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

In my non-blog job it sounds like my work hours are going to change from a lovely four day week to a not so grand five day week. When that happens I will need to rearrange the days I do my blog. Currently I'm planning to go from writing the week's posts on the weekend to writing one a day during week days. All exciting stuff I'm sure.

Beginning with some music news. The Funeral March have released a new EP that was inspired by Greek mythology. This five track EP, titled 'Persephone', cites The Cure, Siouxie & The Banshees, as well as Neil Gaiman's The Sandman as influences. The press release states the '...new release...contemplates our mental and emotional undoing before that day comes' (in reference to the apocalypse). Check out the track 'Nite Nite' taken from the EP below.

The graphic novel series Halloween Girl (which I gave a very respectable 8/10 rotted zombie heads) has been nominated for the Rondo Awards. These awards have been going since 2002, and apparently are 'fandom's only classic horror awards - decided by fans, for fans'. Halloween Girl creator Richard T. Wilson has said of the nomination "...a Rondo Nomination is the Horror World equivalent of an Oscar - it just doesn't get much better!".

Horror film Bliss of Evil is one of Bayview Entertainment's newest acquisitions. It comes from director Josh Morris and stars Sharnee Tones, Jordan Shulte, and Michaela Da Costa. In this movie, a sound engineer and her girlfriend's band become trapped in a recording studio by a mysterious killer, and was apparently based on true events.

A Kickstarter campaign has been launched for Demon Squad 2, the follow up to Demon Squad which was featured on the classic TV series, Mystery Science Theater 300. This follows paranormal investigators Nick Moon and Daisy O'Reilly who get caught up in what appears to be a haunted house mystery. Genres included here will be adventure, science fiction and fantasy. For more details check out the Kickstarter page here.

A quick update for horror RPG Cursed Mansion, which I have mentioned in past news posts. The game was released on 30th March and can be purchased here. The retro styled top down game has you playing as a woman trapped in a dangerous mansion.

Calling Nurse Meow is an eleven short film anthology featuring the work of six different directors - Laura Barker, Joe Cash (Carnal Monsters), Jason Impey, Dan Urban, Kaylan Jordan-Sen and John W.T. This adult only anthology is based around the titular character (Kitty Kiss) '...and her psychotic, sexual and murderous ways'. The shorts sound varied, heading to Medieval times, World War II, the 1970's, and even into animated territory. The anthology comes from VIPCO and can be found on Amazon.

Goth pop artist Metamorph have released a new single, 'Witchlit', which is due on their new EP due out in Autumn this year. The press release states '...is a song of broken hearts, of abuse, power, twin flames, and the craving for love. When nothing makes sense in the light, we search in the darkest nights.'

Half Dead Fred became available to stream on Amazon from March 15th. This stars Corin Nemec, Jason London, and Tiffany Shepis, and is about the titular Fred, a detective who has gained the ability to see the dead after a near death experience which claimed the life of his son.

The Things We Cannot Change (2022) - Horror Film Review

The Things We Cannot Change is a vampire horror/drama that really tries to do something different with the traditional view of a vampire. Written and directed by Joshua Nelson (Cannibals of Clinton Road), this portrays vampires as cursed people suffering crippling addictions to drink blood, and shows this mainly in a way that felt more grounded and realistic, outside of the scenes of violence.

Dr. Abraham (Richard Rampolla) runs a support group for vampires who wish to give up their lifestyle of drinking human blood. Many of the vignettes revolve around the various people who have gone to these meetings. They include Kristen (Jenn Nobile), whose relationship with her husband has suffered after he discovered she's a vampire, a human mother who is dismayed at finding out her daughter has become a vampire, a husband and wife vampire couple who are worried their lifestyle will affect the child they adopted, among many others. Also attending the group is Veronica (Laura Lemire), but her intentions are less noble, she sees it as weakness to try and fight against their nature, and attempts to sway the minds of all who have attended.

It became obvious with the realistic portrayal here that battling addiction was the real theme of the movie, with many of the characters and their situations seeming to be metaphors for real world addictions to things such as drugs and alcohol. This grounded the movie a lot, which is reflected in the design of the vampires. In this world, the tropes of these creatures are shown to not actually be real. They can walk around in daylight, have reflections, eat garlic, and be around religious iconry, with them only altering when they go to feed. It is here where they sport the traditional fangs, as well as lose their pupils (via the use of milky white contacts). With such a feel of realism these scenes couldn't help but look goofy, the vampires look more ridiculous than scary, especially with a few of the actors who seem to be grinning due to the fangs not letting them properly close their mouths. The scenes of violence often occur off camera, with just the shouts of the victims, though there are a fair few biting moments.

While there is a larger plot going on, mainly to do with the conflict between Dr. Abraham's idea of peaceful co-existence and Veronica's view that they should rule over the weaker humans, mainly this is a series of small side stories. This leads to some scenes of drama that worked even better as analogies for real world traumas. Perhaps the most heartbreaking scene has a young man 'coming out' to his mother, only for her to disown him. Then you have other scenes which both include the idea of 'enablers' to addiction, and a classic Renfield type situation of someone who desperately wants to become a vampire to escape from their issues. Having had an addiction myself in my past, some of what was being said was relatable in a way, especially when it comes to the feeling of instant gratification which swiftly gets swapped out for guilt and remorse. The film doesn't try too much to hide the analogy, and even leans more into it for the epilogue.

