Drive Back (2024) - Horror Film Review

Despite its generic 'thriller' sounding title, Drive Back is actually a time loop horror film - a sub-genre of horror that I really love. Directed by Cody Ashford (in his directorial debut), and written by Jon Sarro, this tells an all too familiar story that the sub-genre seems destined to repeatedly tell forever, in some type of... loop. I am sure it is purely coincidence, but this felt extremely similar to Dane Elcar's 2022 time loop horror; Brightwood, albeit, a more enjoyable version of that film.

Olivia (Whit Kunschik - Caged) and her partner Reid (Zack Gold) have gotten lost out in the wooded backroads of America while driving back from their engagement party at Reid's parents house. Finding a remote gas station, the couple ask the eccentric old woman they discover there how to get back to where they need to be. She then reveals to them a secret short cut via a road passing through the middle of a thick wood that only the locals know about, and directs them on how to find it. Things begin to go odd as soon as they arrive on the short cut - time appears to be passing strangely, each of them begin to have memory lapses about things that have only just happened, and they encounter a very hostile hitchhiker. Then they begin to notice familiar landmarks they are certain they have passed before, and it is discovered they they appear trapped in some time of loop, no matter which way they drive, they come across the same stretch of road.

As I said in my prologue, there were many parts of Drive Back that felt very similar to ideas used in similar films. A bickering couple, a dangerous cloaked stranger, seeing past and future versions of yourselves; all are cool ideas, but none of them are original. There were some parts here that felt a little more fresh. It wasn't implemented well into the film, but I liked the concept of heading further into the future going one way down the road, and heading back into the past if heading the opposite direction. So, Reid and Olivia don't have the greatest chemistry together, something that is a key part of the drama going on between them. In addition to Olivia being pregnant, Reid is also still trying to come to terms with her having cheated on him in the past. More interesting was Reid's relationship with his survivalist father. This was important enough that the bleak prologue sequence shows an event that happened when Reid was a young boy on a hunting trip. Both protagonists were decent characters, the actors able to convey all the confusing story changes. Some of the highlight dialogue scenes were when the two were almost going insane due to the rapid fire memory alterations they were getting, the scene a dizzying quick edit to heighten the disorientation.

There is a decent effort to inject horror into this, characters frequently have really violent and gory nightmare sequences, and I have to say how much I liked the look of the blood here. When there is a call for blood, there is a heck of a lot of it. The location for the story was perfectly suited, designed to just be a part of the background. There are more characters to be found than just themselves, but the supporting cast are a mixed bunch of mostly mute antagonists who all look the same. Also, if you are after any sort of explanation for the loop-based terror going on, then you may be disappointed, but its typical of the sub-genre not to explain things.

After a promising start, Drive Back soon fell prey to the pitfalls of the genre. Focussed on just the two characters, it did feel a little samey at times, but it is when the two realise they are trapped in a loop that the film becomes more derivative. The hour and a half (or so) runtime felt exactly its length, with the middle part of the movie dragging somewhat. As for the end, not the worst way to finish a story, but also not the best way either. This is a decent example of this type of film, and I would recommend it over others I have seen in recent memory.

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The Creep Tapes (2024) - Horror Series Review

Creep and Creep 2 are two fantastic found footage horror films that shine mainly due to the hypnotically awkward performance of the antagonist (played by Mark Duplass). I have always felt a bit bad about giving that first film a six out of ten, but have to assume that was what my thoughts were at the time. With the last film released in 2017, I had assumed this series was done and dead. Last year I was delighted to see a TV series based on the character was released. The Creep Tapes is a found footage horror series, each episode taking the form of a snuff film that the titular creep has made. 

Season 1 is made up of six roughly twenty five minute long episodes, each one featuring a different victim that the killer has tricked into meeting with him. I wasn't sure how the episodes would feel varied seeing as I assumed the central concept would be the same. The fun comes from the different personas and situations that Duplass' character gets to act out in. It begins with 'Mike' in which a man hoping to make a video to help him get into film school has came to the killer's remote house. This was a bit Creep by numbers but it had some shining moments. In this one, the killer is pretending to be a killer for the film being shot, a lovely blend of you not knowing if he is just pretending or is actually attempting to kill Mike. Lovely stuff and it makes sense they would want to start the season with something more familiar. Next up is 'Elliott' which takes place entirely out in a remote location where the killer has joined a man for a spot of bird watching, enjoyed the way killing is described in bird watching terms, though this was one of the weaker episodes due to the location. Halfway through the first season brings 'Jeremy' that was probably my favourite here. Duplass' character is in full cringe mode, playing the part of a priest in order to trick someone who makes a living out of ridiculing religion online. The tables are of course turned in the most delightful ways, with Jeremy failing to out-creep the sinister odd-ball.

The second half of the season begins with 'Brad' in which the killer offers a true crime documentary maker the opportunity to film a real crime in progress, with penultimate episode 'Brandt' mainly just being Duplass' character on his own after the titular man fails to show up. Season finale 'Mom (and Albert)' is the biggest lore dump, with the killer visiting his equally insane mother and her new boyfriend. It is all as you would expect and there were no real revelations, and was also the least horror filled episode. Throughout the season, things were always entertaining but I was never blown away. I enjoyed the variation in these episodes but they remained relatively samey. Of course the iconic wolf costume 'Peachfuzz' makes plenty of appearances, even appearing to be sentient during 'Brandt'. The scenes where the victims come to understand the danger they are really in was always the highlight, Duplass plays his role to perfection, plenty of sudden jump scares by screaming at characters, and the chase sequences were always a lot of fun. The short length of the episodes prevents a feeling of slow pacing that can be the case in found footage feature lengths, with the story picking up at the most interesting point typically.

