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'.

It's Coming (2023) - Horror Documentary Review

It's Coming is a paranormal documentary directed by Shannon Alexander (Be Still), which had its debut at Hot Docs (Nightvision). It has been a fair while since I saw a doc based around ghosts or potential demonic activity, and this one was from a slightly different perspective, as I am more familiar with these shown from the perspectives of demonologists, such as with Devil Down South and Malefice - A True Story of a Demonic Haunting.

This takes place in and around the apartment block home of Ashley Rowland and her family. She claims to have been seeing unexplainable supernatural entities since she was 11. Later in life, after moving back to her family's long located Brooklyn apartment, she begins to experience constant supernatural activity around her, something that her children also see as well. In 2022, a film crew record her and her children experiences at their apartment, as Ashley attempts to find a solution to what she believes to be experiencing. a spirit medium (Soledad Haren) visits, and later a demonologist couple (Chris and Harmony DeFlorio) attempt to help clear her apartment of any entities that might reside there.

I'm used to these types of documentaries being approached from an investigative angle, usually by experts visiting the reportedly haunted location. This was different in that the bulk of the film is just the documentary crew in the Rowland home hanging out. It was indie in style with basic presentation. That's not to say the film quality was bad, there was some decent editing here, and everything is presented as real with no cutaways to talking heads, or cheesy recreations of events. The presentation works at making this feel like a real life found footage movie. I am annoyingly sceptical when it comes to things like this, but that isn't to say that the family here are making anything up, it is clear from how they appear on camera that they legitimately believe something strange is happening, having long gotten used to it. The low presentation works at integrating the viewer into the household, you come to get a feel for the family dynamics,  Ashley and her children come across as a legitimate unit, the children acting exactly how you would expect children to be, natural rather than performing for the camera. 
I did at times wish there had been some type of narration for the viewer, whether by text on screen or someone speaking. This was especially the case with the cold opening where it just starts without any real introduction as to who these people are and what has been going on. The same applies to the ending, I again thought some type of end text saying how the family have been getting on since the documentary had been made would have been useful. Thinking about that though, the cold opening and ending feed into the feel that this is real life found footage. 

This follows a progressive path and is made up mostly of interviews with Ashley and her children. There are also strange events that have been caught on camera edited in, showing the footage where unexplained things really did get caught on camera. There is genuine concern from Ashley in wanting to protect her kids from everything going on. She comes across as someone supremely fed up with all the paranormal events and ready to go to any lengths to end it. You do hear strange noises, see strange shadows, and indeed, hear strange accounts of seeing shady figures in black over the course of the documentary, as well as one seriously creepy children's drawing. 

It's Coming was an intimate feeling documentary that made you feel like a visitor to the family's home. They came across as sincere, while the questions asked by the documentary crew were good at getting them to provide interesting information. Lacking a little in presentation, this documentary nonetheless remained a mostly fascinating watch. 

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Inside No.9: Stage/Fright (2025) - Horror Play Review

When the great comedy thriller TV show Inside No.9 ended last year, I heard that the creators; Steve Pemberton and Reece Shearsmith (Psychoville, The League of Gentlemen) were going to put out an Inside No.9 stage show as a final goodbye (titled Inside No.9: Stage/Fright). I fully expected this would stay within London and that I would never get to see it, but was delighted when I found out they were taking the show on tour. One of the locations was Milton Keynes, a city that is a half hour drive from my home.
For the past twenty five years or so I have loved their work. I remember being in English class while studying for my A-Levels and hearing classmates quoting the characters from The League of Gentlemen, making me want to check it out. I wasn't disappointed with that show, and Inside No.9 is basically that but with the creators more grown up, but with comedy no less dark and deranged 

