Bodenhex (2024) by Vlimmer - Music Album Review

I've been sat on Vlimmer's (one of the many names Alexander Donat puts music out under) - Bodenhex since the end of October. I always end up delaying music reviews as I have stated many times that I don't have a clue what I'm talking about when it comes to those. 

Bodenhex is made up of ten tracks over a forty five minute runtime, and as is customary, I listened to this a few times as I was cleaning my house. It opens up with '2025', a suitably moody and morose six minutes of music that is fitting for what that year will likely look like if the current state of the world is anything to go by. 'Überrennen' brings the album into a more energetic sound, bringing with it sounds of electronica and a neat fast sounding drum beat. After a return to a more sad sound with 'Vielzuviel' things continue down the same path with 'Lichtbruch' but in a more wistful vibe, and a great tune throughout. This leads into the sinister start of 'Latenzsog' that delighted with its Radiohead style backing music.

The second half of the album is made up of a few tracks that had a similar feel to them with 'Endpuzzle', 'Mauerkipp' (with its dark and twisted tribal drum sounds) and 'Sinkkopf', before penultimate track 'Mondläufer' brings back the energy with its off-kilter eighties sound. Finally is the six minute track 'Fadenverlust' which brings things to a relentless powerful finish.

I always enjoy the music of Vlimmer, and the tracks contained within Bodenhex have done little to change that view. If not for being a bit down at the moment I am sure I would have enjoyed this more. A well put together collection of tracks which share a common similarity.

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Curse of the Sin Eater (2024) - Horror Film Review

Due to changing life circumstances, I've been having an old fashioned blog day today and Curse of the Sin Eater is the second horror I have watched for review. Directed by Justin Denton in his feature length directorial debut, and co-written by Adam Davis and Will Corona Pilgrim, this puts a fresh spin on the idea of selling your soul for power and riches.

Rick Malone (Carter Shimp - Ghosts of the Void) is a young and poor construction worker. Hired as part of a team working on a rich man's estate, he is unable to resist the temptation when the opportunity comes to steal some money he discovers in the mansion. Caught by the estate owner - elderly and terminally ill George Drayton (Larry Yando), the man takes pity on Rick and later gives him a strange proposal. With George nearing the end of his life, and with no one in line to inherit his vast wealth, George tells Rick that he can be given everything on one condition. That weird condition is that Rick must eat a meal off of George's corpse when he has died and then recite a strange series of phrases. With the young man desperate for money, he agrees, and when the time comes he performs the strange ritual. With that done he indeed inherits wealth beyond comprehension. But there is a twist in the deal, for it turns out that by doing what he has done, he has inherited all the sins of George, and now finds himself haunted by vengeful spirits who hold him responsible for all the sins of that man.

I liked this twist on the classic Faustian tale, it was well made and had some effective moments. As a protagonist, Rick was hardly the most likeable person. It wasn't that he was a bad person, more that he was an oddball, and really didn't seem to have much personality. Once he begins to get haunted he withdraws even more, with his situation appearing to be causing rapid physical and mental health issues. The stand-out character here was Elizabeth Laidlaw as head butler Antonette Mormo. She gave an important performance as the neutral and seemingly all knowing person who was able to give confirmation to Rick about his fears about the supernatural thing that is happening to him.

There were some memorable scenes here, the biggest one being the montage scene of the corpse meal, where Rick is forced to eat course after course of disgusting looking food. Some parts of the film were not as well handled. Early on for instance, Rick discovers he is able to kind of exorcise ghosts if he confesses the sins related to that particular ghost to a priest to absolve them. Due to Rick's insistence on only dealing with one priest in particular (Father Eli played by J. Zane Stephens), that potential plot path is curtailed sooner than it felt it needed to be.

The highlight in terms of spectacle were the various mutilated ghosts who haunt Rick. There was a real feeling of Thir13en Ghosts to this, with each ghost having its own story baked into its condition, such as the man wearing what appears to be a gimp mask with a very long rope wrapped around his neck. The ghost make-up looked great and created some effective scenes of terror for the poor protagonist. I enjoyed how the story played out, and there were some interesting plot developments along the way.

Curse of the Sin Eater was a much better film than I expected it would be. I thought the story told did enough to stand out on its own, and there were some neatly put together scenes. The biggest issue with this, and what only just prevented this from getting a higher score, was how bland of a lead that Rick was, he was neither someone I was really rooting for, nor someone who I disliked, he was just 'there'. For a unique take at the typical 'sell your soul to the devil' type story, this one left an impression.

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Returnal (2021) - Sci-fi Horror Video Game Review (Playstation 5)

Housemarque's Returnal is a stunning sci-fi game that had me enthralled from start to mid-point. I say mid-point as I have the shocking revelation that I didn't actually finish this game, nor did I even get near to the end. By my estimations, I made it roughly halfway into the game after about twenty six hours, before bouncing off of it due to the high difficulty. The time I spent with the game however was spell-binding, this really felt like a true 'next-gen' game. Due to not actually finishing this I won't be including a score at the end of this review.

