Horror Fuel
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Fantasy

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Horror Fuel

Back From The Ashes!: Game Review Of ‘Shadowgate’(Remake)

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 →
Apr 11, 2019
Horror Fuel

Airships And Reality TV: Game Review ‘Bow To Blood: Last Captain Standing’ Xbox One

What do you get when you cross reality TV and Airships? Well, the folks over at Tribetoy came up with a really good idea what it would be like in Bow to Blood: Last Captain Standing. The game came out in 2018 exclusively for PlayStation VR but because of its high acclaim it has been ported for PlayStation 4, Xbox One, PC, and Nintendo Switch and will come out April 3rd. The awesome folks at Tribetoy gave me to the opportunity to play the Xbox One version of the game and all I can say is hold onto your air-pirate hats! You take on the role of Freelancer, an airship captain who, along with your two crew members, has entered a reality show where you compete against other airship crews and be the last captain standing. Each level is an “episode” in which you can warp to a level and fight against drone ships while completing objectives depending on the

Continue reading →
Apr 3, 2019
Horror Fuel

Movie Review: The Head Hunter (2018)

In a cold, medieval forest, a warrior (Christopher Rygh) stalks the land eternally hunting for one more monster head to add to his collection…but this one will come from not just any random beastie, but rather from the abomination (played by that killed his young daughter (Cora Kaufman). As he battles creature after creature he moves closer to his goal…but will this final stop on revenge road be too much for even our grim hero to overcome? The Head Hunter is everything I crave from genre cinema; unique, inventive, and packed with sweet, sweet creatures! While at it’s heart an absolute exercise in minimalism…to wit; the cast is comprised of two actors (with Rygh being in the entire picture…and boy does he ever deliver a ton of emotion and gravitas with barely any dialog at his disposal), a horse, and a monster performer, and the brunt of the locations are wooded exteriors, but the entire affair seems unbelievably epic due

Continue reading →
Mar 30, 2019
Horror Fuel

Movie Review: Abnormal Attraction (2018)

In a universe where fantasy characters and humans co-exist, people obsessed with the crazy creatures around them attend AA (Abnormal Attraction) meetings, lead by Dr. Stanley Cole (Bruce Davison) to work through their “feelings”. As the internet has demonstrated time after terrible time, people can get their horny on over the weirdest things…and the world of ol’ AA is no exception as we get tales of frisky folks enamored with a leprechaun, a zombie, the tooth fairy, bigfoot and many, many more (shudder)… Thankfully most of the jokes in Abnormal Attraction are gloriously offensive and hit their mark (and they damn well better seeing as how this is a comedy and all), but to write this off as just some dopey comedy (which it certainly is) with nothing going on between it’s ears would do this picture a disservice. You see, along with all of the nutty nonsense we get a rather poignant look at a world we should try

Continue reading →
Feb 13, 2019
Horror Fuel

Blu-ray Review: The House with a Clock in Its Walls (2018)

Young orphan Lewis (Owen Vaccaro) is the type of kid that takes to memorizing dictionaries rather than engaging in the folly of youth. Anyway, Lewis soon takes up residence with his eccentric clock obsessed uncle Jonathon (Jack Black) in his Victorian mansion…a mansion filled with living furniture and more magic than most households (which admittedly hover somewhere around zero on the magic-o-meter). It doesn’t take Lewis long to learn that Jonathan is a real life warlock, and his associate Florence Zimmerman (Cate Blanchett) is no slouch in that department either, which is a damn good thing as the house was once owned by an evil warlock named Isaac Izard (Kyle MacLachlan) who left a clock hidden within the mansion walls that can bring about doomsday when it’s countdown ends. Can our erstwhile heroes find the demonic timepiece before the end of the world…and before Izard himself arrives from the afterlife? Filled with magic, monsters, re-animated corpses, a heartfelt story-line involving

Continue reading →
Dec 18, 2018
Horror Fuel

Movie Review: Dragon Mountain (2018)