I think horror works better than many mediums for being able to draw parallels with real world issues. It can occasionally be a little too po-faced with how serious all the characters are acting about their fictional afflictions, but at its heart The Things We Cannot Change has a decent message to it, and should get some kudos for trying something different. The film was released on Blu-ray in February from VIPCO and Bayview Entertainment.

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The Rotting Zombie's News Anthology for Wednesday 29th March 2023

In Fortnite they've now added the ability to play on a recreation of the original island, so rather than be here writing some blog posts I spent far too many hours playing that wonderful mode. Onwards to the news. First, some VR news, Switchback VR has been getting some stick from being on hell of an ugly PSVR2 title. I very much agree in terms of the terrible graphics, but it was still fun to play, I want to play through it two more times before I will feel happy enough to write a review of it.

It may be a simple title but I love it. I'm talking about Space Goblins, which is a live action reboot the an underground cult-classic animated movie. Written and directed by Ams Overton, and starring Bill Hutchens (Curse of the Blind Dead), Richard Blenkiron (Guardians of the Galaxy) and Kamary Phillips (Dard Divorce), this is about two bounty hunters who find themselves called back to their job for what may be their last assignment

Not too much information on this next one, Death Sentences is a newish film from Acort International and Midnight Releasing. It's about a young author named Arabella suffering writer's block while on retreat at a remote cabin her family own. It is here she encounters the ghost of her cousin, who promises to help her finish her novel if she helps capture the person who caused their death. Check out the trailer below.

Finally for this small news post, German synthpop artist, Meersein has a new single out, titled Lost. The press release states 'Full of despair and helplessness. With this, the artist not only shows something very personal, his vulnerable side, but also gives a song to those who feel the same way'.

Willy's Wonderland (2021) - Comedy Horror Film Review

I love the idea behind the horror video game series Five Nights at Freddy's, a game in which you must try and survive waves of attacks from sentient animatronics at a pizzeria. Seeing Willy's Wonderland having such a similar plot I was interested to check it out, especially considering that the always entertaining Nicolas Cage (Color Out of Space, Mandy) had a starring role in it. I found a movie that was near perfectly suited to me with even its bad choices leading to great moments.

Cage stars as a silent drifter who ends up stranded in a small backwater town in America after his car tyres get wrecked. The local mechanic offers to fix his car up for him, but due to only accepting cash, and no ATMs in the town working, the drifter is unable to pay. The mechanic then offers a solution, should the drifter spend the night cleaning a former family themed restaurant, then his bill would be considered settled. Unknown to the drifter, the condemned building is home to eight homicidal sentient animatronics, he finds himself not only having to clean the place, but in between his frequent breaks, he must battle for his life against the machines. While this is all happening, local teen Liv (Emily Tosta) and her friends, aware of the evil of the building, have decided tonight is the night the curse that lay on the town will be finally ended.

The drifter isn't just a quiet character, he is actually completely silent for the whole ninety minute film, with not even one word of dialogue coming from Cage's crazy character. Much of the humour comes from him, with him having a single minded desire to clean the building even after he discovers the animatronics want him dead. He also keeps in mind the owner's advice that he should take frequent breaks, even breaking things off mid-combat in order to return to the break room, drink some of his beloved energy drink and try and get a high score on the pinball table that is located there. Some of the best scenes of the movie have him playing pinball, with the camera in the position of the pinball table, looking up at the drifter as he plays, dances, and genuinely appears to have a great time. He does a lot with his measured facial expressions, in a way that means other characters talk around him without it coming across as odd. The drive to clean the restaurant as instructed was so amusing to me, with it not clear if the character was insanely dense (not realising he had been set up to be a sacrifice for the animatronics), or if he was just impossibly cool, well aware of his capability to combat the threat he faces nonchalantly.

The meat of the movie is the fight sequences involving the various animal themed robots. It is here again where Cage is just delightful, effortlessly defeating each animatronic in fun, well choreographed sequences. The almost bored ease with which he defeats each of the things never failed to entertain. The animatronics had a great design to them, from the ostrich to the crocodile and chameleon, the design of the dilapidated robotic monsters was spot on.
I would have been happy if the whole movie had just been Cage on his own battling these, but the decision was made to introduce a group of disposable teens around the midway point. A lot of these characters felt like cannon-fodder, with no real personality to them, but at least they gave the movie a bodycount, even if their actions were often ridiculously stupid. It leads to some very bloody kills, such as someone getting sliced in half horizontally, and a fornicating couple being chomped to death. Again the humour comes to the forefront, the drifter is happy to assist these teens, yet as soon as his break time alarm goes off he abandons whatever he is doing to go play some pinball! This leading to at least a few extra deaths. The addition of talking non-hostile characters also gave the opportunity for a whole heap of exposition about the doomed history of the restaurant, and why the locals trick drifters into staying at the place. Not that the drifter cares, cleaning away as he is being told all this, without even reacting.

Apparently there is an actual Five Nights at Freddy's movie being made, but with Willy's Wonderland existing already I can't see that achieving more than this very fun film did. Cage was on top form here, really stealing the show with his weird character. Add in great looking effects, a great soundtrack, and a fun flow and there really wasn't much to dislike here. Willy's Wonderland can currently be streamed on Amazon Prime Video.

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It's Not A Wolf (2022) - Horror Film Review

It's Not A Wolf (also known as Non é un lupo) is an Italian horror film that comes from writer/director Nicoló Tagliabue. The protagonists may be taking things very seriously here, but the subject matter and some of the more comedic side characters mean much of this felt very tongue in cheek. Thankfully, the twist of what is causing the horror is something that is present on the movie posters, so I won't need to skirt around that very early reveal.

