Indice dei contenuti per September 2015 in SFX

I still remember tuning into The X-Files the first time it aired on BBC Two. It was a profound moment in my sci-fi education. Mulder and Scully’s investigations immediately felt like something new and fresh, and proved to be a turning point in the history of genre TV. Not only was The X-Files unashamed to deal with alien conspiracies, liver-scoffing blokes with elastic limbs and human fluke worms, it was that rare beast that crossed over to be embraced by the mainstream – a sci-fi show that everybody adored. Initially, at least... I fell out of love with The X-Files over the course of two sub-par movies and the convoluted later seasons, so I was initially as sceptical as Scully about the show’s return. But the more I learn about…

NEWBIES AMERICAN GODS gets a series order at Starz. Bryan Fuller will act as showrunner while Neil Gaiman will contribute. Bradley Cooper, Graham King and Todd Phillips adapting Dan Simmons’s HYPERION for Syfy. Cooper is a big fan and previously wrote a movie script on spec. New TERMINATOR TV show that will tie into Genisys still in the works. Eight-episode prologue series for big-screen adap of THE STAND lined up at Showtime. Harry Houdini and Sir Arthur Conan Doyle teaming up to solve supernatural crimes on ITV in HOUDINI AND DOYLE. Stephen Mangan will play Conan Doyle. HBO developing comedy about the “minutiae of daily existence in a sci-fi afterlife” with The Office’s Greg Daniels. Heroes creator Tim Kring writing pilot BEYOND for ABC about a man who wakes up…

RELEASE DATE 20 NOV 2015 SCI-FACT! Mockingjay is one page shorter than Catching Fire, but will be almost twice as long on the big screen.…

SHOWRUNNING PENNY DREADFUL will return for season three on Sky Atlantic, yay! BITTEN also renewed for a third season, boo! WAYWARD PINES will likely feature a totally new cast if picked up for a second season. “Hardhome” director Miguel Sapochnik and Lost’s Jack Bender among the helmers for GAME OF THRONES season six. Punisher: War Zone’s Lexi Alexander directing an episode of ARROW season four. CASTING CALL The Walking Dead’s Jon Bernthal cast as the Punisher for DAREDEVIL season two. Jessica Lucas signs on to play Tigress in GOTHAM season two. Rebecca Mader and Sean Maguire promoted to regulars for the fifth season of ONCE UPON A TIME. Corey Hawkins cast as comic character Heath for THE WALKING DEAD season six. Amélie’s Dominique Piñon will play Mater Raymond in the…

ABOUT TO CELEBRATE ITS 50TH anniversary with a special oversized issue, Marvel’s central espionage organisation SHIELD, which first appeared in August 1965’s Strange Tales #135, finds itself more popular than ever thanks to its prominent role in films like The Avengers. However, according to Mark Waid, who pens Marvel’s SHIELD book, the cinematic success of Agent Coulson and co hasn’t influenced their comic book incarnations. “We have the freedom in comics to adapt from the TV show and the movies without sacrificing 50 years of continuity,” he tells Red Alert. “The goal is always to make those fans welcome while still embracing Marvel history.” Also featuring contributions from Al Ewing and Stan Lee, SHIELD #9 will see Waid “collaborating” with none other than Jack Kirby and Jim Steranko on a…

SF writer David Langford has had a column in SFX since issue one. David has received 29 Hugo Awards throughout his career. His celebrated SF newsletter can be found at news.ansible.co.uk. He is a principal editor of the SF Encyclopedia at www.sf-encyclopedia.com. Whenever I try to concentrate on writing this page, distractions flood in. Sometimes I wish I had the gall to write a column about writing a column, like that chap Tim Key who used to fill his page in The Independent with exciting thematic material like “How I Wrote This Column In A Café”, and as his swan song got two whole columns out of how, presumably through popular editorial demand, he’d no longer be writing the column. But Langford is made of sterner stuff. Where was I?…

Reader Chris Middleton writes : “This is a bust (and lamp) of Maria from Metropolis. It’s 20 inches high and has a bakelite-style base, a transparent Deco backplate, which is made from heavy plastic or resin, and the metalised bust itself, which may be plaster. On the base behind the robot is a brass lamp fitting. When the light is switched on, her eyes glow blue. “I know nothing about its history: it may be a period item; it may be a modern private commission or oneoff artist piece; it may have been made to tie in with a re-release of the movie, or for an event. I’ve no idea if it’s the only one of its kind, or if several were made. Any info from Vectis appreciated!” Adam Carter, Vectis…

If you were Neil and could do absolutely anything, what would you do? * I could fly? But then you’d probably get wet and get a cold. Maybe invisible? But then if I drive my car that’s going to look weird as it’ll just be a driverless car. It would be impractical. So I think time travel. I’d go back in time and tell Shakespeare he’s going to be big. What’s in store for Ray in Absolutely Anything? * He’s Neil’s only friend and the only one who knows about the powers. Neil, in an act of generosity, realises that I have a crush on a fellow teacher and uses his power to not just make her fall in love with me, but make her worship me, which she does…

So preposterously powerful that his name has claimed the title of the movie itself, Apocalypse may be the deadliest foe the X-Men have ever confronted. We first glimpsed him at the close of Days Of Future Past, an enigmatic figure worshipped by Egyptians in Old Testament times. “En Sabah Nur!” they chanted – the First One! But who is this millennia-old antagonist – and why is he the ultimate X-villain? The creation of Louise Simonson and Jackson Guice, Apocalypse entered the comic books in the pages of X-Factor in 1986. Born 5,000 years ago in the Jordanian city of Aquaba he’s the original mutant, the first human to possess the X-gene. He used alien tech abandoned by the godlike Celestials to enhance his powers and recruit acolytes, rising to become…

BIODATA OCCUPATION: Actor BORN: 9 February 1987 FROM: Santa Ana, California GREATEST HITS: Fruitvale Station, Red Tails, Chronicle, The Wire, Parenthood RANDOM FACT: Jordan was a contender for the role of the Falcon in Captain America: The Winter Soldier. There’s as much heat attached to Michael B Jordan as one of Johnny Storm’s trademark fireballs. One of the rising stars of the American screen, he teamed with director Josh Trank on 2012’s Chronicle, a provocative riff on the superhero myth. Trank was impressed: Jordan was the first person he cast in Fantastic Four, his suitably incendiary charisma a match for the cocky, combustible Human Torch. It’s a colour-blind casting choice that has, predictably, stirred up the more conservative corners of the internet – “It used to bother me, but it…

