Arkham Knight

Well, it TAKES place on Halloween after all.

Marvelous and rich finale towards the Arkham Batman games, Arkham Knight is the first next generation entry and for the first time, you will be able to control the Batmobile and perform neat tricks with it.

After Arkham City's conclusion and Joker's death, Scarecrow has returned to let Gotham be imprisoned by fear and he is determined to suffer Batman and end his legend. Working together with the mysterious Arkham Knight, a militarized villain, they plot together with the other notorious rogues including Two-Face, The Penguin and The Riddler in order to finally put down the Bat.

With a huge city to explore comprised of 3 main islands, the adventure has never been bigger. The excellent gameplay variety includes stealth, combat, detective work and now also road action. The majority of Batman's gadgets return alongside newer ones, and the cast is rich, huge and it contains the perfect excuse to bring Joker back, deepening his relationship with the Bat even further.

I very much enjoyed Alfred's company, Riddler's usual ridiculous amount of obsessive riddles to be solved, doing the Most Wanted side quests and seeing the plot twist unfold as well as seeing the complete ending in this long night.

The Batmobile felt extreme and polarizing at first compared to Batman's golden rule of not killing, but it actually is a necessity against the drone threats and at best it serves as collatoral damage as designed such by Lucius Fox.

As the largest entry, there is of course a lot of stuff to do. Some of the new Most Wanted intrigued me more than others. Man-Bat's intro spooked the shit out of me as I traveled on a random rooftop. And several of Joker's hallucinations as well actually!

Professor Pyg's debut is also in here, and he's the most interesting and modern rogue villain as a psychopath if you ask me, with an obsession of about beauty and he is also leader of the Circus of Strange.

Joker's unique role and perfect excuse for returning instead of being actually alive made him even better and more complete than before, and it's great that Mark Hamill also returned for this!  The way the clown and bat confront each other at the climax is also twisted.

Arkham Knight is a great closure for the series, but considering that Batman is more popular than ever arguably, I am sure that he will return when speaking of video games, it's just that the story ought to be approached differently then.

Happy Halloween!

Rating: 9.2

Cold Fish

 

A strong and chilling Japanese thriller where extreme gore, pure black comedy, suspense and a compelling story come together in order to create a worthwhile shocking movie to consider.

In the likes of The Untold Story(1993), Cold Fish parallels Mr.Shamoto's quiet yet dramatic life, until he and his family in a twist of faith encounter a middle aged business rival; Mr.Murata. They are both tropical fish sellers, but it becomes clear that Murata has a better shop.

Not only that, the energic salesman happens to be quite enthusiastic about their sudden meeting at a supermarket, and he decides to keep in touch. And by keeping in touch, he eventually succeeds in letting Shamoto's daughter work for him and letting his wife discuss the future of Mikuto, the daughter at Amazon Gold.

Instead, he enters the dilemma of the family and proceeds by raping Shamoto's wife, and who knows what Murata does with all of his workers under him. After attempting to make Shamoto his new business partner, the quiet protagonist gets the shock of his life when he becomes an accomplice during a business meeting, where he is ordered to take the numb body to a hidden shack.

There, Mr.Murata and his vicious and maniac wife slaughter the whole body of a former business partner into flesh and bare bones, and proceed to eliminate both, thus making the person "invisible". And this is all happening at a fast pace in just around 40 minutes in while the whole movie is about 150 minutes.

Murata keeps making the life of Shamoto especially a living hell, by blackmailing and abusing him. We never get to know much about Shamoto, but is is clear that he is a coward and is clueless about solving difficult issues.

After the latest "invisible" events, Murata provokes and judges Shamoto's whole life so much that the latter finally goes into a rage and during a twisted fuck between Murata's wife and Shamoto, he heavily wounds both of them by the use of a pen, and has taken matters into his own hands.

I must say that he performance of Murata is deliciously enjoyable to watch and like the villain in I Saw the Devil or Anthony Wong in his CAT III movies, he is a worthy and memorable man you will love to hate.

