7 Days to Die Review

7 Days to Die

Rating: Nightmare Fuel

Themes/Genre: Survival Horror, Zombies, Nuclear Apocalypse, Open World

Everyone likes zombies and the idea of a zombie apocalypse someday.  I know I do, the idea of life becoming a true test of strength and ability, going back to the basic plan behind evolution where its survival of the fittest, when money, class, and history becomes meaningless and only the most prepared remain.  Unfortunately, the likelihood of that becoming a reality is next to nothing, so instead we turn to the media for our zombie fix.  While movies are a great way to see the many possibilities, I much prefer to experience, rather than watch, and there’s no better way than with video games.

It’s an idea that’s been done and again in almost every way imaginable, some games, like the original Resident Evil, make the zombies the main focus and storyline, while others, such as Minecraft, just make them one of the various enemy types you’ll happen to see.  And others, still, like Call of Duty, just tack it on as an extra mode, separate from the main game.  There’s been plenty of success in the Zombie genre, but there’s an equal amount of flop.  For every Left 4 Dead 2, there’s a The War Z.  There’s no shortage of zombie games, across several platforms, so it stands to reason that people want to make sure they get their money’s worth when it comes to picking one out.

So let me tell you about the one I’ve been playing recently: 7 Days to Die.

The alpha version of this game originally came out on PC back in 2013 for Kickstarter backers and people who pre-ordered.  While the game is still technically in alpha, according to its Steam page and still being funded and backed on Kickstarter, it got a console (PS4 and Xbox One) release in June of this year.  It’s priced at $25 for PC on Steam and $30 at Gamestop for the console version. While the reviews for the Steam version are relatively high, having a 9/10 rating, the more expensive console version is rated far lower at 4.9/10 on IGN, 3/10 on Destructoid, and 2/10 on Gamespot, though these are based off the Xbox One version.  Only Metacritic gave a score of 45/100 on the PS4 version, which still rates higher than the 35/100 on the Xbox One version.

So right off the bat, you can probably guess to avoid the Xbox One version of the game if you’re going to get this one.  So the questions remain: is the PS4 version worth getting at the higher price?  And is the game worth getting at all in the first place?  While I can’t make that decision for you, I can at least offer some insight.

Firstly, is this game worth getting in the first place?

While it’s still in Alpha and a bit buggy, if you like open world, very Minecraft-like zombie games… then yes.  I think it’s worth a look.  Unlike games like Resident Evil or Left for Dead, where it’s very linear or story-focused with a clear goal in mind, an end of the race, 7 Days to Die is entirely open for exploration and playing at your own pace with your own goals.  You have the one goal of “don’t die” and how you go about doing that is entirely up to you.  Build a base, follow the missions, or just explore and try to fend off the zombies you run across, it’s entirely up to you.

But at the same time, you’re still in a zombie apocalypse and they are still trying to kill you, so it’s got the heavy sense of intimidation you’d want from a zombie game.  That comes through strong and vicious when you first start the game, especially depending on where you spawn in and even more so if you’re going in completely blind.  When my boyfriend and I first started the game we immediately got lost, killed, and spent the next several in-game days just trying to find each other again without running into randomly spawned groups of burners.  It was a terrifying fit of chaos.

Luckily, one of my favorite designs of the game is that it’s not completely impossible to spend several days just scavenging and building.  The zombies are ever-present and always there, but as long as you stay away from city-like areas… or the burning grounds… zombies are fairly spread out and most are slow enough to run around.  You can pick the ones that happen to wander near off easily enough and get right back to fortifying your base.

(Bonus: the scenery is gorgeous)

Which you’re going to want to do, because once horde night hits, you want to be as prepared as you can possibly manage.  Weapons, especially long-range ones, thick walls, and traps a-ready because as soon as it starts, you’re immediately hunted and the infected are relentless.  While the threat is always there throughout the rest of the week, it goes from “I can handle this” to “HOLY SHIT REPAIR EVERYTHING/I’M OUT OF ARROWS/HOW DID THEY REACH THAT/DID THEY JUST BREAK -CEMENT-?!”

7 Days to Die is the most accurate title I’ve ever seen for a game.

However, your inevitable demise at the edge of your own spikes is relatively relieved in the fact that you can still retrieve your backpack after you’ve died.  So if you’re lucky enough to die near your bedroll, it’s not difficult to get back up and get started again.  This is further alleviated by the fact that you can change exactly what you drop when you die in the settings.  You can choose to lose everything, just the items in your backpack, just the items on your tool belt, or have everything immediately vanish upon death… if you’re a masochist.  The convenience of that is, if you die and only drop your backpack, you can spawn with all the weapons in your tool belt ready to go, making retrieving the rest of your items just a bit easier.  You don’t have to punch trees with your fists to make a haphazard, temporary form of defense while you go retrieve that steel bat and machete you just dropped.  It also helps, being able to change that, when a supply drop manages to land in the middle of the way-too-deep-to-ever-retrieve-and-live ocean floor.  Change it to ‘keep backpack’, move everything off your tool belt, grab the supply box items, and just wait for the next half a second before you drown and die because there’s no way you’re making it back up to the surface.

Trust me.

The progression of the game is another great feature to it.  Not only do you upgrade yourself, your base, your weapons, and all fairly easy if you’re smart and consistent about it, but the zombies, themselves, also increase in difficulty each week.  Night 7 starts out with your minimal, wooden and stone tools in a basic, campfire-lit base, and your normal zombie types, with maybe a couple dogs and bugs sprinkled in.  It’ll be tough and it’ll test your starting base and preparation, but it’s nothing too crazy… yet.

Each progressing week, the zombies get bigger, scarier, and a lot more intense.  Spitters that can reach a third floor sniper tower, climbers that just say ‘fuck you’ to whatever wall you built, and massive hordes that make quick work of 4 rows of spikes start showing up at Day 21 and only get bigger each week.  If you last until the sun comes up, you’re going to have a lot to repair.  But you’ll have plenty of time to work on those repairs and upgrading and building new items between the hordes.  As long as you don’t run into too many wandering hordes left over from the horde night that feel the need to destroy the spikes you -just- finished repairing.

(Image from Steam page)

Overall, I’m having a lot of fun with this buggy little game.  As I said at the beginning, according to Steam it’s still technically in Alpha so updates abound, even for the console versions, but so far it’s a lot of fun.  That said, on the PS4, playing split-screen multiplayer, there are a number of lag spikes, bugs, and, with a recent update, crashes.  The lag spikes and bugs only cause minor inconveniences, but the crashes are a tad annoying.  Luckily, it seems to auto-save fairly often so even when the game crashes, we haven’t lost any progress.  It did spawn me in some spikes once, though, when I was trying to repair the roof.