Glauco (Thomas Francesconi) has recently been released from prison and is under house arrest at his large house outside a rural Italian town. After his neighbours chicken's are all killed, she accuses Glauco of having done it, but it turns out there is a far more sinister explanation. That night, after hearing strange noises outside, Glauco encounters a dinosaur, and it isn't long before he realises it is the first of many that have inexplicably descended on the town. Teaming up with a new friend, Laura (Susanna Valtucci), they set out into the town, looking for somewhere to hide from the madness.

I'm not sure if it was down to budget constraints, or if it was purposeful on the part of the director, but there are some strange concessions to the flow of the film here that felt quite odd. By the time Glauco realises there is more than one dinosaur on the loose he is surrounded by a bunch of characters, yet cutting to the next scene it is suddenly much later, with him and Laura being in a different location entirely and on their own, with it assumed all the other characters have been killed. Much of the movie has just these two characters, later on joined by a third, local simpleton Davide (Nikolas Lucchini). Again later in the film a similar trick is used but in reverse. With just fifteen minutes left a whole bunch of characters are introduced randomly, with the protagonists even disappearing from the story for a time so that the film can follow these new characters. These moments disrupted the flow, I can only assume there were so few characters for much of the run time due to the budget (estimated to be around 15,000 Euros).
Some of these side characters felt like they would get their comeuppance at the claws of the dinosaurs as karma for their actions, yet mainly just disappear from the film with no resolution to their side plots. That includes the somewhat abrupt ending.

Both main characters treat the movie they are in as a serious thing. Rather than more ridiculous horror films like Birdemic and the like where the actors perform over the top seriously, here, the actors felt more grounded, even if they felt like the only serious characters in a ridiculous movie. This does lead to some fun moments, with the excitable Davide almost fourth wall breaking at times with his observations on what is happening. Adding to the fun silliness is the dinosaurs themselves. I say themselves, but despite this being a dinosaur outbreak (with not a single attempt made to explain how it happened), there is only the one dinosaur ever shown on screen, with the same guy in a suit popping up over and over to play the part of all the different ones encountered. Much of the film takes place at night, and the creature is never shown fully on screen, but even so it doesn't always look great. I see that as intentional though, as there is an obvious vein of humour running throughout It's Not A Wolf. Maybe not so good is the lack of much blood or gore, characters near entirely die off screen, the most we get is a bloodied man that the duo encounter.

I was looking forward to seeing this movie, and having now seen it I can say that it didn't really disappoint. With a more serious tone than expected (though still very silly at times), this Italian creature feature entertained, despite a few pacing issues. It's Not A Wolf is available now on Blu-ray from VIPCO and Bayview Entertainment.

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Carnal Monsters (2021) - Horror Film Review

Carnal Monsters is a very low budget (apparently this cost £500 to make) grindhouse style horror film that comes from director Joe Cash (Slutty the Clown). Having seen his style of filmmaking before I knew to expect something that was slimy, sleazy and violent, and in that respect this didn't disappoint.

Much of the movie takes place just outside the fictional town of Tromaville, at the site of a former nuclear research facility. A group of female friends, looking for something fun to do, have headed to this place to do some urban exploring. They discover two unconscious girls, and soon come to regret helping them, as upon waking up, the two girls turn murderous and begin to hunt down the friends.

Everything about this film is very purposeful, the lack of budget is worn as a badge of honour, and rather than try and create something outside its scope, this instead happily leans into its no budget aesthetic. This includes the humorous use of stock footage from other films, and a conscious desire to make this seem like a lost grindhouse movie through the use of artificial film grain.
The focal point of the film appears to just be to focus on female nudity, with many of the cast either scantily clad or topless for superfluous reasons. The plot here is near non-existent, with the synopsis mentioned in the paragraph above only really coming to fruition past the halfway mark of this sixty five minute movie. While the movie isn't too long, it can occasionally feel like it's dragging, such as an extended news report scene in which reporter Sarah Griswold (Selena Liz) dances naked to heavy rock music for a good few minutes. There are also scenes that seem to go on far longer than they need to, such as the group of friends walking and talking, seemingly making their lines up on the spot and talking over each other.

When the horror does come it is short but sweet, the mostly non-existent special effects see the girls get dispatched in various slightly bloody ways. I did like the masks the two killers were wearing, especially the one with the creepy human mask. The acting was near universally terrible, but I think that part of the vibe of these films is the expectation of poor dialogue, it helps mold this into a grindhouse feel. I did like how this felt like it was part of a larger 'Troma Universe', with some unifying moments such as a fun guest appearance from Troma owner Lloyd Kauffman, and news reports that mention Slutty the Clown from one of Cash's other films, as well as footage of the iconic Toxic Avenger.

Carnal Monsters isn't going to appeal to everyone, and to me it isn't really the type of horror that I enjoy. It isn't even the gratuitous nudity and low budget feel, more the lack of much of a plot, and long scenes of really not much happening, as this led to moments of boredom for me. Still, for such a low budget, this fitted into its genre well, and I am sure there are plenty of people who this will appeal to. Carnal Monsters came to Blu-ray in the USA and Prime Video worldwide in February from VIPCO and Bayview Entertainment.

