Table of contents for July 2020 in SFX

PATHETIC EARTHLINGS. Who can save you now? When Ming the Merciless decides to take this obscure body in the SK system as his plaything, unleashing earthquakes, hurricanes and – yes – hot hail in our direction, it’s a question with just one answer. He may be just a man, with a man’s courage, but it’s always been good to know that Flash Gordon has forever had our backs. In fact, he’s such a legend that the mere mention of his name is enough to get anyone of a certain age replying with a tuneful “A-aaah”. Forty years ago, producer Dino De Laurentiis took Alex Raymond’s comic book hero to the big screen for the first time since a popular run of 1930s serials. In the vast universe of space movies,…

THE INNOVATIVE 26-PART science fiction series Timeslip was shown on ITV from September 1970 to March 1971, making a lasting impact on both children and adults, despite being intended for the former. Its four linked, multi-episode storylines included an attempt to uncover the whole truth about a secret project 30 years back in World War Two; human cloning; a faulty lifespan longevity drug with a terrible impact; and future scientific manipulation of the climate which runs out of control (in the eight-part adventure “The Year Of The Burn Up”). The show may have been short-lived, but it was fondly remembered. The only further adventures for teenage time travellers Liz and Simon came in the comic-strip in Look-in – “the junior TV Times” – in the early 1970s, initially with artwork…

WHO HASN’T experienced that unshakable feeling that forces are somehow conspiring against you? There’s a dark inevitability underpinning human existence that’s hard to ignore. Perhaps that’s what gives good horror films their relatable dread-inducing power. To a significant degree this is what Final Destination, which emerged in 2000 as the postmodern slasher horror film resurgence was reaching overkill, capitalised on. Concerning a teenager’s scary premonition of a plane crash that subsequently prevents him and a group of students from dying, only for death to claim their lives one by one later in gruesome fashion, Final Destination had a bleak preordained sensibility that suggested you can never cheat death even if you disrupt its design. It was the perfect antidote to the relentless killer-in-a-mask antagonist, precisely because the Grim Reaper wasn’t…

EXTRAS RELEASED OUT NOW! 2019 | PG | DVD Directors Nancy Lang, Peter Raymont Since winning the Canadian Governor General’s Award in her mid-20s, Margaret Atwood has been a writer to watch. But it’s the TV series of The Handmaid’s Tale that, arguably, really propelled her to stardom. This feature-length documentary presents an engaging look at Atwood’s life, from early childhood to the worldwide travels in her 80th year. There are some wonderful – and jaw-dropping – anecdotes along the way, from the female Harvard students who weren’t allowed to enter the library to the publisher who blamed losing Atwood’s first novel on a female employee’s pregnancy brain. Happier notes include Atwood’s pitch-perfect chat-up line when she first met her second husband. It would have been interesting to see a…

EXTRAS RELEASED 22 JUNE 2019 | 15 | DVD/download Pollyanna McIntosh makes her feature-directing debut with this uneven but compelling sequel to 2011’s The Woman, which sees the now feral youngest daughter of the Cleek family, Darlin’, led back into civilisation by The Woman and adopted into a Catholic boarding school run by a paedo priest. Ambitious but convoluted, and buoyed by strong performances, it’s a visceral and violent social horror/coming-of-age tale which comes alive every time McIntosh is on screen. Extras None…

EXTRAS RELEASED OUT NOW! 2020 | 15 | Blu-ray Directors Jeremy Gardner, Christian Stella Cast Jeremy Gardner, Brea Grant, Justin Benson, Henry Zebrowski Break-ups can make you crazy, especially if one party suddenly ups and vanishes. Hank (Jeremy Gardner, who also writes and co-directs) wakes to find his girlfriend Abby (Brea Grant) has unexpectedly left for a few days, or maybe for ever. At the same time, something nasty is scratching at his front door. At his wits’ end, Hank drinks in the day and takes pot shots at the “monster” at night. While flashbacks paint a rosy picture of their relationship, it soon becomes clear that things were never quite as sunny as our self-absorbed and half-mad protagonist assumed. The film presents a picture of a relationship in a…

