Delicate Arch (2024) - Horror Film Review

Delicate Arch (written and directed by Matthew Warren in his feature length directorial debut) is just the sort of messed up confusing horror that appeals to me. This desert based horror constantly hints at fourth wall breaking elements using similar ideas to The Cabin in the Woods, but executed better, and on par with the excellent Resolution and The Endless, even feeling like a companion piece to those messed up movies. It doesn't quite stick the landing however, running out of steam for its confusing and hard to follow third act.

With high pollution in the city causing health issues, four friends - film nerd Grant (William Leon), his ex-girlfriend Wilda (Kelley Mack - The Walking Dead TV series), stoner Ferg (Rene Leech), and alpha male Cody (Kevin Bohleber - V/H/S/Beyond segment 'Fur Babies') head out on a camping trip to the Utah desert. Their plan is to hike to a rock formation known as 'delicate arch', doing plenty of drugs on the way. The journey becomes increasingly surreal, and Grant starts to suspect that they might unknowingly be characters in a horror movie.

The story is really out there, from the start it is shown how this being a film means that part is able to interfere with the actual story going on. A prologue has a narrator (Katie Self - Silent Hill: Ascension web series) being able to influence a man to take his own life, serving as an early hint as to the strangeness of the film world. This then appears throughout, with Grant in particular seeming to sense he is inside a film, such as blacking out in-between scenes and losing time, commenting when the film is at its exact midpoint, literally measuring out the boundaries of the camera shot he finds himself in, as well as staring directly at the viewer. That part of the film takes a slight backseat to the drama of the four friends travelling across the desert. There is tension with Grant seeming to still have feelings for Wilda, while it seems she is secretly hooking up with Cody. As Grant indicates, Ferg serves as the stoner comic relief, and also can be seen as a catalyst for some of the strange events due to the amount of random drugs they have on them.

It sometimes felt that this was a little too much style over substance. I'm all for that in horror films, and for much of the run time it didn't disappoint. I particularly liked the mid-film point where after taking a lot of magic mushrooms the film starts to at first slip into an animated feature, before becoming all CG (via the use of AR). This made for a suitably trippy segment that was entertaining to watch. I liked also how there are three distinct types of film work here. Most of the movie plays out in a constricting wide-screen format, but at times we get horizontal phone footage instead, and with Grant having brought an old school film camera, there are also sections where it is grainy found footage type sequences. That third act lost it for me though, I didn't understand where the story was going, with many fake out segments that show various unhappy things happing to the protagonists before rewinding to suggest they didn't take place? Or that everything shown is taking place somewhere? I'm not too sure at all what was going on, there was a vague reference to the delicate arch rock formation maybe being a gateway to other worlds, but I just felt lost in the final ten to fifteen minutes. It wasn't badly made, there was impressive film work here, but I just could not follow what was going on and what I as a viewer was meant to make of it all.

Delicate Arch was a film that felt unique, similar ideas to Resolution, but that was no bad thing. The desert location helped the paranoia and isolation that the characters begin to feel, and I thought the direction was good. For me, I got a bit too lost with where the story went to, leaving me feeling a little dissatisfied when the end credits rolled. Described as a 'psychonautic horror', Delicate Arch came to the streaming platform SCREAMBOX on February 11th.

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Dead on Arrival - Escape Room Review

Shame on me! My sister and her boyfriend are always going to escape rooms and stating how fun they are, but I admit that when I was told that as part of my birthday present I would be going to a local escape room with them and my father I wasn't that excited. I should have been more excited though, as this turned out to be a great time that made me feel like I was inside a survival horror video game (minus any enemies).

The escape room we went for was titled Dead on Arrival, rated five out of five stars for difficulty, and three out of five scare factor, and apparently just a 13% escape rate. As we arrived I overheard the previous group saying they had failed the room, and with me and my father having no real idea what to expect with an escape room, I expected we wouldn't survive. After being led blindfolded to the escape room, the introduction story plays out over a speaker. The set-up states that we had gone to hospital after an accident and family members had been told the injuries were not major. For some reason able to hear the room around us but unable to move or respond, we are alarmed when the heart rate monitor goes wild and our family are told we have sadly passed away. Awakening some time later, we find ourselves in a morgue, with it soon dawning on us that our death was faked in order to sell us to some type of dark web buyer. We are given an hour to escape the room before our captor returns to deal with us.

