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
Film FestivalsForeignMoviesReviews
Valerie and Her Week of Wonders (1970) Director Jaromil Jires’ surreal horror fantasy Valerie and Her Week of Wonders (Czechoslovakia, 1970) is a wild trip that combines a teenage girl’s (Jaroslava Schallerová as Valerie) sexual awakening beginning on the first day of her first menstrual cycle with a vampire tale — but that is only a bare bones description. There is so much to this film and to spoil a single, fantastical frame of it is to do a disservice to first-time viewers. Those interested in the sociopolitical climate of the time should find plenty to read into with the film, while viewers whose interests lean more toward enjoying the splendidly strange — and often sensual — events unfolding as sheer entertainment will find a great deal at which to marvel. To Fire You Come at Last (2023) Writer/director Sean Hogan’s 43-minute horror short To Fire You Come at Last is a satisfyingly wicked slice of British folk horror. In
Continue reading →
GamingReviews
In an effort to make us experience first-hand the kind of terror present in the sinister slashers that appeared just a tick before the genre’s Golden Age, Puppet Combo brings us Stay Out of the House; a new vicious video game now available on the Nintendo Switch. In direct defiance of the games title, your ass definitely does not want to Stay Out of the House, in fact it won’t be much of a game if you do! Rather, after playing through a couple of prologue stories (which aren’t mandatory, but naturally they add considerably to the world building at hand while offering a tense yet less intense experience than the main event… and one of them has a playable, Driller Killer-esque arcade game, so HUGE fuckin’ plus there boils n’ ghouls) you make your way to the eponymous structure, in which you will stealthy avoid the cannibals (including hiding from them underneath various pieces of furniture) that call the
Continue reading →
IndieMoviesParanormalReviews
You know what’s worse than one of those baby gender reveal parties where like half the guests get burned or some such shit? Try a housewarming party with a séance as the entertainment, during which the Medium is more than touched by a literal goddamned demon (redundant, I know… ). Speaking of that demon; that one man (monster?) Satanic Panic… who is also a shape-shifter, but more on that in a bit… makes it a malevolent mission to stalk n’ slay every attendee of that supernatural soaked soiree! How many of these fine folks have R.S.V.P.’d to their own demise, or can they solve the mystery of the evil that wants them extinct?!! So, what’s the good word with Harley Wallen’s The Devil’s Left Hand? Well, it’s a polished, suspenseful preternatural picture, so there’s that! Remember that shape-shifting bit I mentioned up yonder? It provides a shit-ton of suspense (also which was just mentioned for the forgetful among you) because,
Continue reading →
GamingParanormalProductReviews
Bullying is possibly the worse thing to happen to anyone growing up, and sadly it still happens even when we’re adults. What if these events manifest into a living nightmare and the world becomes surreal? This is what happens in Tequila Works’ dark puzzle adventure game GYLT. I want to give a big thank you to Tequila Works for sending me a copy in advance! GYLT follows Sally, a girl who is searching for her missing cousin Emily who everyone seems to have given up on finding except for Sally. While being chased by some bullies, Sally finds herself in a strange version of the world where monsters are stalking in the shadows of her school and the surrounding area, with Emily inside the school! Now onto the game itself! GYLT‘s controls are relatively simple and a tutorial that seems to stick around for a while before the meat and potatoes of the game begin to help cement your understanding
Continue reading →
Advertisement
MoviesReviews
Hey, check this out cats n’ creeps; a group of young adults are frolicking in nature’s splendor when some ancient evil entity possesses one of the gang who then transforms into a demonic killing machine! Business as usual for most of the Evil Dead franchise… Now what isn’t business as usual for an Evil Dead flick is where the story of Evil Dead Rise takes us next, namely an apartment building located in a city (which would be business as usual for Lamberto Bava’s Demons 2 however… ). Anyway, said building is currently the residence of one Ellie (Alyssa Sutherland), an industrious tattoo artist and single mom of three, namely near-perfect, creatively minded siblings Danny, Bridget, and Kassie (played by Morgan Davies, Gabrielle Echols, and Nell Fisher respectively), as well as Ellie’s free wheelin ‘ (and free loadin’) sister Beth (Lily Sullivan)… but only temporarily as hard times have necessitated the family hitting the bricks in the immediate future. Before
Continue reading →
ForeignIndieMoviesReviews
