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

It is the end of a very expensive month, I really took advantage of the spookiest month of the year, spending silly amounts on skins for Fortnite and Call of Duty: Modern Warfare II, as well as attending my first ever scare maze. I had the third annual Halloween viewing party with my family, this year was Halloween III: Season of the Witch, and I would say it was another success. On the video game side of things, the remake of Dead Space got added to Game Pass. While it feels very familiar, it is still a great game to play, it wasn't broken and so it wasn't really fixed.

Dracula, A Comedy of Terrors is a stage play playing in a limited engagement at New World Stages (340 West 50th Street) in New York through January 7th. Directed by Gordon Greenburg, this features among its cast Jordan Boatman, Arnie Burton, James Daley, Ellen Harvey and Andrew Keenan-Bolgar. The press release states 'Bram Stoker's horror classic gets a riotous makeover in this lightning-fast comedic reimagining that celebrates goth, camp, sexuality, and the magic of live theatre'. Over ninety minutes, this has Dracula as a 'pansexual GenZ...in the midst of an existential crisis' whose encounter with earth scientist Lucy Westfeldt, has him meeting his match for the first time. Tickets are on sale at Telecharge.com (212) 239-6200.

Fear Village is a new haunted attraction that is coming to New Jersey in Autumn of 2024. This is a new indoor immersive haunted attraction that aims for a more interactive experience, with the press release stating it is a mix of mystery room with more traditional Halloween haunt, that also features a theatrical element. This comes from award-winning filmmaker Mario Cerrito (Human Hibachi, The Listing) and Marketing Macabre owner, Michael Joy. FX artist, Nick Benson (A Nightmare on Elm Street 4: The Dream Master, Tremors, The Blob) will be adding his special effects to the project.

Paradies and Paradies 2 are a horror/thriller franchise that is on BET+. Directed by Dale Stelly and starring Jhone Y. Lucas, Paradies sees a group of contest winners encountering an evil force on the tropical island of Belize. Paradies 2 has a new group of tourists encountering the same demonic evil. The films had their premiere on BET+ on October 26th.

Some music news now, Kill Shelter have released an official video for 'In Decay [V]' featuring Antipole and Delphine Coma. It is taken from Damage [V], which features new versions and remastered tracks from the critically acclaimed album Damage that released in 2018.

The Pumpkin Man is now available on Blu-ray/DVD/VHS from Scream Team Releasing. This Halloween themed horror is about a small town with a local legend about the titular creature. Thought just to be myth, a girl and her friends comes to realise it is all true.

The directorial debut of Jared Safier comes to BET+ in the form of Stay Out. This horror is about a businessman who inherits his aunt and uncles estate after their passing. It turns out the couple were into black magic in life, and with his death, the uncle hopes to be able to possess the businessman in order to get revenge on those that murdered him.

I had originally intended to do a bumper news round-up seeing as it is Halloween today and everything (happy halloween!). Time has been flying through my hands like grains of sand, and so this shall be the final news story for today. The Patrolman arrived on streaming, VOD on October 24th. This comes from Ray Martin Films and stars Johnath Davis (Terrifier 2), Ray Martin, Damon Forte, and Tony Stavola. This horror comedy is about a veteran detective and his partner who are up against a serial killer, with it becoming to seem like the killer might be one of them.

Home Made (2008) - Horror Film Review

If I did awards here at The Rotting Zombie then I think the delirious slasher Home Made would certainly achieve one. Not for anything good mind, as this has the dubious honour of being the most boring horror film I have watched this year. Written, directed, edited, produced, starring, and with music by Jason Impey (A Taste of Phobia segment 'Coprophobia', Faces of Snuff segment), this very indie horror could have been entertaining due to how poorly made it all is combined with its tongue being firmly in its cheek. The feature length runtime however meant that I was willing this to be over with long before the end credits rolled.

Impey stars as Jack Hess, a youthful looking egotistical serial killer who believes the snuff movies he makes of his exploits are the height of horror. Over one long day he goes on a rampage, killing various random strangers he encounters in woodland.

Home Made is extremely barebones when it comes to plot. So little happens here that it makes some of the later Friday the 13th movies feel like Shakespeare in comparison. I assumed the initial musical intro was just that, an intro. When ten minutes had passed and events still appeared to be the background to a dull music video I became slightly concerned, though at the end of this ninety minute movie I finally accepted that this was the vibe going for. From the opening moments to the end of the film, the same droning never ending music was playing. There are a few blissful moments here and there where the music cuts out for a few moments, but the same repetitive tune soon comes back. Even sat here in silence writing this review I can still hear the music playing in my head. I don't know if the music was consistent to mask the lack of story and dialogue, but with acting this bad it was probably needed. Outside of one actually entertaining monologue from the villian towards the film's end, there was barely more than a minute or two of dialogue during the whole movie. When characters did speak it felt like they were making up their lines as they went along, typically speaking in the most wooden way possible.

I'm almost convinced this was intended to be a comedy, and there are signs that point to that being the case. From the one default punch sound effect being used repeatedly (giving a 'slapping' noise instead of a 'punching' noise), to characters who are unable to run more than a few paces without falling over, and Hess himself who has some impressively stupid looking rolls along the ground (not even mentioning his faux American accent), this never looked anything other than terrible. I imagined at first the titular Home Made referred to the killer making snuff movies, but I think it might actually refer to the fact this horror did look like it was home made from a fan of horror films rather than an actual creator. To be fair to Imprey, he has an impressive number of films under his belt, with IMDB stating he has directed over a hundred films. For all its moments of comedy, these humorous moments get lost within the never ending tedium utilised to stretch this horror short into a feature length slog. Special mention goes to the scene in which Hess is chased for several minutes by a man angry that the killer has murdered his girlfriend. Upon eventually catching the madman, he punches him once, tells him to "f**k off!" and then walks off!
You would hope the kills would be the highlight, but despite Hess stating about how his kills are all in gruesome details on camera, the actual film often has the actual violence taking place slightly off camera, so that it is implied rather than shown. Maybe for the best, as one later kill sees Hess pulling what appears to be slices of sandwich ham out of his victims chest, while his main weapon of choice appears to be a blunt bread knife.

