End of Abyss (2026) - Sci-fi Horror Video Game Review (Playstation 5)

It is currently that time of the year when the annual Halloween event; Fortnitemares is going on in video game Fortnite. During this event, many horror themed skins get added to the game store, and a few weeks back a very cool looking skin got added. I picked it up, not realising it was actually a skin of the protagonist from sci-fi horror metroidvania video game - End of Abyss. With the game recently released with a lean price of just over £20, I grabbed it, not even checking first to see if it was any good or not.

In the game you play as Cal - a female technician who has travelled to a remote and vast underground facility alongside her captain and three heavily armoured soldiers. Contact had been lost with the base, so they had gone there to find out what had happened to cause this. With the place on a complete lockdown, Cal's job is to disable the various security systems so that the small team can make it to the heart of the complex deep in the lower levels. It quickly becomes apparent that something catastrophic has occurred. The base's population of workers all either dead, or mutated into grotesque zombie-like creatures.

A sci-fi horror metroidvania sounded like music to my ears, I saw it as the perfect game to play this spooky month. It was apparently made by the same team that did Little Nightmares and it shows, the murky location has a pulled back isometric perspective that gives it a slight dollhouse type feel, the various places full of incidental details that tell a story without notes or dialogue. For example; the hospital wing has a morgue overflowing with corpses, offices have bodies slumped over desks, and there are signs of disaster everywhere. Collapsed walkways, flooded areas, fires, and rampaging security bots, and much of the underground complex firmly sealed shut. The isometric view reminded me of the Xbox 360 Alien Breed Evolution games. It has the same pulled back perspective to make your character appear small on screen, same twin stick shooting gameplay, and similarly detailed, though here, this game is much less linear. Of course, the game also looks a lot better graphicly here, while it maintains a moody blue tint to it throughout, the game world is split into various different feeling locations that provide variation while also seeming unified in the style. Sound design is one of most satisfying aspects here, bringing the world to life. Living quarters, labs, waterworks, industrial areas, ventilation shafts and more. Each place in classic metroidvania style reveals shortcuts to unlock, and areas that can't be explored until the correct item or weapon is discovered. Meaning that backtracking is very much recommended.. The flamethrower lets you burn away fleshy growths, the grappling hook can traverse ruined walkways and pull down raised ladders, explosives can be used to destroy weakened walls etc. The flow of the game has you opening up the various areas, locating key cards and powering-up the required systems to allow you deeper access to the base. The map screen I found to be essential. It does a good job of keeping itself updated, not only showing which doors are currently locked, but also telling you what is required to open them up. The areas are massive, and these include plenty of huge and entirely optional areas. I would say at least a quarter of the game is made up of optional spaces should you want to do more than just mainline the story. Likening it to another game, this also reminded me of Dead Space, especially with the look of the enemies as well as the transit system that acts as a fast travel between areas.

Combat is a constant, using the analogue stick to aim and shoulder button to fire. The default weapon you have is a sci-fi pistol with infinitely recharging ammo. Later upgrades allow you to perform charged shots with it for extra oomph. As you progress, various other weapons are unlocked, including a shotgun, rifle and machine gun. These guns all require ammo however, which has to be created using currency dotted around the map and dropped by enemies. To be honest, these secondary guns never felt great to use, I tended to just stick to the pistol for much of my 15 hour playthrough. Currency can also be used instead to upgrade your weapons, making them stronger and giving them additional abilities. The annoying thing with this currency is that should you die, any ammo you used remains used. This led to situations where I needed a particular ammo type to use on bosses but no currency to create it, leading to me having to grind out more by repeatedly defeating enemies and then respawning them (by using a save station) until I had enough to build up my stocks of bullets.
A key part of the combat is Cal's ability to dodge. It doesn't sound like much, but dodging gives you a few frames of invincibility, making it an essential move to master early on.

The main enemy type you will face are the zombie-like creatures, which have a slight The Last of Us look to them with their mushroom-like growths. There was a good variety of enemy types, with a whole host of different zombie types (such as hulking ones, and ones that spit acid), alongside other enemies such as giant ticks, leeches, Half-Life style head crabs, and giant wasps. There are also the droids that fire laser beams and grenades at you. There was a large amount of boss fights, usually in large arenas that has you facing off a giant mutated mass of flesh of various types. No boss looks exactly the same, but they feel very similar to battle, apart from one giant robot boss, these are all giant mutant creatures. Fighting these could be frustrating at times due to how weak your guns felt, their huge energy bars meaning they took on the feel of bullet sponges. As a reminder, there is a reload button for your guns, something I embarrassingly only realised when I was midway through the final boss fight of End of Abyss!

The worst part of the game for me was the wafer thin story. Cal herself is a silent protagonist, the people she is with do speak but they are very cagey with their information, and never say anything interesting. The intention with the story being barebones is probably to make everything seem mysterious, but I became irritated how nothing much is ever explained. You can find notes dotted around the environments but most of these were hardly interesting. I really hoped that by the games end there would have been a satisfying lore dump, but alas, this was not to be. The end credits rolled with me still not even sure just why we my character had ever travelled to this facility in the first place, my synopsis earlier in this review being what I guessed was going on. The poor story was a real downer for me, sure the environmental storytelling was decent, but I was really yearning for something meatier and more complicated than what was provided.

I really enjoyed my time with End of Abyss, blasting through it in about half a week. It wasn't perfect though, a pathetic story, and later on especially, it became all too easy to get cornered by mobs of enemies and obliterated within moments or to get stuck on bits of the game's scenery (leading to one moment where I was forced to close down my game). I did like playing this, a good graphical style, and I liked the design of the game world, even if it occasionally did feel a little similar, and there was a bit too much backtracking required. With a few weeks since completing the game at the time of review, I would be lying if I said I didn't miss it.