Dwarves and humans are at odds due to the mining of the dwarves ancestral home. In the thick of the struggle, three dwarven miners become trapped deep within the titular mountain. As time passes, the situation takes it’s toll both mentally and physically as starvation sets in and a mysterious creature begins stalking our heroes. Will they see the light of day again, or will the subterranean hell claim it’s victims? The greatest strength of Dragon Mountain is doubtless the acting present therein…which is good, since we are trapped with the three leads for ninety minutes. John Hutton, Brent Bateman, and Robert Morgan all deliver solid performances, and are interesting to watch as they sink deeper and deeper into despair. The film also possesses a unique quality in that writers Zachary Amundson and Chris Raney (who also directed) have given us an intimate character study with steampunk and traditional fantasy trappings instead of going the normal spectacle and bombast route

Continue reading →
Aug 31, 2018
Horror Fuel

Movie Review: Apocalypse Rising (2018)

Apocalypse Rising is the type of film that gives you; people running around in togas, zombie mutants, U.F.O.s, over-the-top machismo, and a spaceship that looks like a giant cock…balls and all…within the first five mother fuckin’ minutes of it’s run time. I hope the rest of the film lives up to this splendor boils n’ ghouls… Anyway the rest goes like this; a ragtag group of Space Bible lovers head out to the stars to avoid some such bullshit (but it involves fucking, that’s for sure), and while in stasis they have crazy ass visions of Jesus being born as a demon while zombies turn Mary and Joseph into the shambling dead…so far so good. Moving on, our heroes find a new world, immediately dress like they should be travellin’ Fury Road to the Ren Faire, and before you can say Cannon Film’s Masters of the Universe, they find themselves on Earth in the modern age, where they join a

Continue reading →
Aug 28, 2018
Horror Fuel

Banshee by Terry Maggert

Banshee by Terry Maggert is a science fiction and fantasy novel I was sent by the author to take a peek at. I intended to review it much sooner, but as you may read in the author’s note below, life is a very fickle thing. Initially what attracted me to this story was the focus on dragons and war. The promise of demons and monsters “sweeping across the planet in a wave of death” had my name written all over it. Who doesn’t love destruction and dragons? Book Description: Cities Fall. Dragons Rise. War Begins. The war for earth began in Hell. First came the earthquakes. Then came the floods. Finally, from the darkened mines, caves and pits, the creatures of our nightmares boiled forth to sweep across the planet in a wave of death. On the run and unprepared, mankind is not alone. We have dragons. Emerging from their slumber, giant dragons select riders to go to war. Their

Continue reading →
Dec 13, 2015
Horror Fuel

When We Were Human by Kate L. Mary

When We Were Human by Kate L. Mary is one of those books that I keep meaning to buy, but just haven’t yet. Kate L. Mary is the author of the Broken World series, which I love, and beyond that When We Were Human just was a Silver Medalist for the 2015 Moonbeam Chilldren’s Book Award for YA Fantasy/Science Fiction. Now, to add to that, it’s on sale! The book is typically $3.99, but to celebrate her big award win she has opted to drop the price to $0.99 from now Nov 12-Nov 18th. I’m definitely going to pounce on this offer before it goes away. While the title isn’t technically horror, the premise still reads like something out of a horror movie, so it sounds like it’s definitely worth the investment. Book Description: Eighteen-year-old Eva has spent the last year punishing herself for her sister’s death and hiding from everyone she comes into contact with, human or otherwise. With

Continue reading →
Nov 12, 2015
Horror Fuel

The Witcher Is Coming To The Big Screen

Fans of the hit game and book series The Witcher will be pleased to know that it is getting a Hollywood adaptation. I know for sure that I am. In fact, I’ve already started chatting with friends about who could play who. However, the plot is unknown at this time, so who knows who is going to make an appearance. Well, besides Geralt… not really a Witcher movie without him. From what we know so far, the movie won’t be a direct adaptation of any of the games or novels, but in fact inspired by events and themes from two short stories written by Witcher author Andrzej Sapkowski, The Witcher and Lesser Evil. I haven’t read the stories myself, but after playing the games I think it’s safe to say there will be monster slaying beautiful set pieces. And thanks to Game of Thrones, there’s a good chance we will get an 18A/R rating to truly hit the tone of

