The Top Five Horror TV Shows, Horror Films, and Horror Video Games of 2016

Yesterday the Fright Meter Awards announced it's nominees for 2016, I shall be covering that in the new year. Now in what I hope to be a yearly tradition I shall be announcing what I personally believe to be the top horror of the year. I shall be giving lists for best horror TV show, best horror films, best horror video game, and a small shout out. Some of the items on this list didn't come out this year but they are eligible to me if this year was the first opportunity I got to experience them.

Best Horror TV Show 2016

5. The Returned: Season 2

I never expected this to get a second season so was delighted it did. This French slow burn of a supernatural mystery can on occasion frustrate due to it's inscrutability but it looks so beautiful with some fantastic acting.

4. Z Nation: Season 3

By this point the utter craziness of Z Nation is no longer a surprise, this season could be accused of treading water a bit, and I didn't like the direction some of the characters were taken in but Doc never fails to entertain, and again a huge cliff hanger to leave you wanting more.

3. The Walking Dead: Season 6

Due to the way the show is shown there is always only half a season shown in any one year. As season 7 is only halfway through I don't think it's fair to include that. I am so invested in the characters by this point that I am never going to dislike The Walking Dead, however season 6 did suffer a bit by some infuriating plot decisions and a nasty ending. On the flip side some of my most hated characters got lovingly killed off and there were some amazing episodes (such as the mid-season finale).

2. Ash vs Evil Dead: Season 2

Despite doing more of the same I really enjoyed the second season of this hilarious and bloody show. The plot may be simple but with such likeable characters in the form of Pablo and Ash, and a deep love for the Evil Dead films this can do little wrong.

1. Stranger Things

For a while this was a show nearly everyone was talking about. I love it's deep rooted sense of the 80's, I loved the awesome score, and the young actors were all amazing. My only complaints for this are that it was too short, and I didn't totally like how it was blatantly setting up a future season at the end.

Best Horror Film 2016

5. Grave Walkers

This film has style in spades, the zombies look awesome, and there are some moments that rival anything I have seen in other films this year. This is let down only by some at times awful looking CGI effects, and kind of a patchy plot.

4. Morgan

I saw this movie in the optimal conditions, the cinematography is just so stunning, a film that I want to own purely for it's aesthetic qualities. The acting is understated and while the plot itself is predictable I was mesmerised by the whole thing.

3. Demon

I thought this was a well directed and edited film when I first saw this Polish horror but it didn't at first register as in the running for film of the year. However, over a month later and Demon has just never left my mind, there is just something about it that fascinates me, plus the acting of the main lead is phenomenal.

2. Train to Busan

My friend was far more excited to see this South Korean zombie flick than I was, but once I actually started watching I was enraptured. I have never seen such bizarre, unsettling looking undead before here. I cannot wait to own this one on Blu-Ray.

1. Asmodexia

It's been a year for great foreign horrors. Asmodexia is a Spanish excorcism film that manages to flip the whole genre on it's head. It has the addictive qualities of a half remembered dream, let down only by a sub plot that lost me a bit. The clever use of editing, and the way it all flows makes this my favourite horror I have seen in 2016.

Best Horror Video Game 2016

5. Zombie Army Trilogy

A very inventive, fun, 3rd person shooter in which your primary weapon is a sniper rifle. I love that it is three seperate games combined into one as you can see a huge shift in quality as you progress through the long campaign. Plus there is zombie Hitler...

4. Doom

I was worried that this latest entry in the saga would be too action orientated, after all Doom 3 is one of my favourite games of all time. Thankfully this does keep some of the exploration element, and I have to admit while the focus falls far too heavily on kill rooms the combat itself is deeply satisfying.

 3. Call of Duty: Black Ops III

The game came out last year but the DLC zombie maps were mostly released this year. Each new map was better than the last, culminating in Revelations that was a loving send off for the series. There are no better co-op horror games out there.

