Life After: Shorts Anthology Volume 1 (2023) by Bryan Way - Horror Anthology Book Review

It was back in 2022 when I first heard of horror author Bryan Way's Life After series of zombie stories. Life After: The Arising featured an unlikeable lead and told a relatively (for a zombie apocalypse) mundane story but something about it just worked. This was followed up by a sequel - Life After: The Void that was even better and showed the first novel wasn't just a fluke. So far that has been it in the main line series, but the author has also put out six short stories over the years set within the world of Life After and written in a more traditional third person form rather than the first person perspective of the novels. As the title hints at, Life After: Shorts Anthology Volume 1 brings together those first six short stories into one volume. Even more exciting is that there is an exclusive seventh short story set several months after the events of the second main novel.
I used my own photo of my battered and coffee stained copy of the book for the cover image as a mark of respect. It has been taken to my work to read on my lunch break countless times, and even travelled with me earlier this year when I went to Normandy with my father. I feel a sign of having enjoyed a book is how used it naturally comes to appear.

Reading the novels and the shorts I had in my mind a certain image of what the characters looked like, I admit that some of them didn't have the most flattering image in my mind, especially when it came to the main books protagonist character of Jeff Grey. This anthology introduces portraits of each of the main characters drawn by artist Seth Lang. If it had just been images based on what Way himself and Lang had imagined the characters had looked like I would have probably still defaulted to the images in my mind, but in a genius move Way cements these pictures by stating that that they were actually drawn by one of the characters in the books, meaning I have no excuses to discount them as not complete canon.
I won't go into too much detail for the first six short stories as I have previously given them their own review. I wasn't too sure if going back to them would be as exciting second time around. In another cool move though, Way has put the stories in the order they take place within the Life After universe, not in the order they were originally written. This makes them much more interesting as you are able to follow the flow of the unfolding apocalypse a lot better. 

Each story and each chapter within that story begins with a date, making it easy to see how far along things have progressed. One of my few complaints is that I wish that each individual page had these dates as I found myself constantly flicking back to see how much time had passed between the individual stories. Anyway, it starts off with The Cemetery Plot that occurs even before the start of the first novel. Telling a story about a greedy man taking extreme measures to get his deceased relative's inheritance. I enjoyed this one about as much as the first time reading it. The same was true for the next few, The Phoenix (guy meeting his ex-girlfriend at her place of work gets caught up in the unfolding zombie crisis) and the excellent The Line of Duty (the perspective of the apocalypse from an embattled police station, this one I still think would be excellent as a short film). While Zugzwang was still a little bit confusing due to the amount of characters introduced, I thought this side story that takes place during the events of Life After: The Void had improved a bit, and becomes one of the more important stories in the anthology as many of the same characters reappear in the new seventh story.

The Maze was a purposely disorientating story first read around as it starts in the middle of a action packed situation. On a second read I picked up on so much more that I hadn't noticed the first time around due to the eventual revelations the story provides. Of the original shorts that just leaves The Basement which is certainly Way's most depraved story. Perhaps it was knowing what was to come, but I found this had improved massively on a second read through, plus since reading it the author has confirmed that the belief of certain characters as to what caused the dead returning to life was actually incorrect. I do dislike it when there is a neat and tidy explanation given in zombie stories, always takes away some of the mystique.
New and final short The Siege really was a case of saving the best till last. This features a story featuring the main novel characters, but used in an interesting way. I thought the cleverest idea was to not feature protagonist Grey in the story. Instead he is often referenced by other characters, and even glimpsed in the background at one point. The story here was exciting, without too many spoilers it is about the influx of new survivors to the school the rest are hiding out at, set to the backdrop of a siege from the walking dead who are all too aware that there are living in the school. It was a bonus that my favourite character - former national guard soldier Anderson features a lot in it.

Going into this anthology I was a bit worried that I had a biased opinion of the stories having enjoyed speaking to the author over emails. That worry was dispelled with The Siege, it really was a great story, and has made me really want a third main line entry, something I believe Way is currently working on. As always, you will get a lot more out of this anthology if you have read The Arising and The Void, but even without having done that, there is plenty to enjoy here.

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The Bench (2024) - Horror Film Review

The Sean Wilkie written and directed Scottish horror film The Bench had a long and troubled history. This indie horror was originally filmed back in 2007 but it was then abandoned before it had been completed. Unpredictable weather, running out of money and constant re-shoots led to the film eventually being given up on in 2016. After Wilkie was approached by Ryan Hendrick who had set up a small distribution company, the film in 2024 has finally been finished and released (thanks to an interesting BBC article for those extra details, that can be read here). For a film that is seventeen years old it has actually aged surprisingly well even if it has its fair share of faults. As an aside, it took until the end credits for me to realise that 'the bench' refers to the table where victims are taken to be killed and not a bench that you sit on! Not in my most clever mode today it appears.

A group of friends on their way to a camping trip in remote Scotland come across a girl - Alex (Jennifer Byrne) whose car has broken down. As thanks for them taking her to a nearby garage to get it repaired she invites the group to a nearby cabin she owns out in the woods, the place she had originally been trying to head to. Seeing that as preferable to camping, and with the leader of the group, Aidan (Matt McClure - Penny Dreadful TV show) taking a shine to the girl, they decide to go. Initially they have a fun time, but when one of the group goes missing in strange circumstances they come to realise that there is a deranged killer (Gareth Hunter) out lurking in the woods, who see his victims as prey to be slaughtered.

