Paranormal Investigations (2025) - Horror Film Review

There is nothing particularly original about found footage/mockumentary Paranormal Investigations. The set-up of a goofy cast of characters exploring a haunted house has been done many times before to varying degrees of success, with the 2021 films Infrared and Paranormal Prison coming to mind straight away. Having said that, this Raymond Wallace written and directed horror delighted due to a mix of darkly comedic goings on, and the presentation style chosen to show the events of the movie.

The whole film is presented as if it was a TV episode that someone unseen is watching. The synopsis is that the cast and crew of a popular paranormal investigation show visited a reputably haunted old plantation building; the Hennesy House, as it had been chosen as the location for the first episode of their new season of the show. Their plan was to spend the night there. The next morning they were found all dead, having been brutally torn apart. The footage taken that night had been confiscated by the police, but after a court battle, the TV network the show belonged to have managed to get a hold of it. Under the pretence of honouring their memory, the TV network have created a special episode of 'Paranormal Investigations', the crew's footage edited together as if it was a proper episode, with behind the scenes footage included, and additional commentary from the network boss.

So, the idea wasn't anything original, but I loved the way this was presented. What I loved most was the way the film is edited together. The crew were joyfully fake, appearing in their filmed scenes as a tight unit of friends, and off camera the inevitable bickering and infighting that gave a comedic contrast. You have Matt (David J. Rivera); the smarmy host who in the background has discovered one of the fans he sent a dick pic to was a fifteen year old girl. This has caused a lot of the conflict as various members are concerned if this gets out the show will be cancelled, especially the sound technician; Fran (Tatiana Robledo). Kelsey (Jamie Bernadette - Ash and Bone, The Bone Box) is the writer and director of the show, also happening to be married to Matt and obviously angry at the man. Then there is cameraman Logan (Nick Oprea in his film debut), who is the most friendly with Matt, and the computer guy; the very nerdy Steve (Logan Stem) who is often bullied by the others. The on and off screen dialogue was wonderful between these, I never tired of the transitions between these moments, and how cheesy and fake they all acted when the camera was rolling. The over the top dramatic music, stylish scene transitions, and the over exaggerated way the characters spoke was mainly so great as it felt so authentic to the type of show they were creating within the film world. Without the behind the scenes stuff (and of course later horror), this could have almost passed for a legitimate cheesy American ghost investigation show. I found the characters interesting for who they were, the behind the scenes dynamics showing tensions between various members leading to amusing moments. I loved the recurring complaint from Kelsey of Logan not having covered up the logo on his baseball cap. Later, the love affair that Steve has with his brand new capture system comes to an almost laugh out loud moment when in the height of the chaos, he makes a pathetic attempt to rescue his heavy equipment before giving up and apologising to it that he has to leave it behind! Amusing stuff. The press release states this is a comedy horror, but it does verge far more on the horror side of things than humour, but it certainly plays a strong role in terms of the dialogue between the cast. As a final point, loved the trailer that plays after the film finishes proper, a great moment.

The icing on the cake was the wraparound for this show. I found it hilarious that the network had edited together their found footage to be in line with a typical 'Paranormal Investigations' show, and I adored how sensationalised the 'episode' was shown. When the horror is in full force, it was amusing to notice the dramatic music playing over the scenes of violence and terror. The schlocky in your face over the top presentation was just perfect. Funny the similarities between the exaggerated performance of the original show itself, and then being eulogised for viewers by an equally fake feeling and dumbed down presentation style for the memorial show.

Being an edited together show, there are various camera feeds around the house often all shown on screen at the same time, it was neat seeing things happen in rooms the characters were not in, though sometimes the smaller images made it a tiny bit hard to see things. The kill scenes were all tremendous, often happening just off screen, but with plenty of enthusiastic screaming, and a nice amount of blood spurts. A mix of practical effects and CG, these mostly looked great, especially one character whose head is crushed on camera! It wasn't all so good for the antagonistic force, the CG for the shadowy being just about looked good, but the thing itself when revealed looked a bit cheesy and fake, enough that I began to think it would all be revealed to be a hoax within the story. Not the most scary looking thing out there, but the panicked actions of the characters sold the scenes. The final twenty five minutes when the mud finally hits the fan made for a thrilling third act, characters running around the large house in total disarray.

From the start Paranormal Investigations felt very familiar, but it was a great example of one of these types of mockumentary found footage movies. At times it played things a little too on the nose. Obviously inspired by the classics, the scene that plays most homage to The Blair Witch Project (in which a character leaves a snivelling apology message to their parents) was such an obvious steal that it almost ripped me out the film entirely. Of course the scene was done that way purposely, but was the most derivative and over-used found footage moment.

This has turned out to be a lengthy review. I thought Paranormal Investigations was a great film despite some little missteps. It would have been nicer to have a little more variety during the third act, and it would have worked better with a more authentic looking antagonist, but I enjoyed the flawed characters and their internal bickering, and I really did adore the way the movie was presented and edited together, quietly amusing. Director Raymond Wallace said of his film:

"We wanted to capture the absurdity of reality television colliding with genuine horror."
I think it is safe to say he was successful in that endeavour.

