The Killgrin (2024) - Horror Film Review

The effects of the sleeping pill I took the night before last has nearly faded now. That is good as it means I can pay proper attention to the films I am watching for review, without being in a dozy trance. The Killgrin is a by the numbers supernatural horror that was directed by Joanna Tsanis (Mourn). Don't quote me on this, but I think this may be a feature length version of her short film, Smile. The central idea of this horror reminded me a lot of the similarly titled Smile, but not done as well thanks to an uninspiring antagonist force and some goofy effects.

Miranda (Konstantina Mantelos - Smile, and a co-writer of this film) is not having a good time of it. First, her ex-boyfriend was such a big stalker that she had to have a restraining order put out against him, but now, her current boyfriend has committed suicide by leaping out their apartment window. She begins to look for answers for her misery, joining a therapy group, as well as looking more outside the box, such as heading to a fortune teller. It is at the later that she is told that she might be afflicted with a 'killgrin'; a supernatural entity that feeds off of suffering. Miranda doesn't pay that much heed, but as those afflicted with sadness start to die in horrifically similar ways around her, she begins to suspect there might be some shocking truth in the fortune teller's words.

This supernatural movie fitted all too comfortably into the horror sub-genre it was a part of. I had a constant feeling of déjá vu watching this, which wouldn't have been so bad if parts of this had been done better. My biggest bugbear was the design of the evil, and how it affected those it tormented. The design of the monster wasn't the best, it kind of looked like a guy in a monster suit, and brought to mind the deadite from the well at the start of Army of Darkness. I liked that it was constantly dripping teeth off its malformed body, but it didn't look great, nor did the CG heavy effects of it turning into black smoke. It didn't help that it is barely seen until the third act, the first two thirds all the viewer is treated to is the black smoke, perhaps a blessing when the reveal doesn't land very well. There was also an issue with the method of death. It forces its victims mouth into an inverted grin, eventually causing the jaw to dislocate and rip open. This leads to moments where the protagonist is in the clutches of this evil and has the most ridiculous silly effects to simulate this happening to her. It didn't look great it has to be said.

That was actually a shame, as the rest of the movie, while predictable and familiar, was not bad. I thought Mantelos was great in the lead role, special mention goes to alcoholic side character - Brian (Adam Tsekhman - One in Two People). I admit to thinking he might have been more evil than his innocent character appeared, but he brought light and sunshine to each scene he was in, and I personally loved the set design for his apartment. The less said about the sub plot of the two detectives investigating the strange deaths the better, I liked them, but it didn't make the horror seem any less stupid. An early death was awkwardly moved past by just not being mentioned, despite the outlandish way the victim died. Apparently a character randomly dying in their flat by their jaw being ripped off was just a 'tragic event' with no further insight than that! There were not really any bad characters to be found, no complaints with the casting choices, it was the story decisions that were at fault.

The best thing I can really say about The Killgrin is that at least it wasn't quite as bad as The Bye Bye Man. Similar in format, but with a better cast, this one had potential, it was at least neat for looking at the topic of depression and how that (literally here) can bring a dark cloud over you, but it didn't stick the landing, with an antagonist that looked more stupid than scary. When your main draw is such an ineffective creation, the movie just isn't able to function as an effective horror. The Killgrin releases in the second quarter this year thanks to High Fliers Films.

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Stranger Things: Season 5 (2025) - Horror TV Show Review

I will start as always with my obligatory statement about having been made redundant from my bill paying job just in time for Christmas. That is relevant as it coincided with the release of the fifth and final season of amazing horror TV show - Stranger Things. Due to the turmoil in my actual life, it was only on Christmas that I got around to watching this final season (binged watched the first 7 episodes over two days with my family), and with the way the show is being released, at the time of typing, the final episode has yet to be released. I believe it is coming out on New Years Eve. As much as I enjoyed season 4, I would be lying if I said there were not large parts of it I did have issue with. It sometimes felt in a bid to stuff as many characters in it as possible, some of those characters were given pretty abysmal storylines. On the flip side; it did have Eddie - one of the show's best overall characters.
Part of my hesitation for watching this final season was whether the ball would be dropped, whether all the characters growth and stories would come together for a blissful whole. Not having seen the final episode (at the time of typing this section), I can't yet answer that. What I can say is; there will be unavoidable spoilers for previous seasons.

The fourth season ended on a heck of a cliff-hanger; with Vecna's (Jamie Campbell Bower - Twilight) plan successful, the hellish Up-Side down tore open gateways into the sleepy town of Hawkins. The fifth picks up roughly two years later, with a lot of the damage covered up by the military. Hawkins has become quarantined, with no one allowed out of the town, and only certain people allowed in. The cover-up is that the 'natural phenomenon' that flooded the area with ash, could have infected the inhabitants with a new type of a possibly contagious disease. In actuality, the military have used the quarantine as an excuse to send in lots and lots of soldiers. They sealed up the majority of the dimensional tears with vast steel plates, leaving one entrance left which they guard with heavy security. Going even further, the army have set up a compound inside the Upside-Down where experiments have been going on, the soldiers all answering to ruthless military scientist Dr. Kay (Linda Hamilton - Terminator 2: Judgement Day).
The heroes of the show have spent the past two years searching the Up-Side Down for signs of Vecna, with Hopper (David Harbour) sneaking in whenever the army open up their guarded gateway, but they have began to get disillusioned with their lack of progress as there has been no sign of the monster. That is until their latest expedition, when it becomes clear Vecna has resurfaced from his hibernation. He is back, and with a new plan that involves kidnapping certain children who are all of an age that Will (Noah Schnapp) was when he was first taken.

