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
IndieMoviesReviews
The Potter family; Harry (Larry Cohen regular Michael Moriarty, The Stuff) and Anne (former Charlie’s Angel Shelley Hack) along with their children Harry Jr. (Noah Hathaway, Battlestar Galactica, The Neverending Story) and Wendy Anne (Jenny Beck, the ‘80s V franchise) move into their new abode; an apartment building in San Francisco (though this was filmed in Italy… though we do get a fun matte painting of the Golden Gate bridge). As most apartment buildings in films are, this domicile is filled with crazy characters (besides Moriarty) such as Eunice St. Clair… a feisty elderly witch (the original Lost in Space’s June Lockhart… played in younger form by her daughter Anne… who was also in Battlestar Galactica) and her pet mushroom creature, a yuppie couple (real-life married duo Julia Louis-Dreyfus, Seinfeld and Saturday Night Live’s Brad Hall), a swinger (Sonny Bono of all people), a military/big game obsessed health nut (WKRP in Cincinnati’s Gary Sandy)… and an evil Troll named Torok
Continue reading →
GamingIndieParanormalProductReviews
You hate your job and just want to quit without consequences? That’s pretty much what The Green Light is all about. Touted as a psychological horror, you take on the role of Fred, a man who wants to be an artist but is stuck working a dead-end office job. The green light of a lighthouse calls to him to just walk away from his job and answer its call, along with the voice of a mysterious man on a radio. I should say right off the bat, The Green Light is a short game, less than half an hour long depending on how you play. It’s impressive that it was all done by one dev, waleedzo, but I feel that Take It! Studio let him down with the port to console. Right away, there are issues with the game’s volume; it’s way too damn loud! The only option to adjust the volume is the Master Volume, which makes Fred’s dialogue
Continue reading →
IndieMoviesReviews
Mad scientist-type Silas Purcell (David Weldon) spends all of his time playing with his beakers in the basement… so much so that his parents decide to send his ass on a li’l unscheduled vacay at a rural bed and breakfast run by a psychic hippie named Jade Moon (Mary Wascavage). Once there, Sinister Silas immediately trips and accidentally releases his latest concoction which spills on some mushrooms turning them into flesh eating, Silly String shootin’, monster fungi that can gain the abilities of anyone they consume! This becomes a serious pain in the ass to Moon and the rest of her guests… the likes of which include Pro-Wrestler Tony “Titus” Ignitus (Dave Bonavita), shady commercial real estate developer Jackson P. Jackson (Dave Wascavage… who also directed and co-wrote the picture along with the aforementioned Mary Wascavage… and while Mary’s on our minds, she sings an absolutely incredible theme song that has to be heard to be believed… I absolutely loved
Continue reading →
IndieMoviesReviewsSci-Fi
There is something seriously wrong with the followers of New Age religion Crystalnetics. For starters, the robed practitioners of said “religion” like nothing more than to chase chicks around their centrally located pyramid headquarters and then getting unreasonably stabby… there’s also a monster involved, but we’ll get to that later… Enter: room-renting, chain smoking, Gen X anthropology student Bob Martin (Vinnie Bilancio), a gruff scholar with a deep interest in ancient supernatural rites and the ass of his landlady, Crystal (Wendi Winburn). Speaking of Crystal, with a name like that you just know she’s balls deep into that crazy cult and before long she’s introduced our hero to the benefits belief in Crystalnetics can bring… but will he see the truth of the cult and it’s star-born, demonic overlord! Coming from Writer/Director Jeff Leroy (Rat Scratch Fever), The Screaming is an incredibly entertaining satire of L. Ron Hubbard’s Dianetics/Scientology biz. We get the genre author turned New Age Prophet, the
Continue reading →
GamingProductReviews
In the past, I have played plenty of games by NACON and had nothing bad to say about them; unfortunately, there’s that old saying, “There’s a first time for everything”, and this is one of them. I still wish to thank NACON and ACE Team for the reviewing opportunity, and I hope my criticism will help improve this game moving forward. The Mound: Omen of Cthulhu is a Lovecraftian first-person survival horror PVE where players take on the role of Spanish explorers who are seeking the mythical “Mound” on an undiscovered island that even the Spanish crown knows nothing about, allowing you to claim the treasure found on this island for yourselves…if you survive. Now, onto the game itself! When it comes to the controls for the game, you can learn them quickly, but at the same time I feel there could still be some more features, like jumping, as the game’s environment appears to have plenty of choices of
Continue reading →
IndieMoviesReviewsThriller
Psycho killin’ machine Toby Gilmore (Benton Jennings) springs himself from the Big House and sets off on a madcap murder spree. Along the way, Fran Tucker (Blue Thompson) witnesses Terrible Toby ventilate a dude’s skull on the open road and soon becomes Gilmore’s hostage. Hot on his heels is police chief Earl Dent (Italian peplum familiar face Richard Harrison), a lawman with a personal ax to grind with our footloose felon! Directed by Bret McCormick (Repligator), working from a script by Gary Kennamer (who we will get back to in a bit), Highway to Hell is down and dirty regional regional filmmaking that would be solid drive-in or Grindhouse material in days past, but in… well different “days past” it was one of many low budget flicks pumped out to video rental joints in the ‘80s and ‘90s. While the film certainly delivers some suspense and a bit o’ bloodshed… and a helicopter… the real stars are the Texas locales
Continue reading →
IndieMoviesReviewsThriller
Peep this one cats n’ creeps… our heroine for Fathers, Natalie (Kaiti Wallen/Emilia Wallen in flashbacks) is found wandering ‘round the wicked woods with little memory of where she’s been since being snatched from outside her parent’s pad a decade and a half prior. With the dodgy details Natalie can provide we begin to learn, via that above mentioned flashback action, that she has been held by a man named Bobby (Harley Wallen, who also wrote and directed the picture at hand), who has convinced Nat that he is indeed her actual father and not ol’ Calvin (Jerry Hayes)… the dude she always believed to be her pappy… and worse than that, that he’s dispatched a squad of folks to steal her back! Can Natalie be able to discern what is truth and what is bullshit and get her life in order before something dire transpires? Wallen… Harley that is… weaves a complex and (obviously) non-linear narrative with Fathers. The
Continue reading →
MoviesNewsReviewsTrailers
Anytime a studio aggressively slaps the “Best Horror Movie of the Year” label on a film right out of the gate, my default setting is heavy skepticism. But I will happily eat my words—and maybe a little tomb dust—because when I finally sat down to watch Lee Cronin’s The Mummy, I was genuinely blown away. Let’s get one thing straight: this is not your swashbuckling, 90s action-adventure. Instead, Cronin strips away the camp and drags us violently back to the suffocating, terrifying roots of the original Universal Monsters. It’s less of a tomb-raiding thrill ride and more of a visceral nightmare fueled by every parent’s absolute worst fears. The Breakout Star While Jack Reynor, Laia Costa, Shylo Molina, and Billie Roy all deliver gripping, panicked performances as a family in way over their heads, the absolute breakout superstar of the film is young Natalie Grace as the missing daughter, Katie. The sheer, unnerving way she twists and contorts her body
Continue reading →
Film FestivalsForeignMoviesReviewsThriller
AnyMart (Japan, 2026) Official Synopsis Sakai, the protagonist, works as an assistant manager at a local convenience store. Outside of work, he lives a quiet, routine life — playing online games and using dating apps — having spent most of his twenties tied to the store. The store is his entire world. And yet, beyond its doors, the world itself seems to be coming to an end. Review Shõta Sometani as Sakai, a clerk at the convenience store owned by his gruff, stick-to-corporate-rules father, gives a fine performance. His character is all but dead on the inside at work, and not much motivated socially or otherwise outside of his job, although he attempts romantic connections, awkward though they may be. Sometani nails this everyman character as writer/director Yusuke Iwasaki uses the konbini and his protagonist as a representation of the frustrations of twentysomething life in modern Japan. The kills are sudden and often shocking, the gore is impressive, and the
Continue reading →
Film FestivalsForeignMoviesReviews
Official Synopsis In the house where a father and daughter live together, a heavy silence lingers, and an unbridgeable distance remains. The father toils at an inexplicable task, while the daughter goes through her days in a quiet routine. But soon, a strange change overtakes his body. Review Kenichi Ugana has earned the title of auteur. He has been crafting independent genre features and shorts since 2010 that range from bizarre shockers (Visitors; Extraneous Matter: Complete Edition; Love Will Tear Us Apart) to a heartwarming rom-com ode to filmmaking (I Fell In Love With A Z-Grade Director In Brooklyn), some decidedly more accessible than others. His latest film Oscillation looks at the strained relationship between a man (Haruki Itabashi) and his adult daughter (Reika Matsubara) and treads in both existential and body horror. The theme of distance and lack of connection runs throughout Oscillation. Not only do the father and daughter rarely speak, communicating through notes to each other almost
Continue reading →
More from Reviews
IndieMoviesReviews
The Potter family; Harry (Larry Cohen regular Michael Moriarty, The Stuff) and Anne (former Charlie’s Angel Shelley Hack) along with their children Harry Jr. (Noah Hathaway, Battlestar Galactica, The Neverending Story) and Wendy Anne (Jenny Beck, the ‘80s V franchise) move into their new abode; an apartment building in San Francisco (though this was filmed in Italy… though we do get a fun matte painting of the Golden Gate bridge). As most apartment buildings in films are, this domicile is filled with crazy characters (besides Moriarty) such as Eunice St. Clair… a feisty elderly witch (the original Lost in Space’s June Lockhart… played in younger form by her daughter Anne… who was also in Battlestar Galactica) and her pet mushroom creature, a yuppie couple (real-life married duo Julia Louis-Dreyfus, Seinfeld and Saturday Night Live’s Brad Hall), a swinger (Sonny Bono of all people), a military/big game obsessed health nut (WKRP in Cincinnati’s Gary Sandy)… and an evil Troll named Torok
Continue reading →
GamingIndieParanormalProductReviews
You hate your job and just want to quit without consequences? That’s pretty much what The Green Light is all about. Touted as a psychological horror, you take on the role of Fred, a man who wants to be an artist but is stuck working a dead-end office job. The green light of a lighthouse calls to him to just walk away from his job and answer its call, along with the voice of a mysterious man on a radio. I should say right off the bat, The Green Light is a short game, less than half an hour long depending on how you play. It’s impressive that it was all done by one dev, waleedzo, but I feel that Take It! Studio let him down with the port to console. Right away, there are issues with the game’s volume; it’s way too damn loud! The only option to adjust the volume is the Master Volume, which makes Fred’s dialogue
Continue reading →
IndieMoviesReviews
Mad scientist-type Silas Purcell (David Weldon) spends all of his time playing with his beakers in the basement… so much so that his parents decide to send his ass on a li’l unscheduled vacay at a rural bed and breakfast run by a psychic hippie named Jade Moon (Mary Wascavage). Once there, Sinister Silas immediately trips and accidentally releases his latest concoction which spills on some mushrooms turning them into flesh eating, Silly String shootin’, monster fungi that can gain the abilities of anyone they consume! This becomes a serious pain in the ass to Moon and the rest of her guests… the likes of which include Pro-Wrestler Tony “Titus” Ignitus (Dave Bonavita), shady commercial real estate developer Jackson P. Jackson (Dave Wascavage… who also directed and co-wrote the picture along with the aforementioned Mary Wascavage… and while Mary’s on our minds, she sings an absolutely incredible theme song that has to be heard to be believed… I absolutely loved
Continue reading →
IndieMoviesReviewsSci-Fi
There is something seriously wrong with the followers of New Age religion Crystalnetics. For starters, the robed practitioners of said “religion” like nothing more than to chase chicks around their centrally located pyramid headquarters and then getting unreasonably stabby… there’s also a monster involved, but we’ll get to that later… Enter: room-renting, chain smoking, Gen X anthropology student Bob Martin (Vinnie Bilancio), a gruff scholar with a deep interest in ancient supernatural rites and the ass of his landlady, Crystal (Wendi Winburn). Speaking of Crystal, with a name like that you just know she’s balls deep into that crazy cult and before long she’s introduced our hero to the benefits belief in Crystalnetics can bring… but will he see the truth of the cult and it’s star-born, demonic overlord! Coming from Writer/Director Jeff Leroy (Rat Scratch Fever), The Screaming is an incredibly entertaining satire of L. Ron Hubbard’s Dianetics/Scientology biz. We get the genre author turned New Age Prophet, the
Continue reading →
GamingProductReviews
In the past, I have played plenty of games by NACON and had nothing bad to say about them; unfortunately, there’s that old saying, “There’s a first time for everything”, and this is one of them. I still wish to thank NACON and ACE Team for the reviewing opportunity, and I hope my criticism will help improve this game moving forward. The Mound: Omen of Cthulhu is a Lovecraftian first-person survival horror PVE where players take on the role of Spanish explorers who are seeking the mythical “Mound” on an undiscovered island that even the Spanish crown knows nothing about, allowing you to claim the treasure found on this island for yourselves…if you survive. Now, onto the game itself! When it comes to the controls for the game, you can learn them quickly, but at the same time I feel there could still be some more features, like jumping, as the game’s environment appears to have plenty of choices of
Continue reading →
IndieMoviesReviewsThriller
