Follow the Dead (2020) - Comedy Horror Film Review

Follow the Dead is an award winning Irish comedy zombie film that has picked up nineteen wins and twelve nominations, including Best Feature award at the Kerry International Film Festival and the Disappear Here Film Festival. It was written and directed by Adam William Cahill (Inertia), and the original pitch was to tell a story about how Millennials would deal with a zombie apocalypse.

Viral videos have spread online of Dublin falling to a zombie outbreak, something that Robbie (Luke Corcoran), his sister Liv (Marybeth Herron - Inertia), and cousins, Chi (Tadhg Devery) and Jay (Luke Collins) aren't quite sure whether to believe, or if it is fake news. However, when the local Garda in their rural town hold a town meeting to state they have been unable to establish contact with anyone from Dublin, it seems things may be true. Robbie is surprised to see his ex-fiancée, Kate (Cristina Ryan) has returned, with the two having split up when she had wanted to leave the town to pursue her career of being a Garda, but her duties now bringing her back home. As the zombie plague slowly makes its way across the country, Robbie and his family must also deal with an uprising of masked maniacs who see the unfolding chaos as a way for them to establish a new order.

I enjoyed my time with Follow the Dead, though the balance between heartfelt comedy and zombie horror film was a bit of an uneven split. Ignoring the online found footage that appeared to show zombies in dublin, it was a good fifty minutes into the ninety five minute movie before the protagonists actually saw the undead with their own eyes. This sets things up nicely for a relatively action packed third act, which has a bit of fun playing with the expectations of the undead. Thankfully, the heroes of this film were a likable bunch, who are given a bit of heart by their unified tragic backstory. The family are all shown to be lazy and flawed individuals, and there was more than a hint of Shaun and his friends from Shaun of the Dead with the group. Robbie has used the excuse of looking after his family for why he couldn't stay with Kate, Liv is convinced that social media is going to be her gateway to success, while Chi and Jay are lovable idiots. There was a nice dynamic between the group, and while I would be lying if I found a single bit of dialogue to be laugh out loud funny, it was low level amusing, such as how Chi is constantly getting words mixed up.

The first two acts of the movie are more drama based, with regards to Robbie dealing with the return of his ex. There are several neatly inserted flashbacks that give more weight to this main plot thread, showing characters back before their personal lives fell to bits, something instigated by the death of Robbie and Liv's mother. I thought the subplot of a masked gang using the zombie outbreak as a way to take over the country was underdeveloped. It wouldn't have taken much tweaking to remove this subplot entirely and not really loose anything, a focus purely on the zombies themselves would have been better served as there wasn't really too much on that in the first two acts. I guess it did lead to one of the more amusing lines when one of the group refers to these masked people as 'Slipknot'. There is a little bit of zombie action and it results in a couple of good scenes, one that takes place out in a large field was cool, and there was a scene later on from that, that felt more brutal than expected, thanks mainly to some nice sound effects.

Follow the Dead may take its time getting the actual undead making an appearance on screen, but I did like the characters enough that it was still fun hanging out with these characters during the long build up to horror finally occuring. Occasionally parts could be slightly hard to follow, with at least one key character dying and me not initially realising that had even happened, but mainly, the low level humour, combined with the emotional thread the characters shared, had me interested to see where this would end up. Wild Stag Productions' Follow the Dead has just found distribution with Indie Rights and is now streaming on Amazon.

SCORE:

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

This month felt like it really zoomed by, with the arrival of summer almost taking me by surprise. I have been neglecting my new PSVR2 unit, I need to get back into doing that as there are plenty of horror video games that are on there waiting to be tried out. Especially considering I have yet to play a scary game on the system. Blame goes to The Elder Scrolls Online that I continue to be addicted to.

A new teaser trailer has been released by MegaCity Media for sci-fi action adventure movie Space Goblins. Directed by Ams Overton, and starring Bill Hutchens (Curse of the Blind Dead), and Richard Blenkiron (Guardians of the Galaxy), this tells the tale of two brothers who find themselves pitted against hordes of terrorists and criminals that are attempting to overrun the universe.

The Only Ones is an upcoming indie comedy horror film, and an official teaser trailer and new poster art has been released. Directed by Jordan Miller (the award winning short film Three), this stars Nya Ford, Paul Cottman (Three), Emily Classen (The Forgiving), Zach Ruchkin (We Own This City), Nancy Anne Ridder (Scream), Christopher Inlow (Deer Crossing), Kim Krut (Dawn of the Dead), with voice over work by Brett Wagner (The Crazies). The press release doesn't reveal much, other than to say '...an exciting and original indie movie about distrust, isolation and what happens when situations spiral out of our control'.

Horror film Beneath Us All has been given an official release date of September 19th 2023, where it will be released on VOD and physical media from Painted Creek Productions and Deskpop Entertainment. This won Best Horror Fantasy Film at The International Horror Hotel, where director Harley Wallen was also nominated for Best Director, and Kaiti Wallen for Best Lead Actress in a Feature Film. Described as a 'retro fresh look at Vampires', this sounds like some hapless people will find themselves up against Viking vampires. The cast includes Sean Whalen (The People Under the Stairs), Maria Olsen (I Spit on Your Grave), Yan Birch (The People Under the Stairs) among others.

Dracula in the Hood is a new vampire film, directed by Will Collazo (Night of the Zomghouls). Telling a typical story, this has two best friends (David Perry and Collazo) forced to call on the skills of vampire hunter Van Helsing (Tim Hatch) after encountering Dracula. Filming is to begin this summer.

Author Shaun Hutson's novel Deadhead is now available in paperback and eBook formats. In this one, Nick Ryan, a troubled detective, finds his daughter kidnapped by a gang behind a series of disturbing murders. Nick begins a race against time to hunt down the people responsible and rescue his daughter. The press releases states '...is a haunting exploration of the depths of human depravity and the indomitable spirit of a father. With its relentless pacing and shocking twists, this novel is set to leave readers breathless and craving for more'.

