Dead Space: Catalyst (2012) by B.K Evenson - Sci-fi Horror Novel Review

Last year I was taken by a sudden urge. In this heightened fever I decided that I would work my way through all Dead Space media in chronological order. Over the years there has been novels, graphic novels, films, audio dramas, and of course the sci-fi horror video games that started it all. I enjoyed reading Dead Space: Martyr and so a second novel from the same author; B.K Evenson was something I was looking forward to reading. While this one didn't do anything as surprising, it was still a decent follow up.

Istvan and Jensi are two brothers who grow up in a slum area on planet Vinduaga. From a young age, Jensi had to look out for his brother due to his mental health issues that caused him to hear voices, and to sometimes lash out in psychotic anger. Circumstances lead to Jensi being adopted by a loving family, but Istvan decides to instead stay in the slum area of the domed settlement they lived in, and become homeless. Time passes and his deteriorating mental state, and new voices in his head, lead to him assassinating a politician. His punishment sees him removed to a penal colony for political prisoners at the far reaches of the known galaxy, which also happens to house a top secret research facility that has a replica of the 'marker'; based on the ancient marker that was discovered 80 years previously on Earth. It appears that the marker has been using its strange influence to set up the circumstances that would bring Istvan there, seeing him as the perfect vessel to spread its message.
Jensi meanwhile hasn't given up on his brother, years later eventually discovering where he has gone, Jensi joins a supply drop crew and sets out on a fateful rescue mission.

Martyr was entirely set on Earth, this sequel entirely set off Earth, The lengthy first part didn't grab my attention. Charting the early lives of the duel protagonists, this had nothing to do with the more interesting parts of the Dead Space universe. I admit I fell off the book completely early on, only returning back to it some months later. The book improved steadily from this opening section, with the introduction of the planet the penal colony is based at where it felt the story really started to come into its own. The core of the story explores the markers influence on its victims, from the Unitologist head of research at the top secret base; Dr. Briden, to the prisoners of the nearby facility, and the guards in their ship orbiting the planet. This I still found interesting and didn't mind (much like Martyr), the iconic necromorph monsters not appearing until the final part of the novel. When they do appear, it felt very much like the games; from people discovering you need to cut off their limbs, and needing to stamp on their corpses, to the inclusion of cutting tools, RIGs, and even the inclusion of a mini stasis field. This all felt suitably appropriate.

I guess for me, the story here didn't really feel important to the overall lore. The whole story is based on an obscure note found in Dead Space 3, which itself was extremely light on details. Having gotten the origin of Unitology in Martyr, there were no surprising revelations to be found in Catalyst. The novel did pick up from its slow beginning, and told an enjoyable and exciting story, even if it really was just a side story rather than an integral piece of fiction.

Dead Space: Catalyst was the last of the novels by Evenson, and indeed the last Dead Space novel to be written as of 2026. From here on in, the multimedia series this takes place in moves up to the time that the video games are set in. Here, there was plenty of gruesome violence and dark moments, and did feel like it belonged in the universe.

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The Gathering: An End Storm Short Story (2012) by Maz Marik - Horror Short Story Review

My huge eBook mountain of shame began back in 2012 when unfortunate British author - Maz Marik approached me with a request to review his zombie-like horror novel; End Storm. This was the very first eBook I ever reviewed on this (at the time) relatively new site. I'm sure I likely assured the author a quick turn around on reading his novel, but in the end it took me nine months to read and a few understandably less than happy emails from him. At the same time I was sent the novel, he also sent me a few short stories that were set in the same universe. Some 13 years later, I have finally got around to reading those, starting with The Gathering.

This short story takes place at the same time as the opening chapters of End Storm, and features a couple of characters who I assume were minor ones in that novel. That novel isn't required reading here, though would still likely be beneficial to read prior or after this one. In the novel and unexplained event happened where 'the sky fell', a series of very strange weather phenomenon's originating over London led to much of the U.K population collapsing, before awakening as much more feral and violent people, Hell bent on killing anyone who wasn't like them. The Gathering has two plot going on. Mr. Shah is out shopping at the local mall in Crawly when the world falls apart. Initially hiding out in a photo booth, he emerges onto the street where he finds a young woman; Alice, who tells him that her and a small group of survivors are hiding out nearby, and that she is on a mission to get supplies so that they can all head out to the country where it is hoped they will be safe from the murderous hordes. Elsewhere, teenager James and his father are in their car sitting in traffic when it all kicks off. With James falling ill, his father plans to carry him to a nearby hospital to get assistance.

Even for me and my glacial speed of reading, it was very shameful that it has taken me over a decade to get around to reading a story that was literally finished within 15 minutes of starting it! I have read countless zombie stories that take place during the initial outbreak, but it never gets any less exciting to read, and that remains the case here. Rather than being rotting corpses, the antagonists here are zombie adjacent, the infected(?) having more in common with the anger filled souls of David Moody's Hater series. They are described as monstrous, but this is more with how they act than actual physical changes. They work together in groups to hunt down and kill anyone not like themselves. This is described in grim detail, one such scene involving a group breaking into a home, throwing a teenage girl out of the upstairs window, before descending on her and ripping her apart limb from limb! Gory stuff that was a thrill to read.

The Gathering was a decent short story, no real surprises to be found, but was still a fun read, and a decent introduction to the horrifically dark world of End Storm. I believe I have a second short story from Marik to read also, so a review of that will follow at some point in the near future I'm sure.

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V/H/S (2012) - Horror Anthology Film Review

V/H/S is one of those film series that I have heard lots about but never actually gotten around to watching. That changed today when my Blu-ray of the first in the series landed on my doorstep. It's really something I should have gotten around to watching sooner, as I love a good anthology. Anthologies are nothing without a unified concept and with V/H/S that concept is found footage. Both the wraparound segment and the five short films all use that idea to tell their stories.