BIODATA OCCUPATION: Novelist BORN: 1960, Manchester FROM: Belfast GREATEST HITS: Both River Of Gods (2004) and The Dervish House (2010) took the BSFA gong. RANDOM FACT: McDonald’s television career wasn’t all Muppets and glory: “If you know my book Brasyl, all those terrible [TV] shows Marcelina pitches? I’ve pitched them…” “Family and loyalty, sex and violence, nude cake-baking. The usual stuff…” The power of bad television to inspire good ideas sounds like an idea for a PhD thesis. In which case, we humbly suggest that any budding doctoral candidates speak with Ian McDonald about a soap reboot that’s lately been airing on Channel 5. It was while watching Dallas, he says, that he came up with the idea for his new novel, Luna, due in September. “All the best ideas…

I’m having a cynical month. Blame Jurassic World for being too mean, The Human Centipede for failing to shock, and all the Megathis and Saurus-that cash-ins that will not abate. Talking of, um, bait, sharks are going to be the next BIG thing. And if you think that’s good news, be careful what you wish for. The last thing we need is a “bigger boat…” DREADFUL THING TO DO Interactive theatre event The Generation Of Z: Apocalypse is the latest immersive experience pitting willing audience members against legions of the undead – you walk around and are called upon to make “life or death decisions”. It takes place in a massive basement in Whitechapel, London, and it runs until 30 August. Head to http://www.thegenerationofz.com for more info. PEDE OFF “I know someone who…

SPOILER WARNING! What appealed to you about the script? It was putting John’s character at the heart of what Judgement Day is. And John being the person that’s supposed to save the world vs the problem that could destroy the world. I found that very interesting. That was one of the smartest and best reasons for going back to this franchise: you explore good science fiction themes. Did you try to incorporate any of the traits of the previous John Connors into your version? I watched and loved Eddie Furlong in the second one. I felt it was important that you see that child that Eddie did so well – that irreverent, smart, savvy little kid. That as John becomes or enters the machine, and does his deal with the…

Release Date: 31 July PG | 85 minutes Director: Arild Fröhlich Cast: Eilif Hellum Noraker, Emily Glaister, Kristoffer Joner, Atle Antonsen JO NESBØ’S BLOODY oeuvre has brought Nordic noir to readers worldwide. Less known, outside Scandinavia at least, is his output as a children’s author, a sideline that should get more exposure with the release of this Roald Dahl-like fantasy. Set in a picturesque hamlet, it tells of two children – sensible Lise and bequiffed urchin Nilly – and their friendship with Doctor Proctor, a reclusive eccentric whose latest invention makes whoever ingests it guff enough to send them airborne. To Lise and Nilly, this brightly-coloured powder is a delightful plaything they can flog to their schoolmates and use to wreak revenge on a pair of bullying twins. But to…

STAR TREK: THE NEXT GENERATION The holodeck was designed to give the Enterprise-D crew a break from life on their very beige ship – and clearly not as an excuse to put them in Sherwood Forest or ’40s America for a bit of a change. Whoever was responsible for health and safety protocols should have been fired. RED DWARF In the excellent “Back To Reality” it turned out that everything Rimmer, Lister, Kryten and the Cat had done in the show was part of total immersion videogame Red Dwarf. Unfortunately they weren’t very good at living their own lives (score: 4%), so it was something of a relief when they learned it was just a squid-induced hallucination. CAPRICA The Battlestar Galactica prequel gave its residents the chance to get away…

Release Date: OUT NOW! 2014 | 15 | Blu-ray/DVD Director: Hank Steinberg Cast: Eric Dane, Rhona Mitra, Adam Baldwin Essentially Battlestar Galactica at sea BASED ON THE novel by William Brinkley and produced by Michael Bay (which tells you everything you need to know), The Last Ship’s 10-episode first season is the story of the USS Nathan James, a guided missile destroyer that happens to be out at sea when an airborne pandemic kills 80% of the world’s population. It’s left to square-jawed, all-American commander Tom Chandler and his crew, including sultry scientist Rachel Scott, to find a cure and save the damn planet. Thought Team America: World Police parodied these kinds of stories out of existence a decade ago? Think again. The Last Ship is eight hours plus of…

Release Date: 3 August 2015 | 12 | Blu-ray/DVD Director: Sergey Bodrov Cast: Jeff Bridges, Ben Barnes, Julianne Moore, Alicia Vikander, Kit Harrington JUST SIX months since its theatrical release, Seventh Son already feels like a relic. There’s a good reason for this: the film went in front of cameras in 2012 and sat on the shelf for over a year, which explains why Game Of Thrones’ Kit Harington has a bafflingly minor role while Ben Barnes has somehow ascended to leading man status again despite being, well, a bit naff. Master Gregory (Jeff Bridges) is a mumbly monster-hunting Spook who enlists the help of Chosen One Tom Ward (Barnes) to track down big bad witch Mother Malkin (Julianne Moore) and her supernatural assassins. Why Tom? He’s the seventh son…

Release Date: OUT NOW! 1980 | PG | Blu-ray Director: Terry Marcel Cast: Terry Marcel,John Terry, Jack Palance, Patricia Quinn MAKING ITS BOW on Blu-ray, this British fantasy flick is a mad old brew: a Tolkieninfused sword-andsorcery tale that steals its cues from Sergio Leone Westerns, Hong Kong action cinema and Star Wars, all propelled by a mirrorballfriendly soundtrack that threatens to erupt into “Feels Like I’m In Love” at any moment. The plotting is pure D&D, as a band of heroes assemble to take down an evil warlord. Armed with a magic sword and the mighty Bernard Bresslaw they traipse through an overcast medieval landscape that looks like the very twilight of the British film industry. It’s earnest, bloodless, modestly entertaining stuff, energised by Jack Palance as the Vader-helmeted…

RICHARD EDWARDS EDITOR RIP Really sad to hear of the passing of James Horner. One of the great movie composers – his Wrath Of Khan score is one of my all-time faves. RANTS I’m still hooked, obviously, but Game Of Thrones’ fifth season was its weakest for a while – and a little short on joy. Perhaps one day good things will start happening to good people. NICK SETCHFIELD FEATURES EDITOR RAVES Loved Jonathan Strange & Mr Norrell. Each week had at least one moment that made me scream “Oi, Britain! Why aren’t the rest of you watching this?” RIP Patrick Macnee and Christopher Lee seemed immortal – and I suppose they are. True talents, bigger than the screen. IAN BERRIMAN HOME ENTERTAINMENT EDITOR RAVES Current listening: Galactic Nightmare, a…