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Natural Thorn Killers: A Creeping Guide to Plant Horror (2026) by Lauren Jane Barnett & Tony Mardon - Horror Film Guide Review

When I first heard about Natural Thorn Killers: A Creeping Guide to Plant Horror, I figured the topic was a bit lean, as myself could only think of a handful of plant based horror films. For authors Lauren Jane Barnett and Tony Mardon to write an entire 253 page guide to the subject seemed like insanity. It turns out that I was surprised to see just how many of these I had seen, maybe not a gigantic amount, but still at least a handful from each of the seven varieties of plant based horror films covered here.

So the format for this guide is that it is split into seven sections. Each of these begins with an opening preamble explaining some of the reasoning for the emergence of these plant based horrors into the world. The rest of each section then picks out notable examples, offering more reasoning for their existence, as well as working through the film's plot from beginning to end, focussing on the plant horror based moments. The sections very roughly charts a chronological journey from around the mid 20th Century up to more modern times; the earlier sections more about older films, though all still include examples from multiple decades of the past 80 years or so.

It begins with 'It Came From Outer Space: Alien Plants'. This includes such classics as Day of the Triffids (I am a huge fan of author John Wyndham, so I had expected to find an adaptation of his novel here). It covers the various Invasion of the Body Snatchers movies, classics, and with these the guide suggests alien plants invading reflected societal fears of invasion, such as during the Cold War era. 
'Franken-vine: Man Made Monsters' follows this, here of course these films are stated to reflect a fear of unchecked science, with rogue scientists often the true antagonists. A lot of these involve radiation of one type of another causing mutations. Even not having heard of a lot of these, I of course at least had heard of comic book hero; Swamp Thing, and reading about Attack of the Killer Tomatoes had me recalling I had caught a part of this as a child. I remember thinking as a child the scene in the film where a large group of people are having an important meeting in a comically small room was quite amusing.
It was part 3 'Panic Shroom: Monstrous Mushrooms and Fatal Fungi' (loved all the word puns in those section headings!) where I started to feel that I really needed to check out some of the examples covered. Splinter, Shrooms, The Superdeep and In The Earth all piqued my curiosity. The authors are always keen to express when films have faults, this isn't some propaganda piece for plant horrors, with issues often being pointed out. The Girl With All The Gifts of course featured here, reminding me yet again that my memory is pretty awful!

Branching (pun not intended) the middle of the guide is 'The Root of All Evil: When Trees Attack', with a few of these having the plant horror as a side piece rather than the overarching threat. Of course, as I expected, the infamous tree rape scene from The Evil Dead is delved into, as well as the memorable scene from Poltergeist, and a contrast with its remake's version of that sequence.
'Mystical Di-vine: Plants that are Worshipped or Magical' follows. The Forest, Trick r' Treat and Sleepy Hollow being examples that I was familiar with (but again, my mind had forgotten these involved vegetation as a key feature of the evil.
Penultimate section; 'Thorn This Way: Naturally Evolved Threats' included a look at at horror - The Ruins. I hadn't heard of this, but the description of the film about a group under siege at an old ruined temple complex was very interesting, certainly want to check that one out. 
Finally was 'Field of Screams: Grasslands and Cornfields', including of course the beloved franchise of films Children of the Corn. I was vaguely put out that the authors only felt the first three in the series were worth covering, but to be fair, I've ever seen all of the films once, and that was a long time ago, so I am sure they are right when they say the movies move away from the cornfield angle. Cornfields work so well in horror films, as a teen I remember the excitement when my father tried to grow corn. Even though only a handful of stalks were grown, I still remember standing next to them and my mind going wild with thoughts of related horror films I had seen. The Japanese Onibaba, scarecrow horrors, Husk and Dark Harvest, and nature based Cube variant Escape the Field all sounded like films I needed to see for myself. As expected, In the Tall Grass has its own chapter, not a film I thought was amazing.

With that, the guide was over, with nary even a closing word from the authors. I loved reading through this guide, film guides are always something that have interested me, as there will always be some gems that you haven't heard of before included. Early on in the guide there were a few moments were it felt like the same ground was gone over in multiple parts, but that didn't detract from my enjoyment. A balanced look at the subject of plant based cinema, Natural Thorn Killers: A Creeping Guide to Plant Horror was both informative and entertaining, who knew that sub-genre of horror had roots that went so deep? The guide was published 24th April 2026 and is out worldwide with Telos.

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213 Bones (2025) - Horror Film Review

213 Bones is a nineties throwback slasher that doesn't really do anything original. It is a text book example of a slasher, a simple film if you will. However, this Jeffrey Primm directed and co-written film may be generic, but it was also very entertaining. 

An anthropology class at a college find themselves the target of a mystery killer. As they start to get picked off one by one, they become determined to find and stop this threat, but are not even sure who amongst themselves can be trusted.

213 Bones goes through the typical motions that a nineties set slasher would do. Characters almost feel like a Temu version of the cast of Scream, and are made up of a variety of stereotypes. Included within the group of protagonists are middle aged mature student, Bob (Dean Cameron), eighties obsessed Candice (Toni Weiss), boyfriend and girlfriend - Eric (Liam Woodrum - Geek Girl) and Joanna (Simone Lockhart - Sweet Magnolias), college rebel Clyde (Mason Kennerly), scatterbrain Patty (Allegra Sweeney), studious Lisa (Luna Fujimoto), and geeks; Brent (Hunter Nance) and Jill (Elizabeth O'Brien). The supporting cast are equally typical, including the class lecturer Kelly (Colin Egglesfield), local sheriff, and the local coroner. What was great about almost every single character in the film was how suspicious they are all made to look. The paranoid score, and odd moments made it seem that any of these many characters could be revealed to be the one doing the killing. Side characters were equally, if not more suspicious, such as the ever scowling groundskeeper and the weird blood stained regular at the local diner. There were so many plausible suspects, and so many red herrings that it was fun trying to work out who the culprit would turn out to be. When the reveal does happen, there wasn't the most riveting of motives, but the lead up to this was a genuine thrill ride that had me on the edge of my seat.

