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Game Review: ‘The Mildew Children’

The Growing Stones and Valkyrie Initiative came together to tell a macabre story about a village inhabited only by children. Life in this village will soon turn to death if their local pariahs, the witches, fail at an upcoming ritual. This is The Mildew Children. The Mildew Children follows Kyrphel, a young witch plagued by omens relating to the fate of the village, her fears grow after one of her fellow witches dies, bringing the number of witches in the village down to three. This would not be a problem if not for the fact that there needed to be four witches to carry out a ritual on a certain night to prevent doom from coming to the village. Now Kyrphel must find the fourth witch. Now, onto the game itself! Depending on how you plan on going about playing The Mildew Children, controls are relatively simple. The game is side-scrolling so there’s not much to the controls. The art

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Daniel S. Liuzzi
Apr 17, 2024

Spoiler-Free Short Film Reviews: “Bookworm,” “Hevel,” “Souling,” “Dark Mommy,” “Spooky Crew,” “I Could Just Die, and That Would Be Alright” (Overlook Film Festival)

Following is a capsule review roundup of six of the short-film shockers that screened at this year’s edition of New Orlean’s Overlook Film Festival. Bookworm Bookworm (Ratón de biblioteca; Spain, 2023) from director Javier Yañez envelops viewers in a phantasmagorical vibe before suddenly ramping up the visceral shocks. Irene (Aria Bedmar in a wonderful performance) is a young librarian in 1979 Spain who wants to become a writer, much to her mother’s dismay. Irene and her fellow librarian often see the ghost of a young man — though they can’t quite catch a glimpse of his face — browsing books. Determined to try to make contact with this potential soulmate, Irene sets out to find out what his visage looks like. With beautiful set design and cinematography, Bookworm both charms and chills. Hevel In writer/director David Grace’s Hevel, devout Jewish woman Edra (Mor Cohen) begins a Shabbat service. A dybbuk has other plans for her, however, in this demonic possession

Continue reading →
Joseph Perry
Apr 16, 2024

Review: Low Budget Horror ‘Isleen Pines’ Is A Fun Flick

From the writing and directing duo of Alexys Paonessa and Matthew Festle comes the no-budget horror film Isleen Pines. The film centers on a group of friends gathering together for their annual Halloween get-together. The horrors of this indie flick kick off when one of the friends discovers a strange creature. It doesn’t take long for things to turn into a nightmare when a snake-like creature forces its way through his urethra, basically making his dick explode. Not a great way to go. Things go down quickly from there, with the friends being killed off one by one as they discover that another type of creature, bigger, badder, uglier, and it is killing everyone in its path. I did not see the dick alien coming. Needless to say, it got my attention. In all, there are three forms of alien creatures. You can tell that thought went into their design. It’s surprising what they created with the budget restrictions. The

Continue reading →
Kelli Marchman McNeely
Apr 15, 2024

Panic Fest 2024 Spoiler-Free Film Reviews: “Blind Cop 2” and “Keratyna”

Blind Cop 2 (2024) A sequel to a film that doesn’t exist, director Alec Bonk’s Blind Cop 2 follows the tropes of movies depicting good cops kicked off the force for using excessive violence and seeking redemption without having a badge — and then there’s the trusty new sidekick, too. Imagine Marvel’s Daredevil as an alcoholic police officer wearing a bulletproof vest rather than a superhero costume and you’re only partially on your way to getting an inkling about how this irreverent title character (played with verve by George Fearing) goes about his business. You can’t forget Blind Cop’s name, either, as just about every person who addresses him calls him that. Using those aforementioned tropes, Bonk, who cowrote the screenplay with Augustin Huffman and Isaac McKinnon, directs with flare, deftly balancing the humor with plenty of dramatic elements and bloody action. Fearing is fantastic in the title role, and McKinnon makes for a fine sidekick-in-training as Schmidty. The humor

