The Rotting Zombie's News Anthology for Friday 24th February 2023

Happy Friday, PSVR2, the very expensive virtual reality headset arrived a few days back, so that may affect my output for next week, depending how immersed I get into the virtual world. There shall be plenty of horror games out for it now doubt, so I will certainly be checking those out for future reviews here.

105ive Films have recently finished their first feature film, Invited. Described as a 'Zoom thriller', this comes from director Navin Ramaswaran. Sounding like this takes place entirely as a Zoom call, this sees a mother reluctantly attending her daughter's Zoom elopement, where her and her family begin to realise the groom is part of a Russian cult with sinister intentions. The director says of the movie "Watching our actors go through a roller coaster of emotions uninterrupted was fascinating to experience, and that energy comes through in a really fascinating way".

Comedy horror film Amityville Thanksgiving is getting a sequel, currently titled Amityville Turkey Day. This recently had a successful Indiegogo campaign where it raised over 881% of its desired goal. The original film was shot over just two days on a low budget, director Will Collazo says of the follow up "We want to give you the sequel that everyone has been asking for to continue the story. And this time we've brought out dinner, the killer turkey!". David Perry (Scream: Legacy, Camp Pleasant Lake) has been confirmed to be returning.

Finally for today, Craving has released an official trailer. This monster movie/crime thriller is about a group of drug addicts who find themselves under assault by masked figures at a rural bar, with one of the addicts hiding a terrible secret that their withdrawal may release. It stars Felissa Rose (Camp Twilight, Sleepaway Camp), Kevin Caliber, Ashley Undercuffler, Holly Rockwell and Al Gomez. Director J. Horton says of it "Craving is set in 1998. It's an homage to my young adulthood and the movies of the time. I've always loved genre mash-ups and one of my favourite is the crime thriller/horror movie." I have a screener of this, so a review will be coming around the streaming release date of March 6th.

Nox Mortis (2019) - Horror Video Game Review (iOS)

I don't really play many games on my mobile phone, but after getting an email about horror game Nox Mortis I thought I may as well check it out. This is more of an experience than a game per se, and it is designed specifically with VR in mind, though can also be played in a traditional sense as well.

There is limited set-up but basically you are in a haunted room, and due to being paralyzed with fear you are unable to move. All you can do is turn around on the spot, hoping against hope to survive the random horror coming your way.

Nox Mortis has you in a first person perspective, stood in a room lit with a blood red light. Each game you play is completely randomised and has you experiencing 12 unique scares out of a pool of 20. These include among them a mounted deer head laughing, a giant spider scuttling across the ceiling, a figure appearing at the window, and a doll's head rolling down the corridor towards you. All you have available to combat these terrors is 360 turning movement (using a finger on the screen to move around), as well as a zoom option that as it would suggest zooms in the screen a bit. Each play lasts a few minutes depending on how well you do, and it always ends (as far as I can tell) with your demise. I played through this around three times and felt like I had seen most of what the game has to offer. I liked the visuals and the sound design was actually not that bad. Plenty of knocking sounds, creepy laughter, and other traditional horror noises.

If you are reading this and thinking it sounds very limited then you would be right. However Nox Mortis is free to download and play and so it is hard to complain about not too much content. There are no microtransactions, the only concession to being free is having to watch a short advert if you wish to play again once you have died. I played this entirely in 2D, as with everything it would be better in VR, I don't even need to try it to know that. Despite that the first time I died I did give out a small yelp as I was not expecting it! Sure this is a wafer thin experience, but it is also free, and it is of a high enough quality that it is worth a go.

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Transference (2018) - Horror Video Game Review (PSVR)

I really don't use my PSVR device as much as I should, it is always the case that I forget just how amazing it can be until I actually put it on. Also it is sad to admit but I hate being removed from my phone, in VR I don't hear any texts or calls and so I get a pathetic sense of anxiety! I played the Transference demo last week for Halloween and found it be darn scary, luckily for me a couple of days later the game proper went on sale and so I quickly snapped it up. While Transference isn't as scary as the demo was it was still an enjoyable couple of hours.

The story is a bit abstract with it spread out in snippets throughout the game, I will sum it up but this is just my interpretation. Raymond: a brilliant scientist has created a 'transference' device which is able to transfer the memories and souls of people into a digital recreation to act as a sort of eternal heaven for them. You play as an unknown person who has found his device and travelled into it where you find out that Raymond, his young son Ben, his wife Kathryn, as well as the family dog Laika are all now residing. However far from be a heaven this unnatural reality has turned into living hell for each of them, each of the family members trapped in their own perpetual nightmare. It is up to you to find each of the crystals housing their essence and reunite them to fix the corrupted device.



I'm first going to mention the demo as rather than be a slice taken from the game itself it was a stand alone experience. Transference: The Walter Test Case was a fantastic fifteen minutes of tight creeping terror. In the demo you are exploring the mind of a PTSD suffering soldier and his abused son. There were jump scares, but more importantly there was a pervasive sense of dread with the sound in particular being a real highlight. I didn't review it at the time but it would have gotten a 9/10 due to not only being free, but also in how effective it was due to a combination of amazing 3D sound design and how well the story is told. It was also brilliant in how it skipped between two different time frames: that of the son as a loving child, and him as a bitter teenager.

Soul Dimension: Episode 0 (2018) - Horror Video Game Review (PSVR)

The third video game review in a row now, can you tell it is nearing the end of the month and I am picking the low hanging fruit to increase my post count? Soul Dimension is a new episodic VR game, currently only episode 0 is out. The whole experience took me around 15 minutes to play through, however this was less than £2 and so that alleviates the short length somewhat. Whether all episodes will be as cheap and as short I don't know.

Soul Dimension takes place in a large mansion, you play as a father who is trying to piece together missing fragments of a photograph at the behest of the ghost of a little girl that is likely the protagonists daughter. As you search the house you catch glimpses of a strange mask wearing woman, as well as frequent sightings of the little girl's ghost.

It is becoming clear to me that VR within the confines of a house is pretty effective. With this game though the detail isn't as clear as it should be in places, specifically with text that appears as unreadable smudges. This is a horror game, yet it really wasn't scary, save for one moment when some crows flew towards me. After surviving the terror of Paranormal Activity: The Lost Soul this pales in comparison, there isn't really much horror to speak of, the masked woman, the occasional swinging chandelier, and those crows are about it. Your progression through the mansion is very linear with doors you pass through usually locking behind you. There are a few simple puzzles to solve along the way, such as books that must be put onto a shelf in the correct order, and a safe with a combination to find.

Until Dawn: Rush of Blood (2016) - Horror Video Game Review (PSVR)

So 13th October and the wait for VR was finally over for me with the release of Playstation's VR headset. My remit for this new device was that I wanted to experience three key things. I wanted to fly like a bird, I wanted to go into space, and I wanted to be scared. Of the launch titles here in the UK there were two horror related ones; Here They Lie (I have this to play but it has received a mixed reception), and the Until Dawn spin off - Until Dawn: Rush of Blood that is an on rails shooter. Thankfully with this game I have been able to tick off my third desire...

Rush of Blood was in development even before Until Dawn had been released and as such this game only has tenuous links to that one. There is only the very bare bones of a story, basically it appears you are an unnamed visitor to a fairground ride, on the ride your carriage accidentally gets sent down the closed haunted house track and from there all sorts of real monsters start appearing. There is strong evidence as you play that the whole ride is all in your head as part of some sort of medical experiment but as I said, very bare bones.