Indice dei contenuti per Holiday Issue in SFX

First Contact

SFX|Holiday Issue

First Contact

COR BLIMEY, IF IT AIN’T A GHOST! Keith Tudor, email The Haunting Of Bly Manor has been a seasonal treat. The plot was engaging, it was atmospheric, and the characters were good. Unfortunately the attention to detail and English stereotyping wasn’t that great. Everyone isn’t obsessed with drinking tea in England, and we don’t usually say “math” as a shortened version of mathematics, opting for “maths” instead. Niggles aside, it was still a fun nine-episode series; just not as good as the previous Hill House series. SFX It could have been worse: a spectral Dick Van Dyke doing the Lambeth Walk while dressed as a Pearly King. Fancy another cup of ectoplasm, me ol’ china? A VOYAGE(R) OF DISCOVERY Rob Graham, email I can’t help feeling that Star Trek: Discovery should have…

ON SCREEN

SFX|Holiday Issue

ON SCREEN

Gremlins: Secret Of The Mogwai The animated HBO prequel series, set in 1920s Shanghai, tells the story of how 10-year-old Sam Wing meets Gizmo. Yes, if you peer closely enough you can see the Mogwai, along with his iconic box. Joe Dante, director of the original movies, is a consultant on the 10-episode project, likely to arrive in 2021. Expect gremlins and hidden treasure! Uncharted Filming has been completed on the long-delayed Tom Holland movie, based on the long-running series of videogames, giving us this first look at Nathan Drake. No rest for young Mr Holland though, as he’s already busy at work on his third Spider-Man movie. Batwoman The “first black, bisexual Batwoman” – or, as we call her, Batwoman – will hit screens in early 2021 as Javicia…

SFX|Holiday Issue

AERIAL ASSAULT

MCU writer Zack Stentz developing The Island Of Dr Moreau show. Creepy, kooky and altogether ooky Tim Burton developing The Addams Family, his first liveaction TV show. Scarlett Johansson stars in Bride, an SF reimagining of The Bride Of Frankenstein for Apple TV+. Oscar Isaac in the frame for Marvel’s Moon Knight on Disney+. Praise Khonshu! Netflix developing the Assassin’s Creed games as a liveaction series. Disney+ greenlight Willow sequel series starring Warwick Davis. Joe Manganiello reportedly reprising Deathstroke in Zack Snyder’s Justice League for HBO Max. Jared Leto returns as the Joker. Clive Barker joins HBO’s Hellraiser as executive producer. Noomi Rapace stars in postapocalyptic thriller Black Crab for Netflix. North Sea horror ahoy in The Rig, a new six-parter from Amazon, shooting next year. Castle Rock axed by…

AERIAL ASSAULT

An Irish Werewolf In Lockdown

SFX|Holiday Issue

An Irish Werewolf In Lockdown

WHEN IT COMES TO CURRENT THEATRICAL animation releases, finding any in the traditional 2D style is a rarity. However, there are some studios, such as Ireland’s Cartoon Saloon, that are bravely keeping the format alive with releases like Wolfwalkers. A tale of tolerance set in 1650 Ireland, it follows young English transplant Robyn Goodfellowe (Honor Kneafsey), whose entire world view is challenged when she meets Mebh Óg MacTíre, a feral girl who runs with wolves – and can transform into one. A gentle exploration of the erasure of Irish Celtic life due to Puritan beliefs, it sees the girls using the magic of the land to free their futures. Co-directors Tomm Moore and Ross Stewart call Wolfwalkers the third and final panel of their “Irish folklore triptych”, after The Secret…

SFX|Holiday Issue

Penny Dreadful SFX’S high priestess of horror

BODY DOUBLE Two movies due to land in cinemas in November have ended up with a different fate thanks to Lockdown II. Brandon Cronenberg’s weird and wonderful Possessor has gone straight to VOD, while Freaky, a Blumhouse take on the body-swap genre, has been bumped back to Christmas. Featuring a serial killer (Vince Vaughn) who does the old switcheroo with a teenage girl (Kathryn Newton) to gory, guffaw-y effect, Freaky is massive fun, but begs to be seen in a group. Strange coincidence that Possessor is also a body-swap horror, albeit of a different flavour. In this Andrea Riseborough’s covert agent infiltrates the bodies of her marks and controls them to carry out assassinations. It’s sophisticated sci-fi with a lot to say about gender, selfidentity and responsibility. KILLER THREADS Two…

Penny Dreadful SFX’S high priestess of horror

SFX|Holiday Issue

Onward Chrisjen Soldier

CORINNA BECHKO IS bringing the political themes of past work such as Invisible Republic to Boom! Studio’s new comic of The Expanse, which takes place between the fourth and fifth seasons of the Amazon Prime show. “There’s so much going on between the characters during the fourth season, and so much turmoil between the various governments and nongovernmental entities, that the hardest part was deciding which story to tell,” says Bechko. Noting that while “you can expect to find a few Easter eggs”, she stresses that the four-issue miniseries is based around her two favourite characters: erstwhile UN Secretary-General Chrisjen Avasarala, together with former Martian marine Bobbie Draper. “I love their dynamic, because they are both human characters first and ‘female characters’ second,” continues Bechko. “Neither of them falls into…

Onward Chrisjen Soldier

JAILHOUSE DOC

SFX|Holiday Issue

JAILHOUSE DOC

“I’ve not cried like that for such a long time… Brad couldn’t cope with it at all” Arrested by the Judoon at the end of the last series, where does this episode find the Doctor? • The Doctor is in prison, with time passed. And obviously time plays out for the Doctor in a certain way. What’s interesting about the start of this is that the discoveries and the journeys that we all go on aren’t necessarily Doctor-led. That makes it really exciting as well, because it’s definitely a team effort throughout. What was it like having John Barrowman on set? • He’s incredibly energetic and passionate as a person, and as Captain Jack. Those are the things that have really bonded us as a fam and a family, going…

TRANSMISSION IMPOSSIBLE

SFX|Holiday Issue

TRANSMISSION IMPOSSIBLE

“GET ME SOMEONE WHO CAN WRITE ABOUT A guy tramping through the snow!” a cigar-chomping producer bellows into his phone. You could be forgiven for wondering if that’s how Mark L Smith got the gig on Netflix movie The Midnight Sky, given that it’s similarly snow-shrouded to his Oscarwinning frontiersman tale The Revenant. But there’s much more to the story than that. For starters, half of it unfolds in the even chillier environs of space. Based on Lily Brooks-Dalton’s 2017 novel Good Morning, Midnight, it’s set in 2049, and centres on Augustine Lofthouse (George Clooney, who also directs), an astronomer based at a remote Arctic station. When a humanity-ending global catastrophe (something to do with the atmosphere) strikes, his colleagues fly off to be with their families at the end.…

THE TERMINAL MAN

SFX|Holiday Issue

THE TERMINAL MAN

What was the experience of working in Iceland like? We first went there in August [2019] and scouted. We went up to one of the largest glaciers in Europe, and the first thing that takes your breath away is how much of the glacier has gone. It’s shocking to see how global warming is a reality in places like that. In Iceland, you can measure it. There’s no one debating science with the people of Iceland. They go, “No, this is real. There’s six miles gone of what’s been here for thousands and thousands of years.” It’s stunning. To go by the great icebergs that are floating in the lakes is incredible. We saw the Northern Lights up there, which was just amazing. I was looking out of my window…

GARDNER’S QUESTION TIME

SFX|Holiday Issue

GARDNER’S QUESTION TIME

Who do you play in Soul? Joe Gardner is a music teacher with a burning desire to play in a big jazz band. Finally, he gets an audition and he kills it – but then he falls down a manhole and he is no longer with us. He floats into this spiritual world where souls are created, and he’s mystically picked to teach people about the value of living life on Earth. What does jazz mean to you? I absolutely love jazz. Who doesn’t like John Coltrane and Miles Davis? Or even someone like Herbie Hancock, who revolutionised jazz. Right now, there’s a huge jazz resurgence in LA. People of all ages love it. Music, man. When it’s played right, no matter what genre, it will always touch you. Is…

CHATHAM CHAT

SFX|Holiday Issue

CHATHAM CHAT

Where do we find Amos? At the beginning of this season, Amos finds out something has happened to his moral centre, Lydia. He had an understanding and a deal built on the fact that if he didn’t come back, Lydia would be taken care of. Amos has been staying away purposefully to protect her. Something has happened to Lydia, and he needs to go find out exactly what’s happened and who was involved with it. And if anything bad has happened to her, Amos needs to handle that situation, as well. Baltimore is a seedy underworld on Earth. How comfortable is Amos with returning to that setting and confronting his past? With a lot of the trauma that Amos experienced growing up, as he’s left and started a new life,…

SFX|Holiday Issue

“YOU HAVE TO BRING IN NEW ENERGY”

With her arched brows and devilish smirk, Michelle Gomez was a shoe-in as Lilith – or Madam Satan. Or, as the character has previously described herself, “Mother of Demons, the Dawn of Doom, Satan’s concubine…” But then, she’s had a lot of practice playing well-dressed villains. She was of course Missy, the female incarnation of The Master on Doctor Who, from 2014 to 2017. “Madam Satan and Missy – I could see them probably getting on very nicely!” Gomez smiles. And what does she think of the new Master, Sacha Dhawan? “Good luck with that!” she says good-naturedly, hinting at the rollercoaster that is Doctor Who fame. “I haven’t seen [his performance], to be honest. But it’s always exciting to bring new energy into something. Missy ended with Peter’s reign…

“YOU HAVE TO BRING IN NEW ENERGY”

SFX|Holiday Issue

“SHE’S THE MANIC TINKER BELL OF THE APOCALYPSE!”

The Stand couldn’t be more timely. How weird is it for life to be imitating art? I definitely had several conversations with the cast and crew when the pandemic first started: “Wait a minute. Didn’t we just go through this on screen?” I feel like as artists, it’s our job to hold a mirror to the human experience and society and bring up those questions. Pandemic aside, that’s what The Stand is about. It’s how people deal with these circumstances, and forcing them to look at what they really stand for, and what path you take when you’re confronted with the unthinkable. Tell us about Julie Lawry and why she’s so broken. Julie is someone who always wanted a life better than she had. She probably spent her life looking…

“SHE’S THE MANIC TINKER BELL OF THE APOCALYPSE!”

SFX|Holiday Issue

CLAW AND DISORDER

NINE LIVES? WHEN IT COMES to Catwoman, that’s an absurdly conservative estimate. The Empress of the Underworld. The Princess of Plunder. The Ruthless Queen of Roguery. Whatever the crown, she has survived across eight decades, a wily, slinky counterpoint to the grim crusade of Batman. Part foe, part ally, part lover, this whip-lashing kitty is as much a pop culture fixture as the Dark Knight himself. Two creatures of the night, locked in an endless, flesh-scarring dance through Gotham’s alleys. “She’s fabulous!” says Batman writer and artist Joelle Jones, responsible for one of the more striking modern takes on Selina Kyle. “People are fascinated by femme fatales and I think she’s aged gracefully over time – unlike some. If anything she continues to become more relevant a character as time…

CLAW AND DISORDER

SFX|Holiday Issue

OTTO FARRANT

When Amazon Prime’s TV adaptation of Alex Rider appeared earlier this year in the UK and Ireland, it not only gave fans of Anthony Horowitz’s bestselling YA series a faithful adaptation to savour, but it also thrust actor Otto Farrant into a new realm. As a working actor in the British theatre scene from the age of 11, Farrant has ably shifted between stage and screen roles for half of his young life. But getting cast as Alex Rider afforded him a first: playing a character from his own time. “To be honest, the idea of playing a teen super spy was something I didn’t think was possible because it’s so far removed from what I’ve played before,” Farrant tells SFX. “I’ve done a lot of roles in period dramas…

OTTO FARRANT

SFX|Holiday Issue

SHORT SHARP SHOCKS

EXTRAS RELEASED OUT NOW! 1949-1980 | 18 | Blu-ray Directors Theodore Zichy, Brian Cummins, Lindsey Vickers, Nigel Finch Cast Stanley Baker, Alexis Kanner, Julie Peasgood, Terence Alexander BLU-RAY DEBUT Master of the English ghost story Algernon Blackwood had the air of an Oxford don who had once confronted the power of Satan – and would tell you all about it over a glass of port. You’ll find him here in two short films from the ’40s (16 minutes/13 minutes), part of a double-disc set of spooky supporting features curated by the BFI. While it’s a rare chance to see a genre legend captured like ectoplasm on celluloid, he proves an uncomfortable screen presence, recounting fireside tales that feel just on the edge of rambling. More effective is The Tell-Tale Heart (1953,…

SHORT SHARP SHOCKS

CHRONICAL: 2067

SFX|Holiday Issue

CHRONICAL: 2067

EXTRAS RELEASED 7 DECEMBER 2020 | 15 | DVD/download Kodi Smit-McPhee’s Ethan must save a world ravaged by climate change and disease in this profoundly average time travel flick. Blasted forward in time to 2474, Ethan searches for a cure for the sickness that will eventually wipe out humanity, wandering around a wood wrestling with his daddy issues. There’s some effective visual effects, and Smit-McPhee does well at holding together the long stretches of the film where he’s on his own, but cheap-looking costumes and lousy dialogue let it down. + Extras None.…

WHITE SNAKE

SFX|Holiday Issue

WHITE SNAKE

EXTRAS RELEASED OUT NOW! 2019 | PG | Blu-ray/DVD/download This Chinese CG animation is frantically action-packed, and that’s ultimately its undoing. Inspired by myth, it’s about a snake spirit who loses her memories, gains human form and enchants an innocent youth, even as the spirit and human worlds wage war. Portions of the adventure are splendid and fun, and there’s a terrific supporting character – a sexy magical seductress. But the relentless pile-up of flashy fights ends up burying the characters, along with our investment in them. + Extras Trailer.…

LEAP OF FAITH

SFX|Holiday Issue

LEAP OF FAITH

RELEASED OUT NOW! 2020 | SVOD Director Alexandre O Philippe SHUDDER If you caught documentarian Alexandre Philippe’s last anatomy of a horror classic, Memory: The Origins Of Alien, and found some of its professorial punditry a bit of a stretch, breathe easy: no one in this The Exorcist doc is flogging their academic theses. Ridley Scott was glaringly absent from Memory; here the director is front and centre, with locked-off cameras recording a fireside-adjacent William Friedkin as, over six days of conversation, he recounts the making of the film in meticulous detail. It’s a winningly simple format, for two reasons. Firstly, few films can boast quite so many fascinating behind-the-scenes stories, from the director firing off a rifle to elicit authentic shock, to Mercedes McCambridge downing raw eggs to achieve…

WICKED CITY/DEMON CITY SHINJUKU

SFX|Holiday Issue

WICKED CITY/DEMON CITY SHINJUKU

EXTRAS RELEASED OUT NOW! 1987/1988 | 18 | Blu-ray/DVD Director Yoshiaki Kawajiri Cast Yusaku Yara, Toshiko Fujita, Hideyuki Hori, Hiromi Tsuru BLU-RAY DEBUT Yoshiaki Kawajiri was the enfant terrible of ’80s anime, taking the genre into ever more extreme territory. Wicked City concerns the conflict between the human world and the demonic Black World, as special agent Taki and partner Makie try to protect peace negotiator Giuseppe from assassination. Kawajiri fills the screen with sex, violence and sexual violence. He’s good at body horror, exemplified by the teeth-filled vagina of a female spider-demon, but tends towards misogyny and puerility while the Taki/Makie romance is woefully underweight. Demon City Shinjuku mercifully dumps the rape scenes in a tale of a young martial artist, Kyoya, fighting to prevent the opening of a…

PINOCCHIO

SFX|Holiday Issue

PINOCCHIO

EXTRAS RELEASED OUT NOW! 2019 | PG | DVD/download Matteo Garrone may be the Italian Guillermo del Toro. His largely faithful adaptation of the classic tale dials up the horror: attempted drownings; a terrifying talking tuna; children screaming in pain as they transform into donkeys… all brought to life with extraordinary prosthetics, including the puppet itself. The cinematography makes your eyeballs sing. Parents may need to consider potential toddler nightmares, but older kids should gleefully lap it up. + Extras Subtitled/dubbed versions.…

SFX|Holiday Issue

HE CAME FROM THE SWAMP

EXTRAS RELEASED OUT NOW! 1966-1977 | 18 | Blu-ray Director William Grefé Cast Joe Morrison, Fred Pinero, Jeremy Slate, Rita Hayworth BLU-RAY DEBUT William Grefé made many features throughout the ’60s and ’70s, few of which came to anything outside of his native Florida. This illuminating and extensive box set presents roughly half his filmography. Sting Of Death (1966) is the standout, with various teens picked off by a swamp monster who just might have a connection to stingray expert Egon (John Vella). With its extended dance numbers and kitsch vibe it’s loads of fun, and the new transfer is simply beautiful. There’s far less dancing in Death Curse Of Tartu (though Grefé still manages to squeeze in one sequence!), which turns the Everglades into the burial ground of a…

HE CAME FROM THE SWAMP

DUNE

SFX|Holiday Issue

DUNE

RELEASED OUT NOW! 2000/2003 | 12/15 | Blu-ray Directors John Harrison, Greg Yaitanes Cast Alec Newman, Ian McNeice, Susan Sarandon, James McAvoy BLU-RAY DEBUT Despite these two mini-series being made three years apart, major roles being recast, and different UK distributors releasing them on Blu-ray, watching Syfy’s Dune and Children Of Dune together proves to be a perfectly coherent bingewatching experience. Produced in a pre-streaming era when such offerings were called “event TV”, these adaptations of Frank Herbert’s ’60s novels feel like an important evolutionary step towards the long-form TV dramas that proliferate today. Not that they’re perfect – far from it. Yet their shortcomings add to the charm. Herbert’s ambitious but rambling epic about rival Houses in a interplanetary empire competing for control of a strategically vital desert planet…

HOST

SFX|Holiday Issue

HOST

RELEASED 4 DECEMBER (also VOD/download) 15 | 56 minutes Director Rob Savage Cast Haley Bishop, Jemma Moore, Emma Louise It’s pretty much unprecedented for a movie to debut on a streaming service and move into cinemas months later. It’s also rare that a film clocking in at under an hour represents decent value for money. But this British-made found-footage horror, put together during the first lockdown, has and is. Creatively speaking, it may be the best thing to come out of Covid-19. The set-up is simple: six friends – five of them female – conduct an online seance via Zoom. Naturally, it all goes horribly wrong, as a demonic entity passes over. There are some familiar devices here – footprints appearing on the floor; a chair sliding across the room –…

THE RINGMASTER

SFX|Holiday Issue

THE RINGMASTER

RELEASED OUT NOW! (also DVD/download) 18 | 98 minutes LIMITED Is anything more tiresome than a movie that lectures you for watching it? This Danish nonsense could’ve been an unremarkable torture porn copycat in 2007, but as it’s 2020, it’s been given a spit and polish: chapter cards, a back-and-forth structure, and fourth-wall-breaking chat. Upshot is: women have to be tortured for entertainment, and you are to blame. Performances are fine and there are a couple of creepy moments, but it feels horribly dated, and utterly humourless.…

