SFX - April 2024 Uk

SFX 377 CONTENTS
32
18 38
SUBSCRIBE
FEATURES NOW & SAVE! RED ALERT 86 ALIEN CLAY
The unstoppable Adrian
Head to pag
e Tchaikovsky’s licence to Kiln.
18 STAR TREK: 17 for detail 6 IMMACULATE
s
DISCOVERY A most unconventional convent. 92 BATMAN: CITY
Woe! The last days of Disco are OF MADNESS
upon us. 8 RESIDENT ALIEN Now approaching Gotham city
44 ABIGAIL Shifty shades of Grey in season limits. Next stop: Hell.
26 GODZILLA It’s all tutu much, we tell you. three of the show.
X KONG 94 FINAL FANTASY
Some monstrous brand synergy 48 THE FIRST 10 STAR WARS: VII REBIRTH
in action. OMEN JANGO FETT Final? You’re pushing it now.
Look at us, Damien! It’s all Boba’s poppa is back to claim
32 FALLOUT for you! his bounty.
REGULARS
To live and die in LA.
56 WRECK 11 DOCTOR
38 REBEL MOON: The horror show hits dry land. STRANGE 96 BLASTERMIND
PART TWO Astrally projecting into prose You’ll need the luck of the Irish.
The sequel to Space Battles 62 DOCTOR WHO form with Dimension War.
is here! From giggles to goblins. 98 TOTAL RECALL
13 X-MEN ’97 À la recherche des Maîtres Du
Marvel’s merry mutants go retro Temps, oui?
in comic form.
44
REVIEWS
74 DUNE: PART TWO
Go on, give us an Arrakis.
76 3 BODY PROBLEM
A story 500 years in the making.
80 DOCTOR WHO
Tom and relative dimensions
26
in space.
APRIL 2024 | SFX MAGAZINE | 3

GET IN TOUCH!
Sometimes
when you’re
lost, you’re
found.
Rants & Raves
Inside the SFX hive mind
Captain’s Log
DARREN SCOTT EDITOR
RAVES
Dune: Part Two is a breathtaking piece of
cinema – I wonder how it will fare with
“non-critics”…
Monarch: Legacy Of Monsters was great.
A few more monsters next time and it’ll
be perfect.
Loved Late Night With The Devil – wish it
had been released in October!
RANTS
Madame Web isn’t a bad movie. I’ve seen
far worse superhero films, and that’s even in
recent years.
My Rentaghost rewatch is over.
IAN BERRIMAN DEPUTY EDITOR

RAVES
They’ve made scores of (2005+) Doctor
Who scripts (plus Torchwood, SJA etc)
available on the BBC Writers site (bbc.co.uk/
writers/scripts/whoniverse). A fascinating
resource, and so much work must have been
gone into it. Bravo!
Thrilled that Mario Bava’s sci-fi/horror Planet
Of The Vampires is finally getting a Blu-ray
release (from Radiance, 27 May). There’s never
even been a UK DVD, and the old VHS
changed hands for a fortune!
I wrote about Jamie And The Magic Torch
last issue, and now they’ve just released a new
DVD box set of all three series. Sometimes I
scare myself with my power.
Yes, I know we’re in a golden age for Star Trek – and long
may that continue – but I’m very sad to see Discovery come JONATHAN COATES ART EDITOR
to an end with season five. Not least because, as a nerd, my RAVES
brain is conditioned to think that seven seasons is “correct” Jonathan van Tulleken is a great choice to
direct Blade Runner 2099 – his work on Shõgun
for Trek (even though that’s nonsense!), but because this has been spectacular.
show truly ushered in that new wave we’re currently riding,
taking things to a whole new level. ED RICKETTS PRODUCTION EDITOR
I adore the cast and crew of Discovery, along with the RAVES
publicity team, who I’ve had the joy of speaking and working Really looking forward to the Elden Ring DLC
Shadow Of The Erdtree. ER was the only
with over the years. Of course I realise that with Star Trek Soulsborne game I properly clicked with.
things are never really over, and I hope we’ll continue to see Here’s to another 250 hours…
the worlds and characters of Discovery cross over into series RANTS
How did anyone fall for that obviously
– and films? – to come. AI-generated image supposedly showing David
Something else that’s coming to an end this month: our Corenswet in his Superman costume for James
Doctor Who specials coverage. Yes, I’m afraid that after six Gunn’s new film? It was awful.
issues it’s time to move onto something else – namely the
long-awaited series one! Yes, we’re calling it that. One final NICK SETCHFIELD EDITOR-AT-LARGE
RAVES
hurrah with giggles and goblins and we’ll see you back here I know I’ll never get the Fantastic Four movie
in four weeks, yeah? Tell your friends – another must-have that’s in my head, but this new cast is pretty
issue is incoming. promising. Also liking the rumour of a ’60s
setting. Just go full Jack Kirby with it!
Until then, dig into new worlds with Rebel Moon: Part James Gunn’s Superman also seems to be on
Two, old battles with Godzilla X the right track. Could 2025 be the year the
Kong and some familiar evil from superhero movie gets its groove back?
Get in
the past in several updated horror touch!
projects. Let’s fly! TARA BENNETT US EDITOR
RAVES
Email
Benedict Wong gets to lead a big-budget,
[email protected]
sci-fi series as a badass, noir-y cop… Kudos to
Facebook 3 Body Problem for that casting choice. It’s
facebook.com/
about time!
© CBS/PARAMOUNT
SFXmagazine
Gareth Edwards getting the chance to
Twitter/Instagram reboot the Jurassic World franchise feels like
Follow
an inspired choice. Let’s hope they leave him to
@sfxmagazine
and tag us! it and don’t mess with his vision too much.
4 | SFX MAGAZINE | APRIL 2024

APRIL
2024
NEWS //// INTERVIEWS //// INSIGHT //// ECTOPLASM!
FADE TO GREY
There’s a new sheriff in town in
Resident Alien
6
IMMACULATE
10
STAR WARS
13
X-MEN ’97
How much joy He’s a Mandalorian, Nostalgia never
will a peaceful new but probably not the lets you grow old,
convent bring one you were so break out the
devoutly religious expecting! Jango Fett Wolverine memes for
Cecilia? Nun. takes centre stage. a returning classic.

Sydney
Sweeney as
Cecilia in Nepi
Cathedral.
DIRECTOR EXCLUSIVE
Then There Was Nun

Director Michael Mohan on his new Sydney Sweeney-headlining
horror Immaculate WORDS: STEVE O’BRIEN
BLACK NARCISSUS, ROSEMARY’S Now he’s re-teamed with her for Immaculate, scares that I’ve never seen before. And the
Baby, Barbarian, What Have You Done a psychological horror about a young woman of reveals that happened in the script… like, I got
To Solange?, The Red Queen Kills Seven devout faith who finds herself offered a place to a certain page and my mind was blown. I’m
Times... These are just some of the films at a convent in the Italian countryside. someone who writes films with these big twists
Michael Mohan namechecks when asked about “Sydney sent me the script in 2022, and I in them, so I can always see them a mile away,
the influences on his latest big-screen offering. was really worried I wasn’t going to like it,” but this one I couldn’t. So when I got to the end
While some directors are happy to paddle in Mohan says of Andrew Lobel’s screenplay of the script, I immediately called Sydney and
horror waters, but have no deep love for the (Sweeney’s production company Fifty-Fifty basically begged her to be a part of this
genre, Mohan is absolutely a horror man Films is producing), “but as I was turning the project.”
through and through. pages I was like, ‘Andrew is an undiscovered Few female actors are as hot at the moment
“As a filmmaker, it’s the most challenging talent here in the horror space.’ This contains as Sydney Sweeney, so to have the star of
genre you can work in,” he enthuses to Red Euphoria (HBO’s drama about high schoolers)
Alert, “because you need the performances to Álvaro Morte, headlining a horror is A Big Deal. Mohan first
be grounded, but the filmmaking language is so playing a not worked with her on comedy-drama Everything
much more sophisticated in terms of setting up at all sinister Sucks!, a Netflix series he co-created with Ben
jump scares in a way that the audience doesn’t character. York Jones, and believes Immaculate will show
see coming.” off Sweeney’s acting skills like no other movie
In 2021 The Voyeurs, Mohan’s twisty, before has.
erotically-charged thriller for Prime Video, “She’s an actress who can do unhinged like
featured Sydney Sweeney as its leading lady. no other actor – I mean, you’ve seen Euphoria

NEWS
WARP
HIGH-SPEED
INFORMATION
Marvel’s
Fantastic Four
cast is finally
official: Pedro
Pascal is Mr
Fantastic,
Vanessa Kirby
the Invisible
Director Woman, Joseph
Quinn the
Michael Mohan Human Torch
tells his best and Ebon Moss-
nun joke. Bachrach the
Thing.
Tim Burton
I’m shocked that possible.’ I give so much credit to her for
wanting to go there because we did. Quite
directing Attack
Of The Fifty
they’re allowing us frankly, I’m shocked that they’re allowing us to Foot Woman
remake from a
to keep the last two keep the last two minutes of this movie!”
In the finished film, Sweeney’s character
script by Gone
Girl’s Gillian
minutes of this movie Cecilia, is, like the actor herself, a woman in Flynn.
Milly Alcock
her mid-twenties. In the original script, is Supergirl
season two, right?” he says. “But she can also however, the character was a fresh-out-of- in James
do quiet and subtle really well too. When I read school teenager. Gunn’s DC
cinematic
this script I saw the potential to slightly modify “The thing I had to delicately tell Sydney is universe.
the character to someone that gives us this that she can do anything as an actor, but I just Destin
huge arc, where she starts as this altruistic, didn’t think that audiences would buy her as a Daniel
Cretton
innocent young woman, and by the end of the high school virgin, especially considering the directing live-
movie, turns into an absolutely feral creature. movies that she and I have made together!” action anime
“I’m lucky to work with an actor who really Mohan laughs. adap Naruto.
Christoph
wants to go there,” he continues. “When “So my idea was to make her a nun. It suited
Waltz and Caleb
Sydney approached me with this, she was like, the circumstances the most and it also allowed Landry-Jones
‘I want to cover myself in blood from head to us to take this character from point A to point in the frame
toe, I want this to be as brutal as humanly B, and a more extreme arc.” for Luc Besson’s
Dracula.
At the time of our interview, Mohan is one Sophie Turner
“Um, actually, month away from Immaculate’s first public and Kit
I think I might airing, at Texas’ South By Southwest film Harington
have changed reuniting on 15th
festival. When we ask if he’s apprehensive, he century horror
my mind.” simply smiles and tells us he feels like “a little The Dreadful.
kid waiting for Christmas morning. Infested’s
Sébastien
“Our first screening is in front of 1,300
Vaniček helming
people,” he says excitedly, “and the end of this new instalment
movie is truly shocking. I just can’t wait to feel of the Evil Dead
the energy in that room when the film finally franchise.
Ewan
cuts to black, that’s all I’ll say…” McGregor and
Beyond Immaculate, Mahon says he’s keen Anne Hathaway
to direct more horror, and is at the moment joining untitled
dinosaur
working on a movie with the makers of adventure by
M3GAN. “What I really want to do is I just David Robert
want to make sure that I can top this film,” he Mitchell.
DAVID M. BENETT/DAVE BENETT/GETTY
Stephen
says. “In the same way that this really, really
King’s 1979 book
tops what we did with The Voyeurs, I want the The Dead Zone
next one to go even darker, and go to even is set for
more extreme places. That’s my goal!” a big-screen
remake.
Godzilla’s
Immaculate is in cinemas from 22 March. Gareth Edwards
in line to direct
the new Jurassic
Some location filming took place at Rome’s Palazzo Doria Pamphilj, home to a private art collection. World movie.

Alan Tudyk
as Harry
Vanderspeigle:
cheese!
AS SEASON THREE OF RESIDENT

Alien approaches its finale, let us
reflect on alien Harry Vanderspeigle’s
(Alan Tudyk) primary life lessons this year:
love and heartbreak. Who could have imagined
Harry ever getting soppy considering that, for
two seasons, the alien of unpronounceable
origins has been stuck on Earth trying to finish
his mission of destroying the planet?
Yet once he took on a human guise to
assimilate into the quirky town of Patience,
Colorado, Harry has been doomed to gain more
humanity with every life experience.
“Putting Harry through that grinder felt like
SHOWRUNNER EXCLUSIVE the right thing to do in this season,” series
creator Chris Sheridan tells Red Alert. “Each
Strange Love
of the seasons lays out a different stage of his
development. In season one, he’s almost like a
baby, learning how to walk and talk.
“Season two was like early adolescence,
where he’s going out and finding more friends.
It then dawned on me, the very natural place
Resident Alien creator Chris Sheridan explains for him to be in season three is a teenager,
where he’s rejecting the parents – rejecting
Harry’s next stage of evolution in season three Asta (Sara Tomko), who’s like the parental
WORDS: TARA BENNETT figure – finding independence, and in this case,
finding love.”
In this eight-episode season, the middle
section has focused on Harry turning into a

Judy Cooper
(Jenna Lamia):
insert your
NEWS
own joke.
Alice
WARP
HIGH-SPEED
Wetterlund is INFORMATION
matchmaker
D’Arcy Bloom. Nicolas Cage
in talks to star in
Amazon’s live-
three seasons to “earn” his ambition to action Spider-
Man Noir series,
introduce other species. “Harry is this spinning off
alien that comes down to Earth, but from Into The
he’s not the only one,” he explains of Spider-Verse.
Percy Jackson
what he personally believes as a
And The
researcher of alien sightings and Olympians
abduction stories. renewed for a
“Taking Harry out of this equation second season.
HBO
altogether, this stuff is still happening. developing
It’s very prevalent,” he says. “So, it Game Of
would make sense in this show to not Thrones saga
Aegon’s
have Harry be the only alien influence Conquest, a
on this world.” prequel to House
What’s been uncovered by Harry Of The Dragon.
Shogun’s
and Asta is that the Greys have their
Jonathan van
own nefarious plan for planet Earth: a Tulleken
Enver Gjokaj plot involving a massive underground directing the
plays fellow caldera in Yellowstone. And they’ve opening two
alien Joseph episodes of
been appearing in Patience, like they Blade Runner
Rainier. did to Deputy Liv (Elizabeth Bowen), 2099.
or abducting residents like Mayor Ben Bewitched set
for a revival by
(Levi Fiehler) and his wife Kate The Boys’
(Meredith Garretson). Judalina
Putting smitten kitten for Heather (Edi Patterson), the
first Blue Avian alien on the series. She arrived
“Revealing that Ben has been abducted since
he was a child, and that caused this fearfulness,
Neira.
Troy
Harry at the end of episode three, “141 Seconds”, as a was something that I always wanted to do,”
Kotsur
joining
representative from the Galactic Federation, Sheridan says. “It’s been a long time coming.
through serving Harry with a summons to leave Earth. But I think it’s also rewarding when it happens
season
three of
the grinder But thanks to some subterfuge by D’Arcy (Alice

Wetterlund), she stuck around to make Harry’s
because suddenly, you understand why he is
who he is.”
Foundation
as Preem Palver.
Invasion
felt like the heart go pitter patter. In the last two episodes, Sheridan says scores a third
season on
right thing “He has known love in this series, but this is
a different type of love. As Harry says, it is not
everyone in the ensemble cast will be
positioned for some incendiary moments. “It
Apple TV+.
American
to do this love in his head and his heart, like Asta is to doesn’t end with a cliffhanger. It ends with Horror Story’s
Ryan Murphy
season him. It’s love in his pants,” the showrunner
laughs. Sheridan says that they found the
about five cliffhangers,” he promises. “There’s
either a big turn or reveal for all the characters.
returns with
Grotesquerie
right actress to play the subject of Harry’s There’s a lot going on as we get to the end.” this autumn.
infatuation from Tudyk’s recommendation. Sheridan adds he hopes the cliffhangers Ryan Murphy
stars alongside
“He had mentioned doing improv at one compel Syfy to keep investing in their unique Niecy Nash-
point in Los Angeles with Edi Patterson, who brand of emotional sci-fi with a renewal. “I Betts, Courtney
he said was the funniest person he’d ever don’t think I could wrap this up in one more B Vance and
Lesley Manville.
worked with, and that’s high praise coming season,” he says. “I would need two more Season four of
from Alan. There are very few people who can seasons to wrap it up. The Boys begins
go toe to toe with Alan. They are incredible “We could go longer than that, potentially. 13 June on Prime
Video.
together and have great chemistry.” But I’ve spent a lot of time thinking about that
Max’s Harry
Heather also serves another purpose this because you never know. What I don’t ever Potter series
season in terms of expanding the alien species want to happen is for the show to get old targeting a 2026
AMANDA EDWARDS/GETTY
featured within the show, which now includes before we tell the whole story.” debut.
Fourth and
whatever Harry is, Blue Avians and the Greys. final season of
Sheridan says that it was his choice to take Resident Alien is on Syfy and NOW. The Umbrella
Academy hits
Netflix on
Genre favourite actor Terry O’Quinn returned this season to finish his arc as podcaster Peter Bach. 8 August.

Jango Fett previously appeared in the 2002 miniseries Open Seasons, written by Haden Blackman and drawn by Ramon F Bachs.
One variant
cover for
issue one, by
Derrick Chew.
WRITER EXCLUSIVE
Hitman
And Her
Jango Fett faces off against
Aurra Sing in his new Marvel
miniseries WORDS: STEPHEN JEWELL
WITH BOUNTY
Hunters coming to a close The
with issue 42, comics
writer Ethan Sacks is now
theft of a
spinning out another mercenary symbolic
into his own miniseries. After
juggling Bounty Hunters’
relic has
ensemble cast, he is instead caused
focusing on one central character,
Mandalorian Jango Fett.
a major
“Jango Fett is one of my all-time crisis
favourite characters from the Star
Wars franchise,” Sacks tells Red
Alert. “I feel he has been eclipsed
by his son in recent years because
of The Book Of Boba Fett and The
Mandalorian and the time that has
passed since the prequels, but he
is just as cool as I remember him.”
Taking place at the height of his
career, the four-parter showcases
Jango at his very best. “What I
love about Jango Fett, particularly
at this point in his timeline –
before Kamino and the
responsibilities of fatherhood – is
that he’s a warrior at the top of his
game, so we’re seeing him in his
prime, at a time when this ‘simple
man just trying to make (his) way
through the universe’ is building
his legend one bounty at a
time,” explains Sacks,
paraphrasing one of Jango’s well-adjusted than Boba during and all that makes Boba a darker
speeches from Attack Of the original trilogy era when he’s character with which to play.”
The Clones. carrying a lot of emotional As previewed in the recent Star
Having previously baggage from the horrific loss of Wars: Revelations, Jango is
included Boba in his father and the void that left, so recruited to track down those
Bounty Hunters’ no wiping the floor with Valance behind the disappearance of a
line-up, Sacks is going to fill that,” he says, sacred artefact, which could have
appreciates the referring to the cyborg assassin, serious repercussions for the
contrast between the who was another of Bounty galaxy if it is not located. “The
elder and junior Fett. Hunters’ main protagonists. theft of a symbolic relic called the
“Jango is certainly more “He’s had to raise himself, Hope of Glee Anselm has caused a

major diplomatic crisis,” teases
Sacks. “Nothing, however, is as it
seems and not everyone wants the
statue found or the culprit
revealed. There will be some
pretty cool cameos and a new
badass rival along the way as
forces align against Jango.”
Jango is pitted against former
Jedi turned freebooter Aurra Sing.
“I love writing Aurra Sing as an
assassin whose greatest asset is
her mind, having previously gotten
the chance for an issue of Halcyon
Legacy,” says Sacks, referring to
the 2022 Marvel miniseries.
“There are few bounty hunters in established a larger plot arc after
that or any other era that can give taking over scripting from Lee
Jango Fett a run for his money, but AUTHOR EXCLUSIVE with Strange Tales 146.
she is definitely one of them.” James “Roy managed to pull the
Book
Having previously worked Lovegrove, strands together into quite a
together on 2019’s The Rise Of writing satisfying conclusion,” continues
Skywalker prequel Star Wars: Strange prose. Lovegrove. “What I had to do
Allegiance, Sacks is enjoying with Dimension War was follow
collaborating once again with the outline of the successive
artist Luke Ross. issues as closely as I could,
Of Magic
“Luke and I found a good without it starting to come
rhythm on Allegiance and across all episodic and bitty.
reuniting on this series, it was like “For Doctor Strange himself,
no time has passed,” he says. I had to figure out a character
“Luke’s art on Jango Fett is so arc that could run through the
cinematic, especially with Nolan length of the novel, but I soon
Woodard’s colours, making every Doctor Strange’s rise to Sorcerer realised it’s pretty much there
page even more dynamic.” already in the comics: a man
Supreme is revisited in new novel rediscovering his purpose in life
Star Wars: Jango Fett issue one Dimension War WORDS: STEPHEN JEWELL and emerging from the shadows
is out on 20 March. to become Earth’s magical
AFTER HIS TWO view narrative and long defender.”
recent big-screen exchanges of dialogue. What Lovegrove also attempted to
outings, Stephen Strange wasn’t easy was conveying a give greater depth to the main
is now making the transition to sense of Ditko’s art with its villains. “With Mordo, I leaned
novels with James Lovegrove’s hallucinatory imagery, spooky into the idea of him being an Old
Dimension War, which is based angles, mangled anatomy and World aristocrat type who
on the original ’60s stories by overall downright oddness. distrusts and despises Strange’s
Stan Lee, Steve Ditko and Roy My solution was to play with brash new American ways, as I
Thomas. Lovegrove admits that typography in a couple of felt this would be fun and make
it wasn’t easy recreating the sections of the book, to show for an interesting contrast
Master of Mystic Arts’ formative that text could be twisted about between the two of them.
comic book adventures without and messed with just as, in “I made Nightmare into a
the all-important visuals. Ditko’s hands, the content of a pitiable figure, who is evil for
“Writing superhero stories in comic book panel could.” sure but I introduced some
prose words, without the art for Lovegrove reshaped over pathos as well. As for
support, is doable but not easy,” 30 individual comics, initially Dormammu, the book’s Big Bad,
he tells Red Alert. “The trick, for published over the course of I wanted him to have the weirdly
Another cover me, was making the narrative as three years, into a single, dignified arrogance of a dictator
variant, this dynamic and visual as I could, so overarching storyline. “It who honestly thinks he’s doing
one by Luke as to replicate the pace and feel wouldn’t be unfair to say that in the best for the people under
Ross. of a good superhero comic, those early issues, brilliant and him, even if it means making
while at the same time relying ground-breaking as they were, them suffer.”
on all the elements that prose Stan and Steve were pretty much
fiction does best – such as making it up as they went along,” Doctor Strange: Dimension War
internal monologues, point of he says, before Roy Thomas is out on 26 March.
The issues that Lovegrove drew on include Strange Tales 110-111 and 114-146, from 1963 to 1965.

