CategoryReviews
Honest horror reviews of films, series, games and books — no hype, no spoilers, just whether it is worth your time and your nerves.
3,432 stories
IndieMoviesReviews
After the most Ray Dennis Steckler opening credits sequence that Ray Dennis Steckler never directed, Al Adamson’s Dracula vs. Frankenstein gets underway… and boy fuckin’ does it ever a graverobbing Dracula (Zandor Vorkov… much more impressive a moniker than Roger, the record store employee), an axe murder committed by a mute Igor-surrogate named Groton (Lon Chaney Jr. who is argurably most well-known from starring in 1941’s The Wolf Man for Universal, some groovy “kids”, B-Roll of the Vegas strip, and a mad scientist, a descendant of Dr. Frankenstein himself (played in his last role by J. Carrol Naish, no stranger to the monster biz having co-starred in 1944’s House of Frankenstein) performing “experiments” on comely, nude women. How does all of that fit together? Just wait, the movie isn’t done jamming shit together… Added to the monstrous mix, we also get a showgirl, Judith Fontaine (Regina Carrol of 1969’s Satan’s Sadists, another Adamson production) by name, looking for her missing
Continue reading →
IndieMoviesReviews
Sinphony is a new entry in the ever popular genre of horror anthologies; so let’s set our putrid peepers on each tale for a brief sinister synopsis: Things kick off with a wrap-around segment, Sebastien Bazile and Michael Galvanwith’s Symphony of Horror which details a woman delivering a demon baby and were off to the races my cats n’ creeps! Following that we get Jason Ragosta’s Mother Love; an effective stalk n’ slay number with a woman and her young son being accosted by a creepy clown… but there may be more to the situation than first appears! Next is Steven Keller’s Ear Worm; a putrid parable about a father and son mold abatement crew coming up a rather nasty new strain. After that comes Haley Bishop contributes Forever Young which concerns a woman’s attempts to beat the perceived ravages of Father Time via a social media app with expected unexpected results! As a breather we get to see the
Continue reading →
MoviesReviewsSci-Fi
Warner Bros. Home Entertainment provided me with a free copy of the DVD I reviewed in this blog post. The opinions I share are my own. Running from 2000 to 2015, Adult Swim’s Aqua Teen Hunger Force concerned the adventures of three fast food items, none of whom are teens, that gather together to solve crimes which they never do. Aqua Teen Forever: Plantasm is a direct-to-video film sequel to all that. Those aforementioned foods; Master Shake (Dana Snyder), Frylock (Carey Means), and Meatwad (Dave Willis) have gone their separate ways, with Frylock scoring an IT position at Amazin; a huge corporation ran by a lil’ dude named Neil (Peter Serafinowicz). On the job Frylock works with a scientist named Elmer (Paul Walter Hauser) who is working on both a machine to stretch Neil out, and intelligent plants, and neither are going well. Before you know it, Frylock and Neil get chummy after the former suggests using DNA splicing to
Continue reading →
MoviesParanormalReviews
Writer/director Levi Austin Morris’s supernatural feature Paralysis is a labor of love that punches above its microbudget weight and delivers an intriguing watch. Haley Stone (Allison Lobel) is a young woman who has become reclusive. Growing increasingly distant from her mother as she deals with the terrors of sleep paralysis along with battling personal demons, her only regular contact is with her brother Nicky (Morris). Increasingly worried that diabolical forces are at play in her home, she contacts paranormal investigator Annisa Bradley (Lisagaye Tomlinson). The pair must delve into the trauma that Haley is going, and has gone, through to confront her fears and the causes behind them head on. Lobel gives a riveting, multilayered performance as the troubled Haley, heading up a solid cast. The characters feel lived in and the dialogue between them is realistic. Morris’s screenplay nicely balances drama concerning mental illness and family with eerie horror elements. Shot with an iPhone by Morris and Emerson Gregori,
Continue reading →
GamingIndieProductReviews
Many have heard of Baba Yaga, the witch of Slavic folklore said to live in the woods in a house that sits atop a pair of chicken legs, and who is either Good or Evil. With every story there’s a beginning, right? Well, this is where Blacktail comes in with the telling of the origin the of famed witch. I want to thank THE PARASITE and Focus Entertainment for the reviewing opportunity! Blacktail tells the story of Yaga, a young woman who’s looking for her sister missing twin sister Zora in the forest where her abilities start to manifest as she begins to learn more about herself and the witch she can become. Now onto the game itself! The controls for Blacktail are pretty straightforward, especially for FPS players as this is a first-person game and Yaga uses a bow as both a weapon and tool. The game’s sound design is good, especially with the sounds of the forest, I
Continue reading →
MoviesReviews
As with a lot of Bigfoot flicks, 1976’s Creature From Black Lake gives us two things; picturesque nature photography (here courtesy of cinematographer/John Carpenter mainstay Dean Cundey) and college classes devoted to Sasquatch. These things dovetail when trappers fall victim to a Bigfoot attack while simultaneously a college professor talks about how said creature has never attacked a human. Speaking of said Cryp-TED Talk, two students from that class, Pahoo (House of 1,000 Corpses‘ Dennis Fimple) and Rives (John David Carson, who would go on to appear in 1977’s nature-run-amok via giant insect shocker, Empire of the Ants) by name, head down to the Louisiana-Arkansas border from their Windy City home to investigate multiple reports of creature sightings over a stretch of decades. Once there, our heroes discover everyone in town has a bad case of “Shut-the-fuck-up-itis” and info is hard to come by until they meet Orville Bridges (Jim McCullough Jr., who also wrote and produced the film), a
Continue reading →
IndieMoviesProductReviews
Comin’ straight from Bob A Christmas Story Clark (okay he also gave us the original recipe Black Christmas and Porky’s) Children Shouldn’t Play With Dead Things, concerns the mystic misadventures of Alan (played by the film’s co-writer Alan Ormsby); a truly pretentious prickus of a man who just so happens to be a stage director. Why is that important? Because he has a whole troupe of actor’s and stagehands at his service… mostly because if they go a single pussy hair out of line he goes psycho and threatens them with their jobs… which is handy when he gets a wild hair up his ass to head to a deserted island of the coast of Miami and try to resurrect the dead… as one fucking does. Well after a bit of ass-foolery involving a bum spell from Alan’s extensive arcane studies, the thespians manage to dig up a stiff, which Alan demands be taken to the abandoned cabin they are
Continue reading →
Amazon Prime VideoAMCApple TVFrom the CryptHuluNetflixNewsParamount+ReviewsStreaming TVTrailers
There are hundreds of shows to watch, but you may be wondering which genre series are actually worth watching. We’ve debated and now have a list of this year’s top 10 horror series that shouldn’t be missed. 10. From This supernatural series, Epix’s most-watched series, has been renewed. “From” is set in a mysterious town that traps all who enters and leaves them trying to survive the monsters that come out at night. In season two, hidden truths about the nature and terrifying origins of the town begin to emerge, even as life for its residents is plunged into chaos by the arrival of mysterious newcomers. Status: Renewed Where to watch: Epix 9. The Bastard Son & The Devil Himself Netflix’s new supernatural series “The Bastard Son & The Devil Himself,” based on Sally Green’s novel trilogy, is now streaming. In the series, “Sixteen-year-old Nathan (Jay Lycurgo) is the illegitimate son of the world’s most dangerous witch. Fearing he will
Continue reading →
Film FestivalsForeignIndieMoviesReviewsThriller
Outstanding horror and horror-adjacent movies were in strong supply at film festivals this year, and whittling down my “best of 2022” list was no easy feat. Here are the selections on which I decided. Some are now available through digital, on-demand, subscription services, and physical media, while others are still making the rounds on the fest circuit. (1) Evil Eye (A Night of Horror) Awash in the atmosphere, visually beautiful, and boasting terrific performances and superb set design, Mexican chiller Evil Eye — from one of my favorite directors, Isaac Ezban — is a dark fairy tale/folk horror outing that is woven together masterfully in its telling of a teen girl’s suspicions that her grandmother may be a witch. (2) Skinamarink (Fantasia) This goosebumps-inducing, lo-fi slice of fear-fare cinema became an instant year-end best candidate when I saw it for its Fantasia run in the summer. It induces the feeling of fright we had as children, which is no small
Continue reading →
Holiday HorrorMoviesNewsReviewsTrailers
One of my favorite aspects of Christmas is the holiday horror films. I’ve been eagerly awaiting the release of Violent Night, and yesterday, Universal gifted viewers with the surprise release of it On Demand (it’s still in theaters). I slipped on my PJs, popped a bag of popcorn, snuggled up with my dogs (Rosie and Freyja), and hit play. In the movie, “When a team of mercenaries breaks into a wealthy family compound on Christmas Eve, taking everyone inside hostage, the team isn’t prepared for a surprise combatant: Santa Claus (David Harbour, Black Widow, “Stranger Things”) is on the grounds, and he’s about to show why this Nick is no saint.” David Harbour has proved his acting talent in “Stranger Things,” so I had high expectations that he’d nail a badass Sants, and I was not disappointed. Between his battles with the bad guys, we see the tender side of old Saint Nick when he comes in contact with a
Continue reading →
More from Reviews
IndieMoviesReviews
After the most Ray Dennis Steckler opening credits sequence that Ray Dennis Steckler never directed, Al Adamson’s Dracula vs. Frankenstein gets underway… and boy fuckin’ does it ever a graverobbing Dracula (Zandor Vorkov… much more impressive a moniker than Roger, the record store employee), an axe murder committed by a mute Igor-surrogate named Groton (Lon Chaney Jr. who is argurably most well-known from starring in 1941’s The Wolf Man for Universal, some groovy “kids”, B-Roll of the Vegas strip, and a mad scientist, a descendant of Dr. Frankenstein himself (played in his last role by J. Carrol Naish, no stranger to the monster biz having co-starred in 1944’s House of Frankenstein) performing “experiments” on comely, nude women. How does all of that fit together? Just wait, the movie isn’t done jamming shit together… Added to the monstrous mix, we also get a showgirl, Judith Fontaine (Regina Carrol of 1969’s Satan’s Sadists, another Adamson production) by name, looking for her missing
Continue reading →
IndieMoviesReviews
Sinphony is a new entry in the ever popular genre of horror anthologies; so let’s set our putrid peepers on each tale for a brief sinister synopsis: Things kick off with a wrap-around segment, Sebastien Bazile and Michael Galvanwith’s Symphony of Horror which details a woman delivering a demon baby and were off to the races my cats n’ creeps! Following that we get Jason Ragosta’s Mother Love; an effective stalk n’ slay number with a woman and her young son being accosted by a creepy clown… but there may be more to the situation than first appears! Next is Steven Keller’s Ear Worm; a putrid parable about a father and son mold abatement crew coming up a rather nasty new strain. After that comes Haley Bishop contributes Forever Young which concerns a woman’s attempts to beat the perceived ravages of Father Time via a social media app with expected unexpected results! As a breather we get to see the
Continue reading →
MoviesReviewsSci-Fi
Warner Bros. Home Entertainment provided me with a free copy of the DVD I reviewed in this blog post. The opinions I share are my own. Running from 2000 to 2015, Adult Swim’s Aqua Teen Hunger Force concerned the adventures of three fast food items, none of whom are teens, that gather together to solve crimes which they never do. Aqua Teen Forever: Plantasm is a direct-to-video film sequel to all that. Those aforementioned foods; Master Shake (Dana Snyder), Frylock (Carey Means), and Meatwad (Dave Willis) have gone their separate ways, with Frylock scoring an IT position at Amazin; a huge corporation ran by a lil’ dude named Neil (Peter Serafinowicz). On the job Frylock works with a scientist named Elmer (Paul Walter Hauser) who is working on both a machine to stretch Neil out, and intelligent plants, and neither are going well. Before you know it, Frylock and Neil get chummy after the former suggests using DNA splicing to
Continue reading →
MoviesParanormalReviews
Writer/director Levi Austin Morris’s supernatural feature Paralysis is a labor of love that punches above its microbudget weight and delivers an intriguing watch. Haley Stone (Allison Lobel) is a young woman who has become reclusive. Growing increasingly distant from her mother as she deals with the terrors of sleep paralysis along with battling personal demons, her only regular contact is with her brother Nicky (Morris). Increasingly worried that diabolical forces are at play in her home, she contacts paranormal investigator Annisa Bradley (Lisagaye Tomlinson). The pair must delve into the trauma that Haley is going, and has gone, through to confront her fears and the causes behind them head on. Lobel gives a riveting, multilayered performance as the troubled Haley, heading up a solid cast. The characters feel lived in and the dialogue between them is realistic. Morris’s screenplay nicely balances drama concerning mental illness and family with eerie horror elements. Shot with an iPhone by Morris and Emerson Gregori,
Continue reading →
GamingIndieProductReviews
Many have heard of Baba Yaga, the witch of Slavic folklore said to live in the woods in a house that sits atop a pair of chicken legs, and who is either Good or Evil. With every story there’s a beginning, right? Well, this is where Blacktail comes in with the telling of the origin the of famed witch. I want to thank THE PARASITE and Focus Entertainment for the reviewing opportunity! Blacktail tells the story of Yaga, a young woman who’s looking for her sister missing twin sister Zora in the forest where her abilities start to manifest as she begins to learn more about herself and the witch she can become. Now onto the game itself! The controls for Blacktail are pretty straightforward, especially for FPS players as this is a first-person game and Yaga uses a bow as both a weapon and tool. The game’s sound design is good, especially with the sounds of the forest, I
Continue reading →