The killer wears a grotesque wooden mask with long red hair attached to it, covering their head completely, also helped by the big hooded overcoat they wear. It is about 30 minutes before the first kill occurs, and that is a death that takes place in a scene outside of the film, totally off camera. I did worry that this would be the path the film went on, never showing the actual death, but thankfully that wasn't the case. Beginning slow, they increase in pace until the thrilling finale where characters are dropping like flies. The majority of these deaths involve a smallish looking knife, but even so, there is plenty of variety, including throat slits, a severed eyeball, and an excellent slow motion shot of someone being shoved out an upper floor window. These kills don't always show the point of impact on the victim, but they were satisfying, and I liked that more than a couple of times the victims were able to go out fighting rather than just being a lamb to the slaughter.

I wasn't immediately impressed with 213 Bones. But it was barely any time later that I was fully on board with this familiar, yet enjoyable slasher. I found myself verbally warning characters, and pondering out loud who I felt the antagonist would be revealed as. Kind of brain dead entertainment, but I had a genuine blast watching this for what it was. 213 Bones had its US premiere at Screamfest on Monday October 12th.

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Golem.AI (2025) - Horror Film Review

This past weekend I had bad insomnia, so while lying wide awake in bed around 03:00 on a Sunday morning, I decided I might as well make some use of my time and watch a horror for review. The Rebecca Wahls directed and Alec Seymour written Golem.AI is an indie found footage movie in the style of something like Unfriended or Host; the whole film playing out from the perspective of a PC monitor screen. The IMDB page classes it as a horror, while the press release leans more into it being a comedy horror. The question wasn't so much which of these it would feel more like, but rather, would this low budget horror be any good?

The plot takes place back in the time of Covid and nationwide lockdowns. Two former friends who had drifted apart are reunited online when studious Alec (Seymour) contacts the abrasive Dylan (Dylan Hares) to ask him if he wants to play some online video games together. They decide to play an old multiplayer FPS shooter that they used to love, but after the game fails to work on their new machines they give up on that idea. Unknowingly, trying to play the game has unleashed an unfolding night of terror for the pair, with both men seeing a shadowy figure in the background of the respective webcam footage they are looking at. Alec first assumes immature Dylan is playing a prank on him, chiding him for breaking lockdown rules for a silly joke. Slowly, both come to realise something sinister is at play, it appears they have woken up a digital ghost, who has decided to haunt the pair for a perceived past wrong they apparently committed. 

At 65 minutes, this thankfully didn't have much of a chance to outstay its welcome. Try as I might, I just couldn't work out if the film was meant to be purposely funny, or if that was an accident of its creation. From the moment Dylan appears on screen he was very irritating to watch. I don't know why he was given the direction, but from the moment he appears he is pulling weird gurning facial expressions for no reason at all. Even when he is the sole character on screen he is pulling these odd exaggerated expressions, something that was increasingly distracting for me. I didn't think either of the two core actors were amazing, with the duo occasionally struggling to carry the film. I liked some aspects of the characters, Dylan being a former man-child living in his mom's basement, is trying to leave that more toxic past behind, even if he is still living in a basement, albeit, somewhere else. At some point in the past, Alec came out as gay, Dylan of course ribs him for this, but makes a point not to be actually homophobic, especially defending when he is accused of having used gay slurs against his friend. Alec is the more serious of the two, his backstory being that he has recently split up with his live-in long term boyfriend. Alec and Dylan's shared history is them having once been toxic players on the lobbies of the old FPS they used to play.

The horror here failed completely for me, falling flat time and time again. There was a large amount of weak jump scare attempts that were signposted from miles away, leading to annoyance rather than scares. Not much variety of horror really happens either, with both characters freaking out far more than was required when sheets of printed Hebrew letters start appearing around their apartments. When the characters do come under attack, any injuries sustained take place off scene. The entity is represented by some weak VFX, maybe purposely so as this is a digital ghost, but made it not seem a part of the locations it was haunting. Then there was the entity's voice, so guttural and distorted that I couldn't really hear what it was saying very well. The actual idea for the evil was unique enough, and made for the part of Golem.AI that worked the best, earning an extra rotting head on my review's final score.

As a straight horror this failed, and as a comedic horror this also failed. It felt like the film could never decide if it wanted to be taken seriously or not. Not remotely scary and barely entertaining, but not boring enough that it helped me with my insomnia. Golen.AI had its UK digital debut on 12th October 2026.

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Death Cycle (2025) - Horror Film Review

Off topic; Death Cycle was the title I always imagined I would use should I ever get around to writing my short horror story about zombie push-bikes in Amsterdam. Death Cycle here is instead a modern day giallo inspired slasher directed by Gabriel Carrer (Death on Scenic Drive) and written by Dave McLeod which barrels along its lean 80 minute runtime at breakneck speeds.

Abby (Kristen Kaster) and her sister are crossing a road one dark evening when they are mown down in a hit & run incident by Eddy (Matt Daciw), a member of a rich and influential family who had been drunk-driving back from a Gala event along with his sister Caterina (Sasha Ormond). Fearing he will be identified when one of the two sisters is found to still be alive, Eddy makes the fateful decision to finish the job, but not touching the second woman who he believes to have already passed. Unfortunately for Eddy, the 'dead' girl survived, and was able to easily identify him. The family fixer is able to give the man a false alibi, using the families influence to make the police drop the matter. Around a year later, members of the family begin turning up dead in violent circumstances. In desperation, Caterina contacts her estranged journalist brother, Luca (Matthew Ninaber - Death on Scenic Drive), requesting he investigate Abby under the guise of writing a news story on the prominent families recent murders. Caterina is convinced that the girl must have something to do with the killings.

This was a great little movie that almost felt like an origin story for a new horror movie slasher. The killer wears all black biking leathers, a face obscuring black motorcycle helmet, and rides everywhere on their powerful sounding black motorbike. The story leaps around in time, much of the action sequences playing out either as flashbacks, or as stand alone moments outside of the core story unfolding. After a fun prologue that introduces the various family members, the story then leaps to present day where the killings are starting. At least two of the entertaining kill scenes play out as events that Luca is retelling to Abby during his pivotal interview scene at her home. Each kill scene opens with the masked assailant riding through the night, and the motorbike is used in several of the biker themed kills. These kills were varied and included two different looking decapitations as well as a disembowelling fatality. All the kills looked great on camera, and effects such as heads being stamped into mush were fun to see.