Anyway once Murata is dead, Shamoto becomes the new Murata and brutally controls his wife and daughter while Murata's wife is his as well. In the end he became a worthy successor after all, but decides to suicide in order to end the pain. This is Shion Sono's best yet.

Rating: 7.5

Until Dawn

 

 

A phenomenal new horror game that is clearly a love letter towards the whole genre, Until Dawn is a surprise hit with interesting features. Designed by Supermassive Games to be replayed several times in order to grasp the full picture, this long night will surely suck you in.

A group of 8 friends (and more or less 4 couples) decide to hold a somewhat awkward reunion in a lodge at Blackwood Pines in order to commemorate/pay respects towards two twin sisters who died of unknown reasons a year earlier.

Playing from a third person perspective, you are able to control all 8 characters during the various chapters coming along. They were all likable to me except for Emily, who really seemed to be narcissistic and ego-centered to me.

The scenery is snow oriented, and to me, the developers did a really good job with realistic graphics for the environments and the locations did not only include the lodge and the snowy hills, but also dark mines and a sanatorium, alongside a few smaller buildings.

The same cannot entirely be said for the animations of the characters themselves. For the most part, they look just fine, but at some points, I couldn't help but notice that their facial expressions were quite weird despite this being a horror game.

It's still quite cool how all of them are based of real actors, such as Rami Malek playing Josh, the host of the reunion. And I wouldn't be surprised if more developers would pursue this concept and use more actors for upcoming games, especially if they are AAA.

When eight friends become trapped on a remote mountain getaway gone wrong, things quickly turn sinister and they start to suspect they aren’t alone. Every choice the player makes while playing as each of the eight friends – even the seemingly trivial ones – will carve out a unique story. The player's actions alone determine who survives until dawn.

The Butterfly Effect is intact, meaning that the slightest impact of the moral and survival choices being made could determine a total different ending. There are HUNDREDS of endings possible, from everyone surviving, towards no one surviving at all.

Scares in here range from psycho pranks and jump scares, towards hallucinations, gory deaths and the gruesome Wendigo's, who were normal humans once who worked into the dark mines with dangerous obstacles. It also turns out that Hannah, one of Josh's twin sisters, has turned into one of them, and depending on the outcome of your progression, she/it could be responsible for the deaths of the cast.

The Dr.Hill "sessions" are very reminiscent of Silent Hill Shattered Memories, only that this time, they deteriorate and get worse as it becomes clear that the doctor isn't entirely friendly and could very well be a fake persona instead.

Fixed camera angles with occasional "swooping" as characters traverse into other area's was designed with the utmost effect and care, as they heightened the suspension and eventual scares, just like Resident Evil and Silent Hill used to do as well.

Until Dawn is not a contender for one of the scariest video games ever, but it easily attempted something different what with the Butterfly Effect being intact, the possibility of seeing futuristic outcomes through the Totem System, and having a ton of possible endings, meaning that there most likely is no official ending, until Supermassive Games decides to make a direct sequel. 

Sometimes the scary elements went a bit overboard, but in overall, there are definitely some effective ones to be found. And now that I have beaten it once, I cannot wait to replay Until Dawn and collect the other clues in order to know more about what happened or could happen!

Rating: 8.3

The Mummy! Or a Tale of the Twenty-Second Century

 

No, this is not a mummy novel based on the Universal Studios films. This is more based on what Mary Shelley's Frankenstein novel inspired it to be, which is science fiction with horror. Written by Jane C. Loudon, this is not a recommendable book.

But since I was curious to discover this to be one of the earliest examples of a "Mummy's curse", I gave it a try. What I found out upon completing the story is that there is a lack of imagination, horror or admirable writing to be found in my opinion.

There were too many characters involved for this type of literature to co-exist, and since it was happening so far into the future, why did monarchies still exist? Why was there so much political talk about sovereign topics? Or am I simply unable to grasp the author's vision here anno 1827?

The mummy resurrected in question, called Cheops, merely manipulates and makes slaves of others while not really acting like a mummy itself, but more of a diabolical presence who inspired vice actions from the others.

