Monday 28 August 2017

Little Nightmares (2017) - Horror Video Game Review (PS4)


Little Nightmares is an adventure platformer in the style of Limbo and Inside. Much like those games you are cast as a young child who finds themselves in a nightmare world where everything wants to kill them. Unlike those which were strictly 2D this has a 3D element to its linear corridors and passageways.

You play as a little girl named Six who awakens one day in a gigantic submarine type vessel known as The Maw. She decides she is going to escape the huge construct and over the course of the game gradually works her way from the prison area at the bottom all the way upwards to hoped for freedom. Along the way she is hunted by the twisted monstrosities that patrol the rooms of the vessel.






















I really loved the idea behind this when I first heard about it, the idea of a strange undersea fortress that kidnaps children seemed really grotesque. Unfortunately this doesn't translate into the game well. Like both Inside and Limbo the story is left a lot of the time up to the player to figure out, it all plays out silently. I knew from the previews this was set in a ship yet the game doesn't do a good job of showing this, each level seems separate from the last and it is only the occasional rocking rooms that remind you where you are. Little Nightmares is split into a variety of levels, each taking place in a different area of The Maw. The prisons patrolled by the long armed janitor, the kitchens where huge hideous chefs prepare food, the Japanese themed dining area where monstrous perpetually hungry guests eat endlessly, and the area where The Maw's owner resides. Each area is made up of a series of rooms that dwarf Six. Whether it is her who is tiny, or the denizens huge it is hard to say, but she is Burrower like having to clamber up bookcases and cupboards to traverse the areas.

Sunday 27 August 2017

Vidar the Vampire, The Dead Next Door, George Romero: Between Night and Dawn, Alpha Delta Zatan, Sussurrus: Season of Tides and Todd & The Book of Pure Evil - Horror Film & Game News

I am currently on holiday from work, the first time I have had off since February. In celebration I am going to fling myself through all the news emails I have stored in my inbox, especially as I am away next week and so there shall be a long break from Tuesday onwards, likely for around a week. It is after all Summertime (with California Girls), which is a clumsy way of mentioning singer Caught in Joy who sent me the link for his latest song which is completely non horror related.

The trailer for Norwegian vampire horror/comedy Vidar the Vampire is out, with the film already showing at film festivals currently. This low budget movie was self financed with a budget of roughly $60,000. The gist of the story is that a bored son of a farmer prays to a higher power to grant him a better life and is rewarded by waking up the next day to discover he is now a vampire. Watching the trailer it was nice to see the most prolific actor ever Kim Sonderholm (Reyes) is in it, though hard to tell if the humour works or not.

 

A few home releases now and first is the news that Tempe Entertainment is due to release a Blu-ray on 26th September of the 1990 low budget zombie flick The Dead Next Door. I own this film on DVD and thought it was ok, but not stunning. The story is that a team of Zombie Squad soldiers get pitted against a dangerous and secretive cult that look to protect the ghouls of this post apocalyptic landscape. The 2-Disc collector's edition features a 2K restoration, an audio commentary recorded in 2001, interviews and a 1999 tour of several locations the cult film was made. Coming October 24th from Arrow Video is a 6-Disc box set titled George Romero: Between Night and Dawn which as the title suggests is made up of the films released between those two stone cold classics. The collection includes romantic comedy There's Always Vanilla, psychological thriller Season of the Witch, and The Crazies which all have restorations and new audio commentaries as well as other extras.



Frat house slasher Alpha Delta Zatan is coming to VOD this October thanks to Together Magic and Reel Nightmare Films. This all male cast promises to offer a fun, sensual spin on the 'sorority massacre' sub genre. Also coming from Reel Nightmare Films is horror-comedy anthology The First Date and paranormal documentary Night Stalkers (from the director of Hotel Camarillo), these are both due for release in Autumn as well.