You play as ASTRA Corporation pilot and explorer Selene Vassos. After learning of a strange signal coming from the off-limits planet of Atropos, Selene decides to disobey orders and investigate this signal. Her attempts to land don't go well, with her ship crash landing, wrecking the vessel in the process. With the only way to request rescue being tied up in the mission she had embarked on, she decides to push on, trekking through the ruins of a long dead alien civilisation in order to locate the strange signal dubbed 'White Shadow'. It isn't long before she discovers a terrible fact, should Selene die then she awakens back in her crashed ship, stuck in a perpetual time-loop. She also discovers that with each subsequent attempt to locate the signal that the planet is morphing and changing around her, so that each attempt has her traversing a different layout.

Returnal is a very hard rogue-like action adventure game that is a sublime joy to play. As Selene, you traverse biomes made up of a series of interlinked areas. There is a finite amount of these areas but they are always remixed in a different order, with different items and weapons appearing each time. Combat is zippy, with Selene's spacesuit having the ability to boost in any direction quickly. There are a variety of guns that are similar to current day weapons in part. There is a shotgun type weapon, a machinegun, pistol, rifle, and even a gun that shoots corrosive globs of green gloop. Enemies change with each biome visited. The starting biome - ruins in a rainy forest mostly features wolf type tentacled alien creatures, later areas feature different type of alien animals, as well as robots of both flying and ground based variety. Enemies often attack by shooting vast 'bullet-hell' waves of brightly coloured projectiles. Dotted around the levels are machines that you can use energy dropped by defeated enemies to buy upgrades such as increased weapon damage and health, as well as items such as a device that prevents gun turrets from activating.

The different biomes I encountered all looked amazing, with so much atmosphere to them. The starting area was beautiful, and the Playstation 5 controller does a fantastic job of representing the rain drops falling. The second area - a desert area was just as impressive, giving the illusion of a gigantic endless desert. I really loved how Selene's spacesuit gradually gets covered in the red sand. The third area I got to took place in a vast ruined city made up of giant buildings. Each run requires you to play through the entire game, the only concession being that once a boss is defeated (tough fights of the multi-stage variety) there is no need to re-fight it, and that you get the ability to fast travel if you so wish. For example, once you have gotten to the top of the mountain in the desert area you are subsequently able to use a warp gate at the base of the mountain to teleport straight up. The third area becomes accessible from the first after you collect a certain item that allows you to ascend to out of reach platforms. These shortcuts are good, but your abilities are brought to zero with each run, so it might save you time, but it might also be wise to go the long way around to build up your weapons and items.

This game has atmosphere in spades, you get a real feel for the isolation the character finds themselves in. I also loved how you keep finding audio diaries left from previous versions of Selene who had attempted to get to the signal, and how you slowly come to learn the alien language that allows you to translate the words on alien markers, which hint at what caused the long lost alien civilisation to fall. After each boss you also get access to a bizarre recreation of Selene's family home, which provides hints to Selene's backstory, and how things might not be exactly as they seem.
Should you tire of the search for the signal, you can also head to a seemingly endless tower. Made up of a randomised battle rooms, you fight your way ever upwards. This includes its own story and plenty of audio diaries.

I guess my biggest complaint with Returnal is how stingy the game is at letting you keep things you discover. There are a handful of key items that stick with her, but mostly each run you are starting completely fresh, with progress only really coming from not having to re-fight bosses, and the shortcuts you are able to take. I adored this game, but playing it on Playstation's version of GamePass, and with my strange randomised way of playing a set list of ten games at any one time, I felt it was time to move on, hoping to one day return. There may not be a score, but if I was forced to give one based on my time with the game I would shockingly, currently, give this a solid ten out of ten!

Hell House LLC Origins: The Carmichael Manor (2023) - Found Footage Horror Film Review

Once again directed and written by Stephen Cognetti, Hell House LLC Origins: The Carmichael Manor is the fourth entry in the Hell House LLC series of found footage horrors. Serving as both a prequel to the series, as well as a direct sequel to 2019's Hell House LLC III: Lake of Fire, this moves the action from the infamous Abaddon Hotel (the location of the previous three films) to a more remote location.

The format once again is set up as a mocumentary, mainly via interviews with Bradley Moynahan (Darin F. Earl II), the co-founder of an online net-sleuth website. The fake documentary revolves around Margot (Bridget Rose Perrotta) - the other co-founder of that website, who had gone on assignment with girlfriend Rebecca (Destiny Leilani Brown) and brother Chase (James Liddell) to the remote titular Carmichael Manor. This was the site of a grisly family murder back in 1989, Margot is a bit of a ghost hunter and hopes to not only find out who was responsible for the murders there, but also to see if there is any evidence of the place being haunted. Most of the mockumentary is made up of footage recovered from the manor, that has been pieced together to show exactly what led to the three people being found dead there. Having gotten permission to stay at the manor for five nights, the trio had planned to film everything in order to put together an episode for an online show. Almost right away there is definite proof caught on camera that it seems very likely the place is legitimately haunted. Chase and especially Rebecca both want to leave at the earliest opportunity, but are convinced to stay by Margot, who is excited to be capturing this evidence. As stated, with the three's bodies eventually discovered there, this turns out to be a very bad idea.

