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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: Tarantula (1955)

Professor Gerald Deemer (Leo G. Carroll) is doing the dodgy science bag down Arizona way with the plan of increasing the world’s food supply via making shit large AF. Naturally being a reasonable and sane individual, one of the things the good doc has enlarged is a tarantula, because…well who the fuck knows really…I mean if I was trying to cure world hunger I’d enlarge like a steak or a banana or some shit, not a poisonous as balls eight legged killing machine, but I’m admittedly no doctor…unless it’s a doctor of love because then I got the PHd! So, where the hell was I? Oh yeah… Of course that tarantula gets loose and goes on a bovine based murder spree and soon it’s up to small town doctor Matt Hastings (John Agar), and Deemer’s comely assistant, Stephanie Clayton (Mara Corday), to attempt to save the town from that rapidly growing arachnid. Also a young Clint Eastwood takes pot shots

Continue reading →
Apr 11, 2019
Horror Fuel

Blu-ray Review: Scared Stiff (1987)

In the late 1800’s, a shit heel of a slaver named George Masterson (David Ramsey) is cursed by the poor souls he bought and sold…flash forward to the late 1980’s, and a Psychiatrist named David (Andrew Stevens) and his pop singer gal pal (and former patient), Kate (Mary Page Keller) move into that doomed a-holes house…what could go wrong? The answer of course is every fucking thing. Heralded by an abundance of natures most terrifying creations, pigeons…wait, fucking pigeons?!! Anyway, a few bad dreams and visions, some outre discoveries in the abode (read: centuries old corpses and a strange talisman), and yes, pigeons, lead to a voodoo monster terrorizing our heroes six ways to Sunday! While a bit of a slow burn in the actual horror department, Scared Stiff never became tedious for your’s cruelly (and the third act pay-off is an absolutely fantastic display of gooey, monster-packed practical effects wizardry and well worth the wait). The ages old mystery,

Continue reading →
Apr 6, 2019
Horror Fuel

Blu-ray Review: Keoma (1976)

Keoma (Franco Nero), a half-breed former Union gunfighter proves the old adage that you can’t go home again as he returns to the land of his youth to find the entire place stricken with a plague. As if that wasn’t bad enough, his racist AF half-brothers have teamed up with a real shit heel of a dude, the Confederate tyrant Caldwell (Donald O’Brian) and the lot of ’em keep the town strangled under an iron grip of terror. Soon our hero teams up with his father (William Berger) and aging mentor George (Woody Strode) to attempt to rid the town of those no-good sidewinders! Coming near the end of the spaghetti western cycle, Enzo G. Castellari’s (1990: The Bronx Warriors, Warriors of the Wasteland) Keoma is stylish, loaded with over-the-top violence, and surprising levels of soul searching from our stoic, sharp-shootin’ hero. And while the basics of the story…ultra-serious gunfighter blows into town and has to protect the people from

Continue reading →
Apr 6, 2019
Horror Fuel

Movie Review: Master of Dark Shadows (2019)

Beginning with a brief history of series creator/producer/director Dan Curtis from his start producing golf programs to his bull in a China shop techniques to getting more and more productions on the air to finally arriving at his desire to create a soap opera…and a Gothic thriller infused one at that…Master of Dark Shadows presents a fascinating character study of a man that brought a veritable arcane avalanche of amazing material to our beloved horror biz (Trilogy of Terror and Burnt Offerings are but a few examples besides the subject of this here diabolical doc)! Of course the subject matter soon turns to focus on Dark Shadows itself, in all of it’s outre, horror-show grandeur! We get a deep-dive into the show’s production featuring interviews those that were there (including cast and crew, as well as members of Curtis’ family) and follow along from the shows rocky start to it’s eventual explosion into the pop culture zeitgeist that occurred with

Continue reading →
Apr 5, 2019
Horror Fuel

Movie Review: Black Site (2018)

In order to rid our world of eldritch nasties, the Artemis Black Site was created; an underground military base that contains and deports all the evil demons and deities the universe has thrown at us. Enter Erebus (Kris Johnson) a particularly nasty mother fucker inhabiting a human form that has no great desire to be the latest prisoner of the Black Site and is going to make sure he doesn’t stay there long. Soon it falls on the shoulders of tough but inexperienced Danforth (Sophia Del Pizzo) to battle the machinations of this devious devil…but will she be up to the task? Let’s talk about all that is oh so very right about Black Site, shall we? First of all this baby is a serious love letter to the film’s of John Carpenter. You get the down and dirty fights of flicks like Escape From New York or They Live, along with all of those heavy Lovecraftian influences that informed

Continue reading →
Apr 5, 2019
Horror Fuel

Blu-ray Review: The Legend of the 7 Golden Vampires (1974)

