Arena Wars (2024) - Dystopian Film Review

I doubt I will ever get tired of a story about an arena based life or death gameshow. Ever since the legendary The Running Man I have loved this idea. More recently there was the trilogy of Kill Switch books written by Sean E. Britten that used a similar idea, and now there is Arena Wars, a new action film set in a dystopian future that was directed by Brendon Slagle (The Flood, Attack of the Unknown), with a story by Slagle and Michael and Sonny Mahal. 

In 2045 death row inmates are offered the chance to take part in a brutal gameshow titled 'Arena Wars'. The idea is simple, seven different arenas, each of which features a different themed killer. Should any of the contestants defeat all seven killers then they will win their freedom. With ratings plummeting, the show's owner, Belladonna (Kevin Hager - Bermuda Island, Attack of the Unknown) has realised that this is likely due to the audience not wanting to root for convicted criminals, and so arranges for Luke Bender (John Wells - Bermuda Island, One Must Fall) to join the latest game. It is revealed that this former marine is innocent of the crimes he was imprisoned for, and with that knowledge made public finally the audience have someone they genuinely wish to see win. Feeling threatened by Bender's increasing popularity, Belladonna makes plans to set the man up for a fall.

In many ways Arena Wars is not able to escape from the shadow of The Running Man, using several of the same ideas but in a more low budget fashion. There is deep-fake technology used, themed killers, backstage shenanigans, but all done in a lesser style that sometimes exposed the more limited budget. There was also a slight pacing issue, particularly in the first act that made the film seem it was going to centre on an entirely different cast of contestants led by Perez (the ever reliable Robert LaSardo - Bloodthirst, Amber Road) before abruptly changing track. This pacing problem again pops up as when Bender's 'Arena Wars' journey begins I was fully expecting this to be the rest of the movie, but then after a few battles the remaining contestants are suddenly in an after show party with it revealed that the event is split over episodes. I would have preferred if the whole game had been done in one block to really ramp up the exhaustion and threat for the characters, though that was just a personal preference. I felt the fun interviews that play over the end credits would have integrated the commentator Samson (Michael Madsen - Kill Bill, Reservoir Dogs) better into the show if they had been edited in, rather than have his actual in-film segments feel removed from the on-screen action. It would have also helped at giving more depth to the protagonist group.

There was plenty of action however, and I thought the design of the arena killers was fantastic. It's a shame that there is no real personality to these killers, they are for the most part mute, and their origins mostly left mysterious. The same goes for the cast of protagonists, some, such as the loveable Khan (Johnny Huang - Bloodthirst) shined, others seemed to be there just to get killed, usually in entertaining ways. There are battles against such killers as a chainsaw wielding maniac, and a clown armed with a spiked baseball bat. While these fights are often swiftly over, there are some fun special effects, such as someone who is chain sawed in half horizontally! There were plenty of well choreographed fights that were always fun to sit through. It would have been nice for the arenas to match the personalities of each of the killers, but rather than have the contestants go through seven different arenas, they mainly fight in just a couple, with the killers coming to them rather than them going to the killer's arenas. 

I love the idea for things such as Arena Wars and I will always be up for checking them out. I enjoyed this, it was entertaining with plenty of fight sequences, but it never quite lived up to the idealised version of the movie I had in my head. Arena Wars releases June 25th via Gravitas Ventures.

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The Rotting Zombie's Round-up of Horror News for May 2024

It has been an expensive month that has seen me dig into my savings quite a bit. I have also been neglecting my blog somewhat, a recurring trend lately. I am making more effort to watch films for review at night, rather than all during one day as I typically do. Currently this hasn't made them any more scary to watch but I'm hoping that will happen at least occasionally. Onwards to the news.

The 70th Anniversary edition of Robot Monster has been released by Bayview Entertainment, with the new edition winning some awards, including 'Best Blu-ray' and 'Best Restoration' at the 22nd Annual Rondo Hatton Classic Horror Awards. This 1953 cult classic is about the monstrous Ro-Man whose attempt to kill the last family alive on Earth is stalled when he falls for the daughter of the family. The 70th Anniversary edition was restored by 3-D Film Archive and can be purchased here.

The June releases on the ARROW streaming subscription service have been announced. Exclusively to the service comes Nightsiren which comes from writer/director Tereza Nvotová. This is described in the press release as '...a spellbinding contemporary drama that expertly blends psychological and supernatural horror to explore the intersections of misogyny and religious zealotry'. I have a screener of this, so a review should follow in the near future.
Inspired by the same Cropsey urban legend that spawned The Burning is Madman. This classic slasher sees Madman Marz on a killing spree against a group of young campers.
Three B-movie films from Nico Mastorakis also arrive in June. These include sci-fi drama The Time Traveller, adventure comedy Sky High which is about a group of American jocks in Greece, and Glitch! which is about a pair of thieves attempts to rob a mansion.

Bi*ches Giving Stitches is a new horror film that has been announced by Bloodbath Films. This comes from director David M. Parks (Static Codes) and stars Mike Ferguson (Amityville Uprising). It takes place on Halloween where three female friends are kidnapped by a strange cult where it is revealed that one of their boyfriends has made a pact with the devil.

