Innholdsfortegnelse for Issue 164 i SciFi Now

Comparisons to John Carpenter’s The Thingand Alex Garland’sAnnihilationout of Toronto Film Festival have us chomping at the bit for Neasa Hardiman’s low-key ecological sci-fihorror Sea Fever. The set-up is simple; a marine biology student employs the crew of an Irish trawler boat to head to the middle of the Atlantic Ocean for a scientific excursion. Will they make it back to shore or be gutted like a tasty fish morsel? “The film is an ensemble thriller with a sci-fi element, which is this ‘what if?’ element that sets the story in motion. The thing that I love about sci-fi and the thing that it’s great at is providing cinematic metaphor,” explains writer-director Hardiman whose CV includes shows such as Marvel’s Jessica Jones and Inhumans. The diverse and close-knit crew are…

What is it? Apple’s upcoming streaming service, which launches on 1 November. How much is it? The fee is £4.99 per month after a seven-day trial. One subscription allows access for up to six people. How do I get it? If you have an iPhone, iPad, Mac or Apple TV, you should already have the Apple TV app, where you can install Apple TV+. But from November, the app will also be available to download on popular smart TV brands, streaming boxes and streaming sticks. What else can I watch? Original content like For All Mankind (Ronald D Moore’s alternate history series about the space race), Dickinson (a comedy period series starring Hailee Steinfeld as poet Emily Dickinson), Servant (a psychological thriller series from M Night Shyamalan), The Morning Show…

BACK IN 2005, Rob Zombie delivered his brutal, darkly comic follow-up to House Of 1000CorpseswithThe Devil’s Rejects. The sequel was critically acclaimed and struck a chord with audiences who became fascinated with the characters of Captain Spaulding (Sid Haig), Baby Firefly (Sheri Moon Zombie) and Otis Firefly (Bill Mosely). Now, nearly 15 years later, Zombie has returned with the next chapter. “It’s been a long crazy journey with this movie so to have it done and ready to go, it feels great,” he enthuses. 3 From Hell begins with the trio surviving the hail of bullets that met them at the close of the previous film and staring at the prison walls of Death Row. But when Otis escapes, he teams up with old buddy Foxy (31’s Richard Brake) and…

It’s not just the Arrowverse that’s gearing up to enter a new year of action: The CW’s Black Lightning is set to hit TV screens (and Netflix UK accounts) this autumn for Season Three. Since the show premiered in 2018, titular hero Jefferson Pierce has been through the mill more times than he can count. Since the moment he came out of vigilante retirement to re-take on the mantle of ‘Black Lightning’ in addition to his duties as a husband, a father and the principal of Garfield High School, his somewhat humdrum life has changed drastically, but not always for the better. “I can tell you, in Season Three I think he's going to kind of go to some darker places, and maybe even some angrier places,” says Jefferson actor…

TERMINATOR • Sarah Connor (Linda Hamilton) • Terminator (Arnold Schwarzenegger) • Kyle Reese (Michael Biehn) • Dr Silberman (Earl Boen) TERMINATOR 2: JUDGEMENT DAY • Sarah Connor (Linda Hamilton) • Terminator (Arnold Schwarzenegger) • John Connor (Edward Furlong) • Miles Dyson (Joe Morton) • Dr Silberman (Earl Boen) • T-1000 (Robert Patrick) TERMINATOR 3: RISE OF THE MACHINES • Terminator (Arnold Schwarzenegger) • John Connor (Nick Stahl) • Kate Brewster (Claire Danes) • Terminatrix (Kristianna Loken) TERMINATOR SALVATION • Terminator (Roland Kickinger, Arnold Schwarzenegger (likeness)) • John Connor (Christian Bale) • Kate Brewster (Bryce Dallas Howard) • Kyle Reese (Anton Yelchin) • Skynet (Helena Bonham Carter) • Marcus Wright (Sam Worthington) TERMINATOR GENISYS • Terminator (Arnold Schwarzenegger) • Sarah Connor (Emilia Clarke) • John Connor (Jason Clarke) • Kyle Reese (Jai Courtney) • T-1000 (Byung-hun Lee) • Skynet (Matt Smith) • Miles Dyson (Courtney B Vance)…

“The evil puppet masters in this film are millennials,” explains Iranian director/writer Babak Anvari about his second feature film and follow up to the BAFTA winning Under The Shadow. “I’m a millennial so I can say this, but millennials these days hide behind their gadgets and create chaos. If you look at the current political climate of chaos, some of it was caused by them. That’s why I don’t show them much… they’re in the background pulling the strings.” We’re sat in a beach front bar in Cannes the afternoon after the European premiere of Wounds. Anvari is an excitable presence whose love of horror shines through in the passionate way he speaks about it. “Sometimes with Under The Shadow and this film, people say, ‘it’s more than a horror!’…

