The Walking Dead: Well Zombie - Horror Figure

The well zombie stood out from all the many other zombies in The Walking Dead Season 2 due to how rancid and disgusting it was. A portly undead chap had fallen into one of the wells on Hershel's farm so the gang decided they wanted to get him out of there so he didn't contaminate the water supply.  First they used meat on a rope to try and get him out, but when that failed they used Glenn as human bait. He nearly got chomped but managed to get a rope round the huge bloated corpse who was then pulled up. In doing this though the rope cut through his swelled body leading to him ripping in half, intestines going everywhere.

To celebrate this disgusting creature McFarlane toys have made a figure of him.  The well zombie is free standing. but also can be pulled in half to give him his ripped open look, complete with rubber intestines. He comes with a hunk of meat. The figure was smaller than I expected, looking like a midget next to my other horror figures, but it is detailed and does in fact look just as rank as his on screen brother.

Other figures in the series include Rick and Shane, as well as the bicycle girl zombie from Season 1, and the RV zombie from the first episode of Season 2. All priced at £14.99 I believe.

Silent Hill: Revelation (2012) - Horror Film Review

I still don't know if I actually like the first Silent Hill film, I tried to watch it again last night in readiness for the sequel but after 20 minutes I wandered off upstairs and totally forgot I had put it on. I have seen it about 8 times and still have no opinion on if I like it or not. Anyway, I figured I knew enough about the story to head into Revelation. As a side note I watched a 2D version of the film so am not calling it Silent Hill: Revelation 3D!

Revelation takes place around six years after the events of Silent Hill, finally clearing up that ambiguous ending. When Rose and Sharon escaped Silent Hill it turns out they hadn't, Rose used a magical seal to send Sharon back to the real world. Since then Sharon (now called Heather) and her Father (was Christopher, now called Harry) have constantly been on the run, going from town to town, being forever hunted. Heather thinks it is because her Father is wanted by the Police after killing a man but unknown to her the real reason is that The Order (an evil cult from Silent Hill) want to get Heather to return home thinking it will break the curse the town suffers . Anyway basically The Order finally catch up with them, kidnapping Harry in a successful attempt to lure her back to Silent Hill where Heather encounters untold horrors.

This film is not a great film, yet I loved it, I left the Cinema with a huge grin on my face. This is everything sequels should be. From start to finish Revelation is just insane, crazy, making no sense and flinging Heather from situation to situation with no care for logic. There is no respite in this film, no slow moments, it is just madness from start to finish. This is even worked into the plot; the first film had light world and dark world Silent Hill but here once it goes to dark world it stays there. I got the feeling this film was made for me, it is like a videogame brought to life.

There is so much fan service here for people who love the videogame series (one of my favourite series!) the film is crammed to bursting with references to the games. The plot is very much based on Silent Hill 3, it includes a large variety of locations from the game such as the shopping mall, insane asylum and amusement park. A lot of characters also appear, much the same as they were in the game but with twists to their story paths. The P.I Douglas Copeland, Claudia Wolf, Leonard Wolf, Alessa; a joy to see these characters all appear on the screen much like they were in the game. Vincent is the only changed character, being pretty much a good guy here, while in the game he was older and a damn sight creepier.

The fan service is intense here, my favourite being a notebook Heather finds of her fathers which contains ink drawings of various Silent Hill monsters from the games, even includes artwork of the monster children which were in Silent Hill 1! Silent Hill Origins, 1, 2, 3, and I swear even the latest Silent Hill game; Silent Hill: Downpour was referenced! Pure joy for a fan boy like me. A key scene also features a huge merry-go-round decked out with a blatant Umbrella symbol on it. This is a pure 'f**k you!' to the integrity of the Resident Evil film series, least that's what I took from it.