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Life After: The Line of Duty (2021) by Bryan Way - Short Zombie Novella Review

I'm finally here, Life After: The Line of Duty is the final novella in the second trilogy of side stories that take place in and around the mainline Life After novels. Thankfully author Bryan Way had saved the best for last, as this one was not only the best of the six short stories released, but I reckon is the second best story set in the Life After universe as a whole.

This forty seven page story is set during the events of Life After: The Arising and takes place entirely in and around the Broomall Police Station which has found itself on the wrong side of a quarantine zone due to a localised zombie outbreak. It is here that Lt. Arthur Gilchrist does his best to retain control over the local area, despite a large number of his officers either AWOL, MIA, or just plain dead. He is in good hands though, the remaining officers may be worn out and occasionally grumpy, but they are all dedicated to performing their duties, to protect and to serve until the end.

I really enjoyed this novella, the police station has such a sense of reality to it, helped that the story takes place over the one day, picking up in late afternoon time and then heading into the night. It even manages to start in a great fashion, with Gilchrist going over the list of his officers, it being clear that he has lost contact with a large number of the remaining ones. There has been lots of bad press about the police in recent years, both in America (where this is set), and here in my home country of the U.K. Thankfully, these police officers are more noble, with them trying their best to do their jobs. Even knowing that anyone bitten is destined to become a zombie, they don't just kill the infected, instead putting them in jail cells. Also, despite being low on numbers, they don't turn away any survivors looking for a place of refuge, despite not really wanting them there.
One thing I have always enjoyed about the Life After series is the author's attempts to keep this all grounded and realistic in feel. It was interesting to read him stating this story took a long time to come to fruition due to him wanting to get everything right about how the police might act in a situation such as a zombie outbreak.

With all the characters here it was easy to get slightly lost with who was who, even if this was made slightly easier by the majority of the officers having easier to remember nicknames, such as Magic, Reds, and Cutie. There was a tense feeling throughout, with it increasingly clear that the undead aren't the only problem they have to deal with, especially when it seems people with far less noble intentions who see the increasing weakness with the police's dwindling members. Way stated his story became almost like a Western, I can see that, there were also elements of Assault on Precinct 13 to be found here.

With Life After: The Line of Duty both beginning and ending in the middle of a larger plot, this was a really cool slice of life that worked so perfectly as a short story. Adding flavour to the larger Life After world, this also worked really well as a stand alone tale, well worth a read for any fan of zombie fiction.

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That Cold Dead Look in Your Eyes (2021) - Horror Film Review

That Cold Dead Look in Your Eyes (also known as Tes Yeux Mourants) is a New York based French language somewhat experimental horror written and directed by Onur Tukel (Summer of Blood, The Pigs). The film has been at a number of festivals, winning over fifteen awards, including Best Film, Best Actor (Alan Ceppos, Max Casella and Franck Raharinosy), Best Editing, and Best Cinematography. It certainly has horror elements to it, though these don't really affect the more grounded, if bizarre drama playing out for the unfortunate protagonist.

The prologue introduces us to happy couple, Leonard (Raharinosy) and his girlfriend Marie (Nora Arnezeder) in their New York apartment in lighter times, literally, as this is one of the only parts of the movie to be in full colour. Fast forward to the present and things are a lot different. Due to infidelity on Leonard's part the couple have split up, though awkwardly, with Leonard not able to afford to move out, he remains in the flat, sleeping on the couch. Due to this self inflicted trauma in his life, Leonard's job as a chef has began to suffer. With Marie away on business in Europe, she tells her ex that her once renowned photographer father Dennis (Alan Ceppos) is coming to stay, and that Leonard has until she returns to find a new place to live. Leonard begins to experience strange hallucinations, seeing once normal people as zombie like creatures, though whether this is down to the stress of his situation, or due to 'theta waves' that a local conspiracy states is causing citywide psychological issues it is hard to say.

This is a hard film to review, and I'm sure I won't do it justice. Basically, the horror elements here are slight, and they don't really have much bearing on the course of the events of the film, but I still felt they were essential at displaying Leonard's state of mind. As to whether random characters are literally turning into zombies or not, I like how that is never really explained. On the surface it does seem it is all occurring in the flawed protagonists mind, especially when turned characters later show up as perfectly fine, but there are many purposeful insert shots to show that the wi-fi boosters said to cause these anomalies are in the areas where Leonard encounters odd moments. 

A lot of the vibe for this came to be what I termed grounded surrealism, which is also were the comedic elements come into the film. While not tagged as a comedy on IMDB, there are some amusing moments to be found throughout Leonard's series of humiliations that make up his journey. There is the part for instance where the man returns to his ex's apartment to find Dennis taking photos of a naked male model, to which Leonard immediately about turns and leaves. Later he again returns but this time the whole apartment is full of naked male models, with a priceless reaction from the flawed protagonist upon seeing this. Perhaps my favourite comedy moment was where he was speaking to a woman who had been attacked by her sister with a brick while they were building a house. Leonard questions whether they finished building to which she replies deadpan something along the lines of "no, we were a brick short". So silly, but also enjoyable.

With all the apparent zombified characters, fake realities in which Leonard finds himself back in colour experiencing what his life would have been if he hadn't cheated on Marie, characters he has met who inexplicably deny knowing him, and bizarre conversations (this is quite a dialogue heavy movie) it can occasionally be confusing what is real and what is not. By the end of the movie, outside of the fact that Leonard is somehow watching himself from an earlier scene in the movie on a TV, things seemed to have settled down into normality for him. There is no great character arc for the man, he ends the film just as self pitying and flawed as when he began, but at least appearing to be at the end of his surreal downfall. I did enjoy the double meaning of the title, both referring to the milky eyed look of the undead, Leonard's intense depression, and Marie's death of the love she once shared with the man.