EXTRAS RELEASED 22 JUNE 1962 | PG | Blu-ray Director Tomu Uchida Cast Michiko Saga, Hashizô Ôkawa, Ryûnosuke Tsukigata, Kensaku Hara BLU-RAY DEBUT “Diverse” doesn’t quite cover the work of Japanese filmmaker Tomu Uchida, who in the course of a near 50-year career made everything from silent movies to Samurai sagas. The Mad Fox (also known as Love, Thy Name Be Sorrow) is perhaps his strangest work, a fantasy fable that dazzles with its visuals, especially on this gloriously restored Blu-ray. An astrologer in medieval Japan predicts turbulent times ahead and, yep, shortly afterwards he’s bumped off, his daughter Sakaki (Michiko Saga) commits suicide, and his young apprentice, Yasuna (Hashizô Ôkawa) is accused of stealing an ancient scroll, The Golden Crow. Yasuna flees into the wilderness, where he encounters Sakaki’s…

EXTRAS RELEASED OUT NOW! 2020 | 15 | DVD Director Lorcan Finnegan Cast Imogen Poots, Jesse Eisenberg, Jonathan Aris With its themes of entrapment and soul-crushing repetition, Vivarium has got a hell of a lot closer to home since it was scripted and shot. Imogen Poots and Jesse Eisenberg play Gemma and Tom, a young couple whose house hunt leads them to Yonder, an uncannily uniform estate which turns out to be both deserted and, thanks to its impossible geography, impossible to leave. No matter which way they drive, they end up staying at home rather than enjoying a nice day out at Barnard Castle. Worse still, as the months pass they also become unwilling parental figures for a strange child who shrieks when he wants feeding, mockingly imitates them,…

RELEASED 25 JUNE 272 pages | Hardback/ebook/audiobook Author M John Harrison Publisher Gollancz There are lives that play out in the margins of other people’s lives. These are dangling lives where things are left uncompleted, lives that pass largely unobserved because nobody much cares to focus on them, unremarkable lives of underachievement and outright failure. Those existing in such a way are the kind of alienated souls that M John Harrison examines in forensic detail in The Sunken Land…, his first new novel since he completed the Kefahuchi Tract sequence with Empty Space in 2012. At its heart lie two people negotiating a London that has ceased to be a home to them. First, Harrison introduces us to Shaw, a man who’s had a breakdown but is tentatively trying to…

RELEASED OUT NOW! 282 pages | Hardback/ebook/audiobook Author Max Brooks Publisher Century A community isolated through natural disaster is faced with a lack of resources, technological shutdown and a very serious threat to their lives in Max Brooks’s survivalist horror. Not a pandemic story, Devolution is a very realistic and scary tale about privileged people in a bubble of eco-housing, drone delivery and getting back to nature who find themselves absolutely ill-equipped to cope when nature proves to be less friendly than anticipated. If anyone can write a genuinely convincing and unsettling book about a family of Bigfoot, it’s Brooks. The writer who brought new life to the zombie genre with his “oral history of the zombie war”, World War Z, brings the same reportage style to Devolution. The story…

RELEASED 14 JULY (ebook out now) 426 pages | Paperback/ebook Author John P Murphy Publisher Angry Robot Sci-fi that’s actually just a Western with spaceships and lasers is nothing new, and Red Noise enthusiastically embraces this mongrel genre. It’s set on a space station named after John Wayne, features a Clint Eastwood-style Woman With No Name as its kick-ass protagonist, and has an on-the-nose call out to High Noon at one point. But onto that it grafts a deranged Buckaroo Banzai/Big Trouble In Little China vibe. The end result is surprisingly like an 18-rated Firefly, as an enhanced former special agent/now space miner helps the downtrodden locals free themselves from the grip of warring crime gangs and corrupt law enforcers. It’s all unapologetically plot-driven, with only one secondary goon receiving…

RELEASED 25 JUNE 560 pages | Paperback/ebook Author HG Parry Publisher Orbit Author HG Parry Publisher Orbit Pitt The Younger, magicuser. Thinking Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter? No, this is no pulpy thrill-ride. It tells of the experiences of a handful of historical characters – Pitt, William Wilberforce, Maximilien Robespierre and Camille Desmoulins – and a fictional one, enslaved woman Fina. In this alternate history some humans have magical powers, though they’ve been restricted since the “Vampire Wars”, and the story is really one of quests for liberty, for commoners to be able to work magic, the rights of the working classes, tangled up with immortal powerplays. It’s subtle rather than bombastic, yet still compelling. You can’t have a book themed around liberty and centred on even fictionalised versions of Wilberforce…

