Successor To The Thing

Practical EFX are back in full force. You won't believe how good a monster movie can be.

Triumvir Foul Are Here

A grimy, dirty death metal sound is here with some wickedly interlaced chaos structures.

Zenescope Comics Rule

It's about time more attention was given to the female form. Sexy takes over action horror.

Shadows Of The Damned

The PS4 is awesome but this PS3 game is epic. It could make one insane horror arcade game.

Death Machine Kills

Death Machine is among the few perfect cyberpunk horror movie examples. Awesome flick.

Wayward Pines Creeps

Great show that redefines how a cyberpunk horror TV show can creep under your skin.

Latest Reviews

The Girl With No Home


This is a recent art pic I made just because I totally remember this girl from "Cyborg". I looked up pictures of the movie and this was really the only one with the right expression on her face. I didn't care for the colors because they don't match my other artistic pictures, but it grew on me. It has enhanced coloring and a cartoon-like feel to it. My only rule of thumb is if I can imagine it on my wall then I've done my job. I keep thinking back on that movie. Such a sweet, sweet homeless girl. Too bad they never slept together in the film.

As you can see my artist name on Deviantart.com is Kingofbugsandthings. I play with dead things! Some artists are better at drawing. I used to be an amazing drawing artist but after several car crashes and drug use long ago I find that drawing superbly only happens randomly, whenever it wants to happen. So I have to make like 30 crap drawings to get 1 or 2 amazing ones. Now days I do more digital art and graphic design. The thing with using older art from previous artists is sometimes some pics are only used once or twice and then never again, so an artist like me can revitalize, reinvent, and recycle some art that nobody really gave enough credit. The girl from Cyborg was young and beautiful and eager. The young ones are always horny. She stuck in my mind, either because of her cute smile or because of that incessant flashback technique used in this movie. It's an awesome movie that shows more production talent than most of the lot that show up on TV. It has lots of atmosphere too with the unique music. Amazing how such a sweet girl was homeless in a world of pirates and skeezers. "Skeezers", my word for skum dogs. She was somewhat tough though. I can't say I remember what happened to her so I might have to watch that movie again, and I've seen it a few times already. The director, Albert Pyun, brought a visionary concept to life with this film and I've since been seeking out other films by him. I think his vision made the movie what it was because without him it would never have all that dark atmosphere and inventive camera angles. I think about her character sometimes. Would have been nice to see more of her in the nude scene. Would have been nice if it developed into a sex scene too. He was hung up on a former love. Such a tough warrior should move on and find a new woman.

All you cyber horror punks can find this pic for sale as a fine art print, photograph, canvas painting, greeting card, postcard, mousepad, coaster, fridge magnet, and a mug at: kingofbugsandthings.deviantart.com

YELLOWBRICKROAD Madness Syndrome


The bizarre story of some people out on a hike gone horribly wrong due to extremely strange supernatural circumstances in a town said to have mysterious disappearances happening. Why do people always go to those towns where they've heard about bad events transpiring? I have no clue but it makes for good movie watching. This movie is so out there that you can't really classify it. Of course I can appreciate the imaginative angle that it took into unknown realms of horror never seen before. I was impressed by the freaky ending.

"YELLOWBRICKROAD" is a movie that was made as part of the Bloody Disgusting Selects series started by the site Bloody Disgusting, similar to the Fangoria Frightfest titles, or the now Fangoria Presents series. I like most of the movies in these series. This one is kind of supernatural, but more in an indescribable realm. How do you describe that? It's not ghosts or monsters or aliens. Well, it might possibly be aliens but we would never know because nothing is given away. When nothing is given away easily then it leaves the viewer to come up with their own ideas for what happened. So some hikers go into the woods to find out what happened to some people that took the same route and vanished. Is this smart thinking? Maybe not the smartest but eventually somebody will look for missing people. Where it gets bizarre and creepy is when this odd high pitch frequency is heard by random members of the group. This high pitch signal drives them mad one by one. What was the trail leading to? What could be waiting at the end? Is it alive? Is it a scientific anomaly? We will never know. I love movies like this because you can create your own theory, but some people might find that really frustrating. They try to survive long enough to get somewhere or turn back but eventually it might be too late to turn back for some of them. Do they stand a chance or are they all doomed? You will have to watch to find out. I recommend this one. I'm o.k. with ghosts and monsters but I do like seeing imaginative concepts coming out. I was half expecting psychos in the woods or something. The name implies finding a wondrous place at the end of the road, but maybe it's more of a devious lure into unimaginable horror. The ending is impossible to imagine and I dug it. What's your theory on all this?

