The Rotting Zombie's News Anthology for Thursday 8th January 2026

My first news post of 2026, and the last one I write before I embark on a full month of working on this blog full time. I'm also on day 5 of a self imposed seven day isolation from the world. Being an introvert; my social battery is beyond drained at the moment, so seven days home alone with all the curtains drawn will do me good I feel. Apparently it's been snowing. Onwards to a trio of terrifying news stories.

I rarely ever mention these, but I happen to have a recent email about the topic, so I will speak of the JustWatch streaming charts for films and TV shows in the UK. These were up to date on 5th January. First with the JustWatch Top 10 Films streaming chart, and I can see there are only two relevant films to mention. Luckily, those two films are at No.1 and No.2 respectively. At No.2 is the almighty 28 Years Later, it makes sense why it is so high with the sequel; 28 Years Later: The Bone Temple just about to hit cinemas. At No.1 is Sinners, a film that I know next to nothing about, other than I believe it's an American film about vampires? Either way, it is good to see horror so high in the film charts at the moment.
Over in the JustWatch Top 10 TV Shows streaming chart, there is more horror but it is also more spread out. No.8 sees IT: Welcome to Derry - the TV show based on Stephen King's IT world. If that ever pops up anywhere I have access to, I will check it out, heard it's good for the lore. Fallout is in fourth position, likely due to it having returned for a second season. I did enjoy season 1, but my Amazon Prime Video subscription has expired, so it will be a time before I get to see season 2. Talking of post-apocalypse, Pluribus is in third place for last week. Got to admit, the only thing I know about it is that it stars Rhea Seehorn (Better Call Saul), and people online have said it is quite slow. Finally, No.1 sees Stranger Things, and personally, I think that position is well deserved. I've seen all the new season up to the final episode (waiting for a friend to catch up before watching that together), so far, I think it has been 10/10.

ARROW's January SVOD line-up has been announced, I will have a quick look through the press release and pull out anything that sounds appealing. Joe Lynch Selects has the director (Wrong Turn 2: Dead End, which stars Henry Rollins. I own this one on DVD, but annoyingly the disc is scratched meaning I can't see the final five minutes or so!) selecting some films for the service. These include Deep Red, Mute Witness, Ms. 45, The Woman, and Bad Biology. 5th January saw giallo - Blood and Black Lace, those type of films are ok, not entirely convinced they are my thing. If it is your thing then rejoice, for Puzzle also arrives on 9th January. Skipping ahead in the press release...more giallo titles, then...Split Second - a serial killer film taking place in a flooded dystopian future. Those were the ones that leapt out, though outside of horror - if you love Jean-Claude Van Damme, plenty of his awesome action films are getting added.

Finally for today, my cover story - Primate. This Johannes Roberts directed primate based horror is coming to cinemas on 30th January, to celebrate, a new featurette titled 'Silence Featurette' has been released.

Whispers (2025) - Horror Film Review

Originally intended to be the third part in a short horror film series called The Whisper, the scope of this grew enough that it was decided this would instead serve as a feature length sequel, and renamed Whispers (not to be confused with 2015 film, Whispers). Written and directed by Miroslav Petkov (The Whisper 2: Natural Connection, Drums), this indie horror may follow on from the stories of short films I have never seen, but it also worked very well as a standalone movie, with the low budget not getting in the way of some great ideas.

Bonnivar Park has been the site of vast numbers of disappearances over the years, with locals coming  to believe the park is cursed, and the authorities at loss as to how to explain the huge amount of missing people in the area. After his girlfriend, Sophie vanishes while at the park, Nick (Nikola Penchev) becomes determined to find out what happened to her. Following a tip, Nick thinks he may have discovered the place where Sophie vanished to; an abandoned building deep in the centre of the vast natural area. He enlists the help of Alex (Petkov), whose sister - Maggie (Simona Rose The Whisper 2: Natural Connection), had also disappeared, while looking for Sophie no less, as well as the strong and silent Caine (Vélin Borata), who also lost someone to the park. Together they head out to the abandoned building where it is believed they will find the answers they seek.

The synopsis may not sound like the most exciting story out there, but that is just the beginnings of Whispers unexpected journey. The film follows a similar format to what Weapons did - showing the same story shown from the perspective of various characters, each named chapter showing events from the named character's perspective. It begins with 'Nick' that was the weakest of the chapters here, mainly because I never really got a sense of just what sort of person Nick actually was. That was only notable because most of the other central characters all got fleshed out to the point where they became to feel more real than the character of Nick ever achieved. Each chapter over-lapped with other chapters, so for instance, in 'Nick' you have Alex seeing the man at the park, while later on during the 'Alex' chapter, you then get to see the aftermath of that scene. That idea was used repeatedly, I loved seeing the same scene but with additional information revealed before and after. It gave Whispers a feeling of a puzzle that was slowly getting solved for the viewer. Each of the chapters ends in the same place; with the three men, heavily armed, arriving at the abandoned building.