RELEASED OUT NOW!/30 June/21 July Publisher Titan Comics Writers Jacques Lob, Benjamin Legrand, Olivier Bocquet Artist Jean-Marc Rochette GRAPHIC NOVELS If watching the Netflix series prompts you to dive into these reissues of the French graphic novel trilogy about a luxury super-train circling a frozen future Earth, expect to be surprised. They present a markedly different world. First published in 1982, volume one of Le Transperceneige, aka The Escape has a much more down-to-earth setting – its train even has old-fashioned compartments. It’s unrelentingly bleak, with notional hero Proloff’s progress through the carriages constantly threatened by violence and punctuated by obscenities (F-word count: 50). Grim and gritty, it also concludes with a downbeat fizzle-out ending. Artist Jean-Marc Rochette’s characterful faces, all sharply delineated, are the main draw. At times makes the…

RELEASED OUT NOW! Reviewed on PlayStation Also on PC, Mac, Xbox One, Nintendo Switch Publisher Wired Productions VIDEOGAME For budding filmmakers, no-budget horror is the go-to format for using limited resources creatively. Indie game developers have since taken this old adage and run with it. This effort follows a similar premise to 2016’s Lights Out. As tortured protagonist Edward, you’ll scurry between patches of light in the hopes of avoiding the murderous creatures confined to the shadows. Later levels feature tense cat-and-mouse sequences with even bigger beasties that can wander wherever they please. Smart use of shadows obscures the limits of this production, with some lovingly realised environments later on making it easier to overlook rougher presentational edges. However, as an extended experience this spooky adventure game is unable to…

WHAT IMAGE DOES THE phrase “refugee camp” bring to mind? Rows of tents, perhaps, or rudimentary shelters cobbled together from cardboard and scrap wood. Well, the one SFX is exploring right now is rather different. For one thing, it’s utterly deserted. This roughly circular chamber is surrounded by carved polystyrene walls, painted to resemble rock. Wood chippings give softly underfoot. Alcoves people have made into their dwelling places are dressed with fox skins and antlers, or shadowed by canopies covered with patches of moss. Crude steps lead up to a short bridge, whose sides are enveloped in tangled branches. Ducking under that, we regard the trappings of everyday life scattered about: slices of log serving as seats; old pots and bowls of berries; a rack of swords and… hang on,…

THIRTY YEARS AGO, TELEVISION was not prepared for how director David Lynch and writer Mark Frost would change it forever. On 8 April 1990, their new ABC network series Twin Peaks debuted in the US, and minds were cumulatively blown. Ostensibly about the murder of homecoming queen Laura Palmer (Sheryl Lee) in a tiny rural town in the state of Washington, Lynch and Frost’s drama would quickly prove that it was ahead of its time in every way. The central murder mystery and the soapy lives of the residents were the accessible and intriguing entry points for most viewers. But hiding beneath those familiar tropes was the decidedly unfamiliar. Lynch’s moody, cinematic visuals looked like they were plucked from the cinema, light years beyond the uniform look of other comedies…

I ONCE HAD THE LUXURY OF choosing eyeballs,” says Vanessa Harryhausen, daughter of special effects genius Ray Harryhausen. “I know that sounds really ghastly, doesn’t it? But he had this little plastic cabinet, with all these wonderful drawers, full of bits and bobs, pieces of armature and dolls’ eyes. One particular time he said, ‘Do you want to see which eyes would go well with which creature?’ “He was always very good with me, if I was at home. I’d sit down on the couch and watch him sketch away or tinker at the table, making some wonderful creation.” Across his career, Ray Harryhausen scattered indelible screen images like so many Hydra teeth: undead warriors, all swords and bones; lurching bronze giants; angel-winged horses and snarling, tail-lashing prehistoric beasts. Conjured…

