Castlevania: The Adventure (1989) - Horror Videogame Review (Gameboy)

I always love Castlevania games (with the exception of Castlevania 2 that I struggled to get into) so when I saw Castlevania: The Adventure on the Nintendo eShop, a game I had not played, I had to get it!

Much like pretty much all the other games in the series this one sees you as a Belmont (family of vampire hunters) who must infiltrate to the heart of Dracula's castle and kill him once again. To do this you battle through stages fighting monsters and avoiding traps as you go.

There is a far greater reliance on traps here than pretty much any other Castlevania game I have played. Spikes in particular are your greatest hazard, spike pits, moving spike walls, collapsing platforms all attempt to take your life. Enemies are kind of sparse, you get plenty of rolling eyeballs, and fireball spitting snakes but other than that there is not much more after you. A gargoyle first appears as a boss and later a common enemy, while boomerang throwing enemies can cause strife.

The game looks crisp and clean on the 3DS, though back on the original Gameboy it would have been less smooth. It is also really quite hard (though difficulty is removed when you are able to save anywhere). Your character moves agonisingly slow, and the speed reduces even more when too many objects on screen cause terrible slow down. The simplest of jumps are made a nightmare as it is so easy to overestimate how far Belmont can jump, he can jump forward about a millimetre, not fun to control. He attacks with a whip which can be upgraded to double strength, and is able to take damage to walk through irritating enemies.

At just four levels Castlevania: The Adventure is quite short, I did expect this though as the Gameboy is not exactly the most powerful handheld. Backgrounds are for the most part sparse but thankfully the music is quite ace. If your a fan of Castlevania games this is worth a try, but if your not then there is little to recommend here.

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After... (2006) - Horror Film Review

I knew when I picked up a load of cheap horrors the decision might come back to bite me, but hey, it was three films for £5, a bargain I thought. You can always tell how popular a film is by the number of images on Google...this one, After... had just the one.

After... sounded kind of interesting, though a tad similar to The Tunnel. Three thrill seekers who are into 'urban exploration' decided to head to Moscow to explore Stalin's mythical Metro-2 subway system. After getting into it they soon become hunted by soldiers in biohazard suits, mingle with hordes of radiation infused homeless people, and take part in their very own music video, while 'artsy' flashbacks give insight into the main characters past.

Nate is most definitely the main protagonist, his wife Adrian, and her brother Jay are nearly background characters, is kind of a shame as Nate is such a miserable person. This film is like one huge music video, or a bad acid trip put on camera. The soundtrack is by The Crystal Method and it has to be said is very good. What is not so good is how the film seems to be cut and spliced to fit in with the music. Lots and lots of strobe lighting, extreme close ups and shaky camera work. I very nearly stopped watching after just a few minutes as the shaky extreme close ups were giving me motion sickness. Unfortunately the crew does not seem able to resist inserting handheld camera shots every couple of seconds, irritating and unneeded.

The Metro setting is cool in theory but in practice like The Tunnel it just seems to be a variety of boring looking underground corridors. A Jacob's Ladder style influence is apparent though in this film. Everywhere Nate goes in the underground he sees glimpses of an eyeless man in a baseball cap, who (spoiler!) it turns out had some dark link to his past. Slowly going crazy Nate seems aimless, the two with him don't really comment on anything of note. The flashbacks at least take away from the darkness.

Later on the film just goes crazy in a strange way, not a particularly interesting way. When people die they seem to disintegrate, Nate starts literally warping around to different places, and there is only so many times the film can force the obvious twist down your throat before you just say 'enough already, I get it!' After all that the film just ends, no resolution.

Someone on the internet (I cannot recall who) said that if After... had been a four minute music video it would have worked, but as a near eighty minute film it runs out of steam far far too soon, I totally agree with that statement.

