SB issue 439 august 2017 by comics2017

THE WORLD’S LONGEST RUNNING MAGAZINE OF CULT ENTERTAINMENT

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DOCTOR WHO

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CONTENTS

F E A T U R E S FAREWELL OLD CHUM STARBURST pays tribute to TV’s Caped Crusader Adam West, who died in June.

INTERVIEW WITH A VAMPIRE AUTHOR 36 Bestselling genre legend Anne Rice tells us all about her new novel in which Lestat heads to Atlantis. LOST IN THE SHADOWS 38 To commemorate the 30th anniversary of The Lost Boys, we take a look back at the production and reception of the much-loved film.

KIDS, AIN’T ALL ABOUT THE CLOWN 16 We’re all set to get another version of the shape-shifting baddie Pennywise in a brand new reworking of Stephen King’s IT. Find out all about it in our movie preview.

HIGH PLAINS DRIFTER 42 Keeping with the King stories, we look forward to the longawaited big screen version of The Dark Tower.

yOUR WORST DREAM COME TRUE 20 We head back to 1990 as we examine the successful and memorable small screen two-part adaptation of King’s terror tale.

THE REAL PUPPET MASTER 46 Charles Band, one of the legendary figures in low budget genre cinema, tells all about his movies and the launch of the Full Moon channel on Amazon Prime.

THE BOGEyMEN COMETH - THE ROOTS OF EVIL 24 Join us for an exhaustive trip through the history of cinematic bad guys. From vampires to psychos and serial killers, they’re all here! The first part takes us from the silent era to the arrival of Norman Bates. THE BOGEyMEN COMETH - BEyOND PSyCHO… 28 Hitchcock’s film heralded a new breed of villain, as the concluding half of our mammoth look at baddies reveals. DEFENDERS OF THE EARTH… OR NEW yORK, AT LEAST 32 After meeting each individual member through their own Netflix shows, it’s time to bring them all together in Marvel’s Defenders!

INDEPENDENTS DAy 49 In this month’s profile, we chat to Jill Gevargizian about her recent success and how she became a filmmaker. ENTER THE WAR MASTER 54 After the exciting announcement of the return of Sir Derek Jacobi’s incarnation of the Master in Doctor Who via Big Finish audio dramas, the team behind the scenes reveal all… HORROR OBSCURA 65 We take a look back at the classic terror tale Phantasm.

KING COHEN Another indie legend, Larry Cohen, opens up about his filmography ahead of the new documentary celebrating his work.

REgUlARS THINGS TO COME

BLUE BOX SECTION

Outside The Box Watching Doctor Who Echoes and the Bogeyman

SAUCER SECTION Subspace Relay Trekologist

CINEMA Reviews

DVD & BLU-RAY Reviews Interview

AUDIO Audiostatic Interview OST Reviews

BOOKS Brave New Words Coming Soon Book Wormhole Reviews

COMICS View From The Watchtower Reviews

ANIME Anime-Nation Reviews

COSPLAY Cosplay Catwalk

GAMES Pixel Juice Reviews Retro Bytes Roll for Damage

MERCHANDISE Watto’s Emporium

104

108

110 112

122

EVENT PROFILE

124

TV ZONE

126

IT’S ONLY A MOVIE

129

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ISSUE

439 AUGUST 2017

EDITORIAL

ART

Editor

Collectors’ Edition Cover Artist

MARK REIHILL

JORDAN “MIKE” ROYCE

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MARTIN UNSWORTH

JORDAN “MIKE” ROYCE

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THE GREATEST WRITING TEAM IN THE UNIVERSE Head Writer

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Lead Writers LIVVY BOOTE, JACK BOTTOMLEY, MICHAEL COLDWELL, DOMINIC CUTHBERT, GARETH EVANS, KATE FATHERS, ED FORTUNE, JOEL HARLEY, CHRIS JACKSON, CHRISTIAN JONES, TONY JONES, JOHN KNOTT, ANDREW MARSHALL, IAIN MCNALLY, KIERON MOORE, ROBIN PIERCE, ANDREW POLLARD, RYAN POLLARD, LEE PRICE, IAIN ROBERTSON, CALLUM SHEPHARD, JR SOUTHALL, NICK SPACEK, JOHN TOWNSEND, PETE TURNER, MARTIN UNSWORTH Contributors

TOM ACTON, JONATHAN ANDERSON, SOPHIE ATHERTON, JENNIE BAILEY, BILLY BARNELL, VANESSA BERBEN, PHIL BERESFORD, SIMON BESSON, NICK BLACKSHAW, CHRISTIAN BONE, FORD MADDOX BROWN, LARA BROWN, COURTNEY BUTTON, LUKE CHANNELL, SCOTT CLARK, TONY COWIN, DAVID CRAIG, ANNE DAVIES, ALISTER DAVISON, SPLEENY DOTSON, JENNIFER DREWETT, JAMES EVANS, KIERAN FISHER, JD GILLAM, JOHN HIGGINS, TOMMY JAMES, ANIMAL JOHNS, BEN K, ROBERT KEELING, CLAIRE LIM, JAYNE LUTWYCHE, ROBERT MARTIN, ROD MCCANCE, NEIL MCNALLY, FRED MCNAMARA, HAYDEN MEARS, CHRISTOPHER MORLEY, STUART MULRAIN, ANDREW MUSK, DOC CHARLIE OUGHTON, PETE HIGGINSON, WARRICK HORSLEY, LAURA ROBINSON, GRANT KEMPSTER, WHITNEY SCOTT-BAIN, DANIEL SEDDON, CHLOE SMITH, MIKE SMITH, ADAM STARKEY, JON TOWLSON, LEONA TURFORD, RICHARD THOMAS, SCOTT VARNHAM, NIGEL WATSON, SAMANTHA WARD, MATT WELLS, IAN WHITE, THOMAS WINWARD, ZACK THE ZOMBABY

EDITORIAL Welcome to STARBURST Issue 439! I am seriously beginning to feel like the Grim Reaper. Another Issue of STARBURST opens with an obituary, and it’s another titan of genre. Adam West is the very definition of iconic. Providing many of us with our very first impression of a real superhero. It was hokey, camp, and (thankfully) as far away from Nolan’s vision as humanly possible, but to many of us - He WAS Batman. Just take a moment and imagine where we would be without that show? It was seismic. Its pop culture penetration spanning multiple generations, and it not only kept comic books in the public consciousness during a really dire period, but it created an appetite to see live action versions on TV and the cinema. It simply couldn’t have worked without Adam West. Someone else in the titular role would now seem unthinkable. Growing up, it was very hard in the UK to get to see the Batman TV series in the seventies and eighties, but every year in the August school holidays the Batman 1966 movie version was enough of a fix to keep us going until the eventual re-runs. That plastic shark, the bomb, recreating the entire U.N. with the wrong personalities. Unmissable FUN, and I in no way capitalised that word by mistake. We may think things are exceptionally bad now, but the truth, is it has always been this way. There were young men watching Batman in the US on its first run that were scared of being sent to die in Vietnam. Adam West was never part of the misery, he only ever made the child inside us happy. That is the way he should be remembered. Not everyone, however, wants to bring us joy. From the moment I first saw Michael Myers show up wearing that mask, I just couldn’t get enough. It was inevitable that I would eventually get to do The Bogeymen Issue that you hold in your hands. A delightful journey into the world of a bunch of psychos that want to murder, maim, and bodily dismember us. It was my pleasure, you can thank me later. Netflix Marvel fanatics will also be pleased to find a preview of what to expect from the upcoming team-up mini-series The Defenders. After following these characters through multiple series of their own, we finally get to see how they hang out together (and hopefully knock a few heads together!). There are also previews of The Dark Tower and the new incarnation of IT, plus we chat to some genuine legends - the mighty Charles Band, Larry Cohen and the titan of vampire literature Anne Rice. All of this and your regular bits, bobs, and columns? There are geezers that have flogged their soul to Satan and not got a deal like this… Until next time, keep watching the weird and wonderful,

Jordan Royce

AND TETSUO... THE FEARLESS REPTILE GUARDIAN OF STARBURST HQ!

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sChrödiNGEr’s BluE Box Well, DOCTOR WHO came and went as far as I’m concerned. How come whenever we know a Doctor is leaving now we have numerous teases of regeneration throughout the series, and how long do they need to drag this out to again? And that last episode? What an overrated load of codswallop. How can fans be ok with that? I’ve enjoyed most of Steven Moffat’s run, but this was just a weak saccharin rehash of old ideas and wasted opportunities. Let’s hope the Christmas episode redeems this travesty! Dave, via email simoN BatEs motEl Thank you so much for the BATES MOTEL feature, it’s hard to believe it’s not going to be coming back but it did come to a natural end. And in such a perfect way. If Freddie Highmore doesn’t go onto bigger things, I’ll eat my hat (note to self: buy a hat). The whole cast were perfect and I’m sure Alfred Hitchcock and Robert Bloch would have been pleased with the result. The feature just made me want to watch all five seasons again. In fact, sod it, I’m going to do just that. Thanks! Simon, via email haddoCkiss off JENNifEr Hi chums, just picked up STARBURST #438 (a little late this month as I’ve just got back off holiday) and read Jon Towlson’s flashback to CHAINED, which brought back happy memories. Saw a preview of this back at the 2012 FrightFest and loved it. Better still, Jennifer Lynch was there and as the film ended, I went over to have a chat. Ex-STARBURST reviewer Alan Jones saw me coming and urged me to tell her what I thought as she was genuinely worried audiences might not get the ending and she’d have to alter it. So I gave her my interpretation and a relieved Jennifer cried ‘thank you’, flung her arms around me and gave me a big kiss on the cheek! Which I wasn’t expecting. Since then, I’ve made it my mission to say nice things to every female

Shauna says: I suppose it’s the easy go-to for a bit of excitement, without actually committing to anything. As soon as the new Doctor is revealled there will always be lot of moaning people because they can never live up to what or who they want the next Doctor to be, especially as seen as a large percentage of the fans will only be truly happy when they themselves are cast in the role of the Doctor. They will have run out of past Doctors to bring into the show again soon, and will be bringing in the whole cast of CASUALTY. Hey maybe Charlie would make a good companion...

director I meet. Because I’m a randy old haddock at heart. Cheers, eddie (Haddock) maddock, via email *Note - Haddock came up with this title himself, don’t blame us. Haha*. Well any female directors reading this page will now be schooled (geddit??) in your fillat-ering ways, and know to avoid you like the plague. PiratEs of thE CariBBEaN: sPaGhEtti Wolf I saw the fifth entry in the PIRATES OF THE CARIBBEAN franchise: SALAZAR’S REVENGE. Orlando Bloom and Keira Knightley reprise their roles, albeit in a cameo way, especially Knightley, who has no lines (except for those on her face. Nah, I’m just kidding... or am I? Well, I am. I couldn’t resist making that pun. I’m sorry, Keira!). Depp, Bloom, and Knightley don’t have scenes together (not the three of them together, not really, anyway); what’s that all about? Those scenes are as awkward as watching your divorced parents reunite on a special family occasion because their (now adult) children invited them both AND their new partners. The movie is entertaining enough but rather bland compared to previous chapters in the saga. This is not helped by the two new lead actors who are rather - you’ve guessed it bland. Bland in a ROGUE ONE: A STAR WARS STORY way. Just a tiny bit more likable, though. Incidentally, I saw ROGUE ONE

7 four times in the cinema. Not bad for a film that I didn’t fully embrace. Lily James would have been perfect for the female lead (in my modest opinion). There are a few good jokes, though. Depp as Captain Sparrow is fun as always. I wonder what that dream he has is all about: ‘Spaghetti wolf!’, he cries out while he awakes. Maybe we will learn more about that in the sixth movie; PIRATES OF THE CARIBBEAN: SPAGHETTI WOLF. Seriously, I want to learn more about that creature! There’s a cameo by Paul McCartney as Jack Sparrow’s uncle. Next time: Ozzy Osbourne (with a phobia for spaghetti wolfs)? By the way: in TWIN PEAKS Season Three Michael J. Anderson (the Little Man from Another Place) is replaced by a talking tree. You could say the tree delivers a wooden performance. I gotta run now. I already hear the sirens of the Bad Pun Police! All the best! Yves Kapreles, VIA EMAIL The always entertaining Kapreles (in any guise he chooses to call himself, depending on whichever movie he has seen that week) was just too late for the letters page last month, so we have had 2 from him in the last 2 months... CitizEN roBot Hello STARBURST! I saw TRANSFORMERS: THE LAST KNIGHT a couple of days ago in avant-première. I very much enjoyed it (as did Sir Anthony Hopkins, who visibly enjoyed his role), even though it’s not the CITIZEN KANE of contemporary SF cinema. Those flashy cars into which the Autobots transform remind me of the cars used in the FAST & FURIOUS franchise. I can already picture a crossover

coming up one day. Can you imagine Vin Diesel and his crew approaching vehicles that suddenly transform before their eyes and Diesel growling “You gotta be kidding me”? Charlize Theron’s Cipher striking a deal with Megatron? I can. I would not be surprised to see a crossover called FAST & FURIOUS TRANSFORMERS one day at the multiplex. Maybe it will. [With the voice of Peter Cullen:] “I am Optimus Prime and I predict the future of blockbuster cinema, watched by humans and Autobots alike, unified as brothers; a cinematic harmony of flesh & steele.” Btw: I just googled ‘transformers fast and furious’. Apparently, I’m not the only one who expects this. It will probably happen and I will first read about it in STARBURST when it does. Why not do a TRANSFORMERS/STAR WARS crossover: THE LAST JEDI KNIGHT? But once this blockbuster crossover Armageddon begins, where will it stop? All the best Kapreles Prime, via email Etta CaNdY Hello, I’m writing to you today ‘cause I was just eating a piece of candy by a famous brand and found a human tooth inside of it. I bit on the sweet and felt something hard inside so I spit it out and there it was. I have pictures and everything. Please let me know if this is a story you would be interested in. Thank you. Attentively, manuela, via email We are sorry to hear that, and unfortunately we care not for the story as we are not Watchdog, nor the Tooth Fairy, but... if the rest of the sweets are going begging, then you can send them our way. But not the orange ones. Thanks. CAPTI ON CO NTE

“Bloody ikea“ Winner: Mark Worthington. Head over to www.starburstmagazine.com to enter this month’s caption contest.

NExt issuE: 440 oN salE from auGust 18th

For many genre fans, June 9th, 2017 w ill go down as a day we thought would never come: the day that a true hero of ours passed away. At the age of 88, the iconic and one of a kind

ADAM WEST

died after a short battle with leukemia.

Farewell,

Old Chum by Andrew Pollard

here so many of us are concerned, we grew up with Adam West adorning our TV screens on a regular basis as the Caped Crusader in the 1960s Batman show. From those around at the time to those of us who were treated to this delight in subsequent decades, to those in more recent times who have purposely gone back to check out the camp and cheesy take on the usually dour Dark Knight, West has never, ever been anything less than constantly engaging and a magnetic, charismatic presence in whatever he did. While his time in the cape and cowl will indeed be what most remember him for, it also led to many revering West as a genuine hero of theirs. After all, to many of us, Adam West was the Batman, and this was the first time that we’d seen arguably the biggest character in comic books brought to live-action life. Sure, there had been those before him - Lewis G. Wilson and Robert Lowrey - but it was West who took the role and truly made it his own in a way that not only iconised Bats but also made an icon of the man behind the dual personalities of Bruce Wayne and his superhero alias. But away from the looming mantle of the dubbed ‘Bright Knight’, there was so much more to Adam West both as an actor and as a man.

The Origin Story

Born William West Anderson in Walla Walla, Washington on September 19th, 1928, it didn’t take long for this future icon to set his sights on a career doused in the bright lights of Hollywood. While his mother gave up her dreams of stardom as a concert pianist and opera singer in order to look after her family, young William was determined to forge an opportunity for himself, to get a shot at the big time. Graduating with degrees in literature and psychology from Walla Walla’s Whitman College, he would go on to serve in the US Army before landing an announcer gig on the American Forces Network. Upon being discharged, William promptly moved to Hawaii in the hope of landing a role in the glitzy world of television. Still going by the William Anderson name, the first noticeable role of what would end up becoming a cult career saw him paired with a small, cheeky sidekick. With not a Boy Wonder in sight, this sidekick was actually a chimp and the show was the kids-aimed El Kini Popo Show. A move to Hollywood followed in 1959, and it was only then that William West Anderson decided to take on a stage name that would go on to be a huge part of many a childhood: Adam West. Small supporting roles and guest spots in the likes of Johnny Midnight, The Detectives Starring Robert Taylor, Lawman, Laramie, Perry

Mason and the Paul Newman-fronted movie The Young Philadelphians would soon follow, and West would even have a foray into fan favourite genre affairs when he starred in an early episode of The Outer Limits and had a small role in 1964’s Robinson Crusoe on Mars. For the most part, though, the ever-eager actor was still searching to find his real breakout role, with his suave looks and impressive physique instead making him the perfect choice for supporting gigs in the Westerns of the day, including a part in The Three Stooges’ The Outlaws is Coming. Fear not, good chum, for a golden opportunity was just around the corner.

Caped Crusader Casting Call

With producer William Dozier looking to bring a Batman TV show to the ABC network, it came down to a two-horse race for the leading role between West and Lyle Waggoner. From all reports over the years, it was West’s role as a James Bond-esque spy in a Nestlé Quick commercial that swung it. From there, as they say, the rest is history and the world of cult entertainment would never, ever be the same again. Despite the high acclaim and the fondness that so many have for the series, Batman only actually ran from 1966 to 1968, clocking in at three full seasons and a total of 120 episodes plus a brief crossover with The Green Hornet and the much-loved feature-length Batman movie (“Some days, you just can’t get rid of a bomb!”). A knowingly camp and kitsch take on the Dynamic Duo, this series saw West’s Caped Crusader and Burt Ward’s Robin - and later Yvonne Craig’s Batgirl - face a recurring batch of nefarious villains; most famously, Cesar Romero’s Joker, Burgess Meredith’s Penguin,

The Riddler as played by Frank Gorshin and John Astin (who took over for Season 2), and, of course, Catwoman, who was played by Julie Newmar, Eartha Kitt, and Lee Meriwether at certain points. With celebrity cameos aplenty and a feeling of genuine fun and excitement about the series, Batman became a favourite of the whole family, and, in turn, made Adam West a household name and a global superstar. But it wasn’t all sunshine and rainbows, however, when the faint voice of the Boy Wonder was likely left screaming “Holy cancellation, Batman!” at the news that a hefty, ongoing ratings drop saw the series canned by ABC in 1968. Initially, a deal was in place for the NBC network to take over the show. Only that didn’t happen, for the NBC agreement fell apart when it came to light that the existing sets for the series had been completely destroyed due to the belief that the Dynamic Duo and chums were done for when it came to their televisual future. With the cost of rebuilding these sets estimated at hundreds of thousands of dollars, NBC backed away from continuing the adventures of Batman, and so West, Ward, Romero and co. found themselves yanked off our TV screens and on the hunt for their next gig. The role of Batman was far more than simply a role for Adam West, though, as he used this platform to become a role model for children across the United States and beyond. Championing a mantra of truth and strong values, and operating as a fine example of a moral compass, West took the character and used it to make sure that children had someone wholesome to look up to. Unfortunately for Adam, however, his time as the Caped Crusader led to something that former Superman George Reeves had experienced years prior: typecasting. Not just West, but co-stars Burt Ward and Yvonne Craig also found themselves struggling to burst free of the notion that all they could possibly play were characters similar to their Batman roles. Doing his best to shake the typecasting stigma, West’s first post-cape-andcowl gig was as a snarling, tough-as-old-boots sort in The Girl Who Knew Too Much. Sadly, the movie disappointed at the box office… although an intriguing offer was waiting in the wings.

The Name’s West, Adam West.

In 1970, with George Lazenby having departed the Bond franchise after just one picture - On Her Majesty’s Secret Service - the hunt was on to find a new 007 for Diamonds Are Forever. As is the stuff of Hollywood legend, Adam West was actually up to play James Bond at that point in time, although he ruled himself out of the running, later stating that he thought Bond should always be played by a British actor. Coincidentally, with West, Burt Reynolds, and Michael Gambon having politely declined the

10 opportunity to play England’s greatest spy, United Artists ending up bringing back Sean Connery for a then-record fee. Subsequent years saw West continue to make public appearances as Batman - including in a USWA wrestling skit that saw him pitted (in cowl and a tracksuit) against the villainous Jerry ‘The King’ Lawler - while also landing several small film and TV gigs. Of course, wherever West went there was always the looming shadow of his most iconic role, and he would return to fight the good fight at various points over the ensuing decades. From the animated The New Adventures of Batman and Super Friends, to a live-action return in the 1979 Legends of the Superheroes ensemble specials, to, famously, his fantastic appearance in Batman: The Animated Series. There, with Kevin Conroy established as the vocals of the World’s Greatest Detective, West appeared as Simon Trent, a washed-up former star of a superhero show titled The Gray Ghost. Mirroring real life, the Trent character was struggling to find work after being typecast and forever attached to his most famous of roles. Sounds familiar, right? West lapped it up, though, and that episode remains right up there as one of the very best that B:TAS served up during its excellent run. Interestingly, Batman: The Animated Series was created to cash in on the newfound popularity of the Dark Knight following Tim Burton’s Batman and Batman Returns. Where that first Michael Keaton-starring movie is concerned, Adam West was actually considered for the role of Thomas Wayne, the father of Bruce Wayne who is gunned down by Jack Nicholson’s Jack Napier/Joker as per that film’s origin of the Caped Crusader. For what it’s worth, West actually wanted to play Batman in Burton’s 1989 movie, but Warner Brothers were looking for a younger actor who was on the rise - in that case, Keaton. As for Thomas Wayne,

Adam would eventually get to play Bruce’s pops, with him providing the vocals for the character in an episode of Batman: The Brave and the Bold years later, and he’d even land a recurring gig as Mayor Grange in fellow animated affair The Batman.

Resurgence in Popularity As the 1990s rolled in to the 2000s, Adam West had again seen himself spending years working the odd guest spot or small role, often with subtle or not-so-subtle nods to his past (such as playing a down-and-out former superhero in Goosebumps), but one of his other more notable roles was on the horizon. With a new show called Family Guy starting to catch some real steam at the turn of the millennium, West was brought in to play the mayor of the show’s main locale, Quahog, a character named simply Mayor Adam West. Family Guy creator Seth MacFarlane has gone on record as saying he purposely avoided making any sort of Bat-ties

or Bat-jokes when concerning the Mayor West character, for he was doing his best to try and avoid any clichéd typecasting antics. And with his recurring Family Guy appearances, West enjoyed a whole new rise in popularity, with many younger fans only becoming aware of Adam West thanks to MacFarlane’s animated juggernaut. Animation has remained key, however, in having this iconic figure return to his most iconic role as recently as last year, for it was in 2016 that we were given the splendid Batman: Return of the Caped Crusaders. That joyful cartoon movie saw West and Burt Ward reprise their roles of Batman and Robin, respectively, by lending their dulcet tones to the Dynamic Duo once again in a tale that also saw Julie Newmar back as Catwoman. The film proved so popular, a sequel - Batman: The Caped Crusaders vs. Two Face - was near-enough instantly announced. As far as has been made public, West actually finished recording his vocals for that back in October, and the plan was to have the animated adventure released towards the end of this year or early 2018. Whenever it is released, it’s sure to be a poignant and emotional moment seeing this childhood hero of so many thrust back in to the spotlight with his most famous role much like how all sorts of emotions will be evoked when Carrie Fisher’s Leia returns to the big screen in Star Wars: The Last Jedi this December. And much like Fisher, not to mention the tragic recent passing of Sir Roger Moore, the loss of Adam West feels monumental, particularly if you’re of a certain age. To so many of us, legends such as these are meant to be around forever; they’re the ones who you can always rely on to brighten your day and to evoke fond memories of better days. Simply put, these are the heroes who have always been there, which makes it an even more painful void to accept when you hit the blunt realisation that nothing and nobody last forever. Not even Batman. Forever immortalised as the Caped Crusader, Adam West was and always will be more than just the cape and cowl. Like the aforementioned Sir Roger, this is a man who was the epitome of a gentleman, using his fame and his spotlight to try and help others and to help make the world a better place. For that, we can be nothing but grateful both for the memories he gave us and for the example he set to us all. After all, heroes are supposed to be that bright shining light, that symbol of hope, that eternal flame that never fades regardless of what adversity it faces. And that, ladies and gentlemen, is exactly what Adam West was and forever will remain. Farewell, old chum. It’s been a true honour.

Adam West 1928 - 2017

THINGS TO COME

A ROUND-UP OF THE BEST (AND WORST) OF THIS MONTH’S MOVIE / TV NEWS

Lois Lane in Smallville. In Supergirl, Durance will actually take over an existing role, stepping in to replace Laura Benanti as the Kryptonian mother of Melissa Benoist’s titular Maid of Might, Alura Zor-El. For Benanti, she’s unable to return for Season Three of the show due to work commitments elsewhere. Supergirl returns for its third season later this year. | AP

Marvel

THINGS TO COME

While there’s a whole bunch of Marvel-based news from this past month, all has been relatively quiet on the DC front. One of the few notable stories in the realm of the DC Extended Universe is that Aquaman has brought in Michael Beach to join his Stargate: Atlantis co-star Jason Momoa in James Wan’s King of Atlantis movie. Beach will be playing ‘high-seas hijacker’ Jesse Kane in the December 2018 release. Before that, of course, Momoa’s Marine Marvel will be a huge part of Zack Snyder’s Justice League when that hits the big screen this November. Newly confirmed to be appearing in that superhero team-up effort is Keirsey Clemons as Iris West. The comic book ‘one true’ of Barry Allen, Iris was previously announced as a part of the muchmaligned The Flash, and now Clemons herself has confirmed that she’ll be joining Ezra Miller’s Sultan of Speed in Justice League. The most interesting piece of DC news from this past month, however, revolves around Josh Gad. Earlier this year, the Frozen and Beauty and the Beast actor set online tongues a-wagging after posting a picture of infamous Batman rogue the Penguin. Ever the presumptuous lot, comic book fans (and many of us here at Moonbase Alpha) took this as meaning Gad could well be getting set to be announced as the DCEU’s Oswald Cobblepot. Gad would promptly move to play down all of this as nothing more than a bit of fun, but now he’s been at it again. This time out, he posted a picture on social media of him at the main DC offices alongside Jon Berg and Geoff Johns - the co-heads of DC Films. And what did god have in his hands in said pic? Why, that’d be a copy of Batman Adventures that just so happened to have the Penguin proudly on its cover. Whilst this still doesn’t confirm anything whatsoever (who knows what’s really going on behind the scenes?), it could well be that Josh Gad is indeed getting set to appear in an upcoming DC movie, or it could merely be that he’s yanking our collective chains and having some fun with us all. Where the slate of Bat-flicks stand, Matt Reeves’ The Batman will see Ben Affleck’s Caped Crusader battling Joe Manganiello’s Deathstroke, David Ayer has the female-centric Gotham City Sirens on the way, Joss Whedon is writing and directing Batgirl, and then there’s also Nightwing happening as well. If we did see Penguin appear in any upcoming film, chances are it would be one of those Bat-based ones. Where the small screen DC output is concerned, the only notable news from this past month is that The CW’s Supergirl has added yet another familiar Super-face to its ranks. With former Superman Dean Cain and former Supergirl Helen Slater having played pivotal roles in the show, not to mention former Wonder Woman Lynda Carter playing the President of the United States, now Supergirl has brought in Erica Durance - famous for playing

With ol’ Web-head having now swung into cinema screens and wowed us all with the latest instalment of the Marvel Cinematic Universe, Spider-Man: Homecoming, several new MCU news tidbits have come out over the last month. Firstly, a quick bit of retconning has seen it confirmed that Peter Parker actually appeared in the MCU way, way before he thwipped into action in Captain America: Civil War. Star Tom Holland has revealed that, as per Marvel bigwig Kevin Feige, Peter was actually the young boy under the Iron Man mask in Iron Man 2 as the Armored Avenger did battle with Justin Hammer’s drones. Of course, both Spidey and Shellhead will be front-and-centre when the massive Avengers: Infinity War rolls onto screens next May. On that front, the aforementioned Feige has confirmed that the Russo Brothers’ Infinity War will indeed be the swansong for certain heroes. It’s not yet known who won’t make it out of the MCU’s Phase 3 - be it an on-screen death or simply being shifted to the shadows - but the obvious candidates seem to be Chris Evans’ Captain America and Robert Downey Jr.’s Iron Man. Then again, this isn’t the first time that Rogers and Stark have been mooted as being killed off… Other heroes who’ll be present in Infinity War are both Ant-Man and the débuting Captain Marvel. Both also have further big screen outings on the horizon, too, and said films have had some cast additions over this past month. Where Peyton Reed’s Ant-Man and the Wasp is concerned, Black Mirror and Game of Thrones’ Hannah John-Kamen and Fresh Off the Boat’s Randall Park have joined Paul Rudd, Evangeline Lilly, and Michael Douglas in that July 2018 release. For the first solo movie for Brie Larson’s Carol Danvers, it’s been revealed that Samuel L. Jackson will be reprising his Nick

A round-up of what not to miss this month on...

JULY 24TH - THE DEVIL’S TOMB (2009) A great little shocker that got lost in the straight-to-DVD route, this is a star-studded Middle Eastern-set thriller that has an elite group of soldiers (led by Oscar winner Cuba Gooding Jr.) attempt to rescue a scientist (Ron Perlman) at an archaeological dig. Directed by Jason (son of Sean) Connery and also featuring Valerie Cruz, Bill Moseley, Ray Winstone and rock hard man Henry Rollins, it’s not to be missed. JULY 25TH - FRANKENHOOKER (1990) Classic cult horror comedy from director Frank Henenlotter (the genius behind Basket Case) in which a medical student attempts to recreate his tragically decapitated fiancée by grafting her bonce on a smoking hot body culled from parts of prostitutes. It’s a hell of a lot more fun than it sounds. JULY 26TH - HOUSE (1986) Tremendous cult hit from the good old days of VHS, in which an author is troubled in his late aunt’s house by some hideous and terrifying entities. Produced by Sean S. Cunningham (Friday the 13th) and written by Fred Dekker (director of The Monster Squad), its blend of humour and scares made it a massive success and is still incredibly enjoyable today. AUGUST 6TH - SEED OF CHUCKY (2004) The fifth time out for demonic doll Chucky (voiced by Brad Dourif) gets a little meta as Jennifer Tilly appears as herself as well as the voice of Chucky’s bride, Tiffany. Imagine the pair’s shock when they discover they have an offspring (Billy Boyd). As always, these films are a lot of fun, and more so when you have the likes of ‘rapper’ Redman (no, us neither), John Waters, Jason Flemyng, and former S Club 7 (ahem… and Primeval, of course) starlet Hannah Spearitt on board. AUGUST 16TH - SILVER BULLET (1985) Stephen King appears to be a running theme throughout this issue, so it feels only fitting to recommend this obscure release that the author himself adapted for the screen. Starring Corey Haim (yes, the sadly departed star of The Lost Boys), Gary Busey, and Everett McGill, it’s a fun if flawed take on the werewolf genre that will have you howling, if nothing else. As well as regular episodes of Star Trek from The Original Series, Voyager, and Deep Space Nine, you can catch up with classic ‘60s series The Invaders, with David Vincent (Roy Thinnes) trying to convince the world that aliens have begun taking over the world one body at a time, when it begins its run right from the start on August 14th. Another show to watch out for is The New Twilight Zone, the ‘80s update of the classic Rod Serling series that screens from August 12th and where each episode was a journey into the weird and wonderful. Horror Channel is available on SKY 319, Virgin 149, Freeview 70, Freesat 138 and TalkTalk 487. Stars’ Josh Boone, New Mutants is about to start shooting any day now ahead of an April 13th, 2018 release. Over in the Deadpool corner of Fox’s Marvel world, Deadpool 2 has moved to bring in Shioli Kutsuna and Julian Dennison. It’s yet to be revealed what role Kutsuna (who will soon be seen in Oh Lucy!) will be playing in the sequel, and the same can be said about Dennison. The young New Zealand actor, of course, stole all of our hearts in Taika Waititi’s gloriously mesmerising Hunt for the Wilderpeople last year. The pair join a cast that currently features Ryan Reynolds as the titular Merc with a Mouth, Josh Brolin as Cable, Zazie Beetz as Domino, Leslie Uggams as Blind Al, Morena Baccarin as Vanessa, Brianna Hildebrand as Negasonic Teenage Warhead, Stefan Kapičić as the voice of Colossus, and Jack Kesy as the villain of the piece, believed to be longtime X-Men rogue Black Tom Cassidy. Currently in production and with John Wick’s David Leitch on directing duties, Deadpool 2 is set for a June 1st, 2018 release. If you picked up last month’s issue of STARBURST - and let’s

THINGS TO COME

Fury role in Captain Marvel, to be directed by Anna Boden and Ryan Fleck and currently set for a March 2019 release. Fury, who will reportedly be one of the huge Infinity War ensemble, was last seen in 2015’s Avengers: Age of Ultron. Adding even further to the huge cast assembled to battle the nefarious Mad Titan when Thanos finally steps out of the shadows in Infinity War will be the Guardians of the Galaxy team. As well as that outing for Star-Lord and co., James Gunn has previously confirmed that he’s returning to write and direct Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3. What we now know, though, is that not only will that third Guardians picture wrap up the action for that incarnation of the team, but Gunn has discussed how Guardians 3 will be the launching pad for the ‘Marvel Cosmic Universe’. Details on that particular corner of the greater Marvel Cinematic Universe are scarce at this stage, but the possibilities are endless and it’s hugely encouraging to report that Gunn is going to be involved in helping Kevin Feige and Marvel Studios shape the cosmic happenings of the MCU. While plenty has been rumbling along in the MCU, elsewhere 20th Century Fox has been busy with their Marvel properties. In their biggest move, the studio announced a further six Marvel movies for the next few years. Whilst official details are unknown on just what these movies will be centred on right now, the films have been booked in for June 7th 2019, November 22nd 2019, March 13th 2020, June 26th 2020, October 2nd 2020, and March 5th 2021. Of course, already announced for 2018 are New Mutants (April 13th), Deadpool 2 (June 1st), and X-Men: Dark Phoenix (November 2nd). As for the newly announced films’ release dates, we do already know that we’ll be getting a Deadpool 3 and, finally, X-Force, so they seem likely to nab two of those dates. Then there’s the chance that there will be further outings for the main X-Men franchise, and it could well even be that Fox go back for another stab at a Fantastic Four picture (even if we’d all rather them just let Marvel Studios take control of the FF!). For the main X-Men series, the next outing is X-Men: Dark Phoenix, which has starting production in Montreal, Canada. This past month has seen several pieces of casting news for the flick, with the most notable being Zero Dark Thirty and Crimson Peak’s Jessica Chastain as the ‘big bad’ of the piece, Lilandra. With Dark Phoenix pulling inspiration from the famed Dark Phoenix Saga comic book arc, the film will see Sophie Turner’s young Jean Grey taken over by the all-powerful cosmic Phoenix Force. Lilandra is the Empress of the Shi’ar Empire, who are on a mission to destroy the Phoenix – which will, in turn, put this alien race up against the X-Men. Confirmed to join Turner and Chastain in the seventh X-movie are Michael Fassbender as Magneto, James McAvoy as Professor X, Jennifer Lawrence as Mystique, Nicholas Hoult as Beast, Tye Sheridan as Cyclops, Evan Peters as Quicksilver, Alexandra Shipp as Storm, and Kodi Smit-McPhee as Nightcrawler. In terms of other new faces, The Next Step’s Lamar Johnson has landed a to-be-revealed role. Additionally, it’s been heavily suggested that Olivia Munn could be reprising her X-Men: Apocalypse role of Psylocke, whilst someone who definitely will be appearing is Alison Blaire, aka Dazzler. For the eagle-eyed of you out there, you’ll remember that the character was briefly teased in Apocalypse. Having débuted in the comic book Dark Phoenix Saga, Dazzler is a mutant who is able to generate all sorts of light displays. Making the most of her abilities, she initially uses this skill to add some extra gloss to her music career. And it’s that musical element that was the source of her Apocalypse pseudocameo, as some of the film’s younger mutants pick up one of her albums when they’re in a record store. With longtime franchise writer/producer Simon Kinberg this time on directing duties, X-Men: Dark Phoenix is set for November 2nd, 2018. Sticking with the X-world, spinoff New Mutants brought in Blu Hunt as Dani Moonstar just after we went to print last month. A relative newcomer best known for The Originals, Hunt will be playing Moonstar, also known by her alter-ego of Psyche or later Mirage. With the movie pulling inspiration from the Demon Bear Saga, the Native American telepath should have a hugely important role to play as she joins The Witch’s Anya TaylorJoy as Magik, Game of Thrones’ Maisie Williams as Wolfsbane, Stranger Things’ Charlie Heaton as Cannonball, 13 Reasons Why’s Henry Zaga as Sunspot, and the CGI-created shapeshifting alien Warlock (not to be confused with Adam Warlock). But while Blu Hunt has joined New Mutants, Rosario Dawson has now stepped away from the picture. Previously, Dawson had been in advanced talks to play the mentor role of Dr Cecilia Reyes, but she’s now dropped out of negotiations. Instead, Predators and I Am Legend’s Alice Braga is in talks to play the role. Described as a horror movie of sorts and to be directed by The Fault in Our

POSTER MORTEM

2018 release. In the only real nugget of small screen Marvel news, Marvel’s Luke Cage has brought in The Night Of’s Mustafa Shakir and Rosewood’s Gabrielle Dennis for Season Two of Power Man’s solo show. Shakir will be playing John McIver, a character described as “a natural leader, brimming with charisma, whose mission is focused on Harlem and vengeance.” As for Dennis, her role is that of Tilda Johnson, “a brilliant, holistic doctor with a complicated history in Harlem where, as much as she tries to stay far from trouble, it seems to always find her.” The current plan is for the new season to land on Netflix at a to-be-confirmed 2018 date, whilst Mike Colter’s Cage will be front-and-centre when he joins Charlie Cox’s Daredevil, Krysten Ritter’s Jessica Jones, and Finn Jones’ Iron Fist in Marvel’s The Defenders, which débuts on August 18th; you can read more about it on page 32. | AP

CASTLEVANIA Renewed for Second Season

With Netflix having now débuted the first season of its animated Castlevania series, the on-demand streaming service has already confirmed a second season for the show. Whilst the initial season is made up of just four episodes, the second year will be bumped up to an eight-episode run. On this news, Fred Seibert, CCO of WOW! Unlimited Media and CEO of Frederator Networks, said, “Castlevania has been a world icon for 30 years. WOW! And Frederator are honoured to have the privilege of bringing it to life as an entertainment series that will continue its story for years to come.” In terms of the cast, the animated Castlevania has quite the impressive vocal ensemble, with Graham McTavish as Dracula, Richard Armitage as Trevor Belmont, James Callias as Alucard, Emily Swallow as Lisa, Matt Fewer as the Bishop, Tony Amendola as the Elder, and Alejandro Reynoso as Sypha Belnades. The official blurb on the series reads: “Inspired by the classic video game series, Castlevania is a dark medieval fantasy following the last surviving member of the disgraced Belmont clan trying to save Eastern Europe from extinction at the hand of Vlad Dracula Tepe himself.”

THE HAPPYTIME MURDERS Gets a Release Date

THINGS TO COME

Adam Wingard may have been on the naughty step with last year’s Blair Witch, but hopes are high for his adaptation of the popular manga Death Note, which débuts on Netflix (yes, they do count as proper films, don’t be a snob) on August 25th, following a premiere screening at London’s Horror Channel FrightFest the night before. For those not familiar with the story (or previous cinematic incarnations), it involves a young chap named Light Turner (Nat Wolff) who has the titular book that has the power to kill just by writing the victim’s name in it, which he uses to do away with criminals. Willem Dafoe is the voice of Ryuk, the demonic conscience of the book. face it, why wouldn’t you have? - you’ll have read a whole lot about Sony Pictures’ plans for Venom, Silver Sable, and Black Cat team-up Silver and Black, and the shared Spider-Verse that was seemingly missing the key ingredient of a Spider-Man. In further news, it’s now being reported that the villain of Venom will actually be none other than Carnage. To comic book fans, Carnage, aka Cletus Kasady, is one of Spidey’s most infamous rogues - but as well as being a Spider-Man villain, the symbiotebased lunatic is also famous for teaming up and then butting heads with Eddie Brock/Venom. In additional news for this shared realm, Sony is now considering individual movies that will focus on Mysterio and Kraven. Both of these longtime rogues of ol’ Web-head were planned as part of the studio’s previous Spidey franchise, The Amazing Spider-Man. Before The Amazing SpiderMan 2 bombed and caused Sony to scrap that franchise, the plan was for Mysterio and Kraven to be brought into that world and to become members of the no-good Sinister Six team. With reports that Tom Holland’s six-picture Spider-Man deal is only for five MCU movies, it seems more and more likely that Sony is looking to flesh out a world of existing Spidey villains to bring Holland’s wall-crawler into once the actor is done with the next two Avengers movies and the first Spider-Man: Homecoming sequel. By the time those films are in the can, Holland will have one picture left of his current contract, which seems to be a picture that Sony Pictures will be in full control of. As for Venom, Tom Hardy is signed up to play the titular Eddie Brock, Zombieland’s Ruben Fleischer will direct, and the film is set for an October 5th,

The long-awaited and rather mysterious adult puppet thriller The Happytime Murders has now been booked in for an August 17th release. The Brian Henson-directed film has been doing the rounds of development hell since 2008, but now seems to be moving forward finally. Previously, we’d heard that Melissa McCarthy will headline and also produce, and there were some initial stories that Jamie Foxx was in talks to co-star with the Ghostbusters star. Other than McCarthy, though, cast details have yet to be revealed. Plot-wise, the movie takes place in a world where humans and puppets coexist, although the puppets are looked at by many as second-class citizens. When the cast of 1980s kids show ‘The Happytime Gang’ wind up dead, a grizzled and disgraced LAPD detective puppet ends up teaming with his human former partner to try and get to the bottom of this mystery. | AP

AND FINALLY... As we’re still getting stoked ready for the upcoming shark flick Meg (due August 2018), news hits us that a sequel to the much-loved 1999 Renny Harlin film Deep Blue Sea is currently shooting in Cape Town, South Africa. Although announced back in 2009, the water appeared to settle on the project, but all systems are go now, though the production is being developed as a Syfy movie rather than a spectacular for the big screen. Sticking with the network previously known as Sci-Fi, John Carpenter is to executive produce a new series, Tales for a Halloween Night, based on his 2015 graphic novel that brought together some of the best new writing talent in the business. The horror legend has signed a deal with Universal Cable Productions, which will also have him oversee the development of an adaptation of Simon R. Green’s Nightside, the title of which refers to the secret heart of London hidden in eternal darkness that is home to all manner of nasty creatures. No network has been announced for the latter as yet, but expect more news as things develop. TTC 439 was written by Martin Unsworth and Andrew Pollard. Edited by Martin Unsworth.

THE UK'S BIGGEST MODERN POP CULTURE EVENT

MCMCOMICCON

29-30 JULY 2017 MANCHESTER CENTRAL

by Dr Charlie Oughton

This September sees the screen return of Stephen King's IT, or more precisely, the R-rated first of two planned film adaptations based on on e of the Master of Horror's most famous 'cl assic' novels. We check out what to expe ct...

any folks will remember IT from the 1990 television miniseries directed by Tommy Lee Wallace. The gist of the stor y is that a group of friends we all want to be part of attempt to destroy the titular shape-s hifting monster known, most infamously, as the clown that makes adults crap themselves. IT has been killing people in the town of Derry for centurie s and IT has seeped into the woodwork to leave a malevolence rotting in all who live there. This first film focuses on the friends’ initial dallianc e with danger when they’re geeky kids. Updated here from King’s original 1950s setting to the 1980s, it’s a kind of ‘Famous Five Get Fucked Off and Fight Back’ in spectacular style. Development hell had long devoured the film project before it was attache d to Cary Fukunaga (with Will Poulter in the lead ) a couple of years ago. That vision, too, was aba ndoned owing to creative differences. Fina lly, IT landed in the hands of Andrés Muschietti, writer-director of the Guillermo del Toro exe cutive produced ghost/creature feature Mam a. Based on Muschietti’s own frankly terr ifying short, Mama showed he is adept at wringing obsession, anger and loss out of physica l difference, which is all the better for this stor y. Canonical closeness between King’s book and the film is a chief concern for Unc le Stevie’s Constant Readers. The story is a doorsto p at around 1000 pages long, so some things are going to get left out. Several draft scripts have been leaked. They range in changes from the original material from tweaks to the weapons used in fights to completely altering the circums tances and traits of core characters. Happily, Mus chietti has said the adaptation will be faithful in spirit to the book and the main characters see m spot on. Key events such as the kids’ hanging out sessions have made the cut to the filmed product, giving the trailers a very Stand by Me-ish feel with added Gooniesesque derring-do (that look like it could actually hurt!) chucked in for good mea sure. As much is known from the cast and crew ’s Instagram accounts as from official pres s materials. Epic scale is alluded to by rows of ‘dead kid’ extras costumes while a cute photo of Fear the Walking Dead’s Jackson Robert Scott as Georgie, minus an arm and plus a bloody stum p, looks a good sign for the gore-o-meter. Alte rnatively, endless photos on Andres’ and his sist er, IT producer Barbara Muschietti’s accoun ts and on the young stars’ personal feeds show them all just hanging out. The real-life bonding acti vities done on set and beyond offer the bewitch ing promise of chemistry to die for.

Key Players IT/Pennywise/Bob Gray IT is the monster of the title, a being that shapeshifts to ‘everything you ever were afraid of’. ITs forms include Bob Gra y (a homeless, paedophilic leper seen in the trailer) and of course its main skin, everyon e’s favourite killer chucklemeister, Pennywise the Dancing Clown. This pervy performer has, in looks at least, been updated to a canonical representation in a Victorian clown’s garb with a bulbous enough bonce to give anyone a headac he. Played by Hemlock Grove’s dapper Bill Skarsgård, the trailer shows this clown as a gibberin g, screaming thing with a painted fang-sm ile that actually looks rather grotesquely like a sadistic comeon. It mock-naïvely nibbles at ITs lips with those long, luscious vamp teet h. Hints on the soundtrack taunt a high-pitche d giggle and director Muschietti commen ted that Skarsgård did away with half the effects budget himself

18 s, with his mixture of ‘crouching, making sound snotting, drooling [and] speaking in Swedish’. It sounds a bestial movement away from the caterwauling japery of Curry’s version of the villain. Skarsgård’s costumed, hulking, lanky es lunatic form reduced a room of extras to puddl and set on him saw they when tears ed of petrifi ce the jump-scare sequence that got the audien at SXSW screaming shows he pays no mind to hits civility whatsoever. For all that, IT apparently ce audien test er, howev , beats horror ard the stand members have said the film is far more about mood than cheap thrills.

The Losers' Club These guys form the heart of the narrative as the story starts with one of their siblings being partially eaten. Each member of the Losers’ Club, as they call themselves, has a reason they’re ostracised from their small town and it’s that , reason that binds them together for comradeship e, mutual support against the bullies and, of cours . using their talents to try and take down the clown Stuttering Bill’s the leader and yes, Barbara Muschietti’s confirmed the character will regain e his somewhat elusive speech impediment outsid l’s Specia ght Midni by Played s. trailer of the Jaeden Lieberher with what looks to be an air of calm authority, he is after avenging his little brother when the kid puts in a Pennywiseassisted spectral appearance in the boys’ ard basement. Bill is a writer and is, here, the stand King stand-in, riddled with self-doubt but with anger, smarts and determination to spare. , Bill’s backed up by Richie ‘Trashmouth’ Tozier played (Hallelujah!) with properly crap voice s’ impressions by none other than Stranger Thing the Finn Wolfhard. Batting off him, the surprise of r canon thus far is Tales of Halloween’s Jack Graze iler in-tra r’s Graze Eddie. tic as resident neuro funny turnabout ‘greywater’ (aka wee), brows in his hairline and fingertips a-flailing, has just the right level of camp without once appearing knowing. He has Eddie’s earnestness down to him an absolute tee. The back and forth between and Richie switches at speed between dick jokes, ing death, and shit in a way that’s boggling, terrify and terrific all at once. If the Losers ‘beep beep’ their faux disapproval at Richie enough, he might shut up, but it’s not likely. Precisely the opposite can be said of Wyatt Oleff as Jewish Stan. Despite the bounce of curls atop his head, Guardians of the Galaxy’s Wyatt remains unseemly still and aware of exactly what dangers they may face. A notable focus of the a trailer is on his own spiritual observances. It’s sobering motivation Stan shares with the more outgoing Mike Hanlon, played here by Hawaii a Five-O’s Chosen Jacobs. Far more believably ‘farm boy’ in this adaptation, Hanlon’s stocky stoicism is what it takes to keep the Losers’ Club together over time. What’s more, the snapshot d of burned hands clawing from behind a charre door suggests that as well as being the local historian, Mike’s experiences of racial tension d. as a black guy will be included this time aroun its for h enoug ed credit not often is work King’s us reiteration that the real monsters walk among rather than being beings from outer space. This of film may, now, tackle the book’s investigation far deship comra te ultima and t conflic unity, comm prove to if As did. ries minise the than more closely to the latter, we have Haystack, or Ben Hanscom mer those who will be his mates. Played by newco a big Jeremy Ray Taylor, Ben’s the stocky lad with other heart that burns (along with those of several Losers) for Beverly Marsh. Bev is being played who here by relative newcomer Sophia Lillis. A kid

19 seems old beyond her years, Bev’s poverty and abusive home situation mean she’s the one who often toughs it out and takes the jumps before the rest.

The Bowers Gang Hiding behind ringleader Henry, this motley crew while away the New England days tormenting kids as the rent-a-gob school bullies, Henry with a torn-off shirt that’d make you leg it a mile on sight. A point of note, however, is the trailer segment of Henry about to stumble upon the clown on his own, suggesting we’ll get more of his own complex backstory. Also intriguing is the press release attention given to one Owen Teague as Patrick Hockstetter. An important side character in the novel, his prominence suggests we may see a canonical IT that doesn’t just hanker after the innocent.

Derry As with much of King’s work, the place is an (im)perfectly formed character on its own and is based on actual locations in the author’s home area, the trailers offering a sun-bleached, hazy New England gone wrong. The statue of lumberjack Paul Bunyan that can be found in the real Bangor has been recreated large as life and twice as ugly, the sewers genuinely look like sleepy mouths propped open in the lush wilderness in which the kids play, and the telegraph poles contain so many of the staples that held all the ‘missing’ posters gone before Patrick Hockstetter’s pamphlet took their place. As King commented in his book Secret Windows, the places in the story become metaphors for the journey to adulthood, but they also contain the very real dangers that can pick people off. IT’s Derry is all about the little bits of decay you choose to ignore. It’s perhaps why it doesn’t seem quite so outlandish to see an unkempt person (played by Mama’s Javier Botet, who has the limb-extending Marfan syndrome) shambling after one of the kids near a dilapidated house in some gorgeous, arch cinematography by Chung-hoon Chung. A cut to a leering pharmacist with a cartoon fringe suggest King’s own inspirations of old EC Comic books have been kept in even if it has been confirmed that the old Hollywood monsters that appeared in the book and miniseries have been updated for the modern generations. One of the leaked scripts suggests these will be far more realistic fears in line with the nightmares of children with access to sex and stalk ‘n’ slash horror movies rather than werewolves and mummies. That remains conjecture, however, as there are visible changes to the clown’s costume if you ‘paws’ the first trailer when IT is directly in front of the screen. King has told fans to relax as he’s seen the film and loves it. If this first film is successful, the second part of the story will be shot. Mass coulrophobia seems likely. IT will land 27 years after the book’s publication, completely in line with Derry’s death cycle. In fact, owing to the screams that met the trailer at SXSW, it’s rumoured the clown is already at it again...

