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Jacker 3: Road to Hell (2025) - Thriller Film Review 17 Oct 8:29 AM (2 days ago)

Unsurprisingly, Jacker 3: Road to Hell is the third film in a series. What I found interesting was that the previous two films were both released in the 90s; Jacker in 1993, and sequel - Jacker 2: Road to Hell in 1996. This third entry makes use of the thirty year gap for one of its plot points, as well as brings back a host of the original actors to reprise their roles. Having never seen the first two films I did feel l was playing catch-up a bit, so my synopsis might not be entirely correct as there were parts of the movie that left me a little confused, my fault entirely for joining the series with the third film. This new entry is directed by James Panetta (Phil Herman's Unearthed, Doomsday Stories), and once again written by Phil Herman, the writer of the previous films, as well as the person who plays the titular villainous role.

Thirty years previously, a serial killer known as 'the Jacker' (Herman) went on a notorious killing spree, his modus operandi typically being to murder his victims during carjackings. Despite his large amount of victims, the police were never able to capture him due to the killer seemingly striking at random, before one day vanishing without a trace. Now, with no explanation other than possibly due to it being the anniversary of the original killings, the Jacker is back, once again creating a large kill-count. This causes Gloria (Debbie D - Phil Herman's Unearthed, Doomsday Stories) to reappear; a survivor of the original Jacker killing spree who went into hiding after he failed to kill her. Now she begins to have troubling nightmares about the man, seeming to have some type of psychic connection with the killer, and realising he is back she desperately tries to alert people.

Did I have much of an idea what was going on? No. Did I have a fun time watching this very low budget thriller? Hell yes. It begins with a prologue sequence in which a man shoots his wife dead, before being killed in turn by a policeman. Before he goes however, he is able to transfer his essence into his young son. I wasn't sure of the importance of this scene, but it does set up the murky possibility that the Jacker is supernatural in nature. This supernatural element doesn't appear heavily, but it is referenced again later in the film, and you could argue the many nightmare sequences characters have are also a cause of this.
The story is split between a multitude of characters, some of which only appear in order to become more victims for the serial killer, some who have their own little subplots going on, such as journalist Chris (Christopher Kahler - Phil Herman's Unearthed, He Sees You When You're Sleeping), and of course Gloria; the main protagonist but whose story mainly takes place away from the new killings. Jacker's storyline has him back on a meandering murder-spree, he of course kills people whose cars he has stolen from them, but also his fair share of home invasions, and happenstance while out walking the streets of the city. He makes for an entertaining villain, seeming to get pleasure out of his motive-less killings, and he talks a fair bit. It was also amusing that many people seem to recognise who he is before they are dispatched by him; the event from the past having left a scar on the city.

There are a whole bunch of death scenes, the Jacker's weapon of choice usually being a gun which he uses to single shot his victims. There are some closer kills, even one severed penis to be found here! Scenes typically have these characters begging for mercy, and occasionally even getting that mercy. Favourite of these had to be Butch Patrick (Eddie from The Munsters) playing a fictional version of himself outside a fan convention. There are a few scenes with female nudity, often feeling like these were only there for titillation. There were also various scenes that were played for comedic effect, with the indie feel of the film world these moments fitted in seamlessly with the more dramatic scenes. Perhaps part of his supernatural powers, perhaps just to make the film flow more smoothly; Jacker appears able to be exactly where he wants to be at any given point. He flits around between scenes, so one moment he will be invading a home, next scene he will be out walking in woodland, the next scene he will be meeting someone to try and buy guns, with no rhyme or reason to why he is where he is. He made for an entertaining antagonist, but he didn't make for a cohesive feeling character, a force of nature rather than anything deeper.

Despite being a bit lost as to what had come before, I enjoyed Jacker 3. I liked how the killer wasn't needlessly cruel, living to kill, not living to torture, and I liked the cheerful way he goes about things. The plot involving Gloria did feel very disconnected to his storyline, at times this slightly felt like two separate movies playing out in the same film universe. Jacker 3: Road to Hell was an entertaining indie thrill ride. Don't always expect the strongest of acting (especially during the amusingly wooden news segments), and don't expect too much plot, but this was a solid indie film which never became dull.

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The Rotting Zombie's News Anthology for Thursday 16th October 2025 16 Oct 8:22 AM (3 days ago)

This small news post is due to go up on the week I return to my day job after 10 days off. It has been pleasant not to work, though I didn't get as much blog as I had originally intended to! Onwards to the news.

Retro slasher Brute 1976 is now available on VOD and Digital platforms including Amazon Prime Video, Apple TV, Google Play, Vimeo On Demand, and YouTube Movies via Cinephobia Releasing. This Marcel Walz (Pretty Boy) directed slasher earned a respectable 7/10 rotted zombie heads in my August review, where I stated 'Brute 1976 wears its inspirations on its sleeve, and it benefits from not trying to pretend it is something wholly original'.

Hemet, or the Landlady Don't Drink Tea (2024) - Comedy Horror Film Review 15 Oct 11:24 AM (4 days ago)

Hemet, or the Landlady Don't Drink Tea comes from director Tony Olmos (Continuance) and writer Brian Patrick Butler (Friend of the World). Bizarrely, Butler himself plays the part of the antagonist old woman featured here, though it helps being a comedy that his strange appearance can be brushed off. She had by far the best lines and best deliveries of the film, so I would assume that's why Butler played the part, so he could bring his lines to life in the way he envisioned here.

An epidemic has swept America in which drug users have become addicted to a dangerous new type of bath salt. The side effects cause the addicts to wander around in a stupor, attacking anyone who gets within reach, as well giving the addicts a taste for human flesh. Liz Topham-Myrtle (Butler) is the landlady of a remote housing block, knowing her tenants have nowhere else to go, she rules over them with an iron-fist. She takes advantage of them, pitting them against each other, and changing their tenancy agreements on a whim. With the police wrapped around her little finger, and with martial law close to being called due to the nationwide bath salt epidemic, Liz is making her own little empire. The tenants, angry at their treatment by her, have began to rebel, leading to a series of events that have drastic consequences.

The general idea behind this film I liked. I appreciated the zombie sub-plot, and while not literal zombies, these addicts filled the role well. It was always suggested that out on the streets is carnage, with the addicted out in force, but this never came across that strongly on screen. With a muted zombie outbreak, there was also a muted response to it, which did make the threat of them seem over-exaggerated. Butler was scene stealing in his lead role. It is really obvious it isn't an actual old lady, but this gives the character a really surreal appearance that just added to her commanding role. The quick fire matter of fact way the character speaks was often mesmerising, even if she was a detestable character. That became my core issue with much of the movie, how unlikeable virtually the entire cast are. Even characters on the more good side of things still appeared to be horrid people. Rosie (Kimberley Weinberger) was set-up to be the protagonist, but was barely better than the rest of the horrid cast. When there are no characters to like, it becomes hard to care about any of them or their fates. This is reflected within the film itself, as the cast of characters are all back stabbing and out for themselves, even with a high body count, these characters don't appear to particularly care about all the death going on around them.