Continue reading →
Joseph Perry
Apr 15, 2024

Movie Review: Carrie (2013) – Scream Factory 4K/Blu-ray combo

Remember back in 2013 when there was a new cinematic version of Stephen King’s Carrie released to theaters? Well, I sure forgot it… hell, I’ve never even seen it! Anyway, those fine fiends at Scream Factory were kind enough to fling a copy of their new 4K/Blu-ray combo release of that very title my way, so let’s dig in! Poor Carrie White (Chloe Grace Moretz); she’s decidedly the most unpopular kid at her New England High School, and things go from bad to really fucking bad after she freaks out in school about her first period… not like a class, her menstrual cycle… because, and get this, teens can be mean as shit. Things aren’t much better at home, as her religious wing-nut of a mother, Margaret (Julianne Moore, routinely abuses the hell out of her in the name of Jesus feeling everything Carrie does is a sin. If she thought a period is a sin, wait until Mags gets

Continue reading →
DanXIII
Apr 13, 2024

Game Review: ‘Outer Terror’

Salt & Pixel and VoxPop Games have created a bullet hell that combines 80s and 90s comics with cosmic horror elements. This is Outer Terror, a bullet hell rogue-lite game that can be played solo or with a friend as you face hoards of otherworldly terror. When it comes to the game’s controls, they’re limited as the attacks by the characters are automatic and all you pretty much have to do is aim the crosshairs where you want to attack. It strikes me as a callback to old arcade games you played on PC (if you know you know). The sound is a bit annoying as it’s repetitive at times and depending on what weapons you are using you may end up wanting to either lower the sound volume or mute it completely. When it comes to the game’s art, it’s a bit rough. I really like the comic book look when it’s used in cinematic moments and dialogue, but

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Daniel S. Liuzzi
Apr 12, 2024

Panic Fest 2024 Spoiler-Free Short Film Reviews: “Cereal,” “The Curse of the Velvet Vampire,” “We Joined a Cult,” “Up on the Housetop,” “Strange Creatures,” “Howl at the Dead” 

Following is a roundup of six of the short-film shockers that screened at this year’s edition of New Orlean’s Overlook Film Festival. Cereal Canadian short Cereal, from director Shane R. Preston, finds young girl Chelsea (Trinity Kaylani Seiling in a fun performance) receiving a disturbing message from her alphabet-shaped cereal: “Kill.” This evil kid short has a nice retro vibe and looks great, with a fine supporting performance from Shelby Handley as Chelsea’s mother. My only quibble is that the fourth wall gets broken twice, which reduces the effect for me. The Curse of the Velvet Vampire Director Christoffer Schurict’s collaboration with band 802 finds two Chinese horror fans watching a strange film in a video rental store. Soon enough, this slice of cinema intersects with real life. Featuring plenty of female undead and the resulting bloodletting, along with some music video, this short film has cult favorite written all over it. We Joined a Cult From Chris McInroy, director

Continue reading →
Joseph Perry
Apr 12, 2024

Panic Fest 2024 Spoiler-Free Review: “Ghost Game” (2024)

Director Jill Gevargizian’s sophomore feature Ghost Game is an effective offering that uses home invasion in a unique way and serves up some intriguing surprises. Vinny (Zaen Haidar) discovers some disturbing footage on his girlfriend Laura’s (Kia Dorsey) laptop — without her permission — in which she and a man named Adrian (Sam Likowski) botch a home invasion and injure a woman. Laura explains that it is a sort of filmed challenge called Ghost Game, in which the participants live in houses without being detected by homeowners — phrogging, as it is called — and prank them, leading the residents to believe that the supernatural is involved. And it just might be, as Vinny insists that Laura get rid of Adrian and take him with her instead to her next assignment: a long-abandoned, reputedly haunted house in which a family has just moved in. The stage for real ghostly occurrences is soon set, as young daughter Samantha (Vienna Maas), who

Continue reading →
Joseph Perry
Apr 12, 2024

Panic Fest 2024 Spoiler-Free Film Reviews: “The Ceremony Is About to Begin” and “The Hyperborean”

