Review: The Lair (2024)

Neil Marshall's latest is a great monster action movie, with lots of thrills, spills, and of course monsters!

The basic idea is simple: a female air force pilot, Kate Sinclair (Charlotte Kirk), finds herself downed in Afghanistan and takes refuge in a huge underground bunker. Exploring she finds vats containing some sort of humanoids, and when one gets broken, the thing in it revives and chases her out of the bunker again, where she is rescued by friendly troops.

However they won't let things lie, and are soon back with Kate to explore further, only to find that more of these genetically engineered nasties are loose, and set on hunting down and killing anything that they can find, either in the bunker or outside of it.

The film is great fun and the opening is fast and furious as we go from a crash in the desert to the bunker, escape and back to base ... then there's a slow section where we find out more about the soldiers and so on, before it's back to the bunker and more deep underground shenanigans with the monsters.

The pace and action overcomes any concerns over casting or how many of these soldiers are just dreadful shots and you just get swept along with it. As a Saturday night with beer and mates movie, it's perfect.

Review: Longlegs (2024)

Longlegs is something of a strange film. It follows a path and turns out to be not quite what you expected come the end.

Nominally it's about a female police detective, Lee Harper, who is hunting a serial killer who kills following a somewhat eccentric pattern of dates related to the birthday of his victims.  But the killings all seem to be carried out by the father of the victim, who kills his daughter, but anyone else around also.

So there's a pattern but no obvious motives until an occult element is thrown into the mix involving a life-sized doll which each victim is sent, in the head of which is a strange silver orb which seems to contain something and yet nothing.

As the plot unfolds, Harper finds that she is at the centre of events, and that the mysterious Longlegs, so called as by the name he signs coded messages left at each killing, has plans for her personally.

I enjoyed the film, though it is somewhat hard to work out what is happening. Not as hard as some critics made out though, and ultimately all becomes clear. The ideas are rooted in Satanic beliefs and in evil, as well as a touch of voodoo. There's a healthy dose of Silence of the Lambs in here also, and while Nicholas Cage, who plays the deranged (or is he) Longlegs is not a patch on Anthony Hopkins' Hannibal Lekter, there is much to appreciate and enjoy in his performance.

The explanations when they come are impactful for Harper and her family, and leave a lot of thoughts in the mind as to what happened next. I don't think it needs a sequel though as this is complete in and of itself.

It's telling that the BluRay I have has a very non-descript cover on it (same as the poster shown here). Obviously the marketing team had no idea what to make of this either.

I have often said that I have not seen a film with Nick Cage in that I haven't enjoyed, and this does not break that run. Enjoyable and thought provoking, which is what every film should be.

Review: Abigail (2024)

Abigail is a film which, when people came to review it, they were skirting around and tiptoeing as they didn't want to spoil the surprise of the film.  To be honest it is pretty good, and so as to try and review without mentioning it would be really hard ... if you have not yet seen this film and want to see it ... then stop reading now.

.

.

.

.

Have you stopped?

.

.

.

.

.

If you carry on then you will learn what the film is all about ... Your choice.

.

.

.

.

Right then.

Okay, so we start like an everyday thriller. There's a rich gang boss type chap, and a group of thug-types (although they are a pretty hopeless bunch) are sent by a third party mystery person to kidnap his 12 year old  ballerina daughter to hold her for ransom. So far so good.

They end up in some old mansion somewhere, with the girl hooded and in chains in a bedroom, while the rest of the gang lounge about and wait for the ransom to be paid. The house is one they were told to go to ... and only one of them is to ever interact with the girl, no names to be used ... normal ransom stuff.

But then we discover that this little girl isn't such a little girl after all. She's instead an old vampire with incredible strength and ingenuity. Her father is also a vampire, and this is a little game they play to stop them getting too bored.

The house locks down on them (shades of The House on Haunted Hill, or 13 Ghosts) and they're left to try and survive with a hungry vampire kid on their trail.

The film is great fun. It takes 30 minutes or so before the realisations start to kick in, but once it gets rolling it's very enjoyable. The deaths are great and there is A LOT of blood ... vampires explode with a very wet and messy geyser of blood (reminiscent of the vampires in Planet Terror) and some of the gang get vampirised and are then controlled by the girl ... imaginative and fun stuff!

