The Thing – Throwback 10

 

Originally published on Set The Tape

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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Night Raiders – Film Review

 

Originally published on Set The Tape

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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Halloween Girl Vol 1: Promises To Keep – Comic Review

 

Originally published on Set The Tape

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

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

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

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

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

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

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JK Rowling Doesn't Care About Rape Victims

 

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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Full Alert (1997) – Blu-ray Review

 

Originally published on Set The Tape

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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Ghosts of Mars – Throwback 20

 

Originally published on Set The Tape

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

 

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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Aconyte Announces Summer 2022 Books

 

Publisher Aconyte Books, home to fiction set in a number of famous worlds such as Marvel, Arkham Horror, Legend of the Five Rings, and Zombicide to name but a few, have revealed a host of exciting new titles coming to readers in summer 2022. And I'm very excited by the books that are on offer!

Coming in May 2022, Legend of the Five Rings: The Great Clans of Rokugan - The Selected Novella's volume 2 brings together some wonderful stories by some top names. The book will feature 'Deathseeker' by Robert Denton III, 'The Eternal Knot' by Marie Brennan, and 'Trial of Shadows' by D G Laderoute.

In addition, the book will also include a series of spooky stories from the Legend of the Five Rings Halloween tales; which have never been in print before.

The new book features a beautiful cover by Mauro Del Bo.

Also releasing in May 2022 is the latest Marvel novel, the first in the new School of X series; School of X: The Siege of X-41 by Tristan Palmgren.

Spinning out of the pages of Palmgren's recent Marvel Heroines novel, Outlaw: Relentless, this new story follows Joshua 'Josh' Foley, also known as Elixir. An Omega-level mutant, Elixir must learn to come to terms with his anti-mutant upbringing, all whilst fighting off vampiric mermen, and an ancient leviathan in a story being descried as an 'intense survival adventure'.

The book features cover art from Christina Myrvold.

The final book releasing in May 2022 is the third, and final, entry in the epic Twilight Imperium series, Twilight Imperium: The Veiled Masters by Tim Pratt.

This trilogy comes to a close as the galaxy stands on the brink of war. But hope yet remains that the vast web of schemes that has led to this point can be exposed before it's too late to stop disaster. The final part of this sprawling space opera has been tipped to be an astounding conclusion.

The cover for Twilight Imperium: The Veiled Masters is provided by Scott Schomburg, and fits together with the previous two books to make one huge piece of art!

June 2022 kicks off with some more zombie slaying action in the latest Zombicide entry. After fighting zombies in the modern day, as well as travelling to the future and space, this novel brings the action to a new fantasy setting in Zombicide: Age of the Undead by C. L. Werner.

Set in a fantasy world whose peace has been shattered by the zombie apocalypse, a bold knight must enlist the help of a band of unlikely allies in order to track down the source of the undead corruption sweeping across the land.

Zombicide: Age of the Undead is based upon the Black Plague edition of Zombicide, and is set to be a fun horror adventure packed with humour.

The cover art has been provided by Daniele Orizio.

The next entry in the Watchdogs Legion series comes in June 2022 with the release of Watchdogs Legion: Daybreak Legacy by Stewart Hotston; which sees the return of the resistance group from Watchdogs Legion: Day Zero!

Set right after the events of the game, this novel sees our past heroes return to take on an emergent AI and an authoritarian state in this gritty, high tech thriller. Project Daybreak isn't as dead as they thought, and neither are those who died with it.

The cover for this book has yet to be revealed; make sure to keep an eye on Acontye Books for the announcement! 

The Legend of the Five Rings, A Daidoji Shin Mystery: The Flower Path by Josh Reynolds also hits shelves July 2022, and sees the extraordinary detective Daidoji Shin investigating a wonderfully complex and intriguing locked room mystery.

This third entry in the Legends of the Five Rings series follows on from Legends of the Five Rings: Poison River, which received the People's Choice award at the 2021 UK Games Expo.

The cover art for the book has been provided by Grant Griffin.

The second entry in the Terraforming Mars series comes in July 2022 as readers return to the red planet in Terraforming Mars: Edge of Catastrophe.

In this sweeping science fiction thriller set in the 26th century Mars is a thriving world; the huge crater left by the crashing moon in Terraforming Mars: In The Shadow of Deimos is now a domed city filled with industry and a burgeoning Martian-born workforce.

The cover art has been provided by René Aigner.

Also arriving July 2022 is Descent Legends of the Dark: The Raiders of Bloodwood by Davide Mana.

A non-stop sword and sorcery action adventure set in the world of Descent: Legends of the Dark, the book sees a terrible invasion of Terrinoth. A handful of heroes is all that stands in between a monstrous horde and the total destruction of the heart of Terrinoth.

The stunning cover art is by Asur Misoa.

A new entry in the chilling Arkham Horror series comes in August 2022 with Arkham Horror: Coils of the Labrinth by David Annandale.

The first novel in the series to be written by Annandale, the book sees an unnatural horror penetrating our reality to prey on the dreams of its victims. Something sinister is lurking at the heart of a labyrinthine nightmare, something longing to be set free.

This gorgeous cover art has been provided by John Coulthart.

The next entry in the popular Assassin's Creed novel series comes in August 2022 with Assassin's Creed: The Magus Conspiracy by Kate Heartfield, the Aurora-award winning historical fantasy author.

The war between the Assassin's and the Templars causes havoc in the Victorian era when Pierette, a daring acrobat performing at the Great Exhibition, comes to the rescue of mathematician Ada Lovelace; saving her from a gag of thugs.

This breakneck thriller is set to open a new chapter in the Assassin's Creed universe. Keep an eye open for the cover reveal!

The final announcement for summer 2022 sees Squirrel Girl arriving on the scene in August. Squirrel Girl: Universe will be written by Tristan Palmgren, and will see the titular hero setting out in an adventure to save the galaxy.

Squirrel Girl is in a pickle and a jam, a metaphor that mixes about as well as it tastes. She and her friends are lost in outer space, where there is a conspicuous absence of oxygen and, even more troubling, a shortage of squirrels. What’s a girl to do?

Stay tuned for the reveal of the cover.

To keep up with the exciting announcements, as well as information on all of Aconyte's  upcoming and previous releases, make sure to head over to their website. I don't know about you, but I'm excited for a lot of these new releases, and look forward to seeing what other things they announce soon.

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Something More Than Night by Kim Newman - Book Review

 

'Dulwich College, England 1904. A young Raymond Chandler meets an enthusiastic cricketer named Billy Pratt (later Boris Karloff). Sharing a sense of being outsiders at school, the two young men become friends and Chandler encourages Pratt to help him uncover the mystery of the housemaster's strange wife and various disappearing objects. What the boys uncover will haunt them their whole lives...

'Hollywood, USA, 1944. When a young actress names Eliza Dane, also Chandler's mistress, turns up dead, in an apparent suicide having jumped from the Hollywood sign, Chandler realises he cannot escape his past. He seeks out his old friend and together they confront the terrible creature who entered their lives all those years ago.'

Kim Newman books are strange creatures. They're filled with plots that have more twists and turns in them than you'd find in a ball of string, characters that come to life in unexpected ways, and nods to other books and films that will have you smiling at the references. Having previously read and enjoyed his exploration of the Sherlock Holmes mythos in Moriarty: The Hound of the D'Urbervilles I was interested to see what he'd do with a book that not only celebrated the film and fiction of Hollywood in the 1940's, but featured two real life icons of that era.

Something More Than Night follows Raymond Chandler, who's only just just began his career as a writer and is waiting for his first book, The Big Sleep, to be published. He gets a call one night from his long time friend Billy Pratt, more famously known as Boris Karloff, who needs him to come to help identify a body. Chandler's been called in because the body resembles a victim from one of his magazine stories, and the police want to get his opinion on it.

Arriving at the scene, Chandler and Karloff watch as a car is pulled from the sea, the car of a friend of theirs. A body sits in the drivers seat, his head blown off with a shotgun. Stranger still, the police also find a woman in the trunk, a woman who is still alive after hours in the water. The woman is also known to Chandler and Karloff, as she was there years ago when their lives went through a strange ordeal; one that showed them the existence of monsters and strange abilities.

From here the story takes on a somewhat disjointed and complex narrative as we jump around in time, exploring the history these characters have together, the journey they went on, and what ultimately led to one of them dead in the sea with another locked in the trunk of their car. We get the story narrated by Chandler, who is able to give us his perspective on much of the events, as well as being able to relay to us the things he learnt where he wasn't present for things. As such, the book takes a much more personal approach to the story. This isn't just a series of events we're watching unfold, instead we see how the strange happenings alter how Chandler look at the world, how they push him to breaking point, and how much it effects him in a much more intimate way.

But perhaps the best thing about the book being written from Chandler's perspective is the fact that he talks like one of this characters, describing things like he himself is some kind of hard boiled detective. There are times when this seems to happen just naturally, giving the impression that perhaps there was a lot of Chandler's mannerisms and way of speech in his books; but other times he'll make a point of saying something like 'Marlowe would say..' before saying something very cliched and tongue-in-cheek. It's actually quite wonderfully done, as the times where it supposed to be natural feel natural, whilst the fact that Newman is hanging a lantern on those more ridiculous moments means that he's got the leeway to get away with it.

Due to the nature of the first person perspective we don't get to spend as much time with Boris Karloff as we do Chandler, and as a result of this I felt that I didn't know him as well by the end of the book. That being said, I really enjoyed how Newman did this. He came across as a man deeply guarded, somewhat shy, and a little embarrassed by his fame and recognition. He was quiet and thoughtful for much of the time he's in the book, and acts as a good foil to the more hotheaded Chandler.

I have to be honest, for a good portion of the start of the book I was a little unsure where things were going to be heading, due in part to the shifting narrative style that Newman employs. There's a big sense of mystery to things, and I wasn't quite sure why I was having certain events revealed, and what parts would become relevant later on. I really had to pay attention to everything that was happening. However, there came a point where I realised that despite this slow building start I'd become deeply hooked.

By the time the strangeness really starts and you realise that this isn't just a historical novel, but it's a story set in a world where the fantastical exists it's too late; you're already engrossed in things. By starting things more grounded, and slowly introducing weirder and odder elements Newman had ensured that I, like the characters, was completely thrown when my idea of what kind of world this was set in was thrown out the window. It was very well done; and lead to me staying up late reading.

Something More Than Night is a book that I'd be hard pressed to describe. It doesn't really feel like anything else I've read, but is also so unmistakably a Kim Newman novel. It has his sense of style, strangeness, and love of fiction that makes his work feel so unique. I think this is the kind of book that fans of 1940's detective stories and Hollywood movies will love for how much it clearly revels in that era, whilst those who might only have a passing familiarity with this part of pop culture will be drawn in by the central mystery plot and the great character work. Whatever your reason might be for picking the book up, it's sure to be an interesting ride.

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Star Wars Adventures: Tales of Villainy #12 – Comic Review

 

Originally published on Set The Tape

The previous issue of Star Wars Adventures: Tales of Villainy was definitely an issue of two halves, with one really good story and one that felt a little lacklustre. With the second half of the Rogue Squadron story taking place here, the second story in this issue was going to need to be something really good to compete with it. Luckily, we got a couple of great stories this month.

The first story, ‘Squad Goals’ part two by Cavan Scott, picks up where it left off last time, with Rogue Squadron coming across an Imperial ambush, whilst their grounded pilot, Ibti Myrak, discovers that they’ve fallen into a trap. As the issue starts, Rogue Squardon, down two pilots now due to Ibti being grounded and Lyle Kullan, the pilot they came to rescue, being missing, find themselves in hot water as they deal with Imperial fighters and a Star Destroyer.

The ship to ship action is really well done, and there’s always a sense of dynamic movement going on; something that isn’t always easy to portray in still images. It really feels like the pilots are having to think on their feet and react quickly, coming up with desperate plans and manoeuvres as they try to survive against overwhelming odds.

Meanwhile, Ibti has to find a way to help her teammates: something easier said than done. This is only the second issue that we’ve had Ibti, and as far as I’m aware its the only time she’s been used in a story, but thanks to how well written this is we get a really good sense of the kind of person that she is, and the lengths that she’s willing to go to to help her team, even if they’ve lost their faith in her. My one criticism would be that for a story that includes Admiral Ackbar and features a trap, it doesn’t include the phrase ‘It’s a trap!’ being yelled.

Manuel Bracchi and Bracardi Curry provide the art for this story, and it’s lovely work. The art is wonderfully detailed, and everything feels like it’s jumped straight out of the movies into the comic. The ships are packed with small details, like where the panels on the metal comes together, and the characters all look unique and dynamic, meaning that you’re never left confused about who you’re seeing. It’s still one of the best looking and best written stories in the series so far.

The second story, ‘Give and Take’, written and drawn by Andrew Lee Griffith, takes place in a much earlier time period during the early days of the Clone Wars. We follow Jedi Knight Aayla Secura as she and her droid, QT-KT, infiltrate a secret Separatist base where Geonosian scientists have been working on some kind of highly classified plans. Tasked with getting the information and bringing it back to the Jedi, Aayla and QT get to Mission Impossible their way through the facility. Unfortunately, things don’t go quite as planned as their escape is blocked by Asajj Ventress.

As a big fan of Star Wars: The Clone Wars it’s always good to get a story in the era, especially one that features Ventress, as she’s a firm favourite of mine. What makes this appearance of the character quite interesting too is that its one of the few times that she wields her twin sabers together as one, creating a double ended light saber with an odd curve in the middle of the handle. It’s a unique look, and one that makes for some interesting combat in this issue.

Perhaps the thing that I loved most in this story, however, was the inclusion of QT-KT, Aayla’s droid. For those who might not be aware, QT-KT appeared in a four episode arc in the animated series as part of D-Squad, an all droid team that included R2-D2. However, the team wasn’t going to include the pink astromech droid, but was supposed to include a pink R2 unit called R2-KT. To avoid confusion the name was changed slightly before the episode, and QT-KT was made. The thing about QT, and the original droid she’s based upon, R2-K2, that makes her so special though, is her origin.

Albin Johnson is one of the founders of the charity costume group The 501st Legion. This group have done a lot of good work over the years, helped children, attended conventions, and were even used on screen in The Mandalorian. Albin’s daughter, Katie, was diagnosed with terminal brain cancer when she was six-years-old. A fan of Star Wars, Katie wanted an R2 droid to watch over her when she was sick. With the help of some amazingly kind people Albin created a droid for her, painted her favourite colour, pink, called R2-KT.

Whilst Katie passed away at the age of seven, she got to spend time with her own little droid before she did. Since then the real life R2-KT has been used to visit children’s hospitals and raise both awareness of child illness, and money to help good causes. R2-KT eventually became part of canon, but QT-KT is still connected to her, and to Katie, so her inclusion always makes me think of that wonderful little girl and her love for Star Wars. Which means that this story will instantly get a place in my heart.

Star Wars Adventures: Tales of Villainy #12 is my favourite issue of the series to date. It has some great stories in it, some fantastic artwork, and for those in the know, a nod to a wonderful kid. What more can you ask for?

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