Death Metal (2023) - Horror Film Review

Back when I first heard of the Michael Kuciak directed and written Death Metal I knew it was a film I would be interested in checking out for a review. The idea of a piece of cursed media that drives anyone who hears it insane is an idea that has been used in various ways over the years, whether it be a cursed guitar in 2013's Music Store Massacre, or cursed movies, such as with Screen and the Masters of Horror episode 'Cigarette Burns'. Following a rough start, this nasty indie film (nasty in the best way) soon came to delight, thanks to some great practical special effects, plenty of gore, and some good sound design.

After a disastrous European tour that nearly ended their band, death metal group Abyssinister are convinced to come together to record a new record by their founding member, Ivan (Nico Zahniser). Having hired a top producer, Fleming (E. Ray Goodwin), they head to his remote farmhouse to record in his new state of the art basement studio. It is there that Ivan tells his bandmates that while in Europe he came across a piece of music named the 'Devil's Concerto', which legend states caused all who heard it to go insane and kill themselves. He has mixed it into a rough demo of the band's new album, but after playing it to the group strange things begin to happen. One by one they begin to experience terrifying hallucinations and unexplainable body trauma, and one by one they are found dead or go missing, for it appears the legend about the curse was actually real.

This didn't get off to the best start, as the first four minutes is pretty much a music video for an actual metal band. I guess that was to set the vibe, as the band members we follow are never really shown playing their instruments much, but it was quite dull, especially for someone who isn't really into that genre of music. That coupled with some strange editing decisions nearly lost me early on, but thankfully things soon picked up. There was a weird use of slow motion when showing scenery, and these odd zoomed in insert shots of characters facial expressions that repeat after they have been shown once. It was a little off putting, but the later appearances of these worked a lot better once the horror began.

There was a nice selection of characters, I wish there had been more depth given to some of them, particularly the sullen and moody Ivan who never once came across as remotely likeable. Best of the bunch was Chris Richard's mild and friendly Satan worshipping character, who had some of more funny moments, such as when he reveals he had legally changed his name to 'Baphomet', and who refuses to wear prosthetic devil horns during their first act performance due to being against his beliefs. On the whole the film is serious, and tells a dark story, but there were a few moments like that which poked fun at the genre. A lovely campfire scene where Ivan's girlfriend Shadia (Shadia Martin) sings an acoustic song with gruesome lyrics, a guy struggling to make out what the band's logo actually says due to the hard to read font it is written in, and the band members having a humorous argument about what convoluted niche genre of music theirs falls into.

The special effects really delighted, and led to some messed up scenes that didn't make much sense but looked fantastic. A woman whose bite marks on her shoulders had sets of fanged teeth hidden inside them, eyeballs and their storks which fall out of a character's eye sockets, a gruesomely bloody suicide scene, and even a drumstick through the eye. All were practical effects and included plenty of screaming and plenty of blood that dripped everywhere. Even better was that each subsequent victim then came back as a Cenobite type being, their method of death being incorporated into their demonic look.
There was some arthouse style editing used whenever the cursed music was heard, which looked great on screen, and the idea to have this looping ear piercing scream playing over and over also added a lot to this. It was a slight shame that the finale decided to get rid of the great practical effects and instead insert some terrible looking digital effects.

Death Metal was an indie horror that wasn't without its faults, it had some rough edges to it, but also had some wonderfully messed up moments that compensated a lot. With each subsequent kill more surreal and violent than the last, and a slight grindhouse feel at times, this was an enjoyable horror that wasn't afraid to go to some messed up places. 

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The Rotting Zombie's News Double Bill for 16th May 2023

I am off work this week which means I am spreading my posts out rather than writing them all on the same day. I cleared out my news inbox last week, hopefully its replenished enough that I can scrape together a small news post. In me news, I'm currently (finally) watching Wednesday, it's not bad. On the gaming front, on X-Box, I am still trying to do the final level on Vampire Survivors, I'm on the second chapter of Loop Hero, need to get back into Atomic Heart, and same goes for the addictive Dead Cells. Over on my Nintendo Switch I have started The Mummy Demastered once again. Meanwhile, on PS5, I brought The Callisto Protocol in a sale and am loving it, and have finally returned back to Resident Evil Village VR. I also must return to Cult of the Lamb. Finally, still loving Elder Scrolls Online, nearing the end of the vampire-centric Rivenspire area currently.

The Nocturnal Affair have released a new single, which is a reimagined darker version of Depeche Mode's 1997 single 'It's No Good'. The press release states '...the band's crushing and melancholic musical style is an ode to darker alternative music torchbearers like Type O Negative, HIM, David Bowie, Gary Numan, and Nine Inch Nails.' For once, I actually checked out the song, it was not bad. The Nocturnal Affair will be touring with Smile Empty Soul on their 20th Anniversary Tour, alongside opening act The Stone Eye, starting May 20th.