Tahoe Joe 2: The Sierra Nevada Bigfoot Conspiracy is a found footage sequel that features real life friends Dillon Brown and Michael Rock (playing movie versions of themselves) as they return to Tahoe National Forest on a rescue mission after a popular social media influencer goes missing there. The film features cameos from original Scream actors Nancy Ann Ridder and Leonora Scelfo, as well as a Bigfoot design from Immortal Masks.

Dreaded Invocations is a short story collection coming from Anthony M. Caro (Tragedy Man: A Horror Anthology). The book includes fourteen stories that aim to '...present(s) transgressive spins on pulp-style short story horror fiction'. Examples include a story about a babysitter who receives threatening phone calls that appear to be coming from in the house, a diver searching for hidden gold inside a sunken ship, and an artificially created steampunk experiment that has a chance encounter within a cave.

Torment is a thriller that is from Acort Global Media. This has a woman getting abducted by a killer, but it turns out that she has dark secrets of her own.

Pale Horse: A Psycho Sexual Odyssey is due for release on June 30th via Bayview Entertainment. Directed by Pearry Reginald Teo, this is a gothic tale about an eccentric man who summons an evil spirit in order to achieve his artistic and life goals.

Attack of the Alien Jelly Monsters from the Depths of Uranus is a horror comedy from director Justin Soponis and writer Bo Buckley which releases June 25th from Bayview Entertainment. A group of intergalactic bounty hunters crash land on Earth and end up teaming up with some locals to hunt down their target.

Finally for today, Asteroid Vixens is a modern take on sci-fi horror classic films of the 1960's. Written and directed by Jared Masters, casting is currently underway, with the film set to be about a group of friends who head to a remote cabin where they encounter alien forces. There is currently an Indiegogo campaign running to raise funds, that can be found here.

Feeding on the Living (2022) - Short Horror Film Review

I first heard of Nicholas M. Garofolo back in 2019 when I reviewed the short horror film Deranged Foxhole. Since then I have seen several short films that he has been in, with one of his recurring roles being Dave Slade. Feeding on the Living is the third Dave Slade film, having not seen all the previous ones it did mean I was a bit confused where things stood on the timeline.

This synopsis is the film as I saw it, so I might be incorrect on some elements. Coney Island based Dave Slade (Garofolo) has given up his time-travelling ways and decided to try and live a normal life. He is contacted by his former handler (Dave Sweeny who also directed and co-wrote this alongside Garofolo) and warned to stay away from a certain woman. Ignoring these words, Slade decides to approach a mysterious woman he spots, Alvara (Arina Ozerova) and talking with her he realises she is a vampire, though she teleports away before he is able to attack her. It turns out her psychotic boyfriend Silas (Warren Chao) is also a vampire, and that he has a particular bone to pick with Slade as he has the knowledge that in 2030 Slade will kill him.

Feeding on the Living is just over twenty six minutes long and uses that time frame in a compact fashion. I have to admit that my memories of previous short films Garofolo has starred in had me remembering them as being very low budget and a bit rough looking. I was surprised then at just how good this short looks. Constraints are used to add mood and vibe, rather than something that held the filmmakers back. A key example is that the majority of this short is set at night, yet the scenes were obviously filmed in daylight with a blue filter used. You can see the sun shining off the sea, people walking along holding shopping bags, and an artificial filter put over the night sky to show stars. This all added a surreal feel that perfectly complimented the off-kilter story. Special effects were another idea that were used to great...well, effect. I particularly liked the look of a vampire who had holy water thrown in their face, the steam on screen obviously wasn't real, but something about it just worked.

The story could occasionally be hard to follow, but this third film in the series doesn't do too much to try and fill viewers in, I did appreciate the couple of flashback sequences to events in previous entries. Slade is a character who never appears completely serious, he is treated as a threat at times, yet whenever he speaks he has lines that can always be taken as comedic. I thought Chao was great as a bad guy, loving the way he said his lines. I also thought the fight montage between him and Slade later on was pretty amusing.
Maybe the highlight of the whole film was the wonderful soundtrack, there are a variety of songs and instrumental tunes played and all fitted perfectly into this, even led me to watching the entire end credits due to liking the music playing. As always, this is filmed at Coney Island, and gives a really unique look, I do like that so many short films Garafolo stars in are set in this iconic location.

My expectations were low for this, but I had a blast watching this. Occasionally scenes of dialogue between characters felt a little long winded and unnatural sounding, but outside of this, I loved the surreal feel to the film and enjoyed this far more than I expected. Feeding on the Living can currently be viewed on YouTube and has been picked up by Fawesome TV & OTT Studio.

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Alternate Piranhas (2024) by Eamon The Destroyer - Music EP Review

Back in November of last year I reviewed We'll Be Piranhas, the second album from Edinburgh based musician Eamon The Destroyer. Now a five track EP titled Alternate Piranhas has been released that features different versions and takes from the recording sessions for that album. The twenty four minute EP isn't really horror based, but I always like to take a wild stab at reviewing most types of music sent my way with the hope I can somehow stuff them into the horror genre.