If you liked the Creep films then I am sure you would also enjoy the series. There is nothing that fresh and exciting here, but it works as a greatest hits of the best that the films had to offer. This was certainly a fun watch, but it didn't blow me away, Duplass of course is perfection in his twisted role. The Creep Tapes is currently streaming on Shudder.

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The Monkey (2025) - Comedy Horror Film Review

It is Monday afternoon as I write this first blog post for the week, so I am quite far behind, normally my blog work would have started on the Saturday. It's a good thing I have a blissful week off work from my day job. The film I had originally intended to watch for review today had an expired screener link, so as is the way here at The Rotting Zombie HQ, that meant I got to choose my own film to review. After a painfully long hour trying to decide what to watch, I settled on The Monkey; a horror film that was based on a short story by that master of horror; Stephen King. Directed and adapted by Osgood Perkins (Longlegs, The Blackcoats Daughter), this had initially intended to be played straight and serious - much like the original short story was. Perkins saw different however, and decided to make this a dark comedy horror, thankfully, that turned out to be a great idea.

Twin boys Hal and Bill are going through their father's belongings they find in the attic one day. They are hoping to learn more about the man, not having known him after he abandoned his family when they were very young. In with his possessions is a creepy looking wind-up monkey doll with a key ready to turn in its back. They soon come to learn that whenever this key is turned, and after the monkey has gone through its mechanical motions of banging a drum, someone near to them is killed in a most random way. The monkey chooses its own victim, something that is learned hard when it takes someone irreplicable away from them, and together they decide to get rid of the device.
Twenty five years after they chained it up and threw it down a deep well - Hal (Theo James - Divergent), now grown up and having lived an isolated life (in an effort to not give the monkey the opportunity to take anyone he cares about), learns of his aunt's untimely demise. He realises the monkey is back and ready to go on another killing spree of those that him and Bill are close to.

I have always been a big fan of the Final Destination series of films, so with this sharing some of that DNA, I was always going to like this. James plays both himself and twin-brother Bill and plays them both very weirdly. The comic vibe is very dark, but it also is quite playful and silly when it wants to be. It isn't only the events that are occurring that are humorously surreal, but also with the dialogue. Nearly all the characters within the film are very odd and strange, feeling like characters who know they are in a dark comedy horror. I was surprised by some big names who appeared here. There is a wonderful prologue featuring Adam Scott (Severance TV show), and I was happily surprised to see Elijah Wood (The Lord of the Rings series of films) appear for one short but amusing scene. Characters throughout were all so oddball in a unified amusing way. Perhaps my favourite side character being the very novice and out of his depth priest (Nicco Del Rio - Black Mirror TV episode 'Common People') who performs his funerals as if he is surprised to be the one leading them.
The first third of the film is led in narration by an adult Hal talking about his childhood. I hadn't expected the film to have a time skip, so hadn't expected one when it happened. The parts set in relatively modern day became even more strange. Hal is on a super awkward annual father/son road-trip meet-up with teenage son Petey (Colin O'Brien - Grey's Anatomy TV show) when the two get caught up in the re-emergence of the monkey and its murderous ways, Petey being emerged in the random chaos in  some often drily amusing scenes.

There are a heck of a lot of death scenes throughout the hundred minute horror (and a bunch of nightmare sequences), and not one of them is handled in a reserved manner. Each death is just as much, or more comedic than the death that came before, certainly played for laughs. A lot of inventiveness is shown, but a lot of these deaths also only occur during brief montage sequences. It was a mix of practical effects and CG, leading to a decent variation in silly kills. From a character who has the contents of a wasp hive fly into their mouth, to accidental beheading, accidental empaling, and my favourite;  a character who met their end (sadly offscreen) by being trampled to death by a pack of horses while they were in a sleeping bag while out camping. Much like the Final Destination films, these deaths are darkly comedic and often have a bit of set-up to them, though nothing quite as elaborate as that other series.
The monkey has a really creepy design to it, the editing and cinematography of the filmmaking really unit to create the feeling it is a cursed object and something to be feared. Able to appear where characters least expect it to be, this monkey was the highlight of the movie - impressive for a mostly inanimate object.

The Monkey was a film that I think would have worked just as well as a serious horror as to what Perkins made it into. At times I did wish it had been played more seriously, that toy design could have been used for some genuine scares. All in all, this was an amusing and frequently inventive film that mostly hit the mark. The Monkey is currently streaming on Prime Video.

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7eventh 7ircle (2025) - Short Horror Film Review

I feel like there used to be a heck of a lot more experimental arthouse type films in the recent past. Nowadays they are few and far between. Of course, they can be an acquired taste, but when done well they can create a sensory trip like few other films do. Written and directed by Ty Brueilly, 7eventh 7ircle  is the eleventh instalment of the 'Shucks cinematic world'. You will likely gather from my thoughts to come, but I really didn't have much of a clue what this was all about.

Over sixteen minutes we get a series of tales that appear to be told from beyond life. It features various characters wearing creepy masks, hanging out and doing stuff. There are some demonic cultist type people out in woodland ready to sacrifice a doll, a family of cultists sat around a dinner table with their meal of sticks, among other such things. Mainly this is dialogue free, it had the feel more of a music video, with the expertly edited images going in time with the hypnotic beat of the music. What dialogue there was had some background interference to it but that didn't really detract from anything. Apparently, this short film is based on the seventh circle of Hell from Dante Alighieri's Inferno, a quick Google search reveals that is the circle for the sin of violence.

