Invasion of the Undead (2015) - Zombie Horror Film Review

Invasion of the Undead is an indie horror comedy that was filmed on a budget of $17,000 and was made based on similar films of the 1980's. It wears its influences on it's sleeve giving at once a familiar feeling while also feeling modern.

When Allison Hillstead (Marie Barker) discovers a zombie in her bathroom she doesn't quite know what to do, that is until a passing girl scout gives her the business card of a duo of paranormal exterminators. However the two exterminators; nerdy Jake and his best friend; cocky Desmond (Greg Garrison) are quite new at their business and soon find themselves in over their heads when a literal army of the undead appears. It turns out the ghouls are under the command of the deadly Guy Smiley who has links to the demon realm and has set in motion plans to take over the world.

At first I worried that the humour would be too overbearing and take the focus off the plot, my concerns soon faded as after a bizarre start the comedy faded into the background. It is still there constantly but it never gets in the way and for the most part works in the context it is used in. The main actors Barker and Garrison are both attractive leads and also quite likable, The character Desmond in particular was someone it was easy to root for as he came off like a young Han Solo portraying the loveable rogue type, heroic, but doesn't use his head enough. The same can't be said for his bookish partner Jake who pretty much only uses his head.

Before I carry on I have to talk about the amazing zombies, ones which really have a completely unique look for the zombie genre. The first sighting of a zombie was not impressive, it looked very fake and weird looking but I soon came to realise this was a planned style. The zombies remind me of something you would see on a ghost train ride at a tacky fairground, they have weird angular heads and bright red lights for eyes and all of them appear to be decked in day-glo make-up like something from a Mexican Day of the Dead celebration, or the gang from the alley scene in Batman Forever. Main zombie Guy Smiley has the best design featuring as he does a gigantic grin covering his whole face that glows bright blue or red depending on his mood. Again with the references but The Mighty Boosh also sprang to mind with the kinda tacky effects but at the same time oddly sinister. Time and time again I was just hypnotised by the special look, it really saved the film for me as traditional zombies and I don't think I would have enjoyed this as much.

The plot is simple enough but it has some classy ways to advance the story. Some flashbacks to a hundred years past really look the part, while the brief looks at the demon dimension feel quite trippy. Best of all later on there is a fight with a stop motion creature that looks fantastic in that jerky movement way of the style. There is minimal cast but they do an adequate job, the acting is not the best I have ever seen but it is certainly the right side of average. The humour works also which is a plus, I did laugh out loud at a couple of points mostly concerning the disembodied talking head that Allison ends up carrying around with her. Kudos must also be brought to the great soundtrack that worked fantastically in tune with the visuals.

On the horror side of things Invasion of the Undead is not a scary film in the slightest feeling like more of an action piece but echoing the more child friendly horrors of the 80's despite some occasional strong language (thankfully no shoe-horned in female nudity here). It has some strong connections to videogames which pop up throughout; the zombies brightly flash when attacked, with one boss type one flashing red repeatedly when nearly defeated. The boss style battles even have title cards for the two fighters while a sword fight sees one sword glowing halogen blue and the other one glowing halogen red (echoes of Scott Pilgrim VS. the World).

Some of the blood effects are quite terrible with cuts seeming like they are just painted on but elsewhere the special effects really do shine, such as Jake who just looks fantastic by the films end (his role reminded me a lot of a similar character in Lollipop Chainsaw). At times Invasion of the Undead verges on the precipice of outstaying it's welcome even at it's 80 minutes run time but it just manages to cling on in my opinion. It is refreshing to get characters who you can actually like

The combination of traditional movie monsters merged with electronic lights and glow in the dark make-up creates something that feels really quite modern (such as for once great use of CGI) yet hanging on to the beloved sensibilities of the time when horrors didn't need to be grim, they could just be fun throwaway escapism. Sure it may call to mind a whole host of other media but it has enough ideas to stand on its own. Invasion of the Undead is available to rent or to buy on Vimeo.

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Resident Evil: Revelations (2012) - Horror Videogame Review (3DS)

Many saw Resident Evil: Revelations as a return to form for the iconic horror series that has lost its way recently with convoluted plot lines and an increasing focus on action. Originally released on the Nintendo 3DS it was later upgraded to HD and released on consoles. The version I am reviewing is not only the original hand held version, but also played without the circle pad pro meaning I only had the one analogue stick. That fact is important as it does factor into my overall enjoyment of the game.