Me and my father both had expected this new original stage based entry in the Inside No.9 series would tell one unique story over its two one hour halves. Instead it played with expectations a bit with plenty of rug pulls, misdirection and plays within the play. This gave the show almost an anthology feel to it that didn't let up from start to very showbiz ending. The self contained prologue taking place in the audience of a theatre production of Hamlet set things up well. Featuring dark humour and death this was a delightful introduction.
Before the story within the first half begins properly we get Shearsmith and Pemberton coming on stage to introduce it, as well as try to sell the idea that the theatre the play is being performed in is actually haunted. The majority of the first act is about two washed up comedians, who for a brief spell in the 1980s had had some semblance of fame on TV. They had performed under the name 'Cheese and Crackers', and the story told here is pretty much a recreation of season 4 episode 'Bernie Clifton's Dressing Room'. Shearsmith plays the straight one, someone who has moved on in life and left his comedic past behind. Pemberton meanwhile has an almost desperate feel to his wanting to bring their act back. A lot of the sketches they put on are the two washed up comedians re-doing past material, and purposely made to be cheesy and outdated, these were still quite hilarious to watch in their own right. Much of the humour coming from how outdated their references were, as well as out of vogue cultural impressions. Highlight was a very Inside No.9 feeling skit about two kidnappers who had accidentally kidnapped the wrong person, the incorrect person being a real life famous person that seemed like it would change based on where the show was being performed. Seeing it in Milton Keynes, the star here was a former Olympic long jump champion who I must confess I had absolutely no idea who he was until my father updated me in the intermission. Due to not knowing him, that section didn't work as well as it should have.

The interval came and we both said we had enjoyed it, I expected the second act would carry on the story, but instead it begins with a manic story set in an insane asylum that felt off kilter, macabre and darkly twisted in a way that really reminded me fondly of The League of Gentlemen. The characters here were larger than life, especially Shearsmith and Pemberton's roles, the former using that gravelly voice that echoed parts of both Papa Lazarus and my all time favourite character Geoff Tibbs. Their manic performances led up to a few gruesome jokes, including my very favourite joke of the entire show. Things are not as they seem and this leads into another story set on the stage of a theatre with a strong supernatural element to it. It even included some live action found footage segments of a character wandering around 'backstage' with a camera whose video feed is being projected onto the background of the stage. Once this story ends there are a few more misdirection and feints before the show finishes proper.

As expected, this is everything Inside No.9 but dialled up a bit. There is plenty of strong language, including a few uses of the 'c' word, and there is lots of death and violence over the two hour play. Multiple characters appear to be murdered on stage with a lot of inventiveness, from severed limbs and heads, to electrocution, and a face of sulphuric acid. All looked great on the stage (admittedly from my lofty position at the very back of the first floor of the seating area). I was pleased with the horror angle this went down. Often, the episodes on TV are more thrillers than horror, but here there were plenty of supernatural events, even if the idea the theatre itself was haunted always fell a bit flat when it was integrated into the show. It doesn't help that like everything in Milton Keynes, the theatre is relatively new compared to other places in the country.
I appreciated how beefy this felt, it would have been easy to just create an extended episode and have that be the show, instead there was a real effort to make use of it being played out on a stage, something the two main stars have plenty of experience with. There is no end of word play, Dad jokes, and inuendo that rarely failed to get a laugh. Even with the other actors who play roles there were laughs to be had, even though it was obviously the two leads who were the true stars.

It was such a pleasure to see these two people I have been watching on TV for the past 25 years or so in the flesh, I admit to being a bit starstruck watching these two, couldn't quite believe I was getting to be in the same room as them! That, and my love for their work may make me a bit biased, but minor quibbles aside, I really enjoyed watching Inside No.9: Stage/Fright and would certainly recommend it.

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Space Goblins (2020) - Short Animated Sci-fi Film Review

Space Goblins is a half hour long animated indie short that was created entirely by just two people; Amer Shihab and Harry Bryan. There is something about simplified animation that somehow puts me on edge, I find it strangely disconcerting. In the case of this short film that is not a problem, it just adds to the alien vibe.

Gib (Shihab) and Gob (Bryan) are two bounty hunting space goblin brothers who we find out on a mission to capture a warthog themed alien who is on the run for not paying his taxes. The two track him down to a squalid planet, deciding to check out a remote and run-down strip club for clues as to his whereabouts.

I had expected the titular goblins to be bad and nasty people. Instead, this is almost like a 'day in the life of', with the story following these two determined and law abiding brothers who it turns out are surprisingly competent. This is a dialogue heavy film with many scenes of characters talking face on into the screen. Sometimes this works and sometimes this doesn't, such as the intro scene set on their spaceship that just seemed to go on and on with the character talking in a meandering way. Some of the dialogue did get to be amusing, such as a scene at a bar, and the chief of police who literally has eyes in the back of his head. There is one action scene and it was short but sweet.

