Innholdsfortegnelse for Issue 153 i SciFi Now

Another year comes to a close and the lists of the very best of 2018 are amassing, and what a year it’s been. Marvel established dominance yet again with the one-two punch of Black Panther and Infinity War, Deadpool 2 showed that actually sometimes the joke is funnier the second time around, and Venom proved to everyone that sometimes dismal reviews don’t stop you from absolutely smashing box office records. We had some great franchise revivals (Jamie Lee Curtis’ return in Halloween was a triumph) and some not-so-great (we’re still not sure how The Predator ended up being quite such a mess). Our current golden period of horror was cemented critically (hands up everyone who’s not over Hereditary), commercially (The Nun, Insidious: The Last Key, The First Purge, etc) and…

What can people expect from the balance of sci-fi and humour this year? “The comedy comes from the real moments now, instead of trying to be like a modern comeback or something trying to fit in. It comes from the personalities of the people, and with the science fiction we’re leaning toward darker storylines. People might say it was funnier last year, but we’re hoping that people who enjoy the show will be satisfied with the futuristic storylines we’re going to be telling. It’s above and beyond, I’m telling you, the science fiction. It’s a little darker, but it’ll be funny because of the characters.” Season One told episodic stories – will that continue in Season Two or will season-long arcs be introduced? “We’ll have more arcs, more double episodes…

THE CHILLING ADVENTURES OF SABRINA 14 December 2018 A new episode of The Chilling Adventures Of Sabrina arrives on Netflix, celebrating what we would call the shortest day of the year. For witches, it is the longest night of the year, the Winter Solstice, and it’s celebrated with all the singing and eating you’d expect from a pagan holiday. The episode will see Sabrina’s family celebrate the solstice while she attempts a séance to communicate with her dead mother. ZOG Christmas Day From the makers of The Gruffalo and Room On The Broom comes the BBC’s 2018 children’s animated adventure, Zog, based on the book by Julia Donaldson and Axel Scheffler, about a dragon who’s having a little trouble with dragon school. Featuring the voices of Lenny Henry, Hugh Skinner,…

BEST FILM CHILD’S PLAY What is it about empty warehouses that sends shivers down your spine? The new poster for the Child’s Play reboot takes full advantage of that, plus the scare factors that come with dusty spotlights, dark shadows and windows that you can’t quite see into, to create a poster with the power to chill you to the core. The doll is the scariest thing about Child’s Play, but we don’t even need to see him to come away feeling cold. That’s pretty impressive. RUNNER UP 1 DETECTIVE PIKACHU You might miss him at a first glance but Pikachu is still the star in this exciting noir-style poster for Detective Pikachu. RUNNER UP 2 ARTEMIS FOWL Disney is going big with its Artemis Fowl marketing campaign. This cool…

01. Gambit Created: 1990 First on-screen appearance: 1992 (X-Men animated series) Current status of film: Channing Tatum has been attached to produce and star since 2014, and since then the film has gained – and lost – three directors. Producer Simon Kinberg claims that a final script is ready – with the movie’s tone being a rom-com with heist elements – and the film is due to start filming early next year. It has a release date of 13 March 2020, despite there still being no director confirmed. Lea Seydoux was cast as the female lead, Bella Donna Boudreaux, in 2015, but it’s unclear if she’s still attached. Chances of making it to the screen: Strong, ma chère. We’ll get there eventually. 02. Cyborg Created: 1980 First on-screen appearance: 1985…

2000 Unbreakable is released. 2004 Samuel L Jackson voices superhero Frozone in The Incredibles. 2005 Bruce Willis appears in comic book movie Sin City. 2008 Samuel L Jackson first appears as Nick Fury in Iron Man. 2010 M Night Shyamalan makes The Last Airbender as he moves temporarily into making family films. 2011 James McAvoy plays a superpowered person for the first time in X-Men: First Class. 2011 Sarah Paulson makes her first appearance in American Horror Story. 2015 Shyamalan moves back into making thrillers with The Visit. 2016 Split is released, and shortly after Shyamalan announces Glass. 2017 Anya Taylor-Joy’s casting in The New Mutants is announced. 2019 Glass is released.…

Your wish can’t kill anybody, so don’t ask. Your wish can’t make anybody fall in love with anybody else. Your wish can’t bring people back from the dead. It’s not a pretty picture… WISH NUMBER THREE: No autotune Emma Watson was a wonderful Belle but hearing the autotune sort of takes you out of the magic. WISH NUMBER TWO: Big musical numbers If it doesn’t go the whole hog with swans, jewels and dance troupes for ‘Prince Ali’, we’re walking. WISH NUMBER ONE: No Guy Ritchie grit We get that grit has become a part of Guy Ritchie’s identity, but we really don’t need it in Aladdin.…