With so many vampire films out there, it's great to come across one which is different and which just rolls with the premise and takes it to its natural (or unnatural) conclusion.  This is a film that I will certainly watch again.

Review: IT BELONGS IN A MUSEUM

We are truly in a magnificent age of Doctor Who books.  With the official fare often sadly lacking from the BBC, it's left to the fans to fill the gaps, and they are doing so magnificently!

It Belongs In A Museum is the first book-length work from Neil Cole, who runs the Museum of Classic Sci-Fi based in Allendale in Northumberland. Neil created and set up his museum some years ago and while it is small, it hosts an amazing array of props and costumes and artefacts from Doctor Who and other sci-fi films and TV series ... but it's Doctor Who which is Neil's passion. 

He started publishing pamphlets/magazines on the various items he has in the museum, but then decided to expand his reach into this rather lovely large format paperback book all about some of the surviving items from the Patrick Troughton era of the show.  Some of these are on display in the museum, while others are in private collections around the world.

The book is primarily focussed on the museum and on Neil's own interest and artwork, and as such is very much a labour of love. 

The book is in three parts:  The first chronicles the path to the museum itself: Neil's aspirations from a young age; the start of his collection; finding the location; and then the long hard road to realising his dream. It's an amazing story! I could have done with larger images to see the development of the space and the displays, but there's enough here to get an idea of the slog he had to go through.

The second part then takes us on a tour of the Patrick Troughton stories, detailing them, and talking about and describing the 'artefacts' that remain from them. I did wonder why the actual pictures and more detail of said artefacts were not just included here in order, but these can be found in part three of the book - again stepping through each and showing good images of them. I suspect this might be because only part of the book has colour pages, and so the material has been grouped to allow both black and white printing, and colour printing on some pages. It's a fascinating collection of 'things'. From Ice Warrior claws to a spike from a portcullis gate, to scripts and other production documentation. What I love is that Neil treats them all with reverence and fascination. There's even talk of items which he hopes might exist, like part of a Quark or the wing-folding airplane from 'The Faceless Ones', but which are not currently known to exist.

These are not *all* the items which have survived, as I do know of some others which are not mentioned here, and Neil himself talks of, for example, the miniature Yeti tracking devices from 'The Web of Fear' which he was unable to source pictures of in time, but I guess you have to draw the line somewhere, and certainly even picking just one item from each story is challenging, particularly for this era of the show. Some stories he even has several items mentioned which is lovely to see.

Neil's black and white artwork which features for each Troughton story is also great - he has a real talent for capturing the essence of the things he's drawing. Thus the book is also an art book, collecting these together.

It's a hefty tome at 130 pages and printed on a very thick paper so the overall effect is of something chunky and substantial. 

I've mentioned before about how fan endeavours these days have transcended the days of fanzines and photocopied pages, and technology makes it easier to self-produce books and other items which were out of the reach of most people even 20 years ago. Neil Cole has produced an amazing piece of work, and as a first book it's impressive. As a follow up he is promising a similar volume on the Pertwee Years and it will be fascinating to see what exists from that period of the show.

The Museum of Classic SciFi can be found here: https://www.museumofclassicsci-fi.com/

And the book is available direct from the Museum: https://www.museumofclassicsci-fi.com/copy-of-the-collection

It Belongs In A Museum is also available from the stockists Galaxy Four at: https://www.galaxy4.co.uk/blank-cboj/it-belongs-in-a-museum

Review: THE DNA OF DOCTOR WHO

Before I launch into this review of the new DNA of Doctor Who book from Roundel Publishing, a quick note to say that I am one of the contributors to it. Editor Gary Russell kindly asked me to contribute a piece which was loosely based around 'The Seeds of Doom' but which actually covered Philip Hinchcliffe's Doctor Who novelisations for the Target range.

When one thinks of Doctor Who as a whole, certain periods in its long history stand out. There's the Troughton era of course, time of monsters galore and 'base under seige' adventures ... Pertwee has the action packed approach, and of course there's the vast and complex adventuring of 'The Daleks' Master Plan', 'The Key to Time', 'The Trial of a Time Lord' and 'Flux' ... but if pressed to focus in on the one era which stands out above all others, many would perhaps pick on the stories made under the producership of Philip Hinchcliffe, who, with his script editor Robert Holmes, defined more than any other, the essence of what made Doctor Who compulsive watching.  I have long said that Doctor Who is far more a horror show than science fiction, and it's that horror element which scares and enthrals in equal measure ... and Hinchcliffe's era encapsulated everything which is great about that approach.