SFX|Holiday Issue

COME AWAY

RELEASED 18 DECEMBER PG | 94 minutes Directors Brenda Chapman Cast Angelina Jolie, David Oyelowo, Keira Chansa, Jordan A Nash Imagine the characters from Peter Pan’s Neverland meeting and joining forces with the ones from Alice’s Wonderland. Hijinks would most definitely ensue, right? How about Peter taunting the Cheshire Cat? The White Rabbit bouncing around Hook’s ship! Wendy primly telling off the crocodile for trying to eat her! The possibilities are endless (ish). You’ll find no such hijinks in Come Away, though, a film which does indeed draw on both worlds in the imaginations of two children, Peter and Alice, after the loss of their older brother in a tragic accident. Sure, they slip away from the reality of their grief to swordfight with pirates or to have a tea…

COME AWAY

SFX|Holiday Issue

THE ART OF STAR WARS: THE MANDALORIAN

RELEASED OUT NOW! 256 pages | Hardback Author Phil Szostak Publisher Abrams Ever since George Lucas hired Boeing industrial designer Ralph McQuarrie to visualise the original Star Wars, the franchise has been making stars of its concept artists. The Mandalorian even showcases their work in its end credits. So it’s no surprise that this beautiful art book is a love letter to the craft. While these season one illustrations predominantly appear in story order, narrative really isn’t the priority. There are pages devoted to the show’s origins and the making of each episode, but they’re too brief to take up much of your time – in fact, you find yourself wishing there was some chunkier prose to sink your teeth into, particularly on the subject of the show’s innovative digital…

THE LAST RESORT

SFX|Holiday Issue

THE LAST RESORT

RELEASED OUT NOW! 299 pages | Paperback/ebook Author Susi Holliday Publisher Thomas & Mercer There’s a great concept at the core of crime novelist Susi Holliday’s latest – a contemporary take on Agatha Christie’s And Then There Were None, filtered through the Fyre Festival disaster and Black Mirror. Seven strangers have accepted an invitation to try out a new piece of tech on a private island: a neural-interface implant that they’re told will respond to their needs. However, the guests become aware that the implants can also dig into their memories – and all of them have deeply buried secrets… Aside from humanitarian aid worker Amelia, the guests are all dubious characters in some way: venture capitalist Brenda, gossip columnist Lucy, alternative-medicine supplier Scott, paparazzo James and shallow Instagram golden…

SFX|Holiday Issue

THE ART OF STAR TREK: DISCOVERY

RELEASED OUT NOW! 208 pages | Hardback Author Paula Block, Terry J Erdmann Publisher Titan Books Returning the final frontier to the small screen, Star Trek: Discovery gave itself an outsized mission statement. Co-creator Alex Kurtzman, current Great Bird of the Galaxy, wanted television with all the scale and spectacle of a movie – “to push at the visual possibilities” of Trek’s first home. This copiously illustrated art book celebrates that Warp 10 sense of ambition, collating Discovery’s production design from ships to planetscapes, tricorders to hairless Klingons. The imagery of the first two seasons (only) is charted in impressive, near-fetishistic detail, cleanly displayed on the page and supplemented by insight from the show’s makers. While the Disco-porn dazzles, it’s the words that deliver the real insights. Prop master Mario…

THE LAST GOOD MAN

SFX|Holiday Issue

THE LAST GOOD MAN

RELEASED OUT NOW! 320 pages | Hardback/ebook/audiobook Author Thomas McMullan Publisher Bloomsbury Publishing Hot on the heels of Jonathan Lethem’s The Arrest comes another low-key post-apocalypse novel about suspicion in an isolated community – only this time it’s not about a functioning community being disrupted by an outsider, but an outsider arriving to discover that the community is absolutely screwed up. Thomas McMullan keeps it vague when it comes to the collapse of civilisation: flashbacks hint at spiralling poverty, there’s no government or media any more, and the cities are on fire. Duncan Peck arrives in a Dartmoor village to find his cousin James Hale has become the arbiter of law and order. The villagers write their grievances on a wall, and when an accusation gains momentum, action is taken:…

SFX|Holiday Issue

BATMAN: THREE JOKERS

RELEASED OUT NOW! Publisher DC/Black Label Writer Geoff Johns Artist Jason Fabok ISSUES 1-3 Legendary comics writer Alan Moore may have sworn off superheroes (and comics in general), but DC still seems unable to stop itself from exploiting his back catalogue with questionable “homages” any way it can. The recent Watchmen crossover/sequel Doomsday Clock apparently wasn’t enough; now, also from writer Geoff Johns, we have this three-issue Black Label prestige-format miniseries that desperately wants to match Moore’s acclaimed 1988 story The Killing Joke. The plot actually links back to a plot thread first set up in 2015, although Three Jokers’ connection to current DC Bat-continuity is nebulous at best. The central hook is Batman’s discovery that the Joker might actually be three separate people – and when a string of…

BATMAN: THREE JOKERS

MADI

SFX|Holiday Issue

MADI

RELEASED OUT NOW! Publisher Z2 Comics Writer Duncan Jones, Alex de Campi Artist Various GRAPHIC NOVEL Moon, Mute, Madi: that’s how Duncan Jones’s movie trilogy was meant to play out. A screenplay for the third entry was ready to go in 2018, but after Jones’s Netflix movie met a tepid reaction he decided to turn it into a graphic novel instead. It’s a shame, because Madi (subtitled Once Upon A Time In The Future, the script’s original title) is an easier sell than Mute, and could have been a hit. Connections to the other “Mooniverse” films are subtle. “Free the 156” posters (a nod to Moon’s clone, Sam) can be glimpsed; Mute’s underground surgeon Cactus Jack is namechecked; Chesney Hawkes plays in a lift. The main link is the role of…

SFX|Holiday Issue

Rants & Raves

DARREN SCOTT EDITOR RAVES Daleks! gave me chills – what an absolute treat for a dark winter evening. Freaky is great. Hopefully it’ll still get a UK theatrical release (though I realise I’ve tempted fate now). RANTS I enjoyed the remake of The Witches, but I just don’t really know why it was needed. The original is perfection. IAN BERRIMAN DEPUTY EDITOR RAVES Current reading: The Trials Of Koli, book two of Mike Carey’s latest series, and Canongate’s new translation of Yegveny Zamyatin’s We. ’60s strip The Daleks looks immaculate in Panini’s new reprint. David Cronenberg’s in Star Trek: Discovery! Here’s hoping it gives him a taste for making more genre movies again… Sorry To Bother You is now on Netflix. Watch it! One of my favourite films of 2018.…

Rants & Raves

SFX|Holiday Issue

Sean Connery 1930-2020

“I’M LOOKING FOR COMMANDER Bond and not an overgrown stuntman,” despaired arch snob Ian Fleming, confronted by the prospect of Sean Connery starring in Dr. No. Bond’s creator quickly came to endorse the choice but you can understand why he bristled: here was an ex-bodybuilder and West End chorus boy, a barely known, raw-edged brute of an actor bred in Scotland’s tough tenements. He had once mixed cement and polished coffins. Was this really the man to embody an old Etonian’s fantasies of upmarket escapism on the big screen? In fact Connery has as much claim to creating James Bond as Fleming himself. He created the movie Bond, who’s a very different beast to the book Bond. And he did this by bringing a sense of self-awareness, a sense of…

Sean Connery 1930-2020

SFX|Holiday Issue

Cutting Edge

AFTER PREVIOUS 12-PART COMIC Blade Runner 2019 concluded in 2027, Blade Runner 2029 advances the story of Detective Aahna Ashina another two years. The new series finds the Replicant hunter developing feelings for her bioengineered prey. “Ash has definitely evolved from where we met her in Blade Runner 2019, when she was happy selling Replicant bodies off to be looted for organs,” says writer Mike Johnson, who is again joined by artist Andres Guinaldo. “After her experiences with Isobel and Cleo in the last book, she’s changed her mind about the inherent humanity of Replicants, which puts her in a tricky situation given that her job as a Blade Runner is still to hunt them down.” Ash comes into conflict with a new Replicant leader, who is not just satisfied…

Cutting Edge

SFX|Holiday Issue

Happy Horrordays!

AFTER THE RECENT MISTY & Scream Halloween Special, Rebellion is resurrecting the legendary girls’ horror comic once again this Yuletide. Composed of two complete spooky stories, the Misty Winter Special follows in the long-running tradition of festive chillers. “Initially, the Christmas special was going to be an entirely different title from the Fleetway archive,” Treasury of British Comics editor Keith Richardson tells Red Alert. “It didn’t quite work though, so we decided that another title should take its place. I’ve always loved those adaptations of the MR James ghost stories that the BBC used to put out over the winter and suggested that we do something in that wheelhouse, and Misty seemed to be the obvious title.” With Richardson noting that “as with all of the specials, we wanted a…

Happy Horrordays!

SFX|Holiday Issue

Retro-active

Big Brother is watching… you, watching Big Brother. No, not the one with the diary room and the vanishing wine bottle. The 1954 TV play Nineteen Eighty-Four – based on some book or something – gets its very own Give-a-Show Projector. Hours of fun for all the oppressed family. LIVING LEGEND It may be the festive holiday season, but it’s always Halloween at SFX. We’re still holding on to All Hallow’s Eve – and lamenting the loss of Halloween Kills this year – with this new book from filmmaker David Gordon Green and artist Onur Tukel. We’re not sure zany rhymes and quirky illustrations make The Legend Of Halloween suitable for kids, but we’re obviously fully on board with the idea. Visit legendofhalloween.com for order details SCI-FACT! The first TV…

Retro-active

SFX|Holiday Issue

SERVING TIME

WHEN WE WERE TOLD on the first of March this year that “The Doctor will return in ‘Revolution Of The Daleks’”, no-one could have known just how far away a festive special would feel. Sentenced to “whole of life imprisonment” by the Judoon, Jodie Whittaker’s Doctor was transported from the TARDIS to a maximum security facility in space, moments after learning that her life as she had known it had changed forever. Now showrunner, executive producer and writer of the latest instalment of Doctor Who Chris Chibnall, is in the final stages of overseeing what comes next. That means grading the colour – “If you saw a lot of the raw footage when we film it, it still looks like it was shot in the 1970s” – and listening to…

SERVING TIME

I’D AATHER JACK!

