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
Gayce (Victoria Elizabeth Donofrio) always seems to be where the fun and action are in a seedy city that seems to exist in a haze of glam infused punk rock and no-hold-barred orgies…sounds like my house on any given Tuesday, eh my creeps? Hello…anyone…I’m so alone…where the hell was I? Oh yeah, Gayce…she’s popular because she supplies everyone with a drug called theta…a lil’ number that can rip asunder dimensions and send people hurtling to a land that’s at times one part silent movie film stock, one part school play from hell, and all parts totally fucked-the-shit-up. in said dimension lies a being that can grant the theta user their desires…and folks have been wishing for some apocalyptic shit for sure! Anyway, when our heroine’s best friend, the local homeless dude that helps her dispense her delirious drugs, ends up quartered and with his guts arranged in an arcane sigil, Gayce goes on a quest along with her supplier Derek
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GamingMoviesProductReviews
The awesome folks over at Frontier Developments gave me the chance to play their business simulation game, “Jurassic World Evolution” where players can play the role of the manager of Jurassic World located on the island chain known as The Five Deaths. There are five levels (islands) to play and each has something unique about them and, one very special island that’s a sandbox mode. On each island, you will be given tasks provided to you by three divisions, science, entertainment, and security. When you complete a task for a division will result in money and potential to unlock new dinosaur DNA or perks for your buildings but you must be careful as completing one task may affect your standings with the others and if one division is ignored for too long, they will sabotage buildings or gates to enclosures. The parks have star ratings and generally when you reach three stars the next level unlocks. To keep the numbers
Continue reading →
ForeignMoviesReviews
Pengabdi Setan, or Satan’s Slaves (the title of both this film and the original 1982 film upon which it is based) concerns a cash strapped Indonesian family who suffers the loss of the matriarch of the clan. Upon her death, the family is left with a lingering debt due in part to having had to pay out the ass for medicine for her preternatural (and mega-creepy) illness. To alleviate that financial burden, Daddy Dearest heads off to the city to find a way to make money leaving his four children home alone. It doesn’t take long before shit hits the frightful fan six ways to Sunday as soon the children’s mother’s ghost begins appearing in ever more frightful ways…and her pact with a Satanic cult to allow her to bear children (she was barren up to that point ‘natch) is revealed. Can our young heroes survive the supernatural’s invasion into their lives (including the aforementioned cult and ghosts, as well
Continue reading →
IndieMoviesReviews
Kathleen (Lili Taylor), a philosophy student livin’ in the concrete jungle of 1990’s Manhattan, is dragged into an alleyway one night by Casanova (Annabella Sciorra) and given a little love nibble…you know, the kind usually reserved for rabid wolves and the like. Of course the bite makes her sick to her shit, and it doesn’t take much to assume she’s turning into one of Dracula’s daughters (aversion to sunlight, thirst for human blood, et.al.). As Kathleen falls further into her new role as creature of the night and begins injecting blood from her victims directly into her veins before going the more toothy avenue. Will she be able to find herself as her being becomes drenched in blood? Filmed in stark black and white, which adds an air of cold grittiness (especially when photographs of human atrocity are inserted) and at times beautiful chiaroscuro (as echoed by the classical paintings on display), The Addiction is a visually arresting film to
Continue reading →
IndieMoviesReviews
As New Year’s Eve approaches, a gaggle of friends converge on a lodge to celebrate as a storm rolls in. sounds like a good excuse to do a lil’ boozin’ and bonin’ right? Well yeah, it is…but there’s one little catch. The woods around the lodge are the hunting ground for a cadre of masked psychos who make weapons (and art) out of human remains…and this being an excursion into the horror biz and all you cats n’ creeps can do the monstrous math on this one and figure out our party hardy friends and those kill crazy lunatics are going to butt heads rather quickly. As the bodies pile higher and higher during the course of the game of stalk n’ slay what secrets will be reveled about our sinister slashers and how many of the cast will survive the night? Let’s start, as always, with what is fresh n’ tasty about Minutes to Midnight! The strongest element this
Continue reading →
IndieMoviesReviews