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Pet Sematary Two - Zombie Horror Film Review

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

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

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

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

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

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An Elegant Solution to a Zombie Outbreak - Zombie Picture

Now I don't know who created this pro zombie message but it just displays everything wrong with society! Zombies should be killed, not fed, sure the carrot on a stick routine will stop them going after humans for a while but what if they fall over? Or what if two zombies bump into each other and eat each others brains? The biggest and most sinister question is this; where are they getting the brains from for the contraption? Everyone knows zombies crave fresh human brains so are people being forced to give up their lives to sate the zombie threat? A nightmare vision of a place I do not want to exist in!

Final Destination 3 (2006) - Horror Film Review

Goodness gracious great balls of fire, despite not thinking Final Destination 3 was fantastic it still had me legitimately crying with fear at the end, one thing these films always get right is the really obvious, yet really sinister twist endings. Many people moan about the Final Destination films saying they are nothing more than torture porn, but I have always enjoyed them, they are different (from other films, not from each other!).

Wendy (played greatly by the pretty Mary Elizabeth Winstead) has a premonition that the roller coaster ride her and her friends are about to get on crashes and kills all the passengers, in her panic an altercation occurs and many of the passengers end up getting kicked off by security. The coaster does crash killing the remaining teens, including Wendy's boyfriend, and best friend. Along with the assistance of her friend of a friend Kevin she comes to realise that something like this has happened before (the events of Final Destination specifically talked about). She discovers that all the survivors are going to die in the order they were supposed to if they had been on the ride. She has clues in the many photos she had taken before the ride as each of the survivors is shown in a picture in a situation which has clues to their death, including herself and Kevin. Soon the survivors are being killed in accidents one by one and Wendy must find a way to cheat deaths revenge.

The deaths are again the big draw and they don't disappoint. The initial roller coaster disaster is muted in that you don't really see how anyone is killed but the revenge deaths makeup for this, sunbeds roasting people alive, weights crushing someones skull, and a nail gun doing nasty stuff to someones face; all are nasty to see, and darn entertaining. The plot even for a Final Destination seems a bit weak, really a rehash of ones which has gone before. I would love it if one day there is a satisfying resolution rather than death truly being inescapable. Winstead is very good as the slowly going insane Wendy and is forever crying but not in an annoying way. Other characters are the usual teen idiots, jocks, losers, and nobodies so you never really care about them making their deaths more enjoyable.

As I said, I did cry with fear at the end, just knowing what is likely to happen, as well as the creepy as hell photos that hide clues until they are re seen. The Final Destination films are fun. The DVD includes an alternate version of the film where you get to choose key choices which influence how the film plays out. There is even an option you can choose that ends the film fifteen minutes in with a humorous epilogue telling you what happened to the survivors. An awesome idea, and one planned well in advance.

You know what to expect coming into Final Destination 3, if you like these films then is worth watching, if you don't then  this is really not going to change your mind.

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Resistance 3 - Horror Videogame Review (Playstation 3)

Originally touted as a killer exclusive title for the PS3 the first Resistance game proved to be really not very good or fun at all. Resistance 2 was a vast improvement, gone were the frustrating battles and instead Call of Duty style set pieces were the order of the day. Because of the big improvement I was expecting Resistance 3 to be more of the same really, and I was not disappointed, this really is the Call of Duty of Sci-fi horrors.

As Nathan Hale was (spoiler!) killed at the end of the second game this time you play as a different protagonist, and thankfully a more likable one.  This time around you are Joe Capelli; the man who killed Hale. Set 4 years after the last game you are in a small community of people hiding out against the Chimeran threat. The arrival of an invasion force leads to your settlement being destroyed, you discover that Hale rather than made things better accidentally created a worm hole above New York that links to the Chimeran home world. A scientist seeks you out convinced you are the man to escort him to New York so the worm hole can be destroyed.