The Bench doesn't try to hide the type of movie it is, the prologue sees a lost couple getting killed by the tall silent madman, and that is then followed up by an announcement stating that a group of friends went on a camping trip and were never seen again. I can't decide if that was a good idea or not as it was hard to really root for any of the characters when you know they are all going to end up dead, but the journey along the way was mostly a fun one. I thought the actors were all good, and it was neat to have a Scottish cast. There was a warning at films start that the footage was shot in 2007 and that some of the views expressed by the characters might appear outdated in a modern context. I spent the movie trying to work out what moments these were. I think possibly these related to some of the female characters who appeared to be a bit dumb? Or it could be a scene where a guy is going to sleep with an obviously drunk female character, or maybe another scene where a woman is slapped by a man, or could even be the word they use to describe the killer. I don't know, but I didn't really feel that disclaimer was really needed.
I enjoyed the cast but there weren't any stand out ones. I grew to like the almost bully-like Steve (Wilkie) due to the backstory he provides at one point. I liked that Aidan wasn't the protagonist hero he was set out to be, and I thought the initially cowardly seeming Tommy (Chris Somerville) had more to him than it at first appeared.

The press release states this was heavily influenced by The Texas Chainsaw Massacre, and you don't have to look hard to see those inspirations. The killer is an obvious stand-in for Leatherface but not as iconic even if he kind of acts the same. This killer doesn't have a mask made of human skin, but he does have greasy hair that covers his face, and mainly only shows up in the dark. I felt he had more in common with Jason from the Friday the 13th films, especially when it came to him being able to seemingly teleport from place to place, getting the jump on his victims even in broad daylight! The kill sequences are heavily edited with a variety of quick close-up shots used to show the brutal attacks which I thought were very effective. The most unsettling shot of the whole movie was one where a single split second shot from the middle of a kill was shown on repeat moments before the victim is caught and suffers the fate barely glimpsed in that repeated moment. I thought that was really cool. Outside of the kills the editing never felt as satisfying. It doesn't help that much of the movie takes place outside in the dark where it was really hard to see what was going on. It also felt like scenes were missing at times as characters would move around from location to location between scenes, leading to a disorientating feel. Key moments, such as when the group stumble across a dead body have their impact totally lost due to the at times weird editing. That particular scene I didn't even pick up on until characters started mentioning it later. It didn't help that not long after that apparent discovery is when the film's various sex scenes all start up. Thankfully they were all short and lacking nudity.
I have to mention the really confusing epilogue that left me feeling dissatisfied. The film ends but this ending is then bizarrely immediately retconned as soundbites from earlier in the movie play out as a completely different fate is shown. This left me baffled more than intrigued, I get what it was going for, but it could have been done in a better way.

I enjoyed The Bench, I was impressed with the level of acting for the most part and I thought the kill scenes were suitably raw and gritty. That raw and gritty feel however only appeared in those kill scenes, outside of that this felt much more like a traditional slasher, and had some scenes that veered on the side of cheesy, such as a drinking montage. With some confusing scene skips and looking a little too dark in terms of visibility this could be occasionally hard to follow, and I'm not really sure what the filmmakers were going for with that strange ending. Despite that this was a movie worth watching. The Bench is available to rent or buy on Amazon Prime Video.

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Death B*tch (2024) - Thriller Film Review

Death B*tch (my asterisk of course) is a grindhouse exploitation style crime movie directed and co-written by Ken Brewer (Zombie Rage), who also had a hand in many other aspects of the movie, from editing to the cinematography and even had a starring role as the main antagonist character. From the trailer it seemed to have some good scenes, but also a lot of suspect acting. Having now seen the whole thing I have to say it was enjoyable, if perhaps slightly too long.

In a crime ridden American city the police are not only having to deal with a serial killer operating in the area, dubbed 'the Southside Slasher' (or something like that), but they also have a criminal killing vigilante on the loose, who the press have simply dubbed 'The Vigilante'. It becomes clear to the two detectives investigating the vigilante - Detective Maddie (Traci Burr - Zombie Rage) and her partner, that the person is targeting in particular members of a gang who work for a local crime lord named Dante (Brewer). That person is Alexia Walker (Linnea Swanson - Zombie Rage), mild mannered dog groomer by day, cold blooded agent of justice by night, someone with nothing to lose after the gang murdered her family. Can she finish her goal of cleaning up the streets before the detectives discover her identity though?

The focus in the movie is far more on the detectives investigating the breakout of street slayings than on Alexia herself. This gave things more of a crime movie feel than a more grindhouse style one. I liked the rapport with the detectives, and I enjoyed following them around. These moments are interspersed in multiple ways. You have the slasher, relegated to a sub plot off doing his thing, you have Alexis heading out at night looking for criminals to shoot dead with her trusty pistol, and you have Dante's gang, a group of men and woman who don't value life in the slightest, heading out for random carnage. These gang members were best summed up with Stella Smith (Bridget Powers), a psychotic little person whose wild anger outsizes her short stature, making for a fun bad guy

There were many criminals here which led up to a lengthy third act that was a series of gun fights taking place around the one area which all the central characters had congregated at. For an idea of how action packed this was, the IMDB page states that in the final ten minutes alone there were over a hundred and sixty six gun shots fired! Admittedly in execution this leads to plenty of scenes of people standing facing each other and repeatedly firing their guns until the loser falls down. I especially liked the head shots that had the victim always seeming to look up at their forehead confused before falling down dead.