The story (set between Resident Evil 4 and Resident Evil 5) is unfortunately quite a mess though true to the games name it does hold some revelations. From what I could piece together one year after an organisation called Veltro destroyed a pretentious floating city in a biological terrorist attack Jill Valentine and her partner Parker are sent by the B.S.A.A (Bioterrorism Security Assessment Alliance) to investigate a ship in search of Chris Redfield and his partner Jessica who went missing while investigating claims that Veltro were back in action.

Revelations takes place over twelve chapters, each one of which is usually split into two or three smaller sections. These bite size chunks work well on a handheld, while the various locations and character swaps theoretically keep things feeling fresh. Each chapter ends on a cliff hanger and begins with a recap montage feeling like a TV episode.  My first complaint though is the fact that for around 90% of the game you are exploring with an A.I partner in tow. The A.I is inoffensive, not requiring healing, and has infinite bullets but just by their presence a lot of the fear that had the potential to be there is gone.

The characters of Jill and Chris are the same as they ever where but I took more complaints with the newer ones. Most chapters see you flipping between various duos, Jill's gruff partner Parker is fine enough, but Chris's partner Jessica looks ridiculous in an outfit that is just not practical seeming almost half naked for no good reason at all. Even worse at some points in the game you get to play as one half of a comedy duo. Two idiots making bad jokes and getting into 'zany' situations does not fit right with a horror game, the segments featuring these guys did admittedly break up some of the histrionics but did not stop them from feeling really out of place.

Revelations does not stick to survival horror despite a strong start with Jill alone exploring the mysterious Queen Zenobia. In general Jill's levels are more traditional while Chris's levels are far more action centred and the other characters (such as Parker's flash back levels) are even more like straight up action. The controls do not work well for action though, the missing analogue stick was keenly felt with a stodgy camera meaning I often got attacked by creatures I could not see, or turn quickly enough with the tank controls to fend off threats. When you want to attack an enemy you go into a first person perspective which makes for an easier time at shooting but means you can't move. You also have access to a device that lets you scan the environment for hidden items and scan enemies to gain extra healing items but this is fiddly to use and means your gun is not quick to hand.

There are no zombies at all to be found here, instead the main enemy type is some sort of humanoid leech creatures that latch onto you with their jaws, or fire organic projectiles at you. These creatures are meant to have once been humans so I guess they are vaguely zombie like. Returning favourites include monster dogs and the threatening lizard monsters; Hunters who also turn up later on as invisible enemies. There are quite a few bosses to fight none of which are that hard, but most of them are passable, some enjoyable ones where you are operating a gatling gun, and the end boss itself I did find an enjoyable battle as it felt quite low key and old school. To fight all these you get the usual assortment of guns, three of which can be carried at any one time, and it is easy to switch between these weapons.

The reduced graphical fidelity of the 3DS means the game looks kinda Resident Evil lite at times, enemies dissolve when killed to save on memory and locations in general are not too detailed. The adventure mainly takes place on board the huge Queen Zenobia ship that features a variety of different places, but you also get to go to a pretentious floating city as well as the snowy mountainous wastes where a Veltro facility is located. While the graphics are not the best the same can't be said for the many, many cut scenes that all look decent, and the music is not bad,  it is just a shame that the plot is a giant convoluted mess that makes little sense

I did enjoy Revelations but at the same time I have to say it is not a fantastic game, merely an adequate one that just manages to stay on the right side of interesting. At around 8 hours long there is value to be had here also even if a lot of locations are revisited time and time again. If you are playing this with two analogue sticks then add on another zombie head to my score.

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Moth (2016) - Horror Film News

I recently posted a review of Bodom which is a Hungarian found footage horror about two students investigating some strange murders at Lake Bodom. For directors Jozsef Gallai and Gergo Elekes they have decided their next film is to be another found footage film, this time called Moth.

The brief synopsis is that a student and his enthusiastic lecturer head to Europe to investigate the mythology of the Mothman legend and find themselves caught up in horror.

As well as direct the film Jozsef Gallai is also the writer for Moth and co-stars as Adam the student. I quite enjoyed Bodom and hope that Moth builds on the style displayed there. The film is due for release January 2016. Check out the teaser trailer below...

Wasted (2014) - Short Zombie Film Review and News

Back in October last year I did a small blog post about Wasted; a pitch for a zombie comedy themed TV show that followed a bunch of stoner losers post zombie apocalypse. While it was unsuccessful in the competition it had been entered in there is now a new opportunity, this time with CineCoup. There is a 12 week online challenge for people to submit their ideas with the winner getting funding to make a feature film (rather than a TV show this time around). The creators of Wasted have made a short film to get their pitch across which I have just seen.

In the twelve minute film a bunch of stoner friends sit around a TV playing zombie videogames and watching zombie films. One of them poses the question of what they would do if the undead rose up in real life which leads to dream sequences of each of the four guys imagining themselves in the apocalypse, each of which goes wrong for them (such as one of them managing to blow up a car accidentally while trying to refuel it). After this talk the gang leave their house to discover the apocalypse actually has happened...

I'm not going to do a proper review with ratings and all that as this does feel like the intro to the idea being posed. Also the film is described as a rough cut and as such there were some noticeable sounds missing and some rough special effects used as well as plenty of dodgy CGI work. As a concept though it did get my interest, sure the acting was not fantastic (nor terrible, merely ok) but the conversation was interesting enough and I thought the dream sequences felt quite novel in a zombie based sense. One of the characters was super irritating which was a minor annoyance but overall it was enjoyable enough.

Now there is just two days left for the Top 60 voting on the CineCoup site and to my credit I only found out about this a week last Tuesday when the competition had been going on for 11 weeks by that point. If you want to vote for Wasted and hopefully get it into a winning position then head on over to the site (here).

Send More Cops! by Surgeon Marta - Zombie Themed Music Video

Surgeon Marta are one of my favourite bands, I love their stuff. As it is a lazy Sunday for me I thought it was about time I put one of their videos up on my blog. Send More Cops! is a tribute to Return of the Living Dead, of course an iconic scene of that film has zombies requesting more cops and paramedics to turn up so that they can be eaten. The zombie themed band Send More Paramedics were also obviously influenced by Return also.

In the video (which is about eating the police) zombies chant at the camera in a scene filmed in black and white with footage of Surgeon Marta cut in. Later in the video a bunch of zombies assault a house, a woman inside tries to hold them off with the aid of a rifle but the ghouls manage to get in and corner her. It all ends with zombies eating the intestines of a poor guy.

A fun video which really does not take itself seriously, and a good song in its own right. As an interesting aside the making of this video apparently led to Surgeon Marta getting evicted from the house they were renting which is kinda funny. Anyway check out the video below...

Outburst (2014) - Zombie Film Review

Outburst (or Udbrud as it is called in Danish) is a short forty minute zombie film directed by Henrik Anderson, It was made as homage to the exploitation films of the 1970's and 80's and features plenty of gore.

A young woman is having breakfast with her Mum and Dad when she gets caught up in a zombie outbreak, escaping out onto the street things are even worse and so she makes her escape on foot, and then later on by car. With pustule covered undead apparently everywhere is there really any place to escape to?

The film is in Danish with English subtitles available but with the exception of a voice over at the very start of Outburst there is no dialogue at all. The nameless girl not once uttering a single word, nor the undead around her. I can see why it was done this way as there would be not much reason for someone on their own to talk in the first place, but it also helps make the film appeal more to an international audience. The voice over gives an overview of such stating about the population growth the world has experienced in the last couple of hundred years and how in the middle ages population growth was naturally tempered by the outbreak of epidemics. It also throws some analogies about how people exist only to eat nowadays which of course can be contrasted with the zombies who also seem to appear just to eat.

Outburst reminded me a lot of Peter Jackson's early films Brain Dead and Bad Taste in that humour is mixed in with over the top violence and lashings of blood and guts. The director has stated that the biggest influences were Dario Argento and Lucio Fulci and these influences are obvious to see Nowadays it is the curse of film makers, especially ones making low budget films to rely on CGI for the effects. Here this is not the case (apart from some gunfire later on). People get their stomachs ripped open and insides pulled out, throats get slashed and heads destroyed, even an eye ball gets pulled out all in glorious practical effects that look at the same time unrealistic but also awesome. There is a lot of blood sprayed out from missing limbs and cut arteries, frequently the floor is awash with blood and this gore is focused on with even the camera lens getting sprayed at various times.

The humour is quite surreal and weird and comes at fits and bursts. A squirrel waving hello to some kids, a woman's compulsion to squeeze a boil on her husbands head and some over the top deaths leads to some bizarre and gross humour that made me feel quite queasy at times.

Zombies do not need a lot of make up to become effective foes but here they get a really unique look. The zombies are all covered in pustules, some of them have most of their faces obscured by large white lumps, this could not help but remind me of the ghouls you battle in The Last of Us. I was impressed with the make up of the zombies for sure, though it was inconsistent at times with it being really obvious that some were treated to contact lenses which really completed the look, while others had no such things and stood out more for having normal looking eyes.

My other complaint is a bit of a double edged one. There are plenty of child zombies in Outburst, and it is really quite funny how a serene fairytale neighbourhood transforms so rapidly into utter chaos. Children never feature enough in the average zombie film so I am not complaining about that. It is just a shame a lot of the children are (understandably) having a fun time and don't hide that on their beaming faces when they are meant to be the ravenous undead.

The plot is a bit all over the place and goes to some strange places seeming to skip genres at one point. This often feels more like a concept piece than an actual film and the final scene leaves the zombie genre altogether and heads into the post apocalypse genre feeling like something straight out of Mad Max (which was very intentional). Characters of all types dressed in ridiculous get up such as gas masks, jewelled eye patches and guy liner. Quite a cool action sequence entirely takes place in cartoon form which was a neat way to approach that particular bit.

All in all I did enjoy Outburst and I really liked the physical special effects used, gave me a twinge of nostalgia as for the most part films like this are just not made any more. A more tighter plot and a finale that didn't feel like it was taken from a different film and this would have been essential viewing. As it is I do think it is worth a watch if you have more than a passing interest in zombies.

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The Walking Dead: Season 5 (2014-15) - Zombie Horror TV Show Review

Now on the fifth season and The Walking Dead shows no sign of growing stale. Season 4 was in my opinion the best yet so this season had some big shoes to fill. There will be spoilers for previous seasons so if you have never watched the show then don't read the review! There will be unavoidable spoilers for season 5 but I will keep them to a bare minimum.

With Terminus turning out to be nothing more than a cannibal food bank it is up to Rick Grimes and his crew to escape the cursed place and look for real salvation. Eugene's promise of safety in Washington leads the group on a deadly road trip, ones that begins to blur the line between the living and the dead. Will there be sanctuary at the end of their journey this time around or is it just another pipe dream?

Season 4 worked for me so well due to it starting off pretty average and just getting better and better and better. This time around I would say season opener No Sanctuary was actually the most action packed and (literally) explosive episode, there was nothing in the rest of the season to match it in terms of spectacle. Instead there is a slew of rock solid episodes that are all expertly crafted and handled and each have something unique and interesting to offer (with the exception of two, but more on those later). There are a couple of interesting flashbacks that offer more insight into characters (such as a great one of Eugene and Abraham meeting for the first time) and even some great hallucinations that feature some dead people reappearing such as the Governor (looking ace).

Following on from the success of character specific episodes Rick's group soon gets split up and so there are various episodes focusing on either half of the gang as well as answering some lingering questions from season 4 such as the whereabouts of Beth. As always this way of doing episodes helps really bring out the character of some of the more minor characters who can tend to get swamped when everyone is on screen together. There are far more other groups of survivors encountered then ever before, the post apocalyptic world has far more humans than I ever pictured which makes for some nice conflict (as I always say humans are far more dangerous than the walkers).

As always no character is really ever safe but here this promise actually becomes irritating due to the high frequency of fantastic characters being killed off, usually just as they become likable, Time and time again big chunks are dedicated to making average characters more interesting only for them to then die soon after. There are at least three big ones killed off in this way while the more annoying ones survive to ruin things another day. The big theme of season 5 is Ricks realisation that humans have become the walking dead, that everyone is living on borrowed time, but the theme I picked out was that if your cowardly and pathetic then you are more likely to live.

Zombie effects in The Walking Dead just get better and better, the undead here look frankly amazing and even better is the amount of violence they have inflicted against them. They have rotted to the stage were it really doesn't take much to severely damage them, such as house favourite Daryl swinging a chain into three zombies which removes their heads, to a poor ghoul getting her head jammed in a car door and squished into pulp. The human death sequences also seem to have gotten more gruesome, one in particular had a characters cheek ripped off; really quite graphic!

One slightly annoying thing I noticed that for some episodes characters just do not appear with no explanation given. Michonne vanished one episode, while another featured a party where characters are shown to be looking awkward and out of place in such a foreign setting but all I could notice was that Eugene and new character; the cowardly priest Father Gabriel were just missing for no good reason for that entire episode. Maybe it was to save on paying everyone wages, or maybe they were not available for filming those days? There are two episodes out of the sixteen in this season that just played out a bit too quietly for my liking. I spend the whole time out of my mind with anxiety and stress for the groups safety and then the second they find somewhere that may be safe I start wishing something terrible would happen; I'm a bad person it seems!

Season 5; it's an amazing season, that much is true but it doesn't feel as fresh as season 4 frequently did. With an amazing opening and some tense sequences throughout I feel like this is probably my second favourite season, though far too many decent characters are killed off. I also found the use of licensed music to be quite effective, in my mind is Try which opens with Nine Inch Nails playing, makes a change to the usual score. It all ends with an enjoyable finale that really sets up the plot for season 6, counting down the days already.

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P.S: Spin off series Fear the Walking Dead is due to air this summer,

Call of Duty: Advanced Warfare (2014) - Exo Zombies Mode First Impressions

With the release of the first DLC map pack for Call of Duty: Advanced Warfare came a new game mode; Exo Zombies. For someone who adores the zombie modes of Black Ops and Black Ops II this was music to my ears.

There came the reveal that zombies would be appearing at the end of the fun Exo-Survival mode in the game. Get to round 10 on map Riot and a bio-weapon hits the stage which results in your character getting knocked out. When you get control again the prison level is over run with sprinting zombies, with your exo-suit shut down (the device that lets you boost in the air) you have to survive the endless hordes until your suit comes back online. The short sequence ends with you making it to the helipad where a cool cut scene shows you trying to make your escape.
If you complete this level whilst online you get access to zombie skins for your avatar and gradually unlock bits of zombie gear which is basically bloodied versions of normal clothes.

I finally got to play Exo-Zombies last night. You play as one of four characters who have the voice and likeness of a famous actor. These four are Kahn (Bill Paxton), Lilith (Rose McGowan), Oz (John Malkovich), and finally and by far the most exciting is Decker (Jon Bernthal who of course was the amazing Shane in The Walking Dead). There is one map you can play in so far; Outbreak which is set in an Atlas base.

The mode starts off with quite a long exciting intro sequence that shows the Atlas facility getting over run by zombies, and ends with a copter carrying the four characters crashing. Outbreak is quite a maze like level. There is an open area and then lots of stairways and corridors. Just like the zombie modes before you get points for killing the undead which are then used to open up new areas of the level and to buy better weapons. The game is split into rounds with each round featuring more zombies and making them tougher.

Exo-Zombies has its own take on the limited perks you can get off downed enemies. Mostly these are the same as before but with different names, for example the nuke that kills all active zombies is now call a 'bio-bomb'. There are also power ups that double your points gained, gives you one hit kills, and activates the levels security measures. Like in Exo-Survival every now and again you get air drops which feature items such as a personal attack drone, a sentry gun, cloaking and even a points boost.

Along with the small courtyard you start in there is the morgue full of bodies, office type areas, and the Exo-suit room where you gain access to the boost abilities that gives. Once you have your suit you can get power ups for them that are pretty much identical to what the vending machines in Black Ops provided. There are cash machines that randomly provide you with points, upgrade points for your weapons that are essential to save up for. My favourite part of the level is a garbage disposal chute that cheekily transports you back to the start of the level.

On the zombie front there are some nice additions. Zombies in general start off slow and shambling but speed up each round, I imagine eventually they would be running at you, undead have Exo-suits themselves and so can jump huge distances to get you . Some rounds feature just zombie dogs, while later on special zombies types appear. This new zombie types include electrified zombies who disable your suit abilities if they get too near, and green glowing zombies who if they touch you infect you. If your infected you have a short time to get to a decontamination point should you not get there in time your character dies for good and turns into an enemy zombie (sadly not a player controlled one). Zombie fall apart in awesome fashion (very easy to shoot off their legs), especially when in one hit kill mode there arms, legs and head all fly off with blood everywhere.

I was not sure if Exo-Zombies would be a good mode, I had avoided reading anything about it until after I played it. At the moment with just the one map it feels slightly light on content, but I am pretty certain with each of the four DLC map packs there will be at least one new zombie level. Fingers crossed one of the DLC map packs is exclusively zombie maps as it is great fun already so more maps can only make it better. I will leave it there for now, I have geeked out quite a bit. More impressions as the new maps come out!

Slit (2015) - Short Horror Film Review

Slit is a short erotic horror that is based on the Giallo genre which I believe came out of Italy in the late 70's. Personally while I have read a fair bit about the films of those times I have not really ever seen any which makes it hard to judge Slit which is a direct homage of those type of films popularised by Dario Argento.

A female couple head back home after a night of partying unaware that they are being followed. After a while the two fall asleep and the house gets invaded by a mysterious figure clad in black who seems to wish them harm...

Now as previously stated I am not sure of the tropes of Giallo films, from my hazy recollections it involves leather gloves, and maybe lace of a kind? I believe part of this genre is that you never view the killer, more that you see things from their perspective. For the first half of this eleven minute short horror it went along an erotic route, mostly consisting of the two girls kissing and I must admit my attention was running thin. Thankfully at the half time mark the horror really stepped in with some pretty tense scenes that ended with a plot device that I found very well done. The payoff and the twist that is slowly revealed is expertly done and gave me goose bumps of a sort.

There are lots of use of red and blue filters and lighting which I can only guess is part of the genre as it makes things look unnatural and strange, I am sure this is very intentional though. The special effects used are not bad, and I like that only by watching Slit can you discover where that titular description comes in.

While featuring a bit too much erotica for my liking I really enjoyed the second half. Short horror films are rarely ever anything other than interesting, it takes a certain type of skill to fit an entire story into such a short amount of time, Slit succeeds in this endeavour.

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If you fancy checking out the film for yourself then included is the short piece below...

Row Z (2014) - Short Zombie Film Review

Row Z is a short zombie film written and directed by Dusty Rhodes that combines many peoples loves; football and zombies. I don't actually like football myself but I really appreciated the vibes gone for in this piece.

Michael (Stuart Ellison) tells his father George (Trevor Cuthbertson) during breakfast the plans he has for them that day. His favourite football team Plymouth Argyle are to play an important game so Michael plans to go to the bookies to put on a bet, then head to the pub to have a pre match drink, before heading to the stadium itself. It soon becomes apparent once the duo leave the house that all is not so great with Great Britain with abandoned cars, evacuation points, and the heavy presence of zombies...

I thought Row Z was a pretty good film, at ten minutes long it packs so much into its slim time. The relationship of father and son is well established and you really come to care for Michael who to all intents and purposes seems to be living in a fantasy world, unaware, or refusing to accept the horror that has wiped out most if not all of humanity. The music that plays throughout is so sweet and gentle that rather than be annoyed at the two for being in this fantasy you instead wish them all the best. The dad seems far more aware than Michael of what is going on, and humouring his son as best he can while relying on him for protection.

It looks great with some impressive locations used such as a football stadium for the finale, and the zombies look the part, at least having a uniform look even if their make up did look a bit too dark on the faces. I just loved the juxtaposition of the main characters impressive delusions with the chaos and deadness of the new world. The panic on Michaels face whenever his dream is interrupted is so well done, it is credit that two such ideal people were chosen for the part of father and son. Special note must also go to the football commentary that plays at points throughout; quite clever in the way it is framed.

With vibes of David Moody's Autumn universe (this could have easily fitted into his Autumn: The Human Condition anthology) and an engaging story there is a lot to recommend here.

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You can check out Row Z below, you definitely should do...

Zombie Apocalypse! (2010) by Stephen Jones - Zombie Horror Book Review

With such a generic title it took me a long time to finally get around to reading Zombie Apocalypse!. What I soon realised was that this was a story that was told in a way I have not really ever seen before, certainly a unique way.

Set in the near future the UK government are preparing for the New Festival of Britain to restore national pride. Their preparations includes construction work around an old church in London which inadvertently releases an old plague; The Black Death which turns its victims into ghoulish undead who exist only to eat the flesh of the living. At first this new danger sweeps the country but then spreads over all of Europe, and then to the rest of the world...

The entirety of Zombie Apocalypse! is made up of various accounts. Diary entries, official letters, police and medical reports, phone and text conversations, video accounts and interviews all meld together to give a glimpse at a world collapsing into chaos. So far so World War Z but what is different here is just how random it all is. With the exception of a young girl's diary entries there is no consistency or recurrence of characters. People turn up, you learn about them, their situation and how they see the world and then in anything from a few pages to twenty or thirty later they either end up in a sticky situation or the account ends and that is it. This is a cool way to do things but it does lead to some vast jumps in the over arching plot.

The first half of the book is centred in the UK, most specifically London. The initial infection and outbreak is summed up best by a police report of a night of madness that was truly chilling and unsettling. Later on after a certain event happens the book then leaps all the way over to Australia for another thrilling account, this time a radio broadcast from a trapped flying doctor. It is explained that all of Europe by this time is overran yet there is nothing about Europe in the various letters and transcripts. Soon after this the action then leaps over to America and Mexico where the book comes to a close. Not having a consistent overview means a lot of plot just happens 'off screen' or off the page I guess. This is no where clearer than about ten pages before Zombie Apocalypse! ends where a real curve ball is thrown at the reader with brand new information given that was never hinted at at all in the rest of the near 500 page story and just seemed there to finish things quickly.

Zombie Apocalypse! also struggles in deciding on whether to be a comedy or a horror with different parts having very different tones. On the humour side of things there are items such as the minutes of an emergency planning committee whose pre created plan for a potential zombie outbreak was done as a joke but accidentally got released as a document to be taken seriously (the plan consisted of something along the line of a drawing of a zombie with the words 'run away fast!' written next to it). The horror side of things works well as well, especially considering near all of the documents end with the main character of the piece getting killed. A highlight for me was a doctor who gets stranded in a remote Australian town over run by the undead.

This is a well written book and one that has also been set out to appear legitimate. Diary entries for example are hand written rather than just plain text while letters appear on appropriately headed paper. There is a lot of variation so I never got bored. There is quite a lot of violence but for the most part this is people running or hiding from zombies, not going out their way to fight them. The zombies are runners as well as shamblers and visibly get more intelligent as the plague and story progresses. They are said to be controlled by ticks and fleas which makes for a slight change.

Overall I did quite enjoy Zombie Apocalypse!, it just suffers at times due to the leap in locations and inconsistency and while it works I feel more of a universal plot may have helped better. To finish I have literally just discovered this is the first book in a trilogy so I would be interested to see what happens next.

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Hotline Miami 2: Wrong Number (2015) - Horror Videogame Review (PS4)

Hotline Miami was a fantastic game that created a perfect marriage of arcade style gameplay with striking pixel visuals and an astounding soundtrack. Needless to say when I discovered the sequel was out I immediately got in the right mood and settled down to what I was sure would be another spell binding game.

I thought the plot of the first game was out there and confusing (in the best possible way) but it made a kind of sense. This time around rather than play as two different killers there is a cast of around twelve characters you get to play at one point or another. Set both during and after the events of the first game you play as a whole assortment of odd balls from a corrupt detective to copycat killers, soldiers, mafia and even a journalist who is doing research for a book. Hidden in the cut scenes and actions of the game is a further look at the group responsible for the mysterious phone calls that tell random people to kill, as well as the results of all the death of Hotline Miami.

To sum up this really is more of the same to be found here. If you expected a revolution and a change up then you are likely to be disappointed, but if you are after more violence and killing then this is for you. To copy an idea mentioned on the Super Best Friendcast! this really gameplay wise is a perfect sequel in that the difficulty of Hotline Miami is added to here, sure there are plenty of easy levels but there are some that are far more difficult and taxing than anything found before.

As before each level starts with some interactive story telling providing a reason for the killing. Before you had a variety of masks you could choose to wear, each mask gave you slightly different abilities, with the multiple characters though this device is almost dropped, a few have a small selection of masks to choose from but for the most part each character has specific unique abilities. This restricts the way you can play any given level but at the same time the new abilities feel more special. One character for example is actually two people; twins Alex and Ash. Alex is fully controllable and armed with a chainsaw, while his sister Ash automatically follows behind but has a gun which you are able to shoot. Another character; Evan Wright the journalist doesn't actually kill enemies he fights, instead knocking them out, rather than use guns he actually dismantles any he comes across. So you can see there is more variety in total.

The level design has suffered somewhat in that levels are far more sprawling and split into more sections. Hotline Miami usually had a two floor rule in that there was literally just two parts to any given level. Here sometimes levels get stretched out into anything up to six or seven sections long which ruins some of the arcade style speed run feeling. Getting completely stuck on a later screen leads to huge frustration as the game wont save unless you completely finish the chapter and so you feel compelled to power on and do the level despite rising anger. There is still the minor problems of armed enemies shooting you from off screen but this is compounded by a lot of open areas where you are getting attacked from all sides rather than the narrow corridors used before.

Again a lot of the levels are fun to fight through, especially when the music works. All the music was great before, here when it is good it is really good. One level that sees you blasting through a Police Station Terminator style had one of the best tunes I have ever heard in a videogame, other levels on the other hand have good music but less good than the majority of Hotline Miami. There are the usual gangster hideouts and office type areas but also a few levels set during wartime in Hawaii that have more of a traditional action shooter type look to them. Thankfully there is no awful stealth level this time around and instead you get to do a few dream sequence levels where some crazy things happen, a later one in particular I had to check the Lucozade  I was drinking to make sure someone hadn't sneaked into my house and laced it with LSD! From a plot point there is one level in particular that just felt stupid. As the journalist your goal is to get a subway train to someones house, for no reason whatsoever the subway is full of goons you have to fight your way through. This level seemed out of place and judging by the way nothing is made of the station fight it seems it is there just to be something to do which drew me out of the experience somewhat.

The A.I is as simple as it always was, enemies if they see you head to your position where you can kill them or be killed. This results in lots of ducking around corners to get the dumb A.I to run towards you. Visually there is far more variation in the enemies you fight, not just restricted to mainly Mafia this time around. Dogs make a return in force, as do bigger enemies who can only be killed by gunfire, and this time around smaller enemies who can only be killed by melee weapons due to them ducking under gunfire. This helps give the game that puzzle aspect it is so well known for. There is lots of blood and violence as usual, especially with some of the more brutal melee weapons that lop off limbs and heads, enemies falling to the floor with intestines hanging out. At one point you get to pull someones head off, spine and all, that was a nice touch. One thing I did notice with the A.I is that occasionally they will get stuck and just spin round on the spot, this mostly occurred when they try and walk through doorways, I don't remember a bug like that before.

Hotline Miami 2: Wrong Number is a bigger game than it's predecessor with a bunch more levels, but all in all I found the story to be less engaging and the larger level designs meant a lot of the addictive nature (that is still there in spades) has been reduced, especially when frustration sets in. A great follow up game and if you enjoyed it before then you will certainly again here as there is nothing like this to be found anywhere else, especially in terms of visuals and music, but for me Hotline Miami is the better of the two.

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Let There Be Zombies (2014) - Horror Film News

Let There Be Zombies is a low budget independent zombie film written and directed by Andrew Patterson that mixes horror with comedy to apparently great effect. It has managed to get picked up by a major distribution company and has won a few awards from various film festivals.

Drew is a cowardly teacher who is unable to control her pupils, so when zombie apocalypse sweeps the world she follows her yellow streak and flees to the countryside where she thinks she will be safe. With no survival skills to speak off and surrounded by rotting dead she soon finds herself in trouble and encounters a bunch of people who both help and hinder her. The film appears to have the message that sometimes you just cannot run from your problems.

Comedy is always a hard thing to get right, even more so when it comes to mixing horror and comedy. Now I do love zombie films but confess I have not actually heard of this one. It sounds like at some points in the film up to a hundred zombies appear on screen, the trick to a low budget zombie film is to flood the thing with zombies, no matter how bad the make up for them is sheer numbers never fail to impress.

Distributed by Gravitas Ventures Let There Be Zombies is available to watch on many many On Demand (VOD) services including iTunes, X-Box, Playstation and Amazon. Check out the trailer below, I just did and was impressed by the amount of zombies, plus the acting doesn't seem the worst out there...