Special effects delighted at times, there are more than a couple of severed limbs, a load of corpses, and one quite entertaining scene involving a chainsaw! The 'zombies' for want of a better term, do get some classic moments such as tearing open people's stomachs, and there is a bit of decent looking gunfire effects as well.
With the movie taking place near entirely at the dusty desert compound, the look fitted the downtrodden story well. It doesn't take much to see this is partly a critique against the housing situation in America, while also speaking out about corruption and racism.

The set-up for Hemet, or the Landlady Don't Drink Tea was good, I liked the addition of a dangerous epidemic sweeping the country. I do wish there had been more characters to root for, this had an almost Shakespearean quality of betrayal and arrogance behind the story, but with this cast of nasty people, it was hard to care about any of it too deeply.

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Sincerely Saul (2025) - Comedy Horror Film Review 13 Oct 4:56 AM (6 days ago)

Written, directed, and produced by Ian Tripp (Everybody Dies by the End), Sincerely Saul is an indie dark comedy psychological horror that is a slice of life for a man-child. Without much plot to worry about, this absurdist black and white injects life with its variety of weird and kooky characters.

Saul (Ryan Schafer - Everybody Dies by the End), is a 26 year old man who never really grew up. He lives with his terminally ill grandma (Mickey Faerch - Memory: The Origins of Alien), doesn't work, and is a member of a support group for involuntary male virgins. Him and his grandma have a love/hate relationship, he does care for her, but he is also adverse to 'borrowing' money off of her for his obsession with an online cam-girl and his desire to fulfil his perceived happiness needs.

Saul is a hard protagonist to like but even so he does have some redeeming qualities buried deep down. Being a comedy horror, I expected there would be a tipping point where the Napoleon Dynamite styled character would go on a bloody rampage. Much like a child however, Saul is all bark and no bite, ineffectually having tantrums rather than actually causing people physical harm. He is barely able to speak normally, acting like a sullen teenager when answering questions from the people he encounters in his life. These characters are an eccentric bunch of weirdos and odd-balls. From the 'friendly' Officer Porter (Karl Backus - Skin: The Movie) whose close relationship with his mother feels rather forced, to the long suffering comic book clerk (Ty Mabrey in his film debut), there is virtually no one here who comes across as normal. My favourite side character had to be the nerdy bow-tie vlogger that befriends Saul at one point. The interaction between Saul and his grandma was the strongest part of character development. From their strange relationship you get a sense that Saul is the way he is due to his family, the grandma at times seeming like an older mirror of the troubled man.

There isn't that much that happens, the film feeling like a snapshot of a few weeks of the protagonists life. He begins the movie trying to kill himself, and threatens to several times over the 95 minute runtime, but you get the sense it is all for show. I couldn't see how there could be a happy ending for such a dysfunctional man, the snapshot approach works in that there doesn't really need to be a resolution. The film ends with some characters in better positions, some characters in worse positions, but on the whole most characters have little to no growth to them; they are all too set in their ways. I liked how a potentially huge plot point of a vast forest fire that Saul inadvertently caused just bubbles away in a severe side plot, only occasionally referenced. This matches with the film's weird humour, it always felt funny in a round-about way. The horror mainly comes from the situation Saul has grown into, it was hard to see how this 'neckbeard' would be able to rise above his issues. A nightmare sequence towards the end features the most horror to be found here, the rest of the movie having a more drama focussed (though exaggerated) approach.

Sincerely Saul made for an interesting movie. The stripped back story combined with the stark black and white look made something that was different enough to keep my attention throughout despite not too much going on. Saul was a unique lead, definitely hard to like, but there was also something pathetically innocent about how he is in his miserable existence. Sincerely Saul was released on 29th September.

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Scurry (2024) - Horror Film Review 11 Oct 1:45 AM (9 days ago)

Last year I had a wonderful time at the cinema watching prequel horror; A Quiet Place: Day One, and now I have seen the Luke Sparke (Primitive War, Occupation: Rainfall) directed  Scurry - a film that tells a similar story but in an indie setting. That isn't me saying it had copied that one, just that with the under attack city setting, the duel protagonists, the sentimental feel, and a vaguely similar looking creature (though more crab-like in appearance); these all combined to make this a stand-alone story taking place the same day as that much bigger movie in my head canon. Sure that is not the case, especially with the monsters here not appearing to have very great hearing.
I haven't even mentioned it yet, but Scurry is designed to have the appearance of it being one long unbroken shot from beginning to end. How well does it achieve this?

Mark (Jamie Costa - The Activated Man) wakes up in a deep hole in the road he had been crossing in the middle of a bustling unnamed city that had been caught in an earthquake. With the area having suffered a series of quakes over the past few weeks, he assumes that is what has happened. He is surprised when his cries for help fall on deaf ears, as he figures he couldn't possibly be the only survivor of this quake in such a bustling city. Forced to head deeper underground, he encounters another survivor; a frightened and injured young woman (Emalia - Paper Dolls TV series), she reveals to him the truth; the city has came under attack by giant monstrous creatures that came from beneath the earth, the frequent quakes had actually been caused by their burrowing beneath the city. Mark and the woman don't have any other real option than to uneasily team up and attempt to find a way to escape the creature-made burrows they now find themselves trapped in.

Overall I was impressed with Scurry. There were a few parts that didn't resonate as well, but it managed to tell its ambitious story effectively, the underground setting meaning a lot of the bigger picture stuff is assumed to be happening above ground. The 'one-shot' gimmick obviously doesn't mean one single uncut shot for the whole film, with the amount of times scenes are plunged into darkness, I am sure there are a lot  of scene cuts. What worked with this was the feeling of one long, single journey. From the camera swooping in from a chaotic city scene to centre on an unconscious Mark at film's start, to the amazing finish, this showed the entire torturous journey of the protagonists. This means the entire seventy minute movie plays out in real time, characters experiencing the events and getting to know each other at the exact same speed as the viewer.
Mark was a mostly great character. Sure, the man had his demons in his past, but he comes across as empathetic, caring, and an all-round good guy. I will admit he did begin to grate on me a bit in the momentum stalling scene deep in the third act, his dialogue there causing me to laugh out loud. He was also hardy, seeing as how he had a gaping hole the size of a small letterbox in his stomach from a film's start injury! The same can't be said for the woman (also hardy with a bad leg injury; I mean she can't said to be a nice character). From her first appearance she was selfish, mean spirited, bullying, and a little bit narcissistic. No matter what Mark said or did, she would treat him terribly, scoffing at the idea of him wanting to get back to his 'perfect family', and putting her needs ahead of his. Pretty much treated him like he was a side character in her own movie rather than a duel protagonist. Armed with a pistol, she holds the power, making Mark crawl behind her, and taking his items (such as his lighter) off of him. At one point she even forces him to head back down an occupied tunnel in order to collect mystery drugs she had dropped. She eventually gets more bearable, but for too much of the runtime I was wishing the character would just get over themselves and found them overly irritating.