Elfie Vs. Cannibals


"Elfie Hopkins: Cannibal Hunter" is a 2012 British horror movie that I just happened to find by dumb luck and I loved it. Gotta say Elfie was cute by the way. Cute name too. So they live in a small, dead end town, much like many we live in named Thorntree Valley, but she just calls it Thorntree. When you live in such a small town you may look for strange disturbances or happenings in your neighborhood. Almost everyone can relate to that feeling of wanting to get the hell out of the fishbowl you grew up in, and being paranoid of people there.

I can relate to that feeling of hating the small town you grew up in, haha. Elfie really needs to find something to do for fun in Thorntree so she looks for a detective style case to take on with her friend, this teen guy she knows. Together they seek to start their detective services, but how? Then something happens, new neighbors move in next door! And what strange neighbors they appear to be. They appear to be wealthy and snobby. Why would they move to Thorntree? That's what I would be wondering too. And so the mystery unfolds. Now that I think about it this vaguely reminds me of The 'Burbs. We all know that feeling, where you're wondering who lives next to you and you get those odd, paranoid thoughts. So they do indeed seem to be a normal, well adjusted family at first. I would think so too I suppose. They say they run a travel service to exotic places for 3 month trips. Right there I would highly suspicious. Why would you move from small town to small town offering exotic trips to far off destinations? Just doesn't sound legit. You know Elfie and her friend have to go snooping around to find out more like curious teens do. The characters in this movie were so vivid and out there. I enjoyed seeing such good acting from the strange family as well. Everyone in this town was Elfie's friend too so they all knew her. As you get to know this family more and more you really do start to fear for your own safety. Towards the climactic ending things really take a turn to horror and it is very welcome since I didn't know if this movie would even be gory at all. Oh but it is gory let me tell you! Can Elfie take on a family of cannibals on her own? Will she make it out alive? This is her first, and crazy, detective case!

Dead Shadows Are Alive


Dead Shadows is a cool movie about some alien lifeforms that come to earth and wreak havoc. The digital EFX in this one are pretty cool. This movie got a good amount of press when it came out. There are some well done monster EFX too, like the spider lady in the alley. It has a lot going for it for being such an oddball from left field. The plot of course leads to a wild finish that may raise more questions than it gives answers. I'm o.k. with that story telling approach though. There's a good amount of digital gore in this one for ya also.

You know we all love those kind of stories about things like meteors crashing into earth and transforming people. Call it Lovecraftian if you will. My fave part was the spider woman in the alley. As much as I liked the mutants in this movie I think they should have put a lot more. Just go over the top I say. Anyhow, this director has now become someone to keep an eye on. He has a couple more movies in the works and I'll be watching to see what he does. Me being the gorehound I am I thought the gore could have been more prevalent as well. I'm nitpicking a lot though because I liked it. I would buy the blu ray of this one. It's so inspiring to fans of body horror and alien horror.  This movie holds the promise of cool movies to come from this director. David Cholewa is his name. I get ideas from movies like this. It doesn't end cleanly and concise, rather it shows utter and complete chaos and makes you fear for humankind. You could make a ton of movies like this but honestly there aren't very many out there for some reason. That's why it stands out.

Skeleton Crew Up All Night


Skeleton Crew is one of those movies that takes place in an insane asylum. I love those type of movies but you don't see as many as you used to. In this one this crew is making a movie and the director goes a bit mad! You see, the asylum is the scene of grisly murders and the director finds the old films. Not a bad idea for a plot. Who hasn't wondered if any horror movie directors have ever gone mad? The idea is the gore would look the same as EFX so nobody would be the wiser. Kinda scary how true that is. Awesome movie.

There was a time when they made a good number of asylum horror movies but you don't see so many anymore. This is one of the best ones out there. And as usual, it's completely unknown. You gotta make movies like this for the fans of the sub genre because it isn't going to be a blockbuster, but we love it anyways. It veers and teeters on the edge of being possibly supernatural, or possibly psychological. You can call it a haunting if you want but it's really your decision. After this movie came out I started looking for more asylum horror and found some. It makes you wonder how many horror directors are actually raging psychos holding back their psychotic urges. The great part of this movie is the acting as the director slowly digresses into a complete psycho killer. I would say if you go off with a film crew to an out of the way, abandoned asylum with an unknown director then you never know what you're gonna get.  There should be more movies like this.

Werewolf Hunger Never Dies


An American Werewolf In London is one of the greats. Back then the werewolf movies were popular. They were gory, uncensored, and ugly. They were extremely frightening and grotesque. You had no hope of living if you encountered one in the older movies. A werewolf can bite your head off in one bite, as seen in this movie. Think of one like a giant wolf with the strength of a huge man. The transformations in this movie were epic and drawn out to show the pain and suffering. If you like werewolves don't forget how scary they were once.