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Jacker 3: Road to Hell (2025) - Thriller Film Review

Unsurprisingly, Jacker 3: Road to Hell is the third film in a series. What I found interesting was that the previous two films were both released in the 90s; Jacker in 1993, and sequel - Jacker 2: Road to Hell in 1996. This third entry makes use of the thirty year gap for one of its plot points, as well as brings back a host of the original actors to reprise their roles. Having never seen the first two films I did feel l was playing catch-up a bit, so my synopsis might not be entirely correct as there were parts of the movie that left me a little confused, my fault entirely for joining the series with the third film. This new entry is directed by James Panetta (Phil Herman's Unearthed, Doomsday Stories), and once again written by Phil Herman, the writer of the previous films, as well as the person who plays the titular villainous role.

Thirty years previously, a serial killer known as 'the Jacker' (Herman) went on a notorious killing spree, his modus operandi typically being to murder his victims during carjackings. Despite his large amount of victims, the police were never able to capture him due to the killer seemingly striking at random, before one day vanishing without a trace. Now, with no explanation other than possibly due to it being the anniversary of the original killings, the Jacker is back, once again creating a large kill-count. This causes Gloria (Debbie D - Phil Herman's Unearthed, Doomsday Stories) to reappear; a survivor of the original Jacker killing spree who went into hiding after he failed to kill her. Now she begins to have troubling nightmares about the man, seeming to have some type of psychic connection with the killer, and realising he is back she desperately tries to alert people.

Did I have much of an idea what was going on? No. Did I have a fun time watching this very low budget thriller? Hell yes. It begins with a prologue sequence in which a man shoots his wife dead, before being killed in turn by a policeman. Before he goes however, he is able to transfer his essence into his young son. I wasn't sure of the importance of this scene, but it does set up the murky possibility that the Jacker is supernatural in nature. This supernatural element doesn't appear heavily, but it is referenced again later in the film, and you could argue the many nightmare sequences characters have are also a cause of this.
The story is split between a multitude of characters, some of which only appear in order to become more victims for the serial killer, some who have their own little subplots going on, such as journalist Chris (Christopher Kahler - Phil Herman's Unearthed, He Sees You When You're Sleeping), and of course Gloria; the main protagonist but whose story mainly takes place away from the new killings. Jacker's storyline has him back on a meandering murder-spree, he of course kills people whose cars he has stolen from them, but also his fair share of home invasions, and happenstance while out walking the streets of the city. He makes for an entertaining villain, seeming to get pleasure out of his motive-less killings, and he talks a fair bit. It was also amusing that many people seem to recognise who he is before they are dispatched by him; the event from the past having left a scar on the city.

There are a whole bunch of death scenes, the Jacker's weapon of choice usually being a gun which he uses to single shot his victims. There are some closer kills, even one severed penis to be found here! Scenes typically have these characters begging for mercy, and occasionally even getting that mercy. Favourite of these had to be Butch Patrick (Eddie from The Munsters) playing a fictional version of himself outside a fan convention. There are a few scenes with female nudity, often feeling like these were only there for titillation. There were also various scenes that were played for comedic effect, with the indie feel of the film world these moments fitted in seamlessly with the more dramatic scenes. Perhaps part of his supernatural powers, perhaps just to make the film flow more smoothly; Jacker appears able to be exactly where he wants to be at any given point. He flits around between scenes, so one moment he will be invading a home, next scene he will be out walking in woodland, the next scene he will be meeting someone to try and buy guns, with no rhyme or reason to why he is where he is. He made for an entertaining antagonist, but he didn't make for a cohesive feeling character, a force of nature rather than anything deeper.

Despite being a bit lost as to what had come before, I enjoyed Jacker 3. I liked how the killer wasn't needlessly cruel, living to kill, not living to torture, and I liked the cheerful way he goes about things. The plot involving Gloria did feel very disconnected to his storyline, at times this slightly felt like two separate movies playing out in the same film universe. Jacker 3: Road to Hell was an entertaining indie thrill ride. Don't always expect the strongest of acting (especially during the amusingly wooden news segments), and don't expect too much plot, but this was a solid indie film which never became dull.

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The Rotting Zombie's News Anthology for Thursday 16th October 2025

This small news post is due to go up on the week I return to my day job after 10 days off. It has been pleasant not to work, though I didn't get as much blog as I had originally intended to! Onwards to the news.

Retro slasher Brute 1976 is now available on VOD and Digital platforms including Amazon Prime Video, Apple TV, Google Play, Vimeo On Demand, and YouTube Movies via Cinephobia Releasing. This Marcel Walz (Pretty Boy) directed slasher earned a respectable 7/10 rotted zombie heads in my August review, where I stated 'Brute 1976 wears its inspirations on its sleeve, and it benefits from not trying to pretend it is something wholly original'.

Japanese practical FX monster movie Bakemono has won a slew of awards at various festivals. It won Best Feature at the Spooky Empire Horror Film Festival, it won Best Special Effects at both the Atlanta Horror Film Festival and Motor City Nightmares Film Festival, and won Best Practical Effects at A Night of Horror Film Festival. I stated in my enthusiastic 9/10 rotted heads review back in December of last year 'I hoped for a good horror, and with Bakemono you have that, wonderfully edited, fantastic special effects, and great creature design, this was something special'.

