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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ForeignIndieMoviesReviews
While vacationing, Virginia (María Elena Arpón), and her pal Roger (César Burner) bump into Virginia’s former boarding school chum/former lover Betty (Lone Fleming) decide to take a train ride. Whoopie-shit you may say, but wait… Virginia gets super jealous of Roger’s interest in Betty and decides to hop of that train and goes for a stroll where she ends up wandering in the wind-swept ruined town of Berzano. While that would be creepy enough on it’s own, this location was once home to a cadre of Knights Templar in the Middle Ages… but they were executed by hanging for crimes of cavortin’ with the Devil… oh, and performing ritual, cannibalistic sacrifice… but unfortunately for our good friend Virginia, they are more of the walking dead-style of deceased… and at night they rise as rotted, eyeless, hooded cloak wearing zombie mother fuckers… and their horses too! Being the supernatural menace that they are, the knights dispatch Virginia by biting the living
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GamingIndieParanormalProductReviews
A circus and traumatic experience should go hand in hand with horror, right? Well if done right yes. But then there’s Daedalic Entertainment and Pixlesplit’s first-person psychological horror REVEIL. REVEIL follows a circus handyman by the name of Walter as he’s constantly waking up in his house but finding himself still in a dreamlike world that keeps taking him back to the circus where he and his circus performer wife and daughter work. When it comes to the game’s controls, the layout is…wired, there’s no other way to say it. The controls don’t feel natural and I found myself most of the time messing up. The voice acting for the game is good but the soundtrack gets annoying with the droning sound effects used in songs that are reminiscent of another game (I’ll get to that shortly). The gameplay for REVEIL is what you would expect in a game like this, you walk around, solve a puzzle to advance, and
Continue reading →
MoviesNewsReviewsThrillerTrailers
The new survival thriller No Way Up has just been unleashed on VOD. So, let’s talk about it. No Way Up is directed by Claudio Fäh. In the movie, the journey of a group of passengers on a flight to an exotic location takes a horrifying turn when disaster strikes mid-flight, sending the aircraft plummeting into the unforgiving Pacific Ocean. Amidst the wreckage, a handful of passengers find themselves clinging to hope in the plane’s galley, the only remaining air pocket of the plane. As the immense pressure of the deep intensifies, panic consumes the survivors. With dwindling oxygen, the threat of flooding, and sharks circling in the darkness, hope seems to dwindle with each passing second. An Indie Film Before we delve too deep into the film, you need to understand that it is an indie film, which makes the quality of Now Way Up even more impressive. Also, at this point, I should probably tell you that the
Continue reading →
MoviesNewsReviewsThrillerTrailers
Years before the true-life horrors of the pandemic, a film would be unleashed that explores the horrifying possibilities that come with a deadly outbreak, 2011’s Contagion. Contagion meticulously depicts the rapid spread of a deadly virus. It highlights our world’s interconnectedness and society’s fragility in the face of such a threat. The film, written by Scott Z. Burns, was lauded for its realistic portrayal of disease outbreaks and its prescience in capturing the anxieties surrounding global health emergencies. A terror that became all too real when the COVID pandemic consumed the world. First, let’s look at the film’s massive, award-winning cast featuring talents from stars such as Matt Damon, Laurence Fishburn, Jude Law, Kate Winslet, Marion Cotillard, and Gweneth Paltrow. At the time of its making, this was, and mostly still is, a who’s who of Hollywood. The fact that Steven Soderbergh directed Contagion doesn’t hurt. He is the same filmmaker behind Traffic, Erin Brockovich, Sex, Lies, and Video Tapes,
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MoviesReviewsSci-Fi
Max Renn (James Woods, John Carpenter’s Vampires) is the president of tiny UHF station CIVIC-TV; a channel that stays afloat thanks to it’s regular broadcasts containing ample amounts of those hoary ol’ chestnuts, sex and violence! Bored with the normal softcore smut he’s is offered for broadcast, Mmax turns his eyes skyward for inspiration… namely by using CIVIC-TV’s big-ass satellite dish to find new programs that’ll excite both himself and his viewers. To that end, he gets turned on to Videodrome; a plot-less torture program… most likely unsimulated… that is broadcast from Pittsburgh. Along the way he gets his new sadomasochistic girlfriend, the radio host Nicki Brand (Blondie’s Debbie Harry) who gets it in her head that she wants to try and audition for the show. His investigation as to the show’s origin brings him to The Cathode Ray Mission; a homeless shelter that seeks to rehabilitate derelicts through constant exposure to television… and was the home of the TV-based
