CategoryReviews
Honest horror reviews of films, series, games and books — no hype, no spoilers, just whether it is worth your time and your nerves.
3,430 stories
HalloweenParanormalProductReviews
When we put on our outfits, we want to look good. But what about our feet? They need to look good too, right? Socks can be boring or don’t say enough about you. You’re not generic, or boring, FootCloths is here to help make your feet badass! I want to thank Chelsea, Cierra, and the other awesome folks at FootCloths for making this review possible and sending over some awesome socks! At FootCloths their socks come in different categories that fit your style, Occult I got to experience the Demon Crew socks (pictured in the main picture). Retro Horror I now have the perfect zombie hunter socks with the Night of the Killer Zombies! When I’m feeling a bit evil I can now wear my Evil AF Baphomet socks in the mythical creatures category. Classic Halloween has the perfect socks for you to wear either around the best time of year OR all year round as I’m not ashamed to
Continue reading →
ForeignIndieMoviesReviews
When you sit down to The Fifth Thoracic Vertebra, the debut feature from South Korean Director Park Sye-young, you may think you are settling in to a take on George Barry’s 1977 killer bed flick, Death Bed: The Bed That Eats. Since both features contain killer beds… or more specifically in this film’s case a killer mattress… but the two experiences couldn’t be more different. While Death Bed is a more conventional horror movie, The Fifth Thoracic Vertebra is a melancholy, though completely bizarre, treatise on loneliness and emotion. Following the life cycle of a creature born of fungus that inhabits a mattress owned originally by a couple in a rather crummy relationship, the narrative moves from owner to owner (usually after it feeds on someone), allowing us to experience their sad existences. All of that packs quite an emotional punch that in a conventional drama would be almost overbearing in it’s depressive aesthetic, but since this is ostensibly a
Continue reading →
IndieMoviesReviewsShort FilmsThriller
Remember like four years ago when I clued you beautiful cats n’ creeps in about writer/director Finn Callan’s sinister short Guest? Probably not, but click that highlighted text and you can catch right the hell up! Now that all of that biz is out of the way, let’s dive in to Callan’s follow up, the appropriately titled Guest 2; a longer (but still “short” in the “it’s not quite feature length” sense) deeper dive into the wicked world established in the frightful first go-around! Siblings Jill (Jennifer English) and Ethan (Simon Bigg) are tasked with setting up a support group confab, but E-Dawg has been shirking those responsibilities and sequestered himself in his room. Fed up with such bullshittery, Jill runs the group solo-style and becomes acquainted with with Mia (Natasha Biggs), a woman dealing with severe loneliness and isolation. Unfortunately for Jill, Mia hasn’t been suffering as all alone as she thinks… and soon the preternatural presence, the eponymous
Continue reading →
ProductReviews
I’m a big fan of gummy worms… well… sour gummy worms to be exact. I once bought an eight-pound bag of neon-sour-gummy worms and almost ate the whole thing in one sitting! That may have been OK when I was 16, but I’m almost 40… that’s not good. Unbeknownst to me (till now) a mad scientist, Dr. Rotten created a better gastronomical experience, these are Rotten Gummy Worms! I want to thank Team Rotten for sending over some worms for me to try! First of all, I love the packaging. The bags the gummy worms come in are made from wood cellulose and biomaterials which will break down in compost facilities. I’m a sucker for art, and I love the art style Rotten has gone with! The Ed Roth art style brought back a wave of nostalgia growing up in the 90s when his style was being replicated everywhere. Now onto the worms! I was given two kinds to try,
Continue reading →
AdaptationForeignIndieMoviesReviews
What do you get when you combine Sir Christopher Lee, legendary horror/exploitation filmmaker Jess Franco, the madman that was Klaus Kinski, and an absolute fang-banger of Gothic literature? Why you get a surprisingly more faithful than most, though by no means complete, retelling of Bram Stoker’s 1897 literary masterpiece Dracula of course! After encountering a number of locals that look at him like a dead man walking, lawyer Jonathan Harker (Fred Williams) continues to the Borgo Pass where he is met by a mysterious coachman that takes him to his destination; the castle of Count Dracula (Lee), an aging aristocrat who wishes to secure property in England with Harker’s assistance. Right from the get-go things are off with ol’ Drac, as he casts no reflection in mirrors, has fangs like a wolf, gets excited around blood, and sleeps in a stone coffin… oh, he also has a trio of brides that sleep in coffins and eat the babies of the
