CategoryReviews
Honest horror reviews of films, series, games and books — no hype, no spoilers, just whether it is worth your time and your nerves.
3,447 stories
IndieMoviesReviews
The fine fiends at Wild Eye Releasing must have known ol’ Dan XIII needed a bit of a jolt to round out his sinister summer, and they sent me a large selection of outre offerings to feast my putrid peepers upon! So, in the interest of offering my not so humble opinion on what the creepy company has on hand; I’m going to devote the next few columns to revotin’ reviews of their various terror tales! Part One of our deep dive will feature five, count ’em five titles available from Wild Eye Releasing; Virus of the Dead, The Velocipastor, The Baylock Residence, Pickaxe, and Ouija Shark! First up, Virus of the Dead: If there’s two things that cats what love the horror biz dig it’s arcane anthologies and zombies…so it stands to reason that many of you boils n’ ghouls would be curious to check out a flick that combines those things right? Well, you’re in luck because the
Continue reading →
GamingProductReviews
As you can guess by the title, I’ve never played a “souls” game before. I never experienced the soul-crushing repetitive nature of playing, dying, and repeating for hours at a time that makes one question why they put themselves through such mental torture…but I want to, and Cold Symmetry and Playstack were more than happy to test my resolve with their soulslike game Mortal Shell. Mortal Shell takes players to a dark world full of creepy looking enemies, creatures, and mystery as they play as a being that takes over the remains of four dead warriors and fights their way through enemies in order to attain glands from certain enemies to appease the mysterious monstrous prisoner. Now onto the game itself! Leading up to getting the review copy of Mortal Shell I watched and studied gameplay videos of Dark Souls in which this game is said to be like. Long story short, YES, Mortal Shell is on the same level
Continue reading →
GamingIndieProductReviews
A great big thank you to the folks at Perfectly Paranormal for allowing me to review their puzzle platformer, Helheim Hassle! Helheim Hassle follows the misadventures of Bjørn, a 14-year-old Viking that’s not really into the idea of dying in battle and going to Valhalla. As fate would have it, Bjørn dies in an act of bravery resulting in him going to Valhalla. Fast forward to the present, we meet Pesto who is from a Hell going to Helheim (Viking Hell) but ends up needing Bjørn’s help (to read runes) in return for his help, Pesto will help Bjørn go to Helheim, the only downside is… Pesto’s magic makes allows Bjørn’s limbs to fall off and move on their own. Onto the game itself! Controls can be a bit to master as certain buttons dictate what limb you want to fall off and take control of. It will take patience as some moments will require you to make decisions quickly
Continue reading →
ForeignMoviesReviews
Commander Konstantin Veshnyakov (Pyotr Fyodorov) is doin’ the Major Tom bag back round ‘83. Well on the way back home, Veshnyakov has the unpleasant discovery that they are not alone in the capsule. One crash landing, an amazingly worse for wear co-pilot, and incarceration in a secret facility later we learn that our hero is a host to a parasitic alien that gives him remarkable regenerative abilities… but, like he has to have a giant space creature inside of him, just a-ridin’ around… Enter: Tatyana Klimova (Oksana Akinshina), a hot shot psychiatric doctor with unconventional methods of treating patients, who’s brought to the facility by hard-ass Colonel Semiradov (Fedor Bondarchuk) to look after our deadly duo. The problem is, the longer Klimova is at the secret base… and I mean, she couldn’t leave even if she wanted to… the more she learns that there are many more secrets involved than just an alien-infested spaceman… and living through the project’s conclusion
Continue reading →
MoviesReviewsThriller
Director Robin Pront’s serial killer thriller The Silencing is chock full of genre-film tropes and red herrings, but solid performances and crisp cinematography help raise the film to the level of being a perfectly serviceable thriller. Nikolaj Coster-Waldau (Game of Thrones; Headhunters) stars as Rayburn, an alcoholic former hunter who has transformed his old hunting grounds into a wildlife sanctuary. He is emotionally haunted by the disappearance of his daughter five years earlier. He sees someone heavily disguised on one of his trail cams hunting down a frightened, bleeding young woman and goes in pursuit. The other main character is Sheriff Alice Gustafson, played by Annabelle Wallis (Annabelle; Peaky Blinders). She is so protective of her younger, screw-up brother that she is willing to go beyond just bending the law to keep him out of further trouble. As astute readers might guess, Rayburn and Gustafason cross paths in their mutual quest to determine the identity of the killer and stop