IT’S A GOLDEN rule in horror films that the rich people in that big house up the street are up to something weird, and pizza delivery woman Sam (Hayley Griffith) is about to find out just how true that is in crowd-pleasing horror comedy Satanic Panic. When she’s stiffed on her tip by the snooty residents of Mill Basin at the end of a seriously crappy first day, she decides to head inside to claim what’s rightfully hers… only to discover that the locals are summoning the demon Baphomet and they need a virgin to bring their dark lord into the world. The movie is a wickedly funny and surprisingly heartfelt throwback to Eighties sleepover horror classics with a gooey John Waters/Society-esque twist, and director Chelsea Stardust tells us that…

Release Out now Director Jim Mickle Cast Boyd Holbrook, Cleopatra Coleman, Michael C Hall, Bokeem Woodbine, Rachel Keller Distributor Netflix Certificate 15 Format Jim Mickle is back with In The Shadow Of The Moon, a time-travelling cop mystery story. This time, he seems to have more of a budget (thank you, Netflix), but not much in the way of inspiration. Boyd Holbrook stars as Thomas Lockhart, a cop in 1988, who finds himself at the centre of a mystery when a selection of apparently unrelated people die. Each died the same way: with blood pouring out their nose, ears and mouth. When he discovers that the victims all have mysterious pinpricks on the backs of their necks, it becomes clear that he’s looking for a serial killer. But when the…

Release Out now Director Babak Anvari Cast Armie Hammer, Dakota Johnson, Zazie Beetz, Brad William Henke Distributor Netflix Certificate TBC Format After the accomplished slow-burn horror of Under The Shadow, director Babak Anvari, claws his way through a grotesque body horror that pays disturbing homage to David Cronenberg, David Lynch and Nic Roeg. Armie Hammer stars as New Orleans bartender, Will, who spends his time procrastinating in the dive bar where he works and ignoring the fact that his relationship with Carrie (Dakota Johnson) is on the rocks. Based on the novella by Nathan Ballingrud, ‘The Visible Filth’, from an anthology Wounds: Six Stories From The Border Of Hell, Anvari translates the grime from the text into visually repulsive terror. Working with special makeup effects artist Tony Gardner (Nightbreed) to…

Release Out now Director Ivan Nagy Cast Ted Raimi, Ricki Lake, Traci Lords, Richard Schiff Distributor 101 Films Certificate 18 Format A ‘lost’ slasher film from the sickly neon late-Eighties/early-Nineties horror period, Skinner is both deliriously silly and quite horrid at the same time. It also features the kind of oddball cast to make it catnip for fans of this kind of thing. Ted Raimi gets to really sink his teeth into a rare starring role in this film, playing Dennis Skinner. Dennis is the nice new tenant of Ricki Lake’s neglected housewife, and who also has a penchant for murdering prostitutes and wearing their skins… As you might expect, sensitivity isn’t overly high on the agenda here (a sequence in which Dennis dons the skin of a black co-worker…

Release Out now Director Chad Archibald Cast Aidan Devine, Ava Preston, Jess Salgueiro Distributor 4Digital Media Certificate 15 Format One of the highlights of this year’s FrightFest, Chad Archibald’s chiller is the story of mortician William (Aidan Devine) and his daughter Gloria (Ava Preston), who live together in his funeral home which doubles as a dumping ground for local mobsters. When the crooks who use his services drop off the body of Jackie (Jess Salgueiro), the duo are surprised to discover that she’s not actually dead. As William tries to figure out what to do with her, Gloria begins to bond with this woman, as the unquiet spirits that surround them swirl… There’s a real progression here for Archibald(Bite, The Heretics), as the director makes the most of his creepy…

Release Out now Showrunner Matt Groening Cast Abbi Jacobson, Eric Andre, Nat Faxon, John DiMaggio, Tress MacNeille Distributor Netflix Certificate 12 Format Having already shown serious signs of improvement over the course of its initial run, Matt Groening’s medieval fantasy comedy Disenchantment’s second batch of episodes finds its groove almost immediately. Freed from the burden of expectation (nothing can ever match Futurama, we know this) as well as the whole business of establishing its magical realm, the show feels more comfortable with itself here and really finds its niche as an oddball hangout show. Certainly, there’s a fair bit of plot to sort out early on as Princess Beanie (Abbi Jacobson) discovers that her mother is decidedly wicked, and must find a way to escape her clutches, find demon Luci…

