Cleopatra Venom announces the July 28th release of the new horror film The Withering on Digital Video. 

Judith, an embittered woman in her seventies facing a terminal cancer diagnosis, becomes obsessed with a strange amulet she acquires at an estate sale--an ancient artifact that rejuvenates her body by siphoning vitality from the surrounding town. As Judith grows younger, stronger, and more violent, the community around her rapidly deteriorates, with illness, decay, and death spreading among its youngest residents. Haley, Judith's compassionate caregiver, begins to suspect the truth just as she is cast aside and left alone in a dying town, her only ally her troubled sister who senses the amulet's dark pull. When Judith's hunger escalates from passive draining to brutal murder, Haley races to destroy the artifact before it consumes everyone.
​

On this day in 2021 (in a whole host of countries around the world), it was the end of the world as we know it yet again -- well, cinematically, that is -- when Awake was unleashed via the Information Superhighway.  Written (in part) and directed by Mark Raso, the film starred Gina Rodriguez, Ariana Greenblatt, Jennifer Jason Leigh, and others. 

​According to our friends at IMDB.com, here's the plot summary:

"After a devastating global event wiped out all electronics and eliminated people's ability to sleep, a former soldier may have found a solution with her daughter."

-- EZ

On this day in 1998 (in the U.S.), Feeders 2: Slay Bells rang in the holiday season with a general release on home video.  Written and directed (in part) by Mark Polonia, the film starred Polonia alongside Maria Davis, Courtney Polonia, Anthony Polonia, and others. 

​According to our friends at IMDB.com, here's the plot summary:

"Aliens invade Earth over the Christmas holidays, and it's up to Santa Claus and his elves to save the world."

-- EZ

On this day in 2012 (in the U.S.), audiences in attendance of the Seattle International Film Festival were treated to the theatrical debut of Easton's Article (aka Black Web).  Written and directed by Tim Connery, the film starred Chad Meyer, Kristina Johnson, Dan Flannery, and others. 

According to our friends at IMDB.com, here's the plot summary:

"After receiving his future obituary via a cryptic Internet file, Easton Denning is forced to confront his troubled past in order to prevent his predicted demise."
​
-- EZ
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On this day in 2020 (in Japan), Beyond The Infinite Two Minutes delivered a single-camera take on the mindblowing possibilities of time travel.  Directed by Yunta Yamaguchi from a story by Makoto Ueda, the film starred Kazunari Tosa, Riko Fujitani, Masashi Suwa, and others. 

​According to our friends at IMDB.com, here's the plot summary:

"A cafe owner discovers that the TV in his cafe suddenly shows images from the future, but only two minutes into the future."

For the record:
To the film's credit, Beyond The Infinite Two Minutes stirred up a good bit of praise from screenings on the film festival circuit.

ExtraExtra Alert:
In 2022, I was provided complimentary streaming access to Beyond The Infinite Two Minutes (2020) from a distributor in exchange for review coverage on SciFiHistory.Net.  Interested readers can find my review right here.

-- EZ
​

In my stewardship here at SciFiHistory.Net of trying to keep my fingers on the pulse of All Things Genre, I've often said that I watch waaaaaaay too much television.

Still, the trouble I have personally -- which I do work hard to keep out of the influence of these pages -- is that -- ahem -- I don't like a great deal of television.  I don't dislike so many of the shows that come down the pike (as they say), but the truth is that I need to be somehow engaged in order to fully appreciate what a program's central idea, themes, or messages might be.  Whether you like to admit it or not, every show has some basic foundation; and -- if I'm not drawn to it -- I'll tune out something that fails to resonate an intrinsic level.  Some of this is owed to the fact that I've always maintained that life is too short for dramas which don't move me: even though I might not invest much in some of these yarns, I still try to draw attention to them in hopes that others might find something they like in them.

Now, one of programs I truly struggled with was Buffy The Vampire Slayer.  As many of you might recall, fandom truly wrapped its arms appreciably around this one; and -- for the life of me -- I just couldn't understand why.  It could've been my age.  It could've been the fact that I just didn't see it doing anything particularly novel (or not novel enough to maintain my interest).  Or it could simply be that I tend to gravitate away from projects that require a long-term investment.  Rarely has long-form storytelling won me over; and Buffy seemed like a show that rewarded folks to staying around.

But I always loved what I saw its cast doing, and that's what brings me here this morning: I just saw word reaching the World Wide Web of actor Anthony Head's passing.  For those who don't know, Head played 'Rupert Giles' aboard the show, serving chiefly as a revered mentor for the young slayer herself.  This was a role that the actor spoke very favorably about over the years; and I can always appreciate how such praise for this individual universe tickles the fancy of Buffy fans around the world.