As films such as Escape Room and...well, Escape Room had already taught me, this is made up of a series of rooms, rather than literally one room. I found that rather than abstract solutions to puzzles, it all revolved around unlocking various types of locks that are sealing doors, drawers, and cupboards shut. Different to what I had expected, we were able to ask for hints at any time, seemingly infinitely should need be. I think that we asked around four times for hints, including the very first room that to my knowledge contained the most obscure puzzle of the whole lot, that didn't instil much hope of us escaping. Obviously, I'm not going to go into too much detail on the puzzles for fear of spoiling, but there were some fun ones here, though also some that appeared a bit broken. A great one that took me straight back to the Resident Evil games saw us lining up a series of x-ray photos to spell out a number, but some of the photos seemed a bit faded, so we had to get a lot of assistance to get the numbers correct. My personal favourite had us in a security room having to enter a series of questions on a PC, with the added difficulty of the mouse and keyboard being portioned off, away from the screen. Initially a two person job, I realised that thanks to my long arms I was just about able to move the mouse and see the screen at the same time, making for a much quicker time with that part! Puzzles in general were not too difficult, the difficulty came more from not being sure how props worked, such as the process to turn off a fan in one room, and working out what the relevance of a locked away severed hand was. It was all a learning process though, going forward I will know more what to expect. 

Finally with less than five minutes left, we escaped the cold morgue and its secret rooms via a narrow passageway. Truthfully, I found this a lot of fun. I had feared that constantly being watched by the games master over the cameras would make me feel a bit awkward and hesitant to give any suggestions, but the feel of being inside a survival horror video game removed that fear of embarrassment. As my first escape room experience, I enjoyed Dead on Arrival, especially as we were able to work together to solve the clues and escape!

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Bokshi (2025) - Horror Film Review

I know not why, but I had in my head that the Bhargav Saikia directed and Harsh Vaibhav written Indian folk-horror Bokshi (that word being a Nepalese one meaning witch, sorceress, or someone believing in witchcraft) was a short film. Imagine my surprise then when I sat down to watch it and saw it had a daunting two hour forty five minute run time! So much so that I did a real life double take. A long run time of course doesn't mean a bad film, but I have seen more than my fair share of overly long arthouse horrors where the time is filled with style over substance, and with this one starting in that manner I feared I may overdose on tedium. Thankfully, while this certainly felt as long as its runtime, it was an effective horror, with a setting relatively unique for me in terms of horror. I have seen horror films set in India, but aside from comedy horror Goa Goa Gone, the ones I have seen all featured white protagonists.

Anahita (Prasanna Bisht) is a seventeen year old girl who has frequent terrifying nightmares relating to an incident she was caught up in involving her shaman mother as a young child, which led to her mother disappearing. After a violent encounter with a bully at her school, her grandma decides to send Anahita away to a boarding school, thinking the change in scenery could help her get over her past trauma. It is at this new school that she encounters captivating history club teacher Shalini (Mansi Multani), and takes an instant shine to the woman due to her lessons talking about folklore related to the type of beliefs her mother's side of the family practised. Learning that Shalini is going to take a select group of students on a fieldtrip to a mysterious prehistoric site deep in a remote forest, Anahita convinces the teacher to let her come along as well, as again, it relates to the type of thing her mother had believed in. Things begin well, but after Shalini decides to ignore the advice of the guides and head into a part of the forest that the locals believe to be cursed by an ancient witch known as the Bokshi, the carefully planned field trip begins to fall apart.

I always make notes when watching a film for review, and this time around those notes are many! After an arthouse style prologue that sees the screen bathed in a red tint as discordant images are edited together, things settle down. Being so long, the film is split into seven distinct chapters with intelligently placed beginnings and ends. For instance, chapter one ends with Anahita heading off to boarding school, while later on, chapter five sees the hapless group entering the forbidden part of the forest. This does feel like a long and lengthy movie, but thinking of it all, I was hard placed to be able to identify anything added just to extend the run time. There was always something going on, whether the trippy sequence that saw two shamans separated by distance battling each other via magic (really gave me vibes of the wizard battle between Gandalf and Saruman in The Lord of the Rings!), or the frequent nightmare flashback sequences Anahita suffers with. The pure length of the film helped to really make the group's trek deep, deep into the forest feel like a real journey, adding the impression of it feeling like they really are far away from any type of help. While traditionally shot rather than found footage, I did get a real The Blair Witch Project vibe to this, though the supernatural elements here are shown to be genuine with many characters experiencing the effects of that part of the film. A lot of this was atmosphere and build-up, again with the references to other films, I got more than an echo of The Ritual in the way the characters keep stumbling across unsettling offerings. This ramping up of tension leads to a decent payoff with a quite insane final act that with forty five minutes to go, saw the bubbling madness finally boil over, before simmering down to another red tinted arthouse sequence for the film's ending. One that added elements that felt similar to Midsommar, and used elements of the Bokshi as an analogy for female empowerment.