If Home Made had leant into the comedy more and cut out huge chunks of monotonous chases then this might have been more endurable. With long sections with literally nothing of note happening, I was ready to claw my eyes out, something only the more entertaining final fifteen minutes prevented. I will give kudos for the way this film ends though, Hess's final line was funny. I will end by saying, I guessed the filming location of Milton Keynes, so a shout out to myself. It was cool seeing a horror set in a nearby town to mine, just wish it had been better! Home Made has been released by VIPCO and BayView Entertainment on the streaming platform, Plex.

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The Hive (2023) - Horror Film Review

The Hive might just be the strangest home invasion film I have ever seen. Written and directed by Jared Allmond, this has a central twist so obvious that I can't believe it was ever intended not to be realised. It made for a very interesting premise, though the unlikeable protagonists meant they were quite hard to root for.

Albie (Timothy Haug) and his wife, Penny (Christie Griffin) are in the death throes of their marriage. This is mainly due to Albie being supremely self centered and egotistical, oblivious to his wife's wants and needs. With her mother looking after the children, the two go out to the opera. Arriving back home later that evening, they are startled to find a very strange acting pair in their home who insist that it is theirs. After threatening them with a gun, the couple retreat to Penny's nearby sisters house, who convinces them to return and try and get video evidence of the intruders, as for some reason, neither the next door neighbour or local police want to get involved. After sneaking into their home they are swiftly captured by the strangers and tied up, and then subjected to some cruel interrogation, with the questions making no sense to either of them. Independently, both attempt to escape, but their relationship issues are always at the forefront, hampering their escape attempts.

While I feel it was obvious who the strangers actually were (again, I am almost certain this was intended), the film brought to mind several different movies, some of which added to the atmosphere and some which detracted from my experience. The strangers (played with creepy perfection by Miles Taber and Julianne Ruck) have some nonsensical questions they are asking the couple, with the often repeated main one of "Where is the access port to the collective hive mind?" This key miscommunication makes up a lot of the plot of the movie, with the strangers unable to realise that their questions are making no sense, and the captured couple baffled as to what on earth is being asked of them. There are a handful of other characters, but it is these four who the focus is on. The strangers are perpetually smiling and cheerful acting, even as they torture the pair (primarily by the use of some type of Vulcan nerve pinch type assault), of course bringing Smile to mind. As to the couple, their doomed relationship did come across as believable, with moments where it seems they might actually be brought closer via their shared experience, but then these are ruptured again, typically by awful Albie, a mostly pathetic person who has an inflated sense of his own worth. While Penny wasn't as bad a person, some of the things she does, especially later in the film, are really bone headedly stupid, meaning that neither character I cared about.

This worked as a low key Invasion of the Body Snatchers type story, also bringing to mind the indie horror, They Look Like People. Sometimes the indie nature of The Hive brought it down slightly, such as the third act which I feel would have benefitted by more characters being present to really ramp up the threat level. The bizarre way of talking the strangers have felt right out of Dude, Where's My Car? but this led to some intentionally amusing moments. I did like the back and forth the core four characters had with each other. Special effects are used sparingly, but when they are there they looked pretty great truth be told. I liked the arthouse style quick snap moments of character's heads in pitch black screaming, was a cool technique used several times, and I thought the plot was interesting enough that you would want to stick around to the end.

Despite not really liking either of the two protagonists, I thought that The Hive was an interesting diversion to a typical home invasion film. Blending sci-fi with horror worked well, and the story, while well trodden, was still engaging to watch. The Hive releases on Cable and Digital VOD today, October 27th.

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The Rig: Season 1 (2023) - Horror TV Show Review

For various reasons I'm writing this initially on a notepad rather than an actual PC, so I don't know exactly if this will be the same size as a normal review. This year, me and my best friend decided to start a tradition of suggesting one show a year for the other to watch, before the year ends. My request was the criminally underrated Resident Evil TV series, while her suggestion was British sci-fi horror drama series The Rig (created by David MacPherson). Knowing nothing about it, at first I assumed it was some kind of pure drama, but it wasn't long before I was surprised to see elements of horror creeping in at the sides.

This takes place on an oil rig off the coast of Scotland, whose crew are meant to be ending their rotation. Before they are able to leave however, a strange mist appears, which coincides with the rig losing all communication with the outside world. It is soon realised that the mist carries with it something dangerous, with people who are exposed to it becoming infected with some sort of pathogen. This infection not only heals any wounds the person infected might have, but also seems to meld their consciousness with something ancient that rests beneath the waves.

Having known nothing about this, when horror elements begin to sprout up, I fully expected this to basically be The Mist but set on an oil platform. This didn't turn out to be the case, as that mist is only really a first act problem. The horror wasn't as pronounced as I had hoped, but that didn't change my enjoyment of this series. The Rig consists of just six episodes, each roughly fifty minutes long. The cast of characters were a varied bunch, despite there being a large number of crew on the rig, it is an elevated section of this crew that get brought to the forefront, with the others just existing as background characters. Chief of these is Iain Glen (Game of Thrones TV series, Resident Evil: Extinction) as Magnus, the boss of the rig, and a fatherly figure to his crew. His second in command, the somewhat ruthless Rose (Emily Hampshire - Mother!) shares some secrets about the future of the rig with Magnus. As well as the rigs doctor, other notable characters included the antagonistic Hutton (Owen Teale - A Discovery of Witches, Game of Thrones TV series), played to perfection by Teale, and Baz (Calvin Demba), one of the younger crew members who is the first to be infected, and who spends the season working for the unknown thing beneath the rig.

The meat of the season has the management trying to work out what is happening, while the infected work on their own potentially disruptive plan of their own. There are some exciting curveballs, such as a nearby oil rig exploding, and a brief phone connection to the mainland suggesting things may be worse than they appear.

The rig exterior is represented as CG, but mainly it looked decent. Later in the season when outside is featured more, it becomes noticeable that it is primarily CG in a lot of occasions, but it was never distracting in the slightest. Same goes for the use of green screen on occasion. The sets look authentic and are full of details, and special effects, such as floating spores looked good throughout.

This was a show for the modern world we live in, eco-horror whose location of an oil rig was relevant, with this being a 'what if...' scenario of if one day Earth fought back against all the damage humans have done to it. Despite not going as far into horror as I had hoped, I loved the show. It did the dangerous thing of setting up a second season, but thankfully for once this has already been confirmed to be happening. It will be interesting to see where this heads next. The Rig can currently be streamed on Amazon Prime Video.

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Boy Makes Girl (2023) - Sci-fi Drama Film Review

Boy Makes Girl is a sci-fi tinged drama that doesn't feature any moments of real horror. Of course, if I had read the synopsis before hand that would have been obvious. Written and co-directed by Mark Elias, alongside Mark David, this heartfelt drama uses sci-fi as part of its storytelling, but it isn't really the main aspect of this.

Aaron Barnes (Elias) is an autistic I.T genius who desperately wants to experience what it is to love. After some failed dates, in which his eccentric behaviour puts off his dates, he comes to a unique decision, to create the perfect girlfriend using his knowledge of A.I and robotics. That strangely turns out to be the easy part, with his newly created girlfriend, Emma (Meeghan Holaway) outwardly resembling a real human perfectly. Initially things go well for them, but when she begins to exhibit behaviours outside of her programming, Aaron struggles to retain control. Elsewhere, Aaron forms an unlikely friendship with an elderly man, the cantankerous Ben (Paul Dooley), whose rough and selfish ways help Aaron understand people far more than his own detailed notes ever did.

The elephant in the room is Emma, with her creation really glossed over. There is no real explanation how he was able to make her, though he already had a working A.I construct, so that part was explainable enough. It was interesting seeing her transformation from a person who acted just as 'robotically' as Aaron, to becoming more and more integrated into the world. Her change does trigger an eventual transformation in the man however. Ignoring the part about a lifelike robot swiftly being created, the film is really quite grounded with the events that happen. The film is a journey for Aaron, his autism has made him feel forever isolated and apart from the rest of society, unable to understand people's actions, and taking many things literally. This does fall into stereotypes, with Aaron's genius intellect a familiar trope that autistic characters in films and TVs often display. Moments, such as when he is walking around with mathematical equations floating around the world reminded me a lot of similar instances in the hospital drama, The Good Doctor. His behaviour is very typical, but there is a get out clause in that Elias himself is on the autism spectrum, so his portrayal comes from a place of love.

It often felt like things were going to take a turn for the truly dark, there was a definite Black Mirror type feel to how wrong things begin to go for the hapless protagonist, but the stakes are never as bleak as they sometimes appeared to be. One scene for example, I really believed he was about to get beaten up, but the scene ended up going in a slightly less nasty direction. His lowest point might have been where a typical Black Mirror episode would head, but the third act really is a path of redemption, with this keeping an optimistic and feel good aspect to Aaron's journey. It may share some similarities with Black Mirror, but this is Black Mirror-lite, with everything working out for the best, while important life lessons are learnt. The acting of the core cast was all fine for the story being told, I thought bar owner Geneva (Saundra McClain) was a lovely character, and Dooley's performance made for a character that slowly became more likeable as the movie went on.

This may not have been a horror, but I didn't mind my time with this. It is nice to get some positivity in films sometimes, as that is something horror is often lacking, so the feel good culmination of events was something I did enjoy, even if there were many, many awkward moments along the way. The award winning Boy Makes Girl was released on October 24th on VOD platforms, including iTunes and Apple TV.

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Unveiled (2022) - Short Horror Film Review

Ryan Graff's (Black Moon) short two minute horror film Unveiled was something I was excited to watch. Short films are always something that can be hard to get right. In terms of the filmmaking this was excellent, but it falls into the same trap of many short horrors, by being entirely predictable.

A woman (Nika Khitrova) is home alone one night, brushing her teeth in the bathroom. Seeing her shower curtain move she decides to investigate, scared that someone might be hiding behind the curtain, but is relieved to find no one there.

I had no problem with either the short length, the actress, or the directing, it was more that I feared this would play out the same way so many of these short horror films do. Unfortunately it didn't do anything to surprise or delight, being a variation on a well trodden story. This may well be down to me having seen too many short horror films, as Unveiled has been nominated in seven festivals and has won a few awards at some of them. Kudos to Graff, whose explanation of his idea for this film doesn't appear to have been lazily thought up, but based off of particular fears he himself had as a child.

If I hadn't seen the same story countless times before I would have enjoyed this a whole lot more, but at least this was one of the better made versions of this story, making for a somewhat effective little micro-horror. Unveiled will be available to watch from October 31st on the BronxNet Channel in New York and on their BronxNet streaming website, with it repeated on November 1st. On November 1st it will also become available on Ryan Graff's own Vimeo channel.

