Danger Zombies - Desktop Shooting Set - Product Discussion

One of my presents for my birthday this year was a cool zombie themed shooting set that was comprised of an elastic band gun and some zombie targets (that are also rubbers). Annoyingly I disposed of the packaging before taking a photo, It's part of the Danger Zombies range of kids products that I have mentioned on here previously (here).

The elastic band gun comes with a small pencil and some elastic bands, it doesn't fire that powerfully but I am sure that is due to the small size of the pencil and the elastic bands. I always wanted one of these as a kid and I am sure if I swap out the small pencil for a bigger one it will work a whole lot better. Either way it is easy enough to shoot the targets which are of a decent thickness. I'm sure this has given me some XP towards my undead apocalypse gun slinging skills.

Samurai Cop 2: Deadly Vengeance (2015) - Action Film Review

Sometimes a film comes along that really has no place on my blog and yet something about it makes me want to include it. Samurai Cop 2: Deadly Vengeance comes 25 years after the original cult classic and features many of the same actors reprising their roles. I have never actually seen Samurai Cop but believe it to be whether purposely or accidentally a film so bad that it's good.

From what I could piece together it is 25 years after Joe Marshall (Mathew Karedas) and his partner Frank Washington (Mark Frazer) stopped a notable Yakuza gang from taking over the city. Now while investigating a series of odd assassinations Frank discovers the gang may be back. His investigation leads him to Joe who has been in enforced solitude ever since his girlfriend was murdered at some point in the past.

Asmodexia (2014) - Horror Film Review

Asmodexia is a Spanish horror film about exorcism directed by Marc Carrete. Sometimes a film creeps up and takes you by surprise and I happily admit this is one such film, from the beginning to the very end I was glued to the screen, the language barrier just adding to the mystery.

Lluis Marco stars as Eloy; an elderly exorcist who travels the back roads of Spain with his fifteen year old granddaughter Alba (Claudia Pons). Together they are called upon to perform violent exorcisms to expel spirits from possessed people. Meanwhile a troubled woman with ties to the duo's past resides in a mental institute biding her time, while her cop sister is on the hunt for them...

The Forest (2016) - Horror Film Review

Quite a lot of horrors are coming out at the moment, one such film is The Forest that is set in the infamous Aokigahara forest in Japan where over the years many many people have gone to kill themselves. The trailer hadn't blown me away and I had a feeling the film itself wouldn't either.

Natalie Dormer (Game of Thrones) stars as Sara Price; an American who has travelled to Japan to try and find her missing twin sister Jess (also Dormer) who went missing while visiting the area around Aokigahara. Despite the certainty of everyone she talks to that her sister is dead Sara is convinced by her 'twin sense' that she is actually just lost in the giant forest. She teams up with a local guide and Aiden (Taylor Kinney); an Australian reporter and heads into the cursed woods where her real troubles begin.

Build Your Own Zombie - Playdough Zombie Set

For Christmas my work place (my day job, not here) got me a Build Your Own Zombie playdough toy. Initially I was disappointed it was not an actual zombie I would be able to build but I'm sure you can agree my crafting skills are amazing and fantastic. I took pictures in a dark room for the atmosphere naturally.

The box contains two pots of dough, one of bright green, the other containing white, black, and red. There is a key on the side of the box saying how to mix the dough to get various colours, while the actual picture to copy is also on the box. Now I struggled to mix the colours myself, luckily my best friend was with me and she was able to successfully mix the dough, no idea how as I looked away for the brief moment it took her to mix.

Assembling the zombie was pretty fun and easy to do, I made more of a flat gingerbread zombie than a thick one that could stand on his own two feet, I was left over with spare dough which I used to fashion another zombie head, and a large dark green cube (for some reason). Maybe my one complaint other than the ethereal instructions is that the dough is very sticky and so different parts kept getting stuck to each other. Aside from the Flat Stanley parallels I don't think I did too bad a job (in the grand scheme of things, kinda!) and made for a nice and easy blog post.

Beast Within (2016) - Horror Film News and Trailer

Beast Within looks like it is from the werewolf genre of horror films judging by the new UK trailer for the movie. It is written by Daniel Robins who also directs alongside Mark Rapaport and it stars Gene Jones.

After a tragedy in his childhood claimed his parents Jack is raised alongside his cousin and best friend Brandon. When Jack turns eighteen though he starts to suffer a series of bizarre sleep walking episodes; constantly waking up naked in the woods with no memory of what has happened. Finally he decides to strap a camera to himself and doing so shows him a horrific secret that has plagued his family for generations...

I'm not that keen on werewolf films, there hasn't really been any really good ones, even the classics such as An American Werewolf in London I think are just ok. Still Beast Within could possibly be the film to change my view. Beast Within is released on digital platforms 29th February, and comes out on UK DVD on 14th March courtesy of Solo Media, check out the trailer below...