The story is again pretty terrible, your whole motivation for going on this stupid suicide mission is that your wife made you, very selfish of her! Again the levels are full of set pieces and various American locations such as Oklahoma, Missouri, Pennsylvania and of course New York. Each of the locations is vastly different in look and have their own self contained stories. You descend into the mines of a religious mining town to battle a monster the locals call 'Satan', you get incarcerated in a prison complex run by a horde of cannibal former inmates, you ride a boat through flooded St Louis pursued by giant monsters; all very different. The prison complex level was the biggest highlight, the games first inclusion of human enemies with things turning slightly into a Condemned style experience as you fight prisoners up close with a sledge hammer.

The weapons are better than ever, and level up with repeated use, my favourite by far was the shotgun which set enemies on fire, also a cool weapon was a bio gun that turned enemies into piles of bubbling gloop. The freeze ray was kinda fun but not very practical while favourites such as the gun that can fire through walls, and the gun that can lock onto enemies return.

There are not really a lot of new enemy types, but there are already so many this was not a problem. The cannon fodder Chimerans, hulking beasts, shield protected robots, and the grims (the games version of zombies) all appear in huge numbers. Again health packs are the order of the day, and are usually enough of them that it doesn't distract from the fun. One annoyance I did have was that you click the right thumb stick to melee attack but often my character would mid firing do a melee attack as if I had pressed in the thumb stick when I had not. Also, the last levels set in New York are kind of bland it has to be said and brought to mind the worst levels of Resistance 1 and 2. There are not the crazy huge set pieces such as the amazingly tall monster of 2 but some such as the train attack and mine beast journey are still a lot of fun.

Resistance 3 tries to make you care more about the humans, at a few points you are free to wander small settlements but the interaction is minimal and I usually ended up skipping through these pretty quickly, also the notes you can collect are really boring to read, Bio-shock has proved that collectible things can be interesting.

All in all another fun game that is worth a play.  The story is awful but the pacing is good, and apart from the last few levels shows a lot of variety.

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The Walking Dead - Episode 3: Long Road Ahead - Zombie Horror Videogame Review

I am always excited when a new episode of The Walking Dead appears but after the last episode I could not see how this one could be better, surely there were no more tricks it could use to put me in tough situations. How wrong I was...

Long Road Ahead starts with the group still holed out at the Motel. Pretty soon though something happens which forces them to flee. The rest of the episode is a road trip as the gang set out on their way to Savannah where they hope to find a boat to freedom.

Wow is all I can say, this is a real downer of an episode. Where episode 1 set up the premise, and episode 2 was a self contained grisly thriller this episode is bleak as all hell with the opportunity for many of your group to die. As I have said before no one is safe no matter how key you think they may be to the game. The main part of Long Road Ahead involves a train, simple puzzles revolve around working out how to get it to start. Story wise a lot of exposition is given, while the arrival of a few new characters keeps things interesting. Your group are not innocents, all (with the exception of the kids) have shades of grey to them. Your relationship with Clementine is really still one of the best things in the series, it makes you genuinely want to protect the little kid.

Despite it still being an awesome game it is not as good as the previous episode, the puzzle bits are a tad annoying due to lots of back tracking while there is certainly a lot of action, and some real tough decisions (an early one saw you given the chance of shooting a bitten survivor, or leaving her as she is distracting the zombies with her screaming). One thing which did annoy me was that there were a few time sensitive actions you had to do when it just was not obvious where about on screen you should be clicking, one particular frustrating times was a fight with someone, I got beaten to pieces as I just could not work out how to defend myself until it was too late (apparently rather than punching the guys face I was supposed to have clicked on his fist).

I am looking forward yet again to the next episode, a late plot update made sure of that. Plenty of action, plenty of zombies, and lots of sorrow creates yet another great The Walking Dead tale.

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Death Note/Death Note: The Last Name (2006) - Horror Film Reviews

Having recently watched the Death Note anime I thought it was high time I watched the film adaptation again. The story was split into two separate films and even with a running time of around four and a half hours a lot has had to be missed out.

