Yan: Vol 3 by Chang Sheng - Manga Review

 

'Golden Comic Award-winning series Yan returns with its most haunting chapter yet. In a comic landscape where Taiwan’s graphic novel scene continues to flourish, Yan Volume 3 stands as a bold testament to the heights of storytelling the medium can reach and genres it seamlessly fuses. 

'Still reeling from revelations about her family’s brutal murder, the resurrected Peking Opera performer Tieh-Hua delves deeper into a tangled web of supernatural vengeance and time-warped conspiracies. As she closes in on those responsible, her bond with Higa-Mirai—a missing Go prodigy cursed with visions of the future—grows, complicating her pursuit of justice. Meanwhile, Detective Lei wrestles with a reality shattered by ghosts, time travellers, and corrupted power structures, forcing him to question everything he thought he stood for.'

I read a lot of comics; my weekly comic reads cover most of what Marvel and DC put out, with some of the smaller publishers mixed in too. My comic tracking App says I'm at just shy of having read 15,000 comics (though I know not everything I've read is listed on it). I love comics, manga, manhua, webcomics, pretty much the entire medium. With all of those amazing books I read the past year my most anticipated read has been Yan by Chang Sheng, and going forward these three volumes are going to be books that I recommend to anyone who's looking to either break into the medium, or who wants to know my all time favourites. 

The second volume of Yan took an initially quite small and mystery focused story and blew it wide open. The story went from being about a mysterious woman, Yan Tieh-Hua, who's apparently back from the dead and has super-human abilities, and made it a sprawling story involving time travel, multiple universes, robots, and super-advanced AI villains. This focused story about one woman's revenge suddenly shifted to being about fighting to save the world; and then they killed the hero. The final chapters of volume two saw Yan Tieh-Hua having been killed in combat with the cruel AI Thirteen, and her allies failing in an attempt to bring her back; and discovering that their escape had shunted them forwards in time two days to a point where Thirteen had seized the city, turning it into a warzone.

Things looked grim going into the third volume, and whilst I was pretty sure that Yan wasn't gone for good considering the series carries her name and her face is on the cover, I wasn't sure how Chang was going to manage to her return. It turns out, brilliantly. The opening of the book not only deals with our heroine's miraculous resurrection, but finally answers the mystery as to how she's not aged in thirty years, and what happened in the destruction of the facility she was being held in. Despite the multiple theories the previous volumes gave us, such as time travel, super powers, her actually being dead, the real explanation as to how she'd not aged is so wonderfully simple and done with so elegant sleight of hand that I couldn't help but love how much the readers had been tricked up to this point. I won't say what the explanation is, but it's one that not only did I not see coming, but is so obviously the best one that anything else would have felt wrong in comparison. 

Once Yan returns to life the rest of the book focuses on our team of heroes having to find a way to stop Thirteen; something that is made even more difficult by his evolving abilities. This is where the format of the book, it being double to size of a regular manga, really pays off, as Chang Sheng gives us huge panels filled with action and detail. The sense of scale that the book is able to capture just from the sheer size really goes a long way to show the scope of the story it's telling. I've said this in my reviews of the previous volumes, but having such big panels, huge single and double page splashes makes Yan feel like the equivalent of watching a movie on an IMax screen instead of your TV. Every piece of destruction feels huge, every punch feels like it hits like a train, and the emotional moments are given so much more room and impact. I honestly think that seeing this story in this size is going to make other manga releases struggle to impress me as much as this has.

Yan also does something pretty bold, it ends. Or at least I think it does. The third volume closes out with the word 'End' printed boldly on the final panel; and I don't know how I feel about this. On the one hand having a self contained, short story in three books works really well, and things move with a wonderful sense of pacing that I cannot fault. However, I really want more. It doesn't help that there are a couple of teases at the end as to how things could continue, with Yan and her friends off on a new adventure in the final moments, and the tease of a villain in the shadows; but this could just be the reader being told that these characters stories aren't over, even if we're never going to see them. Whilst I love that these three books tell a solid complete story there's a part of me wishing and hoping for more, and I don't know which scenario I want more.

It's not very often that I come across a piece of art that forever changes how I look at an entire medium, but Yan is one of those. Other manga are going to feel small in comparison, both physically in my hand and in scale thanks to the confines of the page. Other manga are going to feel slowly paced, and even overly long. Yan has reshaped what I want to see from this medium, and I honestly don't know if anything is going to be able to compete with it. Weirdly enough, I discovered three pieces of art across different formats that have done changed how I view those mediums in the last year, having recently discovered Twin Peaks and the work of David Lynch, and having played Clair Obscur: Expedition 33. They changed how I judge television and video games, and Yan has changed how I judge comics and manga. It is transformative, elegant, thrilling, and just so wonderfully itself.

Yan: Vol 3 is available now from Titan Manga.

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Diabolic - Film Review

 

Religious trauma is the main driving force behind Daniel J. Phillips' latest horror flick, Diabolic, as a former fundamentalist Mormon woman grapples with gaps in her memories, blackouts, and struggles with intimacy that stem from her childhood inside the church.

Diabolic follows Elise (Elizabeth Cullen), a former member of the controversial Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints who left her childhood community following some unremembered trauma. Elise now lives in the city with her boyfriend, Adam (John Kim), and focuses on her art as an outlet. However, she's struggling with mental health issues, and her doctors don't think there's much that can be done to help her. Instead, they offer what sounds like a pretty ethically dubious approach; return to the place of her childhood trauma where members of her old religion will give her hallucinogens in the hopes that it'll help her to figure out and solve her trauma.

With that frankly terrible plan decided upon, Elise and Adam decide to head out into the forest, accompanied by their friend Gwen (Mia Challis), where they will meet church member Hyrum (Robin Goldsworthy) at a remote old church. Elise and Adam allow themselves to be drugged, and during the night Hyrum's mother, Alma (Genevieve Mooy) pulls a strange clump of black hair, or something similar, from Elise's throat. This apparently cures her of her trauma, and Elise immediately feels transformed, and begins to remember parts of her past. However, it seems that the process also unlocked something powerful and evil that has its sights set on Elise.