Release Out now Showrunner Raphael Bob-Waksberg, Kate Purdy Cast Rosa Salazar, Angelique Cabral, Constance Marie, Siddarth Dhananjay, Bob Odenkirk, Daveed Diggs Distributor Amazon Prime Certificate 15 Format It shouldn’t come as a surprise that the team behind BoJack Horseman could come up with a beautiful, honest and heart-breaking animated series about time travel and yet the first season of their new series Undone is shockingly good. Rotoscoped A Scanner Darkly-style by director Hisko Hulsing, Raphael Bob-Waksberg and Kate Purdy’s story begins with Alma Winograd-Diaz (Alita’s Rosa Salazar) raging in a car, shortly before something impossible catches her eye and distracts her at a disastrous moment. When Alma wakes up, she’s caught between two realities. Her late father Jacob (Bob Odenkirk) is talking to her, and wants her to use her…

Release Out now Writer Philip Pullman Publisher David Fickling Books Price £20 It’s been 16 years since we last caught up with Lyra Silvertongue in chronological order, in the short story ‘Lyra’s Oxford’, and two years since we flashed back to her as a baby, rescued from a flood in The Book Of Dust Volume One: La Belle Sauvage. The Secret Commonwealth links up the two elements of her story, and takes both forward. Lyra is now a 20-year-old undergraduate, while Malcolm Polstead, the young hero from La Belle Sauvage, is now a 31-year-old scholar-cum-secret agent. They are the protagonists in this story, alongside Lyra’s dæmon Pantalaimon, who is off on his own adventure following a falling-out with Lyra. They all find themselves journeying across Europe, trying to get to…

Release Out now Writer Margaret Atwood Publisher Chatto & Windus Price £20 It’s one thing to follow up a beloved book 34 years after it was published, but it’s quite another challenge when the original book has spawned a hit TV show and become a political symbol of resistance. But Margaret Atwood isn’t going to let that put her off. The Testaments takes place around 16 years after The Handmaid’s Tale ended, with a pregnant Offred stepping into a van that would lead to either her freedom or her doom. But Offred is not the centre of this story – instead, we have three women sharing narrator duty: a Canadian teenager viewing Gilead from the outside, a young girl raised in a wealthy household in Gilead with no memory of…

Release Out now Writer Alison Littlewood Publisher Quercus Books Price £14.99 Maitland Farm looks perfect when Leah moves in. Having lost her husband and son under tragic circumstances, she’s desperate to escape the home that reminds her of what she’s lost, so a remote farmhouse seems ideal. But as the snow starts to fall, Leah discovers that Maitland Farm isn’t the place for letting go of the past. As ghost stories go, this is pretty conventional. There’s a remote house, a village of superstitious types, and a newcomer with her own grief to deal. Even the scenes where Leah questions her sanity in the face of a haunting now seem par for the course. But while there aren’t many surprises, the story is so well told that it never feels…

Release Out now Writer GX Todd Publisher Headline Price £18.99 GX Todd’s post-apocalyptic Voices series continues with this third, and penultimate, instalment and it’s a more focused story that picks up with Pilgrim after his resurrection. Having been shot in the head, he’s understandably slow to remember exactly where he is and what Voice is doing in his brain, but he soon remembers that his main priority is finding Lacey. The problem is a lot has happened since he’s been down, and if he has any hope of finding her he has to rely on the kindness of strangers and sets out on a dangerous path that will take him further into his past than he’d like. While Todd is still capable of delivering some nightmarish horror, the renewed focus…

Visiting the evocative landscapes found in James’ writing can enhance our appreciation of his work, as Adam Scovell notes. “‘A Warning To The Curious’ can effectively be walked in Aldeburgh, from the forest where the cursed crown is buried and the Sluice Cottage that was meant to be William Ager’s house, to the hotel where he stayed and the Martello Tower. I also visited the house where James lived in Great Livermere and walking the landscapes around there at dusk felt like a Jamesian experience and connected things together in his work for me. The horizon line is almost threatening in the loneliness it casts over its viewer and the sense of something in the distance. “There are two things that landscapes seem to do in James’ work. The landscape…