The Empty Space is the latest horror film from Bayview Entertainment. This was directed by Andrew Jara, and stars Valerie Alene, Joe Sinclitico and Rachel Olsen and releases on Blu-ray on May 30th. It tells the story of Aimee Andrews, who after the violent death of her boyfriend has began to struggle with her mental health. Just as she feels ready to finally move on, her boyfriend returns from the beyond, with Aimee having to confront her fears to find out who or what has come back, and what they want from her. Surprisingly, I even watched the trailer for this one, got to respect someone who wears the same hat no matter the occasion was my thoughts on it. 

The Bell Keeper (2023) - Horror Film Review

I got the wrong tone straight away for The Bell Keeper. Avoiding any type of synopsis as always, this initially looked like it was going to be a crazed redneck slasher film. What I didn't account for was how dumb this became, with characters full of corny one liners, and a vibe that was very much tongue in cheek for the most part. It also isn't a slasher, but thankfully, this went somewhere far more interesting.

Directed by Colton Tran (Snow Falls), and co-written by Joe Davison (Frost Bite) and Luke Genton (The Bone Box), this tells the familiar tale of a group of city kids heading out into redneck America in search of adventure. Falling into a box of stereotypes, you have sexist jocks, Gabriel (Capri-Antoine Vaillancourt) and Matthew (Mike Manning - The Call), their girlfriends, who include social media obsessed Megan (Alexis B. Santiago - Far Cry 5: Inside Eden's Gate), and feminist Holly (Cathy Marks - American Horror Story TV series), as well as Matthew's younger brother, the neurotic and awkward Liam (Reid Miller - Santa Jaws). They have travelled to the remote Bell Lake due to Holly wanting to make a documentary about urban legends, Liam, a late addition due to him owning a camper van which the friends have borrowed. As part of their documentary they ring an old bell located at the lake at midnight, as this had been said to open a gateway to Hell. Obviously they hadn't expected the story to be true, but unfortunately for them it kind of is. The four friends who heard the bell rang find themselves opened up for demonic possession. Liam, and Brittany (Kathleen Kenny - The Secret of Sinchanee), who is a girl in the area searching for her missing brother, inadvertently didn't hear the bell, so soon find themselves not only up against Liam's demonically possessed friends, but also a lurching mountain man, Hank (Randy Couture - The Expendables 1-3), whose fate is irretrievably connected to the curse of the bell. 

This starts off so into its genre that you even get a crazy person at a rest stop warning the friends not to head where they are planning to go. That, and the prologue that had Hank viciously dispatching two kidnapped people, led me to believe this was going to be a backwoods slasher. That was one thing that I approved of here, as it quickly becomes clear this is more of an ode to The Evil Dead series, something that this doesn't try to hide, as at one point one of the characters even directly puts out an Ash Williams one-liner. I love me some zombies and I love me some demonic possession, so the blend of the two here creates some fun moments. To be honest I was despairing at the thought of having to watch this moronic group of friends interact with each other. Gabriel turning anything anyone says into a sex joke, Matthew being generally sexist, Holly constantly pointing out the power and independence of women (reminded me a lot of Britta from sitcom Community), and Megan who was in a state of constantly being appalled at the rough conditions of the campsite. Even Liam was off-putting, his painfully self conscious ways making him seem like he had walked in off a different type of film altogether. The dialogue doesn't get better, Liam continues making nearly cringe inducing talk, with the two other protagonists joining him in their unrealistic quips and comments on their situation. All this points to the fact the characters don't find their situation serious, which is perfectly fine, I had just expected something that took itself a little bit different.

The deadites (for lack of a better term) look great, especially Holly, whose permanently fixed evil grin made her stand out from the others. It leads to some fun action sequences when the heroes battle these characters. In their deadite form, these people were infinitely more bearable than before they turn, helps that they don't speak once they have turned. There are some decent special effects, even a few decapitations, and while some of the effects did appear to be CG ones, they were still plenty passable.
Balanced against this was the goofy and very dumb plot, with various moments unconvincingly explained away, including that slight red herring of a prologue. Characters here all to readily believe some pretty wild tales, and at one point a character mentions another character's death, despite him not actually having any way of having known that, due to being somewhere else entirely when it happened!

The Bell Keeper was a very stupid movie, with a little too much bad dialogue, and a story that didn't hold up to scrutiny. It was however, also darn entertaining, after I had switched off my brain, I did find this enjoyable and fun to watch. I am always going to be up for some demonic deadite style possession. The Bell Keeper is due for release on 28th August from High Fliers Films.