Characters were a varied bunch, and settled down to a key set once the story really gets going. There are seven students, five girls and two boys, some of which have been on previous field trips with their history club teacher. Then there are three local guides, Shalini and another teacher, Meryak (Bhasker Pradhan). Of course, being the protagonist, Anahita had a lot of development to her character, the main draw being exactly what happened to her when she was a child that could have possibly opened her up to being possessed by a Bokshi. Shalini was a much more mysterious character, her behaviour became more of a type of cult leader, constantly convincing the group to press forward, and acting very strangely the deeper the group got. I personally thought Meryak was the best character here, a man with an impressive moustache and a voice of reason who is forced to accept his world view isn't correct when the myths and legends he sees as being silly begin to come to life around him. Right up until the end this stern teacher was trying to do the best by his pupils, Meryak - I salute you! Outside of a core four or five, the other key characters didn't have as much to them, the two male students mainly kept outside the story, while two of the girls only defining characteristics were that they were identical twins.

Special mention has to go to Advait Nemlekar who created both the songs and background score, an unnerving rustic tribal sound that was a perfect fit.

Bokshi is a horror that feels long, but it also was something that really drew me in. The unique Indian setting set itself apart in terms of looks, while the story was something that I found a little confusing, but there was enough provided to give you at least a vague idea of what was going on. The film looked quality, just a couple of effects that looked a little CG, and it was a bit distracting having the myths and legends play out as a series of animated hand drawings, but that saved on cost, and fitted that these would have been stories passed down before the advent of technology. I was impressed with the atmospheric folk-horror that was on display here, and regardless of the big ask in terms of time, this was something I was very happy I got to see. Bokshi had its world premiere on 31st January at the Rotterdam International Film Festival.

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The Gift (2000) - Horror Film Review

I requested a screener of the 2000 supernatural horror film The Gift but later discovered I already owned it on VHS. This wasn't a good sign for this Sam Raimi (Drag Me to Hell, The Evil Dead) directed movie as usually if I can't remember something it means it left little impression. I found the film to be a bit of a slow burn, but maybe due to being more mature, I found myself really enjoying this story, and it was a delight spotting a whole bunch of famous actors throughout this.

Cate Blanchett (Thor: Ragnarok, The Lord of the Rings trilogy) stars as Annie Wilson, a small town psychic who performs readings for the local townsfolk. After socialite Jessica King (Katie Holmes - Brahms: The Boy II, Miss Meadows) goes missing, her worried father convinces the local Sheriff (J.K Simmons - Spider-Man) to enlist Annie's help, and soon using her powers she is able to locate the body of the woman hidden in a pond of the property of local redneck Donnie Barksdale (Keanu Reeves - John Wick). After a trial however, Annie discovers her visions about the murder have not stopped, and that the wrong person might have been convicted of the crime.

The Gift is played super seriously and super straight, with the paranormal elements only popping up every now and again. At its heart this is a small town drama, made up of a variety of important characters who add texture to the film world. You have Donnie's abused wife, Valerie (Hilary Swank - P.S. I Love You), mentally ill mechanic Buddy (Giovanni Ribisi - Ted) and Annie's husband to be (Greg Kinnear - Mystery Men) all fleshing out Annie's character, with Valerie she is trying to do the right thing by her, with Buddy she is trying to be a friend to him, while with Annie's husband she is forced to confront her own past with relation to the husband of her three children who died a year or so previously. The three children also play a part, but felt much less developed and there just as a prop rather than feeling like living breathing characters. As the movie's most vocal antagonist, Reeves was on fun form, even if he seemed far too good looking and well presented to be playing a backwater redneck.

The story plays out like a murder mystery, including police procedure scenes, and a relatively lengthy court case sequence that makes up a lot of the second act. I found this all interesting in my more mature guise, but I will admit, I have a giant soft spot for films from the early 2000s, I have such a huge feel of bittersweet nostalgia for that time in my life. It was a delight spotting so many famous faces, with most the actors here doing great jobs. The horror is very slight, mainly taking the form of a couple of nightmare/vision sequences that Annie has, there are more elements of a thriller here, including a satisfying finale that works despite using old horror film tropes (the final encounter taking place at night during a thunder storm). Special effects were minimal, but the blood shown on screen was fine enough, and the make-up effects on the corpse looked effective.

