This Skin Was Once Mine by Eric LaRocca - Book Review

 

'A brand-new collection of four intense, claustrophobic and terrifying horror tales from the Bram Stoker Award®-nominated and Splatterpunk Award-winning author of Things Have Gotten Worse Since We Last Spoke. Four devastating tales from a master of modern horror...'

My experience with Eric LaRocca's work has been one of ups and downs. I've always found his writing to be very well made, to be interesting, and to be stories that I remember. But I'm not sure I always enjoy them because they're the kind of stories that I remember with a slight shudder and a sense of unease. He's perhaps one of the few writers who I'm always excited to read more of, yet also never want to read again thanks to how well he works the horror centre into truly unsettling pieces of art.

His latest release, This Skin Was Once Mine follows a similar style to his previous work with Titan Books, where you find several small stories collected together rather than one large narrative. And I think this is my preferred method of reading LaRocca's work, as I'm not sure I would bring myself to read a whole novel length story by him as it would feel like too intimidating a prospect; but when it comes to the horror short story format he's become something of an expert. And as much as his stories get under my skin I can't help but delve into one of his short stories with a sense of perverse excitement. 

The first story in this collection is the one from which the entire book takes it's title, 'This Skin Was Once Mine', and tells the story of a young woman, Jillian, and her having to return home and deal with her estranged family after the death of her father. Unlike with most people returning to their childhood homes and finding them smaller, them having grown both physically and emotionally since they were last there, Jillian finds a home that feels larger, full of secrets and dark emotions waiting for her. The setting is as much a character as the people in the story, and the tale takes on as strange, psychological horror that twists and turns so many times that you begin to wonder what might be real. It gets into your head in the most perverse way possible. The story has an almost nightmarish, dream logic to it that is easy to imagine, but hard to translate well to the written word; yet LaRocca does so wonderfully, creating an experience that feels like it's crawled out of the back of your mind in the small hours of the night. 

The second story, 'Seedling', has a similar theme to it, as it deals with a man learning that his mother has died, and returning home to console his grieving father. The loss of a parent seems to be a theme that LaRocca uses a lot, and despite having two stories in a row in this collection that have that as a basis, the execution of each of them is very different from the other. The story is less about loss and more about obsession. It deals with something twisted and wrong in the worst way possible, a part of your body. Unable to escape it, it becomes all you can think about, it dominates your mind and takes on a life of its own. It's an experience most of us are familiar with, from picking at a wound, to worrying over an odd lump, to having fears about losing a piece of your body. But as with most things LaRocca takes it to a horrific extreme and plays into some primal and disturbing phobias that will at times leave you feeling ill.

'All The Parts of You That Won't Easily Burn' takes the third place in the book, and tells the story of a man who buys an ornate, antique knife and the journey that comes from that simple purchase. A tale about kink, pushing boundaries, and the extremes of consent, it tells a dark story about a spiral of self destruction. This story is one that definitely gets under your skin, pun intended. It reminds me in some ways of 'Things Have Gotten Worse Since We Last Spoke', a story about someone being introduced to new, extreme experiences, and how the person who does so seems to be leading another human being to willingly destroy themselves. Every story in this collection is dark, but this is perhaps the darkest as for the most part it feels incredibly real. It's easy to imagine the drive for new, more extreme experiences leading someone to do terrible things, and is a theme that isn't new to horror. It's not hard to pair this story up with something like the cenobites from Hellraiser, of monsters pushed to the extremes of physical sensation, and as with those stories, it will likely leave you feeling shocked and sickened in unique ways.

The final story, 'Prickle', is perhaps the more simple of the bunch, and feels much more straightforward compared to the others. It tells the story of two older men who have a special game, whereby they go out of their way to ruin other peoples days. It doesn't sound that bad on the surface, but the simplicity of the concept hides some truly awful acts that occur across the story. The story escalates as the two old friends compete against each other, leading to an ending that will leave you reeling; and on reflection might be the perfect way to round out the collection of stories.

Eric LaRocca has a mind that frightens me. A lot of people who aren't into horror assume that those that are, and those that create it, must be twisted people, with minds filled with awful ideas and darkness. And of course, that's complete rubbish. But LaRocca is one of the few horror creators who makes that sentiment come to mind for me. I wonder what dark and twisted things are lurking in his mind, and what stories are yet to come; stories that leave me feeling sickened and shaken, yet that I can't wait to read.

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Myrrh by Polly Hall - Book Review

 

'Myrrh has a goblin inside her, a voice in her head that tells her all the things she's done wrong, that berates her and drags her down. Desperately searching for her birth-parents across dilapidated seaside towns in the South coast of England, she finds herself silenced and cut off at every step.

'Cayenne is trapped in a loveless marriage, the distance between her and her husband growing further and further each day. Longing for a child, she has visions promising her a baby.

'As Myrrh's frustrations grow, the goblin in her grows louder and louder, threatening to tear apart the few relationships she holds dear and destroy everything around her. When Cayenne finds her husband growing closer to his daughter, Cayenne's stepdaughter, pushing her further out of his life, she makes a decision that sends her into a terrible spiral. The stories of these women will unlock a past filled with dark secrets, strange connections; all leading to an unforgettable, horrific climax.'