SFX|Holiday Issue

I’D AATHER JACK!

“You need to get yourself prepared, because it is going to be shocking” What’s it like being back in the world of Doctor Who? • It’s amazing. If I’m asked, I will always go back at the drop of a hat. When I did the first episode [in season 12], I knew I was going to be in the festive episode. I knew the storyline of part of that before I knew what I was doing in the series. The thing that’s brilliant for me as the person who plays him, because I know him so well, is how he reacts to these new people on the TARDIS – because the one thing he does know is they’re there for the Doctor, they’re there because they love the Doctor and…

SFX|Holiday Issue

WHAT’S IN A NAME?

“We all loved Lily Brooks-Dalton’s original title Good Morning, Midnight,” Smith says, “And I think that would have been the title if it hadn’t been very similar to [earlier Clooney movie] Good Night, And Good Luck. Also, whenever we’d tell somebody, ‘We’re doing this movie’ they’d go, y’know, ‘Midnight In The Morning’?. There was something about it people couldn’t latch onto. So we went to a lot of different things. We discussed something like Polaris, because in the film Polaris [the North Star] is kind of a guiding light for both the Aether and Augustine. But Polaris was very close to another Clooney movie, Solaris, so Netflix didn’t want to go there either. The problem is, Clooney’s just done too many movies…”…

WHAT’S IN A NAME?

SFX|Holiday Issue

ALL THAT JAZZ

IN COCO, AUDIENCES WERE TAKEN on a mystical adventure to the Land of the Dead. In Inside Out, we were transported inside the mind of a young girl. In Ratatouille, we discovered French cuisine through the eyes of a rat. So what have the creative geniuses at Pixar cooked up next? In Soul, we follow a music teacher from New York City as he stumbles into a cosmic world called The Great Before. This otherworldly domain is where new souls get their personalities, quirks and interests before they go to Earth. It’s there the protagonist of the story meets a precocious soul called 22 (voiced by Tina Fey), who has no desire to leave the ethereal plane she currently calls home. The initial idea for the movie was percolating in…

ALL THAT JAZZ

DEEP IMPACT

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DEEP IMPACT

THE WORLD IS ABOUT TO BE destroyed… and nobody even has an inkling of its imminent doom. The Expanse’s fourth season ended with Holden (Steven Strait) and company completing their mission beyond the Rings, on the planet Ilus. After all the mayhem and social unease, the crew of The Rocinante deserve a breather, but the show’s latest antagonist, Marco Inaros (Keon Alexander), has other plans. Employing stolen Martian technology, he’s launched several cloaked asteroids towards Earth. And anybody familiar with movies like Armageddon or Deep Impact knows that such a collision will wreak major havoc, on a global scale. “It takes rocks a while to cover that distance,” showrunner Naren Shankar tells SFX. “The events early on in season five occur under a shadow of mounting dread. The dread is…

FINAL SEASON OF THE WITCH

SFX|Holiday Issue

FINAL SEASON OF THE WITCH

GOLDEN CANDELABRAS, satin tablecloths, a tattered Encyclopaedia Britannia dating back to 1910… SFX is surrounded by beautiful things right now. Our favourite: a kleptomania-inducing, Antiques Roadshow-esque lamp with stained glass dragonflies and sculpted fairies at the base. At a glance, the Spellman residence – home to the titular teen on Netflix’s Chilling Adventures Of Sabrina – is a hipster millennial’s dream house come to life. Which, for some, is nightmare-inducing enough. But on closer inspection ghastly touches abound: from flayed faux-lizard fans in the lounge to a jar of “adder skin” in the kitchen. (SFX recoils on discovering that they’re actually bits of pickled cauliflower). In the embalming room – Casa Spellman doubles up as a family-run mortuary, naturally – Miranda Otto points out “coyote eyeballs” with a chuckle. Otto,…

SFX|Holiday Issue

WITCH CAME FIRST…

Sabrina originated in Archie Comics in 1962 as Sabrina The Teen-Age Witch. Archie Horror, an Archie Comics imprint, released a darker take on the character in 2014. “I had literally stacks of the comics,” says Lachlan Watson. “A weird little omen of ‘This is your future!’” But it’s another Sabrina entirely – one with a lot of butterfly hair clips and a deliciously camp cat – who springs to mind for most people: Sabrina The Teenage Witch, which ran from 1996 to 2003. “I’ve seen it, but not in its entirety, to be honest,” says Kiernan Shipka. That’s hardly surprising given that she was born in 1999… “At the beginning, once I got the show, I was reluctant to watch it because I wanted to create my own character, without…

WITCH CAME FIRST…

SFX|Holiday Issue

SELF OBSESSIONS

“CAN YOU REPEAT THAT AGAIN?” asks Brandon Cronenberg, on the line to SFX from his home city of Toronto. He’s all apologies, clearly squirming as he requests a third stab at the same question. “I’m sorry. There’s this intense static that coming through. “Maybe we’re being hacked,” he laughs, through the curse of crackle. “Maybe they don’t want this information out there…” It feels entirely appropriate that technology is against us today. Cronenberg’s new movie, Possessor, is a tech-driven fantasy, blurring the boundaries of horror and thriller just as the identities of its protagonists shift and melt to disturbing effect. In this story the self is a brittle, untrustworthy thing and, as the writer-director tells it, that’s a premise rooted in his own lived experience. “I was on the press…

SELF OBSESSIONS

SFX|Holiday Issue

“SHE’S A CLASSIC FEMME FATALE!”

How would you define Catwoman’s eternal dynamic with Batman? Both Batman and Catwoman spring from the Nietzschean/Jungian Shadow archetype, but inhabit opposite sides of it. For Bruce, that darkness is carefully – sometimes even reluctantly – channelled into the kind of brutality and menace he needs to be effective as Batman. It’s a force he uses very cautiously, always wary of letting it shut him away from too much of his own essential humanity. For Selina, finding that dark power in her psyche was liberating and she gives herself over to it freely. Embracing the Femme Fatale enriches and deepens her sense of possibilities – it opens up opportunities for her and gives her richer ways of interacting with the world. Were there previous iterations of the character that particularly…

“SHE’S A CLASSIC FEMME FATALE!”

SFX|Holiday Issue

SOUL

RELEASED 25 DECEMBER 2020 | PG | SVOD Director Pete Docter Cast Jamie Foxx, Tina Fey, Graham Norton, Angela Bassett, Alice Braga, Richard Ayoade DISNEY+ Just when you begin to worry that Pixar’s getting stuck in a groove, you can trust director Pete Docter to jazz things up a little. Four of the last six Pixar movies have been sequels, while Onward, the company’s last original entry, felt very much like Pixar-by-numbers. But Docter, the creative force behind previous formula-shakers Up (2009) and Inside Out (2015), returns here with another ambitious animated movie that creates new riffs from familiar rhythms. A bit, indeed, like jazz, the musical genre that powers the film, right from the adorably shambolic version of the opening Disney fanfare. The film’s central character is Joe, a…

SOUL

VERSUS

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VERSUS

EXTRAS RELEASED 7 DECEMBER 2000 | 18 | Blu-ray Director Ryuhei Kitamura Cast Tak Sakaguchi, Hideo Sakaki, Chieko Misaka, Kenji Matsuda BLU-RAY DEBUT In 2000, The Matrix had redefined action movie cool, while Western interest in extreme Asian cinema was booming. Ryuhei Kitamura’s film, with its leather coats, stylised mix of martial arts and gunplay and explosions of gore, landed at exactly the right moment. It hasn’t aged well. With barely any story (two prisoners try to escape the yakuza in a forest, and are beset by the undead), zero characterisation and dubious acting, all you’re left with is two hours of fighting, shooting and the occasional beheading. It’s well edited and some of the fights stand out, but you feel every one of its 120 minutes. + Extras You get…

TRILOGY OF TERROR II

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TRILOGY OF TERROR II

EXTRAS RELEASED 7 DECEMBER 1996 | 15 | Blu-ray BLU-RAY DEBUT Playing three equally terrorised characters, Krull’s Lysette Anthony is put through the wringer in this anthology: killer rats, a demonic child and (in a sequel to the 1975 TV movie) a stab-happy Zuni doll. Dark Shadows creator Dan Curtis piles on the lightning flashes, and while there’s a fun, campy energy, it all feels pretty dated for 1996. It’s like a horror cheeseboard, with the emphasis on cheese. + Extras Expert commentary; interviews.…

SFX|Holiday Issue

ISHIRŌ HONDA

RELEASED OUT NOW! 1958-1961 | 12/PG | Blu-ray Director Ishiro Honda Cast Yumi Shirakawa, Ryo Ikebe, Frankie Sakai BLU-RAY DEBUT If you know Ishiro Honda’s name, it’s probably because of a little movie he made in 1954: Godzilla. Three more of the director’s Toho Studios productions play with similar elements – radiation, urban devastation, giant monsters – with consistently entertaining results. Ishiro Honda Double Feature opens with The H-Man. This plays more like a noir thriller than sci-fi, as cynical cops investigate a criminal’s mysterious disappearance against a backdrop of pouring rain and jazz-blaring nightclub. Nuclear testing is to blame again, having created a slimy horror which can ooze, Blob-like, under doors before solidifying as a shimmery green bogeyman to dissolve a victim. The film anticipates the “body melt” movies…

