Adrian Collins's Blog, page 160

REVIEW: A Deadly Education by Naomi Novik

A Deadly Education by Naomi Novik, lesson one: block off a large block of time when starting this series because you will not want to put it down. Damn, getting sleep and bathing.  Hell, even food is optional. This book is so excellent it will grasp you around the neck and hold you tight. 

“READER, I RAN the fuck away.”

First off, let me set the scene. The first book of the trilogy, A Deadly Education, introduces us to our protagonist Galadriel and the school called Scholomance. Galadriel’s character reminds me of if I took Harry Potter and made the exact opposite of him in every way. 

If I constantly put him in dangerous situations, and Hogwarts was continually trying to feed him to fluffy the three-headed dog, it would be Galadriel. The only similarity between them is at both of their cores; they have good hearts. But in Galadriel’s case, her heart is slightly darker and has terrifying magic and great snark armor. 

Scholomance is the wizarding school that Galadriel goes to. The survival rate for Scholomance is around 50%. You do not fail out; you are blown to bits, eaten, have your skin flayed off in strips, or suffer irreparable psychological damage. To graduate, you must run the gauntlet through an obstacle course of creatures from hell all bent on devouring your mind, body, and soul. Surviving Scholomance is just as much about luck and social station as it is a skill. 

“I love having existential crises at bedtime, it’s so restful.”

Imagine being a kid; maybe you are a bit shy or gawky. Perhaps you come from humble beginnings. Now imagine that your ability to survive Scholomance is almost certainly on your family’s wealth or your power to be a suck-up. If you aren’t good enough at it, you will probably get eaten by the demons that roam the sacred halls. In Galadriel’s case, everyone hates her or is unnerved by her. They know something is off, dark queen vibes. What they don’t know is that Galadriel has an immense amount of power. The kind that flattens cities and makes people slaves. Except that all she wants to be is left alone and not hurt anyone. How does she survive her junior year without hurting anyone and not being eaten alive by the evils that roam the halls?

It has been a long time since I read something as engaging as this story. I adored El, her snark, and her heart. She wants people to leave her alone, and short of yelling at them to “get off my lawn,” people won’t leave her be. And things keep getting more complicated. There is a boy who is a confusion to her. People start gravitating towards her and maybe want to be friends. What is this friend nonsense? 

Novik did an excellent job in crafting the characters and the school. You want to know them; there is enough teenageness to believe they are young adults grappling with hormones and who they are. But enough realism that they understand that the school and the demon-like creatures will eat them. 

Pick up this book and get sucked in. 

Read A Deadly Education by Naomi Novik

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REVIEW: Castlevania S2

Following up the brief but brilliant first season, Castlevania S2 builds on the excellent foundation and brings an exciting, well-made adult anime to our screens for fans of the game and newbies alike. It takes what made the first season a surprise hit and expands on it with new and exciting characters that further develop the world based on the popular platforming game.

Dracula prepares his forces to annihilate the world of men for their past actions and so Trevor Belmont, Sypha Belnades, and Alucard join forces as humanity’s only hope at stopping the seemingly invincible Count. Castlevania S2 is given eight episodes this time around and the extra time allows the writers to explore the stunning world that has been created whilst adding some big players to the mix. Forgemasters Isaac and Hector are capable of using the dead to create dreaded night monsters, and the elegant but vile Carmilla threatens to steal every scene she is in, hinting at darker and bigger threats than the weary Dracula himself. The themes of grief and trauma run through this season as characters such as Hector and Isaac are given reasons for their willingness to side with the vengeful Dracula and seek the destruction of humanity. Taking the time to give reasons for villainous actions has been a strong point in the show so far and Castlevania S2 continues this with skill and quality. You may hate some of the characters but you can never claim that they are behaving without reason.