The set-up for the film and wraparound story takes place within Tape 56, directed by Adam Wingard (Death Note, Blair Witch, You're Next) and written by Simon Barrett (Blair Witch, The Guest, You're Next). A group of low level career criminals who film their exploits in order to sell on the dark web are hired for what sounds like a simple job. They are to break into the house of an elderly man, in order to steal a V//H/S tape, being told that it will be obvious which tape is the one to take. Things don't go according to plan as they soon discover the corpse of the old man, as well as a pile of tapes which all seem identical. As some of the group search for the one they were hired to steal, another decides to check out some of them, which make up the various short films. Good wraparound films are always welcome, and while this initially starts off effectively, I found the short segments in between the films to not really do anything too interesting, least as a device for why the short films are being shown it worked.
It became clear with this story and the others that followed that this is very much found footage in the style of the first decade of this century. Namely lots and lots of shaky hand-cam footage and camera glitches. To be expected due to the time this was released, but I wonder if future entries in the series improve on this generic approach to found footage horrors.

The first proper short is Amateur Night, directed by David Bruckner (the new Hellraiser, The Ritual), who also co-wrote this along with Nicholas Tecosky (Siren). This one follows a group of friends who have recently gotten hold of some glasses that have a secret camera built into them. Their aim is to go to a club and pull some girls, so that they can take them back to their motel room and secretly film themselves sleeping with them. Things go down a bloody path when one of the girls they bring back to their room happens to be hiding a terrifying secret. I enjoyed this one despite lots of shaky footage. The found footage aspect felt believable and there were some great makeup and special effects, it all culminates in a fantastic looking finale.

Next is Second Honeymoon, directed and co-written by Ti West (X, Cabin Fever 2: Spring Fever, The House of the Devil), and starring Sophia Takal and Joe Swanberg as a couple on vacation. This takes place in the form of a road trip the two have gone on, with their daytime adventures contrasting with the unknown horror that takes place as they sleep. I liked the part that occurs halfway through, but thought the eventual twist wasn't that exciting, mostly lacking in scares, though had a cool special effect towards the end.

Tuesday the 17th had great atmosphere to it, and some really effective looking digital effects. This was directed and written by Glenn McQuaid (I Sell The Dead) and had a group of friends heading to a remote lake at the insistence of the newest member of their group. Being the only short set out in woodland, this had a distinct look to it, I really liked how the killer lurking in the woods is never able to be shown on camera. What really let this down was the main protagonist who felt very unconvincing, and what happens also led to what appeared to be plot holes. Despite that this was still one of the better shorts to be found here.
The penultimate short is The Sick Thing That Happened to Emily When She Was Younger, and sadly that title is about the best thing to be found here. It takes the form of a webcam interaction between the titular Emily and her boyfriend, with Emily convinced her new apartment is haunted. It all leads to a bizarre twist that didn't quite work for me. That was also written by Barrett, and was directed by Swanberg (the main lead in Second Honeymoon).
With V/H/S having a near two hour run time I was beginning to get a little tired of the film, thankfully though, the final short film (which also closes out the movie as a whole) is also the very best. 10/31/98 was written, produced, and directed by the collective known as Radio Silence, and as the title suggests, this takes place on Halloween in 1998. A group of friends head to a mansion for a Halloween party, but instead they discover many horrors, including a cult who appear to be in the process of killing a chained up girl in the attic. When the action starts it really starts here, featuring lots of very entertaining digital effects, including objects flying around rooms, and spectral arms reaching up out of the floor and walls. I really enjoyed that final one and as always shows why anthologies are such a cool format to go for.

I admit I had hoped for more from V/H/S, it was a collection of found footage films that were certainly from their time. While I wouldn't go as far as to say I didn't enjoy them all, some of them did have issues. It was cool however, discovering all the notable horror directors who worked on this, and with such a solid start I am excited to see how newer entries in the series pan out.

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Dorm of the Dead (2012) - Zombie Horror Film Review

There is something about trashy low budget zombie films that no other genre of horror film can match. In the zombie world quantity is always better than quality, and here you have some pretty terrible looking makeup. The Tobias Canto Jr. (Knock Knock) and Tyrel Good directed Dorm of the Dead takes place in a fitting location, as the extreme low budget here had me thinking that this could have genuinely been shot on location at the cast and crews actual college campus.

You will have to excuse me as I didn't catch many of the characters names. Basically, Cory (Ryan DeLuca) arrives at the college campus of his elder brother as their parents had gone away on holiday. His arrival unfortunately coincides with an undead outbreak, and soon Cory and a bunch of other students find themselves having to team up to survive. After seeing a broadcast from the college TV station, the group decide they must make their way across campus and use the station to broadcast a message for help to the outside world.

Dorm of the Dead is a terrible film, but thankfully when it comes to the zombie genre that doesn't mean a death knell. I was a bit hesitant seeing just how indie this was as it isn't a rare occurrence for young indie directors to get carried away and make huge overblown and fatally boring movies. Here though, this fits in at around ninety minutes so doesn't really outstay its welcome. The cast of characters vary in their acting ability but as they all play various stereotypes this doesn't become too much of an issue. Each of the group match a different type of student, so you have the rich girl, the sporty girl, the geek, the goth, the jock as well as a few others. Much of the plot has them running around the campus on random fetch quests that just seemed to exist to move the characters around. Early on for instance they all head to the library where the rich girl said her father was going to be to pick them up, then later they head to the studio to rescue someone's boyfriend to not much success. These plot points were very basic and I do wish there had been more of a coherent story. As it is, that doesn't really come until the films third act when an actual semblance of a plot comes to fruition.