The Ceremony Is About to Begin (2024) Director Sean Nichols Lynch follows up his vampire comedy Red Snow (2021) with faux documentary horror The Ceremony Is About to Begin, which he cowrote with stars Chad Westbrook Hinds and John Laird. The film starts with black-and-white interview footage with former members of the Osiris Collective, a commune/cult based on ancient Egyptian culture, including each member taking on a name from that culture. The leader was a man named Father Osiris (Raul Delarosa), who disappeared mysteriously during a mountain hike with a new member who took the name Anubis (Hinds). Documentarian Keith Evans (Laird) has a very personal reason for wanting to interview the members of the Osiris Collective, as his ex-girlfriend Maddy (Michelle Westbrook Hinds) left him for the cult. Anubis, who took over leadership of the group and whose negative behaviors drove members away, invites Evans to the Collective grounds to conduct interviews. With the film having earlier changed to

Continue reading →
Joseph Perry
Apr 11, 2024

Game Review: ‘The Kindeman Remedy’

Winner of the Official Selection category of Fear Fest Black Summer 2023, and scoring massive positive ratings on STEAM, Troglobytes Games, and 3D Realms’ dark management game The Kindeman Remedy has made its way to consoles to challenge a new wave of players to push science beyond its ethical limits! The Kindeman Remedy takes players to a prison where they take on the roles of Dr. Carl Kindeman, a disgraced doctor who is shunned by the scientific and medical community for his unethical research into a “Cure-all” medicine, and Sister Anna, a zealous Nun who wants nothing more than to free the inmates from their suffering by hand delivering them to the Lord. Now, onto the game itself! The Kindeman Remedy is a “Clicker” game, a point-and-click game where the characters only move or perform actions on something in the environment as long as you click on it with the curser. Surprisingly using a controller is not so bad. Audio-wise,

Continue reading →
Daniel S. Liuzzi
Apr 10, 2024

More from Reviews

Game Review: ‘The Mildew Children’

The Growing Stones and Valkyrie Initiative came together to tell a macabre story about a village inhabited only by children. Life in this village will soon turn to death if their local pariahs, the witches, fail at an upcoming ritual. This is The Mildew Children. The Mildew Children follows Kyrphel, a young witch plagued by omens relating to the fate of the village, her fears grow after one of her fellow witches dies, bringing the number of witches in the village down to three. This would not be a problem if not for the fact that there needed to be four witches to carry out a ritual on a certain night to prevent doom from coming to the village. Now Kyrphel must find the fourth witch. Now, onto the game itself! Depending on how you plan on going about playing The Mildew Children, controls are relatively simple. The game is side-scrolling so there’s not much to the controls. The art

Continue reading →
Daniel S. Liuzzi
Apr 17, 2024

Spoiler-Free Short Film Reviews: “Bookworm,” “Hevel,” “Souling,” “Dark Mommy,” “Spooky Crew,” “I Could Just Die, and That Would Be Alright” (Overlook Film Festival)

Following is a capsule review roundup of six of the short-film shockers that screened at this year’s edition of New Orlean’s Overlook Film Festival. Bookworm Bookworm (Ratón de biblioteca; Spain, 2023) from director Javier Yañez envelops viewers in a phantasmagorical vibe before suddenly ramping up the visceral shocks. Irene (Aria Bedmar in a wonderful performance) is a young librarian in 1979 Spain who wants to become a writer, much to her mother’s dismay. Irene and her fellow librarian often see the ghost of a young man — though they can’t quite catch a glimpse of his face — browsing books. Determined to try to make contact with this potential soulmate, Irene sets out to find out what his visage looks like. With beautiful set design and cinematography, Bookworm both charms and chills. Hevel In writer/director David Grace’s Hevel, devout Jewish woman Edra (Mor Cohen) begins a Shabbat service. A dybbuk has other plans for her, however, in this demonic possession

