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Honest horror reviews of films, series, games and books — no hype, no spoilers, just whether it is worth your time and your nerves.

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Blu-ray Review: Don't Go in the House (1979)

Blu-ray Review: Don’t Go in the House (1979)

After a work place accident in which he just stood idly by as a man went up in flames, delusional psycho/flame enthusiast Donny Kohler (The Soprano‘s Dan Grimaldi) returns home to find his beloved (not to mention horribly abusive) mother dead. It’s at this point the voices in his head take over and tell him he can both enjoy loud disco music (hey, I said he was a psycho) and should really consider making a flame proof room where he can burn women alive… as one does. Donny takes to that advice like a mother fucker, and begins piling up the BBQ… which he dresses and arranges in a room… but hey, he kept his Mom’s corpse too, so it’s kinda his thing… Speaking of dear ol’ mama, her voice soon begins a competition with the other voices in Donny’s deranged dome, and it isn’t long before our “hero” begins seeing visions of the walking dead! While definitely knowing which

Continue reading →
Jan 22, 2022
Movie Reviews: “The Changed” and “Alone with You” (Screamfest)

Movie Reviews: “The Changed” and “Alone with You” (Screamfest)

The Changed Director Michael Mongillo takes the basic premises of such classic paranoia-driven horror and science fiction fare as Invasion of the Body Snatchers (1956) and The Monsters are Due on Maple Street (1960) from the original The Twilight Zone series, and gives them a fresh, current spin with his feature The Changed (2021). The result is a finely acted, taut chiller that puts today’s social climates under a gripping cinematic microscope. Mac (Jason Alan Smith) has anger issues that he is trying to work on, but that won’t be easy as he notices that his neighbors and others with whom he comes into contact are acting differently, in a way that he can’t quite figure out. His neighbor Bill (Tony Todd) tries to offer him some subtle reassurance over a morning cup of coffee, but as the day progresses, things get increasingly stranger — and more dangerous. When fellow neighbor and high school student Kim (Clare Foley) comes to

Continue reading →
Jan 21, 2022
Movie Review: “Warhunt” (2022) 

Movie Review: “Warhunt” (2022) 

If you’re in the mood for a testosterone-fueled fright-fare outing in which World War II soldiers battle a coven of shape-shifting witches, complete with not one, but two scenery-chewing officers including one such portrayal by Mickey Rourke, you’re in luck. Warhunt delivers in those departments, and though it has its setbacks, it’s entertaining throughout. Rourke plays Major Johnson (that name has to be intentional humor), an eyepatched U.S. officer who has a group of soldiers go into enemy territory to retrieve the secret contents of a downed aircraft in 1945 Germany. The sergeant (Robert Knepper) in command of the troops is leery of Johnson’s handpicked proxy to accompany the group, surveyor Walsh (Jackson Rathbone). He is also skeptical when rumors of witchcraft start sifting through his troops. Meanwhile, Johnson is on safer ground, working with codebreakers on cracking an archaic Germanic code. If it is seduction by witches and plenty of bloodletting and nightmarish illusions you want, it is plenty

Continue reading →
Jan 18, 2022
Game Review: 'Shadow Man: Remastered'

Game Review: ‘Shadow Man: Remastered’

Back in 1999, I had a Nintendo 64 console and that sucker got me through a lot of things by offering me hours of escapism from the hells of puberty and entering High School. One of the games I played the hell out of was Shadow Man, at the time it was a pretty badass game with memorable moments, and I played the hell out of it. Since then I’ve gone on to play many other games and developed memories and loves for other titles, with some of the N64 ones slowly fading away and just becoming pleasant memories. That was till Nightdive Studios came kicking down my Nistolgia door with a remastered version of Shadow Man, and I would be crazy to have said no and let this opportunity pass! For those not familiar with the game, Shadow Man is about Michael LeRoi who by day looks like a normal human man but at night he becomes Shadow Man,

Continue reading →
Jan 17, 2022
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Blu-ray Review: Delirium (1979)

