Innholdsfortegnelse for Issue 154 i SciFi Now

1 One of ours The trailer gets off to a nice start as a nervous SWAT guy opens fire on HB. The character’s an outsider and we know his destiny as a world-ending weapon is going to be his key struggle. 2 Meet the squad As HB arrives at the London BPRD headquarters (a fish and chip shop, obvs), we get our first look at Sasha Lane’s Alice Monaghan and Daniel Dae Kim’s Ben Daimio. 3 Wait… Big Mo? Because obviously your London chippie is run by Big Mo from EastEnders. She’s firing a machine gun later, something which we’re all having a hard time getting our heads around. 4 Hi, dad Ian McShane is on father figure duties as Professor Broom, stepping into the role played by the late…

SEASON 1, EPISODE 1: ’INTO THE RING’ Matt Murdock’s first confessional in the pilot episode. SEASON 2, EPISODE 3: ‘NEW YORK’S FINEST’ The Punisher and Daredevil’s dramatic rooftop ideology debates. SEASON 2, EPISODE 4: ‘PENNY AND DIME’ The Punisher spilling his secrets to Daredevil in the graveyard. SEASON 1, EPISODE 2: ’CUT MAN’ Daredevil punching his way through the hallway in a single shot. SEASON 3, EPISODE 8: ‘UPSTAIRS/ DOWNSTAIRS’ Karen Page and Wilson Fisk’s unexpected confrontation.…

With lots of rumours flying around about the new Star Trek spin-off with Patrick Stewart’s Jean-Luc Picard, we made sure to ask the showrunners for an update on the series. “When we had our first meeting with Patrick Stewart, it was important to him that the new show felt different,” says Heather Kadin. “He didn’t want it to feel like another Discovery. The Picard show feels very different. The way we’re going to shoot the show is going to look different and the way we’re going to tell stories is going to be different. That’s going to be a conscious choice with anything else we do. Any shows that we’re going to be doing in this universe should all feel like a different voice, and they should feel like you’re…

WHY THE GLADIATORIAL RACE NEEDED TO MAKE IT TO THE BIG SCREEN AS WE HAVE mentioned, one of the biggest challenges in writing Alita: Battle Angel was trying to whittle down nine volumes of the original source manga into a single origin story, but right from the beginning Rodriguez and Cameron knew that one key element from the later books simply had to be included in the movie: Motorball. “Anyone who knows the graphic novels asks: ‘Is Motorball in there?’ explains Rodriguez. “Jim said this early on. He goes: ‘Well it’s basically stuff from Book One, Book Two and then some of Book Four because if we don’t do Motorball I know fans of the graphic novel will be really pissed off.’ Sure enough, people are always asking us about…

THE SWORD IN THE STONE (1963) Disney’s animated musical concentrates on Arthur as a young orphaned boy who doesn’t realise he’s destined for greatness until he tries to help his foster brother Kay become King of England and winds up meeting Merlin the wizard. The film is the most spellbinding of this list, as Merlin teaches Arthur – then known as Wart – about physics using his magic; concentrating on flying and gravity mostly. At its heart, the film presents a message about not disregarding those who are smaller or less fortunate than us, as well as the idea that anyone can achieve anything. MONTY PYTHON AND THE HOLY GRAIL (1975) The titular comedy group – made up of John Cleese, Terry Gilliam, Graham Chapman, Terry Jones, Michael…

AMANDA (Deborah Ann Woll) Closed book. Sceptical, suspicious, very quick to believe that this is no longer just a game. Definitely got a lot of secrets, about which Woll can tell us “yeah, very little!”. ZOEY (Taylor Russell) A college student who’s been told that she needs to stop being so passive and get out there and gain some life experience. Watch for her to emerge as the film’s lead. JASON (Jay Ellis) “He’s this very charming, smooth, put-together guy who works in finance. He’s successful, he’s a motorcycle-riding bad boy, bit of an alpha male but he’s definitely charming when we meet him,” Ellis teases. “My guy is purely doing it for the win.” MIKE (Tyler Labine) “He’s officially the old guy of the group,” laughs Labine. “He’s a…

The Dragons movies aren’t just about Hiccup and Toothless – the films have built up a loveable supporting cast, and the filmmakers promise they won’t be neglected in The Hidden World. America Ferrera’s Astrid is once again a key character, as she and Hiccup become ever more of a team. “[T]hey’re co-leaders, and as with all our spouses and significant others, we find that give and take together if we want to do great things together as a couple, and Astrid and Hiccup’s relationship gets put through that test,” Brad Lewis tells us. As for the rest of the dragon riders, they have become Hiccup’s crack team of dragon rescuers, kitted out in fancy new armour made from shed dragon scales which looks “super bad-ass”, according to Lewis. This “motley…

From Moon to Interstellar and Gravity the ‘stranded alone in space’ movie allows its maker to explore themes of alienation, hope and the experiences that keep you tethered to human kind. First-time filmmaker Bill Oliver plays with the tropes of the genre in his New York-set sci-fi drama starring Ansel Elgort in a dual role. Oliver explains his intentions: “I was looking at science fiction films that were more emotional, like Never Let Me Go or Blade Runner – those slow burn ones as opposed to the action ones.” Every day Jonathan lives to keep a strict routine, one that has been forced on him. He wakes every morning to find a video of a man who looks exactly like him telling him about his day, telling him the things…