Very surprised to see Sean Bean reprise his role of Heathers father here, I thought he was too famous to be in the first one, so returning for the sequel I found even crazier. He is great even if he doesn't get to much screen time. My favourite horror actor of all time also turned up, I laughed out loud when I saw him emerge out of the darkness of a cell, chained up, dishevelled and crazy, looking like he was having the time of his life playing Leonard Wolf. Of course I am referring to the legend Malcolm McDowell who totally hams up his role for the very short screen time he gets. Vincent had another great actor; Kit Harington (from Game of Thrones) who made a relatively simple character into something interesting. These along with Carrie-Ann Moss as Claudia Wolf and several other characters from Silent Hill returning made quite a fantastic cast. I had not heard of main actress Adelaide Clemens before but she fitted the role of Heather perfectly.

The monsters are varied and for the most part look great. Old favourites such as the zombie nurses and Pyramid Head appear (their inclusion especially seems purely for the fans) while a whole host of new monsters appear (my favourite was a weird spider made out of mannequin parts, very freaky looking).

My main problem with the film, much like the later games is that everything looks so clean, even when it isn't. A screaming man hanging upside down with a bag taped over his head, having his stomach cut into slices for a waiting chef to cook, a naked woman tied to a gurney slowly transforming into a mannequin, a homeless guy with a giant scar for a face; all look freaky, but too clinical, with none of the grime seen in say a Rob Zombie film. Great ideas though, and the film gets really messed up with its scenes of random violence given the impression the cursed town really is a part of Hell. Revelation is a paranoid nightmare shuffling down the tracks of the mind of an obsessive compulsive. Nightmare, but nightmare made to be viewed like a ghost train rather than to be really scary.

The actors are great, but they can't help a bad plot, bad in the sense that the ways characters act usually don't make much sense, and the way the plot unfolds is weird in places. Heather crawling down a ventilation shaft comes out randomly at the exact location she needed to get to, always in the exact right location at the right time, though this could be explained away with the mythos of the cursed town. An ill advised final boss fight between Pyramid Head (reduced to the role of a good guy!) and a demon was just strange and felt completely out of place, but then with the bonkers plot maybe it was exactly what was needed.

I got the distinct feeling that watching it without prior knowledge of the games and first film you would be totally lost and confused, as it was I was in geek heaven. It makes little sense yet I came away totally happy with what I had seen, a worthy Silent Hill film, but maybe one for the fans.

SCORE:

Storage 24 (2012) - Horror Film Review

I must admit when I first heard of Storage 24 I paid it little attention; a sci-fi horror set in a storage warehouse? Surely a poorly made, low budgeted mess. Looking closer I saw first of all that it had came from the creator of cult films Kidulthood and Adulthood; Noel Clarke (who also stars). Next I saw that it actually had some great actors in it, my interest was gained and I sat down to give the film a go.

Storage 24 is a British sci-fi horror that takes place mostly in Battersea, London. A military aircraft has crashed in the area where a storage warehouse is located (funnily enough called 'Storage 24') The aftermath of the crash has caused the security system at the warehouse to go haywire, trapping in several people who happened to be there at the time. Unfortunately they are not alone, some kind of monstrous being has escaped from the wreckage of the aircraft and has decided the warehouse is to be its hunting ground...

The plot is very simple; that of a monster stalking its prey, much in the vein of a warehouse based Predator, or Xtro but what makes this film special is the realism given to the few actors. These are normal people, not commando's or anyone with any kind of combat training.  Charlie (played by Noel Clarke of Doghouse fame) has recently split up with his girlfriend Shelley, he has headed to the storage unit, knowing his ex has arranged to go there hoping to confront her over the breakup, along with him is his best friend Mark (Colin O'Donoghue, star of last years The Rite). Charlie at first comes across as a highly strung loser, not likable at all. The interaction between him and his ex comes across as so believable though that you cant help but feel sorry for him. As the film progresses his character ark makes him into the hero of the piece, someone I was rooting for to win, really well handled. O'Donoghue on the other hand is disappointing here, his character turning into a stereotypical turncoat who does all he can to save his own skin while constantly putting the others in peril.