I am sure there are lots of parts of this that I didn't understand, but I enjoyed my time with That Cold Dead Look in Your Eyes, weird but not too weird, and with some entertaining dialogue and some good performances, this was a lightly experimental movie that was a fun way to spend an hour and a half.

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Real Cool Time (2023) - Short Horror Film Review

Matthew Packman's Morbid Colors was a road-trip horror that blended the worlds of punk and vampire together into one messy whole. It was a story about two sisters (Devin and Myca) on a search for the person who was responsible for apparently turning one of them into a person that needed to drink blood to survive. Real Cool Time is the twenty five minute long short horror film sequel to that one, which also stands very well on its own two feet by being a fantastically paced horror that doesn't waste a second of its runtime.

Devin (Lanae Hyneman - Morbid Colors) is the lead musician in an up and coming band who has put herself into self imposed isolation after an incident during a tour in Europe, in which she viciously attacked a fellow musician. Desperate for a story to save her floundering career, music journalist Juliya (Alice Shen) has tracked her down to her dilapidated apartment one dark night, in order to prise an exclusive interview out of the woman. Ever since Devin's sister Myca (Kara Grey - Morbid Colors) died, Devin has began to experience unsettling blackouts and intrusive thoughts, with it felt that there is a link between the death of her sister and her new found urges, which she tries her best to warn the journalist about.

I watch a lot of horror films as part of writing on this blog, some stay in the memory, others fade away so swiftly that I can barely remember even having watch them. Morbid Colors was one of the former, I like a good road trip movie anyway, and I have always found the punk type feel works well in a horror setting. Going into Real Cool Time I wasn't sure how much of this would be related to that film, so having Hyneman return as Devin was a nice surprise, as was seeing Grey reprise her role in a way. I loved the framing here, the journalist turning up for an interview reminded me a lot of...well, Interview with the Vampire, helped with the thunderstorm raging outside that really created a Gothic feel. I liked how details are drip fed to the viewer that leads to further questions. It was a surprise to find out the fate of Myca, but that was a hook that made me want to stick around to find out the effects her fate had on Devin. In Morbid Colors Devin felt like a slave to her sister's desires, so having her here now on her own was fascinating. There is a more pronounced horror vibe here than the feature length movie, though again it isn't explicitly stated if what is said to be happening is actually real or not.

It leads to some great pacing, and a directing style that makes it seem like you are in the apartment with the characters, a lot of the shots here go on for minutes at a time, with the camera following characters in single unbroken shots. The interview itself has the camera slowly rotating around the two characters, while later scenes play out in real time. Typically when these scenes do end it is a definite break with a second or two of blackness before the next scene begins. The use of lighting here was tremendous, I especially liked how they include Myca within scenes despite her not actually being there in terms of the actual story. There was a moment that plays out in near darkness, with occasional flashes of light, it almost outstayed its welcome, but I think just about managed to achieve the goal it was used for.
Having a journalist who needed the story gave a decent get out clause for why Juliya wouldn't just flee at the first sign of danger. It also gave a acceptable reason for why she would be reading out Devin's journal aloud in one scene. At first I was wondering why she was doing that, before recalling that she was actually recording everything on a hidden dictaphone. I thought the way the story was told was very well done, with good back and forth between the two. 

I think even if you hadn't seen Morbid Colors you would still have a real cool time with Real Cool Time. As a short horror it was perfectly paced, and told a logical story, the horror elements worked very well, and it all wraps up in a satisfying way. I thought this was a masterful short, well worth a watch. Check out the film's Instagram page here, while the trailer for the short can be viewed on Vimeo. Real Cool Time is hoped to begin screening at festivals this summer.

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Resident Evil 4 - Chainsaw Demo - Opinion Piece (Playstation 5)

This past year seems to have been the time for pointless remakes of horror video games, with The Last of Us and Dead Space remakes already out, and a remake of Resident Evil 4 on the horizon. I may sound old fashioned but I'm very much of the mind that these remakes are pointless, I would personally much prefer newer entries in all three of those series than to play through an experience I'm already familiar with yet again. Saying that, I do intend to eventually get these remakes, but it has gotten to the point where I'm priced out the market, I refuse to pay £60 to £70 for a video game, especially when in this instance you can get the originals for dirt cheap.
Anyway, all of that is to say that a week last Thursday a demo for the Resident Evil 4 remake was released, fittingly titled Chainsaw Demo. Would it be enough to sway my mind and build up some excitement.

In a word, no. The demo takes place at virtually the very start of the game, and has Leon Kennedy arriving at a remote village. Originally he had headed there to try and locate the President's daughter, who had been kidnapped, but his more immediate concern is to locate the two cops that he had been travelling with. Aside from things looking a bit nicer, this follows a similar path. You go into a house where you find an infected man who attacks you, then you head to the village and witness a cop being burnt alive. After a bit of a running battle with infected villagers, a chainsaw wielding maniac makes an appearance. Finally, just as things are most desperate, a church bell rings and the murderous people suddenly become docile and walk off.

I haven't played the original in a while so I'm sure I'm remembering it looked better than it actually does, but I can't say I was blown away by the graphics here. They are certainly nice, light and shadow especially, but some of the textures in the zoomed in moments looked quite blurry and flat. I had expected the time to be evening, as I had heard they had changed it from pure daytime, instead, at least for this section, it was darker, but still daytime, more of a late afternoon feel. Locations were full of detail, but I could not shake the overwhelming feeling of familiarity. Much of the village appeared to be set out identically to the original, and the enemies A.I didn't feel too evolved.

