IZ250

Without a big fanfare, Interzone reaches its 250th issue, and I'm proud to be a part of its critical success - that, hopefully, will continue for many years to come. 

My usual 'Laser Fodder' column of DVD & blu-ray reviews for this landmark issue covers mostly newer SF & fantasy material:

Man Of Steel (8/10)
Big Trouble In Little China (9/10)
Elysium (8/10)
Upstream Colour (7/10)
Riddick (5/10)
Scavengers (1/10)
Game Of Thrones - season 3 (7/10)

    Peripheral Sighting: also received
Wolf Children

Also published this week, Black Static #38 includes another 'Blood Spectrum' batch of horror movie reviews:

The Conjuring (7/10)
Insidious 2 (4/10)
Percy Jackson: Sea Of Monsters (4/10)
You're Next (3/10)
Blood Glacier (4/10)
Bounty Killer (5/10)
The Complex (6/10)
Kiss Of The Damned (4/10)
Odd Thomas (5/10)
John Dies At The End (8/10) 

    Job Lot: also received
Big Ass Spider (3/10)
The Colony (2/10)
Prisoners (4/10)
Frost (1/10)

BS 36

Black Static #36 (Sept. - Oct. 2013) arrived, yesterday. This issue has my latest rants and raves about horror on blu-ray and DVD. Here's the line-up, with ratings, for my 'Blood Spectrum' column:

The Car (7/10)
The Returned (6/10)
Escape (6/10)
Possession (9/10)
Dark Skies (5/10)
The Last Will And Testament Of Rosalind Leigh (4/10)
Evil Dead - remake (5/10) 
The Moth Diaries (5/10)
Dead Sushi (5/10)
The Fall Of The House Of Usher (6/10) 

     Debris Fields: round-up
Apocalypse Z (1/10) 
A Field In England (0/10)
Little Deaths (2/10)
The Seasoning House (3/10)
Deranged (2/10)
Into The Dark (2/10) 

     Afternoon update... 
Interzone #248 just arrived. This issue features my 'Laser Fodder' column of blu-ray/ DVD reviews.
The sci-fi and fantasy coverage includes movies and TV, and here's my ratings:

Defiance - season 1 (4/10)
The Host (3/10) 
Blancanieves (0/10)
Pi (4/10) 
Oblivion (3/10)
Space Battleship Yamato (5/10) 
Olympus Has Fallen (6/10)
The Four (7/10)

Heatwave

British summertime. My low rate of activity today was enlivened by delivery of the latest TTA Press mags.

Black Static #35 (July-Aug.) includes my regular 'Blood Spectrum' column of DVD & blu-ray reviews. This issue's line-up:

Curandero: Dawn Of The Demon (4/10)
In Their Skin (3/10)
Texas Chainsaw (5/10)
Apartment 1303 (4/10)
Beautiful Creatures (5/10)
Mama (6/10)
Warm Bodies (4/10)
Maniac (6/10)
Stoker (7/10)

    RetroMania
Black Sabbath (4/10)
The Brood (8/10)
Kuroneko (6/10)
The Legend Of Hell House (7/10)
The Man Who Haunted Himself (8/10)
Motel Hell (5/10)
Spider Baby (6/10)

    Tedium Scene: Round-up
The Incident (2/10)
Kill For Me (2/10)
Death Game (3/10)
Static (3/10)   

Also received BS sister mag, Interzone #247 (July-Aug.), featuring my usual 'Laser Fodder' reviews, as follows:

Halo 4: Forward Unto Dawn (4/10)
Cloud Atlas (8/10)
Oz The Great And Powerful (5/10)
Falling Skies - season 2 (4/10)
Robot & Frank (7/10)

    Retronautics
Scream And Scream Again (6/10)
Devil Girl From Mars (5/10)
The Invisible Man (7/10)
Quest For Fire (8/10)  

This issue's book section has my review of graphic novel, Sláine: The Grail War by Pat Mills, Nick Percival, and Steve Tappin. If there were rating for book reviews, I'd give this 2000 AD reprint collection a 6/10 score.

