Pig Hill (2025) - Horror Film Review

Coming after Birdcall, the second of my animal themed horror reviews this week sees me get into the twisted world of the Kevin Lewis (Willy's Wonderland) directed Pig Hill. The subject matter of pig people is of course ridiculous, but to its credit, the film tackles that subject matter seriously.

There have been a lot of disappearances in and around the rural city of Meadville (that the end credits are very excited to state is a real place), and Carrie (Rainey Qualley - Ocean's Eight) has decided to write a book about this, hoping to be successful enough that she will be able to afford to move somewhere better. She is looking at the situation from the perspective of local legend, with many people believing human/pig hybrids live up in a remote area known as Pig Hill and they are responsible for the missing people. Of course, these investigations get the girl closer to the the truth than she ever realised she would.

Things do make more sense later on, but I was unprepared for the commitment to treating the silly subject seriously. As a protagonist, I really liked Carrie. She had a sleep-walking type of feel throughout Pig Hill that blended well with its more ethereal and hallucinogenic moments. It is rare to get a lead who is the movie's scene-stealer, but that was the case here. Qualley made each scene she appeared in better, purely by her being there. Not that she had too much competition, as a lot of the rest of the cast didn't seem as well...cast. Shane West (Gotham) plays Carrie's new love interest; Andy; a man with not one, but two tragic backstories to his name. He has such an earnest face and says his lines in such a matter of fact world weary resigned way that every word that came out of his mouth sounded fake. I could not take this character seriously, making for a character I did not care for at all. Better was Carrie's creepy brother, Chris (Shiloh Fernandez - Evil Dead), he has a real skill at oozing off-putting, too protective vibes in his relationship with his adored sibling. Back on the flipside there is Andy's best friend; a barman who is forced to have near enough his every line of dialogue come across as comedic, and out of place.

There are many dream sequences, lots of reality bending, and Carrie frequently hallucinates the pig man in various places watching her  - this all combines to make you feel something more supernatural may be going on. There was a trippy vibe to much of the film, with scenes bleeding into each other enough that you occasionally question if what you are seeing is real or part of a dream sequence. The occasional disorientating scene transition adds to the movie's default dream-like feel. When the story is eventually displayed in all its truth, it adds a different perspective to earlier scenes - certainly a grim subject matter! Gave me slight vibes of the Black Mirror episode 'Loch Henry'. I did really like where the film ended up going.

If you came to Pig Hill hoping for pig people, then sure, you will find them here, at least in some form. You will also get scenes of gore, sexual assault, and one over the top birth scene, invoking old school Peter Jackson gore-fests. I like that this tried to go somewhere unexpected with its story, and with good cinematography, editing effects and a good look, this horror wasn't terrible. Pig Hill is due out in the forth quarter this year, thanks to High Fliers Films.

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Luna Abyss (2026) - Sci-fi Horror Video Game Review (Xbox Series X)

I almost decided I wasn't going to review action game, Luna Abyss. A weird meld of sci-fi and horror taking place in an even weirder location. I haven't actually heard anyone talking about the game though, myself, I just stumbled across it on Xbox Game Pass. This meant I felt compelled to write a review in appreciation for the hours spent there. While flawed, this was still something that had something to it. My synopsis is based on what I believe was going on, shall try and keep spoilers to a minimum.

A couple of hundred years ago, a second moon suddenly appeared in the space around Earth. This moon was red, and upon being explored, was discovered to have a seemingly endless abyss going all the way down through it. The arrival of a second moon led to problems on Earth, with the red moon's gravity affecting the planet. With this disruption, some people decided to travel to the new moon and form a colony there; mining the abyss for the valuable resources contained within. Others were practitioners of a new religion who believed God was at the bottom of the abyss, and so travelled to the moon to be closer. Eventually, enough people went there that a city was formed. All was fine until one day a strange rot began to emerge from the depths of the abyss, anyone caught by this rot transformed into a mindless monster. After all had fled or been taken by this rot, the city was abandoned, and in present day, the moon is used purely as a penal colony. People born with red eyes on Earth are rounded up and sent away, as they are seen as being evil. It turns out these red eyes allow the humans to remotely pilot artificial constructs using their mind. This is put to effect in the abyss, were constructs are sent to scavenge for resources.
You play as Fawkes; a teenage girl imprisoned on the moon, she is told by an A.I construct; Aylin, that she has been chosen by an all powerful being named the 'All-Father' to use her red eye power to search the abyss for essential items.