The early edition of Susurrus: Season of Tides was released August 21st. This is an atmospheric, text based horror fantasy adventure where players choose to become a vampire, werewolf or mage. The best thing about it is that it is free to play. It features a horror filled world in a modern day setting, a dynamic MMO that reacts to player choices, the ability to play with a group or go solo and much more. It can be found here if you want to give it a try.



Last but not least the first trailer for animated film Todd & The Book of Pure Evil: The End of the End is out via Raven Banner Entertainment. The film sees it's world premiere in Toronto on 3rd September. This is a sequel to a TV series that I have to admit never having heard of, here we find Todd (Alex House) and his friends looking for vengeance after their friend Hannah is killed. They are on the hunt for the New Pure Evil One. The trailer is full of blood and guts and slightly dodgy looking animation, I guess if you liked the TV show then this will be exciting news for you.

Saturday 26 August 2017

Blue Stahli - Antisleep Vol. 04 (2017) - Music Album Review


Music album reviews are few and far between on my blog, and with good reason! I don't have even a moderate knowledge of music, I don't know how to talk about songs, about what makes them good or bad. I always feel like a little baba who thought he was in a paddling pool but turns out to be in the middle of the Pacific ocean when trying to review music. Antisleep Vol. 04 I would guess is the fourth album in Blue Stahli's Antisleep series. The music is an instrumental focused high energy genre mix for gamers, YouTubers, and film/TV/movie trailer licensing. This album is a multi genre mix of alt/rock/metal and EDM.

This 30 minute album is made up of 12 different tracks, they flit between genres but most if not all of them I could picture as the background to action sequences in films. Starting off we have Sunset Neon which would not sound out of place in a Hotline Miami game, all 80's synths this is a cool tune. Following on we have Headshot which is one of the heavier songs to be found on Vol. 04, it felt to me like it would work wonders as boss battle music in a Sonic Adventure game, no offence meant, those games have grand music. Third track is the James Bond like spy music that fittingly enough is titled Secret Agent Business, later on there is also Three Piece Suit that to me again felt spy like.

Red Carpet Rush is track four and feels like a modern day pop song without the singing, something that wouldn't sound out of place in a nightclub. Reload is another song that sounds like battle music, delighting with heavy crunchy guitar sounds and a grinding momentum that feels like it could go on forever, this sounded like a song from Resident Evil (the original with the Marilyn Manson score). Rumbleshaker is biker rock, while penultimate track Futureproof is high energy electronic rock. Final track is Lightspeed Combat that has a tinge of The Prodigy to it and is more high octane tunage.

And with twelve tracks it was all over, personally I enjoyed it, there was a nice mix of genres so I was never sure what was coming next. It's not music to sit down and contemplate life with but as an accompaniment to doing some admin on my blog it was perfect. I guess my only complaint in terms of enjoyment is that it was all over so soon, only two of the tracks managed to hit the 3 minute mark while a couple never even made it to 2 minutes. Despite the high energy to all the tracks they gelled together well and so boredom never arose at all. With regards to them being anything to do with horror it is hard to say, maybe in a more action centred one they could work.  Antisleep Vol. 04 came out August 25th, check out the awesome Headshot below.

SCORE:



Friday 25 August 2017

Death Note (2017) - Horror Film Review


Death Note is hands down my favourite anime of all time, I absolutely love the idea behind it, and think Light is perfect as the flawed hero; a tragic character in the style of Shakespeare's best. I was really excited when I heard it was getting made into another film (after the Japanese Death Note and Death Note: The Last Name in 2006), this time a re-imagining that moved the setting to America and is directed by Adam Wingard (You're Next, Blair Witch). However early reviews came out and it has been pretty much universally slated, as a fan boy would I look past the flaws of this latest effort, or would my love for the subject matter shine through and blind me to any alleged sins? I have never read the manga so any comparisons I make will be based on the anime as a forewarning.