Little wonder then that Gareth Kavanagh and the fine people at Roundel Publishing chose this era to launch their series of kickstarted-funded books looking at what makes Doctor Who tick.

The book is available in large format hardback and paperback, and, as it was a kickstarter, depending on which 'tier' you chose, comes with a variety of DVD/art cards and other ephemera.

Looking at the book, and I am immediately reminded more of a fanzine than of a commercially produced product ... but this is no bad thing. In the bad old days, fanzines were how a wide variety of writers and commentators got their ideas and words out to the world ... and in today's world, while paper fanzines may be a thing of the past, the expression and talent which went into them is now channelled into YouTube videos and professionally produced books like this. 

The book is not full of glossy photographs, many of which we may have seen many times before, but it is full of ideas and writing, ably supported by William Brooks who provides consistent design and imagery throughout. 

The idea is fairly simple: essays exploring various aspects of Doctor Who through the lens of Philip Hinchcliffe's stories ... so we have pieces which look at Morality and Politics, the representation of disabled characters, borrowing from the classics, the Big Finish stories, Female Companions, orthodoxy, World building, ESEA characters ... and many more. The writers had a pretty free reign to approach the subjects as they wished ... and each is by different contributors, some with special knowledge of the subject in question (so the piece on disabled characters is by Alex Kingdom who suffers from cerebral palsy; and the piece on Big Finish is by Kenny Smith who produces that company's monthly free magazine). This leads to a variety of styles, ideas and points of view which makes the book refreshing ... and again reinforces the fanzine idea: this is exactly the sort of thing that fanzines did in the eighties and nineties before the internet took over.

It's a fascinating deep dive into the worlds of Doctor Who, and specifically the Doctor Who from this period.

Interspersed with the chapters are commentaries pulled from new interviews with Hinchcliffe in which he explains his thoughts and rationales around some of the subjects being discussed, and others besides. These sections are fascinating indeed.

Add to the package a special DVD containing an interview with Philip, a piece from a 2023 convention where fans recall their favourite Hinchcliffe moments, and audio commentaries for 'Genesis of the Daleks', 'Pyramids of Mars', 'The Hand of Fear' and 'The Deadly Assassin', and this is a fantastic package which should delight any fan of the series, and those who love those sixteen adventures from 'The Ark in Space' to 'The Talons of Weng-Chiang' especially.

Copies are available from https://cutawaycomics.co.uk/publications/the-dna-of-doctor-who

Review: Doctor Who Annual / Whodle / The Adventures Before

Three new Doctor Who titles from Penguin, and as usual these are all aimed at the younger set ... I'm never sure quite which age group that is, but I suspect it's the sort of 6-12 year old mark ... though of course fans of all ages may enjoy them!

First up is the 2025 Doctor Who Annual, and this year the book seems a little more 'together' than previous fare and is quite enjoyable as an overview of the previous season, plus assorted extras. We get a double page for each of the stories, written to tie in with the themes of those stories, lots of photos, some great puzzles (I loved hunting for the goblins hidden throughout the book) and other bits and pieces.

The design is smashing and really complements the written material. It's slight but visually rich and there's a lot for the young fan to enjoy here. I like the printed endpapers - very nice design - and the little novelisation by Steve Cole of Russell T Davies' Children in Need skit from 2023 featuring a non-Dalek Base-sitting Davros and the 14th Doctor getting to add a plunger arm to the first Dalek, is a nice addition.

So a great Annual this time around ... entertaining and visually exciting!

Next up is Whodle. Now I had no idea what this was, and it took me a little time to figure it out. Basically it's a book of logic puzzles. They range from Easy to Extreme, and do you know, I cannot figure a single one out!

So to take an Easy one for example: you have three 'Characters', three 'Enemies' and three 'Objects' and through a series of observations (like for example, 'Character A was holding Object B', 'Character B would never touch Object B', Character C is fond of Fruit'... you work out who was actually holding Object C (which is an Orange, for example), and this was Character C ... but you also have to figure out who is where, again through more observations. There's also a list of 'Character/Object traits' to guide you. The harder ones have more of each item, and more categories to work out.