Finally for today, horror adventure-comedy Minore was released on North American VOD platforms and DVD on September 30th. It takes place at a Greek seaside taverna where strange creatures have risen from the sea. A sailor in search of his father teams up with the eccentric locals to try and find a way to repel this threat. Director Konstantinos Koutsoliotas says of his film 'Minore is my love letter to Greece - a delirious cocktail of Lovecraftian monsters, splatter, bouzouki, awkward dinners, and unexpected song and dance.' 

Hemet, or the Landlady Don't Drink Tea (2024) - Comedy Horror Film Review

Hemet, or the Landlady Don't Drink Tea comes from director Tony Olmos (Continuance) and writer Brian Patrick Butler (Friend of the World). Bizarrely, Butler himself plays the part of the antagonist old woman featured here, though it helps being a comedy that his strange appearance can be brushed off. She had by far the best lines and best deliveries of the film, so I would assume that's why Butler played the part, so he could bring his lines to life in the way he envisioned here.

An epidemic has swept America in which drug users have become addicted to a dangerous new type of bath salt. The side effects cause the addicts to wander around in a stupor, attacking anyone who gets within reach, as well giving the addicts a taste for human flesh. Liz Topham-Myrtle (Butler) is the landlady of a remote housing block, knowing her tenants have nowhere else to go, she rules over them with an iron-fist. She takes advantage of them, pitting them against each other, and changing their tenancy agreements on a whim. With the police wrapped around her little finger, and with martial law close to being called due to the nationwide bath salt epidemic, Liz is making her own little empire. The tenants, angry at their treatment by her, have began to rebel, leading to a series of events that have drastic consequences.

The general idea behind this film I liked. I appreciated the zombie sub-plot, and while not literal zombies, these addicts filled the role well. It was always suggested that out on the streets is carnage, with the addicted out in force, but this never came across that strongly on screen. With a muted zombie outbreak, there was also a muted response to it, which did make the threat of them seem over-exaggerated. Butler was scene stealing in his lead role. It is really obvious it isn't an actual old lady, but this gives the character a really surreal appearance that just added to her commanding role. The quick fire matter of fact way the character speaks was often mesmerising, even if she was a detestable character. That became my core issue with much of the movie, how unlikeable virtually the entire cast are. Even characters on the more good side of things still appeared to be horrid people. Rosie (Kimberley Weinberger) was set-up to be the protagonist, but was barely better than the rest of the horrid cast. When there are no characters to like, it becomes hard to care about any of them or their fates. This is reflected within the film itself, as the cast of characters are all back stabbing and out for themselves, even with a high body count, these characters don't appear to particularly care about all the death going on around them.

Special effects delighted at times, there are more than a couple of severed limbs, a load of corpses, and one quite entertaining scene involving a chainsaw! The 'zombies' for want of a better term, do get some classic moments such as tearing open people's stomachs, and there is a bit of decent looking gunfire effects as well.
With the movie taking place near entirely at the dusty desert compound, the look fitted the downtrodden story well. It doesn't take much to see this is partly a critique against the housing situation in America, while also speaking out about corruption and racism.

The set-up for Hemet, or the Landlady Don't Drink Tea was good, I liked the addition of a dangerous epidemic sweeping the country. I do wish there had been more characters to root for, this had an almost Shakespearean quality of betrayal and arrogance behind the story, but with this cast of nasty people, it was hard to care about any of it too deeply.

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Sincerely Saul (2025) - Comedy Horror Film Review

Written, directed, and produced by Ian Tripp (Everybody Dies by the End), Sincerely Saul is an indie dark comedy psychological horror that is a slice of life for a man-child. Without much plot to worry about, this absurdist black and white injects life with its variety of weird and kooky characters.

Saul (Ryan Schafer - Everybody Dies by the End), is a 26 year old man who never really grew up. He lives with his terminally ill grandma (Mickey Faerch - Memory: The Origins of Alien), doesn't work, and is a member of a support group for involuntary male virgins. Him and his grandma have a love/hate relationship, he does care for her, but he is also adverse to 'borrowing' money off of her for his obsession with an online cam-girl and his desire to fulfil his perceived happiness needs.

Saul is a hard protagonist to like but even so he does have some redeeming qualities buried deep down. Being a comedy horror, I expected there would be a tipping point where the Napoleon Dynamite styled character would go on a bloody rampage. Much like a child however, Saul is all bark and no bite, ineffectually having tantrums rather than actually causing people physical harm. He is barely able to speak normally, acting like a sullen teenager when answering questions from the people he encounters in his life. These characters are an eccentric bunch of weirdos and odd-balls. From the 'friendly' Officer Porter (Karl Backus - Skin: The Movie) whose close relationship with his mother feels rather forced, to the long suffering comic book clerk (Ty Mabrey in his film debut), there is virtually no one here who comes across as normal. My favourite side character had to be the nerdy bow-tie vlogger that befriends Saul at one point. The interaction between Saul and his grandma was the strongest part of character development. From their strange relationship you get a sense that Saul is the way he is due to his family, the grandma at times seeming like an older mirror of the troubled man.

There isn't that much that happens, the film feeling like a snapshot of a few weeks of the protagonists life. He begins the movie trying to kill himself, and threatens to several times over the 95 minute runtime, but you get the sense it is all for show. I couldn't see how there could be a happy ending for such a dysfunctional man, the snapshot approach works in that there doesn't really need to be a resolution. The film ends with some characters in better positions, some characters in worse positions, but on the whole most characters have little to no growth to them; they are all too set in their ways. I liked how a potentially huge plot point of a vast forest fire that Saul inadvertently caused just bubbles away in a severe side plot, only occasionally referenced. This matches with the film's weird humour, it always felt funny in a round-about way. The horror mainly comes from the situation Saul has grown into, it was hard to see how this 'neckbeard' would be able to rise above his issues. A nightmare sequence towards the end features the most horror to be found here, the rest of the movie having a more drama focussed (though exaggerated) approach.

Sincerely Saul made for an interesting movie. The stripped back story combined with the stark black and white look made something that was different enough to keep my attention throughout despite not too much going on. Saul was a unique lead, definitely hard to like, but there was also something pathetically innocent about how he is in his miserable existence. Sincerely Saul was released on 29th September.

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Scurry (2024) - Horror Film Review

Last year I had a wonderful time at the cinema watching prequel horror; A Quiet Place: Day One, and now I have seen the Luke Sparke (Primitive War, Occupation: Rainfall) directed  Scurry - a film that tells a similar story but in an indie setting. That isn't me saying it had copied that one, just that with the under attack city setting, the duel protagonists, the sentimental feel, and a vaguely similar looking creature (though more crab-like in appearance); these all combined to make this a stand-alone story taking place the same day as that much bigger movie in my head canon. Sure that is not the case, especially with the monsters here not appearing to have very great hearing.
I haven't even mentioned it yet, but Scurry is designed to have the appearance of it being one long unbroken shot from beginning to end. How well does it achieve this?

Mark (Jamie Costa - The Activated Man) wakes up in a deep hole in the road he had been crossing in the middle of a bustling unnamed city that had been caught in an earthquake. With the area having suffered a series of quakes over the past few weeks, he assumes that is what has happened. He is surprised when his cries for help fall on deaf ears, as he figures he couldn't possibly be the only survivor of this quake in such a bustling city. Forced to head deeper underground, he encounters another survivor; a frightened and injured young woman (Emalia - Paper Dolls TV series), she reveals to him the truth; the city has came under attack by giant monstrous creatures that came from beneath the earth, the frequent quakes had actually been caused by their burrowing beneath the city. Mark and the woman don't have any other real option than to uneasily team up and attempt to find a way to escape the creature-made burrows they now find themselves trapped in.

Overall I was impressed with Scurry. There were a few parts that didn't resonate as well, but it managed to tell its ambitious story effectively, the underground setting meaning a lot of the bigger picture stuff is assumed to be happening above ground. The 'one-shot' gimmick obviously doesn't mean one single uncut shot for the whole film, with the amount of times scenes are plunged into darkness, I am sure there are a lot  of scene cuts. What worked with this was the feeling of one long, single journey. From the camera swooping in from a chaotic city scene to centre on an unconscious Mark at film's start, to the amazing finish, this showed the entire torturous journey of the protagonists. This means the entire seventy minute movie plays out in real time, characters experiencing the events and getting to know each other at the exact same speed as the viewer.
Mark was a mostly great character. Sure, the man had his demons in his past, but he comes across as empathetic, caring, and an all-round good guy. I will admit he did begin to grate on me a bit in the momentum stalling scene deep in the third act, his dialogue there causing me to laugh out loud. He was also hardy, seeing as how he had a gaping hole the size of a small letterbox in his stomach from a film's start injury! The same can't be said for the woman (also hardy with a bad leg injury; I mean she can't said to be a nice character). From her first appearance she was selfish, mean spirited, bullying, and a little bit narcissistic. No matter what Mark said or did, she would treat him terribly, scoffing at the idea of him wanting to get back to his 'perfect family', and putting her needs ahead of his. Pretty much treated him like he was a side character in her own movie rather than a duel protagonist. Armed with a pistol, she holds the power, making Mark crawl behind her, and taking his items (such as his lighter) off of him. At one point she even forces him to head back down an occupied tunnel in order to collect mystery drugs she had dropped. She eventually gets more bearable, but for too much of the runtime I was wishing the character would just get over themselves and found them overly irritating.

The characters are in dark tunnels for much of the movie, sometimes the one shot uses this to cool advantage, such as panning back to reveal a monster is obliviously digging in a tunnel above them, or to sweep down a hole to show the viewer what is making the noise the characters can hear. It also pans away to flashback sequences in a clever fashion. Many of the effects seem to use CG, such as the panning shots, but they never looked bad, and added depth to the world of the film. There is more action than you might expect, the humans are surrounded by monsters, but those are not particularly aware of these survivors trying to find a way out. There are plenty of small exciting moments, the third act begins with a really entertaining scene that had me giggle out loud, and which saw the duo covered in blood! The creatures look like giant crabs ("giant enemy crabs; hit weak points for massive damage" to paraphrase a much memed Sony 2006 E3 press conference). The darkness of the film means they are often in shadow enough that the design and look-in film is effective.
The story had me engaged enough that I wanted to see Mark survive; to see if he could be reunited with his family. Both characters had their melodramatic cheesy moments where they lay their cards on the table, reveal to each other their darkest secrets. Those felt a little bit formulaic for this type of film, but were at least brief. Being biased towards him, Mark's one was much better than the woman's. There is some lore that is dropped towards the end about the threat they face that threatens to turn the film into a parody of itself, but it paves the way for the memorable Sam Raimi-esque ending zinger that was just perfect, even if the explanation was utterly ridiculous.

Apart from a dip in pacing in the middle of the third act, I really enjoyed Scurry. Mark was a great protagonist for the most part, and at least the woman eventually becomes more bearable. I might not have liked the character, but she was played well, as was Costa's Mark outside of one small stumble. It sold the illusion of being one unbroken shot beneath the streets and sewers of a city well, I enjoyed the CG effects to pad out the world, and the unique ways the film had of displaying key information to the viewer. The dank environments felt suitably claustrophobic. Scurry came to Digital HD on October 3rd in North America via Signature Entertainment.

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Retrofate (2025) by Assassun - Music Album Review

It's another year and another full length album from Assassun (the moniker for one of Alexander Donat's many music projects). Titled Retrofate, this album seems to leave behind much of its previous eighties synth sound, taking on a more retro nineties EDM inspired sound mixed alongside its post-punk/industrial beats. Not too much of a surprise is that this is another great album.

Things begin with the sneering and angry sounding 'Poisonalan', its assortment of repetitive beat carrying the track along. 'At the Kiwi Crates' is the weirdly titled and weird on the whole second song. The lyrics sung in a kind of rap beat are very odd, loved it, and I also loved the dirty back beat thudding away throughout.
'1995' is where the retro EDM rave sound begins to appear more frequently. This is the start of a downward descent deeper and deeper into awesome sounding EDM music. 'Past/I N B E T W E E N/Future' has even more of a rave-like feel, the music here is amazing, with what sounded like chiptune style music at times, and entertaining lyrics. Then 'D.E.A.T.H'. goes even further into the EDM wastelands with an evil sound to it, loved the backing beat. 

Following the sarcastic EDM roadtrip 'The Sons of the United Plagues' we get to 'Abysmalism', a track both dramatic and experimental with the lyrics almost becoming spoken word. 'Off the Globe' is the end of the really grimy sounding back beats, another good example of it, those backing beats are so great. Penultimate track 'GATEKEEPER' may just be my favourite on the whole album, I'm not a fan of the genre, but it was still a surprising delight to hear parts where a drum n' bass beat kicks in for some high energy sounding moments that were fun. Finally comes the more slow and introspective finisher 'The Concrete of Time'. A bit surreal, and a very slight opening feel of a The Streets song, this had some good parts scattered throughout its weird journey.

I seem to say this every time, but I once again loved Assassun's latest album; Retrofate, delighted with its abundance of grotty sounding EDM (in the best way). blended with the lovely post-punk industrial sound. There was a good stretch of the album where every song was better than the one that came before. Enjoyed this one more than I had initially expected to.

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Drive Back (2024) - Horror Film Review

Despite its generic 'thriller' sounding title, Drive Back is actually a time loop horror film - a sub-genre of horror that I really love. Directed by Cody Ashford (in his directorial debut), and written by Jon Sarro, this tells an all too familiar story that the sub-genre seems destined to repeatedly tell forever, in some type of... loop. I am sure it is purely coincidence, but this felt extremely similar to Dane Elcar's 2022 time loop horror; Brightwood, albeit, a more enjoyable version of that film.

Olivia (Whit Kunschik - Caged) and her partner Reid (Zack Gold) have gotten lost out in the wooded backroads of America while driving back from their engagement party at Reid's parents house. Finding a remote gas station, the couple ask the eccentric old woman they discover there how to get back to where they need to be. She then reveals to them a secret short cut via a road passing through the middle of a thick wood that only the locals know about, and directs them on how to find it. Things begin to go odd as soon as they arrive on the short cut - time appears to be passing strangely, each of them begin to have memory lapses about things that have only just happened, and they encounter a very hostile hitchhiker. Then they begin to notice familiar landmarks they are certain they have passed before, and it is discovered they they appear trapped in some time of loop, no matter which way they drive, they come across the same stretch of road.

As I said in my prologue, there were many parts of Drive Back that felt very similar to ideas used in similar films. A bickering couple, a dangerous cloaked stranger, seeing past and future versions of yourselves; all are cool ideas, but none of them are original. There were some parts here that felt a little more fresh. It wasn't implemented well into the film, but I liked the concept of heading further into the future going one way down the road, and heading back into the past if heading the opposite direction. So, Reid and Olivia don't have the greatest chemistry together, something that is a key part of the drama going on between them. In addition to Olivia being pregnant, Reid is also still trying to come to terms with her having cheated on him in the past. More interesting was Reid's relationship with his survivalist father. This was important enough that the bleak prologue sequence shows an event that happened when Reid was a young boy on a hunting trip. Both protagonists were decent characters, the actors able to convey all the confusing story changes. Some of the highlight dialogue scenes were when the two were almost going insane due to the rapid fire memory alterations they were getting, the scene a dizzying quick edit to heighten the disorientation.