I won't even begin to pretend I understood what the purpose of any of this was. It made for a trippy quarter hour, and the mix between the images and sound was often sublime, was definitely something to experience. 7eventh 7ircle had it's world premiere on 5th September at the TCL Chinese Theatre in Hollywood. It has it's hometown premiere in Asheboro on 11th December at the Sunset Theatre.

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Uncanny: Fear of the Dark (2025) - Supernatural Stage Show Review

They say you should try and write reviews the same day as you see the thing you are reviewing. That sadly wasn't able to be the case here, so this is written some four days later, I'm sure there will be details I miss here, but the general feelings I have for it remain while typing!
Uncanny is a BBC podcast and TV show that has Danny Robbins as host. In the show he presents various alleged hauntings and comes across as someone completely neutral in the belief in ghosts. He also has two experts helping him, one expert who believes in the supernatural, and one expert who doesn't. Uncanny: Fear of the Dark is the second theatre production I have seen, having been to Uncanny: I Know What I Saw roughly a year ago.

The last stage production was made up of a deep dive into two different hauntings, one for each half, and most enjoyable so it was. For Fear of the Dark, this has been stretched out to now six different cases. Being a huge fan of anything anthology-like in style, this was music to my ears. There was more variation here than I thought, and being a low level fan of the show it included topics I had never seen Robbins explore.
It appeared that me, my father, and my sister, only noticed our tickets were each nowhere near each other right at the last moment before heading in to Northampton's Derngate theatre making for a bit of an amusing start. My seat was on the second floor in a box that was one away from the nearest to the stage. This meant that my view was partially restricted as it was a struggle to make out props that would often appear right at the back of the stage. That part wasn't good, what was great however was the fact I was on the side where the two experts sat, so I had a great if slightly vertical view of them throughout the show. The stage design was more cluttered this time around, the theme being that it is Danny Robbin's version of The Warren's artefact room. I liked the cluttered design of the stage, even if I couldn't see the back area reserved for impact moments. There was a neat video wall across the top of the stage, with three different screens where footage was being displayed on.

The show begins with a super serious intro that Robbins was amusingly self deprecating about. The host as always was very friendly and chatty, there is something very likeable from him, and he can be legitimately funny at times. He was joined frequently on stage by Dr. Ciarán O'Keeffe (the skeptic) and Evelyn Hollow (the believer) who would give their opinions on the cases discussed. I swear O'Keeffe wasn't in the show I saw last year, but my dad says he was. Either way, it was a pleasure to see these two as well, having seen them in a load of Uncanny's TV episodes.
It begins predictably enough with the first case being a supernatural case of a haunted nursery, classic Uncanny stuff. For me, while I knew U.FO sightings had been explored before, this was the first time I had personally seen it. I loved the change-up in style, and was fascinating to discover that O'Keeffe had been caught up in Britain's most well known UFO sighting as a child! There was an even more strange case looked at later on, about a Bigfoot type creature spotted just outside of Scunthorpe. Robbins interviews the believable man in a pre-filmed segment as he drives down the exact same patch of road where he encountered what he believes he saw.

The order of the cases is a bit mixed in my head, but regardless, after an interval we got back to what felt like a slightly more creepy act. There was a case offered as hope in the existence of an afterlife (to me it felt more unsettling than hopeful!), and a poltergeist encounter that also got the hairs on the back of my neck slightly rising. At one point during the show, audience members are invited to ask the host and experts questions, this was interesting enough. It was the later segment where audience members are invited to share their supernatural encounters that things unexpectedly took a turn for the entertaining. Personal favourites of the five or so supernatural accounts include a daughter who had an 'imaginary' friend as a child that she later discovered was the spit of someone who had once lived in her town during Victorian times, and a man who saw a large sized rabbit with a face of a human one dusky evening as a teen!

With the increase to six cases over two hours instead of just two, there is the expected more streamline feel. While these never felt particularly rushed through, there were a couple that were almost too brief. I enjoyed the way the footage was displayed on stage; how both Robbins and the audience would both be watching it intently (plus it gave me an excuse to lay back in my seat rather than having to lean over the barrier to see!). More of the same then, but that is not a critique. Despite the show seemingly being cursed for me (again leading me to unexpected travel woes on the short journey home), I loved this, it improved over time. I got there exhausted from a long day at work, and left even more tired, but with a smile in my heart for a fun evening kind of spent with family.

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The Draft! (2023) - Horror Film Review

Indonesian horror; The Draft! (also known as Setan Alas!), was directed and co-written by Yusron Fuadi and tells a wild story that both plays with audience expectation, as well as with horror film tropes. It creates a story where you really can't tell where it is going to go next.

Five college friends have headed away to a remote villa for the weekend. After one of them is found murdered, as well as groundskeeper Mang Dadang (Ernanta Kusuma), the friends decide to flee the place but find themselves unable to. Film nerd Amir (Winner Wijaya) suggests a theory; that they are all characters in a horror film script and are stuck following the whims of a writer. This outlandish idea surprisingly turns out to be the reality for the group, and with previous events altering and characters coming back to life seemingly randomly, they realise that they are trapped within a draft of a script.