Zombie Dream of 22/02/2016

I used to have multiple zombie dreams a week back in the day, nowadays it is such a rare occurrence that I try to chronicle my vaguely remembered slumberings so no doubt wont make for too exciting a blog post.

In my dream it was zombie apocalypse and me and a group of survivors were trapped in a building by the walking dead. I decided to sacrifice myself by leading the ghouls away from the other survivors, I was chased by the traditional slow moving zombies into a lift shaft where I was cornered and prepared for death. The zombies rather than rip me apart all began to suck my blood a process which led me to become one of them.

Many years later and most the world's population were zombies, as a zombie I had plenty of rotting friends and we all still had the ability to talk normally. There were many flies around and after trying to swat one I was told not to bother as no one had managed to kill one in years due to our slow reactions. I had a longing to find my best friend who I knew was out in the world somewhere and still a human. I headed outside not caring that I would rot far quicker in the elements as I needed to find this friend, I coincidentally got a mobile phone call from the person I had set out to find (no idea why my mobile still had battery)...then I woke up.

To play the analyst now; I dreamt of zombies as had been watching The Walking Dead earlier that day, they sucked my blood rather than ate me thanks to a similar scene involving vampires in Scott M.Baker's Rotter Apocalypse that I finished reading last week. There were many flies around due to having been at a friends house earlier that day whose front room had been thick black with the devilish insects (a slight exaggeration, but still, under the floorboards is never a great place to hide a body). Even though my dream had certain nightmarish aspects to it, it is hard to complain about a zombie experience!

Hermit: Monster Killer (2016) - Horror Film News and Trailer

From the producer of the truly bizarre horror comedy Cannibal Fog comes Hermit: Monster Killer which is the first Swedish monster movie since 1959. It has been made using the old Roger Corman movies as a template. He of course is known for his multitude of B-movie 'classics'.

From the trailer (included below) it seems that after a meteorite crashes in rural Sweden an alien monster arrives with it, it is up to the redneck community to band together to beat the creature. It looks like it is to have a comedic edge to it and features some nice looking effects such as someone getting their face ripped off, the trailer also seemed to indicate children aren't exempt from the beastly being.

Produced by Jonas Wolcher, directed by Ola Paulakoski, and written by Fred Anderson (Kraftverk 3714)  it promises to deliver a 'full action monster movie with great acting and special effects'. It apparently received a huge response at the Weekend of Hell horror festival last year. Hermit: Monster Killer is almost ready for release so if your after a monster movie with a Swedish twist you've been waiting a long time, this should scratch that particular itch.

Pride and Prejudice and Zombies (2016) - Zombie Horror Film Review

I had heard a film of Pride and Prejudice and Zombies was in the work but for whatever reason assumed it would never come to pass, the fact that the book of the same name was so popular means this shouldn't have come as a big surprise. For the few that don't know the book is an adaptation of the classic Pride and Prejudice novel from Jane Austen that follows the same plot but with added scenes of zombie carnage.

Mr Bingley (Douglas Booth) moves to a house near where Mrs Bennet and her five daughters live and soon falls for one of the daughters, however his best friend the prideful Mr Darcy (Sam Riley) visits and sees the Bennets as being beneath his station, yet despite this finds himself drawn to Elizabeth Bennet (Lily James). This all takes place to the backdrop of a world that has endured zombie apocalypse and is slowly recovering, but a new plot to make the zombies the dominant force has come into play that threatens the lives of all.

Call of Duty: Black Ops III 'Der Eisendrachen' (2016) - Thoughts on the new Zombie map

At the start of February Awakening; the first of the four DLC packs for Call of Duty: Black Ops III was released. Along with four multiplayer maps there was also one map for the popular Zombies mode which was called Der Eisendrachen (German for The Iron Dragon). I won't go too much into the specifics of Zombies mode as I have done many posts about it (such as here), also this is just what I have discovered in the level, I am well aware there is far more to the map.

To be perfectly honest I don't really understand the plot at all of Zombies, I have tried on several occasions but it is so convoluted that it makes my head fizz. Der Eisendrachen follows on from The Giant which itself was a remake of Der Riese, yet plot wise had been another chapter. It starts with Richtofen, Nikoli, Takeo, and Dempsey piloting a giant robot, chasing down a Nazi truck that has on board another version of Dempsey (?). They eventually arrive at the mountain top Griffon Castle in Austria but arrive too late to retrieve the second Dempsey that they discover has been blasted off to the moon (!). They discover that Griffon Castle is yet another place over run with the living dead and so must battle them while trying to retrieve Dempsey.

