Horror and Zombie film reviews | Movie reviews | Horror Videogame reviews

Basic Psych (2025) - Thriller Film Review

noreply@blogger.com (RZ) — Thu, 23 Apr 2026 13:16:00 +0000

Psychological thriller, Basic Psych has taken me almost half of this week to get through. Not because it was dull or in any way hard to watch, but due to me struggling to get over some strange flu-based illness that left me bereft of energy. Hopefully that hasn't affected this review too much, as I do try and get through films in a single sitting nowadays. Anyway, Basic Psych, written by James Tucker (in his debut feature length writing role) and directed by Melissa Martin, has a simple premise, but takes a long while to get to its unexpected conclusion.

Stuart Prince (Michael Cerveris - Gotham, Stake Land), is a psychiatrist who one day is visited by a new patient; a man who introduces himself as Dan (David Conrad - Ghost Whisperer). Straight away he comes across as paranoid - both not wanting Stuart to make any notes about him, and also, only wanting to visit when the receptionist isn't in the office. Dan then reveals that he was the perpetrator of a double homicide in a local park several years back; an unsolved case that became notorious. He states that it was all an accident, and that he is really trying to be a better person now. While alarmed, Stuart doesn't want to break his oath of patient confidentiality, seeing the man's aim to become better as a valid reason not to report him to the authorities, despite his misgivings. This all takes place in the background to a series of murders in the area exclusively focused on psychiatrists, making Stuart increasingly worried that Dan is the person responsible. When Dan begins to integrate himself into Stuart's personal life, he becomes convinced the man is evil and becomes determined to find a way to stop the man and protect his wife and child.

This had a slight 'made-for-TV' vibe to it, especially with regards to the melodramatic and somewhat cheesy score that followed characters around for the entire duration. I though both Cerveris and Conrad were great in their roles, even if I didn't like either of the two characters. The movie is one big cat and mouse chase between the two men, with it never being too clear who is the one being chased. Stuart begins the film the perfect man, successful, with a loving wife and child, but his association with Dan seems to corrupt him, with his actions becoming increasingly more desperate and dark as the story progresses. Dan, (this character actually has a different name, 'Dan' is a fake one he gives to Stuart, but IMDB states the character to be called 'Dan', so that is what he will be called in this review!) is almost the opposite of Stuart, starting off seeming to be very paranoid, but over the course of the film repairing his relationship with his daughter, and becoming increasingly aggressive and smug. I appreciated how similar the two men seemed, despite having lived very different lives, and liked the downfall of Stuart's morality over the course of the 100 minute thriller.
Not so interesting were some of the side characters, with the two child actors both coming across as quite wooden in their acting style. Stuart's wife; Sisi (Siena Goines - Westworld, Flight of the Living Dead) at least had some spunk to her, and the guy who played the cartoonishly villainous hitman was a third act highlight.
I struggled with character motivations and actions for large parts of the movie. One scene that stuck in my mind was a character finding out something terrible about someone they were close to, seeming to get over it within moments of finding this info out with little explanation. Dan appeared so crazy that it made some sort of twisted sense he was the way he was, Stuart though, I couldn't understand why he wouldn't go to the police despite huge evidence that Dan was indeed evil. That last point though, there was a late film twist that punched me in the face out of nowhere, in a fun way.

There were a few scenes of peril, but the drama of the story was more of the focus here. An entertaining prologue of a man being killed by the murderer started things off well, and there were a few other brief, yet effective looking kills throughout, leading up to a finale that popped up out of nowhere. Special effects were not bad, not that there was much need of them. I did like the flashback sequences, used effectively and not over-done. As a whole the film was well shot, but it always felt like it was an indie film, with no surprises to be found with the filmmaking.

Basic Psych subverted my expectations with its big reveal, so kudos to the story for going to unexpected places. Some parts of the overall story led to frustration, especially in the second half when events began to get more convoluted than I felt they needed to be. Still, Cerveris was great as the frustratingly obtuse protagonist, so not all bad. Basic Psych debuted on digital platforms on April 21st, and premiered as the opening night film of the Three Rivers Film Festival.

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Lost Joy (2025) - Horror Film Review

noreply@blogger.com (RZ) — Sat, 18 Apr 2026 13:00:00 +0000

You know what? Lost Joy may be a simple beast that makes little effort to hide what it is all about, but it was also a right blast. Written by Winter Bassett and Jordan Laemmlen, with the later also directing, and both of them starring, this felt like a horror from a bygone era.

Jane (Bassett) has gone on vacation to a remote woodland cabin with boyfriend Jon (Vincent Catalina - Wild Boys) and their dog, Joy (the director's own dog). Something seems off with Jane though, she keeps glimpsing strange things in the woods and constantly hears a banging sound coming from the basement that Jon cannot hear. One night there is a knock at the door, a suspicious man (Laemmlen) introduces himself as Jack. The man states he noticed all the lights were off, and as the cabin belongs to his aunt, offers to help them restore power using the back-up generator. Against Jon's better judgement, Jane invites the man in to help fix the electrical issue, and then later, when his truck won't start, she invites him to spend the night in the guest bedroom. This leads to Jon becoming increasingly hostile towards his girlfriend, obviously jealous of the stranger. Meanwhile, Jack begins to try and turn her against Jon, pointing out how controlling he is, and with a permanent secret smile, appearing to know much more about Jane than he should for someone who has only just met her.

This was a very weird film, with Jane caught between two different but equally odd characters. Jon is obviously used to getting his own way and is controlling, always trying to isolate her. Jack on the other hand may state he wants Jane to become free, but uses his words to try and sway her to seeing him as the guy to trust. They felt like two sides of the same coin, one rigid and stern, the other laid back and free, but both seeking to ultimately control her actions for their own benefit. This leads to a tug of war between the two men, with poor Jane stuck in the middle unsure who to believe. It culminates in a mid-film flash point that actually made me gasp out loud with how sudden the thing happened.

From the very beginning when Jane wakes from a recurring nightmare of being a patient in a mental asylum, you get the feeling that what is being presented to the viewer might not be exactly as it seems. There are overheard conversations that seem to happen out of context of the scene they appear in, the mysterious medication that Jon keeps insisting Jane takes, and brief hallucinations, such as her seeing a bloody hand in the stream. It all felt obvious as to what was going on, even early on. Despite assuming I knew what was up, it was still a heck of a lot of fun getting to the point when the reveal is provided. A late film flashback sequence that showed previous events in a different context was the entertaining cherry on top for this movie.
Special effects worked, decent looking blood, not in huge quantities, but used effectively. There was also a great score that added to the feeling of sustained tension and threat, even in scenes when nothing bad appears to be happening.

Lost Joy was an indie horror that worked fantastically within the limits of its parameters. The twist may have been heavily sign posted, but was still a thrill to see how the plot all plays out. With Jane you have a likeable protagonist, and the character of Jack in particular was great at creating a constant feel of paranoia. Lost Joy is a horror that I know my angst ridden teenage self would have adored, even now, I thought it was a great little horror, which at just 65 minutes long was perfectly paced without any chaff. Lost Joy is due to be released in the third quarter from High Fliers Films.

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The Gathering: An End Storm Short Story (2012) by Maz Marik - Horror Short Story Review

noreply@blogger.com (RZ) — Fri, 17 Apr 2026 16:09:00 +0000

My huge eBook mountain of shame began back in 2012 when unfortunate British author - Maz Marik approached me with a request to review his zombie-like horror novel; End Storm. This was the very first eBook I ever reviewed on this (at the time) relatively new site. I'm sure I likely assured the author a quick turn around on reading his novel, but in the end it took me nine months to read and a few understandably less than happy emails from him. At the same time I was sent the novel, he also sent me a few short stories that were set in the same universe. Some 13 years later, I have finally got around to reading those, starting with The Gathering.

This short story takes place at the same time as the opening chapters of End Storm, and features a couple of characters who I assume were minor ones in that novel. That novel isn't required reading here, though would still likely be beneficial to read prior or after this one. In the novel and unexplained event happened where 'the sky fell', a series of very strange weather phenomenon's originating over London led to much of the U.K population collapsing, before awakening as much more feral and violent people, Hell bent on killing anyone who wasn't like them. The Gathering has two plot going on. Mr. Shah is out shopping at the local mall in Crawly when the world falls apart. Initially hiding out in a photo booth, he emerges onto the street where he finds a young woman; Alice, who tells him that her and a small group of survivors are hiding out nearby, and that she is on a mission to get supplies so that they can all head out to the country where it is hoped they will be safe from the murderous hordes. Elsewhere, teenager James and his father are in their car sitting in traffic when it all kicks off. With James falling ill, his father plans to carry him to a nearby hospital to get assistance.

Even for me and my glacial speed of reading, it was very shameful that it has taken me over a decade to get around to reading a story that was literally finished within 15 minutes of starting it! I have read countless zombie stories that take place during the initial outbreak, but it never gets any less exciting to read, and that remains the case here. Rather than being rotting corpses, the antagonists here are zombie adjacent, the infected(?) having more in common with the anger filled souls of David Moody's Hater series. They are described as monstrous, but this is more with how they act than actual physical changes. They work together in groups to hunt down and kill anyone not like themselves. This is described in grim detail, one such scene involving a group breaking into a home, throwing a teenage girl out of the upstairs window, before descending on her and ripping her apart limb from limb! Gory stuff that was a thrill to read.

