Resident Evil Requiem review (PlayStation 5 version)

Resident Evil Requiem is the ninth mainline entry in the series, and for me it had a lot to live up to as the successor to Resident Evil Village. Which I think is one of the most underrated entries in the series. Requiem is split between two protagonists, newcomer Grace Ashcroft and series veteran Leon Kennedy. The game diverges between these characters at certain points in the game, with Grace’s gameplay focused more on survival horror and Leon’s sections leaning into more action horror. 

The story starts with Grace, an FBI agent who is tasked with investigating an abandoned hotel where mysterious deaths have taken place. Each of these deaths are from those who survived the Raccoon city zombie outbreak. As with other games in the series, the story takes the characters to different locations the further you progress.

Grace’s gameplay is a mixture of the earlier games and Resident Evil 7. Where you have to explore one central location with limited resources whilst trying to survive zombies and other monsters of varying kinds.

It's in Grace’s sections that resource management is paramount, the game will often put you in a situation where you have a choice of using your limited ammo to clear an area of enemies or sidestepping them. To help elevate this pressure you can craft ammo and healing items by collecting blood samples taken from enemies you have killed. It’s a neat little addition that not only allows the player to think strategically about their inventory priorities, but it adds an extra layer to the game’s exploration.

One aspect of Grace’s gameplay that I am mixed on are the scripted enemy encounters. These specific monsters are bigger, vulgar and more intimidating than your usual zombies. Without spoiling too much, one of them is a giant clawed girl who stalks you in the dark. One wrong decision can leave you cornered and essentially at their mercy. 

However, once their initial appearance is over they are no more than a roadblock to exploration and a chore to deal with. They also contribute to some moments in the game where it almost feels like you have to die to work out where to go next. But these moments are very few and far between.

I initially struggled at the start of the game with Grace, but once the crafting system kicks in and your inventory space expands, things become a lot more bearable.       

It’s also worth saying that Grace is a wonderful new addition to the series, not only is she affable, she has a genuine vulnerability that is missing from most of the previous protagonists in the series. It adds tension to the game and raises the threat level of the enemies. As the story progresses her connection to the series becomes much more clear and intriguing. 

Leon’s sections of the game are more action focused, akin to Resident Evil 4. The game becomes a power fantasy. It’s in these sections I had the most fun and where the game really shines.  Although there is still an emphasis on exploration, inventory management basically boils down to making sure you use your weapons in a strategically sound way so you don’t burn through your ammo.

And it helps that the game doesn’t just throw enemies at you in linear corridors. Because the rubble of Raccoon city provides a variety of ways in which you will confront enemies of all shapes and sizes. Whether it is clearing through a gas station, escaping from a giant spider or proceeding through the darkness of a subway train. The melee attacks are the best in the series and it feels like a genuine option. With a simple press of a button you can pick up a melee weapon and throw it in an enemy’s direction, It allows the action to be a little more dynamic. 

Unlike Grace’s sections, Leon can buy and upgrade weapons with the points you pick up from your kills. Like the crafting system in Grace’s section, this eases the difficulty level as the enemies get tougher and more numerous. However, this upgrade system is pretty shallow, especially when you compare it to previous upgrade systems in the series.

Returning to the RPD station is fleeting but memorable, my heartstrings were immediately pulled when the theme from the original chimed. But this location aside I found much of the game’s locations uninspiring and too similar to those previously seen in the series. Even Raccoon City for all of its potent design is rather drab and lacking in any character.

There is nothing here that comes close to Castle Dimitrescu in Village, or even the train section in Resident Evil 0. Which is a shame because the Resident Evil games are one of the few where the exploration, progression and story are laced together. With that said I used the map in Requiem more than any other Resident Evil game, so the exploration is engaging.  

Another gripe of mine is the lack of any memorable villains or boss battles, in fact the boss battles are surprisingly easy and feel like arena battles where the end goal never diverts from pummelling them with your best weapons. But the villains are a bigger miss, easily the weakest in the series. Not just from their connection to the overall narrative but the way they look visually. Victor Gideon could have been interesting, but he never really makes much of an impression as he pops in and out of the story in short moments.

Resident Evil Requiem is an excellent addition to the series but not a great one. Jack of all trades but the master of nothing. Despite its flaws and sparse end game extras it’s still a definite purchase, especially if you have liked any of the previous games. And if you have never played any of the previous games, Requiem can be your starting point to branch out from.

8/10

The Last of us Part 2 review

I need to make a confession, I never loved the first Last of Us, I thought it was a competent action game with exemplary graphics, but I never felt attached to the characters by the time the credits rolled. I appreciated its ambition and the ending was genuinely thought provoking, unlike most other video games. So I was not initially hyped for The Last of Us Part 2, but that quickly changed as the release date was drawing closer, so I ended up pre-ordering a copy, which is something I hardly ever do.

The bulk of the game is set four years after the first, where the main characters, Ellie and Joel, have settled in a walled off town called Jackson, in the state of Wyoming. From the get go there seems to be a partial sense of normality that has returned to the world, at least in Ellie's own life. The narrative takes a dramatic turn of events early on, leading Ellie to leave her relative comfort and journey to the city of Seattle searching for vengeance. It's not long after you arrive that the plot begins to twist and turn as you learn more about two factional groups, who are vying for control over what is left of a city that's been ravaged by nature and the loss of humanity.


In gameplay terms, little has changed, although I rather enjoyed the inclusion of a jump button. So there's far more platforming than I expected, which was a nice surprise. Outside of one particular area of Seattle, the game is relatively linear as you go from one point to the next, but the areas you explore are far bigger and multi layered compared to those in the first game. I loved exploring every nook and cranny for supplies, especially after a heavy gun fight.

Because of the relative scarcity of ammo and supplies, I tried to play as stealthily as possible, which is a lot easier said than done. So I ended up shooting my way through enemies far more than I intended. The combat can be clunky and a little awkward, and nothing more than just functional. However, it's always engaging because the feel of the weapons is extraordinary satisfying. On the standard difficulty I found myself with just enough ammo and supplies between each area, I never once felt overpowered or too desperate. The melee combat is rather simple but effective in its raw violence and tension. There is nothing elaborate about it, it basically boils down to you timing a dodge and then countering by hitting the square button. Every connecting hit you make is extremely gratifying. Word of warning, melee combat only works well when you are equipped with a weapon such as a baseball bat or a machete. Using your fists or a standard knife takes longer and only works when you are confronting one enemy at one particular moment. Like the guns, these melee weapons can be upgraded, but their durability does not last long. 

The enemy AI is challenging for the most part, human enemies have an almost perfect aim, and they do try and flank you when you are pinned back. But it was the infected that are the most challenging foes. If you make one mistake in a roomful of them, prepare to be aggressively rushed down, and once one of them locks onto you it can be a excruciatingly frustrating to fend them off. There are different enemy types for both the infected and the human cannon fodder, but outside of the way they look and the factions they belong to, the human enemies are generally carbon copies of each other. The various forms of infected will require a little more strategy to kill from one type to the next. One of the most deadly are the clickers, who will kill you the second they grab hold of you. It is a huge credit to the design team that they look so disgusting, and just thinking about them makes my skin crawl. 

Combat is made easier by a typical upgrade system that you use via the supplies you collect. It comes in two forms, on the one hand you can upgrade your character's more personal traits such as their health bar or crafting speed. The other side is to do with the weapons, of which you can refine and retool at various work benches placed in certain areas you travel through. While the upgrade system is by itself rather basic, it gels exceptionally well with the overall flow of the game, as you will want and need to explore the intriguing environments for supplies in order to survive.

