The Rotting Zombie's News Anthology for Friday 18th April 2025

Another week, another trio of horror news stories. Not much to say other than life is flying by at a pace that is almost hard to keep up with, day bleeds into day and week bleeds into week in a dizzying way. Onwards to the news.

A third film in the Axeman At Cutter's Creek series is on the way, titled Axeman At Cutter's Creek: Absolution. I only saw the first, but I thought  that one impressed despite its obvious low budget, remember the axeman looking great. Once again directed by Joston Theney, this new film is going to star Nicole Alexander, Brittney Kade, Mindy Robinson, Hannah Hueston, Veronica Lavery, Morgan Bussler, with Michael Wayne Foster taking on the mantle of the titular Axeman this time around. There is currently an Indiegogo campaign running to get funds so the director can make the very best film he can, so check out the page to learn more.

Australian director Luke Sparke has released the first trailer for his upcoming prehistoric sci-fi horror Primitive War. Featuring Jeremy Piven (Old School), Tricia Helfer (Battlestar Galactica), Ryan Kwanten (True Blood) and Nick Wechsler (Revenge), this is about a recon unit who infiltrate an isolated jungle valley in search of a missing platoon.

Finally for today, The Fairfield County Four is an upcoming found footage werewolf film that is to star Joe Bob Briggs (The Last Drive-In). The story follows four internet personalities who go missing while working on an episode of their reality series - 'The Cryptid Project', with the only evidence as to what happened to them coming from recovered camera footage. This comes from director Joshua Brucker (Mothman).

It's Not A Wolf (2022) - Horror Film Review

It's Not A Wolf (also known as Non é un lupo) is an Italian horror film that comes from writer/director Nicoló Tagliabue. The protagonists may be taking things very seriously here, but the subject matter and some of the more comedic side characters mean much of this felt very tongue in cheek. Thankfully, the twist of what is causing the horror is something that is present on the movie posters, so I won't need to skirt around that very early reveal.

Glauco (Thomas Francesconi) has recently been released from prison and is under house arrest at his large house outside a rural Italian town. After his neighbours chicken's are all killed, she accuses Glauco of having done it, but it turns out there is a far more sinister explanation. That night, after hearing strange noises outside, Glauco encounters a dinosaur, and it isn't long before he realises it is the first of many that have inexplicably descended on the town. Teaming up with a new friend, Laura (Susanna Valtucci), they set out into the town, looking for somewhere to hide from the madness.

I'm not sure if it was down to budget constraints, or if it was purposeful on the part of the director, but there are some strange concessions to the flow of the film here that felt quite odd. By the time Glauco realises there is more than one dinosaur on the loose he is surrounded by a bunch of characters, yet cutting to the next scene it is suddenly much later, with him and Laura being in a different location entirely and on their own, with it assumed all the other characters have been killed. Much of the movie has just these two characters, later on joined by a third, local simpleton Davide (Nikolas Lucchini). Again later in the film a similar trick is used but in reverse. With just fifteen minutes left a whole bunch of characters are introduced randomly, with the protagonists even disappearing from the story for a time so that the film can follow these new characters. These moments disrupted the flow, I can only assume there were so few characters for much of the run time due to the budget (estimated to be around 15,000 Euros).
Some of these side characters felt like they would get their comeuppance at the claws of the dinosaurs as karma for their actions, yet mainly just disappear from the film with no resolution to their side plots. That includes the somewhat abrupt ending.

Both main characters treat the movie they are in as a serious thing. Rather than more ridiculous horror films like Birdemic and the like where the actors perform over the top seriously, here, the actors felt more grounded, even if they felt like the only serious characters in a ridiculous movie. This does lead to some fun moments, with the excitable Davide almost fourth wall breaking at times with his observations on what is happening. Adding to the fun silliness is the dinosaurs themselves. I say themselves, but despite this being a dinosaur outbreak (with not a single attempt made to explain how it happened), there is only the one dinosaur ever shown on screen, with the same guy in a suit popping up over and over to play the part of all the different ones encountered. Much of the film takes place at night, and the creature is never shown fully on screen, but even so it doesn't always look great. I see that as intentional though, as there is an obvious vein of humour running throughout It's Not A Wolf. Maybe not so good is the lack of much blood or gore, characters near entirely die off screen, the most we get is a bloodied man that the duo encounter.

