Horror Fuel
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Honest horror reviews of films, series, games and books — no hype, no spoilers, just whether it is worth your time and your nerves.

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Horror Fuel

Blu-ray Review: Jess Franco’s Shining Sex (1977)

Shining Sex begins the only way it could; with a whistling Lina Romay dabbin’ at a photo of a dude with his schlong out with an eye shadow brush. Well, turns out Romay… or rather her character Cynthia is an exotic dancer that performs some sort of grease and gold plastered interpretive dance; the eponymous Shining Sex… a heady combo of pubic area razor burn, baffling close-ups, and shag carpeting that is guaranteed to have the audience scratching their heads as well as their crotches. After that showstopper, Cynthia is whisked away to the plush roof-top penthouse of Alpha (Evelyne Scott), where she immediately begins having sex with the lady of the manor… oh, and in a story ripped from today’s headlines; Alpha is an alien from another dimension with telepathic abilities, as one does. So what is Alpha up to? Mostly sitting around with her naked Lou Reed lookin’ man-servant, Andros (Raymond Hardy)… oh, and weaponizing our heroine’s vagina

Continue reading →
Aug 21, 2020
Horror Fuel

Movie Review: Train To Busan: Peninsula

I just watched Peninsula, the sequel to the worldwide 2016 hit zombie movie Train to Busan. I’m going to be honest, I loved Train to Busan, so I had high hopes for Train to Busan Presents: Peninsula. What did I think? Read on to find out. Heads up, there will be some spoilers. The film picks up four years after the zombie apocalypse. We meet a completely new group of survivors, including a soldier whose family was wiped out, except for his brother in law. The two get a gig from a rich guy to go back to the peninsula along with a small group of survivors on a mission to retrieve a truckload of money. Of course, nothing goes as planned. The main message of the movie is to remind the audience to be better people as well as the importance of family. There’s also the topic of redemption. First off, the young teenage character drives like she’s watched

Continue reading →
Aug 21, 2020
Horror Fuel

Blu-ray Review: The Beast Must Die (1974)

Let me tell you cats n’ creeps, when a movie begins and my eerie earholes are presented with what sounds like porno score raunchiness mixed with the incidental music from the Batman show from the ’60s I know I’m going to get plenty of werewolf action… or maybe just bushels of pubes, either way it’s going to be a hair-raisin’ good time! A millionaire with waaaaay the fuck too much time on his hands gets a wild hair (too soon?) up his ass to invite a group of folks to his estate (which is rigged for recording, even on the sprawling grounds of the property) inform them that one of the gang is a werewolf, and when discovered, that person must be executed. The fact (almost) everyone doesn’t immediately leave and actually believes this preposterous nonsense like a stone cold fact is reason number one that I love The Beast Must Die… Another reason to love this one is the

Continue reading →
Aug 20, 2020
Horror Fuel

The Weird World of Wild Eye Releasing: Part 3

As you have seen in the first two parts of this series (located here and here) Wild Eye Releasing have scads of horror biz-centric material available; enough to satisfy countless graveyards full of slavering horror hounds. Don’t believe me? Check out this beastly bevy of terror titles! First title up is The Witch Behind the Door: Based on the legend of the “Witches of Benevento”, The Witch Behind the Door (or Janara as it was originally known) concerns the misadventures of Marta and Alessandro (played by Laura Sinceri and Alessandro D’Ambrosi respectively) who arrive in the village of San Lupo to collect an inheritance left to Marta. I mean some free dough is always cool, but the village gives the outsiders the cold shoulder right quick, but that’s understandable given all of the missing children and such… children who’s disappearance could be the work of a pedo or a coven of witches… I mean there couldn’t be any other answer

Continue reading →
Aug 20, 2020
Horror Fuel

Movie Review: ‘Compound Fracture’ Starring Tyler Mane And Derek Mears

As a hardcore horror fan, I was thrilled when I heard about the film Compound Fracture. You see when you put horror heavy hitters Tyler Mane, Derek Mears, and Muse Watson together you know it’s going to be good. Mane, who has been in MANY horror movies, is best known for his roles as Michael Myers in Halloween (2007) and Halloween II (2009). Then you’ve got Mr. Mears, 2009’s Jason Voorhees, and most recently, Swamp Thing in the series of the same name. Then there’s Watson, who appeared in several films of the I Know What You Did Last Summer franchise. Enough said, am I right? Compound Fracture centers on Michael (Mane) who returns home to the family compound twenty years after he walked away from his family. In tow is his fiancee Juliett, played by Renae Geerlings, and his nephew Brandon (Alex Saxon) who he has taken in after his sister Annabelle (Leslie Easterbrook) was murdered by her husband