Continue reading →
GamingIndieProductReviews
All In! Games and Ovid Works sent me down the Kakfkaesque rabbit hole with their first-person platforming game, Metamorphosis. In Metamorphosis you play as Gregor Samsa who woke up one morning and realized that he turned into a bug and is now employed at a company called Tower who holds all the answers as to why this happened to Gregor and how he can turn human again. Along his journey, Gregor sees the world of insects and meets interesting individuals. Now onto the game itself! Mastering the controls is easy thanks to a tutorial in the beginning plus being made not complicated, to begin with. The movement of Gregor as an insect is fun as the movements are quick and mechanical much like a bug. Gregor can crawl up walls with the help of yellow goo that he finds piles of in certain places. The sound is amazing and I suggest wearing headphones for it so you won’t miss the
Continue reading →
IndieMoviesReviews
Ol’ Pike (Dennis Haggard) and his fellow survivors of the apocalypse traipse across the damnable desert on their way to the epicenter of said apocalypse; Jawbone. Seems hot n’ dusty, but it’ll be a dull journey no doubt; I mean a tumbleweed here, some sand n’ scorching sun there…. maybe a cannibalistic demon-oid freak or two… Yeah, we are in for a joltin’ journey indeed cats n’ creeps, as along with the oppressive conditions of that sandy death-trap, and those goddamned monsters mentioned up yonder, Pike n’ pals must deal with a wacko known as The Magistrate (Ron Jason) who is fixin’ to raise an army of cannibal creatures of his own! Coming from director Joaquin Montalvan (who co-wrote the flick along with Eunice Font, and S.E. Feinberg), Cannibal Corpse Killers delivers a solid punch of low budget thrills n’ chills, and offers us a look into a world that comes off as a cross between Lamberto Bava’s Demons and
Continue reading →
MoviesNewsReviewsShowStreaming TVTrailers
I was nine when I watched my first episode of “Are You Afraid the Dark?” Even as a kid I loved all things dark and spooky. That hasn’t changed since I became an adult. When I heard the news that the series was coming back as a limited series event I was eager to recapture a bit of nostalgia. So, how does the new limited series event stack up? I am happy to report that I am more than pleased. Even as an adult, I truly enjoyed all three episodes that make up the DVD. The story follows a new girl at school who is invited into the mysterious Midnight Society but to join she has to create a truly terrifying tale. And boy does she succeed. However, after joining the group her story comes to life bringing the dark carnival she sees in her nightmare to light. The group finds themselves on a mission to save a school mate
Continue reading →
IndieMoviesReviews
Judy (Chet Siegel), along with her pals Max (Jeff Riddle) and Mel (Ruby McCollister) simply want to solicit a van for the first tour of their punk band, DUH, when they encounter one strange mother fucker what goes by the handle Peckerhead (David Littleton). This chance meeting is fortuitous for our heroes, as ol’ Pecker is willing to let them use his van cum home as a means to haul their asses from gig to gig for a few bucks and gas money… hell, he even volunteers to act as their roadie! Really the only negative to the deal is that Peckerhead turns into a flesh-eating monster every night at midnight for thirteen minutes… as one does. Now our heroes aren’t ones to let some fucked-up arcane shenanigans get in the way of their dreams, so they soon form an uneasy alliance with Pecker in order to continue the tour… now let’s see if they can pull that off without
Continue reading →
GamingIndieMoviesReviews
Max Jenkins (Tom Plumley) and his pals Reggie (Joey Morgan) and Liz (Hassie Harrison) spend most of their time, free and otherwise, playin’ a Warcraft-esque MMORPG, but those fabricated adventures are about to become all to real… You see, Max works at a video game store… in fact all of his pals do; and it’s within those confines that our hero discovers a long lost Colecovision game, Nether Dungeon by name, that when conquered unleashes an ancient curse upon the small town our protagonists call home. Soon Max, Reggie, and Liz must face the Nether, along with the help of one of the game’s creators, Eugene Wylder (Greg Grunberg), and their level of success will determine the fate of the entire world! One of the greatest assets to Max Reload and the Nether Blasters is the mythology the flick conjures up around the fictitious video game that causes so much trouble for Max n’ friends. There’s a brief television documentary
