Death Cycle (2025) - Horror Film Review

Off topic; Death Cycle was the title I always imagined I would use should I ever get around to writing my short horror story about zombie push-bikes in Amsterdam. Death Cycle here is instead a modern day giallo inspired slasher directed by Gabriel Carrer (Death on Scenic Drive) and written by Dave McLeod which barrels along its lean 80 minute runtime at breakneck speeds.

Abby (Kristen Kaster) and her sister are crossing a road one dark evening when they are mown down in a hit & run incident by Eddy (Matt Daciw), a member of a rich and influential family who had been drunk-driving back from a Gala event along with his sister Caterina (Sasha Ormond). Fearing he will be identified when one of the two sisters is found to still be alive, Eddy makes the fateful decision to finish the job, but not touching the second woman who he believes to have already passed. Unfortunately for Eddy, the 'dead' girl survived, and was able to easily identify him. The family fixer is able to give the man a false alibi, using the families influence to make the police drop the matter. Around a year later, members of the family begin turning up dead in violent circumstances. In desperation, Caterina contacts her estranged journalist brother, Luca (Matthew Ninaber - Death on Scenic Drive), requesting he investigate Abby under the guise of writing a news story on the prominent families recent murders. Caterina is convinced that the girl must have something to do with the killings.

This was a great little movie that almost felt like an origin story for a new horror movie slasher. The killer wears all black biking leathers, a face obscuring black motorcycle helmet, and rides everywhere on their powerful sounding black motorbike. The story leaps around in time, much of the action sequences playing out either as flashbacks, or as stand alone moments outside of the core story unfolding. After a fun prologue that introduces the various family members, the story then leaps to present day where the killings are starting. At least two of the entertaining kill scenes play out as events that Luca is retelling to Abby during his pivotal interview scene at her home. Each kill scene opens with the masked assailant riding through the night, and the motorbike is used in several of the biker themed kills. These kills were varied and included two different looking decapitations as well as a disembowelling fatality. All the kills looked great on camera, and effects such as heads being stamped into mush were fun to see.

The evil family were a fun bunch to hate, this also applied to Luca. Being estranged, I had expected he would have more of a conscience to him, yet he goes about his deceptive interview fully on his families side. He acts like he is all about getting justice, yet felt more like revenge was what he also wanted. It felt that Death Cycle almost forgets his actions make him just as detestable, with him painted as the heroic protagonist on occasions when he really wasn't. For all the bike based moments, this was a slow story that unfolds. The kills being flashback sequences or shown out of context made them feel isolated from the more talky pace of the present day story. With such a small cast of characters, it was always obvious who the killer would turn out to be, so no real surprise when that happens. There was a bit of an immersion breaking moment when Luca has a nightmare about the killer, perfectly picturing them despite not knowing what they would have looked like. This also applies to Luca's paranoia about motorbikes, again, I don't believe he would have known that was the killer's vehicle of choice, so there was no reason for him to be suspicious whenever he hears or sees one.

Despite a couple of small issues, I thought Death Cycle was a thrilling and satisfying horror. The end caught me by surprise, not realising how much of the film had passed when it crept up. A lovely open ending that suggests rather than shows, leading to a complete package that was grand stuff indeed. Death Cycle had its UK digital debut on 12th October 2026.

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Wounds (2026) - Horror Film Review

Psychological horror film, Wounds was the first film watched for review this past weekend, and was a good start to my blogging time. Directed and co-written by Ron Krauss (Alien Hunter), this vaguely meta story featured some great looking makeup effects and prosthetics, though the same couldn't be said for some of the VFX.

Caleb (Jack Kilmer - Lords of Chaos) is a young SFX makeup artist who has been given the opportunity by his studio owning uncle - Jefferson Price (Eric Roberts - Heretics, Devil's Knight) to do the SFX on a low budget vampire horror film being made. Caleb is struggling with this, unable to achieve the realistic effects that he wishes for. Jefferson warns him that if the film is a failure, it could lead to the closure of the studio, and in turn, Caleb losing his home (he is living in a small apartment in the studio complex rent-free). Under pressure, he goes for a walk one evening and witnesses a man being stabbed to death. This event inspires Caleb, who returns home and recreates a throat slash that he had practised on the corpse of the stabbed man. This new effect of his is a hit with the studio, and he comes to realise that for each of the effects he is working on for the film, he is going to have to first act it out on an actual person. He becomes seen as an effects genius within the film crew, but the pressure of the job, and his gory extra circular activities start to weigh on the young man, having a negative effects such as hallucinating about his victims, and seeing blood everywhere he goes. It seems only a matter of time before Caleb's sanity leaves him completely.

