No Through Road (2009) - Horror TV Series Episode Review

No Through Road I had assumed to be a short horror film. It was only while looking this up after the fact that I realised it was actually the first episode in a TV mini-series, with the three subsequent episodes coming out in 2011. I will be looking at this as if it were a short film as it certainly acts and feels like one. Written, directed and co-starring Steven Chamberlain, this effective British found footage horror did a lot of things surprisingly well.

It is 2008 and four English lads are out on a night time drive on the rural roads outside of Stevenage, with one of them filming the event on his new camera for prosperity. Their drive leads them to a tunnel that leads to an abandoned farmhouse and has a sign saying 'no through road'. It is after they decide to go through this tunnel that the strangeness begins. Carrying on their journey they keep encountering the same road sign time and time again, despite driving in a straight line. Seeing no traffic and constantly seeming to be driving in a loop, the boys get increasingly panicked, not helped by a disturbing loop of repeating music playing out over the radio. Just when they think they have finally escaped their nightmare, the real horror begins.

I thought this little horror was super effective. The gradual breakdown of the four friend's cockiness and bravado was done perfectly. The intro text stating the four were found dead in their car, and the outro text giving a link to a webpage should anyone who sees the footage can help the authorities work out what happened gave this an authentic feel. Editing was sublime, corrupted footage blending in earlier happier times of the four at home, distorted and creepy. Sticking so faithfully to found footage, this does drag ever so slightly at times, especially in the middle, and a lot of scenes of very dark and hard to see, even if this does make sense with this being 'natural' footage.

No Through Road succeeded due to its feeling of realism that resulted in a short that was at times unsettling, creepy and sinister. It can be viewed on YouTube.

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NFT: Cursed Images (2026) - Horror Film Review

A film about haunted NFTs feels like its lost its moment already. I seem to recall a year or so back NFTs (none fungible tokens or something I believe it stands for, basically digital images that are all unique and can be traded) were briefly popular. They seemed to be only for rich douche-bags, who would spend ridiculous amounts of money to buy them. NFT: Cursed Images was written and directed by Jonas Odenheimer (Classroom 6). This crypto-horror had some good ideas, but ultimately it had a lot of wasted potential.

James (David Wayman - After Death) has recently returned to London and has gone for a meet up with his old friends at the home of Kit (Patrick Shearer - Perception). The other friends are nerdy Dan (Durassie Kiangangu - Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania), James' ex; Cass (Mariah Nonnemacher - Terminator: Dark Fate), couple, Nes (Nobuse Jnr - The Group) & Julia (Jasmine Clark), and finally, tomboy Sarah (Amelie Edwards). While the group are enthusiastically deep in discussion about NFTs, Kit is mysteriously sent seven by someone unknown. These seven are part of a collection called 'Crypto Horror', which urban legend states to be cursed NFTs capable of killing people. Thinking nothing of it, Kit sends each of his friends their own one as a joke. The late night gathering ends and the friends go their separate ways, unaware that they are going to be haunted by their own personal NFT they were sent.

I don't know what it is about modern horror films being obsessed with having the most unlikeable protagonists, and this is a trap that NFT: Cursed Images falls into. My hatred for these idiots started early on when a painfully slow near fifteen minute sequence plays out where the characters drone on inanely about just what NFTs are. Characters then spend the rest of the movie making bad decision after bad decision as each inevitably come face to face with their personalised NFT demon. It becomes a bit of a farce with all the characters trying to locate one another, constantly acting very surprised when people aren't answering their phones. I mean, it's the middle of the night, it's hardly surprising no one is answering calls, if they were normal people they would be fast asleep! There wasn't a single likeable character to be found. You have the insufferable one who refuses to believe anything strange is going on, cowardly ones, selfish ones, and then the one person who seems to know what is going on fails due to his bizarre pick and choose in his research for how to defeat each of the seven! Basically, the plot of the movie couldn't have happened to a bigger set of morons.
The one interesting thing in terms of pacing is that despite being set over one night, there are constant small time skips backwards and forwards to accommodate the different characters going through their own mini-plots.

The biggest missed potential came from the seven demons haunting the group. Each one had its own unique look and design, from conjoined twins to a figure with an upside down face; these white skinned monstrosities were actually pretty neat, and unique to each other in a way that reminded me of Thir13en Ghosts. It was a shame that none of these appearances ever led to anything interesting happening. Each time the character would come face to face with their NFT demon and then the scene would end, before anything happened on screen. I loved the demon designs but I wish they had featured more heavily than here, where they were on screen roughly for about two minutes of this 75 minute horror.

NFT: Cursed Images had potential for sure. A bigger focus on the scenes of horror and more tension would have been better than annoying characters wandering around the streets. If you insist on populating the movie with idiots, then at least give them satisfying on-screen deaths. A lacking story and unsatisfactory plot path led to this all feeling a little pointless; much like NFTs themselves. NFT: Cursed Images came to steaming on Digital HD on March 6th.

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The R.I.P Man (2025) - Horror Film Review

The R.I.P Man is an indie slasher that was co-written (alongside Rhys Thompson) and directed by Jamie Langlands (The Cellar). Featuring a memorable antagonist killer and some atmospheric locations, it was only let down by the fuzzy logic motivations of the core characters.

The titular R.I.P Man (Owen Llewelyn - Good Neighbours, Dredd) is a demented serial killer who takes the trophy of a tooth from each of his victims. This is perhaps due to the man having no teeth of his own due to a rare oral condition. The police, led by DCI Gary Mullen (Matt Weyland - Eastenders soap opera), are determined to catch the killer, but are not getting very far, even though the killer appears to only be targeting a small group of college friends. After Jaden's (Bruno Cryan - Popeye's Revenge) girlfriend is murdered in the film's prologue sequence, the grieving young man starts an investigation of his own to track down the killer and end his reign of madness.

