Innholdsfortegnelse for September 2019 i SFX

LIFE IMITATING ART 1 This new Amazon Prime series is set in a Victorian fantasy world where humans coexist with immigrant mythological creatures. Their homelands were invaded by mankind, and now they struggle to live alongside them – forbidden to live their lives as before. STAR POWER 2 The one-hour drama stars Orlando Bloom (Pirates of The Caribbean) and Cara Delevigne (Suicide Squad). Other cast members include Karla Crome (Under The Dome), Indira Varma (Game Of Thrones) and Tamzin Merchant (Salem). David Gyasi (Interstellar) plays Agreus – a mysteriously wealthy faun who defies the social order by moving into a human neighbourhood. One-time Borg queen Alice Krige also appears. GODS AND MONSTERS 3 Bloom plays human detective Rycroft Philostrate, who’s having an affair with Delevigne’s Vignette Stonemoss, a faerie refugee.…

BORN IN LONDON BUT raised in Nigeria, Tade Thompson’s Yoruban heritage means that he’s in a unique position to shine new light on the well-worn concept of alien invasion, with Africa having been colonised by Europeans in past centuries. Now his debut novel Rosewater – the first volume in The Wormwood Trilogy – has won this year’s Arthur C Clarke Award. “It’s a privilege to become one of the Clarke Award winners, as in sci-fi terms, it’s arguably the highest honour, and more so considering the strength of this year’s shortlist,” says Thompson, who counts the 2001 author as one of his formative influences. “I grew up on Arthur C Clarke’s Mysterious World, so that rotating crystal skull represents years of foundational sci-fi for me.” Set in Nigeria in 2066, the…

You’re the lead puppeteer on Rian, one of the main Gelfling. What does that involve? You do the head, you operate the mouth and his main body movements. All the sets are raised up by four feet, so you hold him above your head, and then you walk around, so his walk is your walk. I also provide the guide voice. Then we’ll have another puppeteer watching a monitor off-set, who operates the eyes and ears by remote control. And because I’ve only got two hands and one of mine’s in the head, we have another puppeteer who’ll sometimes do the other arm. Is it labour-intensive work? You get used to it but it is hard work because you’ve got your arm in the air practically all day. Puppeteering is…

JUST HOW MUCH NIGHTMARE fuel can one film put in the tank? “It’s a home invasion movie with a disaster movie invading your house,” says director Alexandre Aja, relishing the genre-splicing hazards of Crawl. “But the water doesn’t come alone. The water comes with alligators as well. I think most of us would die within 10 minutes of this movie!” It’s the kind of immediate, razor-sharp pitch that Hollywood hungers for. A ferocious hurricane hits the small Florida town of Coral Lake, triggering mass evacuation. But Haley Keller returns to the family home, finding her wounded father in the basement – and ravenous gators hunting human flesh in the ever-encroaching floodwater. It’s not the greatest tourism booster for the Sunshine State but it’s a nerve-twisting scenario that sold Aja on…

The Critters are supposed to be little horrific bastards,” director Bobby Miller tells SFX. “They’re terrifying until they do something dumb. And when they do something dumb, that’s when we’re allowed to be a little funny.” Almost three decades have passed since the last instalment of Critters – the sci-fi comedy horror series about the carnivorous Krites, aliens who hunt their prey by curling up into balls. The movies went in an increasingly different direction over the course of four feature films, but Miller is keen to bring the fifth chapter, Critters Attack!, back to basics. “You have stuff with the subtitles in the first one, when the Critters are yelling, ‘Fuck!’ It’s clearly comedic,” he explains. “And that’s what I hope to do tonally with this one. It’s really…

FORGET ANY COSY CHILDHOOD memories you may have of the Banana Splits. The four furry animals are back in a new feature film from director Danishka Esterhazy, and this time they’ll do absolutely anything to keep their show on the air. Yes, even killing everyone. That’s what killer robots do, right? Their horror movie debut gets its UK premiere as part of the FrightFest line-up, before being released on Blu-ray. When SFX catches up with Canada-based director Esterhazy, she’s once more in Cape Town – where The Banana Splits Movie was filmed – working on the television version of Vagrant Queen for SyFy. The science-fiction series, based on Magdalene Visaggio’s graphic novel, reunites her with the cinematographer and production designer from her latest horror movie. Is Vagrant Queen going to be as…