So it's a sort of figure it out as you go thing ... ie there should only be one answer which matches all the observations and traits - ie one solution to each puzzle. It sounds tricky, and yes, I found it very tricky ... and time consuming. So if you're looking for something to make a young fan really use their grey matter and deductive skills to the max, then this might be the book for them!  There are 61 puzzles in here covering stories from every era of the show. 

It must be hard to sort this all out to create the book, and I pity the poor editor/proof reader who possibly had to solve every puzzle themselves in order to check it was all correct. And to add to the puzzlement, the authors say in the front that 'we have to deviate a little from canon', so having an encyclopaedic knowledge of Doctor Who won't necessarily help you!

Finally we have a new fiction anthology called The Adventures Before, and as it suggests, these are eight short stories which act as 'preludes' to 'the greatest adventures of the Doctor'. Hmmm ... a little hyperbole there perhaps given that the list includes 'Arc of Infinity' and 'Planet of the Dead'.

The tales are OK, but they are patchily written, and many aren't really 'preludes' at all, just another adventure which happens to be placed timewise before the one stated.

There's an odd mix here. Mark Griffiths contributes 'The Boy and the Dalek' which starts with the 2nd Doctor, Jamie and Victoria finding a lone Dalek on Skaro which shows them a story of its past, where it meets a young boy and helps it. We conclude with a surprise ending which leads into the start of 'The Daleks', the first ever Dalek story on television ... but it's a little clunky. Steve Cole's 'The Roots of Evil' is basically a retread of 'The Seeds of Doom'. A rather good tale about Scorby and a fellow heavy falling foul of another plant-based threat when they try to deliver it to Harrison Chase. Gary Russell brings us 'The Four Faces of Immortality' which is a prelude to 'The Five Doctors', and has Borusa having a sort of daydream about the other three Time Lords trapped on Rassilon's plinth at the end of the story in question. There's some nice ideas in here. Beth Axford's 'Becky's Impossible Day' is ostensibly a prelude to 'Rose', but is actually a straightforward little side adventure for the 9th Doctor. 'Smiley's Mirror Exhibit' is by Janelle McCurdy and prequels 'Planet of the Dead' and features the 10th Doctor visiting the titular attraction (which is in the same museum as Lady Christina steals the cup from at the start of said story) and rescuing a girl and her friend Jake. Finally, there's 'The Fall of Apalapucia', a prelude to 'The Girl Who Waited' by E L Norry. This is 'proper' science fiction, detailed and with alien creatures, things, environments ... all sorts. It's also hard to summarise simply: a story of the fall of a futuristic planet and its inhabitants. Probably the best in the book as it doesn't rely at all on anything from Doctor Who itself apart from the name of the planet the following story took place on.

There are two stories written by cast members. Janet Fielding (Tegan) contributes 'Little Did She Know' which follows a return trip to an evocatively described Australia by Tegan to see her father as a prelude to 'Arc of Infinity'. If anything it is more a prelude to 'Snakedance'. It also slips from past tense into present in the middle and then back again: maybe this is deliberate to try and up the tension, but it jarred with me. And Ingrid Oliver (Osgood) contributes 'The Morning of the Day of the Doctor' which pretty much tells you what it covers: Osgood's morning before the Doctor arrived on the scene in that story. Quite enjoyable, especially as The Curator (as played on telly by Tom Baker) makes another appearance.

Overall I found the collection slightly disappointing. The ideas are simple (apart from 'The Fall of Apalapucia'), and it really doesn't fulfil its stated aim of providing actual preludes to the specified stories. Again, it's aimed at young readers, so this might be the reason for the simpler plotting and writing ... but when I was young, I know I wanted material which was actually more complex to get my teeth into. 

As with the other titles reviewed here, this would make an ideal 'starter' for any young Who fan at Christmas, and as this is why Penguin are publishing this sort of book, then I'd say they succeeded!

Review: The Time-Travelling Almanac

Another title from BBC Books tying into Doctor Who is a smallish hardback tome called The Time-Travelling Almanac. 

This is something like the eleventh factual book to be authored or co-authored by Simon Guerrier, and as usual the depth of research is impressive. Simon really knows his Who and so at least we can be sure that the facts that are present are all correct.