As mentioned in my poor review of the anime (here) Death Note is about a bright young student who discovers a note book with the power to kill people just by writing their name in it. The student; Light Yagami decides to use it to make the world a better place but in doing so leads the worlds greatest detective; a shadowy figure known only as 'L' to hunt him down. The events in the film are quite different to the show, it seems it is far more based on the manga (which I have only partly read).

Playing Light is Tatsuya Fujiwara (of Battle Royale and Battle Royale II: Requiem fame), he fits the role well, but much like other portrayals of Light he comes across as evil, leading me again to question why no one apart from L really believes he is Kira. Ken'ichi Matsuyama plays L and actually looks very similar to the character. I don't really like the forced kookiness of L so again was not keen on him, but is well acted. It is a shame that the members of the police squad tasked to capture Kira are pushed to the sidelines a lot here with the exception of Light's father, and rookie detective Matsuda who like the anime and manga is virtually a pure comedy character.

While it can feel a bit rushed this is still a decent adaptation which looks like it had a high budget. The Gods of Death look kinda awful being computer generated but is a small price to pay, and far from the worst CGI I have seen (think that was the giant snake in Python). I learned from this film that it is really quite hard to make a heart attack victim look any good. A lot of people die of heart attacks in this film with a variety of over acting, and lack of spectacle. Of course it was easier in the anime to make these deaths look good (such as the one where a guy falls off a building and through a skylight) as is far cheaper to make.

The film is different enough that it really is worth watching, I really enjoyed it, the length allows it to build up characters and though quite lacking on action entertains throughout never getting boring. Key events from the anime appear but awesome new scenes such as the first film's finale in an art gallery (probably taken from the manga) bring some great surprises. Being Japanese there are subtitles which for the most part are good, especially given the amount of text that also needed translating. Some lines are poorly translated though and made me want to marker pen my TV to correct them!

If you are too lazy to watch the fantastic anime, too poor to afford the billion manga's or just want to see what the fuss is all about these are the perfect films to watch.

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Lollipop Chainsaw - Zombie Horror Videogame Review (X-Box 360)

Suda 51 is one of my favourite game developers, he has a string of cult classics to his name including Killer 7, No More Heroes, Flower, Sun and Rain as well as Shadows of the Damned. His teams latest game Lollipop Chainsaw is all about zombies so I just had to pick it up!

High School cheerleader Juliet Starling arrives at School (San Romero High) on her 18th Birthday to discover the place is over run with the walking dead. Rather than panic though she gets out a chainsaw from a duffel bag she is carrying. It turns out her and her family are a secret gang of zombie killers (quite convenient!).  Heading into the mass of zombies she searches for her boyfriend but comes across him just as he is bitten. Rather than have him become a zombie she lops his head off and using magic saves his life (well saves his heads life). Wearing her boyfriend's head on a key chain around her waist she heads further into the school to find out what has caused the outbreak.

Lollipop Chainsaw reminded me a lot of the Onechanbara games, except where they got boring due to constant repetition this one always mixes things up so your not constantly just fighting. Suda 51's sense of humour is in abundance, Nick (Juliet's bodiless boyfriend) in particular is a highlight, struggling to cope with not only being just a head, but also having no control over where he goes due to being attached to his girlfriend. The zombies can talk and often throw vulgar insults and threats at Juliet, one line in particular that stuck with me due to it's unexpectedness was when a random zombies shouts "I want to f**k your Dad!". The game is full of swearing and innuendo, one boss even uses swear words as a weapon, when ever he swears his words physically materialise and hurtle towards you (doing a Q.T.E while avoiding 'C**ksucker!' also stuck in the mind).

Talking of bosses they really influence a lot of the game. Main antagonist (the cause of the zombie outbreak) has summoned 5 super zombies to the Town, each in a different area, and each based on a different musical genre (punk, viking metal, psychedelia, disco boogie, and rock and roll). Not only does this affect the background music of the stage, but also how the levels play out. The Viking Metal level for instance has plenty of rain and lightning, as well as a Viking long ship, the psychedelia level has magic mushrooms that make you hallucinate, and whose boss is a stoner hippy zombie.