The practical makeup effects and prosthetics here looked good on camera, both when used for the kill scenes, and when used as effects for the film within a film being created. The mix between these two parts was done by transitioning the real kills into the fake with some nifty use of editing to achieve this.
Caleb was a loner from the start, not the easiest protagonist to like, but his passion for horror came across well. Kilmer does an admirable job, towards the end I didn't feel his more unhinged performance worked as well as the earlier more measured one. Being obsessed with films, there were plenty of clips from iconic horror films shown as part of his research. It was fun to see Nightmare City, Night of the Living Dead, Scanners, and Videodrome among the classics being watched. Paris Jackson (Scream: The TV Series) plays Caleb's potential love interest, Ginny, with the boy becoming obsessed with her, adding another point of strain to his fracturing mind. I'm used to seeing the prolific Roberts in smaller roles in indie films, so it was nice to see him having a larger role for a change, here playing a character with the third most screen time, and someone who adds more pressure for Caleb by being so demanding of him.

As great as the practical effects were, this wasn't the case for the VFX work. This mostly comes into play during the hallucination sequences that sees room filling up with seas of blood. Something about these looked a bit off though, and didn't really look to fit into the sets as something that looked real - a shame when the practical effects did look so great. The kill scenes here were a lot better, and had some variation to them - throat slashes, a stake through an eye, a vicious hammer attack, and a lovely looking facial burn. A story like this needed to sell violence, and it worked.

For all its dark themes, Wounds remained entertaining, the somewhat implausible story stopped things from feeling too bleak. This was a love letter to the craft of making horror films. The film within a film sections were fun, such as the fake-start that begins the film. It was also neat that a whole bunch of clips from other horror films were shown. I liked the bait & switch ending which subtly subverted expectations, ending a decent horror on a suitably twisted point. Wounds had its world premiere on October 8th at Screamfest LA.

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

It is October; the spookiest month of the year. Over in the world of video games I have been enjoying Fortnitemares as usual (the annual Halloween event in Fortnite), with some cool skins appearing in the shop from Five Nights At Freddy's and A Nightmare on Elm Street. I wasn't actually planning to do any blog this week, the previous weekend (when I write my blog), I fully intended to be busy the whole time, so kept my schedule clear. I have ended up with a bit of free time, so will see what I manage to get done. It would be useful with Halloween so close.

Coming exclusively to Screamify later this year is Crack, described as '...an ASMR chiropractor thriller...'. Produced and directed by Calvin Morie McCarthy. The film is about a troubled young woman; Anna, (Peyton Grace Bell) who becomes obsessed with an online ASMR chiropractor channel ran by Dr. Ryan Love (Alexander Molina). When there is an opening at his place of operation, Anna seizes a chance to  be a part of his channel. Things come to a head during his first ever live broadcast which sees a neck adjustment go horrifically wrong. The film is also to feature Tuesday Knight (A Nightmare on Elm Street 4: The Dream Master), and principal photography beings this Autumn.

Dementium is a psychological horror that came to North American digital HD internet, DVD, cable, and satellite platforms on August 18th. Written by Clayton Thompson, Mark Wilson Sunderland, and Kyle Sunderland (with Mark also directing), this tells the story who heads to a secluded cabin determined to find out the truth about his mother's murder. He isn't alone, for he has the corpse of his father in the boot of his car. His crazed plan is to take DMT and speak to his father's spirit, but this instead leads to him being visited by two forces - his ex-girlfriend Cora, and a twisted witch.

Finally for today, filmmaker Jim Haggerty has been working on his latest movie, the follow up to last year's Jim Haggerty's Unnatural Causes. This new film is to be called Jim Haggerty's Demon Huntress. The movie's tone is said to be more serious than usual, and is about a woman; Paula (Stacey Brooke) who ends up becoming the target of twin demons - Asteroth and Demetrius (both played by Justin Levine - Unnatural Causes). Jim Haggerty's Demon Huntress is due to release later this year.

Never Let Go (2024) - Horror Film Review

It was near when I stopped going to the cinema on a regular basis that I saw the trailer for horror film - Never Let Go. Directed by Alexandre Aja (Crawl, Horns) and written by KC Coughlin and Ryan Grassby, the film had an interesting premise, but also didn't do too much to not make it seem obvious where this was all heading.