Marvel Zombies Destroy! (2012) - Zombie Graphic Novel Review

There is currently a Kickstarter running to get funds to make a Zombicide board game based on the Marvel Zombies property. It looks amazing, but alas, the price is too steep for me. Currently, to get everything, which includes the base game, the X-Men Resistance, Galactus the Devourer, Fantastic 4: Under Siege, Guardians of the Galaxy Set and Hydra Resurrection expansions would cost $550 (around £410). So, sad news for me not being able to stomach that cost, but it did remind me that I was still part way through my reading of all the Marvel Zombies graphic novels. There were five main graphic novels and since then a series of seemingly unrelated goes at bringing everyone's favourite (and more obscure) heroes into the rotting world of the undead. The last one I read was Marvel Zombies Supreme back before the pandemic struck, and now I have read Marvel Zombies Destroy!

Howard the Duck, working for A.R.M.O.R has recruited a whole bunch of heroes for a very dangerous mission. It turns out there is an alternate reality in which the Nazis won the second world war by unleashing a zombie virus that changed their soldiers all into zombies. Having completely conquered their world, they now seek to create a device that will allow them to invade other realities. Leading the team of heroes, alongside Howard, is Dum Dum Dugan, a former Howling Commando. Their plan is to travel to the zombie reality and destroy the Nazis stronghold. An already impossible mission is made harder by the realisation that the Nazis have already turned a whole bunch of former superheroes into the undead, as well as the entire population of Asgard led by a zombified Thor.

The story was action heavy and full of twists and turns along the way. If things had been played seriously I think Destroy! could have worked out a lot better. There is a bodycount that racks up and up throughout with many of the initial team of twelve meeting their ends in various bloody and gruesome ways. This could have felt daunting and horrific if played right. Unfortunately then the writing is often played for laughs, this felt at odds with the serious situation going on, it couldn't help but bring down the tone when in-between well known (and not so well known) heroes meeting their ends there is corny dialogue and terrible one-liners all over the place. The twelve core members of the team are made up of Howard the Duck, Dum Dum Dugan, Battlestar, Red Raven, Eternal Brain, Gur, Dragoon, Dynaman, Taxi Taylor, Flexo, Blazing Skull and Breeze Barton. Out of all those I had heard of just two before reading this. Some more recognisable ones do appear, including Loki, Bucky and Red Skull.

Silent Night (2012) - Horror Film Review

After watching the classic Christmas slasher Silent Night, Deadly Night I got a hankering to see the rest in the series. I didn't get too far with that due to there only being the first two entries on Shudder, but what I did find was the Steven C. Miller directed 2012 remake with the snappier title of Silent Night. Remakes really can be hit and miss, but upon noticing that one of my favourite genre actors, the legendary Malcolm McDowell was in it, I just had to give it a watch. Whether the best or worst film ever made it doesn't matter, for McDowell never fails to put in a spirited performance whatever the role, and here he certainly doesn't disappoint. 

It is Christmas Eve in the sleepy American town of Cryer and there is a serial killer on the loose dressed like Santa. Due to nothing exciting ever usually happening, the local sheriff, Cooper (McDowell - Rob Zombie's Halloween, A Clockwork Orange) relishes the chance to prove himself by hunting the man down, but one of his subordinates, Aubrey (Jaime King - My Bloody Valentine, Sin City) is determined to take things more cautiously. As the body count ramps up it becomes apparent that the crazed killer is targeting people seen to have sinned, and it becomes a race against time for Aubrey to find and stop the maniac before those she holds most dear are taken from her.

I can't say Silent Night started off good, the first kill, that takes place during the prologue was inventive (a man tied to an electric chair covered in Christmas tree lights) yet tame, and the same could be said the the next kill that shortly follows. With that and the style that felt very much from the early 2010s I was prepared to be watching a bit of a dull trainwreck. I needn't have worried though as it wasn't long before a woman was being fed feet first into a wood chipper! The kills come thick and fast after this and while none quite match that brutal way to die I was still invested to see what would follow. 

Saga of the Swamp Thing: Book One (2012) - Horror Graphic Novel Review

This past weekend I haven't had much chance to work on my blog, actually real life stuff happening for once! This has resulted in me dipping into my 'break glass for emergency' blog posts. Needing to fill that out I have finally gotten around to reviewing Saga of the Swamp Thing: Book One. I finished reading this a month or so ago so I can't imagine this will be the best review, certainly as I'm not too used to reviewing graphic novels. Saga of the Swamp Thing is made up of the stories that Northampton based legend Alan Moore wrote. Book One is made up of issues 20-27, originally published as The Saga of The Swamp Thing back in 1984.

Now I'm not sure how much influence Moore had in changing the direction and motivations of the titular character here but this begins with quite a change. The first issue of the book, Loose Ends has the army hunting down Swamp Thing and eventually 'killing' him. It was a bit of a dizzying way to start and had a variety of characters who I had no idea about. As Moore took up writing duties mid-way through an ongoing story this explains why things begin already in progress. It is second issue, The Anatomy Lesson where things begin to change with the revelation that Swamp Thing isn't a former human somehow transformed into a plant creature, but instead a plant creature that took on the memories of a dying human. This brings an identity crisis that is only resolved when Dr. Woodrue, a man obsessed with becoming a plant, initiates a disaster that could spell the end for humanity. This begins in Swamped and continues over Another Green World eventually getting resolved in Roots. The second half of book one is about a demonic entity that is after a deadly monster that has latched itself onto a young orphan boy. This takes place over the remaining issues of The Sleep of Reason..., ...A Time of Running... and ...By Demons Driven! 