The evil family were a fun bunch to hate, this also applied to Luca. Being estranged, I had expected he would have more of a conscience to him, yet he goes about his deceptive interview fully on his families side. He acts like he is all about getting justice, yet felt more like revenge was what he also wanted. It felt that Death Cycle almost forgets his actions make him just as detestable, with him painted as the heroic protagonist on occasions when he really wasn't. For all the bike based moments, this was a slow story that unfolds. The kills being flashback sequences or shown out of context made them feel isolated from the more talky pace of the present day story. With such a small cast of characters, it was always obvious who the killer would turn out to be, so no real surprise when that happens. There was a bit of an immersion breaking moment when Luca has a nightmare about the killer, perfectly picturing them despite not knowing what they would have looked like. This also applies to Luca's paranoia about motorbikes, again, I don't believe he would have known that was the killer's vehicle of choice, so there was no reason for him to be suspicious whenever he hears or sees one.

Despite a couple of small issues, I thought Death Cycle was a thrilling and satisfying horror. The end caught me by surprise, not realising how much of the film had passed when it crept up. A lovely open ending that suggests rather than shows, leading to a complete package that was grand stuff indeed. Death Cycle had its UK digital debut on 12th October 2026.

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Wounds (2026) - Horror Film Review

Psychological horror film, Wounds was the first film watched for review this past weekend, and was a good start to my blogging time. Directed and co-written by Ron Krauss (Alien Hunter), this vaguely meta story featured some great looking makeup effects and prosthetics, though the same couldn't be said for some of the VFX.

Caleb (Jack Kilmer - Lords of Chaos) is a young SFX makeup artist who has been given the opportunity by his studio owning uncle - Jefferson Price (Eric Roberts - Heretics, Devil's Knight) to do the SFX on a low budget vampire horror film being made. Caleb is struggling with this, unable to achieve the realistic effects that he wishes for. Jefferson warns him that if the film is a failure, it could lead to the closure of the studio, and in turn, Caleb losing his home (he is living in a small apartment in the studio complex rent-free). Under pressure, he goes for a walk one evening and witnesses a man being stabbed to death. This event inspires Caleb, who returns home and recreates a throat slash that he had practised on the corpse of the stabbed man. This new effect of his is a hit with the studio, and he comes to realise that for each of the effects he is working on for the film, he is going to have to first act it out on an actual person. He becomes seen as an effects genius within the film crew, but the pressure of the job, and his gory extra circular activities start to weigh on the young man, having a negative effects such as hallucinating about his victims, and seeing blood everywhere he goes. It seems only a matter of time before Caleb's sanity leaves him completely.

The practical makeup effects and prosthetics here looked good on camera, both when used for the kill scenes, and when used as effects for the film within a film being created. The mix between these two parts was done by transitioning the real kills into the fake with some nifty use of editing to achieve this.
Caleb was a loner from the start, not the easiest protagonist to like, but his passion for horror came across well. Kilmer does an admirable job, towards the end I didn't feel his more unhinged performance worked as well as the earlier more measured one. Being obsessed with films, there were plenty of clips from iconic horror films shown as part of his research. It was fun to see Nightmare City, Night of the Living Dead, Scanners, and Videodrome among the classics being watched. Paris Jackson (Scream: The TV Series) plays Caleb's potential love interest, Ginny, with the boy becoming obsessed with her, adding another point of strain to his fracturing mind. I'm used to seeing the prolific Roberts in smaller roles in indie films, so it was nice to see him having a larger role for a change, here playing a character with the third most screen time, and someone who adds more pressure for Caleb by being so demanding of him.

As great as the practical effects were, this wasn't the case for the VFX work. This mostly comes into play during the hallucination sequences that sees room filling up with seas of blood. Something about these looked a bit off though, and didn't really look to fit into the sets as something that looked real - a shame when the practical effects did look so great. The kill scenes here were a lot better, and had some variation to them - throat slashes, a stake through an eye, a vicious hammer attack, and a lovely looking facial burn. A story like this needed to sell violence, and it worked.

For all its dark themes, Wounds remained entertaining, the somewhat implausible story stopped things from feeling too bleak. This was a love letter to the craft of making horror films. The film within a film sections were fun, such as the fake-start that begins the film. It was also neat that a whole bunch of clips from other horror films were shown. I liked the bait & switch ending which subtly subverted expectations, ending a decent horror on a suitably twisted point. Wounds had its world premiere on October 8th at Screamfest LA.

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The Rotting Zombie's News Anthology for Thursday 8th October 2026

It is October; the spookiest month of the year. Over in the world of video games I have been enjoying Fortnitemares as usual (the annual Halloween event in Fortnite), with some cool skins appearing in the shop from Five Nights At Freddy's and A Nightmare on Elm Street. I wasn't actually planning to do any blog this week, the previous weekend (when I write my blog), I fully intended to be busy the whole time, so kept my schedule clear. I have ended up with a bit of free time, so will see what I manage to get done. It would be useful with Halloween so close.

Coming exclusively to Screamify later this year is Crack, described as '...an ASMR chiropractor thriller...'. Produced and directed by Calvin Morie McCarthy. The film is about a troubled young woman; Anna, (Peyton Grace Bell) who becomes obsessed with an online ASMR chiropractor channel ran by Dr. Ryan Love (Alexander Molina). When there is an opening at his place of operation, Anna seizes a chance to  be a part of his channel. Things come to a head during his first ever live broadcast which sees a neck adjustment go horrifically wrong. The film is also to feature Tuesday Knight (A Nightmare on Elm Street 4: The Dream Master), and principal photography beings this Autumn.