Castlevania S2 can be a bit slow at times as the extra few episodes allow for too much exposition and an emotional Dracula who doesn’t seem to be doing much other than sulking in his room like an overly powerful teenager. Pacing issues aside, when the action hits, it hits hard. Limbs and heads fly through the air in a beautiful dance of death as the final third of the season picks things up. The violence is stunning as the battles come thick and fast and it is a joy to behold some of the most disgustingly brutal deaths I’ve seen animated on TV. The main trio of Belmont, Sypha, and Alucard anchor the show and the bickering and banter between the two men provides some of the comedic relief from the blood and gore. Sypha is always a joy as she balances out the mopey and sometimes petulant men.

The slow burn of Castlevania S2 brings a short break from the fast-paced hyperviolent first season. It has a more melancholic mood and atmosphere this season as the pieces are all moved into place for the grand finale. For the most part, the action takes a backseat as we get to know the characters and watch as their bickering grows into a friendship and trust. It’s interesting to watch and see develop though some fans of the first season’s breakneck pace may feel differently. The apathy of Dracula as a result of his grief slows down the story but gives the audience time to evaluate the relationships he has with those around him and this adds more weight to proceedings when the eventual bloodbath begins.

Castlevania S2 ramps up the violence but builds on the excellent character work started in the first season. Excellent animation, high-quality voice acting, interesting characters, and a brilliant ending that will leave you salivating like a night monster as you wait for the next season, Castlevania S2 is possibly the best video game adaptation in history. With season 3 and 4 ready on Netflix, the best is yet to come…

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REVIEW: Squid Game

In Squid Game, the latest piece of brilliant South-East Asian games-based deadly horror TV translated to English by Netflix, a group of people up to their eyeballs in debt join a deadly game to win riches. They just have to survive six childhood Korean games, and they are deadly and bloody as all hell.

Seong Gi-hun and Cho Sang-woo are childhood friends. They would play the squid Game, a mixture of physical handicap, physical prowess, and team sport. Both seemingly at opposite ends of South Korea’s socio economic scale with Seong Gi-hun a destitute ex-factory worker with a gambling addiction stealing money from his elderly mother, and Cho Sang-Woo a high flying securities investor travelling the world, it is a surprise to one but not the other that they both end up in such horrors.

With our two key protagonists, four hundred and fifty six debt-strangled players are brought into the game. There are gangsters, math teachers, married couples; people from all walks of South Korean life. The games are simple and straight forward, and it’s a black and white, win or be eliminated situation. Once they start to understand what being “eliminated” means, however, terror begins to take hold.

The story between Seong Gi-hun and Cho Sang-woo is really well done. As is the growth of the surrounding cast as they build up and are then torn down. A favourite character of mine was Kang Sae-byeok, a North Korean defector trying to buy the safety of her family. In Australia, we rarely get much of a nuanced view into the differences of the north and south–it’s pretty much just articles about the hermit nation’s media’s big dick swinging, the population’s impoverished existence to pay for that big dick, and memes about the country’s dictator–so even just seeing a North Korean character through a South Korean cast’s eyes was interesting for me.

As with a lot of SFF/ horror from South East Asia, the scenery is chewed to absolute hell, at times it’s ridiculous as balls, there are plot holes the Wallabies forward pack could power through, and there are plenty of jaw-on-the-floor moments that I absolutely loved. Just pure, magnificent, gory fun.

The South East Asian nations continue to pump out amazing television and film (eg. Alice in Borderland), and Netflix keeps translating them and giving us all access to them. South East Asia is probably one of the most diverse regions on the planets, and I am getting more and more into their crazy style of storytelling.

You can check out Squid Game on Netflix.

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REVIEW: The Splinter King by Mike Brooks

The Splinter King (book two in the God-king Chronicles) continues in the vein of The Black Coast, with a complicated, well-thought-out storyline placed in an astonishingly detailed world. Mike Brooks writes with a confidence that is backed up with skill. As with The Black Coast, The Splinter King utilizes multiple points of view to tell a rich story, twisting different plot threads together in unexpected ways.