Light Turner (Nat Wolff) is an intelligent loner who ends up coming into ownership of a very strange book named Death Note, a book that belongs to Death God Ryuk (Willem Dafoe). He soon learns that whoever has their name written in this book will die and with this knowledge sets out to make the world a better place by culling criminals, having long since lost faith in justice after the man who killed his mum in a hit and run got off the charge many years back. However his plans start to go awry when his actions lead to a world class detective known only as L (Lakeith Stanfield) deciding to hunt down and apprehend him. Aided by his girlfriend Mia (Margaret Qualley) Light must find a way to stop L, before he is unmasked.


I put it down to this movie being an hour and forty minutes long but events move very fast here, that is understandable to fit everything in, yet I do wonder how much sense it would make to someone who hasn't seen a previous version of the story. There are changes to the plot all over the board, the setting being in Seattle rather than Japan is the least of these changes. The Light of old was a charismatic sociopath, someone who was willing to do almost anything to keep control of the Death Note , I loved him for this, yet this Light is a lot different. The general story is slightly the same but it seems the character of Light is now split into two different people; him and girlfriend Mia. She stays alongside him and acts in a way that reminded me of Iago from Othello, always suggesting drastic actions, and when it comes down to the elements that make Light evil in the original it is instead Mia who carries out these acts. This Light seems barely in control, manipulated throughout and forced to take the blame for other characters actions.

Thursday 24 August 2017

Horror Music Double Bill: Upcdownc: Album News and The Digital Masquerade: New Music Video


Following on from my horror film double bill news extravaganza yesterday is one that focuses on the musical side of terror. I tend to avoid writing too much about music as to be honest I really don't have much knowledge when it comes to tunes. I like what I like and a lot of that tends to be 90's Brit-pop and early 2000's rock music.

First up then progressive, sludge, horror synth outfit Upcdownc have got a new album coming out 22nd September titled I' Awake. This is the bands first album as a three piece. The band state horror is one constant theme throughout I, Awake with the group influenced by composers such as Fabio Frizzi and John Carpenter alongside the Shogun Assassin soundtrack. This influence led to the use of synthesizers which is never a bad thing in my opinion. The concept for this new album is based on the idea of sleep, dreams, nightmares and fears coupled with extreme anxiety and night terrors. Looming Part 2 is the first track to be shared from I, Awake with guitarist Chris Garth saying: "This song is part of the segment after you awake from a nightmare/dream and still have that feeling of anxiety/terror where you still are unsure whether what happened in the dream was real or not". You can listen to that track yourself here, while included below is a live session of the band playing a cool sounding song.



Next up is the new music video from CA based metal band The Digital Masquerade's full length LP Digital Train Time Machine. The video is for track Straight Jacket and is a neat sounding ditty about being in a mental asylum with an appropriately themed music video that was filmed in Glendale CA at an old abandoned police facility. This was the bands first music video they have done and was directed and edited by Society 1 front-man Matt Zane.

Wednesday 23 August 2017

Horror News and Trailers Round-up Double Bill: Puppet Killer and Escaping the Dead


The trailer for Lisa Ovies' upcoming horror film Puppet Killer has recently been released and yes, it looks as wonderfully bizarre as the title would suggest, I actually have a weird fear of puppets, but thankfully the one for this film looks far more like a muppet (ie: cute furry monster) and those I have no issue with. The film features a bunch of notable actors including Aleks Paunovic (War for the Planet of the Apes, iZombie), Richard Harmon (Bates Motel), Lee Majdoub (Supernatural), Lisa Durupt (Murder She Baked), Kyle Cassie (Deadpool) and Gigi Saul Guerrero (El Gigante). Also joining as producer is Jessica Cameron (Truth or Dare) and composer Stephen Gallagher (The Hobbit trilogy) will be doing the soundtrack.

The gist of the plot is that a bunch of high school students are stalked by a psychotic killer obsessed with horror movie icons, whether this will be the pink puppet Simon seen in the trailer or someone completely different remains to be seen. Puppet Killer will be hitting the festival circuit in early 2018, for now check out the trailer below.