There is a decent effort to inject horror into this, characters frequently have really violent and gory nightmare sequences, and I have to say how much I liked the look of the blood here. When there is a call for blood, there is a heck of a lot of it. The location for the story was perfectly suited, designed to just be a part of the background. There are more characters to be found than just themselves, but the supporting cast are a mixed bunch of mostly mute antagonists who all look the same. Also, if you are after any sort of explanation for the loop-based terror going on, then you may be disappointed, but its typical of the sub-genre not to explain things.

After a promising start, Drive Back soon fell prey to the pitfalls of the genre. Focussed on just the two characters, it did feel a little samey at times, but it is when the two realise they are trapped in a loop that the film becomes more derivative. The hour and a half (or so) runtime felt exactly its length, with the middle part of the movie dragging somewhat. As for the end, not the worst way to finish a story, but also not the best way either. This is a decent example of this type of film, and I would recommend it over others I have seen in recent memory.

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The Creep Tapes (2024) - Horror Series Review

Creep and Creep 2 are two fantastic found footage horror films that shine mainly due to the hypnotically awkward performance of the antagonist (played by Mark Duplass). I have always felt a bit bad about giving that first film a six out of ten, but have to assume that was what my thoughts were at the time. With the last film released in 2017, I had assumed this series was done and dead. Last year I was delighted to see a TV series based on the character was released. The Creep Tapes is a found footage horror series, each episode taking the form of a snuff film that the titular creep has made. 

Season 1 is made up of six roughly twenty five minute long episodes, each one featuring a different victim that the killer has tricked into meeting with him. I wasn't sure how the episodes would feel varied seeing as I assumed the central concept would be the same. The fun comes from the different personas and situations that Duplass' character gets to act out in. It begins with 'Mike' in which a man hoping to make a video to help him get into film school has came to the killer's remote house. This was a bit Creep by numbers but it had some shining moments. In this one, the killer is pretending to be a killer for the film being shot, a lovely blend of you not knowing if he is just pretending or is actually attempting to kill Mike. Lovely stuff and it makes sense they would want to start the season with something more familiar. Next up is 'Elliott' which takes place entirely out in a remote location where the killer has joined a man for a spot of bird watching, enjoyed the way killing is described in bird watching terms, though this was one of the weaker episodes due to the location. Halfway through the first season brings 'Jeremy' that was probably my favourite here. Duplass' character is in full cringe mode, playing the part of a priest in order to trick someone who makes a living out of ridiculing religion online. The tables are of course turned in the most delightful ways, with Jeremy failing to out-creep the sinister odd-ball.

The second half of the season begins with 'Brad' in which the killer offers a true crime documentary maker the opportunity to film a real crime in progress, with penultimate episode 'Brandt' mainly just being Duplass' character on his own after the titular man fails to show up. Season finale 'Mom (and Albert)' is the biggest lore dump, with the killer visiting his equally insane mother and her new boyfriend. It is all as you would expect and there were no real revelations, and was also the least horror filled episode. Throughout the season, things were always entertaining but I was never blown away. I enjoyed the variation in these episodes but they remained relatively samey. Of course the iconic wolf costume 'Peachfuzz' makes plenty of appearances, even appearing to be sentient during 'Brandt'. The scenes where the victims come to understand the danger they are really in was always the highlight, Duplass plays his role to perfection, plenty of sudden jump scares by screaming at characters, and the chase sequences were always a lot of fun. The short length of the episodes prevents a feeling of slow pacing that can be the case in found footage feature lengths, with the story picking up at the most interesting point typically.

If you liked the Creep films then I am sure you would also enjoy the series. There is nothing that fresh and exciting here, but it works as a greatest hits of the best that the films had to offer. This was certainly a fun watch, but it didn't blow me away, Duplass of course is perfection in his twisted role. The Creep Tapes is currently streaming on Shudder.

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The Monkey (2025) - Comedy Horror Film Review

It is Monday afternoon as I write this first blog post for the week, so I am quite far behind, normally my blog work would have started on the Saturday. It's a good thing I have a blissful week off work from my day job. The film I had originally intended to watch for review today had an expired screener link, so as is the way here at The Rotting Zombie HQ, that meant I got to choose my own film to review. After a painfully long hour trying to decide what to watch, I settled on The Monkey; a horror film that was based on a short story by that master of horror; Stephen King. Directed and adapted by Osgood Perkins (Longlegs, The Blackcoats Daughter), this had initially intended to be played straight and serious - much like the original short story was. Perkins saw different however, and decided to make this a dark comedy horror, thankfully, that turned out to be a great idea.

Twin boys Hal and Bill are going through their father's belongings they find in the attic one day. They are hoping to learn more about the man, not having known him after he abandoned his family when they were very young. In with his possessions is a creepy looking wind-up monkey doll with a key ready to turn in its back. They soon come to learn that whenever this key is turned, and after the monkey has gone through its mechanical motions of banging a drum, someone near to them is killed in a most random way. The monkey chooses its own victim, something that is learned hard when it takes someone irreplicable away from them, and together they decide to get rid of the device.
Twenty five years after they chained it up and threw it down a deep well - Hal (Theo James - Divergent), now grown up and having lived an isolated life (in an effort to not give the monkey the opportunity to take anyone he cares about), learns of his aunt's untimely demise. He realises the monkey is back and ready to go on another killing spree of those that him and Bill are close to.

