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

Laziness is the word I would use to describe my blog output this year. Case in point; my news round-up for August is publishing in September. It really should have been up last week. Back in the Rotting Zombie HQ I have once again got a trapped nerve in my back, always joyous, and I do wonder how none of my nerves have rotted away by this point in my un-life

After Impact is a sci-fi thriller (written, directed, produced and starring Michiel Rensen) that is set for a North American digital debut release on September 15th 2026. In this movie, Ethan inherits his father's business just as the world faces the arrival of a deadly asteroid. Surviving by hiding out in his family's bunker, he begins to suspect he is the sole survivor, but this may not be the case.

Coming to North American VOD platforms on September 4th 2026 is the psychological horror film, Influence. The story sees a struggling filmmaker who becomes obsessed with a popular social media influencer and actress. When her pitch to the star is rejected, the filmmaker flips, breaking into her home and taking her hostage.

Indie entertainment group DRagonSTUDIOS are set to release their own streaming platform this October named DRagonFLIX. The press release states this services '...aims to bridge the gap between contemporary indie filmmaking and nostalgic genre cinema'. Subscribers will get access to two hubs at launch; exclusive new indie film that will be debuting directly on the service rather than in cinemas, and a free classic movie channel that will be streaming a 24/7 collection of curated films, including cult classics, timeless films, and vintage horror.

Coming to Amazon Prime Video on September 4th is CHAT, described as 'supernatural AI terror meets dark comedy'. A couple who have recently moved to a new home, face terror when their young son discovers a strange A.I powered tablet that unleashes supernatural horror on the family. Directed by Ole J Hartmann and starring Carter Sirianni and Alexis Schrepple, you can check out the trailer below.

Acorn Media have announced the release of a season 3 of The Terror horror anthology series, titled The Terror: Devil in Silver. Based on Victor LaValle's book of the same name (the stories adapted by the writer himself), this season, the story is a about a man wrongfully committed to a psychiatric hospital, who then discovers the existence of an entity that feeds on the suffering of the place. The Terror: Devil in Silver also comes to Blu-ray and DVD on 5th October.

Finally for today, the official trailer for Illinois based post-apocalyptic zombie horror, Holler has released. The change here that instead of being set before or during the outbreak, this story takes place many years after the undead took over the world, where they have become common to the survivors. There is currently a successful Kickstarter going to complete the film, that can be found here.

Tenebris (2026) - Horror Film Review

Tenebris (Latin for 'darkness') is a found footage thriller that attempts to show a story solely from the perspective of a doorbell camera. Co-directed and co-written by Miguel James and Ricky Martinez, this is their feature length debut for both, if you count a 50 minute movie as feature length. The low budget indie thriller had a solid central idea, but could it stick to that constraint for the duration?

Tito Medrano stars as Andy; the world's most dullest man, who decides after a messy break-up to return to his mother's town to sort through her belongings after she dies. He moves into a non-descript suburban home, where unknown to him, 13 months previously the former tenant vanished in quite suspicious circumstances. When Andy learns that a teenage boy had been stabbed to death in the area, and that this boy had actually knocked at his door seeking help, but Andy hadn't heard him, he decides to turn into a neighbourhood vigilante. In addition to his doorbell camera, he sets up a second camera in his back yard, as well as placing cameras throughout his home (for some reason). With these, Andy hopes to capture footage of the unknown killer (Martinez), so that he can then pass this onto the police.

The idea of a story shown exclusively from a doorbell camera is not a completely new one. In fact, British dark comedy horror anthology TV series Inside No.9 had already done this with it's season 9 episode 'Mulberry Close', an episode that was a better use of the idea than what was done with it here. This starts off interesting enough. The film primarily show the street outside Andy's home, with footage edited so that only things of note are appearing on camera. In the early part, there did seem to be some misdirection, with multiple scenes of nothing happening at all, but it all followed a day and night cycle that was easy to parse. Scenes of nothing in particular happening I figured where to flesh out the short film, and to add more weight to the world. So when an apparently grinning boy runs up to Andy's house, rings the doorbell and then runs off, I honestly figured this was a comedic interlude, just adding some life to the neighbourhood by having a child play 'cherry door knocking'. Not appreciated was that this teenager becomes the motivation for Andy moving forward, with his grin more like a grimace of fear (unfortunately not reflected in the used footage). Knowing he could have saved the boy, this propels dullard Andy into action. I briefly had a thought that Tenebris might be a slasher film, with the killer only appearing whenever he chases victims past Andy's home. That would have been cool, but wasn't the case.
It is around this point that Tenebris makes the cardinal sin of removing the one thing that made it stand out. For reasons unknown, Andy has such 'main character' energy that he decides to put cameras all around his home interior. The monotone man so sure of his own importance that he must assume at some point the killer will be inside his residence. From here, the film becomes very generic and familiar, the story moved from outside to inside, and feeling very stale, even finding space to include a night vision scene. The core novel thing about this film was the doorbell camera, so to nearly entirely remove this from the film's back half was a serious misstep.