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Lovely, Dark, and Deep (2023) - Horror Film Review

For someone who writes a horror blog, I never often give horror films the optimal condition with which to view them. I'm not really a night person, so typically end up watching films in the light of day. The stars aligned and for various reasons I ended up watching the Teresa Sutherland (staff writer on Midnight Mass TV series) written and directed Lovely, Dark, and Deep late at night. I think that really added to the experience of this slow burn isolationist horror.

Ranger Lennon (Georgina Campbell - Bird Box: Barcelona) has gotten the opportunity to become a forest ranger at a remote outpost in the backcountry of a large national park. This is something she has wanted to do her whole life, due to an incident that happened a long time ago. It isn't long into her new position when she is made aware of a missing woman in the area she is stationed. After calling in a rescue team, she is ordered to stay at her ranger station, but ignoring those orders she heads out to try and help, and ends up locating the missing woman, who, in a confused state questions whether Lennon is real or not. Rather than be pleased with her rescue, her superior, Zhang (Wai Ching Ho - Daredevil TV series) confines her to her outpost, informing her she is no longer required at the park. Once again ignoring orders due to her own personal mission, Lennon sets out into the forest, and as a results somehow ends up getting trapped in a kind of nightmare realm where reality and horrors become intermingled.

This was a slow burn horror, but one that got that sometimes hard to balance aspect correct. Often slow burn can be associated with tedium, but with a mysterious protagonist whose motivations are kept shrouded, there was never a feeling of boredom. Lennon spends large parts of the movie completely alone, but the actress is able to carry the weight of the picture well. Lovely, Dark, and Deep creates horror from the feeling of total isolation. In the remote forest, especially at night, every sight and sound buzzes the imagination. This leads to some tense scenes where Lennon comes across as quite scared. These night scenes have some of the most unsettling moments of the film, such as when she is in camera front and centre, while unseen to her a figure in white starts climbing down a huge tree in the background, or when she glimpses the legs of a figure on all fours, crawling behind her tent. Even when Lennon is surrounded by people you can still sense the isolation, she isn't well liked, linked to rumours about her that the film never explicitly addresses, but gives enough hints for you to piece things together yourself.
A core aspect of the story is about the vast numbers of people who go missing in national parks each year. This is something the protagonist has a vested interest in, parts of which are revealed via repeating arthouse style quickly edited sequences of a little girl running through the trees, as well as the creepy podcasts Lennon listens to about the many unexplained disappearances.

The middle of the movie is where this might begin to lose people. From roughly the halfway mark, Lennon is plunged into a prolonged nightmare sequence full of all sorts of terrors. It starts with her inexplicably finding herself in an area of the park many miles away from her ranger station, beginning her descent into twisted time loops, sinister doppelgangers, and ever changing dream logic corridors that lead to various critical moments from her life with a horror twist. This part at times felt a bit like a Buffy the Vampire Slayer episode, but also had a feel of the iconic Playstation 4 video game demo P.T, especially with the repeated audio loops coming out of a radio. Over the whole film audio loops are used to great effect, with Lennon's personal radio in particular being an effective piece of horror due to the unreliable and often twisted messages coming out of it. I did find this whole nightmare sequence a bit confusing and frustrating to follow, but the film pulls itself together for a memorable ending. The final sequence was inspired, the final shot heading upwards into the sky above the character, until she becomes a little dot in the vastness of the forest, was a great way to end things. I liked that whatever evil is lurking in the woods is never explained, with the goal being not so much confronting or defeating this evil, but giving Lennon the ability to move on from her past traumas for better or for worse.

Lovely, Dark, and Deep looked fantastic throughout, the camera work, especially when it comes to filming the trees was impressive, such as the opening shot that was upside down, so made it seem like the forest was bursting forth out of the sky. I'm surprised I actually got the gist of the plot, as often when it is left up to the viewer to figure things out I can be left a bit lost. I might have felt the whole nightmare part of this went on a bit long, but the film's conclusion, and the overall high quality kept me feeling good about what I had seen. Lovely, Dark, and Deep has its UK premiere at Frightfest at 14:00 on Saturday 28th October.

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Pandemonium (2023) - Horror Anthology Film Review

Pandemonium is a French horror film written and directed by Quarxx. It was over half an hour into this before it revealed itself to be a secret anthology film, rather than just the one story being told. The quality remains high throughout, while the jet black nihilism is often interspersed with some darkly comedic moments.

Nathan (Hugo Dillon - The Walking Dead: Daryl Dixon TV series) wakes up on a misty mountain road to see his car smashed up and on its roof. He soon encounters Daniel (Arben Bajraktaraj - Taken), who informs Nathan that they were both in a car crash and that they are now dead. At first he is hesitant to believe the man, but it becomes apparent that this is the case. Then two gates appear, one that Daniel can hear beautiful music coming out of, and one that Nathan can hear screaming coming from. On Nathan's travels he encounters the bodies of other people, and is able to witness the events that led up to their tragic deaths.

So, Nathan's story is the focus but I wouldn't say it is a wraparound in the traditional sense. It starts off as its own film in its own right, and felt like something that would work tremendously as a stage play. There are comedic elements here, especially with Nathan and Daniel's interactions with each other, and the little revelations that alter events beyond what they at first appear. Aside from a few scenes, this storyline then goes into the background until the final part of the film that gives closure of a kind.
The second story is the most fantastical. In this one, Nina (Manon Maindivide) wakes up one day in her mansion to discover her parents have been murdered, something which she claims no responsibility for. Knowing it couldn't have been her younger sister Claire, suspicion falls on her older brother, Tony (Carl Laforet), a disfigured 'monster' who her parents had made live in the basement. Rather than be upset about the new change, Nina sees it as a chance to do exactly what she wants to do, and it becomes clear that she is not the most stable of people. Nina was an interesting character, and someone who is prone to some severely messed up things. It tallies up with the rest of the shorts in that horrific things happen to innocent people, with this ending on a note that is pretty shocking!
The final story is more down to earth, in this one a mother discovers her daughter Chloé (Sidwell Weber) has killed herself in the bathtub. Unable to process her grief, the mother tries to carry on as if her daughter is still alive, and eventually, when facing the truth she tries to do something about it. This was a mix of present day sections and flashback scenes. The real life horror here shows how Chloé was bullied at school, but that her work obsessed mother didn't really pay attention from what her daughter was trying to say.