Momma (Halle Berry - Catwoman, Gothika) lives in a remote and secluded woodland home with her young twin sons; Nolan (Percy Daggs IV) and Samuel (Anthony B. Jenkins - Stranger Things). As far as Momma is aware they are the last humans left alive, due to a demonic apocalypse that took place many years in the past - demons possessing  humanity and forcing them to kill their loved ones. Her parents had prepared for this calamity however, and had retreated to the woods where a special house was built, the very wood it was made up of was blessed to prevent the demons being able to enter it. By tying ropes to themselves (which in turn are tied to the foundations of the house), the three are able to venture out into the woods to scavenge for food and other supplies without the demons being able to touch them. After a harsh winter almost completely depletes their meagre supplies, the three begin to slowly starve. Nolan was already sceptical of his mother's claims of the outside world being so dangerous, and this event leads to him beginning to suspect more and more that her beliefs are wrong, and that they can't possibly be the only ones left alive.

A few years back I saw Shadows, that film had an extremely similar story of a mum and her two children living in a remote location believing the world had essentially ended (in that one it was believed that sunlight had became deadly). So similar was the feel that it took me a small while to get over the thought that I had already seen Never Let Go. If it hadn't been for that one, this would have felt more unique, but instead it goes through similar plot points, and the story plays out in much the same way. There was a tiny cast here, with mostly the three protagonists carrying the film forward. I admit to not having the best opinion of Berry, I think it comes from never having seen her in any decent films. At best was Gothika which was good, but not amazing.. Despite that I enjoyed her performance here. I was even more surprised that the two child actors were decent, they were enough that they could carry large chunks of the movie entirely on their young backs. I had expected Berry to be front and centre, but she is missing for large parts of the movie, especially in the film's second half. Nolan and Samuel may be twins but they are near polar opposites. Nolan is distrusting and suspicious of his mother's claims, while Samuel takes everything she says as gospel. From the start the film is set up to make it seem like Momma is crazy, after all, she is the only one out of the three who is able to see the possessed humans wandering the woods. There is a little effort to balance out this feeling, such as nightmare sequences the boys have, but by the last act it really seems clear as to the reality of their situation.

Set entirely in woodland this had charm to its look. I loved the design of the old house with its hand carved symbols and words everywhere. Such a dilapidated look to it that the place almost seemed like part of the woodland. The effects for the possessed humans were great, I especially liked the old woman with the forked tongue. These possessed could speak, but had the look of zombies to them, carrying the wounds that led to their original deaths. The soundtrack was passable but nothing special, with the exception of the old song that recurringly plays out on the family gramophone.

Never Let Go didn't blow me away, but it wasn't bad. I enjoyed it's story even if it was very familiar, and the acting was much better than it had any right to be. Not scary, and it was too obvious where this was going, but I never found myself clock watching at all during the 100 minute runtime. Never Let Go is currently streaming on Netflix, though is leaving the service on 13th October 2026.

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Crushed (2025) - Thriller Film Review

The Simon Rumley (The Living and the Dead) written and directed psychological thriller, Crushed sounded like it would be a better fit for this blog than it turned out to be. It had some dark moments for sure, but was more light on thrills than I had hoped, veering more into a drama of sorts.

Father Daniel (Steve Oram - The World's End) works and lives in Bangkok with his Thai wife and their ten year old daughter, Olivia. After her new kitten goes missing, Olivia becomes obsessed with finding it, with her search eventually leading her to the home of a South African man; Stanley (Christian Ferriera). She is convinced that is where her cat had ended up, as she recognises the location from an animal-snuff film that her best friend's teenage brother had made her watch, so she thinks her cat was captured to be killed in a similar video. It turns out that Stanley was indeed responsible for the animal torture videos, and discovering Olivia in his home, he sees dollar signs and decides to imprison her, in order to sell her to a paedophile contact he has - Mr. Jeffreys (Jonathan Samson - Daytime Nightmare). As the local police and Olivia's family desperately search for her, Stanley begins to struggle with his conscience at what his plans are for the girl.

This was a slow paced drama with some very dark moments, moments which were often alluded to, but kept off camera. There were just a handful of these, among them included a person having their fingernails pulled off, as one such example. For the most part, Crushed had an almost laid-back and chilled approach to its story. It took a good 30 minutes before the story really got going, and before hand there were several almost annoying false starts where it looked like Olivia would be kidnapped, but then wasn't. Father Daniel was quite a naïve character whose faith in God meant he never seemed too upset about the situation. With his daughter missing he still holds sermons at his church, and remains upbeat that it is all a test of his faith, not so much his wife who begins to feel the strain, nor his daughter, who was already questioning the existence of God before she was taken. I had wrongly assumed the priest would go on a path of bloody vengeance to rescue his daughter, this turned out not to be the case, instead the plot meanders along without too much really happening. The actress playing the child was ok, but didn't give a particularly amazing performance.

