The Rebels of Vanaheim: A Marvel Legends of Asgard Novel by Richard Lee Byers - Book Review

 

'The dead have returned. Odin, All-Father of Asgard, dispatches the heroic warrior Heimdall and the Valkyrie Uschi to eliminate a mysterious infestation of draugr – the living dead – in the proud realm of Vanaheim. Yet his home is not as Heimdall remembers it. 

'Anti- Asgardian sentiment is rife, and the arrival of just two warriors from Asgard to deal with the draugr threat only incenses its people further. With rebellion growing in Vanaheim, Heimdall must investigate this conspiracy and the undead, even if it pits him against his own kin, to preserve the peace of the Realm Eternal.'

Aconyte Books have been producing some wonderful Marvel novels, featuring characters from across the comics universe. and whilst these books have been nothing less than amazing some of the best have easily been the Marvel Legends of Asgard line, which are set within the nine realms and follow characters from the Thor series. What makes these books so good is that they're set long before the comics, and focus on the early days of the gods and heroes that we know, allowing the authors to explore them in ways we don't often get.

The first book in this series was The Head of Mimir, which followed Heimdall and his sister Sif as they travelled into Frost Giant territory to save Asgard; and revealed how Heimdall received his unique powers of perception. Now we get to catch up with Heimdall once again as Richard Lee Byers continues to chart his journey from solider to god of Asgard.

The story begins with Heimdall and his friend, the valkyrie Uschi, being granted leave from Asgard and returning to their home realm of Vanaheim to visit family and relax for a bit. Upon arriving at Heimdall's family home, however, they're surprised to find a strange atmosphere hanging over the land. They soon learn that this is due to a series of attacks from darugr, fierce, deadly undead creatures that have a host of strange powers. Volunteering their help, the two young warriors help to quell the next draugr attack; thinking that the threat has been defeated.

When Uschi travels to her own parents home, meeting a frosty reception from her father thanks to old grudges, she begins to suspect that there may be more going on in Vanaheim than first appears, especially when the god Frey arrives offering swords capable of killing the undead. Meanwhile, Heimdall is shocked to discover that the draugr threat hasn't been stopped, and must help his people fight back against creatures much stronger and more monstrous than he ever thought possible. With the undead threatening everyone in Vanaheim, will Heimdall and Uschi be able to investigate into the bigger mystery at play before it's too late to save everyone?

The books in the Marvel Legends of Asgard series have felt like big, fantasy stories, tales from myth and legend having come to life. And whilst that's definitely true with The Rebels of Vanaheim this book is something more too. This is a horror story. The draugr in this book are absolutely terrifying. Before this, my main experience with these creatures was a handful of myths that I'd read over the years, and as creatures that I have killed in their thousands in Skyrim, and whilst some of those myths and stories were creepy I'd never really felt afraid of these things. That definitely changed reading this book.

The draugr aren't just zombies, there's nothing average about the creatures that Byers has thrown at our heroes. These things have powers and abilities that make them incredibly deadly; as well as adding to the horror of never knowing where they are our where they could attack from. For starters, they're hard to kill, and even warriors like Heimdall seem to have great difficulty putting these things down. Some of them even begin missing limbs or their head, and their wounds quickly close up after you attack them. If that wasn't scary enough, their victims can become infected, becoming more of the creatures. But we're not just talking about zombie bites, just having a draugr looking at you with their horrific gaze can infect you, slowly changing you into one of them. Add on to this their abilities to move through water, shape-shift into other creatures or people, and their ability to move through walls and appear whenever they want, they might be some of the most frightening monsters I've seen employed in this series yet.

The scenes where our heroes and the warriors of Vanaheim are stalking through dark hallways, searching for the creatures that are making their way from room to room attacking people are incredibly tense. The moments where they're waiting for an attack to come, knowing that their weapons can do little to hurt these things are some that have definitely stuck with me, and make for a frightening read at times. Horror rarely gets used in the superhero genre, at least outside of characters that are heavily connected with horror such as Blade or Ghost Rider, so seeing scary moments like this in a setting where we're not used to seeing them make them hit so much harder. 

But the book isn't all about draugr and horror, as there's a lot more going on than is first revealed. There are things that happen, especially during the second half of the book, that really test Heimdall and Uschi in a way completely different than just fighting monsters. The book has a lot of character development for the two of them, and tests their connections to their families and their oaths to Asgard, forcing them to have to question what matters most to them. Thanks to the family connections, of Heimdall and Uschi literally having to go home and interact with their parents, this is one of the books in the series that has the most personal stakes too.

There's a lot I'd love to be able to talk about from this book, but thanks to a central mystery filled with twists and turns and startling revelations I'm not sure I really can say much without giving too much away. What I will say is that this was easily the best entry in the series so far. It was packed with action, horror, character focus, and had a central plot that kept me invested throughout. I got the sense from the end that there's still a lot more room for Richard Lee Byers to tell stories about Heimdall in the future and continue his journey to becoming the god we know him as; and I really hope that that's the case, as I can't wait to see what the character gets to do next.

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Star Wars: The High Republic Adventures #11 – Comic Review

 

Originally published on Set The Tape

After a few issues of getting to focus on one of our characters, as well as further stoking the flames of the conflict between the Jedi and the Nihil, things take a quieter approach with the current issue of IDW‘s Star Wars: The High Republic Adventures, as the Jedi  take some time off for fun and games, and political machinations begin within the ranks of the Nihil.