As a teen I picked up a bunch of random Swamp Thing comics that had him travelling through time. It was a wonderful series of stories and I admit my main hope for getting Saga of the Swamp Thing was that I would be able to locate that arc. Despite that not happening yet I still really enjoyed my time with this. I always thought this character was like the Captain Planet of comic book heroes, all his stories to do with saving the environment and not much more. I liked all the horror elements that this graphic novel brought. Both with the murderous villains and the style of the stories. The Anatomy Lesson felt like proper horror, Swamp Thing taking on the role of a silent antagonist hunting down his captor, the whole issue narrated by someone at that point not directly involved. The later demon influenced series of stories had some clever writing, in particular the sinister man (quite possibly a devil) who is able to see the grim fates of the people he meets, reminded me of Leland Gaunt from Needful Things, preceding it as that character didn't emerge until the early nineties. 

The book ends with the main stories resolved but with plenty of loose plot threads left open to take the story in interesting directions, I'm especially interested to see what happens to Swamp Thing's human best friend Abbey's boyfriend. The art throughout this felt very eighties in style, in my opinion the art throughout that decade in comic books was excellent, they really don't make things as detailed as that era anymore sadly, at least with the big heroes. I did struggle at times to follow the story in that it was quite obtuse in how it all plays out, on occasion some of Moore's words seemed a bit melodramatic, such as when he relates the rain as if 'someone had taken a razor blade to the sky' or something similar. Still, I have Book Two ready to go and having enjoyed this one a lot I am excited to see where else this dark journey takes me.

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Resolution (2012) - Horror Film Review

I have long bemoaned the fact that horror films just do not scare me anymore. Even ones touted as 'scariest film ever made' etc leave me cold, even if they still happen to be good movies outside of the ability to give fear. I stumbled across Resolution after reading an article that mentioned the 2017 horror film The Endless. The article (about the best horror films to watch on Netflix) in its description for The Endless said to really get the most out of the film you should watch Resolution, as it was a spiritual sequel to that one. Boy am I glad I did as this managed to maintain a pervasive sense of chilled terror from beginning to end. The fact that something here is obviously not right, yet there is no real indication as to just what is not right led to my mind thinking up all sorts of unknown horror. I have seen this described as an indie The Cabin in the Woods and there are enough meta moments contained here to support that theory.

One day Michael (Peter Cilella - Dementia) receives a video that shows his former best friend; Chris (Vinny Curran - Spring) out in the country. Along with the video was a map showing the location of Chris's home. Chris is a drug addict and had moved away from the city after his behaviour lost him all his friends. Against the wishes of his wife, Michael decides he is going to make one last attempt to help his friend and so heads out to the dilapidated cabin with the singular aim of getting him clean. After his persuasion to get him to go to rehab fails Michael takes the drastic step of tazing Chris and handcuffing him to a pipe in his house. He tells him that if Chris still wants to do drugs after he has gotten past eight days of withdrawal then he will leave him to do what he wants, but that he wants one last try to save him. As the days pass Michael starts to discover strange recordings left around the cabin, videotapes, records, photos books and more, all seemingly left on purpose to be found by him, and all showing grisly stories. With nothing else to do and with his curiosity getting the better of him he decides to follow the trail that has been left for him by persons unknown.

That Resolution manages to be so darn creepy without actually showing much is testament to the skill of the directors, Justin Benson and Aaron Moorhead (Spring), with Benson also writing the story here. The unknowable is always more unsettling than actually showing something and so the constant appearance of these forms of media, coming from someone who seems to be secretly filming the duo made for an overwhelming sense of unease. They may be out in the middle of nowhere but the place is filled with suspicious and nefarious characters. There are a whole host of random people encountered, including members of a religious cult, angry native Americans, rednecks, homeless cave dwelling addicts, a bizarre Frenchman (a great scene featuring iconic horror actor Bill Oberst Jr - DIS), and a mysterious dog named Sarah. With everyone Michael meets hiding secrets, and the isolation of his character as he wanders the fields and hills of the surrounding area there is an outsider vibe going on. The casting here is great, especially so with Michael and Chris. The former may be a little bland, an everyman character, but he is revealed to have more flaws than he first seems to. Chris on the other hand almost takes on the role of a comedy character. It was amusing how Michael is off doing all this weird horror movie stuff while Chris is literally stuck at home bemused by all the wild stories he is being told. It felt like they were co-existing in two different genres at the same time.

The Woman in Black (2012) - Horror Film Review

When I was a teenager in the 90s I went with my parents to see a theatre adaptation of Susan Hill's 1983 novel The Woman in Black. It might be strange to say but that play managed to be terrifying, even thinking back on it now I get goosebumps. That was part in due to the meta way the story was told, the play was set out as if it was two actors rehearsing a play about The Woman in Black, with the chilling reveal at the play's end that the 'actress' playing the part of the titular woman had only been visible to one of the two actors (and of course the audience), the insinuation being that the play itself had been haunted by the evil ghost. To keep up this illusion this actress wasn't even credited in the play's program. You had to be there I guess, but it gave me a sleepless night! Anyway, back in 2012 when a new version of the classic story was being made into a film I decided to skip it. I felt both that it could not live up to my memories of that play, but also, with Daniel Radcliffe in his first film role since the Harry Potter series had came to an end I felt I wouldn't be able to take him seriously. The film was followed up with a sequel in 2014 (the dull The Woman in Black 2: Angel of Death) and during my review of that I stated my intention to one day watch the first one, and now here I am.

Radcliffe plays Arthur Kipps, a young solicitor in the early 1900s who is deep in mourning after the death of his wife some years previously. This has affected his performance at work, with his employers giving him one final chance to prove himself. He is tasked with travelling to the small village of Crythin Gifford in order to sort out the affairs of a woman named Alice Drablow, so that her former home; Eel Marsh House can be sold. He arrives to find the village folk hostile to his presence, the only friendly face he encounters is the wealthy Sam Daily (Ciarán Hinds - Game of Thrones TV series). It is rumoured that Eel Marsh House is haunted by its former owner and that anyone who sees this ghostly figure is cursed. Arthur at first dismisses these stories but as he investigates the property he begins to believe that there may be some truth to them.

What came first, the chicken or the egg? It would be easy to dismiss this horror as derivative of others that have came before, it shares similar plot elements to movies such as Sinister and Ringu with what happens not being too surprising. However, the book it is based on came out long before those were even thought of. For me what stood this apart was the time period, this has a good feeling of a Gothic horror and it felt strangely freeing to not feature the trappings of modern day technology. I like Radcliffe as an actor yet I never really feel he is that amazing in the roles I have seen him in. Here it really felt like he was acting well, sure he still had a face that seemed a bit too youthful for the role he was playing but he gave a believable performance. My favourite moments were when he was alone, reacting to the events happening around him without the need for any kind of dialogue, he shows the fear in his eyes well. Despite a large cast the majority of the characters are totally background ones, with Sam feeling like the only supporting character. I enjoyed the interactions between these two.

The Twilight Saga: Breaking Dawn - Part 2 (2012) - Teen Horror Film Review

It's been over four years since I last saw the previous entry in the teen hipster horror that is The Twilight Saga. At a glance these films are not fantastic. They have a cast of actors who feel like they don't want to  be doing the films, and as a whole, while I have not read the books it still feels like a lot of the plot has been streamlined to fit into the run time. Likely be unavoidable spoilers for previous entries in the series to follow.

Bella (Kristen Stewart - Underwater) has finally became a vampire and is enjoying her new found strength and resilience. Unlike mostly newly turned undead she doesn't seem to suffer the human blood urge that comes with the change. Her and her husband, fellow vampire Edward Cullen (Robert Pattinson - The Lighthouse) are concerned to discover their newborn child is rapidly aging and so are determined to spend as much time with her as possible. The Volturi (a clan of vampire arbiters) hear of this child and mistakenly believe she is a vampire, something which breaks the rules they have set, and so they head out to the town of Forks with the intention of wiping out all who had been shielding her.

This review isn't going to be an attempt to convince people repelled by the idea of sparkly teen romance vampires and werewolves that they should see this movie. This is the fifth and final film in a franchise and so the format isn't substantially different to warrant any but people who enjoyed the series so far to watch. Especially as this has a 'part 2' in the title so definitely is not a stand alone film. The series had been leading up to Bella becoming a vamp and the change isn't as drastic as imagined. There seemed to be more characters then ever here, due to this a lot of the new ones don't really get proper introductions. It did make me realise that each vampire has a random special power unique to them. Benjamin for example (Rami Malek - No Time to Die, Until Dawn) is able to utilise the elements, while Bella is able to neutralise any other vampire's power. There were so many characters standing around that I didn't even attempt to try and learn their names.

Resident Evil: Damnation (2012) - Horror Film Review

I have owned Resident Evil: Damnation for years but have always put off watching it. Back in 2008 I was really excited to learn a Resident Evil CG movie had been made. Resident Evil: Degeneration was as bland as they come though. It had an over reliance on super serious storylines full of action and ridiculous over the top action sequences, with the horror barely anywhere to be seen. I had a strong feeling that this would also be the case for this movie, and sadly I was right in my assumptions. The version of the film I watched had English dubbing as default, so I don't know how well the original Japanese would have fitted.

This works as a precursor to the video game Resident Evil 6, but only as a mild one, giving some minor set-up for characters in that game. Special agent Leon Kennedy (voiced by Matthew Mercer - Sword Art Online, JoJo's Bizarre Adventure) has been sent to a small Eastern European country to investigate claims that bio organic weapons (B.O.W.s) are being used in a civil war there. He is soon told to abandon his mission and leave the country, but he decides to ignore orders and stay. He learns that the rebels are indeed using B.O.W.s, using a Las Plagas (parasitic life form first mentioned in Resident Evil 4) in order to control monsters. They have resorted to desperate measures as they can see no other way to defeat the corrupt government led by President Belikova (Wendee Lee - Ninja Scroll, Akira). Her government it turns out also have access to some pretty nasty bio weapons of their own.

To be honest I didn't really understand a lot of the story, it was never explained very well. At any opportunity Damnation devolves into stupid action sequences, even in scenes where that had no right to exist. One prime example is when Ada Wong (Courtenay Taylor - Mass Effect 2) is having a discussion with the President. Suddenly they start fighting, doing dramatic kung-fu while the camera becomes obsessed with slow mo on every single punch and kick the two do. This absolute seriousness in such a stupid situation can't help but hurt the movie's attempt at telling a mature story. The story isn't even that complicated, it is just told in such a clumsy way that I was never really sure what was going on, it was dull as dishwater.

Alan Wake's American Nightmare (2012) - Horror Video Game Review (X-Box 360)

With how good Alan Wake is it was criminal that it never received a sequel, especially considering the game ended on a bit of a cliff-hanger. Thankfully it was never abandoned in total, the second expansion for Control is a crossover, and back in 2012 a downloadable quasi-sequel/spin-off for Alan Wake was released on the X-Box 360, titled Alan Wake's American Nightmare. At the time of release I brought it, but it is only now some eight years later that I have gotten around to playing it, all in preparation for the newly released crossover. As a warning there will be spoilers for the end of Alan Wake and its expansions.

The original game ended with the titular author trapped in an alternate nightmare realm dubbed the 'Dark Place'. The expansions had him battle for control of his fractured mind, and culminated in him achieving this, with the promise that he was going to find a way to write his way out of there. American Nightmare picks up two years later, and in a way Wake has been successful. He once wrote for a Twilight Zone style show called Night Springs, and using the backbone of an episode he had written (about a doppelganger) he has found a way that he is able to leave the Dark Place for brief periods of time, but only at points in reality where other worldly events are happening. An evil version of Wake named Mr. Scratch has invaded the real world, determined to ruin Alan's reputation and kill those he holds dear, and so Alan has followed him. He hopes to be able to defeat Mr. Scratch and maybe even find a way to return to the real world forever, but his evil alter-ego realising this has trapped him in a time-loop, forcing him to relive the same night over and over again.

