Monday 27 February 2023

The Rotting Zombie's Round-up of Horror News for February 2023


Another month done and dusted, so onto the monthly news round-up. Voidcaller is a Lovecraftian themed Swedish horror film from Nils Alatalo that was filmed last year and is currently being edited. Recently a Kickstarter campaign was created in order to fund the post-production. The story sees a woman named Anna who wakes up one day to find she has no memory of the last month, but as she slowly begins to piece back these memories she begins to suspect that she has had something to do with the summoning of a cosmic horror. For more details check out the Kickstarter here.

F'd: Tales from the End Times is an upcoming horror anthology that uses the apocalypse as the basis for the theme. Confirmed directors are Ash Hamilton (Holes in the Sky: The Sean Miller Story), Dillon Brown (The Flock) and Josh Brucker (Mothman). Each of the short films is said to take place on the day the world ends. Remaining directors are yet to be finalised, and the film is set to begin filming later this year.

Synapse Films have released Dario Argento's eighties classic Phenomena on 4K UHD. This stars Jennifer Connelly as Jennifer, a sleepwalking teen who has the ability to communicate with bugs telepathically. After a series of vicious murders, the girl teams up with entomologist Dr. McGregor (Donald Pleasence - Halloween series) and his chimpanzee in order to somehow solve them. The two-disc special edition includes the original Italian version (116 minutes), the International cut (110 minutes) and the U.S 'Creepers' cut (83 minutes). There are also two commentary tracks, a feature length documentary about the film's creation, among plenty of other extras.

The Pyramid (not to be confused with The Pyramid) has recently been released on DVD from Bayview Entertainment. This is an anthology horror with its interconnected theme being a pyramid '...that comes into the world to spread madness, death and destruction'. The four short films were all filmed around Italy


YouTube channel Kings of Horror are going to be releasing award winning horror shorts, Mindful Meditation (Best Horror at the New Creators Awards) and Science of a Seance (Best Director), both coming from filmmakers Monica La Vella and Louie La Vella, and both of these were filmed on an iPhone.



Arachnicide is now available from Acort International. This one is about a special task force who fresh after a successful operation against a drug operation find themselves called to Albania where judging from the poster they battle giant spiders.


American Horrors is a new 24/7 linear streaming horror Roku channel. The press release states '...featuring uncut critically acclaimed bleeding edge short horror films, bloody cult feature films, exclusive in-house generated tv series, banned tv commercials from yesteryear, uncensored music videos...' This can be watched on the American Horrors website here, or on the Roku channel, here.


Finally, an email that I received with little details, the release in full 'This is the time you need to give something new and different a chance! Trippy the Clown will make you laugh and also creep you out!' For more details about what seems to be a little metal music obsessed killer clown doll, check out the website here.

Sunday 26 February 2023

The Rotting Zombie's News Anthology for Sunday 26th February 2023


The second of two smaller news posts for this week has arrived. Recently I have started watching films for review in the evening, rather than during day time. I'm hoping this will make films more scary to watch, but with the downside of me then not writing the review until the next day when my memory may be a bit foggy on particular details.

Some David Moody news first, the author is after some copies of his books that he doesn't currently own. He is after the 2014 Italian version of Autumn from Delos Books, the 2016 German version of Trust: Alien Invasion from Voodoo Press, the Czech Republic 2010 release of Hater (known as Nenávistní), as well as the Romanian 2011 version of the same novel, there it was called Furiosii. Head to the author's site here for more details.

Horror film Marvin has came to Amazon Prime and Tubi TV. This stars Craig Colasanti, Thaddeus Daniels, Scott Baker, Tina Lundahl, JoAnn Celentano and Lamar K. Cheston, and is about a man who has spent the past twenty years collecting skins from drug addicts, in order to 'fix' his son's disfigured face


Finally for today, a new trailer has been released for Jared Masters' (Ballet of Blood) upcoming horror film The Nightgown, due for release in October. This takes place in 1976, with three schoolgirls who decide to explore the mystery of a botched exorcism and stars Elizabeth Rath (Quartz Vein), Randy Masters, Kate Ly Johnston, Baracha Walston and Kelley Poling. The press releases states 'The Nightgown will be a cinematic movement like none other, a pulsating neon night terror simmering with ghouls, girls and a mischievous groundsman'.
There is also currently an Indiegogo campaign running to get funds for the director's next movie, the holiday themed Easter Evil, check here for more details on that one.

Saturday 25 February 2023

Friend of the World (2020) - Comedy Horror Film Review


I watched Friend of the World before heading to bed last night (at the time of writing), at least I think I did, it's entirely possible that this Brian Patrick Butler written and directed darkly humorous body horror was part of a fever dream I had as it was an extremely surreal watch. The one part of my synopsis I got from online was that the film takes place within a bunker, I didn't pick up on that fact while watching this!

Diane (Alexandra Slade) awakens in a room full of the dead bodies of her friends and colleagues with not too much memory of how she came to be there. Managing to escape from the sealed room by descending a lift shaft, she soon passes out and awakens to find herself in the room of a very eccentric army general, Gore (Nick Young - The Case of: Dakota Moore). The man is disappointed to see that she has survived the apocalyptic event that has led to them both being in the bunker (for that is where they are), but with supplies low, he decides to lead her out of the bunker with him, constantly lecturing her on his insane world views as he does so.

