Horror

Wolves at the Gate

/ / Comics
  • Title: Buffy the Vampire Slayer Season Eight – “Wolves at the Gate”
  • Comic Vine: link

Drew Goddard picks up the reigns for a four-part storyline, out today in trade paperback, which returns a villain from Season Five (no, not Glory) and a few other surprises as well including Buffy’s night of passion being interrupted by, well, everyone and an oversized street fight between giant Dawn and Mecha-Dawn on the streets of Tokyo.  Throw in great one-liners and more serious heartbreak for Xander and you’ve got a winner.  This is by far the funniest, and the finest, story arc from Season 8 yet!

Buffy the Vampire Slayer Season 8 #12-15

“Oh, hi Buffy.  Hi nude Asian girl….How much Dramamine did I take?”

Drew Goddard takes over the reigns here to bring us a tale packed with humor in an issue you don’t want to miss.  Goddard penned a few episodes of Angel Season Five (most notably “Lineage” and “The Girl in Question”).  As he did in those episodes he takes on some serious issues, but brings plenty of funny, too!

The issue begins with a cute awkward conversation between Xander and Renee and the invasion of Slayer central by wolves.  The tone of Xander is perfect here especially when Renee tells him simply to take her out and her asks “You want me to assassinate you?”  Classic Xander.

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Blindness

/ / Movie Reviews
  • Title: Blindness
  • IMDB: link

“That’s impossible, nobody goes blind like that.”

It starts when a single man (Yusuke Iseya) experiences sudden blindness.  The condition quickly spreads around the city, and the government quarantines the infected, forcibly sending all of them to a military controlled facility.

The story has a good concept even if it doesn’t ever develop it fully.  Based on the novel by Jose Saramango there are two main themes at work here.  The first, and less interesting, is how quickly and easily humans devolve into animals given a crisis.  Events in the quarantine facility soon destroy social convention and niceties leading to riots over food, war, murder, and rape.  Not the prettiest of pictures, even for the blind.

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7 Lessons from the Tomb of the Dragon Emperor

/ / Movie Reviews
  • Title: The Mummy: Tomb of the Dragon Emperor
  • IMDB: link

The Mummy: Tomb of the Dragon Emperor is the latest from the movie franchise which has spawned prequels and sequels.  Brandon Frasier returns to stop a Mummy, this time with the help of Maria Bello (who takes over for Rachel Weisz), their brash young son (Luke Ford, in a performance everyone will want to forget), and a mysterious Asian woman (Isabella Leong) who holds answers to their questions.

Ridiculous from beginning to end, instead of a review I’m going to give you some of the “highlights” of the flick which provides some lessons worth discussing.  For more on the ins and outs of the film itself check out Ian’s review.

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House of Mystery

/ / Comics
  • Title: House of Mystery #1
  • Comic Vine: link

“The moment of epiphany, that slice of time when you stand on the brink of a new life is one of the most magical, most terrifying, most intoxicating experiences there is.”

house-of-mystery-1-cover

The House of Mystery was a horror anthology which ran on and off for decades.  Events centered around a house and it’s caretaker Cain and the stories of horror and mayhem told within.  This recent re-launch by Bill Willingham and Matthew Sturges centers around those trapped in th house (including quite a few familiar faces to the Vertigo line) who are forced to tell tales to earn their keep.

After a short appearance by Cain and his brother Abel (with a hatchet firmly stuck in his chest) the story moves to young Miss Kelle who is being chased by two mysterious figures and eventually will find herself stepping into the house which has haunted her dreams – The House of Mystery.

Intercut with Keele’s run across town is the tale of one of the patrons, Hungry Sally, who pays for her meal with the disturbing tale of her life entitled “The Hollows” which is a brutal tale you might not wish to read on a full stomach involving human-sized fly creatures and the events which earned Sally her name.

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The Ruins

/ / Movie Reviews
  • Title: The Ruins
  • IMDB: link

the-ruins-poster

Scott Smith adapts his own novel for the screen, and maybe he should farm himself out for other projects because if he can do this good a job with a screenplay about a some dumb kids and a plant think what he could do for the countless other horror scripts out their which need some serious help.

Two couples (Jonathan Tucker and Jena Malone, Shawn Ashmore and Laura Ramsey) on vacation in Mexico learn there are more things to be afraid of than the local water.

A chance encounter with a German (Joe Anderson) leads the group on an expedition of a recently uncovered Mayan temple deep in the jungle.  Despite the distance the group makes it to the temple only to find themselves attacked by a local tribe and quarantined for their exposure to the forbidden locale.  Surveying the scene and searching for the archaeological team leads some of the members into the temple and to uncover the reason why the locals fear the place and will make sure nothing leaves the area.

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