Angela Lansbury, Mary Martin and Bette Davis were all considered for the role of Mary Poppins for the original film, while Cary Grant was Walt Disney’s favourite for Bert. Songwriter Robert Sherman suggested Julie Andrews after seeing her perform a song from Camelot on The Ed Sullivan Show. Julie Andrews almost turned down the role, hoping to be cast as Eliza Doolittle in Warner’s My Fair Lady film, having originated the role on Broadway. When Warner decided to go with Audrey Hepburn instead, Andrews decided to take Disney up on the offer. The Sherman Brothers wrote 30 songs for the original Mary Poppins . One cut song titled ‘The Beautiful Briny’ eventually made it into Disney’s Bedknobs And Broomsticks, which also starred David Tomlinson, while ‘Land Of Sand’ was recycled…

ANNIHILATION In Alex Garland’s adaptation of Jeff VanderMeer’s novel, the gorgeous and grotesque live side-by-side and the rules of nature do not apply. Natalie Portman plays a scientist sent to explore a new world packed full of mutations and hybrids and towards the end of the film comes face to face with herself for a surreal dance sequence. ENEMY Denis Villeneuve turns José Saramago’s Kafkaesque tale of two male doppelgangers into a film about fear of fatherhood. Jake Gyllenhaal plays the dual role of a man who spots his look-alike in a movie and goes on the search to find his more successful counterpart. BUFFY In ‘Doppelgangland’ an evil, blood-sucking version of Willow sprouts to life to stalk the streets of Sunnydale after she is tricked into summoning her vampire-self…

CUBE (1997) If Saw took place inside one of Pinhead’s puzzle boxes, you’d have something close to the weirdness of Cube. Several strangers wake up inside a cube made of lots of little cubes, some of which are booby-trapped. Gripping tension and some entertaining gore make Natali’s first one of his finest. NOTHING (2003) Cube’s David Hewlett and Andrew Miller star as housemates having an especially bad day in this Gilliam-esque comedy-drama. After the world outside their house is replaced by a blank white void, the housemates’ friendship is severely tested. Minimalist, inventive, and philosophical, Nothing is classic Natali. SPLICE (2009) Natali’s first major studio release, Splice sees genetic engineers Adrien Brody and Sarah Polley create life – but not as we know it. Part creature-feature, part family drama, and…

Release Out now Directors Rich Moore, Phil Johnston Cast John C Reilly, Sarah Silverman, Gal Gadot, Taraji P Henson, Jack McBrayer, Jane Lynch Distributor Walt Disney Studios Certificate PG Having spent the last six years following the same routine with her best pal Ralph (John C Reilly), spirited video game character Vanellope (Sarah Silverman) has grown tired of her predictable life. While Ralph is perfectly content watching every sunrise, working all day and downing root beers each night, Vanellope longs for more. It’s an intriguing concept – an arcade creation having an existential crisis - and when Vanellope’s game Sugar Rush gets unplugged and she’s found without a home or purpose, it looks as if that’ll be the story’s driver. To some extent it is, but when she and Ralph…

Release Out now Director Boots Riley Cast Lakeith Stanfield, Tessa Thompson, Jermaine Fowler Distributor Universal Certificate 15 American rapper Boots Riley’s debut feature film is funny from the outset as it satirises workplace matters, capitalism and corporate corruption. Set in an alternate reality in Oakland, California a young African-American telemarketer, Cassius Green, adopts a ‘white voice’ to rise in the ranks at his office. As he reaches the apex of his career he realises how harmful his actions are to the wider society and what an ugly place it can be when you reach the top. In this universe, everything is a little bit off, with Riley’s world-building envisioning a surreal and shockingly dark timeline. There’s the ‘Worry Free’ facility, which houses low income workers in cramped rooms and essentially…

Release 26 December Director Jonathan Baker, Josh Baker Cast Myles Truitt, Jack Reynor, Zoe Kravitz, James Franco Distributor Lionsgate Home Entertainment Certificate 15 Format • There’s an awful lot of potential in the debut feature from Jonathan and Josh Baker, as young Eli (Myles Truitt) finds a mysterious otherworldly weapon shortly before going on the run with his older brother Jimmy (Jack Reynor), and it’s easy to see how it attracted such a strong cast. With the exception of the gun, there’s an emphasis on the grim and gritty, from the family’s hard scrabble life under stern but loving dad (Dennis Quaid) to the low-rent thugs that are on their tail, led by a scuzzily excellent James Franco.…

Release Out now Director Stephen Susco Cast Colin Woodell, Stephanie Nogueras, Betty Gabriel Distributor Universal Pictures Certificate 15 Format • In a change of direction from the teen supernatural horror of the original, this sequel grounds itself in the real world with a group of 20-somethings gathering behind their computer screens to play an online game of Cards Against Humanity. It toys with timely political issues and is inspired by online black market the Silk Road. Tapping into anxieties about the manipulation of facts and images in the digital age, this cyber-horror is interested in observing the impact our online lives, and the sharing of information, has on our day-to-day lives. It suggests that no one is safe from being the target of malicious propaganda, humiliation and threatening behaviour and…