The action this issue is split between two storylines. The first follows the young Jedi Padawans as they get to compete in the Great Jedi Rumble Race, a competition that hasn’t been held in a long while. The race will see any who want to compete taking part in a mad dash through Starlight Beacon, racing to be crowned the winner. There’s only one rule: there are no rules.

This is actually quite a delightful idea, and it’s a lot of fun to see this funny, ridiculous competition unfold across the issue. Over the years fans have seen the Jedi train to master their emotions, to learn to live without attachments, to think of the greater whole and not put themselves first. They’ve been taught that competing to win isn’t the goal in life. So to see those lessons put aside, even for a short while, and see these usually calm and reserved people just having fun is lovely.

We get to see the young characters getting excited over the competition, we see Zeen happy to find out she can compete even though she’s not a Jedi, Ram Jomaram gets to plot how to use his droid to help him win, Quort refuses to use his enhanced speed and agility to win because its more fun to race with his friends, and Master ‘Buckets of Blood’ Buck cheering everyone on and screaming that there are no rules. After a year of seeing these characters being thrown into life-threatening scenarios, dealing with losses, fighting for their lives, its great to see them just acting like kids and finding joy in life.

Sadly, this seems to be in stark contrast to the other story being told this issue. Far from Starlight Beacon, on the planet of Corellia, Krix Kamerat is meeting with allies of the Nihil to further the plans to take over the galaxy. Unfortunately, one of his subordinates, Sabata, seems to dislike the idea of serving under a kid who got put into a position of power due to favouritism rather than experience, and is arranging a plan to get Krix killed.

The difference in these two stories, in the two different paths that Zeen and Krix are walking, have never been more apparent than they are here. Zeen has found a family that loves her, that takes care of her, includes her in their lives even if she’s not one of them, whereas Krix is being barely tolerated, has people out to take him down, and consider him an outsider no matter what he does.

The art on the issue, provided by Harvey Tolibao and Rebecca Nalty, has some really great moments scattered throughout. The scenes where the panels are filled with characters, such as the Jedi meeting up together to take part in the Rumble are fantastic, and you’ll find yourself spending a long time looking through everyone in the room, checking the backgrounds, and trying to pick out all the little details.

Whilst the scenes on Corellia aren’t as busy, they make good use of the space, and there are a lot of pieces of art there that are absolutely packed with background characters and small details. The other place where this issue really excels is in the energy. During the race it really feels like there’s a lot going on, that the characters are rushing around, jumping over each other, and making a mad dash to the finish line.

After a lot of doom and gloom, big action sequences, and some galaxy changing stakes, it’s nice to just take a breather for an issue, to see these characters in their down time. It shows not only how different life is for the different sides, but the kind of simple, wonderful joys that the Jedi are fighting for.

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The Last Matinee – Blu-ray Review

 

Originally published on Set The Tape

Slasher movies were a big force in the ’80s. They unseated huge box office movies from the top spots, they launched the careers of world famous actors, and it seemed like you couldn’t move without tripping over a new one being released. But over the years slasher movies have become less and less common, and other than the odd big budget US movie once a year or so you’ll have to turn to independent cinema in order to find new ones. The Last Matinee is one of these films, a Spanish language horror production from Uruguay that not only tries to live up to the slasher films of the past, but is a love letter to some of the great Giallo classics too.

The film begins one stormy day in Montevideo in 1993, as we see various people begin to gather in a run down old movie theatre to watch a horror film as the rain comes down outside. There’s a young woman who takes over running the film projector so that her sick father can go home, a boy who’s snuck in to watch a film he isn’t allowed to see, a trio of drunken teens, and a young couple on a date, to name but a few. As they all settle in to watch the film a mysterious figure enters the cinema, locks the doors behind them, and begins to use the cover of the darkness and the loud noises to kill the people inside one by one.

For the first half of the film we’re only really given hints and promises that there’s something sinister to come, that things will take a turn for the horrific, as we spend a good deal of time getting used to the environment and learning about the characters. We don’t get huge backstories for the people there, and for the most part I can’t even remember if we get given all of their names. But compared to a lot of horror films where all you get is broad caricatures, these feel like pretty well crafted characters. We understand the kinds of people they are, why they’ve come to this almost deserted cinema, and we come to care for them as the killer begins to strike.

The killer himself, played by horror director and producer Ricardo Islas, is a figure that we only get the briefest of glimpses of until the final act of the film, with him sneaking through the darkness, always just out of frame or blurred in shadows in the background. When we do get to see him more clearly it becomes clear why director Maximiliano Contenti cast Islas in the role. It’s not just a cameo towards an icon in South American horror, but because he’s a genuinely creepy actor, who’s able to steal the focus in the scenes he’s in. There’s one particularly creepy and disturbing moment when he has a few of the characters cornered that easily stood out as one of the best sequences in the entire movie; and this was largely down to his screen presence.

The rest of the cast are great too, and whilst this does fall into the slasher genre trope of having a ‘final girl’ there were times I found myself wondering if I might be wrong as to which character I believed that was going to be. They all felt like they were given enough of a foundation that any one of them could live to survive the end, and were all acted well enough that they could have been the lead.