There were some bizarre editing choices here that at times felt a bit amateurish. Weirdly edited montage sequences made up of fast cuts, a city overview shot that played out in fast forward, and then the end credits that played out in complete silence and felt like music was missing. The setting of the film was interesting at least, set in Bangkok it looked suitably different to the norm, and the film also had a large cast of characters. This did feel more like a crime drama than a thriller, which isn't to deny the harrowing real life topics it covers. Not having children of my own, this part didn't resonate as much with me as it appears to have affected others. Crushed wasn't a boring film, but I couldn't help feeling there were better things I could be doing with my time.

This was a movie that suggested more than it showed. Of course, I didn't want to see everything alluded to play out on screen (certainly nothing to do with paedophilia), but there was at least one scene near the end that would have been fun to see. The relatively low peril and lack of too many decent characters meant this didn't really leave me feeling anything. Not terrible by any means, but not one I would recommend. Following an acclaimed festival run, Crushed came to UK digital on 5th October thanks to GrimmVision.

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Erie (2026) - Horror Film Review

Not a sub-genre of horror I want to be watching all the time, but I do confess to a fondness for a found footage film every now and again, especially when they happen to be good. The Alison-Eve Hammersley directed and co-written found footage Erie (in her feature length directorial debut) has a lot going for it. The footage looked authentic and the central two leads were not at all bad. The only wrinkle in this was a late film decision that almost derailed the whole thing.

Beginning in a familiar way, you are treated to white text on a black background explaining that there had been a mysterious rise in suicides in the area of Pennsylvania, and that the following footage was recovered from two camcorder tapes that were found on one of these suicide victims. It is the 90s and siblings Stella (Carly Stewart) and Oscar (Grant Carter - EverythingNowShow) have returned to their hometown to investigate the out of nowhere suicide of their sister, Iris (Aimee Paxton) a year previously. Unhappy with the police investigation into the death, Stella has taken it upon herself to do her own investigation, hoping to both gets answers for her sister's death, while at the same time making a documentary that she hopes will assist with her aspirations of becoming a journalist. Her ace in the hole is that unknown to the police, she has the last moments of Iris caught on camera (something the film opens on), and that has given her clues she otherwise might not have known about. Her search leads the two first to the home of an odd man named Red (Markiplier lookalike Ryan W. Garcia - Helldivers II voicework), and then to the woods where Iris took her life.

The two tapes making up the found footage is presented as if unedited and in a cohesive forward path. It is presented in a old style square format, with a grainy look  that felt authentically nineties, and all characters and locations also look of the time, giving a nostalgic feel. To add to the illusion, there are snippets of footage that the pair have recorded over, such as childhood moments of the two, which creepily appear at key moments, as if the tape was encountering errors. Stella is mostly front and centre with Oscar filming her and the footage is shown as raw, multiple takes of Stella talking to the camera, and her brother's humorous teasing of her (such as purposely shooting her out of focus or shooting with objects obscuring her view) added a spark between the two. Classic brother and sister things that I could easily identify with. Stewart was great in her role, and while Carter had a more melodramatic and occasionally cheesy performance at times, was still also decent. Garcia was fantastic in his supporting role as Red, coming across as both amusingly as well as uncomfortably weird, with it feeling possible there might be more to him than meets the eye. The small cast helped things feel more real and insular, and the effective look footage really added a lot to the atmosphere.

Then there is an odd third act decision. With no fanfare, Erie suddenly stops being a found footage horror and transitions to a traditionally shot horror for its final 25 minutes, all pretence of being real footage abandoned with a more familiar widescreen look, and characters being filmed a out of film cameraman. This abrupt change took me by surprise, and it was a good ten minutes before I had gotten over this and was able to get back into the story being told. It felt a shame as it had been working out well as a found footage. I understand why this decision was made, with an actual explanation for everything being disclosed somewhere that wouldn't be seen on the in-film found tapes, but I found (footage) myself thinking about how these details could have naturally fitted into the core film style. After I had recovered from this change in direction, I did get back into the story, and came to like this final part. Even if large amounts of it were a character slowly hobbling through dark woodland. The explanation did feel a little silly at first, but I came to appreciate it and it did make for some genuinely unsettling moments, and the red herrings were appreciated.