Release 21 January Director Kevin Reynolds Cast Kevin Costner, Jeanne Tripplehorn, Dennis Hopper, Tina Marjorino Distributor Arrow Video Certificate 12 Format Waterworld exists in that rare space of industry punchlines, shorthand for the kind of mad excess and disaster of which only the mightiest of Hollywood hubris can create. However, over the years, there’s been a slow but steady turning of the tide for Kevin Reynolds’ movie, both in terms of fandom and, as everyone in the ‘Maelstrom’ documentary on Arrow Video’s new loaded Blu-ray point out, in recognising that it actually made money. So, has Waterworld been harshly judged? Is it, in fact, a lost classic ripe for reappreciation? The answer is yes and no. It’s certainly not as bad as its reputation suggests, but with the exception of…

Release Out now Director Wai Man Yip Cast Donnie Yen, Baoqiang Wang, Shengyi Huang Distributor Trinity Films Certificate 15 Format • Digital Download Fantasy/action/martial arts/comedy sequel Iceman: The Time Traveller clearly doesn’t have a lot of faith in its predecessor. It seems to presume its viewers have never seen the first one, or have watched it but forgotten everything about it, based on the opening scenes. From the start, The Time Traveller sweeps the audience up into a frenzied montage, getting us up to speed with He Ying’s (Donnie Yen) life story, but as if you had accidentally sat on the fast-forward button. It would be funny if it wasn’t so jarring. From there, expectations are set at rock bottom, so the film that follows isn’t quite as disappointing as…

Release Out now Director Shinichiro Ueda Cast Takayuki Hamatsu, Yuzuki Akiyama, Harumi Shuhama, Kazuaki Nagaya Distributor Third Window Films Certificate 15 No reviewer will ever tell you to ignore their words and just look at the star rating, but all you really need to know about One Cut Of The Dead is that it’s brilliant and that you should not read anything about it. Need more? Okay, well, it’s a found footage zombie horror comedy and if you’re rolling your eyes, just know that it is one of the best genre comedies we have seen in ages. A small film crew is shooting a zombie movie in a run-down water filtration plant when they’re suddenly attacked by the real thing, and the director is determined not to call cut. The…

Release 28 January Showrunner Simon Donald Cast Richard Dormer, Dennis Quaid, Sienna Guillory, Luke Treadaway Distributor Spirit Entertainment Certificate 18 Format • Simon Donald’s frosty, barking mad chiller Fortitude has never been easy to pin down, which has probably been a blessing and a curse. Those expecting a Nordic noir may have been thrown off by the shamans, dismemberment and personality altering wasps, and those wanting a full-blown horror may have been a little frustrated by the pacing and refusal to settle into any one genre for too long. In its third and final season, the focus is narrowed by necessity thanks to the abbreviated four episode run (down from ten) and while Donald is still unwilling or unable to give viewers anything remotely straightforward, there are at least fewer…

1. Paris Adrift “Paris Adrift by @ Catamaroon, yes it is a time travel novel, but that means that you get many alternate histories! #BookClub” @Cascararogue 2. The Man In The High Castle “ The Man In The High Castle. It’s Dick. That’s all. #BookClub” @David27Kemp 3. The Bullet-Catcher’s Daughter “Complex, engaging female lead, brilliantly realised world, pacy and imaginative. #BookClub” @thebethanjames 4. Fatherland “Fatherland by @ Robert___Harris because it’s alternate but couched in realism. #BookClub” @MarkSmithWriter 5. Aztec Century “When I read it I was obsessed by all things Aztec and the style had a feeling of John Wyndham. #BookClub” @Heraldofcreatio…

“Finished Bound by @Mark__Lawrence this morning (short but very rewarding read). Starting in on Grey Sister now #BookClub.” @ andyangel44 “Halfway through The Idiot Gods by David Zindell. Very philosophical and really makes you think about how rotten we humans are. Might stop eating meat. Certainly going to stop eating Killer Whales. #BookClub” @HamSpanner “Just started with Red Rising by Pierce Brown. #BookClub” @JasminMaaz “Just finished Kings Of The Wyld by @ Nicholas_Eames and cannot recommend it enough!!!! A big, brash, bonkers fantasy with the colours turned up to 11 and a rock and roll soundtrack! #BookClub” @Cfpercy “Finishing Sleeping Beauties, I’ve loved it. #BookClub” @Mytek-TheMighty “ The Next Person You Meet In Heaven by Mitch Albom. Sequel to one of my favourite books of all time. Beautiful so far,…

Everybody knows the story. The young babysitter, all alone in the house with the kids in bed, and the telephone rings. There’s a creepy guy’s voice on the other end of the line asking “Have you checked the children?” She hangs up but the guy keeps calling back. Finally the babysitter calls the police who tells her… the call is coming from inside the house! While the “get out of the house, now!” twist had been used in Black Christmas, When A Stranger Calls taps into a different fear. As director and co-writer Fred Walton tells us, it’s not just the idea that this could happen. People believed it already had. Could you tell us how the short film first came about? A friend of mine from college, Steve Feke,…

Sure, we’ve had a couple of LEGO adventures in the years since ‘Everything Is Awesome’ became our number one earworm back in 2014 (LEGO Batman was wonderful, although LEGO Ninjago fell a little flat), but it’s finally time for Emmet and Wyldstyle to return in this long-awaited sequel. The amazing voice cast is back (we have been waiting a long time to hear Charlie Day shout “SPACESHIP” again), along with fantastic new additions like Tiffany Haddish and Stephanie Beatriz. Bring on the bricks.…