Next up comes news and a generously sized trailer for Danish zombie film Escaping the Dead (I last mentioned this back in 2015, it has had a five year development to it). The apocalypse here is caused by new designer drugs that have the unfortunate side effect of turning its users into brain hungry undead. Inspired by the stories of the effect of Russian drug Krokodil and seeming to share similarities with Goa Goa Gone and Return of the Living Dead: Rave to the Grave (that also had outbreaks due to dodgy drugs at a rave) this low budget horror features prolific actor Kim Sonderholm (Little Big Boy: The Rise and Fall of Jimmy Duncan, Reyes), Lone Fleming (from the classic Italian Blind Dead films) and Lloyd Kaufman (founder of Troma Entertainment).

The basic story is that stoner drug dealer David sets out to escape Copenhagen after an outbreak unfolds at a rave. The trailer has plenty of zombies in it and looks quite low in quality. However the zombie genre is one place where effects don't need to be the best, a case where quantity over quality actually works, as even bad looking and acting ghouls can be scary to see in action. Escaping the Dead has just started being shown at film festivals so keep an eye out for it and in the meantime check out the trailer.

Tuesday 22 August 2017

Interior (2014) - Horror Film Review


For such a simple film haunted house movie Interior achieves a lot despite following quite a well travelled road in terms of what happens. It also impresses in how for the majority of the run time it is a one man show and yet rarely gets boring, helped in no small part by main lead Christopher Carullo whose likable nature means he entertains throughout. This is Zachary Beckler's first full length film as director so it is a great first effort (he also wrote this and features as a Pizza delivery guy bit-part character).

Filmmaker Sam (Carullo) is hired by an old film school buddy friend Allison (Piper Rae Patterson) to spend the night in her house as she believes the property is haunted by a ghost, one that her daughter Danyl has named Emily. The original plan is for them to set up cameras around the place and spend the night together monitoring them, but jealousy from her husband Drake about the fact her and Sam used to date leads to Sam staying the night alone. Initially sceptical, Sam soon comes to suspect there may be something to the story after all and as the night progresses he experiences more and more terrifying incidents...

This is a good film that is hampered by a bit of a frustrating finale, a case of the ball being dropped at the last moment. In theory this is very similar to Paranormal Activity or any such modern home haunting horror. This benefits by being shot as a traditional film for the most part, there are cameras dotted around the house, and at lots of points Sam walks around using a camera to record footage. This does indeed go to the found footage style at times, but that is only a small aspect of what is here. Technology is key with a variety of digital cameras, laptops and sound recorders being used in abundance, a lot of the horror at least in the first half of the movie is shown via these objects of technology.

Monday 21 August 2017

Be Afraid (2017) - Horror Film Review


Be Afraid is an American horror that takes place in a small remote woodland town. I was hoping I would be as the title suggests but unfortunately this film never manages to get going and led to quite a heady dose of boredom. It is currently available to watch on Netflix if anyone feels the need.

Dr John Chambers (Brian Krause), his pregnant wife Heather (Jaimi Paige) and their young son Nathan relocate to a small town and are soon joined by older brother; college drop out Ben. Pretty much straight away Nathan starts telling his parents about a strange man who comes into his room at night, a story which is not only backed up by local grieving father Dean whose daughter went missing in strange circumstances a few years back, but which John should have reason to believe as he keeps glimpsing this figure also. It all seems linked to a mysterious abandoned railway tunnel near the Chambers's property as Nathan keeps finding himself mysteriously drawn to this place.


Be Afraid reminded me quite a lot of two different films in particular, neither of which were particularly good. First off the biggest comparison is with slow burner Dig Two Graves which has a similar miserable vibe to it. Not only does this take place in a similar looking remote town but an old railway tunnel also features in key scenes, and in both films a pregnant woman looses her child in a suggested supernatural way. The second film I thought of viewing this was Dead Awake, both films deal with sleep paralysis as a means to terror. Here this aspect appears as almost a sub plot, the creature can only be seen by children and so gets to adults when they are sleeping. Much like Dead Awake watching someone lying rigid and emotionless as some being toys with them is just a bit boring. It's a shame as the creature design is actually pretty decent, it reminded me of a Silent Hill type monster design. It is a monster, but it wears a hat, but this hat seems more like a growth on it's head rather than an actual hat, looked kind of cool. I also enjoyed the fact that the only way for adults to see this thing is to look out the corner of their eyes at it, seeing it head on is not possible.