Blu-ray Review: Delirium (1979)

Charlie Gunther (Nick Panouzis) is back from ‘Nam with a head full of bad wiring and PTSD flashbacks for days… he also considers himself a real lady-killer… literally. As the female body count rises, Chuck gains notice from both the police and the local conglomerate of right wing businessmen that run a hidden cabal dedicated to eliminating rapists and murderers from the streets permanently utilizing ex-vets as their instruments of vigilante justice. That lil’ secret sect begins sweating bullets when Charlie goes rogue, which leads to the Colonel Kurtz surrogate Eric Stern (played to the hilt by the awesomely named Barron Winchester)… an ex-army muckety-muck who provides the vets for the aforementioned dirty work… going completely ballistic to maintain order among the chaos of his crumbling micro-empire. While all of this seems like an incredibly awesome grindhouse experience… and at times it is… the over-all experience runs a tad on the uneven side at times. Things start off promisingly enough

Continue reading →
Jan 16, 2022
Blu-ray Review: Endgame (1983)

Blu-ray Review: Endgame (1983)

In an even shittier version of New York than the 1980’s version this here flick was (supposedly) shot in, the city streets are crowded with punks, armored nazi security guards, mutants, and at times, more fog than 20 or more Fulci films. How do you pacify a destroyed city on the edge? Why by showing the people the eponymous Endgame; a program where contestants fight to the death among the ruins while wearing glam-rock face paint (and outrageous attire… for instance, Demons‘ Bobby Rhodes plays Woody; a contestant that dresses like a gladiator with a fabulous feather rimmed cape and an uzi… this shit is fucking tight n’ outta sight) for cash money in rather large amounts. The two best players: Ron Shannon (Zombi‘s Al Cliver) and Kurt Karnak (Big George Eastman… just start with Anthropophagus); former friends, now rivals who are ready to have their final skirmish… but before that can happen, Ron walks away from the contest after

Continue reading →
Jan 16, 2022
Blu-ray Review: Phantom of the Mall: Eric's Revenge (1989)

Blu-ray Review: Phantom of the Mall: Eric’s Revenge (1989)

Phantom of the Mall… that’s one of the most ’80s concepts I can possibly imagine, so let’s see what the age of rampant consumerism and questionable fashion choices has wrought this time, shall we? A new mall is being opened (which those in charge think will actually help juvenile delinquency… ) and gal-pals Melody (Kari Whitman) and Susie have just become full-fledged employees… but that’s no big deal as the place let’s Pauly fuckin’ Shore (as Buzz) dish out scoops in the food court, which if his well-known habit of “wheezin’ the juice” is considered, will have that place shut down by the Board of Health by noon… You know what else might make the mall’s progress a bit dicey? Melody’s old flame Eric (Derek Rydall) is prowling the mall’s ventilation ducts putting a murder on anyone unfortunate enough to cross his path! Why is Eric so pissed? Well, he’s been completely disfigured courtesy of a mysterious house fire (a

Continue reading →
Jan 15, 2022
Blu-ray Review: Mill of the Stone Women (1960)

Blu-ray Review: Mill of the Stone Women (1960)

Writer-type Hans van Arnhim (Pierre Brice) sets out down Holland way to visit the eccentric Professor Gregorius Wahl (Herbert A.E. Böhme) who lives in an old windmill which contains a carousel of female statues, which Hans has been sent to research. Just seems like some shit you’d find at the Playboy Mansion during it’s heyday to me… Anyway, the Prof. carries himself in a manner that just screams “fuckin’ horrible hidden secret”, but Hans continues his work anyway… probably because Wahl’s daughter Elfie (Scilla Gabel) is both easy on the eerie eyeballs, and immediately hot n’ horny for ol’ Handsy Hans… who returns the admiration despite having a full time main-squeeze; namely one Liselotte Kornheim (Dany Carrel)… Kornheim sounds like Valhalla for Nu-metal bands that can’t get into the real deal because they simply don’t rock hard enough… Any-fuckin’-how, push comes to shove, and Hans kinda/sorta murders Elfie… as one does… but she probably wasn’t long for this world as

