The Rotting Zombie's News Anthology for Tuesday 18th April 2023

I've had a rare week this week when I could pretty much choose my own stuff to review. I can't say I chose the best films but never mind. Here today are three news stories plucked from my inbox. First a side trip into the world of cyberpunk.

I typically skip over the emails regarding cyberpunk sounding music. I love the genre but never feel its that good a fit on my horror blog. I was preparing to skip past an email about Nouveau Arcade, that was until I saw they have released a cyberpunk infused cover of Garbage's almighty track 'Only Happy When It Rains', which happens to be one of my favourite songs of all time. In terms of sound this is pure electronic synth based music, it takes the lyrics of the Garbage song but wraps them around an entirely different sound, creating a more epic sounding song. I do prefer the original though. Nouveau Arcade said of the cover 'We felt the desire to re interpret the lyrics to have a sound of vulnerability and feeling loneliness and isolation that we were experiencing as a society during the height of the pandemic'.

Wasteland is a post-apocalyptic thriller that takes place in a world ruined by a deadly virus. Scott Miller is a survivor who holds on to hope that one day his beloved Beth will return. This comes from Acort International and Midnight Releasing, the cover image reminds me a lot of I Am Legend. I actually reviewed this back in 2013, giving it a respectable seven out of ten I said of it "I...really enjoyed Wasteland thanks to some decent locations used, a solid story and great acting."

Finally for today, am light on details, but was contacted by Michelle Romano, the producer, and one of the lead actresses on Devanny Pinn's directorial debut of her true crime thriller Black Mass. The film will have its official screening at the Marche du Film in Cannes on May 21st. Included among its cast are Jeremy London, Lew Temple, Sarah Nicklin, Devanny Pinn, Eileen Deitz, Kathleen Kinmont, Jennifer Wenger, Lisa Wilcox and Susan Lanier.

Fanga (2022) - Horror Film Review

Fanga is an Icelandic fairytale horror film that puts its own spin on the well known Beauty and the Beast story. Directed and written by Max Gold, this tells a familiar tale with a slight twist to it, and uses sparse, yet beautiful looking locations to tell that tale. Apologies to the actors here as I'm not entirely sure how to type their names the way some of them should be typed!

With her father close to death, Belle (Andrea Snaedal) seeks the help of the local wise woman (Hana Vagnerová) to assist. The woman tells the girl that the only way to prolong his life is to seek out a magical rose that is said to be guarded by a beast. Belle finds the cave where the flower is kept, and encounters the beast, who turns out to be a man afflicted with a curse (Gudmundur Thorvaldsson). Surprisingly he allows her to take the rose, but upon returning home she is informed by the wise woman that unless she stays by the beast's side her father's condition will once again deteriorate. For the sake of her father, Belle decides to go and live with the beast, and comes to form a friendship with the man, as well as learning that the only way for his curse to be lifted is for him to fall in love.

While just over ninety minutes long, Fanga (translating as Prisoner) managed to be a real slow moving film. It got me thinking that maybe a lazy Sunday wasn't the best time to view it as I legitimately kept falling asleep trying to watch it. This hides its budget by having natural locations for the most part, rather than sets, and by having a very minimal cast. Rather than be an actual beast, the man is normal looking, if deeply troubled. When the urge takes over him however he becomes a mindless killer who feasts on his victims, with it insinuated that the curse means the only way he is able to eat is by consuming the flesh of his victims. There was a decent dynamic between the two main characters, with Belle never seeming to be afraid of the man, and him never really being a threat, only on the rare occasions when he transforms. The make-up effects are subtle, with his transformation being more in the way he acts than in the way he looks.

Most the film takes place in and around the beast's remote cave, surrounded by some beautiful and lonely looking scenery. Not too much happens in a horror sense, this has more of a feel of a fairytale than of a horror, but this has some moments, such as the creepy looking zombie like creature that stands guard at the cave's entrance, a neat scene where the beast's prior victims stand around him as ghosts, and some arthouse style nightmare sequences later on which stitch together a variety of disparate images. The beasts attacks include some decent sound effects, but mainly the attacks are not shown on screen, with the afterwards moments shown more keenly than the actual attacks.

There isn't really more to say about Fanga, a very slow moving story which does put its own unique spin on a classic story. For me, I found it to be a struggle to watch due to how slow and uneventful it all was, despite the competent filmmaking and the great locations used.