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Ravenous (2017) - Zombie Horror Film Review

Ravenous (original title Les affamés), is a Canadian, French language zombie horror film directed and written by Robin Aubert (Saint Martyrs of the Damned). In the past I had a girlfriend who insisted on having a film playing in the background when she slept at night, I came to recognise certain films that I was able to sleep to, due to how quiet they were, and this one would fit the bill, as throughout the characters are virtually silent. It makes for a slow burn horror, but one where there is actually a lot going on.

The movie takes place in rural Canada, where some weeks or months previously there had been a devastating viral outbreak. Those infected became violently deranged, with a thirst for non-infected human flesh. Bonin (Marc-André Grondlin) is one of the few survivors, and after meeting up with a woman, Tania (Monia Chokri) and a young girl, Zoé (Charlotte St-Martin), they eventually join with a few other survivors at a farmhouse. Knowing that a herd of infected are coming their way, they decide to head even deeper into the wooded countryside, with the intention of making it to an old bunker that is situated there.

With the whispered way the protagonists speak, this had a vibe of A Quiet Place to it, often the characters say more with looks and gestures, than by actual dialogue. I liked that these characters worked together well, and don't hesitate when hard decisions have to be made, though it did also mean a lot of them were blank slates. The world is a bleak and hopeless place, with death around every corner. The core cast lose a lot of their members over the one hour forty five minute run time, and there is a sense of resolute acceptance for their chances of survival. Grondlin was the highlight of the movie, and for a character who barely speaks he became someone I really came to be rooting for. I also loved that a character dubs him 'the cornball comic' due to his way of telling terrible jokes as a way to break tension, even if he only does this on a handful of occasions, while looking as miserable as sin while he does this. The body count among the small cast is quite deep, with not even the younger characters spared from gruesome zombie attack.

The characters felt believable, but there were a couple of moments that felt silly. One of these is the recurring figure of a 'village idiot' type man, someone who keeps popping up in the most random of locations, leaping out at the survivors and screaming in order to prank them, completely oblivious to the apocalypse that is going on in the area around him. That at least leads up to a fun payoff. I also thought a character who appears at the very end was slightly ridiculous, even if that does link up the short prologue (set at a pre-apocalypse racetrack) with the rest of the movie.

The zombies fall into the infected category, they run, and while headshots kill them straight away, they also respond to trauma on other areas of the body, rather than be undead creatures who don't feel pain. They are also very weird acting. For the most part Ravenous feels like it is set in the 28 Days Later universe, but the infected, when they are not pursuing non-infected get up to some strange things. Mainly they stand or lay around in The Girl with All the Gifts style, but they also build strange towers made out of chairs, children's toys, and any other junk they can get their hands on. Completely unexplained, but it makes for a surreal vibe which plays into some tense scenes. There are several thrilling sequences when the heroes find themselves pursued by the infected, including a great running battle through dense woodland, and a creepy part that takes place in a misty field. Was also cool that the infected seem to work together, their screams alerting others nearby to their location, and they even appear to set traps at point.

That the film (outside of the prologue) picks up quite a few weeks into the outbreak, with characters completely clued in to what is happening, makes for a mysterious film. With no explanation for how the event happened, and with bleak and depressed characters not really having any hope for their own survival, I found this morose and sad film engaging, especially when the somewhat stale notion of other survivors being the real enemy not factoring into the story. With some lovely special effects (a highlight being a shotgun blast to an infected man's head), and a great cast, Ravenous was a good entry in the crowded zombie genre, even if the overall plot left something to be desired. Ravenous can currently be found on Netflix.

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The Rotting Zombie's News Anthology for 11th May 2023

My second news post I'm writing today (at time of writing), with me doing my blog in a different order. It's never meant to be a good idea starting with the shorter items and going onto longer, but I'm giving that a go today. Super tired as for some reason I can't sleep more than around five hours a night at weekends.

VIPCO and Bayview Entertainment have two physical releases in May. Death Metal is a film I have mentioned previously, and a review of it shall be dropping on this site next week. The other film is My Cherry Pie, this follows three criminals on the run, who accept an invitation from a stranger, Cherry, who lets them stay at the nice sounding Pleasant Creek. That place however is an abandoned hospital with a dark past, which is now the hunting ground for a killer dressed like a plague doctor.

Toxsyck have released an industrial sounding track, 'Death Wish'. The German producer duo state "The hypnotizing and cyberpunk'esque vocals suck you into a soundscape that feels like you're losing traction in time and space while the hard-hitting drops let your whole body shiver". The track is out now on all platforms from F!XT.

Finally for today, Cristian Carter's dark synth-pop project CAEV.R has announced latest single 'Deflect'. They say of the track "The single was inspired by people who shirked responsibility for their actions and instead played the victim, which is a frustrating and disappointing experience I'm sure many have gone through". Mari Kattman (COP International) provides vocals that Carter says was the ideal choice for the track.

