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
IndieMoviesReviews
Remember when I put a revoltin’ review on Fred Vogel’s 2001 extreme torture porn experience, August Underground? Well, the powers that be made a follow up (with Vogel co-directing, co-writing, and once again acting) in 2003 titled August Underground’s Mordum, and as before, Unearthed Films have released a feature-packed Blu-ray edition of the frightful flick and placed it before my putrid peepers! As with the aforementioned previous film the premise here is light; a trio of murderous miscreants go kill crazy and film their conquests… each more stomach churning than the last. Things reach even new heights of depravity when a fourth killer makes the scene… and after all we have witnessed to that point, that is really saying something! As a film, August Underground’s Mordum isn’t as much of a story as it is a series of disgusting vignettes (each featuring rape, vomit, cannibalism, and oh so much more)… but that is where the genius… twisted as it is,
Continue reading →
MoviesNewsParamount+ReviewsStreaming TVTrailers
From director Lindsey Anderson Beer comes Pet Sematary: Bloodlines, the prequel to the 1989 classic Stephen King adaptation that taught us that “sometimes dead is better.” Set in 1969, a young Jud Crandall has dreams of leaving his hometown of Ludlow, Maine, behind but soon discovers sinister secrets buried within and is forced to confront a dark family history. Banding together, Jud and his childhood friends must fight an ancient evil that has gripped Ludlow since its founding and, once unearthed, has the power to destroy everything in its path. First, we should talk about casting. Jackson White stars as young Jud, a character made iconic by actor Fred Gwynne’s performance in the original. Jackson doesn’t exactly look like a young Gwynne, but he does give a great emotional performance, so I’m willing to look over it. Henry Thomas stars as Jud’s father, and while he has a tendency to play characters that seem distant, he showed more feeling here.
Continue reading →
Film FestivalsMoviesReviewsShort Films
In writer/director Sam Fox’s short film Fck’n Nuts, teenager Dan (Vincent Stalba) is crazy in love with Sandy (Maddie Nichols), so much so that he doesn’t heed her initial advice about not meeting her parents (Michele Rossi and William E. Harris). Viewers already have a pretty good idea about the parents being odd thanks to some of their dialogue and Sandy’s remarks, but once Dan steps inside the family’s home, things go absolutely insane. I had a strong feeling that things were going to be bonkers when I saw that auteur Joe Badon (The Wheel of Heaven; The God Inside My Ear; Sister Tempest) was a coproducer on this horror comedy, and my assumption was correct. Fox crafts a fun, surreal short that blends a nostalgic feel with absurd comedy, and there’s a set piece boasting great-looking practical gore effects sure to bring on the heaves for some viewers. You can check out the short’s trailer at https://vimeo.com/845566547/b39329d86e. Fck’n Nuts
Continue reading →
GamingIndieParanormalProductReviews
You have to admit dreams suck sometimes, especially those dreams where you’re dreaming within a dream. Nothing makes you feel more messed up than one of those, but what if it was a nightmare? This, is the question presented by Jesse Makkonen, Gamera, and Feardemic Games’ Afterdream. Thanks to Feardemic for sending me a copy to see if this is a dream or a nightmare. Let’s see! Afterdream is a 2D side-scrolling psychological horror where players take on the role of Jennifer, a young woman who just lost her father and has a lucid dream that makes her question if she’s dreaming or is awake. Controls in Afterdream are minimal, but I wish there were options to turn off controller vibrations, as having the controller vibrate for every little thing and draining battery life is quite annoying. The lack of spoken dialogue is made up for with a soundtrack that sets the mood. There are times. When spooky things happen,
Continue reading →
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Film FestivalsForeignMoviesReviews
DID I? (United States, 2023) When viewers first meet Genevieve (Alexandra Pica), the main character of director Sarah Tice’s DID I?, she wakes up disoriented, disheveled, and mysteriously bruised. She is also having a tough time at work, where she is an editor and aspiring writer. We learn that the relatively mild-mannered and introverted Genevieve is struggling with Dissociative Identity Disorder (DID), and her alter Stevie, who is no fan of Genevieve’s therapist Rachel (Raven Wynn), has a decidedly wild side to her. Tice, who cowrote the screenplay with Zachary Beckler, does an admirable job of focusing on more realistic depictions of DID rather than just presenting the sensational, though naturally any horror or thriller film attempting to tackle mental issues walks a fine line. The third act packs a highly disturbing, harrowing wallop that reveals the reason for Genevieve’s trauma. Tice, who worked with a microbudget, does fine work that belies the film’s meager budget, including digital wizardry, quick