Release Out now Creator Noelle Stevenson Cast Aimee Carrero, Karen Fukuhara, AJ Michalka, Marcus Scribner Distributor Netflix Certificate PG Format VOD Adapted by comic artist Noelle Stevenson, She-Ra And The Princesses Of Power follows the Eighties show on which it’s based closely, only in the sense that it’s about a young woman who was raised by a tyrant, and leads a rebellion against his Evil Horde after she discovers she can transform into a superheroine when in possession of a mystical sword. This time, she doesn’t have a brother in He-Man – this girl’s saving the world on her own. Well, not all on her own. Perhaps the greatest thing about She-Ra is how much it champions friendship. Even snarky antagonist Catra has a history with the titular character that…

Release Out now Writer Brandon Sanderson Publisher Gollancz Price £18.99 Throughout Skyward, the latest novel from the versatile and prolific author Brandon Sanderson and the start of his latest series, everyone is very concerned about the idea of the correct way to behave and the right way to be. Young Spensa has always known that she wanted to be a pilot, to fly with honour and bravery and to strike terror into the hearts of the alien Krell before blowing their ships to pieces. She will not waver in her mission, she will not back down and she will not let anyone stand in her way. But there’s a problem. Spensa’s father was a pilot but he was also a coward, shot down while running away from the enemy during…

Release Out now Writer Various Publisher Tramp Press Price £12 Think ‘classic science fiction’ author and there’s a chance you may not immediately think of those hailing from Ireland. You probably haven’t heard of any of the 15 writers included in this collection, either: William Maginn, Fitz-James O’Brien, Frances Power Cobbe, George William Russell, Amelia Garland Mears, Margaret Wolfe Hungerford, Jane Barlow, LT Meade, Robert Eustace, Clotilde Graves, Charlotte McManus, Dorothy Macardle, Art Ó Riain, Tarlach Ó Huid, and Cathal Ó Sándair. But that’s precisely the point of Jack Fennell’s book. This anthology is intended to shine a light on some forgotten works, and to demonstrate that when it comes to imagining the future, Irish storytellers could conjure up new worlds with the best of them. The oldest story in…

Release Out now Writer James Lovegrove Publisher Titan Books Price £16.99 When Captain Malcolm Reynolds of the Firefly-class spaceship Serenity disappears on a seemingly routine job, his crew are tasked with tracking him down, whilst also transporting some hazardous cargo and avoiding the authorities on their tail. Mal, meanwhile, is forced to confront the sins of his past. Though a return to the Firefly universe is very welcome, this novel suffers from an apparent misunderstanding of its target audience. Even the most hardcore fans will find themselves worn down by the Wiki-esque references to past adventures in the opening pages, while newcomers are likely to be put off by the weight of weirdly specific details. Once the story kicks into gear, it’s more fun, as we get an alternative perspective…

There are certain preconceptions that come with military SF. We tend to think of ultraviolent, gung-ho space marine-types blasting away at anonymous aliens and mindlessly throwing away their lives. Of course, given that The Light Brigade comes from Kameron Hurley, author of The Stars Are Legion and The Geek Feminist Revolution, we know that we’re in for something different. Springing from a short story, the novel follows a recruit named Dietz as she joins the corporate corps and heads off to fight, but an accident that occurs during a jump will leave her questioning not only her sanity but the nature of this conflict. What was the starting point for the original The Light Brigade short story? I tend to start my pieces with only broad strokes of knowledge about…

You published your biography of your father in 2013. What made you decide to write it after all this time? “I actually started another book years ago after he died. I couldn’t finish it as I still hadn’t even begun to navigate that minefield of grief. There were three reasons I finally wrote the memoir: 1. Because, like my dad, I find writing cathartic and still grieving all these years later, I needed to write it out; 2. I wanted to learn more about my dad’s professional life, and 3. To dispel rumours, offensive assertions characterising my dad as this dark and tortured person. That could not be further removed from the man I, and all his friends, knew. I wanted the public – those who have done so much…

Commencing her career as a child actress in television, before being cast as 13-year old Cathy Brenner in Alfred Hitchcock’s classic The Birds, Veronica Cartwright has carved out an impressively prolific career as a character actor over the past five decades. Notable genre roles subsequently included classics like Ridley Scott’s original Alien, Phillip Kaufman’s superior 1978 remake to Invasion Of The Body Snatchers and George Miller’s The Witches Of Eastwick, along with a slew of scene-stealing guest appearances in TV shows like The X-Files. We talk to the award-winning actress about working with the great master of suspense, being originally considered for the role of Ripley in Alien, how equally surprised she was by the twist ending of Invasion Of The Body Snatchers and reveal how often she plays the…

COMET 1. How old is Reggie Belmont? 2. What is the name of Reggie and Sam’s stepmother? 3. What kind of metal protects the sisters from the effects of the comet? 4. What videogame does Reggie play at the start of the film? 5. Who has the sixth highest score on the game? CUPID 6. At the start of the film, what event has not occurred for 65 million years? 7. What is the new legal drinking age, according to Sam’s radio broadcast? 8. What type of guns do Reggie and Sam use for target practice? 9. In which US state is the film set? 10. What was the occupation of Reggie’s boyfriend Larry? DONNER 11. What does Audrey White inject Sam with to make it look like she’s dead?…

