My blog went through a bit of a dry spell recently when it came to films sent to me for review, something that allowed me to become a bit lazier and do some shorter working weekends. That has all changed now though, a quick glance shows I still have half a dozen horrors on my radar. Onwards to the news, being written on yet another humid day here in England.
Beginning with some music news, goth pop-rock act Metamorph released a six track EP - Harlot in time for the Summer Solstice. The EP includes the title track, alongside a dance mix, an instrumental, and remixes from Spankthenun, IIOIOIOII, and Allie Frost. Metamorph's next full album; Haunted Hearts, is due for release this Autumn.
Deathgaze duo Vazum have released a new single titled 'Arise', which was inspired by the legend of the Phoenix. This is the second single from Vazum's upcoming full length album; Pretty Brutal.
Independent horror streaming platform Screamify has announced the addition of three new feature films to its library, which will be streaming exclusively on the platform. These three films are The Black-Eyed Children (a found footage about a counsellor's search for missing campers), Dreamland Awaits (Hungarian arthouse horror about a detective trying to save his family), and Lechuza; a supernatural thriller about a witch stalking a family on their camping trip. Screamify is available on major mobile and streaming devices.
Production on Zombie Plane has been wrapped up. This horror comedy that stars Vanilla Ice, Sophie Monk, Brian Austin, Ice-T and Chuck Norris playing exaggerated versions of themselves, does what it says in the title, by having a zombie outbreak during the middle of a flight.
The first trailer has been released for Dick Reno: Monster Slayer, a comedy horror adventure movie. Starring Eric Roberts, Jimmy Drain, Dawna Lee Heising, Ron Chaney and Jon Mack, this sees the titular man (Drain) battling a vampire king and his army.
CHO: A Tale of Voodoo is a new horror film said to be based on true events. In this, businessman David Cho and his family come into danger after he is cursed by a vengeful woman. This was written and produced by Frank Aguilar, with August Aguilar directing.
Finally for today (for I must do some tidying), Geno McGahee's first feature film, 2000's micro-budget Evil Awakening has resurfaced, and is now on YouTube where it can be viewed for free. The director states "It was my first film and it's chaos, but I'm very happy that it's been released into the wild again". The film is a horror about a crazed farmer who returns from the dead to get his revenge on campers and partiers.
I hadn't intended to do a second news post this week, I think the humid weather has made me become more lazy than the zombie comic post I had originally intended to write.
'Doom Bass' duo Antania have released their debut album, 'Lividity', which is inspired by true crime stories. Each track on the album is said to represent a true story of murder and violence. The press release states the album is '...a slow, rhythmic bass-heavy release'. 'Lividity' is available on all digital platforms including Bandcamp.
Described as Doom crossed with Vampire Survivors, Vampire Hunters is a new retro first person shooter that was made in Brazil. It is due to make its worldwide debut on Steam Next Fest, but in the meantime there is a demo out for it (here). The press release states 'Relentless action, blood pumping music, and a darkly steampunk world combine to deliver a gun-crazy, fantastical FPS experience unlike anything else on Steam'.
Finally for today, British author Shaun Hutson's novel Progeny is now available in paperback. The story is about a man named Jake Porter, a successful psychiatrist and writer who is troubled by nightmares and hallucinations. As the man tries to figure out if what he is seeing are figments of his imagination or memories, he gets his lover, Dani, to help him search for the truth, their journey taking them to a run-down seaside town.
I managed to clear out my news inbox last weekend, so this time around it will be a look at what has arrived since then. The virtual reality headset PSVR2 has finally gotten a price and release date, it is going to cost a whopping £550 here in the UK, with a February release planned. Personally, despite the eye watering cost I do still intend to get one, a large part of that being finally able to play Resident Evil: Village in VR, that, plus the announcement of a spiritual sequel to the fantastic PSVR launch title, Until Dawn: Rush of Blood.
The War of the Worlds (1953) and When Worlds Collide has been released on 4K Ultra HD and Blu-ray as a double feature. A limited-edition collectable release also released, this comes in a digipak sleeve, including eight photo cards, five art cards and two magnets. Extras include the original War of the Worlds radio broadcast and some making of documentaries. Personally I have never enjoyed film versions of War, as a teen I got obsessed with H.G. Wells' original novel and read it over and over again, meaning the films could never live up to my imagination. Regardless of my thoughts, I'm sure both films will look fantastic in this new format.
Baltimore based alternative rock trio, Novo Koloso have released the official music video for their track Hallucinate Your Faith, with the sophomore album of the same name released on November 8th. The video was directed by Mark Colegrove and features public domain footage from The Arrival, a promotional video from 1980 about UFO cult, Church of Unarius. As of the time of writing the video has been removed from YouTube due to a copyright claim, so here's to hoping it gets restored.