It’s been 20 years since Devon Sawa played a slacker whose devilish, decapitated hand wreaked havoc and bloody murder in Rodman Flender’s zombie comedy horror Idle Hands. Since then the film has become a cult classic with a pop punk soundtrack featuring Rancid and Sublime, cameos from The Offspring and Blink 182’s Tom DeLonge and the leading man becoming a meme thanks to Eminen’s ‘Stan’ music video. It’s a perfect time capsule of the punk fashion and trends of the late Nineties starring a cast of young hopefuls including Jessica Alba playing an angelic love interest, and already established names such as Seth Green as a stoner side-kick and Vivica A. Fox as a high-priestess, demon hunter. It was also Flender’s first and last big studio picture to date, a…

“IT IS SOMETHING that I hold in incredibly high regard and high esteem, and I went through a very intensive period of terror of fucking it up,” admits Damon Lindelof. You have to assume that everyone who takes on a high-profile adaptation feels a few nerves. There’s the fanbase, there’s your own love of the material that presumably led you to take it on in the first place, and then there’s obviously the pressure to succeed. But this is Watchmen. This is arguably the greatest graphic novel (or comic, we can say comic) ever written, a landmark, and anyone who takes it on is going to be subjected to ludicrously high scrutiny. But HBO’s Watchmen ’19 isn’t your typical adaptation. It’s a semi-sequel, set decades after the events of Alan…

SUPERGIRL Over the past four years, Supergirl has been going from strength to strength, so to speak. The show had its own unique voice when it premiered on CBS back in 2015, but since its move to The CW for Season Two that voice has only got louder. It didn’t take long for Supergirl to fall completely in step with the rest of the Arrowverse. Jessica Queller and Robert Rovner are back as executive producers after their successful Season Four run, and are more passionate than ever when it comes to telling truthful stories that reflect our real world. “This year, the subject we are tackling is technology,” says Queller, “and how technology changes the fabric of what it means to be human with our addictions, all of our addictions…

BEING A TERMINATOR FAN HASN’T ALWAYS BEEN AN EASY RIDE. Of course, the first two are cast-iron genre classics: a lean sci-fi horror and an epic action spectacle that saw James Cameron at the top of his game, made Arnie an action legend, and saw Linda Hamilton’s Sarah Connor go from hunted victim to unstoppable warrior. Then the Cameron-free years began, and since 2003 we’ve been subjected to sequels of varying quality, culminating in 2015’s Terminator Genisys. The planned-for trilogy evaporated in the wake of a muddled plot and middling box-office numbers and we waited for the next back-to-the-drawing board Terminator to come along and build our hopes up. But then, in 2017, there was some unexpected news. James Cameron himself was returning to the world he had created, not…

Anybody who’s read Doctor Sleep will tell you that the characters of Wendy Torrance and Dick Hallorann feature in key moments. Shelley Duvall and Scatman Crothers gave iconic performances in those roles in The Shining, and Flanagan tells us that figuring out how to include the two characters was a challenge. “Oh yeah, that’s completely crazy, because of the way Stephen King structured the story we have to revisit those characters who have become icons but I didn’t want to do the cynical thing which was to try to recreate those characters digitally,” he explains. “It would have been the wrong way to approach it for me. I wanted to try to find actors who would remind me of those iconic characters but would still be creating their own interpretations…

You might think that one Batman prequel is enough for any TV writer to tackle, but that’s not the case for Bruno Heller. Fresh off the back of Gotham drawing to a close, he’s back with Pennyworth, an Alfred-centric prequel, and Heller’s not the only one who was sceptical at first. “I read the premise and I thought ‘really? They’re going to make a show about the butler?’” Alfred actor Jack Bannon tells us when we ask about his first impressions of the show. Heller himself was concerned about becoming typecast, and about whether there was enough material in Alfred’s back story to support a whole show. But in the end the challenge of it intrigued him too much, and Heller’s first priority was to make sure that his Pennyworth…

CHELSEA STARDUST There are two movies that come to mind. Jennifer’s Body is one of them, the other one...I actually curated a double feature at the Alamo Drafthouse up in Houston and I paired it with The House Of The Devil, the Ti West movie, because for one thing it’s the first movie I saw AJ Bowen in, and also I feel like House Of The Devil and Satanic Panic are sort of different sides of the same coin; there are a lot of similarities between the two. If you watch those back-to-back it’s kind of amazing how well they play together, because House Of The Devil feels like a very dramatic perversion of Satanic Panic in a way soIvery much encourage people to go watch the two of them…