Dementium is a psychological horror that came to North American digital HD internet, DVD, cable, and satellite platforms on August 18th. Written by Clayton Thompson, Mark Wilson Sunderland, and Kyle Sunderland (with Mark also directing), this tells the story who heads to a secluded cabin determined to find out the truth about his mother's murder. He isn't alone, for he has the corpse of his father in the boot of his car. His crazed plan is to take DMT and speak to his father's spirit, but this instead leads to him being visited by two forces - his ex-girlfriend Cora, and a twisted witch.

Finally for today, filmmaker Jim Haggerty has been working on his latest movie, the follow up to last year's Jim Haggerty's Unnatural Causes. This new film is to be called Jim Haggerty's Demon Huntress. The movie's tone is said to be more serious than usual, and is about a woman; Paula (Stacey Brooke) who ends up becoming the target of twin demons - Asteroth and Demetrius (both played by Justin Levine - Unnatural Causes). Jim Haggerty's Demon Huntress is due to release later this year.

Never Let Go (2024) - Horror Film Review

It was near when I stopped going to the cinema on a regular basis that I saw the trailer for horror film - Never Let Go. Directed by Alexandre Aja (Crawl, Horns) and written by KC Coughlin and Ryan Grassby, the film had an interesting premise, but also didn't do too much to not make it seem obvious where this was all heading.

Momma (Halle Berry - Catwoman, Gothika) lives in a remote and secluded woodland home with her young twin sons; Nolan (Percy Daggs IV) and Samuel (Anthony B. Jenkins - Stranger Things). As far as Momma is aware they are the last humans left alive, due to a demonic apocalypse that took place many years in the past - demons possessing  humanity and forcing them to kill their loved ones. Her parents had prepared for this calamity however, and had retreated to the woods where a special house was built, the very wood it was made up of was blessed to prevent the demons being able to enter it. By tying ropes to themselves (which in turn are tied to the foundations of the house), the three are able to venture out into the woods to scavenge for food and other supplies without the demons being able to touch them. After a harsh winter almost completely depletes their meagre supplies, the three begin to slowly starve. Nolan was already sceptical of his mother's claims of the outside world being so dangerous, and this event leads to him beginning to suspect more and more that her beliefs are wrong, and that they can't possibly be the only ones left alive.

A few years back I saw Shadows, that film had an extremely similar story of a mum and her two children living in a remote location believing the world had essentially ended (in that one it was believed that sunlight had became deadly). So similar was the feel that it took me a small while to get over the thought that I had already seen Never Let Go. If it hadn't been for that one, this would have felt more unique, but instead it goes through similar plot points, and the story plays out in much the same way. There was a tiny cast here, with mostly the three protagonists carrying the film forward. I admit to not having the best opinion of Berry, I think it comes from never having seen her in any decent films. At best was Gothika which was good, but not amazing.. Despite that I enjoyed her performance here. I was even more surprised that the two child actors were decent, they were enough that they could carry large chunks of the movie entirely on their young backs. I had expected Berry to be front and centre, but she is missing for large parts of the movie, especially in the film's second half. Nolan and Samuel may be twins but they are near polar opposites. Nolan is distrusting and suspicious of his mother's claims, while Samuel takes everything she says as gospel. From the start the film is set up to make it seem like Momma is crazy, after all, she is the only one out of the three who is able to see the possessed humans wandering the woods. There is a little effort to balance out this feeling, such as nightmare sequences the boys have, but by the last act it really seems clear as to the reality of their situation.

Set entirely in woodland this had charm to its look. I loved the design of the old house with its hand carved symbols and words everywhere. Such a dilapidated look to it that the place almost seemed like part of the woodland. The effects for the possessed humans were great, I especially liked the old woman with the forked tongue. These possessed could speak, but had the look of zombies to them, carrying the wounds that led to their original deaths. The soundtrack was passable but nothing special, with the exception of the old song that recurringly plays out on the family gramophone.

Never Let Go didn't blow me away, but it wasn't bad. I enjoyed it's story even if it was very familiar, and the acting was much better than it had any right to be. Not scary, and it was too obvious where this was going, but I never found myself clock watching at all during the 100 minute runtime. Never Let Go is currently streaming on Netflix, though is leaving the service on 13th October 2026.

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Crushed (2025) - Thriller Film Review

The Simon Rumley (The Living and the Dead) written and directed psychological thriller, Crushed sounded like it would be a better fit for this blog than it turned out to be. It had some dark moments for sure, but was more light on thrills than I had hoped, veering more into a drama of sorts.

Father Daniel (Steve Oram - The World's End) works and lives in Bangkok with his Thai wife and their ten year old daughter, Olivia. After her new kitten goes missing, Olivia becomes obsessed with finding it, with her search eventually leading her to the home of a South African man; Stanley (Christian Ferriera). She is convinced that is where her cat had ended up, as she recognises the location from an animal-snuff film that her best friend's teenage brother had made her watch, so she thinks her cat was captured to be killed in a similar video. It turns out that Stanley was indeed responsible for the animal torture videos, and discovering Olivia in his home, he sees dollar signs and decides to imprison her, in order to sell her to a paedophile contact he has - Mr. Jeffreys (Jonathan Samson - Daytime Nightmare). As the local police and Olivia's family desperately search for her, Stanley begins to struggle with his conscience at what his plans are for the girl.

This was a slow paced drama with some very dark moments, moments which were often alluded to, but kept off camera. There were just a handful of these, among them included a person having their fingernails pulled off, as one such example. For the most part, Crushed had an almost laid-back and chilled approach to its story. It took a good 30 minutes before the story really got going, and before hand there were several almost annoying false starts where it looked like Olivia would be kidnapped, but then wasn't. Father Daniel was quite a naïve character whose faith in God meant he never seemed too upset about the situation. With his daughter missing he still holds sermons at his church, and remains upbeat that it is all a test of his faith, not so much his wife who begins to feel the strain, nor his daughter, who was already questioning the existence of God before she was taken. I had wrongly assumed the priest would go on a path of bloody vengeance to rescue his daughter, this turned out not to be the case, instead the plot meanders along without too much really happening. The actress playing the child was ok, but didn't give a particularly amazing performance.