THE UK LAUNCHED THE SCREEN careers of two iconic superspies in the ’60s. One – James Bond – has been played by a conveyor belt of actors with wildly different interpretations. The other, John Steed, was, is and always will be Patrick Macnee. Which, ironically, Ralph Fiennes proved – rather than disproved – in the 1998 The Avengers movie remake. The part of Steed fitted Macnee as perfectly as one of the bowler-hatted spy’s immaculate three-piece Pierre Cardin suits. Both were marvellous anachronisms. In the ’60s, when his city gent attitude and attire should have been the height of uncool for an increasingly groovy generation, Steed was as effortlessly hip as Paisley pantaloons. Macnee, meanwhile, was a cherishable rarity – an ego-less lead actor. Steed was not a character so…

FAVOURITE SF/FANTASY COMIC I liked Tharg’s Future Shocks in 2000 AD. They’re still an influence on this anthology show we’re writing now for HBO. I haven’t read one for probably 25 years, but at the time they were mind-blowing. FAVOURITE SF/FANTASY TV I loved the alien stuff in Mork & Mindy. I especially loved the episode where he accidentally joins the Ku Klux Klan and he doesn’t know what they’re about, he just thinks they get together. And then they reveal they’re racists and he doesn’t like that, because he’s an alien, and they take off their hoods and he’s done a thing where he’s changed them to all different races. I thought that was pretty triumphant – as a mixed race person, that was very satisfying to me. FAVOURITE…

Mike Hodges’ classic Flash Gordon celebrates its 35th anniversary this year, but the saviour of the universe has never been more popular, with rumours of a Matthew Vaughn-helmed reboot and star Sam J Jones popping up again as Flash in comedy sequel Ted 2. No better time then for independentlyproduced documentary Life After Flash to take a return trip to Mongo. “I loved the idea that the film could still be so iconic now and how one actor could still be known 35 years later for this one character,” says director Lisa Downs. “As a fan myself it’s something that I would want to see.” The doc will be part making-of, part look at the life of actor Sam J Jones. “It certainly covers the film, because if you’re interviewing…

JORDAN Still not convinced that splitting Mockingjay in two was the right decision, but this trailer looks pleasingly actionpacked and I like the idea of a raid on a booby-trapped Capitol. RICH It’s a by-the-numbers trailer, but aside from the awkward folk dancing at the beginning, I like the look of this. I think Part 1 is underrated, so I’m confident the series will go out with a bang. DAVE The series did so much treading water with Mockingjay – Part 1 it deserves a junior swimming certificate. The trailer certainly teases a powerful postapocalyptic punch-up. TARA Lionsgate is still clearly holding back the good stuff, but seeing Katniss and co taking the fight to Snow looks suitably epic. I love what Francis Lawrence has done with the franchise so…

SPOILER WARNING! SCI-FACT! 2015 marks the first time Pixar has released two films in one year – Inside Out and The Good Dinosaur. POPPING THE QUESTION Over the last 20 years Pixar has got an awful lot of mileage from two words: “what if?” What if toys came to life when you weren’t around? What if monsters were real? What if rats weren’t super-gross? Their next toon, The Good Dinosaur, asks a “what if?” 65 million years in the making: what if the asteroid that wiped out the dinosaurs sailed clean past our planet? THE PARENT TRAP Enter Arlo, a friendly Apatosaurus voiced by young Raymond Ochoa. Arlo is the littlest dino in a happy family of herbivore farmers, which in classic Bambi fashion means his Momma (Frances McDormand) and/or…

Composer JAMES HORNER (above) has died at the age of 61 after crashing his plane in California. Horner made his name with a series of iconic scores in the ’80s, including Aliens, The Wrath Of Khan and The Search For Spock. He won an Oscar in 1997 for his Titanic music, worked with James Cameron again on Avatar, and more recently scored The Amazing Spider-Man. Taken from the world too soon, cinema won’t be the same without him. RIVER SONG to star in a series of audios for Big Finish alongside Eighth Doctor Paul McGann. Ann Leckie’s Ancillary Sword wins the LOCUS AWARD for best SF novel, while Joe Abercrombie picks up best YA novel for Half A King. Georges Méliès and Hayao Miyazaki inducted into the SCIENCE FICTION HALL…

JENNIFER LAWRENCE (above) and CHRIS PRATT signed for Sony’s generational starship romance Passengers… DreamWorks adapting MICHAEL CRICHTON’s miniaturisation tale Micro… MICHAEL KEATON starring in comic adap Imagine Agents… KATHERINE WATERSTON and EZRA MILLER joining Harry Potter spin-off Fantastic Beasts And Where To Find Them… MICHAEL BAY to bring us highconcept adventure Time Salvager… SETH GORDON no longer directing Uncharted videogame adap for Sony… TERESA PALMER joining JAMES WAN’s Monster… Lucy 2 in development… ARIANE LABED joining MICHAEL FASSBENDER and MARION COTILLARD in Assassin’s Creed… DAVID TENNANT joining voice cast of Chew… Disney moving ahead with Maleficent 2… JACK HUSTON no longer starring in The Crow… The Chronicles Of Narnia: The Silver Chair script complete… CHIWETEL EJIOFOR in the frame for Baron Mordo in Doctor Strange… Power Rangers arriving 13 January…

Our columnist Bonnie Burton, a San Franciscobased author, has written a number of books including her latest – The Star Wars Craft Book. Bonnie appears on the massive “Geek & Sundry” and “Stan Lee’s World Of Heroes” YouTube channels. More of her writing can be found at www.grrl.com. Humanoid robots! Iris recognition computers! Lab-grown artificial life! These were once the fanciful ideas of science fiction author Philip K Dick, but as we all know they’ve become all too real. Skype calls, military drones and bad reality TV are the norm now. The future according to Dick is so dead-on, it’s downright creepy. There’s a fine line between insane and insightful, and Dick mixed the two elements artfully in his writing. I first started reading Dick when I was a teenager…

Ian Berriman wants the BBC to resurrect a muchloved cult movie slot Bring back Moviedrome! If you love exploring the obscure backwaters of cinema and are of a certain age, your heart probably just leapt in your chest. But for the benefit of younglings, I’d better explain. Moviedrome was a slot which ran on BBC Two from 1988-2000. The format was simple, with a cult movie (not always a genre flick – though many were) or a themed double bill preceded by a short introduction. In the slot’s first incarnation (1988 to 1994), these were provided by filmmaker Alex Cox. Later on (1997-2000), critic Mark Cousins took the baton. I also hold David Pirie’s 1973 book A Heritage Of Horror, Michael Weldon’s Psychotronic Encyclopedia Of Film and Jonathan Ross’s TV…

Porkins. Myles Fitzpatrick If it’s set around the time of A New Hope, it’s very important to remember women didn’t wear bras then. [Equally important to remember men did – Ed] Richard Dyke When discussing heist plans, I’d like Admiral Ackbar to appear and say, “We could set a trap!” That’s it. Laura Tisdall I want “Rebel spaceships striking from a hidden base” winning their first victory against the evil Empire. Daryl Smith I want the whole film to be a Battle of Britain style aerial dogfight. Exposition can cop a walk. FlangeBadger I’d love to see Darth Vader and the Emperor make an appearance. Russell Garland I’d like it if this is the first time the Rebels see an AT-AT – a looming beast appearing out of the trees…

