Amnesia

At the very least doesn’t Frictional Games’s latest franchise have a majority of bugs I found in Penumbra: Overture, and next to that, the setting, dialogue, voice acting and horror have improved.

You are stranded in a large castle, suffering from amnesia and it is up to you to unravel the mysteries surrounding the location and ultimately escape. The creatures following you around had the purpose of holding your tension, you are after all unable to fight back.

Like Clock Tower and Haunting Ground, you must hide, avoid and as an added effect, reach for the light, or else your sanity will get to you. Or, if you look at the Gatherers for too long, you will suffer even worse and your vision becomes blurred and your controls lessened.

Unlike Outlast, Amnesia: The Dark Descent keeps the pacing effective, and there is no repetitive nature to be found here. As your character can only carry a lamp, tinderboxes and run away, you  must adapt to the darkness and solve puzzles while avoiding the creatures.

I do applaud these kinds of independent horror games, removing the violence option and leaving survival horror closer than ever, even more than the original Resident Evil, Silent Hill or Fatal Frame. It's a good current trend.

Eventually the story takes a new direction at the climax, allowing you to make up your own ending, but as with Overture before, I wasn’t really interested in the overall story, I was only interested in the clues for solving the puzzles and disturbing events playing here and there out.

Rating: 7.5

In this indirect sequel, you are tasked with rescuing your children from some vague industrial behemoth known as the Machine. I felt that the narrative and the plot were much stronger here than in The Dark Descent.

However, the gameplay has become even more thin than before. A Machine for Pigs removes item management, lamp refillment, an inventory and even the sanity. What you get in return is a permanent lit lamp while reading journals and storing memo's are intact.

Navigation felt disoriented but I always seemed to be able to find my next path. The Manpigs are a dissapointing enemy, but an interesting story object, as the Machine was created by the main character to deal with the degenerates.

These involve the poor, the beggars, the orphans, the whores, the filthy and the rest of the lowest "classes". I am not entirely sure how the machine for pigs works, but from what I gathered, these kinds of people were captured, slaughtered and then they were turned into pigs.

Meaning they were figuratively speaking already pigs, but the Machine merely killed and perhaps disguised the bodies inside pig parts? Not really sure, but I liked where the story was going and how it ended.

But a story alone cannot save a simplistic game like A Machine for Pigs, and therefore, it's a dissapointing sequel. It's not even remotely scary.

Rating: 6.8

Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde

Notorious NES title that has ruined many children's lives back in the 80's. Since Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde has gained negative attention thanks to the internet stars, I decided to delve into this game as well.

What I found out is that rumors regarding mechanics, difficulty and general annoyance all were exaggerated in my opinion. Instead, I figured out how the gameplay works after a few deaths. The game is split up into two gameplay segments.

First is the Dr. Jekyll scenario, where you walk to the right, slowly, while trying to avoid any kind of enemy hazards the game throws at you. The enemies are bizar, including pink gentlemen carrying bombs, singing fat ladies and gravediggers.

The second scenario is played out with Mr.Hyde. This only happens when your second meter, which I call the rage meter, has been depleted(or rather filled up). This occurs when enemies have hit you enough times, but you have a HP meter that also gets affected.

If your HP meter is depleted, regardless of turning into Mr.Hyde, you will die and get a game over. But if you can defeat enough demonic enemies with your alter ego, which lets you able to shoot fireballs and punch, then you will regain a lot of HP and restore your anger.

So what really matters is that you keep note of both of your meters. Sometimes it is better to enter as Mr.Hyde in order to regain HP for some of the tougher spots near the end of this game, as the length is short.

It is also required that you walk as far as possible with Dr.Jekyll because if you otherwise walk towards his location with Mr.Hyde, you will also receive an instant game over. This is odd and frustrating, but only at the beginning.

Dr. Jekyll and Mr.Hyde turns out to be a very average game, but it's playable if you can outsmart your enemies, it's beatable(As I got to the ending) and you might even slightly like it when you understand what is required from you.

By no means an above average NES game, but it was fun to prove the pessimists wrong about this title, as there are worse games out there.

