CategoryReviews
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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Reviews
Director Alberto Marini’s 2015 ‘Summer Camp‘, co-written by Danielle Schleif, has just made it to Netflix’s DVD library. I’ve been wanting to see it and last night I finally did. The film begins with four camp counselors (3 American), played by Diego Boneta (Scream Queens), Jocelin Donahue (Insidious: Chapter 2), Maiara Walsh (Zombieland) and Andres Velencoso, getting ready the day before the camp’s opening. Things begin to go very wrong when one of the camp’s dogs seems to go rabid. What the councilors don’t know is that it is not rabies, but something worse. While in the wine cellars, the two guys get into a fight after one begins to attack while black ooze drips from his mouth. In the struggle one is killed. Soon another councilor begins to have the same symptoms, aggression and a taste for blood. Now the group is in all out fight for survival. Unfortunately, ‘Summer Camp’ plays out like many camp horror films do.
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GamingMoviesReviews
Beta Test Written and Directed by: Nicholas Gyeney Starring: Manu Bennet, Larenz Tate, Linden Ashby, Sara Coates The correlation of violence in video games leading to violent behavior in real life – it’s a hotly debated topic everyone has an opinion on, whether they’ll admit it or not. Andrew Kincaid, the big boss at a gaming industry giant called Sentinel. is no different. Kincaid thinks that guns in games can be more therapeutic than harmful. His rationale being that the digital release of aggression can be cathartic, making it less likely that said aggression will pour over into the real world. Kincaid and Sentinel’s chief security officer, Orson Creed, seem to be at odds on this issue. Creed is rumored to be pushing for Sentinel to be contractors, creating tech for military use. Kincaid is focused rather on giving players the highest level of game interactivity, and Creed is about to find out just how interactive it can get. A
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NewsReviewsStreaming TV
SCREAM premiered on the 9th and TONIGHT is the big reveal find out WHO’S BEHIND THE MASK & the KILLER phone calls! Let’s get catched up SCREAMERS! The latest episode picked up with the hours after this occurrence [The Killer drowning Zoe and Maggie then leaving a note to the Killer to test if he really was the OG Killer/ex-lover from the OG massacre] which held the Killer entering the Duval house with a key —so right there you uncovered the Killer is somewhat close to the Duval’s to even HAVE a key—, Emma waking up to finding signs the Killer was in the house grabbed a pair of scissors for defense, but to her surprise she was only met by the haunting appearance of to a necklace with her name carved into a wideled heart hung on it, just like the OG Killer (a.k.a Brandon James) 20 years earlier gave to her mother Maggie. Cops soon showed up (I’m
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HalloweenNewsReviewsTrailers
Hell Town hosted by Horror Icon Debby Rochon, wasn’t a disappointment. In fact it made me laugh from the very beginning. Our sexy, gothic host most certainly rung in the bewitching season which is soon approaching (sort of soon) with her announcement that the screening, which was a brief series of episodes, was in fact dug up from a cemetery. Following the story line of a jealous sister, a town flewsy, a conflicted homosexual man, the troubling truth a comatose mother wouldn’t awake from her coma and a rising body count. The series brought laughs, bloodshed and drama in the most spook-tastic way. Combining a cast of willing and talented actors, with a decent script by Michael Balderson (who also serves as director), Michael Page, Chris Pudlo and Elizabeth Spear, the horror-soap managed to not only be a classic whodunnit but also, a major F-U to your fav daytime soaps. Hell Town will be available on the below platforms on
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BooksReviews
Minstrel’s Bargain by Richard Ayre was a book I’d been wanting to read for quite a while. Richard has three books to his credit, the most notable of which to our readers here at Horror Fuel is Bad Neighborhood, the multi-author horror anthology I put together with the help of a Kickstarter campaign last year. With that said, going in I was only loosely familiar with the author’s work, and wasn’t quite sure of what to expect from something which promised to be “heart-pounding pulp horror”. In recent years, “pulp” has been a catch all term, and the book description didn’t give me much to go on. With that said, I know from personal experience reading and writing Richard’s work in the past that he’s an excellent writer, so I was optimistic despite the sparse description. After-all, the cover was creepy enough. Book Description: Newcastle 1988. Reporter Phil Sturgess is intrigued by an up and coming rock band. Their music
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MoviesReviewsTrue Story
