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
MoviesNewsReviewsTrailers
Before I begin this review I would like to clear something up. Like many, when I saw the trailer for Netflix’s The Silence I assumed that it was a rip off of A Quiet Place. But here’s the thing, The Silence is based on Tom Lebbon’s novel by the same name, the same book The Quiet Place was inspired by. That means that they are adaptations of the same book. Netflix actually began work on The Silence before A Quiet Place even began filming. Even though there are similarities, the two films are pretty different when it comes to the story. What I’m saying is, The Silence is NOT a ripoff. What are the similarities between The Silence and The Quiet Place? First, they both feature creatures that attack when they hear a noise, but the creatures are very different. Both films to feature deaf characters and a family on the run. There are also two children in each movie.
Continue reading →
DocumentariesMoviesReviews
Before I begin discussing Life After Flash, I feel it appropriate to share some thoughts on Flash Gordon. If you aren’t interested in such things…or having your’s cruelly uncharacteristically lay his soul bare, just skip down to the next paragraph. Anyway, back in December of 1980, my desire to see Flash Gordon was at an almost unbelievable level…and my parents blew my mind and agreed to drive me, and the prettiest girl in the second grade who agreed to be my date, many towns over (yes, I grew up in the literal middle of nowhere) to see the film…but mother nature had other plans; and a nor’easter (to those not in the know; Upstate New York has about 14 months of winter per year…at least it did back then) kept us in town, and Altman’s Popeye was what it had to be (and for the record, that is a charming film and a ton of fun…but it sure as hell
Continue reading →
DocumentariesGamingIndieMoviesReviews
Dungeon & Dragons; you can bet your arcane asses that a young Dan XIII spent many a lonely, female-less…I mean fun-packed afternoon consuming mass quantities of junk and battling all manner of monsters and maniacs with my erstwhile companions, and even though it’s been decades since I tossed the ol’ dice, I still have an infinity for the game and it’s associated imagery. Speaking of that imagery, you can bet demons to donuts that it was breathtaking, and sparked the imagination of player’s world wide (and let’s be honest, a Dungeonmaster’s job is a titch easier with visual aids)…and Eye of the Beholder explores it’s creation and history in impressive detail! Through ninety minutes we journey from the genesis of the game itself, through it’s earliest utilization of pen and ink illustrations, on to TSR’s (the company that published the game for those of you not in the know) creation of a full-time art department. We witness the growth of
Continue reading →
MoviesReviews
The Hellboy films by Guillermo del Toro sought out to humanize monsters. His character portrayals were softer and relatable. Hellboy by director Neil Marshall and writer Andrew Cosby instead created a genuinely fun, weird adventure. Hellboy’s filled with blood, gore, bad jokes, and killer visuals. The film aspired to blaze its own trail from the beginning. Telling the Hellboy story differently was the goal. I sought out a different experience as well and saw the film in 4DX. 4DX is a motion picture technology which adds environmental effects. Seat motion, wind, rain, scents, and lights accompany a standard audio and visual movie. The technology debuted in 2009 in Seoul, South Korea. The tech hit the U.S. in 2014, and this would be my first experience with it. The movie takes the obligation to share origin stories seriously. It does what it can to make a new place in the minds of the audience. The opening scene sets the stage for
Continue reading →
BooksGamingProductReviews
A slow rainy day is made better with a good sit-down with a book. Luckily for me, Brett Weiss and Schiffer Publishing sent me a copy of Weiss’s latest coffee table read, The SNES Omnibus: The Super Nintendo and Its Games, Vol. 2 (N–Z). I previously reviewed volume one and my feelings towards this volume are no different. The book is laid out in the same format as the previous one where the games are listed alphabetically and include lots of pictures showing gameplay, box art, and for some of them, even the ads for the games. I’ll admit there are some kooky box arts… Just like volume 1, this is a treasure-trove of childhood flashbacks of games I remember being advertised and even movies that came out around that time…they made any movie into a video game back then! As much as I like this book (well both of them actually) I did some digging around and realized that
Continue reading →
IndieMoviesReviews
Dr. Blake (the legendary David Gale) hosts a TV show called “Independent Thinkers”…which is an absurd title as in fact the self-help program is a mind controlling transmission that Blake creates with the help of an alien brain he has holed up in his Psychological Research Institute…and the broadcast is making teens do the ol’ murder/suicide bag like a mother-fucker! Enter teen trouble-maker Jim Majelewski (Tom Breznahan) and his gal-pal Janet (Cyndy Preston) who decide to stand-up to Blake and his star-born menace after Jim has a brief stay at PRI and discovers things aren’t as they appear…but will they have what it takes to end the machinations of that devious doc and his creepy cerebellum? Look, The Brain is a picture about a giant ambulatory, people-eating, demon-faced, alien brain…that should be the only sentence I need to type to make you lot go out and add this to your creepy collection immediately! Of course there is much more this
