Caoimhe’s reviews

The Word for World Is Forest ★★★☆☆

2026-09-13T15:03:54+01:00

For this world, New Tahiti, was literally made for men.

A very fun read and the anger toward colonialism seeps off the page.

The Left Hand of Darkness ★★★★☆

2026-09-13T15:02:21+01:00

To oppose something is to maintain it.

A beautiful meditation on the divisions that we make up to to pretend that we cannot understand one another; sex, gender, nationhood, genetics.

Howl’s Moving Castle ★★★☆☆

2026-09-13T08:00:17+01:00

Watching this again, in good company, it clicked a lot more for me, despite not loving the overall plot. Really love the cast, especially Calcifer, and it just becomes this lovely little ensemble. More than the sum of its parts.

The Ghost in the Shell S1 ★★★★☆

2026-09-09T15:34:37+01:00

The 1995 film is my only experience with the series, so this was sillier and hornier than I was expecting, and it was interesting to see scenes from that reappear here in very different contexts.

Stylistically it’s a really pleasing blend of modern and old fashioned in a lot of ways. 1980s designs with very current animation; datamoshing and Deep Dream-esque effects alongside more familiar representations of digital and analogue artefacting; not updating the timeline so that 2025 is still part of the cyberpunk future; leaving in the comic’s footnotes knowing that most viewers now can pause at will if they want to read them.

That last part is limited, though. Where a comic lets the reader go forward at their own pace and reread easily if needed it can be hard to keep up with the show when it is throwing around political intrigue and worldbuilding at a rapid pace.

RE4make: The Mercenaries ★★★☆☆

2026-09-09T11:49:19+01:00

I was quite bad at the original Mercenaries and in comparison this feels far too easy, even putting aside the silly mayhem mode powerup win button. But it’s a bit of mindless fun and the different movesets all the characters get are nice to play with.

RE4make: Separate Ways ★★★☆☆

2026-09-09T11:48:46+01:00

It’s funny how this works to siphon off Wesker and a few other sillier elements of the main story from the original game away from the slightly more serious RE4make, but it ends up over-egging the pudding in that regard. It makes up for having Wesker mostly absent in the main campaign by having him far too much here. If he’s just going to show up in person and help out on the mission why did he even hire Ada in the first place? It makes him look less like the big, scheming mastermind that he’s meant to be and makes Ada look incompetent.

Otherwise I do appreciate Ada and Luis’ plot both being expanded on a bit and the unique fights on offer here. Ada’s long range grapnel attacks and low health pool help to differentiate her a bit more from Leon than she was in the original, and better use is made of her ability to traverse the environment with the grapnel gun than the original as well, though its still very inconsistent which ledges are flagged as hookable and how much freedom it affords you. She feels like an awkward middle ground between normal RE4make gameplay and a highly restricted Arkham game, a feeling not dissuaded by some rudimentary detective vision puzzles sprinkled throughout her levels.

Resident Evil 4 (2023) ★★★★☆

2026-09-09T11:48:35+01:00

It might sound strange to say but I think that the Resident Evil 2 RE2make actually felt more true to the original the the Resident Evil 4 REmake does. Part of this is, amusingly, that the RE4make feels like a much more natural followup to the RE2make than the original RE4 did to RE2. This starts with the new intro, which acts as a much more reasonable bridge between the two games than the original did, but continues with RE4make’s darker, somewhat more serious atmosphere. But a large part of this is also that, while RE2make took in elements from across the series to construct something that captures Resident Evil as a whole, RE4make feels much more directly influenced by the modern action game milieu than RE4 is the grandfather of. Parrying, stealth, silent takedowns, crafting, sidequests—RE4 has elements of or precursors to all of these things, but RE4make’s versions of these systems would slot neatly into any pretty much any current high-budget action game. Don’t get me wrong, these are very polished, work well and mostly work very well with RE4’s existing systems, it’s just it can feel disappointingly generic at times, especially diving into menus for the crafting systems (and the treasure system is kind of annoying) or equipping trinkets for dull little incremental bonuses.