The Gathering was a decent short story, no real surprises to be found, but was still a fun read, and a decent introduction to the horrifically dark world of End Storm. I believe I have a second short story from Marik to read also, so a review of that will follow at some point in the near future I'm sure.

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Hellbilly Hollow (2026) - Horror Film Review

noreply@blogger.com (RZ) — Thu, 16 Apr 2026 12:44:00 +0000

Written by Bernadette Chapman and directed by Kevin Wayne (Blood Type), who also plays one of the antagonists, Hellbilly Hollow is a horror that is focused around a scare maze. Visually this often looked the part with great set design and inventive kills, but the main story was somewhat lacking.

Producer Mabel (Hallie Shepherd - Blood Type), her boyfriend James (Trey Miller - Guardian of Mine), and their boom operator are part of an online paranormal investigation team, alongside new member; Ally (Megan Weaver - Impulse Black). They run a YouTube channel that investigates allegedly haunted places. Their latest expedition takes them to a popular rural scare maze, both to highlight the maze for their viewers, but also due to the woods around the maze supposedly haunted due to a fire 40 years previously that wiped out a travelling circus. The maze is run by the eccentric Bull (Kurt Deimer - Halloween), who has given the team permission to spend the night camping on his grounds. They think it is because he wants exposure for his scare maze, but in reality, Bull and his hulking mute brother, Tickles (Wayne) are psychotic killers who delight in torturing and murdering random visitors, and have no intention of letting the team survive the night.

I really wanted to enjoy Hellbilly Hollow, but didn't quite as much as I had hoped to. A scare maze where some of the fake scares are actually real people being killed is a cool idea, as the superior Talon Falls can attest to. This one struggles a lot with its story that felt poorly explained. Ally has some sort of legitimate psychic connection to the dead, but this was never going into too much. Due to little explanation of what is going on and character's changing motivations, the plot become unsatisfying, especially the bizarre epilogue that skips ahead a day in time and barely makes any sense with characters acting strangely. The little scenes that play over the end credits were fun, but the actual ending wasn't so much.
Bull and Tickles gave me a vibe of the Firefly family from House of 1000 Corpses, being entertainingly evil with not an ounce of humanity to them. With the Firefly family, it made sense they could get away with their crimes, due to being remote and hidden away. It was a bit too much to accept that at a popular scare maze where random visitors are being killed on a nightly basis, that there would be zero police investigations going on! It could have mitigated this by having the local police shown to be complicit, but this is shown not to be the case. I liked that this family also used normal staff in the running of their mazes, but again, this made their blatant and very out in the open kills unbelievable, which did pull me out of the film more than once.
The protagonists were fine, bland, but did their roles well. I can't say I cared about anyone, good or bad. Least favourite characters were two very smug ghosts/voodoo witches(?) who seemed to interact with random characters without their sudden appearances in a cloud of artificial looking CG smoke bothering anyone. I couldn't see what these two even brought to the film.

A highlight of Hellbilly Hollow were the kills, especially with how inventive many of them were. Amusingly, many of the kills revolve around twisted versions of fairground games, such as 'whac-a-mole' (gagged victims replacing the 'mole' part), a test of strength gone wrong, and hitting the target to dunk the person in a pool (in this case dunking a victim trapped in a car into a lake to drown!). The favourite one for me was a victim strapped to a spinning board, with death by either acidic, or very hot lawn darts! There were more straight forward kills as well such as an early disembowelling and a throat slash, and all deaths were mainly done with lovely looking practical special effects.
Some scenes throughout the film were ruined by an obnoxiously loud soundtrack. The film's score fitted, but the licenced songs that featured were so loud that they overshadowed the dialogue and sound effects. The music was so loud and overbearing that I spent these scenes trying to work out if the music was meant to be playing in the film world itself. I came to the conclusion that no it wasn't, just odd balancing.

There were some great ideas and moments in Hellbilly Hollow; the location used looked neat and authentic, and the fairground themed kills were entertaining. I may have not liked the character, but Deimer played Bull with gleeful relish. The thing that most put this down for me was the story. Story beats in the second half of the movie increasingly made little sense, especially with characters who shifted allegiances for little to no reason. This left me to ever more baffled, and let the second half down. Hellbilly Hollow is due to be released in the third quarter this year, via High Fliers Films.

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Garten of Banban 0 (2025) - Horror Video Game Review

noreply@blogger.com (RZ) — Tue, 14 Apr 2026 07:47:00 +0000

It had to happen eventually, this past month (at the time of typing back in February) I have had a whale of a time playing through the Garten of Banban mascot horror games. Sure, sometimes the quality has been less than ideal, but I really grew to love the liminal low-fi world, the sometimes janky controls, and the story. With Garten of Banban 0, I have for the moment reached my personal end. There is an eighth game out, but I don't currently own it, and with the ninth game not due out until way later in the year in August, I want to pace myself (ok, it turns out I in fact did not pace myself, a review for the eighth game dropping some point soon!). For once, spoilers for previous games not to follow, as the title might suggest, this time around we have a prequel.

You play as an unnamed young creature who one day wakes up in a small room with no idea who you are, where you are, or why you are there. The door to your room is soon opened up by someone; a young red creature that introduces himself as Banban. He leads you out to a vast underground play area, where you are introduced to further creatures. After playing a few games with your new friends, the day ends and you return to your room. You are disturbed later that night by Banban. He tells you he has something that he wants to show you, leading you to an intimidating gigantic locked door...

This was the second game in the series to be free, on Playstation 5 it had a much reduced price than recent others, so I figured it likely wouldn't be the longest game. It took me roughly an hour to complete, and on the whole I had a lot of fun with it. I'm sure important lore is given, and it was interesting to see the characters I've come to love appearing as children rather than grown adults. As to when the game is set, or where it is set, I don't know. I have a feeling the location might feature in the eighth instalment, time will tell. I thought the location looked great, and while the first half is light on horror, things do pick up when the night time sequence begins. It leads to an introduction of a fearsome and creepy looking new antagonist, making for a fun finale. I will say that on my playthrough, the game crashed in this final section, causing me to have to restart the game and replay a small part. It did take me out the story somewhat.

As per usual, along with a chase sequence, there are a few puzzles to do, the hardest of which had you trying to line up spinning symbols in a room rapidly filling with poisonous gas. Though with that one, when the timing clicked, it clicked immediately; a Herculean task suddenly fun and easy. With you as a creature, and set before the events that led to the protagonist of the main games entering the facility, there wasn't much explanation or deep story. A few notes were scattered about that gave some neat early lore about Banban, and as mentioned, I thought the location this game took place in looked fantastic.

With a cheaper price, I figured this would be bite size, but I still had fun along the way. I'm going to miss this series, which is crazy as I initially grudgingly picked it up as a stop gap game while waiting for Poppy Playtime: Chapter 4 to go on sale. Something I forgot to mention; shout out to the great end credits sequence, the first time one of these has had credits, and the charming illustrations show the entire series story from start to current end.

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Souls Chapel (2026) - Horror Film Review

noreply@blogger.com (RZ) — Mon, 13 Apr 2026 18:42:00 +0000

Some of what I am going to say in this review may be from my own head-canon, but that is what I had in my mind while watching this. From my perspective, Souls Chapel is a post-apocalyptic supernatural Western. Written by David Daring and directed by Jake C. Young (The Dark Room), it doesn't take the keenest of eyes to see this was made on a shoe-string budget, but this indie flick still had atmosphere in spades.

In an unspecified time after an unspecified disaster (potentially a terrible world war or a biblical apocalypse), a drifter (Young) travels the wastelands of Kentucky. He discover an ancient totem of goodness and while investigating it he is shocked by the sudden appearance of a masked robed figure; Mephistal (Brain Bremer - Society, Pumpkinhead). This being gives the drifter a task; to head to a mysterious church that is nearby and retrieve the totem of goodness' evil counterpart. In exchange he is promised gold. Arriving at the strange church (called Souls Chapel, based on the real life allegedly haunted Soules Chapel), he discovers others have gotten there before him. A priest - Red (Jeremy Boggs - Screature), and his acolytes are there, with Red stating that he has received messages from God telling him that treasure can be found at the site. Not believing that the drifter isn't too searching for this treasure and not wanting to share, it isn't long before he has been knocked out and imprisoned.

My favourite part of this film was the vagueness both as to when it took place, and also what had happened in the world. Characters all dress in an old fashioned way, with their way of speaking matching that. It gave a vibe of sometime in the 1800s. Despite this, there are signs that this may be far more modern, and perhaps even in the future. In contrast to the look of the characters, there are buildings with modern fixtures, and I couldn't help but notice the half peeled printed barcode on one of the wooden bars in the drifters prison cell. Then there are the guns, all of which have a steampunk look to them. Sure it may have not been intentional to have these modern visual signs, but I loved the strange melding of different time periods, it felt old, but the occasional mention of things such as radios and radiation kept me guessing. What wasn't so good were some noticeably cheap looking props, the main one that springs to mind is a very plastic looking skull and bones that keeps appearing and never failed to look like something you would pick up in a shop around Halloween time. Still, these props never pulled me out of the story, so wasn't too much of an issue.

