And the Night Did Claim Them (2022) by Duncan P. Bradshaw - Horror Novella Review

Horror author Duncan P. Bradshaw is most known for his comedy horror novels, such as Don't Smell The Flowers! They Want To Steal Your Bones! and Mr. Sucky, but he has occasionally branched out into more serious horror. I had read his serious short story Q&A in the Trapped Within horror anthology but I have to admit that didn't really stick around in the mind. And the Night Did Claim Them is a ninety nine page horror novella that was apparently inspired by an image the author had brought, originally intending to use the image as the cover for a book about zombies and voodoo. I started reading the novella during the height of my second Covid infection and didn't get too far into it due to feeling rotten. I subsequently then read the book within two lunch breaks at my day job, and have to say I loved it.

The novella is written from a first person perspective of a barman as he works a shift in a local bar on a seemingly normal night. Hoping for an early finish, he instead learns that his boss has ok'd a lock-in, much to the barman's annoyance. At some point the relative tranquillity of another dull monotonous night at work is broken when he discovers that all doesn't appear right outside the pub. Inexplicably, the pub appears to exist within a black void, with there not being an 'outside' so to speak. The barman discovers that anyone who leaves the pub is swiftly and violently killed by an unknown force, something which bizarrely doesn't faze the regular bar flies. The only person who appears to have some clue as to what is happening is a mysterious stranger called Simon, who tells the barman that everyone there is fated to die, but that for some reason it is the barman with the power to decide in which order their lives are to end.

I really liked the idea for the story, I was expecting something grim, but I can't say I had expected a story that would captivate me so much. The mystery of what is happening is what kept me glued. There is of course a huge reveal as to the horror, but this actually came around two thirds into the story rather than as a final twist and revelation. It is an idea that has been done in horror plenty of times before, weirdly, it is the video game The Dark Pictures Presents: Switchback VR that most sprung to mind. There is a grotesque feeling at times due to all the characters with the exception of the barman being completely unfazed by the growing body count, the highlight of this being one character who is propelled violently back into the pub once he leaves, with his broken body jumbled up with the innards of a now broken jukebox, but despite being very visible, everyone carries on as normal.
Over the course of the novella we most come to know the barman, with him thinking back on past memories of what he deemed a wasted existence. The small number of bar patrons personalities are mainly shown from his perspective, but later developments reveal hidden depths to these characters. There was some neat development that nullifies the initial stereotypes you are presented with. While this is a serious novella, Bradshaw's humour shines through in dialogue characters have with each other. You could argue it is a slight cop-out having a character who exists mainly to be able to explain what is going on to the reader, but I liked the character of Simon, and in this context some sort of explanation was more satisfying than if it had all been left to the reader to piece together.

The horror stays once it first appears, and the shorter length meant that this horror could be sustained. A novella was the perfect length, I think with a short story I would have wanted more, while I'm not convinced this would have worked as a full length novel. It was all written in an engaging way, with characters dialogue feeling believable, even with the unfolding insanity.

And the Night Did Claim Them was a novella that I enjoyed far more than I expected to, I'm not sure why my expectations was muted, perhaps due to only really knowing that the author excels with his comedy horror books. I should not of feared though, as this was a neat well written horror that had me struggling to put this down.

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Silent Hill: Ascension (2023-24) - Horror Video Game/Show Review

Silent Hill is one of my favourite video game franchises, so the announcement of several new projects last year was music to my ears. Silent Hill: Ascension was the first of these to materialise and at first sounded intriguing. This is a blend of show and game, though more truthfully it is a show that allows somewhat limited interaction from viewers to shape the direction the story heads in via constant voting on story decisions characters can make. Think Until Dawn, but rather than controlling things yourself, it is a much more hands-off experience.

I spoke plenty about Ascension back in November when it first launched. After seemingly decades and decades (but in actuality around six months including a break for Christmas), it has all came to an end. To begin with there were seven shows a week, each day bringing with it three episodes, typically between a minute and three minutes in length. This was swiftly changed to be five times a week instead. Due to the small length of the episodes, as well as two separate storylines going on, it was easy to forget what was happening. There was a battle pass released for this, but it was pointless, even not purchasing it you are constantly unlocking pointless junk such as stickers and banners for use within the profile page and chat screen.

The show is split between two different locations. In a small rural town in Finland, the death of a cruel matriarch of a locally despised family sets off a chain of events that sees the real world being invaded by the 'Otherworld', a nightmare realm where monsters roam. Astrid and her family become the focal point for this invasion, with events escalating when her young son Orson goes missing. Meanwhile, on the other side of the planet in a small town in Pennsylvania, the Otherworld is also bleeding into reality, here, it is believed to be the result of a failed ritual performed by a cult who worship the denizens of that realm. Events too escalate with the disappearance of a child, in this case, Faith, the young daughter of Rachel, a high ranking cult member.