'Haunting' is the new single from German synthpop project Meersein. The track is about memories of a love that is impossible to forget. The song is available on most digital platforms, including Apple Music.

Beach Day is an experimental fourteen minute long short horror film from Robin Johnson in their directorial debut. This stars Carly Jordan, Adam Grodman and Hannah Marie Fonder, and follows a young woman whose day of 'self care' at the beach goes to some strange places. The film completed post-production in February and has won awards at the Astoria Film Festival, Cooper Awards, and WRPN Women's International Film Festival among others.

Maid Droid is coming this summer from Cinema Epoch Classics. The synopsis has a man recovering from a break-up who decides to hire an android from the 'Maid Droid' agency. The creation is designed to serve the man's every wish, but soon it begins to learn human emotions, as well as recall memories from its past.

Finally for this month's round-up. Los Angeles based The God Bombs have released their latest single and video, 'Bleed', with the video described as a horror film about mental illness. Check out the gothic industrial track below. To me it sounds a little like Korn crossed with Placebo.

The Dogman Triangle: Werewolves in the Lone Star State (2023) - Documentary Review

The Dogman Triangle: Werewolves in the Lone Star State is the latest documentary to come from Small Town Monsters (Momo: The Missouri Monster). Having seen plenty of these now I know what to expect, and this did follow a familiar format. Directed by Seth Breedlove (Terror in the Skies), this one was co-hosted by independent researcher, Shannon LeGro (On the Trail of UFOs: Dark Sky) and author, Aaron Deese, with the documentary itself based on the book of the same name that Deese had written.

The idea of 'the dogman triangle' was created by Deese, and is basically a huge triangular area he has mapped onto Texas, from which there have been many sightings of 'dogmen'; upright walking dog or wolf creatures. Rather than the sightings being confined to within the triangular area, the sightings all seem to take place around the three points of the triangle. With 'werewolves' in the title, I expected that would take up much of the documentary, but aside from briefly mentioning about a dogman legend of a shaman who could transform into a creature, this mostly discusses the possible cryptoid in terms of it permanently being an animal like creature.

The usual format is used of a handful of people being interviewed about their encounters and research into the beast. These take the form of animated recreations, typically being made up of basic still images of the creature. At an hour and ten minutes long, this still felt at times like it was covering similar ground. The encounters while numerous, all felt kind of similar, and there was never much physical proof ever really captured. You have one very blurry piece of recorded footage, and an admittedly creepy sounding howl recorded, and that is about it. The evidence more depends you believing the people who are retelling their stories, and as always, they sure do seem to believe what they are saying. With many of the sightings taking place in the dead of night, or at glimpsed creatures from a fair distance away, it is easy to say these could have been mistaken sightings. Coming in as an outsider on the subject, LeGro takes a more skeptical stance than hosts usually do, though I got the impression she still wanted to believe what she was hearing.

The documentary is split into around three chapters, each one centered on the area around one of the three points. You get a history of when dogmen were first spotted, newspaper headlines from the mid 20th Century, and discussions of where the idea may have first originated from, such as European settlers bringing the stories across, and old Native American legends. The historical records of these dogmen were more exciting, but of course, being older, they are harder to verify.

While there didn't seem to be too much variation with the eye witness descriptions, this was still presented just as interestingly as Small Town Monsters docs always are. I loved the prologue sequence that was set out like an old tourist information video on wild animals that can be encountered in Texas, that was a fun way to begin things. I wasn't quite sure on the whole style this went for however, there was a washed out look that gave the footage throughout a dated seventies style film quality, I felt that even just for the interviews, this would have benefitted by given a more modern day quality in the footage. Still, an interesting topic for sure, with a lot of information contained within. The Dogman Triangle: Werewolves in the Lone Star State debuted on major streaming platforms from June 27th, from 1091 Pictures.

SCORE:

Avalon: Issue 1 and 2 (2022) - Zombie Comic Review

Created by Brandon Starocci, co-written by him and Alan Dingfelder, with art by Dimitris Nastos, Avalon is a zombie comic that currently has three issues out, and which states to 'bring originality and hold some traditional values'. I've checked out the first two issues to see if this is worth reading or not.

Each issue is made up of twenty seven pages, and immediately impressed with the great artwork. The panels are large and chunky, with characters with a slightly exaggerated style, but mainly look realistic, it brought to mind the artstyle from The Walking Dead comics. I assumed first issue would be setting everything up and I was correct. Much of the first issue takes place at a diner where a socially anxious teen, Mason is having a birthday meal with his family. From conversations and glimpses of people it becomes clear there is a zombie outbreak bubbling under the surface, something which is established with the final section of the comic, in which two policemen discover horror within the apartment of an elderly woman who hadn't been seen for a few days. While the comic is in black and white, this worked very well with how light and shadow are used, especially with the thrilling end to this issue. The decision to have blood still showing as red on the black and white images really made for a striking look.

'Blind Side' is the issue two name and propels events right on into delicious zombie outbreak. There is a duel storyline taking place here, with the two cops at the apartment building, and Mason and his family finding the diner they are at coming under attack. On the surface, admittedly only two issues deep, this seemed like a typical outbreak like situation, but the lovely art style, and the dynamic panels brought the story to life. Again, having blood be the only colour in this world gave a good stylistic look. From my time with the first two issues, Avalon seems like it is going to provide the key things that fans of zombies are after, characters who have the potential to become layered, and plenty of undead violence and bloodshed.

SCORE:

Scream Therapy (2023) - Comedy Horror Film Review

Described as a feminist comedy horror, Scream Therapy is the feature length directorial debut of Cassie Keet, who also wrote this. From the manic energy the characters gave out, and the amount of farce, this brought to mind the gay comedy horror film Summoning Sylvia. This shares with that film high excitement, but also a feeling that legitimate horror was never going to be key to the events playing out.