Speaking of the environments, they do for the most part leave you with a variety of choices on how you wish to get past enemies. The environments and overall graphical fidelity of the game is truly gorgeous, the lighting effects and vistas of the exterior locations are the best that I have seen on the PlayStation 4. But these small moments are deceitful and contrast with the majority of the locations you explore. While some of the exteriors of the world look beautiful on first look, the interior locations are grimy and unsettling, the basement of a particular hospital was the most disturbing place I explored.

The Last of Us Part 2 is a rare game that manages to make its locales an intricate part of the story, rather than just a backdrop. You will notice subtle details in each of the rooms you visit that will tell you something about the people that inhabited them. Whether it's the way a living room or bedroom has been decorated, or the placement of a particular item. One small nuance that I really liked was when you use the work bench to upgrade your weapons. As soon as you have selected the upgrade you want, the character will take apart the weapon and then piece it back together. 

Like the first game, The Last of us Part 2 succeeds in being a cinematic experience, and it works most of the time. The cutscenes are finely directed and the performances are wonderful, as well as the animations which can be truly grisly with the realistic violence. This is helped with a consistently good script, a perfect example of this is with the in-game conversations between the characters, which are rather charming, and they provide a little rest-bite between the action.

The first half of the game is a straight up revenge plot, where you take control of Ellie, in the second half of the game you take control of a new character called Abby. When this change in direction occurred I did for a brief moment sigh in disbelief, because the story appears to grind to a halt. But by the end of the game I was more invested in Abby's story arc than that of Ellie, and she has the best action set pieces and the more interesting locations to explore. One particular boss battle reminded me of Resident Evil, which made it all the more enjoyable to defeat.

I don't have too many complaints to make, nothing that stopped my enjoyment of the game. From a gameplay perspective, changing weapons can feel a little finicky. From a story perspective, the pacing can be a little erratic with the narrative switching backwards and forwards, because some of the flashbacks don't initially execute on their premise. But they do become important within the grander context of the narrative.

It took me twenty six hours to complete the game over three days of playing, and I was invested from beginning to end. Which is a sign of an excellent experience, as I said from the outset, I never loved the first game and I was never compelled to go back to it. But having completed the sequel I will return to it at some point over the coming months.

The Last of Us Part 2 is a game that every PS4 owner should experience at some point, but be warned, it is dark and grim, and sometimes gut wrenching. But it's not to be missed, even if you don't find yourself liking the story, there is a great survival horror/action game beneath it all. 

   

Verdict: 5/5

Resident Evil 3 review (PS4 version, campaign only)

In terms of quality, the original Resident Evil 3 would rank amongst the lowest in the series for me, not that I don't like it, it's just the one game in the mainline titles that I've replayed the least. Although it never moved the story forward as one would have expected from a sequel, we did find out the ultimate fate of Raccoon City, and what happened to some of the characters who were in the first Resident Evil. Most notably Jill Valentine who's the lead character, and a member of the elite special forces team, STARS.

I loved the Resident Evil 2 remake, it was my my favourite game of last year, I do however, still think the 1998 version is the definitive title. So I was always looking forward to an inevitable remake of the third game, although I never expected it to release so soon. Having completed it on both standard and hardcore difficulty, it leaves me with similar feelings to those I had of the original.

Resident Evil 3 begins before the events of the second game, just as the zombie outbreak ravages across Raccoon city. The main antagonist, Nemesis, shows up from the very beginning this time, chasing Jill through a block of apartments until she manages to escape onto the streets. Where a significant chunk of the first half of the game takes place.

From then on the game doesn't deviate too much from the typical Resident Evil formula, as you collect items that allow you to progress further. The burning chaos of the Raccoon city streets provides for a great opening location, and from a visual point of view the game looks splendid throughout as you go from one new area to the next, (the lighting effects mesh particularly well with the dark aesthetic of the locales).

For me it's the exploration in these games that I like the most, I love checking every nook and cranny, and finding things that will be useful for my survival. This is one of the first gripes I have with the game, as good as the locations are to explore, the game is far too linear for my liking.

There's not a whole lot of backtracking in the game, once areas are completed there's little subsequent connection between them as you move forward. This is further compounded by the lack of puzzles, now don't get me wrong, not all puzzles in Resident Evil games are fun to do, but they exist for the player to explore and manage their inventory. At the end of completing a puzzle you are rewarded with a new location or item that lets you progress, I haven't experienced too many games that provide such gratification after so much toil. Resident Evil 3 really could have been helped with a bit more exploration and puzzle solving to add to the game's length and dynamism.

**

The original Resident Evil 3 upped the ante in the action department, it was nowhere near the levels that future Resident Evil games would become. But you could argue that it was the first change in direction that the series took, and the remake follows the same pattern by having a lot more action than the Resident Evil 2 remake. The shooting in this game is fine enough, it's nothing special, but the guns feel weighty when they are triggered, and there's plenty of arsenal to pick up during the game.

Not only are the zombies grouped together more than I expected, I found them to be more aggressive than ever before. If you aren't careful you can really screw up certain sections quicker than you think. I have always found the best way to play a Resident Evil game is by conserving as much ammo as possible, and only use it when absolutely necessary. But the narrow environment designs and high number of onscreen enemies make this a little more challenging than usual. There is a dodge manoeuvre to help you if needs be, a feature that was first introduced in the original game and surprisingly never implemented again until now. It's a helpful tool to use if you can master it, but as I said, this is difficult to do in relatively narrow spaces.

   
Outside of your typical zombies, namesake enemies from previous entries do make a return, including the zombie dogs, the licker and the long awaited return of the Hunters from the first Resident Evil. New enemies include what can only be described as a grotesque worm/frog like creature on legs, as well as these tiny parasite insects that appear in one small but annoying section of the game. All of them are disgusting looking, and most can instantly kill you if you're complacent. As I stated earlier, the enemies in this game are extremely aggressive, sometimes to the point of being difficult in a too artificial way that prohibits the experience.

Which brings me finally to Nemesis, the infamous tyrant that will stop at nothing in your pursuit, as he was in the original. He appears at select times during the game, some of these moments will play out as quick time event set-pieces. I've heard a lot of people complain that he doesn't act like Mr X from Resident 2 remake, who continuously stalked you when he showed up. But I'm glad that's not the case, because while Mr X was thoroughly frightening on the first and second playthroughs, the novelty wore off soon afterwards. To be honest I found Nemesis rather abrupt and annoying, often choking up the pace of the game. I could only imagine him being even worse if he was an ever present stalker constantly on your heels.

I will praise his redesign which is far more intimidating and monstrous than before, and his continuing mutation in the latter half of the game is the thing of nightmares. He also provides some decent albeit bombastic boss battles at various points. Which is saying something because Resident Evil boss battles are a mixed bag, and I really disliked the way some of them worked in the Resident Evil 2 remake.

**

The worse aspect of this game, the one negative that stands out above all else are the locations cut from the original. These specifically include the park and factory that you explored towards the game's climax. There is a new location that wasn't in the original, and it's arguably the toughest and least linear section you'll explore, but omitting the park and factory is a strange move. Especially when you consider the length of the game is only between five and seven hours long.

Speaking of the game's length, I find it baffling that there are no multiple choice routes that were a unique feature in the original. At various points in the original game, usually when a dramatic moment was about to happen, you got a choice of two options to pick, each opening up a slightly different path forward. It's a mind boggling exclusion because the game could have done with more immersion and replay value. Because once you've completed the story the only unlockables of any worth are higher difficulties, and a shop where you can buy weapons and upgrades with the points you've earned playing the game.

**

Resident Evil 3 is a fun game, but only a decent entry in the series, that sadly ends up being a somewhat missed opportunity. I hate to say it but it does feel a tad half hearted when you compare it to last year's glorious Resident Evil 2. I can't honestly recommend this at full price unless you're a huge fan of the series. There is Resistance, a multiplayer game bundled together with the main game. But I have not tried it yet, and from what I've watched and the poor reviews its received, I doubt I ever will.