EXTRAS RELEASED OUT NOW! 2020 | 12 | Blu-ray (4K/standard)/DVD/download Director David SF Wilson Cast Vin Diesel, Eiza González, Sam Heughan, Guy Pearce Despite his impeccable action-hero credentials, having Vin Diesel headline your movie is no guarantee of success. Yes, the Fast And Furious saga means he has no worries about paying the bills, but Babylon AD, xXx and even later Riddick movies have struggled to capitalise on his star power. Bloodshot is the latest actioner where that isn’t enough to beat mediocre material into submission. It’s effectively an update of RoboCop, with Diesel starring as a killed-in-action special forces soldier whose blood is replaced with nanites that turn him into an invincible revenge machine. Despite its comicbook origins, Bloodshot doesn’t feel like AN Other superhero movie; the narrative features…

EXTRAS RELEASED OUT NOW! 2020 | PG | Blu-ray (4K/standard)/DVD/download Despite the star wattage of Robert Downey Jr, Emma Thompson and Antonio Banderas, this film is staggeringly bad. For a story that’s supposed to make you love animals, there are just too many… and they never stop talking. Worse: as the chap they’re chatting to, RDJ looks as though he took several Valium and phoned it in. It lurches all over the place, with barely a joke in sight. Still, the effects team did a decent job. Extras Six short featurettes.…

EXTRAS RELEASED 22 JUNE 2020 | 18 | Blu-ray/DVD Showrunners Danny Cannon, Bruno Heller Cast Jack Bannon, Emma Paetz, Ben Aldridge, Jason Flemyng Who’d have guessed that giving Bruce Wayne’s butler, Alfred Pennyworth, a show of his own would result in such a demented, “Rule Britannia”-howling feast? Bursting with blood, guts and shagging, this riot of a series is set in a brooding, alt–’50s/’60s Britain; one so f***ed-up that criminals are even hung on live TV (including, if you look closely, a certain Jimmy Savile). We meet Jack Bannon’s resourceful Alfred as he embarks upon a Peaky Blinders-style gangland career among London’s back streets. Once you get used to Bannon’s Michael Caine vocals (and you will, despite first impressions), he’s a magnetic, watchable lead with fantastic support from a glowing…

EXTRAS RELEASED OUT NOW! 2019 | 15 | Blu-ray/DVD/download Director Robert Eggers Cast Willem Defoe, Robert Pattinson All credit to Robert Eggers. It takes some doing to make a more uncompromising art horror than his first feature The Witch, but that’s The Lighthouse: a rain-sodden, wind-lashed two-hander, rich with ambiguity and disturbing subtext. Winslow (Robert Pattinson) starts a four week job as a “wickie”, maintaining the lighthouse on an island off the coast of New England, under the supervision of the surly and eccentric Wake (Willem Dafoe). It’s not much fun. Beset by a vicious and belligerent gull, and suspicious of Wake’s habit of sneaking off to stand naked in the lantern room at night, Winslow grows ever more paranoid. Nothing much happens in The Lighthouse, but it happens terrifyingly.…

EXTRAS RELEASED 29 June (Download 19 June) 2020 | 18 | Blu-ray (4K/standard)/DVD/download Director Leigh Whannell Cast Elisabeth Moss, Oliver Jackson-Cohen, Aldis Hodge, Storm Reid You’ve only got to look at other revivals of figures used in classic Universal horrors – from Van Helsing and The Wolf Man to Dracula Untold and The Mummy – to measure the success of Leigh Whannell’s take on HG Wells’s creation. Topical and technically proficient, it’s visibly superior. The high concept has a brilliant simplicity. Optics company millionaire Adrian Griffin (Oliver Jackson-Cohen, his bright green bodystocking digitally erased) is an abusive partner who fakes his death in order to stalk the woman who escaped him. As you scour ominous shots of empty hallways for any sign of visible breath, it’s horribly tense. Elisabeth Moss…

RELEASED OUT NOW! 304 pages | Paperback/ebook Author Jennifer Bell Publisher Walker Books A group of kids are sucked into a fantasy gaming world, an accident that will have fatal results for them if they don’t play along with the game. So far, so Jumanji. But wait, stay with us! While Jennifer Bell’s entertaining children’s adventure might riff on some familiar tropes, she has so much fun coming up with frankly bananas plot twists that all thoughts of Robin Williams or The Rock evaporate. What we get instead is a fiendishly inventive tale featuring three likeable 13-year-olds – Arthur, Ren and Cecily – who must jump through portals across planets while hunting for the key to get them home. Along the way they encounter inspirational historical figures who have also…