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The Artifice Girl (2022) - Sci-fi Thriller Film Review

This isn't a typical film I would review on this horror focussed website. I do however sometimes stick my feet into other genres if I feel they are interesting enough subjects. With the Franklin Ritch written and directed The Artifice Girl you have moral quandaries about A.I and free will, a story somewhat similar to Ex Machina, though one more sentimental than what that turned into.

The film begins with a man, Gareth (Ritch) being questioned by two officers who are focussed on capturing online child predators. Deena (Sinda Nichols) and Amos (David Girard) know the man is hiding a secret but the revelation is something neither are prepared for. Gareth had been trapping predators and then giving evidence to the group anonymously, and it had been assumed he had been using a young girl as part of his process. It turns out however that the girl, Cherry (Tatum Matthews) isn't actually real, she is instead an A.I that Gareth had created. With the film split into three acts, set over fifty years, it charts the transition of this construct, and her increasing evolution into a real person.

This was described in the press release as a cerebral sci-fi thriller and with the entirety of the movie taking place in just three small rooms that is the case. There is lots and lots and lots of dialogue here, with mainly the cast of  four characters talking in depth about what it is to be alive, and self awareness. The first act alone is forty minutes in a dark tiny room with no decoration to it, yet the subject matter meant this still remained interesting. The second act, with a fifteen year time jump moves the events to another equally small room for a further twenty five minutes, before it does the final time skip of another twenty five years which for a change has a more light and airy setting.

The characters fall into several types, with Gareth being perhaps the least noble of them in terms of how he views Cherry. To him, she was created to serve a singular purpose, and her increasing awareness of herself as a person gives him struggles. His own personal demons have been transferred to the A.I, with him accepting her 'aliveness', but still seeing her as a tool. Amos on the other hand is almost the opposite, even before she becomes self aware he isn't able to see her as just a computer program, and the character of Deena is more in the middle, acting as a more neutral voice.
Usually I can't stand child actors, but with Matthews you had someone who seemed to effortlessly be able to change between the stages of her development. Each transition felt believable, and having her as a non-aging persona worked well, set against the increasing ages of the human characters. It leads to the third act that sees film legend Lance Henriksen (Aliens) take on the role of an elderly Gareth, a pivotal act that brings the film full circle.
With a film as wordy as this one it was essential the characters were chosen well, and with The Artifice Girl you have that. One complaint really is how sentimental this all is, there are a few scenes of violence, but it was violence served to sell a point, there is not really any discussion into any type of threat a true 'super intelligence' A.I might pose. The human characters may be flawed but they are people with good goals.

If you are after a ninety five minute 'what-if' on how a true A.I may come to be, this makes for a fascinating film. It is very wordy though and there isn't too much going on at all outside of this laser focussed story. With a great choice of actors, surprisingly, especially with Matthews, this was a very interesting delve into the topic of A.I, slightly exhausting to watch, but well made, and believable for the most part, at least for such an optimistic outlook on A.I. The Artifice Girl will be available to buy or rent on digital platforms on May 1st, from Vertigo Releasing.

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The Rotting Zombie's News Anthology for 13th April 2023

The best laid plans of mice and men. This Easter weekend I had intended to have a peaceful few days of blogging and solitude, things didn't exactly go as planned due to a rare night out in town that led to two days of hangover residual. Getting older is great! It's slightly killing me doing my blog (at time of typing), so here is a news post to make the fourth post I have written for next week.

Excess Flesh is a horror that comes from Acort International and Midnight Releasing. It is about a woman named Jill who becomes obsessed with her new roommate, Jennifer, who herself is successful in the LA fashion scene. The jealous Jill comes to the deranged realisation that if she cannot become this woman then she must destroy her.

Hamburg-based gothic rockers Girls Under Glass have recently released a new black and white video for their track 'We Feel Alright', which is taken from their upcoming album 'Backdraft'. The band, who have been together since 1986 has their press release state '...return with fiery new tracks that take the best elements from the band's past and shapes them into an album that leads the way to the future'.

Finally for today, another film from Acort International and Midnight Releasing. Reset stars Ben Barlow and Alyssa Corella. The details are scant, but basically, Danielle passes out at a house party she has gone to. Waking up, she is alarmed to find herself in a remote cabin, whose owner initially appears to be nice, but it soon becomes clear his intentions are not so benevolent. 