The Sandman (2022) - Horror TV Show Review

When I was a young teenager, my local library started stocking graphic novels for borrowing. I recall that one of those was Neil Gaiman's The Sandman. I didn't appreciate it at the time, as the only lasting impression it gave me was that the artstyle was strange. Last year, a TV series finally got made of the graphic novels, and it had quite a buzz back then. I was not only late to the party, only beginning it when the bonus episode came out, but I also watched it in a stilted way, watching it sporadically over the past seven months or so. That all means this review might be fuzzy on details, apologies for that!

The Sandman is a dark fantasy/horror that is set in a world in which the Gods are real, but watch humanity from afar. Morpheus (Tom Sturridge) is the God of Dreams, and it is while he is on Earth seeking out one of his nightmare creations, The Corinthian (Boyd Holbrook - The Predator), who had escaped from the dream world, that disaster strikes. A man hoping to ensnare Death, instead accidentally captures Morpheus, and decides he will make do with this being instead. His items of power are stolen from him, and he remains magically imprisoned for the best part of a century. Finally managing to escape, Morpheus sets out to find his stolen items, as well as finally put a stop to the pain and suffering that The Corinthian has been unleashing on the world.

Season one takes place over twelve episodes, with that final episode 'Dream of a Thousand Cats/Calliope' being an anthology story seperate to the rest. The show as a whole has an anthology feel at times, as while the core plot point does concern Morpheus, he takes a back seat to other characters. Due to the power of the protagonist it often felt underwhelming with the places his quest takes him. The journey here is more important than the destination, as his power seemed to effortlessly give him success every time he had to deal with humans. I say humans, as the excellent fourth episode 'A Hope in Hell', has him travel to that titular place in order to battle Lucifer (Gwendoline Christie - Wednesday TV series, Game of Thrones TV series) in a special effects laden spectacle. 

Luckily, the parts of the show that are not dedicated to the main plot thread are a lot more interesting, and work wonderfully as stand alone episodes. '24/7' may just be the best of the lot, is certainly the darkest at the very least. In this one, John Dee (David Thewlis - The Omen) has headed to a diner, where the powers he has received thanks to one of Morpheus' stolen items means he has the ability to force people to tell their most hidden truths. What occurs over the next forty five minutes is pure horror, with John sat there in the diner, while the guests and staff alike's revelations leads to eventual murder and bloodshed. What was so great about that episode was how it was portrayed on screen. With so many characters to follow, events kept rewinding back in time, so that it was possible to see all the many different horrors that were taking place. 'The Sound of Her Wings' is like a companion piece, in this one, Morpheus shadows his sister, Death (Kirby - The Good Place TV series) as she visits those around London who have recently died. That was a beautiful and calming one. Then there was an episode that revolves around Morpheus, and his meet-ups every ten years with a man who he made immortal. Having the same location being shown over so many different time periods was a fun idea, leading to a great pay-off at the end.

I'm not familiar with the source material, but with season one you have an effective and emotive show, one that has a feel of melancholy to it. Sturridge was great in his role, but it wasn't as large as you might expect. There are a whole host of other characters and it is their stories and interactions that much of the show is centered on. Morpheus often felt like a 'full stop' to any plot, as he always seemed to appear at the end to solve it. With so many interesting characters this didn't become an issue with just a few that I found to be a bit lame (such as Cain and Abel, and Rose's missing little brother). Seeing as how this is based heavily on the source material this is a bit of an unfair criticism, but I wish the main plot had been that little bit more captivating, as it was all the side stories that really stole the show for me.

The Sandman was an excellently made and mournful series that made good use of a mostly strong cast, and had the budget to back up the effects needed to sell the world. While I wish the main plot had been more involving, all the little side stories were what really made this one shine. The Sandman is currently streaming on Netflix.

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The Rotting Zombie's News Anthology for 9th May 2023

I had a truly rotten week of work in my day job last week, so I've decided to dial back my blog commitments by mainly focussing on my own stuff I've chosen to review, rather than screeners I've been sent. This dialing back also includes two seperate news posts this week, to be fair, my bloody inbox has fifty one emails currently sitting in it, so it could do with some slight culling.

I Need You Dead! is now available on Blu-ray from Bayview Entertainment. Directed by Rocko Zevenbergen, and starring Estevan Muñoz, Sidra Morgan-Montoya, with Lloyd Kaufman, is about a teenage punk who somehow '...births a strange fleshy creature and soon finds himself at odds with the psychedelic monster of his own creation.' Check out the trailer below.

Scream VI became available to download and keep from today, with 4K Ultra HD, Blu-ray and DVD releases following from 10th July. This brings the iconic Ghostface killer to New York, with the killer more deadly than ever. The physical releases include over an hour of bonus content, including behind the scenes interviews, as well as commentary by the filmmakers. I really must get around to watching the latest Scream movies.

