Nick Cato's Blog, page 31

A Haunted Possession?

TORMENT by Greg Chapman (2011 Damnation Books / 61 pp / tp and ebook)


In 1984, Deacon Douglas Mackinnon performs  an exorcism on his wife; she dies in the process.  Police believe it's a case of cold-blooded murder, and Mackinnon's young daughter, Jessica, is left traumatized.


25 Years later, Jessica travels to Scotland with her husband and son when they learn of her father's passing.  They've been called to assess the Deacon's mansion and decide if they want to sell it.  Of course things quickly go wrong when Jessica decides it'd be a good idea to spend the night at the house; her son is haunted the first night, her and the hubby quickly afterward.


TORMENT features some genuinely scary moments and keeps the reader guessing if it's a possession or a haunted house tale (or a combo of both).  The brief 61 pages could easily have been stretched to novel length, but considering how slick this reads, perhaps it's current size works for the best.


I want more from Chapman.

After 15 Years...GODZILLA returns to Comics

It's been over 15 years since the Big G has been in comics form, and thanks to IDW Publishing, he's back--and if the 2nd issue is any indication--better than ever.

The first issue (penned by THE GOON's Eric Powell and Tracy Marsh) is a decent introduction: Godzilla emerges from the ocean and wipes out a small Japanese island before heading to Tokyo.  The Japanese military even use a nuke on him, which (they claim) only gives him the ability to spit fire (whether or not this is part of the new Godzilla re-telling has yet to be confirmed).  Not a great issue, but a decent kick off into this long-awaited new series.


Issue 2: Now THIS is what I'm talking about; as Godzilla's Tokyo assault rages on, Anguirus appears out of the ground in Mexico, and a young teenager steals something during an earthquake in Russia during a trip to a museum: it turns out to be a large egg, which hatches and gives birth to Rodan, who grows to full size in a few hours.  IDW is taking no prisoners here: The first issue saw the death of thousands, including two young children, and this issue features Rodan eating the young teen who freed him (spitting out his hockey stick in the process).  Hence, although both issues feature some campy material, (so far) this IDW series is way more intense tha the classic 1977-79 Marvel Comics saga, and there's already much more of a story than the Dark Horse versions.  There's a hint of an attack on America as a president (resembling Obama) beins to address America's involvement with the monster attacks in Japan, Mexico, and now Russia, and a radical right-wing Texas governor attempts to build a steel wall to keep Anguirus out.

Phil Hester's artwork is quite good, and the first issue's cover (see top of this blog) comes in 4 designs, the one pictured here on a heavy card stock 3-page fold out (yes, I have my full geek on for this!).  Issue 2 also has 3 variant covers.

The Big G is back and all's right with the (monster) world...

Slash, Laugh & Snooze!

I was in the 7th grade the first time I saw THE DORM THAT DRIPPED BLOOD (which quickly went to VHS under both this title as well as PRANKS).  Now, thanks to the loonies at Synapse Films, the film has been released in a DVD/blu-ray combo pack in an uncut version titled DEATH DORM (why this title isn't used on the DVD packaging is anyone's guess).
While I recall enjoying this back then, today the film is quite tedious to get through.  It features a cast that's as unattractive as the acting (even future SPACEBALLS / MELROSE PLACE star Daphne Zuniga hands in a terrible performance).
DORM/BLOOD is a standard slasher flick, about four students who help a lone handyman close down a college dormitory.  An unseen killer hides in the shadows and slowly offs the cast, the most memorable being a drill-to-the-head whacking of the aforementioned handyman (FINALLY uncut here in all it's brain-splashing glory).  But aside from this kill scene, most of the murders here are hard to see and lame, including a nail-laced bat to the head that's about as convincing as a SyFy channel dinogator, a rubber-looking hand cut in half, a machete to the shoulder that'll have you laughing out loud, and some really, really poorly-done fight sequences.  I DID like the dark ending, which (thankfully) made a sequel nearly impossible to do.
The 88 minute running time feels more like 2 and a half hours, and it's not too difficult to figure out who the killer is halfway into this poorly-executed mess.
Despite the less than stellar film, Synapse Films once again releases a gore-geous product, another DVD/blu-ray combo.  There's also some fantastic extras, including trailers under both titles, commentary by directors Stephen Carpenter and Jeffrey Obrow (it's scary to think they needed two men to direct this), and two informative interviews with music composer Chris Young and FX-man Matt Mungle.  There's also an isolated music track and a reversible cover-insert.
THE DORM THAT DRIPPED BLOOD is for old-school slasher completists only!

Laura Lipinski heads a cast of over-aged college students---she's harder to look at than the gore scenes!

"In a couple of years I'll be working for Mel Brooks and these losers will be forgotten."  -Daphne Zuniga

Fast forward to the infamous drill-to-the-head scene (the killer even takes the time to use an extension cord to power the sucker up!)

An actress known only as "Chandre" plays one of the suspects' girlfriends.  She has the ugliest rack ever to appear in a horror film, which I have mercifully censored for your sanity.

NO!  It's NOT Richard Simmons' new work out video.  It's Woody Roll (who later starred in a couple of turkey TV shows) as John Hemmit, another suspect who lurks around campus.

Ever Wonder What Happens JUST BEFORE DAWN?

Check out my latest column over at CINEMA KNIFE FIGHT to find out!:
JUST BEFORE DAWN...

Don't Drink & Die...

A LIFE ON FIRE by Chris Bowsman (2011 Grindhouse Press / 110 pp / tp)


Patent Clerk Gerald McManner is tired of dealing with moronic inventors and is bored with his life in general.  Saddened over the death of his wife Tracy, he begins to drink excessively and eventually finds himself popping in and out of an alternate reality where strange creatures dwell, his late wife speaks to him, and a man whose death he's partially responsible for gives him hints on how to deal with his new surroundings.


Bowsman's short novella is a decent man-loosing-his-marbles tale, although I found myself hoping there'd be more interludes told from Tracy's viewpoint during her bathtub suicide (the final one is quite heartbreaking).  A LIFE ON FIRE is an entertaining (although depressing) piece of dark fiction.

THIS is How it's Done...

PRAY TO STAY DEAD by Mason James Cole (2011 Print is Dead / 327 pp. / tp and ebook)


It's end-of-the-world zombie apocalypse time once again...but before you let out a frustrated yawn , listen up: while it's true you've probably read this a hundred times before, PRAY is one of those novels that despite its familiar story, manages to work.  And it works in a big way.


Set in 1974, PRAY follows five friends on their trip to a Lake Tahoe getaway.  They stop in an isolated town to get food and gas at a small store owned by a senior couple (Misty and her crackpot husband, Crate) and before long they're abducted by an insane backwoods family who waste no time slaughtering the men and taking the women captive.  Much of the story is seen through the eyes of Colleen; she's forced into an Amish-like religious cult whose Manson-like leader, Huffington Neibolt, has been kidnapping and impregnating women for years as part of a Noah-like survival strategy for the coming apocalypse.  When the dead start to rise around the world, it only encourages Huffington all the more that his stable of wives (and stockpile of weapons) were truly the Lord's work.


Meanwhile, a black Vietnam vet named Reggie is trying to travel from California to New Mexico in an attempt to locate and rescue his daughter (cue Brian Keene's THE RISING) when he comes across a cop named Cardo.  Reggie rescues him from a rooftop that's surrounded by zombies, and the two travel on, eventually coming to the aforementioned gas station where they help the elderly couple survive in a classic NIGHT OF THE LIVING DEAD finale.


Cole manages to craft believable, likeable characters whose pain we feel on mental, physical, and even spiritual levels.  His antagonists are basically right out of 70s redneck slasher films, and cause more terror among our survivors than the undead (although there's no shortage of zombie carnage here).  While PRAY does have the action and feel of a trashy grindhouse film, Cole's way of spinning his tale puts this one leaps and bounds above the abundance of modern zombie novels; it may be mainly by-the-numbers, but it goes down so smooth you won't know what hit you.


I'm as sick of zombies as anyone else...but when something as entertaining and well-written as PRAY TO STAY DEAD comes along, it re-kindles my love for the undead just a little bit longer.  'Tis a bloody good show.

And Those Zombies Just Keep on Comin'...

