Shadow in the Cloud starring Chloe Grace Moretz is a wonderfully over-the-top nod to female pilots in World War II as well as nods to The Twilight Zone (specifically ‘Nightmare at 20,000 Feet’), John Carpenter (the film’s score feels like Carpenter through and through) and allows Moretz to get her Ripley on. Boarding a B-17…
Tag: 2020
Mexican Gothic (2020) – Silvia Moreno-Garcia
Mexican Gothic is a wonderfully lush, and haunting novel, embracing all the familiar tropes of the Gothic genre, romance, the old dark house, family secrets, and the hints of something preter- or supernatural all juxtaposed into Mexico of the 1950s. We’re introduced to Noemi, a vivacious, smart, stubborn, flirtatious young woman who is still looking…
The Expanse (2020/2021) – Down and Out, and Tribes
Now that Inaros’ (Keon Alexander) attack on Earth and Mars has succeeded and the fallout begins for a number of characters. Down and Out was written by Matthew Rasmussen and first dropped on Prime on 30 December, 2020. While Naomi (Dominique Tipper) attempts to deal with Inaros, her son, Filip (Jasai Chase Owens) and her…
The Expanse (2020) – Mother, and Gaugamela
Chrisjen (Shohreh Aghdashloo) is continuing her hunt for Inaros (Keon Alexander) from her place on Luna, and Naomi (Dominique Tipper) continues to look for her son, Filip (Jasai Chase Owens) in Mother. Written by Dan Nowak, this episode first dropped on 16 December, 2020. Naomi is able to have a brief conversation with Filip and…
The Expanse (2020) – Exodus, and Churn
Season five of The Expanse brings the story back into the Sol System even as the mystery of the protomolecule hangs over everything in the system. The season opener, Exodus, was written by Naren Shankar and dropped on Amazon Prime alongside episodes two and three on 16 December, 2020. The crew of the Rocinante are…
The Sun Down Motel (2020) – Simone St. James
The Sun Down Motel is a fantastically creepy and thrilling novel from Simone St. James. The novel follows two storylines concurrently bouncing back and forth between the years 1982 and 2017, culminating in a white-knuckle climax that is satisfying, engaging, and sneaks quite comfortably into Stephen King territory. In November 1982 Vivian arrived in Fell,…
The Dark and The Wicked (2020) – Bryan Bertino
Bryan Bertino who wrote and directed the now iconic horror film, The Strangers, delves into supernatural territory with this unnerving little film that occasionally misses the mark by leaning too heavily into its scares while presenting the idea of a demonic presence as more of a hunting animal, preying on the weakest, separating them from…
Rendezvous with Rama (1973) – Arthur C. Clarke
I remember the first time I read this novel. My friend Dennis recommended it to me and conveniently enough, he had the entire series at hand, and I blazed through them. That was almost two decades ago, and I honestly don’t recall all the details of the story, but I know I loved the wonder…
Night Call: A Walking Shadows Novel (2020) – Brenden Carlson
Brenden Carlson’s Night Call, available from Dundurn Press is set in the past, an alternate 1933, and yet in describing it, I lean towards the phrase retro-future noir. We are introduced to the cynical hard-boiled detective, Elias Roche, who is haunted by an incident in his past and walks a fine line between the law…
Spiritwalker (2020) – Yoon Jae-keun
Hitting digital, DVD and Blu-Ray today from Well Go USA Entertainment is this Korean bare-knuckle action flick with some sci-fi undertones that keeps things moving right until the last frame. The film gives a new spin on familiar territory, and features solidly constructed, and executed action and fight sequences. Ian (Yoon Kyesang) isn’t who he…
The Mind Reels 