It begins with the five minute opener 'A Pewter Wolf (Alternate Take)', a mellow laidback sounding track that shines with what sounds like a church organ. 'Rope (Alternate Take)', perhaps my favourite track to be found here, this has lyrics sung in a way that sounded quietly frustrated. There was a slightly sinister feel to the vibe, and the inclusion of what sounded to me like a banjo. Halfway into the EP is 'A Call Coming (Alternate Take)', again a more mellow and peaceful sound, this time with the sounds of an accordion.
Penultimate track 'The Choirmaster (Alternate Take)' carries on the rustic sound with the lyrics sung in a way that made it sound like a monologue from the singer. Alternate Piranhas ends on 'My Stars (Alternate Take)' which at just over four minutes long is a slightly upbeat and optimistic feeling end to the EP.

I enjoyed the music found within Alternate Piranhas, the tracks flow well into each other and I enjoyed the consistent vibe of this. The EP releases on 31st May from Bearsuit Records. Eamon The Destroyer is currently writing for a new album which is due to come out next year.

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Life of Belle (2024) - Horror Film Review

I finally got around to watching found footage horror Life of Belle at the weekend after a series of missteps from me. First, I forgot I even had the screener and didn't even write it on my to-do list, then when I did go to watch it a few weeks back I inadvertently tried watching a different film completely, and then last Friday I happened to complete the video game Vampire Survivors and so decided to review that instead.

Life of Belle opens with some body-cam footage from a police officer (Victor Mele) investigating screams coming from a house late one night. He discovers the bodies of three family members, a father (Matthew Robinson), mother (Sarah Mae Robinson - Parting Song), and a small child (Zachary Robinson) in the home, but there was no sign of the fourth family member, young Belle (Syrenne Robinson). With the girl seemingly vanished without a trace, the local police have edited together camera footage found in the house to show the lead-up to the deaths of the family, with it hoped that the released footage might create some more leads as to what happened to Belle.
The film proper shows roughly a week in the life of the family, with the father away on a business trip, it is up to the mother to take care of the children. It soon becomes apparent that she has mental health issues and as the week goes on these symptoms begin to get worse and worse...

I'm assuming this was a bit of a family effort and that it was no coincidence that the protagonists of the film all share the same surname as writer and director Shawn Robinson (in his directorial debut). It would explain why the child actors felt so real and authentic if they were essentially being themselves on camera for the most part. Aside from the actress who played the mother, the rest of the family have Life of Belle as their sole credit which made this even more impressive. The found footage aspect works on some levels but not so well on others. Belle gets gifted a video camera from her parents so that she can film herself for a hoped for YouTube channel about her life that she has coined 'Life of Belle'. That makes sense for why she is constantly filming. Less normal feeling is that the entire house is kitted out with CCTV in each room. It makes sense that the children's bedrooms and playroom might have these cameras, less so when they are all over the house. With the father aware of his wife's mental illness there is a suggestion he has put up the cameras more to check up on her when he isn't around.

Usually with found footage horror the horror will come in the form of the supernatural. I admit to spending most of the seventy two minutes of this constantly expecting something unnatural to appear on camera, such as objects moving around on their own, or ghostly forms spotted. Instead, it becomes clear that the horror here comes from the mother's deteriorating mental state, with it seeming that she suffers from paranoid schizophrenia. With the children so young and helpless you begin to really feel for them, trapped in a house where their mother is convinced that some unseen force is out to get them. As the days pass her behaviour becomes more and more alarming to the children, and they eventually come to be afraid of her wild actions. The viewpoint of the movie coming from small Belle led to comparisons with the technically impressive Skinamarink, while the setting gave Paranormal Activity vibes. Taking place over a number of days, much of the footage has Belle and her brother Link playing together in a natural and innocent way. These more mundane moments of normality heightened the moments when things get more scary for them. The children were the stars of this, with the father character missing from much of the movie, and the mother character turning into almost an antagonist with her crazy behaviour. 

I was kept engaged with this due to really wanting to know how events would get so bad that three of the characters would end up dead, and even more importantly, how on earth Belle would manage to go missing when she is the protagonist who is filming most of everything. When that moment does come it went slightly as expected, but I wasn't sure if the way it was shown was the best, I had a slight underwhelming feel to that key point even if it did send a chill briefly down my spine. While there is a slow burn feel to the ramping up of the horror I think the length for this was perfect, it could have become dull if this had been stretched out any longer. My final mention goes again to the child actors who were surprisingly fantastic. Life of Belle came to the streaming service SCREAMBOX on May 17th.

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Vampire Survivors (2021) - Horror Video Game Review

Despite a week off of my day job this week I still haven't had time to do much on my blog. I had intended to watch Life of Belle for review today, but once again something came up, this time via me technically finally completing the rogue-like auto-shooter Vampire Survivors. Initially released in 2021, there has been a steady stream of content for this highly addictive game. 2022 saw the release of the Japanese folklore themed 'Legacy of the Moonspell' map, weapons and characters, 'Tides of Foscari' followed in 2023 and was inspired by European fairy tales. Also coming in 2023 was 'Emergency Meeting' that included a sci-fi map with an Among Us crossover, and finally, earlier this month came Operation Guns which was a Contra crossover.

The long running joke with this game is despite being called Vampire Survivors there is not a single vampire enemy in the entire game. Later updates have included the addition of a story mode, but there isn't really much story to talk about. It is only looking on the internet that any type of plot can be gleamed. Set in rural Italy in 2021, hordes of monsters have been summoned by the evil Bisconte Draculó, a large group of adventures have set out to destroy this creatures and stop the plague of creatures assaulting the lands.

