Quick Review: The Cabin at the End of the World (2018)

By Paul Tremblay

Available at AMAZON

Seven-year-old Wen and her parents, Eric and Andrew, are vacationing at a remote cabin on a quiet New Hampshire lake, with their closest neighbours more than two miles in either direction.

As Wen catches grasshoppers in the front yard, a stranger unexpectedly appears in the driveway. Leonard is the largest man Wen has ever seen but he is young and friendly. Leonard and Wen talk and play until Leonard abruptly apologises and tells Wen, “None of what’s going to happen is your fault”. Three more strangers arrive at the cabin carrying unidentifiable, menacing objects. As Wen sprints inside to warn her parents, Leonard calls out, “Your dads won’t want to let us in, Wen. But they have to. We need your help to save the world.”

So begins an unbearably tense, gripping tale of paranoia, sacrifice, apocalypse, and survival that escalates to a shattering conclusion, one in which the fate of a loving family and quite possibly all of humanity are intertwined.

This could be the shortest review I ever write, just by simply telling you that you need to go out and buy this book if you don’t already own it. And you certainly need to read it if it is languishing in your TBR pile. I know, I know, I am a bit late to the party, but hey, at least I arrived!

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Quick Review: The Watchers (2021)

By A. M. Shine

Available at AMAZON

This forest isn’t charted on any map. Every car breaks down at its treeline. Mina’s is no different. Left stranded, she is forced into the dark woodland only to find a woman shouting, urging Mina to run to a concrete bunker. As the door slams behind her, the building is besieged by screams.

Mina finds herself in a room with a wall of glass, and an electric light that activates at nightfall, when the Watchers come above ground. These creatures emerge to observe their captive humans and terrible things happen to anyone who doesn’t reach the bunker in time.

Afraid and trapped among strangers, Mina is desperate for answers. Who are the Watchers and why are these creatures keeping them imprisoned, keen to watch their every move?

Shine’s debut novel, The Watchers throws a disparate group of unfortunates together in a mysterious woodland prison where they are watched at night by the mysterious, and clearly very dangerous, creatures that live in the tunnels beneath them. Hiding away during the day, the creatures leave the group in peace to complete their daily chores, collecting water and scavenging for food to keep themselves alive long enough to live in fear the next night.

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GNoH Review: Mad God (2021)

Written and Directed by Phil Tippett

A corroded diving bell descends amidst a ruined city and the Assassin emerges from it to explore a labyrinth of bizarre landscapes inhabited by freakish denizens. (IMDB)

Mad God feels like the result of a collaboration between the creators of the “Little Nightmares” video game and “2001: A Space Odyssey” after a drug-fuelled trip through Dante’s Inferno – with maybe even a nod to Stephen King’s Dark Tower.

See the full review at Ginger Nuts of Horror HERE

Franchise Review: Resident Evil: Retribution (2012)

Written and Directed by Paul W.S. Anderson

So we are nearing the end, but Alice (Milla Jovovich) has a few more scores to settle with Wesker who is still after her, for goodness knows what reason this week!

Retribution opens exactly as we left Alice and the survivors on the Arcadia. A not inconsiderable number of Umbrella forces are bearing down on them from above under the command of a brain-washed Jill Valentine (Sienna Guillory). After a pretty one-sided battle, Alice wakes up, as she so often does, in another Umbrella facility. But this time it is the big one! This is where Umbrella have done all their testing for the bioweapons, using clones and massive underground reconstructions of major world cities.

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Franchise Review: Resident Evil: Afterlife (2010)

Written and Directed by Paul W. S. Anderson

Alice is back, and she’s brought some friends.

(spoilers ahead!)

Following on pretty much from the end of Extinction, Alice has enlisted her clones in her continued mission to bring down Umbrella and finish off everyone’s favourite bad guy, Albert Wesker (Shawn Roberts). After coming in all guns blazing, as far as I can tell, our Alice is the only surviving Alice and, following a tussle with Wesker, loses her powers but leaves him for dead in the wreckage of his aircraft.

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Franchise Review: Resident Evil (2002)

Written and Directed by Paul W. S. Anderson

I remember looking forward to this film a lot while waiting for it’s release. Resident Evil was a phenomena on the Playstation 1 (yep, kids there was actually a PS1!) and I have a lot of fond memories of playing the game with my housemates at the time. A favourite was coming home one night after a late shift, knowing my mate was playing and bursting in through the open window (it was summer) while making Zombie noises. Oh how he laughed…

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GNoH Review: Night’s End (2022)

An anxious shut-in moves into a haunted apartment, hiring a stranger to perform an exorcism which quickly takes a horrific turn (IMDB)

I liked the way it built up slowly; the more psychological elements of the story and how it affected Ken, taking away his control and grip on reality. It reminded me of Host and the way that builds up the terror by not really knowing what is going on and whether things are real.

See the full review at Ginger Nuts of Horror HERE

GNoH Review: Slapface (2021)

A boy deals with the loss of his mother by creating a dangerous relationship with a monster rumored to live in the woods. (IMDB)

If you want gore and intense, scary scenes then this isn’t for you, but if you fancy something a little more psychological, which doesn’t hold your hand through all the plot turns, then I think you will enjoy Slapface. The plot is not overly original and, while you can see most of the twists and turns coming, the set-ups and ending still leave you with some questions about what was real and what might just be supernatural.

See the full review at Ginger Nuts of Horror HERE