For a film with inspirations from grindhouse and exploitation movies, there wasn't that much blood, used more functionally than anything else. This also never tried to seem like a film from decades back, instead content to have that style of film using modern filmmaking techniques, and a few drone shot moments. With a large cast there were going to be some actors who were better than others, this means there are more than a few actors who either sounded like they were adlibbing or delivering their lines in a bit of a wooden way. To be honest, either that was on purpose, or it was a happy accident as the sometimes stiff delivery fed into the exploitation style vibe of the film. My only real complaint was that Death B*tch did start to feel a little samey due to multiple scenes of the same thing happening over and over again just with different characters. At around ninety minutes it wasn't excessively long, but could have maybe been tightened up slightly.

Death B*tch had plenty of action, a bunch of fun characters and a good pacing, the indie film having a healthy dose of necessary cheese. I enjoyed this more than the trailer made me think I would, and even if it did slightly stretch out the run time, this a decent bit of escapism from the misery of the real world. Death B*tch is having its American premiere on Thursday August 29th at the Starlight Terrace Theatre in California, with its Canadian premiere at the Evans Theatre in Brandon Manitoba in September. The DVD and Blu-ray are available for pre-order now on the Livid Media website and will be shipping September 2nd. 

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The Rotting Zombie's News Anthology for Thursday 15th August

There are parts of this year that I really am not enjoying that much, though I guess at least time is going fast. With that out of the way, onwards to three more news tales of terror.

Apparently psychosexual sci-fi thriller Mad Droid was successful enough to warrant a second film in the series. Coming from writer/director Rich Mallery is Mad Droid Origins, in which an android (Katie Kay) hides out at the home of the man who created her (Bryan Brewer) after she murders one of her clients. This leads to increasing jealousy from the creators wife (Cassie Ghersi) who feels threatened by his rekindled love for his creation. Mad Droid Origins is due out this Autumn on digital platforms via Cineridge Classics.

The J. Horton directed A Hard Place raised over $120,000 on Indiegogo and stars horror icons Felissa Rose (Sleepaway Camp) and Lynn Lowry (Wolf Hollow), alongside Rachel Amanda Bryant (Craving), Kevin Caliber (Future Man), Ashley Undercuffler (also Craving), Jenn Stone and Scott Allen Ward. The movie is about a group of criminals who get caught up in a battle between monsters of the day and monsters of the night. Currently in post production, A Hard Place is going to be doing a short festival run towards the end of the year, followed by an early 2025 release via 50 Caliber Productions, Gianetti Films and Zapruderflix.

Finally for today, Blood/Stream is a new horror anthology that currently has an Indiegogo campaign running. There are six segments planned, with four of those currently in various stages of production. The wraparound story 'Eye of the Beholder' is about a man with a particular sordid appetite who watches a strange TV streaming service while waiting to be seen at a special place he has discovered. The streaming service is how the other segments are shown. These include 'An Arm and a Leg' that is set out like a mockumentary, featuring two debt collectors seeking to collect payment, and starring Phillip Bailey (Doctor Who TV show). 'Eating Disorder' stars Barbie Wilde (Hellbound: Hellraiser II), it is about a woman with an eating disorder who gets caught up with a masked killer. Finally for now is, 'Fox and the Hen' which is about some hikers on the way to a hen night who are forced to seek refuge in an old farm shed alongside a stranger. That one stars Spencer Wilding (Star Wars: Rogue One, Guardians of the Galaxy).

We Are Zombies (2023) - Comedy Horror Film Review

Co-directed by François Simard, Anouk Whissell and Yoann-Karl Whissell (Summer of 84), We Are Zombies is a Canadian comedy horror film (based on the comic book series The Zombies That Ate the World) that stars the best movie monsters of all time - zombies (the title was a bit of a giveaway). I often find that films purporting to be comedic turn out not to be so. Initially I thought this would be the case here. As the film's story progressed however I came to find the irritating leads to be quite endearing.

The movie takes place in a dystopian near future in which the dead have returned to life. Rather than be the typical flesh eating kind, these undead are more an annoyance than anything, with the still alive humans forced to co-exist alongside the rotting reanimated who typically due to limited intelligence (as a result of brain damage) are only able to perform simple jobs. Various laws were passed, classing the undead as the 'living impaired', and a powerful organisation called Coleman were tasked with retrieving the recently dead and storing them at their facility should their family members opt to pay a fee for the service.
Maggie (Megan Peta Hill - Open Water 3: Cage Dive), her half brother Karl (Alexandre Nachi) and his best friend, Freddy (Derek Johns - The Boys TV show) are three small time crooks who have been posing as Coleman employees in order to steal zombies under the guise of retrieving them for the company and instead selling them to a shady fashionista. Their crime has resulted in the real Coleman employees - Rocco and Stanley (Patrick Abellard) being tasked with repaying the lost earnings, and to do this they decide to kidnap the grandmother of Maggie and Karl so they can demand a ransom.
Meanwhile, high ranking Coleman employee Hannity (Benz Antoine - Gothika) is working on a plan to make the docile zombies violent, in order to turn public opinion on them and get official permission to cull the undead. With everyone who dies returning as a zombie he fears that one day the walking dead will outnumber the living.