Rather than keep the antagonist a hidden menace, he is shown fully almost straight away. For a killer such as this, this is a good thing, as he has a really memorable look. He did remind me a lot of Nosferatu; pasty white skin, bald, wide eyed, and suited out with punkish looking black clothes. This villain always looked great on camera, the creepy way he grins at his victims, with his 'R.I.P' embossed mouth guard he wears made for some fun on screen moments. Each of the kills over the course of the 90 minute movie were fun to watch, and varied as well, with no one victim dying the same way as any other. There wasn't a lot of blood shown, but it always looked decent enough. Special effects throughout were never bad, love the practical over CG. The night scenes did all seem a little blue tinted, but that's a minor quibble. The killer's repeated use of wind-up chattering tooth toys was also a neat touch, these items bookending the kill scenes, often used to lure his victims to the particular places were they would meet their end. There was also a decent dive into who the killer was, and the reasons he might have for wanting to kill, though the repeated refrain from Mullen as he explains the killer has a 'rare oral condition' to everyone he meets did get slightly farcical.

On the topic of the police, that is just one of the areas where the story goes a little loose in terms of believability. Aside from one late film moment where the police tell one of the potential victims that they will look into getting them police protection, there seems little to no protection for the characters. The police seem more obsessed with learning where the wind-up toys originated from, than looking for a motive. Not that that bothers the protagonists, despite their friends being killed off in horrific ways one by one, they never seem to express any type of shock or sadness at this. The R.I.P Man weirdly never shows the characters initial reactions to finding out their friends have died, they are only ever shown in scenes where they are shown carrying on their lives as normal, without seemingly a care in the world. The focus was more on the police investigation, which was entertaining to watch, but it did make the college student's role in the film take more of a back seat.
There were some excellently chosen atmospheric locations here, from a dark church, to isolated cellars, and a ruin, these places all looked exactly where you might expect to be murdered by a crazed slasher. My issue with these places where that characters end up in them for no real logical reason. One early example, not to reveal the victim, but they are basically wandering down a series of narrow alleyways at night for some reason, and then randomly decide to enter a building, head into its maze-like basement, before conveniently stopping in the exact location where the slasher has set a convoluted trap that is then sprung on them. Characters have little to no reason to constantly be appearing in these sinister locations, it became a recurring theme, and felt like they were only ever where they were because the script called for it, not for any logical in-film world reason.

At the moment, I am all about escapism from the real world, and The R.I.P Man delivered with that. Despite my problems with some of the way this story was told, the antagonist was very memorable, and the story told was decent, making for an entertaining indie slasher that sometimes effects a pretty neat dream-like feel, whether intentional or not. The R.I.P Man comes to streaming platforms on 5th January in the U.K and is available for pre-order.

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Bitten (2008) - Short Zombie Film Review

With a schedule that is relatively clear at the moment, I am once again at liberty to watch one of the short zombie films from the bumper DVD collection I am working my way through. Bitten was written and directed by Duncan Laing (Nightshift), and features one central idea over its 6 minute runtime.

A woman (Claire Wilson - The Eschatrilogy: Book of the Dead) returns to her home in a panic, sporting a fresh and very bloody new neck wound. With it appearing obvious this is in the midst of a zombie apocalypse, things don't appear good for the lady.

Despite being just 6 minutes in length this managed to feel a lot longer. Sometimes in zombie fiction, the victims turn immediately, not so here. The short skips around in time, showing the woman's gradual transformation into a ghoul. This transformation seemed to take forever, each new scene showing her, I assumed she was now fully zombified, but each time it became clear she was still in the process of changing. I did like the initial panicked run through her house as she vainly attempts to sterilise her wound, but the later scenes kept leaving me expecting more interesting to happen. There is a recurring almost subliminal image of her children's bedroom that keeps popping up, but when that part makes an appearance in the short, it came across as unexpectedly amusing rather than harrowing. I don't think that was the intention.
Usually, make-up effects on the undead don't matter to me. Where the central idea is a woman's change into a walking corpse, the very thick layers of make-up on her became a bit distracting. There was plenty of blood however, I appreciated the incidental details around her home, such as a cracked and blood smeared mirror, and one bloody phone.

The central idea was neat, but I couldn't help but think that even at 6 minutes, Bitten managed to outstay its welcome a little bit. Not bad, and I liked the setting, but it felt like it was lacking a little something to really leave a deep impression. Sorry for the lack of images, I wasn't able to find any for the film online.

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The Monkey (2025) - Comedy Horror Film Review

It is Monday afternoon as I write this first blog post for the week, so I am quite far behind, normally my blog work would have started on the Saturday. It's a good thing I have a blissful week off work from my day job. The film I had originally intended to watch for review today had an expired screener link, so as is the way here at The Rotting Zombie HQ, that meant I got to choose my own film to review. After a painfully long hour trying to decide what to watch, I settled on The Monkey; a horror film that was based on a short story by that master of horror; Stephen King. Directed and adapted by Osgood Perkins (Longlegs, The Blackcoats Daughter), this had initially intended to be played straight and serious - much like the original short story was. Perkins saw different however, and decided to make this a dark comedy horror, thankfully, that turned out to be a great idea.

Twin boys Hal and Bill are going through their father's belongings they find in the attic one day. They are hoping to learn more about the man, not having known him after he abandoned his family when they were very young. In with his possessions is a creepy looking wind-up monkey doll with a key ready to turn in its back. They soon come to learn that whenever this key is turned, and after the monkey has gone through its mechanical motions of banging a drum, someone near to them is killed in a most random way. The monkey chooses its own victim, something that is learned hard when it takes someone irreplicable away from them, and together they decide to get rid of the device.
Twenty five years after they chained it up and threw it down a deep well - Hal (Theo James - Divergent), now grown up and having lived an isolated life (in an effort to not give the monkey the opportunity to take anyone he cares about), learns of his aunt's untimely demise. He realises the monkey is back and ready to go on another killing spree of those that him and Bill are close to.