Release 4 November Director Karyn Kusama Cast Logan Marshall-Green, Tammy Blanchard, Emayatzy Corinealdi, John Carroll Lynch Distributor Second Sight Certificate 15 Format Finally, a Blu-ray release for one of the best horror films of the decade. Karyn Kusama’s chiller is a perfectly constructed masterclass in rising tension, as Logan Marshall-Green’s on-edge Will begins to suspect that something is seriously wrong at the dinner party his long-vanished ex Eden (Tammy Blanchard) has organised with her new beau David (Michiel Huisman) for their old friends. Is there something off about Eden and David? Or is Will freaking out for no reason? That is the question that Kusama leaves with us for almost all of The Invitation’s 100 minutes, stranding us with Will in this beautiful home as he simmers and twitches (Marshall-Green’s…

Release 21 October Director Lars Klevberg Cast Aubrey Plaza, Gabriel Bateman, Brian Tyree Henry, Mark Hamill Distributor Vertigo Releasing Certificate 15 Format Putting aside our qualms about quite how upset a Child’s Play remake made Don Mancini, who’s still working on taking the series to strange and wonderful new places, this new take on the killer Good Guy Doll (sorry, that’s now a Buddi) is really quite enjoyable. It’s self-aware without completely undercutting the horror, it’s very well cast and it’s even surprisingly sweet in the first half hour or so… Here, Chucky is an AI doll that can control technology remotely (handy at first, deadly later), bought for lonely young Andy (an excellent Gabriel Bateman) by single mum Karen (Aubrey Plaza). Mark Hamill is the perfect choice for the…

Release 11 November Director Jon Watts Cast Tom Holland, Samuel L Jackson, Zendaya, Jake Gyllenhaal, Jon Favreau Distributor Sony Pictures Releasing Certificate 12 Format After the traumatic events of Endgame, Peter Parker just wants to be a regular teen. His wish is almost granted when he goes on class trip to Europe with his peers, but it’s not long before Nick Fury is on his back, demanding he put on the Spidey suit to take down a new threat. A holiday in Italy may be a nice break from the Avengers drama for Peter, but it’s a nice break for viewers too. Following the Endgame build-up, Far From Home goes back to basics. Gone are the complicated timelines and space travel. Instead, say ‘buongiorno’ to fun, teen-ridden action-comedy. The result…

Those of us who own a dog-eared copy of Stephen Chbosky’s deeply wonderful coming-of-age tale The Perks Of Being A Wallflower may have been a little surprised when the author announced that he was writing a horror novel. However, any concerns about whether he had a horror epic in him have been allayed by the ambitious, heartfelt and terrifying Imaginary Friend, in which young Christopher Reese discovers something unusual in his new hometown of Mill Grove. While his mother Kate works hard to pay the bills and keep them safe, Christopher is talking to the clouds… and a cloud is talking back. There’s something it wants him to see in the woods… “It came from the idea of what would happen if a boy looked up at the clouds and…

Wizard And Glass “Took some beating at the time but the appearance of King himself in later novels soured the taste in the end. #BookClub” @mjduffy11 Memories Of Ice “Great battles. Great characters. Everything that is best in fantasy. Great fiction. Not just genre fiction. #BookClub” @TarienCole Wayward Son “It’s so rare that we’re shown what happens after the world’s been saved. #BookClub” @PasmineJalmer Charlie And The Great Glass Elevator “It was the book that introduced me to sequels (many years ago). #BookClub” @andyangel44 Count Zero “Started with the multiple narrative trick. #BookClub” @brahaminda…

“Game Of Lives. The last book of The Mortality Doctrine series by @jamesdashner #BookClub” @charober “Ubik has been harassing me to reread it... it moved onto my bed side table. #BookClub” @MariadosPostais “Just finished @tadethompson’s Rosewater Insurection. Loved it. And started Paul Kildea’s Chopin’s Piano: A Journey Through Romanticism. #BookClub” @GremlinPaints “Kingdom Of Ash by Sarah J Maas. And O-M-G. #BookClub” @JasminMaaz “Just started Doctor Sleep to get ready for the film #BookClub” @bloodyflicks “Frank Miller, Dark Knight III - The Master Race, it’s great #BookClub” @DarkKnightAl79 “Jasper Fforde’s Early Riser. It’s a slow start, but I have faith. #BookClub” @authorjla “Just finished Robert Harris’s excellent The Second Sleep. Next is Stephen King’s The Institute. #BookClub” @jd_fennell “Just started reading The Martian by Andy Weir. It surprised me how the…

Release Out now Writer David Wragg Publisher Harper Voyager Price £8.99 There are tropes in The Black Hawks that, when introduced, feel familiar; the exiled prince, a squire with dreams of grandeur, and a bunch of antihero types. There’s a throne usurper, a shadowy power operating a rebellion, and a threat that might be more internal then external. And when you’re walking on a well-walked path in the fantasy genre, the trick is to take those elements and either put a new spin on them or execute the plot well. In the latter, David Wragg falters a little. The Black Hawks lurchesfrom one bad situation into another which can feel episodic. It’s also a clear set up for the next book, which means it falls short of feeling like a…