The first Ghostbusters comics were The Real Ghostbusters tie-ins, launched in 1988 by Now Comics and Marvel UK.
CREATOR EXCLUSIVE
Phantom
Menace
Dark Horse miniseries sets the
scene for the new Ghostbusters
blockbuster WORDS: STEPHEN JEWELL
WHILE THEY’RE ALREADY

ensconced in the Ghostbusters’ iconic
firehouse in the upcoming Frozen
Empire, new comic series Back In Town begins
with the Spenglers having just relocated from
Oklahoma to the Big Apple.
“The great part about Back In Town is that it
kind of straddles both existing and new parts of
this world,” says writer David Booher. “It’s set
between Afterlife and Frozen Empire and it
follows the Spenglers now that they’re back in
New York. But we’ve gotten the freedom to tell
a standalone story, so you’ll see hints of the
movies and you’ll also see fun new ghouls and
new facets of the Spenglers.”
“What I found particularly interesting was
the way the new series was reintroducing New
York City, which was such a fundamental
element of the original films,” adds artist Blue Blue
Delliquanti. “But because these characters Delliquanti’s
aren’t familiar with the city or the firehouse the cover art for
way the original crew was, I tried to treat those issue one.
settings as worthy of a reintroduction.”
WELCO ME TO THE DO LLH OUSE

While according to Booher “they’ve been
involved in the scripts right from the start,” Delliquanti was also provided with details them more expressive in the comics format –
both he and Delliquanti liaised constantly with of the various Ghostbusters paraphernalia, so Phoebe’s got a lot of soft, round features
Jason Reitman and his co-screenwriter/Frozen including their classic car, the Ectomobile. But while Trevor’s angular and all arms and legs.
Empire’s director Gil Kenan. “They were that wasn’t enough... “I received photos of the The legacy characters are easier to make
helpful in sending me the reference materials car on the set of the new film so I could study recognisable because they’ve already got their
I needed to draw the interior of the the details, but if I wanted to draw it from an distinctive features – Gary [Paul Rudd] was
Ghostbusters’ firehouse – especially the big unusual angle I looked up Lego models built surprisingly the most difficult!”
two-page spread in the and displayed by fans over Menaced by an entity that in Booher’s words
first issue where you see Variant cover the years, which let me be a “wants to see them fail as a team and as a
every room dollhouse- art for the first little braver with the family”, the four-parter finds Phoebe, Trevor
style,” says Delliquanti. issue, by Steve composition,” he adds. and their mother struggling to cope with their
“I had architectural Morris. The artist found capturing newfound situation.
diagrams and behind-the- the numerous likenesses a “There’s a lot of adjustments that come with
scenes photos of all of the different kind of challenge. moving to a new home, and everybody in the
rooms, and there were a lot “I wanted them to be Spengler family has their own challenges to
of fun details that went into recognisable as the actors deal with!” teases Delliquanti.
the new crew’s work on the playing them, but I’m also
firehouse that I tried to simplifying and Ghostbusters: Back In Town issue one is out on
include in the background.” exaggerating them to make 27 March.

Published from 1992-1997, spin-off comic X-Men Adventures adapted the first three seasons of X-Men: The Animated Series.
Wraparound
cover for issue
one, by Russell
WRITER EXCLUSIVE Dauterman.
That ’90s Comic

backstory that occurs between the
final episodes of the original
cartoon and the launch of the new
series. I also get to introduce some
of my favourite ’90s X-villains to
the cartoon continuity for the first
Steve Foxe and Salva Espín return for X-Men ’97 prequel time, so my love of the comics of
the era is reflected here too.”
WORDS: STEPHEN JEWELL
The X-Men’s line-up is “as
classic as it gets”, with Jean Grey,
AHEAD OF THE Unlike House Of XCII, which provide invaluable additional Storm, Cyclops, Rogue, Gambit,
release of X-Men ’97, was set “in its own distinctive background information. “It’ll Beast, Jubilee, Wolverine and
Disney+’s continuation continuity,” the four-parter enrich your knowledge of where Bishop making up the core cast.
of X-Men: The Animated Series, directly leads into the upcoming the team’s been and how some of “Viewers of the original show
Marvel Comics are publishing a cartoon. “The big difference with the wild new status quo fell into know Bishop joined right near the
special comic book spin-off ’97 is that Salva and I have actually place,” he continues. “Our end, so this will be one of the first
written by Steve Foxe and drawn been unleashed in the Animated miniseries directly sets up stories places you get to see him interact
by Salva Espín. They previously Series continuity now, working being told in the first few episodes with the full squad,” teases Foxe,
teamed up on 2022’s X-Men ’92: closely with the production team of the new series, and will who adds that the Merry Mutants
House Of XCII, which was based at Marvel Animation to match exclusively reveal some of the are pitted against Mr Sinister.
on the classic ’90s show. designs, locations and events,” “Nathaniel Essex has wicked
“I would be on a drastically explains Foxe. plans for a pair of X-Men, but he’s
different life path if not for X-Men: “When Beau gives us notes, he’s not doing the dirty work himself.
The Animated Series, which, pointing us towards episodes of Fans of the show know Sinister
combined with the blitz of Toy Biz the original show for references played a substantial role, and his
action figures in the early ’90s, and nods, and even some pay-off Nasty Boys got more love on the
made me a mutie lover for life. So for threads that never got picked cartoon than they ever did in the
I was beyond thrilled when Beau up anywhere else. When there comics. I’m excited to use Hairbag
DeMayo asked for Salva and I to was a difference between a and gang, but we didn’t stop there,
reunite on X-Men ’97,” says Foxe, character’s comic costume, they as some super ’90s villains who
referring to the new television look like how they did on the never appeared in the cartoon
show’s executive producer. “Beau show.” make their animated debut!”
had read X-Men ’92: House Of While according to Foxe “you
XCII and thought we’d be a can watch the new series fresh”, X-Men ’97 issue one is out on
natural fit.” reading the comic as well will 27 March.
One of the
covers for issue
two, by Todd
Nauck.
Get ready for
the epic Dark
Gallifrey.
Colin Baker
introduces Into
The TARDIS.
Tom Baker and

cast members from
Metamorphosis.
NEWS FROM THE WORLD OF
New cast members for series
one – coming in May – have been
announced: Genesis Lynea
(Shadow And Bone, A Discovery Of Janet story The
Witches) and Gwïon Morris Jones Fielding), “The Force Of
(The Winter King). Horns Of Nimon” Death by
New directors have also been (narrated by Andrew Lane. Also
announced: Amanda Brotchie Geoffrey Beevers and coming soon are The
(Gentlemen Jack) and Makalla John Leeson), “Destiny Of Demons Within by Gary
McPherson (EastEnders). The Daleks” and Harry Russell (Tenth Doctor,
BBC Writers joined the Sullivan’s War. “Snakedance” read by David Banks) and
Whoniverse last month, with a follows in 2025. River Of Death by John Peel
dedicated section in the Script The Apocalypse Collection (Sixth Doctor, Nicola Bryant).
Library area on their website. It features TV stories narrated by Deep breath for Big Finish, The Casebook
hosts over 200 scripts from Maureen O’Brien, Peter Purves, the most frequent visitor to Of Paternoster
various Doctor Who productions, John Leeson and Nicholas the SFX inbox… New releases Row cast.
with more to follow. Briggs. A second volume of include The Fourth Doctor West. Paul McGann
Demon Records have released Eleventh Doctor Novels collects Adventures: Metamorphosis, returns as the Eighth Doctor for
details of their vinyl offering for four more books. coming in June, which pits Tom three new stories in April,
Record Store Day 2024, taking New adventures are also Baker against Annette Badland released as box set Echoes, while
place on 20 April. “The Edge Of planned, including Fifth Doctor as the Toymaker. The Fourth Missy: Bad Influence releases in
Destruction” – available as a 12” story The Resurrection Plant by Doctor also appears in the April May with three new adventures
zoetrope picture disc – includes Will Hadlock and Eighth Doctor box set The Casebook Of starring Michelle Gomez.
the complete televised Paternoster Row, which Big Finish also announced a
soundtrack, with new reunites Madame Vastra (Neve brand new official podcast:
linking narration and McIntosh), Jenny (Catrin Into The TARDIS, which
interview from Carole Stewart) and Strax (Dan showcases fan-favourite stories
Ann Ford. A CD Starkey) for three brand from their 25-year history,
version is planned for new mysteries. launched in March and is
release in May. An epic 24-part (!) story available weekly
BBC Audio also have a kicks off in April when wherever you listen
raft of releases planned Dark Gallifrey begins with to podcasts.
for 2024, including the first of eight trilogies,
novelisation readings for these ones focussing on Doctor Who is on BBC
“Kinda” (narrated by Morbius, played by Samuel iPlayer and Disney+.
Harry Sullivan’s War – by Ian Marter – was the second of three The Companions Of Doctor Who spin-off novels.

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Visit lego.com/star-wars
Minifigures of Star Wars characters “never seen before in Lego form” will be released as part of the 25th anniversary.

Under the pseudonym Colin Wedgelock, Christopher Priest novelised the film Short Circuit in 1986.
THE FINAL FR ONTIER ROGBA PAYNE
NEW AUTHOR
MEET THE LAWYER BEHIND
AFRICA-INSPIRED FANTASY
THE DANCE OF SHADOWS
CHRISTOPHER PRIEST
Remembering the dreamer of the Archipelago
1943-2024
WORDS: NICK SETCHFIELD
“I CAN NO LONGER TAKE A PLOT ingenious mash-up of HG Wells’s The Time

seriously enough to go with it as a bare Machine and The War Of The Worlds while
plot,” said novelist Christopher Priest 1995’s The Prestige, the story of rival Victorian
in 1995. “I’m always thinking: where’s the flaw illusionists, was later adapted for the big screen
in this, where does the idea leak? Unreliability by Christopher Nolan. In 2002 Priest won the
soon starts creeping in, and I cheer up no end.” Arthur C Clarke Award for alternate history
An expert in subversion, Priest dealt in WWII tale The Separation. His final novel,
delusions and misrememberings, taking Airside, was published in 2023.
readers to sideways worlds and dislocated Remembering the creation of 1974’s Inverted Tell us about your protagonist.
realities. Born in Cheadle, Cheshire, he grew World, Priest shared what might well have When the story begins, Rumi (short
up reading science fiction but always resisted been the secret to all his writing: “What I had for Irumide) is an aspiring drummer but
being boxed in by the genre. Part of the British to do is creep around the idea and take it a deadly encounter with a godhunter
called the Priest of Vultures changes
New Wave literary scene, his contemporaries by surprise.” everything. Dominated by fear and
included JG Ballard, an shame, he has to face up to a daunting
admitted influence on his destiny to become a Shadowwielder.
own slippery narratives Christopher
that teased and pushed Priest pictured How does “Shadowwielding” work?
the possibilities of in Hastings, It involves putting your mind through
acute strain and confronting repressed
mainstream fiction. 2011. emotions in exchange for the power to
Priest’s first short story turn your shadow into physical
“The Run” was published substances (like swords), amplify
in 1966. Two years later strength and increase speed. Think
Carl Jung’s individuation theory meets
he left a career in Hunter X Hunter.
accountancy to write full
time. Debut novel Did you have any specific inspiration?
Indoctrinaire (1970) was Absolutely! Years ago, I found a
followed by Fugue For A book written by my great-great-
Darkening Island (1972), grandfather: Table Of Principal Events
In Yoruba History. It’s an almanac of
establishing his the history and culture of the Yoruba
fascination with a tribe, detailing their
fragmenting near-future creative and spiritual
Britain, a theme further complexity. That was
a eureka moment.
explored in 1977’s
A Dream Of Wessex. How does this world
Priest would, in time, relate to Africa?
build a canon of stories Africa is home to
around the Dream the most beautiful
Archipelago, the lies and the ugliest
truths. I’ve tried to
unmappable realm of hold a light to that.
scattered islands that so There’s tribal
perfectly defined his conflict, colonial
spirit as a writer. struggle, family
resilience and vibrant music – themes
1976’s The Space
stitched into the fabric of Africa.
Machine: A Scientific
Romance was an Any advice for would-be authors?
Keep writing! We need the dreamers,
the comics, the poets and witness-
bearers in a time where it’s a little too
ROB MONK / SFX
PAUL NEARY 1949-2024 BRIAN LUMLEY 1937-2024 cool to be a cynic. We need more
(thoughtful) words and less silence.
Comic artist, writer and Marvel UK editor, British horror author, best known for the
known for Doctor Who and The Ultimates. Necroscope series of novels. The Dance Of Shadows is out on
18 April, published by Gollancz.

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STAR TREK: DISCOVERY
SHOWRUNNER
MICHELLE PARADISE
ON THE LAST TRIP FOR
S TA R T R E K :
DISCOVERY
WORDS: DARREN SCOTT


THEY BOLDLY WENT FROM

The Original Series timeline of the
23rd century, rewrote Starfleet
history and jumped over 900
years to the 32nd century. But the
story is ending – for now – as the
crew of the USS Discovery find
themselves grounded with the
fifth and final season of Star Trek:
Discovery. Showrunner and
writer Michelle Paradise sat
down with SFX to give some
insight into what that means for
their untimely end.
Why is this the final season of Discovery?

Oh, gosh! I think those are a lot of decisions
that are made above my head. We just found
out that it was going to be the end, actually,
after we had completely shot what was only
originally going to be the fifth season. I can’t
thank enough [our] studio and network
partners for giving us the opportunity – once
they had decided this was going to be the end,
and once they had told us – to go and shoot
some additional material so that we could wrap
up the series as a whole and have it feel like a
series end.
I’m sure, as you know, that’s most often not
the case when a show ends. It’s just, “Well,
whatever you’ve done, that’s the ending.” They
are so aware of the impact of this show and
how much people love it and what it means.
So it’s a very uncommon thing to allow
showrunners to go back and do some
additional work to really tie it up in a satisfying
way and I’m so grateful. I know Alex
[Kurtzman] is too. We all are that they gave
us the chance to do that.
Was that something that you were able to The crew of

weave throughout the season? Or is it the Discovery
something that comes towards the end? line up one
I don’t wanna reveal what it is specifically. But last time.
interestingly enough, the season itself, we
didn’t have to change. We shot some some additional things. But in terms of the
additional material, we didn’t thematics and what our character journeys are,
re-shoot anything, and save for a and where we were going over the course of
couple of tiny tweaks in the the season we added to, we didn’t have to
finale we didn’t have to re-edit change anything.
anything. So I think, honestly, for people who come
We’ve sort of said amongst into the season not knowing that we didn’t find
ourselves that if this were to out, they wouldn’t know that we didn’t go in
happen in any season, this was planning for this.
– in terms of the storytelling
– this was the season for that Did you get to do an extended episode for
to have happened, because it the finale?
still feels like a complete story, We did, yes. It’s definitely a longer episode,
particularly since we got to add for sure.

Had you planned ahead for season six? allowed us to wrap things up in a way that feels
Just in my own work, whenever we finish a very satisfying, and that I think we would have
season, and the shooting is behind us, I give it a wanted to do, regardless of when the show
couple of weeks and then, just because of the ended.
timing of everything, I have to start thinking
about the next season to come, because we Is there an opportunity for Discovery to live
have to ramp up so quickly because the lead in another format?
times are so long. I think that’s all up to Alex, and [Kurtzman’s
So I had already started that process and production company] Secret Hideout and CBS
started talking with Alex about what that might Studios and Paramount+. Spoiler alert: all of
be. So we had a general sense, but it was still a our heroes don’t die at the end. So they live on. Elias Toufexis
very, very early stage. Nothing was fully We have this timeframe. We have these as L’ak and
formed. But I will say that, again, being able to wonderful characters, and I mean, who knows? Eve Harlow as
go back and shoot some additional material If they wanted to do that, and if the actors Malinne Ravel.

C A P TA I N ’ S C A L L
wanted to do it, I think that’s certainly a
possibility. There are so many wonderful
stories that we have told, and so many other
stories that we could tell if there’s a desire to do
that. But I also feel like, if this were truly the Sonequa Martin-Green on donning the Starfleet
end of Discovery and these characters, that the uniform for the last time
end of season five will feel very satisfying for
what it is.
It’s bittersweet, because Discovery touch, but also with specificity, with
Showrunners always say the latest season is really shouldn’t be ending. intention and with poetry as well. Of
That’s really touching to hear you say course there are so many things that I
bigger, but season five really does ramp up that. It’s been quite an emotional roller wish we had had the time to see. There
the scale… coaster, because we didn’t know that it are stories I would have wanted to
I really appreciate hearing that. That’s was going to be our last season when seek, all the characters I would have
something that we strive for every season. We we were shooting. So we got both wanted to touch. But we just had such
have conversations about it. How can we make experiences, where we didn’t know, it limited space and such limited time.
was just another season, it was there. But my hat’s off to them, my hat’s off to
this season bigger, better, bolder than the last?
There’s a great deal of fun and a sense what Michelle and the writers were able
From the very beginning of this show Alex has of adventure, and all of that – a tonal to do.
said, “Every episode a movie”. So that is shift, if you will, in season five.
something that we think about for any So we were all just vibing with that, It’s not all about endings. This season
individual episode, and then, of course, and then we found out after the fact. seems even bigger. Especially some of
wanting every season to be bigger. But we also did get the experience of the visual effects!
knowing that this is the last time we’re That’s exactly right – the AR wall, yo!
Going into this season, season four was the ever gonna do this. It’s been quite a Mindblowing, indeed! We took it to
first season we had the AR wall, which is an while since we shot, so there’s been another level. Even though what we
incredible technology. We really learned how time to process, and it’s obviously dealt with in season three and
to use it in that season. Season five, because we bittersweet, but I feel a great sense of especially season four was so big,
had the basics of it, we were really able to push peace and joy and gratitude for the we’ve gone even bigger. They really
whole experience. wanted that sense of adventure, that
that technology along with our partners to
sense of fun, that levity. They wanted
limits that we didn’t even know we could get What was it like coming back to do that tonal shift and we definitely did
additional scenes? that. But then, at the same time, we’re
We talked about it It had been a few months since we had
wrapped season five, when we found
dealing with arguably the biggest
things you can deal with in season five.
internally as being an out. It was an experience that I’ll always
cherish, that I’ll never forget. It was so
It was an interesting journey for all of
us, and it was an especially interesting
Indiana Jones-style sort full. It was so heavy. But it was also
light as well, if that makes sense. It felt
journey for me. I can’t really say
because I don’t want to spoil anything.
of adventure like all of those things rolled into one, But there were some struggles that I
and the beauty of it is that we were in had personally with the subject matter,
to. We just pushed it beyond. There are some it together. because it is… you’ll see. Everyone will
things that you’ll see in the first episode… the We ended the way we began, the see how big it is.
way we always were. We all felt it But I appreciate that we just
opening sequence, the sand runner sequence is together. We all felt the sort of continue to grow with this show. Our
another one where you just feel like you’re sharpness of it and the size of it as well. identity morphed so much, we found
there. And that was all shot on our AR wall. We would call out pretty much every ourselves over the course of seasons.
Olatunde [Osunsanmi] is, of course, a time there was a “last time”. We would We found our identity as Discovery,
masterful director. Jason Zimmerman, our hug, we would shed some tears. It was
huge. I think back on it and it kind of Season five
VFX guru. The entire team at Pixomondo, who chokes me up even now, when I think
does the AR wall – it’s just an incredible group putting that
about that last take and I remember
effort to make that work, and it looks like they [director] Olatunde’s voice when he AR wall to
were there. That’s just one example of the ways said, “Okay, and now for the last time good use.
in which, as a team, we were able to push that for Star Trek: Discovery, action.”
technology and go bigger, more adventurous, to
What did you think about the
get all of those things. additional material?
I was floored. Our showrunners,
Each season had a different form. What’s Michelle and Alex, really went to bat for
been your favourite? us, and thankfully CBS and Paramount+
I honestly don’t know that I could pick a allowed us to have that, and we were
deeply grateful for that.
favourite, but I will say that season five has I felt like they had an impossible task
been one of the most fun in terms of having this before them to wrap up this entire
incredible technology at our disposal, the show in such a short period of time,
storytelling itself, the adventure of it all. I don’t with such a short amount of pages. It
want to say too much about the season, because seems that they did it in a day and like
I don’t want to give any spoilers away, but we I said they did it in a handful of pages,
and we did it in a handful of days.
do know that our heroes are going on a quest. So I have a lot of respect for them,
We talked about it internally as being an and I’m grateful for how they wrapped
Indiana Jones-style sort of adventure, and just it up. I think they did it with a gentle
that by its very nature is a heck of a lot of fun.