After splitting up with her long term boyfriend over differences in opinion of where the relationship should be headed, Avery (Harley Bronwyn) is convinced by her friends, Marybeth (Geri Courtney-Austein - Better Call Saul), Nora (Claire Dellamar), Dylan (Mandie Cheung), and Gillian (Rochelle Anderson), to head out to the desert. The plan is to rent a remote Airbnb and do some 'scream therapy', in order for Avery to confront her conflicted feelings. Their relaxing break is interrupted however by the arrival of a twisted incel cult, with cult members Jeremiah (Brian Flaccus) and Zachariah (Skyler Bible - The Book of Boba Fett TV series) taking the group hostage. They intend to sacrifice the girls as part of their teachings, but instead, after Zachariah accidentally kills himself with the sacrificial knife, his body becomes host to a demonic entity. This being then informs the five friends that they have until the break of dawn to offer up five sacrifices to it, otherwise their souls will be dragged to Hell.

With the five friends seeming to absolutely adore each other, and including a pregnant person among their number, it became very clear very early on that not much bad was going to happen to any of them. There is a body count that got more numerous than expected, but this is all served in the name of moving the story forward, with each victim being non essential side characters who more than likely were quite deserving of their fates. I like to keep an eye on the runtime to state when the proper horror begins, but it never really happened with this one. Sure, Zachariah is possessed relatively early on, but the demon that takes over him is actually a decent enough person. Obsessed with Nicolas Cage, this creature is just unhappy that whenever it is summoned to Earth it is always for such a short time that it never gets to do any of the things it really wants to do. Sticking with bad guys not actually being that bad, Jeremiah is soon revealed to be a very deluded and sheltered person, having lived his life being convinced by the cult leader, The Sovereign (David St. James - The West Wing TV series, Donnie Darko), that all the bad actions and beliefs he had were in fact right and noble. This leads to a feeling of very low threat.

I didn't find the protagonists to be likeable at all, I hated their over the top exaggerated performances, and the way they frantically gesture and squeal constantly. That isn't to say I wanted their characters to suffer harm, but nor did I find any moment of comedy here to hit in the slightest. The humour is inoffensive at least, there are no gross or sexual jokes, which is a good thing. The humour this goes for is geared towards how ridiculous the whole situation is. The feeling of farce persists all the way to the end, with large amounts of silliness occuring, yet tying up in a neat way. Special effects are sparse, most the kills occur off screen, and while there is some blood, it is used sparingly, and in the pursuit of necessity rather than being gratuitous.

Scream Therapy wasn't a film that appealed to me too much, I found the attempts at humour to be grating, and the energy of the five protagonists to be dialled up too high constantly. I will say that I didn't find this boring, I accepted early on it wouldn't be going anywhere I would like it to, but switching my brain to a lower gear helped. As a feminist horror this worked well, this felt like an evolution of the #metoo process, with the females presented here as much stronger and better than the flawed male characters, who nonetheless are not completely beaten down. Scream Therapy had its World Premiere at the Dances With Films Festival on June 23rd.

SCORE:

The Rotting Zombie's News Anthology for Thursday 18th June 2023

I hadn't intended to do a second news post this week, I think the humid weather has made me become more lazy than the zombie comic post I had originally intended to write.

'Doom Bass' duo Antania have released their debut album, 'Lividity', which is inspired by true crime stories. Each track on the album is said to represent a true story of murder and violence. The press release states the album is '...a slow, rhythmic bass-heavy release'. 'Lividity' is available on all digital platforms including Bandcamp.

Described as Doom crossed with Vampire Survivors, Vampire Hunters is a new retro first person shooter that was made in Brazil. It is due to make its worldwide debut on Steam Next Fest, but in the meantime there is a demo out for it (here). The press release states 'Relentless action, blood pumping music, and a darkly steampunk world combine to deliver a gun-crazy, fantastical FPS experience unlike anything else on Steam'.

Finally for today, British author Shaun Hutson's novel Progeny is now available in paperback. The story is about a man named Jake Porter, a successful psychiatrist and writer who is troubled by nightmares and hallucinations. As the man tries to figure out if what he is seeing are figments of his imagination or memories, he gets his lover, Dani, to help him search for the truth, their journey taking them to a run-down seaside town.

Necronomicon (2023) - Horror Film Review

Necronomicon is a supposedly H.P Lovecraft inspired horror that was written, directed and produced by Richard Driscoll. I love anything lovecraftian, as that author was a master of horror (sadly also a master of racism also, as it always has to be said). The link with this movie is tenuous at best, with the titular Necronomicon being the only thing taken from the mythos he crafted. It is unfortunate the state the film was released in, as truth be told, it really did feel unfinished.

George Carney (Steven Craine - Shark Attack) is a graphic novel writer, whose agent, Martha (Lysette Anthony) has recently been able to get her hands on a text that was so legendary that it was thought it might not even actually exist. This text, called the 'Necronomicon', was said to have been written by Aleister Crowley, and was said to have the ability to grant those who could translate its strange writings all the power they could want, due to a pact Crowley had made with Satan. Martha hopes it will serve as inspiration for George to write a masterpiece, but first, she needs him to travel to New Orleans in order to get the book authenticated. Unknown to the writer, he has been tricked into an occult plan to use his soul to resurrect Crowley.