TTA mags

Interzone #246 is out now, and it includes my 'Laser Fodder' column of DVD & blu-ray reviews. Here's the line-up, with ratings:

Journeyman (4/10)
Life Of Pi (7/10)
Fringe - season 5 (6/10)
Dr Who And The Daleks (5/10)
Daleks' Invasion Earth: 2150 AD (6/10)

This issue also features a new column of incisive comment on genre matters, 'Future Interrupted' by Jonathan McCalmont, here considering whether SF is actually exhausted or just resting for a bit.

I read in dismay that, according to Dave Langford's reportage in his 'Ansible' link, the self-styled Barftas awarded Nicholas [sic] Cage a worst actor prize for Ghost Rider: Spirit Of Vengeance. As I wrote in Interzone #241, that comicbook sequel was very good fun (score: 7/10), and Cage is rarely less than entertaining, whether he goes crazily OTT, or not. I think some people really do need to see a few truly awful genre movies, with dully amateurish 'acting' before criticising a major box-office star like Cage, simply because they fail to appreciate the often satirical edginess of his typical screen pesona.

Also just published, Black Static #34 closes with my 'Blood Spectrum' of movies & TV reviews. This issue's coverage:

Sleep Tight (4/10)
The Echo (5/10)
Bait (3/10)
The Collection (4/10)
Spartacus: War Of The Damned (3/10)
White Tiger (5/10)
Slice & Dice: The Slasher Film Forever (3/10)
The Hidden Face (5/10)
True Blood - season 5 (6/10)

    1980s Retro
Scanners (8/10)
Scanners II: The New Order (5/10)
Scanners III: The Takeover (5/10)
Blood Simple (7/10)
Evil Dead 2 (7/10)
Knightriders (4/10)

    Slack-Jawed & Lifeless: Round-up
Baron Blood
The Facility 

Matching for IZ 241 for offering something new, but offering different content, BS 34 has a new column by 'Blood Pudding' (sounding too much like, or quite the opposite, of mine..?) by Lynda Rucker, who ponders the on-going debate in literary/ media circles about whether horror is dead, or currently being reborn.

   

Wild beasts

On the Mississippi delta, there’s a post–Katrina disaster area where levees are so broken that “everything beautiful is gone.” Indie hit Beasts Of The Southern Wild is a picture maintaining legends of a noble primitivism that glorifies political and cultural stagnation. This is Sundance bait with a deeply romanticised ‘plot’ of irrational nonsense. It presents us with a defiant sensibility so keen to stress the importance of feelings, as if logical thought holds no sway or relevance, that overdose on folksy hippie sentimentality seems a likely response to its worst moments of backwoods charm, all seemingly inspired by the worst pretensions of magical realism.

Helicopters pass overhead, appearing as far away as comets, and no more in touch with the plight of the protagonists below their flight path. If taken on face value, this has some marvellous fantasy images but it has all been created in the service of third world survivalism without hope of progress. Being content with less is portrayed here as hardly one step above blissful ignorance. Living in squalid flooded slums with nothing at all worth having is not the ultimate in spiritual freedom, despite this movie’s exploration of bohemian dreams. A compassionate humanity in a perfect kind of balance with feral nature must be far more than just a commune of scavengers (or tribal ‘beasts’), southern or otherwise.

New monsters

Monster movies used to be taken seriously, whether creature antagonists were oversized beasts, farfetched chimeras, or weird fantasy chosen from legend to menace the present day. Even in comedy–action treatments of the subgenre, like Tremors, there may well be a strong element of disgust (such as body horror). 

One way to almost certainly ensure grimly sombre reactions from viewers is to put children in peril, but Irish flick Grabbers fails to strengthen its appeal with any coldly fiendish moments. It succumbs to complete irreverence and plays out as a pub night siege, with a bunch of stereotypically characters pitted against a Lovecraftian yet frivolously weak invader.