It felt a little dialled back how everything is in Hawkins compared to the season 4 finale, but viewers are soon brought up to speed on what is happening, mostly via a radio broadcast that Robin (Maya Hawke) is doing in her new role as the town D.J. With the age of the child actors ever increasing, this time skip was needed, and it works. With the trouncing that Vecna had, it made sense he needed time to recuperate from his wounds. One of my complaints from season 4 was how the huge cast of characters only came together right in the final episode. This time around it gets things right, with the characters reuniting at several points during the season, as well as going off in their often humorous or exciting groups. The story obviously begins in 'Chapter One: The Crawl', then never lets up. Each episode follows on directly from the preceding one, so it feels like one uninterrupted highly action packed story going on, rather than skips in time. Before, some of the characters were dealt dirty, appearing in pathetic side stories that had little bearing on the main plot. Here, the characters are handled much more sensibly, every side story here is relevant to the overall plot, with no filler to be found.
Despite a large cast of characters, even more new ones are added here, with two in particular really standing out. Early on in 'Chapter Two: The Vanishing of Holly Weaver', the titular Holly (Nell Fisher - Evil Dead Rise) is captured by Vecna's monsters and ends up in a fantastical dreamworld creation. She was a great new character, and she gets a substantial role as she explores the dreamworld, giving revelations to Vecna's origin that was last seen hinted at in the stage play - Stranger Things: The First Shadow. Another great new character was 'Dipsh*t' Derek (Jake Connelly), a big boned child bully who in the best Stranger Things fashion (see Steve - Joe Keery), was made very likeable, despite his many personality flaws. Returning characters are on the whole as enjoyable as they ever where, for better or for worse. Nancy (Natalia Dyer) and Jonathan (Charlie Heaton) are still my least favourite of the core cast, but at least this time around they are more relevant to the story (and the later finally redeemed himself in my eyes in the final episode). I thought the dynamics between Steve and Dustin (Gaten Matarazzo) was perfect here, and has some of the biggest feels, with Dustin still deep in mourning after the death of his idol Eddie last season. It felt like all characters here were treated well. Ones who had only ever had secondary roles are thrust right into the forefront of the plot, while new ones were given enough screen time to shine and make an impression.

There is plenty of action here right from the start. The iconic Demogorgons feature heavily in many of the these scenes, and the army act as a second enemy for the heroes to face, sometimes leading to thrilling three way battles where the different groups all end up in combat with one another. The soldiers are mostly presented as an enemy force, but I did feel a bit bad for the grunts who often act as cannon-fodder for the advancement of the story, with monsters and heroes alike blasting them away without a care in the world, when to me, the grunts just seemed like normal people trying to do the jobs they had been assigned. The special effects are on the whole amazing, with only certain scenes with large scale action scenes looking occasionally a little bit CG heavy.
Up to the final episode, you get psychic powers, gun battles, car chases, deep revelations as to the nature of the Up-Side Down, and surprising new insights into known characters, Will in particular really comes into his own, even if his core side-plot is dealing with his homosexuality, that to my (poor) memory had already been dealt with last season. The new friendship between him and equally gay Robin, was one pair-up that I didn't see coming, but which works fantastically well. Each episode manages to end on a big cliff-hanger that always brought me right back to find out what happens next. But what about that final episode, did it stick the landing, or did it Game of Thrones it smack bang into a wall? At the time of typing I do not know, it is just under a week until that final episode airs. This review will be continued in 2026, where I will write the last few paragraphs, to follow...here.

Having now seen that final two hour episode, I can say that for me it did stick the landing. Literally my only complaint was how long the epilogue section was; did we really need a 40 minute epilogue? I thought Bower's performance was astoundingly good in this finale. The show maintained its amazing pacing, making for me one of my favourite seasons, and ending on a loving note. I don't get the hate for this season, enough hate that the myth of a secret ninth episode that wraps up the story more satisfactory soon came to be believed. A near perfect end to a wonderful show, Stranger Things is a modern classic.

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Chicken Dinner Restaurant (2023) - Comedy Film Review

After recently reviewing surreal horror comedy Bluetooth Speaker, the director of that; Dallas Ryan, asked me if I wanted to check out another film of his. That film was the 2023 indie comedy Chicken Dinner Restaurant. He pre-warned me that it wasn't a horror, but figuring it would have the same surreal comedy his horror films do, I decided to check it out. I feel surreal comedy is a distant cousin of horror, both share a somewhat unsettling quality.

Chloe (Chloe Brewer - Bluetooth Speaker, Live One), Dallas (Dallas Ryan - Bluetooth Speaker, Live One) and Ryan (Ryan Vania - Bluetooth Speaker, Live One) are three employees at CDR (chicken dinner restaurant obviously). One day, on their lunch break, Dallas informs them that he found an old treasure map at his home, and that if they follow the clues on the map that they will discover the legendary lost gold of Fester Hopperfoot.

This indie comedy was easily identifiable as being one of the director's films. He has a unique style that has his comedy being played straight, yet being very weird at the same time. This was co-written by the three stars, and was apparently based on their TV show The Chloe, Dallas, and Ryan Show. From the clear story at the start, this descends into something more akin to a sketch show, with the three leads playing a variety of characters, many of these characters looking identical aside from wearing different clothing. Most the time, the characters even share the exact same names as one another. The story about the search for the hidden gold is a minor one within the film. The other subplots make up the rest of the film and include such bizarre moments as a news reporter trying to uncover what has happened to L.A's Tupperware, and three candidates for the position of mayor, who are all endorsing the use of drugs as part of their campaign pledge. That last one had the most screen time, with the three characters constantly giving speeches to the camera. Nearly the entire film is shot outside, mostly in and around parking lots, and much of this has characters directly talking to the camera, rather than to each other, with it inferred they are being filmed by a camera crew. The same actors playing identical looking characters means that title cards for each new scene are given, to give some background on who the characters were. I actually thought those moments, along with the chill music, were some of the more pleasant moments to be found here.

These scenes, and dialogues are all interspersed with the popcorn munching 'movie watcher' (Steve Bilecz - Bluetooth Speaker, Live One), a character outside the movie proper who represents the viewer, and who points out the inconsistencies and flaws of the filmmaking. From complaining about the loud background interference that plagues the outdoor scenes, to pointing out that the locations used and characters that appear all look very similar to each other, he speaks for the viewer. Usually, I find the films of Ryan to outstay their welcome, I was surprised then to see that Chicken Dinner Restaurant runs for a nice and lean 68 minutes. Even at this length, it felt almost a bit overlong, not helped by a chaotic edited finale that was a mishmash of images edited together with discordant music playing for around six of the final eight minutes.

The comedy isn't given via jokes and visual humour, instead it is via the random dialogue characters speak. Like the other films, it sometimes felt like the lines were being made up on the spot, with frequent repetition, and over empathising different words. This is compounded by editing techniques that include lines of dialogue being repeated over and over again (in one instance for literal minutes!), and characters motions being repeated. Sometimes with the view zooming in with each subsequent repetition, sometimes with the film speed slowed down. These were all odd but entertaining, if occasionally a bit indulgent. Elsewhere, where dialogue is edited it becomes really noticeable, with dead silence replacing the near constant background hum of traffic and people going about their days, rather than words beeped out.

This was a weird indie comedy that had all the hallmarks that I have come to expect from the director. This is a film that recognises its budget constraints, and even uses these as a way to further its comedy. More an extended sketch show than a film proper, it might have started to feel a bit samey by the time the end credits rolled, but this was a chilled affair, and one that remains consistent throughout. Chicken Dinner Restaurant isn't going to appeal to everyone, but it really wasn't bad. Chicken Dinner Restaurant can be viewed on Tubi.

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Garten of Banban II (2023) - Horror Video Game Review

It was about what I expected when I played through the first in the Garten of Banban series of video games last month. A mascot horror game that takes heavy inspiration from the much better made Poppy Playtime series. I did say then, that if I saw the subsequent ones on sale I would take a look of them. Less than a month later and those games are on sale, so I gave Garten of Banban II a try. Unavoidable spoilers for the first game to follow.

The first game ended with you descending on a hidden elevator into the depths of the Banban's Kindergarten, before getting attack by a giant creature. This one picks up immediately afterwards, the attack caused the elevator to crash, with you saved by the creature breaking the elevator's fall. You emerge into a secret underground complex, and it is there that someone spots you on the complex's camera system. A man's voice informs you that he has become trapped in the security room, and has asked for your assistance in finding the key card to free him. Can this man be trusted though?

Much like with Poppy Playtime Chapter 2, Garten of Banban II is more of the same but offers a larger experience than the roughly 45 minutes of the first game. It is hard to quantify exactly how long this one took, as I did have the game paused for minutes at a time due to texting a friend while playing. I reckon that this one took me just over an hour to complete, and at a once again dirt cheap price, I find it hard to complain about that length. Thankfully, while still obviously low budget (the signs on the walls and the notes you find still all appear like they were written on MS Paint!), this was a much better made game than before, and is made up of more than just one long corridor with branching rooms off of it. Again in first person, your main goal is finding key cards to proceed further into the labyrinthian underground complex. You still have a drone that you can send to press switches, though this seemed to be used less this time around. Puzzles were all easy, but they were fun to do, not so easy that they felt pointless obstacles to progress. These puzzles range from collecting a group of chick mascots and returning them to their nest, to pressing switches in a correct order, and one sweat inducing platforming section over a large pit, which was more fun than its similar counterpart in the first game. The highlight of this second game was when you find yourself inadvertently trapped in a classroom with a teacher mascot, having to answer the questions she gives you, with surreal break time mini-stories involving the other students, who were made up of non-sentient watering cans, bowling pins, and shade wearing basketballs! I really enjoyed that section, felt unique, doing something different in feel to Poppy Playtime at last.

Before there were only the two mascot antagonists, and both barely featured. For this second game there were at least six of the creatures. I can't recall their names, but these included the return of the bird from the first game, the teacher mascot, a giant snail, a large spider, and a hulking great green monster among others. Similar to Poppy Playtime, some of these mascots are able to talk. The voice acting wasn't great, it felt like they had just dragged random people off the streets to read the lines. In the context of these normal voices coming out of vaguely creepy looking creatures though, the voice work grew on me. There were plenty of jump scare moments should you get caught in any of the sections where that is possible, unlike my first experience, here, I jumped a fair few times. The chapter culminates in a chase sequence, that while not original, was pretty cool, mainly due to the wonderfully massive Jumbo Josh. Dotted around the game world are letters and video tapes. I never actually got a chance to use the tapes, but the letters added a surprising amount of lore to what had seemed to be a wafer thin game story-wise. There are still many lingering questions, but I had far more of an idea what was going on than I did previously.
Level design is better here, but again, the game world doesn't feel like a realistic place, you have dark chasms that stretch into darkness, and this place if real, you would have to assume was created by a maniac, due to the amount of artificial puzzles and level design. It is after all a game though, so perhaps I'm being a bit harsh on that front.

Garten of Banban II was a lot more fun to play than the first. It is still obviously low quality, but I found this to be better designed in general, and I didn't really find any of it frustrating to get through. It also delighted by doing some original things, rather than just feeling like a copied clone. Even with those new ideas, I could never escape the feeling that this is just a poor imitation of a better series, but I would be lying if I said there wasn't some fun to be had here, and would be lying if I said I didn't immediately boot up the third game at the completion of this one.

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Blood Barn (2025) - Horror Film Review

I watched Blood Barn the day after I took a strong sleeping pill, due to a period of terrible sleep. It worked in finally giving me a great night's sleep, but it also meant I was in a bit of a groggy stupor the next day. In the case of this movie it added to the trippy vibe. Directed and co-written by Gabriel Bernini (Triple Thriller) in his feature length directorial debut, this out of time horror splatter fest felt like a remake of The Evil Dead, but one built from memory, and while under the effect of a healthy dose of LSD. This makes it something that feels a little familiar, but also stands out on its own. 

A group of camp counsellors decide to celebrate their last summer together before they part ways for college, by having a weekend break at a secluded barn that Josie's (Lena Redford - And Back Again) family owns. Not really a part of the core group, she secretly hopes this idea of hers will bring her closer to the rest of the tight knit teens. The group include Josie herself, alongside best friends; Amanda (Andrea Bambina) and Rachel (Chloe Cherry), and four others. The partying soon begins in earnest, with the group wild and disrespectful of the converted barn and its belongings. Unknown to all, there is a supernatural presence in the barn that is not happy at having its peace shattered, and seeks a way to punish those who have invaded its domain.