RELEASED 30 JUNE 299 pages | Hardback/ebook Author Silvia Moreno-Garcia Publisher Del Rey There are shades of Daphne du Maurier in this twisty little gothic novel, which pits a young woman against the horrors of a crumbling ancestral home. Our heroine is Noemí, a flirty young socialite who arrives at a secluded mansion in the Mexican countryside, after receiving a disturbing letter from her cousin saying that her new husband is trying to poison and kill her. So far, so very traditional. But dark treasures glimmer beneath the seemingly mundane. Silvia Moreno-Garcia’s setting is beautifully evocative; the gothic novel is a genre associated with dank and dark locales in stormy European landscapes, but setting it in Mexico instead gives the story a lush, heated shimmer all its own. It’s also…

RELEASED 25 JUNE 512 pages | Paperback/ebook/audiobook Author Devin Madson Publisher Orbit Books Devin Madson returns to the world of her self-published Vengeance Trilogy for an epic fantasy tetralogy dealing with clashing empires and royal power struggles. The tale is told from three perspectives: Miko, step-daughter of Emperor Kin, who dreams of claiming the throne; Rah, captain of a nomadic warrior tribe exiled far from home; and Cassandra, an assassin who can communicate with the dead. Madson has a lot of plates to keep spinning, and Cassandra’s character and plotline are the least developed of all the protagonists. She’s haunted by a spirit that shares her body, but it remains unnamed and unexplained even by the novel’s close. Likewise, a mystery surrounding Leo Villius – a religious leader who seems…

RELEASED OUT NOW! Publisher DC Comics/Hill House Writer Joe Hill Artist Stuart Immonen ISSUES 1-3 The latest release from DC’s new Hill House imprint sees founder Joe Hill back in writing mode for a six-issue miniseries of maritime mysteries, strange mathematics and unearthly terrors. The story follows a motley crew of salvagers as they’re enlisted to recover a long-lost ship that has unexpectedly reappeared after 40 years. Heading to a politically contested island off the coast of Russia, the team locates the ship – but also find the crew, who have been infected and preserved by a strange lifeform, and now possess sinister and reality-altering secrets… Hill’s storytelling and characterisation are as attention-grabbing as ever, and in only three issues he has introduced enjoyable and empathetic characters, alongside plenty of…

RELEASED OUT NOW! Publisher Image Comics Writer Matt Fraction Artists Terry Dodson, Rachel Dodson ISSUE ONE Having made his return to superhero comics last year at DC, acclaimed writer Matt Fraction continues his mainstream comeback with this brightly accessible pulp romp. An ongoing title, Adventureman has so far only released its debut instalment, but with this super-sized first issue containing almost three times the usual content, there’s plenty of colourful action and intrigue on display. It’s the tale of Claire O’Connell, single mother and proprietor of a New York secondhand book store, who mysteriously acquires a rare and previously unseen edition of the classic ’30s pulp serial Adventureman. The book hints that Adventureman’s lurid and impossible escapades may actually have happened, but possessing it also spells danger for Claire and…

THE FINAL CUT(S) Gurpreet Bhatia, email With the recent announcement that Zack Snyder’s Justice League will finally get a director’s cut after a fan campaign and be shown on HBO Max in 2021, is now the time for other studios to take note? There’s David Ayer’s Suicide Squad, which would give us a whole new look at the Joker, Sam Raimi’s Spider-Man 3 with nearly three hours of footage left on the cutting room floor and Josh Trank’s real vision for 2015’s Fantastic Four. Amid the global coronavirus pandemic and film production grinding to a halt, this is an avenue that needs to be explored by more studios for a win-win for all parties. SFX Anyone asked Alan Smithee’s opinion on this one? FROM TREK TO DREK Rob Graham, email…

