Wasteland (2013) - Zombie Horror Film Review

The fourth film to be shown at the UK Festival of Zombie Culture 2013 was Wasteland in its world premiere. Out of all the films this was the best one in my opinion. It was described as very bleak before hand but it does actually have a ray of hope shining through. It was made better by the fact the cast and crew were sitting a few rows down from me which was cool.

After zombie Armageddon starts in Britain Scott and the love of his life; girlfriend Beth head out to the remote countryside where they hole up in a shack hoping to escape the worst of it. Worried about her London based family Beth leaves on a mission to find out if they are ok. Holding on to hope that Beth will one day return Scott remains at the shack, his only contact with the outside world being a short range radio with which once a day he communicates with a fellow survivor. As long as there is a chance his love will return he will not leave the shack.

Wasteland was made with apparently a very low budget and is a character piece, mostly focusing on Scott Miller (played wonderfully by Shameer Madarbakus) and his day to day life scavenging for supplies. His clothes are in tatters, his home is in a terrible state, and he has to deal with the ever present threat of zombies even out in the middle of nowhere yet he has hope with much of his time spent reminiscing about Beth. This is shown via a series of flash backs that help break up the present and give you an insight into what his mindset is like.

For much of the 90 odd minutes running time it is all low key, Scott does battle zombies but he does not usually go out of his way to do so. His view being that people who try to be heroes die, there are a few action sequences though that do ramp up the excitement where he proves himself to be a capable foe of the undead when he has reason to. Other characters are few and far between, the majority undeveloped and sharing brief screen time. Scott's radio friend was my favourite, just a voice yet essential as a way to show Scott's inner thoughts without going into long monologues too often. Also the voice has a great little story of it's own going on that reminded me of audio diaries from horror videogames. Wasteland is clever in helping build up an impression of Beth as this wonderful being yet the reality may not be as angelic; clues such as her leaving Scott in the middle of the night without telling him and leaving a mysterious letter for him point to the fact that everything we see and hear for a lot of the film is just Scott's perspective.

For all it's low key approach it is a shame that the need was felt to create an explosive action packed finale that felt at odds with the rest of the film. The use of green screen for a stunt didn't look that great but with the low budget that's understandable, but the plot point that saw an uncommon object just happening to be in an everyday place as if that was the most normal thing in the world completely ripped me out of the experience as it felt so 'filmy', a shame.

Despite what I saw as a weak ending I still really enjoyed Wasteland thanks to some decent locations used, a solid story and great acting by Madarbakus. As usual for this week guest blogger Lucinda will be providing a second opinion.

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Second Opinion:

Out of all the films that I saw this was by far my favourite. Madarbakus was amazing and played his role so well, considering he was alone for about 85% of the time so he had to be strong. I loved how Beth was put on this pedestal by him, yet the reality of her isn't the greatest. It was beautifully written and acted and was a complete and utter pleasure to watch. As soon as it's released I demand that you see it. You will not be disappointed!

Zombie Hood (2013) - Zombie Horror Film Review

Zombie Hood was the second film I saw at the UK Festival of Zombie Culture 2013. This was filmed in Nottingham for an estimated budget of £7,000. I don't know if the title was a reference to the Kidulthood films but both feature angry, violent teens so it sure felt like it (switching on the brain for a moment though it is far more likely it is a play on Robin Hood). Guest blogger Lucinda will be giving her opinion after the review.

Zombie Hood starts off in a night club in Nottingham city centre where a girl assumed to have had too much to drink instead turns out to be a zombie; attacking other clubbers in the toilets before security arrive to deal with her and also get attacked. Olly Murs lookalike Rik (Richard Lee O'Donnell) rescues a girl and together they leave. Meanwhile the zombie outbreak is in full swing, all over the city people are turning into the walking dead. A disparate group of survivors including troubled teen Sam, creepy old man Bill, Police Officer Dermott, and a little girl among others decide the woods outside the city are the best place to hide out until help arrives.

The initial outbreak in a crowded night club was a good idea, I really enjoyed that part, but for me the later change of setting to woods (which I imagine was due to budget constraints more than anything) really dulled the experience. Having been to Nottingham it was fun to see a film set there, not so much some non-descript woods that could have been anywhere in the world is all I'm saying. Some allusions to Robin Hood what with the woods being Sherwood Forest and all, but still not exciting.

Onto dear old Bill (played by Harry Keeling). Now Bill is first found hanging out down an alleyway, most likely in a seedy part of town, he calls over a little girl and offers her sweets. This somehow gets him a pass to the wood hangout where he gains another girl "I gotta look after my girls!" to paraphrase one of his Bill-isms. After a request for more sweets when some of the survivors head off to a pub to have a hilarious desperate fight with some zombies over a box of crisps he then has an accident off screen in which he somehow hurts his bottom (never stated exactly what happened) and spends the rest of the film in a wheelchair conveniently brought back from the ill fated Battle of the Snacks. While his inclusion does outright stop Zombie Hood being a true horror it does make the film a joy to watch at times with the whole is he/isn't he paedophile sub-plot going on that is fun for the very reason that I am almost certain it was accidental.