This is a black and white (for the most part) experimental movie that spreads itself across several genres. This is most definitely post-apocalyptic, with the surface world displayed as a Hellscape full of flames and ruins. It doesn't really do a good job of bringing the viewer up to speed on what has occured, though the characters themselves seem aware of the events that led up to them being in the bunker. There are also sci-fi and body horror elements, even the odd zombie type being here and there. It is split into chapters, and this is successful at splitting up the film into slightly self contained segments. The first chapter, which sees Diane escaping the room of corpses, played out almost dialogue free. This was a great introduction to the film world, not only gaining my attention immediately to the bizarre and mysterious situation the protagonist finds herself in, but also provides some claustrophobic locations which permeate the movie. It always feels like characters are in rooms and corridors that are too small for them, each new place just as cramped and contained as the last. Not realising this took place within a bunker, I imagined that the characters were trapped within a world that only existed within a building, with vague reminders of Cube.

The core of the film, and what it makes it the most experimental has to be Gore, a man who is a larger than life and an obviously insane person. The two characters seemed to almost be polar opposites of each other, Diane is a young filmmaker, someone shown to have some liberal views. Gore on the other hand is an unhinged madman, someone who seems to blame the apocalyptic world on artists like Diana, even when it appears to have been some kind of devastating war that led to the current situation. At times this came to feel like a series of deranged lectures, and certainly had the feel of a stage play with the low number of characters and events that mainly play out as purely dialogue. More than anyone, Gore reminded me of Rodney Dangerfield's character from Natural Born Killers, he was someone who had a feeling of off-balanced unpredictable danger to him, and someone who more than likely had something to do with the predicament that Diana found herself in at films start.

Friend of the World is a comedy, but one whose humour is jet black and very surreal. There are not any laugh out loud moments, instead scenes become funny while also staying dark and slightly creepy. There is a subplot about people becoming zombies with body-horror abilities to merge themselves with their victim by melding their flesh into them. This leads to some great looking special effects, and a few scenes of insanity, such as the manic smile that is plastered across one of these zombie type characters that is killed. With the apparent antidote to this infliction having some LSD style side effects the film soon becomes quite trippy, with distorted voices, and a cool looking scene of a corpse that has Gore's talking face growing out of its chest.

At just fifty minutes long this never dragged, and with all the content jammed into the run time it felt like it was over quicker than even that short time. I can't even begin to pretend I understood a lot of what was happening here. The plot remains purposely obtuse and some of the ideas were a bit brain melting. There was one scene that included the repeated use of a bodily function sound effect that didn't appeal, and I thought parts of the violin based soundtrack were quite grating, but overall I was impressed with this cohesive depiction of an insane world. Friend of the World has recently released on Apple TV.

SCORE:

Friday 24 February 2023

The Rotting Zombie's News Anthology for Friday 24th February 2023


Happy Friday, PSVR2, the very expensive virtual reality headset arrived a few days back, so that may affect my output for next week, depending how immersed I get into the virtual world. There shall be plenty of horror games out for it now doubt, so I will certainly be checking those out for future reviews here.

105ive Films have recently finished their first feature film, Invited. Described as a 'Zoom thriller', this comes from director Navin Ramaswaran. Sounding like this takes place entirely as a Zoom call, this sees a mother reluctantly attending her daughter's Zoom elopement, where her and her family begin to realise the groom is part of a Russian cult with sinister intentions. The director says of the movie "Watching our actors go through a roller coaster of emotions uninterrupted was fascinating to experience, and that energy comes through in a really fascinating way".

Comedy horror film Amityville Thanksgiving is getting a sequel, currently titled Amityville Turkey Day. This recently had a successful Indiegogo campaign where it raised over 881% of its desired goal. The original film was shot over just two days on a low budget, director Will Collazo says of the follow up "We want to give you the sequel that everyone has been asking for to continue the story. And this time we've brought out dinner, the killer turkey!". David Perry (Scream: Legacy, Camp Pleasant Lake) has been confirmed to be returning.

Finally for today, Craving has released an official trailer. This monster movie/crime thriller is about a group of drug addicts who find themselves under assault by masked figures at a rural bar, with one of the addicts hiding a terrible secret that their withdrawal may release. It stars Felissa Rose (Camp Twilight, Sleepaway Camp), Kevin Caliber, Ashley Undercuffler, Holly Rockwell and Al Gomez. Director J. Horton says of it "Craving is set in 1998. It's an homage to my young adulthood and the movies of the time. I've always loved genre mash-ups and one of my favourite is the crime thriller/horror movie." I have a screener of this, so a review will be coming around the streaming release date of March 6th.

Thursday 23 February 2023

Doomsday Stories (2023) - Post Apocalyptic Anthology Film Review


Doomsday Stories
is a post-apocalyptic horror anthology film which as far as I can tell works as a quasi-sequel to 1992's Hell on Earth II: The Arena of Death. The budget over the four short films and the wraparound segment appears to be very low, but this leads to some purposely cheesy moments which couldn't help but bring some joy to my rotting heart.

This takes place in a post-apocalyptic Earth, where society has completely collapsed after the accidental release of a man-made virus (which transformed much of humanity into zombie like creatures dubbed 'meanies'). In the future, wasteland survivor Zorack (Phil Herman - Hell on Earth II: The Arena of Death) comes across a handwritten book which chronicles various different accounts of the unfolding apocalypse. Taking the form of the wraparound segment, this was a decent enough way to bring the stories all together. Not much really happens, but that is kind of explained away by being set at a time when much of the meanies have expired. It ends on a high note with a cliffhanger that didn't feel like it needed to be resolved. Instead, in a Mad Max type of way this seemed to serve as a footnote in Zorack's path. Special mention goes to the flashback sequences here which has Herman humorously playing his younger self via the use of wig and baseball cap.