Believe me, the way I attempt to summarize this is more exciting to read than the novel itself, it's not like it's a true classic compared to the other two novels I reviewed this month. But since I am always inclined to go as far back as possible in regards to experiencing all kinds of mediums through their origins, I did the same here.

And The Mummy! did not deliver.

Rating: *(out of 4)

Ghosts 'N Goblins

Capcom's Ghosts 'N Goblins is an old school title from the Arcade, Commodore 64 and the NES where you play as Sir Arthur who is determined to rescue his princess. As a platformer, the NES version of which I will review now is in particular truly difficult.

To start with, in order to see the true ending, you will have to beat the whole game twice. It's sort of similar towards The Legend of Zelda having 2 different quests as well, as well as several other NES games.

The intense difficulty comes from several factors. First of all, after getting hit two times, you are dead, which actually is similar towards Super Mario Bros. when I think about it, but there are more handicaps other than health points.

Second, the jumping manoeuvre for this as well as latter Ghosts 'N Goblins feels stiff, and I never really liked it, unlike other platformers from the same era, like Castlevania. There's a limited amount of freedom involved letting you only jump forward, upward or backward, but never more than that.

Third, there is one enemy in particular that will annoy the shit out of everyone attempting to beat this. They are the Red Gargoyles who fly around quite randomly and unexpected. Ironically, these enemies spawned a spin-off series called Gargoyle's Quest.

Other than the brutal difficulty, Ghosts 'N Goblins is a short and average session for me, but i do like the horror mood and graphics and sounds it provides, making it a memorable title even though it is by far not one of my favorites on the Nintendo Entertainment System.

Rating: 6.4

SOMA

Frictional Games has been known for Amnesia and the Penumbra series previously. Now they have created SOMA, which is ultimately more of the same kind of gameplay, which makes it tedious, but it has without a doubt the best setting, writing and plot themes.

You awaken on the underwater research facility known as PATHOS-2, where scientists and engineers have worked together on marine based technology and sustainability, as well as a project called ARK, meant to safe humanity.

SOMA is a science fiction survival horror game with control mechanics very similar to Amnesia such as having no combat, being able to hide and being advised not to look at the enemies, which are by the way quite dissapointing.

Simon and Catherine are the main characters, but they aren't humans anymore. As the plot develops, you will learn more about what went horribly wrong on the surface, at PATHOS-2 and at of course themselves. Let's just say that terms such as transhumanism, cancer and evolution are all relative and part of the premise.

Despite their lack of humanity(depending on your perspective and opinion), the relationship between Simon and Catherine was still very human like. And the goal of reaching the ARK while going through various facilities reminded me kind of the route the space marine took with Doom 3.

As far as interactivity and puzzles go, SOMA did a fine job with those, as there was diversity to be found, and there was almost no hand-holding to be found. The pacing was once again content but I wouldn't want to replay this anytime soon.

Again, the various terminals reminded me of Doom 3's GUI as well. The Omnitool is simply a plot device with upgradable chips which allow you to get further in the game. How SOMA ends is depressing as well as hopeful, making it a highlight.

However, on a whole, I feel that Frictional Games needs to step up their innovation in regards to gameplay and mechanics if you ask me. SOMA is good for a run, but I feel that if their next project will be similar, then their reputation will start to plunder.

Rating: 7.3

The Evil Within

Shinji Mikami's apparent swan song is flawed, but in the end the good outweighs the bad. The Evil Within is a survival horror set from a third person perspective, where you plas as a dull detective named Sebastian, and together with the forgettable Kidman and Joseph, they must uncover the mystery behind Ruvik's supernatural doings.

Or is it perhaps all inside an evil mind? Taking you to illogical nightmarish places full of traps and horrific monsters, the pacing can be felt with plenty of tension, and the games does a good job with atmosphere and jump scares, for the most part.

I noticed way too many technical issues and some poor design decisions which reminded me of The Evil Within's familiar but tiresome gameplay. Obvious nods towards his great games Resident Evil and Resident Evil 4 are present, mostly in the form of the mechanics and specific locations with their objects, and resources are for the most part scarce, or at least way lower than for instance Resident Evil 5 and 6.