Starting off with only a limited move set you can earn coins which can be used at online shops to purchase new combos, costumes, stat increases, art work and music. The zombies are varied and involve a number of different types, you have American football zombies, geek zombies, ones loaded with explosives, teacher zombies, as well as farmers, punks, and even giant chicken ones!

As mentioned there are a variety of different activities to break up the action. There is zombie basketball where you have to score by lopping zombies heads off into the net, zombie baseball where you have to protect Nick as he scores runs. Other activities include zombie combine harvesting, videogames (that you are part of) and students to rescue (needed if your to get the good ending). They are only ever fun once though, so when some reappear later on in the game they are not welcome due to increased difficulty. One big complaint also is the last level which just feels rushed compared to the solid feel of the rest of the game, a shame the level was not polished more as it leaves a bad impression. During the game you get phone calls from your (unlikable) family, these are all pretty rubbish to be truthful and I could have done without.

While more mainstream than his previous games Lollipop Chainsaw is a simple, fun, fun game that still keeps his style of weirdness, along with ultra violence, and plenty of random swearing and sexual references, and as always, it has zombies in it!

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Notable Horror appearances in videogames: Quackshot (Megadrive)

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

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

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

                                                                 

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

Death Note (2006-2007) - Horror Anime Review

I have long loved the Death Note anime, having first watched it back when it was originally aired in Japan. I remember tuning in weekly to watch the next exciting episode of this novel show. Now the DVD boxset has dropped in price I have finally been able to watch it once more, plus with the distance of years I can now put up with the English dubbed version which sounded terrible before as I was used to the Japanese (with subtitles of course, I am not that amazing!)

Death Note spookily enough revolves heavily around a Death Note (not 100% sure but the clue may have been in the title). A Death Note is a book of death that Gods of Death each posses (called Shinigami's). If a humans name is written in the Death Note then that person will die exactly forty seconds later unless specified otherwise. A bored Shinigami called Ryuk decides to drop his Death Note into the human realm to see what happens. The person who discovers the book is a highly intelligent yet bored high school student; Light Yagami. After discovering the power of the book he is at first horrified, but then comes to realise that with the tool he now owns he can wipe out all evil from the world, make it into the perfect place where crime does not exist.

The story of Death Note is really about how power corrupts. Starting off with the very best intentions Light slowly heads down a dark path, his goal to wipe out evil from the world starts to affect more and more innocent people. Light realises his plan involves him murdering thousands of people, and he accepts that fact for he sees a world without crime as the perfect ideal. The Yang to Lights Ying comes in the form of the worlds best detective; L, Lights opposite in every way except intellect. L is determined to get Kira (as people come to call the Death Note killer) and have him executed. Light meanwhile is out to find out L's real identity and kill him. To use the Death Note you must know the person you want to kills name as well as what they look like, this leads to lots of clever twists and turns as Light and L constantly battle against each other.

At thirty seven episodes a lot happens, so much in fact that the show feels split into three different parts. Part 1 involves the battle between Light and L, this is to be honest the most exciting of the episodes as the rules of the Death Note are firmly established as is the intense rivalry between the two. The middle episodes turn far more light hearted with Light's love interest Misa in particular being animated in a comedy way with lots of exaggerations that feel kinda out of place in such a usually serious but exciting show. It wraps up with a far more serious end with suspicion intensified as the net appears to be closing in on Light.

Death Note is such an exciting and cerebral show, with many people split on who actually is on the path of true justice; L who sees Kira as nothing more than an evil serial killer, and Kira who sees L as someone trying to protect criminals from meeting their deserved fates.

The soundtrack is very good, and it all is really well drawn and directed. It really takes it's time with some episodes, one of my favourite episodes is a twenty minute discussion between Light and a woman who has evidence to reveal Kira's identity. Light is desperate to trick the woman to give him her real name and a tense time is had as he manipulates her for this information.