RELEASED OUT NOW! U | 99 minutes Director Lino DiSalvo Cast Anya Taylor-Joy, Gabriel Bateman, Jim Gaffigan, Daniel Radcliffe It’s easy to be cynical about a film featuring toys your kids will be begging you to buy the second you step out of the cinema. Is Playmobil: The Movie just an ad for tat? A LEGO Movie knock-off? A trial for anyone over 15? Although this is essentially an advert, it’s also darn good fun. While it’s not in the same league as LEGO’s cinematic forays – it’s too fluffy and kid-focused – it also feels a lot sweeter, lighter and less knowingly clever. The plot’s almost irrelevant: two siblings are transported into the world of Playmobil toys, meeting everyone from Vikings to cowboys to T-rexes. It’s colourful, jam-packed with…

RELEASED 23 AUGUST 15 | 87 minutes Director Alexandre Aja Cast Kaya Scodelario, Barry Pepper, Morfydd Clark, Ross Anderson Along with sharks, alligators in creature features have more recently been of the oversized, super-anaconda vs bloody-huge-gator variety. Crawl takes things back to a more manageable scale, opting for stripped-down horror set mostly in one enclosed location. Our way in is via Kaya Scodelario’s Haley, a swimming student with enough baggage to fill an entire set of crocodileskin luggage. When a hurricane strikes her old Florida hometown, she heads out to find her estranged dad (Barry Pepper), who isn’t answering his phone. You can work out the rest from there, as the former family home’s crawl space is flooding, and some sharpfanged reptiles are closing in for a free meal. Alexandre…

RELEASED 19 AUGUST 2019 | PG | Blu-ray/DVD/download The latest entry in the “theme parks gone wrong” subgenre is rather lighter on peril than Jurassic Park or Westworld. A girl is transported to the imaginary “Wonderland” she created with her poorly mum, where the cute animal management team has been overrun by zombie chimps. The real-world metaphors are clunky, the uplifting “message” heavy-handed, and the CG animation uninspiring. Extras Deleted scene; brief featurettes; character drawing tutorial.…

RELEASED OUT NOW! 1965 | 15 | Blu-ray/DVD BLU-RAY DEBUT “You mean the world will come to an end?” Yes, a project to tap the power of Earth’s magma core threatens planet-wide cataclysm, but results in an oddly underwhelming disaster movie. An anodyne cast, barely disguised stock footage and a dreary love triangle conspire to kill the thrills despite glimmers of action. Only an apocalyptic, lava-strewn climax hints at the film this could have been. Extras Expert commentary. Nick Setchfield…

RELEASED 26 AUGUST 2019 | 15 | Blu-ray/DVD Director Bobby Miller Cast Dee Wallace, Tashiana Washington, Jaeden Noel, Steve Blum While the recent Shudder series, Critters: A New Binge, put a more humorous spin on the ’80s franchise, this made-for-TV movie attempts to park itself tonally between the first and second films. A batch of Krites – small, round, hairy beasts with lots of sharp teeth – land on Earth and set about feasting on the locals and reproducing. Well, what else is there to do on holiday? Student Drea ends up taking one home, but it’s not any old Critter; it’s the bloody Queen. She’s not the only royalty on the scene – Scream Queen Dee Wallace, who starred in the original Critters, is back. But this time she’s…

RELEASED 19 AUGUST 2019 | 15 | Blu-ray (4K/standard/steelbook)/DVD/download Director Neil Marshall Cast David Harbour, Milla Jovovich, Ian McShane, Sasha Lane Eleven years since his last big-screen outing, Mike Mignola’s devilish comic-book hero gets a reboot few were crying out for. While the pre-publicity made a big deal of this being the first R-rated Hellboy, the change of direction amounts to little more than a few F-bombs and plenty of CG blood and guts. This time out, Big Red heads to London for a close encounter with resurrected Arthurian sorceress Nimue (Milla Jovovich), and a cookie-cutter origin tale – it’s over-reliant on notions of destiny, and baddies who give running commentaries on what they’re up to. Guillermo del Toro’s two Hellboy movies weren’t perfect but The Golden Army in particular…