I have always been a big fan of the Final Destination series of films, so with this sharing some of that DNA, I was always going to like this. James plays both himself and twin-brother Bill and plays them both very weirdly. The comic vibe is very dark, but it also is quite playful and silly when it wants to be. It isn't only the events that are occurring that are humorously surreal, but also with the dialogue. Nearly all the characters within the film are very odd and strange, feeling like characters who know they are in a dark comedy horror. I was surprised by some big names who appeared here. There is a wonderful prologue featuring Adam Scott (Severance TV show), and I was happily surprised to see Elijah Wood (The Lord of the Rings series of films) appear for one short but amusing scene. Characters throughout were all so oddball in a unified amusing way. Perhaps my favourite side character being the very novice and out of his depth priest (Nicco Del Rio - Black Mirror TV episode 'Common People') who performs his funerals as if he is surprised to be the one leading them.
The first third of the film is led in narration by an adult Hal talking about his childhood. I hadn't expected the film to have a time skip, so hadn't expected one when it happened. The parts set in relatively modern day became even more strange. Hal is on a super awkward annual father/son road-trip meet-up with teenage son Petey (Colin O'Brien - Grey's Anatomy TV show) when the two get caught up in the re-emergence of the monkey and its murderous ways, Petey being emerged in the random chaos in  some often drily amusing scenes.

There are a heck of a lot of death scenes throughout the hundred minute horror (and a bunch of nightmare sequences), and not one of them is handled in a reserved manner. Each death is just as much, or more comedic than the death that came before, certainly played for laughs. A lot of inventiveness is shown, but a lot of these deaths also only occur during brief montage sequences. It was a mix of practical effects and CG, leading to a decent variation in silly kills. From a character who has the contents of a wasp hive fly into their mouth, to accidental beheading, accidental empaling, and my favourite;  a character who met their end (sadly offscreen) by being trampled to death by a pack of horses while they were in a sleeping bag while out camping. Much like the Final Destination films, these deaths are darkly comedic and often have a bit of set-up to them, though nothing quite as elaborate as that other series.
The monkey has a really creepy design to it, the editing and cinematography of the filmmaking really unit to create the feeling it is a cursed object and something to be feared. Able to appear where characters least expect it to be, this monkey was the highlight of the movie - impressive for a mostly inanimate object.

The Monkey was a film that I think would have worked just as well as a serious horror as to what Perkins made it into. At times I did wish it had been played more seriously, that toy design could have been used for some genuine scares. All in all, this was an amusing and frequently inventive film that mostly hit the mark. The Monkey is currently streaming on Prime Video.

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Zombies of the Third Reich (2025) - Horror Film Review

As you might be able to tell from my blog name; zombies are what originally drew me to horror films in the first place. Ever since I watched Michael Jackson's Thriller music video as a child I was hooked on these soulless unstoppable monsters. Some things go together very well - fish and chips, salt and pepper, and indeed; Nazis and zombies. The David Gregory (Return of Krampus) directed Zombies of the Third Reich brings those last two together in a lovely blend, I am very happy to see indie zombie films such as this are still being made in present day, I never get bored of these!

Set during World War II, soldiers at a Nazi occupied bunker in France are conducting disturbing experiments with the hope of creating super soldiers. With Hitler showing specific interest in these tests, he has ordered for the testing to be brought forward, despite the calculations for the effects of this process not being properly completed. The process involves setting off a small bomb within range of some prisoners, the explosion infused with the technology to alter the DNA of anyone caught in the blast radius, changing them into a more deadly and primal human. It might have been wise to finish those calculations, as the test bomb results in the whole bunker going dark and losing contact with the outside world. The allied forces notice this, and with them having a spy situated there, and with rumours of a possible visit from Adolf Hitler himself, a crack squad of British and American soldiers, led by Charles Craftman (Zach Devereux - A Woman Scorned, and on an off-note, his IMDB page states he comes from Northampton - my home town), are tasked with infiltrating the bunker and retrieving the spy should he still live, as well as investigating what the Nazis were testing there. They discover the bomb test went quite wrong, and that now, every inhabitant of the cursed bunker are one of the living dead!

Zombies of the Third Reich did exactly what I assumed it would do. It told an exciting and unsurprising story with a cast of almost stereotypical soldiers of the time, with them battling plenty of zombies. You don't need Shakespeare here, and indeed you don't get it. The script is occasionally so corny that it nearly falls into parody. The briefing scene where Craftman receives his orders featured a character who I don't think would have felt out of place in the World War I Blackadder sitcom season, wild eyed, perfect posh accent, and crazed orders combined for a delightful, if slightly off-brand scene. This is about as comedic as the film gets, as despite being low budget, this takes itself relatively seriously. Much is made of not a lot, from the cast of protagonists who number just six, to the undead who never really appear in huge numbers, but still feel effective due to the tight and claustrophobic bunker location used, they all play their roles perfectly. Each of the characters had strong personalities that set them apart from each other, from the grizzled British soldier Matthew West (Rod Glenn - It Be an Evil Moon), to Taja Christian's mild mannered medic Charlotte Hayman, these characters may have had some generic dialogue and been almost caricatures, but they fitted the low budget zombie film very well, I would not want anything more.

It is obvious throughout about the limitations of the budget, but it never felt like the film was trying to be too ambitious. Action sequences are tightly shot, and the tight look of the bunker location leads to many opportunities to hide budget constraints, by having scenes play out in the narrow corridors and darkened rooms. I enjoyed the presentation here also, particular the faux intro and outro black and white sequences designed to look like old news and propaganda footage from the time period. The look of the zombies was neat, many of them having a kind of 'melted face' type image. There were a fair amount as well, though some appeared to be the same actors playing different ghouls. There is a mix of fast and slow undead, never really explained why, but some appear to be stronger and display more intelligence than others. Leads to some fun battle scenes with plenty of CG gunfire and blood spurts. You get the obligatory zombie feeding on the intestines of a victim scene, and some more surprising death scenes, such as someone who has their still beating heart pulled out of their chest! The only bad looking special effects come from several different explosions that are entirely CG based, but with a lower budget anyway these parts didn't stick out too much.

