The Nights Before Christmas (2019) - Horror Film Review

The season to be jolly for whatever reason works really well when combined with horror. Such is the case with The Nights Before Christmas, which is a festive horror featuring a cruelly sadistic killer. This is a sequel to the 2017 film Once Upon a Time at Christmas, and it plays out very much as a sequel, meaning I was left playing catch-up for the majority of this one due to not having seen the first. It seems to be the middle part of a trilogy, with the third film, One Christmas Night in a Toy Store currently in pre-production. All feature Paul Tanter as the director and co-writer, with main lead Simon Phillips also co-writing. Even though I haven't seen the previous film there will be spoilers for that one.

Some years previously, mad man Nicholas (Phillips), who revels in taking on the persona of Santa Claus, faked his own death at the asylum where he had been imprisoned. Now he is back, and with the help of his crazed assistant, Mrs. Claus (Sayla de Goede) he goes on a new killing spree, targeting people on his 'naughty or nice' list. As he settles old scores and cleans house, F.B.I agent Natalie Parker (Kate Schroder) sets out to stop him once and for all.

I will start off with the best thing about The Nights Before Christmas and that is Phillips. He is amazing as the twisted Santa Claus, stealing every scene he is in. He has a real presence to him, and his demented plans, and disregard for life makes him a formidable opponent. He felt like a combination of The Joker from the Batman franchise and Papa Lazarou from The League of Gentlemen and seemed to have a lot of fun with his role. Mrs. Claus felt like an obvious stand-in for Harley Quinn, she even looks the part with her hair in bunches, and being very physical with the way she moves. It is good that the bad guys are so memorable, as the protagonists are all infuriatingly stupid people. They make so many dumb mistakes and decisions that it managed to hamper my enjoyment. The good guys make unbelievably dense errors in judgment throughout the movie. There is a serial killer on the loose who fashions himself on Santa Claus, you would think that information would be important to the authorities. Instead when a bloody man in a Santa costume sets up an obvious roadblock for a police convoy, the police assume he is just a civilian with a broken down car, it was maddening how stupid everyone was. It got to the point where I gave up, as far as I was concerned all the protagonists deserved to die. A little bit of this is fine, but when literally every single good character is acting dumb it begins to get hard to really care about what happens. Also, I lost count of the amount of time the bad guys were being held at gunpoint, but the gun holder would refuse to shoot, even when they are killing people right in front of them!

Far Cry 5: Dead Living Zombies (2018) - Horror Video Game DLC Review (Playstation 4)

I am a fan of the Far Cry series of action video games and have been slowly working my way through them over the past couple of years. Personally I think that Far Cry 5 was the best game in the series so far. The main game dealt with a crazy cult in America. As much as I loved it, it wasn't horror and so didn't warrant a review. The game featured three additional downloadable experiences. The first had you as a soldier behind enemy lines during the Vietnam war, the second was a comedic jaunt through alien infested Mars, the third is the one I will be looking at in this review as it is all about zombies.

Dead Living Zombies is different to both the main game and the expansions as rather than a large open world area it is instead split into seven different episodes, each of which takes the form of a movie pitch that wannabe director Guy Marvel is describing to a different producer. This is the shortest of the expansions, with each episode totalling anywhere from five to fifteen minutes. So, each episode is a self contained story revolving around the undead. First is Fields of Terror. This takes place in rural America, and has you as a farmer dealing with a zombie outbreak that occurs when a plane crashed in your fields. This was a nice introduction to the expansion, and mainly has you needing to destroy machines which constantly spawn zombies around them.
Burned Bridges is the second one and is one of the better ones here. This has you as a soldier working your way across a devastated bridge. I loved the level design for this one, it remained inventive from beginning to end.
Keeping the imagination going is Undying Love. This is set in a large graveyard and is a retelling of the Romeo and Juliet story, with of course added undead. I will add here that each episode opens and closes on a comic book style intro and epilogue, both detailing Guy Marvel's latest attempt to sell his ideas, but also showing the beginning and end of the stories he is explaining.

