The Accomplice by Lisa Lutz - Book Review

 

'Owen Mann is charming, privileged, and chronically dissatisfied. Luna Grey is secretive, cautious, and pragmatic. Despite their differences, they begin forming a bond the moment they meet in college. Their names soon become indivisible--Owen and Luna, Luna and Owen--and stay that way even after an unexplained death rocks their social circle.

'Years later, they're still best friends when Luna finds Owen's wife brutally murdered. The police investigation sheds some light on long-hidden secrets, but it can't penetrate the wall of mystery that surrounds Owen. To get to the heart of what happened and why, Luna has to dig up the one secret she's spent her whole life burying.'

The Accomplice is the latest mystery thriller from Lisa Lutz and Titan Books, and it gives readers something a bit special as you don't just get one mystery in this book, but quite a few.

The story follows Luna Grey and Owen Mann, two people who've been friends since they met in college. The two of them quickly form a strong friendship, and become inescapable parts of each others lives. People expect them as a pair, they question why the two of them aren't together romantically, but Luna and Owen are simply just friends. 

After knowing each other for nearly two decades the two of them are still in each others lives, living a few houses away from each other, and still being the best of friends. Yes, it might put a little strain on their relationships with their partners, but everyone understands that they're a package deal. When Luna goes out for a run the morning after Owen's wife, Irene, confides in her that Owen's having an affair, Luna discovers Irene's body. The police begin their investigation into the murder, checking to see if Owen may have killed his wife, but Luna is sure that he had nothing to do with it; just as she was sure he had nothing to do with the death of his girlfriend back in college. As the investigation continues, memories of the last time two two of them were connected to a tragic death begins to surface, old wounds get reopened, and their relationship gets put to the test.

I really enjoyed The Accomplice. It felt intriguing straight from the off thanks to the relationship between Luna and Owen. Whilst the story is about the death of Irene and the events that come from that, a big focus of the book (the main focus really) is these two people. As much time is given to their relationship as there is to the two deaths, and the book delves deep into friendship, trust, and toxic relationships. And yes, I said two deaths, as the book doesn't just contain the one murder mystery.

The narrative gets split across two different timelines throughout The Accomplice, alternating between Owen and Luna's time in college, and their present time of 2019. In the present we see them dealing with Irene's death, their changing relationship, and the difficulties they both face; in the past we see the two of them come together for the first time, their friendship forming, and also what happened when Owen's on-again-off-again girlfriend Scarlet is found dead. Owen is, of course, a prime suspect, and we see the impact that has on his life back then; the way that everyone in college other than a handful of friends turn on him, how the Scarlet's family is out for his blood, and how it tests the bonds of his friendship with Luna.

These two interweaving timelines aren't just there to add an extra mystery or to show the strength of their friendship, but also helps to serve the present narrative. The people in the present have issues to deal with, personal issues that have hung over them for years; relationships that have never been the same. As we learn more context for this in the present time we get to see how it began as the past timeline unfolds. It becomes clear that the last time a tragic death plagued their lives it set off a series of events that would forever change them; and it's no surprise when the events in the present have a similar effect.

In a lot of ways the central relationship in The Accomplice is one that you'd want to aim for with your close friends. They love each other, they know what to do to help each other, they're there whenever they need someone, they do good for each other. However, I felt that the book was also a warning about how toxic such close relationships can be, how if you don't manage your behaviour right, if you get in too deep and don't look at more than just your wants and needs it can turn toxic and hurt others. Owen and Luna are no different to other strong relationships we've seen in fiction over the years, albeit with one big exception. There's no romance or sex between the two of them. They love each other in a way that you see in some of the stronger romantic relationships in fiction, doing awful things for and to each other, but its always platonic. And whilst you probably don't want to completely emulate their friendship it is wonderful to see strong platonic love depicted in fiction, as most writers seem to think that any strong friendship has to turn romantic or sexual at some point.

The mysteries of The Accomplice are really engaging, and not just the central ones of how these women died in the two timelines. There are multiple smaller mysteries scattered throughout the book that are just as engaging. Luna has something terrible in her past that she's trying to keep secret (something that I wished we'd gotten more of as it was an amazing part of the story), there's mystery around Owen's past with Irene, mystery around Irene's relationship with her step-father, mystery around why Luna's past relationship with Owen's brother soured. All off these little mysteries keep the reader engaged whilst the larger mystery unfolds in the background, and keeps the book interesting even in the quieter moments. And the central mystery, of who killed Irene and why has such an obvious, simple solution that once it was revealed I slapped my head and yelled 'of course!' for not having seen it coming. It was such a masterful reveal, at just the right moment, that it made the whole thing worth while.

The Accomplice is an engaging mystery story that takes a more personal approach to murder mystery than some other books. It doesn't follow the police and their investigation, and instead focuses on the human connections of the people whose lives have been forever changed by these tragic events. If you're looking for a character driven thriller with a good central mystery, this book is definitely worth a read.

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See You Then – Film Review

 

Originally published on Set The Tape

Relationships make for an easy subject matter to explore within fiction. With most people on the planet engaging in, or trying to engage in, romantic relationships, and with the varied different forms those relationships take, it seems like there’s no shortage for different approaches to take. See You Then, written and directed by Mari Walker, looks to explore a relationship that ended suddenly, one that still preys upon the minds of the two people involved, and what happens when they meet up years later.

The story begins simply enough, with two old college friends who became lovers meeting up for dinner. Kris (Pooya Mohseni) is in town to take part in a business conference, and decides to meet up with her old flame Naomi (Lynn Chen), who still lives in their old college stomping ground, and even teaches art at the college. You immediately see that both parties are nervous about this meet-up, and it soon becomes apparent why, as the film doesn’t try to hide what makes this a bit different from other stories about exes meeting: when they were dating, Kris presented as a man, and she’s since transitioned.

