Dawn of the Dead (2004) - Zombie Horror Film Review

I watched the remake of Dawn of the Dead again last night, first time this year I've seen it. It is officially a classic zombie film now, I feel I have watched it enough times to warrant it that. Sure people moan about the running zombie trend, but I think there's room for both types of zombies, as well as talking zombies (like in Resident Evil 4, and the fantastic french zombie film The Grapes of Death (watch it, it is fantastic). First of all, this is not a remake. Apart from the location of a shopping mall it has virtually nothing in common with the amazing original. I guess it's good being classed as a remake after the bother Dead Rising had just for being set in a shopping mall. This is more of a homage to Dawn of the Dead, or a re-imagining.

The basic plot for this film is that after the beginnings of zombie apocalypse a group of random strangers have holed up together in a shopping mall. These include a nurse, a TV salesman, a cop, a criminal, his pregnant girlfriend, and some mall security guards. Later on these are joined by more survivors arriving in a lorry. They spend a lot of the film in the mall, then get bored and decide to try and find somewhere else to hang out.

The film is quite violent in places (such as someone accidentally being sawn in half with a chainsaw), and also has an air of humour in places, and a sense of constant dread. There are some cool touches, such as Andy the gun shop owner stranded on his own, a block away who communicates with the mall survivors via whiteboard and binoculars.

Some of the characters are really cool. Ving Rhames as the cop is really really cool, and the chief security guard starts off as a bit of a heel, but by films end has become a really great member of the group. There are weaker characters though. The criminal and his girlfriend are dreadful. Why the stupid zombie pregnancy scene needed to be in the film I don't know, it is definitely the worst part of the film (though the zombie baby is cool). Zombie Flesh Eaters 2 proved zombie pregnancy scenes just do not work well.

The film ramps up to high levels of excitement by films end, and has some cool effects. The additional footage during the films credits took away some of the mystery of the characters fates though, giving the film a bit of a downer. The music throughout is ace, from the opening music of Johnny Cash to the end credit music of Disturbed.

The directors cut has nearly 10 seconds of additional footage, wow. Regardless, Dawn of the Dead was a great film!

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The Fear 2: Halloween Night - Horror Film Review

I've never seen The Fear. I did a quick search on Wiki, but it's such a famous film that there isn't even a page for it. Though this sequel is a self contained one, it would have still been nice to find out what the plot for the original was (update: seems the first film took place in a psychiatric hospital.

Fear 2: Halloween Night is a ridiculously bad slasher. But despite the terrible acting, and awful effects the film is really quite entertaining, and inventive. Basically some guy is having a Halloween party with his best friends at his Grandparents house. He has told his friends all to dress up as their biggest fears. In actuality he is actually going to perform an Indian ritual to conquer the 'Fear' which has been in his family for generations and which leads to them becoming mass murderers. An ancient Indian wooden Mannequin nicknamed Marty is to be used in the ceremony. The effects for Marty are terrible, it is so blatantly a man in a rubber suit, rather than the wooden figure it is supposed to be. One scene early in the film the statue is visibly blinking in the background of a scene, which is just cringe worthy to watch.

The one good thing in the film is the deaths. Each character is killed in accordance to their biggest fears (which they conveniently find reason to naturally mention). The character scared of heights is flung out a upstairs window, the character scared of confined spaces is chopped up and stuffed in a cardboard box, the character scared of water has weights tied to him and chucked in a swimming pool etc. These deaths are entertaining and better than the usual boring deaths in slashers.

The film has massive plot holes everywhere, terrible acting, bizarre character reactions to situations, however it is darn entertaining, and well worth a watch.

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Alone in the Dark (1992) - Horror Videogame Review (PC)

Alone in the Dark, first of the 3D survival horrors was released in the midish 90's. You play as either Edward Carnby or some woman. Whichever character you choose to play as has gone to a creepy mansion to retrieve an antique from the attic there (the owner of the mansion having recently died in mysterious circumstances). The tension is built up right away. You watch your character go deeper and deeper into the house, if only it was so easy to get out.

The game starts with your character at the top of the mansion, right away you are under attack from creatures of darkness (though you can actually block both attic windows to prevent the demons getting to you). The game is classic old school survival horror, and pretty much invented the genre. You explore the mansion solving puzzles and collecting items. The newer Alone in the Dark games are complete shadows of this one. This has far more supernatural overtones to it. There are many undefeatable ghosts and poltergeists in the game. There aren't many enemies you can actually fight at all (a few zombies to begin with). I played this on PC using keyboard, so combat was terrible anyway. The game is very unforgiving. I remember in particular the front door. It was unlocked but if you opened it a portal to Hell sucked you in and was instant game over.

