Graphic Novel Review: BLACK MAGICK VOL. 2

In the world of Greg Rucka and Nicola Scott’s (writer and artist, respectfully) Black Magick Det. Rowan Black is a witch that lives in the city of Portsmouth trying to forget her past and live in peace.  But living in peace is not really possible for a witch who can remember all her past lives and the atrocities brought upon her people and herself.  In Vol. 2 of the series – “Awakening II” (which covers Issues #6-11 of the ongoing series) there are two main stories.  The first covers Rowan when she was young and about to go through a ritual that would allow her to recall all her past lives.  This may seem like a simple thing but learning about one’s past drives you towards your future of which plays a huge part in why Rowan became a police office.

In the present, Rowan has to contend with a new menace which is a society of witch hunters known as Aira, who have killed many of her kind including several of her past lives.  With the help of her best friend Alexandra Roman must discover what plans Aira has for her city while also keeping her day job and solve a new series of murders. 

Rucka (as usual) has crafted an engaging supernatural story that both has its roots firming planted in a detective story and that of a witchcraft story.  The entire story is character driven and the supporting characters are all extremely well written and engaging on their own rite making for a compelling read.  I love Scott’s style of grey-tone artwork with splashes of color when it is needed. The whole feeling is a noir film but in comic book form.

If you enjoy these types of stories, then this is the perfect comic for you.  Rucka maintains the same quality of some of his most popular books like Whiteout or Queen & Country or even his amazing run on Wonder Woman.

Film Review: FRIEND REQUEST (2016)

Social media will never be the same in the horror film FRIEND REQUEST (2016) that sees popular college student Laura (Alycia Debnam-Carey) confront her greatest fear when she “unfriends” someone on a networking site. Laura has a good life.  She’s successful in school.  She has a great boyfriend. She has lots of friends.  She also has a stalker by the name of Marina (Liesl Ahlers) whom she unwittingly friends on a networking site thinking that the girl just needs a friend.  When Marina, who is an artist with dark and gothic overtones, starts to squeeze herself into Laura’s life Laura tries to end her friendship.  Marina doesn’t take being unfriended lightly and ends up committing suicide by filming it on her laptop and putting on social media for everyone to see.  Thinking that she may have been a reason for Marina’s suicide, Laura’s guilt and life gets weird as her friends start to die around her and videos of their deaths are posted on her social media site.

Everything get worse when there is no way for her to delete the death videos nor shut down her site.  It seems that someone or something is taking over her personae online.  She gets blamed for the death videos; the cops think she has something more to do with the cases than she is saying; and it seems as though Marina is still manipulating her from beyond the grave.  Now she must figure out what is going on before all of her friends die leaving her the only one left with a connection to Marina.

Although the production values are good, the film lacks suspense or any sense of horror.  There is nothing in this film that you haven’t seen done better in other films.  It’s actually hard to believe that the film is Rated “R” as it contains very little gore, sex, or even profanity and is way too tame for the typical horror fan.  If not for Debnam-Carey the whole film would be completely forgettable as it is good to see her in something other than the hit TV series Fear the Walking Dead.

Film Review: WITCHERY (1988)

Fabrizio Laurenti (as Martin Newlin) directs Witchery (1988) which was released in Italy as La Casa 4.  For those of you that didn’t know, The Evil Dead and Evil Dead 2 were released in Italy as La Casa and La Casa 2, respectfully.  This film was released as an unofficial sequel to those hit films to capitalize on their popularity.  Ghost House (1988) was released in Italy as La Casa 3 and this film was the next in line for the series.  Neither of these films have anything to do with the popular Sam Raimi films or each other. 

A rich family venture off to an island in   There is also a photography couple looking to discover the truth about the witches and the history of the hotel and they all get stranded on the island during a storm.  Now, waiting for the day to break them each come face to face with the nightmares of the building that begins to take them one by one.

Massachusetts to buy an abandoned hotel only to discover that the former resident is still living their but as a witch who wants to see them all dead.

The film has its moments including starring turns from Linda Blair and David Hasselhoff and despite it being a very predictable horror film the witch elements make it more interesting.  The film is not so much a slow burn but the decaying of each of the ensemble of characters as you watch them become distanced from one another as they die one by one.

The film will satisfy fans of ‘80s Italian productions but audiences who don’t realize the genre (and country) of the film won’t be able to appreciate the film for what it is.