I really should have made a note of characters names as I was watching this, as it turns out I can't identify who a lot of the male actor's characters were. The cast of seven are introduced by a lovely montage/credit sequence of the characters dancing and goofing around in a car prior to arriving at the barn. This was the first of several montage sequences, others including one set at a small lake, and a later one showing a volleyball competition between the friends. These, coupled with later ones, often had an intimate close-up feel, with the hand operated camera swinging around in-between the characters, adding to the retro look and feel of the picture. With the saturated look and sublime upbeat retro musical score, and made for VHS feel, this seemed like a film lost out of time. A retro throwback to practical effects heavy horrors of the 1980s and before. Most notably, as mentioned in my prologue, this reminded me of The Evil Dead. The film features many moments where the unseen horror is shown in first person perspective rushing around the barn and the surrounding area. Completely its own thing, this nonetheless shares similarities, such as individual members of the group getting possessed by the evil and coming back as out of control psychotic zombie type creatures. There isn't much effort put into fleshing out the characters, they seem as wafer thin as their personalities suggest, the boys mostly over the top goofy and playful, the girls not much better. Their dynamic worked well, making the scenes of them partying work well, while making it clear that Josie, and the more introverted Simon (Simon Paris) are the only real rational ones. Of course, none of the cast actually look like they are in their teenage years, but this fits the style of this type of retro film, where cast members often looked far older than they were supposed to be.
There is backstory vaguely suggested for why the barn is haunted, but this is never explained in detail, with the briefest allusions from Josie that every family has their secrets, and that hers had more than most.

The horror flows thick and fast, and there is plenty of blood throughout, and fun practical effects. The evil mostly manifests by endless coils of possessed rope, which again, reminded me of the twisting vines from The Evil Dead (a character even meets their end in a gender swapped recreation of the infamous 'tree rape' scene from that other classic!). This is all shown by great practical effects, which always looked fantastic. From early scenes of character's clothes being sucked into the ground, to twisting ropes and ghostly bloody figures, this never skimped on the craziness. There are a lot of fun ideas here, and my only real complaint would be that the third act becomes a bit abstract and hard to follow due to the sheer insanity of the unfolding chaos. Scenes become bathed in thick red light, and locations become fluid and surreal, such as when a character gets pulled into a chest and emerges into a small red room where he is attacked by an assailant wearing farmer's clothes. When characters become possessed, they have the same white/grey waxy look from Evil Dead, and act in a similar murderous manner. The biggest difference being how weak the possessed become, taking lethal injuries that wouldn't have done much harm to a normal person. There are decapitations, partial decapitations, people dancing on ceilings, and leaping out of windows. It all looks absolutely manic and animated, and fits the hallucinogenic vibe of the film very well.

By recreating the feel of an eighties classic, Blood Barn succeeds with its wild story and practical effects, but also felt a little style over substance. Don't come here expecting well developed characters and a satisfying plot, but do come for some wonderful looking and absolutely chaotic scenes of comedically dark horror, with a healthy dose of blood thrown in. This all combines to make a wonderfully manic horror that doesn't waste a moment of its lean 76 minute runtime. Blood Barn had its L.A premiere on Friday 13th, and streams exclusively on SCREAMBOX, starting 17th February.

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We Put the World to Sleep (2025) - Thriller Film Review

Be My Cat: A Film for Anne is one of the few films I have reviewed on my site where my opinion has changed over time. The found footage, that starred Romanian filmmaker Adrian Tofei as a fictional version of himself came at the tail end of a shift in found footage horrors where the antagonist became the leading character in the film. Other examples that spring to mind being Creep and A Guidebook to Killing Your Ex. The strength of these movies relies on the believability of the central character, and with Be My Cat, you had a mesmerising performance from Tofei. His latest film - We Put the World to Sleep has been a long time coming, with ten years of production that included four years of editing the hundreds of hours of footage into a cohesive feature length whole. This spiritual successor is a very very weird film, unsure at first, I came to love the dedication and bizarre direction this went in.
I try to avoid spoilers as standard, but with the director requesting not to spoil anything about the story, for this review, I will try to be even more careful than usual.

The 80 minute mockumentary begins as one thing and alters course, with a distinctly different second chapter that is referenced in teasers for the film. The film's title - We Put the World to Sleep, refers to central protagonists - Adrian Tofei (again playing a fictional version of himself) and his real life wife - Duru Yücel (Dura Yücel also playing a fictional version of herself) coming to believe that humanity would be better off if it didn't exist. Initially they planned to make a found footage type mockumentary about this, but then use the film as a pretext for actually bringing about the end of the world. That is the start of a meta and very convoluted descent into the rabbit hole, where the viewer is made to feel ever unsure what is real and what is part of the illusion.

Even more so than Be My Cat, We Put the World to Sleep adheres deeply to making the protagonists feel like real people, rather than actors. Both give performances that never once feel like the fake onscreen personas are fabricated, going at lengths to give this a feel of reality, such as scenes shot in actual locations like busy streets and airports around an unsuspecting cast of real background characters going about their real lives. This is a really weird film to talk about, with the characters within the mockumentary making a mockumentary, the actors blurring the lines between reality and fiction in an increasing brain hurting way. The first half was a different beast to part two, and sees the two heading to a variety of locations, from Romania, to Ukraine and Türkiye. Their story of trying to find a way to end the world was a bit hard to follow with its exploration of future tech and A.I, but that is just a slight part of it. Keeping to the imitation of reality, Tofei's previous horror is directly mentioned at various points, with him even returning to filming locations from that modern horror along the way. 
The second half of the film dials down the adventure, giving a different feel with a singular location, that revolves around a fascination with real life serial killer - Richard Ramirez. This second part feels disconnected in terms of the story telling to the first, but the themes of getting lost within characters, and the blurring of reality and fiction both resonate well with each other.

Going into this expecting a rehash of Be My Cat may leave you disappointed, as the horror here, if it could be called that, is far more slight. This isn't suggested to be found footage, instead, as frequent screens of text suggest, this is a mockumentary about the in-film characters trying to put together a movie. The two leads stay in character throughout and present a far more balanced and normal feel to them than the over the top unaware madness of Tofei in his first film. It is far more talky here, with a large amount of the movie being conversations between Tofei and his wife, including scenes of them just living together, with relatable drama. There are a handful of other roles, some of which are people the couple are talking to on their laptop. Of the technological side, that is another meta part of the film, with it opening as if an unseen person is finding the movie on a laptop and manually playing it, at times the film paused while the unseen person searches the internet for more information on things discussed. All very meta and all very convoluted in a way that I found increasingly fascinating.

