The Lost Causers (2026) - Horror Film Review

I try and avoid the synopsis for any type of film I receive for review as I feel a film works better when you are going into it cold. Occasionally this leads to me accepting screeners that are a bad fit for this horror based site. Such seemed to be the case for the James Person and Gordon Price (Crawford Road) co-directed and co-written thriller; The Lost Causers. You could argue this was horror of a more realistic type, but much of this was a drama at its core. That is except for one completely bonkers subplot that felt like it was taken from a different movie entirely.

Carl Richmond (Price) is a proud member of 'The Brotherhood' - a far right organisation that as is the way, hates blacks and LGBTQ people. When he discovers his beloved daughter is dating a black man, Carl is less than happy. Then, after his daughter is purposely run over while protesting a white supremist march, Carl blames her boyfriend for her being there, hunting him down and strangling the young man to death. Serving only a two year prison sentence, he soon finds himself back out, though under the watchful gaze of his parole officer James Day (Person), a black man who has little sympathy for Carl and who warns him the second he steps out of line, that he will get him sent back to prison. Staying away from his group is something Carl cannot do, not only living with his brother who is also a member, but being surrounded by members of the group who believe Carl still owe them some favours. Keeping his bigoted views, prison and what happened to his daughter has at least made the man realise that he needs to put his violent past behind him. The Brotherhood still have use of him however, so he might not get a choice in the matter.

The majority of The Lost Causers is a drama, taking a look at America back in 2017, and the division that was growing then that has led to the modern day where it seems from an outsiders perspective the country is circling the drain. Real footage is used here, with news clips from protests and rallies in 2017 effortlessly edited into the story. This even includes a clip of alleged paedophile, rapist and Russian asset; Donald Trump (Home Alone 2: Lost in New York). The inclusions of things like that felt quite refreshing when many films, especially horrors, tend to try and avoid real world goings on. Carl is the protagonist here, as unlikeable as he is. His views are certainly extreme and hard to identify with, but he was never portrayed as a complete monster. The true antagonist felt like The Brotherhood itself, who have deep ties into the judiciary system. I thought this low budget drama was definitely interesting but not fitting the type of movie I usually review. That is when that out-there subplot appears, one that includes a ghost skeleton!

It was slightly hinted at within the first half of the movie, mainly with murders of crows with glowing red eyes. These moments were so few and far between that I didn't really pay them any attention. Then roughly halfway through the film, a man is using his metal detector when he uncovers the skeletal remains of a civil war soldier. This thing then comes to life, walking over to the man, then turning into smoke and possessing him! Seemingly he takes on the person's memories as he is able to drive a car and operate modern weapons, this movie monster goes on a path of vengeance, going up against Carl's enemies he had made since leaving jail. The possessed man really hams it up, permanently manically grinning, and acting very over the top. His subplot only takes up around 10 minutes of the rest of the film, and his scenes have no bearing on the rest of the story going on. It was a guilty pleasure to watch, even if the scenes felt completely unrelated to the more grounded story, almost felt like it was a different film entirely. Whether the character was actually possessed by the spirit of the 'Old South' or not, it made for a memorable bit of the film.

The Lost Causers was different to the types of film I usually watch. I did think its story was relevant, and the melding of reality and fiction something fresh, but that wild subplot did stand out like a sore thumb.

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End of Abyss (2026) - Sci-fi Horror Video Game Review (Playstation 5)

It is currently that time of the year when the annual Halloween event; Fortnitemares is going on in video game Fortnite. During this event, many horror themed skins get added to the game store, and a few weeks back a very cool looking skin got added. I picked it up, not realising it was actually a skin of the protagonist from sci-fi horror metroidvania video game - End of Abyss. With the game recently released with a lean price of just over £20, I grabbed it, not even checking first to see if it was any good or not.

In the game you play as Cal - a female technician who has travelled to a remote and vast underground facility alongside her captain and three heavily armoured soldiers. Contact had been lost with the base, so they had gone there to find out what had happened to cause this. With the place on a complete lockdown, Cal's job is to disable the various security systems so that the small team can make it to the heart of the complex deep in the lower levels. It quickly becomes apparent that something catastrophic has occurred. The base's population of workers all either dead, or mutated into grotesque zombie-like creatures.

A sci-fi horror metroidvania sounded like music to my ears, I saw it as the perfect game to play this spooky month. It was apparently made by the same team that did Little Nightmares and it shows, the murky location has a pulled back isometric perspective that gives it a slight dollhouse type feel, the various places full of incidental details that tell a story without notes or dialogue. For example; the hospital wing has a morgue overflowing with corpses, offices have bodies slumped over desks, and there are signs of disaster everywhere. Collapsed walkways, flooded areas, fires, and rampaging security bots, and much of the underground complex firmly sealed shut. The isometric view reminded me of the Xbox 360 Alien Breed Evolution games. It has the same pulled back perspective to make your character appear small on screen, same twin stick shooting gameplay, and similarly detailed, though here, this game is much less linear. Of course, the game also looks a lot better graphicly here, while it maintains a moody blue tint to it throughout, the game world is split into various different feeling locations that provide variation while also seeming unified in the style. Sound design is one of most satisfying aspects here, bringing the world to life. Living quarters, labs, waterworks, industrial areas, ventilation shafts and more. Each place in classic metroidvania style reveals shortcuts to unlock, and areas that can't be explored until the correct item or weapon is discovered. Meaning that backtracking is very much recommended.. The flamethrower lets you burn away fleshy growths, the grappling hook can traverse ruined walkways and pull down raised ladders, explosives can be used to destroy weakened walls etc. The flow of the game has you opening up the various areas, locating key cards and powering-up the required systems to allow you deeper access to the base. The map screen I found to be essential. It does a good job of keeping itself updated, not only showing which doors are currently locked, but also telling you what is required to open them up. The areas are massive, and these include plenty of huge and entirely optional areas. I would say at least a quarter of the game is made up of optional spaces should you want to do more than just mainline the story. Likening it to another game, this also reminded me of Dead Space, especially with the look of the enemies as well as the transit system that acts as a fast travel between areas.

Combat is a constant, using the analogue stick to aim and shoulder button to fire. The default weapon you have is a sci-fi pistol with infinitely recharging ammo. Later upgrades allow you to perform charged shots with it for extra oomph. As you progress, various other weapons are unlocked, including a shotgun, rifle and machine gun. These guns all require ammo however, which has to be created using currency dotted around the map and dropped by enemies. To be honest, these secondary guns never felt great to use, I tended to just stick to the pistol for much of my 15 hour playthrough. Currency can also be used instead to upgrade your weapons, making them stronger and giving them additional abilities. The annoying thing with this currency is that should you die, any ammo you used remains used. This led to situations where I needed a particular ammo type to use on bosses but no currency to create it, leading to me having to grind out more by repeatedly defeating enemies and then respawning them (by using a save station) until I had enough to build up my stocks of bullets.
A key part of the combat is Cal's ability to dodge. It doesn't sound like much, but dodging gives you a few frames of invincibility, making it an essential move to master early on.

The main enemy type you will face are the zombie-like creatures, which have a slight The Last of Us look to them with their mushroom-like growths. There was a good variety of enemy types, with a whole host of different zombie types (such as hulking ones, and ones that spit acid), alongside other enemies such as giant ticks, leeches, Half-Life style head crabs, and giant wasps. There are also the droids that fire laser beams and grenades at you. There was a large amount of boss fights, usually in large arenas that has you facing off a giant mutated mass of flesh of various types. No boss looks exactly the same, but they feel very similar to battle, apart from one giant robot boss, these are all giant mutant creatures. Fighting these could be frustrating at times due to how weak your guns felt, their huge energy bars meaning they took on the feel of bullet sponges. As a reminder, there is a reload button for your guns, something I embarrassingly only realised when I was midway through the final boss fight of End of Abyss!

The worst part of the game for me was the wafer thin story. Cal herself is a silent protagonist, the people she is with do speak but they are very cagey with their information, and never say anything interesting. The intention with the story being barebones is probably to make everything seem mysterious, but I became irritated how nothing much is ever explained. You can find notes dotted around the environments but most of these were hardly interesting. I really hoped that by the games end there would have been a satisfying lore dump, but alas, this was not to be. The end credits rolled with me still not even sure just why we my character had ever travelled to this facility in the first place, my synopsis earlier in this review being what I guessed was going on. The poor story was a real downer for me, sure the environmental storytelling was decent, but I was really yearning for something meatier and more complicated than what was provided.

I really enjoyed my time with End of Abyss, blasting through it in about half a week. It wasn't perfect though, a pathetic story, and later on especially, it became all too easy to get cornered by mobs of enemies and obliterated within moments or to get stuck on bits of the game's scenery (leading to one moment where I was forced to close down my game). I did like playing this, a good graphical style, and I liked the design of the game world, even if it occasionally did feel a little similar, and there was a bit too much backtracking required. With a few weeks since completing the game at the time of review, I would be lying if I said I didn't miss it.

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Natural Thorn Killers: A Creeping Guide to Plant Horror (2026) by Lauren Jane Barnett & Tony Mardon - Horror Film Guide Review

When I first heard about Natural Thorn Killers: A Creeping Guide to Plant Horror, I figured the topic was a bit lean, as myself could only think of a handful of plant based horror films. For authors Lauren Jane Barnett and Tony Mardon to write an entire 253 page guide to the subject seemed like insanity. It turns out that I was surprised to see just how many of these I had seen, maybe not a gigantic amount, but still at least a handful from each of the seven varieties of plant based horror films covered here.