This sure starts on an abysmal foot, the first twelve minutes were so bad that I wanted to stop the film there and then, despite having paid £4 to rent it. This opening section consists almost entirely of the most fake looking CG car chase I have ever seen. In it, a narrator explains how he collects souls for the devil, with the man green screened into the passenger seat of the car, which is being chased by infinite numbers of police cars. His indestructible vehicle cause any car he hits to spin off into the air or explode in a ridiculously fake looking way, at one point a car that flies into the air just vanishes into thin air, a few of the chase sequences are repeated. This narrator and his baffling unending car chase, also pops up at the end of the film, thankfully for a shorter time. I really do not know what on earth the point of that section was. The dialogue (including a long monologue that is played in its entirety twice) had nothing to do with what was happening on screen, if it wasn't that the rest of the film takes itself more seriously, I would have assumed Necronomicon was intended to be seen as a comedy horror. I get the impression that it was a struggle for the film even to fill its lean seventy minute run time, maybe this intro sequence, as well as the repeated chunks of dialogue were inserted to try and stretch out the film's length.

The main story of George being tricked into heading to New Orleans fared slightly better. There was a film noir feel to the events, with most scenes taking place at night, often at seedy locations such as a brothel, and dark dank bookshops. The protagonist was a bit of an idiot though, early on for instance, he basically is told that he is being tricked into an occult plan, and specifically warned not to meet the woman he had planned to see as part of his research, and definitely not to let her touch him. The very next scene, he wakes up in his hotel room in the dead of night to see a very suspicious woman there, and promptly has sex with her, ignoring the warning completely, with no reason given why. Rather than it ever feel like the character is being cleverly manipulated, he always acts in such a bone-headed way that he becomes deserving of anything that happens to him. Most scenes have George with one other character only, the limitations of the budget made obvious, and heavy use of green screen that make every part of the movie feel artificial.
The plot wasn't handled well, with even the main thread not really being resolved. There was a key event in the third act that happened almost completely off screen. One second a character is in quite a dire situation, then one CG gun blast later and they are off driving a car in a random location with no explanation for how they got there.

It really felt to me that Necronomicon was unfinished, from the excess fat used to beef up the runtime, to the awful script, bizarrely bad look of everything, and some terrible special effects that relied far to much on CG. While this does feature Michael Madsen, Tom Sizemore, and Sylvester McCoy (The Hobbit trilogy, Doctor Who) in minor supporting roles, it is not worth the journey to see them. There is little here to recommend, and certainly barely has anything to do at all with lovecraftian horror, a real shame. Necronomicon is now available from DRagon Studios and can be rented or bought here.

SCORE:

The Rotting Zombie's News Anthology for 20th June 2023

It is humid weather here in the UK at the moment, usually not an issue for me due to my day job being at an air conditioned lab, but last Friday that wasn't so much the case, love wearing a lab coat while melting in the heat! Anyway, I can see my inbox has plenty of things in it, so while I will be saving much of that for my monthly news round-up, so I will pluck three items for inclusion here.

With seemingly no sign of stopping, a third film has been announced in the found footage cannibal horror series, Human Hibachi. Following on from last year's Human Hibachi 2: Feast in the Forest, comes news that a third film, titled Human Hibachi: The Beginning is due for release later this summer. As that title suggests, this is a prequel, one that shows how cannibal restaurant owner Jin (Wataru Nishida) first got the idea for his special cuisine. Directed by the director of the previous movies, Mario Cerrito (The Listing), this also features Nicholas Ear and Illana Lo alongside Nishida. I really need to get around to watching the first film in this series.

A new trailer for Professor Kimmer's Initiation has been released. The synopsis tells of a Dr. Dan Kimmer whose life has taken a turn for the worse after his marriage is on the rocks, while his job as a professor at St. Elzear's College is threatened due to allegations of secual misconduct. After Dan turns down his secret lover's proposal, events transpire at the college that leads to conflict between religious groups and a secret Satanic society. The film was shot in Denver, Colorado and Los Angeles and stars Richard Tyson (Kindergarten Cop), Naomi Grossman (American Horror Story), Vernon Wells (Mad Max 2), Lauren Mayhew (Dexter), Jimmy Drain (Realm of Shadows), and Harley Wallen (Beneath Us All).

Finally for today, my best friend pointed me towards the new music video for 'LosT' by rock group Bring Me The Horizon. While the song isn't particularly to my liking, the music video is set out like a mini-movie. Taking place in a hospital and featuring the blood soaked frontman developing psychic powers, this looked pretty great. The video can be viewed on YouTube here.

All You Can Eat (2023) - Short Horror Film Review

All You Can Eat - A Toxic Burrito Story (to give it it's full title) is a thirteen minute short horror film that was directed and produced by Kieran Reed. Initially created as a proof of concept, taken from a scene from a feature length script, this was later adjusted to work as its own short film. Any fears this may turn out not to be much good were thankfully put to rest, as despite not ever really taking itself too seriously, this creature feature delivered on the gore, and had some ideas used in the filmmaking that made this stand out.

Verity Hayes stars as Nola Gombo, a waitress at 'Planet Burrito' who one day believes she has stumbled upon a strange conspiracy. Relating her tale to her co-worker (Matt O'Toole) who is out back taking out the trash, she tells him how she accidentally overheard an answer phone message for her boss, that seemed to suggest he was sourcing ingredients for his food from a dark cult (the message voiced by former lead vocalist of The Dead Kennedys, Jello Biafra). Her attempts to convince her uninterested co-worker are interrupted however by the arrival of the titular toxic burritos, creatures whose only desire is to feast...

Even before the short properly began I was drawn in by the great soundtrack, and an intro credit sequence that plays against a slow pan down from the exterior of the restaurant. This echoed the feel of B-movies, but with the blood and gore of early eighties video nasties mixed in. This, along with purposeful film grain to give the short an aged look, and an overall washed out look to the colours used in the movie created the vibe wonderfully. Nola is the protagonist with much of the film following her, whether in flashbacks, or in the present time sections. I thought the script was mostly good, the voice in the answer phone was suitably B-movie in style, and I found a lot of Nola's lines prior to the horror beginning, sounded quite natural with the way they were infused with random swear words. Admittedly, once the horror does begin her lines devolved into more typical speech you would expect from a low budget horror, likely part of the desire to appear like a film of the style this was going for.