Continue reading →
Jan 15, 2022
Game Review: 'S.W.A.N. Chernobyl Unexplored'

Game Review: ‘S.W.A.N. Chernobyl Unexplored’

Again I find myself exploring the radioactive nightmare that is Chernobyl, but this time I’m exploring the fictional S.W.A.N. Institute in this psychological horror S.W.A.N. Chernobyl Unexplored. I want to give a thank you to Volframe and Art Games Studio S.A. for the review opportunity! S.W.A.N. Chernobyl Unexplored takes players back to the exclusion zone 9 months after the nuclear meltdown and evacuations after signs of life were detected at the S.W.A.N. (Syndromes Without A Name) Institute. Players are part of a rescue team sent in but soon after arriving, all members of the team are separated and we are forced to explore the institute and all its puzzles and nightmarish creatures alone. Onto the game itself! This is a first-person puzzle exploring game and right away if you’re wondering, yeah it’s, unfortunately, following the same formula of other first-person psychological horrors where the scenery changes when you turn corners, open doors that lead nowhere, and when you turn around

Continue reading →
Jan 14, 2022
HorrorFuel.com Talks With The Director And The Star Of 'The Kindred'

Movie Review: ‘The Kindred’ Is A Haunting Horror Film You Need To See

What’s worse than having your father commit suicide right in front of you? Not knowing why. Moments after waking from a coma Helen (April Pearson) is hit with the news that she has been out for over a year, her father is dead, and that she delivered a baby all while in a coma. The moment she arrives home, she sets out to learn the truth behind her father’s death, not knowing that ghosts from his past would return to haunt her. I had no expectations when I began watching The Kindred, but what I discovered is a damn fine film. From the beginning to the end it is intense, and the story is fresh. As the film plays out, we get so many surprising twists and turns that left me on the edge of my seat. April is absolutely incredible, and it’s easy to tell that she put her whole heart into her role. What we get is a

Continue reading →
Jan 11, 2022

More from Reviews

Blu-ray Review: Don't Go in the House (1979)

Blu-ray Review: Don’t Go in the House (1979)

After a work place accident in which he just stood idly by as a man went up in flames, delusional psycho/flame enthusiast Donny Kohler (The Soprano‘s Dan Grimaldi) returns home to find his beloved (not to mention horribly abusive) mother dead. It’s at this point the voices in his head take over and tell him he can both enjoy loud disco music (hey, I said he was a psycho) and should really consider making a flame proof room where he can burn women alive… as one does. Donny takes to that advice like a mother fucker, and begins piling up the BBQ… which he dresses and arranges in a room… but hey, he kept his Mom’s corpse too, so it’s kinda his thing… Speaking of dear ol’ mama, her voice soon begins a competition with the other voices in Donny’s deranged dome, and it isn’t long before our “hero” begins seeing visions of the walking dead! While definitely knowing which

Continue reading →
Jan 22, 2022
Movie Reviews: “The Changed” and “Alone with You” (Screamfest)

Movie Reviews: “The Changed” and “Alone with You” (Screamfest)

The Changed Director Michael Mongillo takes the basic premises of such classic paranoia-driven horror and science fiction fare as Invasion of the Body Snatchers (1956) and The Monsters are Due on Maple Street (1960) from the original The Twilight Zone series, and gives them a fresh, current spin with his feature The Changed (2021). The result is a finely acted, taut chiller that puts today’s social climates under a gripping cinematic microscope. Mac (Jason Alan Smith) has anger issues that he is trying to work on, but that won’t be easy as he notices that his neighbors and others with whom he comes into contact are acting differently, in a way that he can’t quite figure out. His neighbor Bill (Tony Todd) tries to offer him some subtle reassurance over a morning cup of coffee, but as the day progresses, things get increasingly stranger — and more dangerous. When fellow neighbor and high school student Kim (Clare Foley) comes to