We Put the World to Sleep is a very hard film to talk about. It stretches the idea of found footage and mockumentaries to its extreme, delighting with its ideas presented, while keeping a humorous tone that had me smiling with the absurd but not cringe inducing situations. At the start of this I feared it wasn't going to be for me. By film's end I felt like I had seen something special, albeit, something that might not have the same wide reaching appeal of the more simple first film in this thematically connected trilogy (Pure being the third film). Tofei was the standout star first time around, here, both Tofei and Yücel jointly share the limelight, impressive stuff. We Put the World to Sleep won a variety of awards last year, and this year comes more festival appearances, with the European premiere of the film happening at the Romford Horror Festival in London on February 20th.

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The Rotting Zombie's News Anthology for Thursday 12th February 2026

The second news post of the day I am writing (at time of typing). I found that using one day to watch the films, and the second day to write the news posts has worked out much better than trying to do bits every day. I had intended to watch 28 Years Later: The Bone Temple last Tuesday, but now that is scheduled for today, so fingers crossed I get to see it before it leaves the cinema! Onwards to the news.

As an exclusive world premiere, FOUND TV is going to be debuting Human Hibachi 3: The Last Supper on Friday, February 20th. Once again directed by Mario Cerrito, this latest instalment follows a man who forms a cult, and leads his followers to a ritualized 'last supper' where human flesh is no doubt consumed once again. Once mor in the found footage style, this third entry intends to '...blend(s) psychological horror with themes of religious extremism'. Back in 2023, I reviewed Human Hibachi 2: Feast in the Forest, giving it a respectable 6/10 and saying "...the characters mainly were decent enough, found footage horror films shown from the perspective of the antagonists isn't a new idea, but it does make for entertaining movies". More info for the third film can be found here.

Keeping on the queasy subject of cannibalism; Continuance has been released on Digital platforms worldwide (including to rent/buy on Amazon Prime Video) thanks to VIPCO & BayView Entertainment. Written and directed by Tony Olmos (Hemet, or the Landlady Don't Drink Tea), and starring Tony Gorodeckas, Noor Razooky and Teresa Suarez Grosso -  this tells the story of a cannibalistic serial killer, his wife, and their housekeeper who want to hide from society before an inevitable economic crash, but first need to do one last supply run. 

Finally for today, Italian horror; Through the Deepening Night has also been released on Digital platfroms via BayView Entertainment. Coming from award-winning director Davide Montecchi, this one is about a young woman who rents a remote house, and is then given a method for communicating with the dead from a mysterious woman. Things don't go well and the young woman finds herself in a battle for survival.

Gracie (2026) - Horror Film Review

Gracie is a low budget indie psychological horror that was directed and co-written by Eric E. Poe in his feature length directorial debut. The film tells a familiar story with obvious twists to it, but despite the low budget, it tells its story in a competent and entertaining way.

Vincent (Tommy Cooper) is a mild mannered and timid office worker who lives alone with his sister; the titular Gracie (Erin Brown - Midnight Massacre). From the prologue sequence, the viewer is shown that Gracie happens to be a psychotic killer, a secret that isn't kept from Vincent who does his best to try and curtail her murderous ways. When Vincent begins a relationship with his fellow office worker - Meredith (Mary Troutman - Ghosts of EastWind Castle), his sister's anger threatens to derail this unexpected and welcome surprise.

I didn't quite know what to expect at first, especially with the prologue featuring Gracie murdering a random guy with a crowbar. With her iconic white dress and black gloves, she has a very distinct look. Her over the top evil ways I felt were a bit cartoonish, but in context this actually works well for the character. Hopelessly demented, and not really helped by Vincent whose timidness and loyalty prevent him from doing the right thing by her. A crowbar as the weapon of choice was something a little different, and over the course of the 80 minute movie it is used plenty of times, on plenty of victims - deserving and otherwise. Cooper made for an interesting protagonist, and the cast in general were a decent bunch. I liked how 'normal' everyone looked, these are all characters who you wouldn't bat an eyelid if you happened to pass them in public, which helped with the story being told. One odd problem I personally had was not really being able to tell the difference between the character of Meredith and Det. Hermione Jones (Nicole Swanson - Gather by the Ghost Light; podcast series). The actors looked so similar to each other (in my eyes), that when they were in the same location, I struggled to tell them apart from each other! This led to a somewhat confusing finale for the film, even if it was also exciting at the same time. 
The pacing of the film was decent, everything proceeds towards an epic (for a film of this type) finale, let down only by an ill placed flashback sequence, and then followed up with an epilogue that was plain bizarre.

Being an indie film, there were only a limited amount of locations, with much of the film either taking place at the offices where Vincent worked, or at his dark and dingy home. The film never felt or looked restricted though, and there were a fair number of characters to make the film feel like a lived in world.
The plot was nothing surprising, though to give an example of a similar film would likely give a spoiler. It might have not surprised me, but the story was executed well, and the runtime didn't have many wasted moments. As for the soundtrack, it served its purpose, but didn't leave much of an impression - maybe the weakest part of the movie for me.

Gracie may not feel original, but I thought it was surprisingly well made, and with a good cast of actors. I enjoyed my time with this, taking me away from the horrors of the real world to the fun horrors of a crowbar wielding maniac and her protective brother!

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The Rotting Zombie's News Anthology for Tuesday 10th February 2026

Another week and another trilogy of news stories. This year while currently in-between bill paying jobs, I have been trying to do blog weeks, where I work full time on my site. It hasn't exactly been going well, until yesterday at least, where rather than sticking to a rigid 09:00-17:00, I instead just set a task of watching and reviewing three films, it went well. By the time this post goes up, I should have gone to the cinema and finally got around to watching 28 Years Later: The Bone Temple, am excited for it at time of typing (update - that didn't happen today, but is now Thursday I'm meant to be seeing it). 

Described as a '...horrific psychological thriller', Velvicide is due to be released by BayView Entertainment, if not already out. Directed by Kenneth Perkins, the film follows protagonist Velvet Stevens, who recounts the details of her own abduction. The press release states '...escape was only the first act.'.

Christmas horror - Shiver: Slaying All Night has entered full production, filming on location in the White Mountains of New Hampshire. Written and directed by Robert Resto, this sees a bunch of guests and students staying at a remote ski resort being targeted by Vincent; a disturbed man who lives out in the surrounding woods. Described as a tribute to classic slashers, this promises '...old-school practical horror'.

