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The Rotting Zombie's News Anthology for Saturday 17th January 2026 17 Jan 8:36 AM (yesterday, 8:36 am)

January 20th sees the release of horror film House Sitter, announced by Cleopatra Entertainment and coming from Reaper Films. Directed by Christopher Leto (Death Blow, Creeper in the Woods), the press release states this is a throwback to horror films of the 90's, and that it is a home invasion thriller with a twist. The synopsis sees three friends house sitting for a rich and mysterious man. It is while doing that that the friends find themselves being hunted by a masked killer, and clues found around the house point to something more sinister being in play. House Sitter stars Cristina Méndez (Sorry For Your Loss, Frost Park), Evan Eiglarsh (48, Frost Park) and David Varrieur (Do Not Open, Diary of a Serial Killer).

Bluetooth Speaker (2025) - Horror Film Review 16 Jan 7:31 AM (2 days ago)

After their beloved grandpa dies; Brim (Ryan) and younger brother Sean (Vania) head over to his former home on the instructions of their sister, Brenda (Chloe Gay Brewer - Live One). Brenda was left the remote property in their grandpa's will, and intends to sell it, so has asked her brothers to give the messy house a deep clean. They plan to stay at the place for five days, thinking that will be more than enough time to get the job done. With Brim having brought seemingly an endless supply of cheap beer, and the house bringing back many fond memories of their grandpa, the two brothers decide that they are going to leave the cleaning for the final day, and just hang-out together in the meantime. At some point, a small Bluetooth speaker is found outside the house, and with eccentric neighbour - Old Man Morris (Steve Bilecz - Live One) being the only one they had seen in the area, they assume it is his, and bring it inside the house, to give back to him next time they see the man. The speaker has some sort of ominous power to it however, and slowly but surely, Brim begins to fall under its nefarious effects.

Much like previous films I have seen from the director, Bluetooth Speaker is experimental, weird, and arthouse in style on occasions. It is also a film that feels very long, with a 2 hours, 10 minute runtime, the story doesn't really get moving until the second hour, and it is noticeable with a first hour where not much happens at all. It is inferred the speaker is evil via close-up shots of it with sinister sound effects playing. To be fair, I thought this was neat, it would have been funny if it had all been misdirection and the whole thing was a massive red herring. After the halfway point, things do eventually get moving, and take an unexpectedly dark turn considering the more light hearted and often comedic feel of the first half of the film. While there was some tonal dissonance with the shift in vibe, I thought the second part was much more engaging, rather than characters sat around endlessly talking, there was an increasing feel of something really not being right. It leads to some decent moments of horror, and some effective scenes of madness, helped along by some make-up effects that sold their intention well. Some other effects didn't work quite so well, such as a woman superimposed on a desert landscape, and a dream sequence where Brim floats off the ground. This likely goes in with the experimental style, which also stretches to the lighting decisions. Often when characters are speaking to each other, one will be bathed in warm light, while the other will be in cold lighting, making it seem like the shots were filmed at different times from each other. There are also plenty of hallucinatory and dream sequences, adding to the surreal vibe.

The acting, like previous films is very weird, but also felt like a signature style, and one that is obviously very purposeful. Characters often speak in a roundabout way, saying the same thing over and over in a slightly different way each time, rambling with intent. I liked the flow of these scenes, the characters of Brim, Sean, and Brenda felt authentically like close siblings, their rapport worked well, even if they had some odd qualities to them, such as Brenda's no-filter way of speaking, and Brim's obsession with sleeping with women. There is the occasional montage sequence, something that Bluetooth Speaker always does excellently, my favourite being a montage of Brim and Sean play fighting with machetes they found. Another funny one was a montage of Brim sleeping with people, the camera always close up on his grunting 'sex face'. All the characters have very expressive looks to them, with Ryan being the best of these. From his wild over the top expressions, I sometimes got the feel of a living cartoon watching this, was always fun to see. No one acts in a realistic way, adding to the charm of the film world, the editing done in such a way that scenes linger longer than they should, with characters silent staring at the camera as if the camera had forgot to cut, but again, playfully done rather than due to filmmaking mistakes. There were quite a few side characters who only appeared for a few lines or so, Old Man Morris stood out the most, I loved how his character just suddenly appears in the home each time, with the protagonists always being surprised by this.

I couldn't help but feel that Bluetooth Speaker would have really benefitted by being cut down to a more lean runtime, the first half especially has so little happening that my attention really did begin to wander. There were vast chunks of the movie that while entertaining enough on their own, didn't seem to add anything and just got in the way of the flow for me. As much as I enjoyed the characters and the bizarre way their lines are said during the meandering conversations they have, I did think the much more tightly paced and horror infused second half was when it really started to come together. Despite my criticisms, there is a really unique feel with Bluetooth Speaker, something that can be admired even if some elements didn't resonate for me.

SCORE:

Party Hard 2 (2018) - Horror Video Game Impressions: 'Rotted Meat No.4' 14 Jan 5:06 AM (4 days ago)

The Synopsis:

After going on a party based murder rampage, the serial killer the police labelled 'The Party Killer' vanished. Some months or years later, the killer reappears, again heading to various parties to kill the revellers there. There are cutscenes before and after each level, but due to only being able to make it to the third level, I never got much of an idea of the direction the story was going to go in this time around.

How the Game Felt:

Like its predecessor, Party Hard 2 is an isometric pixel art based game that has you as a killer trying to secretly murder people at various parties, using stealth based gameplay. Rather than be single screen like last time around, this time, levels seemed a lot larger. Also unlike last time, rather than having to kill everyone to finish the level, you instead have the option of a laundry list of specified goals you need to achieve, such as killing drug dealers and motorcycle club members. You are armed with a knife, and there are also many environmental items you can use, such as dropping a piano on a victim, or pushing people into barrels of fire.

Reason for Abandoning the Game:

The first game was tough, but it was manageable, with the lure of seeing what location would be used for each new level keeping me hooked. With Party Hard 2, the game is just too hard, not helped by the much larger locations that make it hard to keep track of where all the different variables are. I managed to get to the third level; a party out at a desert motel, but it was so sprawling that each attempt would take anywhere up to around twenty minutes of carefully taking people out. It got to the point I had had so many unsuccessful attempts that I just gave up, it felt like a waste of my time. I would have liked to see later levels, but the frustration and amount of time it was taking to get further killed that desire. This does build on the first game, but felt to me the increase in size equalled less fun.

