task that all was. The side quests were interesting enough (more on that later), but the hundreds of Japanese themed items I was collecting (in order to sell to the magical cat shopkeepers) was the real meat of the game. The city felt varied enough in its design, the main shopping areas, more suburban type locales, as well as a large woodland. It is also full to the brim of lost souls, one of your powers being to gather these souls, which can then be deposited at any of the hundreds of telephone booths in order to exchange them for experience points.

The Rotting Zombie's News Anthology for 20th April 2022

Today's post will focus on film news, and so without further ado onto that news. The poster for upcoming horror/thriller Beneath Us All has been revealed. The film is about a foster child who discovers something buried in the woods. This sounds like it is a vampire film, but one that the press release states 'begins as an epic Viking tale before it settles in todays Maine'. The film is in the late stages of post production with the film intended to be completed by the end of April.

The Boo Hag is a horror that aims to bring Gullah Geechee (descendants of Africans who were brought to America as slaves) culture to film. Coming from Film Deco and starring Basil Wallace and Lance Nichols this is inspired by the Gullah Geechee folktale of the titular Boo Hag; a demon that in daytime appears to be a beautiful woman, while at night she is a creature of nightmares. This is due for a release later on in the year during the Halloween month of October.

If I Can't Have You is a new thriller that comes from directors Matt Santia and Peter Poulos. This stars Tennille Taraszkiewicz, Todd Calvin De Pew, Santia, Brian Boynton, Mandy Logsdon and Harley Wallen and is about a psychologist who finds themselves the unrequited attention of a model, an ex convict and an overprotective sister. This out now now via Midnight Releasing.

Next for today is a clip from Matt Leal's ShadowMarsh which stars Mike Ferguson, Ellen Woomer, Piper Tomlin, Jacob Tomlin, Lew Temple, Dave Sheraton and Felissa Rose. This one is about a man and his niece who return to their hometown and discover a secret about an ancient evil in the nearby forest. The film is available here.

The Nightgown will be Jared Masters' 17th feature film and reportedly his final one. While little has been revealed about the story, it is set to take place in the mid 1970s with three girls from a finishing school seeking out a haunted cabin. The film has so far announced Elizabeth Rath (Quartz Vein), and Randy Masters among the cast and is due for an October 2023 release. There is currently an Indiegogo campaign running which can be found here. The press release states '(it)...will be a cinematic movement like non other, a pulsating neon night terror simmering with ghouls, girls and a mischievous groundsman'.

A Ghost Waits (2020) - Comedy Romance Horror Film Review

A Ghost Waits is a charming low budget indie that combines elements of horror, comedy, and romance all into one. This was the work of Adam Stovall who along with directing this also co-wrote the story, was responsible for casting, did additional camera work, and produced and edited this. Heck, he even shows up in a bit part acting here. This is very much a film whose ideas and themes could only really ever be explored in such a way in an indie piece.

Jack (MacLeod Andrews - Doctor Sleep, They Look Like People) works for a housing company, his job is to clean up houses after the former tenants have moved out in order for them to be ready for new tenants. Due to his own house being fumigated he needs somewhere to stay, and with his small circle of acquaintances not being forthcoming with help he decides he is going to stay at the current property he is fixing up. Unknown to him however this house is haunted by Muriel (Natalie Walker - Search Party, Bojack Horseman), a ghost tasked with scaring away any new visitors to her home. She has been successful up to this point, but finds Jack to be a challenge. Starting off antagonistic to him, over the course of days the pair begin to realise that they have much more in common with each other than either of them could have realised.

The horror part of A Ghost Waits is literally the first couple of minutes of its one hour twenty minute run time. It begins with the former family fleeing in terror from the property in a neatly edited chaotic montage of stop start scenes. I was actually still sorting out my headphones at this point in the movie and so nearly jumped out my skin when Muriel started screaming, as I had inadvertently gotten the volume on my headset up to max! Aside from the woman being a ghost there isn't really any more horror to be found here, outside of a couple of brief scenes. After that prologue this turns into a comedic piece for its first two acts, before taking on a much more dramatic and romantic story in its final third. It is quite po faced and earnest in this third act, regardless of your thoughts on this the film has a lot of heart.