The location is confined to the house, though later on you do get to a network of deadly caves under the house. I never escaped the place, I am still there now. I played it before the Internet really existed in any popular form, so I got completely stuck and eventually gave up after weeks of stumbling round not knowing what I was supposed to do, I have an inkling that I did something that meant it was impossible to carry on

An update: 17/02/2020

I have recently gone back to this game and using a guide have completed it. I don't feel bad using a guide as I certainly put in the leg work as a teen into this, and as I stated in my original review I had in fact put myself in an impossible situation. While using a keyboard is a bit clunky I did enjoy my time with this, though it obviously shows its age a lot. This is split into two sections, the first part in the mansion was the more atmospheric, and felt more typical survival horror. The second part taking place in the caves under the house is a lot more action focussed, with platforming required. Due to how old this feels now it is hard to recommend to any but the biggest survival horror fan. While this wasn't the first survival horror game it is still one that Resident Evil has to have taken inspiration from, from the monsters you face, to the environmental puzzles this all echoes moments that future series did.

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Splatterhouse 2 - Horror Videogame Review (Megadrive)

Splatterhouse 2 was released for the Megadrive back in the early 90's. A platforming action horror game spanning 8 levels of madness. I distinctly remember it had a label on the games cover warning the game contained scenes unsuitable for children which I thought was uber cool at the time.

Obviously the game is a sequel to Splatterhouse, a game I never got to play until a few years back. In the first game your girlfriend Jennifer had been captured by Demonic forces, but during the course of the game she is killed (by you in fact as she mutates into a demon and attacks you). But the Hockey mask wearing anti hero Rick learns via nightmares that she is in fact still alive, and still captive, so he heads back to the Mansion of the first game to rescue her for real. The games intro is amazing, and is still amazing today. It had often been said that the Megadrive couldn't do mode 7, but this game achieves it. Not only did the story contain mode 7, it also had speech (of a kind).

The game takes place over 8 levels. Rick has to punch and kick his way through each one. There are also level specific weapons such as shotguns, vials of acid, and even a chainsaw to be used. The enemies all die really violently, usually splattering apart or dissolving into blood, and each enemy has weapon specific deaths.

Most the game is left to right, but there are a few elevator sections where you are assaulted from both sides of the screen and most survive, and also a few levels have multiple routes (something the first game was huge on). The levels also have lots of natural hazards such as pits, spikes, poisoned water and puking Deer heads, so the game never gets too samey.

The bosses are the real highlight of the game, there be spoilers here!

The first boss is a Jabba the Hutt lookalike who vomits acid at you, when he dies his stomach burst open emitting a pool of stomach acid. Boss two is a giant ectoplasmic head, his eyes explode when he's defeated. The third boss is a particular highlight. The battle takes place in a shed. First you are assaulted by various levitating tools. After defeating these you can then use them to fight the next part of the boss. The next part of the boss is 4 skinless babies hanging by nooses, defeated by chainsawing them up! Amazing, it would never be allowed today! This is followed by a floating ball of flesh, when this is killed it explodes, literally coating the entire screen in blood. Boss 4 is a dead ringer for the mutated Jeff Goldblum in the 1980's remake of The Fly, the 2nd form of the boss is a giant red spider which is a bugger to kill.

Onto the 2nd half of the game. Boss 5 is a mad zombie scientist. It only takes one hit to kill him, but you have to chase him down first. He can be defeated by either punching him in the face (which makes his head explode!) or by setting him on fire. Boss 6 consists purely of a boss fight. It's not too exciting, you just fight various small demons clambering out of a portal to Hell. Boss 7 chases you as you attempt to escape from Hell, you can't defeat him, you just have to avoid his attacks, he looks like a giant transparent dummy. The final level has 2 bosses. First you fight a tentacled sea monster, then you fight a massive demon thing made up of hundreds of tortured heads (this boss is uber hard).

The ending is worth getting to, though I recall once the game crashed as soon as I completed it. The music throughout the game is really somber and moody. The game is good! Believe.

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The Survivor (1981) - Horror Film Review

Another daily update, no zombies in sight for this one. The Survivor is an 80's supernatural thriller made in Australia. The first 20 minutes of the film had no dialogue, I nearly turned it off, it was real boring.

Basically an Aeroplane crashes into a field outside a Town, then explodes. It looks like all 300 passengers aboard the plane have perished, but while the emergency services tackle the tragedy a lone man walks out of the devastation. He is the plane's pilot, and only survivor of the crash. He is miraculously unscathed, but has no recollection of what happened, or how he came to escape completely unharmed.