2. Inside

The fact that this was the follow up game to the over rated Limbo put me off getting this for a while, when I finally did I was blown away. Very attractive, very addictive, and a master craft in 2D adventure platforming.

1. Until Dawn: Rush of Blood

This one game is what validated VR to me as a genuine way to play games. Never have I felt so immersed in something, it may just be an on-rails shooter but the effect of actually being there is one that I had never experienced before.

So there you have it, a few of the top things I have had the pleasure to experience this year in horror. Feel free to include your top 5 lists in the comments below if you so wish. May you all have a frightfully happy and horrific new year! Finally as a bonus, below is the most shameful act of the year...

Most Shameful Horror Moment 2016

1. Sister leaves the cinema in fear 

I went to the cinema earlier this year with my sister to see Blair Witch. Around ten minutes before the films end she decided it had got too scary and left the showing! This was actually the second week in a row she had left the film we were watching early, the previous week she had walked out halfway through Sausage Party. Maybe that too was too scary?

Horror News Round-up December 2016: Part 2 - Salient Minus Ten and Wash Club

Some would say doing a second day of news on my blog was a cheap way to conveniently pad out the remaining days of 2016, there may be some truth in that. However! I did legitimately forget to scroll upwards in my email inbox yesterday and so I did truthfully forget to mention a few of the news I had been emailed about. So think what you will but know this; tomorrow shall be a original blog post chronicling some of my top horror things of the year.

There has been an updated teaser poster for award winning filmmaker Emma Dark's (Seize the Night) new Sci-fi/horror Salient Minus Ten. The lead actor in this short has been changed from Dean Sills to Alan Austen (Star Wars: Episode V - The Empire Strikes Back. Phillip Bloom has joined the project as director of photography at the time of the recasting. The film has an interesting synopsis; 'Adam Harper is an average man. And on an average day he suddenly finds himself catapulted into the strangest, reality changing game...A game of time and chance, where the stakes are a matter of life and death'. This short is currently in post production with a trailer due to be released early 2017.

Now Wash Club is a short film being made that really has almost nothing to do with horror whatsoever, however I loved the crowd funding video released to promote it and so with an actual trailer released I felt I may as well put that on my site. Wash Club is about a journalist who accidentally becomes the leader of a shady club where-by it's members ride around in washing machines at dry cleaners! It's based on a true story by poet Ross Sutherland, director Simon Dymond heard it and felt he needed to create a film based on this hyper surreal tale. Check out the first proper trailer below as well as the awesome crowdfunder video.

Horror News Round-up December 2016 - Festivals, Releases, and Trailers

I have been busy lately watching films for the annual Fright Meter Awards as well as the many films I have been getting sent for review. As such news I have been sent has been neglected a bit so I thought I would put it all together into a large horror news post. I do plan to improve my late response to news requests as one of my many new years resolutions I will likely fail to keep!

As of 1st September submissions are now open for the Triple Six Film Festival which is to have it's debut at the AMC Cinema in Manchester next year. The event is going to run May 27th to May 28th and is going to run nine feature length horrors and nine short horror films over the two days. There will also be special guests, and an after festival party among other things. If you have a film you wish to submit then that can be done via FilmFreeway, while tickets to the event will go on sale April 1st and will be available to purchase from the festival's website. It has also been announced that Richard Stanley is to be a special guest there, a viewing of his movie Hardware (1990) will be shown followed by a Q&A with the director.

The Walking Dead: The Pop-Up Book (2015) - Zombie Book Review

I am hoping to get back to doing regular blog updates some day soon, at the moment my 'office' here at The Rotting Zombie HQ looks like Citizen Z's tech room did post nuclear blast! Today I am reviewing the awkwardly titled The Walking Dead: The Pop-Up Book which is of course based on the TV show rather than the games or the comic. The book features text by S.D Perry who I best know as the author who wrote quite a few Resident Evil novels which on the most part were not bad, especially the ones unrelated to the games.