I saw Diabolic described as 'Mormon Evil Dead' and 'lesbian witch horror', which along with a fairly decent looking trailer made me want to check the film out. Sadly, when I finally watched Diabolic I found the comparison to Evil Dead fairly thin, and whilst the film does deal with lesbians and witches, these aspects failed to really make Diabolic stand out from other religious horror films. 

One of my biggest criticisms with the film is that not a whole lot happens for much of the film's runtime. A lot of the film is given over to focusing on Elise and her confronting her past trauma. And whilst this wouldn't normally be a bad thing, the lack of any real horror moments during these long sections. The tension just isn't there, there's no creep factor, and it feels like the film relies on the idea that horror is to come and religious trauma to keep the viewer uncomfortable whilst we wait for the plot to really start moving. Sadly, by the time things do really start it's so close to the end of the film that things wrap up very quickly.

When the horror does start to happen it's also fairly tame and somewhat predictable. Sadly, Diabolic doesn't do anything I've not already seen before. The answers to the mystery of what happened to Elise and the young woman she begins to remember is easy to see coming long before the film gives them, the jump scares are few and far between and don't really elicit much of a reaction, and the look of the film's monster is definitely trying to elicit Deadite vibes, but ends up looking both tame and a little bit sad at the same time. 

There's so much about Diabolic that I really wanted to like. We need more horror stories with queer characters and representation, and whilst the film uses a queer story as one of it's driving factors it falls into some traps as far as queer punishment and trauma being the only story told here instead of queer joy and acceptance. I think that the Mormon community is a brilliant backdrop for horror, due in large parts to how frightening the organisation is in real life, and would love to see more of a focus on them in films; yet Diabolic could have been about almost any religious community. The remote woodland church had some great vibes to it, yet the film didn't really do much with it. The trailer impressed me and got me wanting to watch the film, but come the end I was honestly just quite bored of it.

Diabolic had a lot of promise, and for me it failed to really deliver on them. I'm sure that there'll be some people who really enjoy the film, and if you've not seen many religious horror films before then it could be a decent gateway into the sub-genre; but for someone who's seen a fair few films that tackle the same subjects better it ended up falling a little flat.

Diabolic is available on DVD, Blu-ray, and digital streaming from Monday 25th May 2026.

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Wretch: or, The Unbecoming of Porcelain Khaw by Eric LaRocca - Book Review

 

'After his husband dies, Simeon Link finds himself overcome by grief and seeking comfort in an unusual support group called The Wretches, who offer an addictive and dangerous source of relief. They introduce Simeon to a curious figure known as Porcelain Khaw—a man with the ability to let those who are grieving have one last intimate moment with their beloved...for a price.

'Hallucinatory, fiendish, and destructively beautiful, Wretch transports us to a world where not everything is as it seems, and those we love may be the ones who haunt us most.'

When I first discovered Eric LaRocca's work I was fascinated by the mixture of emotions it made me feel. I was repulsed, disgusted by some of the things he created, yet found myself being drawn into his narratives and invested in the bizarre, often monstrous things that happen to his characters. I'm not sure if he's a writer I'd advise to people on a whim, as I think I'd need to recommend him very carefully, but his work is definitely something that I think will have a more shocking effect on people than they first expect. That being said, I think that perhaps Wretch might be one of the easier entry points into LaRocca's catalogue, a way to test the waters for new readers as it eschews the usual visceral, almost gory horror in exchange for more of a slow burn.

Wretch tells the story of Simeon, who recently lost his husband, Johnathan, after a short battle with cancer. Simeon hasn't been managing his grief well, and as the book begins he's gently let go from his job because of the effect his loss has had on his work there. He doesn't have anyone to turn to, perhaps other than his ex-wife Evelyn, who still loves him and hopes to rekindle their relationship despite Simeon leaving her years before. Retreating to online spaces, Simeon eventually hears about a local support group called the Wretches, who attempt to deal with their grief using photography. 

The group take photos of everyday objects and places in the hopes of capturing some abstract impression of the people they've lost. Somewhat doubtful of the process, Simeon at least gives it a try to somewhat mixed success. It's from a member of the Wretches, however, that he hears of a man named Porcelain Khaw, a name that Simeon has heard rumours of on dark corners of the internet. Khaw is able to help people with their grief, able to give them a moment with the person that they've lost. Unsure where else he can turn, and desperate to see Jonathan again, Simeon reaches out to the mysterious figure.

Wretch is first and foremost a story about grief, how it can consume you, and how not having healthy coping mechanisms can lead to destructive ends. However, this is a LaRocca book, so it's not as simple as all of that. The hallmarks of a LaRocca story are here, with parts of the book given over to internet chat logs, stories found on forums, diary entries, and even a play at one point. For the most part in LaRocca's previous work I've found these segments have added quite a bit to the story, or have been the entire story itself, and have often conveyed quite a lot of important information or tone. However, in Wretch these parts seemed somewhat out of place to me, jarring me out of the narrative, and leaving me wondering as to their significance. 

These are also the sections that have what I consider the trademark LaRocca horror, the moments that deal with twisted thoughts, awful compulsions, and disjointed realities. For example, there's a point in the story where Simeon reads through an old diary entry where he fantasises about killing his infant son. He imagines how he could throw the baby into the alligator enclosure in the zoo to watch him be torn to pieces. After reading his old words Simeon wonders if he wrote it because he enjoys misery and suffering in his life, and perhaps it's just me, but this feels like a very bizarre and extreme way of showing that. I didn't read those parts and think Simeon liked misery, I thought he was some kind of psychopath, and I was glad he was hardly in his sons life. It made me hate Simeon, and I can't help but wonder what effect LaRocca was going for with this, and with other even more unusual cutaways from the main story, and why he chose to present those moments the way he did.