Other characters do not fare so well. For some reason there are far too many side stories going on. The film frequently goes to a new set of characters and follows them around for a bit before they usually end up getting killed. This just led to confusion for me, and I did get a bit lost with just who everyone was. A more focused tale would have worked better I felt. Bad boy Sam is just plain irritating, being a teenage criminal who does nothing to create any sympathy. He shoots at Policeman Dermott pretending to mistake him for a zombie, later tries to rape a character and still is almost welcomed back by the group when he next appears. Sometimes giving evil characters some depth to them works well but I gotta admit it is enjoyable seeing simple one dimensional bad characters getting their comeuppance.

Now it may sound like I was not impressed with this film but despite everything it works well as a zombie film. The zombies look and act like zombies and have a feel of danger to them and there are plenty of them, including zombie children which is always fun, and the make up for the zombies is pretty decent. The acting also was not bad for the budget, there were not really many terribly acted parts. I also liked how the film was split up by different times and days, a neat idea to give a sense of the progression of time.

A lack of imagination for where the plot should go as well as the loss of identity thanks to what seemed like lots of unrelated tangential stories are what really made Zombie Hood lose it's impact with me, the characters meanwhile are what stuck for me, by turns realistic, one dimensional and just plain fun they made what could have been something awful into something that's simply not bad.

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Second Opinion:

My honest opinion of this film is that I really struggle to remember what happened in it. I just didn't enjoy it that much, the saving grace was Bill; the guy you always suspected of being a paedophile. How bad does that sound? It's done in a very amusing way though. I'm not saying that I didn't feel for any of the characters either, as there were some cheers in the room when a not so nice character met a gruesome end (mine being one of the loudest!).

Meteletsa: Winter of the Dead (2012) - Zombie Horror Film Review

My aim this week is to desperately bash out reviews of each of the 5 films I saw at this years UK Festival of Zombie Culture before my ageing brain overwrites my memory of them. Already they are starting to slowly blend into one, like soup...yes, like soup. Meteletsa: Winter of the Dead is Russia's first ever zombie film. As a bonus for the five films watched there shall be a brief second opinion after each review by guest blogger Lucinda.

A snow storm hits a City in Russia, this wouldn't seem strange but for the fact it is the middle of Summer and that the arrival of the storm coincides with the outbreak of zombiegeddon (somehow, inexplicably related). Soon Konstantin a journalist in Moscow to cover a protest is on the run from undead hordes, teaming up with a young girl who happens to be the daughter of a ruthless local tycoon; Khan. Meanwhile the cameraman Konstantin was due to meet gets caught up with the scary Khan and his men and is roped in to film the businessman's efforts to save the town and seize power allegedly in the interests of 'the people'.

Influenced by the likes of Dawn of the Dead Meteletsa seeks to give some social commentary with its zombie action. Khan says what he is doing is for the good of the people but in reality he is using the outbreak as an opportunity to take out his political enemies. An early scene in which he gives a speech to the camera about how the local government has failed the city and how he is going to go sort out the trouble and restore order is a good indication of his selfless drive. His drive for power comes at the expense of his own family, often inadvertently putting his daughter in danger to achieve his goals. He is not much more than a thug in a suit but steals the film with his twisted motivations.

Being a 2012 film there is a lot of CGI used, unfortunate as it never looks as good as real effects. Digital blood sprays are no substitute for real gore, thankfully many real props are also used, dead bodies really look dead with missing limbs, heads crushed and general mayhem appearing to have been done to them. The film is also quite large in scope with lots and lots of zombies being used, often of the running variety. The zombies for the most part are coated in blood which was cool to see.

The plot has been done to death but has some actually quite good characters in places, as I said Khan is great, while later on a battle priest armed with a huge fire axe makes a good impression, racking up a crazy body count (one sequence in which he was in the background hacking up zombies was hilarious due to the amount of severed heads flying everywhere!). The journalist is not great, nor is the Kahn's daughter, both completly forgettable and acting like idiots. A traditional hero character is introduced in the form of Captain Igor Knyazev but his good looks and earnest actions made him immediately irritating, nothing exciting at all about him. Being in Russian with subtitles it is hard to gauge the vocal acting ability of many of the cast.

Meteletsa is by the numbers in general but has some good ideas. Parts of the film shot from the cameraman's perspective where interesting and sneaked in found footage to a more traditionally shot film. Despite the almost clinically clean look to the mayhem and lack of many new ideas it isn't a terrible film and could have been far worse. Plenty of great looking zombies and plenty of violence and people being eaten and killed.

Meteletsa: Winter of the Dead may not be the most unique film out there but does its job. Now if you think this was a lot of words about nothing just wait until later in the week when my memory has totally faded!

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Second Opinion:

Watching the first zombie film out of Russia was certainly an experience from the beginning. I felt so sorry for Zombie Ed (the festival organiser) as there were a few technical issues that made the film suddenly stop and start. This made it hard for me to get into if I'm honest.

I really did enjoy the film though, the priest totally stole the show for me. It was comical at the amount of decapitated heads he managed to amass. He really was a bad-ass mofo for a religious man.

The UK Festival of Zombie Culture 2013

I returned today from the 7th annual UK Festival of Zombie Culture that took place on the Saturday. Last year I also went but arrived late in the day so made a point of staying in Leicester this time so I could get all 13 hours of zombie goodness! There were six films shown during the event.