I have always been a big fan of the Final Destination series of films, so with this sharing some of that DNA, I was always going to like this. James plays both himself and twin-brother Bill and plays them both very weirdly. The comic vibe is very dark, but it also is quite playful and silly when it wants to be. It isn't only the events that are occurring that are humorously surreal, but also with the dialogue. Nearly all the characters within the film are very odd and strange, feeling like characters who know they are in a dark comedy horror. I was surprised by some big names who appeared here. There is a wonderful prologue featuring Adam Scott (Severance TV show), and I was happily surprised to see Elijah Wood (The Lord of the Rings series of films) appear for one short but amusing scene. Characters throughout were all so oddball in a unified amusing way. Perhaps my favourite side character being the very novice and out of his depth priest (Nicco Del Rio - Black Mirror TV episode 'Common People') who performs his funerals as if he is surprised to be the one leading them.
The first third of the film is led in narration by an adult Hal talking about his childhood. I hadn't expected the film to have a time skip, so hadn't expected one when it happened. The parts set in relatively modern day became even more strange. Hal is on a super awkward annual father/son road-trip meet-up with teenage son Petey (Colin O'Brien - Grey's Anatomy TV show) when the two get caught up in the re-emergence of the monkey and its murderous ways, Petey being emerged in the random chaos in  some often drily amusing scenes.

There are a heck of a lot of death scenes throughout the hundred minute horror (and a bunch of nightmare sequences), and not one of them is handled in a reserved manner. Each death is just as much, or more comedic than the death that came before, certainly played for laughs. A lot of inventiveness is shown, but a lot of these deaths also only occur during brief montage sequences. It was a mix of practical effects and CG, leading to a decent variation in silly kills. From a character who has the contents of a wasp hive fly into their mouth, to accidental beheading, accidental empaling, and my favourite;  a character who met their end (sadly offscreen) by being trampled to death by a pack of horses while they were in a sleeping bag while out camping. Much like the Final Destination films, these deaths are darkly comedic and often have a bit of set-up to them, though nothing quite as elaborate as that other series.
The monkey has a really creepy design to it, the editing and cinematography of the filmmaking really unit to create the feeling it is a cursed object and something to be feared. Able to appear where characters least expect it to be, this monkey was the highlight of the movie - impressive for a mostly inanimate object.

The Monkey was a film that I think would have worked just as well as a serious horror as to what Perkins made it into. At times I did wish it had been played more seriously, that toy design could have been used for some genuine scares. All in all, this was an amusing and frequently inventive film that mostly hit the mark. The Monkey is currently streaming on Prime Video.

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7eventh 7ircle (2025) - Short Horror Film Review

I feel like there used to be a heck of a lot more experimental arthouse type films in the recent past. Nowadays they are few and far between. Of course, they can be an acquired taste, but when done well they can create a sensory trip like few other films do. Written and directed by Ty Brueilly, 7eventh 7ircle  is the eleventh instalment of the 'Shucks cinematic world'. You will likely gather from my thoughts to come, but I really didn't have much of a clue what this was all about.

Over sixteen minutes we get a series of tales that appear to be told from beyond life. It features various characters wearing creepy masks, hanging out and doing stuff. There are some demonic cultist type people out in woodland ready to sacrifice a doll, a family of cultists sat around a dinner table with their meal of sticks, among other such things. Mainly this is dialogue free, it had the feel more of a music video, with the expertly edited images going in time with the hypnotic beat of the music. What dialogue there was had some background interference to it but that didn't really detract from anything. Apparently, this short film is based on the seventh circle of Hell from Dante Alighieri's Inferno, a quick Google search reveals that is the circle for the sin of violence.

I won't even begin to pretend I understood what the purpose of any of this was. It made for a trippy quarter hour, and the mix between the images and sound was often sublime, was definitely something to experience. 7eventh 7ircle had it's world premiere on 5th September at the TCL Chinese Theatre in Hollywood. It has it's hometown premiere in Asheboro on 11th December at the Sunset Theatre.

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Uncanny: Fear of the Dark (2025) - Supernatural Stage Show Review

They say you should try and write reviews the same day as you see the thing you are reviewing. That sadly wasn't able to be the case here, so this is written some four days later, I'm sure there will be details I miss here, but the general feelings I have for it remain while typing!
Uncanny is a BBC podcast and TV show that has Danny Robbins as host. In the show he presents various alleged hauntings and comes across as someone completely neutral in the belief in ghosts. He also has two experts helping him, one expert who believes in the supernatural, and one expert who doesn't. Uncanny: Fear of the Dark is the second theatre production I have seen, having been to Uncanny: I Know What I Saw roughly a year ago.

The last stage production was made up of a deep dive into two different hauntings, one for each half, and most enjoyable so it was. For Fear of the Dark, this has been stretched out to now six different cases. Being a huge fan of anything anthology-like in style, this was music to my ears. There was more variation here than I thought, and being a low level fan of the show it included topics I had never seen Robbins explore.
It appeared that me, my father, and my sister, only noticed our tickets were each nowhere near each other right at the last moment before heading in to Northampton's Derngate theatre making for a bit of an amusing start. My seat was on the second floor in a box that was one away from the nearest to the stage. This meant that my view was partially restricted as it was a struggle to make out props that would often appear right at the back of the stage. That part wasn't good, what was great however was the fact I was on the side where the two experts sat, so I had a great if slightly vertical view of them throughout the show. The stage design was more cluttered this time around, the theme being that it is Danny Robbin's version of The Warren's artefact room. I liked the cluttered design of the stage, even if I couldn't see the back area reserved for impact moments. There was a neat video wall across the top of the stage, with three different screens where footage was being displayed on.