Continue reading →
More from Reviews
IndieMoviesReviews
The fine fiends at Wild Eye Releasing must have known ol’ Dan XIII needed a bit of a jolt to round out his sinister summer, and they sent me a large selection of outre offerings to feast my putrid peepers upon! So, in the interest of offering my not so humble opinion on what the creepy company has on hand; I’m going to devote the next few columns to revotin’ reviews of their various terror tales! Part One of our deep dive will feature five, count ’em five titles available from Wild Eye Releasing; Virus of the Dead, The Velocipastor, The Baylock Residence, Pickaxe, and Ouija Shark! First up, Virus of the Dead: If there’s two things that cats what love the horror biz dig it’s arcane anthologies and zombies…so it stands to reason that many of you boils n’ ghouls would be curious to check out a flick that combines those things right? Well, you’re in luck because the
Continue reading →
GamingProductReviews
As you can guess by the title, I’ve never played a “souls” game before. I never experienced the soul-crushing repetitive nature of playing, dying, and repeating for hours at a time that makes one question why they put themselves through such mental torture…but I want to, and Cold Symmetry and Playstack were more than happy to test my resolve with their soulslike game Mortal Shell. Mortal Shell takes players to a dark world full of creepy looking enemies, creatures, and mystery as they play as a being that takes over the remains of four dead warriors and fights their way through enemies in order to attain glands from certain enemies to appease the mysterious monstrous prisoner. Now onto the game itself! Leading up to getting the review copy of Mortal Shell I watched and studied gameplay videos of Dark Souls in which this game is said to be like. Long story short, YES, Mortal Shell is on the same level
Continue reading →
GamingIndieProductReviews
A great big thank you to the folks at Perfectly Paranormal for allowing me to review their puzzle platformer, Helheim Hassle! Helheim Hassle follows the misadventures of Bjørn, a 14-year-old Viking that’s not really into the idea of dying in battle and going to Valhalla. As fate would have it, Bjørn dies in an act of bravery resulting in him going to Valhalla. Fast forward to the present, we meet Pesto who is from a Hell going to Helheim (Viking Hell) but ends up needing Bjørn’s help (to read runes) in return for his help, Pesto will help Bjørn go to Helheim, the only downside is… Pesto’s magic makes allows Bjørn’s limbs to fall off and move on their own. Onto the game itself! Controls can be a bit to master as certain buttons dictate what limb you want to fall off and take control of. It will take patience as some moments will require you to make decisions quickly
Continue reading →
ForeignMoviesReviews
Commander Konstantin Veshnyakov (Pyotr Fyodorov) is doin’ the Major Tom bag back round ‘83. Well on the way back home, Veshnyakov has the unpleasant discovery that they are not alone in the capsule. One crash landing, an amazingly worse for wear co-pilot, and incarceration in a secret facility later we learn that our hero is a host to a parasitic alien that gives him remarkable regenerative abilities… but, like he has to have a giant space creature inside of him, just a-ridin’ around… Enter: Tatyana Klimova (Oksana Akinshina), a hot shot psychiatric doctor with unconventional methods of treating patients, who’s brought to the facility by hard-ass Colonel Semiradov (Fedor Bondarchuk) to look after our deadly duo. The problem is, the longer Klimova is at the secret base… and I mean, she couldn’t leave even if she wanted to… the more she learns that there are many more secrets involved than just an alien-infested spaceman… and living through the project’s conclusion
Continue reading →
MoviesReviewsThriller
Director Robin Pront’s serial killer thriller The Silencing is chock full of genre-film tropes and red herrings, but solid performances and crisp cinematography help raise the film to the level of being a perfectly serviceable thriller. Nikolaj Coster-Waldau (Game of Thrones; Headhunters) stars as Rayburn, an alcoholic former hunter who has transformed his old hunting grounds into a wildlife sanctuary. He is emotionally haunted by the disappearance of his daughter five years earlier. He sees someone heavily disguised on one of his trail cams hunting down a frightened, bleeding young woman and goes in pursuit. The other main character is Sheriff Alice Gustafson, played by Annabelle Wallis (Annabelle; Peaky Blinders). She is so protective of her younger, screw-up brother that she is willing to go beyond just bending the law to keep him out of further trouble. As astute readers might guess, Rayburn and Gustafason cross paths in their mutual quest to determine the identity of the killer and stop