The guy was a phenomenal talent, the kind who showed up all over the genre map and always -- ALWAYS -- delivered something worth watching.  No matter the size of the role, Head insured that he gave it and his audience this all; and that's a trait everyone appreciates.

Our warmest prayers are extended to the family, friends, and fans of Anthony Head.

May he rest in peace ...

-- EZ

(NOTE: The following review will contain minor spoilers necessary solely for the discussion of plot and/or characters.  If you’re the type of reader who prefers a review entirely spoiler-free, then I’d encourage you to skip down to the last few paragraphs for the final assessment.  If, however, you’re accepting of a few modest hints at ‘things to come,’ then read on …
 
From the film’s IMDB.com page citation:
“Sea captain Russel Marsh was possessed by an ancient entity for 93 years, committing horrific acts for a cult. Now free, he seeks to travel back in time to undo his dark deeds, while the cult vows to eliminate him.”
 
For those of us who know the name H.P. Lovecraft, the mere mention of his name might conjure up a great many … erm … impressions.
 
For example, bring up this purveyor of ‘Cosmic Horror’ to children of the 1980’s; and one will likely hear stories about those of us who seemingly watched B-Movies like Re-Animator (1985), From Beyond (1986), and The Curse (1987), two of which are owed to the cinematic genius of late director Stuart Gordon.  As one who saw these flicks back in the day, I can assure you that – even though I find elements of them elusive if not downright bonkers – the fact alone that there was nothing quite like them guaranteed a measure of notoriety amongst viewers.  No, I’m not talking about scream queen Barbara Crampton being threatened with dastardly cunnilingus by a man reduced to being little more than a head but rather the almost pervasive invasion of critters and creatures unlike anything to flicker in shadow and light before.  These features dealt with Body Horror, alien intellectual, and existential dread in a way that transcended the ordinary; and this gave the pictures the ability to cement themselves in our respective psyches, making some of their sequences unforgettable.
 
Google.com reports that it was the 1990’s that truly saw Lovecraft’s breakthrough from B-pictures to near-mainstream as (perhaps) they ever got.  Personally, I think that’s a bit of bunk because – from what I recall – these other films only tapped into Lovecraftian ideas to use as a foundation to spin their own webs, rarely authentically adapting the author’s work and instead marching off in their own directions.  John Carpenter’s In The Mouth Of Madness (1994) is often mistakenly cited as being Lovecraft; but – in reality – what the film does reasonably and respectably well is take that cosmic aesthetic and apply it liberally to a tale of an insurance investigator probing the growing mystery surrounding a Lovecraft-like novelist.  Again, it’s close but no cigar so far as this critic is concerned, and yet I understand most folks confusion in chalking it up to the creator of Cthulhu Mythos.
 
It’s into such similar territory that audiences go with 2024’s H.P. Lovecraft’s The Old Ones. 

​Instead of adapting any single adventure from the inspired originator, writer/director Chad Perrin has chosen to pluck and choose the various bits and pieces from other tales and weaves them together in something meant to represent Lovecraft to modern audiences.  Even Google.com suggests that there are obvious influences culled from The Shadow Over Innsmouth, The Call Of Cthulhu, and From Beyond, all of this centered around the character of Russel Marsh (played by Robert Miano), a 1930’s sea captain once possessed by the spirit of an Old One.  When the film begins, Marsh is shown floating downriver, apparently now freed from the spectral clutches of this oppressive, ethereal consciousness; and he’s eventually pulled from the water by the father-and-son team of Dan (Scott Vogel) and Gideon Gordon (Benjamin Philip).  But membership within the Old Ones isn’t shaken off easily: after Dan is cut down by the monster pursuing the old boat captain, Russel has no other choice but to take Gideon under his wing as they flee from the supernatural forces that would do them harm.
 
At this point, The Old Ones turns into a bit of a road picture, the kind wherein viewers are whisked away on one journey whilst occasionally flashing back to the villains pursuing our two leads.  Admirably, Miano uses his grandfatherly like presence to school young Gideon about the reality lurking just beyond our reach; and – even though Perrin’s script is bit weighed down with hints of rituals, incantations, and other poorly-explained fringe ideas – the two make even the silliest bits palatable.  Think of Walsh like an elderly Indiana Jones – not the Hollywood version but maybe a Temu one – and it’s obvious what was intended here but never quite metastasizes.   Philip is a young; and he definitely needed more to his work.  A greater sense of disbelief over what he found himself in the middle of would’ve been a big improvement over some otherwise lukewarm confusion.
 
Still, The Old Ones’ biggest failure is that everything needed to firmly grasp what’s taking place happens ‘on the fly.’  We’re given only snapshots of a veritable catalogue; and, sadly, these pictures aren’t quite worth 1,000 words (as the old saying goes).  Consequently, viewers are kinda/sorta left to make of some bits what they will – i.e. Russel and Gordon reach a wheelchair-bound mechanical mystic in the big finale, and after watching these sequences twice I’ve still little concept of what truly transpired.  The same could be postulated in a sequence that builds up to the finale when our adventurous duo finally match wits with Nyarlathotep – part prophet, part portal – a character whose backdrop is obviously intended to be ‘bigger than life’ and yet we’re given sparingly little explanation for his exile in the middle of an American junkyard.  Context be damned, someone needed to help it all make sense.
 
Now, not all of what I’ve said is meant to be a complaint because like those 80’s Lovecraftian chillers I’ll concede that The Old Ones might also fit the bill of something just odd enough for me and my fraternity brothers to watch this one twice hoping to figure out just what we missed.  It has a satisfactory B-Movie feel to most of it, even though some of the early cinematography is plagued with competing light levels.  Effects work – practical and optical – are on par with the latest ‘meh,’ and yet they probably achieve the intent for which they were designed.  But I can’t ignore that fact that a great deal of what’s in the film left me wanting a bit more.  While not a bad thing, it still underscores that something big or small was missing from the affair, even though I’ll flummoxed over what it could’ve been.
 
H.P. Lovecraft’s The Old Ones (2024) was produced by Crappy World Films and Laurelwood Pictures.  A quick search of Google.com confirms that the film is available for digital rental or purchase on a variety of platforms.  As for the technical specifications?  While I’m no trained video expert, I can assure readers that the sights and sounds range from acceptable to good, though I felt most of the visual deficiencies disappear from the second half.  Lastly, if you’re looking for special features?  As I viewed this one via streaming, there were no special features to consider.
 
Alas … only Mildly Recommended … but you’d better appreciate schlock because that’s what so much of it is.  On that level, it’s fun, but not much else.
 
Here’s the thing: with a little more time, a little more money, and a bit more narrative investment, passable schlock like H.P. Lovecraft’s The Old Ones (2024) could easily be transformed from bargain basement fare to – at best – something that could easily compete alongside the SciFi Channel Saturday Night Movies of yesteryear.  (Yes, they’re still around sparingly, it would seem, but you get the point.)  Without that added elbow grease, spit, and polish?  Well … there’s nothing much disappointing in them as they are just undercooked.  The ideas are haphazard.  The performances are muddled.  The entire fair feels uncentered.  As they are, they’re so-bad-they’re-good-enough to make this old dog ponder more of what’s missing than what remains … an odd state of existence between ‘peak cinema’ and ‘peak trash.’
 
In the interests of fairness, I’m pleased to disclose that the fine folks at Breaking Glass Pictures provided me with complimentary streaming access to H.P. Lovecraft’s The Old Ones (2024) for the expressed purpose of completing this review.  Their contribution to me in no way, shape, or form influenced my opinion of it.

​-- EZ

(NOTE: The following review will contain minor spoilers necessary solely for the discussion of plot and/or characters.  If you’re the type of reader who prefers a review entirely spoiler-free, then I’d encourage you to skip down to the last few paragraphs for the final assessment.  If, however, you’re accepting of a few modest hints at ‘things to come,’ then read on …)
 
From the film’s IMDB.com page citation:
“When a fame hungry couple moves to an ideal LA home, their new dream life spirals into nightmare as an ancient scarecrow begins stalking them - feeding on their lies, testing truth, and turning their fandom into witnesses of its judgment.”
 
As I often opine when I’m tasked with reviewing another one of those ‘found footage films,’ I admit to being one of the last hold-outs who still finds these things somewhat enjoyable, mostly in that old-school creepy odd way.  Granted, a great many of them aren’t, in fact, legitimate ‘found footage’ – which is the case here with Strawstalker (2026) – but that’s okay.  It only uses the construct in modern ways, but it’s clearly been edited together.  But … so long as the cast and crew show up and actually try to do something interesting with the format I’m generally accepting of it.  Writer/director George Henry Horton really pushed me to my limits here.  What few good ideas are tossed in here, frankly, get obscured by the fact that this footage winds up being a bland presentation which only circumstantial explains what the Hell all the fuss is about.
 
Again: I like found footage.  Just wanna be clear.
 
Now, Henry and Haley are a pair of young influencers who’ve moved into what one might assume is their first ‘dream home’ (or maybe it’s only a ‘dream home away from home,’ as it’s never quite clear).  This quaint suburban California nest comes completely furnished, even with an elaborate tiki bar in the backyard and what looks to be a modified lap pool ready and willing to sweep all of their cares away.  But it would seem that the house and its neighbors hold a dark secret, one involving the lifeless body of an ugly scarecrow the lovebirds find nesting between the trees.  As scarecrows go, this one is pretty anemic – a Spirit Halloween knock-off, if ever there were such a thing – but viewers eventually learn that the critter is a kinda/sorta demon who demands a sacrifice.
 
What for? 
 
Well, there’s something said by someone along the way who would seem to be the community organizer for Evil (maybe the president of the HOA?) that implies an abhorrence of technology.  But why would a scarecrow – even one manifested from pure hatred – be opposed to, say, even a fax machine?  Apologies, but I’m not following …
 
In any event …
 
Storyteller Horton and the gang give it an admirable whirl, though I’m not sure even Scooby and the gang would have much great to say about this.  Chiefly, my issues with Scarestalker is that more often than not the streaming celebrity lifestyle – that’s the framework for their ‘found footage’ here mostly – never quite amounts to more than the usual herky-jerky cinematography with a handful of patently predictable jump scares.  About the time that two beat cops show up for no reason other than to warn these fame-seekers that they need to be careful about what they do in this neighborhood (???), I’d lost interest in even trying to figure out what ol’ Big Bad ScareFace and his vile homeowners association were all hoping would come to pass.  It would seem that a sacrifice isn’t going to be enough this time, and I’ll be damned if I could explain why.
 
Additionally, Strawstalker suffers from its celebrity construct by having the live-streamers constantly making sure they’re recording even when their respective lives are at stake.  Being as old as I am – and having watched enough Horror to choke an exorcist – I know good and well that when Jason or Freddy or Michael or whoever is coming at me that it’s go time, whether I’ve the proper running shoes on or not.  But this generation?  Why, I was honestly expecting them to stop to ascertain whether they had the best angle showing or even the right filters engaged for their audiences: do their mortal souls really mean nothing to them any longer?  Ah, kids these days …
 
Regardless, here’s the damndest thing …
 
Because I both like Horror and like ‘found footage’ I managed to suppress a yawn here and there in order to finish Strawstalker.  Whether this matters or not, I’d like to add that even though it fails to reach the bar for what’s acceptable in this sub-genre that there’s still enough background in it to make for a purely conventional delivery.  In other words: lose the ‘found footage’ – or minimize it to a great degree – and actually tell the story of these two as people instead of celebrities fawning over one another in pursuit of fortune.  They could still be influencers (or whatever it is they are as, again, it’s a bit unclear), but with that found footage perspective constrained a bit there would’ve been a greater chance to learn who they are (especially when the cameras are off) and what predicament they’ve found themselves in.  That may’ve been interesting.  This?  Not so much.
 
Strawstalker (2026) was produced by Dark Atlantic.  A quick search of Google.com indicates that the flick is presently available for streaming on Prime Video.  As for the technical specifications?  While I’m no trained video expert, I can still assure readers that the provided sights and sounds are good.  Lastly, if you’re looking for special features?  As I viewed this presentation via streaming, there were no special features to consider.
 
Alas … only Mildly Recommended.
 
It’s not really ‘found footage,’ not in the classic definition of the sub-genre.  It’s more of an expose on the California Society Of Maniacal Streamers, cobbled together from several different cameras.  In fact, the story is hacked so much together that, maybe, it would’ve been more entertaining entirely as some kind of traditional yarn, something not using the ‘found footage’ or, instead, sparingly inserting it, kinda/sorta in a way that Woody Allen broke the fourth wall back in the days of Annie Hall.  It has that aesthetic – the narrator keeps hijacking the footage to offer his perspective on things; and Strawstalker might’ve been a vivid Allenesque twist had the screenwriter gone another way.
 
In the interests of fairness, I’m pleased to disclose that the fine folks at Dark Atlantic provided me with complimentary streaming access to Strawstalker (2026) by request for the expressed purpose of completing this review.  Their contribution to me in no way, shape, or form influenced my opinion of it.

​-- EZ