7-10 May 2015, Atlanta Marriott Marquis Hotel NEARLY 500 MEMBERS OF THE Horror Writers Association gathered in Atlanta, Georgia, over the weekend of 8-10 May to celebrate the silver anniversary of the convention. World Horror Con was started in 1991 in Nashville, Tennessee, by members of the professional writers association to celebrate the year’s best horror fiction via the Bram Stoker Awards. This year’s event featured several programming tracks aimed at improving members’ writing, marketing and business skills, as well as readings, a film festival, art show and a mass signing which was open to the public. Guests of honour included writers Charlaine Harris, Jonathan Maberry, Christopher Golden, John Farris, Kami Garcia, Lisa Tuttle, artist Bob Eggleton and Grand Master William F Nolan, co-creator of Logan’s Run. Attendees could partake…

What’s it like to work with Gillian Anderson again on The X-Files reboot? It feels very familiar. We worked together for so long, but that was a long time ago. Then we worked together again about seven or eight years ago, but I just feel like there’s a connection between us now. The fact that we did the show at that time in our lives for so long means that we are always going to have an acting connection to fall back on. How would you describe your first day on set? Again, it felt very familiar. I thought, “Let’s do it; let’s do these characters.” Unfortunately, I had about five pages of expositional dialogue and that was interesting because I hadn’t been asked to say that kind of crap…

Sir Christopher Lee met his end many times on the big screen, but death was usually little more than a temporary inconvenience. As Dracula, he was disintegrated by sunlight; impaled by wagon wheel, gravestone and fencepost; set alight by lightning strike. But the only thing which could finally finish off the Count was Lee’s own growing disdain for the role. The cause of the actor’s death was more prosaic – complications related to respiratory problems and heart failure – and horribly permanent. But in his passing he’s achieved a more meaningful immortality than his Transylvanian alter ego: a position in the pantheon of great British actors. Lee would wince, of course, on reading a tribute that associates him with the part that thrust him into the full glare of the…

How do the newborn walkers of Fear The Walking Dead differ from those of The Walking Dead? The cool thing about Fear is that it’s one of those situations where you’re walking down the street and you see somebody who’s walking a little slower, but you don’t know, you would never think in normal life that there’s something wrong with that person. So it’s like the beginning of Shaun Of The Dead? That’s actually a really good analogy. On The Walking Dead we push the envelope every season, because we’re a year and half after the zombie apocalypse. So we’re constantly striving to push that. What’s creepier about Fear The Walking Dead is the aspect that people don’t recognise [walkers] immediately. They think someone might just be sick or not…

WHAT’S TOM CRUISE GOING to do this time?” There’s a good chance that this was the first thing that crossed your mind upon hearing that a new Mission: Impossible film was on the way. This is a franchise famous for its huge, jawdropping stunts, after all, and when it comes to sheer wow-factor, it’s hard to beat the image of Cruise scaling the exterior of Dubai’s Burj Khalifa skyscraper in 2011’s Mission: Impossible – Ghost Protocol. When you’ve already dangled your leading man 154 storeys above the ground and given everybody watching a sickening bout of vertigo, where on Earth do you go next? You leave the Earth entirely, of course, propelling your leading man into the air clinging to the side of a plane. “The Burj sequence is obviously…

THE STORY BEHIND THE SF AND FANTASY OF YESTERYEAR This year marks two decades since the fourth Trek show warped onto TV screens around the world. Ultimately running for seven years and 172 episodes, Star Trek: Voyager introduced a fresh cast of characters aboard an all-new starship. “I can’t believe it’s been 20 years,” says actress Kate Mulgrew, who played Voyager’s Captain Kathryn Janeway. “It was such a big part of my life. It was a big part of all our lives.” Voyager had its origins in the early 1990s. Star Trek: The Next Generation was winding down as a TV series and while plans called for the crew of the Enterprise-D to continue life on the big screen, television executives wanted a second Trek to accompany recently launched spin-off…

R IS FOR... ROGER CORMAN THE MASQUE OF THE RED DEATH Roger Corman, 1964 Arguably Corman’s finest, with Vincent Price as a demonic prince who throws a pervy party for the local nobility, which is attended by a redhooded figure who could be Satan himself. Shot by Don’t Look Now’s Nicolas Roeg, who also enjoys a red-hooded figure. THE LITTLE SHOP OF HORRORS Roger Corman, 1960 Did he really make a bet that he could shoot a feature film in less than three days? Whatever, this black horror-com about a man-eating plant (later turned into a stage musical and remade by Frank Oz) was a fine example of Corman’s resourcefulness. DEATH RACE 2000 Paul Bartel, 1975 Me-too cash in of Rollerball, which arguably turned out better. It’s an anarchic dystopian…

Release Date: OUT NOW! U | 91 minutes Directors: Pierre Coffin, Kyle Balda Cast: Sandra Bullock, Jon Hamm, Pierre Coffin, Michael Keaton, Allison Janney, Geoffrey Rush NOT EVERY SIDEKICK or secondary character deserves a spin-off film. We couldn’t imagine, for example, the further adventures of any of the minor creatures in the Ice Age franchise. (Scrat, for all his appeal, is better suited to short films). But Despicable Me’s Minions have taken off to such a degree that of course the filmmakers would want to give it a shot. And they’re more successful than you might figure. A funny prologue guides us through a brief history of the pill-shaped little yellow menaces, obsessed with finding the biggest, baddest boss to serve and the disappointment they feel when their clumsiness destroys…

There are six more films released during the lifespan of this issue, none of which screened before we went to press. On release already: SELF/LESS, in which Sir Ben Kingsley transfers his consciousness into Ryan Reynolds. On 30 July Tom Cruise returns for a fifth outing as superspy Ethan Hunt in MISSION IMPOSSIBLE: ROGUE NATION. We’re promised a David Cronenberg-influenced take on the Marvel comic when Chronicle director Josh Trank’s FANTASTIC FOUR arrives on 6 August. Then on 12 August, aliens attack Earth using Donkey Kong and other classic videogame characters in PIXELS. Finally, 14 August brings Simon Pegg-getspowers comedy ABSOLUTELY ANYTHING, and Guy Ritchie’s MAN FROM UNCLE movie.…