There are five default stages to unlock, as well as the four downloadable content maps and a bunch of other additional maps making for an impressive current twenty five stages. Some of these are gimmick stages, such as one that pits you against all the game's boss creatures in a small arena, or one set in a field of constantly spawning flowers. The core game has you working through five stages, the subsequent one unlocking upon completion of the one prior to it. The general aim of the game is to survive against a time limit, with unlimited enemies constantly spawning and homing in on you. Survive the time limit and usually a grim reaper will appear and kill you. The exception of the base maps is stage five 'Cappella Magna' which ends at the half hour mark with an actual proper boss fight.

The simplistic look and gameplay might seem a bit dull, but this is one addictive game, and there are literally hundreds of enemy types to encounter, even if they nearly all attack in the same way. You might have heard of the bullet-hell video game genre, well this is an enemy-hell due to constantly have to weave a path through endless monsters  Often there will be hundreds upon hundreds of enemies on screen at once, even with the simple graphics this felt like a fun feat to achieve. There is a random element to which power-ups and weapons you gain. These are all levelled up by collecting gems that defeated enemies drop. Obviously inspired by Castlevania (now that would make for a fantastic crossover), weapons include holy water, boomerang-like crucifixes, whips and a load of other items such as homing missiles, screen clearing pentagrams and rolling wheels. Currently there are well over fifty weapons to use, most of which are able to be evolved into a more powerful type. There are also a load of character to unlock by fulfilling certain criteria, currently there are over eighty characters.

With so much to unlock, this isn't really a game designed to be beaten. I only feel confident enough to post a review having beaten the 'final boss' of the core stages. The game is supremely addictive, and is something that can be really hard to put down, especially due to levels being set against a rigid time limit (though there is an Endless mode that has been added). Best of all perhaps is the dirt cheap price, with the base game and downloadable content all only being a few pounds each to purchase.
With such a low cost Vampire Survivors is a game that is very easy to recommend, and has surprising depth to it for something that looks so simple.

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The Rotting Zombie's News Anthology for Thursday 23rd May 2024

I'm currently in the middle of a vacation from my day job. As it was my best friend's birthday this past Sunday I decided I would use my holiday time to spend time with her, rather than my usual habit of working on my blog, deep cleaning my house, or playing lots and lots of video games. On the video game front I am currently playing Diablo IV, Dead Island 2, Evil Dead: Hail to the King, and Cyberpunk 2077, so hopefully I may end up finishing one of those. I really want to play Senua's Saga: Hellblade II as I was a big fan of Hellblade: Senua's Sacrifice, but don't want too many games being played at the same time as I am a demon for abandoning games halfway through and never returning!

I don't often mention the JustWatch UK Streaming Charts, mainly because there isn't often a lot of appropriate content on these things. Having a quick look today I think it is worth mentioning them this week. Currently at No.1 in the Top 10 films streaming in the UK is Mad Max: Fury Road, obviously as the spin-off Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga is due out this Friday. Looking forward to seeing that with my dad, someone who has been into the series ever since he went to Australia and visited Broken Hill, where Mad Max 2 was shot. At No.3 is Rise of the Planet of the Apes, the third film in the newish series of entries in the classic post-apocalyptic series in which apes have evolved and taken over the planet. My mother loved those first two films, I'm sure she would have enjoyed watching this one also if she were still with the living. No.4 is Late Night with the Devil, a film that really has me considering if I should start up my Shudder subscription again. This plays out in a found footage style, with a TV host looking to increase ratings for his show by attempting to communicate with the devil live on camera.
Over on the Top 10 shows streaming in the UK, No.1 is Dark Matter. I haven't heard of this but apparently it is about a man who is abducted into an alternate timeline of his life. No.2 is Fallout, I'm six episodes into this one and it is as great as the hype would have you believe!

Spoiling You is a new horror film written and directed by Megan Tremethick, coming from Hex Studios. Described as an ASMR horror, this psychological terror is about a lonely girl who gets a following on YouTube with her 'Miss Mutter' persona. As her popularity grows, the woman under the persona remains a mystery, something that might lead to a bad time for her number one fan who gets invited to spend the night with the woman for a unique one-on-one session. Inspired by J-Horror and horror anime such as Pulse, Wicked City, Perfect Blue (love that one), and Takashi Miike's legendary Audition, Tremethick says of her film "I want to build so much dread, that you'll almost will yourself to pull away from the screen. I want to create a darkness, that will draw you in...like a siren to the rocks..." There will be a Kickstarter campaign for Spoiling You in the future, currently not live, but the pre-launch page can be found here.

Finally for today, a new trailer and poster have been released for upcoming prequel movie A Quiet Place: Day One. The film comes to cinemas on June 28th, with the screenplay coming from Michael Sarnoski, who also directs. This has been a good series so far, so seeing the madness of the initial invasion as it occurs in New York should be something grand to witness.

4 Minutes of Terror: Death Throes (2024) - Short Comedy Horror Film Review

In March I was delighted to see Night Slasher, the first in an anthology series of short films created by filmmaker Nicholas Michael Jacobs (Tales from Six Feet Under). Now the second film in the series, 4 Minutes of Terror: Death Throes has been released. This one not only goes for a more comedic horror vibe, but it also takes the form of a cartoon rather than live action.