It seems people have been reacting favourably to the demo, to me I just wasn't blown away by it. I stand by my opinion that this game just didn't need remaking. It may be graphically superior, but the familiar feeling just didn't go away. I tried the demo twice before deleting it. The first time was late last night, my tired brain assumed I had to get killed by the chainsaw man to end the game, obviously that wasn't the case. I played it again today and raced through, finishing the whole thing in just over eleven minutes.
I will eventually get the game, but when it is on sale, it may well turn out to be stunning, but from this little taste Resident Evil 4 didn't do anything to change my mind.

The Rotting Zombie's News Anthology for Friday 17th March 2023

As I mentioned earlier, I'm really phoning in my blog posts for this week due to both a new season of Fortnite coming out, and a friend visiting for half the weekend (weekends being when I currently write my posts). With that in mind, here is the second news post of the week.

Project Skyquake is a sci-fi film from director Jozsef Gallai, it stars the late Tom Sizemore, Laura Ellen Wilson, Robert LaSardo, Laura Saxon, and Simon Bamford and is available now from Bayview Entertainment. It may not be pure horror but it has an interesting synopsis. After strange trumpet like sounds are heard in the sky around the world, an amateur journalist sets out to investigate with terrible results.

Camp Blood 666: Exorcism of The Clown is the sequel to the more simply titled Camp Blood. Directed by Will Collazo, and starring David Perry, Julie Ann Prescott, George Stover, and Mel Heflin, this is now out on DVD and Blu-ray and will be coming soon to VOD. After the events of the first movie, new owners have taken over Camp Blood, renaming it Camp Blackwood. An attempt by a local pastor and his church group to cleanse the area of the souls trapped there has the unfortunate side effect of bringing the killer clown and his demented cult back. Even worse, a vengeful witch has also turned up, determined to defeat the clown, but not caring who gets caught in the crossfire.

Finally for today, found footage horror Ghost Webcam is now available to watch for free on Tubi. Directed by Sebastian Dove, this follows Nate, someone under house arrest who is shocked to discover his virtual date seemingly being murdered live on camera.

The Dark Pictures: House of Ashes (2021) - Horror Video Game Review (Playstation 5)

After the success of their interactive horror story game Until Dawn, developer Supermassive Games decided to make a series of smaller games of the same type, wrapped up under the guise of them being part of an anthology. This was always something I liked in theory more than in execution, while all have amazing graphics, first game, The Dark Pictures: Man of Medan was fun if forgettable, while the follow up, The Dark Pictures Anthology: Little Hope almost verged on tedium due to long periods of not really doing anything other than walking down long empty roads. Seeing the penultimate game in 'season one' of the anthology series on sale I decide to pick it up, and I am very glad I did as The Dark Pictures: House of Ashes is by far the best of the lot, even eclipsing the full price games of Until Dawn and The Quarry. I finally understand what the developer is attempting to do with these games and I am well up for it.

This takes place in 2003 with the American army in Iraq as part of their response to the events of 9/11. Air Force Lieutenant Colonel Eric King (voiced by Alex Gravenstein - Moonfall, X-Men: Dark Phoenix) has been working on specialist technology designed to be able to scan underground in order to locate Saddam Hussein's alleged chemical weapons, which are believed to be hidden in an underground facility. Convinced he has pinpointed the location, he leads a small squad of soldiers, who include among them King's estranged wife, C.I.A officer Rachel King (Scary Movie 5), her new love interest, Nick (Moe Jeudy-Lamour - X-Men: Days of Future Past), his squad leader, all American good boy Jason (Paul Zinno) among a few others to the apparent site. Ambushed by the Iraqi army, a firefight ensures, resulting in a series of large sinkholes appearing which sucks both sides beneath the sands, where they find themselves confronted not with a secret chemical lab, but instead with the ancient ruins of a vast Akkadian temple from 2231 BC. Trapped underground with no apparent way out, the survivors decide to head deeper down into the Earth, hoping to find an alternate exit, but instead stumbling into the resting grounds for a group of monstrous and near indestructible creatures.

I have found myself struggling to properly explain to people what these games are like. They are essentially an interactive CG movie, with much of the choices you make affecting other characters opinions of you, or whether you survive the numerous quick time events (which require you to quickly press a button that appears on screen in order to avoid negative consequences such as tripping over a rock while running away from something). There are also more interactive sections where you have agency to explore various locations, looking at items that provide more clues as to what has gone on.

As I said in my intro, these games have never really clicked that well for me. They are meant to feel like horror movies changed into a game, but with so much downtime (especially with Little Hope) they have suffered from bad pacing. That is not the case here, if House of Ashes was a film, it would be a wild creature feature, the claustrophobia of The Descent mixed with the high action of Aliens, with a little bit of Lovecraftian cosmic terror swirled into the mix. From the thrilling prologue that takes place in 2231 BC, all the way up to the action filled finale, this just didn't drop the ball in term of constant excitement, there was barely any sense of downtime throughout. That was really impressive that this remained so exciting and focussed over the six or seven hour playtime.