There was a satisfying amount of blood and gore once things do take a turn for the worse, with much of the special effects practical in nature (though some CG is used, and while it was mostly obvious which effects these were, they never stood out enough to affect the flow of the film). The creature design was fun, the sharp teeth of the leech type creatures in particular looked great on camera. Talking of camera work, there were some neat ideas used, my favourite had what could have been a freeze frame shot instead playing out in slow motion, with a scream lengthened to a long enough sound that it began to blend into the background.

I had few complaints with All You Can Eat, it had a great look to it, some lovely special effects, a neatly designed creature, and some cool style, in particular I thought the end credits being designed to look like a restaurant menu was a fun idea. It may never entirely escape the shadow of having originally been a scene from a larger movie, but this was a great short that was a blast to watch.

SCORE:

The Whisper in the Woods (2023) - Short Horror Film Review

The Whisper in the Woods is a half hour long short horror film that mixes arthouse and the supernatural into an interesting mix. This comes from the ever reliable Jeff Payne (The Pale Faced Lady trilogy), someone who is the king of editing, and who had many roles on this film, including directing, writing, producing, editing, as well as being responsible for the cinematography. While this is again very nicely edited indeed, I did feel the subject matter and what occurs felt quite similar to the style of The Pale Faced Lady.

An intro poem tells the tragic story of a woman accused of being a witch, she was dragged from her house and had her eyes gouged out, before being killed by angry locals. They soon found she was even more dangerous in death, and now she haunts the remote woodland where she was killed, cursing all who dare go onto her land.
In present day, with her father having been terminally ill and recently dying in hospital, Hannah (Hannah Swayze) and her friend (Kasey Williams) have gone on a camping trip, so that Hannah can try and process her thoughts. Of course though, they have chosen the site that the blind witch roams, and soon the horror begins. Finding herself all alone, Hannah sets out to escape the area, eventually finding herself at a large remote abandoned mansion.

The majority of this is shot in black and white, with plenty of film grain and audio effects to give the impression this is an old horror film. Payne does plenty of what he liked to do in his previous supernatural films, having the antagonist hiding in plain sight in the back of shots. This is used to best effect when Hannah is exploring the old house in the second half of the short. Mixed in with this are a bunch of arthouse style nightmare sequences that show a variety of images in quick succession. Best, and most weird moment was when Hannah is having a nightmare about a doctor telling her, her dad is dying, with the actor playing the actor grinning maniacally at the camera after delivering his lines, while the shot lingers on him in real time for about a minute straight.
The plot was straight out of The Blair Witch Project, with this basically being a condensed version of that film's story, with the change that the witch is actually shown on screen, but otherwise almost hitting the same points in certain ways, and of course this was traditionally shot, not found footage. Swayze was fine as the protagonist, but she never really looked scared, it was more a look of curiosity on her face, and she didn't really seem to have any reaction to her good friend apparently being killed quite early on in the short.

This was just as well edited as I expected from Payne, and the effects used to simulate this being an old film was unexpected, a change in direction from the typically very clean filmmaking techniques used. I did think that storywise, this was a little too similar to The Pale Faced Lady, I also wish there had been more of a story, as often this felt more like it was going for atmosphere than trying to tell a decent yarn. Regardless, this was a good, well made short. The best thing about this is that The Whisper in the Woods can currently be viewed on YouTube for free.

SCORE:

Garth Marenghi's TerrorTome (2022) - Comedy Horror Book Review

I love Garth Marenghi's Darkplace, a very funny comedy horror show that was purporting to be showing lost episodes of an eighties horror TV series about a haunted hospital, starring (fictional) master of horror Garth Merenghi (Matthew Holness), intercut with talking head segments from the cast and crew. Last year, seeing that there was to be a book released I was very happy, and was interested to see how the purposeful over the top terribleness of that show would translate into book form. I almost got a chance to see Garth Merenghi at my local theatre doing a reading from his book as part of a promotional tour, several reasons why I didn't end up going, not least that I got pretty bad Covid the week he was coming to Northampton. Garth Merenghi's TerrorTome is an anthology of three separate tales of terror that sticks very pleasingly to the formula of Merenghi believing he is writing the most terrifying masterpiece ever, when in actuality the book isn't scary or edgy at all (again, this is all part of the joke).

Each of the three stories follow on from each other, and all star horror author Nick Steen (an obvious stand-in for the author) and his battles with his own creations that have bled forth from his extensive literary works. Helping him is his long suffering editor, Roz, whose depiction is a reflection of Marenghi's deep set sexism. I enjoyed all three stories, but the first one was definitely the weakest. 'Type-Face (Dark Lord of the Prolix)' sees Nick coming under the ownership of a cursed typewriter that states it will allow Nick to unleash his darkest works yet. After a year long bizarre sado-masochistic relationship with the typewriter, Nick comes to understand it has no intention of helping him out. With a cenobite figure that had typeface keys instead of pins in its face, this was a rift on Hellraiser. I liked the author interjects that included referring to sections at the end of the novel where some of his more extreme ideas got relegated to. This first story took up around ninety five pages and neatly sets things up for the other two.

'Bride of Bone' was the second story and ramped up the comedy for me. The sheer arrogance and self-belief that Nick has in everything he does makes for some funny moments, especially with Marenghi hellbent on making him seem amazing, but by doing so inadvertently showing how pathetic he is. In this one, a serial killer named Nelson Strain has escaped from the pages of Nick's novels. This killer doctor is enacting a plan to have himself a 'bride of bone' through use of his expertise on avascular necrosis. With Roz kidnapped by the man, Nick teams up with fictional detective Capello in order to mount a rescue. I thought the actual author really got into the flow of things with this one. The meandering and too in-depth way Nick has of talking really reminded me a lot of the style from the TV show, with Marenghi going into far too much detail and exposition constantly.