From the beginning I knew this would be a good movie. I just had a feeling about it. Maybe they just made movies differently back then. And the practical EFX make a big difference in my book. This movie does a good job of making eternal life as a werewolf look like damnation and hell on earth, with visions of dead friends talking to you as haunts. To be reminded of all the people you killed does sound like hell indeed. The feeling of being a werewolf was uncontrollable to him and that loss of control is a very scary thing. He feels damned to a living hell and maybe if you wanted to look at it that way it could all be a big metaphor for being in a living hell. I like the idea of werewolves that could rip your head off, or tear your limbs off, rip you in two, etc. We need more werewolves like that. Grisly carnage is part of being a werewolf with an insatiable appetite for blood after all. I like the scenes of cemeteries that add a needed gothic feel to it as well. Be very afraid!

Meat Train Now Boarding


The Midnight Meat Train is a movie by Clive Barker, one of the great masters of horror. It was originally a short story he wrote long ago. That seems to be a trend now days, like Stephen King's The Mist, an old story of his becoming a movie. In this story there are some very gruesome parts as this madman kills people mercilessly and mechanically. He solely lives for death, but why? One man tries to get down to the bottom of this sick man's obsession and finds more than he bargained for. I love the surprise ending to this one.

The sense of impending doom is written all over this one. From the start we get a creepy setting with the subway. I always liked horror movies that took place in subways. It's kind of a genre of its own. Clive Barker did more fantastical work when he was younger and this story does have a big twist, one that would not be seen in his later works. Stephen King also delved in fantasy earlier in life. You can tell this is a Clive Barker story though with all the drenching amounts of gore in it. In fact the gruesomeness of the killer acts to deride you and make your mind take a particular direction while the storyteller crafts a unique story in the other direction. Misdirection is a great foreshadowing tool that such a master writer can use to his benefit. The fact that the killer is so inhumane makes you wonder what his allegiance is to this dark force that controls him, not supernaturally, but mentally. Does he just love killing? Does he really feel the need to be a tool for something else?  The whole film takes place in this dark setting. You feel trapped in it with the killer.

Hardware Kill Protocol


Hardware is one of those movies that isn't made to make lots of money. It's made to be one of the best in its genre, being cyberpunk horror. A very precise genre with a very devoted following, even if they aren't blockbusters. Everything was spot on, the music, the killer robot, the atmosphere, the sense of dread, the bleak, dismal world inhabited by stragglers, the camerawork, and the message. It was a near perfect cyhorror flick. They just don't make movies with that quality now days and when they do it's not very often.

This is what you would call a post-apocalyptic movie, set in a post nuclear future. There was a time when post-apocalyptic movies were a big trend. Cyberpunk horror was also at an all time high too. In this world the people that were left on this desert planet did their best to simply survive, like cockroaches. Luxury was a thing of the past. Robots were taking the place of human jobs more and more so that left humans in a bad place. The role of humans changes as robots take over manufacturing. I loved the soundtrack to this movie so much. That really helps propel it to cult classic status. So they found an old, dusty, unused robot and got it working again. And soon after the robot starts dispatching people, killing anyone it come across! Now what kind of malfunction is that? This is an extremely paranoid view of what could happen but that's why we liked it. As crazy as that notion is it could happen. Most of the film is spent blazing awesome cyberpunk visuals across the screen along with seedy characters living their antisocial lives. Then comes the scariest part, how do you kill this thing? On a desert planet what could kill a robot? Even the narration by Iggy Pop is cool.

The Slime And The Grime


Bio-Slime is an underground horror movie that I bought on DVD as a pre-order because I love stuff like this. The EFX are very good for such an unknown movie and that is evident. It starts with some strange slime in a low rent building full of lowlifes and escalates to full on panic as the slime infests people, turning them into "things". It's a simple idea executed very well. Ideas like this could be done much cheaper so you never know. This one deserves to be recognized as a gem in the rough because it is a cool, freaky creature feature.

What the slime is will scare you. It's sort of a biological agent, a weaponized biological slime. Why do people make things like that? I think the pursuit of weapons can go into pretty wild territory. And everything was planned, down to where they would weaponized it, in a derelict building for low rent tenants. You have to be in the know to know of movies like this but that's why I like it so much. I just sorta came across it one day by accident. John Lechago is the guy that made this movie and I give him credit where it's due. Not a lot of low budget movies have this good of EFX. I think it shows a lot of dedication to the craft. To make a movie like this any cheaper would be a rip-off. Fans know when they're ripped off too so it pays to care about what you do. As the slime infects people it can be seen visually moving through their veins before it transforms them into monsters. I especially like the topless woman cut in half/still alive monster with tentacles. This is a dream horror movie for fans of body horror and to be done any better would be insane. At this point you can guess whoever released this biological weapon doesn't care about what happens to these people. Will anyone survive? You'll have to watch to find out. The transformations are the best part to me. Let the slime flow!