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POP QUIZ: WHAT ARE YOUR TOP five German SF/fantasy TV series? We’ll give you a minute. Finished your list? Okay, that was a little unfair. Recently there’s been time-hopping Netflix show Dark. Otherwise, scouring our brains, all we can think of are 1966’s Raumpatrouille (best known here for its groovy lounge-jazz score), and Rainer Werner Fassbinder’s 1973 mini-series Welt Am Draht (World On A Wire). Oh, and ’70s cheese-fest Star Maidens was a German co-production. It’s fair to say making sci-fi television just isn’t really a German thing – especially the kind that can travel internationally. The brainchild of showrunner/director Rainer Matsutani, Spides is his attempt to buck the trend. Set in modern-day Berlin, this eight-part series melds sci-fi, horror and conspiracy thriller with police procedural. A ’50s classic was…

US/UK Amazon Prime, streaming now Showrunner Guy Burt Cast Otto Farrant, Vicky McClure, Ronke Adekoluejo, Brenock O’Connor EPISODES 1.01-1.04 While this isn’t the first screen adaptation of Anthony Horowitz’s popular teen-spy saga – remember 2006’s Stormbreaker? Thought not – this new series is self-assured enough to remain in the brain for longer than the last attempt. At time of writing Amazon had only released the first four episodes of the eight for review, but they’re solid enough for us to determine that while this show might not be breaking new ground, it’s certainly not afraid to dig up a few clods of earth and toss ’em about a bit. Lead Otto Farrant takes an episode or two to settle into his role as the smart-ass Alex, who, despite being a…

EXTRAS RELEASED OUT NOW! 2020 | PG | Blu-ray (3D, standard)/DVD/download Director Dan Scanlon Cast Tom Holland, Chris Pratt, Julia Louis-Dreyfus, Octavia Spencer It’s no surprise to find that Pixar’s idea of epic fantasy is different to everyone else’s. Magic, a smorgasbord of mythical creatures and a quest to recover a mystical MacGuffin are – inevitably – all on the menu here. But by setting them against a contemporary American backdrop, Onward puts a fresh spin on hackneyed old tropes. In a fantasy world where modern technology has consigned magic to history, elf brothers Ian and Barley (voiced by MCU regulars Tom Holland and Chris Pratt) set off on a road trip to recover a gem that can temporarily resurrect their late dad. Along the way they cross paths with…

EXTRAS RELEASED OUT NOW! 2020 | 15 | Blu-ray/DVD/download “Can’t wait to have this guy in the house,” mutters frustrated dad Sean, as his traumatised son insists on keeping the titular doll. It’s the only nod to the inanity of this unlooked-for sequel, otherwise played very straight. The overbearing score and gratuitous dream sequences make it feel about two decades out of date, but The Boy II gets one thing right: Brahms is now properly, supernaturally evil. Extras Deleted scenes; alternate ending.…

EXTRAS RELEASED 22 JUNE 1988 | 15 | Blu-ray Director Harley Cokeliss Cast Jemma Redgrave, Kathleen Wilhoite, Timothy Spall, Jimmy Nail BLU-RAY DEBUT Judging by the title, you’d think this long-lost ’80s horror was a straight Nightmare On Elm Street rip-off. That’s exactly what the producers intended, but somewhere along the way, it mutated into something a bit more interesting. Naïve teacher Diana (Jemma Redgrave) is having horrific nightmares about her upcoming wedding to square-jawed Falklands hero Oliver (Mark Greenstreet). She’s also being hounded by a pair of repulsive paparazzi (Timothy Spall and Jimmy Nail) who want the scoop on her relationship. Then she meets Jenny (Kathleen Wilhoite), and things get really trippy. There’s no subtlety to any of the metaphors going on here, but the nightmare imagery is inventive…

EXTRAS RELEASED OUT NOW! 1982 | 15 | Blu-ray Director Richard Jefferies Cast James Earl Jones, Deborah Shelton, Martin Kove, José Ferrer BLU-RAY DEBUT If a honeymoon sets the tone for a marriage, newlyweds Neil (Martin Kove) and Sherry (Mary Louise Weller) need to talk to a divorce solicitor ASAP. The idyllic Greek island they’ve picked for their romantic getaway is populated by unwelcoming locals, mysterious nuns and an ancient sea monster. Really, they should’ve headed home the moment stroppy treasure hunter Frye (James Earl Jones) put a knife to Neil’s throat and punched a watermelon into pulp, but curiosity keeps them hostage until it’s too late… There’s a lot going on in this movie: the script probably needed at least two main characters and a subplot trimming from it,…