Continue reading →
IndieMoviesReviews
Peter (Fred Vogel) and Crusty (Cristie Whiles) continue on their magical murder-y tour of torture and bloody chaos, but now they spice things right the fuck up and attempt to achieve penance for their violent ways, but that leads to even more misadventure! It’s that last bit of business that sets this entry in the series above it’s predecessors. While the previous August Underground films were basically FX showcases/endurance tests, Penance ups the drama which makes our killers seem more “real” (and almost unbelievably, a tad tragic), which in turn makes this film even more chilling to behold (but don’t worry GoreHounds, your sinister sweet tooth will surely be tickled by the copious violence on display)… oh and none other than the fuckin’ Murder Junkies show up… Since every cat n’ creep digs on comparisons, this is more Henry: Portrait of a Serial Killer in vibe than Guinea Pig, but it’s still absolutely brutal from beginning to end! But all
Continue reading →
ForeignMoviesReviewsSci-Fi
Beginning the way you’d imagine a live-action flick created in part by Go Nagai (Devilman, Violence Jack to name but a few… ) would; namely with a shit-ton of nudity (more on that in a bit) and folks turning into demons! After that bit of biz we learn that the world has been turned into a post-apocalyptic wasteland due to meteor strikes with the resulting remains of said strikes turning compatible humans into space demons known as ANORAC (that’s Corona backwards, and more on that in a bit as well). Meanwhile Japan, now known as Neo-Nippon, has fallen under the rule of the tyrannical Shogun Nobuhide Fujinaga (Tomoki Kimura) and his cadre of bondage-gear clad samurai lead by Kaisei Kishi (the ever-popular Derek Mears, who has been in a ton of stuff, so let’s go with 2009’s Friday the 13th update and the 2019 Swamp Thing TV series… and really goes all-fuckin’-out in this role to comic book super-villain perfection!).
Continue reading →
MoviesReviewsThriller
After a lengthy intro to the Hypno-Vista process courtesy of hypnotist Emile Franchel (and the film’s U.S. distributor A.I.P. who added this hokum to provide more bang for your movie-going… or watching buck), during which we are given a large swath of bullshit to wade through regarding how we, the audience, will become part of the movie at hand… things get down to brass tacks when a woman receives the ultimate “drop them panties” gift of binoculars from a secret admirer. As is so often the case, the binoculars shoot needles into her eyes (just another in a continuing series of murders plaguing the city), which leads her roommate to seek the assistance of the local police… but who should barge in and offer his two-cents on the matter but journalist and crime writer Edmond Bancroft (Michael Gough, whom you may recognize from Tim Burton’s Batman films where he played loyal butler Alfred Pennyworth). Ol’ Ed states the binoculars look
Continue reading →
GamingIndieParanormalProductReviews
OhDeer Studio and 100 GAMES are taking players on a psychological-horror ride with their first-person horror Anthology of Fear with their recent release on PlayStation consoles. I missed the game when it came out for Xbox but the devs were awesome enough to toss me a lifeline to check it out, so a big thanks to them for that! Unfortunately, I don’t think they’ll like me much after this. Anthology of Fear takes players on a journey to discover what happened to Nathan by exploring the psyche of others and seeing the world through their perspectives. Now onto the game itself! Anthology of Fear‘s controls are hard to grasp as there’s no tutorial and the mechanics seem to change on a whim. When it comes to sound, it’s OK for the most part but it needs to be adjustable as music, sound effects, etc. are all on the same volume, which at times can be overwhelming. Graphics-wise, if you’re prone
Continue reading →
GamingParanormalProductReviews
In September 2021, I reviewed Saber Interactive’s video game adaptation of Paramount Picture’s zombie flick, World War Z. The game, World War Z: Aftermath, included new levels and characters for new and returning players to enjoy, and enjoy I did! Now Saber Interactive is back with a new DLC Valley of the Zeke and they were awesome enough to let me take a crack at it! Valley of the Zeke brings players to Arizona where a caravan of survivors is making their way to an Air Force base that will become a settlement for surviving humans. The DLC includes four new characters, and two new Zombie variants, first introducing the Jaugurnaught, a large fast-moving zombie that knocks survivors down by running into them. The other new zombie variants are zombie soldiers who may be difficult to kill as they are wearing body armor and helmets. A new weapon is also being introduced to the arsenal of zombie-killing goodness, the De50,