Friday 18 August 2017

Nocturne (2016) - Horror Film Review


Nocturne is a film that continually impressed me, I went to it with no expectations at all and can happily say this is something you should watch with no forewarning of what it is about. I would go so far as to suggest if you want to watch this movie already then go see it and don't read this review as the less you know the better. This is a damn clever film that just goes to prove you really don't need the biggest budget in the world to make an effective horror.

Timid Jo (Claire Niederpruem) arrives at her friends house to attend a small party to celebrate the end of school. The guests include Vi (Melanie Stone), her boyfriend Isaac, Maren (Hailey Nebeker who looks very much like Lauren Cohan), Liam, and intellectual Gabe (Jake Stormoen). The group decide to perform a seance using a pack of cards and after getting some strangely accurate results decide to go on to other things such as hanging in the Jacuzzi, playing typical drinking games, and strip poker. However as the evening goes on more and more weird things start happening, mostly centring around Maren whose increasingly odd behaviour starts to worry the group. Is everything going on down to the fact their drinks were spiked with LSD or is something far more terrifying unfolding?

As I said in my introduction I went into this with no knowledge whatsoever of what type of horror film this was and for the longest time I suspected the whole thing was a prank on the part of writers Katy Baldwin and Kristi Shimek, as well as director Stephan Shimek. This is down to the fact that Nocturne is filmed very much like a horror with a fittingly ominous sound track and yet for a good two thirds of the movie nothing much like horror really occurs. There are a few things for sure but instead there is just a nasty vibe going on, there is the sense that something is not quite right but no evidence to back that up. This had similarities to me with Troy Escamilla's Party Night in that the group of friends are soon to go their separate ways and their unity starts to fragment gradually throughout this. Before anything happens we get shown that Gabe is a secret pervert, that there is a suggestion Vi isn't actually in love with her boyfriend, and throughout it is obvious that something bad is happening with Jo, from the constant text messages she is getting, to her timid nature and her not wanting anyone to see her body.

Tuesday 15 August 2017

Annabelle: Creation (2017) - Horror Film Review


To say I was disappointed with 2014's Annabelle would be an understatement and so I can't say I went to see this sequel; Annabelle: Creation with any degree of enthusiasm despite hearing it was a lot better. The best part of The Conjuring (of which these films are a spin-off) was hearing the tale about the supremely creepy doll and so I expected great things for a film based solely on the doll. Instead what we got was a by the numbers demonic haunting movie that not only wasted huge potential but did nothing new or interesting at all. For the prequel I expected more of a haunting than a Chucky style animated doll and so I think it was that knowledge, as well as a genuinely more entertaining film that I found some peace with this one.

The film starts in the 1940's and a doll maker (Anthony LaPaglia) has just finished work on a new doll, obviously the titular one. Not long after his young daughter dies in a tragic car accident. Fast forward twelve years to the 1950's and the doll makers house has recently become an orphanage. Six girls that include best friends Linda (Lulu Wilson) and polio afflicted Janice (Talitha Bateman) move in, along with Sister Charlotte. Samuel (the doll maker) still lives on the property, along with his bedridden wife, and he informs the girl that a certain bedroom upstairs in the orphanage is to be out of bounds. One night Janice hearing strange noises is drawn to this room and discovers in a secret cupboard Annabelle. This discovery leads to an escalation in bizarre events and soon it appears that some sort of evil has it's sights set on Janice...