The choice to blend found footage with normally created footage just about worked, though personally I would have preferred things had stuck to just the one format. Nonetheless, this was a good horror that had some horror filled moments. Erie had its world premiere at Beyond Fest on October 1st.

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No More Room in Hell 2 (2024) - Horror Video Game Review (X-Box Series X)

It was a few years after the release of first person co-op survival horror game No More Room in Hell 2 before I even heard of the series. Inspired by the films of George Romero (Night of the Living Dead), the first game was based on a mod of the Valve Source Game Engine, releasing on PC in 2011. This sequel arrived a couple of years back, and had a bit of a frosty reception due to a multitude of bugs and a sparse amount of content. Since then, a lot of the issues have been resolved, with new maps releasing yearly. I brought myself and my best friend a copy, and along with another friend we played through the currently 6 objective based maps and 3 survival ones.

There isn't much story to be found here, other than the small titbits that play out over the radio during missions. The internet states the story involves a ancient frozen corpse found at a dig site, this corpse happened to have a lethal virus frozen with it, which when free swiftly spreads, causing a worldwide zombie apocalypse. It isn't entirely clear if this sequel is a reboot of the series, or if it takes place before or after the events of the first game. Playing as a randomly generated responder, you are taken to various areas along with 7 other responders, there you are tasked with completing tasks such as causing distractions so trapped survivors can escape, and finding intel to help understand the zombie hordes.

The first time me and my best friend played this we were blind drunk. Stumbling our way through the game's tutorial, we launched into a random map where it was utter chaos. We soon learned we had to play this one differently to others such as the fast zombie games Left4Dead. The undead here are slow moving and not as plentiful, but your ammo and healing items are much reduced. I only really appreciated that after unloading my gun into the first ghoul I saw and realising I was out of ammo! The slow moving zombies can smash down doors, barricades and break windows in their quest to get to you. Seemingly dead bodies might suddenly stand up to attack, while you might witness body bags unzipping from the inside as you pass them.
Each map takes place in a different location with a unique look to them. Along the way you explore a hospital complex, the centre of New York, an isolated community, a rural town, a remote power plant, a farmhouse, an industrial area and a lighthouse. Maps vary in size, with the survival maps being smaller contained areas, and the objective maps spanning from a solitary complex, to a massive open area out in the woods. Playing with people is more immersive than you might expect, proximity chat meaning that you can easily have a feeling of isolation if you don't stick together with your team, and a nice touch is that spawning into levels has you and your team mates all in different starting areas. You have access to 3 randomly generated characters at a time, needed as the game has permadeath. Unless you are playing on beginner difficulty, or take a specific item into the level with you, if you die that it is, you lose all that characters progress and have to start over.

Zombies are the only enemy type and unlike the first game, this time around there are no child undead. Occasionally you will encounter special zombie types, such as ones who leave a poisonous cloud upon death and running ones. These fit in with the more grounded vibe, so no giant mutants with crazy powers to be found here. Dotted around the levels are healing items such as bandages, med kits and revive syringes, but with a weight limit to what you can carry you can never have so much that you can relax. Also, take too much damage and your character can become infected. While infected there are audio hallucinations and screen obscuring effects such as flies and blood vessels, and if you don't constantly take a preventative serum, then you will eventually automatically die and become one of the walking dead. The slow moving enemies gives more of a chilled vibe to the game, at least on lower difficulties. You have time to group up and discuss tactics, while doors and windows can be barricaded to slow the progress of the enemies. Even on the survival maps there is a more laid back vibe. I had expected Call of Duty: Zombies levels of threat, but instead it is a horde mode where you must defend three different areas before then extracting. Extraction is a key part of the game, with your character having to get to and defend an extraction point at the climax of each mission. There are various melee weapons and guns in the levels to find. These range from baseball bats and hedge trimmers to pistols, shotguns, rifles and SMGs. There is a stamina that is used up when running and using melee weapons, and also drains when you either shove or kick the undead.
Even with all the bug fixes, I encountered a few on my beginner playthrough, nothing major, but was a tiny bit frustrating occasionally. Replay value is provided by not only a levelling system that grants your characters better abilities as they improve, but also randomised item locations, and even randomised objectives and extraction points.

So far (having only played through beginner mode and a few ill-fated attempts on nightmare difficulty), this has been a load of fun. The more methodical slow pace of the game feels refreshing, and with new maps and a solo mode coming next year, No More Room in Hell 2 is something I can see myself enjoying for a good while.

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