Sonequa
Martin-Green
as Captain
and then just kept growing. That’s not be. You can’t predict impact, right? But And there’s a lot of things that you can do Burnham.
something that you get all the time. we were able to learn over time how storytelling-wise. It gives our heroes chances to
You don’t get that kind of we were impacting people, and not
transformation like we had with the just the people that watch the show,
have more standalone adventures, go to a
show. Now, of course, looking at it as but also the platform itself. We were planet, do a thing TOS-style. So it was a lot of
a complete thing, with these five able to build the platform and be a fun – very challenging, as these big shows
seasons, I can say that I believe that foundation for the platform. And be always are, but in terms of telling the story, and
one of our cornerstones is our that spark for the platform. Then we then executing on the set and in post, it was a
transformation, our ability to transform became the sort of mothership for the
heck of a lot of fun.
and grow as a show, as a story, and platform as well. We just didn’t know,
then with each individual character and so we were grateful along the way
as well. as we were seeing what we had You’ve also got new characters, as seen on
created together having a snowball our cover. Let’s talk about Captain Rayner…
How does it feel to have paved the effect, seeing it branch off from us. It’s We’ll learn that he’s Kellerun, which is a minor
way for a new generation of Trek? an honour. planet mentioned in one of the other iterations,
Oh, my! It’s surreal, it’s surreal. I look You feel a lot of things about it. We
around at the company of brilliant, would talk about it a lot on set. I’m just
and we were looking for something that hadn’t
beautiful people that I got to tell this so grateful that I was able to be there been explored a lot that would be really
story with and it feels just right. But at the ground level of something so interesting. We learn more about his personal
then it also feels a bit like fantasy as special, and grateful to see what we all backstory and how that plays into who he is,
well because we had no idea – we had were able to accomplish together and why he is how he is. We learn about that as the
no idea – what we were going to do. grateful for how it’s touched people.
season goes on, and the planet that he’s from
We knew the impact that Trek itself Now the hope is that what has come
had already had, and we hoped that we from it, the expansion that’s come from has a lot to do with that.
would make an impact. But we didn’t it, the hope is that the impact will When we meet him he’s quite antagonistic
know what that impact was going to continue, and for that I’m so grateful. with our Captain Burnham. I think people will
be somewhat surprised where that relationship

I’m sad that we’re we talked about was that we’ve had single
villains before, but we’ve never had a duo
the audience will, in spite of themselves, start
to fall in love with them in a way. Which is
ending, and that Picard villain. Alex and I were talking about them as great – it’s great when you can really appreciate
has ended, but there’s kind of a Bonnie and Clyde duo, and so we
wanted to come up with some characters who
the villains. Even though you don’t want them
to win, because you want our heroes to win!
lots more to come were strong in their own right but who also, as Some people want the villains to win. But
a team, will fight for one another and love one they’re really great and the actors are fantastic.
ultimately goes. It’s a fun one. I’m hesitant to another deeply, and have each other’s backs. Elias [Toufexis, L’ak] and Eve [Harlow, Moll]
say too much, because I don’t wanna give any And the force of their love for one another, are just wonderful.
spoilers away. He’s an excellent antagonist with and what drives them to do what they’re doing
her and foil for her in the first episode, – which is something that we will learn in Do you know what’s next for Star Trek in
particularly. subsequent episodes – really makes them the 32nd century?
formidable foes for our heroes. We wanted I don’t. I know they’re working on Starfleet
And there are also the former couriers Moll them to be very strong antagonists, Academy right now, but I’m not sure if that, or
and L’ak… because the stronger they are, the what else is to come, is in the 32nd century.
Moll we know is human, L’ak I will not reveal. more driven they are, the more our I do know there’s more Trek to come. I’m
We’re not gonna learn who he is until a little bit heroes have to push up against, sad that we’re ending, and that Picard
later in the season. But they are our bad guys and the harder it is for them to has ended, but there’s lots more to
for the season. Of course, we’re always looking succeed. come.
for our villains to be well rounded, fully I think we did that with Moll
realised characters. We don’t want them to be and L’ak, and as the episodes Would you come back to the franchise
one-note, moustache-twirling. When we were progress, and we start to learn more if asked?
coming into the season, one of the things that about Moll and L’ak, I think Oh my god! 110%! I love Star Trek.

TEASING
THE
Callum Keith
Rennie joins
the cast as
SEASON
Rayner.
Showrunner Michelle Paradise

hints at what’s to come!
“RED DIRECTIVE”
Launching the mission. The mission is a
red directive. An exciting mission that
launches us onto our season, and it’s
super-secret.
Non-binary
Blu del Barrio
plays non-
binary Adira.
“UNDER THE TWIN MOONS”

A lovely Burnham and Saru episode.
“JINAAL”
Culber like you’ve never seen him before.
“FACE THE STRANGE”

Mind bending and exciting, and a heck of
a lot of fun.
Book, Mary Wiseman

Burnham and as Tilly: girls’
Culber get all “MIRRORS” night out.
shooty. [Long pause] I’m trying to think of Well, in.
something that won’t be spoilery!
Surprising encounters and surprising new
I love it. I grew up watching it. I love the information about our heroes. groundbreaking. First of all, just relaunching
previous iterations. I love the current the current versions of Trek. But just the
iterations. I have loved Discovery. It’s been, just “WHISTLESPEAK” diversity in front on the screen, behind the
across the board, some of the best human Oh, classic TOS-style adventure! scenes. Sonequa in the captain’s chair. Our
beings I’ve ever had the privilege of working “ERIGAH” non-binary and transgender characters. Just
with. Alex, everyone in Secret Hideout, our Tense and unexpected. the diversity of our cast, the storylines we’ve
creative partners at CBS studios and gotten to tell dealing with the emotional
Paramount+. Olatunde and all of our actors and “LABYRINTHS” situations that we’ve dealt with in a grounded
our production team, our post team, all of our Oh, just an incredible gorgeous location, way. Also it’s the serialised storytelling, which,
incredible scope and a singular journey
writers – we just have an amazing group of of course, is very different for a Trek TV series.
for Burnham.
people. I don’t know. I mean, I hope people will
There’s just so much love. It has felt like a “LAGRANGE POINT” always look back and love it and love it as we
family. I think that comes through on screen Discovery in a location where you’ve have loved it, and go back and watch it again
and Trek itself is just so cool, like, I just love it. never seen her before. and again.
Just away from writing, I’m a science and For me, I think if nothing else, if one person
“LIFE, ITSELF”
genre geek, and I’ve loved getting to do it. I Part of me wants to say the end of an era.
looks back and sees themselves on screen, sees
would come back in less than a heartbeat, half But that just sounds so sad. I don’t wanna themselves in a new way, feels that they can do
a heartbeat. Milli-heartbeat? say that! Hopefully it’s all the things that something that they didn’t think they could do
Discovery has always been. Action, before because our characters can do it, then
How do you think the show will be adventure, heart, family, love, sci-fi that will mean the world.
wonderfulness, beautifully acted,
remembered in 10 or 20 years?
beautifully directed, production values,
There’s been so much about this particular gorgeous VFX. It’s everything we have Star Trek: Discovery is on Paramount+ from
iteration of Star Trek that has been truly always had in Discovery in one episode. 4 April.

GODZILLA X KONG:
THE NEW EMPIRE

GODZILLA X KONG:
THE NEW EMPIRE

GODZILLA X KONG:
THE NEW EMPIRE
It’s an exciting
time to be
a filmmaker
involved with
ROM THE DADDY OF URBAN these characters
devastation to defender of
Earth, Godzilla’s rep has seen
some serious reappraisal of late. Now
director Adam Wingard has another Rebecca Hall
role for the unstoppable kaiju: saviour and Brian
of cinema. Tyree Henry
“One of the things I’ve often return.
thought about is the way the last film played
during the pandemic,” says the Biblically
bearded helmer, whose Godzilla Vs Kong
showcased an epic smackdown between the
titans in 2021.
“At the time theatres were at their lowest
point. Nobody was going to see films – not even
Christopher Nolan movies! – and theatres felt
like they were dying. Godzilla Vs Kong came
out and that was the first film where people
started showing up again to the cinema.
“It was an event movie – and I can say that
because I don’t take credit for it myself. I’m a
guest of the franchise, to a certain degree. The
truth is that King Kong and Godzilla are the
biggest icons in film history, and it took both of
them together in one movie to save cinema and
to get people going back to the theatres again.”
KING OF THE SWING ERS

If Godzilla Vs Kong was a grudge match that
ended in an uneasy truce then
Godzilla X Kong: The New Empire “So, Kong,
is the tag team encore. As the what do you
achingly trendy “x” in the title think of the
tells us, this fifth entry in the new look?”
Legendary Pictures MonsterVerse
is nothing less than a cross-brand
collaboration – only with rather
more tail-swipes and flying
masonry than the likes of Puma x
Rihanna might muster…
Make no mistake: for all their
scales and fur and city-smashing
tendencies these are two bona fide
A-listers, bringing the kind of
big-screen game that only comes
with decades of cinematic history
(Kong first roared in 1933, Godzilla in 1954).
“There’s just something about the
iconography of Kong that really relates to
people,” Wingard tells SFX of his alpha ape. defines him, what makes him feel truly The fact that this film arrives as Kong’s
“He’s sort of a representation of our baser masculine, is the fact that he’s also in touch co-headliner celebrates his 70th is, Wingard
instincts and vulnerabilities as human beings. with the sensitive side to him. He wants to have admits, a happy accident. “I didn’t even think
Kong really is the last masculine hero in a kid, and it’s his relationship with the woman about that necessarily. Maybe it’s just
movies. They just don’t make them like that that you really remember. serendipity. It’s always nice when there’s an
any more. “Kong is similar. He’s masculine because he’s anniversary that gives it that context.
“A big influence on me from that perspective a sensitive guy as well. In this film it’s all about “Maybe that weird anniversary is one of
is one of my favourite films, Michael Mann’s his loneliness and him wanting to find others. those subconscious things about why there’s
Thief. James Caan’s performance is one of the We played with that in the last movie, his such an interest in Godzilla. It’s sort of a
best performances I’ve ever seen. It’s the most relationship with this little girl, Jia. What celebration right now, culturally, that he’s been
masculine performance, I feel, in film history. really, truly brings out what makes Kong such around as long as he has and he’s this huge
He’s got his hairy chest, his hairy arms and all an interesting, very macho character is the icon. It’s not just my film. You’ve got Godzilla
that, and he’s just such a badass. He doesn’t sensitivity he can have as well. So there’s a lot Minus One, which is a mega-hit in Japan, one
take shit from anybody. He’s good at what he of interesting things about him as a character of the biggest of all time, and you have the
does but at the end of the day what really that are fun to explore.” Monarch TV show, which is a huge hit for

GODZILLA X KONG:
THE NEW EMPIRE
Director Adam
Wingard (left)
points the
way.
REBECCA HALL
is Dr Ilene Andrews
Why do you think Kong and Godzilla endure
as movie icons?
Godzilla is the embodiment of the existential
nuclear threat, and the capacity for
annihilation. These are very real concerns,
very real fears, certainly now there’s the
issue of climate. These are all real things that
can be aired and vented. These fears that all
of those themes throw up can be exorcised
in some way through the bodies of these
gigantic monsters, who are not real, and who
don’t actually pose a threat to mankind, but
we can go and spend a couple of hours
thinking about the worst possible version of
our fears. I think there’s an enduring interest
in them because they are these blank
canvases that we can map all this stuff onto.
You filmed in a real rainforest for this. How

was that experience?
The rainforest was crazy. It looked so much
like where we’d been in the studio – we were
in the studio first and we had to match the
studio to the actual location. We’d gotten so
used to the jungle environment inside the
studio we’d forgotten that actually when we
went to the real jungle, there would be
things like large bugs and unpleasant humid
conditions. And there would have to be a
guy there who would check the brush before
we walked through in case there were any
murderous snakes!
I saw cassowaries, which I couldn’t look in
the eye because they were in the season
when they had just had babies, so if you
happen to come across the mother and you
look her in the eye she will attack you, and
it’s pretty scary. They attack with claws, like
“Is it too velociraptors, the most dinosaur-looking
Apple. There’s just so much Godzilla synergy
much? I think things I’ve seen in my life.
going on right now. It’s an exciting time to be
it might be too a filmmaker involved with these characters.” What’s it like working with Adam Wingard
much.” So just what threat is formidable enough to again?
find Kong high-fiving his former adversary? We know what worked about the first one,
Enter the Skar King, a rival ape monarch ruling we know how to make it that much better.
We have a laugh. We take what we have to
from a creepy, skull-littered throne room in the take seriously but we also know what the
Hollow Earth, the subterranean realm first material is, and we have fun when we make
explored in Godzilla Vs Kong. This primate these films. I think that shows, and I think
tyrant is determined that his world should be that is important. I don’t say that trivially. It’s
the only one, which is unfortunate news for us a good thing that we have fun!
surface-dwelling types…
What’s the trick to acting against nothing?
“I always saw him as being the anti-Kong My trick is absolutely no shame! No
character,” Wingard says of the film’s embarrassment, no self-consciousness, just
antagonist. “Physically he’s formidable because fully go for it. Be prepared to look like a fool.

GODZILLA X KONG:
THE NEW EMPIRE
he’s more agile than Kong, but what makes him Trapper, Dr
such an interesting villain is that for the first Ilene Andrews
time in the realm of monster villains he isn’t and Jia are
going off some sort of base instinct. Ghidorah ready to rock.
[seen in 2019’s Godzilla: King Of The Monsters]
was a world-ending threat, but Ghidorah is also
a creature going on instinct. There’s still an
animal drive to it.
“The Skar King is a fully conscious,
human-adjacent being. The apes have a lot
more of our attributes. They can be empathetic,
they can be angry, and they have thoughts and
feelings. In this case the Skar King is motivated
by power and control in the same way that
dictators are. In a way he’s like this super-
dictator whose motivations are greedy and
selfish and sinister. There’s a consciousness to
his madness that could mean he’s much harder
to stop.”
ICONS R E MIXED
The two titans return to the screen with
notable tweaks to their iconography. Wingard
is tight-lipped on the whys and hows, but Kong
now rocks a high-tech gauntlet while a shade
of shocking pink illuminates Godzilla’s dorsal
plates in place of traditional atomic blue.
“It was important to me that if we were
going to change up Godzilla’s look then it was
motivated by story,” the director tells SFX.
“When I did GVK I purposefully didn’t change
Godzilla’s design from King Of Monsters
because I wanted to make sure that if we’re
doing a ‘vs’ film, you felt like this was a
legitimate ‘vs’ movie.
“It wasn’t like when they did King Kong Vs
Godzilla back in the day, where it was, ‘Okay,
here’s Godzilla, but this version of Kong is the
first non-stop-motion version – it’s a guy in a
suit.’ So it felt like a different character to the
Kong that you knew in the original movie.
Some people will
“So for [Godzilla Vs Kong] it was very just write it off as a
important that we keep a consistency with the
characters. But going into this one I knew, okay, big, dumb, crazy
I want to mix it up. I want to do my version of
Godzilla, and I wanted to make sure that there
monster thrill ride,
was a real legitimate reason in the film for it. In and that’s fine
a lot of ways Godzilla’s evolved form in this
movie is his story. His main storyline is
showing how he can change his appearance.” can actually fit in a car. Rebecca Hall returns as
Being in the pink finds the lizard king Monarch boffin Ilene Andrews alongside Brian
thoroughly on trend with Hollywood, of Tyree Henry as conspiracy theorist Bernie
course. “It’s kind of funny,” smiles Wingard. Hayes and Kaylee Hottle as Jia, the deaf Skull
“It wasn’t by design. We didn’t know that Islander who shares an emotional bond with
Barbie would be a thing and Oppenheimer Kong. Dan Stevens also enlists in the
would be the second biggest movie of the MonsterVerse as Trapper, a veterinarian
year and that there would be this whole specialising in kaiju. But for all their human
Barbenheimer meme and that somehow my component these films are primarily exercises
pink Godzilla would be the physical in spectacle, surely, built to wow audiences?
embodiment of Barbenheimer! I guess it shows Wingard disagrees.
that we’re in sync, culturally, in some sort of “For me my main drive is always to approach “Aaargh!
way that could never have been predicted!” this as a character study. We all know that CGI Standing on
It’s not all rampaging behemoths and can create these awe-inspiring, incredible Lego still hurts
oversized simians. Some members of the cast moments of monsters and larger than life at this size.”

GODZILLA X KONG:
THE NEW EMPIRE
Jia (Kaylee
Hottle) tries to
make friends
with Kong.
KAYLEE HOTTLE is Jia

How has Jia grown as a character?
Jia had a lot of stuff taken away from her,
her family, her identity, her culture. So she’s
on this journey to understand who she is.
Later she grows, and she’s able to find out
who she is as a person.
Why do you think Kong cares so deeply

“Just try to
about Jia? remember
Jia is not trying to research him, she’s trying where we’re
to have that real connection with Kong, parked.”
what he needs, and he needs Jia. He needs
her to have that connection, because she
listens to him, and she’s able to express can see anything, but you can’t create things
herself to him and vice versa. He needs that make you feel something. That’s where my
someone to listen to and I feel Jia is that interest lies. I want to do a 300ft-scale
person. That’s what makes their connection character study.”
so strong. For Wingard “this is our Fast & Furious 5
What was it like being directed by moment, where the series is coming into its
Adam Wingard? own of being able to say definitively ‘This is
I didn’t have any challenges working what the MonsterVerse is.’” But it’s also a tale
alongside Adam as a deaf actress. He was so that packs an extra resonance, he argues,
informative. He showed me camera angles. echoing both mythologically and in the real
It was very nice of him to be so open and
cool to me. That’s what made the whole
world, too.
process easier. He wanted to make sure that “I’m looking forward to seeing people’s takes
I saw the frame, so that my sign language on what they pull from, especially the Skar
was completely seen in the movie. King element, because I think he’s the real
linchpin. Some people will just write it off as a
big, dumb, crazy monster thrill ride, and that’s
things. To a certain degree bringing the Kong there’s more of an easy access point, totally fine and valid,” he acknowledges. “I
monsters to life from a visual standpoint isn’t emotionally and empathetically with the encourage people to just enjoy it on the face
as important to me any more, because that’s a character.” value of pure entertainment, because to a
given. You’ve seen them brought to life. You’ve It’s that emotional connection that Wingard certain degree that’s really the main point,
seen them do things. What we need to see now is determined to hold onto, in a modern movie you know?
is the way that they think and feel. That’s why I landscape that sometimes feels like an “But you can’t really succeed in doing a
wanted to do a movie that was really told from ever-escalating arms race of the dreamable. movie that’s a fun thrill ride if it doesn’t have
their perspective primarily, one that allows you “In a world of anything’s possible, you can any substance to it, because it’s just an empty
to empathise with them and that treats them type words into your computer now and the ride. Some movies can lead with that substance,
like characters. AI will churn up a bunch of images that are in other ones it’s subtext. The subtext is there,
“Obviously Godzilla and Kong are very completely mindblowing for you to see. Well, but really at the end of the day I just want
different characters. Godzilla doesn’t let you in what is it that the AI can’t do? I’m sure it could people to have a good time.”
as much. You always have to treat him with a show you what it looks like if Godzilla and
bit more reverence, just because that’s who Kong are having a birthday party in the tropics, Godzilla X Kong: The New Empire is in cinemas
Godzilla is. His first name is God! But with complete with 300ft tall birthday cakes. You from 29 March.

FALLOUT

FALLOUT
THE CREATIVE MINDS BEHIND THE LIVE-ACTION

ADAPTATION OF THE FALLOUT GAME SERIES EXPLAIN
THEIR ORIGINAL TAKE ON BETHESDA’S
POST-APOCALYPTIC WORLD
WORDS: TARA BENNETT
HETHER YOU’RE A GAMER OR repopulate the world. The unlucky suckers who
not, you’ve likely seen or heard of couldn’t spent two centuries duking it out
the Fallout videogame series. For the topside, battling starvation, dehydration,
record, it’s the one featuring that radiation and mutations… and eventually you,
super smiley blond kid mascot in the the player.
blue and yellow jumpsuit waving at you The Fallout universe features four main
at every videogame retailer. games and seven spin-off titles, which together
The series has been around for three have sold more than 55 million units. But
decades now, as the original game, created by strangely, it’s taken until now for a big-budget,
Tim Cain, was released way back in 1997. His live-action adaptation to see the light. The
creation was a futuristic, post-apocalyptic RPG eight-episode TV series arrives via Prime Video
for personal computers. But by 2008, under and Kilter Films, with Howard and Bethesda’s
new developers Bethesda Softworks and game blessing and involvement.
director Todd Howard, the series evolved into Series executive producer, and director of
an expansive, open-world, multi-platform three episodes, Jonathan Nolan (Westworld),
experience in Fallout 3. admits to SFX that he fell prey to Fallout 3 not
Featuring 3D graphics and first-person long after it was released. He was hooked and
combat gameplay, the third chapter continued played it to completion. “Back in the day, I kind
the mythology 200 years after the inciting of felt like Todd Howard owed me something
nuclear conflict that wiped out a familiar, but for that,” Nolan jokes about his time sink of
kitschy, Cold War-era version of the United choice in the late ’00s.
States. In this world, humans who could pay up Aside from loving the game, Nolan says the
survived by living in a protected underground world stuck with him too. “I remember the
Vault Network, with the intention to eventually shock of realising just how intense and violent

FALLOUT
the game was. It’s just a bizarre, almost cutesy/ would be like, ‘That’s not the order that I
weird satire with overwhelming scope, which played it in.’”
is something [Kilter Films] is drawn to.” Instead, as a callout to the OG players, they
In 2019, Nolan met with Howard over lunch gently weaved in characters, settings or mission
to discuss a live-action adaptation. The goals similar to those from the various games.
possibility of a film version had been bandied For example, the Lone Wanderer’s quest in
about with other companies since 2000, but at Fallout 3 is similar to that of the main character
their meeting the pair decided a streaming in this series. And the setting of post-
series would be the better path. Nolan then apocalyptic Los Angeles harkens back to where
enlisted screenwriter Geneva Robertson- the original Fallout game unfolds.
Dworet (Captain Marvel), who brought on TV All of it got the approval of Howard. “Todd
comedy writer Graham Wagner (Portlandia) to is one of the most laid-back executives ever,”
develop the world into a series. Wagner chuckles. “For the amount that he
Having looked for a project to make with oversees, he’s a very chill guy. He read the pilot
Nolan for years, and separately wanting to and was like, ‘You know, we never really talked
write with Wagner, Robertson-Dworet says about the incest factor. That’s a great idea.’”
Fallout was the surprise “perfect” storm for the
trio. “I knew the games were a blend of COWBOY STY LE
comedy, which is [Graham’s] forte, and the The new is represented by the characters, the
kind of action/sci-fi that I had been working in most important being the ones who drive the
for so long,” she says. story engine: Vault Dweller Lucy (Ella Purnell),
Nolan agreed. “For me, Fallout had all these Brotherhood of Steel squire Maximus (Aaron
different things that I found appealing, the Moten) and mutated bounty hunter the Ghoul
speculative and the political satire of it. But it (Walton Goggins).
also had a sense of humour to it, and that was As fans of Sergio Leone’s 1966 classic The
something that we hadn’t really played with Good, The Bad And The Ugly, Robertson-
before. It was something I was excited about Dworet and Wagner realised they shared a
and very nervous about because the tone of personal head canon that the film’s trio of
“Blondie” (Clint Eastwood), Tuco (Eli
If we adapted one Wallach) and “Angel Eyes” (Lee Van Cleef ) can
be seen as the same cowboy, just represented at
specific game, it would different stages in their life. It’s a concept they
not have actually been wanted to transfer and explore with their
Fallout trio.
truthful “We looked at Lucy, Maximus and the Ghoul
as those three people who spend different
these things is very specific. So the amounts of time on the Wasteland, being
combination of their two sensibilities, along metaphorically and literally irradiated with
with my desire here to really do right by the that time and that exposure, and how it’s
ambition and scope of the games, felt like the changed them,” Wagner explains.
dream team.” Each comes into the story with vastly
At the time, Westworld was still on Nolan different histories which together epitomise
and his producing partner Lisa Joy’s plate, so the “haves and have-nots” class system core to
they made the decision to let Robertson- the game’s mythology. Lucy is meant to honour
Dworet and Wagner develop and eventually the game’s tendency to follow a Vault Dweller
showrun the series, leaving Nolan to engage leaving their vault, as she does in episode one.
with the project in a producer/directorial role. A cheery soul on a mission to find her
Where do you start with such a massive missing Vault 33 Mayor/father (Kyle
canvas of potential stories to tell? From the top, MacLachlan), Lucy has, Wagner says, been
Robertson-Dworet says they were given only raised her whole life in a safe “bubble”, with no Walton
one ask by Todd Howard: to make sure the context for what’s outside. Inspired by recent Goggins plays
series storyline didn’t contradict any of the pandemic behaviours, Lucy represents the the irradiated
major possible endings of the games, which clueless, privileged class approach to existence. Ghoul.
they respected. So they set their story within “It’s really easy to be like, ‘I’m a good
the same timeline, with it taking place after person!’ when nothing bad really happens,”
Fallout 4. he says of her naïve worldview. “Like, we’re
“We felt like that would be the best thing to patting ourselves on the back for staying inside
honour the gamer’s experiences, and the most during Covid.”
truthful,” she explains. “If we adapted one “Or those of us who had the privilege of
specific game, it would not have actually been having someone get our groceries for us, which
truthful because it’s an open world game and is actually pretty gross. In many ways, they’re
everyone’s experience is different. So had we taking the risk for us, so they’re the surface
taken any of the setups of any of the games and dwellers,” Robertson-Dworet observes,
just done it ‘straightforwardly’, a lot of gamers connecting the real world to the world of

FALLOUT
Lucy (Ella
Purnell)
settles into the
main quest.
Lucy does the

equivalent of
the tutorial
level.
The
Brotherhood
of Steel
worship tech.