Previous games have not really had memorable characters, and while the cast of House of Ashes are arguably stereotypes, that more than anything really cemented the feeling of playing through a wild B-movie horror film. A part of these games is shaping characters into the type of people you want them to be. I had two firm favourites here, firstly, Jason was a character I grew to love, initially my version of him was a bit of a xenophobe, but the bromance that can develop between him and Iraqi soldier Salim (Nick E. Tarabay - Pacific Rim: Uprising) was wonderful to see play out. On the subject of Salim, I thought it was a really good decision to not only include an Iraqi soldier as one of the playable characters, but to make him such a good person. Salim is a badass who is not only reasonable, but has the most noblest of aims, wanting to escape so that he can get back to his child who he is a single parent to. I loved the agency it felt like I had been given to mold these characters to what I believed them to be. In one of the cheesy (yet great) scenes towards the end you can choose whether to go back for Salim (who had gotten separated) or continue forward, with Jason stating to the question of why he would go back to assist an enemy something along the lines of (paraphrasing) "After all we have been through I see him as one of us. We never leave a soldier behind!".

I've been skirting around the antagonist monsters of the game, and while I won't go into too much detail, they are a spin on a traditional movie monster, and they are a constant threat. The world building was excellent for this, not only with its insight as to what happened to the ancient civilisation who once existed there, but also with regards to an ill fated expedition to the temple in the 1940's. The later is represented later on with a series of fun black and white flashback sequences that reveal what happened to them. Being set almost entirely underground there were plenty of memorable locations. Sure, you get lots of caverns, but you also get lots and lots of temple, and the late game reveal that takes you to a cosmic nightmare that wouldn't be out of place in a H.P Lovecraft story.

With The Quarry one complaint I had was how easy the quick time events were to pass, here there are so many, and some have such tight time limits that I failed a fair few. Luckily none of the ones I failed led to anyone dying, I didn't survive the game with everyone intact, but only due to purposely killing off one or two due to feeling like it would have been appropriate times for them to die if this had been a film I was watching.

If House of Ashes had been a movie I would have loved it, and getting to take these mostly interesting characters through their ordeal was a huge amount of fun. That this managed to even end on a good note was impressive, as mild spoilers, the previous anthology games had late twists that suggested things really were not as they had appeared, but this one commits to the events playing out in a way that was satisfying to see. I thought The Dark Pictures: House of Ashes was a fantastic horror game, and hopefully this is the series finally reaching its potential.

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Attack on Titan - The Final Chapters: Special 1 (2023) - Horror Anime Episode Review

The convoluted and lengthy final season of horror anime show Attack on Titan is almost at an end, again. The fourth season began in 2020 and had already been split into two parts, so me and my best friend were quite surprised when at the end of Attack on Titan: Season 4 Part 2 it was revealed there was yet more to come. Rather than stretch things out even further it turns out the final two episodes are both bumper ones, with Attack on Titan - The Final Chapters: Special 1 being an hour in length, rather than the usual twenty or so minutes. Obviously there will be spoilers for previous episodes to follow, so read on with caution in your hearts.

The story is too much to sum up, basically, Eren (voiced by Yuki Kaji) has unleashed 'the rumbling' onto the world, which equates to him unleashing a seemingly unstoppable army of titans (giant humanoid monsters) whose sole goal is to crush and destroy all they come across outside of Paradis Island. There was little hope for the enemy city to survive, being so close to the sea from where the monsters appear, so Eren's secondary goal is to then march to the location of the enemy's mountaintop military base, in order to fully defeat them. The goals have a very high civilian casualty rate, and so his former colleagues, including among them his childhood best friends Mikasa (Yui Ishikawa) and Armin (Marina Inoue) have teamed up with some of the original invaders of Paradis Island in order to try and find a way to stop his terrible plan of genocide to the world outside of his home.

Due to the scattershot approach to the release of the series (it all started ten years back with the first season), it has been increasingly hard to follow the story, especially in later seasons where politics and internal machinations have really made some plot points hard to follow. Thankfully then, this first part of the very end of the show tells a somewhat simpler story. In addition to the main and urgent storyline going on, there is also a few flashback moments that try and justify Eren's approach to dealing with the threat of the outside world to his people. This displays the fact that he isn't a heartless monster, but instead is very aware of all the innocents that will be killed in his murderous path as leader of the rumbling. The key theme appears to be about stopping the cycle of hate, with most characters putting aside their differences in order to try and save what remains of the world as a whole. Each character recognises they have committed terrible acts that have resulted in the deaths of innocents, and so maybe for some, they see stopping Eren as a way to somewhat atone for their atrocious acts. On a side note, I find it funny that the bonus character skin for the new season of Fortnite is Eren, due to him currently being a genocidal maniac in the anime!

The animation is fantastic here, with some really wonderful moments, such as a sequence in which a long standing character all the way from the first season dies (a moment that saw my best friend tear up). There are also lots of moments of gratuitous violence, with the titans crushing all they come across. Most violent moment of the episode shows a child's head getting crushed in slow motion by a titan's foot, very graphic indeed! For the first proper hour long show (I don't include the lengthy recap specials), this was perfectly paced, going around to all the key characters. It all leads up to an exciting showdown, I fully expect a lot of the final final episode will be a protracted fight sequence in which all the special titans come to the field of battle.

Initially I had expected to review the final part in one review, but learning that not only that it consisted of just two episodes, and that the second one isn't due to air until this Autumn, I felt I had to review this now, rather than wait till later in the year and forget what had happened. If you've got this far then of course this is essential watching. For me nothing eclipses the horror feel of Attack on Titan: Season 2, nor does this excel itself above some of the simply stunning episodes of Attack on Titan: Season 4 Part 1, but regardless, this was a fantastic special that sets things up very nicely for the final run.