Continue reading →
ConventionsHalloweenHoliday HorrorProductReviews
Sometimes you need something like gloves to bring your outfit together, whether casual, cosplay, on the job, hanging out, serving our country, or riding your steel steed. Leather gloves are the best but there are so many kinds out there to choose from that fit your uniqueness. An unsuspecting ally is here for this need, meet Maroon Bell Outdoor which specializes in leather goods for the outdoors. I want to thank Jeremy, the founder of Maroon Bell Outdoor for sending over some of their Lion Guard Motorcycle gloves and making this review possible! Right away the gloves look awesome with the skeletal patchwork sewn onto the glove, which I really like as it reminds me of my favorite wrestler growing up, La Parka (L.A. Park). The gloves are made with water buffalo leather, which is said to be three times stronger than cow leather meaning they’ll last longer and will over time mold to your hand thanks to the use
Continue reading →
Reviews
It’s a Hammer film, for better and worse. A modern reimagining of Louis Stevenson’s classic novella The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde, Hammer’s DOCTOR JEKYLL manages to entertain, but fails to stick the perfect landing. Spoilers follow. I’ll try to keep them light. Writers: Dan Kelly-Mulhern/Robert Louis Stevenson Director: Joe Stephenson Cast: Eddie Izzard, Scott Chambers, Lindsay Duncan, Simon Callow, Jonathan Hyde, Morgan Watkins, Robyn Cara Run Time: 89 Mins The film is an interesting take on the well-known Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde dynamic. Eddie Izzard plays our titular character, Dr. Nina Jekyll. A pharmaceutical tycoon who’s made a fortune in the business. When scandal hits, it’s all placed in immediate jeopardy. The idea of an evil pharmaceutical mogul is anything but new, but it works in this setting. Paced well, and never too grandiose, the story manages to keep your attention, feeding you just enough to keep you invested, without giving everything away too early.
Continue reading →
GamingIndieProductReviews
With what happened a couple of years ago with the lockdowns, many people became fascinated with how diseases work, and how they affect people. Call it morbid curiosity, or call it legitimate understanding, either way, part of you wonders what it would be like to create or fight diseases. Well, the folks over at DryGin Studios have been answering this question with their “Bio Inc.” game series. They were awesome enough to send over their latest title to their series (Big thank you, by the way!) for me to check out. This is Bio Inc. Redemption. Bio Inc. Redemption is a strategy medical simulator where you are either the virus or the doctor trying to save the patient. For this review, I chose the side of death, because I’m a morbid twerp like that, so this is based mainly on that playthrough. The controls are straightforward though I feel the tutorial for console versions could be a bit clearer. Be
Continue reading →
GamingIndieParanormalProductReviewsSci-Fi
Who says the zombie apocalypse has to be hard, scary, and gloomy? Why fear zombies when you can hack into (what’s left of) their brains and make them your buddy? That’s what EKO Software and NACON’s Welcome to ParadiZe, where survivors can enslave zombies and survive the zombie apocalypse. Welcome to ParadiZe is set in the middle of a global zombie takeover and the only beacon of hope is a place called ParadiZe, a community where zombies work for the humans and protect them from other zombies. After you arrive, it becomes clear that you need to make it what the ads promised. Now, onto the game itself! Give yourself some time to get used to the controls as the tutorial machineguns instructions at you almost right away. There’s a codex that you can refer to at any time to look at past tutorials, always a nice touch when a game does that. The game is in 3rd person, unfortunately,
Continue reading →
Film FestivalsForeignMoviesReviewsShort Films
THE ACTIVATED MAN (U.S., 2023) Writer/director Nicholas Gyeney’s feature The Activated Man is an interesting variation on the “shadow people” subgenre. The film goes all-in on its exploration of psychic power and supernatural forces. Leaning perhaps slightly more toward tugging at the heartstrings than delivering full-blown horror, the film does serve up a decidedly frightening new character in The Fedora Man (Edward Michael Scott), whose appearance should inspire cosplay and Halloween costumes aplenty. The Activated Man is loaded with ideas, perhaps almost too many for a single film, including a late reveal that I won’t spoil here. Unemployed Ors (Jamie Costa) is suffering from depression after the loss of his dog Louie to cancer, and his police detective significant other Sarah (Ivana Rojas) is supportive of him, while she herself investigates local cases of murder–suicides, an epidemic of which is sweeping the United States. Ors begins to see ghostly visions of Louie, as well as unwelcome appearances from The Fedora