The Gift is light on horror and high on drama, it can easily be seen as a slow burn. For me, I was there for the acting, and the tightly woven story that while predictable for the most part, I still enjoyed seeing play out to its thrilling conclusion. The Gift is currently streaming exclusively on ARROW in the UK.

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The Rotting Zombie's News Anthology for Thursday 13th February - Birthday Edition

Despite being a rotted corpse, this rotting zombie is one year older somehow today, having arrived at my forty third birthday. To celebrate I've not only taken a week off of my day job, but also crafted a trio of news stories to make you scream...possibly.

A crowdfunding campaign has been released for new Bigfoot movie, Fear The Fouke Monster. Inspired by the real life legend of a hairy swamp monster living near the small American town of Fouke, this follows in the footsteps of 1972 cult classic The Legend of Boggy Creek, which also was based on the same legend. Half of the movie has currently been shot and pre-editing has begun. Filmmaker Mark Francis says about his film "We kill women, children and pets in this film. This ain't no 'gentle giant of the forest!" An Indiegogo campaign is currently running, for more details, travel the link to find out more.

David Lynch inspired horror film Texas Nightmare has had an official trailer released. This comes from director Michael Merino and stars Sadie Katz (Wrong Turn 6: Last Resort), Felissa Rose (Sleepaway Camp), James Pratt (The 3 Killer Pigs), Lew Temple (The Devil's Rejects), and Eva Hamilton (The Black Mass). The film sees a writer heading to an isolated home in rural Texas to work on a new book. They find themselves caught up in a battle against a local cult instead.

Finally for this Birthday Day, Gator Creek is coming to digital platforms in the UK and Ireland on March 24th from Vertigo. This survival film was directed by Taneli Mustonen and Brad Watson and features an ensemble of young stars. The story has a plane crashing in the remote Louisiana bayou, with the survivors discovering they are being hunted by giant alligators mutated by chemical waste dumped in the area.

Do You See Me? (2017) - Horror Film Review

Do You See Me? I had assumed would be a slasher film, it shares similarities with that genre, particularly with Halloween. This follows the old adage of less is more, with the creepy clown stalking the protagonist rarely shown, but unfortunately is shown so very little that this Corbin Timbrook (The Belly of the Beast, Blood Ranch) directed and co-written indie horror felt like it wasted whatever potential it had.

Emily (Rya Meyers) is an ordinary woman who one day begins to receive disturbing messages from an unknown number that read 'Do You See Me' which is then typically followed up by the woman then spotting a creepy clown (Robert Ambrose) somewhere in the distance watching her. She contacts the police, but due to only herself ever seeing the clown, and her not keeping hold of any of the 'gifts' it leaves her, no one is really sure what to believe. As the days draw closer and closer to Halloween, the stalking increases, with Emily starting to fear for her life.

I get keeping the antagonist at arms length and rarely sighted as a way to build up tension, but this goes far too far with this concept. In total, in over eighty two minutes, the clown appears on screen for a literal total of about two minutes, and that includes the prologue where the clown kills his one and only on-screen victim. Many of the sightings appear in nightmare sequences the main character has. I figure that prologue was a compromise to actually make it seem like there was a genuine threat going on, but due to the rest of the movie this part felt almost unrelated. It also gets in the way of the mid-point notion that it is possible the creepy clown is all in her head. That might have been an interesting idea but the viewer knows that isn't the case.

It is hard to talk too much about the clown as it is on screen for so little time. When it isn't texting Emily (as an aside, she has the most sinister text message noise possible, I figured the clown had somehow made her phone make that noise, but no, it appears that is her own choice!), it stands around staring for seconds at a time. The Halloween comparisons are made here, with quite a few first person perspective shots of the clown watching Emily while hidden. I had expected this would lead up to a terrifying conclusion, but when the horror finally gets closer to home for the protagonist, I noticed that there was just four minutes of run time left before the end credits appeared, and what is shown in that time also included an epilogue scene!

I spent far too much of the movie expecting something more clever from this than it actually was. There are plenty of suspects as to who the clown could be, from Emily's jerk ex-husband Randy (Phillip Boyd), to oddball gym member Taylor (Taylor Piedmonte) and some weird neighbours. I even began to suspect it could be her ex-detective father's former partner, as the detective investigating the case mentions he used to work with her father, but this is never verified as that character is never shown on screen despite being around. Too much time is spent establishing that the protagonist is being stalked, but the threat not ramping up until far too late. I would have had the clown make an appearance properly much sooner into the movie than here, where his eventual inclusion almost felt like an afterthought.