A barebones story is all that is needed to make an entertaining zombie movie, as long as the undead do their part also. Zombies of the Third Reich may be as generic as its title, but it was exactly what I look for in a zombie movie, it did exactly what I thought it would and was all the better for it. It is genuinely neat to know that films such as this are still getting made. 

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Gorgo (1961) - Horror Film Review

I have never really been that fond of Kaiju type monster movies, they never seem to be as exciting as the premise suggests it would be. Still, learning that a newly restored in 4K version of cult 1961 British monster movie; Gorgo (directed by Eugéne Lourié - The Beast from 20,000 Fathoms) was coming to the ARROW streaming subscription service, I jumped at the chance to see it, if only to see a giant monster destroying a city I was more familiar with.

A salvage ship that is resting off the coast of a small Irish island after taking damage from an undersea eruption discovers that the eruption also released an ancient and gigantic prehistoric creature. They offer to capture the beast in exchange for payment and actually manage to do that surprisingly easy. Ignoring the Irish government's request to give the creature to them, they instead decide to sell it to a circus owner who is based in London. With the monster (named Gorgo) contained in an enclosure there, it seems the excitement is mainly over. Despite the creatures large size however, it becomes apparent that it was just a baby, and that its much larger, much stronger, and much more angry parent is on the warpath to London to retrieve its offspring...

Perhaps if the film was a little newer I might have skipped the mid-film reveal of a second larger monster for fear of spoilers. Personally, I am glad there was a second creature. The original 'Gorgo' is still huge, around the size of a house, and the adventure to get it to London made for an entertaining first half, though I was a bit disappointed it wasn't as big as I had expected it to be. That side of things was only part of the overall monster puzzle, with the final half hour of this 90 minute movie dedicated to its much larger parent rampaging through the middle of London. It destroys everything you might expect it to, from Tower Bridge, to Big Ben and Piccadilly Circus, it effortlessly rips all these places apart as if they were made of paper. I was also impressed that it managed to destroy the London Underground. For a film from 1961 the special effects for all this destruction was impressive, in fact, at the time of release it was considered for an Academy Award for special effects. It is a person in a rubber suit rampaging around but the beast looks decent, even if it is obviously a knock-off Godzilla.

With a new restoration, many of the early scenes taking place out of sea don't look the most realistic, with foreground characters obviously not actually at these locations, and this is an entirely bloodless affair with neither the many human victims, or the beast itself showing any sign of damage from the multitude of sorrows thrown at them.

The story was as generic and as basic as you might expect, but it was full of exciting moments. You get battles between Gorgo and the navy, the army, and the air force that were full of explosions and destruction, even if sometimes it seems the exact same shot was being repeated multiple times. The protagonists are the original haulage boat owners and they somehow remain integral to the story throughout, never once showing any type of remorse for their selfish actions, nor ever seeing the monster as anything other than something evil that needs to be killed. The heart of the film comes from the young Sean (Vincent Winter), a stowaway from the Irish island who appears to be the only one to see the creature as an innocent being that should just be left alone.

Due to the age of the movie, this does feel it follows the format of the time. Despite many scenes of action, this still felt like it was longer than it needed to be. By the time the hour mark came around it had already felt like this should have ended. You can't fault many of the special effects, and the sound design for the monsters was just perfect, its shriek being an audio highlight. Gorgo arrived on the ARROW streaming service on September 12th.

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Space Goblins (2020) - Short Animated Sci-fi Film Review

Space Goblins is a half hour long animated indie short that was created entirely by just two people; Amer Shihab and Harry Bryan. There is something about simplified animation that somehow puts me on edge, I find it strangely disconcerting. In the case of this short film that is not a problem, it just adds to the alien vibe.

Gib (Shihab) and Gob (Bryan) are two bounty hunting space goblin brothers who we find out on a mission to capture a warthog themed alien who is on the run for not paying his taxes. The two track him down to a squalid planet, deciding to check out a remote and run-down strip club for clues as to his whereabouts.

I had expected the titular goblins to be bad and nasty people. Instead, this is almost like a 'day in the life of', with the story following these two determined and law abiding brothers who it turns out are surprisingly competent. This is a dialogue heavy film with many scenes of characters talking face on into the screen. Sometimes this works and sometimes this doesn't, such as the intro scene set on their spaceship that just seemed to go on and on with the character talking in a meandering way. Some of the dialogue did get to be amusing, such as a scene at a bar, and the chief of police who literally has eyes in the back of his head. There is one action scene and it was short but sweet.

The animation was basic, but it all looked good, reminded me quite a bit of creepy British animated sketch show; Monkey Dust or the animated segments from old children's program - Around the Bend! The film world is full of bright and vibrant colours, and there were some neat moments, such as the CG planet that shows behind the cockpit of the brother's spacecraft. Voice work was decent, a few of the more exotic alien types were a bit hard to understand, but that could well be due to my hearing rather than anything else. There isn't too much to be found here that would warrant its 18 rating, there is a small bit of animated nudity, and some scatological references. 

On the whole, Space Goblins plays its story unexpectedly straight, the goblins are not the meat heads you might expect them to be, and there is an enjoyable atmosphere, even if full of a little disquieting feel. The press release states this has earned a bit of a cult following, enough that there is a live-action feature film currently being made that continues the unsettling feel and looks quite promising from the teaser trailers.