The first proper film is A Broken Promise which was directed and co-written by Derek Braasch.  Taking place in 2021, this follows survivor Rick (Justin Bower) and his dog Lucy as they roam the deserted backroads of post-apocalyptic America. This took up nearly forty minutes of the anthology and felt like it could have been streamlined a bit. The feeling of isolation was well made, but only because for much of this it is just Rick and his dog wandering empty roads and exploring mainly empty buildings. There were moments of excitement here, specifically an encounter with a group of men at a garage, and the violent finale, but much of this felt as aimless as the lead character seemed to be, though I did like how flashbacks to earlier in the apocalypse were integrated into the present day moments.
The second short is Bomb Threats which is also the shortest. Featuring just the two actors, and directed by James Panetta, this follows a woman (Debbie D who also wrote this) in the very early days of the collapse of society. With the government telling its citizens to seek shelter in bomb shelters, she decides to seek out local man Alvin (Jim Ewald), in order to use his private shelter rather than having to go to one of the larger ones. This turns out to be a bad idea as the man has some troubling ideas for survival. At about fifteen minutes this didn't have time to out stay its welcome. Each short film was better than the one before it, there were some fun cheesy effects during the scene when the woman is watching TV, though the story took an unpleasant turn later on and it didn't feel like it had too much life to it.

Forever Man is the penultimate film and was when I really began to enjoy Doomsday Stories, both this and the final film had really crazy plots which excelled in the low budget settings. Marcelo Fabani wrote, directed, edited and did the post production on this insane story about a man who is forced to become a cyborg known as Frank 21 (Chandra Mouli Nandy) as part of a government program designed to sell organs to other countries. It only had the four actors, which is impressive seeing as the wild story felt to me like its cast was much bigger. With sci-fi B-movie effects and a frankly silly plot, I really enjoyed it.
Saving the best till last is 187 Times by Joel D. Wynkoop, who also stars as the amusingly named James Kirk. I love time travel stuff and this didn't disappoint. Picking up deep in the time travelling exploits of Kirk, who is on his one hundred and eighty seventh attempt to fix the timeline, in order to not only prevent the world ending virus from being released into the world, but also to save his wife's murder. This was a wonderful film, I loved how Kirk is constantly travelling all the place, from the 1970's up to the 1950's, with the aid of his wrist watch mounted A.I companion. He literally spends seconds in time periods, but each time he makes sure to remove his time travelling helmet. His whole outfit is so purposely bad looking, and the effects where actually not that bad. Leaping all over time, having conversations with people he knows, but the viewer hasn't been introduced to, this was a wild ride that I loved every second of.

At a two hour run time it did feel like Doomsday Stories could have done with some editing, by that I guess I mean A Broken Promise specifically as that one was a slow introduction to the anthology, solely due to the long moments of not much happening and the more serious tone. Thankfully, the second half was a lot better, and I think it was a good thing that the quality improved rather than decreased over the course of the movie. While this is about a kind of zombie apocalypse, there is only a small handful to be seen here, but for me that wasn't a problem, it was more distracting that these four different tales seemingly intended to all be about the same apocalypse felt wildly different in how events play out. It may have been a slightly mixed bag, but it goes to show you don't need the biggest budget to make an entertaining film. Doomsday Stories was due for release mid February and is priced at $20 including postage. For more information, contact Phil Herman or Joel D Wynkoop on Facebook messenger.

SCORE:

Tuesday 21 February 2023

Raquel 1:1 (2022) - Thriller Film Review


I have to began to rearrange the times I watch films for review, figuring late at night is the best time to watch horror films rather than first thing in the morning. I don't yet know how that will impact on my memory, typically I would write a review immediately after viewing a movie, but not being a night owl means I literally 'sleep on it' before writing the review as soon as I wake up. Mariana Bostos' Raquel 1:1 bills itself as a thriller, but I would argue it isn't even that, which isn't to say it didn't deserve a spot on this horror themed blog.

Raquel (Valentina Herszage) is a teenage girl who has recently moved to a small town alongside her father, Hermes (Emílo de Mello), and who has recently became heavily interested in religion. She shows interest in joining the local church group, and it is after she has travelled to a nearby lake in the jungle with a few of the members that she has an epiphany. Having heard strange noises coming from a nearby cave, she investigates and returns to town a changed woman. She becomes convinced that she has been instructed by God to do a revision of the Bible, specifically to change the many outdated sexist passages to be found there. Some of the other church members decide to break away and join her in recreating the Bible, but many others see what she is doing as blasphemy, and soon Raquel finds herself and her father becoming increasingly ostracised from the community.

What I enjoyed most about Raquel 1:1 was the trippy vibe that permeated the ninety minute run time. The wonderful soundtrack melds with the visuals to give a feeling of other worldliness to the story playing out. It helps that Raquel herself, while definitely the protagonist, doesn't really speak that much over the course of the movie. In many scenes she is content to sit or stand there in silence, with strange half smiles on her face. Her personal horror comes not only from being made into an outcast, but also the obvious signs of her having PTSD, related to an incident with her mother and her step-father which only plays out as dialogue during scenes when Raquel falls into a trance-like state. These feed into key scenes in the movie, such as an incident at a church disco, and also into the finale, which may or may not be all in the protagonists head. I liked that there wasn't a definite resolution provided, instead I think it was up to the viewer to decide what had actually occurred. Personally I chose the most 'out there' explanation and am happy with deciding that is what happened, but you could just as easily see elements of the movie as taking place more in Raquel's damaged mind.

The press release called the film a 'religious thriller' and religion does play a large part here. The local church group are almost zealots, and their attempts to 'cure' Raquel of her journey down the incorrect path leads to much of the friction. I am not hugely into religion personally, but with the many sexist passages specifically referenced with bible passages, it seems they do exist in that actual book. A subplot involving Raquel's new friend Laura (Eduarda Samara) and her experience with a seemingly devout Christian also looks at the mismatch between female and male roles in society, especially in relation to Brazil, in which the film is set. All of this may not sound like a horror or a thriller in the slightest, but it is the way the film is shot and framed which bring horror elements. Raquel's first journey to the mysterious cave for instance is filmed as pure horror, while the film maintains a slightly unsettling feel to it, thanks again to that fantastic soundtrack.