When I was a youngster I loved pop-up books, there was a posh book shop in town where I would always head to as they had some pretty awesome horror themed ones there, so getting this book as a gift last Christmas I right away thought it was awesome. There are just ten pages to this book but so much detail has been crammed in, each double page has one huge pop-up and usually a load of smaller hidden ones. There are levers to pull, and extra inserts to unfold. I only discovered some of these inserts after a few reads of the book, then when I got it out to look at again so I could review it today I discovered an additional insert hidden within an insert!

Z Nation: Season 3 (2016) - Zombie TV Show Review

Z Nation is a show that started off very badly. The characters were unlikeable, the plot boring and I found the washed out look to be quite off putting. However by the end of season 1 I had fallen in love with the complete absurdity that goes on. Season 2 ended up being even better with the show seeming intent on cramming as much silliness as possible. With a giant cliffhanger at the season's finale I had eagerly awaited the new season. Spoilers for previous seasons are bound to occur.

Having discovered that the whole mission he had been on for two seasons was all for nothing the human zombie hybrid Murphy (Keith Allen) goes rogue heading off to form a new civilisation of 'blends'. He takes 10K with him who is powerless to resist Murphy's mind control powers now that he has also been made a blend. Meanwhile Warren and her ragtag group have met up with a Chinese scientist and together they devise a plan to capture Murphy so that a cure for humanity against the zombie threat can finally be made...

The House on Pine Street (2015) - Horror Film Review

The House on Pine Street is a haunted house film directed by the Keeling brothers who also co-wrote this with Natalie Jones. I at first expected a typical ghost film and thought I knew what would happen but this actually tries to do something a little different.

Heavily pregnant Jennifer (Emily Goss) has reluctantly moved back to her Kansas hometown from Chicago on the insistence of her husband Luke (Taylor Bottles) and her mum Meredith (Cathy Barnett). She moves into an old house and almost straight away she starts to experience strange phenomenon. Objects move on their own, strange footsteps are heard and shadowy figures glimpsed, but Jennifer is the only one who witnesses these happenings. Is the house really haunted or is it all in her troubled mind?

The Corpse of Anna Fritz (2015) - Horror Film Review

The Corpse of Anna Fritz (El Cadaver de Anna Fritz) is a Spanish horror that from the synopsis sounded a lot like 2008's Deadgirl, however this turned out to be something far more realistic and suspenseful.

Anna Fritz (Alba Ribas) is a world famous actress who is found dead in the bathroom of a party. Her corpse is taken to a morgue in a hospital in the city where orderly Pau (Albert Carbo) works. He decides to take some pictures on his phone of her to send his friends Javi (Bernat Saumell) and Ivan (Cristian Valencia) which results in them visiting him to see her for themselves. Ivan and Pau decide to take advantage of the famous corpse and it is from this point that events take a turn for the worse...

Nina Forever (2015) - Horror Film Review

I decided to give the horror movie streaming site Shudder a try, mainly due to the fact the Fright Meter Awards nominations are due in next Friday and I can't afford to buy films to watch. So I gave Nina Forever a watch; a British film that bizarrely is only available to watch on the American version of the site.

Holly (Abigail Hardingham) is drawn to troubled Rob (Cian Barry) due to him being in mourning for his girlfriend Nina (Fiona O'Shaughnessy) having died in a car accident. The two start seeing each other and all is going great until the first time they have intercourse. Somehow this causes Nina to physically manifest (bloody and covered in her crash wounds) and she is determined that her and Rob are still together. Understandably this freaks Holly out yet she weirdly decides she can deal with this happening whenever her and her new boyfriend get intimate.

Demon (2015) - Horror Film Review

Demon is a Polish horror that has a thick vein of black comedy in it. The title suggested to me something different than what is actually shown, instead this is a tale based on the Jewish legend of the dybbuk (a malicious possessing spirit believed to be the dislocated soul of a dead person). This film was made more creepy for me after discovering the director and co-writer Marcin Wrona sadly committed suicide not long after the film came out.

English based Piotr (Itay Tiran) has travelled to Poland in order to marry Zaneta (Agnieszka Zulewska). The wedding reception is to be held at the home of her deceased grandparents whose property the newlyweds are going to live at. The night before the wedding Piotr discovers something alarming buried in the back garden of the house. The next day the wedding goes ahead as planned and the party gets into full swing, but as the day goes on Piotr starts to behave more and more erratically and Zaneta and her family start to worry something is seriously wrong with him...

Ash Vs Evil Dead: Season 2 (2016) - Horror TV Show Review

The first season of Ash vs Evil Dead turned out to be so much better than I had ever hoped. It was full of both ultra gory violence as well as being extremely funny. This was both down to a great script and of course Bruce Campbell's Ash. My only complaints were about the short length of the ten episodes, and the resolution to the season and so I hoped for the second season these concerns would be addressed. Spoilers for season one will follow.

This picks up roughly a year after the events of the first season with Ash, Pablo (Ray Santiago), and Kelly (Dana DeLorenzo) partying hard in Jacksonville as per the agreement with the immortal Ruby (Lucy Lawless) who in exchange got to be in charge of the Necronomicon. However the monstrous children she had created have betrayed her and are trying to steal the book to summon from Hell Baal (Joel Tobeck); a powerful and evil demon. In desperation Ruby contacts Ash and together they form an uneasy alliance to defeat the children and protect the book...

BoXeD (2016) - Horror Film Review

BoXeD is written, edited, produced and directed by Daniel A. Finney and it is an art house film. I used to watch this TV program when I was younger, I believe it was called Headf*ck or something like that and this film brought memories of that show back to me as it featured plenty of similar style videos of which this would have fitted right in.

Due to the unique way BoXeD is shown I am not totally clear on the actual plot so this summery may be wrong. Jane Hamlet stars as Rachel whose sister has gone missing, though meanwhile her ex boyfriend Richie Prendergast (Charles O'Neill) is putting pressure on her to display his artwork at her gallery. Flashbacks to a time when her sister was not missing sheds some light on what may have actually happened.

Party Night (2017) - Horror Film Review

I was quite excited to watch Party Night, this is because it is Troy Escamilla's first ever film he has both written and directed. Now I kind of know Troy (on the internet at least) as he is the founder of the Fright Meter Awards that I am a member of. Due to that and the fact I contributed towards the film's Kickstarter campaign I wont be giving it a rating as I don't want to be seen to be biased.

It is prom night and six high school friends decide to ditch their after prom party and instead head to Nelson's (Drew Shotwell) uncles house to have their own private party (as the uncle is away on business). It soon is found out to be a terrible idea as the place is the base of a local serial killer who doesn't take kindly to intruders...

Ava's Possessions (2015) - Horror Film Review

Out of all the many, many films about demonic possession there has never really been one that dealt with the aftermath in any detail before. Ava's Possessions takes a stab at that idea in a comedy horror mystery format. It was written and directed by Jordan Galland (Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Undead).

The film starts with Ava (Lousia Krause) only recently having been exorcised of the demon that possessed her for twenty eight days. She is made to go to a help group for victims of possession and part of her recovery is to find out just what happened whilst she was out of control. This leads to the uncovering of a dark secret that even her close friends and family refused to tell her...

The Devil Lives Here (2015) - Horror Film Review

The Devil Lives Here (also known as O Diabo Mora Aqui and The Fostering) is a Brazilian horror film that despite the title is not about demonic forces, but is a film dealing with themes of the occult. With all the horror films I have been watching recently it was actually refreshing to see one that made no attempt to add in comedic elements, this is straight horror all the way through.

Ale, her boyfriend Luciano, and his cousin Magu have travelled to the remote home of their friend Apolo (Pedro Carvalho) for a weekend of partying, or so they think. However the house Apolo lives in is one that had a troubled history. It used to be the dwelling place of a cruel slave owner, his methods eventually got to be so much that his slaves rose up and murdered him, not only that but they also placed a curse on his spirit so he can never find rest. The anniversary of his death is usually marked by a rite performed by the ancestors of the slaves, a night that by agreement the property is left empty, however this year Apolo plans to interfere which turns out not to be the best idea...