Sunday 13 August 2017

Fate (2017) - Sci-fi Film Review


There are two genres that get a free pass for review on my site despite not technically being horror, and they are post apocalyptic films, and time travel films, especially if they are done right. Reading the synopsis for Fate I was heavily reminded of Counter Clockwise that was released last year, both share a very similar storyline yet both handle the concept of time travel in a different enough way that they stand apart.

Connor Hughes (Daniel Bonjour) is a brilliant quantum physicist who along with his friend Jonas (Jerry Hoffman) has a government grant to see if it is possible to create a time machine. One fateful night they finally succeed, before anything can happen though their project not only gets shut down but Connor's fiancee April (Anne Clare Lush) ends up killed in a car accident. A year later Connor discovers Jonas has been building a working machine in secret and still in grieving over his wife's death he decides he is going to use it to travel back and prevent her accident, however it can be quite hard to change fate...

Saturday 12 August 2017

Massacre on Aisle 12 (2016) - Horror Film Review


Indican Pictures's Massacre on Aisle 12 is a horror comedy set entirely in a hardware store during one night of mayhem. Sometimes a film doesn't have to be good to still be enjoyable, and a decent bit of escapism from daily life, this is one such example. The humour nearly always fell flat, character motivations were schizophrenic and the main plot is bare bones yet I found myself getting into the crazy world despite the obstacles put in the way.

It is Christmas eve and Dave (Michael Buonomo) arrives at a large hardware store for his first day at his new job where he is introduced to the eclectic staff by assistant manager Jack (Chad Ridgely). These staff include a PTSD suffering janitor Otto (Jim Klock who also directs this), bitchy till operator Tara, camp manager Mr Kipper, and drug expert Pharms amongst other strange people. Everything is going as bizarre as usual until the discovery of a dead body and a duffel bag full of cash leads to the group dividing over whether to keep the money for themselves or if they should call the police. It is not long before everyone starts fighting amongst themselves on who gets the money and soon the body count starts to rise...

Friday 11 August 2017

Friday News Night: August Edition; Lycan, Effects and, Playing with Dolls: Havoc - Horror Film News and Trailers

           
               
I have plenty of proper posts I could be doing but I really need to tidy my house tonight and am exhausted from a long week of work. Due to this I shall be doing a news post that shall be as long or as short as the time I find this eve to do it.

Starting off with a werewolf film called Lycan. I was just saying the other day to a friend how I don't really get on with werewolf films, a wolf just isn't a scary movie monster to me. Anyway Lycan is the feature debut film from Bev Land and is based on the urban legend of the 'Talbot County Werewolf'. In this film six college students are assigned a history project that leads them to the Georgia backwoods to investigate the legend and I guess discover it is all too true. Lycan opened theatrically in select cities on August 4th. This is then to be followed by a disc, digital, and VOD release on September 26th thanks to MVD Entertainment, check out the trailer below...



Also from MVD Entertainment comes a release of a new 4K transfer of Effects. Now I had never heard of this film before but it actually sounds awesome so feel like I have been missing out! It was made in 1978 but didn't actually get an initial release until 2005. This low budget horror stars Tom Savini (Dawn of the Dead), Joe Pilato (Day of the Dead), and John Harrison (Tales from the Darkside: The Movie) and is about a group of filmmakers who gather in Pittsburgh to make a slasher titled 'Duped: The Snuff Movie', however it seems these men might unknowingly be the main stars in a different type of film altogether. Effects is to be released on Blu-ray on 22nd August and has special features in the form of a documentary, a couple of short films, liner notes, and an archival commentary track. Again, the trailer is below.



Finally (because the best things come in threes and I spent far too much of my evening playing Battlefield 1) comes news and a trailer for Playing with Dolls: Havoc. This is the third film in the series and truth be told I have never heard of it, I was ready to pass it off, that is until I saw the fantastic trailer. Be warned the trailer is very bloody and gory with intestines being pulled out of screaming people, faces getting mashed in, and appendages being cut off but it is all done with really fun looking special effects. It looks like it is a slasher that takes a lot of queues from other classic ones. The killer looks like Jason Vorhees fell in a blender with Leatherface and a healthy dose of barbed wire. The gist of this is that the killer (Havoc) has escaped prison and sets out to butcher not only his jailers, but also the local residents of an isolated wood. Playing with Dolls: Havoc became available to watch through VOD July 20th, it can be seen on Amazon and Vimeo. One last time check out the trailer below, as I said it is quite bloody though.