The basic plot has not been changed much, less than RE2make’s was I would say, and keeps the B-movie charm while taking the characters more seriously and pushing aside the very post-9/11 America, world police angle. Ashley and Krauser stand out as the biggest improvements. The former acts less like a teenager and is made into a genuinely fun character (her enthusiasm in the shooting range minigame is great), and Krauser is much better integrated into the overall plot and pacing of the game instead of just showing up out of nowhere towards the end, and his awful QTE cutscene boss fight is instead turned into a really great test of the player’s mastery of parrying.

I am not as fond of RE4make extending its attempts to make the plot make more sense extend to the merchant, though. He is (they are?) intriguing as a character in the original in so far as he is a gameplay contrivance that makes no real attempt to justify itself. He is just this weird bog pervert who buys treasures off you and upgrades your guns. RE4make attempts to justify him as an agent actively working against Los Iluminados, cheering you on and giving side quests to clear up various messes made by the cult. This really just raises more questions than it answers, none of which are ever going to have sensible or satisfactory answers. Ada’s new voice direction is also quite jarring.

The game suggested that fans of the original play hardcore mode and I obliged, but I think I might have actually preferred a lower difficultly. It’s a tough game and often much more hectic and reactive than the original. Enemies are more complex and more unrelenting than the original and it feels like different types of enemies with their own concerns and mitigation strategies are thrown at you together earlier and more frequently. While combat in the original was often about careful positioning and crowd management, the RE4make was much more often pushing me into panicked, reactive, survival mode. That is to its credit, it’s in many ways more of a horror experience, but the fear of dying is blunted quite a lot by actually dying over and over again.

Obsession ★★★★☆

2026-09-08T12:01:29+01:00

The film is at its best and most unpleasant when it’s taking seriously the mental hell that Nikki is being subjected to and, while Inde Navarrette’s performance is great, I found it tipped over the line into comedic when Nikki is being more overly creepy, weird and broken. That is not entirely unwelcome and probably not unintentional—there’s clear moments of comedy throughout the film as well—I think how each individual scene lands is going to vary a lot from person to person.

Digimon Tamers ★★★☆☆

2026-09-08T12:01:10+01:00

This review contains spoilers.

It’s interesting watching this after Serial Experiments Lain and seeing Chiaki J. Konaka reusing ideas in a more child-friendly show and with the government conspiracy angle on control of the internet/digital world. I am doing another nostalgia trip here so I rewatched the English dub and while it can be kind of frustrating how the dub cannot let any moment breath without shoehorning in extra jokes and one-liners I was surprised at how often I did actually laugh at those and at least it’s not trying to pretend they’re not in Japan—the onigiri are called rice balls, not doughnuts. I was also surprised, considering all the other censorship, how horny the dub is about Renamon. I guess she just tends to have that effect on people.

Pacing overall can be a bit weird. My memory of the show was that it picks up at the halfway mark when they go to the digital world, but it’s quite the opposite; it becomes quite meandering for a while until they finally get to Beelzemon attacking the cast and kicking off the Jeri suffering arc. The actual fight against the D-Reaper was also very drawn out in ways that were unfortunately not very interesting and not helped by a lot of fairly stiff and limited animation, but it still does the big emotional moments well.

Rika is a great character with an unfortunate arc. I appreciate that they made the character who starts off thinking that digimon are just data and only for fighting the girl of the main trio and it makes sense as an arc for that kind of character to soften up and start to hate fighting, but the combination of those two things and how it’s written ends up with having the main female character becoming more passive and her role in the final battle being giving her power to be support for a guy who showed up halfway through the show, made even worse how this is illustrated by Sakuyamon stripping off her armour.

I also quite enjoy how they use distributed computing à la Folding@home to help the kids get back home as a counterpoint to the bad guy is defeated in Digimon: The Movie via being DDoSed.

A Nightmare on Elm Street ★★★☆☆

2026-09-06T11:43:54+01:00

I knew, like many other series, that these films lean more towards horror comedy as they go on, but I didn’t realise that the original got so slapstick in parts. Freddy is having a great time! A lot of cool effects shots as well.