Do You See Me? is good at ramping up the tension, but it squanders the potential and feels like it ran out of time to give a satisfying conclusion. There is far too much treading water, with the escalation coming far too late. For what you see of him, the clown had a suitably disturbing look to it, but did feel wasted, leading to a feeling of frustration that the story never really got going properly before it ended.

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Radio Sessions (2025) - by Eamon The Destroyer - Music EP Review

Having previously reviewed Eamon The Destroyer's second album We'll Be Piranhas and EP Alternate Piranhas, I knew what to expect from latest EP titled Radio Sessions. This Edinburgh based musician creates mellow music with a rustic sound, something that could be hard to picture in a horror setting. I am forever trying to improve my music review game though, and so here is my latest attempt.

This EP brings together six acoustic versions of his songs, rocking in at around twenty six minutes in length. It begins with 'Nothing Like Anything' which at nearly five minutes is a chilled and rustic sounding intro. Trying to link it to horror, I could picture the lovely rural folks in Deliverance banjoing along to this.
Next comes 'Underscoring the Blues' which at just over two minutes is the shortest track on Radio Sessions. I really liked this one, had the feel of a sea shanty to it, short and bittersweet.
Middle of the EP starts with the classic 'We'll Be Piranhas', something I am familiar with, actually recognising this when it started. A sailor song, at four and a half minutes this made for a pleasant and mellow time.

The second half of the EP begins with 'Silver Shadow', a sad song referencing tepee tents, probably my second favourite track to be found here. 
Penultimate track is 'Avalanche', this to me sounded like a bit of a lost track from Blur's Thirteen album, not a bad comparison as Blur are on of my favourite bands.
Finally comes 'The Choirmaster', a peaceful end to a mellow EP. Sure, trying to link it to anything horror related is a fool's errand, but I thought Radio Sessions was a good listen, I really liked the stripped back feel. Radio Sessions was released on January 31st, Eamon The Destroyer will be releasing his third album later this year, provisionally entitled Full Picture Revealed.

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Round the Decay (2025) - Horror Film Review

Round the Decay is the latest indie film from writer and director Adam Newman (Everwinter Night) and takes the form of a creature feature with a large ensemble cast. With my screener of this film, I also received a note saying that the version I watched for review wasn't the complete version, with VFX being worked on, the sound mix not in its final form, and the monsters voice not finalised. As a result, I won't let those elements effect my thoughts in this review.

After a short prologue in which early American settlers reveal they have summoned a monster as revenge against the ingenious population, the story moves to present day. The remote town of Newport has fallen on hard times, with tourism down, something that Bart (Cary Hite), the new owner of the local hotel hopes to remedy. Also in the area are a group of young adults, who have came to climb the nearby hillside. Unfortunately for them, they stumble across an abandoned mine which happens to be the home of a monstrous creature called the Wrexsoul (Rachel Pizzolato), the same creature that had been summoned in the prologue. Added to the mix are a group of redneck hunters who seem intent on capturing the young friends, and the shady townsfolk who seem to know more about what is going on than they initially let on.

There were a large cast of characters here that on the one hand meant lots could be happening concurrently, but also had the downside of making it hard to remember who was who. Key characters for me where Munroe (Damian Maffei - The Strangers: Prey at Night), a monster hunter from out of town who serves as a device for the viewer to have the backstory of the creature explained in a somewhat natural feeling way. Other highlights were Gregory Newport (Jamie Dufault) as a descendent of one of the founding fathers of the town, and the frat boy styled slightly loveable idiot James 'Muffin' Ford (Jay Voishnis - Everwinter Night). With so many characters to be found in the film, it did take a while to get going properly. The first forty five minutes were more mysterious, with the various groups discovering strange things on their own. The monster itself didn't appear until the forty five minute mark, but with an hour left to go still, it meant that plenty of this creature was shown.

The Wrexsoul did look like someone wearing a monster costume, but I thought it had a cool design to the mask part of the suit. I also thought it was really cool that the monster was able to speak, but only by mimicking the words of people it had encountered. Despite this limitation, it uses this ability to have some basic communication with the protagonists at times. There were plenty of death scenes, and featured a pleasing amount of blood and gore squirting out everywhere. One later scene featured a whole cast of characters being attacked, it did make for a thrilling sequence, but the vibe was ruined slightly by it being obvious actors were just running backwards and forwards in front of the camera, rather than feeling like the characters were trying to flee the location they were in! The special effects were one of the highlights of Round the Decay, despite the not so stellar monster costume, the action scenes were exciting and well choreographed with pleasing effects used.