FALLOUT
Fallout. “It was a moment of literalising the

‘haves and have-nots’, and that’s exactly what
the game does so beautifully with the idea of
the Vault Dwellers.
“It’s Lucy’s luck that she gets to be a good
person, and the idea that morality is a privilege
was definitely one to play with and explore as
she goes to the surface,” she continues. “But
how long will she hang on to those ideals, or
how fast will she be changed?”
“And yet, the strange thing about Lucy is
that we kind of have it both ways,” Wagner
adds. “We’re both rooting for her to hang onto
her morality, but also understand that her
morality came to her from silly
circumstances.”
G HOUL POWER
Maximus brings to life the
game’s Brotherhood of
Steel faction, an odd
collection of survivors
obsessed with
confiscating pre-War technology, and then
going into battle with their finds – such as
refurbished T-60 power armour suits. In the
series, Max is a 20-something squire risking his Get a hold of
life to assist a lunkheaded Lord – which makes that Power
him question his loyalty to someone he should, Armour,
but doesn’t, respect. quickly!
Then there’s the Ghoul, the epitome of a
Wastelander who’s seen it all and survived it about reality, and together they’ll play out the feels like those themes are organic to the story
all. Both writers confirm that Goggins was show’s theme of searching for family. “That we’re telling.”
their first choice, from character creation, to may take very different forms because of the It was left to Nolan to make those personal
play the relentless bounty hunter. circumstances that each of them are in, or the stories land and not get lost in this distinctive,
“He was always the Ghoul. Then the faction that each of them are part of,” epic-scale world – and realise it with visuals
question became, ‘How the heck do you do Robertson-Dworet explains. “But that is that would match, if not better, what the games
that?’” Wagner says of the character, who fundamentally, to us, what these three introduced. “To bring that feeling and
would need to look mutated most of the time. characters are searching for. I feel like that’s sensibility to the audience, where they can’t
“We were having conversations with various the most primitive possible yearning that we pick up a controller and turn the camera, is a
VFX vendors about how to do it. But we ended all have.” really daunting challenge,” Nolan admits. “But
up doing it the old-fashioned way, which was “Fallout, in a lot of ways, is about who gets we had the great fortune of partnering with
five and a half hours every day in the make-up to rebuild the world, what faction and what Amazon Studios, who are nothing if not
chair. He heroically sat in that chair watching society gets to rebuild society, because then it’ll ambitious. Really, that’s our vision. We’ll call
[Akira] Kurosawa and [Sergio] Leone movies be their society,” Wagner muses. “We think this sort of a maximalist vision.”
every morning with the great [make-up artist] that the theme of family is pretty organic to Nolan used a mixture of digital with a lot of
Jake Garber.” Through Maximus and the that because the most fundamental building practical photography, captured in Utah and
Ghoul, Lucy will get a ground-level education block of society is family. We’re hoping that it locations in Elizabeth Bay, Namibia. “We
Is this
Dogmeat? No,
but a similar
companion.
Jonathan Make sure

Nolan directed you check the
three of the graves for
episodes. hidden stuff…

FALLOUT
Lifts are a
handy way to
disguise level
loading.
Ella Purnell is a naive Vault dweller venturing

Topside to save her father
Your voice work as Jinx for the first time I saw a Nuka-Cola bottle
Arcane series was well received. was the coolest thing ever. I
Did that make you choosier about remember putting on the Vault
considering other videogame suit for the first time and it was
adaptations? humbling.
Not really. I guess it opened up
my eyes to that world. I’m not How would you describe Lucy
really a gamer. I don’t have a ton when we first meet her?
of experience in that field. But She’s a Vault Dweller. She’s
just seeing the passion that lived her entire life underground.
videogame fans have… The thing She, obviously, is very naive. At
about videogame adaptions is her core, she is good. All she’s
there’s so much lore and there’s ever known is this community of
so much to sink your teeth into. people who think exactly the
I really love doing that, being able same way as her, who were all
to play within the parameters that raised the same. What was
have already been set with the interesting for me is that she’s
world that exists. funny. Her humour comes from
her innocence, right? She’s got
Lucy’s an original character. How that all-American, can-do attitude.
was the role pitched to you? From that comes strength.
I first met with Jonathan Nolan
and Geneva and Graham, the On her journey, Lucy connects
writers. They wanted to talk to me with Maximus, the squire and the
before they sent me the script to Ghoul. How do they change her?
introduce me to Lucy and explain I love how they use these three
the world and the tone of Fallout. archetypes as a way to explore
Exec producer They immediately got my the theme of morality in the show.
attention because they described They balance each other out, the
Jonathan
her as someone who could star in three of them. They all have
Nolan with a toothpaste commercial, but also something the other doesn’t have.
Ella Purnell. was capable of killing you. I just They all have different
thought that was really backgrounds and have come to
decided we’re gonna shoot some of these interesting. adapt to survive in completely
things on the Volume,” he says, referring to the different ways.
Industrial Light & Magic technology featured Since you’re not a gamer, did Lucy is faced with a choice
wearing the iconic Vault suit or when she’s presented with these
in series like The Mandalorian as a replacement the Pip-Boy have much impact on two characters who symbolise
for greenscreen. you? these two different ways of being.
“But we’re also gonna go to practical I did play Fallout 4 a little bit She has to decide who she wants
locations first to get as much photographic to research the games. I just to be. Every character that she
material as possible. Most of what’s in the watched people play it, because I meets in the season will shape
was not that good! But the weight her, just like her environment is
show is practical. When you have an incredibly
STOCK ELEMENTS: ISTOCK/GETTY
of the responsibility on what I was going to shape her. Who she is at

talented visual effects team, they can go so doing, the gravitas of that, the end of the season is very
much further when you give them a good was not lost on me for different from the Lucy in
chunk of reality.” even a second. Like, the episode one.
Wagner believes audiences will be wowed by
the results. “Jonah’s [Jonathan’s] eye on making
things feel tangible and the texture of
everything… we had more conversations about
patina than I ever had in my life,” he laughs.
“But it works because it keeps it from being a
greenscreen, CG soup where you’re like, ‘Why
didn’t you just go all the way and make this a
cartoon?’ I feel like watching this show, the
reasons are there. You’re actually watching a
live-action show with Jonah grounding it that
way, visually.”
Wagner says the hope is that the series
continues for further seasons. “There’s piles
and piles of stuff we want to do,” he teases.
“We wanted to slow our roll and not do it all in
eight episodes, because we’re talking about
thousands of hours of gameplay.”
Fallout is on Prime Video from 12 April.

REBEL MOON: PART TWO –
THE SCARGIVER
AS ZACK SNYDER RETURNS TO HIS REBEL MOON UNIVERSE, THE
WRITER/DIRECTOR TEASES THE SCARGIVER, TALKS EXTENDED CUTS,
AND ADMITS HE’S “NOT REALLY A FOCUS GROUP FILMMAKER”
WORDS: RICHARD EDWARDS

THE SCARGIVER

THE SCARGIVER
LONG TIME AGO –

1980 to be precise –
a generation of
cinemagoers walked
out of The Empire
Strikes Back
knowing they’d
have to wait years to learn the truth about
Luke Skywalker and his absent dad.
Fast-forward to our current era of instant
Movie one is about
gratification, however, and space opera collecting the team, and
cliffhangers are being resolved in a matter of
parsecs. And so Rebel Moon: Part Two – The
movie two is about the
Scargiver, the second half of Zack Snyder’s war and why we fight
interstellar riff on The Seven Samurai, lands on
Netflix mere months after its predecessor
A Child Of Fire made its heavily publicised
debut in December.
“My initial idea was to actually have them
come out closer together, closer than Netflix
did,” the writer/director tells SFX. “I wanted
them out, like, a month apart, because I just felt
like the idea was to strike while the iron is still
hot, when more people remember [the first
film], you know?”
“It’s really two parts of the same story we’re
telling in these two movies,” adds Deborah
Snyder, who’s been producing husband Zack’s
movies since 2006’s 300. “It wasn’t realistic to
put a four-hour movie on [Netflix], but to really
give these characters their due, to tell the story,
to have the action and have it be compelling,
we needed that time. They’re not sequels,
they’re parts, and that’s intentional. They’re
meant to work together.”
SCAR TACTICS
We’re assuming you haven’t forgotten Rebel
Moon in those few short months, but here’s a
quick recap. Having tackled Spartan armies
(300), comic book heroes (Watchmen, Man Of
Steel, Justice League) and zombies (Dawn Of
The Dead, Army Of The Dead), Snyder blasts
into outer space in the nascent Netflix
franchise. The long-gestating project – Snyder
first discussed the idea with co-writer Kurt
Johnstad in the late ’90s – was unsuccessfully
pitched as a potential Star Wars movie before
George Lucas sold his empire to Disney.
Perhaps unsurprisingly, Rebel Moon shares Back) and considerably more violent, set in a
plenty of DNA – if not midi-chlorians – with a universe where the agents of the Motherworld
certain galaxy far, far away. For the dreaded use macabre walking cages known as
Emperor Palpatine and Galactic Empire, paralysers to entrap their enemies, before
substitute regent Balisarius (Hawkeye’s Fra firing a bolt into the base of their brains. “We Ed Skrein as
Fee) and the Motherworld, a totalitarian call them the Beetlejuice chairs!” Zack explains. Atticus Noble
organisation with a penchant for precision-cut A Child Of Fire was also unmistakably a Zack (centre).
military tailoring. Snyder movie – beautiful to look at, with
It’s a universe of bizarre aliens, spectacular enough slow-motion action to put a major Soma Mitra
planetscapes and an energy sword or two, sporting event to shame. as Queen of
where ordinary people rally against fascistic And the saga’s plot owes as much to The Samandrai.
oppressors. The first film even featured a very Seven Samurai and The Magnificent Seven as it
Lando-ish betrayal. But to dismiss Rebel Moon does any existing Star Wars release. The story
as Star Wars 2.0 would be unfair. It’s darker sees Kora (Sofia Boutella) recruiting a ragtag
(yes, even compared to The Empire Strikes assortment of warriors to protect peaceful

THE SCARGIVER
The robot who sounds

like Sir Anthony Hopkins
has a big role to play in
The Scargiver
There’s no shortage of robots
in sci-fi, but there aren’t too many
who speak with the received
pronunciation of a bona fide
knight of the realm. Voiced by Sir
Anthony Hopkins, Jimmy (JC-1435
to his mum and dad) was
programmed to protect the
Motherworld’s royal family, but
after they were assassinated, he
opted for a life of pacifism – until
Imperium soldiers assaulted a
young woman on Veldt, and he
was forced to take lethal action.
“Jimmy’s been created to see
the world through the eyes of a
protector of this princess who was
supposed to be a saviour, but is
now dead,” explains Zack Snyder.
“If she was like a Messiah and the
Messiah dies, that’s a tough nut for
you. I think it’s fun to explore
those kinds of themes and
concepts through a robot, because
it allows you to distil it down to its
most pure form. He’s a singular
creature and now he’s been forced
to contemplate his existence.”
Having played a prominent role
in the first act of A Child Of Fire,
Jimmy was absent until the end of
the movie, where he was sighted
wearing a crown of antlers. His
story, says Snyder, isn’t over.
“You’ll see quite a bit more of
Jimmy in the director’s cut, where
he’s communing with nature and
musing about his existence. Then
in movie two he has a choice to
make. He has to pick a side,
basically. I mean, if you really
examine what he’s done to be in
the position he’s in, he’s gone
down a road that’s going to be
Staz Nair as Tarak hard for him to come back from –
and Djimon it’s whether or not he wants to
Hounsou as participate directly in the fight.
General Titus. “There’s also some fun
interaction between him and Kora.
They’re both weapons, and they’re
farmers on the moon of Veldt from the “When you’re establishing a new IP, with good foils for each other.”
Imperium (the Motherworld’s ruling body), new characters and locations, movie one
after a particularly sadistic officer demands always has a lot of heavy lifting to do,” chips in
they hand over their next harvest. With her Deborah. “But when you watch movie two, you
gang of wannabe avengers assembled and get backstory. We find out how our people
ready to go by the first film’s end credits, The became the people that they are, you get to
Scargiver will see these underdogs taking the know them. And then when you get to the war,
fight back to these space-faring bullies. this movie is a lot more action-packed.”
“If these two stories together were like a big, Boutella – the Kingsman: The Secret Service
giant, four- or five-act opera, you’ve probably and Star Trek Beyond star whose dance
seen two of the acts,” explains Zack. “We’re background has helped her become one of
about halfway through. Movie one is about Hollywood’s finest exponents of gravity-
collecting the team, and movie two is about the defying fight sequences – delivers her fair
war and why we fight. It takes place more on share of those action beats. Kora is also the
Veldt because that’s where the fight is.” inspiration for both movies’ subtitles:

THE SCARGIVER
A Child Of Fire refers to her origins as an

orphan taken in by Balisarius; The Scargiver,
meanwhile, is the nickname she was given in
her days as a feared operative of the Imperium.
More importantly, she was bodyguard to Issa,
a princess of the Motherworld prophesied to
be the “Lifegiver” of legend, and whose
assassination was a catalyst in Balisarius’s rise
to power. After many years in hiding, Kora’s
been doing what she can to stay off her former
employers’ radar – though now she’s well and
truly back in their crosshairs.
“Kora’s our window into this world, for
sure,” says Zack. “She tells us about herself and
then others tell her who they are, so we learn
both about her and the warriors she’s gathered.
They’re all on some sort of redemption track,
so they need each other and the coming
conflict to find catharsis. By the end of the
movie Kora knows the way forward for herself.
She’s clear in her mission forward after this.”
“We will also see more of all our characters’
[origins],” adds Deborah, “We saw where
they’ve ended up, but how did they get there?
That’s what we find out in this movie.” I feel like the PG-13
Before the heroes have any chance of finding
that aforementioned redemption, they’ll have versions are much more
to face off against a pair of rather hissable
villains. Zack confirms we’ll learn more about
earnest, weirdly, than
how Balisarius (a minor presence in the first the R-rated
movie) became regent of the Motherworld, but
we suspect rather more eyes will be on the
return of Admiral Atticus Noble (Ed Skrein).
This tech-augmented military scumbag has [from Belisarius] now, and he knows what he time of writing) on aggregator site Rotten
already displayed a predilection for has to do.” Tomatoes. (For the record, the audience score
monologuing like Inglourious Basterds’ Hans Zack Snyder has long been one of the more is much higher, at 58%.)
Landa. Having been killed by Kora – and divisive filmmakers in Hollywood. For all his You get the feeling, however, that it would
subsequently resurrected – he’s surely going vast legions of fans – Warner Bros’ decision to take more than the combined might of Planet
to be out for revenge. release the “Snyder Cut” of Justice League was Earth’s critics to change the director’s
“I think death has changed him,” Zack the result of a passionate internet campaign approach. Indeed, when we ask if he’s used
reveals. “Death has kind of purified him, and – he’s had just as many detractors. Reviewers Netflix’s extensive viewer data to inform his
he’s a little bit smarter, a little bit more in have been particularly hard on A Child Of Fire, artistic decisions on The Scargiver, he says his
command of his faculties. He has a directive with the movie scoring just 22% from critics (at method remains old school.
Rebel Moon isn’t the first space opera inspired by The Magnificent Seven
It’s well known that the Richard Thomas) recruits a bunch Roger Corman, the film’s budget role as assassin Gelt, while a
success of the original Star Wars of anti-heroes to protect his world was significantly lower than many pre-A-Team George Peppard
prompted Hollywood to look to from a megalomaniac warlord. of the other movies slipstreaming showed up as a very literal space
the skies, spawning a glut of space Produced by B-movie maestro in George Lucas’s wake – some of cowboy. Future Aliens star Bill
operas of varying quality. In the the alien costumes look extremely Paxton worked as a carpenter,
midst of all the Flash Gordons, bargain basement – but this take Jimmy Murakami (who’d go on
WARNER/ORION/KOBAL/SHUTTERSTOCK
Battlestar Galacticas and Black on that familiar The Seven to work on festive classic The
Holes came Battle Beyond The Samurai/The Magnificent Seven Snowman) called the shots, and
Stars (1980), a movie whose title blueprint still punched above its The Wrath Of Khan/Aliens
was apparently the result of weight. It made respectable composer James Horner wrote
looking up “Star” and “Wars” in a money at the box office, and the score.
thesaurus. Space Fight, anyone? boasted an impressive array of Then there’s the matter of some
A Skirmish In The Cosmos? talent on both sides of the camera. guy called James Cameron, who
It’s an interstellar western in On screen, Man From UNCLE looked after a lot of the (pretty
which young farmer Shad (played star Robert Vaughn more or less decent) visual effects. We’ll watch
by John-Boy Walton himself, reprised his Magnificent Seven his career with great interest…

THE SCARGIVER
L
versions you get a much deeper mythological
dive into the Motherworld and all the other
Other famous moons in sci-fi worlds we visit. And when you see the
director’s cuts I think you really understand
ENDOR how much [US sci-fi comics magazine] Heavy
STAR WARS Metal influences the movies.
Has same name as its planet. “I feel like the PG-13 versions are much
Confusing. more earnest, weirdly, than the R-rated. There
are moments that are incredibly upsetting, but
PRAXIS in other moments they’re more whimsical, and
STAR TREK VI: THE I feel that’s the Heavy Metal influence. It
UNDISCOVERED COUNTRY allows them to be more of an opera, more over
Explodes. Bad news for the the top, and I think that’s fun.”
Klingon Empire. So how does the Rebel Moon of 2023/24
compare with the movie Zack envisioned all
PA N D O R A those years ago? “It’s marginally close but
AVATAR really much different to what I thought it was
James Cameron’s home for going to be,” he admits. “It’s better, I think, in
last decade and a half. the end, because I always knew the director’s
cuts were going to be problematic to get made.
BOXOUT IMAGES © LUCASFILM LTD, PARAMOUNT PICTURES, 20TH CENTURY FOX, COURTESY NASA/JPL-CALTECH, THAMES TELEVISION
E U R O PA “It’s expensive to make these big movies,
2010 and when they’re this crazy it’s difficult to
Real moon of Jupiter. Attempt figure out how to get them funded. But we
no landing there. found a vehicle to get to it, and that was by
creating these PG-13 versions that I’m very
proud of. They allow for a greater audience so
B U T TO N M O O N
BUTTON MOON we’re able to make these more boutique-y
Haberdasher’s dream. Theme versions of the movie.”
The Queen and song by Peter Davison.
King, Kora and NEW M OON
Princess Issa So where next? The Snyders certainly don’t see
give it all that. The Scargiver as the end of the Rebel Moon
story. “I would say that this movie has a much
“How people have consumed the product, if algorithms – than the opinions of more satisfying ending than movie one,” says
you want to put it that way, really hasn’t entertainment journalists, and in that regard Zack. “We definitely have a big climax and
changed the way I make movies and it never Rebel Moon seems to be doing okay. A Child Of there’s closure. But it also signals forward.”
really has,” he admits. “I’m not really a focus Fire bagged well over 60 million views In perhaps the loudest echo of Star Wars,
group filmmaker. And by the way, if that’s how worldwide during its first 10 days on release, the franchise is shooting for new multimedia
you want to make a movie, that’s 100% fine and – as Deborah puts it – “That’s big box frontiers, with a graphic novel prequel House
with me. It’s just not the way I do it.” office! Not many movies get that kind of Of The Blood Axe already out from Titan
Of course, the future of this expensive new reach.” Comics, and a narrative podcast and animated
franchise is likely to depend more on viewers’ The Snyders certainly seem taken with the short (about the Kali, an alien race who power
eyeballs – and those infamous Netflix Netflix experience, having made Army Of The the Motherworld) also in the works. If A Child
Dead and follow-up Army Of Thieves for the Of Fire, The Scargiver and their respective
This is what platform before setting coordinates for Rebel director’s cuts deliver for Netflix, there could
it’s all been Moon. It’s easy to understand why, seeing as also be more films. Crucially, Snyder says he
leading to… they’ve been given the rare opportunity to knows where the story is heading.
shoot two very expensive instalments of a “If we were to go forward and make more
franchise with no existing brand recognition movies, we know the goal,” Zack says. “The
back-to-back. fact that we do know where it’s going allows us
In the tradition of Watchmen to make sure that other stories [from other
and Justice League, Zack’s also writers, in other media] don’t do something
been bankrolled to make extended that’s not consistent.
director’s cuts of both Rebel Moon “I think in an ideal world, we’d
films. These three-hour, 18-rated definitely have a longer arc to this
behemoths may turn out to be closer giant universe, and then at that
to the director’s original vision than point I would be happy to hand
the shorter, 15 releases first out of it off to someone else. But I
the blocks. know what I want to do
“The longer cuts were basically with it.”
the script, and then we had to cut
them down for the PG-13 [UK 15] Rebel Moon: Part Two
…lots and lots versions to be two hours long,” – The Scargiver is on
of fighting. In says Zack. “In the R-rated Netflix from 19 April.
slow motion.