There were some bizarre editing choices here that at times felt a bit amateurish. Weirdly edited montage sequences made up of fast cuts, a city overview shot that played out in fast forward, and then the end credits that played out in complete silence and felt like music was missing. The setting of the film was interesting at least, set in Bangkok it looked suitably different to the norm, and the film also had a large cast of characters. This did feel more like a crime drama than a thriller, which isn't to deny the harrowing real life topics it covers. Not having children of my own, this part didn't resonate as much with me as it appears to have affected others. Crushed wasn't a boring film, but I couldn't help feeling there were better things I could be doing with my time.

This was a movie that suggested more than it showed. Of course, I didn't want to see everything alluded to play out on screen (certainly nothing to do with paedophilia), but there was at least one scene near the end that would have been fun to see. The relatively low peril and lack of too many decent characters meant this didn't really leave me feeling anything. Not terrible by any means, but not one I would recommend. Following an acclaimed festival run, Crushed came to UK digital on 5th October thanks to GrimmVision.

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Erie (2026) - Horror Film Review

Not a sub-genre of horror I want to be watching all the time, but I do confess to a fondness for a found footage film every now and again, especially when they happen to be good. The Alison-Eve Hammersley directed and co-written found footage Erie (in her feature length directorial debut) has a lot going for it. The footage looked authentic and the central two leads were not at all bad. The only wrinkle in this was a late film decision that almost derailed the whole thing.

Beginning in a familiar way, you are treated to white text on a black background explaining that there had been a mysterious rise in suicides in the area of Pennsylvania, and that the following footage was recovered from two camcorder tapes that were found on one of these suicide victims. It is the 90s and siblings Stella (Carly Stewart) and Oscar (Grant Carter - EverythingNowShow) have returned to their hometown to investigate the out of nowhere suicide of their sister, Iris (Aimee Paxton) a year previously. Unhappy with the police investigation into the death, Stella has taken it upon herself to do her own investigation, hoping to both gets answers for her sister's death, while at the same time making a documentary that she hopes will assist with her aspirations of becoming a journalist. Her ace in the hole is that unknown to the police, she has the last moments of Iris caught on camera (something the film opens on), and that has given her clues she otherwise might not have known about. Her search leads the two first to the home of an odd man named Red (Markiplier lookalike Ryan W. Garcia - Helldivers II voicework), and then to the woods where Iris took her life.

The two tapes making up the found footage is presented as if unedited and in a cohesive forward path. It is presented in a old style square format, with a grainy look  that felt authentically nineties, and all characters and locations also look of the time, giving a nostalgic feel. To add to the illusion, there are snippets of footage that the pair have recorded over, such as childhood moments of the two, which creepily appear at key moments, as if the tape was encountering errors. Stella is mostly front and centre with Oscar filming her and the footage is shown as raw, multiple takes of Stella talking to the camera, and her brother's humorous teasing of her (such as purposely shooting her out of focus or shooting with objects obscuring her view) added a spark between the two. Classic brother and sister things that I could easily identify with. Stewart was great in her role, and while Carter had a more melodramatic and occasionally cheesy performance at times, was still also decent. Garcia was fantastic in his supporting role as Red, coming across as both amusingly as well as uncomfortably weird, with it feeling possible there might be more to him than meets the eye. The small cast helped things feel more real and insular, and the effective look footage really added a lot to the atmosphere.

Then there is an odd third act decision. With no fanfare, Erie suddenly stops being a found footage horror and transitions to a traditionally shot horror for its final 25 minutes, all pretence of being real footage abandoned with a more familiar widescreen look, and characters being filmed a out of film cameraman. This abrupt change took me by surprise, and it was a good ten minutes before I had gotten over this and was able to get back into the story being told. It felt a shame as it had been working out well as a found footage. I understand why this decision was made, with an actual explanation for everything being disclosed somewhere that wouldn't be seen on the in-film found tapes, but I found (footage) myself thinking about how these details could have naturally fitted into the core film style. After I had recovered from this change in direction, I did get back into the story, and came to like this final part. Even if large amounts of it were a character slowly hobbling through dark woodland. The explanation did feel a little silly at first, but I came to appreciate it and it did make for some genuinely unsettling moments, and the red herrings were appreciated.

The choice to blend found footage with normally created footage just about worked, though personally I would have preferred things had stuck to just the one format. Nonetheless, this was a good horror that had some horror filled moments. Erie had its world premiere at Beyond Fest on October 1st.

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No More Room in Hell 2 (2024) - Horror Video Game Review (X-Box Series X)

It was a few years after the release of first person co-op survival horror game No More Room in Hell 2 before I even heard of the series. Inspired by the films of George Romero (Night of the Living Dead), the first game was based on a mod of the Valve Source Game Engine, releasing on PC in 2011. This sequel arrived a couple of years back, and had a bit of a frosty reception due to a multitude of bugs and a sparse amount of content. Since then, a lot of the issues have been resolved, with new maps releasing yearly. I brought myself and my best friend a copy, and along with another friend we played through the currently 6 objective based maps and 3 survival ones.

There isn't much story to be found here, other than the small titbits that play out over the radio during missions. The internet states the story involves a ancient frozen corpse found at a dig site, this corpse happened to have a lethal virus frozen with it, which when free swiftly spreads, causing a worldwide zombie apocalypse. It isn't entirely clear if this sequel is a reboot of the series, or if it takes place before or after the events of the first game. Playing as a randomly generated responder, you are taken to various areas along with 7 other responders, there you are tasked with completing tasks such as causing distractions so trapped survivors can escape, and finding intel to help understand the zombie hordes.