This show seemed to go on eternally, and to my credit I didn't miss a single episode. Apparently you could watch the show live (very early morning in the UK), and could influence decisions live, yet the one time I stayed up late to try this, I was unable to work out how to actually join it. I voted on all decisions, but these often felt like choices made wouldn't really affect things much. The show is done using computer imagery, with stiff stilted animations that never looked spectacular. The one area the show does get right is the monster designs, the monsters always looked great thankfully, with both storylines featuring their own key antagonist monster. 

For a long time I thought that the story was being performed by A.I, due to the clunky dialogue and frequent wooden acting. It turns out there were actual voice actors used, and while some of these were good, they couldn't save what was a meandering and unexciting story. Probably due to the short episode lengths, but this seemed to drag on and on painfully slowly. There were some neat elements to the story, and I did like the idea of showing a Silent Hill type story from when the horror begins, rather than characters arriving in an already doomed location. The story was all so unsatisfying, I read a comment on Reddit stating that the America storyline should have been dumped, to focus on the more engaging Finland based one, and I have to agree. The stories are almost carbon copies of each other in some respects (such as the missing children), but the Finland one in general was more interesting. There are some fun moments, such as when characters from the separate stories discover each other while in the Otherworld, but the long winded story often failed to maintain any sort of momentum.

Even as a huge fan of Silent Hill, I cannot recommend this. It felt like a bit of a disaster from the beginning, and it seemed to suffer a long, long death, when it might have been more compassionate to pull the plug as soon as it was obvious how terrible this all mostly was. The show is finished now, and it is free to watch, so if you have a spare ten or so hours spare, and the desire to watch about a million short episodes then knock yourself out. There are far better ways to spend your time however, so Silent Hill: Ascension isn't something I would recommend, decent enough soundtrack though.

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The Rotting Zombie's Round-up of Horror News for April 2024

Once again another month has passed. After a visit to London to see Stranger Things: The First Shadow I picked up Covid for the second time. I'm over that now, but still quite weak and have a incessant cough, so am not back up to full form. I shall  do my best however! On the video game side of things I am currently playing Diablo IV and Dead Island 2, both great games, and both shall be getting reviews once I'm done with them. I am also currently watching the Fallout TV show, so far it is most impressive, again, a review of that will be coming in the future.

Released back on 27th February by Bayview Entertainment was Alien Top 20: Mind Bending UFO Encounters, a documentary surprisingly about UFOs and aliens. Directed by Charles Thompsen and written by O.H Krill, this looks at a series of encounters across the globe.

Showtown American Pictures and Cannon Fire Productions have announced that Candyman (2021) actor Michael Hargrove is to join Avaryana Rose in the Tom Ryan (Return to Theatre of Terror) directed Bitter Souls. The film is about a teenage girl resurrected after a tragic accident via black magic. After coming back from the beyond, she decides to use her new found powers to get revenge against her tormentors. Bitter Souls is due to begin production in Carbondale and Scranton Pennsylvania in June later this year.

Freestyle Digital Media released Southern Gothic psychological drama The Desiring in March on Digital for North American VOD platforms and DVD. This film follows Richard whose life changes when he discovers his wife is having an affair. Richard finds himself drawn to the affair and begins to secretly watch it play out. This begins to bring up memories from his past about his spiritually fanatic father whose desire for 'something more' led to his suicide.

Another horror making use of the Winnie the Pooh licence falling into public domain is Piglet. Described as a mix between Winnie the Pooh and The Texas Chainsaw Massacre (!), this comes from SpookHouse MediaWorks and Strange Film Studios, directed by August Aguilar. Set in the Appalachian hills, this is about a recluse named Piglet, whose peach is ruined when a group of millennials seeking fame turn up on his remote land. After they kill Piglet's pet pig as part of an exploitative YouTube video they are making, Piglet decides to violently kill the trespassers off one by one.

Summoners is a new horror film from director Terence Krey (An Unquiet Grave). Released on digital VOD platforms back in February, this stars Christine Nyland (An Unquiet Grave), McLean Peterson (Jessica Jones), Larry Fessenden (Habit), Margaret Reed (Magic in Mount Holly) and Madeline Grey DeFreece (Tahara). The film is about a former witch who returns to the craft after her childhood friend requests her help to perform a dark spell.. Summoners is out on Tubi, Prime Video (TVOD), Movie Central (YouTube) and Watch Free Flix.