The majority of the film takes place within the titular Souls Chapel and takes the form of a character driven story. The characters were all interesting in their own ways. Red despite not seeming to be the religious man he states himself to be, nonetheless does seem to be getting messages from somewhere. Then there is Agatha (Audri Curtsinger - Unnatural), following the priest in the belief that he has the power to bring her child back from the dead, a comic relief character nicknamed 'School Boy' (Gage Carnes - The Dark Room), and the entertaining Jim Castel (Joseph McDowell). That later was someone who felt like 'the ugly' from the classic Clint Eastwood film, The Good, the Bad and the Ugly, with the drifter representing 'the good' and Red 'the bad'. I guess that is fitting as it turns out Young is a distant relative of Eastwood! The actors all do a fantastic job of feeling like they belonged in this strange world, with their lines delivered with spirited rather than realistic gusto. The odd way of talking, and no effort to bring the viewer up to speed on the world-state could make parts of the story confusing.
The drifters quest to get the mystical McGuffin was more of an excuse to get the character to the church. That whole aspect was a bit oblique, so the payoff for that plot point was completely lost on me, I didn't really have any idea what was going on with that part of the film, making for a finale that went over my head a bit. Thankfully, the atmosphere of the film world was captivating. Supernatural elements, such as a ghostly woman in white (Molly Gill) and a demonic zombie creature baffled me, but their inclusions were fun.

Souls Chapel at a quick glance could seem like something to skip. Cheap props and an acting style that won't appeal to all could be off-putting. Even from the very start though, this indie film felt like it was doing a decent job of punching above its weight. It was very well put together, and despite my struggles with the intricacies of the plot, this alternate history steampunk apocalyptic Western nightmare had a unique atmosphere all of its own that drew me in. Souls Chapel came to streaming and DVD on April 7th.

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Axes and Os (2024) - Horror Film Review

noreply@blogger.com (RZ) — Sat, 11 Apr 2026 14:05:00 +0000

I very rarely watch horror films at night, not due to fear, but due to being cursed with not being a night owl in the slightest, much more of an early bird. I have been making an effort lately to watch horrors at the optimal time, and so Valentine's Day slasher - Axes and Os was seen after the sun had set to get the full experience. Written and directed by Trent Duncan (Icons of Horror 2), this for much of its runtime is a relatively by the numbers slasher. It does have some more unique and unexpected moments however.

Olivia (Madison M. Bowman - Children of the Pines) is in a deep depression, not only because she dumped her slimy boyfriend for cheating on her, but because it is approaching Valentine's Day and she has no one to celebrate it with. To try and cheer her up, her loving cousin Leah (Cass Huckabay - Stupid Games), has arranged a special 'Galentine's Day' weekend trip for her and some of their shared friends. Leah is taking Olivia alongside nymphomaniac Dawn (Sara Wimmer - Metamorphosis), and sensible (though possibly alcoholic) Abby (Jamie Bernadette - Cold Blows the Wind, Ash and Bone), to stay at a house on Valentine Lake. Little do they realise that this is the hunting grounds for a deadly killer (Brandon Krum - Wolf Hollow), whose exploits have passed into local legend, and who only comes out to kill around Valentine's Day.

From the start, this all felt very familiar. Having recently watched comedy slasher New Fears Eve, I was in the mood to see a more traditional slasher, and so that was not an issue for me. I did feel this followed the formula a little too rigidly, with its cast of generic characters. Olivia was the most interesting one due to her misery, but to be fair, the other were not entirely bad either, only the promiscuous Dawn of the four main ones who I didn't care for.
Of course, it is all going to end with the girls being targeted by the killer, but this transition into total horror weirdly happened off screen. One moment two of the girls discover they may be in danger, then the next time the film goes to them, the killer has already broken into their house and is pursuing them. Would have been better to show that key point on film I felt.
Parts of the plot points felt a little shallow and convenient. Take the killer for instance, he's been operating in the area for countless years, enough that there is a local legend about the 'Ax Man'. Yet the authorities act like this is the first time they have decided to look into it. Their investigations are comically quick at identifying exactly who this killer is, and how they would be able to find him. I guess you can just put it down to the police being incompetent. More entertaining was a small subplot involving Olivia having nightmares, which suddenly gains massive importance with just ten minutes of film time left to go. This bonkers late film twist totally turns everything on its head, but was a bit too little too late. I'm not saying I didn't find this finale a load of fun to watch, but it did seem to come from nowhere, with only vague clues prior to the crazy reveal. It certainly made for a novel way to end what had been a straight forward slasher though!

Of course, in a film like this the kills need to look good, and these ones don't look bad at all, even if they are lacking a little in variation. Being called the Ax Man, unsurprisingly his weapon of choice are axes, but rather than the typical huge axe, he instead uses more modern, light weight ones, and often kills by throwing them at the victim. There is a decent sized body count, kills often accompanied by what appeared to be CG blood spurts. Having a lot of the victims being scantily clad (taking place around a popular resort) gave more of a feeling of vulnerability to the characters here, a neat touch.
The killer had a decent enough look to him; a kind of grizzled mountain man figure; long hair and beard, and wearing home made hunting camouflage. He doesn't wear a mask, and it was nice to see that rather than a mute homicidal brute, he actually had some intelligence to him and could speak should he so choose to. I will add that his backstory (shown via a flashback sequence) was nothing interesting.

Axes and Os (outside of those final ten minutes) didn't do much to surprise. As a 'switch your brain off' type of horror it served its purpose. This was entertaining, if not likely to leave too much of a lasting impression. The award winning Axes and Os is now streaming on Amazon Prime Video, Apple TV, Tubi, Screamify, and Relay.

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I Remember Me (2000) by Thomas Tessier - Horror Short Story Review

noreply@blogger.com (RZ) — Fri, 10 Apr 2026 10:10:00 +0000

First published in the 2000 anthology; Ghost Music and Other Tales, I Remember Me is the second of two Thomas Tessier short stories I was sent to read back in 2014 (and the first for me to put into a post). This very strange story told a nightmarish tale within a strange alternate Earth.

In a modern New York, a man attempts to head back home to his apartment. This is a task made much harder due to a memory loss causing pandemic that has swept the world. Dubbed 'The Flu', this disease causes intense memory loss, not just key information such as names and addresses, but even down to the basic, such as how to cook food. With much of the population infected, it has caused no end of issues, with even the doctors trying to find a cure, hampered by their own memory loss. It has led to a transient world where fake I.Ds are in full rotation, and people seemingly on a whim decide what their names are and what property they own.

There was a horrifying free-form feel to the world of the story, one that the characters within are none the wiser to. The protagonist here is aimless, drifting from life to life, unsure if he is married, or where he lives. For him nothing is really different thanks to his supreme memory loss, but from afar it appears a dystopian Hell-scape. Over the course of the story, our protagonist takes on a variety of names and identities, moving from location to location without even being aware of the changes taking place.

This is a world that seems on the brink of societal collapse. Roving gangs stealing the identities of victims, safe in the knowledge they likely won't even remember being robbed. Entire countries losing contact with each other, food shortages due to farmers forgetting to plant crops. A bewildering out of step world that is somehow screeching on.

I Remember Me was unique in that it is only from the distance of reading the story that the pure horror of this world is apparent, the characters all too deeply entwined with it to be aware of that fact. Dizzying and inventive, this is one story that I feel will stick in the mind for a good while.

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New Fears Eve (2025) - Comedy Horror Film Review

noreply@blogger.com (RZ) — Thu, 09 Apr 2026 09:28:00 +0000

New Fears Eve is a comedy slasher co-directed by Eric Huskisson and P.J Starks (Hallows Eve: Slaughter on Second Street), the later who also wrote this. Comedy in horror films can be hard to get right, humour is subjective after all. Too much humour and you can dilute the threat of the antagonist force is one such concern. Thankfully, the best thing that this movie does is treat the killer and kills with respect, making them look legit and gnarly on screen, even when comedic elements get mixed in.

There is a serial killer on the loose in the city, someone the media have came to call 'The Doctor' due to their kills indicating medical knowledge, as well as many of the kills being via surgical implements. This madman on the prowl hasn't really affected the employees of Hooper Industries, who are gearing up for a mandatory work-based New Years Eve party. These include three best friends; Leslie (Lily Claire Harvey - Hinsdale House), Brian (Turner Vaughn) and jokester, Moses (Matthew Tichenor). Little do they all know that the serial killer has chosen their office party as the place to see in the New Year.

So yes, humour can be hard to do as it isn't always going to appeal to everyone. Sadly in this case, for me personally, the majority of the jokes fell flat. I have never been a fan of sex and bodily function jokes and there are plenty of those here. I felt the comical script resulted in many actors saying their lines in an unnatural way. The film didn't go as far as to be a farce, characters and situations can get funny, but they still operate in a relatively normal world, rather than unexpected madness breaking out at any point. Maybe due to this being a comedy horror it was intentional, but characters here never seemed authentic, making it hard to care about them when they don't feel like real people. There were a good amount of notable side characters, such as the ever reliable Felissa Rose (Sleepaway Camp), Dave Sheridan (Scary Movie), Jeffrey Reddick (the creator of Final Destination), and Hannah Fierman (V/H/S segment 'Amateur Night') to name a few.
Another element of New Fears Eve was the story, and as may be expected, this was wafer thin. The subplot involving stand-out character; crooked cop, Officer Flanagan (Jay Woolston), suggested a grander plot was happening somewhere deep in the background, but this never came to the forefront. Indeed, the film ends with its story completely unresolved, cutting to credits when it felt like the finale was just hitting its stride, most unsatisfying. I assume this is so a sequel can be made, but it would have been nice to get some closure on the first film's journey.
Back to the comedy; it wasn't all off-putting, there were some humorous moments on occasion. I liked that the protagonists had all previously been terrorised by the Doctor but hadn't bothered to mention it to each other, and a Die Hard gag got a smile out of me at one point. The best of the humour was of the visual kind, mainly popping up in the excellent kill scenes.