RESIDENT EVIL: EXTINCTION The third film in the expanding franchise envisioned the T-Virus zombie juice consuming the entire world. This one goes full ridiculous with Alice clones, a Mad Max-style apocalyptic wasteland and the casting of hip-hop princess Ashanti. OUTBREAK Dustin Hoffman stars in a film that just wouldn’t get made today but made big bucks in the Nineties about an African monkey who infects California with a deadly virus. There are loads of helicopters, Patrick Dempsey plays a lousy deadbeat called Jimbo, and Morgan Freeman even turns up to say: “God help us all.” 28 DAYS LATER Danny Boyle’s film may have had people confused with its ‘infected and definitely not zombies’ spiel but with a screenplay written by Alex Garland and leading man Cillian Murphy turning in an…

Stargirl EXPECTED AIRDATE TBA Geoff Johns’ new DC universe series. When smart and athletic high school student Courtney Whitmore moves from California to Nebraska after her mother gets married, she thinks her life is over. But her new life as a superhero is just beginning… ROLES STARMAN/SYLVESTER PEMBERTON: Male, 40-50 years old, caucasian. A courageous and confident superhero with a longtime sidekick named Stripesy, the alter ego of Courtney’s stepdad Pat Dugan. ARCHIE BRUBAKER: Male, 60+ years old, any ethnicity. The neighbourhood wise man, and cool-as-hell retired palaeontologist. HOURMAN/REX TYLER: A master chemist with the ability to harness super-human strength for one hour a day, and a founding member of the Justice Society Of America. WILDCAT/TED GRANT: A former professional boxer and a founding member of the Justice Society Of…

THE TWILIGHT ZONE If there’s one TV remake we’re bursting to see next year, it’s Jordan Peele’s take on Rod Sterling’s anthology classic The Twilight Zone, set to air on CBS All Access. The series’ perplexing premise and Peele’s imagination and flair for the unexpected sounds like a perfect pairing, and ought to shake up the genre TV landscape. Basically, we’re expecting big things. Peele wasn’t always attached to the project: a remake first came to life in 2012 with Bryan Singer attached, followed by Simon Kinberg and Craig Sweeny, but by 2016 all three had dropped out. In 2017, CBS finally decided to get it back into development, and Peele was in talks to executive produce through his Monkeypaw Productions banner. Three out of a possible ten episode titles…

BEST FILM CAPTAIN MARVEL We’ve been hoping that an awesome art poster for Captain Marvel would come along soon, and this offering from Brazil Comic-Con has delivered the goods. Marvel wowed with its first trailer for the film — which showed Carol Danvers as the badass, smart-mouthed, Air Force-trained superhero we all needed in our lives — and its continuing publicity campaign is following suit. Can we all just take a moment to admire that shading? It’s like she jumped straight off the cover of a comic book. RUNNER UP 1 CAPTIVE STATE We’re getting 10 Cloverfield Lane vibes from this poster for upcoming flick Captive State. We mean that as a compliment. RUNNER UP 2 THE KID WHO WOULD BE KING This poster for upcoming adventure The Kid Who…

LIGHTS, CAMERA, ACTION Six vast sound stages at Pinewood Toronto Studios are used to shoot Star Trek: Discovery. Inside Stage Seven is where the bridge set of the USS Discovery stands. Stage Four houses the starship’s shuttle bay and Stage Eight is where Captain Pike’s new ready room is located. PIPE DREAMS If you look at the pipes on the USS Discovery, you might be able to spot a homage to Star Trek: TOS. “The letters GNDN appeared on pipes in the USS Enterprise in TOS,” says Jody Clement; one of the show’s art directors. “It stands for: ‘Goes nowhere, does nothing.’” BEAM US UP Did you know that the transporter room in the USS Shenzhou was repurposed for the USS Discovery? “We changed the colour of the lighting and…

THE RUMOUR: SECTION 31 PLAYS A LARGE ROLE IN SEASON TWO “Starfleet lives in a very black-and-white world,” explains Alex Kurtzman. “They have rules. They have to stick to those rules. You can bend them, but you can’t break them. Section 31 lives entirely in the shades of grey – and they do all of the things that Starfleet proper can’t do. That’s really interesting when you have a character like Georgiou (played by Michelle Yeoh) whose conscience is constantly being tested and whose ethics are constantly being tested. In some ways, she’s the perfect person to do the dirty work that Starfleet can’t do. That’s an exciting place to explore. It’s a little bit ‘gloves off’, which is what’s fun about Section 31. It made a lot of logical…

THE MYSTERIOUS BADASS (El Mariachi, El Wray) Swaggers into town with a mission and a murky past. Has a big heart that will require a love story to be unearthed. Will generally be played by Antonio Banderas. THE HEAVILY ARMED HEROINE (Cherry Darling, Luz, Gail) Not interested in saving the day at first, but will throw down when needed. Will have a weapon of choice, whether that’s a shitload of knives or a machine gun leg. THE GEEK MADE GOOD (Casey Connor, Juni Cortez) You don’t make this many pop-culture infused movies without love for the geek who knows what’s going down because they’ve seen every movie about it. THE GOOD BAD GUY (Seth Gecko, Marv) Self-serving, ruthless and fond of violence, but when it comes down to it, they’ve…

Netflix has so far only commissioned one season of The Umbrella Academy, but showrunner Steve Blackman already has his fingers crossed for a second season. “This was a labour of love, the cast was wonderful to work with… I have a good idea in my head of what I would do for Season Two. Some of it I have already built into Season One in anticipation of – there’s no guarantee, but if there was to be a Season Two I would have a good idea of how I would want to do it. Without giving anything away there’s a cliffhanger at the end of the season that will keep people really excited to see what happens next with this family…”…