The first time me and my best friend played this we were blind drunk. Stumbling our way through the game's tutorial, we launched into a random map where it was utter chaos. We soon learned we had to play this one differently to others such as the fast zombie games Left4Dead. The undead here are slow moving and not as plentiful, but your ammo and healing items are much reduced. I only really appreciated that after unloading my gun into the first ghoul I saw and realising I was out of ammo! The slow moving zombies can smash down doors, barricades and break windows in their quest to get to you. Seemingly dead bodies might suddenly stand up to attack, while you might witness body bags unzipping from the inside as you pass them.
Each map takes place in a different location with a unique look to them. Along the way you explore a hospital complex, the centre of New York, an isolated community, a rural town, a remote power plant, a farmhouse, an industrial area and a lighthouse. Maps vary in size, with the survival maps being smaller contained areas, and the objective maps spanning from a solitary complex, to a massive open area out in the woods. Playing with people is more immersive than you might expect, proximity chat meaning that you can easily have a feeling of isolation if you don't stick together with your team, and a nice touch is that spawning into levels has you and your team mates all in different starting areas. You have access to 3 randomly generated characters at a time, needed as the game has permadeath. Unless you are playing on beginner difficulty, or take a specific item into the level with you, if you die that it is, you lose all that characters progress and have to start over.

Zombies are the only enemy type and unlike the first game, this time around there are no child undead. Occasionally you will encounter special zombie types, such as ones who leave a poisonous cloud upon death and running ones. These fit in with the more grounded vibe, so no giant mutants with crazy powers to be found here. Dotted around the levels are healing items such as bandages, med kits and revive syringes, but with a weight limit to what you can carry you can never have so much that you can relax. Also, take too much damage and your character can become infected. While infected there are audio hallucinations and screen obscuring effects such as flies and blood vessels, and if you don't constantly take a preventative serum, then you will eventually automatically die and become one of the walking dead. The slow moving enemies gives more of a chilled vibe to the game, at least on lower difficulties. You have time to group up and discuss tactics, while doors and windows can be barricaded to slow the progress of the enemies. Even on the survival maps there is a more laid back vibe. I had expected Call of Duty: Zombies levels of threat, but instead it is a horde mode where you must defend three different areas before then extracting. Extraction is a key part of the game, with your character having to get to and defend an extraction point at the climax of each mission. There are various melee weapons and guns in the levels to find. These range from baseball bats and hedge trimmers to pistols, shotguns, rifles and SMGs. There is a stamina that is used up when running and using melee weapons, and also drains when you either shove or kick the undead.
Even with all the bug fixes, I encountered a few on my beginner playthrough, nothing major, but was a tiny bit frustrating occasionally. Replay value is provided by not only a levelling system that grants your characters better abilities as they improve, but also randomised item locations, and even randomised objectives and extraction points.

So far (having only played through beginner mode and a few ill-fated attempts on nightmare difficulty), this has been a load of fun. The more methodical slow pace of the game feels refreshing, and with new maps and a solo mode coming next year, No More Room in Hell 2 is something I can see myself enjoying for a good while.

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Black Mirror: Season 7 (2025) - Horror Anthology TV Series Review

When it comes to TV shows I am a very slow watcher. I blame myself of course, stemming mostly from far too strong a fondness for playing video games. Season seven is the latest for haunting tech-nightmare anthology Black Mirror; a show where each episode a different type of near future tech is examined and dragged kicking and screaming to its most horrific possible outcome. A technology based The Twilight Zone if you will. After a fun sixth season (which for the first time veered directly into pure horror in a few of its episodes), season seven brings things back to the tech again, including some amazing episodes among the six that make up this season. It did take me around a year to watch all of this, so my memory will be fuzzy on a chunk of it.

It begins with 'Common People' which is exactly the type of harrowing episode you would expect from the show. Amanda; a school teacher (Rashida Jones - Parks and Recreation) gets afflicted with a terminal and incurable disease, but seemingly fortunate help is at hand. She discovers a medical company who are able to prevent the illness from spreading, though only if their monthly subscription is continued to be paid for. Companies are going to company, and so over the time the subscription cost is increased, while the perks are reduced as more and more expensive packages are launched. Forced to go on lower tiers, the penalty is not only extreme tiredness for Amanda, but her body gets hijacked at random times to force her to act out adverts that have been beamed into her mind. These downsides begin to have a drastic effect on her life, and so, to try and help her, her husband Mike (Chris O'Dowd - The Cloverfield Paradox, The IT Crowd) resorts to increasingly desperate measures to make money. This is prime Black Mirror, feel bad entertainment that leaves a bad taste in your mouth.
Next up is 'Bête Noire', a strange and fantastical feeling episode. Confectionary expert Maria's (Siena Kelly) life is upended when Verity (Rosy McEwen - The Alienist) joins the company she works at. Maria had previously been in the same school as her, where Verity had been seen as a weird loner, so is immediately uncomfortable with her presence. Everything the new employee does is highly successful, while Maria's career begins to collapse when she is blamed for increasingly wild actions that despite her knowing she hasn't done, all the evidence appears otherwise. It appears the very nature of the world is being re-written, leading to Maria beginning to question her sanity. This was a crazy episode that dealt with an idea that hadn't been explored before in the show, a good thing as some of the previous seasons felt like they had really ran out of any new type of idea. This leads up to one of the more out-there Black Mirror endings.

The third episode, 'Hotel Reverie' takes the form of a love story. This one sees actress Brandy (Issa Rae - Barbie) accepting a film role that involves her being sent into a digitally constructed recreation of a classic black and white film. The idea is that she will replace the role of the protagonist, letting the film work for a modern audience. While in the simulation, the machine malfunctions, trapping her inside the film world. With time passing much more quickly inside it, Brandy finds herself trapped in a static world, where the only other person not frozen in time is the A.I construct of Dorothy (Emma Corrin - Deadpool & Wolverine), a recreated character from the original movie. As the weeks (for them) pass, the two begin to fall in love, leading to heartbreak when the machine is eventually fixed and everything resets, including the construct of Dorothy. This was a unique and more slow paced episode, but not one that left too much of an impression for me.
This slow pace certainly doesn't continue with 'Plaything', that charges along with a lean 45 minute runtime and was one of the best episodes I have yet seen of Black Mirror. In present day, an eccentric former video game reviewer; Cameron Walker (Peter Capaldi - Doctor Who, World War Z) is arrested for shoplifting. While being interviewed at the police station, the man admits to an unsolved murder decades previously in the 1990s. The majority of the episode then heads back in time to show how that murder happened, along the way telling the story of a younger Cameron (Lewis Gribben) who becomes obsessed with a prototype video game he is given, a game where the A.I creatures in it are able to evolve and learn, based on how they are treated. A wonderful episode with a goose-bump inducing ending, and a supreme performance from Capaldi.