This came out at a time when downloadable games were recognised as micro-experiences rather than fully fledged games. As such there is plenty here that is limited, but the time-loop mechanic gives a way for that to work in the games favour. American Nightmare is split into three different areas, all taking place over one night. The whole game takes place in the deserts of Arizona, with the first area, a dusty motel, being the biggest of the three. The second area is an observatory, with the final area being a drive-in theatre. In each area you have a specific set of objectives to complete to trigger world altering events. The motel section for instance has you setting up events to make a space satellite crash to Earth (to the tune of a Kasabian track) in order to destroy an oil derrick from which enemies are spawning. Each area also contains manuscript pages, these not only provide plenty of backstory for what exactly is going on, and how Wake came to be in the real world, but they also act as a type of currency to open weapon caches in each area. Each area also has its own radio show transmission. These transmissions provide information on what other characters have been up to over the past two years. Best of all are the TVs which contain a live action broadcast from Mr. Scratch taunting Alan. Being a time-loop game you visit these areas multiple times, each time giving different rewards.

The Zombinator (2012) - Zombie Horror Film Review

The Zombinator is a zombie film that came out during the very peak of terrible found footage movies. Directed and written by Sergio Myers this falls into every pitfall that the worst of these types of movies seemed to revel in. Terrible camera work, shoddy effects, an abysmal story and exaggerated acting makes for an 82 minutes of near pure tedium. I am 'cool' enough to have participated in a live action zombie roleplaying experience and it is no lie to say I think both the story and acting was way better with that than what is demonstrated here. There are some parts here which are good, and I felt it was up to me to sift through the mud in order to find the few parts that did work.

A fashion blogger has hired a film crew as she wants to make a documentary. The film crew, along with some friends head out to a local bar in the nearby town in order to speak to people she meets about fashion. Her trip coincides with a zombie outbreak, and soon her, and an assortment of other random characters find themselves fleeing from the flesh hungry ghouls. They are soon rescued by a zombie slayer, the titular Zombinator (Joseph Aviel - Wolfenstein: Liberation of London) who is on a mission to find the originator of the outbreak, his old army Colonel (Patrick Kilpatrick - Minority Report, Death Warrant) and stop his evil antics.

Here is my strongest thought on The Zombinator; this shouldn't have been a found footage horror. I think this would have succeeded far more if there wasn't the annoying shaky blurred first person perspective footage. There is a semblance of a plot going on yet it takes a backseat due to the protagonists not having anything to do with this story. The majority of the film sees the cameraman fleeing away from the undead whenever they appear, this means instead of lots of cool zombie action we instead gets far too much footage of over acting characters shouting over each other in bland zombie-less rooms. Apparently the whole movie was shot in under five days, and without a script. That is very believable, the actors for the most part feel like they are not only making up their lines on the spot, but they don't really have anything interesting to say so just keep repeating the same line over and over again. For at least the first half of The Zombinator at any one time there seemed to be around six more characters on screen then there actually needed to be. This results in 'Tower of Babel' style scenes of characters all shouting at the same time unintelligibly while the camera man swings his camera around like he's a drunk man on roller skates.

Zombified (2012) - Zombie Horror FIlm Review

Zombified was directed and written by Todd Jason Cook who also co-stars in this. While the story felt kind of like it was a sequel to something I assumed this was all just in world. Turns out doing a tiny bit of research that there was actually a previous film in the series, way back in 1995 with Death Metal Zombies. This features a couple of the same characters, and the same killer, but thanks to flashbacks, accounts and historical documents it isn't essential to have seen that one I feel.

A serial killer wearing a Richard Nixon mask (Tayvis Dunnahoe) enters a club and mixes in a special cassette tape labelled 'Zombified' to the music that a rock band is performing. The frequency on this cassette transforms everyone there into flesh hungry crazies who soon pour out onto the streets. A few survivors that include among them Alana (Rebecca Torrellas), Tony (Cook) as well as Angel (Kathryn Rene' Ginzel) and Tommy (Mike Gebbie - Death Metal Zombies) band together to stop the madness. Thankfully due to Angel and Tommy having encountered this situation before they know exactly how to deal with the flesh eaters part, it is just the psychotically strong and deranged serial killer that is the real problem.

This was quite a low budget film that featured acting that while never terrible wasn't stunning either. It was quite a dark film with a bit of a blurry look to the footage quality and one that featured a heck of a lot of generic rock music, especially during the many action scenes. However I found the mix of slasher film and zombie film to be an interesting one, it certainly had some highlights when the two combined. This felt a bit like the low budget, indie horrors from early this century, though with an added bit of quality that mostly stopped it being dull. It did fall into the trap of being slightly over long, at an hour forty five minutes it did start to get a bit dull towards the end with a few too many scenes that while action packed did feel like they didn't add anything to the movie. One that comes to mind is when one of the protagonists heads outside his house to have a drink and immediately gets attacked by the zombies. With it known that the ghouls are roaming around outside this felt like a ridiculous decision created only for some more fighting.

Child Eater (2012) - Short Horror Film Review

Child Eater has recently been made into a feature film but originally it came out as a 14 minute horror short. While there are problems with this short it is easy to see how it could have been built into something grander than what was here.