Where book one felt very much like setup, and at times seemed a bit confusing, The Splinter King sees things starting to pay off. The stakes seem higher-or maybe I’ve just become that much more invested in the fates of everyone. While still on the larger side, it seemed to move more quickly than The Black Coast, quite probably because the world is now established, and the rules have been explained. The speech patterns, which threw me a bit in The Black Coast, now made much more sense.

The intrigue was a stroke of genius. I enjoy books with crooked characters, ingenious plots, and the occasional backstabbing, and The Splinter King has all of it in spades. Add in dragons (although they are distinctly dinosaur-esque), and it’s safe to say that I was more than satisfied.

Author Mike Brooks chose to focus more on different characters in this continuation; however, the characters from The Black Coast were still present. They just stepped out of the limelight enough to allow other characters to become more developed. The Splinter King was told from multiple points of view, but each character had their own perspective and their own narrative voice. It becomes almost a puzzle: if you put together the separate points of view, it forms a more complete picture of the world and what is happening in it.

The book did have its moments where I felt that not much was going on, and sometimes it seemed to forget what it was doing and sort of meander a little. It wasn’t enough to ruin my enjoyment, but it was definitely noticeable. On the other hand, usually the meandering was accompanied by another look at what is an incredibly nuanced world. The world itself is by far my favorite part of the series. It is so well thought out, unique, and diverse. There are no shortcuts when it comes to worldbuilding, and it shows.

The Splinter King continued the story started in book one extremely well. We have moved past the setup of The Black Coast into the meat of the story and it’s quite the story! I have no idea how everything will be wrapped up, but based on how things have progressed, the next book will be quite the ride.

Read The Splinter King by Mike Brooks

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REVIEW: Horseman by Christina Henry

Christina Henry boasts a back catalogue which cements her reputation as the queen of reimagination. As well as a host of original works, she has previously lent her innovative authorial style to give fresh voices to Captain Hook and Red Riding Hood. She has even lent Lewis Carrol’s Alice a psychotic, gritty post-apocalyptic new lease of life. And so, to this month’s release of Horseman which, as the subtitle reveals, is A Tale of Sleepy Hollow. Although this could be seen more as a sequel, Henry polishes the story elements drawn from the source material until they shine. Here, she has crafted an accomplished, modern spine chiller.

Horseman inverts the original work by making Brom Bones (a stock, love rival to Ichabod in Washington Irving’s classic short story) a local legend twenty-four years after the titular rider first haunted the village. The protagonist is Bones’ fourteen-year-old granddaughter Ben van Brunt; a beautifully rounded character through whom Henry explores both contemporary and modern-day attitudes towards gender.

The opening quickly establishes an air of mystery. Whilst in the woods playing Sleepy Hollow Boys, Ben and her only friend Sander are caught up in the aftermath of a grisly murder. After seeing a classmate dismembered, Ben is soon led down a path which will see her question the narrative that she has been spun throughout her life around how her parents came to die.

Much like the original tale (and Tim Burton’s most notable adaptation), Horseman makes use of the woods as a living, breathing entity rather than merely a backdrop. Enchantment and the supernatural are woven into the villagers’ lives. Henry’s prose cleverly plays on the ambiguities at play as events unfold and once seemingly respectful figures around her begin to reveal their true temperaments. Are they driven by an ancient, malignant force which resides deep in the woods’ forbidden heart? Or are they led by far more recognisable human urges which exist far beyond the banks of The Hudson?

As the locals’ behaviours become more and more inexplicable, the body count grows. Tensions rise. We are told from the beginning that “Everyone in Sleepy Hollow knows about the Horseman, but no one really believes in him.” Yet as Ben embarks on her voyage of discovery, the sound of his hoof fall becomes too loud for her to ignore. This story drew me in and didn’t let me go. I found myself invested in both the heroine and the story and longed to find out whether the rider would prove to be a friend or foe as Ben seeks to stop the demonic entity which haunts her ancestral home.

When the classic rivalry between Brom Bones and Ichabod Crane is brought to a fresh and innovative climax, Ben knows that she must act. But first she must re-evaluate her relationship with her grandmother Katrina. Will the forces at play (and the attitudes of 19th Century New York State) allow her to become the man of the house that she craves to be?

Horseman is a beautifully made dark read and a tale as much about growth and identity as much as it is family, loss and grief. This is a short, sharp page turner worthy of a one-sitting-read. I loved it and you will too if you’re a fan of eerie, gothic tales or chilling modern horror.

Read Horseman by Christina Henry

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REVIEW: Angels of Death: Tempest

In Tempest, the fifth episode of the barnstorming debut series from WarhammerTV, Angels of Death, we flash back to an epilogue to the current story. The Tyranid hive fleet has arrived and a void battle between the full Blood Angels fleet (including the Sword of Baal from the main story), escalates in earnest. The steel and faith and  human flesh of mankind take on the sheer weight of numbers and psychic might of the Tyranids, and our bloody heroes are in serious trouble.

Straight off the bat, I either missed the cue that notified the viewer that Tempest was a flashback right at the start, or the Warhammer TV team really gave me more credit than I deserve as a viewer. I originally thought we were in the void over the planet we’ve been fighting over for the last four episodes. However, after a few minutes of space battle (with pretty horrible sound effects selection, I have to say) and some characters showing up who were already planetside, I realised we were in a flashback. Tempest is actually the story of how the Sword of Baal ended up in orbit over a Tyranid infested planet with Captain Orpheo taking a thunderhawk gunship to the surface to investigate the war on the planet’s surface.

The episode overall is a bit of a weird one. On the one hand, it was awesome to watch, full of fire and fury, of bold declarations and desperate decisions—everything we’ve grown to love about the Warhammer 40k universe. On the other hand, from a story perspective, it was absolutely pointless. There were no major twists or turns to add to the current storyline, no penny drops or anything to put my jaw on the floor to make the 28 minute episode genuinely worth it from a story perspective. If anything, they should have just made this episode 1 and gone with a linear storyline.

No matter how fun Tempest was from the perspective of a stand alone product, I’m really hoping the creators put as much time and effort into progressing the storyline next episode as they did with this superfluous one. Get me back to the Blood Angels on the ground battling the Tyranid menace while searching for Captain Orpheo already, please!

Check out the rest of our episode reviews here.

Watch Angels of Death: Tempest on Warhammer TV

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REVIEW: Resident Evil VII

Resident Evil VII or Resident Evil: Village is a direct sequel to Resident Evil VII: Biohazard that managed to upend the formula of the franchise in a way similar to Resident Evil IV. It is a Gothic horror influenced story that has a lot of similarity to Resident Evil IV‘s aethstetics while keeping its overall survival horror tone.

Part of what had been driving the franchise down was the attempt to make it in a balls-to-the-wall action series that removed all of its horror fiction roots. Basically, take Resident Evil IV‘s focus on cheesy B-movie action and dial it up to the eleven. Unfortunately, that led to removing the horror element that was so key to the series success and resulting in the underwelming Resident Evil VI. Resident Evil VII brought back the survival to survival horror and made it a story about a man, Ethan Winters, creeping around a haunted Louisiana mansion in search of his missing wife.

In Resident Evil: Village, you are still Ethan and your wife is seemingly murdered by longtime protagonist Chris Redfield. Worse, your newborn baby is kidnapped by Chris and you end up in a rural Eastern European village ruled by supernatural-seeming monsters. Ethan, having gone through all this crap before, sets out on a mission to get his daughter back by any means necessary. This will take him up against lycans, vampires, a hallucinatory doll house, and the evil witch at the center of it all.

After the excellent and okay remake of Resident Evil II and Resident Evil III based on Resident Evil VII‘s engines, this game slides a bit more toward action than stealth. That doesn’t mean it lowers the horror element, though. Instead, this game invokes a lot of classical horror and Universal Monster tropes in a way similar to the original game or Resident Evil IV. Vampires and werewolves are things that we haven’t seen before in the franchise but are appropriately brought to life here in all their terrifying glory.