A Field in England (2013) - Horror Film Review

I first read about A Field in England around a month ago on Whatculture and immediately knew it was a film I had to watch. Directed by Ben Wheatley (Free Fire, Kill List), and co-written by him, along with Amy Jump, this horror period piece featured a bunch of actors I mostly knew for comedic roles. While this certainly has lots of moments of black humour, overall this is just about played more straight than silly.

The film takes place in England during the English Civil War in the 17th century. Whitehead (Reece Shearsmith - Inside No.9, The League of Gentlemen TV shows) is an alchemist's assistant who has found himself caught up in the civil war after being sent on a mission for his master. Hiding from the violence, and more specifically his commander, Trower (Julian Barratt - The Mighty Boosh), the cowardly man soon encounters three soldiers from the opposing side, Cutler (Ryan Pope), seasoned career soldier Jacob (Peter Ferdinando - Ghost in the Shell), and simpleton, Friend (Richard Glover - Rogue One, Malevolence). Putting aside their differences, Cutler leads the men in a mutual desertion, stating the goal is to go to an ale house. Instead, Cutler secretly is working for the sinister alchemist, O'Neil (Michael Smiley - The World's End, Spaced TV series), who turns out to be the man that Whitehead had been ordered to locate, due to him having stolen his master's research. O'Neil and Cutler take the men prisoner, with O'Neil stating that there is a treasure hidden in the field with which he has set up camp.

I love an intriguing title, which was what initially drew me to this, even before discovering there were some comedic actors I like starring in it. Well, some of them were anyway, despite a high billing, Barratt was only in the film for a couple of minutes at the very start, I had hoped for more for him. Thankfully the other cast members were all great in their own way. Glover brings kindness and light to his scenes, playing the role of a man who lives up to his name of Friend, he also brings a lot of the less dark comedy to the movie. Shearsmith was the main protagonist, a devoutly religious coward who is out of his depth, having lived most his life around books. O'Neil was great as the antagonist, almost but not quite stealing every scene he appeared in. I felt a bit bad that Cutler and Jacob become accidentally interchangeable to me, several times in the film I had gotten these characters mixed up due to them looking quite similar to each other.

The entire film is in black and white, and certainly lives up to the title as the whole movie takes place in a field. Not having the highest budget, the whole civil war aspect is glossed over due to it occuring the opposite side of a hedgerow, so it is just sounds of battle that are heard with nothing really shown, outside of a few explosions. This was a low burn horror, and one that relied for the first two thirds almost exclusively on the actors, the field itself is completely nondescript, apart from O'Neil's tent. This was also something that become increasingly arthouse in style, with the trappings of that sub-genre, such as some full frontal nudity, dizzyingly abstract editing for some of the more tripper scenes, and a plot that was very undefined, it really is left up to the viewer to piece together their own interpretations  of what exactly is happening. Personally, I put a lot of the surreal weirdness that occurs down to the mushrooms the hungry deserters ingest early into the film, with them showing definite signs of that fungus having 'magical' properties.

Elements of the filmmaking I really enjoyed, the best moments being these very strange and striking sinister tableaus that has the characters standing in purposeful poses, not moving, but not paused images, while the camera focuses on different elements of the staged scene. These felt like they were designed to evoke a certain feeling, and I lived for them, the highlight moments of the film. There was a sense of  mystique to what was happening, and helping this feeling was a perfectly crafter soundtrack that fitted the vibe so incredibly well. Special effects were sparse but used effectively, one that had a character's face exploding outwards stood out in its startling use.

For all that A Field in England gets right, it's fair to say the lack of much explanation for the story led to moments of despairing confusion for me. The actors were strong in their roles, and I liked how the language they use appears relevant to the time, rather than altered to make their lines easier to understand. I had hoped for something that had more happening, things do ramp up for a more thrilling final act, but sometimes this went a little too arthouse for my liking. Still, this was a memorable film, the first horror I have ever seen set during this particular time period in England, and one that achieved what it sets out to do, even if it became occasionally a little hard to follow. 