Inside (2016) - Horror Video Game Review (Playstation 4)

I had heard nothing but good things about Inside, I was intrigued to play it, yet coming from Playdead who made Limbo I had my misgivings. While that game was stylishly great I never thought it deserved the amount of praise heaped on it at the time. It was an enjoyable game but very short with little replay value. Inside is a sequel to that game, not in terms of plot but more in terms of the look and the mechanics.

You play as an unnamed young boy, via events happening around you it seems you are on the run from some shady organisation. As you flee you encounter various facets of this nightmarish futuristic world such as frenzied dogs, robotic killing machines, walking husks, and lethal experiments.

He Never Died (2015) Action Horror Film Review

I've been meaning to watch He Never Died for many months now, ever since I saw it appear on Netflix. It has some horror aspects to it, though is more suited to the revenge or action genre with a dose of comedy that sometimes hits and sometimes feels a bit intrusive.

Musician Henry Rollins (Wrong Turn 2: Dead End as well as a tonne of other stuff) stars as Jack, a loner who keeps himself to himself with a small routine that just involves sleeping, going to the local diner and playing bingo. However he has quite the secret, he is seemingly immortal which spells all kinds of trouble for a local gang who he gets involved against. With the arrival of a teenage daughter he didn't know he even had events take a turn for the worse and soon he finds himself on a kind of path of revenge.

Be My Cat: A Film for Anne (2015) - Horror Film Review

Be My Cat: A Film for Anne is Romania's first ever found footage horror movie. Nowadays the whole found footage genre is a bit of a put off for many people, over the years the genre has been literally swamped with seemingly never ending numbers of films due to the ease and relative cheapness they can be made. As such Be My Cat is not going to be a movie for everyone, regardless I am very impressed with how this has been made.

Adrian Tofei stars as Adrian; a small town simpleton who after watching The Dark Knight Rises has become obsessed with the actress Anne Hathaway. He decides to make her a movie that will demonstrate his acting and directorial skills so that she will fly to Romania so he can film with her. To help with this he hires three local actresses, but unknown to them his methods are to be more dramatic than they expect, something that can be inferred with the introduction that states the footage about to be shown was pieced together by the police from the Be My Cat crime scene.

31 (2016) - Horror Film Review

Before I start this review of Rob Zombie's 31 I have a couple of confessions to make. Number one; I am a huge fan of his, I love his music, I love his style, and I love his films (with the exception of the horrendous animated film The Haunted World of El Superbeasto). My second confession is that I have broken one of the core rules of The Rotting Zombie in that I have been drinking whilst watching a film for review. Both of these factors will...well factor into this review, so take my words with a pinch of biased and partially tipsy flavoured salt.

The year is 1976 and a group of travelling carnival employees that include among them Charly (Sherri Moon Zombie from every Rob Zombie film ever), Roscoe Pepper (Jeff Daniel Phillips from The Lords of Salem and Halloween II), Panda Thomas, Levon Wally, and Venus Virgo (Meg Foster from They Live) find their van's route blocked by an obstruction on Halloween night. While trying to clear it they are attacked and captured by a bunch of costumed goons. They are taken to a compound where Father Murder (Malcolm McDowell) informs them they are part of a special event called '31'. All they have to do is survive for twelve hours and they will be free to go, but during this time they will be hunted by all kinds of murderous clowns...

Counter Clockwise (2016) - Sci-fi Film Review

Counter Clockwise (directed by George Moise) is not really a horror film, instead it is more of a sci-fi dark comedy thriller. however ever since I saw the trailer back in June I had been hoping I would get the opportunity to view it. This is because the film is all about time travel which just so happens to be one of my very favourite concepts.