Being a fantasy film, The Kid Who Would Be King has its fair share of visual effects. It’s got all you could want from an Arthurian-inspired tale, from horseback chases and a sharp-toothed, long-tailed dragon to undead knights with glowing lava spilling from the gaps in their armour. When penning such scenes, writer-director Joe Cornish purposefully didn’t get caught up in the logisitics and whether or not it’d be possible to recreate anything his imagination would conjure up. Why? Well, first he didn’t want to put a dampener on his ideas but also, he was heeding a piece of advice once given to him by fellow filmmaker Edgar Wright… “You sit at home at your computer and you just make up whatever the hell you want,” he said of screenwriting.…

‘GROUNDHOG DAY MEETS SCREAM’ is one of those pitches that sounds too good to be true, but in 2017 Happy Death Day burst into cinemas and our hearts with the sharp ‘n’ sweet story of a narcissistic college student named Tree (Jessica Rothe) who found herself repeating her birthday/the day of her gruesome murder. As she desperately tried to find a way to escape the loop and discover the identity of her killer, she went through a genuinely affecting journey of personal growth and came out the other side a happier, stronger, better person. It was funny, it was scary, it had one of the best genre heroines in recent memory, and audiences and critics adored it. However, it’s not exactly the easiest film to make a sequel to… “We…

The Charmed Ones talk about their female role models Melonie Diaz Bette Davis “I think Bette Davis is one of mine. I love her. She was such a badass, and she did her own thing, and she was original, and she was odd. And spicy. All About Eve is one of my favourite movies. She’s like smoking, oh my God, I love her.” The Charmed Ones talk about their female role models Madeleine Mantock Eartha Kitt “I really admire Eartha Kitt. I love her spirit, and she’s so vivacious, and strong. But, I think she overcame a lot of adversity, and I just think to me she’s really iconic, and I think she’s a pint-sized amazing ball of wonderfulness.” The Charmed Ones talk about their female role models Sarah Jeffery…

FOR A SHOW CALLED RUNAWAYS, THE KIDS SURE STAYED PUT FOR A LOT OF SEASON ONE – BUT WE DIDN’T MIND ONE BIT. The fleshing out of the characters, especially the parents, who were given short shrift in the comic books, was necessary to add the depth that a TV show needs. But now the kids are on the run, and things are hotting up. “Season One was a prologue to the whole thing,” explains Julian McMahon, who plays mysterious alien Jonah, the man who brought the villainous Pride together. “It basically says ‘this is who they are, this is why they’re doing what they’re doing, and this is how they got their powers’… Season Two pretty much takes off where the comic book takes off, so you get a…

Release Out now Director Rob Marshall Cast Emily Blunt, Lin-Manuel Miranda, Ben Whishaw, Emily Mortimer, Julie Walters Distributor Walt Disney Studios Certificate PG Emily Blunt takes up the umbrella for this Mary Poppins sequel in which she returns to help the Banks children (who are now grown up) once more. Still grieving the loss of his wife, Michael (Ben Whishaw) is just about to lose the family home we all remember – and he can’t find the piece of paper that will fix things for him and his three children. While out walking with his brother and sister, the youngest of the three children, Georgie, flies the old kite and comes back having somehow caught himself a nanny: Mary Poppins. It doesn’t take too long before some utterly bonkers and…

Release 21 January Director Gaspar Noé Cast Sofia Boutella, Romain Guillermic, Souheila Yacoub Distributor Arrow Video Certificate 18 Format • One of the most oddly adorable sights of 2018 was Gaspar Noé coming to terms with the fact that critics and audiences liked his new movie. In fact, they adored his dance horror Climax, and with good reason. It’s immersive, intoxicating, stylish and you’ll be swept along for the ride. Sofia Boutella (Atomic Blonde, The Mummy) leads a cast of professional dancers in this take on a true story of a French dance troupe who find out too late that their party’s punch has been spiked. The joy of their first spectacular dance number becomes more out of control and dangerous as inhibitions are lost, old grievances are aired and…

Release 28 January Director Eli Roth Cast Owen Vaccaro, Jack Black, Cate Blanchett, Kyle MacLachlan Distributor Entertainment One Certificate 12 Format • • Digital Download For those looking for imagination and fun without the fluff, The House With A Clock In Its Walls is the a great stop. It might be a spooky kids’ film, but it’s still riddled with scary moments. There’s nothing that will keep an adult up at night, but it’s enough to make you question letting kids watch it alone with the lights off. It’s sometimes silly and predictable, but it ticks all the right boxes for children with dark hearts, the types that root for the villains and get a giggle from scaring their friends. It’s perfect for anyone starting to dabble in scares that…

Release 14 January Director Lenny Abrahamson Cast Ruth Wilson, Domhnall Gleeson, Will Poulter Distributor Pathe Certificate 12 Sarah Waters’ chilling ghost story is set in Forties post-war Britain when talk of the NHS was in its infancy and the country was waving goodbye to an oppressive class structure. Directed for the screen by Lenny Abrahamson who has great form when it comes to stories about inequity in society it evokes an icy ambience. You can almost feel the walls of the grand Hundreds Hall closing in on the once-wealthy family who own it as their mental states decay under the pressure. The film works as an excellent platform for the stellar cast to show off their acting chops in socially awkward and devastating situations. Domhnall Gleeson as the uptight Dr…

Release 26 February Writer Justina Ireland Publisher Titan Books Price £7.99 Set in an alternative history where the Battle of Gettysburg ends with the dead starting to rise and attack the living, Dread Nation follows Jane McKeene. Born just before Gettysburg, Jane hasn’t really known the world any other way and is trained at a combat school due to the Native And Negro Reeducation Act. She is not one to obey the rules and after uncovering a conspiracy, she is sent out into a world where the walking dead are probably the least of her worries. Dread Nation is a book that catches you immediately with its cover, upon which a young woman of colour is depicted with a bloody sickle in her hand. The cover also gives you a…

Release 7 February Writer Adam Scovell Publisher Influx Press Price £9.99 The death of lepidopterist Phyllis Ewans leads her protégé, Thomas, on a journey to unravel the skein of secrets that surrounded her. As Thomas starts to understand the bitter relationship between Phyllis and her sister, he begins to lose his grip on reality. Is he possessed by a desire to understand Phyllis, or by the woman herself? Like the flurries of moths which haunt Thomas throughout his journey, Scovell’s book is curious enough to hold your attention whilst never being particularly scary or original. The book’s moths are its strongest aspect – the passages describing them, both spectral and real, are a delight. The description of the emergence of a parasitic wasp is beautifully sickening, a Seamus Heaney-esque childhood…

Release 24 January Writer Matt Wesolowski Publisher Orenda Books Price £8.99 When podcaster Scott King gets a letter about a cold case one of his listeners wants him to investigate, he’s initially resistant. The case involves a missing child, Alfie Marsden, who vanished from the back of his father’s car on Christmas Eve in the Eighties. The strangest part? The car was parked near a forest renowned for paranormal activity. Something about the case gives King the creeps, but when he’s offered new information about it, he can’t resist trying to solve the mystery. So the case of Alfie Marsden becomes the newest series of Six Stories, a Serial-esque podcast in which King interviews six different people about a mystery to try to get to the truth. As each person…

There’s a rich tradition in sci-fi of an alien being coming to Earth to show us the error of our ways, and to inevitably be hunted for the sheer crime of his arrival. Whether it’s Jeff Bridges in Starman, the little boy in Midnight Special or David Bowie as Thomas Jerome Newton in The Man Who Fell To Earth, these innocent but wise creatures act as a reminder of our better selves and the potential we all have to make a positive change. Stephen Cox’s novel Our Child Of The Stars is set in a small town in America in the Sixties, and finds a married couple suddenly entrusted with caring for an adorable young alien boy they name Cory. As the government circles their tightly knit family unit, Molly…

The story of the Donner Party looms large in our imagination. The wagon trail, lost in the mountains, forced to resort to cannibalism… it’s a real-life horror story. For author Alma Katsu, it was the starting point for her blend of historical fiction and genre chills: The Hunger. The novel tells the story of those pioneers but slowly introduces a supernatural element that creeps around the edges of this increasingly desperate group, resulting in a truly gripping tale that’s very difficult to put down. What would you say was the trickiest part of blending fact and fiction? The scariest part for me was dealing with characters who were real people, who had a real history and had lived and died in such a tragic, public way. You have to take…

As strange as it might sound, Coscarelli was just one casting choice away from giving Brad Pitt the chance to make his own mark on the Phantasm series! “Yeah, what happened is that Michael Baldwin was friends with Brad Pitt, and Brad came in to read for Michael’s role!” laughs the director. “I had been told I could not have Michael, so I ended up seeing one of his friends. And then when Brad became a megastar, Michael said to me: “Remember when he came in for Phantasm II?” So I went and found the infamous tape of Brad doing his audition and it is pretty interesting. He is a much younger actor, this is back in 1987, and he hadn’t had a lot of success yet, but – you…

PHANTASM (DON COSCARELLI, 1979) The first film introduces the cast of characters that reappear throughout the series: hippy ice cream vendor Reggie (Reggie Bannister – a standout presence), 13-year-old Mike (Michael Baldwin), his possibly dead brother Jody (Bill Thornbury) and The Tall Man (Angus Scrimm). In this original venture, Scrimm is an undertaker from another planet taking the dead from a small suburban town and resurrecting them in an alternate galaxy. A deadly silver ball is the character’s weapon but, frankly, none of this makes a lick of sense anyway and Phantasm is perhaps best appreciated as a genre-hopping nightmare caked in a very unique atmosphere of demented surrealism… PHANTASM II (DON COSCARELLI, 1988) With Universal’s lavish production values, there are some eye-opening stunts and gruesome set pieces…

Q. Which 2019 film/TV series are you most excited for? Jonathan Hatfull Editor A. Godzilla: King Of The Monsters That second trailer was absolutely glorious. Give me those kaiju. Abigail Chandler Deputy Editor A. His Dark Materials I’ve been waiting decades for a good adaptation, and the BBC one looks like it could be a belter. Poppy-Jay Palmer News Editor A. Inside No 9 Nothing gets my TV-loving blood pumping like freaky twists, bad wigs and emotional scarring. Marcus Faint Art Editor A. Avengers: End Game It’s going to be incredible to see this saga draw to an explosive close! Rachael Harper Sub Editor A. Captain Marvel Looking forward to two-eyed Fury and mohawktoting Carol Danvers in all of their ‘90s glory.…

1 Suspenseful Browsing In Netflix cyber-horror CAM, Brewer gives a masterclass in how to perform a dual role as an erotic webcam performer. It’s written by former sex worker Isa Mazzei who opened Brewer’s eyes: “She knew how to tell the story of a sex worker without turning to sexist tropes. It’s kind of the default because unless you’ve been a sex worker you don’t know about it and you don’t know how to tell that story. We had a lot of conversations and we really connected when discussing the real heavy character stuff. We talked about why people cam and the creativity that goes into it.” 2 Playing Games In front of the camera in his role as the commander in The Handmaid’s Tale Joseph Fiennes may be a…

“I WOULD PUT US SQUARELY IN THE HORROR CAMP” JEFF BUHLER THE CLASSIC ‘TRAPPED in space and being killed off one by one’ scenario has been done to death, but Netflix’s upcoming series Nightflyers is looking to put a new spin on it. Based on the novella and short stories by Game Of Thrones’ George RR Martin, Nightflyers is a ten-episode space-set series that leans more towards the horror genre. “When I was a kid, Star Wars was everything in the science fiction world but it wasn’t until I saw Ridley Scott’s Alien that the world of space really came alive for me, and I started to feel really like that might be what it would look like to be in space,” explains series developer and writer Jeff Buhler.…

X-Men actress Rebecca Romijn has been added to the cast of Season Two as Number One, but who exactly is she? “It’s interesting because there’s little information out there about Number One,” reveals Alex Kurtzman. “For us, it’s great because she’s a blank canvas – although there are certainly some things that you do know about her. She’s clearly very confident and very strong. Pike relies on her tremendously. She knows what she’s doing and we built all of that into our version of Number One. The other thing we added was the fact that she’s extremely resourceful, meaning she knows how to work the system in order to get what she needs for her ship and her crew. In some ways, while she’s not the captain, we think of…

Not only has he created some of the most iconic genre characters and delivered some of the most thrilling (and profitable) blockbusters of all time, but he’s continued to push technology forward to make it possible for these eyeball-melting new visions to appear on the big screen. Of course, one of the by-products of his commitment to finding new and spectacular ways to bring imagined worlds to life is the fact that it sometimes takes a while for him to deliver the films containing them. “He was going to do this in 2005,” Robert Rodriguez tells us. “Technology was not there.” THERE’S NO ONE IN THE FILM INDUSTRY LIKE JAMES CAMERON. ‘This’ is Alita: Battle Angel (or Battle Angel Alita for fans of the source material), a live-action adaptation of…

1991 The Guyver Mark Hamill is on villain duties in this messy and muddled take on Yoshiki Takaya’s manga about a fella who finds a weird alien object that turns him into a hybrid super soldier. It’s got a certain cult charm but it’s really not great. 1995 Crying Freeman Director Christophe Gans would go on to direct Brotherhood Of The Wolf and at least Crying Freeman serves as a neat action showcase for star Mark Dacascos. Apart from the martial arts, though, it’s a bit of a mess. 2008 Speed Racer The Wachowskis’ candy-coloured live-action cartoon was torn to shreds on release but has since found a cult following. Like much of their work, it’s got so much love to give that we’re glad there are fans out there.…

The Hargreeves children aren’t the only people mourning the loss of Sir Reginald – there’s also his assistant Pogo, a talking chimpanzee. “I screened the first episode for a couple of friends the other night,” Robert Sheehan says, “and when Pogo comes on… everyone was like ‘what the f… what’s going on here? There’s a talking chimp butler!?’ It’s funny how remarkable Pogo is to new eyes. It’s just so out of left field.” “[P]utting Pogo on the screen was one of the big challenges,” Steve Blackman admits. “He’s an interesting character in the graphic novel, so I wanted to do justice to it, so I couldn’t just do your typical VFX, so I ended up going to WETA. This is one of the first TV shows it’s ever done.…

While The Kid Who Would Be King is set in present day, rather than Medieval Britain when stories centring on King Arthur are typically set, Joe Cornish wrote characters that would correspond to the legend. Young Alex (Louis Ashbourne Serkis) is an Arthur-type figure – as you may have guessed – and his best friend Bedders (Dean Chaumoo) is inspired by Bedivere, a Knight of the Round Table who acted as Arthur’s marshal. Throughout his mythological history, he was also known as the man who eventually returned Excalibur to the Lady Of The Lake. Similarly, bullies Kaye (Rhianna Dorris) and Lance (Tom Taylor) are loosely based on Sir Kay, Arthur’s foster brother who was known to have a cruel side to him despite his loyalty to the King, and Lancelot,…

What is it about the idea of entering a locked room with a group of people and being forced to find the way out that grabs people’s imaginations? The thrill of the puzzle solving? The fact that, even though you know this is all fine, there’s some part of you that feels like this could all go wrong… All of these elements are ripe for the kind of mystery horror that we haven’t seen since the glory days of Cube and Saw, as a group of strangers, together with the promise of a million dollar prize, see if they can solve the riddle of Escape Room. “I love escape rooms, I’m not gonna lie!” enthuses Tyler Labine, best known to genre audiences from Tucker And Dale Vs Evil. “I find…

WHAT’S THE LAST THING YOU REMEMBER? Think carefully. The last thing you said or did could be exactly the reason why you’re in this predicament. FIND THE RESET TRIGGER. This is important, not just for establishing the rules and boundaries, but for figuring out what it is you need to get past in order to escape. IS ANYONE ELSE LOOPING WITH YOU? Look around to see if anyone seems to be experiencing the exact same thing. Be careful: this could be an ally or the monster responsible. BECOME A BETTER PERSON. We’re not saying that you’re bad, not necessarily, but hey: if you’re stuck in a time loop chances are you’ve got something to learn. So be nice. BUT REMEMBER TO HAVE FUN. Hey, unless you’ve got a limited number…

HERMIONE GRANGER HARRY POTTER The brightest witch of her age, and a great friend to boot. MAGIC 70 CUNNING 60 INTELLIGENCE 96 DRIVE 98 MATILDA MATILDA A self-taught bookworm with the power to make objects move. MAGIC 60 CUNNING 55 INTELLIGENCE 98 DRIVE 85 WINIFRED SANDERSON HOCUS POCUS A flamboyant menace with a magical spell book and no soul. MAGIC 85 CUNNING 96 INTELLIGENCE 75 DRIVE 80 NANCY DOWNS THE CRAFT The unofficial leader of an LA teen coven, and your worst nightmare. MAGIC 50 CUNNING 98 INTELLIGENCE 75 DRIVE 100…

CHANGE YOUR CLOTHES Even better if it means dressing like your classic comic book counterpart. STRENGTH IN NUMBERS You will have to stick together if you want to defeat your cabal of superpowered parents. DON’T DRAW ATTENTION TO YOURSELF Make sure you keep those superpowers on the down-low. DON’T TRUST THE POLICE Especially if they’re called Detective Flores. KEEP YOUR GENETICALLY MODIFIED DINOSAUR NEAR AT ALL TIMES What do you mean you don’t have a pet dinosaur? What sort of a runaway are you?…

Release 12 December Director Christian Rivers Cast Hera Hilmar, Hugo Weaving, Robert Sheehan, Jihae, Leila George, Stephen Lang Distributor Universal Pictures Certificate 12A There’s a lot to digest in Mortal Engines. Adapted from Philip Reeve’s post-apocalyptic novel of the same name, it’s set during a time where metropolises exist as gargantuan vehicles that roar across vast wastelands in search of smaller cities to swallow and steal their resources. While the domineering districts – known as ‘tractions’ – are hoovering up their minuscule counterparts, we’re tasked with taking in intricate plot details, a plethora of characters and complex jargon; all thrown at us in a way that can only be described as a baffling barrage of information. While it’s full of metaphors about colonisation and the dangers of technology, Mortal Engines…

Release 14 January Director Corin Hardy Cast Taissa Farmiga, Demián Bichir, Bonnie Aarons, Jonas Bloquet Distributor Warner Bros Certificate 15 Format • With a Fifties Transylvanian convent being menaced by a demon nun, The Nun really was an open goal for the masterminds of The Conjuring universe. However, despite the best efforts of director Corin Hardy (The Hallow) and committed performances from stars Taissa Farmiga and Demián Bichir as the inquisitive novice and haunted miracle debunker sent to investigate, the result is something of a hot mess. The bulk of the blame must lie with the film’s script, which veers between profoundly dim and theft masquerading as homage and strands the cast with some distinctly ropey dialogue. On the plus side, Hardy is clearly having a huge amount of fun…

Release 21 January Director Luke Sparke Cast Dan Ewing, Temuera Morrison, Stephany Jacobson Distributor Altitude Film Distribution Certificate 15 Format • The first thing that impresses about Luke Sparke’s Australian SF is its size and scope, as a large cast of characters suddenly find…

Release 28 January Director Shane Black Cast Boyd Holbrook, Olivia Munn, Jacob Tremblay, Trevante Rhodes, Thomas Jane, Sterling K Brown Distributor 20th Century Fox Certificate 18 Format • It’s interesting that with The Predator, Shane Black promised a ‘harrowing’ movie that was more thriller than comedy, because that’s sure as hell not what we got. Swapping jungle for suburbia, it sees the titular species return to Earth and target a boy named Rory (Jacob Tremblay) who has gotten his hands on a piece of the hunters’ armour. When it comes to gags, anything is fair game including Tourette syndrome. Rory’s autism is presented in a heavy-handed way, as it enables him to decipher alien technology. Not only is it a story we’ve seen before (Mercury Rising, anyone?), it’s a messy…

Release Out now Creators Sam Shaw, Dustin Thomason Cast André Holland, Melanie Lynskey, Bill Skarsgård, Sissy Spacek, Jane Levy, Scott Glenn Distributor Starzplay Certificate 15 Format VOD There’s so much potential for a TV show set in Stephen King’s favourite endlessly cursed small town that it seemed inevitable that Castle Rock would disappoint some people. So it’s genuinely impressive that creators Sam Shaw and Dustin Thomason have created something that shouldn’t alienate newcomers while giving King fans the sense of curdled hometown dread they’ve come to love. There are references galore but (for the most part) they’re not too explicit, and while the storytelling occasionally wobbles, it’s ambitious, eerie and surprisingly heart-breaking. Moonlight’s André Holland gives a strong leading turn as Henry Deaver, a death row attorney drawn home to…

Release Out now Writer Stephen Cox Publisher Jo Fletcher Books Price £14.99 Genre fans can’t move for Eighties nostalgia trips. If something’s paying tribute to a time period, it’s all neon, synths and Ghostbusters. But we’re starting to see more creators turn their attention to the waning of America’s ‘Golden Age’, the time when all those suppressed tensions from the Fifties came bubbling up to the surface as trust in the government was lost. Stephen Cox’s debut takes full advantage of its Sixties setting, delivering a powerful combination of warm-hearted hope and steely-eyed realism as a husband and wife fight to keep their miracle out of the hands of authorities who would use it to their own advantage. Idealism collides with harsh reality, hope battles violence and a family desperately…