But this is a strange beast ... it reminded me of the old Doctor Who Annuals where new stories and comics spinning off from the show sit side by side with articles on the Sun or Space Travel or Spaceships or whatever - material which actually has nothing to do with Doctor Who (aside from maybe some tangential references).

This is an Almanac, and as the introduction explains: it contains 'useful information and fun stuff to help enliven and illuminate your journey through 2025'. So we have the transmission dates of all the Doctor Who episodes to date (though a little frustratingly those with no episode number on screen have none here, so for most of the Hartnell stories, you need to know which episode title is which, for example, The Ark: 'The Steel Sky' or The Dalek Invasion of Earth: 'The Waking Ally'. It also includes the spin off series like Sarah Jane Adventures and Torchwood (and, pointing to the fact that the book is aimed at a young audience, there's a helpful note pointing out that 'Torchwood and Class are aimed at an adult audience and contain adult themes, violence and upsetting scenes' - just the same as Doctor Who does then ...)

There's birthdates of some of the cast noted, and also for some of the fictional characters (but the text doesn't distinguish between them) and also 'firsts' in Doctor Who, like the first appearance of the Daleks, of Vicki, of K9 and so on.

For the astronomy and science buffs, there's articles and entries for various real life meteor storms, comets and the like, phases of the moon, descriptions of the planets of the solar system and how and when to see them ... There's entries on decimalisation in the UK, on eclipses and equinoxes ... but there's also fiction from the worlds of Doctor Who, suggesting how the fire of London started, or when Auderly House was invaded by Daleks and Ogrons.  All of these things sit side by side ... any child reading this to perhaps research for their history homework could come up with some very interesting elements in their essays.

I have to mention too, that the gravity/mavity joke is perpetuated, with it being called mavity throughout. Even when talking about how the moon affects the tides. Again, sitting somewhat uneasily with the 'real world' information that the book also contains. 

There's some factual items in here as well, for example about some Doctor Who spin off records, or about the Guinness World Record for William Russell having the longest time between appearances as the same character in the same show (57 years and 120 days), but as with the material from the fictional side of the show, and indeed science fact, there seems to be no rhyme nor reason why some things are included and some are not. It seems a little scattergun.

However.

Given that it's clearly aimed at the young set (those who might be upset or offended by Torchwood or Class), then it is a fun and diverting book to flick through. Day by day you can see what was transmitted (and maybe crank up iPlayer to rewatch those episodes) and it may spark an interest in children to turn their gaze to the skies and watch some meteors pass by, or to try and spot Mars or Venus or Mercury in the sky (at one point the text even suggests downloading an App to help them!). 

Probably an ideal Christmas gift for the burgeoning Who Fan!

Review: Doctor Who: The Gold Archive: Invasions of Earth: A Secret History

The latest large format hardback Doctor Who title from Ebury/BBC Books is a step up from some of the recent fare. True it still focusses exclusively on the 'in universe' information, but the presentation is attractive and the content raises a smile or two along the way.

What impresses me is the breadth that the show now encompasses. My area of favour is the so-called 'classic' series, but there's many, many more episodes now from the new series, and keeping track of them all is something of a challenge! Indeed, there are a couple of characters and plotlines outlined in this tome which I simply do not remember at all! I suspect that a rewatch of the whole of New-Who is in order! (I really need a TARDIS myself!)

The 'conceit' of this book is that it's a file pulled together by Kate Lethbridge Stewart of UNIT of all the available information on all the many and varied invasions, incursions, and alien monsters which Earth had encountered over history. There's some nice tie in with The Great Serpent, and that he (and his operatives) may have corrupted and changed information over the years, and so this is a complete review and brush-up of what is termed UNIT's 'Gold Archive'.

The book breaks all these alien incursions down thematically: Prehistoric Incursions; Recurring Threats; Pre-UNIT Incursions; World Extinction Danger: Nuclear Events; Falling to Earth; Biological Hazards; Rogue Time Travel; and more, and within each presents a 'dossier' written by Kate Lethbridge Stewart, or Shirley Anne Bingham, with contributions from Ace, Tegan, Mel, Rose Noble, Christofer Ibrahim, and the robotic Vlinx (who provides succinct summaries of the various incursions). There are further pieces by the Doctor, and the text is scattered with post it notes from Kate and the Doctor and others which comment on the information within.