Each of the shorts were directed by the same person and so there is no abrasive feeling. This also helps in linking the stories together, as it is Nathan who is encountering the dead bodies of the protagonists from the two other stories. There are some effective creature makeup effects here, particularly with Tony and a few demonic beings that Nathan encounters. The quality of the camera work and editing throughout remained solid, in terms of the stories being told, there are some dark moments here, and the film is a cruel place, with punishments on various characters who really didn't deserve them. Slightly balancing things out are the moments of humour, with all three of the stories featuring funny moments, such as when Daniel throws a screaming little girl through the gateway to Heaven, or Nina's twisted actions in general. None really have a perfect resolution however, with them often ending unsatisfactorily, or abruptly.

Pandemonium was a well made anthology horror that had a nice blend of different things going on. The English subtitles were perfect, and the actors, at least to me, seemed good in their roles. I didn't mind how dark some of this got, but I did think that none of the stories ended in the best ways, whether that was due to abruptness, or a lot of story trying to be told in a short timeframe. The Black Mirror of death rather than technology, there is plenty to take in here. Pandemonium had its US premiere at Screamfest on October 14th and leads the May line-up on ARROW, the streaming subscription service.

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The Sounds of Nightmares (2023) - Horror Audio Drama Review

It is hard to escape hearing about The Sounds of Nightmares at the moment, as it appears to be being advertised on just about every podcast I listen to. This is a six episode horror audio drama that is based on the Little Nightmares video game series. I can't say I was the biggest fan of Little Nightmares, while it looked good, I found it super frustrating to play. Thankfully, Little Nightmares II was a whole lot better, with me having giving it an 8/10. The games keep the nightmare fuelled world in which they take place a bit of a mystery, I was surprised that this audio drama provides a lot of lore that was not evident in the games, something I was well on board for.

The drama for the most part (perhaps exclusively) consists of just the two actors. In the real world, a counsellor at a children's psychiatric institute (voiced by Kester Lovelace - Song of Horror video game voice work), has taken a special interest in one of his patients, a young girl who requests to be referred to as 'Noone' (voiced by Amy Purshouse). She has been having crippling headaches, and each night when she sleeps, she has extremely vivid nightmares in which she is transported to a nightmarish world full of large grotesque human like figures. The counsellor holds special sessions with Noone, in order for her to recount her visits to this world. He promises the girl he is trying to cure her of her nightmares, but in reality it is for more selfish reasons. Many years in the past someone close to him had the same thing happen to them, with the world they visited in their dreams spookily matching up with what Noone describes, until one day they vanished into thin air. The counsellor, rather than help the girl with her troubles, instead hopes he can use her to find a way to discover what happened to his loved one.

This apparently being canon led to a lot of revelations for me, namely that the world of Little Nightmares takes place in an alternate reality that can only be accessed via nightmares, and which only children can visit. I had always assumed the title was due to playing as a child in a horror filled world made for giants, so discovering the title was more literal, that it is a nightmare realm accessed by sleeping children, was really quite cool. There are a few nods to the games throughout, with the gnome type creatures making an appearance, as well as the reveal of just why there are random piles of people's belongings dotted around the games. It is final episode 'The Lonely Way', where a direct link between the audio drama and the game is made, something that was somewhat unexpected.

Each episode is roughly thirty minutes long, and takes place as a series of audio recordings that the counsellor is playing back to himself, to try and understand what is happening when Noone dreams. Each episode consists mainly of a different session where the girl is explaining her last dream. This did lead to a bit of a disconnected feel, as each nightmare is separate to the one before, taking place in an entirely new location in the Little Nightmares reality. They kind of follow the path of the games in that there is often an antagonist type figure Noone is trying to survive against. The horror vibe does work, with episode four 'The Theater of the Mind' being the most horror like, as the girl witnesses an evil ventriloquist's puppet operating independently from its owner. The core story takes place back in the real world, with it becoming increasingly obvious that the counsellor protagonist, whose viewpoint we see the story from, is a bit of an anti-hero. He may have noble intentions, but certainly not for the girl he is trying to treat, something which she really comes to realise over the course of the show.

The overall story was fine, but it wasn't groundbreaking. I loved the explanations for the game world this drama provided, but the story wasn't that exciting. Each nightmare being a stand alone adventure that ends with Noone waking up led to a bit of a stop and start effect. It culminates with not much really having changed. With a third game in the works, it is possible that some of what happens here will feed into that, I guess I will see when the game comes out. The Sounds of Nightmares can be listened to for free, so if you like the games then I think it is worth checking out.

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What Is Buried Must Remain (2022) - Horror Film Review

The Elias Matar directed and co-written supernatural found footage horror, What Is Buried Must Remain has a few firsts for me. It is the first Lebanese horror film I have ever seen, and it is also the first film I have seen that has its primary language spoken as Arabic. In fact, this is the first film of any genre I have seen that uses both those two things. Much like the optimistic protagonist Lara states, people are just people wherever you go, and so this found footage horror followed a familiar path to others before it.