I thought that the burning aspect with the matches was noticable, but maybe they should had done some more with it. Upgrading your gear is done in the form of a mysterious hospice scene that keeps coming back in the plot itself as well, and you must collect jars with green ooze and hidden keys in order to prepare yourself towards the evil dangers.

Another thing that bothered me is the game's many one hit kill attacks from several enemies, mostly the bosses, but on the other hand, you are equipped with ranged weaponry, and the AI isn't so smart. So the plot and writing were bad, but some of the special effects so to speak were well done.

I was hoping to see a bit more variety in regards to monster design, because I was led to believe that The Evil Within would be some kind of all-stars monsters based title judging from the trailers.

Rating: 7.7

Five Nights at Freddy's 2

 

I am well aware that this has become a successful series in a very short amount of time, and the rate at which the sequels have been released seems to be even faster than the annual release of the Saw movies during the 00's, so that makes it kind of exciting, as well as kind of sad.

For this year, I will deliberately focus on the first sequel instead, because I might get some kind of "burn out" from all of the animatronics that want to scare the hell out of me. I actually continued with this series for this month and not any time earlier, so here we go.

Five Nights at Freddy's 2 is a proper sequel with the same kind of gameplay to be found, except that new enemies have been introduced, that you are no longer able to close off doors and instead, you are able to hide with your Freddy Fazbear mask now. A flashlight and music box are also new features to keep "them" away.

Honestly, while I thought that the original was certainly effective, well done and original, at this point already, I can't help but wonder if I really want to embrace the constant jump scares or to be dissapointed by them and label them as cheap scares instead.

This is a discussion which has gone for decades in regards to building up suspense, making diversive cat scares and then coming with jump scares afterwards can certainly be good times, but the amount that these kind of games offer are well... mixed thoughts for me.

What I do agree on with everyone is that the Five Nights at Freddy's games are great to watch unfold while others play through them, making them excellent companions, and certainly the most famous Let's Plays such as PewDiePie and Markiplier make them even more famous, which is good for the developer.

Unfortunately there is a steep difficulty which goes up higher and faster than the original, making the jumpscares not only scarier, but eventually also more annoying, because gamers love to progress and beat video games in general, and this one won't let you do so easily.

By all means, Five Nights at Freddy's 2 is a good sequel, certainly very effective and scary at what it does, and yet, I can't help but feel cheated by the restrictive movement and survival options which is a principle which most likely won't go away, otherwise it would just be a regular horror game, making you able to escape and turn your back.

So congratulations Scott Cawthon, you have found a cash cow.

Rating: 7.5

Dracula

 

Everyone knows this already, but to announce it again; Bram Stoker's Dracula, a gothic horror novel changed the mythology of vampires forever, or at least modernized it. Before that, vampires existed in fiction or myths already, but they were never uplifted as much until 1897.

Like Frankenstein's novel, the narration is told in epistolary format, meaning that there were plenty of letters and logs corresponding around different characters throughout the unfolding taking place primarily in London, England and Transylvania, Romania. Also, seeing the words "gay spirits" several times kind of made me confused.

The story is of course about vampire Count Dracula's ambition to find new suitable blood and spread the undead curse even further, such as by turning more victims into loyal servants, as witnessed by the three sisters occupying his castle already at the intro chapters.

Standing in his way is the eventual coalition of partners whose own partners have become victimized by him, such as Jonathan Harker becoming a prisoner, or Lucy Westenra becoming a vampire who stalks young children.

Leading this coalition is vampire hunter Abraham Van Helsing, Dracula's arch nemesis and likewise, and for the first time I just discovered by reading the novel that he actually has a Dutch nationality, quite intriguing!

Renfield is one of the characters I had never heard of before, basically, he is an insane man who wishes to consume insects, spiders, birds, and rats to absorb their "life force", and therefore assimilate to Dracula himself.

While I liked reading the novel finally, I can't help but feel that it was too long of a read and that the pacing was too dragged out. While I definitely liked the first and final parts, the middle part of the chapters felt too big.

