Table of contents for November 2018 in SFX

Boo! That’s just the first scare in an issue of SFX that’s packed with them. We’ve devoted more than 30 pages to horror this month, and it’s not just because Halloween is just around the corner. The genre has never felt healthier, with IT and The Conjuring conquering the box office; A Quiet Place, Get Out and Hereditary keeping critics happy; and lots of talented filmmakers finding all-new cruel and unusual ways to frighten us. We’ve got some genuine horror icons headlining the issue too, as we sent our very own Nick Setchfield to Haddonfield LA to chat with Jamie Lee Curtis and John Carpenter about their return to Halloween (p34). We also speak to the showrunners behind new spooky Netflix shows The Haunting Of Hill House (p48) and Chilling…

1 PARENTHOOD WAS THE INSPIRATION After crafting the ambitious animated fantasies Wolf Children and The Boy And The Beast, director Mamoru Hosada looked closer to home for his latest film, Mirai. The “impetus”, he says, was when his wife gave birth to their second child, a girl. “I have an older boy who was jealous of the newborn, and what happens in the film exactly is what happened to us.” Well, almost. Unsettled by his new sister Mirai, the four-year-old Kun starts to get crazy hallucinations – like a toddler’s version of A Christmas Carol as past, present and future family members come to visit. 2 IMAGINATION CAN BE CRAZY When Kun starts getting these visitations, Hosada doesn’t hold back. The family’s pet dachshund Yukko gets reimagined as a human…

His first foray into science fiction territory, Steven Erikson’s new novel, Rejoice (subtitled A Knife To The Heart), is more inspired by the Malazan Book Of The Fallen author’s long-time fascination with the ideas surrounding first contact than an interest in UFOs themselves. “I wanted to come at it almost from an anthropological point of view rather than a scientific or technological one,” explains Erikson, who apart from drawing on the numerous novels that have been written about aliens falling to Earth was also influenced by Close Encounters Of The Third Kind. “I saw that film when it first came out and was blown away by the optimism and subversion that was implicit when the Men in Black are ignored at the end,” he recalls. “The idea that when aliens…

Three decades late, William Gibson’s rejected 1987 screenplay for Alien 3 is finally seeing the light of day – though not on the big screen. Instead it hatches in the form of a new five-issue Dark Horse miniseries that’s adapted and drawn by Johnnie Christmas. Noting that he “took the first two films as canon,” Gibson based his script on a detailed treatment by Walter Hill, David Giler and Gordon Carroll. Unfortunately, the producers weren’t happy with Gibson’s two drafts, prompting his departure from the project. It would be another five years until the divisive David Fincher-directed Alien 3 eventually found its way into cinemas. “I’ve actually never seen Alien 3, so I don’t know how what I did might compare to it,” says Gibson, who is pleased with Christmas’s…

→ Blake’s 7’s Jacqueline Pearce has died aged 74 – read our tribute on p114. → Carry On Screaming’s Fenella Fielding passes away aged 90. → Original Star Wars producer Gary Kurtz has died aged 78. → Sci-fi and fantasy get some love at this year’s Emmy Awards! Game Of Thrones wins Outstanding Drama and a Supporting Actor prize for Peter Dinklage; Samira Wiley is Outstanding Supporting Actress in The Handmaid’s Tale; and Black Mirror’s “USS Callister” wins Outstanding TV Movie and Outstanding Writing. → Zachary Quinto to lead AMC’s Joe Hill adap NOS4A2. → 13 Reasons Why’s Katherine Langford to star in Netflix’s Camelot inspired Cursed. → Timothy Dalton and Alan Tudyk join DC Universe’s Doom Patrol. → Brec Bassinger to play lead in DC Universe’s Stargirl. → Some…

→ Rebecca Ferguson frontrunner to play Lady Jessica in Denis Villeneuve’s Dune… Michelle Yeoh in talks for interdimensional action film Everything Everywhere All At Once… Chloe Zhao directing The Eternals for Marvel… Ken Jeong joining Occupation: Rainfall, sequel to Australian alien invasion tale Occupation… Anthony Mackie and Jamie Dornan in talks to headline thriller Synchronic… Brett Cullen cast as Thomas Wayne in Todd Phillips’ Joker, replacing Alec Baldwin… Get Out’s Jordan Peele rumoured to be producing the Candyman remake… Robin Wright returning as Antiope in Wonder Woman 1984… Kyliegh Curran playing Abra Stone in Doctor Sleep… A Quiet Place 2 arriving 15 May 2020… Patrick Stewart playing Bosley in Charlie’s Angels… HP Lovecraft’s The Colour Out Of Space heading to the screen, directed by Richard Stanley… Jon and Josh Silberman…

“WHO DOESN’T LOVE A LAB-COATED GENIUS-COME-CRIMINAL MASTERMIND?” The “mad scientist” has long played a pivotal part in stories, delighting and horrifying generations with dastardly and sometimes not-so-dastardly deeds. One man’s desire for power using scientific wizardry is no stranger to fables. Mad scientists lurk in the pages of our favourite books, and shine brightly on celluloid and digital film. We can’t get enough of them. Arguably, the earliest incarnation is Christopher Marlowe’s Dr Faustus, a tortured scholar who fails to take his own life and calls upon the Devil for greater knowledge and magic powers. The Devil offers him powers in return for Faust’s soul. It’s a classic tale, which doesn’t end well, for obvious reasons. Skipping forward 300 years, travel-writer, wife and mother, Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley writes gothic classic,…

While John Carpenter, who had scripting and producing duties on Halloween II, admits that introducing the family link between Michael and Laurie was something he always regretted (hence the reason for retconning it in the new 2018 sequel), it does lead to some interesting diversions – including a direct link to Zombie’s own Halloween. For Halloween IV in 1988, a child actress called Danielle Harris was introduced to the series as the daughter of the (now written-off) Jamie Lee Curtis. After her mother’s storyline death, Harris would be the sole family member for Myers to stalk – with the storyline continuing through Halloween V (1989) and The Curse Of Michael Myers (1996). However, when Curtis returned for H20 in 1998, the previous three sequels were ignored. But for his Halloween…

Shirley Jackson was open about The Haunting Of Hill House’s influences. In lecture “Experience And Fiction”, she recalled a journey to New York in January 1958. As her train pulled into Harlem’s 125th Street Station, she spied “a building so disagreeable that I couldn’t stop looking at it”, so unnerving it led to nightmares. Jackson claimed she later learned it was a building where nine had died in a fire. The tale may be embroidered – her biographer could only find a fire site where three died, not visible by rail. Whatever, Jackson’s interest was piqued. She wrote to her parents requesting pictures of old California houses. They sent clippings and a brochure for the infamous Winchester House. Jackson also claimed she came across a photo in a magazine of…