The Ravens, a hard rock rock outfit are stuck playing small gigs in shitty venues, such as the one they currently played down Falkland Islands way. Tired from rockin’ and rollin’… and drinkin’ and snortin’, The Ravens agree to follow a sexy fan back to her parents pad in the country for a lil’ rest and relaxation… a journey that takes them through a decimated Argentinian city that was completely destroyed by a flood a few decades past. As you may have surmised, the family in question, literally the only living beings in the entire post-apocalyptic area, are complete psychos who are all too ready to welcome their latest victims to their home. What survival skills does a substance-battered rock band possess, and will it be enough for them to make it alive with their skins intact? Coming from director Nicolás Onetti and writer Camilo Zaffora, What the Waters Left Behind: Scars is a strong, terror filled experience who’s production
Continue reading →
ForeignIndieMoviesReviews
There is nothin’ yours cruelly enjoys more than sittin’ down to some previously unseen, S.O.V. horror… and that is precisely what I have here with Intervision’s release of The Plaga Zombie Trilogy, a series of Argentinian gut-munchers of the zero budget kind! Things kick of with 1997’s Plaga Zombie: Ex-med student Bill (Pablo Parés, who also co-directed the film) trims his bush one night oblivious to the fact that his roommate is abducted (and experimented on) by aliens. Meanwhile, Bill’s old friend, John West (Berta Muñiz, who co-wrote the film along with Parés, and Hernán Sáez… who also co-directed… and let me just say; this dude is comedy dynamite), is longing to revive his cowboy-themed wrestling career, but his manager/tag-team partner has a case of the “feel like shit”s. Thankfully for none of them, (not really a) Doctor Bill is on the case, so soon those two are toast and soon become members of the alien plague-ridden shambling dead that
Continue reading →
GamingIndieParanormalProductReviews
Feardemic has teamed up with Harvester Games to bring their latest dark tale to consoles, Burnhouse Lane. Originally meant to be the sequel to Harvester’s The Cat Lady before becoming its own stand-alone story that will make you smile, cry, and question everything. I want to thank Feardemic and Harvester Games for the chance to review the game that’s well-loved on STEAM. Burnhouse Lane follows Angie, a nurse who is still coping with the loss of her love while having to face her mortality with terminal cancer. Angie get’s assigned to help out an elderly man in the country but as soon as she takes the job, things get dark quickly as she finds herself in a dark and twisted world that she wishes to escape. Now onto the game itself. Burnhouse Lane‘s controls are very straightforward as the game is side-scrolling where at most you have to interact with objects and the scenery, it’s suggested to play the game
Continue reading →
Film FestivalsMoviesReviews
Stag (2022) Writer/director Alexandra Spieth’s horror comedy Stag balances those two styles together nicely while adding some serious drama to the mix. The result is an amusing feature that aims for the feelings as well as the fear and fun factors. Jenny (Mary Glen Fredrick) learns through social media that her former best friend Mandy (Elizabeth Ramos) — “I go by Amanda now”— is getting married. The estranged friends make an awkward reconnection over the phone during which Mandy invites Jenny to her bachelorette party trip, which is being held at a remote property on which a young woman was rumored to have been sacrificed. Jenny gives new meaning to the term socially awkward as she finds herself among the other guests, maid of honor Willa (Liana Hunt) and her younger sister Casey (Stephanie Hogan) — whose family owns the property— Leslie (Safiya Harris), and Constance (Katie Wieland). Strangely acting one-eyed groundskeeper Devon (Daniel Boyd) is on hand to make
Continue reading →
Film FestivalsMoviesReviews
Tearsucker Seasoned fear-fare aficionados may be well versed in the set-up of director Stephen Vanderpool’s Tearsucker — a young woman falls for a seemingly charming stranger who turns out to be hiding a deadly side and goes on a trip with him despite her best friend’s uncertainties about the situation — but I can guarantee that the villain in this dark, macabre work has a disturbing perversion that you haven’t seen before. The film’s official logline, so that readers can rest assured I am spoiling nothing that isn’t already out for public consumption, is “Emotionally vulnerable women are preyed on by a charming psychopath who wants to suck their tears.” Tom (Sam Brittan) is the psycho in question, and he has his sights set on Lilly (Alison Walter), who has recently left an abusive relationship and is sharing her experience on social media, with tears aplenty flowing. Brittan’s screenplay is an intriguing, unsettling character study of both predator and prey.