After another hundred pages it was time for final story, 'The Dark Fractions', which was also my favourite. This was an obvious parody of Stephen King's fantastic novel The Dark Half, and took the idea of a horror author having an evil persona come to life to ridiculous levels. Here, Nick finds himself up against an army of evil personas, his idea having been that his evil persona who was hunting him, also had their own evil persona that was hunting them, who in turn had their own evil persona hunting them, making for a convoluted story. This concerns Nick, who is being hunted by his dark fractions. He knows if he destroys all the copies of the unreleased novel the beings are from they will be destroyed, but his pride about how good his novel is, has him really not willing to do that. I love all the parts about Roz saying how the book was far too confusing, and Nick's gradual acceptance throughout the ridiculous situations he finds himself in (such as being attacked by a small army of cardboard cutouts of himself, and being trapped in a strange mirror world.

I thought Garth Marenghi's TerrorTome was a fantastic book, it remains very funny without ever seeming like it is being that on purpose. The absurd characters and surreal moments give the feeling of a unified world. Each of the three stories felt different to each other, with their similarities often mixed into the meta talk of the author not having enough different ideas. The unshakeable self belief of Nick make for a protagonist who you can't help but enjoy following, despite being very very flawed. Some of the writing was just so darn funny. I will end with a little excerpt from a car chase in 'The Dark Fractions' which just shows so well the style of silly writing with regards to the high stakes the author is describing, ' If Nick happened to clip a passer-by, it would mean an instant fine, licence points and a possible jail sentence, depending on the severity of damage to the wounded party, but Nick no longer had a choice'.

SCORE:

CounterAttack (2023) - Sci-fi Video Game Review (X-Box One)

I decided to ask for a review code for scrolling space shooter CounterAttack because it looked like a game that would be fun to play. I decided I would worry later about how to shoe-horn this into a horror blog. I have always loved the idea of scrolling shoot em-ups, yet it is fair to say I am damn awful at them. CounterAttack is designed to be a game that will take multiple attempts to beat, and with weapons and power-ups constantly being unlocked, and a branching pathway of levels to take, this was one game I kept returning back to time and time again.

This takes place in the far future, a time when humans have completely automated many of their more laborious processes. One day, a malfunction with the A.I core of a remote mining facility causes the legions of automated robots to be reprogrammed with a new mission. The A.I designates humanity a terminal threat and without warning unleashes a devastating war against them. Playing as a soldier in charge of a powerful state of the art experimental spaceship, you are tasked with first stopping the assault on Earth, before taking the fight to the rogue mining facility, with the aim of destroying the A.I core.

I had so much fun playing this, something which might not appear obvious when you first boot the game up. It is fair to say that the graphics and music are both quite poor. The thirty two levels take place against fuzzy backgrounds light on detail, the enemy design is uniformly dull, with the boss battles being against large angular spaceships that are completely forgettable. I guess being kind, you could say the uninspired enemy design could be a result of the A.I creating robots for functional reasons, rather than to look at all interesting. The music meanwhile sounds almost placeholder, arcady in sound, reminding me of the type of music you would hear from an X-Box Live Arcade game from the Xbox 360 days. It is darn good then how insanely addictive the gameplay loop is. As you play, you unlock various attachments for your ship, there are in fact over five hundred different attachments to unlock! In the three or four hours I spent playing this to eventual completion, I only unlocked around 7% of the overall unlocks! There are a lot of levels, but due to the branching pathways, I only experienced around half of those levels. Mainly you are just shooting everything in your path until you get to the boss, but some levels include asteroid fields, others allow you to pilot larger spaceships, one particularly difficult level had you navigating the narrow corridors of a space station.

Bullet hell this may not be, I would describe this more as enemy hell, in that you are frequently being swarmed by hundreds of very weak enemy ships at a time. It was so much fun blowing these all away with the impressive inventory you have. Enemies are constantly dropping power-ups, which you can sink into the various weapon systems your ship has. Each of the eight ships have options to level up speed, spread, side guns, beam, missiles, increase damage caused, plasma and drones. By the time you get through a few levels your tiny ship is spewing out screen filling ballistics that instantly decimate most of the enemies you come across. The game can be played online with up to four players at once, but I didn't try that part of the game.
I liked how dark and serious the story was, each level opens and closes with your commander giving the orders. This is all ruined somewhat by the eight different pilots you can choose from. Nearly every one is tonally off from the otherwise serious story. Atrociously written dialogue that condenses their dialogue into little soundbites sounding like they were written by a chatbot, with the teenage looking pilots standing out like a sore thumb from the otherwise dark feeling world.

This might be an ugly game with a forgettable soundtrack and boring enemy design, but it is saved by how darn fun and addictive it is. Every attempt, no matter how short lived, had me unlocking ever more useful attachments, while the eight ships all have their own unique special attacks that made them feel varied. Ignore the pathetic dialogue of the ship pilots and the story is perfectly fine. As it is, I loved my time with this, I can only imagine how much better this would have been if time had been dedicated to making the visuals and sound match how amazing the gameplay loop of CounterAttack is.

SCORE:

The Rotting Zombie's News Anthology for 13th June 2023

There always seems to be some reason lately that I am dialing in my blog commitments on the weekend. Last week it was due to my best friend visiting for the weekend, this time around it is due to a new season of Fortnite dropping. Playstation recently had a sale on its indie games, I picked up around ten of them, all of which were priced between 39p and £3.99. I am sure most, if not all of them will be trash, but thought it would be fun to play them for review on my site.