In the near future, Herbert West surrogate Dr. Wojick Borge (Cooper Hoag) perfects the resurrection of the dead (green fluid and all); first by bringing back a cat, then a T-Rex (as one does)…yeah; this movie features zombie dinosaur…a zombie dinosaur that can turn humans into zombies as well…this may be the best fucking premise I’ve ever heard in my life! Opposing his machinations are a group of hard ass mercenaries and a gaggle of tech nerds…the most unlikely of combinations thrown together after an EMP asteroid attack (this just gets better and better fiends…). Can our heroes defeat the evil Borge and his putrid pet, or will they become the living dead after they find themselves deep within the mad Doctor’s fortified bunker?!! Armed with an incredibly fun comic book aesthetic featuring mad scientists, tough as nails soldiers, action, and monsters; The Jurassic Dead is one hell of an entertaining ride on the horror biz express and plays out
Continue reading →
GamingParanormalProductReviews
WARNING POSSIBLE SPOILERS AHEAD! SKIP DOWN FOR FINAL THOUGHTS. After literal hours and days of playing, I’ve completed “Vampyr”. The game by DONTNOD Entertainment and Focus Home Interactive that’s a vampire tale told uniquely through the eyes of a “newborn” vampire and well-known doctor Jonathan Reid. Reid becomes an Ekon, a “vampire”, after returning home to London after serving three years in the First World War, the city is in the midst of the Spanish Flu epidemic. After becoming an Ekon, Reid accidentally kills his sister and vows revenge on the one who turned him into a creature of the night. Reid is sheltered at a hospital headed by a Doctor whose part of a secret society that studies and works with Ekons. While performing missions, Reid will encounter members of a vampire hunting group known as the Guard of Priwen who actively looks for “leeches” (a term they use to describe Ekons). The humans are not the only threat,
Continue reading →
IndieMoviesReviews
Mason Wells (Chris Mason) gets a wild hair up his ass about “fixing” society’s ills by hacking the human mind in order to save mankind from themselves. This seems reasonable (in a totally batshit, definitely going to go wrong sort of way). Standing in Mason’s way is the fact that he doesn’t have the resources to pull this off on the scale necessary in any way, shape, or form…and he has multiple personalities rattlin’ around in his head (thanks to the fact he’s done the initial testing of his new technology on himself) making him do whatever it take to see his crazy scheme come to fruition. To make matters worse, he spends his time hanging out with some sort of tech obsessed drug cult that hangs out in a warehouse having raves and attempting to expand their consciousness via new hardware (oh, and drugs as previously established). Before our story is through, what will be left of Mason’s morality
Continue reading →
ForeignIndieMoviesReviews
Pity poor Vidar…be-sodden with an eternally “ill” Mother and at the mercy of a Draconian Christian community, our hero has led an overbearingly monotonous existence keeping up the family farm while trying to conform to societal norms. Seeking escape, Vidar begs Jesus for salvation, looks at a Playboy, dreams of a naked demoness (a dream in which he sees himself as a vampire…that’s foreshadowing for ya), wakes up and smokes a cig, and heads to his barn where a vampire Jesus appears and forces our hero to give him a beej…which turns him into a creature of the night…a bloodsucker who also regularly attends therapy to figure out what condition his condition is in. Dammit Vidar, you are one mother fucker of a film!! Moving on, Vidar begins a debauched journey into all of life’s (and afterlife’s) pleasures with that demon Jesus (there’s the ultimate dichotomy for you) egging him on all the way! Can our hero find his humanity
Continue reading →
ForeignIndieMoviesReviews
In a post apocalyptic landscape a lone black clad lawman (Rafael Tombini) wanders in search of vengeance against an outre adversary; a demonically possessed serial killer (inspired in no small way by Stephen King’s great creation Randall Flagg). Along his journey our hero takes up with two teenage castaways who tag along on his dark mission, fights monsters and magic, and attempts to retain some semblance of his humanity as he stares further into the abyss of both his quest and the world he inhabits. Highly reminiscent of the D.Y.I., punk rock aesthetic of early ’90’s genre film trailblazers such as Robert Rodriguez and Quentin Tarantino, Beyond the Grave presents a story that takes well established tropes and puts a slight spin on them, along with a kinetic energy that ends up being a bit like Mad Max meets Phantasm…a world of grim policemen in muscle cars fighting zombies and magic in dilapidated industrial districts and sprawling bucolic landscapes. Speaking
Continue reading →
More from Reviews
IndieMoviesReviews
Gayce (Victoria Elizabeth Donofrio) always seems to be where the fun and action are in a seedy city that seems to exist in a haze of glam infused punk rock and no-hold-barred orgies…sounds like my house on any given Tuesday, eh my creeps? Hello…anyone…I’m so alone…where the hell was I? Oh yeah, Gayce…she’s popular because she supplies everyone with a drug called theta…a lil’ number that can rip asunder dimensions and send people hurtling to a land that’s at times one part silent movie film stock, one part school play from hell, and all parts totally fucked-the-shit-up. in said dimension lies a being that can grant the theta user their desires…and folks have been wishing for some apocalyptic shit for sure! Anyway, when our heroine’s best friend, the local homeless dude that helps her dispense her delirious drugs, ends up quartered and with his guts arranged in an arcane sigil, Gayce goes on a quest along with her supplier Derek
Continue reading →
GamingMoviesProductReviews
The awesome folks over at Frontier Developments gave me the chance to play their business simulation game, “Jurassic World Evolution” where players can play the role of the manager of Jurassic World located on the island chain known as The Five Deaths. There are five levels (islands) to play and each has something unique about them and, one very special island that’s a sandbox mode. On each island, you will be given tasks provided to you by three divisions, science, entertainment, and security. When you complete a task for a division will result in money and potential to unlock new dinosaur DNA or perks for your buildings but you must be careful as completing one task may affect your standings with the others and if one division is ignored for too long, they will sabotage buildings or gates to enclosures. The parks have star ratings and generally when you reach three stars the next level unlocks. To keep the numbers
Continue reading →
ForeignMoviesReviews
Pengabdi Setan, or Satan’s Slaves (the title of both this film and the original 1982 film upon which it is based) concerns a cash strapped Indonesian family who suffers the loss of the matriarch of the clan. Upon her death, the family is left with a lingering debt due in part to having had to pay out the ass for medicine for her preternatural (and mega-creepy) illness. To alleviate that financial burden, Daddy Dearest heads off to the city to find a way to make money leaving his four children home alone. It doesn’t take long before shit hits the frightful fan six ways to Sunday as soon the children’s mother’s ghost begins appearing in ever more frightful ways…and her pact with a Satanic cult to allow her to bear children (she was barren up to that point ‘natch) is revealed. Can our young heroes survive the supernatural’s invasion into their lives (including the aforementioned cult and ghosts, as well
Continue reading →
IndieMoviesReviews
Kathleen (Lili Taylor), a philosophy student livin’ in the concrete jungle of 1990’s Manhattan, is dragged into an alleyway one night by Casanova (Annabella Sciorra) and given a little love nibble…you know, the kind usually reserved for rabid wolves and the like. Of course the bite makes her sick to her shit, and it doesn’t take much to assume she’s turning into one of Dracula’s daughters (aversion to sunlight, thirst for human blood, et.al.). As Kathleen falls further into her new role as creature of the night and begins injecting blood from her victims directly into her veins before going the more toothy avenue. Will she be able to find herself as her being becomes drenched in blood? Filmed in stark black and white, which adds an air of cold grittiness (especially when photographs of human atrocity are inserted) and at times beautiful chiaroscuro (as echoed by the classical paintings on display), The Addiction is a visually arresting film to
Continue reading →
IndieMoviesReviews
As New Year’s Eve approaches, a gaggle of friends converge on a lodge to celebrate as a storm rolls in. sounds like a good excuse to do a lil’ boozin’ and bonin’ right? Well yeah, it is…but there’s one little catch. The woods around the lodge are the hunting ground for a cadre of masked psychos who make weapons (and art) out of human remains…and this being an excursion into the horror biz and all you cats n’ creeps can do the monstrous math on this one and figure out our party hardy friends and those kill crazy lunatics are going to butt heads rather quickly. As the bodies pile higher and higher during the course of the game of stalk n’ slay what secrets will be reveled about our sinister slashers and how many of the cast will survive the night? Let’s start, as always, with what is fresh n’ tasty about Minutes to Midnight! The strongest element this
Continue reading →
IndieMoviesReviews
In the near future, Herbert West surrogate Dr. Wojick Borge (Cooper Hoag) perfects the resurrection of the dead (green fluid and all); first by bringing back a cat, then a T-Rex (as one does)…yeah; this movie features zombie dinosaur…a zombie dinosaur that can turn humans into zombies as well…this may be the best fucking premise I’ve ever heard in my life! Opposing his machinations are a group of hard ass mercenaries and a gaggle of tech nerds…the most unlikely of combinations thrown together after an EMP asteroid attack (this just gets better and better fiends…). Can our heroes defeat the evil Borge and his putrid pet, or will they become the living dead after they find themselves deep within the mad Doctor’s fortified bunker?!! Armed with an incredibly fun comic book aesthetic featuring mad scientists, tough as nails soldiers, action, and monsters; The Jurassic Dead is one hell of an entertaining ride on the horror biz express and plays out
Continue reading →
GamingParanormalProductReviews
WARNING POSSIBLE SPOILERS AHEAD! SKIP DOWN FOR FINAL THOUGHTS. After literal hours and days of playing, I’ve completed “Vampyr”. The game by DONTNOD Entertainment and Focus Home Interactive that’s a vampire tale told uniquely through the eyes of a “newborn” vampire and well-known doctor Jonathan Reid. Reid becomes an Ekon, a “vampire”, after returning home to London after serving three years in the First World War, the city is in the midst of the Spanish Flu epidemic. After becoming an Ekon, Reid accidentally kills his sister and vows revenge on the one who turned him into a creature of the night. Reid is sheltered at a hospital headed by a Doctor whose part of a secret society that studies and works with Ekons. While performing missions, Reid will encounter members of a vampire hunting group known as the Guard of Priwen who actively looks for “leeches” (a term they use to describe Ekons). The humans are not the only threat,
Continue reading →
IndieMoviesReviews
Mason Wells (Chris Mason) gets a wild hair up his ass about “fixing” society’s ills by hacking the human mind in order to save mankind from themselves. This seems reasonable (in a totally batshit, definitely going to go wrong sort of way). Standing in Mason’s way is the fact that he doesn’t have the resources to pull this off on the scale necessary in any way, shape, or form…and he has multiple personalities rattlin’ around in his head (thanks to the fact he’s done the initial testing of his new technology on himself) making him do whatever it take to see his crazy scheme come to fruition. To make matters worse, he spends his time hanging out with some sort of tech obsessed drug cult that hangs out in a warehouse having raves and attempting to expand their consciousness via new hardware (oh, and drugs as previously established). Before our story is through, what will be left of Mason’s morality
Continue reading →
ForeignIndieMoviesReviews
Pity poor Vidar…be-sodden with an eternally “ill” Mother and at the mercy of a Draconian Christian community, our hero has led an overbearingly monotonous existence keeping up the family farm while trying to conform to societal norms. Seeking escape, Vidar begs Jesus for salvation, looks at a Playboy, dreams of a naked demoness (a dream in which he sees himself as a vampire…that’s foreshadowing for ya), wakes up and smokes a cig, and heads to his barn where a vampire Jesus appears and forces our hero to give him a beej…which turns him into a creature of the night…a bloodsucker who also regularly attends therapy to figure out what condition his condition is in. Dammit Vidar, you are one mother fucker of a film!! Moving on, Vidar begins a debauched journey into all of life’s (and afterlife’s) pleasures with that demon Jesus (there’s the ultimate dichotomy for you) egging him on all the way! Can our hero find his humanity
Continue reading →
ForeignIndieMoviesReviews
In a post apocalyptic landscape a lone black clad lawman (Rafael Tombini) wanders in search of vengeance against an outre adversary; a demonically possessed serial killer (inspired in no small way by Stephen King’s great creation Randall Flagg). Along his journey our hero takes up with two teenage castaways who tag along on his dark mission, fights monsters and magic, and attempts to retain some semblance of his humanity as he stares further into the abyss of both his quest and the world he inhabits. Highly reminiscent of the D.Y.I., punk rock aesthetic of early ’90’s genre film trailblazers such as Robert Rodriguez and Quentin Tarantino, Beyond the Grave presents a story that takes well established tropes and puts a slight spin on them, along with a kinetic energy that ends up being a bit like Mad Max meets Phantasm…a world of grim policemen in muscle cars fighting zombies and magic in dilapidated industrial districts and sprawling bucolic landscapes. Speaking
Continue reading →