I couldn't help but feel that nearly the first half of this horror felt a bit longer than it needed to be. The film rapidly improved once the horror finally properly started, making me wish more of the movie had been as interesting. I felt that there were maybe too many characters hanging around to try and find a time to explain their particular backstory to the viewers, though the large cast also led to a large body count. Round the Decay came to theatres on January 31st from Dreamscape Productions.

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Call of Duty: Black Ops 6 - The Tomb - Impressions of the new Zombies map

I mentioned Call of Duty: Black Ops 6's 'Zombies' mode briefly last month, but this was a swift overlook of the mode as a whole, covering the first three maps. It has been a while since I spoke about a map in isolation, but now, with the release of fourth map 'The Tomb' it felt like it was the time. 'The Tomb' is the first map released for the new game that felt like it had some personality to it, something that couldn't but help remind me of the more classic Zombies maps of old.

The story is as convoluted as ever, especially as I have yet to finish the story quests on the prior three maps. Following on from whatever events occurred during third map 'Citadelle des Morts', the four heroes - Weaver, Maya, Carver, and Grey arrive at an ancient holy burial site said to be the resting place of the Sentinel Artifact, something that is said to be able to bring the dead back to life. They find unlikely help in the form of Archibald; an English explorer from an earlier time who is somehow able to guide the team. Of course, being a Zombies map, they also discover plenty of the walking dead.

The map might not go back to as claustrophobic as the ones of old, but it is closer than the other maps have been this game. The location has a logical circular design to it, while 'Revelations' style gateways allow you to teleport to the four key locations. Starting off outside in a dig site, the rest of the map takes place within the tomb, dark and dank locations where it can be difficult to see the enemies. A central hub area takes place in a mystical zone that looks like a location ripped out of The Elder Scrolls Online, vast giant mushrooms and the backdrop of a starry sky. I liked the location due to how different it felt compared to the more realistic and slightly dull previous maps. I got echoes of 'The Frozen Dawn', as well as the Ancient Greece themed map whose name and game eludes me.
The default enemies here are zombies as expected, these ones had an older look to them, coming across as more ancient and dusty, like the creatures for the classic Blind Dead series of Italian zombie films. The special round again brings the spider monsters and flying insect creatures, while bigger boss creatures I've encountered so far include a giant beast covered in electricity, and mimics; large monsters who are initially disguised as helpful items.

I have only dipped my rotted toes into this new map, but it is the first one this game that had me actually excited to go back to and play some more. The more fantastical design set it apart from the less atmospheric ones received so far, and as a whole it looks fantastic, a neat design, and plenty of places to go. With 'The Tomb', you finally have a round-based Zombies map that feels it can compare even slightly to the classics of old.

Vampire Clay (2017) - Horror Film Review

Directed and written by Soichi Umezawa, Vampire Clay is the second blood sucking body horror watched for review this week, continuing a trend of unplanned for themed movies. This surreal horror had some great special effects, but sometimes felt like the budget couldn't adequately display the story it wanted to tell.

While doing some gardening, a small earthquake reveals a sealed bag of clay buried in the clay. Miss Aina (who had been doing the gardening) decides to take the bag and put it in her small rural art school. One of the students then ends up using the clay from within the bag, unaware that this clay is a living creature that feeds on blood and other bodily fluids in order to sustain itself. Soon, the school finds itself under attack from a clay based creature that is able to transform its victims into clay, and absorb them entirely into itself.

The stop motion effects used throughout Vampire Clay were impressive, as were the special effects used to show the carnage it was able to bring about. From moving small phallic looking objects, to a clay mouse, and clay tentacles, this bizarre antagonist had a feel and look of The Thing to it. One of its abilities is to create a clay replica of its victim that can then be used to trick others into becoming new victims. Being made of a soft clay means it is easily damaged, and is able to use this to its own advantage, such as using items embedded in its soft flesh as weapons. The make-up effects looked fantastic, giving characters 'infected', a look of being part clay and part human. Later on there is a short fully stop-motion sequence that looked more effective due to the stop-motion being jerky and unnatural looking. It also had a fun ability to transform body parts it is able to touch into clay itself, an early highlight being a girl who smashes her now clay arms against a table top, resulting in her arms being ripped off!