HORROR MAESTRO JOE DANTE IS by no means unique in having his childhood movie experiences shape his career path, but few directors have managed to parlay their love of monster movies into such a comprehensive compendium of creature features. With a filmography that encompasses Gremlins, werewolves, flesh-eating piranha and a half-man, half-ant, the 71-year-old director is only too happy to wax nostalgic about the scary movies of his childhood. “I’m a child of the atomic age, so theatrically, the movies that I saw were all science fiction pictures like Them! and War Of The Worlds, pictures like that,” says Dante. “They were the big scary movies when I was a kid. But then when the Universal Pictures from the ’30s started to appear on television, a whole generation of kids,…

Pyewacket – Bell, Book & Candle The name Pyewacket has been linked with witches since the 1600s. Here it takes the form of a brown Siamese cat who slinks around and casts spells. Isis – Star Trek: The Original Series, “Assignment: Earth” Isis is a very clever kitty indeed. She’s able to communicate with her owner telepathically, and can even shapeshift into a beautiful, seductive lady. Tabitha – Shadow Of The Cat In this Hammer horror, a tabby cat witnesses the murder of her beloved mistress and goes after the men responsible. She even lures one into a swamp and watches him drown! General – Cat’s Eye This 1985 horror anthology film penned by Stephen King sees a handsome striped tabby cat called General protect his young owner (played by…

JODIE WHITTAKER HAS A COSPLAY confession. “I wanted to go to Comic-Con as Dustin from Stranger Things,” she reveals, clearly unafraid to cross the streams of geek culture and potentially trigger the total collapse of reality. “I would have loved to have given myself a really tight curl and a baseball cap. But I couldn’t, because I was Jodie! I was my own person! I went as the Thirteenth Doctor instead…” As the latest incarnation of the Gallifreyan icon Whittaker is on the brink of becoming a hero and an inspiration herself. So what better moment to sit down with her in a London hotel suite and discover the stuff that rocks her universe. She gives vibrant, heartfelt conversation, her brain pinballing between passions at authentic Time Lord speed: everything…

IN GREENPOINT, BROOKLYN, something’s going down. In a darkened room, a door cracks open, a flashlight shines and in walks Matt Murdock. Marvel’s blind lawyer turned urban vigilante – the man you know as Daredevil – is back and all in black. He spies a safe in the room and gets to work. “What, can you do that?” asks his accomplice, as Murdock listens intently to the clicks of the dial. “Not if you keep talking I can’t,” he quips back. At this point, a loud “cut!” is called. Murdock’s Charlie Cox and fellow Brit Jay Ali, who plays FBI agent Rahul “Ray” Nadeem, break into smiles as the scene is re-set. Somebody starts to croon Phil Collins’ “Another Day In Paradise” and the actors begin to discuss the merits…

▶ RELEASED 19 October 18 | 109 minutes ▶ Director David Gordon Green ▶ Cast Jamie Lee Curtis, Nick Castle, Judy Greer, Andi Matichak, Will Patton Outside of Star Trek and Star Wars you’d be hard pressed to find a series with a more convoluted canon than Halloween. The good news for viewers only casually acquainted with the slasher king’s unwieldy cinematic legacy is that this new Halloween, produced by horror hero du jour Jason Blum, is a direct continuation of John Carpenter’s classic 1978 chiller, with everything from Halloween II to Rob Zombie’s risible reboots unceremoniously consigned to the bin. And while there’s no question this David Gordon Green-directed Halloween is one of the better sequels to emerge from a series that could generously be described as “patchy”, there’s not…

▶ RELEASED OUT NOW! 15 | 96 minutes ▶ Director Corin Hardy ▶ Cast Demián Bichir, Taissa Farmiga, Bonnie Aarons, Jonas Bloquet Expanding like some Lovecraftian nightmare growing fresh tentacles, the Conjuring movie universe delivers its latest origin tale for one of the creepy fiends found in the parent films. Here, we’re treated to the backstory of the glowing-eyed nun demon (Bonnie Aarons) who first lurked in The Conjuring 2. The clock spins back to ’50s Romania (at this rate, there will be a film about cavemen fleeing prehistoric paranormal beasties), where a convent is keeping the fiendish evil entrapped. A priest (Demián Bichir) and an initiate (Taissa Farmiga) are sent to investigate the apparent suicide of a nun and discover the dark secret. Corin Hardy, who brought us The…

▶ RELEASED 2 NOVEMBER PG | 98 minutes ▶ Director Mamoru Hosoda ▶ Cast Haru Kuroki, Moka Kamishiraishi, Gen Hoshino, Koji Yakusho This anime is for viewers who like their fantasies to be “curious” in an Alice’s Adventures In Wonderland way, without needing the clear structure and consistency of Pixar films. A lot of anime is like that, but Mirai goes even further than Spirited Away. The story is set in modern-day Japan. An energetic four-year-old boy, Kun, gains a baby sister, the titular Mirai. The film shows Kun’s “normal” life with his family – which starts to get fractious as he realises that Mirai is taking attention away from him – and his magic encounters that feature family too: a teenage Mirai from the future, his mother and grandpa…

Writer/director of Hereditary What were your cinematic inspirations? Nicolas Roeg’s films affected me from an early age, especially Don’t Look Now – I see Hereditary as having a spiritual link to that. There’s something in his editing where his images feel psychically linked in a way that really troubled me as a kid. The Cook, The Thief, His Wife And Her Lover – that isn’t really considered a horror film, which is strange because it’s as macabre as anything I’ve ever seen. Peter Greenaway strikes me as one of our most authentic misanthropes; you can really feel his hatred for humanity! I was also looking at Roman Polanski as far as the blocking in relation to the camera – there’s nobody better than him at that. The film has some…

▶ RELEASED OUT NOW! 1946 | U | Blu-ray ▶ Directors Michael Powell, Emeric Pressburger ▶ Cast David Niven, Kim Hunter, Marius Goring, Roger Livesey BLU-RAY DEBUT Powell and Pressburger never delivered the obvious. A Matter Of Life And Death was originally meant to be a propaganda piece, a salve for Anglo-American relations strained by WW2. It ended up as something far stranger, richer and more enduring, a sumptuous fantasia just on the edge of unclassifiable. David Niven is pluck and charm incarnate as airman Peter Carter, caught in the crack between Earth and the afterlife due to a celestial accounting error. Carter’s romance with Kim Hunter’s peppy June is endearing, but it’s the visuals that wow: a stark monochrome Heaven, indebted to German Expressionist cinema; an English garden whose…