We will all float down to the nearest cinema on September 8th to see IT…

Worst True by Scott Clark

Even if you haven’t seen IT, or read the book by Stephen King, you’ll probably be familiar with its iconic titular villain. The shapeshifting terror who hunts kids, lives in the sewers, and prefers to take the form of Pennywise the Dancing Clown has fascinated readers since the book’s release in 1986. Though the novel was a huge success on release (many regard it as King’s finest), it was Tommy Lee Wallace’s 1990 two-part TV serial that seared IT into the horror canon, guaranteeing clown terror for decades to come...

A Nightmare for all Ages The film follows King’s novel pretty closely. In it, a group of pre-teen outsiders, The Loser’s Club to local bullies, band together to fight an otherworldly creature that’s killing kids in the small town of Derry. The first half of the novel covers the kids’ battle with IT and apparent triumph, the second half zips forward 27 years to when the grown up Loser’s Club return to Derry once more to do battle with IT. It’s a huge undertaking and ABC’s twopart serial was an understandably big event. A decades-spanning horror story, IT would be the first TV adaptation of King’s work since Tobe Hooper’s Salem’s Lot in 1979. Written by Lawrence D. Cohen, the man behind De Palma’s classic King adaptation Carrie, and directed by Halloween III’s ambitious Tommy Lee Wallace, the project had a buzz. ABC weren’t being cheap, either. The $12 million budget was a crazy amount of money to spend on a TV serial, but love of the source material and confidence in its ability to bring in viewers was not consistent. IT appears to be a difficult property. Like New Line’s troubled 2017 update directed by Andres Muschietti, the ABC-produced 1990 TV movie saw production issues stemming from a loss of faith. A story about a cosmic terror that can shapeshift and likes goring kids is a tough nut to crack, especially on US cable television. It was originally planned as an eight-hour extravaganza (four two-hour parts) until ABC’S itchy trigger finger saw Wallace’s adaptation slashed to two instalments of ninety minutes. For a novel of 1,138 pages, that’s a whole lot of story. It seems the same old factors came into

play: studios are scared of horror. Not in the good way, in the bad genre-cinema-doesn’tattract-punters way. The show pulled in record viewers for ABC.

The Loser’s Club

It’s not hard to see where much of the budget went. ABC made a point of hiring a collection of popular ‘80s TV personalities. One of the film’s strengths lies in its ensemble cast, all treated as equals, all given their chance to shine by Cohen’s nifty flashback structure. The first half is a series of scenes after each has learned IT has returned. The second half is a straighter story of reunion and horror. It’s a film reliant on the bond between the child and adult versions of the same character and is, for the most part, Wallace’s crowning achievement. It is nothing if not a well-distilled shot of nostalgia. The child actors are surprisingly well cast and apparently worked closely with their adult counterparts. Tellingly, the kids had numerous auditions whereas the adults were all taken on thanks to their reputations or recommendations. Not to mention it probably worked out better for ABC to hire people already doing shows for them. John Ritter (Three’s Company), Harry Anderson (Cheers), Annette O’Toole (Cat People, 48 Hrs.), Richard Masur (Risky Business, The Thing), Dennis Christopher (Chariots of Fire), Richard Thomas (The Waltons), and Tim Reid (Simon & Simon) were all popular ‘80s entertainers, be it from a hit film or long-standing TV serial. Ritter and Anderson were probably the biggest names on the cast, but they don’t steal run time from other cast members in the same way a young Seth Green gets as much time as the

relative newcomers he worked with. It’s a wellbalanced character juggle even if the character experiences are skimpy.

Master of Fear

If you were born in the late ‘80s or early ‘90s, there’s a good chance IT had a prize place in your folks’ VHS (or book) shelf. Not only was that particular work a smash hit (one of the top sellers of 1986), King himself was a guaranteed hit. His name had become synonymous with well-crafted tales of terror, his face as recognisable as any mainstream actor thanks to dust cover portraits and TV appearances. Not only that, but adaptations of his works had been, by-and-large, great successes. Carrie, Salem’s Lot, The Shining, Cujo, and Stand By Me were all released before Wallace’s IT and proved King’s stories were bankable. His characters resonated with the audience and the scenarios thrilled them. Stand By Me is particularly important to IT, since its surprise success as a non-horror King work probably gave additional reassurance to its producers. The two share a similar focus on childhood and nostalgia, albeit with one very particular difference.

Making the Monster

The genius of King’s novel is its ambition. IT is a perfect villain, able to take on the form of whatever its victim fears the most. It’s a superb idea played with time and time again, most famously perhaps by J. K. Rowling in the Harry Potter series with Boggarts. IT hunts children because it finds their fears easiest to form. Even then, the film doesn’t quite give us the surrealism of a giant bird or the gore of a leech

swarm. Its forms are relatively safe, yet always more terrifying as Pennywise. Believe it or not, Roddy McDowall and Malcolm McDowell are both rumoured to have been attached early on in production. It’s hard to imagine what that would be like now, 27 years since Tim Curry smashed the part out of the park. No matter how inconsistent or even mediocre the serial can be, Curry embodies the fiendish monstrosity at the core of the novel, in all its loud snarling delight. The cult actor had made a name for himself as larger-than-life oddballs after exploding onto the scene in The Rocky Horror Picture Show. His turn as the Lord of Darkness in Legend flaunted a strong talent for camp-but-menacing villainy. It also proved he could carry a performance from behind prosthetic make-up. Wallace wanted to instil some kind of classic influence, and with a prosthetic headpiece that enlarged Curry’s cranium, he called to mind Lon Chaney’s infamous transformation in Universal’s The Phantom of the Opera. From there, though, Pennywise’s classic influences stop. Like Jack Nicholson’s Joker the year before, Curry’s Pennywise is a mischievous showman prone to bouts of manic evil. Curry plays the humor OTT but to a degree that goes past funny and resolves on unsettling. His introductory glimpse, snarling and rushing at the camera between the washing lines of an idyllic suburban home, set the tone horrifyingly well. This is not tongue-in-cheek Curry, not a nudge-nudge wink-wink performance. IT is a child-killing monster that likes to scare its victims solely so they taste better.

Too Much For TV?

One of the real shames about ABC’s TV serial is how neutered it feels. Granted, Curry makes a mean antagonist and the subject matter is dark no matter what. But the film’s lack of gore in the flashback segments renders the kids’ scares oddly pedestrian. It goes without saying that a popular US network could not/would not screen graphic violence towards children or tackle the novel’s sexual undertones. In a weird way, that’s a shame, because IT was robbed of edge by the times and circumstance. Few projects turn their monsters loose on kids in any real way, and even then there’s usually a lot of copping out. IT takes things as far as it can and does well for the most part. There’s the fantastical element of A Nightmare on Elm Street, and the buoyant though dangerous - adventure of The Goonies. A boy is attacked by elongating shower heads, pictures come to life and ooze blood, a father who died at war stands on the swamp and beckons to his son. Apart from that, Part One is relatively tame but fairly well realised. The second half does pretty well with its more macabre effects, probably because it’s unleashing them on adults. The dinner reunion sequence has the gang crack open some fortune cookies, only to find eyeballs, fingers, and monstrous bugs in place of wisdom. Beverly has a haunting experience with an old crone and the corpse of her father. Stan’s head appears in a beer fridge and taunts the gang, whilst balloons of every colour float throughout threatening to pop with blood-drenching results. These little fiendish parlour tricks come across as just that: tricks. IT never feels as

powerful or well-realised as it is in the books. The big issue is the reduced runtime. All the character work, the background, the location building, etc. is ditched in favour of an espresso of King’s vision. It sucks because without the benefit of the novel so much of the heavier stuff, the scares included, don’t land. The character work is reduced to a stack of montages and undeserved reminisces, the scares are sometimes chilling but never as emotive as they should be because they’re robbed of deeper context.

Forever Floating

The circumstances that saw IT reduced in scale seem daft these days. Considering the clear cultural traction of ABC’s much-fretted project, it wouldn’t be mad to plot current horror telly’s increased success right back to this hit serial. The upcoming remake looks set to deliver a more comprehensive update of King’s work, and considering contemporary cinema’s treatment of kids, expect a much darker, more dangerous world, void of Wallace’s inherent blissful nostalgia. But then, it’s that airy TV vibe, the inherent naffness of some of IT, which allows the darker side to shine through. Like Twin Peaks around the same time, overexposing the lighter side makes the dark look darker. In particular, Tim Curry’s turn as Pennywise put flame to fuse and stuck him in the sewers of our collective conscious. This is Curry’s film. No matter what happens with the new one, as Stephen King himself said, “We’ll always have Tim Curry. He’s still floating down in the sewers of Derry...” He doesn’t know how right he is.

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The

BOGEYMEN COMETH

roots

Th e

evil

by Scott Clark

As another iconic cinema baddie returns to our screens in IT, we take a look at some of the most memorable villains in cinema history…

veryone loves a good villain and there’s certainly no shortage. Since the dawn of time we’ve pitted good against evil, and since cinema’s inception, it’s been no different. The screen finds it hard not to create antagonists and protagonists out of everyone. Over the years, though, things have changed. A snake in a tree doesn’t quite cut it against a nuclear bomb, in the same way a dastardly character doesn’t quite equate to a psychopathic one. In broad terms, Alfred Hitchcock’s Psycho changed the way we look at our villains. With its release in 1960, Psycho updated our expectations of both villainy, criminality, and evil. But what about before Norman Bates pulled on his mother’s stockings? What did a villain have to do to get under our skin? What type of people did the audience recoil at and more importantly, who were the people filmmakers wanted us to fear?

Origins of Evil As you might expect, villainy in the early 21st Century wasn’t quite as graphic as it is today. Even if we just look at the biggest films of the 1910s and twenties we see social epics like The Golem and Birth of a Nation, where villainy isn’t as much used as the dangerous ignorance of human nature. In 1922’s Nosferatu, we find an expressionist adaptation of Dracula, in the form of the evil Count Orlock played by Max Schreck. Pallid, inhuman, and, without the charm or sexuality of later adaptations, Schreck’s is arguably still the most horrifying; a diseased foreign threat of supernatural origin. Films back then weren’t as reliant on bad guys as they are now for showmanship and antagonism, but there are a couple of pretty important milestones. Faust (1926) has one of the best, most theatrical depictions of Satan and is an early touchstone for charismatic bad guys the world over. Mephisto, played to perfection by Emil Jannings is every bit the charming soulsnatcher, taking Faust on an epic adventure with the fate of mankind in the balance. Apart for petty criminals, the twenties offered up one other classic villain worthy of attention: the iconic Dr Mabuse played

by Rudolf Klein-Rogge in Fritz Lang’s Dr Mabuse the Gambler and its sequels. Mabuse is essentially the James Moriarty, arch nemesis of Conan Doyle’s Sherlock Holmes, of silent cinema with additional powers like telepathy and body transference. Played by a host of different actors across seventy years, the murderous manipulator is a comprehensive study in evil; mastermind, planning and coercing his way through a cynical corrupt world via his many henchmen. Monsters and Mad Scientists When it comes to the evolution of screen villains, the thirties are pretty important. Whilst it marks the apex of a kind of classic caricature, which wouldn’t really get a good airing until the eighties, it also marks the beginning of a darker cinematic mindset. With WW2 and the full swing of cinematic capitalism, the field was open for a new breed of monster. Bare in mind that the thirties was also the time when sound became a global fixture of cinema, so the silent-era creatures were brought to life in even more horrifying fashion. Universal’s legendary slew of iconic monsters became the first financially viable horror pictures ever, birthing the modern genre as we know it. Bela Lugosi’s eerie but sympathetic portrayal of Stoker’s Dracula updated the work handsomely, but gave

an altogether more enticing villain than the pallid critter in Nosferatu. This was an articulate threat that could pass for human. The same year Boris Karloff put himself on the map with a similarly sympathetic but totally horrifying turn as the Monster in James Whale’s Frankenstein in 1931 and the titular creature in The Mummy in 1932. While Universal invested in the future with increasingly impressive makeup effects, Peter Lorre was skulking his way around Fritz Lang’s M as self-loathing child murderer Hans Beckert. It’s a bold performance in a bold film, the kind of brutal subject matter that wouldn’t be treated as candidly for years to come. And it’s cinematically significant because it addresses compulsion and the nature of crime alongside a despicable villain. Between Universal’s theatrical make-upbased villainy and Lorre’s psychopathic serial killer, who is more iconic a villain than the Wicked Witch of the West? For over eighty years, the dog-threatening, child hunting, winged-monkey loving witch has been a shorthand for evil for all ages. Margaret Hamilton’s performance is pure villainous pantomime, but that doesn’t mean it’s not scary. You’ll be hard pressed to find a villain as renowned.

Crooked Capitalists The forties brought about some superb villains, with characters being more easily recognisable as bad people in the context of their film. For instance, after the war, the age of paranoia began. Faith in institutions collapsed. The villains were not easily crushed by the educated, rich, or powerful. In fact, the problems stemmed directly from them, and so did the villains.

powerful weren’t highly regarded. In the same breath, you could point to Orson Wells turn in The Third Man as manipulative black market dealer Harry Lime (Orson Welles) who, like Dr Mabuse, remains a shadowy operator for much of the film.

Take, for example, Henry F. Potter in It’s a Wonderful Life. The bank-running property tycoon causes cold-hearted strife for Jimmy Stewart’s charitable sweetheart in the Christmas film to end all Christmas films. Lionel Barrymore is essentially Scrooge (a role the legendary actor played numerous times in radio plays), but he never gets the soul-shifting ghost encounter, he’s a bad egg from start to finish, taking a particular glee in destroying the town’s spirit for his own gain. Potter is a rampant capitalist and the alternate timeline segment presents his destructive impact on the town without decency and charitability to stop him.

The end of the forties brought ever dropping depths of amorality as conspiracy and paranoia started to take hold with the end of the Second World War in 1945. Hitchcock will time and time again be credited as the father of the modern horror genre, but not simply for Psycho. His 1948 film Rope follows two charming sociopaths who murder a friend then throw a party with his body stashed in the room to test their perfect crime. The leader of the two, Brandon Shaw (John Dall), is a textbook case of narcissism, flaunting his crime in plain sight for the sheer intellectual mastery of it all. Playful, fiendish, and ultimately farcical, Rope shows a more worrying type of murderer who kills for the sheer sport. That it was based on a real-life case made it all the more chilling.

Potter is symptomatic of his time and proves that distrust in bankers isn’t so recent. People have seen the root problems with greed and power for years, and in a post war world, it’s not hard to see why the

Psychos and Sycophants This is where the villains get deliciously devilish. The fifties saw the dawn of a new age. As monster movies and sci-fi flicks retained a grip, psychopathic murderers and

corrupt authority were rife elsewhere on the screen. Villains were becoming harder and harder to spot as the Vietnam War raged and tensions with Russia promoted widespread paranoia of spies. Though a period film itself, Charles Laughton’s Western noir The Night of the Hunter introduced us to one such villain in Robert Mitchum’s pathological preacher Harry Powell. From the first scenes in the movie, Powell is deep in conversation with God himself - justifying the murder of a widow. Mitchum is charming as ever, love and hate tattooed on his knuckles, a tempestuous rage in his back pocket with a switchblade. After viciously offing his new bride, the film switches tracks and sees Powell pursue her two young children across the countryside with murderous intent. The fifties offered up a good few shocking villains, not least Rhoda Penmark (Patty McCormack), the titular terror in Melvyn LeRoy’s The Bad Seed, released the year after The Night of the Hunter. A favourite of cult auteur John Waters, The Bad Seed details the disturbing exploits of an angelic eightyear-old who is prone to murdering those in her way. Between the lack of solid parenting skills from her slowly unravelling mother, the permissive appearances from her father,

and a staunch dialogue on nature versus nurture, LeRoy creates a an infuriatingly daft environment. Adults are thick as mince, kids are fish in a barrel, and fate seems to continually let little Rhoda off the hook. In the same way The Night of the Hunter takes the piss out of how easily people fall for a white collar, LeRoy does the same for angelic little ladies with neat manner. If preachers and little girls were being upended as potential threats, then it was all too easy to do the same for law and order. In Touch of Evil, Orson Welles delivered another stirring portrayal of villainy in its contemporary form as corrupt police officer Hank Quinlan. The evidence-planting ruddynosed police chief is a boisterous drunk and a symbol of the ‘old-school’ that was coming under increased scrutiny. In the end, Quinlan dies in the dirt after being recorded flaunting his years of false evidence. After the fact, we learn his last planted evidence was pointless, as the culprit already confessed, proving Quinlan was still wrong, even if he was right. This idea of unmasking the shady foundations of powerful men was a popular fifties theme. Another top villain of the decade, Johnny Friendly from On the Waterfront, would be toppled by the

courageous scrapping of Marlon Brando. Lee J. Cob’s sadistic turn as the macho heavyweight is an integral bastard in the villain canon because its one of the big ones attached to a whole new movement in American cinema. Brando and guys like James Dean were the poster boys for the freedom-loving new generation, their villains were ‘The Man’; work bosses, parents, oldschool institutions like the mob. Friendly represents the underdog villains working in the system run by guys like Welles’ Quinlan. The Future of Evil 1960 marks a whole new age in the development of villainy. With the release of Peeping Tom, Psycho, and Eyes Without a Face, dramatic villains became a much darker, morally ambiguous bunch. And in keeping with the development of technology, the increasing bankability of a villain, and relaxing censorship, they could get away with a lot more too. The colourful villains of contemporary cinema are loud and proud, but those pre-‘60s villains are just as horrifying. Their aims and drives are much the same, just the way they are shown has morphed over the years. If anything, some of these earlier examples prove we have long been aware of a basic truth: villainy knows no creed, colour, or religion. With that in mind, the sixties had a lot to worry about...

The

BOGEYMEN COMETH

BeYoND

PsYCHo by JAMES EVANS

hen Norman Bates was introduced to the world in 1960, he took people by surprise. The 1950s had been full of science fiction that tried to make sense of the looming threat of nuclear devastation through the vanquishing of various radioactive monsters, while horror was reinventing the traditional villains for a new generation, most notably in films like Hammer’s Dracula (1958) and The Curse of Frankenstein (1957). In amongst all this, after having recently directed classic colour thrillers Vertigo (1958) and North by Northwest (1959), Alfred Hitchcock chose to make a black and white psychological horror on a low budget and relatively short shooting schedule. Initially, critics weren’t sure but the canny Hitch used all his marketing wiles and a huge hit was born. What makes Bates different from his contemporaries is that he is an entirely human ‘monster’. There’s no grand scheming behind his actions, no hero to be his foil but instead a damaged human doing horrible things. One of the most obvious signs you have achieved something new or fresh in cinema is to be followed by a slew of imitators, ranging from the good to the oh-so-bad and so it was for Hitch. William Castle had not long taken the decision to scare the bejesus out of his audiences as a money-maker and he would get in on the post-Psycho trend towards

twisting murder mysteries with the likes of Homicidal (1961) and I Saw What You Did (1965) and others would try, too. However, for the most part, the 1960s was dominated by supernatural horrors with Hammer at the forefront in the UK and Roger Corman’s Poe adaptations leading from America. It would, instead, be the 1970s when the true inheritors of Norman’s bogeyman mantle came along. But first a brief second mention for I Saw What You Did, which featured two girls being hunted by a man they prank-called after he had just murdered his wife. An early British entry in the proto-slasher horror film was 1971’s Fright, which followed Susan George’s babysitter trying to survive a night in a dark old house. These are worth noting because the girls-inperil plot would be a major theme of this new decade’s horror films and be a huge part of the 1980s slasher boom. In 1973, Tobe Hooper and his cast and crew sweated out a summer in Texas making a seriously dark and disturbing film that, when released a year later, would receive a mixed response. Eventually, The Texas Chain Saw Massacre would go on to become one of the most revered horror films ever made. You can take it as a straight-up horror flick, an allegory for the Vietnam war, a commentary on screen violence (of which there is actually little) and almost any number of other

interpretations. It also gave us the first truly iconic cinematic bogeyman since Bates, but this time even more extreme. Leatherface is part of the family that abuses Marilyn Burns and her friends after they make the mistake of stopping at the wrong house. He’s even more pathetic than Bates, hiding behind a mask made of human skin, under the control of his inbred, cannibalistic family and murdering and butchering for them. Other notable cinematic villains of this time were the frequently black-gloved killers of the Italian giallo movies. A prime example of this is found in Mario Bava’s Blood and Black Lace (1964), the masked killer here the progenitor of dozens of similarly brutal murderers that would stalk these films over the next decade and more. At the same time as Leatherface first appeared, other filmmakers were laying the groundwork for the slasher craze that would follow a few years later. One of the best examples of this is the mad killer hiding in the attic of a sorority house in Bob Clark’s Black Christmas (1974). However, it would be in 1978 when Leatherface would get his first major competition as the screen’s most frightening bogeyman, however, with the release of John Carpenter’s Halloween. This classic features the jump-suited, mask-wearing Michael Myers returning to his home town of Haddonfield after 15 years in a mental hospital to resume

killing. Halloween laid much of the groundwork for the slasher template, and still after innumerable imitators remains undimmed as one of the finest horror films ever made. That Myers doesn’t speak, communicate or make any demands, he simply kills for unknowable reasons, making him frightening because there is no reasoning with him, only a desperate fight to survive. Audiences loved the suspenseful, expertly-made Halloween and made it a hugely profitable independent movie. And again, much as with Hitchcock and the post-Psycho wave of films inspired by that hit, Halloween would be followed by a glut of films seeking a piece of those profits. If the Golden Age of slashers is generally considered to be 1978-1986 it didn’t stop one film after another attempting to be the next box office smash all throughout that period and long after it ended. But one film above them all would start the 1980s as a massive hit before kick-starting a franchise that would rival Halloween. Friday the 13th was released in 1980 and took the gore further than Carpenter had, relying on shocks and brutality above Halloween’s elegant scares. Showcasing the make-up talents of Tom Savini, it also connected with audiences. Both Halloween and Friday the 13th would get their first sequels in 1981. The latter would bring back Jason Voorhees, seen only briefly

at the climax of the first film, this time to be the antagonist of the series taking place five years after the events of the original movie as a new killer stalking the camps around Crystal Lake. As subsequent films in the series came about, Jason would become the iconic villain he is today, with his hockey mask look being arguably the most recognisable of all. While Halloween III: Season of the Witch tried to present a different story unconnected with Myers, the Friday the 13th franchise would continue on with Jason as the central bogeyman. The masked killer would be back for the really rather good Halloween 4: The Return of Michael Myers and has been part of the series ever since. We’ll take a moment now to find out a little bit more about some of the slasher bogeymen who never quite connected enough to become as popular as Myers or Voorhees. Don Coscarelli made the first Phantasm film in 1979 and this did manage to become a recurring franchise, though the first sequel didn’t arrive for nearly a decade and the films stand apart from their contemporaries by being more nightmarish and focussing on Mike’s ongoing fight against the Tall Man [more on this on page 65]. In the 1980 shocker The Bogeyman, Lacey and Willy are siblings terrorised by the spirit of their mother’s sadistic lover, a man Willy had killed

years before. The Burning (1981) gave us probably one of the most likely to have made it as a repeat offender. The villain here is the disfigured caretaker Cropsy, who takes revenge with some garden shears on the kids he blames for his injuries. Madman (1981) follows the titular axe murderer and the unfortunate people who try to test the urban legend around whether he is real or not. The Prowler (1981, released cut in the UK as Rosemary’s Killer) has a killer in WWII fatigues resurrecting a killing spree that began some 35 years before. The Canadian slasher My Bloody Valentine (1981) features a murderer in miner’s gear similarly compelled to begin killing again. The Sleepaway Camp films follow a more unusual killer that we won’t spoil here and this actually also managed to become a series with a few sequels. Even Santa Claus (or at least people dressed as him) became a bogeyman himself in films like Christmas Evil (1980) and Silent Night, Deadly Night (1984), the latter of which even spawning multiple sequels and a remake. Wes Craven (we’re getting to his biggest star shortly) tried to turn Horace Pinker into a new villain in 1989’s Shocker but audiences just didn’t take to him like Freddy Krueger. If it feels like many of them could be interchangeable that could be frequently levelled at many a slasher but nevertheless, audiences lapped them up.

Freddy is the other member of the big four slasher villains. He differs from the first three (at least initially) in that Krueger is a supernatural menace from the beginning. Freddy is a child killer who, when he escapes justice on a technicality, is murdered by the parents of his victims and resurrected as an even more powerful evil, murderously haunting the dreams of the children of Elm Street. Starting out as a scary horror villain, through subsequent films Krueger would become more of a wisecracking fan favourite before Craven brought him back to his dark roots for the meta-sequel Wes Craven’s New Nightmare. Some other notable bogeymen from one of horror’s greatest decades include the likes of Robert De Niro as the devil himself in Angel Heart (1987), Pinhead in the Hellraiser series, the cop-thriller slasher killers in films like Ten to Midnight (1983) and Cobra (1986), a personal favourite of this writer in the titular character of Warlock (1989) and finally a mention for the Chucky series, the possessed doll that gave many young kids serious nightmares. Like Krueger, Chucky would become the wisecracking centre of increasingly twisted films and these still continue into 2017. Of course, another character to give kids nightmare (and with good reason) was Tim Curry as Pennywise in the TV miniseries adaptation of It [see page 20].

The next decade would not be as fecund in the creation of new bogeymen, but it marked a return to the damaged and dangerous but totally human villain of Psycho. It had reappeared in the 1980s with Henry: Portrait of a Serial Killer and Michael Rooker’s chilling central performance. Films like Silence of the Lambs (1991), Cape Fear (1991) and Seven (1995) continued to put a twisted but disturbingly human face on evil. Wes Craven’s Scream bridged the gap between slasher and this approach, its seemingly omnipresent killer being just as human as the victims. There would still be supernatural villains that would make their début. We’re aware this article has been a total sausage-fest and so it’s pleasing we can mention one of the most iconic of recent bogeymen is in fact a bogeywoman, Sadako from the Japanese horror Ringu. Tony Todd put his naturally imposing stature and voice to good use in the Candyman films. Todd would also create a minor but certainly creepy addition to this cannon in William Bludworth, the funeral home owner who seems to know when death is coming in the Final Destination films. The new millennium would bring a brand new icon of fear in Jigsaw, the devious and brutal killer from the Saw films. Numerous remakes and reboots and reinterpretations would find Leatherface, Michael Myers, Jason Voorhees, and Freddy Krueger resurrected

for new versions of their stories with wildly varying results. New century bogeymen also worth mentioning include Leslie Vernon, the ‘aspiring serial killer’ of Behind the Mask: The Rise of Leslie Vernon, a well-received and darkly humorous mockumentary. Victor Crowley was the killer hiding in the swamp in Adam Green’s Hatchet trilogy. Cult hero Sid Haig brought the deviant Captain Spaulding to life for Rob Zombie’s House of 1000 Corpses and The Devil’s Rejects. Filmmakers continue to try and break the next new cinematic bogeyman. Audiences continue to go back to these characters and films. It’s always a hope that the next great movie bad guy is about to be unleashed for the big screen. The fact they come back time and again is evidence we have an affection not just for being scared but for those doing the scaring. There are many reasons the bogeyman is such a popular character - it allows us a ‘safe’ confrontation with mortality and some scares before knowing ultimately they will be vanquished. The bogeyman that haunts our dreams and nightmares represents that sinister side of us and our desires, and one of the greatest things about them is the catharsis they provide, an exhaling of the darkness within, and most importantly, a bloody good time.

By Andrew Pollard

We really have been spoilt over the past few years where comic book-based TV has been concerned, and leading the charge are Marvel’s Netflix-exclusive shows. Now, with MARVEL’S THE DEFENDERS getting set to be one of 2017’s most must-see and hotly anticipated series, we give you the downlow on all you need to know ahead of the show’s August premiere.

The Origin StorY

s a comic book team, the Defenders have their roots as far back as 1971. That initial line-up, however, was made up of far more powerful characters than Netflix’s street-level take on the team, with Doctor Strange leading a group that also featured Hulk, Namor the Submariner and later, the Silver Surfer. Not a bad group of guys to have fighting the good fight, right? In fact, you could say that the initial group had every possible box covered when it came to powers and reach. Where the Netflix take on the Defenders is concerned, don’t be expecting dimension-hopping or intergalactic adventures, though, for the action in this much-anticipated series will centre in and around New York, as has been the case with Marvel’s Daredevil, Marvel’s Jessica Jones, Marvel’s Luke Cage, and largely, too, with Marvel’s Iron Fist. Ever since Marvel and Netflix started working together in late 2013, the plan was always to arrive at this point - at The Defenders. First up, Boardwalk Empire’s Charlie Cox was cast in early 2014 as the Guardian Devil himself, Matt Murdock aka Daredevil. Then came the second part of the

puzzle, with Breaking Bad’s Krysten Ritter landing the role of superpowered private eye Jessica Jones, and soon after came word that The Good Wife’s Mike Colter had won the race to play Luke Cage – who, as it happened, would first appear during the Ritter-headlined Jessica series. The final jigsaw piece, Danny Rand, aka the magical Iron Fist, came when Game of Thrones’ Finn Jones nabbed that gig. As each hero began their small screen journey, the Netflixexclusive world - which also happens to be set within the confines of the greater Marvel Cinematic Universe - began to take shape, with new elements and characters slowly being introduced, such as Rosario Dawson as Claire Temple (essentially this world’s take on the comic book Night Nurse character), Elodie Yung turning up as Elektra Natchios, the infamous Hand coming to the fore, and, who could forget, Jon Bernthal’s memorable and much-lauded take on Frank Castle. With this shared world everexpanding, and with each heroes’ story starting to overlap with the others, now we’re finally at the point that these four characters will come together to fight side by side to tackle a threat that none of them could possibly manage to overhaul on their own.

Heroes and Villains Considering you’ve got the heightened senses of Daredevil, the superhuman strength of Jones, the near-indestructible Power Man, and the intense, all-powerful Iron Fist, you know that the ‘big bad’ of Marvel’s The Defenders must be a seriously big deal if all four of these heroes teaming together may not even be enough to save the day. And that’s where the iconic Sigourney Weaver comes in, with the famed Alien star on board to play Alexandra. Described as a smart, sophisticated, charming sort who just so happens to be an extremely powerful force in New York City, the Alexandra character is one shrouded in a little bit of mystery right now. Nothing solid has been let out of the bag as to why she’s so powerful, what sort of baddie she is, or what her mission is just yet, although all hints and clues seem to point towards her being tied to the nefarious Hand organisation that’s been seen dotted throughout Marvel’s Netflix shows so far. It also seems as if Alexandra will have some ties to Elektra, which again hints at her association with the Hand - and there are even rumours

that Weaver’s role may ultimately be revealed to be that of Viper, a longtime foe of Daredevil and Iron Fist in the Marvel comic book world. But while details remain a little sketchy on the ‘big bad’ front for now, we do know which other familiar faces will be back to join ol’ Hornhead and co. Already publicly confirmed to appear are Scott Glenn as Stick, Deborah Ann Woll as Karen Page, Elden Henson as Foggy Nelson, Rachael Taylor as Trish Walker, CarrieAnne Moss as Jeri Hogarth, Eka Darville as Malcolm Ducasse, Simone Missick as Misty Knight, and Jessica Henwick as Colleen Wing, with a whole load of surprise appearances and Easter eggs also likely as The Defenders plays out. Of course, with such an impressive ensemble put together, you can bet your bottom dollar that there’ll be plenty of quipping wise and in-fighting in The Defenders, particularly during the opening episodes as the titular team first come together. After all, until this point, there’s only really been interaction between Jessica and Cage, with the Guardian Devil instead content with serving as a lone wolf who happily cracks skulls in Hell’s

Kitchen, whilst poor naïve Danny Rand has barely any idea of what an actual superhero is at this stage of the game.

New York’s Finest With each of our heroes so far largely choosing to work on their lonesome, seeing them together should certainly make for an interesting dynamic. As showrunner Marco Ramirez himself put it, “There’s no hierarchy, all that’s yet to be set. Daredevil, the trained boxer of the group, just wants every punch to be the last. Luke Cage plays defence - he’s the guy who will cover a child, he will use his body defensively. Jessica Jones just wants the fight to be over, takes no joy in it and detests every part of the act, even the buildup. Danny Rand is kind of hot-headed, a little more naïve than the others. He’s very eager and gets himself into fights and bites off more than he can chew, a lot.” Much like the comic books, it’s the coming together of these different personalities and mindsets that’s the most intriguing element of The Defenders. Well, that and wondering just how many bodies will pile up once Frank Castle eventually turns up. But even with that, seeing such

a combustible element as the Punisher placed alongside a moral-driven sort like Luke Cage is just one of the many examples of why seeing these characters lining up together should make for mustsee TV. And must-see TV is indeed what Marvel and Netflix have made these shows so far. From the moment the first season of Daredevil landed on the on-demand streaming service, you knew you were in for a true treat. As Charlie Cox’s Matt Murdock broke bones and battered bodies, straight away we were aware that this was a world vastly different to the big-screen one full of gods, super soldiers, green rage monsters, and genius, billionaire, playboy philanthropists. Sure, the greater MCU is indeed looming large in the background - such as the references to ‘the incident’, i.e. the Chitauri invasion seen in Avengers Assemble - but these shows give focus to the grimy, gritty corners of New York and some of the truly detestable figures who inhabit them. And by truly detestable figures, that’s not always just the bad guys, with some of our Defenders, most notably Daredevil and Jessica Jones, being characters with their own dark sides and personal demons.

The Future’s Bright While the notable cast names already mentioned are enough to instantly grab the attention, excitement levels should also be ratcheted up due to the minds behind Marvel’s The Defenders. With the creative team behind the series being Doug Petrie and Marco Ramirez, you should be right to be a little tight in the pants as the show’s August premiere date races ever closer. After all, Petrie and Ramirez were the showrunners behind the second season of Marvel’s Daredevil - a season that many genre fans consider to be the very best piece of small screen action put out to date in this Marvel/ Netflix world. Add into that Daredevil’s Drew Goddard and Marvel TV’s Jeph Loeb, who are both on board, and you again get reminded of just why the anticipation around The Defenders is so high. One thing that is noticeably different to the previous Marvel shows, though, is the episode count this time around. Unlike the previous outings for our Netflix heroes, The Defenders will only consist of eight episodes as opposed to the thirteen a-piece that each previous season has been made up of. Time-wise, the miniseries will actually

only take place over the space of a few days, with it being set a month or so after Marvel’s Iron Fist came to an end. By the time these eight outings come to a close, it will wrap up what is being labelled ‘Phase One’ of Marvel’s Netflix-exclusive shows. Of course, we already know that Marvel’s Daredevil is to start shooting its third season later this year, while both Marvel’s Jessica Jones and Marvel’s Luke Cage have already been confirmed for second years. Then there’s the long-rumoured solo series for Jon Bernthal’s Punisher, which has still to be officially announced but seems an absolute lock to happen given the hugely positive response to Bernthal’s take on Frank Castle in Daredevil’s Season 2. In addition to this, you never know which other characters may wind up headlining their own show at some point down the line, with the likes of Colleen Wing, Misty Knight, and possibly even Trish Walker (should she ultimately take on her comic book Hellcat mantle) all viable possibilities to nab their own series should these Netflix shows continue to deliver. Then, obviously, there’s the huge question; the elephant in the room. Yes, we’re talking about whether any of these small screen heroes could end up lining up

alongside the cinematic Steve Rogers, Tony Stark, or Peter Parker. For now, at least, that seems like it won’t be happening, although it’s not been totally ruled out by the powers-thatbe. We mean, who wouldn’t be excited about seeing Charlie Cox’s Daredevil pop up in a future outing for Tom Holland’s Spider-Man? The possibilities really are limitless when looking at options for the Marvel Cinematic Universe, and bringing in characters who have already been established courtesy of the Netflix shows seems like a no-brainer. Well, to us at least. Here’s hoping that those in charge of such decisions think the same. So there we are. After four years of planning and five seasons of excellent TV, Marvel’s The Defenders is nearly upon us. As the old saying goes, “Make mine Marvel!”, as the four shows that we’ve been given so far give us no reason whatsoever to doubt that Marvel’s The Defenders will be nothing less than a huge hit full of delicate character beats, brutal fight scenes, and, most importantly, an emotional core that you can’t help but be drawn in by. All eight episodes of MARVEL’S THE DEFENDERS will be available on Netflix from August 18th.

36 navigate the danger to the other vampires and to himself. Amel is something of a hero in this story, and I long to work with him again. Is there anything left for you to explore in fiction? What’s next? I feel I’ve only begun! My son and I have just finished a collaboration on new book, and I have more books in my imagination than I can find time to write. I have a mind that races spontaneously to create cosmologies and characters and stories. I want to write much more about Ancient Egypt, much more about ghosts and spirits, much more about werewolves, and much more about my beloved vampires. Will you write another Mummy story? Are we done with Mummies now? Great question. As I mentioned, my son, Christopher and I have just collaborated on a novel and it is a sequel to my earlier The Mummy, or Ramses the Damned. The title is Ramses the Damned: the Passion of Cleopatra. It picks up right where the first Ramses novel left off, with the immortal Ramses and his immortal love Julie exploring the world of 1914 right before the beginning of the Great War. Cleopatra, Ramses’ lost love, figures prominently in the novel, and other mythic characters emerge. We had a wonderful time writing it, and already have a third Ramses novel planned.

Author

WORdS: Ed FORTuNE

ANNE RICE needs little introduction. The New Orleans-born author is best known for her Gothic fiction, Christian literature, and erotica. Her series, THE VAMPIRE CHRONICLES, detailing the adventures of the vampire Lestat, redefined vampires and their role in genre fiction. The book, INTERVIEW WITH A VAMPIRE, came out in 1973 and was adapted into a movie starring Brad Pitt and Tom Cruise in 1994. Her latest novel sends the infamous Lestat to Atlantis. We caught up with her to find out more… STARBURST: How would you describe Prince Lestat and the Realms of Atlantis to new readers? Anne Rice: It is a full-fledged Vampire Chronicle featuring my hero, Lestat, in his new role as prince of the vampire tribe. Only a short time has passed since Lestat assumed this role and set up a court in his ancestral chateau in the mountains of France. Much to his surprise, Lestat finds himself confronting a new species of immortal. And the species is connected to the spirit that gave birth to the vampires of the world thousands of years ago. As Lestat has revealed, this spirit, named Amel, fused with a mortal queen of Egypt to create the first preternatural blood drinker or vampire, and all vampires made since are connected by this spirit. Now, as this new species makes itself known, Lestat realises that they may be the worst threat the tribe has ever faced.

Why Atlantis? I have always loved Plato’s story of the lost empire of Atlantis, and longed to do my own Atlantis mythology, and this book gave me a golden opportunity. I found I was able to connect an Atlantian origin story to Amel, and subsequently to the vampires, while at the same time offering a very complete story of the mysterious kingdom of Atlantis itself. I found it immensely satisfying to walk the streets of Atlantis in my imagination, and to speculate on how an advanced technological civilisation might have developed without going through the industrial and military evolutions that we have seen in our world. The people of Atlantis go from being a hunter gatherer people to inhabitants of a marvellous techno-paradise, and Amel’s genius and personality emerge at the centre of Atlantis. As for the new immortal species, they do offer a threat to the vampires, yes, but they also offer friendship, knowledge and huge advantages, and Lestat must decide how to

Why do you keep returning to Lestat? What is it about that particular monster? Lestat is like no other character I’ve ever discovered or created in my writing. I love him with my whole heart, and he is so real to me that I can easily envision him, or hear the sound of his voice whenever I want. He’s inescapably alive for me, and I want to go on writing about his adventures as he faces the complexities of the modern world. I can’t answer what is it about Lestat in particular, except that he sprang to life out of the corner of my eye when I was writing my first novel, Interview with the Vampire, and when I did devote full attention to Lestat some eight years later, he became some sort of fusion of myself and my husband, Stan, some deep fictional embodiment of our ongoing love affair that went on to last for 41 years. Lestat is the male in me. He’s the hero I long to be, and the monster that I so often am in real life - impetuous, reckless, loving, and desperately needing love. Why are some monsters so romantic? I’m not sure I can answer this question. I can say that for me monsters have always been intensely romantic, and I have personally identified with them as outcasts, and have wanted to explore their suffering, and the elements that make others afraid of them. A movie I saw in the 1940s, Dracula’s Daughter, presented the heroine as very romantic, a tortured artist doomed to drink blood to survive. The character stole my heart. Vampire movies fascinated me, never giving me enough about the vampire himself or herself. I longed to hear the monster’s personal story. I longed to know the monster intimately. Why this is, I don’t know. I was always attracted to the power and isolation of the monster, identifying with the monster’s alienation, and feeling strangely at home with the monster in my soul. Interview with a Vampire came from a very dark place. How does writing that book compare to this one? Yes, it did come from a dark place, a place of

37 loss and grief for a lost child and grief for a lost Catholic faith. But with each subsequent vampire novel, I have re-entered that realm to find Lestat anew and hear his voice. I am and always will be an outcast in my own mind, a person who belongs nowhere, unsure of gender identity, unsure of any belief system, suspicious of any and all authority, seeking for the meaning of life, no matter what happens to me along the way. The vampire is the perfect metaphor for the outsider, the outcast. He is really the perfect metaphor for human beings. Writing about vampires enables me to talk about my ‘reality’ - my world. How does it feel to be the founder of modern vampire fiction? Thank you for your description. I don’t know that everyone would agree with your generous description there. If my work did encourage others to write about vampires, to mine the pure gold of the metaphoric power of the vampire, I’m pleased. But I think cultures show interest in different concepts at different times for reasons that are difficult to chart. And for some reason our culture near the end of the last century showed a tremendous fascination with the vampire and other mythic monsters as well. And this has continued right through the present time. Television and film today are obsessed with the supernatural in trying to fathom the depths of the human condition. After 2,000 years, as belief systems crumble and technology overwhelms us with seeming magic, we feel more than ever disconnected as thinking humans from the rest of the biological or mammalian world. In literature and film about monsters, we search for ourselves. Everywhere I turn, I see novels, motion pictures, and TV series reflecting our search for a new morality, for new rules, for new types of families, for new ways to make life not only bearable but beautiful and worthwhile. Supernatural characters, vampires, witches, mummies, werewolves, superheroes, and angels inhabit these novels, films and TV series. Surely this is because we are grappling with the unique mental and moral abilities that separate us from all other creatures on the planet. Our profound emotional and spiritual gifts offer us immense vision and knowledge in a vast universe in which we feel minuscule, insignificant, lost. Again, the vampire is a metaphor for us as we confront our gifts, our ability to know just how tiny and fragile we are. We kill to live every day just as the vampire does every night. We are predators; loners in our souls. We are damned by one another and by cultures alien to us, we compete for the very air we breathe. We seek for redemption, safety,

goodness, and happiness but are ever aware of how nearly impossible it is to maintain such states. We are monsters, all right. The vampire is the icon of our age. Alluring yet condemned as evil; fearsome yet seductive; beautiful yet dark. What is it about horror and murder stories that fascinate us so? They allow us to ponder the violence that is part and parcel of our daily lives. As I mentioned before, we are all predators, killing to live every single day. Horror, murder, violence, death... all this is rooted in the competition that is part of biological life on our planet. To survive, one must devour. And for over eight thousand years or more, we’ve been pondering that, trying to make rules about what is good, what is bad, what is permissible, what is unforgivable. And we struggle constantly with it. Well, horror and murder stories let us think about it comfortably, play with it - work it out, so to speak - in an entertaining and cathartic way. This eases the tension for a little while. I’m convinced after reading and watching murder mysteries, even the most playful English ‘cosy’ mysteries, that all murder mysteries are about our personal horror of death and our refusal to accept it. We look for the ‘murderer’ because we ourselves will soon be murdered by life, and we feel it is really unfair. After all, we feel immortal, don’t we? And we can imagine being immortal, yet we will die and we know it. So it’s comforting to watch Miss Marple or Miss Fisher or Inspector Barnaby or Lewis find ‘the murderer’ in a story and bring this awful bad person to justice, because no one will ever bring the ‘murderer’ to justice that will kill each and every one of us. Will you ever be kind to your characters? I love them! I am very kind to them! I love Lestat and see to it that he always triumphs no matter how much the odds are stacked against him. I heard a saying a long time ago, that Tolstoy said the measure of a writer was the love he showed to his created characters. I liked that saying, though I don’t know whether Tolstoy really said it. And I feel that I only write about those I love. If I do introduce a character that I don’t love, well, he or she disappears from the story very soon. My prose has been faulted for too much love, hasn’t it? If you could change one thing about your life, what would it be? I would live in a community where I could walk to everything, grocery stores, theatres, restaurants, bookstores, the doctor’s office, the post office, every single thing. I grew up in New Orleans and it was like that for me in the 1940s and ‘50s, though you could ride the streetcar everywhere for seven cents. And later for many years I lived in the Castro District of San Francisco and it was like that, and you could take the metro to ‘downtown’ in ten minutes. But sadly, I’ve spent most of my life in places where I could not walk to everything. And that is certainly something I ponder a lot. If you could change one thing about the world, what would it be? I would take away all violence and cruelty. We would all love one another. Violence would be so abhorrent as to be a shocking exception. Actually loving everyone is more respectable today than it ever was in the past, and people today do imagine ‘world peace’ in a way they never dreamed of before. So maybe we will somehow get to that stage. Our sense of injustice is being refined and expanded all the time. The fact that Western Europe has not known a war since the end of WWII is an

amazing fact. Western civilisation today has achieved an amazing level of harmony and peace with democracies flourishing everywhere. That’s a wonderful thing... so we will get there, won’t we? We are shocked, saddened, and horrified by the acts of terrorists, and we can measure our worldwide improvement by how much we are shocked by these things, and how we all pull together to condemn them. Every life lost is an unforgivable tragedy, but we must never lose sight of how united we are now in condemning those who shatter the peace of this world. As for those countries that are wartorn and filled with suffering, it is too soon to be thankful that they do not make up much of the world; we must do all we can to help them, ease their pain, take their refugees, and not feed the fires of violence that rage in them. But overall? When you look at the entire world? This is a time of uncommon concord, of peace. It isn’t popular to say so, but it is true. Western civilisation will always be a work in progress and therefore it is not good to praise what we have achieved while there is still so much work to be done. But really for most people on this planet, this is a very good time to be alive. I am profoundly thankful for the world I’ve experienced. I wish everyone were living in safety, and comfort, with all their needs met. What inspires you, beyond writing? What inspires me more than anything in this world is the kindness of people; the tender mercies people show to one another all around us every day. I just marvel at it, the kindness of people who stop to help one another, who take the time to offer assistance when you’re lost or confused or don’t know the language, the gentleness and concern people show one another. Everywhere I’ve travelled I’ve seen this, and encountered kind people. I am amazed sometimes as I walk through a city or a park or a town at the many happy kind people I see. I think we take it too much for granted. We forget about it. But people everywhere on this earth do love one another, and seek to be kind to one another. It is really a dominant theme in this world. This inspires me to believe that maybe there is an afterlife. PRINCE LESTAT AND THE REALMS OF ATLANTIS, published by Penguin Random House, is out now in paperback.

Lost Shadows in the

by Andrew Pollard

Back on July 31st, 1987, a movie was released at least in the United States, for we Brits would have to wait a little while - that would reach out and inspire a whole new generation, going on to become a true cult classic and changing the game when it came to how people viewed vampire films. As cool as the other side of the pillow, played perfectly by all involved, full of insta-quotable dialogue, and all wrapped up in an iconic soundtrack, THE LOST BOYS broke the mould. Now, as Joel Schumacher’s movie celebrates its 30th anniversary, we reflect on this genre favourite and its ever-expanding legacy.