So the format for this guide is that it is split into seven sections. Each of these begins with an opening preamble explaining some of the reasoning for the emergence of these plant based horrors into the world. The rest of each section then picks out notable examples, offering more reasoning for their existence, as well as working through the film's plot from beginning to end, focussing on the plant horror based moments. The sections very roughly charts a chronological journey from around the mid 20th Century up to more modern times; the earlier sections more about older films, though all still include examples from multiple decades of the past 80 years or so.

It begins with 'It Came From Outer Space: Alien Plants'. This includes such classics as Day of the Triffids (I am a huge fan of author John Wyndham, so I had expected to find an adaptation of his novel here). It covers the various Invasion of the Body Snatchers movies, classics, and with these the guide suggests alien plants invading reflected societal fears of invasion, such as during the Cold War era. 
'Franken-vine: Man Made Monsters' follows this, here of course these films are stated to reflect a fear of unchecked science, with rogue scientists often the true antagonists. A lot of these involve radiation of one type of another causing mutations. Even not having heard of a lot of these, I of course at least had heard of comic book hero; Swamp Thing, and reading about Attack of the Killer Tomatoes had me recalling I had caught a part of this as a child. I remember thinking as a child the scene in the film where a large group of people are having an important meeting in a comically small room was quite amusing.
It was part 3 'Panic Shroom: Monstrous Mushrooms and Fatal Fungi' (loved all the word puns in those section headings!) where I started to feel that I really needed to check out some of the examples covered. Splinter, Shrooms, The Superdeep and In The Earth all piqued my curiosity. The authors are always keen to express when films have faults, this isn't some propaganda piece for plant horrors, with issues often being pointed out. The Girl With All The Gifts of course featured here, reminding me yet again that my memory is pretty awful!

Branching (pun not intended) the middle of the guide is 'The Root of All Evil: When Trees Attack', with a few of these having the plant horror as a side piece rather than the overarching threat. Of course, as I expected, the infamous tree rape scene from The Evil Dead is delved into, as well as the memorable scene from Poltergeist, and a contrast with its remake's version of that sequence.
'Mystical Di-vine: Plants that are Worshipped or Magical' follows. The Forest, Trick r' Treat and Sleepy Hollow being examples that I was familiar with (but again, my mind had forgotten these involved vegetation as a key feature of the evil.
Penultimate section; 'Thorn This Way: Naturally Evolved Threats' included a look at at horror - The Ruins. I hadn't heard of this, but the description of the film about a group under siege at an old ruined temple complex was very interesting, certainly want to check that one out. 
Finally was 'Field of Screams: Grasslands and Cornfields', including of course the beloved franchise of films Children of the Corn. I was vaguely put out that the authors only felt the first three in the series were worth covering, but to be fair, I've ever seen all of the films once, and that was a long time ago, so I am sure they are right when they say the movies move away from the cornfield angle. Cornfields work so well in horror films, as a teen I remember the excitement when my father tried to grow corn. Even though only a handful of stalks were grown, I still remember standing next to them and my mind going wild with thoughts of related horror films I had seen. The Japanese Onibaba, scarecrow horrors, Husk and Dark Harvest, and nature based Cube variant Escape the Field all sounded like films I needed to see for myself. As expected, In the Tall Grass has its own chapter, not a film I thought was amazing.

With that, the guide was over, with nary even a closing word from the authors. I loved reading through this guide, film guides are always something that have interested me, as there will always be some gems that you haven't heard of before included. Early on in the guide there were a few moments were it felt like the same ground was gone over in multiple parts, but that didn't detract from my enjoyment. A balanced look at the subject of plant based cinema, Natural Thorn Killers: A Creeping Guide to Plant Horror was both informative and entertaining, who knew that sub-genre of horror had roots that went so deep? The guide was published 24th April 2026 and is out worldwide with Telos.

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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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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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Resident Evil (2026) - Comedy Horror Film Review

After seeing it get rave reviews, I was excited to check out the Zach Cregger (Weapons, Barbarian) directed and co-written Resident Evil. In my head, I couldn't see how it could live up to the hype, but being a huge fan of the survival horror video game series, I just had to see it for myself. I didn't mind if this wasn't to rigidly stick to the game's lore, but I did expect it to be a serious survival horror film. What I instead discovered was not only a comedy horror, but one that had me constantly laughing out loud from start to finish. 