(I'll get a screenshot of our base next time we play)

But, cycling back to the original questions, firstly which version is better?  In all honesty, probably PC, especially if you’ve got a decent computer.  While I haven’t played the PC version, I only have the PS4, I’ve seen a lot of gameplay for the PC version and it’s a lot less laggy than the console version, though I’m sure that’s entirely dependent on the computer you have.  But beyond the processing power of a good gaming computer compared to consoles, the $25 price tag on Steam is more reasonable than the $30 price tag for the console version.  The game is good and it’s a lot fun, especially for something still in Alpha/Early Access, but it is still technically incomplete and requires consistent updates, which are usually easier to manage on a PC than a console.

However, if the PC version isn’t an option for you for whatever reason, I can still recommend the console version.  I would just avoid the Xbox One version.  It’s still fun to play and sometimes the lag spikes are convenient to let you know when hordes and zombies spawn and to be on your guard, but the lower price for the digital version is probably the better deal.

All in all, though, it’s a fun game.  If you’re a fan of the more realistic “zombies are just there and you can often avoid them when you need to, but holy shit avoid large groups” situation like in the Walking Dead or the heavy reliance on crafting like Minecraft and the freedom of an open world… this is going to be a great game for you.  I’m excited to see how much more this game is going to develop and what the story is once that’s implemented, but even in its current state it’s definitely worth a look.  It’s one of the few consoles games that still have a split-screen multiplayer option instead of everything being online co-op only, so if nothing else, that’s a damn good reason to pick it up.

Direworld Scare Park Review

Direworld Scare Park

Rating: Nightmare Fuel

Themes/Genres: Western/Zombies

Isn’t October simply wonderful?  It’s the best time of year for horror fans, having our normally widely-ignored interests suddenly being focused on and a slew of fun for the genre coming out left and right.  On top of terrifying movies, spooky parties, fantastic clothing, beautiful decor, and the second best candy of the year, (Sorry, Halloween, as much as I love my eyeball marshmallows, nothing beats the various forms of chocolate-covered cherries during Winter) there are also the more obscure season releases.  Theme parks that are designed specifically to scare the shit out of you, for example, are things you can’t really find any other time of year.

But in October, the best comes out to play.

Coming from a decently tiny-sized town, a Scare Park was completely and utterly outside of my imagination boundaries, but as my boyfriend and I were out to pick up a friend awhile back… there was the sign.  Direworld Scare Park.  I was immediately searching it up to find ticket prices.  We planned to check out a haunted house closer to us once it opened up, but this caught my eye.  With descriptions claiming “premier horror theme park of Northern California” that was “designed and built by a top team of film industry professionals” you can imagine my expectations blasting right through that proverbial roof.

Luckily, the prices weren’t up there with me and the general ticket was not only affordable, but on sale, even!  The early bird gets the worm, as they say, and the earlier you get the ticket, the more you can get off of it!  Now we absolutely had to go!

So we figured out which day we were open, bought our tickets and I waited in undying anticipation.  Needless to say, my imagination and expectations were going wild, imagining what it might be like and what I’d definitely want to see out of something like this.  Besides a cosplayer that I was rather fond of working there, I was looking forward to chainsaws, long-haired ghost girls, creepy crawlies, and… not so much to pig-head masks that were undoubtedly going to be there.

But were my expectations too high or unrealistic?  Well, plain and simply…

Absolutely not.

Not only did they hit every mark I was hoping for, but they far exceeded them!  I showed up bouncing with excitement, and I left doing the exact same.  So what all does this scare park entail?  Let’s review!  (That said, I’m going to try not to go into too many details because it’s definitely better left unspoiled and experienced first-hand)

Let’s start with my first impressions… well, firstly we ended up walking into a dog show instead of the scare park, we were riddled with confusion but also adoring all the puppies walking around.  It seemed there were two events going on that night and the scare park was set up at the far end of the parking lot.  But, following the sounds of screams and the smell of a fog machine, we found our way over soon enough.

Upon reaching the entrance, there was a quaint little setup with skull molds acting as weights for the line bars and only hints of what was inside, the air of mystery was high and exciting and the relatively short, quick line kept that from fading.  In and over we were, though still a good half an hour early.  The ticket line opened at 7, but the park didn’t officially open until 7:30, so it was a bit quiet and empty when we first arrived.  That said, it was a good opportunity to take a look around, maybe grab some food, buy some beautifully haunting art, or get in line early for the attractions.  Given that the park was only open for a grand total of 2 and a half hours and some lines can take a little while to get through depending on the length, it wasn’t a bad idea to get in on something early.

Once it got closer to actual opening time, actors started slowly making their way out and into the crowds.  They. Were. Beautiful.  Not only are the outfits and makeup brilliantly done, but the actors, themselves, kept the atmosphere nice and spooky, keeping guests on edge even while walking around the open areas.  Hell, some of them even keep things spooky in the lines!  Never a dull moment, I can guarantee that.  The actors in front of the attractions stayed well in-character, giving you small backstories to the attractions before sending you in on your own.

(This was probably my best picture)

They kept the groups small and would stagger them out so you almost never ran into the group in front of you, unless the group ahead of you stalled ridiculously long.  We had that happen only once, though.  But once you’re inside the attraction you couldn’t feel more cut-off and immersed in the world you were walking through.  Noises, lights, decorations, actors, all flawlessly set up for a truly terrifying walk.

There were 6 main attractions and a separate one only for VIP guests, which were all displayed on the wristband you’re given at the front, and each guest can visit each attraction once.  I managed to get to 5 of them but ran out of time for the last one because I did a bit of lollygagging at the start.  You really need to be on you’re A-Game if you want to get through all 6 of them in the 2 and a half hours.  That said, they set up for the entire month of October, so there’s no reason you couldn’t go back a second time if you didn’t manage to get them all the first time around.  I honestly would have, had I the money or the time for it.

The attractions I did manage to visit, however, are listed here in the order I went to them:

Deadlands – an Old Western style walkthrough

Malice 3D – a beautiful Alice in Wonderland-styled 3D walkthrough, it was easily one of my favorites

Callson Manor – a large building that supposedly went up in flames, killing many of its residents

Death Sentence – a theatrical walkthrough about an execution

Dark Realm – walk through the pits of Hell, my favorite and the most atmospheric of the ones I went to

The last attraction I didn’t get to was called Asylum, and it’s probably an easy guess as to what its theme was.  As for the VIP attraction, it was called Panic Escape and it seemed to be a very Saw-esque attraction where a group of guests need to work together to escape whatever dire situation they’re put in.  It looked fantastic.