This review may be an early demonstration that sleeping in-between watching and reviewing a film might not be the best idea. I admit to parts of this being fuzzy upon my waking memory. I at least remembered enough to know that I loved the vibe with this one. The version I watched was occasionally hard to follow due to the English subtitles often appearing before characters actually spoke their lines (the language being Portuguese), but I still found myself invested in the story, and wanting the protagonist to succeed. Raquel 1:1 had its world premiere at the 2022 SXSW Film Festival and went on to play at other film festivals. It came to digital platforms on February 14th via Breaking Glass Pictures.

SCORE:



Sunday 19 February 2023

We're All Going to the World's Fair (2021) - Horror Film Review


I can't quite recall where I first heard of the excellently named We're All Going to the World's Fair, but that title alone really piqued my interest. While browsing the Shudder library (a streaming service I have started using heavily only since cancelling my subscription - go figure), I came across the film and decided I had to give it a watch, even if it meant side lining one of the films I had planned to review this week.

Lonely and angst ridden teenager Casey (Anna Cobb in her feature length debut) has decided to make an online channel chronicling the after effects of having participated in the 'World's Fair' challenge. This appears to be some sort of urban legend that requests the participant to state their desire to go to the titular place three times, before putting their own blood on the computer screen and then watching a particular online video that is full of strobe effects. In the subsequent days and weeks that follow, Casey's videos get increasingly more bizarre and it isn't long before she is contacted by a mysterious man calling himself JLB (Michael J. Roberts - Demonic) who claims to be an expert on the 'World's Fair' phenomenon, and who offers to guide her through her strange experience. 


First things first, despite appearing on the surface to be a horror film, this really didn't feel like one. The events that happen to Casey never appear to be that conclusive, and in all honesty, barely anything horror like happens here. The most creepy moment comes from a video that Casey discovers which references her, but this turned out to be just sent by JLB to get her attention (not a twist, that's revealed almost immediately). Her videos while slightly odd at times, didn't seem to be much more than typical teen angst, about not knowing her place in the world, and not knowing who she is. The writer and director, Jane Schoenbrun, has stated this film was influenced by her own gender dysphoria, and Casey's assertions that she is slowly transforming into someone who feels like they are not in their real body is reflective of that feeling.

The film is a mix of both found footage and traditional filming, but even then this felt like found footage. Much of the movie takes the form not only of the videos that Casey is posting of herself, but also of random YouTube videos that she is shown watching on her laptop. When she isn't filming herself the feeling is still replicated in the way that the camera is often static and at a distance, as if of someone observing the character. To Casey, JLB is a mysterious online figure, someone whose face is never shown. As the viewer however, this man gets his own scenes that show him outside of the Skype calls he has with the teen. The story even falls onto him, with the epilogue in particular being purely from his perspective.
With just the two characters (not including the various people from the online videos), it was impressive how they held the movie together, especially with Cobb who really shined in the lead role. Her performance was believable enough that it reminded me of some of my thoughts during my awkward teen years, with feelings of feeling alienated from the world and not fitting in (I still feel like that, but that is because I am a massive introvert!). As for JLB, he, while much older, also felt like a misfit who didn't fit into the world. It's quite possible, with the lack of horror here, that Casey just matured a bit and decided she had outgrown making spooky videos, while JLB was never able to find a way to find his place.


As a coming of age found footage drama this worked well, I thought the soundtrack was great, and the general flow also worked well. As a horror, this didn't work half as well, even when it is trying to be its most creepiest I didn't think this was successful. From the title, which conjured up all sorts of horrors in my mind, I had hoped for something to frighten me, but this didn't achieve that in the slightest, so I left feeling disappointed. We're All Going to the World's Fair can currently be streamed on Shudder.

SCORE:

Saturday 18 February 2023

Autumn: Exodus (2022) by David Moody - Zombie Horror Book Review

I stayed up until three in the morning (at the time of writing) finishing reading Autumn: Exodus, the ninth book in David Moody's sublime zombie Autumn series, and the final book in a most unexpected new trilogy. As I always say, Autumn is my favourite zombie series, and so Autumn: Dawn dropping in 2021 was a fantastic surprise. This was followed up at the start of 2022 with Autumn: Inferno, and this third book coming out in the same year. Unavoidable spoilers for the previous two books to follow.

Exodus picks up eighty six days after the majority of the worldwide human population suddenly died, with the survivors from Inferno having survived the devastating fire that destroyed much of central London, due to hiding out in the Tower of London. With no reason to stay in the doomed city, and with the hope of finding somewhere outside of the city that is safe and secure, the majority of the couple of hundred survivors decide to leave via boat. While some are content with anywhere that feels like it has a modicum of safety, others are determined to travel to the remote, near mythical self sustaining community of Ledsey Cross, a place where it seems the devastating viral outbreak didn't manage to reach. Wherever they go though, they must deal with the chaos that the vicious Piotr and his goons have left in their wake from their own cowardly abandonment of the core group in the previous novel.

As much as I did love Inferno I was impatient for the characters to leave London. I fully expected that the majority of Exodus would still take place in the city, perhaps not thinking too deeply about what the title word means. It was cool then to see that the group almost immediately leave the city behind, with the majority of the book acting as a road-trip style situation. This sees them bounced around from thrilling situation to thrilling situation, with many of the group jettisoned along the way. There is a culling of the characters all throughout the novel, with some dying, but much more of the group splintering off and choosing their own paths to follow. In previous Autumn novels there may have been some resolution to these characters who decided to leave, but here, with the focus so much on the journey to Ledsey Cross, once characters have left the group they are gone entirely, never really mentioned again. I get it would have interrupted the flow, and I get the focus should be on the group itself, but I did find myself wondering the fates of people left behind.