Bryan (Austin Abrams - Weapons, Scary Stories to Tell in the Dark) is a courier that one evening is delivering medical supplies to a hospital. While there, he is asked if he wanted to do another urgent delivery, this time to a hospital in Raccoon City. Out of his normal delivery zone, the offer of extra pay has him jumping at the chance. Up in the snowy mountains where the city is located, he is on his phone to his girlfriend when a woman steps out into the road right in front of him and without time to avoid her, he hits the woman. Stopping, he is relieved to see the woman appears very dazed and covered in blood, but otherwise apparently ok. Doing the right thing, he decides to take the woman along with him to the hospital. A series of small misadventures later he begins to suspect there is something really wrong with the woman, who is not only able to sustain injuries that would kill a normal person, but is also acting more and more violent around him. With his car broken down, and his mobile phone having no signal, he heads to a nearby farm house to seek assistance. Things are not much better there, and after dealing with a aggressive dog and a farmer (who both also seem to have something very wrong with them), he decides he has no other option than to head to Raccoon City on foot; both to find help for the insanity he is encountering, and also, as he really does want to deliver the urgent medical supply to the hospital. Bryan comes to learn that a virus has escaped from a lab in the city and has infected the citizens with a terrifying parasitic virus. He also discovers that the delivery he has on him may be the key to a cure for this virus.

Going in, I had zero idea that this was going to be such a funny film, so was more than surprised when it become clear it was. Even better for me, the humour was great, there was barely a visual gag or amusing line of dialogue that didn't land perfectly. In the video game series, several have you playing as a normal person; someone with no special skills, but who nonetheless thrives in a monster filled situation. Here, that idea is made more realistic, Bryan is as normal as they come, and that includes not really having a clue how guns work. With no special skills outside of being resourceful, he muddles his way through his adventure through a combination of luck and sheer determination. Along his journey he comes across increasingly powerful guns, but barely knows how to use them, struggling to load ammo, struggling to remove safety catches, frequently accidentally discharging them, and when he does shoot them, it turns out he is a terrible shot. Like in the video games, Bryan constantly finds his way forward blocked by locked doors, this becomes a running joke of him attempting to destroy the locks by shooting them and failing.

Much of the movie has Bryan alone, his constant mutterings, screaming and swearing meaning that despite that there is barely a quiet moment. Along the way he encounters a bunch of different characters, all of which are usually used for comedic effect, such as the film's sole badass character who almost immediately gets killed off. The film is focussed on Bryan for the entire runtime, there are no subplots, and the viewer only has as much limited knowledge of what has happened in the city that Bryan himself finds out. The man is slightly cowardly, but he is a good person who does want to do the right thing, even if he comes to have a stake in the game. Despite all the monsters, he really does want to deliver the medical item he has been tasked with delivering. There was only one genuinely sad moment in the film when Bryan is at rock bottom, but even this is humorously interjected, courtesy of a fun role from Zach Cherry (Teenage Sex and Death at Camp Miasma, Severance).

I assumed this would be primarily a zombie film, while they do appear, that wasn't actually the case. Like the video games, the focus falls more on the various mutated monsters the virus has created. The virus can cause fleshy tentacles to reach out from the infected, with the tentacles able to stich together various infected to create a nightmarish mishmash abomination, one of which acts as a recurring antagonist force for Bryan to escape from. Alongside zombies and split-headed dogs, there were a bunch of one-off creatures, such as a grotesque zombie mutation that spits acid, and a large ghoul in the sewers that is fit to bursting with infected rats. There was even one monster that was very similar to William Birkin's monster form in Resident Evil 2, complete with a giant eyeball on its shoulder. While rated 15, this was very gory and bloody, with severed limbs, exploding heads, and people even ripped clean in half. This was more exciting than scary, though one early scene had a jump scare that had my best friend screaming out loud, which in turn made me jump. The story almost takes place in real time, with it happening over the course of one long night rather than a longer time frame. There are plenty of easter eggs from the games to discover lurking in the background, from first aid sprays and green herbs, to keys embossed with playing card hand symbols and ammo stored in the same box type as in the games.

Resident Evil was an amazing film from start to finish. At 90 minutes long it feels lean in modern day, with movies often feeling the need to be two hours in length. It was the rare type of film that when the end credits rolled I was ready to re-watch the journey all over again. A comedy horror set in the Resident Evil universe could have been a disaster, but it just works here, with jokes that are near always spot on, and ones that never get in the way of the unfolding horror on-screen - an admirable blend of humour and horror, essential viewing.

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Daphne (2026) - Short Horror Film Review

 

Daphne is a new short three minute found footage horror film from North Carolina based indie filmmaker Caulkdraggin (Ryan McGee), someone whose work has gotten over 75 million views on TikTok. I checked out some of his short form horror stories on there and was impressed with the quality of them.

Daphne Root stars as the titular Daphne, a young woman who has been given a unique opportunity by Professor Caulkdraggin (Caulkdraggin of course). Excited for this unexplained event, she has gotten her friend to film her thoughts on this as she walks through a busy park.

There is heavy use of digital effects here, it was relatively recently I was watching the dull Karen the Beauty Queen Butcher and lambasting the terrible digital effects. Here, while similar types of digital effect is used, it looks markedly better and much more impressive. These types of effects are coming on leaps and bounds, and the fact these still veer into a kind of uncanny valley really help this with the short film's surreal and quietly sinister vibe.
The first half takes place in a park, following the excitable Daphne as she talks to the camera. The dialogue was pretty forgettable and had an odd cadence to it, but that fed into the vaguely unsettling feel of the world, that while on the surface everything seemed normal, there was just something a little off about everything that was going on, and how characters interact with each other.

The horror begins at around the two minute mark, without going into too much detail, it came out of nowhere, and was very bloody, violent, and surprising, all in equal measure. I did enjoy how it transitioned from normal to crazy in the blink of an eye. The digital effects lead to some moments you don't typically get to see in such detail. My biggest complaint with this as a whole was how wafer thin the story was, it was all designed as a lead up to a surprising moment, but didn't really tell much of a tale, ending on shock rather than something that made you think. Caulkdraggin aims to make a feature length film of Daphne using these digital effects, with this specifically referred to as a proof of concept. His almost fourth wall breaking appearance at the end to do his trademark "Witness Me!" catchphrase was certainly fun, he was an undeniable presence on screen even if the 'Caulkdraggin' name itself is a bit hard to take seriously due to the way it is pronounced.

As a micro film, I did appreciate that this didn't end on a lame jump scare, something that short horror films are usually all too keen to finish with. While I was yearning for more of a story, this really did go to an unexpected place. Caulkdraggin wrote, directed, edited and produced Daphne, and it is an undeniably impressive feat; an unsettling facsimile of reality. It has piqued my interest in how a feature length film in this style would be like to watch. Could this type of digital effect heavy work be the vanguard for a new sub-genre of horror? Daphne is due to head to the film festival circuit in the near future, be sure to check it out for yourself if you get the chance.

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Return to Silent Hill (2026) - Horror Film Review

The Silent Hill video game series is one of my all time favourites, and was instrumental as one of the catalysts that truly cemented my love for horror when I was growing up. I fondly remember playing the original Silent Hill game back in 1999. I was living with my parents at the time, and in a rare occurrence they had gone away for the night, allowing my 17 years old self to put the Playstation on the 'big' CRT TV in the front room. I distinctly remember staying up until 01:00 in the morning, with the transition from mist world to the nightmarish otherworld at the hospital in that first game causing me to 'nope out' and head to bed scared. All that is to say, the series is special to me, I typically love anything set in that universe.

I was never that impressed with the original Christophe Gans directed Silent Hill that came out in 2006. I've watched it multiple times over the years, but it just never clicked for me. The same weirdly couldn't be said for the M.J Bassett directed and co-written sequel, Silent Hill: Revelation. Most people hate it, but on my admittedly sole watch of it, I enjoyed it, stating in my 8/10 review that while it wasn't a great film, I loved it, and it felt like a movie made for me. So, Return to Silent Hill released at the start of the year and is based on one of more beloved games; Silent Hill 2, whose successful remake came out a few years earlier. Being unemployed at the time I just couldn't afford to go see it at the cinema, and then hearing it was a disappointment my enthusiasm for it kind of dried up and it was forgotten. Having recently gotten Amazon Prime Video again, I spotted it on the service and just had to check it out for myself.

One day while speeding down mountain roads in his open-top car, artist James Sunderland (Jeremy Irvine - The Woman in Black 2: Angel of Death) accidentally crashes through the luggage of Mary (Hannah Emily Anderson - Jigsaw), a woman who had been waiting at a coach stop outside the town of Silent Hill, having intended to leave the place for good. There is an immediate attraction between the two, and Mary sees their encounter as a sign that maybe she shouldn't leave the area. In present day some unknown amount of years later, James for unspecified reasons is a complete mess, regularly drowning his sorrows in alcohol, and with a psychiatrist on speed dial. Getting back from a drunken night one evening, he spots a note on his apartment floor, and upon reading it he is surprised to find it is from Mary. The letter asks him to return to Silent Hill, and being so desperate to see this woman once again (his present day trauma seemingly related to her), he immediately gets in his car and drives there. With the route to town blocked off, he heads the remainder of the way on foot and is shocked to see the once bustling town has been reduced to an ash filled ghost town. Things go from bad to worse when he discovers there are grotesque monsters roaming the streets, but being so desperate to meet with Mary, even this isn't enough to get him to turn back.

I started watching this last Friday night, and roughly made it halfway through the 100 minute film before tiredness claimed me and I retreated to my bed chambers. I left that night feeling optimistic, I had liked what I had seen, so was eager to return to the movie the next day. There were some big changes with regards to the story, but it did feel to me like a video game once again brought to life. It turns out the second half of Return to Silent Hill wasn't anywhere near as good, making this a film of two halves. I felt Irvine was a good choice for protagonist, maybe not so much in the flashback scenes, but I loved his performance as the messed up present day James. Most of the film takes place in the present, but when James (who seems to have short term memory loss) revisits key locations in the town, he recalls past events that happened with Mary there. It seems a bit silly to avoid spoilers for a 25 year old video game, but the film gives a different approach, things that are revealed early on in the game are instead revealed as late revelations in this adaption. One change I really enjoyed was with Mary, here she is given a back story that directly links her to the demon worshipping cult that had existed in the town in the previous films, making the slow reveals in the flashback sequences fun to watch. In the games, the conflict that occurred with James and Mary was her getting very sick, here, it is her involvement in this cult that begins to tear the two characters apart. All the other key characters from the game get film versions, though their individual side stories are diluted down to always link everything back to James. Angela (also played here by Anderson) was more akin to walking exposition, rather than a character who felt like she had her own journey going on. Laura (Evie Templeton - Wednesday, Silent Hill 2) acted similar to the games, but she is given a more supernatural feel, operating within the terror filled otherworld version of the town, rather than an innocent who only sees a deserted town. Maria (again Anderson) appears as the strangely familiar looking woman James encounters, but her role is reduced somewhat. Not as much as poor Eddie (Pearse Egan), who only appears in a couple of scenes for about a five minute period of time.

The second half wasn't as good in my eyes as it felt like this part was really rushed through. The apartment block and hospital scenes had time dedicated to them, but after this it becomes dizzying, with James moving from key location to key location via supernatural means, designed to share James' confusion with reality with the viewer. For a game whose story wasn't too large, it seemed weird to cut out so much of it, and some of the changes were plain odd. I appreciated it focused the story squarely on James, but the supporting cast lost a bit to them as a result.
Like in the original film, the monsters here are a lovely blend of live action with CG effects placed over them. A highlight of the film in terms of design, there were some exciting scenes here, such as James being chased across the town by a legion of giant bugs, acid spewing humanoids, and a great (if expected) scene where he is being chased by monstrous looking nurses in a hospital basement. Of course the iconic Pyramid Head also features, and again, like the side characters, he is more linked to James than in the games.
I loved the set design, and the fact that some scenes almost looked like you were watching a video game rather than reality (such as overhead CG shots of James running through the deserted streets) felt strangely fitting for a video game adaption. I get what the director was going for with the dizzying location changes of the second half, but it did lead to a feeling that everything was being rushed through far too quickly.

Return to Silent Hill started off promising, with the first half really feeling like the game brought to life. Many of the changes story wise here seemed to be to the detriment of the story, and these changes began to bother me more and more. It leads to a complicated finish, and an ending that was merely adequate rather than memorable. While not amazing, I could see myself watching this again in the future, and it has made me really want to replay the 2024 remake, so it did something for me. Return to Silent Hill can currently be streamed on Amazon Prime Video.

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The Flesh People (2026) - Comedy Horror Film Review

The final film watched for review this weekend was a real curveball. The Flesh People is an indie horror that featured some jet black humour. Written and directed by Keshav Srinivasan, it was a twisted modern day New York based version of the type of story that sees two oddballs existing together.

Ricky (Jorge Carrión Álvarez in his film debut) is an American immigrant who is in the country to get a medical degree. However, not long before film's start, he has been kicked out of medical school after three years due to getting caught stealing drugs. Needing a place to stay in New York, he has become the roommate of Geraldine (Louise Heller); a lady in the second half of her life, a former stage actress who lives in a rundown apartment in a poor part of the city. The disparate pair discover they have a similarity with the nihilistic outlook of life they share. Both are frauds in their professions, and both are prepared to go to extreme lengths in anything they attempt. Their friendship becomes very co-dependent the longer they spend together. This leads to increasingly deranged situations.

The film goes to some grim places, but never looses the black humour at any point. I liked this began with a present day section before the film then moves back in time to show how that (bloody) present came to be. The situations increasingly got more dark, following a natural path with its incremental nature. The odd friendship between the two leads is the core of the story, with the majority of the 105 minute film being based inside their lived-in apartment. Over wild drug trips, the pair come up with various plans to improve their finances. From performing back-street medical procedures, to selling meat from a questionable and gruesome source, there soon comes a police presence due to their illegal activities. By the end things have gotten all too crazy, leading to a suitably zany ending. The escalation was fun and the infrequent outdoor scenes were always lovely to see.

Make-up effects such as injuries sustained looked great on camera, with some scenes that had me feeling a little queasy. It was great to see the hallucinations of the characters during the drug trip scenes, the most pure horror part of the movie. There was a gradual body count as the film progresses, with some fun kill scenes that included parts where the camera follows the path of the murder weapon, these were pretty neat looking. The plot wasn't designed to be deep and involved or full of twists and turns. Instead it felt more like a claustrophobic gaze at these two lost characters who have just happened by unlucky fortune to come into each others lives. The characters go from situation to situation at a regular pace, which does lead to some of these situations sometimes feeling like a bunch of disconnected skits rather than a continually running story.

The Flesh People featured very well cast duel protagonists. I found some scenes a bit too gross for my liking, though this was an entertainingly depraved jet-black comedic odd-ball movie.