Continue reading →
Joseph Perry
Apr 16, 2024

Review: Low Budget Horror ‘Isleen Pines’ Is A Fun Flick

From the writing and directing duo of Alexys Paonessa and Matthew Festle comes the no-budget horror film Isleen Pines. The film centers on a group of friends gathering together for their annual Halloween get-together. The horrors of this indie flick kick off when one of the friends discovers a strange creature. It doesn’t take long for things to turn into a nightmare when a snake-like creature forces its way through his urethra, basically making his dick explode. Not a great way to go. Things go down quickly from there, with the friends being killed off one by one as they discover that another type of creature, bigger, badder, uglier, and it is killing everyone in its path. I did not see the dick alien coming. Needless to say, it got my attention. In all, there are three forms of alien creatures. You can tell that thought went into their design. It’s surprising what they created with the budget restrictions. The

Continue reading →
Kelli Marchman McNeely
Apr 15, 2024

Panic Fest 2024 Spoiler-Free Film Reviews: “Blind Cop 2” and “Keratyna”

Blind Cop 2 (2024) A sequel to a film that doesn’t exist, director Alec Bonk’s Blind Cop 2 follows the tropes of movies depicting good cops kicked off the force for using excessive violence and seeking redemption without having a badge — and then there’s the trusty new sidekick, too. Imagine Marvel’s Daredevil as an alcoholic police officer wearing a bulletproof vest rather than a superhero costume and you’re only partially on your way to getting an inkling about how this irreverent title character (played with verve by George Fearing) goes about his business. You can’t forget Blind Cop’s name, either, as just about every person who addresses him calls him that. Using those aforementioned tropes, Bonk, who cowrote the screenplay with Augustin Huffman and Isaac McKinnon, directs with flare, deftly balancing the humor with plenty of dramatic elements and bloody action. Fearing is fantastic in the title role, and McKinnon makes for a fine sidekick-in-training as Schmidty. The humor

Continue reading →
Joseph Perry
Apr 15, 2024

Movie Review: Carrie (2013) – Scream Factory 4K/Blu-ray combo

Remember back in 2013 when there was a new cinematic version of Stephen King’s Carrie released to theaters? Well, I sure forgot it… hell, I’ve never even seen it! Anyway, those fine fiends at Scream Factory were kind enough to fling a copy of their new 4K/Blu-ray combo release of that very title my way, so let’s dig in! Poor Carrie White (Chloe Grace Moretz); she’s decidedly the most unpopular kid at her New England High School, and things go from bad to really fucking bad after she freaks out in school about her first period… not like a class, her menstrual cycle… because, and get this, teens can be mean as shit. Things aren’t much better at home, as her religious wing-nut of a mother, Margaret (Julianne Moore, routinely abuses the hell out of her in the name of Jesus feeling everything Carrie does is a sin. If she thought a period is a sin, wait until Mags gets

Continue reading →
DanXIII
Apr 13, 2024

Game Review: ‘Outer Terror’

Salt & Pixel and VoxPop Games have created a bullet hell that combines 80s and 90s comics with cosmic horror elements. This is Outer Terror, a bullet hell rogue-lite game that can be played solo or with a friend as you face hoards of otherworldly terror. When it comes to the game’s controls, they’re limited as the attacks by the characters are automatic and all you pretty much have to do is aim the crosshairs where you want to attack. It strikes me as a callback to old arcade games you played on PC (if you know you know). The sound is a bit annoying as it’s repetitive at times and depending on what weapons you are using you may end up wanting to either lower the sound volume or mute it completely. When it comes to the game’s art, it’s a bit rough. I really like the comic book look when it’s used in cinematic moments and dialogue, but

Continue reading →
Daniel S. Liuzzi
Apr 12, 2024

Panic Fest 2024 Spoiler-Free Short Film Reviews: “Cereal,” “The Curse of the Velvet Vampire,” “We Joined a Cult,” “Up on the Housetop,” “Strange Creatures,” “Howl at the Dead” 