It turns out that Kris is trans, and that she didn’t really realise this about herself when the two of them were dating years before. Kris talks about how she kind of knew, but was still figuring it out, and that her doing so was the reason why she up and left Naomi without warning. Despite the potential bad blood, and lots of nerves, the evening seems to go well between the two women, and as the night wears on they travel from one location to the other, talking about their lives, their careers, families. The two of them begin to reconnect. However, as they spend more time together more painful parts of their old lives begin to come to the fore.

See You Then is not going to be the kind of movie that everyone will like. It’s a conversation piece, following these two women as they dissect their lives and discuss their dreams for the future. They’re joined briefly at times by other characters, often men who appear for but moments, but ultimately it’s just the two of them. They haven’t met for any real reason, there’s no big thing that one of them is waiting to bring up, and it just feels like a snapshot from real life, of the kind of meeting that I’m sure we’ve all experienced at one time or another. But even within the realms of these kinds of films it feels like See You Then tries to do something a bit more.

Queer voices are often overlooked in media, trans ones especially, so getting a film that squarely centres a trans woman’s experience is wonderful. Especially as the film doesn’t try to sensationalise anything. Kris is a regular, normal person. She has a boring sounding job where she works in tech. She goes to dull work conferences. She’s recently gotten out of a relationship with a man she met through her hobby. She’s a normal person. And the film makes a big point of this. There are times when Kris talks about her transition, how it saved her life and how she wouldn’t be alive if she hadn’t done it, but she downplays the idea that it’s anything ‘amazing’.

There’s a moment in the film where Kris gets visibly angry with the idea that her having transitioned makes her special, condemning the term ‘brave’; something she’s heard a lot. This is a narrative that is so often used in media that it seems to be the only alternative to the other big media representation of trans journeys: the tragedy. Trans people are either treated awfully, having lost their families and homes, forced into crime to survive, and often then victims of murder. Or they’re overcoming great strife, staring down fear and hatred, to blossom and become amazing. And Kris rejects these notions, showing that her life is no different from the average cis person’s, and that transitioning wasn’t something that makes her brave. It’s something I’ve encountered myself, more than once, and it’s a narrative that might seem benign, even positive, but often puts undue pressure on regular, ordinary folks who just happen to be trans.

Getting to see a trans woman represented as a regular, ordinary person was such a refreshing change. Especially as Kris is far from perfect. Over the course of the film we see that Naomi has her issues with Kris. Not for being trans, but because of the way she ended their relationship. Naomi has clearly been carrying this baggage around with her for years, and it may even be part of why her happy life, a life where she should be at peace, seems to leave her feeling empty and even jaded at times. Kris coming back into her life brings some of these issues back up to the surface, and over the course of the movie we get to explore this long held trauma.

The acting in See You Then is what really makes the film work. The script is well crafted, and it feels like a natural conversation, something that other films like this sometimes fail at, but it’s the two leads who carry the entire movie, and make it work. Lynn Chen is great throughout, and even from the first moments she meets Kris you can see that there’s something under the surface. Whilst at first you can pass this off as just surprise at seeing her ex having transitioned, you learn that there’s more to it than that. You can feel the discomfort and the pain bubbling just beneath the surface, even when she’s trying to be happy and kind.

Pooya Mohseni is fantastic as Kris, and I think the fact that the film actually cast a trans woman in the role makes a huge, huge difference. Her pain over the hard parts of transition and the damage to relationships feels completely genuine, and she’s able to capture the absolute euphoria of getting to live as your true self in ways I’ve never seen a cis actor do so. The two of them manage to breathe a lot of life, and huge amounts of honesty into the portrayals.

See You Then takes a look at a very personal, intimate evening between two people whose lives have had a huge impact upon each other. It examines the ways that relationships change, how people evolve, going from wonderful moments of joy to some devastating revelations, and manages to feel incredibly genuine throughout.

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Plainer Jane #4 & #5 – Comic Review

 

Originally published on Set The Tape

The Plainer Jane series continues with issues #4 and #5 being released in quick succession, giving fans of this dark crime series a chance to catch up with teenage contract killer Jane as she tries to navigate her dual life as a killer for hire and a student nurse.

Despite the series being called Plainer Jane, we don’t really get a huge amount of time to spend with the titular character over these two issues. We get some time with her at the start of issue #4, getting to see her interact with her mother, spending time in her medical lessons, and even watching her kill off another of Manchester’s criminal elite, but we don’t really spend much time really getting to know the character the same way we did with the first issues. And issue #5 has even less of Jane than #4.

Instead, readers begin to see the bigger impact of what Jane has been doing, catching up with the cops looking into the sudden spike in gang killings, and the criminals who can see that there’s a problem going on, and want to do something about it. These scenes really open up the world that the series writer David Wilburn has been creating. Not only do they give us broader context for what it means when Jane starts killing criminals, but they help to build the tension. We know now that what Jane is doing hasn’t gone unnoticed, that factions on both sides of the law know that she exists and plan to take action against her.

It really does begin to feel like Jane has bitten off more than she can chew with these issues, that she never thought through what her choices meant beyond the most immediate, and that she’s going to be facing some serious consequences. But then I also think that these issue have been showing us that Jane is perhaps in a worse place than any of us were expecting. As these two issues go on, Jane becomes more and more withdrawn, she spends less time with her friends and family, she talks less, and even the narration begins to dry up. She’s not even trying to pretend to be ‘normal’ anymore. I think this is showing us that by choosing this path, by making killing her path in life, she’s losing more and more of herself to it, and that the Jane we have now is very different to the one we started this journey with.