▶ RELEASED 15 OCTOBER 2018 | 18 | Blu-ray/DVD Blood Fest is the latest in a long line of self-referential horror comedies where characters must follow genre rules to survive. Dax (Robbie Kay) and his friends go to a horror festival, only to discover that the organiser intends to create the ultimate scary movie by killing the punters. Part Scream, part Cabin In The Woods, it doesn’t have a single original idea, but a strong cast and some good jokes make it gruesome fun. Extras Commentary; deleted scenes; VFX breakdown; slideshow; trailers.…

CITY OF THE LIVING DEAD (out now, Blu-ray) sees Arrow Video upgrading their old HD release of Lucio Fulci’s portal-to-Hell zombie horror with a new restoration and more bonuses. They include eight fresh interviews with members of the cast and crew, a piece with Ghost Stories director Andy Nyman, and 8mm behind-the-scenes footage. We said: “With its fog-shrouded settings and doomy score, it’s tremendously atmospheric, and the gore set-pieces are jaw-dropping.” If you bought the remastered DVD box set recently, you’ll probably be cheesed off to hear of JOE 90 VOLUME ONE (out now, Blu-ray). Including HD transfers of episodes 1-8 of the Gerry Anderson show about a boy agent who has adult skills loaded into his noggin, it’ll be followed by three more volumes before February. Volume one’s bonus-free,…

▶ RELEASED OUT NOW! 396 pages | Paperback/ebook ▶ Author LL McKinney ▶ Publisher Titan Books Alice’s Adventures In Wonderland is one of the most heavily-mined texts in fantasy fiction, its imagery and set-pieces endlessly borrowed – yet very rarely are any of the homages half as weird as the original. LL McKinney’s A Blade So Black is no exception, but it’s still a good novel. It’s about Alice, a black teenager in modern-day Atlanta, who stumbles upon the dream realm of Wonderland – and, in a Buffy-style twist, is invited to help fight the monsters that come from there. McKinney’s style is vivid and her plotting is deft: she starts with Alice’s first meeting with her mentor from Wonderland, Addison Hatta, but skips over all the business of coming to…

▶ RELEASED OUT NOW! 372 pages | Hardback/ebook ▶ Author Angela Chadwick ▶ Publisher Dialogue Books The creation of a foetus has always required two basic ingredients: a sperm and an egg. XX explores a world in which scientists have developed a method to create life from two egg cells. It’s a breakthrough for lesbian couples, who can have their own genetic children – but two eggs mean only X chromosomes, so every “o-o” baby is a girl. If men are no longer needed for reproduction, is there a future for them? And how will society react? Juliet is half of one of the very first couples to create a new XX child, with her partner Rosie carrying the baby. But not everyone is happy about the prospect. A local…

Leading this month’s paperback pack: Tricia Sullivan’s SWEET DREAMS ( , out now, Gollancz). It centres on, dreamhacker Charlie Aaron, who after taking part in a clinical trial, now falls asleep when stressed – a bit of a problem given that her story involves running from a dream invader and being interrogated by the dream police after one of her clients sleepwalks to death. We said: “Its narcoleptic heroine is a great device for moving the action forward in disorientating jumps, and the city she visits in dreams is gleefully odd.” The Brontë sisters loom large over Katherine Clements’s THE COFFIN PATH ( , 18 October, Headline Review), a gothic chiller set on the Yorkshire Moors in the aftermath of the Civil War. It follows 17th century farmer Mercy Booth,…

▶ RELEASED OUT NOW! ▶ Publisher DC Comics ▶ Writer/artist Joëlle Jones ISSUES 1-3 “Read Batman #50 first or I’ll spoil the whole thing,” warns Selina Kyle on the striking cover of Catwoman #1. Indeed, the end of that landmark issue is key to the set-up of this new ongoing series, written and drawn by Joëlle Jones. Well, here’s our own warning – we’ll also be discussing the aftermath of the wedding of the century… After many years of on- and off-romance, Selina and Bruce are seemingly over, finished, kaput, with Selina having left Bruce at the altar, for the greater good (though it’s not quite as simple as that – the main Bat-comic hints that there’s some villainous manipulation going on behind the scenes). Now she’s alone again, far…

→ Marvel reportedly looking to bring MCU characters like Loki and Scarlet Witch to TV in limited series on Disney’s new streaming service. → AMC’s plans to get the most out of The Walking Dead include spinoff series and maybe movies. → Get Out director Jordan Peele to host his Twilight Zone reboot. → New Jean-Luc Picard-led Star Trek spin-off to be set in 2399 – two decades after Nemesis. → Breaking Bad’s Aaron Paul to join Westworld’s third season in as-yet unconfirmed role. → Henry Cavill to take lead in Netflix’s The Witcher series. → Avatar: The Last Airbender getting live-action reboot on Netflix – with the original writers on board. → Gotham’s Crystal Reed to play Dr Abby Arcane in Swamp Thing show. → Lost’s Jeremy Davis to…

“The first question people ask is: is it a dance movie? And the answer is no, not really,” says producer Mark Gordon, discussing Disney’s new fantasy film The Nutcracker And The Four Realms. Taking inspiration from the beloved ballet and ETA Hoffman’s classic story The Nutcracker And The Mouse King, directors Lasse Hallström and Joe Johnston have enlisted the help of Mackenzie Foy and a host of Hollywood talent to transport us to a world of gingerbread soldiers and mouse armies – just in time for Christmas. “We’ve honoured the ballet,” adds Gordon, “but enhanced the story, characters and visual splendour in a remarkable way.” Foy plays Clara, a young woman tasked with securing a magic key that unlocks a box containing a priceless gift. To find the key, Clara…

Tickets are still available for SFX Book Con 2, our second celebration of sci-fi and fantasy novels. Taking place at Foyles’ flagship Charing Cross Road branch in London on Saturday 10 November, the event brings together loads (sorry, we’re not sure of the collective noun for authors) of the best writing talent in the UK for a day of panels, signings and mingling. This second instalment is even bigger than our first Book Con back in February, with more authors and more panels – and the timing is perfect if you want to buy some literary Christmas presents for friends, family or (let’s be honest) yourself. At time of writing, our eclectic guest list (ranging from newcomers to genre legends) features: Pat Cadigan, MR Carey, Anne Charnock, the just-announced Alexandra…