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Chronic Quicksand Depression Morning (2023) by Assassun - Music Album Review

The excellently titled 'Chronic Quicksand Depression Morning' is the second album from Assassun, a relatively new incarnation from Berlin based musician Alexander Leonard Donat (whose other monikers include among them, Vlimmer). I recall having enjoyed last year's 'Sunset Skull', so was prepared to enjoy this one also. As always when it comes to reviewing music, I must state first that I know next to nothing about music. For this album, I listened to it twice while tidying my house, a third listen as I try and crash through this review.

The album is described as '...a clash of glistening retro-futuristic synthwave/EBM with bitter and raw punk/wave vocals - a bleak descent into the exhausted psyche struggling to survive the daily terror of human interaction'. That sums it up far better than I ever could, especially as glancing at my notes they are very sparse.
The forty five minute album opens with 'Excavate', a sneering punk song set against a hypnotic industrial beat. I was taken by just how good the music sounded. It has a slightly discordant twist to the tunes that never gets tiring. Most the tracks I made notes against them saying how good they sound, enough that on a few occasions I found myself humming and vaguely dancing along as I cleaned. Tracks like 'At Gunpoint', 'Fear Doubled' and 'Amniotic Concrete' all have such cool beats to them.
Much like 'Sunset Skull', this has a bitter, angry, and resentful sound to it, with the songs sounding like a way to release pent up emotions. Ones in particular, like 'Shapeshifters' and closing track 'Down On Me' suggest the anguish of a failed relationship, and the depression that follows that. The dark electronic sound permeates the album, as does the retro feeling of the 1980's, with 'Unfold On My Chest' a prime example of this classic type of sound.

'Chronic Quicksand Depression Morning' was a worthy follow up to last year's album. A dark and bitter sounding work of music that shines thanks to its addictive and catchy beats.

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The Quantum Devil (2022) - Horror Film Review

The Quantum Devil is a H.P Lovecraft inspired horror that at the very least has a great look and style to it. Directed by Larry Wade Carrell (Girl Next), who also co-wrote this, this film mainly suffers from an unlikeable cast and too much reliance on pseudo-scientific babble to carry its confusing plot. Apologies if the synopsis isn't completely accurate, it was a bit hard to follow!

Four gifted but troubled experts are invited to the remote home of a disgraced scientist, Dr. Richard Cernovich (Neil Dickson - Ms. Marvel TV series) in eastern Europe to be given the opportunity of a lifetime. They include quantum physicist Luke (Tyler Tackett - Renaissance of the Dead), chemist Brad (Edward Apeagyei), empath Sophie (Tamara Radovanovic), and former medical student Ivanna (Ariadna Cabrol). Cernovich reveals he had been working on a method by which people could travel to the quantum realm with full control over their body and actions, he wants the four's help in perfecting his experiment, with the reward being not only recognition for their contribution to sciences, but also enough money for them to begin new lives (due to each of them having done some pretty terrible things in their pasts). They agree, but before they begin Cernovich is called away on business. In short time they complete the equations and test it out on themselves. Initially it appears to have failed, but as strange occurrences begin to ramp up, they realise that maybe they had been successful after all, and may in fact be in the terrifying quantum realm.

This starts off well, following Luke as he travels by taxi one dark and stormy night to a seemingly abandoned factory. There is some nice foreshadowing in the form of graffiti of a tentacled creature, and then when he states he used to work at the fictitious Miskatonic University from the works of Lovecraft I was certainly interested. It soon becomes clear there are no saints here, instead all characters are kind of evil, and are aware they are. It is soon established via some exposition from Cernovich about just what their crimes are, which was a neat part of the film featuring flashbacks playing over his narration. When the film begins in earnest however I soon got lost in all the probably made up terms, with the group talking amongst themselves using so many random scientific terms and ideas that I just could not follow what was happening. Despite all the techno-speak, this devolved into something that outside of all the hard to follow speech, was basically kind of like A Nightmare on Elm Street situation of them being trapped in a kind of dreamworld where their past sins come back to literally haunt them.

It is this second half of the film where more happens, each of the four characters get their own little segments where they discover death isn't the end for them. This has some nice special effects for some scenes, such as a character who gets skinned alive, and some not so great effects, as at times there is the appearance of tentacles that had an odd cartoony look to them. The actors were fine, it was just hard to feel much for any of them, especially Luke, who was made into the protagonist. Dickson's role called for him to be very over the top, leading to lots of scenes of people laughing evilly for not much reason. There were a few fun side roles, such as Mehmet Cerrahoglu (Baskin) who played a Knick Knack type role to Dickson's Scaramanga, and legend Robert Englund (A Nightmare on Elm Street film series) in a small voice only role.