Leicester is a place I find stupidly hard to navigate so despite Phoenix Square being a 10 minute walk from the hotel it took us a good half hour to find it. Arriving there did not seem to be that many people as expected, of course this was due to the fact the majority of the visitors were in the cinema screen for the first film that we didn't realise was actually on.

The three minute zombie challenge was the first place visited. Up to last year Dead Rising was the game used for this, but this time Dead Rising 2 was used. I have owned the game for the longest time but have yet to get around to playing it which was a boon. The three minute zombie challenge is quite simple; kill as many zombies as you can within three minutes. I felt like I got off to a good start but then I kinda ran out of weapons, it took an embarrassing few minutes before I finally grabbed a plant pot and hurled it at a bunch of undead taking out four and gaining the top spot with around forty five dead. Not actually that impressive seeing as only one person before me had tried and my pitiful record was soon beaten. My friend Lucinda then tried, she managed an awe inspiring eight kills before becoming zombie food.

A few authors were in attendance including David Moody. He is by far my favourite zombie author (responsible for the amazing Autumn series) and I had to make amends for being too shy to talk to him last year. He was a delight to talk to and while I did geek out slightly on him hopefully was not too over the top. He seemed like a really nice guy, and had some interesting things to say. Wayne Simmons; another zombie author was also there and while I have never read any of his books I was compelled to pick up Flu the first of his Irish zombie novels as sound like they should be interesting. He too was really friendly, so meeting them both was a real highlight of my day!

Realising the first film was actually playing we went in to catch the last 30 minutes. The Battery looked like it was a great film, about two men surviving the zombie apocalypse. The majority of the last third was set in a car under siege by the undead. Some fantastic acting; Jeremy Gardner was stunning as Ben and gave such an amazing, realistic performance. A lot of the shots were extended single takes that gave such a raw feel. The Battery managed to be both light hearted but at the same time quite harrowing leading to a strong finish. It is a film I would really like to see all of. The rest of the films I saw will be getting their own reviews throughout next week.

Meteletsa: Winter of the Dead was the second film shown, a Russian zombie film. Unfortunately the copy being shown was pretty broken skipping and freezing until around ten minutes in it was stopped and a back up copy used. A further five minutes until the aspect was corrected to properly fit the screen. A poor start then but in general Meteletsa was not bad, no real new ideas though.

At the festival were a variety of consoles featuring a variety of zombie games. I had a quick ill fated go of House of the Dead 2 on the Dreamcast. I like to think the gun was not properly calibrated but in truth I'm getting old! Been too long since I last played it so my trigger finger was quite rusty. As usual a lot of people were dressed up as zombies which is always cool to see. and slightly unsettling when they act in character.

Zombie Hood was film number three and probably the weakest of the lot. This Nottingham based film was not fantastic but really quite funny, I don't think a lot of the humour was intentional. I am not sure if the character of Bill was meant to maybe be inferred of as a paedophile but that was the case with unfortunate lines giving him an accidental creepy persona. Too many unimportant characters and a bare bones plot made this at times quite forgettable. The cast and crew in a Q & A after the film all come across as nice people and the director does hope to be able to make Zombie Hood into a TV series.

Film number four was Wasteland and was the best of the bunch. Much of the film focuses on one character; Scott who is riding out zombie Armageddon hoping for the love of his life Beth to return to him. Quite downbeat but also real in the feel to it with some great performances, just slightly let down by a over the top end sequence that felt at odds with the slow burn of the rest of the piece, amazing for the low budget used. This was followed by an interesting Q & A by the cast and crew.

The penultimate film was Battle of the Damned starring 80's action star Dolph Lundgren. Filmed in Singapore Battle was not amazing and had some questionable acting but was brain dead fun. The inclusion of zombie fighting robots was a treat it must be said.

Finally was this years zombie comedy film. Last year was the awesome Gangsters, Guns and Zombies (as well as Cockneys VS Zombies) this year was Stalled about a janitor trapped in a toilet cubicle during a zombie outbreak. I was not expecting anything as good as Gangsters and so was not disappointed. I wondered how a film set in a toilet cubicle could last ninety minutes without getting boring but Stalled just about manages it. Some of the humour was a bit too puerile but it was quite funny in places and ends strong.

All in all The UK Festival of Zombie Culture was a huge success, I really enjoyed it and am so glad I was able to be there for the whole event this year. Cannot wait for next years one! As I said last year Zombie Ed should be applauded for all the effort he goes to to make these events so enjoyable, a funny man whose dedication to zombies is inspiring.

God of War II (2007) - Fantasy Horror Videogame Review (PS3)

On my endless quest to play through the God of War series I have just conquered the 5th chronological game (6 if you include the ios only God of War: Betrayal). I am starting to get a little fatigue I must admit but with only God of War III left I must battle on, much like Kratos himself would!