It never helped that the protagonist had all the charisma of a sack of potatoes. Mostly we see him talking on the phone, where he speaks emotionlessly about the issues in his life. He shows little more zest for life when he decides to start making video diaries of his snooping. The personality vacuum sucked all energy out of the film, but he was in good company. Acting throughout felt a bit off, with Andy often seeming like his lines were being read from a sheet of paper in front of him. Sole highlight was the comically creepy next-door neighbour. A joy each time he appeared on screen with his refrain of telling Andy he is lonely and that they should meet-up. As for the antagonist, I had hoped for something supernatural or at least scary, instead we get a pint-sized normal looking guy whose identity I immediately clocked. His outfit of hooded coat and goggles looked goofy, and zero intimidation factor from him. By the time the killer, Andy, and another character are having a very slow paced, poorly choreographed fight, I was done with this, the battle giving the impression of a playfight on a playground.

Tenebris was frustrating as it clearly had potential, but seemed to lack the courage to stick to its most unique idea. I never understood why halfway through this became something so much more generic. Suspect acting, a wafer thin story, and a general lack of fresh ideas did not make for a compelling found footage thriller. Tenebris came to horror streaming platform BloodStream on August 18th.

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A Cold Season (2026) - Horror Film Review

A Cold Season is an indie horror that has one toe dipped into the darkly comedic. Written and directed by Christian Jude Grillo (Neighbor, Intruder), this psychological thriller falls neatly into the Christmas sub-genre. Mixing that thriller with elements of a slasher, the film is shown from the viewpoint of an unreliable narrator, and attempts a mid-film rug pull that puts into question everything that has came before.

Starting in medias res, the film opens on Jacob (Andrew Hunsicker - Epidemic, The Listing) being interviewed in what appears to be a police station on the first of January 2027. Asked to provide an explanation for what events led him to be in this situation, the majority of the film then works as a flashback, taking place over several weeks during the Christmas period. During this time, the grumpy  loner is carrying on as normal, though that normal includes murder as it seems that he is secretly racking up a small body count. The flashback starts with Jacob looking down on a frozen corpse before kicking snow over it, and in addition, he seems to be carrying another corpse wrapped in a blanket in the back of his truck. All of this without context for what has happened. His motivations may be unclear, but as the days pass and he begins to get more reckless with his choice of victims, it seems that capture for him is certain.

I had the vaguest sense of American Psycho watching this, an ever present feel that what was being shown might not be completely accurate. The audacious actions of the anti-hero protagonist  made it feel like there was no way he could have been getting away with things like he was. Jacob is the centre of this thriller, so much so that the film sticks with him the entire 80 minute runtime, everything shown from his perspective, the only cutaways being to sensationalised news reports that are often shown playing while Jacob dozes on his sofa. The character is not a good person, but he wasn't completely unlikeable. Gruff, sullen and a definite loner, he fits the small town snowy locale well, without sticking out as someone different. His interactions with elderly neighbour, Julie (Clair O'Neil - Human Hibachi 2) show his altruistic side, and he even has a half decent relationship with his son. In a film like this you would expect him to be estranged, maybe as a reason for his bitterness, but it is just a large distance that separates them. A lot of the dark humour came from the juxtaposition of light and dark, such as the recurring jovial Christmas ditties that play as Jacob drives around with a body on the back of his truck. The most surreal part of A Cold Season has Jacob hallucinating a shades wearing Santa (also played by Hunsicker), a character who pops up a few times playfully chiding the killer for how sloppy he is becoming with his choice of victims.
There never seemed a decent explanation for why he was killing. A messy breakup lives rent-free in his head, maybe being a catalyst for Jacob's misery, but you are just led to believe that the man is just crazy. To be fair, a big twist at the end of the second act explains away some of this. The third act taking place after the initial police interrogation scene was a big departure in vibe, interesting direction to go in for sure, but it wasn't a smooth fit, feeling different in tone, likely on purpose.

Not the most action filled movie, there are still a couple of kills that take place on screen, and are suitably Christmas themed. Without many special effects, and with little to no blood shown, visually this was a little tame, but kills did look good, such as one that takes place lit by the flashing lights of a police car. The snow and feel of it being winter (this was literally filmed in freezing temperatures on isolated mountain locations) worked with the story of isolation and grief that Jacob carries with him.