The real stinker of this expansion is Escape From the Rooftop. It had a cool backstory to it (zombie apocalypse has meant the survivors all live on rooftops now), but the level itself took place in a moderately sized arena and saw you fighting waves of undead. This was what I had feared the whole of Dead Living Zombies would be, thankfully just restricted to this one level.
Killer Climate is one of the larger episodes here. It has you as a park ranger battling zombie animals, such as wolves, deer, and even a bear. What was cool about this one was the argument Guy and the producer were having as to the direction the story would take, this was reflected by things within the level constantly changing back and forth.
The Fast & The Fiendish was the shortest one here. It had you as an infected scientist who is on a race against time to get to his lab and develop a cure. With a time limit of seven minutes this led to plenty of running and driving, short but sweet.
The final episode is the excellent Laboratory of the Dead. Starting out in marshland you had to get to a secret underground lab and find the source of an undead uprising.

While the short length may put some off this was on the whole pretty fun. There is replay value in that you open up a score attack mode upon completing each episodes. One complaint I did have was that if you die you have to replay the entire episode again. No so much a problem on the shorter levels, but getting nearly fifteen minutes in and then perishing made my heart sink each time. Overall, while not essential to play, Dead Living Zombies was a fun, albeit brief experience, not bad, but not amazing either. It was a cool idea though.

SCORE:

Sebastian's Unholy Flesh (2020) - Horror Film Review

Sebastian's Unholy Flesh is the seventh film from Denver based filmmaker Dakota Ray (The Dark Days of Demetrius, American Antichrist) and in terms of content it is his most demonically charged one yet. There has been supernatural elements in many of his previous films, but with this one the whole film takes on a hellish tone that makes this the most experimental in feel yet.

Ray stars as the titular Sebastian, a demon in human form who is on a mission to get control of Lucifer's ancient unholy book. Anyone who has this in their possession has the power to bring about the destruction of mankind. The book had been hidden away for countless years, its re-emergence sees not only Sebastian, but also other dark beings out to get it for themselves.

This manages to have the most world changing plot yet, but at the same time tell this story in such an abstract way that it is often happy to let this plot fade into the background as the camera just soaks in the nasty atmosphere of the various locations. The entire film has had a purple tint applied over it making everything seem otherworldly. Ray's films have always felt like they take place in a meaner reality where life is dirt cheap, here that feel is even more intense. If it were not for the plot of trying to bring about the end of life on Earth I could easily accept that the whole movie took place in literal Hell.  All of the film takes on a dark feel due to the purple tint that drowns everything.

Malvolia: the Queen of Screams Releases Season Four - Horror Web Show News

Malvolia: the Queen of Screams has recently started up a fourth season on YouTube. This web series stars Jennifer Nangle (Irrational Fear, Ugly Sweater Party) as her Malvolia persona. I hadn't heard of this show before, it sounds like each episode features a different short film, with Malvolia opening and closing the episode. This has previously won awards, the most recent being at last years Zed Fest Film Festival where it won Outstanding Acting Performance (Nangle), Outstanding Direction (Richard Trejo), Outstanding Ensemble Acting, and Outstanding Screen Story (Nangle) for season two's Halloween special. Jennifer also won the Independent Filmmaker Spirit Award there.

Obviously, as with everything, this year has brought with it its own challenges. In a recent podcast interview Nangle said of this new season: "2020 has been such a hard year on all of us...lots of life lesson were learned when the blinders were pulled off. I had no idea how to deal with or release a lot of the pain and hurt that I was experiencing except through my art. Some of the scripts I've written are very personal. Lots of limits are being pushed. Breaking free. A lot more bloodshed, revenge and chaos!"

The highlight for each season is apparently the annual Halloween special, and this year season two's director, Richard Trejo has been brought back to direct both the special and the photography. Malvolia: the Queen of Screams season four started on October 13th, and can be seen on the shows YouTube channel, here.

Camp Twilight (2020) - Horror Film Review

Camp Twilight is a modern day slasher that very much bases itself on the retro tropes of the classics from the 1980's. This was director Brandon Amelotte's first feature film, and he co-wrote the story alongside cult actress Felissa Rose (Terrifier 2, Ugly Sweater Party, Sleepaway Camp) who also has quite a large role here. While the format is identifiable enough I did feel the death scenes left a little to be desired.

Six students, all on the verge of failing to graduate, are offered an opportunity by the school. If they agree to go away on a weekend camping trip with their teacher, Jessica Bloom (Rose) and principal, Mr. Warner (Barry Jay Minoff - Among the Shadows) they will be given the extra credit they all need to pass the year. The location chosen is 'Camp Twilight', a place that had a shady past, and a place whose reputation will be once again tarnished over a weekend of murder and bloodshed at the hands of a mysterious hooded figure...