Sadly, despite spending the entire book with Simeon, I felt like I didn't really know anything about him come the end of the book, and that other than 'sad boy' who at one point wanted to murder a baby, I have no real impression of him. The other characters in the book fare about the same, as few of them as there are, and people are presented as either kind of pathetic, or weirdly enigmatic for no obvious reason. I wish I could have connected with the characters more, and it might only be a problem for me and other people really do click with them, but because I just couldn't manage to do it it left a lot of the book unable to affect me that much.

Having mostly really enjoyed LaRocca's work (I'm sure it's normal to enjoy something you find gross right?) I was left kind of sad that Wretch just didn't work for me. There's something in the final moments of the book that was great, that recontextualised a lot of the story and made me go 'oh shit!' out loud, but it was kind of a bit too little too late to make me really love the book. Hopefully others will get on better with it than I do, and if you're testing out LaRocca's work and aren't big into disturbing horror I think Wretch is a great book to do that with.

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Content - Film Review

 

The word 'content' is one that will elicit some interesting reactions in people. The word is mostly used in conjunction with internet and social media culture, where any photo, video, or post that someone makes is designed to fill a space, to add to their ever growing catalogue in an attempt to build a brand or to project an image of a life they want people to think they're living. It's something that can be cold and calculated, designed for maximum impact towards achieving their goals, and because of that a lot of people have come to dislike the word 'content'. Even art is being labelled as content, the latest studio movie, a new comic series, a TV show, gets branded as content and made to feel lifeless and vapid, made not because those behind the scenes have a passion, but because it's a box checking exercise. Content can be tossed onto anything to immediately discredit it's integrity, and Content, the new film from writer and director Adam Meilech seems to want to use the concept of this soulless media to create something worthwhile. 

Content begins on a computer screen, the user logs onto an online therapy service where they're working as some kind of counsellor or advisor. Thanks to a mix-up in posting some confidential information to the wrong person the user gets dragged into a video call with a man who wants to torment her, forcing her into talking another user into harming himself. Then we get a 'cut' from the director, a third user whose webcam pops up and we learn that this isn't the film itself, but a movie within the movie. The online advisor Emma is actually an actress named Margot (Megan Boechmcke), and the twisted caller is called Teddy (Alex Mills). Their director AJ (Adam Meilech) is trying to put together a low budget horror film in the style of Unfriended and Host, using devices that people have in their homes.

However, Margot and Teddy are unaware that they're not making a film; or at least the film that they think they're making. AJ has hacked into their devices, using their webcams to watch them without their knowledge. He's stalking their social media, hiring other actors to mess with them pretending to be other people. He's using their life to create a meta narrative in which his real life and his manipulation of theirs whilst making his film, Content, is all part of the scheme. As the film progresses we learn more about how the outwardly mild mannered AJ seems to have lost the plot, and witness his twisted schemes come to a head as he tries to ruin several lives in the pursuit of his 'art'.

Perhaps I'm the wrong demographic for Content to really hit the way that the director is hoping, as so much of this film relies on the people involved acting in ways that I just find a bit ridiculous. People always have their computers on so that their actions can be recorded, they're sharing everything online for AJ to use against them. I think that I'm perhaps too old and too introverted for that kind of thing. Yes, I've used social media, but I rarely post, and I honestly don't care to make some exaggerated persona of myself or care what strangers online think, so every character in the film acting the opposite does make it a little bit harder for me to really connect with them, or to take things a bit serious. It probably also means I'd be safe from a similar situation as AJ would have nothing to do in his attempts at internet stalking.

For those who are 'chronically online' I'm sure that Content will probably creep them out as they imagine someone getting into their lives the way that AJ does, of using their information against them. If you're one of those people who's always on some kind of app, who's planning your next post, and checking your likes and follower numbers Content may be more akin to a home invasion story to you, of someone breaking into your private places and harming you; whereas I just kept wondering why no one just logged off and got away from their phone for a day or two.

The cast do a decent enough job with the script, but it's not a particularly strong cast with a good script. It's clear that these are fairly unknown actors with little experience, and perhaps that's the vibe that Meilech is going for with the whole idea of an unknown director trying to make his film, but for myself it led to several times where some scenes felt a little forced. It's really hard to know what choices were deliberate and which weren't, was the hammy acting a choice, or is that actor just not suited for those moments? Was the death scene kind of silly and flat because it's part of the film within a film narrative, or because that's the best the movie could do? I honestly don't know, and I'm not sure how to level this criticism because of that, but I can't help but feel somewhat bored and unaffected by a number of parts of the film.

I've seen words of praise online for Content, and that's why I said earlier that perhaps I'm just not the right audience for the film, and it's why I won't say it's bad. Instead, I'll just say that whilst I didn't really click with Content it at least tries to be different, and there's definitely an audience out there for it that is going to enjoy the movie.

Content is available now on digital platforms.

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Unemployed Killer Support Group by Rio - Blog Tour

 

'Locker is a nearly-blind sniper, and after losing his job, he joins a support group for unemployed assassins. All of the members were once feared, but now they're losers who help and hinder one another. After overhearing a conversation at a restaurant, Locker believes he's identified the man that took his sight. Finally he has one shot at revenge - hopefully this is one he doesn't miss.'

Losing your job because of health reasons sucks, and it's something that I personally have been through, and so the opening scenes of Unemployed Killer Support Group were ones that allowed me to instantly connect with our lead character, Locker. Though I've never been a hitman for hire I have found my life turned upside down by a sudden and unexpected health issue, and Lockers frustrations of his life changing drastically without warning, of not knowing if you have financial stability, of feeling lost, all felt incredibly true to real life. Fortunately for Locker, he doesn't have to go through things alone. 

After losing his job as a sniper thanks to his failing eyesight, Locker finds himself in the middle of a specialised support group, one where other hired killers come to try and help each other through losing their job through a variety of reasons. Locker is the only disabled person there, but other members of the group are facing their own struggles, such as Maze, who lost her work after a job leads to her killing the wrong person and learning that her husband was cheating on her. Everyone in the group has their own unique and unusual story, and discovering what these are and how they came out is a big part of the fun of the book.

As Locker tries to adjust to his new life he overhears someone in a restaurant, a voice that's eerily familiar, talking about how he attacked a guy, hitting him over the head and taking his customised sniper rifle. Convinced that this is the man who blinded him Locker realises there's not much he can do in his newly disabled state, and chooses to let it go. However, when fate brings this man across Lockers path a second time he comes to the realisation that he can't move on from this, and sets out to find out who his attacker was and get revenge.

Unemployed Killer Support Group is a wonderfully dark comedy, a book that doesn't take itself too seriously; just look at the concept and tell me that it's going to be a serious tale. There are a number of moments that will make you laugh out loud, twisted jokes that somehow never come across as gross or mean, but end up being quite charming because our core cast of characters are presented as pretty decent people; despite the murder. It helps that our core cast of characters are all broken, kind of pathetic people, and so you end up feeling sorry for them more often than not, and by the end you're rooting for them to come out on top even if most of them should be in jail for their crimes.

As a disabled person I also really liked that Rio, the writer and artist on the book, didn't use Locker's disability as a joke. Yes, it's used to some comedic effect at time, but Locker himself is never the butt of the joke. You're never told to look down on him or feel bad for him because he's somehow lesser now that he's blind, instead you look down on him for being a fuck up, for being a killer, and for failing to get his life together way before going blind. It's also nice to have a disabled character as a lead where their disability isn't something that makes him special, nor is it something that gets cured or altered in some unrealistic way. Locker's blindness is just a part of him now, and he's having to adapt and change to live with his new normal. Despite the absurdity of the book his disability is never an absurd factor, and for that I appreciate it.

Unemployed Killer Support Group is a wonderfully fun, self contained manga that feels grounded and realistic, whilst also managing to be farcical and ridiculous. It's a fine line, but one that the book walks wonderfully. It reminds me of some of my favourite comedy film, and I could see the story getting adapted to film someday, as there are times it feels like it's more structured like a movie than a book, and I think that's something that really helps you to connect with it and read it in one sitting because you just can't put it down. Easily one of the most delightful manga books I've ever read, and one that I'd recommend in shot.

Unemployed Killer Support Group is available now from Titan Manga.

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Basic Psych - Film Review

 

Basic Psych opens strong, dropping the viewers into a harrowing scene as a psychologist is home alone on Halloween night, handing out candy to trick or treating children. Suddenly there's a masked man with a gun in the house with him, and he knows his life is in danger. Part way through the encounter he realises he knows his assailant, before being shot and killed. From here we jump forward several days where we meet another psychologist, Stuart Price (Michael Cerveris), as he meets a new client, Dan (David Conrad). Dan is evasive and demanding, making Stuart shred his notes there and then and getting him to promise not to tell anyone of their appointments. He seems to be hiding something, and his intensity is unnerving.

Despite the unusualness of his first appointment with Dan, Stuart meets him a second time, where Dan reveals a frightening piece of information to him. He is responsible for a killing of two people that took place in a park several weeks before. With Stuart bound by his medical ethics not to reveal this information, and with a desire to help Dan lest he fall prey to the man himself, Stuart enters a dangerous game with his new patient; one that could threaten everything Stuart cares about.

As soon as I saw the trailer for Basic Psych I knew I really liked the concept. The idea of a doctor being duty bound not to reveal that a patient is a killer, and being forced into a situation where if they don't find the perfect way to help their patient they too might end up dead is a wonderfully dark concept. I also appreciate that Basic Psych doesn't try to dance around this idea, there's not really any point where the concept is hidden from the audience, and even Stuart realises what's happening pretty quickly into the story. The film is really good about not wasting time, and every moment used adds to the story and the characters.

The film also allows the viewer to come to their own decision on who the hero of this story is. Both Stuart and Dan think that they're the heroes of this tale, and whilst we spend the most time with Stuart the film could have easily been told from Dan's perspective. Both of them have a daughter that they care for and want to protect. They both feel a sense of danger from the other. They're both trying to come out on top without winding up losing their lives. The film presents things fairly evenly, and it's the viewers own perspective that will pain one as the hero and one as the villain; and subsequent watches of the film will absolutely shift how you first saw it.

Speaking of that, there aren't many films that I want to watch again almost immediately, but Basic Psych had me wanting to start the film over from the beginning as soon as the credits rolled. Some of this is down to some trickery from the creators keeping some important pieces of information back from us until the final moments, but there's a lot of stuff that I realised I wasn't questioning before, that I was just going along with and that if I were to see those scenes again I'd be able to clearly see the other meaning that was there the whole time.

Both Michael Cerveris and David Conrad to an excellent job throughout. Much like the story having more meaning than you first think the performances from the two leads take on very different interpretations once you've seen the film the once, and you realise they were giving two performances rather than just one, walking this fine line where they had to make themselves look like both the protagonist and antagonist. The supporting cast is pretty light, but do a decent job at helping to flesh out the world and add more to our leads. Siena Goines does a great job as Stuart's artist wife Sisi, who has some much stronger and more realistic reactions to Stuart's patient admitting to murder, such as fearing for her life before opting to help a killer. Compared to the two leads she gives a much more honest performance, one that becomes more tragic once you watch through the film again.

I wasn't sure what to expect from Basic Psych before going into it. The trailer looked interesting, but I've found that lower budget films in the psychological thriller genre can sometimes fall a little flat due to a weaker script and lead actors unable to really deliver fully. Basic Psych doesn't fall into these traps, and whilst it's not a big studio picture it never stops trying to deliver that kind of experience. It pushes it's leads to deliver great performances, and has a script that uses it's runtime so well that by the end I was surprised that almost two hours had already gone by and wanted more. 

If you're looking for a smaller, more intimate movie that doesn't rely on spectacle to entertain you and instead puts its actors in the spotlight Basic Psych will definitely deliver. A film that not only delivers on its promises, but reminds viewers that smaller movies are not to be overlooked.

Basic Psych is available now on Apple TV, Prime Video, and Fandango.

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Green Room 10th Anniversary

 

Green Room was released ten years ago today, and as soon as it was released I was hearing amazing things about it and the performance from its lead Anton Yelchin. Unfortunately, it took me several years to get around to watching it myself, not seeing it until it received a 4K release in 2024. Ever since seeing it I've considered it one of the best examples of unsettling horror I think I've ever seen. It's brutal realism is perhaps it's most frightening aspect, knowing that all of the events that happen in it are a very real possibility. In the time since the films release the world has shifted further to the right and extremism like racists and Nazis has become more and more visible in the world as those who take part in it feel emboldened to be open about their awful views. Green Room is a film I often recommend, though with the caveat that it's going to disturb you if you watch it. Here follows my thoughts from my initial watch of the movie. 

Like many, I was shocked to hear of the passing of Anton Yelchin in 2016, him having died at only twenty seven years old. Having seen him in a number of projects I found him to be a very good actor, and wanted to see more of the work that he'd left behind. I'm a little ashamed to say that it took me until this month to finally watch one of his more notable films, 2015's Green Room. I'd heard amazing things about it, particularly both his and Patrick Stewarts acting, but had never brought myself to watch it; perhaps in part to the subject matter of the film. With the new 4k Ultra-HD release from Second Sight Films I've finally corrected that oversight, and found myself wishing I'd watched it years before. 

Green Room follows the journey of a young punk band, the Ain't Rights, as they travel around the country, barely able to keep fuel in their van, playing one crappy gig after another. After an interview with a small town radio host they're offered to play in a remote bar in Portland, but upon arrival they discover that they're in a neo-Nazi skinhead bar, and are opening for a Nazi band. They decide to go ahead with the gig anyway, needing the money, and decide to get out of there as soon as they're off stage. However, when Pat, played by Yelchin, returns to the green room to grab his bandmates phone he walks into a murder. 

The Nazis running the bar shove the rest of the band into the green room and take them hostage as they deal with the police in order to cover up the stabbing. Knowing that there's no way that they're going to be let go the band overpower the man left watching them and barricade themselves in the green room. Thus begins a tense fight for survival between the band and a bar full of neo-Nazi's who want them dead. 

To say that Green Room is a tense film is something of an understatement. From the moment the Ain't Rights enter the remote bar the film becomes nerve-wracking. The only thing that I knew before watching the film was that Patrick Stewart played the leader of a gang of neo-Nazi's, I didn't know that the band were going to see a murder, or that it would become a room under siege type of story, and as such I was waiting for something bad to happen almost immediately. But even when something terrible did happen it didn't help to lessen the tension of the film. The scenes with the band trapped inside their small room, trying to figure out how they're going to escape whilst the Nazi's are outside, preparing weapons and bringing in attack dogs were almost as disturbing as any violence that happens in the film. 

Part of the reason why the film is so terrifying is that it's very frighteningly real. Green Room deals with a very real horror. It doesn't rely on ghosts or monsters, things that you will never actually encounter in real life, but instead it thrusts you into a situation that you could realistically find yourself in. Bigotry is a very real thing, and it's a very real danger. There are open and proud Nazi's in the world, people who embrace hatred and revel in the harm that they can bring to others. And as someone who is in one of the groups that they would happily kill in an instant the fear of Nazi violence is a very real one. 

And just like in real life, the antagonists of this film cannot be reasoned with. They won't back down, they won't show mercy, because they're staunch in their beliefs. They believe that they're in the right and that their violence is justified. And that is horrifying. Perhaps it's because I'm a person that has been the target of hate crimes more than once, who's in a group that the people in Green Room would brutalise, but this quickly became one of the most disturbing and frightening films I've ever seen. 

It helps that the actors sell the film so amazingly too. Yelchin and his bandmates, played by Alia Shawkat, Joe Cole, and Callum Turner, run through a gamut of emotions, from terror, to defiance, to despair. Each actor delivers a powerful performance as their characters are trapped inside the green room, realising that there's no way out that doesn't involve horrific violence, and that if they don't kill they'll die themselves. Imogen Poots joins them as Amber, the girlfriend of one of the neo-Nazi's who saw the murder and is also a target. More weary and resigned to her fate than the others, she understands the violence that's going to come, accepts that blood will be spilled and that not all of them will make it out alive. Her performance is one of the more interesting in the film, for as the others begin to lose hope she has the opposite journey, and begins to believe that maybe she might survive. 

The neo-Nazi's, on the other hand, are a fascinating part of the film. There are several in the film who take important roles, each of which shows a different side to this kind of group. The film has a few named characters that are what people would think of as neo-Nazis. Big Justin, played by Eric Edelstein, is a bruiser, a brute of a man who holds the band and Amber hostage, using hostility and fear as his main weapons. He's violent and vile. Kai Lennox plays Clark, a man who trains attack dogs for the group. He's a quiet, more insidiously sinister man, a man who loves his dogs and cares for their safety, but thinks nothing of commanding them to rip a persons throat out if told to do so. Gabe, played by Macon Blair, is the most unusual of the Nazis in the film, as over the course of the movie you begin to see him not as a raging bigot like the others, someone willing to kill and die for the cause. He's more of a person who was radicalised by a cult, but isn't truly evil himself. Whilst this doesn't erase his crimes or his actions his story does show that the villains of the film aren't all just cartoonish parodies of cruelty, but complex and realistic people. 

Darcy, played by Stewart, is the bar owner, and the overall leader of the group. He's the most outwardly normal, the most charming. He's been a Nazi most of his life and knows how to project a front of normalcy to hide his hate. There are moments in the film where his appeals to end things peacefully, a ruse, almost wins the protagonists over thanks to his eloquence and tone. However, this is masking a cruel and terrifying man who's willing and determined to do whatever it takes to protect his people and his ideological movement. This makes him the most terrifying character in the film, as he's what a lot of bigots are like, the ones who are able to blend in, working in the background, pushing to destroy lives all whilst being seen as decent people.