ABIGAIL
SCR E A M
F
BET TINE ILMM A K ER S M AT
LLI-OLPI T
GILLET T N A ND T
UPDATE Y L ER
CL A SSIC A GE N R E
W ITH VA
MPIR E M
A B I G AI L
OV IE
WORDS:
DARREN
SCOTT

ABIGAIL
RIGINALLY ANNOUNCED AS
a “secret monster movie for
Universal”, internet chatter has
new horror Abigail pegged as “a
reimagining of the 1936 Universal
Classic Monsters film Dracula’s
Daughter”. But directors Matt
Bettinelli-Olpin and Tyler Gillett say that was
just something writer Stephen Shields had
“percolating in his head in the early stages”.
“To his credit,” Bettinelli-Olpin explains, “he
was also thinking really smart about, ‘Okay, how
do I tell an original vampire story and also make it
something that feels eminently sellable?’ So that
was, at one point, its path into the studio. Then for
us it was, ‘Well, let’s just make it as weird and as
wacky and as different while still playing in the
lineage and in the lore of vampires. How do we
make this its own unique flavour?’”
The pair then brought Guy Busick – who
wrote Ready Or Not, Scream V and Scream VI –
on board. “Before you know it, we’re flying out to
Dublin to shoot the movie. It was not the way, in
our experience, movies usually get made,”
Gillett laughs.
MEAL DEAL
Abigail (Alisha Weir), the daughter of a powerful
crime boss, is being held for a $50 million ransom.
The tables are turned when the kidnappers
become food for their hostage, as the girl in the
ballerina costume is actually a vampire…
The directors are lifelong fans of horror. For
Bettinelli-Olpin it was seeing the likes of Predator,
Alien and The Terminator “really young”, for
Gillett the original Twilight Zone, “The best TV
show of all time, period.” A full-size mannequin
dressed as Ghostface looms behind them as they
speak to SFX. Despite the movie monster heritage,
Abigail meant that having to play by a specific set
of rules (as with their Scream films) wasn’t
necessary.
“It was an original idea that allowed us to make
an original movie,” Gillett explains. “To the
studio’s credit they really pushed us to be
interesting, weird, experimental, go for it, take the
big swings, have fun with this – and that’s our
sweet spot. That’s what we love. So it just all kind
of lined up.”
Those big swings included the freedom to
explore film history in unexpected ways.
“Honestly, we thought that they did or might have
a rule book,” Bettinelli-Olpin says of Universal’s
legacy. “We were pleasantly surprised that they

ABIGAIL
were like, ‘Guys, just go do weird stuff. The

weirder, the better. We don’t want you to be
servicing any idea of what something might be
down the line.’ They just wanted us to make the
best version of an original vampire movie in the
moment, throwing caution to the wind. It’s really
rare that you find partners that are as willing to do
that, that are not afraid to take risks. It’s been a
really wonderful experience with them.”
Vampires do, however, have an established rule
book. That said, filmmakers have been tearing
that up ever since Nosferatu in 1922.
“Once you try to figure out straight-up vampire
lore, which we definitely tried, you realise, oh,
everybody’s just taking their own swings here,”
Bettinelli-Olpin explains. In Abigail, the
kidnappers are only too aware of Anne Rice,
Twilight and True Blood.
“We approach this very much as, ‘How can we
bring our own flavour to vampire lore’ and doing
that under the umbrella of ‘We are the
characters’. They all know what vampire lore is in
pop culture. But is that really what it is? Who
knows? Let’s play with that!
“So the audience gets to experience our version
of vampire lore with the characters as they learn
what is and isn’t true, and how that affects them.
So it’s fun, like peeling back the layers of the onion
as you go with characters who also are like, ‘Wait,
are vampires real? Is this a real thing we’re
dealing with?’”
Gillett laughs. “It’s such a hodgepodge. The hope to experience when we go to the
lore, the rules of vampires are so varied, right? movie theatre.”
They turn into mist and rats. I mean, it’s so They’re both keen to stress that Abigail is Abigail (Alisha
absurd. So the movie is also, in a lot of ways, “just an original vampire movie” rather than a Weir) and
commentary on just how wacky vampire lore is.” franchise or part of the growing Universal Peter (Kevin
Bettinelli-Olpin continues: “We love that Monsters ensemble. Durand).
meta-speak of having characters that are aware of “We’d all be lying if we said that it wouldn’t be
movies, aware of the movies of which they find amazing to make something that was popular
themselves in. There’s an opportunity to just poke enough, had legs and was zeitgeist-y enough to
fun at that stuff.” warrant a sequel or sequels,” Bettinelli-Olpin says.
“I think that there’s something also really, really
HIGH STAKE S amazing about creating new original things that
The pair say they do go off-book and add can then go on to be the franchises of the future.
something new, but won’t give away what original Those are the movies that we were born and
spin they’ve put on vampires. One thing they will raised on in so many ways. So creating a new
say is that it’s going to be bloody. version of that? Sign us up!”
“There’s a third-act fight in this movie that’s Gillett adds: “Spoiler alert! Vampires don’t age.
just absolutely gonzo, it’s the biggest action thing So you’re kind of like, ‘Let’s just make the best
that we’ve done,” Bettinelli-Olpin reveals. movie we can with Alisha while we can, and if
“Certainly the bloodiest thing that we’ve done… we’re lucky to have a sequel, that’s somebody
“It is really a movie that is designed very else’s problem!’”
intentionally to entertain, and to stir real emotion What’s next for the filmmakers is “to be
and to make you laugh and to make you scared. determined”, but they don’t know what’s
For us, those are the hallmarks of the movies we happening with the long-discussed sequel to
grew up loving.” Escape From New York. “There’s always a
“This one is really, I think, a love letter to those complicated rights situation with titles like
old movies that we grew up on,” Gillett agrees. that, and I think that’s ultimately where
“But also we have the confidence to just be like, things are hung up,” Bettinelli-Olpin
‘Yeah, fuck it, let’s just make the weirdest choice.’ says. “But we had a few fun pitches
“So it feels a little bit like a full circle on it. We’d be crazy to try to step
experience being back here [at Universal] making into John Carpenter’s footsteps.
an original that is a mix of all those things that we We were stupid enough to step into Wes
Craven’s!”
Abigail is in cinemas from 19 April.

ABIGAIL
Joey (Melissa
Barrera):
you’ve got red
on you.
Melissa Barrera is Joey

How much of vampire lore were you aware of?
I love vampires. I love all the monsters: Dracula,
Frankenstein, werewolves, love them all. I know
there are different rules to different vampires in
different movies. You know, the basics. But our
rules in this movie are different. Let’s just say
that. It’s cool, because sometimes I’d be like, “But
what about this and that?” They’d be like, “Nope,
vampires in this world are like this.” A new set of
rules for audiences is exciting.
Abigail’s not afraid to play with humour. What

was that like?
The script wasn’t as funny, I think, as the movie
ended up being, because Matt and Tyler really
liked to let the actors improvise and do their
thing. The characters are very quirky and
questionable people. We had a lot of wacky
improvisations that I was like, “How is this gonna
fit into this movie?” The good thing about Matt
and Tyler allowing everyone to just do their thing
and go as wild as you want, and as ridiculous as
you want, is that you can always edit, right? You
have different options. So you try whatever and
you find the balance, and I think they found the
perfect balance with this movie.
What’s it like the first time you see a vampire?

I just think it’s amazing. I remember the first time that we
saw Alisha in full vampire eyes, teeth, everything – she’s
a kid and she was freaking out seeing herself like this.
We were all like, “Oh my god, you look so cool. Oh my
god, it’s incredible.” We were very much excited and
hyped that we were seeing her, and I think that also got
her hyped. Because I think at the beginning, she was a
little bit like, “Oh my god, I don’t like this look.” We were
all so excited when she came out and then she just kind
of owned it, it was really cool.
Now she’s What was the most outrageous or “out there” moment
having a go of filming?
at Frank (Dan There’s so many moments like that, that I wish that I
Stevens). could tell you, but they’re spoilers. There’s moments of
scenes that we shot that were unbelievable. I just
couldn’t believe that we were doing the things that we
were doing. There’s a lot of blood in this movie. Probably
Scream queen more blood than any movie ever. I mean, that’s a bold
Kathryn statement, but, like, it’s a lot.
Newton as After the Scream films you must be used to blood…
Sammy. I’m so used to it and I love being covered in blood. I do.
I like the way I look covered in blood, for some reason.
I just think it looks hot! I like when people in movies are
covered in blood and are covered in dirt. I just think it’s
sexy. So I do, I like being covered in blood.
Would you be up for an Abigail sequel?

Yeah, obviously, of course. Why not? When a sequel
happens it means that the first movie did well enough
that you know there’s a demand for a second one. So I’m
always up for that. Getting to spend more time with a
character is so delicious as an actor, getting to explore
more of the character is always so nice. It is a spoiler to
tell you the biggest reason why I want a sequel, so I
won’t tell you. But I do want a sequel!

THE FIRST OMEN
THE ORIGINAL
DEMON SEED IS
JETTING OFF TO
ITALY FOR A
REVISIONIST
PREQUEL WITH
AN INTRIGUING
NEW TAKE .
DIRECTOR
ARKA SHA
STEVENSON AND
ACTOR NELL
TIGER FREE
TEASE WHAT ’S
IN STOR E FOR
WORDS: STUART MANNING

THE FIRST OMEN
HEN YOU GO INTO A HORROR

film, I think you’re prepared to be
scared in a certain way. Well, this
one is going to subvert that. For
better or worse – it’s definitely not
what you’re expecting. And that’ll rock your
core even harder, in a weird sorta way.”
Director Arkasha Stevenson is choosing her
words carefully as SFX sits down to discuss all
things Omen. The OG Antichrist supernatural
horror franchise is back in cinemas after an
18-year break, going back to its roots. But that’s
all we’re getting in advance, as Stevenson and
her female lead are keen to protect the
film’s secrets.
The First Omen takes the story back to 1973
Rome, where an American girl, Margaret, joins
a convent, bringing her into the orbit of a
murky conspiracy to bring about the birth of
Damien. “She has a troubled past and a quite
tumultuous childhood and has found her
steadiness in faith,” says Game Of Thrones
actor Nell Tiger Free. “And, of course, that all
begins to unravel…”
Stevenson, who cut her horror teeth on
Netflix series Brand New Cherry Flavor, felt an
immediate connection to the screenplay for
The First Omen. “I fell in love with the
character of Margaret. I was interested in
doing a horror film that was more like a
character study. That felt closest to how I had
first watched The Omen, way back when – a
story about a family going through horrible
tumult. That’s maybe not the most typical pitch
to give a studio, but they were very into it.”

THE FIRST OMEN
it.”Unlike 2006’s much derided remake, The

First Omen promises a more faithful redux.
Both director and lead actor are self-confessed
uber-fans of Richard Donner’s 1976 original, in
which Gregory Peck and Lee Remick become Nell Tiger Free
involved in a fateful baby swap, leaving them as as Margaret,
under-siege parents to a pre-school Satan. Sônia Braga as
Stevenson describes her film as being “in Sister Silvia.
conversation with the original Omen”, yet was
also mindful that it should work on its own “It’s exciting for me to be able to explore
terms. “The main ethos of this film was to ask, body horror and the female body through a
‘If this weren’t The Omen, could it be its own non-sexualised lens. To talk about what I think
film?’ I believe yes, it could.” all women grow up in fear of – what’s going to
Free is also keen to stress the film’s value be done to their bodies, what other peoples’
beyond its Omen roots. “Let’s call a spade a intents are for their bodies.”
spade here. The bar for these kinds of prequels As the subject for this exploration, Free
and sequels and remakes, especially with these was tasked with bringing an intense character
iconic horror franchises, is not particularly journey to life. “In the last six years of my
high. I think expectations might be low. It will career, all the material I’ve done has been
be satisfying to show what we’ve made because relatively heavy,” she says. “I’ve had to create a
I don’t think that it’s what people are going to bit of a shield so that it doesn’t linger for too
be expecting, whatsoever.” long. In this movie, we’re dealing with some of
As director, Stevenson the heaviest content that I’ve
also drew inspiration from ever had to act out. There
the original Omen’s are days when you go home
stablemates in American and it’s difficult to just turn
New Wave horror. “I your brain off and put Director
watched The Exorcist and Friends on.” Arkasha
Rosemary’s Baby. It was just Stevenson
this marathon of parents FORCE OF HABIT calls the shots.
being terrified of their Margaret’s American accent
children, you know? In the and dowdy wardrobe
’60s and the ’70s, a cultural provided a helpful divide
revolution was going on in between work and
America – the hippie downtime for the English The First Omen was filmed entirely in
revolution, people revolting Free. “I spend the majority Rome, making the most of the city’s vibrant
against the Vietnam War – of the movie in a nun’s architecture and rich history. “Rome is such an
and people were terrified of Tipping the hat to wimple, and you don’t feel interesting place,” says Stevenson. “I’m from
this new philosophy. like yourself when you dress LA, which is very widespread – you just keep
Jerry Goldsmith
“Right now, it almost feels The original Omen featured starkly differently to how building out. Rome is just built on top of itself.
like we’re experiencing the an extraordinary score by you would day-to-day,” she We went deep into the basement catacombs of
backlash of that. We flew out Jerry Goldsmith, whose suggests. “Dress anybody up this one church, and all of a sudden you’re in
to Rome to shoot the film on faux-Gregorian chanting in a certain way, and they another church from hundreds of years ago.
the day that the six-week has been much copied and start to assimilate that “You become very cognisant of the fact that
parodied since. Incoming
abortion ban was announced composer Mark Korven,
persona and that character. you’re surrounded by ghosts. For [Margaret], a
in Texas. Our generation is whose music brought Costume and make-up is a woman who is slowly tapping into her intuition
now possibly facing the pervasive disquiet to very useful, powerful and listening to her own voice, to do that in a
reversal of everything that Robert Eggers’s The medium.” city where you’re just surrounded by millions
happened in the ’60s and the Lighthouse and The Witch, The character’s evolving of whispering voices, I think is really
has largely forged a new
’70s. And that’s terrifying.” look also helped Free to pace powerful.”
path for The First Omen.
Stevenson sees The First “We’re recording the her performance across the The real-life locations added some welcome
Omen as an opportunity to score right now,” says story. “When you’re not verisimilitude for the actors too. “You would
bring a female sensibility to Arkasha Stevenson. “There filming chronologically, you
a classic horror subject. “I was some talk of using the have to ground yourself in It’s that nice
grew up being in love with Goldsmith score, but we each moment. We had Bill Nighy,
wanted to find our own feel as Cardinal
the horror genre and slasher and flavour. Mark has
different phases of make-up
films,” she says. “Even and hair and my costume, Lawrence.
KATJA OGRIN/REDFERNS/GETTY
created something so, so

though I was obsessed with special – he’s such an which helped as an anchor
horror, a lot of the harm that interesting artist. His score as to what her state of mind
was inflicted on bodies – at has added another was in that moment. But
character to the film. We
least female bodies – made that’s kind of what we all do
do have some special
me uncomfortable because it moments where we do use every day, isn’t it?” she
felt hyper-sexualised and Goldsmith, but only in key laughs. “Just jump from
fetishised. moments.” various states of panic.”

THE FIRST OMEN
Despite a taxing role far from home, Free

It was important to relished the experience. “Everyone put their
try and make it feel like blood, sweat and tears into it. There was one
particular day where we had very intense
it was shot in 1971 scenes back-to-back. We ended at five in the
morning on this street in the middle of
nowhere in Northern Italy.
walk out onto the street and it would feel like “It was important to try and make it feel like “Everyone was exhausted, kind of freaked
you’d stepped into a completely different it was shot in 1971,” she explains. “So our out and terrified, but it was the best feeling
decade,” says Free. “The first time I saw the lighting reflects the ’70s Kodak film stock that because we were all so united and together. It
way they had dressed the streets – with the was used in Jaws, The Godfather, Chinatown was an amazing moment. You’ll probably know
cars and the costumes for the background – all that stuff. We also tried to use a lot of what scene I’m talking about after the film
actors – it was kind of overwhelming. It really old-school filming techniques to make it feel comes out.”
did feel like you had just walked out of a time like we were using a classical, heavy camera.” And with that, we’re back to secrets.
machine.” Although the close-knit company enjoyed Whatever surprises The First Omen has in
But history comes with its restrictions. a generally hassle-free shoot, a touch of good store, its makers feel confident that it will
“Rome can be a very difficult place to shoot old-fashioned superstition lurked on the wrongfoot audiences.
because you are essentially filming in a sidelines. “There was this one day where we “I have a tendency to trawl YouTube
museum,” adds Stevenson. “There are a lot of were filming in a piazza,” recalls Stevenson. comments when it’s four in the morning and I
rules, understandably. So we were very lucky “The actors were having a bit of a tough can’t go to sleep,” says Free. “I’m enjoying
to shoot on the streets. Rome is like another time… I was ‘off’ and couldn’t explain looking at everybody’s theories [about
character in our film. It’s not a Roman Holiday anything very well. the trailer] because everybody’s wrong,
postcard, but you definitely feel Rome in our “Our VFX team always takes photos baby!” We should expect the
movie.” of the locations that we’re in. I unexpected, then? She nods,
In keeping with the period setting, the mentioned this to one of them, who amused. “Everybody is wrong!
filmmakers took a deliberately low-fi approach, said, ‘Oh, yeah, of course, you were a I hope we scare the shit out
favouring practical effects and vintage filming little messed-up that day – the of people.”
techniques. While Stevenson was not able to circumference of the piazza was 666
shoot on 35mm film, she was keen to bring an feet.’ I don’t know if it was true, but The First Omen is in cinemas
analogue sensibility to the digital photography. that was very strange. Straaange.” from 5 April.

RENEGADE NELL
SERIES DIRECTOR BEN TAYLOR EXPLAINS THE STORY BEHIND SALLY

WAINWRIGHT’S FIRST FANTASY SHOW, R ENEGADE NELL
WORDS: TARA BENNETT

RENEGADE NELL
PERIOD PIECE HIGHWAYMAN

– er, woman – drama featuring a
tiny folkloric companion named
Billy Blind doesn’t exactly
scream likely sell. But when
you add that it’s been
conceived and written
by BAFTA-award-
winning writer Sally
Wainwright and directed by Ben Taylor of Sex
Education fame, the imminent arrival of their
new Disney+ series Renegade Nell makes a lot
more sense.
As the acclaimed writer of critically lauded
series like Happy Valley and Gentleman Jack,
Wainwright has gained a robust following of
fans obsessed with her dramas, which often
centre on compelling female characters. To
date, her creations for TV have been grounded
historical pieces or contemporary police
dramas (barring the 2013 one-off The Last
Witch). But Renegade Nell has a twist…
The eight-part series stars Louisa Harland
(Derry Girls) as the eponymous character, the
sharp-tongued eldest daughter of a tavern
keeper in Tottenham, circa 1705. Having left
home four years earlier to marry a sea captain,
she’s left widowed and returns to her father
and two young sisters imbued with a
mysterious power. When she inhales a tiny
glowing light, she becomes almost invulnerable
in combat, as she wields the power to exact

RENEGADE NELL
justice upon those committing crimes against

the unfortunate – such as highwaymen, or the
entitled aristocracy. Adrian Lester
Taylor explains to SFX that Renegade Nell as Robert
was the writer’s passion project, first drafted Hennessey, Earl
almost a decade ago. At the time, it was of Poynton.
considered too big a story for a two-hour film
and far beyond the size of a typical BBC
television budget.
However, the rise of streaming services
looking for event series inspired Wainwright to
pull it out of the proverbial drawer so that
Disney+ could bring it to life as a cliffhanger-
filled story with plenty of derring-do and
magical intrigue.
Coming off three seasons of directing Sex
Education, Taylor says he was looking for
something to shake him out of his creative
comfort zone. His producing partner Jon
Jennings rang him about a pilot script, saying,
“I’ve just read this thing. It’s absolutely mad. Joely
And potentially brilliant.” It was Wainwright’s Richardson
script for Renegade Nell. Her name alone was plays Lady
enough for Taylor to sign on. Eularia.
After he finally read it, Taylor remembers
that he was delighted to find it had the
ambition inherent to all of Wainwright’s
Sally and I were both ‘goodies’ and ‘baddies’, which is so great. But
really interested in how THE HIGHWAY the flaws that Sally then imbues within these
‘goodies’ isn’t just cut and dried either.”
a Western would work HELLION As the season unfolds, we follow Nell’s
travails as she tries to evade the villain Thomas
in England Louisa Harland blasts baddies and his magic-curious sister Sofia (Alice
with magic as Nell Jackson Kremelberg), with the help of her foppish
writing. “I wanted to bring out the scale of it highwayman ally Charles Devereux (Frank
and the irresistible mix of genre and tone Dillane), and the tiny fairy Billy Blind (Nick
What sold you on playing the character
which excites me and is also scary, as I’m sure Mohammed), who appears when she seems to
of Nell?
you can imagine,” he says. “You’re mixing When I auditioned, I actually hadn’t read need him most.
things like fantasy, action, comedy, period, any of the scripts. I just was given the Taylor calls Nell a perfect example of a
violence, feminism, and they’re all in the script. scenes to audition. It’s a credit to Sally, “Wainwrightian” hero: a female character who
There’s a madness to it that I really love and who is such an incredible writer, that I holds her ground when the darkness comes at
we really embraced.” knew who the character was, even from them. “You can see the common thread in
the scenes. She didn’t really have to pitch
At the heart of the series is Nell and her it to me. Sally Wainwright and
[Happy Valley’s] Catherine Cawood, Anne
family, who are being terrorised by Thomas Disney combined… it’s everything Lister in Gentleman Jack, and then Nell,” he
Blancheford (Jake Dunn), the black-hearted we never knew we needed – and, points out. “They clearly share some DNA.”
son of their local Lord Magistrate (Pip thank god, we have. While the series seemingly assumes the
Torrens). When Nell confronts the mantle of a historical drama, Taylor says he
What do you admire about Nell?
bully, he beats her to a pulp until a and Wainwright actually built Nell’s story to
It is really refreshing to see such a
little light appears… strong, funny, flawed woman parallel a classic American Western. “Sally and
Then the tables turn and she portrayed on screen and, I I were both really interested in how a Western
gets to batter the villain in a think, a fabulous sign of our would work in England,” he explains.
deliciously cathartic melee times. “Something that I’ve always loved with that
that sets the stage for the genre is the idea of [a character] regretting
When did you find out who your
complex troubles that will Billy was going to be?
one’s actions,” he adds. “That something that
dog Nell and her kin I actually didn’t even know Nick feels right and just and appropriate in the
throughout the series. was playing the role until moment can have repercussions that will echo
“It’s such a glorious maybe six months into the shoot. onwards – they will haunt you.
moment,” Taylor says of The most frustrating thing about it “In this, the idea is that a hot-headed Nell
was not being able to work with
the fight that establishes takes one piece of action to defend her sister’s
Nick, because I’m such a huge fan.
her heroic potential. “You need He’s an incredible comedic actor. honour, then she has less than 24 hours of
her and you want her to win. I know how much I would have being able to celebrate that feeling of good
And you’re in a Disney [show], enjoyed and taken from that. before her father dies, which is unavoidably
so you’re allowed to deal with her fault,” he teases of a plot point. “The

