Bottom Line: This review is a plea to the people who made Penny Dreadfuls, a plea that they realize what a fantastic piece of horror they have on their hands and keep making new episodes. Horror is hard, actually darn near impossible on the web for a variety of reasons, chief of which is that people usually go for shock value rather than diving into those things that really curdle our blood.

Watch the episodes, leave some comments and encourage the creators to keep turning out this wonderful series.

Darken your day with a little bit of murder, mayhem and other unsettling distractions

Details

Creator: James Arnall
Website: Penny Dreadfuls

Ratings

Style 4
Pacing 4
Storytelling 5
Polish 4
Watchability 4.5
Novelty 4.5

Overall Rating: 4.33 out of 5 stars

Bottom Line: Super heroes, government conspiracies, and angst all wrapped up in a cocoon of solid writing and directing. While the story sometimes moves more slowly than you would like, this character driven super hero series rises way above most everything else in the genre.

A Community of young people with extraordinary abilities live in hiding, trying to lead normal lives.

A black-ops government Agency is searching endlessly for them, hoping to utilize their gifts for the good of the nation.

As the Agency draws ever closer, this Community must come together in order to preserve their way of life- no matter what the cost.

Told from the perspective of both the Community and the Agency, g14 productions presents “Reservation”, a new dramatic science fiction web series that explores how far people will go to protect their families and their country.

To learn more about the history and the people of the Community and the Agency, investigate the site and share your thoughts in our forum.

Details

Creators: Matthew Balthrop, David White
Blip.tv Channel: Reservation
Website: Reservation
Support the Show: Watch G14’s Other Videos

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Twitter Page G14 Productions

Ratings

It’s a super hero series that actually has some pretty great special effects. They don’t pull any punches in Reservation and the show is better for it. Instead of sticking to powers that would have been easy to shoot, they have a wide range of interesting abilities and characters willing to use them. (Style 5)

While the overall speed of the story is brisk, they run into the problem that you often see with ensemble casts — there is this tendency to underdevelop characters. While they tend to base episodes around the actions of one or two of the characters, it’s still sometimes difficult to get a feeling for everyone’s motivations. (Pacing 4)

It’s hard to do a super hero web series for a variety of reasons. It’s hard to do a series with an ensemble cast for a variety of reasons. The fact that the creators decided to do an ensemble series about super heroes deserves a few points by itself. What they have managed to pull off, however, is even better — they’ve done this kind of series well. Certainly there are parts that could be tighter, especially with the interplay between the heroes and the government agency chasing them but in sum it is an absolutely enjoyable ride. (Storytelling 4.5)

Polish 4.5

Watchability 4

Novelty 4

Overall Rating: 4.33 out of 5 stars

Bottom Line: Condition:Human is one of the most visually stunning and well executed Sci Fi dramas I’ve seen on the web. Once you get over how beautiful it is, you’ll still be drawn in by a story that strays away from the camp that marks many science fiction series’ on the web.

In the near future, man has begun to address the economic and environmental issues plaguing the early 21st century. Rapid technological advancements have changed life dramatically, especially the creation of advanced humanoid robots who have begun to play an integral part in everyday life. Takumi Kenji, the reclusive CEO of Kenji Electronics, and father of all things A.I. has announced the first ever ‘companion’ bots. A model of humanoid who’s interactive capabilities are remarkably natural. As robots continue to evolve their place amongst us we must evolve as well, and as we do society carries the responsibility of answering moral questions that come.

Details

Cast: Kristian Bakstad, Leah Tassey, Arnica Skulstad-Brown, Kasey Ryne Mazak, Josephine Savoldelli, Lloyd Davis, Lani Claxton, Pat Barker, Raymond Wey-Ming Ho, Rob Carpenter
Vimeo Channel: Condition:Human
Website: Condition:Human
Support the Show: Join The Facebook Page

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Twitter Feed: Condition Human
Facebook Page Condition Human

Ratings

I really can’t get over how beautifully the effects are done in this show. They are dark, crisp and absolutely seamless. I don’t know what type of budget they had for this show but I haven’t seen a more fully realized world. If you plan to shoot a web series even partially on green screen, you should take notes from Condition:Human. (Style 5)

Pacing 4

Storytelling 4.5

The video quality and effects are absolutely top notch for a web series, however, the audio was a little low and muffled. Considering how interesting the show concept is, it’s frustrating to have to strain to hear it. Let me point out that none of this detracts from the fact that this is one of the most visually stunning web shows I have ever seen. The physical sets are fantastic and the digital ones are close to seamless. I wouldn’t ask for more if this was on network television. (Polish 4.5)

This is a deeply philosophical exploration of humanities obsession with technology and what it means to be human. It moves at a slow, deliberate pace and for some people that might make it difficult to sit through especially since each episode clocks in at over 10 minutes in length. That being the case, if you are looking for some tasty SciFi in the vein of Gattaca this is for you. (Watchability 4)

Novelty 4.5

Overall Rating: 4.41 out of 5 stars

Radical Rifle Icon is the story of an actor turned soldier who keeps getting killed by a ninja assassin and brought back to life by a sadist who likes to eat hamburgers while injecting red dye 24 into corpses.

It touches on issues of identity, death and the toll that war can take on the soul but honestly it’s also really, really campy. Don’t get me wrong, there is nothing particularly funny about the script but after watching for a few minutes you can tell that Ramiro Bélanger (the writer/director) had his tongue pressed pretty firmly against their cheek.

Come on, the agency that is in charge of bringing soldiers back to life is called the “Death Rising Department.” I might not be involved with any government branding projects but that sounds a whole heck of a lot like something Umbrella would sponsor to speed up the production of Zombies.

Even the blood effects have that 70s kitsch that you can’t really take seriously, especially when you know the character will be back about 20 seconds later. Did I mention that the main character looks almost exactly like Guile for Street Fighter?

I liked this movie a lot, it combined melodrama with enough subtle camp that you can let some the minor execution problems (the jungle looks nothing like a jungle except for the plastic trees) go. If you know what you are getting into this is a ride that you will be happy to take.

Creator’s Description

Ex-actor turned commando Andy Frazer (Richard Zeman) is one of a few army men that can be brought back to life by the DEATH RISING DEPARTMENT. A reality with which his soul will struggle more and more.

Details

Cast: Richard Zeman
Vimeo Channel: Radical Rifle Icon
Website: Ramiro Belanger

Ratings

Pretty much entirely for the hamburger eating doctor and the 70s style blood effects (Style 4)

It moves a little too slowly for its own good. I know that they were trying to build up the melodrama but without breaks in the tension it occasionally felt like padding. (Pacing 3.5)

Storytelling 4

Polish 3.5

This is really fun to watch, especially when you realize that you shouldn’t be taking it too seriously. (Watchability 4.5)

Novelty 4

Overall Rating: 3.91 out of 5 stars

There is a risk you take when you make a film designed to “prove a point,” and that is that your audience will get lost somewhere inside of that point and lose track of the narrative. While Nothing is a cleverly made and well animated short, it loses itself in this trap.

It’s a story of a company that is trying to sell “nothing,” to do this it needs a marketing campaign so it hires Nobody, a designer who puts together a way to sell nothing to the public. After this setup the rest of the film is a play on these two set pieces that is hysterically funny in the beginning but loses its shine by the end.

Visually it’s really fun to watch and in general it stays on the mark, my biggest critique is that about 2:30 in you get it and you start to wish that the writer found a more interesting direction to take the idea. While it does succeed in panning rampant and senseless consumerism, it does so with a mega-phone and a sledgehammer.

If only for the style and creativity of the animation, I suggest giving this one a look.

Creator’s Description

A Company wants to sell »Nothing« on a large scale and hires Nobody, a renowned designer who creates the adequate advertising campaign and turns out to be an expert in the field of digital hypnosis… A sarcastic view on the advertising industry, ingeniously lived cliches and the contemporary brand hype.

Details

Creator: Ralf Bremer
Vimeo Channel: Nothing
Website: Ralf Bremer

Ratings

A great mix of animation and live action brings this world to life. (Style 4)

Pacing 3

It’s an acid tongued look at advertising and brand loyalty that stays on mark in most places. (Storytelling 3)

Polish 3.5

As well done as it is, the overall theme could get a little grating to some, it’s a position piece and as such you will enjoy it a lot more if you share Mr. Bremer’s position. (Watchability 3.5)

Novelty 3.5

Overall Rating: 3.41 out of 5 stars

Bottom Line: For the closet non-conformist in all of us, Jonathan’s acerbic, ranting squirrel is worth a viewing or ten.

Neurotically Yours is a webtoon created by Jonathan Ian Mathers, depicting a squirrel named Foamy, who is the neurotic pet of a gothic girl named Germaine (voiced by Dawn Bennett). Episodes are mainly located on the Ill Will Press homepage, in addition to numerous external websites.

To date, there are 200 official episodes of Neurotically Yours. There are also a number of fan-produced episodes circulated among various fansites on the Internet. There are also 38 topical rants, which are audio-based rants in which Foamy is talking about a particular topic

Details

Cast: Jonathan Mathers, Dawn Bennett
YouTube Channel: Neurotically Yours
Website: Ill Will Press
Support the Show: Buy DVDs, T-Shirts and More

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RSS Feed: Feed
Facebook Fan Page: Neurotically Yours

Ratings

Style 4

Pacing 3.5

Jonathan has perfected his format over the years. The meta-story is solid and each episode packs a pretty compelling arc. Even the rants, which always run to risk of ambling off into oblivion reign themselves in enough to be punchy and not cloying. (Storytelling 4.5)

Polish 3.5

You’ll know very quickly whether you love or hate Neurotically Yours. It’s dark, it’s opinionated and it can quickly grate on the more sensitive among us. If that’s your thing, you’ll love it. If you are easily bored by rants, you might want to skip this one. (Watchability 3.5)

I can guarantee you have never seen anything quite like this on the Interwebs. (Novelty 3.5)

Overall Rating: 3.75 out of 5 stars

Bottom Line: There are a lot of film critic shows out there today, a lot of them are good but Brad wins the dark horse competition hands down. He has a near encyclopedic knowledge of exploitation film culture and manages to convey it with enough bite to be funny without so much bile that he alienates his audience.

The Cinema Snob LOVES himself some classics of arthouse cinema and goes to sleep at night dreaming of the films of Fellini, Kurosawa, Godard, and Bergman. But what happens when this pretentious snob is given the task of reviewing low budget exploitation flicks of the past?

Details

Cast: Brad Jones
Blip.tv Channel: The Cinema Snob
Website: The Cinema Snob
Support the Show: Support Brad’s Feature Films

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RSS Feed: Feed
iTunes Feed: The Cinema Snob

Ratings

Style 2.5

When you’re doing movie reviews your gut often tells you to make them way, way too long. Brad manages to edit himself really well, cutting the videos down to “Internet length” without losing any of the wit. (Pacing 4)

Exploitation films make great source material, and the snob makes good use of it. Even when he covers modern films as he started to do recently, he does so with a strong flair for storytelling. (Storytelling 4.5)

All the polish a camcorder and some solid editing skills can buy (Polish 3)

Almost every movie Brad reviews I want to go out and see. He always gets the highest honor I can bestow, I’ve watched every single one of his videos. (Watchability 5)

Novelty 3

Overall Rating: 3.66 out of 5 stars