A Cold Season was an enjoyable indie thriller, though one that could have fused its two disparate sections together more neatly. Jacob made for a protagonist who was hard to identify with, always an element of mystery that kept the viewer at a distance from understanding just what makes him tick. With much of the film on his shoulders, Hunsicker does a compelling performance, long scenes of him alone never resulting in the plot stalling, instead this is like a window into Jacob's troubled mind. A Cold Season releases domestically in the US on November 10th 2026 via MVD Entertainment Group.

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Carry the Darkness (2025) - Horror Film Review

Written and directed by Douglas Forrester in his feature length directorial and writing debut, Carry the Darkness encapsulates a nostalgic time for me, I look back on the 1990s fondly, so a horror set in 1993 appealed, even if by dealing with the issues of moral panics in America (in this case the real-life Satanic panic), it wasn't one whose coming of age story resonated with me. Adding to this small town horror of a social outcast are elements of the supernatural, though these never dominated the film, maybe to the film's discredit?

Travis (Joel Meyers - Harry Potter and the Cursed Child Broadway stage play) is an angst ridden teenager, who plays up the role of the rebellious teen outsider that the townsfolk have painted him as. Bitter at life in general, him and his unexpected best friend, the studious Jordan (Jaden Gant), spend their free time looking for ways to get high; as a means to escape from the insular community they are a part of. While exploring an abandoned building out in the woods (looking for a new place to hang-out when taking drugs), Travis discovers a strange room that feels like it shouldn't be there. While there, he encounters a doppelganger of himself, who promises with a corrupted voice that he can give Travis the power to right the perceived wrong he feels he has been dealt in life. When he decides that he doesn't want the assistance of this being, it turns its attention to his new friend, and potential love interest; troubled Stacey (Helen Laser -  In Sound Mind video game voicework), seeing that she would be more open to its sinister offer.

Did I enjoy Carry the Darkness? Yes I did, even with a somewhat pathetic protagonist. He was fun to watch; sure he is a walking parody of an angsty teen, complete with long black coat, Satanic T-shirts and his brooding persona, but he wasn't entirely unlikeable. There was something of the poser to him, hiding his fear of not knowing his place in the world by acting like the ultimate rebel. This became a little bit endearing, with the sense that he is a good person under this act. He treats his best friend well, and despite arguments with his mother he still is shown to respect her, and the people he does act out against deserve it in one way or another. What Travis, Jordan and Stacey have in common is that their teenage characters are played by actors obviously a little older than teens. Meyers covers this up with his wild eyed stares and jittery movements, making Travis seem like a fabricated character rather than a believable one, or at least one who has drank far too much coffee.

Splitting the story, there is also a subplot about the local law enforcement investigating a series of strange murders in the area, with them eager to place the blame at Travis' feet without having proof. In this part, Hollis Fox plays the Fox Mulder coded Detective Jillian Carter; the sole responsible adult to suspect a more supernatural explanation for what is going on.

Those supernatural elements are not heavy, relegated to key scenes. This led to feelings that not much was really going on horror-wise, two thirds drama, one third horror. Scenes with the doppelganger looked great, fitting into the dark and grimy locations it resided at. This being didn't really do much more than talk, and was used sparingly. The core story felt far more coming of age. Travis having recently experienced the freedom of being able to drive his mother's car, finding a love interest in the equally angst filled Stacey (who comes across as a more authentic rebel), and recurring encounters with the high school jocks who are not his biggest fans. The supernatural story is left to the viewer to decipher and felt a little ill-developed, suggestions the being returns in IT fashion every 30 years, and that it lives in a type of dimension made up of the subconscious memories of its victims, but never really explained. Then, as effective as the ending felt, I can't say I completely knew what was happening during it.

Carry the Darkness leans heavily into its early 90s setting, and having the story set to the backdrop of a moral panic (that is reflected in interviews and on screen news stories), brought things together well. I would have liked for the horror part of the movie to be more front and centre. As key as it undeniably was, I was always left wanting more than what was shown. Carry the Darkness came to horror streaming platform BloodStream on August 14th, which is to be followed by a multi-platform rollout from The Horror Collective.

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Fear of the Living Dead (2010) - Short Horror Film Review

Fear of the Living Dead is a sixteen minute long, very low budget Canadian indie horror directed and co-written by Randy Smith in his directorial debut. Generic and derivative, but coming out at the tail end of the zombie boom in the early 2000s, this has sound problems and some suspect acting, but plenty of undead.