The chaotic and sprawling world reminded me of Blame! The structures, while artificial looking, seem to spread on for infinity. Stone staircases, pipes, vents, and vast rooms make up the endless structure, so gargantuan that it doesn't seem possible that it was ever man-made. The signs of human settlements within the abyss gave some nice Bioshock vibes, that is reinforced with the many audio diaries scattered around the levels, buoyed up by lots of environmental storytelling. Outside of a handful of locations though, the meat of the game is abstract constructs devoid of life. With you travelling around the abyss, you never really get a good feel for the layout of it. Due to this, it never felt like too much of a 'lived-in' location, more like a collection of levels connected by pipe networks.

Luna Abyss is a first person adventure game that is a mix of shooting and platforming. There are also friendly characters you can interact with, though outside of hidden rooms, there are no side quests to be found. Over the course of the roughly 12 hour game, you get access to four sci-fi guns. These are essentially an assault rifle, shotgun, sniper, and rocket launcher disguised as something far fancier. Rather than ammo, the guns work on a cooldown timer and can overheat. In addition to using these to kill enemies (using a lovely Metroid Prime style lock-on ability), the guns can be used to assist with the platforming. The shotgun can be used to destroy blue forcefields, the sniper for purple ones, the rocket launcher can fire multiple rockets at the same time to hit switches. Enemies for the most part are made up of floating orbs of various types, and demonic humanoid creatures. There are a bunch of epic feeling boss battles against huge constructs, which is when a more 'bullet Hell' type of gameplay begins. As fun as the bosses were, they all take place in a formulaic way, with circular battle arenas for each one.

The meat of the game is platforming, the abyss is very vast in size, with Fawkes traversing this world with a combination of double jumps, boosts and the handy ability to take zero fall damage (you fall from some dizzying heights here). There was a steady stream of new abilities to help with the platforming, such as forming platforms out of ice, a grapple beam, and most fun - unlocking the ability to possess specific constructs to move around the levels. One of these has you on a train track, another allows you to magnetically stick to floating platforms, and one puts you inside of a heavily armed killbot. 

The look and feel of the game world is chunky, with environments feeling thick with substance. This allowed for a cohesive stitching together.
Voice work was a highlight, with many of the accents coming out of the weird constructs being regional British ones. Never was not strange to see a grotesque construct speaking with a soft northern accent! As a whole, I thought the voice acting was great.
There was a decent story here, with plenty of flashback cutscenes to try and explain vaguely what has been going on. Much of the story is revealed via audio diaries and notes however.

Excellent controls, quality voice acting, and a unique setting with an occasional U.K feel to it. I wish there had been more of a lean into Bioshock style human locations, as many of the levels here are more alien and remote in feel, while I found the lived-in areas to be a lot more interesting. Split between platforming and shooting, there wasn't too much variation throughout this, but it was good for what it was. Maybe missing something to really feel essential, Luna Abyss still worked at creating a compelling game world.

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The Rotting Zombie's News Anthology for 7th July 2026

We are deep in summer, and here in the U.K, my rotted corpse has somehow survived the first heat-wave. Enjoying a week of respite but I have heard rumour a second heat-wave is approaching. At the time this post goes up, well, it may already be here! The Rotting Zombie HQ relies on blu-tac a lot, it is in a sorry state with so many posters having came down due to the heat drying out the tac! Even had glue melt off the shelving in my front room, causing the shelf to fall off the wall! Onwards to a trilogy of terror plucked from the very bottom of my bloody news sack.

Back in May, indie horror film Susurrus was released by Ten-Headed Skeleton, who also wrote, directed and produced it. The subject matter for this movie was the 'Backrooms', something that I have only recently become aware of, and have found it all a fascinating place for horror. The synopsis has a group of woman who all find themselves trapped in the endless backrooms, all having been transported there when walking through doorways. The press release mentions both Cube and The Twilight Zone episode 'Five Characters in Search of an Exit', so of course that sounded appealing. Susurrus is available to watch online now.

