The Korean actioner, The Witch: Part 1 – The Subversion was very engaging and I loved how it built a world and introduced the viewer to genetic manipulation, enhancing the human state, the variety of parties involved and a hint of the plan at its heart. The first film ended with some interesting reveals about…
Tag: character
The Equalizer (1989) – Endgame, and Suicide Squad
Endgame is a tale of manipulation, and revenge, and seems to almost sneak up on the fringes of Saw territory, as the episode finds two sisters pitted against one another. Written by Coleman Luck, the penultimate episode of The Equalizer aired on 10 August, 1989, well after the season should have finished in May. McCall…
Star Trek: Strange New Worlds – Season 1 Blu-Ray
Anybody who has even visited this blog knows how I feel about Star Trek. And as much as I love Lower Decks, Discovery, Prodigy and Picard (though don’t even get me started on how much season three is blowing my mind!!) Star Trek: Stange New Worlds – Season 1 had me completely enraptured. While the…
The Expanse (2018) – It Reaches Out, and Intransigence
The mystery of the protomolecule and the Ring is augmented with the introduction of the Investigator (Thomas Jane) who only Holden (Steven Strait) can see, and who is trying to impart important information to him in the only way he knows how, but will Holden realize what he’s being told before things escalate to greater…
Episode Thirteen (2023) – Craig DiLouie
Orbit Books brings me my first real creepy novel of 2023, Episode Thirteen. Using the familiar structure of the found footage genre, something that has been co-opted successfully for all of the ghost-hunting shows that seem to plague reality television, DiLouie compiles a literary found footage film, offering up video transcripts, EVP recordings, text messages,…
The Brothers McMullen (1995) Edward Burns
In the mid-90s it seemed every studio was trying to find the next big little indie title, so there were lots of smaller character-driven films being foisted upon the audience, and while a lot of the studios have eschewed that for sure-things and tentpoles, some studios still take chances. But in the 90s it seemed…
Imaginary Friend (2019) – Stephen Chbosky
Stephen Chobsky, perhaps currently best known as the author of The Perks of Being a Wallflower, gets his Stephen King on with his latest novel, Imaginary Friend, a tale of horror that pits a small town against itself in a battle of good versus evil. At the heart of the story is young Christopher, and…
Black Panther: Wakanda Forever (2022) – Ryan Coogler
The MCU’s newest entry, Black Panther: Wakanda Forever, is Ryan Coogler’s follow-up to his 2018 entry, Black Panther, which launched its star, Chadwick Boseman, to the status of beloved icon. Taken from us far too soon, Wakanda Forever is about the characters processing the loss of their king, T’Challa as much as it is about…
Quantum Leap: Too Close For Comfort (1993) – Ashley McConnell
McConnell’s second Quantum Leap book, Too Close For Comfort, feels closer to the spirit of the show than the first one. The characters of time traveller Sam Beckett, and his holographic connection with the present, Al, seem more in line with their established selves, and gone is the suggestion of what happens to Sam between…
TIFF ’22: Pearl
Ti West and Mia Goth shot X, and its prequel film, Pearl back to back. In both Mia plays Pearl. In X she’s a psychotic octogenarian, but in Pearl, we get to see her as she was, when she too dreamed of getting off the farm and chasing dreams of fame to become a star….
The Mind Reels 