Horror

Buffy the Vampire Slayer Season Nine #18

/ / Comics

Buffy the Vampire Slayer Season Nine #18Buffy, Illyria, and Koh work together to take down Severin, but things get a little complicated when they discover what he’s after (Illyria’s power) and why (to rip apart the fabric of space and time and change the past to save his girlfriend’s life).

The issue also includes Xander‘s growing frustration with Dawn‘s mysterious illness (which apparently is leading to another “let’s trap Dawn in another goofy body” storyline), and the continuing misadventures of Billy the would-be Slayer who continues to investigate Buffy’s disappearance that left Billy and Detective Dowling at the mercy of a mob of zompires.

The Billy story aside, the comic works well as Severin’s motives (if not his logic) are easily understood and Illyria’s ego certainly hasn’t been damaged too much for her time in Los Angeles. However, the last few panels make me a little concerned that the old one’s time in Season Nine may be very short-lived. Worth a look.

[Dark Horse, $2.99]

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A Post-Apocalyptic Zombie Love Story

/ / Movie Reviews
  • Title: Warm Bodies
  • IMDB: link

warm-bodies-posterNever was there a tale of love condemned more than that of Julie (Teresa Palmer) and her zombie boyfriend (Nicholas Hoult). One is a human-acting zombie from the wrong side of the tracks. The other is the tempestuous daughter of the leader (John Malkovich) of the army obsessed with blasting the brain-eaters off the face off the Earth.

From writer/director Jonathan Levine (50/50, All the Boys Love Mandy Lane) comes a post-apocalyptic zombie love story take on William Shakespeare‘s classic Romeo and Juliet which definitely has a pulse.

Presented from the point of view of R (Hault), a thoughtful zombie who begins to believe he can be more than just an undead scavenger after meeting Julie (Palmer) and eating her boyfriend’s (Dave Franco) brains, Levine’s script is far more clever than I expected. Warm Bodies may not reach the heights of Shaun of the Dead, but with some heart and a good sense of humor this new take on a classic love story embraces the more absurdist elements of it’s premise and is a surprisingly compelling and entertaining story.

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Hansel & Gretel: Witch Hunters

/ / Movie Reviews
  • Title: Hansel & Gretel: Witch Hunters
  • IMDB: link

“Whatever you do, don’t eat the fucking candy.”

hansel-and-gretel-witch-hunters-posterHansel & Gretel: Witch Hunters offers audiences the further adventures of Hansel (Jeremy Renner) and Gretel (Gemma Arterton), the young brother and sister first introduced by the Brothers Grimm 200 years ago. After a brief retelling of the classic fairy tale (with one or two important tweaks) in which the young children fight off and kill a powerful witch living in a candy house in the woods, we catch up years later with our hero and heroine after they have become the world’s most famous witch hunters.

The plot by Tommy Wirkola (who also directs) and Dante Harper isn’t all that imaginative as Hansel and Gretel are pitted against a grand witch (Famke Janssen) with plans to use the rare event of a Blood Moon to make her coven invincible. What makes the film work, often in spite of itself, is its sense of humor and constant awareness of what it is. Hansel & Gretel: Witch Hunters is dumb fun embracing the ridiculous with witches more than a little reminiscent of Deadites and a pair of likable heroes that get knocked around repeatedly over the course of the film. It’s a film about life and death that never takes either all that seriously.

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Buffy the Vampire Slayer Season Nine #17

/ / Comics

Buffy Summers‘ world gets even more complicated by the arrival of Illyria who uses her mostly restored powers to rip the Slayer from her battle with zompires (forcing Billy and Detective Dowling to make do on their own) and transporting Buffy to a gathering of magical beings.

As Buffy meets with a council of magically-imbued creatures trapped in this dimension (including D’Hoffryn), Billy’s faith in his new profession is shaken, Dowling is almost killed, and back at home Xander‘s anger is out of control and Dawn is felled by some unseen force.

Unaware of what is happening with her friends, Buffy agrees to help the council stop Severin whose power continues to grow. She even accepts the help of Illyria and Koh, neither of whom Buffy is sure she can trust as the powerful threesome walk right into Severin’s trap.

A good issue and I’m happy to see Illyria, although her account of her recent activities does seem to contradict Angel After the Fall. Worth a look.

[Dark Horse, $2.99]

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Fatale #11

/ / Comics

fatale-11-coverRather than start a new arc, the latest issue of Fatale offers up a single issue devoted to an experience from Josephine‘s past on the run in 1930’s California during her early days dealing with her curse.

Still unable to control her effect on men, Josephine’s journey forces her to seek out author Arthur Ravenscoft whose horror pulp story rings a little too familiar with our protagonist. In that empty old house Ravennscoft shares his own experiences with the cult and shows Josephine something which will make her flee his home in terror.

The one-off works well not only giving us more of a glimpse into Josephine’s past (and how the early days of the curse nearly destroyed her and any man who came into her path) but as an isolated horror story as well. We’re also introduced to a police man who had the unfortunate luck to encounter Josephine and become trapped under her spell so completely that her disappearance leaves him despondent with only one one way out. Worth a look.

[Image, $3.50]

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