Rotter Apocalypse (2015) by Scott M. Baker - Zombie Horror Book Review

I have had a copy of Rotter Apocalypse for a shameful amount of time, I even received an advanced copy and so the fact I have only just finished reading it makes me blush. Being the third book in the Rotter trilogy (following on from Rotter World and Rotter Nation) I was kind of locked in and knew I would enjoy regardless of the quality. Thankfully Rotter Apocalypse is another great zombie story that fixes one of the bugbears I have fixated on in the previous books, there are bound to be unavoidable spoilers for the previous books in the series in this review.

Following on immediately from the events of Nation we find Robson struggling to deal with the influx of people he now has under his care (after rescuing them from a brutal gang). The two vampires who have teamed up with him start to become more and more disillusioned with his decisions and plan to leave. Meanwhile Windows and Cindy (the little girl she rescued) having escaped the rape gang on their own stumble across a protected farm out in the countryside where they befriend the owner; kind old Mr Denning. Elsewhere the remnants of the Angels have succeeded with their mission to deliver the zombie vaccine to the surviving government and learn of a plan to retake back ruined America.

Clinger (2015) - Comedy Horror Film Review

Well, I suck, I recieved this film for review late last month and if I had paid attention to the press release would have realised it was released on UK DVD and Digital on the 1st February, as it is I have only just gotten around to watching it. Clinger (directed and written by Michael Steves) is a comedy horror about a ghost who just cannot move on. The film was the winner of Best Horror Comedy at the Shriekfest Horror Film Festival 2015.

Fern Peterson (Jennifer Laporte) is trapped in a stifling relationship with her suffocating boyfriend Robert (Vincent Martella). On the night she had planned to break up with him he accidentally gets himself killed, and so while tragic Fern sees this as a chance to move on with her life, unfortunately for her Robert comes back as a ghost. She discovers he is a 'love' ghost, a being who will stop at nothing to try and be with her forever. At first she finds this new situation kind of cool but he soon goes back to his old ways and as she spurns his advances he becomes more and more determined to make her his in ever more sinister ways...

Moth (2016) - Horror Film Review

Moth is a found footage horror that is the next film of Jozsef Gallai and Gergo Elekes whose previous film Bodom was also in the found footage genre. I previously covered this in April of 2015 here, and later in October here. For me the found footage genre is so stagnant that I find it hard to muster up much enthusiasm when watching them, however Bodom while flawed wasn't terrible and so hoped the weaknesses of that one would be built on for Moth.

Thora; a lecturer of a London University who specialises in mysterious phenomena tells her class she is to travel to Hungary to investigate a spate of recent reported sightings of a mysterious Mothman creature which she believes is linked to the reportings of the same being in West Virginia in the 1960's. She asks the class for a volunteer to help her document her findings and so Adam (Jozsef Gallai who also co-directs and wrote the plot) agrees to go along as he is a fan of mysteries. However once in Hungary the ill prepared duo find themselves lost in the remote countryside and begin to fear they are being stalked by someone or something...

Before Dawn (2013) - Zombie Horror Film Review

I've been meaning to watch Before Dawn for years now, I just couldn't pass up the opportunity to see Emmerdale's Paddy (Dominic Brunt) battling the undead, I even did a news post on the film back in 2013 (here). As it's my birthday at the time of writing (13th February) I thought there was no better time for watching a zombie horror. You can tell this is a zombie film as the cover features thousands of zombies and a ruined cityscape, despite not featuring either (I just do not understand why the vast majority of zombie films feels the desperate urge to feature that as their cover image).

Brunt stars as city dweller Paddy...sorry, I mean Alex who after leaving his young children with their Nan heads out to a remote cottage in the countryside with his wife Meg (Joanne Mitchell). The couple have been having relationship troubles and Alex hopes a romantic weekend away is just what they need to sort out their issues. Even before life threatening trouble begins things aren't going smoothly for the two, but it is the arrival of the undead that dashes the final hopes of Alex for saving his marriage.

Party Night - Horror Film News and Teaser Trailer

Back in November I mentioned the slasher horror Party Night that is coming from Fright Meter Films, and now I have some more details on it including a Kickstarter campaign that is currently running. The film is the product of Troy Escamilla (the founder of the Fright Meter Awards) and so I am slightly biased, but on the flip side by my interactions with him I can tell he is very passionate about horror so I hope this succeeds for him.

The general plot of the film is that six friends having a party at a remote house attract the unwelcome attention of a sadistic killer. The press release states that what makes Party Night perfect for Fright Meter Films first feature is that it is quite simple in it's structure with only seven characters in the script, and 85% of the film takes place in the one location which saves on cost.