All in all there are around 9 characters in the film, of which there are 4 main ones, all the actors do fantastic jobs, yes O'Donoghue's character might be an awful horror stereotype but his acting is still done well. Without the group coming across as believable characters this film would have fallen flat, even the inclusion of comedy character David (Ned Dennehy) is done well.

What of the Alien creature then? It looks utterly fantastic, I was expecting a mess of CGI, but what you get here is a being I can only describe as looking real (as much as an Alien can look real). First only glimpsed in pieces (as is the way with these films) it is a real threat, mostly due to the fact there just are not any weapons laying around for the humans to use on it. It seems to enjoy ripping off faces, and gore is used to good effect. I don't really want to spoil what it looks like, kinda like Predator crossed with the creature from Cloverfield. One plot device sees the characters looking for weapons in random storage lockers. I was completely expecting the group to miraculously come across one full of guns, so when Charlie finds a box with an AK47 on the side of it I rolled my eyes, until he gets it out and pulls the trigger to discover it's just a toy gun! A good way to play with audience expectations in which is otherwise quite a formulaic film.

The film doesn't do anything new, but it manages to make a 90 minute film about a group of people running round a bland storage warehouse into something that excites, and makes you really care about (some) of the characters. I loved this film, I never expected to, but I did, sometimes an old idea done well is all that is needed.  Storage 24 is out now on DVD, Blu-ray and to download, priced at £12.99 and £15.99 respectively  and containing over 90 minutes of extras. I never actually watched the extras (I never do)

SCORE:

Zombie for Zombies: Advice and Etiquette for the Living Dead by David Murphy - Zombie Comedy Horror Book Review

Zombies for Zombies is a parody of the many 'blah blah for dummies' books around. It is a 'comedy' book giving many many tips on how to cope with being dead.

The book is a guide that the recently bitten are advised to read in order to get into zombie care resorts. It exists in a world where zombie apocalypse has occurred, many areas of the world are sealed off by gigantic fences so that normal humans can carry on their daily lives.  In this world zombies are seen as 'post lifers' and treated with respect. At what I imagine must be great cost resorts have been created where zombies are cared for, fed, and entertained, though only ones who have followed the zombie for zombies program are eligible.

Man this book is lame! A one joke pony that just drags and drags and drags. The one joke is that the zombies are treated as humans still, given a variety of activities they can do such as zombie friendly sports, dances, and food. They are given their own TV shows to watch, songs to listen to. Hilarious. This whole thing is stretched out over a 200 page book that is awful to read.  Murphy seems quite taken with how funny he is and writes as if he is doing the funniest thing in the world when 95% of his terrible attempts at humour fall flat. Half his jokes involve putting 'TM' at the end of made up zombie aids, while he frequently makes pop culture references to what I imagine must be well know Americans, but who I had never heard of.

Interviews with people are all terribly done, his characters all come off as just cringe worthy, while his ramblings about zombie dress wear, and an ill advised chapter on zombie sex (a variety of zombie sex positions are discussed in details, not pleasant reading). The only good part of the book is an interlude that takes the form of a short zombie story. The illustrations of which there are many are done by Daniel Heard, are ok, they fit the style of writing well at least. The attempts at humour were just lost on me.

SCORE:

Happy Halloween! My 666th Post!

Happy Halloween everyone, and welcome to my official 666th blog post! Whew, it has been a long time coming, crazy to think the amount of hours I must have spent working on this blog. I still remember when I discovered Spell Check, and I still have yet to work my way through all my old posts and correct the grammar, replace broken links, and missing images. Guess it is kinda obvious due to the billion blog posts I have done over the last few days that getting my 666th post on Halloween was a close call but am glad I achieved it.

The blog started off quite terrible, I cringe at the earlier reviews, but it has gone from strength to strength, now being seen by an average of 17,000 unique users per month, and with Google search positions in the Top 10 for many phrases (such as position 8 out of 62 million for 'zombie film reviews'). My writing might not be the best, but I have passion for horror, and really enjoy watching, reading, and playing it. A giant thanks to my friends and family for their support, I wont name names, but you all know who you are my zombie horde! Could not have carried on for so long without you.