By leaning so heavily on the classics Camp Twilight comes across as a little generic and by the numbers. The six students all fit into the stereotypes you would expect. There are the meathead jock characters, the sarcastic outsider, the jock with a secret heart of gold, the promiscuous one, and the trouble maker. These characters are all played earnestly and while it is entertaining to see who will be the next victim, it was also very hard to care about any of them. There are a fair few comedy characters here, such as Ranger Bob (Dave Sheridan - Scary Movie, The Devil's Rejects) and the two cocky detectives, their appearances don't help change this slasher into anything meaningful. It was nice to see scream queen Jessica Cameron (Truth or Dare) show up in a small role as do a few other notable names.

Spell (2020) - Horror Film news

Spell is due to be released on download & keep or rental formats on 30th October from Paramount Home Entertainment. This thriller stars Omari Hardwick (Power, Sorry to Bother You), Loretta Devine (Black-ish, Crash) and John Beasely (The Sum of All Fears, The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks), and is directed by Mark Tonderai.

On the way to the funeral of his father, Marquis (Hardwick) loses control of the plane he is flying himself and his family with. He awakens injured, and in the attic of a strange woman (Devine) who claims she can heal him via the use of the 'Boogity', a Hoodoo figure made from his own blood and skin. Marquis must find a way to escape in order to save his family from a sinister ritual that is to take place during the upcoming blood moon. 

Spell will be available on a variety of digital platforms including Apple TV, Amazon Prime Video, Sky Store, Google Play and more.

Sweet Taste of Souls (2020) - Horror Film Review

Sweet Taste of Souls is an indie horror that had a premise that really interested me, even if, quite bizarrely it was a premise I had already seen in action, in last years Art of the Dead. This was directed by Terry Ross (R.I.P), with a story written by F. Scott Mudgett.

Four members of a small time band are on a road trip to attend a gig they hope will make their careers. They are comprised of Nate (John Salandria - Club Dead), his best friend Kyle (Mark Valeriano - Zombie), Kyle's girlfriend Wendy (Amber Gaston - Mermaid Down), and Lily (Sarah J. Bartholomew - voice work on the Life is Strange 2 video game). The foursome stop off at a roadside cafe where they catch the eye of the eccentric owner, Ellinore (Honey Lauren - Bram Stoker's Dracula), and unknown to the group she hides a terrible power. She is able to somehow turn people into living photographs, who are then displayed on the walls of her cafe as part of a twisted art collection, and she does this with the band. While they try to find a way to escape their timeless imprisonment, the discovery of their abandoned car leads to a man, whose daughter went missing in similar circumstances some years previously, to restart his investigation.

I love the idea of people being trapped inside a photograph, and reminded me to a similar event in Art of the Dead in which characters get trapped in paintings. I was interested to see how this would play out, and if it would be as cheesy as it sounded. The photos characters get trapped in are minimalistic white backgrounds, with props to fill up the space. Within the film these photos are soundproof, and inescapable, aside from having the photo window smashed, with the characters frozen in place whenever a person enters the cafe. There are feelings of Black Mirror at times with how long some of the people have been trapped, one couple indicate they had been there for 20 years! With Ellinore often interacting with the photo frames I thought they might do some sort of effect to show the perspective from the protagonists viewpoint, but this never happens. You get reaction shots of the group shouting at her, then shots of her looking at the photo frame, but never a mixing of the two. This felt very indie, which can best be seen with the cheesy looking way characters fade from the screen when they are initially captured, it's all charmingly cheesy though.

Shelter - Horror Film News

With all that has been going on in the world this year film releases have been noticeably fewer. A combination of companies wanting to wait until the right moment to release their films, and the logistical factors of being able to actually create a film in the first place with all the various restrictions in place. Shelter is an apocalyptic horror that has recently wrapped filming. This comes from director Alex T. Hwang, from a script he co-wrote with his wife, Kathleen Hwang, both of which were responsible for Paranormal Attraction.

Shelter stars Scream Queen Jessica Cameron (Truth or Dare), as well as Thomas Haley (Fear the Walking Dead) and Michael Murphy (Lilith). It is about a woman named Karen who is trying to survive during an apocalypse in which an outside force threatens all of humanity, and who receives help from an unexpected source. Producer Kathleen Hwang said about the experience of filming; "Producing a movie during the Coronavirus pandemic, introduces a whole new set of obstacles to meet head on. Keeping cast and crew safe on set was of the utmost importance. We were fortunate to have a script that lent itself to mask wearing other opportunities to keep both the cast and crew safe. Having a very small cast was also beneficial. Director Alex Hwang and I were able to fill many roles off camera in an attempt to keep the cast and crew small and safe. Finally, casting was important so that we could get through scenes efficiently."

Eve (2019) - Horror Film Review

Eve is a UK horror that comes from director Rory Kindersley (Sweet Tooth), who also co-wrote this, alongside Drew Sherring-Hill. To say this stylistic thriller was a head scratcher is no exaggeration, as the credits rolled I was literally scratching my head wondering what on earth had actually happened over the course of the seventy five minute film. I admit to often liking style over substance, and so much of this movie appealed to me, even if I will be hard pressed to write a synopsis.

Alex Beyer (Christine Marzano - Death Race 4: Beyond Anarchy) is a formerly successful actress whose popularity has faded. She hopes to rekindle her fame by getting the part of 'Eve' in a film adaptation of a stage play which saw her win awards as the Eve character. Returning to her stylish London apartment after a holiday with her photographer boyfriend, Liam (Andrew Lee Potts - Primeval) the couple are shocked to discover the place has been vandalised with fake blood, apparently by an Airbnb guest who police suspect may have been a deranged fan. With that on her mind, as well as not being successful at her audition, Alex's mental state starts to deteriorate, and her and Liam's relationship begins to suffer as a result.

First things first, the multi-storey apartment that Eve and Liam live at is the star of the movie. This is very uniquely designed, and includes a brightly coloured spiral staircase as a centrepiece, a gym, a huge white room that is half bathroom half bedroom (separated by a net curtain), and the living room even has a slide going into it. As an aside, I spent the whole movie hoping that at some point a character would use the slide, but mild spoiler...they never do. With such an interesting building it is good that the majority of Eve is spent in this location, with about 10% showing characters in other places within London. Going well with this attractive building is some wonderful cinematography, which was shot by Douglas Milsome (Full Metal Jacket). A scene near the end in particular was wonderful, with a character at extreme close range in the bottom left corner, and another character blurred in the background. Helping both of these elements was some neat set design, an often re-visited 'insanity room' in particular really stood out. This room was integral to the films plot (I think) so I wont go into much detail, but think a madman's lair with cut out magazine collages, manic writing on the walls, and a projector forever playing footage from an old black and white movie.

Boo Premieres on ALTER October 19th - Short Horror Film News

Rakefet Abergel's award winning short horror, Boo is set to premiere on ALTER on October 19th. ALTER produces and releases feature movies, series and short form stories from the horror genre across all platforms. Abergel said of her film "I'm really proud that Boo will be featured on ALTER, which is arguably one of the best distributers a short horror film can have...I'm excited it's finally going to be available for online viewers and I'm looking forward to hearing feedback from fans all over the world!".

Boo is the second film from Abergel's production company, Cyclamen Films, with her first movie, Jax in Love currently streaming on Amazon Prime and Vimeo On-Demand and playing on ShortsTV. When I reviewed Boo last year I gave it a respectable 8/10 and said that it felt like a step up from her previous movie.
Boo heads to ALTER on October 19th to kick-off their Halloween programming, with more platforms to be announced soon. Abergel will be doing a live Q&A on the Boo Facebook page with some of the cast and crew on the week of the premiere.

The Walking Dead: Season 10 (2019-20) - Zombie Horror TV Show Review

It is that time where I attempt to do my annual review of the latest season of The Walking Dead. Due to the way the show airs I always struggle to write these reviews. Usually each season is split into two halves, one airing towards the end of the year, and the second part airing around February of the following year. I always tell myself I need to write after each half, rather than waiting till it has all ended. Well, this year with the darn pandemic has meant season ten of The Walking Dead is even more fragmented than usual. The pandemic hit before the season finale, A Certain Doom had been completed, and so that episode was pushed all the way back to the start of October. I'm now putting up a review of the season, but bear in mind there are an additional six episodes still to come at the start of 2021. I had heard they will be anthology like in style, each one dealing with a different set of characters. Unavoidable spoilers for previous seasons to follow.