Verdict: 6.5/10

While writing this review it was announced that a Resident Evil 4 remake is in the works, which I find hard to understand because it really doesn't need one. However, I am open to it, I can see ways in which you can evolve the experience, but I don't think they need to make drastic changes overall. I believe a Code Veronica remake is more justifiable, it's the black sheep of the series, but the one that would benefit most from a compelling rework.








    

Resident Evil 2 (remake) review

(PS4 version, played on standard difficulty)

It’s hard to believe that the original Resident Evil 2 came out twenty one years ago, but it’s initial release was not my first experience with the game. A demo came with Resident Evil: Directors cut, the first title in the series that I played, the demo ended on a cliffhanger, which made me even more desperate to play the full game on release. Unfortunately I never had a PlayStation of my own, so I had to wait until it was released on the Nintendo 64 two years later to get my own copy.

This is not much of a remake, in truth it is far more of a re-imagining, everything from the locations to the supporting characters have been entirely revamped. It succeeds in making the familiar feel unfamiliar. Like the original, the story focuses on two strangers who end up in zombie ravaged, Raccoon city. First we have Claire Redfield (brother of Chris from the original Resident Evil game), and Leon Kennedy, a rookie cop on the first day of his new job. After their initial introduction to each other they’re separated for the majority of the game.

The fixed camera angles have been replaced with an over the shoulder third person view, allowing the game’s foreboding atmosphere to really grab and not let you go. And believe me, this game is tense as well as scary, the locations are by and large devoid of light outside of the torch you carry. Like its predecessors in the series, the settings are characters within themselves. The city is a burning chaos, and the police station is like a prison with no escape, suffocating you at every moment with its darkness and monsters lurking in your surroundings.

With a limited inventory space you progress through the game by solving environmental puzzles that open up new areas of the map, which then leads you to important items such as files, keys and weapons. Item management is an integral part of the experience, and because of this there is a lot of backtracking, far more than I anticipated. Which is something I don’t usually enjoy in most games, but it works here because the game design is so great, and there’s a genuine satisfaction and reward in the moment to moment story progression. The maps you pick up will help with the backtracking, they’re an essential tool that you’ll be using from beginning to end, with items and locked doors marked down, as well as unexplored rooms which appear in red.

   

The puzzles aren’t particularly brain scratching, they just require a bit of observation and patience, some can be frustrating and feel like they’re there for the sake of it. But there’s always a great sense of engagement and reward when you’ve figured one out. There was only one puzzle that had me stumped for a while, and it was one of the few that required me to write down notes to help find the solution.

There is of course other obstacles that you will have to confront, and those are the monsters that make this a true survivor horror game. The most frequent of these are the zombies that have been in the series from the beginning. These zombies are not the type that sprint at you, these are the slow, lumbering kind. But don’t let that fool you, if you’re not careful they can be a nightmare. The best strategy is to avoid them as much as possible, save your ammo unless it’s absolutely necessary, but that’s easier said than done because they tend to be located in confined spaces and roam around in numbers. They can lunge at you with both arms if you’re too close, and they stagger forward making it bit tricky to aim for their weak spots. And even if you shoot them in the head, some can take between four to seven hits to kill off completely. Unless you get a lucky, perfect critical hit that blows their brains off.  

Zombies aren’t the only thing you have to worry about, there is an assortment of grotesque but wonderfully designed enemies. From the mutated lickers to the zombie dogs, these enemies might not show up as frequently but they are far harder to kill, and unlike the zombies they are extremely difficult to avoid. Thankfully there’s a good range of weapons that you can attain, these vary from one character to the other. Both start with a basic handgun, but in regards to heavy weapons, Leon gets a shotgun and a magnum, while claire gets a grenade launcher and a submachine gun. Which brings me to another change from the original, is that you can now aim as you move, but this isn’t always an advantage because the onscreen reticle gets bigger as you move, so your aim isn’t as steady, thus making it easier to miss your target. It can cause plenty of irritation and wasted bullets, but it adds an extra layer of challenge that I came to appreciate the more I played.

Which brings me to Mr X, a tall and formidable enemy that will stalk you until you manage to escape from his clutches, but even then you’ll hear the piercing sounds of his heavy footsteps as he looks for you. I can’t think of another game where a sudden rush of dread overwhelmed me as much as the first time I encountered him. For fans of the series, he plays a similar role to that of Nemesis in Resident Evil 3. This won’t be to everyone's taste, and although I think it’s one of the best aspects to the game, even I, after the initial encounter felt that it was too intrusive. But you’ll learn to overcome and appreciate the small doses of terrifying urgency that he brings to the experience. Just make sure you run away from him the second he appears, do not waste ammo trying to kill him off because you can’t.

Not everything I feel about the game is positive, the boss battles which are a staple of the series are unfortunately contrived and quite bad, they are designed and scripted in a way so that you have to get hit to succeed. There is also one other nitpick that I had, and this is more of a personal gripe. I was rather disappointed that the story was a straight up copy of the original game, outside of the additional and expanded locations, the narrative adds nothing to the lore of the series. This is one area even the Resident Evil 1 remake changed with the inclusion of the Trevor family, giving the terrifying mansion extra depth.

Resident Evil 2 is nothing short of astounding, for me it's a must buy, and for £39.99 you get a decent amount of content. Both characters have an A and B story mode, each of which bring a variety of differences to make each campaign feel a little fresh. It all culminates in a brilliantly modern survival horror game that ought to please both old and new fans alike.

9.5/10     

    

It movie review

Director: Andy Muschietti
Running time: 135 minutes


Impressive, but it still managed to remind me of every other modern horror movie.

It is an adaptation of Stephen King's classic novel of the same title, I loved the novel, but to be honest I can't remember much of the mini series from the nineties, outside of a few scenes.

This adaptation is directed by Andy Muschietti (Mama) and the story has been brought forward to the late nineteen eighties from the source materials fifties. Set in the suburban, American town of Derry, where every twenty seven years a mysterious, shape shifting evil comes out from the sewers and preys on the children.

The main focus of the story is on a group of school misfits, better known as the losers club, who come together through a series of events. It is the performances of the children that really give the movie a rock solid foundation, their friendship is believable and shown wonderfully in each of the scenes they appear. Touching moments of them all together, along with comedic dialogue give the movie a lot of heart and character development.

They individually bring their own dimension and nuances to to the group, and for me they were the best part of the movie.

**

Bill Skarsgard's portrayal of Pennywise the clown is sinister and conniving, within a flash he can transform from an innocent man child to an intimidating, nightmarish psychopath. With his bunny teeth and less colourful make up, this version of Pennywise feels like an evil entity that happens to be dressed up like a circus clown, rather than Tim Curry's portrayal in the mini series, which looked like a weirdo dressed up in a borrowed clown costume.

It succeeds in creating a monster from something that exists to entertain children. Disguise is one of the best forms of horror and mystery, so Pennywise has his place in popular culture, much to the disappointment of real life clowns I'd imagine.

**

But Skarsgard's performance is somewhat let down by the moments in which the movie is trying to scare you. For all of its great use of creepy atmosphere and foreboding direction, it falls into the trap of overly using sound as a substitute for real tension. It's something that every modern horror movie appears to do these days.

There aren't too many cheap jump scares but moments when character's ought to be frightened or in peril, are drowned out by loud banging effects. Because of this nothing feels natural, it's just an unimaginative way of using sound effects to try and prod the audience into feeling scared.

Is the movie scary? Not really, I say that as someone who's never really found any horrors scary, but there are disturbing moments of gore that might unsettle certain people. Both of the supernatural and natural kind.