Continue reading →
Aug 20, 2020
Horror Fuel

Movie Review: Ravage (2020)

Balls deep in the Watchatoomy Valley, nature photog Harper (Annabelle Dexter-Jones) feasts her putrid peepers on a sight she was never supposed to see; namely the beating of a man by the psycho Ravener (Robert Longstreet) and his crazy crew. After documenting the violence on hand, our heroine bolts… and after a murder attempt she reports the ghoulish goings-on to the local authorities. This does nothing to deter her fate of becoming a barnyard captive of those murderous yokel locals more than ready to stride revenge’s road… but Harper has a few ideas as to vengeance of her own! The greatest strength of Ravage is the prowess of it’s heroine. Writer/director Teddy Grennan fashions his muse as a true creature of nature; scrappy, capable, and able to survive in the wilderness… This of course leads to the same Shakespeare by way of the “Me” generation’s “Battle of the Sexes” that seemed to define ’70s grindhouse cinema ; and was evident

Continue reading →
Aug 20, 2020
Horror Fuel

The Weird World of Wild Eye Releasing: Part Two!

The fine fiends at Wild Eye Releasing have plenty of horror biz spills and chills available right now, and they sent me a ton o’ titles to slap revoltin’ reviews upon (part one of this fearsome feature can be found right here)! First title we will examine is Human Zoo! Roll up and check out the latest reality TV diversion; a sinister show where contestants are jammed in a teeny tiny cell and filmed as they inevitably lose their shit. Now the idea is there will be a “winner” to these unsavory shenanigans with a prize of a cool mil’ waiting for whoever keeps their sanity the longest… which will just about cover the therapy bills they’ll acquire trying to cope with the fallout of what they will endure on this show… Human Zoo takes us through the creation of that aforementioned TV program from it’s casting to it’s implementation and puts our quirky and/or snarky characters through the wringer.

Continue reading →
Aug 19, 2020
Horror Fuel

L.C. Barlow’s ‘Pivot’ Is A Must Read! (Book Review)

Jack Harper, the girl raised in a cult, the assassin, the hero, the miracle worker, the drug addict…she is introduced to the world by L.C. Barlow in the novel Pivot. I very specifically say that she was “introduced to the world” and not “she was created” because I was absolutely drawn to this character..as a human. Her emotions were real and desperate. Her growth and changes and development were real and believable. I will get to the specifics of the book next, but to have the depth and power of this book in only 224 pages is remarkable. Characters The characters in this book is where it really shines. Not that it is lacking in other areas, but the characters are a standout for me. Cyrus, the cult leader, is as villainous and evil as any character I have come across. But more than that, he is believable! This chameleon of a man manipulates those around him with such ease

Continue reading →
Aug 19, 2020
Horror Fuel

Movie Review: The Honeymoon Phase (2019)

Tom (Jim Schubin) and Eve (Chloe Carroll) get a wild hair up their asses that they can put one over on the eggheads runnin’ your friendly neighborhood research project and score fifty grand in cold, hard cash. All they need to do is convince everyone they are married, and get locked up good n’ tight in a futuristic smart house cum lab for a month (while wearing fancy futuristic suits as a bonus) while the scientists wrap their noggins around why couples stop being all lovey-dovey. What could go wrong? Fuckin’ plenty, because as Tom really seems to be gettin’ his jollies in his new environs, Eve begins to suspect that Tom is a tad different from the man she thought she knew… as she tries to navigate a slippery-slope that leads into madness! In The Honeymoon Phase; the debut feature from writer/director Phillip G. Carroll Jr., we get a near-perfect slice of sweet, sweet Twilight Zone pie, as our

Continue reading →
Aug 19, 2020
Horror Fuel

Blu-Ray Review: “Z” Scores A 5/5 !

I reviewed Shudder’s Z back in May, so of course, I was excited to get my hands on the Blu-ray a couple of days ago. As I sat down to watch it with a bag of popcorn, I couldn’t help but wonder if the movie would stand up to my original impression and the 5/5 score I gave it. I was wrong to even question it. It turns out, the Blu-ray is even better. The picture is crisp and the sound is great. The story itself is fresh, clever, and absolutely unnerving. A lot of people had an imaginary friend as a kid. Imagine if that friend came back when you were an adult and it is hell-bent on destroying your life by using your innocent child. That’s the premise of Z. The movie follows Elizabeth (Keegan Connor Tracy), a mother whose 8-year-old son has a new playmate, an invisible friend named Z. As her son’s behavior becomes more menacing

Continue reading →
Aug 19, 2020

More from Reviews

Horror Fuel

Blu-ray Review: Jess Franco’s Shining Sex (1977)

Shining Sex begins the only way it could; with a whistling Lina Romay dabbin’ at a photo of a dude with his schlong out with an eye shadow brush. Well, turns out Romay… or rather her character Cynthia is an exotic dancer that performs some sort of grease and gold plastered interpretive dance; the eponymous Shining Sex… a heady combo of pubic area razor burn, baffling close-ups, and shag carpeting that is guaranteed to have the audience scratching their heads as well as their crotches. After that showstopper, Cynthia is whisked away to the plush roof-top penthouse of Alpha (Evelyne Scott), where she immediately begins having sex with the lady of the manor… oh, and in a story ripped from today’s headlines; Alpha is an alien from another dimension with telepathic abilities, as one does. So what is Alpha up to? Mostly sitting around with her naked Lou Reed lookin’ man-servant, Andros (Raymond Hardy)… oh, and weaponizing our heroine’s vagina

Continue reading →
Aug 21, 2020
Horror Fuel

Movie Review: Train To Busan: Peninsula

I just watched Peninsula, the sequel to the worldwide 2016 hit zombie movie Train to Busan. I’m going to be honest, I loved Train to Busan, so I had high hopes for Train to Busan Presents: Peninsula. What did I think? Read on to find out. Heads up, there will be some spoilers. The film picks up four years after the zombie apocalypse. We meet a completely new group of survivors, including a soldier whose family was wiped out, except for his brother in law. The two get a gig from a rich guy to go back to the peninsula along with a small group of survivors on a mission to retrieve a truckload of money. Of course, nothing goes as planned. The main message of the movie is to remind the audience to be better people as well as the importance of family. There’s also the topic of redemption. First off, the young teenage character drives like she’s watched

Continue reading →
Aug 21, 2020
Horror Fuel

Blu-ray Review: The Beast Must Die (1974)

Let me tell you cats n’ creeps, when a movie begins and my eerie earholes are presented with what sounds like porno score raunchiness mixed with the incidental music from the Batman show from the ’60s I know I’m going to get plenty of werewolf action… or maybe just bushels of pubes, either way it’s going to be a hair-raisin’ good time! A millionaire with waaaaay the fuck too much time on his hands gets a wild hair (too soon?) up his ass to invite a group of folks to his estate (which is rigged for recording, even on the sprawling grounds of the property) inform them that one of the gang is a werewolf, and when discovered, that person must be executed. The fact (almost) everyone doesn’t immediately leave and actually believes this preposterous nonsense like a stone cold fact is reason number one that I love The Beast Must Die… Another reason to love this one is the

Continue reading →
Aug 20, 2020
Horror Fuel

The Weird World of Wild Eye Releasing: Part 3

As you have seen in the first two parts of this series (located here and here) Wild Eye Releasing have scads of horror biz-centric material available; enough to satisfy countless graveyards full of slavering horror hounds. Don’t believe me? Check out this beastly bevy of terror titles! First title up is The Witch Behind the Door: Based on the legend of the “Witches of Benevento”, The Witch Behind the Door (or Janara as it was originally known) concerns the misadventures of Marta and Alessandro (played by Laura Sinceri and Alessandro D’Ambrosi respectively) who arrive in the village of San Lupo to collect an inheritance left to Marta. I mean some free dough is always cool, but the village gives the outsiders the cold shoulder right quick, but that’s understandable given all of the missing children and such… children who’s disappearance could be the work of a pedo or a coven of witches… I mean there couldn’t be any other answer

Continue reading →
Aug 20, 2020
Horror Fuel

Movie Review: ‘Compound Fracture’ Starring Tyler Mane And Derek Mears

As a hardcore horror fan, I was thrilled when I heard about the film Compound Fracture. You see when you put horror heavy hitters Tyler Mane, Derek Mears, and Muse Watson together you know it’s going to be good. Mane, who has been in MANY horror movies, is best known for his roles as Michael Myers in Halloween (2007) and Halloween II (2009). Then you’ve got Mr. Mears, 2009’s Jason Voorhees, and most recently, Swamp Thing in the series of the same name. Then there’s Watson, who appeared in several films of the I Know What You Did Last Summer franchise. Enough said, am I right? Compound Fracture centers on Michael (Mane) who returns home to the family compound twenty years after he walked away from his family. In tow is his fiancee Juliett, played by Renae Geerlings, and his nephew Brandon (Alex Saxon) who he has taken in after his sister Annabelle (Leslie Easterbrook) was murdered by her husband

Continue reading →
Aug 20, 2020
Horror Fuel

Movie Review: Ravage (2020)

Balls deep in the Watchatoomy Valley, nature photog Harper (Annabelle Dexter-Jones) feasts her putrid peepers on a sight she was never supposed to see; namely the beating of a man by the psycho Ravener (Robert Longstreet) and his crazy crew. After documenting the violence on hand, our heroine bolts… and after a murder attempt she reports the ghoulish goings-on to the local authorities. This does nothing to deter her fate of becoming a barnyard captive of those murderous yokel locals more than ready to stride revenge’s road… but Harper has a few ideas as to vengeance of her own! The greatest strength of Ravage is the prowess of it’s heroine. Writer/director Teddy Grennan fashions his muse as a true creature of nature; scrappy, capable, and able to survive in the wilderness… This of course leads to the same Shakespeare by way of the “Me” generation’s “Battle of the Sexes” that seemed to define ’70s grindhouse cinema ; and was evident

Continue reading →
Aug 20, 2020
Horror Fuel

The Weird World of Wild Eye Releasing: Part Two!

The fine fiends at Wild Eye Releasing have plenty of horror biz spills and chills available right now, and they sent me a ton o’ titles to slap revoltin’ reviews upon (part one of this fearsome feature can be found right here)! First title we will examine is Human Zoo! Roll up and check out the latest reality TV diversion; a sinister show where contestants are jammed in a teeny tiny cell and filmed as they inevitably lose their shit. Now the idea is there will be a “winner” to these unsavory shenanigans with a prize of a cool mil’ waiting for whoever keeps their sanity the longest… which will just about cover the therapy bills they’ll acquire trying to cope with the fallout of what they will endure on this show… Human Zoo takes us through the creation of that aforementioned TV program from it’s casting to it’s implementation and puts our quirky and/or snarky characters through the wringer.

Continue reading →
Aug 19, 2020
Horror Fuel

L.C. Barlow’s ‘Pivot’ Is A Must Read! (Book Review)

Jack Harper, the girl raised in a cult, the assassin, the hero, the miracle worker, the drug addict…she is introduced to the world by L.C. Barlow in the novel Pivot. I very specifically say that she was “introduced to the world” and not “she was created” because I was absolutely drawn to this character..as a human. Her emotions were real and desperate. Her growth and changes and development were real and believable. I will get to the specifics of the book next, but to have the depth and power of this book in only 224 pages is remarkable. Characters The characters in this book is where it really shines. Not that it is lacking in other areas, but the characters are a standout for me. Cyrus, the cult leader, is as villainous and evil as any character I have come across. But more than that, he is believable! This chameleon of a man manipulates those around him with such ease

Continue reading →
Aug 19, 2020
Horror Fuel

Movie Review: The Honeymoon Phase (2019)

Tom (Jim Schubin) and Eve (Chloe Carroll) get a wild hair up their asses that they can put one over on the eggheads runnin’ your friendly neighborhood research project and score fifty grand in cold, hard cash. All they need to do is convince everyone they are married, and get locked up good n’ tight in a futuristic smart house cum lab for a month (while wearing fancy futuristic suits as a bonus) while the scientists wrap their noggins around why couples stop being all lovey-dovey. What could go wrong? Fuckin’ plenty, because as Tom really seems to be gettin’ his jollies in his new environs, Eve begins to suspect that Tom is a tad different from the man she thought she knew… as she tries to navigate a slippery-slope that leads into madness! In The Honeymoon Phase; the debut feature from writer/director Phillip G. Carroll Jr., we get a near-perfect slice of sweet, sweet Twilight Zone pie, as our

Continue reading →
Aug 19, 2020
Horror Fuel

Blu-Ray Review: “Z” Scores A 5/5 !

I reviewed Shudder’s Z back in May, so of course, I was excited to get my hands on the Blu-ray a couple of days ago. As I sat down to watch it with a bag of popcorn, I couldn’t help but wonder if the movie would stand up to my original impression and the 5/5 score I gave it. I was wrong to even question it. It turns out, the Blu-ray is even better. The picture is crisp and the sound is great. The story itself is fresh, clever, and absolutely unnerving. A lot of people had an imaginary friend as a kid. Imagine if that friend came back when you were an adult and it is hell-bent on destroying your life by using your innocent child. That’s the premise of Z. The movie follows Elizabeth (Keegan Connor Tracy), a mother whose 8-year-old son has a new playmate, an invisible friend named Z. As her son’s behavior becomes more menacing

Continue reading →
Aug 19, 2020