The show begins with a super serious intro that Robbins was amusingly self deprecating about. The host as always was very friendly and chatty, there is something very likeable from him, and he can be legitimately funny at times. He was joined frequently on stage by Dr. Ciarán O'Keeffe (the skeptic) and Evelyn Hollow (the believer) who would give their opinions on the cases discussed. I swear O'Keeffe wasn't in the show I saw last year, but my dad says he was. Either way, it was a pleasure to see these two as well, having seen them in a load of Uncanny's TV episodes.
It begins predictably enough with the first case being a supernatural case of a haunted nursery, classic Uncanny stuff. For me, while I knew U.FO sightings had been explored before, this was the first time I had personally seen it. I loved the change-up in style, and was fascinating to discover that O'Keeffe had been caught up in Britain's most well known UFO sighting as a child! There was an even more strange case looked at later on, about a Bigfoot type creature spotted just outside of Scunthorpe. Robbins interviews the believable man in a pre-filmed segment as he drives down the exact same patch of road where he encountered what he believes he saw.

The order of the cases is a bit mixed in my head, but regardless, after an interval we got back to what felt like a slightly more creepy act. There was a case offered as hope in the existence of an afterlife (to me it felt more unsettling than hopeful!), and a poltergeist encounter that also got the hairs on the back of my neck slightly rising. At one point during the show, audience members are invited to ask the host and experts questions, this was interesting enough. It was the later segment where audience members are invited to share their supernatural encounters that things unexpectedly took a turn for the entertaining. Personal favourites of the five or so supernatural accounts include a daughter who had an 'imaginary' friend as a child that she later discovered was the spit of someone who had once lived in her town during Victorian times, and a man who saw a large sized rabbit with a face of a human one dusky evening as a teen!

With the increase to six cases over two hours instead of just two, there is the expected more streamline feel. While these never felt particularly rushed through, there were a couple that were almost too brief. I enjoyed the way the footage was displayed on stage; how both Robbins and the audience would both be watching it intently (plus it gave me an excuse to lay back in my seat rather than having to lean over the barrier to see!). More of the same then, but that is not a critique. Despite the show seemingly being cursed for me (again leading me to unexpected travel woes on the short journey home), I loved this, it improved over time. I got there exhausted from a long day at work, and left even more tired, but with a smile in my heart for a fun evening kind of spent with family.

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The Draft! (2023) - Horror Film Review

Indonesian horror; The Draft! (also known as Setan Alas!), was directed and co-written by Yusron Fuadi and tells a wild story that both plays with audience expectation, as well as with horror film tropes. It creates a story where you really can't tell where it is going to go next.

Five college friends have headed away to a remote villa for the weekend. After one of them is found murdered, as well as groundskeeper Mang Dadang (Ernanta Kusuma), the friends decide to flee the place but find themselves unable to. Film nerd Amir (Winner Wijaya) suggests a theory; that they are all characters in a horror film script and are stuck following the whims of a writer. This outlandish idea surprisingly turns out to be the reality for the group, and with previous events altering and characters coming back to life seemingly randomly, they realise that they are trapped within a draft of a script.

It is an interesting premise, and one I have enjoyed in the past, with films such as Resolution and of course; The Cabin in the Woods. Things begin predictably enough for a horror film, so predictably that Iwan (Adhin Abdul Hakim) can't resist pointing them out to his friends. There was a bit of a hump accepting the characters had discovered they were trapped within a film script, but eventually that is made apparent purely by the wild happenings. There is plenty of amusing, almost fourth-wall breaking moments with the script, where characters criticise the writer for being lazy and not having developed them enough than to have hazy backstories. Amir becomes the heart of the film, it is him who is the first to realise, and also the one who becomes skilled at forcing positive changes in the story playing out. As the film plays out it switches horror genres also, it manages to fit a decently sized zombie section, as well as a slasher, and a demonic horror. This led to never really knowing what was to come next, with characters able to accidentally 'will' items and events into being, while coming to understand that while they are in a draft there is always a way for them to come back from apparent death.

This strange direction also removed much of the horror aspect from the picture. The amusing script, and how cheaply death is treated never comes across as too serious. One highlight was a corpse that various characters keep tripping over and reacting to each time they pass it. There are bleak moments on occasion, usually these are sign posted as being there as an intention of the writer, with characters stating how what they are saying is meant to create sympathy from the viewer, before overly cheesy sorrowful music begins playing.
There are some really exciting scenes throughout the movie, particularly towards the end of the second act in a wonderful little mini-event within the film world. I loved how wild that part got. I also thought one of the storylines having people get possessed and then ripping their jaw off their face was fantastic, I would have loved to see an actual horror about that!

The Draft! is a clever horror that completes the assignment it gave itself well. It keeps you guessing while being at times both purposely generic and playful with expectations. This naturally leads to a reduction in any legitimate terror, but is balanced out with an interesting set-up and a likeable cast of protagonists. The Draft! came to Screambox on 23rd September.

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