Kaiju Madness


Pacific Rim is kind of a modern day Godzilla tale. It's the American answer to Godzilla really. Everyone was proud of Guillermo Del Toro for coming up with this one. And not only do you have big ass kaiju but people fighting them in huge robots! Giant kaiju sent by aliens from within a rift opening that showed up in the bottom of the ocean is a great setting. I was wondering where the monsters were coming from. If you're a monster lover and a cyberpunk lover then this is the best of both worlds. If you see kaiju run or get in a jaeger!

The amount of resources it would require to make a jaeger is mind boggling. The mech bays where they're made are enormous. So the older mechs where nuclear powered, thus allowing them to be able to run offline, whereas the newer ones needed to be online with two drivers mentally connected to the limbs of the jaeger. I didn't understand the mental connection bit but it was cool. Very scary in a way too, interfacing with technology through your mind, and establishing a connection that could cause brain damage if severed. That will probably go over most people's heads as they watch this for monsters, and big ones at that. Bigger than Godzilla I think. Can you imagine the amount of damage to the city these kaiju are inflicting? Crazy to think that they were coming from the sea. I liked that angle a lot. Then you start wondering if it's caused by nuclear, like Godzilla, but nope! There's a wormhole at the bottom of the ocean letting monster kaiju in! Now, humans being humans, we feel the need to explore and go into the wormhole to find the people doing all this. Are you prepared for entering a wormhole to another planet with harmless looking aliens? Super smart, bad aliens!

Fanciful Death Vignettes


Not many people think about the comics that inspired the movie The Crow. The comic is rather dark and morose. It's a work of art really. The movies in the series do the comics no justice though they are good. The comics are just more creepy and twisted. If you like the movie then you should definitely see what the true vision the creator had in mind was. You will get a new appreciation for gothic comics, you may ponder what death means, and you may even smile here and there. They stand out among the rest of dark literature.

If you liked the movies then the comic is that much creepier, darker, and sadistic in every way. You could say the movies were stylized to be action films while the comics aren't exactly all action.  If you were lucky back then you could have snagged a graphic novel or two compiling the series. I loved the series of movies but the comics are a whole new world. It's like imagining the "Sandman" comic series as a movie, because it wouldn't be the same. The characters in these comics have a fascination with death and teeter on wanting to be alive or dead. It is a very gothic view in some ways, though gothic doesn't have to mean those things. I think the comics would help you appreciate the movies that much more because you could see how it all started. You may find them to be very different indeed. The idea is the main character that has been resurrected by the crow feels sort of numb knowing that his time is over, that he is a vessel, a caricature, a shell of a man that once was, so his view of life is forever changed knowing he was dead. His view of the living is different as well. And in some way maybe gothic people can sometimes relate to that feeling of being dead inside. His sole purpose is to feel vengeance and live for revenge. His pain has consumed him.

Innkeepers Of Death


The Innkeepers is a nice addition to the many reality horror ghost story movies because this one was done better than most of the lot. It had a lot of hype by people in the industry too I remember, which doesn't normally happen with movies of this type. It's very similar in plot to others and the way it plays out is rather straightforward but there's just something about it that made it better. It was super creepy yet entertaining. It comes off like one of the ilk but ends up being unique with the two young volunteers that choose the dare.

I like to think the cast played a part in the success of this movie. The characters that tended to the needs of the guests were young, naive, and adventurous. They were the college type and fearless. And you know how young people never believe in things like hauntings. They were informed of the haunted building being dangerous but they volunteered for the job because they needed the money. Sounds about right. It plays out like a ghost hunting show mixed with a scary movie when they start wondering what's going on. I do like the fact that this movie wasn't made to follow formulas in the same genre. It is ghost reality horror but it's a tad creepier and scarier than others. That added boost really helped I think. The guy chooses to be a non believer until something spooks him. When he becomes convinced then the woman chooses to be a non believer. Will it be too late for them? Will they be smart enough to get out? Well, they were hired to work there so that keeps them from leaving. Being friends, one of them wouldn't leave the other there also. I wouldn't call the scares jump scares but more haunting scares that worked effectively. This movie changed my mind about ghost stories. If more ghost haunting horror movies had scary endings then they would creep you out.

Frozen In Desire And Fear


Frozen In Fear A.K.A. The Flying Dutchman is a made for TV thriller from the year 2000. It's actually not that bad. If you get the DVD version then it shows 'everything' that they don't show on TV. The DVD version has all the gore and nudity and sex in it. It's quite an erotic mind bender really. The classic case of whether or not to trust a guy, and the woman falls for him, questioning whether he's a madman or not, but she still falls in love deeply and things get rather steamy. Such an alluring stranger may not be sane in the end. Too bad for her.