I wasn't that impressed to begin with, I found the protagonists to be irritating and I thought idiotic Freddy being infatuated with an obviously uninterested Maggie to be quite the tired trope. Over the course of the movie my opinion on them changed, the three had some fun chemistry between them, and I came to really enjoy their antics. I also thought that Rocco and especially Stanley made for fun comedy bad guys, they had some funny scenes that were amusing to watch. Some of the side characters were not as great, with one central character in particular being a bit annoying.

This is a world where people immediately return to life upon dying, retaining their memories and able to communicate still. It has resulted in life becoming a lot cheaper, with people not that fussed when people they know die. This both makes for some comedic moments, and also makes the bad guys harder to stop as they have to be beaten twice.

Thankfully, the make-up for the zombies is great, as were the special effects, especially for one specially modified one. There are a lot of cool moments, such as various zombie heads that are separated from their bodies but still moving, and a funny part where the protagonists accidentally get a ghoul wrapped around their van tyre, with the creature mildly trying to make conversation with them. For the most part they are not flesh hungry at all, but without too many spoilers this might possibly change in the film's third act when Hannity's plan is put into motion. That results in a few bloody high action sequences that feature such highlights as Freddy performing wrestling moves on them, and an amusing undead version of Mother Teresa.

The soundtrack is pretty decent, lots of eighties synth style sounds, and one fight scene that has a high energy drum and bass tune.

I was surprised just how much I came to enjoy We Are Zombies, it had a good blend of amusing characters, and while it was rarely laugh out loud funny, there were some highlights here and there. A much better film than it appeared it would be, I liked this different take on the undead, and enjoyed the special effects around them, making this worth a watch. It was also nice to see zombie legend George Romero mentioned as special thanks in the end credits (alongside a few other notable names). We Are Zombies streams exclusively on SCREAMBOX.

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Wilderness (2006) - Horror Film Review

It is another week and another time where the scheduled film for review was unable to be watched due to screener issues. I have a pile of DVDs that I haven't got around to watching and so randomly picked one, which turned out to be the M.J Bassett (four episodes of the Ash vs Evil Dead TV show, Deathwatch) directed slasher - Wilderness. My expectations were low, but as the film went on I found myself pleasantly surprised.

After their bullied dormmate commits suicide, a group of young offenders are taken off to a former Army owned deserted island by the institute warden - Jed (Sean Pertwee - Gotham TV show, Botched, Dog Soldiers). He hopes that some team building exercises there will bring the teenagers together. They soon discover however that they are not the only people on the island as they encounter a couple of teenage girls led by former soldier - Louise (Alex Reid - The Descent) as well as a crazed survivalist (Stephen Don - Game of Thrones TV show) and his pack of vicious dogs who seems determined to kill them all for reason unknown. Even with all their lives in danger, personal grudges among the criminals threaten to speed up the process.

Maybe it was just being a British horror and with it having Pertwee among the cast, but I got a feel of Dog Soldiers to this. There was also bit of a Battle Royale feel to the film, being mainly set outside on an island I guess would be sure to bring parallels to that classic. 
After a needed first act set at the young offenders institute, the movie moves over to the island where the various personalities of the protagonists are set out. Normally it would be a bad thing to have lead characters that you didn't want to root for, but here, with many of the characters being quite nasty people, it was often satisfying to see their varied death scenes. Toby Kebbell (War for the Planet of the Apes, Kong: Skull Island) is the main protagonist, playing the silently brooding Callum, a character who had newly arrived at the institute. I guess he was the one that viewers were meant to root for but he did come across as a bit weird. Steve (Stephen Wight - Men in Black: International, Highlander: The Source) is the most hateable of the cast, a skinhead bully who uses the hulking Lewis (Luke Neal - Star Wars: Episode VIII - The Last Jedi) to do his dirty work. He may have been horrid, but I think Steve may have been the stand-out character here. The other characters also are all quite stereotypical, such as chav Blue (Adam Deacon - Dead Set TV show), and the very snivelling and cowardly Lindsay (Ben McKay - Hot Fuzz).
The various personalities have as much conflict within as without, with some of the respectable body count coming from infighting. I thought there was a decent amount of characters, and while they were all generic, I thought they made for a varied bunch. Some had more time to shine than others, with some in particular not really doing much at all. Much of the dialogue could be quite amusing. There is no end of swearing and insults, but lines made me smile on occasion, such as one highlight when a character states "This uninhabited island is getting pretty f*cking crowded!" after the group discover yet more people who are not meant to be there.

One of the highlights for Wilderness are the fun kill scenes, with special mention going to the make-up effects on the dead bodies. There was a neat looking early scene of a character getting mauled to death by a pack of dogs, and many of the kill scenes revolve around survivalist type things such as bear traps, tripwires and arrows. There wasn't one type of kill used more than once (on screen at least) and so it was always fun to see how the next poor victim would meet their end. Special effects always looked great, mostly practical as far as I could tell, and a good use of editing to dodge around things that maybe wouldn't look as good on closer inspection, such as dead dogs. The story wasn't bad, with decent motivations for the antagonist and some later twists that nearly took me by surprise.

Wilderness was a solid slasher that made good use of both the outdoor locations, and special effects that rarely disappointed. The characters might have felt a little too much like caricatures at times, but I enjoyed the casts interactions with each other, even if the one set-up to be the lead was one of the least interesting. This was more entertaining than it had any right to be.