Finally for today, The Mourning Architect is an upcoming gothic horror about a former punk-rock icon reconnecting with their estranged daughter, only for the girl to be inadvertently killed by a vigilante serial killer. These events lead to the parent and killer alike heading to a 19th-century mansion that is haunted by a immortal spirit who specialises in turning human grief into disturbing works of art. Written and directed by Joe Hollow (The Family Business), this features Joe Castro (Terror Toons), Debbie Rochon (Tromeo and Juliet), Elissa Dowling (Girl on the Third Floor), Debra Lamb (The Devil's Disciples) and Harley Wallen (Ash and Bone) among others. Filming for The Mourning Architect begins this April in Florida.

Bight (2026) - Thriller Film Review

Bight is the feature length directorial debut of Maiara Walsh, who also co-wrote this alongside Cameron Cowperthwaite (both of whom co-star). It was described as an erotic thriller, and to be honest; that isn't a subgenre that I'm particularly fond of, nor am I a fan of bondage type goings on, all a bit over the top for me. Going into this with that attitude, I soon found myself feeling like my expectations were correct. However, despite not being a huge fan of the subject matter, I found myself drawn into this dark and depressing tale that oozed atmosphere and had a killer soundtrack.

Charlie (Walsh - The Vampire Diaries) and her artist husband Atticus (Cowperthwaite - Fallout) have been invited to what they believe to be a party at their mutual friend's place - the apartment of artist Naomi (Maya Stojan - Castle) and her photographer husband; Sebastian (Mark Hapka - Ghost Whisperer: The Other Side). Charlie and Atticus have been having relationship difficulties, mainly due to her being too caught up in her work, while she believes Atticus to have become dull and unwilling to take risks like they used to. Their plans to stay at the party for just one drink are scuppered when they realise that they were the only people invited. Sebastian reveals that he had actually invited them there for a special project he was working on. He wants to tie up Charlie and Atticus in bondage ropes for a special photoshoot, which he states will be the centre piece for the art project he is working on. Due to the couples issues, Charlie agrees to this, hoping it will bring some of the spark back to her husband. Unknown to them both, Sebastian has drugged their drinks, and what begins as an erotic photoshoot begins to turn into something far more sinister as Sebastian reveals the real reason they are there.

The prologue featured the protagonists in the shower together washing what appeared to be bloodstains off of their bodies. It was that image which initially kept me invested; I figured that was a flash forward from later in the movie, and that the drama of the night would turn into something more appropriately horror-like. The first half of this 90 or so minute thriller didn't have much horror at all in the traditional sense. There was however, a fascinating atmosphere of something not being quite right. A lot of this was down to the lighting, the apartment the majority of the film is set in is a very dark place. Not dark as in hard to see anything, more that the lighting is dim, that coupled with how miserable and on edge everyone was led to there being an unsettling feel despite nothing appearing to be wrong. The characters were all pretentious and a little insufferable, but they were unified in this feeling, coming across as the artistic types they were meant to be. Lots of analysing of paintings, and discussion of painting methods and artistic inspirations. The apartment had a real vibe to it, from the long solitary corridor that leads to the building, to large rooms filled with artwork, and a red lit gallery that couldn't help but suggest unease.

The tone of the story begins to match the uneasy atmosphere towards the end of the second act. This was all made possible by the four central characters, in particular, Hapka gave a mesmerising performance. The way he said some of his lines was perfect, especially during a scene with him and Walsh in a bathroom. The editing and directing gave a disorientating feel, flashbacks blending with the present day, and lots of tricks to simulate the distorted visuals the characters were experiencing under the effects of whatever drug they had been unknowingly given. For an erotic thriller, there wasn't much nudity, something that I welcomed. There are nude models during the intro credit sequence, but in the film itself, nudity is left more to the imagination. It leads to a dark and bleak third act, something that really drew me to the film world. As mentioned in my prologue, this also enjoyed a fantastic soundtrack. I don't know much about music to know what genre it was, but it had a morose and depressive feel to the triphop type beats (maybe, I don't know music!). Also enjoyed the recurring theme that sounded like something out of horror video game Blasphemous of all things.

Despite not being a fan of erotic thrillers, I thought Bight was excellently made. The combination of the music, the oppressive feeling look of the apartment, and the bubbling unsaid tension combined to make something that was greater than the sum of its parts. It ends on a bit of an arty epilogue that I can't say I entirely understood, but I liked the general direction the story went in, even if everything may not be as it seemed. Bight comes to VOD and digital on February 10th from Scatena & Rosner Films.

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Don't Look in the Dark (2026) - Horror Film Review

I feel that Sam Freeman's directorial debut - Don't Look in the Dark, is going to be a divisive movie. This found footage horror took home the award for 'Best Feature' at the Birmingham Horror Film Festival & Convention, but my thoughts on it are far from positive. This is a film for people who saw Skinamarink and decided it didn't go far enough, also for people who thought The Blair Witch Project felt too staged. That isn't to say this wasn't an effective horror, it does some brave things that really should be commended, it just really wasn't for me.

It begins with the familiar white text on a black screen stating that what is about to be shown is recovered footage. It comes from a couple who went hiking in the Pinelands National Reserve on 4th April 2022. The couple; Italian Golan (Dennis Puglisi in his feature length debut) and his American pregnant wife; Maya (Rebi Paganini - Un-Speak-Able) are there to follow a hiking trail that Maya used to go on with her father when she was a child, in tribute to him now the man has passed. While deep on their hike, Maya believes she sees a young child off in the trees, and fearing for its safety, she decides to go and check that the kid is ok. There is no one where she thought she saw it, but hearing a child's voice in the distance, she heads off on a mad pursuit of it, much to the bemusement of Golan, who neither sees or hears it. Sometime later, the two have neither found the child, nor do they know where they are anymore. Their journey is somehow making them walk round in circles, with them constantly coming back to a huge overturned tree, each time, the hole under the tree has gotten deeper and deeper, and Maya feels a strange force compelling her to climb into the hole.