The pacing of the game suffers a bit due to the fact that the most interesting and entertaining of the bosses, Lady Dimitrescu, is the first one to be defeated. Sadly, unlike Jack Baker, she doesn’t make any subsequent appearances in the game. The other bosses are fine but I feel like the game’s marketing knew that its vampire boss was the best of them and I was reminded a bit of Jeanette Voorman from Vampire: The Masquerade: Bloodlines. She, too, was everywhere in marketing but only a minor character.

The game still plays like an action horror game but the action is a bit more accented from previous installments to mixed results. By the time Ethan’s story comes to a close, he will eliminated hundreds of monsters. He has also gained the power to sprint and parry enemies. This is meant to show how he’s gained in experience since his first encounter with BOWs but does add to a sense of him being a different character. There’s also plentiful ammunition and this undercuts the tension and foreboding that was a major part of what I liked about Resident Evil VII and the Resident Evil II remake.

This isn’t to say that the game is all action all the time, though, and some of the levels are definitely nightmare fuel. I particularly liked a section of the game that seems to be an homage to Clocktower with its giant mutant baby chasing you. That thing will keep you up at night if you don’t stay ahead of it. The game also has the keys and puzzles necessary to make a proper Resident Evil game. My opinion is that while I may prefer Resident Evil VII more, I think this is leagues better than Resident Evil VI and better than Resident Evil III‘s remake.

In conclusion, Resident Evil VII is an excellent game and if not the perfect sequel then one of the better entries in the long-running franchise. Ethan is a tremendous protagonist and I wish he would show up in future games despite this story wrapping up a lot of his plots. He has an everyman energy lacking from Chris Redfield and Leon Kennedy. I also feel like this is better than a remake of RE IV but covers a lot of the same ground.

Play Resident Evil VII

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REVIEW: A Terrible Fall of Angels by Laurell K. Hamilton

I know that Laurell K. Hamilton is probably not the first name to pop in to one’s mind when grimdark is mentioned. I have been a reader of her books for about two decades, so I can say with confidence that this latest offering, A Terrible Fall of Angels, is more similar to her earlier supernatural detective fiction than her other recent offerings and although I don’t mind the smuttiness of her later works there is none of it to be found here. I would not put it on the grimdark shelf in my book case, but it belongs grimdark adjacent. I really wanted to like this novel and I was hoping for a return to her earlier gritty style but unfortunately Hamilton missed this mark here.

A Terrible Fall of Angels is the first of a series set in a new world from Hamilton and was written in response to the requests from her readers to distract from the global pandemic. Hamilton has said in interviews that the first line of the novel ‘there were angel feathers in the dead woman’s bed’ had been unchanged on a post-it note on her wall for a decade. It is somewhat disappointing that it seems this novel has been rushed out, given that it had been brewing for so long. There are some annoying inconsistencies and unnecessary repetitions that I think would have been resolved if it had had some more time taken with it. This is an alternative universe fantasy, set in a recognisable modern world, with many grimdark features we can enjoy: the lead character is flawed, it is dark, violent, and deals with the blackest aspects of both the natural and supernatural.

This is the first time Hamilton writes from a male perspective, with our protagonist being the detective Zaniel ‘Havoc’ Havelock. Havoc is the angel expert on the Metaphysical Coordination Unit in the Los Angeles Police Department. He is also an Angel Speaker so he can communicate with angels directly. However the angels in this world are not the cute, cuddly, cherubs we have been conditioned to expect. They are awesome and terrifying with blinding fire and divine powers. In this world angels and demons are real and they have entered in to a treaty which prohibits a celestial war and limits the numbers of beings that may be sent down, or up, to earth. Demons being allowed to prowl the world neatly explains why there needs to be metaphysical law enforcement.