RENEGADE NELL
NELL’S
NEMESIS
Alice Kremelberg plays her
rival, Sofia Wilmot
Jake Dunn as
Thomas: what
an enormous As another marginalised woman of the
time, Sofia betrays Nell. Is she a villain?
fop. She really doesn’t feel like she has a voice
in the beginning. Even though she’s very
spirit who appears in several old ballads). It’s intelligent already, she doesn’t have a
through him that Nell gets her abilities to rise platform or anywhere to release that.
When she’s finally able to, bit by bit, that
up and vanquish those responsible for ill-doing.
excitement consumes her. She’s finally
Taylor says that Billy always featured in able to touch a bit of power and a voice
Wainwright’s scripts, and was not added after that she sees in Nell, that I think makes
Disney+ bought the series. Practically, they had her really jealous. Like, “How come she
to figure out the best way to integrate the fairy gets to do all that cool stuff?” So I think
into a live-action story in a way that felt organic she does start morally strong and gets a
bit carried away.
and believable, and that was doable as a
recurring effect.
“The way into the fantasy for Sally – and
then me when I took it over in terms of
executing it and visualising it – was not being
afraid of it,” he explains. “We tended to use
fantasy as a word less than we used folklore.
Enyi Okoronkwo It was all about grounding those [magical]
as Rasselas and elements confidently, rather than being fearful
Louisa Harland of them.”
as Nell.
MAGIC TOUCH
complexity of that I absolutely loved. And that One way they did that was by defining the rules words blunt and heavy. It’s difficult because it’s
is the story engine.” of Nell’s powers within the world. “Because we sacrilegious in Disney terms, but we didn’t
Another engine is the conviction of Louisa weren’t based on an existing IP and we weren’t want to ‘Tinkerbell’ the feeling,” he says of the
Harland’s performance as the compassionate a comic book, the rules were absolutely ours to fairy’s look.
and morally driven Nell. Taylor says that define,” he says. “They were really fun to get to. “You wanted a companion for Nell, and if it
matching the right actor to the role was There’s always been something that I’ve been was just this beautiful thing buzzing around, it
integral to the success of the series, as they attracted to with the downtrodden rising up. would piss her off,” he chuckles. “So, we
couldn’t imagine the rest of the world until In this genre, which is so masculine and so wanted to find this level of believable, where
they cast Harland. testosterone-led, to see [Nell] standing up to he’s an irritant but he also becomes a really
“All sorts of details trickle down from her,” that and absolutely bulldozing over someone close companion.”
Taylor explains. “She’s such a tonal reference was really thrilling.” Because for all the fighting and
point for everything and everyone around her. Then it was about portraying the quieter machinations, Taylor says, the heart of the
When we were designing Nell and casting, we moments as Nell and Billy formed their uneasy series resides in Nell and Billy’s belief in her.
used the term ‘anarchic’ and ‘punk’ quite friendship. Taylor explains that they decided to “She’s a hero of few words, and that can only
frequently,” he says of the character. “She’s do all of the season’s principal photography get you so far,” he says.
unapologetic. She’s absolutely, definitively, her first, then hired comedian Mohammed to come “You need somebody that can be her
own person, and she’s a really lovely, complex in as an entirely greenscreened character, confidante and scared with her, and inspire
box of contradictions as well.” inserted into the existing footage through and push her because she’s a mess,” he laughs.
Taylor adds that Harland not only embodied visual effects. “She’s not the finished article. She’s a hero but
Nell perfectly, but was also the linchpin in “I love that it was unfussy,” Taylor says of as we see, a reluctant hero.”
connecting the human story to the magical their technique. “When we were dealing with
story involving Billy Blind (who’s based on a the VFX teams and vendors, we’d often use the Renegade Nell is on Disney+ from 29 March.
Nick "We're never POV: you've

Mohammed as getting the just made a
Tinkerbell… ball down huge faux pas
sorry, Billy. from there." over tea.

WRECK
STR A P IN FOR A
IGHT ’S
MIDSUMMER N
SFX GOES ON
NIGHTM A R E ...
ETUR N OF
SET FOR THE R
IE DUNLOP
WORDS: ROBB

WRECK

WRECK
Phill Martin as
the mysterious
Creep: slicey
dicey!
UGUST 2023. SFX IS A hush is called, and the room falls deathly guests to engage in human-hunting bloodsports
considerably high up a silent – even the construction workers have on board luxury cruise ship the Sacramentum.
disused office block in downed their tools. Now former shipmates Jamie (Oscar Kennedy)
Belfast city centre, “Action!” and Vivian (Thaddea Graham), along with a
sheltering from the “Aquamarine or duck egg blue?” Thomas is gang of fellow survivors, are endeavouring to
blistering heat. Here, deliberating on the colour scheme of Velorum’s take down their former boss.
camera rehearsals are underway on the second new London headquarters. On hand to offer “It’s kind of a David and Goliath thing,” says
series of BBC Three horror hit Wreck. office décor advice is a familiar face from series Brown. “At every turn they’re failing. Nearly
It’s the storm before the calm. Loud bangs one: Officer Beaker (Warren James Dunning). everyone took pay-outs and hush money, so
and crashes from unseen construction workers But Beaker has relinquished his familiar they’re at a complete loss.”
reverberate across the room’s bare, stone walls, cruise ship uniform and – as the sea of tower After a whistle-blower informs the group of
while production crew mill around with blocks outside makes clear – we’re not going to Velorum’s latest venture – a wellness festival in
paperwork and chirruping radio mics. A find a cruise ship this far ashore. What gives? Slovenia – they discover that the corporation
recording is looming… has its sights set on them… “They’re like, ‘Do
As is frightfully tall actor Phill Martin. He’s TH E WILD LIFE we hide and hope that we survive, or do we
pacing back and forth to one side, carrying a During a break in the filming of what we later take the battle to Velorum, the last place they’d
plastic duck mask. Could this be…? A closer discover is a key flashback, SFX sits down with look for us?’”
inspection reveals that no, it isn’t. Not quite. Wreck creator and writer, Ryan J Brown. The The relocation from the confined corridors
A monitor – the focus of half-a-dozen seated first series made quite a splash, didn’t it? of a ship at sea to lush, open green fields in
crew members – feeds an image of the filming “It was mad,” Brown smiles. “I always knew Central Europe is all part of Brown’s multi-
set-up behind a nearby soundproofing curtain. that it would be a slow growth, but the series masterplan.
We glimpse a suited man standing at an open audience has grown and grown. It’s really nice “I wanted each series to feel like its own
window, gazing out onto the bustling Northern hearing from people all around the world. It’s thing. In the history of horror, sequels take you
Irish capital. This is actor Joseph Arkley, so unexpected and so lovely.” to different places and so I wanted to have a
playing Thomas Deveraux, a key member of Series two picks up six months after very different feel and look, in terms of
shadowy mega-corporation Velorum. Velorum was exposed for allowing wealthy references, aesthetics and style.

WRECK
Cormac (Peter
Claffey)
shoots off.
HAS THE GORE BEEN

RAMPED UP EVEN
FURTHER THIS SEASON?
Thaddea Graham (Vivian): Oh, hugely.
Oscar Kennedy (Jamie): Tenfold. It’s really

been ramped up for sure. Episode one,
straight out the gate. It’s pretty full on.
Peter Claffey (Cormac): It’s gory like you

Oscar Kennedy, wouldn’t believe. And this is the thing:
Jodie Tyack and I’m so proud to have been a part of
series one and the gore was great, but I
Thaddea Graham. wouldn’t be too squeamish, and there
were only certain aspects that really
It’s really nice hearing made me jump. This series has moved
up a level, big time. There’s a lot more
from people all around stunt aspects and an awful lot more
gruesome killings. It’s much more
the world. It’s so brutal.
unexpected and lovely Phill Martin (the Creep): I’m a horror

lover, and yeah there are some nice gory
out! It’s everything that’s tropey and gags. There’s a character from the first
series who gets into a bit of a fight with
recognisable, but we’re doing our own spin the Creep. That really was one of the
on it.” The wellness festival is set on the estate standout moments. Every time the Creep
of the wealthy Deveraux family, who have gets a little face-off with someone or meets
personal stakes in Velorum. “We unravel the one of our favourite characters from the
mythology of them. You really start to original… yeah, I’ve appreciated all the
moments like that!
understand who Velorum is, where they come
from; you put a face to the evil.” Oscar Kennedy: One of my favourites was a
One of their faces may be especially familiar. parasol between some heads, which was
“The palette, the look, is kind of folk It was a “dream come true” for Brown when pretty good.
horror-inspired,” Brown continues, citing The cult TV institution Alan Dale accepted the role
Wicker Man and Midsommar as visual and of patriarch and Velorum CEO Owen Thaddea Graham: I liked that one. I also
liked… There’s some really gory, kind of
thematic influences, “But there’s lots of slasher Deveraux. “He was in Lost which is one of my burning shit that goes on, one of those
films – from Ready Or Not to Friday The 13th favourite shows ever; it kind of got me into things you want to look away from. You’re
– in there as well.” storytelling, really. He said he was a big fan of like, “I can’t stop watching, I don’t want
Filming took place in Belfast over summer Wreck. I thought, ‘What, really?’ And actually, to watch but it’s so fascinating.” They did
2023. “We’re out in the wilderness for a lot of it was true. He had watched the first series and a lot of practical effects on that, but
they’re also going to add in VFX. It’s
series two which has been so nice; they’ve got loved it.
going to be really cool to see, the
some incredible locations here,” Brown beams. “The characters he plays are often very combination of the practical and the
“The production team have built some of the intimidating, nasty pieces of work, and in technological.
best sets I’ve ever seen. Wreck there are some moments where he’s
“We’ve got a chapel, an old mansion, and a really been able to up the psycho factor. Warren James Dunning (Officer
cabin in the woods – Evil Dead, eat your heart There’s one particular scene in a Beaker): There’s more jeopardy in
series two. We’ve gone bigger,
dungeon where he delivers some of the badder, and bloodier. I saw
Buck scariest shit I’ve ever seen. He’s the first one as Alien; it’s
Braithwaite is incredible.” on this little craft, and
Tristan: like, Owen has two children: Thomas the second one is on
dude. (Joseph Arkley, currently in rehearsals the planet. This time
it’s wide, it’s kinda
behind the curtain), and this
blown wide open.
series’ Big Bad, Devon, played Everyone’s game.
by Niamh Walsh. They’re fighting for
Brown gleefully likens their lives.
Walsh’s performance to

WRECK
WHO’S THE CREEP?
Thaddea Graham: Creepy! He’s such an

ominous presence – an entity of little
words; very contained and very still. He’s
so scary. When Phill stands there with the
mask on, it’s like, “Oh my god.”
Oscar Kennedy: He’s like Quacky but

bigger, scarier, and more intimidating.
More capable of violence.
TG: Less fluffy!
OK: Quacky in series one, we knew

there was a person behind there, a very
troubled person. Whereas with the
Creep, we have no idea who or what
they are.
TG: Also, although Quacky was quite

capable, it’s still somebody in a duck
suit. There are limitations. Quacky can’t
see full vision, and I could probably
outrun him. The Creep feels scarier.
Warren James Dunning: He’s a machine,

let’s just put it that way. He’s a mean Everyone’s
machine! We’ve become a little duo, me
and the Creep. It’s an odd pairing. We
having an
have moments together. My height and his absolutely
height – it’s visually entertaining. splendid time.
Peter Claffey: He’s seven-foot tall and
“Gwyneth Paltrow on acid. Devon is terrifying, burning off, drills to the head. We’ve got
constantly there, looming around the
characters. He’s a little bit more terrifying but also really human and vulnerable. She is shish-kebabing, asphyxiation, decapitation and
than the duck! the one leading the festival; it’s her thing. She stabbing. We’ve got everything. Stuff that I’d
managed to get her dad to agree to do it at their never have thought in a million years would be
Phill Martin: He’s a mystery of a character. ancestral home, so she’s moved in all of her on the BBC!
The way we’re introduced to him: he’s a crazy wellness madness into this huge space. “In episode one there is a massacre. A big,
force. He seemingly has a one-track mind
in his motives and what he wants to do,
Niamh brought so much to the role.” explosive sequence where there are multiple
but you discover more about him as the deaths. That was really fun to write because
show goes on, where he comes HOT LINE TO HEAVEN I was trying to top each one, trying to find
from and perhaps a little bit of Brown admits that his long-term plan for inventive ways for people to die.
his history. Wreck was risky. “For the first series, we “But what was really important to me – and
decided to focus on the characters, on building this is where horror can sometimes fall short
PC: Phill couldn’t be more
opposite to the Creep; a family. And now, in series two, we’re tearing – is that you feel each death, that it really hits
he’s a really lovely guy them apart. hard when it’s a character you care about.
and it’s been great “I was working out the death count,” he That’s something I’ve been conscious of. Even
getting to know continues, with the relish of a dyed-in- though there are tons of deaths, each one
him. I’ve had a the-wool horror fan (which he is),
couple of decent Jamie and
scenes with
“and the first episode has more
him too, deaths than the entirety of series Olly (Anthony
which has one. I wanted to let people know, Rickman).
been good ‘Think of that as the prequel and
fun. now we’re delivering the main
course’.”
To whet our appetites,
Brown teases a few of the
second series’ most shocking
slayings. “We’ve got faces

WRECK
ON HORROR HISTORY
Oscar, your character Jamie is

named after Jamie Lee Curtis.
Do you have a favourite
Jamie Lee Curtis film?
Oscar Kennedy: The only
Jamie Lee Curtis films that
I’ve watched – the two I
know I’ve watched – are
Everything Everywhere All
At Once and the first
Halloween. So I’d probably
go for Halloween because of
how iconic it is. I’m a massive
fan of the horror genre.
Thaddea, do you have a favourite horror film?

Thaddea Graham: I’m such a scaredy cat, I’m
scared of everything! But I really liked Train
To Busan, because it’s so character-driven
and emotional. There are lots of zombies
– but I can look past that!
I think making horror is so much fun, a
very unique thing to do. Like with Wreck
series one and the chainsaw fight, there’s no
way that I’d be waterboarded with fake
blood and syrup anywhere else! I couldn’t
open my eyes, I had to be walked off set and
dunked into a bucket to be reset, to go
again. But it was really fun.
Quacky was terrifying, “Joseph has a very close bond and

but with the Creep relationship with Jamie and there may be a
we’ve taken things to And what of the menacing Quacky, from
thing there,” teases Brown of potential
summertime love. “Could we have a bit of Call
the next level the first season? “Quacky made a really big Me By Your Name on our hands?”
impact,” says Brown of the Sacramentum’s The newcomers join a flock of Sacramentum
hopefully earns its place.” This all means that maniacal mascot, who has flown the, erm, survivors including crew manager Karen
Brown was mindful of sending his victims out crow’s nest this time round. Slashing through (Harriet Webb), crew members Lauren (Amber
in memorably grisly ways. “I always promise – festival-goers in his place is the seven-foot Grappy), Olly (Anthony Rickman), Cormac
and we’ve delivered on it so far – that if you’re Creep. (Peter Claffey), and Rosie (Miya Ocego). Also
going out, you’re going out big. Or in the most “Quacky was terrifying, but with the Creep dragged back for an onshore encore is the
heartbreaking of ways, so that it’ll be one to we’ve taken things to the next level. He’s ship’s cabaret performer Gloria Hole (“Queen
remember. Michael Myers meets Jason Voorhees. People of Ireland” Panti Bliss).
“We’ve had to say goodbye to some people will be having nightmares.” “We deepen a lot of the relationships from
who have been around since the beginning, and The Creep may still rustle some feathers. series one and take them further, which has
that’s been really tough. People who are now “There’s a reason why he’s wearing the duck been such a joy to write,” Brown says. “We go
close friends. Letting them know, ‘Hey, you’re mask,” Brown reveals. “It’s explained. But in to an extremely dark place by the end. A place
unemployed now!’ is not the most ideal, but I the immediate, it’s kind of like in You’re Next; where people will be thinking, ‘How the hell
think they all understand that it’s what the as if he’s wearing it to hide his identity because are they going to come back from this? How
show requires. he’s out murdering these kids.” has it got to this point?’ We take the characters
“I always buy ‘deepest sympathy’ cards and Among those who may encounter the on a really intense journey. Nothing will ever
a nice little gift to soften the blow,” he smiles. “unstoppable killing machine” are The Voice be the same again…”
UNIVERSAL/ALAMY
He’s not joking about that, either: “I’ve been finalist Sam Buttery, Britain’s Got Talent child One thing’s for sure. It’s going to be a cruel,
into the Card Factory shop in Belfast many protégé Shaheen Jafargholi, Heartstopper’s cruel summer.
times. They must think I know a lot of people Bradley Riches, and Class star Greg Austin,
who are ill!” playing festival therapist Joseph. Wreck is on BBC Three and iPlayer in April.

DESIGNING DOCTOR WHO
THE TEAM FROM AUTOMATIK VFX AND

Concept art,
WORLDBUILDING DESIGN STUDIO PAINTING featuring a
PRACTICE REVEAL THE VISUAL SECRETS OF “THE very smiley
GIGGLE” AND “THE CHURCH ON RUBY ROAD” Toymaker. UNIT TOWER
WORDS: NICK SETCHFIELD Dan May, Painting Practice
co-founder and VFX Supervisor:
We looked at some classic strong
tower shapes like the Shard and
Concept art for
did many, many different versions
the UNIT tower of the silhouette. We were
in central conscious of trying to emulate the
London. beauty and simplicity of Marvel’s
Stark Tower, but at the same time
having ownership in our own
version.
Seb Barker, VFX Supervisor and
founder of Automatik VFX: The
script really defined the design in
many ways, just in terms of what
the tower had to perform and how
the characters interacted with it.
Dan: One of the biggest things for
me was where it was going to go in
the London skyline and how we
were going to integrate it. I very
quickly plonked it where I thought
it would look best, in that cluster of
buildings opposite the Shard.
It’s a lovely little cluster that
feels like a mini London Manhattan.
It felt the right place to put it, but
more importantly it had lots of
good access points in terms of
where we could fly towards it,
whether it was down the river or
across the river. We did move it
around once or twice, but broadly
speaking it stayed where I’d put it.
Seb: I went up and directed the
helicopter shoot and we shot all
the [plates] to put this thing in.
Many bags of sick later, we had
that material!

Film plate,
3D wireframe
and final
composite.
UNIT TOWER
HELIPAD
Erica McEwan, Painting Practice creative
director and graphics art director: There were
originally some guard rails! They were removed
for the jeopardy factor.
Seb: It was purely the catch sequence at the
end. It was the scene Russell wanted the most
jeopardy for. I remember the conversation when
he took them away! There was talk of a barrier
that extended up to a certain height around it,
More concept basically to save on the amount of VFX we’d do.
art, of the In hindsight I’m really glad we didn’t do that,
Doctor being because you wouldn’t see the horizon of
zapped. London. It would have made it feel much
smaller.
Erica: The floor of the set was actually the
ground. It was just the backlot.
Now that’s
a sonic
screwdriver, THE GALVANIC
pal.
BEAM GUN
Erica: The design would have been very much
driven by [production designer] Phil Sims and
the concept team worked really closely with
him, back and forth.
Seb: There’s a slightly industrial quality to it.
Dan: There were many versions of this. It wasn’t
a particularly straightforward thing to get right.
Originally there was quite a big number about
how the gun itself came out. We had ones that
IMAGES: PAINTING PRACTICE
came up from underneath, but because it’s such

a big thing we couldn’t make it go too fast,
otherwise it would start to look a bit fake, But
at the same time it could get quite dry
watching robotics coming up and down
buildings. Obviously super-geeky fans love all
that stuff but story-wise it needs to zip along,
so we found a happy medium.

The current
Grades is at 44
Broad Street,
location fans.
THE TOYMAKER’S
SHOP FOLDS UP
Erica: I did the graphics on the shop front, with Phil and the
art department, and we were looking at either side [of the
building]. There was an existing old hairdressing sign in the
location, that actually looked right for the period. It really
does exist. That’s a real barber’s shop in Bristol. It was a
happy accident that we had some period graphics.
Seb: We got rid of the building [in the actual street], painted
it out entirely and then built the street that we see behind it.
We then rebuilt the hero shop in CG and added window
panes and interiors in the rooms, even plasterboard and
layers of bricks, all built in the way a house would be built, so
we could then have complete control to animate it in the
way we wanted.
So as we’re animating the building folding in, you can see
it’s revealing all the layers of the building you would expect.
We had to build a replica of the house, not just on the
outside but on the inside. As the roof folds you actually see
the timbers folding in, and then it all crunches in on itself.
THE COLLAPSING CORRIDOR

Seb: Our CG supervisor Christian Bull oversees all of Automatik’s CG creature
builds and complex one-offs, including the folding theatre and toy shop in “The
Giggle”. Here the whole corridor ended up being CG. You see the whole room
bending in the foreground. The only real thing is Donna and the Doctor.
A big part of this was simulating all the floorboards cracking and so on. When
you’re working with effects you’re obviously constrained within the laws of physics,
but you can cheat it and bend it to a certain degree. People that get too wound up
by the physics can often lose sight of what looks good and what doesn’t, because
there’s always an element of creative licence.
I’m always telling effects artists to increase gravity beyond what it is, or allow
the surface tension of water to be slightly thicker than it would be in reality, or
even the opposite. With a computer model you’re never able to simulate all the
possible factors that might have an effect on a thing that you’re trying to generate.
There’s an element of creativity in trying to get things looking how you want.
Film plate,
3D greyscale
image and
final comp.
THE PUPPET
OF CHARLES
Dan: This was probably the one we
had to work on the most, in terms
of solving it, in post as well. It was
a head-scratcher all the way
through. Our method worked, but
we still had to do some tricky work
in CG to pull it off.
Seb: If you take somebody’s head
and chop it off and put it on a
puppet’s body, it’s always going to
look like a floating head. It’ll never
look like it’s physically connected
to the puppet body. With the shots
where we’re behind him, we
rationalised it by giving him a kind
of physical wooden piece. So the
shots from behind really sold it.
We could have gone for a much
bigger rebuild of this character, so
you’d end up with a sort of CG
wooden version of him, but then it
would have lost the essence of
what Russell wanted to achieve,
which was a human person stuck
on a puppet body. If you made the
head wooden, like Pinocchio, then
it might end up not quite hitting
Who’s really that story beat. Good pre-vis really
pulling the helped us on this. We shot multiple
passes with a life-size puppet body
strings, eh? and then the actor. It was an
Oh. Him. interesting challenge, but tricky.
Concept art for

the collapsing
corridor:
“RUN!”