This movie took place in Seattle. Or the gallery manager was from Seattle I should say. The artist was from another place all together. Some small town near the water with docks and fisherman and coffee shops that serve good omelettes. You know the type, with gift shops near the ocean. As you can guess the gallery manager goes to this out of the way town to find the artist and offer to show his work in a gallery show in Seattle. Seems harmless enough right? Well it is at first. Little does she know this guy is a total wacko that kills women due to being traumatized when he was young. And he does so in the most unusual of ways, freezing them in ice, naked. The DVD is loaded with nudity and sex so much that it's hard to believe it was ever on TV. I like that though, the steamy side of it. Kind of cool in a way how you can see it on TV and then go seek out the uncensored DVD. It turns out this guy's family is really weird and they've been covering for him for years. Typically, where there's one nut there may be more I say. The gallery manager actually falls for this guy somehow, because he was such a smooth talker and seemed to be good with the ladies. Little did she know he was not very good with women, just luring them in. Yet they had a lot of sex and you're left thinking this guy has to be really screwed up in the head to seduce her so well, and then go completely mad.

Death House Soaked In Blood


Death House is easily the most anticipated horror movie of the decade. The Expendables was awesome for action but Death House is super exciting for horror! Almost every living horror icon will be in it, which is an amazing feat to even attempt. Not only that, but it has a VR horror angle that I like a lot, so cyhorror is coming back. I was wondering after The Cabin In The Woods what could possibly take the crown and now we have an answer. Both movies have a cyberpunk horror style plot and both will be prized in my creepy collection.

As great of an idea as this cast ensemble is I can honestly say I never saw it coming for some reason. Gathering a bunch of veteran actors to do one film is something that has never really been done before that I can remember. The virtual reality angle is going to work very well for this movie, with each inmate in their own virtual prison in their minds. Scary idea for the future that could possibly become a reality. What better way to control the masses? In VR if there's a prison break they're still stuck in VR, and nobody gets hurt. Like The Cabin In The Woods, this movie also has a technological aspect to the horror, except it will be taken to a whole new area in this one. The Cabin In The Woods had an ending with Cthulhu rising up, which is wild enough. This movie will have some crazy surprises of its own too. I like the prison setting for the movie because prisons are places where we condemn people to live in a living hell of solitude. It's sad but maybe VR will change how inhumane it is someday. The multitude of things that could go wrong in VR is what makes for a great cyberpunk horror movie.  I expect this movie to pile on the gore quite generously!

Scary Conceptual Experiments


Why is it that concept art is usually cooler than the artwork used in a movie? My theory is that maybe the concepts are more edgy and daring. Here's some concept art for a movie about mutants. Now I doubt the finished product was anywhere near this freaky but that's a shame. Is it too scary for most regular folk? Too dark for family audiences? Maybe, but then maybe they shouldn't stifle artistic freedom to please the masses so much. The grotesque can be very cool but usually only indie horror movies would dare take that route.

Concept art is a reservoir of ideas that never make the final cut, yet you could totally imagine an art book full of the artwork being sold somewhere. I'm a big fan of concept art and often I wonder why they went with the idea they did instead of the concepts. Mainstream movies are going to be somewhat reserved though. I could imagine filling up a whole sketch book of cool concept art but would any of it be usable in the mainstream? Maybe, maybe not. In school I drew a lot of super gory art, with corpses torn in half on pikes, etc. I drew a crazy picture one year for a Halloween festival and I never got the picture back. It had rotting, torn in half zombies splayed on pikes in a graveyard. The artwork was amazing. Who knows what they did with it though. A little too insane for Halloween festivals with kids attending I guess. Nobody could deny my artistic talent but that's the way it goes. I think concept artists can end up creating their own art books and make a side income. More and more artists seem to be doing that. That might be something I'll try someday too. So you can work for the big boys and work for yourself on the side. You could call concept art the underappreciated art forms.

The Biggest Bug Of Them All


The Millennium Bug is one of my fave movies. It's an indie release made with absolutely no CGI and it turned out to be one of the best practical EFX monster movies in history as far as I'm concerned. The plot pokes fun at the Y2K scare with an actual monster instead of a computer bug ruining our computers in the year 2000. It's a crazy plot too, with some redneck hillbillies living in squalor capturing a family. Then the bug shows up and all hell breaks loose! I love how over the top it is. The gore and miniature sets worked so well together.

