Category: Horror

28 Years Later

It’s no secret I went insane when I found out this long awaited awaited sequel was actually coming. It was my most anticipated movie of of 2025 even. In a year of surprises like Sinners and Fantastic 4: First Steps , I was sure Years was going to be a legendary following to a masterful trilogy…

28 Years have passed since the Rage virus has run rampant through the UK and neighboring areas. Spike and his family live in a small island off the mainland, separated by a natural bridge only accessible between tides. On his twelfth birthday, Spike and his dad must partake in his right of passage and go hunting for supplies on the mainland full of starved infected who are evolving and the madmen who thrive against them. Spike and his father narrowly escape their trip, but Spike must risk another trip in search of the only Dr who can help his ailing mother. How far can the boy go for love?

28 Days Later was noting sort of a masterpiece. 28 Weeks Later fell off a bit by the end, but was still a pretty damn good sequel. 28 Years is one of the most conflicting movies I’ve seen in recent memory. I genuinely love and hate this movie, and honestly can’t debate you either way.

This movie has an incredible cast. Alfie Williams, steals the show as Spike; I can see him going very far in the future. Everyone brings their A game. Visually the movie is gorgeous. The color pops naturally, no bullshit filters. Th scenery is breathtaking. I liked that there is some inspiration from Day of the Dead in that this story is genuinely an epic and a point is how the infected are naturally evolving over time. The story at it’s core is fantastic and full of heart I haven’t experienced since the first time I played the original The Last of Us ; I did get teary eyed at the end.

Danny Boyle, who directed the the first movie, wanted to be different this time around. Unfortunately not all those choices worked. This movie hits you with a lot quickly. There are jarring cutaways that reminded me think of House of 1000 Corpses . Most of the kills are filmed in a way that reminded me of a Call of Duty kill-cam. The blood is comically over the top at points. The music choices can be rattling as hell. The pacing feels rushed in the first half hour. There’s a lot of plot threads that feel useless, including the opening, that serve the follow up films more. The ending, while good for a laugh and some blood, is pure sequel bait which admittedly I’m both excited for but also irritated with. I really can’t argue if you tell me the ending pissed you off.

In the end, even writing this review, I’m totally conflicted on this movie. I loved things about it but absolutely hated others. It is wildly unique from it’s predecessors and delivers a hell of an experience- whether it’s to your liking or not. I absolutely think it should be watched but just know you may not get what you expected. May the gaming gods bring you glory.

The Mummy 2026 trailer

Well, it’s that time again everyone! Another Mummy remake (this time thankfully not trying to launch a cinematic universe like The Mummy (2017) ) This time, I have no clue what director Lee Cronin is going for. Seriously, I had to watch this very same trailer multiple times and had no idea what the hell I was looking at. It’s definitely my first head scratcher of 2026. May the gaming gods bring you glory.

The Playground: Child of Divorce

I hope everyone had a fun, safe, happy New Year. I took another trip to The Playground for mine. Child of Divorce is the disturbing prequel to Aron Beauregard’s splatterpunk hit I didn’t know I want or needed.

The year is 1993 and Geraldine Borden’s macabre magnum opus is under construction. But after a heated swing with young Matthew Cookson went awry, Geraldine and her compatriot, Fuchs, see there’s a road ahead. In the meantime, she ordered Fuchs to build a separate structure, a prototype, ordering her broken adapted son Rock, and Fuchs to abduct a unlucky set of children. Confused, hunted by a nightmare with little explanation, who will survive the first Playground, and what will be be left of them?

Prequels are normally cursed to be inferior to the originals. Sometimes forced, sometimes bloated by needless explanations, sometimes they are decent stories twisted and mangled to fit a mold. Child of Divorce actually avoids all these pitfalls. The book improves immensely from the first. My biggest complaint from the first, the structuring, has been smoothed out, flowing much more naturally. The children themselves are flushed out a lot more and written more three dimensionally; I was much more invested in these kids and their story arcs, feeling truly saddened and impacted when they met a horrible fate. I loved the set up. Mildred, who hunts the children and keeps them moving, truly freaked me out and I tip my hat to Beauregard for making a stalker enemy that is truly nightmare fuel. The book stands really good as a standalone, only nodding to the first a few times. It is a quick read that fits perfectly, not being too short or long. The only downside I can think of was some of the games didn’t resonate with me as much and the dodgeball room utterly confused the hell out of me towards the end. In the end, I loved this book. Hell, it’s one of my favorite prequels. Can I recommend it? Yes, but do your research because there is a massive set of triggers in this book- if the cover upsets you, this book isn’t for you, and like last time, it is a scene from the book and there are disturbing pictures inside. Personally, I loved it, and I think it was captivating, grim, creepy as hell horror story I’d recommend, especially if you loved the first. May the gaming gods bring you glory.

Ontos reveal trailer

Of all the trailers unveiled at the 2025 Game Awards, the one game I’m surprised I haven’t heard about was Ontos. I might not be a huge fan of Frictional’s gameplay choices but I do love their stories and visuals. Ontos looks like 2001 meets Soma and I’m absolutely here for it. I’ll definitely keep an eye for it in the future. May the gaming gods bring you glory.