Release Out now Writer Jason Arnopp Publisher Orbit Price £8.99 This was supposed to be the start of an exciting new adventure for Kate Collins, moving in with her boyfriend of four months in his flat in Brighton. But he’s not answered any of her messages, and when she gets there she finds the place deserted. The only thing that’s left is his phone. She’s gone clean after her social media addiction nearly ended in tragedy, but Kate will have to face her demons if she’s going to find out what’s really happened to Scott… Having dazzled with the impressive The Last Days Of Jack Sparks, Jason Arnopp shows that he’s still got that knack for blending humour and horror with this smart chiller that will resonate with anyone who…

Patrick J Murphy, himself a medievalist, shares some insights on the influence of James’ academic career on the great man’s fiction. “I see his stories as being very much thematically concerned with what it means to engage with the past, both as a professional scholar and as an amateur, or ‘antiquary’. James lived and worked at a time when many aspects of academic life were under formation, including that emerging sense of what it meant to be an occupational, professional scholar and the accompanying disciplinary boundaries that restrict who gets access to the past, who has the authority to interpret it, and how narrowly a scholar must properly specialise. “James came of age at a time when these questions were very much unsettled, and surely unsettling too, for those wishing…

“The approach was to try and make a picture about why there shouldn’t be a sequel to Gremlins,” laughs director Joe Dante, recalling the thought process behind 1990’s gloriously meta sequel Gremlins 2: The New Batch. It took Dante and his producing partner Mike Finnell six years to start work on a follow-up to 1984’s original, itself an unexpected sleeper hit and the first movie released through Steven Spielberg’s burgeoning production company Amblin Entertainment. As executive producer, Spielberg entrusted Dante to bring screenwriter Chris Columbus’ ambitious small-town monster movie to life – and when audiences went wild for the result – sequel talk quickly began. But with Dante drained from the mammoth task of creating a feature-length puppet movie, he wasn’t exactly keen to return to the world of Mogwais…

During the ‘Crisis On Infinite Earths’ crossover event, Arrowverse regular Brandon Routh, who usually plays Ray Palmer/The Atom, will be donning the Superman suit for the first time since he played the title role in 2006’s Superman Returns. Grant Gustin makes no secret of the fact that he’s a huge fan of the Man of Steel, and can’t wait to get into that story. “Brandon actually texted me like three or four days before that was announced and he was like: ‘I think, I wanted to tell you first, because I know that you’re going to be like really excited about this,’” enthuses Gustin. “He sent a mock up of the suit he’s going to be wearing to me. Yeah, I’m really excited. I think I was 16 when Brandon’s…

Hello and welcome to the glorious Overlook Hotel, nestled in the heart of the Rocky Mountains. Whether you’ve come here for sunny mountain walks or to enjoy some skiing, we’re sure that you’ll enjoy our signature blend of luxury, eccentricity and mountain air. The winters may be fantastically cruel, but it’s always warm inside. Our kitchens are well-stocked enough to feed an army and we’ll bet you anything our chef Dick Hallorann will be able to guess what your favourite dish is. Want to stretch your legs? Check out our famous hedge maze! You can always track your footsteps if you get a little muddled, and those hedge animals are so lifelike you might just give yourself a little scare. Why not enjoy the peace and quiet of our cosy…

GOTHAM BY GASLIGHT This 1989 one-shot sees Batman debuting in 19th century Gotham, just as Jack The Ripper arrives in town. Supporting characters including Jim Gordon and Joker are also reinvented in Victorian guises. JSA: THE LIBERTY FILES Set in the Forties, Batman – or ‘the Bat’ – is part of an elite Nazi-fighting team made up of classic JSA members. They are hot on the heels of a Nazi super weapon, the ‘Übermensch’ – AKA ‘Superman’. THE BATMAN OF ARKHAM Set in the early 20th Century, Batman puts the criminals of Gotham in Arkham Asylum by night, and by day compassionate and skilled psychiatrist Bruce Wayne works on healing their fractured minds. It might be the healthiest Gotham has ever been. TANGENT COMICS: THE BATMAN In this reimagining of…