After becoming the God of War at the end of the first PS2 game Kratos leads the Spartans on a bloody conquest throughout the ancient world. Athena begs him to stop his warmongering  as he is making Zeus the ruler of Olympus mightily annoyed. Ignoring her Kratos decides to join his armies fight beaming down to earth as a gigantic God (I guess this is an ability he did not realise he could do previous as being a 60 foot tall invincible being would have sure made his quest in Ghost of Sparta a lot easier!). After being drained of some of his God powers and being attacked by a magically animated Colossus of Rhodes Zeus sends down a powerful weapon; the Sword of Olympus. Kratos is encouraged to put all his remaining God powers into the sword so he can defeat the Colossus but after doing so Zeus appears in person and betrays the God of War, using the Sword of Olympus to murder Kratos. Saved from oblivion by the Titan Gaia he sets out on a quest to seek the Sisters of Fate who are able to grant him the power to travel back in time and avert his deadly fate.

Quite a convoluted story but the story this time around is quite interesting, many long CGI cut scenes pop up throughout giving back story on the war between the Titans and the Gods. Kratos is at times reduced to a comedic character, none more so than the laugh out loud humiliation he receives in front of his faithful army. First being crushed by a giant stone hand as he gives a speech to his men then his armour falling off piece by piece. He is given real arrogance and it could be said he deserves what happens. The game has a fantastic end sequence which eclipsed anything that came before and made me pumped up for the next in the series.

The game surprised me at the lack of imagination at times in its level design. A lot of the game has you going down super linear pathways. It was cool to see swamp and lava levels but when it is pretty much a straight line it does take you out of the experience and let you know your just playing a game. There is nothing to rival Pandora's Tower with the main puzzle dungeon here not feeling that big and being quite easy to progress through. Puzzles seem a lot simpler this time around though some invention was used.

Combat is as it ever was, the same enemy types for the most part. Snake Women, Cyclops, Minotaurs, basic monster soldiers etc. New enemy type include exploding insect things and pig type monsters but apart from that it is business as usual. The QTE's needed for defeating enemies seem a lot friendly and more forgiving now. A lot of the bosses you fight are human enemies, or human in appearance, it seemed maybe the monster pool had been drained a bit as is the mythology. Jason and his Golden Fleece, Icarus, Pegasus, the Phoenix all these crop up for their part but there is nothing too exciting. The few monster bosses you do get to fight are fun, one in particular that was a multi tiered fight against a being made up of breasts and arms was a later highlight. A cool boss fight is also included in which you fight someone else while both in black silhouette that has a cool twist to it.

As usual you get experience to upgrade magic and weapons. Magic includes a stupidly over powered earthquake, Medusa head once again, lighting bolts and magical arrows. Not bad, especially when levelled up. Mid way you get the ability to glide that created some interesting new puzzles. While many locations are bland (including a terrible flying level) there are still some standout ones; giant horse statues and a level based around Atlas (still miffed at Kratos from what happened in Chains of Olympus). Both are huge in scope and quite well designed.

I expected God of War II to be a better game, some have said it is the best in the series but I just did not see that. It is fun and has a great end sequence but for the most part it didn't feel anything special,  I certainly did not have the urge to play through it in one sitting. The graphics are also not amazing in places, even with the HD treatment. For God of War fans it is unmissable though as a lot happens. Kratos is quite an angry man!

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Banjo (2014) - Horror Film News

As per usual I am so far behind with all the horror posts I have on my to do list. Today it is the turn to talk about Banjo,a British indie film that judging by its trailer doesn't take itself too seriously. As an aside, I love the poster design!

A bullied office worker; Peltzer reawakens an imaginary friend he used to have called Ronnie (who appears as a caricature of Ronald Reagan) via a Ouija board in order to get his revenge on his co-workers and cheating girlfriend. However Ronnie starts to manipulate Peltzer to get his revenge in the most gruesome way possible and things begin to get out of hand.

I thought the trailer was fun for this, it has been described as a cross between Drop Dead Fred and Basket Case, the character of Ronnie reminded me of Freddy Kruger during his more comedic films, all over the top glee and weird prosthetics. Whether he is a real thing or just part of Peltzer's fevered imagination will be something to discover. It looks like the film is going to be quite gory and gooey if the amount of bodily liquids shown in the trailer is anything to go by.

Banjo is produced by Safehouse Pictures who were responsible for the not bad The Eschatrilogy: Book of the Dead, It has a Kickstarter page and has met it's modest budget of £5,000 with 15 days still left to go, so should go into pre-production in May 2014. Check out the trailer below...

Scratches: Director's Cut (2007) - Horror Videogame Review (PC)

A year or so ago I started playing Scratches, I got quite far but ended up not finishing it. The other week I thought I would start it again for Halloween. Scratches is a first person point and click game that takes place in an old Victorian mansion.

In the 1970's Michael Arthate a horror author has brought an old Victorian mansion in which he hopes to finish his latest novel. From the moment he turns up at the remote place he is fascinated. Letters around the place speak of a cursed African mask that was stolen from a cannibalistic tribe and smuggled back to England which fascinates the young horror writer. His first night there he is awoken in the middle of the night, strange...scratching noises coming from the basement. Trapped at the remote house thanks to his car breaking down he begins to explore the house, looking for answers for all the creepy goings on he is encountering, determined to solve the mysteries contained here.