It is an interesting premise, and one I have enjoyed in the past, with films such as Resolution and of course; The Cabin in the Woods. Things begin predictably enough for a horror film, so predictably that Iwan (Adhin Abdul Hakim) can't resist pointing them out to his friends. There was a bit of a hump accepting the characters had discovered they were trapped within a film script, but eventually that is made apparent purely by the wild happenings. There is plenty of amusing, almost fourth-wall breaking moments with the script, where characters criticise the writer for being lazy and not having developed them enough than to have hazy backstories. Amir becomes the heart of the film, it is him who is the first to realise, and also the one who becomes skilled at forcing positive changes in the story playing out. As the film plays out it switches horror genres also, it manages to fit a decently sized zombie section, as well as a slasher, and a demonic horror. This led to never really knowing what was to come next, with characters able to accidentally 'will' items and events into being, while coming to understand that while they are in a draft there is always a way for them to come back from apparent death.

This strange direction also removed much of the horror aspect from the picture. The amusing script, and how cheaply death is treated never comes across as too serious. One highlight was a corpse that various characters keep tripping over and reacting to each time they pass it. There are bleak moments on occasion, usually these are sign posted as being there as an intention of the writer, with characters stating how what they are saying is meant to create sympathy from the viewer, before overly cheesy sorrowful music begins playing.
There are some really exciting scenes throughout the movie, particularly towards the end of the second act in a wonderful little mini-event within the film world. I loved how wild that part got. I also thought one of the storylines having people get possessed and then ripping their jaw off their face was fantastic, I would have loved to see an actual horror about that!

The Draft! is a clever horror that completes the assignment it gave itself well. It keeps you guessing while being at times both purposely generic and playful with expectations. This naturally leads to a reduction in any legitimate terror, but is balanced out with an interesting set-up and a likeable cast of protagonists. The Draft! came to Screambox on 23rd September.

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The Rotting Zombie's Round-Up of Horror News for September 2025

Another month been and gone. In video game terms I have mainly been working my way through Borderlands 3, a much better game than I had been led to believe even if the core story sucks. I also picked up Silent Hill f. I had heard mixed things about that game, but I couldn't in full conscience call myself a huge Silent Hill fan if I didn't grab the new game on launch day. There is a Daft Punk experience later today in Fortnite, so am killing time writing this post while I wait. Such an exciting life I lead! Onwards to the news.

Crazed House Entertainment have announced the Digital release of The Quantum Devil, which was the winner of Film Threat's 'Best Indie Horror' of 2024. The film sees a team of scientists summoned to a remote facility in Eastern Europe where they perform dimension travelling experiments. I saw this one a few years back where I stated in my review '...had a great visual look to it...wasn't a dull film...' with a respectable six out of ten rotted heads as my score. The Quantum Devil released on 12th August.

14th October has Borderline Media releasing Screamityville on Blu-ray, DVD, and select digital platforms. Instead of a film, this is instead an 84 minute tour of various people's decked out Halloween displays. I think its one of those things that is meant to be left on the background. The tours include 'atmospheric music and chilling sound effects'. To be fair, I did enjoy the trailer, some very impressive looking displays.

There is currently an Indiegogo campaign running for Acrostar Productions The Legend of Tinker Hell. Coming from Steve Hermann and Lynn Lowry, this tells a comedic horror story about fairy based Ellie who goes to violent means to try to help out her master. For more details check out the page here.

I'm assuming Revenge Land is a sequel, the press release implies that but doesn't state what the first film would have been called. Anyway, this comes from Maniacal (formally Michael Moutsatsos), and takes place in 1975 where six musicians away at a retreat to work on their new album encounter a furious and vengeful man looking for revenge against everyone for the death of his son.

Short horror film The Crossroads Hitcher has officially entered production, with the film to star Andrew Pierson, Carissa Pierson, and Kristina Lafser. The simple yet effective synopsis states that a woman stopping at a deserted crossroads has a hitchhiker sneak into her car. The film is planned to hit short film festivals worldwide in 2026, with a crowdfunding campaign launching in the near future.

Lost Contact: UFOs After Wartime debuts on Digital platforms on 7th October. This is a new documentary coming from Small Town Monsters and investigates the story of WW2 pilot Thomas Mantrell Jr., the only known person to have died while chasing a UFO.

Found footage focussed streaming platform FOUND TV is celebrating its one year anniversary by releasing 31 films over October, one a day, either a feature film or a short. Highlights include Tahoe Joe 3: Concrete Wilderness, world premieres of I'm Haunted 4 and I'm Haunted 5, as well as the world release of Jabberjaw and the first three episodes of The Poltergeist Diaries.

Finally for today; having enjoyed animated short film Space Goblins, I had to include the trailer for the live-action feature film based on the property, also called Space Goblins. Looks interesting to say the least.

Snake Resort (2024) - Horror Film Review

When I heard of Beau Yotty's (writer, director, and co-star of this) creature feature horror film Snake Resort, I had a pretty good idea in my head of what it would be like. The press release describing a 'genetically enhanced snake' made me think of a gigantic CG monstrosity. It was a pleasure to discover the opposite was true, a movie villain whose small stature didn't get in the way of making it appear threatening. Stated to be made in the style of 80s creature features, watching this I could also see a huge chunk of 80s slashers in the genetics of the movie.

Out in remote Arizona, a crazed scientist (Jeff Serdy as Dr. Cross) has been working on a controversial anti-venom. He believes this will make him world famous once it has been perfected. Part of his research has included him genetically enhancing a rattlesnake, to make it into far more deadly a predator. Not taking the best precautions; the scientist is attacked and the snake escapes. With a sole desire to kill, the creature makes the 20 mile trip to the nearest settlement - a remote RV park, home to a small community of people. One by one, they begin to get picked off, with the survivors needing to come up with a way to defeat the murderous snake.