The shining star of New Fears Eve were those kill scenes. There is a Hell of a lot of kills throughout the 95 minute runtime, nearly all of which are shown on screen rather than alluded to or suggested. There are comedic deaths, but there are also plenty of violent and brutal kills that have strong horror elements to them. It can be over the top for laughs, such as a victim getting their face ripped off ridiculously easily, a victim getting impaled with a flung dildo(!), someone having their intestines fed into a waste disposal unit, and a trio of victims all getting their throats slashed in the same swipe. Blood is never in short supply, making even these more silly deaths feel visceral. More 'traditional' kills include decapitation, stabbings (usually with scalpels), a drill, and a bone saw to the back of a head. All of these were done with wonderful practical effects that made every single death look fantastic and on occasion pretty horrific!
As to the killer himself, he really looked kind of neat, achieving a perfect balance between sinister and goofy. The Victorian look of top hat, waistcoat, and long coat combined with the plague doctor mask made him look the part, while the glowing red eyes on the mask gave it a little of a cartoon feel.

New Fears Eve may not have appealed to me in terms of its humour, but it is hard to argue that this film doesn't do its kill scenes fantastically well. Varied, inventive, and often over the top, these were all a delight to see. It would just have been better if there had been any characters here to really care about, rather than a whole load of cannon fodder for the Doctor. New Fears Eve was released in December by Cineverse.

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The Rotting Zombie's News Anthology for Wednesday 8th April 2026

noreply@blogger.com (RZ) — Wed, 08 Apr 2026 15:54:00 +0000

I started my blog output a day late this week, not that anyone would realise, but has meant each post has been shifted forward to the next day. I'm really trying to start watching films for review at night. It is quite hard though, not due to getting scared, more that I am not remotely a night person and begin to get real tired around the 20:00 mark! Onwards to the news (which I spookily wrote at night).

Co-directors Ellison Winterstein and Harrison Orwig have released their supernatural thriller - The House on the Lake via BayView Entertainment. This 70 minute movie concerns a young woman who finds her remote lakeside house to be haunted by spirits and demons. In desperation she turns to a priest, but their attempt to cleanse the house is interrupted by the arrival of ghost hunters.

Dolly is now available to own on Digital platforms via Vertigo Releasing. Directed by Rod Blackhurst, and starring Fabianne Therese (John Dies at the End), Russ Tiller (Blood for Dust) and Seann William Scott (American Pie) among others, this serves as a tribute to classic 70s slashers. The film follows Macy; a young woman who is abducted by a twisted figure who plans to try and raise the kidnapped woman as if she was their own child. Dolly released on 6th April and can be found on Amazon Prime Video, Apple TV, YouTube Movies, Sky Store, and Virgin Media.

Finally for today, Joshua Nelson's latest film is Ashes of Vengeance, which is said to be a '...chilling exploration of psychological warfare'. This released on January 27th via BayView Entertainment, and is about a group of women who go to a remote house seeking a safe space to heal from a shared traumatic event. Their attempt to heal is broken when a group of men arrive at the house unexpectedly, leading to a bleak night for all concerned.

The Guard Room (2026) - Horror Film Review

noreply@blogger.com (RZ) — Tue, 07 Apr 2026 19:38:00 +0000

The Guard Room is an indie horror film that blends elements of a murder mystery, supernatural horror, and slasher. Directed and written by Michael Thordarson (Sophie and the Serial Killers), this may be light on thrills but I really enjoyed the cyclical nature of the pacing.

Olga Molina (Gone with the Dead, Bye Bye Kitty) stars as Hilda; a woman who has recently gotten a job as an overnight security guard in an isolated warehouse district. She is soon brought up to speed by long time guard, Lucas (Michael Fredianelli - Bears on a Ship, Ride Scare: the Beginning), he tells her that apart from homeless people wandering onto the site, there isn't much to worry about. After a few nights on the job, Hilda learns that the security guard she replaced was actually found dead on the job, his death remaining a mystery as to whether it was a murder or accidental. This alarms her, making her angry that no one had thought to mention that to her when she got the job. She decides she is going to look into this unexplained death, for her own peace of mind more than anything else.

Being out of work myself at the moment, I immediately took a shine to Hilda, identifying with her needing a job to earn money. She is one of the more relatable and down to earth protagonists in recent memory. I liked how basic she was, making it clear she is working for money, and never going too above and beyond what is expected of her. This is best displayed in an early montage sequence that mixes scenes of her dancing like a loon to music in the guard room, to scenes of her out on patrol around the warehouses. She was in no means a perfect protagonist, there was some odd humour to her, and the running joke of her referring to homeless people as 'unhoused' and then whoever she is speaking to getting confused about what she means soon wore out its welcome.
Lucas was another great character, almost the stand-out one here. His indifference to his job, and his general attitude made him interesting to watch, especially liking the brief interactions between him and Hilda.

The story reminded me ever so slightly of Five Nights at Freddy's, with odd events escalating as the nights go on. Hilda's need to earn money is a perfectly fine reason for her not leaving at the first sign of trouble, and the escalation is so slight that it makes sense she sticks around for the most part. I loved the feel of the film constantly switching between the night shift scenes, and the ones set after the protagonist has finished her shift and returned home with fast food in hand. This gave a neat structure to the unfolding events, though it should be mentioned the horror here is slight with a small body count and not many moments of high peril. Many of these perilous scenes involve her interactions with the random strangers who have ended up in the warehouse district. From people who threaten her, to a recurring masked maniac armed with an axe(!), as well as repeated glimpses of a sad looking woman wearing a white dress (Sherill Quinn - Bears on a Ship). That later character has the suggestion of the supernatural to her, though the melding of grounded murder mystery and ghostly goings on was always abrasive here, the two styles never neatly fitting together.
The conclusion was ok, but felt a bit loose, like elements hadn't been satisfactory explained by the time of the end credits. This conclusion did have its moments though, and I liked the path the protagonist was led on.

The Guard Room was a neat indie film that despite a low level of horror, and some weak supernatural elements, remained entertaining due to interesting characters, great pacing, and somewhat relatable situations. The Guard Room is due to be released via Magical Hammer Productions.

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Haunters of the Silence (2025) - Horror Film Review

noreply@blogger.com (RZ) — Sun, 05 Apr 2026 16:23:00 +0000

It has been a fair while since I watched a truly experimental horror, and the Tatu Heikkinen and Veleda Thorsson-Heikkinen co-directed and co-written Haunters of the Silence is definitely that. This is a low budget indie arthouse folk horror that was shot on a low cost of $2,000. I'm not going to lie, this type of movie is not my favourite sub-genre of horror, but even with that in mind, for a feature length debut movie, I was very impressed with the filmmaking techniques here.

K (Heikkinen) returns to his remote woodland home after a lonely pilgrimage to the sea to scatter some ashes. Heading to bed for the night, he is initially alerted to the proximity alarm notifications on his phone telling him the camera has been triggered. After some investigating and finding nothing, he mutes his notifications and returns to bed. It is here that he encounters a intruder dressed all in black (John Haughm), with a trench coat and a fedora concealing his identity. In terror, K flees his home into the nearby woods, beginning a long night of nightmares and fear for the poor man as the mystery figure gives chase.

My problem with experimental films is my relatively low tolerance for the style of these. In this instance, I lasted thirty minutes before the shine started to wear off a bit. That first half hour I was completely hooked though. The first act had the most semblance to a traditionally told story, playing out in linear fashion. At times with the night time atmosphere, this had a feeling of an adult fronted Skinamarink; the feel of a perpetual nightmare with no end, full of audio and visual hallucinations. This all adds to the off-kilter feel, the movie including among its melting pot discordant music, black and white segments, slow motion scenes, stop motion, animation, and kaleidoscopic images. It was all very arthouse and also legitimately impressive, especially with the sublime editing and cinematography.
The middle of the film's tale got a lot more abstract. Lots of staring at skulls for minutes at a time, and a neat stop motion section that has bones forming into patterns and shapes. Here was where Haunters of the Silence did lose me for a bit, these long sections were abstract and didn't feel like much was happening during them. It remains though, impressively put together, the visuals and sound combining to feel like an art installation - each and every image intricately placed.