HOT TOPIC Your views on the month’s big issue Rob Perry, Facebook It’s dumb, choppy and rushed. But it has a rough charm that made it enjoyable in the same way as the similarly flawed Predator 2. It also gets points for its surprisingly light and sympathetic touch regarding characters with ASD and Tourette’s. Not perfect, but much less crass than Hollywood usually is. The franchise is suffering in the same way as Alien and The Terminator. All three had first instalments that were essentially horror and sequels that have gone increasingly off the rails as subsequent filmmakers have tried to fill the void with bigger action and more outlandish plots/mythology building. Admittedly both Aliens and Terminator 2 are superior to Predator 2, but even they move away from the…

If fantasy thrives on big imagination, then Roger Zelazny dealt himself one of the sweetest hands a writer could with The Chronicles Of Amber. At either end of the universe exist two opposing powers – the Pattern and the Logrus, the beating hearts of order and chaos. From here, endless worlds emanate out – shadows cast across reality. Those in the know can walk through these realms of shadow, visiting limitless worlds of possibility. You may find the Castle of the Four Winds, where sorcerers fight for love and vengeance; the Mad Hatter’s bar, where fire angels lie in wait behind the Cheshire Cat’s lingering smile; or pop in for a chat and a cheeseburger with your lawyer on our Earth. This is the setting for The Chronicles Of Amber,…

“THERE WAS NO TRAUMA THERAPY FOR LAURIE IN 1978. NO ONE CAME IN TO TAKE CARE OF HER” SFX IS RARELY CALLED UPON TO inspect the forearms of film stars. But Jamie Lee Curtis is insistent. “I have goosebumps,” she announces, inching up her sleeves to reveal pimpling flesh. “On both arms. I want evidence in your story! I have goosebumps on both arms. Because that is the integrity of this Halloween movie.” Curtis, you quickly realise, is barely a layer of skin away from Laurie Strode, the role that first made her name – and the one she’s playing again, 40 years on. She’s an intense presence, alternately playful – SFX is greeted with a burst of Dick Van Dyke mockney – and so direct she all but harpoons…

Any newcomer to the Halloween franchise may be spooked at how little coherency there is between films. For 2018’s Halloween, the sequel takes up 40 years after the ending of the original 1978 film. This factor now gives the horror mainstay no less than four different timelines (ignoring the unrelated Halloween III: Season Of The Witch from 1982): Halloween II/4/5/6 represent a conclusive narrative of increasingly supernatural events that lead to Myers’ identity being linked to bizarre Celtic folklore. Alternatively, the original Jamie Lee Curtis storyline runs through II/H20 and finishes with the disastrous Halloween: Resurrection (2002). Zombie’s twosome, of course, introduced and concluded a new universe of their very own.…

What do you make of the online speculation that this ties in to the Cloverfield universe? I tend to be in my own bubble the majority of the time but I had heard through social media it was supposed to fall under the Cloverfield series. I never really gave it too much thought because we didn’t discuss it during production. At all. As far as I was concerned, it was a film about a reimagined time in WWII with supernatural themes. I was onboard for that! What was it like meeting JJ Abrams? I was incredibly intimidated when JJ came to set the first time. It’s hard not to be, knowing the great work he’s done and his reputation for expecting the best work from all of his actors. He…

BETWEEN AUDITIONS FOR THE ROLE YOU WERE SENDING SHOWRUNNER CHRIS CHIBNALL INSPIRING PHOTOS YOU’D FOUND. HOW DID THAT HELP SHAPE YOUR TAKE ON THE DOCTOR? At that point it was more trying to woo Chris into giving me the part, but what I was finding were images that I really responded to, and a lot of the time it was someone, not necessarily an alien, but a thing or a person or an object that was otherworldly to the environment of the picture. I really loved the contrast between, say, someone in a suit stood on Mars. There were a lot of pieces of art that I found – not art, more graphic design stuff. Often when you use the point of view of a child you get a kind…

Matt is being nursed back to health by Sister Maggie in season three. What’s his state of mind when we meet him? There’s bitterness to Matt. He’s deeply troubled by what happened to Elektra. Not just that she was killed, but that she was effectively resurrected and killed again! I think he’s feeling a little bit like, “I believe in God, but what I understand about God now is, that God is capable of great cruelty. There’s a punishing God as well as a loving God.” How does he feel about being Daredevil now? I like the idea of him finding some acceptance around that and also coming to an understanding that he doesn’t have a choice over being Daredevil and actually the more authentic version of himself is Daredevil,…

FRIDAY THE 13TH The 1980 film which kickstarted the Jason Voorhees franchise takes place on 13 June 1979 – which, confusingly, wasn’t actually a Friday (it was a Wednesday). However, 13 June 1958, the date of the first murder at Camp Crystal Lake, was. NEW YEAR’S EVIL In this 1980 slasher, the host of a new-wave show is phoned up by a switchblade-wielding psycho who plans to commit a murder each time midnight strikes in a different US time zone. And you thought having to watch Hootenanny was bad. MY BLOODY VALENTINE The indie rock band took their name from this Canadian film (1981). Twenty years ago, mine supervisors sloped off to the Valentine’s Day dance, causing a disaster. When a group of local teens revive the event, a gas…

▶ RELEASED 12 OCTOBER 18 | 121 minutes ▶ Director Panos Cosmatos ▶ Cast Nicolas Cage, Andrea Riseborough, Linus Roache, Bill Duke Even by the standards of cinema’s bastion of batshit, Mandy is Nicolas Cage uncaged: snorting coke, caked in gore, and screaming lines like, “You ripped my favourite shirt!” while tussling with a leather-clad Cenobite-thingy that’s been summoned by a Satanic cult. Set in 1983, it sees Cage play Red, a lumberjack who lives in a log cabin with his wife (Andrea Riseborough). Their cosy life is rudely interrupted by the aforementioned cult, led by Jeremiah (Linus Roache). One mind-meltingly psychedelic, gut-churningly horrific sequence later, Mandy’s dead and Red is left to stumble home and sit on the toilet in his Y-fronts to unleash a volley of howls, bellows…