It is chucking it down outside, fitting Halloween weather, Rotting Zombie HQ is warm and cosy though. Strange people in masks have cut the power to my house, so am using the laptop to write this. A small doll is hammering at my bedroom door, a hitch hiker with a hook for a hand is leering up at me from my back garden, while something Sinister is watching me from a crime scene photo on my wall. If I survive the night (the curse placed on me by an old crone is due to finally reach me come midnight, thinner!) then I hope for my blog to improve and improve, the next milestone is 1000 blog posts, as long as this is not the final year of Humans then I should reach that mark sometime in the next decade.

If you are one of the many, many people who have sent me stuff to do blog posts about then please carry on being patient, I do need to learn how to prioritise. So many books to read, and films to watch! Eventually it will happen and I will catch up. Keep on horror-ing, and keep on reading my blog, and feel free to send me any improvements, or criticisms you have, I love to hear from you.

Anyway, I will sign off now, bit of a self indulgent post, but I do deserve it...probably! Stay safe, and stay scared,

Forever watching,

The Rotting Zombie :)

Holidays with the Living Dead - Zombie Holiday Hotspots

I do not know why but there seems to be a load of zombie stuff around, maybe just because of the time of year.. First a building company had a zombie article, and then a loan comparison site, and now I am pulled to a holiday site (Cosmos Holidays) where there is an article on the different types of zombies you can expect to see around the world come zombie apocalypse.

Each short section has a funny photo of a tourist hotspot with added zombie, such as a Mummy in Eqypt, and a zombified Santas in Lapland with some advice on how best to avoid being bitten. The article really is worth a read, it's short and full of pictures. So follow this link here if you want to see some cool looking photos and read some safety tips that could well be wrong come the apocalypse (or right, who knows)!

Northampton Ghost Tour 2012

I was dead excited to be going on the Northampton Ghost Tour 2012. There were loads of groups going on the tour, a new group every 20 minutes. The tour guide seemed friendly enough, it's just that she was constantly stumbling over her lines she was reading from a script.

So the first stop for our tour was Northampton Museum that used to be a female prison. After the 2nd health and safety lecture of the night we were taken downstairs into the basement. It has been changed a lot, so was hard to imagine that there used to be a prison there. We were led into a small room were a woman (also stumbling constantly over her lines) babbled on about fairy tale Witches before telling us a true story about the mother of some girl who used to live in Northamptonshire and had been accused of being a Witch...but was found innocent. To help with her tale two young girls mimed the events, one playing the mother, and one the daughter. It was not particularly interesting and gave me a bad sign that tonight was going to be a total waste of the Halloween witching hours. Then we were led through the basement and back out on to the streets. An attempt to create scares was made by the girls who banged on a toilet door and screamed a bit, more irritating than anything to be honest.

With a heavy heart we set off to the old courthouse. Yet another health and safety lecture and we were taken into a courtroom were members of the group were asked to take part in a mock trial of a man accused of setting fire to a tramp. All the group were invited to be a part of the thing, apart from me and my sister who were surplus, so we sat at the back of the room bored out of our minds wondering just what this had to do with anything remotely connected to ghosts, or Halloween.

Thankfully the endurance of the trial came to an end and we were led down to the holding cells in the courthouse where many criminals marked for execution used to be kept. Our group was split in two and I headed off to the male holding cells. A great looking old fashioned jailer took us to two different cells, one with a man who had been convicted of dismembering a woman and dumping her body, who read us a letter written to his wife the day before he was killed, and then to a cell of a man who called himself Captain Slash (Captain Slash was actually a real highway man who was executed in Northampton in 1826). His over the tops rantings were fun, you could tell the actor was enjoying himself.  Not soon after the lights went out and the jailer announced a prisoner had escaped. I was at the back of the queue to leave and so had Captain Slash appear from the darkness and try and scare me. I totally wasn't expecting that, but also didn't bat an eyelid as I thought it was just someone touching my shoulder to get past.