Finally, in time for the Walpurgis Night celebrations that took place on 30th April came the release of a new Videogram single. That name is the moniker of Magnus Sellergren, with the sound creating the feel of old horror film soundtracks. 'Walpurgisnacht' was originally released on the 'S/T' debut album, and is now back in a new 2023 remix, alongside previously unreleased track 'La Notte delle Steghe End Titles'. The horror themed single comes packaged with artwork from 19th century Spanish artist Luis Ricardo and can be digitally streamed on all music platforms.

Escape Room: Tournament of Champions (2021) - Horror Film Review

Escape Room (as always, not to be confused with Escape Room) was a neat horror film that may have been very silly, but it was also very enjoyable, and featured some superb set design. It takes me back to the heady pre-pandemic days of going to the cinema, and due to that pandemic I missed out on seeing the sequel, Escape Room: Tournament of Champions, when it hit the cinemas. Well, it's now came to Netflix and currently sits at the No.1 position in the UK top ten at time of writing. I had heard it was a poor sequel, but had to check it out anyway. I'm glad I did as while this is again really silly, it was again really enjoyable, so much so that I was surprised when it ended at just how quickly it seemed to flow by. Spoilers for the first film to follow.

Having survived a twisted escape room experience in which rich people placed bets on who would survive the deadly rooms, Zoey (Taylor Russell - Escape Room) and Ben (Logan Miller - Escape Room) decide they must expose the evil company responsible. They head to New York where they think they have located the HQ of the Minos company, but instead find a derelict building. A series of events leads to the two ending up on a subway train, along with four other passengers, and before they can do anything about it, they discover the train is actually the start of a new escape room. Quickly discovering the other passengers are also survivors of Minos escape rooms, they see the only option to try and work together and once again 'win' the game, but like before, each room they come across is more deadly than the last.

Apparently the home release of the movie had an extended cut which drastically altered parts of the film. I have only seen the theatrical cut and so obviously my review will be based on that. I felt some trepidation coming into this as I was not sure how the two protagonists would manage to fall into another experience. It sub(way)verted my expectations as there were a few false moments before the story begins proper, including a fun nightmare sequence, and various moments that had be questioning what was really going on. The story is silly of course, and one of my very early predictions ended up being true, but there were also some genuinely surprising moments. What I really liked about this sequel is that it goes to some lengths to recap what happened previously, so much so that I didn't really need to have read the Wikipedia synopsis, as the events of that first film are shown in a relatively lengthy prologue

The six main characters were interesting enough, including a priest (Thomas Cocquerel), a former travel vlogger (Indya Moore), and a woman with a condition that means she is unable to feel pain (Holland Roden - Teen Wolf TV series) among the characters. I liked that these were all likeable people, and it was nice how they began to work together as a team almost immediately. Their different accounts of the various escape rooms they had escaped from were entertaining.
The main hook is of course the escape rooms themselves, and I'm pleased to say they were just as impressively designed as before. Over the five or so rooms they encounter all sorts of new dangers, from acid rain, to electricity, quicksand, floods and lasers, all in wonderfully designed rooms. These include some like the first movie that appear initially to be outdoors, before it's revealed to be a trick. I would say one minor complaint is how obscure the puzzles often felt, with me often losing track of just how the characters were figuring things out. There is lots of Crystal Maze style situations of characters shouting hurriedly at each other about what they need to do. Maybe I was misremembering, but the death scenes this time around felt a bit tame, with  more than few characters death scenes happening away from the focus of the camera. The plot was dumb but fun, and leads to a predictably bonkers ending that I hope results in a third film.

Having heard Escape Room: Tournament of Champions was a shadow of the first film, I was most happy to discover I enjoyed this one just as much. The set dressing was fantastic here, with the film having such a cool design to it. It is testament to how much I was loving this that I was genuinely surprised when I found out the movie was near its end, the ninety minutes was over in a flash. Escape Room: Tournament of Champions can currently be streamed on Netflix.

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The Nightgown (2023) - Horror Film Review

The Nightgown is the latest film from Jared Masters (Quartz Vein, Ballet of Blood), one that was co-written along with Randy Master. This supernatural horror has all the trappings that the director is known for, with his signature grindhouse style adding a lot to this horror film throwback.

In 1976, three girls fed up with the harsh conditions of the convent school they attend, decide to bunk off. They have heard rumours that the owner of the school, Father Munhauser (Randy Masters) once accidentally killed a girl during a botched exorcism, and with the woodland cabin that occured at being nearby, they decide to go investigate. Once at the cabin they begin to experience supernatural phenomenon, seeming to revolve specifically around the ghost of a girl named Mary (Hannah Dunsley-Ricehester). They decide that they are going to help her spirit, by finding evidence about what happened to her, with the hope that this will give her peace.