As well as the opening lines setting up the basis for the footage, it also states that everything shown is exactly as it was found, with nothing added. An old complaint of found footage films was why the person recording continued to record once everything went to Hell. Here, this is resolved in a satisfying way. The footage here is being recorded outside of the protagonists control. Their phones are recording randomly, with neither character able to stop it. That means the film can take place without the immersion breaking feeling of events being staged, unfortunately, it also means that visually, there is not much going on at all. Not even exaggerating, around 85% of the film takes place with audio only. This is interspersed with brief seconds long (sometimes milliseconds long) footage from the character's phones, and as the characters are not meaning to record, these images are random to say the least. You get flashes of trees, of legs, and feet, all intentionally not framed, to give a disorientating effect. It also means that there is a heck of a lot of nothing being shown on screen. To add to the confusing feeling, the footage when it does appear, is shown from a vertical view rather than horizontal, so you get letter boxed images. The horror is implied from these long parts of the movie where everything is black, as very occasionally (and admittedly effectively), you can just about make out strange things occurring in the blackness. Sometimes it seems the camera is travelling down some sort of burrow, or extremely close-up travelling towards a giant eyeball, and sometimes when there is footage on screen you get an almost subliminal snatch of what could possibly be some sort of being. These parts felt few and far between, I found myself pondering at times if the darkness on my PC monitor was too dark maybe, and that I should have been witnessing more than I did.

Outside of what is shown (or rather not shown), the plot of the film is carried by Golan and Maya, with this feeling at times much more an audio drama than a film proper. I think this could experienced purely from audio alone without too much really being lost. With Don't Look in the Dark not once showing the protagonists either fully, or their faces, it became increasingly hard to care about them in the slightest, not helped by never once getting a clear look at the characters you are meant to feel for. In fact, I found the couple's bickering to get more and more irritating. They are constantly arguing, either Golan complaining about his wife's wild goose chase and refusal to admit they are lost, or Maya complaining about her husband's obvious lies that he knows how to get back to their car. When they are not fighting, they take it in turns to either have panic attacks, or to fall to the ground and state they are too tired/injured to move. It became actually tiring - the lean 70 minute runtime felt like it was twice as long as it actually was. I found myself wishing I could crawl into the film and throttle them both!

I didn't enjoy my time with Don't Look in the Dark, but that isn't to say it is badly made in the slightest, or that it shouldn't be seen. It gets around the bugbear of why the characters are filming for one thing, and while to me it seemed like the flashes of footage were random and didn't add anything, of course they were on purpose, with the director intentionally showing and not showing exactly what they wanted to. This was also a found footage that felt very unique. If you love the genre but think that you have seen everything it has to offer, then it would be a disservice to not suggest giving this one a try. I may have been equal parts bored and frustrated with this, but there was also the occasional chill of fear with its adherence to making this feel like genuine unintentionally recorded found footage; the sometimes distorted audio and suggestions of something lurking almost unseen in the darkness. Experimental and divisive (unless I am the sole person who the film didn't resonate with!), this nonetheless achieved something very different. Don't Look in the Dark had its Jersey premiere on 31st January as part of the New Jersey Film Festival.

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Phil Herman's The Actor's Curse: A Tale of Twisted Fate (2026) - Horror Anthology Film Review

Having taken a week off of writing horror film reviews last week, I'm back, and back with one of my favourite types of horror films - the horror anthology. Phil Herman's The Actor's Curse: A Tale of Twisted Fate uses the movie industry as its linking theme, with each of the four shorts, as well as the wraparound story featuring people who work in that industry.

The wraparound story is fittingly titled The Actor's Curse: A Tale of Twisted Fate. I like it when the wraparound segment actually tells some sort of story, and while a bit basic, this one fits that mould. Here, a bitter washed-up actor (Jon DeBartolo - Jacker 3: Road to Hell, A Hard Place), discovers an old journal outside his apartment door. The man decides to write some fictional stories about people who he has worked with in the past that he attributes to the cause of his personal downfall, unaware that the journal might hold some terrible power. This part was simple, but I did really like DeBartolo's voice, his narration to himself about the stories he was writing was lovely and deep.

The first story proper is 'The Director's Demise', which was directed by Derek Braasch. Here, a sleazy film director (Robert Gutierrez-Spagnoli) hires a new actress who for a change isn't put-off by his very hands-on approach to filmmaking. Even seeing all the conflict he creates around him, the new woman plans to work closely with the director. I found this predictable enough, the suggestion of a supernatural element was welcome, though this idea wasn't implemented that well, only popping up towards the end. There was a scene of violence here that had some fun practical effects, and will also state that this is one of three shorts here that include damage to a man-specific body part, this one the more painful looking of those! Some female nudity here if that is your thing.
Next up is 'The Producer's Plight' that comes from director James Panetta. Victoria (Debbie D - Jim Haggerty's Unnatural Causes, Phil Herman's Unearthed) is a film producer who likes to play games with the people she chooses for her films, setting up various actors against each other. Even when one of the people she has harmed takes his own life, she doesn't let up on her mind games. This again told a predictable enough story, though I did enjoy where this ended up going, and enjoyed how gun shots were shown on screen. The notion of a bad person facing a twisted justice was similar to the story that preceded this, so did feel a little similar.

Despite being mainly in Spanish (with subtitles), the third film 'The Writer's Woe' was my favourite. Written and directed by Marcelo Fabani, this one is about a womanising writer who gets hired to write a documentary exploring the strange topic of South American vampires. In his research he comes across an old book that states vampiric conquistadors were purposely sent to the place hundreds of years back, in order to conquer it for the Spanish authorities. He figures the book is probably not authentic, but other people fearing the truth may get out, take steps to squash his documentary from happening. I liked all the back story here with the idea of vampire explorers. Enjoyed the montage scenes when images are shown as part of the evidence of this happening. I sometimes found the lines to be spoken a bit quietly, but this told a decent and outlandish story with some cool make-up effects .
Finally was the Will Devokees written and directed 'The Makeup Artist's Misfortune'. A vigilante makeup artist (Brooke Ashley) who goes after bad people in the film industry, is intending to flee town after attacking her latest victim, only for the now disfigured victim to corner her at her home, intending to get his revenge. Fittingly enough, this one had the best make-up effects of the whole anthology, the man's half acid burned face looked great, with it often hidden within shadows.