See how you did with our arbitrary scoring system 16-20 REGGIE You may only be a teenager, but the burden of civilisation has fallen upon you. It’s nothing you can’t handle, though, as you’ve been training your whole life for a doomsday situation (through playing videogames). 11-15 SAMANTHA You pretend to be tougher than you are, which means you’re not great at handling catastrophic events. However, after a quick cry, you’re back on top form, and can talk your way out of most tough situations. 6-10 THE ZOMBIE Like the zombie that kills off Reggie’s boyfriend, you’re brainless. You don’t really know what you’re doing. You may look threatening but you can also be outsmarted by a teenager on a motorcycle. 0-5 DORIS You think you’re hot but you’re kind…

Q. What was your favourite genre movie of 2018? Jonathan Hatfull Editor A. Hereditary It’s so profoundly upsetting, I felt awful after watching it in the best way. Toni Collette shreds. Abigail Chandler Deputy Editor A. Spider-Man: Into The Spider-Verse Ambitious, funny, charming and heartfelt - what a great film. Poppy-Jay Palmer News Editor A. Coco Not a single shot that doesn’t leave me wanting to tear out my heart and mail it to my loved ones. Marcus Faint Art Editor A. Avengers: Infinity War It could have gone so very wrong and yet it ended up being so very right. Rachael Harper Sub Editor A. A Quiet Place Great story, great scares, great suspense and a great cinematic experience!…

FEW PEOPLE CAN be said to have created an entire universe, but Stan Lee did just that. Along with such legendary artists as Jack Kirby and Steve Ditko, Lee contributed more characters and worlds to the pop culture landscape than just about anyone else. Spider-Man is his most lauded creation, but that’s barely scratching the surface. Born in 1922 in Manhattan and spending most of his childhood in The Bronx, Stanley Martin Lieber was the son of Romanian Jewish immigrants. Stanley was a voracious reader who loved movies and dreamt of being a serious writer – so it was with some reluctance that he took a job working for Timely Comics at 17, later going on to be a writer at the company that would eventually be renamed Marvel. He…

Rumours of Jordan Peele’s involvement in a Candyman reboot had been circling like a swarm of bees, and happily it turns out that the rumours are true. Not only that, but the project has already found itself a director: Nia DaCosta, the filmmaker behind crime drama Little Woods, starring Tessa Thompson and Lily James. Peele, the director of Get Out and upcoming social horror-thriller Us, is producing the project through his Monkeypaw Productions banner, with MGM producing and financing the film, and Universal handling domestic theatrical distribution. Production is expected to begin in spring 2019. “The original was a landmark film for black representation in the horror genre,” Peele said in a statement. “Alongside Night Of The Living Dead, Candyman was a major inspiration for me as a filmmaker —…

Alita: Battle Angel seemed like the perfect fit for director Robert Rodriguez, a longtime fan of all things anime. “I’ve been into this stuff forever,” he tells us. “I started as a cartoonist, so I was always buying art and graphic novels. I’ve been tracing and drawing since I was 12. I would always be inspired by it.” Whenever Rodriguez visited Japan on business, he would return home with heaps of manga and anime, titles that hadn’t yet made it to the west. His passion for the genre has been going strong ever since, which is why he was so keen to get involved with James Cameron’s latest film — an adaptation of Yukito Kishiro’s manga series Battle Angel Alita — when he was presented with the script. “What spoke…

How exactly is Credence Albus Dumbledore’s brother? Why was he being taken to America? And does Albus know about him? Will Queenie be saved? The second film’s most heartbreaking twist was Queenie being manipulated to the dark side – will her and Jacob ever make it work? How does Nagini become Voldemort’s hench-snake? She’s a good person in Crimes Of Grindelwald, so how does she become the embodiment of evil?…

DISNEY LIKES TO TAKE ITS SWEET TIME WHEN IT COMES TO SEQUELS. The studio waited 41 years after the release of 101 Dalmatians before putting out 101 Dalmatians 2, and the wait was longer still for the sequels to Lady And The Tramp (45 years), Peter Pan (49 years), Cinderella (51 years) and Bambi (64 years). However, all of those sequels were straight-to-video affairs. There were no grand premieres, no tie-in merchandise, and no expectations whatsoever. Mary Poppins Returns is a different matter entirely. Since the original film was released in 1964, there has been a 54-year gap to get a sequel together, but the sequel isn’t about to sneak out on DVD. It’s gigantic. Anyone who follows film knows it’s happening. It has all the bells and whistles, and…

A DARK-HAIRED WOMAN CLASPS TWO YOUNG CHILDREN CLOSE TO HER CHEST. She has dirt under her nails and seems to be protecting the kids from a danger just out of frame, a danger that we cannot see and that she wants neither herself nor the children to see – all three are blindfolded. “Sometimes, as a director, you get involved because of a storyline or character; this time, it was this specific image which got me intrigued,” director Susanne Bier explains. This striking image is on the poster for Bird Box, her first foray into more fantastical, less realistic territory. A survivalist drama as edgy and exciting as any hunger game. The film opens on Malorie (played by Sandra Bullock) explaining to the two young children that they are about…