The arthouse feel does lead to some genuine moments of horror. I loved the claustrophobically intimate feel of the first act with the rain hammering down outside, and the film throughout never loses the feeling of experiencing someone's nightmare. K is a silent protagonist, and outside of the film's constant score, the only dialogue found comes from TV chatter, voicemail messages, and a lecture on a gramophone record. No surprises, the story is heavily implied to actually be a nightmare the protagonist has slipped into, with obvious suggestions of sleep paralysis (IMDB states one of the director's own experience of sleep paralysis led to the seed of this film).
The hat wearing intruder plays a key role, though isn't present for the entire movie, showing up time and again. He was effective, but more so was an animated comic strip that showed the interactions between a man and an evil hypnotist in simple but creepy ink drawing. There were some great parts here, and the variety was constant. Day abruptly turning to night, a photo in a frame that starts to bleed into reality, as well as the ending scene were all highlights for me.

Experimental film such as this are an acquired taste, so this won't be for everyone. For me, I found it slightly exhausting to watch at times, but this was a masterclass of filmmaking nonetheless. This was masterfully edited, and felt like it had clear vision for what it was trying to tell. Expect long scenes of hallucinagenic images speedily spliced together, and an unwillingness to adhere to more traditional ways of telling a story, but all done in an often fascinating way. Haunters of the Silence premiered at the Serbest International Film Festival in 2025, and it won 'Best Experimental Film' at the Paris Film Awards later that year. This was released for streaming on Tubi in February.

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Shadow Castes: Book 1 - Aspects (2011) by Scott Harper - Horror Novel Book Review

noreply@blogger.com (RZ) — Fri, 03 Apr 2026 09:40:00 +0000

I received the eBook version of author Scott Harper's Shadow Castes: Book 1 - Aspects way back in 2012. Once again, to my shame I have only just this moment (at time of writing) finished reading it. As can be gathered from the novel's title, this is the first book in a series (and from what I could find on the net, a sequel has yet to be released). Unlike other books of Harpers I have read, such as Predators or Prey? and Necromancer, this is purely the start of an ongoing story, rather than present a self contained story, it very much sets up future events with no real resolution to anything.

Felix is a tormented man. He is forced to live away from society in a remote woodland home due to being a werewolf. His daily struggle to control his wolf side is interrupted by the arrival of a beautiful woman; Nephele. She tells Felix that she travels the world seeking to help werewolves deal with their condition - being a werewolf herself who has discovered a way to co-exist with the beast within.
Elsewhere, psychic vampire Eugene lives in his Gothic mansion with his spirit guide; Charlotte. They want nothing more than to find a way to make Charlotte's form solid, as the pair are in love and want to be able to be together. A less noble psychic vampire named Drake is on the loose nearby, getting joy out of tormenting his victims.
Finally, there is the hunter; a tormented man living on the edge, determined to hunt and kill werewolves, due to his wife and unborn child being killed by one in the past. He teams up with a determined young woman after evidence of a werewolf pack hunting in the city is discovered.

Shadow Castes is a mixture of romance and horror. With the exception of the dastardly Drake, each of the subplots going on is made up of a male and female character either in love, or falling in love. Having read previous books of the author, I have come to expect his reluctance to make his female characters anything but flawlessly beautiful. Nephele is the chief of these characters, spending the majority of the novel naked, with a few sex scenes peppered in. I often state werewolves are my least favourite monster, but here at least things felt a little different. Werewolves here aren't people who literally transform into wolves, but the spirit of the wolf contained within them is able to manifest in a solid 'shell' that encapsulates the host.
The werewolf part was the main story in the novel, second in line was the hunter's story. I liked that this character initially appears as an antagonist figure, before vanishing for much of the middle of the novel. The next time he reappears there is more context provided that suggests he has good reason to do what he does. Then there is the Ying and Yang of Drake and Eugene. The former is notably cruel and horrid. Eugene on the other hand seemed completely wasted here. He spends the entire novel in his mansion not really doing anything of note at all.
Being the first book in a planned series, you could forgive the lack of much forward momentum in the story, but it would have been nice for all the various characters to at least be aware of each other by stories end.

Action is kept to a minimum here. There are moments of high action, but mostly each of the subplots have lots of romance and talking, but not much threat. This was well written and felt brisk with its 239 pages.
The preference for attractive flawless women works better with a novel that I feel is likely intended to include romance and horror both, and there is an adequate blend of the two genres here.

Never judge a book by its cover. With Shadow Castes: Book 1 - Aspects, I expected this to be romantic drivel, based on cover alone. To be fair, I enjoyed reading this, and I was surprised that the werewolves here were not irritating to me. Ending on a decent cliff-hanger (that may never be resolved), this was a decent start to a series, even if I did wish it contained a full story, alongside the beginnings of one.

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Crybaby Bridge (2026) - Horror Film Review

noreply@blogger.com (RZ) — Wed, 01 Apr 2026 14:56:00 +0000

Directed and co-written by Sarah T. Schwab, Crybaby Bridge is a very slow drama based horror with some mild supernatural elements. A small, perfectly chosen cast round-out this horror, but the lack of much going on may make this not for everyone.

Will (Michael Laurence - Airplane!) and Evelyn (Florencia Lozano - One Life to Live) are relocating from the city to a remote rural town, mainly due to the fact that their 16 year old adopted teenage daughter, Samantha (Sydney Mikayla - General Hospital) is pregnant and has been getting incessantly bullied at her school as a result. Staying at a woodland camping ground while on the journey to their new home, the family hear a ghost story about a nearby bridge that the locals have nicknamed 'crybaby bridge'. The local legend states a pregnant woman jumped off the bridge, killing herself and her unborn child, and that now she haunts the place. Ignoring the warnings about the bridge, the family decide to head towards it, thinking they will take the scenic route to their new home. The location turns out to have a strange pull for Samantha, who gets plenty of time to be by it due to car troubles. It is while they are stuck in the area that they encounter a creepy local; John (Erik King - Dexter), someone who is linked to the bleak legend of the bridge.

A very slow burn of a movie, so much so that by the halfway point about three quarters of an hour in, not much had really happened at all. Supernatural elements are suggested more than explicitly inferred to be real, the most really given are some audio hallucinations and nightmare sequences. That later part did have my favourite moment of the movie, where a school corridor and the bridge are edited together repeatedly, it looked great on screen. The supernatural element is so slight that it could easily be argued it wasn't an actual thing within the story of the film. With the appearance of John, this began to feel more like a thriller than a ghost story.

Due to the slow pace, there wasn't much need for grand spectacle. The story for the most part is grounded, and was well acted with the four central characters. Stand out actor for me was Lozano, her character of Evelyn wasn't the most likeable of people, but she felt like the heart of the family. Certainly more so than Will who was more of a reactionary character for better or for worse.
Some parts of the plot didn't appeal too much. Events ramp up for the third act, but I found myself missing the more drama centred earlier moments. Later, it seemed like the story was led slightly clumsily through a series of obvious and slightly derivative story beats. At times it felt like things were being thrown at the wall to see what stuck, such as a tonally odd end credit sequence that featured a reporter doing a series of slightly comical interviews with locals about the legend of the bridge.

Crybaby Bridge wasn't the most exciting movie. The subjects of teenage pregnancy, adoption were interesting in their own right, but this didn't work satisfactorily as either a drama or as a horror. It was well acted though, the four principal actors all doing solid jobs. Crybaby Bridge releases in the second quarter this year from High Fliers Films.

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The Rotting Zombie's Round-up of Horror News for March 2026

noreply@blogger.com (RZ) — Tue, 31 Mar 2026 12:50:00 +0000

This time last month I was about to head to the other side of the world. Now, as of typing, I am back at The Rotting Zombie HQ. A very peaceful and relaxing holiday, even if the 30 hour return trip has given me some mild PTSD! Introverts do not like being sounded by people for so long. If there is such a place as Hell, then I imagine mine will be me stuck on the endless flight from Kuala Lumpur to U.K for eternity - when a child projectile vomits down the aisle in front of you within an hour of take-off, you just know it's going to be a great flight!
Last month's news post was tiny, let's see if I can improve on that this time around. Especially when I have so much news in my inbox. Onwards to the news!

The Demon of Serling is a bleakly comedic thriller about someone whose neighbour is a murderer. Coming from filmmaker Dylan R. Nix (10/31 Part 4, Sharp Candy), this has a man (R. Nix) discovering his neighbour; Mr. Yarley (David E. McMahon - He Never Left) is a serial killer. Rather than go to the police with this knowledge, events lead to the two men going on a '...transformative night'. The director says of his film: "We wanted to take the 'serial killer next door' trope and turn it into something more intimate and existential". The Demon of Serling is now available on Collector's Edition Blu-ray and Digital via Scream Team Releasing.

Chuck Morrongiello's Bad Bunny has surpassed 2.5 million views on YouTube, probably due to having a similar name as music artist...Bad Bunny. This rabbit monster themed horror has a woman heading to a remote cabin where she gets hunted by the titular creature. Bad Bunny can be seen on Tubi and Apple TV.

A new poster has been released for the latest film in the Scary Movie series. This comes to cinemas on June 5th. The comedy horror takes place 26 years after a group survived being stalked by a familiar masked killer. Now they find themselves once again the killer's target. Scary Movie is a parody that plays on horror film tropes and makes references to many horror films as part of its gags. I saw the first two films at the cinema and quite enjoyed them for what they were, even if the sex jokes and gross jokes didn't appeal. Back in 2022, I reviewed Scary Movie 3 where I gave it an acceptable 6/10 saying I '...appreciated the parodying of the horror films...'.