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Soul Snatchers (2026) - Horror Film Review

Religious thriller, Soul Snatchers keeps the supernatural element very close to its chest. So much so that at times I began to suspect that there wasn't even one actually there. This Julio Roman (Fuera de tinieblas) directed and co-written movie often felt more like a Biblical parable unfolding in present day, rather than a realistic story.

As children, Daniel and older brother, Saul witnessed their mother being kidnapped in broad daylight as she evangelised on a remote Puerto Rico based island. Now grown up, the two - Daniel (William Oliver) and Saul (Luis Sebastián Borges - Toxic Shark) have returned to this island alongside their evangelist father, Emmanuel (Cameron Arnett - Nefarious), to try and help the poor there with the power of Christianity and music. In their way however is the island's almost warlord like Mayor. The mayor rules the island with an iron fist, keeping law and order with his small army of enforcers. When their musical instruments are stolen, Daniel against his father's wishes, decides to ask the mayor for help. The help is given, but comes at a cost, with Daniel getting seduced by the power the mayor wields. As Daniel falls to temptation and leaves his family, Emmanuelle believes that love will bring him back home one day.

There was lots here to make this feel more like a fable than a real story. Daniel is the walking embodiment of gullible, all too quick to believe the outlandish lies of the comically evil mayor and his goons. Hot tempered and impatient, his fall to the 'dark side' was entertaining, even if it seemed to happen far too quickly. Along the way, he is asked to beat a defenceless man, gets spiked with a hallucinogenic drug, and too abuses the power he has been given. The mayor was fantastic, sadly, I didn't catch the actor's name, so can't credit him. He put on a wonderful performance, over the top, flamboyant and unpredictable, effortlessly stealing all his scenes. The mayor's spiritual opposite; Emmanuel was also a fun character, albeit in a different way. Full of the love of God, he was extremely peaceful and devout. He also is able to perform literal miracles with his belief in the Lord, early on the film he returns the sight to a blind boy purely from prayer! In a world where it appears God does exist, then too shall the demonic. A slight part of the movie, mostly insinuated than shown, but this part does culminate in a fun horror scene that I really wished more of Soul Snatchers had included.

This is a thriller rather than a horror, the focus on the division between the good and the bad guys. There were a few fight scenes and a couple of on-screen deaths, but these were few and far between. The fact the story had a fable type feel actually made me enjoy it more. Sometimes good and evil really can be plain black and white without any grey areas. Most impressive for the film were the gigantic cast, it felt like nearly every scene was populated with huge groups of background characters. Perhaps a little heavy handed with its message of love and forgiveness, but I was still rooting for the protagonists to win, even if the bad guys were so entertaining.

I liked Soul Snatchers more than I expected to. The mayor actor, Arnett, and Oliver were great in their roles, and the film world felt like a living place due to the abundance of people in the movie. Personally, I wish the horror element had been featured more, but I did enjoy a feel good ending for a change. Soul Snatchers had its digital UK premiere on 31st August thanks to Seven Tales.

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Teenage Sex and Death at Camp Miasma (2026) - Comedy Horror Film Review

I had heard that the Jane Schoenbrun (We're All Going to the World's Fair) written and directed Teenage Sex and Death at Camp Miasma was a dark comedic horror and that it starred Gillian Anderson (The X-Files). That was the extent of my knowledge of this movie heading to the cinema with my best friend to watch it. There was humour, it was suitably dark, and it did star Anderson, but the movie used the concept of horror films to tell its dark romantic story, rather than the horror be the focus.

Hannah Einbinder (Hacks) stars as Kris; a gay up and coming film director who has been given the chance to revitalise a long running slasher film series called - 'Camp Miasma'. The film's trans villain - Little Death (Jack Haven) is seen as problematic for a modern audience, and so the film has been given to Kris, hoping that a gay director will appease critics of the film. Being a huge fan of the original entry, with one particular scene being pivotal to her gay awakening as a child, Kris has decided to track down the film's original final girl, Billy (Anderson), an actress who since that role has became very reclusive. Kris plans to travel to Billy's remote property and try and convince her to come back to the series for a role in the latest entry. Arriving, she is surprised to see that Billy lives at the same location that the first Camp Miasma was filmed at. Kris becomes entranced with the mysterious and strange Billy, and as the days of her visit pass, she becomes more and more taken with the former actress. Also going on in the background - Camp Miasma's slasher; Little Death, might exist in the real world, and might be looking to kill.