It could easily be argued that this is yet more of the same, following a familiar format to the previous films. For me, the change of location did feel like a bit of fresh air, even if it has similar beats. The story takes place after Lake of Fire, with the burning down of the Abaddon Hotel referenced, but seemed only tangentially related to that place. The manor is said to be in the next town over and at first seemed unrelated. I don't know if I missed a bit of dialogue, but the protagonists seemed aware there was some link to the hotel, eventually they find evidence of this link, but I was never sure why the characters believed there to be a link before it was discovered. Without going into too much detail, the prologue part eventually all comes together. For those who have seen the previous films and enjoyed the creepy clown mannequins that frequently moved around off-camera in those ones, this actually mainly serves as an origin story for those clown mannequins, with them also appearing here for in-film reasons. It might have been a bit convenient, but I did like how this linked to a traumatic event Margot had at a town fair as a child, where she was nearly abducted by a man dressed up like a clown.

I thought the main cast were all great in their roles, this was a far cry from the often dodgy acting of second film, Hell House LLC II: The Abaddon Hotel. I loved Brown's portrayal as Rebecca of a woman getting increasingly freaked out over the course of the four or five days (the footage being split into title carded days), and I liked how they created reasons for why the trio don't just flee at the first, second, or even third sign of trouble. The remote location gave this a more fear inducing feel, before (from my memory), the hotel was near a main road, here, with the manor in the middle of a large forest miles from anywhere, you had the feeling of the characters really being isolated from the outside world.

The horror comes in a few different forms, and I enjoyed it all. I liked how the horror is introduced early on and the forms it takes. You get people filming themselves unaware of ghosts appearing on camera, there was a cool scene featuring a female figure wearing a porcelain mask, plenty moments of those clown mannequins moving around off camera (loved when Chase says "Clowns! Why did it have to be clowns!?" to paraphrase), and a great bit when Rebecca is attempting to show her estate agent boss photos of a house over an online call. Instead of photos taken from the house, the photos show the manor, with each subsequent photo getting closer to where Rebecca is doing the video call from. There were plenty of creepy moments to be found, and they were almost always effective.

I have enjoyed most of the Hell House series, this one no exception. It might follow a familiar format, but it was wonderfully put together with a great mix of the found footage, documentary moments, and the inclusion of old footage from 1989 spliced in that the protagonists in their plight were never able to see. Lore-wise, this might seem only vaguely related to the other films, but it does come together in the movie's third act, making this a worthwhile sequel/prequel. Hell House LLC Origins: The Carmichael Manor can currently be streamed on Shudder.

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The Rotting Zombie's Round-up of Horror News for November 2024

As I've said in a previous post, I had no intention to do my blog this weekend due to personal reasons. I am currently riding high upon a deep depression to quote Garbage, something that is bad for me, but good for the blog. This site after all was born from personal strife, I have always found throwing myself into work is the best distraction.

The Beast of Walton Street is available now from Scream Team Releasing on Blu-ray. Set at Christmas, this takes place in an Ohio town where a beast is targeting homeless people. Two friends - Constance (Athena Murzda) and Sketch (Mia Jones) see this happening and decide to do something about it, soon discovering the beast is actually a werewolf. The Beast of Walton Street can be purchased here.

Streaming on the ARROW streaming subscription service in December is The Addiction - a brand new 4K restoration of the Abel Ferrara directed vampire film. Starring Christopher Walken (Batman Returns), Lili Taylor (The Conjuring) and Annabella Sciorra (The Hand That Rocks the Cradle), this black and white horror takes place in New York, and sees a woman get turned into a vampire after an assault in an alleyway. The Addiction drops on December 9th.

Finally for today, in what has perhaps been my smallest ever round-up, comes the news that horrific comedy horror The Coffee Table has been included in numerous 'Best Horror of 2024' lists including Variety, Harpers Bazaar, Slashfilm and The Cherry Picks. About a man whose simple act of buying a coffee table results in the worst day of his life, this Spanish language Caye Casas directed and co-written film gave me the very minimal claim to fame of having seen it before legendary horror author Stephen King had. His quote sums up my thoughts; "My guess is you have never, not once in your whole life, seen a movie as black as this one". The Coffee Table is now available on VOD, streaming platforms including iTunes/Apple TV, Amazon Prime Video, Google Play, and Youtube Movies.

Devil's Knight (2024) - Fantasy Horror Film Review

This review of Devil's Knight was originally meant to go up last Friday but personal events led to me deciding to take some time off away from my blog to have some 'me' time. Having been less than ten minutes away from the film's conclusion, I couldn't really not finishing watching this one at the very least, I may well write another blog post or two this rainy weekend. Devil's Knight is a fantasy horror film directed and co-written by Adam Werth (Bermuda Island) that appears to be set during some type of time period similar to real world Medieval times in which monsters roam the lands. Featuring a huge cast of characters and some mainly good looking creature effects, this was an enjoyable fantasy piece.