There are also a few clever moments when Pennywise frantically chases towards the camera in pursuit of his victims. It's only in these fleeting seconds that we feel the characters fear reflect onto ourselves, which is a shame.

It's also to the movie's credit that it was made for the sole purpose of an adult audience in mind, a bit of a rarity for modern horror movies.

**

It is an impressive horror movie overall, it was better than I had always expected, but it changed nothing from what we have already seen before. It's held together by the fantastic performances of its cast and a surprisingly human story. For me this is a definite recommendation, whether you are a horror fan or not.
 

Verdict: 3.5/5

Annabelle Creation: review

Director: David Sandberg
Running time: 109 minutes


An entertaining and occasionally clever horror flick that doesn't conjure up much that's new


Annabelle Creation is a prequel to the first Annabelle and Conjuring movies, the plot is centred on a group of girls and a nun who move into an isolated house from a closed down orphanage. They share their new home with doll maker Samuel Mullins (Anthony LaPaglia) and his wife Esther (Miranda Otto), whose daughter tragically died in a roadside accident twelve years earlier. It's when one of the children find a hidden doll by the name of Annabelle that things don't quite go to plan.

To be honest there's not a lot that's particularly original in this movie, much of the themes of religion, isolation and scary dolls are staples of the horror genre. But much like the Conjuring movies, there are moments of tension which build up masterfully to only then deceive you by going in a direction that is often unexpected.

It's very clever bait and switch, but the payoff is sometimes mixed, the jump scares caught me by surprise but do feel a little bit cheap on occasion. It doesn't thankfully rely on jump scares as much as most horror movies tend to do these days.

While the story might follow the same old tropes we have seen before, the performances really shine through, Talitha Bateman and Lulu Wilson play the two child leads, Janice and Linda, perfectly. Child actors can often be a thorn in horror movies, they are either annoying or just unconvincing. But they made the characters sympathetic and believable, we feel their dread as they go through their supernatural ordeal, and uncover the mysteries of Annabelle.

Another thing worth mentioning is the good use of its setting, while there is nothing about the house's design that stood out from anything else of the genre. It's shot in a way that makes it peculiarly unnerving and menacing, but homely nevertheless. A place that's lived in rather than just a plot device for the characters.

But, as I said, there is not much here that's new, it's a little bit jack of all trades but the master of nothing. And while the plot's central mystery unfolds rather well, the actual origin story of Annabelle is not nearly as satisfying as it could have been. It's kind of predictable and ultimately a wasted opportunity.  

I'd recommend this to anyone who is a fan of the genre, and for those who liked the previous Conjuring movies. There is an abundance of scares and intrigue here, even if it follows a direction we have already seen.

Verdict: 3/5

Resident Evil 7 review (PS4 version, no VR)

An exceptional, albeit flawed sequel to a series that had somewhat lost its way

Resident Evil 6 was a big disappointment, I say that as an impassioned fan who loves each of the main entries into the series. So I've been anticipating the follow up with some trepidation and hope, the reveal at E3 last year left me curious and excited, but I was also worried about the change to first person perspective. It seemed like Capcom were taking cues from other recent survival horror games such as Outcast and Amnesia. Although I eventually welcomed the change, I was still afraid that it would be one step too far from the series and what I wanted.

But I was wrong, with its item management, save rooms, clever puzzles and backtracking within a contained environment, Resident Evil 7 shares many of the original inceptions of what the series was before the fourth game came along. The story begins when Ethan Winters receives a message from his wife, Mia, who has been missing for three years. The message leads him to a plantation in Dulvey, Louisiana, where he crosses paths with the seemingly manic Baker family, and it's from here that the game begins its twisted journey.

As I said, for the most part, the game's setting is situated in contained environments, where you progress by unlocking doors and solving puzzles, with the obvious enemies stopping you in your tracks. This accommodates the first person perspective wonderfully, not only do you have to be observant (far more than I expected), but it makes the game's atmosphere terrifying (if you think you have the stomach for it, play it with the lights off and the headphones in). Rather than looking in from the outside, you feel like you're playing a bigger role within the game.

As with the earlier games in the series, ammo and health supplies are scant, and have to be managed within a certain limit. The item management is fair and should not cause that much frustration, only twice did I come into any kind of difficulty, and both times it was during boss fights. Veterans of the series will be familiar with the save room and the item box, at certain points in the game they will come to much great relief for the player. But fear not, the game does have a checkpoint system that is pretty generous for this type of game.

It’s only in the last third of the game that the action really ups the ante, from a shotgun to a flame thrower, to a grenade launcher, there is a surprisingly impressive amount of arsenal that will be at your disposal at various points. All of them can used in different ways against different enemies, but as with tradition in a Resident Evil game, try and use them as sparingly as possible.

The shooting works well, don’t expect anything near to the stellar gunplay like that of Battlefield or even Call of Duty. The gunplay in Resident Evil 7 is simple but perfectly fits the purpose of what the game is trying to achieve, in that you’re a character fighting for survival rather than a soldier going into combat.

The sparse but contained way you explore the environments from the early Resident Evil games does return. From the Spencer Mansion to Raccoon City Police Department, one of the greatest and most overlooked aspects of the early Resident Evil games was that the settings were characters within themselves. One half of Resident Evil 7 achieves this, the Baker family plantation is the stuff of nightmares, it’s uninviting and imprisoning, but at the same time you want to know more about it, you want to explore every nook and cranny, not just for the game’s progression but from curiosity point of view as well.

The game’s presentation has a grimy, repellent look to it, the colour palette is dark and devoid of much variety, and it suits the claustrophobic atmosphere that keeps hold for most of the game. However, some of the textures on closer inspection feel dated and very last generation, and while everything is designed proficiently, there is a certain familiarity that makes the game repeat tropes from not only other titles in the series, but other survival horror games in general.

This is most notable in the rather bland enemy designs (sorry no zombies here I'm afraid), which there are far too few of. While the game is more grounded and nowhere near the bombast of some of the other games in the series, it would have been nice to see something a little more surprising and imaginative. In the first part of the game you have to overcome the Baker family, you have the father, Jack, who stalks you with a shovel and doesn't seem like he can be killed. Marguerite, the mother, who you have to stealthily avoid in case you don't want to be killed by the bugs that surround her. And then you have the son, Lucas, to which you have to escape his traps and mind games. All of these are challenging and terrifying, you have very little weaponry, and each of them have to be defeated in different ways, which helps mix the gameplay up.

Which brings me to the boss battles, a staple of the series right from the beginning, and to be honest it's a mixed bag here. None of them are particularly smart or reach their potential, and some are just damn right annoying. However, they do provide a tough challenge and while the premise doesn't always work, the set up and the eventual progression is rewarding.

I completed the game in under nine hours which is about average for a Resident Evil game, but once you have completed it you unlock the madhouse difficulty, in case you want an extra challenge. And if you don't fancy going back for an extra challenge, the chances are you will want to go back for some of the items and files that you might have missed the first time round.

Verdict

Resident Evil 7 is a fantastic game and one that erases the mistakes of the sixth entry in the series and goes back to its survival horror roots, it works well as both a semi-reboot and a continuation within the series lore. But it has to be said that the first two thirds of the game is far superior to the last third, towards its conclusion the game becomes far too linear and a bit of a lull. The final boss is unforgivably bad and the eventual ending is also a bit anti-climatic.

But overall, I'd recommend the game to anyone, whether you're new to the series or a fanboy, it's definitely a buy from me. It's just a few flaws away from being a true classic, but its wet my appetite for what they will offer next.

8/10

Blair Witch review

Director: Adam Wingard
Running time: 89 minutes
Certificate: 15

The 1999 Blair Witch Project was something of a revelation, not only did it father the found footage genre but it was a very effective horror film that had plenty of scares. Underpinning it were characters we cared about, which made the film both believable and full of tension as the trauma unfolded. Which is one of many reasons Blair Witch disappoints on so many levels, and ends up being a letdown.