Splatter film Gorerot is currently filming, with funding available with associated perks via heading to the website here. There isn't much of a description of what this will be about, though the press release states the film (formally known as Illusions of A Sky Tyrant) will provide '....a blood soaked journey through a kaleidoscope of terror. From savage gore to visceral torture, from cannibalistic horrors to the creepy experimental visuals, every segment promises to plunge you deeper into the abyss of guts, gore and more'.

Arena Wars is to release in June from Gravitas Ventures. This sci-fi action film takes place in 2045, where convicted criminals are given the opportunity to gain their freedom, should they survive popular televised sporting event 'Arena Wars'. The goal is simple, to survive seven rooms, each of which features a vicious killer. I love the idea of films like this, so may well be something worth checking out. Arena Wars is to star Michael Madsen, Robert LaSardo, Eric Roberts and John Wells.

Werewolf Serenade has released an official trailer. This werewolf themed indie comedy horror has its film festival debut at the tenth annual AVFest at 9pm on May 4th, tickets of which can be purchased here. Directed by writer/director Daedalus Howell (Pill Head), this is about a film professor who is tasked with completing the research project of a man who has recently turned up dead. The professor is unaware the research will bring him into contact with an evil occultist that will change his life.

Finally for today, Subject 101 is a horror-thriller about Syrian refugees. The film follows a homeless refugee looking to start over at a European multinational temp agency. The titular 101 (Cem-Ali Gültekin) begins to get misgivings when he finds his apartment is in a terrible state, while the jobs he are given are questionable to say the least. Written and directed by Tom Bewilogua, this 'nightmarish dystopian tale' was released on March 19th in the U.S on VOD platforms and DVD.

Mickey Mouse (2024) - Short Horror Film Review

Still recovering from Covid I decided to have a more chilled blog weekend this time around. The sole feature length film I planned to watch it turns out I had already reviewed last year (Pandemonium), so decided to be lazy and head to YouTube to pick a random short horror film. With Steamboat Willie era Mickey Mouse falling into public domain recently, I just had to check out the four minute horror Mickey Mouse, to see what they would do with it.

Camille (Erin Sunisa - The Nun) is home alone late one night watching a YouTube video that asks its viewers to do the 'Mickey Mouse Challenge'. Basically, if you whistle the same tune that Mickey whistles in Steamboat Willie after midnight then something spooky is meant to happen. She does it, but is unsurprised that nothing appears to happen, so she decides to go and take a bath. Little does she now that there is now a mouse themed intruder who has appeared in the house...

Prolific and somewhat idea devoid short film maker Alex Magaña (Grimace Shake, Serbian Dancing Lady) is behind this one, and like many others, he has a decent idea but appears unable to reach a satisfying conclusion. This follows a familiar format, with the protagonist having summoned something, but just about oblivious to the fact. The antagonist (Kaylie Cho) looks great in the Mickey Mouse costume, pretty freaky, the only issue is that this person doesn't actually do much other than loom around. It leads to some nice shots, but also leads up to an underwhelming and abrupt end that had me yearning for bloodshed of some type. Still, I liked the use of clips from Steamboat Willie, I think it's pretty fun that all these iconic things are slowly dripping into the public domain. Check out Mickey Mouse for yourself, at four minutes long it is worth a watch.

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Bark (2020) - Short Comedy Horror Film Review

While it may have its problems, Bark is still one of the most original short comedy horror films I have seen for a good while. Directed and written by Ryan Irving, this has a ridiculous premise but one that really stood out. I'm still in the throes of my second Covid infection, with today's symptoms having me feel a little tripped out, fitting I guess seeing as how this is 04/20 at the time of typing!

Bark is a black and white comedic horror film that is told from the perspective of a tree (voiced by Irving). The tree laments how he never gets anything exciting happening by him, with people often gravitating to his neighbour Carl the bush. The tree soon gets his wish in the worst way possible however when an axe wielding masked maniac appears chasing a girl, the chase leading the pair right up to him.

It seems a bit strange to say, but the six minute long Bark gets off to a bit of a slow start. For the first minute and a half it is just the tree talking with not much going on apart from different shots of the tree and surrounding area. I thought maybe it was just pure surrealism that was going for, rather than incorporating horror. Of course that all changes with the arrival of the masked madman. Some parts of the comedy here I thought worked really well, I loved the recurring joke of seeing things from Carl's perspective where some type of obnoxiously loud house music is playing constantly. Other parts were not so good, a branch that gets broken off of the tree gets its own voice that had no funny dialogue for instance.

