Alien: Isolation Review: Everyone Will Hear You Scream.

When asking what the best Alien video game is, I think you would be hard pressed to find someone who would not say Alien: Isolation.
Released all the way back in 2014, the game is often praised as one the greatest survival horror experiences of all time.
It is also well known for its controversial IGN review, where the reviewer only rated it 5.9 out of ten.
Well, after first playing Isolation years ago, I found myself having a much more positive reaction, and my opinion on the game has only improved in the years since.
So, after watching in excitement as the sequel was revealed at Summer Game Fest, I decided to do another playthrough, but this time on Hard Mode since I’m still too scared to do a Nightmare playthrough.

Maybe one day I’ll be brave enough to play through the game on Nightmare… but not today.

Alien Isolation follows Amanda (voiced by Andrea Deck), the daughter of iconic heroine, Ellen Ripley.
After learning the flight recorder from the Nostromo has been recovered and taken to Sevastopol Station, Amanda travels there to hopefully find some closure.
Instead, she finds herself facing the same nightmare her mother experienced because a Xenomorph stalks the ship, determined to hunt her (and, by extension, YOU) down.
The story and characters of Alien: Isolation are pretty simple.
Nothing spectacular but they get the job done.
They are not the game’s selling point; the titular Alien is.
Over ten years later, this game is still famous for the creature’s AI.
It is programmed to be given hints about where you are on the map and constantly adapts to your escape or distraction strategies.
The Xenomorph also kills you immediately if it catches you, and all of these things combine to create one of gaming’s most terrifying stalker enemies.
I accidentally walked into the Alien at one point, resulting in me screaming like a child, firing my gun at it in a panic (even though I knew it would do nothing), ending with this being the last thing Amanda Ripley ever saw.

Prepare to die a bunch to the Alien, especially on harder difficulties.

Way back in 1979, Ash described the Alien as “the perfect organism.”
Well, Creative Assembly certainly replicated this with the Xenomorph in their game, and they deserve all the praise for it.
There are so many iconic cat and mouse moments in this game, from the medical wing, to the trap, to that god damn long hallway.
The Alien is not the only enemy, however, for there are also humans and androids
The humans are easily dealt with for the most part, but the Working Joes are another matter.
They take a lot of hits to kill on Hard Mode, and you almost always risk alerting the Alien when fighting them.
I cannot imagine what it would be like on Nightmare Mode.

The Working Joe’s also have that uncanny valley look, which adds to the fear.

That being said, it is also with the Working Joes where some players’ criticisms come in.
There are a few chapters in the game where you are only fighting androids, and some consider this to be the weakest part of the game.
I know I felt that way when I first played but, in my recent playthrough, I actually had a lot of fun finally having the freedom to take these guys down, without having to worry about the Alien dropping down and instantly killing me.
What I will not praise, however, is the space-walking segments.
There are three in the game, and the first gets a pass because we are exploring an interesting area.
The other two, however, are extremely tedious, and you move at a snail’s pace so that certainly does not help.

The nostalgia of visiting the ship from the first film is one of this section’s only saving graces.

At the least the visuals during these brief moments are still great.
That is another thing to praise the game for because the graphics have aged fantastically.
While the NPCs do look a little flat outside of cutscenes, the environment is flawless and a perfect replication of the environment from the original Alien.
It is no wonder this game inspired Fede Álvarez’s Alien: Romulus.
Isolation is a fantastic video game.
While the story is basic, the graphics are excellent and the AI for the titular Alien is out of this world, making for a both terrifying and very difficult game.

The challenge is part of the experience in *Alien: Isolation.*

In space no one can hear you scream, but I am sure the neighbours heard me screaming in terror while I played this game.
I am both excited and afraid to finally get my hands on the sequel after all these years.
Alien: Isolation is certainly not a 5.9.
It is one of horror gaming’s greatest terrors.

Directive 8020 Review: Interesting Story, Boring Stealth.