▶ RELEASED OUT NOW! 12A | 103 minutes ▶ Director Eli Roth ▶ Cast Jack Black, Cate Blanchett, Owen Vaccaro, Kyle MacLachlan You can’t deny that that’s one hell of a title. What makes it even more intriguing is that the clock in question is a literal one, merrily ticking and tocking away behind the walls of an old house belonging to warlock Jonathan Barnavelt (Jack Black, in full-on Jack Black mode). Hidden by a curse, the clock is part of an evil plan left behind by dead warlock Isaac Izard (Kyle MacLachlan) – and it starts causing all sorts of problems when Jonathan’s young nephew, Lewis (Owen Vaccaro), comes to live with him and wonders what all the ticks, tocks and chimes are about. If nothing else, having a…

FIRST LOOK UK Sundays, BBC One US Sundays, BBC America ▶ Showrunner Chris Chibnall ▶ Cast Jodie Whittaker, Tosin Cole, Mandip Gill, Bradley Walsh EPISODE 1.01 New time-slot. New companions. New gender. Doctor Who has always thrived on change, but it’s rarely seen as much as in this latest top-down refit, which not only delivers the first female Doctor, but also moves the classically London-centric show to the strange, unexplored land of Sheffield. “The Woman Who Fell To Earth” makes a lot of this fresh location, as the newly regenerated Doctor crash-lands into the lives of three locals while battling a sinister alien force. Incoming showrunner Chris Chibnall’s script harks back to the bigheartedness of early Russell T Davies adventures and features some emotional highlights, even if it also suffers…

FIRST LOOK ▶ UK AMC, from 14 November ▶ US AMC, from 14 October EPISODES 1.01-1.02 Following up AMC’s James Cameron’s Story Of Science Fiction with the director of Hostel’s take on the horror genre doesn’t sound like the most nuanced of ideas. Yet, even if Roth isn’t your cup of bloodied tea, his passion for the genre means he’s called every single one of his famous friends for a genuinely fascinating delve into scare cinema. Focusing on a different genre each episode – the first two cover zombies and slasher movies, with a second instalment on slashers, demons, creatures, vampires and ghosts to come – Roth largely leaves the discussion to others as he skips from movie to movie, jumping between modern and classic horror with ease. The talking…

▶ RELEASED OUT NOW! 1981 | 15 | Blu-ray/DVD ▶ Director Alan JW Bell ▶ Cast Simon Jones, David Dixon, Mark Wing-Davey, Sandra Dickinson BLU-RAY DEBUT There is a consensus that Douglas Adams’s blend of absurdism, parody and philosophical wit remains peerless in the sphere of SF comedy, but the BBC TV adaptation gets little love from certain quarters. This seems a tad unfair. Sure, the animatronic solution to the problem of Zaphod Beeblebrox’s second head is off-puttingly crude, Sandra Dickinson is oddly counterintuitive casting as Trillian, and the conception of “paranoid android” Marvin as a clunky ’50s-style robot is questionable – though arguably, it’s fittingly frustrating for his genius to be trapped in such a lumbering shell. But Simon Jones, reviving his radio role as Arthur Dent, the hapless…

▶ RELEASED OUT NOW! 2016 | 15 | DVD There are actually two monsters in this movie: a forest-dwelling growly thing that eats people, and a mother whose behaviour’s so bad that her kid, Lizzy (Ella Ballentine, excellent), keeps wishing her dead. This double-villain schema could’ve come to life with a pacier script – Zoe Kazan really commits to being unlikeable as the mum – but the film mostly consists of the two trapped in a car, Cujo-style, in the pissing rain. And when the monster attacks, you’ve seen it all before. Disappointing. Extras None.…

▶ RELEASED OUT NOW! 1983 | 18 | Blu-ray What if Christopher Lee’s corpse was stolen by fans, then he came back to life? Oh, and he was a murderer? Also titled The Horror Star, this slasher-era product’s nostalgic for an older era. It has some neat ideas, like an automated, booby-trapped mausoleum. DoP Joel King (cameraman on Carrie) makes it look attractive. And star Ferdy Mayne serves up delicious ham. But a lack of internal logic means none of it really hangs together. Extras Three commentaries by journos; three interviews; gallery; trailer.…

▶ RELEASED OUT NOW! 1970 | PG | Blu-ray ▶ Director Alan Cooke ▶ Cast Terence Stamp, Robert Vaughn, Nigel Davenport, Donal Donnelly Having missed out on the rights to Daniel Keyes’s Flowers For Algernon, Milton Subtosky, co-founder of Amicus, snapped up a similarly themed pulp novel as second best. Terence Stamp plays Soames, who wakes up after 30 years in a coma with the mind of a baby. Cloistered in a research institute, he must be taught to walk, speak, and become a useful member of society. Cue a debate over parenting styles: stern authoritarianism vs touchy-feely liberalism. It’s an attractive-looking film, and Stamp is first-rate, bringing poignancy and humour. What’s disappointing is what it leaves out. Oddly, there’s no mention of Soames’s family. And the subject of his…

▶ RELEASED OUT NOW! 1987 | 15 | Blu-ray ▶ Director Jamil Dehlavi ▶ Cast Peter Firth, Suzan Crowley Nabil Shaban Opening with a shot of a telescope, Born Of Fire frequently feels like it’s been beamed from another world. When Paul (Peter Firth) hears a strange melody during a flute recital, he’s drawn into a surreal world of silent bald men and giant skulls blocking the sun, as he searches for the mythical “master musician”. Labelled Turkey’s first horror movie, it has a couple of scary set-pieces, but it’s more Alejandro Jodorowsky than Dario Argento, looking closer to a Shaw Brothers quest movie than your average stalk-and-slash flick. Far from making you fearful, it’s more compelling than any tourist video, with several scenes taking place in the most beautiful…

▶ RELEASED OUT NOW! 528 pages | Paperback/ebook ▶ Author DB Jackson ▶ Publisher Angry Robot Tobias is a Walker, a rare magic user capable of moving through time. As in The Terminator, he can only go back naked without any equipment. However, the catch is a price for time travel is taken in years. For every year travelled, Tobias ages; 14 years means that Tobias has doubled his age. Now a boy in a man’s body, he must struggle against a plot to overthrow a kingdom, and protect the orphaned heir to the throne. The time-travel system could be thought of as gimmicky, but the rules of the book’s “magick”, combined with the scarcity of Walkers, mean it’s not all popping back and forth to foil plots. Instead it’s…