Continue reading →
More from Reviews
HalloweenParanormalProductReviews
When we put on our outfits, we want to look good. But what about our feet? They need to look good too, right? Socks can be boring or don’t say enough about you. You’re not generic, or boring, FootCloths is here to help make your feet badass! I want to thank Chelsea, Cierra, and the other awesome folks at FootCloths for making this review possible and sending over some awesome socks! At FootCloths their socks come in different categories that fit your style, Occult I got to experience the Demon Crew socks (pictured in the main picture). Retro Horror I now have the perfect zombie hunter socks with the Night of the Killer Zombies! When I’m feeling a bit evil I can now wear my Evil AF Baphomet socks in the mythical creatures category. Classic Halloween has the perfect socks for you to wear either around the best time of year OR all year round as I’m not ashamed to
Continue reading →
ForeignIndieMoviesReviews
When you sit down to The Fifth Thoracic Vertebra, the debut feature from South Korean Director Park Sye-young, you may think you are settling in to a take on George Barry’s 1977 killer bed flick, Death Bed: The Bed That Eats. Since both features contain killer beds… or more specifically in this film’s case a killer mattress… but the two experiences couldn’t be more different. While Death Bed is a more conventional horror movie, The Fifth Thoracic Vertebra is a melancholy, though completely bizarre, treatise on loneliness and emotion. Following the life cycle of a creature born of fungus that inhabits a mattress owned originally by a couple in a rather crummy relationship, the narrative moves from owner to owner (usually after it feeds on someone), allowing us to experience their sad existences. All of that packs quite an emotional punch that in a conventional drama would be almost overbearing in it’s depressive aesthetic, but since this is ostensibly a
Continue reading →
IndieMoviesReviewsShort FilmsThriller
Remember like four years ago when I clued you beautiful cats n’ creeps in about writer/director Finn Callan’s sinister short Guest? Probably not, but click that highlighted text and you can catch right the hell up! Now that all of that biz is out of the way, let’s dive in to Callan’s follow up, the appropriately titled Guest 2; a longer (but still “short” in the “it’s not quite feature length” sense) deeper dive into the wicked world established in the frightful first go-around! Siblings Jill (Jennifer English) and Ethan (Simon Bigg) are tasked with setting up a support group confab, but E-Dawg has been shirking those responsibilities and sequestered himself in his room. Fed up with such bullshittery, Jill runs the group solo-style and becomes acquainted with with Mia (Natasha Biggs), a woman dealing with severe loneliness and isolation. Unfortunately for Jill, Mia hasn’t been suffering as all alone as she thinks… and soon the preternatural presence, the eponymous
Continue reading →
ProductReviews
I’m a big fan of gummy worms… well… sour gummy worms to be exact. I once bought an eight-pound bag of neon-sour-gummy worms and almost ate the whole thing in one sitting! That may have been OK when I was 16, but I’m almost 40… that’s not good. Unbeknownst to me (till now) a mad scientist, Dr. Rotten created a better gastronomical experience, these are Rotten Gummy Worms! I want to thank Team Rotten for sending over some worms for me to try! First of all, I love the packaging. The bags the gummy worms come in are made from wood cellulose and biomaterials which will break down in compost facilities. I’m a sucker for art, and I love the art style Rotten has gone with! The Ed Roth art style brought back a wave of nostalgia growing up in the 90s when his style was being replicated everywhere. Now onto the worms! I was given two kinds to try,
Continue reading →
AdaptationForeignIndieMoviesReviews
What do you get when you combine Sir Christopher Lee, legendary horror/exploitation filmmaker Jess Franco, the madman that was Klaus Kinski, and an absolute fang-banger of Gothic literature? Why you get a surprisingly more faithful than most, though by no means complete, retelling of Bram Stoker’s 1897 literary masterpiece Dracula of course! After encountering a number of locals that look at him like a dead man walking, lawyer Jonathan Harker (Fred Williams) continues to the Borgo Pass where he is met by a mysterious coachman that takes him to his destination; the castle of Count Dracula (Lee), an aging aristocrat who wishes to secure property in England with Harker’s assistance. Right from the get-go things are off with ol’ Drac, as he casts no reflection in mirrors, has fangs like a wolf, gets excited around blood, and sleeps in a stone coffin… oh, he also has a trio of brides that sleep in coffins and eat the babies of the