I had imagined that this would be a slasher that took place in a meta-way, much as what happened with The Final Girls. It was slightly similar here, though with characters not falling into a horror film (though there is a bit of that), but in a hallucinogenic way falling into the creation of a horror film. Peppered throughout the main movie are scenes from the film within a film - Camp Miasma. It had a filter to give a suitably seventies look, but the directing was pure modern day on how it was shot, and kills were shown in an artsy and stylish way. I enjoyed these film clips, and they integrated into the real story in very purposeful ways. Much of the horror here was from the clips of the film, and so lose any power due to knowing it wasn't real. That isn't to take away from the pleasure of the very violent kills. Little Death is a diminutive white overall wearing trans-person who wears a metal box on their head, and wields a huge spear. During the many lovely looking kill scenes, he tears limbs and heads off of victims, as stylised fountains of over the top red gore spurting out the bodies. These scenes were great fun to watch, the highlight being a protracted massacre scene that focuses the camera directly on Little Death, swinging away as he slashes his way through a room.

The film had a trippy vibe, with the real world blending with the fake. Exterior locations often use obvious painted backgrounds, and characters from the film are encountered in the real world, making for some surreal moments. Unexpectedly, the core of the story is a lesbian love story, with Kris discovering a sexual awakening. It included long (non-graphic) sex scenes of the two leads, which included some nudity. Horror films were key to the plot, but not really the point of the film, being there more as an allegory for desire. Kill scenes are done in a way that aren't designed to create fear, and the protagonists never felt like they were in any threat The humour here isn't a constant, but there were moments that made me laugh out loud, with Dylan Baker (Immortal, Fido) shining in a tiny role as someone Kris is speaking to on a Zoom call - the comedic highlight of the film that had the audience laughing.

Teenage Sex and Death at Camp Miasma was a good film even if it never felt like it was too much for me. This isn't a slasher, not even a meta-one, and that is perfectly fine, it never said it was. Instead, its a dark gay romantic arty story of self discovery, that nonetheless includes plenty of references to classic slasher films, with everything from Friday the 13th, Halloween, Sleepaway Camp and A Nightmare on Elm Street brought up at one point or another. Just be prepared for some weirdness along the way.

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Bad Karaoke (2026) - Comedy Horror Film Review

Bad Karaoke is a comedy horror co-directed and co-written by Chris Lightbody, with Robert J. Steinmiller Jr also directing. The film is the directorial debut of both men, and with its story about a cursed karaoke machine resonating with me, I was eager to see if this bloody horror with its musical numbers, could possibly live up to its potential?

A cover-band made up of Emily (Lexi Underwood), Noah (Case Walker - The Other Two), singer Hannah (Kat Cunning), and drummer Logan (Kevin Clayette - Neighbours) have headed to a remote AirBnB alongside Hannah's girlfriend, Ava (Jenna Karan - Goon of the Lagoon) and Logan's best friend, Matt (Jonathan Jason Green - 13th Sign). They have a wedding gig the next day, but this evening they plan to party with lots of drugs and alcohol. Enroute to the place they are staying, they visit a local bar, where Melissa is gifted an old karaoke machine which the barman seems all too eager to be rid of. He was eager for them to take it as the machine had been linked to a horrifying incident, and now is cursed. When the friends turn it on in the evening, they fall into a deadly karaoke session where the punishment for a bad performance is a gory supernatural death. The only way for any of the friends to survive the night is to put on the performance of a literal lifetime.

Comedy in horror can always be something tough to get right, thankfully the comedy on offer here mostly lands well more often than not. Dialogue between the characters was witty and the central threat was dumb enough that it was hard to take it too seriously. Emily and Noah are set-up to have unsaid feelings for each others, but this wasn't a source of much tension, with the whole group of friends getting on surprisingly well. Outside of farcical moments such as Mark deciding to cook some food in the midst of all the unfolding terror, there isn't really much conflict to be found here, something that helped with the film's non-straight faced vibe.

In an inspired move, each of the death scenes here is prefaced by a musical number featuring the next potential victim, almost turning Bad Karaoke into a musical horror. Each subsequent song seemed to have more effort and heart put onto it, with singing broken up by music video-lite moments of characters transported to different locations while they sing. Reasonably early on, the machine is believed destroyed, but its power means that any electronic screen it can carry on its session with, its program appearing on phone and car screens. One amusing example was a character sat on a toilet, who is suddenly forced to perform, as his friends offer support from the other side of the locked toilet door. Kills are very bloody, there is no shortage of gore here, with the central location splattered all over in blood. The deaths are supernaturally caused and did look quite cartoonish with the use of CG to do things such as swell up one victims head before it pops. The kills were very hit and miss with how they looked, it is easy to dismiss the silly looking artificial kills as part of the comedy horror, but I feel this was the weakest part of the movie regardless. The plot was basic, but I appreciated the flashback sequence that completely explains how the machine came to be cursed; it all leads to a fun and surprisingly heartfelt finale.

Bad Karaoke is of course a silly concept, and it means that this always feels more comedic than horror filled. Both are combined so strongly that neither overshadows the other. Stupid, but entertaining, there might be some dodgy CG special effects here, but I had a good time with it. Bad Karaoke had its world premiere at FrightFest on August 30th.

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