Wednesday 9 August 2017

Alone (2017) - Short Horror Film Review


Alone is a short horror film, so short in fact that it is the slimmest one I have ever done a review of at just over 2 minutes long. A quick search reveals that 'Alone' is an extremely common name for a short horror with at least five coming out just over the past year, so this one would need to stand out.

This film was made by Tofiq Rzayev and is about a man who is relaxing at home seemingly on his own. However he glimpses something in the reflection of his TV screen. Obviously at such a short length this is designed merely to create chills and to a certain degree it does. The method of seeing an out of place figure or shape in a reflection has been done many times before so in terms of originality this doesn't do anything special. On the plus side it was an enjoyable two minutes even finding time to fit in a lights out sequence, though ends the same way as the vast majority of very short horror films do.

I enjoyed the filming, there was a good sense of isolation for the hapless man, I also thought he did a fine enough job as he reacts more quizzically than over the top frightened. Elsewhere the music by Gergo Elekes is fitting bringing to mind Ennio Morricone's The Thing theme tune and it was good to see the music wasn't constant during the short with some effective tension building moments of silence.

Overall there isn't much more to say, Alone is a decent enough horror short, though not one that will be anything you haven't seen before as it follows a template a little too closely.

SCORE:

Monday 7 August 2017

Del Playa (2015) - Horror Film Review


Even before slasher film Del Playa was released it gained a lot of controversy. This was due to the fact that it apparently shared many similarities with the real life 2014 Isla Vista killings (in which an American student went on a killing spree near the campus of University of California). It turns out there was some truth to these similarities though writer/director Shaun Hart said his film is not specifically based on that tragic event but more a response to all the school killings that keep on happening. The film was actually shot at Isla Vista, and interestingly enough Hart lived on the street where the killer's rampage eventually ended. For me the similarities were for something far different, for this shares a lot in common with John Carpenter's classic Halloween series (and the remakes).

Del Playa starts in high school where loner Matthew is obsessed with Claire (Devon Barnes). His obsession comes to a head when during a Halloween party at the school he gets in a fight with Claire's boyfriend and ends up killing him. Five years later and Claire is now at university and is quite the mess. With Halloween looming she has began a descent into self destruction with drugs, alcohol and cheating on her boyfriend all in an attempt to gain control of her PTSD. This would be bad enough but to make matters worse Matthew (Brett Johnson) has returned and he is determined to claim Claire for his own, killing any who would get in his way...

Saturday 5 August 2017

The Last of Us: Left Behind (2014) - Zombie Horror Videogame DLC Review (Playstation 4)


I reviewed the Playstation 3 version of post apocalyptic zombie game The Last of Us back in 2014 and thought it was amazing. Since then I have brought and completed The Last of Us Remastered which is even better, mainly due to the upgraded graphics making a great game look truly stunning, and that the single player expansion; Left Behind was included in the package (the expansion is now also available to buy as a stand alone game). I'm not planning to do a review for the remastered The Last of Us, though I will say if I had reviewed it I would have gave it a 10/10 due to the added inclusion of this.

In Left Behind you play exclusively as teenager Ellie with the game taking place across two different time periods that constantly swap places with each other over the roughly two hour game. The first story takes place midway through the events of The Last of Us after Joel gets impaled on a metal pole with Ellie taking him to an abandoned shopping centre where she sets out to search for medical supplies. The second story takes place a few weeks before the start of the main game and is set in the human safe zone that starts in. Ellie's best friend Riley reappears after vanishing six months previously. Having joined the Fireflies (a rebel group accused of terrorist acts) she wants to spend one last day with her friend before going away and so takes her to a large shopping centre outside of the safe zone to have some fun. However knowing that Ellie starts the main game with a zombie bite on her arm it is safe to assume things probably wont go swimmingly for the duo...