I thought Bark was an original feeling idea, it might not always land with its jokes, but I enjoyed the premise, and the humour did occasionally land. Bark is currently available to stream on the ARROW streaming subscription service.

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Escape Dead Island (2014) - Horror Video Game Review (Playstation 3)

With Dead Island 2 going onto Xbox Game Pass a few months back I thought it was about time I got myself up to date with the Dead Island series. At the start of this month I finished up my playthrough of Dead Island: Riptide, the stand alone expansion to the first game, and earlier today (at time of typing) I brute forced my way through the third game in the series, Escape Dead Island. I had always thought this game was a prequel to the others, but it turns out the majority of the plot takes place some months after the events of the first two games. Not that any of this really matters however, as it is accepted almost everywhere that what happens here is non-canonical.

After a prologue mission set two days before the zombie outbreak on Banoi (where Dead Island was set), the action moves forward six months later. Wannabe journalist Cliff Calo (voiced by Joseph May - Blair Witch video game, Horizon Zero Dawn video game) has convinced his two friends, Linda (Jules de Jongh - Dead Nation video game) and Devan (Ako Mitchell - Dead Island 2 video game) to help him investigate what really happened on Banoi, with official reports stating the island is off-limits due to a terrible tropical storm. Rather than try and get to that island, the three have used a boat that Cliff stole from his broadcasting executive father to travel to the nearby Narapela island, which Cliff believes will contain information explaining what has happened on that other island. After their boat sinks, they have no option but to head inland, but are surprised to find the place seemingly deserted. Upon discovering a mass grave they encounter dead bodies returning to life, and in the chaos Linda is bitten by a zombie. With Devan looking after Linda, Cliff heads deeper into the island to look for help, and along the way he meets Xian Mei (one of the protagonists of the first two games) who tells the man that inside a secret Geopharm lab there may be a cure for the zombie virus that Linda is now infected with.

Rather than a realistic open world first person adventure game heavily reliant on battling the undead, Escape Dead Island is instead a third person cel-shaded somewhat linear adventure where stealth is encouraged as much as all out combat. I had to dig out my old Playstation 3 to play this, and I was swiftly reminded how terrible the analogue sticks were on the controller for that. While you get access to both a pistol and a shotgun, I found the analogue so twitchy that I preferred where possible to just engage in melee combat. For the first third of the game things were very difficult, Cliff seems only to be able to take one or two hits before dropping down dead, and the weapons seemed very weak. You have irritating acid spitting enemies who sometimes are able to spit acid straight through solid walls, and you often find yourself being swarmed by enemies and reduced to nothing in a heartbeat. I did like that all zombies can be stealth killed in a single hit should you sneak up behind them, even the super zombies like acid spitters, clawed and screaming undead can be dispatched that way. Frustratingly, the same can be done for you, with the most basic zombie being able to grab onto you from behind. This initiates a quick time event that nine times out of ten I wasn't able to complete before I died.

It is relatively generous with check points, but it had the annoying old school way of having check points just before unskippable cutscenes. There was one fifteen second long cutscene in one of the more combat heavy areas near games end that I must have had to watch some fifty to sixty times, often my actual playtime being a few seconds in length before dying, extremely frustrating!

The cel-shaded look grew on me, though there was lots of clipping and bad draw distance. The more cartoon like look didn't reduce the bloodshed, with zombies often losing limbs and heads quite easily. I thought the story had the potential to be really interesting. Playing as Cliff you are given an unreliable perspective on what is really happening. As the game progresses events get more and more surreal, from conversing with dead people over the radio, to huge shipping containers dropping from the sky, being teleported to different places and having several of the ten chapters turning out to be dream sequences. While I pieced together what likely really occurred, this wasn't a satisfying story, with it left up to you to work things out rather than really explain all the weirdness.

I wanted to like Escape Dead Island, but the clunky controls often left me shouting with anger, there shouldn't be a second or two delay when switching weapons, and the reload animation was far too long for guns. The last quarter of the game devolves into a series of combat arenas, and with combat being the least fun part of the game this caused a real fall in quality. The story got in the way here, with even the game's antagonist creature being battled within a dream sequence rather than in 'reality'. By the time the end credits rolled I was glad to see the back of it to be honest. There are some good parts here, I enjoyed the slight Metroidvania way that Cliff gets access to different items that allows him to explore hidden areas (such as a gas mask to get through poison filled rooms and a grappling hook to reach out of the way areas), and the graphics did grow on me. Still, with Escape Dead Island apparently being non-canon anyway, I am very convinced I will never play this game again in my lifetime.