Continue reading →
Jan 21, 2022
Movie Review: “Warhunt” (2022) 

Movie Review: “Warhunt” (2022) 

If you’re in the mood for a testosterone-fueled fright-fare outing in which World War II soldiers battle a coven of shape-shifting witches, complete with not one, but two scenery-chewing officers including one such portrayal by Mickey Rourke, you’re in luck. Warhunt delivers in those departments, and though it has its setbacks, it’s entertaining throughout. Rourke plays Major Johnson (that name has to be intentional humor), an eyepatched U.S. officer who has a group of soldiers go into enemy territory to retrieve the secret contents of a downed aircraft in 1945 Germany. The sergeant (Robert Knepper) in command of the troops is leery of Johnson’s handpicked proxy to accompany the group, surveyor Walsh (Jackson Rathbone). He is also skeptical when rumors of witchcraft start sifting through his troops. Meanwhile, Johnson is on safer ground, working with codebreakers on cracking an archaic Germanic code. If it is seduction by witches and plenty of bloodletting and nightmarish illusions you want, it is plenty

Continue reading →
Jan 18, 2022
Game Review: 'Shadow Man: Remastered'

Game Review: ‘Shadow Man: Remastered’

Back in 1999, I had a Nintendo 64 console and that sucker got me through a lot of things by offering me hours of escapism from the hells of puberty and entering High School. One of the games I played the hell out of was Shadow Man, at the time it was a pretty badass game with memorable moments, and I played the hell out of it. Since then I’ve gone on to play many other games and developed memories and loves for other titles, with some of the N64 ones slowly fading away and just becoming pleasant memories. That was till Nightdive Studios came kicking down my Nistolgia door with a remastered version of Shadow Man, and I would be crazy to have said no and let this opportunity pass! For those not familiar with the game, Shadow Man is about Michael LeRoi who by day looks like a normal human man but at night he becomes Shadow Man,

Continue reading →
Jan 17, 2022
Blu-ray Review: Delirium (1979)

Blu-ray Review: Delirium (1979)

Charlie Gunther (Nick Panouzis) is back from ‘Nam with a head full of bad wiring and PTSD flashbacks for days… he also considers himself a real lady-killer… literally. As the female body count rises, Chuck gains notice from both the police and the local conglomerate of right wing businessmen that run a hidden cabal dedicated to eliminating rapists and murderers from the streets permanently utilizing ex-vets as their instruments of vigilante justice. That lil’ secret sect begins sweating bullets when Charlie goes rogue, which leads to the Colonel Kurtz surrogate Eric Stern (played to the hilt by the awesomely named Barron Winchester)… an ex-army muckety-muck who provides the vets for the aforementioned dirty work… going completely ballistic to maintain order among the chaos of his crumbling micro-empire. While all of this seems like an incredibly awesome grindhouse experience… and at times it is… the over-all experience runs a tad on the uneven side at times. Things start off promisingly enough

Continue reading →
Jan 16, 2022
Blu-ray Review: Endgame (1983)

Blu-ray Review: Endgame (1983)

In an even shittier version of New York than the 1980’s version this here flick was (supposedly) shot in, the city streets are crowded with punks, armored nazi security guards, mutants, and at times, more fog than 20 or more Fulci films. How do you pacify a destroyed city on the edge? Why by showing the people the eponymous Endgame; a program where contestants fight to the death among the ruins while wearing glam-rock face paint (and outrageous attire… for instance, Demons‘ Bobby Rhodes plays Woody; a contestant that dresses like a gladiator with a fabulous feather rimmed cape and an uzi… this shit is fucking tight n’ outta sight) for cash money in rather large amounts. The two best players: Ron Shannon (Zombi‘s Al Cliver) and Kurt Karnak (Big George Eastman… just start with Anthropophagus); former friends, now rivals who are ready to have their final skirmish… but before that can happen, Ron walks away from the contest after

Continue reading →
Jan 16, 2022
Blu-ray Review: Phantom of the Mall: Eric's Revenge (1989)

