She Could Fly: The Lost Pilot #5 [Comic Review]

She Could Fly:The Lost Pilot #5 is a rare dud in what’s been an excellent series. It’s the second arc’s finale and it does have some stellar moments: characters you wouldn’t expect get to fly in ways you might not expect; Mayura’s family and Luna finally meet; and there are some other surprises, good and bad.

As always, Martìn Morazzo brings to life gorgeous images from Christopher Cantwell’s scripts. Together, the two of them have seemed to find a backdoor into the visual language of the subconscious and it’s led to some remarkable splash pages throughout She Could Fly.

Continue reading at Wicked Horror!

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The Reflecting Skin Captures a Childhood Nightmare [Blu-ray Review]

he Reflecting Skin is the kind of movie that you’ll Google as soon as you’ve finished. People have been talking about it, trying to decipher, since it came out in 1990. So much happens in this surrealist nightmare, and so little of it comes together coherently—which isn’t meant as a criticism; the film isn’t interested in telling a cohesive story—that it will leave you perplexed. Director/writer Philip Ridley seems more interested in asking questions than providing answers.

The film follows Seth Dove (Jeremy Cooper) through his Iowa childhood. Nearly every exterior is set in an intentionally oversaturated wheat field where there was never a cloudy day. Nick Bicât’s score is full of vibrant violins, underscoring that  Little House on the Prairie vibe the visuals establish. Ridley juxtaposes all of this brilliantly with gruesome imagery. There’s a mummified infant/fetus; a roving pack of Elvis inspired, child molesting murderers; and a self-immolation. These horrors and others come seemingly at random throughout the story. Seth “Dove”—as in a symbol for innocence, get it?—bears witness but can’t comprehend what he’s seeing while the viewer does. The dissonance is palpable.

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5 Horror Villains the Rock Needs to Fight

Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson made his WWE debut in 1996 and flopped as Rocky Maivia. After a stint on the IR with a knee injury, he embraced his personality as part of the Nation of Domination and kickstarting his floundering career. He went on to win 8 WWE Championships, 2 WCW Championships, 2 Intercontinental Championships, and 5 Tag Team Championships.

His acting career followed the same path. After The Scorpion King and a few WWE Studio flicks, he excised “The Rock” from his name and starred in duds like The Tooth Fairy. His acting career, much like his wrestling career, skyrocketed when he embraced who he was. Since, Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson, has been one of the biggest box office draws in Hollywood. He’s currently starring in the number one movie worldwide, Hobbes and Shaw.

It doesn’t seem likely that The Rock is headed for the horror genre any time soon, but we’re dreamers here at Wicked Horror, and we’ve picked the top five horror villains we’d like to see climb into the squared circle to go one on one with The Rock.

See the list at Wicked Horror!

Nekrotronic has Loads of Style, Some Substance [Review]

In the best scene in Nekrotronic, Torquel (Tess Haubrich) dual wields pistols, shooting through an army of unnamed demons to the sound of Morten Harket covering “Can’t Take My Eyes Off of You.” The clash between the violence and the easy listening classic captures everything Nekrotronic is going for: unabashed violent fantasy mixed with whimsy. Especially in that moment, it worked.

Australian brothers Kiah Roach-Turner (director and co-writer) and Tristan Roach Turner (co-writer) have created a unique world. A profanity laced voice over lays out the basics during the credits: goat sacrifices accidentally summoned demons into our world. A family of necromancers “with big f***-off weapons in their hands” have been fighting them since. The movie starts when, “some evil son of a b**** found a way to blast demons into the internet.” More accurately, Finnegan (Monica Belluci) and her minions have found a way to blast demons through a PokémonGo style phone game. If she has her way, she’ll absorb the souls of the 1.3 million people who’ve downloaded her app.

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The Hellboy Reboot Exudes Energy [Blu-ray Review]

In the first scene in Hellboy featuring the eponymous character, he fights a vampire luchador in a wrestling ring. If that sounds like your s***, than you’re going to love the newest iteration of Hellboy. He punches giants, Baba Yaga, zombies, and crusty old British dudes too as he struggles to stop Nimue the Blood Queen’s (Milla Jovovich) apocalypse. Hellboy is punk rock movie: there’s not a lot of technical mastery but the film exudes energy.

Before Hellboy (David Harbour) steps in the ring, director Neil Marshall (who you should know from The Descentand Dog Soldiers) shows us Nimue’s lowest moment. In a black and white sequence, she’s cut apart by King Arthur, but unable to die. To prevent her uprising, Arthur sent his knights to carry her pieces to the furthest reaches of England. Once back together, she starts a campaign to bring “the forgotten people out of the dark.” It sounds quite heroic, although the film frames her as a villain. Hellboy, who is framed as a hero, needs to stop her.

Keep reading at Wicked Horror!

Editor of the Season: Ryan C. Bradley

My friend Malea Thomas profiled me for the May issue of The Corvidae Courier. She made me sound so smart, so I’ll have to ask her what the trick is.

You can read it here!

Low Road West Aims High, Lands in the Middle [Graphic Novel Review]

Low Road West opens with a fantasy I’m sure that many of us has had at one point or another: an unnamed character walking out of their job. In this graphic novel, it’s a bus driver responsible for transporting five teenagers from a war-torn Washington D.C. to San Francisco. The driver quits around Oklahoma (I for one can’t fault him. I’ve driven from New Haven, CT to Tulsa, and it’s a long 24 hours.) and makes his way out of the story.

The main cast is the teenagers — Emma, Ben, Angela, Shawn, and Amir. The war has forced them, and many others off of the East Coast. Much of the inner continent has been turned into a desert because as Amir says, “Pretty much every oil well in the U.S. is on fire.” None of them can drive a bus, especially one without gas, so they’re forced to walk. They’re saved from military deserters by a mysterious archer before they arrive in Custer’s Wake.

Continue reading at Wicked Horror!