RELEASED 15 AUGUST 368 pages | Hardback/ebook/audiobook Author Rob Hart Publisher Bantam Press In The Warehouse the future’s so bright you’ve got to buy shades. And you’ll probably be buying them from The Cloud, a vast retail giant that has just about replaced every other shopping outlet. Near-instantaneous drone delivery has turned people into consumer zombies; workers don’t realise quite how bad they’ve got it so long as they can carry on consuming. Not that they’re always aware exactly what they’re consuming… Rob Hart leaps between three point-of-view characters to explore his capitalist dystopia: the Trump-esque founder of the Cloud; a failed entrepreneur forced to slum it as a security guard for the company that put him out of business; and an industrial spy trying to uncover The Cloud’s dirty…

RELEASED OUT NOW! 352 pages | Hardback/ebook Author Silvia Moreno-Garcia Publisher Jo Fletcher Books Not that we’re judging a book by its cover, but Silvia Moreno-Garcia’s latest is very striking: a Mayan Art Deco match for its 1920s Mexican setting, and the perfect expression of the novel’s blend of mythology and modernism. The beginning is pure fairytale: lodging in the home of richer relatives after her father’s death, Casiopea’s life consists of bullying and servitude. Then a chance encounter with a mysterious pile of bones launches her from rural Yucatán to the bright lights of Mexico City, as a reluctant ally of a Mayan god of death. Casiopea’s quest is to restore Hun-Kamé to godhood (he’s been overthrown by his brother, another god of death), and Moreno-Garcia draws vividly on…

RELEASED OUT NOW! 486 pages | Paperback/ebook/audiobook Author Mike Shackle Publisher Gollancz Epic fantasy meets guerrilla warfare in Mike Shackle’s debut novel, We Are The Dead, which kicks off trilogy The Last War. When the complacent kingdom of Jia is suddenly and completely overwhelmed by an invasion from Egril to the north, a ragtag (is there any other kind?) group of unlikely heroes must band together to smuggle the last heir to the throne out of the embattled country to safety. Shackle’s plotting has a touch of George RR Martin’s mechanistic brutality about it. Honour and righteousness are no defence against a superior foe, and the body count grows steadily. Add in some torture, suicide bombers and religious fanaticism, and you’ve got an adventure that’s rich in darkness and bloodshed.…

RELEASED OUT NOW! Publisher Image Comics Writer Jeff Lemire Artist Dustin Nguyen ISSUES 1-3 Sequels so often settle for delivering more of the same that it’s always a pleasure when a follow-up goes in a more unexpected direction, as is the case with the latest ongoing series from Jeff Lemire and Dustin Nguyen. Ascender continues the saga that began in Descender (which concluded in 2018), but thanks to the eye-opening climax of that series it’s technically a different genre, infusing space opera with epic fantasy. The story picks up a decade after magic returned to the universe, when all remaining technology is being hunted by the servants of the sorceress known as Mother. On a distant primitive planet, a rebellious girl dreams of a time when robots existed, but when…

Doctorin’ The TARDIS Things have been a bit sparse in the world of Doctor Who action figures recently, but Character Options are making up for lost time (lords) with no less than eight new figure sets, exclusive to B&M stores in the UK, making their debut in late August. The “Silver Nemesis” set includes the Seventh Doctor, Cyberleader and Cyberman. The “Two Doctors” set has the Second Doctor as an Androgum, Peri Brown and Sontaran Group Marshal Stike. The Sontarans also get their own collector set, with Field Major Styre and Commander Lynx packaged with Harry Sullivan. There are two new TARDIS sets – the one for “The Caves Of Androzani” features a “travel weary” police box and Fifth Doctor in damaged outfit, while the “Shada” set pairs the Fourth…

MADE UP OF ONE-PAGE STORIES by 80 different creative teams, Marvel Comics #1000’s release coincides with the 80th anniversary of the August 1939 publication of Marvel Comics #1 by Timely Comics, which later evolved into Marvel. But the one-shot does more than commemorate the House of Ideas’ rich and colourful past. “We’re celebrating the entirety of the Marvel Universe in all its diverseness, and also crafting a central story that connects certain elements and events throughout it,” explains Executive Editor Tom Brevoort, who’s recruited a mix of familiar names and newcomers, including Spider-Man: Into The Spider-Verse’s Phil Lord and Christopher Miller, Joe Hill and Toby Whithouse. “So many people wanted to be a part of it, we’ve added another issue, Marvel Comics #1001, in September.” British writer Al Ewing is…