People Are Strange By the time that The Lost Boys was released back in ‘87, there was a stigma of sorts attached to the subgenre of vampire movies. With the mere mention of these bloodsucking sorts, memories of the likes of Bela Lugosi, Klaus Kinski, and Christopher Lee were instantly conjured up at that point in time. And while we here at STARBURST most certainly don’t see that as a bad thing, to others it meant that Dracula and any other vampires were a dated concept that was merely scraping the barrel and milking an old cow dry for the millionth time. To be fair, you could maybe see where people

were coming from, for vampire pictures up until then had milked the same concept dry time and time again. But as The Lost Boys came together, it soon became clear that this was something different, something modern, and something that was about to reinvent the subgenre for a whole new audience. What we’ve come to know and love as The Lost Boys was actually meant to be so very different originally, however, with Richard Donner initially on board to direct. Donner, hot off the heels of the huge success of 1985’s The Goonies, was brought in by Warner Brothers to helm what was a kid-friendly vampire picture, whose title paid reference to J. M. Barrie’s Peter Pan works and the never-grow-old boys who played a big part in those tales. And in this original incarnation, the action was of a far more comedic slant, with the adventure meant to mirror the aforementioned Goonies in tone. Wanting to work on a more adult-driven movie, Donner would depart The Lost Boys in order to take on a little-known film by the name of Lethal Weapon. Brought in to replace the Superman helmer was Joel Schumacher, who at that point was best known for St. Elmo’s Fire. It was when Schumacher boarded the project that things began to change for the picture, particularly in how he brought Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade’s Jeffrey Boam to rework the screenplay in place from Janice Fischer and

James Jeremias. Gone was what Schumacher himself labelled “a sort of cutesy, G-rated movie aimed at young kids”, and instead, Boam penned a script aimed for the teenage audience and beyond. What Schumacher also managed to do was lure Michael Chapman out of a four-year cinematography hiatus. Iconic cinematographer Chapman got his start on the likes of The Godfather and Jaws before working with the legendary Martin Scorsese on Taxi Driver, The Last Waltz, and Raging Bull. Chapman had decided to try his hand at directing by that point, but he was eager to sign on for The Lost Boys as he was a fan of the classic monster movies of yesteryear and was keen to reinvent the notion of a vampire for modern eyes, in turn crafting the majestic look and feel of The Lost Boys. They’re Only Noodles, Michael Is that enough background info, then? For now, at least? Good, for we should really get to the main plot of this most beloved of films, shouldn’t we? Of course, we’d hedge a bet that you’re as well versed with the story of The Lost Boys as we are. To keep it to its simplest form, the movie sees a single mother and her two sons move to Santa Carla for a fresh start. The only issue is, it soon becomes clear that this seemingly idyllic beach town has a major problem: vampires! As Lucy, the mother in question, is the excellent Dianne Wiest, while her sons Michael

and Sam are played by Jason Patric and Corey Haim, respectively, and the bonkers old grandfather of the clan is the always brilliant Bernard Hughes. With Lucy soon finding a romantic spark with Max (Edward Herrmann), Michael follows suit and becomes mesmerised by the mysterious Star (Jami Gertz)… who just so happens to be in some sort of relationship with Kiefer Sutherland’s David, the leader of a local biker gang. It soon becomes clear that David isn’t just concerned with revving engines, for his other more worrying hobby is being “a goddamn, shit-sucking vampire”. While David is busy trying to seduce Michael to his bloodsucking ways, young Sam turns to local comic book nerds and vampire hunters the Frog Brothers (Corey Feldman and Jamison Newlander), as they look to put a stop to these vamps and save Michael from becoming one of these, err, lost boys. Now, the story itself was enough to grab the attention of many, particularly with how vastly different it was to the vampire pictures of old, but the tone and setting of The Lost Boys cannot be underestimated when looking at the film’s appeal. Shot in Santa Cruz, California, the beachside town aesthetic led to an almost fairytale feel to The Lost Boys, which was only further amplified by the cliffside home of the vamps at the centre of the story, and by the slick use of blood; blood that Corey Feldman

claims was actually mixed with glitter to give it a unique, shiny look. Obviously, key to any film is the core cast, and it’s there that The Lost Boys also excels, with the picture perfectly capturing a moment in time when it comes to Hollywood lore. Mixing the critically lauded likes of Dianne Wiest, Edward Herrmann, and Bernard Hughes with hot and smoldering talents of the day such as Jason Patric, Kiefer Sutherland, Jamie Gertz, Alex Winter (the future Bill S. Preston, Esq.) and model Brooke McCarter, and then throwing in youngsters such as Jamison Newlander and the two Coreys, everything came together magnificently. And the cast could’ve actually been slightly different, with Jim Carrey missing out to Sutherland for the David role, Fred Gwynne (of Herman Munster fame) being considered for the Max gig, and a young Ben Stiller unsuccessfully auditioning for the film. Luckily for us, the movie came together as it did, although there is still part of us that would’ve been intrigued to see Gwynne in the Max role. Still, a legacy had begun to take shape, and the cult of the movie was only added to further by a soundtrack that still stands out to this day as one of the greatest cinema has ever seen. With the likes of INXS, Roger Daltrey, Echo and The Bunnymen (covering The Doors!), Gerard McMahon, Tim Cappello (whose names will instantly bring back images of a greased-up

muscle-head with a ponytail and a saxophone), Thomas Newman, and Foreigner’s Lou Gramm just some of the names providing the music to Schumacher’s movie. In fact, to some, the soundtrack is just as legendary as the film itself, and rightly so, for very few times has a movie’s soundtrack fit its subject so perfectly as the soundtrack to The Lost Boys. Raising the Stakes To be fair, while The Lost Boys is indeed looked back upon fondly by so many of us and deemed an all-time great film, the picture only had modest success at the box office upon its initial release. It was on the VHS market, however, that it really bloomed, with the film becoming one of the highest selling videos in the history of Warner Bros. From there, word of mouth saw The Lost Boys become the new cool thing that you simply had to see, and that’s where the fandom around the film really started to ratchet up into another gear. Likewise, early critical response to the film was initially a mixed bag, with more and more people starting to come around to this new idea of what a vampire film really could be by that point in the 1980s. And that’s key to why The Lost Boys is so special to many fans, particularly those of us with a love for all things genre, for it took the classic age-old - and sadly outdated - vampire concept and completely turned it on its head,

giving a new shot of life to a subgenre that many believed had run its course. Vampires were once again cool, and The Lost Boys was responsible for revitalising these legendary beasties. So much so, the likes of Buffy the Vampire Slayer, the Twilight series, and a whole host of other modern-day depictions of these bloodsuckers have a lot to thank The Lost Boys for, for if it wasn’t for Joel Schumacher’s 1987 picture then they very well may never have come to be, with the balance of horror, gore, comedy, and quotable dialogue seen in those later vamp efforts clearly following some of the blueprints put down by Schumacher’s cult favourite effort. Of course, The Lost Boys itself had a lifespan of more than just one movie, however, with Schumacher spending part of the ‘90s trying to get a sequel - The Lost Girls - off the ground. That follow-up would stumble at various hurdles at various points of the decade, and ultimately would never get made. What would get made, though, were two sequels further down the line. The Lost Boys: The Tribe was released in 2008, directed by P.J. Pesce and seeing Kiefer Sutherland’s half-brother Angus Sutherland heading up a group of vamps looking to seduce the likes of Autumn Reeser, Tad Hilgenbrink, and Greyston Holt. With no option, Hilgenbrink’s Chris turns to an old soldier familiar with battling

bloodsuckers: Corey Feldman’s Edgar Frog. By the time that sequel came to an end, we’d been teased by the mention that Edgar’s brother, Alan, was now a full-on vampire, and a post-credits scene saw Corey Haim back as a seemingly bloodthirsty version of the original movie’s Sam. To its credit, The Lost Boys: The Tribe, while pretty much a re-telling of the first film’s story, sold a then-record 1.25 million copies upon its straight-to-DVD release… which, of course, meant a further film would follow. And that was certainly the case, with 2010 giving us Dario Piana’s The Lost Boys: The Thirst. This time out, Jamison Newlander’s half-vampire Alan Frog stepped out of the shadows to join his brother Edgar, and we’d also get the revelation that Edgar had previously had to kill Sam due to him having turned into a vampire. Before The Thirst went into production, there had been talk of Corey Haim reprising his Sam role for the film, but that idea never came to be, with Haim sadly passing away in March 2010 at the age of just 38 due to pneumonia. In the years since The Thirst was released - and, much like The Tribe, received a critical mauling - The Lost Boys as a concept has still been kept alive, both through fandom and through new material. As well as several comic books having come to print (one of which explains that Kiefer’s David wasn’t actually

killed at the end of the original movie), there are also been regular rumblings of a TV series. The last concrete news on that is that such a show would actually be set in a different decade throughout time with each new season, all while retaining the same core cast of returning characters. For now, it appears that any notion of a Lost Boys TV series is stuck in the proverbial development hell, though. The original film is still a picture that is shrouded in charm, mystique, and effortless cool even 30 years on from its release. A true genre and cult classic by any rationale, Joel Schumacher’s 1987 movie is one that is still as vital today as it was upon its initial release all those years ago, and it took the concept of the classic vampire and changed the game for years to come. People look back at Lugosi, Kinski, and Lee and rightfully lavish praise on these depictions of Dracula and the traditional vampire, but it can’t be emphasised enough how The Lost Boys also needs to be held in the same high esteem as these legendary takes on the famed bloodsucker notion. Now, if you’ll excuse us, we’re off to grab some baby oil and dig out our old saxophone. As Tim Cappello put it on The Lost Boys’ soundtrack, “I still believe!”, and we most definitely do when it comes to The Lost Boys’ place in cult cinema history.

high plAins

drifter by Michael Coldwell

After yeArs in development hell, stephen King’s literAry gunslinger rolAnd deschAin finAlly mAKes it to the big screen in THE DARK TOWER. stArburst goes on A quest to uncover A modern-dAy mythology…

tephen King’s reputation as America’s greatest writer of horror fiction masks the fact that he has frequently spread his literary wings across pulp noir, classic western, epic fantasy and Arthurian legend. His Dark Tower series of novels embraced all of these diverse genres into an epic fantasy quest, expanding upon King’s fabled ‘multiverse’ (to which it has many links) while occupying a distinctive territory all its own.

Perhaps that enigmatic profile is why it has taken over three decades for the books to make it to the big screen. The first in a planned movie and TV franchise, Sony’s The Dark Tower sees the wandering knight of the Old West Roland Deschain (Idris Elba) and his young sidekick Jake Chalmers (Tom Taylor) face off against Matthew McConaughey’s fiendish sorcerer Walter Padick, aka ‘The Man in Black’, in a mythic battle across the dimensions. It’s the stuff of legend, alright. Inspired by his love of Tolkien’s The Lord of the Rings trilogy, The Dark Tower book series began life as five short stories published in a magazine, which were then compiled into the first novel in the series, The Gunslinger, in 1982. This established Deschain as the last of the ancient order of gunslingers and his quest to discover the Dark Tower, a fabled monolith said to be at the nexus of every plain of

existence. The setting of the book was a magical realm called Mid-World, a post-apocalyptic take on the American Old West. In creating Deschain’s nemesis Padick, King mined his own fictional legacy, the character having first appeared in 1978 opus The Stand in the guise of demonic havoc-wreaker Randall Flagg. Although initially released on a very limited print run of 10,000 copies, fans demanded more and King was very happy to oblige with The Drawing of Three (1987), The Wastelands (1991), Wizard and Glass (1997), Wolves of Calla (2003), Song of Susannah (2004), the ‘final’ book The Dark Tower (also 2004). In 2012, he published The Wind through the Keyhole, a standalone story set within the same universe. It’s fair to say that the film version of The Dark Tower has had a troubled gestation. First optioned by J. J. Abrams in 2007, it later found its way onto the desk of Ron Howard who planned to produce it as a parallel film and television franchise. That attempt came to grief when the accountants got overly involved but Howard has remained attached as a producer. The movie has finally taken flight at Sony Pictures with a script by Akiva Goldsman (I Am Legend) and Jeff Pinkner (err… The Amazing Spider-Man 2) and directed by Nikolaj Arcel (A Royal Affair). News that the release had been postponed from February to summer 2017 wasn’t unexpected - the post-production effects burden was heavy and with a budget of $60

million, small potatoes by fantasy blockbuster standards, resources to complete the film were limited. Ron Howard’s plan for a concurrent TV series is still in place, with a small screen continuation already in preparation. This, we understand, will serve to fill in the gaps in the mythology, with Idris Elba and Matthew McConaughey attached to appear in some capacity. It is a similar strategy to Marvel’s, whose various network and Netflix shows all tie in with their ongoing movie series. And with shows like American Gods and Game of Thrones delivering fifty minutes of pure cinema every week, nor should we expect any real difference in quality between the two. Ambitious plans, then, but is Sony getting ahead of itself here? Setting up a new franchise - let alone one across both cinema and TV - is a perilous gamble right now. A great first movie can set the ball rolling for years but studios usually need to spend big to make a splash and failure means an embarrassing public belly flop. The carcasses of doomed franchises are everywhere; from John Carter to Assassins Creed via

Fantastic Four, Tron: Legacy and just about every young adult series that isn’t Harry Potter, Twilight or The Hunger Games, so many have floundered at the first attempt. Most recently, Universal’s expansive plans for their Dark Universe classic monster series are back on the drawing board with the Cruise-heavy The Mummy seriously underperforming at the US box office and going down like a lead balloon with critics. Whatever Marvel has, they want, too. But you can’t just throw stuff at people and call it a ‘universe’. Even movie series that in the past have been guaranteed winners are falling hard on their backsides. Star Trek Beyond and Alien: Covenant were both expected to continue a long-held pattern of success but significantly under-performed. Pirates of the Caribbean, never a particularly nutritious offering, recently served up a fifth movie with all the enthusiasm of a cat with a furball stuck in its throat and was rewarded with a significant drop in takings. In this case, it looks like the penny may have finally dropped - there are only so many times you can reheat an over-acted pantomime based on a theme park ride. And we haven’t even mentioned the new Transformers movie and the 14 (four-teen) more that Michael Bay has threatened. But now we have. These are the choppy waters in which The

Dark Tower will sink or swim. The first indication of that will come from Stephen King’s fan base, those ‘constant readers’ to whom he addresses the lengthy and very enjoyable forewords of his novels and short stories. For it is they, via the power of the Internet, who will largely decide the fate of the film, and with it, the franchise. The trailer had them split evenly down the middle between praising the visual palette and the shared universe shot of The Shining’s Overlook Hotel (yes, the Kubrick version!) and comparing it to a late-period Schwarzenegger movie. Ouch. Fan nerves were already on edge because this is no straight adaptation. Rather than filming the books in order, the movie is a sort-of sequel to the whole mythology that mashes up different elements from all the novels including the climactic seventh. That doesn’t sound like a ringing endorsement of the source material to us. Imagine if King’s beloved The Lord of the Rings trilogy had received the same treatment? We can only hope the chap who wrote The Amazing Spider-Man 2 is on top of it because the spectre of the 1980s lurks in the shadows. That, lest we forget, was the era when Stephen King’s name was synonymous with a succession of low-quality screen knock-offs. There were certainly some good adaptations of his work

such as Salem’s Lot (1979), The Shining (1980), and The Dead Zone (1983), but his willingness to let screen rights go for every single thing he wrote resulted in plenty more misfires like Christine (1983), Firestarter (1984), and Cat’s Eye (1985). Amusingly, the very worst effort came from King himself, who in 1986 succumbed to a fit of hubris and directed the film version of his short story Maximum Overdrive for Dino De Laurentiis. We entreat you to check out the trailer online, you will not be disappointed. Featuring King in full Alfred Hitchcock mode (and a lumberjack shirt), the beared horror hound leers into the camera and declares: “A lot of people have directed Stephen King novels and short stories [sigh]… and I finally decided if you want something done right, you oughta do it yourself… I’m gonna scare the hell out of you!” Hopefully, with so many promising screen adaptations of his work incoming right now, King won’t feel the urge to take matters into his own hands like that again. With a top-notch cast and a huge and beloved literary mythology to tap into, we’ve got our fingers crossed that The Dark Tower will get the fair wind it needs to be an odyssey, not a day trip. THE DARK TOWER will form the nexus to all realities from August 18th.

PUPPET MASTER Words: John Townsend

CHARLES BAND is a writer, producer and director with nearly 300 film credits to his name. Most famous for the PUPPET MASTER and TRANCERS series of films, his work primarily inhabits a unique subgenre of fantasy horror that he has carved out for himself. As his FULL MOON PICTURES label launches its Amazon Channel, the legendary filmmaker took some time to chat with us about how he got started in the business, his prolific career, and what keeps him motivated.

47 STARBURST: With such a long and successful career, what keeps you motivated to keep making films and moving forward? Charles Band: If you do something long enough, it just becomes part of you and part of your routine. I was lucky enough to be able to do it at a young age, and it was all I was interested in doing. There are rough patches, and as the business fluctuates so much, there are moments when you wonder why you’re in it at all. Then something good happens, and you make another movie and it all makes sense again. I never pretended that these movies are anything other than escapism or entertainment; I was never political and not everyone in the world loves horror or sci-fi, but the niche that do really enjoy them. I was lucky that when I started way back in the seventies, much like Roger Corman, there was still an opportunity to have your film released theatrically. There was no video or the other formats that we’re so used to today. You would wait eagerly for a movie to come to your local theatre, so as a young filmmaker, I could go along and watch my movies with an audience. Sometimes even a full house, who would be laughing, or scared, or both. There was an instant gratification. That faded away in the eighties with the direct-to-video revolution, but it’s great to still connect with an audience even if the medium changes. Now, I’m at a point where I wouldn’t know how to do anything else. We’re reinventing ourselves for the umpteenth time for the digital world, making movies every few months, pulling them out of a library and cleaning them up, and there’s all the merchandise derivatives. It’s like the Full Moon brand is being introduced to a whole new, younger generation since the video store died. I guess I would have done some things differently but at the core is that I just love making these movies.

You touched on it a little, but do you think your career would have been vastly different had digital been around when you began? For sure, because the opportunity would have been wider. I was lucky as I grew up around a father who made films, and while I wasn’t sure of what genre I would go into, by my late teens I knew it was what I wanted to do. My influences came from the Universal Monsters, the Italian filmmakers of the sixties, and the comics I was reading, and I began to realise I wanted to make horror and fantasy films. I had the training, and I was pretty resourceful at a young age. I begged, borrowed and stole money in order to make my first movie. Today the price of entry is almost free. Back in the day, there were hard costs, whereas today you make a movie in your garage for virtually no money. Today there is also little cinematic opportunity for B-movies. Then, if you made a movie for a reasonable price you wouldn’t lose money, and you might even make some. Today, there’s little chance of recovering even 10% of your budget. Right now, the business of making a small, clever, genre film is over. When I started, there was still the theatrical side, and then the video industry, and I was an early pioneer. The model was still make a movie and hopefully make a little money. Today, there’s more exposure and inexpensive technology, and perhaps the talent isn’t as necessary, or the training and the experience. For me, and for Full Moon, with a library of over 300 films, the streaming world isn’t easy but we’re embracing it. There’s a prolific festival circuit that exists in the genre market, and many fans may never have seen your films projected, so is that something you actively embrace? Yeah, but it’s a rarified, unique and not very profitable market. When the local video store disappeared, there was nothing left,

and as we were still working movies, we did a lot of conventions and festivals, and whatever we needed to do to reach even 1% of the audience. Some of the most telling comments at the festivals related to people thinking Full Moon were out of business, and my response was always the same: the video store where people discovered new movies was gone and even though my films were available all over the place, nothing has taken the place of the store yet. Until we got a channel on Amazon and people could see them all! Now we can direct people there and do our best to keep new movies coming and dust off the old ones, we’re finally seeing people reconnecting with films they couldn’t find for years. I’m finally optimistic that as we expand, the audience will grow again. There does seem to be a market out there as so many horror films take themselves very seriously, and there seems to be this need to make ‘hard’ sci-fi films; basically, they don’t make them like you do anymore. My whole philosophy hasn’t changed. If it’s a horror or sci-fi film with a hard edge, and it’s well made, then I’m entertained. If there are blood and guts just for the sake of it, I’m not. I think my movies travel well. I’ve never made a slasher movie, I try to keep a fantasy element. Some people are freaked out by inanimate objects coming to life and so on, but they know it’s not real. A guy stalking around with a knife sticking it into people, that’s not entertaining. The whole torture genre was not my thing at all. My movies have an overall philosophy and I’ve done what I can to make them clever, a little humorous and entertaining. My favourite films are always off-centre a little. No-one really makes films like this anymore. We have a tiny budget so there’s only so much we can do, but these movies have stood the test of time more than so many of the horrors made in the eighties.

Many of your films have had sequels or crossovers, so when you hit on an idea, do you see a lifespan for it, and maybe plan that way? Any movie I made, if it was well received and did okay, then we would make a sequel. I just try to make the coolest movie I can within my means. With Puppet Master, I thought we might be successful, and with every new one we made, I thought that would be it, but we’re now just finishing the eleventh. In truth, some of the films are not very well connected at all, and that’s inevitable with a series over twenty-five years. In general, I never dreamt them up with sequels in mind. I did always hope that in some movies I could team up some of the different characters we had in Full Moon, but through changes in the industry and so on, it wasn’t always possible. We had some team-ups such as Dollman and Demonic Toys, but it wasn’t always possible.

The business side of moviemaking seems to have always been at the forefront of your mind. You seem to have had an eye for what is financially viable and what will work. You have to - this is what I do and it’s my career. I wanted to be prolific. I have friends who make major studio films, and get paid very well, but they have to wait two to three years between projects. For me, it’s hard to wait two or three days, let alone years. But you have to keep on top of it, and if the money dries up then you make smaller films. I never had any formal training, and I made so many mistakes, but I was able to survive and learn. There are no partners or debt; if we can afford it, we make it and if we do well, then we can make more. You mentioned you’d never made a slasher film, and you’ve spoken a little of your ethos, but what would you say really

defines a Charles Band film? Luckily, I can point to my body of work, and all you have to do is go to Amazon Prime, sign up, and hundreds of films are there. The nearest thing today to a video store. And we’ll keep adding things as they fit into the Full Moon mode. For me, one of the greatest horror films of all time is The Texas Chain Saw Massacre; when you think you’ve see all these horrific things, and really you’ve seen nothing at all. The Exorcist is my favourite horror movie, but another one I love is The Sixth Sense. Luckily, no-one had tipped me off, so it really surprised me. How do I define my films? I don’t know, but if you watch enough then I guess you’ll get a sense of it. You can find hundreds of CHARLES BAND movies and selected grindhouse treats streaming on demand at the FULL MOON channel on Amazon Prime in the UK.

SUBSPACE RELAY

ALL THE NEWS FROM THE WORLDS OF STAR TREK WITH IAIN ROBERTSON

‘Roddenberry Rule’ Relaxed

Aaron Harberts also said that Discovery won’t adhere to the ‘Roddenberry rule’ that prohibited conflicts between members of the crew. As part of his utopian vision of the future, Roddenberry believed that humanity would eventually outgrow the need for interpersonal conflict, which manifested itself in the crew getting on famously the whole time and things not being very exciting. In truth, it’s only really evident in The Motion Picture and early Next Generation - where Roddenberry had the greatest creative control. It notoriously annoyed many of Trek’s writers, who found numerous ways round it so they could put some actual drama into the show. So, unless you’re a complete purist (or Discovery goes way OTT) this is probably a good thing.

Frakes Directs

DISCOVERY UPDATES

After months of drip-feeding us titbits of information about Star Trek: Discovery, CBS has finally started releasing some actual news about the new series. So, take a deep breath, here goes:

Launch Date

Most importantly, we finally have a premiere date. After originally being set to arrive in January, then May, it will eventually appear on September 24th in the U.S. and the next day worldwide - you can catch it in the UK on Netflix. As per normal for American series nowadays, the show will be taking a break mid-season (they’ve got no stamina). We’ll get the first eight episodes known as Chapter One - through until early November, then Chapter Two, comprising the remaining seven, from January 2018.

Take a Lorca at Jason Isaacs

We also have lots of news, not least our first look at Captain Lorca, played by Jason Isaacs (incidentally, do you know what happens if you Google Jason Isaacs? It’s mildly amusing if you’re a fan of a certain smug Radio 5 Live film show). Remarkably, he looks like Jason Isaacs wearing a Starfleet uniform. Oh, and we also now know his first name is Gabriel - probably should have mentioned that originally. The picture also gives us our first tiny glimpse of the Discovery’s bridge the ship seen in the first trailer was Michelle Yeoh’s U.S.S. Shenzhou.

SAUCER SECTION

Burnham’s Background

Remember all those conversations between Sonequa Martin-Green’s Lt. Burnham and Sarek in the first trailer? Well, now they start to make a bit more sense, as we get some information on the character’s background. Turns out Burnham has spent a considerable amount of time on Vulcan, and is the first human to attend both their Learning Center and the Vulcan Science Academy. She also has a close relationship with Spock’s father Sarek (James Frain). The Science Academy is famous in Trek lore as Spock (in both the Prime and Kelvin timelines) was the only Vulcan ever to decline a place at the institution, choosing Starfleet instead. Co-showrunner Aaron Harberts said that her life “has been completely planned until she makes a very difficult choice that sends her life on a very different path. When we meet her, she’s the First Officer on the Starship Shenzhou. And Burnham’s choice that we’re alluding to is the most difficult choice you can make - it affects her, affects Starfleet, affects the Federation, it affects the entire universe. That choice leads her to a different ship, the Discovery and there we begin what Gretchen [Berg, the other showrunner] and I call our ‘second pilot.’”

One of Trek’s finest directors has boarded Discovery in the form of Commander Riker himself, Jonathan Frakes. The erstwhile Enterprise first officer is helming an episode of the show’s first season, making him the show’s first director with previous Trek experience, as well as the first on-screen talent to return (albeit behind the camera). And if you scroll back through Discovery’s cast and crew Twitter accounts, several of them completely fangirled over meeting him, which is quite cute, really. Frakes was the first Next Generation cast member to step behind the camera, directing several episodes These included classics The Offspring and Cause and Effect, as well as two films, First Contact (yay!) and Insurrection (not-so-yay!), assorted episodes of Deep Space Nine, Voyager and, err, the

Thunderbirds movie. He’s also recently directed an episode of Seth MacFarlane’s Trek-inspired sci-fi comedy The Orville.

TREK Hits Comic-Con

Unless you’re reading this column the weekend the issue comes out (and if not, why not?) it’ll all be pretty much out of date, as Discovery’s having its own panel at San Diego Comic-Con on July 22nd. Yes, it’s a year since Bryan Fuller (sob) took to the stage and showed us a half-rendered trailer of the U.S.S. Discovery leaving spacedock. Expect lots of juicy gossip, a new trailer, a bag of gold-pressed latinum for every attendee and loads of other exciting stuff. We’d tell you exactly what to expect, only our crystal ball’s broken, no one at CBS fancied giving us a preview and SDCC weren’t prepared to reschedule just to meet our publication dates. The selfish bastards. That’s about it for Discovery news this month. Oh, they’re apparently going for a ‘Game of Thrones style’ attitude towards character deaths, which means they’re going to bump off various crew members and you’ll ‘really feel it’, not that half of them are caused by Ramsey Bolton, or Bran doing something stupid. Right, that’s really it, unless you’re bothered about the aspect ratio? They’re filming it in 2:1, which makes things look a bit more cinematic (code for ‘you get little black bars at the top and bottom of your screen but it’ll look pretty’).

De Lancie to Appear in TREK CONTINUES

One of Trek’s most enduring guest stars is set to appear in the ninth episode of the popular fan series. John De Lancie, who appeared as Q in The Next Generation, Deep Space Nine and Voyager, will play a new character on the show: “Vic [Mignogna, Continues’ creator] asked me if I’d be interested in appearing in Star Trek Continues, and he told me a little bit about the show,” said De Lancie. “I asked him to let me read the script, and I was immediately impressed with it. It’s definitely classic Star Trek, because it’s a secular moral story and one that I think is particularly poignant in our current times. I believe the material is the most important thing, and this is really good material.” The episode, What Ships Are For, is due to premiere at the end of July. The final two episodes of the series will be released later this year.

Destination STAR TREK returns to Birmingham

Following 2016’s 50th anniversary convention in Birmingham, Destination Star Trek has announced a return to the NEC in October 2018. DST is the largest Trek convention outside America, and next year’s event has already lined up the DS9 Ferengi trio of Armin Shimerman, Max Grodenchik, and Aron Eisenberg, along with Enterprise’s Linda Park. Shimerman will also exclusively be doing photoshoots in full Quark makeup, the first time he’s donned the costume since the show finished in 1999. Someone by the name of William Shatner was also announced before they subsequently announced that they’re not allowed to announce him yet so please forget they announced him, but he’s coming and you didn’t hear it from us (unless he cancels). Anyone who attended the 50th anniversary convention will know that, although it was a fantastic show, there were a few problems, particularly around registration on the first day, which saw some fans queuing for hours. Organiser Jason Joiner explained what happened in a heartfelt Facebook post, stating that the combination of a new venue and a last-minute surge in tickets - a third were purchased in the days leading up to the event - caused a number of problems. Joiner reassured fans that lessons had been learnt that next year’s event will be one to remember. We can’t wait!

SAUCER SECTION

FROM THE DESK OF THE STARBURST TREKOLOGIST B. JONES

Rules of Aquisition

SAUCER SECTION

he first time we meet the Ferengi, they are described as the hideous new villains in the universe of The Next Generation. More vicious than the Klingons, more ferocious than the Gorn, and way more calculating than the Romulans. However, what turned up on the last outpost of the T’Kon Empire were crouching little half men with peachshaped heads, covered in fur togas and little bootees. Hardly the stuff of nightmares - unless bad uniform choices are what keep you up at night. Apart from the jumping, bouncing and crouching menacingly, they are armed with whips - cool electro whips. No-one else ever gets whips! But honestly, how useful is this as a weapon when you have to wave your arms in the air before you fire? What if you can’t control the whip action completely? Do those things fire backwards and hit your comrades? Probably why they were discontinued, as they would surely set those furry bootees on fire. Fortunately for us viewers, the Ferengi were discontinued as supreme villains and began to turn up sporadically as merchants willing to buy and sell almost anything, such as the mysterious super weapon the Tox Uthat (Captain’s Holiday) and Kamala, the bride born to stop a war (Perfect Mate) - until their greed landed a

shuttlecraft of them in the Delta Quadrant (The Price). Don’t worry, we’ll never see them again… (until Voyager finds them in False Profits). Deep Space Nine is the place that finally revived the fortunes of the Ferengi race. During the seven-season tenure we got to see the race in a completely different and more favourable light. Not only did they become a fully formed society, but individual characters were developed and the Ferengi way of life even changed during the run of the show. Their home world Ferenginar has an extremely rainy climate. Consequently, the Ferengi have 178 different words for rain, in all its various forms. Conversely, there are no Ferengi words for crispy (DS9: Let He Who Is Without Sin...). Visitors are sold towels upon entering a building but you have got to wonder why no one ever thought to import and sell umbrellas! We are told that the Ferengi society is deeply misogynistic, with women (or ‘feeemales’ as they are referred to) definitely at the bottom of the pecking order. They are not allowed to wear clothes, engage in business or to travel. Mind you, who wants to travel stark naked in the pouring rain without a pocket to put your ticket in? We learn that they live by the Rules of Acquisition - a series of 285 guiding lessons that dominate Ferengi life and business. It is, in fact, these rules that led to the major change in their society. Since females made up over half of the

population, some Ferengi began to realise that exclusion of females from business represented a significant loss of profit opportunities. By relaxing the rules on clothing, travel, and business, the available consumer base doubled. Genius! By reworking the species in DS9, the writers effectively created characters who were as much a part and parcel of the Trek universe as the Klingons, the Gorn and the Romulans. They are not vicious, frightening or particularly scary, but in the words of Kira Nerys to Jadzia Dax in Rules of Acquisition: “They’re greedy, misogynistic, untrustworthy little trolls, and I wouldn’t turn my back on one of them for a second.” “Neither would I. But once you accept that, you’ll find they can be a lot of fun.”

INDEPENDENTS DAY by Martin Unsworth

JILL GEVARGIZIAN STARBURST catches up with a filmmaker we’ve supported since the start of her career several years ago to find out more about her success and what she has lined up next…

STARBURST: What made you want to become a filmmaker? Jill Gevargizian: I have to be honest and admit it didn’t dawn on me that being a filmmaker was an option until about five years ago. In 2012, I founded an indie genre film showcase, Slaughter Movie House, in Kansas City and through that I’ve met a lot of filmmakers. Meeting real people who made real films - that is what put the idea in my head and inspired me to take the leap. Before that, I was always involved in the arts. I grew up taking dance, piano, theatre, guitar, photography, etc... In my 20s, I produced a couple of horror-themed live shows that involved fashion, burlesque, live bands, and performance art. I’ve also been a hairstylist for over a decade. Film is really a combination of all the things I love - of all art forms - and I wish I had found it sooner. So how did you get started with the Slaughter Movie House screenings in Missouri? I started the screening series after attending Texas Frightmare Weekend 2012, my first horror convention, and meeting a lot of indie horror filmmakers. I wanted to be involved somehow and I had experience organising events, so I just went for it. Slaughter is the first Monday of every month. I do all the programming. We screen shorts and features - everything from horror, exploitation, sci-fi to black comedy! My great friend, Scary Gary, co-hosts the events with me. It all started with James Bickert’s Dear God No! and we are about to throw our five-year anniversary party with Bickert’s sequel Frankenstein Created Bikers. We are lucky to have the support of a local and historic theatre, Screenland Armour, who let us host the events there for no cost!

CALL GIRL

Your first film, Call Girl, really propelled you into the eye of the horror community; what was that like? It was wildly exciting. I had the opportunity to cast two well-known and talented genre actors (Laurence R. Harvey and Tristan Risk) in my very first short film and it paid off - to say the least. The film travelled all over the world. It even got a Japanese comic adaptation! I’ve just been trying to ride that wave ever since.

things about filmmaking is that it takes a huge team of talent - but the negative of that is that to get really talented people, it normally doesn’t come free or cheap. Nor do I expect it to. The Stylist has won numerous awards at festivals all around the world; how did you react to its success?

What have been the hardest parts of making your films?

It has been very surreal. I’ve been saying it’s a dream come true... but I couldn’t have dreamt this would happen! I feel so fortunate and proud of the film and the team. I often cry when I think about it… in a good way. I am a super sappy person.

Finding money! One of my favourite

As well as your own shorts, you’ve

worked on some features, notably ABCs of Death 2 and Frankenstein Created Bikers - how was it working on those sets? How different was it working on the latter since it was shot on 35mm, which is virtually unheard of these days? I was Jen and Sylvia Soska’s second unit director on ABCs of Death 2. I shot the scene starring Laurence R. Harvey at the very end of the credits. If you’ve seen it, you can imagine how hard it was not to laugh during takes! Oh my god - the stories I could tell about the making of Frankenstein Created Bikers… that was a wild shoot! We’d ‘kill’ off 13 characters in one day. The next,

THE STYLIST

we’d have four chicks topless in cat masks shooting machine guns! The next day, Bigfoot was tearing off everyone’s heads… I don’t think a day went by where I didn’t get blood on me and I was just the assistant director! Everything about working with 35mm is different and more challenging. The equipment is crazy heavy. There’s no playback. Film is finite, unlike shooting digital. You will eventually run out - and we did! Luckily, we found more. It was a blast. What advice would you give would-be filmmakers? A piece of advice I heard when I first started that really stuck with me is: make

sure you love the film before you make it, because you are going to be thinking about and working on it for a long time. It will forever be part of you.

BFF Girls - which I helped produce - we just wrapped photography in Atlanta last month. That project is truly special and I can’t wait to see it come together in post.

What’s next for you?

Here’s the big news: I recently came on board to direct a feature - my first feature! It’s a supernatural character piece. I am so excited about this project! I feel so connected to the story and character that it can’t help but feel like destiny. That’s really all I can say for now.

I am in production on a short film, which I’m directing, as we speak. It’s titled 42 Counts and is a thriller based on a true story that happened in my hometown (Kansas City, Missouri). My muse and the star of The Stylist, Najarra Townsend, is starring in it and helping produce. I am ecstatic to be collaborating with her again. There’s also Brian Lonano’s new short

Find out more about Jill and her upcoming movies by following on Twitter: @JillSixx and visiting sixxtape.com.

REVIEW

THE STYLIST CERT: TBC / DIRECTOR: JILL GEVARGIZIAN / SCREENPLAY: ERIC HAVENS / STARRING: NAJARRA TOWNSEND, JENNIFER PLAS, ANGELA DUPUIE / RELEASE DATE: OUT NOW (STREAMING ON SHUDDER) Following on from the hit short Call Girl, not to mention working on several big name genre features, Jill ‘Sixx’ Gevargizian returns with another work of art that shows her sublime touch with the genre and validates the praise we’ve already heaped on the rising star of modern horror. The premise of The Stylist is a very simple one: Claire (Townsend) is working late in her salon, waiting for her last client of the day. When Mandy (Plas) arrives, she’s full of excitement for her swanky business party and wants to look her best; who knows, she may even make a good enough impression to get that promotion she’s longed for. Accepting a large glass of red wine while Claire works her wonders, Mandy soon begins to drop off to sleep… As usual with short films, the less one knows about the plot before going in, the better. This is certainly true of The Stylist, as we’re taken on a shocking ride - visually and emotionally during the fourteen minute running time. With a background in hairstyling herself, writer/director Jill Gevargizian shoots the otherwise mundane routine of washing and drying hair as though it’s a Cordon-bleu cookery show (or perhaps Hannibal’s cuisine sequences), with Claire caressing Mandy’s blonde locks with a tender longing. Which, of course, makes what comes next all the more shocking. Najarra Townsend, who was so sickeningly compulsive in Contracted, is once again superb as Claire. She’s a multi-layered character who goes far beyond cinematic psycho; it’s certainly difficult to elaborate on that without spoiling the intricacies of the story, but rest assured, it’s far from clichéd or predictable. Special mention must be made for cinematographer Robert Patrick Stern; the film looks stunning, and there’s not a wasted shot thanks to John Pata’s editing and Eric Havens’ screenplay (from Jill’s original story). The score (by Nicholas Elert) is moody, mournful, and unobtrusively atmospheric. The Stylist has won awards at numerous festivals worldwide alongside even more nominations, and they are well deserved. It’s encouraging to see the leap in confidence of the director from Call Girl and the micro-shorts like Grammy and Police Brutality; she patiently tells the story without feeling the need to rush into crowdpleasing gore sequences and the like. They are there, though, and the wait certainly pays off. It’s not the bloodletting that is the kick for The Stylist, though. The climax is much more affecting than a simple shock. Keep an eye open for this one; you won’t want to miss it.

enter the

wa r m a s t e r ! by Tony Jones

f you have any interest in the current series of Doctor Who, it won’t have escaped your attention that John Simm has returned as the Master and appeared alongside Michelle Gomez as Missy. It’s just over ten years since John Simm first appeared as the Master on our screens in Utopia, and ten years also since we learned of another incarnation of the Master, who survived the Time War by going into hiding. That Master was played by Derek Jacobi in a single episode where even he thought himself (until the end) to be the harmless Professor Yana. Enter: Big Finish! On June 16th, the tenth anniversary of the transmission of Utopia, Big Finish announced some Master news of their own – Derek Jacobi would be appearing in a War Master box set, to be released in December 2017. STARBURST caught up with some of

those involved in the War Master’s return. Producer Scott Handcock told us just how long he’d been plotting the idea of a series dedicated to the Master: “I’ve wanted to tackle a series about the Master for years. He’s such a brilliant character, and I really wanted to explore his character and his successes away from the Doctor. I first mooted it at a point when Big Finish had lots of plans for Alex Macqueen and Geoffrey Beevers. Then, when John Hurt came on board, I suggested it again. After all, if we were exploring the War Doctor’s activities, what would the Master be up to? Surely he’d be wreaking chaos and exploiting the fallout while everyone else is fighting? Thankfully, Big Finish agreed. I chatted to Russell [T Davies] to make sure all the continuity tied up, and finally Sir Derek said yes!” One of Scott’s first tasks was to

assemble a team of writers, and The War Doctor includes stories by Big Finish stalwarts Nick Briggs (the company’s executive producer, who also voices the Daleks and other aliens for TV), James Goss, and Guy Adams, along with new (to Big Finish) writer Janine H Jones. Scott explains how he selected his team: “Although the Master’s not on the front line of the Time War in these stories, it made sense to me that people would expect a Dalek story, and it would be a shame if we overlooked that opportunity. Having worked with Nick before on other ranges, there’s no doubt he knows the Daleks inside out, and as he was also script editing, it made sense for him to tackle the opening story.” “I’m always actively looking to introduce new talent where I’m able, and to increase the stable of female voices, and Janine’s

somebody I’ve known for a great many years. We started out working on Doctor Who [for TV] together during the Matt Smith era, and then she went off to script edit Casualty whilst I moved to Radio Drama. Since then, she’s been hugely involved in producing and directing for Radio 4, as well as writing radio scripts, so I was very keen to work with her at Big Finish.” Scott continues, “James Goss and Guy Adams are firm Big Finish favourites who I’ve worked with a lot on Torchwood. I had a clear story arc in my head for this set of stories, so I wanted people I knew wouldn’t be phased by those requirements, but could also do something really interesting and different, showcasing the Master’s insidious influence at its best. There’s some really macabre detail and lovely character work in those final stories, and I’m thrilled with how all four tie together.” Janine’s personal route to Doctor Who started before working on the show with Scott, however: “Weirdly, I came to Doctor Who via the fans and not the show, studying cult media and fandom at university. When it returned to the screens, I watched it mainly with my daughter and I was fortunate enough to work on Matt Smith’s second series, as an assistant director, so I’ve been tangentially connected in lots of ways. As well as working in TV and movies, I’m a writer, producer, and director of comedy, documentary, and drama on radio, so audio drama really is my passion and I’ve been delighted to marry the two.” With the writers gathered, the next challenge was filling in the character of a figure only seen on TV at the very end of their incarnation; there is a whole lifetime available for Big Finish to describe if they want. Scott explains his vision for Derek Jacobi’s character: “I’ve always thought the Master should be utterly terrifying. He is basically Hannibal Lecter. So smart, so charming, so ruthless; a magnificent manipulator who holds everybody around him in contempt. And even though we only saw a glimpse of his incarnation in Utopia, there’s a terrifying stillness to his performance. The Master in those moments is utterly focused. He’s completely disinterested in Chantho [the alien who secretly loved Derek Jacobi’s Professor

Yana identity] until she gets in his way, at which point, the sadism comes out to play. It’s that focus I wanted to channel: a man with a plan, regardless of what obstacles are thrown in his way, and someone you can never quite get a handle on.” Guy Adams was very happy to be asked to be part of the project. When Scott dropped him an email asking ‘I know you’re busy, but… Derek Jacobi. War Master. Fancy it…?’, he really only had one answer. Utopia is a personal favourite of his, as he was happy to confirm: “I never need an excuse to rewatch Utopia. That final section is ten of the loveliest minutes Doctor Who has ever had.” Guy appreciated Scott’s vision of the War Master, and behind his slightly selfdeprecating words, he echoes Scott. “Scott had very firm - and excellent - ideas on what the War Master should be like. People who know my work - poor things - will be only too aware I can err towards the camp villain. If reincarnation is real, there can be little doubt I once lived in a volcano, picking cat hair off my Nehru jacket while sketching design plans for space lasers.” “The War Master is a very different beast, though - calm, ruthless, pragmatic, calculating… This is the sort of man that could gently inch his teacup one inch to the left and thereby set a chain of events in motion that resulted in world dominance.” At the time of the announcement, the synopses for the four stories are suitably enigmatic. Nick Briggs starts the set on the ocean planet of Gardezza, where a mysterious capsule containing an equally mysterious figure is found. Even on Gardezza, they’ve heard of the Doctor, but can he be trusted? Janine comes next, and her story’s set on the sanctuary world of Arcking, a haven in the heart of the Time War, a haven protected by a force the Master will stop at nothing to harness for his own purposes. James Goss gives us a Master with a new companion (not yet identified) who asks him to save a planet, no matter how futile this appears. The set ends with Guy revealing the Master’s plan and it involves a journey to Stamford Bridge in the 1970s. It’s fair to say Janine was thrilled to be involved: “I’m used to working in well-

established worlds, combining storylined details with my own generated elements. I have to say for this boxset the storylining was a dream. Big Finish was clear in what they wanted, I pitched my idea, we decided to swap some elements between episodes, and then we stuck to it. Then there was the time I found out I was getting [REDACTED] - that’s a once in a lifetime ‘squee’ moment, and a real privilege - although it took a while to get the hang of the voice!” “But that’s the best thing about working with Big Finish, they know their stuff, everything was agreed by Russell and they really respect the audience, so now I just have my fingers crossed until the box set is released, hoping people will like it. Also, Derek Jacobi; I still can’t quite get over that.” Meanwhile, Guy reassured any onlooking football fans as to the location of Stamford Bridge: “Chelsea FC has done nothing to me, and if they say they have, it’s just scurrilous gossip. It’s the Stamford Bridge in Yorkshire, setting of the 1066 battle. I chose it simply because I used to live there. Don’t blame me for the eventual fall of King Harold, though, I’m old but not that old. I spent my time there paddling in the river reading Target novels, not baiting the Vikings.” “The town itself is irrelevant,” Guy continues, “it just happens to be where you would find 24 Marigold Lane. The most dangerous house in the universe.” With the scripts set, recording took place in February and the announcement held until the anniversary of Utopia. We’ll let Scott have the final word: “The entire week was an utter joy from beginning to end, and so much of that was down to Derek himself. He’s not only a masterful actor, but has a talent for putting people at their ease. By the end, and I know this is clichéd, we really did all feel like a family. As a director, too, I like to collaborate as much as possible and let actors suggest any tweaks and changes they have to offer. This backfired slightly when Derek wanted to make the line ‘At least seven since I came out here’ a little punchier, leading to much corpsing as the Master inadvertently ‘came out’ during the middle of a spacewalk. Still, we tried!” THE WAR MASTER box set is released by Big Finish in December. Pre-order at bigfinish.com.

OUTSIDE THE BOX

all the news from the worlds of doctor who with kieron moore

Series 10: Reactions and Ratings

Doctor Who took a bit of a hit towards the end of Series 10 when it came to UK ratings, with the seven-day figures for The Lie of the Land, The Eaters of Light, and World Enough and Time dipping below 5 million – some of the lowest figures the show’s seen since its revival in 2005. We’ll let you choose whether to blame hot weather, competition from Britain’s Got Talent, TV viewership falling across all programming, or Steven Moffat. As far as we’re concerned, it’s a mighty shame, as this series has included some excellent episodes that deserve to be given a chance by a wide audience (as well as a couple of duffers, but aren’t there always?). The BBC will no doubt be thinking about what they need to change when Doctor Who returns in 2018 with Chris Chibnall as the showrunner and a new Doctor/companion team.

DOCTOR WHO ADVENTURES Pauses Publication

“The Original, You Might Say!”

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We bade a sad farewell to Bill and Nardole at the start of July as Series 10 finished its run. It ended not only with one of Doctor Who’s best finales in a while (fans seem to be more or less in agreement on something, for once!), but also with a very intriguing cliffhanger - while resisting regeneration, the Twelfth Doctor came face to face with the First. We have to wait until Christmas to see how this plays out; this year’s as-yet-untitled special, which is directed by Rachel Talalay and begun shooting in June, guest stars David Bradley as the incarnation originally portrayed by William Hartnell. Bradley, you may remember, gave an affecting performance as Hartnell himself in An Adventure in Time and Space, the 2013 docudrama about the beginnings of Doctor Who. The episode will also see the first appearance of the Thirteenth Doctor, whoever that may be. Had Peter Capaldi’s Doctor regenerated at the end of The Doctor Falls, it would have been an excellent final episode for him, so we really hope the Christmas special doesn’t drop the ball and can see him out on an equally high note.

Publisher Panini has confirmed that Issue 24 of Doctor Who Adventures will be its last... for now, at least. The children-oriented comic began in 2006, initially published by BBC Worldwide, running alongside the series and providing colourful comic strips, puzzles and stories. In 2015, it moved publisher to Panini. In recent years, however, it’s suffered a drop in sales, perhaps due to the Capaldi era of the show being less directed at a young audience. The quality of the content had remained high and it was a great way to get kids reading, so the magazine’s hiatus (yes, that dreaded ‘h’ word) is a disappointment. However, there is potential for Doctor Who Adventures to return alongside the new Doctor, depending on the tone and branding of Chris Chibnall’s take on Who.

DOCTOR WHO Experience Closes September 9th

This month’s column is becoming a bit of a downer, isn’t it? At least this is bad news we knew was coming, as we reported earlier in the year about the upcoming closure of popular tourist attraction the Doctor Who Experience. The date of that closure has now been announced as September 9th. But before then, there are still new things to see - props, costumes and sets from Series 10 were added at the beginning of July, as was a Yeti from The Web of Fear, the winner of a public vote to see which classic monster fans wanted to see restored. Plus, on July 22nd, the Experience will be hosting its final Monster Event, with a Cyberman theme, and on August 5th, you can take part in the Experience’s biggest Cosplay Celebration yet. Get yourself down to Cardiff Bay before it’s too late!

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EIGHT NEW FULL-CAST AUDIO ADVENTURES!

WATCHING DOCTOR WHO

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ould Doctor Who run as a single-story serial, rather than as a series of more usually discrete single-episode stories? That was the question raised by incoming showrunner Chris Chibnall’s interview with Mark Lawson for the Royal Television Society’s website in June. Or rather, that was the speculation made by some following Chibnall’s comments. “I had ideas about what I wanted to do with [Doctor Who],” he told Lawson. “When I went to [the BBC] and said, ‘This is what I would do,’ I actually expected them to say, ‘Ooh, let’s talk about that,’ but they said: ‘Great!’” Lawson himself continues, in the article: ‘Chibnall can’t reveal yet what his daring conceit for the series is but would he, for example, be allowed to do a whole-series storyline, like Broadchurch, rather than individual episodes? “Yes. What the BBC was after was risk and boldness.”’ It goes without saying that Chibnall isn’t actually confirming here that what he’s planning to do with Doctor Who is a single-story serial, rather he’s suggesting that if that had been what he’d wanted to do, the BBC would have been amenable to the idea. It’s doubtful he’d have let slip his

masterstroke Grand Idea for a reinvention of the programme during a relatively informal interview this far ahead of production. It’s still an interesting question, though. Nearly fifty years on from the last time a self-contained Doctor Who story stretched into double figures (The War Games, at ten episodes, in 1969; 1986’s fourteen-part The Trial of a Time Lord notwithstanding), and nearly thirty since multi-part stories were the series’ standard, could Doctor Who’s popularity withstand a return to a format similar to the one it was once so synonymous with? When Doctor Who began back in 1963, unless you were one of that fraction of the watching audience who also bought the Radio Times for your television fixtures, the fact that each instalment of the programme came with an individual episode title, and never revealed whereabouts in any particular story it came (for example, viewers would not have been aware that The Escape was the third of seven episodes of the first Dalek serial), meant that when you tuned in each week, you generally wouldn’t know whether what you were about to watch was at the beginning, somewhere in the middle, or

an in-dePth look at the whoniVerse BY Jr soUthall

possibly even the end of the current story. Viewers simply enjoyed the slice of the Doctor’s adventures that was put in front of them - and if they missed a week, so be it; they’d just have to catch up next week (and hope that the week they missed wasn’t the concluding part of something). Even once individual episode titles were dropped and serials were divided into episodes or parts, it was again only readers of the Radio Times who would be aware of how many episodes each story was comprised of (or latterly, ones who took note of what the continuity announcer was telling them at the beginning of each new serial). Those millions who didn’t partake of the then-BBC’s listings magazine wouldn’t be expected to know that what was the three-quarter point of Spearhead from Space (Episode 3) was actually not even the half-way point of the seven-episode story that followed. Twentieth century viewers were quite at home with Doctor Who’s serial nature, the argument being that it was the cliff-hangers that made the series appointment viewing for kids, while for adults it was the sheer ridiculousness of Doctor Who - as well as its mercurial nature,

59 geographically and temporally - that made it an entertaining watch, even if they didn’t have much clue about what was going on. The twenty-first century revival of the series has positioned Doctor Who slightly differently to the majority of its twentysix-year predecessor. Rather than a teatime Saturday night treat, to be devoured alongside a light weekend snack dinner, Doctor Who has now become a fixture of the early evening, that hinterland between the afternoon, when meals are being prepared or the kids are being entreated to come inside, and the later part of the evening when everybody settles down for the night having decided on the evening’s entertainment. Doctor Who fulfilled the position of an aperitif for the majority of adult viewers; that daft thing with the Daleks that pre-empted the likes of Casualty or Strictly Come Dancing. Self-contained episodes - which were then the order of the day in most other dramas in any case - were a prerequisite for Doctor Who’s increasing popularity. While there would have undoubtedly been a huge number of viewers for whom a continuing storyline would have worked just fine, a probably greater number still might not have been so happy with having to carry a large amount of information - especially about such esoteric sci-fi minutiae - from one week to the next and across several months’ worth of episodes. This is a situation that has, in adult drama, changed somewhat in recent years. As Chibnall himself told Lawson, “I think people still want appointment television. Especially at certain points in the week. Sunday night is one of them, so moving Line of Duty to Sunday night was a master stroke. And Monday night on ITV is another one. For all that we binge-watch and catchup, communal viewing has survived on those two nights in particular.” The two nights Chibnall highlights are acquiescent to appointment television viewing for one very particular reason: they are - still, for most people - the two evenings either side of the first day back at work, and so that peculiar combination of excitement and familiarity, coupled with a sense of

having something specific to keep up to date with, help to focus the mind away from the beginning of the working week. Serial television, of course, exists across the rest of the schedule, but those two evenings are especially compatible with it. This is probably less the case with modern children. The days of serials on kids’ TV, when huge swathes of the preadolescent population would keep a weekly date with the likes of Children of the Stones and The Changes, are mostly gone. These days, even modern attempts to appeal to that same audience tend to go for selfcontained episodes with something of a longer-form story building quietly in the background; Wizards vs Aliens and Merlin have taken their cue very much from the

ARTWORK BY SIMON BRETT

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recent format of Doctor Who. To keep the series on a Saturday evening, and still to aim it at the demographic it’s always principally been for (the ‘intelligent eight to twelve-year-old’) would be something of a risk. Because it isn’t preteens who are making a success of the likes of Happy Valley and Broadchurch, while to cut out the adolescent and younger audience from Doctor Who would likely rob it of its vitality. The series has excelled with a serial approach, there’s no denying it - and The Daleks’ Master Plan, a story that virtually laid out how an all-serial version of Doctor Who might look, is one of the most strongly remembered stories of the 1960s. Yet even by 1986, the programme was failing to keep an audience’s attention across a story of a similar length; The Trial of a Time Lord went so far as to include recaps and divide its fourteen parts into four fairly distinct stories, and still lost the programme a third of its viewers. In fact, during the 1980s, Doctor Who would often be put out twice a week, further diminishing its serial nature. Yes, to go full serial would be a risk. Yet maybe the time is right for that kind of a risk with Doctor Who. Although let’s face it, we’ve no clue what the idea was that Chris Chibnall went to the BBC with. It’s been widely suggested he’ll be starting an American-style writers’ room for Doctor Who, and Mark Gatiss’ recent suggestion that he has very likely written his last script for the series would appear to corroborate that. A writers’ room in British TV would be, as Mark Lawson expressed it, a ‘daring conceit’. Although we ought to remember that those are Lawson’s words, not Chibnall’s, and that the idea Chibnall took to the BBC might not actually be as daring as Lawson suggests. Or it might be more daring still. For all we know, he might have asked them if he could move Doctor Who to Monday evenings. Or, just perhaps, cast a woman as the next Doctor.

Echoes and the Bogeyman

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ydney Newman, the Canadian who spent the early sixties creating something of a very British institution in the form of Doctor Who, hit the nail on the head, perhaps, in saying of the science fiction genre itself that “Up to the age of 40, I don’t think there was a science fiction book I hadn’t read. I love them because they’re a marvellous way - and a safe way, I might add - of saying nasty things about our own society.” After recent events in Manchester and London, much has indeed been said, mostly in connection with the sorry state of the world in which we now live. Doctor Who has always had parallels with current affairs, even if we head back to the 2005 return, with a Manchester-born actor playing the Doctor and a capital invaded four episodes in. In a similar vein, we can look at Harriet Jones, the MP dragged headfirst into the fight against the literally bogeyman-like (well, green at least) Slitheen, the farting gangsters having wormed their way into the heart of government under the smokescreen of a staged alien invasion. Their aim? To provoke nuclear war and make a little ready cash while they’re at it.

ASQUITH: Why would we invade this Godforsaken rock? DOCTOR: Then something’s brought the Slitheen race here. What is it? ASQUITH: The Slitheen race? GREEN: Slitheen is not our species. Slitheen is our surname. Jocrassa Fel Fotch Pasameer-Day-Slitheen at your service. DOCTOR: So, you’re family. GREEN: A family business.