Continue reading →
IndieMoviesReviews
Peter (Fred Vogel) and Crusty (Cristie Whiles) continue on their magical murder-y tour of torture and bloody chaos, but now they spice things right the fuck up and attempt to achieve penance for their violent ways, but that leads to even more misadventure! It’s that last bit of business that sets this entry in the series above it’s predecessors. While the previous August Underground films were basically FX showcases/endurance tests, Penance ups the drama which makes our killers seem more “real” (and almost unbelievably, a tad tragic), which in turn makes this film even more chilling to behold (but don’t worry GoreHounds, your sinister sweet tooth will surely be tickled by the copious violence on display)… oh and none other than the fuckin’ Murder Junkies show up… Since every cat n’ creep digs on comparisons, this is more Henry: Portrait of a Serial Killer in vibe than Guinea Pig, but it’s still absolutely brutal from beginning to end! But all
Continue reading →
ForeignMoviesReviewsSci-Fi
Beginning the way you’d imagine a live-action flick created in part by Go Nagai (Devilman, Violence Jack to name but a few… ) would; namely with a shit-ton of nudity (more on that in a bit) and folks turning into demons! After that bit of biz we learn that the world has been turned into a post-apocalyptic wasteland due to meteor strikes with the resulting remains of said strikes turning compatible humans into space demons known as ANORAC (that’s Corona backwards, and more on that in a bit as well). Meanwhile Japan, now known as Neo-Nippon, has fallen under the rule of the tyrannical Shogun Nobuhide Fujinaga (Tomoki Kimura) and his cadre of bondage-gear clad samurai lead by Kaisei Kishi (the ever-popular Derek Mears, who has been in a ton of stuff, so let’s go with 2009’s Friday the 13th update and the 2019 Swamp Thing TV series… and really goes all-fuckin’-out in this role to comic book super-villain perfection!).
Continue reading →
MoviesReviewsThriller
After a lengthy intro to the Hypno-Vista process courtesy of hypnotist Emile Franchel (and the film’s U.S. distributor A.I.P. who added this hokum to provide more bang for your movie-going… or watching buck), during which we are given a large swath of bullshit to wade through regarding how we, the audience, will become part of the movie at hand… things get down to brass tacks when a woman receives the ultimate “drop them panties” gift of binoculars from a secret admirer. As is so often the case, the binoculars shoot needles into her eyes (just another in a continuing series of murders plaguing the city), which leads her roommate to seek the assistance of the local police… but who should barge in and offer his two-cents on the matter but journalist and crime writer Edmond Bancroft (Michael Gough, whom you may recognize from Tim Burton’s Batman films where he played loyal butler Alfred Pennyworth). Ol’ Ed states the binoculars look
Continue reading →
GamingIndieParanormalProductReviews
OhDeer Studio and 100 GAMES are taking players on a psychological-horror ride with their first-person horror Anthology of Fear with their recent release on PlayStation consoles. I missed the game when it came out for Xbox but the devs were awesome enough to toss me a lifeline to check it out, so a big thanks to them for that! Unfortunately, I don’t think they’ll like me much after this. Anthology of Fear takes players on a journey to discover what happened to Nathan by exploring the psyche of others and seeing the world through their perspectives. Now onto the game itself! Anthology of Fear‘s controls are hard to grasp as there’s no tutorial and the mechanics seem to change on a whim. When it comes to sound, it’s OK for the most part but it needs to be adjustable as music, sound effects, etc. are all on the same volume, which at times can be overwhelming. Graphics-wise, if you’re prone
Continue reading →
GamingParanormalProductReviews
In September 2021, I reviewed Saber Interactive’s video game adaptation of Paramount Picture’s zombie flick, World War Z. The game, World War Z: Aftermath, included new levels and characters for new and returning players to enjoy, and enjoy I did! Now Saber Interactive is back with a new DLC Valley of the Zeke and they were awesome enough to let me take a crack at it! Valley of the Zeke brings players to Arizona where a caravan of survivors is making their way to an Air Force base that will become a settlement for surviving humans. The DLC includes four new characters, and two new Zombie variants, first introducing the Jaugurnaught, a large fast-moving zombie that knocks survivors down by running into them. The other new zombie variants are zombie soldiers who may be difficult to kill as they are wearing body armor and helmets. A new weapon is also being introduced to the arsenal of zombie-killing goodness, the De50,
Continue reading →