Following is a roundup of six of the short-film shockers that screened at this year’s edition of New Orlean’s Overlook Film Festival. Cereal Canadian short Cereal, from director Shane R. Preston, finds young girl Chelsea (Trinity Kaylani Seiling in a fun performance) receiving a disturbing message from her alphabet-shaped cereal: “Kill.” This evil kid short has a nice retro vibe and looks great, with a fine supporting performance from Shelby Handley as Chelsea’s mother. My only quibble is that the fourth wall gets broken twice, which reduces the effect for me. The Curse of the Velvet Vampire Director Christoffer Schurict’s collaboration with band 802 finds two Chinese horror fans watching a strange film in a video rental store. Soon enough, this slice of cinema intersects with real life. Featuring plenty of female undead and the resulting bloodletting, along with some music video, this short film has cult favorite written all over it. We Joined a Cult From Chris McInroy, director

Continue reading →
Joseph Perry
Apr 12, 2024

Panic Fest 2024 Spoiler-Free Review: “Ghost Game” (2024)

Director Jill Gevargizian’s sophomore feature Ghost Game is an effective offering that uses home invasion in a unique way and serves up some intriguing surprises. Vinny (Zaen Haidar) discovers some disturbing footage on his girlfriend Laura’s (Kia Dorsey) laptop — without her permission — in which she and a man named Adrian (Sam Likowski) botch a home invasion and injure a woman. Laura explains that it is a sort of filmed challenge called Ghost Game, in which the participants live in houses without being detected by homeowners — phrogging, as it is called — and prank them, leading the residents to believe that the supernatural is involved. And it just might be, as Vinny insists that Laura get rid of Adrian and take him with her instead to her next assignment: a long-abandoned, reputedly haunted house in which a family has just moved in. The stage for real ghostly occurrences is soon set, as young daughter Samantha (Vienna Maas), who

Continue reading →
Joseph Perry
Apr 12, 2024

Panic Fest 2024 Spoiler-Free Film Reviews: “The Ceremony Is About to Begin” and “The Hyperborean”

The Ceremony Is About to Begin (2024) Director Sean Nichols Lynch follows up his vampire comedy Red Snow (2021) with faux documentary horror The Ceremony Is About to Begin, which he cowrote with stars Chad Westbrook Hinds and John Laird. The film starts with black-and-white interview footage with former members of the Osiris Collective, a commune/cult based on ancient Egyptian culture, including each member taking on a name from that culture. The leader was a man named Father Osiris (Raul Delarosa), who disappeared mysteriously during a mountain hike with a new member who took the name Anubis (Hinds). Documentarian Keith Evans (Laird) has a very personal reason for wanting to interview the members of the Osiris Collective, as his ex-girlfriend Maddy (Michelle Westbrook Hinds) left him for the cult. Anubis, who took over leadership of the group and whose negative behaviors drove members away, invites Evans to the Collective grounds to conduct interviews. With the film having earlier changed to

Continue reading →
Joseph Perry
Apr 11, 2024

Game Review: ‘The Kindeman Remedy’

Winner of the Official Selection category of Fear Fest Black Summer 2023, and scoring massive positive ratings on STEAM, Troglobytes Games, and 3D Realms’ dark management game The Kindeman Remedy has made its way to consoles to challenge a new wave of players to push science beyond its ethical limits! The Kindeman Remedy takes players to a prison where they take on the roles of Dr. Carl Kindeman, a disgraced doctor who is shunned by the scientific and medical community for his unethical research into a “Cure-all” medicine, and Sister Anna, a zealous Nun who wants nothing more than to free the inmates from their suffering by hand delivering them to the Lord. Now, onto the game itself! The Kindeman Remedy is a “Clicker” game, a point-and-click game where the characters only move or perform actions on something in the environment as long as you click on it with the curser. Surprisingly using a controller is not so bad. Audio-wise,

Continue reading →
Daniel S. Liuzzi
Apr 10, 2024
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