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.

Get a copy

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