Continue reading →
More from Reviews
ForeignIndieMoviesReviews
While vacationing, Virginia (María Elena Arpón), and her pal Roger (César Burner) bump into Virginia’s former boarding school chum/former lover Betty (Lone Fleming) decide to take a train ride. Whoopie-shit you may say, but wait… Virginia gets super jealous of Roger’s interest in Betty and decides to hop of that train and goes for a stroll where she ends up wandering in the wind-swept ruined town of Berzano. While that would be creepy enough on it’s own, this location was once home to a cadre of Knights Templar in the Middle Ages… but they were executed by hanging for crimes of cavortin’ with the Devil… oh, and performing ritual, cannibalistic sacrifice… but unfortunately for our good friend Virginia, they are more of the walking dead-style of deceased… and at night they rise as rotted, eyeless, hooded cloak wearing zombie mother fuckers… and their horses too! Being the supernatural menace that they are, the knights dispatch Virginia by biting the living
Continue reading →
GamingIndieParanormalProductReviews
A circus and traumatic experience should go hand in hand with horror, right? Well if done right yes. But then there’s Daedalic Entertainment and Pixlesplit’s first-person psychological horror REVEIL. REVEIL follows a circus handyman by the name of Walter as he’s constantly waking up in his house but finding himself still in a dreamlike world that keeps taking him back to the circus where he and his circus performer wife and daughter work. When it comes to the game’s controls, the layout is…wired, there’s no other way to say it. The controls don’t feel natural and I found myself most of the time messing up. The voice acting for the game is good but the soundtrack gets annoying with the droning sound effects used in songs that are reminiscent of another game (I’ll get to that shortly). The gameplay for REVEIL is what you would expect in a game like this, you walk around, solve a puzzle to advance, and
Continue reading →
MoviesNewsReviewsThrillerTrailers
The new survival thriller No Way Up has just been unleashed on VOD. So, let’s talk about it. No Way Up is directed by Claudio Fäh. In the movie, the journey of a group of passengers on a flight to an exotic location takes a horrifying turn when disaster strikes mid-flight, sending the aircraft plummeting into the unforgiving Pacific Ocean. Amidst the wreckage, a handful of passengers find themselves clinging to hope in the plane’s galley, the only remaining air pocket of the plane. As the immense pressure of the deep intensifies, panic consumes the survivors. With dwindling oxygen, the threat of flooding, and sharks circling in the darkness, hope seems to dwindle with each passing second. An Indie Film Before we delve too deep into the film, you need to understand that it is an indie film, which makes the quality of Now Way Up even more impressive. Also, at this point, I should probably tell you that the
Continue reading →
MoviesNewsReviewsThrillerTrailers
Years before the true-life horrors of the pandemic, a film would be unleashed that explores the horrifying possibilities that come with a deadly outbreak, 2011’s Contagion. Contagion meticulously depicts the rapid spread of a deadly virus. It highlights our world’s interconnectedness and society’s fragility in the face of such a threat. The film, written by Scott Z. Burns, was lauded for its realistic portrayal of disease outbreaks and its prescience in capturing the anxieties surrounding global health emergencies. A terror that became all too real when the COVID pandemic consumed the world. First, let’s look at the film’s massive, award-winning cast featuring talents from stars such as Matt Damon, Laurence Fishburn, Jude Law, Kate Winslet, Marion Cotillard, and Gweneth Paltrow. At the time of its making, this was, and mostly still is, a who’s who of Hollywood. The fact that Steven Soderbergh directed Contagion doesn’t hurt. He is the same filmmaker behind Traffic, Erin Brockovich, Sex, Lies, and Video Tapes,
Continue reading →
MoviesReviewsSci-Fi
Max Renn (James Woods, John Carpenter’s Vampires) is the president of tiny UHF station CIVIC-TV; a channel that stays afloat thanks to it’s regular broadcasts containing ample amounts of those hoary ol’ chestnuts, sex and violence! Bored with the normal softcore smut he’s is offered for broadcast, Mmax turns his eyes skyward for inspiration… namely by using CIVIC-TV’s big-ass satellite dish to find new programs that’ll excite both himself and his viewers. To that end, he gets turned on to Videodrome; a plot-less torture program… most likely unsimulated… that is broadcast from Pittsburgh. Along the way he gets his new sadomasochistic girlfriend, the radio host Nicki Brand (Blondie’s Debbie Harry) who gets it in her head that she wants to try and audition for the show. His investigation as to the show’s origin brings him to The Cathode Ray Mission; a homeless shelter that seeks to rehabilitate derelicts through constant exposure to television… and was the home of the TV-based