There has been a few new cast and crew additions since last I spoke of this, Timothy Sullins is to direct in his first directing role for a feature film, while some cast members have been chosen in the form of award winning Tommie Vegas (voted Best Actress in the PollyGrind Underground Film Festival of Las Vegas) playing Molly, Billy Brannigan, Holly Seymour, Ryan Poole, and Anthony Nolte in a minor role.

As I said a Kickstarter campaign is running, it is due to run until 10th March with a goal of $10,500 hoping to be raised. So far with 31 days to go $869 has been attained, as incentives there are a variety of rewards on offer starting at the tiny pledge of just $1. If you want to check out the Kickstarter page then head here. Anyway check out the teaser trailer below and see what you think.

 

Fright Meter Awards 2015 - The Winners

Finally at last comes the very last post I will do about the Fright Meter Awards 2015 nominations. At the end of January the overall winners for each of the 13 categories were decided, for each of the winners I will include whether they were one I personally voted for or not just to try and make this a bit more interesting.

Best Horror Movie: It Follows 

I voted for this to win so was cool it did, It Follows really is such an original film.

Best Director: David Robert Mitchell (It Follows)

I actually voted for Ted Geoghegan (We Are Still Here) but don't mind at all David winning that one.

Best Actor in a Leading Role: Mark Duplass (Creep)

I voted for him to win and am very happy he did, he is superb in Creep, well deserved.

Best Actress in a Leading Role: Nadia Hilker (Spring)

Another one I voted for, both the lead actors in Spring were pretty great.

Best Actor in a Supporting Role: Leigh Whannell (Cooties)

Again the one I chose, his character is so weird but has all the best lines.

Best Actress in a Supporting Role: Deanna Dunagan (The Visit)

And again another one. There really was no other choice for this category as Dunagan was stunning and made a very average film more bearable to watch.

Best Screenplay: The Final Girls

I voted for What We Do In The Shadows, it's a shame it didn't win as personally I think The Final Girls is over rated and wastes a lot of the potential it had with the central plot.

Best Make Up: Bone Tomahawk

I voted for Crimson Peak, I don't feel Bone Tomahawk's make up was anything special but I guess I don't mind it winning.

Best Special Effects: Crimson Peak

Stung was my choice, I just did not think the special effects of the ghosts in Crimson Peak were even remotely good and so I couldn't in good faith give that a vote.

Best Score: It Follows

Glad this won, it was a great year for film soundtracks but this one fitted the tone of It Follows perfectly.

Best Editing: Unfriended

Once again one of mine, Unfriended could have been terrible but it works thanks in no small part to genius editing.

Best Cinematography: It Follows

I voted for Crimson Peak but do not mind at all that It Follows picked up yet another win.

Best Short Horror Film: Chomp

The Package was my choice, frankly I think Chomp was god awful, no idea why people seemed to like it so much, it's dull as dishwater and nowhere near as funny as it thinks it is.

So out of the 13 categories 7 of the ones I wanted to win did win, a landslide victory for It Follows. I can now finally shut up about the Fight Meter Awards until next December!

Goosebumps (2015) - Horror Film Review

I have never actually read any of the Goosebumps books by R.L Stine, they came a bit too late for me, I had moved onto Point Horror that was aimed at teens rather than the child demographic his books aimed for (all heresay of my own making). I do recall watching some of the TV episodes of the show, always seemed a bit cheesy. Any fears that not knowing his work would impact on my enjoyment of this film seem to be ill founded though.

Zach (Dylan Minnette) and his mum have recently moved to a small American town, he soon befriends his next door neighbour; Hannah (Odeya Rush) whose domineering father (Jack Black) makes Zach fear for her safety. Eventually he and his geeky best friend Champ (Ryan Lee) break into the house to check on the girl but in doing so stumble across a strange collection of Goosebumps books. Opening one of the locked books the boys accidentally release a monster, it seems that each of the books has trapped within it a Goosebumps monster. They soon learn Hannah's father is in fact R.L Stine; the author of the books and that his imagination as a child was so strong that he summoned into the world the monsters he writes about. One of the escaped entities is a ventriloquist dummy named Slappy, this twisted creature soon releases all of the monsters in a bid to get revenge on Stine for locking him up for so many years...

You Are Not Alone (2014) - Horror Film Review

You Are Not Alone (directed by Derek Mungor) was released back in 2014 over in America but this month sees it's UK DVD release. It is a slasher film, but one with a difference, the whole movie is shown from the perspective of the main heroine, something that I personally have not seen before (of course I watched P.O.V last year but that's not a slasher).

Natalie (Krista Dzialoszynski) has returned to her home town to celebrate the fourth of July celebrations, she plans to meet up with friends and party. There is a curfew in effect though as a killer is on the loose, and soon the paths of these two people cross...