CONFESSIONS OF A ZOMBIE LOVER by Zoe E. Whitten (2011 / 56 pp / ebook)


Microbiologist Eugene O'Donnell is on a mission to help heal victims of a world-wide plague that has caused the dead to rise and become killers.  By combining electro-shock therapy and a diet of brain-enhancing vitamins and herbs, Eugene ("G" to his friends) begins to see progress in Reggie, one of his zombie subjects housed at a military base.  As the zombies under G's care grow in intelligence, Whitten cleverly compares them to children, giving the reader a more personal feel toward the undead, and hence giving this novella a somewhat fresh spin on a rapidly tiring subgenre.


Alongside the medical story is a romance between G and Reggie, arguably making this the first gay zombie romance story (although with all the zombie tales out there today, I could be wrong).  When the two finally hit the sack for a night of drunken sex, things go horribly wrong and G's life changes in a way he never expected.


CONFESSIONS is the second book in a zombie series by Whitten, and while I haven't read the first, this is a decent stand alone story, featuring some interesting ideas on the undead and human/zombie relationships.  I found it a little slow at the beginning, but the second half picks up nicely.


If you're a zombie fan I say give 'er a shot...

In Laymon's Terms

My review for this long-awaited tribute to the late Richard Laymon can be found at THE CROW'S CAW:

In Laymon's Terms / THE CROW'S CAW

Early Inspiration

Piers Anthony's OF MAN AND MANTRA series (comprised of OMNIVORE (1968), ORN (1971) and OX (1976) was the first series of novels to captivate me as a reader, and was my earliest influence as a writer.  The series deals with three scientists who travel to a planet called Nacre, where strange fauna and spore-clouds threaten their every move.  Anthony hits on some heady themes (especially in the 3rd book) but is never boring.
By the second novel, ORN, the scientists learn Nacre has the same ecosystem as earth did during the Paleocene period, and being a huge dinosaur fan (I was in the 6th grade when I read these novels, circa 1980), I was enthralled.

The third novel, OX, takes a bit of a strange turn as our hero scientists are attacked by vicious robots, seemingly destroying all their theories of Nacre.  And when they encounter Ox--a telepathic Being who holds the keys to the universe--Anthony's series goes completely epic in scale.
Despite my busy reading schedule, I'm looking forward to revisiting this series sometime this coming summer. Perhaps it'll once again deliver some inspiration--and scifi goodness...

Comic Geek Update No. 9

2 Winners from DARK HORSE COMICS...

Dark Horse strikes with the 2nd issue of KING CONAN, which will be of interest to monster and barbarian fans alike.  Issue 1 left off with Tsotha's gigantic yellow-eyed snake, Satha, about to take a bite out of our favorite Cimmerian.  This issue begins with an older King Conan continuing to tell us the story of THE SCARLET CITADEL, and thanks to writer Timothy Truman, Conan gets out of things in an unlikely way...but he still spends the entire issue trying to escape Tsotha's dungeon, encountering a few strange creatures before coming face to face with Pelias the Sorcerer (who looks like a cross between a zombie and Godzilla's one-time plant-hybrid foe, Biollante!).  I can't get enough of this stuff...

Between Conan's resurgence and this new incarnation of CREEPY, I've been feeling like a kid in the 70s all over again.  This 5th issue features a cover by classic CREEPY artist Sanjulian, and begins with a lengthy tale titled BLOOD OF THE SKY, about a female shaman who commits suicide in order to rescue her son from a demon (Timothy Truman--man is this guy busy around Dark Horse this month--provides the story AND the neat artwork).  THE FIELD features retro-looking art (and storytelling) courtesy of David Lapham, and reads like a cross between THE DEVIL'S RAIN and LITTLE SHOP OF HORRORS (are you salivating yet?).  The final tale, MURDICIDE, is a revenge-type tale with a nifty little twist ending.  What surprised me most was this issue's 'Loathsome Lore' piece, usually reserved for mythical beasts and the like; this time it's about religious cult leaders (!), and even makes an interesting comment on why they're not ragging on Scientology!*
Fans of old-school horror comics will love every black and white, terror-filled page...
(*-Scientology is notorious for suing those who oppose or even mock it.  Apparently writer Dan Braun did his homework here...)