Continue reading →
More from Reviews
Film FestivalsForeignMoviesReviews
Valerie and Her Week of Wonders (1970) Director Jaromil Jires’ surreal horror fantasy Valerie and Her Week of Wonders (Czechoslovakia, 1970) is a wild trip that combines a teenage girl’s (Jaroslava Schallerová as Valerie) sexual awakening beginning on the first day of her first menstrual cycle with a vampire tale — but that is only a bare bones description. There is so much to this film and to spoil a single, fantastical frame of it is to do a disservice to first-time viewers. Those interested in the sociopolitical climate of the time should find plenty to read into with the film, while viewers whose interests lean more toward enjoying the splendidly strange — and often sensual — events unfolding as sheer entertainment will find a great deal at which to marvel. To Fire You Come at Last (2023) Writer/director Sean Hogan’s 43-minute horror short To Fire You Come at Last is a satisfyingly wicked slice of British folk horror. In
Continue reading →
GamingReviews
In an effort to make us experience first-hand the kind of terror present in the sinister slashers that appeared just a tick before the genre’s Golden Age, Puppet Combo brings us Stay Out of the House; a new vicious video game now available on the Nintendo Switch. In direct defiance of the games title, your ass definitely does not want to Stay Out of the House, in fact it won’t be much of a game if you do! Rather, after playing through a couple of prologue stories (which aren’t mandatory, but naturally they add considerably to the world building at hand while offering a tense yet less intense experience than the main event… and one of them has a playable, Driller Killer-esque arcade game, so HUGE fuckin’ plus there boils n’ ghouls) you make your way to the eponymous structure, in which you will stealthy avoid the cannibals (including hiding from them underneath various pieces of furniture) that call the
Continue reading →
IndieMoviesParanormalReviews
You know what’s worse than one of those baby gender reveal parties where like half the guests get burned or some such shit? Try a housewarming party with a séance as the entertainment, during which the Medium is more than touched by a literal goddamned demon (redundant, I know… ). Speaking of that demon; that one man (monster?) Satanic Panic… who is also a shape-shifter, but more on that in a bit… makes it a malevolent mission to stalk n’ slay every attendee of that supernatural soaked soiree! How many of these fine folks have R.S.V.P.’d to their own demise, or can they solve the mystery of the evil that wants them extinct?!! So, what’s the good word with Harley Wallen’s The Devil’s Left Hand? Well, it’s a polished, suspenseful preternatural picture, so there’s that! Remember that shape-shifting bit I mentioned up yonder? It provides a shit-ton of suspense (also which was just mentioned for the forgetful among you) because,
Continue reading →
GamingParanormalProductReviews
Bullying is possibly the worse thing to happen to anyone growing up, and sadly it still happens even when we’re adults. What if these events manifest into a living nightmare and the world becomes surreal? This is what happens in Tequila Works’ dark puzzle adventure game GYLT. I want to give a big thank you to Tequila Works for sending me a copy in advance! GYLT follows Sally, a girl who is searching for her missing cousin Emily who everyone seems to have given up on finding except for Sally. While being chased by some bullies, Sally finds herself in a strange version of the world where monsters are stalking in the shadows of her school and the surrounding area, with Emily inside the school! Now onto the game itself! GYLT‘s controls are relatively simple and a tutorial that seems to stick around for a while before the meat and potatoes of the game begin to help cement your understanding
Continue reading →
MoviesReviews
Hey, check this out cats n’ creeps; a group of young adults are frolicking in nature’s splendor when some ancient evil entity possesses one of the gang who then transforms into a demonic killing machine! Business as usual for most of the Evil Dead franchise… Now what isn’t business as usual for an Evil Dead flick is where the story of Evil Dead Rise takes us next, namely an apartment building located in a city (which would be business as usual for Lamberto Bava’s Demons 2 however… ). Anyway, said building is currently the residence of one Ellie (Alyssa Sutherland), an industrious tattoo artist and single mom of three, namely near-perfect, creatively minded siblings Danny, Bridget, and Kassie (played by Morgan Davies, Gabrielle Echols, and Nell Fisher respectively), as well as Ellie’s free wheelin ‘ (and free loadin’) sister Beth (Lily Sullivan)… but only temporarily as hard times have necessitated the family hitting the bricks in the immediate future. Before
Continue reading →
ForeignIndieMoviesReviews