IT’S IRONIC GIVEN the title of Frozen’s standout song that the team behind the Disney hit had a hard time moving on. Despite feeling like they’d told a complete story upon its release in 2013, producer Peter Del Vecho and directors Jennifer Lee and Chris Buck found themselves obsessing over mysteries like why does Elsa have ice-making abilities? What really happened to her and Anna’s parents? And, perhaps most importantly, how would Olaf cope with a lifetime of summers? Upon realising that fans shared similar queries, the trio set out to answer them in a previously unplanned sequel. “We wanted to know what happened next. We wanted to explore whether there’s such a thing as happy-ever-after, because life doesn’t always work out that way,” explains Del Vecho, noting how crucial…

Release 15 November Director Abe Forsythe Cast Lupita Nyong’o, Alexander England, Josh Gad, Kat Stewart Distributor Altitude Film Entertainment Certificate 15 Proving that there’s still life in the zombie comedy yet, Abe Forsythe’s Little Monsters is an entertaining blend of bad language, creative gore, adorable kids and sweet-hearted warmth. Only one of these things is immediately apparent, as the film begins with a bitterly funny montage of man-child Dave (Alexander England) and Sarah (Nadia Townsend) arguing their way to a furious break-up. The down-and-out Dave moves in with his practical sister Tess (Kat Stewart) and her young son Felix (Diesel La Torraca), and when he’s bewitched by Felix’s kindergarten teacher Miss Caroline (Lupita Nyong’o), he talks his way into helping chaperone the class’ field trip to a petting zoo. However,…

Release Out now Director Vincenzo Natali Cast Patrick Wilson, Laysla De Oliveira, Harrison Gilbertson, Avery Whitted Distributor Netflix Certificate 12A Format The very fact that Cube and Splice director Vincenzo Natali has made a return to feature filmmaking should be a cause for celebration… so it’s a real shame that this Netflix adaptation of Stephen King and Joe Hill’s novella does not reach the lofty heights of his previous intelligent weird cinema. The story plunges several characters into a field, where they quickly become lost amidst the towering grass chasing each other’s voices and realising that there’s something keeping them from getting out. Part of the problem of the movie is that most of the characters go beyond unlikeable to downright irritating (although full marks have to be given to…

Release Out now Director Robert Fuest Cast Pamela Franklin, Michele Dotrice, Sandor Elès, John Nettleton Distributor Studiocanal Certificate 15 Format In his interview which is featured on the new Studiocanal Blu-ray, Kim Newman cites And Soon The Darkness as one of the forerunners of the ‘holiday hell’ horror subgenre and there’s certainly an intense air of dread from the opening scenes of Robert Fuest’s 1970 thriller which is likely enhanced by having seen all of those ‘never, ever go anywhere on vacation’ movies. However, unlike later, gorier examples, And Soon The Darkness proceeds at an almost leisurely pace through its 99 minutes with precious little actually happening. When Jane (Pamela Franklin) and Cathy (Michele Dotrice) fall out during their cycling holiday through the French countryside, they split up and end…

Release Out now Director Peter Collinson Cast Susan George, Ian Bannen, Honor Blackman, John Gregson Distributor Studiocanal Certificate 18 Format Given a beautiful new restoration by Studiocanal, Peter Collinson’s often overlooked horror fits neatly into the besieged babysitter sub-genre. Straw Dogs’ Susan George stars as Amanda, the young lady hired by Honor Blackman and George Coe to look after their little boy, little suspecting that the lad’s father has escaped from a nearby institution and is coming to get what’s his. As with many films in the genre, Fright works best during its opening half hour as Collinson expertly builds tension and ambiguity (it definitely feels like an inspiration for at least one Inside No 9, for example). George gives a compelling performance in the lead, Blackman is excellent, and…

Release Out now Director Rob Zombie Cast Sheri Moon Zombie, Sid Haig, Bill Moseley, Richard Brake Distributor Lionsgate Certificate 18 Format Rob Zombie’s long-awaited follow-up to The Devil’s Rejects (his infinitely superior sequel to House Of 1000 Corpses) finds the filmmaker straddling the fine line between fan service and exploring his own interests. It may not be as aggressively weird as the underrated Lords Of Salem, but 3 From Hell is absolutely a Rob Zombie film, and how much time you have for it will really depend on how much time you have for Zombie as a director. This time around, the Firefly clan, minus Captain Spaulding and plus Richard Brake’s sneering Foxy, must break out of Death Row and head south across the border, bickering and brutalising all the…