Pictorially it's gorgeous, and this is probably where the book wins out. The illustration is well chosen and clever, as it also uses a particular love of mine: 'faked' newspaper cuttings, memos, transcripts and so on from people involved in the various adventures. These are smashing. I only spotted one which was (to my mind anyway) 'wrong' and this was a news report of someone in Devesham finding a cache of fake 50p pieces. This is all referencing the story 'The Android Invasion' and of course the 'fake' 50ps were in the till of the pub and were found there by the Doctor and Sarah ... but this pub and village were recreations of Devesham on an alien planet, not on Earth, and so the fake coins could never have been found on Earth. These documents are also a neat way of showing UNIT's involvement in providing cover stories and so on for the various alien (or home-grown) incidents and monsters.

At 312 pages, this is a chunky tome, and there is a lot to read and digest. As I say, I'm impressed at the 'whole world' knowledge of the writers, Steve Cole and Mike Tucker, and at how they draw it all together in the various dissertations and articles within. There's even some explanations for some of the obvious 'issues' with the show: like for example why the Silurians, Sea Devils and Zygons changed their appearance, motivations, weapons and abilities between the 'classic' and 'new' Doctor Who stories to feature them (other than the production team(s) just missing the point/not realising/getting it wrong).

Although I might be in the minority for not really liking the fairly plain 'graphic' approach cover, the book is perfect for the Who fan looking to find out and read more about the in-universe happenings of UNIT. And for the more knowledgeable fan too - a refresher course on all the various UNIT/Earth related happenings over the show's 60+ year history.

The Soul Thief - by S L Howe - Interview!!

BEWARE THE SOUL THIEF

We all love a creepy novel for the winter, and 2024 brings a new, terrifying book from S L Howe. The Soul Thief is described as a Gothic Thriller, and promises to chill the bones and get you looking back over your shoulder.

The author is no stranger to the horror genre. As Sam Stone she has penned over 20 novels involving vampires, alien invasions, space zombies, a series of Young Adult novels about a Victorian Steampunk heroine, and much, much more. As Samantha Lee Howe she penned the multiple-award winning, and USA Today Bestseller The Stranger in Our Bed (also filmed and starring Samantha Bond, Emily Berrington and Ben Lloyd-Hughes) along with the acclaimed espionage thriller series The House of Killers.

‘The Soul Thief came out of my love for Gothic literature,’ explains Samantha. ‘I have been particularly influenced by 19^th Century gothic writers such as Bram Stoker, Sheridan Le Fanu and Mary Shelley. Gothic means different things to different writers but one of the outstanding features in books traditionally described as ‘Gothic’ is a sense of place: the huge manor house; the dark and dreary parsonage; the crumbling and brooding architecture; all of which were elements that feature strongly in the city of Manchester where I was born.’

The book is set in and around Victorian Manchester, in particular the author uses the real life Heaton Hall. ‘Growing up I visited Heaton Hall many times. In those days the Hall was open every day to visitors but it is now only open at certain times a year and there have been many steps taken to protect the house and the land. There was, therefore, every chance that this influential location would appear in one of my books and it was perfect as one of the locations used for The Soul Thief.’

The book follows a gentleman detective, Mitchell Bishop, and his fiancé, Laura Carter, as they investigate the strange deaths of Laura’s brother Warren and their sister Sara. They realise there is nothing natural about these deaths, and Mitchell becomes haunted by demons from his own past which may well have an influence on the present.’

‘I love writing horror,’ smiles Samantha, ‘there’s something cathartic about the process of dealing with things that scare you. I’m not afraid of old houses and exploring abandoned places: in my childhood I did both frequently; but there’s something about ghosts from the past reaching out to influence the present which is very pervasive. One of the things that has always unnerved me is demonic possession: losing control of your own body and soul. This is an element, along with some invented horror folklore, that I wanted to explore in the novel.

‘Manchester was a pivotal city during the Victorian technological boom, but also there was a great deal of crime, as there is in any major city. In this book I wanted to explore that seedy side of Victorian Manchester: prostitution; gangs; and the rise of photography, which seemed magical, in an era ready to exploit it in all ways possible.’

The Soul Thief is by S L Howe and published on 5 December 2024 by HarperCollins One More Chapter.

Signed Copies are available from Samantha's website at www.samanthaleehowe.co.uk

Review: Trick 'r Treat (2007)

At this time of year (October) there's often people asking what the best film for Halloween is ... and my answer is usually Trick 'r Treat ... it's not a well known film, but deserves to be much well known, as it's simply awesome!