In his search for the truth he meets up with a psychic, a lady with the stupid name of Hobbs. She reckons she is able to hear the cries of the angry dead and that with the pilots assistance she will be able to help solve the mystery and let the souls of the planes dead rest.

The film is ok, more thriller than anything else, and it does keep you interested with the mystery of what happened to cause the plane to go down. There are a few ghost influenced deaths in the film, but at times the ghost deaths seem almost like a sub-plot to the main story. An ok thriller, but showing its age now.

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Cannibal Apocalypse (1980) - Zombie Horror Film Review

I saw Cannibal Apocalypse last night. The most plausible zombie film I have ever seen. For many years it was banned in the UK, and for many years the only version available in the USA was a ridiculously cut version. But now sense has prevailed and the film is available fully uncut.

The film starts off in Vietnam. A dramatic rescue of two American prisoners of war is elicited. However one of the rescued soldiers bites a chunk out of his rescuers arm. After this point the film moves to Atlanta, about six months later. One of the cannibal Americans has been released from the mental home he had been in. He immediately tries to contact his captain from Vietnam (the man whose arm he bit) as they used to be buddies. The captain wants nothing to do with him though, as he is suffering himself, having vivid nightmares, and generally feeling quite odd. The released man; Charles Bukowski now disappointed, heads to a cinema where his urges overtake him and he attacks a woman; biting a chunk out of her neck. After dramatic action he is apprehended and re-admitted to the mental home. The police note his cannibalism which leads to the doctors realising anyone bitten by the two rescued POWs would have been infected by the same rabies type virus. The infected POW's head out on a murderous rampage in an attempt to get back to Vietnam.

The film feels more plausible as the infected aren't undead, they are just infected. They remain rational, and can control their urges to an extent. Their infection leads to them having a near psychotic hate of all non infected, as well as the urge to feed on human flesh.

It is obvious to see which scenes got the film banned. It is an Italian film coming out the same time as City of the Living Dead and The Beyond. The violence is not disturbing now, if it ever was (or maybe I'm just desensitised). There's eyeball gouging, dismemberment, flesh tearing, and someone even gets their tongue bitten off! The film overall carries a melancholy tone, and I felt quite sad after seeing it, kinda depressing. A fantastic Goblin style soundtrack though. So many zombie films have excellent soundtracks, this is no different.

Cannibal Apocalypse was very violent in places, but mostly downbeat, worth seeing for a different kind of zombie film.

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Resident Evil 5 - Zombie Horror Videogame Review Part 3: The end of my journey (X-Box 360)

I finished Resident Evil 5 last Friday. Did it in 4 sessions. The game was longer than I expected, still about half the length of Resident Evil 4. Overall I was impressed, there was quite a few different locations, including one which really felt like it had been lifted out of a Tomb Raider game. The story was ok, tied up some loose ends. The last scene in the game was totally over the top, I can't decide if this is a good thing or bad thing though, it was either genius, or just too much.

There is lots of replay value. As well as achievements (as always) there are alternate costumes to unlock, lots of artwork to unlock, and weapons to unlock. Also I would love to play through it with a human ally, rather than the A.I. For most the game the A.I was bearable, but towards the end Sheeva really did turn into a hindrance, just getting in my way, stealing items she didn't need, and generally being a damn liability.

I had heard that the bosses were not up to much. I thought they were really good. Blatantly designed for 2 people, they were all memorable, and mostly enjoyable to play. The inventory system was too small, I miss the upgraded space Resident Evil 4 provided. There are only 9 spaces in the inventory for 5, and if you get a stab vest, and bullet proof vest then your slots decrease. Jill Valentine has blond hair for some reason in 5. It is really off putting, as in all the others her hair has been dark. I assume she must have dyed it for some reason, but she looks more like Samus from Metroid than Jill Valentine now.

There is new content coming out for the game. I think it will most likely be DLC. It has you as Chris Redfield and Jill Valentine infiltrating Oswald Spencer's European hideout. My only concern is how there can be any enemies in the place, as I doubt Spencer would have had zombies or monsters in his hideout. The trailer just shows traps, so maybe it will be enemy free.

I highly recommend this game, and if you ever need a co-op partner my gamer tag is Happyhead UK. It would get a perfect score but with the totally broken A.I partner I just cannot do that.

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Zombie Haiku by Ryan Mecum (a review!)

I read a good book,
It was called Zombie Haiku,
About Zombie Hell.

It is all poems,
One mans journey into death,
Told just by Haikus.