There was a lot of people worried about that Y2K bug back then because computers couldn't figure out how to change calendars, ha. Kinda funny when you think about it. Then came the bug! The biggest bug you will ever see in any movie. I can probably guarantee that one. It's not  your ordinary bug though. It only wakes up every 1,000 years or so to feast on everyone and every animal it can find for a night. You would be extremely unlucky to be at the wrong place at the wrong time when that bug wakes! The movie starts out harmless enough, with an innocuous, nuclear family taking a vacation camping trip. There just happens to be a redneck, inbred hillbilly family keeping an eye on them. They live in the forest preying on campers. I hate the thought of running into people like that. They take the whole family hostage and things get crazy. It seems like an inbred cannibal movie at first but that's just to keep you on your toes. Just when you think it's a cannibal movie the biggest bug you've ever seen wakes the hell up and starts eating everyone! It's a giant puppet technically but you have to really appreciate the artistry used in making the monster. They don't do things like that a lot anymore where they make huge monsters or sets for them to destroy. It's in my top ten films.

Heavy Metal Nightmare


Portuguese Nightmare: A Tribute To The Misfits is a very unique CD. I love how diverse the sounds are on this, and a good amount of them are rather heavy, like really heavy. That's welcome though since most tribute CD's don't dare try to be so bold in a choice of bands. The styles range from rockabilly, to grindcore, to anything in-between. Some sound like death metal while others sounds like extreme metal. Then there's a few that really stand out because they're nothing like the rest. All in all it's very cool. I love the artwork too.

If you're a fan of the Misfits and you like the idea of the craziest compilation of bands then this CD is totally worth it. The artwork alone is worth it. And for those of you that are younger you know you don't get the artwork on the back cover or inside cover or inside the booklet itself. The whole point of a CD is the visual appeal, and a lot of CD's even have the words, though this one doesn't include lyrics. I'm impressed by how extremely heavy most of these bands truly are. One band, Simbiose, sounds like Napalm Death. Others have some great extreme vocal stylings. All the bands are from Portugal. That's the idea here, just Portuguese bands from mostly heavy circles. The few that aren't heavy help to break up the tempo here and there. The lighter tunes are also stylish with twangy guitar and punk stylings. The screaming tracks are going to blister your ears at higher volumes but it's worth it. If this isn't the most diverse compilation you've ever heard then I would be shocked. Pretty cool, though I can't figure out why it took so long, and why only from Portugal? I'm not complaining, just wondering. If you're a fan of heavy music this will open you up to new chaotic sounds.

The Most Gothic Party


Gothic is a very interesting movie. Back when renowned authors would take mind altering substances to get inspiration for their dark works they did things like absinthe. In this movie absinthe is the culprit for all the demented delusions. Some authors, who would later go on to be famous decide to have a party where they all go to the brink of madness for "inspiration". Interesting, given how boring people think authors are. Whether this is based on truth is hard to discern. Great movie made as a period piece. And it gets rather scary too!

How far would you go for inspiration for a best selling horror novel? Would you drink absinthe and suffer sever delusional episodes? Would you take a hallucinogenic substance that makes you see extremely scary things? And would you invite your writer friends to join in this party rife with debauchery and mayhem? A 'party' of writers decide to trip on absinthe like as if it were wine and what they experience can only be described as going to the edge of sanity. But you know what they say about absinthe don't you? How it made a lot of people go mad back in the day... yes it did. They really do almost go mad too. I think maybe that was the idea, if you don't go mad then you have your next book! Not a very well advised course of action for a writer however. The name is interesting, seeing as how they wanted to veer ever so close to death and madness without falling off the edge. I have a feeling it just makes for a great movie but in reality you never know how things would go. Oddly, I can see writers back then doing that for some reason, maybe because they didn't have other outlets, like television, the internet, etc. They weren't the closest of friends ironically. Do you dare take this trip!

Scan Your Demons


Brainscan is one of my fave flicks. This was way ahead of its time with VR games, talking computers, and all that tech that we still wish we had. Hard to believe that we don't have those things yet. This movie was one of those treats that you could re-watch over and over. Maybe the awesome soundtrack helped too. A lot of lesser known metal bands. You don't see good movies with soundtracks like that much, or the cool EFX. Trickster was pretty creepy. Makes you wonder what people will go through in the future. Cyberpunk horror right here!

The VR horror isn't really the main nightmare here. The real horror is the demon Trickster. Back then they mixed up supernatural things with realistic ones. It works well too, with the dapper Trickster pedaling his wares to this unsuspecting teen guy. Perhaps he is a demon that preys on the souls of the young and naive, but this kid may be up to the challenge. Trickster may have picked the wrong youth to mess with this time. It makes sense that a demon would prey on the young and defenseless more than the adult and mentally fit. I love PC CD-ROM games and those are becoming a thing of the past with these laptops now that have no CD bay. This kid gets a PC CD-ROM game in the mail and it's supposed to be the newest VR game, which is funny given how high tech that would be. I'm jealous of his computer that answers the phone and checks to see who's at the door. Igor on the screen talks to him like a person. As he explores this VR game he is playing the role of a killer but is it really a game? When he wakes up he finds the murder was real. Wouldn't that creep you out?! Now he has to find a way to fight back against Trickster before it's too late so he can get the girl next door.  A girl that also likes heavy metal is not a thing to let slip away! Is he a killer now or not?