The defining moment of the Autumn series for me was in the very first book when the characters discover to their horror that the zombies behaviour is starting to change. Moody's undead were already different, not having any type of hunger for flesh or brains, but the change was something that always made these ghouls fascinating to me. The many gruesomely detailed descriptions of the crushed crowds of London dead are switched out here for more spread out and sporadic undead. Their behaviour delightfully does evolve yet again, leading to some exciting situations for the forced upon heroes. Piotr is the real antagonist force here, I enjoyed how he is made into something of a boogeyman, someone who is indirectly causing pain and suffering for the group even when he is nowhere near them. It was always inevitable there would be a reckoning with this character, and his group is the rare deviation where the story does move away from the protagonists, giving the bad guys several fun chapters of their own. The story wraps itself up in satisfying fashion, perhaps slightly abrupt, but with a sense of satisfaction for me. Moody has stated he intends for this to be the final Autumn book he will ever write, and short of a Misery type situation where a captured Moody is forced to write more books for my own amusement, I see this as great a place to end. Previously with the short story collection, Autumn: The Human Condition there has been some kind of final word on the undead's true motivations, but here, to my mind, it is the first time that the human survivors have also stumbled onto this fact.

I adore these books, there is just something about the depiction of the world that made it seem somehow more realistic to my mind. Perhaps it is the English setting, or perhaps it is the difference with how the zombies act, may even be the very grounded and normal characters, but these books just sing to me. Autumn: Exodus was both a great way to end the trilogy, as well as a damn fine Autumn book in its own right.

SCORE:

Friday 17 February 2023

The Quarry (2022) - Horror Video Game Review (Playstation 5)


The Quarry
is the spiritual successor to 2015's Until Dawn, with both games featuring a very similar format, though featuring stand alone stories. It comes from Supermassive Games who in recent years have put out smaller games of a similar style, such as The Dark Pictures: Man of Medan and The Dark Pictures Anthology: Little Hope. Knowing how unlikely I was to replay the game I waited until this was on sale at a reduced price. My initial impressions were high, but this felt a little too familiar, while the choice of horror movie monster was one of my personal least favourite types. 

Two teenagers, Max (Skyler Gisondo) and Laura (Siobhan Williams) are on their way to 'Hackett's Quarry', having volunteered to be camp counsellors at the summer camp that takes place there every year. After a car accident, they are warned by the local sheriff, Travis Hackett (a standout performance from Ted Raimi - Intruder, The Evil Dead) to spend the night at a local motel rather than head to the quarry. Distrustful of the creepy officer, the two decide to press on, this turning out to be a bad idea as Max is attacked by some sort of creature once arriving at the quarry, while Laura is shot by the sheriff who appears there soon afterwards.
Two months later and it is the last day of summer camp. With the children all having gone home, the counsellors are preparing to leave, but one of them, Jacob (Zach Tinker), wanting one last night of fun, with the hopes of winning back Emma (Halston Sage) whom he had a summer fling with, sabotages their van. The camp owner, Chris Hackett (David Arquette - Scream) warns the teens to spend the night in the lodge, and that he will be back in the morning to help them leave. Of course, as soon as Chris leaves, the teens head out, determined to party, not realising that there is something deadly lurking in the woods...

The game takes place over ten chapters and takes the form of a third person adventure game. This isn't a game of action, instead it plays out almost like an interactive movie. Over the course of the game you take control of each of the nine counsellors at various points, and by your actions they either make it to the end of the game, or die along the way. In my playthrough I managed to have two of the nine characters die, the death of one seeming to negatively affect other characters storylines, more on that later. Outside of choosing dialogue options, there are exploration moments where you get to walk around relatively linear locations, it is here where you can find clues to reveal more of the backstory going on, as well as find hidden tarot cards which come into play in the sections in-between chapters. Even when cutscenes are occuring you have to pay attention, as there are quick time event moments which can affect the fate of characters. Someone running through the woods for instance can trip over a tree root should you not do the QTE in time. I have to say, I found these moments a Hell of a lot easier than in previous Supermassive Games, I only failed once over the course of the eight and a half hours, and that was only due to me not paying attention, not that it was a hard one to do. Cheekily you don't always want to succeed at these, as being successful can sometimes lead to negative outcomes, such as a button mashing moment where you are trying to wrestle a rifle away from someone.

In between chapters you are taken to a place outside of the game world, it is here you interact with the fortune teller (Grace Zabriskie - The Grudge), this character provides cryptic clues as to what is going on, as well as provides you with the choice to see future events based on the various tarot cards you have collected. All the actors used in the game appear to have been motion captured, and much like the other games of this type, all characters in the game heavily resemble the real life actors playing them. The graphics are impressive, especially with regards to the faces, at some points, if I squinted my eyes a bit, you could mistake the ingame characters for actual people. There were a fair few actors I recognised, including Lance Henriksen (Aliens) and Lin Shaye (Insidious), though those later two were almost in blink and you miss it roles.
Now for the moments I didn't enjoy as much, namely the type of antagonist the teens were up against. A spoiler for Until Dawn, but the enemy there were wendigos (I believe), and rather than do something different here, without getting into large spoilers, this time around it is another pack of monstrous creatures you are trying to survive against. It felt like a missed trick, and began to feel like the only substantial difference was the location change from a snowy mountain to a forest. I wish there had been a more interesting enemy as the one chosen is by far my least favourite movie monster. Another issue, which may sound bizarre is the lack of nudity. I'm not complaining that there should have been more for perverse reasons, it's just there is a very good reason for why characters may find themselves with no clothes, yet bizarrely all the characters who end up in this situation are always still wearing underwear, despite even announcing that they are naked. When you are specifically shown a character's clothes all ripping off only for them to later on be shown still wearing underwear made zero sense and became quite distracting. I understand that the actors lending their likeness to the characters would not want to be shown nude, but I felt there could have been a better way around this, such as camera angles which left stuff off camera, or even a blurring effect. I'm not talking nudity for nudity's sake, there is a clear cut (and non-sexual) reason why characters might have found themselves without clothing.