DOCTOR: Then you’re out to make a profit. How can you do that on a godforsaken rock? The nuclear issue itself, of course, is still provoking debate to this day, Jeremy Corbyn of the Labour Party committing himself to an end to the stockpiling of such arsenals should they win back power. Rose Tyler, though, has no such scruples, it would seem! “Couldn’t we just launch a nuclear bomb at them?” We then get two hot topics for the price of one, three if you count the thinly veiled

criticisms of Corbyn’s predecessor Tony Blair and his handling of the invasion of Iraq, as Mickey Smith indulges in a little computer hacking - happily not of the ‘bringing the NHS to its knees’ variety. This gains access to everything UNIT would normally be looking to keep out of the hands of the likes of you and I. “All the secret information known to mankind. See, they’ve known about aliens for years. They just kept us in the dark.” Of course, the Doctor knows all this being

both one of the aforementioned aliens and a former employee of the organisation perhaps most committed to the search for extraterrestrial life. A search that looked to have hit the jackpot when a spaceship crashed into Big Ben... ROSE: We’re miles from the centre. The city must be gridlocked. The whole of London must be closing down. DOCTOR: I know. I can’t believe I’m here to see this. This is fantastic! ROSE: Did you know this was going to happen? DOCTOR: Nope. ROSE: Do you recognise the ship? DOCTOR: Nope. ROSE: Do you know why it crashed? DOCTOR: Nope. ROSE: Oh, I’m so glad I’ve got you. DOCTOR: I bet you are. This is what I travel for, Rose. To see history happening right in front of us. In light of this, it isn’t hard to fault his logic in opting not to take the TARDIS into the heart of our nation’s fair capital. The congestion charge being the least of the Doctor’s worries with the world watching. Indeed, he would

have been quite happy to leave us to our own devices on “The day mankind officially comes into contact with an alien race. I’m not interfering because you’ve got to handle this on your own. That’s when the human race finally grows up.” Quite a sea change. And one harked back to during Kill the Moon three selves later. “Listen, there are moments in every civilisation’s history in which the whole path of that civilisation is decided. The whole future path. Whatever future humanity might have depends upon the choice that is made right here and right now.” The policy of non-intervention was of course nothing new - William Hartnell’s First Doctor stuck to it rigidly, ‘fraillooking but wiry and tough as an old turkey’, according to script editor David Whitaker’s notes in an early writers’ bible for Newman’s baby. A similar blank slate was offered to the pairing of Russell T Davies and Christopher Eccleston upon picking up the mantle, the chance to restore a little mystery to the Time Lord taken over thirteen episodes and ending in new life for the Doctor, as he had given to Blon Fel-Fotch PassameerDay Slitheen at the conclusion of Boom Town, making the guffing greenie the first

returning monster of the new era as she began a journey back to the egg. That done, who’s there to incur David Tennant’s wrath following the first NuWho regeneration? “Don’t challenge me, Harriet Jones, because I’m a completely new man. I could bring down your Government with a single word.” While he doesn’t quite manage that, needing five more to nail it - “Don’t you think she looks tired?” - the implication is simple. Don’t mess with him! Rather tellingly, reference is also made to his years as a fully paid-up member of UNIT staff, his tongue-lashing of the Brigadier for authorising the murder of the Silurians, who, as he’s keen to remind all and sundry, were an intelligent species, repeated against Jones as she gives the order to shoot down the retreating Sycorax in one of the defining acts of her Prime Ministerial reign. “This is a brand new planet Earth. No denying the existence of aliens now. Everyone saw it. Everything’s new.” Just how new is open to debate - the new man will see a New Earth of the far future soon enough, mind. CHRISTOPHER MORLEY

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This month, the jaunty James Evans takes a look at a classic that has recently enjoyed a resurgence, PHANTASM...

he first Phantasm came out in 1979, writer-director Don Coscarelli having decided that with horror being a big draw at the box office he would have a go at making one himself. Thanks to TV showings of the black and white classics and a ‘60s boom in Gothic cinematic horror, like a lot of people from his generation, Coscarelli had grown up familiar with the genre. Débuting in theatres a few months after the original Halloween, Phantasm was and remains a peculiar oddity. Whereas Halloween was ‘the perfect machine movie’ (to quote Kim Newman in his mammoth book Nightmare Movies), Coscarelli’s film is a child’s nightmare of confronting death, and appropriately dreamlike in its construction and imagery. That means less of a reliance on a cohesive narrative and instead a plot that arguably makes little sense. With no urge to explain that plot, Coscarelli’s focus is instead on mixing in influences from horror, fantasy novels and invasionparanoia science fiction films. In a small Oregon town seemingly beset by a number of suspicious deaths (including most recently his friend Tommy in the film’s opening sequence), Jody is a barely adult mid-20s musician forced to raise his younger brother after their parents die. Mike is a morbid young fellow who we first meet riding his motorcycle through a graveyard.

He stops the bike and is briefly disturbed by a small figure scuttling noisily behind one of the headstones. The same noise disturbs Jody, who is in the mausoleum inside Morningside funeral home with other friend Reggie for Tommy’s funeral, and within seconds we’re introduced to the Tall Man. Mike has been having nightmares since his parents died and struggles to differentiate between his dreams and reality. He’s also overheard that Jody is planning to leave him (shipping Mike off to live with their aunt) and his resulting anxiety has developed into an almost stalker-ish attachment to his brother. But when he witnesses the Tall Man lifting a full coffin on his own and tossing it into the back of a hearse, Mike is convinced he has seen the real thing. Mike follows his brother to a bar where Jody meets a girl who, like Tommy’s date, isn’t entirely human and has an unhealthy interest in graveyards at night. Following Jody and the girl to the graveyard, Mike spies on them as they’re getting down to it on top of a grave before he hears those noises again. A small figure in a robe rushes out of the bushes at Mike and he breaks cover, forcing Jody to chase him. In the process, we know he has probably saved his brother’s life because when Jody gets back to the graveyard, she’s gone. But now the Tall Man is invading Mike’s dreams. Mike also sees

him in town, stopping at Reggie’s open ice cream truck to inhale the run-off from the chilled cabinet. He starts to believe the small figures he saw from the corner of his eye in the graveyard are now coming to his home trying to kill him. No longer able to tame his curiosity, Mike heads up to Morningside to find out the truth about what is happening and who the Tall Man is. And that truth is a pretty wild one. Encountering the Tall Man again, they walk towards each other like a mirrored reflection of the same psyche. Chased out of the home, Mike cuts off some of the Tall Man’s fingers in a slammed door; we learn that he, too, is most definitely not human. At the funeral home, we also get our first encounter with the silver ball, a flying murder device that stabs into the head of its victims and drills into their brains. Its appearance out of nowhere is another example of how Phantasm seems like it is going one way and then twists to something altogether different. Being different is written all the way through the film. If the contemporary slasher film was all about directly, bluntly confronting death and ultimately surviving that fear, Phantasm’s themes are a contrasting riff on the same idea, a much more abstract grappling with mortality and grief. Mike’s parents are dead and his fear that Jody is leaving him too is an all-too-real reaction

that is recognisable to anyone who has experienced loss. Jody hates the town and, in some ways, can’t wait to leave. His is a tired mourning, ready to put it as much as possible in the past, to try and move on to a new life. But Mike has clearly resolved nothing. It’s been noted that Phantasm connected strongly with adolescent (mainly) boys similar in age to Mike. At this time of growing up, it is frequently a fact of life that children are introduced to the permanence of death, for example, losing a grandparent. That their minds struggle to process this harsh concept when forced to, it understandably leads to other ways of trying to cope. For many, this becomes through fantasy and for a time in Phantasm it is possible to read it that Mike is imagining strange happenings and the figure of the Tall Man, who clearly represents Death itself. But as the plot continues to twist and Jody learns his brother isn’t crazy, the possibility that their town is in the grips of a unique evil becomes real. However, the film continues to be experienced mostly through Mike’s perspective throughout and that reading of it as a youthful attempt to cope with the impossible remains a valid one. For Coscarelli, it is very much about how western society handles death. The ritual that goes with it, the secretive practices that

take place behind closed doors, the attempts to cover the reality of it up through dressing and presenting bodies, the inherent creep factor (to children at the very least) of the morticians that preside over this process it’s all so odd and absurd. Phantasm takes this absurdity and builds it into a genuinely nightmarish narrative. Released from any need to adhere to conventional direction, Coscarelli instead creates a film that has a true surreality about it. In this world, a severed finger can bleed yellow, keep twitching even though it should be still, and even turn into something else entirely, but the way the film has been pitched makes this all hang together much better than it should. In this way, Phantasm stands out from any contemporaries. Whilst there is still some blood and gore, giving an audience the build and release of the stalk and slash template is not the film’s goal. Instead, it takes those themes of death anxiety and comprehension and provides us with something that remains to this day a potent and unusual dark cinematic fantasy. Fantasy is another element of the ingredients for Phantasm. That Coscarelli was considering an adaptation of Ray Bradbury’s Something Wicked This Way Comes (but the rights were not available) is not surprising. Phantasm is heavily influenced by Bradbury’s book. In that classic novel, children discover

that the carnival that has arrived in town has evil intent and that to stop the plans of the carnival’s leader Mr Dark, they must overcome their fear. The themes here that Phantasm adopts are those of transitioning into adulthood and the fear that brings, the ways in which negative ideas and concepts weigh us down as we live life, and a battle between good and evil that is representative of that internal conflict in each person throughout their life. Phantasm presents its horror themes more in keeping with fantasy and although much of what happens in the film is horrific, the way it is presented is very much in this vein of dark fantasy. It’s something that has permeated through with American horror and weirdness. Similar presentations that can be considered thematic relations to Phantasm are films like Burnt Offerings, in which a young boy’s discovery his parents are not perfect suggest a dismantling darkness at the core of the American family ideal. Later on, Twin Peaks took that mix of the creeping darkness behind the postcard American setting into even more twisted territory. There’s a seam of American Gothic that runs through Phantasm just as much as dark fantasy. These films couldn’t really come from anywhere else, drenched as they are in a uniquely American feel that

takes advantage of the suspicion most people have that behind a picture-perfect facade, something sinister lurks. There’s also a strong science fiction influence on Phantasm. Part of Coscarelli’s intent was to purposefully unsettle an audience by incorporating elements of other genres they might not be expecting. Invaders From Mars was inspired by a dream and it’s a tale of a young boy who struggles to convince the grown-ups that an insidious alien influence is taking over people in the town he lives in, so its influence is easy to find in Phantasm’s cinematic DNA. In the 1950s, numerous films were made that demonstrated a fear of the other, of outsiders taking over without people even realising. This is frequently considered to be an allegory for communism and the perceived threat it posed the West. But these films can also be taken in the same way as the point above about sinister intent lurking behind perfection. This idea that something that seems too good to be true often is, and is often not just that but profoundly wrong is something Phantasm makes a great addition to. Added to this, the film’s ending is certainly strongly sci-fi and continues Phantasm’s genre-bending ways to great effect. All of these elements contribute to a seemingly on-purpose incoherency to the film that actually benefits it.

Another strong element of Phantasm is the film’s look. Coscarelli’s decision to focus on a funeral home as a location as well as a mortician for a villain was not just made because of the themes he wanted to explore. He’s a filmmaker, after all, and for a horror film, this presents him with a lot of cool imagery to play with. Sleek hearses, dark graveyards, tombs, misty country roads, a tall and creepy bad guy, as well as the flying ball Coscarelli (apparently literally) dreamt up. It’s almost impossible to imagine a better set to play with. Phantasm still looks great today and although much of that imagery has long been a cliché in horror films, it is intrinsic to the movie’s success, because Coscarelli does enough with it to twist it into something fresh and something that still makes Phantasm stand out. Another reason for this is Mike’s nemesis, the Tall Man. As many a franchise learned, create an effective and interesting bogeyman and the audience craves more. The Tall Man has little to say in Phantasm but played by Angus Scrimm and standing 6 foot 4 inches in height, he doesn’t need to. With a classic movie face, Scrimm helped make the Tall Man an iconic horror villain who continued to face off against Mike throughout all the subsequent films. Like classic horror icons Boris Karloff, Christopher Lee and others, Scrimm was, by all accounts, a gentleman off screen, but

when playing the Tall Man needed little more than his imposing stature and menacing facial expressions to make himself into something befitting of a nightmare. That it did become a franchise is another sign that Phantasm did something that connected with audiences. Although it came almost ten years after the original, Phantasm 2 continued the narrative of Mike being hounded by nightmares of the Tall Man. It led to a leisurely paced franchise inevitably helped by the rise and dominance of video rental shops throughout the 1980s and 1990s as well as a cult following and nostalgia that brought everyone back for a final sequel eventually released in 2016. Whilst Phantasm has never been as popular as the big horror series like Friday the 13th or Halloween, that cult following remains a strong one. By mixing in the familiar horror tropes with increasingly weird narratives (the sequels get even more bizarre as the story expands), and with fantasy and science fiction weaved throughout, Phantasm did something agreeably different, something fresh and something worth discovering if you haven’t already had the queasy pleasure. You can catch PHANTASM on Horror Channel on July 21st and August 2nd. Sky 319, Virgin 149, Freeview 70, Freesat 138.

KING COHEN Words: JoHN HIGGINs

limelight, then they will stay in the mainstream, but if they tend to do more artistic work and low budget, then they will do that. Michael was a well established actor before I worked with him and he has won an Emmy for Law & Order and a Tony on Broadway. Tell us about your experience of directing the Masters of Horror episode, Pick Me Up… Well, I actually knew all the guys who worked on the series overall and we would often sit around and talk about our ideas. Mick Garris was the person who put it together and I do think my episode was one of the best in the whole series. Which of your films, if you have had a bigger budget, would you have made today? If it were a studio picture, it would be a different film. All my films have been made through my own production company and I have produced and directed them. In this case, I can call the shots. With a studio picture, I would be supervised and often you would have to explain what you were doing at every part of the process. Although I have written a lot of scripts that have been made by other people, I am perfectly happy as I am as I prefer my own input. Most of my movies were made inside of a month.

Ahead of the premiere of a new documentary in his honour, we took the opportunity to chat with exploitation master LARRY COHEN… STARBURST: Black Caesar was conceived for Sammy Davis, Jr. How would it have differed from the version you ended up making with Fred Williamson? Larry Cohen: I suppose it would have been a more romantic film, but due to his problems with the IRS at the time he was unable to pay me, so I ended up making it with Fred Williamson. The Stuff has a darkly comic comment to make about these health diets and harm that is as relevant today as it was three decades ago. Is there another project in mind that you would like to make a social comment on? Actually, there is a social comment in everything I make! A lot of the commercials you see on TV more or less deal with taking people’s money. Cigarette ads have been outlawed and lawyers are always cottoning onto these medicines that have poisoned people. We understand Phone Booth was pitched to Alfred Hitchcock in the 1960s. Did you ever collaborate on other scripts with other directors that were never made? Well, Hitchcock mentioned that he wanted to make a movie set in a phone booth and we were in the process of discussing ideas at the time. However, when he died, we’d never really got around to it. After that, I came up with the idea of adding a sniper to the movie, which is more or less what emerged at the time. Hitchcock did have a reputation for not paying his writers and also taking on projects from others and then replacing them with other writers. You helmed A Return to Salem’s Lot in 1987. How much of a challenge was it to live up to the Tobe Hooper classic? It didn’t have much to do with the King book, except that it was a town with vampires. At the time, I wanted to do a House of Wax

project, but Warners didn’t like that project. About six years before I did write a version of Salem’s Lot, but they didn’t like it. I have never met Stephen King. I don’t think he got paid very much from it. You used Michael Moriarty, whom Clint Eastwood used in Pale Rider. Why do some actors remain better suited to indie than mainstream? I worked with Michael five times in my career. In terms of actors being suited to indie over mainstream, it depends. If they get that big role that propels them into the blockbuster

Scenes from the documentary King Cohen.

What do you enjoy watching the most these days? I am not a great fan of the comic book and effects extravaganzas being released. I am more partial to all the great series that are currently being made on the likes of HBO and Showcase. I did like Bates Motel. I also enjoy going to the theatre these days and prefer stories and productions with character, conflict, and emotional involvement. Incidentally, as a final footnote, there is a service in the US, which I am not sure is available in the UK called Roku. It’s a lot like Amazon and Netflix, and you can buy it for $100 and put it on your TV. You can search for my films on there under ‘Larry Cohen’ and buy them quite cheaply, so you don’t have to go to a video store to buy the films! KING COHEN: THE WILD WORLD OF FILMMAKER LARRY COHEN screens at Horror Channel FrightFest this August.

THE LATEST BIG SCREEN GENRE RELEASES REVIEWED AND RATED

REVIEWS

SPIDER-MAN: HOMECOMING

CERT: 12A / DIRECTOR: JON WATTS / SCREENPLAY: VARIOUS / STARRING: TOM HOLLAND, MICHAEL KEATON, MARISA TOMEI, ROBERT DOWNEY JR., JACOB BATALON, LAURA HARRIER, ZENDAYA / RELEASE DATE: OUT NOW the government put together the Damage Control group to handle all such incidents. Fast-forward to the present day, and Toomes has used some stolen Chitauri tech to become the villainous Vulture, a rogue who specialises in stealing alien technology in order to ship it out as intense new arms for the criminals of New York City and beyond. Can Spidey clip Vulture’s wings and save the day? Can Peter manage to keep any semblance of a social life? And just how is he going to keep all of this a secret from Aunt May and his pals? To get straight to the point, Homecoming is a phenomenal, fun movie brimming with heart that delivers on a whole range of different fronts. For longtime comic book fans, there’s nods and references aplenty, not to mention the use of several characters yet to be seen on the big screen, whilst for casual fans there’s more than enough here to have you cheering on your friendly neighbourhood Spider-Man. As Marvel Comics’ prized jewel, Tom Holland is a mesmerising, multi-layered presence who encompasses everything Peter Parker is and should be. His youthful exuberance and excitement at becoming a real-life superhero is a joy to behold, but Holland also balances the other side of the equation: the everyday

ANDREW POLLARD

EXPECTED

ACTUAL

CINEMA

After much anticipation from fans, SpiderMan finally made his Marvel Cinematic Universe début in last year’s Captain America: Civil War. Whilst Tom Holland’s Spidey managed to steal the show during his brief role in that particular superhero ensemble, now comes the time for this latest cinematic wall-crawler to stand up and be counted as he headlines his own picture. So, is Spider-Man: Homecoming the pitch-perfect Spider-flick we’ve all hoped for, true believers, or is it another movie to leave us disappointed like Marc Webb’s bland, muddled and dour The Amazing Spider-Man 2? Let’s find out! In terms of timing, Homecoming takes place several months after Civil War went down, and we find an eager, excited Peter Parker trying to juggle high school and stopping petty criminals, all while he constantly waits for a call to go up and join the big leagues amongst Earth’s Mightiest Heroes. But while Parker tries to balance all of this, elsewhere we see Adrian Toomes (Michael Keaton) and his clean-up crew given the boot 8 years prior. Toomes and his gang were tasked with cleaning up the carnage and destruction caused by the Avengers during the Battle of New York, only to see their gig canned once Stark and

troubles of this everyday teenager. As Peter cancels plans or no-shows gatherings due to his heroic alter-ego being needed elsewhere, we see the angst and torment of what this young kid is having to go through on a daily basis. However, those elements also lend themselves brilliantly to portraying one of Peter Parker’s longstanding greatest attributes: his determination, will to win, and downright stubbornness to do whatever it takes to get the job done. Throw in with that regular helpings of the famed ‘Parker luck’, a genuine, sincere bond with Marisa Tomei’s May, and the harsh-yet-caring relationship with Robert Downey Jr.’s Tony Stark, and you have a fun and fresh Peter Parker who feels as if he’s just been pulled from a classic comic book tale of yesteryear. Of course, what’s a good hero without a good villain? And on that front, Michael Keaton takes the Vulture character and makes it his own. In fact, there’s one particular dread-filled sequence in which Keaton delivers one of the flat-out most chilling moments seen to date in the Marvel Cinematic Universe. Then there’s the rest of the cast, with each adding their own unique stamp to the film as the story progresses; Ned Leeds being the light relief, Flash Thompson the cocksure bully, Liz Allan the love interest, and they’re just the tip of the iceberg, for Spider-Man fans will spot many other familiar names and faces. Beforehand, many thought Spidey would find himself sharing too much screen time with Stark, but the Iron Man card is one that’s brilliantly played and never feels overdone. For whilst this film most certainly overflows with staples of the Marvel Cinematic Universe that it exists within, it never once loses sight of what it is at heart: a Spider-Man movie, and a damn good one at that. With the high school dynamic filling Homecoming with the energy of a Ferris Bueller’s Day Off or The Breakfast Club, the dark tone and cynical nature of the villain of the piece keeping the energy and excitement levels running high, and a Peter Parker whose journey you’ll leave the cinema simply needing to see more of, Homecoming is a resounding hit in every possible way. Amazing? Yes. Spectacular? Most certainly. Superior? Without a shadow of a doubt. Finally, after the last three disappointing solo movies for ol’ Web-head, longtime Spidey fans have been given the Spider-Man movie that they deserve, with this picture hands-down the best MCU movie to come along in years. Excelsior!

CARS 3

CINEMA

CERT: U / DIRECTOR: BRIAN FEE / SCREENPLAY: KIEL MURRAY, BOB PETERSON / STARRING: OWEN WILSON, CRISTELA ALONZO, NATHAN FILLION, LARRY THE CABLE GUY, ARMIE HAMMER, CHRIS COOPER / RELEASE DATE: OUT NOW The Cars franchise has always been Pixar’s weakest series, and it’s debatable how much it even needed a third instalment (or after the cynical cash grab of Cars 2, deserved one). However, whether we wanted one or not, here it is. Thankfully, the story has wisely ditched the espionage nonsense of the sequel – not even referencing its events so everyone can pretend it never happened – and takes the film back to its racing roots. Time has gone by and Lightning McQueen (Owen Wilson) has gotten old, now facing fresh competition from a new generation of technologically advanced vehicles with inherent advantages over older models, in particular obnoxious champion Jackson Storm (Armie Hammer). Incidentally, exactly where this new technology is developed or how it is implemented is another aspect of how we are required to ignore just how much the structure of Cars’ self-contained world makes absolutely no logical sense (our favourite theory is that the sentient cars rose up to overthrow and obliterate humanity in a great and terrible war, and the structures in the films that it’s physically impossible for vehicles to have constructed are the crumbling remnants of the once-proud human race… but we digress). After his sponsors sell their company to business magnate Sterling (a magnificently smarmy Nathan Fillion), Lightning is required to become more of a corporate mascot, but is still determined to prove himself worthy as a racer, so begins a fitness regime with upbeat young trainer Cruz Ramirez (Cristela Alonzo) to win back respect from others and himself by defeating his new rivals. The setup is one familiar to any fan of sports films, that of the old champion struggling to find his place in a new world that has passed him by, everything that was once familiar having gradually eroded and only now that he has become obsolete does he even realise any change was underway. Like the first film, there is a meditation on the wisdom that comes with age, but even though

Lightning is getting older, he is evidently still to reach the point where this growth occurs, as he is just as reckless, impulsive and thoughtless as he ever was. Dissatisfied with Cruz’s training methods, he decides to do things his own way, and then when unforeseen problems compound upon each other, he gets angry with her for all the time wasted, despite the detours being things he decided he wanted to do, blaming her because she was there and got in the way. Lightning eventually learns exactly the same lessons he did in the first film - that his arrogance is his own greatest weakness and that he needs to appreciate everyone who stands by him. As the film progresses, he comes to understand that there are other achievements in life than simply winning. It ultimately boils down to Lightning realising that his legacy is not the number of victories he has or how long he can maintain them for, but instead, how much he acts as an inspiration to those around him, allowing their accomplishments to become a reflection on himself as a mentor. Through the limited character development of Cruz,

there’s also a message chucked in about how girls should feel they have the right to do all the things they want to, even if the undertaking is traditionally male or perceived as being not feminine enough for them, but it’s poorly presented and more of an afterthought than an actual plot line. Cars 3 is a jumble of ideas that never settles on any particular one, and as a result feels like a half-hearted effort from the typically reliable Pixar. In all honesty, you’re likely to get just as much out of the film as you’re expecting to. If you thought the previous films were entertaining and harmless fun, then you’ll think this one is much the same. If you feel the series is a notable low point indicative of a typically inventive studio coasting along on its previous successes, then you’ll find it mildly distracting, but ultimately nothing special. ANDREW MARSHALL

EXPECTED

ACTUAL

BABY DRIVER

CERT: 15 / DIRECTOR & SCREENPLAY: EDGAR WRIGHT / STARRING: ANSEL ELGORT, KEVIN SPACEY, LILY JAMES, JON BERNTHAL, JAMIE FOXX / RELEASE DATE: OUT NOW of the movie life, vibrancy and story, as every single frame of the movie tells its own little narrative which works perfectly within the mechanism of the movie. The car chases seen here are some of the best seen on film, harkening back to the great car chases of cinema yore such as Bullitt, The French Connection and The Blues Brothers, resulting in a ballet of burnt rubber and screeching tyres. The soundtrack in this film is quite extraordinary, having been armed with ‘killer tracks’ from Queen’s Brighton Rock to Bob and Earl’s Harlem Shuffle, and each and every song included serves as something like a heartbeat to drive the pace and flow of the movie forward, as well as complementing the movie’s narrative almost in the same

RYAN POLLARD

EXPECTED

ACTUAL

CINEMA

The concept of the getaway driver in the crime/heist sub-genre has been inherently appealing throughout the history of cinema, particularly the idea that a skilful driver who drives for crims may not be wholly bad himself and is simply an active accomplice caught within an out-of-control criminal web. Cinema has dabbled with this idea from time to time, whether it’s Walter Hill’s The Driver, Richard C. Sarafian’s Vanishing Point or Peter Collinson’s The Italian Job. These genre conventions were utilised greatly recently with Nicolas Winding Refn’s Drive, and now it’s Edgar Wright’s turn to take a crack at the genre, and boy, does it pay off with outstanding results. Edgar Wright is a director who has made a huge impact in cinema thanks to his phenomenal Three Flavours Cornetto Trilogy (Shaun of the Dead, Hot Fuzz and The World’s End) and the fantastic yet highly underrated Scott Pilgrim vs. the World; what made these films so unique and influential was their high concepts, fast energy and creative use of music, all traits that can also identified here. Baby Driver doesn’t fall into the traditional trap of becoming so stylised that the narrative and character development ends up getting lost; instead, Wright uses his own unique and creative style to fuel and power up his story and characters, almost like the cars in this movie that have slick and stylish bodies whilst having powerful, functioning, well-oiled engines inside. Wright’s writing and characterisation clicks throughout to the point where you do understand and unravel the mindset of each of his characters, right down to their motivations, where they come from, and what their dreams and desires are. Skilled cinematographer Bill Pope (who previously worked on Wright’s Scott Pilgrim and The World’s End) once again proves his credentials by giving each frame

matter as the music in Scott Pilgrim. Each and every performance in this film is on-point and complements the film massively, and Ansel Elgort gives a breakout performance as the titular Baby. Having already given a charismatic performance back in The Fault In Our Stars, Elgort gives Baby real genuine confidence and vulnerability that makes you believe in him as a getaway driver with a heart of gold. As usual, the luminous Lily James excels as the object of desire for Elgort’s Baby, exuding an innocence and sweetness that instantly makes you fall in love with her. Kevin Spacey is simply phenomenal as the cold and calculating mastermind Doc, polishing off his wry and slimy act that served him well in House of Cards, while Jamie Foxx is pure dynamite as the unstable shotgun-wielding cohort Bats (then again, anything would’ve been better than Electro!). However, the standouts may be the electrifying duo of Jon Hamm and Eiza González, who feel like Bonnie and Clyde mixed with Joker and Harley Quinn. Hamm goes through an evolution of emotions that makes him both suave and terrifying in equal measure (certainly different from his Mad Men days), whilst González uses both her magnetic presence and sultry beauty (which helped her well with TV’s From Dusk Till Dawn) to give an alluring yet deadly performance. Edgar Wright has been an influential presence in cinema and once again, he delivers in spades with Baby Driver rocketing upwards into the higher echelons as one of the best films to come out of this year. Everything in this movie works across the board – the direction, the style, the character dynamics, cinematography and so forth. It’s evident that a lot of heart and passion has gone into this and the results are truly aweinspiring; this is a pedal-to-the-metal rollercoaster that’s not to be missed.

TRANSFORMERS: THE LAST KNIGHT

CINEMA

CERT: 12A / DIRECTOR: MICHAEL BAY / SCREENPLAY: ART MARCUM, MATT HOLLOWAY, KEN NOLAN / STARRING: MARK WAHLBERG, ANTHONY HOPKINS, JOSH DUHAMEL, LAURA HADDOCK / RELEASE DATE: OUT NOW The Transformers films serve as a smug reminder that no matter how criminally unwatchable blockbusters have become, people will still show up and have an awful time. The latest instalment in the franchise, Transformers: The Last Knight, continues the trend established by preceding entries by shoving bad characters and convoluted concepts down our waiting throats. While markedly better than its predecessor, Transformers: The Last Knight exhausts where it should excite, confuses where it should convey, and infuriates where it should intrigue. It’s a franchise that should perish rather than persist, even if the fifth chapter boasts a quality that was predictably absent from the middle three entries. As an ice-crusted Optimus Prime floats through space, Cade Yeager (Wahlberg) finds himself on the run from the Transformers Reaction Force, a military-run operation tasked with ridding the planet of Transformers. Meanwhile, Sir Edmund Burton (Hopkins) seeks out Vivian Wembley (Haddock), an Oxford professor who comes from important stock. Burton enlists Yeager’s help with finding an artefact that, if wielded by the right person, could turn the tide in the impending war between Cybertron and Earth. Director Michael Bay populates his story with characters that feel shoehorned in as though to appease those who disliked the omission of franchise favourites in Age of Extinction. John Turturro’s Seymour Simmons spends the entire movie in Cuba feeding Anthony Hopkins information, and Bay expects us to welcome his inclusion with an open mind and shut mouth. Josh Duhamel’s William Lennox returns as nobody’s

favourite gun-toting, orders-giving colonel who somehow becomes less and less important as the film stretches past the two-hour mark. In fact, everything becomes less important past the two-hour mark. Such is Bay’s style. Thankfully, the dearth of gratuitous posterior shots and groan-inducing humour lends itself to the film’s marginal success as popcorn entertainment, which is remarkable considering Bay’s propensity for indulging in the tasteless. Instead of forcing us up Nicola Peltz’s shorts, he forces us up the only place where they can be as clueless and disconnected as he is: his own ass. A world where everyone lives up Michael Bay’s ass is a terrifying one,

but it’s one we have willingly paid for since 2007. Such is our style. Put simply, Bay’s latest directorial effort fails as entertainment and succeeds as amusement. At this point, all we can really do is chuckle at the theatre and cry at home knowing that we will absolutely be back for the inevitable sequel. The Last Knight isn’t what we wanted it to be, but by god, is it what we expected it to be! HAYDEN MEARS

EXPECTED

ACTUAL

DESPICABLE ME 3 CERT: U / DIRECTORS: PIERRE COFFIN, KYLE BALDA / SCREENPLAY: CINCO PAUL, KEN DAURIO / STARRING: STEVE CARELL, KRISTEN WIIG, TREY PARKER, PIERRE COFFIN, STEVE COOGAN, JULIE ANDREWS / RELEASE DATE: OUT NOW Many franchises struggle with their third part. Some succeed (Toy Story 3, Indiana Jones and The Last Crusade, The Dark Knight Rises), others fail (Shrek the Third, Hangover Part III, Spider-Man 3) and others divide opinion (Back to the Future Part III, The Godfather Part III, and Iron Man 3). So, after two fun family movies and a spinoff in Minions, Despicable Me 3 arrives and, thankfully, it ended

June on a high, after - aside from Wonder Woman - a pretty dreary blockbuster month. Gru (Steve Carell) and Lucy (Kristen Wiig), now agents for the AVL (Anti-Villain League), lose their jobs after being foiled by ‘80s child star turned dastardly retro baddie Balthazar Bratt (Trey Parker). Down on their luck, Gru, Lucy and their three girls get some unexpected news when Gru hears

HOUNDS OF LOVE CERT: 18 / DIRECTOR & SCREENPLAY: BEN YOUNG / STARRING: EMMA BOOTH, ASHLEIGH CUMMINGS, STEPHEN CURRY / RELEASE DATE: JULY 28TH psychological threat of The Babadook. Vicki (Cummings) is a typical 17-year-old, struggling with her parent’s separation and desperate to rebel. That her mother has chosen to live in the less salubrious side of town

come to see Gru, you will stay for two different reasons. Firstly, the Minions get the best comedic moments in the entire film, as the hilarious rendition of Gilbert and Sullivan’s ‘Modern Major General’ alone is worth the ticket price. And secondly, there is Balthazar Bratt! A splendid creation, brought to life by South Park’s Trey Parker. Bratt is hands down the franchise’s best villain. Developed, giddily gimmick-based, with a cool array of ‘80s weaponry/ gadgets and Parker’s goofy voice work combining to create a dancing, narcissistic, fallen kids TV star antagonist that reminds a touch of the Babydoll character in Batman: The Animated Series... anyone? No? Just us, then. Despicable Me 3 is a heck of a lot of family (and fan) pleasing fun. The narrative structure hardly reeks of freshness but the tomfoolery is infectious, the Minions continue to steal spotlights, the sugar rush action engages and Trey Parker’s moustachioed megalomaniac is a scene-stealing blast!

doesn’t help. When she slips out one night to go to a party, she is offered some cheap drugs from a seemingly normal-looking couple in a car. However, there is nothing normal about Evelyn and John (Booth and Curry, respectively), as - unbeknownst to the community - they are serial abductors/killers. So far, so normal kidnap/ torture horror, eh? Well, what Young does differently is to show us a side of both the victim and perpetrators that we wouldn’t normally have. While Vicki’s situation is relatable to many, Evelyn and John are a little more complex. They have had her children taken from them and it’s clearly tearing Evelyn apart, even though she is in no state to look after them. John is the man of the house and takes the lead in the abductions and, ultimately, the murders, but is himself a victim. Outside the house, he’s bullied and abused in different ways. Even though they are very depraved, Evelyn cannot bear John being alone with Vicki; the insecurities are too much and when it’s clear that John is sexually abusing their victim when she’s not there, her fractured mindset deteriorating beyond repair. Vicki uses this

to her advantage before the fraught situation spirals out of control. Even before we get to the meat of the story, we’re creeped out by the introduction sequence as the twisted couple watches a group of young volleyball players - filmed in salacious slow motion - before giving one a lift, never to be seen again. This build-up helps make the following drama so relentless and absorbing. The use of some well-known pieces of pop music only adds to the unease (how the hell did they get the licence to use Cat Stevens’ Lady D’Arbanville?), and by the time Joy Division’s Atmosphere rattles through the speakers, the audience is as much of a physical wreck as the characters on screen. It’s undeniably uncomfortable viewing in places, but there are few thrillers that pack as much of a punch or are as relentlessly traumatic as Hounds of Love. It’s proof that there are still some genuinely terrifying movies out there if you’re prepared to look outside the mainstream.

JACK BOTTOMLEY EXPECTED

ACTUAL

MARTIN UNSWORTH EXPECTED

ACTUAL

CINEMA

There have been plenty of effective shockers to come from Australia over the years. While some have taken the traditional horror route, this feature début from Ben Young draws more from the grounded horror of Snowtown than the

he has a long-lost twin brother, Dru (also Carell), who lives a very high life but has secret aspirations of his own that may take Gru back to his former despicable ways. While familiar and bearing some of the faults present in many sequels, Coffin and Balda’s movie completely avoids franchise fatigue and the cliché risked by its ‘long lost family member’ plot thanks to constant entertainment and numerous moments that actually make it the series’ most consistently enjoyable outing. The plot moves along with few bad gags and plenty of inspired visual touches and barmily brilliant ideas. Gru and Dru are a warm double act, thanks to the diverse vocal work of Carell, allowing Gru to remain on a good balance between wholesome and mischievous, as Dru borders entirely on the latter. Wiig’s Lucy also gets an arc of her own as she tries to connect with the girls as a mother, and it is nice to see matriarchal struggle given some focus over the usual daddy issue stories. Even the girls get their own threads, with Agnes (Nev Scharrel replacing Elsie Fisher) in search of a Unicorn, Edith (Dana Gaier) assisting her and Margo (Miranda Cosgrove) fending off a local and his foodbased advances. However, while you may

THE MUMMY

CINEMA

CERT: 15 / DIRECTOR: ALEX KURTZMAN / SCREENPLAY: DAVID KOEPP, CHRISTOPHER MCQUARRIE, DYLAN KUSSMAN / STARRING: TOM CRUISE, ANNABELLE WALLIS, SOFIA BOUTELLA, JAKE JOHNSON, RUSSELL CROWE / RELEASE DATE: OUT NOW Universes are becoming the next big thing in cinema; no longer is the word ‘franchise’ enough, instead a ‘cinematic universe’ is where it’s now at. Arguably spurred on by the Marvel Cinematic Universe and its continued success, the trend continues as the DCEU (this year receiving its best entry in the glorious Wonder Woman), The Conjuring’s universe and Legendary’s Monster-verse (which has gone from strength to strength thanks to the brilliant Kong: Skull Island) are all expanding. And so the original universe now returns in Universal Monsters! However, the studio is starting afresh and Alex Kurtzman’s The Mummy is the first instalment in what Universal are calling ‘The Dark Universe’, so how is it? In a word… disjointed. The Mummy sees military man - and black market dealer on the side - Nick Morton (Tom Cruise) happen across the tomb of an ancient long-forgotten Egyptian Princess (Sofia Boutella) in present day Iraq. However, if he and archaeologist Jennifer Halsey (Annabelle Wallis) are correct in thinking this is the same lost princess Ahmanet that legends speak of, then there is a very good reason she was cursed to a fate worse than death all those centuries ago… as they will soon find out. A far cry from the Boris Karloff pictures and likewise a completely different take on the mummified mythos than the Brendan Fraser-led Mummy trilogy, this film looks to blend dark horror with action. Sadly, despite admirable intentions, the tonal shifts that come with this genre blending sit uneasily alongside too much worldbuilding for the movie to comfortably – and coherently – translate to the screen. Reminding at points of a mad mix between Marc Forster’s energetic World War Z and Stephen Norrington’s The League of Extraordinary Gentleman, alas, the film doesn’t maintain the former’s pace or even the latter’s watchable

mayhem and the third act especially falls into forgettable pandemonium, with Sofia Boutella’s villain getting ultimately wasted in a special effects sandstorm. The opening is filled with dark myth and there are touches of that throughout, but sadly hints at darkness are clobbered senseless not much sooner by 12A-style action sequences. Undeniably there are some effective moments, but most of them were in the trailers and released clips (indeed, if you have not seen any footage, you may want to boost our score up a point) and the story feels haphazardly assembled, with too much franchise-building work for one film to handle and questionable editing that leaves transitions feeling confusingly absent of any sense of time or structure, which results in a messy blockbuster that compensates for its plethora of shortcomings with an overload of CG action. It is a real tragedy that the moments of horror are not more regular, as these sequences are far stronger and more engaging; it would have been great to see Kurtzman go for broke in that dark direction. There’s nothing wrong with a bit of popcorn-munching fun, mind, and this movie may service that ambition for some, but in that ballpark, it cannot maintain the knowingly giddy energy (and graphic darkness in the first films) of Sommers’ Mummy films, the charm of Van Helsing, the atmosphere of the rather underrated The Wolfman or, most importantly, the mythical thrill and chill of the studio’s classics. This being said, it is not all a loss, there are some darkly efficient horror beats, Russell Crowe is game as Dr Jekyll (this universe’s Nick Fury figure), and the references to Universal’s monster lineage are a treat. Additionally, the characters and humour often fail to land the mark, but Cruise does sell some of the comedy moments (a bar scene especially). Not terribly terrible or terribly good,

it is a terribly all over the place start to the Dark Universe; the ideas are there, they just need coherently forming rather than being thrown together. That being said, we hope to see it, oddly, do well enough not to kill this universe, because with some thought, care and learning from the mistakes here, this could be a thoroughly interesting world (plus they went and spent money (prematurely perhaps) on an admittedly cool ‘Dark Universe’ ident at the start of the movie). If they recruited directors like Guillermo Del Toro, Tim Burton or J. A. Bayona, they would seriously knock it out of the park and so we hope they get the chance to do so! Sadly, such is not the case here in this untidy and very unmemorable offering. Very disappointing. JACK BOTTOMLEY

EXPECTED

ACTUAL

THE GHOUL CERT: 15 / DIRECTOR & SCREENPLAY: GARETH TUNLEY / STARRING: TOM MEETEN, DAN SKINNER, ALICE LOWE / RELEASE DATE: AUGUST 4TH After a double murder, in which two victims died in mysterious circumstances, a homicide detective, Chris (Tom Meeten), goes undercover as a patient to investigate a psychotherapist. However, his therapy, cover life, and real life start to spill

into each other as he starts to uncover the truth. The Ghoul has a fairly simple premise that lends itself to strong potential. However, though it doesn’t squander this potential, it doesn’t really live up to it either, as the film goes off

A GHOST STORY CERT: 12A / DIRECTOR & SCREENPLAY: DAVID LOWERY / STARRING: CASEY AFFLECK, ROONEY MARA, WILL OLDHAM / RELEASE DATE: AUGUST 11TH sort of thing one might expect Terrence Malick to do - if he ever had the inclination to make a ghost story. The focus is on a young couple, simply named C (Casey Affleck) and M (Rooney Mara), who share a house in Texas and have increasingly contrasting needs in their lives and relationship. All of a sudden, C is killed in a car accident just outside their door and a grieving M has to come to terms with her loss. In turn, C has to suddenly confront his new ghostly existence wearing a white sheet from his time in the morgue, as his partner begins the long and arduous process of grieving and moving on in her life…

as the cinematography beats you with oppressive shots of grimy London and its dilapidated tower blocks and leafless trees. The film never tries to punch above its obviously slim budget, and is all the better for it. By keeping itself contained, it draws deeply into the human drama and characters, and is carried along by the strong performances from its cast, including a mesmerising, scene-stealing cameo from Paul Kaye. These are what make the film compelling, and much less the mystery that the plot keeps hinting at. Gareth Tunley’s first feature film is an interesting and strong calling card. It struggles to find its feet at times, but it’s enough to make you look forward to what he’ll do next in a hopefully exciting and fruitful film career.

A Ghost Story is an atmospheric and thoughtful contribution to the ghost story genre and at first glance, it will have more appeal to the art-house crowd who might not otherwise take in a supernatural ghost story, because of pre-conceived notions of what that might entail. Though the image of Affleck walking around in a bedsheet with eye holes is a clear nod to John Carpenter’s original Halloween, traditional horror fans will be thrown because of the distinct lack of on-the-nose scares which should be on offer – not to mention feeling some disappointment because A Ghost Story doesn’t follow the traditional template. However, this is a different kind of genre film and it should be saluted for attempting an original idea and perspective overall. One flaw of the film does lie in its quick, guerrilla filmmaking spontaneity (as we understand, this is what the director was intending to do, having just

filmed Pete’s Dragon in a much bigger context and budget). A Ghost Story is exactly the sort of story that would benefit from a studio budget, as there are some intriguing ideas and concepts at the heart of this film, which is a shame. Perhaps Lowery will get the chance to expand on this, like Michael Mann did when he remade L.A. Takedown as Heat. Another key flaw is that the relationships are not played out as effectively as the relationship between Sam and Molly in the classic 1990s blockbuster Ghost, or earlier films like Blithe Spirit. It doesn’t detract too much from the performances of Affleck and Mara, who remain eminently watchable as befits their talent and presence.

COURTNEY BUTTON EXPECTED

ACTUAL

JOHN HIGGINS

EXPECTED

ACTUAL

CINEMA

The spiritual world and the afterlife continue to provide food for thought and fascination to any number of filmmakers out there who would like to express a specific feeling or idea to the audience and, indeed, the new film by Pete’s Dragon director David Lowery taps into this concept. We must stress at this point, before we go any further, A Ghost Story is not a remake of the 1981 John Irvin adaptation of the Peter Straub novel Ghost Story (in case older readers think it might be that). It is a quickly shot (a nineteen-day shooting schedule in old-style 1.33:1 ‘Academy’ ratio), rural supernatural drama. In terms of look and style, it is exactly the

in a different direction. The plot synopsis is almost superfluous as after the first fifteen minutes it becomes clear that it’s not really about that at all. Instead of being a murder mystery, it’s a twisting drama about mental illness, with an occult theme running through the background, where it’s up to you as to what is real and what isn’t. You can feel the presence of Ben Wheatley hanging over this film. He’s a producer on it and writer/director Gareth Tunley appeared in both Kill List and Down Terrace. It stars Wheatley alumni Dan Skinner and yet to be recognised national treasure Alice Lowe. But more than that, it’s got the stylistic and atmospheric feel of a film like Kill List. As well as the occult connections, it feels like something weird is happening around our protagonist, we just can’t see it. It’s also got that feeling of slowly creeping dread, bolstered by the unsettling score. You feel claustrophobic

REVIEWS

STALKER (1979)

DVD & BLU-RAY

BD / CERT: PG / DIRECTOR: ANDREI TARKOVSKY / SCREENPLAY: ARKADIY STRUGATSKIY, BORIS STRUGATSKIY, ANDREI TARKOVSKY / STARRING: ALISA FREYNDLIKH, ALEKSANDR KAYDANOVSKIY, ANATOLIY SALONITSYN, NIKOLAY GRINKO / RELEASE DATE: JULY 24TH A hired guide leaves his family in an urban hellhole to navigate a path into a different kind of hell - a restricted territory known only as the Zone. Thought to be the site of an ancient meteor strike or alien landing (no one quite knows any more), this decaying no man’s land is somehow alive, possessed of a sentient intelligence that infests the minds of those who enter it and sends them towards the many traps it has laid to discourage them from discovering its secrets. Only the Stalker knows how to make it through. His clients are a right pair of comedians known as the Writer and the Professor, who seek to traverse the Zone to enter a place at its heart known as the Room, which can apparently make dreams come true. But what if the Room is less interested in what is consciously asked for than what is unconsciously desired? There may be trouble ahead, gentlemen… Andrei Tarkovsky’s final Soviet feature is one of cinema’s true enigmas. If you’ve ever found inner peace exploring ancient abandoned buildings, old asylums or gutted chemical factories, Stalker is your 2001: A Space Odyssey. There’s an extraordinary alchemy in the way Tarkovsky’s camera lingers across the sunlit acidic streams, rusted machinery and asbestos-laced detritus of the various found town and country locations he uses to represent the mysterious Zone. The visual communion

he brokers with this poisoned, organic landscape is at least as compelling as the one his characters seek from the mysterious Room at its centre. Tarkovsky’s use of sepia tinting for the framing scenes and vivid colour film stock for the body of the film imbues the Zone with a creeping hyperreality. Even more than in Solaris (1972), he also avoids obvious ‘science fiction’ visuals to signify the fantastic, instead relying on a convergence of mutated countryside and industrial wasteland to convey the haunting ‘otherness’ of the Zone. Talking of film stock, therein lies a tale.

THE LATEST HOME VIDEO RELEASES REVIEWED & RATED

Having spent a whole year capturing his location footage, Tarkovsky returned to Moscow and lost the whole lot due to a film lab processing error. Whoops. When he went back to shoot it all again, he became unhappy with his cinematographer so fired him and started yet again. Which effectively makes the version of Stalker released the third version filmed. That’s one hell of a lot of time spent inhaling toxic industrial chemicals. And so it proved: many of the crew experienced horrendous allergic reactions and the subsequent early deaths of actor Anatoliy Solonitsyn (‘the Writer’), assistant editor Larisa Tarkovskaya and Andrei Tarkovsky himself were all from cancers attributed to the dangerous filming conditions. So don’t expect a director’s commentary. The disc’s supporting interviews from 2002 with cinematographer Alexander Knyazhinsky, set designer Rashit Safiullin and composer Eduard Artemyev are all fascinating and embellish the sad legacy of the production. Knyazhinsky takes a look at one photograph of various crew assembled on location and announces “I am the only one still alive out of all these people!”. Suffice to say, such foreknowledge makes the experience of watching Criterion’s beautiful 2K restoration a deeply affecting experience. At 160 minutes, you may want to attempt it in sections because the whole thing can become completely hypnotic and lull you into a trance. And best not watch it after the pub, either. On a couple occasions, this writer nodded off into a ‘Zone’ dream and continued watching a version of the film in his head. It was pretty good, too. Who needs the Oculus Rift with that kind of VR? However you experience it, experience it, because Andrei Tarkovsky’s Stalker is simply one of the most extraordinary films that has ever, or will ever, be made. MICHAEL COLDWELL

SLAUGHTERHOUSE-FIVE (1972) BD + DVD / CERT: 15 / DIRECTOR: GEORGE ROY HILL / SCREENPLAY: STEPHEN GELLER / STARRING: MICHAEL SACKS, VALERIE PERRINE, RON LEIBMAN / RELEASE DATE: OUT NOW Making movies out of famously ‘unfilmable’ novels is a path trodden only by the bravest of writers and directors. From The Unbearable Likeness of Being to American Psycho via Naked Lunch and Life of Pi, books deemed impossible to translate to the screen have had a mixed reception

in their filmed versions, some improving on the their originals, other falling foul of difficult narratives. Back in 1972, George Roy Hill, riding high on the success of Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid (he’d make The Sting after this), gave Kurt Vonnegut’s

THE BIRD WITH THE CRYSTAL PLUMAGE (1970)

DUAL / CERT: 15 / DIRECTOR & SCREENPLAY: DARIO ARGENTO / STARRING: TONY MUSANTE, SUZY KENDALL, EVA RENZI / RELEASE DATE: OUT NOW delectable (© the 1970s) Suzy Kendall. While wandering the streets one night pondering his own literary failure and the plan B option of returning home to take up an offer impersonating Lindsey Buckingham out of Fleetwood Mac, he finds himself witnessing what appears to be a bloody attack on a woman in an art gallery - the latest in a long line of local slashings, as it turns out. Remarkably, she survives and recovers well. Prevented from leaving Italy as a key witness by a genial police chief with a Gerry Anderson-style computer room, he becomes obsessed with uncovering the masked stalker. It’s sobering to witness Argento in his very first film effortlessly pulling so many

without following any traditional timeline. His past, present and future exist as one thing, so he is able to flit from one part of it to another, and the film cleverly reflects, in visual terms, how our own memories work, where experiences in the present reflect and remind us of ones from the past. Or in this case, from the past and the future, because Billy has lived all of his life as one, so he knows what will happen to him as much as he knows what has happened to him. Kind of. Confused? Don’t be, as the film has a lightness to it which makes this easy to follow. Michael Sacks has to play Billy as something of a blank canvas but there’s a great supporting cast, Superman’s Valerie Perrine being a standout, and the scenes set in Dresden in particular are beautifully realised and very moving. But what it all means and whether it works as a whole is as open as a partly read novel…

trademark rabbits from the hat. Peek-a-boo framing, seeded sound clues, disarming comedy characters and Hitchcockian rug-pulls are all so effortlessly delivered here you can only frown anew at his more recent, clunky attempts at career revival. Although apparently a bit of a prima donna on set, Musante’s performance is strong. By no means a conventional hero, his character’s motivation to investigate the murders is driven less by a need for justice than by the disturbing sense of impotence inflicted on his fragile ego at the start when he can’t help the poor woman in the art gallery due to being helplessly trapped between two panes of glass like an insect in a bell jar. His odyssey through a series of encounters with unusual, often playfully rendered characters marks this one out as a less bloody dry run for Deep Red (1975). And that opening remains immortal. Riffing upon Rear Window and Blow Up and photographed by the great Vittorio Storaro (Apocalypse Now, Last Tango in Paris), its stylised depiction of forced voyeurism burned itself into the giallo template and reverberated far beyond. A shame the extras on this pleasingly grainy 4K restoration from Arrow don’t extend to a full retrospective but we’ve been spoiled with those on the Argento front of late. The

man himself does pop up for an extended 2017 chat but the real highlight is a delightfully bitchy 1995 interview with Eva Renzi, sadly no longer with us. It’s always refreshing to hear an actor tell it like it is. As successful as the film was for Argento, it was career poison for Renzi, whose turn as the female killer (and don’t forget how innovative that was in 1970) gave her little to do apart from fake her own death and cackle madly. Turns out she didn’t even get to do the gloved close-ups with the knives - that was Argento too, the jammy git. Nearly fifty years down the line, The Bird with the Crystal Plumage is a slice of absolute cool from a director relishing his first shot at the main prize.