Spike (Jacobs) and Rufus (Jordan Jacobs) are two grave robbers who have decided to rob the grave of a recently deceased elderly woman who was buried wearing a reputably expensive necklace. As they dig up her grave they talk about a local legend that the lady used to be in the military, but dismiss those as just rumours. After acquiring the necklace they go to leave the graveyard, but come to realise that there may have been some truth to those rumours after all...

After an introduction by The Freak the short begins in earnest. The change in style from live action to cartoon between films wasn't as jarring as I thought it might be, with the animation of the same quality as that used for the wraparound character. The animation was done by Imam, it suits the horror vibe, and while it isn't the most frame heavy cartoon, it looks the part and fits the tone well. The directing and writing as always carried out by Jacobs.
Much of the short consists of a conversation by Spike and Rufus as they dig up the body, with the horror coming right near the end. What happens to the hapless duo may have been obvious, but the manner in which it occurs was a funny surprise.

Any worries that this anthology series would consist of similar feeling shorts have been expelled with Death Throes. Having the short take the form of a cartoon was unexpected, and makes me wonder just what else the filmmaker will come up with as he progresses with this series.

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Dead by Daylight (2016) - Horror Video Game Review (Playstation 5)

Towards the end of last year I really started to make an effort to get into the asynchronous horror multiplayer video game Dead by Daylight. I really loved the idea behind it, but it had never clicked properly with me. Sadly, after around five or six months of trying to get the game to click, I failed, I appreciate the game, but it just isn't something that is for me, which is a real shame.

The game has you either playing in a third person perspective as one of four survivors, or playing in a first person perspective as a killer. The survivors aim is to repair a set number of generators randomly placed around one of the stages, once this is done the exit gate opens and they are able to escape. The killer meanwhile is tasked with sacrificing the survivors by attacking them, and them placing them on sacrificial hooks to a dark entity in whose realm both survivors and killers alike are trapped. There have been a whole host of famous video game and film characters added over the years, survivors including characters from Left 4 Dead, Evil Dead, Silent Hill, Resident Evil and more, while killers include a host of movie maniacs such as Ghostface, Chucky, Leatherhead, Pinhead and videogame antagonists such as Albert Wesker and Pyramid Head.

I have previously spoken about the game in various blog posts about different killers I tried. My problems are two fold. Firstly, I find playing as the survivors really difficult, I constantly fail the quick time events that occur when trying to repair the generators, and typically get hooked and die within around a minute or two of starting a match. Playing as a killer is more fun, but it puts a lot of pressure on you. There is a method of playing that makes the match fun for survivors, so you need to not play to win cheaply. There is no type of tutorial mode on how to play as each killer however, so the only way to discover how they work is to play against real people. This can cause no end of humiliation as you try and figure out how to play as the character you have chosen. I rarely played well, and after several months of trying different killers I realised I just wasn't having as much fun as I would have liked. I put off playing due to not really knowing how to play the game. 

I love the amount of famous killers put in Dead by Daylight, but I came to the realisation that the game simply wasn't for me. Either side I was pretty useless at playing, this was a real shame. Also, due to the game originally launching in 2016 it looks quite terrible in my opinion, I find the various levels all bland and similar looking, while the core mechanics always felt a bit too simple.

Don't let my lowish score trick you into thinking Dead by Daylight isn't a good game, I imagine playing with a bunch of friends this would be loads of fun, but playing against or with strangers never felt good, I always felt anxious that I wasn't doing my best, and this came to really impact my enjoyment.

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Illusions of Isolation (2023) by Brennan LaFaro - Horror Anthology Book Review

I have a long list of horror books waiting to be read, some of which I've had down to read for over a decade. I recently finished reading Brennan LaFaro's horror anthology, Illusions of Isolation and briefly felt proud of myself that I had only received a copy of the book in March, until I realised I've had this since March of last year! Any regular visitor to this site will know that I love anthologies, and this particular one just so happens to be quite excellent.

I admit that when I read the preface by Jonathan Janz that I was more than a little sceptical when he stated there wasn't a single bad story to be found in the anthology. After all, it is very rare for a collection of short stories to not feature at least one dud. I found myself with egg on my face however, as thirteen stories later and there indeed was not a single bad one to be found. There was also a lot of variation with horrors ranging from evil spirits to home invasions, monstrous creatures, sci-fi, and even a fantasy Western. I loved this variation even if not all the stories were perfect. 
Six of the stories feature a child or teenager as the protagonist or co-protagonist, with seven of them also focussing on the family dynamic, and a fair few mainly focus on just the one character for the majority of the story. 

It begins fantastically with 'Dressed For Success', a second person perspective story about a boy's first day at a very strict school, whose pupils have just about reached the end of their respective tethers with their cruel treatment by the sadistic teachers. This feeds into the unsettling 'Piece by Piece' that has a school boy discovering strangely preserved body parts out in his local creek, and deciding to keep hold of them. Having horror from the perspective of a child often works well, children obviously much less designed to be able to deal with the frightening unknown. This can be seen again with the eco-terror 'The Last Little Piece of Civilization' in which an eight year old child discovers her home is slowly being taken over by an ever increasing jungle, something that her emotionally absent parents seem mostly oblivious to. One part of this book that I really adored was that the author provides his inspirations at the end of each story, in this case, the idea he had come up with was 'reverse deforestation', to give an idea of what it must feel like for animals to lose their habitats to human destruction.

