Movie Review- Insane Like Me?

 DeskPop Entertainment is excited to kick off their summer slate with the North American VOD release of Insane Like Me?, a twisted supernatural thriller where no one trusts what they think they see. Insane Like Me? debuts on Cable and Digital VOD June 4, 2024, including Apple TV, Amazon, Google Play, Fandango At Home, Comcast, Dish, and DirecTV.

Insane Like Me? is a supernatural thriller about a combat veteran who returns home after a tour of duty overseas. He becomes the lead suspect in his girlfriend's disappearance and is subsequently wrongly convicted and incarcerated. Nine years later he is released from the mental asylum, and he returns home to find the truth and settle the score.

On Halloween night, Jake, (a recently returned veteran) and his girlfriend Samantha, (the sheriff's daughter) join her brother and his girlfriend to party at what the locals call the massacre hotel, an abandoned building that is said to be haunted and responsible for over 200 deaths and mysterious disappearances.

The party is crashed by vampires and although Samantha puts up a valiant fight she is dragged off and we do not see her fate. Later at the sheriff's station where Jake is being grilled about the incidents at the party, the sheriff (played by Eric Roberts) exclaims "It was supposed to be you!" which lets us know he was somehow in on this attack but was not expecting his daughter to be taken instead of Jake. He pretends not to believe Jake's story about the vampires and has Jake committed to an insane asylum. Upon his eventual release, he sets out to find Samantha and kill the vampires. Reluctantly he allows Samantha's sister in on his plans.

Keep an eye out for dancers in the background of a party in the woods scene. I'm not sure if it was meant to be funny or whether they purposely chose people who can't dance at all but either way it gave me a laugh.

The first few attacks at the hotel were on the cheesy side. Excessive use of growling and what I call demonic voice syndrome sometimes made it difficult to understand what was being said. Later attacks looked more realistic and blood splatter effects were good.

Overall it had a decent plot instead of relying solely on gore. It wasn't scary but it did entertain me. If you like vampire movies it's worth a watch.

I gave it a 7 out of 10 on IMDB

Watch the trailer here

Their Hearses by E.L. Giles

Years ago, John Berryman was responsible for the deaths of his two children and their nanny. But John Berryman was never seen or heard from again. He simply...vanished.

Now, decades later, someone has finally purchased John Berryman's rambling old house.

Marc Larose is no stranger to loss. He hopes to bring the decaying structure to its former glory, a warm place where his family can heal and begin anew, but if these walls could talk, they'd speak of death. Only, Marc isn't listening.

Something vengeful still lingers in the shadows of the old willow, and it has its eyes set on Marc. It isn't long before he is caught in the tangles of mystery, fear, and deceit, where forces beyond his control are vying for his very soul.

Will Marc figure out who...or what...is haunting his new home before he becomes its next victim?
 

Mired in grief over the death of his son, Marc Larose leaves his wife and daughters behind while he works on a decrepit old house where he hopes to move them for a fresh start away from the tragedy that has broken their family. 

The house has had its own share of death. It was the site of a brutal mass murder, and something there still hungers for death. There is an entity that feeds off suffering and grief, and Marc is a plentiful source. It has plans for him and his family. At first, Marc tells himself that the creepy happenings could be chalked up to the locals playing pranks, but before long he is totally under the influence of the house and ready to give in to its horrific requests.

The backstory of the house and the multiple tragedies that occurred there gave this story a well-constructed beginning. It was atmospheric, dark, and terrifying. The concept of a haunted man buying a haunted house was brilliant.

As the book progressed, there were some missing details that I felt were pertinent to the story and created a bit of a plot hole. I can't say much about that without spoiling it for you so I'll just say it has to do with the disappearance of the murderer. I feel that it would have been better to address that instead of Marc's strange proclivities.

3 out of 5 stars

My Thanks to Horrorsmith Publishing.

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About the author

Craft: Stories I Wrote for the Devil by Ananda Lima

 

At a Halloween party in 1999, a writer slept with the devil. She sees him again and again throughout her life and writes stories for him about things both impossible and true. Stories I Wrote for the Devil lures readers into surreal pockets of the United States and Brazil, where they’ll find bite-size Americans in vending machines and the ghosts of living people. Ananda Lima speaks to modern Brazilian-American immigrant experiences―of ambition, fear, longing, and belonging―and reveals the porousness of storytelling and of the places we call home.

I wanted to love this book. It's clever in theory but the execution left something to be desired. 

It started off well enough, at a Halloween party where a woman is waiting for the man she loves who is actually in a relationship with her friend. How depressing right? 

While she is waiting she meets the devil himself who offers to split up the happy couple and shows that he can do it. After spending a night together she continues to see the devil in various spots...and she writes stories.

I would have preferred it if she just told those stories in a linear fashion. Instead the stories are broken up in a disjointed way. There are pages of story critiques that serve only as an interruption.