This year doesn’t just mark the 50th anniversary of the actual Moon landing, it’s also 20 years since Moonbase Alpha blasted away from the Earth in Gerry and Sylvia Anderson’s Space: 1999 – well, in the TV show’s fictional world, at least! To celebrate, Big Finish are releasing a brand-new audio drama of Commander Koenig and his crew’s interstellar adventures. “We have a good relationship with ITV,” says writer/director Nick Briggs, who had previously unsuccessfully enquired about Thunderbirds. “They knew that I was interested in doing any of the Gerry Anderson stuff, so they said, ‘Maybe you’d like to do Space: 1999?’” While a box set featuring four more episodes will follow next year, Big Finish are starting with a specially expanded adaptation of the series’ first episode “Breakaway”, which…

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Did you see The Dark Crystal when it was first released in cinemas in 1982? Yeah, I saw Dark Crystal in the same theatre that I watched Star Wars, Raiders Of The Lost Ark and E.T. It was where I saw all my formative films; it was the ABC in Gloucester, where I grew up. It was a big event when I was a kid. I was 12, it was a Henson movie, and so we went to see it dutifully at the cinema. I just remember it being quite an overwhelming experience, everything about it, the visuals, the score – I love the score – one of those movies where you come out of the cinema slightly changed. Are you able to inject humour to the character? There’s a…

No stranger to horror movies, Dee Wallace has recently completed her 200th feature film. When it comes to this genre, there’s one particular scene that stands out from her 44-year career – a face-off with horror titan Michael Myers You had a particular gory death scene in Rob Zombie’s 2007 remake of Halloween… Yes, I did! And there’s a really funny story that goes along with that. I was supposed to die just going down the bookshelf. A week later, the producers called and said, “We need you back again.” I said, “I’ve already died.” They said, “Yes, but Rob wants to kill you better.” So I went back, and crawled through the hallway, went into the room, and [Michael Myers] throws me through the table, and snaps my neck. We…

IT’S BEEN LITTLE MORE THAN a year since we all got our first look at the next-gen She-Ra, an Adora reborn for the Dreamworks Animation revival, She-Ra And The Princesses Of Power. With her anime-inspired look and inventive approach to diverse issues, old school fans of the mid-eighties cartoon immediately lobbed early negative review bombs, but she’s quickly stomped the naysayers like the puny horde they are. On 2 August, the third season of the series dropped on Netflix to an ever-growing global fandom transfixed by Adora’s quest to unite the shattered princess alliance on Etheria. While the past iteration of the series was a black and white narrative about the warrior princess eradicating the evil Horde terrorising the planet, executive producer and showrunner, Noelle Stevenson, has augmented the narrative…

RELEASED OUT NOW! PG | 85 minutes Director Ross Venokur Cast Demi Lovato, Wilmer Valderrama, Ashley Tisdale, GEM When you’re making a cartoon musical riffing on fairy tales with a feminist twist, you can’t go wrong with a voice cast that features some of pop’s biggest names – including megastars like Demi Lovato, Avril Lavigne and Sia. Where you can go wrong, however, is to aim for the heights of Frozen with the CGI budget of a radio ad for Lidl. Charming’s animation tries its best, but when you have a horse whose tail doesn’t move because there’s no money to pay attention to those particular pixels, it’s a tough sell. It’s a pity, because Charming centres on a really fun idea: that the handsome Prince who rescues Snow White,…

RELEASED OUT NOW! 1958 | PG | Blu-ray BLU-RAY DEBUT After a brilliant scientist is killed, his surgeon father places his brain in a robotic body. Why he chooses a hulking, Frankenstein-esque vehicle is a mystery – as is how exactly the cyborg develops precognition and death-ray eyes! But there’s genuine pathos in scenes where this memorably weird creation meets his son, and the film is attractively lensed. An oddly charming blend of sincerity and absurdity. Extras Expert commentary.…