Michael Kopelow (The People Under the Stairs) stars as Ethan, a scientist who accidentally invents a time machine and is sent six months into the future. He discovers to his horror that his sister and wife had both been murdered the very same day he left from, not only that but he is now a wanted man, hunted by both the police and a shady science corporation. He decides to travel back in time to try and change the past...

I Am the Pretty Thing That Lives in the House (2016) - Horror Film Review

I Am the Pretty Thing That Lives in the House is a Netflix exclusive film that plays out like a Victorian horror. It has a very minimal cast and to call it a bit of a slow burn would be an understatement.

Ruth Wilson stars as Lily, a young nurse who has taken on the role of looking after Iris Blum; an elderly horror author (who appears to be suffering dementia) at her remote country house. With Iris constantly referring to Lily as Polly she decides to find out just who this person was. It turns out she was the main character of one of Iris's most popular books, not only that but it seems this person could have been based on a real person who had some sort of tie to the house.

Still Breathing (2016) by Veridia - Horror Music Video

Alt-rock group Veridia released a horror based music video for their new single Still Breathing that was released at the end of October. It was directed by Matt DeLisi and apparently filmed at a haunted house in Nashville. Front-woman Deena Jakoub says the song is about dealing with fear which makes the haunted setting fitting.

In the video Deena explores a haunted mansion, finally she discovers her shadow self which gets into a fight/dance with her. Not too much happens in the video thought the location is nice looking. The weird dance with her shadow was pretty fun. Check the video for yourself down below. A bit of a lazy Sunday blog post here but why not?

The Anatomy of Monsters (2014) - Horror Film Review

I covered The Anatomy of Monsters back in May where I said that I hoped it turned out to be good as the central concept was pretty intriguing. This is a movie that despite it's obvious constraints still manages to be compelling viewing. I've been trying something different lately when reviewing films; to watch it with my VR headset on so that there are no outside distractions. This seems to really help with getting immersed in stuff.

Andrew (Jesse Lee Keeter) is a serial killer and he has headed to a local club in search of his next victim. He befriends a lone woman named Sarah (Tabitha Bastien from Run, Hide, Die) and together they head to a motel where he intends to kill her. However just as it seems everything is going to plan Sarah turns the tables on him, revealing she knows exactly who he is, and that she too is a killer. What follows is a psychological mind game as she recounts her past while insidiously planting the seeds of doubt in her captors head.

UK Festival of Zombie Culture 2016 - A Day of the Undead

So last weekend was the annual UK Festival of Zombie Culture that as always takes place at the Phoenix Arts Centre in Leicester, I have been putting up reviews of the five feature films throughout the week so now comes the time when I talk about the day itself.

Things started off badly on the Friday when the motorway I needed to get on was closed. Thankfully my quick thinking friend directed me via another route and aside from getting slightly lost in the insanity that is the road system of Leicester city centre we eventually got to the trusty car park we always use. The car park in question had been taken over by a gym however, thankfully there was another superior car park pretty much next door to that one even if it did look like the most sinister place in the world. With bigger spaces though there would be no repeat of last year when I managed to reverse my car into a steel post when trying to leave!

Peelers (2016) - Zombie Horror Film Review

Originally Re-Kill had been billed as the final film at this years UK Festival of Zombie Culture but at the last moment that fell through and Peelers was chosen as the film to replace it. Peelers has been shown at a lot of festivals this year and I have covered it before so was interested to see it. However I suspect that being the last film and with me fighting sleep I was not as receptive to it's charms as I could have been.

Peelers takes place almost entirely in a small town strip club on it's closing night, having been brought out from owner Blue Jean (Wren Walker) by a corrupt government official. The night gets off to a traditional start until the arrival of a group of oil covered miners who are out to celebrate turns the evening into a living nightmare. The oil that they are covered in changes them, turning them into unstoppable undead killing machines and soon Blue Jean, her strippers, bouncer Remy (Caz Odin Darko from Wind Chill) and her son Logan (Madison J.Loos) find themselves fighting to survive...