Finally, there was a magnificent fire show that started at 8 and, with at least two shows, continued through the rest of the night.  The dancers were beautiful and talented and may have been the reason I didn’t get to all the attractions, I absolutely could not take my eyes off the show once it started.

There were a couple artist booths set up to the side of the stage, as well, and a food court across from that.  The food prices were about what you’d expect of a carnival/theme park situation, but the Deep-Fried Everything booth tested my will to stick to my diet with their deep-fried Oreos.  Oh, deep-fried cookies, how shall I live without thee?!

All in all, it was an amazing night at an amazing theme park.  I couldn’t recommend it enough.  I planned to have this review out much early in the month, but unfortunately a nasty cold knocked me clean out of function, delaying this post far too long.  Luckily it seems like it’s still open for another week so if you’re in the area, I highly suggest checking it out if you haven’t already.  I had a great time and I can’t wait until next year to go again.

I’ll leave the link to their website here, so you can check it out yourself.

Planning For Halloween

Halloween Night Planning

It’s the month of Halloween and that means it’s time for the rest of the world to catch up on all the spooks that horror-fans enjoy the entire rest of the year.  Naturally, everyone’s looking for something to do to celebrate the yearly spook-day so I’ve decided to put together a couple short lists of ideas.  Whether you’re planning a party, spending the night in, or looking for something to watch or listen to, I’ve got some ideas for you!

Watch List

Whether you’re looking for thematic background noise or some movies/series to sit down and watch for the night, here’s a list of my Top 10 favorite horror movies/series to throw on:

• Creepypasta Playlist (to YouTube!)
• Horror Movie Classics
• Blair Witch (this one may not still be in theaters by Halloween so go see it asap!)
• The Ring/Ringu Series
• The Grudge/Ju-On Series
• Babadook
• Yami Shibai (a short anime series of horror stories)
• Mononoke (not the princess kind, this is another short anime series of horror tales, both of these can be found on crunchyroll)
• Nightmare Before Christmas
• One Missed Call Series (Japanese) (I highly suggest the Japanese series, which has 3 movies, over the American version)

A Night In

In addition to a good movie, sometimes you want something fun to actually do and there isn’t always a party to attend (or even one you want to, for that matter).  So here’s a list of night-in fun to make sure you still get your Halloween spooks:

• Video Games
• My first go-to for a night-in of fun is always a video game.  Luckily, there are plenty of horror games out there to play.  Some great choices include: The Uncle Who Works For Nintendo, Amnesia: The Dark Descent, Outlast, Silent Hill, or Luigi's Mansion/Dark Moon for something slightly less shit-your-pants but just a good bit of ghostly fun.
• Manga
• There's a decent collection of horror manga that would be great for Halloween night reads.  Uzumaki, or anything by Junji Ito really, is always an option.  There's also I Am a Hero and Higurashi No Naku Koro Ni, and even a manga-format of One Missed Call that follows the movies perfectly.
• Books
• If you're looking for something in a more classical reading format I highly suggest a book called Classic Horror Stories, which is a thick collection of stories from writers like H.P. Lovecraft, Edgar Allan Poe, Bram Stoker, and others.  There's also the old Scary Stories to Tell in the Dark books if you're lucky enough to still have those around.  With the original art.

Party Fun

If you're looking to hold a party, big or small, or even just spend the evening with a friend for a sleepover, you're going to need fun things to do.  A simple movie night is easy and fun, but sometimes you just need more to do.  So here are a few ideas to throw a memorable party:

• Old Fashioned Party Games
• Just because you've gotten older doesn't mean classic party games become less fun.  Bring back some childhood fun with a few creative games:
• Build a Scarecrow - Get some pillows, straw, and various clothing items and see who can build the best scarecrow in 10 minutes!
• What Am I? - At the beginning of the party tape a piece of paper to each guest's back without them seeing what's written on it and you can spend the night trying to figure out what you are with 'yes' or 'no' questions!
• Monster Bowling - Save up empty cans and paint them like monsters.  Then set them up for bowling for your guests
• Candy Corn Count - We've all played the jelly bean count game.  Whoever guesses the closest by the end of the night wins, but this time do it with candy corn

• Board Games
• Another great way to have fun with a larger group of people is to get some board games started up.  There are, of course, everyday games like monopoly or battleships, but Halloween is the time to break out the more ghastly games.  Betrayal at House on Haunted Hill or Are You a Werewolf are just a couple examples.
• Co-Op Video Games
• Sometimes you need games for just two or three and, once again, video games are a great platform for that.  Again, there are everyday games for groups or parties like Mario Kart/Party, but for Halloween you need something a little more horror-related.  F.E.A.R. and Dead Space (2 or 3) can be played solo, but they also have multiplayer options to terrify your friends as much as yourself.
• Telling Scary Stories
• The age-old practice of sitting around a campfire and telling scary stories is a strongly kept practice and just because you no longer attend a summer camp doesn't mean that needs to stop.  You don't even need the campfire.  Sit in a circle in a dark room and take turns creeping each other out with the best on-the-spot spooky tale!
• Haunted Houses
• If you're looking for a Halloween night out on the town and you're somehow too old for trick-or-treating (though, really, who's too old for free candy, let's not be ridiculous here) there's always haunted houses.  Of course, real haunted houses aren't always an option, but even the smallest towns usually have some sort of Haunted House setup you can check out or even help with.  Or a forest-walkthrough in one place I lived.  If you live in a larger area sometimes there's even theme parks specifically for the season.  I'll be checking one of those out, myself, this year.  Either way, there are always options to get out of the house and find some spooks and fun, you just have to look.
• Just remember to be safe!  And no trespassing!

A Quick Look - Blair Witch

Blair Witch (2016)

Sequels abound, the first of the bunch came out recently.  The original Blair Witch Project came out in 1999 and, as stated in my review of it, the movie was a box office and horror giant.  One year later we got Book of Shadows... a complete disaster.  Now, 17 years after the original, we get Blair Witch.  Unfortunately, in the week it's been released, it's already seeing a bombardment of negative reviews.  "It's too much like the first"  "It can't stand on it's own", etc.

I, however, found it to be just the opposite.

Now, seeing as I've only seen it the once, I don't really have the money to be throwing around, going to the theater several times for a single movie, this will only be a brief look at my first impression.  Once it's out on DVD and once I've got my hands on it and can watch it several times, I'll be coming back for a full review.  For now, let's just get some initial response.