We reviewed CASTLE ROCK SEASON ONE (2 September, Blu-ray/DVD) five issues back, but they only went and put the release date back, didn’t they? Tut. We gave to this Easter egg-heavy show, set in Stephen King’s fictional Maine town, and centred on the discovery of a kid hidden in Shawshank prison – who may be the Devil. We said: “There are truly stunning moments, but it’s occasionally inconsistent, with some narrative curveballs knocking the plot off-kilter.” Got a desperate craving to see Kevin Costner’s webbed feet in really, really high definition? Well now you can, thanks to a new 4K Blu-ray release for Costner’s tale of a future flooded Earth, WATER WORLD (out now). We said: “The story’s a little soggy, a predictable cat-and-mouse affair, while Costner’s Mariner is a…

RELEASED OUT NOW! 464 pages | Hardback/ebook Author DK Fields Publisher Head Of Zeus This first novel from DK Fields (a pseudonym for David Towsey and Katherine Stansfield) is a much more unusual, intricate and clever novel than it first appears. At the outset Cora Gorderheim, a detective in a London-like metropolis at the centre of a fantasy world, is assigned to investigate a murder, and the book seems like a straight fusion of genres. But this is taking place in a world that places a high value on storytelling, to the extent that its elections are based on voting for a story concocted and told by each of the candidate groups – and the murder victim is one of the storytellers. As the election proceeds, the narrative is interrupted…

RELEASED OUT NOW! 384 pages | Paperback/ebook Author David Wellington Publisher Orbit The spirit of Jules Verne’s Voyages Extraordinaires lives on in The Last Astronaut. After a few chapters of set-up, it basically becomes a sci-fi travelogue – a journey to the centre of a Big Dumb Object that’s entered our Solar System. It’s a tour the reader takes alongside four near-future astronauts as they discover the secrets within. Of course, things have changed a bit in a century, so a lot of those secrets have a post-Alien body horror twist. There’s also an element of The Martian-style survivalism, with author David Wellington striving to make the space mission feel as authentic as possible. On this level the book impresses, not just in terms of the science and the claustrophobia, but…

RELEASED OUT NOW! 458 pages | Paperback/ebook Author Heather Child Publisher Orbit Fantasy fans know that cheating time is not the same as cheating fate, that characters who timeslip around the rest of us are often the unhappiest in the world. Arlo Knott is unhappy. Aged 13, he lost his mother in an accident caused by his stupid carelessness. Later, he finds that he can reverse time in tiny ways – “unbreaking” a jar, for instance – but the benefits seem outweighed by his sense of lonely freakishness. The story follows Arlo into adulthood, still trying to deal with his gift, tantalised by his growing powers, distraught as every happiness is snatched away. This is an intriguing if overly protracted book, with an avowedly unheroic take on turning back time.…

RELEASED OUT NOW! 457 minutes | Download Publisher Big Finish AUDIOBOOK It’s 40 years since BBC show The Omega Factor first vexed Mary Whitehouse with its tale of sinister occult conspiracies. It’s settled into minor cult status since, but Big Finish has done an admirable job of expanding on the original 10 episodes with an ongoing series of audio dramas. This is something a little different: an audiobook by Natasha Gerson, daughter of the show’s creator, Jack Gerson. Narrated by Louise Jameson (Anne in the TV series), it opens in the present before flashing back to the Edinburgh Festival in 1979. Tom (the late James Hazeldine’s character) has retired from the parapsychology game, but a call from Anne pulls him back in. She’s concerned about the safety of a group…

HOT TOPIC Your views on the month’s big issue Stuart Owen, email Just got back from seeing Spider-Man: Far From Home, the perfect tonic for Endgame melancholy. A fond farewell to the heroes who won’t return and a warm reminder that Peter Parker is still a boy, with a lot to learn. Hans Koning, Facebook Nice combination of teenager trouble and superhero stuff. The endfight was a bit too long, but overall great fun. Not in the same class as Infinity War or Endgame, but what is? Ian Salsbury, Facebook Hugely entertaining, like a coming-of-age movie trapped within a comic book. The characters are delightful and the relationship between Peter and MJ is really sweet. Lots of laughs, incredible visuals and a brilliant mid-credits teaser. Phase Three has definitely gone…