I was looking forward to seeing this movie, and having now seen it I can say that it didn't really disappoint. With a more serious tone than expected (though still very silly at times), this Italian creature feature entertained, despite a few pacing issues. It's Not A Wolf is available now on Blu-ray from VIPCO and Bayview Entertainment.

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Jurassic Night (2019) - Short Horror Film Review

Andrea Ricca excels in making short sci-fi and horror films, many of them only a few minutes in length. At first glance they don't look great, featuring basic CGI and often telling a very similar story. Dig a little deeper and it becomes more impressive when you take into account that Ricca creates these almost completely by himself. Not only starring in the majority of them, but being responsible for the creation of the CGI and most other aspects.

In Jurassic Night there is an accident at a genetics company, resulting in the dinosaurs they had created getting loose. A man (Ricci) discovers this, and soon arms himself with a pistol and brings the fight to the escapees, taking on raptors, and even a T-Rex as he does so.

This is two and a half minutes of madness, with the nonplussed man fighting a variety of Playstation 2 era computer generated dinosaurs. These creatures never look like they fit into the real world they inhabit, and there is some lighting issues on them that make them stand out even more. Also the plot is a comfortable one, seen in many of his other films such as Spider Danger, Aliens Night and The Giant Scorpion. With Ricca's films you come to expect this though, it is part of the charm for this self created style of movies he makes. The D.I.Y attitude cannot help but be charmful, there is something endearing about watching these, that are always made to entertain first and foremost. I could watch these all day.

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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.

Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom (2018) - Horror Film Review

I have bad memories when I think of Jurassic World, whenever anyone asks my opinions on it I state it was trash and that I couldn't stand the characters. I was surprised then to see I had given it a 7/10, and so while Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom is a much better film than that one it perversely has the same score. As an added admittance I am extremely tired both as I watched the film and as I write this review, so apologies if it seems particularly poorly written.

It has been four years since the disaster on the island that was home to Jurassic World and in that time the dinosaurs have been left alone. However a volcano long thought dormant has become active again and unless they get help the dinosaurs are going to become extinct once again. Claire (Bryce Dallas Howard - Jurassic World, Black Mirror) is recruited by the current owner of the dinosaur franchise; Eli Mills (Rafe Spall - The Ritual) to help try and rescue the creatures before they are wiped out, he plans to rescue as many as possible and take them to a protected area where they can live in peace. Claire recruits ex raptor tamer Owen (Chris Pratt - Jurassic World) to help, as Eli in particular wants to save Blue; the last surviving raptor. Not everything is as it seems though and soon Claire, Owen and a few others find themselves in a battle to stop the creatures being sold on the black market as living weapons...

The best thing about Fallen Kingdom is that there are no super irritating children. The characters of Zach and Gray ruined every single scene they appeared in before, here thankfully they are gone. This is a much more serious film in that it manages to claw back some dignity that the overly family friendly previous film lost. Around two thirds of the movie takes place at night in the rain which couldn't help but bring back memories of Jurassic Park. There was a bit of a bluff with the trailer in that it appeared that the whole movie would be the volcano on the island, in actuality this island section is only the first third of the two hour film. The main part centres around a large mansion...Resident Evil with dinosaurs instead of zombies? Almost if you squint your eyes it is. Meandering I was for a bit, my older point regarding the children is that there is one here who has quite an integral part. Isabella Sermon plays Maisie who is the grandchild of John Hammond's (the owner from the first trilogy) brother. She is a lot less irritating than the 'hilarious' comedy duo from before and so she worked a lot better.