Supergirl teaser trailer

I wasn’t sure what to expect from the follow up to Superman (2025). Milly Alcock was great in her cameo and her sassy, drunken badass persona from her cousin’s movie is on full display here I do love that we instantly know she’s nothing like Clark. I think it’s also cool her first solo movie is a space adventure. Jason Momoa looks perfectly as the main man himself, cosmic bounty hunter Lobo. I’m pretty excited to see more and dive into Kara’s story more. May the gaming gods bring you glory.

Control: Resonant reveal trailer

Not going to lie, Control 2 stole the game awards for me. Alan Wake 2 was one of the best horror game experiences I’ve had since Dead Space (2023) so I was insanely pumped for this surprise. I love the nightmarish Dr Strange vibe. The combat looks sort of souls like but with the gravity, reality shattering creativity of the first Control. Visually the game looks nuts in the best way. I’m absolutely keeping an eye out on Control 2. May the gaming gods bring you glory.

Resident Evil 9 Leon trailer

So I know I’m calling his the Leon trailer, and oh boy does he steal the show, but I got a couple of stops to make along the way. We start by learning our antagonist is a dude name Victor Gideon who I got mixed feelings on. Gideon is giving me some real hard Mad Eye Moody vibes with his look but I like his voice. The graphics look incredible and I love the atmosphere. Leon looks like a total badass and I did smile seeing him return. What worries me a bit is the game might be too action focused or completely bust trying to deliver 2 different gameplay styles between Grace and Leon- last thing we need is a repeat of Resident Evil 6. In the end, the game looks great still and like many, I was pumped to see Leon return. May the gaming gods bring you glory.

28 Years Later: The Bone Temple trailer 2

I’m still in awe after such a long hiatus we’re getting 2 installments in this series. I love the apocalyptic feel. I’m also a huge fan of Ralph Fiennes and Jack O Connell. Sadly I wasn’t able to see 28 Years Later as of this posting but I am excited for the 2nd part of this horror epic. May the gaming gods bring you glory.

The Conjuring: Last Rites

The Conjuring: Last Rights is basically the perfect example of how to not make a AAA horror movie. As I do every year around my birthday, I crashed at @torstenvblog house, ordered pizza, and we watched movies. Nine this year to be exact, and I am sure you will be reading about the rest soon enough from him. This one, however, I insisted on writing about myself.

The movie itself mostly revolves around the Warren family and how Ed and Lorrain had a daughter, Judy. They had stopped their investigations for years by the time the Smurl family haunting had taken place, and they were focusing on Judy’s upcoming wedding.

This obviously has nothing to do with the Smurl house, but they did shoehorn Judy having visions and whatnot into this about the Smurl house and the demon that is haunting the family; they came from a mirror shown earlier in the movie connecting the Warrens and Smurls. This never happened in real life, by the way.

In fact, the entire movie never even bothers to make you care about the Smurl family. You spend very little time with them. The little kids are mostly shown running around, playing. The older kids scream a bit about how they can’t keep living like this, but outside of a few scenes, they never really show what this even is. We do get a couple of great scenes towards the end where one daughter finds a video from her birthday and is chased by a crazy ghost with an axe, and this is the same night we see the father molested by one. This, however, is after she screams about living like this; what was going on before then is very little that is even mentioned.

Even ignoring that I come from the same area as this Smurl house (I’ve literally driven past it more than once in my travels) and shared emails with people who lived there while working on a book and helping a friend with a podcast (decades of people who lived there have denied anything happening there, going all the way back to the 1980s) and even ignoring the fact I personally think the Warrens are probably frauds, the potental for this to be a good movie exist. The first two Conjuring movies are good. This movie, however, does everything wrong, and nobody should ever watch this pile of garbage. Best wishes, and may the gaming gods bring you glory.

Psychonauts

Hasn’t everybody wanted to be a superhero at least once in there lives? Raz has big dreams of becoming a Psychonaut, even going so far as to sneak into the Whispering Heights Camp for young Psychonauts in training. He was only a few days at the camp before his parents come for him, leaving him precious time to master his powers and uncover a dark mystery threatening the campers and instructors and maybe even the world. Will Raz rise to the occasion?

If any game deserved a modern day facelift or remake, it’s this precious gem. I absolutely love the insane mix of shockingly deep psychological storytelling and dark humor in a pretty complex and creative platformer. This game is a giant acid trip and I love it. Raz is a interesting kid amongst other weird, funny, tragic, or damn creepy characters- seriously the Milkman creeped me out more than most modern horror monsters. The worldbuilding is fantastic and I was really invested in the lore. It was so cool being able to jump into other characters brains, exploring entirely new universes, including bosses.

Unfortunately this game has some deep drawbacks. While extremely creative, that partially leads to how obtuse a lot of the goals and pathfinding are. Way to often I found myself relying on walkthroughs, scratching my head when seeing where I was supposed to go or what the hell I needed. Another big issue I had was items cost too damn much. In the Milkman section, if you don’t have a certain tool, get ready for the game to come to a stop and you have to grind to afford it. The powers are a mixed bag but when they are a blast, they are awesome.

In the end, I highly recommend it but I urge you to stay patient. Originally this game came from PS2/ original X Box era so a lot of the modern gaming comforts aren’t there, and like all platformers, there’s going to be some frustration. Stick around and you will be rewarded with a cool world of memorable characters and one of the most unique games I might’ve ever played. May the gaming gods bring you glory.