Directed by Jon Wright (Tormented), its efficiently cartoonish presentation means there is no overt sense of dread, in spite of some grotesque imagery for the aliens. Grabbers can be fun, if watched as lightweight cross–genre fare, but it remains only modestly successful as a throwaway monsterama sitcom; something like Father Ted meets Slither.

 

Nowadays, of course, slithering up from the downmarket regions of parodic threats to humankind, an overabundance of straight absurdity has emerged, and the trend for silly mutant hybrids like Sharktopus continues in Jim Wynorski’s utterly farcical Piranhaconda. 

This is a tepid actioner, where a crew making a tacky horror movie on location in Hawaii are violently interrupted by a ‘real’ terror: part snake, part fish, all CGI. There is a pair of them and they do not get along. Gangsters act out a routine kidnapping sideshow to keep guest star Michael Madsen amused, so his heroic professor won’t simply collect his paycheque and wander off, muttering about a regrettable downturn for his career in genre pictures. 

Of course, this is not actually a ‘proper’ movie; it is just the punch–line for a childish joke: what is huge, and yellow and black, and swallows human prey whole - leaving only a red mist of arterial spray? It is a fairly typical example of the low–budget art of trash movies, today, and simply an accessory (and could or should be a free gift), when you buy beer and popcorn.

 

Marvellous

Good news! Avengers Assemble is now available to order on blu-ray and DVD... released on 17th September.

IZ240

Interzone #240 includes my latest 'Laser Fodder' column of DVD & blu-ray reviews, and this issue's line-up of movies & TV stuff looks like this (plus ratings, as below):

Resistance (3/10)
Six Million Dollar Man (6/10)
The Future (4/10)
Space: Above And Beyond (6/10)
Dark Shadows (3/10)
Clone (4/10)
Deadball (4/10)
Yakuza Weapon (5/10)
Haywire (6/10)
Underworld Awakening (6/10)    

SHIELD1

Since reading Bendis and Reed’s The New Avengers: Illuminati a couple or three years ago, I’ve been expecting a big epic historical conspiracy from Marvel, and here it is – SHIELD: Architects Of Forever by Jonathan Hickman and Dustin Weaver.

“This is not how the world ends” but it’s a splendid sci-fi/ fantasy romp spanning centuries, from Egypt to China, from 1950s New York to a secret city under Rome. It features Da Vinci as the first astronaut, a cyborg Tesla, and Nostradamus in a dungeon for 500 years. With Imhotep and Isaac Newton, Galactus and Howard Stark, and magic in the age of reason, this blends Dan Brown with 'Men in Black' and delivers tons of clever twists and surprises from its plotline about Earth’s immortal protectors.

Next on the reading pile is Future Foundation, Hickman’s take on the Fantastic 4.          

Assembly

I saw the Avengers movie, yesterday. This isn't a review (I shall wait for a release on disc before attempting a proper critical assessment), it's just a few general comments, and my initial reactions to a movie that I've waited decades to see…

Well, I liked it a lot! It's a great super-team adventure, but I'm not convinced (yet) that it is a real classic of genre cinema about comicbook heroes. I'd have to see it at least a couple of times more, to decide on whether it's an 8/10, or 9/10 (for effort), movie. Avengers Assemble managed to fulfil my expectations of it, but failed to surpass them. That said, Joss Whedon was faced with a quite impossible task - of pleasing fans of Marvel comics and followers of the franchise of recent movie productions, including Iron Man, The Incredible Hulk, Thor, and Captain America. 

The director and cast took it all seriously, but still made it good fun. Whedon's best movie to date is not in the same class as The Dark Knight, or Ang Lee's Hulk. Thankfully, however, the level of humour in Avengers Assemble is judged almost perfectly, throughout, with very few jokes at the expense of the characters, and no embarrassingly bad scenes that may have prompted me to cringe at slapstick or blatantly camp performances – of the sort we have seen before in The Fantastic Four, Spider-Man, X-Men, and Iron Man movies.  