Release Date: OUT NOW! 2015 | 15 | Blu-ray/DVD Director: Toby Haynes Cast: Bertie Carvel, Eddie Marsan, Marc Warren, Charlotte Riley, Alice Englert, Ariyon Bakare ALL GEORGIAN magician Mr Norrell wanted was to make magic respectable to a sceptical England of the early 1800s. All the BBC wanted, it seems, was to make fantasy respectable to prime-time UK audiences again. In the end, both failed. But they were heroic failures. The series tanked in the ratings. For connoisseurs of fantasy this seems unfathomable. Here we have a respectable adaptation of Susanna Clarke’s celebrated 2004 novel about the rivalry of two magicians, full of whimsy and mystery. It has two perfectly cast leads, some gorgeous special effects, impressive production design, atmospheric direction and endless bizarre wigs. How could it fail? There…

Release Date: OUT NOW! 2012-2014 | 15 | Blu-ray/DVD/download Director: Guillaume Lubrano Cast: Michael Biehn, Kelly Brook, Joe Flanigan, Rutger Hauer, James Marsters, Michelle Ryan THERE’S ONLY one way to enjoy Metal Hurlant Chronicles. Well, two if you include not watching it. The other is trying to predict how many minutes into any episode you can guess the twist. Hint: never bet on double figures. This English-language Franco-Belgian co-production is basically Sci-Fi Twist Greatest Hits. Aside from “…and their names were Adam and Eve” the show boasts all the classics. Would we be giving away spoilers by listing them? Do “twists” that are self-evident count as spoilers? Possibly. Let’s just say, there is a child in one story whose name is – we learn in the last line of the…

Release Date: OUT NOW! 1980 | 18 | Blu-ray Director: Marino Girolami Cast: Ian McCulloch, Alexandra Delli Colli, Sherry Buchanan, Peter O’Neal, Donald O’Brien IT’S A ZOMBIE film! It’s a cannibal film! It’s a mad doctor film! It’s… a not very good film. In a plot familiar to anyone au fait with Lucio Fulci’s Zombie Flesh Eaters, a group of New York medical types – including Ian McCulloch, looking and sounding exactly like Pointless’s Alexander Armstrong – head to the East Indies to find the source of a cult that’s stealing body parts. There they encounter the cannibals and zombies and mad doctor who gave this film the best of its squillions of aliases: Dr Butcher, Medical Deviate. Flashes of nudity and gore break the mundanity: a skull is removed…

DEAD SHADOWS Release Date: 27 July 2012 | 18 | DVD/VOD Director David Cholewa is a huge fan of John Carpenter, and it’s obvious from his debut feature. In this French-language sci-fi-horror, a shy IT guy with a fear of the dark (Fabian Wolfrom) must overcome his phobia to survive after a comet causes Paris’s population to start turning into murderous mutations: cue tentacled Lovecraftian horrors and sights reminiscent of Rob Bottin’s designs for The Thing. Clocking in at under 75 minutes, it’s a frenetically paced effort that unrelentingly piles on the gore and effectively generates a doom-laden atmosphere, although some shonky CGI lets the side down, and rather too many questions are left unanswered. THE HUMAN CENTIPEDE 3: FINAL SEQUENCE Release Date: OUT NOW! 2015 | 18 | Blu-ray/DVD…

Release Date: OUT NOW! 2014 | 18 | Blu-ray/DVD Director: Gerard Johnstone Cast: Morgana O’Reilly, Rima Te Wiata, Glen-Paul Waru, Ross Harper, Cameron Rhodes, Ryan Lampp HOW LONG would it take you to go nuts if you had to move back home with your parents? What if you couldn’t even go outside the house for eight months? That’s the sentence petty criminal Kylie (Morgana O’Reilly) faces, after being picked up for her umpteenth robbery. Fitted with an ankle monitor that won’t let her go beyond her mum’s front door, Kylie takes her rage out on her family by eating all their food, making a mess, and refusing to let them watch Coronation Street. Before long, though, she realises there’s something scarier than she is lurking in the old house, and…

Release Date: 17 August 2015 | 18 | DVD/download “NOTHING SO ridiculous can exist,” scoffs one of Soldiers Of The Damned’s Germans. He’s referring to Himmler’s infamous occult department, the Ahnenerbe, but he might as well be talking about the grim trend for cheapo Nazi monster movies. Unfortunately, they’re both real. This particular example sees a German regiment escorting a scientist into a forest, where they find themselves haunted by the ghosts of their own victims. It’s heavy-handed stuff, and the stilted dialogue and wooden acting only serve to heighten the awkwardness. Even the real horrors alluded to can’t lend this slop any credibility. Ridiculous, indeed. EXTRAS: Half-hour Making Of; three featurettes; isolated score; trailer.…

Release Date: OUT NOW! 1980 | 18 | Blu-ray/DVD Director: Joe D’Amato Cast: Tisa Farrow, Saverio Vallone, George Eastman, Serena Grandi, Margaret Mazzantini, Mark Bodin WHILE Anthropophagous isn’t among the very nastiest of the video nasties, it retains a certain degree of notoriety thanks to a couple of gory cannibalistic sequences. Aside from that, it’s a disappointing plod. Italian sleaze king Joe D’Amato’s shocker (called The Savage Island on the titles here), sees a group of tourists head to a remote Mediterranean island where the population have gone missing. But one chap does soon show up: a hulking giant (George Eastman) with a taste for more than the kind of meat served up by McDonald’s. He does the unstoppable killer thing in the manner of Jason Voorhees and Michael Myers, but…

Release Date: OUT NOW! 1992 | 18 | Blu-ray/DVD IN THE EARLY ’90s, Rutger Hauer appeared to be operating a “say yes to anything” policy. The result was a seemingly endless stream of macho actioners riffing on his Blade Runner fame. Split Second is a part of that, but does at least have a wry sense of humour. Hauer plays Harley Stone, a hard-ass cop hunting a murderer in a future London. It soon becomes clear, however, that this killer isn’t human at all... Split Second is dumb, loud and camp, but always entertaining. There’s a glimmer of a good idea in its waterlogged post-climate change setting, and it’s hard to restrain a grin when, off his tits on stress and coffee, bookish sidekick Dick Durkin tools up and goes…

Release Date: OUT NOW! 2015 | 15 | DVD WITH MAKE-UP effects that look constructed from Crayola paint and Kellogg’s cornflakes, a directorial style best described as “drunk”, and performances so flat they make the Maldives look hilly, this zombie spoof is a waste of your lifespan. A comedy movie riffing on The Walking Dead, Zombieland, Warm Bodies and, um, The Hunger Games is generally a fun idea, but this effort is so amateurish it makes Scary Movie look like Scorsese. It’s mean-spirited too. It’s clearly been cut for content (scenes jump incoherently) but homophobic and misogynistic “jokes” remain, with a strip club sequence being a particular low point. We’d blow The Walking Deceased’s brains out, but someone clearly got there before us. EXTRAS: None.…

Release Date: 30 July 480 pages | Hardback/ebook Author: Michael Moorcock Publisher: Gollancz MICHAEL MOORCOCK writes like a good reporter, which is to say he has an eye for telling detail yet cuts superfluous description. So austere can his prose be that you could even argue, possibly with some justification, that he’s the least interesting stylist amongst major contemporary British novelists. Except, of course, that Moorcock – whether you’re talking the extravagant Ladbroke Grove hipster of the ’60s or the marginally more sober, linen-suited big beard of today – has always been acutely aware of style. Even in those novels where it’s clearest he’s writing fast and for the money, there’s an aesthetic choice being made. With a Michael Moorcock novel of any stripe, you’re always both in the moment…

Release Date: OUT NOW! 352 pages | Paperback Author: Eddie Robson Publisher: Snow Books THE BAD NEWS IN EDDIE Robson’s Tomorrow Never Knows is that even after colonising Jupiter and its moons, mankind remains beset by the plague of hipsters, “telling themselves that they lived both at the bleeding edge of NOW and also in another, more authentic time of their own choosing,” in Robson’s words. Despite the Jovian setting, the story feels firmly rooted in the contemporary. People obsess over social media and there are references to New Order and Now That’s What I Call Music compilations, plus a church that worships The Beatles (hence the title). At the centre of the novel is Loreto, a floating city on Jupiter, where Magic Alex, a pastor in the aforementioned church…

Release Date: 30 July 430 pages | Hardback/ebook Author: China Miéville Publisher: Macmillan THE OPENING STORY IN China Miéville’s second volume of short fiction acts as a statement of intent. Just two pages long, the tale that gives the collection its name deals with drug-fuelled “extreme squatting” in a building that’s being demolished, with a bang. Here, having taken themselves temporarily outside chronology, urban explorers “have hours – subjectively speaking – to explore the innards of the collapsing edifice”. The pace of the collection barely lets up thereafter. There’s no anchoring novella to slow things down. Instead, body-horror vignettes, eerie metamorphoses and reflections on revolutions follow with the rat-a-tat insistence of a speeding train. In context, it’s tempting to see Miéville’s opening story also as a deliberate foreshadowing: we readers…

EXCLUSIVE CREATOR INTERVIEW SIMON BARRY DIDN’T need time travel to discover how Continuum was going to end. While the series creator planned for seven to 10 seasons of the international sci-fi hit, the Canadian television channel Showcase announced late last year that the upcoming fourth season would be its last. That’s fine by Barry. Despite all of its time loops and timelines, the beginning and ending of Continuum were always crystal clear for the British-born TV producer and as long as he was able to share those best bits with viewers, he was ready to adapt and evolve just like Kiera Cameron – played by Rachel Nichols – the time-travelling law enforcement officer from 2077. “Like a lot of TV shows, you want to build a sandbox where you can…

FED UP WITH YA TALES THAT chronicle the plight of some Chosen One destined to save the world? Then The Rest Of Us Just Live Here, the new novel from Chaos Walking creator Patrick Ness, is for you. “I was thinking that so many YA books are about the Chosen One, but what about the ones who feel like ‘I just want to have lunch without those other ones blowing up high school again’?” Ness says. “It’s about the un-chosen ones. The ones who get left behind, who also have really sweet and really moving stories to tell.” Mikey is your everyday high-schooler beset by everyday problems. The only difference: Mikey’s best friend is 1/4 god and his world has been besieged by supernatural nasties. “It’s told in two streams,”…

CARTER THE UNSTOPPABLE “We know that she lives well into her nineties. So I’m hoping I play her for the rest of my life! She could actually live through all the different decades. It would be great to see what they do with her hair! If we took it to a different era we could bring up the civil rights movement, we could bring up a lot of social issues that Mad Men has done so brilliantly. It has great scope to grow, but of course it’s dependent on how it’s received and what the fans want – and when they get sick of her, basically. I’m certainly not going to quit any time soon. I do love playing her.” GODDESS WORSHIP “People I looked up to – and wanted…

JAMISON NEWLANDER WAS 15 years old when he was cast as Alan Frog, the quirky and stoic brother of fellow vampire hunter Corey Feldman in The Lost Boys. After appearing in the 1988 remake of The Blob, he earned a BFA in acting at New York University. Jamison has written and directed several plays and short films, and appeared in scenes in Lost Boys: The Tribe (2008), and Lost Boys: The Thirst (2010), in which he and Feldman reprised their roles as Edgar and Alan Frog. He appears in the upcoming film Bone Tomahawk with Kurt Russell. WOULD YOU LIKE TO PLAY ALAN AGAIN? Yes, I would because I think we could do a great fourth movie, or a TV show maybe. It could be me and Corey chasing a…

ON SALE WEDNESDAY 19 AUGUST THE MIGHTY PREVIEW Hot! New! Heading your way! HEROES REBORN The sprawling superhero saga returns to TV! PLUS: Hitman: Agent 47! Maze Runner: The Scorch Trials! From Dusk Till Dawn! Total Recall! The last Terry Pratchett Discworld novel! Stephen Baxter! And more! All contents subject to change. Let’s just blame the Daleks and their pesky Time Disruptor. Meddling pepperpots! Go to gamesradar.com/sfx for details NEVER MISS AN ISSUE Subscribe today – see page 32…

Contact us: Email sfx@futurenet.com Write to Post Apocalypse, SFX, Quay House, The Ambury, Bath, BA1 1UA Facebook Facebook.com/SFXmagazine Twitter @SFXmagazine THIS MONTH’S LETTERS COMPILED BY Jordan Farley, Community Editor The mailpod this month was dominated by your dedications to Sir Christopher Lee, with memories and tributes pouring in via all communication channels. Aside from that there were your musings on Sense8, Terminator Genisys’ marketing strategies and the darkness of Dark Matter… STAR LETTER PRIZE! After his near-death encounter with a movie cut-out that couldn’t be bargained with, couldn’t be reasoned with and absolutely would not stop, ever, it only felt right to reward David Birch over there with a top prize from our space marineloving chums at the Black Library. Because, let’s face it, in a few years time a…

Carlos Almonacid (sharing some alternative monster apocalypses with zombie-hater Alex in response to his Soapbox in issue 260); Simon Alden (“really shocked and saddened” by the death of Christopher Lee); Chris Nicholls (amused by the twist at the end of end of issue six of Jason’s Aaron’s Star Wars comic but “still way too much tiny print”); Nizam B Mohamed Hariri (whose favourite Christopher Lee character was Saruman); Shane Jackson (“Rest In Peace Christopher Lee and Leonard Nimoy”); Keith Tudor (wondering why Universal has released a Jurassic Park DVD and Blu-ray set with a space for Jurassic World. The answer is money. Always money); Martin Brown (fed up with the constant stream of superhero films and yearning for more original SF fare); Rik Laan (who enjoyed Tomorrowland, particularly Raffey Cassidy’s…

Can’t Stop The Serenity 22 August A decade after its world premiere at the Edinburgh Film Festival, Serenity returns to the Fountain Park Cineworld in aid of Equality Now & Marie Curie Hospices. http://bit.ly/SerenityTickets Asylum VII 28-31 August The largest and longest running steampunk festival in the world is back for another, four-day long, retro-futurist extravaganza. http://steampunk.synthasite.com/ Sci-fi Wales 5 September Expect celebrity guests, talks, traders, prop displays, cosplay, competitions, photo opportunities and much more at the Llandudno con. www.scifiwales.uk BristolCon 26 September Jasper Fforde, Jaine Fenn and Chris Moore are the esteemed guests of honour at this year’s West Country sci-fi and fantasy convention. www.bristolcon.org Fanderson 2-4 October The official Gerry Anderson appreciation society returns with its first weekend festival in five years to celebrate the 50th anniversary of…

THE NEW SERIES WHAT WE KNOW… 1 The new X-Files series is filming right now – it’s due to wrap at the end of August – and will consist of six episodes that will air in January 2016. There would have been more episodes but David Duchovny and Gillian Anderson have other filming commitments. 2 At first, Anderson wasn’t all that keen on the idea of doing the show again. It took persuasion from Duchovny, who’d just finished an epic run of sex, drugs and debauchery in Californication, and show creator Chris Carter, to get her on board. Once there, however, she enthusiastically told Entertainment Weekly: “It feels like we never stopped doing this.” 3 This is not a reboot. It’s actually being called “season ten”, so it’s a continuation…

Could the X-Men stories you wrote in the ’80s have been made in a different decade? The creation of characters grew organically out of the evolution of the X-Men as an ongoing story. People are always asking what is my favourite X-Men story, and my answer is always issues 94 to 279 inclusive. To me it’s all one story in the same sense that a life is one life. What do you feel distinguished the X-Men in the ’80s? The seminal difference between the X-Men then and the X-Men now was freedom. The editorial ethos of Marvel was different in the ’70s and early middle ’80s than it is today. You were expected to do superb stories on time and not be a pain in the ass. It was a much more…

GET ON UP The Curse Of Frankenstein Inviting his friend Paul into his lab, Frankenstein proudly shows off the results of his latest brain surgery. When the Baron snaps his fingers, the Creature awkwardly rises and staggers forward, hands hanging limp, dragging its feet, uncomprehendingly glancing around. Then, on command, it drops to the floor, like a trained dog. A masterpiece of mime by Lee, it’s steeped in pathos. VIOLENCE IN THE LIBRARY Dracul Lee could showcase his humanity as Dracula, but this scene shows the flip side of the coin. As a vampire woman tries to feed on his new librarian, Dracula bursts through a door, eyes blazing, fangs bared and bloody. Then he leaps over a table, hurls her to the floor and carries her off. Lee could…

MISSION: IMPOSSIBLE (1996) The first M:I blockbuster produced two memorable stunt pieces: Ethan Hunt dangling by wires from a ceiling during a heist and then, later, escaping an exploding helicopter in the Channel Tunnel and landing on top of a train. The latter scene seemed epic in the ’90s, but the CGI is risible when viewed today... MISSION: IMPOSSIBLE 2 (2000) Cruise gamely spent five days rock-climbing on a cliff face in Utah and performed almost all of the stunts we see in this breathtaking sequence – although his main stunt double, Keith Campbell (brave man!) filmed the heart-stopping moment in which Hunt slips. Was the climb integral to the plot? Not really. But it looked fabulous. MISSION: IMPOSSIBLE 3 (2006) This film is the only one which doesn’t feature a…

SCORPION PARTS 1 & 2 (Season 3, Ep 26; Season 4, Ep 1) A mid-show reset point, this two-parter sees the Voyager crew confront the Borg — and team up with them? YEAR OF HELL PARTS 1 & 2 (Season 4, Eps 8 and 9) Voyager encounters an alien with a weapon that can erase anything from history. After a terrible defeat, Janeway rebuilds her forces over an entire year. LATENT IMAGE (Season 5, Ep 11) Never intended to be a full-time member of Voyager, the Doctor discovers that a portion of his memory has been wiped by the crew he works with every day. EQUINOX PARTS 1 & 2 (Season 5, Ep 26; Season 6, Ep 1) Voyager discovers another Federation starship stranded in the Delta quadrant — only…

Release Date: OUT NOW! 12A | 126 minutes Director: Alan Taylor Cast: Arnold Schwarzenegger, Emilia Clarke, Jason Clarke, Jai Courtney, JK Simmons, Matt Smith Easily the most head-scratching of the franchise “TIME TRAVEL MAKES MY head hurt,” yells Kyle Reese, midway through the mind-bending Terminator Genisys. He won’t be the only one. With an alternate timeline wiping out most of what you know about Skynet, Sarah Connor and those deadly Terminators, this fifth instalment is easily the most head-scratching of a franchise already built on Möbius-strip logic. But, with the welcome return of Arnold Schwarzenegger, this Alan Taylor-directed effort is a vast improvement on 2009’s Terminator Salvation and 2003’s Terminator 3: Rise Of The Machines. We begin with Reese (Jai Courtney) recapping: how defence program Skynet went sentient, how Judgement…

Release Date: 24 July U | 94 minutes Directors: Pete Docter, Ronaldo Del Carmen Cast: Amy Poehler, Phyllis Smith, Kaitlyn Dias, Richard Kind, Kyle MacLachlan, Diane Lane THE HUMAN BRAIN IS THE MOST mind-bogglingly complex organ known to man. There may not be any scientifically accurate grey matter in sight but on the evidence of Inside Out, the latest tour de force from animation maestros Pixar, no studio has a better understanding of what really makes us tick. It’s the story of the chaotic emotions inside the head of schoolgirl Riley. Each of Riley’s five key feelings is personified in the form of Joy, Sadness, Anger, Disgust and Fear, who operate a control panel behind Riley’s eyes, rather like classic Beezer/Beano strip The Numskulls. Joy is the dominant emotion, but…

Release Date: OUT NOW! 15 | 115 minutes Director: Seth MacFarlane Cast: Mark Wahlberg, Amanda Seyfried, Giovanni Ribisi, Morgan Freeman, Seth MacFarlane AFTER THE WRETCHED A Million Ways To Die In The West, Seth MacFarlane’s back on safer ground with the return of his foul-mouthed talking teddy bear. Of course, the novelty’s no longer there, but MacFarlane can still offend with the best of ’em. The plot revolves around Ted’s liberties, after an attempt to adopt a baby leads him to see his civil rights revoked. Joined by old friend John, still nursing a broken heart after divorce, Ted takes the case to court (his lawyer is Amanda Seyfried’s pot-smoking law graduate Samantha), loses, and is declared property not person. The three then head to New York to implore Morgan Freeman’s…

Release Date: 3 August 2015 | 12 | 3D Blu-ray/Blu-ray/DVD Director: Robert Schwentke Cast: Shailene Woodley, Theo James, Kate Winslet, Miles Teller, Naomi Watts, Jai Courtney THE FIRST sequel is usually the point where you find out whether a franchise has legs. Series openers are, almost by definition, cinematic Darwinism in action: the successful will be granted a follow-up, while the flops will be doomed to an eternity of hanging story threads and repeated screenings on some godforsaken digital channel. The first sequel is different. By the time a property’s got that far, it’s clear that the studio has enough faith in the saga to bankroll it, yet it’s still impossible to know whether there’s enough substance to the story to sustain another movie, or two, or three. Even if…

Release Date: 27 July 2014 | 18 | Blu-ray/DVD Director: Ana Lily Amirpour Cast: Sheila Vand, Arash Marandi, Marshall Manesh, Dominic Rains, Mozhan Marno, Rome Shadanloo WE NEUTERED the vampire, didn’t we? We let the undead turn into pale objects of teenage desire or heritage industry totems, cosy as a snug, early hours watch of a vintage Hammer horror. Their essential dread and oddity became absorbed into the bloodstream of culture. No place now for the primal otherness that wormed through the pages of Bram Stoker’s Dracula. Ana Lily Amirpour’s inky but luminous debut restores some welcome potency to the screen vampire. It’s a film imbued with a deep, dislocating sense of The Other: shot in Southern California, set in an Iranian ghost town, told in the Persian language of…

Release Date: OUT NOW! 1984 | 12 | Blu-ray Director: WD Richter Cast: Peter Weller, John Lithgow, Ellen Barkin, Jeff Goldblum, Christopher Lloyd, Lewis Smith NO GENRE FILM is possessed of more swagger, verve and sheer joi de vivre than The Adventures Of Buckaroo Banzai Across The 8th Dimension! A glacially cool Peter Weller is the titular renaissance man, who when not conducting brain surgery or breaking the sound barrier in a jet-car sings in a rock ’n’ roll band. It’s a film that confidently establishes a richly detailed and distinctive world – a stylish, acid-rinsed riff on ’40s matinee serials – populated by likeable characters. The script crackles with quotable one-liners, and John Lithgow’s outrageously-accented Dr Lizardo is one of the big screen’s most bracingly barmy bad guys. Only…

Release Date: 3 August 2015 | 15 | DVD Director: Kornél Mundruczó Cast: Zsófia Psotta, Sándor Zsótér, Luke and Body THIS allegorical Hungarian drama scooped the coveted Palme Dog at the 2014 Cannes film festival, and deservedly so. The canine cast dazzle in this tale of an oppressed pooch who incites a furry revolution on the streets of Budapest. Hagen is the loveable mixedbreed dog of 15-year-old Lili. After being abandoned on the streets by Lili’s tight-fisted father, Hagen transforms from kind-hearted canine into the snarling survivor of the fighting pits, leading a seemingly organised uprising across the city to enact bloody revenge. Part socially-conscious animal welfare drama, part Cujo, White God mainly plays things powerfully straight. Hagen’s brutal fight training is genuinely upsetting stuff, the reassurance that “no animals…

Release Date: 3 August 2015 | 15 | Blu-ray/DVD RELENTLESSLY obnoxious and pitifully unfunny, this is a movie to avoid like bathing with a toaster. The sequel to the 2010 hit sees the same loathsome gang return (minus John Cusack), jump in their tub and land in 2025, where they try to stop a shooting in 2015. It makes no sense but don’t worry, the makers don’t care: all they care about is testicles, vomit, penises, swearing, anuses and drugs. The biggest joke is that it thinks it’s sci-fi savvy, with Terminator, Looper and Fringe references; there’s even the Who-ish line, “It doesn’t take you where you want to go, it takes you where you need to go”. You certainly don’t need to go anywhere near this film. EXTRAS: Commentary;…

Release Date: OUT NOW! 1980 | 15 | Dual-format Blu-ray & DVD Director: Luigi Cozzi Cast: Ian McCulloch, Louise Marleau, Marino Mase, Siegfried Rauch, Gisela Hahn BACK IN THE ’80s Contamination was an official video nasty, yet here it is available with a 15 certificate. Okay, so it’s had that since 2004, but no wonder: aside from a few exploding people there’s not much in it to warrant “nasty” status – nor that much of interest otherwise. The inspired-by-Alien plot has extra-terrestrial eggs arriving on Earth, in a cargo ship that drifts into New York harbour, its crew dead and mutilated. Survivors star Ian McCulloch investigates, but before he meets the “Alien Cyclops” responsible we suffer a very saggy middle section in which not much happens in a foreign hotel.…

Release Date: OUT NOW! 2014 | 18 | DVD BACK IN 2011, Howard and Jonathan Ford’s The Dead transplanted zombies to Africa. This follow-up plays pretty much an identical hand, by unleashing them in India. Once again, we follow a Westerner on a mission: this time, a wind farm engineer heading to Mumbai to rescue his pregnant Indian girlfriend. What little dialogue there is unfortunately tends towards confessional cheese, but star Joseph Millson (formerly Maria’s dad in The Sarah Jane Adventures) sells the threat and has some powerfully tense moments; one, where he encounters a woman and her daughter trapped in a crashed car, is incredibly bleak. And as before, simply placing the undead apocalypse in an unfamiliar (and often stunning) landscape makes familiar old tropes feel fresh. EXTRAS: Trailer.…

Release Date: 27 July 2015 | 18 | Blu-ray/DVD WITHIN 30 seconds of this achingly belowaverage zombie flick we get a T-shirtshaped reference to its videogame series namesake. A servobot helmet here, a Frank West statue there... the nods are littered throughout. But while generous fans tick these off, the rest of the film trudges through colourless exposition, a tired quarantined city setting and characters about as likeable as a garden strimmer to the unmentionables. It woefully misjudges the bizarro comic appeal and its tonal spasms are even borderline offensive at times; comedian Rob Riggle’s Will Ferrell-esque comedy skits frame flailing attempts at genuine human tragedy, often involving young children. Dead on arrival. EXTRAS: None.…