It is two weeks after a zombie outbreak and Her (April Campbell - We Are the Missing, Smash Cut uncredited) appears to be the sole survivor. She spends her days looting homes for supplies, and battling the undead. One day, the house she breaks into is found to be inhabited; a young man (Mike Tarp credited as Him), who is just as surprised to see Her as she is Him. After he discovers that she is immune to infection, he teams up with the woman, figuring survival in numbers will be easier. Some days later after coming under attack by a horde, the duo escape in a car, with the man alleging he knows of a remote location where the two will be safe from the walking dead.

This was the kind of low budget zombie film that I live for, and which makes me such a fan of the horror sub-genre. The undead are a varied bunch of bloodied, but basic zombies who often have their arms outstretched in the generic way undead in early media were portrayed as doing. Blood stained and slow shambling, these looked effective on camera. The film moves along at a pace, but hits its stride in the thrilling mid-film sequence where the man discovers the perils of bringing a loud gun to a zombie fight. This led to exciting scenes of the two running gauntlet style through a band of rotters, though it was hard to not see the empty space either side of the zombies that would have made for a more sensible, though less exciting looking scene if the protagonists had taken it! The two main characters were fine, but the male character fell a bit into the pitfall of looking too young for the role he was meant to be playing, while both were guilty of acting very nonchalance about the outbreak even though the short took place just two weeks into it. There were some sound issues, at times dialogue sounded so muffled that I struggled to make out what was being said.

A generic title and with few surprises, Fear of the Living Dead wasn't a fantastic short, but in the zombie genre that isn't an essential factor. With issues for sure, but this was still an entertaining and fun little film that I took nostalgic enjoyment in watching. Also, a bonus point for the film's cover having nothing whatsoever to do with the movie, a classic zombie film trope!

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The Rotting Zombie's News Anthology for Thursday 20th August 2026

After seemingly months of trying, I think this week will be the first in a long while where I actually succeed in putting out five blog posts. What a difference some (very expensive) air conditioning makes at The Rotting Zombie HQ. Onwards to the news.

Freestyle Digital Media have acquired horror comedy, Tomorrow, You Pretty Ghost for an August release, on the 25th. The film tells the story of drama students Haley and Chas, who decide to do one last prank before graduation. I'm sure it will involve a ghost of some type. Written and directed by Alex Morand and Rocky Pajarito, the cast include Abigail Sims, Everado Barriga and David Brown.

Indie slasher, Final Summer is now available to rent or purchase digitally on major global platforms, including Amazon Prime Video, Apple TV, and Google Play. Created by filmmaker John Isberg, this promises to blend eighties horror with a modern edge. The typical story sees a group of camp counsellors on their final night at the campground when they become the target of a masked killer.

Finally for today, I was contacted by the owner of Asian Horror Hub about plugging the site, and I thought 'why not?'. As the title suggests, this is a site focussed on Asian horror, and includes reviews, news and lists. You can check out the site here.

Terror in the Andes (2022) Horror Film Review

The Octavio Revol Molina written and directed Terror in the Andes might have a forgettable title (original title the more simple El Ucumar), but it does deal with a cryptid (named the ucumar of course) that is believed by some to exist in the real world. Using what I assume to be true accounts of the half-man/half-bear creature and myths of it, you would think this could make for a captivating movie.

Biologist Dante (Nicolás Obregón) and his partner and girlfriend, Josefina (Clara Kovacic), as well as a hired photographer (Gastón Palermo), have travelled to the Andes in Argentina to look for evidence of bears inhabiting the area. Instead of rumours of bears, the locals are obsessed with a cryptid known as the ucumar, who they believe to live in the nearby wilds. The photographer becomes almost obsessed by the tales of this creature, much to the annoyance of Dante, who wants to focus on what he sees as his legitimate study of actual animals. A local guide tells the trio he knows the location where they can find evidence of bears, and that he is happy to lead them there.

Rather than a more traditional creature feature horror, this comes across as almost a collection of short stories, with the meaty, yet forgettable main plotline feeling like a wraparound segment. Each short story is set out as a flashback showing the story that a side character (or indeed book) is telling. These are complete with title cards giving the month and year the story allegedly took place in. I'm assuming these short stories were all based on real encounters, as they had the feel of them, namely that not much really happens other than a character encountering the bear-like monster. It doesn't make for the most exciting of times.
This is all filmed in a variety of beautiful looking locations, with neat use of drone shots to show the vast forest. The dynamic of the main trip of characters was fine if nothing special, seemed to be division thrown in at times just to have something happening, and also possibly a love-triangle subplot (I may have invented that myself, not totally sure).

The ucumar is rarely shown, but when it is, it gets to be fully revealed a few times. Not too memorable; a bigfoot type hairy creature that often just stands around not really doing anything on screen. It wasn't particularly scary looking, and later events give it a silly twist that boarded on the surreal. As silly as things get, at least it led to something interesting happening, better than the slow pace of the rest of this 80 minute horror.