Psychological horror film, Broken Bird comes to US theatrical release on April 24th. Starring Rebecca Calder and James Fleet and directed by Joanne Mitchell, this is based on Mitchell's short film Sybil. In this one, a lonely mortician (Calder) searches for love, but her need for connection takes a disturbing turn. Broken Bird is one of six films developed by Catalyst Studios as part of its mission to '...champion female-led stories by woman directors and producers'.

Distort 2: The Dead Among the Trees is a FOUND TV exclusive, coming on May 1st. The found footage sequel is first to screen at the upcoming Unnamed Footage Festival in San Francisco before making its streaming debut. I haven't heard of this before, apparently, the sequel takes place once again in a remote Irish forest, picking up the threads from the first film. A musician returns to the woods alongside a documentary filmmaker to discover what really happened there.

March 10th saw the release of suspense thriller - Do Not Open to Digital video. The film is about a married couple in their fifties who head to a secluded cabin hoping to fix their fracturing relationship. The couple are given one rule at the place; to never open the door at the end of the hall, but as their vacation goes on, the man feels himself increasingly compelled to find just what lies beyond the forbidden door. Do Not Open was shot in 4K HD resolution and is said to offer a surprising ending.

Two Giallo themed horror films are now available on TubiTV and Fawesome TV. In Boy of Your Dreams, a college student awakens in a rental guest house to find her phone missing and a serial killer hovering over her. In The Mother's Eye, a woman's normal night is altered when she realises a serial killer is after her.

Axes and Os is a Valentine's Day themed slasher that is now streaming on Amazon Prime Video, Apple TV, Tubi, Screamify and Relay. Headlined by Jamie Bernadette (I Spit on Your Grave: Déjá Vu), this sees a group of girls on a weekend getaway hunted by legendary Valentine's axe murderer - Luther Dremel.

Onlyfangs star August Kyss and Vida Ghaffari have joined the cast of Harley Wallen's upcoming psychological thriller; Blur. This takes place within the modern music industry, and is told through the 'fractured perspective' of Jenny. The film looks at how ambition, desire and power can both intertwine and corrupt.

Horror comedy Sorority of the Damned has came to Amazon Prime Video. Co-directed by Stranger Things alum Joe Davison, the press release states this 'celebrates the golden era of creature features'. In the film, a clumsy handyman discovers he is the last in a long line of demon hunters. He finds himself called to the challenge when a devoutly religious house mother (Felissa Rose) opens a portal to Hell that brings forth four elemental witches (including WWE star Katarina Leigh Waters).

Finally for today, Freestyle Digital Media have acquired thriller feature - The Man with the Silver Case. It is due to gets its Digital debut in North America on April 7th. This film sees a desperate man who agrees to deliver a suitcase to a shadowy organisation. He finds himself pursued by others who are happy to kill anyone in their way to get their hands on the case's contents.

Thera Will See You Know (2025) - Short Sci-fi Horror Film Review

noreply@blogger.com (RZ) — Mon, 30 Mar 2026 12:53:00 +0000

Back in the early days of my blog I was constantly getting emails telling me about the films featuring prolific actor and filmmaker - Kim Sønderholm (Little Big Boy: The Rise and Fall of Jimmy Duncan). It was a blast from the past then when I received an email talking about a new short sci-fi/horror film that he has directed called, Thera Will See You Now. This short felt very current with the advent of A.I, the themes covered here I have already seen in a more mundane way in real news, with our current very basic 'A.I'.

The intro text gives an alternate timeline of the past six years. Starting with the Covid pandemic, this timeline suggests the lockdowns lasted a lot longer and there became an epidemic of loneliness, leading to high suicide rates. A.I was used more for connections, leading to present day where a controversial A.I led emotional support network was created. The short takes the form of a series of these support sessions. Maya (Mie Gren), Jacob (Sønderholm), and Louise (Sara Amlund) have joined an A.I led support group to help them with the issues they are facing in their lives. Louise has been struggling to come to terms with the death of her son, Jacob has been having dark thoughts, while Maya has become increasingly reclusive after escaping from an abusive relationship. As the sessions go on, all three start to become more positive and accepting of their thoughts, but does the A.I really know what is in their best interests?

Watching The Job late last year, I thought the idea of a self help A.I was decent, but that one was lacking in the more darker moments. Thera Will See You Now has the same idea as that one, but with a more jaded outlook. The 12 minute short is presented as if it is playing out on a PC screen. Initially having the screen split into four quarters for the first session, subsequent ones begin to put the characters on full screen so you can better see the emotions in their faces as they speak. I had a decent idea where the story would go, and indeed it did lead to that conclusion. The illusion of watching events on a PC screen were good, and the special effects used to represent the A.I construct were not bad.

I wasn't blown away by Thera Will See You Now, but nor did it do anything badly. I enjoyed its story, one that felt timely judging from some of the more crazy A.I based news stories I have read about lately. The short can be streamed online for free here.

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The Rotting Zombie Presents: Breaking News! Banned from X!

noreply@blogger.com (RZ) — Thu, 19 Mar 2026 23:19:15 +0000

In lieu of putting up a film review this Friday (as is tradition, an old charter, or something), I have breaking self indulgent news that nonetheless could have an impact on this site. For reasons unknown, I have been banned from X (Twitter as it will always be to me)! I went to stick up my latest review post and link and recieved a message saying 'After careful review, we have determined your account broke the X Rules'. Further investigation (well...a dive into my junk email) revealed the following:

I've read through their 'authenticity' guidelines and really can't see that I have broken any of them. I do find it a bit insulting I have been accused of being inauthentic, when this site is entirely written by me, and provides my personal thoughts and feeling on whatever media I cover. It could also be (as it says) due to me having been reported by someone (perhaps someone unhappy with a negative review!), but I go more towards it being randomly done by a bot scrapping the site for spam accounts and inadvertently flagging my poor account.
In one respect it is a bit of a relief to be off of X, even if it wasn't by my own choice. I joined Twitter just before it got big, and due to that, I had by far the most followers on that platform (over 4000). In recent years it has become full of hate speech (that the rules ironically state is forbidden), and more unappealingly, it is owned by a petty man-child who thinks it is perfectly fine to do Nazi salutes and meddle in elections. It has been a legitimate private concern of mine to be using a platform such as that, but due to the biggest follower count, I felt I had to use it.

This is all to plug the other social media sites I use to promote my blog. I'm not saying these are perfect sites either, but at least they have a slightly less dirty feel than X did. I don't know if being off that platform will reduce review and news requests sent my way. To be honest, I have zero idea how anyone finds their way to my site! Thankfully, this isn't a business here, I do it as a fan of horror, and as an excuse to practice my typing skills.

Anyway, if you could see it in your heart to follow me on any or all of the following it would be greatly appreciated. If you can't be bothered; well that's fine also!

Facebook: The Rotting Zombie

Threads: the_rotting_zombie

Bluesky: @therottingzombie.bsky.social

If you are really desperate then you can also check out my barely used YouTube channel also:

The Rotting Zombie

Anyway, that is it, moan and shameless plug over. Next week I will be travelling to Melbourne and then returning home to good ole blighty, so I likely won't be able to get any posts put up until the week after when I am safely nestled back in The Rotting Zombie HQ.

Cedar Mills (2025) by Dylan James - Horror Novel Review

noreply@blogger.com (RZ) — Wed, 18 Mar 2026 22:02:00 +0000

I received an eBook version of Dylan James' Cedar Mills back in June of last year, and at the time of typing I have just finished reading it. That may seem like a long time, but with my reading pile of shame as bulky as it is, that for me was actually lightning fast, though, obviously nothing to be proud of. I am getting as much reading done as I had hoped on my relaxing visit to Australia to visit family.

Back in the late 1990s, a biker witnesses his gang being torn to shreds by a monstrous creature out at an abandoned mill near the sleepy town of Cedar Mills. In present day, wanting to write an article about the history of the town for his school yearbook (and choosing this mostly forgotten event), a high school student heads out to the area to take some photos. This proves to be fateful, with the boy's last photo taken before he is abruptly killed being of that same creature that was reported about all those years ago. The town sheriff who was investigating this death has the case taken off her by a shady branch of the government, but not before she had recruited a disgraced former detective, now P.I - Tom, to investigate the case off the books. With the government covering up the death, Tom reaches out to the murdered boys friends - high schoolers Jake Evans, DeShawn, Angela, and Alexis, with an offer to tell them what he thinks really happened to their friend. Before much information can be traded however, they are ambushed by agents who had been following Tom, and they are forced to go on the run, as the agents are determined to hide the truth at any cost.

Cedar Mills started off coming across like a Stephen King type of small town horror. This is the type of town where everyone knows everyone else, and gossip spreads rapidly. From the thrilling prologue set in the 90s, events get moving rapidly. I figured the pacing of the story would see Tom and friends investigating the strange goings on in the town in a Stranger Things type of fashion. Instead, the novel is roughly split into three distinct parts. The early small town horror transitions into more of a road trip story, before coming together for an action packed third act that is pure creature feature horror. The story went to some unexpected places, with the story getting more wild than I imagined. I can't say I thought too much of the epilogue, mainly due to the rather abrupt cliff-hanger ending.