But that's just my opinion, it's still worth reading if you would like to know where it all started before the endless amounts of Dracula and vampire media in general got out for over a century now. And it might never change again, until somethings tops over the Dracula mythos.

(And that certainly won't be the Twilight novels/movies for instance, yuck)

Rating: **(out of 4)

The Golden Age of Horror Cinema

Most people tend to agree that the 70's and the 80's were the Golden Age of Horror Cinema, while anything before that could be considered Classical instead. In these decades, the genre saw enormous amounts of quantity, but fortunately also a dozen amount of quality pictures.

Some of the greatest horror films to be released both critically and commercially include the often labeled first blockbuster Jaws(1975), the scariest movie ever The Exorcist(1973), the slasher in space Alien(1979), Kubrick's superior adaptation The Shining(1980) and the underrated The Thing(1982), amongst several others.

The slasher sub-genre in particular rose up through spectacular amounts of which I would not dare to guess how many were made and released in this era. Having already mentioned the three most famous serial killers in The Reigning Horror Icons of the 80's, these of course include Michael Myers, Jason Voorhees and Freddy Krueger. An early and personal favorite of mine however is Black Christmas(1974).

Gore-fests were also very well presented in various storylines, including Sam Raimi and Bruce Campbell's The Evil Dead(1981)and Evil Dead II(1987),sci-fi zombie flick Re-Animator(1985), B-movie Bad Taste(1987), Romero's Dawn of the Dead(1978) and Day of the Dead(1985), extreme violence Cannibal Holocaust(1980) and sado-masochistic Hellraiser(1987) amongst others.

Experimental and supernatural horrors were also established throughout the Golden Age, including obviously Eraserhead(1977), the creepy The Entity(1981), body horror Videodrome(1983), beautiful Suspiria(1977), the underrated Bad Ronald(1974), the ultra violent The Last House on the Left(1972), the bizarre Phantasm(1979) and actually plenty more.

Truly, most of these were made before I was born, and yet, most of my favorite horror movies come from these two decades. There are so many notable ones to see once you have become a fan that it sometimes really feels like there are always hidden gems to discover for the 70's and the 80's.

.Flow

Welcome back to the Moonside, otherwise known as the Weird and the Scary zone of quirky Japanese games. Yume Nikki with it's simple design and premise spawned dozens of fan games, and this is arguably the most famous, and some would say it's even better.

.Flow is presumed to mean something akin to being lost in the reality of a computer's memory hardwired with the playable white haired's memory, or at least several theories for the title's meaning and the overall meaning of the "plot" have been developed by the community.

Also designed with RPG Maker, it's another trippy downfall into metaphorical and symbolistic plains of expressing our protagonist's state of being, and at the same time the designer's creative vision as easily witnessed by looking at the many kinds of different worlds inside the computer's reality.

Once again are there Effects to be discovered in each of the worlds for your character to use, and collecting all of them as you will most likely wander aimlessly means that you will have unlocked one of three endings at the least.

But wandering aimlessly and being sucked inside .Flow's world in reminiscence of Yume Nikki is exactly what makes these games very effective at what they want to achieve with gamers. They want to confuse and to let you evoke dark emotions while you attempt to rationalize like a silly person what could be happening regarding substance or subconscious towards .Flow's presentation, visuals and mute characters.

The cryptic wandering is enjoyable for those who like to explore and could perhaps understand the overall design better than those with short attention spans, or little kids. I still prefer Yume Nikki's world and for laying the foundation for these kind of games, of which I still wonder how to describe them as a genre.

But certainly do not miss out or take .Flow lightly if you crave for more creepy venturing. A 2D walking simulator perhaps so strange, that it could be considered cozy or comfortable for the most invested.

Rating: 7.1

The Binding of Isaac

Edmund Mcmullen collaborates with Nicalis to bring this remake of a popular flash game. After Super Meat Boy's success, this seems his next current popularity. The Binding of Isaac(Rebirth) is a bird's eye randomized dungeon crawler where you first play as Isaac running away from his religious fanatical mother into the basement and beyond.