Following the story of a young women diagnosed with agoraphobia and confined to her mother’s home during the Spring of 1988 leading up to a psycho trying to kill her, The Torment Of Laurie Cullom wasn’t a let down. Set in the same vain as HUSH, the film (WINNER BEST ACTRESS AWARD and OFFICIAL SELECTION of THE ORLANDO FREAK SHOW HORROR FILM FESTIVAL) built pace and suspense rather than being a blood bath. The first 30 or so minutes in frankly I believed I was watching a haunting film: stuff falling, things being misplaced or actually the real kicker, a jug of milk becoming a jug of blood. All this happening actually made me begin to expect a ghoul to pop up..somewhere. I then found myself surprised and intently watching as the screen went black and my eyes scooped all over my screen for signs of life. About 10 seconds later a novelty mask donned Killer emerged from the shadows
Continue reading →
ReviewsStreaming TV
Last nights SCREAM the killer added another head to his demented list of victims and the SCREAM fandom went in a frenzy as Noah was seemingly about to be next to die. Opening with Maggie discovering a freshly stitched wound on Piper’s body after it was brought back into police custody. As Maggie unsealed the wound she was met by a pig’s heart, which gives a call back to the first season, which begs the question WHY a pig? Is it like a metaphor? Like “Maggie this is your heart, you are a pig!”. Well no. It has to do with something Sheriff Acosta and Maggie did in their youth. While we speculate, lets continue on EVERYTHING that went down last night. Emma had a one on one with Audry on why she brought Piper to Lakewood. Audry during this reveals to Emma she was with Piper the night Rachel (Audry’s GF) got murdered and the fact she knew she
Continue reading →
Reviews
Netflix’s new original series Stranger Things, written and directed by Matt and Ross Duffer, is the most brilliant series TV we’ve seen in a very long time. Starring Winona Ryder, David Harbour, Natalia Dyer, Charlie Heaton, Matthew Modine and Joe Keery, the series could not have been better. Stranger Things follows a group of friends, played by Finn Wolfhard, Gaten Matarazzo, and Caleb McLaughlin, who discover a strange girl named Eleven (Millie Bobby Brown) at the same time that their friend Will disappears. Eleven (Elle for short), while hiding from the government agency, holds the secrets of an experiment that has created a doorway to another world. The friends set out to find Will and bring him home, with the help of Elle. At the same time Will’s mother (Ryder) refuses to give up hope of finding her youngest son. She has discovered that Will can communicate by making the lights blink from the other side. Together, Will’s family and
Continue reading →
Reviews
Mitch Hyman’s name is one you might recognize. He is the creator and writer of the hilarious Bubba the Redneck Werewolf comic and the great 2014 film by the same name. Hyman is not only a great man, a writer and comic book creator, he is also a talented actor, producer and special effects artist. Mitch’s latest project, a novel titled Vinnie and Mook Hitmen in Paradise has not been long released. I happen to get my hands on a copy. Here’s what I thought. Not far into the novel it’s clear that Hyman has a knack for character development. First thing, we are introduced to Vinnie and Mook, as they dispose of a body at a gator farm. The dialogue between the two old school hitmen comes across like two siblings picking at each other in a snarky, but playful way. The first couple of chapters delve into Vinnie and Mook’s history and their relationship as business partners and
Continue reading →
Reviews
The Conjuring 2 is everywhere, social media, TV, and is still number one at the box office for its second week. I’ve been dying to see The Conjuring 2. Last night, I made the hour-plus drive to the nearest theater to see it for myself, and I was not disappointed. Directed by genre genius James Wan and starring Patrick Wilson and Vera Farmiga as the real life legendary paranormal investigators Ed and Lorraine Warren, The Conjuring 2 takes on two real life paranormal events. The Conjuring 2, based on a true story, delves into the Enfield Poltergiest. But the film begins with the Amityville investigation. The Amityville haunting began in real life when the Lutz family moved into the home once owned by the DeFeo family and began experiencing paranormal events, which inspired The Amityville Horror. On November 13, 1974 police discovered the bodies of six members of the DeFeo family shot and killed in their home at 112 Ocean
Continue reading →
More from Reviews
Reviews
Director Alberto Marini’s 2015 ‘Summer Camp‘, co-written by Danielle Schleif, has just made it to Netflix’s DVD library. I’ve been wanting to see it and last night I finally did. The film begins with four camp counselors (3 American), played by Diego Boneta (Scream Queens), Jocelin Donahue (Insidious: Chapter 2), Maiara Walsh (Zombieland) and Andres Velencoso, getting ready the day before the camp’s opening. Things begin to go very wrong when one of the camp’s dogs seems to go rabid. What the councilors don’t know is that it is not rabies, but something worse. While in the wine cellars, the two guys get into a fight after one begins to attack while black ooze drips from his mouth. In the struggle one is killed. Soon another councilor begins to have the same symptoms, aggression and a taste for blood. Now the group is in all out fight for survival. Unfortunately, ‘Summer Camp’ plays out like many camp horror films do.
Continue reading →
GamingMoviesReviews
Beta Test Written and Directed by: Nicholas Gyeney Starring: Manu Bennet, Larenz Tate, Linden Ashby, Sara Coates The correlation of violence in video games leading to violent behavior in real life – it’s a hotly debated topic everyone has an opinion on, whether they’ll admit it or not. Andrew Kincaid, the big boss at a gaming industry giant called Sentinel. is no different. Kincaid thinks that guns in games can be more therapeutic than harmful. His rationale being that the digital release of aggression can be cathartic, making it less likely that said aggression will pour over into the real world. Kincaid and Sentinel’s chief security officer, Orson Creed, seem to be at odds on this issue. Creed is rumored to be pushing for Sentinel to be contractors, creating tech for military use. Kincaid is focused rather on giving players the highest level of game interactivity, and Creed is about to find out just how interactive it can get. A
Continue reading →
NewsReviewsStreaming TV
SCREAM premiered on the 9th and TONIGHT is the big reveal find out WHO’S BEHIND THE MASK & the KILLER phone calls! Let’s get catched up SCREAMERS! The latest episode picked up with the hours after this occurrence [The Killer drowning Zoe and Maggie then leaving a note to the Killer to test if he really was the OG Killer/ex-lover from the OG massacre] which held the Killer entering the Duval house with a key —so right there you uncovered the Killer is somewhat close to the Duval’s to even HAVE a key—, Emma waking up to finding signs the Killer was in the house grabbed a pair of scissors for defense, but to her surprise she was only met by the haunting appearance of to a necklace with her name carved into a wideled heart hung on it, just like the OG Killer (a.k.a Brandon James) 20 years earlier gave to her mother Maggie. Cops soon showed up (I’m
Continue reading →
HalloweenNewsReviewsTrailers
Hell Town hosted by Horror Icon Debby Rochon, wasn’t a disappointment. In fact it made me laugh from the very beginning. Our sexy, gothic host most certainly rung in the bewitching season which is soon approaching (sort of soon) with her announcement that the screening, which was a brief series of episodes, was in fact dug up from a cemetery. Following the story line of a jealous sister, a town flewsy, a conflicted homosexual man, the troubling truth a comatose mother wouldn’t awake from her coma and a rising body count. The series brought laughs, bloodshed and drama in the most spook-tastic way. Combining a cast of willing and talented actors, with a decent script by Michael Balderson (who also serves as director), Michael Page, Chris Pudlo and Elizabeth Spear, the horror-soap managed to not only be a classic whodunnit but also, a major F-U to your fav daytime soaps. Hell Town will be available on the below platforms on
Continue reading →
BooksReviews
Minstrel’s Bargain by Richard Ayre was a book I’d been wanting to read for quite a while. Richard has three books to his credit, the most notable of which to our readers here at Horror Fuel is Bad Neighborhood, the multi-author horror anthology I put together with the help of a Kickstarter campaign last year. With that said, going in I was only loosely familiar with the author’s work, and wasn’t quite sure of what to expect from something which promised to be “heart-pounding pulp horror”. In recent years, “pulp” has been a catch all term, and the book description didn’t give me much to go on. With that said, I know from personal experience reading and writing Richard’s work in the past that he’s an excellent writer, so I was optimistic despite the sparse description. After-all, the cover was creepy enough. Book Description: Newcastle 1988. Reporter Phil Sturgess is intrigued by an up and coming rock band. Their music
Continue reading →
MoviesReviewsTrue Story
Following the story of a young women diagnosed with agoraphobia and confined to her mother’s home during the Spring of 1988 leading up to a psycho trying to kill her, The Torment Of Laurie Cullom wasn’t a let down. Set in the same vain as HUSH, the film (WINNER BEST ACTRESS AWARD and OFFICIAL SELECTION of THE ORLANDO FREAK SHOW HORROR FILM FESTIVAL) built pace and suspense rather than being a blood bath. The first 30 or so minutes in frankly I believed I was watching a haunting film: stuff falling, things being misplaced or actually the real kicker, a jug of milk becoming a jug of blood. All this happening actually made me begin to expect a ghoul to pop up..somewhere. I then found myself surprised and intently watching as the screen went black and my eyes scooped all over my screen for signs of life. About 10 seconds later a novelty mask donned Killer emerged from the shadows
Continue reading →
ReviewsStreaming TV
Last nights SCREAM the killer added another head to his demented list of victims and the SCREAM fandom went in a frenzy as Noah was seemingly about to be next to die. Opening with Maggie discovering a freshly stitched wound on Piper’s body after it was brought back into police custody. As Maggie unsealed the wound she was met by a pig’s heart, which gives a call back to the first season, which begs the question WHY a pig? Is it like a metaphor? Like “Maggie this is your heart, you are a pig!”. Well no. It has to do with something Sheriff Acosta and Maggie did in their youth. While we speculate, lets continue on EVERYTHING that went down last night. Emma had a one on one with Audry on why she brought Piper to Lakewood. Audry during this reveals to Emma she was with Piper the night Rachel (Audry’s GF) got murdered and the fact she knew she
Continue reading →
Reviews
Netflix’s new original series Stranger Things, written and directed by Matt and Ross Duffer, is the most brilliant series TV we’ve seen in a very long time. Starring Winona Ryder, David Harbour, Natalia Dyer, Charlie Heaton, Matthew Modine and Joe Keery, the series could not have been better. Stranger Things follows a group of friends, played by Finn Wolfhard, Gaten Matarazzo, and Caleb McLaughlin, who discover a strange girl named Eleven (Millie Bobby Brown) at the same time that their friend Will disappears. Eleven (Elle for short), while hiding from the government agency, holds the secrets of an experiment that has created a doorway to another world. The friends set out to find Will and bring him home, with the help of Elle. At the same time Will’s mother (Ryder) refuses to give up hope of finding her youngest son. She has discovered that Will can communicate by making the lights blink from the other side. Together, Will’s family and
Continue reading →
Reviews
Mitch Hyman’s name is one you might recognize. He is the creator and writer of the hilarious Bubba the Redneck Werewolf comic and the great 2014 film by the same name. Hyman is not only a great man, a writer and comic book creator, he is also a talented actor, producer and special effects artist. Mitch’s latest project, a novel titled Vinnie and Mook Hitmen in Paradise has not been long released. I happen to get my hands on a copy. Here’s what I thought. Not far into the novel it’s clear that Hyman has a knack for character development. First thing, we are introduced to Vinnie and Mook, as they dispose of a body at a gator farm. The dialogue between the two old school hitmen comes across like two siblings picking at each other in a snarky, but playful way. The first couple of chapters delve into Vinnie and Mook’s history and their relationship as business partners and
Continue reading →
Reviews
The Conjuring 2 is everywhere, social media, TV, and is still number one at the box office for its second week. I’ve been dying to see The Conjuring 2. Last night, I made the hour-plus drive to the nearest theater to see it for myself, and I was not disappointed. Directed by genre genius James Wan and starring Patrick Wilson and Vera Farmiga as the real life legendary paranormal investigators Ed and Lorraine Warren, The Conjuring 2 takes on two real life paranormal events. The Conjuring 2, based on a true story, delves into the Enfield Poltergiest. But the film begins with the Amityville investigation. The Amityville haunting began in real life when the Lutz family moved into the home once owned by the DeFeo family and began experiencing paranormal events, which inspired The Amityville Horror. On November 13, 1974 police discovered the bodies of six members of the DeFeo family shot and killed in their home at 112 Ocean
Continue reading →