Terror in the Andes wasn't so much terror as mild boredom. The scenery was nice to look at, but there was little excitement in the events that happened around that attractive scenery. A meandering and slow tale that kept getting derailed by the tepid flashback encounters. Maybe based on actual accounts, I felt it needed a bit of spicing up to make it work effectively as a horror film. Terror in the Andes came to horror streaming platform BloodStream on August 11th.

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Other Atrocities (2025) - by William F. Gray - Horror Audio Book Review

When I was asked if I wanted to check out an audiobook for review, it was probably good that I was given the shorter of the two choices offered. Other Atrocities is a horror collection from author William F. Grey, wonderfully performed for the audiobook version by Martin Wurst. This collection features nine short stories that play out over around a four hour runtime. As always, I have a fondness for anthologies and collections as there is usually at least one stand out bit of work.

It opens with 'Whatever It Takes'; an early highlight that had me convinced this was going to be a good audiobook. Ricky is a delivery driver who is lured out to a remote abandoned farmhouse. There he is ambushed by a masked madman who tells him that he is going to be hunted by a group of killers, and that his only path to freedom is to survive until daybreak. This 45 minute opening story was excellent, it felt like it would work just as well as a film - thrilling and fun in equal measure. 'Rot' was another example of Gray at his best. This Halloween III: Season of the Witch tinged situation in which a baseball wielding survivor tries to survive in a town where bad candy has transformed the townsfolk into rabid almost zombie like maniacs. I loved the mid-story rug pull here, not expecting the second half to be the same story shown from a different perspective. The third in my personal trilogy of the best stories was 'A Night of Horrors' that was influenced by Jumanji. Here, a teenage boy and his friends discover an old boardgame buried in woodland. Upon playing the game, four of the friends transform into a ghost, a vampire, a werewolf, and a witch respectively, with the sole unchanged friend being tasked with making his way to a safe point, being hunted by the monsters the whole way. Not the ending I would have gone for, but this was still a riveting story.

A good few of the shorts in the collection end in a way that didn't live up to the potential of the story being told. 'The Maze of Memories' (about a hoarder being chased by a monster through his maze of horded junk) was great aside from its ending. The emotional heart of the collection - 'Last Showing' also ended in a less than perfect way, but to its credit that was only because I had imagined a far more bleak end for a suicidal man who chooses a cinema in which to end his life. Rounding out the collection is predictable time loop road trip tale 'Highway Hypnosis', six minute pleasure 'Go Out and Play' which subverts expectations, and the slightly more grounded 'Something's Wrong with the Fish' and final story 'Bang For Ur Buck'. That final one was the most realistic, taking place in an all too believable near future where an elderly man is forced to resort to eating cat food to survive due to soaring prices.

Perfectly narrated by Wurst, William F. Gray's Other Atrocities was a delight to listen to. I had very minor issues with the direction some of these stories went in, but overall I had a blast with this audiobook collection.

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Harbinger (2026) - Horror Film Review

I don't know why, but I had high hopes for the very low budget UK indie horror - Harbinger. I didn't actually know anything about the movie, so not entirely sure why I was optimistic for great things, I even gave it the extra chance by watching it at night; a rare occurrence for me due to annoyingly not being a 'night owl'. Directed by James Crow (Curse of the Witching Tree), this supernatural horror has a few choice casting choices, but would this be enough to elevate it past some of its weaker components?

In a wild prologue, Julia (Jeanine Nerissa Sothcott - Helloween), discovers that her boyfriend of 18 months, Henry Decker (Peter Woodward - The Patriot) is actually a homicidally insane serial killer who plans for her to be his seventh victim. Fatally shot by police, the man collapses next to an antique fortune teller machine, mumbling a strange chant as he lay dying. Unknown to all, this chant was a magic spell that transferred his consciousness into the machine.
Five years later and Julia still suffers PTSD, frequently hallucinating that Decker has come back to life. One day she is approached by Mike (Gary Webster - Minder); the presenter for a popular paranormal investigation show called Spectre Investigates. He wants her to return to the mansion her and her ex-boyfriend lived at as part of a new episode of his show. Desperately needing the money being offered, Julia hesitantly agrees. Not long after arriving at her former home with the show cast and crew, everything goes wrong. Decker now possessing the fortune teller machine, uses his supernatural powers to seal all the doors and windows, trapping the visitors inside. His plan is to perform a ritual that will return him to some sort of life, and to do that, he requires six sacrifices.

Being very low budget, some of the acting is a bit suspect here. The more over the top characters fared better than the more measured performances on show. Woodward was excellent as the manic antagonist. One part The Joker, one part Moriarty, he was a joy to watch on screen, so much so that I found myself wishing the prologue had been the whole film. It was a lot better than the undercooked paranormal direction the main film went into. Webster's Mike, and the actor playing the hatted psychic also excelled in their roles, again due to their larger than life performances. Weirdly, I felt that Sothcott didn't really work as the protagonist. She might not be a bad actress, but physically her acting came across as a bit wooden, with her facial expression not changing much based on the situation. The character she played was quite dense, with even other characters within the movie wondering how she could be with Decker for so long and not realise he was a total maniac. The man was Looney Tunes from the off, and it was hard to believe they could have ever been even a façade of a couple. Julia is in good company for stupidity as this cast of characters love to make classic horror movie mistakes. Discovering you are trapped in a house due to an evil paranormal force isn't a good time to decide to go off and have sex for instance, nor would it make sense for near enough every character to at some point make up an excuse for why they needed to go and be on their own, rather than sticking together as a group. Most of the cast felt a bit like Star Trek red-shirts, just there to beef up the kill count without needing to be well developed characters. A forgettable bunch not helped by a soap opera level sub-plot about infidelity and accidental pregnancy going on in their background story. 

The supernatural element is loose and ill-defined with it never clear as to the extent of Decker's powers. Is he a ghost able to materialise anywhere at any time to kill his victims? Is he literally possessing the body of the dummy in the fortune teller machine and killing people in a more physical slasher fashion? The film never seems entirely sure either, giving him of combination of both styles seemingly on a whim. When the kills begin they come thick and fast. You hardly have time to mourn (so to speak) the death of one character before another is swiftly dispatched in quick succession. Strangulation, a slit throat, and eyes being squished into the skull; all sound fine on paper, but there was something uniformly lacklustre about how they are shown on screen. Take the slit throat, sounds neat, but was ruined slightly by little to no blood.

Harbinger felt like it focussed on the wrong point in time with its story. Decker was never as joyously villainous as he was in the fun prologue sequence. As a ghostly force he never worked as effectively; the best character relegated to the background, and who was often represented by a bland looking possessed French clown dummy rather than the delightfully gurning Woodward. Look past the low budget and there are a couple of moments of magic to be found. As a whole though, for me this just didn't land. Harbinger came to UK digital on 10th August and on Blu-ray, and US digital on 11th August, thanks to Miracle Media.

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Silent Night, Deadly Night (2025) - Horror Film Review

I had heard there was a remake of cult classic eighties Christmas horror; Silent Night, Deadly Night, but I can't say I had been in any rush to check it out. I did enjoy the original, even if it was a bit of a strange movie, and the anti-hero protagonist was a bit of an oddball. It turns out that rather than a straight remake, this new Mike P. Nelson (Wrong Turn) directed and co-written version of Silent Night, Deadly Night is a reimagining. Would this be garbage, or is garbage day to be found elsewhere?

As a young child, Billy witnessed his parents be viciously murdered by a maniac wearing a Santa outfit (Mark Acheson - 1922), who ends up killed in the process. Now grown up, the young man (Rohan Campbell - Halloween Ends) has some troubling quirks. Whenever Billy wears a Santa outfit he gets an intense urge to kill, and he also has a voice in his head (also Acheson) that constantly tells him to punish bad people. This is no twisted trauma born of his experience as a child, instead it is something more supernatural. The voice is able to accurately identify evil people just by Billy looking at them. Each Christmas period, Billy is compelled to kill one person every day over advent, with the voice stating this will prevent innocents being killed in their place. Always on the move, Billy arrives in a new town where he gets a job at a toy store. It is here he falls for his colleague, and daughter of the store owner; Pamela (Ruby Modine - Happy Death Day 2U, Happy Death Day). His feelings for the girl have him pondering if maybe he could somehow give up his bloody life crusade, but may be powerless for that to happen.

I have to admit, even after hearing this reimagining was a pretty good horror I was still sceptical. The changes made here were really all for the better, at least at making the anti-hero protagonist less weird, and with motivations slightly more understandable. There was scope for the voice in Billy's head to be misleading the boy, tricking him into killing innocents, but time and time again that is shown not to be the case.  Delphine (Sharon Bajer - Orphan: First Kill) is a case in point. It seems she is just a typical 'Karen' rather than anything more sinister, then later revealed she is the cartoonishly evil leader of a group of Nazis! That part made for a fun mid-film massacre sequence that was over the top and deliriously entertaining. Some touches to the style of the movie channelled Quinten Tarantino, with title cards introducing each new target of Billy's, leading to a small montage of red tinted images of the villain in close up. I liked how relatively normal Billy was. I may have detested Halloween Ends, and the character Campbell played in it, but it wasn't his fault that film was so badly written, here, he fits an almost identical role much better. Modine was also great as Pamela, a character with a violent streak towards injustice that had her as almost a counterpart to Billy, she had a great scene at an ice rink.
By having the victims of Billy be genuinely bad people, and with the voice in his head so sincere and fatherly, he became an anti-hero I was rooting for. This diverges from the original, introducing a subplot about missing children that later becomes more important.