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Meat Friend (2022) - Short Comedy Horror Film Review

Meat Friend is an eight minute long comedy horror film that has won four awards. Directed and co-written by Izzy Lee (The Obliteration of the Chickens), this is a ridiculous premise, with this ridiculousness played very heavily into. I'm typing this review while probably inflicted with my second bout of Covid (it turns out it was), so apologies if this seems badly written as I feel God awful!

Young Billie (Marnie McKendry - Tales of Halloween segment 'Trick') is surprised to discover that after trying to cook some hamburger meat in the microwave it has taken on a sentient form. This small creature (voiced by Steve Johanson - My Monster) tells the girl it is named Meat Friend and that it is going to offer her some life lessons. Meat Friend does not appear to be a good person however, and appears to have a bit of the criminal about it.

Meat Friend is set-out like a children's TV show and felt like a horror take on Sesame Street. There are only the three characters to be found here, with Megan Duffy (Holidays segment 'New Year's') rounding out the cast as Billie's mom. The titular creature is represented as a puppet, and one that has minimal movement, only really able to open its large mouth slightly. This amateur design is purposeful however, with that playing into the comedy. From the moment it begins to tell Billie the importance of making a shiv for dealing with snitches it became clear it was a bit of degenerate. Throughout the short it is shown snorting drugs off a table, swearing, and trying to get Billie to partake in crimes. I loved its deep voice, the recurring joke of it referring to Billie as 'Children' (as if it were speaking to an audience) and I thought it was fun that it appears to be an imaginary friend due to the mom not being able to see it.
I liked how this ended, but I did feel that the creature could have been more of a threat to the child than it actually was, and the lack of much special effects did make some scenes not work as well as they could have done.

It might not set the world on fire, but I thought Meat Friend was entertaining for what it was. While not laugh out loud funny there were plenty of moments I found humorous, and the small cast were decent enough. Meat Friend is currently available to watch on the ARROW streaming subscription service.

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Poor Agnes (2017) - Horror Film Review

Directed by Navin Ramaswaran and written by James Gordon Ross, Poor Agnes is a film about a serial killer with a slight different feel to the norm. I watched this for review while off work sick from my day job with a bad cold (which turned out to be my second Covid infection in the end), so I'm sure that had a slight part to play in my muted interest in this horror, though that was more due to having zero likeable characters at all to be found.

Michael Mercer (Robert Notman - In Its Wake) is a private detective investigating the disappearance of a man from ten years back. It is assumed the man is dead, but his family are insistent on finding out the truth of what happened to him. Following a lead, Michael tracks down Agnes Poelzl (Lora Burke - Motherly), a former friend of the missing man. He feels an attraction for the woman and ends up seducing her, or so he thinks. She soon reveals herself to be a cold blooded serial killer who swiftly drugs Michael, with him waking up to discover he is a prisoner of hers. While she would normally kill her victim, she finds herself being drawn to the man, who in turn, over a period of many months gets brainwashed into being her mostly obedient slave, clearly suffering Stockholm syndrome.

I disliked both the protagonist characters, and with the film focussing on them so much this became a problem. First is Agnes, a narcissistic, man hating edge lord (edge lady?) who believes that she is the most interesting person in the whole world. I found this character to be insufferable, where things could have taken a Dexter route with her being someone with good qualities, she doesn't have any. She is obsessed with her own self importance and has an irritating self righteous outlook the entire movie. One reason I didn't get on with Poor Agnes is that I couldn't shake the feeling that things would end up fine with this terrible character, the vibe of the film was between the twisted relationship between her and Michael, but this doesn't achieve that magic that films like Natural Born Killers achieved.
My reasons for disliking the character of Michael is not a fair one. Basically, Notman strongly resembles Andy Samberg, and I couldn't take him seriously as a result. All I saw when looking at him was Jack Peralta from police sitcom Brooklyn Nine-Nine, so I couldn't help but expect comedy constantly. As to the actual character, he doesn't have much to him outside of being brainwashed, there are moments when he develops a slight backbone, but he is a pathetic snivelling character who seemed too far gone to be redeemed.

While much of the film is conversations between captor and victim, there are some moments of action, with some decent looking special effects, especially one involving an axe. The majority of the film takes place within Agnes' home, but there are little subplots that show what the sociopath gets up to when she is outside the house, particularly with her relationship with I.T geek Christopher Thomas (Will Conlon - American Gods TV series). There are definite darkly humorous moments, but again, going back to disliking the cast, I wasn't really into those parts either.

Poor Agnes is another horror of recent years that really could have done with having a likeable character. Instead, these flawed, annoying and ultimately dull people are played well by the chosen actors, but the feeling of the film left me feeling cold and disinterested, just waiting for it to finish. 