The King’s got

himself a bit
wedged in the
hull.
THE GOBLIN KING

Seb: Some people assumed it was full CG, but it wasn’t. We mixed it up.
There was a practical version that was on set [created by Neill Gorton and
Millennium FX], which was amazing, but the lips and the eyes looked very
much like they were controlled by servos rather than something that was
gelatinous. The ears as well were generally quite rigid. So now there are all
the wrinkles as the eyebrows go up, and we get the jiggles in the fat. We got
away from that feeling of him being made of silicone. I’d say 30% of the
shots are full CG, 30% are fully practical and then the remaining shots are a
hybrid approach where we kept the animatronic mouth and just replaced
the eyes and the ears.
There is an innately Labyrinth feel to it. It’s not a realistic creature in the
way you’d expect from something you might see in The Witcher. It’s meant
to have that charm to it, which is why the CG work that we did was about
keeping the charm that made the animatronic really fun, but just adding
enough nuance in the animation to make people think he could also be a
real creature.
Nandor Moldovan, concept artist: The thought process behind the Goblin A shot of the
King was that he became the largest and heaviest goblin on the ship until final combined
the floorboards could no longer support him on the deck, leading him to puppet/CG
settle in the hull of the ship, which became his throne room. The design of additions.
the king was influenced by the proportions and anatomy of the smaller
goblins, featuring similar facial characteristics but with a massive and
grotesque body that renders him immobile.

Final comp
(right) and
various 3D
elements.
THE GOBLIN SHIP

Seb: It’s powered on dreams. It’s magical. It’s not
an airship, it’s a ship, and it floats. It doesn’t make
sense but there it is!
Dan: In terms of the tone it was definitely fantasy.
Even though the design was concepted – Painting
Practice did the concept to show everyone what
the final design was going to be – Val Hiblen, who’s
a model maker I went to college with, did some
lovely maquettes in the model shop. So the actual
design and shape of it was done with Phil and Val,
the old-fashioned way, making a load of lovely
models and maquettes. And then we started
messing around with it in 3D, but ultimately this
came from a more old-school approach.
The inside I just did in 3D, and I made a set
design that was painted up. It didn’t really change
too much. Obviously it evolved and Kartik [Nagar]
the art director and Phil did a very good job of
turning it into a reality. All the detail and
craftsmanship that went into it was massive.
Some very
dramatic
concept art for
the ship.

Concept art for

the Doctor’s
little song and
dance.
THE GOBLIN BAND

Dan: Nandor did the concept art and did a lot of the work in 3D. It was a
back and forth with Millennium FX as to what was going to be possible in
terms of the masks, and we also had to work with costume and make-up.
Nandor: When designing the goblins, my focus was on how they would
behave as a group. Therefore, in their character and physical appearance,
I aimed to capture a childlike innocence that would make them likeable
and comical characters before revealing their sinister nature as baby-
eating goblins. The large expressive eyes, big heads, and potbellies give
them a cute appearance, while the tiny horns on their heads suggest they
may not be as innocent as they seem. Costumes also play a significant
role in distinguishing each goblin as an individual character, despite their
nearly identical bodies and faces.
Seb: The goblins are all acted by real people and they are in prosthetics.
For crowd shots, where it’s wide, we had a full CG version of the goblins
as well, but they are mostly practical in the sequence, certainly every
time you see them close-up. We basically replaced the head above the
mouth in CG. It meant we could animate the flicks of the eyeballs and the
way the ears let light through – it’d be quite hard to do that practically.
All the nuances of movement we added in but largely they are real,
and physical, which was really important, I think. The motion is all the
performer. Our animators are really complementing the performance of
the actor that was there on the day.
Concept art:
no babies (or
goblins) were
harmed.

The band
get ready to
do their big
number.
THE GOBLIN CHEFS

Dan: I think the machete was obviously too much!
Seb: Yeah, it just went full Gremlins! Maybe it was too dark, and the
feeling was it needed to be toned back.
Dan: Obviously everyone reads the script in a slightly different way. That’s
why we do these big tone meetings, where we put the artwork up in front
of everyone and the execs react to it. They loved it but they were like,
“Oh, maybe we can’t do that…” But that’s the discussion. It’s easier to do
that with a picture like this.
Erica: It does steer everyone, every department. These images are up on
the walls. We sit in the meetings surrounded by them and everyone starts
Greenscreen absorbing the same visual language. It does pull everyone together,
footage and having these images available so early on in the process.
final comped
image. Doctor Who is on BBC iPlayer and Disney+.

Brought THE SFX AUTHOR
INTERVIEW
To Book
CJ TUDOR
Chilling events: the horror writer tells us about Alaskan bloodsuckers
Words by Jonathan Wright /// Portrait by Bill Waters
N THE ESTIMATION OF CJ TUDOR, SMALL TOWN BIODATA latter of whom face prejudice and privations not so far
Alaska is “weird and crazy”, but “in a brilliant way”. removed from those faced by many indigenous peoples.
Tudor knows this first hand, because last May she From Salisbury “Genre can be a really interesting way to address social
visited Talkeetna, two and a half hours by car from Greatest Hits
issues without, hopefully, coming across as lecturing.”
Anchorage and home to 1,055 souls. Since her debut It’s an approach in keeping with Tudor’s career to date, as
“Everywhere you looked there were antlers and bits The Chalk Man she anchors her work in the everyday. It’s also work steeped
of dead animals on the walls, a stuffed bear, and animal (2018), Tudor has in the genre; when she was younger, Tudor loved the work
written five more
skulls in all the little bars,” she says. “It was just brilliant.” novels and a short of Stephen King and James Herbert. In part, you’d guess,
One reason Tudor was so impressed by what she saw was story collection. their books provided an escape. Growing up in Nottingham,
because it tallied with an atmosphere-setting notion she The Burning Girls she had “a horrible time” because of bullying. She mentions
(2021) was
had for the Alaska-set vampyr (to use Tudor’s own spelling) adapted into a TV an eating disorder. “I was good academically, but the
novel she was working on, The Gathering: that people might series starring environment of school wasn’t for me,” she says.
display vampyr heads and skulls as trophies. Samantha Morton
for Paramount+.
Central to the book is the notion that not only do humans PRE SENT I MPERFEC T
coexist uneasily with vampyrs, but that the bloodsuckers Random Fact Tudor didn’t go to university. Instead, she got a job on a
have good reason to fear us. “They’ve been persecuted and Tudor once had newspaper in Mansfield. She also worked in local radio and,
hunted almost into extinction, even though they [mostly] to ask Robert in the ’90s, landed a job as a presenter asking movie folk
Downey Jr about
haven’t drunk human blood for centuries so they’re not getting fit for “quirky questions” for Channel 4 show Moviewatch.
really a threat,” says Tudor. movie roles. He Mostly it was fun, but not without the odd difficult
Nevertheless, vampyrs persist, such as those who reside responded by moment, such as when she interviewed Tim Robbins,
lifting up his shirt
close to Deadhart, a fictional settlement with a living and showing her director of Dead Man Walking, a sombre death row drama
population of 673 – reduced to 672 when a teenager is found his chest. co-starring his then partner Susan Sarandon. After a
dead, apparently the victim of a vampyr. Enter out-of-state late-night screening, Tudor realised the questions she’d
specialist detective Barbara Atkins, who can authorise a cull been assigned were inappropriate but, Stateside in a
of the local vampyr “Colony” if she thinks it’s warranted. pre-digital comms age, was unable to reach her office.
Tudor loved writing Atkins, a character not so far Inexperienced, she asked the questions anyway,
removed from Frances McDormand’s police chief Marge including one about Sarandon’s breasts. Robbins was
Gunderson in Fargo – albeit a Gunderson moving through a tolerant, “But I remember thinking, ‘Oh my god, this is the
world that also recalls 2007 horror flick 30 Days Of Night. worst experience of my life, I feel like such an idiot.’ And the
publicist would not give me the interview tapes.” She’s
S MA L L TOWN G IRL laughing as she tells the story.
Atkins is not “a stand-out kind of person”. Rather, she’s Her real ambition was to write. In her twenties, though,
middle-aged, self-deprecating, short and stout, and not the she was busy having fun. In her thirties, she would begin
best at chasing down suspects. But she’s smart too. “She projects with huge enthusiasm but “was a terrible finisher”.
uses the fact that people underestimate her to find out what Latterly, she started a dog-walking business to help make
she wants to know,” says Tudor. ends meet as she began to take her writing more seriously.
Having been raised in a small town with its own Colony, Then there was the thorny problem of genre. Tudor’s first
Atkins immediately understands the social dynamics at play agent wanted her to write thrillers, but not ones featuring
in Deadhart. “There’s the sense that these people have got a supernatural events. A new agent, though, encouraged her
tough existence,” says Tudor. “They’ve had to deal with the and a bidding war ensued for her debut The Chalk Man, an
Colony in the past and they feel they should be allowed to eerie tale of the past leaching into the present.
deal with the Colony in their own way [again] because that’s Tudor was on her way to where she was, perhaps, always
how it’s always been done.” supposed to be. As her English teacher Mr Webster once
It’s easy, Tudor says, to “get into our own little gangs” and noted on an essay: “If you do not become Prime Minister, or
judge such attitudes as insular, but one of the reasons for a bestselling author, I will be very disappointed.”
writing the novel was to explore how we treat those we see
as “other” whether they be townspeople or vampyrs, the The Gathering is published by Michael Joseph on 11 April.

BROUGHT TO BOOK
CJ TUDOR
I was good
academically,
but the
environment
of school wasn’t
for me

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APRIL
2024
edited by Ian Berriman
CINEMA 74 TV 76 HOME ENTERTAINMENT 80 BOOKS 86 COMICS 92 GAMES & STUFF 94
THIS ISSUE
58 REVIEWS
74
DUNE:
PART TWO
Returning a prophet
76
3 BODY PROBLEM
80
DOCTOR WHO
86
ALIEN CLAY
The producers of The latest The A planet with a
Game Of Thrones have a Collection Blu-ray box chaotic ecosystem is
crack at hard SF, set includes K-9’s the setting for this
adapting Liu Cixin’s debut story. Is it any month’s Adrian
Hugo-winning novel. good? Affirmative! Tchaikovsky novel…
RATINGS EXPLAINED SUPERB GOOD AVERAGE POOR TERRIBLE

CINEMA
“I can’t look
at you while
that bogey is
dangling.”
DUNE: PART TWO

(Zendaya) openly sceptical of their peripheral and rather
motives. Yet they have a common inconsequential roles in the film’s
enemy in the rapacious intricate galactic power play.
Harkonnens, a foe Paul hopes to Zendaya, however, effectively
defeat by learning the Fremen’s builds on what was essentially
The Conqueror Worms arcane ways and leading them into
battle as the messiah that Stilgar
only a cameo last time out to
emerge as both Chalamet’s
storytelling and the occasional believes him to be. romantic foil and the movie’s
RELEASED OUT NOW! longueur, it’s a price worth paying To do so he’ll have to master moral centre, one that becomes
12A | 167 minutes for a blockbuster stuffed with worm-riding, a union of man and increasingly prominent the more
Director Denis Villeneuve memorable images, jaw-dropping gargantuan invertebrate that burdened Paul becomes with
Cast Timothée Chalamet, Zendaya, set-pieces and scenery-munching provides the film’s most thrilling vainglorious purpose.
Rebecca Ferguson, Austin Butler, performances. It’s also one that It’s quite a balancing act for
Javier Bardem, Stellan Skarsgård unapologetically embraces the A landmark Chalamet, required as he is to
knotty convolutions of Frank convince as both lover, soldier and
Thunderous, portentous and Herbert’s seminal source material, achievement by potential emperor of the universe.
just a touch ponderous, Denis
Villeneuve’s follow-up to 2021’s
a novel in which everyone seems
to have more than one name and
any metric Yet it’s one he manages with a
commanding aplomb that makes
Dune delivers on the epic promise working out who’s who can be as and dizzying highpoint. As you curious what more he might
of that game-changing original complex as 3D Sudoku. impressive as these mile-long, accomplish were Villeneuve’s saga
while still leaving enough in the Picking up exactly where Dune vagina-mawed beasties are, to extend to a third instalment.
tank for a mooted Part Three. left off, Part Two begins with though, they’re upstaged by A landmark achievement by any
Broader in scale, grander in fugitive aristo Paul Atreides Austin Butler as chief antagonist metric, Dune: Part Two is a feast
ambition and with even more (Timothée Chalamet) and his Feyd-Rautha: a chrome-domed, for the eyes that fills the most
international acting talent at its pregnant, widowed mother Jessica dagger-licking psychopath who expansive of cinematic canvases.
disposal, it’s a triumph of technical (Rebecca Ferguson) hiding out on gives the action a jolt of electricity If David Lean had made a sci-fi
craftsmanship that demands to be desert planet Arrakis with its whenever he appears. film, it’d probably have looked
seen on the largest screen possible. indigenous Fremen people. The Other additions to the cast do something like this. Neil Smith
If all that humungous spectacle Fremen, led by Stilgar (Javier not fare so well, with Florence
Mick Jagger was down to play Feyd-
comes at the cost of rounded Bardem), have no love for their Pugh and Léa Seydoux Rautha in Alejandro Jodorowsky’s never-
characterisations, crystal-clear guests, with feisty warrior Chani particularly ill-served by their made version of Dune.

LATE NIGHT ROBOT
WITH THE DEVIL DREAMS
RELEASED 22 MARCH RELEASED OUT NOW!
15 | 86 minutes PG | 102 minutes
Directors Cameron Cairne, Director Pablo Berger
Colin Cairne Cast Ivan Labanda, Albert Trifol,
“That’s it! I’ll
Cast David Dastmalchian, Laura Segarra Rafa Calvo, José García Tos
call myself...
Gordon, Ian Bliss, Fayssal Bazzi
Madame Dog is lonely. He lives in a
Fans of the BBC’s 1992 Branch.” world peopled (er, if that’s the
Halloween special Ghostwatch right word) entirely by animals,
MADAME WEB
should appreciate this. Both which means that while a
productions nail the grammar human would get a dog for
of a televisual subgenre. And companionship, Dog can’t. So
both descend into shiver- he’s thrilled to come across an
inducing supernatural chaos. advertisement for a pet robot:
While Ghostwatch centred
on a live broadcast from a house
Mystic Meh a lanky, grey, Bender-style
machine offering all the love
plagued by paranormal in the days before the MCU raised Dog has been looking for.
phenomena, Australian RELEASED OUT NOW! the bar. They’re both blissfully happy
brothers Cameron and Colin 12A | 116 minutes Dakota Johnson doesn’t so until a trip to the beach goes
Cairne’s film is framed as a Director SJ Clarkson much phone in as text her wrong – and Dog has to leave
record of a late night US talk Cast Dakota Johnson, Sydney Sweeney, performance as Cassandra Robot behind on the sand…
show broadcast on Halloween Isabela Merced, Tahar Rahim “Cassie” Webb, a paramedic with Adapted from Sarah Varon’s
1977. David Dastmalchian plays some serious boundaries after 2007 graphic novel, this
host Jack Delroy. His guests Either emboldened by the growing up as a foster child seemingly simple – yet
include a psychic, a sceptic and seemingly critic-proof success of following her mother’s death in surprisingly complex – cartoon
a girl allegedly possessed by a the two Venom films or seeking a childbirth – a death that occurred is set in a vibrant ’80s New York
demon she calls “Mr Wriggles”. new cinematic low after the messy while she was studying a mystical (look out for nods to everything
Every detail, from the corny Morbius, Sony’s Spider-Man- spider with healing properties in from early hip-hop to Basquiat).
gags about Jimmy Carter to the adjacent universe continues to the Amazon. And there’s enough filmmaking
set design, feels authentic. waste its opportunities. An attempt to save her resulted bravado on display to
Ingrid Torelli makes quite an The idea of an origin story Cassie gaining the ability to see have earned Robot Dreams its
impression as young Lilly – for an elderly blind psychic who into the future, which comes in Oscar nomination for Best
even creepier as she implacably spends most of her time in a handy when she’s pressed into Animated Feature.
stares down the camera than life-support system always seemed saving three teenagers (Sydney Lush, exquisitely detailed
when doing a Linda Blair a confounding topic for a studio Sweeney, Isabela Merced and backgrounds bring New York
routine. There are alarmingly that has struggled to exploit its Celeste O’Connor, saddled with to life, but they also contrast
outré moments of body horror. grip on these corners of Spidey’s archetypes instead of characters), perfectly with the beautiful
It’s also immaculately paced. world. And it proves to be fuel for who are destined to become simplicity of Dog and Robot’s
Our one quibble is with the an overwrought, forced and often Spider-Powered people minimal character design.
use of “behind-the-scenes unintentionally hilarious themselves, and are being hunted Dream sequences add whimsy
footage” shot during ad breaks. run-around. by Tahar Rahim’s Ezekiel Sims. or menace, while music plays a
How anyone could film private Many elements of Madame Web Yet another poor outing from huge part.
conversations close-up (from make you wonder whether the Sony, it’s the sort of Marvel Most amazing of all, nobody
multiple angles) is unclear. It’s quality control department was on product that the wider cinematic speaks: the actors’ voices
difficult to think of another way holiday. While SJ Clarkson has community would be better off provide nothing more than the
to achieve the same effect. Still, directed solid superhero avoiding, even in our multiverse- odd grunt or chuckle. No words
this failure to maintain the entertainment before (see Jessica obsessed times. James White need to be spoken for you to fall
found-footage conceit does Jones), even she can’t rescue a in love with Dog and Robot. A
Sweeney, Merced and O’Connor trained for
puncture the sense of non- dreadful script set in 2003 that hours in their suits, for scenes that make
match, and a film, made in
fabricated reality. Ian Berriman might as well be a film made back up roughly 30 seconds of the film. Heaven. Jayne Nelson

TV
DRINKING GAME
Knock back a beverage of
your choice every time…
A character smokes a
cigarette – this show has
extremely high nicotine
content.
Someone sees fiery orange

numbers ominously counting
down.
Someone puts on a futuristic

virtual reality headset.
A famous scientist from

history gets a namecheck.
“Look out,
’60s environmental polemic
Richard Osman Silent Spring appears on
is on the screen.
warpath!”
3 BODY PROBLEM
make the science of Oppenheimer
feel simplistic in comparison, as
the story ventures into the sort of
hard SF territory that usually gives
Hollywood cold feet – it’s
Weird Science refreshing to see a major streamer
taking a punt on something so
unashamedly intellectual.
their modus operandi borrows True Blood vet Alexander Woo) is Even so, the eight episodes of
UK/US Netflix, streaming from 21 March more from the cerebral ETs of that it’s so, well… British. Focused this debut season suggest that
Showrunners David Benioff, DB Weiss, Arrival than the demolition on a quintet of exceptional physics 3 Body Problem is still finding its
Alexander Woo experts of Independence Day. This graduates known as the “Oxford feet. When the alien visitation plot
Cast Jovan Adepo, John Bradley, debut season is a talky, slow-build Five”, the show plays out like a sci- isn’t front and centre, there’s a
Rosalind Chao, Liam Cunningham, affair, somehow tied together by fi version of This Life, where the tendency to overplay the
Eiza González, Jess Hong sophisticated virtual reality characters are scientists instead of melodrama, while the season
headsets, a sinister cult and the lawyers, and the stakes are rather finale has an undeniable whiff
EPISODES 1.01-1.08 Having spent the mysterious deaths of several bigger than who slept with who of anticlimax.
best part of a decade in the Seven leading scientists. The present-day last night. Mentions of Monster But viewed as the start of
Kingdoms, Game Of Thrones story also links back to the Munch, The Antiques Roadshow something bigger, the series’
showrunners David Benioff and Chinese Cultural Revolution, and mediocre English beaches feel potential is truly huge. There are
DB Weiss shift their attention to when a brilliant physicist makes a like they’ve been lifted from a shocks, big questions, bigger
another series of genre novels. discovery with major ramifications 9.00pm drama on BBC One, not answers, and by episode eight the
This time inspiration comes from for the future of our species. a mega-budget Netflix show. cast – most notably Benedict
Chinese author Cixin Liu’s The The most unexpected thing That’s not to say that 3 Body Wong’s not-cop Da Shi and Jovan
Three-Body Problem, and beyond about this adaptation (co-created Problem is small in any shape or Adepo’s reluctant genius Saul
some gory violence, the high by Americans Benioff, Weiss and form. When the show wants to Durand – have coalesced into an
concentration of British and Irish show off its financial muscle it engaging ensemble. If Netflix
accents and a smattering of
familiar faces, this sci-fi drama
There are does so in spectacular style, with persist with exploring this 3 Body
effects of movie-level scale and Problem, we’ll be intrigued to see
is light years from Westeros. shocks, big execution. Ambitious references to the solution. Richard Edwards
While the aliens in 3 Body
Problem don’t necessarily have
questions and 10-dimensional space and
advanced orbital mechanics (the This isn’t the first TV adaptation. A 30-part
humanity’s best interests at heart, bigger answers eponymous three-body problem)

Chinese version, Three-Body, debuted in
2023. It’s available on Prime Video.