SOMEWHERE, IN AN old industrial warehouse near Slough… It’s May 2018 and SFX is getting Fraggle Rock flashbacks. Not so much for that famous bassline as for the sight of a mundane building being revealed as the gateway to a magical fantasy world. Because this former storeroom and Post Office depot, spectacular only for its ordinariness, contains a secret invisible to anyone outside – it’s been taken over by The Dark Crystal: Age Of Resistance, Netflix’s epic prequel to Jim Henson’s groundbreaking, dark and unconventional 1982 fantasy movie. As we move around the show’s production headquarters, there’s something unusual lurking behind (almost) every door. Okay, some simply open on to production offices or editing suites, while another reveals the drum kit Louis Leterrier (director of all 10 episodes of the…

THE FACADE OF 29 NEIBOLT Street is even less inviting in 2016 than it was in 1989, but the seven members of the Losers’ Club made a promise. If It – an ancient cosmic evil that takes the form of Pennywise the Dancing Clown – returned to the town of Derry, they would come back to finish what they started. Now the kids are all grown up, with new fears, which means director Andrés Muschietti – or Andy to the cast and crew – is ready to take It Chapter Two to a whole new level of horror. Based on Stephen King’s 1986 novel, 2017’s It – later renamed It Chapter One – broke records, becoming the highest-grossing R-rated horror film of all-time, the highest-grossing horror movie internationally, and the…

HALLOWEEN HORROR NIGHTS at Universal Studios Park in Orlando is the world’s biggest Halloween event. SFX asked Creative Development Show Director Patrick Braillard about how they bring the world of Stranger Things to life ahead of a brand-new haunted house for HHN29. So how long does it take to make the world of Stranger Things real? “If you take from the beginning of concept through to the completion of the scenic documents, that’s about a five-and-a-half or six-week process,” says Braillard. “And then with the building and the programming, that’s about another six weeks. So we have to start incredibly early with all of our houses. Every single one of our houses for this year’s event are in one state or another of progress. In fact, we finished technical reviews…

RELEASED 30 AUGUST Also on Blu-ray/DVD from 2 September 15 | 93 minutes Director Alexandre O Philippe How do you find a new angle on Alien? Alexandre O Philippe, who previously analysed Psycho’s shower scene in 78/52, was clearly determined to find a way. So this 40th anniversary doc begins at the ruins of the Temple of Apollo, then roves the corridors of a Nostro-moesque spaceship set to meet actresses made-up as Furies. It’s all in the service of a key thesis: that Ridley’s Scott’s classic isn’t just a well-made sci-fi horror, but a mythic expression of the collective unconscious. Various academics make the case, and it gets a little wearisome. Not only are the likes of William Linn, of the Joseph Campbell Foundation, teeth-grindingly pretentious, but the whole argument…

UK/US Amazon, streaming now Showrunner Eric Kripke Cast Karl Urban, Elizabeth Shue, Jack Quaid, Erin Moriarty, Anthony Starr, Jessie T Usher EPISODES 1.01-1.08 There’s nothing new about the idea that superheroes might secretly be jerks, but nobody has approached the concept with as much gusto as The Boys. Based on the comic by Garth Ennis and Darrick Robertson, this latest superhero show is a blisteringly cynical thriller crammed with black humour, twisted characterisation and extreme violence. Set in a world where superheroes are corporate-backed equivalents of Hollywood stars, the story follows ordinary guy Huey (Jack Quaid), whose girlfriend meets a horrific accidental death thanks to speedster A-Train (Jessie T Usher). Huey’s quest for payback leads him to Billy Butcher (Karl Urban), a foul-mouthed ex-FBI agent turned vigilante who forms a…

MR HYDRO A rascally lab assistant steals a Fluidizer, gaining the power to “alter the body cells so they become fluid at will!” The damp and undignified crime spree that follows sees him disguise himself as a leaky roof. MR NIGHT Fear of a black planet! Shade-throwing sky spirit Mr Night is exiled from Rainbow City, the place where all colours come from. He plots to destroy the spectrum, but is defeated by Mary Marvel, in living colour. MR MIND This icky, mind-controlling space worm is small in stature but big in ambition, leading the Monster Society of Evil in classic overcompensating style. He’s glimpsed in the movie, setting up creepy and indeed crawly sequel possibilities. MR BANJO One of Captain Marvel’s earliest if least intimidating foes, Kurt Flipots is…

RELEASED OUT NOW! 2019 | 12 | Blu-ray/DVD/download Director Justin Copeland Cast Jason O’Mara, Jennifer Morrison, Jerry O’Connell, Rebecca Romijn Jeph Loeb and Jim Lee’s acclaimed arc from the early ’00s is the latest comic book run to be stripmined for a direct-to-video DC animated movie. There aren’t enough man-hours in the world to faithfully render Lee’s insanely pretty art, but while the animation’s a compromise between practicality and style, its shadow-heavy ambience suits this moody, intriguing story, in which the Dark Knight matches his wits with a new foe who’s orchestrating Gotham’s underworld. Like the comic book original, it’s pure Bat-bingo, loaded with so many fan-pleasing guest stars it occasionally feels too busy for its own good. Still, there’s a well-played romance between Batman and Catwoman, and a pay-off…

RELEASED OUT NOW! 2019 | PG | Blu-ray/DVD/download Laika’s latest is every bit the stop-motion masterclass you’d expect from the studio. Decent gags and a strong voice cast, including Hugh Jackman and Zoe Saldana, ensure this Victorian-era tale of a Bigfoot looking for his Yeti cousins is never less than fun. But after the ambition of Kubo And The Two Strings, Missing Link feels rather less evolved. Extras Commentary, gallery and short but engrossing featurettes that leave you in awe of Laika’s tactile world-building.…

RELEASED OUT NOW! 1999 | 15 | Blu-ray Director Spike Jonze Cast John Cusack, Cameron Diaz, Catherine Keener, John Malkovich 20 years since its release, there’s still nothing quite like the film that made screenwriter Charlie Kaufman’s name, the tale of a nebbish puppeteer (John Cusack) who discovers a portal that takes you inside the mind of John Malkovich (er, John Malkovich). Its freewheeling absurdity is bracing – that lunatic pitch is only the beginning, as the story helter-skelters into a warped hetero/lesbian/trans love triangle. That’s stirred in with some very dark themes: one plot turn essentially sees a woman falling for her rapist. At the same time, it’s such fun, the thesp proving to be a good sport as he prances about half-naked, dons a straggly hairpiece, and is…

RELEASED OUT NOW! 1978 | 18 | Blu-ray Director Richard Marquand Cast Katharine Ross, Sam Elliott, Charles Gray, Roger Daltrey BLU-RAY DEBUT Directed by Return Of The Jedi’s Richard Marquand – with a touch more style than he brought to a galaxy far, far away – The Legacy lobs two Americans (The Graduate’s Katharine Ross; a young Sam Elliott, complete with embryonic trademark’tache) into a deeply English nightmare of country living, shifty character actors and aspirational Satanism. It’s chasing the ’70s occult craze – Marquand stages the setpiece deaths with a relish worthy of The Omen – but an intriguing plot adds a note of surgical horror to the familiar devil-worshipping beats. Extras Choose between the standard def UK theatrical cut (102 minutes) or the new high def remaster of the…

RELEASED 5 SEPTEMBER 288 pages | Hardback/ebook Editor Ian Edginton Publisher Abaddon Books When Herbert George Wells first imagined “intellects vast and cool and unsympathetic” coveting the Earth, he could hardly have predicted how influential his proto-alien invasion story would prove. Fast-forward more than a century and The War Of The Worlds (1898) sits at the centre of the wider culture, a text to which writers of all stripes (but most especially SF writers) return to over and over. One reason for this is that the ending is so open-ended. Sure (spoiler alert), the Martians die, but what if they’d solved the problem of Earth’s pathogens and returned? What, with reverse engineering, would humans have made of the technology they left behind? And what if men had landed on the…

RELEASED OUT NOW! 464 | Hardback/ebook Author VV James Publisher Gollancz Sanctuary is being described as “Big Little Lies meets The Craft”. You could think hard for a month and still fail to come up with a better description – and it’s clearly enticing, as the book is already being developed as a TV show. Whether it’ll attract actors of Nicole Kidman and Meryl Streep’s calibre remains to be seen, but there’s meaty stuff here for them to have fun with, most notably the juicy subtexts relating to modern society. Sure, they’re not as refined as they are in something like The Handmaid’s Tale, but the book tries, with everything from rape to a Trump-like President’s tweets (which fall flat: it’s hard to parody a man who’s already a parody).…

RELEASED OUT NOW! 443 pages | Paperback/ebook/audiobook Author Rowan Coleman Publisher Ebury Press An old, decaying house, a child who talks about friends who were never there, strange cries in the night, and an apparition always seen before someone dies… Yes, this is definitely a ghost story. But it’s also a love story. Alas, not that interesting a love story. Trudy’s husband is missing, presumed dead. Struggling to cope with the loss, she returns with her young son to the family home of Ponden Hall, near Haworth in Yorkshire, forcing her to confront her relationship with her estranged mother. But the house itself is full of history, and maybe something more. Hundreds of years old, it echoes with the tears of those who’ve lived before. As Trudy attempts to come…

RELEASED OUT NOW! 336 pages | Paperback/ebook Author Breanna Teintze Publisher Jo Fletcher Books Of all the jobs you read about in fantasy novels, you have to feel for the mages. Take Corcoran Gray. He can do all sorts of fancy magic just by writing spells on his skin – usually in a hurry while in a life-or-death situation – but the downside is that they’re toxic, so he constantly feels poorly. Takes all the fun out of going invisible, really. Still, in this rich and satisfying debut from Breanna Teintze, Gray doesn’t have time to focus on his health. He’s too busy trying to free his kidnapped grandfather and accidentally getting to know a powerful (and very cheeky) long-lost god, all the while attempting to outrun some mages who…

RELEASED 15 AUGUST 288 pages | Hardback/ebook Author Yoko Ogawa Publisher Penguin First published in Japanese in 1994, Yoko Ogawa’s The Memory Police is an allegorical tale about how we are defined and maintained by our memories. The protagonist is an author who lives on a small island where things disappear, and when they do, the Memory Police remove all traces of the offending object. That can be anything from types of food or clothing, to the idea of birds or boats. Anyone who isn’t subject to the collective memory loss is rounded up and never seen again. Amongst those immune to this amnesia is the protagonist’s editor, who she vows to keep safe from the authorities by building a secret room in her home. Ogawa’s style is rich in…

RELEASED OUT NOW! Publisher Marvel Comics Writer Gerry Duggan Artist Mike Deodato Jr. ISSUES 1-3 One of the more incongruous consequences of Marvel regaining the Conan licence is that Robert E Howard’s barbarian has now joined the ranks of Earth’s Mightiest Heroes. Writer Gerry Duggan makes good use of the Cimmerian’s past lore, as the various Savage Avengers – Marvel’s most brutal, unkillable protagonists, namely Wolverine, Venom, Brother Voodoo, Electra and the Punisher – are brought together by Kulan Gath, who first appeared in 1972’s Conan The Barbarian #14. In cahoots with The Hand, the malevolent wizard lures the anti-heroes to the Savage Land, as he requires the blood of those who’ve shed blood to resurrect the dreaded Marrow God. With the team not uniting until issue three, it sometimes…

RELEASED OUT NOW! Publisher Planet Striker Writer Pete Nash Artists Pete Nash, John Cooper, John M Burns COLLECTION Psicops was serialised in The Sun from 1994 to 1995, but don’t let its tabloid origins put you off what is surely a lost gem of British newspaper strip cartoons. Created by Striker’s Pete Nash, it centres on the truly odd couple of private eye Charity Wilde and her enigmatic partner Gabriel, who bring to mind Mulder and Scully if the former was actually a psychic alien. It gets off to a shaky start, as the various elements initially don’t quite gel; the overarching plotline of the pair being on the run from ruthless CIA operatives is somewhat perfunctory, while Charity sheds her clothing a bit too readily in the early episodes…

The closest my tiny local library came to holding a book of dark and secret knowledge was Mysteries Of The Unknown. Published by Usborne, specialists in educational books for kids, this particular grimoire anthologised three titles first published in 1977 as part of a series called The World Of The Unknown: All About Ghosts, All About Monsters and All About UFO’s (sic). Why the title change? That’s just another mystery… It was the perfect triptych for a generation intoxicated by the high strangeness of the times, who sensed reality was a little more malleable than adults let on. Caught between a laser-bolt future and echoes of folk horror, our heads whirled like the compassdefying vortex at the heart of the Bermuda Triangle. Here, at last, was a map. “This book…