All The Murmuring Bones by A.G. Slatter - Blog Tour

 

'Long ago Miren O'Malley's family prospered due to a deal struck with the mer: safety for their ships in return for a child of each generation. But for many years the family have been unable to keep their side of the bargain and have fallen into decline. Miren's grandmother is determined to restore their glory, even at the price of Miren's freedom.

'A spellbinding tale of dark family secrets, magic and witches, and creatures of myth and the sea; of strong women and the men who seek to control them.'

Mermaids, kelpies, and ghosts, oh my! All the Murmuring Bones by A.G. Slatter is the latest fantasy book to be released by Titan Books, and is full of dark and Gothic atmosphere.

The book tells the tale of Miren O'Malley, a young woman who's grown up in the sheltered confines of Hobs Hallow, the ancestral home of her family, the once rich and powerful O'Malley's. When the family was young they commanded fear and respect, their vast wealth and fierceness making them one of the strongest groups around; but over the years their bloodline has dwindled, and with it their fortunes. 

Miren is the 'last' O'Malley, the last member of the family born with the name, and the strongest claim to the blood. Over the centuries the family has expanded and the bloodline diluted, and whilst there are many who can trace their family back to the O'Malley's, Miren is the last of them. With her parents dead, she's been raised by her fierce and at times uncaring grandparents, but when her grandfather dies it begins to unravel things. 

With their debts mounting and their home falling into disrepair her grandmother, Aoife, hatches a plan. Miren is set to marry her cousin, Aidan Fitzpatrick, a rich merchant who has promised to clear the O'Malley debts and restore the family to a position of power. The only problem is, Miren doesn't want to marry Aidan.

The initial set up to All The Murmuring Bones is an intriguing one, and readers are introduced to this ancient family when they're at their lowest point. Once commanding great power, able to oppose the will of even the church, the family is a shadow of what it once was. Despite this, we see some of the greatness they used to have in Aoife, an imposing woman who still acts like she power and position to command anything. 

Despite having grown up under her influence, Miren is very much unlike her grandmother, and is used to the somewhat simple life she has. She doesn't crave power, or want the finest things, and sees the last remaining servants at Hobs Hallow as friends, if not family. She's a kind and decent person despite the things she's been through; and because of this those around her consider her weak, an easy pawn in their games.

This is one of the things that I really loved about Miren, the fact that at the beginning of the book people like Aoife and Aidan believe that they can do whatever they want, that they can force Miren to be anything they want, but are so wrong. The readers quickly get to discover that there's a whole lot more to Miren than we first realise; and it's little surprise considering the woman who raised her. Miren knows when to fight, when to deceive, and when if necessary strike out at others. She has a strength that she likes to keep hidden, one that makes her dangerous.

When events begin to spiral out of her control we begin to see this power that she has when she confronts her grandmother, when she defies Aidan. We see the defiance that lies beneath the surface, the woman who has learnt from her grandmother to never be a pawn in another's game, and who chooses to take matters into her own hands. Unfortunately, she's never fully in control, and when Aoife is killed and she's trapped in her home with her future husband she takes the only course of action she can, fleeing.

This is when the book takes a very different turn, as Aoife sets out to track down her parents, who she has discovered never actually died. From here the book becomes a story about her journey, and the dangers that she encounters on the way. Not only is this one of the more exciting parts of the book, and further continues to show the strength that Miren has, but has some incredible world building in it too.

We'd had hints of this before this, of some of the creatures that inhabit this world, but it's not until Miren sets out to find her family that we really get a sense of the kinds of creatures that are out there. Mermaids, kelpies, ghosts, and the undead are just some of the creatures that she encounters on her journey. 

There's a constant sense that we're only ever seeing the very surface of what this world has to offer, that there's a lot ore hiding in the shadows, just out of sight. Thanks to the things that Miren comes across, and the stories she tells along the way, we get a bit of a hint of just how frightening this world is. But it's not this that does the most world building, but the fairytales we hear along the way. Occasionally recounted by Miren to others, and other times simply remembered from her childhood, we get to see glimpses into the dark and twisted tales that she grew up with.

Where other books are happy to let readers discover things as they are encountered, or perhaps offer reams of background information and expository narrative All The Murmuring Bones takes a different, much more interesting approach. By showing us the stories that Miren, and others, grew up with we're seeing not just the kinds of things that inhabit this world, but the way people there are raised. They grow up hearing these stories, learning about these creatures. It's no surprise then that it feel like a much darker and more dangerous place, where everyone seems to be on their guard; it's because they've been raised since childhood to fear what lurks in the waters, the forests, and the dark corners of the world. The casual way that we learn there's a kingdom of vampires in a neighbouring country isn't even shocking come that point, because of course there are places like that in this world, where the dead and the monstrous rule all.

I adored the way that Slatter interwove these moments of history with the narrative, and it meant that you never knew what was coming next, or what was important. Were these simply stories being told to pass the time, to reflect on this history of this world, or were these things that Miren was going to encounter and have to deal with? The book always managed to keep me guessing what was coming next, and the fact that by the time Miren manages to find the village where her parents settled there was still a good chunk of the book left took me by surprise. I was so sure that the book was going to be about her journey, the adventures she had on the road, that I never expected that there was going to be so much more to it than that; and that the dangers and mysteries had only really just began.

All The Murmuring Bones managed to pack in a ton of content, it wove a story that kept evolving and changing, yet never felt too ridiculous or far removed from what came before it. We got to know an incredibly strong and interesting female lead who demonstrated a variety of guises over the course of the story, who was able to demonstrate all of her strengths and prove that she was more than worthy of being a hero to aspire to be. It was a book that I was sad to see finish, because I'd come to love every moment of it.

Check back later today to read my interview with Angela Slatter. 