The story was simple but barrelled along at a fast pace, and never really lets up once it gets going fully. There was a fun way at the forty five minute mark to have a relatively lengthy five minute or so origin story for the clay monster, narrated by a key character. The small cast of characters didn't have too much to flesh them out, other than Aina, whose backstory of trying to make it big in Tokyo is represented by some scenes that play out dialogue free. Up until the last ten minutes I thought this wasn't doing much wrong. I found the ending both stretched out, and a bit confusing. I think I got what the film was going for, but it wasn't really shown on screen in the most cohesive way.
A lot of the soundtrack felt more jolly than the events being shown, giving a nice juxtaposition between the onscreen horror and the music alongside it.

Vampire Clay was an entertaining, often darkly comedic horror that delighted due to the special effects, in particular the clay effects, both stop motion and make-up wise. The story was simple, making for the feel of a body horror that had a unique vibe to it, and some very messed up moments that I was totally on board for. Vampire Clay is streaming exclusively on ARROW.

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The Rotting Zombie's News Anthology for Tuesday 4th February 2025

Another small news trio of horror stories to curdle your blood...possibly. In real life everything is going tickity-boo, life has a way of being unexpected at the exact time you need it. Onwards to the news.

February 25th sees the release of dark comedy Daddy on Blu-ray and DVD from Anchor Bay Entertainment. It takes place in an alternate future universe where the government must grant permission for men to become fathers. Four such men are invited to a remote workshop to see if they are eligible, finding the place deserted, the four decide to do their best to prove their worthiness, unsure if the situation they find themselves in is all part of a test. Special features include a commentary from the directors/stars Jono Sherman and Neal Kelley, plus a bonus web series, an extended scene, and an improvisation reel.

Also releasing on February 25th is Dinner With Leatherface, a documentary that explores the life of actor Gunnar Hansen. The doc includes actors from The Texas Chainsaw Massacre describing their experiences making the iconic movie, as well as a variety of actors from other films he featured in. Extras include a commentary with writer/director Michael Kallio and editor Josh Wagner among other items.

Finally for today, Metamorph has released a new single and video for 'Hiss Kiss'. The press release states this is a '...celebration of the snake's magic and the promise of rebirth', and that the track is a 'gothic dance floor anthem'. This is taken from album Mabon, which is due for release on 22nd September.

Let the Right One In (2008) - Horror Film Review

I saw Swedish vampire film Let the Right One In a long time ago originally, likely very soon after it came out. It has been over a decade at least, so with the film coming to digital platforms in the UK and Ireland, I felt it was time to revisit the cult classic. Directed by Tomas Alfredson (Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy) and written by John Ajvide Lindqvist, this slow burn coming of age vampire movie was nominated for a BAFTA, and had seventy six wins and fifty eight nominations in total worldwide.

It takes place entirely in a small Swedish town in winter, most of the scenes taking place at night or in the evening. Oskar (Kare Hedebrant) is a twelve year old loner whose only attention at school is from the local bullies. One evening he meets a strange twelve year old girl named Eli (Lina Leandersson) who tells him that she recently moved into the next door apartment from his. With the hopes of finally having a friend, Oskar begins to spend more time with the girl despite her not really giving much information about who she is. Elsewhere, there is a series of murders in the small town, that unknown to Oskar is related to Eli. She is actually a vampire, with her ward getting too elderly to supply her with her regular blood supply (he being the one doing the killing), she has turned to Oskar, seeing something common with him due to both their social isolation, but not wanting him to share the same life long fate as her ward had.

This is nearly two hours in length but the time just flew by, despite me already remembering many of the story beats. I guess that shows how much the film had stuck in my mind, as I remembered key scenes from this, and even recalled how it ended, something I can't say I can do for many films. This is yet another example of a slow burn horror done right, and if you are after a peaceful film then this is a great example. There are screams every now and again, but for the most part this is a film that paces itself well, lots of scenes of not much noise, characters quietly speaking amongst themselves. The setting is perfect for the story being told, the snowy landscape adds a lot of atmosphere, and of course, red blood on white snow never fails to look good. Oskar was interesting as the bullied protagonist, having to put on the pretence of being happy while at home with his mother, keeping his unhappy existence a secret. Eli was also a great character, she doesn't talk much, but the increasing closeness between the two young teenagers felt natural, and I liked how there could be seen an ulterior motive for why Eli is getting close to the boy, something that is never implicitly brought up.