The characters are in dark tunnels for much of the movie, sometimes the one shot uses this to cool advantage, such as panning back to reveal a monster is obliviously digging in a tunnel above them, or to sweep down a hole to show the viewer what is making the noise the characters can hear. It also pans away to flashback sequences in a clever fashion. Many of the effects seem to use CG, such as the panning shots, but they never looked bad, and added depth to the world of the film. There is more action than you might expect, the humans are surrounded by monsters, but those are not particularly aware of these survivors trying to find a way out. There are plenty of small exciting moments, the third act begins with a really entertaining scene that had me giggle out loud, and which saw the duo covered in blood! The creatures look like giant crabs ("giant enemy crabs; hit weak points for massive damage" to paraphrase a much memed Sony 2006 E3 press conference). The darkness of the film means they are often in shadow enough that the design and look-in film is effective.
The story had me engaged enough that I wanted to see Mark survive; to see if he could be reunited with his family. Both characters had their melodramatic cheesy moments where they lay their cards on the table, reveal to each other their darkest secrets. Those felt a little bit formulaic for this type of film, but were at least brief. Being biased towards him, Mark's one was much better than the woman's. There is some lore that is dropped towards the end about the threat they face that threatens to turn the film into a parody of itself, but it paves the way for the memorable Sam Raimi-esque ending zinger that was just perfect, even if the explanation was utterly ridiculous.

Apart from a dip in pacing in the middle of the third act, I really enjoyed Scurry. Mark was a great protagonist for the most part, and at least the woman eventually becomes more bearable. I might not have liked the character, but she was played well, as was Costa's Mark outside of one small stumble. It sold the illusion of being one unbroken shot beneath the streets and sewers of a city well, I enjoyed the CG effects to pad out the world, and the unique ways the film had of displaying key information to the viewer. The dank environments felt suitably claustrophobic. Scurry came to Digital HD on October 3rd in North America via Signature Entertainment.

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Retrofate (2025) by Assassun - Music Album Review 10 Oct 2:41 AM (10 days ago)

It's another year and another full length album from Assassun (the moniker for one of Alexander Donat's many music projects). Titled Retrofate, this album seems to leave behind much of its previous eighties synth sound, taking on a more retro nineties EDM inspired sound mixed alongside its post-punk/industrial beats. Not too much of a surprise is that this is another great album.

Things begin with the sneering and angry sounding 'Poisonalan', its assortment of repetitive beat carrying the track along. 'At the Kiwi Crates' is the weirdly titled and weird on the whole second song. The lyrics sung in a kind of rap beat are very odd, loved it, and I also loved the dirty back beat thudding away throughout.
'1995' is where the retro EDM rave sound begins to appear more frequently. This is the start of a downward descent deeper and deeper into awesome sounding EDM music. 'Past/I N B E T W E E N/Future' has even more of a rave-like feel, the music here is amazing, with what sounded like chiptune style music at times, and entertaining lyrics. Then 'D.E.A.T.H'. goes even further into the EDM wastelands with an evil sound to it, loved the backing beat. 

Following the sarcastic EDM roadtrip 'The Sons of the United Plagues' we get to 'Abysmalism', a track both dramatic and experimental with the lyrics almost becoming spoken word. 'Off the Globe' is the end of the really grimy sounding back beats, another good example of it, those backing beats are so great. Penultimate track 'GATEKEEPER' may just be my favourite on the whole album, I'm not a fan of the genre, but it was still a surprising delight to hear parts where a drum n' bass beat kicks in for some high energy sounding moments that were fun. Finally comes the more slow and introspective finisher 'The Concrete of Time'. A bit surreal, and a very slight opening feel of a The Streets song, this had some good parts scattered throughout its weird journey.

I seem to say this every time, but I once again loved Assassun's latest album; Retrofate, delighted with its abundance of grotty sounding EDM (in the best way). blended with the lovely post-punk industrial sound. There was a good stretch of the album where every song was better than the one that came before. Enjoyed this one more than I had initially expected to.

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Drive Back (2024) - Horror Film Review 9 Oct 12:23 AM (11 days ago)

Despite its generic 'thriller' sounding title, Drive Back is actually a time loop horror film - a sub-genre of horror that I really love. Directed by Cody Ashford (in his directorial debut), and written by Jon Sarro, this tells an all too familiar story that the sub-genre seems destined to repeatedly tell forever, in some type of... loop. I am sure it is purely coincidence, but this felt extremely similar to Dane Elcar's 2022 time loop horror; Brightwood, albeit, a more enjoyable version of that film.

Olivia (Whit Kunschik - Caged) and her partner Reid (Zack Gold) have gotten lost out in the wooded backroads of America while driving back from their engagement party at Reid's parents house. Finding a remote gas station, the couple ask the eccentric old woman they discover there how to get back to where they need to be. She then reveals to them a secret short cut via a road passing through the middle of a thick wood that only the locals know about, and directs them on how to find it. Things begin to go odd as soon as they arrive on the short cut - time appears to be passing strangely, each of them begin to have memory lapses about things that have only just happened, and they encounter a very hostile hitchhiker. Then they begin to notice familiar landmarks they are certain they have passed before, and it is discovered they they appear trapped in some time of loop, no matter which way they drive, they come across the same stretch of road.

As I said in my prologue, there were many parts of Drive Back that felt very similar to ideas used in similar films. A bickering couple, a dangerous cloaked stranger, seeing past and future versions of yourselves; all are cool ideas, but none of them are original. There were some parts here that felt a little more fresh. It wasn't implemented well into the film, but I liked the concept of heading further into the future going one way down the road, and heading back into the past if heading the opposite direction. So, Reid and Olivia don't have the greatest chemistry together, something that is a key part of the drama going on between them. In addition to Olivia being pregnant, Reid is also still trying to come to terms with her having cheated on him in the past. More interesting was Reid's relationship with his survivalist father. This was important enough that the bleak prologue sequence shows an event that happened when Reid was a young boy on a hunting trip. Both protagonists were decent characters, the actors able to convey all the confusing story changes. Some of the highlight dialogue scenes were when the two were almost going insane due to the rapid fire memory alterations they were getting, the scene a dizzying quick edit to heighten the disorientation.

There is a decent effort to inject horror into this, characters frequently have really violent and gory nightmare sequences, and I have to say how much I liked the look of the blood here. When there is a call for blood, there is a heck of a lot of it. The location for the story was perfectly suited, designed to just be a part of the background. There are more characters to be found than just themselves, but the supporting cast are a mixed bunch of mostly mute antagonists who all look the same. Also, if you are after any sort of explanation for the loop-based terror going on, then you may be disappointed, but its typical of the sub-genre not to explain things.

After a promising start, Drive Back soon fell prey to the pitfalls of the genre. Focussed on just the two characters, it did feel a little samey at times, but it is when the two realise they are trapped in a loop that the film becomes more derivative. The hour and a half (or so) runtime felt exactly its length, with the middle part of the movie dragging somewhat. As for the end, not the worst way to finish a story, but also not the best way either. This is a decent example of this type of film, and I would recommend it over others I have seen in recent memory.

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The Creep Tapes (2024) - Horror Series Review 8 Oct 2:05 AM (12 days ago)

Creep and Creep 2 are two fantastic found footage horror films that shine mainly due to the hypnotically awkward performance of the antagonist (played by Mark Duplass). I have always felt a bit bad about giving that first film a six out of ten, but have to assume that was what my thoughts were at the time. With the last film released in 2017, I had assumed this series was done and dead. Last year I was delighted to see a TV series based on the character was released. The Creep Tapes is a found footage horror series, each episode taking the form of a snuff film that the titular creep has made. 

The Monkey (2025) - Comedy Horror Film Review 6 Oct 12:04 PM (13 days ago)

It is Monday afternoon as I write this first blog post for the week, so I am quite far behind, normally my blog work would have started on the Saturday. It's a good thing I have a blissful week off work from my day job. The film I had originally intended to watch for review today had an expired screener link, so as is the way here at The Rotting Zombie HQ, that meant I got to choose my own film to review. After a painfully long hour trying to decide what to watch, I settled on The Monkey; a horror film that was based on a short story by that master of horror; Stephen King. Directed and adapted by Osgood Perkins (Longlegs, The Blackcoats Daughter), this had initially intended to be played straight and serious - much like the original short story was. Perkins saw different however, and decided to make this a dark comedy horror, thankfully, that turned out to be a great idea.

Twin boys Hal and Bill are going through their father's belongings they find in the attic one day. They are hoping to learn more about the man, not having known him after he abandoned his family when they were very young. In with his possessions is a creepy looking wind-up monkey doll with a key ready to turn in its back. They soon come to learn that whenever this key is turned, and after the monkey has gone through its mechanical motions of banging a drum, someone near to them is killed in a most random way. The monkey chooses its own victim, something that is learned hard when it takes someone irreplicable away from them, and together they decide to get rid of the device.
Twenty five years after they chained it up and threw it down a deep well - Hal (Theo James - Divergent), now grown up and having lived an isolated life (in an effort to not give the monkey the opportunity to take anyone he cares about), learns of his aunt's untimely demise. He realises the monkey is back and ready to go on another killing spree of those that him and Bill are close to.

I have always been a big fan of the Final Destination series of films, so with this sharing some of that DNA, I was always going to like this. James plays both himself and twin-brother Bill and plays them both very weirdly. The comic vibe is very dark, but it also is quite playful and silly when it wants to be. It isn't only the events that are occurring that are humorously surreal, but also with the dialogue. Nearly all the characters within the film are very odd and strange, feeling like characters who know they are in a dark comedy horror. I was surprised by some big names who appeared here. There is a wonderful prologue featuring Adam Scott (Severance TV show), and I was happily surprised to see Elijah Wood (The Lord of the Rings series of films) appear for one short but amusing scene. Characters throughout were all so oddball in a unified amusing way. Perhaps my favourite side character being the very novice and out of his depth priest (Nicco Del Rio - Black Mirror TV episode 'Common People') who performs his funerals as if he is surprised to be the one leading them.
The first third of the film is led in narration by an adult Hal talking about his childhood. I hadn't expected the film to have a time skip, so hadn't expected one when it happened. The parts set in relatively modern day became even more strange. Hal is on a super awkward annual father/son road-trip meet-up with teenage son Petey (Colin O'Brien - Grey's Anatomy TV show) when the two get caught up in the re-emergence of the monkey and its murderous ways, Petey being emerged in the random chaos in  some often drily amusing scenes.

There are a heck of a lot of death scenes throughout the hundred minute horror (and a bunch of nightmare sequences), and not one of them is handled in a reserved manner. Each death is just as much, or more comedic than the death that came before, certainly played for laughs. A lot of inventiveness is shown, but a lot of these deaths also only occur during brief montage sequences. It was a mix of practical effects and CG, leading to a decent variation in silly kills. From a character who has the contents of a wasp hive fly into their mouth, to accidental beheading, accidental empaling, and my favourite;  a character who met their end (sadly offscreen) by being trampled to death by a pack of horses while they were in a sleeping bag while out camping. Much like the Final Destination films, these deaths are darkly comedic and often have a bit of set-up to them, though nothing quite as elaborate as that other series.
The monkey has a really creepy design to it, the editing and cinematography of the filmmaking really unit to create the feeling it is a cursed object and something to be feared. Able to appear where characters least expect it to be, this monkey was the highlight of the movie - impressive for a mostly inanimate object.

The Monkey was a film that I think would have worked just as well as a serious horror as to what Perkins made it into. At times I did wish it had been played more seriously, that toy design could have been used for some genuine scares. All in all, this was an amusing and frequently inventive film that mostly hit the mark. The Monkey is currently streaming on Prime Video.

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7eventh 7ircle (2025) - Short Horror Film Review 3 Oct 9:40 AM (16 days ago)

I feel like there used to be a heck of a lot more experimental arthouse type films in the recent past. Nowadays they are few and far between. Of course, they can be an acquired taste, but when done well they can create a sensory trip like few other films do. Written and directed by Ty Brueilly, 7eventh 7ircle  is the eleventh instalment of the 'Shucks cinematic world'. You will likely gather from my thoughts to come, but I really didn't have much of a clue what this was all about.

Over sixteen minutes we get a series of tales that appear to be told from beyond life. It features various characters wearing creepy masks, hanging out and doing stuff. There are some demonic cultist type people out in woodland ready to sacrifice a doll, a family of cultists sat around a dinner table with their meal of sticks, among other such things. Mainly this is dialogue free, it had the feel more of a music video, with the expertly edited images going in time with the hypnotic beat of the music. What dialogue there was had some background interference to it but that didn't really detract from anything. Apparently, this short film is based on the seventh circle of Hell from Dante Alighieri's Inferno, a quick Google search reveals that is the circle for the sin of violence.

I won't even begin to pretend I understood what the purpose of any of this was. It made for a trippy quarter hour, and the mix between the images and sound was often sublime, was definitely something to experience. 7eventh 7ircle had it's world premiere on 5th September at the TCL Chinese Theatre in Hollywood. It has it's hometown premiere in Asheboro on 11th December at the Sunset Theatre.

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Uncanny: Fear of the Dark (2025) - Supernatural Stage Show Review 2 Oct 9:56 AM (17 days ago)

They say you should try and write reviews the same day as you see the thing you are reviewing. That sadly wasn't able to be the case here, so this is written some four days later, I'm sure there will be details I miss here, but the general feelings I have for it remain while typing!
Uncanny is a BBC podcast and TV show that has Danny Robbins as host. In the show he presents various alleged hauntings and comes across as someone completely neutral in the belief in ghosts. He also has two experts helping him, one expert who believes in the supernatural, and one expert who doesn't. Uncanny: Fear of the Dark is the second theatre production I have seen, having been to Uncanny: I Know What I Saw roughly a year ago.

