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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.

3,465 stories
Horror Fuel

#AmericanCarnage by Pochassic

#AmericanCarnage: Sci Fi Short Stories by Pochassic is a new short book by the author of Flesh Without Soul which I reviewed when it came out a few years ago. I was curious to see what this book offered after enjoying the other. Book Description: Sci-fi short stories from the edge of sanity, Endless Horizon, a family having a conversation at the end of the world. Enlightenment Sucks, not all sages are created equal. Pride, a heroic Janitor battles zombies. The Trial, obedience to Galactic Law is freedom. The Big Why SuperMarket, There is more going on in the frozen food aisle than you think. The book is only 22 pages long and filled with several science fiction stories. The stories aren’t related but do have an overarching theme of hopelessness as most occur in dire or dystopian situations. It makes for a very quick read (again, it’s 22 pages long), so it’s definitely worth it for Kindle Unlimited readers.

Continue reading →
Fox Emm
Jun 6, 2017
Horror Fuel

‘Endemic’ Mixes Modern Zombies With Classic Roleplaying

Dungeons and Dragons is host to some of the most creative monsters in popular fiction, but one thing it’s never addressed is a full on apocalyptic epidemic. Or an Endemic as a new zombie themed RPG coins it. From creator and visionary Lance Yoshioka, Endemic is a dynamic table top role playing game, with zombie survival horror, combat systems, rules for zombification, and all the undead fun D&D Heads have ever wanted. Me and a few friends played a few rounds of Endemic together, and while it was a dense game to get into (the rulebook is 256 pages, with everything from Armor Durability to if a Snow Plow could outrun a zombie), we had a lot of fun. The thing that set Endemic apart for me was the focus on survival; unlike many traditional RPG’s, where your quests take you on hunts for treasure and glory, your only goal here is to not get your face bitten off, rather

Continue reading →
Capt McNeely
Jun 1, 2017
Horror Fuel

And A Bottle of Ho-Hum: PIRATES OF THE CARIBBEAN: DEAD MEN TELL NO TALES REVIEW

Is there a series with more severe dimensioning returns than Pirates? We are ten years past the last film in the series that was even considered passable, and fourteen since the only movie that was actually great. But hey, Johnny has alimony payments and these films somehow still make more money than all the gold on Treasure Island. So here we are with the 5th Pirates of The Caribbean film, which despite no-one asking for or wanting, everyone will end up dragging themselves to the theaters for anyway. At this point the franchise has long since gone rotten, and Dead Men Tell No Tales is the moldy fish scraped from the barrels bottom. Captain Jack Sparrow is back, but far from the Oscar nominated performance of the past, Depp has all the charm of a fifty year old man in the midst of a nasty divorce and domestic violence accusations trying to earn a paycheck. Lazy, stupid, and an afterthought

Continue reading →
Capt McNeely
May 29, 2017
Horror Fuel

Movie Review: THE CYCLOTRON Is A Slow Burning Throwback Thriller

It’s the late stages of World War II and the Axis powers are scrambling for anything that would give them a decided edge. The power of the atom would suit them nicely, and a German scientist named Emil has discovered the way to harness said power far ahead of the Allies. Being privy to such information during wartime could certainly paint a target on such a person’s back. Enter Simone, an Allied spy tasked with finding her former colleague and flame, Emil, to make quite certain he takes his knowledge to the grave. Granted, this is information that Allied forces could also use to their advantage, but with Emile behind enemy lines, it’s a risk they can’t bet on. Especially, with a contingent of Nazi soldiers, accompanied by a fellow German scientist named König, diligently trying to track Emile down so that they can extract his secret for their own benefit. Being a man of great scruples, Emil decides to

Continue reading →
Capt McNeely
May 26, 2017
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Horror Fuel

Movie Review: ANTI MATTER Is A Paranoiac Low-Tech Sci-Fi Gem

Ana is a brilliant young woman. She’s a chemist and a PhD student at Oxford University, working on an incredible and likely life changing experiment. Her goal is to find a way to transport matter by opening a worm hole by which said matter will travel. Just imagine the possibilities and applications. She works tirelessly with the help of her friends Liv and Nate, and may be on the verge of, dare I say, success? And while the investigation of a cyber-crime in her department, and incessant harassment from protesters about experiments conducted on University grounds could be seen as an obstacle, Ana is persistent and unyielding. She begins practical experimentation, sending small inanimate items, dozens of marbles to be exact, through the wormhole. The marbles travel, but to where is a mystery…that is until Ana and her colleagues calibrate the transporter in a way that will allow them to fix a coordinate for an end point. Now they are

Continue reading →
Capt McNeely
May 24, 2017
Horror Fuel

Movie Review – ALIEN: COVENANT Isn’t ALIEN Yet, But It Doesn’t Have To Be

It’s been ten years since Peter Weyland financed the ill fated Prometheus expedition, intent on finding and meeting the supposed creators of the human race or “engineers”. Now Weyland Corp. has become Weyland Yutani, and their focus is now that of “building better worlds”. To that end the company has sought out other habitable distant planets for the purpose of colonization. The crew of a Colony Ship named Covenant are charged with transporting over 2,000 cryo-slumbering colonists and over 1,000 frozen embryos to their destination on the planet Origae-6. During the voyage, an energy flare from an exploding star causes damage to the ship, causes the death of a few colonists and the ship’s captain, who becomes trapped in his cryo-stasis pod as it encounters a catastrophic malfunction. The rest of the crew having been awakened by the mission’s synthetic crew member, Walter, assess the damage and begin repairs. As they complete the necessary repairs to Covenant, they receive transmission

Continue reading →
Capt McNeely
May 19, 2017
Horror Fuel

Movie Review: BESETMENT Is A Good Film That Had The Potential To Be Better

One would be hard pressed to determine which of the following Amanda needs worse: a break from her mother or gainful employment. A case could be made that both are equally important. So imagine Amanda’s surprise when she is offered a job at a hotel located in the small Oregon town of Mitchell. It seems ideal, since it puts a fair bit of distance between Amanda and her mother while not only providing her a source of much needed income, but also providing her with room and board. Her new boss Mildred is a quirky, eccentric, no-nonsense kind of old gal, who has a meek and simple middle aged son named Billy. As Amanda tries to acclimate herself to her new job and surroundings, she will come to find out too late that her sparkling resume and previous experience had no bearing on putting her in the position where she now finds herself. In such a small town with very

Continue reading →
Capt McNeely
May 17, 2017
Horror Fuel

Movie Review: THE RIZEN Delivers Sci-Fi Horror With Vintage Style

A decade has passed since the Allies achieved victory over the Axis Powers in World War II, but now a new arms race beginning to take shape. NATO and Allied Forces come together in a joint effort to win or at the very least stay ahead of said arms race. Taking a cue from Hitler’s playbook, these combined forces delve into the occult. With little or no true understanding of the otherworldly power they seek to utilize, there could literally be hell to pay for their meddling. And with Pandora’s Box now open, so to speak, the world faces a greater threat than it has ever known. This is where Frances comes in. She is an enigmatic woman, who awakens in a bunker complex, with no prior memory as to who she is or why she is there. As she traverses the endless series of corridors in search of escape, she encounters a scientist named Baughman and a soldier named

Continue reading →
Capt McNeely
May 13, 2017
Horror Fuel

AMERICAN GODS Renewed After A Fantastic Start

Neil Gaiman’s American Gods, based on his books by the same title, has only been on the air for two weeks and is already getting a lot of attention, so much that it has just been renewed for season 2, thank god(s). I can only describe the series as brilliant, bold, beautiful, and nothing like we have ever seen before. The story lines keep you hanging on every line of the character’s dialogue. Even the violence, and there is a lot of it, is executed as if it were art. The cinematography, at the hands of Darren Tiernan, Jo Williams, and Aaron Morton, is simply elegant. There is sex, brutality, war, love, passion and mystery. What more could you want? In a world filled with gods, both old and new, we have been introduced to our central character, Shadow Moon (Ricky Whittle), who is fresh out of prison and mourning the death of his wife Laura (Emily Browning). He is

Continue reading →
Kelli Marchman McNeely
May 11, 2017
Horror Fuel

Movie Review: CHUPACABRA TERRITORY Is Territory Best Undiscovered

The Chupacabra (that’s “goat sucker” to you and me, Rusty) has been a cryptozoological legend for decades with some of the first reported attacks occurring in Puerto Rico in the spring of 1995. Since then, there have been dozens of sightings of this cryptid creature. It’s that king of curiosity that will motivate a group of four friends to journey out in search of the elusive sanguine sucker. They meet with resistance, as a park ranger initially tries to shoo them away from their intended destination. But they will not be denied and find their way back into the off limits wilderness area. Along the way they encounter another group of folks, as well as a creepy gas masked biologist. But will they discover their intended quarry – the chupacabra? And if they do, will they live to tell the tale or at least have the footage to prove it? Found footage has become an increasingly popular method of movie

Continue reading →
Capt McNeely
May 10, 2017

More from Reviews

Horror Fuel

#AmericanCarnage by Pochassic

#AmericanCarnage: Sci Fi Short Stories by Pochassic is a new short book by the author of Flesh Without Soul which I reviewed when it came out a few years ago. I was curious to see what this book offered after enjoying the other. Book Description: Sci-fi short stories from the edge of sanity, Endless Horizon, a family having a conversation at the end of the world. Enlightenment Sucks, not all sages are created equal. Pride, a heroic Janitor battles zombies. The Trial, obedience to Galactic Law is freedom. The Big Why SuperMarket, There is more going on in the frozen food aisle than you think. The book is only 22 pages long and filled with several science fiction stories. The stories aren’t related but do have an overarching theme of hopelessness as most occur in dire or dystopian situations. It makes for a very quick read (again, it’s 22 pages long), so it’s definitely worth it for Kindle Unlimited readers.

Continue reading →
Fox Emm
Jun 6, 2017
Horror Fuel

‘Endemic’ Mixes Modern Zombies With Classic Roleplaying

Dungeons and Dragons is host to some of the most creative monsters in popular fiction, but one thing it’s never addressed is a full on apocalyptic epidemic. Or an Endemic as a new zombie themed RPG coins it. From creator and visionary Lance Yoshioka, Endemic is a dynamic table top role playing game, with zombie survival horror, combat systems, rules for zombification, and all the undead fun D&D Heads have ever wanted. Me and a few friends played a few rounds of Endemic together, and while it was a dense game to get into (the rulebook is 256 pages, with everything from Armor Durability to if a Snow Plow could outrun a zombie), we had a lot of fun. The thing that set Endemic apart for me was the focus on survival; unlike many traditional RPG’s, where your quests take you on hunts for treasure and glory, your only goal here is to not get your face bitten off, rather

Continue reading →
Capt McNeely
Jun 1, 2017
Horror Fuel

And A Bottle of Ho-Hum: PIRATES OF THE CARIBBEAN: DEAD MEN TELL NO TALES REVIEW

Is there a series with more severe dimensioning returns than Pirates? We are ten years past the last film in the series that was even considered passable, and fourteen since the only movie that was actually great. But hey, Johnny has alimony payments and these films somehow still make more money than all the gold on Treasure Island. So here we are with the 5th Pirates of The Caribbean film, which despite no-one asking for or wanting, everyone will end up dragging themselves to the theaters for anyway. At this point the franchise has long since gone rotten, and Dead Men Tell No Tales is the moldy fish scraped from the barrels bottom. Captain Jack Sparrow is back, but far from the Oscar nominated performance of the past, Depp has all the charm of a fifty year old man in the midst of a nasty divorce and domestic violence accusations trying to earn a paycheck. Lazy, stupid, and an afterthought

Continue reading →
Capt McNeely
May 29, 2017
Horror Fuel

Movie Review: THE CYCLOTRON Is A Slow Burning Throwback Thriller

It’s the late stages of World War II and the Axis powers are scrambling for anything that would give them a decided edge. The power of the atom would suit them nicely, and a German scientist named Emil has discovered the way to harness said power far ahead of the Allies. Being privy to such information during wartime could certainly paint a target on such a person’s back. Enter Simone, an Allied spy tasked with finding her former colleague and flame, Emil, to make quite certain he takes his knowledge to the grave. Granted, this is information that Allied forces could also use to their advantage, but with Emile behind enemy lines, it’s a risk they can’t bet on. Especially, with a contingent of Nazi soldiers, accompanied by a fellow German scientist named König, diligently trying to track Emile down so that they can extract his secret for their own benefit. Being a man of great scruples, Emil decides to

Continue reading →
Capt McNeely
May 26, 2017
Horror Fuel

Movie Review: ANTI MATTER Is A Paranoiac Low-Tech Sci-Fi Gem

Ana is a brilliant young woman. She’s a chemist and a PhD student at Oxford University, working on an incredible and likely life changing experiment. Her goal is to find a way to transport matter by opening a worm hole by which said matter will travel. Just imagine the possibilities and applications. She works tirelessly with the help of her friends Liv and Nate, and may be on the verge of, dare I say, success? And while the investigation of a cyber-crime in her department, and incessant harassment from protesters about experiments conducted on University grounds could be seen as an obstacle, Ana is persistent and unyielding. She begins practical experimentation, sending small inanimate items, dozens of marbles to be exact, through the wormhole. The marbles travel, but to where is a mystery…that is until Ana and her colleagues calibrate the transporter in a way that will allow them to fix a coordinate for an end point. Now they are

Continue reading →
Capt McNeely
May 24, 2017
Horror Fuel

Movie Review – ALIEN: COVENANT Isn’t ALIEN Yet, But It Doesn’t Have To Be

It’s been ten years since Peter Weyland financed the ill fated Prometheus expedition, intent on finding and meeting the supposed creators of the human race or “engineers”. Now Weyland Corp. has become Weyland Yutani, and their focus is now that of “building better worlds”. To that end the company has sought out other habitable distant planets for the purpose of colonization. The crew of a Colony Ship named Covenant are charged with transporting over 2,000 cryo-slumbering colonists and over 1,000 frozen embryos to their destination on the planet Origae-6. During the voyage, an energy flare from an exploding star causes damage to the ship, causes the death of a few colonists and the ship’s captain, who becomes trapped in his cryo-stasis pod as it encounters a catastrophic malfunction. The rest of the crew having been awakened by the mission’s synthetic crew member, Walter, assess the damage and begin repairs. As they complete the necessary repairs to Covenant, they receive transmission

Continue reading →
Capt McNeely
May 19, 2017
Horror Fuel

Movie Review: BESETMENT Is A Good Film That Had The Potential To Be Better

One would be hard pressed to determine which of the following Amanda needs worse: a break from her mother or gainful employment. A case could be made that both are equally important. So imagine Amanda’s surprise when she is offered a job at a hotel located in the small Oregon town of Mitchell. It seems ideal, since it puts a fair bit of distance between Amanda and her mother while not only providing her a source of much needed income, but also providing her with room and board. Her new boss Mildred is a quirky, eccentric, no-nonsense kind of old gal, who has a meek and simple middle aged son named Billy. As Amanda tries to acclimate herself to her new job and surroundings, she will come to find out too late that her sparkling resume and previous experience had no bearing on putting her in the position where she now finds herself. In such a small town with very

Continue reading →
Capt McNeely
May 17, 2017
Horror Fuel

Movie Review: THE RIZEN Delivers Sci-Fi Horror With Vintage Style

A decade has passed since the Allies achieved victory over the Axis Powers in World War II, but now a new arms race beginning to take shape. NATO and Allied Forces come together in a joint effort to win or at the very least stay ahead of said arms race. Taking a cue from Hitler’s playbook, these combined forces delve into the occult. With little or no true understanding of the otherworldly power they seek to utilize, there could literally be hell to pay for their meddling. And with Pandora’s Box now open, so to speak, the world faces a greater threat than it has ever known. This is where Frances comes in. She is an enigmatic woman, who awakens in a bunker complex, with no prior memory as to who she is or why she is there. As she traverses the endless series of corridors in search of escape, she encounters a scientist named Baughman and a soldier named

Continue reading →
Capt McNeely
May 13, 2017
Horror Fuel

AMERICAN GODS Renewed After A Fantastic Start

Neil Gaiman’s American Gods, based on his books by the same title, has only been on the air for two weeks and is already getting a lot of attention, so much that it has just been renewed for season 2, thank god(s). I can only describe the series as brilliant, bold, beautiful, and nothing like we have ever seen before. The story lines keep you hanging on every line of the character’s dialogue. Even the violence, and there is a lot of it, is executed as if it were art. The cinematography, at the hands of Darren Tiernan, Jo Williams, and Aaron Morton, is simply elegant. There is sex, brutality, war, love, passion and mystery. What more could you want? In a world filled with gods, both old and new, we have been introduced to our central character, Shadow Moon (Ricky Whittle), who is fresh out of prison and mourning the death of his wife Laura (Emily Browning). He is

Continue reading →
Kelli Marchman McNeely
May 11, 2017
Horror Fuel

Movie Review: CHUPACABRA TERRITORY Is Territory Best Undiscovered

The Chupacabra (that’s “goat sucker” to you and me, Rusty) has been a cryptozoological legend for decades with some of the first reported attacks occurring in Puerto Rico in the spring of 1995. Since then, there have been dozens of sightings of this cryptid creature. It’s that king of curiosity that will motivate a group of four friends to journey out in search of the elusive sanguine sucker. They meet with resistance, as a park ranger initially tries to shoo them away from their intended destination. But they will not be denied and find their way back into the off limits wilderness area. Along the way they encounter another group of folks, as well as a creepy gas masked biologist. But will they discover their intended quarry – the chupacabra? And if they do, will they live to tell the tale or at least have the footage to prove it? Found footage has become an increasingly popular method of movie

Continue reading →
Capt McNeely
May 10, 2017
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