Snake Resort is very indie in style. There was never an issue hearing the dialogue being spoken, but occasionally there would be abrupt silences or background interference. Also with the dialogue, at times the lines sounded a bit too wordy, I couldn't quite put my finger on it but it did feel sometimes the script could have been tightened up a bit. This led to scenes that seemed to go on a bit too long. One early example was a painfully long introduction of a drifter (Frank Haraksin) arriving in town. Sometimes the scenes felt overlong for no real reason. This includes the slightly too long intro credit sequence, and the bunch of epilogues placed on top of each other at the film's conclusion. Looking past all that and there are more positive aspects that had me quite enjoying the movie.
The acting wasn't terrible, I came to like many of the eccentric characters, even if they never particularly stood out from each other. Highlight was the weird exterminator; Nate (Jim Perry), but in general, with not a gigantic cast, each character played their roles to an acceptable standard, whether it was purely existing to be a victim of the snake, or being one of the more slasher-based joint protagonists, such as Brett (Yotty) or diner worker Stephanie (Katrina F Kelly).

It was refreshing to see the snake here was actually a normal snake. Not tiny but not particularly large, this snake impressed by stealing a few moves from slasher classics. It has the Jason Vorhees type skill of being able to teleport around off-screen. One moment it will be inside someone's trailer home attacking them, the next moment, outside in a field somewhere, and then wherever it is deemed it needs to be next. It also does a great job of sneaking up on people, despite its loud rattling noise, characters just are not aware of it until its far too late. There were a large amount of kill scenes, but they all played out mostly the same. The snake will be shown on screen lunging towards the camera, and then you get an exaggerated death scene as the victim will dramatically fall to the ground dead. The reliance on practical effects worked so much better than the alternative. Recently I saw Coyotes; a creature feature about a pack of coyotes, whose main complaint I had were the animals being obviously fake. Here, despite snakes rarely ever appearing on screen with the characters, it felt more real and believable. Characters are killed in a variety of locations, with the snake able to near enough instantly kill with a single bite, meaning there isn't a need for much special effects, but the scenes sell themselves well.

Snake Resort entertained me due to how closely it followed the conventions of the slasher genre, the pint sized villain made for something more unique, eschewing the trope of having it be gigantic, or having dozens of the things. Even at around an hour and a half this did feel slow in places, especially with long over lingering shots of scenery, and word heavy dialogue. I did like the vibe with this very indie horror though, and for that it gets praise.

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A Mother's Embrace (2024) - Horror Film Review

A Mother's Embrace - directed and co-written by Cristian Ponce (History of the Occult), has a classic set-up for a horror film, that of a strange mansion full of sinister people that someone finds themselves trapped in one dark and rainy night. From the trippy start I was hooked by the vibe of this. I have been guilty in the past of preferring style over substance, and that is likely the case here, yet, throw in some Lovecraftian cosmic horror to the mix and this became something I couldn't look away from.

Ana (the prolific Marjorie Estiano) is a firefighter based in Rio de Janeiro who has recently been allowed back to active duty after suffering a severe panic attack during a call. While out on a minor job, Ana and her team; who include fellow firefighter Roque (Reynaldo Machado), rookie driver Mourão (Rafael Canedo), and the captain - Dias (Val Perré), receive a call asking them to assist at a nursing home which has apparently partially collapsed. Arriving at the location they find the building intact, but protocol means they must still inspect the premises. This is much to the annoyance of the owner, with it clear the fire crew are disturbing an important night for her and her group. The crew quickly become aware of the terrible state of both the building and the elderly people who live there, with the building in such dangerous condition, and with a bad storm on the way, Ana convinces Dias to arrange an evacuation under the slight pretence that the building could collapse in the storm. Splitting up to check over the large retirement home, all four encounter very odd things going on, from cultists to snake/eel type creatures squirming around. Something vey weird is going on in the home this stormy evening.

I was gripped from the start of this. The prologue sequence has Ana as a child in the 1970's visiting a carnival with her mother before heading home and the mum trying to kill them both. I loved this opening and how it handled the event that occurred here. This feeds enough into the main film itself (that is set in 1996), that I often pondered whether Ana was actually alive, or living in some hellish afterlife. Even before the horror begins, Ana is hallucinating her deceased mother everywhere she goes, still looking exactly the same as she did back in the 1970's. This makes her as protagonist a bit unreliable. Seeing things from her perspective, it took me the longest time to work out if anything bad was actually occurring in the home or if she had just gone a bit loopy.
The location was fantastic, dank dreary sets that are full of neglect and abandonment, the rain outside, and the constant noise it makes is a welcome bit of icing on the cake. Despite being set primarily at night, the film is well lit in all the best ways, making use of the darkness to make potential horrors that more twisted, and use of light that you are never left watching and frustrated about not being able to see what is going on.

I appreciated the flow of the story here, it is a series of natural feeling instances that ramp up the horror inch by inch. It felt like a breath of fresh air that the antagonists appeared on the whole just as surprised to find Ana and her people there as they were to find themselves in the surreal situation. I also liked the increasingly less subtle Lovecraftian aspect to the story, it leads to some fun monstrous moments, such as people seemingly being controlled via large tentacle type creatures infesting their bodies. The mystery remains the core of this, Ana frequently finds herself away from what feels like would normally be the core story, she is much more focussed on rescuing a little girl who appears very unhappy to be there than really caring about what increasingly looks like the headquarters of some Old God worshipping cult. Some of the tentacle creatures shots look a little CG heavy, but the practical special effects look great here, and when there is a need to be, things can get quite bloody.