Continue reading →
Nov 7, 2015

More from Fantasy

Horror Fuel

Back From The Ashes!: Game Review Of ‘Shadowgate’(Remake)

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 →
Apr 11, 2019
Horror Fuel

Airships And Reality TV: Game Review ‘Bow To Blood: Last Captain Standing’ Xbox One

What do you get when you cross reality TV and Airships? Well, the folks over at Tribetoy came up with a really good idea what it would be like in Bow to Blood: Last Captain Standing. The game came out in 2018 exclusively for PlayStation VR but because of its high acclaim it has been ported for PlayStation 4, Xbox One, PC, and Nintendo Switch and will come out April 3rd. The awesome folks at Tribetoy gave me to the opportunity to play the Xbox One version of the game and all I can say is hold onto your air-pirate hats! You take on the role of Freelancer, an airship captain who, along with your two crew members, has entered a reality show where you compete against other airship crews and be the last captain standing. Each level is an “episode” in which you can warp to a level and fight against drone ships while completing objectives depending on the

Continue reading →
Apr 3, 2019
Horror Fuel

Movie Review: The Head Hunter (2018)

In a cold, medieval forest, a warrior (Christopher Rygh) stalks the land eternally hunting for one more monster head to add to his collection…but this one will come from not just any random beastie, but rather from the abomination (played by that killed his young daughter (Cora Kaufman). As he battles creature after creature he moves closer to his goal…but will this final stop on revenge road be too much for even our grim hero to overcome? The Head Hunter is everything I crave from genre cinema; unique, inventive, and packed with sweet, sweet creatures! While at it’s heart an absolute exercise in minimalism…to wit; the cast is comprised of two actors (with Rygh being in the entire picture…and boy does he ever deliver a ton of emotion and gravitas with barely any dialog at his disposal), a horse, and a monster performer, and the brunt of the locations are wooded exteriors, but the entire affair seems unbelievably epic due

Continue reading →
Mar 30, 2019
Horror Fuel

Movie Review: Abnormal Attraction (2018)

In a universe where fantasy characters and humans co-exist, people obsessed with the crazy creatures around them attend AA (Abnormal Attraction) meetings, lead by Dr. Stanley Cole (Bruce Davison) to work through their “feelings”. As the internet has demonstrated time after terrible time, people can get their horny on over the weirdest things…and the world of ol’ AA is no exception as we get tales of frisky folks enamored with a leprechaun, a zombie, the tooth fairy, bigfoot and many, many more (shudder)… Thankfully most of the jokes in Abnormal Attraction are gloriously offensive and hit their mark (and they damn well better seeing as how this is a comedy and all), but to write this off as just some dopey comedy (which it certainly is) with nothing going on between it’s ears would do this picture a disservice. You see, along with all of the nutty nonsense we get a rather poignant look at a world we should try

Continue reading →
Feb 13, 2019
Horror Fuel

Blu-ray Review: The House with a Clock in Its Walls (2018)

Young orphan Lewis (Owen Vaccaro) is the type of kid that takes to memorizing dictionaries rather than engaging in the folly of youth. Anyway, Lewis soon takes up residence with his eccentric clock obsessed uncle Jonathon (Jack Black) in his Victorian mansion…a mansion filled with living furniture and more magic than most households (which admittedly hover somewhere around zero on the magic-o-meter). It doesn’t take Lewis long to learn that Jonathan is a real life warlock, and his associate Florence Zimmerman (Cate Blanchett) is no slouch in that department either, which is a damn good thing as the house was once owned by an evil warlock named Isaac Izard (Kyle MacLachlan) who left a clock hidden within the mansion walls that can bring about doomsday when it’s countdown ends. Can our erstwhile heroes find the demonic timepiece before the end of the world…and before Izard himself arrives from the afterlife? Filled with magic, monsters, re-animated corpses, a heartfelt story-line involving

Continue reading →
Dec 18, 2018
Horror Fuel

Movie Review: Dragon Mountain (2018)