Blu-ray Review: Phantom of the Mall: Eric’s Revenge (1989)

Phantom of the Mall… that’s one of the most ’80s concepts I can possibly imagine, so let’s see what the age of rampant consumerism and questionable fashion choices has wrought this time, shall we? A new mall is being opened (which those in charge think will actually help juvenile delinquency… ) and gal-pals Melody (Kari Whitman) and Susie have just become full-fledged employees… but that’s no big deal as the place let’s Pauly fuckin’ Shore (as Buzz) dish out scoops in the food court, which if his well-known habit of “wheezin’ the juice” is considered, will have that place shut down by the Board of Health by noon… You know what else might make the mall’s progress a bit dicey? Melody’s old flame Eric (Derek Rydall) is prowling the mall’s ventilation ducts putting a murder on anyone unfortunate enough to cross his path! Why is Eric so pissed? Well, he’s been completely disfigured courtesy of a mysterious house fire (a

Continue reading →
Jan 15, 2022
Blu-ray Review: Mill of the Stone Women (1960)

Blu-ray Review: Mill of the Stone Women (1960)

Writer-type Hans van Arnhim (Pierre Brice) sets out down Holland way to visit the eccentric Professor Gregorius Wahl (Herbert A.E. Böhme) who lives in an old windmill which contains a carousel of female statues, which Hans has been sent to research. Just seems like some shit you’d find at the Playboy Mansion during it’s heyday to me… Anyway, the Prof. carries himself in a manner that just screams “fuckin’ horrible hidden secret”, but Hans continues his work anyway… probably because Wahl’s daughter Elfie (Scilla Gabel) is both easy on the eerie eyeballs, and immediately hot n’ horny for ol’ Handsy Hans… who returns the admiration despite having a full time main-squeeze; namely one Liselotte Kornheim (Dany Carrel)… Kornheim sounds like Valhalla for Nu-metal bands that can’t get into the real deal because they simply don’t rock hard enough… Any-fuckin’-how, push comes to shove, and Hans kinda/sorta murders Elfie… as one does… but she probably wasn’t long for this world as

Continue reading →
Jan 15, 2022
Game Review: 'S.W.A.N. Chernobyl Unexplored'

Game Review: ‘S.W.A.N. Chernobyl Unexplored’

Again I find myself exploring the radioactive nightmare that is Chernobyl, but this time I’m exploring the fictional S.W.A.N. Institute in this psychological horror S.W.A.N. Chernobyl Unexplored. I want to give a thank you to Volframe and Art Games Studio S.A. for the review opportunity! S.W.A.N. Chernobyl Unexplored takes players back to the exclusion zone 9 months after the nuclear meltdown and evacuations after signs of life were detected at the S.W.A.N. (Syndromes Without A Name) Institute. Players are part of a rescue team sent in but soon after arriving, all members of the team are separated and we are forced to explore the institute and all its puzzles and nightmarish creatures alone. Onto the game itself! This is a first-person puzzle exploring game and right away if you’re wondering, yeah it’s, unfortunately, following the same formula of other first-person psychological horrors where the scenery changes when you turn corners, open doors that lead nowhere, and when you turn around

Continue reading →
Jan 14, 2022
HorrorFuel.com Talks With The Director And The Star Of 'The Kindred'

Movie Review: ‘The Kindred’ Is A Haunting Horror Film You Need To See

What’s worse than having your father commit suicide right in front of you? Not knowing why. Moments after waking from a coma Helen (April Pearson) is hit with the news that she has been out for over a year, her father is dead, and that she delivered a baby all while in a coma. The moment she arrives home, she sets out to learn the truth behind her father’s death, not knowing that ghosts from his past would return to haunt her. I had no expectations when I began watching The Kindred, but what I discovered is a damn fine film. From the beginning to the end it is intense, and the story is fresh. As the film plays out, we get so many surprising twists and turns that left me on the edge of my seat. April is absolutely incredible, and it’s easy to tell that she put her whole heart into her role. What we get is a

Continue reading →
Jan 11, 2022