Some of them are fun,
Some of them are scary fear,
All go in sequence.

The man starts off live,
But then he gets infected,
And reborn Zombie.

It is quite unique,
There is lots of brutal acts,
Book is like journal.

I recomend this,
Quite often dont like poems,
This book bucks the trend.

Resident Evil 5 - Zombie Horror Videogame Review Part 2: Day 2 (X-Box 360)

Day 2 of my Resident Evil 5 experience. I am renting the game, so am kinda rushing through it, as it needs to be back by months end. I am definitely going to be buying this now I've tried it.

On my 2nd session I worked through the Tribal Village. This area was the one which came under fire in the notorious 'Resident Evil is racist' furore which emerged on the games release. Personally it does not seem that way to me. In this section you arrive at a Tribal Village out in marsh lands. The village is made of wooden huts adorned with skulls and masks. The zombies in this area are the villagers. They are clad in grass skirts and masks and attack with spears and flaming arrows. This fitted in with the games style, and a file found explained why the villagers were dressed in this way. The only possible negative thing out of this was the pilfering of numerous statues in the village. White man heading to a indigenous people and stealing their gold. They were all zombies anyway so they don't need their gold.

I worked out the inventory control some more. The time before each level is your option to move around items and assign them to different buttons. It kinda works well this way.

There were yet more similarities to Resident Evil 4. Some of the tribal zombies had giant shields, they had to be dealt with the exact same way as the Monks in the previous game. A boss encountered was near identical to that of the last game. However the way you fought the boss was totally different. There was a section set on the back of a moving truck with you using a mounted gun. This was a fun distraction from the normal game, and I don't believe a section like this was in 4.

Wesker is even cooler in this game. Each time he reappears he gets cooler and cooler. If you thought he was amazing in Code Veronica you haven't seen anything yet! I am enjoying the game a lot, but I feel sad I will not get to play it in co-op as I could imagine it would be amazingly fun. No doubt yet more posts on this to follow.

Resident Evil 5 - Zombie Videogame Review Part 1 (X-Box 360)

I am eating humble pie at the moment, I will admit that. I hated the demo of Resident Evil 5, the A.I was really bad, and the weapons seemed to have no effect on the zombies. My first impressions on playing the game proper are quite positive. The game is intended as a co-op game, but as I am only able to play the game in single player I shall just be giving my views from that spectrum.

You play as Chris Redfield who has teamed up with a woman called Sheeva to investigate a terrorist cell operating out of a remote South African township. Soon after arriving you quickly find out that the whole population of the town have been infected with a parasite that turns them into mindless zombies, much like the Ganados of Resident Evil 4. The story is quite cool so far, it's basic, but it goes along well.

I have only played up to the end of chapter 2 at the moment. I think there will probably be around 6 chapters, each split into 2 half's. So far the game has been very linear. This isn't a bad thing, and is well handled to trick you into thinking it is more open than it actually is. The squalid town you are in feels authentic, and feels more different from the Spanish town of the last game than I expected. The sound is great, I am impressed with the noise the main characters make when they move, sounds really bulky, which makes sense with all their equipment they are carrying. The enemies are quite similar to the last so far. There are normal villager zombies, as well as dogs and a crazed chainsaw villager. The bosses fit with the style of the last game, comprising so far of insect based monsters.

The inventory system is not so great. The live item change works quicker than the demo, but it's best really to give all the healing items to the A.I, as she is better at healing than me. What is annoying is that there doesn't seem to be anyway to get the A.I to use any weapon other than her pistol. Also the A.I doesn't seem able to use grenades which is odd. I can't seem to be able to rearrange weapons in my inventory which is also a tad odd.

Talking of A.I, it is ok for Sheeva. She heals well, and uses her lame pistol well, but in boss fights she becomes useless. One in particular required a character to get behind the boss to hurt it. Sheeva would say 'You distract it, I'll get behind' then proceeds to just stick to you like a lost lamb making the fight harder than it should be. She seems less greedy than the demo, only taking items if you don't pick them up first.

A lot of ideas are taken from 4. Rather than improve on the style of the previous game, it instead just copies. This isn't too much of a bad thing, but when sections are blatantly copied from 4 it is really noticeable.

One last thing for my first impressions - there is no cool shop keeper. He is sorely missed.

Onechanbara Bikini Samurai Squad - Zombie Videogame Review (X-Box 360)

Onechanbara Bikini Samurai Squad - what a fantastic title for a game. As with everything I picked this up cheap. I originally planned to buy this, and the Wii prequel when they were first released. Personal issues made me not buy them.

