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[REVIEW] Damian Maffei Kills In ‘Round The Decay’

Round the Decay follows residents and visitors in Newport’s Valley. The two main players are Kenzie Rhodes (Victoria Mirrer), Roz (Sienna Hubert-Ross), Bart Blakewell (Cary Hite), and Munroe (Damian Maffei) (among a couple of others). Kenzie is back in town sometime after her husband’s untimely death in the woods, Roz is a down-on-her-luck single mother looking for an opportunity, Bart is the new proprietor of the Barn Owl Inn, and Munroe is a long-lost Winchester brother in town to hunt some monsters. This ragtag group of protagonists finds themselves against the claw of an ancient creature set to wreak havoc on those who “don’t belong”.

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Lower-budget creature features were a staple of my high school years. I was obsessed with films like The Descent, Ice Spiders, Abominable, Pumpkinhead: Ashes to Ashes, and Pumpkinhead: Blood Fued, among many others. Some of these films were heavy on practical effects, some were heavy on (crappy SyFy) digital effects, and some were a healthy mixture of both. Creature features have always checked all of the right boxes for me. Nowadays, creature features have lost some of their gusto. I was wowed last year by Bakemono and wondered if 2025 would give us another astounding creature feature.

Round the Decay follows residents and visitors in Newport’s Valley. The two main players are Kenzie Rhodes (Victoria Mirrer), Roz (Sienna Hubert-Ross), Bart Blakewell (Cary Hite), and Munroe (Damian Maffei) (among a couple of others). Kenzie is back in town sometime after her husband’s untimely death in the woods, Roz is a down-on-her-luck single mother looking for an opportunity, Bart is the new proprietor of the Barn Owl Inn, and Munroe is a long-lost Winchester brother in town to hunt some monsters. This ragtag group of protagonists finds themselves against the claw of an ancient creature set to wreak havoc on those who “don’t belong”.

Adam Newman’s fourth feature film throws a lot at the wall, and most of it sticks. Newman’s script succeeds in making interesting surface characters; people you want to see beat the overwhelming stalking evil. He surreptitiously interweaves timeline jumps that feel forced to start but eventually work out the kinks to eventually tell an enjoyable story. Round the Decay takes a good portion of its run time to build, which will be a deciding factor for audience retention. Round the Decay comes in at one hour and 46 minutes, which feels a little too long for a film like this, and you can feel the strain every now and then. But those who stick it out will be met with a bloody and well-crafted denouement and a strange feeling of empathy.

When it comes to a creature feature a lot of the pressure falls on the creature design and effects. There are many moments in Round the Decay where you can feel the budget, and thankfully, only one or two of those are creature-based. Head Special Effects Makeup and Creature Designer Greg McDougall created an impressively terrifying creature for this feature. McDougall’s Wrexsoul (Rachel Pizzolato) looks great, sounds great, and moves great. The kills are fun for whatever this film’s budget was, but if I were to judge this film based on the creature alone, it would be a big fat A.

For the most part, the acting in Round the Decay is solid. Some takes feel like first takes, but that doesn’t negatively affect the film. There are two unbelievable standouts in this film. Cary Hite gives an incredibly earnest and authentic performance as the new town transplant and business owner. Secondly, you have Damian Maffei. The Haunt, The Strangers: Prey At Night, Wrong Turn (2021), Black Eyed Susan alumn doesn’t get the love he deserves. Maffei’s range is astounding. Whether he’s masked or not, Maffei puts his all into everything. Whenever I see his name in a cast, I’m immediately intrigued.

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Despite some flaws and budgetary issues, Round the Decay is a fun and well-crafted creature feature. Newman injects moments of dark comedy to break the tension in ways that feel fresh and unforced. If you like creature features, specifically Pumpkinhead, then Round the Decay will do the job for you. Oftentimes, studios dump the projects they don’t believe in into theaters around January and February, but Round the Decay is not one of those films. You can feel the passion from those involved, and it plays well on screen.

Round the Decay hits theaters on January 31st.

Brendan is an award-winning author and screenwriter rotting away in New Jersey. His hobbies include rain, slugs, and the endless search for The Mothman.

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[REVIEW] ‘The Dead Thing’ Takes Ghosting To A Whole New Level

The Dead Thing follows Alex (Blu Hunt), a young woman who works late hours, lives by the rays of a sunlamp, and is looking for the one connection that will make life seem less cyclical. When Alex meets Kyle (Ben Smith-Peterson), it seems like things will finally be going in her favor. But all that glitters is not gold. As quickly as he came, he vanished. Hurt, confused, and pissed, Alex tries to get to the bottom of why Kyle disappeared from her life. Some stones are meant to be left unturned.

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Elric Kane has been a prominent voice in the film and horror space for a long time. One of my fondest memories of Kane is his longtime hosting gig on the Shock Waves Podcast. The amount of film knowledge and obscure films I learned about from him and Dr. Rebekah McKendry singlehandedly fueled my interest in collecting physical media. Hearing how passionate and intense they were with their love of the genre is also what started me down the path of writing. While Dr. McKendry has previously dipped her toes in the feature filmmaking game, it’s now time for Elric Kane to do so.

Cut to: The Dead Thing.

The Dead Thing follows Alex (Blu Hunt), a young woman who works late hours, lives by the rays of a sunlamp, and is looking for the one connection that will make life seem less cyclical. When Alex meets Kyle (Ben Smith-Peterson), it seems like things will finally be going in her favor. But all that glitters is not gold. As quickly as he came, he vanished. Hurt, confused, and pissed, Alex tries to get to the bottom of why Kyle disappeared from her life. Some stones are meant to be left unturned.

Writer/director Elric Kane’s (and co-writer Webb Wilcoxen) singular debut feature film is a superbly crafted supernatural spectacle. The Dead Thing starts slow and deliberate; rather than rushing into an overwritten plot with underwritten characters, Kane and Wilcoxen allow the audience to sit with Alex in her neverending love life. One aspect of Alex that I, and hopefully many will, appreciate is how Alex is written. Rarely does Alex feel written from the perspective of the male gaze. Her life may not be going in the exact direction she wants, but the film never makes it out to be a her problem. At no point do they try and make Alex out to be a floozy or condemn her for the life she’s living, instead they make those who live the same kind of lifestyle feel seen. The film asks the audience if they ever feel like there’s no escape; too many of us can relate to that.

It doesn’t matter how a character is written if the acting doesn’t deliver, and Blu Hunt delivers. Set aside the fact that she has one of the most badass names I’ve ever heard, Hunt provides an astounding lead performance. Whether she’s walking alone down a Los Angeles street, or playing off of her longtime friend Cara (Katherine Hughes), coworker Chris (John Karna), or the mysterious[ly handsome] Kyle, Hunt gives it her all. It helps that Ben Smith-Peterson and the supporting cast all give overwhelmingly brilliant performances.

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Supernatural stories aren’t usually my go-to. They can be too overwritten, too style over substance, too “elevated”, or just plain boring. The Dead Thing quickly finds its footing and lets the audience accept it or not. Kane and cinematographer Ioana Vasile (who was a still photographer for Pontypool!!!) wonderfully capture the sometimes-solitary, sometimes-overstimulating beautiful hellscape that is Los Angeles. It should also be noted that one of my favorite actors in the world, Matt Mercer is a producer on this film.

The Dead Thing hits the perfect blend of claustrophobic loneliness and endless yearning. Just like Dr. Rebekah McKendry, it’s clear that Elric Kane doesn’t just talk the talk, he walks the walk. For his debut feature film, The Dead Thing doesn’t need resuscitation. I’d say run, don’t walk, to check this one out, but if you do…look left and right before crossing the street.

The Dead Thing hits Shudder on Friday, February 14! Watch it with your partner if you can, or watch it alone with a tub of ice cream and an overflowing glass of wine. I won’t judge.

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[REVIEW] ‘Bride of Chucky’ Takes The Franchise In A New Direction

Bride of Chucky follows two groups of people who inevitably meet up for a final climactic finale. Tiffany Valentine (Jennifer Tilly) procures Chucky’s (Brad Dourif) body following the events of Child’s Play 3. Her goal is to perform a voodoo ritual to put his soul back into a human’s body. Through a questionable series of events, Chucky kills Tiffany and puts her soul into the body of a doll. The side story follows Jade Kincaid (Katherine Heigl) and Jesse Miller (Nick Stabile) who elope, with a thousand dollars, from Jade’s overbearing police chief uncle Warren (John Ritter). After Chucky kills Warren, Jade and Jesse are fingered for the murder. That’s when hijinks ensue.

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The Child’s Play franchise is all over the place. What started as a [fairly] serious slasher series surrounding a killer doll would morph into a Nightmare on Elm Street-like horror comedy before self-correcting to find a solid middle ground. I’ll be the first to admit that I have never really cared much for this franchise. Child’s Play frightened me when I was a kid, and it wouldn’t be until my college years that I decided to watch Bride and Seed–this altered my overall opinion of what the franchise stood for. Watching Child’s Play 2 and 3 back in college left me wondering how a franchise as culturally impactful as this one fluctuated in style and substance.

Bride of Chucky follows two groups of people who inevitably meet up for a final climactic finale. Tiffany Valentine (Jennifer Tilly) procures Chucky’s (Brad Dourif) body following the events of Child’s Play 3. Her goal is to perform a voodoo ritual to put his soul back into a human’s body. Through a questionable series of events, Chucky kills Tiffany and puts her soul into the body of a doll. The side story follows Jade Kincaid (Katherine Heigl) and Jesse Miller (Nick Stabile) who elope, with a thousand dollars, from Jade’s overbearing police chief uncle Warren (John Ritter). After Chucky kills Warren, Jade and Jesse are fingered for the murder. That’s when hijinks ensue.

Before the comments start, let’s return to the opening comment regarding Child’s Play turning into a horror comedy. Chucky was always one for quips. Like Freddy Krueger, Chucky would hit a one-liner shortly before or after his kill. These jokes worked to help cut through Chucky’s horror. It gave some momentary relief from the kills. Bride of Chucky is just one long gag, and for me, it’s frustrating. Like Nightmare, Bride of Chucky has lost the plot. Every scene seems to exist to facilitate a setup for the next bit or one-liner, rather than having moments of comedy flow naturally. The doll sex scene and swinger couple bits are just poorly thought-out filler.

I know this is going to anger some of you, but Bride of Chucky is a seriously awful movie.

There are a few moments that I do truly enjoy and work well in the overall Child’s Play universe. Tiffany kills the officer she buys Chucky’s body from with a nail file and then uses it to file her nails. The moment Tiffany stabs Chucky in the back at the cemetery is a great character moment, but it makes everything that led up to it pointless. With the exception of a few moments here and there, Bride of Chucky ends up being a chore to watch rather than entertainment. For a genre that has always been political, gay representation has been lacking for quite some time. The character of David Collins (Gordon Michael Woolvett) is a welcome addition to the story, but he feels underutilized in the grand scheme of it all.

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While I may not care for the franchise much, I’ve done some research on it over the years. Bride of Chucky features many recycled bits from other Child’s Play scripts and you can really feel it. The kills are few and far between and feel overly forced. Child’s Play 4 was initially put on hold after the abysmal box office of Child’s Play 3 and maybe writer/director Don Mancini should have taken another year or so to really flesh out the canon of Chucky. Now, don’t get me wrong, I like the idea of Tiffany becoming a doll and becoming pregnant with Chucky’s baby. But I don’t think the ends justify the means.

Cult and Curse of Chucky, thankfully, take the series back to a more grounded and to-the-roots nature of what Child’s Play was, and I’m glad it took nearly a decade after Seed for it to come to fruition. Mancini is an excellent voice in horror, but time and constraints are necessary for his vision to be fully realized. Those who are Child’s Play die-hards will probably disagree with everything I’ve said, and that’s okay. As a casual Chucky fan, Bride of Chucky feels nothing more than a nu-metal, Hot Topic, try-hard entry into the franchise. The kills look solid, and Dourif gives an incredible vocal performance (as always) but there’s little to no substance to Bride of Chucky.

No wonder half of all marriages end in divorce.

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