Continue reading →
IndieProductReviews
Death Kiss was a totally rad-ass throwback to the days of Cannon films, and Charles Bronson flicks and I absolutely loved the shit out of it (Don’t believe me? Click here and read for yourselves!) Well lo and behold, the incredible publisher Pulp 2.0 have gone ahead and released a terrific tome that covers the flicks production inside and out! Beginning with a brief overview of the cinema of vengeance of the ’70’s and ’80’s, as well as Bronson’s contribution to it’s legacy, author Bill Cunningham then segues into how Writer/Director Rene Perez went about creating this neo-exploitation actioner detailing how the creative decisions were made, including the casting of Robert “Bronzi” Kovacs who bears a striking resemblance to the late Bronson (but is a solid actor in his own right) and how those decisions led to producing a low-budget picture that could sell and compete in today’s marketplace. This gives an amazing wealth of information to any aspiring filmmaker
Continue reading →
GamingProductReviews
Gather around and I’ll tell you the tale of a legendary game that rose from the graveyard of game lore to make a triumphant return! Gamers worth their weight in hours of gameplay tell tales of an old adventure point-and-click game on PC in 1987 where you venture into a castle to vanquish an old warlock after traversing through the maze of a castle. This game is called Shadowgate. It spawned two sequels, Beyond Shadowgate that came out in 1987 too, and Shadowgate 64: Trials of the Four Towers that came out in 1999 for the Nintendo 64. Now in the present time, Zojoi and Abstraction brought the legendary game back with a complete and epic update, and they were kind enough to allow me to try it out. I present to you fellow adventurers, the remake of Shadowgate. In this first-person point-and-click game, you play as a young warrior who was summoned by the wizard Lakmir who is the
Continue reading →
MoviesReviews
Professor Gerald Deemer (Leo G. Carroll) is doing the dodgy science bag down Arizona way with the plan of increasing the world’s food supply via making shit large AF. Naturally being a reasonable and sane individual, one of the things the good doc has enlarged is a tarantula, because…well who the fuck knows really…I mean if I was trying to cure world hunger I’d enlarge like a steak or a banana or some shit, not a poisonous as balls eight legged killing machine, but I’m admittedly no doctor…unless it’s a doctor of love because then I got the PHd! So, where the hell was I? Oh yeah… Of course that tarantula gets loose and goes on a bovine based murder spree and soon it’s up to small town doctor Matt Hastings (John Agar), and Deemer’s comely assistant, Stephanie Clayton (Mara Corday), to attempt to save the town from that rapidly growing arachnid. Also a young Clint Eastwood takes pot shots
Continue reading →
IndieMoviesParanormalReviews
In the late 1800’s, a shit heel of a slaver named George Masterson (David Ramsey) is cursed by the poor souls he bought and sold…flash forward to the late 1980’s, and a Psychiatrist named David (Andrew Stevens) and his pop singer gal pal (and former patient), Kate (Mary Page Keller) move into that doomed a-holes house…what could go wrong? The answer of course is every fucking thing. Heralded by an abundance of natures most terrifying creations, pigeons…wait, fucking pigeons?!! Anyway, a few bad dreams and visions, some outre discoveries in the abode (read: centuries old corpses and a strange talisman), and yes, pigeons, lead to a voodoo monster terrorizing our heroes six ways to Sunday! While a bit of a slow burn in the actual horror department, Scared Stiff never became tedious for your’s cruelly (and the third act pay-off is an absolutely fantastic display of gooey, monster-packed practical effects wizardry and well worth the wait). The ages old mystery,
Continue reading →
More from Reviews
MoviesNewsReviewsTrailers
Before I begin this review I would like to clear something up. Like many, when I saw the trailer for Netflix’s The Silence I assumed that it was a rip off of A Quiet Place. But here’s the thing, The Silence is based on Tom Lebbon’s novel by the same name, the same book The Quiet Place was inspired by. That means that they are adaptations of the same book. Netflix actually began work on The Silence before A Quiet Place even began filming. Even though there are similarities, the two films are pretty different when it comes to the story. What I’m saying is, The Silence is NOT a ripoff. What are the similarities between The Silence and The Quiet Place? First, they both feature creatures that attack when they hear a noise, but the creatures are very different. Both films to feature deaf characters and a family on the run. There are also two children in each movie.