We were taken out to the courthouse car park where we were shown were the scaffolds that people used to be hung at (13 at a time) used to be. Unfortunately the tour guide was in a hurry, so after a 'we better hurry I can feel the presence of ghosts' (all said while reading from her script) we were rushed on, not giving me time to appreciate the location.

The courtroom cells was the first actually good part of the evening, so I was more happy as I headed off to the Northampton Library.  After another health and safety lecture we were led up the stairs. First we were told about a Grey Lady ghost who was said to haunt the library (cue little girl walking past in a grey dress). Then about the ghost of a miserable boss said to haunt the place (cue a door opening and a guy shouting at us). Then we were led to a room which had been slightly decked out like a ballroom. During the 2nd World War dances were held there.  Here there was a whole bunch of young girls wearing white face paint (I don't know why, there seemed to be a large surplus of young actor females on the darn tour). They played out some odd dance before advancing on the crowd watching, trying their best to look angry at us. then they retreated up some stairs and acted dead.

We were then led downstairs. Special mention has to go to the staircase here, populated by a boy pretending to be the ghost of a janitor. He was hilarious, shouting at us to move on, and ad libbing a lot, very entertaining, my highlight of the night.

We went into a small room, some guy I couldn't see from around some shelves was reciting a poem or something. It all ended when yet another small girl trying to look ghostly led us out and down some stairs while the janitor appeared again to shout some more at us. Downstairs we were taken outside, here the tour guide told us about the ghost of a builder who was supposed to have died on the site and haunts the staircase we had just came down.

We were then given a little story by more damned young girls about the tale of a cursed doll that roamed the halls of a school in Finedon before some pupils tracked it down and hacked off its feet. Then we were shunted into a small room were an unintelligible poem was recited from a speaker to us.

The night was drawing to a close now and our group were led to a room were we were introduced to a bunch of misfits known as the Northampton Paranormal Research Society. To be truthful this was a great part of the tour. They may have been odd looking, but they were interesting in their shyness and the things they said. It was fascinating to see some real life ghosts hunters. They talked about a poltergeist they investigated who knocked over fridges and lifted up sofas, and they warned vehemently against the use of Ouija boards (as the man said, 'they open up portals to evil dimensions'). So jealous of these guys, they must have an interesting life.

And that was it, tour over at around nearly two hours I got my monies worth (tickets were £7 each). It may not have been scary, it may have been utterly terrible in places but all in all I did enjoy it. Next time I would suggest they actually get some adult actors for the adult roles.

Zombie Life Insurance Ad

I was recently contacted by the Zombie Survival Consultant for Confused.com who gave me a link to a video he had gotten his hands on that shows that when it comes to life insurance zombies are discriminated against. I never really thought about it before but I guess if there were zombies and they had been integrated into society there would be a lot of prejudice against them!

The below video is a fun little advertisement that made me smile, it is awesome when companies go to lengths to make advertisements that are actually entertaining. So feel free to go visit confused.com if you plan on getting life insurance, as shown here, it is too late if you are already dead!

Hunted: The Demon's Forge - Fantasy Videogame Review (X-Box 360)

When this game first came out I was quite interested in it despite its average review scores. It has been described as a Gears of War style dark fantasy game, by that it means there is a lot of cover based shooting (though with crossbows, and bows rather than sci-fi weaponry).

Two mercenaries;  E'lara (a female Elf) and Caddoc (a gruff warrior) are investigating some ruins that Caddoc had been having dreams about. There they discover a mysterious stone and the woman from Caddoc's dream - a strange supernatural being called Seraphine. She tells them that the stone is called the Death Stone and has the power to make them stronger. She tells the duo that a nearby village where she lives has came under attack by monsters (goblin type creatures) and that her body has been kidnapped. With promises of her rich father being able to compensate them for rescuing her they set off.

