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Inside No.9: Stage/Fright (2025) - Horror Play Review 16 Sep 8:51 AM (20 hours ago)

Me and my father both had expected this new original stage based entry in the Inside No.9 series would tell one unique story over its two one hour halves. Instead it played with expectations a bit with plenty of rug pulls, misdirection and plays within the play. This gave the show almost an anthology feel to it that didn't let up from start to very showbiz ending. The self contained prologue taking place in the audience of a theatre production of Hamlet set things up well. Featuring dark humour and death this was a delightful introduction.
Before the story within the first half begins properly we get Shearsmith and Pemberton coming on stage to introduce it, as well as try to sell the idea that the theatre the play is being performed in is actually haunted. The majority of the first act is about two washed up comedians, who for a brief spell in the 1980s had had some semblance of fame on TV. They had performed under the name 'Cheese and Crackers', and the story told here is pretty much a recreation of season 4 episode 'Bernie Clifton's Dressing Room'. Shearsmith plays the straight one, someone who has moved on in life and left his comedic past behind. Pemberton meanwhile has an almost desperate feel to his wanting to bring their act back. A lot of the sketches they put on are the two washed up comedians re-doing past material, and purposely made to be cheesy and outdated, these were still quite hilarious to watch in their own right. Much of the humour coming from how outdated their references were, as well as out of vogue cultural impressions. Highlight was a very Inside No.9 feeling skit about two kidnappers who had accidentally kidnapped the wrong person, the incorrect person being a real life famous person that seemed like it would change based on where the show was being performed. Seeing it in Milton Keynes, the star here was a former Olympic long jump champion who I must confess I had absolutely no idea who he was until my father updated me in the intermission. Due to not knowing him, that section didn't work as well as it should have.

The interval came and we both said we had enjoyed it, I expected the second act would carry on the story, but instead it begins with a manic story set in an insane asylum that felt off kilter, macabre and darkly twisted in a way that really reminded me fondly of The League of Gentlemen. The characters here were larger than life, especially Shearsmith and Pemberton's roles, the former using that gravelly voice that echoed parts of both Papa Lazarus and my all time favourite character Geoff Tibbs. Their manic performances led up to a few gruesome jokes, including my very favourite joke of the entire show. Things are not as they seem and this leads into another story set on the stage of a theatre with a strong supernatural element to it. It even included some live action found footage segments of a character wandering around 'backstage' with a camera whose video feed is being projected onto the background of the stage. Once this story ends there are a few more misdirection and feints before the show finishes proper.

As expected, this is everything Inside No.9 but dialled up a bit. There is plenty of strong language, including a few uses of the 'c' word, and there is lots of death and violence over the two hour play. Multiple characters appear to be murdered on stage with a lot of inventiveness, from severed limbs and heads, to electrocution, and a face of sulphuric acid. All looked great on the stage (admittedly from my lofty position at the very back of the first floor of the seating area). I was pleased with the horror angle this went down. Often, the episodes on TV are more thrillers than horror, but here there were plenty of supernatural events, even if the idea the theatre itself was haunted always fell a bit flat when it was integrated into the show. It doesn't help that like everything in Milton Keynes, the theatre is relatively new compared to other places in the country.
I appreciated how beefy this felt, it would have been easy to just create an extended episode and have that be the show, instead there was a real effort to make use of it being played out on a stage, something the two main stars have plenty of experience with. There is no end of word play, Dad jokes, and inuendo that rarely failed to get a laugh. Even with the other actors who play roles there were laughs to be had, even though it was obviously the two leads who were the true stars.

It was such a pleasure to see these two people I have been watching on TV for the past 25 years or so in the flesh, I admit to being a bit starstruck watching these two, couldn't quite believe I was getting to be in the same room as them! That, and my love for their work may make me a bit biased, but minor quibbles aside, I really enjoyed watching Inside No.9: Stage/Fright and would certainly recommend it.

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Space Goblins (2020) - Short Animated Sci-fi Film Review 15 Sep 5:51 AM (yesterday, 5:51 am)

Gib (Shihab) and Gob (Bryan) are two bounty hunting space goblin brothers who we find out on a mission to capture a warthog themed alien who is on the run for not paying his taxes. The two track him down to a squalid planet, deciding to check out a remote and run-down strip club for clues as to his whereabouts.

I had expected the titular goblins to be bad and nasty people. Instead, this is almost like a 'day in the life of', with the story following these two determined and law abiding brothers who it turns out are surprisingly competent. This is a dialogue heavy film with many scenes of characters talking face on into the screen. Sometimes this works and sometimes this doesn't, such as the intro scene set on their spaceship that just seemed to go on and on with the character talking in a meandering way. Some of the dialogue did get to be amusing, such as a scene at a bar, and the chief of police who literally has eyes in the back of his head. There is one action scene and it was short but sweet.

The animation was basic, but it all looked good, reminded me quite a bit of creepy British animated sketch show; Monkey Dust or the animated segments from old children's program - Around the Bend! The film world is full of bright and vibrant colours, and there were some neat moments, such as the CG planet that shows behind the cockpit of the brother's spacecraft. Voice work was decent, a few of the more exotic alien types were a bit hard to understand, but that could well be due to my hearing rather than anything else. There isn't too much to be found here that would warrant its 18 rating, there is a small bit of animated nudity, and some scatological references. 

On the whole, Space Goblins plays its story unexpectedly straight, the goblins are not the meat heads you might expect them to be, and there is an enjoyable atmosphere, even if full of a little disquieting feel. The press release states this has earned a bit of a cult following, enough that there is a live-action feature film currently being made that continues the unsettling feel and looks quite promising from the teaser trailers.

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Trespassers (2016) - Short Horror Film Review 12 Sep 2:31 PM (4 days ago)

Having not too long ago returned from a hiking trip up in the mountains, Ali (Ardalan Esmaili) is going through the photos he took on his laptop, with the intention of sending them over to his mother to check out. Looking through the photos, Ali reminisces to girlfriend - Sara (Evin Ahmad), about the old couple they met who told the two a ghost story related to the area visited. He then notices a collection of photos that he doesn't remember taking, with Sara eventually admitting to him that on her own she had visited an unmarked woodland gravesite the couple had warned them about not going to under any circumstances. Briefly annoyed, Ali brushes it off with a joke about the supposed curse, but then the couple start to notice that every photo that was taken on that trip includes a mysterious figure in a white dress lurking somewhere in the background...

There are certain things about short horror films that I really dislike. Namely that so many of them seem incapable of coming up with an ending any more advanced than an attempt at a jump scare. Trespassers almost fell into this trap, for it does indeed include an ineffectual jump scare, but thankfully that comes prior to the end of this five minute horror. Ghostly images appearing in photographs is something I do have a fondness, I like the merging of the supernatural and technology. Lake Mungo springs to mind instantly, as well as the ever amazing Sinister, both featuring pleasing scenes of spooky photos.
I enjoyed the pacing of this one, and it was neat to head back and see the figure in white was in the pictures even before she was first pointed out.

The attempt at a jump scare aside, I thought Trespassers told its story well, the parts with the photos had some decent enough creepy moments, and the insert shot of a characters eye (digitally) going bloodshot was pretty cool looking. With clear and easy to read subtitles, and enjoyable pacing, Trespassers avoided the pitfalls of being another generic short horror.

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The Rotting Zombie's News Anthology for Thursday 11th September 2025 11 Sep 8:34 AM (5 days ago)

An Indiegogo campaign has recently been created for upcoming anthology horror film; Amityville: Descendants of Darkness. Coming from the ever reliable Phil Herman (I Slay on Christmas, Unearthed), the press release states this one is '...a descent into fear itself an exploration of how darkness refuses to die, only to evolve and strike again.' Check out the campaign page here.

Ibuprofen (2025) - Short Horror Film Review 10 Sep 12:10 PM (6 days ago)

A student travels through the maze-like corridors of his university one evening, desperate to find out what his grades are. Almost giving up, the young man eventually locates his tutor, but that isn't the end of his confusing quest.

The director's statement for this short says how it was made as a comparison against his real life struggles of attending university, due to issues he faced with what he terms 'administrative incompetence'. Even before having read the statement I could see similarities within my own experience of having attended uni and battling against bureaucracy. The best horror often holds itself up as a mirror to societal issues, so in this respect it works well.

It begins with a dizzying over-lapping montage of the student wandering the halls, the camera at a slight angle to give an off-kilter feel. Classic horror moments are added to this, such as the appearance of a stern looking stranger who completely ignores the students questions. Even the meeting with the tutor itself infuses the scenes with an unsettling feel, with the man sitting at an empty desk in the middle of a large dark room. The way the film was shot and framed was the highlight of this, even without anything particularly sinister happening there was an on-edge feel.

A lot of ground is covered in the three minute run time, the surreal feeling added to with dialogue that confuses both the viewer as well as the protagonist character. With the student chewed up and spat out, the titular ibuprofen makes its appearance, seeming in a meta way to be both there for the student's complicated experience, and for the viewer themselves.
Being a very indie feeling film there are some constraints, not from the camera work nor the acting, but I did have some struggles with the sound design. At times the soundtrack was louder than the dialogue being spoken, and the foley work at times felt a bit distracting, such as the tapping of the students feet as he walks leading me to thinking I accidentally had a different video playing at the same time. You could argue this adds to the feel of surrealness that permeates Ibuprofen.

I have recently been re-playing the video game Alan Wake, and this short reminded me fondly of the Twilight Zone styled live action mini-episodes you find in that game (called 'Night Springs'). Ibuprofen may have left me feeling a little baffled as to what had gone on, but I genuinely enjoyed the atmosphere of this strange little movie.

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Joe's Diner (2015) - Horror Videogame Impressions: 'Rotted Meat No.1' 9 Sep 8:43 AM (7 days ago)

The Synopsis:

The game is a horror survival game that takes place out in the desert at a remote diner (Joe's Diner obviously). You play as a night-time employee of the diner, and have unusual tasks assigned to you. The place happens to have been built on the site of a Native American burial ground where two rival chieftains were buried. The hate they share for each other even resides in death, and so one of your jobs is to diffuse any supernatural occurrences that might arise due to the spirits of the chieftains still warring.

How the game felt:

This is one of those horror games where you are defenceless, and instead of fighting, you must sneak around the environment trying your best not to get killed by the evil spirits. Having a limited shift time, the game is split into different nights, much in the way of Five Nights at Freddy's, though here you are free to walk around rather than stuck in a single room. The game was unremarkable, basic looking, and really not a lot of fun. 

Reason for abandoning the game:

I started playing this shortly before upgrading to a Playstation 5, and Joe's Diner was one of the rare games that wasn't backward compatible on the new system, leading to me ditching it. Sure, I could have hooked up my Playstation 4 had I really wanted to play this one again, but I found the game super boring and dull, and so I really wasn't bothered about ever going through the minor hoops to return.

Black Pearl (2008) - Post-Apocalyptic Film Review 8 Sep 5:33 AM (8 days ago)

The Rotting Zombie's News Anthology for Thursday 4th September 2025 4 Sep 8:30 AM (12 days ago)

The 9th annual Scumdance Film Festival returns to The Lost Church in San Francisco on September 27th. Described as the '...ultimate celebration of the weirdest and wildest micro-budget films...', the festival promises an eclectic selection of bizarre movies. Announced so far includes Dead, White & Blue, Good Boy, Rest Stop, Murder in the Park AKA No One Likes You, Soliloquy of One, and Wet Ingredients from the U.S. Also showing is Canadian kink/oddity Diva, Spain's El Encantador, and Scent Of A Shoes from Iran, among others. For more details check out the Scumdance website here.

Purge (2025) by Bryan Cassiday - Zombie Horror Novel Review 3 Sep 12:22 PM (13 days ago)

                              

Purge is the eighth book in the long running Zombie Apocalypse: The Chad Halverson series, and the third that I have read. Confusingly, I started with book seven; Cutthroat Express, before heading backwards to the sixth; Horde. Despite that, I have read enough of this series to recognise how thrilling it is. Purge may well be more of the same, but what glorious same it is! Unavoidable spoilers for previous entries to follow.

After his mission to find a cure for the zombie plague ends in failure, legendary CIA agent; Chad Halverson, returns, alongside Marta Costello, to the government bunker at Mount Weather, where President Mims is situated in order to report back to him. However, the previous book ended with them discovering the President had been assassinated in his office. This one starts with Secretary of State; Dean Uriah coming to the hasty conclusion that Halverson and Costello must have been the ones responsible for his assassination, due to them having failed their mission. Proclaiming himself the new President of the United States, Uriah has the two imprisoned. Halverson suspects that Uriah may have been the one behind the assassination, and with this knowledge, he soon escapes the bunker with Costello in tow. Halverson's plan is to head to the government bunker at Raven Rock and inform the speaker of the house about what has happened, as constitutionally he is next in the line of succession. Costello meanwhile tags along on the provision that on the way to Raven Rock they head into Washington D.C to check on the status of her beloved brother. Their journey is made that much harder not only by a squadron of SEALS who have been dispatched by Uriah to kill the two 'assassins', but also by the High Rolerz USA; a brutal biker gang whose leader Michael K has it in for Halverson after he killed his brother Bobby K.

Purge takes the form of a long road trip, one I wasn't prepared for. I imagined the trip to Raven Rock would be the first part of the novel, instead it is the core plot of this. On paper it doesn't really seem like much happens in this book, but I loved how simple this all was. The subplot of the presidents bunker makes another wonderful return, with the action every now and again heading back to see what the state of the stifling place is. With Mims and the previous President both being crazy in their own ways, it is no surprise that Uriah is equally crackers. Continuing the trend of the lack of air in the bunker, the subplot here mainly revolves around Uriah's solutions to the lack of oxygen. There are also subplots in the form of the SEAL team that has been dispatched, as well as one following the sole survivor of a group of self-flagellators who had been massacred by the High Rolerz who has become obsessed with hunting down Michael K and demanding an apology from him.
What I really liked about the road trip subplots was how the different characters keep going over the same route at different times to each other. It was interesting reading the different accounts of what happened, and how earlier events have affected the route for characters who later on travel down the same roads. As I have came to expect now, Purge ends on yet another ridiculous thrilling cliff-hanger that I was fully on board for.

The book is very easy to digest, this is the book version of any number of brain dead, yet very entertaining zombie films. It features lots of action, gun fights, battles with the undead, and characters restating their aims lest you forget. The zombies here are as gross as ever, I liked the inclusion of details around the various bugs and creatures that infest the undead. On more than one occasion a ghoul is described as having a moustache, before the character seeing it realises it is instead a bunch of maggots! At least one inclusion of a rat crawling out of a still walking undead's mouth. These are traditional slow walking zombies, balanced against a world where all the survivors in their own ways are at least a little bit crazy. Most humans hostile and angry to the hapless protagonists of each of the subplots. Life is cheap in this world, but it is also exciting. 

I knew before reading a single word of Purge that it would be another fantastic entry in the Chad Halverson series. I don't think I would ever get bored of reading these. It might not be Shakespeare, and the story beats can be occasionally predictable (outside of the wild cliff-hangers) but these easy to read, very entertaining, and action packed pulpy novels really scratch that zombie itch. I eagerly await the next in this lovely gory and violent series.

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The Priest - Thanksgiving Massacre (2025) - Horror Film Review 1 Sep 1:13 AM (16 days ago)

In the early days of settlers arriving in America, a priest; Reverend Fuller (Mark Topping - Wrath of Dracula, Jekyll and Hyde) has had a disagreement with the town he was due to live in, so he took and his wife into the wilderness where he plans to build a forever home for them. Come winter and both are freezing cold and starving in their new and very small cabin. Driven mad by hunger, the priest kills his wife and starts to consume her. Realising what he has done goes against the teachings of God, the priest commits suicide, believing himself to never be allowed to go to Heaven.
In modern day, Tom (Jo Krayer) has invited his children, teenagers Noah (Brooklyn Ross in his film debut) and Andi (Holly Higbee in her feature length film debut) to spend Thanksgiving with him and his new girlfriend - Sara (Dani Thompson - Good Neighbours, Devil in the Woods) in a newly constructed woodland cabin. His separated partner, Cyndy (Liz Soutar - Powertool Cheerleaders vs the Boyband of the Screeching Dead) had only planned to drop off the kids, but with her car broken down, she is forced to accept Tom's offer to stay for Thanksgiving. Unknown to all however is that this new cabin was built on the foundations of the priest's cabin, and for reasons unknown he has resurrected under the house as a zombie.

With the prologue set hundreds of years in the past, I expected this would be another Lawson film set primarily in dimly candle lit smoky rooms. I was pleasantly surprised then to see the time skip to modern day. Sure, nearly the entirety of the movie takes place in a non-descript log cabin, but at least it is brightly lit! I didn't mind any of the characters here, and actually liked a couple of them. In particular, I found Krayer's Tom to be someone it was fun to follow. The parents may have split up, and they may have some arguments, but there is a reservedness to Tom and Cyndy's interactions that mean neither come across as seeming like horrible people. The same can't be said for Sara, just her being the only English character set her up to be a bit of a bad person. Her character was horrid, but if you are into that sort of thing there are some benefits to her being on screen, such as a scene where she is topless in a sauna. The best character, and sadly the least used was the priest. Topping may have been in the movie for a total of about seven minutes top(ping)s but his priest and later zombie-priest appearances were the highlight of the film. I did find it a bit comical that this potentially fearsome antagonist spends the majority of the movie literally trapped under the cabin, only able to interact with the cast by his arm reaching through a hole in the wooden boards under the place!

The story really wasn't the strongest point, and like the cabin itself, there were plenty of holes to be found. Surely when building the cabin they would have discovered some sort of evidence of the skeletons of the priest and his wife within the foundations, and the whole crux of Cyndy staying was due to no mechanic willing to come out to look at her car on Thanksgiving, yet it is shown later that taxi companies are still running services on that day, so she could have gotten away should she have really wanted to. There was also a bit of a silly reason given for why no character has a mobile phone on them. I did like the drama going on between the family, though Sara did stick out a bit due to always coming across as a horrid person even before the horror starts. My last complaint with the story was how the characters come to understand what is happening purely by an old diary. With little to zero evidence the group move into the third act of the film, fully convinced of the zombie priest despite not actually ever having seen him (aside from a glimpse of an arm at one point).

On the horror front, as stated, the villain is trapped under the cabin for virtually the entire movie. With a cast of just five potential victims there is no massacre to be found, but I will admit to being very surprised with just who the initial victim (in the present day section) was, I was genuinely shocked. The scenes set in the crawl space under the cabin were the most horror effective, and I did indeed wince when a character got their leg caught on a rusty nail while there, tetanus city! Special effects were sparse but they worked, maybe the blood looked a little too bright and gloopy, but it didn't take away from the scenes.

The Priest - Thanksgiving Massacre isn't a great horror film. The villain takes far too long to make an actual appearance, and there was a lot of wasted potential. I did however enjoy watching the film, Lawson always makes entertaining movies despite obvious limitations, and with this one, it did have some good moments over the eighty three minute runtime, and Topping was excellent as always. 

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Weapons (2025) - Horror Film Review 29 Aug 11:18 AM (18 days ago)

Early one morning in a quiet American town, seventeen children inexplicably all suddenly leave their homes and run off into the night at the exact same time; 02:17. Despite a desperate search by the authorities in the coming days and weeks, no trace of these children are found, they appear to have vanished into thin air. It turns out the children were all from the exact same school class and that the only student who didn't vanish was quiet Alex (Cary Christopher). Despite being interviewed extensively, Alex is unable to give an explanation why the rest of his class all ran away from their homes. This has also caused a problem for their teacher, Justine (Julia Garner - Ozark TV show), with the parents angry and wanting answers, they have taken to blaming the teacher, convinced that she must have had something to do with what happened. Archer (Josh Brolin - Avengers: Endgame, Deadpool 2) is one such parent, more driven than most to find out what happened. After some strange events, Archer teams up with Justine, both determined to try and solve this baffling mystery.

I had heard that this played out a little differently to a single straight plot line, and in my head I figured this might even turn out to be a mockumentary in the vein of something like Lake Mungo. That didn't turn out to be the case but it still did something that I love in shows and films. The same stretch of a couple of days is shown from the perspective of several different characters. These characters each have a title card for their part of the film, and their storylines overlap with other key characters in neat ways. I guess technically you could argue Justine or Archer are the protagonists, but over the two hour film I would estimate they get around a third of the overall runtime. Other key characters include cop Paul (Alden Ehrenreich - Oppenheimer, Solo: A Star Wars Story), junkie James (Austin Abrams - Scary Stories to Tell in the Dark, The Walking Dead TV show), school headmaster, Marcus (Benedict Wong - Annihilation, Doctor Strange) and of course the young Alex. I really enjoyed this way of showing the film, with each of the anthology type segments ending on a cliff-hanger that makes you desperate to return to the individual stories.

Being rated eighteen, I expected there might be some moments of strong horror. There is a smallish body count, but each of the deaths are really quite violent and gnarly. From a car accident that has crushed the victim's head into paste, to people being torn limb from limb, there are some gross scenes that were a delight to see. Special effects throughout were good, adding to the bizarre film. Starting with a prologue (narrated by a character who doesn't even appear to be in the film outside of her opening and closing narration), the weird way the children all ran away with their arms out at their sides like aeroplanes was so interesting to see. The mystery is explained as best as it can be, and this turned into a different type of horror film to what I had figured it might be. While not scary, this has some freaky moments, typically involving a grotesque ginger haired woman appearing in the most unlikely of places.
Creggar has stated this was a kind of analogy for children with alcoholic parents, writing from personal experience of how scary and alien it can be to return to a home were the caregivers cannot be trusted. It leads to some very unsettling sequences involving screaming manic figures. Rather than getting more scary, the finale actually became quite cathartic, with me and plenty of other cinema goers laughing at the mayhem that unfolds in a satisfying fashion.

I enjoyed Weapons. I liked the parallel overlapping stories going on, and the make-up effects were impressive. I also liked how a story was made out of such a bizarre start, even if it never quite lived up to the lofty expectations I had built up in my head. Sometimes a little slow, Weapons nonetheless felt wholly original, and something that I think will remain quite memorable.

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The Rotting Zombie's Round-Up of Horror News for August 2025 28 Aug 11:47 AM (19 days ago)

The official trailer for horror The Boatyard has been released. The film is about five college students get stranded out at sea after the boat they had been partying on all day breaks down. They are rescued by a stranger (Mike Ferguson) who offers to take them to his boatyard, but he may have violence on his mind. This comes to streaming services in the UK starting 22nd September.

Blood Red Beach (2025) - Comedy Horror Film Review 27 Aug 8:17 AM (20 days ago)

Three hundred years ago, a pirate named Captain Roderick Cross (Peek) was cursed by his former lover when him and his crew were burning her for witchcraft on a small deserted island. The curse killed his crew, and then the pirate was told that he was cursed to become a ghost for eternity, doomed to forever roam the island he was on. He was told that the only way to break this curse was to find every piece of his pirate's gold, but before dying, the witch told Roderick that she had hidden that away where he would never find it.
In present day, a group of friends have been invited to the new island based home of their eccentric rich friend; Preston (Berndale March - Graveyard Shark, Romeo 3000). The friends, who include among them Ruby (Stephanie Ward - Graveyard Shark, Big Brood), Kip (Graveyard Shark, Brackish), Austin (Jesse Wakeman (Summer of the Wolf), and his girlfriend Britt (Graveyard Shark) have a small party down at the beach at night. Preston introduces a strange woman; Cara Fey (Big Brood), she gives each of the friends a gold coin and then tells them about the legend of the cursed ghost pirate. Preston then tells the group that the next day he was arranged a treasure hunt for his friends. Split into groups and following clues, the friends are tasked with finding a chest full of gold that has been hidden somewhere on the island. After most the friends have gone to bed, the strange woman returns to the beach, where she performs a ritual that resurrects Captain Roderick Cross spirit into a zombie form, and tells him how to finally locate all the gold pieces of his missing treasure.

To begin with, when the prologue started, I was a bit concerned about the generic pirate accents and the predictable and well trodden dialogue. That concern lasted for all of about thirty seconds as I quickly realised this was all intentional. That then applies to the rest of the dialogue over the course of the eighty five minute comedy horror. Frequently cheesy and melodramatic, but said enthusiastically from a cast who appear to be having a blast. Best of all was March, he was the highlight of Graveyard Shark, and again his manic over the top character he played became a sublime highlight. His over exaggerated hand movements, the over emphasis he puts on his lines, it was just all so hilariously perfect. Peek was another highlight, it is always good to have a strong antagonist, and while a single pirate wandering around singing pirate shanties and attacking the friends doesn't sound like much, Peek brought to him a strange likeability, and gave the pirate his own twisted sort of code. Rather than being a wholly slasher type character, this bad guy is often as likely to leave his victims alive than to kill them. For him, the only reason he is after the group is to retrieve his coins that each of them holds. This creates some interesting scenes where you can't be sure that just by meeting the antagonist people will die for certain.
I found almost all the characters to be enjoyable to follow, from the token stoner, to Ruby and Kip. They all seemed a part of the film world and bounced off each other well. I wasn't so keen on the two couples within the group, but they still had some decent moments.

The death scenes were fun on the whole even if the special effects didn't look super realistic, but again, this fitted the light hearted vibe that saw survivors not really that bothered about the friends they lost. A throat slash, severed limb, and a death from a cliff were all neat looking, giving a bit of variation. The island setting might not have wowed, but it worked for the pirate theme. In terms of the story, this was as basic as they come, mainly a low budget homage to The Pirates of the Caribbean. It served its purpose but there were not many surprises to be found.

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Swamps of Sadness (2025) by Feu Follet - Music Album Review 26 Aug 9:23 AM (21 days ago)

Night of Violence (2025) - Horror Film Review 25 Aug 2:58 AM (23 days ago)

After winning a potentially devastating lawsuit, a shady pharmaceutical company decides to hold an office party at its New York based offices for its hard working employees. Joining the event are a group of catering staff, but they have ulterior motives; donning masks, they arm themselves with weapons and begin to butcher the workers. Mild mannered Eliott (Kit Lang), best friend; jokester Rudy (Vince Benvenuto - Daredevil TV show), kindly Janelle (Abria Jackson), and coked up Rudy (Russ Russo - 10,000 A.D: The Legend of a Black Pearl) manage to survive the initial assault and begin to look for a way to escape the building. They come to realise that it may be that the only way for them to survive is to fight back against the intruders.

This had a bit of a tonally confusing start. After a lovely little prologue that shows a masked man dragging a corpse across an office floor, the film switches gears for an over the top, almost cartoonish advert from the fake pharmaceutical company, advertising a new drug that includes some extreme side effects. This made me think for the longest time that Night of Violence was going to be a comedy horror, but weirdly, this outlandish advert is the only dedicated dive into humour. The protagonists are full of black humorous dialogue, but everything that occurs is more grounded (as grounded as you can be in a horror film like this). With that abrasive advert out the way, it settles into a traditional story of office block horror. Mainly this involves the survivors bumbling around the office block looking for an exit. They travel down various identical looking corridors, attempt to leave via the entrance, head to the rooftop, head to the basement, all while being hunted by the handful of attackers. The plot has the villains being somewhat justified, at least from their perspective, but for the most part these people remain silent, a lot of their justifications theorised by Eliott who has a bit of a suspicion that the company he works for isn't the most noble. That was about it for the story, the characters attempts at escaping making up the main plot for the film.

The initial massacre scene was lovely to watch, a montage of masked people hacking their victims into bloody chunks. Armed with swords, axes and knives, these silent maniacs were vaguely threatening, but I would say the low number of around five of them didn't make for a super strong feeling of peril. Nor did the fact that only one of these people was carrying a gun, though bizarrely, there were more hand grenades than guns. In such a large building it did feel a bit contrived that the masked assailants were constantly bumping into the hapless survivors. Also contrived were the mobile phones not being able to get a signal for some reason, and that there was no outside assistance to be found, despite a large explosion early into the assault. Special effects weren't bad on the whole, a couple of CG effects that looked a little bit obvious, but there were some decent scenes of bloodshed to be found here.
I enjoyed the eighties sounding somewhat cheesy soundtrack, it fitted the film well, and I also appreciated an additional mid-credit sequence that attempts to link this office attack to a larger battle going on.

Night of Violence was inoffensive. Obviously an indie horror, this might not have had many surprises, but the film was created competently. It might have been a bit mindless, but I enjoyed my time with this. The core motivations of the antagonists could have been better explained, and there should have been more of them, but this was a decent enough way to pass eighty five minutes. Night of Violence had its world premiere at FrightFest on 21st August in London.

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The Quiet Ones (2025) - Thriller Film Review 22 Aug 12:16 PM (25 days ago)

After the death of her father, Charlotte (Kelsey Cooke - The Sandman TV show) intends to move into his Spanish holiday villa. It is while she is there recuperating from an ankle injury that her sister; Alba (Alicia Grace Turrell - The Garfield Movie) visits with the news that their father was in a lot of debt, and that unless she can raise a couple hundred thousand pounds within three weeks, Charlotte will lose the villa. Looking for ways to get the cash in such a short amount of time, she ends up looking at online cam-girl videos, and decides to send one of the girls a message; seductive Danni (Sophie Ablett - House of the Dragon and Doctor Who TV shows). The two strike up a rapport, and Danni offers her a business proposition to make some cam-girl videos together. Travelling to the villa, she promises Charlotte that she can earn a lot of money for not having to do a lot. To increase her chances of getting the required money for the villa in such a short span of time,  Danni invites more people, competitive Brylee (Isadora Leiva - It Needs Eyes), former Russian mob call girl Fabienne (Alina Tamara - War Blade), and clumsy but eager Violet (Sofia Shallai - Evil Eyes). Danni and Brylee make a wager, whoever makes more money with their videos within two weeks will get to stay at the villa with Charlotte, while the other one will have to leave. This seems to be a win-win for Charlotte as she is promised that all the earnings for the next two weeks will go to her, but the competition between the two soon turns tense.

A lot of the movie wasn't really for me, but one thing I did love was the stylistic choice to have key moments represented by retro looking pixelated video game images. As an example; whenever a new character is introduced this is represented by a pixelated character select screen. There is also a slight comic book vibe, with key information displayed on screen with bright and vibrant text. This fitted the world well, and made the less interesting scenes more full of life. 
The movie started on an interesting note; Charlotte waking up handcuffed to an either dead or unconscious person. While there were some more thrilling moments throughout the film, it was with twenty minutes left in the eighty six minute movie that this finally changed gears. Much of the film leading up to this is the contest the girls have decided to have. Mostly all light hearted stuff, it features plenty of tame montages of the girls doing their cam-girl stuff, mainly dancing for the camera.

The final twenty minutes were enjoyable, I liked how things went in a slightly different direction to what I expected. The lead up to this was sometimes slow going. The stylish presentation saved this for me, but aside from one gloriously violent scene that unfortunately turned out to be a dream sequence, this was just a bunch of young woman bickering, doing drugs, and making videos together.  Due to this there wasn't much call for anything but subtle special effects, I thought the make-up for blood and cuts looked decent: this zombie is always a fan of the blood.
The story wasn't a topic that really interested me so through no fault of its own it left me cold for much of the runtime. Style alone kept pulling me along, and I appreciated the little dose of thrills given at the end.

I spent much of The Quiet Ones wondering just when the thrill part of this thriller would kick in. I admit that at some point during the film I did pause it to check IMDB that this actually was meant to be from that genre. The film looked the part with its attractive stylistic presentation for the viewers benefit, but the meat of the story didn't grip me very much. Maybe due to my age, but social media stars are something that I don't really get, so the main topic here wasn't one that could engage me. The Quiet Ones released on 5th August from The Horror Collective.

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The Rotting Zombie's News Anthology for Thursday 21st August 2025 21 Aug 9:03 AM (26 days ago)

The Justin Sulham directed Nashville creature feature, Big Bad Betty has been acquired by Screamify for worldwide rights. Originally envisioned as a sasquatch story and then a werewolf story, the film instead features an original creation. The story sees a young woman and her friends encountering an unknown creature while restoring her late grandfather's old ranch. Big Bad Betty will premiere later this year as a Screamify Original.

Brute 1976 (2025) - Horror Film Review 20 Aug 11:03 AM (27 days ago)

Atomfall (2025) - Post Apocalyptic Video Game Review (X-Box Series X) 19 Aug 11:03 AM (28 days ago)

The game takes place within an alternate timeline in which the very real fire in 1957 at the Windscale nuclear power plant (Britain's worst nuclear accident), resulted in a quarantine zone being set up around the plant. No one was allowed in or out of the quarantine zone, so everyone living in the area now find themselves cut off from the rest of the country, both due to being sealed in, but also due to the disaster causing a strange electromagnetic field that prevents messages getting in or out of the area. The army were called in, but too found themselves trapped within the quarantine zone, and now brutally enforce the areas they control, calling themselves 'Protocol'. Outside their area of influence, bandit groups arose, as well as a strange druid like cult who worship the land.
Five years after the disaster and quarantine was enacted, your player character awakens in a bunker within the zone with no memory of how they came to be there. An injured scientist in a hazmat suit trades your assistance for a special key card, they tell you that a secret facility known as the 'Interchange' is the key to escaping.

Atomfall is a first person adventure game that has light elements of the survival genre to it. You don't need to manage food, water and sleep, but you are able to craft various items such as health, bombs, and temporary stat increases. There is also a skill tree that requires B.A.R.D (British Atomic Research Division) upgrades to advance through. Skills you can unlock aren't particularly exciting, but they are useful. Think traditional stuff like increased skills with melee and ranged weapons, and the ability to craft items faster. Combat is one of the weaker areas of the game, and for much of my time I avoided it. I don't think it was the intention, but I ran rather than fought a lot of enemies until later in the game when I was better armed. This led to me speed running through certain areas, such as the cultists base in Casterfell Woods, meaning I likely missed parts of the game, even if it made sense for my character. Weapons are limited and basic, and ammo is in short supply, but enemies can be dealt with. Human enemies can be dispatched easily enough, there are also ghoul like infected humans that come in various types. Going back on the Bioshock influence, there are giant robots who can be battled to take their power cores. I didn't once engage in combat with the robots as I didn't really see the point. Then there are the animals, very basic looking rats and eels (and crows in the DLC) who attack you in packs in a bit of a lame way.
It isn't all gunplay, you get a hacking device that allows you to turn off gun turrets and restore power to doors, and a metal detector which can be used to uncover buried items. Enemy A.I isn't that great, the enemies tend to swarm you rather than using any other type of tactics, but with combat being not essential this wasn't an issue.

Is this really an English Fallout? Yes and no. It shares elements of that series with others such as Bioshock, and even this years Avowed. Rather than open world, the game takes place within six large areas (seven if you also include the DLC island). Central is Wyndham village, my favourite place due to being a safe area controlled by Protocol. Skethermore is also Protocol controlled, while Slatten Dale is bandit controlled. Then there is Casterfell Woods where the cultists roam, and including the island from the DLC, you have Midsummer Island that contains both cultists and bandits (and takes a more supernatural bend rather than sci-fi to its story). That is all without mentioning the Interchange. There is no fast travel option available in Atomfall, so this requires you to be intelligent in completing missions and side quests, as it can take a good while to travel from one side of the game world to the other. The Interchange is essentially a second way of travelling around the game, this vast underground facility allows you to pop up in any of the games areas (excluding Midsummer Island). A key part of the game is removing the lockdown from the facility, feeding into the end game task of visiting Oberon. With the lack of fast travel I caused more than a few headaches for myself, arriving at my destination only to realise I had left a key item behind back in the storage container system at the Interchange. It did add to the immersion not fast travelling.

The world building is fantastic, and is one of the stronger elements of Atomfall, it feels like a living breathing world that tells a lot of story just with how items have been arranged, such as crashed copters and roadblocks. As amazing as the world building is, unfortunately the main story really sucks. Your goal is to simply escape the zone, and pretty much all the quests revolve around helping various people who reckon they can help you escape should you assist them. You don't need to complete these various tasks at all, the free form mission structure means you could just side with one character and follow their path to the end of the game. Wanting to get the most out of the game, I played all the quests up to the end points, but I couldn't shake the feeling it was a bit pointless in terms of story, only important to me for getting to see more of the fantastic world. Your player character is a huge missed opportunity, it takes the old school approach of a silent protagonist who seems to exist purely as a proxy for the player to be in the game world. Anyone expecting any sort of grand reveal of who this player character actually is, or how they came to be in the quarantine zone will be disappointed, I know I was. It's a shame with a world as well built as this that the protagonist is such a dull nothing. I brought the DLC as I heard it was more of the same. It naturally integrates its new area without feeling like it doesn't belong in the pre-existing world. It added an extra five hours onto my playthrough, so when the end credits rolled I was at twenty two hours. I admit, I had imagined the game would be a good sixty to seventy hours, but with a wafer thin story, and a sometimes samey feel to what you do, I appreciated the shorter runtime.
Another strange thing were the power cores. These are set-up as if they are the game's version of Bioshock's 'Adam', yet despite much being made of securing these rare power cores, there are far, far more of them than you would ever need. It felt like a wasted opportunity, I wish they had been required more, or even used as a means to get through your skill tree.

I loved Atomfall, I thought the way the player is giving control of how they get through the game to be wonderful, and the British setting was fantastic. I wish the story had been more involved, it is so basic here that it almost feels placeholder, like the developers forgot to put the actual story into the game. The lore and world building is really good, making me able to look past the sometimes janky combat, but the main plot was so barebones as to make me feel that I probably won't return for a second playthrough as there wasn't a single engaging story beat. Some of the side quests were fun and added to the world, but far too many of the main quest lines involved fetch quests that had a similar feel. Despite that, I thought Atomfall was a very good game, perhaps just missing out on being an essential play.