This had a great visual look to it, but I found the plot hard to follow and not really that interesting. I am often a fan of style over substance, but there wasn't enough here for me to really grip onto, The Quantum Devil wasn't a dull film, but nor did I ever find myself that invested into the story it was trying to tell.

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Human Hibachi 2: Feast in the Forest (2022) - Found Footage Horror Film Review

Human Hibachi 2: Feast in the Forest is the second film this week that was a sequel to a film I had not watched. In this case, that film was 2020's Human Hibachi, a found footage horror that was set in a restaurant for cannibals. The sequel moves the action to woodland, always a cheaper location for horror films to be based at. This was again written and directed by Mario Cerrito (The Listing) and brought a couple of the original cast back.

This begins with some title text explaining how the snuff film 'Human Hibachi' had been intercepted by police and subsequently leaked online, with all but two of the perpetrators being arrested. Having seen the movie, a family of woodland rednecks have become obsessed and inspired by it, leading them to take up cannibalism for themselves. They hope to make their own movie, with the intention to succeed where the first filmmakers failed, by selling their cannibalistic snuff movie on the dark web. They have also heard rumours that the two people who escaped justice are now living rough somewhere in the woods they also live in, so hope to find them so they can show their appreciation by giving them a feast to remember.

While an indie horror movie, I expected this to be a lot rougher than what it actually was. The found footage idea is used for all the shots here, though sometimes that doesn't make sense within the context of the film, with both the footage actually being shot mixed in, along with first person perspective sequences from people that aren't actually filming anything. Much of the first half of the horror has the redneck brothers out in the woods capturing and cooking unsuspecting victims. This was the better of the two halves, and I liked how they would sit around discussing what they were going to do. The second half mainly takes place at the remote family home, where the titular feast is created for Doug Patrick (Jeff Alpert - Human Hibachi) who they have finally located. It was this second half where some of the film's issues came about, mainly a lack of much plot.
The feast scene is long and mainly involves the characters sat around a table of body parts, laughing at how evil and twisted they all are, commenting on how the meat tastes, while making painfully bad 'dad jokes' about the body parts they are consuming. The story stalled here with not much really going on, until the twist epilogue which I'm assuming brought more from the first movie to this sequel. There was one key line from Doug which seemed big enough for the change in tempo in the film's score, but a line that I couldn't understand even after skipping back a few times to try and make out what was said. Other than that though, I had no trouble with the dialogue, a good sound mix meant much was easy to make out.

There are of course scenes of violence, with such fun highlights as a man being forced to cut off his own private part (subsequently used by his captors for fishing!), and a fun first person perspective from a victim who is getting sawn up with a chainsaw. Suitably bloody moments, and the eating scenes featured what I assume was real meat mixed in with more obvious fake body parts. None of the food looked appetising, I can say that much! Many of the victims are killed straight away rather than being made to suffer, with the exception of a couple of characters. I'm never a fan of long scenes of needless torture, so I'm glad that often this all happened away from the camera.

The subject matter of Human Hibachi 2: Feast in the Forest wasn't to my liking, but I was prepared to feel a little queasy, I was also prepared to feel a little bored, gladly I was only the former. While I would have liked more going on storywise, the characters mainly were decent enough, found footage horror films shown from the perspective of the antagonists isn't a new idea, but it does make for entertaining movies. I did feel I missed out on some context having not seen the first movie, especially when it came to the epilogue, but being mainly made up of new characters I never felt that lost. 

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The Rotting Zombie's News Anthology for April 6th 2023

My second news post of the week. In my dull news alert, I was lazy and ordered Greggs for breakfast today (Sunday at time of typing), they forgot to deliver my coffee which was the whole point of the order. First world problems and all that!