Frankenstein (2025) - Horror Film Review 13 Jan 7:42 AM (5 days ago)

The Rotting Zombie's News Anthology for Thursday 8th January 2026 8 Jan 7:28 AM (10 days ago)

I rarely ever mention these, but I happen to have a recent email about the topic, so I will speak of the JustWatch streaming charts for films and TV shows in the UK. These were up to date on 5th January. First with the JustWatch Top 10 Films streaming chart, and I can see there are only two relevant films to mention. Luckily, those two films are at No.1 and No.2 respectively. At No.2 is the almighty 28 Years Later, it makes sense why it is so high with the sequel; 28 Years Later: The Bone Temple just about to hit cinemas. At No.1 is Sinners, a film that I know next to nothing about, other than I believe it's an American film about vampires? Either way, it is good to see horror so high in the film charts at the moment.
Over in the JustWatch Top 10 TV Shows streaming chart, there is more horror but it is also more spread out. No.8 sees IT: Welcome to Derry - the TV show based on Stephen King's IT world. If that ever pops up anywhere I have access to, I will check it out, heard it's good for the lore. Fallout is in fourth position, likely due to it having returned for a second season. I did enjoy season 1, but my Amazon Prime Video subscription has expired, so it will be a time before I get to see season 2. Talking of post-apocalypse, Pluribus is in third place for last week. Got to admit, the only thing I know about it is that it stars Rhea Seehorn (Better Call Saul), and people online have said it is quite slow. Finally, No.1 sees Stranger Things, and personally, I think that position is well deserved. I've seen all the new season up to the final episode (waiting for a friend to catch up before watching that together), so far, I think it has been 10/10.

ARROW's January SVOD line-up has been announced, I will have a quick look through the press release and pull out anything that sounds appealing. Joe Lynch Selects has the director (Wrong Turn 2: Dead End, which stars Henry Rollins. I own this one on DVD, but annoyingly the disc is scratched meaning I can't see the final five minutes or so!) selecting some films for the service. These include Deep Red, Mute Witness, Ms. 45, The Woman, and Bad Biology. 5th January saw giallo - Blood and Black Lace, those type of films are ok, not entirely convinced they are my thing. If it is your thing then rejoice, for Puzzle also arrives on 9th January. Skipping ahead in the press release...more giallo titles, then...Split Second - a serial killer film taking place in a flooded dystopian future. Those were the ones that leapt out, though outside of horror - if you love Jean-Claude Van Damme, plenty of his awesome action films are getting added.

Finally for today, my cover story - Primate. This Johannes Roberts directed primate based horror is coming to cinemas on 30th January, to celebrate, a new featurette titled 'Silence Featurette' has been released.

Whispers (2025) - Horror Film Review 7 Jan 9:26 AM (11 days ago)

Bonnivar Park has been the site of vast numbers of disappearances over the years, with locals coming  to believe the park is cursed, and the authorities at loss as to how to explain the huge amount of missing people in the area. After his girlfriend, Sophie vanishes while at the park, Nick (Nikola Penchev) becomes determined to find out what happened to her. Following a tip, Nick thinks he may have discovered the place where Sophie vanished to; an abandoned building deep in the centre of the vast natural area. He enlists the help of Alex (Petkov), whose sister - Maggie (Simona Rose The Whisper 2: Natural Connection), had also disappeared, while looking for Sophie no less, as well as the strong and silent Caine (Vélin Borata), who also lost someone to the park. Together they head out to the abandoned building where it is believed they will find the answers they seek.

The synopsis may not sound like the most exciting story out there, but that is just the beginnings of Whispers unexpected journey. The film follows a similar format to what Weapons did - showing the same story shown from the perspective of various characters, each named chapter showing events from the named character's perspective. It begins with 'Nick' that was the weakest of the chapters here, mainly because I never really got a sense of just what sort of person Nick actually was. That was only notable because most of the other central characters all got fleshed out to the point where they became to feel more real than the character of Nick ever achieved. Each chapter over-lapped with other chapters, so for instance, in 'Nick' you have Alex seeing the man at the park, while later on during the 'Alex' chapter, you then get to see the aftermath of that scene. That idea was used repeatedly, I loved seeing the same scene but with additional information revealed before and after. It gave Whispers a feeling of a puzzle that was slowly getting solved for the viewer. Each of the chapters ends in the same place; with the three men, heavily armed, arriving at the abandoned building.

Despite not having seen the two short films this is a sequel to, it was obvious what they would have been about. Having a look online, The Whisper was about Sophie going missing, while The Whisper 2: Natural Connection was about Maggie's own vanishing. This was all stuff that had been revealed throughout the course of this one, so I didn't feel I had missed too much to not enjoy the story.
I liked how the film created the feel of the Alex and Maggie sibling bond; dreamlike flashback sequences where the character in the present is moved back into the past, with it then revealed to have been a thought someone was having 
Some cool ideas here I liked, such as the strange red symbols painted on walls and trees that appear able to mind control anyone who looks at them, characters hallucinating, teleportation, as well as some murder and mayhem. The low budget means there wasn't a lot visually to look at. For instance, the scenes at the abandoned building lost a little bit of their impact due to not really being able to show enough to make the horror scenes there work perfectly, but the strength of the neat ideas carried things through without any immersion breaking. Where the story went was fine, but I enjoyed the misdirection and rug pulls in the lead-up more, such as the crazy mid-film sequence that had me questioning everything that had came before. The park and abandoned building locations were both neat, the building full of potential atmosphere, even if the big story reveal never really fits the building type.

Seeing the low budget at movie's start, I was apprehensive this may be a slog to get through. Whispers succeeds despite some obvious budget constraints, which shows the impressive filmmaking skills here. The core acting was great, the acting for many of the other characters not so much. At its core this was a serious story, but one that happened within a reality where everything is patently absurd
My low expectations for the film were swiftly surpassed - thanks to the clever use of chapters, fleshed out protagonists (mostly), and a sense of atmosphere.

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Alan Wake Remastered (2021) - Horror Video Game Impressions: 'Rotted Meat No.3' 6 Jan 9:29 AM (12 days ago)

The Synopsis: 

Alan Wake arrives in the lazy mountain town of Bright Falls with his wife, on vacation to try and help the famous writer get over his writer's block. They are not there long when Wake's wife gets captured by a dark presence from Cauldron Lake. A week later, Alan wakes up in a crashed car with no memory of what has happened to him during that time period. He finds Bright Falls is infested with supernaturally infected humans, and that the area is littered with pages from a manuscript that he doesn't remember writing, which eerily predicts the future with uncanny accuracy.

How the Game Felt:

This remaster is the only proper way to play the game. Having tried it like this I could never go back. Alan Wake was made before the advent of HD televisions, so going back to the original it is very dark and murky. The remaster makes everything look so much smoother and brighter, making the world come alive with details that before I wasn't able to see. It also appears to have had lore added that links the game to Control, a neat touch. The game is a combat heavy survival horror game split into chapters. It plays as well as it always did, and while I stuck with this I was having a genuine blast.

Reason for Abandoning the Game:

As much fun as this was to play, it is still the same Alan Wake that I have played countless times before. It felt like a waste of my game playing time to give this yet another playthrough, even if it did look better than it ever had before. In an age where I struggle to even play remakes, let alone remasters, I just didn't feel a strong urge to continue through the familiar story and levels.

CAPA Ghostbusters: Director's Cut (2026) - Short Comedy Horror Film Review 5 Jan 5:38 AM (13 days ago)

The R.I.P Man (2025) - Horror Film Review 31 Dec 2025 7:30 AM (18 days ago)

The titular R.I.P Man (Owen Llewelyn - Good Neighbours, Dredd) is a demented serial killer who takes the trophy of a tooth from each of his victims. This is perhaps due to the man having no teeth of his own due to a rare oral condition. The police, led by DCI Gary Mullen (Matt Weyland - Eastenders soap opera), are determined to catch the killer, but are not getting very far, even though the killer appears to only be targeting a small group of college friends. After Jaden's (Bruno Cryan - Popeye's Revenge) girlfriend is murdered in the film's prologue sequence, the grieving young man starts an investigation of his own to track down the killer and end his reign of madness.

Rather than keep the antagonist a hidden menace, he is shown fully almost straight away. For a killer such as this, this is a good thing, as he has a really memorable look. He did remind me a lot of Nosferatu; pasty white skin, bald, wide eyed, and suited out with punkish looking black clothes. This villain always looked great on camera, the creepy way he grins at his victims, with his 'R.I.P' embossed mouth guard he wears made for some fun on screen moments. Each of the kills over the course of the 90 minute movie were fun to watch, and varied as well, with no one victim dying the same way as any other. There wasn't a lot of blood shown, but it always looked decent enough. Special effects throughout were never bad, love the practical over CG. The night scenes did all seem a little blue tinted, but that's a minor quibble. The killer's repeated use of wind-up chattering tooth toys was also a neat touch, these items bookending the kill scenes, often used to lure his victims to the particular places were they would meet their end. There was also a decent dive into who the killer was, and the reasons he might have for wanting to kill, though the repeated refrain from Mullen as he explains the killer has a 'rare oral condition' to everyone he meets did get slightly farcical.

On the topic of the police, that is just one of the areas where the story goes a little loose in terms of believability. Aside from one late film moment where the police tell one of the potential victims that they will look into getting them police protection, there seems little to no protection for the characters. The police seem more obsessed with learning where the wind-up toys originated from, than looking for a motive. Not that that bothers the protagonists, despite their friends being killed off in horrific ways one by one, they never seem to express any type of shock or sadness at this. The R.I.P Man weirdly never shows the characters initial reactions to finding out their friends have died, they are only ever shown in scenes where they are shown carrying on their lives as normal, without seemingly a care in the world. The focus was more on the police investigation, which was entertaining to watch, but it did make the college student's role in the film take more of a back seat.
There were some excellently chosen atmospheric locations here, from a dark church, to isolated cellars, and a ruin, these places all looked exactly where you might expect to be murdered by a crazed slasher. My issue with these places where that characters end up in them for no real logical reason. One early example, not to reveal the victim, but they are basically wandering down a series of narrow alleyways at night for some reason, and then randomly decide to enter a building, head into its maze-like basement, before conveniently stopping in the exact location where the slasher has set a convoluted trap that is then sprung on them. Characters have little to no reason to constantly be appearing in these sinister locations, it became a recurring theme, and felt like they were only ever where they were because the script called for it, not for any logical in-film world reason.

At the moment, I am all about escapism from the real world, and The R.I.P Man delivered with that. Despite my problems with some of the way this story was told, the antagonist was very memorable, and the story told was decent, making for an entertaining indie slasher that sometimes effects a pretty neat dream-like feel, whether intentional or not. The R.I.P Man comes to streaming platforms on 5th January in the U.K and is available for pre-order.

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The Rotting Zombie's Round-up of Horror News for December 2025 30 Dec 2025 2:48 AM (20 days ago)

They're Here is the latest film from Rick Danford. This short supernatural horror began production in December, the story follows a young woman who returns home after a disastrous séance to discover that something evil may have followed her back. The short features just the one actress - Natalie Brienen, and a single location. This will also feature voice work from Sarah Webb (Damsel of the Doomed) and D'Andre Noiré (The Clock). Once finished, They're Here is going to be heading to the international film festival circuit, with it hoped the short will either feature in an anthology film, or as a proof of concept for a feature length movie.

Arise (2009) - Short Zombie Horror Film Review 29 Dec 2025 9:23 AM (20 days ago)

Thanatos (James Curran) is a factory worker with a bad attitude, acting like the world owes him a favour. One day, he returns from a food run for his colleagues to find the factory in shambles. A zombie outbreak has occurred, and many of his co-workers are either now the walking dead, or victims of the ghouls. With his girlfriend - Janet (Julie Collins) and her daughter likely somewhere trapped in the building, Thanatos sets out to kill all that stands between him and them.

From the name alone you can tell what sort of a douche the main character is. Mean, surly, dressed in black, and speaking in the most edge-lord way possible, he really is a product of his time. I seem to recall people of that type were often anti-hero protagonist characters during that time period. Even back then, I was never a fan of that type of person. His relationship with his boss, with his girlfriend, and with his girlfriend's child is all gruff and angry, making for a lead who it was very hard to like, or to care about their survival chances. To be fair, this is something that characters within the film world also think is a bit of a weirdo, especially with his apparent obsession with preparing for a Romero style zombie apocalypse.

Over the 18 minute runtime we get to see lovely Thanatos dispatch a bunch of zombies in a variety of ways. He seemed to be unable to stick to a weapon, picking a different type of factory tool for each of the ghouls he stumbles across, from a nail gun, to a drill, to his own throwing axe he was seen completing at film's start. That was the second half though, the first half was a little overlong, long dialogue heavy scenes that dragged a bit due to the sound quality making it a bit hard to make out what was being said. The second half was both blessed and cursed by poor lighting. Fight scenes were a little hard to make out, with the factory setting almost pitch black, but I admit sometimes the contrast between light and darkness was neat looking, such as a swinging light bulb in one scene. Zombie make-up was effective, and there was a decent amount of blood. The blood style was a bit random, sometimes dark red, sometimes watery, it looked fine on screen but was nothing special.

Arise was a functional low budget short zombie film. It at least works as feeling like a time capsule from that part of the century. It's lead character is such a try-hard that it was hard to care about him, and I did think that the action part of this could have done with some better lighting.

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Adopted (2024) - Thriller Film Review 28 Dec 2025 1:59 AM (22 days ago)

Carrie (Drew Sidora - Farm House, White Chicks) and her husband James (Daniel J. Johnson - The Stepmother trilogy) have decided to adopt a child, due to being unable to have children of their own. They think they have struck gold when they are matched with 10 year old Dylan (Jayden Aguirre) - the boy is intelligent, polite, and the couple are told he is a good person. What they don't know is that Dylan is a young sociopath, one who murdered his previous foster family, and who has no issues with getting rid of anyone who will interfere with him having the perfect family life.

Typically in these type of films, it will be a revelation that the suspicion that the innocent appearing child is actually a psycho. With Adopted, the prologue reveals this straight away to the viewer, showing Dylan telling the police how his foster family were murdered by an intruder while flashback sequences of Dylan being the one doing the killings is shown. His smooth way of talking reminded me a bit of Kevin McCallister from Home Alone, having the creepy child actor way of appearing much more grown up than a child their age should be. He acted so grown up that I was almost expecting an Orphan type reveal. He never once came across as sincere, though the by-product of this acting style meant that he fitted into his role very well. Most of the lines he says are the character being equally insincere, though within the film world people rarely pick up on that. No one within the film particularly stood out with their acting, and part of that is down to the often stupid story.
It was an issue that Dylan is so able to frame his murders as crimes or accidents, I'm sure the police would be able to tell from the location of wounds on victims how tall the perpetrator would be, so it seemed a bit silly he was constantly able to get away with his crimes without much suspicion. It was also never explained why the foster agency didn't have any record of Dylan's previous family all being murdered. The agency seemed a bit suspect, with the couple adopting the boy before they had even met him, and apparently not realising that he had huge scars on his legs from an abusive incident when Dylan was younger. The couple come across as really dense, aside from not knowing anything about the child they have decided to adopt, they also make the ridiculous decision to adopt a second child mere weeks after taking on the troubled boy. Sure he is a pint-sized maniac, but I kind of was on his side with his warranted anger and jealousy towards his new sister who he wasn't consulted on about, and how Carrie and James appear to adore more than him, almost forgetting their first adopted child existed!

Not too much really happened until the bonkers third act. There are a couple of suspicious incidents that the young boy causes, but the family are none the wiser. That third act is when things really ramp up, including an almost hilarious fight between a grown adult and a child. He might be armed with a lethal weapon, but a young boy wandering about with an angry scowl on his face was pretty funny, as was the ambiguous ending. All characters here make unbelievable decisions, the patchy script just came across as stupid, a film populated with idiot people who in the fake film world sense, deserved what they got for being so blind! Have to love easily accessible guns in the dystopian and increasingly fascist U.S of A!

Sometimes the sheer silliness of Adopted's story won through, but so much of it was so unbelievable that I found it increasingly difficult to get on with the unfolding story. This wasn't a great film, it was let down by a basic story and some suspect acting. I will give kudos to the flashback sequences, I enjoyed those, and I also found the third act thrilling, if also outlandish. Never my favourite sub-genre of thriller/horror films to begin with, but Adopted was one of the weaker entries of that type I have seen. It will be available on DVD and Digital in Q2 2026, and a sequel was made this year, reuniting some of the original cast.

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Assassin's Creed Shadows: Attack on Titan Collab 'Beyond the Walls' (2025) - Video Game Mission Review 27 Dec 2025 5:27 AM (22 days ago)

The Rotting Zombie's News Anthology for Tuesday 23rd December 2025 23 Dec 2025 9:17 AM (26 days ago)

First up; VIPCO & BayView Entertainment have released horror film Spirits in the Dark, with it now available to watch on Plex and Tubi. The film is about a reclusive man named Gil, who after the death of his wife and new-born daughter, has decided to focus full time on his only hobby - visiting abandoned buildings and filming his experiences in order to upload them to the internet. One day, Gil discovers strange footage on his PC that he is convinced he didn't make, which leads to what sounds like a potential night of terror.

System Shock (2023) - Sci-fi Horror Video Game Review (Playstation 5) 19 Dec 2025 8:32 AM (last month)

In 2072, in a dystopian cyberpunk future, a nameless hacker is caught while trying to steal the designs for a military-grade neural implant from the all powerful TriOptimum Corporation. They are taken to Citadel Station, owned by the corporation, and it is there that an executive offers the hacker a deal. The executive is Edward Diago, and he states that he wants the station's A.I; SHODAN to have its ethical constraints removed and control of it handed to Diago, likely for shady means. This is something that the hacker is able to easily do, and in exchange they are promised they will be given the neural implants they had originally tried to steal the plans for. Sometime later, the hacker awakens in the medical bay of the space station, having been fitted with the implants. It soon becomes clear something terrible has happened, the removal of SHODAN's constraints has made it fully self-aware, and also unfortunately, completely mad. The A.I has decided it is a God, and that humanity must worship it. It has reprogrammed all the robots aboard the station to be lethally hostile, and the crew have suffered fates worse than death in many cases. Those not killed immediately have either been transformed against their will into brainwashed cyborgs, or experimented on with mutagens that has mutated them into mindless monsters. Contacted by Rebecca Lansing (a counter-terrorism consultant), she promises the hacker that in exchange for their assistance in stopping SHODAN, they will be exonerated for their crimes.

The immersive sim label is a relatively new one, think games that take place within logically built worlds where most of the objects can be interacted with in some way. System Shock is a first person adventure game that sees the player working their way through the vast maze-like levels of the space station while thwarting SHODAN's many sinister plans for human domination. Despite being a remake, the game is presented faithfully to the original, the textures are old-school in look, though with a modern engine that gives the game world a wonderful look. It is also balls to the wall hard. At the onset of the game you are presented with four different difficulty sliders. I opted to have objectives, puzzles, and cyberspace on an easier mode, while I made the fateful and unchangeable decision to leave the combat on normal.
The game plays much like Bioshock, though an earlier version that isn't as smooth to play.
Each level of the space station is a huge meandering maze that is very easy to get lost in. To me, it felt like if Bioshock had been created with the sensibilities of original Doom in mind. The eight or so floors are all giant and took a long time to work through. Having expected an 8 or 9 hour experience, I was rocking around 20 hours by the time the end credits appeared. Each floor followed a familiar format for me, I would search out the medical bay (which would grant you resurrection should you die), and the charger for the energy weapons. While you have access to guns, ammo is never in too plentiful a supply, equalled with a limited sized inventory and you would need to be clever with item management, with not enough space to be able to carry all the different weapons you would find. Something that was impressive to me was the state of the game world. Enemies once killed stay dead and don't respawn. When new enemies do appear, they come into the world in a logical way, arriving on lifts from beneath the floor. Even cooler, if you do die and resurrect, any damage you have done to enemies remains, so piece by piece you can slowly take out the ever increasing amounts of robots, cyborgs, and mutants without feeling you are not making any progress. There is also a useful quick save function. For boss fights and later areas of the game the resurrection doesn't work. Thankfully, boss fights can be quite easy with the right assortment of power-ups and weapons. Even with objectives set to easy, it wasn't always clear exactly what you should be doing, so I had a lot of moments where I felt almost aimless in my travels, though this added to the feeling of exploration rather than frustrated.