▶ RELEASED OUT NOW! 387 pages | Paperback/ebook ▶ Author Gary Kemble ▶ Publisher Titan Books Disgraced journalists and backstreet tattoo artists, biker gangs, soldiers and dirty politicians populate this debut novel from Gary Kemble. Though pitched as supernatural horror, this Aussie mystery reads more like action-noir. Our hero is the washed-up hack Harry Hendrix, confined to a low-rent Brisbane local paper after his make-or-break front-pager was suspiciously discredited. When Hendrix wakes up with a weird tat on the back of his neck that he doesn’t remember getting, disturbing visions lead to a scoop that leaves him way out of his depth. Although Kemble was born in England, the author now lives in Brisbane, and Strange Ink’s frequent use of Aussie slang, detailed descriptions of Brisbane landmarks and local politics…

WHAT CAN YOU TELL US ABOUT YOUR CHARACTER, SADIE? I haven’t become an astronaut in the most orthodox way. Most astronauts have a background in engineering or the military, but I’m strictly from a scientific background. My main purpose on the crew would be to find life on Mars. I live with my husband, and we’ve uprooted our lives so that I can pursue this dream. I’ve given up a lot to do this. HOW DO YOU GO ABOUT PREPARING TO PLAY AN ASTRONAUT? I found the idea of playing an astronaut the most intimidating part. I didn’t know much about space travel, I’m embarrassed to say. I had massive preconceptions about what it meant to be an astronaut and what kind of personality you must have. I couldn’t quite…

VE Schwab is showing us a new side to the parallel Londons of her Shades Of Magic novels. Not only does The Steel Prince come in comic book form, it’s a prequel story detailing the early years of future king Maxim Maresh. “Maxim’s definitely an antagonist for a large part of the series but I knew he had a backstory,” Schwab tells Red Alert. “I didn’t entirely know what it was – I knew he had a life before he was king and that it would change our relationship to him – but it was something that could not be conveyed in Conjuring Of Light when we learned about it, because there were too many other things that needed to happen.” While Schwab admits book readers don’t need to catch…

Tell us about your protagonist. → Mehr’s father is a nobleman, but her mother’s from a persecuted magical culture. When Mehr reveals she inherited her mother’s magical gifts, she draws the attention of the Empire’s terrifying mystical order, and has to use cunning and artifice to survive. What sparked the idea? → I’ve always been interested in the women of the Mughal Empire, who often wielded huge political power behind the scenes. I wanted to explore the skills a woman honed by patriarchal court politics would have. Also, Bollywood movies. Of course. Are the magic elements your own invention? → Concepts like binding vows, a world built on dreams, and dance as creation and destruction are definitely inspired by the Hindu beliefs and epics I was raised on. What kind…

Ursula K Le Guin’s The Wizard Of Earthsea saga is about to be issued in one volume – all 1,008 pages of it! The book marks a four-year collaboration between Le Guin and artist Charles Vess. “I was very happy that before she passed away, she had approved everything in the book except for the very last drawing,” Vess tells Red Alert. “Of course, I wish she could have held the finished book in her hands.” The Books Of Earthsea: The Complete Illustrated Edition is published by Gollancz on 25 October. Get sci-fi news and features at gamesradar.com/sfx SCI-FACT! Vess and Le Guin spent the first year of their collaboration working out how the dragons should look.…

UP, UP AND AWAY! SUPERMAN Does Henry Cavill still stand for truth, justice and the American way? The Hollywood Reporter claims that the Superman star has parted company with Warner Bros – and the DCEU – after negotiations for a cameo in Shazam! broke down due to scheduling conflicts. The studio will only say, “While no decisions have been made regarding any upcoming Superman films, we’ve always had a great respect for and a great relationship with Henry Cavill, and that remains unchanged.” The Fortress of Rumourtude claims Warner is fast-tracking a Supergirl movie while eyeing Michael B Jordan as a potential new Man of Steel. Cavill’s response? An inscrutable Instagram vid of himself in a Krypton Lifting Team t-shirt, moving his own action figure out of frame while a…

RICHARD EDWARDS EDITOR RAVES → Never thought I’d say this, but I’m glad Disney are slowing things down on the Star Wars front – Lucasfilm needs a rethink that doesn’t just involve filling in tiny gaps in the mythology. → Especially when Marvel are showing they’re becoming just as adept at space opera – loving that Captain Marvel trailer! NICK SETCHFIELD FEATURES EDITOR RAVES → Officially intrigued by Cary Fukunaga taking on the Bond assignment. A stylist but someone who’s brilliant with the big action beats, too. Just hoping he’s made a call to David Arnold… RIP → Sad news about Gary Kurtz. Such a crucial creative voice in Star Wars. IAN BERRIMAN REVIEWS EDITOR RAVES → Enjoying Netflix’s The Haunting Of Hill House. I was scratching my head at…

IT’S HARD TO BELIEVE THAT Michael Myers (or “The Shape” as he is also known) has been embedded in pop culture for 40 years – and yet no single filmmaker seems to know exactly what to do with the mysterious masked marauder. By Halloween II (1981) it was revealed Myers was in fact trying to kill his younger sister – giving the character motivation for his initial small-town murder spree. For tenth-anniversary sequel Halloween IV in 1988 he was awoken from a decade-long coma to chase after his telepathic niece. However, when audiences got to the sixth film, The Curse Of Michael Myers, in 1995 a decision had made been made to link Myers to an ancient cult of druids that practised crop harvesting, incest and blood sacrifice – and…

How’d you tackle playing a junkie? I quickly decided that everyone else defines Luke by his addiction and he doesn’t. I don’t think it’s the most important thing about his character. It’s more about this horrific event he’s constantly trying to run away from. I didn’t want to play an addict; I wanted to play someone struggling deeply with just functioning. What appealed about the script? If you take away the mystery, Mike’s basically writing about a family that’s been through a traumatic event, and what that does. I loved that it’s taking a formulaic idea – a family move into a house, it’s haunted, awful stuff happens – then asking, “What’d happen if we caught up with them 20 years later?” What was the Hill House set like? It…

WHAT MAKES Ash special is that he’s not special,” says Bruce Campbell of the longevity of his Deadite-slaying alter-ego Ash Williams. He should know. Having spent nearly 40 years living with Ash following Sam Raimi’s splatterfest Evil Dead, amped-up sequel Evil Dead II, threequel Army Of Darkness and three seasons of Starz’s small-screen continuation Ash Vs Evil Dead, he’s got to know this boomstick-wielding hero well. “Ash has no special skills,” he tells SFX. “No super powers, no special suit, he can’t fly. I think that helps the average person relate to him. “He’s a guy trying to save the world out of his garage with just the stuff he can build,” Campbell adds on Ash’s endurance power. “On the first Evil Dead, we didn’t know who we were trying…