Release 24 January Writer Ben H Winters Publisher Century Price £14.99 In the future, lying is illegal. Forget ‘fake news’ – in the future California of Ben H Winters’ Golden State, any kind of untruth is against the law, and perpetrators of this offense are arrested, imprisoned, or even exiled. A special branch of law enforcement known as the Speculative Service is in charge of finding liars; its agents have developed the power of sensing lies, to the point of physically feeling them. It’s a great set-up for a novel, and the story is a compelling one, too: Laszlo Ratesic, a well-respected and high-ranking Speculator, is assigned a junior partner, Aysa Paige, and during the course of investigating a suspicious death, they accidentally stumble across a conspiracy that could undermine…

Release Out now Writer Rachel Burge Publisher Hot Key Books Price £7.99 When we meet Martha, the heroine of Rachel Burge’s YA debut, she’s in a desperate place, racing to make her flight to run to the only place she feels might have some answers and trying to avoid touching anyone in case their memories come rushing in. Yes, Martha’s got a gift but she doesn’t see it that way and she’s hoping her Norwegian grandmother Mormor might be able to tell her what’s happening to her. However, when she reaches the remote island cabin, she finds that Mormor has passed on, a stranger named Stig has taken refuge there, and something terrifying is making its way into our world… Burge keeps things moving at a brisk pace and she’s…

Release 17 January Writer Gareth Hanrahan Publisher Orbit Price £8.99 If you can introduce readers to a rich, complicated world while executing a thrilling action sequence, that’s an opening that will get people’s attention, and that’s what Gareth Hanrahan does in the opening of the first book in The Black Iron Legacy series. Three thieves are interrupted mid-heist by the building exploding around them in the prologue, destroying countless artefacts and claiming many lives. Now, not only are Carillon (a human girl who turned her back on her noble family), Spar (a man afflicted with a disease turning his body into stone) and Rat (a ghoul trying to fend off his burgeoning feral appetites) wanted by the law, they’re also at the centre of a string of what seem to…

Being asked to choose just one author to gush over is one of those things I think all authors dread – it’s like asking a bookworm what they’re favourite book is. Just one? Even narrowing my list down to four authors was actual agony. So, I cheated slightly, and the following list features four authors that had the largest influence on my writing craft… SUSANNA CLARKE Not only does Jonathan Strange And Mr Norrell rank as one of my top reading experiences (back when it first came out!), but it’s also one of my most re-read books. That book taught me how to take world-building up a notch. It taught me how to spin tropes on their heads. And it taught me how not-perfect and perhaps even unlikeable main characters…

As far as unlikely film series go, Phantasm has to be near the top. The original film was advertised with a tagline that was later cheekily cribbed by John Carpenter for his In The Mouth Of Madness – ‘If this one doesn’t scare you… You’re already dead’. Given such a boast, one would be excused for expecting Phantasm to be an unrelenting, spine-tingling shocker – in-tune with such similarly successful late Seventies indie-horrors as Halloween or The Hills Have Eyes. Yet, there is a reason Phantasm is rarely mentioned alongside such terror treats and that is because Don Coscarelli’s oddball galaxy-hopping epic of Armageddon-in-a-small town is just as much sci-fi fantasy, if not outright surrealist adventure, as it is an exercise in serious-minded macabre. Indeed, its initial marketing push as…

Dubbed Phantasm 1999 AD and later retitled Phantasm’s End, the Roger Avary-penned script to the fourth (and later fifth) Phantasm became a hot topic at the same time as Quentin Tarantino was revealed to be developing his own version of Halloween VI with friend Scott Spiegel. Both had just emerged from the blockbuster success of Pulp Fiction in 1994 and were aiming to resurrect old genre favourites. But in the mid-Nineties, before Jamie Lee Curtis proved the market for retro-horror on a huge scale was limitless, this was easier said than done. “I remember receiving the script,” stated Scrimm. “It was exciting because Roger Avary had come from Pulp Fiction so if anyone could do this big Hollywood version of Phantasm it was him. But the budget was around $12…

“This is still the film I am remembered for,” enthuses director Luigi Cozzi when SciFiNow catches up with him. “But at the time nobody thought we could make this sort of movie in Italy. It surprised the audience – Italy did not really do this sort of thing. I prefer people to think of me as a director of fantasy or sci-fi, although some people associate me with horror because of Dario Argento, but that’s not my preference…” Indeed, by the time Starcrash entered into production in 1978, Cozzi had not just worked side-by-side with Argento (including writing the story to the 1971 slasher-thriller Four Flies On Grey Velvet) but had begun to emerge as a helmer of low budget shockers in his own right. His directorial debut came with…

CONTAMINATION (LUIGI COZZI, 1980) RIPS-OFF: ALIEN (1979) Cozzi made a comeback with this once-banned former ‘video nasty’ about a Cyclops, based in Colombia, that is trying to take over the planet by sending its alien-eggs out to major ports across the world. Once disturbed, the pods make anyone in the vicinity explode from the stomach ala John Hurt in Alien. The xenomorph, when revealed, looks handmade, but that is part of the charm of this see-it-to-believe-it low budget romp. ATOR THE FIGHTING EAGLE (JOE D’AMATO, 1982) RIPS-OFF: CONAN THE BARBARIAN (1982) Fast out the door, and primarily aimed at a more family-friendly audience, this is stone-age adventure at its most restrained, with Graham Norton favourite Miles O’Keeffe putting his all into a part that calls for him to show his…