Jurassic World (2015) - Fantasy Film Review

So I finally got around to watching Jurassic World recently, going into it my expectations were low but I hoped that based on the rave reviews it has been getting everywhere that I would be proven wrong.

Set 22 years after the catastrophe that struck the original dinosaur theme park; Jurassic Park a new park was built on the same island, this time called Jurassic World, and this one is actually running successfully. In order to keep visitor numbers high a new attraction has been created; a genetically engineered super dinosaur that is even bigger than the fearsome T-Rex. Unfortunately this new intelligent dinosaur soon predictably escapes its enclosure at the north end of the island and it is down to the employees of Jurassic World (including Chris Pratt as Owen) as well as evil company Ingen to hunt down and destroy the monster before it reaches the resort area at the south of the island where thousands of people are gathered oblivious to the doom that is heading for them.

Starting off mention has to go to the two children who find themselves stealing a far too big a chunk of screen time. First is Zach (Nick Robinson) who plays a moody, brooding stereotypical teen but he pales in comparison to his younger brother Gray who is intensely irritating and is made up of 90% stupid haircut. Every single time I saw this kid I wanted to dive into the cinema screen and punch him, him and his brother both were the Jar Jar Binks of Jurassic World, they go on zany adventures and you just know that nothing bad whatsoever is going to happen to them. In fact out of the main characters barely any good one dies, the body count is made up mostly of nameless goons from what I recall.

Of the other characters, well Chris Pratt is ok here, but the female lead Claire (Bryce Dallas Howard) manages to last the whole film wearing high heels, even managing to outrun a T-Rex at one point while wearing the damn things, so stupid! To be fair though her characters arc over the duration of the film was actually quite good. A lot of the characters here are wise cracking film types, none seem like fully fleshed out characters really, and yes, some of the wise cracks and one liners did actually make me laugh out loud, even the irritating kid made me laugh at a few points.

Onto the dinosaurs themselves; I have not seen the original films for quite some time but I remember being blown away at the time by the depictions of these prehistoric beasts, now, and maybe it is due to this being the fourth in the series but the dinosaurs didn't really inspire any sort of awe in me. I remember as a kid going to watch Jurassic Park at the cinema with my parents, the scene with the T-Rex in the rain stuck in my mind as being scary, not in a fearful way, but in an exciting sense, full of tension and drama. Now maybe it is because I'm now older but there were no even remotely scary parts in this film, there was no misery, no horror, the film as a whole had far more of a family movie type vibe to it with jokes and sunshine never being too far away. The new super dinosaur doesn't have much impact on screen, not helped that he is hardly ever seen, I get that to build up suspense at first you would not show him fully, but when at the films conclusion you still hardly even witnessed him much then something has gone wrong.

On the other side of the coin are the raptors and T-Rex, these fearsome creatures were pretty much the dinosaur based bad guys of the first few film but here they have been nerfed to the point where you may as well call them good guys. The raptors have been trained from birth to follow Owen's commands which was a cool idea admittedly, but the T-Rex just briefly appears, does his bit then vanishes again without causing any trouble to the humans.

As a sequel Jurassic World is decent as it does reference the first film a lot, even going back to previous locations from that film which I really enjoyed, as did I enjoy the nostalgic reworked classic theme tune that played every now and again, the films score was not bad at all, the FX are also decent enough though there is a strange lack of blood when people getting eaten, nothing special but it did its job. It strangely sometimes feel like a remake; a theme park where the dinosaurs escape, two children lost in the chaos, dodgy Ingen and research being stolen are all familiar themes. There was a lot of stupidity with this movies plot, but it was purposeful so is not fair to hold that against it.

I think my problem is that I went in hoping for more of a horror film and instead got a family film. This is my fault as it was never going to be horror but I still felt a bit deflated, maybe my memories are rose tinted, I shall have to re watch the previous one to find out. There are some quite exciting sequences here; I loved the huge dinosaur fight that takes place, and one of the death scenes was pretty fun, but overall it was sadly pretty much what I thought it would be.

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