Professor Van Helsing (Peter Cushing) is teachin’ down China way when he finds himself books deep in the machinations of a cult of ass-ugly vampires adorned in golden half-masks and their army of zombie slaves…all under the control of a disguised count Dracula. Thankfully he joins forces with some face smashing martial artists/weapons experts and soon the battle to wrest control of the region from the legions of the night is on, but will the knowledge and strength of our heroes be enough to win the war? The Legend of the 7 Golden Vampires is flat out fright flick brilliance, and contains a putrid plethora of astoundingly entertaining elements that’ll have fang bang lovers grinnin’ from ear to eerie ear! Let’s start with the gorgeous lurid colors on display; of which the beginning sequence where the Priest, Kah (Shen Chan), visits Dracula (John Forbes-Robertson…standing in for the noticeably absent Christopher Lee) in his castle in Transylvania to beg his help

Continue reading →
Apr 5, 2019
Horror Fuel

Airships And Reality TV: Game Review ‘Bow To Blood: Last Captain Standing’ Xbox One

What do you get when you cross reality TV and Airships? Well, the folks over at Tribetoy came up with a really good idea what it would be like in Bow to Blood: Last Captain Standing. The game came out in 2018 exclusively for PlayStation VR but because of its high acclaim it has been ported for PlayStation 4, Xbox One, PC, and Nintendo Switch and will come out April 3rd. The awesome folks at Tribetoy gave me to the opportunity to play the Xbox One version of the game and all I can say is hold onto your air-pirate hats! You take on the role of Freelancer, an airship captain who, along with your two crew members, has entered a reality show where you compete against other airship crews and be the last captain standing. Each level is an “episode” in which you can warp to a level and fight against drone ships while completing objectives depending on the

Continue reading →
Apr 3, 2019
Horror Fuel

Game Review: ‘Vaporum’ Delivers What It Promises

Fatboy Games and Merge Games were kind enough to give me the opportunity to try their new dungeon crawler game, Vaporum. This first-person game takes the elements of old school dungeon crawling games but revamped them with a Steampunk twist. You play as a man who woke up in front of a tall metal structure in the middle of the ocean. With no memories of who he is he feels that the building is familiar. Going inside you quickly realize there’s something about this place that’s wrong. The movement of the game harks back to how old dungeon crawlers worked, to moves a square at a time as if you’re on a game board. It took some getting used to but I found no problem with it but if you’re someone that might not like it, don’t worry, there’s an option to make the movements smoother. Combat is pretty standard when it comes to RPG’s, you use your weapon and

Continue reading →
Apr 2, 2019
Horror Fuel

DVD Review: Matriarch (2018)

Rachel (Charlie Blackwood) and Matt Hopkins (Scott Vickers, who also wrote and directed the film) becoming stranded in the Scottish countryside after havin’ a slow speed run-in with a rando tree. Soon our heroes find themselves at a secluded farm owned by Bob and Agnes Fairbairn (Alan Cuthbert and Julie Hannan respectively) who offer them shelter for the night while being mega-creepy infatuated with Rachel’s pregnancy. Speaking of “mega-creepy”, Rachel and Matt discover that the Fairbairn’s daughter Faith (Briony Monroe) is actually Ellie Adams, a child that went missing years before…in fact all of the family’s children once belonged to someone else…and now they want Rachel’s unborn son to add to their unholy brood! Matriarch took me by surprise…I expected some sort of uncomfortable, pregnancy based torture porn affair, but instead I got a flick balls deep in atmosphere, tone, and world building…though the “uncomfortable” element does come into play…but more on that in a bit. Set among rolling pastoral

Continue reading →
Apr 1, 2019
Horror Fuel

Blu-ray Review: The Iguana with the Tongue of Fire (1971)

In that most conventional of settings for an Italian giallo flick; Dublin, Ireland an acid-hucking psycho with an affinity for razors kills the shit out of a lassie and sticks the newly minted corpse in a limousine owned by Swiss Ambassador Sobiesky (Anton Diffring). Being a foreign diplomat, that mother fucker claims immunity toot-F’n-sweet as the body count continues to rise. The police decide to play hardball and bring in a real ball busting son of a bitch; namely ex-cop John Norton (Luigi Pistilli) to hunt down that murderous maniac before he can kill again! Full of lurid violence, an overwrought mystery, mod fashions, nudity, and of course, a black gloved killer; The Iguana With the Tongue of Fire is a fine example of the giallo fare that followed in the wake of Argento’s The Bird with the Crystal Plumage; although to be fair, this one pushes the tasteless meter more towards the likes of Fulci’s New York Ripper, especially

Continue reading →
Apr 1, 2019

More from Reviews

Horror Fuel

Blu-ray Review: Tarantula (1955)

Professor Gerald Deemer (Leo G. Carroll) is doing the dodgy science bag down Arizona way with the plan of increasing the world’s food supply via making shit large AF. Naturally being a reasonable and sane individual, one of the things the good doc has enlarged is a tarantula, because…well who the fuck knows really…I mean if I was trying to cure world hunger I’d enlarge like a steak or a banana or some shit, not a poisonous as balls eight legged killing machine, but I’m admittedly no doctor…unless it’s a doctor of love because then I got the PHd! So, where the hell was I? Oh yeah… Of course that tarantula gets loose and goes on a bovine based murder spree and soon it’s up to small town doctor Matt Hastings (John Agar), and Deemer’s comely assistant, Stephanie Clayton (Mara Corday), to attempt to save the town from that rapidly growing arachnid. Also a young Clint Eastwood takes pot shots

Continue reading →
Apr 11, 2019
Horror Fuel

Blu-ray Review: Scared Stiff (1987)

In the late 1800’s, a shit heel of a slaver named George Masterson (David Ramsey) is cursed by the poor souls he bought and sold…flash forward to the late 1980’s, and a Psychiatrist named David (Andrew Stevens) and his pop singer gal pal (and former patient), Kate (Mary Page Keller) move into that doomed a-holes house…what could go wrong? The answer of course is every fucking thing. Heralded by an abundance of natures most terrifying creations, pigeons…wait, fucking pigeons?!! Anyway, a few bad dreams and visions, some outre discoveries in the abode (read: centuries old corpses and a strange talisman), and yes, pigeons, lead to a voodoo monster terrorizing our heroes six ways to Sunday! While a bit of a slow burn in the actual horror department, Scared Stiff never became tedious for your’s cruelly (and the third act pay-off is an absolutely fantastic display of gooey, monster-packed practical effects wizardry and well worth the wait). The ages old mystery,

Continue reading →
Apr 6, 2019
Horror Fuel

Blu-ray Review: Keoma (1976)

Keoma (Franco Nero), a half-breed former Union gunfighter proves the old adage that you can’t go home again as he returns to the land of his youth to find the entire place stricken with a plague. As if that wasn’t bad enough, his racist AF half-brothers have teamed up with a real shit heel of a dude, the Confederate tyrant Caldwell (Donald O’Brian) and the lot of ’em keep the town strangled under an iron grip of terror. Soon our hero teams up with his father (William Berger) and aging mentor George (Woody Strode) to attempt to rid the town of those no-good sidewinders! Coming near the end of the spaghetti western cycle, Enzo G. Castellari’s (1990: The Bronx Warriors, Warriors of the Wasteland) Keoma is stylish, loaded with over-the-top violence, and surprising levels of soul searching from our stoic, sharp-shootin’ hero. And while the basics of the story…ultra-serious gunfighter blows into town and has to protect the people from

Continue reading →
Apr 6, 2019
Horror Fuel

Movie Review: Master of Dark Shadows (2019)

Beginning with a brief history of series creator/producer/director Dan Curtis from his start producing golf programs to his bull in a China shop techniques to getting more and more productions on the air to finally arriving at his desire to create a soap opera…and a Gothic thriller infused one at that…Master of Dark Shadows presents a fascinating character study of a man that brought a veritable arcane avalanche of amazing material to our beloved horror biz (Trilogy of Terror and Burnt Offerings are but a few examples besides the subject of this here diabolical doc)! Of course the subject matter soon turns to focus on Dark Shadows itself, in all of it’s outre, horror-show grandeur! We get a deep-dive into the show’s production featuring interviews those that were there (including cast and crew, as well as members of Curtis’ family) and follow along from the shows rocky start to it’s eventual explosion into the pop culture zeitgeist that occurred with

Continue reading →
Apr 5, 2019
Horror Fuel

Movie Review: Black Site (2018)

In order to rid our world of eldritch nasties, the Artemis Black Site was created; an underground military base that contains and deports all the evil demons and deities the universe has thrown at us. Enter Erebus (Kris Johnson) a particularly nasty mother fucker inhabiting a human form that has no great desire to be the latest prisoner of the Black Site and is going to make sure he doesn’t stay there long. Soon it falls on the shoulders of tough but inexperienced Danforth (Sophia Del Pizzo) to battle the machinations of this devious devil…but will she be up to the task? Let’s talk about all that is oh so very right about Black Site, shall we? First of all this baby is a serious love letter to the film’s of John Carpenter. You get the down and dirty fights of flicks like Escape From New York or They Live, along with all of those heavy Lovecraftian influences that informed

Continue reading →
Apr 5, 2019
Horror Fuel

Blu-ray Review: The Legend of the 7 Golden Vampires (1974)

Professor Van Helsing (Peter Cushing) is teachin’ down China way when he finds himself books deep in the machinations of a cult of ass-ugly vampires adorned in golden half-masks and their army of zombie slaves…all under the control of a disguised count Dracula. Thankfully he joins forces with some face smashing martial artists/weapons experts and soon the battle to wrest control of the region from the legions of the night is on, but will the knowledge and strength of our heroes be enough to win the war? The Legend of the 7 Golden Vampires is flat out fright flick brilliance, and contains a putrid plethora of astoundingly entertaining elements that’ll have fang bang lovers grinnin’ from ear to eerie ear! Let’s start with the gorgeous lurid colors on display; of which the beginning sequence where the Priest, Kah (Shen Chan), visits Dracula (John Forbes-Robertson…standing in for the noticeably absent Christopher Lee) in his castle in Transylvania to beg his help

Continue reading →
Apr 5, 2019
Horror Fuel

Airships And Reality TV: Game Review ‘Bow To Blood: Last Captain Standing’ Xbox One

What do you get when you cross reality TV and Airships? Well, the folks over at Tribetoy came up with a really good idea what it would be like in Bow to Blood: Last Captain Standing. The game came out in 2018 exclusively for PlayStation VR but because of its high acclaim it has been ported for PlayStation 4, Xbox One, PC, and Nintendo Switch and will come out April 3rd. The awesome folks at Tribetoy gave me to the opportunity to play the Xbox One version of the game and all I can say is hold onto your air-pirate hats! You take on the role of Freelancer, an airship captain who, along with your two crew members, has entered a reality show where you compete against other airship crews and be the last captain standing. Each level is an “episode” in which you can warp to a level and fight against drone ships while completing objectives depending on the

Continue reading →
Apr 3, 2019
Horror Fuel

Game Review: ‘Vaporum’ Delivers What It Promises

Fatboy Games and Merge Games were kind enough to give me the opportunity to try their new dungeon crawler game, Vaporum. This first-person game takes the elements of old school dungeon crawling games but revamped them with a Steampunk twist. You play as a man who woke up in front of a tall metal structure in the middle of the ocean. With no memories of who he is he feels that the building is familiar. Going inside you quickly realize there’s something about this place that’s wrong. The movement of the game harks back to how old dungeon crawlers worked, to moves a square at a time as if you’re on a game board. It took some getting used to but I found no problem with it but if you’re someone that might not like it, don’t worry, there’s an option to make the movements smoother. Combat is pretty standard when it comes to RPG’s, you use your weapon and

Continue reading →
Apr 2, 2019
Horror Fuel

DVD Review: Matriarch (2018)

Rachel (Charlie Blackwood) and Matt Hopkins (Scott Vickers, who also wrote and directed the film) becoming stranded in the Scottish countryside after havin’ a slow speed run-in with a rando tree. Soon our heroes find themselves at a secluded farm owned by Bob and Agnes Fairbairn (Alan Cuthbert and Julie Hannan respectively) who offer them shelter for the night while being mega-creepy infatuated with Rachel’s pregnancy. Speaking of “mega-creepy”, Rachel and Matt discover that the Fairbairn’s daughter Faith (Briony Monroe) is actually Ellie Adams, a child that went missing years before…in fact all of the family’s children once belonged to someone else…and now they want Rachel’s unborn son to add to their unholy brood! Matriarch took me by surprise…I expected some sort of uncomfortable, pregnancy based torture porn affair, but instead I got a flick balls deep in atmosphere, tone, and world building…though the “uncomfortable” element does come into play…but more on that in a bit. Set among rolling pastoral

Continue reading →
Apr 1, 2019
Horror Fuel

Blu-ray Review: The Iguana with the Tongue of Fire (1971)

In that most conventional of settings for an Italian giallo flick; Dublin, Ireland an acid-hucking psycho with an affinity for razors kills the shit out of a lassie and sticks the newly minted corpse in a limousine owned by Swiss Ambassador Sobiesky (Anton Diffring). Being a foreign diplomat, that mother fucker claims immunity toot-F’n-sweet as the body count continues to rise. The police decide to play hardball and bring in a real ball busting son of a bitch; namely ex-cop John Norton (Luigi Pistilli) to hunt down that murderous maniac before he can kill again! Full of lurid violence, an overwrought mystery, mod fashions, nudity, and of course, a black gloved killer; The Iguana With the Tongue of Fire is a fine example of the giallo fare that followed in the wake of Argento’s The Bird with the Crystal Plumage; although to be fair, this one pushes the tasteless meter more towards the likes of Fulci’s New York Ripper, especially

Continue reading →
Apr 1, 2019