The Ravens, a hard rock rock outfit are stuck playing small gigs in shitty venues, such as the one they currently played down Falkland Islands way. Tired from rockin’ and rollin’… and drinkin’ and snortin’, The Ravens agree to follow a sexy fan back to her parents pad in the country for a lil’ rest and relaxation… a journey that takes them through a decimated Argentinian city that was completely destroyed by a flood a few decades past. As you may have surmised, the family in question, literally the only living beings in the entire post-apocalyptic area, are complete psychos who are all too ready to welcome their latest victims to their home. What survival skills does a substance-battered rock band possess, and will it be enough for them to make it alive with their skins intact? Coming from director Nicolás Onetti and writer Camilo Zaffora, What the Waters Left Behind: Scars is a strong, terror filled experience who’s production
Continue reading →
ForeignIndieMoviesReviews
There is nothin’ yours cruelly enjoys more than sittin’ down to some previously unseen, S.O.V. horror… and that is precisely what I have here with Intervision’s release of The Plaga Zombie Trilogy, a series of Argentinian gut-munchers of the zero budget kind! Things kick of with 1997’s Plaga Zombie: Ex-med student Bill (Pablo Parés, who also co-directed the film) trims his bush one night oblivious to the fact that his roommate is abducted (and experimented on) by aliens. Meanwhile, Bill’s old friend, John West (Berta Muñiz, who co-wrote the film along with Parés, and Hernán Sáez… who also co-directed… and let me just say; this dude is comedy dynamite), is longing to revive his cowboy-themed wrestling career, but his manager/tag-team partner has a case of the “feel like shit”s. Thankfully for none of them, (not really a) Doctor Bill is on the case, so soon those two are toast and soon become members of the alien plague-ridden shambling dead that
Continue reading →
GamingIndieParanormalProductReviews
Feardemic has teamed up with Harvester Games to bring their latest dark tale to consoles, Burnhouse Lane. Originally meant to be the sequel to Harvester’s The Cat Lady before becoming its own stand-alone story that will make you smile, cry, and question everything. I want to thank Feardemic and Harvester Games for the chance to review the game that’s well-loved on STEAM. Burnhouse Lane follows Angie, a nurse who is still coping with the loss of her love while having to face her mortality with terminal cancer. Angie get’s assigned to help out an elderly man in the country but as soon as she takes the job, things get dark quickly as she finds herself in a dark and twisted world that she wishes to escape. Now onto the game itself. Burnhouse Lane‘s controls are very straightforward as the game is side-scrolling where at most you have to interact with objects and the scenery, it’s suggested to play the game
Continue reading →
Film FestivalsMoviesReviews
Stag (2022) Writer/director Alexandra Spieth’s horror comedy Stag balances those two styles together nicely while adding some serious drama to the mix. The result is an amusing feature that aims for the feelings as well as the fear and fun factors. Jenny (Mary Glen Fredrick) learns through social media that her former best friend Mandy (Elizabeth Ramos) — “I go by Amanda now”— is getting married. The estranged friends make an awkward reconnection over the phone during which Mandy invites Jenny to her bachelorette party trip, which is being held at a remote property on which a young woman was rumored to have been sacrificed. Jenny gives new meaning to the term socially awkward as she finds herself among the other guests, maid of honor Willa (Liana Hunt) and her younger sister Casey (Stephanie Hogan) — whose family owns the property— Leslie (Safiya Harris), and Constance (Katie Wieland). Strangely acting one-eyed groundskeeper Devon (Daniel Boyd) is on hand to make
Continue reading →
Film FestivalsMoviesReviews
Tearsucker Seasoned fear-fare aficionados may be well versed in the set-up of director Stephen Vanderpool’s Tearsucker — a young woman falls for a seemingly charming stranger who turns out to be hiding a deadly side and goes on a trip with him despite her best friend’s uncertainties about the situation — but I can guarantee that the villain in this dark, macabre work has a disturbing perversion that you haven’t seen before. The film’s official logline, so that readers can rest assured I am spoiling nothing that isn’t already out for public consumption, is “Emotionally vulnerable women are preyed on by a charming psychopath who wants to suck their tears.” Tom (Sam Brittan) is the psycho in question, and he has his sights set on Lilly (Alison Walter), who has recently left an abusive relationship and is sharing her experience on social media, with tears aplenty flowing. Brittan’s screenplay is an intriguing, unsettling character study of both predator and prey.
Continue reading →