Now I don't know if it was down to some bad choices, but out of the nine characters here there were at least a couple who barely had anything to do in the game. I fear that one of the characters who did die during my playthrough may have brought more story beats to those others, as without naming them, I can think of at least two characters that just seemed to be bumbling around the woods all night without anything horror like really happening to them. A common complaint with these types of games is the ending, this one seemed to end rather abruptly with the only resolution taking the form of basic text epilogues for each character (living or dead), and then the meat of the ending taking the form of a podcast that plays out over the end credits. I would have liked to see the survivors coming together and showing some type of regret over those who didn't make it.

I enjoyed my time with The Quarry, it looked fantastic, and the acting was all to a high standard. Personally, I really wished they had gone with a different type of story. Having the heroes up against a group of monsters felt too similar to Until Dawn, while in general this seemed a lot easier to succeed at the button prompts, which themselves few and far between. Much like Supermassive Games' other games, I don't think this is something I could see myself returning to for a long time.

SCORE:

Wednesday 15 February 2023

Night of the B*stard (2022) - Horror Film Review


Have I become more jaded in my older age? It was only last month that I gave the mostly dull cult horror The Long Night a six out of ten, and now, with Eric Boccio's similar cult horror Night of the B*stard (director of Brutal Reality, Inc, Night Terrorizer) I have planned to give it an even lower score, despite probably finding it that little bit more entertaining. I did have issues with this one though, which I shall go into more detail about later.

In the seventies a man and his heavily pregnant wife find themselves captured by a crazed devil worshipping cult, with both killed, but not before the cult leader cuts out the baby from the woman to take as her own. Forty years later and oddball recluse Reed (London May - Verotika - segment 'Change of Face', The Dark Knight Rises) has just chased a trio of partying young adults off his remote land out in the desert. This trio, who includes among them Kiera (Mya Hudson) soon stumble across an eclectic collection of cultists (led by Claire - Hannah Pierce) who promptly attack her and her friends. Kiera, sole survivor and heavily injured, but alive, flees back to Reed's property hoping the hermit can assist her, but is dismayed to discover he lives off grid and so can't call for help. Soon the two find Reed's home under siege by the cultists, who are determined to capture them both.


My biggest problem with this movie was both the poor script and the bizarre direction the actors seemed to have received. Firstly, the script is mostly bad, with characters having some really silly unnatural lines. This was compounded by the direction the actors were told to go with. Maybe scenes were filmed out of order, but the two protagonists seemed to be wildly different emotionally throughout. One scene you have Reed calmly showing Kiera his beloved pet terrapin, to which she reacts with pleasure at seeing, then the very next scene seemingly following immediately afterwards has Kiera screaming and crying saying that they are both going to die. Both characters flip-flop between camaraderie, anger, sadness and determination apparently on a whim. It made it hard to really get a grasp on the type of people they were meant to be when their emotions are all over the place. One moment they will be working together well as a team, next shot they will be bickering with each other, nothing remained static and it made for an off-kilter feel in a bad way.
In theory the bad guys were a lot better, the arrogant Claire was one of the highlights of the movie, her cohorts a little more strange. For a cult they didn't have a unified look, sure during their magical rituals they are all robed, but outside of that they are a varied bunch. You have a guy who looks like an eighties punk, a long haired perpetually grinning Texas Chainsaw Massacre style hick, a muscle man, an old hag and a constantly self-pleasuring simpleton.

With the cultists not using guns the action was mostly more close combat. The protagonists find various plot devices for them to try to sneak out of the house, whether to retrieve a gun from Reed's shed, or for Kiera to try and make a run for her car. These moments always felt believable enough, and resulted in a few decent enough looking fight scenes. The gun does get used at times and leads to some fun looking effects. There is plenty of blood and a decent enough body count,and the story, while not anything amazing, managed to survive mainly with the hook of knowing that the present day section was somehow related to the prologue scene set forty years earlier. That was answered in a late plot twist which wasn't that revolutionary, but slightly different to what I figured it would be.


Night of the B*stard always felt it couldn't quite settle on a particular tone, with moments of comedy not fitting in well with the more horror based parts. Ignore the weird mood swings of the protagonists, and the somewhat unimaginative script and there is enjoyment to be found here. Night of the B*stard is due for release on May 15th from High Fliers Films.

SCORE:

Monday 13 February 2023

Heck (2020) - Short Horror Film Review


I had conflicting opinions about Kyle Edward Ball's debut feature length experimental horror Skinamarink. While I thought it was excellently made, I also thought it was a very dull movie. When writing my review I discovered that the film was actually heavily inspired by an earlier short film, the near half hour Heck. With the long run time being on of my issues with the longer movie, I figured that maybe this shorter one would be more enjoyable.

Following pretty much the same plot outline as the full length movie, Heck sees a young child (Jeffty Ellison) wake up in the middle of the night to discover his mother (Courtney McNeilly) has vanished. He also quickly discovers that not only do none of the lights in the house work anymore, but that he is trapped inside, unable to open the front door, or indeed even contact the outside world in any way. As the days spiral past, it starts to appear that there may well be no end to his situation.


It's near impossible to review this movie without drawing comparisons with Skinamarink, as rather than feel like individual films, it feels like Heck is basically the template which was drawn upon to create the later. This one may be shorter, but it is also a lot more basic and rougher in design than what was to come. The child here appears to be older as there is a lot more dialogue from him, specifically referencing his thoughts more than the near silent child of the other one. The plot is basically the same, though here there is no hint towards a malevolent entity, instead the child character appears to be completely and utterly alone in the perpetually dark house.