Continue reading →
DocumentariesMoviesReviews
Before I begin discussing Life After Flash, I feel it appropriate to share some thoughts on Flash Gordon. If you aren’t interested in such things…or having your’s cruelly uncharacteristically lay his soul bare, just skip down to the next paragraph. Anyway, back in December of 1980, my desire to see Flash Gordon was at an almost unbelievable level…and my parents blew my mind and agreed to drive me, and the prettiest girl in the second grade who agreed to be my date, many towns over (yes, I grew up in the literal middle of nowhere) to see the film…but mother nature had other plans; and a nor’easter (to those not in the know; Upstate New York has about 14 months of winter per year…at least it did back then) kept us in town, and Altman’s Popeye was what it had to be (and for the record, that is a charming film and a ton of fun…but it sure as hell
Continue reading →
DocumentariesGamingIndieMoviesReviews
Dungeon & Dragons; you can bet your arcane asses that a young Dan XIII spent many a lonely, female-less…I mean fun-packed afternoon consuming mass quantities of junk and battling all manner of monsters and maniacs with my erstwhile companions, and even though it’s been decades since I tossed the ol’ dice, I still have an infinity for the game and it’s associated imagery. Speaking of that imagery, you can bet demons to donuts that it was breathtaking, and sparked the imagination of player’s world wide (and let’s be honest, a Dungeonmaster’s job is a titch easier with visual aids)…and Eye of the Beholder explores it’s creation and history in impressive detail! Through ninety minutes we journey from the genesis of the game itself, through it’s earliest utilization of pen and ink illustrations, on to TSR’s (the company that published the game for those of you not in the know) creation of a full-time art department. We witness the growth of
Continue reading →
MoviesReviews
The Hellboy films by Guillermo del Toro sought out to humanize monsters. His character portrayals were softer and relatable. Hellboy by director Neil Marshall and writer Andrew Cosby instead created a genuinely fun, weird adventure. Hellboy’s filled with blood, gore, bad jokes, and killer visuals. The film aspired to blaze its own trail from the beginning. Telling the Hellboy story differently was the goal. I sought out a different experience as well and saw the film in 4DX. 4DX is a motion picture technology which adds environmental effects. Seat motion, wind, rain, scents, and lights accompany a standard audio and visual movie. The technology debuted in 2009 in Seoul, South Korea. The tech hit the U.S. in 2014, and this would be my first experience with it. The movie takes the obligation to share origin stories seriously. It does what it can to make a new place in the minds of the audience. The opening scene sets the stage for
Continue reading →
BooksGamingProductReviews
A slow rainy day is made better with a good sit-down with a book. Luckily for me, Brett Weiss and Schiffer Publishing sent me a copy of Weiss’s latest coffee table read, The SNES Omnibus: The Super Nintendo and Its Games, Vol. 2 (N–Z). I previously reviewed volume one and my feelings towards this volume are no different. The book is laid out in the same format as the previous one where the games are listed alphabetically and include lots of pictures showing gameplay, box art, and for some of them, even the ads for the games. I’ll admit there are some kooky box arts… Just like volume 1, this is a treasure-trove of childhood flashbacks of games I remember being advertised and even movies that came out around that time…they made any movie into a video game back then! As much as I like this book (well both of them actually) I did some digging around and realized that
Continue reading →
IndieMoviesReviews
Dr. Blake (the legendary David Gale) hosts a TV show called “Independent Thinkers”…which is an absurd title as in fact the self-help program is a mind controlling transmission that Blake creates with the help of an alien brain he has holed up in his Psychological Research Institute…and the broadcast is making teens do the ol’ murder/suicide bag like a mother-fucker! Enter teen trouble-maker Jim Majelewski (Tom Breznahan) and his gal-pal Janet (Cyndy Preston) who decide to stand-up to Blake and his star-born menace after Jim has a brief stay at PRI and discovers things aren’t as they appear…but will they have what it takes to end the machinations of that devious doc and his creepy cerebellum? Look, The Brain is a picture about a giant ambulatory, people-eating, demon-faced, alien brain…that should be the only sentence I need to type to make you lot go out and add this to your creepy collection immediately! Of course there is much more this