Dwarves and humans are at odds due to the mining of the dwarves ancestral home. In the thick of the struggle, three dwarven miners become trapped deep within the titular mountain. As time passes, the situation takes it’s toll both mentally and physically as starvation sets in and a mysterious creature begins stalking our heroes. Will they see the light of day again, or will the subterranean hell claim it’s victims? The greatest strength of Dragon Mountain is doubtless the acting present therein…which is good, since we are trapped with the three leads for ninety minutes. John Hutton, Brent Bateman, and Robert Morgan all deliver solid performances, and are interesting to watch as they sink deeper and deeper into despair. The film also possesses a unique quality in that writers Zachary Amundson and Chris Raney (who also directed) have given us an intimate character study with steampunk and traditional fantasy trappings instead of going the normal spectacle and bombast route

Continue reading →
Aug 31, 2018
Horror Fuel

Movie Review: Apocalypse Rising (2018)

Apocalypse Rising is the type of film that gives you; people running around in togas, zombie mutants, U.F.O.s, over-the-top machismo, and a spaceship that looks like a giant cock…balls and all…within the first five mother fuckin’ minutes of it’s run time. I hope the rest of the film lives up to this splendor boils n’ ghouls… Anyway the rest goes like this; a ragtag group of Space Bible lovers head out to the stars to avoid some such bullshit (but it involves fucking, that’s for sure), and while in stasis they have crazy ass visions of Jesus being born as a demon while zombies turn Mary and Joseph into the shambling dead…so far so good. Moving on, our heroes find a new world, immediately dress like they should be travellin’ Fury Road to the Ren Faire, and before you can say Cannon Film’s Masters of the Universe, they find themselves on Earth in the modern age, where they join a

Continue reading →
Aug 28, 2018
Horror Fuel

Banshee by Terry Maggert

Banshee by Terry Maggert is a science fiction and fantasy novel I was sent by the author to take a peek at. I intended to review it much sooner, but as you may read in the author’s note below, life is a very fickle thing. Initially what attracted me to this story was the focus on dragons and war. The promise of demons and monsters “sweeping across the planet in a wave of death” had my name written all over it. Who doesn’t love destruction and dragons? Book Description: Cities Fall. Dragons Rise. War Begins. The war for earth began in Hell. First came the earthquakes. Then came the floods. Finally, from the darkened mines, caves and pits, the creatures of our nightmares boiled forth to sweep across the planet in a wave of death. On the run and unprepared, mankind is not alone. We have dragons. Emerging from their slumber, giant dragons select riders to go to war. Their

Continue reading →
Dec 13, 2015
Horror Fuel

When We Were Human by Kate L. Mary

When We Were Human by Kate L. Mary is one of those books that I keep meaning to buy, but just haven’t yet. Kate L. Mary is the author of the Broken World series, which I love, and beyond that When We Were Human just was a Silver Medalist for the 2015 Moonbeam Chilldren’s Book Award for YA Fantasy/Science Fiction. Now, to add to that, it’s on sale! The book is typically $3.99, but to celebrate her big award win she has opted to drop the price to $0.99 from now Nov 12-Nov 18th. I’m definitely going to pounce on this offer before it goes away. While the title isn’t technically horror, the premise still reads like something out of a horror movie, so it sounds like it’s definitely worth the investment. Book Description: Eighteen-year-old Eva has spent the last year punishing herself for her sister’s death and hiding from everyone she comes into contact with, human or otherwise. With

Continue reading →
Nov 12, 2015
Horror Fuel

The Witcher Is Coming To The Big Screen

Fans of the hit game and book series The Witcher will be pleased to know that it is getting a Hollywood adaptation. I know for sure that I am. In fact, I’ve already started chatting with friends about who could play who. However, the plot is unknown at this time, so who knows who is going to make an appearance. Well, besides Geralt… not really a Witcher movie without him. From what we know so far, the movie won’t be a direct adaptation of any of the games or novels, but in fact inspired by events and themes from two short stories written by Witcher author Andrzej Sapkowski, The Witcher and Lesser Evil. I haven’t read the stories myself, but after playing the games I think it’s safe to say there will be monster slaying beautiful set pieces. And thanks to Game of Thrones, there’s a good chance we will get an 18A/R rating to truly hit the tone of

Continue reading →
Nov 7, 2015