As with all superhero shows, costumes play a big part – especially when you’re trying to bring an iconic costume off the page. The costumes for the Titans were certainly a mixed bag for the cast. Brenton Thwaites describes his Robin costume as “very ‘active’ friendly. I could do all my own stunts in it.” Which is a lot more than could be said of the other characters: “Hawk can barely scratch his arse in his costume!” Thwaites laughs. Alan Ritchson certainly had a tough time with his Hawk costume, which is faithful to the comics but next to impossible to wear. He tells us it “used to be put together with bolts because the cape is so heavy, the cape is 30 pounds or something. “Those wings have steel…

Release 12 December Directors Bob Persichetti, Peter Ramsey, Rodney Rothman Cast Shameik Moore, Jake Johnson, Hailee Steinfeld, Mahershala Ali, Liev Schreiber Distributor Sony Certificate PG Comic books and animated movies are clearly a match made in heaven, and yet we can’t remember ever seeing anything like Spider-Man: Into The Spider-Verse before. The scale of it, the visual inventiveness, the heart and the humour – this film is the closest we’ve yet managed to get to a comic book come alive. And it’s brilliant. The film gracefully leaps the ‘oh no, not another Spider-Man’ movie hurdle by focusing on Miles Morales, a regular kid from Brooklyn who gets bitten by that famous radioactive spider. When Peter Parker as we know him does show up, it’s a shambolic Peter who’s pushing 40…

Release Out now Director John Carpenter Cast Kurt Russell, Adrienne Barbeau, Donald Pleasence, Roddy Piper, Tom Atkins Distributor Studiocanal Certificate Various Format While the chances of John Carpenter stepping back behind the camera to direct another feature grow slim, the influence he has over genre cinema grows more pronounced. These four beautifully restored classics are some of the master’s most ambitious efforts and are essential purchases for any fan (which is all of us, really, isn’t it?) There are the classical ghost story chills of The Fog, the badass dystopian thrills of Escape From New York, the perennially underappreciated Prince Of Darkness and the quotable social commentary of They Live. Each comes loaded with a commentary, a hefty documentary and various interviews, vintage featurettes and bits of arcana. The Fog…

Release Out now Director Hayao Miyazaki Cast Noriko Hidaka, Chika Sakamoto, Shigesato Itoi, Sumi Shimamoto Distributor Studiocanal Certificate U Trying to pick your favourite Studio Ghibli film is like trying to pick your favourite child, but if we were really backed against a wall and forced to choose, the chances are good that we’d go with My Neighbour Totoro. Miyazaki’s beautifully sweet, gentle and heartfelt tale of two children who find and befriend a giant fluffy woodland spirit while their mother is ill in the hospital is endlessly rewatchable. With its deceptive simplicity and graceful fantasy, it just never loses a drop of magic. The music, the design, the sequence at the bus stop… it’s one of the filmmaker’s best, and that is no small feat. While the disc in…

Release Out now Showrunner Ryan Murphy, Brad Falchuk Cast Sarah Paulson, Evan Peters, Billie Lourd, Kathy Bates, Adina Porter, Cody Fern, Jessica Lange Distributor FX Certificate 18 Format VOD American Horror Story’s latest season centres on the idea of foreseeing death and destruction and putting a plan in place to prevent it. Combining elements from ‘Murder House’ and ‘Coven’ for ‘Apocalypse’, it revolves around Antichrist Michael Langdon, whose desire to bring about the end of days can only be stopped by witch Cordelia Foxx and her magic mates. Kicking off with the titular event, it later jumps back in time to explore what lengths the spellbinding sisters took to thwart it. It’s basically Final Destination, only more ridiculous as it unravels clumsily towards a meaningless conclusion. Newbies Mallory (Billie Lourd)…

1. Blood Cruise “Splattery vampiric madness on a cruise ship, with a (fictional) Eurovision singer as a main character, how could I not love it? #BookClub” @ SarahDobbs 2. The Water Cure “ The Water Cure by Sophie Mackintosh. A dark fantasy packed full of dread and truth.” @Ms_K_McLaughlin 3. The 7 1/2 Deaths Of Evelyn Hardcastle “Described to me as ‘Poirot meets Groundhog Day’. An excellent page-turner! #BookClub” @ sometimesmovies 4. The Ember Blade “ The Ember Blade, The Quantum Thief and The Traitor God....but the competition has been ferocious. #BookClub” @gavingsmith 5. Revenant Gun “Yoon Ha Lee’s trilogy-ending Revenant Gun is one I just don’t want to finish and JY Yang’s output has been A GREAT TIME. #BookClub” @EwaSR…

“Older book, but I’m working my way through The Dirty Streets Of Heaven by Tad Williams. Bobby Dollar kinda reminds me of Harry Dresden. With less fire. #BookClub” @coffee_heathen “I’m over half way through the new @michaelcarey191 book, Someone Like Me. It’s a page turner! #BookClub” @MrsHirez “Reading The Light Between Worlds. It’s such a brilliant and simple idea, I wish I’d thought of it. #BookClub” @gray_books “In to the final 100 pages of Halcyon by @Rio_Youers. Simultaneously wanting to find out how it plays out and dreading getting to the end. Shaping up to be one of my favourite reads of the year. #BookClub” @Rozza1210 “I’m reading Sea Of Rust by@Massawyrm. Half way through and thoroughly enjoying its take on AI. #BookClub” @CamJohnston “Just finished The End Of Magic…