Continue reading →
ConventionsHalloweenHoliday HorrorProductReviews
Sometimes you need something like gloves to bring your outfit together, whether casual, cosplay, on the job, hanging out, serving our country, or riding your steel steed. Leather gloves are the best but there are so many kinds out there to choose from that fit your uniqueness. An unsuspecting ally is here for this need, meet Maroon Bell Outdoor which specializes in leather goods for the outdoors. I want to thank Jeremy, the founder of Maroon Bell Outdoor for sending over some of their Lion Guard Motorcycle gloves and making this review possible! Right away the gloves look awesome with the skeletal patchwork sewn onto the glove, which I really like as it reminds me of my favorite wrestler growing up, La Parka (L.A. Park). The gloves are made with water buffalo leather, which is said to be three times stronger than cow leather meaning they’ll last longer and will over time mold to your hand thanks to the use
Continue reading →
Reviews
It’s a Hammer film, for better and worse. A modern reimagining of Louis Stevenson’s classic novella The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde, Hammer’s DOCTOR JEKYLL manages to entertain, but fails to stick the perfect landing. Spoilers follow. I’ll try to keep them light. Writers: Dan Kelly-Mulhern/Robert Louis Stevenson Director: Joe Stephenson Cast: Eddie Izzard, Scott Chambers, Lindsay Duncan, Simon Callow, Jonathan Hyde, Morgan Watkins, Robyn Cara Run Time: 89 Mins The film is an interesting take on the well-known Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde dynamic. Eddie Izzard plays our titular character, Dr. Nina Jekyll. A pharmaceutical tycoon who’s made a fortune in the business. When scandal hits, it’s all placed in immediate jeopardy. The idea of an evil pharmaceutical mogul is anything but new, but it works in this setting. Paced well, and never too grandiose, the story manages to keep your attention, feeding you just enough to keep you invested, without giving everything away too early.
Continue reading →
GamingIndieProductReviews
With what happened a couple of years ago with the lockdowns, many people became fascinated with how diseases work, and how they affect people. Call it morbid curiosity, or call it legitimate understanding, either way, part of you wonders what it would be like to create or fight diseases. Well, the folks over at DryGin Studios have been answering this question with their “Bio Inc.” game series. They were awesome enough to send over their latest title to their series (Big thank you, by the way!) for me to check out. This is Bio Inc. Redemption. Bio Inc. Redemption is a strategy medical simulator where you are either the virus or the doctor trying to save the patient. For this review, I chose the side of death, because I’m a morbid twerp like that, so this is based mainly on that playthrough. The controls are straightforward though I feel the tutorial for console versions could be a bit clearer. Be
Continue reading →
GamingIndieParanormalProductReviewsSci-Fi
Who says the zombie apocalypse has to be hard, scary, and gloomy? Why fear zombies when you can hack into (what’s left of) their brains and make them your buddy? That’s what EKO Software and NACON’s Welcome to ParadiZe, where survivors can enslave zombies and survive the zombie apocalypse. Welcome to ParadiZe is set in the middle of a global zombie takeover and the only beacon of hope is a place called ParadiZe, a community where zombies work for the humans and protect them from other zombies. After you arrive, it becomes clear that you need to make it what the ads promised. Now, onto the game itself! Give yourself some time to get used to the controls as the tutorial machineguns instructions at you almost right away. There’s a codex that you can refer to at any time to look at past tutorials, always a nice touch when a game does that. The game is in 3rd person, unfortunately,
Continue reading →
Film FestivalsForeignMoviesReviewsShort Films
THE ACTIVATED MAN (U.S., 2023) Writer/director Nicholas Gyeney’s feature The Activated Man is an interesting variation on the “shadow people” subgenre. The film goes all-in on its exploration of psychic power and supernatural forces. Leaning perhaps slightly more toward tugging at the heartstrings than delivering full-blown horror, the film does serve up a decidedly frightening new character in The Fedora Man (Edward Michael Scott), whose appearance should inspire cosplay and Halloween costumes aplenty. The Activated Man is loaded with ideas, perhaps almost too many for a single film, including a late reveal that I won’t spoil here. Unemployed Ors (Jamie Costa) is suffering from depression after the loss of his dog Louie to cancer, and his police detective significant other Sarah (Ivana Rojas) is supportive of him, while she herself investigates local cases of murder–suicides, an epidemic of which is sweeping the United States. Ors begins to see ghostly visions of Louie, as well as unwelcome appearances from The Fedora
Continue reading →