13 Tracks to Frighten Agatha Black comes to Blu-ray on December 13th from VIPCO and Bayview Entertainment. This interesting sounding horror is about a young woman who takes solace in some horror story records from her childhood after suffering a tragedy. She begins to get obsessed with these stories, convinced that they have hidden within them terrible messages about the future.
This month I have been trialling the reintroduction of news posts detailing singular news items. This means I am now putting out a new blog post every single day, shall see how long I can keep that going! Despite this my inbox is still full of news items, and so shall be putting a bunch of them into a monthly news post still. Don't take it to mean this compilation of news stories means they don't deserve their own post, more that having a full time day job it means I just don't have the time to write individual posts for each bit of news I receive.
The Dead Ones is now out on DVD/Blu-ray and digital. I said of this school based horror "From start to finish the nightmarish tone remains consistent, thanks to some inventive moments and a great looking set." Similarly titled My Dead Ones comes to iTunes and Google Play on October 31st. This Brazilian psychological slasher film also came to Vimeo on October 26th. From Midnight Releasing, Evil Under the Skin is now streaming on VOD platforms, including all the ones you would expect. I said of this "I have to give kudos for where this eventually ended up."
Adrian Tofei's standout Romanian found footage horror Be My Cat: A Film for Anne has been released on DVD in two versions, one featuring the new poster and one with the original poster. Both include 12 minutes of extra footage, closed captions, improved image and sound. This horror was partially improvised and had Tofei method acting for the duration, partially living in character. The creator is currently working on a trilogy which includes this film, We Put the World to Sleep (in post-production) and Dr. Frankenstein (in development). Signed copies of the DVD can be purchased on Tofei's site.
The follow up to supernatural thriller Mayday was announced on September 17th. Tara Reid and Robert LaSardo have been added to the film's roster. The synopsis for this has air marshall Adam Anderson (Michael Pare) on board a flight when a strange smoke engulfs the plane. He awakens to find only him and five passengers remain, and the plane running on autopilot. That sounds very much like the excellent time travel horror The Langoliers, which can only be a good thing. Mayday II is currently on Indiegogo seeking additional funds.
Habitual comes to theatres and VOD on November 13th and has been described as 'A Clockwork Orange meets Saw!' This psychological drug fueled horror is about a group of drug taking ravers who go to an underground rave party called 'Habit' at an abandoned asylum in Salem. The night changes into chaotic hallucinations with characters falling deeper into a metaphorical mind-bending hole. It certainly sounds interesting. This comes from writer/director Johnny Hickey, and allegedly during one screening of the movie an audience member on LSD ended up in a harm reduction center as a result of his experience.
Frolic Pictures have released a special batch of 20 new triple feature DVDs. These are based on the golden age of 'silent screamers and depression-era staples'. The collections features some icons such as Bela Lugosi, Max Schreck, Lon Chaney Jr, Boris Karloff, Tod Slaughter and Soledad Miranda. 'Each DVD is a one-of-a-kind experience, like going to the drive-in back in the day, except in the comfort of your own home. Every carefully curated program is 3-4 hours of shocking, bizarre, and tantalizing entertainment from a bygone era. Packed with cinematic surprises, such as pre-show shorts, trailers, and intermission cartoons'. The list is too much to go into, but some chosen at random include: Face of the Screaming Werewolf/The Wasp Woman/The Bat, King of the Zombies/Revolt of the Zombies/Teenage Zombies, and Curse of the Aztec Mummy/Sound of Horror/The Atomic Man. For more details head here.
From the creator of The Blair Witch Project comes Ithaca: A miniseries of horror. This comes from Eduardo Sanchez and season1 is now available now and can be seen for free on Man In The Arena Films YouTube Channel. The first season is made up of four chapters and is about a man's attempt to heal his broken legacy. It was inspired by Homer's Odyssey, modern mythology and includes Balinese Hindu mythology. It was made over 7 years with no budget, and with a 2 to 4 man crew. Season 1 can be seen here.
Music news now, firstly, Sharone has released a music video for her track Can We Pretend. This is the first single off the dark rock artist's upcoming album, Morbid Illusion that is due out on 28th May 2021. Her second single will be revealed on Halloween (the day this blog post goes out). Sharone says of the single "...is about living a lie, and hiding behind a facade that's destroying you from the inside out".