Dead Rise are a theatrical hard-rock/metal band from Southern California, they have recently released a new single, 'Gameover', this is a horror-influenced alternative metal/metalcore track with a fun video. In between shots of the band playing their track, there is a mini-film taking place that charts a young man on a quest to find his missing sister, coming across bizarre supernatural occurrences as he explores a house. 'Gameover' is the first single off of the debut album, 'Plague Fables'.

An official trailer for Luxe Films feature length horror Inherit the Witch has been released. Written and directed by Cradeaux Alexander, this psychological horror has now completed post-production. A fractured family reunite at some remote houses in a forest for a funeral, it is there that a secret is revealed about an occult pact the family have with an ancient evil.

Jumping on the bandwagon of Cocaine Bear comes Cocaine Cougar that has recently released on Amazon Prime and Tubi. Directed by Dustin Ferguson (Mega Ape), this follows a lethal black cougar after it escapes from a Los Angeles lab while high on cocaine. It features Dawna Lee Heising (Blade Runner), Jonathan Nation (The Sixth Sense), Tyrone Tann (Starship Troopers), Erik Anthony Russo (Hell of the Screaming Undead), and Rocky DeMarco (Demolition High).

My Cherry Pie (2021) - Horror Film Review

My Cherry Pie is an Australian horror film that was written by Addison Heath (Vampires Prefer Black), and co-directed by them and Jasmine Jakupi. It's off kilter feel brought to mind early Peter Jackson movies like Bad Taste, while its plot felt like an indie version of House of 1000 Corpses.

Freddy (Sotiris Tzelios), Green (Tim Jason Wicks), and Jack (Dylan Heath) are three low level criminals who are on the run after Freddy stabbed some people to death shortly after being released from prison. Out in the country, Jack's car breaks down, but they are soon spotted by local man Edwin (Glenn Maynard), he offers the trio a place to spend the night at his property, with the promise that come morning he will tow their car to a mechanic. He leads them to his home, a former hospital, now converted into a place where him and his niece, the titular Cherry (Trudi Ranik), lives. With it at first seeming that the criminals might decide to get up to no good, it soon becomes clear that maybe Edwin and Cherry are the more dangerous of the two groups, and that they might have something to do with a notorious serial killer operating in the area.

This had a relatively small cast in terms of characters that get decent screen time, but it featured more than one stand-out actor. The characters here are larger than life, with a feeling of comedy to the exaggerated reactions and behaviour of the group. An early highlight were the three criminals and their behaviour with each other. Suit wearing Jack was constantly stressed and complaining from his very first appearance, Green was forever more chilled out, giving the two a humorous odd-couple feel. From the moment Tzelios' character had a shave he was another character who shined with his reckless feel that felt like he could erupt into violence at any moment, though he seldom did. Later it was Maynard's Edwin who began to shine, especially with one scene in which he retells a story about his family's tragic past. Due to the protagonists being bad people, when the horror starts it felt less serious than it could have, while not evil people, they were chaotic idiots, and what happens was darkly amusing at times.

There was quite a bit of blood throughout My Cherry Pie, with even the less stabby kills leading to lots of the red stuff. A hand is severed, heads are cut off, and axes are stuck blade deep into characters heads, all practical effects, and all looking deliciously wonderful.
The plot itself was quite simple, and it doesn't really try and do any deep twists. When I saw the serial killer in the prologue, I already had a good idea of who would be under the plague doctor outfit, I was right, but this reveal happens not long into the second act, and so I don't believe it was ever meant to be some big secret. I liked how this initially felt like two different films, comedic crime thriller, and crazed slasher flick, the two merge together in a way that really worked at merging the two worlds together, with a key dinner scene being when it really felt like the film was coming together in a satisfying way.

My Cherry Pie was an entertaining horror that had a great mix of eclectic characters, while not skimping on blood and guts. Some elements didn't work quite so well (such as the two twins), but having likeable, yet also deserving victims with their larger than life personas made much of the movie fun to experience. My Cherry Pie came to region free Blu-ray on 30th May from VIPCO & BayView Entertainment.

SCORE:

Look Up 2 (2023) - Short Horror Film Review

I have a friend staying over this weekend (at the time of writing), so trying to keep my blog work to a minimum I decided to grab a random short horror film from YouTube to review. While Look Up 2 might not win any points for originality, it does however win points by me for not featuring the typical jump scare ending so many films of this type seem determined to include.

Confusingly, while it's titled Look Up, the actual short itself starts with the title card of Look Up 2. Not being able to locate this on IMDB I couldn't confirm the actual title of this one. One dark night a man discovers a strange photo in his apartment. It shows a strange creature squatting on top of a wardrobe, which the man realises with horror is his own wardrobe. Having to check, he is relieved to discover there is nothing there, and soon he falls asleep. Waking up at some point later, he is startled to see the creature has vanished from the photo...

At four minutes this tells a concise story effectively. I thought the protagonist came across as looking stoned rather than scared, but aside from that it was fun to follow where this was naturally leading up to. Personally I would have had the apartment have more detail to it, the wardrobe was white, as was the walls behind it, making it appear very nondescript, so I didn't immediately assume it was taken from his home. Still, the make-up on the somewhat generic looking creature was cool, and this did work well as a little slice of horror. Look Up 2 can be viewed on MKofficial, which is the YouTube channel of Murat Kiziroglu.

SCORE:

The Rotting Zombie's News Double Bill for Thursday 8th May 2023

I'm back again for a second dose of contaminated news wastage for the toxic consumption of the depraved. Hopefully there is enough left in my news sack to facilitate a mere duo of stories.

Cruel Summer 1 and 2 are now available on Blu-ray from Scream Team Releasing. Directed by Scott Tepperman, Cruel Summer is about a crazed killer targeting an eighties themed pre-graduation party at a secluded lake house. Cruel Summer 2 sees the survivors of the lake house massacre creating a stage production of their experience, with the hope this will allow them to face their trauma. Unluckily for them, it appears the crazed killer is back, determined to finish what they started first time around.