I don't much care for that poster, though, as I would prefer a proper artwork version, such as this one. I hope the movie is a huge success, and would like to see production planning for a sequel (or two), starting next year. I'd also really like to see an extended version of Avengers Assemble on blu-ray, perhaps before Xmas… Is that too much to ask?

BS28

Black Static #28 (from TTA Press) includes my latest column of DVD and blu-ray reviews. The line-up for this issue's 'Blood Spectrum' is as follows:

Mad Detective (8/10)
Rise Of The Planet Of The Apes (7/10)
Contagion (8/10)
Immortals (7/10)
A Horrible Way To Die (1/10)
Kill Keith (1/10)
The Thing - prequel (6/10)
The Yellow Sea (6/10)
Another Earth (5/10)
Hugo (6/10)
666: The Prophecy (6/10)
Crows Zero (5/10)
Shadow Of The Sword (5/10)
Texas Killing Fields (5/10)
The Divide (3/10)
Bad Lieutenant (5/10)
Dream House (4/10)
Demons + Demons 2 (5/10)
The Wicker Tree (3/10)
The Plague Of The Zombies (7/10)
The Reptile (4/10)

Slightly revised page layouts this time, due to a shortage of space for so much content.Which is good news for readers, I think.

Thanks to Pete (and editor Andy) for giving my forthcoming Hulk book a plug.

Sunday

Bloody Sunday started after Newbury feeding time with a panel on 'Biology of the zombie apocalypse, where I was joined (in the long-walk-away room 12) by "world experts in necrological studies" Dr Bob, Rob Haines, and Bill Sellers, moderated by Tom Womack. I was the lowly horror movie geek amongst the boffins, as we tried to figure out what makes the undead shamble about in search of human flesh. The hour went by quickly and the panel was certainly a lot of fun to do. Miraculously, nobody mentioned the taste of chicken.

Just before 11am, I was rushing to the Green Room for a drink, before meeting fellow panellists Dev Agarwal, Martin Easterbrook, and Graham Sleight, with moderator Lapswood (Chad Dixon), for my third and last programme item '20-odd years of CGI'. This was a particularly interesting topic as we tried to highlight various/ best examples of digital animation used in two decades of movies.

At noon, I went to hear Paul F. Cockburn, Paul McAuley, Martin Andersson, and James Treadwell talking about the current 'Sequelitis' affecting Hollywood, but had to leave early because I needed a drink and wanted to visit Ian Sales' launch party for the Rocket Science anthology he's edited for Mutation Press. After lunch, I went to the panel on 'Scientists and the media' in the Commonwealth main hall, where David L. Clements was moderator for Caroline Mullan, Paul Cornell, Jennifer Delaney, and Marek Kukula. It was a very worthwhile panel, as was the next discussion group for 'the science of Rocket Science', with the book's editor Ian Sales, and contributors Iain Cairns, Deborah Walker, and Martin McGrath.

At teatime, I was back in the main hall for a lively panel on 'The nature of heroism' with two guests-of-honour: Tricia Sullivan and George R.R. Martin, plus author Joe Abercrombie, blogger Genevieve Valentine, and moderator David Anthony Durham. Sullivan and Martin were both great, although in disagreement. After Jessica Yates talk about 'Superhero comics, graphic novels and the films they inspired', I went to the panel on 'Fantasy in our time' where Edward James, Andy Sawyer, and James Treadwell, were moderated by Graham Sleight, for a discussion about the influence of Tolkien and Howard.

The busy evening continued wiith the programme item 'Death of the author' as Ian Whates moderated for Ian Watson, Tanya Brown, Roz Kaveney, and Adam Christopher, in a discussion of shared-worlds in fiction. As expected, Watson was hilarious in a 10-minute talk about his contribution to Warhammer 40K. I wasn't keen on 'Multicultural steampunk', anyway, so I left that panel item after listening to a few minutes of authors talking, somewhat defensively, about diversification in a subgenre that seems like a lamentable dead-end in SF. The night's programme was obviously winding down by 10pm, as only a couple of the panellists for 'Worst and best movies of the year' bothered to turn up for the discussion, which started late and seemed haphazard, and was a bit disappointing for me.