A Mother's Embrace was a film I loved, the setting was pitch perfect, and I am never going to be annoyed about the introduction of anything Lovecraftian in a horror film. It may be more about the style than anything else, the story remains relatively basic, though that is perhaps due to how little is ever explained to the viewer, or indeed, to the protagonist we follow for much of the 90 minute movie. With great atmosphere and interesting characters, I found myself having a great time watching this. A Mother's Embrace came exclusively to the streaming platform Screambox on September 16th.

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Dead Space: Martyr (2010) by B.K Evenson - Horror Novel Review

Earlier this year I discovered a geeky yet fantastic lore-cast (The Lady of Lore). Each episode, the host goes through a video game series, giving her perspective on what the story for it was. One of these was a delightful four hour lore-cast about the Dead Space series of games. It was only after listening to it that I realised that part of the explanation was based on Dead Space novels; something I had no idea existed. Normally I am not that keen on spin-off novels from video games as they are usually terrible in my experience. B.K Evenson's Dead Space: Martyr however was a fantastic read, giving fascinating lore that simply was never found in any of the games.

The novel takes place three hundred years prior to the events of the Dead Space video games and chronicles the first experience humans have with the alien marker discovered on Earth. For those not in the know, markers are large statue type creations of likely alien origin that basically emit a signal that can cause people to transform into nightmarish monsters. From the video games I knew of the 'Unitology' religion - a religion that worships markers as God type creations. I also knew that the founder of this religion was named Michael Altman. The novel is interesting at showing how this man came to be this religious leader, for when the novel starts he is just a research scientist. A strange signal had been recorded off the coast of Mexico, and it is discovered that it is emanating from some sort of object deep below the sea. Altman's research into this strange signal gets the attention of the very shady corporation known as DredgerCorp; run by the intimidating Markoff. Not really given much choice, Altman is offered the chance to work at DredgerCorp's floating lab facility that has been placed above where the mysterious object is located. Crew are sent down in a submersible vessel to get a closer look at the object, they discover a strange alien looking object covered in strange glowing runes. There becomes a problem in that most of the people who travel down to look at the device end up going violently insane at some point during the journey. Altman however for some reason seems mostly immune to the negative effects of the marker and so becomes the chief pilot for the vessel. Markoff wants to bring it to the surface, convinced the marker could contain the key to unlimited energy, while slowly, members of his team and the scientists he's hired start to become convinced the marker is a God-like creation, and that Altman's immunity to its terrible effects must mean he has been chosen as the spokesperson for it.

I came to this book unfortunately knowing full well the story that would be told. I hadn't known that the lore-cast had been basically giving a synopsis of the whole book, so I can't tell how well some of the surprises would be on a fresh read. It is clear from the off that Altman isn't the religious figure he was later made out to be in the games. He is fascinated with the marker, and his curiosity is perhaps one of his weak points which causes many problems for him. He isn't religiously fascinated with the marker, for him it is an irresistible object of scientific curiosity. As the book goes on, and more and more people start to see him as some sort of herald, Altman wants none of this, especially when his girlfriend - Ada, also starts to believe the device to be Godly in nature.
The story then covers the initial discovery of the marker, and how Altman was turned against his will to be a figurehead for a new religion he had zero personal belief in.
Being a prequel, I was prepared for no necromorphs (what the monsters people transform into are known as), or if that if they did appear there would be only a handful. Without going into the reasons why, there is a necromorph outbreak that makes for quite the thrilling, brutal, and gory third act, things became more action based than I had anticipated.

The novel is well written, and split into a lot of chapters and sections throughout the 488 pages. It was paced well with a slow ramp up of peril, both from the marker itself and the shady organisation Altman finds himself ingrained with. I thought he was an interesting character in that he has flaws for sure, he seemed like a fly getting closer and closer to the centre of a spider web, and even without knowing, I think I would have been able to guess that this might not really end on that positive a note. It was actually a particularly bleak finish! This adds to the game's universe rather than takes away from it. Not only was it great learning about the origins of 'Unitology', I also never realised until reading this that the term 'dead space' refers to the zone around the marker itself which the monsters are unable to penetrate. You also are given a lot of information about the hallucinations the marker causes, with their origins as whether it was designed as a protection against the marker, or an effect of the marker looked into but left purposely vague.

I really loved Dead Space: Martyr, and as the first step in my quest to chronologically experience all the series has to offer over a multitude of media formats, this was a great starting point. Evenson also wrote a second novel titled Dead Space: Catalyst that is also a prequel to the games, so that shall be my next port of call.

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Coyotes (2025) - Comedy Horror Film Review

Coyotes is a comedy horror film coming from director Colin Minihan (It Stains the Sands Red) and starring a very familiar face (Justin Long - Weapons, Drag Me to Hell, Jeepers Creepers). The mix between the two distinct genres is equally balanced, while the titular antagonist threat both benefit and suffer from effects designed to make them more fearsome than their real world counterparts.

Scott (Long), his wife Liv (Kate Bosworth - Before I Wake, Superman Returns), and their teenage daughter Chloe (Mila Harris) live in a posh home on the side of the Hollywood Hills. The family begin to notice the local wild coyotes behaving more aggressive than usual, and this behaviour comes to a head one wild night. With a storm having taken out both their car and the nearby powerline, and with a nearby wildfire spreading ever closer, the family find themselves being hunted by a large pack of vicious coyotes with no way to get outside help. These beasts attack anyone they come across, and appear to be particularly fixated on the family's home.