This takes place in the realm of Veroka, a place where deadly monsters roam the lands. King Samuel (Kevin Hager - Bloodthirst, Night of the Tommyknockers) has been having particular trouble with a creature known as the Bone Devil (Ben Stobber - Bloodthirst, Bermuda Island), with many of his soldiers having fallen prey to the beast. In desperation, he decides to hire a group of monster hunting mercenaries to take it out. Things seem to be going to plan, but political intrigues and deadly secrets at the King's castle threaten the lives of both the mercenary group and his own people alike.

This features a plot device I always am a fan of. A strange scarred man (John Wells - Arena Wars, Bermuda Island) arrives at a camp in the dead of night. He reveals himself to have been Sigurd - one of the mercenary soldiers, and the film takes the form of a story he is re-telling. Every now and again during the movie events will stop and go back to this camp, before finally heading back for one last time at the end. I thought this would be a more straight forward story than it turned out to be, with the quest to defeat the Bone Devil seemingly dealt with around halfway into the film. The action then moves to the castle where there is a large cast of not very nice people. Monsignor Mustela (Greg Tally - Arena Wars, Craving)  is perhaps the chief dodgy person here, especially when it comes to the fact he has a monster secretly chained up in the castle dungeons. I say secret, but there are many flawed characters at the castle who are also privy to this fact, including twisted jester Culper (Alexander Hauck - Bloodthirst, Macabre Mountain), and even Princess Sabine (Chupacabra Territory), someone who seemed set up to be a protagonist, but is then dragged down due to intense flaws.

The mercenaries become collective protagonists and I did enjoy how tight-knit they all seemed. There were plenty of stereotypes, but also some decent characters to be found among them, chiefly the group leader Mathias (Robert Standley) and the heavily armoured John, who had an interesting backstory for who they really were). My favourite character though had to be Guard Captain Baldur (Kevin Sorbo - Without a Body), I loved this character in every scene he appeared in.

Thankfully the majority of the creature effects were quite impressive. These are people wearing monster suits, but they looked effective for the most part and made for some exciting scenes. I say mostly, as unfortunately, one of the more integral monsters didn't look as good, it gave me vibes of a villain from Might Morphin Power Rangers and stood out in a bad way as a result. Look past that and the other creature designs are cool, as are the scars on the characters that mostly look great. There is lots of action here, both with people battling creatures, as well as people battling each other. Fighting mainly takes the form of sword fighting, always was fun to see, and had some decent sound effects to sell this type of combat.

I enjoyed this fantastical, cast heavy horror film. Plenty of action and a story that is forever moving forward, this was only let down by the occasional less impressive moments. I am also not sure of the abruptly chaotic ending that changed track so fast that it almost came off as amusing. Devil's Knight is now available to watch on Prime Video.

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The Rotting Zombie's News Anthology for Thursday 24th November 2024

Here I am once again with another trilogy of terror, three horror news stories to curdle your blood. Ok, maybe not, but will have three stories about horror themed things soon to be releasing that may be worth your time. Onwards to the news!

From the ridiculous title alone I had to include this first piece of news. Scarecrows of the Third Reich comes from writer and director Troy Fritz, and stars Timothy Mantis and Diamond Troy Justice. The synopsis states that at the end of WWII, Hitler ordered 'Operation Scarecrow' at a small SS outpost. Seventy years later, an FBI agent learns about the shocking secret of the operation, and ends up at the lost outpost battling '...the remnant Scarecrows of the Third Reich'. This sounds ridiculous, but part of me does want to see what on Earth this is all about! This is available to rent or buy on Amazon Prime and came to AVOD platforms on 26th November.

Period horror Fright has got a digital release on Amazon Prime. Shot in black and white and written and directed by Dudley Warren, this indie horror features an isolated woman suffering chronic agoraphobia in 1930's Britain. Trapped in a sprawling mansion due to her condition and a domineering mother, the woman is sent to the brink of madness, with salvation maybe only in the form of her missing father.

Finally for today, an Indiegogo campaign is currently running to get funds to complete horror film Avery. This psychological thriller sees the seemingly innocent daughter of a serial killer getting placed with a foster family, but it seems her father's legacy might have affected her too. There are the usual series of perks for contribution to the Indiegogo campaign. Currently (at the time of typing) it has raised £76 of its £25,290 goal with 26 days to go. For more information check out the Indiegogo page here.

Top Floor (2024) - Thriller Film Review

Top Floor is a thriller set in New York that was actually filmed in Bulgaria. This explains the amount of accents the film has, and maybe also accounts for some of the weird vibe the movie has. Written and directed by Jérémy Minui, this had an interesting premise and an utterly bonkers twist reveal, but also had plenty of flaws. Apologies for the time stamp on the images used, I usually rely on Google to get film images but due to being unable to find any I used my own shots from the screener version of the film I had been sent!