Line Of Duty meets Randall & Hopkirk (Deceased) in CODE 404 Season One (DVD, 6 July). Stephen Graham and Daniel Mays star in this Sky One sci-fi comedy about a Special Investigations Unit copper who, after being shot dead, reappears a year later having been technologically enhanced using AI. Unfortunately, he’s a complete idiot… We said: “A cheerily silly but also handsome-looking sitcom fronted by three of the best actors in the business.” Snuck out with no fanfare, BODY CAM (out now, download/VOD) stars R&B singer Mary J Blige as an LAPD cop who investigates a series of grisly killings of her fellow officers. In each case, footage from the scene reveals the presence of a mysterious shadowy figure… Tapping into outrage about police brutality towards African-Americans, this socially conscious…

RELEASED 30 JUNE 448 pages | Paperback/ebook Author Shaun Hamill Publisher Titan Books Shaun Hamill’s debut arrives with a fierce buzz and a glowing Stephen King cover quote. That feels apt. A Cosmology Of Monsters may riff heavily on HP Lovecraft’s Cthulhu mythos, but with its emphasis on North American nostalgia and damaged childhoods, King feels like the more prominent influence. This is the story of the Turner family. Harry is a horror-obsessed teen who grows up, marries the fiercely ambitious Margaret and then, in a moment of either revelation or breakdown, transforms their backyard into a haunted house attraction called The Wandering Dark – a decision that changes all their lives. When the horrors within bleed out into the real world, children start to vanish and the Turners are…

RELEASED 9 JULY 384 pages | Paperback/ebook Author Ry Herman Publisher Jo Fletcher Books Author Ry Herman Publisher Jo Fletcher Books Angela’s dead. Once a fairly normal astronomy student, she was accidentally-on-purpose killed by her girlfriend – and that’s only the start of her relationship problems. When she wakes up as a vampire, she vows not to repeat her cruel ex’s mistakes: she’ll keep her affliction secret, feed without killing and avoid getting emotionally attached. Then she meets Chloë, an aspiring writer with plenty of her own psychic baggage thanks mainly to her own ex, and things start to get really complicated. With its cast of vampires, angels, witches and werewolves, it’d be easy to shelve this alongside a hundred other YA paranormal romances. The only thing that sets it…

RELEASED OUT NOW! 432 pages | Paperback/ebook Author Holly Race Publisher Hot Key Books At times this debut novel bursts with creativity: fitting, as much of it takes place in a world built from the imaginations of people who are asleep and dreaming. They need defending from creatures who hunt them in their nightmares, and for this purpose an Arthurianinfluenced army of knights have been created. We follow new recruit Fern as she battles problems as a teen in London, while also training in this other world to kill monsters. The accounts of her skirmishes against a Big Bad (an evil politician, naturally) are cool. But then there’s the clunky core premise: that Fern and her twin brother Ollie have had their relationship torn apart by a prank that resulted…

RELEASED (Digital/limited edition hardback; paperback 12 November) Publisher Rebellion Writer John Wagner Artists Carlos Ezquerra, Brendan McCarthy, Ian Gibson COLLECTION One of 2000 AD’s most popular characters, Johnny Alpha actually originated not in the pages of the Galaxy’s Greatest Comic but in its short-lived companion title, Starlord. That boasted superior production values to the Prog, and early Strontium Dog’s numerous colour pages have been reproduced here in their full glory for the first time. This provides a fine showcase for the late great Carlos Ezquerra’s art, which though a little rougher around the edges in places still embodies the kinetic layouts and rugged linework of his best-loved work. He’s joined here on the three-part “Demon Maker” by the equally fine Ian Gibson and Brendan McCarthy – who draws one of…

Mention the cult live-action Disney movie Return To Oz and people will inevitably tell you how it terrified them as a child – sometimes also as an adult. Not me; I was absolutely captivated by it, an early indication that I would turn to the dark side where entertainment was concerned. It was a gateway drug, if you will, to the world of horror and heroines. I saw it with my Nana at the Odeon Cinema (now, sadly, a gym) at the end of her street in Aberdeen. I was nine, so had probably seen the original The Wizard Of Oz. But that doesn’t really matter, because I’ve always preferred the sequel (and yes, it is a sequel). Where Wizard dabbles momentarily with the dark – the Wicked Witch of…