Written and directed by Erlingur Thoroddsen Child Eater stars Cait Bliss as Helen; a babysitter who is looking after Lucas (Cameron Ocasio). One night the boy is insistent a monster is in his closet, she humours him but it isn't much later when she finds him abducted. With her boyfriend Tom (Dan Reiss) she runs out into the night to track him down, it seems he has been taken by an urban legend; a blind old man named Robert Bowery who is said to eat children's eyeballs in a bid to restore his lost sight.

It's good that this was made into a feature as there is a lot of lore stuffed into the first few minutes of this that feels a little over the top. As well as the legend of the old man who eats eyeballs Helen also sees fit to awkwardly add in an additional story about a black stork that eats children's eyeballs. Her and Tom have barely any chemistry between them, they seem like chalk and cheese with Helen being deadly serious and Tom being more of a joker. She also seemed like a bit of a sociopath as while running out into the woods after the abducted child she gets into an argument about pregnancy rather than seeming concerned about the child. Later on when someone dear to her has perished she seems to show no emotion to this change in events.

The best thing about this is the boogeyman character played wonderfully by Boomer Tibbs, he has quite a freaky look about him with his bald head and thick glasses and his first introduction here is quite fun with him licking Helen's face! This goes through a lot in it's short run time, it all ends on a pretty generic note but was still enjoyable. The short version of Child Eater is currently available to watch on Shudder. It would be interesting to see if with more room to breath this became a better experience, it seems Cait Bliss also plays the hapless babysitter in the full version too.

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Beautiful Sorrows (2012) by Mercedes M. Yardley - Fantasy eBook Review

My ongoing odyssey to read the multitude of back logged eBooks I own continues with me having just finished reading Mercedes M. Yardley's dark fantasy anthology Beautiful Sorrows. This collection of twenty seven short stories were written over a number of years and are not all horror based. In fact a lot of them are unrelated to horror at all, yet most contain a feeling of malice and sorrow to them dealing as they do with self destructive relationships, and possessive desires to control and own. There also a load that are more whimsical and fairy tale in feeling, I guess in this review I will focus on the more fitting ones for this blog.

I think what I enjoyed most about Yardley's collection is just how much she can do with so little. I enjoyed the short pace of many of these and in many cases this simplified method led to long lasting effects, such as the perfect half page opener Broken that leaves an unsettling insinuation in what is said, Blossom Bones, and the creepy serial killer story Extraordinary Beast. Many of these stories deal with two main characters and the misery that comes from their interactions. This isn't always done in a romantic way (though there are many that are about a boy and a girl) such in the case of The ABCs of Murder that is about a boy trying to find a way to permanently kill a ghost. Also many of these display the worst of humanity with many murderers, psychos and cruel death. This is seen early on with the sad Black Mary (a girl escaping the remote home of her kidnapper/rapist), again with the surreal Axes (someone tied up in a basement by a psychotic house mate), then the heart break of The Quiet Place Where Your Body Grows (a man dealing with the loss of his murdered child).

Bloody Muscle Body Builder in Hell (2012) - Horror Film Review

Bloody Muscle Body Builder in Hell (aka The Japanese Evil Dead) is an Asian horror that has been made to resemble a long lost 'video nasty'. In fact it was only after I read the press release that I realised this is a relatively modern film, having been made just a few years back, not that you would know that if the film was all you had seen (a note here, this was actually filmed back in 1995 but didn't see a proper release until 2012 on DVD-R).

Shinichi Fukazawa (who also wrote and directed this) stars as Shinji; a body builder who agrees to help his photojournalist ex girlfriend who wants to do an article on haunted houses. He takes her and her psychic friend to his dad's abandoned home as it is said to inhabited by an evil spirit. Once there the psychic accidentally awakens a ghost of a woman who died in the property thirty years earlier, the ghost promptly possesses the man, using his powers she manages to seal in the remaining survivors. Now the only way to leave the house is to defeat the cursed soul; the evil dead...

American Horror Story: Asylum (2012-13) - Horror TV Show Review

Right off the bat I need to say I really don't know how this review is going to pan out, It has taken me the best part of a year to watch the whole second season of horror show American Horror Story and so my memory of much of it will be lost to the mists of time, Still I will try my best as it is horror (the clues in the title) and so deserves a place on this blog. It has been said that this second season, titled Asylum, is the very best the show has given.

Each season as far as I can tell is a stand alone story with no links to any other season, so the first one set in a haunted house in modern day has no relationship to Asylum which for the most part takes place in the 1960's in Briarcliff Manor; a mental institution owned by the Catholic church. There are many interweaving stories going on, one of which features reporter Lana Winters (Saran Paulson) who is discovered when sneaking into the mental home to do an expose on the appalling conditions there and is held against her will by the sadistic manager Sister Jude (Jessica Lange - American Horror Story: Murder House). Others include Kit Walker (Evan Peters - American Horror Story: Murder House) who is an inmate at the asylum after being accused of being 'Bloody Face' a notorious serial killer, a possible ex Nazi in the form of Dr Arden who is performing inhumane experiments on the patients, and even a supernatural storyline with one of the sisters apparently becoming possessed by a demon.

The plots all interweave and many times things that seem unrelated become so. For season two the horror is a lot more real than the ghosts of season one. With serial killers, corrupt staff, and sins of the past this goes down a different track. That is not to say it is all more human horror as along with the demonic possession storyline there is also one involving apparent alien abductions. That last plot in particular ran the risk of turning into farce due to it's unbelievable nature, but the show just about manages to keep things grounded. Previously around half the show was set in modern day and half was set in the past, here roughly 90% takes place in the past. There are brief snippets set in present day, mostly revolving around a killer who is murdering people who break into the abandoned Briarcliff Manor. These modern day parts help to create questions in the minds of the viewer due to things characters say, and visual clues as to the fate of the institution. There is a lot of misdirection here which is very clever and makes you think things are going to play out differently to how they actually do.