 Rating: 6.0

Eternal Darkness: Sanity's Requiem

Silicon Knights was once a successful second party developer for Nintendo until they became third party, and slowly started melting down their success after the bummer known as Too Human and having financial problems.

Recently a spiritual successor towards Eternal Darkness: Sanity's Requiem was announced on Kickstarter, but that too seems to have problems as it was unable to reach their funding goal, for now at least.

It's a shame to see them falling down like this. It's the same with Rare Ltd., but that's even worse and honestly should be reserved for another post. Let's just take a trip back to the era of GameCube, where a decade ago, arguably the best horror of that console was released.

Eternal Darkness: Sanity's Requiem is a third person adventure with a revolutionary sanity system implemented where your character will go insane because of the monsters and the scary environments.

The higher your meter, the worse you will start hallucinating and experience nightmares such as blood dripping from the walls, haunting voices, your character dying or even breaking the fourth wall such as erasing your memory card with all of your save files.

It also has a remarkable varied soundtrack that alongside the different chapters and their settings attempt to capture the atmosphere of all of the locations. From medieval times to ancient Persia and Cambodia, there is certainly enough variety, the same goes for the twelve playable characters.

The story is about an ancient evil rising up, possessing one of the twelve characters, and it's up to you to stop it. What's more interesting is that you are able to choose one essence from 3 ancient gods, giving you either more strength, more intelligence or more sanity.

There are 3 main gods involved; Chattur'gha the Red, Ulyaoth the Blue and Xel'lotath the Green. They have a rock-paper-scissor theme playing, and this also reflects back with the enemy design and how your characters benefit depending on which essence you will choose.

In the shadows however, a fourth being is involved, who is called the Corpse God Mantorok the Purple. And there are even subtle hints that a fifth Yellow god exists too, but we might never know the lore of Eternal Darkness fully.

Gameplay involves puzzles, combat, magic spells and the sanity effects I talked earlier about. By using a specific alignment, you will be able to enhance weapons, change the puzzles, invoke a strength and a weakness plus change the story considerably depending on which god you choose.

Eternal Darkness has a creepy tone in general but it's most of all the alignment and sanity features that shaped this up into a unique horror game classic. What's interesting is that Nintendo producers were involved with this project as well, making it the first serious attempt at the genre from the video game company.

Rating: 9.0

The Collector

Why did I not see this sooner!? I’ve been missing out on one hell of an exciting movie! The Collector is about a desperate ex-convict trying to get a debt taken care of hanging on the edge at his ex-wife. As he tries to reason with the loan sharks, he decides to act irrational by breaking and entering inside his new employer’s country home to perform a heist.

Arkin the ex-con attempts to break the safe holding a valuable ruby, but the collector has then entered and locked the room he was in. Arkin’s new boss Michael appears bloody and beaten, and as he attempts to attack him, a trap goes off around the golf club he wanted to pick up, knocking him out.

As Arkin tries to call 911, another trap is set on the phone while the windows have been boarded up with razors behind them, keeping communication and escape out. From then on out, The Collector becomes Home Alone for adults, with unpredictable deadly traps awaiting all around the home and victims being dispersed in such ways that chaos is controlled for a while, until Arkin starts to outsmart the collector.

The suspense and intensity got better and better the longer I watched and there were scenes where I really got surprised of the creative outcomes, plus the gore and deaths will make gore seekers very happy.

Some really solid acting work from Arkin and realistic reactions from the others in this bizarre situation, while the collector himself might look bland first, but his actions surely only made him more memorable the longer I watched.

And he is supposed to have a theme with spiders playing, as he appears to be an exterminator for insects, has spider eyes and takes care of them, like they are his family. This is a must see for thriller and horror fans, where gore and Home Alone fans will especially be pleased!

Rating: 7.5

The Collection is pretty good but not as clever as the first. Effective sequel promising more of the good same traps, action, gore and thrills, The Collection goes more overboard and felt more chaotic during scenes but during the background too.

Arkin is blackmailed by a private mercenary group to rescue a wealthy man’s daughter from a booby trapped warehouse where the collector resides. As expected, the group dies off one by one, and this felt more all over the place. Still, there is creativity and exciting action to be found, and we still do not know the real relationship between Arkin and the collector, nor the latter’s motive(s).