The animation was basic, but it all looked good, reminded me quite a bit of creepy British animated sketch show; Monkey Dust or the animated segments from old children's program - Around the Bend! The film world is full of bright and vibrant colours, and there were some neat moments, such as the CG planet that shows behind the cockpit of the brother's spacecraft. Voice work was decent, a few of the more exotic alien types were a bit hard to understand, but that could well be due to my hearing rather than anything else. There isn't too much to be found here that would warrant its 18 rating, there is a small bit of animated nudity, and some scatological references. 

On the whole, Space Goblins plays its story unexpectedly straight, the goblins are not the meat heads you might expect them to be, and there is an enjoyable atmosphere, even if full of a little disquieting feel. The press release states this has earned a bit of a cult following, enough that there is a live-action feature film currently being made that continues the unsettling feel and looks quite promising from the teaser trailers.

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Trespassers (2016) - Short Horror Film Review

Trespassers (original title Inkräktare), is a Swedish short horror film written and directed by Johannes Persson (Feed). My best friend actually recommended this one to me, even if she wasn't too pleased that I scheduled it in for a watch rather than check it out straight away!

Having not too long ago returned from a hiking trip up in the mountains, Ali (Ardalan Esmaili) is going through the photos he took on his laptop, with the intention of sending them over to his mother to check out. Looking through the photos, Ali reminisces to girlfriend - Sara (Evin Ahmad), about the old couple they met who told the two a ghost story related to the area visited. He then notices a collection of photos that he doesn't remember taking, with Sara eventually admitting to him that on her own she had visited an unmarked woodland gravesite the couple had warned them about not going to under any circumstances. Briefly annoyed, Ali brushes it off with a joke about the supposed curse, but then the couple start to notice that every photo that was taken on that trip includes a mysterious figure in a white dress lurking somewhere in the background...

There are certain things about short horror films that I really dislike. Namely that so many of them seem incapable of coming up with an ending any more advanced than an attempt at a jump scare. Trespassers almost fell into this trap, for it does indeed include an ineffectual jump scare, but thankfully that comes prior to the end of this five minute horror. Ghostly images appearing in photographs is something I do have a fondness, I like the merging of the supernatural and technology. Lake Mungo springs to mind instantly, as well as the ever amazing Sinister, both featuring pleasing scenes of spooky photos.
I enjoyed the pacing of this one, and it was neat to head back and see the figure in white was in the pictures even before she was first pointed out.

The attempt at a jump scare aside, I thought Trespassers told its story well, the parts with the photos had some decent enough creepy moments, and the insert shot of a characters eye (digitally) going bloodshot was pretty cool looking. With clear and easy to read subtitles, and enjoyable pacing, Trespassers avoided the pitfalls of being another generic short horror.

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The Rotting Zombie's News Anthology for Thursday 11th September 2025

Summer has nearly been and gone now, I am looking forward to cooler weather, though it is still slightly sad to see the end of each season. Onwards to the news.

An Indiegogo campaign has recently been created for upcoming anthology horror film; Amityville: Descendants of Darkness. Coming from the ever reliable Phil Herman (I Slay on Christmas, Unearthed), the press release states this one is '...a descent into fear itself an exploration of how darkness refuses to die, only to evolve and strike again.' Check out the campaign page here.

Dragon Studios have announced they are working on a follow up to notorious 1979 'video nasty' Driller Killer, with the surprising title of Driller Killer 2. The film is to be a direct sequel that takes place decades after the events of the first one. Crime journalist Jayne Goodman investigates a series of new murders that not only appear to be inspired by the crimes that came before, but is also discovered that the original killer's twisted artwork contains clues as to who this new drill based murderer is. Driller Killer was an ok film, a bit too arty for my liking, but had decent atmosphere to it. The new film is going to star Eric Roberts, Beverly Randolph, and feature Denzil Washingon.