Sammi Doll has released the official music video for her debut single AN OM IE. This is 'an amalgamation of pounding dance beats and industrial keyboard hooks'. Sammi Doll says of the video "We filmed the video over the course of four months due to quarantine restrictions, so we had the luxury of time to build on our characters. I really gave my blood, insomnia, and tears to everything I do artistically and tend to think about the consequences later...but I knew I was committed when a frozen octopus from Seattle showed up at my front door..."
Finally, a new UK short anthology horror is due to go up on YouTube at 9pm tonight (GMT). End of October features three short films from Nicolai Kornum, John Whitaker, and M.W Daniels. Earlier in the year the three worked on a different short anthology horror, The Isolation Horrors. A review of End of October shall go up next week, it's worth a watch, so check out the premiere at 9pm today (October 31st).
Occurrence at Mills Creek originally came out in the form of a short film back in 2019. As far as I'm aware this short film was always intended to be a part of a larger story, and was made up of footage from the opening act of an upcoming feature film. Truth be told I wasn't that taken with it, I thought it was confusing, and I thought it didn't work that well as a stand alone piece. Having now seen the feature length version of Occurrence at Mills Creek I can affirm with context it all works so much better. Despite not really understanding the story I thought this movie was fantastic, and by far the best film I have personally seen from Don Swanson (director of the short, as well asA Wish for Giants and What Was Lost).
Ava Psoras (reprising her role from the short film) stars as Clara, a young woman suffering from a deep depression. When she was still a teen her mum died, then one tragic day an event happened at the titular Mills Creek that saw Clara accidentally kill her younger sister, Cassandra (Alexa Mechling - the original short, A Wish for Giants). Unable to bear the guilt of her actions she tried to commit suicide, and now regularly sees a psychiatrist, and gets by with the support of her best friend. After her father, Victor (Joe Fishel - again, the original short, The Dark Knight Rises, Jack Reacher) passes away, his step sister, Cecilia (Mary Sack - Camp Blood 666) gets in contact and it seems Clara's support bubble is growing. However, she is haunted by visions of her deceased mum and sister and fears she is losing her sanity. Could everything she is experiencing be down to mental trauma, or is there a more supernatural explanation?
The very thing I complained about in the short is the part that I most enjoyed about Occurrence. We follow Clara through her eyes and so are given an unreliable view of the world. There are plenty of dream sequences throughout the film, and often they are so integrated well enough that what appears to be a normal scene will suddenly change into an obvious nightmare. It led to a story that was hard to follow, and I curse my own low intelligence that I often wasn't quite sure what was happening, regardless I was enthralled. Towards the films final third I was really hoping it wouldn't drop the ball and turn bad, thankfully it never did. A lot of the time there is a fine balance between events being the result of mental health issues and events actually happening. Things such as doors opening on their own and the visions Clara sees of her relatives are never resolved. What is clear is that Clara is a troubled soul who has suffered a lot. In the films I have seen of Swanson there is always a grounded feel, that outside of the horror these are real characters flawed as normal people are. Due to this even up to the halfway mark I couldn't quite decide if this was even a horror, or just a drama. It didn't need to do so, but this definitely leans into the horror side of things more and more as the film progresses.
It seems like it has been quite a prolific year for composer/producer John Whitaker (1i2c) whose previous videos include Bed of Nails, and Zombie, as he is back once again with a third video based on his new album Special X, which features tracks inspired by the titles of Michael Slade novels. I received news of Hangman at the start of last month, then before I was able to put up a review I was contacted again to say a sequel to this short was in the process of being created. A few weeks later and that sequel is also out there, so this shall be a double review of both his new shorts/music videos. First is Hangman that was co-written by Whitaker and Richard Markworth, and filmed by Graham Bedford and Whitaker.
This is Western themed and Whitaker describes it as his first black humour horror comedy. In this one three cowboys walk through hostile terrain. One by one they start to be picked off by an unseen assailant, who hooks a hangman's rope around their necks. Just who could be responsible for this?
As always this is set to an instrumental track of electronic music. The usual urgent sounding beats as always compliment the characters walking around on screen, and this urgency adds to the growing paranoia of the three men. There are often filters used to make these videos stand out, and this time there is a sepia style contrast, complete with artificial film grain.
Hangman II is a direct sequel and with the killer revealed the story here now becomes much more violent. A game of cards turns deadly when the hangman makes his intentions clear. I found this one to be more enjoyable due to an increase with action over people walking around. I particularly liked a scene where the killer somehow shoots out ropes from both of his hands to ensnare his prey, and the amount of times characters stumble off their rock stools was amusing. There were some more interesting camera shots here also, such as the opener of a revolving shot from a drone as it slowly comes down over the men playing cards.