Yes, he collects certain victims, but why? And how are they all being tested? Are the collection boxes a trademark or do they serve a higher purpose? Have these questions been answered already through hints, or will a third film reveal these? In any case, both of them were definitely something different, creative and have good thrills, action and acting.

Rating: 7.0

Macabre

I have discovered a new horror gem. A sophisticated Indonesian slasher with influences and elements including The Texas Chainsaw Massacre, Macabre is a gruesome tale about a group of normal adults that get invited towards a cannibalistic family, unknowingly of their intentions.

Also known as Rumah Darah, the buildup towards the main event is effectively introducing us towards the group, which consists of a married couple with the wife being pregnant, 3 male friends and the husband's sister.

The latter must first be convinced to wave goodbye to the couple(who are traveling to Sydney), but thanks to a conflict happening at the bar she works in, apparently she needs to recover from this, and thus she goes along.

Before continueing on the road, they pick up a stranger, Maya, who thanks them for the ride and invites them to meet her mother. The way this buildup plays up until the dinner scene is portrayed naturally, with no acting hiccups being visible for me, even if it's foreign.

The way the group gets separated from each other is not only because of a drug found in their human meat meals(and possibly blood wine), but the married couple wanted to discuss about the sister's future, so they where sent to the guest room upstairs.

Soon after the rest of the group is drugged and fallen asleep, the main event can begin. Macabre is soaring with bloody disgusting shots of decapitations and slashings. The gore flows through the villa where almost everyone dies at the end, and the body count is high.

Aside from being cannibalists, the family also works together with a secret society that has the ambitious goal of becoming immortal. I am not familiar with Indonesian cults, so indulge me about details.

Even when a cop force arrives that picked up one of the victims on the road does this massacre not end, on the contrary, the whole force gets slaughtered alongside the remaining group by the family members, consisting of mother, daughter, son and butcher/pervert son.

It's easy to say that acting, directing, cinematography or other cinematic terms are inferior in the horror genre. These excuses however do not apply here, for the characters all appeared human with the exception of the mother character perhaps for surviving a bit too much coming after her.

The cop force may have acted not smart, but they didn't look that professional either from appearances, so I can forgive how they reacted towards the madness coming after them. This family sure knows how to operate.

If you liked the French wave of horror from the late twenty zeroes, The Texas Chainsaw Massacre or any gory horror, for this one is very nasty, without further ado, go see Macabre immediately, because this Indonesian horror deserves more attention from the target audience.

Rating: 7.5

Evil Dead

It has been five years already since I last saw this incredible trilogy. What follows below are the old reviews from the trilogy and below that the recent review about the remake which came out last April.

The Evil Dead

And BAM, just like that! I can glady say that The Evil Dead is another movie who lives up to it's name as one of the best horror movies out there. Forget Halloween, forget Nightmare on Elm Street, forget Alien.

Having seen this movie for the first time today, I am honestly very surprised, considering the low budget, the special effects and the fact that Sam Reimi and friends just wanted to make a fun little horror movie.

It turns out that The Evil Dead is intense, very intense. It has scary moments, point of view scenes, suspense and fear and even lots of gore. Obviously not as much gore as Braindead, but it has a respectable amount if I may say.

The evil beings are not zombies, but demons in my opinion. A few parts are funny, intentional or not, but others are definitely scary too, so I am definitely happy to have found a scary movie once again. Sam Raimi's debut deserves all the respect in my eyes, for The Evil Dead truly is a great movie.

Rating: 8.5

 Evil Dead 2: Dead by Dawn

Delicious combination of horror and comedy! Evil Dead 2 is one heck of a ride of randomness, cat scares, gore, crazyness and entertainment. This is definitely a movie with no logic. Our hero Ash somehow gets stuck again in this crazy remakish/sequelish movie against the demons.

First he is busy with personal matters, then a group of humans arrive as well, and things start to get even more crazy. But although I enjoyed watching this wacko flick, I must say that I prefer the original Evil Dead over this one.