There were a lot of grim moments here. The creature itself is very deadly, a green reptilian type of huge monster with blade-like appendages for arms. The scenes of it killing victims were all very exciting, especially with how powerful it is. More detestable for me were the three government agents. Led by the psychotic Hives, they appear in some of the more miserable parts of the book. There even came a point where I had to take a break from reading - too much bad stuff were happening to likeable protagonists and likeable side characters alike! Despite a lot of the main characters being teens, they don't escape without harm. The story kept me going, as well as my assumption that these horrible agents would eventually get their comeuppance!

Throughout Cedar Mills, I really struggled to put the book down. The short chapters and unfolding story over the 313 pages, kept me glued to the pages. I was a huge fan of where the story ended up going. Not that I haven't seen that type of thing done before, but I wasn't expecting that direction in this particular novel. Well written, action packed, and with a likeable collection of characters, I had a great time reading Cedar Mills, it did little wrong.

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No Through Road (2009) - Horror TV Series Episode Review

noreply@blogger.com (RZ) — Tue, 17 Mar 2026 22:43:00 +0000

No Through Road I had assumed to be a short horror film. It was only while looking this up after the fact that I realised it was actually the first episode in a TV mini-series, with the three subsequent episodes coming out in 2011. I will be looking at this as if it were a short film as it certainly acts and feels like one. Written, directed and co-starring Steven Chamberlain, this effective British found footage horror did a lot of things surprisingly well.

It is 2008 and four English lads are out on a night time drive on the rural roads outside of Stevenage, with one of them filming the event on his new camera for prosperity. Their drive leads them to a tunnel that leads to an abandoned farmhouse and has a sign saying 'no through road'. It is after they decide to go through this tunnel that the strangeness begins. Carrying on their journey they keep encountering the same road sign time and time again, despite driving in a straight line. Seeing no traffic and constantly seeming to be driving in a loop, the boys get increasingly panicked, not helped by a disturbing loop of repeating music playing out over the radio. Just when they think they have finally escaped their nightmare, the real horror begins.

I thought this little horror was super effective. The gradual breakdown of the four friend's cockiness and bravado was done perfectly. The intro text stating the four were found dead in their car, and the outro text giving a link to a webpage should anyone who sees the footage can help the authorities work out what happened gave this an authentic feel. Editing was sublime, corrupted footage blending in earlier happier times of the four at home, distorted and creepy. Sticking so faithfully to found footage, this does drag ever so slightly at times, especially in the middle, and a lot of scenes of very dark and hard to see, even if this does make sense with this being 'natural' footage.

No Through Road succeeded due to its feeling of realism that resulted in a short that was at times unsettling, creepy and sinister. It can be viewed on YouTube.

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Garten of Banban VII (2024) - Horror Video Game Review

noreply@blogger.com (RZ) — Mon, 16 Mar 2026 23:31:00 +0000

I have been barrelling through the Garten of Banban series of mascot horror video games these past weeks, mainly due to travelling to Australia for a month (at the time of typing). Hopefully I am still able to put up blog posts there using my laptop (I am!), this review is written four days before the long 25 hour plane journey starts. Garten of Banban VII is the first game in the series not to be released in 2023, and was the only one to be released in 2024. I also have to say it was mightily disappointing. As ever, unavoidable spoilers to follow.

After descending yet another elevator of the secret facility hidden under Banban's Kindergarten, you arrive on floor six - the domain of Syringeon. The previous floor having become overrun by Sir Dadadoo and his small army of corrupted creatures. You had fled the area with the intention of retrieving the missing piece of Queen Bouncila's magical sceptre; the only item capable of sending the giant slug and his naughty one minions back into her pouch. After finding the surgeon, he instructs you with locating Jumbo Josh, the green giant being somewhere in Syringeon's improbable city, and who the creature believes is the only one capable of stopping Dadadoo.

I have to say, I did not expect a city to be found on this particular floor of the facility. I reckon by now we must be getting on for a good half a mile under ground. After a brief but fun horror opening, you make it to the city. The rest of the game takes place in this small open world area, with you tasked with heading to various locations, such as a bar, apartment block and theatre, as you search for clues on Josh's whereabouts and find the items you need to capture him. Unfortunately, this is the most frustrating game in the series by far, frustration popped up at several annoying moments. Chase sequences are back, but there was one here that required a mix of running and pixel perfect jumps. I must have taken at least 50 increasingly angry attempts until I finally did that section. Then there is the drone, it has another upgrade that lets you control it directly. I had hoped this would make it less cumbersome to control, but alas, the controls are poor and its range is limited by invisible walls. There are also a lot less puzzles to be found here, a handful of ones that mostly revolve around memorising patterns.

The city was fine, populated by alien looking creatures who talk in a variety of languages, it wasn't anything exciting. It had a kind of 1920's American gangster type feel, the bar playing jazz music, and a misty vibe to the streets. I can't say I liked that aesthetic, for much of the two and a half to three hour game there was barely any horror to be found. You get the obligatory dream sequence which to be fair was pretty fun, but the lore here was minimal. The story of containing Sir Dadadoo started to feel like a bit of an unimportant sub plot, divorced from the bigger story of finding your missing child. I liked the twist ending, but other than that there wasn't many interesting events to be had, outside of an epic finale, and the death of a major character.

I figured that each subsequent game in the series would be better and more polished. Garten of Banban VII however felt a bit of a mess. It felt like it was too ambitious for its own good, the amount of times I encountered invisible walls during my playthrough was ridiculous, and those moments of absolute frustration really hampered my enjoyment. This was ok, but really lacked the quality of the last few games.

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Portrait of God (2022) - Short Horror Film Review

noreply@blogger.com (RZ) — Mon, 16 Mar 2026 02:51:00 +0000

I was idling on the back porch of my aunt and uncle's remote house when I happened across a Reddit post about really messed up films. Needless to say, the ones I checked out didn't live up to the expectations placed on them, but they were still entertaining to watch. The first of these was the Dylan Clark (Transfigure, Home Movies) written and directed Portrait of God. It seems that a feature length version of this short is currently in production.

A devoutly religious teenage girl; Mia (Sydney Brumfield - Blood Star) is practising a power point presentation about a painting supposedly of God, that only certain people who look at it are able to see the hidden image, and which gives those people a feeling of having seen the divine. After her first practice run she goes through her presentation again, but this time, when she gets to the slide that shows a photo of the painting, she notices that where before there was just a black canvas, she can now spot something lurking in the darkness.

Set across seven minutes, this certainly started off effectively. The second half of this mostly takes place within a black void, assuming this is meant to represent the black painting. This part while still good, didn't feel like it quite worked as well as the initial section set in the girl's home. I did appreciate the somewhat open ended finish to this, a nice ending shot. Both the special effects and the creature design were good, but I couldn't help but feel this should have felt more unsettling than it actually was.

I loved the central idea for Portrait of God and as a short horror it excelled at not following the tired format that so many short horrors go for, not a jump scare to be found thankfully. A solid performance from the lead, and I can see how this could be lengthened out for a feature length adaptation. Portrait of God can be viewed on YouTube.

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NFT: Cursed Images (2026) - Horror Film Review

noreply@blogger.com (RZ) — Fri, 13 Mar 2026 08:41:00 +0000

A film about haunted NFTs feels like its lost its moment already. I seem to recall a year or so back NFTs (none fungible tokens or something I believe it stands for, basically digital images that are all unique and can be traded) were briefly popular. They seemed to be only for rich douche-bags, who would spend ridiculous amounts of money to buy them. NFT: Cursed Images was written and directed by Jonas Odenheimer (Classroom 6). This crypto-horror had some good ideas, but ultimately it had a lot of wasted potential.

James (David Wayman - After Death) has recently returned to London and has gone for a meet up with his old friends at the home of Kit (Patrick Shearer - Perception). The other friends are nerdy Dan (Durassie Kiangangu - Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania), James' ex; Cass (Mariah Nonnemacher - Terminator: Dark Fate), couple, Nes (Nobuse Jnr - The Group) & Julia (Jasmine Clark), and finally, tomboy Sarah (Amelie Edwards). While the group are enthusiastically deep in discussion about NFTs, Kit is mysteriously sent seven by someone unknown. These seven are part of a collection called 'Crypto Horror', which urban legend states to be cursed NFTs capable of killing people. Thinking nothing of it, Kit sends each of his friends their own one as a joke. The late night gathering ends and the friends go their separate ways, unaware that they are going to be haunted by their own personal NFT they were sent.

I don't know what it is about modern horror films being obsessed with having the most unlikeable protagonists, and this is a trap that NFT: Cursed Images falls into. My hatred for these idiots started early on when a painfully slow near fifteen minute sequence plays out where the characters drone on inanely about just what NFTs are. Characters then spend the rest of the movie making bad decision after bad decision as each inevitably come face to face with their personalised NFT demon. It becomes a bit of a farce with all the characters trying to locate one another, constantly acting very surprised when people aren't answering their phones. I mean, it's the middle of the night, it's hardly surprising no one is answering calls, if they were normal people they would be fast asleep! There wasn't a single likeable character to be found. You have the insufferable one who refuses to believe anything strange is going on, cowardly ones, selfish ones, and then the one person who seems to know what is going on fails due to his bizarre pick and choose in his research for how to defeat each of the seven! Basically, the plot of the movie couldn't have happened to a bigger set of morons.
The one interesting thing in terms of pacing is that despite being set over one night, there are constant small time skips backwards and forwards to accommodate the different characters going through their own mini-plots.