First of all, it's an anthology film, telling four stories much in the same way as the old Amicus gems like The Vault of Horror, The House that Dripped Blood and Asylum.  There's a linking narrative which brackets the stories, and they're all set at Halloween.  But what Trick 'r Treat does so well is to combine the stories so that a) they're all taking place on the same night but also b) that they are intermingled with each other, so you see elements of a different story (the characters etc) while one of the stories is playing out ... it's a very clever way of bringing all the different aspects together into one satisfying whole. Director Michael Dougherty has done an amazing job with this, his first feature.

So we open with a couple, Emma (Leslie Bibb) and Henry (Tahmoh Penikett), returning from a party ... he is dressed as a Buck Rogers-like spaceman and she is dressed as a robot. They're being watched by something.  She blows out the candle in the pumpkin outside their house ... bad move as it happens as it leads to her being slaughtered and added to the Halloween decorations in the garden.

Then there's the local principal of the high school, Wilkins (Dylan Baker), who catches a lad, Charlie (Brett Kelly), destroying lanterns and stealing candy. He gets poisoned by some candy and then his head used as a gruesome pumpkin jack-o-lantern by Wilkins and his son Billy (Connor Levins). But the principal has another secret ... he likes to dress as a vampire and go out killing on this night ... wouldn't it be a shame if he came up against something bigger and stronger than himself ...

There's a group of gorgeous feisty girls, Laurie (Anna Paquin), Danielle (Lauren Lee Smith), Maria (Rochelle Aytes) and Janet (Moneca Delain), who are all out for a good time ... so they get costumes to party in and head off to pick up some boys, and then into the woods ... but what might be happening in the woods ... and why shouldn't you go down there ...

Next door to the principal is a grumpy old man, Mr. Kreeg (Brian Cox), who hates the season and hides indoors with his dog ... but he has secrets too, and Sam Hain (Quinn Lord) comes calling, wanting his candy treats ...

Finally there's a group of younger kids, Macy (Britt McKillip), Chip (Alberto Ghisi), Schrader (Jean-Luc Bilodeau), and Sara (Isabelle Deluce), along with 'Halloween traditionalist' Rhonda (Samm Todd), who head to a local sinkhole lake. Legend has it that years ago a busload of mentally disabled children was driven into the hole by the bus driver ... he survived but all the children were killed.  The youngsters descend into the sinkhole with jack-o-lanterns to summon the dead children ... and it seems their plan works!

But guess who the bus driver is?  You got it ... Mr Kreeg ... and his come-uppance will soon be with him ...

Overall it's a stylish and slick piece of filmmaking. I love how the stories interact and overlap, with characters from one seen in the backgrounds and interacting in others. The plots are smashing too and intersect neatly, allowing all the bad guys (and some innocents) to get their desserts ...

There's cracking performances from the main leads, in particular Brian Cox as Mr Kreeg ... but also kudos to little Sam: the pumpkin-headed kids romper-suit wearing wraith who moves through all the action. A great visual and very well realised.

If you're looking for a great Halloween watch, I highly recommend Trick 'r Treat.  Just keep those lanterns alight, and always have some candy to offer ...