Evil Dead 2's greatest point is that it is mindless entertainment, but in my opinion, Sam Raimi went a bit too far by making too many over the top moments. Other good parts were the very quick scares, the "laughing scene" and Ash equipped with weaponry.

I also prefer the demons from the original over this one. So, in overall, Evil Dead 2 truly is a must see for horror fans, as it definitely is not always a comedy. Another worthwhile classic.

Rating: 7.5

Army of Darkness

The serie's weakest link, but it's humor was pretty funny. The fear and suspense moments were pretty much gone in this one. Army of Darkness feels totally different from The Evil Dead or Dead by Dawn, Ash being stuck in 1300 or something and all.

As I said, some of the humor was funny, and some ridiculous scenes are also present. The army of darkness was cheesy but entertaining, and some of Ash's one liners were funny, such as the infamous "This is my BOOMSTICK!".

It seems that at the end, the evil dead are still alive in present day, I wonder though...will they only disappear once Ash is dead himself? Remember, only he was the survivor from the past 2 movies, and the dead even follow him sort of in Army of Darkness.

The evil Ash was also briefly seen in Dead by Dawn. Eh whatever, it isn't that important. I applaud the absurd nature. And with Army of Darkness, it has ended well, but obviously the story is very much likely not over yet. There have been talks of an Evil Dead 4 for a while now by Sam Reimi. I wonder if it will ever get released, but meanwhile, there's a new kid in town.

Rating: 7.0

Evil Dead

Join the haunted house ride! You’re gonna love what we have in store for you, as anything is possible and expectations become lifted away. This is a new horror remake to challenge the viewers and the best of horror cinema in general. Regarding shock and gore, this is delivering very, very much. However, it does not surpass the original or even it’s quasi sequel.

Escalation regarding shock and gore include a demon licking a sharp working knife with tongue, ripping it into two, a girl slicing of her infecting arm with an electronic kitchen knife, a girl slashing open her mouth, a girl vomiting with either red blood or worse, a spike “gun” device being used to wound, crowbar violence, bone fragments, chainsaw to the mouth splitting someone in two and literally bloody rain.

You can tell from the opening scene that they are trying to deliver for the horror fans, after the first victim turns into the monster. Evil Dead the remake progresses quick, and classic scenes from the original include the ghostly camera technique, the tree “rape” scene, combined with new jump scares early on.

The new cast features a little sister who is unstable after her mother’s death and has overdosed already. Her big brother is annoyed upon in the group because of being quite often late with events. The high school teacher invokes the forbidden words to let hell return inside and around the cabin, and the two remaining girls are more supportive and minor than anything.

As you can guess, Evil Dead does not have a happy ending. It does feature a Bruce Campbell cameo appearance after the credits, pronouncing “groovy” in an older tone. It's an odd way of ending something like this, but at least it can be called fan service.

Rating: 7.5

Sweet Home

Highly original Famicom horror RPG where your group is interested in the work of Lady Mamiya’s fresco’s. Unbeknownst to anyone, they are soon stuck inside the lady’s mansion and must work together in ways I never saw before anywhere else in video gaming.

It is still largely very playable if you happen to try it translated, the game isn’t really cheap with awkward design, it is rather intelligently designed that each character has an ability to overcome obstacles in the mansion.

Plus, the graphics are great, especially towards the monsters inhabiting around, and the horror effects are just marvelous for 8 bit standards. The music is effective, and best of all the gameplay is very original in that you can call for help during battles, carry up to 2 items per character, pray at uncertain and desperate moments and traverse with 2 groups.

There is more, such as there are no typical RPG inns or shops to be found, every item is scattered around, plus once a character dies, it is permanent, much like Fire Emblem. Sweet Home is created in such a way so that items, even ability items, can be replaced if a person happens to die.

It is wise to level up at certain areas before going deeper in this haunted location. The game is not punishing, but only if you decide to take your time and not to rush things. You will be walking around and gathering clues along to way for the puzzles in the mean time anyway.

Sweet Home is the original survival horror game from Capcom, and is absolutely a must play for everyone interested in the horror history of video games.

Rating: 7.4