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Keith (2021) - Short Horror Film Review

The three minute short horror film Keith (written and directed by Alex Baró Cayetano) is currently available to watch on ARROW, the streaming subscription service. It does have some moments of horror, but the overall feel was more comedic than scary.

One night a young girl (Mia Hemerling) is startled to discover a monster under her bed (voiced by Bear Winter-Perreau). This unseen creature however just wants to talk, stating that while he is a monster he wishes the girl no harm, even revealing his true name of Keith. The girl may apparently have nothing to fear, but the monster has still arrived in the room in order to scare someone.

I wasn't sure about Keith for a lot of the running time. Under three minutes long, this mostly takes place with the girl huddled under a bedsheet while she talks to the unseen creature. The comedy comes from how down to earth Keith is, talking about how his parents wanted him to be a dentist and not a monster and other such silly things. The voice of the creature had distortion to it, but it sounded friendly. Thankfully, this pulls itself together for the ending, that did give me a slight chill when it happened. I do like it when short films manage to create an effective finish.

While a bit too talky, I think it was the correct decision not to show the creature under the bed, and I also thought it was wise how this ended. Aside from that finish though there wasn't much horror here to be found, but Keith was still enjoyable enough.

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Stranger Things: The First Shadow (2024) - Horror Play Review

With the comedic horror parody musical Stranger Sings last month still fresh in my mind I needed a palette cleanser. That luckily was to come in the form of Stranger Things: The First Shadow, an award winning play that was not only canonical to the TV series whose universe it takes place in, but was  based on an original story written by the Duffer Brothers, (alongside Jack Thorne and Kate Trefry), with Trefry writing the play. I watched the 13:00 showing in London on April 14th, I wasn't sure what to expect, but I was blown away somewhat by the amazing special effects used. With the show working as an origin story of sorts for the antagonist of season four of Stranger Things there are doubtless spoilers from that show contained here.
On a side note, I brought a Stranger Things mug, but it turns out that wasn't the only thing I brought back from London as I also picked up Covid for the second time and currently feel awful!

The majority of the two and a quarter hour show is set in 1959 in the town of Hawkins, in which a series of sadistic pet killings around the town have started happening. While the police think it is the work of a wild animal, some of the teenagers believe it is a person responsible. In particular, James Hopper Jr. (Oscar Lloyd), Joyce Maldonado (Isabella Pappas) and Bob Newby (Christopher Buckley), three high schoolers (the characters would of course come to have large roles in the TV series) who decide to take it upon themselves to try and find the killer. These killings coincide with the arrival of a new family in town, the Creels, with them having came to Hawkins to start over, due to an incident involving the strange boy Henry Creel (Michael Jinson). Unknown to most is that Henry has some strange powers, able to make dreams (or nightmares) come to life, and psychic abilities stemming from an incident in which he went missing in the Nevada desert a year previously. With much of the town having no time for the weird kid, he ends up forming a friendship with Bob's adopted sister Patty (Ella Karuna Williams) who sees his abilities as a gift, not a curse.

This was one of the most impressive stage shows I have seen, at least in terms of the amazing special effects used. With the older characters in the show not having any prior knowledge of the supernatural, the show makes effort to ensure this remains canonical, and while the trio of Hopper, Joyce and Bob take on a role similar to the kids in the TV show, their investigation not only fails, but they don't even discover the real culprit. The play is split between their goings-on and Henry's relationship with Patty. Henry always came across as real weird, but made for an enjoyable performance. The actor spoke in a similar way that The Riddler does in The Batman. Without going into too many spoilers, it gave some information on his character that I either missed or which wasn't mentioned in the series. He is a conflicted individual, with it shown that he almost has a split personality, there is the normal Henry, and then there is the supernatural being within him (that always leads to some great moments where Henry will be speaking normally before his voice becomes demonically distorted). The friendship with Patty seems to work, this is due to her backstory of feeling like an outsider herself due to being adopted and never knowing her birth parents. There were plenty of nods to the show, I loved that the parents of Nancy and Mike Wheeler show up as teens, with Ted Wheeler coming across as a super jock idiot. There are two end act zingers, with Dr Brenner (Patrick Vaill) appearing at the end of the first act, while a young Eleven appearing right at the end (the events of the play lead up to showing how Henry Creel became an orderly at Dr Brenner's institution). Act one mainly features Hawkins High School and Henry Creel's house, while act two has a lot of it set at Dr Brenner's facility.