Sisters of majesty Release 10 January Writer Mimi Yu Publisher Gollancz Price £10.99 Two sisters find themselves on opposite sides when their father, the Emperor dies. Lu is expected to inherit the throne, but before his passing, her father declares her cousin Set as his heir, with Lu as his betrothed. She goes on the run, leaving young sister Min behind, who discovers she has a power that is possibly the key to Set’s plans. Lu finds an ally in Nokhai and they set off for the city of Yunis, which is also the focus of Set and Min. Fantasy literature is rife with usurped heirs and in Mimi Yu’s debut, she doesn’t stray too far from well-known tropes. However, Yu creates a rich East Asian-inspired environment where her characters…

IN MICHAEL CHABON’S The Amazing Adventures Of Kavalier And Clay, arguably the author’s greatest work to date, a young refugee from Prague and his New Yorker cousin create The Escapist, a comic book superhero who faces up against the fascists and stands up for what’s right, rescuing the people who need his help the most. In Robert A Heinlein’s Starship Troopers, possibly the author’s best known and most controversial work, a young man named Johnny Rico signs up to fight for the homeland against the swarming bugs, becoming a better man for putting aside his sense of self and embracing his status as a heavily-armed Roughneck. One is a sensitive, heartfelt story of two men growing up and learning to accept themselves that doubles as a loving tribute to the…

Nineteen years after Serling’s death, two ‘new’, previously lost, stories finally found themselves in front of the camera. Twilight Zone: Rod Serling’s Lost Classics was a 1994 TV movie consisting of an unmade story outline for the original Twilight Zone run, and a script that Serling had penned in 1968 (four years after The Twilight Zone ended). Richard Matheson was tasked with turning Serling’s story, titled ‘The Theatre’, into a full screenplay, with the other script, ‘Where The Dead Are’, reaching the screen just as Serling had intended. Playing like a delayed coda to the original series, Rod Serling’s Lost Classics features the sonorously voiced James Earl Jones as the Serling-like narrator, with Jack Palance (who’d headlined Serling’s 1956 play, ‘Requiem For A Heavyweight’) also headlining ‘Where The Dead Are’.…

Imagine being 13-years-old and moving from the hustle and bustle of New Jersey to a small Midwestern town with a population of 16,661. Imagine then finding out that the small, apparently inconspicuous town is home to all manner of weirdness, oddballs and sinister goings-on. Welcome to Marshall Teller’s world. Welcome to Eerie, Indiana. This is a small town where Elvis lives on Marshall’s paper round, Bigfoot eats out of his trash and the local werewolf is, knowingly, called Mr Chaney. The freaky thing, however, is that apart from Marshall and his nine-year-old sidekick, Simon Hughes, the rest of Eerie seem to be oblivious to just how strange their little corner of America is. Investigating ghosts, visitors from other dimensions and unidentified flying objects is all in a day’s work for…

WE’LL BE HONEST, when Family Guy creator Seth MacFarlane announced he was making a space exploration show, we were expecting a Star Trek parody. Instead we got a warmly funny homage to the great space exploration shows (and yes, especially Star Trek), that boasts brilliant sci-fi stories alongside engaging drama. It’s not what we were expecting, but we should have known better. “You only have to follow Seth on social media to realise that he’s a very conscientious observer of the world,” says Mark Jackson, who plays alien robot Isaac in the show. “He has very worthy opinions on the political and socio-economic happenings in America and the world as a whole, but that combined with his passion for sci-fi… meant that we were definitely always going to get the…

Stan Lee was such a huge part of the comics industry that he even defined a specific style of creating comics that’s known as ‘the Marvel Method’. Rather than writing full scripts then handing them to an artist, Lee would give his artist a story synopsis – sometimes detailed, sometimes little more than an outline discussed over the phone – and then he would add dialogue, captions and sound effects to the artist’s finished work. This has led to some disputes over the years as to who created characters; the artist or the writer. Because of how Marvel (and comics in general) worked at the time, artists were doing ‘jobs for hire’ and so weren’t given the credit they deserved. Later in life, Lee acknowledged the work of his artistic…

You’ll often find people complaining about ‘safe’ films but no one ever felt totally safe watching a Nicolas Roeg film. The filmmaker had a remarkable eye for dazzling visuals, making his start as a cinematographer on movies like The Masque Of The Red Death and Fahrenheit 451. His 1970 directorial debut Performance (co-directed with Donald Cammell) was a gloriously disorienting and challenging psychological trip that confused and enraged the studio. It was the first film in an incredible run that included Walkabout (1971), Don’t Look Now (1973) and The Man Who Fell To Earth (1976). The latter was subsequently recently given a beautiful restoration, allowing a new generation to discover the uncanny combination of wonder and despair as David Bowie’s spaceman is gradually ground down by television and mankind’s avaricious…