Lebanese teenager Lara (Asma Jumaa) has teamed up with two older friends, refugees Alaa (Hassan Alkhlefe) and Shadi (Hamza Zahab) to help them with making a documentary. There is an old French colonial house in the area which is reputed to be haunted, the plan is to spend a night in the place looking for evidence of ghostly activity, with the hope their documentary will be successful enough that they will be able to leave their poor existence behind them. Once at the house things start to go wrong, with it evident that the place is legitimately haunted, both by hostile and friendly ghosts. With the place seeming able to transform itself around them, the three friends soon become lost within it, and must work together to try and find a way to escape.

I was pulled in to begin with thanks to the setting. Little I have seen of Lebanon over my lifetime has been good, mainly from news reports, so it was fresh to see a country from the perspective of normal people who live there. The majority of the movie takes place inside the colonial house, but the introduction sequence with the friends travelling there was very interesting to watch. I thought the house looked fantastic, the dilapidated building was dirty and full of trash, with it easy to believe that ghosts could actually be there. In my head, this was like if The Blair Witch Project had entirely been set in the building the hapless heroes find themselves in at the end, with some ghostly possession straight out of The Shining thrown in for good measure.
Much of the film is found footage, with one sequence around the halfway mark that became a traditionally shot one, not feeling out of place. It makes sense the characters would be filming everything as most of this takes place at night in a building that has no power, and so characters are using the light from their phones and cameras to see their way around the place. At just over an hour and a half long, this did feel like it dragged ever so slightly. It does really pull itself together for the final act, and while the twists and turns are something I have seen before, I felt they were executed effectively here.

The core protagonists were all different, Lara was someone who you couldn't help but like due to her optimism, typically the characters of a found footage horror are older than she was, and have some obvious flaws. I couldn't help but feel sorry for her due to how nice she was shown to have been. Shadi is in the middle, a bit of a coward, who doesn't really have strong opinions, happy to side either with Lara or Alaa depending on the situation. Alaa was the most complex character here, with it heavilyself implied that he has had a bit of a dark past, something alluded to when the character sees visions of him as a masked soldier executing someone. A definite angry streak in him, giving him a bit of a wildcard feel. Some of the side characters also shone, especially Dahlia Nemlich as the ghost of the French wife of the original owner of the house, Mariam Fontaine, I loved her creepy smiles and stares. I also liked Ahmad Alrefai's Abdallah; a junkie that the trio find squatting in the building, and who provides some context for exactly what is happening.

What Is Buried Must Remain was surprisingly familiar for me despite the new and unknown setting. While scenes of characters wandering around the building in first person could have been edited down somewhat, especially in the middle act, I thought the setting looked great, and the well told story was handled brilliantly, even if there were few real surprises. Also, while the use of CG was obvious, it was implemented well, with it not distracting in the slightest. What Is Buried Must Remain is available to view on EST/VOD/SVOD, with it coming to other streaming platforms such as Indie Box and Tubi from 26th November.

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Dr. Fright's Halloween Nights Presents Route 666 (2023) - Horror Scare Maze Review

I have always wanted to go to a scare maze, so I was quite embarrassed to discover there is an award winning annual scare maze that is a literal ten minute drive away from my house, in Earls Barton, Northampton. I must have been living under a rock, as every person I have even vaguely mentioned this to immediately went "Oh, you mean Dr. Frights?". The scare maze of course comes under the 'Dr. Fright's' moniker, with this years event titled Dr. Fright's Halloween Nights Presents Route 666. I just had to go to the Friday the 13th opening night as that was too good a date to pass up!

The whole maze took me and my best friend roughly an hour or so to get through, this included an intermission zone in the middle of the maze where food and drink can be purchased. Having never been to one of these before, we naively assumed we would rock up at our allotted time slot and go straight in. Of course, this is the real world, and also happened to be the opening night, so we discovered quite a lengthy queue. While my friend was getting a bit bored, I didn't really mind the forty five minute wait to get to the start, mainly due to some great music playing, such as Rammstein and Rob Zombie. My friend did say it might have been nice if there had been some sort of warning beforehand that there might be a lengthy wait. There was a fast track option for people willing to pay more, but bizarrely you have to queue up in the normal queue before you can get to the fast track area, making it a little bit pointless. Didn't affect us anyway as we had normal tickets, which I believe were about £19 each, and which needed to be booked before hand.

The scare maze this year consisted of seven different themed areas, each one leading on to the next for one complete journey, rather than seven separate areas. The first of these was titled 'Deadwood Forest', which surprisingly enough is based on a woodland setting. This was not the best introduction to the scare maze concept, mainly due to being so darn dark that it was hard to see much. As predicted, a lot of the scares come from the actors suddenly leaning out of holes cut into the walls and screaming at you, while there are also actors wandering about in the actual corridors that make up the experience. Being Friday the 13th, it was neat to see someone dressed up like Jason Voorhees wielding a machete at us, and I thought it was cool that the route took us through a camping tent. The second half of this first area was better, with a bit that takes you through a convent of Satanic nuns.
'Welcome to Downtown HELL.A' was the second area and an obvious homage to The Purge movies. I loved seeing the various actors wearing similar masks to those worn in the films, and utilised an aspect that I came to love. Initially, these masked maniacs are behind a chain-link fence, but the maze route then takes you behind the fence where you are in the same area as the actors. Strangely, despite being a serious of rooms inside a giant marquee type structure, it did feel a little like being in The Purge, my favourite bit here being when my friend was nervous laughing, and one of the masked killers then repeated her laugh back at her in a creepily sarcastic way!