Back in 2014, I was a day one Until Dawn player.
The idea of my decisions shaping which characters lived and died in a horror setting was quite appealing to me, and the game more than lived up to expectations.
Since then, Supermassive has released many games in the same vein, from The Dark Pictures Anthology, to The Quarry.
Despite this, none of these games have quite lived up to the game that started it all.
There was even a remake of Until Dawn by a different studio a few years back, but that also paled in comparison.
Nevertheless, I was quite excited to play the latest installment Directive 8020, because it seemed like it would be Supermassive’s version of John Carpenter’s The Thing, one of my favorite horror movies.

*Directive 8020* certainly gives the same vibes as that masterpiece of a film.

After finishing it, I would say that Directive 8020 presents interesting choices to go along with that vibe, but also some rather tiresome gameplay.
Set in the far future, where Earth is dying, the story follows the crew of the Cassiopea, who have been sent to survey a distant planet which is humanity’s last hope for survival.
However, along the way, the ship is struck by an asteroid carrying an unwanted visitor.
From there, your choices shape the narrative across eight chapters, determining who among the crew lives and dies.
This crew consists of the five playable characters Young (Lashana Lynch), Stafford (Danny Sapani), Eisle (Lotte Verbeek), Cooper (Anna Leong Brophy), and Cernan (Philip Arditti), along with a few other characters, who are all standard enough as the cast.
I liked and wanted to save them, although there was nobody I was overly attached to.

The story is a bit of a slow burn, with the intensity only really kicking off in the last three chapters.
As for certain twist and turns the story takes, I found them riveting, both narratively and thematically.
I actually started a second playthrough immediately after my first so I could see the foreshadowing for these twists.
I also did it so I could try to save everyone, as I got two of the five playable characters killed on my first playthrough due to my choices.
The choices are not the only thing that can lead to character deaths because there are also the quick time events, which are incredibly easy to mess up on the hardest difficulty.

You have to be incredibly lucky or quick to not get at least one character killed by missing a quick time event in the final chapter on hard mode.

Directive 8020’s gameplay is not just limited to quick time events for there are also stealth sections in the game, although, by the final mission, I really wished there were not.
These segments are extremely simplistic, with the enemies following scripted pathways and being incredibly easy to avoid.
The stealth mechanics are also practically identical from Episode One all the way to Episode Eight.
This would not be too much of an issue if they did not repeat ad nauseam.
I quickly grew tired of them and it makes the final few episodes quite the slog to get through when it is stealth section after stealth section.

Avoiding the game’s extraterrestrials gets old fast.

Overall, though, I would still say Directive 8020 is a solid experience.
The characters are decent, and the story is well told with plenty of twists and turns, making a second playthrough to spot the foreshadowing worth it
It still does not beat Until Dawn but at this point I think nothing will.
I will just have to wait and see if the long awaited Until Dawn 2 can live up to the original’s status but, given that a different studio is also behind this game, I have my doubts.

Obsession Review: Simple Premise, Terrifying Execution.

I remember, years ago, I read a story where a character with mind control powers accidentally made one person fall in love with another.
The author of the story bizarrely treated this like a good thing, with it being implied the brainwashed character would come to accept their out of nowhere “love.”
Reading this sickened me because the character had a part of themselves erased and replaced with something forced upon them, and I was somehow supposed to see this as a positive thing.
When watching the latest horror hit Obsession, I was reminded of this story but surprisingly not in a bad way.
Not only does this movie treat its premise with the weight it deserves, but its main character felt like a representation of the misguided people who would write such a story.

Although initially sympathetic, the main character eventually reveals himself to be the real villain of the film.

Directed by Curry Barker, Obsession tells the story of Bear (Michael Johnston), an awkward and lonely man who has feelings for one of his best friends Nikki Freeman (Inde Navarrette).
Too scared to confess his love for her, Bear instead makes a wish using a “One Wish Willow.”
His wish?
For Nikki to love him more than anyone else in the world.
To his surprise, the wish works.
Unfortunately, the violating nature of said wish corrupts Nikki to the point that her “love” for Bear ends with a trail of bodies.

This bloody end is Bear’s fault rather than Nikki’s though.