Feel The Kung Fury


Kung Fury is one insane movie! It's strange that I've never seen such a well done computer animation movie. The people that made this did a really good job. Can you imagine the amount of green screen involved? It's almost too good to be an indie film. I'd like to see a full feature follow-up to this one. The nerdy side of this flick is done in a very fast pace, arcade like action so you don't really dwell on how nerdy anything is. It's just more funny than anything. The whole thing feels like an awesome arcade game actually, with viking chicks!

If you could surf on top of a Lamborghini in mid air and travel back in time by hacking a mainframe database then things would be so awesome. There's someone, namely Hitler, who has found a way to travel through time and arcade machines are coming to life to join his army. What do you do? You call hackerman and have him send you back in time by surfing a keyboard of course! The neon grid is synonymous with 80's matrix ideas. Cheesy cyberpunk goodness abounds at every turn.  What does make this stand out is the gory bits here and there, so it's not just all cheese. I watched how they did the digital EFX and the gore, very interesting. It's not horror but the gore is horrific enough. It's more of a comedy with gory bits to satisfy the horror hounds. Turns out he went back in time too far and ended up in caveman times with two hot women. They ride dinosaurs and carry machine guns, nothing weird about that! Then one of them shows him a phone they can use to travel to Hitler's time and fight off his legions before they attack the current year, which is what's happening at the beginning of the movie, but you know how time travel works so we see the battle that comes after everything else before it all happens. I hope we see more from this rad team of movie makers.

Super Smart Aliens


Independence Day: Resurgence was the sequel we all waited for. I can't help but wonder how many people died during the scenes of cities being overturned and dropped back down though. Or the alien base landing on Earth; that would kill a massive amount of people. The things people never think about in movies. And they always have superior technology to us, which is hard to believe but it makes you think. Alternative evolution can do that maybe, like the idea of a lizard evolving into a lizard man instead of monkeys becoming men.

It was only a matter of time I suppose. You knew they were going to make a sequel to this movie someday, and you could probably predict that sequel would include Jeff Goldblum. It has been quite a while since the first one. The epic tale of man vs. aliens. In this one the alien threat has basically been hibernating for years and years preparing by amassing a huge fleet of spaceships to do battle with.  Then something finds us through a wormhole one day. A robotic entity, essentially living, but not truly alive, just a highly evolved form of AI robot. And it turns out the aliens had wiped out this AI robotic race because they posed a threat, except for one. That one entity found us and wanted to share its technological secrets with us. When it's man vs. aliens robots choose to ally with mankind because AI makes machines more like man. You get to see a lot more of the aliens in this one, which is cool. They even have their own ecosystem on their spaceship with its own flora and fauna. Why do they want to kill us so bad though? It has to be because they want out resources. This is the way people work, using up all resources in sight, except the aliens chose to be much more aggressive than us in our plundering of natural resources. So humans had found their resource hogging match. Kind of makes for a good story now that I think about it. These aliens do not want to be friends!

Darkest Vampire Writer


Out Of Stone by John G Rees is quite an impressive accomplishment. I've kept up with his entire series of books, which manage to bring vampire fiction to new territory without ever uttering the word 'vampire' even once. This is the final book in a series of 4 books. The dark imagery is impressively macabre and sadistic. You won't find any vampire novel that comes this close to being so absolutely horrifying. Though, if you can take it, the story is equally amazing and impressive. It is without a doubt the darkest vampire fiction around.

The story revolves around two friends, who are 'reusables' for a shady corporation. They have no idea what reusables are and neither do readers necessarily, but I think he likes it that way. You have to figure out what's going on for yourself. If it weren't for me reading another review I would have never known they were vampires myself possibly. The irony is how these reusables get put into positions, like jobs, and they get overworked to death, and then they're brought back painfully and cruelly again and again. Are we supposed to feel sorry for the vampires in these books? I'm not sure. This is where the re-readability is in fact. I love the way he writes, especially the parts where the horrors take on a dream like feeling. The gory scenes throughout the books are quite graphic and nothing is held back. If these books were movies they would be full on horror films. If they were comics then I could totally see that working. He interweaves a lot of macabre imagery and historic adventure, even some very interesting gypsy lore, and the reusables as divers pulls from his own life experiences as a diver himself. You can tell this writer wrote these books with a passion and he deserves recognition. I am inspired by his horrific, vile visions. The independent author has triumphed here!