The devil was charming and I would have liked him to play a larger role.

I did enjoy some of the stories, especially Antropofaga in which tiny humans are purchased as snacks from a vending machine among all the other junk foods.

And Heaven, Hell, and Purgatory where someone's ultimate hell is Penn Station.

This was just an ok read for me. You may enjoy it more than I did.

3 out of 5 stars

My thanks to Tor Books 

Available for preorder

About the author

Incidents Around the House by Josh Malerman

A chilling horror novel about a haunting told from the perspective of a young girl whose troubled family is targeted by an entity she calls “Other Mommy,” from the New York Times bestselling author of Bird Box
To eight-year-old Bela, her family is her world. There’s Mommy, Daddo, and Grandma Ruth. But there is also Other Mommy, a malevolent entity who asks her every day: “Can I go inside your heart?”  
 
When horrifying incidents around the house signal that Other Mommy is growing tired of asking Bela the same question, over and over . . . Bela understands that unless she says yes, soon her family must pay. 
 
Other Mommy is getting restless, stronger, bolder. Only the bonds of family can keep Bela safe but other incidents show cracks in her parents' marriage. The safety Bela relies on is on the brink of unraveling.  
 
But Other Mommy needs an answer. 
Incidents Around the House is a chilling, wholly unique tale of true horror told by the child Bela. A story about a family as haunted as their home.
 

Eight-year-old Bela is the only child in a dysfunctional family full of secrets. Bela has also been keeping her own secret from Mommy and Daddo. She's been talking to an entity that hides in her closet. An entity she calls Other Mommy that at first seems friendly and benign but is now becoming increasingly bold and aggressive. Other Mommy is growing more powerful and no longer confined to Bela's room. It grows angry and frustrated that Bela will not answer its question "Can I go into your heart?" Now it follows Bela everywhere and has no fear of showing itself to others. It knows things about the family and uses it against them. It can be anywhere.

Told from Bela's point of view the story is even more terrifying when portrayed through the eyes of a child who is learning that her parents can't always protect her. She struggles on her own to understand the meaning of this entity wanting to go into her heart and her sadness at the loss of what she once considered to be a companion who was there for her when her parents were not.

This is not one of those books that I couldn't put down. Incidents Around The House is a book that I had to put down more than once.  I had to take a break because it was scaring me. It brought back every childhood nightmare I had ever managed to forget. It will land on my Best Horror Novel of the Year list.

5 out of 5 stars

My thanks to Del Rey Books

Available for pre-order

About the author

Movie Review- Pandemonium

Drawing on themes found in Dante’s Inferno and Milton’s Paradise Lost, Pandemonium is a multi-textured existential fantasy, topped with signature notes of visceral horror, disturbing fairy tale, wry comedy, and dark thriller. From the creative mind of Quarxx, comes this aesthetically stunning and relentlessly macabre tale. Pandemonium made its world premiere at Neuchâtel and went on to screen at Fantasia, Frightfest, Fantasy FilmFest, Sitges, Grimmfest, Trieste and Screamfest 

 Pandemonium follows Nathan (Hugo Dillon), an ordinary man on a journey he never expected. After realizing he has died at the scene of a car crash, Nathan descends into the depths of hell, where he is doomed to experience the pain of tortured souls along the way.

Nathan awakens after his car crash, only to be told by the biker he hit that they are in fact both dead. After his initial disbelief, he steps through the doorway that will eventually lead to his own personal hell. His first stop shows him how and why those who came before him are facing their own journey into hell. We see their individual stories as an anthology before we get to Nathan's fate at the end.

The anthology format reminded me of an old TV series called 13 Demon Street in which Lon Chaney Jr portrayed some sort of guardian to hell who was hoping to find someone with sins worse than his own so he could move on and they could take his place. But in Pandemonium there is nobody for Nathan to tell his side of the story to, his fate is sealed.

The most terrifying part is how easy it is to find oneself in hell. Those whose greatest sin may have been not paying attention are just as likely to end up damned as those who commit multiple murders. This bleak reveal is thought provoking. It made me wonder if there really is a hell can it be escaped by merely remaining sin free? Or must one actively participate in conscious deeds every single day to avoid ending up in hell? 

Get thee behind me Satan!

Available May 27 in the US, Canada, UK and Ireland. On the same day, Pandemonium will be available on major VOD platforms, including Apple TV and Prime Video.

Watch The Trailer Here

 

Voracious by Wrath James White

 

Doctor Trevor Adams is a genius by all accounts. His ethics, however, leave a bit to be desired. When the Aphrodite Aesthetic Reconstruction Clinic hires him to create a genetic weight-loss treatment, Doctor Adams uses a synthetic retro virus to transport pygmy shrew DNA into clients willing to pay tens of thousands of dollars to be able to eat whatever they want without gaining a pound.

Pygmy Shrews have metabolisms so fast they don’t store fat cells and have to eat every two hours, twice their body-weight in food every day, or they will die. When they are hungry, they will attack and consume prey more than twice their size. They have fangs tipped with a red iron ore, saliva that contains a paralyzing neurotoxin, are the size of a quarter, and are considered to be some of the most vicious animals on earth. When Doctor Adams’s clients begin burning more calories than they can possibly consume, he is afraid he has made one terrible mistake.

Dieting and weight loss is a multi-billion dollar industry. The things people are willing to put themselves through to get that beach body know no limits. For some people, no danger is too great a risk.

What if you didn't need calorie restrictions, grueling workouts, pills, or surgeries? Dr. Trevor Adams has an incredible solution. After one easy treatment, you can eat anything you like for the rest of your life and never gain an ounce. You can even eat things you would never have dreamed of eating before. In fact, you will have to eat anything and everything you can get your hands on because your body is wasting away faster than you can chew.

These unforeseen consequences will affect not only the recipients of this treatment but everyone around them, and time is running out because the hunger is spreading.

Voracious is a satirical horror with bite. It's a fast paced gory read about what happens when vanity and greed try to mess with mother nature. I would recommend it to those who like their horror on the more extreme side.

My thanks to Cemetery Dance Publications.

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About the author

When the Night Falls by Glenn Rolfe

Rocky Zukas lives with the ghosts of what happens when you fall in love with a monster. Lucky to be alive, Rocky roams his beachside hometown living on autopilot, waiting for life to start again.

November Riley has never been far from the boy that stole her heart. She watches from the shadows, knowing she can never make things right between them, but never giving up on the chance they could try one more time.

A new documentary is bringing Gabriel Riley, the Beach Night Killer, back to national consciousness. The dead serial killer has a trio of new fans that are ready to make Old Orchard Beach, Maine their home for the end of the summer season.

When the new strangers in town discover Rocky’s relationship to the past of one of their own, he becomes their number one target. Can November protect him, or will these other vampires prove too strong?

When the night falls, blood will spill, and death will reign.

This highly anticipated sequel to Until Summer Comes Around takes place ten years after the most momentous summer of Rocky's life.

Things have settled down in Old Orchard Beach in the years since the murders. The tourists are back as usual, and Rocky lives a mostly quiet life, dealing as best he can with the knowledge that monsters are real, and that the first and only girl he ever loved was one of them. 

Now, ten years later, a documentary about the murders brings back that pain and a slew of pests that want to interview Rocky as the survivor of the massacre that rocked the town. Rumors and speculation that the killer may have been a vampire and might not have been alone have caught the eye of more than just reporters. Now people are going missing and Rocky may face a fight for his life again.

The vampires Glenn Rolfe has created are not immortal, nor are they confined to the darkness. They are a fresh original take on what we all think we know from movies. They don't kill just for survival but for the sheer thrill and enjoyment of it, and they walk among us in the sun. You may even spot one on the beach this summer waiting in line at the concession stand, but you'll only know once you feel the bite. When The Night Falls is the perfect summer read. It's brutal, deadly, and sexy in all the right ways with the perfect 90s vibe.

5 out of 5 stars

My thanks to the author for the advance copy.

Available for pre-order

Until Summer Comes Around should be read first.

About the author

 

When the Lights Go Out by Kevin Lucia

When the lights go out...that's when things change. When masks are put aside, and eerie truths are laid bare. It's when towns grow extra streets and cul-de-sacs which don't exist in the daytime. When whispered wishes and fantasies become reality. When our deepest fears and most powerful longings become flesh. When ambitions become obsessions which overpower us, and leads us to our ends. But it's also when our imaginations run free, unfettered by the trappings of mundane living. Just as the dark unleashes despair, it also fuels fantastical leaps impossible to take during the day. It's the canvas upon which we paint worlds and universes which take the darkness and create something out of nothing.In his new collection, one of the leading voices in small press horror offers up an eclectic collection of strange tales - the kind which can only happen when the lights go out, and we close our eyes.

 

I love short horror stories and especially enjoy when author notes are included. I'm always fascinated to learn how the stories or the ideas for them came to be.  I had a great time with the majority of this book. I do have to say that ending the book with story fragments that are bits and pieces of tales that may or may not ever come to be is such a tease. I hope to see them completed someday. Especially the one about the snow that is not snow. You can not start to tell me about a burning snowstorm that falls in warm weather and then leave me hanging. 

The author's writing style pulls me in, to the point that I can't help but be invested in the story even when warned ahead of time that it won't be complete.

As far as the complete stories in this collection the book begins with a more traditional ghost story that takes place in a haunted school before moving on to less benevolent tales that combine the supernatural with psychological horror. I had multiple favorites, including one about a man who creates his own world out of model trains, a can recycling center that is more than it seems, and every story that had anything to do with Bassler House. Creepy and clever twists kept me turning the pages.

4 out of 5 stars

I received an advance copy

Available for preorder

About the author