There are many many kills and all featured lovely looking practical effects. You get decapitations, severed limbs, axes embedded in heads, and even a disembowelment. Many of the iconic kills from the original are replicated here, albeit in different context, and mostly in the form of a montage sequence showing Billy's past kills. I did love the practical effects, even if occasionally the victim being attacked did have the look of a dummy to them.

I was very pleased with Silent Night, Deadly Night, and wasn't prepared for how much I was into this by the time the end credits roll. It isn't a film that takes itself too seriously, or abides by real life rules too much (how on Earth was Billy getting away with all these ill-prepared murders over the years without being caught?). Still, by the end, I was almost leaping off my chair in excitement at what was going on, even if it were hardly surprising. In this reimagining there is no younger brother, there is no mindless rampage, and the inclusion of the supernatural made this feel like a different film. Sure, you might need to switch your brain off somewhat, but this was a surprisingly entertaining Christmas slasher. Silent Night, Deadly Night is currently streaming on Netflix.

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What We Do in the Shadows: Season 1 (2019) - Comedy Horror TV Series Review

I let myself down with my blog output last week. That time I blamed it all on a work night out that drained my life force. This time around I have more of an excuse for not sticking up five posts, due to getting a day-less weekend and so only able to work on my blog on this Saturday (at time of typing). Not that that is related to this review of season 1 of What We Do in the Shadows. I loved the 2014 film of the same name, and this ten episode season follows the same format of having events presented as a mockumentary, but the location is moved to a new location and with a completely new set of characters. Often TV shows based on films can be pretty bad, but watching this on and off over about the span of a year, it really wasn't bad.

The show follows four vampire housemates who have lived together on Staten Island for over a century. They are Nandor the Relentless (Kayvan Novak - Four Lions), married couple - Laszlo (Matt Berry - The IT Crowd) and Nadja (Natasia Demetriou), as well as energy vampire Colin Robinson (Mark Proksch - The Office). Each episode is mostly self contained, with an ongoing central plot going on to link them all together, and several minor subplots playing out. Nadja has discovered the latest reincarnation of her eternal lover and is secretly courting him. Nandor's much put upon familiar, Guillermo de la Cruz (Harvey Guillén) comes to suspect his true calling, while the vampires are visited by ancient vampire, Baron Afanas (Doug Jones - The Shape of Water), who tells the house they have been tasked with seizing control of Staten Island by the vampire council; something the group really don't want to have to do.

I loved the opening credit sequence to this show, always being something I watched even with the option to skip it each episode. It shows a montage of the vampires over the ages, starting with oil paintings and ending with photos of them. All of these cast members were great it has to be said. Berry is fantastic in every role I've seen him in, and that is no exception here. I love the way he speaks, and him yelling "bat!" whenever he transforms into one never got tiring. I thought he would be the scene stealer of the show but the rest of the cast capture the screen just as well. These vampires are petty and arrogant, but also innocent when it comes to understanding how the modern world works. The central plot may be about taking control of Staten Island but the episode to episode plots are much more low stakes. In episode 5 'Animal Control' for instance, the group have to rescue Laszlo, after animal control captured him while he was in a bat form, and in 'Citizenship' the main plot is about Nandor applying for American citizenship with comedic results. An unsung character was Guillermo, a toady vampire hopeful who actually gets the most character development by season end, even if it all comes in final episode 'Ancestry'. One trick pony Colin Robinson also delighted, it was fun having a non-typical vampire whose skill is boring people so much that he is able to drain their life force.

Each roughly half hour episode is full of dry humour and all follow a similar format. At times it was a little samey, and there wasn't a single episode in the first season that stood out as a highlight. The mockumentary format isn't overused; there are interviews with the characters and mild interactions with the film crew, but mostly that fades into the background a bit. I did like the editing, often with reference to events that have happened in the past there are silly little montages to show what is being referred to. The characters are anti-heroes and lethal, but on screen they are often shown as dense and mildly incompetent. There are deaths on screen, those veering more towards comedy than horror, but they looked good to my eyes.