A point and click adventure that has you moving around by clicking where you want to go. Each place your at gives you complete 360 movement in a fixed position to explore your surroundings. The whole place is atmospheric and the sound effects and music create tension and scares. Scratches takes place over several days. Each thing you do in the house passes the time. Mostly you will be exploring the house looking for keys to open the many locked doors and solving simple puzzles that just require you to have the right item for the job. Each night you take part in a nightmare sequence as well as investigate the loud scratches. The night sections are pretty scary though also quite brief.

While I did enjoy the game it can be rather hard to find items hidden in the environment. More than once I had to resort to a walk through only to find out the reason I had gotten so stuck was due to not having picked up an item I needed. Items look the same as the rest of the games scenery and it doesn't help that they are also quite small and un-obvious for the most part. Frequent phone conversations with your agent and others help break up the exploring though the voice acting is pretty terrible. Exploring the house takes a while also as Resident Evil style each room you go into has a door opening animation which is a nuisance for back tracking which most the game is.

As well as the main game you also get a short game called 'The Last Visit' that takes place many years after Scratches with the mansion vandalised and in a huge mess. This was fun with seeing what had happened to the mansion but the actual game was pretty silly, used mainly to explain in more detail what you may have missed in the plot of Scratches.

The plot is interesting enough and vague enough that events are left open to interpretation, some nods to the works of H.P Lovecraft here. In all though it is not as scary as it could be and some sort of hint option would be useful for when you get really stuck. It never feels like you are in any danger at all which does detract from the experience. In short bursts it is fun but is not one I would be heading back to as just a little bit too slow paced.

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Infection Z (2013) - Zombie Horror Film Review

Infection Z (also known as Infected) is a is a low budget zombie flick released straight to DVD. Despite the low budget I was surprised to see some quite well known actors. My friend Lucinda invited me around hers to watch it, she was quite looking forward to seeing it.

A bunch of people are staying out in some cabins in the American woodland to do some hunting. These include Louis (Michael Madsen from Kill Bill) and his son Andrew as well as Dr Edward Dennehey (William Forsythe from The Devil's Rejects) and his son. During their stay the Dr is called upon to visit a sick Grandma who has some strange disease. While treating her she leaps up and bites him. It turns out her and others in the area have all got a disease that has changed them into flesh hungry zombies. Soon the survivors find themselves trapped in their cabin.

If I had to describe Infection Z in one word it would be 'disaster'. This is an utter mess of a film that is incoherent, badly edited, and with a script that completely stinks, how two such great genre actors such as Maden and Forsythe got caught up in this trash is beyond me, maybe they owed the director Glenn Ciano a favour. I have a very high tolerance for bad films, some of my favourite films are ones generally accepted to be terrible but this was just too much. It is one thing to be bad yet still enjoyable, but this is bad and boring, a cardinal sin in my books!

Characters just appear with no explanation about who they are or what they are doing, a truly weird sequence at some sort of junk yard with a crazed zombie man is never explained and just appears from nowhere, as does Louis's pregnant wife who just appears and then predictably goes into labour late into the film. The plot is all over the place, me and my friend just baffled as to what was going on, just could not follow it. For most of the films running time there is no zombies, it is all the interactions between the unlikable cast at the hunting lodges. The editing and directing is abysmal; jaunty angles, quick jump cuts all seemingly at random with no reason for their being. At one point one of the main characters is silently killed while outside, immediately two other characters come running out a house shouting his name, telling someone else they see that they heard the victim screaming...only I am convinced there was no screaming, I would go as far to say that the scream was supposed to have been edited in during post production but someone forgot to do so. Such a messy, rushed piece, amazing anyone ever thought this was a good idea!

Now it is not all bad, the film starts with a house under assault by zombies, then it goes to black and says '12 hours earlier' with most the film leading up to that point. That was actually cleverly done and the standout moment for me realising events had caught up to the present even if the 3 minute sequence following that is repeated from the films start in its entirety. The end sequence was interesting but to be honest felt like it was from a totally different film.

Logic is just not existing in this world. The appearance of a few zombies has everyone immediately thinking it is the end of the world, I don't understand how they come to this conclusion. This can be seen the first time Louis ever encounters a zombie, despite looking just like an ill human and not actually attacking him he blasts it dead without a second thought. Up to that point he didn't really even know anything was up, it had been assumed some sort of wild animal had killed the first victim found!

Zombies are very weird and inconsistent. You get the traditional zombies, runners in this case who growl and want flesh but then you get random people in various states of zombification as if there wasn't an agreed upon way zombies would be. The Grandma seems to keep reverting between flesh eating ghoul and harmless woman, some characters turn but still act human like, one character is dragged out a window and apparently eaten but then turns up later looking pretty much fine with zero explanation. Victims are always nearly entirely eaten; flesh, bones, clothes, hair all gone, so utterly silly and stupid. A zombie is inferred to have eaten his uninfected daughter, all that remains is a spine...just a spine...no blood, no guts, nothing, just a spine, so stupid! Where is the rest of her?!

My review has been all over the place, and I have repeated myself lots, going off on tangents constantly. But you know what? That's exactly what Infection Z did also, kinda meta in it's own way. To sum up; Infection Z is a bad, boring, confusing film that is just not worth watching, not even for Madsen and Forsyth who are just weird here. 'Humourous' interludes, terrible special effects, and a nonsensical plot combine to earn Infection Z a place in my Top 10 worst zombie films of all time.