With Jane getting less time to shine as a character, becoming more of a figure that moves from scene to scene simply performing actions than being a real person, other characters begin to move into the spotlight. One that definitely gets a good show here is Sergeant Tyler Lewey, one of the officers working on the gang murders, and whose wife has been in a coma since being injured in a previous issue. Lewey, it turns out, has a big part to play in this story, bigger than I was expecting, and I won’t reveal what that is to avoid spoilers; but I will say that he becomes something of a complex character, and one that may divide some readers.

The artwork for both issues is by Samir Simão, who provides some nicely crisp and clean work for the two books. The art style follows much of what we’ve seen before, with simple black and white illustrations with the odd splash of red to draw your eye or highlight certain things. There are some great two-page spreads that look brilliant, and have a ton of detail to them, and it really does feel like the series is hitting its stride in terms of how it wants to look.

There are a couple of pages right at the start of issue #5 that are full colour, and look more painted rather than drawn. This only lasts for the one scene, and it’s not clear why it’s different here. In previous issues we’ve had back-up stories done in different, colourful art styles, but that isn’t the case here, and it does feel slightly jarring and out of place to start the issue this way before going back to the regular style.

The Plainer Jane series has been a really interesting book, one that has been weaving a story that has been getting more complex and layered as it s been progressing, and it really feels like its building towards something big now. We’ve got more characters involved, a bigger world, and more at stake than we first began with. With all of the developments across these two issues I’m looking forward to seeing what issue #6 has in store for us.

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Three Monster Tales of Sci-Fi Terror – Blu-ray Review

 

Originally published on Set The Tape

It feels like this is a great time to be a fan of classic monster movies. Godzilla is celebrating new success in the west thanks to the Monsterverse, which is getting a spotlight shone on its original films; films like Nosferatu are getting new releases to celebrate their anniversary; and classic films from the 1950s are getting new box-set releases, such as last year’s Cold War Creatures collection. Now Eureka Entertainment are bringing fans three new Blu-ray releases in Three Monster Tales of Sci-Fi Terror.

This new collection brings together three films from the 1940s and 50s that take a more science fiction spin on the classic monster movies. These were the decades where the European Gothic was out of fashion (can’t be setting stories in European castles whilst the Nazis are still fresh in people’s minds), and instead writers have turned to science to explore themes of horror. These were the decades where radiation and mad scientists reigned supreme, and these three films showcase a pretty wide assortment of these movies.

The first in the set is the 1941 film Man-Made Monster, which starred horror icon Lon Chaney Jr early in his career with his first horror role, before his big break in The Wolf-Man later that same year. The story follows Dan McCormick (Chaney), a man who survives a tragic accident that kills dozens of others when a bus crashes and becomes electrified. It turns out Dan has some kind of immunity to electricity, and agrees to work with some local scientists to investigate this. However, one of the scientists has some shady ideas about what to do with Dan, and after subjecting him to some awful experiments, turns him into a glowing, brainwashed killer filled with electricity.

Man-Made Monster, directed by George Waggner, is the mad scientist story of the piece. Despite becoming a ‘monster’, Chaney isn’t the villain of this film, with that role being filled by Lionel Atwill’s Doctor Rigas instead. The film played into the fears of the ‘supermen’, of people turned into soldiers, mindless monsters that couldn’t be stopped. Made during World War II, but before the US had entered the conflict, the film is absolutely influenced by the fears of the time, and makes for a fascinating watch. It also comes with an audio commentary from authors Stephen Jones and Kim Newman, who discuss the film, the actors, and monster movies of the era in greater detail.

Also on the first disc is the 1957 film The Monolith Monsters, directed by John Sherwood. This film is one of the more unique sci-fi horrors of the era in that despite the title there’s not really much of a monster in this film. The movie begins with a meteorite crashing into the desert outside of a small town in Southern California. The meteorite scatters strange black rocks across the landscape. When the locals come into contact with the rocks a horrifying reaction occurs, turning the people exposed to it into stone.

Worse still, the local authorities learn that when exposed to water the rocks grow in size, eventually shattering into more pieces, spreading the rock further. When a huge rainstorm rolls through the desert the space rocks grow to gargantuan size, spreading towards the small town. Now the sheriff and the local geologist must figure out a way to stop the spread of the rocks in time to save the town, and possibly the rest of the world.

The Monolith Monsters is a truly unique monster movie. It doesn’t have a creature coming to kill you, there are no alien monsters or mad scientists. Instead it becomes more of a science thriller, with scenes of folks in labs trying to analyse the strange space rocks, and doctors trying to stop the victims dying. Where the movie really excels, however, is in the model work. The monoliths are these interesting creations that grow on screen, towering over the desert, destroying houses as they shatter and spread. The miniature work is definitely the part of the film that shines above the rest, and is worth watching for that alone. Eagle eyed viewers may also get a kick out of noticing that the town is also the same set as both Back To The Future and Gremlins, being one of the first films made there. As with the other film, The Monolith Monsters comes with an audio commentary that delves into the making-of, by Kevin Lyons and Jonathan Rigby.

The final film in the set is Monster on the Campus, released in 1958. This film, directed by Jack Arnold, deals with the dangers of radiation, and is a quite fun Jekyll and Hyde style horror. The film is set at Dunsford University, where Doctor Donald Blake (Arthur Franz) is researching into evolution and human history. He’s excited to receive a specimen of the coelacanth, a fish believed to have been extinct for millions of years. The living fossil will help Blake in his research. However, strange things begin to happen on campus to those that come near the fish.

When a dog drinks some of the bloody water the fish arrived in, it becomes aggressive, and grows large fangs. Even a dragonfly that lands on the creature isn’t immune, and grows to huge proportions. Blake believes that somehow the irradiated blood from the fish is reverting animals to more primitive states. He also thinks this could explain the large, monstrous person seen around the campus killing people, but first he has to make the authorities believe his outlandish claims.

Monster on the Campus was my favourite of the three films on offer here, and seemed to have a lot more to it. Whilst there’s very little mystery as to who the monster is in the film (Blake gets infected almost immediately), it is still fun to watch him try to piece the evidence together, especially as he’s investigating himself. The movie keeps the monster hidden for much of the runtime, which is for the best as the mask used is pretty shoddy, yet remains very charming in its ridiculousness. Thanks to the kitschy nature of the film it’s a lot of fun to watch, even it it’s not perfect. It also comes with a full length commentary by Stephen Jones and Kim Newman.

The films on offer in this set are a lot of fun, showcasing a lot of the range of movies on offer from the period. They’ve got some big name stars, some famous directors, and some special effects work that are absolutely delightful. If you’re a fan of old monster movies this set is absolutely worth checking out.

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Shadow Avengers: A Marvel: Crisis Protocol Novel by Carrie Harris - Book Review

 

'Earth is on course for a devastating invasion from the Dark Dimension, forcing the world’s mightiest heroes into unthinkable alliances, in this heart-stopping new novel in the Marvel: Crisis Protocol series

'Doctor Strange created the Shadow Avengers to save the world from Dormammu, but instead they’re on the verge of dissolution. When sudden weather anomalies across the world correspond with Asgardian heroes emerging from portals ripe with Dormammu’s magical signature, the Shadow Avengers realise the “Master” is making his move. Loki, Venom, and Green Goblin are behind a ceremony plotting to open a portal big enough to encompass Dormammu’s presence. From the Sanctum Sanctorum to the streets of NYC to beautiful Wakanda, the Shadow Avengers must stop Dormammu at any cost – but the Master, in all his cunning wisdom, has something greater in store that will doom the world once and for all.'

Shadow Avengers is the follow-up book to last year's Target Kree, which saw several characters coming together to stop a threat to the Earth that had already destroyed another planet. Towards the end of that book not only did we learn that a larger force was at work behind the scenes, but we saw Doctor Strange recruit Miss Marvel into a new secret team. This book picks up several months later, where this team, the Shadow Avengers, have been working to protect the Earth from the threat of Dromammu.

The story begins in typical comic book fashion, by giving the readers what at first appears to be a completely unconnected super hero fight to get them drawn into the story. Whilst trying to grab some pizza, Eddie Brock, the host to the Venom symbiote, sees an Oscorp truck being driven through NEw York by Loki, the Asgardian trickster god. Following the god, Venom discovers Loki dumping strange looking chemicals into the New York sewer system. A fight ensues between them, over the course of which Loki manages to place a magical necklace around Venom's neck. This necklace puts Venom under the control of some unseen presence; just in time to Spider-Man to arrive and think that Venom is being a villain.

Spider-Man brings up the incident during a meeting of the Shadow Avengers, but gets little interest from Doctor Strange, who wishes to focus on the threat posed by Dormammu. Leaving Spider-Man and Miss Marvel to look into it, things begin to spiral out of control when other strange incidents begin to happen across New York, and Wakanda. With magical storms raging in both locations, and strange portals appearing and dropping out alternate reality versions of Asgardian gods, Strange begins to realise that these incidents may not only be connected, but might be the latest invasion plan from Dormammu.

When I say that Shadow Avengers reads like a comic I mean it in the best possible way. A lot of novels based upon comic properties tend to read like novels, stories that take a more character focused approach, putting us in the heads of one or two main characters and telling a story that whilst great, probably wouldn't work in comic form. This story, on the other hand, feels like its leapt off the comic page. It's paced really fast, with characters always doing something important or learning something new. We jump perspective a lot, going from one member of the team to another, and there's a lot of action and fighting scattered throughout the book. This story would take very little alteration to be made into a several issue long story arc, and making that work in book form is extremely impressive.

As the name suggests, the story doesn't focus on one particular character, but a roster of heroes. There are some who get more stuff to do, such as Miss Marvel, but every single member of the Shadow Avengers does get to do something, and gets at least one moment to shine. The book also manages to give a decent amount of time over to Eddie Brock, who became a much bigger part of the book than I was expecting from the description. Carrie Harris does a good job at keeping all of these plates spinning, at giving every character something to do, and making sure that no one has been left out of things for too long.

One of the things that I liked about the book was how Harris didn't try and make a big thing of the mystery around who was doing things. There is a level of secrecy to begin with, with some of the characters referring to a mysterious master pulling the strings; but with this being a Shadow Avengers book, and them being exclusively about stopping Dormammu it was pretty obvious that's who it was going to be. And thankfully the book doesn't try to make it seem like some huge, unexpected revelation when his identity is revealed during the story. It's not treated like some big revelation that you were never going to guess; and because of that it never feels like the book is trying to trick you or treat you as stupid in any ways. That's something that I can respect.

Shadow Avengers is a good follow-up to Target Kree, a book that took the small hints and promises at the end of that book and gives readers something exciting as the pay-off. It manages to pack in the action, gives just enough mystery to keep readers guessing what might come next, and features some great depictions of some of Marvel's biggest characters. Carrie Harris clearly knows this universe and these characters, and she's the perfect author to tell this story.

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The Tangleroot Palace by Marjorie Liu – Book Review

 

Originally published on Set The Tape

'New York Times bestseller and Hugo, British Fantasy, Romantic Times, and Eisner award-winning author of the graphic novel, Monstress, Marjorie Liu leads you deep into the heart of the tangled woods. In her long-awaited debut story collection, dark, lush, and spellbinding short fiction you will find unexpected detours, dangerous magic, and even more dangerous women.

'Briar, bodyguard for a body-stealing sorceress, discovers her love for Rose, whose true soul emerges only once a week. An apprentice witch seeks her freedom through betrayal, the bones of the innocent, and a meticulously-plotted spell. In a world powered by crystal skulls, a warrior returns to save China from invasion by her jealous ex. A princess runs away from an arranged marriage, finding family in a strange troupe of travelling actors at the border of the kingdom’s deep, dark woods.

'Concluding with a gorgeous full-length novella, Marjorie Liu’s first short fiction collection is an unflinching sojourn into her thorny tales of love, revenge, and new beginnings.'

The Tangleroot Palace is the latest anthology story collection from Titan Books, but rather than bringing together a host of different authors Titan have decided to shine the spotlight on Marjorie Liu, the Hugo, and Eisner award winning author. In this lovely collection Liu presents readers with several short stories from across her career that showcase her creative and engaging fantasy work.

There are several stories in The Tanggleroot Palace which feel so oddly similar to our own world they could easily be taking place in a time we know, just out of sight. Others, however, take place in strange fantasy worlds, alternate histories, and even possible futures.

The first story in the collection is ‘Sympathy for the Bones’, which follows a young woman who lives with the local town witch, learning how to work her magic to assist the older woman. Despite having been raised by this woman, the young girl feels no love for her, having suffered at her hand over the years. Using the skills the old woman has taught her, she hatches a plan to be rid of the witch forever. This story felt like the perfect introduction to this collection, slowly drawing the reader in and introducing the more magical elements slowly as it went. It had some creepy and dark moments, and painted a wonderfully morally grey lead.

‘The Briar and the Rose’ is a twist on the Sleeping Beauty story, where the bodyguard of a powerful and influential woman discovers that her mistress is actually a witch. Not only that, but she’s possessing the body of the woman she’s residing inside, and that she needs to ‘sleep’ every week to maintain that hold. However, when she sleeps the body’s real inhabitant is able to wake up, and the two women form a strong relationship. This was a wonderful queer romance story, with an inventive twist on the traditional tale. Very quickly the story set the stakes with the evil witch, and the desperate lovers, and before you knew it you were rooting for these two women to find a way of escaping from the curse that keeps them apart.

‘Call Her Savage’ is a story that takes place in an alternate history, where magic and crystal skulls have been used to advance society in wildly different directions to our own. Set during a war between China and Britain, we follow a Chinese super-soldier, a woman who has been granted super-human powers and abilities, who must sneak into enemy territory to save an important figure. The story dealt with themes of betrayal, trauma and morality in war in surprisingly detailed ways for such a short story. Liu does a ton of world-building here too, and it very much felt like this could be part of a much bigger series.

‘The Last Dignity of Man’ is Liu’s comic book story, a field in which she’s actually won awards. It tells the story of a rich businessman who’s obsessed with Superman. He wants Superman to be real, and would give anything for it to happen, and so sets out to become Lex Luthor in the hopes that being Superman’s greatest villain will somehow force the hero the world needs to become real. This is perhaps the strangest story in the bunch, and whilst Alexander Lutheran’s motives and way of thinking don’t make complete sense, you get the sense that they’re not really supposed to, as over the course of this slightly bizarre tale you really get to know him, and see how much help the man really needs from those in his life. Despite the weirdness, it ended up being an incredibly sweet story.

‘Where the Heart Lives’ felt the most fairy-tale-like story of the bunch, and really leans into the almost dream-like nature of magical stories. It tells the story of a young woman who travels to a magical forest, and who begins to live with a group of people with strange powers, and a connection to the spirit that lives deep within the forest that surrounds them. There’s a good sense of mystery to this story, and it felt like a full YA fantasy story condensed down, with all of the ‘will they won’t they’ stuff removed and a focus on the main events. Because of that, whilst it was good it did feel a bit light, and is a story I’d have enjoyed seeing being given more room.

‘After the Blood’ is actually something of a prequel to some of Liu’s other work, but still stands on its own as an interesting story, set in a future where a deadly disease has destroyed most of humanity, and those left behind have had to use more old fashioned skills to get by. Oh, and the virus has also turned some of the survivors into supernatural beings, so there are monster and Amish vampires. It’s a fun story, one that I think doesn’t quite give enough information to be great as there were times I was left wondering why things were happening, but overall it was an enjoyable tale, and definitely left me wanting to read the series it ties into.

The final story in the book is the longest, the titular ‘Tangleroot Palace’. This story introduces us to a young princess who has grown up in her father’s castle able to do whatever she wants. She’s pursued the things that she finds interesting, leading to a princess who loves horse riding, reading, and messing around in the gardens. She’s a free spirit. However, when her father informs her that she’s being married to a supposedly brutal and frightening warlord in order to protect the kingdom, she decides to run away from the palace, setting her sights on the Tangleroot forest, where powerful magics are said to reside. This being the longest story in the collection means that we get to spend a lot more time with the characters, and as such I found that I came to really like the princess, as well as the folks she meets along the way. As with some of the other stories in the book, it did feel like a scaled back version of a story that would normally be given a book all to itself, and as such felt a bit light in places, but was otherwise interesting, engaging, and delightful.

The Tangleroot Palace is a great collection of stories from an author with a lot of talent. Most of these stories are short, but you still find yourself coming to care for the protagonists, being invested in the stories, or intrigued by the worlds that Marjorie Liu has created. The stories collected here highlight where Liu’s skills lie, with crafting stories, characters, and worlds that very quickly become engaging and intriguing. The stories all feel like they could have been books in their own rights, that they could have been expanded upon and built into bigger tales, and in some ways it does feel a bit of a shame that some of them haven’t been. Whilst I loved reading the stories on offer here, a lot of the time I felt a little sad that they didn’t go on longer.

As a way of being introduced to Liu’s work, this book is a great way of seeing if she’s an author you want to try out, as it showcases her variety and versatility, and gives you some idea of what to expect from her other work. I did have a lot of fun reading these stories, I just wish I had more of them.

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Superhost – Blu-ray Review

 

Originally published on Set The Tape

The horror streaming service Shudder have brought another of their popular films to home release with the new Blu-ray of Brandon Christensen’s Superhost, giving those who haven’t signed up to the horror network the chance to check out the kind of content that they have on offer.

Superhost follows Claire (Sara Canning) and Teddy (Osric Chau), a young couple who host the YouTube channel ‘Superhost’, which sees them travelling the country, staying at various rental properties, and reviewing them. With their channel having seemed to have reached its peak, the two of them are struggling to find new ways of attracting more viewers. Teddy is pushing to try some whimsical editing techniques, but Claire seems stuck in a state of anxiety, depression, and even anger, over their source of income not going anywhere.

When the couple travel to a beautiful, remote house in the woods, Claire thinks that they might have hit the goldmine when they meet Rebecca (Gracie Gillam), the young woman who has rented the home to them. This over-the-top happy and perky young woman quickly shows that she has something of a strange edge to her, and Claire thinks that this ‘crazy’ woman will help the views roll into their channel. Despite not wanting to exploit the woman, and just wanting to find the perfect time to propose, Teddy agrees to keep featuring the odd woman in their recordings, but when Rebecca starts to veer from quirky into frightening the two young vloggers begin to believe that they may have made a mistake.

In the special features on this release, writer/director Brandon Christensen talks about the genesis for this story, about how when renting a room from someone he had to get the owner round to unblock the toilet, and it was only then that the thought occurred to him how scary the situation was. You could be renting from anyone. The person you talk to online could be completely different to the person they appear to be, and it could be incredibly dangerous if they turned out to be a bad person. This kind of fear is something that many of us who have used Airbnb and similar sites might not have really thought about too much. The fact that you’re staying in another person’s home, that they could have a spare key and enter whilst you’re sleeping, that there could be anyone asking you to stay in their home, is genuinely quite frightening.

Superhost puts this fear right at the forefront of the film, and you don’t get long with things being ‘normal’ before you start to feel a bit uncomfortable about the situation. The film doesn’t give you a huge amount of time to relax into things before introducing Rebecca and beginning the journey into horror, and whilst this helps with the fast pacing of the movie and the relatively short runtime, it does mean that we never really have a chance to get to know Teddy and Claire beyond their initial set-ups.

From the very first scene we know that Claire is worried about their channel, that the stress of losing followers is getting to her and changing her into a more negative person. We get to see that Teddy is trying to placate her worries, is looking at the positives, and is planning to propose. And we never really move beyond this. Most of the scenes with the two of them after this are just more of the same, more of these same personality traits and worries. They don’t go beyond their immediate goals and concerns, and whilst this doesn’t necessarily make their characters bad, it does leave them feeling a bit shallow. But then again, perhaps that’s what the director wanted: a young couple who live online and are nothing but shallow people chasing fame and fortune via the internet.

Whilst Chau and Christensen do a fine job but never really feel anything more than just fine, the real star of the film is Gracie Gillam, who is absolutely wonderful as Rebecca. From her very first scene she steals the movie away from the other leads. She comes across as one of those perpetually excited, energetic kinds of people who make you feel tired just by being around them and trying to keep up. At first she seems sweet, if not a little naive about what she’s saying and doing and how it could affect others. But as the film goes on Gillam begins to put more and more of an edge into her performance, and pretty soon it’s clear that this is a woman who could snap at any point, for any reason. It’s chilling how well she walks that line, how she can go from relatively normal to frightening with just a look or the way she says something. Despite how wonderful she is to watch, you will be yelling at Claire and Teddy to just leave, and I think Rebecca is very much the kind of person you’d run from if you ever met her.

Alongside the film, the new release comes with some behind the scenes features and making-of documentaries that go not just into how the film was made, but the challenges of making it during a global pandemic and how that affected the production. Having seen a number of behind the scenes breakdowns of movies it’s interesting to see one taking a slightly different approach, and showing how the current global events are changing how films are made, rather than just focusing on the regular processes of a movie.

There’s also a series of bloopers, and some visual effects breakdowns that show how some of the big moments were made, as well as some incredibly subtle visual effects that you probably didn’t pick up on when watching the movie. In addition to this there’s a commentary for the film from the director, who goes into more detail about the creation of the movie, and two shorts called ‘Scaredycats’ that Christensen directed.

Superhost is a decent movie, that moves with a decent pace, has a pretty strong cast, and with a short runtime doesn’t outstay its welcome. It takes a simple premise and pushes it to its extreme to deliver an enjoyable and creepy horror experience.

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Ashgrove – Film Review

 

Originally published on Set The Tape

Creating stories about pandemics feels like its a risky thing at the moment. We’re two years into the Covid-19 pandemic with no end in sight and thousands of people still dying, and it’s not exactly the kind of time where you’d want to sit down and relax with a film about a deadly virus. As such, the new movie Ashgrove seems to face a hard time in winning audiences over. But rather than focus on the grand scale of a global pandemic, it’s relying on personal drama and mystery to suck the audience in.

Ashgrove begins in some undefined near future, where humanity is facing a crisis. A virus has ripped through the population, already killing more than sixty percent of humanity. The virus bonds with water molecules, which leads to an awful predicament: drink too much water and the virus builds up in your system and kills you; drink too little and you die of dehydration. And even rationing water, drinking the absolute minimum won’t cut it, as the virus will still slowly build up inside you. Humanity is facing extinction in just a few short years unless something can be done.

Amanda Brugel (The Handmaid’s Tale, Kim’s Convenience) plays Jennifer, one of the best scientist in the world, and the woman who’s been labelled as humanity’s last hope for survival. When the film opens we see her crying in her bathroom, when sudden inspiration strikes and she rushes out of the house. In her car she phones her work colleagues, telling them to gather the team as she’s ‘figured it out’. Then the screen cuts to black and Jennifer wakes up a few days later in bed with no memory of the events. She’s suffered from a stress-induced blackout and amnesia. Her doctor has advised her that she has to take a few days off to recover, so she and her husband, Jason (Jonas Chernick – James Vs His Future Self) head off to their countryside farm for the weekend. However, Jennifer begins to feel like something is off when Jason starts acting strangely, and sneaking off for odd phone calls.

Ashgrove feels like an odd film at times. Despite being set during a deadly pandemic it never feels like there’s one going on. We get the lowdown on what’s happening at the start of the film thanks to a radio interview, but never see mass graves, overrun hospitals, or social upheaval as you’d normally get in a story like this; especially if sixty percent of the population were dead. Instead, the film feels more like a drama piece, where the characters and their personal relationships are the focus.

Whilst this isn’t a bad approach in itself, is it enough to keep the film interesting? Not entirely, no. There were times where I found events to be a little slow for my liking, and the conversations and arguments between Jennifer and Jason felt a little contrived in order to manufacture drama just for something to be happening. For example, Jason complains about feeling like he’s on his own a lot, because his wife is off trying to stop the extinction of humanity. Okay, sure, you’re lonely Jason, but do you want to keep living? These kind of arguments probably do happen to folks who work on cures for deadly diseases in the real world, but it just felt a bit forced here. Luckily, there is something else to keep you interested if this kind of drama doesn’t do it for you.

Shortly after arriving at their countryside retreat we see Jason consulting a list on his phone. At first it looks like it’s just a list of chores for getting the house up and running for their stay, such as which of them will sweep the decking. But the un-ticked parts of the list includes ‘ukulele fight’, and sure enough, soon after the two of them argue over Jason’s new musical instrument. From here you start to notice him watching her from windows, forcing certain choices, and making strange phone calls. This odd element definitely injects a little something special into the movie, and whether or not you end up satisfied when you get all the answers, I think you’ll definitely find the journey to getting them, and the theories you’ll make along the way, engaging.

Ashgrove isn’t the perfect film by a long stretch. The script falls a bit flat in places, as several scenes allowed the actors to improvise lines; the lack of real focus on the pandemic and the upcoming extinction of humanity made it feel like the entire point of the plot was a background element; and the film does rely on a side character having to literally sit folks down and explain everything in one big scene in order for stuff to start making sense come the conclusion.

Despite these issues I still had a good time with Ashgrove. The performances were decent, the locations were nice, and the story was interesting enough to keep my attention for an hour and a half. If you’re looking for something a little different from other pandemic style movies, this is one that is worth considering.

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Blade II – Throwback 20

 

Originally published on Set The Tape

Comic book movies are big business. Four of the highest grossing movies of all time (at the time of writing) are comic book films, and the trend of the superhero genre being on top shows no sign of slowing down anytime soon.

Whilst a lot of folks would say that this began with the release of Iron Man in 2008, and the start of the Marvel Cinematic Universe, these films were doing well for a long while before that, and really began to take life on screen in 1998 when Blade hit cinemas. A movie based on a comic, but clearly for adults, Blade not only showed studios that comic book films can be taken seriously, but that they could earn a lot of money too. As such, it was a foregone conclusion that it would get a sequel.

Released in 2002, Blade II saw the titular half-vampire vampire hunter go in a slightly different direction from the original, abandoning some of the more grounded elements and embracing the fantastical for what might be the best of the Blade trilogy. The film picks up two years after the events of the first, and begins with Blade (Wesley Snipes) searching for his mentor Whistler (Kris Kristofferson). Despite having seen to be killed in the first film its revealed that Whistler was actually turned into a vampire, and kidnapped. However, Blade is able to rescue his mentor and cure him of his vampirism, bringing him back onto his team, which now includes a new tech specialist, Scud (Norman Reedus).

Not long after being reunited, Blade and his team are approached by the leaders of the vampire nation, who need his help. It seems like there’s a new type of monster stalking the streets, creatures that feed on vampires and turn them into vicious animals that need to constantly feed to survive. Knowing that once the vampires are gone, it means these ‘reapers’ will turn on the humans, Blade and his team agree to work with the vampires and their crack team of assassins to stop this new threat.

Written by David S. Goyer, the script for Blade II took a number of years to actually get finalised, with some original plans for the sequel, including the addition of characters like Morbius and Hannibal King, as well as time travel, getting scrapped. Eventually, the concept of the reaper virus was decided upon, and the search for a director began. Thanks to his work on the horror film Mimic, the studio sought out director Guillermo del Toro, believing that he would be able to bring a unique look and feel to the movie.

After coming on board, del Toro changed little of the script, liking the direction that the film was taking, though he did play a part in pushing the design of the reapers in a certain direction, and playing up their animal, monstrous qualities. The eventual end design for the reapers would bear a striking resemblance to the vampires that del Toro would use in his novel series, and TV adaptation, The Strain. The villains for the movie were not played as tragic, romantic figures, these were instead vampiric monsters that were little more than animals; and this made for a big change at the time as this was the first depiction of vampires this way for years, and it certainly helped the film to stand out.

The movie also took the action of the first film and tried to push it. Blade II had more action scenes, and included more dynamic set pieces, including one scene where Blade and Nomak (Luke Goss), the patient zero for the reapers, fight on a scaffolding in the middle of a ruined church. Unfortunately, there were times where the drive to be bigger and better backfired, especially in terms of the CGI, which let the film down at times when fully CG character models were used for things that could have been done with wire-work instead. Luckily, the practical effects for the film were superb, and del Toro’s passion for practical effects where possible, and some great prosthetic work and creature design, leave the film being the best of the trilogy from a visual and design standpoint.

Blade II took what the first film did, creating a grounded, believable comic book inspired world, and injected more of the fantastical into it. It moved away from depicting real world settings and took bolder design choices in the sets, costumes, and weaponry. In a lot of ways you can look at it as the first real example of how to blend the realistic and the spectacular in a comic book film, and it to be well received. The Batman movies tried to do the same, starting with the gritty and grounded films of Tim Burton, but failed to be as well received when they started to add the fantastical elements with Joel Schumacher’s contributions. Blade II managed to walk that line well, however, and whilst people will point to the Spider-Man and X-Men movies as the start of the modern comic book success, I believe that Blade II is by far a bigger contributor.

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Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein – 4K UHD Blu-ray Review

 

Originally published on Set The Tape

Frankenstein is a name that everyone will know. Whether you’ve watched a film with the character in it or not, whether you’ve ever read the original book, you’ll know the character. And you’ll likely have an instant image of what the creation looks like too. Thanks to some great design choices and brilliant marketing, that image would probably be the version that was made popular by Universal Pictures and Boris Karloff. But this image of the creature, this huge, green-skinned man with a flat head and bolts in his neck, who’s little more than a grunting behemoth, is pretty far from what Mary Shelley originally crafted.

One of the closest ever adaptations of the source material, which is arguably the first ever science fiction story put to print, is 1994’s Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein. Released hot on the heels of 1992’s Bram Stoker’s Dracula, the film aimed to be another big budget adaptation of the source material that would try to earn the studio millions. And whilst it definitely was those things, it failed to capture the public the same way, and became the least popular of these two films. But now the film has been given a stunning new 4K restoration from the original camera negatives, giving audiences a new chance to experience one of the best versions of Frankenstein put to film, in high quality.

The film begins following a polar exploration vessel in the late 1700s, as an obsessed captain tries to find fame and fortune. When the ship becomes trapped in the ice the crew are stunned when a figure comes out of the snowy fog surrounding them: the scientist Victor Frankenstein (Kenneth Branagh), who warns the crew of the danger lurking close by. When questioned as to what’s out there, he begins his tale. From here we experience the story of Frankenstein’s life, watching his childhood in Geneva, and him growing up to be a young man interested in following in the footsteps of his father, played by Ian Holm, to become a doctor. However, when his mother dies giving birth to his younger brother, Victor’s course is forever changed, as he becomes obsessed with finding a way to bring people back from the dead using medical science.

Travelling to medical school in Ingolstadt, Victor continues his research into bringing the dead back to life; something that leads him to Professor Waldman (an unrecognisable John Cleese), who performed similar experiments in the past. However, whilst Victor only sees the good in such ideas, Waldman warns him of the ‘abominations’ it could create, and refuses to share his research. When Waldman is stabbed and killed by an anti-vaxxer during the cholera outbreak, Victor is determined to bring him back, and steals the research. Using pieces of corpses, and his own cutting edge equipment, Victor assembles a new body for Waldman’s brain and brings him back to life. However, the resulting creature (Robert De Niro) is not what he was expecting.

The Branagh film is one that I’d watched as a kid when it first came out but hadn’t seen since, although I had some vivid memories of a couple of shocking scenes. As such, I was excited to watch it again knowing more of the source material, and was pleasantly surprised by how close it is to the book in all the right ways. There is a lot different here, for sure, but the spirit of the book, the main themes and ideas, are translated incredibly well by Branagh. For example, this is the only Frankenstein film that uses the framing device of the polar expedition, and was one of the first adaptations that actually had the creature be more than a mindless monster.

Speaking of the creature, Robert De Niro‘s performance in this film needs to be talked about. Robert De Niro is probably not the first actor you’d think of to play Frankenstein’s monster, especially in a film where they’re trying to show the creature as a tragic figure. I think that’s understandable given a lot of the roles De Niro has played over the years, but watching him in this film shows how wrong my preconceptions were. De Niro is absolutely fantastic. He’s able to bring huge amounts of pathos and suffering to the role; he makes you feel hugely sorry for this man, yet he’s also incredibly believable as a monstrous figure able to perform evil deeds. It’s strange, but thanks to how wonderfully he plays this character I still felt sorry for him come the end, even after he’d killed people, including an innocent child,  and all of that was down to his performance. I honestly struggle to think of a better version of the creature that I’ve seen.

In addition to this newly restored version of the film, the new Blu-ray comes with a brand new audio commentary from film historians Michael Brooke and Johnny Mains, who not only talk about the film itself and its making, but the history of Frankenstein, and how the film differs from the book. They even give small readings from the original novel where appropriate. There’s also a trio of new interviews with the films composer, costume designer, and make-up designer that give insight into the creation of the movie. There’s a pair of documentaries that are very interesting too, one that looks at the creation and evolution of Frankenstein over the years, and another that discusses the difference and changes between the original text and the film. Perhaps most interesting, however, is that the film also comes with the first ever version of the story that was ever put to film, 1910’s Frankenstein: A Liberal Adaptation from Mrs. Shelley’s Famous Story for Edison Production, a black and white silent movie by Thomas Edison that is definitely of historic interest.

Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein is a film that does away with a lot of the changes and tropes that have become part of the popular perception of the story over the years, and instead gives us the closest, most faithful adaptation of the original book we’ve ever had. Because of that, and because of the amazing performances and lavish production values throughout, this is still one of the best Frankenstein movies almost 30 years after it was released, and this new set might be the best presentation of it ever. Well worth taking notice of for any fans.

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