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The Priest - Thanksgiving Massacre (2025) - Horror Film Review

Say what you will about the films of Steve Lawson (St Patrick's Day Massacre, Wrath of Dracula), but his films certainly have a style that feels unique to him. Within about five literal seconds of his latest horror, The Priest - Thanksgiving Massacre starting, I had clocked it was one of his and so knew exactly what to expect. These low budget interior-set horrors are full of faults, but there is also something warming about them, I see Lawson's films as the comfort film of horrors. I have to say however, with a cast of just six (seven including a brief non-speaking though full-shrieking role), I think its a bit of a stretch to call what happens within the movie a 'massacre'.

In the early days of settlers arriving in America, a priest; Reverend Fuller (Mark Topping - Wrath of Dracula, Jekyll and Hyde) has had a disagreement with the town he was due to live in, so he took and his wife into the wilderness where he plans to build a forever home for them. Come winter and both are freezing cold and starving in their new and very small cabin. Driven mad by hunger, the priest kills his wife and starts to consume her. Realising what he has done goes against the teachings of God, the priest commits suicide, believing himself to never be allowed to go to Heaven.
In modern day, Tom (Jo Krayer) has invited his children, teenagers Noah (Brooklyn Ross in his film debut) and Andi (Holly Higbee in her feature length film debut) to spend Thanksgiving with him and his new girlfriend - Sara (Dani Thompson - Good Neighbours, Devil in the Woods) in a newly constructed woodland cabin. His separated partner, Cyndy (Liz Soutar - Powertool Cheerleaders vs the Boyband of the Screeching Dead) had only planned to drop off the kids, but with her car broken down, she is forced to accept Tom's offer to stay for Thanksgiving. Unknown to all however is that this new cabin was built on the foundations of the priest's cabin, and for reasons unknown he has resurrected under the house as a zombie.

With the prologue set hundreds of years in the past, I expected this would be another Lawson film set primarily in dimly candle lit smoky rooms. I was pleasantly surprised then to see the time skip to modern day. Sure, nearly the entirety of the movie takes place in a non-descript log cabin, but at least it is brightly lit! I didn't mind any of the characters here, and actually liked a couple of them. In particular, I found Krayer's Tom to be someone it was fun to follow. The parents may have split up, and they may have some arguments, but there is a reservedness to Tom and Cyndy's interactions that mean neither come across as seeming like horrible people. The same can't be said for Sara, just her being the only English character set her up to be a bit of a bad person. Her character was horrid, but if you are into that sort of thing there are some benefits to her being on screen, such as a scene where she is topless in a sauna. The best character, and sadly the least used was the priest. Topping may have been in the movie for a total of about seven minutes top(ping)s but his priest and later zombie-priest appearances were the highlight of the film. I did find it a bit comical that this potentially fearsome antagonist spends the majority of the movie literally trapped under the cabin, only able to interact with the cast by his arm reaching through a hole in the wooden boards under the place!

The story really wasn't the strongest point, and like the cabin itself, there were plenty of holes to be found. Surely when building the cabin they would have discovered some sort of evidence of the skeletons of the priest and his wife within the foundations, and the whole crux of Cyndy staying was due to no mechanic willing to come out to look at her car on Thanksgiving, yet it is shown later that taxi companies are still running services on that day, so she could have gotten away should she have really wanted to. There was also a bit of a silly reason given for why no character has a mobile phone on them. I did like the drama going on between the family, though Sara did stick out a bit due to always coming across as a horrid person even before the horror starts. My last complaint with the story was how the characters come to understand what is happening purely by an old diary. With little to zero evidence the group move into the third act of the film, fully convinced of the zombie priest despite not actually ever having seen him (aside from a glimpse of an arm at one point).

On the horror front, as stated, the villain is trapped under the cabin for virtually the entire movie. With a cast of just five potential victims there is no massacre to be found, but I will admit to being very surprised with just who the initial victim (in the present day section) was, I was genuinely shocked. The scenes set in the crawl space under the cabin were the most horror effective, and I did indeed wince when a character got their leg caught on a rusty nail while there, tetanus city! Special effects were sparse but they worked, maybe the blood looked a little too bright and gloopy, but it didn't take away from the scenes.

The Priest - Thanksgiving Massacre isn't a great horror film. The villain takes far too long to make an actual appearance, and there was a lot of wasted potential. I did however enjoy watching the film, Lawson always makes entertaining movies despite obvious limitations, and with this one, it did have some good moments over the eighty three minute runtime, and Topping was excellent as always. 

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The Quiet Ones (2025) - Thriller Film Review

The Quiet Ones, directed and written by Nicholas Winter (The Imposters, House of Shadows), bills itself as a thriller but for much of its run time that isn't completely the case. It does eventually get around to doing what it says, and at least in the run up, the film has style in spades.

After the death of her father, Charlotte (Kelsey Cooke - The Sandman TV show) intends to move into his Spanish holiday villa. It is while she is there recuperating from an ankle injury that her sister; Alba (Alicia Grace Turrell - The Garfield Movie) visits with the news that their father was in a lot of debt, and that unless she can raise a couple hundred thousand pounds within three weeks, Charlotte will lose the villa. Looking for ways to get the cash in such a short amount of time, she ends up looking at online cam-girl videos, and decides to send one of the girls a message; seductive Danni (Sophie Ablett - House of the Dragon and Doctor Who TV shows). The two strike up a rapport, and Danni offers her a business proposition to make some cam-girl videos together. Travelling to the villa, she promises Charlotte that she can earn a lot of money for not having to do a lot. To increase her chances of getting the required money for the villa in such a short span of time,  Danni invites more people, competitive Brylee (Isadora Leiva - It Needs Eyes), former Russian mob call girl Fabienne (Alina Tamara - War Blade), and clumsy but eager Violet (Sofia Shallai - Evil Eyes). Danni and Brylee make a wager, whoever makes more money with their videos within two weeks will get to stay at the villa with Charlotte, while the other one will have to leave. This seems to be a win-win for Charlotte as she is promised that all the earnings for the next two weeks will go to her, but the competition between the two soon turns tense.