Without a Body (2017) - Horror Film Review

Without a Body (also known as Asmatous) is a supernatural horror that was directed by Harvey Lowry (A Deadly Dance). The general idea behind this one brought to mind both Sinister and The Conjuring, but in an indie package. There were some good ideas here, but there was also a whole load of them and the amount of things going on led to some of these ideas getting diluted.

Alex (Jack Campbell - Gabriel) has recently moved into a run down property along with his two daughters, Rachel (Whitney Rose Pynn - Aquarius TV series) and Sophie (Isabella Kai - Pretty Little Liars TV series). Alex is a published author whose topic of work is debunking alleged haunted places, in fact the very reason he has moved into a new home is to be at the location where a murder suicide took place. The property is said to be haunted and so he wants his next book to be about showing why it isn't. The only problem, as his two daughters quickly realise, is that the house is of course very haunted, both by twin ghostly boys, and a terrifying old lady (Rena Owen - Sirens TV series) who seem to want him and his family to join them.

I've gotten to the stage today where I feel I could watch a movie about a static block of cheese and still find it a solid piece of escapism. Without a Body is not a fantastic movie, I have seen its ideas in plenty of places before, and I felt like there wasn't enough screen time given to really explore the things it brings up, but still, it was a distraction. The general set up may be familiar to Sinister but there are no real scares to be had here. The fact that Alex is there to write a book kind of fades into the background a bit, the first two thirds of the film revolve around him and his interactions with his daughters. A tragedy killed his wife in the recent past and so the older of the two sisters, Rachel has taken it upon herself to become a motherly figure to her younger sister. I felt that far too much time was dedicated to this part of the film as when things get crazy in the last half hour there is too much going on to satisfyingly bring the film to an effective conclusion. By the end there is plot twist after plot twist, each coming so hot on the heels of the other that there isn't enough time to properly integrate them. It became dizzying and almost farcical with the speed characters are having to react to changing situations.

The Pale Faced Lady (2019) - Short Horror Film Review

The Pale Faced Lady is a new short horror film from Jeff Payne (Michael Myers Versus Jason Vorhees) that takes place entirely as a narrated story. It reminded me a bit of Creepypastas in how it was set out. It was actually based on reality in a way, in that the idea came about due to a recurring nightmare about a ghostly woman Payne had while staying in an apartment.

A girl tells the story of how she came to be living in an old house that was inhabited by the ghost of a pale faced lady. Due to her young age her parents didn't believe her, the ghost sightings ramp up until tragedy strikes.

This was written, directed, and edited by Payne, his editing work on the amazing septeMber and octOber was impressive enough that I didn't think that aspect would suffer at all here. The story is a classic one, and that was the vibe going for in this desaturated ten minute short. It was full of traditional haunted house imagery such as dolls and creepy looking rooms. The stand out part was the lady herself, she is used sparingly enough but always looks freaky, especially the part when it shows her with a twisted grin looking out from an upstairs window.

The story itself was traditional and this did detract from the impact it had, there weren't any surprises even if it was told well. The directing was one area that never fully satisfied, there were one too many long shots of the camera rotating in place around a room, especially towards the end of this it started to make me feel a little queasy with all the spinning. This did have some great end credits though, the credits written on burnt up paper that then reformed in reverse looked great.

The Pale Faced Lady is a short made with the quality you would expect of Payne, especially with the editing. As a homage to classic ghost stories it did what it set out to do, though by doing this there wasn't really any surprises to be found.  This can be seen for free on YouTube so I will include it below for you to check out for yourself.

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The Rotting Zombie's Round-up of Horror News for July 2018

July has been a real tough month, I have been visited by an assortment of plagues, it seemed every other day something new and traumatic would rise up to beat me down. This all coincided with me deciding to reduce the amount of blog posts I did anyway. I had gotten into the habit of feeling the need to do at least twenty posts a month, but this was causing me no end of quality issues, going forward I have decided to just do three posts a week; I'm going to focus on quality over quantity. As a last note before I begin some of the more astute out there might notice that it is now August despite my header saying July, well that's all part of me taking more time to ensure quality of a moderate degree.