Wayward Pines Hold Secrets


Wayward Pines was an epic cyberpunk horror TV show set in a dystopian future. I love how the word dystopia really works well here as this future is not one we would wish on anyone. The illusion of paradise comes to mind only to be shattered soon enough. It shows human nature very well too because there was a sort of devolving of modern society mixed with modern living conditions. Yet the circumstances are nothing short of horrific. These 1 season shows have been growing on me since they take different routes than expected.

This is in fact based on a book. I didn't really know that at first but that makes it a bit cooler now. Some scientist had a feeling that something bad was coming for earth, some kind of plague or natural disaster or something else. How he knew is beyond me. That part isn't very well explained. He just felt humanity's days were numbered so he makes a big, hidden complex to store people in some ultra high tech storage facility. It's not quite cryogenic sleep, a bit more high tech than that, something I've never seen before. The idea is to take people from the past before a great disaster and  wake them up to restart humanity. Well the disaster was a plague that turned people into devolved beasts, which they blame on pollution. Some kind of virus that made people more like animals. I don't know how realistic that idea is or how the scientist could predict such a nightmare but he thought leapfrogging through time would be the answer. A bunch of people wake up in the future to become citizens in an isolated town surrounded by mountains on all sides. I like how they abducted people without their knowledge and they woke with no recollection of who they once were, thus allowing them to become new people. For some this was a blessing, for others a frightening nightmarish reality. Are humans worth saving at this point if only one town is left? And while humans devolved into animals outside of the steel gates around the town people devolved into barbarians inside the gates, turning on each other and sacrificing people. Scary future! Nobody is safe in this twisted reality where nobody remembers former lives.

Death Machine Always Eats


Death Machine is one of those movies that goes into a special group of cyberpunk horror movies. It's a niche genre to say the least. And this is one of the best ones. Full of familiar faces and chock full of cybernetic action, you won't be disappointed. It's the kind of movie that you can watch more than once and I value re-watchability. From the evil corporations, to the done-up punks, to the outrageous cybernetic monster, to the hacking, and more it manages to be one of the greats. The EFX are pretty sweet in this one even now.

With cyberpunk horror the idea is that you would see people interfacing with technology, like VR and hacking, etc. In cyberpunk worlds there's a lot of people interfacing directly with technology, via cords or what not. In cyberpunk horror things go awry in the great technological future. As seen here, some high tech punked out thieves decide to rip off a high rise corporation. Strange idea, but they knew of a vault of some sort. Curious yet? So was I. What kind of corporation would have a hidden vault right? Oddly, these punks are very tech savvy and they make easy work of finding the vault. They think it has money I guess. So what's inside? A very experimental killer robot! What are the chances of that? It was a tech corporation though. And as you would expect it gets loose going on a rampage killing people. I love movies that start in one direction and take it in another direction altogether. This is where the pace picks up and you get to see a lot more of the robotic monster. I think the stop motion animation was done really well, because you know it couldn't have been CGI. The robot with its massive steel teeth and hydraulic cords is an aberration that should not be but it's too late for that. What would a corporation use this thing for? Security? Pretty wild stuff. Robots tend to have a mind of their own in cyberpunk horror films. That AI or something. Some protagonists enter the mix somehow and that's when we get a glimpse of a possible hero. I love the delusion of grandeur this corporation has to think that a metal monster like this would serve a purpose. My kind of movie. I hope this genre only grows more.

Shadows Full Of Demons


Shadows Of The Damned is one of those games that comes along and blows you away. They had a dream team of developers gathered to make it too. So now when you think of the PS3 you'll think of games like this one. Kids now have hi-def PS4 games but this one is not forgettable. It was so tough to beat but I finally did it with enough determination, up all night for several days. The horror imagery is exquisite and the story is pretty cool. I love the punk rock guy trying to save his girlfriend from hell. Do they ever escape hell? Does anyone?

If you want a good thumb masher this one will keep you moving fast to beat the end bosses. And I love end bosses! I know, I know, PS4 this, PS4 that, but I have a sweet spot for good PS3 games since I wasn't born in the PS4 era like new kids. This one is so much better than all the other PS3 games though. It has so much style and the graphics were really pushing the limits right before the PS4. It pushed the limits of what you could do with graphic movements, involving more complex end boss moves and animation. Every part of this game thrilled me. The guy's jacket was cool, his bike was cool, his tattoos were cool, and he was willing to fight off hordes of demons to stay in love with his gal in Hell. You can see how much work went into this game as you look at the multi layered scenes in the background. The lighting was perfect and the game on hard mode presented an insane challenge. I'm a pro gamer so this was fun but tough as all hell. They had some creative demons throughout your journey in Hell and it really doesn't seem last gen. The better done games towards the advent of the PS4 look almost like PS4 quality. I love how left field this game is too since it's well done for an independent idea. It's not a franchise type of title, like Resident Evil, but sometimes people want a really well done indie game just like a really well done indie movie. You can't go wrong with this one.

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