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Skyward Inn by Aliya Whiteley – Book Review

 

Originally published on Set The Tape

'Skyward Inn, within the high walls of the Western Protectorate, is a place of safety, where people come together to tell stories of the time before the war with Qita. But safety from what?

' Qita surrendered without complaint when Earth invaded; Innkeepers Jem and Isley, veterans from either side, have regrets but few scars. Their peace is disturbed when a visitor known to Isley comes to the Inn asking for help, bringing reminders of an unnerving past and triggering an uncertain future.

'Did humanity really win the war?'

Skyward Inn introduces readers to the Western Protectorate, a small part of Devon that’s rejected the fast evolving modern world outside of its walled borders, a world where people use AI implants and travel to distant planets. The people inside the Protectorate have chosen a simpler life instead, growing their own food, building their homes themselves, and relying on nothing from the outside. It’s here that we meet Jem, a woman who grew up in the Protectorate, but left her home for years to travel to the distant world of Qita, where humanity had begun expanding.

During her time on Qita she met and fell in love with one of the world’s inhabitants, Isely. Veterans from both sides of a small war that never was, they found friendship and comfort in each other, and Isely returned to Earth with Jem once her tour was finished. Now the two of them run the Skyward Inn, a small tavern overlooking the village where Jem grew up, a village she no longer really feels a part of. Having worked hard for the locals to accept Isely, and still working to reforge her relationship with her estranged son, Jem’s life is thrown off course when another Qitan who knows Isely arrives at the Inn, asking for their help.

Skyward Inn is a strange story, one that mixes together old ways of life, of remote rural living, with alien worlds and the fear of the alien and the unknown. It takes a very familiar, simple way of life that most readers will be familiar with, that some might even desire to pursue (no more social media, offices, or commutes sounds wonderful) and begins to add strange elements that alter this dream existence into something very different.

Despite presenting two opposing ways of life, the quiet life that shuns technology, and another where travel to the stars is possible, the book isn’t really about that. It doesn’t ask big questions about which way of life is better, or if there needs to be a balance between the old way of the world and the future; instead, it focuses on the people in the story, and asks questions about what it means to be human. The book is concerned about relationships, how people connect, and what it means to be a part of each other’s lives.

I feel like I’m struggling to describe the book, but I think that’s part of what makes it a really interesting read. It’s not a simple story. It raises questions and themes through metaphor. It bends time and perception in ways that you wouldn’t expect, and the story doesn’t follow a path that you expect. I’m sure that if you were to read it you would have a different experience of it than I, because it felt strangely personal, like the author had managed to get inside my head and was making me examine my own relation to the world and what certain things meant to me.

Skyward Inn might not be for everyone, it has a very leisurely pace, and twists narratives together in unusual ways that might not be to everyone’s tastes, but if you like the strange, if you like stories that are multi-layered and get under your skin, this is probably something that you’ll really like. With strong, well defined characters, and some big questions on the very nature of what it means to exist, Skyward Inn is a book that will get you thinking.

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Sacrifice - Paul Kane Interview

 

Originally published on Set The Tape

With the release of the new horror film Sacrifice, we sat down with Paul Kane, author of the original story that the film was based upon, and asked him a few questions about the film, his writing, and horror in general.

Amy Walker: Sacrifice is based on your story ‘Men of the Cloth’ from your collection The Colour of Madness. You’ve obviously drawn upon the works of H.P. Lovecraft for that story, but how did the seeds for the story begin?

Paul Kane: ‘Men of the Cloth’ does appear in The Colour of Madness, a tie-in which was put together when the movie was originally called that – it was changed a bit later on to Sacrifice – but the novelette first appeared in a collection called The Spaces Between back in 2013. It’s about ten thousand words, and I was having trouble placing it anywhere because of the length, so I put it in a collection of other longer pieces.

It was written a few years before that even, inspired by my time when I was teaching out in the community. I used to go out in the car to some really isolated places, teaching Painting & Drawing and Creative Writing. On one such occasion I was driving through a remote village and spotted all these scarecrows in the gardens that looked pretty terrifying, and that sparked the idea for a story about a man dragging his family back to England from America to try and find out more about his origins.

There’s actually very little Lovecraftian stuff in the original, other than a sense that something strange is going on in this community which is quite cult-like. A lot of that was put in by writer/directors Andy Collier and Tor Mian when they wrote the script for Sacrifice, as was transplanting the original English setting to Norway. There is a very Lovecraftian story in The Colour of Madness, however, called ‘Thicker Than Water’ – which is set in Innsmouth, and it doesn’t get any more Lovecraftian than that! People can buy the tie-in collection, which includes behind the scenes photos from the shoot and script extracts, from Luna Press here or there’s an audio version out from Encyclopocalypse which you can buy here.

AW: A lot of the stories that you’ve written seem to include a lot of cosmic horror, taking inspiration not just from Lovecraft, but people like Clive Barker as well; what is it about cosmic horror that keeps drawing you back to the genre?

PK: For me, it boils down to imagination, I think. Letting it run riot, go to places where you wouldn’t normally go. As Clive always says, ‘You’ve got to write your dreams!’ The main kind of cosmic horror I write about revolves around my creations The Controllers: one-eyed god-like things that manipulate humans from afar. The first story I wrote they appeared in was ‘Astral’ back in the 90s, so I guess you could say I’ve been telling stories about them for some time. I wrote the latest, ‘The Scoop’, a couple of years ago when Luna gathered together all the stories featuring those guys, which again you can find here. The other mythology that touches on cosmic horror, or at least beings who cross dimensions to mess with us, are the ‘Order of the Shadows’ tales. They span the whole of my career as well, beginning with ‘Shadow Writer’ – which has just been turned into a role-playing game by Distant Grey Gaming. The Sinister Horror Company are releasing a collection of all of those on 13 March called Darkness & Shadows and you can order that here.

The whole thing is leading up to a crossover, similar to what was done with Clive’s Cenobites and the Nightbreed in the comic Jihad. I’ll hopefully be starting that sometime this year or maybe next, depending on what happens work-wise. Then of course you’ve got The Storm, which came out from PS Publishing last year… That short novel is, first and foremost, my homage to creature features and novels like Them!, The Crabs and so on, but there’s also cosmic horror in there because the monsters which appear – via a storm that occurs near a castle on the coast – come from somewhere not unlike The Controllers’ universe. This is just their way of testing the waters, if you’ll pardon the expression, and seeing if humanity is ripe for invasion. You can still get that one in trade hardback or signed, limited edition here.

AW: Horror sometimes seems to be a genre that people overlook and don’t consider to be a ‘serious’ area of fiction, despite it being hugely popular; what is it about horror that you feel makes it a good genre to explore sometimes complex themes and ideas?

PK: I think, like SF and fantasy, authors have always used horror to comment on certain things in society. You only have to look at the anxiety surrounding radiation in the 50s, or the fear of the family unit breaking apart which permeated horror in the 60s and 70s to see that. Or the recent home invasion trend, which reflects how insecure people are about something that used to be taken for granted: feeling safe in your own little world. If you look back on how political novels like Jack Finney’s The Body Snatchers and Jim Herbert’s The Rats were, or how Stephen King’s The Stand pared things down to ‘good vs evil’ by getting rid of the trappings of modern life, you’ll see the kind of thing I mean.

For myself, I think the more imaginative genres are perfect for drawing attention to issues that you feel strongly about. I recently wrote a story ‘Lifeline’ for a werewolf anthology called Leaders of the Pack, and that allowed me to talk indirectly about how abhorrent I find domestic abuse – whilst at the same time presenting strong female characters who find their inner-strength, or even inner-wolves, to combat this. It’s a subject I feel very passionate about, and a story I’m particularly proud of, so people who just dismiss horror as simply gore or violence for its own sake should probably take another look at what the genre’s doing. For me, it’s as important as any other kind of fiction and I hope one day it’s recognised as such by more people.

AW: Do you feel that British horror is different to horror stories produced in other countries, and if so what sets us Brits apart when we do horror?

PK: I think there’s probably a healthy streak of ‘just getting on with things’ in British horror. That kind of ‘oh, this is happening now so I’d better deal with it’ kind of mentality. You see this in all kinds of British horror books. The people caught up in The Storm, for example, are suddenly tackling giant eels or lobsters or whatever, but they just get on with fighting them – because what’s the alternative? Lay down and just give up? I think that British ‘can do’ attitude shines through in fiction like this, or maybe it’s just a quiet resolve? A realisation that you can’t change things, so you just have to roll with the punches and plod on. That and the swearing, of course!

AW: You’ve been promoting and sharing behind the scenes glimpses at Sacrifice on your social media for a while now; what was the process like seeing one of your stories being made into a film adaptation?

PK: Put simply: sheer delight! Anything that’s popped up connected with the movie, I’ve shared it – from the initial location scouting to filming the underwater bits, to the editing pics. I have been and continue to be equally fascinated by the whole process and I’m loving every single minute of it. After all, it’s not every day a writer gets something turned into a feature! It helps that I thoroughly enjoyed the finished thing, which I watched the other week – and I’m honestly not just saying that because I’m connected to it.

I thought there was a kind of uneasy dread running through the whole thing which reminded me massively of movies like The Wicker Man and Midsommar – and from some of the reviews I see I’m not alone. Plus the production values, the music and the performances were terrific. I really couldn’t be happier with the film. And the wonderful thing is this isn’t the first time… I mean, it’s the first feature, but stuff I’ve written has been adapted into short movies and TV before, as well as scripts I wrote being filmed. New Year’s Day is probably the biggest of those releases, based on my story ‘Dead Time’ and part of the Lionsgate NBC series Fear Itself which screened on primetime television in the ER timeslot. Things like that are kind of ‘pinch me’ moments for an author.

AW: Were there any changes that the team on Sacrifice made to your story that you found particularly good, or that you wished were in the original story?

PK: When I wrote the story I was conscious of length, and trying to sell it – and even then it wound up being quite long. Much longer than your average short story… So, I was quite envious of the way the writer-directors were able to flesh out characters and give us a fair amount of time to get to know them. With mine, a lot of it was done in broad strokes, so it was nice to see how the main characters developed over the course of an hour and a half. I love the way Isaac – played by Ludovic Hughes – goes from this really curious guy to someone who’s obsessed with the customs of his ancestral home.

Sophie Stevens is superb as his pregnant wife Emma, by turns terrified by what’s happening but strong enough to try and get out of a dangerous situation. While Barbara Crampton… What can I say? When I heard Barbara was in the movie I was just blown away; I’ve been a fan of hers since Re-Animator and From Beyond. And she really doesn’t disappoint in Sacrifice! Absolutely pitch-perfect, full of menace but with a wonderful sense of black comedy. That’s also something you can’t really pull off in fiction, no matter how much you try. Even if you write in quite a visual way, there’s nothing like seeing actors perform a story in front of you, bringing with them their own particular set of skills. Being a lifelong film and TV fan, I’m always in awe of the creatives who bring stories to life.

AW: There seems to be a growing trend in movies inspired by or based upon Lovecraft coming back into popularity at the moment, with things like Color Out Of Space, Underwater, and Sacrifice; what is it about these types of movies that you think keeps attracting people?

PK: I’m not sure, really. Maybe it just is that idea of something out of kilter, things which exist beyond our understanding and should definitely be feared. There’s that old saying about Lovecraft being unfilmable, isn’t there? Because he never described the threat in any great detail… So perhaps it’s just a case of the special effects catching up with what we can imagine. I know my jaw dropped when I saw the Cthulhu at the beginning of Lovecraft Country, and then the monster attack at the end of that first episode. There was a time of day when it wasn’t possible to show something like that on screen, and now we can; hell, if we can have a ‘realistic’ Hulk who looks like he’s stepped out of a comic, then anything’s possible. So maybe it’s that? Or maybe it’s just that good stories never really go out of fashion, and can continually change or be appropriated by new generations. Certainly with Sacrifice, for me it’s just really cool to see a cult who worship a weird creature with tentacles that lives underwater near their village.

AW: What upcoming projects of yours should people keep an eye out for if they want more of your work?

PK: Oh, all kinds of things! I’ve mentioned Darkness & Shadows, which I’ve been putting together with Justin Park of Sinister for a while now – that comes with an introduction by Mike ‘MR’ Carey, who wrote The Girl with All the Gifts, and cover photography by Michael Marshall Smith. It arrives on the back of a few books I’ve had out, including a collection of Body Horror stories called Traumas from Black Shuck Books; that one has an intro by John Llewellyn Probert and a cracking cover by Les Edwards and you can buy it here. The second of my PL Kane thrillers came out not long ago as well, Her Husband’s Grave from HQ/HarperCollins which you can find here. That sold out not once, but three times on Amazon and once on the Waterstones site!

Gestalt Media also brought out the tenth anniversary edition of my supernatural serial killer novel The Gemini Factor, which includes a new introduction from me, the original one from Peter ‘Hellbound’ Atkins, a prequel short story and the first episode of a TV adaptation of the book. You can get that from the publisher directly here or Amazon here. I’ve just finished an outline of a possible sequel, so we’ll see how that goes. Then there are more collections on the horizon, a couple of general ones and a themed one, plus anthologies… Our last one was Cursed from Titan about a year ago, so Marie and I are itching to do another. All this and some audio drama work, more film and TV scripting… So watch this space basically!

Paul Kane is the award-winning, bestselling author and editor of over a hundred books. Find out more at his site www.shadow-writer.co.uk.

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Zack Snyder’s Justice League – 5 Justice League Books To Check Out

 

Originally published on Set The Tape

Zack Snyder’s Justice League finally gets its release, giving audiences a film years in the making, and the Justice League story that people have been craving, but what to do if you want more stories involving the Justice League? Well, here are five that are definitely worth checking out.

JLA: Tower of Babel

One of the ideas that’s been around in the DC universe for a long time is that with enough preparation time Batman could take down anyone. JLA: Tower of Babel takes this idea and runs with it when the various members of the Justice League begin to be picked off one by one. Martian Manhunter is infected with nanites that cause him to burst into flames, Plastic Man is frozen solid, Aquaman is made afraid of water, and Superman is exposed to Red Kryptonite and becomes overwhelmed, to name just a few of the heroes taken off the board.

It’s discovered that all of these plans were put into place by Batman, who made contingencies in case any of his teammates ever turned against the world. Unfortunately, these plans were stolen by the villain Ra’s al Ghul. Whilst the league are able to stop Ra’s and his plans it leads to a rift in the team, who feel that Batman can no longer be trusted.

DC: The New Frontier

A six issue limited series, this book was written and drawn by the late Darwyn Cook and received a number of awards, and an animated film.

DC: The New Frontier is set during the 1950s, and sees a version of the Justice League coming together during that period. As the book is set during the Golden Age of DC’s comics, the characters have a much more simplified look, reminiscent of the members of the Justice Society of America.

With a strange island called The Centre that’s home to strange creatures and dinosaurs, bizarre incidents begin to take places across the globe, thanks in part to the cult that seems to worship it. It’s whilst investigating this that Batman comes across the Martian Manhunter, who’s hiding out in Gotham. Together the two detectives try to get to the bottom of this mystery, recruiting several other heroes along the way.

Justice League: Generation Lost

Featuring characters that once made up the Justice League International, Justice League: Generation Lost picks up decades after that series came to and end, and is a direct consequence of the end of Blackest Night.

When the villain Maxwell Lord, who was responsible for the murder of hero Blue Beetle, is returned to life at the conclusion of Blackest Night he amplifies his psychic powers to remove all memory of himself from the minds of everyone on Earth. Fortunately, a handful of members of the JLI seem to remember who he is, and sets out to capture him.

The series ran for a year across twenty four issues, and featured some lesser known heroes like Booster Gold, Captain Atom, Power Girl, and Rocket Red. The series proved to be incredibly popular, and gave a spotlight to members of the Justice League from the 80s and 90s.

Identity Crisis

A seven issue limited series, Identity Crisis appears on dozens of top ten comics lists thanks to its hard hitting story and strong writing by thriller novelist Brad Meltzer.

The story begins with the brutal murder of Sue Dibney, the wife of hero Elongated Man. One of the most beloved people in the hero community, her death rocks heroes from around the world. The heroes come together to hunt for Sue’s killer, but when several members of the Justice League seem to place the blame on Doctor Light for no apparent reason it’s revealed that there is a dark secret at the heart of the League, one that’s coming back to haunt them.

Identity Crisis has been considered controversial for some of the directions the story takes, but it remains one of the most impactful and upsetting comics DC has produced, and has had lasting consequences for several characters.

Justice League: Origin

Justice League: Origin was the first story arc in Justice League following the company wide relaunch The New 52, which saw a new continuity introduced to the DC universe. This story tells the new origin for the team, and is the book that most resembles the story-line for the new movie.

In this new origin the team no longer features Martian Manhunter, bringing Cyborg in as a founding member instead. Other than Green Lantern, the team is the same as in the Zack Snyder film. Also like the Snyder film, the team no longer come together to combat the villain Starro, but to prevent an invasion of Earth by Darkseid and the forces of Apokolips. If you enjoy the Snyder film, this is definitely a good place to try out a Justice League comic.

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Sacrifice – Film Review

Originally published on Set The Tape 

Sacrifice is the latest horror film to be released that draws inspiration from the work of H.P. Lovecraft, though in this case it’s less running away from otherworldly tentacle monsters, and more of a slow building psychological horror that will work its way under your skin.

Based upon the short story ‘Men of Cloth’ by horror writer Paul Kane, the film sees young married couple Isaac (Ludovic Hughes) and Emma (Sophie Stephens) travelling to a remote Norwegian island when Isaac’s mother dies. Travelling to settle the estate and sell the house that Isaac hasn’t seen since he was a small boy, the couple begin to discover things about the island they could never have imagined.

Whilst Isaac begins to explore his family history, including the fact that his father was murdered in their home, and learning about the strange cultural practices of the island, Emma begins to have an increasingly awful time. Desperate to get off the island before she’s too pregnant to fly back to the US, she begins to experience strange nightmares and disturbing visions that she at first blames on her anxieties but begins to suspect might be connected to something bigger. As Isaac seems to slip further away from her and begins to embrace the islanders, Emma is left alone to face the horrors that surround her.

At first I thought that Sacrifice would be Isaac’s story, as it’s about him returning to the island where he was born, and discovering more and more about his past, but it soon becomes apparent that the real focus of the film is Emma, played exceptionally well by Sophie Stephens. Emma seems to be the only person who can see the strange effect that everything is having on her husband, and is the only rational voice on the island. It’s an interesting subversion that I wasn’t expecting, as most horror films in the vein would tend to focus on the male lead in this scenario, having to fight to save his pregnant wife from the horrors just below the surface.

I think this is one of the things that the film does really well, subverting your expectations, and directors Andy Collier and Tor Mian do a good job of weaving a narrative that feels both familiar and very new. You’re able to predict certain steps the story takes, but never the final destination, and even those parts you do manage to predict happen ever so slightly differently to how you expect them to go. This is one of the things that’s quite common in cosmic horror, especially those based around Lovecraft’s work. As mentioned earlier, the original story was written by Paul Kane, who’s well known for his unusual, cosmic horror, and who has written some great stories inspired by Lovecraft, and you can definitely tell that this story comes from a place of love for the source material, and that the filmmakers wanted to create something that would appeal to those kinds of fans.

This seems to extend to the casting, with horror veteran Barbara Crampton appearing in the film in the role of local police officer Renate. No stranger to Lovecraftian horror, Crampton is a cult favourite thanks to her work on films such as From Beyond and Re-Animator. Her inclusion instantly evokes memories of these films, and lends the production a sense of legacy as it includes such a popular horror actor. She’s not just a throwaway piece of stunt casting though, as she delivers a stunning performance as the sinister yet lovely Renate, a character who you’re never sure if you should trust or not. It’s also clear that she put a lot of work into her Norwegian accent, and sounds phenomenal next to the other Norwegian actors, never once feeling out of place or fake.

Sacrifice does a great job of building tension and keeping the audience in suspense. It will throw nightmare sequences and strange visions at you until you’re questioning whether what you’re seeing is going to be real or not, much like the characters. It’s got some damn good performances in it, even from characters with very minor parts who are only in one or two scenes. It looks beautiful thanks to its location shoots, and really evokes feelings of isolation and horror in its audience. Whether you’re a fan of Lovecraft or not, there’s a lot to love with this film, and is definitely one you should be seeking out.

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Demelza and the Spectre Detectors by Holly Rivers - Book Review

 

'Demelza loves science - she loves it so much that she stays up late to work on her inventions. But she soon discovers she's also inherited a distinctly unscientific skill: Spectre Detecting. Like her grandmother, she can summon the ghosts of the dead. But when Grandma Maeve is kidnapped, Demelza and her pasty-faced best friend, Percy, must leap into action to solve the deadly mystery ...'

Science loving Demelza Clock lives with her grandmother Maeve in her small cottage, inventing weird and wonderful devices by day, and dodging her stern headmistress at school by day. Despite having lost her parents at a young age Demelza is a happy child, and loves her grandmother deeply, possibly due to the fact that her grandmother allows Demelza to pursue her aspirations to become an inventor, never stifling her granddaughter's creative spirit.

One night Demelza is awoken by strange noises in the house, noises that she can't track down to any logical source. Convinced that it must be people trying to break into her home she invents a new device to trap them, and ropes her friend Percy in to help her. Percy is a little nervous about sneaking out at night to assist Demelza, due to him being allergic to almost everything and having been kept indoors by his father for years, but agrees to go along and help.

However, when Demelza discovers a strange trap door in her grandmother's greenhouse she discovers a secret that will change her world forever. She learns that her grandmother is a Spectre Detector, a person capable of summoning spectres from the land of the dead back to earth, where they can be given the change to say goodbye to their loved ones. Not only that, but Demelza has these powers too, and they've begun to awaken.

Now that Demelza had begun to discover that she has amazing powers she begins to learn about the world of Spectre Detecting, and things seem to be going well for her. But, she learns that a mysterious figure has been kidnapping young apprentices and killing them, trying to force them to bring someone back from the dead fully. When her grandmother is taken and Demelza receives a ransom note demanding that she surrender to this person she has to call in every ally she can to help save her grandmother.

Demelza and the Spectre Detectors was not the book I was expecting it to be. My partner read it before me, which is something she never really does as she doesn't do much reading, but read the whole thing in two days and was raving about it. So, I decided to pick it up and give it a go, knowing only that it was about a girl called Demelza who loves inventing things. If I'd had read the blurb I'd have been less shocked about the ghosts (sorry, spectres!) but that's on me.

One of the things I really enjoyed about the book was how despite it being about magic powers, about ghosts and mystical rituals, Demelza is a girl who believes in science. She not only loves inventing, but comes to things from a scientific viewpoint. She wants to see proof of things before she believes them, and as such discovering a world of magic and spirits is probably more shocking to her than anyone else, as it's so outside of her sphere of understanding of the universe than anything that's come before. It makes a nice change to see a young protagonist not just simply believing fantastical things, but coming to it from a more adult place of wanting proof and evidence first.

However, once she does come to accept that spectres are real she soon finds that she has a flare for the work, and seeing her learning to bring spirits into the world is a fun part of the book, and Holly Rivers has created some interesting rules for this world and outlines how things work in a way that's pretty simple to grasp, yet has some complexities to it. Compared to some middle-grade books I've read that try to add too much complexity to their magic it's much easier to understand, and I think younger readers will get on board with it pretty quickly.

Despite having a fun tone to it, with a sense of silly and whimsy that you'd find in the more fun children's fantasy books there are some moments of genuine tension scattered throughout, such as Demelza having to hide from kidnappers, or the startling revelations that come in the final confrontation. These moments help to ground some of the more fantastical and whimsical parts of the book, and give the story an added weight and sense of danger that would otherwise be missing. And whilst I'm not going to talk about the final part of the book in any detail as it can't be spoilt, oh my god, I yelled out loud at what happened because it was so, so good.

Holly Rivers has written a wonderfully engaging and imaginative book, one that really draws the reader in with lovable characters and a sense of wonder. I hope that this is just the first of many books with Demelza as the lead, because I'd be extremely happy to go back to this world for several more adventures.

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Nightwing & Shadow of the Hawk – Blu-ray Review

 

Originally published on Set The Tape

Nightwing & Shadow of the Hawk is the latest Blu-ray horror release from Eureka Entertainment, and offers an interesting pair of films for viewers. Despite both being films made n the 1970s, and focusing on stories centred around First Nation people, the two films are very different pieces, offering viewers a look at two very different styles of horror from this time period.

Nightwing was produced in 1979, and is a part of the popular ‘natural’ horror genre that was sweeping through film at the time. These are films where nature is the opposing force that our heroes have to overcome, and range from the low budget and niche films such as Frogs and Empire of the Ants, to the hugely successful, like Jaws. Nightwing actually has a few similarities to Jaws, despite being almost the complete opposite film. Where Jaws sets its action on an island, with a killer stalking the waters, Nightwing is set deep in the desert, with the threat coming from the skies, yet still manages to mirror many of the characters and themes from Spielberg’s hit.

The story follows the local lawman Youngman Duran (Nick Mancuso), who investigates a series of strange killings on his reservation, killings that begin with animals, but move on to human victims too. The corpses are found drained of blood, covered in deep bites, and there’s a foul stench of ammonia at every attack. He eventually discovers the culprits of the attack when a chiropterologist named Payne (David Warner) arrives on the scene, and tells him that a swarm of vampire bats has made their home on the reservation, and are responsible for the deaths. Together with a young doctor, played by Kathryn Harrold, the sheriff and the animal exterminator set out to find and destroy the colony, but end up butting heads with a local politician and businessman Walker Chee (Stephen Macht), who wants to downplay the danger of the situation so that he can close a deal with an oil company.

The similarities with Jaws don’t just end at the character archetypes, but are also present in the pacing of the film, with much of the first half or more of the film being a slow introduction to this world and the characters, and with as much focus on the interpersonal relationships and the people who live on the reservation as the bat attacks. It’s not until towards the end of the film that the focus really moves onto hunting the animals themselves. Where this film differs from the Spielberg hit, and many other natural horror films, is that there’s a second possible explanation given, one that has more of a supernatural side to it, making it stand out as a more unique entry in the genre.

Shadow of the Hawk is the second movie on the disc, despite being made three years before Nightwing, but offers a very different type of horror film. Where Nightwing has a slow build and centres on characters, even minor ones, Shadow of the Hawk has a much faster pace to it, and relies much more on the supernatural and the strange.

The story is centred on Old Man Hawk (Chief Dan George), an elderly medicine man who leaves his home village and travels hundreds of miles to track down his grandson Mike (Jan-Michael Vincent) in order to convince him to return home and help him combat the spirit of an evil sorceress, Dsonoqua (Marianne Jones). The two of them, joined by reporter Marueen (Marilyn Hassett), attempt to return to the village, but are plagued by strange visions, evil disciples of Dsonoqua, and dark magic at every turn.

Whilst at first glance Shadow of the Hawk seems to be another ‘Redsploitation’ film, a film that’s simply trying to cash in on the ‘exotic’ qualities of First Nation peoples for the entertainment of white audiences, the film is actually something more than that. Yes, the main hero Mike is played by a white man, rather than a Native actor, but the story is also about a man who rejects that part of his heritage, who latches onto the fact that he’s ‘half Indian’ whenever someone brings up his family. He’s a man who has rejected a huge part of his heritage, but over the course of the film has to learn to accept that, and even embrace it. The fact that the film also has Chief Dan George, a real life medicine man, author and activist for First Nation rights, and an Oscar nominated actor, makes the film feel like more than just a cheap cash-in that’s trying to make a buck from the Native population.

Both of these films have a sense of ‘Redsploitation’ to them, with two of the leads in Nightwing also being white actors playing Native characters, but they do seem to show a level of respect to the cultures they’re representing on screen. This is coming from a white British person though, so I could be completely wrong on that, and only First Nation people can speak with any real authority on the matter.

The films also come with an audio commentary on each film, involving film historians and writers. Sadly, other than that the only real extras offered are the original trailers. It’s a shame that there’s not more on offer on the disc, as I’d have loved to discover more about these films, and the way that First Nation people were represented in film at the time, but it is still an interesting an entertaining collection all the same.

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Orange City by Lee Matthew Goldberg - Blog Tour

 

'Imagine a secret, hidden city that gives a second chance at life for those selected to come: felons, deformed outcasts, those on the fringe of the Outside World. Everyone gets a job, a place to live; but you are bound to the city forever. You can never leave.

'Its citizens are ruled by a monstrous figure called the "Man" who resembles a giant demented spider from the lifelike robotic limbs attached to his body. Everyone follows the man blindly, working hard to make their Promised Land stronger, too scared to defy him and be discarded to the Empty Zones.

'After ten years as an advertising executive, Graham Weatherend receives an order to test a new client, Pow! Sodas. After one sip of the orange flavor, he becomes addicted, the sodas causing wild mood swings that finally wake him up to the prison he calls reality.'

Where to begin with Orange City? I'm not entirely sure. It's a book that took me by surprise more than once, a story where I thought I knew what it was going to be about, where I thought I knew what was going to happen next; yet it kept surprising me with more twists and turns than I was expecting. It ended up being a book that really intrigued me, one that I found hard to put down.

The story begins before our lead character has even been introduced, as we meet E, an agent of The City. E is not a very nice man. We learn that from the start. In fact, we learn that most of the people in Orange City aren't going to be nice people. We're introduced to The City, a huge, advanced place hidden away from the outside world where criminals and castaways are given a second chance at life. At the centre of the city lies the Eye Tower, a monolithic structure that houses The Man, the being who made all of this a reality.

E works for The Man, and it's his job to head back to the outside world, an America still reeling from the War To End All Wars, where he finds those selected by The Man and offers them a chance to come and join The City. It's on one of these assignments that we meet our hero for the book, Graham. Graham is a young man who's had a really rough life, his parents killed when he was a child, brutally beaten by his foster parent every day, and now facing a prison sentence. So when E turns up offering him a fresh start, a way out, Graham grabs it with both hands.

Skipping forward a decade we find Graham as an over worked and under appreciated advertising executive for one of the biggest PR firms in The City. He puts in his work, even at weekends, doesn't go out to bars or parties, and lives the same dull routine day after day. However, he's broken out of his rut when his boss, E, gives him a new assignment, testing out the upcoming flavours for their new client Pow! soda. Thus begins a series of events that will push Graham to breaking point.

The book is described as being a dystopia, a word that gets thrown around a lot in publishing, so I was expecting to see a story with some of the familiar trappings of the genre, but was pleasantly surprised at just how dark and twisted this book was. The City is an absolutely horrific place to live. This isn't one of those dystopia books where a small group of people are raging against an establishment that benefits a certain group, this is a place where everyone suffers, everyone is a pawn, and it's all for the enjoyment of one individual, The Man.

Very quickly into the narrative we see that The City might be held up as a second chance, a place where people can build a new life for themselves and find meaning, but it's really not. Nothing that happens in the city is free. People are constantly watched by The Man and his millions of cameras. Every conversation is listened to. And anyone who doesn't do what they're told, who doesn't act a certain way or says the right things is banished to awful slums, where the inhabitants are fed a cocktail of drugs to keep them quiet and compliant, and they're used for horrific experimentation.

The City isn't a saviour from prison and the horrors of the outside world, it's a prison with a shiny exterior. It's a living hell for most of the people that live there. Now, there could be some arguments that most of the people there deserve to suffer, the majority of them are criminals and killers, but you soon come to care about what happens to these people, even the ones you know aren't good people, because of the greater evil of The Man.

I'm not going to talk about the greater mysteries at play, or what happens in the plot beyond what's outlined in the blurb, as going into the book without any further knowledge really is the best way to experience this. When you don't know whether to expect a mystery, action, or even romance, every part of this story comes as a surprise because it will change from time to time, take your expectations and subvert them in delightful ways. Just be careful though, because much like Graham and his new soda's, you could end up hooked.

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Justice League #59 - Comic Review

 

The Justice League has always been one of the most important comics in DC's arsenal, showcasing some of the best talent in the company, and some of the biggest heroes that they have to offer, as such when the DC universe goes through a revamp it's important that a bold new version of the team is presented to showcase how things are going to be different. Justice League #59 gives readers this as Brian Michael Bendis starts to bring together a new team of heroes.

The Justice League story, 'Prisms' begins with a conversation between Green Arrow and Black Canary where Oliver lets the readers in on his issue with the League, that he thinks they need to be more down to earth, to be seen doing things for regular people more and not set up on pedestals. This definitely fits with what we know of the character, and their longtime mission to help regular folk, and it's a good mission statement for the League too, especially in an age where those in authority are being held more and more accountable.

After this we're introduced to a new threat for the League when a strange creature called Brutus appears in Khandaq, where it enters into combat with Black Adam as he protects his citizens. When the League arrive on the scene to assist they manage to beat the invader back through a portal to wherever he came from, but learn little about him. Upon further examination the League determine that the creature shares the same energy signature as the new hero Naomi.

And that's pretty much it for the first issue of Justice League as we don't get much more time for anything else, what with the second half of the issue being given over to the Justice League Dark (more on that in a moment). What time we do get seems to focus on the most part on the action moments of the issue, with very little characterisation of plot development taking place. The only character moments we do get are given to Green Arrow and Black Adam, who are always great additions to any team, with most of the rest of the League feeling like background characters.

Sadly, the dialogue doesn't really seem to help with this. Brutus talks like a child much of the time, asking weird, disjointed questions and seeming to have a lack of vocabulary. He asks things like 'What does the symbol thing on your chest mean?', 'You the ruler of this world?', and 'What's the battle stick made of?'. I don't know if this is intentional, whether Brutus is going to be revealed to be a child or something, but it feels very odd; especially when some of the other characters start making odd quips and jokes that feel out of character.

This is the first time that I've read a Bendis comic in years,  and I have to admit, I'm not hugely impressed. He's a name that gets a lot of praise, who's done some big work in the comics industry, but if this is the level of quality that I'm to expect from the Justice League stories under his tenure I'm not going to be looking forward to new issues.

In contrast, the Justice League Dark story, 'Return to Caledonia', is a great issue, and really raises the overall quality of the book. Though, as with the Justice League story, I can't help but feel that it would have benefited from a full issue of it's own, rather than being made to share space with its sister team in the same book.

Thanks to Future State readers got to see some interesting things that Ram V had planned for his run with the team, and it looks like that nightmare future is at risk of coming to pass as Merlin returns to Earth and begins to put plans into place to take over the world of magic.

Whilst the Justice League story seems to be doing things fresh the JLD are carrying on from their previous run, with John Constantine and Zatana referencing their time under Wonder Woman's leadership, and how things have changed since she disappeared. It's nice to see this previous series acknowledged, as it was a great series, and it seems like Ram V is aiming to bring a lot of that quality to this new run.

Sadly, the short length of the story means that we don't have much to talk about beyond Merlin returning and Jason Blood delivering a message of warning to Zatana and John. It's a shame that we don't get more, but Ram V is able to use the space given to him to create a story that's dripping in atmosphere and sets a tone for a pretty dark story, and one that has a lot of stakes running on it. So far it's definitely the most impressive part of the double feature issue.

I like the line-up for the new Justice League, and have always enjoyed the Justice League Dark, so getting both teams in one book should be a great thing, but sadly both stories feel under-served thanks to having to be in the same book. Whilst this could encourage some creative storytelling from the writers, having to make the most of the short space, I'd much rather have had two separate books.

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Superman: Red and Blue #1 - Comic Review

 

I didn't know anything about Superman: Red and Blue before reading it, and it made the experience very surprising, so if you don't want to know what it is or what it's about but want to know if it's worth picking up, yes, yes it it. If you want to know more about the book and what I thought of it please read on.

Superman: Red and Blue is an anthology of short stories that focus on Superman, all with art where the only colours are, you guessed it, red and blue. This issue has five stories, 'Untitled' written by John Ridley with art from Jordie Bellaire, 'The Measure of Hope' written by Brandon Easton with art from Steve Lieber and Ron Chan, 'The Boy Who Saved Superman' by Wes Craig, 'Human Colors' written by Dan Watters with art by Dani, and 'School of Hard Knock-Knock Jokes' written by Marguerite Bennett with art from Jill Thompson.

One of the things that all of these stories have in common, beyond the obviousness of them all being about Superman and using a limited colour pallet, is that these are some of the most human stories I think I've seen featuring the character.

'Untitled' sees Clark Kent travelling to the nation of Lubania, a nation where Superman and Batman were held prisoner and tortured for months in Worlds Finest #192 - 193. Clark has travelled there to interview Nikolai Koslov, the man who ran the concentration camp where he was held prisoner; the man who tortured him every single day he was there. Clark comes face to face with the man who made him feel his weakest, the man who still haunts his dreams, and has to talk with him. We see the level of trauma that Clark has had to live with in this story, the amount of post-traumatic stress that he has inside him. We even see that a small part of him wants to punish Koslov for what he put him through, to burn him in half with his heat vision. This story shows a level of pain that we've never seen in Superman before, and it's incredibly shocking for that.

'The Measure of Hope' sees Superman coming to attend the funeral of a woman who has passed away following an addiction with heroin. Her son was a kid who looked up to Superman as a child, who's best moment was seeing Superman in action, in having Superman talk to him. He adored and idolised him, so when he learnt his mother was a drug user, when he was afraid of what might happen he wrote to Superman asking him for help. Unfortunately, thanks to how much fan mail he gets it takes Superman a long time to read through his letters, and by the time he reaches these ones it's too late to help this family. The story is an incredibly moving one, one where we see that Superman can't save everyone, even if he really wants to. It's a story that shows why terrible things still happen in a world where Superman is there to help; because despite all his powers he's still just one man, and one man can't save the entire world all the time.

'The Boy Who Saved Superman' sees Clark at the Daily Planet, watching a young man interview for a job, a man who he calls his hero, the man who was the boy who saved Superman. We go back to one of the earliest adventures of Superman, where he'd only been around for a few months, and in protecting Metropolis from a giant monster is rendered unconscious. Whilst others are fleeing in terror a lone boy takes hold of the unconscious hero and drags him through a collapsing building, taking him to the roof, above the dust clouds, so that he can get into the sunlight the hero needs. He manages to get Superman out, he gives him the boost he needs to save the day, but loses his hand doing so. When seeing him again in the Daily Planet we see Clark almost lost for words, stuttering out what he wants to say, because he's face to face with the young man who saved his life, his own personal hero.

'Human Colors' is the strangest tale in the collection, and sees Superman confronting an imp from the fifth dimension, who has drained all of the colour out of the world, leaving it completely black and white. The imp gives Superman a small box, a box that contains all of the stolen colours, but Superman isn't sure if he should open it or not; so decides to start with two particular colours to see what happens. This is probably the strangest of the stories in this issue, and it doesn't so much focus on Clark in particular, but on humanity as a whole and the connections that we all have with our emotions.

'The School of Hard Knock-Knock Jokes' is the only story in this issue to not feature Superman at all, instead focusing on Clark as a child, attending his first days in kindergarten. The story shows Clark in a very mundane situation, one where powers and abilities won't help him through, and instead he needs to focus on the qualities that make him a good person, his kindness and generous spirit.

The stories in this issue focus on what make Superman great, not his powers, but his humanity. Superman might be an alien, he might have the powers of a god, but he's one of the most human of characters, one of the kindest and most decent; and these stories demonstrate that. I'm looking forward to seeing what the rest of the series has in store.

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