Continue reading →
GamingHalloweenNewsReviews
It’s officially Halloween season, and Spirit Halloween is celebrating with their brand new Spirit Halloween Monopoly board game which is available now. This no regular, boring game of Monopoly, no. It’s based on the store that is as iconic to the holiday as ghosts and ghouls. In the box, featuring the company’s logo, you will find player pieces, that I’m guessing are made of pewter. They are in the form of a spider, a cat, a coffin, a pumpkin, and the Spirit Halloween spirit. Like the standard game, you will find cash ($10 to $500). There are also buildings, and “Trick” cards that let you buy things like costumes, but beware, there are Trick cards that put the trick in trick ‘r treat. These cars can make you do things like go back spaces. There are also Treat cards that feature cool surprises. The board and pieces really give you the sense that you are in the store. The board
Continue reading →
GamingParanormalProductReviewsSci-Fi
The adventure into Tabletop RPGs continues for me, and I’m starting to get into the concept of world-building. By world-building, I’m talking from a terrain-building point of view. The most important part of creating your world is Basing, this is when you make the base for your character or base for props more lively with decorations. The most common method is adding grass or texture to your base, but sometimes, you need to add a little more oomph to tell the story. This is where Epic Basing comes in! First, I would like to thank all the awesome folks at Epic Basing for making this adventure possible! Epic Basing makes 3D-printed bits that you can use to add some flare to your miniature’s base OR to the terrane you’re creating. In the main picture returns the Werewolf miniature from 1985 Games but this time, he has a little friend on his base, a skull that came from the Skull Collector
Continue reading →
Film FestivalsMoviesReviews
Director Lindsay Anderson Beer’s Pet Semetary: Bloodlines takes a portion of Stephen King’s novel Pet Semetary and expands it into a feature-length film, resulting in a gory, dread-filled prequel to the book and preceding film adaptations. In 1969, teenaged Jud Crandall (Jackson White) is set to be the first of his family line to leave Ludlow, Maine since the town was founded. He and his girlfriend Norma (Natalie Alyn Lind) are about to leave for Peace Corps duty when she is attacked by the dog belonging to Timmy Baterman (Jack Mulhern), one of Jud’s childhood friends, who has just returned from active duty in Vietnam and whose father Bill (David Duchovny) tries to keep visitors away from the increasingly disturbing Timmy. The attack hospitalizes Norma, keeping the couple in Ludlow longer than they planned, and naturally violent events involving the titular burial grounds occur. Manny (Forrest Goodluck), another longtime friend of Jud’s and Timmy’s, and his sister Donna (Isabella Star
Continue reading →
Film FestivalsForeignMoviesReviewsShort Films
Australia’s A Night of Horror International Film Festival has a bounty of fear-fare shorts from around the globe on tap. Here is a look at four of the selections that run less than 10 minutes each. Stop Dead (United Kingdom, 2023) Director Emily Greenwood, working from a screenplay by David Scullion, has crafted a highly atmospheric short that sets up an intriguing premise worthy of a feature-length treatment. Police officers Samantha Hall (Sarah Soetaert) and partner Nick Thompson (David Ricardo-Pearce) are stuck on a country road at nighttime because of a flat tire. A young woman (Priya Blackburn) suddenly appears, refusing to heed Hall’s order to stop, telling the officers that if you stop, you die. This supernatural shocker boasts solid production values, good performances, taut direction, and some fast-paced editing that helps the world building and ratchets up the suspense. Merger (United Kingdom, 2022) Working late in a dark office is rarely a good thing to do, but in
Continue reading →
Film FestivalsForeignMoviesReviews
STRANGE DARLING (2023) Do yourself an immense favor and learn nothing more about the plot of writer/director JT Mollner’s Strange Darling than what I am about to tell you. This film absolutely requires being gone into as cold as possible for maximum effect. The film opens with a preamble about a serial killer’s path through the United States, and then cuts to a coke-snorting man (Kyle Gallner) in a pickup truck chasing down a bloodied woman (Willa Fitzgerald) in a Ford Pinto. She totals the car and runs into the woods, with the rifle-toting man following in pursuit. Mollner takes the concepts of a cat-and-mouse thriller and first-date-gone-wrong horror and over the course of six nonlinear chapters, toys with viewer expectations to mind-blowing effect. The film is beautifully shot by actor Giovanni Ribisi in his debut as a director of photography, with several scenes depending on pure, dialogue-free cinema, which he pulls off swimmingly. Fitzgerald and Gallner are both magnificent