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Autumn (2001) by David Moody - Zombie Horror Book Review

One of the first posts I ever wrote for The Rotting Zombie back in 2008 was a review of Autumn by David Moody. That post has since been deleted as it was terribly written as was most of my stuff back then. I still have a review of the second book in the series live, but that shall be deleted and replaced soon! David Moody is my all time favourite zombie author, his books are so good.

Some sort of deadly virus sweeps the globe, within a day billions are dead, only a handful of survivors survive, somehow immune to the infection. Autumn takes place in Britain where a group of traumatised survivors gather in an old community centre in Northwich. These include family man Carl, pragmatic Michael, and Emma; a student. No one is really coping with the sudden death of the world, everyone content to wallow in grief and argue amongst themselves. Michael sees the need to leave the town and get out to the country, the dead will cause mass disease. As if this was not all bad enough the bodies of the stricken start to rise, at first blindly stumbling around operating on instinct the corpses begin to change, to get more intelligent and to seek out any remaining humans.

Chapter twenty three, page one hundred and thirty four is when Autumn goes from being ok to amazing. It is at that point that the cadavers start to react to the humans, to start to follow them and begin to get angry. Now I understand the need to slowly have this happen, with Moody's zombies they are of a totally different type than the norm. These do not seek out life to feed on them, they seek out life as it is an anomaly in an otherwise dead world, they want to be close to life, to hold it. Not so bad when it is just a few but as the book progresses more and more zombies appear, drawn by the only noise for miles around. They are pitiful, weak, emaciated, frail yet unnerving in their behaviour, forever changing. While they have no ability to bypass obstacles they form mobs, fists smashing down on whatever is in their way.

I feel quite stupid for saying this but it was only on my fourth read through of the Autumn series that I realised it takes place in England and not America! So used to zombie stories being in the USA that my mind just assumed and ignored any blatant references (such as colloquial language used and the emergency number being referred to as 999 for instance). The characters of Michael, Carl and Emma are irritating for the most part. Carl in particular is so caught up in his grief for his dead family that he is a millstone around the other two peoples neck. Michael and Emma steadily get better as Autumn progresses, turning into likable heroes by the end. Though the survivors for the most part are annoying in their wallowing it actually does make a lot of sense, far too often characters in zombie books adjust remarkably well to the changing landscape. The way some chapters are told in first person from the viewpoints of the various characters is a good idea and helps give you some more insight into their thoughts and motivations

For all my putting it down Autumn is still a good, solid book and a great introduction to the Autumn series. From halfway through I just could not put it down, exciting to read. As I said the slow intro is needed to fully show the type of zombies this world has, later books are far more gripping from the go.

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God of War: Ghost of Sparta (2010) - Fantasy Horror Videogame Review (PS3)

I must say when I started playing Ghost of Sparta just over 6 hours ago I didn't expect I would play through the entire thing in one sitting. I reached that rare state of being in the zone when food and drink become unimportant, where all that exists is the game itself, wonderful stuff, now if only I could do that for the couple of hundred other games on my to play list!

Ghost of Sparta takes place after the events of God of War. Kratos; now the God of War after defeating Ares gets a strange vision concerning his past. Ignoring Athena's pleas to forget about the visions Kratos sets out to Atlantis. There he finds his Mother who tells him that his brother believed killed as a child is actually still alive and is a captive of Thanatos (the God of Death) in the realm of the Dead. As a child Ares and Athena kidnapped the brother (Deimos) as it was foretold that a Spartan with markings such as his would cause the fall of Olympus. To get to the Realm of the Dead and save his brother he must travel to Sparta, to the Temple of Ares and retrieve the key stored there.

This is such a great game, when I started playing at 1pm I never expected I would fall in love with it. Chains of Olympus had to be honest pretty terrible graphics, even HD'd up they were bland and featureless but here they are so much better, this looks like a PS2 game, the graphics really quite pretty thanks to the HD treatment. Locations are interesting if a little thematically inconsistent, starting off in Atlantis (watery as you would expect) I soon found myself in a giant volcano and somehow caused Atlantis to be sunk under the waves. Crete and Sparta also feature as well as snowy mountains, and the Realm of the Dead which really gets bigged up as a damn scary place but is actually just giant temples and living tree roots. The trip into Sparta takes a leaf out of Uncharted's book, it is a safe place, people go about their daily business and your forced into a slow walking pace, a nice break I guess but I was itching to get on with the killing!

For the most part the same enemies as previous games are used, albeit with different designs. Minotaurs, Cyclops monsters, Soldier Ghouls and Snake Women all turn up at various points and are joined by fun Jason and the Argonaut style skeletons that reassemble once killed, bird like flying creatures, and plenty of Frog Men. Bosses are fun and look great, an early re-occurring battle against a giant sea monster was a highlight for me. As is always the case all the monsters you face can be ripped apart in a violent finisher. The QTE events are a lot easier this time around, no fiddly analogue twirls for the most part.

