Horror

Buffy the Vampire Slayer Season Nine #2

/ / Comics

buffy-season-nine-2-coverThe Ninth Season of Buffy the Vampire Slayer continues right where the first issue left off (although sadly without the writing of Buffy creator Joss Whedon). Buffy and her pals run into a demon in an alley that’s not after dinner, destruction, or mayhem. This one wants money, specifically Buffy’s college loan.

It seems in a world without magic all sorts of demons have been trapped in our reality and forced into finding odd jobs to make do. This demon has become a debt collector, and from his frightening visage I’m guessing a pretty good one.

Buffy also has to deal with being hauled in by the police who catch her in the act of staking a vampire. The cops are at a loss as to what to charge her with, but are sure she’s guilty of something, but the truth is what they are after is a mysterious young man who is miraculously bringing the undead back to death (so to speak).

Writer Andrew Chambliss does a fair job in picking up for Whedon but the dialogue and character reactions simply aren’t as crisp this time around. It’s still worth reading, but not quite as good as I was hoping. Worth a look.

[Dark Horse, $2.99]

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Tucker & Dale vs. Evil

/ / Movie Reviews
  • Title: Tucker & Dale vs. Evil
  • IMDB: link

“Oh, hi de ho officer. We’ve had a doozy of a day. There we were, minding our own business, just doing some chores around the house when kids starting killing themselves all over my property.”

tucker-and-dale-vs-evil-posterYou’ve seen this story before, but never quite like this. A group of college kids on a road trip run into a couple of unsavory types in the back woods and terror and mayhem ensue. So what makes Tucker & Dale vs. Evil so different? The script by Morgan Jurgenson and Eli Craig turns the overused premise sideways and provides one of the craziest movies of the year.

Tucker & Dale vs Evil casts the two scary looking hillbillies not as potential killers but victims in a world turned completely upside down. Dale (Tyler Labine) and Tucker (Alan Tudyk) are no killers. They’re just a pair of guys looking for some time away at their new summer home in the Appalachian Mountains.

When they save one of the girls from drowning her friends believe they pair have kidnapped Alison (Katrina Bowden) and plan to kill her. What follows is a level of insanity that’s hard to describe without giving away some of the film’s funniest moments.

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Buffy the Vampire Slayer Season Nine #1

/ / Comics

btvs-season-9-1-coverAlthough I grew weary of Buffy the Vampire Slayer Season Eight it did have its moments (including a terrific story arc by Drew Goddard) and even if it eventually went off the rails it managed to end with a strong finale.

Season Nine picks up where we left off. The line of Slayers is gone, magic is gone from the world, Giles is still dead, and Buffy Summers is responsible. Creator Joss Whedom promised Season Nine would get down to smaller stories and that’s exactly what he delivers here. No big bad, no ultimate evil, just Buffy and the Scoobies getting on with their lives. And it’s pretty freakin’ good.

The first issue centers around Buffy’s hangover from the first party for all her pals and new roomies at her new apartment. We get flashes of the party from Buffy’s hazy memory (some of which she’d just as soon forget). The comic is filled with great dialogue and it actually feels like the characters we remember from Buffy’s better days are back in force once again. It’s only a first issue, but it’s a damn good. Best of the week.

[Dark Horse, $2.99]

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Angel & Faith #1

/ / Comics

angel-and-faith-1-coverThere are parts of Buffy Season Eight I enjoyed (the start, Faith’s arc, the final issue, and most importantly “Wolves at the Gate“), but as the season continued there’s more than a little I’d just as soon forget (super-Angel and super-Buffy, the reveal of Twilight’s identity, and the complicated and convoluted story arc which ended the series). From this first issue it looks like we’re sadly going to be mired in the post-Twilight angst for a little while longer. Sigh.

Season Nine begins, not with Buffy, but with Angel and Faith and the repercussions of the Twilight story arc and Angel’s return to form as a cursed vampire with a soul seeking redemption. After the death of Giles, Faith and Angel have teamed-up to fill his role, including saving a possessed young girl in this issue. Giles left the Watcher’s Chronicles and a hole to be filled, and Angel has a plan on what to do next.

This first issue isn’t awful, but it’s pretty disappointing. Season Nine, the first full comic season with all the characters under one publisher’s banner, begins not with a bang but a whimper. Hit-and-Miss.

[Dark Horse, $2.99]

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Priest

/ / Home Video
  • Title: Priest
  • IMDB: link

priest-blurayIn the dystopian future ruled by the Church most of the world is a wasteland after centuries of battle between humans and vampires. The film opens with the last of these battles as the Church’s best warriors, known simply as Priests, set out to destroy the last hive of vampires. They are victorious, but only at the cost of losing one of their own (Karl Urban).

The film skips an undetermined amount of time into the future when the Priests have been disbanded and all vampires are believed dead. An attack on his brother’s home on the edge of the wasteland sends one Priest (Paul Bettany), against the Church’s orders on a hunt to rescue his niece (Lily Collins).

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