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Body Parts (2023) - Anthology Horror Film Review

Body Parts is a South Korean anthology horror film comprised of a wraparound story and five other ones (directed by six different directors) spread over a hundred minute runtime. As I always say, a good anthology needs a good theme, and as the title suggests, the connecting theme here is body parts. This makes for something that is quite gory in places, and  had more variation than I thought there might be.

It took me a fair while to realise this was an anthology, though gradually pieced it together. I believe the wraparound story might have been called 'Pieces', being mainly in Korean it was hard to tell if that was the case. It was quite a good one as wraparound goes. Basically, an undercover reporter - Si-kyng (Kim Chae-eun) has infiltrated a strange religious cult who worship something called 'The Father'. Each of the members have brought an offering for their God, with it turning out that the offerings are actually body parts. Each of the different short films are then based on each of the offerings that the five desperate cult members have brought.

The first short proper was about a young woman who had brought a dresser from the apartment of a neighbour who had recently killed themselves. In the dresser the woman discovers a bottle of perfume, and she finds that it has a wonderful scent. She also soon discovers that everything and everyone around her has started smelling rotten and rancid, the only reprieve she gets is when she sprays the perfume. When that runs out she turns to drastic measures. This was a good start, though it does show one of the weaknesses of the anthology in that nearly all of the short films end on quite an unsatisfying finish.
The second short might have been my favourite. In this one, a man bullied for always insisting he can see ghosts everywhere decides to give his bullies something that will also allow them to see ghosts. Not believing the man, they go along with his plan with horrific consequences. This had a lot of cool make-up effects for the various ghosts that turn up within the short, they looked creepy and unsettling in that East Asian way, special mention to the actor playing the bullied man and his great unsettling grin.

The middle short film here blends in elements of demonic possession and found footage. Seeming to be mentally unwell, a teenage girl has started hurting herself, her housemates believe her to be possessed and decide to hold an online exorcism. With the possibly possessed girl locked in a room and being recorded, the other girls assume they are safe. This one had some nice special effects of objects moving on their own, and the troubled girl was played well.

The penultimate short film was probably just about my least favourite. A young woman moves into an apartment and soon experiences weird goings-on such as strange noises, and a former tenant of the apartment who keeps turning up at the door warning her of danger. Her upstairs neighbour reveals to her that a headless body had been found there years previously and that the head was never found. Maybe something was lost in translation but I didn't quite understand this one.
That just leaves the final short, I believe was titled 'String'. This was the most different feeling horror here, with elements of Saw brought into the story. A young man awakens one day to find a string tied tightly around his neck, the string then threading through a hole in the wall to his next door neighbours apartment, where she also has the string tied around her neck. Every three minutes the string tightens, leading to a deadly tug of war between the two victims. This had some great looking special effects, and was one of the only ones that had a fun finish, rather than just petering out.

I love anthology films and it was a delight to discover Body Parts was one of those. Being a Korean horror there was a different feel, and there was a decent amount of variation within each of the shorts, while they still seemed to share a distinct style to them. Many of the stories might have not ended in the most satisfying way, but this was still a good movie that kept me watching, eager to find what would come next. Body Parts came to the SCREAMBOX streaming service exclusively on July 30th.

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The Rotting Zombie's News Anthology for Thursday 8th August 2024

I didn't sleep well last night (at the time of typing) so have been struggling to get anything done today. This being my second and final blog post of the day. I will have to try better tomorrow to get everything done! Some fun sounding news for this trilogy of three horror news tales.

The Red is an Australian comedy horror film set in the outback and stars a unique creation in the form of Rippy - the giant zombie kangaroo. It is about a young police officer (played by Tess Haubrich) based at the town of Axehead, who must deal with the were-creature Rippy when locals start showing up brutally killed by the creature. The cast also includes Michael Biehn, Angie Milliken, and Aaron Pedersen. The Red comes to Australian and New Zealand cinemas on October 31st from Radioactive.

Next up, all the way to Scotland for news about lost horror film The Bench. This was originally shot in 2007 by a team of filmmakers led by writer/director Sean Wilkie (Matter of Time), with HDV tape the option gone for. This was inspired by Tobe Hooper's original Texas Chainsaw Massacre, and is finally to see the light of day thanks to Magic Monkey Films and Quarantine Films. The film stars Joy McAvoy (Filth), Matt McClure (Penny Dreadful) and Tony McGeever, and is about a group of friends who get caught up with an evil force that is centred around a strange bench out in the Scottish wilderness. The Bench is available to rent or buy on Amazon Prime Video. I have a screener of this for review so that should be going u later this month.

Finally for today, sci-fi horror thriller Terror Firma is coming to DVD and Blu-ray on August 27th from Dark Arts Entertainment, which is the distribution company's inaugural release. This is the feature film debut of writer/director Jake Macpherson and is about a struggling artist who moves in with her estranged brother and his creepy roommate. A city-wide lockdown and a mysterious packet of seeds unite to somehow bring the existence of the world into danger. As well as special features, the Blu-ray release includes the extended director's cut.

Slaxx (2020) - Comedy Horror Film Review

With the screener to the film I originally intended to watch for review today not working I did my usual and instead decided to watch one of my own choosing. I had been contemplating once again getting rid of my Shudder subscription, instead I chose to watch the comedy horror film Slaxx. Directed and co-written by Elza Kephart (Graveyard Alive), this tale about a possessed pair of jeans had some fun moments, but was the idea enough to carry an entire film?