Rather than the tone be the same for each of the short stories, there is effort to make them different in styles. 'Snap' is probably the shortest one here, a comedic entry about two evil bosses at a company who are joyfully planning how to kill off their staff members. 'The Irreversible Flow of Time' is a first person present tense tale that plays out like a level in a video game, complete with 'end of level' boss fight. The great 'I Will Meet You There' takes place on a space ship and has an interesting concept of taking place both in the present, as well as in the weeks and days leading up to just the one person being left alive on the ship. I loved how repeating sounds came to feel so chilling, even if I wasn't so keen on the slightly neat explanation towards the end. 'Just a Note' takes the form of a found footage style of notes written between a son and his mother, who are both experiencing supernatural events. A cool idea, though there seemed to be little difference in writing styles between the grown woman and her fourteen year old son, so the letters seemed to be a little to identical to read.
I was a little torn on what was my favourite of the stories, in the end I settled on two of them. 'Then You Smiled for a Second' was a great home invasion story with a delightfully cruel amusing end, the author stated this was inspired by the January 6th United States Capitol Building mob attack. I also loved final story (and the longest), 'Red Sands', a Western that had an isolated community being attacked by winged creatures, with two of the townsfolk deciding to set out across the barren desert and try and locate the creatures' nest. It was interesting to read afterwards that this was a stand alone prequel story to a dark fantasy series the author had written with someone else.

It is rare for there not to be a bad story in a collection like this, but while I had slight issues with how some of the stories resolved, such as the underwhelming finish to 'The Attic', I really enjoyed each of these, covering a variety of subjects, while the author's inspirations for each of these was fascinating to read. Illusions of Isolation was a great anthology that has made me want to check out more of the author's work.

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Malignant (2021) - Horror Film Review

I really am not a night owl, during the week I'm in bed before 21:00 due to having to be up at 05:00 for my day job, and weekends I just seem to wake up around 06:00 however late I end up going bed. There are a bunch of horrors that I really want to see at the moment, I figured I would chose one of them to watch for a rare late night viewing, as there really is nothing better than watching a horror film late at night. I chose James Wan's (The Conjuring, Insidious, Saw) Malignant, as his films often have parts that feel creepy even in daylight. I had expected a supernatural horror, but this has more in common with a slasher, even more so with the Italian giallo genre.

Madison (Annabelle Wallis - Annabelle: Creation, The Mummy) is a woman in an abusive relationship. After hitting her head after her husband shoves her into a wall, she blacks out and while unconscious she has a nightmare that her husband is murdered by a strange looking figure dressed all in black. Awakening she is shocked to discover that her nightmare has come true, and her husband has indeed been murdered. After a few more nightmares in which she witnesses various people being butchered by the figure in black, she comes to realise that she somehow has a psychic link with a killer, and that she is able to sees it's wicked deeds. She eventually learns that the killer's name is Gabriel, and that in a bizarre twist it appears that this person may actually be her childhood imaginary friend taking on a physical form.

Malignant is a really cheesy movie, and I can't help but see this as a purposeful decision by Wan. The soundtrack has a real 'straight to video' B-movie sound to it, with constant over the top dramatic tunes running over the action. This cheesiness stretches out to the acting also, with a seemingly purposely dramatic feel to how the characters act. It even starts in an early 2000's indie horror type of way with an overlong and self indulgent intro credit sequence that seemed to drag on for far too long. The film often feels like it has an inflated feeling of self importance, with some extra cheesy scenes. One that springs to mind is a slow motion pan over a road full of cop cars and ambulances which was so pointless as well as dull. 

One of my big issues with the film was that I guessed the twist within twenty minutes of the one hour fifty minute film starting (not perfectly, but I was about 95% correct). It is spelt out so clearly, with so many clues badly hidden in dialogue characters say. I'm not sure if the twist was meant to be that obvious, but it gave me the feeling of watching this for a second viewing on my first watch. There were scenes that played out and seemed so obvious. Who knows though, perhaps that twist isn't supposed to be hidden from the viewer, but it removed a lot of the mystery, and in turn removed my engagement. I will admit that Malignant handles the reveal of the twist well, including lots of in-film explanation. The killer looked decent enough, it seemed to have a face that consisted of a fleshy mass with one eye ball peeking out, and it had a great spider-like way of moving that included plenty of parkour using some bizarre backwards movements. I did think it was cool that for these scenes they used a real life contortionist rather than any type of CG. Talking of CG, the transitions where Madison is transported to the killer's location while dreaming seemed very artificial, more than a hint of computer effects to those sections. Unfortunately, and maybe unfairly, the look of the killer did really remind me of a monster from the comedy horror show Garth Marenghi's Darkplace, once that connection was made I found it even more difficult to take anything happening here seriously.
There was a much higher body count than it initially appeared there would be, the big set piece featuring mass murder in a small location. This was all neat, but it made for a film that wasn't at all scary, going down a more action based route that felt different to the often slow burn of some of Wan's other horror films. 