One of the things that really impressed about the film was how much it was clearly a love letter to older movies. The camera moved a lot slower, you were given time to sit with the shots and things were allowed to linger, instead of being a mess of movement and fast cuts. Atmosphere was allowed to build, and certain camera angles and direction felt like things from films forty years old. In the ‘making of’ featurette, the director talks about how he was inspired as much by Giallo as he was the slasher genre, and you really can see that translate onto the screen. It felt like a film that could have been directed by Mario Bava, or Umberto Lenzi; and it being set in a cinema certainly made me think of the Italian horror film Demons.

The new Blu-ray release from Arrow Video comes with a full length audio commentary by director Maximiliano Contenti, as well as some behind the scenes making of videos and a short that takes a look at the practical special effects used on the film. ‘The Matinee Massacre’ are a fun series of three mockumentary shorts that act like the events of the film really happened, and we get a few short films from the director included too. One of the extras that I found really interesting is a conversation between Maximiliano Contenti and Ricardo Islas, as the two of them discuss not only working on this film, but horror cinema in Uruguay itself.

If you’re a fan of slasher movies and Giallo cinema, The Last Matinee will feel like a throwback to movies that don’t really get made any more. It’s a love letter to a part of the horror genre that has fallen out of mainstream cinema focus, but is still a wonderful genre in which to create. A definite must see.

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The Thing – Throwback 10

 

Originally published on Set The Tape

John Carpenter‘s The Thing is an amazing movie. It’s got a great cast, an eerie and frightening location, and a premise so horrifying and tense that it’s nerve-wracking. To look at that film and say ‘let’s remake it’ seems absurd, yet that’s precisely what producers Marc Abraham and Eric Newman thought when they were looking for horror films to remake after the success of 2004’s Dawn of the Dead. Instead of choosing to remake The Thing, they wanted to explore what had already been established in that film, and chose to tell the story of what happens to the Norwegian arctic research station Thule when they unearth a deadly alien life form.

The story of 2011’s The Thing focuses on the events that came before the John Carpenter movie, crafting a prequel that filled the audience in on what happened before Kurt Russell and the rest of his team arrived on the scene. This is actually a brilliant decision, one that allows the filmmakers to add to the world of that original film and not instantly receive hate before anyone even watches it simply because it’s a remake. However, 2011’s The Thing is not a film that most people like, so what went wrong?

The Thing begins in the winter of 1982, when the staff at a Norwegian research station discover a huge ship beneath the arctic ice, along with some kind of creature that froze to death nearby. Seeing that a major find is on their hands the leader of the expedition calls for a specialist researcher, and the American palaeontologist Kate Lloyd (Mary Elizabeth Winstead) travels to the base with helicopter pilot Sam Carter (Joel Edgerton).

Upon arriving at the base, Kate begins her research into what is clearly an alien life-form, but before much work can be done the creature bursts free from the block of ice it’s been encased in, escaping into the base. The team soon discover that the creature is able to infect and imitate any living creature on the base, leading to them having to not only fight for their own survival, but trying to stop the creature from escaping.

The plot to The Thing is perfectly fine, if not a little repetitive of what came in the original. The setting is similar enough to practically be the same (one arctic base is the same as another I suppose), and the decent sized cast that gets slowly picked off whilst the bigger star names do what they can to survive feels very recognisable. What this film had going for it, and what it didn’t really capitalise on, was being where the Thing crashed to earth. They had the spaceship, they had the opportunity to explore the history of this creature more, and didn’t really do much with it.

This being a prequel, the film could have waited a bit longer to unleash the creature too. We know what’s coming. We know the monster is going to get out because the first film happens, so this film could have really played with teasing how and when this would occur, leaving viewers wondering if this scene was going to be the one where it escaped or not. But the film seems to be more interested in trying to tell the same ‘anyone could be a monster’ story as the first film, so the creature is soon skittering around causing havoc.

This does lead to one clever little addition that I did like. In the first film the team realise that any part of the Thing is alive, and will react to defend itself, leading to them developing a test to try and see who might be infected. Here, they come to the realisation that the Thing can only copy organic material when they find discarded fillings in the shower. This lets them check to see who might be the thing, with anyone who has a filling or a piercing clearly being a human. It’s nice to see new and creative ways of people trying to identify potential monsters that aren’t just rehashes of the first movie.

However, once the Thing escapes we do get some of the worst parts of the film, namely, the effects. The original movie is amazing and stands the test of time because of the quality of their practical effects, that are still great to see to this day. Sadly, the 2011 version of The Thing goes a very different route, choosing to use CGI quite heavily. There are moments in this film where the tension should be through the roof, where the characters are fighting for their lives against a creature from your nightmares, but all you end up thinking is ‘this looks terrible’. There has been footage released since the film’s release that shows the practical effects work that was done for the film by very talented creators and suit actors. However, almost all of these shots were either removed from the final film, or covered over in CGI. The result is a film that at its best has aged terribly, and at times looks even worse than the 2007 Doctor Who episode ‘The Lazarus Experiment’.

Unfortunately for the film, this seemed to be the kind of sentiment shared by most, and the movie was quickly given poor reviews by multiple outlets. These reviews, and general word of mouth, didn’t help the film at the box office, resulting in it only making back $31.5 million of its $38 million budget. Despite being a financial loss, and a poor film overall, fans remained over the years, as word of an alternate director’s cut began to spread; a version of the film that not only utilised practical effects, but an entirely new creature in the final confrontation. As of yet, this version of the film has not been released, but if the pieces that have been shared online are anything to go on, it would be a huge improvement.

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Night Raiders – Film Review

 

Originally published on Set The Tape

Future dystopian fiction tends to follow a number of tropes and themes; whether it’s in film, television or book form, there are certain things that you come to expect from these dark visions of futures that we all want to avoid. Normally they involve some terrible thing that’s being done to people, such as being forced to work as slaves, segregated into different groups, having your rights taken away, being told who you can love, or having your children taken by the totalitarian state. These injustices are often looked at through the lens of how it effects white people, and there’s usually a young cis heterosexual white person, often a woman, who stands up against this and leads a revolution to a better life.

The biggest problem with stories like that is that all of these nightmare scenarios – people losing their rights, being used for science, being forced and controlled – are all shown as being awful because they’re happening to white people. But these are all things that have happened across our histories and today, to people of colour, queer people, and disabled folks, to name but a few. Minority groups have lived through these kinds of scenarios, have seen their lives ripped apart by oppressors, and been ignored by those with the power to do something about it. And the ‘white saviour’ narratives that happen in dystopian fiction are just awful because that’s just not what happens. There’s just not one charismatic white kid who’s going to save the world.

Night Raiders knows this. It’s seen these tropes and these kinds of narratives before, but it’s also a film by people who have lived it. This story isn’t about white people coming to save the day because the things they’ve done to minority group has finally happened to them; this is the story of the survival of indigenous peoples, told by them.

The film is set in an America in the not too distant future of 2044, where a civil war has changed the landscape of the country, leaving most of the people we meet living under the heel of an oppressive government who want to control them, before finally deciding to kill them. It’s in this world that we meet Niska (Elle-Máijá Tailfeathers), a mother who has been keeping her eleven year old daughter Waseese (Brooklyn Letexier-Hart) safe out in the wilderness, away from the ruined cities. In this world all children are taken away from their families to be educated in military academies, where they become brainwashed to love the state, and trained to oppress their own people.

After Waseese is injured, Niska has no choice but to hand her daughter over to those in power in order to save her life. With her daughter gone she knows that she can’t live her life in peace until she gets her back, and begins to spy on the academy where Waseese has been taken. It’s here that she is discovered by a community of Cree who are helping children escape the compound. They agree to help Niska to get her daughter back if Niska agrees to take all of the children to safety, using her experience of surviving in the wild to keep them away from the government. Now begins the dangerous task of rescuing her daughter.

The cast of Night Raiders aren’t really actors that many people will be familiar with. Elle-Máijá Tailfeathers has only really done short films before this, and this is Brooklyn Letexier-Hart’s first feature film. And the relative lack of ‘star power’ helps this film. It makes it feel more real and grounded, that these are regular people living through this, not some Hollywood star. The two leads give great performances throughout, with Tailfeathers really selling the feeling of a tired, worn down woman barely holding things together.

Director Danis Goulet, who also wrote the script, clearly know dystopian fiction; the story ticks off a lot of the things that you’d expect to find in this kind of story. The cities are bombed out shells, forcing people to live in cramped, squalid conditions; the people in power use more advanced weaponry and technology to keep people in control; and there’s an underground movement trying to fight against it. But it’s also clear that this isn’t just someone just wanting to make a dystopia story, but that she’s got something she wants to talk about.

The things that happen in this story are direct parallels to things that happened to America’s Indigenous population. Their homes were destroyed; their children taken from them and’ reeducated’; they were forced from their land; and those in power attacked them with disease and viruses. As such, those that stand against them aren’t looking at this as a sudden, shocking turn of events, but simply the latest in a long history of genocide that has been committed against them. They talk about this in the film, they don’t shy away from it, and they call their oppressors colonisers – because that’s what they are.

The way the film is shot feels like it reflects this too. We don’t get big, fantastic visuals like dystopia films such as The Hunger Games or Maze Runner, things here have a much more grounded and personal perspective. The action scenes are fairly pedestrian, there’s no big explosions and amazing fighting moves, just normal people trying their best to stay alive whilst tired and worn down. And the final confrontation evokes images of things such as the Black Lives Matter protests, or the attacks on protesters at Standing Rock. And this seems to be a very deliberate thing. It’s like Goulet is trying to remind the audience that when a corrupt and cruel government comes for people it doesn’t like, it won’t be some big budget action scene that plays out, but a painful, tiring, and awful fight against a foe that can easily wipe you out.

Night Raiders isn’t your average sci-fi dystopia, it’s trying to do something different by centring non-white voices and leads in this kind of story. I’ve seen people giving the film criticism for using too many tropes, or for people not feeling like they can connect with the story because of the focus on Native People, and these feel incredibly unfair, as it does more with the genre than a lot of other similarly themed films; it’s just doing it in more subtle and important ways.

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Halloween Girl Vol 1: Promises To Keep – Comic Review

 

Originally published on Set The Tape

Comics are a big business, and a type of media that has been around for centuries in one form or another. But it’s within the last twenty years or so that they’ve become more popular than ever, due in large part to the number of popular movies based on comics. With so many new films and television series spawning out of comics it’s not very often that we get to see it go the other way, and see an original comic based on a film. Halloween Girl Vol 1: Promises To Keep is trying to do this, adapting a short movie and a web series into comic form for a new audience.

The story presented here isn’t a retelling of what’s come before, it’s more of a sequel to what creator Richard T. Wilson has made in the past. As such, the comic expects the audience to understand who Charlotte is, and what her deal is, right from the start. At the beginning of the issue she has a vision, which led me to believe that she’s a teen with psychic powers of some kind. But throughout the issue she talks about making herself visible to people, which definitely adds some wrinkles to understanding what’s going on. It was only through researching the original short film that I discovered that Charlotte is actually some kind of ghost.

This sense of not knowing whether I should know things, or if there is stuff that will be explained in further issues, was one that extended to other areas too, such as Charlotte’s friend Poe, and her talk about Hollows and the end of the world. Once again, I was left wondering if this is something that I was supposed to know about before reading the issue, and much of what these two said to each other felt like it was going over my head. The Under the Flower series, including the original Halloween Girl prequel film, is available to watch online, and the website also has mini introduction videos for these aspects of the comic, but it seems like a lot of extra work to just put the book in context.

There were also times whilst reading that I became confused with the dialogue, as the speech balloons for certain panels were arranged in such a way that I was reading dialogue out of order, seeing people’s responses to things before the person they were talking to even said anything. Some panels felt incredibly crowded as dialogue was being worked into the art. I’ve see this in indie comics before, where it looks as though the artist has drawn the images without considering where the dialogue is supposed to go, resulting in word balloons having to be put in places where they don’t cut off people’s faces or other important stuff, and it always results in dialogue going out of order, or panels crammed with balloons. It made reading the book less enjoyable, and resulted in having to read certain panels twice to get them in the right order.

The art on Halloween Girl, by Stephen Mullan, is delivered in black and white, possibly to help create a spooky atmosphere to help with the horror of the story. That being said, many of the panels have plain white backgrounds in them. Whilst this does mean that the characters stand out on the page, it often feels like they’re existing inside plain white voids. This leaves the world they’re in feeling empty and dull, and if anything it detracts from any sense of creepy atmosphere the comic might have been trying to create.

There could be a lot to this story to like, and it feels like it could be the start of something interesting, but thanks in large part to not knowing if I should be aware of certain things, not really having the premise or characters explained, and panel layouts that led to confusion and having to backtrack more than once, I struggled to enjoy this first issue.

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JK Rowling Doesn't Care About Rape Victims

 

JK Rowling is a bigot. Over the years she has made it clear that she sees transgender people as sub-human. She has said that trans women are dangerous. She's claimed that trans healthcare will harm cis people. She's called trans men confused children. She's followed and praised bigots who dedicate their life to harming trans people. She uses her wealth and power to shut down any voice she disagrees with.  And she makes it clear that behaviour she tolerates from her cis fans will result in her calling the police on you it you're trans.

In her latest 'middle aged moment' of intense and open transphobia, this below average quality children's author has claimed that trans women are rapists. She shared an article from The Independent which reports that Police Scotland will record the perpetrators and victims of rape as the gender they identify as, rather than the sex which they were born in. This proposed change would create an accurate account of who is performing rapes, and who their victims are. This would allow for data to be able to show just how many cis men rape, how many cis women rape, and how many trans people rape. This, would surely be something that a person who thinks trans women are a danger would like to see happen as it would prove that trans women really are raping in the thousands like she believes, right? Except, because that's not happening, and because people like Rowling refuse to ever see trans people as their genders, she's very, very angry about this proposal.

She tweeted out a link to the article along with 'War is peace. Freedom is slavery. Ignorance is strength. The penised individual who raped you is a woman.' A pathetic attempt to conjure the fear inducing imagery of 1984, a common tactic amongst bigots who will often claim anything they don't agree with as being 'just like 1984'.

Whether or not Rowling has read or understood 1984 doesn't really matter, though if she's like any of the other people who throw the comparisons to the book around she probably hasn't, and doesn't. What this tweet does do, however, is shows that JK Rowling doesn't care about rape victims.

Rowling is happy to speak up for victims of rape all of a sudden because it allows her to weaponize those people against trans women (and we all know how much she loves attacking trans women). Before this you'd be hard pressed to find Rowling talking about the subject at all. And I doubt you could find a single tweet where she does talk about it without trying to implicate trans people in some way.

Before this Rowling has not once tweeted about the Me Too movement. She didn't speak out against high profile rape cases such as the Sarah Everard murder, the Harvey Weinstein accusations, or Bret Kavanaugh. Considering how much she clearly seems to care about rape victims and protecting vulnerable women, and the huge potential for good change her wealth and position affords her you'd have thought she would have done something about this before. But she hasn't.

Why, if the victims of sexual assault is such a pressing concern for her hasn't she spoken out before this? Could it be that her time is so taken up with other things that she's always meant to speak up for rape victims before, but has only just now found the time? Could it be pure coincidence that her speaking out for rape victims by implying all trans women are rapists is just a coincidence? 

Don't be absurd. This is a very clear pattern from Rowling. Just as how she didn't care that her Edinburgh home has been featured in multiple news articles, used in tourist literature, and has been shared on social media multiple times by Harry Potter fans, but suddenly found the entire thing to be doxing because it was trans activists who did it it's painfully obvious that Rowling has a pattern of not caring unless it helps with her agenda to harm trans people.

Rowling has continued to demonstrate that she will only speak out on topics if it allows her to cause harm to trans people. She never cared about rape victims before this; and I doubt she actually does care about them at all, but is simply using them as a weapon with which to harm a group that is infinitely more likely to be the victims of sexual assault than the perpetrators.

Rowling cares so little about the victims of sexual assault that she has sent flowers to a man who has been accused of multiple accounts of sexual assault and rape. Has she ever done this for a victim of sexual assault? Has she ever donated to a rape crisis centre? Has she ever done anything to help a victim of rape? I'd love to be proven wrong, to see that she's been doing a ton of activist work to help rape survivors; but as it stands at the moment, this looks to be yet another in the long list of things that suddenly 'concern' her because it lets her harm the trans community once again.

I'm lucky enough to not be the victim of sexual assault. The number of women who are is staggeringly high, so I understand that I really am one of the lucky ones. But if I was the victim of sexual assault and saw this blatant, open attempt at trying to paint a group of women as being rapists I'd feel disgusted by it.

I honestly don't see how Rowling care about rape victims. The behaviour she's demonstrated makes it look like she doesn't. And I'm sure that there will be some who argue her side, that claim I'm lying or wilfully misrepresenting what she's said and done, but this is my opinion based upon the evidence I've seen. Want to prove me wrong? Show me her supporting the victims of sexual assault without making cheap shots at the trans community. Show me that evidence or shut up, because I honestly don't believe that Rowling actually gives a damn.

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Full Alert (1997) – Blu-ray Review

 

Originally published on Set The Tape

Two of Hong Kong’s best actors go up against each other in this intense crime action thriller that saw director Ringo Lam returning to his home to create one of his most beloved movies.

Ringo Lam had a successful career directing movies in Hong Kong before travelling to the US to direct the 1996 Jean-Claude Van Damme action film Maximum Risk in 1996. Maximum Risk did not do well; it’s one of those films that was quickly forgotten by film-goers, and it failed to launch Lam into a Hollywood career. But this isn’t necessarily a bad thing, as it would end up giving us Lam’s big ‘come-back’ movie in Hong Kong, Full Alert.

Full Alert tells the story of overworked and over stressed police inspector Pao (Ching Wan Lau), who gets called in to an apartment building where people suddenly fell sick, and contaminated, filthy water is coming out of the taps. A quick investigation of the water tank reveals a murdered man inside. Upon investigating the obvious murder, Pao arrests Mak Kwan (Francis Ng) and his girlfriend, whose home is filled with parts to make explosives and plans to an unidentified vault. Pao believes that the murder was a part of a bigger plot, and that Kwan is planning a major robbery.

Kwan refuses to talk about the possible robbery, but agrees to admit to the murder charge if the police release his girlfriend. This leads to the police following the woman, hoping that she will lead them to whatever gang of criminals Kwan is working with. Over the course of their investigation they will uncover a secret plot, engage in gun fights and high speed chases, and be forced to make impossible choices as Pao is pushed to his breaking point to put the case to bed.

Full Alert is a film that definitely plays like a cat and mouse story, with Kwan and Pao quickly forming an antagonistic relationship with each other. It’s clear from early on that the two of them are set up to be equals on opposing sides, each with their own groups around them, with their own goals in mind, and each driven by a desperate desire to win no matter what the cost. This gives the story an intensity that you don’t always get in crime films; it’s not just business to them, it gets incredibly personal and drives them both to do extreme things. However, it’s Pao who is the one pushed closest to breaking point and who often goes too far.

The film isn’t afraid to show the ‘hero’ of the film as a man close to stepping over the line and doing bad things in order to get what he wants. He yells at his people, he gets in fights, his home life suffers, and an innocent bystander gets shot because he was quick to pull his weapon. In contrast, Kwan is incredibly reserved. Despite being arrested at the start of the film, something he clearly didn’t plan for, he always seems to be laid back about things. He has plans, and seems confident in his own abilities to pull off the impossible. He doesn’t let himself get rattled, and manages to use his unnerving calmness to push Pao even further. It’s a great dynamic, and the two leads are excellent in their roles, and their performances add a lot to the film.

There are some cliches and plot inconsistencies that will feel like things the audience will have seen before, or leave you questioning things for a while before you simply settle back into the movie to enjoy the performances. These moments aren’t deal breakers by any means, and don’t detract from the overall quality of the movie, but it does at times feel like it could be Lam trying to find his feet in Hong Kong cinema again after his brief time in Hollywood.

The new Blu-ray release from Eureka Entertainment is pretty limited on extras. There’s a slip-case featuring some lovely new artwork, and a Limited Edition collector’s booklet that features new writing about the film by Davide West from NEO Magazine (no copy was provided for review, so the content cannot be judged), as well as two feature length commentaries. One of these commentaries is provided by Asian film expert Frank Djeng, who has recorded a lot of commentaries for Eureka in the past, and brings his usual excellent level of insight to the film. The other features a commentary with the film’s director Ringo Lam, recorded before his death in 2018. The disc also includes an interview with the film’s composer Peter Lam, however, the interview clocks in at an impressive length, and is played over the film itself, so it feels more like a third commentary track than a traditional interview.

Full Alert is an intense crime thriller, one with an impressive core cast that really elevates the script with some stellar performances. Ringo Lam may not have had a great time directing in the US, but this film shows why he was such a powerhouse in Hong Kong.

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Ghosts of Mars – Throwback 20

 

Originally published on Set The Tape

If I were to ask you to name some John Carpenter films you’d probably give me titles like Halloween, The Thing, or Big Trouble in Little China, perhaps even some of his less successful but still well regarded films like The Fog, or Escape From New York. But one that you’d probably not bring up would be Ghosts of Mars, his penultimate movie, and the last one he’d make for almost a decade. And I wouldn’t blame you for not thinking about it straight away, because it’s pretty shit. But boy is it the kind of shit that I found really enjoyable when it first came out, and that I’ve got a lot of time for.

Set in the latter half of the 22nd century, we find a Mars that has been mostly terraformed. The air on Mars is breathable now, and whilst you might occasionally need a breather mask to help with the dust and the thinner than normal atmosphere, you don’t have to don a space suit to take a stroll on the red planet. Not only that, but society has shifted away from men being in charge, and has been replaced with a matriarchy. Sounds pretty good to me. Unfortunately, on a trip to pick up a criminal from a remote outpost, things begin to go bad on Mars.

We follow Lt Melanie Ballard (Natasha Henstridge), a police officer with a secret drug addiction, who’s travelling to a mining outpost with her commanding officer, played by Pam Grier, the cocky Sergeant Butler (Jason Statham) and a couple of rookies. When they arrive at the outpost to collect the wanted criminal James ‘Desolation’ Williams (Ice Cube) they find the outpost deserted, and signs of something awful having happened. Williams is still in his cell, along with a motley collection of other prisoners, but everyone else has vanished.

The team soon discover that the population of the town have been taken over by a strange force, spirits of the long dead martian race that cause their hosts to self mutilate, and kill anything that isn’t one of them. When the Commander is killed it’s down to Ballard to take over, teaming up with Williams and his crew to try and find a way of escaping the town and killing the martian ghosts once and for all.

Ghosts of Mars is a silly film. The entire concept, of an archaeological dig unearthing the buried ghosts of aliens that possess people and turn them into crazed killers is wild to say the least, and whilst there is the basis for a pretty cool horror story of never knowing who might be harbouring one of these ghosts, or that every possessed you kill unleashes another spirit into the air ready to take you over, this never really gets played upon with this movie. Instead, it’s a film of style over substance, and one where John Carpenter seems to be enjoying making a sci-fi story where people get to dress cool and shoot things up with shiny guns.

And I think that because of this attitude, because it’s not trying to take itself very seriously or trying to do anything spectacular, it can be a lot of fun. It has a cockiness to itself that doesn’t feel earned, but you have to smile at. It’s like the film took its approach from the character Jack Burton. The characters aren’t particularly well developed, they all approach things as if they’re the biggest and baddest in the room with a cheesy one-liner and smile. The costumes are designed for their look over any real kind of functionality, especially the martian police; and the weapons are either big shiny guns, or something thrown together in the midst of battle. It’s silly, but I enjoy watching this film.

The cast are, on the whole, are really good too, and well placed in their roles. Henstridge became famous through her role in Species, so was a recognisable face for horror and sci-fi fans, and her recent foray into comedy is perfect for the silly tone of this movie. Equally, Ice Cube is a great foil for her, and the two of them have pretty good chemistry, and he proves to be a charming and funny criminal with a heart. Statham had had success with his work with Guy Ritchie, but hadn’t yet hit it big as a Hollywood action hero, but this film shows that he’s got the ability to shoot some guns and deliver some cheesy dialogue. Even the supporting cast are made up of competent character actors who manage to make what are little more than extras feel charming and enjoyable.

Ghosts of Mars is a silly, cheesy film that is never going to be held up as one of Carpenter’s best. It’s not going to wow anyone with its story, with its dialogue that feels like its two decades late, and it’s not going to impress with its effects that are a bit janky at times. But if you like 80’s action films that don’t take themselves very seriously this will probably keep you entertained. It might not be perfect, but it’s not a bad way to spend an hour and a half.

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Cult of the Spider Queen: An Arkham Horror Novel by S. A. Sidor - Book Review

 

'An ancient horror deep in the Amazon jungle spins a web of nightmares to ensnare adventurers, explorers, and their souls, in this skin-crawling Arkham Horror novel of cosmic dread.

'When Arkham Advertiser reporter Andy van Nortwick receives a mysterious film reel in the mail, with a simple note: “Maude Brion is very much alive!”, he steps onto a path which will lead him to the brink of madness. Brion, the famous actress and film director, vanished a year ago on an ill-fated expedition into the Amazon rain-forest, delving into the legend of the Spider Queen. Thrilled by the prospect of his big break, Nortwick swings the funds to launch a rescue mission. He gathers a team of explorers and a keen folklorist to bring back Brion and cement his reputation. But deep in the Amazon jungle, the boundaries between intrepid adventurers, dreamers, and deranged fanatics blur inside a web of terror.'

I absolutely adore the Arkham Horror books that Aconyte have been producing. Despite being based on the same game, which is based on the literary world created by one person, each and every one of them has brought something new and unique to the table; and none more obviously so than their latest offering, Cult of the Spider Queen by S. A. Sidor.

As the name of the series suggest, the vast majority of the Arkham Horror stories take place in and around the city of Arkham. We've had a few tales that expand that a bit, spreading out into the surrounding area, and even a few short stories that have features snippets in France during World War One, or ancient Greece. But for the most part these are small excursions whilst the majority of the story takes place in a setting we know. This book, on the other hand, plays things very differently, with only the first handful of chapters set in Arkham before the action moves to the heart of the Amazon rain-forest. 

As the story begins we follow Andy van Nortwick, a young reporter working at the Arkham Adviser who's looking for his big break to get him noticed. He thought that he'd found it in the past when he brought a story of strange cults and mysterious disappearances to his editor (a fantastic nod to the fact that Andy briefly appeared in Sidor's previous Arkham Horror title, The Last Ritual) but was laughed out of the room. He needs something big, something that will make him stand out, and that won't end up with him being ridiculed once again.

When Andy spots a strange looking package in the Adviser's mail room, a package sent from the Amazon, he sneakily scribbles his name onto it; sure that whatever is inside is a good story. What he gets is an roll of film, one that documents part of a lost film crew's journey into the rain-forest in search for the fabled Spider Queen. Along with the film is a note telling Andy that the film's director, a famous actress named Maude Brion, is alive. Having been lost for a year, Andy knows that if he's able to find Maude and bring her home it'll make him famous; and if he finds evidence of this fabled Spider Queen too he'll be able to make money off the story.

Andy sets out across Arkham to find funding for his expedition to the Amazon, and convinces a wealthy businessman to fund the trip with the promise of gold on the horizon. Along the way he picks up a mysterious anthropologist who knows about the Spider Queen, and seems to have an agenda of her own; as well as a pair of adventurers and archaeologists who can lead him through the jungle. With the team all set, they head out to the Amazon, hoping to use the information in the film to lead them to Maude. However, they didn't expect to find strange visions, giant monsters, men from other worlds, and a strange cult waiting for them. Now they've ended up simply fighting to stay alive as they try to find their own way home again.

I'm going to say straight away that I absolutely loved the set-up for this story. The missing film crew, the footage sent in the mail, the journey to the Amazon. It felt so different and so fun and I was so down for it. The beginning of the film felt like the set-up of a found footage movie, where the mysterious film reveals something spooky happening deep in the rain-forest and a team gets together to go and find out what's happened; whilst the story being set in a harsh, unforgiving environment felt like a throwback to old adventure horror films like The Creature From the Black Lagoon and The Mummy. I don't know how this book discovered all the boxes I liked ticked, but it absolutely nailed it.

As most of the book is set in the rain-forest it quickly becomes apparent that the book won't be relying on the dark and brooding nature of Arkham, and instead goes for a very different kind of horror. The story doesn't rely on the bizarre and the unsettling creeping into familiar environments to make the reader feel on edge, but uses the alien like nature of the jungle to do it. Most of us won't be familiar with the Amazon; we won't have been there or travelled on those waters, but we know how it's supposed to work. As such when the jungle falls eerily quiet we know that that's wrong, and it makes things feel even scarier and unsettling.

But Sidor doesn't just rely on the strange setting to ramp up the tension. There are some scenes in this book that are easily some of the most bizarre, disturbing, and unsettling things I've read in this series. When the team head out from their boat in canoes things start to go wrong for them. They lose track of each other, get lost, time doesn't flow right, and they encounter strange things waiting for them in the trees. It's like they get stuck in nightmares, drawn into a warping, ever changing reality. It makes for some unsettling moments, ones that begin to introduce some of the bolder story beats, and also means that you're never quite sure if you can trust what you're reading to be real or not. Sidor seems to know how to mess with the reader, to give them just enough doubt and unease to feel like everything they know is wrong, and that they can't trust what's going on.

But Sidor is also great at creating some compelling characters too, and our core cast are wonderful to follow. With most of the Arkham Horror books there tends to be one of two lead characters, with perhaps a third coming into the story for a short while. On a whole they keep the attention on just one or two people in order to tell their stories. As such, Cult of the Spider Queen ends up feeling a lot bigger with its focus on four principal leads; as well as some chapters told from other points of view too. It adds a sense of scope to the tale, reminds readers that this isn't just a story with one central lead, but an ensemble piece.

The characters are really likeable too. Andy is a eager young man, one who desperately wants to prove himself and show the world that he has what it takes to be a good writer. Whilst his mission to find Maude is motivated by a desire to find a good story he does care about bringing her home too. He isn't just using her disappearance for his own ends, and is willing to put his own life on the line to help others around him. Ursula and Jake, the two experienced explorers of the group are a great duo, are two people who clearly care a lot about each other and will try to put the other first. However, each of them acknowledges that the other can take care of themselves, and puts protecting those less experienced than them first. And then there's Iris, a woman who clearly has more going on than first meets the eye, and is hiding things from the others; but despite this seems to be a pretty decent person, one who doesn't always put her wants first if it means endangering the other members of the group.

They're a bit of a rag-tag bunch, and there are times that they butt heads and come to disagreements, but it's clear that they're all pretty decent people, and when things start to go wrong they all look out for each other and try and help where they can. This adds to the story feeling like one of those classic adventure movies, where the team has to come together in order to make it home again, learning to step-up and take risks to save the team, or having to give up on their destructive goals lest it end in tragedy.

One of the things that Sidor does really well too is the segments of the book that are written as if you're watching the small snippets of film that have been recorded. Translating exactly how the camera moves, what is seen on screen, can be difficult, and making sure that the reader sees exactly what you want them to isn't always guaranteed. But the moments where we got to see through the eye of the film were incredibly well done. It felt like watching the film, rather than just getting a description of what it was showing. It really helped to put me in the moment, as well as making me feel the tension of the scenes.

Cult of the Spider Queen is the kind of book that I wasn't expecting to get in the Arkham Horror series. It gave readers bold, new ways to bring the Lovecraftian horror to an interesting and unique environment without it feeling like it was another project all together. It might only begin in Arkham, but this is unmistakably in the same universe as the other other stories; just one that feels a lot bigger now. I really hope that we get more titles like this, one that take big chances and try bold things, because this was absolutely fantastic.

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