Finally for today, coming this Halloween season is Melon Heads; a Eddie Lengyel written and directed horror coming from Fright Teck Pictures. The film, whose cast includes among them Alicia Marie Spurlock, Tara O. Horvath, and Brainslav R. Tatalovic, is about four students who as part of their final assignments, head to the abandoned mansion of the mysterious Dr. Crow.

Ibuprofen (2025) - Short Horror Film Review

Described as a psychological absurdist horror, micro-short film Ibuprofen is the first film I have seen that has come from Bahrain. I admit to having never heard of the country, but a quick Wikipedia search states it is an island country in West Asia, situated on the Persian Gulf. This three minute horror was written, directed, edited and had cinematography all done by Abdulla Naji Mahmood, and while obviously low budget, this had some neat weirdness to it.

A student travels through the maze-like corridors of his university one evening, desperate to find out what his grades are. Almost giving up, the young man eventually locates his tutor, but that isn't the end of his confusing quest.

The director's statement for this short says how it was made as a comparison against his real life struggles of attending university, due to issues he faced with what he terms 'administrative incompetence'. Even before having read the statement I could see similarities within my own experience of having attended uni and battling against bureaucracy. The best horror often holds itself up as a mirror to societal issues, so in this respect it works well.

It begins with a dizzying over-lapping montage of the student wandering the halls, the camera at a slight angle to give an off-kilter feel. Classic horror moments are added to this, such as the appearance of a stern looking stranger who completely ignores the students questions. Even the meeting with the tutor itself infuses the scenes with an unsettling feel, with the man sitting at an empty desk in the middle of a large dark room. The way the film was shot and framed was the highlight of this, even without anything particularly sinister happening there was an on-edge feel.

A lot of ground is covered in the three minute run time, the surreal feeling added to with dialogue that confuses both the viewer as well as the protagonist character. With the student chewed up and spat out, the titular ibuprofen makes its appearance, seeming in a meta way to be both there for the student's complicated experience, and for the viewer themselves.
Being a very indie feeling film there are some constraints, not from the camera work nor the acting, but I did have some struggles with the sound design. At times the soundtrack was louder than the dialogue being spoken, and the foley work at times felt a bit distracting, such as the tapping of the students feet as he walks leading me to thinking I accidentally had a different video playing at the same time. You could argue this adds to the feel of surrealness that permeates Ibuprofen.

I have recently been re-playing the video game Alan Wake, and this short reminded me fondly of the Twilight Zone styled live action mini-episodes you find in that game (called 'Night Springs'). Ibuprofen may have left me feeling a little baffled as to what had gone on, but I genuinely enjoyed the atmosphere of this strange little movie.

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Joe's Diner (2015) - Horror Videogame Impressions: 'Rotted Meat No.1'

The list of video games I own and have yet to play have gotten to such an amount over the years that I fear I will likely simply not even get around to playing some of them. Due to this, I have been more harsh lately, skipping games if I feel I am just not 'getting' them. This gave me the idea of creating a new series of posts. Titled 'Rotted Meat', these won't be reviews, but instead the impressions I had of certain games, and what led to me abandoning them. The first of these is Joe's Diner...

The Synopsis:

The game is a horror survival game that takes place out in the desert at a remote diner (Joe's Diner obviously). You play as a night-time employee of the diner, and have unusual tasks assigned to you. The place happens to have been built on the site of a Native American burial ground where two rival chieftains were buried. The hate they share for each other even resides in death, and so one of your jobs is to diffuse any supernatural occurrences that might arise due to the spirits of the chieftains still warring.

How the game felt:

This is one of those horror games where you are defenceless, and instead of fighting, you must sneak around the environment trying your best not to get killed by the evil spirits. Having a limited shift time, the game is split into different nights, much in the way of Five Nights at Freddy's, though here you are free to walk around rather than stuck in a single room. The game was unremarkable, basic looking, and really not a lot of fun. 

Reason for abandoning the game:

I started playing this shortly before upgrading to a Playstation 5, and Joe's Diner was one of the rare games that wasn't backward compatible on the new system, leading to me ditching it. Sure, I could have hooked up my Playstation 4 had I really wanted to play this one again, but I found the game super boring and dull, and so I really wasn't bothered about ever going through the minor hoops to return.