Release Out now Director Luca Guadagnino Cast Dakota Johnson, Mia Goth, Tilda Swinton, Angela Winkler, Chloë Grace Moretz Distributor MUBI Certificate 18 Format Now that the dust has settled a little on Luca Guadagnino’s stirring yet decidedly different take on Dario Argento’s masterpiece, it seems increasingly clear that Suspiria 2018willimprovewith each passing year. There’s an audacity to just how different this film is to the original, using only the most basic elements and cherry picking a handful of themes to create something that is beautiful, beguiling and defiantly weird on its own terms. Some of the bigger swings still miss, however. The prosthetic work is oddly patchy (although the gore-soaked finale is wonderful) and it’s definitely overlong, but the director and cinematographer Sayombhu Mukdeeprom conjure such a wonderful chilly mood…

Release Out now Showrunners Samuel Bodin, Quoc Dang Tran Cast Victoire Du Bois, Lucie Boujenah, Tiphane Daviot, Ralph Amoussou, Mireille Herbstmeyer Distributor Netflix Certificate 15 Format Anyone looking for some genuine scares in their Netflix series would do very well to investigate French chiller Marianne, which offers a Stephen King-esque storyline with none of the Eighties nostalgia and all of the raw fear. From creative team Samuel Bodin and Quoc Dang Tran, the series begins with popular young novelist Emma Larsimon (Victoire Du Bois) announcing that her latest book is the end of the series. No more horror for her, and no more of fan-favourite villain Marianne. But Marianne isn’t done with Emma. A childhood friend approaches her at a book signing to tell her that her mother is obsessed…

I had a brother who lived and died before I was even born. It was for him that I was named – my real name, not my pen name. He was only one day old. My younger brother was the baby boy my mother needed. He was the son that lived. In truth, they are perfectly suited for each other. Their personalities and tendencies are so alike that they are practically the same person. Then there was me. I cannot count the number of times I was likened to my father. I knew that, coming from them, it was not a compliment. My parents’ divorce was a messy proceeding, and the animosity only grew over the years. With my father gone, I received the brunt of their bitterness. They didn’t…

Release 14 November Writer Jane Rogers Publisher Sceptre Price £16.99 What would you give to be reunited with a lost loved one? What if technology could give you back two weeks with your dead partner, parent, or friend? And if a medical researcher came along right now and offered you £10,000 to hand your body over to them for two weeks… would you be tempted at all? Despite the definite sci-fi premise – the consciousness of old dead people are artificially implanted into the bodies of young, poor people, allowing the dead a fortnight’s resurrection – Body Tourists is very much a novel about human nature. Told through a variety of different perspectives, including an ageing rockstar who wants to bring back his disapproving dad to show him how well…

Release Out now Writer Stephen Chbosky Publisher Gollancz Price £20 Stephen Chbosky’s first novel in 20 years is a change of pace from The Perks Of Being A Wallflower, but fans will be pleased to know that his epic Imaginary Friend is full of the same humanity and wit as his fiction debut… it’s just also full of an awful lot of horror. Over the course of its 720 pages, the story goes to some very dark and upsetting places, but even when it’s at its darkest, the author shows a keen understanding and empathy. He also shows that he’s more than capable of delivering bone-chilling scares. This is a creepy and at times shockingly horrible tale, which follows young Christopher Reese as he arrives in a new town with…

Release Out now Writer Leigh Bardugo Publisher Gollancz Price £16.99 Alex Stern has a gift that allows her to see Grays – spectres of the deceased who wander the world. It’s this gift that gets her into Yale despite a lack of education. But Yale is full of secret societies who practice the occult and someone needs to keep them in check, an organisation called Lethe. Alex becomes their newest recruit and when a girl is found murdered, she suspects societal involvement. Ninth House is Leigh Bardugo’s first foray into adult genre fiction and it’s a brilliant murder mystery set in a world of magical societies and rituals. It’s also a searing examination of class, privilege, and a system rigged to allow those with the right connections to get away…

OH, WHISTLE, AND I’LL COME TO YOU, MY LAD Sinister, haunting, and oddly hilarious, this is perhaps James’ most famous story, a legacy maintained by the superb BBC film. This is where your James addiction begins. A WARNING TO THE CURIOUS A relentless ghost and an inescapable curse brought about by foolish interference with an Anglo-Saxon treasure. All the Jamesian tropes are here, and they all work beautifully. THE TRACTATE MIDDOTH Ancient manuscripts, a disturbing spectre, and a vicious relative who is hell bent on depriving rival claimants of an estate that is their rightful inheritance. An eerie delight. CASTING THE RUNES Freak accidents prove to be no coincidence as an occultist wreaks vengeance on those who have questioned his alchemical study. As responses to bad reviews go, it’s unconventional……