The format is similar, with many ideas that are copied over wholesale. The TV showing old and slightly creepy looking public domain cartoons is in full effect here, making up the soundtrack for much of the run time. The film has a distorted sound to much of the dialogue, with the child's voice always showing up as subtitles on the screen, and a heavy sound of static over every shot. Where the full length film's camera work is mostly focussed on static shots, with the occasional first person viewpoint, here, the opposite is true, with the view mostly from the first person perspective of the torch carrying child. I don't know what I would have thought if I had watched this first, but to me now it felt like a proof of concept video, a rough taste of the far more polished film that was to come later down the line.

While I had my issues with Skinamarink I couldn't deny how excellently created it was. Heck is noticeably less well polished, which is to be expected. The plot here seemed a more well explained, which actually works against it at times, the title cards that kept popping up to show the passage of time for instance felt a bit goofy, and the story didn't ask too much of the viewer. Basically the exact opposite problem I had before. As much as Skinamarink bored me, it really made me think lots about it for a long time afterwards, and its atmosphere was excellent. The rougher, smaller brother Heck I don't think is going to leave as much of an impression, but at the least it is interesting to see where the genesis for that film came from. Heck can currently be viewed on YouTube.

SCORE:

Saturday 11 February 2023

Skinamarink (2022) - Horror Film Review


Not being a night owl, I watch nearly all the films I review during day time, usually first thing in the morning after waking up. Realising that this isn't really doing horror films justice I decided to make an effort to at least watch one a week during the optimal time where it would be most effective. I had heard great things about Kyle Edward Ball's experimental horror Skinamarink, it has literally been described as 'the scariest film ever made', and so I thought that would be a great movie to watch in the dead of night. I admit I was even nervous about starting it. Sadly then, while I really do appreciate how different it was, and what it was going for, I really struggled to keep my eyes open over the course of the very long feeling hundred minute run time. Also, the synopsis which is to follow is based on a synopsis I read online after having seen the film, I didn't pick most of this up while actually watching the movie.

Set in 1995, four year old Kevin (Lucas Paul) and his six year old sister Kaylee (Dali Rose Tetreault) wake up in the middle of the night to discover their father (Ross Paul) is nowhere to be found. Even more alarming is the fact that all the doors and windows to the outside world have vanished. They decide to head downstairs and shelter together in front of the TV, putting on cartoons with the hope it will make the darkness less scary. It appears that there is something evil in the house with them, something that mimics the voices of their parents, and which has the ability to alter reality...

I'm giving this film a low score, and that isn't down to me not appreciating this. I had a very boring time with this, with me constantly yawning, and constantly bringing up the menu to see how much of the film was left to go. My biggest complaint is something that really sets this apart on its own, namely that the film takes place almost exclusively off camera. Instead the film focuses on walls, ceilings, close-up of carpets, while events play out unseen. The most you ever get is the sight of legs walking past the camera, and I think there are two moments where Kevin actually appears on screen in full, albeit with his back to the camera. This made for an extremely dull movie to watch, especially late at night when I was already tired.
This wouldn't have been so bad if I was able to piece the story together, but I simply didn't. I admit that until I read the synopsis afterwards I didn't even realise there were two children, I mean, at the start there are two, but I assumed one of them was an imaginary friend or something as they just vanished from the film at some early point. I read that there was less than five hundred words of dialogue in the film, with the majority of that being from public domain cartoons which essentially make up the soundtrack. There are long scenes where the camera is half on the TV in close-up, showing the admittedly creepy looking very old cartoons. Starring a four year old it makes sense there wouldn't be much dialogue, and I thought it was really novel to have a horror film where virtually the only character is a toddler. The fact that he is rarely actually glimpsed, and some confusing voice work, led to me not really caring too much about him. There was a scene for instance where he is saying he has hurt himself, but he says it in such a normal way that I assumed he was pretending he had done when I don't think that was meant to be the case. Other parts worked out better though, such as his innocence when Kevin is talking to the entity.

The film is extremely grainy, almost with a feel of it having been simulated to look like it was filmed on a Super-8 camera. I thought this post production grainy look was fantastic, and probably Skinamarink's most successful part, could even be possibly a new evolution within the found footage horror genre. It made so many scenes feel like there was more to them, with me straining my eyes trying to work out if stuff was happening in the pitch black backgrounds, or if my imagination was creating things that were not actually there. There was a sense of realism to this, but that was taken away a bit by the moments when doors and objects disappear, possibly meant to be alarming, but they just come across as amusing. Sound design was another issue, and one whose implementation was purposeful. Much of the dialogue and sound here is muffled, making lines hard to understand. Occasionally there are subtitles used to show what is actually being said, but there seemed mainly to appear when the audio was audible, there were a few times where I just couldn't make out what was being said. The horror is constant, but due to the camera angles chosen a lot of it was missed. You get objects moving around on their own, and objects stuck to the ceiling and you possibly see the entity a few times in the dark, but mostly it is more an atmosphere of dread that it is going for. There are at least a few first person perspective shots mixed in to this hellish dreamscape.

This has been lauded for making the fears of the dark for a child effectively be recreated for an adult audience. It is effective, yet for me it was a one trick pony. I spent the movie hoping that the weird camera angles would eventually lead into something where I could actually see what was going on, even if just for the end at least. As it was, the film ended and I literally had no idea what the plot had actually been, reading about it afterwards it did sound like it could have been scary if that plot had been better presented to the viewer. I however missed a good two thirds of the story, and so potentially chilling story beats were completely lost on me. I am very glad I decided to give this a shot, I think this may even be a work of art, yet for me personally I just didn't think it was that interesting a movie outside of its extremely well implemented idea. Skinamarink can currently be streamed on Shudder.