Attack of the Lederhosen Zombies (2016) - Zombie Horror Film Review

The fourth film at this years UK Festival of Zombie Culture was the horror comedy Attack of the Lederhosen Zombies. Coming right after the astounding Train to Busan and the much funnier Night of Something Strange this movie suffered a bit. Despite any misgivings I might have had there was definitely parts of this Austrian film that really charmed.

Pro snowboarder Steve (Laurie Calvert), his girlfriend Branka (Gabriela Marcinkova) and his friend Josh (Oscar Dyekjaer Giese) are left behind on a mountain after an ill advised prank Steve plays leads to his sponsorship deal getting cancelled. With no way to get to the nearest village until morning they are forced to seek refuge in a bar. Unknown to them the owner of the mountain in a bid to create snow has accidentally made a toxic concoction that infects a prospective investor, who then turns into a zombie. Soon the hills are alive with the sound of screaming and with no option Steve and his fellow survivors must battle the walking dead while looking for a way to leave the cursed peak and escape to safety.

Train to Busan (2016) - Zombie Horror Film Review

The South Korean made Train to Busan is a film that my best friend was very much looking forward to at the UK Festival of Zombie Culture we attended this past weekend. I had heard plenty of good things about it but I was just not prepared for how amazing it actually was, by far the best film shown at the event, and one of my top horrors of the year.

Workaholic Seok Woo (Yoo Gong) agrees to take his neglected daughter Soo-an (Soon-an Kim) via train to Busan as a birthday gift so that she can see her mother (who Seok is seperated from). The day they choose however coincides with the outbreak of zombie apocalypse and soon him and his fellow passengers find themselves trapped on a speeding train full of the running dead. With every station over-run with zombies the train driver has no option but to get to the end of the line at Busan where it is hoped it is still safe...

Plan Z (2016) - Zombie Horror Film Review

Plan Z is a passion project from Stuart Brennan who directed, wrote and starred in this low-fi UK zombie flick. He has stated that a lot of horror fans have a plan in their head for what they would do in the event of a zombie apocalypse, Plan Z is his idea given flesh. This had it's European premiere at the UK Festival of Zombie Culture and was the most realistic in feel of all the films shown there.

Brennan stars as Craig; a photographer who in his downtime while travelling the globe had come up with a plan on how to survive if zombie apocalypse ever occurred. He hadn't expected it to ever happen, yet when a swift world wide viral outbreak actually does lead to the dead returning to life Craig decides to head home and enact his idea for real. He is to wait out the chaos in the safety of his own home, then when supplies head low he intends to travel to a remote location until the worst is over. Even the best laid plans have problems though...

Night of Something Strange (2016) - Zombie Horror Film Review

So I have returned from another fantastic UK Festival of Zombie Culture that is held annually in Leicester. The same as previous years I shall attempt to create passable reviews based on brief notes and keywords scribbled down during the 13 hour marathon. This year there were five feature films shown, the first being the ultra gross Night of Something Strange...

A necrophiliac janitor unwittingly contracts a deadly and disturbing STD after sleeping with one of the bodies in the morgue he works at. Returning home it isn't long until the disease has transformed him into one of the walking dead, but rather than the desire to eat brains he has the desire to pass on his infection. Meanwhile a group of high school teens on their way to the beach for spring break end up at a remote motel where they find themselves at the centre of this strange outbreak.

Call of Duty: Infinite Warfare - Zombies in Spaceland (2016) - Thoughts on the new mode

So yesterday the latest Call of Duty game came out; Infinite Warfare. While much of the game takes place in space I was far more interested in the developers take on the classic Zombies mode that is so beloved by me. Initially when it was first announced I thought it was actually going to take place in space, much like the Moon map from Call of Duty: Black Ops, instead it takes place during the 80's at a theme park based around space.

The animated intro (done to look like a 1950's pulp cartoon) sees four actors (Andre, Sally, AJ, and Poindexter) arrive at a disused cinema to audition for a once prolific horror director Willard Wayler. They had heard his audition process was tough but none were prepared for what happens next. Using some sort of demonic ritual Wayler creates a portal that sucks the group into one of his own films set at a Spaceland theme park. Once inside they find themselves dressed up like the characters they were due to play, not only that but find themselves under immediate attack by hordes of zombies. Wyler instructs the group to pass the audition they have to survive...

60 Seconds to Die (2016) - Horror Anthology News and Trailer

I would swear on a stack of bibles that my email on my phone doesn't show me all my mail as doing some admin on an actual computer I found several emails that I am certain I had never seen before. One such one is a trailer for (at the time) upcoming horror anthology 60 Seconds to Die which awesomely is an anthology made up of short horror films that are only one minute long each. Despite the email I found being from September I just had to put up a post about this. There has been a sequel to this called 60 Seconds 2 Die: 60 Seconds to Die 2 (quite a mouthful), both of these were released in the UK a few days back on Halloween. A third film is in the works that continues the trend for truly terribly titled compilations, it is to be released in 2017 and will be called...60 Seconds to Di3.

A trailer was released that was awesome in it's editing, it is full of blood, violence and plenty of monsters, psychos and vampires and has a strong indie/grind house vibe to it. I wonder just how many short films it contains? Check out the trailer below...

Layers of Fear: Inheritance - Part 2 of My Complete Playthrough

Welcome to part 2 of my complete play-through of Layers of Fear: Inheritance. In this second part I spend a bizarre amount of time completely baffled as to how to proceed. Check out part 1 here. Putting these up on my blog is all new so if it is something you think is pointless then let me know! In general my film reviews are the most viewed thing I do so this is kinda an experiment...

Layers of Fear: Inheritance (2016) - Part 1 of my complete playthrough (PS4)

I have recently started putting up more YouTube videos, these are very rough and are mostly just PS4 video games streamed live or prerecorded with me speaking as I play. I thought I may as well start putting them on my blog as well, they wont replace my regular blog posts but be in addition to them. This first one is for the Layers of Fear DLC.

So it is Halloween today, the most wonderful of holidays and I am in The Rotting Zombie HQ in lock down as I have no treats for visiting ghouls and so need to simulate being out. Actually I spent much of the evening out anyway as I went to my friends for our weekly The Walking Dead and Ash vs Evil Dead watching (were both excellent by the way!).

So I shall be doing a review of Layers of Fear: Inheritance down the line anyway so I wont say much more, other than the main game had you exploring a weird nightmare house as a tortured artist, in the DLC you play as his daughter who seems to be visiting her childhood home to confront the demons of her past. Happy Halloween!

5 Ghoulishly Gooey Filled Cookies (Tesco) - Horror Themed Food Review

It's that time of year again when food starts getting re-labelled to give it a Halloween edge. In the interest both of public information and an admittedly quick and easy blog post I present a review of Tesco's 5 Ghoulishly Gooey Filled Cookies.

Usually companies use blatant lies such as 'spooky' and 'scary' to describe their Halloween treats, with this one though I am unsure if it is a fallacy for I know not what 'ghoulishly' would actually be like. After eating some of these cookies I came to the conclusion that that word means sweet to a fault. The main part of the cookie has green food colouring used, while the gooey inside at the middle is purple. Both colours you could associate with the side of horror I guess (also the Joker). The cookie itself is very, very sweet, I don't have a sweet tooth so I found this to be quite overpowering with a very artificial taste to it. As a whole these cookies are very soft and thin, the raised middle has some purple stuff in it that actually wasn't that gooey.

I guess if you like disgustingly sweet cookies then these will be for you, for me I did not enjoy eating them, I could feel the non natural ingredients infesting my body. They look nice, though as you can see from my photo the circular shape was not intact, looks like a monster had already eaten off a part of one of them. Tune in this time next year for more horrific Halloween treats *sigh*.

SCORE: