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
ProductReviewsSci-Fi
Growing up, I’ve sometimes wondered what it would be like to have a Xenomorph as a pet. Don’t look at me like that. The only issue is how to house a 7+ft tall creature out of Giger’s nightmares, the answer can be found at Agora Models. Specializing in intricate models you won’t find in any hobby store, especially due to the size of these models, the Alien model is nothing to sneeze at, this bug is 4 feet tall (when finished) and will have lights in the head-dome, a head that swivels after sensing movement, and a motorized retractable second jaw! There’s a lot of assembly required to put this Xeno together with over 600 parts. No worries if you’re missing parts, I had that happen, Agora’s customer service helped get the missing parts sent over to me after I realized I was missing some. At the time of writing this, I’ll have to be honest, I’m only halfway done
Continue reading →
MoviesNewsReviewsTrailers
Netflix has just released the shark movie Under Paris, so let’s dive into it. Bérénice Bejo (The Artist) steps forward as Sophia, a shark expert trying to track a mako shark—or at least she thinks that’s what it is. After facing a tragedy, she is called upon once more to hunt the killer when it shows up in France’s waterways as a significant event approaches. The first thing you’ll notice is the dubbing. It’s not great. I wish they would release the original and provide a closed caption because the dubbing is pretty distracting. The story is exciting and unique, earning it bonus points in my book. It’s not the same shark movie we’ve seen repeatedly. It takes a few twists along the way that will surprise you. I wish the secondary characters were a little more fleshed out, but they are primarily snacks for the predator. There was one death I didn’t expect and I am so thankful the
Continue reading →
Film FestivalsForeignMoviesReviews
Tribeca usually premieres features that land on my “top 10 horror films of the year” lists, and Icelandic director Thordur Palsson’s The Damned (UK, Iceland, Ireland, Belgium; 2024) has kept that streak alive, as it has certainly cemented a spot on my list already. The film deftly blends psychological, folk, and survival horror elements in a gripping work of dread. Set in a harsh winter during the 19th century, The Damned finds widow Eva (Odessa Young) in charge of an isolated fishing outpost. Her crew is near starvation, doing their best to keep their spirits up even as they begin resorting to eating the fish they use as bait to survive. When Eva and her crew catch sight of a sinking ship one day, they must decide whether to try and rescue survivors or to put their own survival ahead of saving strangers. After a chilling discovery is made, the inhabitants of the outpost begin to exhibit horrifying behaviors as
Continue reading →
IndieMoviesParanormalReviews
Who got their relationship hoo-ha all mixed-up with supernatural shenanigans? Well the new anthology from filmmaker Jimmy Drain, Realm of Shadows for one… and lucky for you cats n’ creeps that’s the feature I’ll be slappin’ my putrid peepers on and given the ol’ standard substandard revoltin’ review treatment! After we are introduced to the Sisters of the Moon; a gaggle of gals, lead by the devilish Nalum (Erika Monet), hell bent on relating their visions of the battle for men’s souls as they struggle to obtain the mystical… and apparently pretty damn powerful Dagger of Destiny… from some priest-types. These visions form the basis of the stories presented for our vicious viewing pleasure! We are soon introduced to Malick (Drain), a dude with the hots for multiple ladies, which of course leads to raucous results once he makes his preternatural pick, followed by a journey into a relationship influenced by those witches mmentioned up yonder… so again, expect decidedly
Continue reading →
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GamingNewsProductReviews
Growing up in the late 80s and through the 90s, we had some kick-ass toys, action figures, and our imaginations. Then growing up happened and took all that away leaving a void. Thankfully Digital Cybercherries have come to the rescue and rekindled that spark of childish wonder with Hypercharge: Unboxed, a game inspired by Toy Story and Small Soldiers. Hypercharge: Unboxed is a first and third-person shooter set in a world where toys created machines that help humans remember their fondest memories of their toys when they were children. These machines are now under threat by Major Evil, a collectible action figure who turned evil because he was never played with. Now it’s up to Max Ammo’s elite team of action figures to help protect the precious memories of humans. Now, onto the game itself! Hypercharge: Unboxed‘s controls will take a little to get used to at first but thankfully there is a tutorial level you can play that will
Continue reading →
MoviesReviewsThriller
Kate and John Coleman (played by The Conjuring series’ Vera Farmiga and Peter Sarsgaard respectively) are down in the dumps and sorta on the rocks after the stillborn death of their third child, so they decide to adopt the freakishly gifted Esther (Isabelle Fuhrman) from ye olde local orphanage. While their son, Daniel (Jimmy Bennett) is lukewarm to his new sister at best, his sister, the deaf mute Max (Aryana Engineer), couldn’t be more thrilled with Esther’s presence. Of course this being a fright flick and all, Esther has a few issues, and before long Kate is mega-suspicious that her brand-new terror tyke is much more than she seems, in the worst possible ways… a fact that the orphanage’s head honcho, Sister Abigail (CCH Pounder) confirms when she reveals the shaky past our girl had back home in Russia. Will Kate be able to convince the family that her feelings are correct, or will that home sweet home turn into
Continue reading →
GamingNewsProductReviewsSci-Fi
Slipgate Ironworks and 3D Realms have teamed up to bring back old-school FPS games to a new generation with their Bombshell series of games featuring heroine Shelly “Bombshell” Harrison in her latest installment Phantom Fury is like Bombshell’s other games but with a touch of 3D in it. I want to thank Slipgate Ironworks and 3D Realms for sending over a copy to try out! Phantom Fury (for fans of the series) takes place after the events of Iron Fury with Bombshell waking up and discovering she now has a mechanical arm that will help her fight on her cross-country journey to track down a lethal artifact that threatens humanity. Now, onto the game itself! Phantom Fury does have standard FPS controls BUT there are some additions such as interaction with the environment. As a default, the crouch button needs to be held down so you stay down, this can be changed in the options. Phantom Fury is fully voice-cast
Continue reading →
Film FestivalsForeignMoviesReviewsShort Films
Kill Your Lover (U.K.; 2023) The fractured relationship between former rock musician Dakota (Paige Gilmour) and her manipulative, much more conservative boyfriend Axel (Shane Quigley-Murphy) is toxic in more ways than one in codirectors/cowriters Alix Austin’s and Keir Siewert’s feature Kill Your Lover, winner of Romford Film Festival’s Best British Feature Film award. Just as Dakota is ready to finally break things off with Axel, he develops a contagious condition that causes him to develop strange markings on his skin, vomit, and cause acidic burns to anyone he touches. Flashbacks show the relationship from its beginnings to yellow and red flags developing to the horrific present. Gilmour and Quigley-Murphy give super performances as two very different people who somehow found themselves in a relationship that both probably should have known better than to start. The body horror is as strong as the psychological torture on display, for which Hair & Makeup Designer/Prosthetics Designer/Special Effects Makeup Artist Rebecca Wheeler and her
Continue reading →
GamingProductReviewsSci-Fi
Back in 1994, Looking Glass Technologies and Origin Systems changed action-adventure gaming by stranding gamers on a space station with rogue AI, mutants, robots, and cyborgs running amock in the horror cyberpunk game, System Shock. The game with its first-person perspective has not only spawned a sequel game and TV series but inspired other game series like Deus Ex and BioShock. In 2023, System Shock was given the remake treatment for modern audiences and players on PC and now has been released on consoles by Nightdive Studios, who were awesome enough to let me check out this remake, how was it? Let’s find out. System Shock puts players in the shoes of a security hacker who, after being caught hacking into security files on the Citadel space station, is brought onto the space station to hack into and turn off the morality options for the station AI, SHODAN. The Hacker later wakes up to see that all hell has broken
Continue reading →
DocumentariesForeignIndieMoviesReviews
There’s nothing that hits quite like Italian horror cinema of the ’80s to mid-’90s. It is often outrageous, spectacularly gore-drenched, surreal and completely one-of-a-kind (even when it lifts elements from Hollywood fright flick blockbusters)… and just as it was rockin’ and rollin’, the wheels came off the cart shortly after the release of Michele Soavi’s kinda-sorta Dylan Dog adaptation, Cemetery Man in 1994. How did this occur? Well, that is precisely what Nocturno magazine’s Davide Pulici aims to decipher in Claudio Lattanzi’s (1988’s Zombi 5: The Killing Birds) documentary Il Tempo del Sogna. Following the journey from Lamberto Bava’s 1985 monsterpiece Demons, with a special focus given to the troubled production of it’s second sequel (which would eventually be retooled into Soavi’s The Church in 1989), on through late-era Fulci, and to late in the game stragglers such as 1997’s The Wax Mask (directed by effects maestro Sergio Stivaletti) we hear first-hand accounts of both the production of beloved fright
Continue reading →
More from Reviews
ProductReviewsSci-Fi
Growing up, I’ve sometimes wondered what it would be like to have a Xenomorph as a pet. Don’t look at me like that. The only issue is how to house a 7+ft tall creature out of Giger’s nightmares, the answer can be found at Agora Models. Specializing in intricate models you won’t find in any hobby store, especially due to the size of these models, the Alien model is nothing to sneeze at, this bug is 4 feet tall (when finished) and will have lights in the head-dome, a head that swivels after sensing movement, and a motorized retractable second jaw! There’s a lot of assembly required to put this Xeno together with over 600 parts. No worries if you’re missing parts, I had that happen, Agora’s customer service helped get the missing parts sent over to me after I realized I was missing some. At the time of writing this, I’ll have to be honest, I’m only halfway done
Continue reading →
MoviesNewsReviewsTrailers
Netflix has just released the shark movie Under Paris, so let’s dive into it. Bérénice Bejo (The Artist) steps forward as Sophia, a shark expert trying to track a mako shark—or at least she thinks that’s what it is. After facing a tragedy, she is called upon once more to hunt the killer when it shows up in France’s waterways as a significant event approaches. The first thing you’ll notice is the dubbing. It’s not great. I wish they would release the original and provide a closed caption because the dubbing is pretty distracting. The story is exciting and unique, earning it bonus points in my book. It’s not the same shark movie we’ve seen repeatedly. It takes a few twists along the way that will surprise you. I wish the secondary characters were a little more fleshed out, but they are primarily snacks for the predator. There was one death I didn’t expect and I am so thankful the
Continue reading →
Film FestivalsForeignMoviesReviews
Tribeca usually premieres features that land on my “top 10 horror films of the year” lists, and Icelandic director Thordur Palsson’s The Damned (UK, Iceland, Ireland, Belgium; 2024) has kept that streak alive, as it has certainly cemented a spot on my list already. The film deftly blends psychological, folk, and survival horror elements in a gripping work of dread. Set in a harsh winter during the 19th century, The Damned finds widow Eva (Odessa Young) in charge of an isolated fishing outpost. Her crew is near starvation, doing their best to keep their spirits up even as they begin resorting to eating the fish they use as bait to survive. When Eva and her crew catch sight of a sinking ship one day, they must decide whether to try and rescue survivors or to put their own survival ahead of saving strangers. After a chilling discovery is made, the inhabitants of the outpost begin to exhibit horrifying behaviors as
Continue reading →
IndieMoviesParanormalReviews
Who got their relationship hoo-ha all mixed-up with supernatural shenanigans? Well the new anthology from filmmaker Jimmy Drain, Realm of Shadows for one… and lucky for you cats n’ creeps that’s the feature I’ll be slappin’ my putrid peepers on and given the ol’ standard substandard revoltin’ review treatment! After we are introduced to the Sisters of the Moon; a gaggle of gals, lead by the devilish Nalum (Erika Monet), hell bent on relating their visions of the battle for men’s souls as they struggle to obtain the mystical… and apparently pretty damn powerful Dagger of Destiny… from some priest-types. These visions form the basis of the stories presented for our vicious viewing pleasure! We are soon introduced to Malick (Drain), a dude with the hots for multiple ladies, which of course leads to raucous results once he makes his preternatural pick, followed by a journey into a relationship influenced by those witches mmentioned up yonder… so again, expect decidedly
Continue reading →
GamingNewsProductReviews
Growing up in the late 80s and through the 90s, we had some kick-ass toys, action figures, and our imaginations. Then growing up happened and took all that away leaving a void. Thankfully Digital Cybercherries have come to the rescue and rekindled that spark of childish wonder with Hypercharge: Unboxed, a game inspired by Toy Story and Small Soldiers. Hypercharge: Unboxed is a first and third-person shooter set in a world where toys created machines that help humans remember their fondest memories of their toys when they were children. These machines are now under threat by Major Evil, a collectible action figure who turned evil because he was never played with. Now it’s up to Max Ammo’s elite team of action figures to help protect the precious memories of humans. Now, onto the game itself! Hypercharge: Unboxed‘s controls will take a little to get used to at first but thankfully there is a tutorial level you can play that will
Continue reading →
MoviesReviewsThriller
Kate and John Coleman (played by The Conjuring series’ Vera Farmiga and Peter Sarsgaard respectively) are down in the dumps and sorta on the rocks after the stillborn death of their third child, so they decide to adopt the freakishly gifted Esther (Isabelle Fuhrman) from ye olde local orphanage. While their son, Daniel (Jimmy Bennett) is lukewarm to his new sister at best, his sister, the deaf mute Max (Aryana Engineer), couldn’t be more thrilled with Esther’s presence. Of course this being a fright flick and all, Esther has a few issues, and before long Kate is mega-suspicious that her brand-new terror tyke is much more than she seems, in the worst possible ways… a fact that the orphanage’s head honcho, Sister Abigail (CCH Pounder) confirms when she reveals the shaky past our girl had back home in Russia. Will Kate be able to convince the family that her feelings are correct, or will that home sweet home turn into
Continue reading →
GamingNewsProductReviewsSci-Fi
Slipgate Ironworks and 3D Realms have teamed up to bring back old-school FPS games to a new generation with their Bombshell series of games featuring heroine Shelly “Bombshell” Harrison in her latest installment Phantom Fury is like Bombshell’s other games but with a touch of 3D in it. I want to thank Slipgate Ironworks and 3D Realms for sending over a copy to try out! Phantom Fury (for fans of the series) takes place after the events of Iron Fury with Bombshell waking up and discovering she now has a mechanical arm that will help her fight on her cross-country journey to track down a lethal artifact that threatens humanity. Now, onto the game itself! Phantom Fury does have standard FPS controls BUT there are some additions such as interaction with the environment. As a default, the crouch button needs to be held down so you stay down, this can be changed in the options. Phantom Fury is fully voice-cast
Continue reading →
Film FestivalsForeignMoviesReviewsShort Films
Kill Your Lover (U.K.; 2023) The fractured relationship between former rock musician Dakota (Paige Gilmour) and her manipulative, much more conservative boyfriend Axel (Shane Quigley-Murphy) is toxic in more ways than one in codirectors/cowriters Alix Austin’s and Keir Siewert’s feature Kill Your Lover, winner of Romford Film Festival’s Best British Feature Film award. Just as Dakota is ready to finally break things off with Axel, he develops a contagious condition that causes him to develop strange markings on his skin, vomit, and cause acidic burns to anyone he touches. Flashbacks show the relationship from its beginnings to yellow and red flags developing to the horrific present. Gilmour and Quigley-Murphy give super performances as two very different people who somehow found themselves in a relationship that both probably should have known better than to start. The body horror is as strong as the psychological torture on display, for which Hair & Makeup Designer/Prosthetics Designer/Special Effects Makeup Artist Rebecca Wheeler and her
Continue reading →
GamingProductReviewsSci-Fi
Back in 1994, Looking Glass Technologies and Origin Systems changed action-adventure gaming by stranding gamers on a space station with rogue AI, mutants, robots, and cyborgs running amock in the horror cyberpunk game, System Shock. The game with its first-person perspective has not only spawned a sequel game and TV series but inspired other game series like Deus Ex and BioShock. In 2023, System Shock was given the remake treatment for modern audiences and players on PC and now has been released on consoles by Nightdive Studios, who were awesome enough to let me check out this remake, how was it? Let’s find out. System Shock puts players in the shoes of a security hacker who, after being caught hacking into security files on the Citadel space station, is brought onto the space station to hack into and turn off the morality options for the station AI, SHODAN. The Hacker later wakes up to see that all hell has broken
Continue reading →
DocumentariesForeignIndieMoviesReviews
There’s nothing that hits quite like Italian horror cinema of the ’80s to mid-’90s. It is often outrageous, spectacularly gore-drenched, surreal and completely one-of-a-kind (even when it lifts elements from Hollywood fright flick blockbusters)… and just as it was rockin’ and rollin’, the wheels came off the cart shortly after the release of Michele Soavi’s kinda-sorta Dylan Dog adaptation, Cemetery Man in 1994. How did this occur? Well, that is precisely what Nocturno magazine’s Davide Pulici aims to decipher in Claudio Lattanzi’s (1988’s Zombi 5: The Killing Birds) documentary Il Tempo del Sogna. Following the journey from Lamberto Bava’s 1985 monsterpiece Demons, with a special focus given to the troubled production of it’s second sequel (which would eventually be retooled into Soavi’s The Church in 1989), on through late-era Fulci, and to late in the game stragglers such as 1997’s The Wax Mask (directed by effects maestro Sergio Stivaletti) we hear first-hand accounts of both the production of beloved fright
Continue reading →