Ok then, starting off with the ever reliable Reel Nightmare Films who have debuted their 'horror shorts' anthology on Amazon Prime Video in the U.S and the U.K. Horror Shorts is made up of five bite size horrors. These include Awake in which a newly undead couple must deal with a threat hiding in the forest. Pig Man is about a couple, again in the woods, but who encounter someone or something known only as Pig Man. The Last Showing is a ghost story set in a theatre, Tujunga Horror Story is about a woman who moves into a new house to discover it seems to be haunted. Finally is He Takes and Returns which is about a family whose evening is ruined when a creature takes them away one by one.
Reel Nightmare Films have also released an additional nine horror shorts, they are Relentless Scoundrels, Secret Satan, Don't Go Home! She Knows!, Dr. Mandaru, Play Day, Who is Beverly, Ghost Blunders, The Audition and finally #Victim 505.

I mentioned the incoming arrival of free DLC for virtual reality video game ARK Park back in May and can now report it has came out. 'Pterosaur Hill' (which is built around the concept of flight) contains three new maps; 'Mountain Lake', 'Crystal Sky Lift', and 'Aviary'. I fully intend to record a playthrough of these new areas, especially seeing as I haven't been back on the game since an update was released to improve the graphics on the PSVR version.



I read the almighty Knuckle Supper and Knuckle Balled earlier this year and so when I got an email from author Drew Stepek about further developments I just had to mention what he said. Knuckle Supper is now available in audio format on YouTube. It is the full unabridged version and is read by Jason Hill who has a great voice for this type of story. The entire book is now up to listen to, I gave the book 10/10 and so I feel this audio version is well worth checking out, and to do so click here.
Staying on the subject of books with the release of Nightmare Gallery that is now available on Kindle on Amazon. This is a new book of horror poems from Daileas Duclo and he says of it "I based this collection on some of the darkest thoughts I've had. I stared into the headlong abyss of horror, suspense, and science fiction to find these beasts dancing along the periphery of my mind's eye."

With A Kiss I Die is a horror film described as a Shakespearean vampire romance and which is due for release on 28th August on a variety of digital formats. Set up as a sequel to Romeo and Juliet this puts forward the idea that after her death Juliet was changed into a vampire. 800 years later she again falls in love, this time with a young woman, but her new vampiric family disapproves. It is directed by Ronnie Khalil and stars Ella Kweku as Juliet.



Horror anthology Welcome to Hell has been acquired for release by Wild Eye Releasing and is due to come out on DVD on 9th October. This film consists of seven short films; After Hours, Dead Therapy, Family Time, Lucid, Maternal Instincts, Narrative, and Slit. There are some known names among the confirmed cast, such as the ever prolific Kim Sonderholm (Harvest, Little Big Boy: The Rise and Fall of Jimmy Duncan) and the intense Bill Oberst Jr (DIS, Coyote). This anthology can be pre-ordered in the US and Canada.
Talking of Bill Oberst Jr. the great make-up artist Jeff Farley (whose work has featured on such things as Babylon 5, Demolition Man and Pod) has recently completed the sculpt for him of Ray Bradbury. This prosthetic transformation is for the authorized stage portrayal of the author known as Ray Bradbury Live (forever). Ray Bradbury was well known for his science fiction and horror story collections with most his work being speculative fiction.

Drew Marvick's Pool Party Massacre is set to release on 17th August via Terror Films, it will be coming to digital platforms. It stars adult actress Alexis Adams, Sally Burnswell (Do Not Disturb), Nick Beyer (Popcorn Kill) amongst others. A bunch of young socialites find themselves at the mercy of an unknown killer at a pool party. 

The news continues with Hex Studios channel that premiered Kate Shenton's new web series Netfl!x and Kill. This has been described as 'Gogglebox with a horror twist'. This tells the story of a psychopath and his victim who spend all day watching television. This 8 part series started today on Hex Studio's YouTube channel with a new episode screening each week.

Haunted Tours: Episode 2 'I Killed Them' - Paranormal Reality TV Show News and Episode Review

In June of last year I first mentioned the paranormal investigation reality TV show Haunted Tours. I have seen quite a few of these shows in the past and usually not a lot happens in them, they are overproduced with tacky recreations and hyperbole. This one promised to be more extreme, but also more real in what it portrays.

The preview episode I watched was the second one in the series and had the group of Stephen Erkintalo (the investigator), Victoria Catherine (the host), Brian and Jake Jalbert (the cameramen), and producers heading to Ashley's Restaurant which is said to be haunted by two different spirits. One of the spirits was meant to be that of a frequent visitor to whatever it used to be in the 1800's who ended up brutally murdered, while another is that of a child who was killed by a train on the nearby railway tracks.

Over the course of the 45 minute episode Erkintalo does his best to get in contact with the spirits using any means necessary short of outright being aggressive to any nearby ghosts. His tools include a Ouija board that allegedly has human ashes and blood smeared on it, a spirit recorder, and using a mirror to try and bring forth spirits into the real world. He seems to be the wild card of the group in the disruptive energy he brings. He comes across as a risk taker designed to antagonise the other crew members with his actions, such as when he tells any spirits present they are welcome to harm the group, or when he decides to lay down on an in-use railway track in an attempt to cajole spirits into interacting with him.

The group dynamic isn't one of firm friends, instead you get the feeling of a unified goal but with different personalities rubbing against each other leading to a feeling of simmering, yet very mild tension. This felt more real due to the swearing the cast do, as well as the avoidance of those cheesy recreations I mentioned earlier. Yet being bare bones (though focusing on the entertaining stuff) not a lot really happens aside from people saying they feel a presence, or the spirit recorder occasionally making noises that could be inferred to be relevant to the case the group are studying. Sill this is all par for the course for these type of shows and I liked how the group keep referring to a previous episode which gives a good sense of flow and cohesion, whilst at the same time indicating that viewers can expect things to get more intense as the show progresses.

Haunted Tours may be going into a crowded market but it has enough to it that it fits in well, and it was nicely edited. Occasionally (at least in this episode) it felt like not enough was going on to maintain interest, but that was only on a couple of occasions. I liked the group dynamic of sceptics and believers as it gave a more balanced look at things, especially with some of the comments made about things they are doing. Haunted Tours is out on Amazon and has had some good reviews, you should check it out if you get the chance.

The Campus (2018) - Horror Film Review

It's funny how coincidental things in life can be, the last film I watched: Inoperable was about a woman trapped in a time loop, and now with director and writer J.Horton's The Campus we have a movie in which a woman finds herself also trapped in a time loop. I will repeat what I said then in that I really enjoy films with this type of concept. With this one we have something that feels like an eighties trash flick but which has burst into existence in modern day. This is both a blessing and a curse, a blessing in terms of the sheer inventiveness and huge amount of blood and gore, a curse in that we have under developed characters, not least with the main lead Morgan (Rachel Amanda Bryant).

After her estranged father dies, his eldest daughter Morgan decides to break into the campus where he worked and steal the artifacts he owned. However after accidentally dripping blood onto an ancient wand (that the prologue showed the father discovering in a Mayan tomb) she finds herself trapped in a nightmarish time loop. She has five chances to find a way to stop the terror that has unfolded, but each time she fails she comes one step closer to the Devil taking her soul...

I enjoyed the places this went, at times The Campus feels like an anthology in the way that each 'life' Morgan gets comes with it a whole new host of obstacles and genre specific trials to face. She finds herself at the mercy of masked psychos, ghosts, zombies, demons, even getting attacked by a mannequin and a reanimated taxidermy animal at one point. These different repetitions of the same half hour or so always brought with them something different. One loop has her in a backwards world, another has her in the middle of a zombie apocalypse (obviously my personal favourite part), another has her slowly mutating. For me the plot wasn't strong enough to keep me engaged, but what did keep me engaged was waiting to see what would come next. The way she kept on getting killed of course reminded me of another time loop horror; Happy Death Day.

Insidious: The Last Key (2018) - Horror Film Review

I go more out of my way to try and avoid trailers nowadays, especially as they seem to have evolved to the stage where the entire film is shown in them. As such the release of the fourth Insidious film took me totally by surprise. I really enjoyed Insidious, it felt like a breath of fresh air at the time, however by the time 2013's Insidious: Chapter 2 came out the series was already starting to feel stagnant. My problem was that Lin Shaye's performance as Elise was the best thing about the series, and so to have her die straight away meant there wasn't really anywhere to go. That is except backwards with Insidious: Chapter 3 actually being a prequel, but one that again felt like it was towing the line and not really doing anything to stand out. Insidious: The Last Key is another prequel, this one is shoe horned directly before the very first film and features a lot of Lin Shaye which can only be a good thing.

Spirit medium Elise is contacted by a man who requests her help due to his house being haunted. This house turns out to be the childhood home she was raised in, and one in which as a child she was tricked into freeing a demonic force which proceeded to kill her mother. Returning to the place brings forth a lot of painful memories for Elise, but ones that will help her, and her lackeys: Tucker (Angus Sampson) and Specs (Leigh Whannell who also wrote this) find a way to right the wrongs of the past.

Much like the previous entry I went into this with my expectations not raised very high. Initially my low expectations were met, mainly due to being very tired and not really being in the mood for a cinema visit (second day in a row!). However I came to appreciate The Last Key, mainly due to having so much Elise who still remains the most interesting character of the whole series. I liked the fact that this time around the story was very much about her, sure the plot has her responding to a request for help but it is her past that gets explored. This is done by a couple of flashbacks, one when she is a small child and first discovering her gift of seeing the dead, a second one set when she is a teenager. I liked how these flashbacks were revisited during the film shedding new light on events both in the present and in the past.

Hotel Camarillo (2014) - Horror Documentary Review

I'm not sure I have ever reviewed a documentary on my blog before, so this may be the inaugural review for this type of media. Hotel Camarillo is a 65 minute documentary about the Camarillo State Mental Hospital in California and it mainly focuses on what ghost hunters have documented about the place over the years. Currently it is a university (I believe) with the old wards of the notorious mental home slowly being changed into dorm rooms and other such places.

I do enjoy documentaries about haunted places but I have to confess I am a huge sceptic when it comes to real life cases of ghosts and other paranormal goings on, though to quote the iconic poster from The X-Files 'I want to believe' but until I see proof with my own two eyes I can't help but feel like an outsider. This didn't take away from my enjoyment of this documentary though, the many people interviewed, many of them ghost hunters all seem like they really do believe in the existence of ghosts. All the interviewees talk about what they experienced in a matter of fact way and there is the evidence they have recorded to back it up. I did love the sense of rivalry the different groups had with each other, such as one funny moment when someone is apologising for not cleaning up the flour they had spread on the floor in one of the rooms (to try and get evidence of ghostly footprints). It sounded like this type of rivalry would make for an entertaining film.

We Go On (2016) - Horror Film Review

Currently my inbox is flooded with requests to watch films, and so I have been slightly neglecting actually watching films of my own volition. After being nagged at by a friend on the issue of making sure I make time to watch new horrors (that are eligible for the Fright Meter Awards of which I am a committee member of) I decided today would be the day I headed out on my own, and watch something of my choosing. As We Go On was on Shudder, and a contender for the 2017 awards I chose that movie, and I am kind of glad I did.

Clark Freeman stars as Miles; a man who has lived his life scared of everything due to his fear of dying, a fear that he gained after the tragic death of his father when he was a child. One day Miles decides to face his fear head on, he places an ad in the local paper offering $30,000 for anyone who can prove to him without a doubt that an afterlife exists. Of the hundreds of replies he receives he whittles down the list to just a handful of plausible people, and along with his sceptical mother Charlotte (Annette O'Toole) heads out to meet them to see if they can give him the proof he desires. However after discovering the answer he seeks he soon begins to wish he hadn't...

Teenage Ghost Punk (2014) - Ghost Film Review

I had a very long day at work in my day job and so I really didn't feel like sitting down to watch a film for review. However my list is long and so I decided to see Teenage Ghost Punk (written and directed by Mike Cramer), and boy am I glad I did. This is a feel good movie in every sense of the word, for the entire hour and a half run time I was sat with the biggest grin on my face, it really cheered up my day.

Teenage Amanda (Grace Madigan), her young brother Adam (Noah Kitsos), and their recently divorced mum Carol (Adria Dawn) move to a new town to have a new start. After a series of strange events Amanda starts to suspect their new home is haunted, and it turns out it is. Brian (Jack Cramer); a ghost of a teenage punk who died in the 1980's haunts the building and soon him and Amanda start to hit it off, but with ghost hunters and a spirit medium in the area is this new love doomed to fail?