Not my best review, but then I did watch the show over a one year period, so my memory of much of it is fuzzy. Season 1 of What We Do in the Shadows was a good starting point. I wouldn't say it was amazing, or as funny as the film it was based on, but it was very watchable even if I didn't personally find it binge-worthy. What We Do in the Shadows is currently streaming on Disney+.

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The Dollmaker (2025) - Horror Film Review

What a strange film the José María Cicala (Alone) directed and co-written horror, The Dollmaker is. At times darkly comedic, at times disturbing, and at times bafflingly confusing. Strong performances from much of the cast and a Lynchian vibe, but would it all be a bit too odd for its own good?

In a remote Argentinian town, a new police inspector has arrived. Despite being assured that nothing bad ever happens there, he soon identifies that there has been a bunch of disappearances of young women in the area, and suspects they have been kidnapped or worse. Meanwhile, weedy yet likeable Tomás (Rodrigo Noya) is living his simple life as best he can. He works at the local video rental store, helps out at a nearby psychiatric centre, and looks after his disabled mother in the evenings. While attending a group therapy session at the psychiatric centre he encounters waitress Tina (Griselda Sanchez), and finds an immediate attraction to her, in time the two begin dating. Tomás is not entirely sane it turns out, with it heavily implied his mother is actually just a life-size doll, and wherever he goes, he sees blood stained hallucinations of his actual mother. Tina also happens to have a few issues of her own, mainly that she can see ghosts wherever she goes.

A very odd film which didn't so much tell a complete story as throw you into the middle of one that has been going on a long time already by film's beginning. Tomás made for a peculiar lead, a small, scrawny young man who is disarmingly innocent with his milk bottle bottom glasses that make his eyes appear huge, and his nervous, yet earnest smile. It is made clear early on that all is not right with the chap, but it takes a good while for the suspected confirmation of just how down the insanity slide he is. His relationship with the beautiful Tina felt so unlikely and out of place that I could not accept it as real. With so many hallucinations captured on film, I assumed this was all in his head or something, and so didn't give this part of the film the respect it deserved. The story in general played out well, but comes to an absolutely bewildering finish. Honestly, the last few minutes of the film went completely over my head, enough that I was unclear as to the actual resolution of the story. I think the ending wasn't meant to be taken literally, but I couldn't parse what it was trying to say.

There is plenty of black humour, none of this is 100% serious, as can be seen with the comically inept local police, and one actor playing three different roles as triplets. There are also some more darker scenes throughout, such as an uncomfortable rape scene early on, and people chained up and abused. Blood looked good on camera, and a satisfying enough amount of and there were a bunch of grim and brutally stark death scenes, all contrasting nicely with the worn out and dilapidated feel of the town the film takes place around. 

The Dollmaker was something far different to what I imagined it would be about. A good cast and effective locations made for a memorable if strange film, and Noya made for a memorable lead. I can't say I was too impressed with how this all got resolved, and it was a bit strange but I was still held captive for the 100 minute runtime. The Dollmaker comes to North American VOD and digital on August 25th via Cinephobia Releasing. Rodrigo Noya won the award for 'Best Actor' in the movie's US premiere at Screamfest in Los Angeles.

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The Rotting Zombie's News Anthology for Thursday 6th August 2026

Yet another week, and the hot summer is continuing with seemingly no end. The poor grass is as yellow as straw outside my home, and I am awash in fans of various shapes and sizes, keeping my rotted corpse from decomposing in this humid heat. Onwards to the news.

At the start of July, indie psychological thriller, Farm House came to streaming on Amazon Prime Video, distributed by Bayview Entertainment. In this Frank Palangi directed and co-written horror, a house-sitters relaxing weekend turns into a fight for survival. Inspired by the real life Warren County serial killings, this also draws from true-crime and classic 1980s slasher tropes.   

Streaming platform BloodStream has been putting out some experimental vertical horror series lately, designed to be watched on a mobile phone. Coming to the platform are both Umbral and I Will Kill You. Umbral comes from Chilean director Gerson Vega and released on August 1st. The 9 episode series is a 'surreal nightmare about a man trapped in a dream world controlled by a mysterious entity, the lines between reality and dreams completely blurred'. The film is presented in Spanish, and a trailer can be seen here.

Finally for today, Italian found footage movie Watchful Eyes is a Found TV exclusive, premiering on August 7th in the United States, Canada and Italy. Directed by Gianluca Lasaracina, this follows Sebastian, a man attempting to rebuild his life after the death of his daughter, and losing his job. He gets a job as a janitor at a university, where he is tasked with covertly watching five students suspected of being related to an unexplained death of a university professor, but whose death may actually be more supernatural in nature.