I would be lying if I said I didn't have at least a bit of fun with Coyotes. It played things safely, despite coyotes themselves not really been a movie monster I had seen before, the film still went along at a predictable pace. Occasionally it appears that audience expectations may be played with, but there were not really too many surprises to find. The cast of primary protagonists was fleshed out with prostitute Julie (the director's wife; Brittany Allen - The Prodigy, Jigsaw, It Stains the Blood Red), alongside more minor characters such as the next door neighbour, and a pest controller. With Long and Bosworth a couple in real life, that would explain the fun dynamic they between them. Having very fond memories for Jeepers Creepers, I really enjoyed seeing Long in the lead role, his role as the meek and mild father meant that often for the more 'bad-ass' moments it was Bosworth who got to shine.

I found the movie had a bit of a pacing issue around the middle of the 90 minute runtime, the second act dragged a bit, similar scenes of horror kept playing out in different ways without too much different really going on. The third act improved somewhat, but I was still ready for the conclusion before the film was ready for it.

The use of mainly CG for the coyotes was a bit of a double edged sword. They looked fearsome and deadly, but they are mainly presented by a same method of a three to four second shot of the creatures walking towards the camera or snarling. Nowhere remotely as awful as the CG effects used in early 2000s films, it was still obvious they were not entirely real creations. Some parts used puppets instead, I actually preferred these moments as at least it felt like the beasts were in the same location as the real actors. There is a decent enough body count, and some of the victim death scenes looked quite cool. The woman who is killed in a the film's prologue was memorable, and a later shot of someone's chest having been chewed down to the ribs was fun. The comedic side of things usually comes from the dialogue between the eccentric characters, which is also where the heart comes from. A big subplot is Liv and Chloe's problem with Scott's working means he is never really present for them. This combined for one both funny and heartfelt scene where Scott really accepts his problems and promises to be better, only for him to then realise the radio he had been using to communicate had cut out and they hadn't heard a word he had said.

Coyotes was an enjoyable film, even if it played things a little too safe, and predictable. The horror never quite landed for me, aware of how rarely friend and foes appear in the same shot together, but at least the cast were fun enough to hang around with for the somewhat lengthy feeling story. Coyotes had its premiere at Fantastic Fest on September 20th, its theatrical debut comes on October 3rd via AURA Entertainment.

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Zombies of the Third Reich (2025) - Horror Film Review

As you might be able to tell from my blog name; zombies are what originally drew me to horror films in the first place. Ever since I watched Michael Jackson's Thriller music video as a child I was hooked on these soulless unstoppable monsters. Some things go together very well - fish and chips, salt and pepper, and indeed; Nazis and zombies. The David Gregory (Return of Krampus) directed Zombies of the Third Reich brings those last two together in a lovely blend, I am very happy to see indie zombie films such as this are still being made in present day, I never get bored of these!

Set during World War II, soldiers at a Nazi occupied bunker in France are conducting disturbing experiments with the hope of creating super soldiers. With Hitler showing specific interest in these tests, he has ordered for the testing to be brought forward, despite the calculations for the effects of this process not being properly completed. The process involves setting off a small bomb within range of some prisoners, the explosion infused with the technology to alter the DNA of anyone caught in the blast radius, changing them into a more deadly and primal human. It might have been wise to finish those calculations, as the test bomb results in the whole bunker going dark and losing contact with the outside world. The allied forces notice this, and with them having a spy situated there, and with rumours of a possible visit from Adolf Hitler himself, a crack squad of British and American soldiers, led by Charles Craftman (Zach Devereux - A Woman Scorned, and on an off-note, his IMDB page states he comes from Northampton - my home town), are tasked with infiltrating the bunker and retrieving the spy should he still live, as well as investigating what the Nazis were testing there. They discover the bomb test went quite wrong, and that now, every inhabitant of the cursed bunker are one of the living dead!

Zombies of the Third Reich did exactly what I assumed it would do. It told an exciting and unsurprising story with a cast of almost stereotypical soldiers of the time, with them battling plenty of zombies. You don't need Shakespeare here, and indeed you don't get it. The script is occasionally so corny that it nearly falls into parody. The briefing scene where Craftman receives his orders featured a character who I don't think would have felt out of place in the World War I Blackadder sitcom season, wild eyed, perfect posh accent, and crazed orders combined for a delightful, if slightly off-brand scene. This is about as comedic as the film gets, as despite being low budget, this takes itself relatively seriously. Much is made of not a lot, from the cast of protagonists who number just six, to the undead who never really appear in huge numbers, but still feel effective due to the tight and claustrophobic bunker location used, they all play their roles perfectly. Each of the characters had strong personalities that set them apart from each other, from the grizzled British soldier Matthew West (Rod Glenn - It Be an Evil Moon), to Taja Christian's mild mannered medic Charlotte Hayman, these characters may have had some generic dialogue and been almost caricatures, but they fitted the low budget zombie film very well, I would not want anything more.