Saturday

After breakfast for Olympians, in the Brasserie (where the service is better than in Newbury rooms), I went to 'Ethics of AI' as first panel (at 10 am). Simon Bradshaw, Paul Cornell, Louise Dennis, and Lilian Edwards talked about whether machine sentience should have human rights, and if it's switched off by its creator - does that amount to a death sentence. I spent the rest of the morning looking around the art show, and the dealers room - where Roy was selling Black Static and Interzone, and assorted books.

My first panel, 'Superheroes in the movies' started at 1pm, I was joined by John Coxon, David Anthony Durham, Ian Millsted, and Jesscia Yates for wide-ranging discussion of the best, the worst, and the failures in adapting comicbooks for the screen. Of course, I got in a plug for my forthcoming book about Ang Lee's Hulk. It went quite well, I thought, but John disagreed with my criticisms of Samuel Jackson (who's become a parody of himself, nowadays), and 'the Hoff' (a campy cartoon, not an actor!), as Marvel's boss of SHIELD, Nick Fury.

Drinking through distractions, it was soon 4pm, and time for 'the Fantastic Landscape', a panel where Paul McAuley, Jaine Fenn, and Nina Allan, discussed literary examples of metropolis and forest. I also kept missing interesting stuff on the programme (where does the time go?) until 8pm, when 'Private road to space' was a particularly informative panel with Dev Agarwal (best moderator I've seen so far at this con), in charge of author Geoffrey A. Landis, and tech industry experts like John Bray, and Gerry (no last name).

Returning from the bar for umpteenth time today, I went to see Gaspode (John Medany) lead a review of 'Worst and best TV of the past year', with commentators Paul Dormer, Genevieve Valentine, and Carolina. It was interesting to hear about lots of genre telly that I haven't seen on DVD yet.

Olympus

OLYMPUS - SF convention
Arrived at noon on Friday, and found my room on 4th floor was ready, so that's an improvement on last year when I had tpo wait until after 2pm.

First programme item I went to was 'Is Europe winning the space race?', where the likes of David L. Clemments and Geoffrey A. Landis (plus two that I'd never heard of before) discussed options and projects which suggest ESA is outdoing the failing NASA... I think the biggest problems are politics and capitalism. Back in the 1960s, when America viewed its future in space as a human federation in Star Trek, it seemed the galaxy was just waiting for explorers and adventurers to colonise it. Nowadays, with numerous astro-ambitions cancelled and small-minded focus on profit-making, it seems that American society is not going to develop into Starfleet, after all. They are more likely to become the Ferengi.

'Pushing the boundaries of genre' in the same room, was a more lively panel, with Gillian Redfearn as moderator for the line-up of Paul Cornell, Jon Courtenay Grimwood, Robert V.S. Redick, and Sophia McDougall. As expected, they seemed to reach agreement that marketing and branding rule the genre divisions.

Since I started the Female Archers in Movies & TV page on Facebook, I thought Mike Shevdon's talk about 'Archery in fantasy film & TV' would be interesting, and indeed it was. Video-clips from various movies demonstrated how stunts using bows and arrows often get it very wrong.

The 'opening ceremony' was a short introduction to the guests of honour and committee members, and the organisers should be commended for finishing the presentation in about 20 minutes, so we could all rush off to the bar.

Cory Doctorow's interview by Patrick Nielsen Hayden offered many fascinating and very entertaining insights into the author and his dotcom works.

After teatime, I went to 'Beyond Red Mars' item, were author Paul McAuley moderated the panel of writers Geoffrey A. Landis, Ian Whates, Gareth L. Powell, and Mary A. Turzillo, thorough a discussion of exploring the Solar system.

Beer was followed by a visit to the top-floor Room 42 to see the late night horror: Jesus Christ - Vampire Hunter, which proved too low-budget and wholly predictable, so I gave up watching it around midnight.

HULK

My book-length critical study about Ang Lee's movie HULK (2003), is due to be published this July by Telos.