ISHIRŌ HONDA

LATE PHASES

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LATE PHASES

EXTRAS RELEASED OUT NOW! 2014 | 18 | Blu-ray Director Adrián García Bogliano Cast Nick Damici, Tom Noonan, Lance Guest, Tina Louise BLU-RAY DEBUT “People don’t come to places like this to live,” says blind combat veteran Ambrose McKinley, recently turfed into retirement community Crescent Bay. “They come here to die.” Death in this case arrives in a flesh-shredding frenzy. Crescent Bay is being stalked by a werewolf which leaves blood-spattered Zimmer frames in its wake. Before long Ambrose is loading up with silver bullets before the next bad moon rises… Boasting a spiky script and a strong, authentic performance by Nick Damici, Late Phases is an indie horror with heart – and one with a refreshingly different protagonist. Ambrose is a vivid character from the off, a taciturn bad-ass looking…

SFX|Holiday Issue

AKIRA

EXTRAS RELEASED 7 DECEMBER 1988 | 15 | Blu-ray (4K/standard) Director Katsuhiro Otomo Cast Nozomu Sasaki, Mitsuo Iwata, Taro Ishada, Mami Koyama Fresh from its theatrical outing, this is a 4K remaster of the SF-action epic which showed a generation of Western viewers what Japanese animation could be like at its most spectacular. It’s an urban nightmare, set in a Neo-Tokyo torn by terror attacks and used as a playground-cum-battlefield by biker gangs. Meanwhile, underground, there’s a decades-old secret experiment to awaken godlike powers in humans. It’s visually tremendous, though some viewers may find Akira indigestible as it piles on endless tiny details, massive action set-pieces and baggy subplots. It’s best understood as the story of the two central boys (Kaneda and Tetsuo), desperately trying to stay tough as they…

AKIRA

SAVE YOURSELVES!

SFX|Holiday Issue

SAVE YOURSELVES!

RELEASED OUT NOW! 2020 | 15 | Download Two hapless Brooklyn hipsters “go offline” for a rural break, then belatedly discover that an alien invasion’s taken place in this initially very promising but ultimately infuriating sci-fi comedy. The central couple are cute (especially the saucer-eyed Sunita Mani), and the invading “Pouffes” (think giant Tribbles which shoot out a deadly tentacle) creatively oddball. What’s missing is a satisfactory final act: the story just fizzles out, in bewildering fashion. So maybe save your money.…

THE WITCHES

SFX|Holiday Issue

THE WITCHES

RELEASED OUT NOW! 2020 | PG | VOD Director Robert Zemeckis Cast Anne Hathaway, Octavia Spencer, Jahzir Bruno, Stanley Tucci “Witches are real!” shrieks Chris Rock at the start of this glossy, CGI-loaded adaptation of Roald Dahl’s 1983 book. He’s not wrong, as our nameless orphan hero (Jahzir Bruno) discovers when he goes to stay at a coastal hotel with his kindly grandmother (Octavia Spencer). She knows all about witches, but Grandma is unaware that the hotel is about to host an arcane convention overseen by none other than the Grand High Witch herself (Anne Hathaway). So far, so familiar to anybody who’s read the book or seen Nicolas Roeg’s creepy 1990 adaptation, but director Robert Zemeckis has a few aces up his sleeve. For one, he relocates the story…

ROUND UP

SFX|Holiday Issue

ROUND UP

We covered PENINSULA (out now, Blu-ray/DVD/download), sequel to Korean zombie horror Train To Busan, last issue. It follows four survivors on a job to recover $20 million from an abandoned truck. We said: “The premise is pure John Carpenter, and that’s not all that feels familiar… Propulsive action is the focus, and often it feels like you’re watching a videogame.” The physical release comes with four featurettes and behindthe-scenes footage. HMV’s First Edition adds a poster and six art cards. HMV is also the place to find Warner’s Premium Collection release of THE PHANTOM (out now, Blu-ray). Billy Zane dons the purple bodysuit as the masked avenger from the ’30s comics, out to foil an evil industrialist after three magical skulls. Written by The Last Crusade’s Jeffrey Boam with tongue…

MURDER ME, MONSTER

SFX|Holiday Issue

MURDER ME, MONSTER

RELEASED 18 DECEMBER (also VOD, 4 DECEMBER) 18 | 109 minutes Director Alejandro Fadel Cast Victor Lopez, Esteban Bigliardi, Tania Casciani, Romina Iniesta LIMITED Visually, this Argentinean horror is a feast, with rugged landscapes and a cast full of characterful faces. Sequences like one where cops carrying flares search amidst a downpour are beautifully lit. The film’s earthy sense of the grotesque brings to mind Goya. Its monster is also a memorable creation: truly revolting, with a long phallic tail and jowls like an OAP’s saggy scrotum. We haven’t seen anything so unpleasantly sexual since, well, that Spitting Image puppet of Michael Gove. Sadly, the plotting’s likely to leave you mystified. Rural cop Cruz (Victor Lopez) – so impassive he’d barely register on an ECG – looks into a string…

SKYLINES

SFX|Holiday Issue

SKYLINES

RELEASED 18 DECEMBER (also VOD) 18 | 109 minutes LIMITED Despite a handy recap, this woeful threequel is only likely to appeal to Skyline completists – if such a thing exists. This time a small band of humans takes the fight back to the homeworld of the alien invaders, bringing double-crossing and back-stabbing with them. The muddled script is built around gung-ho one-liners cut-and-pasted from better movies, while a succession of creatures, alien hardware and CG lightshows struggle to fill the void where a plot should be.…

SFX|Holiday Issue

HEIRS OF THE NIGHT Series One

UK CBBC, all available on iPlayer Creators Maria von Heland, Diederik van Rooijen Cast Anastasia Martin, Ulrik William Græsli, Julian Bleach, Lance West EPISODES 1.01-1.13 Arriving at least five years after the world’s pop-culture vampire fetish reached its height, this Dutch children’s series might lose points for timeliness but earns many more for having an extremely watchable cast of promising young actors, most of whom you can’t help but like. Based on a German children’s book, it certainly isn’t original – ancient prophecies, “chosen ones”, vampires falling for humans… you could easily play cliché bingo while you watch – but once you stop gritting your teeth at the overused tropes, you’ll have fun. Set in 1889, yet somehow filled with characters who say things like “Dude, that’s sick”, it follows…

HEIRS OF THE NIGHT Series One

BONE HARVEST

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BONE HARVEST

RELEASED OUT NOW! 495 pages | Paperback/ebook/audiobook Author James Brogden Publisher Titan Books An ancient religion that worships a terrifying pig god, a World War One deserter and a sleepy village allotment which hides a dark secret form the backdrop to this rather sprawling folk horror from James Brogden. Building the mythology of the Farrow, the strange community who pray to Moccus, the novel starts strong, eerie and visceral, with our protagonists being the amoral ex-soldier Everett, who’s stolen another man’s name, and the free-spirited Ardwyn, beautiful natural heir to the Church. However, when we cut to the modern day and the allotment where Ardwyn and Everett relocate to start a new branch of the Farrow, Bone Harvest becomes more convoluted. At almost 500 pages and over-stuffed with characters, it…

THESE VIOLENT DELIGHTS

SFX|Holiday Issue

THESE VIOLENT DELIGHTS

RELEASED OUT NOW! 464 pages | Hardback/ebook Author Chloe Gong Publisher Hodder & Stoughton Nowadays an awful lot of stories are billed as something familiar with a twist: a genderswapped this, a that in space, an alternate the other. These Violent Delights’ title gives its “something familiar” away: Romeo And Juliet. And that’s actually a pity, because this isn’t very close to the play, certainly not in the way Tessa Gratton’s The Queens Of Innis Lear played with King Lear without straying too far from the original’s plot. It doesn’t explore or deepen or comment on the play it’s associated with, nor stick closely to its plot. What it is is a perfectly serviceable urban fantasy set in 1920s Shanghai, where the heirs to rival gangs – one Chinese, one…

THIRTEEN STOREYS

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THIRTEEN STOREYS

RELEASED OUT NOW! 392 pages | Hardback/ebook/audiobook Author Jonathan Sims Publisher Gollancz An ultra-modern haunted house novel set in the mysterious Banyan Court complex, where residents of the main building live in unimaginable luxury while the affordable housing behind is dangerous and dilapidated, Thirteen Storeys is both social satire and a ghostly anthology. As the title punningly suggests, there are 13 stories here: Black Mirror-esque tales of residents and workers around Banyan Court, each of whom receives a mysterious invitation to a dinner party hosted by the reclusive billionaire who lives in the penthouse suite. This is an astonishing debut from Jonathan Sims. There are shades of House Of Leaves in the shifting architecture of the million-pound complex, which houses any number of dark spirits. Though each chapter is its…

ELSEWHERE

SFX|Holiday Issue

ELSEWHERE

RELEASED OUT NOW! 368 pages | Hardcover/ebook/audiobook Author Dean Koontz Publisher Harper Collins Author Dean Koontz Publisher Harper Collins Much of that is down to his slender characterisations. Jeffy and his 11-year-old child Amity have such an idyllic relationship that it defies credibility: she’s impossibly wise beyond her years, he has infinite patience, and they exclaim “Bullsugar” when they’re really upset. Just one family squabble would be more believable. All their conflict is external, embodied in the form of Falkirk, a sociopathic NSA operative on the hunt for The Key To Everything, a device that allows the user to jump between parallel worlds. A friendly mad scientist entrusts this to Jeffy, setting the adventure in motion. It’s not a very believable opening, but once the set-up is complete, Koontz throws…

DUNE: THE GRAPHIC NOVEL Volume One

SFX|Holiday Issue

DUNE: THE GRAPHIC NOVEL Volume One

RELEASED 10 DECEMBER Publisher Abrams Comicarts Writers Frank Herbert, Brian Herbert, Kevin J Anderson Artists Raúl Allén, Patricia Martín With the new Hollywood blockbuster of Dune delayed, this is the only interpretation of Frank Herbert’s sci-fi classic we’re getting this year, and it’s an interesting if flawed take on the story. The first of three volumes, it tells the far-future tale of Paul Atreides and how his destiny is shaped by his arrival on the desert planet Arrakis. Adapted by Herbert’s son Brian and Kevin J Anderson (who have also written countless Dune prequel novels), this ultra-faithful version is far more comprehensible than David Lynch’s 1984 movie, but that faithfulness comes at a price. Not only do we get Herbert’s huge imagination and sweeping drama, we also get his occasionally…