Some films featuring legendary actor Nicolas Cage have arrived on the Arrow streaming subscription platform. Here has taken to off the wall horror films like a duck to water, featuring in some very memorable ones in the past such as Willy's Wonderland, Color Out of Space and Mandy. In April three of his films get added to the service. Pay the Ghost has Cage as a grieving father haunted by the disappearance of his son a year previously, with him discovering the bizarre supernatural reason behind it.
Army of One is apparently based on a true story, with Cage armed with a samurai sword, out on a mission to Pakistan to kill Osama Bin Laden, upon the orders of a man that he believes to be God (Russell Brand).
Finally is Inconceivable, which has Cage's character and his wife befriending a mother and daughter new to the town, not realising the mother hides a terrible secret from her past. They are all added to the service on April 14th.

The Yellow Wallpaper is now out on Blu-ray from Bayview Entertainment. Directed by Kevin Pontuti, and starring Alexandra Loreth, Joe Mullins, and Jeanne O'Connor, this tells the story of a writer who is taken to a remote country estate by her husband, so that she can get some prescribed rest. It is there she becomes obsessed with the titular wallpaper, with her secretly writing about a woman that she believes may be trapped in the wallpaper.

Suburbanite is a thriller from Acort International and Midnight Releasing, that stars Joe Nemmers, Jodie Moore, Frank Mosley, Susana Gibb and Max Hartman. Directed by Andy Lohrenz, this tells the story of John, who accidentally runs a man over while returning home from work late one night. Hoping to hide his accidental crime, the man takes the body back to his house, but then the victim wakes up, and John must decide how far he will go to protect his name.

Harvest of the Dead: Halloween Night (2020) - Horror Film Review

I was a bit hesitant about watching Harvest of the Dead: Halloween Night, and that was due to it being a sequel to a film I hadn't watched, 2015's Harvest of the Dead. Both were co-directed with Peter Goddard, with him joined by Terence Elliott for the sequel, with them both also writing the story for this (and Elliott playing the part of the killer). This may be a low budget indie horror, but I was actually surprised by how much more I enjoyed the film than I had expected to. Likely some spoilers for Harvest of the Dead to follow.

It is the day after Halloween and Sally Burns (Dani Thompson - Devil in the Woods) and her friends are joining up at her house for her birthday party. Meanwhile, Detective Faust (Kevin Hallett - Kill Keith, Season of the Witch) is investigating a gruesome murder, with it feared a serial killer is loose in the area. Unfortunately for Sally, it appears the masked killer (Elliott) has chosen her party for his new killing ground.

It is always good when films on the lower end of the budget scale are well aware of the restrictions they may face. With Halloween Night, the emphasis was put on the protagonists, with the antagonist duo of the masked killer and his master barely really making an appearance. The film is instead split between two plots of equal length. Half the film takes place at Sally's house in the lead up to, and then the party she is hosting. This introduces a bunch of disposable young adults, with the usual drama of cheating partners, drunken sex and unwanted advances. It was a bit jarring to have the masked killer first appear here in the upstairs bathroom, with no explanation of how he came to be there. The killer is silent, and being the only 'guest' wearing a mask (or really in costume for that matter), it seemed odd his presence hadn't been noticed. To be fair, there were a couple of other characters who also successfully infiltrated the party.

The other storyline happening concurrently is the police investigation into the murder of a middle aged woman, who got killed by the masked man in the prologue, who had been trying to kill a young woman. Having not seen the first movie, I assume that young woman was the sole survivor of the first film. The Detective doesn't do much more than walk and talk with his partner, but I found the conversations bizarrely interesting. There was a natural way of speaking that made the stories being told entertaining to listen to.

There are a bunch of scenes of murder, many of them including various type of blood substitutes, but none that looked particularly amazing on screen. There was a nice eye gouge scene that looked fun, stood out from some of the others. For the third act the film changes from a slasher film into a different genre of horror. I won't spoil that surprise, but for me it was unexpected, and also pretty cool. The make-up effects for that part were varied and inconsistent, but for that horror genre that is exactly what I wanted. It all culminates quite open ended, but despite only being seventy two minutes in length, the film had too many endings, with three different end scenes placed one after the other.

I admit, going into Harvest of the Dead: Halloween Night I had low expectations. Not only due to it being a sequel to a film I hadn't seen, but also due to being an indie slasher. By focusing on the characters more than the killer this actually benefited, while the late genre shift was something I was never going to complain about. Harvest of the Dead: Halloween Night came to Blu-ray on 28th February from VIPCO and Bayview Entertainment.

