CategoryReviews
Honest horror reviews of films, series, games and books — no hype, no spoilers, just whether it is worth your time and your nerves.
3,465 stories
ForeignMoviesReviewsThriller
Audition is a classic fright flick that catapulted the absolutely insane mother fucker that is Takashi Miike in to the hearts of gonzo cinema lovers worldwide (though he was already el hombre in his home turf of Japan thanks to some rather bloody fare such as Fudoh: The New Generation) and most of you gore hounds have certainly laid your eerie eyeballs on it at some point since it’s release 20 fuckin’ years ago (holy shit…). Anyway, if you haven’t here’s a brief sinister synopsis before I get into why this new Blu-ray edition comin’ your way from Arrow Video and their beastly bedfellows MVD Entertainment is worth your hard earned dough… Shigeharu Aoyama (Ryo Ishibashi), a middle-aged widower, is catching static from his 17-year-old son, Shigehiko (Tetsu Sawaki) to get back on the dating bicycle and join the Tour De Trim (so to speak). At the urging of a pal, Aoyama begins hiding auditions for a new wife, and
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ForeignMoviesReviewsThriller
In a case of major karma, journalist Wang Yi-chi (Kaiser Chuang Kai-hsun) witnesses a hit and run and nearly a decade later comes to own the car involved in the crime. As anyone with no common sense and a death wish would do, he decides to solve the cold case on his own and dives head first into a world of sinister secrets with only his charm to get him through…he’s probably as good as dead… Coming from director Cheng Wei-Hao who previously brought us the ghost heavy supernatural shocker Tag-Along franchise, Who Killed cock robin gets a lot of mileage out of it’s gritty neo-noir tone and the considerable charisma of it’s star Kai-hsun. Speaking of which, the character of Wang Yi-chi is a master at convincing people to fork over their secrets based solely on his personality alone…it definitely works for the character, and makes him incredibly personable…but it also presents a bit of a hindrance to the
Continue reading →
ForeignIndieMoviesParanormalReviews
Three dudes, one lifeboat…not as kinky as it sounds, as said dudes, Oliver (Alex Hassell), Cailean (Fisayo Akinade) and, Jimmy (Graham Butler) to be precise, are the survivors of a mysterious shipwreck that find themselves stranded on a fog enshrouded, ice cold, drab and dreary island in 1800’s era Scotland. They come to stay with Douglas Innis (Conleth Hill) and his daughter (Tori Butler-Hart), and soon learn that shipwrecks are a way of life around the island and have lead to the massive dip in the locales’ population. The trio soon find themselves balls deep in a supernatural tinged quandary as they learn just why the populace, such as it is, remains in such a haunted and doomed location. Directed and Co-Written by Matthew Butler-Hart (along with his wife Tori Butler-Hart whom, if you have a shred of retention, will remember is one of the film’s actors as well) The Isle is a miasma ensconced, deliberately paced, slow burn throwback
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GamingProductReviews
I remember playing Resident Evil 2 on the N64 a lot; in fact, it was the first “Resident Evil” game I’ve ever played that got me hooked onto the series. Fast forward to now, you could only imagine the honor I felt when CAPCOM gave me the opportunity to play the remake of this classic and what I can say is this: If you liked the original, then you’ll love this! Don’t worry this is spoiler free! First thing I noticed right away playing this game, its dark, not figuratively, literally and that makes it amazing as it adds to the tension. Speaking of tension, usually, a soundtrack helps break it but the lack of one playing as you explore your surroundings makes it terrifying! I suggest playing this game with headphones as all the stops were pulled to creep you out with 3D surround sound, every creak of wood, the structural groan from wind, and distant sounds of flesh-crazed
Continue reading →
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IndieMoviesReviews
Teratomorph begins with a child poking an amazingly fucked up corpse with a stick…and we are off to the races boils n’ ghouls! Following that we learn an outbreak of the Havoc Virus (engineered by combining alien material with spiders to outrageously nightmare inducing effect) is running rampant, and that aforementioned kid (Elijah Meredith) and a comely pistol packin’, alien fluid extracting, mama named Svetlana (Cidney Meredith) try to survive in the hell left in the wake of this alien hell! Teratomorph is well and truly the shit my creeps! This fright flick is loaded to the revoltin’ rafters with absolutely off-the-charts levels of gore, stop motion giant spiders, and enough alien/human genetic mutations cum body horror to make John Carpenter and David Cronenberg jump back and say “Damn, fool!” …all realized in jaw dropping, beautifully realized, practical effects ghoulish glory designed and executed like a mother fucker by Writer/Director/Producer/Creature Designer/Special Effects Artist Joe Meredith (along with James Bell). Honestly
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IndieMoviesReviews
I got sent the screener for The Bellwether and my heart sank. Reading the description I could see this was going to be some real soul searching, feminist-based examination of the dire effects tragedy can have on a woman…and when faced with serious, gravitas-heavy material like this my review style is completely thrown for a loop. You lot know I’m world famous for my award losing hodgepodge of smart assery, pop culture deep dives, and horror host punnery, and this material definitely won’t bring the grins…so with that disclaimer I’ll do my best to entertain here boils n’ ghouls… Bookstore owner Joanne (Alex Reid) is having one of those days. She awakes to find herself within a Gothic chapel fitted with a TV screen, through which The Conspiracy conveys that they have photographic evidence of every moment of her life…including that pesky baby she aborted a few years previous, and intends to challenge her life’s path. Why are they fuckin’
Continue reading →
IndieMoviesReviews
Buckle up boils n’ ghouls ‘cuz we are going to dive deep into Bible Black; a motion comic about…dark religious things…and stuff… After an opening narration so overwrought it becomes parody, and a musical selection that sounds like a selection from a Broadway show about Lucifer we begin Bible Black proper; an arcane anthology that promises to be edgy-dark…like a frowny girl buying a Goth attired Hello Kitty figurine at Hot Topic dark if that intro is any indication… Story one is a short piece about God committing suicide…okay, that is a rather attention grabbing way to start things, but it’s shock value is minimal…and you’ll see that is an issue throughout this short… Following that is some shit about a girl with nightmares. While neither of these amount to much, I’ll admit the one piece of art we get for each tale are both strong images. Next up comes Lobster Girl; the tale of a deformed stripper with claws
Continue reading →
IndieMoviesReviews
Well, this ought to be a real treat; I get to review the sixth film in a series I have never heard of! It’s also a horror comedy, which I run hot and cold on (although there have been some good ‘uns as of late). Anyway, let me shift my ghoulish gaze upon Caesar and Otto’s Paranormal Halloween. CAOPH (I’m not writin’ that title out e’ery time… I just don’t have the stamina or a handle on that whole “copy”/”paste” sorcery the kids are all into these days) concerns the wacky misadventures of a couple of jack asses (the eponymous Caesar and Otto) as they are charged with care-taking a haunted house. What follows is nearly 90 minutes of supernatural shenanigans, famous fright flick parodies, and meta nonsense. Honestly, ol’ Caesar and Otto’s Paranormal Halloween ain’t half bad. The cast (comprised of folks I don’t know and folks I certainly do, like scream queens Felissa Rose, Tiffany Shepis, Brinke Stevens,
Continue reading →
IndieMoviesReviews
A little girl (Aeona Cruz) skips merrily on her way among the flowers while a blood soaked brute of a man (Doug Newville…who also wrote the short) with one hell of an angry lookin’ shovel does the devil’s business on anyone unlucky enough to find themselves in his way. These disparate characters of course collide; and I guarantee more than one of you lot will dig the outcome! Running a compact six minutes, Shovel is one hell of a fine fright flick…even if it is bite-sized. The pace is brisk, the story is on point, and the cinematography is slicker than shit through a ghoulish goose’s ass…all of which will doubtless please horror hounds (though the solid make-up and effects won’t hurt things either); and in my opinion ol’ Shovel (that’s the name of the aforementioned monster man as well as the film) has what it takes to be a full-on slasher heartthrob like his closest antecedent Leatherface (this yarn
Continue reading →
IndieMoviesReviews
Things ain’t exactly peachy for the young protagonist (Joshua Kaufman) of the short film Slapface; he spends the late afternoons wandering the cold, dead forest that surrounds his home pining for his dead mother. Nights are spent refusing medication and playing an abusive face slapping game with his distant father (Nick Gregory)…so that’s double depressin’. What makes life tolerable for our hero is the relationship he develops with the monster (Lukas Hassel) that dwells in those aforementioned wicked woods…but just what is the nature of his beastly bestie? Comprised of an extremely somber aesthetic, emphasized not only by the pitch-black elements, but also by the gorgeous muted color palette (featuring cool greys, stark browns, and plenty of twilight skies), Writer/Director Jeremiah Kipp has presented something truly memorable for horror hounds to enjoy; particularly those that enjoy a strong human element running through their creature feature. Speaking of that, the creature presented here is also understated, and features a nice, subtle
Continue reading →
More from Reviews
ForeignMoviesReviewsThriller
Audition is a classic fright flick that catapulted the absolutely insane mother fucker that is Takashi Miike in to the hearts of gonzo cinema lovers worldwide (though he was already el hombre in his home turf of Japan thanks to some rather bloody fare such as Fudoh: The New Generation) and most of you gore hounds have certainly laid your eerie eyeballs on it at some point since it’s release 20 fuckin’ years ago (holy shit…). Anyway, if you haven’t here’s a brief sinister synopsis before I get into why this new Blu-ray edition comin’ your way from Arrow Video and their beastly bedfellows MVD Entertainment is worth your hard earned dough… Shigeharu Aoyama (Ryo Ishibashi), a middle-aged widower, is catching static from his 17-year-old son, Shigehiko (Tetsu Sawaki) to get back on the dating bicycle and join the Tour De Trim (so to speak). At the urging of a pal, Aoyama begins hiding auditions for a new wife, and
Continue reading →
ForeignMoviesReviewsThriller
In a case of major karma, journalist Wang Yi-chi (Kaiser Chuang Kai-hsun) witnesses a hit and run and nearly a decade later comes to own the car involved in the crime. As anyone with no common sense and a death wish would do, he decides to solve the cold case on his own and dives head first into a world of sinister secrets with only his charm to get him through…he’s probably as good as dead… Coming from director Cheng Wei-Hao who previously brought us the ghost heavy supernatural shocker Tag-Along franchise, Who Killed cock robin gets a lot of mileage out of it’s gritty neo-noir tone and the considerable charisma of it’s star Kai-hsun. Speaking of which, the character of Wang Yi-chi is a master at convincing people to fork over their secrets based solely on his personality alone…it definitely works for the character, and makes him incredibly personable…but it also presents a bit of a hindrance to the
Continue reading →
ForeignIndieMoviesParanormalReviews
Three dudes, one lifeboat…not as kinky as it sounds, as said dudes, Oliver (Alex Hassell), Cailean (Fisayo Akinade) and, Jimmy (Graham Butler) to be precise, are the survivors of a mysterious shipwreck that find themselves stranded on a fog enshrouded, ice cold, drab and dreary island in 1800’s era Scotland. They come to stay with Douglas Innis (Conleth Hill) and his daughter (Tori Butler-Hart), and soon learn that shipwrecks are a way of life around the island and have lead to the massive dip in the locales’ population. The trio soon find themselves balls deep in a supernatural tinged quandary as they learn just why the populace, such as it is, remains in such a haunted and doomed location. Directed and Co-Written by Matthew Butler-Hart (along with his wife Tori Butler-Hart whom, if you have a shred of retention, will remember is one of the film’s actors as well) The Isle is a miasma ensconced, deliberately paced, slow burn throwback
Continue reading →
GamingProductReviews
I remember playing Resident Evil 2 on the N64 a lot; in fact, it was the first “Resident Evil” game I’ve ever played that got me hooked onto the series. Fast forward to now, you could only imagine the honor I felt when CAPCOM gave me the opportunity to play the remake of this classic and what I can say is this: If you liked the original, then you’ll love this! Don’t worry this is spoiler free! First thing I noticed right away playing this game, its dark, not figuratively, literally and that makes it amazing as it adds to the tension. Speaking of tension, usually, a soundtrack helps break it but the lack of one playing as you explore your surroundings makes it terrifying! I suggest playing this game with headphones as all the stops were pulled to creep you out with 3D surround sound, every creak of wood, the structural groan from wind, and distant sounds of flesh-crazed
Continue reading →
IndieMoviesReviews
Teratomorph begins with a child poking an amazingly fucked up corpse with a stick…and we are off to the races boils n’ ghouls! Following that we learn an outbreak of the Havoc Virus (engineered by combining alien material with spiders to outrageously nightmare inducing effect) is running rampant, and that aforementioned kid (Elijah Meredith) and a comely pistol packin’, alien fluid extracting, mama named Svetlana (Cidney Meredith) try to survive in the hell left in the wake of this alien hell! Teratomorph is well and truly the shit my creeps! This fright flick is loaded to the revoltin’ rafters with absolutely off-the-charts levels of gore, stop motion giant spiders, and enough alien/human genetic mutations cum body horror to make John Carpenter and David Cronenberg jump back and say “Damn, fool!” …all realized in jaw dropping, beautifully realized, practical effects ghoulish glory designed and executed like a mother fucker by Writer/Director/Producer/Creature Designer/Special Effects Artist Joe Meredith (along with James Bell). Honestly
Continue reading →
IndieMoviesReviews
I got sent the screener for The Bellwether and my heart sank. Reading the description I could see this was going to be some real soul searching, feminist-based examination of the dire effects tragedy can have on a woman…and when faced with serious, gravitas-heavy material like this my review style is completely thrown for a loop. You lot know I’m world famous for my award losing hodgepodge of smart assery, pop culture deep dives, and horror host punnery, and this material definitely won’t bring the grins…so with that disclaimer I’ll do my best to entertain here boils n’ ghouls… Bookstore owner Joanne (Alex Reid) is having one of those days. She awakes to find herself within a Gothic chapel fitted with a TV screen, through which The Conspiracy conveys that they have photographic evidence of every moment of her life…including that pesky baby she aborted a few years previous, and intends to challenge her life’s path. Why are they fuckin’
Continue reading →
IndieMoviesReviews
Buckle up boils n’ ghouls ‘cuz we are going to dive deep into Bible Black; a motion comic about…dark religious things…and stuff… After an opening narration so overwrought it becomes parody, and a musical selection that sounds like a selection from a Broadway show about Lucifer we begin Bible Black proper; an arcane anthology that promises to be edgy-dark…like a frowny girl buying a Goth attired Hello Kitty figurine at Hot Topic dark if that intro is any indication… Story one is a short piece about God committing suicide…okay, that is a rather attention grabbing way to start things, but it’s shock value is minimal…and you’ll see that is an issue throughout this short… Following that is some shit about a girl with nightmares. While neither of these amount to much, I’ll admit the one piece of art we get for each tale are both strong images. Next up comes Lobster Girl; the tale of a deformed stripper with claws
Continue reading →
IndieMoviesReviews
Well, this ought to be a real treat; I get to review the sixth film in a series I have never heard of! It’s also a horror comedy, which I run hot and cold on (although there have been some good ‘uns as of late). Anyway, let me shift my ghoulish gaze upon Caesar and Otto’s Paranormal Halloween. CAOPH (I’m not writin’ that title out e’ery time… I just don’t have the stamina or a handle on that whole “copy”/”paste” sorcery the kids are all into these days) concerns the wacky misadventures of a couple of jack asses (the eponymous Caesar and Otto) as they are charged with care-taking a haunted house. What follows is nearly 90 minutes of supernatural shenanigans, famous fright flick parodies, and meta nonsense. Honestly, ol’ Caesar and Otto’s Paranormal Halloween ain’t half bad. The cast (comprised of folks I don’t know and folks I certainly do, like scream queens Felissa Rose, Tiffany Shepis, Brinke Stevens,
Continue reading →
IndieMoviesReviews
A little girl (Aeona Cruz) skips merrily on her way among the flowers while a blood soaked brute of a man (Doug Newville…who also wrote the short) with one hell of an angry lookin’ shovel does the devil’s business on anyone unlucky enough to find themselves in his way. These disparate characters of course collide; and I guarantee more than one of you lot will dig the outcome! Running a compact six minutes, Shovel is one hell of a fine fright flick…even if it is bite-sized. The pace is brisk, the story is on point, and the cinematography is slicker than shit through a ghoulish goose’s ass…all of which will doubtless please horror hounds (though the solid make-up and effects won’t hurt things either); and in my opinion ol’ Shovel (that’s the name of the aforementioned monster man as well as the film) has what it takes to be a full-on slasher heartthrob like his closest antecedent Leatherface (this yarn
Continue reading →
IndieMoviesReviews
Things ain’t exactly peachy for the young protagonist (Joshua Kaufman) of the short film Slapface; he spends the late afternoons wandering the cold, dead forest that surrounds his home pining for his dead mother. Nights are spent refusing medication and playing an abusive face slapping game with his distant father (Nick Gregory)…so that’s double depressin’. What makes life tolerable for our hero is the relationship he develops with the monster (Lukas Hassel) that dwells in those aforementioned wicked woods…but just what is the nature of his beastly bestie? Comprised of an extremely somber aesthetic, emphasized not only by the pitch-black elements, but also by the gorgeous muted color palette (featuring cool greys, stark browns, and plenty of twilight skies), Writer/Director Jeremiah Kipp has presented something truly memorable for horror hounds to enjoy; particularly those that enjoy a strong human element running through their creature feature. Speaking of that, the creature presented here is also understated, and features a nice, subtle
Continue reading →