DEEP SPACE NINE: TOO LONG A SACRIFICE

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DEEP SPACE NINE: TOO LONG A SACRIFICE

RELEASED OUT NOW! (Paperback 12 January) Publisher IDW Comics Writer Scott and David Tipton Artist Greg Scott ISSUES 1-4 This four-part IDW mini-series feels like discovering that an extra episode of Deep Space Nine was filmed and left in the back of a cupboard somewhere. Too Long A Sacrifice is set in the series’ heyday, the Dominion War. An explosion at a restaurant where Bashir and Garak are dining sets off a chain of terrorist attacks that are initially blamed on Quark. Dismissing the crimes as being too brutal for the Ferengi bartender, Odo sets out to uncover the truth – but that means contending with angry Nausicaans, a pushy Worf and a troubled Betazoid investigator. Scott and David Tipton’s script perfectly captures the tone of late-period Deep Space Nine,…

THE PIPER

SFX|Holiday Issue

THE PIPER

RELEASED OUT NOW! 218 minutes | Podcast Publisher BBC Sounds AUDIO DRAMA The myth of the Pied Piper of Hamelin gets a contemporary update in this creepy dramatic podcast the latest commissioned by Radio 4. Children are going missing in Kent, lured into a network of subterranean tunnels by mysterious music that only they can hear. Ali (Tamzin Outhwaite) is trying to solve the mystery, but distraction comes in the form of her strained family relationships. The detective catches a break when a young boy wearing anachronistic clothes and carrying a Walkman is found. But the Piper never lets anyone go… Vickie Donoghue and Natalie Mitchell’s script walks a fine line between grounded realism and supernatural scares – this is far more a character-driven thriller than it is horror –…

SFX|Holiday Issue

ASSASSIN’S CREED VALHALLA

RELEASED OUT NOW! Reviewed on PlayStation 4 Also on PlayStation 5, Xbox One, Xbox Series X|S, PC Publisher Ubisoft VIDEOGAME Like Mr Benn with a bloodlust, this year’s time-hopping Assassin’s Creed entry swaps sandals for Saxons as we enter 875 AD England. As Eivor you are a Viking looking to settle down, raise a small army, and drink Odin’s weight in mead. Fundamentally there’s little new about Valhalla: you’ll spend 80-plus hours cavorting around Dark Ages England, looting resources, unlocking new skills and building alliances. Combat is again a blend of light Dark Souls duelling and stealth killing from the rafters. There are some nuanced changes, such as the fact that timing is needed to land perfect Hidden Blade attacks, but largely this is carefree skull-splitting fun with missions softly…

ASSASSIN’S CREED VALHALLA

SFX|Holiday Issue

Captain’s Log

At the time of writing, in an ever-shifting sea of changes, there’s been some (potentially!) good news and very positive hope for things to come in the world as we lumber towards 2021. I don’t know about you, but I’d almost forgotten what good news and something to look forward to felt like. The irony being that, after almost a year of being mainly stuck indoors, the hope is that I’ll be able to lose myself in the dark of the cinema many times in the coming months. But I’m getting ahead of myself – you see what a little optimism leads to? If only I had a time machine. Yes, of course I’m setting that up for our lead feature – finally back on screens and on the cover…

Captain’s Log

American Life

SFX|Holiday Issue

American Life

YOU HAVE TO GIVE IT TO FORMER GOTHAM and now Pennyworth series creator Bruno Heller – he knows how to squeeze unexpected gold from the Batman mythology. Both series were created as alternate paths into the legendary lore of Bruce Wayne, and with Pennyworth, he even crafts an alternate history for London to posit a unique origin story for Batman’s future valet. Season two of Pennyworth fast-forwards one year after the explosive events of the first season finale, in which Alfie’s (Jack Bannon) father (Ian Puleston-Davies) died in a suicide bombing, attempting to murder the Queen (Jessica Ellerby) on behalf of the fascist Raven Society. It leaves the former SAS soldier wrestling with the treasonous legacy of his parents, their semi-sullied family name and a resurgent Raven Society. Having learned…

SFX|Holiday Issue

AFTER LIFE

163 AARON DOUGLAS AKA Chief Tyrol in Battlestar Galactica Battlestar Galactica’s (2003-2009) Chief Galen Tyrol may have seemed most at home among the spaceship’s metal and machinery, but actor/graphic novelist Aaron Douglas – who played the beloved character for five years – has other ideas for Tyrol’s retired lifestyle… Would you like to play the role again? Oh of course, yeah! If they wanted to land on Earth however many years later and wander up to Scotland and find the Chief living in a castle making Scotch, I’d be delighted. Are there any storylines you’d like to have explored? If you could go back in time and explain things; if this is truly a “anything that happened before could happen again” situation, you could jump in that timeline at any…

AFTER LIFE

SFX|Holiday Issue

CK MCDONNELL

Tell us about your protagonist. Vincent Banecroft is the former dark prince of Fleet Street who’s fallen on hard times, hit rock bottom and then kept going. He now finds himself editing The Stranger Times, a “joke” newspaper he describes as being read by loons and written by idiots. What kind of strange events does it report on? Everything. Possessed toilets, inebriated aliens, haunted genitalia. If it’s weird, it’s in. The book’s set in Manchester. What was key when it came to capturing the city? As an honorary Mancunian, I wanted to capture the belligerent wit of the place. It has a chip on its shoulder, but that chip is covered in gravy, and they are having it for tea, not dinner. Did you have to do much research? Discover…

CK MCDONNELL

SFX|Holiday Issue

NEWS WARP

Anya Taylor-Joy scores lead in George Miller’s Mad Max spin-off Furiosa. Chris Hemsworth co-stars. You’re gonna need a bigger sequel… Ben Wheatley helming The Meg 2. X-franchise supremo Simon Kinberg rebooting Battlestar Galactica on the big screen. Donald Sutherland joining Roland Emmerich’s lunar disaster flick Moonfall. Neil Marshall returns to “full-blooded horror and intense genre action” with The Lair. Legendary developing new take on Buck Rogers as a multi-platform franchise. Biddibiddi. Big Dave Bautista stars as a cosmic peacekeeper in Universe’s Most Wanted. Doctor Strange’s Scott Derrickson adapting Joe Hill novella Black Phone. Coronashuffle: Ghostbusters: Afterlife bumped to 11 June ’21, Candyman shifts to 27 August ’21. Jordan Peele producing remake of Wes Craven’s The People Under The Stairs for Universal.…

NEWS WARP

SFX|Holiday Issue

DALEK DOMINATION

How explosive can we expect this festive special to be? • It’s going to be very explosive. Literally. It balances all of those elements that Doctor Who does really well. So on one hand, it is explosive – there’s a lot of action going on. It’s full of thrills and spills. Wherever there’s a Dalek, there’s trouble. But also there’s a really strong emotional thread to it, so it really grandstands the characters. How is the Doctor coping in space jail? • She’s there on her own, isolated. It’s a rather damp, dark, authoritarian environment. She’s told when she needs to exercise. She’s fed terrible food. She is in a cell all on her own and obviously is missing the fam. Yaz, Graham and Ryan are back on Earth and…

DALEK DOMINATION

SFX|Holiday Issue

SHIPPING FOAECAST

How is life in the world of Doctor Who? • It’s really good. It’s really, really good. We’re back filming and it’s ace. I’m so glad to be back. It’s just really exciting. It’s already bigger than the two series we’ve done before. Bigger because we’ve had a pandemic, and we’re just going to go bigger – we’ve done some exciting stuff today already. I just feel really lucky to be back working after so long. What was it like having Doctor Who royalty John Barrowman on set? • Amazing! He’s such a force to be reckoned with – he’s got such an energy that’s completely different to Yaz, Graham and Ryan. It’s an energy that we don’t bring as humans, even a very different energy to the Doctor. We…

SHIPPING FOAECAST

SFX|Holiday Issue

ON THE QT

Back in 2017, Mark L Smith was tasked with writing a Star Trek movie for Quentin Tarantino. The resulting screenplay is now in limbo, though according to reports in August, Smith’s script – rumoured to be inspired by classic episode “A Piece Of The Action” – is still under consideration. (In January Tarantino said, “I think they might make that movie, but I just don’t think I’m going to direct it.“) So would Smith describe himself as a Trekkie? Not quite. “I’m more a casual fan,” he confesses, “But I was always much more Star Trek than Star Wars. There was something about the characters and the relationships. I could get so invested in the friendships, and the dynamics between them, that I was drawn to all the different Star…

ON THE QT

SFX|Holiday Issue

WHO’S WHO?

JAMIE FOXX IS JOE GARDNER “Jamie Foxx has everything. He’s an all-round performer. He’s a singer and a musician, which is something we obviously ended up using in the film, because his character is a musician. It’s fantastic that Jamie has the depth and understanding of that world.” TINA FEY IS 22 “Tina is an amazing actor. I don’t think she gets enough credit, but she’s really good, and really clever. She’s a really smart collaborator who was able to take several passes at punching up her character, as well as other characters in the movie. She’s fantastic as 22.” ANGELA BASSETT IS DOROTHEA WILLIAMS “Angela has such strength. She walks into the room and you feel it. When she speaks, you listen. We’ve been able to draw from her…

WHO’S WHO?

STRAIT TALK

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STRAIT TALK

One of this season’s big themes is “You reap what you sow”. How does that apply to Holden? Now that Miller and all of his forms are truly gone, Holden is the only one left truly concerned about not just the protomolecule, but also the entities that killed off the builders of the protomolecule. That’s still at the forefront of his mind. Off the top of the season, you get a glimpse into what Holden’s life is like when the world isn’t falling to pieces around him. You get to see him in a much healthier place than you’ve seen him in years previous. He’s settled into his position as a leader. When Naomi goes off and the rest of the crew split apart, his priority is still on the…

SFX|Holiday Issue

“IT’S A HUGE RESPONSIBILITY”

Sabrina’s popularity – and the outpouring of grief at the cancellation – has much to do with Kiernan Shipka. Like Sabrina, she’s whip-smart and emanates an easygoing confidence that belies her tender age: she turned 20 last year. (“I’m feeling old! A new decade of my life!”). But how did she gain such wisdom? Bet it was witchcraft… “Growing up on a TV show really helped,” she says. Shipka of course played Don Draper’s daughter Sally on Mad Men from 2007-2015. “I watched Jon [Hamm] over the years do a really good job at being number one on the call sheet. He knew how to command the set and be a really amazing leader.” After Mad Men, Shipka notched up a handful of killer supporting roles – she’s sharp as…

“IT’S A HUGE RESPONSIBILITY”

THE ONE PERCENT

SFX|Holiday Issue

THE ONE PERCENT

THE UPCOMING NINE-EPISODE miniseries The Stand arrives feeling eerily relevant. Based on Stephen King’s sprawling 1978 novel of the same name, this epic tale takes place in a landscape ravaged by a mysterious virus that has wiped out 99% of the planet’s population. Production commenced on 19 September 2019 in Vancouver and wrapped early in March 2020, just before the Covid-19 outbreak caused everything and everyone to lock down. As the number of infected people continues to skyrocket, showrunner Benjamin Cavell admits that the pandemic could affect the audience’s viewing experience. “Obviously, we’ve wondered about that,” Cavell tells SFX. “The answer is it’s impossible to predict. But for me, The Stand is not really about a pandemic. The pandemic is the mechanism by which the world gets emptied out and…

SFX|Holiday Issue

THE FAMILY WAY

Brandon is the son of David Cronenberg, visionary helmer behind such body horror touchstones as Scanners, The Fly and Videodrome. While others see links between the Cronenbergs’ movies – there’s certainly a shared taste for the darkly organic, a fascination with the interface between flesh and technology – the younger filmmaker is reluctant to claim any kind of creative lineage. “To be honest I don’t really have that kind of perspective on myself,” he tells SFX. “I’m making films that are honest to my own interests and impulses. I don’t really think about that stuff while I’m working. I think it’s hard to make those kind of judgements from the inside. I’ll leave it to other people to decide whether that’s an interesting angle to explore.” How curious was he…

THE FAMILY WAY

SFX|Holiday Issue

EMPOWERED

“I loved Tim and Michelle’s approach to Catwoman and thought it fit in perfectly with his vision for Batman and Gotham City,” says Michael Uslan, producer of Batman Returns. “Sexy, threatening, erratic, disturbing.” 1992’s psycho-sexually charged Bat-sequel brought a radically different Catwoman to the screen. Michelle Pfeiffer’s Selina Kyle is a bullied secretary reborn as nocturnal avenger, her psyche as shredded as her hand-tooled costume. The tabloids touted everyone from Cher to Shalamar’s Jody Watley for the role. Notoriously, Sean Young stalked Tim Burton across Hollywood (“How dare you not return the Catwoman’s phone calls!”). Annette Bening won the part but was forced to drop out when she became pregnant. Pfeiffer – her star rising after The Fabulous Baker Boys – was a last minute substitution, even using parts of…

EMPOWERED

SFX|Holiday Issue

SPACE IS THE PLACE

Sun Ra This Chicago-born bandleader (born Herman Blount) claimed inspiration for his space-themed “cosmic jazz” came when he was teleported to the planet Saturn by aliens. Compilations “In The Orbit Of Ra” and “To Those Of Earth… And Other Worlds” are good entry points to his sprawling oeuvre. Scatman Crothers Crothers (real name Benjamin) began his career as a teenager, playing for gangsters in Indiana speakeasies in the ’30s, later acquiring his stagename due to his scat singing. So he was a natural choice to voice music-loving Autobot Jazz in the animated Transformers (1984-1986). Courtney Pine The British saxophonist cameos in Doctor Who’s “Silver Nemesis” (1988), playing for a beer garden audience including the Seventh Doctor and Ace. Pricelessly, we later see a Cyberman reacting to his music: “It is…

SPACE IS THE PLACE

JINGLE JANGLE

SFX|Holiday Issue

JINGLE JANGLE

RELEASED OUT NOW! 2020 | PG | VOD Director David E Talbert Cast Forest Whitaker, Keegan-Michael Key, Phylicia Rashad, Madalen Mills NETFLIX A riot of colourful costumes, boisterous choreography and really rather lovely effects, this Netflix musical is perfect for bunging on the telly on Christmas Day to keep the young ’uns entertained while you’re wrestling with the turkey. Or at least it would be if it wasn’t half an hour too long to keep them in their seats. Forest Whitaker heads an impressive, mostly black cast; director David Talbert made this after noticing his son wasn’t invested in films with white actors. He’s a Victorian-era toymaker who’s fallen on hard times after his best invention, a living tin doll (voiced by Ricky Martin, of all people) was stolen by…

DEATH OF ME

SFX|Holiday Issue

DEATH OF ME

EXTRAS RELEASED OUT NOW! 2020 | 15 | DVD/download Ever had a nightmare about being late to the airport? Then this supernatural horror’s travel admin-related stressors might strike a chord. But that’s all anyone’s getting out of this silly, vaguely racist tale of island magic and ritual sacrifice. Luke Hemsworth’s mumbly performance shows why he’s not the brother who landed the superhero franchise; Maggie Q fares better as his wife, but can’t elevate a tin-eared script. A thudding soundtrack and uninspired visuals mean there’s nothing to recommend this. + Extras None.…

SPRING

SFX|Holiday Issue

SPRING

EXTRAS RELEASED OUT NOW! 2014 | 15 | Blu-ray Directors Justin Benson, Aaron Moorhead Cast Lou Taylor Pucci, Nadia Hilker, Francesco Carnelutti, Nick Nevern BLU-RAY DEBUT It makes sense that Guillermo del Toro admires this effort by cult indie filmmakers Benson and Moorhead, given that he’s an aficionado of human/other love stories. After hot mess Evan (Lou Taylor Pucci) relocates from the US to Italy on a whim, he meets Louise (Nadia Hilker), whose similarity to a woman on an ancient fresco is more than coincidental. Initially, Spring presents as a romance for cynics – the sort where the lovers trade acerbic barbs. Then it takes a turn for the monstrous: think Before Sunset spliced with Species. Bologna is an architecturally stunning backdrop, and Evan’s relationship with the elderly farmer…

THE BRIDE WITH WHITE HAIR

SFX|Holiday Issue

THE BRIDE WITH WHITE HAIR

EXTRAS RELEASED OUT NOW! 1993 | 18 | Blu-ray Director Ronny Yu Cast Brigitte Lin, Leslie Cheung, Francis Ng, Elaine Lui BLU-RAY DEBUT The Bride With White Hair is basically Romeo And Juliet with punches, as a brilliant swordsman from a po-faced martial arts sect falls in forbidden love with the adopted daughter of a bizarre cult. A flashback structure making you feel like you’re sitting beside history’s greatest storyteller, who’s delivering fairytale wuxia magic. It’s lit like a pocketful of candy, combining dark scenes with bright blues and reds, oranges and pinks. The synth score is occasionally cheesy, but that’s not a criticism: it ferments a satisfying sense of nostalgia. The performances are similarly sweet and strong. It’s shot with so many Dutch angles that it brings new meaning to…

RENT-A-PAL

SFX|Holiday Issue

RENT-A-PAL

RELEASED OUT NOW! 2020 | 18 | Download An object lesson in getting maximum value from your costliest cast member, this 1990-set psycho-thriller threads maybe an afternoon’s worth of Wil “Wesley Crusher” Wheaton throughout. He’s the titular “pal” on a novelty VHS, obsessively replayed by a lonely carer as he spirals into insanity Brian Landis Folkins expertly walks the line between sympathetic and simply pathetic; VHS nostalgists will coo over the VCR interior shots and dropout lines, and it all works cleverly as a metaphor for 4chan.…

SPREE

SFX|Holiday Issue

SPREE

RELEASED OUT NOW! 2020 | 15 | VOD The problem with watching films about arseholes? It can feel like hanging out with one. This jet-black satire on influencers centres on Kurt (Stranger Things’ Joe Keery), a rideshare driver who plots to boost his follower count by offing customers, streaming it live via multiple cameras. Things pick up as the kills get more extreme, and credit is due for engaging with the zeitgeist, but the more commenters spew emojis and Pepes onto the screen, the more you feel inclined to switch off and crack open a book.…

TOTAL RECALL

SFX|Holiday Issue

TOTAL RECALL

EXTRAS RELEASED OUT NOW! 1990 | 18 | Blu-ray Director Paul Verhoeven Cast Arnold Schwarzenegger, Rachel Ticotin, Sharon Stone, Michael Ironside Calling Total Recall “the thinking man’s action movie”, as co-writer Ronald Shusett does, is a bit much – you’re still likely to lose brain cells by watching it. But while expanding hugely on Philip K Dick’s original short story, it does retain its reality-questioning philosophical core. Casting Schwarzenegger as the ordinary Joe who discovers a buried identity, takes a trip to Mars, and joins a mutant uprising undermines all attempts to question whether he’s really a secret agent. And Paul Verhoeven’s direction is typically crass: a hooker can’t just unveil three breasts, they must be groped in close-up. But Arnie’s likeability, the handsome production design and the strength of…

FREAKY

SFX|Holiday Issue

FREAKY

RELEASED 25 DECEMBER 15 | 102 minutes Director Christopher Landon Cast Vince Vaughn, Kathryn Newton, Katie Finneran, Celeste O’Connor, Alan Ruck, Misha Osherovich If the people in charge of ’80s horror properties like Friday The 13th or Nightmare On Elm Street have good sense, they’ll be offering suitcases full of cash to Christopher Landon to try and tempt him into breathing new life into their moribund franchises. Hot on the heels of the success of Happy Death Day (and sequel Happy Death Day 2U), Landon smashes it out of the park once again with Freaky, another ingenious, witty horror-comedy with a very contemporary heroine. The pitch: Freaky Friday meets Friday The 13th. Attacked by the Blissfield Butcher (Vince Vaughn), a ’90s serial killer who’s come out of “retirement”, bullied teen…

THE CRAFT: LEGACY

SFX|Holiday Issue

THE CRAFT: LEGACY

RELEASED OUT NOW! (also download) 15 | 90 minutes Director Zoe Lister-Jones Cast Cailee Spaeny, Lovie Simone, Gideon Adlon, Zoey Luna You can put the black candles down now. It turns out The Craft: Legacy is a worthy successor to the cult ’90s teen witch movie – a respectful sequel that updates the mythology and builds on the first film’s themes. Initially, Zoe Lister-Jones’s film feels like more of a remake than a sequel. New girl Lily (Cailee Spaeny) hates her new school until she meets Tabby (Lovie Simone), Frankie (Gideon Adlon), and Lourdes (Zoey Luna), a trio of gothy outsiders who invite her to join their coven. So far, so samey. But then the differences become stark. This time, the witches aren’t out for revenge; they just want everyone…

A CHRISTMAS CAROL

SFX|Holiday Issue

A CHRISTMAS CAROL

RELEASED 4 DECEMBER PG | 96 minutes Directors David Morris, Jacqui Morris Cast Simon Russell Beale, Carey Mulligan, Martin Freeman, Daniel Kaluuya Given the groaning weight of adaptations of A Christmas Carol over the decades, it’s become harder and harder to find a fresh and radical way of putting Charles Dickens’s much-loved story on the screen – though that doesn’t stop people trying. Steven Knight’s version last year offered up an adult-skewed social-realist take. This latest adaptation, from siblings Jacqui and David Morris, goes the other way, taking the story back to its family viewing roots and making a selling point of its theatrical, minimalist staging. Though the cast list pops with A-list names, they’re not actually visible in the film. Instead, dancers voicelessly perform the roles, as actors speak…

SFX|Holiday Issue

PARANORMAL Season One

UK/US Netflix, streaming now Creator Amr Salama Cast Ahmed Amin, Samma Ibrahim, Aya Samaha, Razane Jammal EPISODES 1.01-1.06 When we first meet Dr Refaat Ismail (Ahmed Amin), he’s struggling with a maze, bemoaning his uselessness as he tries and fails to draw his way through a child’s labyrinth puzzle. Then he spills a cup of coffee all over it. That pretty much tells you everything you need to know about Ismail, the man battling the supernatural in Netflix’s first Arabic language original series. Based on the novels of prolific Egyptian author Ahmed Khaled Tawfik, Paranormal is a gently spooky exploration of ’60s Cairo via Arabic mythology – and yes, there’s an episode with a Pharaoh. The monster-of-the-week structure is reminiscent of Supernatural, only with a grumpy middle-aged professor instead of…

PARANORMAL Season One

NOPHEK GLOSS

SFX|Holiday Issue

NOPHEK GLOSS

RELEASED OUT NOW! 464 pages | Paperback/ebook Author Essa Hansen Publisher Orbit Books Part Iain M Banks, part ’60s cosmic Marvel, this first entry in new series The Graven is an ambitious, but not entirely successful, debut. Set in a multiverse awash with bubble universes that characters pop in and out of like they’re taking trips to the supermarket, the action begins with young Caiden’s home planet being destroyed by the evil overlords who have been keeping his people enslaved. He escapes in a curious ship of ancient origin that just happens to be lying on the planet’s surface, and is joined by a crew of misfits who just happen to have crash-landed there. Yep, there are a lot of coincidences here, as Caiden embarks on a universe-hopping journey of…

WITCH BOTTLE

SFX|Holiday Issue

WITCH BOTTLE

RELEASED OUT NOW! 314 pages | Paperback/ebook Author Tom Fletcher Publisher Jo Fletcher Books Milkmen used to play a vital role in communities, which went beyond just delivering a couple of pints of gold top. Ignoring the bawdy ’70s clichés, they were often a source of news, gossip and other useful items, particularly for isolated people. And so it goes with Daniel. He left his wife and young daughter behind to start a new life in Cumbria, but now he’s beset by nightmares and visions. He’s not the only one. There’s a rash of hauntings in the area and the locals are scared. Daniel’s new girlfriend, Kathryn, seems to have the answer. A practising witch, she creates magical wards to keep the phantoms away and he’s soon delivering them on…

SFX|Holiday Issue

BULLET TIME

THE DISNEY PRINCESS RELEASED OUT NOW! 240 pages | Hardback Author Charles Solomon Publisher Chronicle Books This coffee-table book (subtitled takesadetailed look at the creation of 12 characters officially designated as a Disney Princess. That’s Snow White, Cinderella, Aurora, Ariel, Belle, Jasmine, Pocahontas, Mulan, Tiana, Rapunzel, Merida and Moana. There are over 200 images, including preliminary drawings and original art, plus photos that hint at which fashions of the time may have inspired their look. Reveals all sorts of facts about other characters too – like Sebastian in originallybeingaturtle– with insight from directors, producers, lyricists, designers and actors. It’s also a fascinating history of the technological advancements Disney made that have impacted film-making from 1937 to the present day.…

SFX|Holiday Issue

ALSO OUT

A global embargo means we can’t give you our verdict on READY PLAYER TWO (out now, Century), Ernest Cline’s sequel to his VR hit, but expect another avalanche of ’80s pop-culture references. Anna Stephens’s THE STONE KNIFE (out now, Harper Voyager) kicks off The Songs Of The Drowned, an epic fantasy trilogy in which an empire’s people are bound together by magical music. The Office meets Stephen King in Andrew Schaffer’s festive horror-comedy SECRET SANTA (out now, Quirk); set in the ’80s, it sees a publishing employee receiving a cursed object. WE, ROBOTS (10 December, Head Of Zeus) brings together 100 short stories on artificial intelligence, dating from 1837 to the present day, by authors ranging from Charles Dickens to Cory Doctorow. Mary Robinette Kowal’s Hugo-winning Lady Astronaut series –…

ALSO OUT

IRON MAN

SFX|Holiday Issue

IRON MAN

RELEASED OUT NOW! Publisher Marvel Writer Christopher Cantwell Artist Cafu ISSUES 1-3 In an era when comics are trying to be more diverse and socially conscious, how do you go about making a protagonist like the archetypal arrogant, super-rich white guy Tony Stark more relatable? Marvel’s latest relaunch of their ongoing Iron Man title proposes that the answer to this question is “give him a bit of a mid-life crisis”, as a recently resurrected Tony abandons his post as a corporate tech whizz and moves to New York to try and get back to basics. Unfortunately, this coincides with the return of cosmic-level Marvel villain Korvac, who’s got godhood in mind and is manipulating Tony into helping his plans. TV writer Christopher Cantwell (creator of Halt And Catch Fire) throws…

SFX|Holiday Issue

SPIDER-MAN: MILES MORALES

RELEASED OUT NOW! Reviewed on PlayStation 5 Also available on PlayStation 4 Publisher Sony VIDEOGAME Can’t wait for Into The Spider-Verse 2? This Miles-focused sequel to PlayStation’s take on Spider-Man has you covered. It’s set a year after the previous game; Peter Parker has been training Miles Morales in superheroics, and deems him capable of looking after New York for a few weeks while he takes off with MJ. What follows is a fantastic coming of age tale, as Miles takes on the responsibility of being New York’s protector and discovers how to bust out of Pete’s shadow by doing the Spider-Man thing his own way. It’s a personal story where the safety of the city is on the line, and the supporting cast is strong. It has a shorter playing…

SPIDER-MAN: MILES MORALES

DOCTOR WHO: TIME LORD VICTORIOUS

SFX|Holiday Issue

DOCTOR WHO: TIME LORD VICTORIOUS

RELEASED DECEMBER 60 minutes each | CD/download Publisher Big Finish AUDIO DRAMA Tom Baker’s Fourth Doctor finally enters the Time Lord Victorious arc in Genetics Of The Daleks. Something is very wrong aboard Starship Future. While 10,000 souls rest in cryo-sleep, a small group are awake and experimenting with the salvaged remains of a Dalek. But is it really as dead as it seems? (Spoiler: no). The plot is traditional Who fare, but Jonathan Morris’s script builds the tension well, keeping the Doctor off-stage for a long time and exploring the motivations of the different factions on board the ship. When he does arrive, he’s straight to work saving the day, but that brings some nice subversions of expectation. For once, a Dalek doesn’t want to exterminate the Doctor, which…

A PERFECT GIFT FOR EVERYONE ON YOUR LIST *including yourself!

SFX|Holiday Issue

A PERFECT GIFT FOR EVERYONE ON YOUR LIST *including yourself!

NEAT STORAGE Store up to 13 issues of your magazine subscription in a coordinating slipcase or binder. www.magazinesdirect.com No hidden costs Shipping included in all prices We deliver to over 100 countries Secure online payment DISCOVER GREAT GUIDES & SPECIALS From photography to music and technology to gaming, there’s something for everyone. A magazine subscription is the perfect lockdown gift that keeps on delivering throughout the year. Choose from over 8O magazines and make great savings off the shop price! Plus a digital card of your choice to send to your family member or friend!…