Libby (Romane Denis) has gotten her dream job working at a trendy clothing store. With an exclusive new brand of jeans launching the next day, her and the other staff members are doing an all-nighter to get the store ready for the launch. Unknown to all though is that one of the new pairs of jeans is somehow possessed, and it begins to kill the staff off one by one. Discovering an increasing body count, the store manager - Craig (Brett Donahue - The Editor) decides to try and cover up the strange deaths, putting the success of his store over the health of his staff members, while a store lock-down (to prevent details of the new jeans being leaked by staff) means that those still left alive have nowhere to escape to.

The film had a great idea, and it was due to a sentient pair of jeans being the antagonist that I originally added this to my Shudder 'to-watch' list. There are some good moments here, some of the kills were a lot of fun, especially one around the halfway mark that was far more gory and violent than you would expect from some cotton trousers! Rather than looking purposely bad, the effects for the jeans were achieved using a lot of green screen, so they looked like they were moving on their own rather than super fake and cheesy. I didn't expect there to be much of a background lore dump for how they came to be, but thanks to a recurring flashback sequence that replays from the prologue all the way to near the end credits there is an explanation of sorts. 

The message is about how poorly treated third world countries are by big businesses, the business here has a friendly facing message, yet it is toxic and hypocritical from within. Staff are friendly in an extremely fake way, and Libby's idealism is really destroyed over the course of the movie as she witnesses the ugliness hidden from view. Unfortunately this is reflected in the location, with plain sterile corridors off the shop floor that gave a lifeless feel. As fun as some of the kills can be, having it set against a near detail-less environment meant that stuff did get dull. It didn't help that it was a good while before characters figured what was going on, and that Libby herself wasn't the most exciting protagonist. I thought Donahue was fun as the very fake acting boss. Having management pretending to care about staff is something that most people who have worked anywhere have experienced, so that was familiar. Other than those the rest of the characters didn't get too much opportunity to be anything to stand out, existing just as victims for the occasionally dancing pair of jeans.

As fun as the jean based antagonist was, there just wasn't enough going on to carry this through its seventy eight minute run time. Maybe if the first act had been sped up a bit there could have been more jean battling, as it was, there was a lot of running and hiding, and an appropriate ending, but seemed to run out of steam on occasion. Slaxx can currently be streamed on Shudder.

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Jig of Glee by Fir Cone Children (2024) - Music Album Review

Fir Cone Children is yet another name that prolific Berlin based musician Alexander Donat puts music out under, with him being the frontman for the band. The latest album is Jig of Glee with the dreampunk band once again creating songs based on Donat's daughters experiences of just being children. As you might expect, due to that the music has a more innocent and happy sound to it. It may be obvious but this doesn't link to horror at all, with the exception I guess of 'Witches Lab'.

It starts with a trilogy of energetic and upbeat songs that felt like Summer distilled into sound, the three tracks, 'You Are My Animal', 'Texting' and 'Diamond Dolphins' perfectly feed into each other and sound joyous. As the album progresses there is a more indie feel, with even some of Donat's more sneering sounding vocals coming into play on track 'Youth Lagoon'. The middle of this was where I had the most enjoyment, I felt that both 'Malin' and 'Battery' were excellent tracks, the former having a more of a regretful darker sound that again brought to mind Sea Power, while the later had a really good backing beat to it. It all culminates with 'Vote For Me', a song about a pretend election his daughters had, which had echoes of Clearlake to me with its gentle and peaceful sound.

The music of Fir Cone Children was well suited to this time of year. The peaceful, energetic and innocent sound to the album made for a pleasant album that was a chilled listen.

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Invited (2024) - Horror Film Review

Directed by Navin Ramaswaran (Poor Agnes) and written by Monica La Vella, Invited is a found footage horror that plays out entirely from the perspective of a PC screen. I thought the idea behind it was pretty cool, though even with a seventy minute run time it did feel like it slightly outstayed its welcome.

Linda's (Martina Schabron) daughter, Jessica (Beáta Imre) had been travelling around Europe with her best friend Maddy (Mandy Magnan) when she met a Russian man - Adrik (Michael Lake - Blood Child). After a whirlwind romance she decides to head back to Russia with him to get married in his home village. Linda, the now heavily pregnant Maddy, Linda's parents Susan (Kris Langille) and William (Andrew Bee - Mute), Linda's ex-husband James (Sean Irvine) and her son, Logan (Alex Di Brita) all receive a Zoom invite to watch the wedding ceremony. On the day of the wedding they all join the Zoom call, and are instructed to open the special package that each of them were sent, with a small knife and a vial of liquid included within. As part of the ceremony they are instructed to drink from the vial, which they all do, with the exception of Linda who is a recovering alcoholic. The viewers increasingly begin to be concerned with the ceremony, with it beginning to look more and like Jessica has been brainwashed into joining a dangerous cult, and before long all are caught up in horror both distant and much closer to home.