Not so horror based, yet no less interesting, FreqGen (artist/producer Klayton) has released a new single, 'FreqGen Style'. The press release states this '...is an aggressive fast paced Techno piece drawing in 90s electronica inspired elements. The energetic track never slows down, keeping the kinetic momentum from start to finish.' FreqGen Style' is out now from FiXT.

Inside No. 9: Series 8 (2022-23) - Comedy Horror TV Show Review

Inside No.9 is a long running British comedy horror anthology series that started back in 2014. Each episode tells a stand alone story, often mixing horrific and sorrowful events with jet black humour, and often ending with a twist finish. It comes from Steve Pemberton and Reece Shearsmith, who I knew from classic The League of Gentlemen sitcom, and the entertaining Psychoville series (from which the idea for this show was born from), both of which similarly mixed grotesque and disturbing themes with comedic elements. It is only in the past few years I began to watch Inside No.9 in earnest, thanks to my father who found it on his own and recommended we start watching it together. Season 8 is the penultimate one, with season 9 currently stated to be where things will end, luckily for me I do have a load of old episodes that I have yet to see.

Every anthology needs a connecting theme, and the core one with this show is that each episode takes place within (as the title suggests) a place that is numbered '9'. Typically that has came to be the address of a building, but there have been episodes that take place within say a dressing room, or as can be seen in this season, a church, and a game show that uses a variation of that number. As always, there are six episodes in this season, typically around half an hour long, and as always, Pemberton and Shearsmith often play leading roles in the episodes.
Serving as both series opener and a Christmas Special was 'The Bones of St Nicholas'. This sees Dr. Jasper Parkway (Pemberton) having booked an overnight stay at a reportedly haunted church on Christmas Eve. Obviously there with a hidden ulterior motive, his plans are hampered by the arrival of Posy and Pierce (Shearsmith), a sociable couple also staying overnight. This one had a good idea to it, with lots of things that happen that are given much greater importance at the mind bending twist. While it appeared to be a good episode, it was ruined somewhat for me and my dad with the arrival of my sister in the room, who without asking, switched it off so she could watch the King's speech. By the time we returned to watch the final five minutes, the atmosphere was ruined through no fault of the show.

While the Christmas Special was the first episode in the season, it wasn't until April 2023 that the series began in earnest. 'Mother's Ruin' sees brothers, Edward (Shearsmith) and Harry (Pemberton) break into their childhood home in order to perform a Satanic ritual to try and summon the spirit of their deceased mother. In life, she was the wife of an East End gangster, and it was believed she had hidden his stolen wealth, so they hope to get the location of this out of her spirit. However, the arrival of the home's current owners leads to more real horror, as they too had links to the criminal underworld. This includes one of the most gruesome scenes shown on camera in the show up to this point, as well as a great side character in the form of Reggie, played by Phil Daniels who I last saw in Al Murry's sitcom Time Gentlemen Please quite a few years back. Combing the supernatural with more grounded horror led to a fun episode that ended on the most perfect ambiguous note.

Inside No.9 has often featured less serious, farcical episodes, and 'Paraskevidekatriaphobia' is a prime example. Shearsmith stars as Gareth, a man with a deathly fear of Friday the 13th, and charts one nightmare day in which his decision to bunk off work and hide away at home on one such date leads to a series of increasingly far fetched events happening. My father liked this one, and while I also enjoyed it, it was lacking some of the more horror based feelings of others, and with a very predictable finish I didn't rate it as one of the better episodes in season 8.

'Love is a Stranger' is the fourth episode and for me was entertaining due to it taking place in Northamptonshire, which is where I live in real life. Set against the backdrop of a serial killer (dubbed 'The Lonely Hearts Killer') on the loose in the area, this sees a lonely woman, Vicky (Claire Rushbrook) having a series of online dates, desperately seeking that special someone, but coming up against a series of terrible people. I liked the format of this, with the first half being the series of online speed dating meetings. It may have been obvious where this was going, but it presents certain characters in a somewhat sympathetic light.

Penultimate episode, '3 by 3' tried something very different. Initially previewed as a typical sounding episode with a different name, when this came to air, it was presented as if that episode had been cancelled and instead a new game show was being shown in its place. This very nearly led to me and my father not even watching it, he had already deleted the episode before my quick Google search led to the reveal this was an Inside No.9 episode disguised as something else entirely. The first episode to not feature Shearsmith or Pemberton in any capacity, the hidden effect was ruined by me having had to research this. If I hadn't done that, we wouldn't have even watched it. It takes the form of a genuine appearing new game show, hosted by Lee Mack (playing himself), in which three teams of three answer questions with the hope of taking home a big cash prize. As the episode plays out, it becomes increasingly clear that there is something weird about one of the teams. My issue with this one is that the actual quiz was pretty dull, with the weirdness creeping in at a glacial pace, that plus the ending having accidentally been ruined during my search to find out if this was an actual episode or not, led to it being a miss for me.

Final episode was also by far the darkest, with a horrific twist that stayed with me long after I had seen the episode. 'The Last Weekend' sees gay couple, Joe (Pemberton) and Chas (Shearsmith) heading to their weekend holiday home on the cusp of their nine year anniversary. With Joe battling terminal cancer, and a bittersweet feel to the sadness the couple are experiencing, this seemed like it was going to be the most emotional one of the season. Without ruining things, the rug is pulled out from under the viewer in the most shocking way, leading to a finish that has haunted me quite a bit since! A great way to end the series.

This was a great season, I may not have thought the experiment with '3 by 3' succeeded, but outside of that there wasn't much to dislike here. Expertly written, with always fantastic performances, I eagerly look forward to seeing what we get with the final season of Inside No.9.

SCORE: