Miss Meadows (2014) - Horror Film Review

Sometimes when I get offered films to review I don't do my homework and end up with something that shouldn't really be on this blog, so when Miss Meadows started and seemed to be a quirky comedy (albeit a black one) alarm bells started to ring. Thankfully over the hour and a half run time the tone changes to something a lot more dark and thoughtful.

Katie Holmes stars as Miss Meadows; an oddball substitute teacher who also happens to be a serial killer in her spare time, going after people who she sees as deserving of death. The town sheriff (James Badge Dale) takes a romantic interest in her and they start dating, unaware that a series of vigilante killings taking place that he is investigating is actually down to her. As she starts to crack under the pressure of her secret life can she still manage to come out on top?

While the first scene of the movie sets up the idea that Miss Meadows is a remorseless killer this idea is then not touched upon for a further half an hour, instead it becomes like a romantic comedy with the blossoming relationship between her and the sheriff. I was not fond of this part of the film, especially with the Holmes's character. She dresses in kooky outfits, has a bizarre manner of talking and dances when there is no music playing, like she is going out of her way to be weird. I found this character to be irritating at first but thankfully she really gets some development down the line. It soon becomes apparent that she is not just an odd ball but that she is actually legitimately mentally unstable.

As the film progresses we start to see cracks in her facade, this isn't all twee and bright but instead as more of her character is revealed you see damaged goods who has a strict black and white view of the world. This is revealed not only in her actions but also in the people around her. A conversation about justice with her sheriff boyfriend, a recently released criminal who later becomes almost the films antagonist keeps telling her she is just like him, and the way the two are portrayed this almost seems correct with this bad person seeming like a physical manifestation of her conscience.

Enough about the main character, what about the film itself? Miss Meadows has quite a sunny vibe to it, but one with darkness rippling underneath. The world the film takes place in seems almost too simple with bad characters just bad, no redeeming features are provided for them, while the good characters are also just made to seem one sided also. Whether this is purposely done to demonstrate the vigilante's view of the world I do not know, I hope that was the intention as otherwise you get left with a series of one dimensional people. The film shares many similarities with the excellent show Dexter (well apart from the terrible final episode!) featuring as it does someone who kills believing that what they are doing is right while trying to keep a normal life. Also in common with that show is the terrible police work done as if there had been any proper work done at all Holmes's character would have been locked up at around the five minute mark.

The supporting characters are for the most part the children in Miss Meadows class and they are actually not bad for child actors, they don't over act as children often do, and they don't have that creepy adult way of talking that often plagues them. Dale as the sheriff does as good a job as he can but I don't feel the script was the best for him, some of his actions are just bizarre with his motivations not justifying reality. Talking of being unrealistic I found the sickly saccharine ending to be ill fitting, things are just tied up too easily .

Surprisingly Homes steals this film, she puts in a fantastic performance, Miss Meadows was very nearly a fantastic film, it has some decent twists and the directing isn't bad, but due to a few little niggles I had it is instead just a good film, worth a watch but not something I would go out of my way to recommend. Miss Meadows is due to be released on DVD and Digital on 27th July.

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Terminator: Genisys (2015) - Sci-Fi Film Review

I had no plans to review the new Terminator film for the sci-fi series can never really be said to contain too much horror, yet looking back I realised I had in fact reviewed Terminator: Salvation and so I grudgingly decided this would come to review too. Minor spoilers to follow, but then if you have seen the trailer these have already been ruined.

Genisys starts off in the future and shows how Kyle Reese (Jai Courtney) got to time travel back in time to rescue Sarah Connor (Emilia Clarke), so far so normal. The twists come fast and thick though as finding himself in 1984 it is not a scared waitress he finds but a battle hardened head strong woman. Time travel has again mixed up the events that lead to Judgement Day, Sarah having been visited by a friendly Terminator (Arnold Schwarzenegger) when she was 9 years old and so protected by him her whole life. To mix things up more the more deadly model; the T1000 is also in 1984 and so much chaos ensures. Eventually the friendly trio end up in 2017 which is the new date for Judgement Day (again due to time travel shannegins) where their efforts to delay the end of the world are made a lot harder by John Connor (Jason Clarke) of all people who is now working for Skynet (rebranded as Genisys here).

Now this is not horror, this is pure sci-fi action for the whole of it's two hour run time. The initial introduction complete with voice over was fantastic for setting up the vibe of the Terminator world, while the first half hour of this film is its very best with unrelenting action. The parts set in the future, and the parts set in 1984 were my favourite by far as the present day sections while entertaining enough lose some of the retro vibes associated with the earlier films. There is a lot of fan service here, crazy amounts in fact with the first two films in particular referenced a heck of a lot. Sarah Connor wears her iconic black vest top, all the famous one liners are repeated here (obviously 'I'll be back' and 'come with me if you want to live') but there are spins put on them that are pure fun for the viewer.

Schwarzenegger is getting on in age now but thankfully this older looking Terminator is explained away in the plot which I appreciated, meanwhile flashbacks to the 1970's show a youthful looking Terminator that looks identical to the first film, while the 1984 version also has some cool special effects to make him look younger. The T1000 on the other hand, and by association the John Connor robot have some fantastic looking special effects that just could not have been possible in Terminator 2: Judgement Day, this makes for some fantastic action sequences. Emilia Clarke looks bizarrely similar to Linda Hamiltons while Courtney as Reese is not badly cast either. Schwarzenegger's Terminator is even more down the friendly good guy route with it even being implied he has actual emotions towards Sarah, and many of the jokes come from him.

It is not all good though, I found John Connor as the human to be a bit strange looking, I guess him being the fourth different actor in a row playing John has led to this disconnect from the character. When he appears later as the main bad guy I found him to not be interesting at all, his motivations are flat and there seems to be nothing left of the human John even though it is shown that the robot assimilated his body and so I had hoped there would be some human side to him, alas he just comes across as a bland bad guy, the amount he talks really takes away from his presence as someone to be feared. He has some good scenes such as one on the golden gate bridge, and an enjoyable finale but is the biggest mis step to be found in Genisys. It was kind of jarring to see the Terminator and T1000 models so easily dispatched here, when you have two films of them being bad-ass the ease of which they are removed from play while entertaining felt a bit of a cop out.

With lots of time travel, some great chase sequences and plenty of fights this is a spectacle to watch, it is all action though, and not even strong in violence, as such it is just not a patch on the first two films even if it far excels from Terminator 3 and Salvation. The main bad guy is uninspiring, the time travel plot while decent enough doesn't really do enough and I was left wishing it had just been more visceral. Still I can't fault the special effects and I did leave the cinema feeling thoroughly entertained.

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The Gallows (2015) - Horror Film Review

Oh joy I thought as The Gallows started and the realisation that it was yet another found footage piece sunk in to my despairing brain pan. To be honest I long got tired of the genre, I had already heard nothing but bad things about this film so my expectations plummeted even lower into the depths of hell.

Twenty years previous to the events of the film a high school student called Charlie is accidentally hung to death during the performance of the play 'The Gallows'. To honour the anniversary of this tragic event the school is once again going to perform the play. Jock Reese (Reese Mishler) has quit the football team to concentrate on the production as he has landed a leading role with the girl he fancies; nerdy Pfeifer (Pfeifer Brown) playing his love interest. However his obnoxious best friend Ryan (Ryan Shoos) has concocted a plan to get him to leave the play, the  plan involves breaking into the school at night and trashing the set. Convincing Reese and his girlfriend Cassidy to this ridiculous idea they go ahead. Discovered by Pfeifer in the midst of this the group abandon the plan and go to leave the school but discover all the exits have become locked, it soon becomes apparent that the ghost of Charlie is haunting the place and does not wish anyone to leave alive...

The actual location is a great choice I have to say first. A school at night is actually an effective spooky place, the theatre location in particular is very atmospheric, the grim set design for The Gallows play coupled with the vast seating area and dingy back stage areas make for some unnerving scenes. Found footage films can be as dull as dishwater, there is kind of justification for everything being filmed in that the lights in the school are not working and so everyone uses their phones as a light source, still doesn't really explain why everyone is filming.

After the initial day scenes there are only the four characters to follow around, the main person filming at least initially is Ryan who is super irritating and unlikable, basically a nasty bully, while his girlfriend is really bitchy and not a nice person either. I was hoping there would be some character development, but no there isn't, they don't change their character types at all so I found it hard to care at all about them. Reese on the other hand is a bit of a weird character,he seems easily led is the nicest thing I can say about him, while Pfeifer is kind of bland, she looks pretty but not much is revealed about her. Of the plot it is not too complicated though with a lot of characters who could wish the group harm introduced early on I did find myself wondering if the whole Charlie ghost thing could all be an elaborate hoax. Of course with blatant paranormal events happening this idea of mine soon seemed to be shot down.

All the usual tropes for found footage are used; crazy running sequences with the camera pointed at the ground, glitches and static, night vision sections, and even a Blair Witch Project style girl crying close up at the camera scene. Cheap tricks are used to generate fear such as people suddenly bursting into shot, or sudden loud noises from the distance. Apart from these jump scares there is not a lot to be scared of here, as I said earlier the location itself is actually a lot more scary than what actually happens in this film.

Charlie's method of death is of course death by noose, his arrival heralded by ghostly footsteps and the sound of tightening rope, this is never really utilised too well, it is often far too obvious when something is going to happen. The teaser trailer for The Gallows consisted solely of a character being killed off so I wasn't thrilled to see this scene replayed here in it's entirety, no suspense at all, trailers really do just show too much nowadays. There seems to be an inconsistency to the spirits actions also with him chasing or tormenting people only to vanish for no reason. He came across as far more irritating than spooky and the motivations provided are pretty lame even for a vengeful spirit.

Overall this wasn't the worst found footage I have seen, at least the location was decent, it's just a shame the characters are dull stereotypes, while the bad guy of the piece is nothing special. Mostly it is the anticipation rather than the result which creates fear, should have been a lot more terrifying and so it is merely ok.

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Swords of Insurgency: Episode 1 (2015) - Post Apocalyptic Show Episode Review

Back at the start of February I did a small blog post about upcoming post apocalyptic show Swords of Insurgency (directed and produced by Michael Neal), now I have had the pleasure of watching the first episode and I have to say it really was not bad, in fact the premise is actually really interesting.

Swords of Insurgency takes place 30 years after the end of civilisation, with the electrical grid long since destroyed and guns in extremely short supply the world has entered a new dark age with feuding warlords battling for control over the land. The show takes place in the territory of Taneg; a cruel lord who rules along with his psychotic son from his prison compound where political prisoners are kept. One such prisoner is Abigail, and she has been waiting for an opportunity to escape the hellish prison and meet up with the local insurgency...

The first episode was around twenty minutes long and had very little dialogue to speak of, in fact Abi (Rebecca Hausman) barely even speaks, her acting all told through her desperate actions that reveal her to be a force to be reckoned with. The idea of a new dark age makes for quite a unique look to the show, the warlord Taneg for example wears combat fatigues, his guards all wear boiler suits and balaclavas that all look so normal. A post apocalyptic show were people actually wear sensible clothes; how novel!

I noted in the trailer that it seemed to be well shot and I was pleased to see that my opinion was backed up by some beautiful scenes here, one in which an escaping prisoner runs down a water logged tunnel while David Firth style dreamlike music plays was so well done. Locations also were well chosen, the prison compound is a great place that feels authentic, while a later shot of a ruined apartment block gives a sense of the devastation that has wracked the world.

The fight sequences are short and snappy, though one involving a samurai sword was let down for me a bit by CGI blood spurts which seemed a bit too obvious they were not real. It was hard to judge the vocal acting, the bad guys maybe seemed a bit too hammy and one dimensional though it will be interesting to see if they, as well as the other characters get a chance to be fleshed out and made to seem more real.

Overall I was impressed with the quality of Swords of Insurgency, the directing in particular was top notch, with a Kickstarter campaign to be done to raise capital for further episodes I hope to get to see more of this web series, if you are able then I would certainly say to check it out.

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Z Nation: Season 1 (2014) - Zombie Horror TV Series Review

Being a zombie based TV series comparisons between Z Nation and The Walking Dead were always going to be unavoidable. I have tried to base this review of Z Nation on its own merits, as with a far lower budget this was never going to be able to stand up, Thankfully they know this would be the case so have gone out of their way to make the show as different as possible.

Z Nation takes place around three years after zombie Armageddon has swept the globe. A group of survivors get tasked with an important mission; to escort a convict named Murphy across zombie infested America, from New York all the way to a secret government facility in California due to the man being immune to the undead disease. The group are helped on their journey by 'Agent Z'; a intelligence officer operating out of a government base deep in Alaska, along the way they encounter all sorts of crazy.

Things did not start well at all for the show, the first few episodes were excruciatingly boring to watch, the low budget was super apparent, the characters an unlikeable bunch and the plot lines dull and uninspired. Yet an episode that starts with the Liberty Bell bowling its way through throngs of zombies fittingly rings in a change, the episodes get more and more stupid and insane and the hated characters mostly develop into people you actually root for and care about. By the spectacular finale 13 episodes later I was completely hooked and dying to see Season 2.

The way Z Nation sets itself apart is by putting no end of insanity into its ghoul ravaged USA, by the end of the season the survivors have encountered a zombie vomiting tornado, stoned, nuclear and baby zombies, crashed astronauts, a vandalised Mount Rushmore and even a 'zomnami'. The group come up against cannibals, zombie worshipping cults, a travelling zombie fair, power plants going into nuclear meltdown and encountered a whole range of zombie animals including dogs, monkeys, and even a damn bear!

The characters are not a bad bunch either. Episode one tricks you by setting up someone as the main character only for him to be needlessly killed later on the same episode by a baby, the actual main characters are Roberta and Charles; two members of the national guard, Addy and Mack; a young couple and Cassandra who are all ok characters, Roberta is well played and is actually a pretty decent one but the others are pretty bland with back stories invented to make them seem more fleshed out but only high light how dull they are. The great characters though are Doc; an old dodgy guy who is kind of the groups medic, 10K who is so named as he is on a mission to kill 10,000 zombies, Citizen Z (played wonderfully by D.J Qualls) who provides various sub plots of increasing surreality, and by far the best; the convict Murphy.

Murphy starts off as petty unbearable, he is terrified of the undead after being left to be chewed on by them and so acts cowardly and aggressively. Yet by the seasons end his character arc had made him into by far my favourite character. The biggest and best thing Z Nation does is Murphy. He gets almost super powers as the season goes on. Zombies ignore him to begin with but eventually he is able to not only control zombies but also to control anyone he has bitten or scratched. With these new powers come lots of pretty awesome scenes.

Supporting characters are a zany and varied lot but none really stick out, you can usually assume by episodes end all but the main cast will either have left or been killed off. Still one episode features the legend Bill Moseley playing a deranged army Captain which was great to see.

To begin with I did not think the zombie effects were that good, yet by the seasons end the effects seemed to have picked up quite considerably, plus there are many many times when hordes of the undead appear, it is never just the odd few. There are really some quite violent deaths, funnily enough off the top of my head I can't recall any but I know there were several times I winced at the violence inflicted on the poor undead. The show also features a mixture of running and shambling zombies, the logic of the universe stating that the recently turned have more access to their basic motor functions while the long dead have slowed down to the traditional type.

The overall plot of transporting Murphy across America leads to the opportunity to go to many different locations, each episode sees the group in a different part of the states, The overall story really takes a back seat as it is more a 'story of the week' kind of show with most stories getting neatly wrapped up in 45 minutes and they are mostly full of incidental humour, such as a man who got turned while on the toilet so is stumbling around with his trousers by his ankles, Meanwhile on the action front there is some quite cool use of special effects where the camera follows the trajectory of a bullet fired from a gun, or some awesome slow down during a sword attack. It also experiments by having episodes devoted to specific characters running concurrently much like The Walking Dead. Unfortunately one of the episodes is dedicated to just Addy and Mack who are dull as dishwater, even here inventiveness is created as the majority of this particular one takes the form of a protracted Groundhog Day style dream sequence.

Z Nation by setting the bar so low initially led to my expectations constantly being exceeded, soldier on through the initial three episodes and you will be in for a nice surprise. Sure the budget is low, sometimes some of the ideas are not so original, but often the sheer scope and the character development wins through.

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Silently Within Your Shadow - Horror Film News and Trailer

Back in February I mentioned about a Kickstarter for Silently Within Your Shadow; a horror about a ventriloquists' doll. This potential film was interesting to me as horror legend Bill Moseley (The Devil's Rejects, Exit Humanity) had been signed on to provide the voice of the murderous doll Hugo.

While there is not too much actual information about the film there has now been a teaser trailer released. The trailer is quite brief but shows a couple arguing while Hugo lays on the ground, it is safe to assume the guy arguing is the ventriloquist. I still am unsure if Hugo is going to move around on his own in the style of Chucky from Child's Play, or if the owner of Hugo will have a split personality projected onto the doll. Either way I am looking forward to this film thanks to Moseley, check out the trailer below for yourself...

Knock Knock (2015) - Horror Film Review

Knock Knock sounded like a terrible idea on paper; a home invasion film starring bland Keanu Reeves who has the emotional acting range of a vase. This film is directed by Eli Roth though (Cabin Fever, Hostel) and so my interest was successfully gained.

Reeves stars as family man Evan Webber who is left home alone for the weekend when his artist wife Karen and their two young children head off to stay at their beach house. Late at night Evan gets a knock at the door, answering it he discovers two teenage girls who are looking for their friends house. As it is pouring with rain he invites them in to dry off and call for a taxi, but it is not long before the duo have seduced Evan. The next day riddled with guilt he is horrified to then find out the girls were underage, he eventually manages to get rid of them and thinks it is all over with, but the following evening the girls turn back up, and this time they are there to teach him a lesson he will never forget...

The best thing about this movie is the excellent soundtrack, really cannot fault that at all and even ends on a classic Pixies track (that coincidentally I had been listening to on my drive to the cinema). It also does not look bad either, despite a small cast and a small location the set design is pretty solid. The main cast of Reeves, and the two psychos; Genesis (Lorenza Izzo who is actually Eli Roth's wife in reality) and Bel (Ana de Armas) are all easy on the eye and so it was not a bad film to watch, also nudity if that is your thing. The theme of paedophilia runs deep in this film with it pretty much sign posted that an event from at least one of the crazies pasts is what has set into motion their nefarious plans.

For a lot of the 99 minute run time I thought this was a terrible film, home invasion thrillers have been done to death and this seemed nothing too different. Reeves playing the guilt ridden husband and father increasingly tries to outdo himself with impassioned pleas and monologues where he tries to justify his actions, the two insane girls on the other hand are so crazy and over the top that they become increasingly irritating. A lot of Knock Knock sees Reeves tied to an office chair, it was quite humorous to see him wheeling himself around on the chair trying constantly to find a way out of his terrible situation.

This is where Knock Knock really steps up a gear, I came to the conclusion the decision to cast Reeves was a stroke of genius. Not just me but several other people in the cinema were laughing out loud at every single thing he does and says by the halfway point, such as seconds after getting hold of a weapon accidentally flinging it out of shot never to be seen again, or tied in his chair shouting empty threats and begging to be let go but with the monotone way he speaks coming across as absurd. This was not so bad it was good, this was a poor film, but it became bearable by Reeves's performance. The joke was on me though, the events gets increasingly bizarre and more silly until it dawned on me that this was all purposeful; Eli Roth was playing a joke on the audience it seemed to me! A real curve ball ending devolved the thriller into a farce and seemed to become a parody of home invasion films, the humour became more obvious and purposefully funny and I was left feeling I had been played for a fool.

The plot is not the best thanks to a fair few glaring plot holes and conveniences, not least the fact that despite living in a suburban neighbourhood in Los Angeles all the neighbours have apparently all left for the weekend which one of the girls usefully explains when Evan is in the back garden screaming his head off for help (though this could also be a jab at other home invasion films were no one ever intervenes to help). Also just how they came to choose him as their victim is never explained when they insinuate they had somehow been spying on him previous to first meeting him. Also, and minor spoilers here they state he is not their first victim yet with the astonishing amount of DNA they must have left at his house it is baffling how they have never been caught before.

While I did enjoy the fun ending (which had a frankly hilarious scene involving social media) the rest of the film did not stand up, Evan is flawed enough that I didn't really care if he escaped his fate or not, while Reeves does a terrible job of playing a loving father. The two girls I really wanted to be brought down a peg or two with their over the top antics reminding me of Harley Quinn from the Batman franchise but they barely ever have anything bad happen to them. This certainly has Roth's stamp mark on it but with its strong themes of sex and not too much going on this just didn't really appeal to me.

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Batman: Arkham Knight (2015) - Videogame Review (Playstation 4)

I broke my usual rule by buying Batman: Arkham Knight new rather than waiting for it to be reduced in price, Batman: Arkham Asylum and Batman: Arkham Origins were both fantastic games, while Batman: Arkham City was merely ok, so I was excited for this new and allegedly last entry in the series. There was a huge fuss over a costly season pass, impossible to get pre order DLC, and there are a scary amount of issues with the buggy PC port so things did not start off great. Spoilers for Arkham City will be upcoming.

Taking place nearly a year after the events of Arkham City the game begins with Scarecrow unleashing a terror attack in a diner. He reveals to the people of Gotham that in 24 hours time he will unleash his fear gas across the whole city, this in turn causes a massive evacuation of the place with the only people staying behind being criminals and the police (as well as Batman of course). Scarecrow has teamed up with a mysterious solider named the 'Arkham Knight' who is in command of a huge army that quickly takes over the town. With the odds stacked against him yet again, Batman, over one evening must save the day (night?) once again.

The biggest change for this new game in the series is that you now have access to the Batmobile throughout. The vehicle has two different modes, the driving mode which has a speed boost, and a tank mode where you can use both machine guns, missiles, as well as use a winch to solve various environmental puzzles. The car is a lot of fun to drive, and you get to drive it around the biggest Arkham game yet. The tank mode of the car is used a lot as there is a heck of a lot of tank vs tank battles going on, a fair few of the side quests involve this tank as well as (too many) story missions. Having completed the game now my first complaint would be that the tank fights got kind of stale by the end, the decision to have several boss fights be vehicle based was a bit of a let down as they are never fun, involving as they do stealth based combat. One iconic fight I was looking forward to against a villain of a previous game ended up being just a tank battle. This was a big disappointment considering the boss fight he had in Origins was really quite special and taxing. From my memory all but one of the boss fights in the game are vehicle based ones and all are quite dull.

Hand in hand with this over reliance on vehicle combat is the fact that there really are not many traditional level based missions here, much has been made of the fact there are no load screens once the game has started, but with only a handful of small indoor locations that doesn't seem as special. The open world nature seemed to lead to a huge proportion of the game taking place out on the city streets. For the most part the main story missions were not fantastic, nothing really stood out, thankfully there are a lot of side quests that are a lot better than the forgettable ones of City. A lot of these side quests involve taking out various parts of the Knight's armies control on Gotham (destroying watch towers, check points, defusing bombs, and chasing down commanders) but a fair few others involve various super villains. Being the fourth game in the series (fifth if you include Batman: Arkham Origins Blackgate) a lot of these characters you have faced before so some of the more obscure ones turn up. In addition to encountering the usual ones such as Penguin, Two Face, Riddler and Scarecrow, you get less known ones such as Man-Bat and Simon Stagg. The side quests while fun are not varied, each villain has just one type of side quest associated with them (eg: stopping Two Face bank robberies, and finding Penguins weapon shipments).

With Joker killed I had figured he would still make an appearance somehow, yet the way it is done was not the best. Due to Batman still being infected by the Joker virus he contracted previously, and coupled with Scarecrow using fear gas on him, for a lot of the game you are followed around by the ghostly presence of Joker. He makes jokes and observations throughout, coming across like a comedy side kick. He must have the most lines of any Batman game as he really never shuts up and I mostly found him irritating, especially a very ill judged musical number that made me cringe a lot. As a main villain I was disappointed by Scarecrow, he has no real presence in the game, mostly appearing on bill boards broadcasting messages, the few times you actually encounter him are underwhelming, the plot in general was not exciting or that interesting. The mystery of just who the Arkham Knight was I found initially to be fun but the game extremely heavily foreshadows who it is going to be and so when the reveal came I was not in the least bit surprised, more could have been done with that aspect. That said there were a couple of moments were I really was taken by surprise on where the story went and it ends fantastically.

Combat is as solid and fun as ever while you start the game with a lot of the gadgets and skills you gained in the previous ones in the series. A new Batsuit leads to a new type of fear based take down that was a neat addition, while at several points you get to team up with other heroes that leads to some cool duel take downs. All these controls along with all the new Batmobile controls led to me getting quite confused. The grapple ability that lets you glide around the city is a lot better this time around, you can easily get anywhere in quite a short space of time. As before there are Riddler trophies hidden everywhere, around 243 of the damn things, they seem easier to collect but I wish they wouldn't stick so many in the games, 100 would be ideal. There are also other challenges such as destroying military emblems and solving riddles which when done lead to some short stories and recordings that were all pretty decent. Unlike the other games it is essential you do the Riddler challenges as it is only when they are all completed you get the games true ending.

What was the best for me was just how much of the past games were referenced, while the team who made this had nothing to do with Origins and Blackgate those games are still referenced a lot, especially Origins, it was great getting so many nods for fans of the series. Also making a very welcome comeback was battle damage on Batman's suit, this also applies to his Batmobile. In this game the GCPD acts as a kind of hub were the cells gradually fill up as you progress the stories giving you a real sense of progression, about the best thing about Arkham Knight.

Arkham Knight looks and sounds fantastic, I just wish the story had been better and that the level design was a lot more varied and interesting. While the Batmobile is a needed addition I dislike how much focus of the game is put on the dull tank combat, and how there are no decent boss fights at all. More could have been done with the fear side of things, I was expecting at least one platform section involving Batman having a nightmare, in previous reviews I had said these parts were getting a bit tired, but they would have been welcome here. I had fun with Arkham Knight, and it was better than City but does not come close to rivalling the stories of Asylum and Origins. Time will tell if the extensive DLC is actually worth getting, having played the Harley Quinn DLC I can report it was fun but very brief, length being my biggest concern for the rest of the additional missions to come.

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Update (02/10/21): I did eventually get around to playing most of the DLC here. While it integrates neatly enough it maybe fitted in a bit too well as none of it stuck in the mind. Still, was certainly better than the underwhelming travesty that was Batman: Arkham City's Harley Quinn DLC. 

Jurassic World (2015) - Fantasy Film Review

So I finally got around to watching Jurassic World recently, going into it my expectations were low but I hoped that based on the rave reviews it has been getting everywhere that I would be proven wrong.

Set 22 years after the catastrophe that struck the original dinosaur theme park; Jurassic Park a new park was built on the same island, this time called Jurassic World, and this one is actually running successfully. In order to keep visitor numbers high a new attraction has been created; a genetically engineered super dinosaur that is even bigger than the fearsome T-Rex. Unfortunately this new intelligent dinosaur soon predictably escapes its enclosure at the north end of the island and it is down to the employees of Jurassic World (including Chris Pratt as Owen) as well as evil company Ingen to hunt down and destroy the monster before it reaches the resort area at the south of the island where thousands of people are gathered oblivious to the doom that is heading for them.

Starting off mention has to go to the two children who find themselves stealing a far too big a chunk of screen time. First is Zach (Nick Robinson) who plays a moody, brooding stereotypical teen but he pales in comparison to his younger brother Gray who is intensely irritating and is made up of 90% stupid haircut. Every single time I saw this kid I wanted to dive into the cinema screen and punch him, him and his brother both were the Jar Jar Binks of Jurassic World, they go on zany adventures and you just know that nothing bad whatsoever is going to happen to them. In fact out of the main characters barely any good one dies, the body count is made up mostly of nameless goons from what I recall.

Of the other characters, well Chris Pratt is ok here, but the female lead Claire (Bryce Dallas Howard) manages to last the whole film wearing high heels, even managing to outrun a T-Rex at one point while wearing the damn things, so stupid! To be fair though her characters arc over the duration of the film was actually quite good. A lot of the characters here are wise cracking film types, none seem like fully fleshed out characters really, and yes, some of the wise cracks and one liners did actually make me laugh out loud, even the irritating kid made me laugh at a few points.

Onto the dinosaurs themselves; I have not seen the original films for quite some time but I remember being blown away at the time by the depictions of these prehistoric beasts, now, and maybe it is due to this being the fourth in the series but the dinosaurs didn't really inspire any sort of awe in me. I remember as a kid going to watch Jurassic Park at the cinema with my parents, the scene with the T-Rex in the rain stuck in my mind as being scary, not in a fearful way, but in an exciting sense, full of tension and drama. Now maybe it is because I'm now older but there were no even remotely scary parts in this film, there was no misery, no horror, the film as a whole had far more of a family movie type vibe to it with jokes and sunshine never being too far away. The new super dinosaur doesn't have much impact on screen, not helped that he is hardly ever seen, I get that to build up suspense at first you would not show him fully, but when at the films conclusion you still hardly even witnessed him much then something has gone wrong.

On the other side of the coin are the raptors and T-Rex, these fearsome creatures were pretty much the dinosaur based bad guys of the first few film but here they have been nerfed to the point where you may as well call them good guys. The raptors have been trained from birth to follow Owen's commands which was a cool idea admittedly, but the T-Rex just briefly appears, does his bit then vanishes again without causing any trouble to the humans.

As a sequel Jurassic World is decent as it does reference the first film a lot, even going back to previous locations from that film which I really enjoyed, as did I enjoy the nostalgic reworked classic theme tune that played every now and again, the films score was not bad at all, the FX are also decent enough though there is a strange lack of blood when people getting eaten, nothing special but it did its job. It strangely sometimes feel like a remake; a theme park where the dinosaurs escape, two children lost in the chaos, dodgy Ingen and research being stolen are all familiar themes. There was a lot of stupidity with this movies plot, but it was purposeful so is not fair to hold that against it.

I think my problem is that I went in hoping for more of a horror film and instead got a family film. This is my fault as it was never going to be horror but I still felt a bit deflated, maybe my memories are rose tinted, I shall have to re watch the previous one to find out. There are some quite exciting sequences here; I loved the huge dinosaur fight that takes place, and one of the death scenes was pretty fun, but overall it was sadly pretty much what I thought it would be.

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Something's Gotta Give (2015) by All Time Low - Zombie Music Video

I first saw the video for All Time Low's Something's Gotta Give a few months back, but with such a forgettable band name I just could not remember who did it and so a lazy blog post was avoided. Thankfully I saw it again and this time made a note. The song itself is not horror based but the video certainly is.

In the video the bands singer is dressed up as a tub of French fries, he is walking around when a woman sees him and runs away screaming, he then encounters his band mates but each time he goes to hug them they recoil in horror. Eventually he catches his reflection in a window and realises that he is actually a rotting zombie. Embracing his new found ghoul-hood he proceeds to eat his band mates and then a random cat before the screaming woman from earlier shoots him dead.

I'm ashamed to say the song is really quite catchy, but regardless of the song the video is actually pretty awesome with some fun practical FX when he bites chunks out of his fellow band members. Sure it looks pretty fake but then this is a pop video; just how gory do you think it would get? Intercut with the zombie video is footage of the band performing on a street, later on after the singer has become zombified the footage of them playing has changed to a rainy setting and with everyone now zombies. Check out the video below...

Castlevania: Lords of Shadow 2 (2014) - Horror Videogame Review (Playstation 3)

Castlevania: Lords of Shadow 2 is actually a sequel to the dull Castlevania: Lords of Shadow - Mirror of Fate which in turn was a sequel to the excellent Castlevania: Lords of Shadow. One terrible thing the original game did was lock the real ending behind expensive and bad DLC meaning that pretty much no one actually got to see how Gabriel Belmont became Dracula, I had hoped this game would explain that but alas it was not to be. Some spoilers of course if you have yet to play the first one

You play as Dracula (formally Gabriel) who in the prelude has his castle; Castlevania attacked by an army of the Brotherhood of Light. He manages to stop the attack but in doing so unleashes a power which destroys his castle and nearly destroys him. Awakening a thousand years later in the near future and severely weakened he discovers a giant city has been built around the remains of his home. Zobek; the Lord of Death and Dracula's long time enemy contacts him asking for his help. The acolytes of Satan have put in motion a plan to free him from Hell and so Zobek suggests an alliance to stop this from happening, in return he will kill Dracula freeing him from the torment immortality has given him.

By setting the game in modern day Lords of Shadow 2 loses a lot of what made the first game so epic. Gone are the huge vistas and varied locations, instead the game is split between two wildly different areas. Half the game takes place in a city that is in a state of ruin, an early story beat sees a virus being released that turns the infected into demons and so the city is in chaos. The problem with the city is that it is mostly so dull looking, the first area in particular (a science facility) was so boring with it's metal walkways and narrow corridors, it was a terrible introduction to the game. With the combination of Gothic architecture and modern day aesthetic there is a kind of neo-Gothic look that occasionally shines, a subway tunnel built on the foundations of Castlevania, huge statues mixed in with phone boxes, neon signs and fire hydrants; these all go together well but the sheer amount of brown and grey ruined buildings, lifeless industrial areas and sewers just cannot compete with the imaginative design of the first games areas.

Thankfully the second half the game is a lot better being based in Castlevania (via Dracula's memory or some such thing). The castle is gigantic and there are many epic views when the camera pans away to show the scale of the place. Rather than have these two different locations one after the other they are mixed up with Dracula frequently hopping back and forth between the two. I liked how these areas both had their own stories going on. The city of course was about stopping Satan's arrival while the castle section had you trying to find a way to defeat 'Inner Dracula' a being made of blood who wishes to stop you from ending your life.

The game world is now all interconnecting rather than level based, there are map rooms that let you warp around the world, while as you play you get more and more abilities to let you get to previously inaccessible areas (such as a mist ability that lets you pass through gates). Hidden around the levels are upgrades for your weapons and health while killing enemies rewards you with XP that you can use to buy new attacks or spend in a shop to buy items.

In combat you have access to three different weapon types that can be switched on the fly. Your default weapon is a whip made out of blood, this is essentially the same weapon that you used in the first game. The first of the other weapons is the Void Sword which gives you health when you attack enemies with it, while it's projectile attack can be used to freeze objects for environmental puzzles. The other new weapons are the Chaos Claws that can be used to destroy enemies armour as well as used to blow things up (again for environmental puzzles). Combat is fun enough with many different combos you can do, while the evade button means you can zip around your foes a lot. Stunned enemies can be 'finished' which usually involves you sucking the blood of the stunned monster.

There is not such a large variety of enemies to fight for this sequel, demons of various sizes and styles seem to be the default creatures, at least in the city sections, you also fight human soldiers and mechs. Trying to dodge machine gun fire is rarely fun though. The castle sections give you more old school monsters such as vampires, harpies and skeletons to battle. Special mention has to go to the many bosses, these were all fun to fight and all ended with gruesome finishers, such as a sword being flung through someone's mouth, or a huge creature being sliced in half vertically. I never found any of these boss fights to be taxing but they are usually multi staged and varied, one fight has you battling against someone with all your powers you had in the first game which was a nice touch.

Not everyone you meet in this game can be defeated though and this is what I feel a lot of people did not like. Stealth pops up quite a few times here, there are huge mechanical monsters who pretty much kill you on sight, to sneak past these you can throw a swarm of bats to distract, or at certain points you can turn into a pack of rats. Now I never really struggled at any of these stealth sections, they are inoffensive enough and not frustrating.

For me what sucked the most (pun not intended) was the archaic nature of the game, this felt like Darksiders to me, a game which came out the same time as the original game, the whole ruined world vibe and the way Dracula climbs around the environment, as well as demons being the main enemy type just gave me a nostalgic hit. Usually upon entering a new area the camera will pan around to highlight just exactly where you need to go, this is a very old fashioned way of approaching sign posting and made Lords of Shadow 2 feel very dated for a game just over a year old. Even with this sign posting there were times where I knew exactly where to go, I just couldn't for the life of me work out how to get there. It can be hard to tell what things are climbable and which are not, you can highlight climbable structures but bizarrely only if you are already climbing a structure, not before. Also some enemies have huge glowing weak spots; again something out dated in modern games.

For all the dull locations there are a few interesting sections; a long chase on a moving train, a theatrical play that you get to choose characters and scenes for, a Metal Gear Solid style sneaking mission all help break up the fighting and climbing. Meanwhile the plot is initially bare bones and very game like with Zobek or the memory of your son sending you on pointless fetch quests but later on there were actually some decent plot twists even if overall the plot is unsatisfying and features an abrupt and damp ending. I was pleased to see all the big name voice actors returning though; Robert Carlyle as Gabriel/Dracula, Patrick Stuart as Zobek, and Jason Issacs as Satan all reprise their roles, though they sound far less interested in what they are saying this time around.

While it was not the first time I have played as a vampire in a game it was a nice change to play as more of a bad guy and there are some decent scenes which play on this concept, I really got quite into Lords of Shadows 2, there was a lot of fun to be had but this just all pales in comparison to the original. Nothing here matches aspects of that game, by moving the setting to a modern day setting a lot of the charm was lost, and the game mechanics already feel quite dated.

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The Sky Has Fallen (2009) - Zombie Horror Film Review

The Sky Has Fallen was written, produced, edited and directed by Doug Roos and has won a few awards including Best Feature at the 2009 Freak Show Horror Film Festival and Best Horror Feature at the 2009 Indie Gathering Film Festival, it was also nominated for Best FX at the 2012 Maverick Movie Awards.

One fateful night a bizarre infection sweeps the globe which decimates mankind; it turns the infected into zombie like creatures. At the same time comes the arrival of mysterious hooded figures; these sadistic killers not only hunt down the non infected but also perform sickening experiments on the dead and dying. Some months later and Lance (Carey MacLaren); a survivor is out in the woods hunting down the leader of these mysterious figures, he thinks if he can kill this one person then the madness will all end.

The Sky Has Fallen had a very different feel to it than other films of this type with an often dreamlike tone. Apart from a few flashbacks the entirity of this piece takes place out in dense woodland which while the location has a story based reason for it being where the characters are sure does save on budget. For the majority of this there are just the two characters; the brooding samurai sword wielding Lance, and Rachel (Laurel Kemper); a girl he meets who decides to team up with him on his quest. For a lot of the film there is little dialogue and plenty of action sequences, the duo are under constant attack from not only the undead but the hooded creatures. This gets into a comfortable cycle with fight scenes in the daytime, dialogue at night usually followed by dream sequences.

Mention has to go to the practical FX of which there are plenty, and wonderfully there is no CGI, not even for blood spray. Bullets thud into creatures with close ups showing the impact via squibs, limbs are cut off, heads severed, someone even gets their spine ripped out. This is one bloody film with the claret spreading everywhere. Blood is never in short supply and when the two are not fighting there is plenty of cut aways to random victims being butchered by either the ghouls or their masters. I always feel the need to mention this when it occurs but there are some scenes of children getting killed, something which is often missing in zombie films for some reason.

There are a lot of zombies here, the make up effects for them are pretty awesome looking, many are stitched up and with crude modifications done to them such as having a scythe blade stitched onto the stump of an arm, or chunks of glass sticking out the eye sockets. The hooded figures have cruel bony hands and are shown to be very powerful, snapping a wrist at one point, yet when they are dispatched they usually just stand there, their bodies substance less. A lot of the action scenes revolve around the samurai sword and reminded me loads of Michonne from The Walking Dead with Lance expertly handling the sword in fights that more resemble slow dances than fast paced encounters. There are also plenty of gun battles, though it was a bit off putting that the guns seemed to have infinite ammo.

Visually the film is a real treat, the special effects are superb and despite the wooded location the setting manages to never feel stale though variation would have been nice. Unfortunately when it comes to dialogue the problems arise. The script is pretty terrible, usually a series of unnatural sounding exchanges where neither character sounds like a real person and more like they are reading from a script, it fits with the dream like tone but with the speed and emotionless way in which the actors say their lines and the fast cuts it seems just plain weird. This isn't helped later on by some really silly and unneeded plot twists revealed via dialogue which just had me dumbfounded as to why anyone thought including them was a good idea. The films editing is different to what I'm used to also, the whole film features a lot of fast edits, usually it is only a few seconds before the shot changes leading to kinetic fast paced sequences which did get dizzying at times and left me hoping for some nice long lazy shots just to slow down the pace. I'm all for the fast edits when they are called for, but when even conversations are stuffed full of inserts and quick camera angle changes it gets slightly too much.

Saving the best till last is the wonderful score by James Sizemore, the music is simply beautiful managing to be so sorrowful and emotive throughout, loved the music and was by far the best thing about The Sky Has Fallen. In terms of plot I really liked how nothing was explained, there is no resolution as to just what or who the figures are, or why they are doing what they have done. It is inferred they could be demons, or even physical manifestations of the infection which spread the globe, and the mission Lance has set himself; to kill the figure he believes to be the leader, I love how it is never explained if it really is the leader or not.

At around 80 minutes this flew by at a rapid pace, The setting may eventually start to get bland, the characters may talk as if they are reciting lines, and the quick cuts may make you long for some slow moments but it certainly looks the part with some fantastic FX, great atmosphere, a decent enough plot, and the score is sublime. If you want to check this out for yourself head over here where the film can be purchased.

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