In 1962, Sabrina Spellman is created by comic book writer George Gladir and cartoonist Dan DeCarlo. She’s formally introduced in Archie’s Mad House #22 in October and appears in the comic until issue 74 in August 1970. Sabrina appears in every issue of Archie’s TV Laugh-Out for 109 issues from 1969 to 1985. From 1970 to 1974, Sabrina gets her own animated series. Sabrina The Teenage Witch airs every Sunday morning on CBS for four seasons. Sabrina gets a solo comic in Sabrina The Teen-Age Witch, which runs for 77 issues from 1971 to 1983. In 1977, The New Archie And Sabrina Hour begins. Sabrina gets her own segment, “Super Witch”, but the show’s cancelled after just 13 episodes in 1978. Melissa Joan Hart stars as Sabrina in the popular…

BRAM STOKER’S GREAT-GRANDNEPHEW, DACRE Stoker, drew on his distant relative’s literary notes for 2009’s Dracula sequel, Dracula: The Un-Dead. Now he and co-writer JD Barker have produced an official prequel in Dracul, this time referring to an old journal that had been left in the care of one of Bram Stoker’s great-grandsons. “While transcribing and researching the journal, I learned an awful lot about Bram himself,” says Stoker of his great-granduncle. “I then continued to dig into the lives of Bram and his family, and found them all to be fascinating. Bram’s childhood illness, his mysterious recovery, and his possible inspiration for writing Dracula continued to intrigue me.” Along with The Lost Journal Of Bram Stoker, Stoker and Barker referred to the original Dracula manuscript and the preface that Stoker’s…

BLUM BLUM BLUM… In his ongoing bid to take over the entire horror genre, producer extraordinaire Jason Blum is now branching out into TV. Into The Dark is a 12-part horror anthology series – it’s coming to Hulu in the US in October but we have to wait until later over here in the UK. But we’re sure it’ll be worth the wait. Paul Davis, director of American Werewolf In London documentary Beware The Moon heads up the first episode “The Body”. It sees a hitman transporting a body on Halloween, which everyone thinks is part of his costume. Episode two “Flesh & Blood” comes from Patrick Lussier who did the My Bloody Valentine remake (hmm) and Drive Angry (yay!) – each is feature length and even if it’s a…

Popular culture has already told us how the alien invasion will pan out. Following reconnaissance missions, unwelcome visitors will bring an armada through the void of space and, using ray guns and other advanced technologies, try to take over the Earth. Only later will a small flaw in planning or execution undermine the aliens’ efforts. Except will things really work out like that? Tade Thompson for one doesn’t think so. “I’ve never really bought the idea of some spinning disc crash-landing in Kansas and doing anal probes to some farmboy,” he says. “Why would aliens travel light years, expend all that energy, just to come here?” he asks, offering a rhetorical question also advanced by the late Iain M Banks. “What is special about human beings? Why would they need…

Will we learn more about Karen in season three? Karen has been a mysterious figure in a lot of ways. We don’t know a lot about her and where she comes from. We’re going to slowly unwrap that candy a bit. I like the way Erik’s set it up. There are some strange things that Karen does. You go, “Hmm, I wonder why,” and it’ll let you wonder for a bit. Maybe reveal it, maybe not, we’ll see… but you will get some clues. What is Karen’s greatest fear? I feel like at heart we all fear the same thing. We don’t want to be unloved, we don’t want to be alone, and I think Karen is very much alone. Especially, as far as I’m concerned, Matt’s dead. So we…

▶ RELEASED 26 OCTOBER 15 | 85 minutes ▶ Director Matthew Holness ▶ Cast Sean Harris, Alun Armstrong If you have the Scarfolk website bookmarked and a stack of Ghost Box Records vinyl you may swoon over Matthew “Garth Marenghi” Holness’s feature debut – but viewers less hooked on hauntological creepiness might be left frustrated. It follows Philip (Sean Harris), who returns to his childhood home lugging a spider-legged puppet whose screaming skull of a face echoes his own thousand-yard stare. Philip makes several attempts to dump it, but it keeps returning like a bad penny – or a repressed childhood trauma… As a mood piece, it’s a triumph. Holness has conjured a memorably grotty universe here, all decayed ’70s decor, brown teeth and vistas of ominous moorland. The film…

▶ RELEASED 11 OCTOBER 15 | 93 minutes ▶ Directors Guillaume Renard, Shojiro Nishimi ▶ Cast Michael Chiklis, Giancarlo Esposito, Jorge Gutierrez, Dascha Polanco This is a fundamentally slight but enjoyable action-movie comedy in animation, whose blood-splattered shoot-outs go hand in hand with a good sense of humour. The film’s set in a scuzzy, graffiti-daubed city in an alternate America. Some characters look human, but the main duo – a pair of likeable youngsters – have heads that look respectively like a bowling ball and a Ghost Rider flaming skull. No one in the film really cares about their appearance, so presumably we’re not meant to care that much either. The kid with the bowlingball bonce starts seeing people cast monstrous shadows. Soon, he’s being chased by Men in Black.…

▶ RELEASED OUT NOW! 2018 | 15 | Blu-ray/DVD/download ▶ Director Ari Aster ▶ Cast Toni Collette, Gabriel Byrne, Alex Wolff, Milly Shapiro, Ann Dowd, Mallory Bechtel You can have your cake and eat it. Writer/director Ari Aster’s remarkable feature debut proves as much, delivering both an utterly authentic portrait of a family crushed by grief and an outrageous supernatural shocker. Hingeing on a gut-punch twist that’s up there with Alfred Hitchcock killing off the apparent heroine in the first act of Psycho (one which we won’t spoil for you here), it’s both one of the most gruellingly harrowing horror films of the last decade and one whose snowballing insanity may, ultimately, send a grin spreading across your face, like a widening crack in the ice. It centres on the…

▶ RELEASED OUT NOW! 1986 | 18 | Blu-ray & DVD (dual format) ▶ Director Fred Dekker ▶ Cast Tom Atkins, Jason Lively, Jill Whitlow, Steve Marshall BLU-RAY DEBUT Before Fred Dekker made The Monster Squad, he wrote and directed this horror-comedy. Two teenagers steal a dead body as part of a fraternity initiation, not realising that it contains slug-like alien parasites that will take over the dead and unleash a zombie plague. Wisecracking Detective Cameron (Tom Atkins) is called in to investigate the strange events, and discovers a link to a series of brutal murders from early in his policing career. Part homage, part attempt to make a ’50s B-movie for the ’80s, Night Of The Creeps is a throwback horror from before that was a thing. What makes…