As is always the case killed enemies release experience orbs which can be used to upgrade your blade chains and increase your magic (this time around the magic features the Wind of the North, a black hole type projectile, and a concentrated cone of electricity).  A new thing that was later used more in Ascension was the ability to turn your blades into flaming ones, using fire swords is the only way to open certain doors, and the automatons you fight can only be destroyed by flame attacks, which also applies to armour of your foes. A nice touch was that the flame attack also causes a delayed reaction bomb attack.

For whatever reason the PSP God of War games have reduced difficulty to the console ones but it is never at a point when it is boring. I died a few times, mostly mistiming jumps, never from actual combat. It was so enjoyable though that the reduced challenge did not bother me, on the contrary it helped me enjoy the adventure more. It has simpler puzzles, mostly of the finding a key variety but has some genius moments. A section where your hunting down King Midas, following a trail of golden hand prints and golden monsters is so much fun, the payoff; well all I can say is I feel sorry for poor crazy King Midas; a standout moment though.

Probably my most favourite God of War plot yet. While the actual journey to rescue your brother may be a little simple it is good at setting up Kratos as an enemy of the Gods. He openly agitates some Gods without caring (sinking Poseidon's beloved Atlantis for example) and ends his quest visibly angrier than when he started. While it does feel like a side story it is never to the extent the forgettable Chains story did.

It is so rare to find a game that you literally cannot stop playing, as I mentioned I simply did not expect Ghost of Sparta to be one such game, it blew me away. 6 hours of pure fun; such a rare thing nowadays!

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God of War (2005) - Fantasy Horror Videogame Review (PS3)

I have just beaten the third chronological game in the God of War series: God of War. Previously I played it on the PS2 but this time it was the HD re-release on the PS3 I did.

God of War is set 10 years after Kratos turned on his master; Ares the God of War. In that time he has been performing tasks for the Gods of Olympus in the hope his past sins will be forgiven and he can escape the endless nightmares he has been plagued with. Athena tells Kratos that Ares is laying siege to Athens and so he heads there. Unable to stop the invasion by Ares's forces he learns from an Oracle that a powerful weapon exists that has the power to kill a God. The weapon is Pandora's Box and is hidden away in a vast temple out in the middle of the desert of Lost Souls, so off he goes to find it.

God of War is a 3rd person brawler with puzzle elements and is very well designed in places. Around half the game you battle around Athens, all fun enough but no moment really stood out, the true bones of the piece appear in the expertly designed temple of Pandora that rides upon the back of a Titan. The temple is around half the game and is just pure joy to travel through. A whole back story is given about the architect who designed the place, slowly going mad as the construction claimed the lives of his family one by one. It is so satisfying solving the many puzzles and the layout is pure genius. The Gods Hades, Poseidon, and Zeus each have their own giant sections. The basement area full of flames and spikes is the location for Hades section, the flooded tunnels for the God of the Sea, and the cliffs and spires for Zeus.

Combat is fun, Kratos has his chained blades that whirl around tackling many enemies at once, he also gets access to some giant swords and magical attacks that let him summon lightning bolts, summon dead souls to fight by his side, rain down lightening and using Medusa's head turn monsters to stone. As is always the case enemies drop red orbs that you can use to power up all your attacks, chests hidden around levels also give you these red orbs, as well as items that increase your magic and health.

Enemies for the most part are fun to fight, the main fodder being skeletal warriors while plenty of Minotaur, Cyclops, snake women and flying creatures pop up. Most of these can be dispatched by QTE's for extra bonuses. Bosses are infrequent but fun for the most part. An initial sequence sees you fighting a Hydra, later on a challenging boss against a giant robotic creature is satisfying but the end boss is just a chore. The final bosses first two forms are fine, but the last in which you share an energy bar with the boss (each hit you do adds to your health and detracts from his and vice-versa) is very frustrating, after around 30 attempts I was forced to go down to Easy mode to beat him.

God of War is much more attractive than the bland Chains of Olympus, I never realised the quality of PSP games was so much lower than the PS2. The HD makes it all look good, though a level in which Ares stomps around in the background is terrible looking; Ares looks a mess of huge polygons, very ugly and off putting. The music works well, as usual for the series no single piece stands out. Some of the combat left me needing to pause the game to rest my aching hands, something I didn't get with Ascension.

I loved the game, sure the end boss is atrociously unfair but for Pandora's Temple alone this is well worth playing, one of the best designed locations I can think of in a videogame in recent memory. A fun game with a good mix of combat and puzzles, I look forward to the rest.

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Halloween II (1981) - Horror Film Review

Watching Halloween for suitably enough Halloween my thirst for the series got ignited and I was forced to watch Halloween II. It is kinda essential viewing after watching the original as it is pretty much the second part of that film. Originally II was to be the last in the series.

Though filmed 3 years later Halloween II actually continues directly from the end of the first one, the very same night after Myers has vanished after being shot off a balcony by Dr Sam Loomis (Donald Pleasence) in fact. Finding Myers gone Loomis charges off into the night, raving about how he shot him 6 times and that he cannot be human. Meanwhile Laurie Strode (Jaime Lee Curtis) is taken to Haddonfield Hospital, upon learning this Myers heads there himself where he proceeds to slaughter the entire staff, somehow avoiding being seen the whole time. Just why he is after Strode in particular is finally revealed.