Ignoring the first sequel to the series Book of Shadows, Blair Witch begins twenty years after the original film, when James Donahue (James Allen McCune) comes across an uploaded clip of his missing sister's recording of when she investigated the Blair Witch legend in Burkittsville Forest. With a few friends Lisa Arlington (Callie Hernandez), Peter Jones (Brandon Scott) and Ashley Bennett (Corbin Reid) he meets up with the person who uploaded the clip onto YouTube, so they can be taken to the place where her camera was found.

The film slowly builds up to everyone setting up camp before things get really loud and predictable. Until the last ten minutes almost all of the apparent scares are manufactured and cliched. You have your usual jump scares such as characters suddenly appearing in frame to scare whoever's point of view we are seeing, and strange noises appearing off-screen just so one of the character's can go investigate in the dark by themselves.

None of it is remotely effective because everything is so bloody loud, unlike the original, the sound never feels natural to the surroundings, making it obvious that a sound effect button has been cranked up to eleven and put into the film in post production. So nothing feels real, not once can you imagine anything onscreen actually happening, of which the original for all its faults, managed to do. Maybe the found footage horror genre has just run out of new ways to work?

While the characters have clear motivation and agency, they are all rather forgettable, you'll forget their names within an hour of the film ending. And like many horror films they do the most stupidest things that get themselves killed.

To its credit the film does get better in the last ten minutes, where for the first time something terrifying actually happens, bringing about a real sense of urgency and claustrophobia. It is also the only time that the shaky cam works.

But this is taken away by a very anti-climatic ending.

Verdict- Unless you absolutely loved the original and have some free time to spare I would not recommend seeing Blair Witch. It's not so bad that it's unwatchable it's just wasted potential that offers nothing new, I'd wait for a rental.

D
2.5/5 (bordering on 2, couldn't decide)        

Don't Breathe review

Director: Fede Alvarez
Certificate: 15
Running time: 88 minutes


Without doubt one of the best horror/thrillers I have ever watched

I hardly ever get scared from movies, there are some that I might find disturbingly violent and gory, but rarely do I feel the peril of the characters onscreen. Which is Don't Breathe's greatest triumph, at every beat I was thoroughly involved in the eventual cat and mouse nature of the film's premise, and never once did I predict its twist and turns.

Set in Detroit, the plot is about a group of three burglars who break into the home of a blind war veteran (Stephen Lang), hoping to get the compensation money he received when his daughter was killed in a car accident. Rocky (Jane Levy) is from a broken home and plans to move to California with her sister, Alex (Dylan Minnette) is the sympathetic one with a conscious, and Money (Daniel Zovatto) is the brash and arrogant one.

As you'd expect, things don't quite go to plan and they eventually have to fight for their own survival. In most house invasion movies, the house is nothing more than just a setting, in Don't Breathe it feels like a villain (in this case) within itself, a place that is inescapable. It's helped by the way the film is shot, most horror/thrillers are often made so that the locations are nothing more than wallpaper, always reminding the audience that they are looking in from the outside, a voyeur of sorts. But Don't Breathe is closed in and personal, which creates a real feeling of dread and tension that never once lets you off the hook.    

The villain is unique as well, while still coming across as excruciatingly antagonistic he actually has a vulnerability, he isn't just some supernatural force of power with little motivation other than to kill for the sake of it. So the stakes are always high.

The violence is raw but not gratuitous, there are a few brutal moments where you might have to look away for a second or two, but nothing that is particularly upsetting.

It's not all good though, the last third is a bit exhausting and derivative, nothing that will take you out of the film, but the gradual pace of the film suddenly goes up one too many gears. And the ending is a little anti climatic, while it doesn't ruin the experience, the payoff just feels short changed.

Verdict: With superb performances all round, Don't Breathe is one of the best films I've seen this year, and one of the best edge of your seat thrillers I have ever seen. I would highly recommend this film, unmissable. 

A, 8/10      

   

Into the Ravens Nest: Chapters 5&6

Here are chapters 5 and 6 of Into the Ravens Nest. Please note that this is not the final edited version, due to a computer problem I lost the final version. Howerver, there isn't too much difference aside from technicalities. Enjoy yourself.

 Chapter five:

Twilight had set by the time he returned to Forest Meadows, the town square was quiet and empty except for a few people outside of the pubs. With the street lamps and clock tower alight it made for a serene setting. Before they parted company it was agreed that Mr Wilson would help by contacting people with eye witness accounts of the supernatural at Ravens Gate, as well as Police Officer Hamilton.

On entering, the first floor of the Golden Swan was half packed, and this was because a football match was due to start at some point. Reuben hated football, after a few visits to White Hart Lane in his late teens, he had completely ignored it ever since. From behind the bar Harry immediately noticed him enter, a concerned expression was evident in his eyes.

As Reuben walked towards the stairwell Harry called out his name to get his attention. He came out from the other side of the bar, a lighter and a cigarette in hand and said “follow me”. Without giving Reuben the chance to respond he stormed to the back of the Inn, Reuben followed him through a side door which led into the outside garden.

They sat down at one of the numerous hexagon shaped benches.

“Do you smoke?” he held out the cancer stick close to Reuben’s face.

He didn’t want to take it but the offer was too tempting, so he reluctantly accepted. At once they both lit up and took a drag before conversing.

“Sorry to pull you out here, I’m due a break and I’m dying for a cigarette, did you go to the abandoned prison?”,

“Very briefly, it was more of a stop off, first viewing before I start the investigation thoroughly from tomorrow”,

“And what did you make of it all?”

Reuben tried to be as honest as possible, without trying to go into too much detail “It’s stating the obvious but it was much more imposing in person than it is in the photos i had seen, far more than i expected”.

“I ask because i’m fascinated, but I don’t have the guts to go by myself, I’m too scared that I will find out some cold truths I don’t want to believe”,

“I don’t blame you, I’d probably do the same thing, what you don’t know can’t hurt you”.

Reuben stubbed out his cigarette, although there was still about half of it left, he couldn’t relax for the simple reason that he didn’t like to smoke for social intent. Harry on the other hand was a heavy smoker, Reuben could tell by the frequency in which he brought the cigarette up to his mouth, breathed heavily into his lungs and exhaled the smoke. Making an annoying sound like a stuttering steam train.

“Remember when I mentioned the lake in the forests”,

Reuben couldn’t remember, but he he politely nodded anyway,

“if i can get the time at some point this week and you’re still here, you’re more than welcome to come along with me, it’s too late in the year to fish but I like to go there from time to time, to clear my head. You’ll also get the opportunity to see the better side of those forests”.

“I will take you up on that offer, just let me know and I’ll see if I can come along”, he couldn’t see the point in going, but on second thought it could provide him respite from his work, and an opportunity to explore the forests outside the perimeters of the abandoned prison. He was also, never comfortable refusing generosity from others.

Harry had gone out of his way to be welcoming to him since his arrival at the Inn. Reuben was sure that It was as much to do with Harry’s fascination with the prison as it was to do with Reuben, the outsider.

He was beginning to feel the cold so Reuben got up from his seat, “I’m calling it a night”.

“why don’t you come in for a drink, the football’s on”

Harry’s generosity was naive but Reuben was appreciative, “I’m okay, but thanks, I’m going to go get in my room and prepare for tomorrow”.

“Well if you need anything, just let me know and I will help you out”.

He left Harry smoking his second cigarette.

When he was back in his room, Reuben sat at the desk writing notes on his early interpretations of Forest Meadows and Ravens Gate. It would help him when he assembled his investigation together and the writing process began, it was the small details that still mattered so much in his articles. It was also a good idea to write those small details down as soon as possible, although he had a very good photographic memory, the notes would give him a clearer picture when he’d return to them.

When he was finished, he showered and changed into a comfortable pair of clothes, and lay awake on the bed. He wanted to finish the rest of the newspaper he had bought earlier but found it pointless in reading what was now old news.

He remembered the bible which was in the drawer, he pulled it out and began reading the first few pages, until his eyes tired and he decided to call it a night.

He awoke once during the early hours of the morning when he could hear something coming from outside of the window, it sounded like two pieces of metal clanking together. He recognised what the noise could be, but to make sure he got out of bed. With sleep bogeys sticking to his eyebrows, he lumbered across the room to open the curtains and the window.

To the side of the road, close to the pavement, was a pair of black horses carrying racks of bottled milk in the back carriage, they were the old glass pint bottles, which he assumed had been left to the consignment of the past. A sense of nostalgia came back to him as he watched the carriage ride past his window and out from the square.

Sunrise was in the early stages of blooming, so without checking he guessed that the time wasn't too far past 6.00 am, so he crawled back into the bedcovers. For a while he lay with the back of his head against the pillow, he hadn’t noticed it before, but the pillow was hard, his pillows back home were soft, and he only had to put his head on them to fall asleep with little effort. When he found himself comfortable he snuggled up and slept until nine.

He woke up with a sense of excitement, today was the day the investigation would really begin. The downstairs bar was empty except for one couple seated in the dining area at the back, Harry was absent from the bar. He sat at a table close to the garden door and ate breakfast.

When he’d left the Inn, the outside weather was grim with simmerings of sunlight trying to break through the clouds. As soon as he drove out from the vicinity of the town he pressed his hand drawn map against the steering wheel.

For a while he listened to a radio phone in show, he quickly got bored and switched on classic FM. It was only when the signal suddenly began to cackle that he switched it off completely. He didn’t think anything of it, it was understandable that the signal would be weak from where he was driving through.

He stood and examined the prison with closer scrutiny. Now that there was stronger daylight he could see the small square window holes that spiralled from the ground floor up. He circled the building, snapping photos as he did, each of the holes must have looked out from inside of the cells.

The iron door opened with ease, before entering he switched on his torch, he left the door ajar so there was some daylight getting through. His clothes quickly pressed against his skin, and the sweat was already swarming his forehead.

The only thing he’d brought with him was his camera, he wanted to scout the inside of the building before anything else. He had a process to each of his investigations, beginning with an understanding with the place or places he was investigating. So he got underway and took a photo looking up at the ceiling, one from the entrance looking into the building, and one looking up towards the stairwell about halfway up.

He decided to number each of the cells from number one at the bottom to number thirteen at the top. Before entering the first cell he put his right eye in front of the round peephole. It was pitch black inside, so he couldn’t see anything other than the slightest of daylight coming in from the small hole in the wall, shimmering like a symbol of hope inside a place that offered none.

He slowly unlocked the bolt and opened the door outwards, he took a photo and walked through, directing the torch over the stone walls as he entered.

The cell was small but not tiny, and entirely desolate, not even a bed, there was absolutely no trace that it had ever once been occupied by a living person.

He ogled the outside view from the tiny square hole, he wasn’t high up but the natural greenery would have been a teasing reminder to the prisoners that their freedom was no longer in their control.

Reuben turned round and looked back at the cell before exiting, he couldn’t fathom an existence in such a squalid and deprived environment. He found himself beginning to feel claustrophobic and boxed in, so he ascended the stairs again. Without entering any, he glanced in each of the cells, moving from one to another, he did this until he reached the last cell at the top of the spiral steps.

Each of the cells were entirely identical to one another, there was no writings on the walls, there were no objects left behind. There was simply no evidence that anyones existence had ever passed through any of the cells to the prison.

He looked down to the foot of the prison, with the help of the darkness it didn’t look quite as tall from above. From his viewpoint, there was something that he had missed at the back of the prison, illuminating under his torchlight was a much larger than usual manhole. There was surely no sewage system within the building, so what else could it lead to?

He would only find out by opening it.

For a couple of minutes he observed the inside of the building from its top, there was nothing but silence, he didn’t expect anything to happen, it was rare that anything would happen on the first night of his investigations. It was only when he went in search for something that he found it. The same could be said of the supernatural. Despite his belief that the supernatural was largely re-enactments of the past, there were extreme occasions when the supernatural lived off its own free will, often consumed with hatred, and when it communicated it was often willing to harm.

To hear the density of his surroundings he tossed a two pence coin into the air, and watched the spinning silver freefold into the darkness before a pinging sound echoed subtlety through the air once it had hit the ground, before fading away.

The sudden sound of his phone ringing made him jolt. It was Mr Wilson on the other end, the reception wasn’t good so he had to bring the phone tight to his ear, when he answered he could hear his muffled voice being repeated, and the signal was hollow.

“I have some good news for you, I have managed to get you an interview with Officer Hamilton. I just need to know when and where you want to interview to take place, so we can get the whole thing arranged”.

Reuben evaluated his options, he could have left the interview until the next day, but he agreed to a meeting at 3.00pm, to take place in the Golden Swan. The earlier he gathered his information for his article the more it would give him time to expand on it.

“I’m sure that would be perfectly fine” Mr Wilson continued to speak, “but there is one condition, I want to be there when this interview takes place”.

“Why?” Reuben queried,

“It’s not that I don’t trust you”, between the crackled signal, the pitch in his voice lowered and the gaps between the words were replaced with ums and ahs. The question had clearly thrown him off a little.

“I don’t want you to misrepresent what he tells you”

“you can trust me, I will not change anything he says to me” Reuben softened his voice so that he came across as reassuring, “the interview will be taped so you can listen to it once the article is published and, so that you know I have used the quotes in the appropriate way. It would also be best if you weren’t there for authenticity reasons, I need to know that what he tells me will match what he has said to you, with you present the chances of him telling me the entire truth could be jeopardised”.

“That’s fine” his voice cowered as he admitted defeat, “I’ll pass it onto him, and I’ll see you at three o’clock, unless anything changes”.

When the conversation had ended, Reuben put the phone back into his jacket pocket, and descended the steps.

He looked into cell thirteen without entering, he intended to look in each of the cells as he made his way down. Just as he closed the door to cell twelve a loud thud hit hard against one of the doors below.

The same sound was repeated again, and then again, each time with harder force. The constant pounding sounded like someone was using their fist as a club against the door. With a steady pace Reuben followed the steps downwards, he was sure that the noise was coming from cell five. The deafening echoes continued to bellow out from the cell and rose high up to the ceiling, and never showed any signs that they were going to cease.

He could feel the vibrations from under his feet.

He passed the door to cell eleven, it was only when he was within a few steps from the next cell, that without warning and no expectancy. All at once, the banging was coming from every single one of the cell doors.

A thunderous chain of tremors followed.

It was so loud that he had to cover his ears to compress the throbbing air pressure, It reminded him of the experience he always had when he was aboard a plane, when minutes before it would land, his ears would hurt with no end in sight. It felt like someone had put a screwdriver through one earlobe with the intention of going through the other.

His earlobes popped when he took his hands away, it took a few moments to adjust and to get his footing back to normal. However, the calming silence was short lived when the thundering bangs returned from cell five, he listened carefully as his feet scraped the tops of the steps as he continued to descend the stairs, following the noise.

When he came to cell five the banging from the other side of the door rather coincidentally stopped. He drew his right eye to the glass peephole, the white square opening in the wall at the back of the cell looked miles away when in fact it was only a matter of meters.

He remained calm, steadied his heartbeats.

He grasped the bolt of the door, pulled it back, the creaking sound in tune with his racing pulse. The cell was empty, he peered through without stepping forward. The room’s temperature was cold, his hands and forehead quivered.

Although he could see nothing he knew something was here, there was no mistaking that he had heard the loud bangs against the frame of the door.

He walked through, the coldness engulfed him, the circulation in his blood made his hands reddened. It wasn’t coming from the square hole because there was no draft coming through, and it wasn’t cold enough outside. Nevertheless he walked over and gazed out of the window in the stone wall, where he could see his car.

Once again he couldn’t comprehend what a depressing and wasted existence it must have been, to be locked up in an never ending nocturnal living for the rest of existence.

With his eyes still fixed on the daylight a cold sensation wrapped round his right hand. On instinct he pulled his hand away, it was only then that he felt what he could only describe as a hand flitter away from his own, he felt the compressions and the texture of someone else's skin.

But no one else was present in the cell with him.

The drastic drop in temperature didn’t last long. His blood circulation returned to normal, although his right hand felt a little numb.

His attention was elsewhere when a loud thump echoed from outside of the cell, he didn’t have to wait long before the same sound was repeated once again. gradually the successive thumps got louder against one of the other cell doors.

On this occasion It was coming from one of cells on the upper levels of the prison.

He set forward and tracked the sounds to cell nine, once again the banging against the other side of the door stopped when he was within inches of from the door. The view from within the cell looked out to the forests west of the front entrance.

Again the temperature in the room had dropped substantially, and once again he felt the presence of something else with him.

With nothing of any interest he turned his back and tread towards the exit when he was grabbed around the jugular, and forcefully dragged back into the cell. The powerful grip tightened, and his throat was being pressed from what felt like two thumbs from either side, as though a pair of hands overlapped one another.

Phlegm spewed from his mouth as he struggled to breathe, the next thing he knew he was being swooped up in the air, where he was held high from the ground. He could still feel two hands, its grip frozen and stinging his skin, as the pain got worse from the bruising he could feel growing.

From out of the darkness a set of bright, white eyes appeared in front of him. It was only now that he could see the outline of a black apparition float towards him, its hands wrapped around his throat. Its appearance like a moving veil of thick, black smog, shaped like a human shadow.        

The grip around his neck was crushing him, his tongue outstretched, and his eyes rolled upwards, His arms ached, the bones feeling like they were about to rupture from under his weight, so he gave up and dropped them to his waist, in doing so the torchlight fell out of his hand, the light flashed in the eyes of the apparition.

For a second a terrifying thought came to him. That he could die in this godforsaken prison.

He closed his eyes expecting death.

And then he felt his knees buckle as they hit the floor. He opened his eyes but he was unable to react in time to stop himself landing on his left shoulder. He ignored the impact and caressed his throat, he could feel the mark that had been left behind, and the swelling of the muscles from under the flesh.

Coughs of spit came out from his mouth as he lay looking down on the ground. He crawled out of the cell and when his breathing stabilized he lay on his back. He was panting furiously, unable to maintain steady heartbeats.

As he lay down, somewhere from above him, the loud thuds returned from one of the other cells. His throat hurt but the rest of his body resumed normality, with little effort he got up and closed the door.

Cell ten was empty when he opened the door and again the banging from inside ceased. It was clear that whatever supernatural entity it was that was haunting the cells, it did not want him to leave, and it was willing to harm in doing so.

He closed the cell, he would revisit the them another time. Before disembarking, he tried to pull up the manhole by its handle but it wouldn’t budge, no matter how hard he tried. As he was about to leave the loud bangs returned, this time it was happening in multiple cells.

From the front door he looked back, his eyes followed the steps from top to bottom, It was not too long ago that he learned the reason why spiral staircases were used in medieval castles and fortresses. It was for defensive reasons. The narrow walkways and spiralling stairs were ideal for those who were defending their ground from an invading army, it was harder for an army to attack an enemy from above, and there was less chance of multiple attackers successful in their pursuit.

However this was not the case with Ravens Gate, the prison was large and open, purposely very easy to manage with as limited people as possible.

Outside the grey clouds were gathering in the sky, the forecasts were appearing to be correct, which could hinder his work. His thoughts were a little confused when he drove back towards town, spinning around his head like a carousel. There were many unanswered questions, and not all of these questions were to do with the strange activity he had witnessed.

For what convictions were the prisoners sent to Ravens Gate for?

And what was the connection between the forests and the prison?

And what was beneath the manhole?

Chapter six:

Reuben went back to his room, he looked at himself in the bathroom mirror, at either side of his neck were slight, pink bruising, they only hurt when he touched them, otherwise there was just a tightening of the muscles. Afterwards, he examined the photos he’d taken on his camera, but nothing out of the ordinary came from it. So instead he sat at the desk and wrote further notes on his first proper visit to the prison.

When it was ten minutes to three he left his room for the bar. Harry was still nowhere to be seen, instead there was a heavy weighted, middle aged woman, it might have been his wife, he thought it would be rude to ask. He took his drink and sat down in the corner where he could keep a close eye on the front entrance.

He sat impatiently as the time passed three o’clock, the bar wasn’t busy as he waited. By the time Mr Wilson showed up with Kevin Hamilton, it was the Police Officer who walked through first, while Mr Wilson held the door open, he caught sight of Reuben and pointed him out, with Mr Wilson behind him, the police officer stepped out of the shadows and into the light coming into the inn from the front window.

It was only then that the horrifying scars from both sides of the policeman’s jawline were revealed. It was clear from the difference in skin texture that surgical work had been used, where the skin appeared flaccid and creased, and with blemishes that looked like old yellow bruises. They came over and sat down, Reuben tried his best not to make his curiosity obvious, even when they shook hands and made eye contact.

“Let me get the drinks” Mr Wilson said enthusiastically,

“I thought you were going to leave us to it” Reuben quietly intruded, doing his best not to create any ill feeling between the three of them.

“Well, Kevin will only do the interview while I’m present”

Without saying anything Mr Hamilton nodded in agreement. Reuben couldn’t help but look at the sleek, oily surface of his face, which had only done a partial job of covering over the lines where the damage had been done. He thought back to the article he read which described Mr Hamilton’s unfortunate ordeal with the white eyed shadows.

There was little he could do and the situation was out of his hands. It was silent until Mr Wilson asked what drink Mr Hamilton wanted. When he left, Reuben got out his notebook and tape recorder.

“you don’t mind if I record this do you? it will help me when it comes to transcribing the interview into print, and you can trust me when I say that everything you tell me will be quoted in the article in the correct manner”,

he looked at Reuben with an untrusting expression,

“which newspaper do you work for?”

“I don’t work for a newspaper, I am an investigative journalist for a magazine called The unknown, it focuses on the Supernatural”.

His expression did not change, his dark hazel, ageing, eyes strayed from side to side, as though he couldn’t believe what he had been told. His expectations had overwhelmingly not been met.

“so is it okay to record the interview?” he reluctantly asked the question again, it was obvious that their first meeting had unfortunately started with a hostile atmosphere.

“If it helps, then do as you please”,

it remained silent between the two of them until Mr Wilson returned, he placed the drinks on the table and sat on a small stool to the right hand side of Mr Hamilton.

After a short spell of small chit chat, in which they spoke in relation to the newspaper story Mr Wilson had written of his incident in ‘The Outskirts’, and he also learned that Kevin Hamilton had retired from the police force not too long after his incident. Reuben mentioned that he had been back to Ravens Gate, but he lied in regards to what had happened, merely brushing the question aside.

“Everybody knows not to go anywhere near that place” Mr Hamilton continued, not once did he blink as he spoke “you should do yourself a favour and leave it to decay in those forests”.

To get things moving along Reuben said “why don’t we just get this interview underway shall we”.

He switched the recorder on, and with his pen and paper in hand, he began with the interview “Please tell me when it was and why you first visited Ravens Gate?”, Reuben wanted to get him to remind himself of a few things, recollect his memory, and then he could move onto questions about the night he was attacked by the white eyed apparitions.

“It was common knowledge among many people in the local police that Ravens Gate was a bit of a strange place, at first I thought it was a load of bollocks. That was until we got a call through about a missing film crew who had visited the prison. Over many years we have had cases where empty cars belonging to the missing have been found in and around the road that leads to the prison”.

By not answering the questions directly and giving information he hadn’t been asked, suggested to Reuben that the ex police officer was fascinated with the prison, and it still lingered in his thoughts. It was also a good indication that he was telling the truth, a good interview was one where the interviewee spoke at great lengths with very little need for disruption.

“There are very, very, few of the missing that have ever been found. The prison has always been haunted, but the forests beyond it are just as haunted as well, I know that from the only time that I ever came close to the prison”.

“Please explain” Reuben insisted,

“The only time I ever came close to Ravens Gate was when we went in search of a missing film crew, their vehicles had been parked in front of the prison so they had been there at one point, I myself never went inside, i was part of the search party in the forests to the north”.

Reuben caught sight of the fact that he repeatedly placed his right hand up to his forehead and then quickly slapped it down onto the table, unaware of his body language, it was a sign that there was plenty of information running through his mind that he wanted to let out.

“Everything was fine at first but we reached a certain point where we began to hear this constant crying and screaming, there were so many different voices all overlapping one another. Never have I heard such desperation in my life. And I really don’t know how to put this but there was no one else with us, it was like they were coming from absolutely nowhere”.

Reuben made a special note of the mysterious crying, “how would you describe this crying you heard, you said that it sounded desperate, what do you mean?”

He shrugged his shoulders and looked up at the ceiling before looking directly at Reuben again. His eyes were determined, challenging Reuben for any sign of disbelief,

“the only word I can think of is helpless, it sounded like groups of men terrified for their lives”.

Reuben underlined Mr Hamilton’s description in the shorthand notes he’d written.

After another sip of his drink, Reuben carried on with the interview “Please continue, what happened from then onwards?”.

“We wandered further and further into the forests, when suddenly a flame appeared in the distance, we followed it, thinking that it might’ve been someone who’d got lost. We were calling out but we got no response, we stopped when the light disappeared. None of our radio equipment was working, so we just wandered aimlessly into the forests, we were about to turn back, and then all of a sudden we came across these…”; he searched for the appropriate word to use, “creatures lurking around the trees, at first we could only identify them because of their bright white eyes, you could spot them from a mile away in the dark. At first we assumed it might be some kind of animal, so we approached them. It was only when we got close that they seemed to notice us. They slowly walked towards us, it was only then that we knew they weren’t any of the wild animals which inhabited parts of the forest”.

He stopped talking and moved his face away, and looked starry eyed to the floor. Again his thoughts were tangled, he was struggling to put them into a sentence.

“With our torches pointed in their direction, they looked like shadows at first, dark walking figures with no characteristic features about them. But it was when they we got too close that one of them came at me, it managed to wrap itself around my back and with both pairs of hands, it began pulling and pulling at the bottom of my face, their sharp nails dug into my skin”.

His naked eyes no longer strayed from side to side, and he looked directly at Reuben once again, “it was so strange because it  as it pulled at my face, I stared into its bright white eyes, it was only when the light was flashed in its face that it got off of me, and disappeared into the darkness, screaming in pain, not desperation”.

Mr Wilson raised an eyebrow when Reuben gave him a glance, as if to say he had heard the story a hundred times before, unable to believe every single word of it. Reuben had seen the white eyed apparitions for himself, and he’s spoken to many others who had also witnessed manifestations not that different to those that he and Mr Hamilton had come into contact with. These were vengeful spirits whose anguish and suffering were the cause of their own restless existence, frightened of the living as much as the living were frightened of them.

“If you can remember, what else was significant about them, please try and recollect, if you can”.

He clapped both hands over his cheeks, his mind pondering before he released them,

“for a split second, and it was only a split second, when my light reflected into those eyes, I could swear I saw its face reveal itself, I’m sure it was blooded. But I was in so much shock that I really couldn’t describe what I saw”.

Reuben noted what he said, underlining it before moving on,

“And how tall would you say these things were?”

“It didn’t come into my thoughts at the time, sitting here now, looking back, whatever it was it wasn’t strong, it was just the way the bloody thing came at me with such speed”.

“How many were there?”

“I can’t remember exactly, I was hardly counting, but if I was guessing I’d say there was at least a dozen. All lurking in this one spot in the forests”.

“Have you ever been back to the forests?”,

“No, and I wouldn’t want to”, his response was sharp and to the point.

“Did any of the other officers suffer facial injuries which were similar to yours?”

“No, the prison and area around it are known to be avoided, after our incident no one felt the need to go back when it was dark, and the missing were never found.

While writing his shorthand notes, a curious question popped into his head. Reuben took his eye away from the notepad, looked directly across the table to the elderly man and asked, “do you believe in the supernatural Mr Hamilton?”.

The question had thrown his interviewee off a little, this was self evident in his face. Where he had previously shown signs of hostility when he was uneasy, he now seemed a little helpless. He looked at Mr Wilson, who merely raised his eyebrow and kept a stiff lip. He turned his attention back to Reuben, at first his words stuttered,

“No, before that night I would have said no, but I’m not sure, I can’t bring myself to believe in something that can’t be explained”.

When Reuben closed his notebook, it was he who was asked a question, “what do you think these creatures are Mister Elza?”.

It was a strange question because he had a theory and a belief, there was no absolute answer to the question.

“In my experience it’s uncommon for the supernatural to cause harm on those that cross their paths, unless it is a specific person, and because there is no connection between you and the prison, this can’t be the case. The supernatural commonly haunt places that are of some significance to them, when they manifest into something other than what they were, these white eyed apparitions that you came across is a complete mystery to me. But my theory is that they are unrested spirits, their life or the end of their lives was so traumatic, that they have become something malevolent after death”.

There was one thing which Reuben had not told him. It was also very common for the supernatural to haunt places of where they have died or been buried, especially if the particular place of burial or the cause of their death was to do with murder. He didn’t say any of this because he did not want to give them any ideas that he was yet to substantiate in relation to what he did not know.

He switched off the tape recorder and closed his notebook. With his glass half full, Mr Hamilton rose from his seat,

“Where are you going?” Mr Wilson asked in the tone of a concerned adult speaking to a child,

“I’m going home, I think my time here is done, isn’t it?”, he looked down at Reuben for a response,

“I have everything I needed, thank you for your time, I really appreciate it, when the article is published I’ll make sure one is passed onto you”.

He immediately regretted the last part of what he said, he had come across as an unsympathetic salesman, and he hated salespeople.

“Why don’t you let me give you a drive back home” Mr Wilson stood up, and he got an answer he wasn’t expecting,

“It’s okay, I needed to get something in town anyway, but thank you for the offer”.

As soon as Mr Hamilton left the table, Mr Wilson swapped seats so he was directly facing Reuben.

“You’ve been back to the prison right, I can tell that you were lying when you said you hadn’t because you didn’t seem very agitated when he described what had happened to him”,

Reuben did not respond, he chose to stay quiet.

Mr Wilson gulped down the rest of his drink and placed the empty glass on top of another table next close by, and stood up.

“I haven’t explored the inside of the prison, but I have heard enough stories to know of what has happened to those who have entered, and too many people have gone missing in those forests. I can only wish you luck”.

“I’ll be careful” Reuben whispered from under his breath.

Mr Wilson put his jacket on and said “when you go back to Ravens Gate don’t venture into those forests at night, you’ll find nothing other than what you have already been told”.

For my earlier entries in 'Into the Ravens Nest', just keep scrolling down.