Special Edition released 28th October from Arrow Films

4K ULTRA HD BLU-RAY LIMITED EDITION CONTENTS

• Brand new 4K restoration by Arrow Films, approved by writer-director Michael Dougherty
• 4K (2160p) Ultra HD Blu-ray presentation in Dolby Vision (HDR10 compatible)
• Original DTS-HD MA 5.1 surround and 2.0 stereo audio
• Optional English subtitles for the deaf and hard of hearing
• Brand new audio commentary with writer-director Michael Dougherty moderated by James A. Janisse & Chelsea Rebecca from Dead Meat Podcast
• Archival audio commentary by Michael Dougherty, conceptual artist Breehn Burns, storyboard artist Simeon Wilkins and composer Douglas Pipes
• Becoming Sam, a brand new interview with actor Quinn Lord
• The Devil is in the Details, a brand new interview with production designer Mark Freeborn
• If Looks Could Kill, a brand new interview with director of photography Glen MacPherson
• Designs to Die for, a brand new interview with costume designer Trish Keating
• Bark at the Moon, a brand new interview with creature designer Patrick Tatopoulos
• Mark Freeborn Remembers Bill Terezakis, a new tribute to the late make-up effects designer
• Tales of Folklore & Fright, an archival featurette with Michael Dougherty, Breehn Burns and Simeon Wilkins
• Tales of Mischief & Mayhem: Filming Trick 'r Treat, an archival interview with Michael Dougherty on the making of the film
• Sounds of Shock & Superstition: Scoring Trick 'r Treat, an archival featurette with Michael Dougherty and Douglas Pipes
• Tales of Dread & Despair: Releasing Trick 'r Treat, an archival featurette with Michael Dougherty and Rob Galluzzo of the Shock Waves podcast, exploring the film's release and fandom
• Season's Greetings, a short film from 1996 directed by Michael Dougherty with optional director commentary
• The Lore and Legends of Halloween, an archival featurette narrated by actor Brian Cox
• School bus VFX comparison
• Deleted and alternate scenes with optional commentary by director Michael Dougherty
• FEARnet promos
• Sam O'Lantern
• Storyboard and conceptual artwork gallery
• Behind the scenes gallery
• Monster Mash comic book set in the Trick 'r Treat universe
• Trailer
• Reversible sleeve featuring original and newly commissioned artwork by Sara Deck
• Double-sided foldout poster featuring original and newly commissioned artwork by Sara Deck
• Six postcard-sized artcards
• Illustrated collector's booklet featuring new writing on the film by Becky Darke and Heather Wixson

Review: The Exorcist II

ArrowVideo brings us a new High Definition release of John Boorman's The Exorcist II: The Heretic ... as usual it has some smashing features and lovely packaging (which sadly I don't get to see in the flesh as the reviewer - they just send the disks!

I was never that enamoured with The Exorcist II ... nor to be honest with The Exorcist. I feel it has been overhyped over the years and it just an ok film to be honest. I prefer my horror with monsters, and the 'possession' genre just doesn't do it for me.

In this film we have Richard Burton as the priest Lamont, who is suffering from a lack of faith when an exorcism of his own fails. The Vatican send him to investigate the death and life of Father Merrin (Max Von Sydow from the first film) due to his blasphemous writings. The film has Linda Blair as Regan again, four years on but suffering from the aftereffects of her possession.

The first part of the film is OK, following the impacts and effect of the possession on the people around Regan, but then it goes all trippy and explores belief and other surreal imagery as Lamont is tempted by the demon Pazuzu and goes on a sort of 'Walkabout' to explore the nature of religion and faith and locusts and how to banish the demon ... I guess Boorman was trying to do something different to the first film, and he certainly manages that ... but whether it's good different or bad different is another question.

The score is great - Ennio Morricone at his best - and the performances are good.  It's just that the film fails to engage.

I read that it was not well received at the time and I can see why ... it's just not what fans of The Exorcist were expecting.

However for fans of the genre and of the work of John Boorman, this is an excellent print with some great extra material.

Available 7 October 2024

LIMITED EDITION CONTENTS

• High Definition (1080p) Blu-ray presentations of the 118-minute Original Premiere Version and the 103-minute International Version
• Original lossless mono audio
• Optional English subtitles for the deaf and hard of hearing
• Reversible sleeve featuring original and newly commissioned artwork by Peter Savieri
• Illustrated collector's booklet featuring new writing by film critics Alexandra Heller-Nicholas, Glenn Kenny and Matt Rogerson, plus an archival interview with cinematographer William Fraker

DISC ONE - ORIGINAL PREMIERE VERSION

• New commentary by film historian Lee Gambin and filmmaker David Kittredge, director of the forthcoming feature-length Exorcist II documentary, Heretics
• New audio commentary by screenwriter and author Kelly Goodner and film historian Jim Hemphill
• Archive audio commentary with director John Boorman
• Archive audio commentary with special consultant Scott Michael Bosco
• It's Okay, He's Gone, a new visual essay by film critics BJ and Harmony Colangelo
• What Does She Remember?, an archive interview with actress with Linda Blair
• Archive interview with editor Tom Priestley
• Theatrical trailer
• Teaser trailer
• Extensive image galleries

DISC TWO - INTERNATIONAL VERSION

• Archive audio commentary by film critic Mike White of The Projection Booth podcast
• Theatrical trailer