▶ RELEASED OUT NOW! 2018 | 18 | DVD/download There’s more style than chills in this elegant, if hammy, adaptation of Lois Duncan’s 1974 YA novel. Uma Thurman is the icy headmistress of a gloomy, gothic boarding school where five teen tearaways find themselves. Her unfathomable European accent suggests a sinister plan, which involves channelling the spirits of long-dead artists through her delinquent pupils. Inexplicably rated 18 by the BBFC, this is a horror that’s classier than most. Extras None.…

▶ RELEASED OUT NOW! 1988 | 18 | Blu-ray & DVD (dual format) ▶ Director George Romero ▶ Cast Jason Beghe, John Pankow, Kate McNeil, Joyce Van Patten BLU-RAY DEBUT It’s an odd thing to say of a movie about a razor-wielding killer monkey, but this George Romero film is disappointingly restrained. Adapted from a 1983 novel, it sees athlete Allan (Jason Beghe) paralysed from the neck down when he’s hit by a truck, then given a trained “service monkey”. Unfortunately, Ella has been injected with a brain serum that causes a telepathic bond, resulting in her taking out her master’s frustrations in bloody fashion. It’s a solid effort, with decent performances all round, but for fans of Romero it’s something of a let down – certainly until the final…

▶ RELEASED OUT NOW! 274 pages | Hardback/ebook/audiobook ▶ Author John Ajvide Lindqvist ▶ Publisher riverrun John Ajvide Lindqvist’s last UK release, I Am Behind You, saw a group of caravanners waking on a lawn impossibly stretching out in all directions. The follow-up also makes brief trips to this mysterious “other place”, but approaches it from a very different angle. This, plus the fact that people who read the 2017 book may struggle to recall some of the connecting elements, means newcomers to the series are probably no worse off. Set in 1985/86, it’s heavily autobiographical, with Ajvide making himself the protagonist and drawing on his youthful experiences as a struggling magician. This grounds the book with some grubby verisimilitude that’s much-needed, since the high-concept is pretty out there. Lindqvist…

▶ RELEASED OUT NOW! 352 pages | Hardback/ebook ▶ Author Hank Green ▶ Publisher Trapeze April May is walking through Manhattan one night when she stumbles upon a giant robot. It’s just standing there, like an Easter Island statue, with no explanation. Weird. Because she’s a 21st century woman, she promptly calls a pal, who films her talking about the robot, and they post the footage on YouTube. And then things go ballistic – as not only does the video go viral, but the robots are found all over the world. What do they want? As the first person to meet one, April becomes a global superstar… but factions of the internet start causing trouble. It’s no surprise that so much of this book focuses on social media, given that…

▶ RELEASED OUT NOW! 224 pages | Hardback/ebook ▶ Authors Christel Dee, Simon Guerrier ▶ Publisher BBC Books ● A collection of bios and illustrations that “celebrate the brilliant women who’ve appeared in Doctor Who over the years”. ● Entries range from the obvious – Barbara Wright, Rose Tyler – to the more obscure, like Hur from “An Unearthly Child”. ● Pictures are provided by over 20 illustrators, most sticking to a whimsical, often childlike style. We particularly love the fed-up expression of The Inquisitor from “The Trial Of A Time Lord”. ● The entries provide straightforward, kid-friendly explanations of the characters, their encounters with the Doctor and their achievements. ● After the main section of the book, there are entries for the Doctor herself, a few honourable mentions, and…

▶ RELEASED OUT NOW! 480 pages | Paperback/ebook ▶ Author Derek Kunsken ▶ Publisher Solaris At its heart, The Quantum Magician is a caper about a con artist trying to pull off a deliriously ambitious scam, but Derek Kunsken layers up his impressive tale with quantum mechanics, genetic engineering and religious fanaticism. The protagonist Belisarius is a “homo quantus”, a human designed to think on a quantum scale, hired to find a way to transport a battle fleet across the galaxy undetected. To pull off the impossible, he gathers a team of specialists that includes a sentient AI, a subaquatic pilot, a geneticist, and his lost love. The first half of the book requires some fortitude, as there’s a lot of world-building to establish and some dense prose to absorb before…

As ever, we couldn’t squeeze in everything. Anne Rice’s Vampire Chronicles saga rumbles on with BLOOD COMMUNION (out now, Chatto & Windus). This 13th book sees Lestat settling into his role as Prince of the vampires, and dealing with threats to the stability of his court. Expect a rather talky affair, with lashings of gruesome violence Celebrations of Frankenstein’s 200th anniversary continue with CREATURES: THE LEGACY OF FRANKENSTEIN (18 October, Abaddon). This new anthology includes five “bold reimaginings” of Mary Shelley’s creation, penned by Rose Biggin, Paul Meloy, Emma Newman, Tade Thompson and Kaaron Warren. Looking for an overview of the horror genre? You could do worse than English literature professor Darryl Jones’s SLEEPING WITH THE LIGHTS ON (out now, Oxford University Press). Intelligent but still accessible, it’s a slim…

▶ RELEASED OUT NOW! ▶ Publisher Dark Horse Comics ▶ Writers Joss Whedon, Christos Gage ▶ Artist Georges Jeanty ISSUES 1-4 And so it ends… Dark Horse resurrected Buffy The Vampire Slayer in 2007 for a comic continuation and five canonical “seasons”. For the most part it’s been a strong run that developed the characters well, with only minor diversions into goofiness (Spike has an airship piloted by insects…). With Fox taking the licence back ahead of the TV revival, however, season 12 has been reduced to just four issues. The result is a convoluted time travel plot that pits the Scoobies and future Slayer Fray against her insane brother and an army of demons led by the resurrected (in giant snake form) Mayor. Among the many threads that need…

▶ RELEASED OUT NOW! ▶ Publisher Titan Comics ▶ Writers Frankie Boyle, Jim Muir ▶ Artists Mike Dowling, Budi Setiawan COLLECTION Six years after Mark Millar’s comic magazine CLiNT closed, comedian Frankie Boyle’s contribution – bizarro super-serial Rex Royd – finally gets a proper send-off. This collection brings together the seven original episodes, plus 33 new pages from Boyle and Jim Muir, with artist Budi Setiawan taking over from Mike Dowling. Rex Royd is the CEO of Rexcorp, a scientist and businessman who also happens to be a genius and megalomaniac. Each episode sees Rex continue his reality-bending quest for control, as he takes on superheroes, God and anyone else who gets in his way. This is a frustrating comic. Dowling is a wonderful artist now (see his great work…