Here's a blurb:

From its 1962 comicbook origins in The Incredible Hulk by Stan Lee and Jack Kirby, director Ang Lee’s classic movie Hulk (2003), updates and re-invents the story of how scientist Bruce Banner is transformed into a giant rage monster, and becomes a new antihero for the 21st century. This book reviews the movie’s narrative complexity and its varied genre elements, which include science fiction, tragic drama, action thriller, doomed romance, and a modern fairytale with mythological references, energised by an artistically innovative editing style, and realised by groundbreaking visual effects. 

As a neurotic ‘puny human’ changes into the unstoppable ‘Angry Man’, Hulk offers a study of dysfunctional family relationships, and monster-movie rampages with tank-busting, helicopter-crashing mayhem in ‘hulkgasm’ adventures, that results in a final confrontation of cosmic proportions. A unique aesthetic spectacle, and extraordinary makeover for Hollywood blockbuster cinema, Hulk is the greatest screen adaptation of a comicbook and it rediscovers the enduring legacy of a green-skinned ‘superhero’ without a costume.

Ordering details here: Telos - HULK. 

Fresh blood

Issue #27 of Black Static magazine includes my 'Blood Spectrum' column of DVD & blu-ray reviews.
Here's the line-up:

Dark Star (8/10)
Shark Night (2/10)
Beyond (3/10)
Four Flies On Grey Velvet (5/10)
Tyrannosaur (1/10)
Perfect Sense (6/10)
Rolling Thunder (6/10)
Gantz 2 – Perfect Answer (6/10)
Tekken: Blood Vengeance (4/10)
Fright Night (5/10)
Real Steel (2/10)
Vanishing On 7th Street (4/10)
Dellamorte Dellamore (5/10)
Paranormal Activity 3 (1/10)
Dracula: Prince Of Darkness (7/10)
Urban Explorers (2/10)
Evidence (1/10)
The Awakening (6/10)

Anytime movies

A spectacularly successful time for genre cinema, the 1980s began with the likes of Altered States, Flash Gordon, and Scanners. The decade gave us three classic genre movies in 1982: Blade Runner, Carpenter’s The Thing, and Videodrome - all of which, for me, rank highly in a list of the very best pictures of all time. But there were many other favourites made in the 1980s: offbeat movies that are always watchable, and are well worth repeat viewings. They provide seemingly endless fun and I simply never get bored of seeing them again and again. They are ‘anytime movies’. They are problem solving choices when I cannot decide what else to watch.

They are resistant to easy pigeonholing or any strict categorisation. They are usually combinations of adventure, comedy, romance, and music, with plenty of action. They cannot easily be defined as one particular genre because they mix together sci-fi and fantasy or horror elements, blending themes and tropes without becoming bland. As they are made with plenty of good humour, all of these movies have memorable and quotable dialogue, which is part of what ensures their cult status.      

Each of these anytime movies is uniquely entertaining, and manages the clever trick of creating its own little universe for the screen. A great many other genre works also create unique worlds that are instantly engrossing, but anytime movies deliver some wonderful amusement and they never fail to be enjoyable viewing, no matter what sort of mood I am in at the time. They may not always be groundbreaking in their originality, and often draw upon an impressive variety of sources for inspiration, but they are all rule-breakers, shattering typical cinematic conventions and storytelling traditions with a subversive edginess or satirical intentions. Here’s a listing of my top five anytime movies…  

The Adventures Of Buckaroo Banzai:
Across The Eighth Dimension (1984)

Director: W.D. Richter

A comic-book pop culture masterpiece that’s partly inspired by Doc Savage: The Man Of Bronze (1975), and Invaders From Mars (1953), this stars Peter Weller as scientist and hero Buckaroo, whose fantastic ‘Team Banzai’ (played by Jeff Goldblum, Clancy Brown, and Lewis Smith) are fighting against a race of weird aliens, Lectroids from Planet 10, led by Dr Lizardo (John Lithgow). It’s fast-moving and wildly imaginative, and set in a world of half-reality where “Nothing is ever what it seems, but everything is exactly what it is.”     