On occasion, when I have strong opinions on a book that I've read I'll head over to the internet to have a look at what others have said about it, curious to see if my love or hate of a book is common, or if it's just me. On occasion, I'll also check out other people's thoughts when I struggle with a book. If I ended up confused, or found the journey something of a chore, I'll go and see if I'm the only one who went through this. Myrrh by Polly Hall kind of falls into this later category. It's a winding, maze-like narrative with some difficult and occasionally dark themes, and was a book that made me uncomfortable to read at times. I needed to see if that was just me or not; and this time it seems like Myrrh is the kind of book that has gotten under a lot of people's skins.

At it's heart, Myrrh is a story about family and belonging. It covers the topic from a range of perspectives, including adoption, step-families, marriage, and parenthood in three interweaving narratives that meet and interact in some unexpected and surprising ways. The two main stories follow Myrrh, a young woman who was adopted as a baby and is now searching for answers to her past by looking for her birth parents; and Cayenne, who has married a man with a teenage daughter, who struggles with her desires to have a child of her own and has to watch as her husband and step-daughter bond in ways she's always wanted for her own child. There's also a smaller plot involving Marian, who has a connection to Myrrh and her birth father.

The novel shifts between the various characters and their narratives often, using fairly shot chapters to keep things moving at a fairly fast pace. Whilst this does move things forward well, it's also done in a way that helps to make the story feel more confusing too. It often feels like the reader is having to play catch-up, that events are moving from one thing to another before we've had a chance to get our heads around the first thing. This kind of feels like it's meant to mirror Myrrh's own sense of confusion, and her somewhat unusual mental state (she has an internal voice called Goblin that doesn't seem healthy at all). It's an interesting choice from Hall, and it does put you in Myrrh's shoes well, though it also does make the book a little bit harder to digest at times too.

One thing that I did enjoy about the book was the complexity of the characters. They're the kinds of characters that seem to have a fairly clearly defined trait, ones that are easy to describe and are great starting out points. However, as the book went on you begin to learn that there's a lot more to Myrrh and Cayenne than you first think. The story changes them, it makes them face some shocking and life changing truths about themselves and the way that they view the world, and watching them go through that journey is a big draw to the book for me.

Something that I saw when looking at other people's thoughts on the book was that some people didn't finish the book. The long, interweaving narratives, and some of the dark content were cited as reasons why, and I can understand that perhaps those things might not be for everyone. However, I also saw several people talk about the books ending. It feels like Myrrh is one of those books where when you discover someone else has read it the first thing you're going to say it 'oh my god, the ending!'. I'm not going to say much on the actual content as I don't want to spoil it, but it's certainly one where you're going to be thinking about it a good while after you've put the book down, and whilst some people might be tempted to not finish the book, those that do are going to find something quite surprising and memorable waiting for them.

Whilst Myrrh has been described as horror, it's definitely more of a psychological thriller with some dark, horror-like elements. It relies heavily on mystery, and complex characters rather than overt horror imagery. If that's the kind of book that appeals to you, then Myrrh is definitely worth your consideration. 

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Metroid: Zero Mission - Throwback 20

 

The Metroid series has been a popular staple of the Nintendo consoles since the very first game became a hit back in 1986. The combination of side scrolling exploration, puzzle solving, exploration, and intense action led it to become a formula that would prove to be incredibly popular. It was only a few months after its release that it would be joined by Castlevania, a game similar in style and flavour, yet forgoing the sci-fi setting for fantasy horror. Together, these two title would give birth to an entire genre of games whose name was taken from the two; Metroidvania. Having inspired an entire genre, of course Metroid would become a popular series with multiple releases.

Shortly after the release of Metroid: Fusion, the first in the series released on the Game Boy Advance, development began on recreating the first game in the franchise for the new handheld console. Yoshi Sakamoto, who worked on the original game as a designer, and had worked on most of the games in the series, was tasked with directing the remake. The game engine that had been developed for Metroid: Fusion was used as the bones for Metroid: Zero Mission, allowing the team to skip the process of crafting a new engine from scratch. This instead allowed them to focus on the contents of the game itself.

It was decided that one of the ways in which the team wanted to update the original was by expanding the story. The first game was fairly light on plot, and contained little dialogue or text. This time around the game employed cutscenes to explore Samus' history and expand her character considerably over the first game. New cinematics were created to show her memories as they related to the main story, giving those who wanted to explore the origins of the series a more modern experience. 

The story itself followed the basic plot of the original game, with the player taking control of Samus Aran, one of the galaxy's greatest bounty hunters. When space pirates take over a research vessel containing the deadly Metroid organisms Samus is dispatched to their base of operation to stop them. The pirates are intending to mutate the Metroids, turning them into weapons that they can use on their enemies. 

It wasn't just the story that was expanded upon, however, as new gameplay elements and features were introduced to make the game feel different from the original, and to make the most of the new hardware innovations. The most notable of these was the inclusion of three difficulty settings; something that the original did not have. This allowed players to try out the game on lower difficulty to get used to the world of Metroid before jumping in on higher difficulty levels that were more in line with the original games challenge. To compliment this, the game also included the ability to unlock the original game in order for players to compare the two. 

Those who had experience with the original would find a lot of surprises waiting for them with the remake. New enemies, new locations, and entirely new parts of the story were included, meaning that even the most experienced Metroid player would find something in the game to keep them entertained and engaged. Improvements to the graphics also helped to improve the overall experience, allowing the developers to create a more detailed and realistic setting. Things became less devoid of detail, and the result was a game that felt much more a part of the rest of the series than the original did. 

The game was well received upon release, rating highly with most games publications at the time, resulting in a lot of near perfect scores. Some publications even went so far as to name it one of the best games on the Game Boy Advance, a sentiment that's hard to argue against now looking back at the entire console library. It was even voted as the fifth best video game remake by IGN in 2020, ranking above some of the most beloved remakes ever made. 

Whether Metroid: Zero Mission is your first time experiencing the beginning of Samus' journey, or if it was your chance to replay a beloved classic, it stands out as one of the best examples of treating a remake of an old game with care and respect. It is a prime (no Metroid pun intended) example of how to do it, and has resulted in a game that's still one of the best ways to experience Metroid, and a great reason to dust off your old Game Boy Advance.

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The Skinwalkers: American Werewolves 2 - Film Review

 

The world of the paranormal and the supernatural is an unusual one. There are many things in this world that we don't have explanations for, things that confuse, fascinate, and frighten us. Over the course of history there were more things that fell into the realm of the supernatural, but that expanding knowledge of the world and science has allowed us to figure out and explain away. Thunder isn't a sign that the gods are angry at us, it's rapidly expanding air. And whilst there are many things that I'm sure we will eventually be able to explain away with science on day there are certain things that feel harder to understand for me; and Skinwalkers are definitely in this category.

The Skinwalkers: American Werewolves 2 is a new documentary film that aims to shine a light on the personal experiences of several people who have had encounters with beings or creatures that they believe are Skinwalkers. The documentary gives us the briefest of information on Skinwalkers, telling viewers that they're people who have the ability to change into a variety of animals, including wolves, dogs, and elks, as well as people. This is done via a ritual where they have to kill the person who means the most to them, or because of a curse from a shaman. The reasons for Skinwalkers existing is unclear in the film, and we're given various theories as to how based mostly on myths and stories passed down over the years.

Sadly, this is about as much that we get in terms of research or scientific presentation in the film. For those who have experience watching TV and movies that deal with the paranormal and the unusual there are things that feel common to the genre, such as going out to remote locations, looking for clues, using devices to try and record evidence. Even those who don't believe in the paranormal at all will have becomes so used to this that even if they can't name an EMF meter they know that ghost hunters carry around electronic devices when on the lookout for ghosts. This film has none of this.

Instead of seeing a documentary team or a group of investigators heading out into the wilderness to try and find some kind of physical evidence of Skinwalkers (footprints, fur, or even a blurry photo of something in the distance) we get a series of talking heads. The film sits down with people with personal accounts with Skinwalkers and has them recount their tales. 

These stories are intercut with video of locations around New Mexico, and shots of people in werewolf suits acting scary. There is a distinct lack of evidence of any kind, with only one of these stories including blurry home security camera footage of what they claim to be a spirit dog. For those looking for some kind of evidence, some kind of physical proof or artefact that they can latch onto as proof that this urban legend might hold some weight will likely be disappointed.

However, most of the stories collected come from members of the native peoples who call New Mexico home, the people who grew up with stories of Skinwalkers, shamans, and magic. Some of them even talk about having shamans in their families, and how they grew up with these beliefs. It makes the stories they tell feel a little different from most personal paranormal accounts you hears. This isn't just a person claiming they ran into Bigfoot whilst out hunting, or who says a cowboy haunts their local bar. These are people sharing stories that tie directly into their heritage and culture, a culture that has been oppressed and almost wiped out by colonial settlers. It makes dismissing these stories out of hand feel wrong, and almost makes you feel like doing so would in some way add to the cultural oppression these people have faced.

It does raise interesting questions though, of whether the people spoken to in this film have had Skinwalker encounters because Skinwalkers are connected to their people and their cultures, and are tied to the region in which their tribes were forced to make their homes, or if they have these encounters because they grew up with these stories and the idea of Skinwalkers became engrained in them. The question of whether it's something that is drawn to them because of who they are, or if it happens to them because of their own beliefs is perhaps the most interesting part of The Skinwalkers: American Werewolves 2; though mainly because the film doesn't really present you with anything else.

Perhaps the biggest mistake that The Skinwalkers: American Werewolves 2 makes is that it seems to spend much of its runtime playing it safe. It doesn't try to come down on one side or another. It's not trying to find any evidence or corroboration for the stories it's presenting to try and prove them true. Nor does it offer any other kind of explanation or proof for why it can't be real. Instead, it gives you these people's stories, some basic facts that are presented as text on the screen, and leaves it at that. The lack of anything else, even an engaging narrator, leave the whole thing feeling a little lacklustre. 

People tend to come to films like this to either be presented with evidence that supports their views and proves their beliefs right, or to be entertained by what they see as the ridiculous. This film does neither, and because of that I'm not entirely sure who the film is really for, and who will find it anything more than mildly interesting at best. The truth might be out there, but this film doesn't try to find it for you. 

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Lovely, Dark, and Deep – Film Review

 

Originally published on Set The Tape

The forest is a spooky place. It’s an almost default setting for horror stories, likely due to humanity and its long history with travelling into the unknown of the forest to survive being a source for folk tales and spooky beliefs. Finding the forest creepy is almost a part of our very genes. The idea that there’s something lurking out in the trees, unseen, unknowable, is enough to get you on edge. And it’s this primal fear that writer and director Teresa Sutherland draws upon for her new movie, Lovely, Dark, and Deep.

Lovely, Dark, and Deep tells the story of Lennon (first name never given, played by Georgina Campbell), a park ranger at Arvores National Park, who’s going to be spending the summer at a remote ranger station out in the woods.

Having spent some time working closer to the public, helping out hikers and being a direct point of interaction with them, she’ll instead be spending three months in a small hut, walking around her sector clearing away rubbish left behind, undoing anything hikers have made, and maintaining nature. It’s a remote, isolating job, but one that she feels drawn to. Her first few days go well, and she settles into her quiet new role. However, when an injured hiker comes banging on her cabin door in the middle of the night it will set her on a path that will lead her to learning why so many people go missing in Arvores, and just what is lurking out in the depths of the forest.

Sutherland’s feature length directorial debut is a truly beautiful film. Thanks to filming in the Gerês national park in Portugal, which bears a striking similarity to the Arvores national park in California, the film has some stunning shots. The depiction of nature in Lovely, Dark, and Deep is both beautiful and haunting, and it’s impressive how quickly Sutherland is able to move us from one to the other with a subtle shift of the camera. More than once I found myself staring at the vast wilderness as Lennon marched along her patrol route, hoping that the film would take us off to look a the line of trees in the distance, or that we’d hop across the river to see what was on the other side. The film shows you how easy it is to get lost in nature, something that’s a key theme of the movie.

The film begins by telling us that hundreds of people go missing in America’s National Parks every year, and that not all of them are found. In fact, quite a lot never are. Having a quick look at the stats online reveals this to be shockingly accurate, and it’s easy to find accounts of people who have worked on searches for missing hikers and holiday makers and the difficulties that they faced. Lovely, Dark, and Deep dives headfirst into this phenomena, and seeks to provide an explanation for what happens to these people. That’s the main drive for Lennon and her reason for being out in the woods; not to help those who go missing, but to try and find closure for a tragedy in her own past.

Campbell plays Lennon well, and it’s clear from the very start of the film that she’s a woman dealing with something. She has a quietness to her that shows that there’s something more there, that there’s something more than just a love of nature that’s driving her to spend months alone in the park. Campbell plays her both incredibly vulnerable and stoically strong; something that almost feels like a contradiction.

There are times where it feels like she’s able to handle anything, where she displays a great deal of strength and determination, but as the film progresses it’s more and more obvious that the trauma and horror of what she’s going through is building, and that a break must be coming. It’s not an easy role, and the fact that Campbell spends a great deal of the film as the only person on screen means a lot of it is being carried by her performance. She is joined by both Nick Blood, and Wai Ching Ho, both of who play more experienced rangers, but they only appear sporadically, and in supporting roles.

Outside of Campbell, it’s the location itself that’s the main character. The film makes the park feel alive, and not necessarily in a good way. Places that at first feel beautiful slowly become more and more sinister, and there’s the sense that Lennon has already been swallowed up by some unseen entity, that just by stepping foot into the park she’s already surrendered herself over to its power. Whilst a lot of this is done by slowly building tension, there are times of more overt horror in the film, moments when a shadowy figure appears, or something twisted and shocking is seen in the background behind Lennon. These moments caused me to yell out loud more than once, and whilst they were disturbing and awful did feel like a relief as the ever mounting tension finally broke.

My only real criticism of the film is that at just 87 minutes in length it was too short for me. I wanted more. I wanted a deeper dive into the forces at work in the park and the strange things that call it home. The film goes deep into Lennon and her past, and I came away feeling like I had a good handle on her, but I still wanted more. Even if it was just more in the early stages of the film, just showing her working in the park. I’m not even sure what I want more of, just that I wish the film had been longer because I enjoyed my time with it that much.

Lovely, Dark, and Deep doesn’t hold your hand, it doesn’t spell things out for you, and it leaves you with the opportunity to make your own deductions and decisions. I enjoyed this aspect, and liked figuring things out as it went. And whilst I came away fully understanding the story, the person I was watching it with didn’t quite get everything. As such, this might be a film that leaves some feeling like they need a second watch-through, or may even send them looking for an ‘ending explained’ type article or video. But if you like stories that aren’t just simple by the numbers horrors filled with jump scares and predictable plot, that actually get you thinking and leave you wanting more, this is a movie you’re going to want to try out for yourself.

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Metal Gear Solid: The Twin Snakes – Throwback 20

 

Originally published on Set The Tape

Hideo Kojima is a well known name in the world of gaming, due to his 1998 game Metal Gear Solid. This wasn’t Kojima’s first game, and it wasn’t even the first game in the series that made him famous, as the previous two games in the franchise were released on older consoles.

However, it wasn’t until the leap to 3D graphics and full voice acting that the series gained international attention. Solid Snake quickly became on of the best known video game protagonists, due in part to the fantastic performance from David Hayter, and the game quickly became a best seller across the world and made the Playstation Platinum list.

As the years went on Kojima released further games in the series, with Metal Gear Solid 2: Sons of Liberty being released in 2001 on the Playstation 2. However, thanks to the continued success of the series with the sequel, and the upgrades in hardware capabilities, Kojima was able to revisit Metal Gear Solid, and six years after its release was able to introduce the world the his remake, Metal Gear Solid: The Twin Snakes.

A part of the reason why Kojima, who partnered with developer Silicon Knights for the remake, wanted to return to the first game was due to the reception to certain parts of the sequel. Whilst Metal Gear Solid 2: Sons of Liberty was received well and was praised for the changes to the gameplay and the graphics, some fans and critics were less enthused about the story. There were complaints that the game didn’t hit as well as the first, and that the new protagonist, Raiden (Quinton Flynn) just wasn’t as good as Snake. With a third game on the horizon that would take things even further away from the first, shifting events back to the 1960s and puts players in control of Big Boss (also voiced by David Hayter), returning to Metal Gear Solid could be the perfect thing to get fans excited for the franchise once again.

Metal Gear Solid: The Twin Snakes sticks closely to the story of the original, which sees special operative Solid Snake being sent to the remote Alaskan island of Shadow Moses, a nuclear weapon disposal facility that has been taken over by the rogue special forces unit FOXHOUND, of which Snake used to be a part.

It’s revealed that the facility is being used to create a deadly walking battle tank, capable of firing nuclear weapons, named Metal Gear REX. If the US government doesn’t give FOXHOUND the body of Big Boss, they will launch a deadly attack. Sent in alone, and unarmed, Snake must infiltrate the facility and stop FOXHOUND, a mission that will see him encountering their leader, Liquid Snake (Cam Clarke), and learning some shocking truths about his own origin.

The main changes to the story came in the forms of cutscenes expanding upon action. Thanks to the upgrade in both graphics and they way action games had developed in the years since the original release, the remake incorporated more dynamic cutscenes; though Kojima had to get the game’s director to tone down some of the action in places. Thanks to the success and popularity of The Matrix more games were trying to emulate the action, incorporating bullet-time like sequences in them, and whilst Metal Gear Solid: The Twin Snakes does still contain some of these moments a number were removed at Kojima’s insistence.

Silicone Knights faithfully reconstructed the characters and environments from the original, expanding and adding details in some areas, but remained true to the spirit of Metal Gear Solid. Considering the most high profile game remake around this time was the Resident Evil remake on the GameCube (as was The Twin Snakes) made some sweeping changes to both overall tone, setting, and story, Metal Gear Solid: The Twin Snakes remained much truer to what had come before; something that made fans of the original much happier than any larger changes would have done.

The voice acting, whilst re-recorded to provide better quality, also went through the same level of care and attention. Though it almost didn’t. All of the original voice cast returned to rerecord their line, with the exception of the Cyborg Ninja character who was originally voiced by Greg Eagles now being voiced by Rob Paulsen so that Eagles did not voice two characters within the game. This change did draw some slight criticism from fans, who preferred the original version. However, the returning cast was not always guaranteed, and it was revealed by one of the actors, Paul Eiding, after the game was released that David Hayter had insisted that everyone else return and gave up half of his pay check to make sure that it could happen.

As with the original Metal Gear Solid, the remake received high praise, and high sales, despite only being released on the one console. It has landed itself on numerous best games lists for the Nintendo GameCube, and has become a firm favourite amongst fans of the franchise; a popularity that has led to copies of the game becoming increasingly sought after and increasing in price (yes, I’m mad I got rid of my original copy still as I really want it back). With a brand new entry in the series coming before the end of the year, Metal Gear Solid: The Twin Snakes was a wonderful addition to the franchise, and the perfect thing to start off what might be the best year in Metal Gear Solid history.

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Metal Gear Solid V: Ground Zeroes – Throwback 10

 

Originally published on Set The Tape

The Metal Gear Solid series has had its ups and downs. Since the revamp of the series launched onto Playstation in 1998 fans have been in love with the weird and over-the-top stories, the unusual villains, and Solid Snake (David Hayter).

Of course, the removal of Snake as the main protagonist in Metal Gear Solid 2: Sons of Liberty led to grumblings from fans that resulted in that being one of the least favourably remembered entries. This is why Hideo Kojima was clever in having the prequel antagonist, Naked Snake/Big Boss, also played by Hayter to the point where they’re almost the same person. As such, even when Solid Snake’s story came to an end the series could continue in the past with Big Boss at the helm.

However, 2014’s preview of Metal Gear Solid V: The Phantom Pain, a small stand alone prequel called Metal Gear Solid V: Ground Zeroes, is where things really began to go wrong. Originally planned to be a part of the main game, Hideo Kojima made the decision to release Metal Gear Solid V: Ground Zeroes as a separate game in order to reduce the overall length of the finished piece; which considering the extensive length of Metal Gear Solid V: The Phantom Pain it feels like next to nothing was portioned off as a time/space saver.

Metal Gear Solid V: Ground Zeroes put players into the role of Big Boss once again, this time with the iconic voice actor replaced by Hollywood actor Kiefer Sutherland. Allies of Big Boss have been captured by the US government, and are being held in a remote detention centre where they’re being subjected to torture, interrogation, and degrading conditions. Big Boss must infiltrate the Black Site, find his two allies, and extract them; all whilst the base for his private military force is being inspected by the UN for nuclear weapons. However, the mission goes awry, Big Boss’s base and forces are destroyed, and the small game ends with Big Boss being blown up and lost at sea, setting the stage for the main portion of Metal Gear Solid V.

Whilst the new game displayed a number of impressive new gameplay elements, and showed off the graphical quality that would be coming in the next years main release, there was relatively little in the game itself. The mission to save Big Boss’s allies could be completed very quickly, and after your first playthrough the mission could be finished in less than twenty minutes.

The game does unlock six more missions, all of which play out in the same location, but these are all equally as short and feature a great deal of repetition. Whilst a couple of fun modes were added to the Playstation and XBox versions, each getting their own different one, these failed to pad the game out in any significant way. Even with finding hidden audio files and searching for the extra bits and pieces around the map there’s relatively little in the game to justify releasing it on its own other than to perhaps create hype around the main game.

The question of whether or not it succeeded in creating that hype is hard to answer, however, as the game received very mixed reviews upon release. The new features that were added, along with the versatility of the Fox Engine, were singled out as high points, and it did promise new innovations to the series that would come in the follow-up. But the short length of the game was a key factor for many.

Even with repeated playthroughs and a few extra missions thrown in the game could be fully completed within a few days, with little there to encourage a re-visit. This, for some fans, had the result of leaving something of a sour taste behind, where it even lowered excitement for Metal Gear Solid V: The Phantom Pain. The replacement of David Hayter for Kiefer Sutherland was also a factor, with almost all fans disappointed that Hayter had been dropped from the franchise he helped make a success for a big name replacement that was, at best, well below Hayter’s quality.

Another area in which the game caused itself some issues was in the depictions of sexual assault and rape within the game. At one point in the game the player is able to find an audio log, a log simply labelled as ‘Interrogation’, that goes into detail about the torture that characters Paz (Tara Strong) and Chico (Antony Del Rio) suffer at the hands of the main villain, Skullface (James Horan). The audio log depicts Chico, a child, being made to watch as the villain rapes Paz, before forcing Chico to then do so himself.

The game would later continue sexual violence against the character of Paz, as she’s ultimately killed by a bomb that is heavily implied to have been inserted into her genitals. The fact that the game only contains a warning of ‘violence’ and doesn’t include a content warning for sexual violence is discouraging. It’s also discouraging that sexual assault and the sexualisation of female characters is a staple of the Metal Gear Solid series, with a female character being sexually assaulted in the first game, and a focus on scantily clad women across all games, with the next release Metal Gear Solid V: The Phantom Pain having the most egregious example of this in the form of Silence. However, it’s the shocking inclusion of a child rape scene in Metal Gear Solid V: Ground Zeroes that is perhaps the most disgusting point in the series.

Having been a fan of the Metal Gear Solid series since I was eleven years old, with it being something I wanted to play so much that my mother bought me a Playstation for Christmas that year just so I could, I was hoping for great things from Metal Gear Solid V: Ground Zeroes. Unfortunately, it’s a game that I just didn’t enjoy, and it’s a game I even forget exists when I think about the franchise. More of a marketing stunt for the main game than a game in its own right, it was, for me, the beginning of the end of my love for new entries in the series.

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Final Fantasy VI - Throwback 30

 

Like a lot of people my age in the UK, my first experience of the Final Fantasy series was the PlayStation game Final Fantasy VII. Whilst this was my first real taste of a J-RPG, it wasn't my last, and it quickly developed a love of the genre, and the Final Fantasy titles in general. As such, it wasn't long before I branched out to try other titles; and one of those was Final Fantasy VI.

Whilst Final Fantasy VII may have been the game in the series that got the most attention, and is often called on of the best, that's not to mean that it's predecessor was not successful. Final Fantasy VI is often cited as one of the best in the series, and was lauded for it's gameplay improvements, graphics, and storytelling. 

Despite not having as much direct involvement from series creator Hironobu Sakaguchi, who had directed the five previous games, development began on the new game in December 1992 under co-directors Hiroyuki Ito and Yoshinori Kitase. Elements of the game development were split between the two directors, with one focusing on the story and plot elements of the game, whilst the other developed new battle mechanics and gameplay. The results is a game that feels somewhat unique amongst the series, where there is not only a huge roster of characters for players to choose from (fourteen in total), but that none of them are the direct, singular protagonist.

Due to the large number of protagonists, each of which has their own story and motivations, describing the plot of Final Fantasy VI is a little more complex than other titles in the franchise, but deals with a steam-punk fantasy world with warring empires, slave trades, and cataclysmic events that alter entire continents.

As with previous games in the series, Final Fantasy VI uses a similar gameplay mechanic of exploring locations and the over world, battling monsters that appear in randomly spawned encounters. The title saw the return of the Active Time Battle feature, which sees each character in the team recharge their chance to attack at different rates based on their stats, rather than a fixed turn based system. It did, however, create a new feature called the Desperation Attack, in which a character is able to unleash a powerful attack when their health is low. This feature would be used across several future entries, though under different names, and would become something of a staple of the series, allowing players to do more damage in certain fights, but having to weigh that boost with a greater chance of being knocked out. 

Whilst the game was releases under the title of Final Fantasy VI in Japan, it was changed to Final Fantasy III in the United States, as there had only been two other entries in the series released there to that date. There were no major changes to the gameplay itself (something that had been done in a previous release), but some censorship was done in order to remove things deemed sexual or adult. Some nudity was removed, and locations like bars were changed to cafes. Some references to death and killing were altered, changing character's lines. And most unusual of all, the spell Holy was re-named Pearl in order to not offend religious groups. 

At the time of release in Japan the game sold well, and received critical acclaim. It sold more than 2 million copies in Japan alone, and became the country's biggest selling game of 1994. Whilst it did not receive as much attention in other countries, it still sold well, and topped the charts in the US for sales in October, and became the 8th overall selling NES game of the year. Despite this, the game did not sell anywhere near as well outside of Japan, and the vast majority of the game's overall sales occurred there. However, over the years people's views on the title have changed, and the game has gone on to be considered a classic.

Some of this was down to a number of re-releases. The first of these was a re-release on the PlayStation in 1999. Thanks to the popularity of both Final Fantasy VII and Final Fantasy VIII on the console previous games in the series were given a re-release. Final Fantasy V and Final Fantasy VI were released together in the US as the Final Fantasy Collection whilst the game was released on it's own in Europe. This re-release was the edition that I owned, and my first experience with the game. This port also included brand new FMV sequences for the opening and conclusion of the game, but remained largely untouched and unaltered. 

A handheld version of the game was released on the Gameboy Advance, which lost the FMV's of the PlayStation release, but improved upon the graphics, and featured a new translation that brought the game more in line with the original script and names. It also featured a few new additions such new summons, dungeons, and spells. 2014, the 20th anniversary of the game, also saw it released onto mobile devices. And last year saw a release on the Nintendo Switch. 

The number of re-releases of the title, along with it's high critical acclaim places it as an important title in the franchise. Whilst it's the final 2D game in the series, and some younger gamers are quick to dismiss most 2D games, it shouldn't be held back by such views. Final Fantasy VI is perhaps one of the most enduring games in the series thanks to the chances it took. It's sprawling, non-linear story was ahead of it's time, and the new features it introduced informed many in later games. Whether it's a game that you played upon first release, or have only recently discovered, it's hard to argue that it's not a game that very much deserves attention. 

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Dawn of the Dead (2004) – Throwback 20

 

Originally published on Set The Tape

The early 2000s was the beginning of a large resurgence of interest in the zombie genre. The ‘not a zombie movie but really a zombie movie’ 28 Days Later hit in 2002, with Shaun of the Dead taking a more comedic spin on the genre two years later, alongside a bloody and brutal remake of the George A. Romero classic Dawn of the Dead, putting zombies back on the big screen.

Meanwhile, The Walking Dead landed on comic shelves in 2003, sparking an avid interest in zombies in that medium. Pretty soon you would be able to find the rotting corpses of the dead in many low budget movies, independent comics, and as video game antagonists in ever increasing numbers. And whilst the zombie genre definitely feels like it went on a bit too long and had ever decreasing returns, the Dawn of the Dead remake was a pretty decent high point of the era.

When it was first announced that Dawn of the Dead would get remade, fans of the original film were less than pleased. The Romero version was – rightfully so – cited as an all time classic, one of the best examples of the zombie genre, and one of the best horror films ever made. Having created the zombie genre as we know it, moving away from voodoo slaves made with magic to the flesh eating infected that most people know zombies to be, Romero was an authority on the genre by virtue of having made it. As such, any change to his classic works would be seen as a blasphemy. The creators of the new version knew this, and began to make it clear to both the public and the people they were getting involved in the production that this new version should be seen more as a ‘re-envisioning’ rather than a remake.

Producers Eric Newman and Marc Abraham used examples of other all time great horror films that were heavily changed remakes, such as the John Carpenter version of The Thing or the 1979 Invasion of the Body Snatchers to demonstrate what they wanted to do with Dawn of the Dead. And it was this approach that netted the involvement of writer James Gunn in the project. Having only worked on low budget comedy movies and Scooby-Doo up till this point, Gunn was seen by many as a risky, if not downright foolish pick for the project. Equally, the production would worry fans even more when an unknown music video director named Zack Snyder was selected to head up the project. It feels unusual that there was a time when seeing both James Gunn and Zack Snyder on a project was seen as a dangerous and risky move, though with the manufactured online culture wars that ‘fans’ have made around these two men perhaps people would still be outraged if they worked together even today.

Much like the original film, the remake would tell the story of a group of disparate survivors during the zombie apocalypse as they come together and seek shelter inside a shopping mall. Other than that, however, the film remains largely distinct. One of the biggest changes is the fact that the zombies in this version are fast. Until their bodies rot to the point where they break down, the undead can move just as fast as they could when alive; a revelation that is used spectacularly in the film’s shocking opening scene in which lead character Ana (Sarah Polley) watches as her husband is killed by a neighbour child, before he himself comes charging towards her, intent on feeding on her. For those who went into the film without having seen that piece of information this moment in the movie became a game changer, and showed that whilst the film was definitely taking inspiration from the original it wasn’t afraid to do its own thing.

Alongside Polley, the film included Ving Rhames as a calm and competent cop who takes on a leadership position within the group, Jake Webber and Ty Burrell who play almost polar opposites as a nice everyman and a rich douchebag, Mekhi Phifer as an expectant father looking after his wife, played by Inna Korobkina, and Michael Kelly, Kevin Zegers, and Michael Barry as some mall security guards amongst other survivors. The film also included a few members of the original cast, such as Scott Reiniger, Tom Savini, and Ken Foree, the latter of whom got to say the iconic line of “When there’s no more room in hell, the dead shall walk the Earth”. The cast featured a decent mix of new up and coming actors, and recognisable faces at the time. The movie was also unafraid to have some of the more well known actors fall victim to the rampaging undead, meaning that the audience could never be sure which character would make it to the final credits. And even then, survival still wasn’t guaranteed.

When the film released it was met with rather favourable reactions, something that was never guaranteed during its turbulent pre-release reactions. It sold incredibly well, going above expectations, and ended up stealing the US top spot from The Passion of the Christ (sorry Jesus). Snyder was instantly praised as a first time feature film director, with his eye for action being pointed out across a number of reviews at the time.

Equally, the success of the movie would put to bed people’s ideas that James Gunn could only write more comedic and family friendly features; something he would prove again with his first directorial project, Slither. Whilst some criticism for the film was made in regards to the lack of focus on the mall setting as a metaphor used to critique American consumerism as the original film did, it would launch a number of interesting discussions around whether or not the US’s relationship to shopping and consumerism had changed over the intervening decades, and whether re-treading that same ground would in fact be redundant more than anything else.

Over the years since Dawn of the Dead, Zack Snyder has gone on to direct several other movies, most of which have been high profile comic book films. Whether that be adapting the ‘unadaptable’ Watchmen, or the conversations sparked by a dark and nihilistic view on the DC heroes in his movies, his works since have seemed to have divided audiences more than anything else. But Dawn of the Dead is fairly different. It’s a film that is generally received well, one that fans of horror and the zombie genre enjoy, and that has aged very well over the last two decades, perhaps in part to the slew of sub-par zombie content helping to showcase why Dawn of the Dead is so good. You could even make a strong case that Dawn of the Dead is perhaps the best film in Snyder’s tumultuous career.

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Calypso by Oliver K. Langmead - Book Review

 

'Rochelle wakes from cryostasis to take up her role on the colony ark, Calypso . But she wakes to find the ship deserted, and the interior taken over by a forest. As she explores and finds the last remaining members of the crew, she discovers a legacy of war conducted whilst she slept.

'The engineers and the botanists have different visions for how to build the world. The engineers would build a new utopia of technology; the botanists would have the planet bloom, untouched by mankind. Both will destroy the other to ensure their vision of paradise prevails. And Rochelle, the last to wake on the Calypso, holds the balance of power in her hands.'

Calypso is a book that I'm going to have to talk about in two parts, the story, and the presentation, because this is not your average book; not by a long shot. A story written in poetry form is unusual enough in itself, and something that I myself have only read a couple of times. However, Calypso goes even further than this, and uses the very structure of the words on the page to add to its story.

The story takes readers into a distant future, where the character of Rochelle wakes up on the colony ship Calypso. Rochelle has been in cryo-sleep for the long journey to the moon of Terra Nova, a place that humanity is hoping to colonise, but does not wake to find the promise of peace that was given to her. Instead of having this new world ready for her and the other passengers of the Calypso, she finds the ship in chaos. It turns out that most of the other passengers have died, and that she is one of a small number of survivors. But, she is the last to wake, and the other survivors are scattered and hiding on a ship that has been transformed.

The ship has been taken over by monstrous tendril of sentient plant life, a forest that has grown inside and throughout the ship. With no idea how things could have become this way whilst she slept, Rochelle begins to piece together the history of Calypso, and the events that happened before she awoke. She learns of conflict amongst those living on the ship, rivalling philosophies that cannot co-exist, and have driven those that believe in them into war. Now Rochelle has to find her place in this new structure and, if she can, bring peace to the Calypso.

The story feels familiar in a number of ways. There have been many science fiction stories of people awaking from long journeys to discover that things have spun out of control whilst they were asleep. From something as simple as waking to find you're not where you're supposed to be, as in Alien, to discovering a ship full of horror and mystery as in Pandorum. It's a popular theme that doesn't get used all that often, as such each time it's told there's a chance to put a new spin on things. And this is something Oliver K. Langmead does in spades. 

And this brings me to the second main talking point of Calypso, the structure of the book itself. I've already mentioned that the book isn't written in traditional prose form, and instead uses verse to tell its story. This really comes into its own when we follow different point of view characters, each of which has their own distinct structure on the page. Words will be in different positions on the page, and each character has their own form of rhyme and meter that gives each person their own voice that becomes instantly recognisable. 

This structure is also used to convey certain parts of the story, presenting things in unique formatting to enhance moments or deliver a certain feeling. There's a part where two characters are arguing, speaking over each other. Both people are presented on the page, their words sharing the page but split down the middle. You can read each one in turn, or reader them together. Reading them in turn makes them clear, you can understand their points, but if you read them at the same time, working across the page as normal, it becomes confusing, disjointed, and hard to understand; presenting the notion of people yelling over each other in a way that puts you in that moment yourself. There are other parts of the narrative that include illustrations, and broken, almost disjointed words on the page that are some of the more beautifully presented and more interesting moments in the book. 

Whilst I am singing the praises of the book that doesn't mean it's the easiest read. If you're unused to this style book it can be hard to get into to begin with, and the structure of the story does become a little confusing, though this is also likely by design as there is a central mystery to unravel across the book. There are many books that people describe as being a 'work of art', and prose novels are certainly art; but it's an artform that many of us are intimately familiar with. It's comfortable, it has rules, and whilst the content of the stories can take risks it often feels like the presentation and structure can't. 

But Calypso very much does that. It's not just the story that is important here, but the way that story is presented. It matters where a word is placed on the page, it's important how you read it, and the thought and intention of the structure along with the story comes together in what it very easy to describe as art. Calypso is the kind of book that you're going to want to talk about, it invites discussion and dissection. Very much a one of a kind, Calypso is a stunning piece of work.

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