Green Room was a film that I watched in the middle of the day, yet felt more disturbed than by than when I'd watched horror films alone at night. It got under my skin and made me feel sick. It didn't matter that it was a beautiful looking film, that director Jeremy Saulnier had captured some beautiful locations or written a deep and complex study on the kinds of people that end up in a hate movement, even if he never makes them sympathetic. During that first moment all I could focus on was the way the film made me feel. I felt dirty. I felt despair. I felt afraid. The world is becoming an ever increasingly scary place for a lot of people, and as a trans person I feel that fear. I've started to be the victim of hate crimes once again after years of none. Politicians are pushing for removals of rights and healthcare. Trans people are being murdered and people are openly celebrating it on social media. Nazis are openly going to anti-trans hate rallies. A very famous children's author just this last week engaged in holocaust revisionism in order to attack trans people. I'm becoming more and more frightened by the world, and Green Room tapped into that fear. I don't know if it will do the same for others, I can't say it will have the same effect if you're say a cis white straight person, but I think this film will still disturb, even if you're not the target of Nazi hate.

Green Room was a film that I'd heard about a lot, yet knew little of. It was always recommended, almost spoken about in hushed whispers. It was talked about as this almost mythic film. And I get that now. I understand why people can't say much about the film other than 'it's amazing' or 'you need to see it'. A film filled with powerhouse performances, it would be a terrifying film to watch at any time, but with the ever increasing spread of far right beliefs and a resurgence of Nazism it may be more relevant now than ever. 

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The Hive by Ronald Malfi - Book Review

 

'The residents of Mariner's Cove are changing… In the aftermath of a violent storm, a collective obsession is rapidly developing among the people of this quaint suburban neighbourhood. Random, everyday items left scattered upon the lawns, the streets, and the shoreline all seem to call out to them. There is an item for almost everyone, and each item has a certain hold over the person who finds it—a hold that soon turns into unwavering infatuation. They hide their items from each other, obsess over them, and they will do anything—anything—to protect them.

'The collective hum of bees' wings... A young boy finds himself the possessor of a strange and inexplicable power. Is the arrival of this power linked to the increasingly odd and dangerous behaviour of the residents of Mariner's Cove? Has he been granted this power in order to thwart whatever is about to happen in this small, bay side community, or is there a more sinister purpose?

'All hail the Dragon... All eyes are on him now. The residents of Mariner's Cove are watching. They move as one, like a solitary organism, and will do anything to succeed in their single-minded purpose. They will not be stopped.'

I've enjoyed each of the Ronald Malfi books that I've read over the last few years, and have put him on my list of authors whose work I'm going to be willing to check out without even reading the blurb. I've said in past reviews that he strikes me as something of a modern day Stephen King, someone who's able to create deep and disturbing stories whilst still making them very character focused, giving readers more information on these characters and their lives in a single chapter then some people do in their entire books. If I'm going to continue to compare Malfi to King then The Hive is definitely going to cement those feelings for me, as it takes a slow burn approach to its story in a brick of a book that feels comparable to something like The Stand.

The Hive begins with a storm hitting the coastal town of Mariner's Cove, one that causes some minor property damage across the small community, but doesn't result in any real horror such as injury or death; or at least no overt horror. During the storm ten-year-old Cory McBride can feel something dark and powerful pushing at the boundaries of our world. Cory has been hiding his secret abilities from his mother, abilities that allow him to hear people's thoughts and move things with his mind, and now that ability is warning him of 'the dragon' that's trying to claw its way into our world.

Following the storm things begin to change in Mariner's Cove as the people begin to act strangely. Some residents discover items in the debris of the storm that begin to hold sway over their thoughts, everyday items that become the focus of powerful compulsions. Heart surgeon Michael Danver finds a door standing upright in the water of the bay behind his home and drags it into his garage, where he becomes focused on protecting and restoring the door; even if it means hurting others to keep them away from the door. Teenage waitress Sarah Miller finds some wire coat hangers after the storm and takes them home, then more, then even more. Something is making her collect every wire hanger she can find and she has no idea why; worse still, she begins to have terrible nightmares and starts to hear other people's thoughts. Alex Braswell ignores both his family and his job as he becomes focused on the strange graffiti that has begun to appear around the neighbourhood and his desire to transform a local water tower. And there's 'Stinger', a handyman and bee keeper who has some darker desires, who wants to bring everyone together towards one dark objective.

Added onto this are strange disappearances in the neighbourhood, of teenagers going missing, there's the mysterious messages and codes appearing everywhere, the old neighbour who wants to get to Cory, and the strange entity just outside the bounds of our reality driving it all onwards. The Hive is a sprawling, complex tapestry of different characters and stories that are all converging towards one destination that makes this a long read, but one that draws you in and demands your attention.

Malfi doesn't focus on a singular protagonist with The Hive and there's no one character who gets more page time than others. Instead the story will follow a character for a few chapters before shifting to another, allowing us adequate time to get to know them, to understand their situation, and discovering the piece of the ever growing puzzle they hold before jumping to another. Despite these shifts Malfi manages to give each character a lot, and after the first chapter or two with each character I felt like I had a really excellent grasp on their motivations, their past, and the things that were driving them on. For example, we spend some time with Cory's uncle, the only character we spend time with outside of Mariner's Cove, and our introduction to him is basically a short story about his past and career as a radio DJ and host and his ups and downs with addiction that could have been the focus of it's own book. Malfi does an impressive job at juggling all of these characters and the ever expanding puzzle that it's almost frightening.

As for frights, The Hive is a horror book that I'd be hard pressed to define. There's a sense of unease throughout, of things being ever so slightly off kilter though I myself became somewhat used to this after a while, becoming less disturbed by a character obsessing over something they found after the storm and instead becoming invested in seeing the mystery revealed. There are some cosmic horror elements scattered throughout the early chapters, teasing at potentially bigger, stranger things to come. There's some gross-out horror in the form of Stinger, a man covered in weeping wounds as his body becomes a patchwork of bee stings. Much of The Hive has this strange, almost detached horror that is lurking in the background, occasionally poking its head out to remind you that this isn't just a book about the lives of these characters and the strange obsessions they have.

I've been trying to stay somewhat vague as to what happens in the later half of the book, so if you've read this review and feel that perhaps The Hive doesn't sound overtly horror enough for you, or that it doesn't seem like enough is happening in the story that's because I feel like I can only really talk about the early parts for risk of giving too much away; and The Hive is definitely a book that you're going to want to experience without knowing too much about it. I even think that I may have given too much away about it at this point.

The Hive is an imposing book. It's a huge novel, and if you're the kind of reader that's more used to reading books around 300-400 pages in length a novel that's close to 800 pages might seem like it's going to be too much of an investment for you, but I can only reassure you that it's more than worth the time and effort that you put into it, and even if you don't love the final destination you won't be able to deny you had a great time getting to know these characters. And if I can't convince you to try this out as your first Malfi book go and read one of his shorter ones, because then you'll definitely be rushing out to grab a copy of The Hive.

Ronald Malfi continues to impress me with this book, and whilst it was a long, sometimes demanding read, The Hive has in large parts helped me to start reading more and getting back into the swing of things after being ill for so long. And I can't wait to see what he does next.

The Hive is available now from Titan Books.

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Runescape: Untold Tales of the God Wars - Graphic Novel Review

 

I've struggled to get into MMORPG games in the past. Whilst I like open world games where I have the freedom to go where I want and do what I want there's something about the sheer size and scope of MMORPG's that's been somewhat a little too daunting for me; and any time I've tried them I've found myself being a little overwhelmed by how much there is mechanics wise, and bow out after a few days or weeks at most. However, I have a very close friend who loves Runescape, and have heard them sing it's praises over the years for both it's gameplay style, and for the world that it has managed to craft over the years. As such, when I saw that Titan Comics were bringing out a graphic novel that delved into a part of the massive lore that had accumulated for the franchise I knew I had to check it out to see what made Runescape so special.

Runescape: Untold Tales of the God Wars takes place within the confines of a warm, welcoming tavern on a cold winters night as the owner and patrons are treated to a tale of ancient history by a mysterious cloaked Storyteller. We're given a tiny breakdown of the origins of the Runescape world by the Storyteller, which was fantastic as someone coming in pretty fresh other than the small bits of lore my friend had told me, before we jump into a tale set 4,000 years before the current time of the Runescape game, during the titular God Wars. The God Wars were a time when gods that made the land their home begun to fight for power and influence, crating huge armies of different races to battle in their name. It is here that we meet a number of characters as we learn part of the story of the Godsword, a weapon forged with the hope that its power could kill a god.

Each of the four issues of the mini-series focuses on one of the four different factions taking part in the God War, and their mission to claim ownership over the Godsword. The first issue introduces us to the demon army of the Zamorakian's, where we meet the necromancer Sherok and his floating skull familiar Maro. Whilst the Zamorakian general K'ril Tsutsaroth leads his forces against the bird-like Armadyleans to take the Godsword from them Sherok tortures the souls of his victims, and adds more undead to their forces. By the end of the issue we've witnessed some internal politics, as well as the horrors of war, and Maro finds himself alone and fleeing from his former allies before falling into the care of Armadylean scout Lea'anna. 

Maro becomes the central character of the series, this minor familiar who finds his fate intertwined with that of the Godsword, and whilst not the hero of the story, nor a figure around who fate revolves, someone who is witness to important events and figures of legend. As Maro journeys we are introduced to each of the factions, to important people, and we see how each faction operates, their relationships with each other, and what this small part of the God War is like. As an outsider to the franchise it felt like a fantastic way of telling the story, as the reader is swept along with Maro, getting something of a crash-course on the war, as well as the various races and factions. Throughout this, we revisit the tavern from time to time as the Storyteller continues their tale, and those that listen to him become more and more invested in this ancient and long forgotten part of history.

Ryan O'Sullivan does a great job at creating an interesting narrative that weaves through various locations and introduces us to multiple characters. Whilst it could have been easy to become bogged down in the piles of lore, trying to cram in as much history and information as possible to give readers a dense and detailed experience O'Sullivan instead chooses to keep things fairly simple, allowing the shifting narrative to become the important part. I was a little worried before going into the book that it might be too heavy for someone who's not played the game and experienced that lore, that I wouldn't be able to follow things, but it's kept so new reader friendly that it never once felt overwhelming. 

It would have also have been easy for the characters to get little to no time to do much, as most of the ones we meet are only in a single issue, or come in and out of the narrative for a page or two every now and then. Despite only Maro really having any decent amount of time every character felt like they had clear motivations and distinct personalities, and there were a few of them that I really wanted to spend more time with as they were so compelling despite how short a time we had them.

The art on the book is provided by Sid Kotan and Daniel Bayliss, with Laurel Dundee on colours. Kotan is the main artist on the book, drawing issues one to four, with Bayliss creating the introductory section in the Free Comic Book Day issue. Despite their being two artists I didn't really notice when I first read it as the two of them managed to match styles relatively closely, which allows for a smooth transition between the two of them. The art's nicely presented, with Kotan able to deliver a surprising range of emotions and expressions of characters that really shouldn't be able to do so, such as the bird-like Armadyleans, and on Maro, who manages to convey a lot despite only being a floating skull.

By the time Runescape: Untold Tales of the God Wars was done I was left wanting more, and not just more with these characters and this particular story, but more of this universe as a whole. I found myself curious to learn more about Runescape and it's lore, and whilst I'm not quite ready to go and play the game just yet it's certainly created an interest in the universe. And whilst I can't say what this graphic novel is like for someone already a fan, who knows the lore and characters, I can say that as someone who knew next to nothing I'm impressed with how it's been able to draw me in and entertain me.

Runescape: Untold Tales of the God Wars is out now from Titan Comics

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Cold Snap by Lindy Ryan - Book Review

 

'A grieving mother and son hope to survive Christmas in a remote mountain cabin, in this chilling novella of dread, isolation and demons lurking in the frozen woods. Perfect for fans of The Only Good Indians, The Shining and The Babadook.

'Two weeks ago, Christine Sinclaire's husband slipped off the roof while hanging Christmas lights and fell to his death on the front lawn. Desperate to escape her guilt and her grief, Christine packs up her fifteen-year-old son and the family cat and flees to the cabin they'd reserved deep in the remote Pennsylvania Wilds to wait out the holidays.

'It isn't long before Christine begins to hear strange noises coming from the forest. When she spots a horned figure watching from between frozen branches, Christine assumes it's just a forest animal—a moose, maybe, since the property manager warned her about them, said they'd stomp a body so deep into the snow nobody'd find it 'til spring. But moose don't walk upright like the shadowy figure does. They don't call Christine's name with her dead husband's voice.'

Grief is a powerful emotion, one that is perhaps the most debilitating we can feel. Grief destroys our lives when it first hits us, it's all we can feel, often in times when we have no choice but to push on and keep on moving when all we want to do is lie down and lose ourselves. When grief comes with the loss of a loved one it's at its worst because it's not just the emotions of the loss you have to deal with, but the reality of it as the world around you changes to reflect that; yet we're often forced to continue our lives, going to work, going to school, talking to strangers, living out lives as if our world hasn't come crumbling down. Grief also lingers, even long after the event that brought it on, sometimes taking you by complete surprise it the most unusual times. Despite the power of grief it's one of the emotions that we're perhaps least equipped to deal with, and because of that it's one of the most destructive.

Grief is the central theme of Lindy Ryan's Cold Snap, which tells the story of Christine Sinclaire, who lost her husband to a sudden tragedy just weeks before when he fell from their roof whilst hanging Christmas lights. Standing beside him at the time, Christine was unable to save him, and was forced to watch as he fell to his death, snapping his back on a railing on the ground below. Unable to process these tragic events, and failing to connect with her teenage son Billy, Christine retreats into the last thing her husband wanted the three of them to do, travelling to the Pennsylvania woods for Christmas. Loading into her truck with the Christmas dinner supplies, presents, and pet cat Haiku, the bereaved family travels to a remote cabin in the snow covered forest. However, once they arrive Christine becomes convinced some strange creature able to talk in her husband's voice is watching her.

The set-up for Cold Snap definitely intrigued me. I enjoy horror, remote winter locations are one of my favourite environments, and strange, spectral entities tick my box; alas, I came away from Cold Snap not just terribly disappointed, but also incredibly bored.

Cold Snap is a relatively short read, barely more than a hundred and twenty pages in length, and I have to say with all honesty the short page count was something of a mercy to me, as despite the length I kept checking how much more of the book there was whilst reading it; and if it had been longer it would likely have ended up on my 'did not finish' pile. I have three main areas where Cold Snap failed to do anything for me, confusing and twisting narrative, repetitiveness, and lack of resolution. 

At the start of the review I said how grief is a destructive emotion, one that can ruin your life and mess with your mind, and I'm familiar with how it can cause blanks in memory, and how when it wears down your mind it can cause you to become disorientated and even confuse reality. I think that this was where Lindy Ryan was trying to take Christine's narrative, but more often than not the book ended up feeling more like a spiral into madness than grief itself. Christine acted like she was on a bad drug trip, or spiralling because she was missing needed medication. She would become obsessed over tiny, strange things whilst forgetting basic everyday stuff, having almost manic moments at times. Other times she'd black out halfway through a task, coming to in another location or in the middle of a task. There were multiple times where I wasn't even sure if this was even happening to her or not though, as Billy wouldn't seem to react to her mania or blackouts, going about his day like everything was normal to him. Christine quickly became an unreliable narrator, and one that made little sense most of the time.

This played into the second criticism, of Christine's repetitive nature. Every few pages Christine would obsesses over something, often repeating the same phrases over and over again, or going back to a subject that had no relation to the moment that she'd already gone to a dozen times. 'Derek's foot slips. Derek's foot slips. Derek's foot slips.', 'Just the three of us and the trees. Just the three of us and trees. Just the three of us and the trees. Just the three of us and the trees.', 'Derek's foot slips. Derek's foot slips. Derek's foot slips.', 'Remember why you called it a blankety? Remember why you called it a blankety?', 'Just the three of us and trees. Just the three of us and trees.', 'Blankety. Blankety. Blankety.', 'Derek's foot slips.'. Over and over and over and over again. A quarter of the book feels like a repeat of a phrase, or a question, or a thought that Christine has. Yes, it plays into themes of grief and trauma and how it wears the mind down, but boy does it make it hard to connect to the character, follow the story well, or care about what I'm reading.

For me the biggest problem was the supernatural horror element, and how nothing really comes from it. To spoil some of the book a little, Christine sees a man, maybe a moose, maybe a moose man, that talks like her husband, haunts her from the trees, might not be real, but is definitely real as it kills the cat and destroys the car, but is also not a real moose, but might be a real moose. The book gives no answers, no hints, and no satisfaction. The creature is hardly in the book too, with the majority of it centring instead on Christine and her insanity, and by the time the creature is shown to be actually 100% real and a threat it's a single chase scene until the book just ends. When I say it ends I mean it just suddenly stops. There's not even an attempt at a resolution, satisfying or not, and it comes across like Ryan was simply done with the story and didn't want to do any more. After slogging through one of the longest, most unsatisfying hundred pages I was rewarded with absolutely nothing at the end.

I understand that my review sounds harsh, and that I'm probably making some people who enjoyed the book angry as I'm missing something that made them connect with it and love it (I've seen the reviews and there are people who adore it). I think part of this is that Cold Snap was one of the first books I read in a long while as I've been dealing with some health issues and reading hasn't been easy for months now, and that it felt like I got nothing in return of the time and effort that went into reading the book. Perhaps I'm judging it harshly because of that, and if I was healthy and doing well I would have connected with it more, but for where I am at the moment it ended up being one of the most disappointing books I think I've ever read. Perhaps your experience with it will be better, I actually hope it is if you go to the effort of reading it; but for me, Cold Snap was a huge missed opportunity. 

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