This is not a good review! But is practice for when I review the Death Note films (arrived in the post today). This is really such a clever, unique and thrilling show, sure the English voice dubs are nowhere near as good as the original Japanese voice actors but with distance that doesn't matter. My main complaints are firstly that it always seems super obvious that Light is the bad guy, it really seems silly at times how the people around him don't see what he really is. Secondly at thirty seven episodes it does drag a bit, the last part in particular seems to be there just for length, and again as mentioned some of the voice acting is not fantastic. Still damn worth a watch.

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Zombie Gnomes - A photo from the wild

Garden Gnomes are really strange things to keep I think. Zombie Garden Gnomes I can imagine would be fun to boot, but on the flip side could probably find ways to invade your house that larger zombies would be unable to. Thanks again to the special person who sent me this in...

It - Horror Film Review

A friend recommended I watch this film so that I could see why clowns are creepy. Having watched it I can confirm that yes, the painted folk are now being seen in a more sinister light! Originally this was made as a 2 part TV series (based on the book by Stephen King) which I was surprised to see due to the quality of it all, though I guess that does account for why the film is very long (3 hours).

In 1960 a rash of murders and disappearances of children in the small Town of Derry, Maine has the Towns people worried. After Ben Denburgh's brother Georgie is found dead in a storm drain he starts to hallucinate of an evil clown who calls itself 'Pennywise' (played fantastically by the legend Tim Curry). Soon his friends (a bunch of misfits who call themselves 'The Loser's Club') all encounter the clown as well who taunts and teases them. Deciding that it is up to them to defeat 'It' as adults are unable see the clown or the hallucinations, they head to the sewers were it resides. After a battle It is defeated and the kids make a pact that if the monster should ever return they will come back to defeat it again.
30 years later after a new spate of murders and disappearances, the sole member of The Loser's Club to remain in Derry (Mike Hanlon) contacts the scattered group to fulfil the vow they once made.

This is a good film, very enjoyable and has some great special effects. It (usually seen in its Pennywise the clown form) is a great villain though he does seem a bit cowardly when you take into account that he only goes after children, and even then only if they are alone. As the characters state many times during the movie It seems to be afraid of children as much as it want to eat them, hiding it's fear behind the mask of a cruel, vindictive clown. It has also to be said that it is kinda lame seemingly unable to physically hurt the children unless they are near it's lair, as a result it's hallucinations it causes are unsettling but overall harmless. At times these scenes felt like they were ripped straight out of A Nightmare on Elm Street except they usually end with the tormented kid running off rather than being brutally killed. Regardless of that though these scenes are all vastly different and entertaining, a kid being menaced by showers, exploding balloons full of blood, seeing dead family members, and more keep it all fresh.

The first half of the film sets up the back story and introduces the seven friends. It is clever in the way it mixes flashbacks with the 30 years later stuff, usually a flashback will involve one of the main characters standing in a pose which then melds to an image of their younger self holding the exact same pose. It gives you more of a connect to make it seems more like the adult and the child actors are playing the same characters which is sometimes lacking in films that deal with different time periods.

While the film is not scary there is no denying that Pennywise is very creepy, he steals the scenes he appears in and has a Freddy Kruger style malicious playfulness to him that fits the character well. I was pleased that there is no explanation of just what It is, or how it came to be either, makes your imagination work harder! Acting on the whole is very good, and the children and their adult counterparts all look quite a like. It's running time may be quite long but the film never once dragged, mainly down to the sheer likability of the group of friends which is helped by the length of the thing which gives them time to develop. One huge fault is the seemingly tacked on love interest story between grown up Ben and his wife. There is zero chemistry between the two actors, and a side plot that involves the wife following Ben back to Derry is just not needed as it brings nothing to the film.

My writing mojo has left me for the moment as you can probably tell but regardless watch It, is a horror classic. As a last note I feel I must mention due to this blog's name that a zombie does appear at one point.

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