SCORE:

Thursday 9 February 2023

Ripper's Revenge (2022) - Horror Film Review


From the title alone I gathered Ripper's Revenge was a horror film that would be written and directed by Steve Lawson (Jekyll and Hyde, Pentagram). The film itself bears all the hallmarks he is known for, dimly lit interiors, sparse exterior shots, and a grubby portrayal of Victorian London. It turns out that this is actually a sequel to 2021's Ripper Untold, something good that the film has going for it.

It is a year on since the killings of Jack the Ripper and reporter Stubb (Chris Bell - The Mummy: Resurrection, Ripper Untold) has fallen on hard times. That is until he discovers a letter left in his bag that purports to be from the infamous killer, bragging of a new kill. Stubb is dubious, afterall, he was the one who fabricated the letters previously in order to sell papers, but after checking out the details he finds to his surprise that what was said is true. While he wants to publish the story, knowing it will get him the money he so desperately needs, he also has a struggle of conscience, wondering if the publicity the story would bring would inspire the killer to increase their body count.


As a sequel this was quite wonderful. Stubb was a minor character in Ripper Untold, and so moving him to the protagonist role was an inspired move. It helps that Bell is the actor in this role, as he was just about the only good thing in The Mummy: Resurrection, and here, playing a more relatable character, he shines. The fact that I didn't realise this was a sequel until right at the end shows that this worked as a stand alone film. To be fair, Lawson uses seemingly the same sets and definitely the same pool of actors from film to film and so seeing so many familiar looking people and places here didn't really set off any alarm bells. Familiar faces included Marcus Langford (The Mummy: Resurrection, Hellriser) reprising his role as apparently the only constable in London, Carl Wharton (The Mummy: Resurrection) as Wingate, the officer in charge of the investigation, and Rafe Bird (The Mummy: Resurrection) as the newspaper artist. With just the ten characters, a bunch of which barely feature, and you have another low budget Victorian horror that is as interchangeable as all the rest.

The story here was good for a lot of the ninety minute run time, with Stubb's fear for his prostitute girlfriend Iris (Rachel Warren), and his fear at being personally contacted by the notorious ripper making for some entertaining moments. With things appearing to be wrapped up by the hour mark it was sad to see the last act devolve into the typical histrionics that these films often feel the need to include. The last half hour was plot twist after plot twist, each more ridiculous than the last, leading to a film that just kind of ends without any satisfying resolution. There is a small body count, with a bunch of these kills not shown on screen, but then the focus is always on Stubb himself who despite what the authorities want to believe, isn't actually present during the murders. The soundtrack did a good job of creating the right sort of feel, nothing spectacular, but it fitted the scenes well.


Despite feeling extremely familiar to other film's of Lawsons, at least this time around there is a valid reason, what with it being a sequel and all. I admit I did enjoy this one, mainly thanks once again to the surprisingly good performance from Bell. Ripper's Revenge is due for release on April 4th from High Fliers Films.

SCORE:

Tuesday 7 February 2023

A Woman Kills (1968) - Horror Film Review


Jean-Denis Bonan's A Woman Kills (original title La femme bourreau) was a French crime thriller that spent forty five years in limbo. Originally created in May 1968, during a period of civil unrest, the film never saw a proper release due to controversy. Now, fifty five years later the black and white film is due to have a limited edition Blu-ray release in a brand new HD restoration. Very experimental in style, this was certainly a strange film, which thankfully benefitted by a pretty decent final act.

Set in Paris, this takes place soon after a woman, Héléne Picard, had been executed for a series of prostitute murders that had shocked the populace. It was hoped that would be the end to it, but the authorities are disturbed to discover that the crimes are still continuing despite them having been convinced of Picard's guilt. The executioner, Louis Guilbeau (Claude Merlin) begins a relationship with the investigating officer, Solange (Solange Pradel), who begins to suspect there is more to the man than there initially appeared to be.

Very experimental, very arthouse in style, something that can be picked up from the soundtrack alone, which is made up of lots of discordant jazz music. The film follows a bizarre format, with a stern and serious narrator (Bernard Letrou) talking over the events like it was a procedural crime documentary. Characters get introduced by him, giving lots of needless details such as birthplace and height, which creates a cold impassionate feel, This happens during the murder scenes, and even during the chase scenes, where the narrator instead begins to describe the internal thought processes of the characters.
The few natural feeling scenes occur mainly between Solange and the very creepy Louis, but even these feel like snapshots in time, such as multiple shots of Solange laying scantily dressed on a bed while smiling at someone off camera. Of course, being an experimental French film there is nudity, but tastefully done at the least.

Without going into spoilers too much, it was obvious where this was heading. That may well have been the point however as the twist occurs roughly halfway into the seventy minute movie and hardly came out of nowhere. This leads into a much more enjoyable second half, with Merlin getting some great scenes. The majority of the final act is one long chase sequence down squalid side alleys, and across crumbling rooftops, leading to a final showdown. There is a body count, but most of the kills are only partially shown, but this was effective enough. I will say I did find the first half very slow, and some of the music choices were dreadful. There are a series of songs sang throughout that just had the absolute worst lyrics. Maybe they just didn't translate well, but they ruined all the scenes they popped up in, one example had some guy singing about how large people are unable to row in small boats due to them sinking them, so weird in a bad way.

A Woman Kills was a curio from the past that did have some interesting moments, especially the second half where thankfully things began to get more exciting. I did struggle a bit with the first half, the experimental nature of how this was paced not making for the most exciting of times. Still, it's good this lost French thriller has finally been able to get seen by those who would want to see it, and with the Blu-ray release on February 7th thanks to Radiance Films, it is the best way to see it.

SCORE: