Rich and Famous / Tragic Hero – Blu-ray Review

 

Originally published on Set The Tape

Hong Kong cinema has produced its fair share of crime movies over the years, and a decent amount of cop movies too. They’re genres that seem to work well in the Hong Kong setting, and the people making them are able to infuse a lot of personality and style in them that makes them unique to Hong Kong. So when Eureka Entertainment released Rich and Famous and Tragic Hero with the description ‘influenced by The Godfather and Once Upon a Time in America‘ I was left wondering if these two films would still feel distinct, if they’d still have the same kind of flavour that makes Hong Kong cinema so enjoyable. Needless to say these fears were unfounded, as both movies proved to be an absolute delight.

Rich and Famous tells the story of Yung (Alex Man) and his adoptive brother Kwok (Andy Lau) who his father took in when they were children when Kwok was orphaned. Having grown up together, the two see each other as brothers, and Kwok treats Yung’s sister and father as his own. So when their father falls sick and medical bills need paying the two of them try to trick a local bookie into paying out on a fake ticket. When they’re caught they’re able to talk their way out of Yung losing a finger, but they are both landed in serious debt. Soon they find themselves caught up in the world of gangsters and serious crime as they try to get enough money to pay off their debt.

Luckily, they catch the attention of gang leader Li Ah Chai (Chow Yun Fat), who takes pity on the two brothers, seeing that they’re in over their heads and trying to help their family. Chai gives them jobs in the organisation, and over the coming years they rise through the ranks, becoming Chai’s friends and trusted enforcers. Unfortunately, events come into play that will see a violent rift form between the two brothers.

It’s easy to see the comparisons to The Godfather with Rich and Famous, as the stories of Yung and Kwok are similar to that of Michael Corleone. The pair don’t set out to become criminals, and it’s through wanting to help out other people that they find themselves being slowly drawn into a world of crime and violence. Unlike The Godfather films, which show the uglier side of the Corleone family and makes it clear that they’re not good people, Chai and his group are very much painted as the good side here. Yes, they engage in criminal activities and kill people, but they’re always shown to be the reasonable people, who try to keep the peace, and who only kill in self defence. There’s very little talk about how they get their money compared to the other crime families, and you never see them engaging in torture or beatings like their enemies do.

This clear line of good and bad is mostly to illustrate the different journeys that Yung and Kwok will go on during this film, as one of them sticks with Chai, whilst the other will turn against him. It wants you to see one of the brothers as more inherently bad, more corrupted by their lifestyle; and it works well. It’s ironic that the word tragic is used in the title of the second film, as the first is very much a tragedy too, and seeing Yung break his bond with his brother, murdering people in cold blood, torturing his friends, and performing vicious acts has you feeling sorry for him as much as you hate him.

That being said, Tragic Hero shakes things up quite a bit, and makes a much starker distinction between the two sides in the conflict. Set several years after the first film, Yung has served his time in prison and has now risen up the ranks to become his own crime boss to rival Chai. So far the peace has been kept between the two, though everyone knows that Yung is waiting for an excuse to kill Chai. When Yung begins his machinations to take down Chai it begins a series of bloody events that will see innocent people brutally killed, and Chai losing everything. Fleeing the country, he goes to the one friend he has left, Kwok, who left the criminal life behind years before. But when Yung’s crazed lust for violence comes after them it will see the two brothers once again at odds.

Rich and Famous is a film that focuses on the relationship between Kwok and Yung, and charts Yung’s slow descent into evil. In contrast, the sequel goes arch in its depiction of him, and Yung goes from a man slowly corrupted by crime into an unadulterated psychopath who finds joy in murder. It can at first be a bit jarring, but it’s actually a pretty interesting look at how hate can twist someone so completely. Yung has lived with his desire for revenge for years, and it’s turned him into a complete monster. It also makes the lines of good and bad so much starker here, and you’d be hard pressed to describe Chai as a bad guy in this film at all. He, and Kwok, are the heroes described in the title.

I can see that this change might not sit well with everyone, and it might be too drastic a shift, but when watching the two films together it does feel like a believable progression of these characters’ stories. Perhaps the most jarring change isn’t in the characters, but in the way the film is presented. The first film is a slower affair, more focused on characters, and is a crime drama with some smattering of action in a couple of scenes. In contrast, Tragic Hero is a dark action movie. The characters are well formed at this point, and there’s no more development for them to be had; Kwok and Chai are the heroes, and Yung is the villain, and that doesn’t change. So the film leans into the violence and the action more.

There’s a point in the film where you can feel the change, an event that means that everything changes, and it sets our heroes on a road that will lead to a sequence that feels like the Hong Kong equivalent of Commando, with explosions, gunfights, and extreme violence. Honestly, I kind of loved this shift. The moment that changes the movie literally made my jaw drop, and I couldn’t believe that the film had just done what it did. And as a fan of 80’s action films, seeing this character-driven gangster drama turn into one of the most intense action movies I’ve seen was a surprise and a joy. Tragic Hero will be the more divisive of the two films here, but for me it was a delight to watch, and a surprisingly interesting end to the entire saga.

The performances in both films are great, and Chow Yun Fat makes for a wonderfully charismatic gangster. He’s a kind and caring guy, and it never once feels like him being kind towards the people under him is an act. As such, when he needs to turn on the anger it comes across as much more surprising and intense. That being said, Alex Man is by far the actor you want to watch here. The first film sees him go from a kind young man out to help his family into someone who starts to be out for himself, eventually broken and twisted by his hate for others brought about by his own actions. His downfall is a tragic one, and because of how well he played Yung at the start of the film you can’t help but still care for him at the end. That being said, he’s absolutely chewing up the scenery in the sequel, leaning heavily into the role of villain. It feels like he’s having a lot of fun playing a character so openly bad, and you can’t help but love seeing him on screen even though you absolutely despise the character at that point.

Along with the two films, presented in new 1080p restorations, the discs feature a couple of extras, including archival interviews with Manfred Wong and Michael Mak (both clocking in at 20 minutes), and a new short feature looking at the dubbing of Hong Kong movies in the 80s, again clocking in at around 20 minutes. Other than that there are new audio commentaries on both movies by Asian film expert Frank Djeng. Sadly, that’s about it, and both discs end up feeling quite light on extra material. This has been something that regular viewers of Eureka’s Hong Kong film releases will have noticed, however, and the lack of behind the scenes materials made at the time is really felt now, decades later. Whilst it would be nice to have seen more stuff included here it’s not really the reason why folks are picking up these new releases, and the films themselves carry the set well enough.

Rich and Famous and Tragic Hero are both enjoyable and entertaining movies with some great actors in the central cast. On their own both movies are entertaining and well made, though offer slightly different things. However, watched together the two movies make for a truly interesting story about these two brothers and the crime lord who forever changes their lives. Fans of crime movies, those who love character drama, and action movie buffs will all find amazing moments to enjoy in this new set.

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Sakra – Film Review

 

Originally published on Set The Tape

The wuxia genre is one that often gets a bit muddled when it comes to the big screen, especially when it comes to martial arts movies putting on impressive stunts. Whenever a character flies across the screen, leaps over their adversary in an impossible way, or lands a blow that sends their foe flying out of shot you can be left wondering if the film is just going a bit over the top, or if it’s supposed to be a fantasy story. Luckily, Sakra makes it clear very early on that the events of this film are in no way supposed to be realistic, and you’re able to relax and enjoy the spectacle.

Sakra, which both stars and is directed by Donnie Yen, tells the story of Qiao Feng, who was left on his adoptive parents’ doorstep as a baby. His parents, who live in the Song Empire, raise Qiao Feng as their own, and teach him to be a decent, honourable young man. Over the years he ends up becoming part of the Beggar’s Sect, a gang of heroes that wander the land. As one of the Sect’s chiefs, Qiao Feng makes a name for himself and does some good in the world.

However, Qiao Feng’s life is shattered when he is accused of murdering one of the Sect’s leaders. It is revealed that the leader had discovered Qiao Feng’s true origin, a child of the Song Empire’s enemies, the Khitan, and it is believed that Qiao Feng murdered him to keep the secret. After escaping the gang and returning home, Qiao Feng finds his adoptive parents and his Shaolin teacher murdered, and is blamed for these crimes too. With four murders against his name, Qiao Feng sets out to discover who committed the crimes.

Sakra makes it clear within the opening minutes of the movie that this is a fantasy film; one with arch characters, extreme action, and a complex plot. The first time we see the adult Qiao Feng is in a scene where he is fighting a group of monks at a tea house, a scene that has the combatants flying across buildings, smashing through statues, and producing fire around their fists. It’s an impressively put together scene, one that not only lays out the kind of things that you can expect from the setting, but also the beauty of the film.

Sakra is an impressive looking movie, one that goes out of its way to make each shot look good. The level of detail and attention given over to the sets and the costumes makes this a film where you’ll find your eyes wandering around the screen trying to take everything in. The action sequences also look incredibly well done, and it seems like a lot of effort has been put in to make them as interesting as possible. The camera isn’t just content to sit stationary as the fighting goes on in the centre, and moves and flies around the environment like it’s also possessed of enhanced abilities. There’s a level of fluidity and scale to the film because of this, and it feels as though camera position and movement were planned into the fights with painstaking detail, working to give the audience the most dynamic experience possible.

Based upon the novel Demi-Gods and Semi-Devils, the film adapts a small part of the large narrative, focusing on one of three central protagonists in the book. The film seems to be hinting that there could be more to come from this story, with an extensive mid-credits scene that plays into the history of the events of Sakra as well as building towards a future narrative. As nothing has been confirmed towards a sequel actually being made at this point, these scenes make for an interesting move, as they take a film that feels pretty well finished and complete and make it clear that there’s a lot more happening. If no sequel comes out these moments are unlikely to ruin the experience of the film, though it may leave viewers somewhat frustrated if it gets them excited for more.

When it comes to art there are many discussions about separating the art from the artist. Often times these discussions end up getting muddied and heated, especially with fanbases that can be described as ‘intense’. One need only look at the recent discussions of Ezra Miller being brought up in relation to The Flash, and how fans shouted down comments as being some kind of hit piece, in order to see how these things can sometimes go. As such, it does feel somewhat risky to mention Donnie Yen’s links to the Chinese Communist Party in relation to Sakra. That being said, with there being scenes in the movie where his character confronts the ill treatment of people described as animals and stands against it, this does end up feeling a bit odd and even hypocritical of him considering the human rights violations in China against the Uyghurs.

Sakra is an interesting, and well made Wuxia martial arts movie with some fantastic action sequences and inventive fights. It manages to make a pretty dense narrative, filling the two hour run time with a lot of background info, romance sub-plots, political intrigue, and small character moments. In a lot of ways Sakra feels like the kind of films that the martial arts movies of the 70s and 80s were trying to be, but with the budget to finally bring the grand sense of scale and epicness to proceedings.

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The Comic Cave - Wytches

 

The Comic Cave is a regular feature where we spin the Wheel of Comics and see what graphic novel story it brings up for us to deep dive into! This week we take a look at Wytches, a dark and creepy horror tale about the monsters stalking a father and daughter in their new home.

Witches have existed almost forever, the concept of people with powers and abilities that you don't understand, often frightening and monstrous. Over the centuries witches have played various roles, from healers and wise women, to monsters, and even victims. And whilst very few people in the modern world believe in witches and magic the way that we used to, witches remain a part of our culture and imagination. They appear in our stories, they get used a boogeymen, and you're guaranteed to come across a few every Halloween. But the witches that you think of when you hear the word don't appear in Wytches. Writer Scott Snyder instead creates something more monstrous, more primal, and more terrifying than a green skinned woman riding a broom.

Wytches tells the story of Rook family, mother Lucy, father Charlie, and their teen daughter Sailor, who've recently moved away from their old life to a quiet small town to try and get a fresh start following a series of tragic events in their lives. Not only is Sailor getting over a case of extreme bullying, but her mother was recently in a car accident that left her using a wheelchair; which also resulted in the loss of her unborn baby. Things have been hard for the Rooks, but they're hoping that this new start will be what they need.

Unfortunately, their first day in their new home doesn't go as well as hoped, as Sailor struggles to fit in at school, and is immediately asked if she killed her bully (who went missing following an incident between the two of them in the woods), and back at the house Charlie and Lucy have a deer walk inside, who then begins to scream and vomits up blood all over the office room. They're all shaken by the days events, but Sailor is affected the most, as it brings up memories of the day that her bully, Annie, went missing.

Annie followed Sailor out into the woods one day, screaming at her, abusing her, telling her how much she wished she was dead. Sailor, who's gone through months of this finally snaps and pulls out a knife, threatening Annie to leave her alone. It's at this point that Annie pulls out a gun. She orders Sailor to strip, and tells her that she's going to record Sailor masturbating with the knife so that she can release it to the school. As Sailor begins to take her shoes off a strange chittering sounds begins. Annie walks up to one of the trees where the noise seems to be coming from, and is pulled inside a small opening by long, monstrous arms, in a spray of blood.

In the present, Sailor begins to see a strange, twisted shape in the woods from her window at night, something that calls her name, and begins to believe that it's Annie come back. When something smashes its way into her room one night and bites her, it leaves her with something growing on her neck. The visions of the creature begin to become more intense, and Sailor eventually runs out of school, fleeing into the woods to find answers. As Charlie starts to head out to find her, he's attacked by a woman who begins to tell him about what's really going on, and the danger his family is in.

Wythes is a monster story, and one that plays itself out at a wonderfully creepy pace. The book opens in with a dictionary definition of witches, one that we're all familiar with, a definition that's repeated on the next page, clawed out, the writing obscured by slashes and cuts. Between this and the opening scene set a hundred years ago, the book doesn't play around with making it clear that these are not the witches you're used to, and that you're not going to be able to predict where the book goes.

As the drama with the Rook family unfolds we begin to learn more and more about the Wytches, about what they are and where they come from, and even with this information we still know very little about them. It's claimed in the book that they're thousands of years old, and that they might be an offshoot of humanity that evolved in a different way, but even then that's still just a theory. It's said that they're not magic, but that they have sciences that are so beyond us that they appear like magic, but once again that could just be conjecture. Even when we go below the surface and see them in their tunnels and caves, see them in their natural environment, we get very little insight into them. And this is perfect. The best horror comes from the unknowable, the things that you don't understand, and Wytches gives you that in spades.

The monsters in Wytches are used sparingly, appearing only in the background at times, hidden in shadows, and you're left wondering whether they were actually there or not most of the times that they appear. Scott Snyder seems to know that less is more, and having read some of his other horror comics before, seems well practised at making the medium frightening; something which is a lot harder than in some other mediums. It also helps that there's a very engaging human story going on too, and the relationship between Charlie and Sailor is the very real heart of the book.

We learn through flashbacks that Charlie is an alcoholic, and that in the past he had a decent relationship with Sailor, playing games with her and encouraging her creativity and belief in herself with her 'monster slayer' games, but drink caused a rift between the two of them. One of the incidents in which things come to a head for them is when Charlie has climbed up onto an old feris wheel at an abandonned amusement park, and is drinking in one of the higher seats. Heckling Sailor, who's too afraid to climb up after him, he verbally abuses her and berates her until she begins to climb up. The abuse gets to the point where she tries climbing even higher than him in order to prove herself to him and shut him up. Sailor falls, and Charlie is barely able to catch her in his drunken stupor, managing to save her from serious injury.

This incident happens at the same time that Lucy is driving in the accident that paralyses her and loses the baby, and Charlie and Sailor end up in the hospital that same night as the receive the news about Lucy. The two of them have a blow up, in which Sailor makes Charlie see that he's failing as a father, that Sailor thinks of herself as a failure as a daughter because of it. Ultimately it brings the two of them closer together, and it makes Charlie give up drinking to be the father that Sailor deserves. It's also the catalyst for Charlie to throw himself in danger again and again for her over the course of the book, willing to give his life to save his daughter from the Wytches. This relationship, and the things that Charlie and Sailor go through over the course of the book are not easy to read, and there are times when it quite literally had me crying. And it's because of this that I'd say Wytches isn't just a horror story, its a love story in a horror setting, a story about how far a parent will go for their child. 

Some of these themes are expanded upon in the essays found in the back of the collected graphic novel, in which Scott Snyder talks about what it's like to be a parent, and how you try your best to make your world a kinder, safer one for your child even whilst fighting against monsters both imaginary and real. The essay in which Snyder talks about his young son getting over his childhood fears of things like ghosts and the tooth fair, only to have a terrifying experience during a lock-down drill, where his son developed a fear of a gunman coming into his school is absolutely heartbreaking to read. The first of these short essays, however, was actually chilling in places. Its here that Snyder reveals the genesis for Wytches, of a frightening childhood experience in the woods, and a similar experience again as an adult. There were times reading that that I felt the hairs on the back of my neck stand up, and could very easily see how this pushed Snyder to create Wytches.

Whilst the writing is fantastic, I have to also heap a lot of the praise for the book at the art team. Artist Jock, and colourist Matt Hollingsworth do such a fantastic job at bringing the story to life, and at making the book scary. Comics are hard to make frightening, with it being a medium that married still images with snippets of words it's much more difficult to put readers into the emotions and the moment than a film or a novel. A lot of comics rely on things like gore and gross out moments in order to shock the reader because building atmosphere in a comic can be hard. But in Wytches this seems to be something the boo excels at. Some of this is down to how the art hides small things in the panels, the Wytches peeking out from behind trees in the background, or strange shadows that might be a monster.  But the way the art is presented also makes you uncomfortable.

Jock does some amazing work on all of the projects he works on, and his distinct art style has resulted in him receiving a lot of accolades and acclaim. But with Wytches his work has been given a whole new look and feel thanks to the colouring work from Hollingsworth. Colouring tends to be one of the parts of comic making that gets overlooked, and whilst bad colouring can make a book stand out for the wrong reasons a lot of folks tend to gloss over good colouring. If the colourist is doing their job right then you're not really noticing. But Hollingsworth brings a whole new level of create flair and wonder to the book that you can't not notice it. The back of the book goes into this in some detail, showing you the step by step process for the art. Most of the processes are ones that long time comic readers will be familiar with, but it's the final stages that make it something unique. 

The book incorporates hand painted colour splatter on every page. These blotches and sweeps of colours that don't fit into the scene begin quite lightly, and you almost fail to spot them in the first few scenes of the book where things are nice and normal for the Rook family, but as the issues go on and things become more and more nightmarish these intrusions of colour become more pronounced, more obvious. It gives the book an almost dream-like quality, where the images that you're seeing don't quite feel real, where it feels like something is interfering with what you're seeing, messing with your perception. This adds tons of atmosphere to the book, and results in a comic that looks so different from anything else I've read. The art in Wytches not only stands out as something wonderfully unique, but ends up playing a major part in the book being so damn good.

There are few horror comics that stick with me, few that feel like they've gotten under my skin, and fewer still that manage to do that and also elicit strong enough emotions that I'm wiping tears away when I close the book. In the back of the book Snyder talks about how he expected the book to do moderately okay, it being an indie book with dark subject matter meant that he never thought it'd be a huge hit, but it ended up being one, and when you read Wytches its not hard to see why. It's a book that feels like something special, and I truly hope that we get more from this story in the future.

Wytches was published by Image Comics from October 2014 to March 2015.

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The Lair (2022) – DVD Review

 

Originally published on Set The Tape

There are certain directors that come along whose careers seem to be intrinsically connected to their first movies, to the point where it can sometimes overshadow their other works. Whenever anyone brings up Sam Raimi as being attached to a project you get ‘the Evil Dead guy?’ in response, even though he’s worked on many other projects with very different tones since.

Because his first film was such a hit it’s become THE film of his career. Neil Marshall is another of these directors, who no matter what work he produces people will think of Dog Soldiers before anything else. And it seems that after spending the last twenty years making film and TV of varying styles he’s going back to his roots for his latest film, The Lair, which feels like a spiritual sequel to his debut movie.

Much like Dog Soldiers, The Lair pits a group of soldiers against a monstrous foe in a fight for survival with a cast of weird characters and fun banter, though this time we’ve swapped the forests of Scotland for the hills of Afghanistan. The film opens with British Air Force pilot Kate Sinclair (Charlotte Kirk) on mission over Afghanistan, where she and her partner are both shot down. As the two pilots eject from their craft and manage to land safely they come under attack from insurgents in a fight that leaves Kate as the only survivor. Forced to run from the scene as more enemy fighters close on her position, she stumbles across an old soviet bunker, a warning hastily scrawled on the outside, and the doors chained shut.

Coming under enemy fire, Kate enters the bunker, hoping that it can provide her shelter, or perhaps a weapon. With the insurgents stalking her through the halls and tunnels beneath the surface Kate finds evidence of startling experiments having been conducted within the bunker; and when one of the creatures inside the lab if freed and starts killing everyone, she manages to escape to the surface. Picked up by a group of American soldiers and taken back to their base, Kate knows that the creatures are still out there and tries to convince the commanding officer to listen to her before it’s too late.

There’s very little to the plot of The Lair that will feel new or innovative. The abandoned bunker where twisted experiments were being conducted has been used more than a few times, and the base under siege from monsters isn’t even a new plot for Marshall. But this isn’t a film that’s trying to tread new ground. Instead The Lair is trying to appeal to fans of these particular tropes and stories, and to the people who enjoyed Dog Soldiers, and because of that Marshall is able to put his focus elsewhere in the film, and to just have a bit of fun with things.

One of the things that made Marshall’s first two films work well was the camaraderie that his characters had with each other. Whether it was a group of soldiers stuck in the woods whilst the football was on, or a bunch of women going caving together, Marshall was able to very quickly establish clear characters, demonstrate the bonds between them, and get the audience liking them. This is something that is present in The Lair, but takes a little while to get going. For the first act of the movie Kate is on her own, and Kirk, who previously worked with Marshall on his 2020 movie The Reckoning, does this well. Once Kate meets up with the American soldiers we’re slowly introduced to our core cast of characters; a mix of US and British troops.

Kate is the outsider in this situation, and we meet the others through her experiences at the base. A such we get small snippets of background on the people present, an explanation for why they’re in a unit made up of fuck-ups and losers. The concept of a group of soldiers who are the people that the army wants to shove in a crappy base and leave them to their own devices because throwing them out would be too much trouble is a fun one, and it means that Marshall can get a bit arch in their portrayal and characteristics. But it does become clear that the soldiers there care for each other and know each other well as you see their inside jokes and shorthand coming through in their dialogue. Some of the best of this is the moments of culture clash between the American and British soldiers, especially with Welsh soldier Oswald Jones (Leon Ockenden).

The stand out of the film, however, is Hadi Khanjanpour, who plays captured insurgent Kabir. Rather than going the same route as Dog Soldiers and Captain Ryan (who was also captured by the protagonists and spent a while tied to a chair), the film doesn’t have Kabir turn on the soldiers. Instead, it becomes a narrative of these two sides at war with each other working together against a common foe. There’s even a sequence where he describes growing up in a country under invasion from the soviets, of watching his friends and family killed, that seems to give the foreign soldiers a moment’s pause as they start to consider that perhaps the insurgents aren’t who they thought they were. Sadly, the rest of the movie ruins this as every other Afghani present in the film is an antagonist out to kill the heroes. But Kabir is at least presented as a decent character.

I can’t talk about a monster movie and not talk about the monsters, so let’s get into it. The creatures in The Lair aren’t going to be as memorable as the werewolves in Dog Soldiers or the crawlers from The Descent, both of which were great designs. The creatures in this movie are less distinct, and their design feels like something that I’ve seen before more than once. That being said, there is a certain thing that they do that feels like a surprisingly creative moment, and their origin was genuinely surprising.

Luckily, the monsters here don’t have to be distinct, they just have to be a deadly force overwhelming the heroes; which they do well. The best thing about the monsters, however, is the fact that they’re practical. Whilst CGI means that films are capable of bringing the most fantastical design to life it does also mean that you often feel that what you’re looking at isn’t real, and on occasion performances suffer from having to interact with nothing. The Lair chooses instead to stick stunt actors in monster suits, and it’s such a great choice. The practical approach makes the film feel like an old-school monster movie, and that’s definitely a plus.

Whilst the film itself is enjoyable, the physical release is somewhat lacking. Other than the film there’s a short behind the scenes segment that’s mostly just clips from interviews with a few of the films cast and crew. Mostly they talk about what their characters are like, which if you’ve already watched the film you know. There’s a little bit of talk about what filming was like and how well the cast got on, but there’s nothing truly revealing or interesting here. There’s nothing about the making of the movie, the design and creation of the monsters, or what shooting the action was like. Compared to home releases of Marshall’s older movies, which would come with all of this plus a commentary or two, the DVD feels ridiculously light. You’re basically just paying for the movie, which does help those who don’t have Shudder, but for those that already do there’s no real reason to go out and get the physical release.

The Lair is Marshall going back to the movie that made him a hit and putting that formula in a new setting, and despite it being quite obvious that it’s the same kind of movie it’s incredibly good fun. Marshall has tried a few different things, and whilst his work is entertaining, this feels like where he excels. It might not have much substance, and it won’t become a film that people hold up as a masterpiece, but it’s the kind of film you can have a lot of fun with, a film that you can put on a guilty pleasure list, and that you can stick on whenever you want a bit of schlock. And as someone who likes a bit of schlock every now and then it’s a lot of fun.

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The Hunger and the Dusk #1 – Comic Review

 

Originally published on Set The Tape

Orcs can vary wildly from story to story depending on the kind of person writing it and the tale that they’re trying to tell. Tolkien’s orcs were twisted monstrosities lost forever to the forces of evil; the worlds of Warhammer depict them as roving warriors who love to fight; The Elder Scrolls games often portray them as skilled blacksmiths and crafters; and Dungeons and Dragons have gone from having them be brutish barbarians to pretty much anything that a player could want them to be. Whenever you pick up a book that has orcs in it you’re almost doing a lucky dip, having to hope that what comes out is a depiction that you like.

The opening pages of The Hunder and the Dusk makes it seem like perhaps this new fantasy comic series from IDW will be going for the type of orcs who travel the land, pillaging and killing in order to survive, caring nothing for the weak and pathetic humans that stand before them. We see them through the eyes of human children, who see a trio of orc warriors watching from the top of a hill, sizing up their small settlement. As such, the orcs instantly become a source of fear and hate, and it does seem like this group of raiders are prepared to cause havoc. However, a darker threat emerges from the setting sun, coming at dusk; something that slaughters the orcs and humans alike.

From here things change, and we see the orcs in a new light as we jump forward in time several months where this new threat, the ancient race the vangol, has begun to bring humans and orcs together. Knowing that neither race can defeat this new threat alone, a meeting is made to formalise the alliance. It’s here that we get to meet some of the lead characters of the series: Callum Battleborn, a human warrior and member of the mercenary band The Last Men Standing, who’s been selected to be the human representative by one of the orc leaders, Troth Icemane. Troth is bringing his cousin, Tara, to act as ambassador to the humans, to travel with Callum in their fight against the vangol.

The first issue of The Hunger and the Dusk is pure set-up, but it’s masterfully done. The opening scene plays with your expectations a number of times, setting the orcs up to be villains, before showing a more nuanced side to them. They’re then killed off by what you think might be the heroes of the piece, before you learn that their assailants are true monsters. It’s a tense sequence, and one that builds to a point where you’re almost holding your breath as the unseen forces come to the human village, waiting to see if they act as saviours or destroyers.

Despite not previously knowing anything about this world that writer G. Willow Wilson has created, she’s able to use this opening scene to lay the groundwork for the warring nature of human and orc interactions. This means that as we move on to the meeting between the two delegations and get to see them talking about how important this alliance is, how each race’s very survival hangs upon it, it is completely believable. And whilst we only really get to know a couple of the characters in this first issue what we do learn about them makes them interesting. Troth seems like a man for whom honour means everything, Callum is a capable guy but definitely feels like he’s in over his head, and Tara is a character who doesn’t really seem to know who she wants to be yet, but who holds a ton of promise. Plus, there’s definitely some cute romance vibes between her and Callum.

The art, by Christian Wildgoose, with Msassyk on colours, looks absolutely gorgeous. The environments are beautiful, with gorgeous rolling countryside and cosy-looking farm homes in the opening scene, and more mysterious and foreboding settings for the latter half of the book as the two races come to meet. And speaking of the races, the orcs in this book are fantastic to look at. They have wonderfully interesting features, with parts of them that feel very classically goblin-like with their large ears and bright eyes, but there are times where they also look a bit feline too, with a beauty and grace to them. Each of them looks unique in their colours and their features, and it makes them instantly stand out from each other; and Tara is made to look very beautiful without losing her orcness.

The vangol, when we do finally see them, are an interesting creation; one that looks similar enough to both the orcs and the humans that they’re clearly from the same kind of world and don’t look completely alien. However, they manage to look twisted and monstrous to the point where you can see why the two races fear them and are willing to come together to fight them. It feels like there’s going to be a lot of visually creative and creepy moments to come in the series featuring them, and I can’t wait to see what those are.

The Hunger and the Dusk seems like an exciting new fantasy series, and one that will appeal to fans of the genre. Despite being a first issue that has to try and set up both the world and the characters we’re going to be following, you come away from it feeling like you’ve got a good grasp on things, and that this is a deeper, richer world that we’ve only just started to scrape the surface of. With the promise of frightening enemies to fight, epic battles for survival, the chance to get to know a really interesting version of orc culture, and romance blooming, this is a series that folks are going to want to keep an eye on.

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The Comic Cave – Batman Universe

 

Originally published on Set The Tape

The Comic Cave is a regular feature where we spin the Wheel of Comics and see what graphic novel story it brings up for us to deep dive into! This week we take a look at Batman Universe, one of the most enjoyable Batman books in years.

'Bendis is coming!' – three words that DC were pushing in 2018 that were either a promise of good things to come, or a warning. In a previous instalment of The Comic Cave we spoke about one of Bendis’ big events at Marvel, and I wasn’t too kind about said event. But I don’t want that to seem like I dislike Bendis as a writer. Having read all of his time on Ultimate Spider-Man I can say that I loved that series, but it’s the big universe-changing cross-over books that he tends to lose me on. So, with the news in 2018 that he was coming to DC to write Superman, I was quite intrigued. Bendis is great at the street level heroes, so having expected him to go onto Batman, the choice of Superman was an interesting one for sure.

I didn’t like some of what Bendis did to Superman, especially ageing up Jon Kent. And his run on Justice League of America felt like a poor man’s Joss Whedon at times, and felt especially egregious when he used it as a vehicle to further push his own character, Naomi. Having hoped for the best from Bendis at DC I ended up feeling like the books he ended up working on took big dips in quality. But when I read Batman Universe it made me think that perhaps it might just have been because he was working with the wrong characters, as this book is one of the most enjoyable and light-hearted Batman books DC has made in years.

There’s a fantastic quote from Frank Miller (a writer a lot of people will argue is one of the best Batman writers there’s ever been) that Batman is one of the most adaptable heroes around. You can put him in any situation and people will still see Batman. Batman in the old west. Batman in space. Batman in a super serious horror story. Batman being ultra campy and telling jokes. It works every time because Batman can be anything and people will still say that it’s Batman, even if it’s not quite to their tastes. After all, no one tries to argue that Adam West wasn’t really Batman because he wasn’t dark and gritty. And it seems like Bendis took that statement to heart when he wrote Batman Universe, as this story takes Batman and puts him into as many different situations and settings as possible.

Batman Universe was originally published in Batman Giant, a 100 page magazine that would feature a new story each month, along with reprints of older stories such as Batman: Hush, and Harley Quinn: Hot in the City. Designed as a way of attracting new readers and giving them a taste of Batman and his supporting characters, the book became the first place that Bendis wrote a Batman centric story, and it quickly brought the book a lot of attention from existing comic fans. With the story seeming to be a hit, DC reprinted it and released it as regular comics, and eventually as both a hardcover and softcover collection. But what about this story made it such a success? It’s just so wildly unpredictably and fun not to be.

Batman Universe begins with Batman in the Batmobile, on his way to a Riddler heist. Nothing that we’ve not seen before; but what makes these opening pages immediately stand out as something a bit different and special is that the reader IS Batman. Drawn from the point of view as the dark knight, the panels show him speeding through the streets of Gotham before ejecting from the vehicle, grappling up the side of a building, where he runs into a woman sitting on her fire escape reading her book; saying ‘hi’ as he passes by. Swinging from his rope we cut to a full page splash of Batman soaring through the air on his way to take down the bad guys in a page that showcases just how fantastic Nick Derrington’s art is (more on that later).

Bendis revealed in an interview that this scene was in part inspired by the Arkham VR game, in which players see the world through Batman’s eyes. And this scene really does do a wonderful job of putting you into this Batman’s shoes. This is helped by the dialogue in the scene, as Batman communicates with Alfred over the radio.  It’s a fun little conversation in which they discuss The Riddler’s latest clue ‘When is The Riddler not The Ridder’, at which Alfred bemoans the lack of effort put into this one, and how he usually likes The Riddler’s work ethic and how much thought he puts into his schemes. This is the first hint at the kind of tone that the book is going to be taking; how it’s set in a serious world but the characters don’t have to be dour and dull in that setting.

Arriving at the crime scene, Batman finds dozens of men dressed as various incarnations of The Riddler, giving a wonderful opportunity to showcase the various costumes he’s worn over the years. As Batman fights his way through the crowd (revealed to be hired stunt men), he homes in on the actual Riddler, who’s making off with a Fabergé egg worth $15 million. Batman is able to catch up with The Riddler, but is knocked unconscious by an electrical blast from a third party. Once awake, Batman finds The Riddler gone, and starts investigating the trail. This gives us a fun page where a bunch of the stunt men are being interviewed by the police, having thought they’d just been hired to be part of a flash mob. Some of them even get a bit of a thrill out of the fact that the actual Batman punched them in the face.

Batman decides to look into the Egg itself, which takes him to a small town where he meets its owner, the descendant of legendary bounty hunter Jonah Hex. And thus begins a globe-hopping adventure that sees Batman going to Amsterdam after The Riddler, which leads to him and Green Arrow having to fight Deathstroke. He also travels to Gorilla City, before being transported across space to the planet Thanagar by an alien force, where he gets s snazzy Hawkman style bat-armour and wings. He gets to go to Dinosaur Island with Green Lantern (something he loves because he loves dinosaurs), which sees the two of them getting sent back to the old west. He teams up with Nightwing to infiltrate a submarine filled with ninja assassins. And we even get an alternate world where Batman doesn’t exist. Like I said, Bendis took the ‘Batman works anywhere’ quote and ran with it. And boy is it a glorious run.

There are a lot of different locations in this book, ranging from dinosaur-filled islands to alien planets and other times, and whilst they all work within the story it also feels like Bendis was working his way through a list of things he thought it’d be cool to see Batman do; and he’s right, these are cool. And much like that first scene with him and Alfred, these scenes are made even better by the way he interacts with other characters.

Having seen versions of the characters where they’re presented as antagonistic to each other it’s a genuine delight to see Green Arrow and Batman working together and having some fun banter with each other. The two of them telling The Riddler how crap his riddle is, ending with Batman telling him ‘You’re embarrassing yourself in front of Green Arrow’ was genuinely funny as hell, and is the kind of writing that seems to have been missing since Bendis came to DC (and for a while before if we’re honest).

Speaking of the colour green, Batman gets to have some great interaction with Green Lantern in this book too (Hal Jordan), with the two of them discussing their love of dinosaurs, talking about why they always hang out at Bruce’s house instead of Hal’s, and having some fun together in the old west. Batman Universe seems to remember that these people aren’t folks who hate each other, nor are they just colleagues – they’re friends. They’re going to chat shit with each other, they’re going to have a bit of fun doing what they’re doing.

Perhaps the biggest example of how this book shows Batman as a real human being with actual friends is when he returns from the past, having been separated from Green Lantern. Hal leaves a message at the Batcave, a “hope you got back too, let me know how things are” kind of message. Most other writers would have Bruce listen to the message and just go back to the case, but Bendis has him reply. Bruce tells Hal he’s back safe, “Just wanted you to know I’m okay”. This one panel humanises him more than some writers do on multi issue runs that last for years. It makes Batman a regular person and I love it.

Earlier I mentioned Nick Derington, who provides the art on the book (alongside Dave Stewart on colours). This is my first time reading a book that Derington has worked on, and he’s now an artist whose work I need to read more of. There’s something about this book that appeals to me in a way not many artists do, in the way that I’m going to pick up and read any book that has his name attached to it.

I love the tiny details that Derington adds to the book, the way his lines show where the seams are on Batman’s gloves, or how he makes the cowl expressive without it feeling comical and unrealistic. The covers and the splash pages are fantastic, with the opening shot of Batman gliding through the air being one of my new favourite Batman images, and the cover with Green Lantern, Batman, and Jonah Hex lined up ready to fight is something that I want to hang on my wall.

Whilst the art on the book is fantastic throughout, it’s the places where Derington gets to play around with expectations that are the parts of the book where you just want to pass it to someone else and go ‘look how amazing!’. The opening scenes where you are Batman, his infiltration of Gorilla City where he’s sneaking around and climbing over rooftops, and the way they represent the white void Batman gets trapped in at one point are all moments that make you stop reading and just soak up the art.

But my favourite is Batman and Dick Grayson infiltrating a sub together. The page presents it as a cross-section of the sub, showing the two heroes moving through the ship towards their target. You’ve got Batman moving through the halls fighting ninjas as Nightwing slips into vents to pop up behind the enemy to pull of cool moves with Batman. It’s a fantastic piece of storytelling that showcases how different both characters are, yet how wonderfully they work together. Plus, it’s great to have Dick there at a time when DC tried to wreck Dick Grayson by giving him amnesia and turned him into Rick Grayson because one of the top people at DC hated all of the Dick jokes; so seeing those two together when there was no Nightwing was a great moment for the fans.

Batman Universe was published during the Tom King Batman run, a time that leads to some split opinions amongst fans (I’ll never forgive that run for killing Alfred Pennyworth). Bendis’ Batman came in like a breath of fresh air, giving readers something completely different to what the main title was doing. It wasn’t dark, it wasn’t moody, it wasn’t killing beloved characters for shock value. It felt like a celebration of Batman, a showcase of how you can tell a fun and engaging Batman story and still allow the character to have some fun. Because this Batman has banter, tells jokes, goes on some wild adventures, and teams up with a variety of different heroes this book feels a lot like the animated series Batman: The Brave and the Bold, and has that same sense of simple, enjoyable glee to it.

I’m still not completely on board with everything that Bendis has done; I think that his events can get messy and too bloated, and he pushes his own characters a lot and it can sometimes feel forced, and there are some characters that he just doesn’t seem to get. But Ultimate Spider-Man might be my favourite Spider-Man book, and Batman Universe is firmly in my top five Batman runs. When he’s on the right thing Bendis can produce books that are a genuine delight to read, and this is one of them. If you’re looking for a fun Batman book to read, if you’re trying to introduce someone to the character, or if you have a younger reader wanting to read Batman but don’t want them to read something too dark, then Batman Universe is the perfect book for you.

Batman Universe was first published from September 2018 – October 2019 in Batman Giant by DC Comics.

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Midnight Western Theatre: Witch Trial #1 – Comic Review

 

Originally published on Set The Tape

Midnight Western Theatre makes a return this year, with the western anthology series seeming to take a change of direction as it goes a little further back in time, and tells a more traditionally structured story about the origins of previous volume’s occasional protagonist, Ortensia Thomas.

This first issue begins in the year 1848, where a young Ortensia has been murdered as part of a sacrifice to The Fireman, a demonic entity capable of making deals. But, as with such things, you have to be careful for what you wish for and how you wish for it, as the evil men’s pleas for eternal life are twisted into a trick by the demon, a trick that sees Ortensia returned to life. The rest of the issue picks up several years later where we catch up with her in 1857, where Ortensia works alongside a witch named Sarah, her surrogate mother figure, to rid the west of the taint of evil and the demonic.

Midnight Western Theatre: Witch Trial is a new series that doesn’t seem to be relying on the reader having read what came before (or comes after if you’re thinking in universe), and stands well on its own. Whilst we don’t get a huge amount of depth in this first issue for Ortensia, the issue does a decent job at telling you the important information in regards to how she gets her abilities, the people who are important in her life, and the reason why she’d dedicate herself to fighting the forces of evil. Much of it is left implied for the reader to pick up as they go, but it’s clear enough that most readers are probably going to be able to understand what’s going on.

That being said, this is a first issue, and it needs to be laying the groundwork for something, and as such, there is an element of mystery as a figure from Sarah’s past returns to get revenge against her. We get a name, and the fact that Sarah has a history with them, but thanks to how she reacts we also find out that he’s a powerful, dangerous being who she fears, and given what we’ve already seen her do this issue that fear sells him as being an antagonist worth being worried about.

The art on the book is provided by Butch Mapa, and Sean Peacock on colours. Mapa’s art is really nice, and the opening scene in which a young Ortensia is being sacrificed in a dark graveyard sets the tone for the book wonderfully. It looks suitably creepy, and has a feel to it that could easily slip into something like the Hellboy universe. Having seen Mapa’s work before on titles such as Star Wars Adventures and Marvel Action: Avengers it’s cool to see him taking what felt like in those books a more simplified art style designed to appeal to kids and bring it to a much more mature kind of story. The book is wonderfully stylised, yet still feels suitably enough horror in feel. I’m looking forward to seeing what else he’s going to be able to produce on the series.

Midnight Western Theatre: Witch Trial looks set to be an interesting new comic series that could appeal to horror fans, with some great looking art and the promise of an ongoing story with some elements of mystery, this could be a lot of fun.

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The Breach (2022) – Film Review

 

Originally published on Set The Tape

Author Nick Cutter (pen name for Craig Davidson) is known for pretty gross horror in the book community. Having read his novel The Troop, and classing it as one of the most disturbing and disgusting books that I’ve ever read, I knew that The Breach, the film adaptation of his audio drama of the same name, was going to be a film that incorporated body horror and moments designed to amaze the audience. And whilst there are some visually spectacular moments throughout The Breach, the rest of the film seems to struggle to keep the viewer’s attention.

The Breach begins with a family picnic by the river coming to a horrific end as a small canoe floats up to the shore, containing a horror within. John Hawkins (Allan Hawco), the chief of police for the Lone Crow reservation, is called in to investigate the event, interrupting his plans to pack up and move on from the community. Hawkins and his team examine the gruesome remains within the boat and come to the conclusion that it belongs to a physicist who’s been working out of a remote cabin further up the river. Hawkins recruits his ex, and local boat charter guide Meg (Emily Alatalo), and coroner Jacob (Wesley French) to travel with him up the river to find the cabin, and see if they can get answers to the gruesome mystery.

From the first moment the camera gives us a glimpse at what’s inside the small boat that made its way down the river it’s clear that The Breach is going to be a film that relies on disturbing imagery to get under the viewer’s skin. There are moments in this film that, much like with Cutter’s previous work, feel gross, disturbing, and otherworldly, and play on very visceral and primal fears about injury, personal safety, and infection (themes that seem to be pretty consistent in his work). And it seems like a great deal of time and effort has been given over to these moments, with some truly superb special effects and practical make-up work that is some of the best a smaller budget horror film has managed to achieve. There are moments when you’ll want to stop looking at the screen thanks to how disgusting events are, yet your eyes are glued to it in awe as you try to figure out how certain things are done.

Sadly, the film can’t rely on special effects and shock moments to keep the audience entertained, and the rest of the time is filled with the central mystery and interpersonal drama. The team that Hawkins has put together to go looking into this strange death might be the most practical one on paper, but reality says otherwise as he has to deal with his ex, and her jealous ex. Thanks to Jacob having dated Meg before Hawkins did, and still harbouring feelings for her, there’s some tension between the two men; added into this, it’s clear that there’s still something between Meg and Hawkins too.

Unfortunately, the moments in which the film tries to address this complex cauldron of love and resentment end up becoming the worst parts. The dialogue is incredibly clunky in places, with the characters saying things that might sound cool on paper during the first pass, but just don’t work in the moment as the actors say them, coming out as very canned and corny. It doesn’t help that the delivery in these scenes just doesn’t seem to try hard to sell these moments either, and it feels like the actors themselves knew these parts of the film are the boring bits and just phoned it in.

The film’s central mystery has its interesting moments, but also fails to really do much. We get answers, the film provides explanations, but it also feels like a lot is left unanswered, and that the viewer is expected to go along with the leaps in logic and the odd series of events because they have to in order for a story to happen. Having only just watched the film I think that I’d struggle to explain it to someone, and that lack of ability to fully grasp both the motivations and the methods of the characters responsible for the events of the film leaves it feeling rather hollow.

Another issue that I encountered was the score, created by one of the film’s producers, the musician Slash. There are times where the music just doesn’t match the tone of the scene, and where the things you’re seeing and the music you’re hearing feel like they’re from movies with a very different tone. The romantic scene, for example, loses much of the charm it could have had thanks to guitar riffs that litter the moment.

The Breach feels like a film that’s trying to be bigger than it is, spending a lot of money on the special effects but falling short on actually succeeding. It looks good, but a series of lacklustre performances and music that often pushes you out of the moment end up creating a movie that is quickly forgettable.

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They Lurk by Ronald Malfi - Book Review

 

'Five collected novellas from the master of terror and bestselling author of Come with Me. SKULLBELLY - Private detective John Jeffers is hired after three teenagers disappear in a forest and in the process learns of a terrible local secret. THE SEPARATION - Is Marcus's old friend Charlie suffering from a nervous breakdown, or are otherworldly forces at work? THE STRANGER - David finds a stranger sitting behind the wheel of his car. The doors are locked and there's a gun on the dashboard. And then the insanity started... AFTER THE FADE - A girl waked into a small Annapolis tavern, collapsed and died. Something had latched itself to the base of her skull. And it didn't arrive alone. FIERCE - After a car accident in a nightmarish snowstorm, a teenage girl and her mother encounter gruesome madness.'

My previous experience reading Ronald Malfi ended with him becoming an author that I wanted to keep an eye on. In my review for Black Mouth I likened his work to Stephen King's IT, though much preferred it to that work. In an admission that might get my book lover card revoked, I don't really think too highly about King's work, and don't think it's all that special. And in that book Malfi showed me that not only could he take a similar idea and structure, but he could make it so much better. It was like he'd learned from those who'd came before and made it much more elegant and entertaining. As such, when I was offered the chance to read his latest collection of novellas I was absolutely certain that I needed to see what They Lurk had on offer.

The first story in the collection is actually my favourite, and it did that wonderful and awful thing that shorter stories do in that when it ended I was at a point in the narrative where I was desperate for more but there was none. That wonderful mix of 'oh my god that was great' and 'how dare the story end now!?', a feeling that gives a sadistic bit of fun when it happens. 'Skullbelly' tells the story of John Jeffers, a former cop turned private detective who's been hired by the families of four teens. Months before the group of friends headed out on a trip together, travelling to a small town named Coastal Green. Having gone out into the woods on a camping trip, one of the teens returned days later, covered in blood and in a dazed condition.

With the local police seemingly unable to find the three missing teens, and no answers coming from the survivor, Jeffers heads to Coastal Green himself to try to find out what happened three months ago. However, he finds a small, sleepy town where the cops are barely there, the locals don't really seem to know much, and life runs a lot slower than in the big city. The main bulk of 'Skullbelly' is a mystery story, as we follow Jeffers on his job to find answers, questioning the locals, trying to check into the story in the reports. And it makes for an interesting narrative. The setting of Coastal Green feels like one that's familiar to those who've watched things like The X-Files, especially episodes where something strange happens in a small town. It also gave me slight Alan Wake vibes for some reason.

The story gives small hints at what might have happened to the teens, and slowly builds a creepy atmosphere that doesn't try too hard to be scary. Malfi doesn't push fantastical elements or frightening scenarios in order to get under your skin, and instead keeps the promise of answers just out of reach in order to do so. That being said, the story does seem to end in a way that makes it very clear in regards to an explanation for the reader; and does so in a way that felt incredibly satisfying. That being said, I wanted much more of this story, I wanted a longer narrative, I wanted to see Jeffers pursing the case more, and I wanted to see the perpetrator. It was a fantastic ending because it's one of those stories that is going to stick in my head, that I'll think of years from now and go 'damn it was good, I want more!' in the same way the best mysteries or cancelled TV shows leave you feeling.

The second story, 'The Separation', goes for a completely different tone, and I think that it's my least favourite of the book. It tells the story of Marcus, a professional psychologist who travels to Germany to help his friend, Charlie. Charlie is a professional boxer whose wife has recently left him. The separation has left him shaken and depressed, and he's slipping into a worse and worse condition as time goes by; which is why his promoter and friends have reached out to Marcus for help. Marcus arrives to find Charlie sleep deprived, depressed, and a shell of the man he was. As he tries to help him out Charlie starts to complain about everything feeling off, like things have shifted ever so slightly. Marcus is unsure how to help his friend, but is determined to get him back on the right path.

In all honesty, I found 'The Separation' very slow, and it was the story in which I had the most trouble getting through because I just kept putting the book down to do other things instead. Not a huge amount happens across most of the story, and it's just more and more incidents of Charlie being tired, of not remembering going out around the estate at night, and Marcus either being determined to help him or pissed off at him. Yes, the ending was something of a surprise and made me go 'oh what?!' out loud, but the journey to get to that point wasn't fun enough for me to get much out of it. Also, the story features a scene of violence against an animal. The book doesn't contain any kind of trigger warning for this, which is a huge shame, and this story might be best skipped for those who would find the slow killing of an animal upsetting.

In comparison to this, 'The Stranger' was a story that I absolutely couldn't put down, and had to read in one sitting. David and his girlfriend are driving across America, on a journey that is starting to make David realise that perhaps he doesn't actually want to be with his girlfriend, with the excessive time together making him see all of her 'imperfections'. Trying to get away from her for a bit as they check into a small motel in Florida, he heads to the bar for a break and a drink. However, on the way back to the room he notices a weird man he met earlier in the night sitting inside his car. David attempts to get the man out, but he keeps stopping them. Eventually the police arrive and try to get him out, but the stranger just stares out the window, not responding. When the stranger produces a weapon the crowd of onlookers watch as something straight out of their nightmares begins.

I can't say much about 'The Stranger', as the things that happen in the story are shocking and twisted, and any real description of them would take away from the 'what the hell!?' moments; of which there are a few. This is the story that feels most like a nightmare, like something awful conjured up from the depths of your mind, the kind of thing that you'd experience during a night terror, and it made my skin crawl more than once reading it.

'After The Fade' is an interesting story. Starting off as the tale of a man looking to break up with his girlfriend, he arranges to meet her at one of the local bars in town, an old haunt of his where he used to play the piano. Shortly after the two of them arrive at the bar a woman comes stumbling inside, her expression slack, her movements groggy, and blood coming out of her nose. She collapses to the ground, dead. Its then that everyone in the bar notices the thing in the back of her head, the large insect that bore a hole into her skull; sharp and dangerous looking. The group manages to kill the insect before it can hurt anyone else, but it's then that they notice that it didn't come alone.

The building is swarmed by more of the bugs, and the people are forced to lock themselves inside. With the television down, no one answering their phones, and no sign of anyone else, the group have to begin to grapple with the idea that the insects are everywhere, and that they might not survive the night. 'After The Fade' is a classic base under siege story with a cool horror twist. The insect creatures make for a fun monster for the people in the bar to have to contend with, and Malfi uses them inventively, with some super creepy moments scattered in there. 

But the story isn't just about the monster bugs and the nightmare situations they bring with them, it's a very human story, with a big focus on the people. Everyone in the building is given a moment or two to do something, something that sets them apart and different, and there are a few times where personalities clash and the biggest danger starts to become each other. And, like some of the other stories here, it has a little something at the end that will absolutely surprise. 

The final story, 'Fierce', centres on teenagre Connie and her mother Elaine. Driving home in a snowstorm, the back of their car loaded up with presents for christmas, their conversation is tense as Connie is mad at her mother for not letting her take a gap year from study to travel the world. When a truck seems to come out of nowhere and the two vehicles crash their day goes from bad to worse. Elaine heads over to the truck driver to echange insurance details, and Connie watched as her mother is savagely beaten with a crowbar. As the attacker comes after her Connie is forced to flee into the snow covered forest in order to survive. But it's only the beginning of her nightmare.

'Fierce' feels a lot like your classic 'hillbilly horror', as Connie has to deal with a frightening murderous figure that lives out in the middle of nowhere with a house of horrors who wants to do awful things to her and her mother. Think The Texas Chainsaw Massacre, Wrong Turn and The Hills Have Eyes and you're not far off the tone of this story. Whilst this might be a genre that people will be familiar with, and one that seems to be one of the least innovative in terms of creativity, 'Fierce' still manages to be a really entertaining and engaging story with some very tense and creepy moments in it.

They Lurk is an interesting mix of stories, most of which I really enjoyed. There are a couple in here that work perfectly for short stories, and a few that feel like the opening chapters to much bigger tales. Each story seems to try something a bit different, and focuses on different types of horror. But even with the variety they have, each story remains well written, with interesting and engaging characters; something that seems to be a hallmark for Malfi's work.

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