Psycho killin’ machine Toby Gilmore (Benton Jennings) springs himself from the Big House and sets off on a madcap murder spree. Along the way, Fran Tucker (Blue Thompson) witnesses Terrible Toby ventilate a dude’s skull on the open road and soon becomes Gilmore’s hostage. Hot on his heels is police chief Earl Dent (Italian peplum familiar face Richard Harrison), a lawman with a personal ax to grind with our footloose felon! Directed by Bret McCormick (Repligator), working from a script by Gary Kennamer (who we will get back to in a bit), Highway to Hell is down and dirty regional regional filmmaking that would be solid drive-in or Grindhouse material in days past, but in… well different “days past” it was one of many low budget flicks pumped out to video rental joints in the ‘80s and ‘90s. While the film certainly delivers some suspense and a bit o’ bloodshed… and a helicopter… the real stars are the Texas locales
Continue reading →
IndieMoviesReviewsThriller
Peep this one cats n’ creeps… our heroine for Fathers, Natalie (Kaiti Wallen/Emilia Wallen in flashbacks) is found wandering ‘round the wicked woods with little memory of where she’s been since being snatched from outside her parent’s pad a decade and a half prior. With the dodgy details Natalie can provide we begin to learn, via that above mentioned flashback action, that she has been held by a man named Bobby (Harley Wallen, who also wrote and directed the picture at hand), who has convinced Nat that he is indeed her actual father and not ol’ Calvin (Jerry Hayes)… the dude she always believed to be her pappy… and worse than that, that he’s dispatched a squad of folks to steal her back! Can Natalie be able to discern what is truth and what is bullshit and get her life in order before something dire transpires? Wallen… Harley that is… weaves a complex and (obviously) non-linear narrative with Fathers. The
Continue reading →
MoviesNewsReviewsTrailers
Anytime a studio aggressively slaps the “Best Horror Movie of the Year” label on a film right out of the gate, my default setting is heavy skepticism. But I will happily eat my words—and maybe a little tomb dust—because when I finally sat down to watch Lee Cronin’s The Mummy, I was genuinely blown away. Let’s get one thing straight: this is not your swashbuckling, 90s action-adventure. Instead, Cronin strips away the camp and drags us violently back to the suffocating, terrifying roots of the original Universal Monsters. It’s less of a tomb-raiding thrill ride and more of a visceral nightmare fueled by every parent’s absolute worst fears. The Breakout Star While Jack Reynor, Laia Costa, Shylo Molina, and Billie Roy all deliver gripping, panicked performances as a family in way over their heads, the absolute breakout superstar of the film is young Natalie Grace as the missing daughter, Katie. The sheer, unnerving way she twists and contorts her body
Continue reading →
Film FestivalsForeignMoviesReviewsThriller
AnyMart (Japan, 2026) Official Synopsis Sakai, the protagonist, works as an assistant manager at a local convenience store. Outside of work, he lives a quiet, routine life — playing online games and using dating apps — having spent most of his twenties tied to the store. The store is his entire world. And yet, beyond its doors, the world itself seems to be coming to an end. Review Shõta Sometani as Sakai, a clerk at the convenience store owned by his gruff, stick-to-corporate-rules father, gives a fine performance. His character is all but dead on the inside at work, and not much motivated socially or otherwise outside of his job, although he attempts romantic connections, awkward though they may be. Sometani nails this everyman character as writer/director Yusuke Iwasaki uses the konbini and his protagonist as a representation of the frustrations of twentysomething life in modern Japan. The kills are sudden and often shocking, the gore is impressive, and the
Continue reading →
Film FestivalsForeignMoviesReviews
Official Synopsis In the house where a father and daughter live together, a heavy silence lingers, and an unbridgeable distance remains. The father toils at an inexplicable task, while the daughter goes through her days in a quiet routine. But soon, a strange change overtakes his body. Review Kenichi Ugana has earned the title of auteur. He has been crafting independent genre features and shorts since 2010 that range from bizarre shockers (Visitors; Extraneous Matter: Complete Edition; Love Will Tear Us Apart) to a heartwarming rom-com ode to filmmaking (I Fell In Love With A Z-Grade Director In Brooklyn), some decidedly more accessible than others. His latest film Oscillation looks at the strained relationship between a man (Haruki Itabashi) and his adult daughter (Reika Matsubara) and treads in both existential and body horror. The theme of distance and lack of connection runs throughout Oscillation. Not only do the father and daughter rarely speak, communicating through notes to each other almost
Continue reading →