MoviesReviews
As with a lot of Bigfoot flicks, 1976’s Creature From Black Lake gives us two things; picturesque nature photography (here courtesy of cinematographer/John Carpenter mainstay Dean Cundey) and college classes devoted to Sasquatch. These things dovetail when trappers fall victim to a Bigfoot attack while simultaneously a college professor talks about how said creature has never attacked a human. Speaking of said Cryp-TED Talk, two students from that class, Pahoo (House of 1,000 Corpses‘ Dennis Fimple) and Rives (John David Carson, who would go on to appear in 1977’s nature-run-amok via giant insect shocker, Empire of the Ants) by name, head down to the Louisiana-Arkansas border from their Windy City home to investigate multiple reports of creature sightings over a stretch of decades. Once there, our heroes discover everyone in town has a bad case of “Shut-the-fuck-up-itis” and info is hard to come by until they meet Orville Bridges (Jim McCullough Jr., who also wrote and produced the film), a
Continue reading →
IndieMoviesProductReviews
Comin’ straight from Bob A Christmas Story Clark (okay he also gave us the original recipe Black Christmas and Porky’s) Children Shouldn’t Play With Dead Things, concerns the mystic misadventures of Alan (played by the film’s co-writer Alan Ormsby); a truly pretentious prickus of a man who just so happens to be a stage director. Why is that important? Because he has a whole troupe of actor’s and stagehands at his service… mostly because if they go a single pussy hair out of line he goes psycho and threatens them with their jobs… which is handy when he gets a wild hair up his ass to head to a deserted island of the coast of Miami and try to resurrect the dead… as one fucking does. Well after a bit of ass-foolery involving a bum spell from Alan’s extensive arcane studies, the thespians manage to dig up a stiff, which Alan demands be taken to the abandoned cabin they are
Continue reading →
Amazon Prime VideoAMCApple TVFrom the CryptHuluNetflixNewsParamount+ReviewsStreaming TVTrailers
There are hundreds of shows to watch, but you may be wondering which genre series are actually worth watching. We’ve debated and now have a list of this year’s top 10 horror series that shouldn’t be missed. 10. From This supernatural series, Epix’s most-watched series, has been renewed. “From” is set in a mysterious town that traps all who enters and leaves them trying to survive the monsters that come out at night. In season two, hidden truths about the nature and terrifying origins of the town begin to emerge, even as life for its residents is plunged into chaos by the arrival of mysterious newcomers. Status: Renewed Where to watch: Epix 9. The Bastard Son & The Devil Himself Netflix’s new supernatural series “The Bastard Son & The Devil Himself,” based on Sally Green’s novel trilogy, is now streaming. In the series, “Sixteen-year-old Nathan (Jay Lycurgo) is the illegitimate son of the world’s most dangerous witch. Fearing he will
Continue reading →
Film FestivalsForeignIndieMoviesReviewsThriller
Outstanding horror and horror-adjacent movies were in strong supply at film festivals this year, and whittling down my “best of 2022” list was no easy feat. Here are the selections on which I decided. Some are now available through digital, on-demand, subscription services, and physical media, while others are still making the rounds on the fest circuit. (1) Evil Eye (A Night of Horror) Awash in the atmosphere, visually beautiful, and boasting terrific performances and superb set design, Mexican chiller Evil Eye — from one of my favorite directors, Isaac Ezban — is a dark fairy tale/folk horror outing that is woven together masterfully in its telling of a teen girl’s suspicions that her grandmother may be a witch. (2) Skinamarink (Fantasia) This goosebumps-inducing, lo-fi slice of fear-fare cinema became an instant year-end best candidate when I saw it for its Fantasia run in the summer. It induces the feeling of fright we had as children, which is no small
Continue reading →
Holiday HorrorMoviesNewsReviewsTrailers
One of my favorite aspects of Christmas is the holiday horror films. I’ve been eagerly awaiting the release of Violent Night, and yesterday, Universal gifted viewers with the surprise release of it On Demand (it’s still in theaters). I slipped on my PJs, popped a bag of popcorn, snuggled up with my dogs (Rosie and Freyja), and hit play. In the movie, “When a team of mercenaries breaks into a wealthy family compound on Christmas Eve, taking everyone inside hostage, the team isn’t prepared for a surprise combatant: Santa Claus (David Harbour, Black Widow, “Stranger Things”) is on the grounds, and he’s about to show why this Nick is no saint.” David Harbour has proved his acting talent in “Stranger Things,” so I had high expectations that he’d nail a badass Sants, and I was not disappointed. Between his battles with the bad guys, we see the tender side of old Saint Nick when he comes in contact with a
Continue reading →