The show is split into thirteen episodes and there does not seem to be any filler at all, there is even a Christmas episode neatly inserted, again similar to series one this isn't actually a scary show, but that is not to take away from the sheer quality. Briarcliff is a dank and dark place but thanks to the focus on drama rather than horror you settle in nicely. Some nice throwaway sequences (such as a dance number!) help to provide variety, while towards the end time starts zooming forward years at a time to show the long term changes to the cast which was a nice way to end the show (a great final episode). There is a large amount of great acting here, I was pleased to see at least six returning actors from the original series, here playing different roles, a few bit characters from that are now in leading roles, while a couple of the main characters are now secondary ones. It was a delight to pick out these actors and gave a sense of continuity despite being an unrelated story.

The special effects and direction is again quite strong, when there is violence it is usually quite bloody with an initial statement being someone losing an arm within the first part of the very first episode. There are some sick storylines here and a fair number of twists, some of which really blew me away, the whole 'Bloody Face' storyline in particular serving up some real thrills.

Another quality season of this fantastic show and while I think I did prefer the first one, American Horror Story: Asylum is still a damn good show and well worth a watch if your after some quality horror that doesn't feature the walking dead.

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Closure Limited And Other Zombie Tales (2012) by Max Brooks - Zombie Horror Book Review

I have never particularly liked Max Brooks books, his first one The Zombie Survival Guide was entertaining up to a point but was so geared towards American audiences that I often felt alienated by the advice provided. Next up was World War Z which of course went on to becoming a high grossing film, but for the book itself I never found myself too interested in the method used of portraying zombie apocalypse from testimonies of the people who lived through it. Would Closure Limited be any better than those so-so ones?

In this slim book there are four short stories, two of which are set in the World War Z universe. First up is Closure, Limited: A Story of World War Z that follows a man in Iceland visiting a boat where people find ways to get closure for loved ones missing during the apocalypse. It was written in a similar style to the main book and so again there is just something about that whole written universe that leaves me cold, a slight air of pretentiousness to everything. The story itself doesn't really do much but has some new ideas.

The next story is titled Steve and Fred, this one is actually two unrelated stories but they meld together interestingly. The first one is pure action and has Steve; a soldier assaulting a base over run with the undead, he does crazy stunts, has cool one liners and gets the girl. The second half concerns itself with a man called Fred who is slowly going insane having been trapped in a hotel toilet due to thousands of dead outside the small room. At first I thought it was a bit strange having these two entirely unrelated tales but actually the parallels between the two characters situations was well done, probably my favourite story of the four.

The third one is called The Extinction Parade and is a recounting of mankind's extinction by zombies from the perspective of a vampire. I enjoyed this one even if it didn't feel too original (Scott Baker's Rotter World novel came out the same year and dealt with a similar subject). At times it feels a bit too silly, but also manages to be affecting and regretful in equal measures.

This compilation ends with the second World War Z short story titled The Great Wall: A Story from the Zombie War which is an interview with a woman who was put to work rebuilding the great wall of China to stop the hordes making it into a human safe zone. This was ok, nothing really exciting again.

At 124 pages this is a very small book which for the asking price of £5.99 is a bit steep I felt, I'm sure you can find it for cheaper now. Even without the price I just never really got gripped by any of the stories here, they were ok to read but certainly nothing that is going to stick around in my mind for too long.

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American Horror Story: Murder House (2011-2012) - Horror TV Show Review

This was recommended to me well over a year ago but it has taken me this long to get around to watching it. American Horror Story has been described as an anthology series with each season having its own self contained story in a different location. Season 1 also known as American Horror Story: Murder House takes place in a haunted house.

Psychiatrist Ben Harmon (Dylan McDermott), his wife Vivian (Connie Britton), and teenage daughter Violet (Taissa Farmiga) move to Los Angeles to make a new start after Vivian had a miscarriage and Ben cheated on her with one of his students. Unfortunately they choose a place locally known as 'murder house' due to the high number of violent deaths that have occurred there. It seems there is some sort of curse upon the house and that anyone who dies within the property are to forever be trapped there.

At first I fully expected American Horror Story to be a scary horror show and this was backed up by the introduction to episode one in which two boys in the 1980s are brutally killed in the basement while exploring the (at the time) abandoned property. However it soon turns into something all of its own, albeit something with strong horror tendencies on the side. There are twelve episodes and while there is an over lying story set in present day many of the episodes start with a flashback to a previous occupant of the house; from a gay couple on the verge of breaking up in the 2000s to some student nurses living there in the 1970s there are many time periods covered, all ending in tragedy which comes to have some effect on the present day storyline.

The show looks fantastic and really appears to have had a strong budget with it being almost film quality with fantastic acting, a great soundtrack and expert editing that made it a joy to watch. It doesn't shy on violence either and there is plenty of blood and gore with people getting killed in a large number of ways (such as a graphic dream a women is describing of her being sliced in half by an elevator being played out).

The main angle of season one appears to be infidelity with this theme cropping up time and time again. The plot itself is really interesting and leads you to slowly being given the clues to work out what is going on. With so many visitors to the Harmon household, many just appearing out of nowhere it at times seems like pretty much every character they meet may already be dead. The side characters are interesting in their own right such as troubled teen Tate who seems obsessed with going on a school based killing spree, and horrifically disfigured Larry who seems to know that the house is a bad place.

American Horror Story is not a scary show (though the intro credits are always freaky) but this doesn't take away from the experience when it is so polished and interesting as this. Some of the plot twists really blew my mind and the feel as a whole borders on a David Lynch style at times with lots of surreal-ness portrayed as normal and a heady mix of sex and violence (and just who is the killer wearing the gimp suit?). A lot of the characters may be ambiguous and morally grey but even the ones I did not like were still well developed. Well worth watching.

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