The random elements include level and enemy designs, dropped loots, secrets and more. There are literally hundreds of unique items available, and I have yet to see them all after dozens of runs I have played through.

Most of the items are beneficial, others downgrade your character in various ways. Some runs felt cheap and bastardized and unfair because of this. The boss pool is surprisingly large, showing the designer's love for enemy design in general, and I think that all of those similar looking faces where cute despite the game's creepy themes playing, which is almost unheard of in video games.

The Binding of Isaac is an above average, successful and most of the time challenging video game where I applaud it's replayability but have mixed thoughts with it's randomized factors, meaning somethimes I was having a blast, and sometimes I just wanted to start over.

Rating: 7.8

Fatal Frame

It's about time I continued with this series.

At first, I wanted to review part 1, 3 and 4 all at once, but then I became aware that 5 is releasing at the end of October, and because of time constraints, I was unable to play through 3 or 4 for the first time yet. Therefore I have decided to leaving Fatal Frame as a series towards the original for the time being, while I already reviewed 2's remake a few years ago.

The Camera Obscura concept is established here, and it's great to play with this formula again, I really missed out on these installments and I intend to beat them all. The original's story focuses on a missing brother investigating strange occurences at the Himuro Mansion, and his little sister intends to find him and discover the truth abput strange rituals taking place there.

There are hostile and neutral ghosts wandering about, intended to scare you and possibly defeat you. It's another dark setting with miminum amounts of light, and you will have to solve puzzles, sometimes creepy ones, in order to progress.

Demon seals are also present which block doors, and the only way to unseal them is by photographing ghosts who are hiding on various spots left behind as clues through the shots you make on the seals. Although Fatal Frame is not as scary as the sequel, there are still eerie and jumpy moments to be found, and it's certainly not a theme park for children to play around in.

The gameplay is well designed and quite original at the time of it's release, making it a respectable installment that alongside Resident Evil and Silent Hill could be considered perhaps all part of the Big Three of horror video game franchises at some point, although RE and SH could use a new killer installment right about now.

If you like Japanese culture and wonder what the deal is about scary Japanese ghost stories, Fatal Frame would be a great start for you. Excellent to break the ice with, to create a suspenseful mood and it's very suitable to play on Halloween, or at least in october.

Rating: 8.0

Monster Party

Abnormal NES game with unfamiliar boss battles, creepy scenes and simple gameplay. The story is that you will help a monster defeat evil monsters by fusing with it to gain powers.

Alongside using your bat, you will be able to transform into the monster to fly when you pick up the item which looks like a drugged medicine. An iconic scene is early on at the huge cactus when the screen changes from a trippy scene into a messed up scary scene, definitely for 80’s standards.

The bosses are sometimes really out there, when they sometimes just won’t attack you or die by themselves for the strangest reasons. The animations of the playable character are quite refreshing. If he hits the ceiling, his head gets hurt.

  

If he crouches, he lays down on the ground like a lazy dog and you can even move forward slowly. And if you jump, you can fall down quickly simply by pressing down. So a lot of thought was focused in this area.

Each round consists of three bosses to fight, ranging from simple battles reflecting their missiles back to bizarre conditions and appearances in them. Horror pop culture is also widely present, and it's notorius and unique for having large amounts of blood present while Nintendo was well known for censoring adult themes.

Monster Party also feels like a lost cousin towards the Splatterhouse series for having some creepy enemy design and by the way a pretty haunting ending too. I would never have discovered this obscure game as a kid, but now I am glad I have experienced it.

Rating: 7.6

Blood

 

In the 90's, there was a trio of first person shooters that each looked similar towards each other, as they were all developed using the Build engine. You have Duke Nukem 3D with the aliens, you have Shadow Warrior with the demon ninja's, and you have Blood with the demons in general.

Blood is an immense fun yet simple experience of which it's predecessors could be called Doom I, II and Wolfenstein 3D, respectively. Being among one of the earliest examples of each weapon having secondary attacks, it's a fan favorite for various reasons.

First of all, the weapons themselves are worth mentioning, which not only include a shotgun and a fork stick, but also magical artifacts, a voodoo doll, a shock rifle and a flammable cannister. They certainly felt tactical for different situations.

Then there is the level design, which range from going from a carnival, to a haunted mansion, to a graveyard, to a hospital, to an industrial facility, towards many other different kinds of levels. What's great is that they have many kinds of secret area's to be found.

Blood has the tendency through it's playable character Caleb to quote and references many famous horror movies such as The Shining, Jaws, Dawn of the Dead and Army of Darkness, making it a charming revenge crusade suitable for horror fans.

It also has great enemy design, and I was actually scared as a kid and teenager for not only their appearances and sounds, but also their hidden and clever placements throughout the levels, which alongside the hazards and puzzles makes up for good times.

Although not as well known as Duke Nukem 3D or Shadow Warrior, Blood really is recommendable if you want to have played one of the best FPS's from the 90's. The graphical violence is exaggerated and very entertaining!

Frankenstein or The Modern Prometheus

 

Victor Frankenstein is fascinated by natural philosophy and chemistry, and his favorite topics involve life and death and all inbetween which makes him able to experiment. One day, as inspiration becomes full circle, he comprises a revolutionary idea.

Written by Mary Wollstonecraft Shelly when she was just eigtheen years old, Frankenstein or The Modern Prometheus is the novel that inspired countless amounts of movie adaptations, making it's starring creature globally known.

With an obssessive compulsive need to succeed in his life work of combining various deceased body parts and murdered victims (sometimes even by himself) into a decayed giant, he eventually succeeds with the power of lightning to spark life into it.

A common error is that Frankenstein is the creature, but Victor is actually the mad scientist and the creature has no name.What truly makes the novel interesting is not the creation of this madness, but the reaction of humanity, making it not only a horror tale, but also food for thought regarding scientific ethics and their consequences.

In the novel, the creature is conscious of it's existence and being different from man, and at one point demands a partner from his creator. It also manages to feel joy and kindness, but is surpressed from those emotions by the horrified villagers.

Although it is enriched by it's writing style of explaining the chapters, I did not like all parts that overused it, as some of it felt like optional side stories. In the end, Victor's tragedy of his dear friends falling while he continues to be fascinated by the creature makes Frankenstein a worthwhile read even today.

Rating: ** stars(out of 4)

Odallus: The Dark Call

Inspired by Castlevania, Ghosts n’ Goblins and Demon’s Crest, Odallus: The Dark Call is an 8 bit esque action platformer developed by a Brazilian team with love and passion.

With very responsive controls, good stages, hidden secrets and challenging enemies, Odallus is a feast to play for fans of the old NES and SNES games I just mentioned, plus it has a mini boss with exact attacks taken from Mega Man X Mavericks Chill Penguin and Launch Octopus!

The graphics are a mix between NES and Sega Genesis(Splatterhouse comes to mind) if you ask me, the story is simple but effective and has a good twist, the length is enough and the music is pretty good! There are also alternative paths to discover, and the world map feels old school.

In overall another recommended indie game, celebrating towards similar games when I myself was grewing up with them.

Rating: 8.1

Alien: Isolation

The concept is marvelous for a survival horror; Ripley's daughter is onboard a space station, looking for clues as to the whereabouts of her mother after her escape from the first Alien film. 

What makes it really work is that you must navigate and move with a clear conscience all the time, not only towards your objective, but you will have to evade enemies as well, including humans, androids and the notorious Xenomorph itself.

What sprankled the experience even further is that specific details from the first two movies are present throughout the rather long campaign, such as those keycards, those vents, the mapping device, the alarming sounds and the trademarks of the Alien itself.

It certainly isn't your average survival horror video game, and it works, but dying in one hit over and over for the early missions can be frustrating, especially knowing that the AI of the Xenomorph adapts to your behaviour in game and can maneuvrer randomly.

And that is actually a positive aspect, it's just that the game felt too challenging at times. The flamethrower however reduces that, but Alien Isolation continues to have a steady pace even with those false climaxes, and surviving the horror is really present.

Rating: 7.9

The Silent Age of Horror Cinema

Let's take a look at influential and important horror movies from the earliest decades of cinema, as well as a personal favorite of mine from the 30's.

Le Manoir du Diable(1896)

Let's go back way, way into the past for the entire genre, paying my respects to a foundation which has lasted more than a century now in this medium. Generally considered to be technically the very first horror movie in cinema history, although the tone was intended to amuse and wonder viewers. 

Also known as The Haunted Castle, Le Manoir du Diable has horror themes playing, including the transformation of a bat and the Devil being present. Commons folks are getting overpowered by the Devil and his henchmen in here, and that's all happening in 3 minutes and roughly 18 seconds.

 The Cabinet of Dr.Caligari(1919)

Considered to be pretty much the first pure horror movie, The Cabinet of Dr.Caligari has unique backgrounds, unusual colors, an involving storyline and haunting music. I am still not much of a fan of silent movies with sudden text scenes inbetween though.

The story actually is more deep than a doctor showing his monster, because the development is bigger than that and it also has a twist ending, for an old movie that's pretty cool. Should you be interested as to where horror cinema started then this should be a great start for you. 

It directly and indirectly has influenced and inspired countless of horror movies. It's also part of the so called German Expressionism. 

Destiny(1921)

Influenced Alfred Hitchcock and Luis Bunuel respectively, Fritz Lang's Destiny is about a woman losing her fiance, and encounters the personification of Death, who tells her that in order to find her lover, she will be given 3 chances to save him.

 In consequence, 3 different tales are being told, one in Persia, one in Italy and one in China. If she can save an important life in any of the tales, her beloved will return. Candles and the grim reaper are symbols representing life and death.

It has been said that this film is rich with special effects, but I was more involved with the film style and the beautiful written text for this silent story, as well as the implemented music. For a more rich film about special effects, I would have to suggest Häxan(1922) instead. Destiny is more story oriented, but remains a visual art picture nonetheless.

Nosferatu(1922)

The haunting music and the lightning effects were probably the best thing that this old movie offers. Nosferatu is a very early and very popular vampire movie, for providing groundbreaking horror effects back in the day. The count himself still looks frightening today.

It's one of the best earliest known horror available. Like many old movies from the 10's, 20's and 30's, I respect them first and foremost, but most of them simply do not get higher ratings than 6 or 7's from me, simply because they are less effective for my generation.

A 7 in my mind is always worthwhile to watch at least once in a lifetime, while 6's are most of the time the same, except on a much lower level. Definitely do not miss out on Nosferatu if you want to have seen it all regarding the most famous horror movies!

 The Phantom of the Opera(1925)

The classic horror romance tale about ugliness and beauty, The Phantom of the Opera's first film adaptation is iconic for featuring masterful special effects for the Phantom's face, but also of the grand chandelier falling into the opera. 

Christine is targeted by the Phantom to become his love and wife, and while attempting so, creates victims and difficult choices for her to pursue. As a tragic character, Erik the mad composer is an interesting misguided villain or monster to read into.

 Faust(1926)

Classic tale about an alchemist who makes a pact with Mephisto in order to get earthly pleasants such as youth, wealth and temptation. Faust eventually struggles and is corrupted by Mephisto's pact and on top of that is shown his true colors to the villagers and his loved ones. In the end Faust sacrifices himself in the name of love, and thus Mephisto loses his bet in the end.

 The Invisible Man(1933)

You were expecting Dracula, Frankenstein or The Mummy, weren't you? You might find them elsewhere this month...!

A chemist discovers the recipe for turning completely invisible, but because of a certain drug being used in the process, becomes homicidal insane and acknowledges the power his new state has given him.

After causing ruckus at an inn, he contacts his old friend and demands him to partner up, but that doesn't work out and soon everyone is becoming afraid and they are looking for the invisible man.

The special effects felt outstanding to me anno 1933, the dialogue was marvelous and the joy of experimenting with the invisibility theme felt good! Certainly a unique and effective horror movie from the 30's!