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What Lies Beneath (2000) - Horror Film Review 18 Aug 7:22 AM (29 days ago)

Claire (Michelle Pfeiffer - Batman Returns, Scarface) has recently moved to the lakeside former home of the parents of her research scientist husband - Norman (Harrison Ford - Star Wars and Indiana Jones series of films). Obviously, being happily married, he has moved there with her, as well as their seldom seen dog Cooper. Norman has been busier than usual on a project at the University where he works, and so Claire has been left on her own and is feeling a little lost, even more so as her daughter has recently gone off to college. Odd occurrences start happening around the home, doors open on their own, a photo frame falls on the floor and shatters, and she sees a vision of what appears to be a young woman while investigating the bathtub which had inexplicably filled itself up. Claire increasingly becomes convinced the home is haunted, and she first suspects that it is the wife of her next door neighbour who she has become convinced was murdered by the husband. Norman meanwhile is getting ever more annoyed at Claire's antics, seeing her as being hysterical and getting in the way of his important work. Is Claire slowly going insane or is there something more supernatural at play?

My heart sank a little when I saw this was over two hours long, I had hoped for a shorter film to watch. Initial impressions were not good, nothing was happening. Time and time again it felt like something was on the cusp of occurring, but it never did. Slowly, much like the slow pace of the film, things begin to get more and more interesting. In the supernatural sense not so much. This may feature a ghost at the core of the story, but that part is used very sparsely. I didn't really mind, the times the ghost makes an appearance were well chosen. The lack of much paranormal activity may have been an issue if not for the red herrings going on. The first act has Claire barking up completely the wrong tree, but it was entertaining, and led to some amusing moments. I enjoyed the amount of characters that Claire interacts with, and while she might not be imagining the hauntings, she is hardly the epitome of balanced calmness, known to many around her as someone who gets a bit emotional about things.

Pfeiffer was a good lead, I enjoyed her character throughout the movie, even if there was some bad writing. The poor dog Cooper! He appears in literally about four scenes and really added nothing to the story. He may as not have been there as it became a bit distracting wondering where the family dog was for the majority of the film. Ford wasn't so much of a good character. Not really his fault, but Norman seems to have wild mood swings that make him a bit off putting, and Claire's meekness around him even when hidden secrets come out is a bit pathetic.
The story was predictable, I had worked out what was really going on a good thirty minutes before characters in the film work it out. It does lead to a thrilling finale though, I thought it had some good parts to it, especially the unique use of the bathtub as a weapon, a unique scene.

What Lies Beneath isn't something I would class as a classic. It is nostalgic due to the time it was made, the internet in the film is incredibly basic looking and no one has mobile phones (which would have solved a whole load of plot points if this had been made today). It was fun seeing two iconic actors, and in a horror film no less. The story really wasn't anything to write home about, but it was adequately satisfying to see play out. Well worth a watch if only for nostalgia, and can be a real slow burn at times, but overall, yeah, not bad. As a final word, I read that the director was inspired by Alfred Hitchcock's way of making films, I can really see that thinking back.

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Flesh of the Unforgiven (2024) - Horror Film Review 15 Aug 8:24 AM (last month)

The Rotting Zombie's News Anthology for Thursday 14th August 2025 14 Aug 11:57 AM (last month)

Tales From The Table is a horror anthology film that is available now on Digital Platforms from BayView Entertainment. From the press release it sounds like each story is based on an ordinary person stumbling into unsettling horror.

Cover (2025) - Thriller Film Review 13 Aug 8:02 AM (last month)

Trevor (Francis) is a travelling salesman who is on a cross country journey to go and sell some rare stamps known as 'covers'. Stopping in a diner for some lunch, he is disturbed by a young woman named Macy (Katherine Lozon in her film debut). She tells Francis that she is on the run from her abusive boyfriend, and begs the man for a ride. This begins an odd road trip in which two people, both suspicious and paranoid about the other, slowly start to get comfortable with each other's eccentricities. This, set to the backdrop of a mysterious car tailing the man.

Straight away I had a real issue with the main characters, both of which I both didn't like, and didn't trust. The way it creates a sense of paranoia that one of the two isn't being truthful was well done, it's just this mistrust stayed with me for the entire film. Even moments that are designed to be sentimental came across as fake and phony, and so that made the central 'buddy' style friendship fall flat. The characters dialogue and the way they said their lines felt grandiose and more wordy than they needed to be. The character of Trevor had a way of talking that often made me feel that Closer may be a comedy thriller, it always felt like he was playing to a crowd. Macy on the other hand was dodgy from the start. For someone apparently fleeing domestic abuse, Macy has a right attitude on her, and plenty of sass to boot.

Much of the film takes place out on the road, or at one of the various places the leads have stopped to rest, and for the first forty or fifty minutes things go along as expected. I did think the second act was a great idea, with events in the story rewound to show them playing out from a different perspective. As cool as that part was, there wasn't a smooth transition for key characters, so it made story beats feel very trite and forced. The thrills are relatively light here, but there was a fantastic looking late film death sequence, even if that follows into a bit of an abrupt and unsatisfying finish.

Cover was a film that just never hooked me. Due to the strange protagonists, I could never take anything they said seriously, which really affected my enjoyment of their journey. I spent most the film expecting twists and turns that never came to fruition. The story was fine, but there was just something a little missing here. Cover releases on August 26th via The Horror Collective.

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9th Dawn Remake (2024-25) - Initial Impressions (PS5) 12 Aug 8:28 AM (last month)

Crumb Catcher (2023) - Comedy Horror Film Review 11 Aug 1:04 AM (last month)