Julia (Justine Wachsberger - Divergent) is a very popular social media influencer who has millions of fans around the world. In a car with her rich fiancé Greg (Nicolas Cazalé), they get into an accident and Julia loses consciousness. She awakens to find herself inexplicably in an unknown stopped elevator, and with no phone signal she decides to press the operator button. She is answered by an operator (voiced by Akil Wingate- Creepshow 3 segment 'The Radio'), this creepy man soon reveals himself to be the person responsible for trapping Julia in the lift, as well as revealing he has drugged her. He tells her that he is going to ask her a series of questions, with each truthful answer  moving the elevator upwards, once she gets to the top floor she is promised that she will gain her freedom. Should she lie however, she is promised death. With her plight being live streamed to her social media accounts, her assistant Tess (Lewkowski Yovel) and some police detectives are in a race against time to locate her and save her before the madman takes her life.

This falls into a couple of subgenres of horror, firstly, the majority of the movie takes place in a single location in the vein of Saw or Phone Booth, while a famous person being forced to reveal their darkest secrets has been done many times also, such as with Feedback and Truth or Dare. The elevator made for a decent enough location, and while the antagonist is represented by a voice, he also kind of gets a physical presence with the elevator speaker and camera both taking on a sinister vibe as they are shown often when the operator is speaking. Julia was fine as the lead, but I wish there had been more to show just why she was such a popular influencer. No criticism of the actress, but the character didn't appear to have much star quality to her (again, no criticism, I myself am a textbook example of a non-speaking background character in life itself), so it felt unbelievable she could be such an influential person. If there had been more of a beginning, rather than a muddled sequence showing her walking past waiting press to get to her car, then maybe I would have been sold more on this. As it was, there are a few sequences showing people commenting on the live stream, but that is it, most the film has Julia trapped in her lift.

With the protagonist having a multitude of sins, it was a wonder none of them had leaked out from anywhere before. I never really understand why characters in these films aren't just truthful right away, I guess it makes it more interesting to watch when they have to go through ordeals and get punished in order to be forced to speak their truth. Julia constantly kept going back and forth between terror and anger at being trapped, and trying to reason with her captor. Got a bit of whiplash with the back and forth mood swings from her.
I thought Wingate was perfection as the operator voice. He sounded to me like a more cartoonishly evil version of Gus Fring from Breaking Bad and Better Call Saul fame. The voice had traces of Giancarlo Esposito, but was far more demented and energetic with his wild delivery of the lines. I loved how crazy this voice sounded, making for the more entertaining scenes of the thriller. Side characters were mostly a mixed bag, I thought the two detectives for instance were terribly cast, neither felt like they were detectives, especially the male one with his stupid bright red hoodie. It all culminates in a twist I never saw coming. Initially it didn't really make much sense at all, but I saw the logic within the madness of the twist, even if I'm not convinced it didn't lead to some plot holes appearing as a result.

Top Floor was far from perfect, but this indie thriller to its credit had me watching from opening to the end credits without once clock watching to see how much was left. It helps that at seventy four minutes long this doesn't stay around long enough to get monotonous.

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Creepshow: Season 1 (2019) - Horror TV Show Review

A few months back I decided to make a convoluted method of randomly choosing what video game to play next, due to having such an insane backlog (that is literally thousands of games long). With that method a success I thought I would apply it to films and TV show also. The first pick that came up was the Creepshow series. Released in 2019, this series is obviously based on the cult classic anthology horror films of the same name (my Creepshow 2 review here). Currently streaming on Shudder, each season is made up of six episodes, with each episode featuring two short stories.

The show is presented as if it was stories that are taken place within the titular Creepshow comic. You get little wraparound segments featuring The Creep, either in puppet or cartoon form, and during the episodes there are sections when the action freezes and transfers over to a comic book format or vice-versa. Usually these comic book sections seemed designed to save on budget by having larger set pieces be in this form before heading to a more safe and static setting for the real life footage.
I initially watched the first episode a few years back and have to say I wasn't impressed much at all. I thought the effects seemed a bit poor and the stories didn't grab me. Thankfully, heading back I was delighted with many of the episodes, with rarely a bad story to be found. The season opens up with 'Grey Matter', an adaptation of a Stephen King story. Taking place during a tremendous storm, a boy recounts events that saw his alcoholic father transform into something...wrong. My notes from the time said that the creature effects actually did look good. It was also the first of many notable names to show up this season with both Tobin Bell (the Saw franchise) and Giancarlo Esposito (Breaking Bad, Better Call Saul TV shows) featuring in small roles. The second part of this first episode was 'House of the Head' which had an interesting premise. A young girl, Evie (Cailey Fleming - The Walking Dead TV show) gets a dolls house, but the dolls appear to keep moving around on their own, with it seeming that somehow this doll family's home is being haunted by a similar sized ghost. I thought that one was both clever and creepy, though didn't end on the most satisfying note.