I really enjoyed this game even if it is pretty much a one trick pony, I have to admit I finished the game months ago so my recollection might be a bit hazy. I tried to write a review at the time but was just not able to do so.  Hunted is a big game, at least 10 hours long I would say. It is split into around 6 to 8 large areas, each made up of many levels.  Initially you are in a town that is under attack by Lord of the Ring style goblins (the games main enemy type). You learn that the captured townsfolk had been taken to the large (very large!) mines under the city. I don't know why but I felt that the mines were the last area in the game so I was very surprised to discover I was not even half way into the game at this point.

Levels for the most part are quite linear, with multiple routes given the illusion of freedom. For the most part Hunted is a cover based shooter. In single player you can choose to be the warrior or Elf, but the Elf with her crossbow was just the obvious choice. It is fun in the same Gears of War way to slowly advance from cover to cover picking off enemies. I can imagine co-op (for which the game is designed) would be a lot of fun. If your partner gets downed you can revive them, and doors that require both of you to open act as check points.

As I mentioned enemies for the most part are goblins, but there are also minotaurs, skeletons and other fantasy monsters as well as a variety of boss battles that split up each area. The story is usual fantasy fare, done with a dark feel. The constant exchange of jokes and insults between the two protagonists is always entertaining and manages to provide a lot of backstory for the two likable people.

Throughout the game you can find new weapons and skills, and you get a RPG lite mechanic where you can upgrade your magic and skills. Expected turret sections appear, as well as survival based sections where you must hold out against waves of attacking enemies. There are plenty of optional side quests which really impressed due to the variety and scope of them. Side quests usually involved quite large areas with their own mood and mini stories. My favourite one involved going into a pitch dark tomb in which you had to use a torch to light your way.  The walls were made up of skeletons whose arms reached out to try and grab you.

As I did say earlier it has been a while since I played the game, but it was a lot of fun, nothing fantastic, but an enjoyable, violent fantasy romp which actually looks quite good save for the odd animation issue (your finishing moves with the bow often look terrible for instance).

SCORE:

Zombie appearances in videogame: Moonwalker (1990)

Moonwalker is quite a fun platformer based on the terrible Michael Jackson film of the same name.  Each level sees you as Jackson searching behind doors, in car boots, behind windows and bushes searching for children, kinda dubious when you think about the rumours. When you find them they say 'Michael!' and run off. Find all the children on a level and Bubbles the chimp appears and leads you to the boss. The game is split into 5 different areas, each with a different theme, and a different Michael Jackson tune playing.

The third area in the game is based in a graveyard, a graveyard where the main enemy type is a zombie. As you search the graveyard zombies rise up from graves, jump in from off screen and appears as bosses. You would think the song choice for this level would be obvious; Thriller right? Nope, instead for some reason the song chosen is 'Another Part of Me'. The Thriller tune appears briefly in one of the boss fights when you do your special dance attack (makes the zombies all start dancing like in Thriller for around 5 seconds). Cool to see zombies, but to this day I have never understood why the blatantly wrong song choice was chosen, though it has been suggested it may have been copyright issues as Michael Jackson never actually wrote Thriller.

Silent Hill: Revelation 3D - Horror Film Trailer

I didn't mind the first Silent Hill film, it did an acceptable job of transforming the game onto the big screen. Saying that though I never expected a sequel, and definitely not one were Sean Bean would return to reprise his role.  Silent Hill: Revelation looks to be heavily influenced by the Silent Hill 3 videogame.

Cheryl; the girl who had gone missing in the cursed town as a small child is now grown up when events lead her back to the town of Hell. As always I am dubious by the use of 3D, if it is anything like how the Resident Evil films have treated 3D it will just be a lot of things being thrown at the camera (such as Pyramid Heads giant sword as seen in the below trailer).  Silent Hill: Revelation 3D is out on Halloween, I shall hopefully be seeing it before the end of the week and will give you my thoughts then.