I enjoyed this horror more than I expected to, and was impressed with how much stuff is stuffed into the near one hour twenty runtime. This essentially tells two different stories, the girls exploring the cabin and witnessing various scary things, mixed in with a sizeable chunk that serves as a flashback showing what happened at the place. With nightmare sequences that delve into arthouse territory, and various weird scenes, it is never clear exactly what is behind everything. With the antagonist priest character introduced in the prologue I expected he would be in this a lot, mainly however it was just the flashback scenes he appears in. For the most part it is the three protagonists, Jodi (Kate Ly Johnston), Lori (Baracha), and Peg (Elizabeth Rath) getting into various situations revolving around the pretty demonic acting ghosts. This gave a most welcome vibe of The Evil Dead, with the ghosts able to affect the world around them and cause physical harm to the girls. Special mention goes to James F. Gregory who plays the slimy groundskeeper Nestor, he was a highlight of the movie and was never overused.

With the grindhouse feel of the film I wasn't expecting great special effects, or at least I mean I wasn't expecting great looking special effects. Gun fire is very artificial, as are trauma effects, but this is all very purposeful, with that aspect lent into rather than intended to look realistic. Make-up effects for the ghosts was also mostly artificial looking, but again it worked very well with the vibe. There was a varied amount of horror here, from a floating nightgown, to bleeding paintings and possessed people. Plot wise I never really understood why the characters stayed there when all this bad and seemingly demonic stuff was happening, but the plot felt a bit ethereal with it sometimes feeling more like it was atmosphere than story the movie was around for. Special mention goes to the fantastic soundtrack, something that added so much to the scenes. As a whole this looked great, giving the feel of an old film without the need to add artificial film grain and other effects to get that feel over.

I thought The Nightgown was a neat indie horror, inventive and with plenty of unexpected moments throughout. I may have became increasingly lost with exactly what was happening, but the relatively small cast all played their roles well, making a film that felt true to its roots, and something that had a surreal vibe all of its own.

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

May the fourth be with you as the annual saying goes. No mention of any Star Wars stuff to be found in today's news post, other than to say that the zombie novel Star Wars: Death Troopers is worth a read.

Frog Pimp is a short comedy crime film that the press releases state has an aspect of horror to it. Is certainly weird enough to warrant a mention here. The short is about a documentary crew who are following around an eccentric pimp. Unknown to the pimp, one of his girls has set out to enact (likely) bloody revenge on him for a past misdemeanor. There is currently an Indiegogo campaign running to raise awareness of the film, with any proceeds going towards the development of the team's next project. At the time of writing the campaign has raised 82% of its £2,785 flexible goal with twenty four days to go. Check out the campaign page here. 

Totem Chaser had its preview screening at the Alpine Cinema in Brooklyn yesterday. This is the first feature film from director George Tsouris and is described as a camp horror movie. Inspired by cosmic horror author Algernon Blackwood, this follows a video crew whose searching for the paranormal leads them to a cult, this results in the crew getting lured to a haunted house where the cult priestess hopes they will become sacrifices for the demonic entity the cult worships.

Finally for today is news of slasher film Final Summer. This stars Thom Mathews, Bishop Stevens, Carl Bailey, Nora Yates, Pam Erickson and Rico Whitehead and will be shown at Smodcastle Cinemas on May 26th at 19:00. Set in 1991, this horror follows a group of camp counsellors who find themselves the target of a masked killer.
Also playing on the same day is Mort, a short fifteen minute horror about a mortician and his assistant who discover a corpse they had been preparing for a funeral has became a zombie and wandered off. Mort was the debut short film that was written, produced and directed by Charlies Queen. For more information check out the cinema's website here.

The Cost (2022) - Thriller Film Review

I was in two minds over whether to review the Matthew Holmes (The Artifice) directed and co-written The Cost. It falls into a sub-genre that I have termed 'realistic horror', a horror film due to the situation the characters have gotten themselves into, without anything traditionally horror like happening, such as paranormal stuff and cannibal killers. Boy, am I glad I did watch this Australian thriller though, perfectly acted, with great pacing, but this sure isn't remotely a happy movie!

Seeking revenge for the rape and murder of a loved one twelve years previously, David (Jordan Fraser-Trumble) and Aaron (Damon Hunter) decide to kill the man responsible (him having been released from prison far earlier than expected). So, one night, they turn up at the home of Troy (Kevin Dee), tie him up, and take him to remote woodland where they tell him they are going to torture and kill him. However, the enormity of what they are about to do starts to weigh on the men, especially David, with the split in opinion threatening to tear the two apart.