Havoc is meant to be a relatable main character. He is in his thirties, an army veteran, his second marriage is falling apart around him, he had a difficult childhood and as the novel progresses is forced to deal with his own personal demons and troubled past. Havoc is not a morally ambiguous anti-hero that we love to hate but he also is not a knight in shining armour swooping in with unnatural touched by God skills always able to save the day. I really wanted to feel for him, but I just did not. As the novel went on I felt less sorry for him and was more frustrated by his whinging and how easily distracted he was by the body of any female character.

This is a fast paced novel from Hamilton and as A Terrible Fall of Angels has very short chapters, some only a couple of pages long, it can be read at speed. It was easy to pick it up, and put it back down, and read in short bursts when I didn’t have a large amount of dedicated reading time. It has a similar feel to other supernatural detective novels, such as Jim Butcher’s Dresden Files or Ben Aaronovitch’s Rivers of London but with a very modern American spin to it particularly with the police procedural elements and in the intense action scenes which invariably involve fire arms as well as magical violence. A Terrible Fall of Angels is clearly well researched and is a believable urban fantasy with an absence of dense world building. However because so much research has been done and that information is then largely passed on to us through character conversation it seems like a lecture. Although I would accept that this may have been to form a foundation to the series, I would hope isn’t relied on as much if there are subsequent novels. A Terrible Fall of Angels has all the ingredients of a good dark urban fantasy but unfortunately it is not a novel I enjoyed. I would read a second novel if there was one out of curiosity but it would not jump to the top of my reading list.

Read Terrible Fall of Angels by Laurell K. Hamilton

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REVIEW: Survivor Song by Paul Tremblay

Survivor Song by Paul Tremblay is a whip-cracklingly quick story that immediately pulls you into the nightmare and drowns you in emotions of fear, despair, and a little bit of hope. 

Tremblay drops us into Massachusetts amidst an area slowly boiling over with a pandemic-like virus akin to Rabies. The pandemic spreads by saliva, and the inhabitants of that area are getting quite bitey. Paul, the hapless husband, runs out to the grocery store to help his very pregnant wife. This errand would be an everyday type of thing. Not noteworthy in the slightest. Paul, our loving husband, almost makes it but gets taken out brutally. His straightforward errand ended his life.

There is no build-up to brutal moments. They can come from anything. Which I think is one of Tremblay’s talents as a writer. His books tend to be small snippets of moments expanded into stories—a whole book in an hour or an afternoon. Books don’t always have to be giant lengthy tomes to be scary; they can be a small slice of the terrifying moments of someone’s life.  

“THE FINAL TALLY OF WHAT WILL BE CONSIDERED THE END OF THE EPIDEMIC [BUT NOT, TO BE CLEAR, THE END OF THE VIRUS; IT WILL BURROW, DIGGING IN LIKE A NASTY TICK; IT WILL MIGRATE; AND IT WILL RETURN ALL BUT ENCOURAGED AND WELCOMED IN A COUNTRY WHERE SCIENCE AND FORETHOUGHT ARE ALLOWED TO BE DIRTY WORDS, WHERE HUMANITY’S GREATEST INVENTION—THE VACCINE—IS SMEARED AND VILIFIED BY NARCISSISTIC, PURPOSEFUL FOOLS [THE MOST DANGEROUS KIND, WHERE FEAR IS HARVESTED FOR FAME, PROFIT, AND SELF-ESTEEM], ALMOST TEN THOUSAND PEOPLE WILL HAVE DIED. *”

And while we feel pretty bad for Paul, this story isn’t about him. It is about the other protagonist we meet in the second chapter. Dr. Ramola Sharma. She is a pediatrician who is helping keep her patients calm during all this turmoil. She gets a call from her very pregnant friend Natalie begging for help. Natalie needs to get to the hospital asap so that she can deliver her baby safely. This idea of delivery in the center of an epidemic where everyone is trying to destroy each other is a scary juxtaposition in itself. 

This is where the real meat of the Survivor Song happens: the struggle of these two women battling and struggling to get to the hospital to help Natalie. It is a fascinating story that leaves you breathless because it is not more profound than that. You root for these two women because they are trying so hard to survive, and we, as the readers, have connected with them a bit. Even if it is just superficially, you want these two ladies to live. 