Being a vampire, Eli is shown able to climb sheer walls, have super strength, and an aversion to sunlight. There are plenty of scenes where she is attacking people, but this is always done in an understated way, or with the dramatic finale, mainly takes place away from the lingering shot from under a swimming pool. The violence never felt gratuitous, and was carefully considered, being used as and when the story required it. Blood effects look great here, the blood being the right colour and consistency to shine on camera. Special effects were also impressive, there was great make-up effects to show a character who had badly mutilated their face, a scene where a character bursts into flame, and an almost amusing scene when a character is attacked by multiple cats!

Rather than take the route of high action and high horror, this instead looks at the subject of a vampire from a more cursed perspective, with Eli doing what she needs to survive but not enjoying what she has to do, and Oskar finding an unlikely soulmate due to both being outcasts of a type. The story isn't deep, but it is effective, focussing more on the relationship between the two lead characters rather than a more extravagant story. I don't mind vampire films, and watching Let the Right One In, I was reminded of how good and different this particular one felt. Vertigo Releasing brought Let the Right One In to UK and Irish audiences across digital platforms on 20th January.

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M3GAN (2022) - Horror Film Review

If the screener link received for a review doesn't work, then as a rule of thumb I will instead watch a film of my own choosing. Such was the case last Sunday, so I picked out M3GAN, a film I had been interested in seeing and which had recently been added to Netflix. The Child's Play series is a classic, killer dolls really can be creepy, that was the reason I found the Annabelle series of killer dolls so disappointing due to the possessed doll causing evil to occur around it, rather than it physically moving around and causing mischief. With this Gerard Johnstone (Housebound) directed and James Wan co-written horror, I had heard it wasn't as bad a film as had been expected.

When she is involved in a tragic traffic accident that results in the death of her parents, young Cady (Violet McGraw - Doctor Sleep, The Haunting of Hill House TV series) goes to live with her aunt Gemma (Allison Williams - Get Out). Gemma is a workaholic who is obsessed with her job at a toy company, and sees having to look after her niece as a burden she didn't want. Her interactions with the girl end up inspiring her to go ahead with her pet project - to make a life-like robotic childlike doll that is able to bond with its owner and use A.I learning to grow. Naming it M3GAN (played by Amie Donald, voiced by Jenna Davis), she gifts it to Cady and is impressed with how the girl takes to it. Unfortunately for all involved, she didn't programme in all the necessary protocols, and soon M3GAN starts to resort to extreme violence, to punish anyone who causes Cady to be upset.

I enjoyed this horror and thought the doll design was very creepy. It helps that I have a very mild fear of puppets anyway. The design purposely heads out into uncanny valley territory, leading to lots of fun moments where people initially mistake the doll for a real child. As much as I did love the design, the story did noticeably play it safe, going through the motions of escalation that were predictable to chart. Starting off with the neighbour's aggressive dog, M3GAN's path of mayhem ramps up on a traditional route, earlier victims being people who in a horror film sense could be seen to deserve the punishment they are given, before later victims are punished excessively. There were no real surprises to be found, from the expected ending shot allowing the possibility of a sequel, to information presented to the viewer early on, and that just so happens to be integral to stopping the killer doll in the climax.
The scenes with the doll being evil were fun to watch, but it was a shame that a lot of the kills were either toned down in violence or cut out completely to allow M3GAN to have a lower age rating. I thought it's ability to mimic voices was a decent idea however, it was effectively used as it set itself apart and made for some scenes that didn't feel as familiar as the general movement path of the story.

The film carries with it a bit of a quasi-dystopian vibe, especially with the toy companies ridiculous adverts. There is more than the feel of a Black Mirror episode with this one, but this does set itself apart from the original Child's Play movies, as technology is the root evil here. Gemma is a flawed protagonist, and could easily be seen as the inadvertent antagonist of the movie also, not only creating the doll and not programming it properly, but also relieved that it is acting as a surrogate mother to Cady, allowing her to pretty much ignore the child and allow it to be shaped by the doll. The message is about how the increasing reliance on technology might not be such a good thing for humans, especially in a world where a killer doll with access to all the information of the internet is able to have free reign. Special effects were great, especially with that doll, I liked the design, and its later 'battle damaged' look also appealed, even if it didn't go as far down that path as I had hoped. Characters were mostly fine, no one really stood out to me, I thought Ronny Chieng (Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings) was probably the highlight, bringing comedy to his role as the toy company boss.

I did like M3GAN, I thought it was effective as a new movie monster, and it had some nice ideas. The story in general did play out a little too safely, an obvious ramping up of threat, and an unsurprising ending occasionally caused me to realise that as much as I enjoyed this, it wasn't entirely something I hadn't seen before. M3GAN is currently streaming on Netflix.

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