I loved playing through this, but I would be lying if I didn't find it as frustrating as Hell at times. Even with virtually infinite lives and a static game world, I found the amount of enemies, and the lack of too much ammo and health to be a pain. I sometimes felt that it would have been more enjoyable if I had just stuck the combat onto easy also. The space station is vast and a little bland at times, but it is designed in a logical way that I so love with immersive sims. It is littered with audio diaries and the occasional written message, with the former fully voiced. SHODAN is a constant presence, her corrupted and distorted threats and over confidence made her be a memorable antagonist, I can see why people have placed her so high on those lists.
Splitting up the adventuring, there are also slight puzzles to solve, I'm glad I put these on easy as I could see them getting boring if much more complicated, even more different are the cyberspace sections. Typically used to open locked doorways, cyberspace places you in hallucinogenic flying stages where you blast computer programs that appear as shooter type flying enemies. I have heard complaints about these parts, but I found them a nice break from the endless adventuring in the game proper.

I am very glad I finally got to play System Shock and see some of the origins of the immersive sim. The game does feel dated even with its modern benefits applied to it, and it can be frustrating more often than not, but the feel of being trapped onboard a hostile space station was well realised, and the story, while basic, had a great and memorable antagonist. System Shock 2 is meant to be even better, and with that having had a modern remaster, it will be the next game I play.

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The Twilight Zone: Season 2 (1960-61) - Horror TV Show Review 18 Dec 2025 11:53 AM (last month)

Each episode features host Serling typically appearing on set, but distant from the characters of the particular episode. His preamble telling the viewers that the protagonist has unknowingly just entered 'the twilight zone', to quote children's cartoon Johnny Bravo; 'a place where ordinary things don't happen very often'. The episodes are roughly twenty minutes in length and mainly are serious, sometimes humorous, sometimes creepy, and near always telling some sort of morality story. I thought season 1 had a few too many comedy episodes, which had been a problem as they were never funny. There are a few more light hearted ones to be found here, but none that straight up irritated. 'The Whole Truth' is probably the weakest episode to be found here, but even this one wasn't bad so much as a bit forgettable. It features a dodgy used-car salesman who finds himself unable to lie. 'Mr Dingle, the Strong', another one that tries to be funny, also didn't really resonate, this one about a weedy man who is imbued with miraculous strength by a passing Martian.

Season 2 can be clumsily divided into horror, time travel, and sci-fi, and there is a good mix of these. The best of the horror comes early with episode 5 - 'The Howling Man'. In this one, a man lost in a storm stumbles across a remote monastery where the monks there warn him that in a cell they have imprisoned a man who they claim is the literal devil. Both 'Twenty Two' and 'Shadow Play' take place within nightmares the protagonists are facing, and the sinister 'Nick of Time' (that stars the legendary William Shatner as a man who comes to believe a diner's fortune telling machine is actually able to predict the future) was another strong stand out.
There were more time travel episodes for season 2, some were interesting but less novel ('Back There' where a man finds himself back in time on the night of Abraham Lincoln's assassination and tries to prevent it). A time travelling jet airliner ('The Odyssey of Flight 33') did something different, reminding me a bit of The Langoliers, and iconic episode 'A Hundred Years Over the Rim' has a pioneer on the search for essential aid, stumbling into modern day America.
Finishing the suite with sci-fi, you have the haunting 'The Invaders' that sees an isolated woman living in a remote homestead encountering tiny alien invaders, and the fantastic penultimate episode 'Will the Real Martian Please Stand Up?' that sees two state troopers arriving at a remote diner, convinced that one of the people within is actually an alien in disguise.

Being classics have their downside occasionally. There were a couple of episodes whose twists I knew simply through osmosis. I would have loved to go into 'Eye of the Beholder' with no knowledge, but knowing what was going to happen, despite having never seen it before, meant it was an exercise in patience for what felt like an obvious twist. There are classic morality tales that also were obvious, but these are classics, such as 'The Man in the Bottle' that is essentially a Monkey's Paw tale where wishes granted by a genie lead to unexpected outcomes. One of the best isolated in feel episodes was season closer 'The Obsolete Man' - this took place in a dystopian 1984 type future where anyone deemed not useful to the oppressive state are forced to voluntarily be executed. This had a wonderful antagonist played with gleeful malice by Fritz Weaver, and sadly tells a story that feels all too relevant in relation to the severe deep dive into fascism and cruelty that America has been plunging all too willingly into in the real world. It was also fitting for me as my day job have decided to make me redundant as a nice Christmas present, I too am 'the obsolete man'.

With timeless stories that are still relevant today, season 2 of The Twilight Zone was very interesting to watch. This isn't a show that should be binge watched, I liked to digest the stories, limiting myself to just one episode a day. Wonderful and classic TV whose style has rarely been bettered.

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Super Happy Fun Clown (2025) - Horror Film Review 17 Dec 2025 9:15 AM (last month)

Jennifer (Seward, credited solely as 'Super Happy Fun Clown') has had a hard and disappointing life. Raised by a cold and abusive mother, married to an abusive dead beat husband, and stuck in a dead end office job, the only relief she gets is when she goes 'clowning'. Obsessed with clowns from a young age, she has created the persona 'Jenn-O the Clown', in her spare time going to the local park where she entertains the children there. As she has gotten older, she has also developed an unhealthy fascination with serial killers and classic movie monsters. These three disparate things come together one year, when Jennifer finally snaps and decides to plan something really memorable for Halloween that will give her the fame she has been searching for her whole life.

The film begins with an exciting flashforward prologue, in which Jennifer dressed up like a clown, is holding a detective at gunpoint, while his partner demands she let him go. The film then leaps back twenty years, with the majority of the movie then showing how events got to that desperate stage. The part set in the early 2000s is only the first act, and doesn't take up too much of the 87 minute runtime, but it is key in showing both the protagonists early fixation on clows, but also how demanding and impossible to please her mother is. The time skip to the movie's present day works well in filling in the blanks of what has happened to Jennifer in the years following that. Being a mute clown, you could be forgiven for thinking this is just a film that is trying to ride on the coattails of Terrifier's wild success, but this clown is treated suitably different, mainly in that Jennifer has a life outside of dressing up. Her type is based on mute clowns, something that she sticks to resolutely when in her get-up. So far so Art, but the difference is that she is a normal, and even dull person when not in the make-up. It seemed Ying and Yang, with Jennifer miserable and meek, but the bright and colourful persona she has created seems to breathe life into her whenever she changes. 
The film doesn't entirely focus on this damaged person, with the detectives from the prologue getting their own much smaller side story, basically of being bored working in a small town, and not expecting much excitement to happen. I initially thought Nicole Hall (VY) and Matt Leisy (The Friend) were too young in age to be playing the role of detectives, but then realised that it is me that is old now rather than them being too young! I enjoyed their rapport with each other, and it became a cool combination in the third act when Jennifer is fully on her murder-spree, and the detectives are shown constantly one step behind as they try and locate her.

There was a bit of an odd feel with adult Jennifer's early scenes. Her clowning is shown via montages that have stripped back guitar music to them, and the repeated scenes of her heading back home and attempting to entertain her miserable husband while still in character had a slight arthouse feel to it. Her kills when they begin are wild and varied in the way that slasher killers' kills often are. Strangulation, gunshot, vehicular homicide are just a few of the methods she uses. The killer isn't a threatening character, Jennifer isn't hulking or sinister, but this becomes one of her advantages, as she is able to get close to her victims without them suspecting anything is wrong. The kill scenes are never over the top, but they use special effects to great...effect, such as showing a hole going all the way through someone's head after they are shot, and another victim flailing around while on fire.

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The Rotting Zombie's News Anthology for Tuesday 16th December 2025 16 Dec 2025 11:30 AM (last month)

Bight is the directorial debut of Maiara Walsh, with this erotic thriller arriving on VOD and digital in time for Valentine's Day - releasing February 10th. Lily Allen is the latest person in the news who is serving as a reminder that open relationships often do not work out, and that sounds to be the case with this film. In this, husband and wife; Atticus and Charlie, visit the home of close friends, Sebastian and Naomi. The press release states that 'Throughout the evening, their turbulent lives will push them to succumb to dark temptations and provocative explorations of an open relationship, all leading toward a devastating fallout'. Bight stars Walsh alongside Cameron Cowperthwaite (Fallout TV show), Mark Hapka (23 Blast) and Maya Stojan (Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D TV show)

Onlyfangs (2025) - Comedy Horror Film Review 15 Dec 2025 7:56 AM (last month)

Wes (Drew Marvick - Bridge of the Doomed, It Stains the Sands Red) is a video editor who in his spare time attempts to hunt monsters with his geeky friends, to no success. One evening, he happens to actually capture footage of a real vampire, though the footage is so bad that no one believes his claims. The vampire is part of a group of all female killers led by Scarlett (Nina Lanee Kent - Murdercise), who for decades have hunted and killed humans for their blood, mainly males. Not wanting their identity to get out, the group attack Wes and his friends, intending to kill all of them. With Wes however, they find someone who isn't afraid of them. Instead, he is overjoyed; his life long obsession with monsters being a real thing having finally been confirmed. With the vampires living in squalid conditions, Wes offers them a suggestion - rather than kill people for their blood, he suggests that with his help, they create an online platform where paying customers can request for the women to suck their blood. This would both make them rich, as well as stopping the needless killing of victims. This actually works, and soon Onlyfangs is a worldwide success, with the client's not suspecting the blood suckers are the real thing. However, it seems that Scarlett may have an ulterior motive for creating so many new vampires, and with their fame, enemies, such as conspiracy nut Ridley (Anthony lave To'omata - Murdercise) have emerged, determined to prove to the world the monsters they actually are.

It took me around thirty minutes before this film clicked for me. Before this, I found it cheesy and really not that entertaining, I was wondering how I was going to endure the two hour runtime. It really picked up when the titular idea came into play. That isn't to say it didn't occasionally feel bloated. There was a good chunk where the quality dipped when Onlyfangs is introduced, with a series of disparate scenes of vampires around the world sucking their clients blood. It didn't really gel with the idea that by exposing themselves, the vampires would attract the attention of the sinister master vampires. After this, it became more focussed, leading to some great moments underneath all the titillation.

Much like its real world similar namesake, this features plenty of scantily clad, and occasionally topless  women. The film has a whole bunch of montages, with many of these being sexy videos of the vampires dancing erotically. I get this was for the vibe of the online platform, but it was undeniably also there to entertain, and featured a bit too much for my liking. There was a feeling of female empowerment, with the female characters all being strong willed and capable of defending themselves, but they also came across at times a bit like sex objects rather than characters in their own right. This didn't apply to the lead vampires, all of which had interesting personalities. I wouldn't go as far to say they were likeable, as they were definitely anti-heroes, at times killing innocent people. That goes for Wes too, mainly he was a decent character, but he had a bit of a pathetic streak to him where he would act like a child in front of his mother. Maybe my favourite character was the gangly super-geek Quentin (Shane Meyers). Initially he seemed to be in the film purely for his wild facial expressions, but his relationship with one of the main vampires was fun.

The humour was not as in your face as I expected, and was mild at best. It did work though, and led to some quietly humorous moments, such as the fourth wall breaking part where Wes announces the first of the many montage sequences. These montages had some stylish parts to them. The film is stylish when it wants to be, with a late film montage of the vampires going on a killing spree wonderfully shot and edited. There is plenty of blood to be found, of varying quality, but it all looked good to my eyes. The fangs of the vampires looked universally good as well, so that didn't detract in the slightest. Some later special effects seemed a bit lacking, but they just about worked. The music was also excellent. The film's score itself has some lovely eighties sounding synth work, while the actual songs chosen were also good, fitting the 'alternative' look and feel of the film well.

The story did its job, but it did feel a little dated with what it was referencing. Everything felt a bit early 2020's, with references to mask wearing, Covid jabs, and the crazy beliefs of MAGA type characters. That would have worked at the time, but with the dark downward trajectory that America appears to be in, in the real world, this all came across as a bit bittersweet to see. From an outsiders perspective, that once great country appears to be dying, so this felt like a relic from the recent past, rather than covering topics that are more relevant in the current time.
Onlyfangs was very well made, and had an enjoyable cast of almost loveable misfits. A bit too much of a focus on scantily clad females for my liking, but the horror moments worked, and the slightly meandering plot did have some strong moments, that made for a genuinely thrilling conclusion. Nearly great, this blood soaked fang filled adventure was a good bit of escapism that had plenty of effective moments, and a good amount of quality filmmaking.

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Hintersommer (2025) by Vlimmer - Music Album Review 11 Dec 2025 8:29 AM (last month)

It begins with 'Abb. 1' that after an excellent musical intro launches into the opening track with a pounding beat and a pulsing tune. I felt this was a great way to start the album, and something that continues with the hummable 'Gleichbau' and 'Sommergesicht'; both sounding high energy and grand tunes to listen to. 
After this point the album takes a downward descent in terms of energy, taking on a more isolated and frequently downbeat feel with some shoe-gaze sensibilities at times. There is 'Diskoloration' with its slight folk-horror type elements to the sound, the classic Vlimmer eighties sounding 'Firmament' and the slower sounding 'Interieur'. The speeding drum beat of 'Hirnklammer' is one last foray into a faster paced sound before 'Augenboden' and 'Ganzteil' bring things to a more reflective and introspective, though suitably dramatic finish.

It is always good to hear new Vlimmer, and Hintersommer didn't disappoint, continuing with the sound I've come to know while maintaining good music with many of the tracks getting better and better with each fresh spin.

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Unboxing (2025) - Horror Film Review 10 Dec 2025 10:34 AM (last month)

Holland stars as Thomas Faker; an amateur streamer who has dreams of being able to make a living from the streams he produces. The man has gotten into doing unboxing videos - receiving packages in the post and opening them live on camera. To add extra spice, Thomas has been using the dark web to buy mystery boxes, hoping the thrill of what could potentially be inside will lead to his streams exploding in popularity. His latest purchase turns out to be a foul smelling and blood soaked teddy bear, but before Thomas can even really begin to process this, he begins to receive a series of increasingly twisted packages left outside his apartment at regular intervals. Each of the packages pulling the increasingly alarmed man into darker and darker horrors.

After taking a week off of my blog (almost), Unboxing was the first feature length horror I watched upon my return, and what a miserable and soul burning return this was! Randomly, it was also the second box based film I watched for review this week, following on from my review of short film BOX. Sometimes it does feel we are all living in a simulation!
There was no rush for events to ramp up quickly with this film, the tension can almost be tasted with how insidiously Thomas is pulled into the worst night of his life. From a realistic feeling start of him talking to his stream viewers about video games, this devolves into his increasingly unravelling persona with items received both downright creepy and far too personal for comfort, almost taking place in real time. One of the early reveals is an SD card that features multiple photos of him with his young brother, at that point I would be 'noping' out and contacting the authorities, but torn between the horror of what he is facing and an ever increasing subscriber count to his channel, he chooses to remain on stream, until that choice is taken entirely out of his hands by an apparent hack of his PC that prevents him ending the stream. The story became increasingly unsettling and suspenseful; the lack of any type of soundtrack or musical score added to this uncomfortable feeling, with even the ever present glare of his ring-light creating the feel of a judgemental and cold gaze, while the 'dinging' of the stream messages somehow became more and more threatening in sound.

The props are perfect, and perfectly deranged. From a box that is packaged with a combination of cotton wool balls and razor blades, to ones packed with the unsettling combination of rice and hair, things soon are quite dark here. Plenty of blood and plenty of grime combine to give an authentic look to the horrors uncovered (unboxed). Everything looked gross and mean in the best way. I thought the split between the view from Thomas' computer screen to more traditional film work was perfect for this, and Holland being the sole on-screen character for vast lengths of the 70 minute film did a fantastic and believable job. Enough is given to fluffing out his character (such as phone calls with his parents, and the believable way he reacts); this all combined to make him feel like someone with a history to him.
There were elements of the supernatural here that had some great editing to them, especially with one of the stream commenters whose ghostly distorted visage kept appearing in the room with the protagonist. That part while very neat, was a bit confusing for me. I could never really tell if that was meant to be literally happening within the story of the film, or if it was a stylistic choice to add more weight to the events of the movie for the viewer's benefit. Around the third act, a more rational and grounded horror is added with the arrival of the Police who have some urgent questions they need Thomas to answer for them, leading to some very tense and bad feeling scenes as viewer and protagonist alike begin to piece together what is happening. I would say of that third part, the film pulled together some of the momentum it had began to lose in the middle, but I can't say I fully understood the intricacies of the overall story, leaving me with some questions by the time the end credits rolled around.

Unboxing was a horrid little Black Mirror-esque indie film, and I say that in the best way possible. I felt uncomfortable watching this, and that in itself speaks of the success of the filmmaking here. This became like a car crash, something that was nasty to look at, but hard to look away from. Good looking special effects and make-up effects, a sustained feel of ever increasing peril, and a captivating lead combined to make for something that is well worth a watch. Unboxing is available to watch on Amazon Prime.

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The Rotting Zombie's News Anthology for Tuesday 9th December 2025 9 Dec 2025 7:38 AM (last month)

There are some new releases from Arrow Video US for January of next year. 13th January sees the limited edition 4K UHD release of Evil Dead Rise. I gave this film an 8/10 in my review back in 2023 where I stated '...I thought this was a solid and nasty horror film, one that doesn't shy away from allowing absolutely any character to become a victim'. The film is set in an apartment block where an earthquake leads to the discovery of a certain cursed book with the power to summon demons. The limited edition features a host of extras including a double-sided fold-out poster and a collector's booklet.

BOX (2025) - Short Comedy Action Film Review 8 Dec 2025 12:32 AM (last month)

I had a week off of my blog last week, partly due to having no urgent screeners to watch for review, and partly just because I felt like it. Anyway, I am back now, and the first review for this week is for Stephen Ready's short comedy martial-arts film - BOX. The email I received regarding this was just to announce it's existence, but I felt a review was warranted due to how darn good it was.

A man (Eric Jacobus - stunt coordinator on video game God of War: Ragnarok) is working one day when he has a cardboard box thrown at his head. Breaking the fourth wall, the man states that he bets the viewer thought the box was going to hit him, before out of nowhere he comes under vicious attack by a man wearing a black morph suit (Jason Chen-Leung - SOCAP_404), who taunts him by telling the startled man he will never know what is in the paper bag he is holding. This begins an intense martial-arts battle between the two (choreographed by Jacobus).

The fight sequence here makes up the meat of this nearly 7 minute movie so it is a good thing that it is excellent. Equal parts intense and surreal, there are plenty of laugh out loud moments. The mystery assailant uses all manner of weapons to fight the man, including a sheet of paper that acts as a razor sharp blade, and most amusingly; in one part he uses a small child as a weapon! The combat between the two leads was fantastic, plenty of exciting shots, including classic up-close shots of fists and feet connecting with flesh. The meta nature of this gave plenty of surreal moments, such as the on-screen editor of the short getting a pencil in his neck at one point; his flailing around causing him to keep hitting his laptop screen, instigating real-time edits. For all the violence, this was never designed to shock, a bloodless affair, and one where quick edits mean the fighters rarely actually connect with each other. Not a problem in the slightest as it didn't detract even remotely.

Story-wise, this was far more poignant than it would first appear. Somehow, a tribute to a real life stunt man who died is inserted without it feeling out of place, as the narrator (Josh Petersdorf - voice work on video games Overwatch 2, Street Fighter V) talks about the joys of being a stunt man, and how fun and rewarding it is. The mix of this being a fight happening, melded with it also being a film that is being made on-screen was wonderful. Of all things, I somehow got a vibe of video game The Stanley Parable from this.

I was dubious when starting BOX if it would be a good fit for a review on this site, due to not being a horror. The weird and cool surreal vibe really won me over, as did the fantastic fight sequences, and the silly humour. I thought this was a great short, and you can check it out for yourself as it is currently on YouTube.

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Poppy Playtime: Chapter 2 'Fly in a Web' (2022-24) - Horror Video Game Review 3 Dec 2025 11:32 AM (last month)

The first chapter concluded with you defeating the monstrous Huggy Wuggy and making it to the area that had been highlighted in the VHS tape you had originally received in the mail. Instead of discovering your missing former colleagues of the Playtime Co. toy factory, you instead discover the titular Poppy Playtime; a small self-aware doll. Having freed her from the case she was trapped in, she promises to help you escape the factory, as it is something she also wants to do. With the way back out blocked, Poppy suggests you head deeper down into the underground complex to the toy test area where there is a train that you can use to leave the facility. Arriving there however, you encounter a new horror - Mommy Long Legs. This creation uses her impossibly long appendages to capture Poppy, and then reveals to you that in order to use the train, you must play three children's games with Mommy, with her giving you part of the train start-up code for each game you successfully complete.

I had hoped this chapter would be longer than the first, and thankfully it was. With the first one done in under an hour, this one took me roughly two hours to beat. By the time you get to the train station, the chapter goals are clear - playing each of the three games. These include a memory game called 'Musical Memory', 'Wack-a-Wuggy' that is similar to the classic 'wack-a-mole' game found at arcades, and a tense spin on musical statues, simply titled 'Statues'. These were all fun to do, and had a Portal type feeling of getting to head behind the scenes from the initial play rooms.
Gameplay is once again mainly made up of simple, yet enjoyable puzzles involving the grab handle accessory you are armed with. Previously, both hands were able to conduct electricity, this time around you get an upgrade - a green grab handle that is able to briefly store electricity. This creates opportunity for different types of puzzles, such as one section where you have to open a series of gates in order to push a minecart along some tracks.

Horror is again quite meek, though I would argue Mommy is just as creepy as the mute Huggy Wuggy. This antagonist is constantly talking to you, and seems to be angry that she had been trapped below ground on her own for so long. Her look is kind of like Stretch Armstrong crossed with Mr. Tickle, her arms, legs, and neck all able to stretch to ridiculous lengths. I thought maybe the long maze-like chase sequence the first chapter culminated with would again appear. More sensibly it is a lot more stripped back. There are a variety of short chase sequences, but more stream-lined, like the developers were well aware they couldn't get away with the exact same thing again. This was about as scary as chapter 1 (I.E: not very) but that did not get in the way of my enjoyment. 
I realised this time around that it is worth hunting down the secret VHS tapes. These tapes provide lore and backstory and were worth finding. Often they would include live-action footage of actors playing employees of the factory.

I had figured that a second round of Poppy Playtime might have shown a lack of variation. The toy testing area felt suitably different to the factory of chapter 1. Poppy Playtime: Chapter 2 'Fly in a Web' remains a most happy surprise, and of course has left me very interested in continuing the journey into this hellish facility.

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Doom: The Dark Ages (2025) - Horror Video Game Review (X-Box Series X) 28 Nov 2025 2:09 PM (last month)

The soft-reboot of Doom, had the Doom Slayer being freed from the magical coffin he had been imprisoned within in Hell. This prequel doesn't exactly show how he came to be trapped, but it does take place within a war between the forces of Hell on one side, and the people of Argent D'Nur and the angelic-like beings - the Maykrs on the other. By the time the game begins, Doom Slayer has been turned into a weapon of war. Controlled by the Maykrs', Doom Slayer is beamed down from their space station to whichever battle he is needed to assist in. While he isn't happy about being controlled in such a way, all know that Doom Slayer likes nothing more than to fight the legions of Hell. The leader of these legions is Prince Ahzrak, whose war is fought with the key objective of getting a magical McGuffin known as the Heart of Argent that the Argent D'Nur people have.

Early word on this new game was pretty good. People raved about the medieval weapons. For me, I always had some slight misgivings, namely that I found the levels set in Argent D'Nur to be the very worst that Doom Eternal had to offer. I find the blend of medieval and sci-fi not to be my cup of tea, so was concerned a whole game taking place around this reality would not resonate. Sadly, I was right to be concerned, the 22 levels within The Dark Ages are split between Argent D'Nur and Hell. This was a problem for me who just wanted more levels set on Earth or Mars. The levels are huge to accommodate the larger amount of enemies in stages, several of them are even larger, taking the form of small open worlds where you are tasked with objectives that can be tackled in any order. I found the majority of the levels to be universally bland - large open arenas that were light on world-building details. The medieval sci-fi levels being made up of castles, the Hell levels coming across like 80's metal album covers brought to life.
The level design wasn't even the worst part, the emphasis on story here could have been good...if the story was at all engaging. To feature a humanoid looking antagonist as the leader of Hell was a bit lame. I thought Prince Ahzrak was an awful character, stereotypical bad-guy with a real empty story that does absolutely nothing interesting over its twenty or so hour runtime. I couldn't care less about the lengthy cutscenes, I didn't like the characters, or the plot, nor did it give me a desire to fight.

That is the bad stuff out the way, but what The Dark Ages does is to intermingle the bad so closely with the good that it makes the whole experience a bit 'meh'. Good things then; the soundtrack is as perfect as you would assume. If you liked all the heavy rock of the previous two games then you will be right at home here. The gameplay is even better, it is sublime, with Doom Slayer feeling like you are controlling a tank in human form. With the focus more on up close combat, your hero is armed with an amazing shield. You can zoom towards enemies to shield bash them from quite a distance, you can throw your shield like a Frisbee, and incidental details like the boom and rumble when Doom Slayer lands from a great height never got old. You have an assortment of weapons, but truth be told, now you can use any weapon for any enemy type, I pretty much just stuck to the plasma rifle for the whole game. Fighting hordes of demons was so much fun, their increased numbers balanced by a lot of the normal grunts being incredibly weak, able to be killed in a single shot.
To split up the action there are two different game types also included. In one, you ride on the back of a sci-fi dragon in stages that reminded me a bit of Sega's Panzer Dragoon. These were adequate, if a little simple and forgettable. The same can be said for the levels that see you pilot a giant mech-suit. These again are perfectly fine but nothing more, taking the form of a small scrolling beat em-up battle against equally huge demons.

As much as I genuinely loved the visceral meaty combat, the whole aesthetic of the game world and the boring story always brought things down. It is a shame that the two elements are so intertwined as it left me not really having any desire to ever return. I miss the days when it was just Earth vs Hell, not alternate dimensions and sci-fi aliens. Doom: The Dark Ages is currently playable on Game Pass.

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