“HUMANITY’S GREATEST INVENTION—THE VACCINE—IS SMEARED AND VILIFIED BY NARCISSISTIC, PURPOSEFUL FOOLS [THE MOST DANGEROUS KIND, WHERE FEAR IS HARVESTED FOR FAME, PROFIT, AND SELF-ESTEEM],”

Survivor Song is a well-done story by a master horror writer. There is some character development, but honestly, the speed at which events take place does not lend characters time to eternalize events that are happening to them and grow from them as characters. It is either kill or run. Do not get bit. Breathe. Do it again. The pacing is frenetic; the words practically vibrate off of the page. 

If you are a fan of Tremblay, you will enjoy this book. I’d read this story for the pacing alone. Tremblay made me feel like I was running through the woods with branches whipping me in the face. Also, not surprising that it is a quick read as well. Even at 320 pages, it goes by fast. So come check out the struggle of these two ladies as they try to outrun a pandemic and try to save the life of an unborn child. You won’t be let down by it. 

Read Survivor Song by Paul Tremblay

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REVIEW: Castlevania S1

Based on the popular videogame series, Castlevania S1 is an anime that follows the efforts of a motley group of monster hunters as they attempt to put a stop to Vlad Dracula Tepes’ reign of terror as he unleashes a horde of demons in the European region of Wallachia.

Videogame adaptations aren’t exactly known for their excellence. Castlevania S1, like 2019’s Witcher, proves that Netflix have a good grasp on how to handle revered source material when producing TV shows based on popular games. The anime-style allows the blood, gore, and horror of the series to be unleashed without restraint much like the hordes of demonic beasts under Dracula’s dominion. Writer Warren Ellis, (Transmetropolitan, Red, Iron Man: Extremis, Moon Knight) uses Dracula as the main focus of the series, a wise decision that allows for newcomers to the world of Castlevania to have a familiar presence to latch onto in the opening series before developing the characters of Trevor Belmont, Magician Sypha Belnades, and Dracula’s own half-vampire son Alucard.

Castlevania S1 provides Dracula a reason and motivation for terrorising the human world. His relationship with human scientist, Lisa, allows the audience to appreciate the depth and nuance to the tragic but monstrous character of Dracula. The Dark Ages setting provides the perfect backdrop for a story that explores the themes of fear of the unknown and science versus superstition. Whilst the general tone of the story and series as a whole is dark and tragic, Ellis weaves in enough humour to lighten the mood and balance the darkness so that it never becomes wearisome. The disgraced Trevor Belmont is often the provider of such light touches with his sarcastic and cynical sense of humour delivered with perfection by Richard Armitage (The Hobbit Trilogy, Hannibal). The voice cast in general is of a higher standard than most anime series with Graham McTavish a highlight of Castlevania S1, displaying the complexity of Dracula with his pain and suffering shining through with each delivery.

Dismemberment, brutal violence, and even the odd f-bomb or two mean that Castlevania S1 is definitely a show intended for a mature audience. The stunning visual style ensures that such gruesome and violent scenes are not played to shock but are beautifully portrayed with care and attention to detail. The gothic world is familiar but also consistent in its ability to create an atmosphere of dread and horror. Other than the always bubbly Sypha Belnades, all other characters seem to carry the burden of either their own tragic past or the weight of the macabre world around them on their shoulders. In just four episodes, the audience is given time to explore the main characters whilst still leaving you wanting more.

Castlevania S1 is proof that videogames can be adapted properly for the small screen. Though not perfect, the biggest issue with the series is that there is not enough of it. The four episodes fly by but are filled with excellent voice work, a stunning, slick visual style that pays homage to the games, and interesting, complex characters filled with more nuance and development than most shows allow for given twice as much time. The R-rating gives room for the series to unleash bloody battles and explore adult themes that fans of Netflix’s Witcher: Nightmare of the Wolf will love.

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