Few shows manage to encapsulate both the pulpy ridiculousness of comic books as well as their darker elements, but for five years Gotham has perched on the fence between The Flash and Daredevil. But, sadly, it is coming to an end. “I can’t believe it’s over! It’s so weird!” wails Robin Lord Taylor, who plays Penguin, when we catch up with him in his final weeks of filming the show. But he and the rest of the cast are relieved to have one final season, because it nearly didn’t happen: “We had no idea that it was going to come down to the wire the way that it did,” Taylor says. “So there was that one day where we were all collectively panicking and being like ‘oh, this could be…

What did you do when you found out Frozen 2 was happening? A Threw a party B Sang about your feelings C Shared the good news with all your friends What do you most want to see in the sequel? A True love B More power ballads C Good times with good friends How will you watch the film? A With your crush B As far away from anyone else as possible C With all your best friends in the world What snacks will you take into the cinema? A Chocolate B A slush puppy C Carrot sticks Results Mostly A: You are Anna! Mostly B: You are Elsa! Mostly C: You are Olaf!…

MARY POPPINS (Emily Blunt) The practically perfect nanny flies back into the lives of the Banks children. JACK (Lin-Manuel Miranda) This loveable streetlamp lighter was an apprentice of Mary Poppins’ friend Bert. MICHAEL BANKS (Ben Whishaw) Now grown and with three children, Michael needs help to move on after the death of his wife. JANE BANKS (Emily Mortimer) Michael’s older sister Jane begins to struggle during the family’s bereavement. ELLEN (Julie Walters) A loyal maid of the Banks residence, Ellen is bewitched by Poppins. WILLIAM WEATHERALL WILKINS (Colin Firth) Wilkins has taken over from Mr Dawes as the president of the Fidelity Fiduciary Bank. TOPSY (Meryl Streep) Mary Poppins’ eccentric older cousin Topsy lives in a bizarre world of upside-downs. MR DAWES JR (Dick Van Dyke) After playing Mr Dawes…

The resemblance of the film’s premise to that of M Night Shyamalan’s The Happening is uncanny, and something that worried Josh Malerman, the author of the Bird Box novel. In Shyamalan’s film, humanity is threatened by a wave of mass suicides. On top of this, another film worried Malerman: in John Hillcoat’s The Road, a father and son try to survive in a hostile post-apocalyptic world. Malerman had already written the rough draft of his novel when the two films came out, and he understandably feared that his novel would be forgotten in favour of more high profile disaster-themed entertainment. In reality, Bird Box was positively received, even compared to the work of Stephen King. Film rights were soon acquired and Andy Muschietti, who shot the 2017 adaptation of King’s…

When Vincenzo Natali burst onto the horror scene in 1997 with the compellingly unusual Cube, it was clear he was one to watch. Clever follow-ups like 2009’s twisted sci-fi family drama Splice solidified the writer-director as a force to be reckoned with in the industry, and fans waited eagerly for his adaptations of JG Ballard’s High Rise and William Gibson’s Neuromancer. And then Natali… disappeared. Well, not exactly. After numerous projects failed to make it off the ground – including those much-anticipated adaptations, and attempts to remake Predator, IT, and Swamp Thing – Natali took a break from the big screen to direct acclaimed episodes of some of TV’s most beloved shows, from Westworld to Hannibal. If you love genre TV, chances are, you’ve fallen in love with some of…

Release 7 January Director Johnny Kervorkian Cast Sam Gittins, Neerja Naik, Grant Masters, David Bradley Distributor Trinity Films Certificate 18 Format Await Further Instructions starts off like an English Guess Who’s Coming To Dinner, as Nick (Sam Gittins) returns for the first time in years to his parents’ home with his Indian girlfriend Annji (Neerja Naik), where his family subjects her to differing degrees of racism. They plan to slip away the following morning, only to find all doors and windows to the house blocked from the outside, and a strange series of instructions emanating from the TV. It is no coincidence that this family shares their surname, Milgram, with the man behind a notorious social psychological experiment in immoral compliance. The TV’s increasingly unreasonable orders tap right into the…

Release Out now Director Drew Pearce Cast Jodie Foster, Sterling K Brown, Sofia Boutella, Jeff Goldblum, Brian Tyree Henry Distributor Warner Brothers Certificate 15 Format • Jodie Foster came out of an acting hiatus to star in Drew Pearce’s directorial debut feature and she absolutely owns her role as a world-weary nurse in an exclusive LA hospital run for criminals. Her performance is a wonderful blend of fragility and wisecracks. She’s joined by a stellar ensemble cast including Dave Bautista as her loyal orderly and muscle and the pair make an endearing double act. Set in 2028 there are riots on the streets of LA with a lack of resources a huge factor and the poverty divide determining who is viable for health care. Inside the hotel another violent war…

Release 17 December Director Fred Walton Cast Carol Kane, Charles Durning, Rutanya Alda Distributor Second Sight Certificate 12 Along with Bob Clark’s Black Christmas, When A Stranger Calls is responsible for making a generation of teenagers afraid to answer the phone. Carol Kane stars in the spin on the urban legend as a babysitter who receives a series of threatening phone calls asking if she’s checked the children and… well, we all know what happens next. While the mid-section of the film, which follows the villain and a cop’s (Charles Durning) attempts to track him down, doesn’t have the same raw terror as the opening and finale, this is still a brilliantly made chiller that taps into a very primal fear. You’ll find yourself on the edge of your seat…