It is obvious throughout about the limitations of the budget, but it never felt like the film was trying to be too ambitious. Action sequences are tightly shot, and the tight look of the bunker location leads to many opportunities to hide budget constraints, by having scenes play out in the narrow corridors and darkened rooms. I enjoyed the presentation here also, particular the faux intro and outro black and white sequences designed to look like old news and propaganda footage from the time period. The look of the zombies was neat, many of them having a kind of 'melted face' type image. There were a fair amount as well, though some appeared to be the same actors playing different ghouls. There is a mix of fast and slow undead, never really explained why, but some appear to be stronger and display more intelligence than others. Leads to some fun battle scenes with plenty of CG gunfire and blood spurts. You get the obligatory zombie feeding on the intestines of a victim scene, and some more surprising death scenes, such as someone who has their still beating heart pulled out of their chest! The only bad looking special effects come from several different explosions that are entirely CG based, but with a lower budget anyway these parts didn't stick out too much.

A barebones story is all that is needed to make an entertaining zombie movie, as long as the undead do their part also. Zombies of the Third Reich may be as generic as its title, but it was exactly what I look for in a zombie movie, it did exactly what I thought it would and was all the better for it. It is genuinely neat to know that films such as this are still getting made. 

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Gorgo (1961) - Horror Film Review

I have never really been that fond of Kaiju type monster movies, they never seem to be as exciting as the premise suggests it would be. Still, learning that a newly restored in 4K version of cult 1961 British monster movie; Gorgo (directed by Eugéne Lourié - The Beast from 20,000 Fathoms) was coming to the ARROW streaming subscription service, I jumped at the chance to see it, if only to see a giant monster destroying a city I was more familiar with.

A salvage ship that is resting off the coast of a small Irish island after taking damage from an undersea eruption discovers that the eruption also released an ancient and gigantic prehistoric creature. They offer to capture the beast in exchange for payment and actually manage to do that surprisingly easy. Ignoring the Irish government's request to give the creature to them, they instead decide to sell it to a circus owner who is based in London. With the monster (named Gorgo) contained in an enclosure there, it seems the excitement is mainly over. Despite the creatures large size however, it becomes apparent that it was just a baby, and that its much larger, much stronger, and much more angry parent is on the warpath to London to retrieve its offspring...

Perhaps if the film was a little newer I might have skipped the mid-film reveal of a second larger monster for fear of spoilers. Personally, I am glad there was a second creature. The original 'Gorgo' is still huge, around the size of a house, and the adventure to get it to London made for an entertaining first half, though I was a bit disappointed it wasn't as big as I had expected it to be. That side of things was only part of the overall monster puzzle, with the final half hour of this 90 minute movie dedicated to its much larger parent rampaging through the middle of London. It destroys everything you might expect it to, from Tower Bridge, to Big Ben and Piccadilly Circus, it effortlessly rips all these places apart as if they were made of paper. I was also impressed that it managed to destroy the London Underground. For a film from 1961 the special effects for all this destruction was impressive, in fact, at the time of release it was considered for an Academy Award for special effects. It is a person in a rubber suit rampaging around but the beast looks decent, even if it is obviously a knock-off Godzilla.

With a new restoration, many of the early scenes taking place out of sea don't look the most realistic, with foreground characters obviously not actually at these locations, and this is an entirely bloodless affair with neither the many human victims, or the beast itself showing any sign of damage from the multitude of sorrows thrown at them.

The story was as generic and as basic as you might expect, but it was full of exciting moments. You get battles between Gorgo and the navy, the army, and the air force that were full of explosions and destruction, even if sometimes it seems the exact same shot was being repeated multiple times. The protagonists are the original haulage boat owners and they somehow remain integral to the story throughout, never once showing any type of remorse for their selfish actions, nor ever seeing the monster as anything other than something evil that needs to be killed. The heart of the film comes from the young Sean (Vincent Winter), a stowaway from the Irish island who appears to be the only one to see the creature as an innocent being that should just be left alone.

Due to the age of the movie, this does feel it follows the format of the time. Despite many scenes of action, this still felt like it was longer than it needed to be. By the time the hour mark came around it had already felt like this should have ended. You can't fault many of the special effects, and the sound design for the monsters was just perfect, its shriek being an audio highlight. Gorgo arrived on the ARROW streaming service on September 12th.

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The Rotting Zombie's News Anthology for Thursday 18th September 2025

Another week, another news post. I don't really have too much post in my news sack, so I will see if I have enough to scrape together a trilogy of news based terror.

Arrow Video US have announced some of their releases for October. October 7th sees the global 4K UHD debut of supernatural superhero movie Spawn, based on the comic book from Todd McFarlane. This includes both the Director's Cut and Theatrical Cut of the film from the original camera negatives. It will also be released on Blu-ray.
Asian horror anthologies Three and Three... Extremes release on limited edition Blu-ray featuring a brand new 2K restoration on October 21st. Together they provide six horror tales from high profile directors from Japan, Hong Kong, South Korea, and Thailand.
Meanwhile, on October 28th, John Carpenter's ode to the works of H.P Lovecraft; In the Mouth of Madness makes its global 4K UHD debut.

Tickets for HitchCon '25 are now on sale. This festival takes place online from October 3rd to the fifth, and as you might guess, is all about that master of suspense, Alfred Hitchcock. This fifth year of the event celebrates his first ever film, The Pleasure Garden back in 1925. Guest speakers will include screenwriting legend Barry Sandler among plenty of other over the three day event. 

Finally for today, some music news with Daedric who have released a single for the track 'Dark Legacy' taken from upcoming album As the Light Left. The press release states the track is partly inspired by Pan's Labyrinth, and '...dives deep into questions of fate versus free will, exploring overwhelming desire, possession, and the loss of self in a toxic relationship'.