To be honest Halloween II is not as good as I remember it, it certainly has it's moments of genius. The body count is a lot higher, there is a ton more blood and gore and the special effects are better. Most the film is split between Loomis as usual charging around Haddonfield going to all the wrong places before finally realising where he actually should be, and Myers casually butchering everyone at the hospital. Pleasence is again fantastic, more manic than previous and really bringing life to his character. He really is the polar opposite of Myers.

Michael Myers is again an imposing figure (though the shortest he is ever portrayed), the emotionless mask bringing the chills, like a modern day terminator he is relentless, walking through plate glass windows, smashing down doors, even fire storms are not enough to stop his relentless pursuit of Strode. Too much time is spent on his killing random people, sure many different methods are used (top ones being syringe through the eyeball, submerging someone in boiling water until their face melts, and the good old fashioned knife stabs) but the amount of blood in effect gives these trashy over the top feels rather than the bloodless ones that came previously. Too many incidental characters are introduced and given decent screen time for no better reason than they are there to be killed.

The plot is no more complex than before, though a strange sub plot concerning the occult was put in there to act as a red herring for Loomis to chase and was actually later revisited in subsequent films. Least the script was written once again by John Carpenter, though he no longer directed (well a few scenes he did). The final part of Halloween II is amazing and features a great chase sequence with a killer ending that is plain unforgettable. Plenty of POV shots from Michael again and some interesting directing such as him being shown from CCTV footage in the hospital, and him killing someone silently in the background while a foreground character obliviously talks away. A scene in which he hides in a room full of new born babies was quite unsettling.

Far too concerned with killing rather than creating great shots it feels worlds apart from the subtleness of Halloween yet shows Myers at his most relentless and unstoppable even if it does riff on the same ideas and use similar situations. The way he seems to teleport off screen from location to location felt a bit silly. Strode being virtually mute all film thanks to a bad reaction to drugs is interesting, and certainly saved on my hearing from her screaming half the first one. With a fantastic ending that is worth the price of admission alone, as well as Dr Sam Loomis, that catchy theme tune, and  the creepy mask Halloween II is worth a watch.

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Halloween (1978) - Horror Film Review

For Halloween I just had to watch a Halloween film, a no brainer really. It just had to be John Carpenter's original classic that set the criteria for the slasher genre as a whole. My only problem now is that having seen the first I want to watch the rest!

6 year old Michael Myers brutally stabs his sister to death on Halloween in 1963. 15 years later and he escapes from the mental asylum he has been kept in by Dr Sam Loomis (Donald Pleasence). Loomis upon discovering (and witnessing the escape) races to Haddonfield; Myers home town where he is sure the killer will return to. Meanwhile nerdy teen Laurie Strode (Jaime Lee Curtis) is set to spend her Halloween babysitting in what she thinks will be a normal night, but Myers has returned and for reasons unknown he has singled her out as his main target, killing anyone that gets in his way. Eventually arriving there himself Loomis sets out to find and stop Myers who he considers to be evil incarnate.

I have always loved the Halloween films but I was taken back a bit by just how good this film still is, it really holds up well in many respects and races along far quicker than I remember. Michael Myers is a very iconic horror figure; the boiler suit, the expressionless white mask (as everyone knows was actually a William Shatner mask painted white), and his giant carving knife. The shots shown from Myers perspective with his heavy breathing echoing around are absolute genius.

People always forget how little blood and gore there is in Halloween, apart from a few splatters of blood on clothing there is no blood at all. You could include the knife wound Laurie sustains but it does just look like someone has drawn a red line on her arm with a marker pen (this was an indie film after all). The body count is small but inventive, some iconic deaths here such as someone being pinned to the wall by a knife through them.

I am a fan of Rob Zombie's version of Halloween, certainly the second one, he is not shy when it comes to gore but here the frights come from the presence of Myers. Stalking Laurie he initially just keeps popping up in the background standing out like a sore thumb but at least he is dedicated to his stalking. Seeing it again I never recalled being shown such a good shot of his face under the mask as I did here, memory changes your perception I guess. Myers is awesome and a great movie slasher icon but Halloween is not scary any more. As the heroine Curtis is much better than I remember as the nerdy girl even if she does scream far too much.

Pleasence is perfectly cast as Dr Loomis, he steals all his scenes that Myers is not in and is the perfect foil to the killer. In many ways he is the exact opposite to him and so is his perfect adversary. Myers is young, strong, silent, Loomis is old, weak, very talkative. Both are dogged and relentless, driven by an inner purpose. As Myers hunts Laurie so too does Loomis hunt him. He knows more than anyone in the world what evil has been freed and feels responsible as well as convinced only he will be able to stop him, he is almost crazy himself in his pursuit. Also as a fun side note every single Halloween film Dr Loomis appears in he spends the majority of the film in completely the wrong place, only coincidentally bumbling into the correct location at the end. For someone who says he knows Myers better than anyone he sure has trouble second guessing him!

The iconic slasher figure, that fantastic theme tune, the invention of the staples of the slasher genre (such as only a virgin being able to stop the killer) all roll together to make a film that just cannot ever be seen as bad, it is a giant among horror films and one of John Carpenters best ever films, and one of the best horror films ever made.

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