Firstly, and the most important of all... it was actually scary.  It did what a horror movie ought to, it scared the shit out of me.  Not since I saw The Ring have I wanted to hide from the screen for a good half a movie.  Unlike the original, it built the atmosphere and it paid off.  There was a reason to be scared.  The nail marks left in my boyfriend's hand after seeing it was indication enough for me that this was a movie worth seeing.  The first time I watched The Blair Witch Project I was just bored.  Sure, you could attribute part of that to seeing it in theaters, with the large screen and surround sound as opposed to my bedroom... but that only goes so far in the grande scheme of things.

Secondly, it actually solved one of the biggest arguments against 'found footage' style movies: "the fuck is the character still holding the camera?"  Everyone who's ever seen a found footage movie has thought it at least once, sometimes several times, during a movie?  Why are they still filming?  Who in their right mind would still be filming at that various point?  We, as an audience, know it's because the movie still has to be filmed and they can't just switch to an outside camera without ruining the effect, but within the context of the movie you still have to angrily shout at the screen "Stop fucking filming, asshole!"  And Blair Witch solves this in a strangely brilliant way.  By giving the characters the cameras they don't have to hold and need to be on for them to use the GPS it gives all the reason to keep the cameras on and still filming... even when the characters, themselves, have long since forgotten about capturing what's going on.  In fact, there's even a point where the character shooting the documentary, the one holding the main, larger camera, realizes 'you know what, I should stop filming' and puts her camera down... but we're still getting footage because of the earpieces.  It was, to me, a brilliant solution to the most prevalent problem of the genre.

Lastly, the pacing and characters were so much better.  In the original film it was extremely slow and about 90% arguing that was either completely irrelevant... or just downright annoying.  In Blair Witch they get right to the point, keep you at the edge of your seat, and don't fill all the non-straight-black-shots with arguments.  Even when the characters are in stress-induced, rightful argument it's less nagging-younger-sister and more stressed-the-fuck-out, panicked adults who know how to calm the fuck down and take care of each other because dear god we're in the middle of the woods, time is warped, and there's a god damn witch trying to eat us alive.  You feel the tension.  I definitely did.

Overall, I'm going to have to wait until I have the DVD and can watch it a couple more times, but for first impressions?  This movie was great.  As for all the arguments saying it can't stand on it's own?  What exactly do you think a sequel is?  It's not designed to stand on it's own and it's extremely rare when one can.  It's meant to build off the first, it's a continuation, not a new story.  I went in extremely cautious, not sure how they were going to make the 20-year gap between the movies work, but I was pleasantly surprised.  They made it work, they improved significantly, and I highly recommend it.

Negative reviews be damned, this was a good one.

The Blair Witch Project Review

The Blair Witch Project

Rating: Meh

Themes/Genres: Horror, Found Footage, Local Legends, Descent into Madness

Main Characters: Heather, Joshua, Michael

Early fall, the time for every Horror movie to be announced and come out in time for Halloween.  On the one hand, that’s just one reason on a long list as to why Halloween is the best time of the year, but on the other hand… we horror fans are basically ignored the entire rest of the year.  It’s like Halloween is the only time Horror is properly appreciated… and minutely, at that.  But, that aside, there’s a whole heap of Horror movie sequels headed our way right now so it’s the perfect time to take a look at some of the originals they’re spawning from!  To start it off, let’s take a look at the original Blair Witch.

The story focuses around three film students, Heather, Josh, and Mike, heading to the town of Burkitzville, Maryland to do a documentary on a local legend the ‘Blair Witch’.  The movie switches back and forth between the black and white designated documentary camera and the color vlog-style camera that Heather carries.  The group gets a few interviews from the townsfolk, asking what they know about the legend, getting a sparse look at the history, before heading into the woods to get further evidence.

However, their quick hike through the forest quickly turns sour as navigational abilities come into question, cigarettes run out, and the very entity they’re out to research starts following them.  During the day they run around in lost circles, arguing amongst themselves, and rapidly losing morale then are tormented and taunted throughout the nights.  Eventually, all three of them meet an off-screen end, never returning home, with only the footage and sound equipment making it back out of the forest.

Originally released in 1999, the independent film took the world by storm, becoming an unexpected phenomenon, being nominated for 21 different awards, winning 17 of them, and is, to this day, one of the highest grossing independent films of all time.  While it wasn’t the first of the ‘found footage’ style movies, it was definitely a milestone of the genre and a major element in horror history.   Critically acclaimed in its time and still making it to the top of most horror-related ‘To Watch’ lists, Blair Witch is a horror movie giant.  Even despite its terrible sequel, Book of Shadows.

However.

While critics ate it up, general audiences were relatively divided about it.  Ever a source of unpopular opinions… I wasn’t overly fond of the movie.  I can certainly see how and why it took the world by such a storm, it’s not a bad movie by any degree... but it wasn’t great, either.  If anything, it was a bit boring.  In a very documentary sort of way.  Which, I suppose, is about what they were going for, but for a thrill-seeking supernatural horror fan the relatively realistic lack-of-actual-spooks ‘documentary’ was honestly boring.

The thing about supernatural horror is that things get… well, supernatural.  The reason legends and scary stories get told is because scary shit actually happens in them, there’s, even if by word only, evidence that there is, in fact, some sort of spooky-scary out there trying to kill you.  Imagine if they’d gone around the town, asking people about the Blair Witch, and someone just said “yeah, my tent got rattled and there were some rock piles!”  It wouldn’t really be that convincing, now would it?  No, they told stories of bodies being mutilated and spread in lines then just vanishing, they told stories of missing, murdered children who had to stand in corners, they told stories of half-human, half-beast ladies, they told stories of a lady who never touched the ground.  They had stories where something actually happened, where people would go ‘oh shit, I don’t want to face that’, stories that had some sort of action.

And thus my biggest problem with Blair Witch.  While yes, subtlety and the audience being able to use their imagination and not have everything thrown in their face is a wonderful tactic for horror, there is such a thing as having too little.  Blair Witch felt more like a study on normal people getting lost in the woods and slowly losing their minds over the thought of never returning home than a documentary on an actual haunting of an entire forest.

(On a long list of "things that had no explanation"...)

On top of endless, pointless arguing and the consistent question of ‘if this is found footage, who the fuck edited it together like this?’ a problem that plagues every found footage style movie, there are so many disconnected random tales with no real explanation behind the witch, herself, that nothing really makes sense.  Apparently, there was supposed to be a prequel doing just that after this movie came out, but Artisan rejected the idea and instead decided a shitty sequel was a better idea.  I would have preferred a literal sock-puppet explanation over Book of Shadows, guys.

There’s too much arguing, not enough witch, and way too much just straight black screen time.  I realize it’s supposed to be night and a camera doesn’t pick up a whole hell of a lot at night, but there are a lot of moments it just goes on too long.  It gives a few moments of tense ‘omg what’s gonna happen?’ but it lasts too long with no real pay-off.  I’m not asking for a jump scare, I just want anything to happen, even in the background.  There are plenty of moments where the characters are just sitting around yacking where some sort of subtle background movement or noise would have worked really well to keep viewers actually on edge.  Instead it’s just more arguing.

(This was one of my favorite parts of the movie)

I watched this movie at night by myself to get the full effect, which is something I almost never do.  Horror movies at night are just how they’re supposed to be watched, but I’ll never watch a horror movie if I know I’m going to be alone for over an hour afterwards especially since I live in a pretty creepy-at-night place.  But I was so unfazed by Blair Witch the first time that I decided to do just that to see if I could get at least a bit of unease after it.

The only thing that legitimately creeped me out at any point was the sticker on the DVD because it reminded me of The Ring.

Overall, The Blair Witch Project was incredibly underwhelming.  Maybe it’s because it’s been so long since it came out and I’ve seen some damn good horror movies nowadays, but Blair Witch isn’t something I would honestly go to for a real scare.  It’s an important part of horror history and should certainly be seen by anyone who somehow hasn’t yet, it’s also an important study piece, but it’s not the best for a scare.

Naturally, I’ll be seeing the new sequel as soon as I’ve got a chance, which means there’ll be a review and a comparison once that happens.  I will not, however, be reviewing Book of Shadows.  With all the sequels and remakes coming out right now I’d rather focus on the best pieces and Book of Shadows is definitely not on that list.  _{There wasn’t even a book.}  So look forward to that, as well as a review of The Ring and Ringu because they have not one, but two sequels coming out eventually between Rings and Sadako vs Kayako.  Which I cannot wait to get my teeth into.

Sonic.EXE Review

Sonic.EXE

Rating: X - Comedy

Themes/Genres:    Creepypasta; Video Games

Main Characters:   Sonic, Author

Overview:

The author receives a strange CD in the mail one day, believing it to be sent by a friend, but inside finds a cursed Sonic the Hedgehog 3 game and a request for its destruction.  Instead of doing as the letter asked, the author decides to play the game out of curiosity and soon find themselves faced with bloodshed, gore, and demonic entities.  Before long the game bleeds itself into real life and turns the author’s life upside-down.

Review:

Dear god this creepypasta is a mess.

Seeing as this is the first creepypasta I’ve reviewed and there are still those who have never heard of them, allow me to explain.  A creepypasta is a term used for internet-based scary stories, basically the upgraded version of telling spooky stories around a campfire.  It’s a wonderful addition to the horror genre, creating wonderfully horrific tales that are sure to leave a mark on your psyche… but also having plenty of duds amongst the batches.  As there tends to be with anything.

Sonic.EXE is the latter.

Despite an immense popularity amongst creepypasta fans, gaining not only tons of fan art but even a fan-made game recreating the game of the story… the actual written story is downright awful.  And about as terrifying as, “The Room.”  You spend more time cringing at the awful grammar and try-hard “gore” than you do actually fearing for the writer’s life or wondering about the potential reality behind the story.  A well-written creepypasta often leaves you wary and silently fearing that it may actually be a true story, that there truly are silent monsters always just out of eyesight or you’re actually stuck in an endless loop of recovery limbo.  Sonic.EXE does nothing of the sort.

Right from the get-go it throws your suspension of disbelief to into the furthest corners it can possibly manage with a delivery that shouldn’t have even made in the first place.  The friend wants the CD destroyed… but instead of just doing it himself, he sends it to a close friend, telling him to and giving no real explanation as to why he can’t.  The best you can gather is that ‘he’ is after him and has run out of time… how long does it take to break a CD in half?  How much longer does it take to package, stamp, and send something off?  This entire story gets thrown off with that one single detail.

You could, of course, argue that the entire situation is immediately full of shit and that this friend is just trying to be a clever asshole and prank his friend by giving him some bullshit “oh no don’t play this, I’m ded” spiel and then sending his friend a hacked game for the sole purpose of scaring the shit out of him… and really, that’d make the entire story more believable.  But I feel like that’s not what the writer was going for.  Unfortunately.

Instead, we now get led into the clusterfuck of a tale about the author and his terrible experiences with a game he was told not to play in the first place.  So moving on, we now get into the game itself, and hoo-boy, let me tell you… I haven’t seen this much try-harding since the last three Saw movies.  Split-second image recalling, the ever-present 666, HYPER REALISTIC BLOOD, playing music backwards, far too many “gory” details on tiny pixelated animals that you couldn’t possibly have actually seen, Kefka laughs, and the mixture of about 10,000 different games for no reason whatsoever.  This story is not only ridiculously long in the first place, it makes it feel even longer considering all the ridiculous shenanigans you have to try not to laugh through.

The author consistently forgets what he wrote just a couple sentences back by constantly repeating himself apparently, for example when the music slows down… only to start slowing down a couple sentences later.  Or completely changes between “this is definitely not a glitch” to “I can’t tell if this is a glitch or a hack” later on down the line.  He can’t make up his mind about anything.  But then turns around and seems to be able to perfectly time exactly how long certain sequences take.  While freaking the fuck out.  I don’t know about you, but when I’m freaked out I have no concept of time whatsoever, all I can think is “dear god there’s hair everywhere, where the fuck is the DOOR?!”  But maybe that’s just me -- maybe the author sits there counting exactly how many seconds are in-between screens for whatever reason.  I’m just going to go ahead and call BS, anyway.

Of course, we need to get some game-breaking-into-reality nonsense in, as well, by having the author suddenly feel like a specific character is in trouble.  You know, just after watching shit go down the entire rest of the time, but chose that specific moment to decide the characters were in trouble.  Or claiming that the “characters, themselves, were actually in trouble”.  You know, that real life Sonic and Tails that’s floating around out there, their actual souls are in trouble, and the author can just feel that… playing this hacked game.  Finally we get some nightmares to tie it all up into reality, naturally.  Because nightmares obviously mean that it’s definitely a demon-possessed hacked video game and definitely not that you’re just a little bitch.  I am definitely trembling now.  This is some Freddy Krueger-level scares now, we’ve got nightmares.

By this point most people would quit playing the game, not only because it’s so “horrifying” but because the author legitimately believes the souls of these video game characters are doomed to eternal damnation because of this game.  Most people would be like “you know what, maybe I should actually break this CD like that letter said to do in the first place”.  But not this guy!  No, in true Genocide-Route fashion, he’s just got to know what else there is and continues playing, sending another character to their HYPER REALISTIC death.  But it’s okay, because he cries about it.  This game supposedly drags the characters and the player into actual Hell just for playing it… but I guess he’s a completionist, gotta get that final ending.

And what is this final ending, the conclusion to all this mental torment, the last piece of the puzzle?

A plushie.

That’s right, folks.  Play a Hell game, get a free Sonic plushie.

BE AFRAID!!

Look author, Sega already has a terrifying plushie and it’s not a blood-dripping, red-eyed Sonic.  In fact, it’s a Tails.  A Tails Doll, if you will.

This entire story is a mess to get through and don’t think I’m going to excuse bad writing just because it was an early creepypasta, as some people seem to do.  People have been writing and creating horror for as long as the human race has been telling stories, and they didn’t need hyper-realistic blood or details no one would actually be able to see to do it well.  No pass.  It’s too long, the grammar is awful, the setup is laughable, and the plot is questionable at best.  It’s got the subtlety of an action film

.

I’ve always said, just because it has blood… doesn’t automatically make it a horror.  Just because there are deaths, doesn’t mean its horror.  There is no better example for that than here.  You can’t just throw every cliché in the book in and expect it to be scary, you have to create an atmosphere, you have to make it believable, you have to be subtle, and you have to let readers’ imaginations run mad.  Sonic.EXE does none of this.  It’s not scary.  It’s cringe-worthy and laughable.

Resident Evil 7 Demo: A Quick Look

Resident Evil 7: Demo
Rating: Holy shit that's cool

Resident Evil, it's been a long time since you've been considered a true horror.  Much like the Dead Space series, you jumped the horror ship straight into the waters of action-based gameplay and, admittedly, probably lost quite a few fans in the process.  The horror fans, at least.  While I admit I'm still fairly new to a lot of games and hadn't played anything worth mentioning until relatively recently, I've made up for a lot of lost time pretty quickly.  But if there's one thing I'm sure of, it's that fans of the original horror-centric games are getting a breath of fresh air with a lot of upcoming releases.

Among those are Capcom's Resident Evil 7 and Kojima's Death Stranding.  And while we're still wracked with pain and anger (mostly anger) over the loss of Silent Hills, (fuck you, Konami) it looks like Capcom's giving us this badass looking Resident Evil game. It probably won't beat out my hype for Death Stranding because RE doesn't have Norman Reedus or Sink Baby, but that's a focus for another review.  For now, let's see what's going on in the RE world.

The demo starts out in the best possible way, throwing you right into it with no explanations and no time to understand before throwing you into the actual gameplay section, where it only gives you one mission and then leaves you to wander.  How better to set an atmosphere for spine-tingling than with next to no instruction and a sudden need to escape your immediate surroundings?  With slow movements and questionable noises, of course!  And we have plenty of that to go around!  The way the game starts out with a preset low controller sensitivity instantly throws you into a slow, cautious, 'there is obviously something right around this corner' air, which puts most people off right off the bat.  While it could just be seen as a weirdly inconvenient presetting, it honestly adds more to the atmosphere than you'd normally expect, especially since most people change it up as soon as they realize they can.

On top of the slow movements, the demo is filled with both subtle and sudden noises all around the player, an extremely vital factor in any game.  Without the right sounds, or lack thereof in some cases, it's almost impossible to correctly set a tone.  These noises keep you on your tones and checking your back at all times, keeping you consistently tensed without there even being anything there.  You're not going to find much throughout that house for most of the game, except for key moments, but you're always going to waiting for it, and that's the important part.

Not much of the bigger story can be really been seen through this quick, terrifying demo, but it certainly does a great job of setting it up to keep you guessing and wanting to know more.  Best of all, you can keep looking for more hints and tips towards the story of the unfortunate victims and the family that used to inhabit the house by replaying the demo and searching new areas, trying new things, and unveiling pieces you may not have seen before.  While on your first playthrough of it you may just want to hurry and get on out of there as quickly and painlessly as possible and miss several details, but you may also be inclined to play through a second, third, even fourth time, each time with new information you've gathered from the last to try new situations.  Pull the lever right from the get-go, open the drawer first-hand so you can get what's in there later on, figure out where that mannequin finger goes... each time finding something new and unravelling more mysteries about your situation.

It's not a huge demo, but it gives a lot to discover, explore, test, and theorize about... all while being scared out of your wits the entire time.  It's certainly the first time in a long time I've been on-edge just watching someone play, let alone playing it myself, so I'm excited for the full release.  I just hope they're able to deliver on this hefty promise of tantalizing horror.  I'd hate to see a repeat of the disappointment from Amnesia: A Machine for Pigs (a decent game that just couldn't live up to Amnesia: The Dark Descent)..... or worse, Silent Hills. (fuck you again, Konami)

We're excited, Capcom, don't betray us.

This demo is amazing and I can't recommend it enough, I just hope the full game lives up to its blazing potential.  I'm skeptical, it's hard to go from action to horror, but it looks like they've got a good handle back on it.

An Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge Review

An Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge

By Ambrose Bierce

Rating: Chills

Themes/Genres:    Psychological, Short Story, Horror; Death, Nature of Time, Illusions

Main Characters:   Peyton Farquhar

Overview:

An Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge is a tale of a Southern man in the time of the Civil War, pining for a soldier's life he can't have, and sacrificing his life to assist his side of the war.  Taking the subtle advice from a passing Confederate soldier, he goes to burn a bridge the Union is trying to rebuild only to be caught and hung in the early morning hours on Owl Creek Bridge.

During the process, the rope broken and he's plunged into the river below, giving him the opportunity to escape and return to the family that filled his final thoughts.  Through much trial he finally makes it home to his wife, who is waiting with open arms, before reality returns and his life ends on the end of a rope on Owl Creek Bridge.

Main Review:

A short story written in 1890, An Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge has had several adaptations, inspired many works of art such as songs, albums, plays, and many more stories, and is another work of fiction that helped shaped the written world.  It’s been directly and indirectly noted in everything from heavy metal songs like “The Hanging Soldier” to an episode of the Simpsons where the class is putting on a play of the story, itself. Over 100 years after its publication, this classic story is still reaching audiences.

And it certainly deserves to be.

While in today’s era of horror the ending of “he was actually dead, after all” isn’t the most shocking revelation in the world and has been done countless times, it’s oftentimes done incorrectly.  Either it’s made far too obvious with no subtlety whatsoever, or it comes completely out of left-field with no indication that it’s even an option.  Owl Creek Bridge doesn’t have that problem.