Riverdale S5 ★☆☆☆☆

2026-09-06T11:40:07+01:00

There is still some joy to wring out of this. The obvious one is just watching the writers just give up more than anyone has ever given up before. There’s mothman aliens! Actually they’re a clan of hillbillies that were never mentioned before. Plot resolved! Sure. Why not. Who gives a shit.

The deliberate anachronism getting stronger and stronger as the show goes on is also quite fun. In particular Citizen Lodge’s bit of portraying 1980s Riverdale as 1920s New York is really funny but also as I’ve been rewatching The Simpsons I have also realised that that show did the exact same joke in Lisa’s First Word. Even aside from that bit Citizen Lodge does stand out from other episodes of Riverdale simply because it actually has a plot rather than just the scattering of random unrelated events that usually make up an episode of Riverdale.

Backrooms ★★★☆☆

2026-08-30T09:49:28+01:00

I do not have much experience with or particular attachment to the backrooms concept, but the film’s set design and vibes are enough to carry it and keep it interesting for much of the runtime despite the weaker parts of the narrative. I do quite like the rationale behind the logic of the backrooms and how it allows for the (I am told, controversial) inclusion of “monsters” that is thematically relevant rather than just it’s spooky place with a scary grabber.

Teenage Sex and Death at Camp Miasma ★★★★★

2026-08-29T16:37:46+01:00

I would like to appreciate for a moment that, for all that is happening politically in the world right now, that a film like this can have run of more than week in the local mainstream cinema. I didn’t even have to go to the artsy one to see it. I resonated very strongly with Kris’ struggles with sex, desire and misogynistic fantasies. At some point you have to stop with holding desire at arm’s length through intellectualising and ironic distancing and learn to love it.

Sleepaway Camp ★★★★☆

2026-08-29T16:37:35+01:00

This review contains spoilers.

I knew “the twist” going in so the signs were very obvious, but even so the films is surprisingly clear about what’s going on from the beginning to someone paying attention. And it does so much more than a typical slasher film just by giving us time to sit and see Angela as a person, to see her struggling to interact with other kids in this place that is unfamiliar but holds horrible memories for her while being forced into gendered activities that are, unknown to anyone else, terrible dangerous for her and which she is constantly bullied for not taking part in. It takes her more than half an hour of runtime to say a word out loud and it’s actually quite wonderful to see her become more comfortable and come out of her shell as she is able to set boundaries and regain autonomy of herself and her body.¹ The ending is transphobic trash but it’s also amusing how the film doesn’t really know what to after the big reveal and just abruptly ends. I suppose when your final girl ingénue is also your killer there’s real way to have a standard climax.

via a series of gruesome murders ↩

My Adventures with Superman S3 ★★☆☆☆

2026-08-25T16:27:05+01:00

The show continues to wear its anime inspirations on its sleeve with The Death of Superman by way of the Cell Saga. It’s a fun and pretty enough blend, though the characters continue to be fairly one-note.

Sonic Project Hero: Rewired ★★☆☆☆

2026-08-25T16:25:55+01:00

I can see why the expressive and fluid moveset offered really grabbed people and inspired to come back and build on the original tech demo, but unfortunately the rest of the game acts as a good showcase on how mechanics and level design are dependant on each other. The busy, linear, racetrack-like levels that work well in their own games turn something fun and joyful into a very awkward experience.

Exodus ★★☆☆☆

2026-08-25T16:21:13+01:00

You can betray someone with a word or an action. You can betray them with silence or inaction too. And in betraying that one person, you can betray a whole world.

I am glad to see a children’s book this angry about climate change and the violence of border maintenance, though the prose feels very simple and bare bones even for something aimed at a young audience and its post-apocalypse jerks very suddenly as the book goes on from ecological parable, to Mad Max to young adult dystopia without having much depth in any part.

Wild Wild West ★★★☆☆

2026-08-16T12:17:45+01:00

There are a lot of ill-considered jokes in this but I do find the silliness of the whole thing very charming and while I am not going to pretend that the cross-dressing bits are in any way trans positive I did very much enjoy it when a man questions Gordon in drag “what kind of woman are you?” and McGrath just immediately shots him dead for it.

The Simpsons S3 ★★★★★

2026-08-13T16:38:16+01:00

I’m not really sure how to review The Simpsons. It’s The Simpsons. It’s foundational to the sense of humour for half of people my age. For the first series I focused on the early weirdness, for the second the change of intro. But now the show is basically fully formed and indisputably into its golden age. Each episode has its big memorable moments but there are so many densely packed little jokes that are so easy to miss that they are only caught on repeated viewings.

X-Men ’97 S2 ★★☆☆☆

2026-08-13T16:25:53+01:00

This review contains spoilers.

It is a nostalgia bait show but I am not immune to nostalgia. I have enjoyed it but the pacing is a bit much. I understand that they want to adapt and move through different eras of comics but with only eight episodes and this many shifts in the status quo it feels like half the episodes are entire story arcs compressed down into too short a time and most episodes also revolve around the Apocalypse plotline when Apocalypse is a really boring villain.

Armoured Hunter Gunhound EX ★★★☆☆

2026-08-13T15:49:19+01:00

Short and brutal. The glass cannon run and gun mech is really good and there’s some really fun concepts in here: Mêlée attacks destroying bullets, booster mode acting as a crouch to duck under threats, getting a second health bar by jettisoning armour and making your mech lighter and faster but more vulnerable. I do wish there was an alternative way to unlock weapons rather than just grinding points and that loadouts could be changed between missions rather than only under options in the main menu (a strange place for it). There’s a lot of fun here but it’s a game that’s begging to be played over and over again until you can clear it without dying once and I don’t want to make that kind of commitment to it.

Sonic the Hedgehog, vol. 22: Stealing the Show ★★★★☆

2026-08-12T15:35:00+01:00

Really enjoying this arc so far. I am glad that Sage has finally been allowed to join the comics and also that they immediately used it to explore some Eggman family drama with Belle’s resentment. The use of damaged asterons as both little robo-Starros to take control of badniks and as a mask to give them mechanical Cthulhu tentacles is a really nice touch and presumably calls back the hooded figure’s real identity as well.

Sonic and the Blade of Courage, vol. 2 ★★☆☆☆

2026-08-12T15:30:00+01:00

Continues to be fine if not that interesting. I’m not fond of Metsli’s sexy native design.

🔞 Neo Pussy Masters ★★★☆☆

2026-08-12T14:57:05+01:00

The year is 20XY. The woke have won. Trans women dominate the highest level of every sports league, except for one: The pastime of Kegel golf. It long been a bastion for cissies and haters. But that ends today. Your name is Lilith Mary Sue.

Horse Magnifier: The Full Horse ★★★★★

2026-08-11T16:21:55+01:00

Biblically accurate horse.

Resident Evil 2 (2019) ★★★★★

2026-08-10T17:24:23+01:00

It was easy for me to be cynical about this game going in and assuming that it would be taking a wonderful game and throwing out the things that made it special in order to make something acceptably modern, but the RE2make is a wonderful game that doesn’t just update the original game but pulls elements from across the entire series to make a perfectly designed synthesis that feels modern because the DNA of the Resident Evil series runs through modern action games so much. Gunpowder returns from Resident Evil 3 to provide some flexibility in the punishing scarcity of resources, Resident Evil 4’s knife is combined with the subweapon system of the REmake of the original game to act as both desperation weapon and lifeline, and the game blends the basic action controls of Resident Evil 6 with the dark, horror atmosphere of Resident Evil 7. Being generous I could even credit Resident Evil 0 with the convenience feature of showing items you’ve passed by on the map.

That feature does feel quite necessary though, as the densely detailed environments can make it easy to overlook important resources. I tried briefly to play with the heads up display disabled but between missing things constantly from the lack of interaction prompts and it removing crosshairs entirely it was too much for me on top of playing with hardcore mode on. I would have appreciated a little more granular customisation in display elements and difficult modifiers similar to how automatic reloading can be disabled (which I also did). The risk and tension of dying is great but ruined by actually dying constantly. Lack of checkpointing in hardcore mode can also be sometimes frustrating with multi-stage setpieces that include instant deaths. Amusingly in trying to recapture the survival horror experience some convenience features that were present in the original game have actually been removed. Keys and ink ribbons must be selected from the inventory rather than being used automatically and you are no longer automatically prompted to discard key items that have been fully utilised.

That core tension of balancing scarce resources is still the heart of the game. Weapons, ammunition, keys, health, inventory space and (in hardcore mode) saves need to be weighed constantly against known and unknown risks ahead. Zombies are legitimately scary and a large part of that is the uncertainty in facing them. Sometimes a single lucky shot with the basic pistol will be enough to pop one’s head open, sometimes they can take an entire magazine to the face and barely flinch while both you and the player character scream curses at them, and their staggering and sudden lunges can make them very tricky targets when they close the gap, which they can do with surprising speed. It is still possible to weave past them, but is much more to do difficult than it was in the original game, and sometimes they will not notice you at all if you sneak past them slowly enough. Tiptoeing around oblivious zombies, past sleeping corpses, or under the powerful, fast, but blind licker clinging to the ceiling is a wonderfully tense experience, sold not just by the gameplay but the lighting and incredibly detailed animation work that that responds to exactly how much or how little the analogue stick is gingerly nudged forward.

I am not one to gush about graphics too much but I must admit the game does look fantastic. Locations are redesigned in a way that feels true to the original game while being more detailed and realistic while still being being readable gameplay spaces. The changes that are made are interesting and almost all contribute to a more serious, even more tense atmosphere than the original. The original FMV intro is expanded and reworked into a slower, more tense tutorial area and the original opening gauntlet repurposed as an interstitial space that is traversed after leaving the police station for the first time and some of the sillier and more annoying enemies in the original game have been replaced with things that are much scarier. I do miss the grungier, more industrial version of Umbrella’s labs, though. Other elements that were a little half-baked in the original get expanded on, with Sherry and Ada getting more unique locations for their sections, though Ada’s detective vision puzzles are the one thing in the game that felt quite derivative.

What scant characterisation there was in the original game has been focused on, with Claire’s optimism and Leon’s naïveté emphasised, Annette made into just the worst mother, and Ada being genuinely manipulative. One odd note in the story is that Leon and Claire run into each other even less than in the original game, leading to them barely interacting at all. I suppose that in a story that is trying to be more grounded them splitting up for no good reason after meeting up again would chafe a bit.

Overall just a fantastically stressful reimagining of a classic game.

Spark the Electric Jester ★★★★☆

2026-08-10T15:59:49+01:00

An incredible blend of Sonic the Hedgehog, Kirby and Dragon Ball and, other than the music and some art, made by one very skilled Brazilian man. At a base level it simply feels wonderful to control (though it was surprisingly choppy at times on the Steam Deck) and the levels have a constant forward momentum that makes them a joy to run through.

The different powerups offer a broad range of playstyles and I respect the lack of care to balance offered by the gravity jester just straight up letting Spark fly. If the player wants to go through levels like that they can. The best is the edgy jester though, with it’s double jump, wall running, air dash, black and red colour scheme, knife and kunai attacks and chaos blast charged attack it is as delightful as it is funny. It’s also the closest of Spark’s powerups to Fark’s moveset from the game’s second, more combat-focused, story mode. I actually prefer Fark’s more diverse combat moveset and emphasis on parrying and healing for combat, which was carried over and elaborated on wonderfully in the sequel.

Demake 86 ★★★★☆

2026-08-10T15:20:10+01:00

Charming homage to Metroid for its 40th anniversary made by a friend. I did some playtesting for it. Unforgiving with no saving or much healing, but scouting out where some key upgrades are makes repeated attempts much more manageable.

A Private Life ★★★☆☆

2026-08-04T12:26:23+01:00

Weird one! The trailer made it look like a much more straightforward comedy than it ended up being. The comedy is there but it’s part of the general spectacle of this woman’s increasingly strange and paranoid view of the world as she unravels.

Black Dynamite ★★★★☆

2026-08-04T12:22:35+01:00

Such a wonderfully fun film that goes all in on what it does. All the little intentional awkward edits, sudden cuts and little mistake just contribute the energy and sincere joy this film has at its core.