Malignant has some definite supernatural elements to it (such as the killer having the ability to increase electricity currents), but the more physical nature of the antagonist meant it was much less scary than a straight supernatural horror. If I hadn't guessed the twist correctly so early on I might have been into this more, but instead it felt a bit of a drag getting to the eventual reveal of what I already believed things to be, leading to an underwhelming feel. That coupled with the cheesiness couldn't help but make me feel a bit let down, as I had the erroneous expectation of this being something that would chill me. Malignant is currently streaming on Netflix, though is due to leave the service towards the end of May.

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The Rotting Zombie's News Anthology for Thursday 16th May 2024

Here is a second news post for the week. Not long for me now until I am off work for a week, looking forward to getting some games played, and maybe get to the end of the excellent Fallout TV series.

Late Checkout is a new slasher that comes from Scream Team Releasing. It's about a group of friends who have gone on a weekend vacation to a rented cabin, unaware that a series of murders have taken place nearby, and now the madman responsible has decided the friends will be next to be slaughtered. Directed by Josh Graves, this features Felissa Rose (Sleepaway Camp), L.C Holt (You're Next), Channey Morrow (Haunt) and Kammara Cole (Time's Up). The Blu-ray/DVD release includes an audio commentary with the director, a trailer, and a making of featurette.

An official trailer has been released for Trypophobic Posession. This weird sounding horror stars Cory DeAn Cowley ("6 Songs") with the press release stating '...features the SFX and infamous blood and bodily fluids of the actress herself'. The film is about a wife who finds herself under demonic possession.

Finally for today, Mickey vs. Winnie is now in production. Again taking advantage of those properties falling into public domain, this has a nightmarish version of those two characters getting into a brutal battle with each other. Hopefully it will turn out to be good and not a soulless cash grab attempt!

Saw X (2023) - Horror Film Review

I had planned to watch a different film for review today, but due to what I can only describe as stupidity on my part, I tried to watch a screener for a different film entirely, rather than Life of Belle as I had planned (had I taken a second to glance at my schedule), and the screener I tried to watch didn't have a working link. As I had wanted to watch a horror at night, I swiftly went through my streaming apps and chose Saw X, which is currently streaming on Amazon Prime.
I have always had a fondness for the Saw franchise, though wouldn't describe myself as a true fan as I have only seen six out of the currently ten movies. Later entries have played around with the formula a bit, and sometimes that has not worked at all, with the previous entry Spiral: From the Book of Saw being truly terrible. I had a muted expectation for Saw X then, but this time around it gets things right a lot more then it gets things wrong.

From the outset it is clear that this film is a prequel, mainly because series antagonist John Kramer (Tobin Bell - Gates of Darkness, Saw franchise) is alive and well (maybe not well as he is dying of cancer). The film bridges the gap between Saw and Saw II, and sees John heading off to Mexico where he has made contact with a doctor named Cecilia Pederson (Synnøve Macody Lund) who promises him she is able to perform an experimental operation to cure him of his brain cancer. After the apparent surgery at a remote facility has gone successfully, John decides he wants to return there to give thanks to the staff who helped him. Instead he finds the place deserted, and discovers that his surgery was a scam carried out by Pederson in order to fleece John and other desperate people out of their money. Going into Jigsaw mode, he decides to round up all the people involved in the scam so that he can play a game with them...

I have always felt it was a stupid move to kill off Kramer so early in the Saw series, it seemed like this was an issue for the filmmakers as well, as they always find a way to insert the iconic character back into the subsequent films, whether via flashbacks or pre-recorded messages. Saw X is the first film in which the mastermind takes a front and centre role as protagonist, showing a vaguely softer side to the character, as well as displaying his morality in a more clear fashion. For the series it felt novel to view the film from his perspective, and it was neat how long it took to get to the horror. The first thirty five minutes are mostly terror free, showing him in his non-murderous life. If you like the character of John Kramer then this one has the most of him there has ever been, with him a constant on screen character from beginning to end of this nearly two hour movie. The actor is getting older now, but the difference in age due to twenty years having passed from where this is meant to take place wasn't an issue.
Less easy to look away from was the inclusion of Amanda (Shawnee Smith reprising her role), the actress looks far older than the age of the character she's playing which was slightly distracting, but it was cool that the original actors are still being cast in the roles despite the distance in real life time.
As for the victims, they are mostly forgettable, though a few standout. Pederson is an over the top villain who shows no remorse even when she is forced into the games. This made her a bit of a generic bad guy, but this pure evil person worked as a foil to Kramer, and made you as the viewer want to root for him to succeed, something previous films have never had me wanting. She was almost his opposite with her having not even a twisted sense of morality like John does. I thought Renata Vaca as Gabriela was decent, mainly due to what they did with her character in relation to Amanda, as for the others they were mainly blank slates.