Friday 4 August 2017

The Acid Sorcerer (2017) - Horror Film Review


I have a real soft spot for the types of films that Dakota Bailey directs and writes. I love the indie feel to these films and how coherent and consistent the scummy worlds he builds are. While My Master Satan: 3 Tales of Drug Fueled Violence and American Scumbags both had their moments I feel like The Acid Sorcerer is a step up from those while still retaining the familiar style. I loved the trailer for this one and it is always good when a film does live up to it's trailer.

As always there isn't really a central plot to be found here, instead it is once again a slice of life offering showing the day to day life of some true American scumbags. First there is Smoke (Dakota Bailey) who is a serial killer drug addict whose compulsion to kill comes from a shadowy being that follows him around. Then there are homeless drug addict couple Crawdad and pregnant Vermina who will do anything to get their next fix. We also get a glimpse into the life of the most crazy one; cross dressing serial killer and snuff film maker Nikki (Nick Benning) who might end up with more than he bargains for when a HIV infected prostitute becomes his next victim. These characters are all loosely tied together by drug dealer Eyevin (Brian Knapp).

Wednesday 2 August 2017

Dracula in a Women's Prison, Inner Demon and Islamic Exorcist news and trailers plus Gruesome Magazine launch details

I have been neglecting my inbox for The Rotting Zombie quite a bit lately, there just isn't enough hours in the day. So there shall be an assortment of random bits of news I have stored up there, I shall keep going until my dinner is ready! Firstly I have a very NSFW trailer for sexploitation horror Dracula in a Women's Prison. What's worse than being in prison? Being in prison where the guards are vampires and the warden is none other than Count Dracula (Robert Rhine). From the trailer it seems some of the inmates escape only to get a change of heart and return to free the rest. It seems full of very bad CGI, humorous horror deaths, and lots of nudity if that is your thing. This movie is now available to rent or buy from Vimeo now.



Terror Films's Inner Demon is now available on 'the Netflix of horror' Shudder. This award winning Australian indie horror (directed by Ursula Dabrowsky) is about teenager Sam (Sarah Jeavons) who along with her younger sister manage to escape from a crazy serial killer couple. They take refuge in a cabin they find out in remote woods but discover an even bigger terror there. Again, the trailer is included below.



From the creators of Horror News Radio comes Gruesome Magazine that is a quarterly magazine available in digital format and coming soon to Print on Demand. The magazine is going to focus on independent horror films, horror film festivals and the future of horror (whatever that may be). The digital magazine is $3.99 while the print edition will be $9.99 and is 48 pages long.


In final news (for my dinner is nearly cooked) we go back to the world of horror film trailers and news with the announcement that Indian horror Islamic Exorcist was released by Cinema Epoch on 11th July on VOD and other Digital Platforms in the UK, USA and Canada. IBleedIndie will be releasing it on Vimeo for other parts of the world.

Tuesday 1 August 2017

Ghost Note (2017) - Horror Film Review


Finally today I have gotten back on track after a few weeks of pretty much only doing my own posts. I put this down to a double whammy of my day job being super busy (which equals overtime and tiredness) and a family wedding I attended last weekend. So director and writer Troy Hart's award winning Ghost Note on paper sounds good, I like the idea behind it, yet it falters when it comes to some quite bizarre story beats.

Teenager Mallory (Alicia Underwood) is left with her grandma (Allyn Carrell) at her large house in the country while her parents go on holiday. In the attic she discovers a strange guitar that turns out to have once belonged to an infamous blues guitarist; Eugene (Kenny Gardner) who went missing decades back and who it is rumoured had sold his soul to the devil in exchange for his musical skills. Now Mallory has accidentally awakened the immortal spirit of Eugene and he is using both the guitar and the only record he ever made as a means to possess people in order to free his entombed body...