Release 3 December Showrunner Lachlan MacKinnon, Kate Brooke Cast Matthew Goode, Teresa Palmer, Owen Teale, Trevor Eve, Alex Kingston, Lindsay Duncan, Louise Brealey Distributor Sky Certificate 15 Format • Based on the books by Deborah Harkness, this bewitching tale follows Diana Bishop (Teresa Palmer), a witch and historian who finds herself embroiled in a conflict between factions of witches, vampires and demons after she discovers a book believed to hold the secret to eternal life. Despite trying to ignore her witch heritage, the discovery of this ancient Ashmole text means that getting her, and that book, becomes everyone’s top priority. Diana knows nothing of the fragile truce that’s existed for centuries between witches, vampires and demons and is not afraid to follow her instincts over ancient rules that dictate she…

Release 24 January Writer Iain Reid Publisher Simon and Schuster Price £12.99 Nothing much has ever really happened in Junior’s life. He works at the local mill, he takes care of his chickens, and he doesn’t really understand his wife. He’s content enough with his lot. But then one day, an unfamiliar car with bright green headlights draws up outside his remote farmhouse and delivers some startling news: Junior has been selected in a super-secret high-tech lottery and will be one of the first people to go and live on a special facility in space! Unsurprisingly, he’s not particularly excited about the prospect of living in space, but the good news is he won’t need to go for a couple of years. In the meantime, however, the company responsible for…

Release Out now Writer Caroline Kepnes Publisher Simon and Schuster Price £8.99 Caroline Kepnes’ latest sees star-crossed lovers unable to be together because if shy, nerdy Jon gets too close to popular, sensitive Anne, he’ll kill her. Something happened to Jon, or rather something was done to him. As a child, he was abducted and wasn’t found for four years. When he returns, he’s transformed from a fragile child to a strapping young man, but his kidnapper has prompted a sinister transformation which dooms him to unwillingly stop the heart of those who get close to him. As Providence hops between the two leads’ perspectives and that of investigator Eggs, it’s clear that…

Release 10 January Writer Katherine Arden Publisher Del Rey Price £12.99 Katherine Arden returns to the world of medieval Moscow with the final instalment of her Winternight trilogy where Vasya is in the middle of two worlds. On one side, the fast-spreading modernity of Rus as Christianity takes hold. On the other (the world of the free folk), the demons and spirits that guard a people who no longer believe in them. She also has to navigate the tricky relationship of the Bear and the Nightingale, one brother she loathes, the other she loves. Using Russian folklore as the basis of her tale, Arden has expanded the world from Vasya’s home village to the wider geopolitical landscape of a Moscow under the threat of invasion. The Winter Of The Witch…

The year is 1944 and 19-year-old paratrooper Rod Serling, under the command of General Douglas MacArthur, has landed at Bito Beach as part of the Battle of Leyte, an offensive intended to take back the Philippines from the Imperial Japanese Army. Conditions are punishing, with temperatures reaching 100 degrees in the day, and torrential rain turning the ground into, as one newspaper painted it, “a gumbo of mud”. Soon after, New York-born Rod Serling has his first brush with death when a Japanese soldier emerges from the jungle and points a gun in his face. Quick as a flash, Serling’s fellow grunt, travelling behind him, shoots the soldier from over Serling’s shoulder, killing him instantly. “I have never been so goddamned scared in all my life,” he would say, years…

TIME ENOUGH AT LAST This episode was actually Serling’s personal favourite. ‘Time Enough At Last’ told the story of a gentle, henpecked bookworm (played by Burgess Meredith) who finds himself the last man alive after a nuclear explosion. Based on a short story by Lynn Venable, it’s a poignant tale with a devastatingly sad end. THE MONSTERS ARE DUE ON MAPLE STREET A common theme of The Twilight Zone is that humans pose a greater threat to each other than any extraterrestrial ever could. In this first season episode, ‘The Monsters Are Due On Maple Street’, a classically American street’s residents all turn on each other as talk of an alien invasion swells. As the aliens, who never do actually invade, say at the end: “The world is full of…

EPISODE THREE: ATM WITH A HEART OF GOLD (DIR: SAM PILLSBURY) A favourite of star Justin Shenkarow, episode three was a chance for Marshall’s side-kick, Simon, to take the limelight. Befriended by Mr Wilson, the town’s new talking ATM machine, the lonely Simon finds himself showered with cash and the talk of the town. Simon’s personality makeover and sudden good fortune would, however, be short lived, proving that money really can’t buy you happiness. EPISODE FIVE: AMERICA’S SCARIEST HOME VIDEOS (DIR: SAM PILLSBURY) What could possibly go wrong when Marshall and Simon babysit Simon’s younger brother, Harley, on Halloween? Well, thanks to a ‘video feedback time-warp shuffly thing’, Harley gets sucked into the monster movie he’s watching on TV, with the movie’s creature, a mummy, moving the other…