A lot of the movie wasn't really for me, but one thing I did love was the stylistic choice to have key moments represented by retro looking pixelated video game images. As an example; whenever a new character is introduced this is represented by a pixelated character select screen. There is also a slight comic book vibe, with key information displayed on screen with bright and vibrant text. This fitted the world well, and made the less interesting scenes more full of life. 
The movie started on an interesting note; Charlotte waking up handcuffed to an either dead or unconscious person. While there were some more thrilling moments throughout the film, it was with twenty minutes left in the eighty six minute movie that this finally changed gears. Much of the film leading up to this is the contest the girls have decided to have. Mostly all light hearted stuff, it features plenty of tame montages of the girls doing their cam-girl stuff, mainly dancing for the camera.

The final twenty minutes were enjoyable, I liked how things went in a slightly different direction to what I expected. The lead up to this was sometimes slow going. The stylish presentation saved this for me, but aside from one gloriously violent scene that unfortunately turned out to be a dream sequence, this was just a bunch of young woman bickering, doing drugs, and making videos together.  Due to this there wasn't much call for anything but subtle special effects, I thought the make-up for blood and cuts looked decent: this zombie is always a fan of the blood.
The story wasn't a topic that really interested me so through no fault of its own it left me cold for much of the runtime. Style alone kept pulling me along, and I appreciated the little dose of thrills given at the end.

I spent much of The Quiet Ones wondering just when the thrill part of this thriller would kick in. I admit that at some point during the film I did pause it to check IMDB that this actually was meant to be from that genre. The film looked the part with its attractive stylistic presentation for the viewers benefit, but the meat of the story didn't grip me very much. Maybe due to my age, but social media stars are something that I don't really get, so the main topic here wasn't one that could engage me. The Quiet Ones released on 5th August from The Horror Collective.

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28 Years Later (2025) - Zombie Horror Film Review

It feels like a large portion of my life has been spent with the rumours of a new entry in the 28 Days Later series swirling around, but now, in 2025 a new film has finally been released in the form of 28 Years Later (directed by Danny Boyle - 28 Days Later, and written by Alex Garland - Annihilation, 28 Days Later), the first of a planned trilogy. I was concerned how a new entry could match the splendour of the previous two. The first movie is a straight up classic, and while the sequel, 28 Weeks Later has some faults, it also has one of the very best opening scenes of any movie ever. Upon watching this new movie I came to realise that this isn't so much a sequel, as a completely new story that just happens to be set in the 28 universe. Obviously, some spoilers for the other films to follow, and ignoring semantics, I will be referring to the rage virus infected as zombies.

After a brief prologue set at the start of the rage virus outbreak, the action moves to funnily enough, 28 years later. A single line of intro text explains away how the virus was beaten back from Europe and once again contained within the United Kingdom. The entire country has been quarantined, patrolled by boats, with no one allowed in or out of the place. A small community have survived, living on a small island off the coast, linked to the mainland by a single pathway which floods at high tide. Jamie (Aaron Taylor-Johnson - Nosferatu, Kick-Ass) has decided to take his twelve year old son, Spike (Alfie Williams) on a rite of passage trip to the mainland, so that the boy can get his first taste of fighting the zombies that plague the land. While on the trip, Spike notices a large fire burning in the distance, but his father is hesitant to tell his son the significance of what can be found there. After a series of adventures, Spike returns to a heroes welcome, and learns from one of the islanders that the fire is where an apparently insane former doctor (Ralph Fiennes - the Harry Potter series of films) lives. With Spike's mother Isla (Jodie Comer - Killing Eve TV show) seriously ill,  and with his increasing disillusionment with his womanising father, Spike takes it upon himself to sneak off the island with his mother, to go on a foolish quest to travel to the doctor and try and get help for her.

It soon became clear that tonally this is a far different beast to the films that came before. This could be seen immediately in a traditional 28 style zombie attack sequence that takes the form of the prologue. Rather than that iconic tune playing over the horror, there was instead more of a jaunty jolly sound, contrasting roughly against the chaos. The music choices throughout were strange and eccentric. This, coupled with the surreal and pretty crazy post-apocalyptic Britain gave the feel of a zombie film via the lens of The Wicker Man, and a little bit of LSD thrown in for good measure. From start to finish there are so many bizarre flourishes that shouldn't work, yet they somehow do. From stock footage of archers spliced in with characters in film firing arrows (bow and arrow being the main form of weapon in this world), to weird kill scenes that see the action paused and then unpaused from a different camera angle, the film had a feel all of its own.
Spike is a flawed character due to the immature decisions he makes based on his age, but he also had the devil's luck, somehow muddling his way along his adventure. I thought for a child protagonist he was pretty decent, and Taylor-Johnson and Comer were also strong as their respective flawed and complex characters. The best of the supporting characters was Erik (Edvin Ryding), a Swedish soldier who accidentally ended up in Britain and who has some of the most funny lines in the film. I really enjoyed the scenes where he is trying and failing to find points of reference with Spike, the boy not knowing what a delivery driver, internet, or even a radio was. Fiennes was a good side character as well, and memorable with his dyed orange skin.

Set design was strong throughout, but I did find myself missing the more relatable environments, as there was a move to more natural settings and ruins. Some of the references were a bit too on the nose, such as a petrol station where the 'Shell' sign had lost its 'S', but still looked great.

There was a lot more zombies than I had expected, and it became hard to see them as purely virus afflicted humans. Years have not been kind to them, and now have evolved into different types. There are bloated pasty white ones who can only slither along the ground, running emaciated zombies, and hulking nightmares referred to as 'Alphas' who are very hard to kill and extremely powerful. These different types gave a bit of a The Last of Us feel to the film, and all combine to make for some thrilling scenes. Highlights include a small subplot following a group of panicked soldiers, and Spike and Jamie's early journey where they end up being pursued by running zombies through dense woodland. The zombie effects are fantastic as expected, bringing visually interesting creatures to the screen.
The story was relatively straight forward, but goes along at a fair pace. There was an intense slow-down in the film's second half, with a strange temple made out of bones where things get metaphysical and almost an essay on what it is to live and die. I could see this part being a bit of an acquired taste.
I had heard the ending of this film was very strange, but I wasn't prepared for just how weird things got. It's not hyperbole to say that 28 Years Later may just have the most bizarre ending to any film I have ever seen! The whole cinema seemed stunned into silence with such a left field finish, but I did kind of love it. 