Episode two opens with 'Bad Wolf Down', a werewolf story set during World War II. I loved the setting and thought this was enjoyable if a little predictable. It did show how varied Creepshow could be, that was something I really took from the first season - how many different feeling episodes there were. Following this is the delightfully demented 'The Finger'. Starring DJ Qualls (Z Nation TV show) as the fourth wall breaking loner - Clark Wilson, this sees him finding a weird monstrous looking finger and deciding to take it home. Over time the finger grows into a fully formed demonic creature who begins to kill in order to please Clark. I liked this one, the puppet looked great and there was a fun vibe, especially liking Clark who narrates directly to the camera, and even steps away mid scene to have a brief talk to the audience every now and again.
The third episode has two shorts that were both good in their own right. I loved 'All Hallows Eve' that sees a group of teens going 'trick or treating', with it slowly fed out over the episode just why everyone whose homes they visit are so terrified of them. 'The Man in the Suitcase' has to be the weirdest episode of season one. This has the surreal concept of a young man accidentally bringing home the wrong suitcase from the airport. Inside he finds a strange man painfully jammed into the luggage. The young man and his friends soon discover that pain causes the trapped man to vomit up gold coins, greed makes them do bad things to get more of this. It might have been a bit obvious where this was heading but it was unique feeling.

I loved fourth episode 'The Companion' about a boy discovering a killer scarecrow, the effects for that scarecrow in particular felt very cool, I loved how his 'fingers' of hay stretched out like tendrils. While the first film in this episode was good, it could also be accused of being a little too straight forward. I personally thought that the next short - 'Lydia Layne's Better Half' was the best of the season. This sees an influential businesswoman accidentally killing her girlfriend during an argument. She puts the body on an office chair and wheels it to an office elevator, with the intention of taking it to her car and disposing of it. Unfortunately, while in the elevator there is an earthquake and the lift gets stuck between floors. This had some creepy moments to it, with it not clear for much of the run time if the corpse is actually moving of its own accord when out of eyesight, or if it is the stress of the situation getting to the protagonist.
The penultimate episode begins with a take on the classic 'monkey's paw' plot device (being a literal monkey's paw that grants wishes, but typically twisted versions of what the user had intended). As simple and predictable as it was, I thought 'Night of the Paw' was a decent short that told the story in a simple yet effective manner. 'Times is Tough in Musky Holler' was the worst episode of the season, more that it was too ambitious than it was a bad short to watch. It takes place against the backdrop of zombie apocalypse with the tables having been turned on Musky Holler's mayor and his followers (including the sheriff played by David Arquette - Scream series of films) who had gotten power hungry and ran the town as a brutal dictatorship in the name of protecting the citizens. The whole short is the lead up to and reveal of his and his followers punishment. The bad thing about this one was that a giant chunk of the story took place as a comic book sequence. The whole zombie outbreak and the mayor's abuse of power all played out this way, obviously due to the limitations of the budget for actually showing this in live action. Many of the cast were also killed offscreen, with a scoreboard used to show the viewer they are being killed. Despite the short comings, the zombie effects were cool, and this really reminded me of a short story I once read.
The final episode of season one was another mixed bag. I really enjoyed 'Skincrawlers' and was definitely the most bloody and gross short to be found here. It has a species of giant leech being used by a company as a weight loss tool, due to them having the ability to only suck fat out of bodies. I liked this one. 'By the Silver Water of Lake Champlain' had a decent idea behind it, but I don't think it was executed that well. Directed by Tom Savini and based on a story by Joe Hill, this features a teenage girl who is determined to find proof of the Loch Ness style monster that legend says resides in a large lake near her home. I liked that her determination for finding the creature came from her father being a previous victim of it, but this felt a little too small in scale, and I thought the mother character was intensely irritating.

Truth be told, I didn't expect much but found I actually really enjoyed Creepshow. I enjoyed the wraparound idea of these all being tales from a horror comic, I loved all the famous actors popping up throughout, and this had some great variation in the type of stories being told. It is also very cool reading about the scores of easter eggs hidden throughout each episode, with nods to iconic horror films and books. I look forward to one day getting around to watch future seasons.

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Werewolf Serenade (2024) - Comedy Horror Film Review

I was initially put off by the title of Daedalus Howell's comedy horror film Werewolf Serenade and that is due to having little time for werewolves as a movie monster. I find the traditional transforming into a wolf a dull concept. Thankfully, this film does things a little different with the change being more 'on the spectrum' than a typical black and white human to wolf construct.

Howell stars as Peter MacTire - a jaded college professor with little interest in his job, whose wife, Julia (Emily Keyishian) is in a mental institute after a mental health crisis. When Peter's colleague and friend Stuart Solomon (Matt Standley) is found dead, the long suffering college dean decides to put Peter in charge of Solomon's special project he was doing for a rich benefactor - Konrad Beissen (Mark P. Robinson). It turns out that Konrad had tasked the man with investigating a Nazi project from the second world war that was designed to find a way to transform men into werewolves. He had actually been successful, creating the compound, something that near alcoholic Peter inadvertently drinks believing it to be wine. Soon a change comes over the man, he becomes more confident and stronger and realises that he is now a werewolf. Konrad however has also had the compound and believes that Peter is unworthy of the special abilities that he now possesses.