Big Trouble In Little China (1986)

See my review on VideoVista archive.

Director: John Carpenter 

Heathers (1989)

Director: Michael Lehmann

Slick black comedy about a couple of teenagers on a killing spree, this is a witty spoof attacking everything wrong with modern American society and culture. Although it’s centred on a doomed high school, the murderous misadventures of new girl Veronica (Winona Ryder), and the psycho antics of her eager accomplice J.D. (Christian Slater in a career-defining performance) make this a darkly amusing treat. Although school movies by John Hughes, such as The Breakfast Club (1985), and Ferris Bueller’s Day Off (1986), have lost their charm over the last 25 years, Lehmann’s more acerbic flick-knife satire has kept its edge.      

Repo Man (1984)

(my review)

Director: Alex Cox

Streets Of Fire (1984)  

Director: Walter Hill

Billed as ‘a rock ‘n’ roll fantasy’, this remixes 1950s biker movies and ‘cowboy cliché’ dialogue with glossy pop video aesthetics for an urban rescue thriller. Ultra–stylised, visually impressive, and full of musical energy, with songs by Jim Steinman and Dan Hartman in an eclectic Ry Cooder score, this features Diane Lane as the kidnapped rock singer, Michael Paré as the laconic hero, and Willem Dafoe as the chief bad guy.

   

Interzone 2012

The latest issue of Interzone magazine (from TTA Press) is #238 and it has my 'Laser Fodder' column of DVD & blu-ray reviews. Here's the line-up of titles reviewed:

Brazil (9/10)
Captain America – The First Avenger (6/10)
Apollo 18 (1/10)
Camp Hell (2/10)
First Squad (3/10)
Legend Of The Millennium Dragon (3/10)
The Skin I Live In (7/10)
Arena (1/10)
Faces In The Crowd (4/10)
Melancholia (7/10)
Tomie: Unlimited (6/10)
Don’t Be Afraid Of The Dark (5/10)
Repo Man (9/10)
    Backlist:
The Science Of Sleep (7/10)

This issue also includes my book review of Peter F. Hamilton's collection Manhattan In Reverse.

BS #26

The latest issue of Black Static magazine is #26 (Dec 2011-Jan 2012), and this Bristish fantasy award-winning bi-monthly features my 'Blood Spectrum' column of DVD & blu-ray reviews.

Here's the line-up of new & forthcoming titles covered, with ratings:

Umbrage: The First Vampire (1/10)
Helldriver (7/10)
Smallville - season 10 (7/10)
The Human Centipede 2 (5/10)
Guilty Of Romance (4/10)
Conan The Barbarian (5/10)
Super 8 (4/10)
Cowboys & Aliens (4/10)
Kill List (2/10)
Frankenhooker (6/10) 
Troll Hunter (4/10)

Black Static 25

The latest issue of Black Static magazine (#25, November 2011) includes my 'Blood Spectrum' column of DVD & blu-ray reviews. Here's a listing of the line-up with ratings...

Pirates Of The Caribbean: On Stranger Tides (5/10)
Tomorrow, When The War Began (4/10)
The Twilight Zone – season four (7/10)
The Cape (5/10)
The Cat o’ Nine Tails (4/10)
Fringe - season 3 (8/10)
Manhunter (8/10)
Tucker And Dale vs. Evil (4/10)
Gantz (6/10)
Stake Land (6/10)
Empire Of Passion (5/10)
The New Daughter (5/10)
The Ward (7/10)
Henry, Portrait Of A Serial Killer (8/10)
Mother's Day (6/10)
Straw Dogs (6/10)
Mimic - director’s cut (6/10)
Tree Of Life (4/10)
X-Men: First Class (5/10)

    Dregs of Grog: Round-up
Episode 50 (2/10)
Cannibal (2/10)
Blood Runs Cold (2/10)
Deadtime Stories (2/10)
The Man With The Severed Head (2/10)