The event has a traffic light system, used to try and stagger the various visitors to avoid them being bunched up together, so after leaving the madness of Purge night L.A, we came out to a queuing room. The queue here was quite small, and was accompanied by banjo themed covers of popular songs, for the next area was inspired by The Texas Chainsaw Massacre. I really enjoyed 'The Grindhouse', taking you on a tour of the home of a family of deranged cannibals. The actors here were a lot more vocal, I recall one stepping out in front of me and saying something along the lines of "Where do you think you're going boy!?". Highlight here was a Leatherface brute, of course armed with a chainsaw. I had figured he was safely behind a fenced off area, but then a minute or so later as I was walking past some haybales he came bounding out at me, one of the few moments that made me jump!
I would describe the fourth area 'The Bunker' as small but cool, this had you going through a Nazi zombie infested bunker, my favourite part was two corridors with lots of zombie arms sticking out the walls, with some of those hands actually being attached to people.

The 'Intermission Zone' was the halfway point, it was here we got some candy floss and a drink, before heading into the second half, which began with 'Devilsgate Cinema'. This whole area was based around movie monsters as the unifying theme, I was more than happy to see a bit based on Halloween, complete with Michael Myers, there was a cool part with a TV screen that a Sadoko type figure begins to crawl out of (obviously, her from The Ring), and a really cool bit that was set out like a small cinema, with all the audience wearing the Scream costume. This was one moment I did jump, when one of the seated figures suddenly leapt up at me with a knife, lovely stuff! My one complaint with this section was there were several rooms themed around A Nightmare on Elm Street, yet there wasn't actually a Freddy Kruger to be seen, making that part feel like a missed trick.
'Bloody Mary's Maze of Mirrors' was the penultimate area and I thought was the most clever one. I had expected maybe an actual mirror maze, but instead it is created by having a lot of repeating areas that kind of gave the impression of walking through the reflections of a mirror. I thought I had a good grasp on what was a mannequin and what was an actress standing in place, but I was still startled when the inanely grinning woman I assumed to not be real suddenly sprang to life in front of me! 
The final area, and the largest was 'Klownfest' which was set around the theme of a clown based music festival. I loved the music here, with each of the locations featuring different iconic tunes pumping out, very loud, yet somehow each part felt separate, with the sounds of the other bits not coming through. There were lots of evil clowns wandering around, and it isn't lying to say my best friend pretty much danced from one end of this to the other, due to the great music and the nightclub vibes. My final jump scare of the night was achieved here when I walked through an archway covered in hanging brightly coloured strips of fabric, and nearly walked right into a clown waiting on the other side. This final area leads out into the end, a large area where more food and drink could be brought. We got a burger and some freshly made doughnuts and talked back over the event, both agreeing it was a real good time.

Throughout there was really neat use of light and sound. Being so dimly lit in places, it could be hard to tell what was real and what was fake. Best of all here were the use of lasers, one part had me mistaking for a split second a room bathed with green lasers as actually being full of water, while another part saw me hesitate to walk through an archway, convinced briefly that the red lasers crisscrossing it were actually physical barriers. Then there was the infamous strobe lighting section, an 's' shaped series of corridors that had white walls with blood effects on them. The heavy strobe lighting led to both me and my friend beginning to feel a bit off-balance and dizzy, such a cool thing to experience, that purely use of light could make someone feel like they might possibly fall over!
The event wasn't scary, but I did get jump scared on about four occasions. It wasn't all perfect, sometimes the actors would get their timings wrong and either leap out after we had already passed, or leap out before we had reached them. It is mainly based on the person in the lead getting the majority of the scares, though the person behind would also get some late jump scare attempts at times. No complaint to the actors though, they all seemed into their roles, and also helpfully pointed out the way to go should you get a bit disorientated, as it could get a bit hard to find your way around on occasion. I loved my time with Route 666, definitely worth the price of admission, and is something I am already looking forward to visiting again next year (with each year featuring completely new mazes, rather than repeating itself). 
The event runs until October 31st, so I am sure it is still possible to get tickets to it. For more information, head to their website here, well recommended.

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Alice in Terrorland (2023) - Horror Film Review

I can't say I was too surprised upon starting Alice in Terrorland to see it mentioned that it was inspired by Lewis Carroll's  Alice's Adventures in Wonderland novel. Written and directed by Richard John Taylor (Muse), this uses many elements of that story, including lines of dialogue and characters, albeit with a horror twist.

Alice (Lizzy Willis - The Picture of Dorian Gray) is sent to an orphanage after her parents die in a house fire, and it is some point later that she discovers she has a grandma, Beth (Rula Lenska - Inside No.9 TV series). Ruth invites the girl to come live with her in her dilapidated mansion out in the country. The woman believes the place to have once belonged to Lewis Carroll, and as a result she is obsessed with his works. With Alice falling mysteriously ill and becoming bed bound, Ruth decides to read her Alice's Adventures in Wonderland, hoping the story will help her rest and recover. Each time Alice falls asleep, she dreams that she is encountering twisted real life versions of the characters from the story, and it is these characters who begin to plant suspicions in Alice's mind that things in the real world might not be exactly as they seem.

For some reason, Alice's Adventures in Wonderland has inspired many horror based interpretations to it, and many of those were video games. Alice is Dead, American McGee's Alice, and Alice: Madness Returns all put a sinister vibe on the classic story, with the later even sharing the same traumatic event of a house fire that killed the protagonist's parents. This made Alice in Terrorland not feel as fresh a spin on the classic story as it might otherwise have done. It felt like the movie wanted to be arthouse, and there were some strange decisions made to put that on that particular path. Most egregious of these was the slow and dull opening sequence that over the course of around seven long dragged out minutes nearly sent me to sleep. Everything up to Alice arriving at Ruth's house is displayed weirdly, dialogue free and with random images that did nothing to excite me for what was to come. Thankfully, aside from a much shorter epilogue, the film mainly stayed more traditional.