Continue reading →
IndieProductReviews
Death Kiss was a totally rad-ass throwback to the days of Cannon films, and Charles Bronson flicks and I absolutely loved the shit out of it (Don’t believe me? Click here and read for yourselves!) Well lo and behold, the incredible publisher Pulp 2.0 have gone ahead and released a terrific tome that covers the flicks production inside and out! Beginning with a brief overview of the cinema of vengeance of the ’70’s and ’80’s, as well as Bronson’s contribution to it’s legacy, author Bill Cunningham then segues into how Writer/Director Rene Perez went about creating this neo-exploitation actioner detailing how the creative decisions were made, including the casting of Robert “Bronzi” Kovacs who bears a striking resemblance to the late Bronson (but is a solid actor in his own right) and how those decisions led to producing a low-budget picture that could sell and compete in today’s marketplace. This gives an amazing wealth of information to any aspiring filmmaker
Continue reading →
GamingProductReviews
Gather around and I’ll tell you the tale of a legendary game that rose from the graveyard of game lore to make a triumphant return! Gamers worth their weight in hours of gameplay tell tales of an old adventure point-and-click game on PC in 1987 where you venture into a castle to vanquish an old warlock after traversing through the maze of a castle. This game is called Shadowgate. It spawned two sequels, Beyond Shadowgate that came out in 1987 too, and Shadowgate 64: Trials of the Four Towers that came out in 1999 for the Nintendo 64. Now in the present time, Zojoi and Abstraction brought the legendary game back with a complete and epic update, and they were kind enough to allow me to try it out. I present to you fellow adventurers, the remake of Shadowgate. In this first-person point-and-click game, you play as a young warrior who was summoned by the wizard Lakmir who is the
Continue reading →
MoviesReviews
Professor Gerald Deemer (Leo G. Carroll) is doing the dodgy science bag down Arizona way with the plan of increasing the world’s food supply via making shit large AF. Naturally being a reasonable and sane individual, one of the things the good doc has enlarged is a tarantula, because…well who the fuck knows really…I mean if I was trying to cure world hunger I’d enlarge like a steak or a banana or some shit, not a poisonous as balls eight legged killing machine, but I’m admittedly no doctor…unless it’s a doctor of love because then I got the PHd! So, where the hell was I? Oh yeah… Of course that tarantula gets loose and goes on a bovine based murder spree and soon it’s up to small town doctor Matt Hastings (John Agar), and Deemer’s comely assistant, Stephanie Clayton (Mara Corday), to attempt to save the town from that rapidly growing arachnid. Also a young Clint Eastwood takes pot shots
Continue reading →
IndieMoviesParanormalReviews
In the late 1800’s, a shit heel of a slaver named George Masterson (David Ramsey) is cursed by the poor souls he bought and sold…flash forward to the late 1980’s, and a Psychiatrist named David (Andrew Stevens) and his pop singer gal pal (and former patient), Kate (Mary Page Keller) move into that doomed a-holes house…what could go wrong? The answer of course is every fucking thing. Heralded by an abundance of natures most terrifying creations, pigeons…wait, fucking pigeons?!! Anyway, a few bad dreams and visions, some outre discoveries in the abode (read: centuries old corpses and a strange talisman), and yes, pigeons, lead to a voodoo monster terrorizing our heroes six ways to Sunday! While a bit of a slow burn in the actual horror department, Scared Stiff never became tedious for your’s cruelly (and the third act pay-off is an absolutely fantastic display of gooey, monster-packed practical effects wizardry and well worth the wait). The ages old mystery,
Continue reading →