Despite not having seen the two short films this is a sequel to, it was obvious what they would have been about. Having a look online, The Whisper was about Sophie going missing, while The Whisper 2: Natural Connection was about Maggie's own vanishing. This was all stuff that had been revealed throughout the course of this one, so I didn't feel I had missed too much to not enjoy the story.
I liked how the film created the feel of the Alex and Maggie sibling bond; dreamlike flashback sequences where the character in the present is moved back into the past, with it then revealed to have been a thought someone was having 
Some cool ideas here I liked, such as the strange red symbols painted on walls and trees that appear able to mind control anyone who looks at them, characters hallucinating, teleportation, as well as some murder and mayhem. The low budget means there wasn't a lot visually to look at. For instance, the scenes at the abandoned building lost a little bit of their impact due to not really being able to show enough to make the horror scenes there work perfectly, but the strength of the neat ideas carried things through without any immersion breaking. Where the story went was fine, but I enjoyed the misdirection and rug pulls in the lead-up more, such as the crazy mid-film sequence that had me questioning everything that had came before. The park and abandoned building locations were both neat, the building full of potential atmosphere, even if the big story reveal never really fits the building type.

Seeing the low budget at movie's start, I was apprehensive this may be a slog to get through. Whispers succeeds despite some obvious budget constraints, which shows the impressive filmmaking skills here. The core acting was great, the acting for many of the other characters not so much. At its core this was a serious story, but one that happened within a reality where everything is patently absurd
My low expectations for the film were swiftly surpassed - thanks to the clever use of chapters, fleshed out protagonists (mostly), and a sense of atmosphere.

SCORE:

Alan Wake Remastered (2021) - Horror Video Game Impressions: 'Rotted Meat No.3'

The third in my series of horror video games I was unable to get through was the 2021 remaster of 2010 video game - Alan Wake. As I've gotten older and my years have began to advance, I find myself with little desire to re-play games I've already gotten through. Over the years, I have played Alan Wake multiple times, it is still a great game, and the remaster makes a great game even better.

The Synopsis: 

Alan Wake arrives in the lazy mountain town of Bright Falls with his wife, on vacation to try and help the famous writer get over his writer's block. They are not there long when Wake's wife gets captured by a dark presence from Cauldron Lake. A week later, Alan wakes up in a crashed car with no memory of what has happened to him during that time period. He finds Bright Falls is infested with supernaturally infected humans, and that the area is littered with pages from a manuscript that he doesn't remember writing, which eerily predicts the future with uncanny accuracy.

How the Game Felt:

This remaster is the only proper way to play the game. Having tried it like this I could never go back. Alan Wake was made before the advent of HD televisions, so going back to the original it is very dark and murky. The remaster makes everything look so much smoother and brighter, making the world come alive with details that before I wasn't able to see. It also appears to have had lore added that links the game to Control, a neat touch. The game is a combat heavy survival horror game split into chapters. It plays as well as it always did, and while I stuck with this I was having a genuine blast.

Reason for Abandoning the Game:

As much fun as this was to play, it is still the same Alan Wake that I have played countless times before. It felt like a waste of my game playing time to give this yet another playthrough, even if it did look better than it ever had before. In an age where I struggle to even play remakes, let alone remasters, I just didn't feel a strong urge to continue through the familiar story and levels.

CAPA Ghostbusters: Director's Cut (2026) - Short Comedy Horror Film Review

I have reviewed a whole bunch of films from filmmaker Nicholas Michael Jacobs (Genevieve, Urban Fears) over the past years, but his latest is something a little different. As the title hints heavily at; CAPA Ghostbusters: Director's Cut is a director's cut of CAPA Ghostbusters, a film that Jacobs made with his friends in high school. The original film was around 9 minutes long, this director's cut, cuts this down to a lean 5 and a half minutes, remastered with updated special effects.

Four students at The Philadelphia High School for the Creative & Performing Arts (CAPA) are members of a Ghostbusters club. After the school's librarian encounters a ghost, the disbelieving principal; Principal Kaufman, gives them permission to go and hunt the 'ghost'. Luckily they are ready for this opportunity, having recently created uniforms and gotten their hands on some make-shift ghost blasting weapons.

I can't say I have ever been much of a fan of fan made films, though that is typically due to them being unnecessarily long. Obviously, that is not the case with this one. It tells a familiar story in a lightning fast paced short, including some iconic moments that are recognisable from the film series this was based on. Most obvious is the library based prologue. You also get the iconic theme music, and later, the recognisable proton beams, as well as slimer being the ghost responsible. I watched some of the original short film, and this one does have much better CG special effects. The comedy is never laugh out loud funny, the friends have a decent enough rapport among themselves, and I did smile during a montage scene of the busters getting ready when one of the zips on their suits jams during a close-up shot. The addition of a 'secretary' for the four person team was good in relation to making the female character a force to be reckoned with, but their inclusion didn't really seem to fit the more stream-lined short as the character appeared in just the one scene.

It might be a little breezy, but telling a complete Ghostbusters adjacent story in such a short time frame is impressive, kudos to the tight editing. Having seen Jacobs filmmaking work improve leaps and bounds after the past five or so years, it was interesting to see where he came from, and also where he is going to go next. The director's cut includes an after credits sequence that teases his next project; True Exorcism.

SCORE: