The Final Girls (2015) - Horror Comedy Film Review

The Final Girls is yet another horror that people on the Fright Meter Awards committee have been raving about. The film is like a horror version of The Last Action Hero with a similar plot device used of people getting sucked into a fictional world.

Max (Taissa Farmiga from American Horror Story) is attending a special screening of Camp Bloodbath; a cult 80's slasher which Max's late mum (Marlin Ackerman) was a character in (a blatant parody of Friday 13th). Not long into the showing and an accidental fire breaks out in the cinema which results in Max and her friends heading for a fire exit behind the screen, but rather than get to the exit they somehow end up inside the world of the film. They soon discover they are unable to leave and realise the only way back is to survive to the end of the movie when the final girl kills the Jason look-a-like butcher. Due to their meddling they accidentally get the heroine of the piece killed and so must now work together to defeat the murderer themselves, but for Max she has a different goal, she wants to save the character Nancy who was the role her mum played...

WolfCop (2014) - Horror Comedy Film Review

Out of all the many classic movie monsters it is werewolves that are by far my least favourite type, I just find something inherently unexciting about them, too animal like and not monster enough. WolfCop is another film I brought based on the fact it had been getting some love on the Fright Meter Awards committee member page, though the fact this is a comedy made me hope it would be better than what the genre usually offers.

Leo Fafard stars as Lou Garou; an alcoholic washed up cop in a small town that has been over run with crime. One night while investigating reports of a disturbance out in some woodland Lou is ambushed by some shadowy figures, coming to he finds it is morning and he is back at home, though has a strange pentagram carved into his chest. He returns to his wasted life but the next night under the light of a full moon something horrifying happens, Lou is somehow now a werewolf! Using his new found strength and sense of smell he sets out to clean up his town, but it seems that whoever caused him to become a werewolf in the first place has some sinister plans in store for him...

Seruta (2016) - Fantasy Film News and Trailer

From the sounds of it black and white indie British film Seruta is more of a fantasy type rather than a horror but it does sound pretty interesting, taking place as it does in ancient Britain 700 years before the Roman conquest. It is set to explore the mythology of the British Isles and is directed, shot and edited by Steven Lyons with Merlyn Roberts producing and starring in the film.

The Celts; horse warriors from the continent have invaded the lands where the Friac tribe live, and so Ontahil in order to save his people must travel to the Isle of the Dead to become a warrior and gain favor from the Gods (by facing the initiation known as Seruta). I have included the teaser trailer below that is very fantasy like featuring both monster type creatures and even a zombie thrown in for good measure.

Seruta is currently beginning it's second cycle of production with the new trailer being released as part of a drive to raise funds to complete. Roberts says of the shoot 'So far it has been a challenging but rewarding project to work on. Ninety percent of the film has been shot on location in forests or by the sea and the elements have been both cruel and kind to us'. This sounds like something different and the topic is not one that has been explored that much, check out the trailer...

Victor Frankenstein (2015) - Horror Film Review

I wasn't expecting much from Victor Frankenstein despite an interesting enough trailer, I just felt that it would be too tame and have yet to see Daniel Radcliffe really shine in anything, however I was pleasantly surprised.

Radcliffe co-stars as a hunchback who is rescued from a life of abuse at a travelling circus by Victor Frankenstein (James McAvoy) who recognises his scientific intellect. After curing his deformity and giving him a place to live he names him Igor and introduces him to his life's work. As everyone knows of course Frankenstein's desire is to create life and with Igors help he gets the knowledge he needs to fulfil his dream of creating man. However with a devoutly religious rogue detective after him (Daniel Mays) and a sinister wealthy benefactor with his own agenda will things go according to plan?

Bunny the Killer Thing (2015) - Horror Film News

Anyone reading from outside of America; this wont really apply to us at all as this is U.S.A based news, however with a trailer to share and being a Friday it seemed like a quick and easy post to do!

Bunny the Killer Thing is a horror comedy from Finland, in it a group of friends head to a remote cabin for a winter weekend, however they soon find themselves at the mercy of a horny six foot tall half man half monster creature whose only desire is to mate. I have included the teaser trailer below but be warned it is NSFW featuring many shots of the creature with it's male member (thankfully fake) showing.

Toronto's Raven Banner and US based distributor Artsploitation Films have picked up the rights for a stateside Blu-ray/DVD release early next year while FilmRise will be doing the VOD release. Artsploitation's Ray Murray says of the film: "Depending on your view, Bunny is either a horribly offensive film wallowing in scenes of rape, nudity and sexual depravity or is a hilarious, inventive and blood-drenched spoof of monster movies. We hope most will side with the latter". If that sounds like your thing then be sure to check it out.

Creep (2014) - Horror Film Review

It is December and the cut off point for the Fright Meter Awards nominations is fast approaching and so I find myself panic watching as many of the films up for nomination as I can, it's a good thing I work better under pressure! Today's film was Creep, I knew nothing about it so when it started and I discovered it was from the found footage genre my heart sank (as always when it comes to that genre). The film actually has a recurring motif of hearts and so that last sentence was accidentally clever by the way.

Aaron (Patrick Brice who also directed and co-wrote this) turns up at the mountain home of Josef (Mark Duplass who also co-wrote) after answering a Craigslist ad. Josef has hired him to follow him around for a day filming everything he does. He soon reveals that he has a terminal illness and wants to create a video diary for his unborn son which seems like a decent enough idea, however things soon take a turn for the creepy when the first thing he wants Aaron to do is film him having a bath. From there things only get stranger and it begins to seem like Josef is less interested in making a film for his child to be and more about getting close to Aaron...

My Master Satan (2016) - Horror Film News

My Master Satan is an upcoming short horror film from Denver filmmaker Dakota Bailey and looks to be pretty bananas. It is actually a sequel to Satan's Coming for You that Bailey previously made and stars the main characters from that one that I admit I haven't heard of.

Alister (Dakota Bailey) and Bubba; two drug addicted maniacs go on a killing spree whilst in pursuit of LSD, along the way they engage in all sorts of violent acts as well as meet up with their serial killer friend Woody. Apparently it all culminates in them having a huge acid trip and once again seeing Satan.

I don't know if knowledge of the previous film is needed or if this can be seen without that, it is hard to make out much in the all too brief trailer (included below). Uniquely this very indie horror was filmed on a VHS camera so I imagine the low quality will be embraced. Personally I love VHS, takes me back to my younger days. It was hard to tell from the trailer if this would be good or not but I wish Bailey and his crew all the best. My Master Satan is released on February 16th 2016.

A Christmas Horror Story (2015) - Horror Film Review

A Christmas Horror Story is a seasonal horror anthology featuring four different tales taking place on Christmas eve, it is kind of similar in style to Trick r' Treat in that while the four stories are unrelated from each other they do intercut at several points and all take place in the same town (mostly).

The four stories are quite different in scope but all have a festive theme to them, they straddle different genres but thematically go together. A group of students researching for a project break into a sealed wing of their school where a year previous two people were found murdered in a ritualistic fashion, but upon going to leave they discover themselves locked in and at the mercy of a ghostly presence. A squabbling family are hunted by the anti-claus Krampus in snowy woodland after a boy maliciously breaks a figurine of the beast (second film in three days I have seen with Krampus in it!). After returning home from a trip to private land to steal a Christmas tree Scott and Kim start to fear something terrible has happened to their son Will, The final story while all this is going on is Santa is at the North Pole battling a zombie outbreak that has turned his elves into bloodthirsty ghouls!

Goodnight Mommy (2014) - Horror Film Review

The Fright Meter Awards Committee have been going on about how good Goodnight Mommy (Ich Seh, Ich Seh) is for ages now and I so I thought a view was in order. This is an Austrian horror from directors and writers Severin Fiala and Veronika Franz and may just be the most straight up horror I have seen in a while.

Twins Lukas and Elias (Lukas and Elias Schwarz) live at a remote home deep in the Austrian countryside with their mother (Susanne Wuest) who has recently returned from having cosmetic surgery done. However the heavily bandaged woman acts far meaner and differently than the boys remember and soon they start to fear she is an impostor, but just what lengths will they go to to prove she is not who she says she is?

Krampus (2015) - Horror Film Review

The trailer for Krampus was pretty odd, it seemed to blend comedy and horror together in a way that didn't really feel right, however coming from director Michael Dougherty (of Trick 'r Treat fame) I was pretty interested to see what his spin on a Christmas horror would be. Krampus does it's best to slowly drip the reveal of how the antagonist goes about his business so there will be minor spoilers in my review.

It is a few days before Christmas and Tom (Adam Scott) and his wife Sarah have her sisters unliked family over for the holidays. The couples son Max (Emjay Anthony) who still believes in Santa gets upset with all the fighting and squabbling going on and in a fit of anger he rips up the letter he had written to him and throws it out the window. His disillusionment however has had the effect of summoning a terrible blizzard that heralds the arrival of Krampus; the anti-claus to his household. Soon the once divided family must band together to try and survive the nightmare that Krampus brings...

Attack on Titan: Part 1 (2015) - Fantasy Film Review

I did a review of the Anime series of Attack on Titan last year and so after watching the first live action film last night I thought I may as well do one for that too. Since coming out I have heard mostly negative reports about the quality of the movie but I wanted to see for myself, especially as while I like the anime I am not in as much love with it as many fans seem to be.

In the world of the film humans live behind three gigantic circular walls that were built hundreds of years in the past as a means to defend humanity against the might of the Titans. The Titans are huge humanoid monsters who exist only to eat people, have not been seen for a hundred years, and so are almost a myth. Eren (Haruma Miura) and his friends Mikasa and Armin sneak out to the outer wall but while they are there a being known as the colossal Titan appears and destroys a part of the wall. In this gap flood an army of Titans who start killing all they see. In the chaos Eren looses Mikasa and it seems she has died. Two years later and all humans have retreated behind the second wall, Eren and Armin are now part of the military and are part of a task force tasked with travelling though the Titan infested lands in order to find a way to block up the gap in the outer structure...

Prototype 2 (2012) - Horror Video Game Review (X-Box 360)

Back in 2010 I played through Prototype which is an open world horror game set in New York after zombie apocalypse erupts. In that game you played as hoodie wearing Alex Mercer who has gained monstrous powers that lets him absorb humans letting him see their memories, as well as turning his body into a deadly weapon. I did enjoy it but felt it got far too hard and frustrating. Maybe Prototype 2 will learn from the mistakes...

Prototype 2 takes place three years after the conclusion of the first game, you play as U.S Marine James Heller who returns from a tour in Iraq to discover his wife and daughter have been killed after a second zombie outbreak in New York. Figuring Alex Mercer is to blame the solider tracks him down but is easily defeated by the super being, yet rather than kill Heller, Mercer instead infects him, turning him into a mutant like him. Mercer then tells him that he wasn't the one who started this new outbreak, it is instead an evil organisation called Blackwatch who are using the chaos as a way to test out new strains of a mutant virus. Full of anger Heller sets out to destroy all those to blame for his loss.

Outpost 31 Isn't Responding (2015) by Videogram - Horror Music Single

I love Magnus Sellergran's work under the Videogram name, he makes beautiful synth filled tributes to the exploitation and horror films of the 1980's. Back in September he released a new single which is a tribute to John Carpenter's classic remake of The Thing.

The single features two tracks which are both inspired by the film and were originally intended for the new Videogram album Pre-Cert (out now) but came to be released alone. First track Outpost 31 Isn't Responding is five minutes of nostalgic bliss, the influence of the films main theme is obvious and so the synth beat and constant drums conjured up images of the ill fated science station in my mind. Second track Antarctica at two minutes is over all too soon but is another track full of mournful synth and repetitious beat that is a fun listen.

The art work is by U.S artist Van Davis, you can check his site out here if you like what you see. The single is out now on Bandcamp (here) for the cheap price of $2, while his other work, including his new album can also be purchased there. Outpost 31 Isn't Responding is also available on iTunes for £1.58.