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The Rotting Zombie's News Anthology for 4th April 2023

I'm soon to be leaving The Rotting Zombie HQ in order to go and see John Wick 4 (at the time of writing. I can report it was ace). Obviously I haven't mentioned that film series here due to it not being a horror, needless to say however, I am quite excited. I'm hoping to get two small news posts written before I depart, so here is the first...

Make Up sounds like a thriller, and it is one that was directed by Claire Oakley, and was released on Blu-ray on March 28th from Bayview Entertainment. It stars Joseph Quinn (Stranger Things), Molly Windsor (War of the Worlds), and Stefanie Martini (The Last Kingdom). The brief synopsis in the press release states 'On a remote holiday park in Cornwall, a young woman is drawn into a mysterious obsession when she suspects her boyfriend has cheated on her.'

April 25th marks the Blu-ray debut of cult horror film Lovers Lane, with a new 2K restoration from a 4K scan of the original 35mm camera negative, coming from Arrow Video US. This came out originally in the late 90's, post Scream. The story has a hook handed killer reappearing thirteen years after a Valentine's Day massacre at the titular 'Lovers Lane'. High school students Chloe (Sarah Lancaster), Mandy (Erin J. Dean) and their friends get caught up in this latest outbreak of psychotic violence. The Blu-ray release includes two versions of the film, the widescreen 1.85:1 version and a full-frame 1.33:1 version, as well as a new audio commentary, featurette, trailers, an image gallery, as well as a reversible sleeve.

Finally for today, Alaskan based goth rock duo Cliff and Ivy have recently released a new single, 'Die Tonight' on their label House of Extreme Darkness. Described as a dark punk song, the press release states it is a '...song for those who love like vampires - legendary, eternal and full of fire.' The track is available on all streaming services including Bandcamp.

Fall (2022) - Thriller Film Review

In my day job I was speaking to someone and they mentioned the new to Netflix movie Fall. Now, I'm terrified of heights, in fact I would say that is my biggest fear in the real world, so I felt I needed to see this to see how it would affect me. I had no intention to actually review this, it was more watched for my own enjoyment. But I saw someone term this as 'survival horror', and that actually is a good term for it, joining films such as Open Water and The Shallows, while also falling into the same issues those had.

Becky (Grace Caroline Currey - Shazam! Fury of the Gods, Annabelle: Creation), her husband Dan (Mason Gooding - Scream VI, Scream), and best friend, Hunter (Virginia Gardner - Halloween) are three adrenaline junkies who get their kicks by free climbing mountains and tall structures. After one such expedition leads to Dan's death, Becky falls into a deep depression. Hunter, a popular vlogger, comes up with a plan to fix her friend, she suggests that in order to both get over her fear of climbing, and as a tribute to Dan, they will climb a disused 2,000 foot tall radio tower in order to spread his ashes from the top. Things go to plan all the way to the top, however, when they go to begin the climb down, the rusty and badly maintained ladder falls away, leaving them stranded. With no way to contact the world below, and with no access to food, water, or shelter, the two must work together to try and find a way to survive.

The film may fall into some of the pitfalls that this genre of movie always suffers from, but it at least worked at being really scary for me. In fact, over the decades of watching horrors I can say I have never had to pause a film and take a break from the terror, yet for Fall, there came a moment when I had to do just that, unable to watch until I had gone for a tiny walk around my house to put myself back into the real world for a few minutes. After a silly prologue (why on Earth are these friends free climbing mountains? Hard to feel too bad for them when Dan dies!) it doesn't take too long to get to the tower, where the majority of the one hour forty seven minute movie takes place. The initial climb was terrifying to me, dizzyingly filmed with plenty of insert shots showing various screws coming loose on the infernal contraption, in a way that brought to mind the Final Destination movies. In my mind I was begging for the two to abandon their plan and get the heck back to solid ground. This all comes to a head at the very top where my panic at the vertigo peaked.