Special effects were tremendous, as was the interesting set design. The stage had three concentric circles on it which could revolve at different times to each other, or spin in opposite directions. This was used at times to give the illusion of motion, with characters having walking and talking conversations without really moving from the spot. It was also used to give a 360 view on static scenes. There were different levels at times to the stage, with areas such as Henry Creel's attic, the command room of a boat, and the rafters in a drama room all looking more authentic due to being high up in the stage. At times a big screen comes down to cover the whole back of the stage. This is used to show the iconic red credits, display secret government documents, as well as to do drone shot flyovers of Hawkins, and to represent the dark upside down area. The upside down looked fantastic, typically introduced with two bright red horizontal bars coming down and then up again over the stage. At times a body double of Henry is used, so that he can be at once in the real world wearing a blindfold, and in the upside down interacting with characters. Occasionally cast members will appear in the audience, such as people in hazmat suits comedically examining random audience members belongings. 

I was impressed with the horror here. Being before the upside down proper the cool demogorgons only make a token appearance. There was a neat prologue set in the 1940's that featured one, and later a few are shown on TV screens in the lab. Henry being Vecna means he gets to do some of the stuff that character does. There was an impressive part when a cat flies up into the air, and then while suspended its limbs all snap with gnarly sound effects, the second act this is repeated but with a human. Obviously a dummy used both times, but I admit I didn't spot the swap between actor and dummy. There are plenty of times characters are suspended in mid air, I never once saw wires attached to the actors, so these always took my by surprise when they are suddenly psychically lifted up. There are a few jump scares, and moments of humour, and also the inclusion of blood. My favourite part was when a mouse in a cage was exploded, and another part where a test subject with a white hood over their face suddenly has blood dripping from where the eyes would be under the sheet. The very best effect comes towards the play end in which we watch a character fall from a great height, but created in slow motion, hard to describe but it looked so fantastic.

I loved Stranger Things: The First Shadow. It might not really add to much to the existing lore that hadn't been mentioned in the show itself, but it was delightful seeing such high quality special effects, and most importantly, it felt like Stranger Things despite being mainly set in the late 1950's rather than the eighties. If you get the chance to see this, it is well worth a watch, excellent stuff.

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Campton Manor (2024) - Horror Film Review

A big admission before starting this review of Campton Manor in that I often do other small admin jobs while sat in my office watching films occasionally. The task I set out to do on my second monitor ended up taking me nearly an hour, so I was only able to give this movie my full attention from that point onwards. Directed by Cat Hostick and written by Stephen Wallis, this supernatural horror told its story in an intriguing fashion, making for something that little bit more different.

Teddy (Shawn Roberts - Here for Blood, Resident Evil: The Final Chapter) is a horror author and someone who also has the special ability to both see and interact with dead people. At the behest of a mysterious client named Jack (Jason London - The Rage: Carrie 2), he is asked to visit the long derelict titular Campton Manor, a place that during a party many decades back had an unsolved mass incident in which the guests all died, seemingly of heart attacks. Together Teddy and Jack head to the mansion, where Teddy finds himself supernaturally back in time, conversing with the many ghosts of the partygoers and staff, in order to finally solve the mystery of what happened that fateful night. But things are not exactly as they may appear to be...

The meat of the film here is conversations between various characters, with a slight vibe of The Shining. Not so much the horror side of things, more conversing with people from the past who seem amused to be dead. I really liked that the majority of the characters are not only ghosts, but they seem delightfully aware of that fact. They are doomed to repeat the events of the fateful night for eternity, but seem aware they are playing out their roles time and time again. It leads to a lot of fun conversations where they state things while having a hidden twinkle in their eyes. Best of these characters was Walter Borden as the bartender and Kenneth Welsh (The Void, Survival of the Dead) as Lawrence, the owner of the mansion. It was nice to see Julian Richings (Hall, Blood Hunters) in a side role. Teddy and Jack were both decent leads, and I liked the Shutter Island style direction the plot went into for its third act, was most unexpected for me.

While there are ghosts-a-plenty, the horror is kept to a minimum, the ghosts here aren't some terrifying evil, but act more like normal people, some good, some selfish, others angry, but all acting like humans rather than monsters. The core part of the plot, discovering how everyone came to die that night, wasn't that interesting. The story became focussed on the catalyst for the terror that was to come, and when that was revealed it was very underwhelming. I did enjoy the time period, with the ghostly party taking place in the 1920's, so a real period feel to the piece. There are small moments of action, with a couple of decent enough fight scenes mixed in, and an ever present constant transition between the present day the film takes place in (I believe the 1950's) and the 1920's, which looked effective on screen.

Campton Manor was well made, and it told an enjoyable story. It may have not really hit the landing in terms of telling something completely unexpected, but the idea of having most the cast be ghosts was pretty cool. The award winning Campton Manor is set for Vudu TVOD release on May 7th.