Continue reading →
More from Reviews
IndieMoviesReviews
Remember when I put a revoltin’ review on Fred Vogel’s 2001 extreme torture porn experience, August Underground? Well, the powers that be made a follow up (with Vogel co-directing, co-writing, and once again acting) in 2003 titled August Underground’s Mordum, and as before, Unearthed Films have released a feature-packed Blu-ray edition of the frightful flick and placed it before my putrid peepers! As with the aforementioned previous film the premise here is light; a trio of murderous miscreants go kill crazy and film their conquests… each more stomach churning than the last. Things reach even new heights of depravity when a fourth killer makes the scene… and after all we have witnessed to that point, that is really saying something! As a film, August Underground’s Mordum isn’t as much of a story as it is a series of disgusting vignettes (each featuring rape, vomit, cannibalism, and oh so much more)… but that is where the genius… twisted as it is,
Continue reading →
MoviesNewsParamount+ReviewsStreaming TVTrailers
From director Lindsey Anderson Beer comes Pet Sematary: Bloodlines, the prequel to the 1989 classic Stephen King adaptation that taught us that “sometimes dead is better.” Set in 1969, a young Jud Crandall has dreams of leaving his hometown of Ludlow, Maine, behind but soon discovers sinister secrets buried within and is forced to confront a dark family history. Banding together, Jud and his childhood friends must fight an ancient evil that has gripped Ludlow since its founding and, once unearthed, has the power to destroy everything in its path. First, we should talk about casting. Jackson White stars as young Jud, a character made iconic by actor Fred Gwynne’s performance in the original. Jackson doesn’t exactly look like a young Gwynne, but he does give a great emotional performance, so I’m willing to look over it. Henry Thomas stars as Jud’s father, and while he has a tendency to play characters that seem distant, he showed more feeling here.
Continue reading →
Film FestivalsMoviesReviewsShort Films
In writer/director Sam Fox’s short film Fck’n Nuts, teenager Dan (Vincent Stalba) is crazy in love with Sandy (Maddie Nichols), so much so that he doesn’t heed her initial advice about not meeting her parents (Michele Rossi and William E. Harris). Viewers already have a pretty good idea about the parents being odd thanks to some of their dialogue and Sandy’s remarks, but once Dan steps inside the family’s home, things go absolutely insane. I had a strong feeling that things were going to be bonkers when I saw that auteur Joe Badon (The Wheel of Heaven; The God Inside My Ear; Sister Tempest) was a coproducer on this horror comedy, and my assumption was correct. Fox crafts a fun, surreal short that blends a nostalgic feel with absurd comedy, and there’s a set piece boasting great-looking practical gore effects sure to bring on the heaves for some viewers. You can check out the short’s trailer at https://vimeo.com/845566547/b39329d86e. Fck’n Nuts
Continue reading →
GamingIndieParanormalProductReviews
You have to admit dreams suck sometimes, especially those dreams where you’re dreaming within a dream. Nothing makes you feel more messed up than one of those, but what if it was a nightmare? This, is the question presented by Jesse Makkonen, Gamera, and Feardemic Games’ Afterdream. Thanks to Feardemic for sending me a copy to see if this is a dream or a nightmare. Let’s see! Afterdream is a 2D side-scrolling psychological horror where players take on the role of Jennifer, a young woman who just lost her father and has a lucid dream that makes her question if she’s dreaming or is awake. Controls in Afterdream are minimal, but I wish there were options to turn off controller vibrations, as having the controller vibrate for every little thing and draining battery life is quite annoying. The lack of spoken dialogue is made up for with a soundtrack that sets the mood. There are times. When spooky things happen,
Continue reading →
Film FestivalsForeignMoviesReviews
DID I? (United States, 2023) When viewers first meet Genevieve (Alexandra Pica), the main character of director Sarah Tice’s DID I?, she wakes up disoriented, disheveled, and mysteriously bruised. She is also having a tough time at work, where she is an editor and aspiring writer. We learn that the relatively mild-mannered and introverted Genevieve is struggling with Dissociative Identity Disorder (DID), and her alter Stevie, who is no fan of Genevieve’s therapist Rachel (Raven Wynn), has a decidedly wild side to her. Tice, who cowrote the screenplay with Zachary Beckler, does an admirable job of focusing on more realistic depictions of DID rather than just presenting the sensational, though naturally any horror or thriller film attempting to tackle mental issues walks a fine line. The third act packs a highly disturbing, harrowing wallop that reveals the reason for Genevieve’s trauma. Tice, who worked with a microbudget, does fine work that belies the film’s meager budget, including digital wizardry, quick
Continue reading →
GamingHalloweenNewsReviews
It’s officially Halloween season, and Spirit Halloween is celebrating with their brand new Spirit Halloween Monopoly board game which is available now. This no regular, boring game of Monopoly, no. It’s based on the store that is as iconic to the holiday as ghosts and ghouls. In the box, featuring the company’s logo, you will find player pieces, that I’m guessing are made of pewter. They are in the form of a spider, a cat, a coffin, a pumpkin, and the Spirit Halloween spirit. Like the standard game, you will find cash ($10 to $500). There are also buildings, and “Trick” cards that let you buy things like costumes, but beware, there are Trick cards that put the trick in trick ‘r treat. These cars can make you do things like go back spaces. There are also Treat cards that feature cool surprises. The board and pieces really give you the sense that you are in the store. The board
Continue reading →
GamingParanormalProductReviewsSci-Fi
The adventure into Tabletop RPGs continues for me, and I’m starting to get into the concept of world-building. By world-building, I’m talking from a terrain-building point of view. The most important part of creating your world is Basing, this is when you make the base for your character or base for props more lively with decorations. The most common method is adding grass or texture to your base, but sometimes, you need to add a little more oomph to tell the story. This is where Epic Basing comes in! First, I would like to thank all the awesome folks at Epic Basing for making this adventure possible! Epic Basing makes 3D-printed bits that you can use to add some flare to your miniature’s base OR to the terrane you’re creating. In the main picture returns the Werewolf miniature from 1985 Games but this time, he has a little friend on his base, a skull that came from the Skull Collector
Continue reading →
Film FestivalsMoviesReviews
Director Lindsay Anderson Beer’s Pet Semetary: Bloodlines takes a portion of Stephen King’s novel Pet Semetary and expands it into a feature-length film, resulting in a gory, dread-filled prequel to the book and preceding film adaptations. In 1969, teenaged Jud Crandall (Jackson White) is set to be the first of his family line to leave Ludlow, Maine since the town was founded. He and his girlfriend Norma (Natalie Alyn Lind) are about to leave for Peace Corps duty when she is attacked by the dog belonging to Timmy Baterman (Jack Mulhern), one of Jud’s childhood friends, who has just returned from active duty in Vietnam and whose father Bill (David Duchovny) tries to keep visitors away from the increasingly disturbing Timmy. The attack hospitalizes Norma, keeping the couple in Ludlow longer than they planned, and naturally violent events involving the titular burial grounds occur. Manny (Forrest Goodluck), another longtime friend of Jud’s and Timmy’s, and his sister Donna (Isabella Star
Continue reading →
Film FestivalsForeignMoviesReviewsShort Films
Australia’s A Night of Horror International Film Festival has a bounty of fear-fare shorts from around the globe on tap. Here is a look at four of the selections that run less than 10 minutes each. Stop Dead (United Kingdom, 2023) Director Emily Greenwood, working from a screenplay by David Scullion, has crafted a highly atmospheric short that sets up an intriguing premise worthy of a feature-length treatment. Police officers Samantha Hall (Sarah Soetaert) and partner Nick Thompson (David Ricardo-Pearce) are stuck on a country road at nighttime because of a flat tire. A young woman (Priya Blackburn) suddenly appears, refusing to heed Hall’s order to stop, telling the officers that if you stop, you die. This supernatural shocker boasts solid production values, good performances, taut direction, and some fast-paced editing that helps the world building and ratchets up the suspense. Merger (United Kingdom, 2022) Working late in a dark office is rarely a good thing to do, but in
Continue reading →
Film FestivalsForeignMoviesReviews
STRANGE DARLING (2023) Do yourself an immense favor and learn nothing more about the plot of writer/director JT Mollner’s Strange Darling than what I am about to tell you. This film absolutely requires being gone into as cold as possible for maximum effect. The film opens with a preamble about a serial killer’s path through the United States, and then cuts to a coke-snorting man (Kyle Gallner) in a pickup truck chasing down a bloodied woman (Willa Fitzgerald) in a Ford Pinto. She totals the car and runs into the woods, with the rifle-toting man following in pursuit. Mollner takes the concepts of a cat-and-mouse thriller and first-date-gone-wrong horror and over the course of six nonlinear chapters, toys with viewer expectations to mind-blowing effect. The film is beautifully shot by actor Giovanni Ribisi in his debut as a director of photography, with several scenes depending on pure, dialogue-free cinema, which he pulls off swimmingly. Fitzgerald and Gallner are both magnificent
Continue reading →