I enjoyed the film, but after the initial climb the fear subsided slightly, which wasn't helped by the typical impulse to put all sorts of implausible situations into the film to give some variety. Of course there turns out to be some secret between the two that causes a rift, of course, their every attempt to contact the outside world goes farcically wrong (trying to send a drone with a note tied to it, managing to get the attention of a passer-by who then takes advantage of their situation to steal their car, stuffing a phone into a shoe with the hope the message they have tried to send on it will get signal and send before that hits the ground), and the increasing attacks by vultures came across as funny rather than scary. Fall would have benefited by being a good half an hour shorter, maybe get to the tower itself quicker, and not having as many stupid things happen whilst up there. The plot does eventually get back on track, but some of the ending is glossed over, with some pivotal moments occuring in-between scenes.
The two protagonists were perfectly fine, I've read some complaints about the unrealistic dialogue, but I found it entertaining. The subplot about one of them having a secret was needless, I barely even paid it any attention. The always great Jeffrey Dean Morgan (The Walking Dead, Supernatural) had a small part here, but due to how little he was in the movie he came across as distracting, despite being as great as ever.

I don't think a movie has ever made me sweat as much as I did while watching Fall. The sense of being up high was effective, despite some occasional subpar CG taking away from the believability. This would have been better in a shorter format, but was a movie that I had to watch in one sitting (to be truthful I was so stressed about the character's situation that I had to read the Wikipedia entry to see how the story would be resolved). It may use some tired tropes to pad out the run time, but any film that is about being trapped up high was always going to be something that would get my blood pumping. Fall can currently be streamed on Netflix.

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Summoning Sylvia (2023) - Comedy Horror Film Review

Summoning Sylvia is a LGBTQ comedy horror film which is the feature length directorial debut of writers/directors Wesley Taylor and Alex Wyse. With a run time of just under seventy five minutes this didn't have time to outstay its welcome, and was actually a pretty enjoyable movie, despite a lot of the humour not hitting.

Larry (Travis Coles - Brooklyn Nine-Nine TV series) has been taken away by his flamboyant best friends, Nico (Frankie Grande), Reggie (Troy Iwata - What Lies Below), and Kevin (Noah J. Ricketts - American Gods TV series) for a bachelor weekend at a house that is reputed to be haunted. While there, they decide to hold a seance to try and get in contact with the spirit of a woman named Sylvia (Veanne Cox - The Mandalorian TV series), someone who once owned the house, with the legend being that she murdered her son there, before being killed herself by an angry mob seeking justice. Not long after sees the arrival of Harrison (Nicholas Logan - Watchman TV series), the very serious and very straight army brother of Larry's future husband, who is put off by the gay antics of the group. With unexplainable noises around the mansion, and with Harrison's behaviour becoming more and more psychotic, the friends come to believe that their séance was successful, and that Sylvia's spirit has come to possess Harrison.

With the majority of the characters here gay, this fits the LGBTQ tag, but as always, this works perfectly fine as a comedy horror, without that needing to factor in too much. There were a couple of sex scenes, played for laughs more than anything, while the horror was slight, as to be expected with a comedy horror. I thought the chemistry between the four friends was very good, they're overly dramatic way of speaking led to a chilled and relaxed atmosphere. At first I found Harrison to be as unpleasant a character as he was portrayed to be, with him bringing down the fun tone. Thankfully, this is a comedy horror which didn't need a bodycount, there are definite scenes of horror, but the threat remained wisely low.

The comedy didn't appeal too much to me, but as I always say, anything which doesn't revolve around sex or bodily functions is fine with me, the humour here was inoffensive, and there were a few parts that were amusing. One scene for instance had Nico mistaking the pizza delivery guy for a ghost, which led to a funny back and forth between the two, with both thinking the other was talking about something other than what they actually meant. While this could have easily all been set in the present, there were flashback sequences that play out to show what happened with Sylvia and her son. I liked how these were integrated, blending the present and past together in a way that never stilted the flow. Characters had more depth to them than expected, with some getting somewhat satisfying character arcs, such as Larry who feels the need to repress his true self in order to try and appeal to Harrison's blinkered viewpoint. Aside from a song and dance number towards the end, I really didn't mind the movie, it was laid back, and told its story in a decent enough way.

The intention here was obviously to be funny first and scary a very distant second. The plot at least leads to some entertaining moments, with the hook of if the house is actually haunted or not being something I was interested to see be resolved. A good cast of likeable characters led to this being a good choice of movie to watch on a lazy Sunday afternoon (being Sunday at the time of writing). The Horror Collective released Summoning Sylvia in theatres nationwide in North America, with Cable VOD and Digital HD releases coming on April 7th.

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