The answer to how to make a sequel to two such iconic films was to make a film that had a tone and vibe all of its own, rather than trying to ape what came before. The pacing suffers a little in the second half, but this kaleidoscopic 1970's feeling fever dream delighted time and time again. As a sequel it wasn't the best, but as a new film that just so happens to be set in the same universe this excelled. As I sit here writing this review, I can't wait to get to see 28 Years Later again, and I am very excited to see the next film, which is due out only next year.

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Renfield (2023) - Comedy Horror Film Review

It is one of those rare moments on my site where I am almost up to date with movie reviews. I was originally going to watch a different film today, but decided to instead invoke the 'own choice' clause. The film I decided to watch was Renfield, something I had wanted to see for a while, mainly due to it starring iconic actor Nicholas Cage (Willy's Wonderland, Mandy).

Narrated by Renfield (Nicholas Hoult - Mad Max: Fury Road, Warm Bodies), this tells the story about how Count Dracula's (Cage) familiar Renfield was able to escape his masters control and reclaim his life. Set in modern day in a crime filled city, Renfield, both with the help of a toxic dependency self help group and by witnessing the courage of police officer Rebecca (Awkwafina - Raya and the Last Dragon voicework, Jumanji: The Next Level), decides to stop working for the powerful vampire, and to try and live a normal life. Upon learning of this however, the count decides to team up with a violent crime family led by Bellafrancesca Lobo (Shoreh Aghdashloo - Ghostbusters: Afterlife) in order to punish humanity for Renfield's betrayal.

The style of the film reminded me a lot of Zombieland, both featuring a protagonist who narrates the film, while using select flashbacks that include the use of freezeframe. The comedy here is also ultraviolent, with torrents of blood being spilt during the handful of some very over the top action sequences. These sequences were loads of fun, featuring assailants being decapitated, and limbs ripped off in amusing ways. All these scenes are made possible due to the power that Renfield has, by eating bugs he is able to briefly assume some of the power that Dracula has, given him super strength and speed. For me, these moments were nearly the highlight of the whole movie. Dracula looked great on screen, using some lovely looking special effects of him turning into bats or mist, and the make-up effects used for him were always really good looking. Despite being a bit of an idiot he is shown as all powerful. The use of flashback sequences to show his past battles with vampire hunters was neat. I loved that the flashback to when Renfield and Dracula first met was done in a black and white style, and as if old movie footage was being used (turns out it actually was old footage, with Hoult and Cage digitally added to the scenes!).

The plot is relatively straight forward, but it told its story in an entertaining way while introducing a bunch of fun characters. I expected Cage would steal the film due to his weird acting style and I have to say he doesn't disappoint, his wild expressions and the perfect delivery of his lines draw attention to him constantly, I loved how much he seemed to relish being the Prince of Darkness, albeit, one who may be all powerful, but is also shown to be a bit of a petty bully to Renfield. Hoult was good in his role also, I assumed he would be as I don't recall a film of his where he hasn't shined. I was also pleased to see Ben Schwartz (Sonic the Hedgehog voicework, Parks and Recreation TV show) playing a large part as the son of the crime boss, bringing lots of silly manic energy and over confidence to the role. Awkwafina did a solid job as the co-protagonist, and had some funny lines, though she was overshadowed by the other stronger lead actors.

I expected to like Renfield, vampires may not be my favourite movie monster, but I do like them, especially Dracula himself (outside of his portrayal in that terrible Buffy the Vampire Slayer episode). With oddball Cage playing the role, there was no way he would disappoint. Outside of the casting choices and special effects there might not be too much here to bring you back for a return trip, but I did have a blast watching this. Renfield is currently streaming on Netflix.

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A Woman Scorned (2025) - Thriller Film Review

Watching the Rebecca J. Matthews and Michael Hoad co-directed thriller A Woman Scorned it occurred to me that if it had featured a male protagonist then I likely wouldn't have reviewed it on this blog. I'm not sure if that points to a subconscious sexism on my part, but there is something about a woman being the one in peril that makes it fit more into horror. The female revenge genre of thrillers is one that can sometimes be hard to watch, but seeing a person perceived to be weak getting justice on her abusers is always satisfying. There have been plenty of good examples over the years, from the lows of such films as Even Lambs Have Teeth to the giddy heights of Revenge and Julia. This particular one might not be perfect, but it was very entertaining and satisfying to watch.

American siblings Jas (Megan Purvis - Don't Knock Twice) and Laura (Hannah Pauley - Monsternado) have gone away to the English countryside for the weekend to catch up, with it insinuated that Jas had been through a difficult time with an abusive ex. While exploring the countryside they chance upon a group of men, led by Randy (Aaron-Jon North - The Nun II). These men try to strike up a conversation with the sisters, but being suspicious of them, and with the safety of having a river separating them, Laura dismisses them and they leave. Later that day, while Jas has gone to the shop to buy some alcohol, Randy and his men turn up at the remote house they are staying at and forces his way in, with his men in tow. It isn't clear exactly what his intentions had been, but due to Laura fighting back, Randy shoots her dead in anger. Jas arrives home to the tragic scene and is distraught, but upon recognising the man left behind to dispose of the body as being part of the group her and Laura encountered earlier, Jas sets out for a night of most bloody revenge.