The biggest missed potential came from the seven demons haunting the group. Each one had its own unique look and design, from conjoined twins to a figure with an upside down face; these white skinned monstrosities were actually pretty neat, and unique to each other in a way that reminded me of Thir13en Ghosts. It was a shame that none of these appearances ever led to anything interesting happening. Each time the character would come face to face with their NFT demon and then the scene would end, before anything happened on screen. I loved the demon designs but I wish they had featured more heavily than here, where they were on screen roughly for about two minutes of this 75 minute horror.

NFT: Cursed Images had potential for sure. A bigger focus on the scenes of horror and more tension would have been better than annoying characters wandering around the streets. If you insist on populating the movie with idiots, then at least give them satisfying on-screen deaths. A lacking story and unsatisfactory plot path led to this all feeling a little pointless; much like NFTs themselves. NFT: Cursed Images came to steaming on Digital HD on March 6th.

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The Rotting Zombie's News Anthology for Thursday 11th March 2026

noreply@blogger.com (RZ) — Thu, 12 Mar 2026 00:10:00 +0000

Currently in Australia, it has been a good time for my blog. Without the million distractions at The Rotting Zombie HQ, I am able to properly focus, even if the initial trip temporarily broke my laptop (darn loose connections!). My inbox is fit to bursting with news, so I shall release the valve for a second and drip out three news stories of terror.

Romantic horror film, Nuptials had its Digital debut on North American VOD platforms on February 13th, and came to DVD on February 17th. This sees a young couple on their honeymoon trapped in their bridal suite by a sinister presence, and slowly seduced to violence. This was written and directed by Sean Braune and features Ariana Marquis, Kevin McPherson, Annie Stone, and Denis Davicino.

Independent horror streaming platform; Screamify have announced Game Night - a 24-episode horror series to be released under its Micro Horrors initiative. Written and directed by Trent Duncan, this sees four friends who gather to play a mysterious board game titled 'Survive the Slasher'. After rolling the dice, they are transported into a real life version of the game, where armed with three lives each, they must survive deadly traps and avoid the slasher, all while trying to win the game if they want to survive. Micro Horrors are designed for mobile phone users, with vertically shot designed for immersive viewing.

Finally for today, Bitter Souls is now available on Amazon Prime Video and Tubi. This Tom Ryan (Theatre of Terror) directed voodoo horror sees a grieving boyfriend unable to deal with the brutal murder of his girlfriend. With the aid of a priest and a voodoo priestess, they set out to rescue the murdered girl's soul, coming to learn that bringing someone back from the dead comes with a terrible price.

Mamochka (2026) - Horror Film Review

noreply@blogger.com (RZ) — Wed, 11 Mar 2026 05:38:00 +0000

Horror film Mamochka has a weird title (translates as Mammy), so it is fitting that it has a vibe that reflects that weirdness. Directed and written by Vilan Trub (The Dirty Kind), this psychological horror doesn't make an effort to make a lot of sense and is all the better for it.

After her detestable mother dies, she leaves her daughter Jane (Maya Murphy - Rosewater) a china doll that has been in the family for generations. This begins a series of strange events for the family. First, young son Brian (Stanley Trub) has an odd altercation with teenage babysitter Sarah (Sadie Stone in her film debut), and then it is the turn of husband Mark (Alexander Kollar - Kids Get Dead 2: The Kids Get Deader). Wanting to know more about the doll (specifically if it is worth anything to sell), Mark takes it to a doll expert who informs him that it is a 'Nazi' doll; a doll that was made in a German factory during World War II and may well have used the hair of a concentration camp victim in its creation. This leads the man down a rabbit hole into the history of the Nazi party. This causes him to get more sympathetic towards the Nazi ideology, and increasingly protective of the creepy doll.

With the feeling of an indie David Lynch film, Mamochka was odd to say the least. It is never entirely clear what is real and what isn't. Early on for instance, a whole day plays out for Mark, only for him to wake up in bed and realise it was all a dream. He then goes about his day that plays very similarly to what he had already experienced. This follows on from a black and white nightmare sequence where he discovers a cackling naked old woman in his kitchen! Characters appear who may not actually exist (standout being Dino Castelli - Jim Haggerty's Unnatural Causes). There are scenes of horror that end before their resolution and a very bizarre ending that leaves large swaths of the story unresolved.

Mamochka is never scary but it does carry with it a strange surreal vibe with events playing out using dream logic. Mark was fine as the protagonist, but I didn't really like or dislike him. I thought Castelli played the standout character here, seeming to be the physical manifestation of the doll's evil. Scenes were well shot, leading to some tense moments, and I thought the inclusion of classical music fitted the strange vibe well. The doll itself is a static object rather than something that is running around causing mischief. This works though, with it seeming to have a sphere of influence that is able to forever change anyone who enters the zone.

If you come to this weird horror expecting a cohesive story then it may leave you frustrated. It has the feel of a half remembered dream where it is not so much about the story, but about the atmosphere. As will be evident with this review (not one of my best!), I may have struggled to understand the intention of this horror, but this created a tone and feeling that at the very least will have you thinking. Mamochka opened the Horror-on-Sea Film Festival in the UK on January 16th and had a limited VOD release on January 27th. It is currently available on Amazon Prime in the US and UK.

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Zombie Maelstrom (2014) by Bryan Cassiday - Horror Book Review

noreply@blogger.com (RZ) — Tue, 10 Mar 2026 03:56:00 +0000

Bryan Cassiday's Zombie Apocalypse: The Chad Halverson Series is one of the most action packed zombie sagas I have read to date. I've so far approached the series in a strange order. Starting with book 7 - Cutthroat Express, before heading to book 6; Horde, and then late last year reading the latest novel, book 8 - Purge. Following on from that latest review, the author asked if I wanted to see where it all began, and sent me the first book, 2014's Zombie Maelstrom. After a two day speed run (for me anyway who is typically a very slow reader!), I have finished this first book, and it did not disappoint.

The world is in a bit of a state, there have been multiple reports of a strange new virus coming out of China which is able to reanimate the dead and has started to spread around the world. A lot of those details have been kept secret, though as a CIA agent, Chad Halverson has been briefed on those. The deadly virus has yet to reach the U.S.A and it is hoped that will long continue. After his brother, Dan, is involved in a serious car accident, Chad is enroute to L.A via plane to visit him. As the plane nears the L.A airport, the crew and passengers alike notice a strange yellow smog covering the whole area. The pilot informs the 200 passengers that he has been unable to raise the tower, and that he is going to have to perform an emergency landing without their help. Landing mostly intact, everyone evacuates the plane only to be surprised there is no help awaiting them on the runway, in fact, the entire area appears deserted, as much as can be made out in the thick smog. Taking charge, the captain, Roger, leads the group to the terminal, noticing that something bad seems to be going on in the air traffic control tower. Fearing a terrorist attack is responsible for the airport being deserted, Roger leads a group of armed volunteers to the tower. It is here the terrible discovery is made; the virus has reached America, and the airport, and at least L.A has become infested with the walking dead.

Cassiday's series is always insane with crazy event after crazy event forever tying to one-up themselves. It isn't much of a surprise then to see the novel pretty much open with the plane's emergency landing. It was cool to see that even from the very first pages, this series was firing on all cylinders. From the first page to the last, the action virtually never lets up. For me, it was neat to see Halverson (however briefly) operating in a world before the apocalypse had began. The smog obscuring everything made a great introduction to readers and characters alike to the dead new world. It is actually 40 pages before the first zombie is seen on page, and from this point their inclusion is relentless, barely a page going by without more of the rotting rotters trying to feast on the hapless protagonists flesh.

The story here is simple, with the events of the nearly 300 page novel taking place over just a day or two, as it charts the destruction of the 200 strong cast until it is just a handful of survivors. The novel is roughly split into three sections, the initial discovery at the airport, a doomed siege at a nearby restaurant, and then the road trip to try and escape the overrun city.
The undead are an insatiable constant threat, driven wild with blood-lust, traditional George Romero type ghouls who are slow moving and can only be stopped by destroying the brain. Chad is as awesome a protagonist as ever, even at this early stage he took to zombie killing like a fish to water, and a good portrayal of his internal struggles as he is made to deal with hard situations, such as not knowing for sure if someone bitten will definitely become a ghoul.
Roger, Tom, Rosie, and Mildred among others never had too much to them, Roger's gradual crumbling under pressure of being in charge was shown well, and detestable bank manager Lemens was fun to hate.
The plot is carried along by 51 short and snappy chapters, often ending on a mini cliffhanger designed to keep you reading on. Many of these chapters ended in the same way, often with the arrival of more zombies, or the sound of panic from off-page. The third act ramps up the action for a chaotic finale, even if it did seem a bit odd how quickly a self made militia rose up and claimed L.A for themselves!

It may just be constant undead battling from beginning to end, but I often struggled to be able to put Zombie Maelstrom down. I was hooked following Chad and the other survivors journey, and seeing what crazy event would happen next. A blistering start to Bryan Cassiday's Chad Halverson series - blood soaked popcorn for the brain.

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