Graphic Novel Review: THE BEAUTY VOL. 4

Jeremy Haun & Jason A. Hurley craft an even more engaging and intricate chapter in the world of The Beauty Vol. 4 (Issue #17-21).  The story of The Beauty follows a sexual transmitted disease that makes people “beautiful” and who wouldn’t want that?  When people with The Beauty start to mysteriously die people start to wonder whether or not The Beauty is responsible or if there is something more nefarious going on.  The series does a great job as an anthology focusing on different aspects and characters of the world and how they are affected by the disease (whether some people see it as such or not).

In this volume Cooper is a journalistic blogger who gets involved with a whistle blower who works for Abericorp, a corporation who has deep ties with The Beauty.  Cooper, seeing a cover-up, tries to learn as much as he can to expose the truth about what Abericorp knows about the truth of The Beauty even if it puts his life in dangerous.

Haun & Hurley know how to craft a story build around corporate espionage, government secrets, and the truth in journalism in the hopes of bringing “the truth” to the people before it’s too late.  From the very first issue of this engaging and electrifying series what may have started as a simple story about an infectious disease that makes people “beautiful” has become a cautionary tale about so many other things.  You’d think that presenting the stories in an anthology format would be detrimental to the overall series, instead, it allows the whole series to constantly introduce new characters that the reader cares about even if you don’t know their fate.

Matthew Don Smith (Issue #12) and Thomas Nachlik (Issue #18-21) have different styles but they compliment the entire series and especially each of the individual stories that are being told.  This is one of my favorite series and it just gets better and better.

Graphic Novel Review: FULL MOON PRESENTS: SUBSPECIES

The Vampire Radu returns in an all-new story in Action Lab Comics’ Full Moon Presents: Subspecies.  Taking place right after the events of the cult favorite Full Moon Entertainment franchise Subspecies, this new series finds Michelle (a former college student whose friends had all been killed in the films and herself turned into a vampire by Radu) working as a nighttime nurse in a hospital under the name of Shelly.  After having killed Radu four times, she’s trying to put her life back in order by helping people and living off the Bloodstone (a stone that can feed her bloodlust so that she doesn’t have to feed off real people to survive).  Then one night, Radu returns but it’s not quite the Radu she remembers.  It appears that the essence of Radu has been split into five separate vampires who all seek the Bloodstone.  Now Michelle has to find a way to defeat not one but five of her worse nightmares.

This story is written by Cullen Bunn & Jimmyz with art by Daniel J. Logan.  This story fits more in line with fans of the films and less about trying to bring on new fans but for readers familiar with the films this story gets straight into the action and carnage without a lot of (unnecessary) set up and exposition.  Bunn & Jimmyz fills the story with tons of references to the films and Logan’s style of art is perfect for the story as he knows how to bring out the menace and savagery of this vampire story.

The graphic novel is filled with extras but the most interesting are snippets from the actual script used and the steps to the final artwork.  This will interest readers with interest in the process of how the comic was crafted.

Graphic Novel Review: CAPTAIN KRONOS: VAMPIRE HUNTER

Titan Comics’ collected graphic novel of Captain Kronos: Vampire Hunter is a love letter to the original Hammer Studios film of ’74!  Written by Dan Abnett with art by Tom Mandrake this story follows the events of the original film with Captain Kronos and his sidekick Grost and the latest addition to the team Carla who find themselves on a trail of a new vampire Porphyr.  Upon dispatching Porphyr, Kronos and his team find themselves outside the border town of Serechurch, which they soon learn is under the spell of an even more deadly menace which may be the greatest vampire threat that Kronos may have ever encountered.

For both fans of the film and vampire fans in general, this new tale is both entertaining and exciting.  Mandrake’s art is a perfect fit for the period setting of the story and has some amazing similarities to the artwork you’d see in the old EC Comics.  Abnett’s story is very vibrant and to the point but still retains the cadence of the characters from the film while also making Carla a more modern woman who has come as her own as a vampire hunter.

The is one of the first of the new Hammer Comics titles from Titan Comics who seem to want to be faithful to the original films while also trying to attract new fans for a new generation.  Despite never having a sequel, the Captain Kronos film has a huge following for which fans will be able to appreciate how much this new story feels like an authentic sequel to the film.

Caroline Munro, who was Carla in the original film, provides a Foreword while there is a collection of great interviews at the end to help readers enjoy the legacy of Captain Kronos. 

Film Review: UNSANE (2018)

Sawyer Valentini (Claire Foy) voluntarily checks into a hospital to see if she can get some help dealing with the fact that she has no friends and just moved away from home in order to get away from a stalker that she’s never told anyone about especially her mother (Amy Irving).  When she is forced to stay at the hospital for a mandatory 72 hours after she reveals to a doctor that she’s had thoughts about killing herself her world will be turned upside down.  This is the premise for UNSANE (2018) a new psychological thriller from director Steven Soderbergh (and written by Jonathan Bernstein and James Greer).  Sawyer’s quest starts off as a woman who just needs someone else to tell her story to that she can trust but the nurses, hospital staff, and doctors have a different agenda which is to keep as many patients in their beds for as long as possible or until the insurance money runs out.  In addition to having to deal with the politics of her incarceration she also has to deal with the fact that her stalker may have tracked her down and is posing as a nurse at the hospital to get to her.

Soderbergh has crafted a tense thriller that manages to balance the current hospital and insurance politics with the psychological breakdown of the main character to great effect.  Foy carries most of the film by herself as she is not a weak character who will stand to be taken advantage of even in the face of her greatest fear – a relentless stalker that will stop at nothing to possess her.

Filmed entirely with an I-phone the film has a very personal touch and keeps you engaged from beginning to end.  Soderbergh has a lot to say with this film (as he does with most of his great films) and this is definitely one of his films that should not be missed.

Film Review: TRUTH OR DARE? (2018)

Olivia (Lucy Hale) is the perfect college student who during Spring Break is supposed to be volunteering for a good cause until her best friend Markie (Violet Beane) convinces her to go to Mexico with all their friends for one last great week together before their adult lives kick in.  Therein, is the catalyst for TRUTH OR DARE? (2018).  On their last week of Spring Break, Olivia befriends the seemingly harmless Carter (Landon Liboiron) who takes them all to an abandoned church to drink and party and play a game of Truth or Dare.  Everything seems harmless until Carter reveals to the group that they have now become part of a game that if they refuse to play will be the end of their lives.

Now, Olivia and her friends must film a way to beat the game before they all find themselves dead or worse.

The mythology of the film/game, although convoluted, is not all that bad even at it’s most ludicrous as the cast does a good job of selling the premise.  Written by Michael Reisz, Jillian Jacobs, Christopher Roach, and Jeff Wadlow (who also directs) the film comes off as over written as everything in the film fills like it needs to be explained and justified.  This unfortunately prevents the film from having any real suspense and is not nearly as interesting as it could have been.  This being said, the film looks great and has a very good musical score from Matthew Margeson.  This is just one of those films where less could have been more in order to craft a compelling and terrifying horror film.

Film Review: THE STRANGERS: PREY AT NIGHT (2018)

It’s been ten years since the previous film polarized audiences but now, THE STRANGERS: PREY AT NIGHT (2018) seeks to do for modern audiences what the original did a decade ago.  Unfortunately, it’s a little too late.  Dollface, Pin-Up Girl and the Man in the Mask (Emma Bellomy, Lea Enslin, and Damian Maffei, respectfully) have hit the road after the previous massacre to now menace a new family that have found their way to a summer trailer park that’s currently off season.  Their latest victims are husband and wife Mike and Cindy (Martin Henderson and Christina Hendricks, respectfully) and their two children Kinsey and Luke (Bailee Madison and Lewis Pullman, respectfully).

Mike and Cindy are driving Kinsey to a new school after being kicked out of the previous one as she has become unruly and uncontrollable.  Kinsey’s attitude has finally tested the resolve of the family for the very last time.  They plan to stop overnight at the trailer park which is run by other family members but right off the back things are strange as no one greets them upon their arrival and everything seems to be too quiet.  When a strange girl shows up at their doorstep looking for someone else their nightmare truly begins as they must find a way to escape the trailer park when there is a killer at every turn watching and waiting.

Written by Ben Ketai and directed by Johannes Roberts the film retains the atmosphere and dread of the previous film even though the location has been opened up to more than just a single house.  What the film lacks are compelling characters as all the characters either make bad decisions or (regularly) act like victims instead of fighting back in a logical way.  Most of the film’s visual and suspenseful techniques are wasted on clichés and things done better in other similar films.

Not a completely horrible film but you expect more from a sequel that took a decade to finally see the light.

Film Review: AMITYVILLE: THE AWAKENING (2017)

Writer/director Franck Khalfoun is the latest to tackle the undying Amityville franchise with AMITYVILLE: THE AWAKENING (2017).  The style and suspense from Khalfoun’s previous films P2 (2007) and MANIAC (2012) are lost in this remake/reboot of the Amityville story that at times acknowledges the existence of the original two films as a means to keep the story fresh in an age where every possible franchise is being rebooted.

Joan (Jennifer Jason Leigh) is desperate to move her invalid and comatose son James (Cameron Monaghan) to the hospitals and doctor that can best be able to help him recover.  This is contrary to her daughter Belle (Bella Thorne), James’ twin who believes that her brother is too far gone and they should just let him die in peace.  Moving into the infamous Amityville house is supposed to help the family financially but it doesn’t take long before Belle realizes that something in the house has nefarious plans for her and the rest of her family.  When James starts to magically recover from his condition, Belle seeks out answers to prove whether or not the house is to blame but it leads her down to some deep family secrets and trauma.

This all seems like an interesting plot to delve into but most everything on display has been down in previous films in the franchise including The Haunting in Connecticut (2009), another “based on true events” ghost story.  No gore is on display and for the most part the film plays it completely safe.  Rumors say that Khalfoun originally made a Rated-R film that was then trimmed down to a PG-13 but regardless, without more original ideas the end result probably would have been the same.  This is a sleek and great looking production with a very good cast that just cast elevate this mediocre material.