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Terrible Things (2021) - Short Post-Apocalyptic Film Review

Terrible Things is a post-apocalyptic short horror film that is currently streaming on ARROW, the streaming subscription service. Written and directed by Ciarán Hickey (Callus), this had quality in spades, though the ten minute story did feel a little bit disjointed.

Claire J. Loy (Beyond the Woods) stars as 'The Wanderer', the sole character to be found here. In an ash chocked post-apocalyptic Ireland she wanders the wasteland doing her best to survive in the new dead world. She eventually comes face to face with what may have been part of the reason for the apocalypse.

This short looked fantastic, with Loy in a gasmask and coveralls out in the misty and ash filled landscape it all looked tremendous. After a brief external prologue, the key scene in terms of dialogue comes when she has sought refuge at an abandoned house. Her dialogue gave life to the dead world, such as when she talks about how children now want to hear fantastical stories about birdsong and being outside in the sunshine, rather than about things like fairies and unicorns. During this exchange she is talking to a burnt out corpse, which helps show the desolate loneliness her character must be feeling. Without spoiling things, the final third of this ten minute horror has her back outside, where she encounters something that looked great on camera.

The costume design and the exterior visual effects were both tremendous. It seem a bit abrupt the seamless transition from wasteland to interior, with the middle dialogue heavy part of this not really feeling that well connected to the rest. Overall though, Terrible Things had a really good look to it, and the story left me wanting to know more about this dead world.

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Protanopia (2024) - Horror Film Review

In hindsight, watching the very arty Protanopia after just three hours of sleep the night before was perhaps not the wisest decision I've made. A good indication that a film's theme and story has totally been lost on you is reading the synopsis after having watched it and not recognising anything it talks about.
A quick search of the word protanopia reveals it is a type of colour blindness in which the person is unable to perceive any 'red' light, I'm not sure how that fits into anything.
This Matthew Mahler (What Jack Built) written and directed horror may have gone completely over my head, but it did have some really stand-out aspects to it that kept me along for the ride. I will include both what I had thought the film was about, as well as what the general synopsis stated it was about in this review.

Luke's (Anthony Carey) step-sister has gone missing while under his care, and so he hasn't been able to concentrate on his job as a writer. The Detective in charge of the case (John Heerlein) starts to suspect that Luke may be involved somehow. Meanwhile, Alan (Timothy J. Cox - What Jack Built) has become the president of the local neighbourhood committee after the death of his father. Here he finds himself in conflict with Janice (Paula Mahler), a busybody woman who obviously believes she should be the president of the committee. Their first order of business is to help search for a missing woman from the next town over.
The synopsis states that after Luke's sister goes missing he begins to have dreams of a strange house. The house is owned by Alan, and he appears to take care of the property in strange and unusual ways.

This was both very indie and very art house in its style. Despite the low budget look to much of this, the editing and camera effects were both very impressive, even if they did help in adding to my confusion. There are tints of various colours applied over the film, blue, green, and indeed red tints (I guess I must not suffer from protanopia to see that!), and often the film uses an effect of characters moving in weird frames, with after images of their movements staying behind for a few seconds constantly. 
The very best part of the film was the sound design. Both sound effects, general audio, and especially the music were fantastic, most impressive. There was nothing to complain about in that regard, with the music just perfectly fitting the surreal vibe. A highlight for me was roughly halfway into the seventy five minutes movie where Luke (in what I assume is a dream sequence) encounters his missing sister singing am atmospheric song, with her face distorted.

I would say my personal biggest issue with this is that I just could not follow what on earth was happening. It seemed that Luke and Alan's stories were both taking place at the same place, though reading the synopsis afterwards it seems much of Luke's side of the film takes place within the context of a dream. It appeared that the house was perhaps sentient, either that or Alan was quite disturbed, as at several points he is shown talking to the twisted ghost of his father. The constant use of an insert shot of some type of rotting animal carcass with bugs crawling over during the first part of Alan's side of the film was a bit off putting, it wasn't really for me, but Alan himself was a strange character who was fun to see simply existing. I don't really understand where the story went, or what it was really trying to say, the IMDB tagline simply says 'A surreal horror film about greed and masculinity in American suburbia'.

On the one hand, Protanopia was quite impressive. From the somewhat basic text font used it is obvious this was low budget, but this is hidden very well with the variety of visual effects used constantly throughout. Then there is the soundtrack that was just perfect. I am hit and miss when it comes to more arty films, and as is apparent, I just could not follow what was happening here, leaving me confused, but not frustrated with the movie.

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