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The Rotting Zombie's News Anthology for Monday 13th March 2023

In a move that I highly doubt anyone will even notice, I have shifted my schedule around, with film reviews now coming every 'even' day of the month rather than odd. That is due to my best friend occasionally staying at my house over the weekend every other week. It also helps that this weekend has seen the release of Fortnite's new cyberpunk/Japanese themed season, so I will be wanting to play that more than watching films for review.

Succuba is a new horror film that comes from Jaron Lockridge. It stars Keith L. Johnson and Ketrick Copeland and is now available on Tubi, Amazon and Apple TV. In the horror, an evil presence attaches itself to a lonely widower. There is a behind the scenes featurette about the film, and the trailer can also be viewed below.

Australiens is the fantastically titled sci-fi action comedy from Acort International that chronicles an alien invasion of Australia. I don't have many more details other than it features Rita Artman, Doug Hatch, Tamara McLaughlin, Lawrence Silver and Paul Adams. The trailer can be seen below.

Finally for today, Acrostar have released the official trailer for romantic horror film Desperate Souls, directed by Steve Hermann. Moira is a being who 'survives on the lust, despair and grief of men', luring them in so she can take their souls. The romance part comes from her discovery of Devin, their meeting results in a realisation from both that they have finally found the missing pieces of their existence. An Indiegogo campaign is currently running for this movie.

Abruptio (2023) - Horror Film Review

An irrational fear of mine has always been puppets that are designed to look like humans. This isn't some 'screaming out loud for the views' type fear, instead it is more an unsettling 'uncanny valley' type creepiness that bubbles away. It's for that reason that I've never been able to bring myself to watch Team America: World Police despite liking the team behind it. Abruptio is a special type of Hell for me then, as this inventive horror is one life sized puppet show from start to finish. Directed and written by Evan Marlowe (Blood Rush), this took eight years to create from start to finish, and features a surprising number of high profile actors providing voice work. On that last note, rather than repeating myself, just remember that all the actors mentioned going forward have all lent their voices only.

Les Hackel (James Marsters - Buffy the Vampire Slayer TV series) is no one special. This thirty five year old has a dead end job, a nagging girlfriend, and still lives with his parents, and also happens to be a recently recovering alcoholic. One day, after having visited his best friend Danny (Jordan Peele - director of Get Out, Us), he wakes up to an alarming message telling him to check his neck. Doing so he discovers a fresh stitch, going back to Danny's apartment he gets told that Danny has received text messages from persons unknown saying if they don't do what they want then a bomb implanted in their necks will explode. This all turns out to be true and soon Les finds himself an unwilling criminal, forced to perform all sorts of dark deeds in order to preserve himself. These include teaming up with various other people in similar situations, such as bad comedian Sal (Sid Haig - The Devil's Rejects), and germaphobe Mr. Salk (Robert Englund - A Nightmare on Elm Street film series). With this hidden conspiracy even spreading to the ranks of the police force, anarchy and mayhem has spread onto the streets, with seemingly hundreds of people all being forced to kill or be killed.

First off, the unique look. From what I can tell, a lot of the puppetry here is life sized puppetry. I may be completely wrong, but it looks like real people are playing the parts, wearing a full head puppet, and with their arms also covered to look like puppet material. With these puppets existing in what seemed to be the real world there was a consistent creepy tone that was there even before anything untoward happens. It all looks great, the puppets have a slightly exaggerated look to them, so Sal for instance has a gigantic nose, while other characters have really huge eyes. Les himself is relatively normal looking (for a creepy puppet). The puppets blink, speak in time to the dialogue being said, and their creepy look is helped by the very human movements they make (due to being worn by humans)

This is a dark film that goes to some very dark places, think the video game Hotline Miami crossed with the unforgettable Black Mirror episode Shut Up and Dance. Les doesn't seem to struggle to begin his new life of murder, an early scene for instance has him in a home invasion, where he barely fights against his task to kill a mum, dad and young child. Later scenes has such delights as feeding naked female corpses into a giant fan, and a very dark scene where he is in a creche cutting the heads off of babies with garden shears! Maybe not as completely untasteful as it sounds as there is an alien invasion subplot that may or may not actually be occurring, so those babies have The Thing style tendrils coming out of their severed heads. Due to the late film reveal of what is happening, some of Les' more guiltless unsavoury moments can be explained away, especially when this is taking place against a backdrop where both the police are unconcerned about the crimes being committed, and there are bigger signs that society as a whole is imploding.
Counter balanced, and a way to give the film at least a little bit of light, is the school girl character of Chelsea (Hana Mae Lee - The Babsitter: Killer Queen) who Les shares an almost fatherly role in protecting against the increasing danger of the world on the brink of apocalypse.

Purely due to my dislike of puppets, Abruptio was an unpleasant watch from start to finish, even without factoring in the very dark moments that take place here. I find it amusing that I've been waiting for a film to genuinely creep me out for ages and it comes in the form of an irrational fear of mine. I had hoped the story would have a more meaningful resolution than it got, and I felt there could have been more made of the characters essentially being forced to act like puppets with the removal of most of their free will. Despite those small issues though, this was well worth watching though, not only for the lovely voice actors, but also for the inventive look, there are few films which look so visually unique. Abruptio premiered at the Santa Monica Film Festival, and is screen virtually at Cinejoy from March 1st to March 10th.

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