It would have been easy to make Bear a sympathetic protagonist, what with him being too timid to confess to the girl he has a crush on.
Even the making of the wish itself could be forgiven, considering he did not expect it to actually work.
However, as the film goes on, it becomes perfectly clear the titular obsession is not Nikki’s for Bear but Bear’s for Nikki.
Whether it be ignoring countless red flags, brushing off the concerns of his friends, or just outright refusing the real Nikki’s wishes, Bear reveals himself to be a selfish and cowardly character by Obsession’s end.
He would rather have the imaginary Nikki he has idealized in his mind than the real breathing woman with her own separate life from him which, again, is why he reminded me so much of the writer for that problematic story I mentioned at the beginning of this review.

If Nikki had been less crazy after the wish, Bear would have been 100% okay with continuing the “relationship.”

In contrast to Bear’s villainy, Nikki is the real victim of the movie, with the temporary moments when her real self breaks free from the wish being particularly heartbreaking.
That is not to say she isn’t completely terrifying when “Freaky Nikki” is in control because she absolutely is.
Inde Navarrette gives an incredible performance as Nikki in both her terrifying and sympathetic moments.
The way she moves and is depicted with the lighting and editing is also masterful.
Director Curry Barker and cinematographer Taylor Clemons deserve all the praise in the world for how they shot this movie.
Bear’s terrified reactions to Nikki’s movements and actions reflect our own as the audience (still does not redeem him even slightly though).

I have heard a lot of Oscar buzz among audience members for Inde Navarrette’s performance. It might seem unlikely but, given that Amy Madigan (rightfully) won for her performance in *Weapons,* anything is possible.

Speaking of Bear and Nikki, their actors’ chemistry is practically nonexistent, which is perfect for the film.
It creates so many awkward moments, which blends well with the film’s humor and horror.
I burst out laughing and jumped in my seat many times when watching this, often within minutes of each other.
All of this built up to the adrenaline dump of an ending where all we can do in the moment is linger in the aftermath of all this chaos and wonder what happens next.

The characters’ disturbed reactions in this scene mimics the audience’s by the film’s end.

Overall, Obsession is a masterful horror film.
Its performances are incredible, it is both funny and scary, and it delivers on themes of projection, codependency and, well… obsession obviously.
I am definitely seated for Curry Barker’s next film after this one.

Beneath the Trees Where Nobody Sees Review: This is No Disney Fairytale.

I am sure we all have childhood memories of watching shows or movies about anthropomorphic animals.
I doubt you could find someone who has not at least heard of iconic Disney characters like Mickey Mouse or Winnie the Pooh.
Well, just imagine for a moment that, instead of being obsessed with honey, Pooh was obsessed with murder (and no, I am not referring to that god awful Blood and Honey movie).
It is this imagination I suggest having when beginning Patrick Horvath’s Beneath the Trees Where Nobody Sees.
With the title taken from the classic Teddy Bear’s Picnic lyrics, Horvath’s graphic novel twists both this line and the trope of anthropomorphic animals, transforming them from something wholesome into something deathly morbid.

With the water colour style of a children’s book, *Beneath the Trees* makes something which should be charming horrifying.

Beneath the Trees is set in the small town of Woodbrook, where we follow the cuddly looking bear Samantha Strong, a hardware store owner.
To the citizens of Woodbrook, Sam is a beloved member of the community, who is always ready to lend a hand, along with a kind word, whenever she is not going on a trip to the city, that is.
What they do not know, and would be horrified to learn, is that on these trips Sam indulges her hobby of abducting and murdering people, before dissecting them and burying their remains in the woods; “Beneath the trees where nobody sees,” if you will.
Sam only has a few rules, and one of the most important is that she cannot kill anyone in Woodbrook.
If someone was murdered there, it would be all the town talked about for years.
So, when another serial killer emerges in Woodbrick, brutally killing residents and posing their bodies in gruesome fashion, Sam is none too happy.
The first volume follows her investigation to find who among the citizens of Woodbrick is the murderer.

Woodbrook only has room for one serial killer, in Sam’s opinion.

This is only the first part of Samantha’s story, however, for there is also a sequel volume, Rite of Spring, along with a brief prequel, Praludium.
There has also been a third volume announced, so we can expect more murder mayhem in the future.
Speaking of that mayhem though, I would definitely only recommend Beneath the Trees to those with a strong stomach.
The comic is especially disturbing with its numerous dismembered victims shown in full display.
This is somehow made me even creepier with these murdered characters looking like animals you would expect to see in a Disney film.

Seeing what look like children’s book characters be dissected will never not be gruesome.

That makes Sam all the more despicable for her crimes.
Make no mistake, Sam is not an anti-hero.
She does not only kill bad people, like Dexter.
She does not have a traumatic backstory to explain why she is the way she is.
No, Sam is a born psychopath.
In the nature vs nurture debate, she lands squarely in nature, with her every action being used to further her killing spree.
While this does make the reader constantly root for her downfall, I will hand it to Patrick Horvath, he has crafted a fascinating character in Samantha Strong.

Her opponents are just as interesting, with the killer she hunts in the first volume, and the sister of one of her victims in the second making for compelling adversaries.
As for the quality of the two volumes, I would definitely say I prefer the first one.
Although, this is mostly down to the ending.
Not that I think there is anything wrong with the second conclusion.
It is just that the ending to Volume One felt pretty standalone, while the ending to Volume Two relies on the series’ eventual continuation.
I will have to see how Horvath delivers Volume Three before I have a full opinion on the current end point.
That being said, I have seen that a fair amount of people think Horvath went a bit over the top with the ending of Rite of Spring, with some even saying he jumped the shark.
So maybe my opinion is in the minority on that.

*Rite of Spring*‘s ending is certainly divisive among readers.

Overall, though, I absolutely love Beneath the Trees.
It is gruesome, compelling, and its main character somehow remains fascinating, while also being completely deplorable.
I could easily see this story being adapted into a movie or show in the future, and I would definitely watch that on the day of release.
Until that possible day, however, I will continue to recommend the comics.
So go and read Beneath the Trees Where Nobody Sees… if you think you can stomach its brutal violence and gore, that is.

Resident Evil: Requiem Review: An Intense Blend of Survival Horror and Action.

It is hard to believe that a decade ago it seemed like Resident Evil might be a dying franchise.
The last mainline installment, Resident Evil 6 in 2012, had not been well received by the fans and, even worse, Capcom had released Umbrella Corps in 2016, one of the most reviled games in the series.
Then Resident Evil: Biohazard arrived like a godsend in 2017, returning the series to its survival horror roots and revitalizing the brand.
This was the game that first got me into series, and what a time to become a fan because ever since then, Capcom have been on a roll.
Over the years, they have released Resident Evil: Village and numerous remakes, which are considered among the best video game remakes of all time.
Well, now we have another banger with Resident Evil: Requiem, the ninth mainline installment.

*Resident Evil* goes back to the Umbrella well with *RE9.*

After finishing my first playthrough, I am excited to say that Requiem is definitely in the top five best Resident Evil games.
It does a truly fantastic job of blending the survival horror of Biohazard with the over-the-top action of 4.
The story follows FBI Agent Grace Ashcroft (Angela Sant’Albano), the daughter of one of the previous game’s protagonists, Alyssa,
Tasked with investigating a mysterious disease tied to the Raccoon City Incident, Grace finds herself kidnapped by Umbrella scientist Dr Victor Gideon (Antony Byrne) and must survive his care facility of horrors.

You have to wonder how these crazy looking, mad scientists keep getting people to help with their potentially world ending experiments.

Grace’s segments of the game are pure survival horror, and I found myself screaming many a time when faced with terrifying zombies.
What makes these zombies so unique is that they retain parts of their personalities from when they were alive.
A massive zombie chef tries to cook human flesh, a maid cuts herself repeatedly on glass trying to keep everything clean, and some zombies even apologise for trying to hurt you when they are killed.
It makes them not only scary but also pretty pitiable.
But the true horror of Grace’s segments is The Girl, a hag-like monstrosity with a weakness to light that pursues Grace throughout the facility.

The Girl is *Resident Evil*‘s scariest stalker enemy since the baby in *Village.*

With Grace’s limited stock of weapons, every fight with the undead could be her last.
It is a good thing then that she is not alone because the one-man army Leon Kennedy (Nick Apostolides) is also investigating Gideon, with Sherry Birkin (Eden Riegel) acting as his handler.
Leon’s segments of the game are when the over-the-top action comes into play and, I have got to say, after a few hours of hiding in the dark terrified as Grace, it is such a relief to kick zombie ass as Leon, shooting them, hacking them up, and cutting them apart with a chainsaw.
I never thought the survival horror of the series could blend so well into the action and yet Capcom achieved this.

How Leon is still doing roundhouse kicks on zombies in his 50s is unknown to me. Not complaining though. Rule of cool, and all.

They even provided different styles of gameplay for different playthroughs, with the choice between first or third person for both Grace and Leon.
I went with the recommended first-person for Grace and third-person for Leon, which felt perfect for their playstyle’s differing atmosphere.
Just as perfect was the game’s use of nostalgia, which can be a slippery slope.
Too much and it will feel like the game is just pandering to fans for cheap points, rather than doing something new.
Thankfully, Requiem offers plenty of new with that old, and the old content is lovingly handled.

Returning to the RPD was just one of many nostalgic moments in *Requiem.*

Well, I have spent so long lathering this game with praise, you have to be wondering if I have any problems with it.
A few, but I really had to think about it for a bit.
For starters, I think we can all agree that there was one antagonist who deserved a boss fight but did not get one.
Along with this, there is one segment of the game which reminded me of the cannon section in the Resident Evil 4 remake.
Since that was my least favorite section of that game, you would be right in assuming it was my least favorite part of Requiem as well.
Finally, there is one reveal towards the end that feels like a bit of a copout, but it was a convenience that made me smile so I can let it go.
And that is it for my issues.
The rest of the game is so good that it overwhelmingly overshadows any bad.

The game looking fantastic also helps matters.

Resident Evil: Requiem is one of the best Resident Evil games.
The story is investing and the gameplay styles of Grace and Leon blend perfectly.
I know it is only March, but it would not surprise me if Requiem ended up topping a lot of best games of 2026 lists.
And, with new story DLC probably dropping at some point, the game is only going to get better.
If you are a Resident Evil fan and have somehow not played this yet, hurry up and do so.
It is one of the series’ best.

Scream 7 Review: A Gutting Disappointment.

I am a fan of the Scream franchise.
I enjoyed the first four movies as a teenager and got back on board with the fifth and sixth film.
While in retrospect Scream 6 had some issues, I was still looking forward to the conclusion of the new trilogy to see how the Carpenter sisters’ story would end.
Then Melissa Barrera was unjustly fired for her comments on Palestine.
Then Jenna Ortega also dropped out.
The director bailed and the script for the seventh film was thrown out.
Needless to say, these events had me extremely worried for Scream 7’s quality.
Unfortunately, these concerns were justified because, after seeing the seventh film, I can say that the Scream franchise has finally had a bad film.

Ghostface walking away from torching the *Scream* franchise.

Before this, the weakest film in the series was Scream 3, but even that had its fun with campy moments and good characterization.
The seventh film has none of that, with an extremely boring and forgettable cast overall, twists that are somehow both predictable and completely stupid, and an eye-rolling amount of callbacks.
The story once again follows Sidney Prescott, as her daughter Tatum (Isabel May) and husband Mark (Joel McHale) are threatened by the return of Ghostface.
With a cast of boring suspects, she must stop the killer before it is too late, all the while trying to determine if Stu Macher (Matthew Lillard) has really returned.
Neve Campbell is back as Sidney and, while it is good to see her return, after a pay dispute caused her to leave Scream 6, her character does no have much meaningful development.

Although Neve Campbell does a good job, as expected.

Her character’s husband and daughter also feel bland, and the latter is supposed to be the secondary main character.
Sidney is not the only returning character however because Gale (Courtney Cox), Mindy (Jasmin Savoy-Brown) and Chad (Mason Gooding) also return but, for the life of me, I cannot understand why.
I mean, I get why Gale would try to pursue the story of another Ghostface killer, but she does not have enough presence in the film to warrant a return.
Neither do Chad and Mindy, since the two could have been absent and nothing about the story would change.

It feels really weird that the Meeks siblings are back but not Sam and Tara.

So, the characters are a bust, but what about the mystery?
It is always fun to watch a Scream movie and guess who the killers are before the big reveal.
Well, not this time.
The hints towards the killers are so blindingly obvious, I guessed it from their first appearances.
What makes it worse is that in practically every Scream movie, there is a killer with a deep connection to our main cast.
Either that or their motive ties into the themes.
Not this movie.
No, instead the characters playing the Ghost Face killers are barely in the movie before the reveal, and their motivations make zero sense.
In my opinion, these are the worst Ghost Face killers of the entire series.
They have so little screen presence, their plans are dumb and I cannot for the life of me even remember their names.

The killers who got murdered at the beginning of *Scream 6* were better characters than these clowns.

The only memorable thing about this film’s killers is their frequent nostalgia baiting, but that is not the kind of thing I want to remember.
The callbacks to prior films made my eyes roll so far to the back of my head, I was worried they would get stuck there forever.
The only redeeming qualities to this film are that the performances are admittedly decent, some of the action is well-done, and the gore made me wince.

If you are a fan of gory horror movies, you might get some enjoyment from the horror. Some.

Other than these few positives, Scream 7 is a disaster.
The new characters are dull, most of the old ones do not have a reason to be here beside nostalgia, said nostalgia is handled in an extremely annoying way, and, to top it all off, the film has the worst killers of the franchise.
Scream 7 is the worst Scream film and it is not even close.
They should have gone with the original plan for this movie and never fired Melissa Barrera.
It would probably have been good and not… whatever this was.
If I were to rewatch the Scream movies, this is one I will undoubtedly skip.

Send Help Review: Bloodiest Survivor Episode Ever.

Long before he entered the realm of superheroes with his Spider-Man trilogy and, much later, Dr Strange movie, Sam Raimi was a master of horror comedy, most commonly known for his Evil Dead trilogy.
Well, with his latest film Send Help, Raimi has returned to his horror comedy roots, delivering both a funny and gory movie following two highly questionable people.

Prepare for your opinion on the characters to switch a bunch in this film.

Send Help stars Rachel McAdams and Dylan O’Brien, and tells the story of Linda Liddle (McAdams), a socially awkward yet hard working woman who has more than earned a promotion at the company she works for.
These hopes are cruelly dashed with the arrival of her new boss Bradley Preston (O’Brien), a petulant man child who only has the position of CEO because he inherited it.
When the two are stranded on an island as the sole survivors of a plane crash, they find their positions reversed, with Bradley now at the mercy of his cruel boss, Linda.
What follows is a battle of wills between the two, improved by great character writing and fantastic performances from both McAdams and O’Brien.

Not to mention a whole lot of fake blood.

The script does a great job of flipping the initial situation on its head.
After the crash it is extremely cathartic to see the immature Bradley be put in his place by Linda and have to count on her survival expertise to survive.
However, as the movie goes on and we get more insight into Linda’s psych and the actions it drives her too, Bradley becomes more pitiable.
This culminates in the most uncomfortable scene of the entire movie, which will have every man who watches cringing into the back of their seats.

This scene had me experiencing *Misery* flashbacks. If you know, you know.

Speaking of, this movie is very gory.
The first moment of bloody violence on the island had me sitting back and thinking, ‘Oh, yeah, this is a Sam Raimi film!”
His style is all over the movie, from its great dark humor, to the gory sequences, delivering a pretty enjoyable movie overall.
Granted, I do think the ending felt kind of lackluster, but that does certainly not destroy the film.
The film maintains a great conflict between its two lead characters, both of whom are backed up by excellent performances from their actors, delivering a funny, disturbing, and all around good time at the movies.
I recommend checking this one out, especially if you are a fan of Sam Raimi’s horror comedies.