I figured this would be mostly concerned with the torturing of the rapist, so I was in for some grim viewing. At least early on it is established beyond doubt that the man they have kidnapped did indeed rape and kill the woman; David's wife, and Aaron's sister. I had expected this would be undetermined, with it not clear to the viewer, but the horror takes on a different aspect once Troy admits things. This works so well due to the actors chosen, with even the side roles being perfectly cast. It isn't possible to like Troy, but he wasn't a cookie cutter villain, instead his actions and reactions felt natural. At no point did I feel sorry for the character, but the way him and the two protagonists acted felt so believable. David and Aaron are normal people, and so with their actions comes huge amount of guilt. Even with the division between the two men, it never felt like that was inserted to make things feel artificial. The Cost was a very heavy film, with events making me feel worse and worse about the predicament the characters found themselves in. With David's reluctance to murder the man, the two get trapped in an unwinnable situation where they can't release him for fear of getting arrested, but David stating he can't live with himself should they do the deed. The two characters fall into almost 'good cop/bad cop', with David realising that his dead wife wouldn't have wanted him to do this, but Aaron becoming increasingly more resolute with the evil he has to do.

Pacing in these types of thrillers in very important. Put too many contrivances into the plot and it becomes farcical, but this does a near perfect balance. Early on there is a tense drive to the woodland, with several moments where it seems their kidnapping will be discovered. A second act introduction of a nosy neighbour, Brian (Clayton Watson - The Matrix Reloaded) created an initially underwhelming escalation, which really paid dividends in the thrilling final act of the movie. He was a great character. At several points Troy escapes from his captors, leading to some fun and well shot chase sequences. Effects throughout are impressive, there wasn't too much need for special effects, but when they are used they looked great. I also really loved the way the flashback to the woman's murder was shown, David listening to a voicemail his wife had left him on that fateful day, before the scene cuts to his wife having made the voicemail and the events that happened afterwards (thankfully fading away back to the present when the rape is about to occur).

The Cost worked for me due to choice of actors. Both Fraser-Trumble and Hunter were fantastic, with them at the end of the movie looking like they had aged about ten years, compared to their appearance at the start. While the film was fantastic, it wasn't remotely feel good, subject matter should have been apparent, but this was a feel bad movie. With a near two hour run time this never once got dull, I found myself completely drawn into the movie, never sure exactly how it would all pan out. An excellently paced nightmare that just may make you want to scrub the desolate misery out of your soul after watching.

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Horde (2021) by Bryan Cassiday - Zombie Book Review

In February earlier this year I put up a review of Cutthroat Express, the seventh book in author Bryan Cassiday's Zombie Apocalypse: The Chad Halverson Series. Perhaps slightly confusingly, the next title of his I have read for review is actually the novel that came before that one. Horde is that book, and was an award winning one, having picked up the Independent Press Award for Best Horror Novel of 2022. I will try and keep spoilers to a minimum, especially seeing as how I knew how this one was going to end.

Out in the Arizona desert, a bedraggled man is discovered by Porter and his colleague out on a mission from their nearby compound. This person is in a poor condition, and with him suffering amnesia (bad enough that he isn't even aware that zombie apocalypse has been unleashed across the world going on for ten years), Porter gives him the nickname of 'Box'. Wanting to help the man (as well as a woman named Marta who is also discovered), Porter brings him back to the compound, which sits on the edge of the desert near some dense woodland. The leader of the compound, a lady named Hilda, is distrustful of the new arrivals and convinced they might be unaware carriers of the zombie virus, so they get placed into quarantine. Not long later sees the arrival of Zodiac, the leader of a group of thugs who have a grand plan to march to the seat of American government and take it over. First however, the psycho decides to take over the compound, with his harsh rule causing a division within the group, especially with his treatment of Box, Porter, Marta, and a few others that he sees as troublesome to his new rule. The arrival of another outsider brings with him news of a horde of undead massing in the nearby woodland, as well as a clue as to who Box might really be...

I knew what to expect going into Horde, as Cutthroat Express was such a pulpy and action packed zombie story. That took the form of a road trip, with this novel being set almost entirely at the compound of survivors. I had no fear that I would be lost, despite this being the sixth book in a series, it helped that the protagonist has amnesia, so there isn't a large amount of backstory to get clued up on. I guessed his identity quite early on, but I think if I had read earlier books that reveal would have been really obvious anyway. I enjoyed that aspect, having a lead character who is constantly discovering disturbing things about the skills he appears to have, while the amnesia part meant he was as fresh a pair of eyes on this rotting world as me reading it. With Zodiac you have a nasty antagonist, though he felt comfortably crazy, there is lots of random killings by the guy, but all weren't too surprising, and compared to killers in other series, such as Negan in The Walking Dead, he felt a little more calm and collected, even if his ideas were crazy. 