This indie comedy horror was mostly a lot of fun from start to finish. Helping this throughout is the soundtrack that is split between classical music and more jaunty jolly music. This means that even during the most thrilling moments, the tension and atmosphere is diluted purposely by the soundtrack, so the horror is slight. The comedic element becomes a little too much into focus by the time the eighty minute movie reaches its farcical third act, with a silly chase sequence that went on for quite a while, and a background character pulled into the forefront who it turns out is actually quite irritating when they get more screen time to shine. Of that third act I must also state it had an underwhelming conclusion to the antagonists path that wasn't adequately displayed on screen.

As I said, I think people changing into wolves is a bit of a boring thing. Here however, people change but only in certain ways. Often it is just the eye colour that changes on the werewolf, occasionally they get hair on their hands and face as well as long claws, the hair does actually suit Peter due to the impressive mutton chops he sports anyway. I liked this more subtle change, and it fitted the comedic tone of the film. Werewolf powers are not displayed that much, one scene has Peter somehow climbing up a sheer wall, while he is shown to have super sensitive smell and hearing abilities. Action scenes are kept to a minimum, they serve their purpose, but the story isn't centred around horror, there isn't really much of a downside to being cursed with being a werewolf in this film world.
I thought that Howell was the standout character of the movie, it is always good when the protagonist turns out to be the most entertaining character. I also thought Robinson was good as the bad guy, with lots of scenery chewing to be had by him.

With a good turn by Howell and a story that while silly was also mostly fun, this indie comedy horror was entertaining for what it was. I personally liked how werewolves were handled within this film world, and while the third act was a little too much like a farce, it still left me pleasantly surprised by the time the end credits on this rolled. Werewolf Serenade is now streaming on Amazon.

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Dating Horror Stories (2024) - Horror Anthology Film Review

Joshua Nelson (Aware of the Wolf, The Things We Cannot Change) is the writer and director of horror anthology film Dating Horror Stories. I am quite fond of anthologies as I feel there is typically at least one of the shorts that makes watching worth the time. As the film's title suggests, the theme around this anthology is horror stemming from dates gone very wrong.

Within this anthology there are three short films as well as a relatively brief wraparound story. Three woman at a club are talking about relationships, one of the woman states she is able to recognise couples who are out on dates, and points these out to her friends.. Each of the three short films then centres on a different dating couple and the horror that stems from this.
The first film sees a magician; Michael the Magnificent (Richie Bruno) who tells his latest date that magic is very important to him, and that he would like his date to assist him during his latest show. Unknown to the girl, Michael is a serial killer whose M.O sees him killing his dates live on stage as part of his magic trick, in front of unsuspecting audiences. Some time later and Michael has a new date, but it seems his previous victims have had enough and appear as ghosts in order to convince the woman her life is in danger. A decent enough idea with this one, only let down by a very fake looking prop head, and a conclusion that leaves things to the imagination rather than actually shows anything satisfying.

The second film sees speed eater champion - Lee (Jon Reisch - Aware of the Wolf) dating a girl. Her friend Phoenix (Julia Wyrzuc) is concerned that the man doesn't have much of a productive life, with his winnings from speed eating contests minimal. With the option given to participate in a unique eating contest from the dark web that could result in a life changing pay out should he win, Lee and the two girls jump at the chance, with the later unsuspecting just how far Lee would go to be a winner. This one was probably the best of the three, though it was a bit odd how the three central characters were so fine to go along with something that is very wrong.

The final film starred Jeff Clark Jr. as Daniel, a man who is so obsessed with a former model he is dating that he is prepared to kill for her, due to her stating her very pampered dog Rocco has only eyes for human flesh. When the initial kill doesn't lead to getting to sleep with the woman, Daniel, with the assistance of his crazy sister, begins a campaign of slayings, desperate for his date to get more physical with him. I thought it was a bit stupid how easily the protagonist is led on, and also it ends on a bit of ridiculous note. On the flip side, I didn't get the name of the sister character, but the actress for that role brought a lot of fun with her.

This anthology was very indie feeling, this was reflected in the low amount of special effects, and being relatively light on much action. The wraparound story was almost pointless, with a slow first fifteen minutes that had me pausing the film to go check it was actually meant to be a horror film. This intro introduced all the characters from the shorts, but did drag on a bit. A much better unifying force was the character of Arnold (Matt Agnelli) who appeared in all three shorts. This self styled relationship guru was a fun character whose terrible advice for the characters helped them go along with the individual madness' that they find themselves caught up in. I enjoyed his appearances, his scenes the most fun and entertaining ones in the whole film.

Cannibalism isn't my thing in horrors (outside of zombie films of course!), so with two of the three films focussing on this topic it wasn't going to blow my mind. This was very indie feeling, and the motivations of the characters within the shorts all made them seem like desperate and dense people, from the girl in the first short who was extremely easily gas-lit, to the man in the third whose reservations about killing didn't seem that strong. I've definitely seen worse horror anthologies, look past the low budget with Dating Horror Stories and this was enjoyable enough.