Being an indie film there are not wild scenes of action and spectacle, nor are the wild characters encountered in their more fantastical forms. The film is split between the real world and Wonderland, the later consisting of rooms in the house and nearby woodland where Alice converses with characters and not much else. The iconic characters are reimagined as humanoid versions of themselves, and I will add that I thought these Wonderland characters were on the whole fantastic. The March Hare (Steve Wraith) is a man wearing a rabbit mask who has a penchant for murdering people who are late for instance. In fact, many of these reimaginings have turned the characters into killers, such as The Walrus (Rikki Kimpton), a man whose bullying as a child (due to his perceived likeness to a walrus), led to him becoming a cannibalistic serial killer, and The Cheshire Ripper (Nikol Atanasova), a girl with Joker-like scarring who feels the need to do the same to her victims faces. My favourite was Jon-Paul Gates (Haunted 5: Phantoms, Haunted 4: Demons) as The Mad Hatter who was equal parts intimidating and endearing. By comparison Alice is quite a bland forgettable girl, but that is always the point, to contrast her normalness with the insanity going on around her. I also found Ruth's somewhat stereotypical kindly grandmother routine to be a bit unexciting.
Outside of the fact that Alice is becoming gravely ill in the real world, there was never any feeling of peril for her when she is in the dreamworld, the encounters all consist purely of her talking with characters, with them never acting like they are going to do anything to her. I get this was likely due to the low budget, but the way the film picks and chooses what random parts of the book to include led to not much excitement happening here.

Alice in Terrorland did have a great cast of actors who played their eccentric performances perfectly. In terms of the story this wasn't as good, the story leads up to a revelation that was supremely obvious, making the journey feel a little bit wasted. With more going on rather than random conversations this might have been able to capture my imagination more, but it was obvious where this was heading, leading me feeling like it was perfectly fine as a movie, but not really anything special. Alice in Terrorland is due for release from High Flier Films. 

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Bliss of Evil (2022) - Horror Film Review

There is a strange sub-genre of horror I have noticed over the years, horror revolving around music. Often this will be due to supernatural reasons, such as Music Store Massacre, Death Metal, and Deathgasm, and so I initially assumed the Josh Morris directed and co-written Australian horror, Bliss of Evil would also follow that mold. Instead, this turned out to be the first slasher I have personally seen based around music.

Taking place in Brisbane in 1997, Isla (Sharnee Tones), a sound engineer has gone to her family owned recording studio to help her girlfriend Nic's (Shanay De Marco - Dead Reflection) grunge band record some songs late one night. As well as the band, also consisting of Roy (Brendan R Burman-Bellenger), Rhea (Emily Rowbottom), and new member, Lee (Jordan Schulte), Isla's best friend Jamie (Michaela Da Costa) and a new groupie have came along. It isn't too long until one of them is found dead, with Lee found standing over the body. It is assumed he was the one responsible, but with the phone line cut, and the exits to the studio chained shut, it becomes clear that there may be someone else hiding in the building, someone with a connection to the band's past...

Intro text at the start of the movie reveals that it is apparently a recreation of a real event that occured back in 1997 in Brisbane, and to be honest that element felt pointless, as did that specific time period. It didn't add anything to the movie, other than to stick in the back of the mind that was is happening is just a film (obviously it is, but felt even more of a film with that text declaring it to be so). Still, that is one of the few missteps that occurs here, but all in all this was a great slasher film with some moments I felt to feel fresh. I might as well get through some of my other issues before getting onto the good stuff. The title of the movie refers to a song that the band used to play, but due to some unspoken incident has been blacklisted. It gives bad enough memories that merely the question of whether it should be played (new band member Lee not knowing its dark history, having seen it on an old set list he had been given), causes Isla to have a panic attack. The film ended with me not really understanding the significance of the track completely. Much of this part is explained to the viewer, but I wasn't sure why Isla in particular was so affected by the thought of it, when other characters have just as much history with it but aren't so bothered.

Putting those issues aside, as well as a flashback sequence that killed the flow of the present day section (though was much needed to give some context), Bliss of Evil was a very good slasher. I really benefited by not having read the synopsis as I thought this was going to be another supernatural based music horror. The early kill of one of the cast took me by surprise. This first act is somewhat of a red herring, though the poster for the movie straight up spoils the fact that things aren't what they appeared to be as it shows the killer front and centre. I thought the design of the mostly silent slasher was great, rather than wear a disguise (as is tradition), the hooded psycho (Corrie Hinschen) has instead opted to cover his face in the blood of his victims, giving him the cool credited name of 'Bloodface'. It was also neat that despite being nearly mute, the first words you hear from him are a whole acoustic song he plays and sings over the intercom system, of course the song being the titular 'Bliss of Evil'. He does say a few words over the rest of the film, but as an introduction to the messed up maniac, this really stood in the mind.

He uses a variety of different weapons and tools with which to kill his victims, I don't think a single murder method is used more than once which is good. The effects are decent, nothing spectacular but they certainly did the job.

I really enjoyed my time with Bliss of Evil. I loved the second act that moved events back a few hours to show what was happening elsewhere during the first act, I thought the killer had an iconic look to it, and as under explained as the backstory was (bad enough that at one point I paused the movie to check it wasn't actually a sequel to an earlier one) I did like the killer's connection to the protagonists, but the reasonings for why they were like what they were, were a bit cliché. I do wish that flashback to a year or so previous had been more in depth as it zoomed through its story, though also had the effect of stopping the momentum of the present day moment. Overall though I loved this, it had a great setting and left me guessing how the survivors were going to be able to defeat their aggressor. Bliss of Evil has been released on VOD, including Amazon Prime Video.

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