It all begins with a flash-forward that shows a bloody Jas standing over an injured Randy, pointing a gun at him. As the scene fades to black a gunshot rings out. I thought it was interesting to have the primary antagonist being shown to be killed. It certainly made me intrigued to know how events spiralled to that, but it also did take away some of the mystique and threat of the main bad guy. There is a lot to be found here that seemed a bit unbelievable, mainly with the character of Jas herself. She was played wonderfully by Purvis, and I would be lying my socks off if I said I wasn't rooting for her success every step of the way, but the way she was able to both dish out and take punishment was never that well explained. There was a throwaway comment near the start that she had taken up martial arts after a situation in her past, so I guess that explains how she is able to defeat a small armies worth of beefy men. Doesn't so much explain her bizarrely high tolerance for pain, she has a lot of bad stuff happen to her throughout the movie, everything from getting shot, electrocuted, beaten, knocked out, and battered. Each time though she just seems to channel her anger more and more, coming back from things that the antagonists never seem able to come back from. In my head canon, with her past not explained, I began to assume she was some type of highly skilled American agent!

Her battles with the various henchmen were the filling of the movie sandwich. I loved how incompetent the villains were, constantly underestimating Jas and reacting in horror to the scenes of carnage she leaves in her wake. With Jas attacking a room full of men while armed with a chainsaw before the film had even reached the half hour mark I knew that there would be a lot of exciting action to come. The pacing has Randy summoning up seemingly endless small groups of men to try and deal with the psychotic unstoppable woman, but them constantly being defeated due to over confidence. Some of these actors looked the part more than acted the part (a few dodgy line deliveries can be found throughout), but each has their own turn to have a fun, well choreographed fight scene with the frenzied woman who uses everything at her disposal to fight, from books and vases, to axes, knifes, and of course that chainsaw! I began to get a real John Wick feel with how battle damaged she got, while still maintaining the edge. It wasn't all perfect, with some plot holes that were never really explained. The biggest of these had Jas showing up at the bad guys HQ (some dusty barn somewhere) early on with no explanation as to how she knew that was where they were based. That fades away with the manic scenes of violence, plenty of excellent shots of blood pumping out of wounds, and dramatic death scenes. It only really let itself down during a kill that involved fire, the fire looking very CG, taking me out the story for a moment or two.

I didn't expect to enjoy A Woman Scorned half as much as I did. Jas might be a bit unrealistic, but her cathartic journey was a joy to behold, while the humorously ill prepared bad guys gave some black humour (such as when two men are listening at a door happily thinking their buddy is sexually assaulting Jas when in actuality the noises are from her stabbing the guy repeatedly!). Then you have North who was a fantastic antagonist to hate. This indie thriller might not be perfect, but it was a heck of a lot of fun to watch play out.

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Good Neighbours (2024) - Sci-fi Horror Film Review

The idea behind the Richard Anthony Dunford (P.O.V) written and directed British sci-fi horror Good Neighbours felt so familiar that at first I thought that it was something I had seen before. I later realised it wasn't, instead this follows a very similar plot to 2023 sci-fi horror The Hive. That one was set in America and had a better budget, but if someone were to say this was set in the same film universe I wouldn't bat an eyelid. Both films have obviously be inspired by the classic Invasion of the Body Snatchers.

Tamesha (L.A Rodgers) and her husband Luke (Karl Kennedy-Williams - P.O.V) live in a small village with their young son Dominic (Param Patel). Noticing that new neighbours have moved into the next door property, Tamesha pays them a visit to say hello. Joseph (Judson Vaughan - The Cellar, The Spiritualist, P.O.V) and Mary (Dani Thompson - Devil in the Woods, Harvest of the Night: Halloween Night) are the new neighbours and show themselves to be very odd, with strange mannerisms and a tendency to take everything literally. Despite the weirdness, Tamesha decides to invite them for dinner the following day. It is here the odd couple show their real intentions, plunging the family into an evening of horror.

So, this was very similar in feel to The Hive, the closest contrast being the weird behaviour of the two new neighbours. They speak with a clipped tone, and their reactions are often unexpected. One example has Tamesha telling them to 'take a seat', with them promptly complying by grabbing a cushion each. I really enjoyed Vaughan's role in particular, I liked how the character is both shown as comedic and deadly serious, able to switch on a dime. Rodgers and Kennedy-Williams also stood out as good protagonists, I liked the banter they had between themselves. Elsewhere, it was fun to spot in the end credits that Jamie Langlands (The Cellar, C.A.M) had a minor role here as a man wearing a hoodie, who due to having the hood up was unrecognisable to me.
The first forty five minutes were the lead up to the realisation from Tamesha and Luke as to who the neighbours really were. The tone of the film flips on a dime, going from an awkward comedic dinner party to a sci-fi horror that takes itself very seriously within moments, making for an intense scene. There are lots of comedy moments, especially early on, but these are contrasted against scenes set elsewhere that never really felt like they fitted in with the larger story well. This includes a suspenseful prologue that sees a young woman being followed back to her apartment by hooded men, and a later bit more silly scene of a woman and her friend out in woodland. There were attempts to tie these scenes to the main plot, but I don't think it was that successful, as they felt a bit random.

Special effects are minimal and are one area where the low budget of this indie horror is displayed. This includes a knife slash that results in no blood or apparent injury despite the victim reacting as if they had been hurt, and some people in 'pods' of a type who seemed to be covered in green and slimy looking silly string. Sometimes the effects were decent enough, such as a wound Joseph gets on his cheek around the halfway mark. I would probably say that the most consistently good part of Good Neighbours was the soundtrack, I really enjoyed its sound, particularly during later more horror-like scenes. The story was simple but I found it effective, and appreciated the little ending twist, that while not surprising, was executed well.

Good Neighbours was an enjoyable sci-fi horror that had some good casting choices. The effects may have been at times not amazing, and it may have struggled to neatly combine its various little subplots, but overall I liked the film, and found myself getting into it. Good Neighbours can be viewed on Amazon Prime, both in the U.S (here) and the U.K (here), thanks to Hypericum Films.

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