The final chapter in the Corn Zombies saga; Revenge of the Corn Zombies, currently has a crowd funding campaign running. This third film, taking place six years after the initial outbreak, has survivors hiding out in an abandoned sanatorium. Directed by Steve Hermann, with SFX makeup by Beth Metcalf and Marcus Koch, and coming from Acrostar Productions the crowd funding page can be found here.

Finally for today, Frank Palangi's Tubi horror anthology; At Death's Door is now crowdfunding on GoFundMe for a sequel. The original anthology was adapted from Christopher Pelton's short story collection - Toe in the Water, I'm guessing this sequel will also follow suite. Production on At Death's Door 2 has officially commenced, with the first segment already completed. Check out the campaign page, here.

Birdcall (2026) - Short Horror Film Review

Birdcall is a fifteen minute short zombie(ish) film that tries its best to hide its indie budget. Directed by Justin Calandriello, and written by Halle Kott, the individual parts of this all work, but would it flow together in a satisfying manner?

The intro (bizarrely told via a puppet show), introduces us to the world of Birdcall. An avian disease has made the jump to humans, the disease causing victims to first rot, before making them become homicidally violent, and then finally mutating them into a new form. Scientist Jon (Sam Beaton) and his wife, Rosie (Vassiliki Gicopoulos) have travelled to a remote cabin. Rosie believes it is due to her insulting a superior of Jon's back at the facility that they have been sent away from the main facility, but unknown to her, Jon is infected, and has travelled to the cabin in order to test out a cure he has been working on.

There were a mix of styles here that meant at points the short didn't flow too smoothly. I liked the weird intro section, an easy and effective way to bring viewers up to speed on the film world. The whole short takes place inside the cabin location, the unnerving sounds outside indicating they are trapped here. The two characters are the focus of this short, and at times they revert to found footage moments where they leave video diaries. Jon was very arrogant, and him and Rosie's marriage is explored via dialogue indicating she is with him and his people for protection, making her initially quite a submissive character.

The plot goes as expected, some nice make-up to sell Jon's obviously increasingly rotting body. The constant monster calls from outside added atmosphere, though some of the sound effects did sound a little generic. The cabin was a decent location, but the side plots of what Jon and Rosie are doing did feel a little sporadic. 

Birdcall does a lot with a little, much of the horror implied rather than shown. The core-story wasn't something unique, though the set-up made for a little change. This was a good enough entry in this type of single location infection horror. Birdcall has its world premiere at the Fantasia International Film Festival as part of the Official Selection of the Weekend Fantastique du Cinéma Québécois on July 31st.

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Breach of the Soul (2026) by Richard T. Wilson - Horror Novel Review

When I heard that the author of the Halloween Girl graphic novel series was releasing another book, I was of course interested to check it out. To my surprise, Breach of the Soul turned out not to be a graphic novel, but was instead a full blown novel set within the Halloween Girl universe. Skimming press releases once again led to surprise and delight. My question was; would a novel be able to do justice to the moral and magical world without the use of art to sell its ideas? For transparency, I was quoted not once, not twice, but three times at the back of the book about Wilson's prior works in the series.

The novel, over 198 pages, is split into two interconnected stories. The first of these is the 80 page long 'Part 1 - Julie and the Devils'. Here, a teenage runaway - Julie ends up in the woodland home of an evil witch. Luckily for her, there is a friendly ghost there to help her escape. She then learns that the witch is part of a Satanic cult who intend to bring ruin to the town Julie lives in.
'Part 2 - Fallen Masks' then takes place a little while later in the nearby town of Crystal Springs, where in a large graveyard, a certain teenage ghost - Charlotte, lives, alongside her much older friend Poe. They sense a darkness spreading over their town, with it felt that something evil must be responsible for causing the mild townsfolk to become embittered and lose their empathy for their fellow man. In the midst of the change, a killer emerges, determined to punish those he believes to be impure.