The last stage production was made up of a deep dive into two different hauntings, one for each half, and most enjoyable so it was. For Fear of the Dark, this has been stretched out to now six different cases. Being a huge fan of anything anthology-like in style, this was music to my ears. There was more variation here than I thought, and being a low level fan of the show it included topics I had never seen Robbins explore.
It appeared that me, my father, and my sister, only noticed our tickets were each nowhere near each other right at the last moment before heading in to Northampton's Derngate theatre making for a bit of an amusing start. My seat was on the second floor in a box that was one away from the nearest to the stage. This meant that my view was partially restricted as it was a struggle to make out props that would often appear right at the back of the stage. That part wasn't good, what was great however was the fact I was on the side where the two experts sat, so I had a great if slightly vertical view of them throughout the show. The stage design was more cluttered this time around, the theme being that it is Danny Robbin's version of The Warren's artefact room. I liked the cluttered design of the stage, even if I couldn't see the back area reserved for impact moments. There was a neat video wall across the top of the stage, with three different screens where footage was being displayed on.

The show begins with a super serious intro that Robbins was amusingly self deprecating about. The host as always was very friendly and chatty, there is something very likeable from him, and he can be legitimately funny at times. He was joined frequently on stage by Dr. Ciarán O'Keeffe (the skeptic) and Evelyn Hollow (the believer) who would give their opinions on the cases discussed. I swear O'Keeffe wasn't in the show I saw last year, but my dad says he was. Either way, it was a pleasure to see these two as well, having seen them in a load of Uncanny's TV episodes.
It begins predictably enough with the first case being a supernatural case of a haunted nursery, classic Uncanny stuff. For me, while I knew U.FO sightings had been explored before, this was the first time I had personally seen it. I loved the change-up in style, and was fascinating to discover that O'Keeffe had been caught up in Britain's most well known UFO sighting as a child! There was an even more strange case looked at later on, about a Bigfoot type creature spotted just outside of Scunthorpe. Robbins interviews the believable man in a pre-filmed segment as he drives down the exact same patch of road where he encountered what he believes he saw.

The order of the cases is a bit mixed in my head, but regardless, after an interval we got back to what felt like a slightly more creepy act. There was a case offered as hope in the existence of an afterlife (to me it felt more unsettling than hopeful!), and a poltergeist encounter that also got the hairs on the back of my neck slightly rising. At one point during the show, audience members are invited to ask the host and experts questions, this was interesting enough. It was the later segment where audience members are invited to share their supernatural encounters that things unexpectedly took a turn for the entertaining. Personal favourites of the five or so supernatural accounts include a daughter who had an 'imaginary' friend as a child that she later discovered was the spit of someone who had once lived in her town during Victorian times, and a man who saw a large sized rabbit with a face of a human one dusky evening as a teen!

With the increase to six cases over two hours instead of just two, there is the expected more streamline feel. While these never felt particularly rushed through, there were a couple that were almost too brief. I enjoyed the way the footage was displayed on stage; how both Robbins and the audience would both be watching it intently (plus it gave me an excuse to lay back in my seat rather than having to lean over the barrier to see!). More of the same then, but that is not a critique. Despite the show seemingly being cursed for me (again leading me to unexpected travel woes on the short journey home), I loved this, it improved over time. I got there exhausted from a long day at work, and left even more tired, but with a smile in my heart for a fun evening kind of spent with family.

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The Draft! (2023) - Horror Film Review 1 Oct 8:10 AM (18 days ago)

Indonesian horror; The Draft! (also known as Setan Alas!), was directed and co-written by Yusron Fuadi and tells a wild story that both plays with audience expectation, as well as with horror film tropes. It creates a story where you really can't tell where it is going to go next.

Five college friends have headed away to a remote villa for the weekend. After one of them is found murdered, as well as groundskeeper Mang Dadang (Ernanta Kusuma), the friends decide to flee the place but find themselves unable to. Film nerd Amir (Winner Wijaya) suggests a theory; that they are all characters in a horror film script and are stuck following the whims of a writer. This outlandish idea surprisingly turns out to be the reality for the group, and with previous events altering and characters coming back to life seemingly randomly, they realise that they are trapped within a draft of a script.

It is an interesting premise, and one I have enjoyed in the past, with films such as Resolution and of course; The Cabin in the Woods. Things begin predictably enough for a horror film, so predictably that Iwan (Adhin Abdul Hakim) can't resist pointing them out to his friends. There was a bit of a hump accepting the characters had discovered they were trapped within a film script, but eventually that is made apparent purely by the wild happenings. There is plenty of amusing, almost fourth-wall breaking moments with the script, where characters criticise the writer for being lazy and not having developed them enough than to have hazy backstories. Amir becomes the heart of the film, it is him who is the first to realise, and also the one who becomes skilled at forcing positive changes in the story playing out. As the film plays out it switches horror genres also, it manages to fit a decently sized zombie section, as well as a slasher, and a demonic horror. This led to never really knowing what was to come next, with characters able to accidentally 'will' items and events into being, while coming to understand that while they are in a draft there is always a way for them to come back from apparent death.

This strange direction also removed much of the horror aspect from the picture. The amusing script, and how cheaply death is treated never comes across as too serious. One highlight was a corpse that various characters keep tripping over and reacting to each time they pass it. There are bleak moments on occasion, usually these are sign posted as being there as an intention of the writer, with characters stating how what they are saying is meant to create sympathy from the viewer, before overly cheesy sorrowful music begins playing.
There are some really exciting scenes throughout the movie, particularly towards the end of the second act in a wonderful little mini-event within the film world. I loved how wild that part got. I also thought one of the storylines having people get possessed and then ripping their jaw off their face was fantastic, I would have loved to see an actual horror about that!

The Draft! is a clever horror that completes the assignment it gave itself well. It keeps you guessing while being at times both purposely generic and playful with expectations. This naturally leads to a reduction in any legitimate terror, but is balanced out with an interesting set-up and a likeable cast of protagonists. The Draft! came to Screambox on 23rd September.

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The Rotting Zombie's Round-Up of Horror News for September 2025 30 Sep 9:39 AM (19 days ago)

Another month been and gone. In video game terms I have mainly been working my way through Borderlands 3, a much better game than I had been led to believe even if the core story sucks. I also picked up Silent Hill f. I had heard mixed things about that game, but I couldn't in full conscience call myself a huge Silent Hill fan if I didn't grab the new game on launch day. There is a Daft Punk experience later today in Fortnite, so am killing time writing this post while I wait. Such an exciting life I lead! Onwards to the news.

Snake Resort (2024) - Horror Film Review 29 Sep 10:52 AM (20 days ago)

When I heard of Beau Yotty's (writer, director, and co-star of this) creature feature horror film Snake Resort, I had a pretty good idea in my head of what it would be like. The press release describing a 'genetically enhanced snake' made me think of a gigantic CG monstrosity. It was a pleasure to discover the opposite was true, a movie villain whose small stature didn't get in the way of making it appear threatening. Stated to be made in the style of 80s creature features, watching this I could also see a huge chunk of 80s slashers in the genetics of the movie.

Out in remote Arizona, a crazed scientist (Jeff Serdy as Dr. Cross) has been working on a controversial anti-venom. He believes this will make him world famous once it has been perfected. Part of his research has included him genetically enhancing a rattlesnake, to make it into far more deadly a predator. Not taking the best precautions; the scientist is attacked and the snake escapes. With a sole desire to kill, the creature makes the 20 mile trip to the nearest settlement - a remote RV park, home to a small community of people. One by one, they begin to get picked off, with the survivors needing to come up with a way to defeat the murderous snake.

Snake Resort is very indie in style. There was never an issue hearing the dialogue being spoken, but occasionally there would be abrupt silences or background interference. Also with the dialogue, at times the lines sounded a bit too wordy, I couldn't quite put my finger on it but it did feel sometimes the script could have been tightened up a bit. This led to scenes that seemed to go on a bit too long. One early example was a painfully long introduction of a drifter (Frank Haraksin) arriving in town. Sometimes the scenes felt overlong for no real reason. This includes the slightly too long intro credit sequence, and the bunch of epilogues placed on top of each other at the film's conclusion. Looking past all that and there are more positive aspects that had me quite enjoying the movie.
The acting wasn't terrible, I came to like many of the eccentric characters, even if they never particularly stood out from each other. Highlight was the weird exterminator; Nate (Jim Perry), but in general, with not a gigantic cast, each character played their roles to an acceptable standard, whether it was purely existing to be a victim of the snake, or being one of the more slasher-based joint protagonists, such as Brett (Yotty) or diner worker Stephanie (Katrina F Kelly).

It was refreshing to see the snake here was actually a normal snake. Not tiny but not particularly large, this snake impressed by stealing a few moves from slasher classics. It has the Jason Vorhees type skill of being able to teleport around off-screen. One moment it will be inside someone's trailer home attacking them, the next moment, outside in a field somewhere, and then wherever it is deemed it needs to be next. It also does a great job of sneaking up on people, despite its loud rattling noise, characters just are not aware of it until its far too late. There were a large amount of kill scenes, but they all played out mostly the same. The snake will be shown on screen lunging towards the camera, and then you get an exaggerated death scene as the victim will dramatically fall to the ground dead. The reliance on practical effects worked so much better than the alternative. Recently I saw Coyotes; a creature feature about a pack of coyotes, whose main complaint I had were the animals being obviously fake. Here, despite snakes rarely ever appearing on screen with the characters, it felt more real and believable. Characters are killed in a variety of locations, with the snake able to near enough instantly kill with a single bite, meaning there isn't a need for much special effects, but the scenes sell themselves well.

Snake Resort entertained me due to how closely it followed the conventions of the slasher genre, the pint sized villain made for something more unique, eschewing the trope of having it be gigantic, or having dozens of the things. Even at around an hour and a half this did feel slow in places, especially with long over lingering shots of scenery, and word heavy dialogue. I did like the vibe with this very indie horror though, and for that it gets praise.

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A Mother's Embrace (2024) - Horror Film Review 26 Sep 8:31 AM (23 days ago)

A Mother's Embrace - directed and co-written by Cristian Ponce (History of the Occult), has a classic set-up for a horror film, that of a strange mansion full of sinister people that someone finds themselves trapped in one dark and rainy night. From the trippy start I was hooked by the vibe of this. I have been guilty in the past of preferring style over substance, and that is likely the case here, yet, throw in some Lovecraftian cosmic horror to the mix and this became something I couldn't look away from.

Ana (the prolific Marjorie Estiano) is a firefighter based in Rio de Janeiro who has recently been allowed back to active duty after suffering a severe panic attack during a call. While out on a minor job, Ana and her team; who include fellow firefighter Roque (Reynaldo Machado), rookie driver Mourão (Rafael Canedo), and the captain - Dias (Val Perré), receive a call asking them to assist at a nursing home which has apparently partially collapsed. Arriving at the location they find the building intact, but protocol means they must still inspect the premises. This is much to the annoyance of the owner, with it clear the fire crew are disturbing an important night for her and her group. The crew quickly become aware of the terrible state of both the building and the elderly people who live there, with the building in such dangerous condition, and with a bad storm on the way, Ana convinces Dias to arrange an evacuation under the slight pretence that the building could collapse in the storm. Splitting up to check over the large retirement home, all four encounter very odd things going on, from cultists to snake/eel type creatures squirming around. Something vey weird is going on in the home this stormy evening.

I was gripped from the start of this. The prologue sequence has Ana as a child in the 1970's visiting a carnival with her mother before heading home and the mum trying to kill them both. I loved this opening and how it handled the event that occurred here. This feeds enough into the main film itself (that is set in 1996), that I often pondered whether Ana was actually alive, or living in some hellish afterlife. Even before the horror begins, Ana is hallucinating her deceased mother everywhere she goes, still looking exactly the same as she did back in the 1970's. This makes her as protagonist a bit unreliable. Seeing things from her perspective, it took me the longest time to work out if anything bad was actually occurring in the home or if she had just gone a bit loopy.
The location was fantastic, dank dreary sets that are full of neglect and abandonment, the rain outside, and the constant noise it makes is a welcome bit of icing on the cake. Despite being set primarily at night, the film is well lit in all the best ways, making use of the darkness to make potential horrors that more twisted, and use of light that you are never left watching and frustrated about not being able to see what is going on.

I appreciated the flow of the story here, it is a series of natural feeling instances that ramp up the horror inch by inch. It felt like a breath of fresh air that the antagonists appeared on the whole just as surprised to find Ana and her people there as they were to find themselves in the surreal situation. I also liked the increasingly less subtle Lovecraftian aspect to the story, it leads to some fun monstrous moments, such as people seemingly being controlled via large tentacle type creatures infesting their bodies. The mystery remains the core of this, Ana frequently finds herself away from what feels like would normally be the core story, she is much more focussed on rescuing a little girl who appears very unhappy to be there than really caring about what increasingly looks like the headquarters of some Old God worshipping cult. Some of the tentacle creatures shots look a little CG heavy, but the practical special effects look great here, and when there is a need to be, things can get quite bloody.

A Mother's Embrace was a film I loved, the setting was pitch perfect, and I am never going to be annoyed about the introduction of anything Lovecraftian in a horror film. It may be more about the style than anything else, the story remains relatively basic, though that is perhaps due to how little is ever explained to the viewer, or indeed, to the protagonist we follow for much of the 90 minute movie. With great atmosphere and interesting characters, I found myself having a great time watching this. A Mother's Embrace came exclusively to the streaming platform Screambox on September 16th.

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Dead Space: Martyr (2010) by B.K Evenson - Horror Novel Review 25 Sep 8:44 AM (24 days ago)

Earlier this year I discovered a geeky yet fantastic lore-cast (The Lady of Lore). Each episode, the host goes through a video game series, giving her perspective on what the story for it was. One of these was a delightful four hour lore-cast about the Dead Space series of games. It was only after listening to it that I realised that part of the explanation was based on Dead Space novels; something I had no idea existed. Normally I am not that keen on spin-off novels from video games as they are usually terrible in my experience. B.K Evenson's Dead Space: Martyr however was a fantastic read, giving fascinating lore that simply was never found in any of the games.

The novel takes place three hundred years prior to the events of the Dead Space video games and chronicles the first experience humans have with the alien marker discovered on Earth. For those not in the know, markers are large statue type creations of likely alien origin that basically emit a signal that can cause people to transform into nightmarish monsters. From the video games I knew of the 'Unitology' religion - a religion that worships markers as God type creations. I also knew that the founder of this religion was named Michael Altman. The novel is interesting at showing how this man came to be this religious leader, for when the novel starts he is just a research scientist. A strange signal had been recorded off the coast of Mexico, and it is discovered that it is emanating from some sort of object deep below the sea. Altman's research into this strange signal gets the attention of the very shady corporation known as DredgerCorp; run by the intimidating Markoff. Not really given much choice, Altman is offered the chance to work at DredgerCorp's floating lab facility that has been placed above where the mysterious object is located. Crew are sent down in a submersible vessel to get a closer look at the object, they discover a strange alien looking object covered in strange glowing runes. There becomes a problem in that most of the people who travel down to look at the device end up going violently insane at some point during the journey. Altman however for some reason seems mostly immune to the negative effects of the marker and so becomes the chief pilot for the vessel. Markoff wants to bring it to the surface, convinced the marker could contain the key to unlimited energy, while slowly, members of his team and the scientists he's hired start to become convinced the marker is a God-like creation, and that Altman's immunity to its terrible effects must mean he has been chosen as the spokesperson for it.

I came to this book unfortunately knowing full well the story that would be told. I hadn't known that the lore-cast had been basically giving a synopsis of the whole book, so I can't tell how well some of the surprises would be on a fresh read. It is clear from the off that Altman isn't the religious figure he was later made out to be in the games. He is fascinated with the marker, and his curiosity is perhaps one of his weak points which causes many problems for him. He isn't religiously fascinated with the marker, for him it is an irresistible object of scientific curiosity. As the book goes on, and more and more people start to see him as some sort of herald, Altman wants none of this, especially when his girlfriend - Ada, also starts to believe the device to be Godly in nature.
The story then covers the initial discovery of the marker, and how Altman was turned against his will to be a figurehead for a new religion he had zero personal belief in.
Being a prequel, I was prepared for no necromorphs (what the monsters people transform into are known as), or if that if they did appear there would be only a handful. Without going into the reasons why, there is a necromorph outbreak that makes for quite the thrilling, brutal, and gory third act, things became more action based than I had anticipated.

The novel is well written, and split into a lot of chapters and sections throughout the 488 pages. It was paced well with a slow ramp up of peril, both from the marker itself and the shady organisation Altman finds himself ingrained with. I thought he was an interesting character in that he has flaws for sure, he seemed like a fly getting closer and closer to the centre of a spider web, and even without knowing, I think I would have been able to guess that this might not really end on that positive a note. It was actually a particularly bleak finish! This adds to the game's universe rather than takes away from it. Not only was it great learning about the origins of 'Unitology', I also never realised until reading this that the term 'dead space' refers to the zone around the marker itself which the monsters are unable to penetrate. You also are given a lot of information about the hallucinations the marker causes, with their origins as whether it was designed as a protection against the marker, or an effect of the marker looked into but left purposely vague.

I really loved Dead Space: Martyr, and as the first step in my quest to chronologically experience all the series has to offer over a multitude of media formats, this was a great starting point. Evenson also wrote a second novel titled Dead Space: Catalyst that is also a prequel to the games, so that shall be my next port of call.

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Coyotes (2025) - Comedy Horror Film Review 24 Sep 8:17 AM (25 days ago)

Coyotes is a comedy horror film coming from director Colin Minihan (It Stains the Sands Red) and starring a very familiar face (Justin Long - Weapons, Drag Me to Hell, Jeepers Creepers). The mix between the two distinct genres is equally balanced, while the titular antagonist threat both benefit and suffer from effects designed to make them more fearsome than their real world counterparts.

Zombies of the Third Reich (2025) - Horror Film Review 22 Sep 5:27 AM (27 days ago)

As you might be able to tell from my blog name; zombies are what originally drew me to horror films in the first place. Ever since I watched Michael Jackson's Thriller music video as a child I was hooked on these soulless unstoppable monsters. Some things go together very well - fish and chips, salt and pepper, and indeed; Nazis and zombies. The David Gregory (Return of Krampus) directed Zombies of the Third Reich brings those last two together in a lovely blend, I am very happy to see indie zombie films such as this are still being made in present day, I never get bored of these!

Set during World War II, soldiers at a Nazi occupied bunker in France are conducting disturbing experiments with the hope of creating super soldiers. With Hitler showing specific interest in these tests, he has ordered for the testing to be brought forward, despite the calculations for the effects of this process not being properly completed. The process involves setting off a small bomb within range of some prisoners, the explosion infused with the technology to alter the DNA of anyone caught in the blast radius, changing them into a more deadly and primal human. It might have been wise to finish those calculations, as the test bomb results in the whole bunker going dark and losing contact with the outside world. The allied forces notice this, and with them having a spy situated there, and with rumours of a possible visit from Adolf Hitler himself, a crack squad of British and American soldiers, led by Charles Craftman (Zach Devereux - A Woman Scorned, and on an off-note, his IMDB page states he comes from Northampton - my home town), are tasked with infiltrating the bunker and retrieving the spy should he still live, as well as investigating what the Nazis were testing there. They discover the bomb test went quite wrong, and that now, every inhabitant of the cursed bunker are one of the living dead!

Zombies of the Third Reich did exactly what I assumed it would do. It told an exciting and unsurprising story with a cast of almost stereotypical soldiers of the time, with them battling plenty of zombies. You don't need Shakespeare here, and indeed you don't get it. The script is occasionally so corny that it nearly falls into parody. The briefing scene where Craftman receives his orders featured a character who I don't think would have felt out of place in the World War I Blackadder sitcom season, wild eyed, perfect posh accent, and crazed orders combined for a delightful, if slightly off-brand scene. This is about as comedic as the film gets, as despite being low budget, this takes itself relatively seriously. Much is made of not a lot, from the cast of protagonists who number just six, to the undead who never really appear in huge numbers, but still feel effective due to the tight and claustrophobic bunker location used, they all play their roles perfectly. Each of the characters had strong personalities that set them apart from each other, from the grizzled British soldier Matthew West (Rod Glenn - It Be an Evil Moon), to Taja Christian's mild mannered medic Charlotte Hayman, these characters may have had some generic dialogue and been almost caricatures, but they fitted the low budget zombie film very well, I would not want anything more.

It is obvious throughout about the limitations of the budget, but it never felt like the film was trying to be too ambitious. Action sequences are tightly shot, and the tight look of the bunker location leads to many opportunities to hide budget constraints, by having scenes play out in the narrow corridors and darkened rooms. I enjoyed the presentation here also, particular the faux intro and outro black and white sequences designed to look like old news and propaganda footage from the time period. The look of the zombies was neat, many of them having a kind of 'melted face' type image. There were a fair amount as well, though some appeared to be the same actors playing different ghouls. There is a mix of fast and slow undead, never really explained why, but some appear to be stronger and display more intelligence than others. Leads to some fun battle scenes with plenty of CG gunfire and blood spurts. You get the obligatory zombie feeding on the intestines of a victim scene, and some more surprising death scenes, such as someone who has their still beating heart pulled out of their chest! The only bad looking special effects come from several different explosions that are entirely CG based, but with a lower budget anyway these parts didn't stick out too much.

A barebones story is all that is needed to make an entertaining zombie movie, as long as the undead do their part also. Zombies of the Third Reich may be as generic as its title, but it was exactly what I look for in a zombie movie, it did exactly what I thought it would and was all the better for it. It is genuinely neat to know that films such as this are still getting made. 

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Gorgo (1961) - Horror Film Review 19 Sep 8:36 AM (last month)

I have never really been that fond of Kaiju type monster movies, they never seem to be as exciting as the premise suggests it would be. Still, learning that a newly restored in 4K version of cult 1961 British monster movie; Gorgo (directed by Eugéne Lourié - The Beast from 20,000 Fathoms) was coming to the ARROW streaming subscription service, I jumped at the chance to see it, if only to see a giant monster destroying a city I was more familiar with.

The Rotting Zombie's News Anthology for Thursday 18th September 2025 18 Sep 8:11 AM (last month)

Another week, another news post. I don't really have too much post in my news sack, so I will see if I have enough to scrape together a trilogy of news based terror.

Arrow Video US have announced some of their releases for October. October 7th sees the global 4K UHD debut of supernatural superhero movie Spawn, based on the comic book from Todd McFarlane. This includes both the Director's Cut and Theatrical Cut of the film from the original camera negatives. It will also be released on Blu-ray.
Asian horror anthologies Three and Three... Extremes release on limited edition Blu-ray featuring a brand new 2K restoration on October 21st. Together they provide six horror tales from high profile directors from Japan, Hong Kong, South Korea, and Thailand.
Meanwhile, on October 28th, John Carpenter's ode to the works of H.P Lovecraft; In the Mouth of Madness makes its global 4K UHD debut.

It's Coming (2023) - Horror Documentary Review 17 Sep 11:00 AM (last month)

It's Coming is a paranormal documentary directed by Shannon Alexander (Be Still), which had its debut at Hot Docs (Nightvision). It has been a fair while since I saw a doc based around ghosts or potential demonic activity, and this one was from a slightly different perspective, as I am more familiar with these shown from the perspectives of demonologists, such as with Devil Down South and Malefice - A True Story of a Demonic Haunting.

This takes place in and around the apartment block home of Ashley Rowland and her family. She claims to have been seeing unexplainable supernatural entities since she was 11. Later in life, after moving back to her family's long located Brooklyn apartment, she begins to experience constant supernatural activity around her, something that her children also see as well. In 2022, a film crew record her and her children experiences at their apartment, as Ashley attempts to find a solution to what she believes to be experiencing. a spirit medium (Soledad Haren) visits, and later a demonologist couple (Chris and Harmony DeFlorio) attempt to help clear her apartment of any entities that might reside there.

I'm used to these types of documentaries being approached from an investigative angle, usually by experts visiting the reportedly haunted location. This was different in that the bulk of the film is just the documentary crew in the Rowland home hanging out. It was indie in style with basic presentation. That's not to say the film quality was bad, there was some decent editing here, and everything is presented as real with no cutaways to talking heads, or cheesy recreations of events. The presentation works at making this feel like a real life found footage movie. I am annoyingly sceptical when it comes to things like this, but that isn't to say that the family here are making anything up, it is clear from how they appear on camera that they legitimately believe something strange is happening, having long gotten used to it. The low presentation works at integrating the viewer into the household, you come to get a feel for the family dynamics,  Ashley and her children come across as a legitimate unit, the children acting exactly how you would expect children to be, natural rather than performing for the camera. 
I did at times wish there had been some type of narration for the viewer, whether by text on screen or someone speaking. This was especially the case with the cold opening where it just starts without any real introduction as to who these people are and what has been going on. The same applies to the ending, I again thought some type of end text saying how the family have been getting on since the documentary had been made would have been useful. Thinking about that though, the cold opening and ending feed into the feel that this is real life found footage. 

This follows a progressive path and is made up mostly of interviews with Ashley and her children. There are also strange events that have been caught on camera edited in, showing the footage where unexplained things really did get caught on camera. There is genuine concern from Ashley in wanting to protect her kids from everything going on. She comes across as someone supremely fed up with all the paranormal events and ready to go to any lengths to end it. You do hear strange noises, see strange shadows, and indeed, hear strange accounts of seeing shady figures in black over the course of the documentary, as well as one seriously creepy children's drawing. 

It's Coming was an intimate feeling documentary that made you feel like a visitor to the family's home. They came across as sincere, while the questions asked by the documentary crew were good at getting them to provide interesting information. Lacking a little in presentation, this documentary nonetheless remained a mostly fascinating watch. 

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

When the great comedy thriller TV show Inside No.9 ended last year, I heard that the creators; Steve Pemberton and Reece Shearsmith (Psychoville, The League of Gentlemen) were going to put out an Inside No.9 stage show as a final goodbye (titled Inside No.9: Stage/Fright). I fully expected this would stay within London and that I would never get to see it, but was delighted when I found out they were taking the show on tour. One of the locations was Milton Keynes, a city that is a half hour drive from my home.
For the past twenty five years or so I have loved their work. I remember being in English class while studying for my A-Levels and hearing classmates quoting the characters from The League of Gentlemen, making me want to check it out. I wasn't disappointed with that show, and Inside No.9 is basically that but with the creators more grown up, but with comedy no less dark and deranged 

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 (last month)

Space Goblins is a half hour long animated indie short that was created entirely by just two people; Amer Shihab and Harry Bryan. There is something about simplified animation that somehow puts me on edge, I find it strangely disconcerting. In the case of this short film that is not a problem, it just adds to the alien vibe.

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 (last month)

Trespassers (original title Inkräktare), is a Swedish short horror film written and directed by Johannes Persson (Feed). My best friend actually recommended this one to me, even if she wasn't too pleased that I scheduled it in for a watch rather than check it out straight away!

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 (last month)

Summer has nearly been and gone now, I am looking forward to cooler weather, though it is still slightly sad to see the end of each season. Onwards to the news.

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.