ROBERT MARTIN

MICHAEL COLDWELL

DVD & BLU-RAY

Things could have been very different without the bird. Dario Argento’s directorial début is based on a book called The Screaming Mimi that had already been adapted into a Hollywood movie by Outer Limits luminary Gerd Oswald in 1958. But instead of re-using that title, Argento devised one so floridly memorable it fired the imagination of audiences, lit the blue touchpaper on his Animals Trilogy and unleashed the torrent of ultra-sadistic gialli that were the defining product of Italian cinema in the first half of the 1970s. And we still haven’t worked out what it means. American actor Tony Musante plays Sam Dalmas, a down-at-heel writer shacked up in Rome with the UK’s

allegorical, non-linear antiwar story a go. Still a highly influential and much read novel, how does the cinematic take on Slaughterhouse-Five look today? Billy Pilgrim’s life is that of an everyman. Like an observer of his times, Billy is neither remarkable nor is he unremarkable. He’s kind of just there. But what happens to him is extraordinary, not only in terms of the events he lives through, but how he lives through and with them. Because Billy is unstuck in time… Billy is born into an ordinary family, becoming a POW in Dresden where he witnesses its annihilation by allied bombing. He marries into a wealthy family and has two children, enjoying material and social success. He survives a plane crash on the same day that his wife dies in a car accident, whilst rushing to see him. Eventually, he is taken by aliens to live as an exhibit in a kind of zoo with a Hollywood starlet called Montana Wildhack. On Tralfamadore, he learns that time is non-linear, each moment existing as its own entity. So, Billy’s life is presented as such, scenes revealing his life

THE AMITYVILLE HORROR (1979)

BD / CERT: 15 / DIRECTOR: STUART ROSENBERG / SCREENPLAY: SANDOR STERN / STARRING: JAMES BROLIN, MARGOT KIDDER, ROD STEIGER / RELEASE DATE: OUT NOW No house since the adjoining one that overlooked the Bates Motel in Hitchcock’s Psycho (1960) has evoked more fear and fascination than the one that débuted in 1979 in Stuart Rosenberg’s The Amityville Horror. What is even more amazing is that there have been a mix of fourteen theatrical and TV films based on the real-life horror in 1974. Like the 1949 demonic possession that inspired William

Peter Blatty to write The Exorcist, the DeFeo murder case remains one of the most mysterious and haunting cases in American history, in which Ronald DeFoe shot and killed his whole family. He initially claimed it to be the work of an intruder, then openly admitted to the crime himself. Now making its UK debut on Blu-ray, the original haunted house affair is back for a new generation as well as the previous

DANGEROUS GAME

DVD & BLU-RAY

DVD / CERT: 15 / DIRECTOR & SCREENPLAY: RICHARD COLTON / STARRING: CALUM BEST, DARREN DAY, LUCY PINDER, JESS IMPIAZZI, ALEX REID / RELEASE DATE: OUT NOW Some movies hide their genius. Some movies look ridiculous but when you dig deeper you find something remarkable and worthwhile under the layers of bad direction and terrible acting. Z-list celeb vehicle Dangerous Game is not one of those movies. Peel away the layers of crud and you unveil a secret gateway, one that leads you to so much more crap. An infinite fountain of awfulness. Dangerous Game is, in theory, a football thriller. The plot involves a nice but dim

premiership football player who, due to a series of unlikely events, starts committing armed robbery to pay off the Russian mob. The movie opens with a daring heist as two men in David Beckham and Wayne Rooney masks hold up a security van. This opening scene is the highlight of the movie, and it’s pretty bland. The rest is a journey into incomprehensible editing, boring plot twists and terrible acting. Our not very bright football superstar is played by Calum

one who first saw it on the big screen, VHS and on TV. Amongst its spin-offs were a prequel, Amityville II – The Possession (1982), starring Burt Young and a remake in 2005 starring Ryan Reynolds, but the first film stands out most and Second Sight’s prestigious Steelbook edition also comes with a host of excellent new bonus features. Based on Jay Anson’s novel of the same name, The Amityville Horror tells of the Lutz family, who move into what initially is their dream home, but which becomes a rather malicious experience for them. A local priest (Rod Steiger) comes to bless the house, but is clearly unwelcome. The experience begins to drive a wedge between the Lutzes as they try and come to terms with what is happening to them…. Along with Fred Walton’s original 1979 version of When A Stranger Calls, The Amityville Horror remains an intelligent, atmospheric horror film. Admittedly, the scares and tone of the film may well have diminished in impact, much like a lot of the horror films that came before it, like old Universal and Hammer offerings, but that doesn’t take anything away

from the competence of director Rosenberg, who directed two of the best prison dramas of all time, Cool Hand Luke and Brubaker. This film represents a different kind of prison. James Brolin and Margot Kidder, as newlyweds George and Kathy Lutz, convey the right essence of unease and confusion. Kidder is very good in the role and even today, it is such a surprise in retrospect to have heard her be so vocally critical of a film that, along with her turn as Lois Lane in Superman, proved to be a very popular draw at the box-office. Indeed, both films emerged on STARBURST’s Top 20 Sci-Fi And Fantasy Films Of 1979 (which featured in STARBURST Issue 22 back in 1980). Whether you have seen it in earlier incarnations, or are catching up on old horror releases as part of the new generation of fans, The Amityville Horror makes a welcome return to screens in this smashing remastered transfer.

Best, a chap known mostly for being footballer George Best’s son, and for appearing on a great many reality TV shows. He’s assisted in his efforts with other barely famous types, such as Darren Day as a Russian mobster and the likes of Lucy Pinder and Jess Impiazzi as forgettable female characters. All of these people are apparently famous for, well, we aren’t really sure. They can’t act. Best spends most of his time two seconds away from asking someone for a prompt. These celebrities are assisted by a solid supporting cast of British low-budget movie actors, who easily perform the likes of Best and Day off the screen, whilst trying really hard not to. The few not-boring bits are accidental. There’s a heist in a shoe shop which is sort of funny. Darren Day’s Russian accent is a case study on why you shouldn’t use cartoon show Rocky and Bullwinkle as a voice

coach. Some of the direction is truly abysmal and we get the feeling the camera operators had more fun shooting b-roll. We have camera angles so bad that they could be used as examples of things to never do with a camera. We wonder what was left on the cutting room floor, and shudder with horror that out there, somewhere, a worse edit of this movie exists. This isn’t a horror movie, it’s just a horrible movie. STARBURST’s mission is to seek out cult entertainment and tell the world about it. The term cult often means that we have to step off the beaten path to find things that are a little bit different and ignored by the mainstream. But sometimes, those things should be ignored with good cause. Avoid at all costs.

JOHN HIGGINS

ED FORTUNE

PULSE (2001) DUAL / CERT: 15 / DIRECTOR & SCREENPLAY: KIYOSHI KUROSAWA / STARRING: KUMIKO ASO, HARUHIKO KATô, KOYUKI, KARUME ARISAKA / RELEASE DATE: OUT NOW Kiyoshi Kurosawa’s Pulse has retained a well-earned place atop ‘scariest movie’ lists since its release in 2001. The Japanese hit, which was remade in 2006, stands out amidst nowclassic features like The Ring and Dark Water, which defined contemporary J-horror in the new millennium. Without beating around the bush, Kurosawa’s existential breakdown is one of the finest encapsulations of techno-terror ever put to screen. Forget the bombastic but entertaining thrills of contemporary zombie apocalypses, viral outbreaks, and psychos; its Kurosawa’s study in alienation that strikes a chord amidst those millennial

classics. In Pulse, technology itself is a tool for loneliness. The Internet has unwillingly become host, or at least gateway, to the souls of the recently deceased, slowly squashed from a crammed afterlife by over-population. Unlike Romero’s dead, who overflowed out of Hell to consume the living, Kurosawa’s ghosts have stumbled out of the afterlife to save everyone, kind of. Pulse’s power lies in how it builds tension, allowing pure cinematic terror to slip from screen to audience with insipid skill. Pulse takes place in the most mundane and domestic of locations, but never feels safe thanks to the omnipresent

MADHOUSE (1981) DUAL / CERT: 18 / DIRECTOR: OVIDIO G. ASSONITIS / SCREENPLAY: OVIDIO G. ASSONITIS, STEPHEN BLAKELEY, PETER SHEPERD, ROBERTO GANDUS / STARRING: TRISH EVERLY, MICHAEL MACRAE, DENNIS ROBERTSON, ALLISON BIGGERS / RELEASE DATE: OUT NOW bygones be bygones and the bitterness and resentment that has festered in her since both women were girls is going to tip over into a murderous rage. Escaping the hospital, Mary vows a bloody revenge on Julia for ruining her life simply by being born. Released in 1981, the Italian-produced and Americanset Madhouse never made it to the UK during that first run, instead becoming part of the early ‘80s ‘video nasty’ set of

into a steadily spiraling nightmare, the kind that spills out over the entire world thanks to the world wide web. Kurosawa has the balls to take it all the way, too. Global realisation, the revelation of the spirits, is an unforeseen door to human extinction or immortality. Few horror films can start so intimately and deservedly spiral so explosively. But then, rarely do horror films come as terrifying, bold, and far-reaching. Kurosawa has a detached kind of curiosity that allows the film to take its time with the scares and present stark horror without seeming over-dramatic. The result is a two-hour lesson in mood-crunching horror and pitch-perfect chills. The kind you don’t shake off.

films. Director Ovidio Assonitis had quite the career in movies. From co-directing the profitable Exorcist knock-off Beyond the Door to producing Piranha 2 and giving a certain James Cameron his first directing credit, it’s a filmography that leans towards the schlockier end of things. Madhouse, at least initially, seems to be trying to divert from this trend by presenting as a relatively straight horror thriller. If you’re expecting a slasher film, it’s not that, but instead a slow, plodding, and humourless movie that’s neither horrific nor exciting and for the most part, fairly dull. However, there are two things that help Madhouse not be a total bust and still worth your time. First, the characters are genuinely likeable, with Trish Everly as Julia being a winsome lead and a good surrounding cast that means the murders that take place have a real edge to them. The second thing is that Madhouse is slow, plodding and humourless only for the first hour of its runtime. Around that mark, it gives in to Italian excess, ditches any pretence at class and, with a healthy dose of black humour, goes for a suitably over-

the-top ending. It’s all the better for this, and makes that opening stretch worth it. It’s been restored and is in great shape for this release, which also comes with a commentary by The Hysteria Continues podcast team, as well as interviews with cast, crew and Assonitis himself. It’s not a great film, being neither as out-there as the best Italian horror or as gaudy and enjoyable as the best the slasher golden age had to offer. Still, for fans this is a good package and if you’re new to it, that ending is pretty damn good.

SCOTT CLARK

JAMES EVANS

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Young teacher Julia has spent years trying to break the destructive bond she has always shared with her unbalanced twin, Mary. To do this, she severed ties with her sister and tried her hardest to put the trauma Mary caused in their childhood into the past. Julia’s uncle convinces her, against her better judgement, to come and visit Mary in hospital as she’s now gravely ill with a disfiguring condition that will probably kill her. Unlike Julia, Mary has no intentions of letting

threat of existential dread. Again and again the image of a scorched human outline - left by the recently deceased becomes a literal black mark on previously safe lodgings. Red taped doors warn of terrifying spirits. A computer asks the simple question: ‘Would you like to see a ghost?’. The characters either strain to retain normalcy, or slowly fall victim to mounting supernatural pressure. People become increasingly detached, disappear, commit suicide in brutal ways, or become catatonic. Jun’ichirô Hayashi’s drab cinematography builds an air of isolation, depressing the already cold clinical modern world, but retaining a jarring beauty in the darkest locations. Takefumi Haketa’s soundtrack slips between industrial ambience and the screeching choirs of old-school ghost stories, further fusing those classic and contemporary influences

JACK AND THE BEANSTALK - THE REAL STORY (2001) DVD / CERT: PG / DIRECTOR: BRIAN HENSON / SCREENPLAY: JAMES V. HART, BRIAN HENSON, BILL BARRETTA / STARRING: MATTHEW MODINE, MIA SARA, VANESSA REDGRAVE, JON VOIGHT, JAMES CORDEN, RICHARD ATTENBOROUGH / RELEASE DATE: OUT NOW James V. Hart was responsible for writing one of the most affectionately remembered ‘What If?’ stories in 1991, Steven Spielberg’s Hook, as well as adapting Bram Stoker’s Dracula for Francis Ford Coppola’s 1992 film of the same name, on a more literate level than many of the previous adaptations from the likes of Hammer Films and Universal. Filmed for television through Disney in 2001 and released on DVD, Jim Henson’s Jack And The Beanstalk - The Real Story

provides another intriguing ‘What If?’ scenario, taking the classic fairy tale template, turning several key elements on their head, and utilising the best elements of Jim Henson’s Creature Shop, plus some nifty CGI effects and landscapes. Jack Robinson (Matthew Modine) is a corporate executive who is developing a casino in England, but during the digging of the foundations, some mysterious bones are discovered and a freak lightning storm results in the injury of two

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KNIGHT RIDER 2000 (1991) DVD / CERT: 12 / DIRECTOR: ALAN J. LEVI / SCREENPLAY: ROB HEDDON, GLEN A. LARSON / STARRING: DAVID HASSELHOFF, EDWARD MULHARE, SUSAN NORMAN, MITCH PILEGGI, CARMEN ARGENZIANO / RELEASE DATE: OUT NOW When an incarcerated ex-cop is broken out of his cryo pod (because it’s the year 2000) by his team, he wastes no time in getting back to work as an illegal arms dealer. What he wasn’t expecting was rookie cop Shawn McCormick, who finds herself in the wrong place at the wrong time and on the receiving

end of a bullet to the head. But this is 2000 and in no time, her memories have been extracted (and her final moments erased) and thanks to an advanced computer chip implanted in her head, she’s revived. Smack bang in the middle of all of this is Knight Industries, whose proposed new crime-

employees. The development is halted and Robinson’s secondin-command Mannheim (Jon Voight) reports of a law-suit. One night during dinner, Jack is confronted by a mystery woman, Ondine (Mia Sara), posing as a journalist, who informs him that the bones hide a dark secret of his ancestors - and a tale of a beanstalk, golden eggs, and a world above the clouds….. You may be familiar with the tale of Jack And The Beanstalk and you might go into this with reservations, but by the end of it, you may well be enchanted as this writer was by an inventive, witty and visually stunning fantasy that flips the well-loved elements into a comment on greed and human growth. Matthew Modine is suitably cast as the bemused executive who lost his father at a young age and is trying to find an answer to the predicament he finds himself in. He is backed up by a great supporting cast with the likes of Vanessa Redgrave, Sara, Voight, James Corden, and Richard Attenborough (in one of his last screen performances) amongst others. For parents who are introducing their children to the joys of fairy tales, it will provide thought-provoking storytelling and an interesting perspective which will not detract from the enjoyment of the narrative. Fairy

tales are dark morality tales that, as children, we embrace in a simple idea of good vs evil. Here, the so-called villains are given a humanity and a depth of characterisation and if you have forgotten the joys of reading these stories, you might just want to revisit them, whatever your age. It’s a shame this only made it to the small-screen, as Jack And The Beanstalk is a very clever fusion of fantasy and effects that would rival Fellowship Of The Ring which was released around the time this premiered and would have added choice to cinemagoers.

fighting car – the Knight 4000 – is almost complete but needs a certain someone familiar with the program to make the project come to fruition. Before long, Devon has tracked down Michael, now living in a wood cabin in the middle of nowhere and convinces him to come back one last time. He agrees, on one condition: he gets KITT back. Unfortunately, KITT has been broken up and sold off. Unable to let his old buddy go, Michael manages to piece together his old logic board and get KITT back online, implanting him in his classic Chevy. In no time, Shawn comes onboard the team in an effort to track down the person who killed her, striking up a bond with KITT thanks to her implanted chip (which once belonged to the wise-cracking AI), and a new adventure begins. Coming four years after the successful TV show’s final episode but set almost a decade ahead, we return to the world of Knight Industries, talking cars, and most crucially, Michael Knight. Yet the world in 2000 is different, conventional guns have been outlawed, and even the cops have to use sonic guns that stun rather than kill. Beyond that, this

feels like very familiar territory, mostly in a good way. It’s great to see Michael again and see the chemistry between him and KITT (although it’s such a shame we don’t get to see the Pontiac) and the inclusion of Shawn as a possible new lead is exciting. That said, this does have its problems. The Knight 4000 is horrible – a souped-up ’91 Dodge Stealth in bright red is no replacement for the iconic TransAm. Also, the legendary music is gone and, while its replacement is brought to us by the inimitable Jan Hammer, the theme is used over and over again ad nauseam. The pacing and action is somewhat lacklustre, too. If you’re expecting car chases, turbo boost and the like, you’ll be sorely disappointed. Knight Rider 2000 (despite being dethroned by fans as being non-canon following the rebooted 1998 and 2008 series) is a nice addition to the original show, albeit by no means the climactic finale that the original franchise deserved.

JOHN HIGGINS

GRANT KEMPSTER

THE DOCTORS – THE PAT TROUGHTON YEARS DVD / CERT: E / DIRECTOR: KEITH BARNFATHER / STARRING: PATRICK TROUGHTON, ANNEKE WILLS, MICHAEL CRAZE, FRAZER HINES, DEBORAH WATLING, WENDY PADBURY / RELEASE DATE: OUT NOW The late 1960s saw Doctor Who in decline, and indeed almost cancelled altogether. The stories had become repetitive, the Daleks had gone seemingly forever, and the series was beginning to look rather cheap and creaky. By 1969, audiences had dwindled to a third of what they had been in 1965. And yet none of the classic Doctors are thought of with

more love and respect than Patrick Troughton’s Second, despite his tenure in the TARDIS coinciding with the aforementioned problems. In part, this is because of Troughton’s superlative, gentle and yet harried performance. And to a very great extent, it’s because of the chemistry that Troughton had with all five of his companions. The

DOBERMAN COP (1977)

DUAL / CERT: 15 / DIRECTOR: KINJI FUKASAKU / SCREENPLAY: KŌJI TAKADA / STARRING: SHIN’ICHI ‘SONNY’ CHIBA, JANET HATTA, EIKO MATSUDA / RELEASE DATE: OUT NOW the manga and twists them into a murder-mystery action film with elements of comedy. In this version, Kano is a detective but this time from Okinawa. It starts with the discovery of a murdered prostitute who has been strangled and then burned. Kano arrives in Tokyo to discover what happened to her, because the likely victim was a neighbour growing up and someone he

conversations – which aren’t unedited but have the feel of the unabridged about them – go into far greater depth and allow their subjects much more breathing space to really get into their topics. What really helps is how the subjects quickly drop their professional, conventiongoing patois and soon fall into the unaffectedness of easy company that you’d never see in public spaces. If you think you’ve heard all the anecdotes and there’s nothing new to discover about these people, then you’ll be surprised at how Briggs as an interviewer sits back and lets the actors reveal as much about themselves as their time working on Doctor Who, aided by some of the locations chosen to record in. It’s a shame Koch Media couldn’t have licensed Troughton’s American PBS footage to complete the set, but that doesn’t mar what is an otherwise exemplary collection, and what is, for vintage Doctor Who fans, an essential purchase.

had been told he would one day marry. The Tokyo cops think she was killed by a serial killer who is murdering prostitutes but Kano is quickly convinced she isn’t the girl from his island but someone else altogether. Kano’s outsider ways make him stand out in the big city, bringing him in for some mocking from the detectives working the case. Indeed, he arrives from the country wearing a straw hat and carrying a pig with him. Hotshot, the leader of a motorcycle gang and the lover of the murdered girl, is brought in for questioning but soon released. He will team up with Kano to try and get to the truth behind the murder. Add into all this a retired Yakuza trying to break his nightclub singer girlfriend into the big time, and the plot starts to get a little cluttered. That doesn’t matter, as director Kinji Fukasaku is more than capable of knitting together a tonally busy film that flips nimbly between comedy and tragedy. He’s ably assisted in making Doberman Cop into something different by Chiba. His Kano has to be almost simultaneously naïve, world-weary, angry and kickass when the need arises. Arrow’s other recent Chiba release Wolf Guy was seriously odd but this comes a close second, an ostensibly straightforward cop

thriller mixed in with one bizarre scene after another. It makes for an entertaining mix of ‘70s-style American thriller, a smattering of the Yakuza themes Fukasaku had previously employed, some humour and that special Japanese-brand strangeness all centred on Chiba’s genuinely affecting performance as he clings to the belief he will somehow find his intended bride in all this mess. This release finds the film in great shape and supported by a couple of interesting interviews and an appreciation of Fukasaku by his biographer Sadao Yamane. A true oddity showcasing Chiba’s versatility, Japanese cinema fans should pick it up.

Extras: Introduction JR SOUTHALL

JAMES EVANS

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Released in 1977, Doberman Cop was made as the popularity of homegrown crime movies diminished in Japan. It’s based on a hardboiled police manga that followed the exploits of Detective Kano, a Tokyo policeman who had little patience for criminals and a reputation as a tough guy. In the film, Kano is played by Shin’ichi ‘Sonny’ Chiba and the story takes a few elements of

team that finished the decade, with Troughton alongside his signature companion Jamie and spirited newcomer Zoe, has a balance and rapport to rival any regular cast from Doctor Who’s entire fifty-plus-year history. This latest release from the archives of Keith Barnfather’s Myth Makers interviews comprises conversations with all five of those companions. It begins with a fifty-minute tribute to Patrick Troughton which also includes clips from Nicola Bryant (who worked with him on The Two Doctors) and the likes of Shaun Sutton, Christopher Barry, and Derrick Sherwin, as well as a convention recording of Troughton himself. Introduced by Nicholas Briggs, this documentary tells the story of the Second Doctor’s travels from the perspective of those most intimately involved in them, and while out of necessity it doesn’t feature any clips from his episodes, it is nevertheless both comprehensive and compelling. The rest of the interviews that make up this five-anda-half-hour package are the usual mixture of indoor and out, old and new, contrived and natural, and while the picture quality might not be what you’d get from the BBC, the in-depth

THE AUTOPSY OF JANE DOE DVD + BD / CERT: 15 / DIRECTOR: ANDRÉ ØVREDAL / SCREENPLAY: IAN GOLDBERG, RICHARD NAING / STARRING: EMILE HIRSCH, BRIAN COX, OLWEN KELLY / RELEASE DATE: OUT NOW With 2010’s Trollhunter, André Øvredal announced himself as a filmmaker with an eye for the spectacular, and demonstrated the potential that exists in the oft-maligned found footage format. His docu-style monster movie remains a high watermark for the genre and is witty, stylish, as well as being genuinely scary. It’s a shame then for both Øvredal and us that it has taken seven

years for a follow-up feature, but The Autopsy Of Jane Doe has definitely been worth the wait. Working from a tightly woven script by Ian Goldberg and Richard Naing, Øvredal has constructed a delicately balanced thriller as far removed from the surreal excesses of Trollhunter as possible. Here, restraint is the order of the day as father and son morticians Tommy (Brian

THE ADVENTURES OF ROCKY AND BULLWINKLE (2000)

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DVD / CERT: U / DIRECTOR: DES MCANUFF / SCREENPLAY: KENNETH LONERGAN / STARRING: JUNE FORAY, KEITH SCOTT, PIPER PERABO, JASON ALEXANDER, RENE RUSSO, ROBERT DE NIRO / RELEASE DATE: OUT NOW When Rocky and Bullwinkle hit our TV screens from 1959 to 1964, nobody had quite realised just how ingenious and creative the show was. This was the kind of show that had something in it for everyone with the children enjoying it for the madcap adventures of the titular duo trying to escape the clutches of Boris, Natasha and Fearless Leader, and the adults enjoying it for its witty use of in-jokes and sharp writing. Sure, it was still corny as hell, with the jokes ranging from brilliant to lame, but it nevertheless maintained that quirky and clever streak about it. However, when the movie came out nearly two decades ago, it was slaughtered by critics and fans alike, which was not helped at all by the film’s craptastic marketing campaign - probably the reason why it became a box office bomb.

Despite its near-universal rejection, The Adventures of Rocky and Bullwinkle has to be one of the most underrated movies of all time, as well as probably the most faithful big screen adaptation of a popular children’s show. It completely captures the style, spirit and tone that the original cartoon had by having the same witty writing, actually a little bit better here, as we have the characters being more self-aware and breaking the fourth wall. In fact, the first twenty minutes is more concerned with getting itself green-lit by a major studio and both titular characters have entire conversations about how lame their jokes can get. We get plenty of in-jokes, sarcastic cultural references and celebrity cameos galore, which for the most part work really well (some

Cox) and Austin (Emile Hirsch) try to discover the history of a mysterious female corpse. Little really happens for much of the running time, but the subtle complexities in the pair’s relationship and the slowly revealed clues that accompany the cringe-inducing autopsy make for an intriguing watch. You’re drawn into the strands of the mystery as, little by little, the bizarreness of the situation becomes apparent, and even then, you still question the conclusions being drawn. Strange phenomena begin to occur in the basement mortuary, Tommy and Austin begin to experience inexplicable visions, and the events begin to build toward an unexpected conclusion. It is here, in the final act, that the film begins to lose its way somewhat, as the need to provide an apt supernatural finale overwhelms previous delicacy. More akin to a haunted house movie than a chilling thriller, Øvredal struggles slightly to fulfil the requirements for an increased

level of action, and the script resorts to more familiar horror tropes rather than continuing to pursue the promise that sets the first two thirds apart. As much as The Autopsy Of Jane Doe flirts with familiarity in its final scenes, this is still a grimly interesting film based around the dark intent of originality. The mystery at its heart is both surprising and satisfying in its reveal, and the performances complement an impressively conceived script and plot – Hollywood-esque finale aside – with conviction and belief. Øvredal has once again shown he is a filmmaker who can create realism from fantastical situations, and balance both thriller and horror elements. Let’s hope his next feature comes along a little sooner.

not so much), but then again, that’s exactly what Rocky and Bullwinkle was about. As for the CGI, it actually works well by having the characters look like the cartoon and yet still look like they are part of the scene and interacting with the actual actors. Sure, it’s not up to the same high standard of Who Framed Roger Rabbit or Looney Tunes: Back in Action, but it works a lot better than other movies that have attempted to do the same type of style and failing badly. Cool World, anyone? Even the actors look game and are in on the joke; Piper Perabo gives a very cute and quirky performance and both Rene Russo and Jason Alexander deliciously chew the scenery together as the wicked duo of Natasha and Boris. Robert De Niro’s performance, however, is questionable at best; granted, it’s better than stuff we have become used to seeing him in during the past decade, like Dirty Grandpa, Little Fockers, and Machete, yet it still seems like he’s just

phoning his performance in and awaiting his pay cheque. In the end, The Adventures of Rocky and Bullwinkle is a baffling cinematic entity if there ever was one. It captures the spirit, essence and tone of the original cartoon and stays true to its core characteristics, even down to the jokes that ranged from hilarious to awful. In short, this is a faithful adaptation, which only raises the question of why this level of care and attention wasn’t applied to franchises that were more popular in comparison like Garfield, Tom and Jerry, The Smurfs and especially Avatar: The Last Airbender. If you were never a fan of Rocky and Bullwinkle to begin with, then chances are that you are not going to like this film at all, but if you are a fan of the show and have a strong appreciation for films that have a quirky yet cute charm to them, then this film will prove to be an entertaining watch for you.

JOHN TOWNSEND

RYAN POLLARD

EVIL 69 MUSTANG MACH 1 VOD / CERT: E / DIRECTORS: WARREN CROYLE, JASON C. SMITH / STARRING: EVIL 69 MACH 1 / RELEASE DATE: OUT NOW Here’s something a little different; it’s neither a narrative film nor a documentary, but will still have some appeal for fans of cult movies - particularly the likes of Drive, The Car, and Mad Max. We’ve covered Dark Horse Customs before in STARBURST (see issue 429 for the low down

of their Mad Maxx Mustang), and it’s a pleasure to see one of that machine’s sister cars in action. Far from a dull ride, this hour-long road trip is an exhilarating and visually pleasing experience. Even if you’re not a petrolhead, watching the car being put through its paces

DIABOLIQUE (1955) BD / CERT: 12 / DIRECTOR: HENRI-GEORGES CLOUZOT / SCREENPLAY: HENRIGEORGES CLOUZOT, JÉRôME GÉRONOMI / STARRING: SIMONE SIGNORET, VÉRA CLOUZOT, PAUL MEURISSE, CHARLES VANEL / RELEASE DATE: OUT NOW boarding school and, somewhat surprisingly, best friends. Well, this is 1950s France. But, of course, Michel is a world-class git who regularly beats and humiliates the pair of them. He’s not very nice to the staff or pupils, either. So there’s only one solution: Christina and Nicole have to murder him in an elaborate perfect crime that involves getting him drunk, drowning him in a bath and dumping his body in the school’s filthy swimming pool to be discovered later. Beyond that, we can say no more, but it’s probably not too much of a spoiler to say that things don’t quite go as planned. If Diabolique has a flaw, it’s that the first half an hour spent setting up the reasons for the murder are ever so slightly

the mix to ensure we’re not thrown disembodied from the mesmerising visuals. OK, it’s not going to be for everyone, but it’s definitely worth a look (and is available on Amazon Prime) if you’re missing your fix of Fast and Furious action, or pine for the days of proper chase scenes like in Bullitt. Just don’t be expecting any explosions or daring stunts and crashes this was all filmed on regular roads in the States with other traffic around. And anyway, why would anyone want to wreck an amazing piece of kit like the Evil 69 Mustang Mach 1? As Steppenwolf famously sang “get your motor running… head out on the highway… “ What are you waiting for? Try something out of the ordinary.

boring. But on the other hand, the change of gear from the murder onwards is actually all the more thrilling because of it. It’s rather hard to explain without all sorts of spoilerhorror but let’s just say the plot twists and turns like a twisty turny thing. This is edge of the seat stuff with some real surprises along the way, but it probably won’t have quite the impact it had in 1955 because some of the conventions in the movie have become relatively commonplace today. Even Hitchcock was influenced by it, and Diabolique has, at its climax, one of the most memorable scenes in cinema. If all that isn’t enough, you might get a sense of familiarity with the retired police commissioner (Vanel) who takes an unwelcome interest in the case. That’s until you realise he’s actually Columbo. Not actually Peter Falk, but apparently Columbo was based on the French inspector and we can confirm that they are uncannily

similar characters. Basically, what we have here is the greatest Hitchcock movie Hitchcock never made. He might have handled some of it better (Hitch would have made more of the opening 30 minutes) but we doubt he’d have come up with anything quite as good as its legendary climactic scene. Point knocked off for the first 30 minutes but then we’ve added it back on for innovation. Oh, and you’ll be pleased to know Hitch got to direct a Boileau/Narcejac story in 1958 with Vertigo. That wasn’t too shabby, either.

ANIMAL JOHNS

Extras: Selected-scene commentary by French-film scholar Kelley Conway / Video interview with Serge Bromberg / Video interview with Kim Newman JOHN KNOTT

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So the story goes, at the peak of his powers, none other than Alfred Hitchcock decided he’d like to direct Pierre Boileau and Thomas Narcejac’s 1951 novel Celle qui n’était plus (She Who Was No More). But Hitch lost out on the rights. Instead, Henri-Georges Clouzot gave us the French-language film Les Diaboliques (or Diabolique as it was known in the States). Not only did it turn out to be a bit good, it was one of the most influential thrillers ever made and even managed to get Hitchcock himself to up his game. Christina Delassalle (Clouzot) and Nicole Horner (Signoret) are the longsuffering wife and mistress (respectively) of headmaster Michel Delassalle (Meurisse). They’re also teachers at his

along some stunning tree-lined roads is rather therapeutic. Unexpectedly, it doesn’t feel like we’re just getting more of the same as we watch the Mustang Mach 1 travel through various locations, many of which are winding roads, as the action is shot with multiple cameras and continually mixes up the viewpoints - often pulling us right into the passenger seat or hot of the tail off the marvellous machine. Now if only they’d have added a Virtual Reality segment, then it would have been a complete experience! What’s surprising (and actually quite refreshing) is the music - which is suitably on the harder rocking (but not thrash) side of things - doesn’t overpower the car footage. It’s a discreet backing track as opposed to a bombardment of screaming guitars, but does feel a little repetitive after a while. The beautiful purr of the car’s engine is kept high enough in

INTERVIEW

DAN LIN - THE LEGO BATMAN MOVIE

Dan Lin is a Taiwanese-born American film producer who has appeared on Variety’s prestigious ‘10 producers to watch’ list. Lin’s produced several huge live-action movies, including SHERLOCK HOLMES (2009), TERMINATOR SALVATION (2009), and the forthcoming Stephen King adaptation, IT (2017). THE LEGO MOVIE marked Lin’s move into animation - and its massive success has not only led to Lin producing THE LEGO BATMAN MOVIE (2017), he’s also working on another spin-off - THE LEGO NINJAGO MOVIE (2017) and the sequel to the first film, which is currently scheduled for release in 2019.

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STARBURST: There’s really amazing themes in the script, can you talk a bit about the script development process? Dan Lin: With our LEGO movies, we always have an abundance of themes, and we’re always trying to craft it down to the core theme. For us, we really thought about “What are the things that Batman really struggles with that we’ve never seen before in a movie?” and “How can we deliver those themes in a very LEGO way?” So it’s about how you think Batman has a dream life. He’s a billionaire, he’s fighting crime, he’s got amazing gadgets and amazing vehicles, but he’s still empty inside when he goes home, he doesn’t really have anyone except for Alfred. We decided to explore that, the fact that Batman is this really lonely person; this is the movie where he finds his own form of family. Alfred, his butler, Barbara, his platonic interest, and Robin. What happens when Batman has to adopt a child and grow two hearts over the course of the movie? It was really interesting for us to explore. You spoke to Christopher Nolan about making this movie, what was that conversation like? We wanted to honour what he’d done with Batman. We were very deferential to him, even on the first LEGO Movie, we showed him that film - and it was the same here. We wanted to honour the tradition of all the previous Batmans. It’s important that any Batman fan who watches it realises we are treating previous iterations of Batman with respect. Batman is the way he is because of all the previous stories that have been told.

All sorts of cool villains show up in the third act; one that stood out for us was Voldemort, played by Eddie Izzard. Given that Ralph Fiennes is Alfred in the movie, it was interesting to hear a Voldemort not played by Fiennes, who was so iconic in the role in the live-action films… It was important for us to do something different. Ralph Fiennes was cast in a similar way to Liam Neeson, who played Good Cop/ Bad Cop in the first movie. Ralph Fiennes is perceived to be an important, serious actor how do we give him a comedic edge? That’s the way we like to play. Sauron, Gremlins, King Kong and more appear in the Phantom Zone, which is such a genius idea. What was the negotiation process like for those characters? I know a lot of them were Warner Brothers owned, but were there any difficult ones to get? It was a lot easier on this movie than the first movie, because then people didn’t know what to expect. So when we went to rights holders, they didn’t quite know. So in this movie, we had a really great model. It was relatively smooth. Everyone that we asked said yes, with the exception of one, which I can’t mention. For instance, with the Daleks, fitting them into the movie was a very organic process with the rights holders. There’s that great line involving the Daleks, “Ask your British nerd friends…” We wanted to make sure the movie didn’t feel too American, we wanted it to be global, so we included pop culture from different countries.

How does it feel to have created the best Robin in a Batman movie? The character is amazing, Michael Cera does such a great job, his journey is moving and hilarious… That’s a combination of the writer, Seth Grahame-Smith - that was his original vision for what that character was, inspired by The Book of Mormon - with Chris McKay and then Michael Cera. When we first formulated this, we asked ourselves “How are we going to show Robin in a completely different light?” Batman is about darkness, he says he always works alone, he’s an orphan. Robin - similar situation, he’s also an orphan, but he’s completely the opposite, he’s cheery, he’s joyous, he sees the glass as half-full. Juxtapose those two opposites and Batman will be annoyed by how optimistic Robin is. We had that concept on the page, then Michael Cera took that to another level, you completely fall in love with him in this movie. I think what’s interesting is Michael’s created this character that we haven’t really seen before. Someone who should be sad, and dark and lonely, but instead he just sees the great things. All he wants is a dad, and in this movie he gets two dads - so imagine how excited he is by that. The ending definitely leaves it open for a sequel - what themes or characters would you like to explore in another film? We’d like to explore all of them. With The Lego Movie, we had to see how audiences responded. After we made the first movie, people asked if we were going to do a sequel, and I said, “I don’t know, let’s see who people like, let’s see what storyline they want to see more of.” I think it’s the same here. We’ve had a great reaction all around, so we’d like to bring all of these characters back. I think the challenge in a Batman movie is you need a new villain. I love Zach in the movie, but Joker can’t always be the villain. We need to think about whether it’s Joker and someone else, but in a Batman movie you always need a fresh new villain. Words: Animal Johns

The LEGO® Batman Movie is out today on 4K Ultra HD™, 3D, Blu-ray™, DVD and digital download.

THE LATEST NEWS FROM THE WORLD OF AUDIO ADVENTURES BY TONY JONES

AUDIOSTATIC

The Return of THE FUTURE BOYS

Following a Kickstarter campaign, the first two episodes of the audio drama series The Future Boys are now available. The Future Boys first appeared as a trilogy of stage plays: Dead Static (2012), Pilgrim Shadow (2013) and King Chaos (2015). The play centres on the comedic science fiction adventures of Tyler Smith (Cliff Chapman) and Gary Patches (Adam Joselyn). The stories are written by Steve Jordan, who also directs and produces. The episodes were recorded in front of a live audience in April 2017. The series synopsis is: Having spent two years apart and taken up new identities, Tyler and Gary are unwittingly brought back together by Rik Sheringham, a galaxy-renowned treasure hunter, celebrity and old school friend/enemy of Tyler’s. Sheringham’s deal is simple - Tyler and Gary must undergo a series of daring and dangerous heists on his behalf, or be handed over to the authorities and forced to face the death sentence that has been looming over their heads for years… The first two episodes are available on Soundcloud, iTunes or as podcasts (see @futureboyspod on Twitter, or look at the website thefutureboys.co.uk). The project is the brainchild of Bad Bat, a London-based theatre production group headed by Steve Jordan and Ellen Gallagher.

Yet More Awards

The New York Festivals World’s Best Radio Programs 2017 (see last issue) have been announced and it’s good news for a couple of STARBURST favourites. First of all, we congratulate Bafflegab for their Gold award for Baker’s End: Gobbleknoll Hall in the category of Best Audio Book – Fiction. Second, multiple awards for B7 Media, including Gold for Best Director and Silver for Best Drama Special for their BBC Radio production of Isaac Asimov’s I, Robot. Good news also for their audio drama Dan Dare: The Audio Adventures, and another Silver award, this time in the category of Best Online Drama Program.

(Yet again) Dangerous Visions

For the third year in a row, BBC Radio 4 is treating us to a series of science fiction plays under the banner of Dangerous Visions (see bbc. co.uk/programmes/b02v1q2n). This year we have classics such as Ray Bradbury’s Fahrenheit 451, presented as a ten-part book at bedtime, read by Alex Jennings, and dystopian comedy in the form of Perimeter, a telling tale of a city divided into the haves and have-nots (see review on the STARBURST website). There’s also an adaptation of Arthur Koestler’s totalitarian novel Darkness at Noon, and Culture by Al Smith, about a post-antibiotic world, and even a comedy update of Franz Kafka’s Metamorphosis.

Enter THE COPPER CASCADES

Kneel Downe’s chart-topping chapbook The Copper Cascades has been adapted into an audio book from DreamCage Media. Downe’s mind-blending worlds have captivated folk in print for many years now, and this marks the cyber-author’s second audio release, following The JackPort Killer: A Virulent Noir in 2014. Audio Cascades tells the tales of Downe’s own take on superheroes, in the form of the interview tapes of one Doctor Paul Nyman, a psychologist studying the Vengeful Squad, currently imprisoned in the Mental Rehabilitation Centre Alpha - better known to locals as the Copper Cascade. The audio version is read by RJ Bayley and is available now from Audible, Amazon, and iTunes.

The War Master Returns and Other Big Finish News

Key titles to watch out for this month from Big Finish... BLAKE’S 7 3: THE SPOILS OF WAR Four new tales of the adventures of the Liberator following the Galactic War. Several members of the original cast return for these eagerly-awaited stories, including Paul Darrow as Kerr Avon, Michael Keating (Vila Restal) and the ever-imposing Jacqueline Pearce as the terrifying Servalan. THE ISLAND OF DR MOREAU The Big Finish adaptations of classic H. G. Wells stories continue with the fabulous tale of Edward Prendick (John Heffernan), who is shipwrecked and picked up by a medic - disgraced by his peers - who is en route to a mysterious island with a unusual cargo. When he meets the owner of the isle, things get even more sinister. Ronald Pickup is the enigmatic Dr Moreau in one of Wells’ most terrifying stories. TERRAHAWKS VOLUME 3 Gerry Anderson’s popular series returns for a third release with eight new stories. Original cast members Jeremy Hitchen and Denise Bryer (Zelda herself) as well as Anderson legend David Graham. DOCTOR WHO SHORT TRIPS 7.07: FLASHPOINT The fabulous Sheridan Smith narrates this Eighth Doctor miniadventure in which companion Lucie Miller gets mixed up with gangster assassins and having to protect a lone child. DOCTOR WHO 227: THE HIGH PRICE OF PARKING Another fabulous story from the Seventh Doctor period, in which the Doctor (Sylvester McCoy), Ace (Sophie Aldred) and Mel Bush (Bonnie Langford) face off against some terrifying Wardens on the small planet of Parking, a spaceship park next to the planet Dashrah. DOCTOR WHO THE FOURTH DOCTOR’S ADVENTURES 6.07: THE MOVELLAN GRAVE Tom Baker’s Doctor and companion Romana (Lalla Ward) find a Movellen power pack amongst some recently discovered Iron Age artefacts, which leads to finding a ship buried deep underground, and with it the most powerful weapon that could stop the Daleks - and, unfortunately, anything else - forever. TORCHWOOD 17: THE OFFICE OF NEVER WAS Ianto Jones (Gareth David-Lloyd) heads up an adventure that takes place in a creepy deserted office block in the centre of Cardiff. As Ianto attempts to get to the bottom of some mysterious occurrences late on the Friday night, it appears he is expected. To order, or for more information, head over to bigfinish.com

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Big Finish has announced a new boxset with Derek Jacobi returning to the part of the War Master. We have a feature article elsewhere in this issue in which we interview several people involved in the production. The War Master will appear in December and we can’t wait! We’ve also had news of a new companion for Tom Baker’s Fourth Doctor. Announced in May, police officer Ann Kelso (Jane Slavin) will join

Tom in the TARDIS after Leela is left behind on Gallifrey. There’s a new companion for the Eighth Doctor as well; Rakhee Thakrar (Shabnam Masood in EastEnders) will travel with Paul McGann’s Doctor as Bliss, as scientist with an aptitude for Dalek destruction – ideal for the Time War! The Time War stories will run a separate track to the continuation of the Doom Coalition saga, with companions Liv Chenka (Nicola Walker) and Helen Sinclair (Hattie Morahan).

InTeRVIeW

TOny GIleS - DAmn FIne HOST

When we last spoke with podcaster Tony Giles, he was co-hosting the Damn Fine Podcast with Scott Johannsson. That was shortly after the podcast launched back in 2015. Since then, Johannsson has stepped away from the show in order to focus on music and other endeavours, and it’s been renamed the Damn Fine Cast. While the show is still devoted to film music, it’s less chat and more like a radio program.

AUDIO

iles has also added another program to the mix. Cuts from the Crypt was initially envisioned as a once-a-month addition to the Damn Fine network of programs, but the show devoted to horror film music proved so popular, it now alternates weeks with the Damn Fine Cast. A recent episode saw Giles epitomising the show, playing not just the main title theme from Phenomena, but also digging deep with album cuts from Hammer horror films and The Conjuring 2. He’s not just in it to play ‘the hits’ per se, but to play the music that stokes his fires. Everyone knows the main title themes, explains Giles, but he wants to really blow your hair back with some straight fire. A finer idea for a podcast, one couldn’t ask for, so we sat down with Giles to talk about the show and what it has to offer. STARBURST: What impresses us the most about the Damn Fine Cast and Cuts from the Crypt is that they’re more like radio shows than podcasts. Was that the intent from the start? Tony Giles: When I originally had the idea of the podcast - to do a soundtrack podcast - my

idea had always been to do it more like a radio broadcast. I approached Scott about doing it, and he didn’t know what a podcast was. I was very new to the world of listening to podcasts, and then I listed to an episode of Killer POV because there was a guest I wanted to hear or something like that, and I was like, “Well, I suppose I’ll check out what this ‘podcast’ thing is all about.” When I heard that, I thought that it would be great if there was a soundtrack one of those. I couldn’t really find any soundtrack podcasts. At the time, there weren’t any soundtrack radio shows other than Jonny Trunk’s show - and I like Jonny Trunk’s show, but the soundtrack music or the film music he plays isn’t necessarily the music I would listen to. I wanted to do something that would cater to my tastes, basically. Once I got together with Scott, and we started talking about what we could do and what we couldn’t do, we ended up going down the route of more chat than music, with you just getting a sample. But once I took over hosting the show by myself, I changed it around to less me, more music.

That makes sense. It’s really interesting, because we’ve been struck by the fact that there are far more soundtrack podcasts now, but many of them have a historical bent or focus on interviews. The only other shows that focus on playing tunes are things like Jonny Trunk’s show as you mentioned, or WFMU’s Morricone Island, and those are actual radio shows. Those are, yeah. It’s one of those things - for the longest time, I wasn’t sure if you could play music on a podcast. But, over time, I’ve reached such a level of professional courtesy or friendship with virtually every soundtrack label there is, to the point where I’m like, “Look, I want to play your stuff on my show,” and they’re like, “Please do”. My thing is - the star of the show has always been the music, and always will be the music. The idea behind the two shows as it is now is that I’m playing records at home, and I can’t invite you all to my house, so listen to the show instead. This is what I’m listening to. It’s pretty much like if we were all just hanging out, listening to records. On a recent episode of Cuts from the Crypt, you said something that we think sums up your philosophy pretty well, and it’s that you play things that stoke your fire. Yes, and that’s the thing - I said on a show that it would be easy for me to play ‘the hits’. If you just wanna hear horror main themes, I could do that, but why would you just want to hear that? That’s boring. As great as the theme from Halloween is, have you heard Track Four on Side Two? I’ve always been a fan of playing the other stuff. I still love main themes. I still play a lot of them, but when it comes to the horror stuff, everybody knows what the main themes are to Halloween and The Thing and Jaws and every horror movie there is. The themes become instantly recognisable. My thing with Cuts from the Crypt is to play something else. So, if it’s a horror movie that’s not as well known, you might get the theme, but if it’s one of the big ones, I’ll play a different cut from the album, just because everybody knows the theme song. You don’t need me to play that and tell you about it. And the thing with horror movie music is that the main theme is usually not the creepiest piece of music from the film.

Yeah. The main theme is usually the catchiest, and kind of sets the tone. Like, the music for Don’t Breathe - it’s a great score, and I’m a big fan of it - but I actually really prefer the end credits, because there’s this really nice piano melody that you don’t really get throughout the album. You need to listen to the whole thing to get to this kind of beautiful ending. If you just listen to the theme, you won’t get that. That’s the thing for me: I like being creeped out by music, and horror movie soundtracks tend to do that quite a bit. It’s just not always the first thing you hear. Sometimes, you have to go a bit deeper, and that’s what Cuts from the Crypt definitely is. The Damn Fine Cast is a bit different, because we play music from every different kind of soundtrack genre there is. I want to keep doing Cuts from the Crypt and creep people out a bit - I want people to be a little unnerved at times [laughs]. I think that if people knew how the show was recorded, it would probably demystify a lot of the scary element to it. It’s not recorded in a very scary location. There’s usually one or two cats in the vicinity and I’m just sitting here with a pile of records. If the show creates an atmosphere for people, that’s great, but mostly, what I want to do is turn people on to great music. That’s all I’ve ever wanted to do with podcasts: being able to talk about music is great, being able to actually get people to listen to it is even better. That’s why there is more music now and less me. Words: Nick Spacek You can find the DAMN FINE CAST and CUTS FROM THE CRYPT online at soundcloud.com/ thedamnfinecast, and subscribe by searching either title in iTunes. We recommend you do so.

RONALD PICKUP • JOHN HEFFERNAN • ENZO CILENTI

A NEW FULL-CAST AUDIO ADAPTATION OF HG WELLS’ CLASSIC NOVEL! AVAIL ABL E IN JULY ON CD AND D OWNLOAD !

@BIGFINISH

THEBIGFINISH

AUDIO

W W W. B I G F I N I S H . C O M

OST

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ummer movie season is fully upon us, there are scads - nay, oodles - of scores and soundtracks to go through, and there’s nothing quite as wonderful as Michael Giacchino giving us not one, but two, blockbuster scores with which to delight our ears. First up is Giacchino’s score to the massively anticipated Spider-Man: Homecoming, which sees our friendly neighbourhood Web-head returning to the Marvel feature fold. Peter Parker’s presence in Captain America: Civil War was a highlight in a movie loaded with excellence, and the reviews we were looking at as we went to press make us wish that the film had been out at the time of writing to share a solid opinion of how the score works in conjunction with the visuals. Happily, though, the music showed up just in time for us to give it a quick listen, and we cannot recommend it enough. From an orchestral version of the original Spider-Man television show all the way through the orchestral suite which ends the score, the music is amazing. Marvel’s scores have justly been singled out as lacking any real unique qualities, but Homecoming is loaded with elements that give it a very distinct character. The

plucked strings, combined with some really interesting percussive rhythms, lend Giacchino’s work a jazzy flavour and capture the youthful energy so very inherent to the character. It’s out now on compact disc and digital from Sony Masterworks. Giacchino also scored the third instalment of the Planet of the Apes reboot, and War for the Planet of the Apes will be out at the end of July on compact disc from Masterworks Broadway. We’ve only heard the brief music featured in the trailer for the film, but given the composer’s work for the previous two films, we’re already lining up to get the score as soon as it’s available. In further summer film news - although a little less blockbustery - Milan has another creepy score out now, for the supernatural romance film A Ghost Story. Composed and performed by violinist Daniel Hart, the score for the film is minimalist but - as befits the film - romantic and haunting, if you’ll pardon the pun. As the film and score progress, there’s some fantastically unsettling choral work, and this bodes really well for the frequency of the soundtrack’s plays come this Halloween. There’s a charming pop song from Hart’s band, Dark Room, entitled I Get Overwhelmed, as well. It’s

THE STARBURST GUIDE TO THE LATEST SOUNDTRACKS BY NICK SPACEK

out now on compact disc and digital, as well as a deluxe vinyl release on 180-gram white vinyl, along with a jacket featuring glow-in-the-dark surprises. The cavalcade of ‘90s soundtracks on vinyl continues from Real Gone Music. Following in the footsteps of Tales from the Crypt’s Demon Knight and True Romance comes a double LP release of the soundtrack to the Wachowskis’ 1999 sci-fi actioner The Matrix. It’s the début of the album on vinyl, and will be available in two variants, both of which come in a gatefold jacket. First is a Real Gone webstore exclusive on LED green vinyl with black marble, limited to 300 copies, and second is a blue and red pill version, limited to 1500 copies. It’s available at the beginning of August, and you know you want to be able to spin Clubbed to Death as you walk around in a leather trench coat, so get on it quick. In further nostalgia, but in a very different direction, comes the latest releases from Ship to Shore Phono Co. We knew months back that Troma’s War was on its way, but the label basically dropped it as a surprise at the end of June via their social media accounts. The awesomely ‘80s score by Chris DeMarco is available on limited edition fireball splatter vinyl, and it’s the début release of the score in any format. Also out from the label is a vinyl seven-inch featuring two tracks from the infamous Sega CD game Night Trap. The A-side is Sunny BlueSkyes’ theme song, and the flip has composer Martin Lund’s music for Auger Attack and Bathroom Scene. It sold out really quickly, unfortunately, so you’ll have to look for it on the secondary market - a shame, because it’s the perfect blend of slasher and video game music. The perfect combination of ‘90s nostalgia and video game music comes from iam8bit, though. The label announced what might be the most exciting thing they’ve thus far attempted: a double vinyl LP entitled Johto Legends, which is ‘a cinematic, orchestral recreation of the soundtracks to the Game Boy classics Pokémon Gold

91 and Pokémon Silver’ per the Kickstarter for the project. While not expected to be released until the final quarter of this year - the hour-long suite having not yet been recorded - there’s a brief sampler available, and it sounds amazing. Featuring as it does performers who’ve been part of Pokémon Symphonic Evolutions and The Legend of Zelda: Symphony of the Goddesses, there’s no doubt this is going to be the highlight of this year’s video game releases. You can pre-order the double LP now via iam8bit store or the Johto Legends Kickstarter page. And finally, news comes from video game soundtrack reissue label Data Discs that we’ll be getting both Tohru Nakabayashi’s music for the absolute classic game, Altered Beast, as well as Sonic Mania, a collection of select tracks by composer Tee Lopes. Altered Beast is out now as a 45-rpm vinyl LP, sourced from the Mega Drive edition of the game, and available in limited-edition clear with orange splatter, as well as on opaque orange or classic black. Sonic Mania has a release date that is forthcoming, but will be released in a gatefold sleeve on 180-gram vinyl with a download code for all of the tracks in lossless audio. We’re already excited. Cassette label Spun Out of Control’s latest is Wojciech Golczewski’s score for the 2016 sci-fi film 400_Days. Per our review, it’s a tense, disturbing listen, but also highly reminiscent of Cliff Martinez’s recent work on The Neon Demon. It’s the sort of music that swings back and forth between the absolute height of terror and sweet sadness, and Golczewski works with a deftness not previously demonstrated. You can get it in two variants: either a white tape with silver screws and silver ink, or a clear tape flecked with red, silver, and blue glitter. We received the latter, and it’s gorgeous. French label The Omega Productions has followed up their début soundtrack release of Zombie Lake with that of another zombie picture. For their sophomore soundtrack, the label’s aiming for 1987’s La revanche des mortes vivantes, also known as Revenge of the Living Dead Girls or The Living Dead. Christopher Ried’s score will see its first vinyl reissue since the original EPM release, as well as its début on compact disc, sometime later this year. Given the fact that Ried’s score is awash with eerie synths, this is bound to make more than a few folks very happy. Hopefully, the reissue will include all the sound effects from the original for maximum spookiness. There’s a new film score podcast to which you should be listening, and it’s from

a name familiar to anyone who’s bought a Death Waltz vinyl reissue over the last few years. If you’re the sort of person who pays attention to the little details, you’ve surely seen the name Charlie Brigden on the obi strips for all the scores which Death Waltz has reissued. His summations of the music on the discs within will readily convince any who read them to pick up any LP about which he might be waffling. It’s therefore an excellent stroke of luck for the public at large that Brigden has teamed up with his wife, Lisa, to bring his knowledge to The Sound of Fear, his new documentary-style podcast chronicling the history of horror music. We asked Brigden why he started the show. “I’ve always been really interested in the educational side of writing about film music,” Brigden told us, “horror has always been something that’s spoken to me since a very young age, and the fact that there’s not really much on film music in general, and especially not horror, surprised me.” Brigden was also a fan of two documentaries on the BBC - Mark Gatiss’ A History of Horror and Neil Brand’s The Sound of Cinema - especially the latter, because of its point of providing historical context for things. “In the age of instant

video and mp3, [that context] is very often missing,” Brigden further explained. “You watch and you consume, but unless it’s an Arrow or a Criterion, it’s rare that you get anything saying ‘OK, this is why these things are like what they are.’” The podcaster gives the example that the Universal Dracula and Frankenstein movies only have music at the beginning and end because the producer, Carl Laemmle, Jr, didn’t like film music much and actively had to be convinced to let them try and put music under scenes in the film. “Which, of course, really helped make these pictures what they were,” Brigden stated. “So, I wanted to tell stories like that. The only issue from there is deciding what you’re going to focus on from there, because there’s so much out there.” Thus far, Brigden’s focus has been razor-sharp, and episodes pairing gialli and slashers, looking at shock horror, and exploring the Universal Monsters have all been half-hour slices of edification and entertainment. You can find it at soundcloud. com/soundfearpod or via iTunes, and those who want to support the show can become patrons via patreon.com/soundfearpod. You can check out the full interview on starburstmagazine.com.

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ReVIeWS

JUST One DAmneD THInG AFTeR AnOTHeR AUTHOR: JODI TAYLOR / ADAPTED BY: MARTY ROSS / STARRING: GEMMA WHELAN, ZARA RAMM, BEN MILES, JONATHAN BAILEY / PUBLISHER: AUDIBLE / RELEASE DATE: OUT NOW Just One Damned Thing After Another is the first in the popular Chronicles of St Mary’s series, written by Jodi Taylor and adapted by Marty Ross. This fullcast adaptation stars comedian Gemma Whelan (Game of Thrones), Ben Miles (Coupling, The Crown), Jonathan Bailey (Broadchurch) and Zara Ramm (Grandpa

TORCHWOOD: CASCADe

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DIRECTOR & WRITER: SCOTT HANDCOCK / STARRING: NAOKO MORI, ROBBIE JARVIS, ASHLEY KUMAR, RACHEL HANDSHAW / PUBLISHER: BIG FINISH / RELEASE DATE: OUT NOW We guarantee that this month’s Torchwood release is like no other Big Finish drama you have listened to before. A thrilling, gripping techno-thriller, Cascade – or to give it its stylised title,

THE LATEST AUDIO RELEASES REVIEWED AND RATED

in my Pocket). It’s over seven hours long and follows the first adventures of Madeleine Maxwell, known as Max (Zara Ramm), as she joins St Marys, the time travelling offshoot of Thirsk University. Ramm also narrated the audiobooks of all the series so far. If you’re already a fan of the series, this is a no-brainer. It sticks closely to the original text, but streamlines, while tightening the action up to give Madeleine even more focus. The world of St. Mary’s is a strange one; Max is a recruit, along with Davey Sussman (Bailey) and others, not all of whom survive. They are supported by a range of technical staff and the faculty has its own security team, led by the Chief. Various outings in time (including 11th-century London and the Cretaceous) see Max get to make friends and enemies alike, uncover conspiracies, endure victories and setbacks, all the while circling around the plotting of Clive Ronan (Miles) and his followers. There’s plenty of action, some love interest and some very dark moments. It ends with everyone older, wiser and realising there are plenty more battles to be fought, just as any first novel in a series should do. Where the novel is written in the first person, this adaptation gives more characters the focus, and gives Max more of the drama. While a few scenes are cut, others are added (and informed by current

events). In many places, this rebalances the story and makes it more interesting, though it does also remove some of the story’s mystery. Max is a somewhat enigmatic character, and while St. Mary’s has a clear purpose, it is a curious setting. It’s nice to get out of the obvious trope of locating a time travel history department in Oxbridge, but the development of St Mary’s seems unlikely, as does the extreme set of individuals it attracts. There are a lot of internal tensions and some very unpleasant characters in situ. As a series, St Mary’s has many fans but also some detractors. For the most, this adaptation focuses on the good, but can’t quite smooth out the narrative enough to avoid it jarring in some places. As a production (and the cast is much larger than the four names listed), it is a great piece of audio drama, very well paced for the main and with a great soundscape; do listen to the Cretaceous period on good speakers – it’s worth it. Fans of Jodi Taylor’s series will need no encouragement to listen to this, for others the relatively low costs makes this an attractive gamble. It’s not perfect but it is entertaining.

torchwood_cascade_CDRIP.tor – is an ingenious piece that plays with the very medium of audio drama. The story follows Toshiko Sato, as she is contacted by an old colleague from Torchwood One who needs her help solving an intriguing mystery. Anyone who has downloaded files from a certain illegal torrent site has met their end soon after. Tosh will soon discover that torrenting is not the consequence-free crime it appears to be… Writer Scott Handcock deserves a round of applause for his work on Cascade. The premise is perfect for a Torchwood audio – it’s oh-so-clever, tongue-in-cheek and a little fourth-wallbreaking. Still, this isn’t an episode that you could easily imagine as an episode of the TV series. It could only ever be an audio drama, as it’s built around the relationship between the listener and the drama. The nearest thing the TV Whoniverse has to this is Mark Gatiss’ Doctor Who episode ‘Sleep No More’, which similarly played with the viewer. Handcock’s writing makes for strong raw material but the piece comes to life thanks to the hugely effective sound design. The audio takes the form of broken, corrupted audio files, which means

the narrative flashes back and forth and occasionally take detours to songs, clips from the past or even messages spoken directly to the listener. It’s up to us to engage with what we are listening to and piece it all together. This definitely isn’t something you can listen to with only half your attention. And let’s not forget Naoko Mori’s great performance, which holds the whole thing together. These solo Tosh audios from Big Finish have done a lot to showcase the highly capable, more confident side of the character that was often overlooked onscreen when she was usually portrayed as just the shy one on the team. Supporting her is Robbie Jarvis as Stephen, who gets some very touching moments. Cascade comes highly recommended for anyone who likes those Doctor Who and Torchwood stories that push the boat out and try something different. They don’t always pay off, of course, but this one really does. It’s a truly unique audio experience and is a must-listen. Just don’t torrent it, eh?

TONY JONES

CHRISTIAN BONE

THe mOnSTeR SQUAD (1987)

COMPOSER: BRUCE BROUGHTON / LABEL: MONDO / RELEASE DATE: OUT NOW The packaging for Mondo’s release of the Bruce Broughton score to 1987’s The Monster Squad is the most appropriate artwork we’ve ever seen for a soundtrack LP. The new artwork commissioned for represses occasionally falls far afield from the original images one associates with the film - sometimes to the point of head-scratching confusion. In the case of ‘Ghoulish’ Gary Pullin’s work for this gatefold jacket, the imagery is note-perfect. Pullin has created a package which might as well be a love letter to Dekker’s film, via the influences director and writer Fred Dekker, along with co-writer Shane Black, brought to their film. A series of references to The Monster Squad itself, but in the form of comic book ads, Pullin brings in dozens of nods to the film’s

UnIT: ASSemBleD (DOCTOR WHO) DIRECTOR: KEN BENTLEY / WRITERS: MATT FITTON, GUY ADAMS / STARRING: JEMMA REDGRAVE, INGRID OLIVER, JAMES JOYCE, WARREN BROWN, RICHARD FRANKLIN, JOHN LEVENE, KATY MANNING / PUBLISHER: BIG FINISH / RELEASE DATE: OUT NOW

For the fourth boxset, it is time to pay homage to the past by bringing on board some of the much beloved stars of the original era of UNIT from the 1970s. UNIT: Assembled opens with Matt Fitton’s Call to Arms, which sees Sergeant Benton and Mike Yates reunite for a celebration at Benton’s pub – and end up getting caught in the middle of a skirmish with the Silurians. The threat of a worldwide Homo Reptillia insurrection is nicely set up here - with Richard Hope’s Grand Marshal Jastrok at the head - but the real highlight has to be having John Levene and Richard Franklin back in the saddle. ‘Tidal Wave’ by Guy Adams is perhaps the best of the bunch, however. While it’s nice to have the Sea Devils thrown into the mix, its success is mostly due to the inclusion of Katy Manning as Jo Jones. Adams nails the older Jo seen in The Sarah Jane Adventures – a charming yet absentminded eco crusader – and naturally, Manning is as excellent as ever. In particular, her pairing with Osgood is a delight. Adams also wrote ‘Retrieval’, which switches the focus to the current UNIT team as Kate and Osgood travel to a Silurian base in the Mediterranean. Instead of a ‘70s legend, the guest star here is Neve McIntosh, the resident

NICK SPACEK

9 Silurian actor on TV. McIntosh offers a great performance, as she gets a chance to reacquaint herself with the sinister side of the species after playing the lovable Madame Vastra for the past few years. ‘United’ by Matt Fitton draws the disparate threads of the series together with aplomb, with all four guest cast members returning as the Silurians and Sea Devils lay siege to Great Britain. Hats off to the ambition of Fitton’s script here, as you can easily imagine this as one of those global-scale TV episodes (see: ‘The Zygon Invasion’). What’s more, Fitton keeps all the elements in check, with each of the characters getting a shot in the limelight. All in all, UNIT: Assembled might just be one of the best examples of Big Finish blending the worlds of classic and modern Who together, as it combines some welcome homages to the past as well as marrying it with the scope and style of the contemporary stories. Comprised of four thoroughly entertaining adventures, this boxset is a treat for Doctor Who fans of any age.

CHRISTIAN BONE

AUDIO

Big Finish’s UNIT audio series has reliably been a cracking listen over its first three boxsets, as it has finally given the alienbusting organisation a show of their own.

iconic imagery and characters. Be it the Wolfman mask with all the personnel on the reverse, a Monster Squad membership card, or the ads for everything up to and including a ‘Stephen King Rules’ T-shirt, every fan who picks up this record will wish that they could fill out an order form and send it in, post-haste. Honestly - the spine of the LP jacket has fake staples! It’s brilliant. Even the vinyl colour nods to the film itself, coming as it does on ‘amulet green’. It looks just like the glow of the film’s precious icon, and is so gorgeous, one would fight just as hard to keep it as the film’s characters did for its namesake. The audio is essentially the same as that which debuted on La-La Land’s compact disc reissue last year, and it sounds amazing on this double LP.

However, despite all that amazing artwork and attention to detail, nowhere on the packaging does it mention that this album is cut at 45rpm. If one finds themselves wondering why the main titles sound even darker and more macabre than they might remember from their childhood, perhaps changing the speed on the turntable might help. The music is, of course, fantastic, splitting the difference between odes to the classic Universal monster pictures to which it pays such loving homage, as well as working in some nicely modern arrangements. As the essay in the liner notes by Ain’t It Cool News’ Eric Vespe points out, the composer took “a big, Amblin-style score and peppered in the dramatic and distinctive DNA of great 1930s monster movie music.” Those sweeping strings and big brass moments bridged the gap between the modern music and the golden age of cinema, and the absolute sense of adventure is, at all times, perfectly paramount. This may be a movie where the protagonists are middle-schoolers, but at no time is the music for the kids. Broughton’s score lends a seriousness to the film, emphasising as it does the seriousness of the story, rather than playing up the laughs. There are definitely nods to the likes of John Williams and Franz Waxman, but Broughton’s work on The Monster Squad is uniquely its own. Add in the very excellent Rock Until You Drop by Michael Sembello - probably one of the top three montage songs of all time - along with the closing title Monster Squad Rap, and this is an album sure to hit each and every nostalgic button one could possibly have.

THe OmeGA FACTOR - SeRIeS TWO DIRECTOR: KEN BENTLEY / WRITERS: PHIL MULRYNE, ROY GILL, LOUISE JAMESON, MATT FITTON / STARRING: LOUISE JAMESON, JOHN DORNEY, ALAN COX, NATASHA GERSON / PUBLISHER: BIG FINISH / RELEASE DATE: OUT NOW The second series of Big Finish’s critically acclaimed tale of paranormal investigation begins with a sharp turnaround in the fortunes of Department 7. Following the tumultuous church-consuming finale of the first series, Professor Anne Reynolds has secured a boost in her budget and the rehabilitation of her reputation. She’s also succeeded in persuading Tom Crane’s son Adam to commit to working alongside her, promising that she will help him to understand his own nascent psychic abilities. No longer met with exasperated disdain, her boss James Doyle is now willing to assign Reynolds cases that seem to require her team’s unique ability to make sense of the inexplicable and the horrifying.

DOCTOR WHO THe COmPAnIOn CHROnICleS: THe FIRST DOCTOR VOlUme TWO

AUDIO

DIRECTOR: LISA BOWERMAN, HELEN GOLDWYN / WRITTEN BY: JOHN PRITCHARD, DAVID BARTLETT, UNA McCORMACK, GUY ADAMS / STARRING: MAUREEN O’BRIEN, PETER PURVES, ANNEKE WILLS, ELLIOT CHAPMAN / PUBLISHER: BIG FINISH / RELEASE DATE: OUT NOW (BIG FINISH), GENERAL SALE (AUGUST 1ST)

There’s a fine line to be trod between bringing back the companions of the black and white era of Doctor Who simply to enjoy being able to hear new stories involving them, and trying to keep those stories sympathetic to the times in which

Series Two of The Omega Factor very effectively combines a set of standalone adventures with some important (and very unexpected) developments in the show’s overall story arc. Now properly resourced, Department 7 has the kind of official backing that can open doors, provide passage through police cordons and secure audiences with the great and the good (and, of course, the far from good). This all means that Alan Cox’s Doyle has a far more prominent role in the series, as he takes a more hands-on approach to the direction of the team’s activities. Together with the conspiracies and dark forces that shape the show’s storylines, it is the warm and thoughtful relationship between the empathic Reynolds and the impetuous Adam Crane that remains key to the show’s appeal. As script editor Matt Fitton suggests: “They both nurture each other… It’s not quite a ‘parent and child’ dynamic, and it’s not a sibling one, it’s something in between. It’s mutual support and trust.” All four scriptwriters working on the second series are careful to maintain that balance between that grounded character dynamic and the unpredictable supernatural worlds that this pair inhabit. Phil Mulryne’s sharply crafted opener Somnum Sempiternum explores the disturbing idea of targeted assassination by astral projection. Camilla Power reprises her role as the unscrupulous Dr. Jane Wyatt, her actions now controlled by the mysterious Dr Banks, an agent for a wider nefarious network. Events take a darker turn still in Roy Gill’s disturbing and claustrophobic prison story The Changeling, in which Adam goes undercover as an inmate to share a cell with the volatile lifer Alasdair Reiver. The jail scenes make for intense listening, but

the most blood-chilling moments come from the prejudice and superstition Anne uncovers in family relationships outside the prison walls. Louise Jameson’s reflective Let the Angel Tell Thee takes the time to explore a potential new romantic entanglement for the solitary Anne in the shape of the debonair Anthony Archer. After the comatose Morag makes a psychic connection with Adam, the ulterior motives of Archer’s exploitation of Anne’s loneliness are exposed. Events ratchet up in Fitton’s relentless finale Awakening, in which the scale of the conspiracy that has haunted the series becomes clear and figures that have lurked in the shadows until now are brought into the open. As was the case with the first series, robust and atmospheric sound design remains a vital component of the show’s identity on audio. This time round, Steve Foxon conjures up richly textured and unnerving soundscapes across all four episodes, making consistently well-judged choices when preparing his audio tracks. Foxon’s efforts are complemented by Nick Briggs’ edgy but unobtrusive musical score. By the close of the second series, the Omega conspiracy has once again taken centre stage, a key nemesis has returned (although this figure remains hidden in plain sight), and Morag’s story has become fully intertwined with that of Department 7. Now a key component of the expanding range of grittier, serious dramas on the Big Finish roster, The Omega Factor’s second series brims with confidence and sets up a whole gamut of tantalising possibilities for future adventures.

they’re narratively set. This second volume of First Doctor stories tries something rather daring - a couple of things in fact but although the experiments are merited, the success thereof is rather more difficult to gauge. The opening story of the four, Fields of Terror, feels slightly adrift from its would-be contemporaries in that it involves a return to a conflict that this Doctor has previously visited, but without the specific historic personages that might have anchored its narrative in a more identifiable way. There’s a looseness to it that, although it’s lovely to hear Maureen O’Brien reprising Vicki, her reading of the text does little to solidify. The basic plot has fun with the notion that this would have come shortly after the series’ first pseudo-historical serial, but ultimately, the resolution - while emotionally resonant - leaves the story feeling insignificant. An underwhelming beginning. Across the Darkened City is significantly better, another instalment that plays with where in the canon it sits, but in a pre-emptive way. Its conclusion will rankle some and delight others, and there’s no question it’s an uneasy fit for its period. But Peter Purves’ narration overcomes the straightforwardness of the plot to deliver the set’s best episode. Una McCormack’s The Bonfires of the Vanities is another historical story, albeit this time set only shortly before

it would have been being broadcast. An interesting idea and an intelligent subplot make up for a lack of distinguishing attributes, although the library setting is nice. The music across these three parts is also pleasant and accomplished, but occasionally somewhat inapt. The sense of all the elements being in place but not quite gelling is compounded in The Plague of Dreams, the concluding instalment in which the First Doctor is drawn out of his rightful circumstances and inelegantly repositioned entirely inappropriately. It’s a brave move but one that fails to achieve very much, with only the (possibly accidental) correspondence with current televised Doctor Who giving its ‘sideways’ story relevance. This is a collection that sets itself a series of intellectual tasks that, whether deliberately or not, it never quite executes. There is plenty of pleasure to be taken from trying to work out where each of the stories is going, and the three returning cast members (plus the excellent Chapman) are never less than enjoyable company to be in. But in the final assessment, the experiments - while worth the taking on can’t quite be judged a success.

RICH CROSS

JR SOUTHALL

ZUnTATA ARCADe ClASSICS VOlUme One (2017) ARTIST: ZUNTATA / LABEL: SHIP TO SHORE PHONOCO / RELEASE DATE: OUT NOW

DOCTOR WHO VORTeX ICe / CORTeX FIRe AUTHOR: JONATHAN MORRIS, IAN POTTER / DIRECTOR: KEN BENTLEY / STARRING: COLIN BAKER, LISA GREENWOOD / PUBLISHER: BIG FINISH / RELEASE DATE: OUT NOW

AUTHOR: SIMON BARNARD, PAUL MORRIS / STARRING: DAVID WARNER, TERRY MOLLOY, MATTHEW HOLNESS, PHIL ROSE, LIZZIE ROPER / PUBLISHER: BAFFLEGAB / RELEASE DATE: OUT NOW

he couldn’t be more correct. Sure, the tracks from Night Striker alone would be interesting, but placing Ma-Gu-Ri-Vu between Metal Black’s Red & Yellow and “Born to Be Free” emphasises both the intense and melodic aspects of Ma-Gu-RiVu, respectively, and the whole of the LP is all the better for it. Zuntata Arcade Classics Volume One comes on black, blue, or yellow vinyl. Our copy on black sounded amazing, and the gatefold jacket looks like it came straight from the era in which these games were released. The liner notes by USgamer’s Jeremy Parish provide excellent context for the music of all three games, and are as well put together as they are effusive. Given how good this compilation is, one hopes that Volume Two is fast on its heels.

After last month’s Fifth Doctor double bill, Big Finish’s main range of Doctor Who audios brings us another pair of hourlong stories, this time featuring Colin Baker’s Sixth Doctor alongside his companion Flip, with Lisa Greenwood returning to the role she recurred in from 2011 to 2014. The first of these two stories, Vortex Ice by Jonathan Morris, starts out with the two travellers arriving in a mine underneath Mexico, tracking a signal from alien particles. They team up with the miners and find a cyborg creature trapped in a strange crystal. So far, so classic Who. But then there’s a very time-twisting, well, twist, which adds a whole new level of originality to the story. It does get quite complex and may require a second listen to follow everything that happens, but Morris’ tight plotting certainly rewards the dedicated listeners who do so. We also hope it’s not giving too much away to say that you get to hear Colin Baker arguing with himself, which is as delightful as you might imagine. And then there’s Cortex Fire by Ian Potter, which has almost the opposite

setting – we’re no longer deep underground but in an alien city full of towers and flying cars that reach high into the sky. The Doctor’s taken Flip to Festin to see an astronomical light show, but all is not well here – people have been losing the will to live and then spontaneously combusting, causing chaos across the city. It’s another strong story and one with an appropriately human edge to it, as we get to know some of the characters who inhabit this city. And, like Vortex Ice, it uses some well-known Who tropes as a springboard for original ideas and surprising twists. This double-bill format is working well for Big Finish, then, allowing for short and snappy tales that are high on character and concept while low on padding. Next up is a similarly formatted release featuring the Seventh Doctor; if the quality is kept up, we’ll be hoping for more of this from Big Finish.

Last heard from in the 2014 release The King of Winter, MI13’s finest are back in The Gnomes of Death. It’s all go as Harry Crow (Warner) and Professor Dunning (Molloy) follow up on the death of Harry’s landlord from his local, The Six Bells. Over the space of this one-disc release, we learn of the deaths of multiple garden enthusiasts and the growing collection of feet without bodies. While the title might give a strong clue as to what is going on (as does the cover), as with all Scarifyers it’s about the journey as much as the destination. There’s an easy familiarity to the way the two lead characters work, but the wider cast has plenty to contribute to the mystery, including Mathew Holness as sinister and strangely bearded gnome factory owner Thomas Kelley, along with Phil Rose as the wonderfully named Bunny Cheesewright. There’s also the beer aficionado Arachius Fitch (Ewan Bailey) adding to a cast of beer makers, Morris dancers and much more besides. Behind the apparently random set of

characters, there’s a deeper story of magic and Indian deities at play, but before all is revealed, our heroes must survive at least one attack of, yes you guessed correctly garden gnomes. There’s even the drinking of not a small amount of particularly strong ale in a story packed with the banalest elements of life in the 1930s. It’s a great story, well directed and produced with the usual flair so evident in this series ever since it began back in 2006. It’s been over two years since we least heard from The Scarifyers, and on the strength of this latest release, their powers to entertain are undiminished. If you’re new to the exploits of Crow and Dunning, this is as good an introduction as any. There’s even a couple of short bonuses tucked away at the end – The Curse of the Cult of Thoth and Mr. Crowley’s Christmas.

NICK SPACEK

KIERON MOORE

TONY JONES

AUDIO

THe SCARIFyeRS: THe GnOmeS OF DeATH

Credited to Zuntata, the Taito Sound Team, the tracks on Arcade Classics Volume One come from three titles released by Taito Corporation from 1989 to 1994: Night Striker, Metal Black, and Elevator Action Returns. While all disparate, and released over a five-year period, all three would find their way to the Sega Saturn at one point or another, giving this compilation a very cohesive sound. It’s helped along by the fact that the tracks from the three titles - five each from Night Striker and Metal Black, and four from Elevator Action Returns - aren’t presented on their own. Zuntata Arcade Classics Volume One is instead curated, thanks to a suggestion from Ship to Shore’s Aaron Hamel. Zuntata’s Katsuhisa Ishikawa reveals in the short notes he wrote for the gatefold that they ‘shuffled them in order to give priority to the atmosphere of the album’. Ishikawa opines that ‘this became very unique form for us, and I think we have made a very interesting album’, and

BRAVE NEW WORDS

ED FORTUNE BRINGS YOU THE LATEST NEWS FROM THE WORLD OF GENRE LITERATURE

announced that they are now going into the graphic novel game. Their first two comic book releases will be an illustrated history of female sexuality called The Fruit of Knowledge by Liv Strömquist and Eve by Una, which is the story of a mother and daughter struggling to survive in a post-apocalyptic world. Deputy publisher Sarah Savitt said, “Some of the most original graphic novelists working today are women.” Congratulations to Virago for finally noticing something we’ve known for decades.

YA Authors Bicker Over HUNTER Theme

FEAR Magazine Closes

It is with a heavy heart that we report that FEAR Magazine has closed. The sci-fi, horror and fantasy magazine focused mostly on short stories. The magazine originally ran from 1988 to 1991 and returned following a crowdfunding campaign in 2014. The editor John Gilbert wrote “It is with great regret that I have to announce the closure of FEAR magazine. There will be no further issues.”

Eurocon 2019 Will Be in Belfast

The Game of Thrones and sci-fi/fantasy book convention Titancon has secured the right to be 2019’s Eurocon. The Belfast-based event will run Thursday August 22nd to Saturday 24th 2019, with a Game of Thrones site location tour on the 25th. It will be hosted at Waterfront Convention Centre and the Hilton Hotel. Eagle-eyed fans will notice that proposed Dublin 2019 Worldcon bid is the week before, and though Dublin Worldcon hasn’t ‘won’ the bid, it’s unopposed. So it’s looking like a holiday in Belfast and Dublin for hardcore word nerds.

CHILDREN OF TIME Movie Rights Optioned

Clarke Award-winning novel Children of Time has been optioned by Lionsgate. The book’s author Adrian Tchaikovsky is best known for Shadows of the Apt series, a set of fantasy novels. Children of Time is a science fiction story about a desperate humanity seeking to find a home on a world they failed to terraform, one that now has new owners.

HARRY POTTER Proof Goes for £9,375

An uncorrected proof of Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone has gone for over £9K at auction. The copy, which misspells the author’s name as J. A. Rowling, was sent to the seller whilst they were working in a Bournemouth bookshop, way back in 1997. There are only 200 of such proofs in existence, and proof copies are not intended for general use; they tend to have a much shorter lifespan than typical books. Previous copies have gone for between £1000 and £1500. For comparison, a first edition of Gulliver’s Travels, sold at the same Knightsbridge auction, went for £23,250.

BOOKS

Fair Use Defence Saves STAR TREK Parody

Oh, The Places You’ll Boldly Go! is a Doctor Seuss-inspired Star Trek parody produced by David Gerrold and Ty Templeton for ComicMix. Alas, the estate of Doctor Seuss didn’t see the funny side and took ComicMix to court. Luckily, United States District Judge Janis Sammartino got the joke and dismissed copyright infringement claims on fair use grounds. The case may well establish case law for ‘mashup’ art in the future. At the time of going to print, a second claim over copyright is still outstanding and requires proof of any harm to the Doctor Seuss estate’s licensing opportunities.

Virago Get into Comics

Virago is best known as an international publisher of books by women and has a reputation for high-brow work. They have

In a continuing court case, the lawyers for Shadowhunter author Cassandra Clare have sought a court order demanding sci-fi writer Sherrilyn Kenyon disclose evidence in the case over trademark infringement. Kenyon, who wrote the 1998 Dark Hunter novels, claimed that Clare was infringing her copyright, alleging that the Shadowhunters series was too similar to her own work. Clare’s Shadowhunters: The Mortal Instruments launched on Netflix in January 2016 and is a highly successful cult hit.

2017 Mythopoeic Awards Finalists Announced

The Mythopoeic Society is an international organization inspired by the works J.R.R. Tolkien, C.S. Lewis, and Charles Williams. They have announced the finalists for their annual awards. The winners will be announced at Mythcon 48, to be held July 28th -31st, 2017, in Champaign-Urbana, Illinois. Those finalists are: Mythopoeic Fantasy Award for Adult Literature Andrea Hairston, Will Do Magic For Small Change Mary Robinette Kowal, Ghost Talkers Patricia A. McKillip, Kingfisher Maggie Stiefvater, The Raven Cycle: The Raven Boys; The Dream Thieves; Blue Lily, Lily Blue, and The Raven King Jo Walton, Thessaly Trilogy: The Just City; The Philosopher Kings; Necessity Mythopoeic Fantasy Award for Children’s Literature Adam Gidwitz, The Inquisitor’s Tale: Or, The Three Magical Children and their Holy Dog S. E. Grove, The Mapmakers Trilogy: The Class Sentence; The Golden Specific; The Crimson Skew Bridget Hodder, The Rat Prince Grace Lin, When the Sea Turned to Silver Delia Sherman, The Evil Wizard Smallbone Mythopoeic Scholarship Award in Inklings Studies Lisa Coutras, Tolkien’s Theology of Beauty: Majesty, Splendor, and Transcendence in Middle Earth Sørina Higgins, editor, The Chapel of the Thorn by Charles Williams Leslie Donovan, editor, Approaches to Teaching Tolkien’s The Lord of the Rings and Other Works Christopher Tolkien, editor, Beowulf: A Translation and Commentary, together with Sellic Spell by J.R.R. Tolkien Philip Zaleski and Carol Zaleski, The Fellowship: The Literary Lives of J.R.R. Tolkien, C.S. Lewis, Owen Barfield, Charles Williams Mythopoeic Scholarship Award in Myth and Fantasy Studies Aisling Byrne, Otherworlds: Fantasy and History in Medieval Literature Richard Firth Green, Elf Queens and Holy Friars: Fairy Beliefs and the Medieval Church Michael Levy and Farah Mendlesohn, Children’s Fantasy Literature: An Introduction Gabrielle Lissauer, The Tropes of Fantasy Fiction Jack Zipes, Grimm Legacies: The Magic Spell of the Grimms’ Folk and Fairy Tales Catch STARBURST’S very own book podcast, Brave New Words, every week via the Starburst website, or tweet us @radiobookworm.

ED FORTUNE HIGHLIGHTS NOTEWORTHY NEW TITLES

COMING SOON URSULA K. LE GUIN: HAINISH NOVELS AND STORIES VOL 1 + 2 AUTHOR: URSULA LE GUIN PUBLISHER: LIBRARY OF AMERICA RELEASE DATE: SEPTEMBER 7TH

Ursula Le Guin is one of the few remaining masters of science fiction and fantasy. To say that her work is influential is a bit like saying the sun is a bit warm. The Library of America produce books with the intention that they never go out of print; the works are designed to last more than a lifetime and be passed down across the generations. These volumes bring together works that are considered cultural classics. This includes The Dispossesed, The Left Hand of Darkness and Telling, all of which are important works about the nature of identity and humanity.

A SECRET HISTORY OF WITCHES AUTHOR: LOUISA MORGAN PUBLISHER: REDHOOK RELEASE DATE: SEPTEMBER 5TH

Louisa Morgan is a very exciting writer. World War II and secret magical societies go hand in hand in the oddest sort of way. A Secret History of Witches follows five generations of magicwielding women, from their origins in France to the middle of WW2 Britain. Will an ancient lineage of witches restore their power in time to help save the world? Or are the greatest secrets of magic locked behind history and fear, never to be discovered even in a time of desperate need? Expect mystical shenanigans and personal discovery, as well as kick-ass ladies being amazing.

GODSGRAVE: BOOK 2 OF THE NEVERNIGHT CHRONICLE

AUTHOR: JAY KRISTOFF PUBLISHER: HARPER VOYAGER RELEASE DATE: SEPTEMBER 5TH

STARBURST rather enjoyed Nevernight, Jay Kristoff’s first book in the Nevernight Chronicles. Godsgrave continues the adventures of Mia Corvere, an angry young woman who happens to belong to a cult called ‘Lady of Blessed Murder’. Her plan to gain vengeance on those who destroyed her family has been blocked by those who wield much more power. Still, blood will find a way. Kristoff paints a stunning and bitter world, in which three suns ensure that no one is every truly rested and tensions are always high. Of course, our hero rules the shadows, when she can find them. Expect another thrilling page turner.

THE CORE (DEMON CYCLE BOOK 5) AUTHOR: PETER V. BRETT PUBLISHER:HARPER VOYAGER RELEASE DATE: SEPTEMBER 28TH

EDITOR: DELILAH S. DAWSON PUBLISHER: CENTURY RELEASE DATE: SEPTEMBER 7TH

Captain Phasma was a bit of a damp squib as far as Star Wars baddies are concerned. Presented as the new trilogy’s ‘mysterious badass’, all she actually did was fail to manage her Stormtroopers and get her shiny armour covered in garbage. Luckily, the Star Wars universe has never been one to be shy about details, and we are getting a whole novel dedicated to this villain, which promises to include some foreshadowing for the upcoming movie The Last Jedi. We suspect it won’t be all about Phasma polishing her armour, although it probably needs a quick rub with the Brasso.

THE HIDDEN HOLLOW

AUTHOR: NJORD KANE PUBLISHER: SPANGENHELM PUBLISHING RELEASE DATE: SEPTEMBER 1ST

Vikings are the new superheroes, it seems. We don’t mean ‘expect to see Vikings in capes’ rather that the next big trend in fiction seems to involve Norse gods being Norse, and big sweaty blond blokes hitting stuff. Of course, this means that the genre is ripe for subversion and reimagination. The Hidden Hollow is the tale of a normal, everyday Norse man who is pushed into a series of supernatural events. Filled with superstition, village suspicion, wyrd magic and dark, dark woods, The Hidden Hollow is a fresh take on the idea of the Viking hero.

PROVENANCE

AUTHOR: ANN LECKIE PUBLISHER: ORBIT RELEASE DATE: SEPTEMBER 28TH

Multiple award-winning author Ann Leckie has become the go-to author for many of us looking for a regular science fiction fix, and is easily the spiritual heir to the likes of Iain M. Banks and Bujold. Provenance follows the story of an ambitious woman who risks everything to secure a priceless artefact, thus becoming a hero to her people. Her hunger to get the right people for this daring job threatens to plunge everything she stands for into chaos, and the novel tracks the consequences of these actions. Expect thrills, excitement and amazing science fiction.

STAN LEE: THE MAN BEHIND MARVEL AUTHOR: BOB BATCHELOR PUBLISHER: ROWMAN AND LITTLEFIELD RELEASE DATE: SEPTEMBER 15TH

The man! The legend! This candid and authoritative biography of the American version of Dez Skinn will tell us everything that you were too afraid to ask about Marvel Comics’ most recognisable public figure. Batchelor explores many of Lee’s most beloved works, from the 1960s onwards as Marvel made it to the top. The book focuses mostly on Lee’s journey and the challenges he faced during the rocky and rather exciting history of the mighty Marvel powerhouse. One for the True Believers, we suspect that this will be all you need to learn about Stan the Man. Nuff Said!

BOOKS

Peter V. Brett’s Demon Cycle is beginning to draw to a close, though we still have a while to go (the novel series that is, we have no idea if he owns an infernally-themed motorbike. We hope he does). In a world where bloodthirsty demons stalk the land, humanity has scattered, clutching onto half-remembered magics to defend themselves from utter darkness. Alas, in their efforts to defeat the monsters, our heroes have brought another horror upon themselves - an unstoppable juggernaut called the Swarm. Will the heroes find a way to stop this growing threat? Read it and find out.

PHASMA: JOURNEY TO STAR WARS: THE LAST JEDI

BOOK WORMHOLE

If you want a different time travel story, look no further than The Victorian Chaise-Longue.

BOOKS

hile recovering from a bout of TB, Melanie Langdon lies down on her antique chaise-longue in the twentieth century. When she wakes up, she’s in the nineteenth century - in a stuffy room and a horrible nightdress and, horrifically, in the body of Milly Baines. Without knowing how, and unable to talk about the future, Melanie must figure out not only how to get back to her own time, but how to survive the people around her. Published in 1953, The Victorian Chaise-Longue was Marghanita Laski’s brief foray into science fiction. A prolific writer and contributor to the Oxford English Dictionary, Laski also wrote literary fiction, non-fiction, and edited short story and poetry collections. She also appeared on the radio programs The Brains Trust and The Critics. But while her

contribution to sci-fi was tiny, it makes a huge impression on readers. The Victorian Chaise-Longue is a unique time travel story. There is no machine, gateway or slingshot around the sun that causes the time travel; it’s only Melanie’s mind that moves. By altering the traditional set-up of the time travel narrative, Laski completely changes the stakes. Melanie isn’t struggling to get her TARDIS back from the baddies. She’s not scheming with Doc Brown to get power to the DeLorean. Melanie is starting completely from scratch, without a single clue as to what caused her to travel in time, and she does so alone. Laski throws Melanie straight in at the deep end and lets her struggle, and as cruel as that may seem, there’s something beautiful about watching Melanie work out how to save herself.

A MONTHLY PICK OF GENRE FICTION BY KATE FATHERS

Melanie has every disadvantage and she doesn’t give up - she doesn’t let her fear, her anger or her burgeoning hopelessness stop her. Melanie Langdon is the definition of a strong female character. She is wonderfully complex. The journeys that her mind takes are one of the joys of The Victorian Chaise-Longue. Her ruminations on time and death and ecstasy are breathtaking to read. Laski also throws in a mystery for Melanie to solve, as we learn that Milly has a secret, one that could prove dangerous for Melanie. Did I mention that Melanie does all of this while bedridden? But Laski’s story would be nothing without her prose. It isn’t just a vehicle for the story, it supports it. There are no empty phrases, no lines present because they’re pretty or because Laski was clearly proud of her way with language. Everything has a purpose. Take one of my favourite images in the book: “The butter was nasty, over-salt and slightly rancid, seeming to have absorbed some of the room’s foul smell of which she was continually aware.” It’s a tiny phrase - one detail among many - but it works to widen the gulf between Melanie and Milly. The food Milly is used to doesn’t sit in a refrigerator. It doesn’t have a sellby date. It isn’t the product of regulated industry. At its heart, it’s the same food that Melanie has always eaten, and yet those small differences make it alien. They make Melanie feel alien. In someone else’s hands, this could have been a throwaway line, but Laski puts it to work. The novel is stuffed with moments like this, and as it’s such a short book, it highlights Laski’s skill with language. She’s economical. She knows how to get as much from her scenes as possible. Laski’s prose also breathes new life into what is a commonplace trope in time travel fiction: the fish out of water. It’s a natural by-product of the time travel story, but if a writer isn’t careful, this trope can become dull and predictable. Laski’s prose keeps The Victorian Chaise-Longue from becoming stale. What Melanie observes and what strikes a chord with her are not only unique things, but they feed into the rest of the story. Laski might have chosen to give Melanie a limited view, but she does more with it than writers with access to the whole world. The Victorian Chaise-Longue is a gem of a book. It’s intriguing and terrifying yet beautiful; short, yet still packing so much power you never want to put it down. It’s a singular time travel story. It’s a masterclass in fiction. It’s as close to perfection as it gets. I can’t recommend it enough. You can find it - and some of Marghanita Laski’s other works - reprinted by Persephone Press.

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SPOONBENDERS

AUTHOR: DARYL GREGORY / PUBLISHER: RIVERRUN / RELEASE DATE: 13TH JULY In the mid-1970s, the Amazing Telemachus Family were poised to become stars. But, despite their allegedly phenomenal magic and mind reading act, the Telemachus clan couldn’t predict what a nightmare their appearance on the mega-rated Mike Douglas Show was going to become. That night

GODBLIND

Godblind is a fantasy novel set in the world of Gilgoras. A place where the gods are very, very real and life is hard, bloody,

millions of television viewers watched the Amazing Telemachus Family crash and burn and, from that moment on, their lives were never the same again. It’s two decades later and the family are still in turmoil. In fact, their psychic ‘gifts’ have got them into deeper trouble, not to mention a lot of debt. Teddy, the father, was always a conman and is constantly on the look-out for love, but it’s obvious he will never get over the death of his beloved Maureen, who had the genuine paranormal abilities that their children all inherited in one form or another. As for those children – Frankie is the telekinesis whizz whose psychic card counting has landed him in big trouble with the Chicago mafia; Irene, Frankie’s sister, has discovered that her job as an accountant and her powers as a human lie detector really don’t mix; and Buddy, their youngest sibling, has found out that his ability to see into the future has chained him to a life he cannot change. Although why he is digging a hole in their backyard is a mystery to everyone. But it’s Irene’s 14-year-old son Matty who is really about to shake things up when he unexpectedly realises that he also has some of the Telemachus magic, and it’s going to hurl the family into their biggest and most dysfunctional adventure yet.

Spoonbenders is a magnificently twisted collision of a book that reads like Michael Chabon or John Irving but plays out in your head like the cast of Arrested Development just hijacked The X-Files and the whole thing is directed by Wes Anderson. It touches your heart while frequently being laugh out loud funny, and author Daryl Gregory expertly manages to juggle eccentric family dynamics, multiple points of view, broad farce, ‘70s (and ‘90s) nostalgia, the mob, secret government agencies and even the occasional mention of Cold War-era psychic warfare, to create a riotous comic epic that really shouldn’t work but somehow is impossible not to fall in love with. And, at the centre of everything, is a whole cast of quite wonderful characters who, despite their very special powers and constant lapses into insanity, are as fragile and confused as the rest of us. It’s a brilliant achievement and by the time you’re halfway through, you’ll wish you had your own psychic powers so that the Telemachus’s could adopt you.

and short. The action focuses on the two lands of Mireces and Rilpor, kingdoms that have fought a long and difficult conflict to shut the dark gods out from the minds of mortals. Alas, the tribes who worshipped and venerated the dark entities never really went away. They have spent much of their existence on the fringes of society, harrying civilisation and growing lean and tough by stealing and murdering the good people of the world. The first in a trilogy, Godblind is easily described as a descent into darkness. The core tale is what happens when you underestimate the barbarians at the gate, both in a literal and metaphorical sense. Author Anna Stephens uses multiple points of view characters to carefully build a world. The cast of characters is pretty large, and Stephens has been careful to give us a very specific view of the world. Often, we’ll see events through the eyes of one person, only to see the action continue with another character in the next chapter and then realise exactly how specific certain biases are. This layered approach is engaging and accessible; every person in this book is something we want to know more about. Anna Stephens is easily one of the most exciting début fantasy authors of 2017. Sometimes you get a book that simply nails a particular genre to the wall and gets everything right. Godblind is a

triumph of grim-dark fantasy, getting the setting, tone and characterisation spot on. Make no mistake though, this is a bloody and violent story. It is a world with heroes, but no one is perfect and the challenges and horrors that face each character are tough and detailed. Stephens dips various pages in gore throughout; this is not a gentle ride into darkness but rather a full on roller-coaster plunge into screaming horror. Be warned: there is violent conflict from the get-go, and some pretty explicit scenes of assault; the book pretty much opens with an attempted rape that ends messily for the aggressor. These scenes tend to be short and sharp and are very well done but may be unpalatable for some tastes. If however, you’re a fan of the likes of Joe Abercrombie or George R. R. Martin, then you’ll be pleased to learn that Anna Stephens has joined this august pantheon of lovingly horrible and deliciously dark writers. Godblind is a triumph of its genre and an addictive, page-turning read. It’s not a smooth book; the pacing is very fast and the tone is strong and loud with a powerful story. It’s also the first of a series and we are keenly anticipate the sequel.

IAN WHITE

ED FORTUNE

BOOKS

AUTHOR: ANNA STEPHENS / PUBLISHER: HARPER VOYAGER / RELEASE DATE: OUT NOW

REVIEWS

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REVIEWS

ALIEN COVENANT THE OFFICIAL MOVIE NOVELISATION

AUTHOR: ALAN DEAN FOSTER / PUBLISHER: TITAN BOOKS / RELEASE DATE: OUT NOW After penning the first three chapters of the Alien anthology, only skipping the fourth film adaptation, Alien: Resurrection, Alan Dean Foster finally returns to Ridley Scott’s

WONDER WOMAN AND PHILOSOPHY: THE AMAZONIAN MYSTIQUE

BOOKS

(THE BLACKWELL PHILOSOPHY AND POP CULTURE SERIES) EDITOR: JACOB M. HELD / SERIES EDITOR: WILLIAM IRWIN / PUBLISHER: WILEYBLACKWELL / RELEASE DATE: OUT NOW Wonder Woman and Philosophy really does what it says on the tin; it is a book that takes a deeper look into the philosophical questions that the female superhero poses, not only in modern day but also at her inception in 1941 during the midst of World War II. When this is taken into consideration, it makes the character more poignant as the first feature length film is smashing box office records in cinemas. The book is split into five sections; Part I ‘You Are a Wonder Woman’, Part II ‘Dispatches from Man’s World’, Part III ‘When

THE LATEST RELEASES REVIEWED AND RATED

movie universe of humanoid synthetics and facehuggers, with Alien: Covenant. Set between the events of Scott’s Prometheus and the original Alien, the book closely follows the events of Scott’s latest film. The crew of the doomed colonisation ship Covenant, on course for a remote planet on the opposite side of the galaxy, interrupts their journey to explore what first appears to be an uncharted paradise. But instead of God or god-like engineers, the crew find a dangerous world that reflects Scott’s original title for the film, Paradise Lost. Smilingly inhabited only by the synthetic “David” and bizarre alien lifeforms, the crew must attempt a harrowing escape before they share the fate of the planet’s original inhabitants: the giant humanoids encountered in Prometheus. There are some differences to the film, however, that make for some nice surprises for fans of the original Alien Trilogy novels Foster had previously penned, which also differed slightly and massively in places to the original films. Part of the pleasure

of reading Foster’s adaptations is to spot those differences, and so well received have these novels become that for some Alien fans the Foster novels outshine the films they are based on. Foster’s slow-paced writing style suits the science fiction horror genre that Alien has come to define perfectly and the acclaimed author’s attention to detail and plot elements adds layers to scenes in the film that should of been given more screen time. The opening prologue involving David’s first interaction with his creator Mr. Weyland is a good example of this. In a way, the novel is almost like an accomplished writer’s DVD commentary on the film, explaining to readers character motivations and plot elements that only repeated re-watching of the film version could make clear for audiences otherwise.

I Deal with Them, I Deal with Them’, Part IV ‘God(s), Country, Sorority’, and Part V ‘Tying Up Loose Ends’. To begin with, the first few essays look at Wonder Woman as a feminist icon, how her creator was a staunch advocate of women’s rights, and how the empowerment of women in wartime America (and the redomestication that followed it) influenced the character’s development and growth. For anyone unacquainted with Wonder Woman’s background, this is an interesting topic to explore as we are shown how the empowered Amazonian was not always as galvanising as we may have first thought. In the first half of the book, there is a heavy focus on Simone de Beauvoir and her theories on women, which, although necessary, can become repetitive if reading in one sitting. Amongst this half of the book, we look at the anticipated categories of gender expectations, costume and sexualisation, and the timeline Wonder Woman has followed according to who was writing her, and America’s domestic (and sometime foreign) influences at the time. For anyone familiar with gender studies, most of what is discussed here is not surprising, but it is nevertheless an interesting read. One chapter, in particular, looking at the New 52 Wonder Woman comics and Diana’s now romantic relationship with the man of steel is a compelling read; offering a critical look at how by changing the dynamics of the pair’s relationship from platonic to romantic, it is a comment on societies need to place emphasis on romantic love over love for a friend as the ultimate definition of love. Aside from the expected look into feminist theory which can often engulf Wonder Woman,

there are some other interesting philosophical quandaries Wonder Woman poses that do not initially come to mind. Chapters that look into the Greek mythology from which Wonder Woman is born from provides an interesting look into the notion of God; the implications of being a God, their deaths, and how Gods reflect our own exploration into the meaning of life. This also stems into a look into Diana’s use of her Godly power and her unashamed willingness to kill if there is no viable alternative, unlike Batman and Superman, who either refuse to or psychologically suffer from the consequences of killing. The final section of the book wittily titled ‘Tying Up Loose Ends’ looks at the lasso of truth and places particular emphasis on her creator, William Moulton Marston, and how his very personal preferences created and are still present within Wonder Woman’s character. This chapter not only highlights how Marston was the creator of the lie detector and how the lasso of truth mirrors this, but also his BDSM fetishism. Wonder Woman and Philosophy proves to be an interesting read whether you are well versed in her comic history or not. It manages to explore deep philosophical thinking without losing readers who may be new to the theories debated. For anyone interested in the greater implications of Wonder Woman, especially now her influence has widened with her emergence on the silver screen, this book is a good basis to start.

RICHARD THOMAS

SOPHIE ATHERTON

101

DOCTOR WHO: MYTHS AND LEGENDS AUTHOR: RICHARD DINNICK / PUBLISHER: BBC BOOKS / RELEASE DATE: OUT NOW

MINECRAFT: THE ISLAND AUTHOR: MAX BROOKS / PUBLISHER: DEL RAY / RELEASE DATE: OUT NOW Throughout the history of gaming, there have been many examples of franchises and games breaking the previously set-out boundaries. Super Mario, Pac-Man, Game and Watch, Mega-Man and countless

AUTHOR: NINA ALLAN / PUBLISHER: TITAN BOOKS / RELEASE DATE: OUT NOW

more obvious (the Sontarans, the topical Mondasian Cybermen) to the more obscure (the Macra, for example). Despite the Doctor Who setting, the Doctor only makes occasional appearances, and is directly named. It’s an odd choice, and perhaps the Doctor should have been present in most stories, or none. We do get a range of other characters, and there’s plenty of coverage of many aspects of the show’s history, and wide coverage of its mythology (just as well given the title), including the legendary war with the vampires. It’s not all big sweeping battles, sometimes it’s just a chance to visit a key moment in Time Lord history. Sometimes, the stories finish just in time to set up a

storyline already seen on TV, giving an extra layer for the reader to enjoy. The choice of a single author adds to the coherence of the set, but it may have been more interesting had it been the product of a range of writers, rather than just one. This is not to suggest any flaw in Richard’s prose, but these collections tend to be more interesting when they have many contributors. If you’re in the mood for a new set of Doctor Who themed short stories, Myths and Legends may just be what you’re looking for. If not, you won’t miss anything by skipping it.

other examples exist of this. One of the more recent examples is Minecraft. Many kids (and plenty of adults) spend hours building and surviving in Minecraft. People have made a living uploading their comedic adventures to YouTube. As parents are confused at the dinner table when their offspring talk about ‘Endermen’ and ‘spleefing’ and other words they don’t know. It seemed inevitable that eventually Minecraft would expand its blocky horizons to the medium of written fiction. With that comes Minecraft: The Island, a novel from Max Brooks, known by many as the author of World War Z. The idea is exciting. Minecraft is a world where the only limits are the things you build and the rather angular shapes you have to build them in. So a novel about such a free world would be a very entertaining read, packed with excitement and intrigue. Right?

Well, the book is certainly very faithful to the original work, whilst adding a background of its own. The protagonist wakes up in the Minecraft world, shocked to find that everything is now built from cubes. He has no memory of his past life, he’s trapped on an island where scary monsters come out at night and must learn the skills necessary to survive. Read on as he learns many things about Minecraft, such as how to set up a sustainable farm and Zombies being bad (that seems to be a continuous theme in Max Brooks’ works). Unfortunately, whilst the book is very faithful to the game, this is what simultaneously holds it back from doing anything particularly exciting. When making a novel based on an established piece of media, one would hope the rules and laws of that property would give it a platform to work off, but here, it feels like they pin the story

down very firmly. The plot is too bogged down by these rules, and when a novel is spawned from a game with such a creative message, it’s a shame that The Island feels so constrained and trapped, much like the protagonist. Young readers might find some enjoyment in this book, comparing this story of survival with their own games, and perhaps thinking very smugly to themselves about how they’re better at the game (and they just might be; it took 12 chapters for the protagonist to learn how to make a sword). The occasional geeky reference will treat some readers, but ultimately, Minecraft: The Island pulls its punches and doesn’t really do much with the source material.

Selena’s sister Julie disappeared twenty years ago. When she went missing, stories speculating about what may have happened to her were numerous and dramatic. Had she fallen victim to a local serial killer? Did any of the dozens of freaky letters the family received from anonymous strangers, psychics and psychos hold any clues? Their father always believed the truth might be far more mysterious and esoteric, but he died without ever discovering the answers. And now Julie is back. Or, at least, someone who says she is Julie. And when she finally tells Selena what actually happened, it throws Selena’s life into chaos. Is this really her long lost sister, or is she a callous imposter? She remembers details about their childhood that only the real

Julie would know, but surely her explanation about what happened to her can’t be real? Has Julie really spent the intervening years living on another planet, or has she experienced some kind of psychotic break? If she is an imposter, what does she have to gain by assuming Julie’s identity and insinuating herself back into Selena’s life? And what toll will her maybe-sister’s arrival take on Selena’s own sanity? The Rift is a rich, intricate, intriguing book that doesn’t cheat on its multi-level premise and gives the reader plenty to think about when the story is over. Part family drama, part detective story, part speculative science fiction, part thriller, it’s a worthy successor to Nina Allan’s previous novel The Race although, in spirit, it feels a lot

closer to her excellent collection of short stories The Silver Wind: Four Stories of Time Disrupted. But it’s not perfect. The constant references to old TV shows and movies - everything from Stars in Their Eyes to Picnic at Hanging Rock - becomes tiring and self-indulgent, and the frequent inclusion of old newspaper reports, examination notes, essays, and other character’s POV’s often subtracts from rather than adds to the rhythm of the storytelling. Still, The Rift is an interesting, thoughtprovoking read, and it will keep you guessing right to the very end… and even, maybe, beyond.

TONY JONES

TOM ACTON

IAN WHITE

BOOKS

THE RIFT

Subtitled Epic Tales from Alien Worlds, Richard Dinnick’s (not credited on the dust jacket) Doctor Who: Myths and Legends is a collection of fourteen short stories all set in the wider universe of the TV show. There’s a unifying theme, all the stories also echo various pieces of mythology, from the Homer’s Odyssey, and a range of other classical sources. This gives the set a pleasing unity and works well as a device. Richard Dinnick has written a range of books, TV and comics, for the likes of Thunderbirds. His books include Sherlock Holmes, Doctor Who, and Stargate, and he is currently writing for Titan Books on their Doctor Who range. His stories are all to the point, and cover a range of alien races from the

102

75 YEARS OF DC COMICS: THE ART OF MODERN MYTHMAKING

BOOKS

AUTHOR: PAUL LEVITZ / PUBLISHER: TASCHEN / RELEASE DATE: OUT NOW There are an endless supply of coffee table books dedicated to comic books and superheroes, and this updated - and undeniably grand - entry to the library may not be as comprehensive as some but is still an absolute joy to read. Were you (rightfully) turned off by New 52? Well, don’t fret as since this massive volume only covers the first 75 years of DC’s existence, we only get to 2009, so not only is that debacle missing, but the new flawed movie universe and successful TV arm are not touched upon. Not that it makes a difference since this is a more a glorious visual history than a text-heavy account of the publisher’s legacy (although it still succeeds in doing that, too). As the title suggests, the emphasis of this mammoth work is the artwork, and it certainly succeeds in celebrating that. It’s not just the usual suspects that make the pages, here. Who can forget the parody comic Plop!? Well, probably quite a few people, but the likes of that and the even earlier ‘Stone

Age’ incarnations of titles like Fun Comics, Detective Comics (which, of course, would spawn a certain bat-based hero) and Adventure Comics that gave way to the Golden Age and the start of something really important. Make no mistake about it, this is a weighty and almost essential purchase. While it may not be as in-depth with information about individual characters, it’s never less than fascinating and the illustrations are simply mouth-watering. Of interest to younger comics fans might be the focus on the later, darker, DC output. From the grimness of The Killing Joke to Alan Moore/Dave Gibbon’s Watchmen and Neil Gaiman’s unsurpassed triumph The Sandman and Garth Ennis’ popular Preacher. For those who want the company’s legacy in one neat place, there’s even several tri-fold pullouts with a complete timeline of important incidents/releases. Closing out the book is a handy guide

to some of the main players both behind the scenes at DC and those who brought the most famous heroes to life on the screen - up to a point, that is. The most recent incarnations - essentially from the ‘80s onwards - strangely, are not included (although there are notes about the Tim Burton films in the text), but Linda Carter (Wonder Woman), Christopher Reeve (and, indeed, George Reeves - both Superman), and the recently departed Adam West are there among the artists and writers who made DC the behemoth it is today. You may not read it cover to cover often, but like the best coffee table books, it’s a beauty, just make sure you have reinforced your furniture, and be prepared to test your knee muscles with its sheer weight! MARTIN UNSWORTH

103

CHARLIE ELLIS AND THE DAY TRIP TO MARS AUTHOR: PAUL SUTTON / PUBLISHER: BUFFALO BOOKS / RELEASE DATE: OUT NOW

THE RISE AND FALL OF D.O.D.O. AUTHORS: NEAL STEPHENSON, NICOLE GALLAND / PUBLISHER: THE BOROUGH PRESS / RELEASE DATE: OUT NOW

AUTHOR: JOHN GRIBBIN / PUBLISHER: ELSEWHERE PRESS / RELEASE DATE: OUT NOW

innocence, real-world science, pop culture (Elvis, Star Wars, The Day the Earth Stood Still and Ken Russell all get a mention), rollicking Boys Own adventure stories, and even Jules Verne and H. G. Wells. This is the kind of book that isn’t written very often, with hefty dollops of charm and a massive splat of reassuringly un-po-faced morality running through it (along with some lovely nuggets of general knowledge); the kind of book that makes you smile while you’re reading it. It isn’t perfect - a little more sciencefantasy added to the mix would have been welcome - and its occasionally old-fashioned tone, a bit like a school teacher reading to the class, makes us wonder what audience Charlie

Ellis and the Day Trip to Mars is aimed at – the language is a little too dense for younger children, and it might be a bit too quaint for older kids, but grown-ups who haven’t quite grown up yet will absolutely love it. And the best news is that it’s apparently the start of a series, so Charlie Ellis has a lot more adventures in the offing. If there’s any justice to the publishing world, and if author Paul Sutton goes further down the Jules Verne route and throws something phantasmagoric into the mix, Charlie Ellis should one day be the next big thing…

1851. Kensington, London. Harvard scholar Melisande Stokes chronicles how a combination of science, time-travel and magic led her to become trapped in the mid eighteenth century in this entertaining thriller that reunites Mongoliad collaborators Stephenson and Galland for their most ambitious adventure to date. The story begins in retrospect. Melisande details – with numerous humorous asides to the reader – how she was recruited from her life working as a lowly and undervalued adjunct professor in the Department of Ancient and Classical Linguistics at Harvard by mysterious government agent Tristan Lyons. Tristan needs Melisande’s help in translating ancient artefacts, but frustrates her by refusing to reveal anything of significance regarding her mission, including what D.O.D.O., the special branch Tristan works for, actually does, or

stands for. Melisande eventually learns that she has been assigned to assist with an investigation into the historic disappearance of magic, and more specifically, whether it is possible to bring it back. Together, Melisande and Tristan’s research leads them to Dr. Frank Oda, a disgraced scientist who fell foul of the press following a series of controversial experiments drawn from the theory of Schrödinger’s cat, who they seek to assist them in creating a temporal space in which it may be possible to create some supernatural wizardry. The trio are then promptly joined by a witch, sent from Melisande back in 1851 (bear with us), and together the unlikely team begin to forge a connection between science and magic to create (or recreate, depending on which perspective you’re looking at this from) time travel. Things escalate quickly from there,

and whilst it’s impossible to reveal more without venturing into spoiler territory, be assured that it’s every bit as perplexingly entertaining as it sounds. Split into five parts and peppered with letters, reports and diary entries in addition to the deliciously pacey narrative, the books stands at some 750+ pages but rarely feels weighed down by its own ambition. Time travel is far from an original concept amongst science fiction, and whilst the failure of recent TV shows that focused on this theme might hint at audience fatigue, D.O.D.O. boasts a likeable series of characters and an engaging plot that doesn’t take itself too seriously and is all the more enjoyable for it.

John Gribbin is one of the most accomplished science fiction novelists of his generation, melding visionary storytelling with an assured grasp of real-world science. But he also writes short stories and twenty-three of them are featured in this interesting, if hit-and-miss collection. There are stories about time travel and doomsday devices, alien Princes and the cultivation of new Edens. Two of the best are a time-shifting tale that will have a huge resonance for anybody who has read Audrey Niffenegger’s The Time Traveler’s Wife, and a story about the disasters that happen when a future music fan decides to travel back in time to record Buddy Holly’s last concert. A toobrief story about a dwarf who believes that a library of books

can create a wormhole is a lot of fun as well, and throughout the anthology there are several prescient nods towards the subject of climate change. There are also two very cool sciencefact articles included in the mix – DIY instructions about how to build your own time machine, and a hypothesis that the Moon is actually a Babel Fish. But even though most of the stories only run to a handful of pages, quite a few of them do manage to outstay their welcome. Many of these tales were written for magazines like Analog, so don’t expect carefully crafted prose. Gribbin has some fantastic ideas and is so eager to share them with his audience that the words in-between those ideas are just a means to an end, a kind of perfunctory

shorthand that makes some of his stories quite uncomfortable to read. His characters, more often than not, are cyphers. Equally, his dialogue is emotionless tech-speak. And that makes reading Don’t Look Back in its entirety quite frustrating, despite the fact that there is a wonderful imagination at play within these pages. This is an anthology that should be dipped into from time-to-time, when you are more in the mood for mind-expanding ideas than style and characterisation. But, where mind-expanding ideas are concerned, Gribbin certainly delivers.

IAN WHITE

TOMMY JAMES

IAN WHITE

BOOKS

DON’T LOOK BACK

Charlie Ellis is a thirteen-yearold boy who has built a flying saucer with his engineer friend Steve Atherton. News footage of the pair flying around the Earth in their homemade UFO have made them a global talking point, and when they announce that they are going on a day trip to Mars, the whole world (and Charlie’s grandparents/ guardians) holds its breath. But what should have been a quick and breezy spin around the legendary red planet takes a lethal turn when… well, that would be spoiling the story. Just know there’s a lot more than that to follow. If that synopsis sounds vague it’s because Charlie Ellis and the Day Trip to Mars is a book that shouldn’t be spoiled. It is a love letter to childhood

104

VIEW FROM THE

WATCHTOWER

COMICS

eaders of this column may have noticed that I didn’t report on the twist ending of Secret Empire #2 last month. I wasn’t avoiding it as such; I just didn’t feel there was enough substance to the reveal to comment on it. One month and three issues later, not much has changed on that front. For those who don’t know, the issue in question ended with Steve Rogers showing up out of the blue. He is sporting the sort of beard worn by all superheroes who’ve gone somewhere for a while, and he is very clearly not a Hydra agent. The segments that have expanded on this twist in issues three, four, and five haven’t revealed much, and they aren’t really connected to the rest of the story taking place in Secret Empire. Red Skull showing up

at the end of #5 and promising to save Steve was something of a twist, though. Also, Bruce Banner is apparently alive and incarcerated by Hydra. I know superhero deaths haven’t been permanent for a while now, but I swear it’s taking less time for them to come back than it used to. June 2017 was Pride Month, and all of the different companies celebrated in different ways. One notable release came in the form of Iceman #1. For those who are unaware, Iceman came out as gay in April 2015. Only a few LGBT characters have ever achieved their own solo title in mainstream comics, and it is encouraging to see Marvel using Pride Month to add to that list. Sadly, not every company used the

GARETH EVANS PULLS MONITOR DUTY TO BRING YOU THE LATEST FROM THE WORLD OF COMICBOOKS

opportunity that Pride Month presented positively. During the first week of Pride, Image Comics released The Divided States of Hysteria #1. This issue featured a trans female sex worker getting assaulted by her clients. Such a story would be an unwelcome sight whenever it was published due to the epidemic of real world violence often committed against trans women by cis men, but the fact that it was published during Pride Month is especially galling. I’m in a position where I get to see myself represented positively in an uncountable number of comic book stories. Transgender men, women, and enbies should have that too. They shouldn’t have to put up with stories that exploit violence against them for shock

105 Red Diamond and issue one will be released September 6th (what is it about September 6th?) to coincide with the second Kingsman movie. The Red Diamond will be a sequel to the original comic book and feature the main character Eggsy on a mission to save Prince Philip (so it’s not a great start to the Duke of Edinburgh’s retirement, then). Previously, I mentioned the Edge of Venomverse series and the first issue was released just as I am writing this. It focused on an alternative version of X-23 (or Laura for fans of the Logan movie) who became the host to the Venom Symbiote. Apart from the very last page, the story kept the focus to how Laura bonded with the Symbiote and what she chose to do with her newfound power. It was a welltold story, with a horror movie vibe to it, and it leaves me optimistic about the quality of the series as a whole. According to the back of the issue, there will be four more issues of Edge of Venomverse, one spin-off comic, and five issues of Venomverse itself. I have talked about a lot of comic book crossovers during my time at the helm of the Watchtower so far, and I am going to close things this month by talking about one more. Starting in (can you guess what month I’m going to say?) September, DC and Dark Horse will be teaming up to co-publish a six-issue crossover between Wonder Woman and Conan the Barbarian. The series will be written by Gail Simone (because really, who else would they pick to write this?), and the art will be by Aaron Lopresti.

COMICS

value. More so than with any other stories I strongly encourage readers to do more reading on this. As a cis man, my voice should not be the one you turn to for this sort of information. Magdalene Visaggio, for example, is a trans writer who spoke out against the issue. If you have trouble finding her tweets, Bleeding Cool used them as the basis for an article on the subject, and they spell out exactly what is wrong with the comic. I really hope that my readers take the time to check it out if they haven’t done so already. I would also like to thank Mia Violet for her help with this part of the column; I am very grateful to her for her assistance in making sure it was handled properly. In the Batman comics, Batman and Catwoman have had something of an onagain-off-again relationship. At times they have been estranged, and at others, they have almost been living together. They have even been married in a few stories set on alternative continuities to the main series. In Batman #24, their relationship hit another important milestone when Bruce proposed to Selina. The reader doesn’t see Selina’s answer, but given that Batman #25 features the two of them in bed together as Bruce opens up about his past, I am willing to bet that she said yes. At this moment in time, though, it isn’t certain that they will make it to the aisle. The Hush storyline of 2003 showed the two enter into a committed relationship only for that same storyline to split them up. Plus, it was only a couple of years ago that the people in charge of DC were adamant that none of their heroes should be married. I hope I’m wrong, but this seems less like a new shift in the status quo than the sort of storyline that writers like to experiment with for a few months before it gets discarded. One news item that seems to crop up with increasing frequency in this column is yet another announcement of a comic book spin-off to a famous property from another media. This month’s View from the Watchtower is no exception. In fact, I have three comic book spin-offs to tell you about!

Firstly, the character of John Wick will be getting an origin story. On September 6th, Dynamite Comics will release the first in a series of comics set to reveal the origin of the John Wick movies’ titular character. Although the films certainly have a cult appeal, I will leave it to fans of the series to determine whether or not this was a story that needed to be told. Next up in our ‘what franchise will comic books milk next?’ segment is news of a Samurai Jack comic. That’s right; if you are already missing your fix of Samurai Jack after Season Five (finally) brought closure to the show, then this could be the comic for you. This comic will be released in September by IDW and will be called Quantum Jack. As for the plot, well, it’s basically Quantum Leap. Part of me wishes I were making that up, but no, Quantum Jack has pretty much the setup of the famous show that starred Scott Bakula as body-hopping Sam Beckett, only with Samurai Jack as the main character. I would be lying if I said that the unoriginal premise was enough to make me overlook the fact that it will still be a Samurai Jack comic, and there is still a good chance I’ll pick up an issue. Finally, Kingsman is set to get another comic book. Unlike the other two, this one isn’t strictly speaking an adaptation of a story from another medium. As many will know by now, the Kingsman comic and first movie were developed alongside one another. But it’s my column, so I’ll include it anyway. The comic will be called Kingsman: The

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REVIEWS

THE PLIGHT #1

AUTHOR: RICHARD ALLEN, GREG LIDDLE / ARTIST: TOMMY CREE / PUBLISHER: DESERT WHALE COMICS / RELEASE DATE: OUT NOW

COMICS

When astronomer Cal discovers a previously unrecorded comet streaking across the sky, it becomes one in a series of moments that culminate in an event

THE ADVENTURES OF JOHN BLAKE: MYSTERY OF THE GHOST SHIP WRITER: PHILLIP PULLMAN / ARTIST: FRED FORDHAM / PUBLISHER: GRAPHIX / RELEASE DATE: OUT NOW

THE LATEST COMIC BOOK RELEASES REVIEWED AND RATED

that may end up having ramifications for the whole world. To give a full rundown of The Plight’s concept would be little spoilerific, as precisely what’s going on is gradually revealed as the comic progresses, but suffice to say, it involves some decidedly untraditional interpretations of universal powers. God has become complacent in his omnipotence, the Devil has grown crafty in learning from his defeats, and Death is a weary and sarcastic presence of a shadowed face in a hoodie wearing a black kilt with a goat skull sporran. The latter of these also acts as the narrator, offering some ruminations on the nature of life and intransigence of death as he spins his story that goes as far to suggest that deities, as well as mortals, are all merely pieces in a celestial game that can never have a true winner. Cal acts as a relatable everyman, who, with a loving family and a successful career, is representative of everything achieved by people content in their happiness. The contrast between the two storylines seems to suggest that despite God and the Devil’s eternal struggle over control of humanity, they don’t actually see the people who make it up and instead merely want the sense of power that comes with the right to rule. It’s only at the very end that the strands come together, but when they do, it becomes clear they were on course for

an inevitable collision as a result of the misfortune of probability. Each event in everyone’s life is the result of innumerable other occurrences, without any one of which their life would have ended up in a completely different direction, and it’s this juxtaposition of occurrences both insignificant and cosmic that infuse events with a sense of welcome uncertainty. It’s an intriguing setup and one with a lot of scope to develop, and while it’s difficult to predict exactly where the story is going to go from here, it’ll be interesting to see what it does when it gets there.

Phillip Pullman is best known for the His Dark Materials series, a set of children’s fantasy novels that challenge much of the received wisdom for the entire fantasy genre. His work, as a rule, is both accessible and clever. The Adventures of John Blake is his first attempt at a graphic novel, and it’s a rather stunning début. Originally available in serial format via popular children’s comic The Phoenix, The Adventures of John Blake: Mystery of the Ghost Ship sets out a rather interesting and odd world. The titular character is a young man who happens to be trapped upon a mysterious ship called the Mary Alice. The ship has something of a reputation; sailors throughout the ages report the same ship and the same young person with a rather intense glare. When the crew of the Mary Alice rescue a 14-year-old Serena from drowning, the young lass uncovers a shocking secret. The ancient schooner is trapped in time, doomed to skip from era to era. This is the opening pitch for the series and the world. There is, of course, much more to it. We get all of Pullman’s favourite motifs here. Super-competent super spies, seemingly arcane GPS-style

devices that are wondrous in application and nature and, of course, very, very competent young people doing the right thing in a world filled with corrupt adults. This is essentially a very well-paced thriller with a smattering of fantasy elements. Strip away the strangeness and we still have a very solid adventure story. Add the strange devices, the time travel experiments and spy-fi elements and what we get is a cracking read for people of all ages. Fred Fordham’s art is rather gorgeous. It’s cinematic in an animated sort of way; the entire book feels like it’s pulled from an incredibly high quality animation. The attention to detail is spot on and the character design is clever and smooth. Fordham also has to draw an awful lot of background and even though this is (sort of) set in the real world, the detail is nothing short of fantastic. The book is part one of a series, but this is a complete story. There are little in the way of cliffhangers, but we’ll definitely look forward to the next one.

ANDREW MARSHALL

ED FORTUNE

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SALTIRE: LEGEND ETERNAL #1

AUTHOR: JOHN FERGUSON / ARTIST: LYDIA PRAAMSMA, KASEY SCHIAVONE / PUBLISHER: DIAMONDSTEEL COMICS / RELEASE DATE: OUT NOW Saltire is a fantasy saga featuring the eponymous protector of Scotland, a blueskinned immortal warrior summoned via the Stone of Destiny who defends the nation from encroaching threats. Previous instalments have only shown characters at a time of crisis, the action kicking off almost as soon as the comic begins and battle being joined swiftly

WRITER & ARTIST: MASAMUNE SHIROW / PUBLISHER: KODANSHA COMICS / RELEASE DATE: OUT NOW

As sure as night follows day, the release of a Hollywood adaptation of a comic book series will cause a deluxe version of the source material to hit the shelves of your local bookshop. Typically, this means that publishers look for the best available version of comic book story to flog to unsuspecting punters. For example, Marvel will cheerfully sell you freshly written tales, even though the movies tend to be based on decades-old source material. Same goes for DC; it’s always the new shiny thing, not the Golden Age reprints from the middle of last century. Less mainstream books don’t have that luxury, however. Masamune Shirow’s Ghost in the Shell is as far as you can get from mainstream western comics, all the way to Japan in fact. These are the books that started off a massive franchise that included a cult animated movie, a pile of TV shows and a rather mediocre Hollywood outing. Ostensibly a cyber-punk crime thriller, most of the fans of the series will tell you that its biggest draw is its main character; sexy super cyborg Major Motoko Kusanagi and her team, Public Security Section 9. The problem is, you can rather tell that this was a ‘90s-style comic aimed at adolescent boys. Ghost in the Shell – Deluxe Edition is a warts and all release. All three books (Ghost in the Shell, Man-Machine Interface, and Human-Error Processor)

ANDREW MARSHALL

7 have been bunged into lovely hardbacks, had their art cleaned up slightly and have been printed on good quality paper. Masamune Shirow’s original manga has never looked so good, especially when you consider they were originally intended as disposable reads for young men. What’s brutally apparent from the manga is that much of the development work came later. Shirow tries to cram a full cyberpunk world into a very small space. The serialised nature is obvious and the pacing is very, very choppy. Even accounting for the way the reading order is different, the action is all over the place and panels don’t tell the story that well. Shirow tells much more often than he shows, saving his attention to detail for big guns and semi-naked ladies. The storytelling is much better in the anime; the comics are simply unable to draw the reader in. As an artefact of something that would become a huge smash, they’re worth a look, but they simply aren’t good comic books. Ghost in the Shell needs a comic-based reboot; one with better art and writing. ED FORTUNE

COMICS

GHOST IN THE SHELL - DELUXE EDITION

after. Now we see some of the day-to-day lives of the Guardians, Saltire’s mortal allies with inherited mantles of magical power who each oversee a region of the country. As their lives’ purpose is reduced to awaiting a call to arms that might never come, what was once a prized honour has become an obligation with faded significance. Although imbued with

otherworldly strength, they are still human, with all the associated fallibilities and frustrated ambitions that plague all people, be they everyday or everlasting. Even Saltire himself, undying and unyielding against the changing nation, contemplates a time when he will no longer be needed. A couple of quick bursts of action intersperse the drama, but for the most part, the story is a far more subdued tale and one focused more on the people involved than on combat and unearthly forces. However, a new threat is arising in the form of Viking berserkers setting their sights across the North Sea, the fertile lands proving too tempting a target to ignore, while also being spurred on by the prophecy of an ancient and dying soothsayer, whose identity may soon be revealed to be someone a little familiar. The artwork is more akin to traditional comic book stylings than the effervescent flare of Invasion or the shadowed gore of Annihilation, lending a more standard look that nevertheless fits the fantasyhistorical tone. The comic’s full-colour A4 pages are practically a visual invocation of the story’s intended epic nature, as though the scale of the story is too much to be contained by standard-sized pages. The multi-issue arc is a new direction for the series, the previous books each containing a full and distinct story (even the expressly two-part Annihilation was a pair of separate tales), and this first of six doesn’t quite deliver the instant excitement that readers might expect, but given how it ends, it’s fairly safe to assume that things will speed up before too much longer.

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ANIME-NATION

A monthly round up from the world of Anime And mAngA from littleAnimeblog.com’s dominic cuthbert

COWBOY BEBOP Lined Up For Live-Action TV Series

Like it or not, let’s blow this scene. Tomorrow Studios is developing a live-action Cowboy Bebop, with executive production from the original anime’s studio Sunrise, plus Prison Break’s Marty Adelstein. Chris Yost of Thor films The Dark World and Ragnarok is writing the adaptation, but at the time of going to print, further details are yet to be announced.

SHONEN JUMP hits 50

Tanjobi Omedeto! 50 years of Jump joy with series like Dragon Ball and One Piece is excellent cause for celebration. You could always join in by submitting your own manga masterpiece to a competition chaired by Naruto creator Masashi Kishimoto. Just an idea. The whole world is welcome with one-shots of 55 pages or less, the Grand Prize awarding one million yen (about £7,000) and publication in Shonen Jump. Deadline for entries via the MediBang comic creator website is January 5th, and results will be announced in spring 2018.

Bandai Namco VR Zone Set to Open in London

PPAP’s PIKOTARO Picked for Improv Anime Mr Pen-Pineapple-Apple-Pen himself performs off-the-cuff fairy tales for Pikotaro no Lullaby Lullaby, an anime premiering this summer. Each three-minute episode is inspired by beloved stories such as The Little Match Girl and Little Red Riding Hood. Pikotaro (aka Kazuhito ‘Daimao’ Kosaka) voices every character, including himself, and is credited as the original creator.

ATTACK ON TITAN, FOOD WARS! and More Confirm New Seasons

ANIME

So many anime up for renewal - where do we begin? Where else but behind the walls for 2018’s Attack on Titan Season Three? It’s more than a hop with the old manoeuvre gear away, but a darn sight shorter than the wait for Season Two. Served up alongside it is a third helping of Food Wars!, set to plate up this fall season, and announcements that more Blame! and Knights of Sidonia are on the horizon. Last of all, though the Berserk manga has fallen to another hiatus, Season Two of the anime closed with the hopeful teaser ‘The story continues…’

Bandai Namco Entertainment’s VR Zone Shinjuku in Tokyo already boasts 15 activities based on Dragon Ball, Evangelion, Ghost in the Shell, and more. And there’s even better news - we can ‘Master the Kamehameha’ and ascend to Eva’s ‘Throne of Souls’ in London from this summer. With 39,000 feet of floor space, immersion through projections and goggles, and a ‘Centre Tree’ that allows guests to interact with the building itself, Bandai Namco Entertainment claims its Tokyo facility to be Japan’s largest virtual reality centre. But they still have even bigger plans for possible new facilities in such locations as Singapore, Dubai, and New York.

YouTube Series Gives Honest Look at Being Queer in Tokyo If you’ve already read Gengoroh Tagame’s My Brother’s Husband cover to cover, you might be curious to find out more about what it’s like being gay in Japan. The 12-part series Tokyo Neighbours reaches out to international audiences, sharing little daily delights and drudges of life, love and coming out. As of going to print, the first three episodes are available with English subtitles.

KIKI’S DELIVERY SERVICE Grows Up in Cup Noodle Ads

Kiki is 17 and grabs youth by the broom handle in Cup Noodle’s ‘Hungry Days’ ads. Flying into school with her old friend Tombo, she’s as witchy as ever and he just as nerdy, but something new stirs their hearts as they’re serenaded by Bump of Chicken. Studying in the library and sharing a Harry Potter Halloween, could love be in the air? More importantly, could this lead to a proper Kiki sequel?

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the lAtest releAses reViewed And rAted

REVIEWS

DIGIMON ADVENTURE TRI: THE MOVIE PART 1 BD / CERT: PG / DIRECTOR: KEITARO MOTONAGA / SCREENWRITER: YUUKO KAKIHARA / STARRING: CRISTINA VALENZUELA, KATE HIGGINS, MONA MARSHALL, JUNKO TAKEUCHI/ RELEASE DATE: OUT NOW Digimon Adventure Tri: The Movie Part 1 is the first of five instalments following the original Digi Destined years after the last series ended. It is entitled ‘Reunion’ and that word covers both the positives and negatives of this movie. Since it has been years

since the events of Digimon Adventure 02 (both in real life and in the show), the beginning is concerned with setting up where the main characters are now. We see them try to navigate various responsibilities and the difficulties that can arise from maintaining their friendships.

YU-GI-OH! THE MOVIE: DARK SIDE OF DIMENSIONS

DVD / CERT: PG / DIRECTOR: SATOSHI KUWABARA / SCREENWRITER: KAZUKI TAKAHASHI / STARRING: DAN GREEN, ERIC STUART, WAYNE GRAYSON, GREG ABBEY, AMY BIRNBAUM, DANIEL J. EDWARDS / RELEASE DATE: OUT NOW movie had two and a half but most of the movie was centred around one main duel that followed smaller duels. Dark Side of Dimensions bucks this trend; there are several duels throughout the movie, and they are all fun to watch. They have a quicker pace than duels in the show and they never feel

cast. It is only 20 minutes long but it covers how old cast members feel about returning, and how new actors feel about coming into an established series. It is a fitting inclusion to a movie reuniting with people from the past. Digimon Adventure Tri: The Movie Part 1 isn’t bad. It contains some good elements. The special features are a nice bonus. The characters are all fun to re-discover, it dwells on how they feel about their upcoming struggles and when there is actual action on display it’s solid. The problem is that it feels stretched out. Thanks to the length of the series as a whole, it doesn’t feel like much has been accomplished by the time the credits roll. Future installments of Tri will benefit from the set-up in this movie but what ‘Reunion’ has to offer feels lost among that set-up.

like they are stalling. They start quickly and last as long as they need to. Some of the monsters are animated with computer effects rather than hand drawn and the duels have a feeling of intensity to them that the show rarely managed. The quality of the movie’s action is matched by the quality of its story. The plot revolves around a new set of characters that have the ability to reshape reality, and Kaiba’s attempts to gain the Millennium Puzzle. The main theme of the movie is one of loss. Despite being a celebration of Yu-Gi-Oh’s 20th anniversary, the movie is primarily about learning to let go of your past and say goodbye to people you’ve lost. It is a message that is told beautifully through multiple characters and not once does it feel forced. If there is any one flaw that can be levelled at Dark Side of Dimensions, it’s that there is a lot going on. This may sound like an odd complaint but the movie has a two-hour running time. It never becomes boring

but occasionally it feels like the film could have been better served by being a two or three part mini-series, or if one or two of the duels were cut. An early duel between Yugi and Kaiba, for example, is fun, but probably could have been cut without the movie losing anything. Yu-Gi-Oh! The Movie: Dark Side of Dimension is as close to perfect as a Yu-GiOh movie could be expected to be. The characters all get a chance to shine. It is just as goofy as it has always been, but is backed up by a story with real weight behind it. The card game segments feel like action scenes and the movie revels in how over the top it can be (there’s even a lift that goes to space in this movie). This movie succeeds at being a genuinely good story that adds to its franchise, instead of merely existing to exploit nostalgic fans.

GARETH EVANS

ANIME

Yu-Gi-Oh! The Movie: Dark Side of Dimensions returns to the characters from the original Yu-Gi-Oh manga anime, and is set a year after the end of the original series. Traditionally, Yu-Gi-Oh movies have tended to keep most of the duelling to one match. The Pyramid of Light

After so long away from these characters, it is good to spend some time seeing them get re-established. The problem is that the movie spends far too much time dwelling on these moments. It is entertaining to see Tai struggle to get people to show up to his football game at first, but the subplot lasts way too long. It might be because this is only one fifth of the full series but the whole movie feels like a giant first act. Even when the plot finally gets moving, it doesn’t feel like there is any sort of rush on the part of the Digi Destined to get to the bottom of what is going on, or what the new threat is. There is barely any action in this movie. There are a grand total of three big scenes with action and two of them are over way too quickly. This is a shame because the animation is beautiful and the music is fantastic. The movie itself is supported by a couple of special features. The second is just a brief glimpse at a promo event, but the first is an interview with the English

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COSPLAY CATWALK

A Monthly focus on the costuMed role-plAy scene At fAn conventions Around the world

van wolf anD little vamp this month, we chat to a cosplaying couple about their experiences on the convention scene… STARBURST: How did you both get started with cosplaying? Van Wolf: One of my earliest cosplay memories was running around the house dressed as Zorro. I always enjoyed dressing up when I was young, so cosplaying at conventions was just a natural next step for me. Back in 2012, I started Heroes of Geek, my cosplay group with my best friend, Hane the Dragon, and never looked back! Little Vamp: For me, I was kinda late to the cosplay party and didn’t start cosplaying until my early 20s. I’ve always enjoyed geeky things but none of my friends liked that sort of stuff to the extent I did growing up. When I found out about this global cosplay community, full of tons of like-minded people and conventions where you could give your favourite characters the ultimate recognition and actually get to BE them, I jumped at the chance!

COSPLAY

Who is your favourite character to dress as? VW: Mine’s Logan from the 2017 X-Menlinked movie Logan. I’ve always been a Wolverine fan, especially during the ‘90s animated X-Men TV series, and think Hugh Jackman’s portrayal of him is second to none. Plus it’s the first cosplay I’ve done as part of a direct pair with Little Vamp and posing for pictures together can be hysterical! LV: Hmmmmm, tough question! Classic Harley Quinn in original costume has a very special place in my heart as she’s my all-time favourite character... But I have to go with Dafne Keen’s portrayal of Laura aka X-23 from Logan. I love cosplaying Laura because she’s little but lethal. Trust me when I say it’s a heck of a lot of fun getting to be all moody and silent all day, going around town or having a meal with claws coming out of your hands, whilst being covered in blood. The looks you get are priceless - especially when you’re accompanied by an equally blood-soaked Logan! How long do you spend making the costumes and how much do you usually budget for? VW: It all depends on the costume and how much detail is in it. Accessories and makeup are also key and it’s important to factor it all in when considering a cosplay project. I try to budget as much as possible and always allow enough time to save up for elaborate costumes when lots of attention to detail is needed. My most expensive cosplay to date was my Penguin costume from Batman, which came in around

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£300. However after its début at Cardiff Film and Comic Con a few years back, it quickly became one of my most recognised cosplays and created lots of magazine exposure and interview opportunities so I think it was worth every penny! LV: I am a stickler for accuracy and as Van Wolf said, it all depends on which cosplay you are doing. If I’m reproducing a costume and not simply using an established costume for inspiration and putting my own slant on it, I like to be as accurate as possible and this takes time. I’m not gonna lie and claim I make all my own costumes, ‘coz I don’t. My costumes tend to be through a collaboration of people in terms of creativity and ideas, from commissioned pieces to modification of existing components. I try to shop as smartly as possible and can often be found raiding my local charity shop or budget clothing stores. That being said, I’m quite small and tend to have to get things commissioned or modified to fit me - that and I only have full use of my one arm and my sewing skills are non-existent! I use bought elements in my costumes and I think it’s important to say that there’s no shame in buying parts of or even whole costumes. Cosplaying is meant to be fun and about allowing you to feel comfortable and safe to express yourself, so if you find it easier buying costumes or getting commissions done, go for it!

How has the scene embraced those with disabilities? And what could be improved?

acknowledged but I think the organisers of comic cons and events need to improve on acting upon those challenges. It can sometimes be very difficult to even locate the relevant people to talk to when you come across problems. Crowds can also be very daunting when trying to navigate through a large area, so clearly identifiable staff and effective crowd management would be a big help. You can find out more about Van Wolf and Little Vamp at facebook.com/heroesofgeek, heroesofgeekcosplay.tumblr.com, on Twitter: @heroesofgeek and @Welsh_Harls88 as well as Instagram: @heroes_of_geek_cosplay. Words: Martin Unsworth

COSPLAY

What costumes do you have planned for the future? VW: Ice King from Adventure Time, Hagrid the Gamekeeper from Harry Potter, Hook from the movie Hook, the Beast from the Disney classic animated film Beauty and the Beast and my own take on the Joker from Batman. LV: Marceline the Vampire Queen from Adventure Time, Flame Princess from Adventure Time, Leeloo from Fifth Element, Jessica Hamby (Red Riding Hood cloak version) from True Blood and Daenerys Targaryen (Horse Heart Eater version) from Game Of Thrones.

VW: I feel the cosplay scene is moderately inclusive in terms of the people in the cosplay community itself but there’s a lot of room for improvement in terms of access provisions. For example, not all conventions or events offer concessions for disabled attendees to allow them to fully participate with a companion and very few events anticipate the need for ramped or level access stages. LV: I am a motorised wheelchair user and agree with Van that the community on the whole makes you feel like you are part of a vast, quirky family. We are all different and all deserve opportunities to express ourselves and feel safe and comfortable enough to do so, regardless of how we lead our lives or for fear of persecution. I feel the challenges faced by those with disabilities have been

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PIXEL JUICE

NEWS AND PREVIEWS IN GAMING BY LEE PRICE

COMING SOON

DESTINY 2

PLATFORM: PS4, XBOX ONE RELEASE DATE: SEPTEMBER 6TH

It may have taken a little bit of time to get there, but Destiny has become one of the defining games of the current console generation. Naturally, anticipation runs high for Bungie’s follow up. The game actually offers very few differences to the first. You have the choice of the same three character classes and gameplay works in much the same way as before. The story follows on from Destiny: Rise of Iron, with the player forced to regain their powers to do battle against Dominus Ghaul and the Cabal of the Red Faction.

The E3 Roundup

E3 2017 has come and gone, so let’s get stuck right into the biggest news to come out of the event. Sony Sony has still not quite recaptured the glory of their E3 2015 conference, though in fairness, it’s probably an impossible task. Still, the company did engage in a little wish fulfilment by showing off a little more of Crash Bandicoot: N. Sane Trilogy, essentially a minor reboot of the first three Crash games for the PS4. The company also showcased a new trailer for the upcoming God of War, which will see old Kratos and his son killing stuff. The developers of Until Dawn announced a new game too. Called The Inpatient, it looks like it may be set in the same universe as Until Dawn but will feature an entirely new COMING SOON

cast of characters. We saw more of the new, PS4 exclusive Spider-Man game, which is shaping up very nicely, plus we now know that Skyrim is coming to PlayStation VR, which has the potential to boost sales of the hardware. The biggest announcements involved two classic Sony series, though. Gran Turismo is back with GT Sport and we are going to get a proper remake of the brilliant Shadow of the Colossus. The latter game has us really excited as there is potential for it to stretch far beyond the usual graphical touchups. Maybe we will finally see some of the colossi that were rumoured to be cut from the original release. Microsoft You have to say that Microsoft stole the show this time around. The biggest announcement was the confirmation of the

DISHONORED: DEATH OF THE OUTSIDER

GAMES

PLATFORM: PS4, PC, XBOX ONE RELEASE DATE: SEPTEMBER 15TH

A standalone expansion to Dishonored 2, Death of the Outsider brings back Billie Lurk, who will attempt to track and take down the titular Outsider. Lying somewhere between expansion and full game, Death of the Outsider doesn’t require Dishonored 2 to run, but will also not be quite as beefy as the mainline game. We don’t see many people picking it up as an introduction into the series, though the lower price point that comes with it may count in its favour. It’s definitely one for fans, though.

release date and specs for Project Scorpio. Now named Xbox One X, because Microsoft and imaginative names really don’t go well together, the console will cost $499 in the US, so we imagine it will hit the £499 mark over here too. Microsoft also announced that it will roll out full backwards compatibility for original Xbox titles on the Xbox One. We don’t have a lot more details, but it looks like you won’t be able to play your old Xbox discs on the console. Instead, it’s more likely that Microsoft will make them available to buy via the Xbox Marketplace. The company did promise that a lot of the old games would get enhancements, though. BioWare also unleashed Anthem, its newest IP. The game looks absolutely amazing and seems to be a bit of a departure from the company’s usual RPG fare. Definitely one to look out for. A new version of Minecraft that will unify every version of the game was announced, plus we saw more of the piratey Sea of Thieves. A sequel to the brilliant Crackdown 2 is also on its way, with Terry Crews announcing the game to boot. We’re also going to get more Forza, which was announced in collaboration with Porsche, who took the time to announce their brand new real-world supercar to tie in with Forza 7 in a fairly odd moment. Nintendo Nintendo took E3 a little more seriously this year, using it to announce that Metroid Prime 4 is in development for the

113 Switch. They also told us that Super Mario Odyssey has an October 27th release date and announced that the Switch will get its own version of Rocket League with a few new features. Beyond that, Nintendo played their cards a little closer to their chest with other announcements. We now know that there are new Yoshi, Kirby, and Pokémon games coming to the Switch, though details about any of them are pretty scant at the moment. The Rest Ubisoft finally pulled its finger out and officially announced that Beyond Good and Evil 2 is on its way. The original has become a massive cult favourite and fans have lobbied for the series’ return for years. The trailer looked nice and shiny but it didn’t really tell us a whole lot about how the game will play. Monster Hunter, which is absolutely huge in Japan, will now be released across multiple platforms and the PC, which opens up a massive potential fanbase for the title. Far Cry 5 got a couple of new trailers and Cliffy B, of Gears of War and Bulletstorm fame, is back with a new game called Lawbreakers. Bethesda also pulled off a few great announcements. In addition to Skyrim VR, the company will release Fallout 4 VR and Doom VFR towards the end of 2017. The company also officially announced a sequel to The Evil Within and told us that Wolfenstein II is on its way and will land on October 27th.

No more legal threats from Rockstar

Rockstar has generally been held in high esteem by gamers for its entire existence, but its decision to pursue legal action against modders of its hit Grand Theft Auto series has sparked a little bit of a revolt. It should come as no surprise that the company, alongside parent company Take Two, has decided to back away from its hardline stance in the wake of the backlash.

COMING SOON

MARVEL VS. CAPCOM: INFINITE PLATFORM: PS4, PC, XBOX 1 RELEASE DATE: SEPTEMBER 19TH

There are few gaming crossovers that work as well as that between Marvel and Capcom. Expect the same frenetic fighting action as the previous games from Infinite, only this time the assist system has been removed. In its place is a tagging system that offers more customisation in team-based combos. The likes of Gamora and Rocket Raccoon are here to bolster the Marvel line-up, while Mega Man X and Sigma are new additions to Capcom’s side of things. We imagine several updated releases will occur over the next couple of years, too. Third party modding, in particular that done using the OpenIV tool, will be allowed again. However, modders will apparently need to follow a set of guidelines before releasing their work to the public.

SEGA Announced Free Mega Drive Games for Mobile

You could argue that the Mega Drive has been the bright spot in SEGA’s existence. It’s certainly the only one of the company’s consoles to be revered on the same level as the best offerings from other console manufacturers. SEGA has been

pumping that lineage for money for years, but now it looks like they’re getting a little more altruistic. The company has announced that it will be bringing a bunch of Mega Drive games to mobile platforms throughout 2017. Best of all, the games are completely free to play. Of course, you will have to put up with a bunch of adverts, but you can remove those for a £2.50 fee because nothing is truly free in the world of mobile games. Still, this is great news for fans of the Mega Drive who want to take some gaming on the go. The first batch of games includes the brilliant Comix Zone, the first Sonic,

COMING SOON

METROID: SAMUS RETURNS

PLATFORM: 3DS RELEASE DATE: SEPTEMBER 15TH

GAMES

It’s been a while since we last saw Samus Aran in action. The last Metroid game, Other M, was met with a fairly mixed reaction as it changed up the playstyle. Samus Returns is here to take the series back to basics. Essentially a reboot of the classic Return of Samus, Samus Returns brings back the 2D Metroid gameplay with all of the new visuals and gameplay elements that you would expect. It’s definitely one for fans of the old games and should serve as a great reintroduction for one of Nintendo’s biggest icons.

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POKKÉN TOURNAMENT DX

PLATFORM: SWITCH RELEASE DATE: SEPTEMBER 22ND

Nintendo continues its tradition of not bringing mainline Pokémon RPG games to their home consoles with Pokkén Tournament DX. The fighter allows players to pit Pokémon against one another, much in the same vein as the classic Colosseum and Stadium games. The game will feature five new Pokémon and also introduces three vs. three battles. You can also play online against your friends and a ranking system has been implemented. It should be fun but maybe not worth the investment for people who own the original Pokkén Tournament. and Phantasy Star II among a few others. Look for more great games to land over the coming months.

Mini SNES On The Way

With the success of the Mini NES, it should come as no surprise that Nintendo has announced a follow-up so quickly. The Mini SNES will work in much the same way as its forebear, but there are a few things for PAL gamers to get excited about. The little console will include full versions of Super Mario RPG and Earthbound, neither of which were released in the UK during the first run of the SNES. This is alongside some classic Nintendo games, including Super Mario World, Zelda: A Link to the Past, and the brilliant The Secret of Mana.

The cherry on top is the fact that the console will also come with Star Fox 2. The sequel to Star Fox never saw the light of day anywhere, with Nintendo moving onto the N64 before it could be released. Even so, the code was believed to be finished and gamers have been clamouring to play it for decades. Thanks to the Mini SNES, that little dream will become a reality.

Microsoft AI gets Perfect PAC-MAN Score

We’ll end with something a little lighter this month. An artificial intelligence developed by a company called Maluuba has managed to play a perfect game of Ms. Pac-Man on the Atari 2600. Maluuba is a start-up that falls under the Microsoft banner and its system managed to COMING SOON

achieve a score of 999,000 points on the game, absolutely demolishing the previous record of 266,330, which a real player in Brazil had earned. The score caused the game to completely reset and the entire thing stands as one hell of an achievement for AI. Those of you worrying about an impending judgement day can put your fears to rest. Microsoft has announced that they see the technology being useful in the exiting world of lead generation and sales. Frankly, we’d rather just watch it play videogames better than any of us. Or perhaps that’s how it starts. Maybe Microsoft has seen the true power of its AI and has chosen to employ it in one of the most boring fields known to man in the hopes that it does not become sentient.

BLUE REFLECTION

GAMES

PLATFORM: PS4 RELEASE DATE: SEPTEMBER 29TH

Leave it to Sony to play host to another slightly odd Japanese RPG. Blue Reflection is touted as a game for young women, being as it is a portrayal of the trials and tribulations of growing up female. Only with swords. The game sounds a lot like the Persona series; the protagonists are schoolaged and you can spend your downtime with classmates and completing missions for people. The battles even take place in an ‘Other World’, so it’s pretty clear where the influences lie. Still, it should prove fun for people who enjoy quirky JRPGs.

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THE LATEST GAMING RELEASES REVIEWED AND RATED

REVIEWS

GET EVEN

DEVELOPER: THE FARM 51 / PUBLISHER: BANDAI NAMCO / PLATFORM: PC, PS4, XBOX ONE / RELASE DATE: OUT NOW you realise these are merely a baseline for something much more interesting, involving and even (sniff) emotional. Plenty of effort has been put into creating detailed documents that the player can read if they want to learn more about the game’s world. Some of these are necessary to understand the plot, so it is advised to give as many as possible a look. The combat can be satisfying and fun and at other times somewhat clunky and frustrating. However, the game goes out of its way to encourage you to avoid guns-blazing confrontation and instead use stealth and peaceful solutions in place of killing. Stealth mechanics - should you choose to use them - can be a problem as they are barely explained and will lead into early blunders. Even when mastered, we found ourselves spotted by guards through bushes and from miles away but we did enjoy (yes!) the corner-gun. Puzzles are varied, and quite enjoyable - always ending with a satisfying ‘eureka!’ moment. Although developed in Poland by The Farm 51, it has a very British feel thanks to some excellent homegrown voice work. Sound design is excellent, with a very effective music score perfectly complementing the atmosphere of the zones and emphasising moments of terror or action. This is one

to play with a decent pair of headphones. At first the asylum appears to be a bit of a cliché, solely functioning as a hub for you to access other zones. However, as the game builds it becomes crucial to the plot and is the setting for easily the best sequence, which uses a combination of setting, atmosphere and music to deliver a truly harrowing phase of terror. Commendably over ambitious for its modest budget, Get Even is a midpriced gem full of cool ideas, enigmatic conundrums and clever twists on the firstperson formula. MICHAEL COLDWELL

GAMES

By Bandai Namco’s own admission, Get Even is a difficult game to pin down. In fact, they’ve pretty much made that the USP for this high-concept, first-person trip down the proverbial rabbit hole. You are Cole Black, a sleuth with a Sean Bean drawl (it isn’t him though) who finds himself poking about inside one of those abandoned, over-grown old asylums you’d never go near unless you were, well, a bloke in a video game like this. So why are you there? Why are there armed guards patrolling about? What’s with the girl tied to a chair who disappears before your eyes? And is it worth eight hours of your time and £29 finding out? It’s worth knowing going into Get Even that the plot has been woven by the same writing team responsible for several of Derren Brown’s fiendishly twisty audience participation TV magic specials. You know, the ones where they make people think they’ve just blown up the planet or personally cancelled Christmas for everyone. In other words: nothing is what it seems, so prepare to be well and truly hoodwinked. The story sets up a lot of familiar tropes - memory machines, corporate overlords and disembodied voices are all present and correct. But as you delve further into the game,

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DARKEST DUNGEON: THE CRIMSON COURT DEVELOPER & PUBLISHER: RED HOOK STUDIOS / PLATFORMS: PC, OS X, PS4, PS VITA / RELEASE DATE: OUT NOW (PC, OS X), AUGUST 22ND (PS4/VITA) Adding vampires to any setting opens up new doors. From secret societies to new abilities and afflictions, it grants the developer a chance to really experiment with a few new ideas, and add a new layer to their game. Darkest Dungeon’s already grim and gloomy world adds to this with

this latest DLC - the Crimson Court - with the chance for your heroes to become a desperate bloodsucker themselves. Treating vampirism as a virus you cannot heal, your characters can become afflicted with an unending bloodlust which boosts their attacks but leaves them

vulnerable to the elements. After a time, both are taken to extremes, and you will be forced to hunt for blood to keep them alive. In theory this is fun and fine, but the execution sadly leaves a lot to be desired. The sheer rarity of blood means that your character will often turn upon your companions, and the fact you cannot cure it is another hindrance over this new mechanical element. It leads to more than a few utterly unavoidable deaths as your veterans will keep wasting away, and the fact the bloodgiving district is currently bugged means becoming afflicted is effectively a death sentence. This, combined with the fact you cannot even enter the titular court without bumping into a random drop which can take dozens of hours to find, adds merely another level of grinding onto the game; something it desperately needed to lessen. With this said, though, a few good elements can still be found here. The new class, the Flagellant, is a fun twist on the

NIGHTMARES IN SILVER - CYBERMAN COLLECTOR’S SET

GAMES

PUBLISHER: WARLORD GAMES / RELEASE DATE: OUT NOW Warlord Games own the license for all things Doctor Who Miniatures related. Mostly this means exciting pieces for their Doctor Who: Into The Vortex miniatures game, but it also means that they can produce exciting Who-themed work for the enthusiast. One excellent example is the rather neat Nightmares in Silver - Cybermen Collector’s Set. This is a box of ten Cybermen models, all cast in metal. It covers the history of the Cybermen from the TV show, starting with a Mondasian Cyberman from the Tenth Planet and ending

with the War Cyberman from Nightmare in Silver. All the models are unpainted, have fixed poses and are ‘heroic’ 28mm scale. Basically a little bigger than the scale suggests, but it looks great. The Mondasian Cyberman comes in a very stocky pose, reminiscent of their first appearance. The model is very pretty, even though it’s a horrifying thing. The ‘lamp’ is particularly well done and appears to have been designed with painting in mind. The 1967 Tomb Cyberman is posed as if it’s about to pounce, with the various balls and cables cleverly

arranged in the piece. The 1968 Wheel in Space Model has those iconic teardrop eyes and again strikes a threatening pose. The 1968 Invasion Cyberman is, sadly, not in mid-march. He looks like he’s guarding something and clutches a rifle close to his body, which is a bother for those into modifying models. His cyber-codpiece is very well done though. The 1975 Revenge Cyberman is in a catalogue model pose, showing off his cyber-pants. The piping is fab. Both the 1982 and 1988 Cybermen (Earthsock and Silver Nemesis) are quite close

stress mechanics and the actual enemies of the Court are both fascinatingly well designed and fun to combat. Furthermore, the addition of the districts to the late game portion opens up far more opportunities than with the vanilla build, granting you more ways to approach the finale. All of these would be fine, but the troubling execution of the big selling point unfortunately overshadows them. The bottom line, really, is that this is a weak addition to an otherwise spectacular game. If you have yet to pick up Darkest Dungeon then definitely look into it, but the Crimson Court is simply too problematic and too random to build upon existing elements without ruining the whole experience. Ultimately, this is a series of great and very ambitious ideas which sadly just don’t add anything more than sheer frustration to the game. CALLUM SHEPHARD

4 in design. Again, weapons are sculpted for impact rather than adjustment. Still, we can almost hear the Silver Nemesis piece uttering the word ‘excellent’ as he rubs his hands together. The final three models come from the new Who era, and show off the evolution of the newer baddies. The 2006 Cybus model is in midstomp, whereas the 2011 Legion Cyberman looks badass. The final model, 2013’s War Cyberman (from Nighmare in Silver) looks like a sleek robo-predator. They are lovely-looking things. The set comes in a nifty little box with a wraparound insert that explains the history of each model and which episode of Doctor Who they appear in. The pieces are arranged in thin plastic packaging which is reminiscent of Tomb of the Cybermen (though the models won’t burst out of their own accord). There are no rules in this set, and it’s worth noting that the starter set for Doctor Who into The Vortex contains a dozen easy-fit plastic Cyber Legion Cybermen and rules for Cyber Leaders and the like. This is not a vital addition for anyone collecting Cybermen for the game at this time. It is, however, very cool and extremely pretty; fans of sci-fi wargaming and Doctor Who will have a cyberblast assembling and painting this army of horror. It’ll look lovely on the shelf as well. ED FORTUNE

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RETRO BYTES

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ven people who don’t consider themselves gamers are familiar with the Grand Theft Auto series. What started as a plainlydrawn slightly wonky 2D top-down driving/ shooting mashup has become one of the most successful franchises in gaming over the last 20 years, second only to Nintendo’s juggernauts Mario, Tetris, and Pokémon in terms of overall sales. Thanks to its insistence on constantly evolving with each new title while remaining familiar enough to appease its core audience, GTA has earned widespread acclaim from all corners of the media and has truly earned the iconic status that it holds today. While the first couple of GTA titles had been pretty successful, things really took off with the release of Sony’s PlayStation 2 console, which gave developers Rockstar the capabilities to move into a fully realised 3D world. 2002’s Vice City is cited by many as

the crowning glory of GTA’s PS2 era, with its Miami Vice aesthetic and suitably authentic 1980s soundtrack. As undeniably incredible as Vice City might be, for our money, its followup, 2004’s San Andreas, is the true pinnacle of the series (until GTA V came along, that is). So it’s 1992, and after living in Liberty City for the last five years, Carl Johnson returns to Los Santos to pay his respects to his murdered mother. He arrives to find his old crew splintered apart, gang warfare running rife in the streets, and corruption on every corner. Carl decides to move back to Los Santos for good, vowing to bring his family back together and bring down those responsible for his mother’s death. Along the way, CJ encounters a vast array of colourful characters and finds himself in some truly outlandish and memorable situations. There’s rapper OG Loc, who wants to earn a quick ride to stardom by

A LOOK BACK AT THE WORLD OF RETRO GAMING WITH CHRIS JACKSON

using an already-successful rapper’s stolen lyrics and murdering his manager. Electronics nerd and hobby shop owner Zero provides some interesting (although infuriatingly tricky at times) missions based around remote controlled toys in his attempt to get one over on a rival business owner. Record producer Kent Paul (voiced by ‘professional cockney’ Danny Dyer) and Maccer, the lead singer of ‘The Gurning Chimps’ (voiced by the Happy Mondays’ Shaun Ryder), are discovered lost in the desert after spending the night taking who-knowswhat-manner of what-have-you provided to them by The Truth (Peter Fonda), an ageing hippy who helps CJ get back on his feet in return for destroying a marijuana farm. And these are only the minor supporting cast members! A huge variety of story missions are on offer, ranging from simple drive-by shootings to more intricate heist planning which might involve hijacking some military equipment, airlifting some trucks, or amassing a miniature army of police motorbikes stashed away on the back of a moving truck. It all very much relies on ‘drive there, shoot this thing, then take whatever it is back to where you started’, but no mission feels identical to any other thanks to the beautifully designed environments and tightly scripted characters. Many developers had attempted to bring a cinematic feel to their games before this, but San Andreas just nails everything perfectly at almost every single turn. As with all of the other GTA titles, San Andreas is set in a fictionalised version of real life locations. GTA III had Liberty City (New York) and Vice City was based on Miami, but here in San Andreas, we find ourselves rampaging around three different cities along the western coast of the USA. We first arrive in Los Santos, modelled on Los Angeles, before moving on to San Fierro (San Francisco) and finally ending up in the bright lights of Las Venturas, a glittering neon-filled Las Vegas complete with a casino-lined Strip featuring all of the outlandish architecture you might expect to find there. The entire state as a whole is almost four times the size of Vice City, and is even bigger than the next-gen GTA IV, which is around two thirds of the size of San Andreas. It’s true that there might be a lot of wasted space, but that just provides plenty of opportunities for wasting time cruising around listening to the radio. Eleven stations are on offer, each playing a different genre of music - you’re never too far away from the perfect soundtrack for whatever you might be doing at the time. A particular favourite pastime is recreating the final scene of The Devil’s Rejects - take a long dusty daylight drive in the desert, find Freebird on the radio, start a shootout with some cops... Such a huge landmass is all well and good, but San Andreas would be nothing

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without its wealth of engaging diversions and activities to keep players entertained between its 100 or so story missions. Imagine creating this huge diverse world and then forgetting to put anything of consequence in it! Not that this is really the time or place for it, but let’s just take a quick second to shoot a brief accusing glance in Breath Of The Wild’s direction... None of GTA’s weapons break after a few shots, either. Just saying. Anyway, yes, things to do in San Andreas that you couldn’t do in Vice City. Well... Take a relaxing bike ride up a mountain before parachuting off the top. Get a haircut or a tattoo, or buy some new clothes. Work out in the gym. Hunt for Bigfoot in the forest (hint: he doesn’t exist). Modify your car. Recruit gang members to help out during missions. Go swimming. Burgle some houses. Play pool or go swimming again. Visit a farm, take a combine harvester, run some people over and laugh as mangled up body parts splatter out of the back of the machine. Take a train ride between cities. Smash some cars up in a demolition derby. Become a pimp. Deliver some cargo. Beat up innocent pedestrians with a gigantic purple dildo. Have a go on the arcades, bet on the horse racing, or gamble your ill-gotten gains away in one of the casinos on the Las Venturas Strip. Steal a

lowrider and win some money by bumping your hydraulics in time to the music. Start a turf war and take over the entire county. Or just grab a jetpack and create havoc. Another addition to the GTA formula borrows some cues from the RPG world, with the inclusion of trackable skill stats, which are improved through use during the game. The more you drive, the better you’ll find your car handles. The more you run, the longer you can sprint before needing to catch your breath. Hunger, body fat, weapon proficiency, lung capacity, and even sex appeal are all taken into consideration, and there are various benefits to increasing each individual statistic, resulting in a real sense of progression as you work your way through the game. These are just a handful of the many things that will occupy your time in San Andreas. With the inclusion of cheats that can be activated at any moment, refilling your ammo or replenishing your health or upping your sex appeal or summoning one of those almighty jetpacks at a moment’s notice, it’s one of those games that just eats away at your time without you even realising - before you know it, it’s 5am and you might as well give up on sleep and keep on going until breakfast time.

It’s true that a lot of these diversions we mentioned are very much the sort of things that we almost expect to find in modern games (especially if you’ve played GTA 5), but if you consider that San Andreas was really the first time that so much content was crammed into a single game (and on much less powerful hardware than any of the more modern consoles we might be playing at the moment), you can see how much of an important title it really was. Without San Andreas, who knows where we might be now? Before we wrap up for this month, we should probably offer a quick word of warning. If you haven’t played San Andreas and might be thinking of giving it a go, we’d highly recommend sticking with the original PS2 or Xbox version of the game. A fairly sizeable chunk of songs have been removed from the version currently available online through Steam and the PlayStation store, and the 2014 Xbox 360 ‘remaster’ (basically a weird-looking slightly shinier version of the original) suffers from some bizarre audio issues and is prone to freezing at the most inappropriate moments. And just don’t bother with the iPhone/iPad version, you really need to experience this on the big TV as intended to appreciate it fully. And with that said, this is the end, homies!

GAMES

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ROLL FOR

DAMAGE

GAMES

t’s safe to say that board games are rather fond of their themes and tie-ins. Anything that might be a bit popular tends to get turned into a board game. The approach to this can be wide and varied. Sometimes they simply nail the theme and make the game almost part of the world. Other times, they’re just games wearing the ‘skin’ of something popular. The rarest of beasts, however, is a game from the world of the franchise itself. TAK is a game straight out of the pages of Patrick Rothfuss’ novel, The Wise Man’s Fear, the second book in The Kingkiller Chronicles. The game is used to show how various characters think and it’s only mentioned in the most off-handed way. We don’t really get much detail on the game in the book, only that it’s a game unique to Rothfuss’ world. The game has been designed by James Earnest, the chap best known for his ‘Cheapass Games’ range of simple games that use existing components (such as pawns, dice and money). He’s the chap behind things such as Unexploded Cow, The Great Brain Robbery, and Kill Doctor Lucky. The latter is often described as prequel to Cluedo, though it’s actually a better game than that. Earnest is a very, very good games designer, mostly because he understands

both abstract and theme. All his games have solid underlying mechanics and all of them are easy to learn. TAK is easily his best abstract game so far. They’ve gone for a classic vibe here; the idea is that this could easily be mistaken for Chess, The Game of Ur, Draughts, Mancala or similar. TAK is a new game, but it looks and feels like a game that’s been played for centuries. The aim of the game is pretty straightforward. To win TAK, a player must be the first to create a line of stones connecting opposite sides of the board. We call the line a ‘road’. The game is about building roads and trade routes in the same way that Chess is about war. It’s a two-player game. Each side picks a colour (cream or brown), and the playing pieces (called stones) are different shapes with the same function. Stones can be laid flat or stood on end. When played flat, other flat stones can be stacked on them. You can also stand them on their ends. Standing stones can’t be stacked and they don’t count for building roads. Finally, you have a single ‘king’ piece called a capstone. These can be used to knock standing stones flat, and they count as road pieces. The game can be played on a 3x3 square board, or scaled to 4x4 or 5x5. The rules change

ED FORTUNE GUIDES YOU THROUGH THE REALM OF TABLE TOP GAMING

slightly depending on the board you’re playing on. Small boards don’t use capstones. Gameplay wise, it’s subtle and quick. This is a game that will teach inexperienced gamers how to think multiple moves ahead. It’s adaptable and simple, there’s a gentle learning curve and it sharpens tactical skill. It’s also fun and pretty on the nose. It’s a two-player game and works pretty well as a starter before you settle down to play a more complex and intricate game (such as X-Wing, for example). The game that’s currently out is nice enough and the original Kickstarter featured some beautifully made custom boards. Despite its relative youth, we are already starting to see unofficial boards and pieces hitting services such as Etsy, and given that it’s a game playable on a simple board with common components, it’ll be interesting to see how this one evolves. It may vanish and go the way of Star Trek 3D Chess and Eberron’s Three Dragon Ante, but as a game, it’s got the potential to become part of the background. In attempting to create something authentic to a fantasy world, they’ve actually given the world another (potential) classic game. Does it feel very Patrick Rothfuss? Well, no. To get the feel of his books, it’d have to be a roleplaying game or some complicated theme emulation. Or one of the many dungeon crawler-style games that seem pretty much everywhere these days. It’s nice, though, to see a game that just has bits of wood and a pretty board. Also, it makes a nice change of pace from the great many games out there that seem to feature a literal army of bespoke plastic pawns. There’s a growing trend for too many pieces in games. Whatever happened to just a board, some dice and maybe some cards? Well, they haven’t really gone away. Fantasy Flight Games (those people who produce all things Star Wars and table top related) has pretty much confirmed that with the success of Star Wars: Destiny. It’s specifically a dice and card game, but it’s also a collectable game, meaning that you have to hustle if you want to get the best cards and dice to play. Like most card games, it’s battlebased. This is, in fact, a Star Wars Battle Royale; if you ever wanted to see what happened when you threw Rey at Darth Vader, or Yoda at Darth Maul, this is the game to do it. Like all good skirmish games, it’s ‘I go, you go’. Meaning that you’re never waiting long till it’s your turn. Once everyone is activated, you start a new round. Activating a hero (be it Luke Skywalker or a Stormtrooper) lets you roll dice. You then ‘spend’ those dice on subsequent turns. The symbols on those dice determine what

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you can do next turn, like shoot a dude with a blaster or use some equipment. Of course, now you’ve rolled, it’s your opponent’s turn. And he’s got a good idea what you’ve got planned. Unless, of course, you’ve got a trick or two up your sleeve, which is the point of having a hand of cards. Your deck could make your opponent re-roll vital dice or choose other targets. The pace of the game is fairly steady. It feels like a good duel as you keep looking for feints and parries, thinking ahead to your next three moves only to rethink on the roll of a die. The random element is strong enough to keep you on your toes, but this is a game of skill first, luck second. The luck element makes it very accessible, though; players with lower attention spans and less experience rarely get disheartened as the tides of fortune are forever turning. If the Force is with you and you think your turn through, you’re going to do well. The gaming community have responded an interesting way to Destiny. The game is very good but it’s collectable. That means you can easily sink a lot of cash into playing. Collectable card games are like that, and Destiny is dangerously fun. FFG games tend to be limited; you can buy card sets and the like but there’s no truly random element in collecting. Players of Game of Thrones or Netrunner know exactly what cards are in the boxes. Destiny players don’t. This fits the theme perfectly, but at the time of writing, it’s not been this columnist’s destiny to become very cash-rich. So like many gamers, my group has been hesitant to adopt it. Destiny is amazing, but is it destined to devour your wallet? So far, it hasn’t. The game has sold very well, has a strong following and community and yet doesn’t seem to have any sign of the

burn-out that collectable games suffer from. Players know what they’re getting into and are embracing Destiny. For now, however, the two starter sets sit in the STARBURST gaming vault next to Star Wars: Empire vs. Rebellion as a fun dueling card game with lots of lightsabers in them. And yes, because someone will write in: we’ve seen the Star Wars game in which you attach plastic lightsabers to your thumbs and play thumb wars whilst making your own sound effects. Trust us, Destiny is much better. We’re also looking forward to the Kickstarter for Zombie Babies. We got to have a quick play of this at the UK Games Expo and as a horror-based dice and card game, it’s pretty interesting. You level up your adorable flesh-devouring youngster and complete quests to defeat other little monsters. Twisted, but fun. We’re looking forward to seeing how it does. Entry point roleplaying game RAIDS has also hit the crowdfunding world. It’s intended as a gentle intro to the hobby, with new starters in mind. I wish they had this sort of thing in the ‘80s; pre-Internet, it was quite a challenge to get a group together. We’ve also got a game called Perdition’s Mouth: Abyssal Rift coming to the Thunderdome. It bills itself as a cross between a dungeon crawler and a Eurogame. It’s Finnish and has a grim-dark fantasy feel to it. We’re told the box is huge, but luckily, the Thunderdome has a very large gaming table. We’ll give you a proper run-down soon.

Fighting Fantasy & Black Library Of course, there’s always a bunch of things that are exciting those of us at the Secret STARBURST Thunderdome. First up is Fighting Fantasy Fest 2, a one-day event at University of West London, England, on September 2nd. It’s going to have Steve Jackson, Ian Livingstone, Jonathan Green and the rest of the usual suspects. The previous one was all sorts of fun, and it’s only a day, which is handy. You can also pay extra for a nifty Fighting Fantasy themed backpack and miniature. Speaking of toy soldiers, Games Workshop is having another Black Library Weekender in November. The Black Library books seem to be returning to form after a few years in the wilderness. The event costs the same as the likes of NineWorlds or Eastercon, and those events have more authors and stuff going on. But the Black Library event will be the only place to get all those lovely Games Workshop-related things, probably.

Ed Fortune is currently spending his spare time reading up on some of the amazing sci-fi RPGs that are coming out this August. You can contact him via Twitter on @ed_fortune or via ed.fortune@starburstmagazine.com. We always want to hear more about what you’re playing.

GAMES

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WATTO’S EMPORIUM

MERCH

Clowns, or is it Klowns? This issue has given you the lowdown on Pennywise’s hotly anticipated return (see pages 16) but if you want to give yourself some more clownish chills or make a mate with coulrophobia hate you for life, how about investing in this brilliant Pennywise Motion Statue, modelled on Tim Curry’s show-stealing and legendary performance in the TV miniseries IT? And to make matters more unsettling, the 15” model features audio lines from the film. Truly haunting... and brilliant. And if we are talking horror movie clowns, we really ought to mention the painted-faced killers from space, from B-movie classic Killer Klowns from Outer Space, which remains an object of passionate cult affection with its cream pie kills and circus tent saucer! So to continue celebrating mad movie clown monsters with us, impress your Killer Klown Clan with these cool and colourful official Killer Klown socks based on characters Jumbo and Fatso from the film. Y’know, sometimes we love this job!

IT - PENNYWISE PREMIUM MOTION STATUE - $124.99 USD AVAILABLE AT FACTORYENT.COM KILLER KLOWN SOCKS - JUMBO AND FATSO - $12.00 USD EACH BOTH AVAILABLE AT FRIGHT-RAGS.COM

A-Box to Remember! Well, what a year it has been thus far. Who would have thought Power Rangers would be better than Ghost in the Shell, Wonder Woman would enjoy critical acclaim and Alien: Covenant would split people more than a steak at a carvery? However, not every shock this year has come from the screen, some come in boxed form and they don’t come any bigger and better than the A-Box! The A-Box is literally ‘a box’ that you can sign up to in a variety of monthly deals for a set price, and in return you are sent a box of exclusive merch from the biggest and best films! We were lucky enough to see the results at STARBURST HQ and believe us when we say, the ‘A’

Stuff we liked from around the web thiS month with JaCk bottomleY

in this box stands for awesome. Ranging from shirts to home goods, you can never be sure what you are getting in the box but you can be sure it will be impressive. Head over to a-box.com and see how it all works, and in the meantime, feast your eyes on the latest A-Box, the Alien: Covenant box, which is available now for pre-order and includes a shirt, pin set and prop - in fact, the value of the contents comes to around £150 retail, so it’s nothing to sniff at! It’s enough to make you drool like a Xenomorph. And to that point, we would kick ourselves if we ignored this cool mashup shirt that we found on the net, which sees fit to replace Jack Skellington and Sally on that iconic curled pumpkin patch hill in The Nightmare Before Christmas with a Xenomorph in the moonlight overlooking a patch of facehugger eggs. Mash-ups can yield mixed results in the movie world, but we would kill to see Xenomorphs unleashed on Halloween Town. Mind you, they would probably be welcomed with open arms knowing that

123 lot; and we do, they regularly pop into the office and visit Zombaby! ALIEN: COVENANT A-BOX - £55 (PRE-ORDER FOR JULY 26TH RELEASE) AVAILABLE AT A-BOX.COM ALIEN NIGHTMARE T-SHIRT - $22.99 AVAILABLE AT SUNFROG.COM

25 Years of TAS It’s hard to believe that it has been 25 years since the Emmy award-winning Batman: The Animated Series first aired and defined a generation of ‘90s children. This writer fondly recalls sitting down in front of Cartoon Network for omnibus seasons of Batman: TAS, donning his mini cape and cowl and leaping off the sofa arm! The joy of the series is not only its entertaining adaptation of these DC comic book characters but the timelessness of the stories and the visuals, Even today, the series feels fresh, intelligent, exciting, sophisticated, and cast to perfection - Kevin Conroy is Batman, Mark Hamill is the Joker. End of. So, if you are as high on this piece of geeky TV history as we are, celebrate this anniversary with these incredible Pop! Vinyl figures based on the characters of the show. Included in this early range are Bane, Catwoman, Clayface, Scarecrow and, even more gloriously, the Phantasm character from the animated movie classic Batman: Mask of the Phantasm (soon getting a long overdue Blu-ray release) and the Robot Batman from the memorable episode of the series entitled His Silicon Soul. We hope there are more familiar faces to come in this line! BATMAN: THE ANIMATED SERIES POP! VINYL FIGURES (BANE, CATWOMAN, ROBOT BATMAN, CLAYFACE, PHANTASM, SCARECROW) - £9.99 EACH AVAILABLE AT FORBIDDENPLANET.CO.UK

Bobble Master

PUPPET MASTER BOBBLEHEADS - BLADE AND TORCH - $19.95 USD BOTH AVAILABLE AT FULLMOONDIRECT.COM

MERCH

Of all Full Moon’s mad movie creations, none have struck faster and harder at the ankles of pop culture than the Puppet Master series, which is one of the most plentiful horror franchises in movie history. The films see a band of living puppets up to (mostly) no good and while the films embraced barmy bloody action, the series has spawned some truly memorable characters, two of which make up the first batch of official bobblehead figure merchandise sets. The expressionist-inspired, hat-wearing, knife-armed Blade was the obvious choice for a first release, as he is arguably the most beloved character in the franchise (he has appeared in all thirteen films, that’s including the non-canon Puppet Master vs. Demonic Toys spin-off and the upcoming The Littlest Reich). However, it is nice to see Blade joined by fan favourite fire-wielding puppet Torch, first introduced in the enjoyable Puppet Master II: His Unholy Creations; as a kid, this writer used to love Torch!

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: EVENT PROFILE

UK GAMES EXPO 2017 Birmingham NEC and Hilton June 2nd - 4th Words: Ed ForTUNE PHoTos: MIKEY sMITH

t’s safe to say that the UK is in a unique position when it comes to traditional games. Board game geeks split most games into two broad categories: American-style (story/ theme-heavy but inelegant) and Eurogame (solidly mechanical but often quite abstract). The United Kingdom has connections with both, and it means that this is the place where both styles clash. And the result is typically brilliant games that appeal to everyone. This is what the UK Games Expo celebrates, and it’s Great Britain’s biggest, boldest and most interesting gaming event. 2017 saw the event grow even larger. The event yet again took place in the Birmingham NEC and Hilton Hotel. The bulk of the event was at the NEC, with one hall dedicated to exhibitors and another crammed with tournaments. UKGE has always been a solid venue for competitive play. So it should come as no surprise that Fantasy Flight Games used the event to host the European Championships Tournament for, well, pretty much

every Star Wars, Game of Thrones and Android/ Netrunner game you can imagine was here (there was even a Hey, That’s My Fish competition). As Star Wars X-Wing is undoubtedly the number one competitive game at the moment, almost every serious player in this part of the world attended. This lent an electric atmosphere to the entire thing, and, of course, there were a lot of Star Wars fans all over the place. Other competitive games were well catered for as well, including pretty much every style of Magic: The Gathering you can think of. The actual exhibition hall was a playground of new games and excited gamers. STARBURST was especially excited by 3D Total Games’ prototype for Scandinavia and the World, based on the popular web comic of the same name. We also saw their next project, a time travel strategy game that uses multiple board states to emulate time travel. It needs extensive playtesting, but gosh was it an interesting idea. We found Big Potato Games’ new ‘traitor’ game Chameleon to be fascinating and jolly good fun. Themeborn Games’ ‘80s-tastic Escape the Dark Castle drew the crowds, as did Greater Than Games’ Lazer Ryder, which came in a VHS Cassette tape-style box. Riverhorse Games’ Tales of Equestria also drew the fans; the My Little Pony-themed RPG was snapped up by children of all ages. There was plenty for the miniatures collector to find as well; Games Workshop

launched their latest version of Warhammer 40,000 (now with larger Space Marines), and Hawk Wargames had their massively scaled models for Dropzone Commander on full display. The likes of Crooked Dice and Mantic were in full swing, and Warlord was showing off their full range of Doctor Who minis. Meanwhile, right on the other side of the expo, Modiphus Games had models for their Fallout and Star Trek games on show. Warcradle Studios (the games end of Wayland Games) hit the event with style thanks to their game Wild West Exodus. They even had their own cosplayers, and the sci-fi/horror/wild west mash-up game looks very interesting indeed. It wasn’t just the big names, though. One of the charming things about UK Games Expo is the sheer variation of exhibitors. There were a heck of a lot of new games in various prototype stages available to play and have fun with. STARBURST particularly enjoyed a cosmicthemed flicking game called Four Elements. We were also amused by an existential horror version of Carcassonne called Carcosa. It was literally impossible to see and play everything there, though we had a jolly good try. We even got to have a shot at designing a game ourselves. Crowdfunding organising outfit Game On was giving away games components. Of course, Game On’s business model is to encourage people to make games to sell through their online service, but the game pieces

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were free and we had heaps of fun cobbling together a game. In addition to all the games to play, there were other events. We attended a live recording of a well-known gaming podcast and got to meet with cartooning legend John Kovalic. We had the utter joy of attending John Robertson’s cult hit The Dark Room, an interactive comedy theatre experience inspired by text adventures. John was on top form as always and was a striking figure throughout the event. UKGE also had The MMORPG Show and Knightmare live. The former is a pure improv show inspired by Dungeons and Dragons, whilst the latter is inspired by the classic ITV kids’ show. And yes, everyone applauded when the plucky adventurer said “Where am I?” The event was packed, not only with things to do but with people. Official figures say that the sum of those attending each day came to 30,743. That’s a lot of nerds in one place, though it was a lovely sunny weekend and everything was quite well spaced out. The Hilton is still quite warren-like in places, but nothing that a little planning and use of the provided map can’t resolve. Overall, an amazing event, yet again. We can’t wait to go next year, though we expect it to be much bigger. The UK GAMES EXPO takes place again in Birmingham from June 1st - 3rd, 2018. Find out more and book tickets at ukgamesexpo.co.uk.

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This month, we explore the bleak and dismal future world of Channel 4’s THE HANDMAID’S TALE, pig out on the Netflix original movie OKJA and just can’t resist a few more words about DOCTOR WHO…

THE WORLD OF CULT TV

f you’ve been reading this column for a while, you might have gathered that I do love a good dystopia. Not the one we’re currently living in, I must point out - that’s too terrible to be a work of fiction. But sit me down in front of a film or TV series in which mankind is wiped out by, for example, a plague (the original BBC Survivors), a lethal cosmic light show/killer perambulatory plant combination (The Day of the Triffids - my novel of choice, best dramatised in a 1981 six-part BBC serial), a virus that causes worldwide infertility (Children of Men) or even one of Roland Emmerich’s daft-as-a-brush apocalypses (Day After Tomorrow, 2012) and you’ve got yourself one very happy TV Zone columnist indeed. The reasons why I’m so fascinated by the end of the world and stories where mankind is brought to its knees are probably buried deep in the darkest recesses of my psyche (and doubtlessly fuelled by a ‘bah humbug’ attitude to life in the increasinglyvacuous 21st century) but certainly there’s something curiously, morbidly satisfying about seeing the great edifice of civilisation turned to rubble and, consequently, watching the human condition rise from the ashes as man, somehow, finds a way to prevail against impossible, incredible odds. The Handmaid’s Tale (airing on Channel 4 in the UK, streaming on Hulu in the USA) is a proper, full-blooded dystopia that doesn’t go as far as destroying humanity, but does what good dystopian fiction does best: it places a mirror in front of the world as we know it and asks us what our planet would be like if everything that we know, understand and take for granted about society and humanity were thrown into chaos and disarray. This is dystopian genre drama for the world we live in today, the world that cheerfully allowed Donald Trump to become possibly the most powerful man

on Earth. I’m not blaming anyone, by the way, but… you know… Based on Margaret Atwood’s 1985 bestseller (and already brought to the screen in a feature film in 1990), The Handmaid’s Tale is set in a near-future/alternative America where a civil war has allowed a Christian fundamentalist government calling itself the Gilead to take control and the country has become a fascistic totalitarian nightmare. Under this ruthless new regime, women are forbidden to work, own property, or even read; a worldwide fertility crisis has seen the few remaining fertile women rounded up to become handmaids, clad identically in shapeless long red robes and assigned to the Gilead’s powerful ruling

THE HANDMAID’S TALE

families. Here the handmaids are, every month, raped by their Commanders (their male masters) in the hope that they will bear children and maintain the family line. This is properly considered, adult science fiction with none of the trappings the genre has become uncomfortably associated with over the last few decades. The Handmaid’s Tale has no monsters (although it has more than its fair share of monstrous characters), no spaceships, aliens or any of the hokey story contrivances of the genre; it just presents us with a world that really isn’t all that far removed from the modern world, a day after tomorrow that might be closer than we think. The show introduces us to handmaid Offred (all the handmaids are stripped of their identity and given names based on their masters - Offred ‘belongs’ to her Commander Fred Waterford - of Fred) who, in the pre-revolution world, was named June Osborne, a wife and mother torn from the bosom of her family when, as shown in the opening scenes of the first episode, she was captured by the military during a failed escape attempt. Her husband Luke is presumed executed. Years later and Offred, like all the handmaids, has been smothered into subservience by the harsh new ruling regime. The country is being dismantled and tooled-up black-clad soldiers prowl the streets in armoured vehicles. There’s a palpable feeling of a world teetering on the edge of a final collapse and Offred, who clearly remembers her former, happier life, has assumed the role expected of her in the vague hope that one day she will be free and reunited with her young daughter. As the series progresses, Offred’s broken spirit starts to reassert itself and she finds a way to break free from the strictures of life as a handmaid and, perhaps, work towards the freedom she dreams of… The Handmaid’s Tale is a stunning piece of proper, full-blooded, richly mature drama, an exercise in utterly convincing worldbuilding the like of which I’ve never seen on television before. It’s an intricately realised production, directed with precision and delicacy and with an attention to the finest detail which is nothing less than astonishing. Engrossing virtually from its very first scene, its story plays out at its own languid pace

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(although it’s not for one second a chore) and this ugly, uneasy future world is beautifully developed as the series progresses. But the show’s not content with just delivering its dystopia fully formed; sensitively placed flashbacks fill in the blanks and explain exactly how the world has ended up like this and how all our key players have become the people they are when we first meet them; Episode Seven is virtually all flashback and it’s all the more magnificent for it. The Handmaid’s Tale is a show that both demands and rewards your utter attention; you’ll find yourself engrossed, disturbed, occasionally repulsed - the frequent ritualised rape scenes are difficult to watch because they’re presented so coldly and clinically - and, in the end, absolutely blown away by its maturity and its strange, almost ethereal majesty. Mad Men’s Elisabeth Moss is captivating as Offred, the conflicted handmaid who powers the narrative and tries to keep a lid on her passions and her emotions whilst working, in her own way, towards a freedom that seems so out of reach. I doubt I’ll see a more nuanced and intimate acting performance on the TV this year. The rest of the cast are no slouches, either. Joseph Fiennes is the powerful Commander Fred Waterford, who begins to form a strange attachment to Offred despite the humiliation he visits upon her every month, and Dexter’s Yvonne Strahovski is Fred’s wife Serena Joy, a former activist who appears to have come to terms with her diminished role in society and who is desperate for Offred to become pregnant to give her the baby she craves in the hope that it will reignite the heat in her oncefiery relationship with Fred. Chances are you won’t have taken a punt on The Handmaid’s Tale for any number of reasons and, in truth, it very nearly passed me by too because… well, there’s just so much else out there. Not for the first time since resuming TV Zone duties, I’m relieved that I took a chance on something that, on the face of it, was way out of my television comfort zone. The only real way you can properly appreciate the series is by watching it and allowing it to hypnotise and entrance you because cold words on a page (however good they

are) just aren’t, on this occasion, enough to convey just how bloody brilliant The Handmaid’s Tale is and why I’ve already decided it’s my favourite TV show of the year - and quite possibly the decade. OKJA Riddle me this. When is a feature film not a feature film? When it’s a Netflix Original Movie, of course! All right, that’s not going to give Batman’s Riddler any sleepless nights, but the arrival of Bong Joon-ho’s Okja on Netflix (sometimes known as The Netflix Channel on the TV Zone Plus Podcast) following a perfunctory theatrical release is another example of the exciting possibilities being afforded by the growth of original online streaming content. Okja is a gloriously entertaining, sometimes insane treat. Tilda Swinton plays the barmy Lucy Mirando, the new CEO of the Mirando Corporation, which has succeeded in creating a new breed of giant superpig. Twenty-six of these pigs are dispatched across the world; ten years later - for reasons which have temporarily eluded me - one of these pigs will be declared the ‘winner’ and shipped back to the

AMERICAN GODS

States, along with its brethren, to meet its unpleasant (if tasty) fate. A decade passes and superpig Okja (wonderfully realised by near-faultless CGI) lives a life of pampered bliss in the South Korea countryside with a young girl named Mija and her grandfather. Representatives of Mirando - and TV zoologist Johnny Wilcox (Jake Gyllenhaal) - arrive and declare Okja the best superpig and prepare to take him back to New York. Mija is devastated and determines to rescue him; this involves a hair-raising journey to Mirando’s offices in Seoul and a madcap chase through the city, which is one of the most joyously exhilarating (and silly) action sequences I’ve seen this year. Mija falls in with the bumbling Animal Liberation Front (whose number include The Walking Dead’s Steven Yeun) and eventually finds herself in New York for a last-ditch effort to save her beloved pig before he can meet an untimely fate in Mirando’s slaughterhouses. Okja is a big bag of fun, a film that almost certainly wouldn’t exist if it hadn’t been bankrolled by Netflix. It’s broad, madcap, bristling with energy and invention and with a charming performance from Ahn Seo-hyn as Mija and a turn from Gyllenhaal

OKJA

THE WORLD OF CULT TV

THE HANDMAID’S TALE

128 that can only really be described as slightly eccentric and extremely annoying. But for all its wackiness, the film drifts into the realms of the uncomfortable in the last act as Okja and his brethren find themselves in the slaughterhouse and the film makes us confront what we know about the animal/ food industry but would rather ignore or forget. I’m still not cut out to be a vegetarian but Okja does a far better job of arguing the case for a non-meat lifestyle than Simon Amstell’s recent clumsy, witless BBC film Carnage (see issue 437). Discreet tubthumping aside, Okja is a brisk, colourful, charming treat; I don’t tell porkies, Okja is never a boar, you swines really ought to go the whole hog and sty at home one night with a box of (chocolate) truffles and enjoy the s(h)ow… [I think you need a holiday – Ed]. DOCTOR WHO So that’s Season Ten of (new) Doctor Who done and dusted, then. Have no fear, I’m not going to launch into another interminable diatribe about the (frequent) missteps and (occasional) good points of this latest batch of episodes - the last under the stewardship of Mr Steven Moffat. For a fuller analysis of the series - complete with sighing, raised voices and assorted expressions of exasperation - you’ll need to nip across to iTunes where you will find the TV Zone Plus podcast. Here, my co-host Scott Holmes

THE WORLD OF CULT TV

ALSO SCREENING

BLOOD DRIVE

Another dystopia! Mad Max-ish series set in a water-deprived crime-ridden future where the last good cop finds himself involved in an underground car rally where the drivers are murderous deviants and the cars run on blood. Why not? SyFy from August 10th

THE DEFENDERS

Here it is, the culmination of Netflix’s ‘street level’ Marvel superhero shows as Daredevil, Luke Cage, Jessica Jones, and Iron Fist team up in their first tenepisode season. Fingers crossed. Netflix from August 18th

THE TICK

Following last year’s pilot, Peter Serafinowicz returns in the blue suit of clumsy superhero The Tick in this new version of Ben Edlund’s cult comic strip creation. Amazon Prime from August 25th

DOCTOR WHO

and I go beyond the column to chat randomly about TV, films, games, books and anything else that takes our fancy. But it’s only fair that I commit a general opinion of this latest series to print for the sake of posterity [Could you be a bit more pompous? – Ed]. On the whole, Season Ten was a significant improvement on its disastrous predecessor from 2015, with Episode Five, Oxygen, sitting quite happily in my list of favourite episodes of the revived series (if such a list existed). The arrival of Pearl Mackie’s Bill Potts gave the show a new lease of life and, for a few weeks at least, it felt like a show keen to relaunch itself and perhaps reel back in a few lapsed viewers turned away of late by Moffat’s increasingly turgid and inward-looking storytelling. But nothing lasts forever and by about the halfway mark, we’d fallen back towards familiar old habits and the rot was well set in as we laboured through the rather terrible three-part ‘Truth Monks’ saga, which landed in the series like a soggy pudding in the middle of a nice big cooked lunch. The show never regained its momentum after the torpor of this distinctly average alien invasion yarn (despite the best efforts of Mark Gatiss with his oldschool ‘Ice Warriors on Mars’ romp) and it tumbled towards its two-part finale with the underwhelming (and hardly surprising) revelation that it was Missy in the vault the Doctor had apparently spent decades guarding all along (quelle surprise) well behind it and the much-anticipated return of John Simm’s Master and the cloth-faced 1966 Mondasian Cybermen guaranteed to baffle any remaining casual viewers whilst causing the desired stirrings in the nether regions of the show’s more committed aficionados. As it turned out, it was one of Moffat’s better finales; we shall speak no more of the horror of the first few minutes of Episode Eleven, World Enough and Time (“My name’s Doctor Who!” F*** off!!!) that utterly ruined any potential for tension and drama throughout the rest of the episode and focus instead on the final episode, The Doctor Falls. Here, Moffat had the audacity to drape a handful of his well-worn story ideas around the shivering skeleton of a yarn about the Doctor’s long-standing feud with Missy (hugely annoying)/the Master (a wasted opportunity), an army

of Cybermen intent on converting everyone in sight and, in the end, the Doctor deciding he wasn’t much fussed about regenerating again. And after this year’s pitiful viewing figures, who could blame him? But have no fear, here’s David Bradley reprising his role as… umm… William Hartnell… tottering out of the snow to chuck in a few more catchphrases and old bits of dialogue to lead us into Capaldi’s proper swansong at Christmas. None of this series has been either good enough or bad enough for me to really give much of a damn one way or another - which is possibly the biggest condemnation of all. On the whole, it was just… there, twelve episodes of Doctor Who bereft of much originality or excitement, characterised generally, as usual, by people standing around talking, joking, or banging on incessantly about their sexuality. Moffat has sucked much of the life and joy out of the show and, I fear, my own decades-long devotion to it. With stuff like The Handmaid’s Tale occupying my time, Doctor Who now just seems quaint, repetitive, and exhausted; not to mention monstrously old-fashioned and staid. New showrunner Chris Chibnall has got the Devil’s job on his hands turning this ship around next year and making it seem bright, fresh and exciting again; if the show continues its downwards trend in its new era, it’s annoying to think that Chibnall will probably be blamed and the ‘genius’ Steven Moffat, busily reinventing Dracula for a new generation (god help us - and Drac) will just shrug his shoulders and mutter “Well it was all right when I left it.” Tough times ahead aboard the TARDIS… …AND FINALLY I’m off to recharge my batteries for a couple of months (fun fact: I actually am battery-powered) and will be leaving these pages in the trusty hands of Sir Andrew of Pollard who is under strict instructions not to get the TV Zone cat wet or feed it after midnight. See you on the other side of the summer, Zoners… Email me at paul.mount@starburstmagazine.com or do the Twitter thang @PMount. Catch up with the latest news, reviews, gossip and general geek idiocy in the brand new TV Zone Plus podcast on iTunes.

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A Column by JORDAN ROYCE & THE ZOMBABY

ho would have thought that 2017 would turn out to be the year that sexism and inequality would be extinguished forever? Yet, we all watched in shock and awe as Patty Jenkins and Gal Gadot threw themselves in front of the King’s horse at the Epsom Derby. This was one of the final, pivotal events that has led to women’s suffrage with the Parliament (Qualification of Women) Act 1918. Oh, hang on a minute! 1918. Oh bollocks. I got it all wrong. Turns out it was Emily Davison back in 1913. I had been reading loads of Facebook posts and tweets that made me assume that was the case. Patty Jenkins certainly was as confused as I was with her tweet on the June 5th - “I want to send out the deepest and sincere THANK YOU to all of you who made this so. YOU have helped us make change. Amazing!!” Yes. Amazing, indeed. Amazing that so many otherwise sane people have been swept along by a cynical DC marketing campaign. One that has elevated a ‘meh’ movie way above its deserved status. I will get into the movie itself in a moment, but I have to confess to my dismay at this social media-driven drivel. As much as I am pleased with the images of young girls dressed as Wonder Woman, pretending to be this iconic character, it is offensive to me that so many strong female actors and their performances are suddenly swept aside in this diabetes-inducing outpouring over this supposed penetration of the glass ceiling. Sure, it is impressive that Patty Jenkins has had the largest opening weekend for a female director. I just wish she had made a movie that warranted this overreaction. An overreaction that has been close to nauseating. For all this pretentious twaddle about ‘change’ and ‘glass ceilings’, there have still been lots of guys with lumpy pants getting excited over an attractive lady in a metallic bikini. You’ve probably figured out that I was far from blown away with Wonder Woman. It is easily the best movie so far in the DC Extended Universe, but that really is faint praise. Now these social media drones would argue that this movie should be assessed in its own right, and that the connection to the other DC movies should be irrelevant. A naïve position, and very silly. It is impossible to judge any of these movies without the context of the wider film series, as that is the way DC has deliberately constructed this. I say constructed, but really the DC Extended Universe is a shack thrown together by cowboys. By this stage, Marvel had four hits under their belt, and a carefully measured direction well underway. Four movies that are far more entertaining and better made than Wonder Woman. So what is my beef with Wonder Woman and

why am I not quenching my thirst with the same Internet Kool Aid as the majority of fandom?

fan of these classic horror pantheons, I was apprehensive about this strategy.

Wonder Woman is just not a great film. It is distinctly average on pretty much every level, with just a few stand out sequences and performances. Gal Gadot gets better as the movie progresses but she was a bit ropey early on. But it’s a definite step up from storming into Palestinian homes at gunpoint. Chris Pine is likeable enough, but is crippled by a bad script and awful moments of dialogue. Some scenes between Diana and Steve Trevor actually reminded me of the ‘romantic’ scenes in Star Wars: Attack of the Clones. In particular, the pivotal speech from Trevor about the nature of evil, which was just embarrassing. A stammering mess of wordplay. It surprised me how bad some of these scenes played out.

In keeping with the current fervour of drone opinion with the collective voice of Facebook and Twitter telling everyone what to think, and ready to choose a victim to counterbalance the over-zealous bilge being spewed over Wonder Woman, The Mummy was ripped to pieces with damning critiques left, right, and centre. Is it really that bad?

In many ways, it suffers from exactly the same flaws that afflicted Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice. I find it incredible that anyone who hated that movie could now be completely enamoured with Wonder Woman. A movie whose conclusion consists of an almost identical CGI borefest of a final battle, substituting an animated turd for an accountant wearing a dodgy horned helmet. There were moments I liked, such as the march into no man’s land and the liberation of the village of Veld. This was by far the strongest section of the film, but overall, it’s just distinctly average, and reliant on an overuse of ‘bullet time’ sequences to enhance every single fight sequence. A shtick that gets old really early on in proceedings. Sorry, but Joss Whedon achieved more twenty years ago with Buffy, but I am glad that Patty Jenkins has achieved such a breakthrough in her own mind. That’s always a good place to start. Now onto shared universe number two - The Dark Universe. The first successful attempt at a shared universe was the world created by the Universal Monsters. After a series of solo outings by Dracula, Frankenstein and co., Universal cemented their sandbox with House of Frankenstein. Dracula, Frankenstein’s Monster, and the Wolfman all came out to play and the punters lapped it up, 68 years before Marvel Studios achieved the same feat with The Avengers. So it was fair enough that maybe Universal should have another shot at it. Dracula Untold was to have been the first instalment, but poor reception lead to a shit bag shuffle, and The Mummy was lined up to be the foundation stone of what Universal are hoping to be a lucrative money-spinner. There was a lot riding on it. Being a long-time

Wonder Woman is not due the praise being heaped upon it, and conversely, The Mummy is not the worst movie ever made, but it’s still pretty shonky. A terrible script, and some hideous casting pretty much hobble proceedings from the get go. The marketing has not helped, either, portraying this as a Tom Cruise actioner that kinda looks like the Brendan Fraser Mummy flicks, whilst desperately hoping to bag a few aficionados of the classics. The main trailer also carried a spoiler so breathtaking that I simply cannot understand the rationale involved. Revealing the death of the Cruise character, Nick Morton, a twist that would have given the movie a much-needed jolt early on. The story is lame, and the characters are just so shallow and badly scripted that you simply never get involved with anyone’s plight, good or bad. Nick Morton and his path to redemption is a great example. He starts out a bit of a bellend. Then he makes a noble sacrifice to save Jennifer Halsey. Then a further ten minutes go by and he buggers off, leaving poor old Jennifer to die at the hands of the Enchantress from The Suicide Squad. Jennifer starts out as a ballsy, kickass scientist, then quickly devolves into Princess Daphne from Dragon’s Lair constantly in need of rescuing, and being sod all use to anyone. This pair are bad, but once Russell Crowe turns up, things go south really quickly. The casting of Russell Crowe as the head of the slightly ludicrous-named, universelinking cliché Prodigium is a disaster with unintentionally humorous connotations. You see, he is playing Dr Henry Jekyll and his alter ego - Mr Hyde. Crowe hams this up to epic proportions, and provides jaw-dropping exposition, together with an ongoing voice over that informs you of the events that you are actually watching on screen. When Dr Jekyll forgets to take his medicine, he transforms into Russell Crowe at an awards ceremony. One he has not won! I can only hope this was an intentional gag but somehow, I doubt it. Credibility flew straight out of the window whenever Crowe appeared on screen, and as he is likely to be the Nick Fury of this universe, and be in many of these upcoming

130 truly talented ones such as Ronald D. Moore, who merely treated it as a challenge, and an opportunity to tell a different style of story. Obviously, it is too early to tell what effect this will have, but it has always remained in place even on the gritty Star Trek: Deep Space Nine. It just seems lazy as hell to me. This show will definitely feel like no other Trek show before it. Whether it will be accepted by the fanbase it covets is another matter. Like it or loathe it, Star Trek has always had that certain vibe to it, a vibe that started with Roddenberry. Ditching one of his central tenets leads me to ask the question, why bother? Why not just create a new sci-fi franchise that is not confined by any pre-existing notions? We all know the answer. They want to milk an established brand. I am not so sure that this is the best way to go about it. Whatever the outcome, we do not have long to wait. On September 24th, 2017, we will all find out what has emerged from development hell. Back in the land of shared universes, Marvel Studios has continued their run of hits with Spider-Man: Homecoming. Whilst the title may be a hoary bag of old shite, the film is the delightful romp it needed to be. Washing away the foul taste of The Amazing Spider-Man 2, the pressure was on and they delivered what I would call close to a classic. Tom Holland and Marisa Tomei are perfect casting, as is Michael Keaton as a villain that should be more comical than sinister. Keaton manages to make his role both sympathetic and scary as hell. Yet, I still confess to having a pang for those Raimi movies, especially Spider-Man 2. I am just hoping Marvel manage to bring in the Daily Bugle next time, and manage to do the impossible and cast someone decent to play the awesome J. Jonah Jameson. J. K. Simmons in that role is a tough act to follow.

instalments, this does not bode well. For a modern big budget horror flick, there is a lot of horror imagery up there on screen, and yet it is simply not scary in the slightest. Which is puzzling. It just doesn’t work very well as a horror film. The atmosphere is just off beat. Which leads you to ask the question as to whether these properties are too dated to be reimagined for a modern audience. Even in the 1950s, vampires draining blood and monsters sewn together from dead cadavers were nightmarish. Can we say that in a world where we have seen so much gore, and so many modern bad guys that relate more to a cable network audience? Should the classics be left alone now to be appreciated by fans that watch them in their context, instead of being reworked, and distorted beyond recognition? The Mummy is just badly thought-out and poorly executed. Even in the closing moments, it manages to pull out another howling faux pas. Nick Morton, with his new powers (undisclosed so they can be made up in a later movie), brings back to life his imaginary friend. You read that correctly. Nick had been chatting

to his dead friend à la An American Werewolf in London, then in the closing motif, he brings this imaginary person back to life, as the scriptwriters had clearly forgotten what they had previously written. Wowzers. How this Dark Universe will pan out is anyone’s guess; just prior to release we had that promo image drop with Johnny Depp and his pals trying to get us all excited, but this was a really weak start, considering all of the money Universal has riding on this. It’s a mountain to climb after such a staggering misfire. Over at Star Trek: Discovery, a further set of images have confirmed that the aesthetic of the Abrams Trek movies has been adopted, putting it at odds with its retro setting prior to classic Trek. Not content with going against canon, showrunners Aaron Harberts and Gretchen J. Berg have announced that they are also ditching the Roddenberry Rule that stated conflict should never exist between the crew and that dramatic tension should come from the interactions with outsiders - the new races that are encountered on their travels. This has often seen off frustrated writers, except the

[Zombaby] What about my film, Dad? [J] Ok. I was just getting to that. [Z] You keep being mean to that Bar Trek! [J] A Bar Trek is exactly what we will need after watching that sorry piece of… [Z] Dad!!! [J] Sorry, son. My adopted undead offspring, Zack the Zombaby, wanted me to make sure you all went to see Edgar Wright’s new flick Baby Driver (one of my movies of the year). Z] There’s music, driving, lots of car chases, Dad didn’t have to break anyone’s iPhone with his toffee hammer, and there was no one with their hands down their trousers… [J] As reviews go, you can’t say fairer than that.

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Jordan Royce can be contacted at jordan.royce@starburstmagazine.com Twitter: @JordanMRoyce and hosts the STaRbuRST Radio Show with every Wednesday 9pm until 11pm GMT on Fab Radio International – www.fabradiointernational.com also available from iTunes as a Podcast. Zack The Zombaby lives in a house full of toys and games with his Mummy, Daddy and Nocturna The Vambaby. He helps out at STarburST for his pocket money. You can send him hugs at zombaby@starburstmagazine.com.