The traps are of course the draw, and things don't really begin on a great foot. The very first kill is inserted in early into the movie and appears to be a complete fabrication, taking place entirely within John's mind when he witnesses an orderly stealing jewellery from a coma patient and imagines what game he would make the man play. This felt odd having a daydream shown on screen, it felt like this was only included to give some violence and gore in the movies horror free first act.
Later when the games really begin things improve. There was a more D.I.Y feel to the kills, with them all taking place in one room, rather than the maze like arenas victims often find themselves in. While Billy the puppet and Dictaphones make an appearance, John is more hands on, appearing in person to speak with the victims. You have the usual nastiness, including blood water boarding, and having to feed traps bone marrow and brain tissue in order to disable them. The gore and special effects are the same as always, nasty looking, but by this point I am kind of numb to the body horror. I felt that the body count was quite lower than what I would expect, though not being a strong fan of the series I'm not sure what the average kill count is per film.
I was more impressed with the story, some red herrings led to a genuine surprise at where the revenge plot went to. It was also refreshing to see John's interactions with characters he viewed as pure. It isn't Shakespeare but it was entertaining.

Saw X found another new way to breath life into the series, while at times it threatened to be a bit too by the numbers, later twists helped alleviate the repetitive feel. Telling a smaller self contained story, while putting the series antagonist into a slightly more relatable protagonist role, this was a much better film than the abysmal prior one, and seems a return to form. Apparently Saw XI is going to serve as a sequel to this one rather than return to the present, I think that is probably a good idea.

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The Rotting Zombie's News Anthology for Tuesday 14th May 2024

This week I am back to business as usual, having gotten over my illness, and returned from a mini-vacation to Nottingham. I have a week off my day job soon, I am hoping to get to watch some horrors I have had my eye on for a while.

Pandemic Sex Party is a grindhouse horror film written and directed by Myles Erfurth. The film is about a group of online influencers who have headed out into the desert on the cusp of another pandemic, in order to make content. They soon encounter The Rancher, a masked killer who is out to kill all the young people. There is currently an Indiegogo campaign running to get funds to create this, as of typing it has raised £559 out of a wanted £19,958 with fifteen days left to go

He Sees You When You're Sleeping is a Christmas themed slasher that is due to release towards the end of the year by The Horror Collective. In this horror a maniac dressed as Santa begins to kill off a wealthy family for their money, with a young man finding himself needing to defeat this killer.. Directed by Charlie Steeds, he says of the movie "It's set in the 80's and we filmed on location in New York State. The script draws from horror classics such as Black Christmas, Scream and Silent Night Deadly Night which are all films I adore".

Finally for today, A Southern Horror is an anthology film from filmmakers in Columbus, Georgia that recently had an Indiegogo campaign running. The film is made up of three different stories, with the wraparound having troubled Adelaide discovering a mysterious computer that she feels drawn to investigate. This is due to come to Amazon Prime this December.

Salvation (2024) - Thriller Film Review

I wasn't entirely sure if Salvation was a good fit for this blog, but thought I would take a chance on it. Initial signs were good, but it became clear that this is more of a drama with thriller elements to it than anything more. Directed by Mackenzie Munro and written by Alex Runnels, this had a host of recognisable names among the cast, but it never quite headed in the direction I was hoping for. The screener of Salvation I watched for review wasn't the final version, it had some lines of dialogue, some music, and some visual effects missing, I won't include these missing elements in any criticism I might make about the movie.

Angela (Ashley Moore - Festival of the Living Dead, I Know What You Did Last Summer TV series) is a troubled teen who has spent her life going in and out of foster homes. After spending some time in juvenile detention, her caring case worker, Nick (Theo Rossi - Army of the Dead, Ghosts of War, Luke Cage TV series) is able to give her one last chance, by arranging for her to live out in the country with a religious family. Hesitant at first, over the weeks that follow Angela comes to start to really care about her new family, not even minding the bizarre snake worshipping religious sect they are members of. After witnessing the hidden dark side of the pastor (Thomas Jane - 1922, Before I wake), Angela must struggle with her conscience over whether to keep quiet and get to stay with her new family, or come clean over what she witnessed and potentially get taken away.

With the snake worshipping cult in the mix I automatically assumed that Angela would slowly discover the dark side of the religion, eventually fighting for her life. I had in the back of my mind that it would turn out the cult were sacrificing foster children to the snakes they worship. This very much was not the case at all, while there are some strange and trippy montage sequences of the church group, the horror is more grounded and realistic. It was refreshing that the friendlier characters did in fact turn out to be what they appeared to be, in particular the husband and wife (Skeet Ulrich - Scream and Claire Forlani - Mystery Men, Police Academy: Mission to Moscow) were lovely characters. It was clear not long into the movie about the pastor's 'demons', with him shown to be constantly wrestling with a gun while looking miserable. Other key characters include the pastor's weaselly son Luke (Devon Bostick - Survival of the Dead, Land of the Dead) and the family's other foster daughter, Carolyn (Samantha Gordon). All these characters had their roles to play, and there wasn't a bad actor among them,.

For the majority of the ninety minute film this was more of a drama, with only the third act really ramping up the tension and thrills. Those moments were there to serve a purpose, with the film more about Angela's transition into a more sinless person, her experiences, however bad they were, transform her into a more caring and well rounded character. There wasn't much call for special effects, sure the ones that were potentially present might not have actually been added in the version I watched, but this was more a drama than anything needing the inclusion of blood, gore, and horror.

Salvation was decent enough despite not being what I really wanted. I liked the morose protagonist, and I liked the growing relationships with the characters she meets. I thought that the antagonist could have had more done with him, as he doesn't really feature all that much despite being an integral person. Not the most exciting movie out there, but Salvation was still a decent enough watch.

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