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The Rotting Zombie's News Anthology for Thursday 14th November 2024

   

At the time of writing I've just finished watching Steve Lawson's St Patrick's Day Massacre so I will say luck of the Irish to you! Before I start, terrible news that horror legend Tony Todd has sadly passed away at the age of 69 on November 6th. Star of Candyman and a cool recurring character in the Final Destination films, I had a lot of time for this horror icon. May he rest in peace.

Some music news for a change first. Barcelona based thrashy black/death quartet Emissary have released a music video for their track 'At the Throne of Chaos'. The track is first one from their upcoming LP, Eldritch (due for a 2025 release) and was inspired by H.P Lovecraft's 1932 story 'The Dreams in the Witch House'. Emissary are due to be touring across Europe at some point in the near future.

Piper is a supernatural horror-thriller that came to North American VOD platforms and DVD on November 12th from Freestyle Digital Media. This follows a mother and daughter who move to a small German town. A hidden secret makes daughter Amy the target of the titular Piper, a children's fairy-tale legend who turns out to be very real, and whose M.O is punishing parents by stealing away their children. This of course being based on the Pied-Piper of Hamlin (as a child I visited Hamlin and remember well the museum dedicated to this creation, even including the route through the town the man was supposed to have taken!) This was written and directed by Anthony Waller (Mute Witness), with the cast including Elizabeth Hurley (Bedazzled, Austin Powers), Mia Jenkins (Hanna), Jack Stewart (Outlander), Tara Fitzgerald (Brassed Off), Ryan Webber (The Funhouse Massacre) and Robert Daws (The Man Who Fell to Earth).

Finally for today, Fear MP2V has been released on digital platforms worldwide from VIPCO and Bayview Entertainment, with it coming worldwide to AVOD digital platforms on 24th December. This technology based horror is about two crazies who are documenting their small town America road-trip. The press release describes this as '...a film about serial killers made by the killers themselves'. Fear MP2V was directed by Rob Medaska and stars Thomas Brigman, Jackie DeNieff and Jules Graciolett.

Do Not Open (2024) - Horror Film Review

Do Not Open is a supernatural thriller about the dangers of an over reliance on technology. Written and directed by Brian Babarik (who also appears in a brief cameo), this paranoid horror focusses on one dysfunctional family and the computer virus that transcends media to infect them.

Daughter (Noelle Gutierrez) begins the movie by opening a strange email that promises her acceptance. This is the catalyst for all to follow, as this simple act somehow releases a virus onto the home network that slowly begins to cause technology to warp the minds of the family members. All characters are obsessed with technology, Daughter with her social media and music, Son (Kian Lawson-Khalili) with his video games, Mom (Johanna Smitz) with the self help videos she watches on YouTube, and Dad (Tomas Engström) with his affair partner's messages. The virus soon begins to insidiously twist and change the family members, leading to a violent eruption of misery and hate.

This was an odd film, and one that never gives the viewer the opportunity to like the protagonists. Due to the reliance on technology this family feel very separate from each other. This is best shown in the scenes where they are all sat together to watch TV, but each member is on their own device. The characters were all so weird, the Mom the prime example. Hinted to be suffering some sort of mental health crisis, she has a perpetual smile on her face, seeming to be existing in a delusional state where everything is great. This mental health situation is never really addressed, though it is hinted it stems from an abusive childhood the woman had. I don't know the age of the actress playing Mom, but I did find it distracting that she only seemed to be a few years older than her apparent biological daughter. Both parents looked too young to have children in their middle to late teens. I also have to add that the obnoxiously large text size on Daughter's laptop and phone appeared to be that size purely so that the viewer was able to read her messages. The characters were all heavily flawed, Son being a stereotypical angry teenager, Dad getting increasingly bad thoughts about Daughter, and Daughter herself under pressure in her online social circle. In addition to the bad side of technology, there are also moments that cover toxic masculinity which felt of the time.

The horror comes from the slow change that begins to transform the family from dysfunctional to increasingly deranged dysfunctionality. It is a bit of a slow burn, and due to the family not really being able to communicate with each other, it was hard to feel involved in the events of the movie. The first hour takes place exclusively in the family home, the viewer made to often feel like a voyeur, with plenty of shots set up as if the film was a found footage. Horror mainly comes from the digital virus affecting the world around the characters. Mom and Daughter both have hallucinations of ghostly assailants, while Son's gamer clan leader gets him to do increasingly bad things, as does the self help guru that Mom is obsessed with. There were some decent moments mixed in. I liked the guru increasingly appearing to directly be talking to Mom, and the third act that sees a scene shift to a technology-less cabin out in woodland finally had events picking up. I did feel for most of the run time that it always felt like Do Not Open was just about to get good, but unfortunately it doesn't really ever manage to be that.

I wanted to like Do Not Open more than I did, but the weirdness of the family dynamic, and little attempt to make these characters at all relatable left me feeling cold more than anything. It begin to show signs of getting good in the bonkers third act, but with the 'evil' of the film being so abstract I never really got a good handle on why things were happening like they were. Do Not Open released across English-speaking territories on November 12th, with Glass House Distribution set to sell to the rest of the world at the upcoming American Film Market in Las Vegas.

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