Tag Archives: Horror

Visual Memory #6 – ‘The Black Mirror’

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Creepy, kooky, mysterious and spooky… Our resident games expert Christopher Bell salvages another classic title from the scrap heap.

After the comic fantasy of Monkey Island and Discworld, it’s time to look at the darker side of point-and-click adventures. The Black Mirror involves murder, a family curse and creepy English (and Welsh) manor houses. Those of you of a fragile disposition, turn back now…

The Black Mirror was developed in 2003 by Czech developer Future Games, under the title Posel Smrti (Death’s Messenger). You play a nobleman by the name of Samuel Gordon, who returns to his ancestral home of Black Mirror Manor, in the ominous-sounding Willow Creek, near Norfolk, after an absence of 12 years.  Samuel’s grandfather, William, has been found dead, impaled on an iron fence.  Most people believe that he went mad and threw himself from the manor’s tower, but Samuel suspects a more sinister cause. Then the visions, nightmares and unexplained headaches begin. Samuel’s sanity will be stretched to its limits over the game’s six chapters…

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Visual Memory #3 – ‘Darkstalkers: The Night Warriors’

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Its cult following may be more famous than the game that spawned it but, as evidence of a Darkstalkers reboot continues to mount, Christopher Bell looks back to 1994 and the birth of Capcom’s original monster mash.

As franchises go, Darkstalkers is one of the few to have flourished beyond its video game origins. It’s been turned into a popular manga comic, a couple of animated series (avoid the Saturday morning American TV version at all costs!) and a 15th anniversary coffee-table tribute book, packed with gorgeous artwork. Its most popular characters, meanwhile, have gone on to star in a host of other high-profile titles including the Marvel vs Capcom series and a Magic: The Gathering-style card game. Most noticeably, they’ve become a mainstay of the cosplay circuit, with (mostly female) characters drawing eyes and camera lenses at conventions across the globe.

Not bad for a series that hasn’t seen a new release since 1998.
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The Walking Dead Review – 2.07 ‘Pretty Much Dead Already’

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This is the show’s last chance to impress before its mid-season break. Has it succeeded? Kieran Mathers finds out…

Finally. After hours of wandering through the woods, The Walking Dead rediscovers what it’s good at; theatre like intimacy and intensity; emotional engagement; a Mamet-esque development and understanding of male characters. This episode drives the plot forward and gives everyone in the wider ensemble something to actually do. It also features a climactic zombie massacre that would do the source material proud. At long last, it’s television that makes you want to carry on watching.

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The Walking Dead Review – 2.06 ‘Secrets’

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AMC’s zombie thriller approaches its mid-season climax, but will we be tuning in when it return? Kieran Mathers finds out…

My word, there’s an awful lot of shouting in this episode! After several plodding instalments, this season’s incipient conflicts finally rear their ugly rotting heads. Gunfights, sex, violence… it’s all here. I won’t call it a return to form because it’s still pretty poor fare compared to much of last season, but it’s almost watchable again.

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The Walking Dead Review – 2.05 ‘Chupacabra’

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Kieran Mathers watches dull things happen very slowly…

I really wasn’t looking forward to reviewing this episode. For the fifth week in a row, the party of survivors wanders through the woods in search of the missing Sophia. There is also friction with the patriarchal Hershel (Scott Wilson) over access to his farm and the liberties being taken by some of the group.

So thank goodness for red-neck hero Daryl (Norman Reedus) whose Touching the Void-style survival exploits reward us with a great series of scenes. His relationship with his missing brother Merle (Michael Rooker), last seen handcuffed to a rooftop in Season 1, is revisited as a means of fleshing out his insecurities about his role in the group, and his eventual acceptance at the end of the episode is lovely – a real highlight.

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The Walking Dead Review – 2.04 ‘Cherokee Rose’

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After some hit and miss episodes, is there still life in AMC’s zombie horror series? Kieran Mathers finds out…

As a series, The Walking Dead has never aspired to the sprinting pace of 28 Days Later’s “infected”, and is usually content to amble along like a good old fashioned Romero zombie. But now it seems the series is degenerating into a legless corpse, dragging itself hand over hand, week by week, despite some occasional spikes in activity.

This week, our characters clear a well. Seriously, they hoist a zombie out of a well. Daryl (Norman Reedus) takes a walk in the woods and the little girl whom the audience no longer cares about is still missing. Some cars move … that’s about it.

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