The penultimate episode is 'Eulogy' that was another slow one and also the seasons most forgettable. Here, lonely old man Phillip (Paul Giamatti - Morgan) is contacted by a memorial company who have technology that allow people to enter a limited reconstructed world from the image of a photo and the persons forgotten memories of what they were doing when that photo was originally taken. A former lover of his has died, and her daughter had asked for Phillip's recollections to be included in her funeral service. The only problem being that it has been so long that the man frustratingly can't remember even what this former lover of his looked like, and the only photos he can find with her in it have her face obscured from view. In true Black Mirror fashion, things don't go smoothly for Phillip, with his recollections leading to harrowing revelations about the type of person he used to be, though it did finish on a somewhat positive finish.
Last but not least is the very exciting season finale, 'USS Callister: Into Infinity'. This is the first ever direct sequel to a previous episode, and takes place after the events of season four's 'USS Callister'. Spoilers for that one to follow, and if you are not familiar, a recap of that first one is given at the start. Having escaped the bubble VR world where uploaded A.I consciousness's of real people had been trapped by twisted VR creator Robert Daly (Jesse Plemons - Breaking Bad), the crew of the USS Callister now find themselves in the popular sci-fi VR game, 'Infinity'. The trouble being now that while normal players can be killed with no penalty other than being forced out the game, the crew themselves die for real if they are killed. With increasing monetisation of the game world, they are forced to piracy, robbing from players to get money to pay for fuel and basic supplies. It took me the longest time to get around to watching this, the 90 minute episode runtime really putting me off seeing it. This was very exciting that had me getting more and more on the edge of my seat as it played out. It was fantastic to see Plemons reprise his role, and though he had died in the original, a way for him to come back is found, him appearing in flashbacks and in other unique ways. He is such a fantastic actor and he nails his role here. Hardly the most serious of episodes, alongside some needless comedic scenes, there is even the inclusion of a comic relief character, which did seem to be a bridge too far, detracting rather than adding to the story.

Season seven of Black Mirror had some fantastic episodes, making for yet another great season. A good mix of episode types, and some great casting choices. Not all bangers, but mostly it was firing on all cylinders.

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The Rotting Zombie's News Round-up for September 2026

Another month, and thankfully I am still employed in my day job, even if it is a fixed term contract that doesn't give me too much long term job security. I'm thinking of taking a week off in November (should my contract be extended that far), in which I will do one of my fabled not leaving the house for a week stints, that is something to look forward to should I so decide to do that. On the show front I am nearing the end of Squid Game: Season 2, but to be truthful, I've been at that point for most of the year. On the book front, I am getting towards the end of Natural Thorn Killers; a book that charts the history of plants in horror films; surprisingly interesting. Over on the game front I am about halfway through Cult of the Lamb and nearing the end of Poppy Playtime: Chapter 5, and I have my eye on Silent Hill: Townfall that came out last Friday. Onwards to the news.

Mahal Empire's Cursed Waters is now available for streaming on Amazon Prime Video. This nautical horror is about a crew of shipwrecked pirates who wash up on an uncharted island populated by a bloodthirsty cult. Directed by Adam Werth, and features John Wells, BJ Mezek, and Vernon Wells.

Heresy had its UK digital debut yesterday (28th September) thanks to GrimmVision. Didier Konings brings a film about a woman acused of witchcraft after a dark entity latches onto her, in a horror that has been compared to The VVitch: A New-England Folktale, with the setting here a small Dutch village in the Dark Ages. The press release states Heresy is '...a haunting tale of misogyny, bodily autonomy and belief...'

Goth pop band, Metamorph have released the official music video for their track 'Witchfire' which is taken from their new Witchfire EP. The press release states the track is all about owning your desire, and the video was filmed by Brian Wimer in New York's East Village and in the forests of Vermont.

Found TV found footage original; A Possession in Lincoln County is getting its theatrical premiere on October 22nd at the Hamilton Film Festival, and its streaming debut on October 23rd. Directed by Louie La Vella and written by Monica La Vella, this follows Jake, a man documenting his wife's fight with cancer. When her diagnosis turns terminal, Jake decides to enact an ancient ritual said to allow the caster to make a deal with the devil.

Magick Mtn is an interconnected anthology of three stories; a squatter imprisoned by a sadistic psychiatrist, a pair of criminal plumbers in trouble on the Sunset Strip, and an architect whose design is devil inspired. Written, directed, and produced by Hana Mae Lee (The Babysitter: Killer Queen, The Babysitter), this was an official selection at Fantastic Fest (TX), the Susquehanna Film Festival (PA) and the Molins International Film Festival (Spain) among other festivals. Magick Mtn comes to digital on 13th October.

Synapse Films have announced the 4K UHD debut of the Frank Henenlotter directed cult comedy horror film Frankenhooker. The story sees a grieving medical student who goes to some extreme lengths to bring his deceased fiancée back to life, events of course quickly get out of hand. The 4K Ultra HD edition features a new 2025 Dolby Vision 4K restoration, and the Blu-ray edition marks the film's return to that format. Extras include an audio commentary with the director and make-up effects designer Gabe Bartalos, some featurettes, a photo scrapbook, and the original theatrical trailer.

Finally for today, British horror The Stranger arrived on UK digital on 14th September thanks to Trinity Content Partners. Described as a home invasion movie with a supernatural twist, this comes from Paul Gerrard and Mike Clarke (A Light Through Coloured Glass) and is about a mysterious stranger who arrives at a troubled family's remote B&B seeking a room, and who claims to be being hunted by a group of supernatural killers.