With much of the novel taking place in the relative safety of the compound, this was lighter on zombie action than the follow up, but that isn't to say there aren't thousands of undead here. Many of the action scenes revolve around Box and his acquaintances being sent out beyond the safety of the fences to dispatch zombies in hand to hand combat. One sequence that took place in a sand storm really stood out as something fresh and exciting. A thing I always appreciate when reading a novel is when it gives me a strong visual image of the events playing out, and that is certainly the case here. There were a few chapters set in a different location entirely, and these were the parts were I felt a broader knowledge of the overall story in the series would have benefitted. The main back and forth story is the belief that the undead release spores that can infect people without them even getting bitten. This was a topic returned back to time and time again, and wasn't something I recalled being a factor in Cutthroat Express, but seemed to be an actual way for people to become infected. Knowing where this story would end up, I expected the change of scenery, but that last act of the book was also the shortest, covering lots of ground in a way that felt slightly too swift.

I enjoyed reading Horde just as much as I enjoyed Cutthroat Express. The B-movie action here was never anything less than entertaining to read, and unified the feel of this insane world, while the ever present short and moresome chapters often found me struggling to put this down.

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Pillow Party Massacre (2023) - Horror Film Review

Pillow Party Massacre is a throwback eighties style slasher that comes from writer and director Calvin Morie McCarthy. I have to admit, going from his previous films I have watched, such as Conjuring: The Beyond and An Amityville Poltergeist, I wasn't expecting much. Those were both derivative in feel as well as quite slow. This movie is also quite derivative, but by wearing its influences so keenly on its sleeve this managed to remain entertaining throughout.

At an end of school disco, a cruel prank played by five girls on their friend, Ashley (Savannah Raye Jones - The Blair Witch Legacy) goes horribly wrong when the girl in her anger guns down a boy involved. Two years later and the friends have all gone their separate ways, they decide to meet up at the remote summerhouse of one of the friends in order to try to reconnect and reconcile with what they inadvertently caused. Sam (Laura Welsh), Alana (Jax Kellington - Conjuring: The Beyond), Barbara (Chynna Rae Shurts - Conjuring: The Beyond, A Haunting in Ravenswood), and Miles (Allegra Sweeney - Zombiegeddon) find their old friendships becoming rekindled, but the shadow of what they inadvertently caused hangs over them, while an apparent breakout at the mental institute where Ashley was sent gives them pause for concern. It seems they were right to worry, as a masked killer has arrived at the remote property with murder on their mind...

This was very nearly a great movie, and to be honest it only just missed out on a higher score due to a few moments that let this down slightly. At its heart this is an ode to eighties slashers with some elements being very obviously lifted and aped from classic slasher films of yesteryear. You have a killer who is shown from a first person Black Christmas style perspective for half the movie, before being revealed as a 'Ghostface' style figure in black robes with a white mask. Some of the kills are lifted entirely from other films, such as when a victim is pinned to a tree in much the same way a victim is pinned to a door in the original Halloween. Elsewhere, the killer's initial weapon of choice being a machete, and with them able to seemingly teleport around locations both brought to mind Jason from the Friday the 13th series. These elements were all fun things to spot, but Pillow Party Massacre also takes some of the less good tropes, such as a killer who has been silent the whole movie suddenly becoming very chatty as soon as their identity is revealed. As to that identity, I guessed it immediately and was correct, the swift finish to the film was one of the reasons it got marked down slightly.

Being a slasher, the kills are the highlight of the movie, and they are varied, with none of the moderate body count matching each other. Often the actual kill is shown slightly off screen with it left to the viewers imagination, but this still worked for the past part. A highlight being a toss up between someone being chopped in half vertically, and someone whose face is pushed into hot coals. There were a few CG effects which stood out due to them obviously not being real, but mostly when things are shown on screen it is decent practical effects. In terms of body trauma these effects were not so good, someone being sliced up with a box cutter for instance didn't actually look like the cutter was doing anything other than spreading lines of fake blood on the victim. For a film that includes a severed limb and a decapitation, this was surprisingly tame when it came to blood, only one person bleeding heavily, everywhere else people seem weirdly blood free despite whatever trauma is inflicted on them.

I have said of the directors previous films that it often felt they were ineffectually trying to copy the best bits from better horror films. Here, that usage works much better, perhaps due to this leaning more heavily into the genre it is going for, and by leaning into the tropes of the slasher genre. Outside of a few bad moments (the title refers to a cringe inducing pillow fight montage scene where the girls inexplicably strip down during their play fight for no apparent reason other than viewer titillation), this was entertaining, I didn't even mind that it didn't really get properly going until the halfway point. If you're in the mood for a low brow classic feeling slasher then Pillow Party Massacre isn't a bad place to head, it can be found on digital platforms such as Amazon Prime Video.

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