Continue reading →
GamingIndieProductReviews
All In! Games and Ovid Works sent me down the Kakfkaesque rabbit hole with their first-person platforming game, Metamorphosis. In Metamorphosis you play as Gregor Samsa who woke up one morning and realized that he turned into a bug and is now employed at a company called Tower who holds all the answers as to why this happened to Gregor and how he can turn human again. Along his journey, Gregor sees the world of insects and meets interesting individuals. Now onto the game itself! Mastering the controls is easy thanks to a tutorial in the beginning plus being made not complicated, to begin with. The movement of Gregor as an insect is fun as the movements are quick and mechanical much like a bug. Gregor can crawl up walls with the help of yellow goo that he finds piles of in certain places. The sound is amazing and I suggest wearing headphones for it so you won’t miss the
Continue reading →
IndieMoviesReviews
Ol’ Pike (Dennis Haggard) and his fellow survivors of the apocalypse traipse across the damnable desert on their way to the epicenter of said apocalypse; Jawbone. Seems hot n’ dusty, but it’ll be a dull journey no doubt; I mean a tumbleweed here, some sand n’ scorching sun there…. maybe a cannibalistic demon-oid freak or two… Yeah, we are in for a joltin’ journey indeed cats n’ creeps, as along with the oppressive conditions of that sandy death-trap, and those goddamned monsters mentioned up yonder, Pike n’ pals must deal with a wacko known as The Magistrate (Ron Jason) who is fixin’ to raise an army of cannibal creatures of his own! Coming from director Joaquin Montalvan (who co-wrote the flick along with Eunice Font, and S.E. Feinberg), Cannibal Corpse Killers delivers a solid punch of low budget thrills n’ chills, and offers us a look into a world that comes off as a cross between Lamberto Bava’s Demons and
Continue reading →
MoviesNewsReviewsShowStreaming TVTrailers
I was nine when I watched my first episode of “Are You Afraid the Dark?” Even as a kid I loved all things dark and spooky. That hasn’t changed since I became an adult. When I heard the news that the series was coming back as a limited series event I was eager to recapture a bit of nostalgia. So, how does the new limited series event stack up? I am happy to report that I am more than pleased. Even as an adult, I truly enjoyed all three episodes that make up the DVD. The story follows a new girl at school who is invited into the mysterious Midnight Society but to join she has to create a truly terrifying tale. And boy does she succeed. However, after joining the group her story comes to life bringing the dark carnival she sees in her nightmare to light. The group finds themselves on a mission to save a school mate
Continue reading →
IndieMoviesReviews
Judy (Chet Siegel), along with her pals Max (Jeff Riddle) and Mel (Ruby McCollister) simply want to solicit a van for the first tour of their punk band, DUH, when they encounter one strange mother fucker what goes by the handle Peckerhead (David Littleton). This chance meeting is fortuitous for our heroes, as ol’ Pecker is willing to let them use his van cum home as a means to haul their asses from gig to gig for a few bucks and gas money… hell, he even volunteers to act as their roadie! Really the only negative to the deal is that Peckerhead turns into a flesh-eating monster every night at midnight for thirteen minutes… as one does. Now our heroes aren’t ones to let some fucked-up arcane shenanigans get in the way of their dreams, so they soon form an uneasy alliance with Pecker in order to continue the tour… now let’s see if they can pull that off without
Continue reading →
GamingIndieMoviesReviews
Max Jenkins (Tom Plumley) and his pals Reggie (Joey Morgan) and Liz (Hassie Harrison) spend most of their time, free and otherwise, playin’ a Warcraft-esque MMORPG, but those fabricated adventures are about to become all to real… You see, Max works at a video game store… in fact all of his pals do; and it’s within those confines that our hero discovers a long lost Colecovision game, Nether Dungeon by name, that when conquered unleashes an ancient curse upon the small town our protagonists call home. Soon Max, Reggie, and Liz must face the Nether, along with the help of one of the game’s creators, Eugene Wylder (Greg Grunberg), and their level of success will determine the fate of the entire world! One of the greatest assets to Max Reload and the Nether Blasters is the mythology the flick conjures up around the fictitious video game that causes so much trouble for Max n’ friends. There’s a brief television documentary
Continue reading →