As always, I love anthologies, and with Phil Herman's The Actor's Curse: A Tale of Twisted Fate, you have one with a solid unifying theme. I liked this most when it brought variation, such as the third short about vampires. I felt the first two shorts were a little too similar in the story they were telling, but overall, this was a solid anthology that might not have blown my mind, but was still an entertaining 90 minutes of indie horror that included a large cast over its films.

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Tormented Souls (2021-22) - Horror Video Game Review (Playstation 5)

Tormented Souls may have one of the most generic and forgettable titles I've heard in recent memory. I've constantly kept referring to it as 'Forsaken Souls' for some reason, and even writing this review; I've noticed that I have initially titled the game 'Tortured Souls' before noticing the error. Thankfully, that is one of the worst things about this very entertaining retro survival horror throwback - a game that blends classic elements of the original Alone in the Dark, Resident Evil and Silent Hill games into one cosy bloodstained whole.

Taking place in 1994, Canadian - Caroline Walker, receives a strange letter in the post that contains a single photo of twin little girls. In the weeks that follow, Caroline begins to experience terrible nightmares, unable to stop thinking about the photo. In desperation, she heads to the abandoned Wildberger Hospital (the return address for the letter she received), hoping to find out more information about the two girls. Once there she gets immediately attacked and knocked out by a mystery assailant. Sometime later, she awakens naked in a tub full of water, with a bandaged eye, and breathing tube in her throat. After getting dressed, she checks under the eye bandage in a mirror and is horrified to discover her bandaged eye has been surgically removed! She leaves the storage room she's in and heads out into the hospital (which is situated in an old mansion). Her goal; to find the whereabouts of the twin sisters and rescue them should they need assistance.

This is very classic survival horror, it really reminded me of the golden age of the late nineties. Games have came out before that promise to be authentic returns to survival horror roots, but they often feel like they are missing something essential for the nostalgic feel. Despite some small issues, I loved my time with Tormented Souls thankfully. The mansion setting of course reminded me heavily of the original Resident Evil, and is of comparative size to that game, with my final completion time being around 8 hours. The game is populated with grisly horrors, all of which fit the hospital vibe in their own twisted ways. ghoulish creatures with gas canisters strapped to their legless torso, zombies with blades for arms, and blending of corpse and surgical apparatus. There were also three boss fights, though two of these were against enemies that later join the roster of common enemies. The final boss was neat, requiring puzzle solving and combat blended together; the only one of the bosses that actually stood out. As a note; without going into spoilers; the boss in the game that resembles something from Evil Dead II is invincible, something I wish I had figured out before wasting most of my ammo on the blasted thing. If I had just left the room I would have made the back half of the game a lot easier! Enemy design works when the enemies are hidden in darkness, sometimes in well lit areas they can become a bit goofy looking. Character design mostly failed here; Caroline herself looks great, but other characters encountered had an exaggerated cartoon look to them that pulled me out the immersion on occasion. The less said about the voice acting the better, maybe they were going for a cheesy Resident Evil tone with over empathising each word, but the delivery really pulled me out of the experience. 

I first thought it was weird that a hospital would be inside a mansion, but that was explained to my satisfaction in a file I came across. The same happens with why the enemies look like they do. Nothing revolutionary, but was nice to have some lore about that. The mansion is full to the brim with puzzles that need to be solved, from cryptic door locks, to memory repetition puzzles, riddles, and items you discover that need either combining with one another, or used in the environment. Getting around the mansion is like solving an intricate puzzle lock, the puzzles here, while not hard, still are decent enough to give you a rush of dopamine when you solve them.
The mansion's design includes many secret doors and unexpected short cuts, with the detail appropriately hellish. At every turn there are corpses and body bags, literally hundreds encountered during my play through. Special mention to the choice of fixed camera angles, as well as the tremendous lighting that was especially effective in the basement sections.
The game starts off feeling like Resident Evil, but increasingly takes on the feel of a Silent Hill. It starts with tiny sections that feel like the Silent Hill  'Otherworld', then the back half of the game increasingly takes on a more cosmic horror feel. I enjoyed this mix of the grand daddies of the survival horror genre, their blend worked fantastically. The game's plot wasn't particularly engaging, but it served it's purpose. Much of the story for what happened at the mansion comes from diary entries you find dotted around the place, with hints of Fatal Frame II to it. You have to assume Caroline is illiterate, as she always seems very surprised from revelations that had already been revealed in easily obtained diaries. I recall one time around six hours in where Caroline responds with shock to something I had literally found out about within 15 minutes of starting the game by reading a diary entry!

Some of the item management can be fiddly. Thankfully, you have an infinite carry space, rather than limited, and the game sees fit to split key items and gameplay items into different sections in the item screen. You unlock maps of the floors in the building as you play, though weirdly when you bring up the map screen you have to manually locate the map you need rather than it bring it up automatically. The game world is also very dark, this is used in a gameplay way due to darkness causing instant death should you be in it for too long. You come to rely on a lighter (with seemingly infinite fuel) to see where you are going. The only problem is that you can't use your weapons while holding the lighter, nor can you use without, as it restricts you from using them when its pitch black. Neatly used as part of some of the puzzles, with areas of the mansion blocked off by stationary enemies that you can't attack in the dark. You only get access to four different weapons throughout the game, at least it tries something different but having a much more D.I.Y feel to them. Your primary weapon is a nail gun which was quite weak, my favourite came to be the shotgun apparently made out of pipes. Of course, ammo, health, and even save reels are all in short supply, by games end I did have plenty of those save reels stored away. Saving is needed as being old school there are not any checkpoints. Should you die, then you will have to reload your last save. There were definitely a few soul destroying times when I realised all too late my last save was a long time ago. 

Tormented Souls was a frequently stressful experience. I was always really hesitant to use healing items, ammo, or to save my game as I was always nervous about how limited these items all where. I liked how the enemies just lay dead where you killed them for the rest of the game, it makes returning to previously explored areas much more chill, as well as make it feel like it wasn't a waste to kill them first time around. The unsettling looking location is the best thing about this game, the story didn't really resonate much, maybe due to the exaggerated voice acting, but the environments were nightmarish and there were some well placed jump scares to be had in them. The old school tank controls and fixed camera angles might not be for everyone (I had forgotten how annoying it was to battle an enemy just off screen), but for those wanting a return to the glorious early days of survival horror, Tormented Souls was an excellent adventure, albeit, not a perfect one.

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