I have a fondness for found footage films that take place entirely from a PC screen, there has been some great entries over the years, with Unfriended the best example I can think of. Invited for the most part remains authentic. Outside of the Zoom call there are private message conversations going on, private video calls, rewatching old videos and searching on the internet, all provided variation which was welcome. There were concessions made to give this more of a film like feel. Most notably is that the movie has a soundtrack to it that the characters in the film are not hearing. It wasn't as distracting as I thought it might be, and it did add tension to some of the scenes. In particular I thought the track that played over the end credits was fantastic, interspersed with real photos that revealed the cult shown within the movie was actually based on a real life one that had operated out of Russia in the distant past. Cults in found footage films also are not something new, The Faith Community springs to mind as one good example. I thought the cult in Invited was an effective one, I just wish it had featured more. It is the catalyst for the horror to come, but large chunks of the movie take place on the Zoom call, which the cult itself are not part of, having not only muted the group so they can't communicate with them, but also leaving them up to their own devices for a huge part of the run-time.

While Linda is the protagonist, the view point occasionally switches outside of her PC screen, but mainly it is her perspective shown. She is set up to be a flawed protagonist, with it revealed early on that she was an alcoholic, and that her disease resulted in a car crash that left her son wheelchair bound, and possibly was the reason that her husband and her are divorced. This made her an interesting character, though due to plot elements, she is increasingly forced to carry the movie, as the other characters for various reasons start being unable to communicate. It led to Linda having to react to events taking place across the various locations the characters are at. You get a feel for her increasing panic, but the character never seemed as distraught as you would imagine she would be in real life. Her mainly reacting on her own led to the later part of the film dragging for me.
There were some decent special effects used, the film was a bit light on blood, but there are some disturbing scenes of body horror that I hadn't expected.

Invited had an interesting idea to it, and I felt that Schabron was a great fit for the flawed protagonist. I loved the cult, but did wish that they had featured more, as they made for more interesting characters than the rest of the cast, the ritual leader (Elena Zavet) in particular really stood out as a captivating character. Invited is out on Blu-ray in a collectible edition, while the film can currently be streamed for free on Tubi!, which is where I watched it.

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Still Wakes the Deep (2024) - Horror Video Game Review (Xbox Series X)

The term 'walking simulator' is one that can at first glance seem a bit negative, but I enjoy that sub-genre of video games and use the phrase in a positive fashion. Still Wakes the Deep is the latest game from The Chinese Room (Everybody's Gone to the Rapture, Amnesia: A Machine for Pigs) and fits into the criteria. It shared a heck of a lot in common with the Amazon Prime TV show The Rig, and also bizarrely gave me Dead Space vibes, if that game had been combat-less and set in the 1970's.

Caz (voiced by Alec Newman - A Plague Tale: Innocence, Dragon Age: Inquisition voice work) is an electrician working on an oil rig off the coast of Scotland in 1975. Wanted for questioning by the police after putting a man in hospital on the mainland, Caz is using the job as a place to hide away, something he has been doing for the past several months. After the stern and mean boss of the rig - Rennick (Clive Russell - Game of Thrones TV show) discovers this, receiving a letter from the police, he summons Caz to his office and fires him, telling the man a chopper is waiting to take him back to the mainland. Before he can board the chopper however disaster strikes on the rig, with the main drill digging into something that causes an explosion that rocks the structure, resulting in Caz plunging into the sea. Swiftly rescued, he discovers that the drill hit some type of ancient organism beneath the waves, a gigantic fleshy plant-like thing which has climbed up the drill and has started to spread out all over the rig. As if that wasn't bad enough, it is soon discovered that anyone who comes into contact with the plant is transformed, mutating into a hideous mound of flesh that use long tentacles to move around, and who, despite their change, still retains aspects of their personalities and memories.
With the rig falling apart and many of the crew dead or mutated, it is up to Caz to not only try and find a way for the survivors to escape, but also fix the many problems that are putting the rig in danger of total collapse.

Sure, this might fall into walking simulator territory but it is likely the most action packed version of that style of game I have ever played. The game is split between mild platforming challenges, simple puzzles, and stealth sections where the defenceless protagonist has to creep around his mutated crewmates. I had a strangely hard time getting into Still Wakes the Deep. My first attempt had me about an hour into the game, but I was just not enjoying it. It sounds odd, but I put the blame on a bug that meant it was impossible to turn the subtitles off, and I could just not help myself reading those subtitles rather than pay attention to what was happening on screen. When I went to return to it I discovered I couldn't remember anything that had happened, so tried again. Even then, it was a third fresh start (after the subtitle bug had been patched) that I finally got into the game.

Exploring the rig was always entertaining and I liked the transitions between the various areas, each new location having its title appear on screen in a bold font. There was variation between areas, but it is an oil rig so obviously much of the locations are industrial in nature. The accommodation block was the place with the most world-building to it, including the laid back prologue where you can explore and speak to people with no sense of urgency. This was one place that your character kept going back to, over the course of the game it gets more damaged and flooded due to the massive plant growth overtaking the rig, so it was nice to keep seeing a familiar location transforming over the five or six hour game.