There are recurring themes and hints throughout the story that, if paid attention to, indicate the twist ending the entire time and keeps the story connected to itself, without becoming too belligerently obvious.  One of the examples of this is the repeated appearance of the color grey.  The grey suit on the Confederate soldier, the grey eyes in both him and one of the sentinels, and the grey sky under which he escapes, they all convey the idea of a clouded sense of reality, misleading illusions and obsessions.

Another is the driftwood that appears under the bridge, distracting Peyton from his thoughts of his wife and children as he comments on how incredibly slow it seems to be moving despite the seemingly rushing water of the river.  It’s a parallel to the slowing and fluidity of time, often described by those on the verge of death.  It becomes an extension of himself, floating down the river to freedom.

A final note is the disproportionately acute senses Peyton acquires after his escape from the rope and yet the strangely detached view of his own body.  It shows the increased gap between him and reality, as his physical body remains in place at the end of the rope, his raw senses have to make up for the detachment by going into an inaccurate overload.  It allows him to slip into his full fantasy of escape.

All of these are consistent enough that they can be pointed out and connected, especially after a second or third read through, but are also written well enough that on a first read-through it still accomplishes the point of a twist, the brief shock.  While this isn’t necessarily the most ‘horror’ of stories, it’s certainly a well-written piece of work and deserves the read.  Just maybe not so much if you’re looking for a nightmare-fueled night.  While the idea that anything you could be experiencing right now could potentially only be a pre-death illusion is a scary enough thought, An Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge is far less nightmare and far more time slows down and the world melts away in the most poetic, fashion.

It’s an English teacher’s wet dream with its brilliant placed and thought-out metaphors, but maybe not the scariest story on the block.

A Nightmare On Elm Street Review

A Nightmare on Elm Street

Rating: Instant fav

Themes/Genres: Horror, Human vs Supernatural, Gore/Slasher

Main Characters: Nancy Thompson, Freddy Krueger

Ah the 80’s, a great period for music, fashion, and especially… slasher movies.  Some of the best classics came from the 80’s, including my lifetime favorite, A Nightmare on Elm Street.  A movie that came out before I was even born but, just like Guns n’ Roses and leg warmers, still had a huge impact on my life.  So why don’t we take a look at what made it the instant-classic it is?

Right from its initial release, A Nightmare on Elm Street was a box office hit.  Not only was it credited with completely revitalizing the horror genre, with huge impacts on the slasher genre specifically, it was an instant success, spawning several sequels, a TV series, a crossover with the other horror giant at the time Friday the 13^th, and a remake in 2010.  Even with some very 80’s campiness that certainly didn’t hold up over time, the movie still holds a 7.5/10 on IMDb and remains a favorite among many.

It’s certainly mine.  Until The Ring came out, Freddy was my personal, unchallenged horror movie favorite and will always hold the title of childhood favorite.

In A Nightmare on Elm Street, Nancy Thompson and a group of friends are hanging out one evening after they have a particularly frightening, and similar, dream one night.  What starts out as a normal night of 80's teen shenanigans, turns into a blood-soaked nightmare by the early hours of the morning when one of the girls is slaughtered mercilessly by an invisible man in front of her horrified boyfriend.  By morning, the police are after the boyfriend but it's clear to Nancy that there's more to the story, especially when she falls asleep in class and, following the bloody body of her dead friend, she meets the killer herself.

Nancy then has to try to solve the mysteries of the burned dream killer and find a way to defeat him before she and her remaining friends meet the same fate.  The line between reality and dreams becomes blurred but Nancy is determined to find the answers… because one, two, Freddy’s coming for you and if she doesn’t wake up screaming, she won’t wake up at all.

The music and sound effects in this movie are enough to send chills down people’s spines every time they hear for years to come, even coming with its own kid’s jump rope song for an extra little addition that you won’t realize the significance of until later on in the movie.  The theme song, itself, is beautifully crafted and the opening scene of the movie is a grand setup for the overall atmosphere of the movie.  It sets a movie that knows how to create suspense, something horror movie directors are still struggling to do even nowadays.

(Though the goat still confuses me.  Why goat?)

Then you meet the unfortunate victims of this setting.  Just an unsuspecting group of teenagers, one being the heroine of our story, Nancy Thompson.  She’s a relatively level-headed girl who just wants to help a friend feel better, but turns into a survivalist badass by the end of the movie, set on destroying the thing hunting her friends, even if she has to face down her own parents to do it.  Three, four, better lock your door.  When it becomes clear that her parents know a lot more than they’re letting on about the killer, she demands answers and looks for them however she can.  Even when she’s the only one of her friends left and everyone’s pegged her as crazy, she still keeps an eye on what has to be done and does it.

On the other hand of the situation there’s Fred Krueger, a serial killer turned supernatural dream killer.  A fucked up individual to start with only made stronger in death where sleep is his playground.  Those long, sharp claws will forever haunt the nightmares of the residents of Springwood, Ohio as well as the audience in front of the screen.  Five, six, grab your crucifix.

The film does its absolute best to blur the lines between reality and the dreams Freddy resides in to keep you guessing which is which.  It creates seamless transitions from reality to dream by keeping environments the same and the cuts natural, it isn’t until that dark figure in the distance shows up, stretching his clawed arms out that you realize it’s a dream.  Once the realization is made, though, the movie replaces your suspense with horrifying images of Freddy slicing his own body, no shortage of disgusting bugs none of us want to be near, and bloodied, talking corpses in clear body bags.  It’s a true nightmare that’s kept plenty up at night,  good thing that’s where you’ll want to be if you want to avoid Freddy in the first place.  Seven, eight, better stay up late.

In the end, Nancy finally confronts Freddy on her own turf after pulling him into the real world, facing the true reality of the situation and seems to come off on the winning side of it.  With Freddy’s defeat, she gets her friends and her mother back and life returns to normal… except for that weird fog.  The movie leads you to believe Nancy won, that Freddy’s been defeated, simply by the power of belief, an honestly lame ending if you ask me… but it psyches you out one last time in the best possible way.  You can’t kill Freddy.  He only lets you play longer.

A Nightmare on Elm Street lives up to its title and is a truly nightmare-inducing creation, I can’t recommend it enough to anyone who hasn’t seen it yet… somehow… it’s always going to be worth the few extra nights of lost sleep.

Nine, Ten… Never sleep again.

Scumbag Loser Review

Scumbag Loser

Initial Rating: Chills

Themes/Genres:    Mystery, Horror, Shounen, Supernatural, Psychological; Humans vs Humans; Societal Commentary; Mystery with Monsters

Main Characters:   Masahiko Murai, Haruka Mizusawa

Overview:

Masahiko is a 16 year old school student who sits back and judges the world, religiously snapping photos of every person he deems a 'scumbag loser' of society, without realizing his own problems.  One day during school, while self-assuring himself that, no matter how low he gets, he can never get lower than a fellow classmate by the name of Yamada, that same classmate suddenly reveals his new girlfriend and becomes the talk of the class.  This sends Masahiko into a hallucination-induced panic attack about suddenly becoming their class's 'scumbag loser'.  When faced with this idea, he pulls out his own picture of a girl he has several photos of and reveals her to be his own girlfriend, who happened to be an old classmate of theirs that had moved 5 years back.  He assumes he's safe, now that his girlfriend has officially been named better than Yamada's, and relaxes...

Until the very next day, when she shows up to class and, after being prompted by another student, backs Masahiko's story up.  Clearly to the shock of Masahiko.  After school he confronts her about it, getting answer after answer about the situation… until he finally reveals that Haruka Mizusawa didn't move 5 years ago, she was killed, but nobody knew about it except him.  Even once she suggests that she may not be human, desperate to still not be the class's scumbag loser, Masahiko then agrees to do anything she wants as long as she continues going out with him.  What he didn’t expect, was that what she wanted was a weekly sacrifice of someone else considered to be a scumbag loser, someone who would have 'no reason to live', according to him.

Main Review:

Scumbag Loser, boy was this an interesting one.  Another piece I found on a ‘Top 10 Horror’ list, except this one was ‘Top 25’, this wasn’t actually my first choice for the first manga review I wanted to do.  However, unable to find the other two at first, with a name like ‘Scumbag Loser’, how could I resist looking into it?  This was both exactly what I expected to find and not what I expected at all from it.

Other than the one list I found it on, I had never heard of this manga before and, even after looking further into it, it seems decently under the radar still.  It does have a 6.8 on Anime List, under the Japanese name of “Saiteihen no Otoko”, but it hasn’t quite even hit 1500 reviews yet.  Beyond that, there isn’t much talk about it.  It’s not really hard to see why.

Right from the get-go you can tell this is isn’t your basic manga, honestly it’s hard to tell that it’s even a horror, I almost skipped right over it from there.  But you know the old adage, ‘don’t judge a book by its cover’ and that’s a pretty relevant lesson for this one.  Going from the cover and looking further in, the visuals are already odd and off-putting, but that sort of response is just the thing the story, itself, goes for, and thus compliments it well.  It does its damnedest to make you as uncomfortable as possible and to show you the true ugliness of every character, a horror in a new light, and succeeds pretty damn well.  There were several times I had to just stop reading and ask why I was even still bothering with this.  The main character was absolutely disgusting and not the sort of thing I was really into, but I pressed on, mostly for a lack of Fourteen.  It doesn’t take you long to realize this manga has no problem showing the goriest of details where they’re needed, even if it isn’t normally the kind a horror fan is looking for.  The art style works really well to portray the overall feel of the story, show it how it’s meant to be.

But at points you actually have to wonder what the overall feel of the story was supposed to be in the first place.  While the story likes to jump around and sometimes lose focus on the main point of the story in favor of go-nowhere fluff, there’s also a bigger air of mystery around it all.  The past of these characters are left in relative shadow besides the big reveal and you’re left wondering, rather than focusing on the weekly sacrifices, what exactly happened 5 years ago and if that’ll ever be answered.  You get hint-by-hint throughout the story, what may have happened, and thus makes it feel far more like a mystery with monsters than a true horror.  That, however, doesn’t change the fact that the characters and expressions in this manga send consistent chills down your spine whenever you look at them for too long.

Or just makes you want to burn your panties so no one can ever touch them besides you again.

Either way.

Masahiko is, especially for a main character, hard to tolerate through a good half the story.  He made it hard to finish this story because he’s just so unbelievably unlikable the entire time.  Between his panty-sniffing, obsession with Haruka, overreactions, and constant lack of self-awareness, he’s hard to stomach, and that never really makes for a great main character.  Even once the story tries to gain sympathy for him and tries to explain his motives, that over-arching feeling of disgust is just incredibly hard to get away from.  He just never really becomes much of a likable person, even in the final chapters.  By the end he manages to finally gain some insight that turned this manga from ‘dear god why am I reading this’ to ‘okay, I’m glad I at least finished this’, but you can never really even pity the main character, let alone relate to him in any way.  But I also think that was the entire point, they’re all scumbag characters in one way or another.

The only character I could ever really feel pity for was Haruka, however, even though she was a scumbag-eating monster and a really bratty kid.  Ultimately, her punishment was far worse than she ever deserved and, even in the ending, I feel like she deserved better than that.  Somehow, the inhuman creature ended up being the least detestable one.

The final couple chapters of the manga are some of the most confusing pages, though, aside from the not-ending when Haruka attacked Masahiko.  It draws in two new characters who realistically have no effect on the storyline whatsoever:  They didn’t really even need to be there in the first place and exist almost entirely as fluffing, but they do at least circle back to the actual story eventually.  It still felt a bit anticlimactic, but it was the turning point for me on the manga, even though it left a lot still unanswered.  But the look on Masahiko’s face when he finally realizes that he is, in fact, also one of those ‘scumbag losers’ makes it all worth the while.  It forces that self-awareness he’s been utterly lacking since the beginning into his face and it’s honestly just such a generally fulfilling moment that it makes reading it at least worth it.  On top of that, it gives Masahiko a second chance to save his childhood friend and gives Haruka a chance to say what she’s needed to since then.  It’s not the best ending in any stretch of the word and it cuts off fairly short, but overall the series’ shortness is what makes it tolerable enough to get through in the first place, so I can look past that.

Scumbag Loser is, in general, a confusing and disgust-driven story, but not ultimately a bad series.  It takes a lot of chances and, while it doesn't always work out for it, I can respect a story that pushes boundaries.  It was a story about judging others and evaluating yourself told in a very unique way, and while making the main character intolerable usually doesn't work out well, this is one of the few contexts it works in.  It's still incredibly difficult to get through, but it's short enough that you can probably shove through it until the end.  It's not exactly a story I'll ever be going back to and it certainly wasn't something I couldn't put down, but I think it's at least worth a glance just for something different.  Especially if you're tired of unrealistically perfect main characters.  I’d definitely peg this one a bit more as mystery than horror, but the elements are there and this one causes your stomach to churn in a whole new way, making for an interestingly different kind of horror.