These shorts always have a unique style to them, and with Hangman and Hangman II this is no different. A great location, and music that lends itself so well to these types of films means these are again enjoyable to watch. Both Hangman and Hangman II can be seen on YouTube.
Following on from my horror film double bill news extravaganza yesterday is one that focuses on the musical side of terror. I tend to avoid writing too much about music as to be honest I really don't have much knowledge when it comes to tunes. I like what I like and a lot of that tends to be 90's Brit-pop and early 2000's rock music.
First up then progressive, sludge, horror synth outfit Upcdownc have got a new album coming out 22nd September titledI' Awake. This is the bands first album as a three piece. The band state horror is one constant theme throughout I, Awake with the group influenced by composers such as Fabio Frizzi and John Carpenter alongside the Shogun Assassin soundtrack. This influence led to the use of synthesizers which is never a bad thing in my opinion. The concept for this new album is based on the idea of sleep, dreams, nightmares and fears coupled with extreme anxiety and night terrors. 'Looming Part 2' is the first track to be shared from I, Awake with guitarist Chris Garth saying: "This song is part of the segment after you awake from a nightmare/dream and still have that feeling of anxiety/terror where you still are unsure whether what happened in the dream was real or not". You can listen to that track yourself here, while included below is a live session of the band playing a cool sounding song.
Next up is the new music video from CA based metal band The Digital Masquerade's full length LP Digital Train Time Machine. The video is for track 'Straight Jacket' and is a neat sounding ditty about being in a mental asylum with an appropriately themed music video that was filmed in Glendale CA at an old abandoned police facility. This was the bands first music video they have done and was directed and edited by Society 1 front-man Matt Zane.
So here I am again with a bunch of different news items plucked from my inbox. First off is a new paranormal investigation show called Haunted Tours. It is to be hosted by Victoria Catherine and to star Stephen Erkintalo. It promises to be different to the more traditional investigation shows by going...extreme. Erkintalo is said to provoke the evil spirits he seeks out, via use of Ouija board, contacting the dead through mirrors, even by hanging upside down on a cross. At the very least it sounds like it will be entertaining viewing. Haunted Tours comes to Amazon Prime, Hulu and Netflix in late October, season 1 will be exploring some of Florida's most haunted places.
Legendary Misfits guitarist Doyle Wolfgang Von Frankenstein has released the official music video 'Run For Your Life' which is the first single off his upcoming As We DieEP that is due out today in fact. The video (directed by Brian Cox) has some great editing and tells the tale of a mini slasher film. Included is the video below, it has quite a cool tune to it that works well with the video.
Still on the subject of music with a horror twist comes Davey Suicide's new music video for their song 'No Angel' which comes from their third full length album Made From Fire that came out last March. The video directed and edited by Vicente Cordero features a random bunch of alternate types out in a desert running away from a dark angel. Check out the video below.
Last but not least is Indie thriller The Drifter that is due to be released on 6th June across multiple digital platforms. The film tells the story of a troubled man on a downward spiral induced by painful memories of his dark and distant past. This man ends up in a small remote town where an old acquaintance becomes dangerously determined to find out just what occurred in the drifter's past . Directed by Craig Calamis, The Drifter was nominated for several awards such as Best Narrative Feature and Best Director, as well as winning the Audience Award at the 2015 Queens World Film Festival.
Levitika has released a music video for her track Zombie Barbie, it is available on iTunes and was produced by Jeff Blue (Linkin Park, Korn, Limp Bizkit) and directed by Nima Nabili Rad (Martin Garrix). The song is going to U.S radio in April. Levitika is an Australian melodic rock singer/songwriter from Adelaide.
In the video Levitika sings while dressed like a zombie Barbie, sometimes wearing UV fluorescent body paint, she herself designed the outfits she wears in it. She says of the song "The core message of the song is be who you are, be real and don't let society override your identity.." Check it out below if you so wish...
Released last week was a new music video by dark electronic band Ludovico Technique for the song "Deeper Into You" taken from their album "Some Things Are Beyond Therapy". I at first wasn't going to do a blog post about this but having watched the video I feel it fits well on my site.
The video has the trio in some ruins playing their music, they all look kind of zombified I assume this is the look they go for. Mostly in black and white there is some colour used, such as the striking blue for the singers eyes. I love the drummer whose scarf over his mouth makes him look like one of the undead. Apparently the video is meant to "present a visualisation of the depths to which human emotion can deteriorate when stretched beyond its limits" which does sound a tad pretentious.
As for the actual song itself I found I actually loved it! Is like a cross between Cradle of Filth and Nine Inch Nails and very catchy. I had never heard of the band before (the name taken from classic Kubrick film "A Clockwork Orange") but if all their music is like this song then maybe I might check them out.