So this is the sequel to the Wii game. It is a hack em up, much in the style of the Dynasty Warriors series. You play as 1 of 3 scantily clad girls rampaging around a city fighting off hoards of zombies with either swords, or guns. The game is very bloody, all enemies you fight end up in chunks, limbs, heads, and stomachs all being sliced through. It isn't uncommon to be left with a pair of legs stumbling towards you.

The story is very basic, basically some organisation intent on world domination has released a zombie plague to distract people from their plan. There are references to what I assume is the Wii prequel game, with recurring characters appearing from that.

The game took me about 10 hours to beat on my first play through, there is a levelling up system in place, so to totally max out your characters you would need to play the game multiple times. Each level is graded, higher grades resulting in new clothes you can dress up the girls with. The...ahem chest physics are ridiculous, the chest area swings around with the slightest movement, think Dead or Alive up on 11.

There are lots and lots of different enemy types, and right to near the very last level new enemy types are being introduced. There are basic zombies, armed with axes and knives, then you get the police zombies with their guns. Later on Soldier zombies and giant zombies are introduced. As well as these there are zombie dogs, crows, and mutants. The end of most levels results in a boss fight, usually with one of the intelligent zombies who fights via martial arts rather than biting, there is a memorable boss fight against a zombie Whale which is quite fun.

Overall the game can become quite monotonous with not enough variety in locations, or in what you do, a level at a time was about all I could manage, and the later ones become a real slog. There is one driving level in the game to split up the endless fighting, but the bike you drive is horrendously twitchy to control, and the whole level can pretty much be cleared by just driving in a straight line.

There are literally thousands of zombies to fight though. That is a good thing, and that makes the game worth getting. For zombies are ace. I will be getting the Wii version of this, but I do dread how awful the Wii-mote controls are going to be, it was exhausting enough using a regular control pad.

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Cloverfield (2008) - Horror Film Review

Cloverfield is amazing, and terrifying, and is a must see film. I never saw this when it was originally out. My sister did, but she made it sound so boring in her explanation of it that it totally put me off seeing it. While visiting her recently she convinced me to buy it.

This film is basically everything the awful Godzilla remake should have been. Godzilla managed to make the tale of a gigantic monster attacking New York really boring. The film was mediocre due to it being plain tedious. Cloverfield follows basically the same plot. A gigantic monster of unknown origins is attacking New York, rampaging through the streets destroying everything in its way. The plot follows a young group of party goers who are heading to the centre of the city to rescue one of the groups girlfriend who has gotten stuck there.

The film is shot totally by hand camera ala Blair Witch Project and Diary of the Dead style. The first fifteen minutes of the film are quite boring, nothing much happens, but this just makes the monsters emergence all the more scary. The film is virtually shot in real time. Everything shown is what was recorded by the hand camera a man in the group is using. By staying with the small group for the duration of the film you come to really care about, and like them making any of their deaths all the more tragic. You really want them to survive. There is lots of confusion in the film, this creates fear as you are as much in the dark as the characters.

The film is shot really well. I was expecting amateur style filming due to the hand held style of the film, but it is really professionally done, and the special effects are frankly amazing. The giant monster is only glimpsed in patches, the skyscrapers of the city obscuring it, making the mind conjure up what isn't shown. As the film concerns the characters heading towards the centre of New York, the action ramps up as the film progresses in a natural way, and plot devices mean exciting scenes can plausibly be shot.

Cloverfield is everything the dreadful Godzilla should have been, an instant classic which had me in literal tears by the end of it! I don't know what's wrong with me this year, but I'm finding everything super scary.

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X-Box 360 Indie Zombie Games

Just a quick update; there are currently lots of zombie games being released for the X-Box 360 Indie games channel. Zombies 2.0, Dead Meat, I MAED A GAM3 W1TH ZOMB1ES!!! 1, Veks and Silence, and Zombie Mania to name just a few. I will be doing a big review of all these games together to give my impression on this welcome development.

On X-Box Live Arcade there has been a few months ago the awful Zombie Wranglers released, and this Wednesday a cool looking Zombie survival game is to be released. Once I have played through these I shall post a review.

Actual games; I have recently played to completion Onechanbara Bikini Samurai Squad for the 360 and Mad World for the Wii. I have got Dead Rising: Chop Till you Drop, and soon to be renting Resident Evil 5. As soon as I have experienced these I shall be posting another review.

Onto films...I have a few horrors to review. I got Cannibal Apocalypse on DVD to watch, and have watched District 9, and Dorian Grey at the cinema. Also saw Cloverfield - extremly good! So hopefully will be a busy few months for posts.