With the rig literally falling apart there were lots of fun platforming moments which never felt too over the top. Walkways have collapsed everywhere, so Caz must jump over gaps, climb up and down ladders and use small lifts to traverse the environments. It is around fifty/fifty for interior and exterior locations and seemed a good pacing between the two. I have a huge fear of heights in real life, sometimes that carries over into games also, but sadly here, despite often being up very high, I just never got that feeling of peril. The puzzles are simple and revolve around using your screwdriver to open grates, pushing buttons, and occasionally moving objects. Later in the game when the rig is flooding, these puzzles involve Caz having to traverse under water, I especially liked the parts when the sea suddenly rushes in and you have to figure out a way for him to escape the location.
The other side of the game is the locations where The Thing style mutants are roaming. They had a cool enough design to them and were not used in over abundance or more than one mutant at a time in an area. Stealth was functional, there are plenty of little vents to crawl through and you can throw objects to distract the enemies. Those sections where also were I would typically give up my session for the day, they can cause a bit of repetition thanks to their one hit kills should you be spotted. Unfortunately, I never found these moments scary at all, it was more a breath of relief once they had been dealt with and I could move on with the story. Occasionally you get into a scripted chase sequence, thanks to the option to quickly glance behind you, these few parts were always thrilling to do.

Though the plot for The Rig was mostly unexplained, it is even less here, with no explanation for what the thing beneath the waves is. That was perfectly fine, but I do wish there had been something at the very least. Instead, the story is more centred on Caz's past, with flashbacks whenever he is knocked out that have him talking with his wife before leaving for the rig. I thought the voice acting was a highlight of the game, authentic Scottish voice actors were used, with the language coming across as realistic, even dropping the 'c' word a few times.

With the plant thing able to cause hallucinations, this bleeds into the game more as it progresses, but anyone hoping for some late game twist will be disappointed as everything pretty much is as it seems. There are certain notes in the environments you can look at in greater detail, though these are mostly dull safety instructions rather than letters and diary entries. There is a kind of audio diary in the form of ringing telephones Caz can answer. Sometimes the person on the other side of the line will give new instructions for Caz to follow (amusingly the game sees fit to highlight how absurd it is that Caz is the one person having to do everything), sometimes it will be someone who is in the process of being killed, which did feel a little silly due to how many times that is the case. It all leads up to a satisfying conclusion, though one that wasn't surprising.

I liked Still Wakes the Deep but I wouldn't say I loved it. The hours spent with the game were entertaining, but the story had the potential to be more involved than Caz just rushing from one disaster to another, while the large cast meant that many of the deaths in the game didn't affect me, due to getting confused which character was which. It was well designed and certainly well paced and I did like seeing how messed up the rig got over the course of the experience, but when it was all over it kind of faded from my mind. Still Wakes the Deep can currently be played on Xbox GamePass.

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Uncanny: I Know What I Saw (2024) - Supernatural Stage Show Review

Last year my father somehow ended up at a stage show called Uncanny that Danny Robbins was touring the U.K with, without having any idea who the man was or what the stage show was about. He said when Robbins first walked out on stage to rapturous applause he assumed he was a magician, but was instead delighted to discover he was instead involved with the paranormal. My father raved about that show afterwards, so seeing it was returning to Northampton (my home town), he was excited to return, taking me, my sister, and her boyfriend along.

Robbins is the host of a paranormal TV show called Uncanny (funnily enough) that investigates different supernatural events that are said to have occurred around the U.K. I have only seen a single episode of that show, but that was enough for me to know what to expect as the show followed a similar format. The general format has Robbins and two other paranormal investigators looking into cases and trying to work out if they were indeed supernatural or if there was a more grounded explanation. Robbins sits on the fence, though he states he wants to believe, meanwhile his assistants always have differing viewpoints, one always is a sceptic and one is always a true believer.

The first half of the show took the form of Robbins discussing one of his weirdest cases. This involved a couple living above a shop in a Victorian house who begin to hear strange noises and discovering objects have moved around on their own in their absence. The key event was a giant heart made up of post-it notes that was discovered to have not only came off the door it was stuck on, but that the post-it notes were all torn and spread about the bedroom. I had thought that despite the subject the show might come across as a bit dull. I needn't have worried as the story is wonderfully brought to life by some impressive special effects that replicate key moments from the alleged haunting live on stage. Going back to the post-it note heart, that is impressively replicated on stage, with the lights plunging everything into darkness for a second before the lights return to show the hearts now in disarray across the stage. The case is discussed by Robbins, with him frequently asking his two assistants (sat at the side of the stage) to give their opinions. Behind Robbins was a video wall, this was used to good effect, including the Uncanny TV show intro credits, as well as including clips of the victims of the apparent haunting being interviewed. Audience participation made up a good part of this first half with Robbins getting people in the audience to ask questions about the case shown.

During the interval my father revealed that this was the exact same show that he saw last year, he was disappointed about this, saying the only difference was this one felt more polished. The second half looked at an altogether more creepy case that took place in the 1970's, about a little girl seeing her next door neighbour in her bedroom late one night angrily demanding to know where her daughters were, unaware that the neighbour had recently died in a tragic car accident. Again, this was special effects filled, this included jump scares of an actress made up as a ghost suddenly appearing on the video wall and replicating that moment. After this there were more audience participation moments with Robbins asking people to describe hauntings they had experienced, while the two experts spoke about hauntings they had researched that took place in Northampton.

I really enjoyed the show, I loved the set-up and that it wasn't just people talking, but instead had a theatrical feel to it. Often the endearing Robbins would act out moments from the cases. I thought he was a great host, and as a result of the show I have now subscribed to his podcast. It is a shame it was the same show as last year as my father couldn't have been the only person there expecting something new. Uncanny: I Know What I Saw was slickly done, entertaining and occasionally a little spooky, making for an entertaining two hours.

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