With Alpha (Samantha Morton) and her Whisperers proven to be a dangerous threat, the settlements of Oceanside, New Alexandria and Hilltop live out an uneasy existence. While Alpha gave them her word they will be safe if they don't cross into her land they nonetheless begin to prepare for the inevitable battle. She has in her possession a horde of undead, a collection so large that they would decimate anyone they are unleashed upon. Carol (Melissa McBride) in particular carries a burning hatred for Alpha, and seems ready to break the terms of their shaky truce in order to claim her revenge...

I will be honest here, the way I in particular watched this season means parts of it are very fuzzy. Me and my best friend ended up watching this sporadically, this led to forgetting details of what had occurred previously, and who characters were. In more recent seasons there has always been a overly large cast, I long since gave up on trying to learn any of the newer characters names. Without spoiling much this is a season where the heroes are given a break in terms of shocking demises, plenty of good guys do die, but I can't think of a single character whose death I cared about. The Walking Dead in my opinion is at its best when it features stand alone episodes, and this season contains one of my favourite ones of this type. The 13th episode, What We Become sees Michonne (Danai Guria) experiencing a 'what if' scenario, showing the dark path her life may have led if she had never met up with Rick Grimes. This was created in part by nifty editing, and with digitally adding her to scenes from previous seasons, but with her as a bad guy. It was fantastic stuff, though personally that was due to both Rick and Carl appearing (even if it was just recycled footage). 

AMC - October Highlights - Horror TV News

Slightly late to the month but here is AMC's schedule for October, which includes a slew of Halloween appropriate horrors. Firstly, as I have already covered, Fear the Walking Dead is back for a sixth season. It premiered on Monday 12th at 21:00.
Not horror, but still a darn good show, Better Call Saul season 4 starts in October, in its TV premiere. It will air Thursdays at 21:00 until 9th December.

Now onto the Halloween films. 17th October sees the triple bill of Scary Movie 1-3. These horror comedies are quite ridiculous but have some good moments. 24th October is when the original Scream trilogy is shown, all of which are decent in their own right. Finally, on 31st October comes Halloween VI: The Curse of Michael Myers, Halloween H20: 20 Years Later, and Halloween: Resurrection. A bit of an odd selection seeing as Curse is the end of one saga and H20 and Resurrection are part of a different timeline, but any excuse to see anything Halloween is good by me.
These shows and films can all be viewed on AMC, which is on BT channel 332/381 HD.

Welcome to the Circle (2020) - Horror Film Review

It is with good timing that I came to be watching David Fowler's feature length directorial debut, Welcome to the Circle. I have just recently finished playing the video game Far Cry 5, both of which feature crazy cults. This film was very limited in scope, and while it suffers due to a tiny cast and a sometimes ridiculous script it at least offers up something to think about with how it tries to tell its story.

While out camping, Greg (Matthew MacCaull - Black Fly) and his young daughter, Sam (Taylor Dianne Robinson - The Twilight Saga: Breaking Dawn - Part 2) suffer a bear attack. Greg awakens to find himself at a strange commune out in the woods, being looked after by some female cultists. He soon learns his daughter is fine, maybe too fine, as upon discovering the cult is not as wholesome as first appears he struggles to convince her to make an escape with him. Meanwhile, Grady (Ben Cotton - Slither) is on route to the commune, hired to extract a cultist and de-program her. However, while much of the cults beliefs appear to be crazy, it does seem there is some truth hidden behind the facade of madness.

What exactly happens here? That is not so clear to say. The whole vibe of the film reminded me of a dream sequence episodes in an established series, such as the ones in Buffy the Vampire Slayer and The Walking Dead. The films first act trundles along perfectly sensibly, with it appearing the movie would all be about Greg and his attempts to escape. However, the films second act switches tracks and the story never gets back to a logical footing. Much of the film seems like it is taking place in an alternate reality, it is hard to explain what is going on, but includes the idea that mirrors hold some strange power, that people can be changed into mannequins/mannequins can be brought to life, and the whole location being some sort of an inescapable circle. Some of this works, some does not, and the film expects you to just let events wash over you rather than think too deeply about the washy ideas presented.