Paranormal Activity 4 (2012) - Horror Film Review

Yeah, yet another Paranormal Activity film is out. I was patient, I enjoyed the first two but the third was just a snooze fest which brought no new ideas (actually removed some as it was set in the past). The fourth film introduces the magical wonder of X-Box's Kinect.

Paranormal Activity 4 is a direct sequel to two, set in 2011, five years after possessed Aunt Katie kidnaps her nephew Hunter and vanishes. Alex; a 15 year old girl starts noticing strange things are happening in her house when creepy kid Robbie from across the street moves in due to his Mom being hospitalised for a few days. Robbie is always serious, walks around the house in the dead of night, and talks to a sinister imaginary friend. Anyway with all this bizarre stuff happening (things moving around on their own, loud unexplainable noises) Alex and her boyfriend Ben secretly set up webcams all over the house to catch any of this stuff. Knowing the format of the previous 3 films you can pretty much imagine what happens next.

Sigh. Paranormal Activity 4 is a scary film in places, it is just that it is so predictable now that many of the scares are completely reduced. There is only so many times you can see someone being dragged off down a hallway by an unknown force before it becomes normal, and expected. Having seen the terrifying Sinister the night before this was like entering the shallow end of a pool of terror, parts were scary but nothing compared to that film.  Being a found footage there is of course no soundtrack but I found this quite distracting this time around, again going back to Sinister but that proved what a gigantic addition music is to horror. It tries so hard to scare, to be creepy but almost always fails. Not one of the dozen or so jump scares in Paranormal Activity 4 made me jump, or even be surprised, while as mentioned the dragging scenes, and floating objects, shutting doors etcetera made little impact. The only fearful parts for me here were the loud random noises, and of course the last 5 minutes which were a thrill ride, much like in 3. You can't recommend a film based on the last 5 minutes though. The usual format of day and night cycles are used here, ensuring each time it turns to day any kind of atmosphere has dissipated.

The plot has gotten a bit lost now, having spread over 4 films a story that should have been told in 1, maybe 2 at most. The tag line for this one is 'All the activity has led to this...' I'm sorry to say but no, no it hasn't at all, nothing is explained, instead more convolution is added, it feels like padding to draw out the already stretched out storyline. The characters are for the most part unlikeable. Alex and her boyfriend are fun, nice characters, but Alex's parents are idiots, and of course her neighbours are just horrid. I must say though that Aiden Lovekamp who plays Alex's kid brother Wyatt does a fantastic job, more so than the creepy Robbie kid played by Brady Allen who does everything that makes badly done spooky little kid film roles so terrible and in the process comes across as totally fake.

The whole point of setting up the cameras all over the house were to record the strange goings on, yet after the first few nights truly messed up stuff starts being filmed, yet no one ever bothers to look at the recordings again, a week or so later and not once has Alex or her boyfriend checked the footage when that was the whole point in the first place. Really it is just a crummy plot excuse to have cameras everywhere. It is also stupid that Alex is impotent, unable to get anyone to even listen to her, let alone dismiss her claims that something is in the house, though I guess the parents; portrayed as preoccupied with their marital strife hardly even acknowledge their children, or each other.

I just can't recommend this film, maybe if you have never seen a previous one in the series, but then what's the point of starting here? I really really hope they wrap up the story in Paranormal Activity 5 (already being made) as it should have been ended a long time ago. If the X-Box motion sensor was the only new idea they could bring (apparently it is able to reveal ghosts) then they need to find something different that I can actually Kinect to for the next one.

SCORE:

Witch Dog - Halloween News

The dog in its Witch costume might look cute but soon after this picture was taken it went on a rampage, killing 3 and critically injuring 4 more. It was eventually subdued when a S.W.A.T team were called in and after a tense battle its satanic powers were defeated. Police Commissioner for the Northampton Metropolitan Police commented on the incident saying "It is a shame when dogs like this one lose their way and turn to the dark arts, to be honest I blame the owners, the tell tale signs were all there".