Breach of the Soul was such an easy book to read. The clear and simple words and fable-like layout of the story me getting through the breezy novel like a hot knife through butter. To begin with, I thought maybe this was more geared towards a teenage audience, but with plenty of swearing and some scenes of bloody terror, this wasn't actually the case. The two stories were very inter-linked, with the same characters reappearing in both. The stories also did feel quite separate, each one with its own adventure. Wilson's trademark 'heart' is on show in these stories. A universe where Heaven and Hell do actually exist in the afterlife. The heroes here aren't vengeance filled with hate towards their enemies, instead they do what they need to for the betterment of the innocent; acting both noble and selfless. Topics here in a roundabout way cover real life things that from an outsiders perspective have made America seem like it is in a death-spiral with itself. Covid and how people acted during it is mentioned, and more specifically it speaks of political divisions that have led people's relationships with each other fraying. It is nice in the Halloween Girl universe that this is able to be attributed to be literally caused by evil forces, and so can be fixed more easily than reality.

Julie, despite some bad judgements (she is just a teen after all), was a protagonist easy to like, and easy to root for. Like the graphic novels, Charlotte, Poe, and Alma were really likeable - nice characters full of kindness and understanding. These characters were the perfect foil to the evil of the Satanists and witch McKenna.

The book flew along at a fast pace, well written to the point that in my minds eye, I could see these events playing out. This may be a horror, but is one that keeps a positive outlook on mankind. Dark things do happen during the events of the book, but it never felt like good wasn't going to triumph over evil.

Breach of the Soul was a lovely read from start to finish. The story told effectively, the returning characters translated into purely words in a natural and entertaining way. I really enjoyed reading this. Breach of the Soul released on June 3rd.

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Fathers (2026) - Thriller Film Review

It was nice to see upon starting thriller, Fathers, that it was written and directed by Harley Wallen (Final Recovery, Beneath Us All, Ash and Bone), he has made some enjoyable films in the past. The mystery of the story for this one really drew me in, I just hoped it would all get tied together in a satisfying and cohesive bow.

Natalie (Kaiti Wallen - Final Recovery, Beneath Us All) is found one day lost and confused in the woods. It turns out she is the same person who was abducted outside her home as a child fifteen years previously. Unfortunately for her, she has lost her memory, and so is unable to help the police with finding where she had been and who she had been with all that time. Through a series of flashbacks, we see her under the care of a paranoid man claiming to be her real father (Harley Wallen). He has convinced Natalie that Calvin (Jerry Hayes - Final Recovery, Beneath Us All), the man she thought to be her actual father, is evil and has sent people out into the world to find and abduct her. In the present, unable to recall much more than fragments of memory, Natalie struggles to identify what is fact and what is fiction.

The film follows a back and forth structure between past and present over its near 100 minute runtime. The actress playing young Natalie (Emilia Wallen - Beneath Us All) was excellent in her role; a curious and kind child who was easy to like. Surprisingly, the abductor also presented himself well for the most part. Thankfully, this man believes himself to be the girl's father, and so there is no sexual or physical threat from him. The moments of action with him were effective, though the use of a red tint to indicate when he has lost control was an odd choice. I didn't like the present day Natalie. I get she is troubled and upset, but the permanent scowl on her face like she is smelling something bad, didn't endear me to the character.

I may not have been too keen on the protagonist in present day, but I was still very interested to piece together the pieces of the puzzle that made up the story, to see where things would end up. Sadly however, Fathers fizzles out rather than sticks the landing. It isn't an exaggeration to say the film literally cuts to credits mid-flow, leaving unresolved plot lines and a feeling of deep dissatisfaction. When seeing this, I exclaimed out loud "What the Hell!?", such was my surprise at the abrupt finish.  

I loved the back and forth between past and present, how clues as to what might be going on are drip-fed to the viewer. Scenes of peril were few and far between, but they worked and looked effective (outside of the red tint). A minimal use of special effects, but they did the job adequately. More than anything, it was the story that kept me hooked, even if it did lead to that unfortunate end. Fathers was a decent thriller, that was held back from being an essential watch due to a couple of smallish issues. 

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