TWISTED
“I’d have been
here earlier,
but my car fell
METAL Season One

apart.”
Couriers Of The Wasteland

The gaming franchise had
UK Paramount+, streaming 21 March some twisted, dark, satirical ideas
US Peacock, streaming now around the edges of its world-
Showrunner Michael Jonathan Smith building, and the TV show takes
Cast Anthony Mackie, Stephanie that and runs with it. In a lawless
Beatriz, Joe Seanoa, Will Arnett post-apocalyptic USA, fast-talking
amnesiac John Doe (Anthony
EPISODES 1.01-1.10 When we say that Mackie) is a kind of gnarly UPS
Twisted Metal is a successful guy, making deliveries to various
adaptation of the videogame it’s surviving groups. Then he takes on He’s soon joined by the – a show which was sent to the
based on, don’t go expecting the a cross-continent mission, which gloriously dour Quiet (Brooklyn scrapheap too soon, so we’re fine
next Halo or The Last Of Us. The means navigating some of the Nine-Nine’s Stephanie Beatriz, the with that. It has a truck load of
game series is a largely plotless most dangerous, psycho-weirdo- best thing in the show), with witty game-related Easter eggs,
slice of pure action carmageddon, infested regions of the country. everyone from a murderous clown brilliantly oddball support
based around a near-future to a creepy priest and an ultra- characters and, most crucially of
demolition derby where ordnance-
stuffed vehicles blast the hell of
The crucial right militia on their tail. The
crucial point being that they all
all, car-nage that – when it comes
– is impressive, high-octane stuff
each other. point is that they have big guns and fast cars. for the small screen. Dave Golder
So it’s amazing they’ve managed
to create a 10-part series out of
all have big guns It’s silly. It’s crude. It’s as subtle
as a kick in the groin. It’s like Blood In episode eight, “EV3L1N”, the young
that, let alone a half-decent one. and fast cars Drive (remember that?) take two
John Doe is played by one of Anthony
Mackie’s four sons, Anthony Mackie Jr.
THE SECOND BEST

HOSPITAL IN THE
GALAXY Season One
Greys’ Anatomy
hospital, the action spotlights Dr “If you’d like
Sleech and Dr Klaw, two ambitious to take a seat,
UK/US Prime Video, streaming now
surgeons who seem to be at the I’ll see you
Showrunner Cirocco Dunlap
centre of a maelstrom of medical yesterday.”
Cast Stephanie Hsu, Keke Palmer,
Natasha Lyonne, Kieran Culkin disasters. As if the cases-of-the-
week weren’t bad enough – STDs episodes look about as complex as something that plagues a lot of
EPISODES 1.01-1.08If this is the that leave you looking like the last a game of Operation. Amid the adult animated series (though
second best hospital in the galaxy person you slept with, a skin- weirdness there’s also a more Natasha Lyonne’s role as a snarky
then pray you never get admitted shedding alien that’s actually a sex serious attempt to explore mental nurse helps to slow things down).
to the third. If you manage to make bomb – Klaw and Sleech are also health issues. And while there are some great
it out alive, you’ll still likely be involved in an unethical arc plot, But while there’s a lot to admire bizarre gags and (ahem) sick jokes,
missing a limb, stuck in a time loop researching a deadly anxiety- and enjoy here, something’s not too often an elongated build-up
or impregnated with an alien egg. eating brain parasite. quite clicking. The characters are climaxes in a damp squib
Clearly there are good doctors There’s lots of icky alien sex. quirky but not especially punchline. Dave Golder
operating here, but in Russian Doll Lots of bodily fluids. And lots of endearing, and the show is
Kieran Culkin’s character Dr Plowp has
writer Cirocco Dunlap’s new sci-fi medical dilemmas that make hampered by a surfeit of four brothers, who are voiced by Christian,
animated comedy set in an alien Star Trek’s sickbay-focused everyonetalkingveryfast – Macaulay, Shane and Rory Culkin.

TV
AVATAR:
THE LAST AIRBENDER
Getting the Aang of live-action IWÁJÚ
UK/US Disney+, streaming now
the same material, being based on The boy, Aang, embodies the Director Olufikayo Adeola
UK/US Netflix, streaming now the first season of the cartoon. Avatar, an endlessly reincarnating Cast Simisola Gbadamosi, Dayo
Showrunner Albert Kim Thankfully, their version is being. In Aang’s world, elements Okeniyi, Femi Branch, Siji Soetan
Cast Gordon Cormier, Kiawentiio, massively better than Shyalaman’s. can be mastered by warriors,
It’s not as good as the original, but Jedi-style, but only the Avatar can EPISODES 1.01-1.06 There’s some
Ian Ousley, Dallas Liu
it’s increasingly impressive and use all four. An “Airbender”, Aang dialogue you don’t expect to
EPISODES 1.01-1.08 Made by sometimes terrific. That’s despite can control the air to generate hear in Disney cartoons. “The
Nickelodeon in the ’00s, the some very obvious problems, winds and shields, but he must privileged only see beauty,” a
original Avatar: The Last especially a weak first episode that travel to learn his other powers. Nigerian boy says, “but they
Airbender was an family TV drops a storytelling clanger. Unfortunately, Aang didn’t don’t see the price that must be
cartoon with an epic serialised The cartoon began with a great want to be the Avatar and was paid to make it happen.” The
story – plus humour, imagination image. At its world’s frozen South running away when he was girl he works for knows that
and great characters. Any remake Pole, a young sister and brother, deep-frozen in a storm. In the he’s talking about her. “I’m 10.
of a beloved series faces a fanbase Katara and Sokka, witness a little intervening century, the hawkish I get subtext now.”
out to give it a kicking. boy glowing with terrible magic as Fire Nation wiped out hs people This CG animation – whose
Moreover, Airbender has long he emerges from a huge iceberg. and is poised for world conquest. six instalments run from 20-26
been a byword for disastrous Everything else gets explained Many viewers may give up on minutes – is a ground-breaking
live-action adaptations, thanks to later. The Netflix show has half an the series during the uninvolving piece of work. It’s Afrofuturist,
the atrocious 2010 film by M Night hour of backstory first, losing an first instalment, with its stodgy set in the Nigerian city of Lagos,
Shyamalan. Netflix’s series covers attention-grabbing opening. exposition and humourless with flying cars, energy barriers
characters, not to mention line and a lizard (possessed by the
“I’ve got ‘I’m deliveries crying out for ADR. aforementioned girl) which has
with stupid’ But then the show picks up. some very surprising powers.
tattooed on Part two has an electrifying battle But this is no Wakanda-style
the back.” involving a towering warrior utopia – the story revolves
goddess who could have stepped around the rich/poor divide.
from a Hong Kong fantasy. Later The boy (Tola) and girl (Kole)
there’s a kaiju-sized owl. The are friends, but Tola’s mum is
youngsters lighten up, get funnier, sick and debt-ridden, so he’s
and start bouncing off each other. tempted to let Kole be
Gordon Cormier’s Aang lacks kidnapped by the city’s
the anarchy of the cartoon version, hulking crime boss…
but has sweetness and fortitude. The dialogue is smart,
Ian Ousley’s beaky-nosed Sokka spoken in African accents with
goes from charmless to delightful frequent slips into untranslated
as his character matures. Utkarsh Nigerian Pidgin. The characters
Ambudkar is another stand-out as and conflicts are clear and
the mad king of a Minas Tirith- interesting. The downside is
style stone city. that compared to the thrill of
There are more storytelling the complex world, the story
gaffes along the way, but the finale ends up feeling very small. It’s
is wondrous, full of flame- well animated but the spectacle
throwing ships and explosive is limited – and the super-lizard
duels, capped by a Godzilla-style struts his stuff only briefly.
monster made of water. So Still, this is a fascinating
whether this Airbender continues experiment, although viewers
or not, it’s a rewarding watch. the same age as Tola may be too
Andrew Osmond young to enjoy what it’s doing
– even if they do get subtext
A new Airbender graphic novel, The
Bounty Hunter And The Tea Brewer, is due
now...
for release in May, from Dark Horse. Andrew Osmond

THE SIGNAL
“And this
one is called
‘Dancing On
The Ceiling’”
Hello trouble
keep piling up. The pain of
UK/US Netflix, streaming now separation is another overlapping
Directors Sebastian Hilger, theme – even more so here, after
Philipp Leinemann the plane bringing Paula (Peri
Cast Peri Baumeister, Florian David Baumeister) home vanishes. The
Fitz, Yuna Bennett, Hadi Khanjanpour astronaut detected a signal from
deep space: a voice saying “Hello”.
EPISODES 1.01-1.04 Honestly, you Something is on its way, and
wait ages for a sci-fi thriller about powerful forces are keen to avoid
a female astronaut on the ISS, then the disruption that could ensue.
two come along at once. Co-written by star Florian
If you’ve seen another show David Fitz (laidback hubby Sven),
which launched recently – Apple it’s attractively shot, with plenty of
TV+’s Constellation – it takes a lens flare, circling camerawork implant), her eyes so huge they the whole business is predicated
while to appreciate the distinctive and some dreamily colourful resemble a CG effect. on the idea that this vast,
qualities of this German series, flashbacks. Little Yuna Bennett The series becomes less overarching conspiracy is
because for a couple of episodes steals the show as Charlie (deaf, convincing as it transitions from incapable of tracking an object
the déjà vu is overpowering. but able to hear via a plug-in family tragedy into a conspiracy approaching Earth. Still, the series
A young daughter back home. thriller where “Trust no one” is finds its own identity in the end,
A husband who’s a teacher. Dual
time frames. Ambiguity about
Becomes less good advice. The ruthless plotters
are amusingly bad at basics like
and the final twist is a neat one –
even if it is a crib from Star Trek...
whether what the heroine is convincing as it holding someone until the intel Ian Berriman
experiencing is a hallucination. An
eccentric who’s been recording
transitions from they coughed up is confirmed
correct, or checking that someone The working title for the series was Hello.
transmissions… the similarities family tragedy actually was shot in the head. And
Maybe someone realised that sounded
dangerously like a Lionel Richie biodrama?
THE WAY
Family Misfortunes
forces gathering – expressed in
UK BBC One, finished; streaming mythic imagery: an ancient sword;
on iPlayer figures in monkish red robes.
Director Michael Sheen There are plenty of surreal
Cast Steffan Rhodri, Sophie Melville, touches, like a talking teddy bear.
Callum Scott Howells, Mali Harries A riddling fool of a vagrant quotes
WB Yeats. The troubled Owen
EPISODES 1.01-1.03 Michael Sheen’s (Callum Scott Howells) has
directorial debut is a strange brew. dreams about a flooded village. “By the power
There are echoes here of ’70s Heaped teaspoons of of Grayskull!
series like The Changes, and documentarian Adam Curtis are Always wanted
experimental dramas of the early stirred into the mix too: archive to do that.”
’80s. Years And Years too. footage of miners and the like.
The plot is easy to describe: This is presumably meant to add developing overnight is hard to fizzles out, with the authorities’
when civil unrest erupts around allusive weight, a sense of layers of swallow. A shogun-toting vigilante prime target Owen deciding to
Port Talbot’s steelworks, Wales is history, but mostly just distracts. railing against “disease-riddled head home again. A pointless
sealed off, and a family go on the Sometimes, it feels like you’re Welshies” feels like something exercise? No, because you come
run after collectively becoming listening to Sheen delivering a from a Two Ronnies serial. away glad that it’s still possible to
public enemy number one. stirring speech – like his one It’s clearly meant to have a get such a strange kettle of fish to
The tone is another matter. designed to gird the loins of the certain level of absurdity, mind – air; a drama willing to take risks
That synopsis may sound kitchen Welsh football team. Frequently, you could only devise the Welsh and go its own way, unafraid of
sink, and the Driscoll clan’s it feels absurd. Given the Troubles, Catcher, a cigar-chomping derision. Ian Berriman
bickering often gets soapy, but we can’t call it an impossibility, mercenary who puts escapees in
David Cronenberg fans may find one
there’s a weird mythological but the idea of a deep schism a cage, with tongue placed firmly music cue oddly familiar – it’s “Hideout”, a
undertow too – a sense of ancient between England and Wales in cheek. Ultimately, the journey 1975 library track which was used in Rabid.

HOME ENTERTAINMENT
DRINKING GAME
Knock back a beverage of
your choice every time…
Tom Baker scrupulously

avoids eye contact with
another actor in the scene.
Everything stops as a
trundling K-9 executes a 15-
point turn on the studio floor.
The Doctor offers a jelly baby.

(Take two swigs if it’s
actually a liquorice allsort.)
There’s a punning allusion to

the British tax system or
ancient Greek legends.
Bits of people vanish in a CSO

haze during “Underworld”.
“… then it’s a
step and turn The Doctor’s hat makes an
into the jazz increasingly rare appearance.
hands.”
DOCTOR WHO Season 15

Golden Grahams
eats her chips (37 minutes).
Baker’s also on hand for some new
audio commentaries, while each
story receives a star-sprinkled
“Behind The Sofa” watch-a-long
(approx 30 minutes each).
We also get archival interviews
science and superstition. But the hard, emotionally complex story with Jameson, John Leeson, Katy
RELEASED OUT NOW! spirit of Doctor Who is clearly with great sensitivity, it’s a moving, Manning and Sophie Aldred,
1977-1978 | 12 | Blu-ray shifting. “The Invisible Enemy” illuminating tribute to one of the including ’80s and ’90s convention
Producer Graham Williams introduces cute robot K-9 to a more elusive figures in Who appearances. Colour studio
Cast Tom Baker, Louise Jameson, generation still counting the days history. A retrospective on the footage from “Underworld” shows
John Leeson to Star Wars, while “The Sun studiobound “Horror Of Fang cast and crew wrangling the
Makers” and “Underworld” offer Rock” is enhanced by a photogenic effects challenges (48 minutes),
BLU-RAY DEBUT In 1977, Tom by turns a witty, dystopian satire trip to a real-life lighthouse, where while uncut takes of Baker
Baker’s Time Lord was phasing – hey, kids, taxes! – and a dreary Louise Jameson (Leela) recalls a recording video greetings for the
between realities. Incoming cosmic riff on Greek mythology, turbulent working relationship Doctor Who exhibitions at
producer Graham Williams had undone by some ambitiously with Tom Baker (43 minutes). Blackpool and Longleat capture
orders to remove the “sadism and experimental effects. Jameson’s also in the spotlight the star in all his inventive,
violence” that had made previous By season finale “The Invasion for a first class interview with boggle-eyed glory (eight minutes).
seasons such full-blooded Of Time”, the budget is visibly Matthew Sweet, giving thoughtful, You also get optional updated
entertainments while winding up wilting but the ideas remain huge engaged answers as the effects on “Fang Rock”, two spoofs
Mary Whitehouse. – and Baker’s in his full, magical conversation ranges from fan from Emu’s Broadcasting Company
As this latest The Collection box pomp, the one last great weapon mail to institutional sexism (73 (11 minutes), an impressive trailer
set proves, it took a while to turn this breezier, slightly tattier show minutes). There’s a new interview that sees Jameson back as Leela,
around the timeship. Kill-crazed, can muster against the with Baker, too, the seemingly plus galleries, info text, PDF
fogbound opener “Horror Of Fang encroaching George Lucas. off-the-wall questions inspired by material and a host of old DVD
Rock” is strictly business as usual, Extras Centrepiece of the set is the themes of season 15. This bonuses. Nick Setchfield
while “Image Of The Fendahl” – a documentary on the life, career lateral approach winkles out some
In the original outline, K-9 was named
also deliciously spooky – delivers and untimely death of Graham fresh tall tales, including insight FIDO, which stood for Phenomenological
a Nigel Kneale-inspired fusion of Williams (97 minutes). Telling a into just how Dame Maggie Smith Indication Data Observation unit.

NIGHTMARES IN
“And I,
I-I-I-I-I-I, will
always looove
A DAMAGED BRAIN
you…”
The Madness Of Killer George

There’s not much to it beyond
RELEASED OUT NOW! death and sex – the two meshing
1981 | 18 | Blu-ray (4K/standard) memorably in a flashback which
Director Romano Scavolini weds bondage and decapitation.
Cast Baird Stafford, Sharon Smith, Shots of the camera cruising past
CJ Cooke, Mik Cribben the peepshows of 42nd Street also
hold a sleazy fascination.
BLU-RAY DEBUT Notorious for its There’s certainly some craft on
“video nasty” status, this slasher display, though. The gore effects
also led to a UK distributor serving – prominently credited to Tom accusations circle. Ultimately the producer William Hall grinding
jail time after they failed to carry Savini, who in reality had a minor trail goes cold, but the journey – various axes. Intercutting old and
out BBFC-mandated cuts. advisory role – are decent, and the which takes in ’70s sex comedies, new interviews, “Dreaming Up A
Mostly shot in Florida, it editing is quite artful: jump cuts The Goons and Throbbing Gristle Nightmare” (39 minutes) paints a
follows George (Baird Stafford), a rendering scenes of George’s car – is interesting. An epic 72-minute picture of a seat-of-the-pants
schizophrenic released back into en route more ominous; flash cuts interview reveals director Romano production. Savini also clarifies
society. Supposedly cured, he’s conveying how his primal trauma Scavolini as articulate and erudite; his role (seven minutes). Plus:
anything but. A string of murders is bubbling up from the depths. you don’t expect the man behind a a deleted scene; a comprehensive
follows – some startlingly abrupt Extras A 72-minute doc nasty to discuss Kierkegaard! gallery; trailers. Ian Berriman
– as this pathetic figure traverses explores the life of disgraced Stafford and an effects guy
To achieve the moments where George
a shabby, uniformly brown ’70s distributor David Hamilton-Grant, provide further details in their foams at the mouth, they simply popped
landscape to his ex-wife’s house. about whose name scurrilous commentary; a second sees an Alka Seltzer tablet in the actor’s gob.
THE AMITYVILLE
“I’ve got a
crucifix and
I’m prepared
HORROR
to use it.”
Fright move
schlock. For all the malevolent
RELEASED OUT NOW! sash windows and Satanic
1979 | 15 | Blu-ray (4K/standard)/DVD plumbing on display, it’s the image
Director Stuart Rosenberg of the house itself that endures,
Cast James Brolin, Margot Kidder, gable windows glowing like the
Rod Steiger, Don Stroud eyes of a Halloween pumpkin as it
presides over an all-out assault on
BLU-RAY DEBUT In 1979 The the American family unit.
Amityville Horror arrived in Extras Two new audio
cinemas pre-loaded with its own commentaries provide a good mix A new and comprehensive legendary composer Lalo Schifrin
legend: an allegedly true tale of a of insights: movie historians Kim feature on the filming locations (14 minutes) who reveals the
Long Island family compelled to Newman and Sean Hogan are returns to the parts of New Jersey “forbidden interval” at the heart
flee a demonically infested complemented by a more that doubled for Long Island (22 of the score. A 2004 documentary
fixer-upper. academic take from Josh Saco and minutes). There’s an engaging set (21 minutes) finds Kidder in fine,
MOVIESTORE / SHUTTERSTOCK
If the passing decades have Claire Donner; Dr Hans Holzer, of interviews from 2017, including candid form. Plus: intro by Holzer;
exposed the grifting BS behind the parapsychologist who a personable Brolin (16 minutes) trailer; TV and radio spots;
that cultural phenomenon, then investigated the original case, and former child star Meeno extensive stills gallery; poster;
this new 4K remaster reveals a attempts to sift fact from Peluce (16 minutes), along with booklet. Nick Setchfield
film that still has the power to Hollywood embellishment in screenwriter Sandor Stern, who
112 Ocean Avenue in Amityville, the site of
unsettle, despite bland, TV-level a commentary included on a confesses “It was not my favourite the original case, is now 108 – renumbered
visuals and a tendency to tip into previous release. movie” (16 minutes), and in a bid to deter tourists.

HOME ENTERTAINMENT
SPACEMAN
“Wait,
shouldn’t
this be outer
space?”
Lonely off-planet
impact of his isolation is felt,
RELEASED OUT NOW! surprise: a giant spider (voiced by
2024 | 15 | SVOD Paul Dano) appears before him.
Director Johan Renck Spaceman essentially plays like
Cast Adam Sandler, Carey Mulligan, A Christmas Carol in space,
Paul Dano, Kunal Nayyar though instead of spirits teaching
our selfish hero a lesson, we have
NETFLIX Johan Renck’s a talking arachnid with a strangely
intergalactic odyssey is something human mouth. Sandler is an
of an oddity: a film that feels empathetic lead, but we’ve been
overly familiar despite its many on this journey before, whether in
unique ideas. Ad Astra (both concern daddy
It follows Adam Sandler’s Jakub issues), Black Mirror’s “Beyond
Procházka, an astronaut sent The Sea” (eerily similar
across space to retrieve samples production design) or even
of dust from a mysterious purple Interstellar (what’s the point, if not
cloud that has formed near for family?).
Jupiter. Procházka is travelling Still, Spaceman is a solid
solo and makes frequent calls back enough, well-directed entry in the
to Earth, mainly to promote the lonely astronaut genre – though
mission’s many sponsors. maybe not one for arachnophobes.
More than anything else, he Jack Shepherd
wants to talk to his wife (Carey
Spaceman is based on Jaroslav Kalfař’s
Mulligan) who, unbeknown to 2017 novel Spaceman Of Bohemia (Jakub
him, is seeking a divorce. As the is from the Czech region of Bohemia.)
CONCRETE UTOPIA YOU’LL NEVER FRANKENSTEIN A MILLION DAYS

FIND ME
RELEASED 1 APRIL LEGACY RELEASED OUT NOW!
2023 | 15 | Download 2024 | 15 | Download
RELEASED 22 MARCH RELEASED OUT NOW!
After an earthquake 2024 | TBC | SVOD 2024 | 15 | Download It’s 2041, and the night
flattens everything else in sight, before a lunar colonisation ship
the 219 residents of a Korean SHUDDER 2.00am, in the midst From Poor Things to Lisa is set to launch, the AI in
apartment block face a of a storm: a young woman Frankenstein, Mary Shelley’s control of the mission starts
post-apocalyptic scenario. Led knocks on the door of a modern Prometheus is having acting very strangely.
by a demagogue, soon they’re middle-aged loner’s trailer park a cultural moment. This Brit Set over one night, in one
evicting outsiders – and calling home. Can he be trusted? And indie offers a more trad take, a location, with a minimal cast,
them “cockroaches”. why does she look familiar? sideways sequel that sees this low-budget SF mystery
As analogies for jingoistic Featuring ominous sound Victor’s journal fall into the aims to be thought-provoking,
xenophobia go, it’s not subtle, design, a script with moments hands of a woman determined atmospheric and edgy, but is
and there are various troubling of gloomy poetry, and strong to pursue his ungodly research. actually very silly,
questions. Why, months on, is performances – particularly The look is more Merchant melodramatic and predictable.
there no international help? from Brendan Rock, by turns Ivory than Hammer, and while Some weird, late ’60s/early
Why is the climate suddenly sympathetic and sinister – this short on scares it’s sincerely ’70s cerebral sci-fi film-style
Arctic? Still, there’s some good twisty two-hander will keep played. Driven by a nuanced imagery (there’s even a bargain
character work, and the effects you guessing, and has more protagonist, it comes alive bin 2001 stargate effect) raises
should leave gourmands of style than your average thrifty when leaning unashamedly into the interest levels slightly,
disaster porn sated. Ian Berriman chamber piece. Ian Berriman the gothic. Nick Setchfield though. Dave Golder

LUCHA LIBRE
Ringing the changes
4K X FOUR
OLD MOVIES NOW
AVAILABLE ON UHD
RELEASED 25 MARCH but there’s some attractively Western Santo Vs The Riders
1967/1968/1970 | 12/PG/18 | Blu-ray shadowy cinematography, and the Of Terror sees the
Director René Cardona cult – whose big hair and pencilled silver-masked wrestler – a weirdly
Cast Ariadne Welter, Maura Monti, eyebrows recall classic soap opera anachronistic presence – called in
Armando Silvestre matriarchs – are delightfully camp. by a sheriff after six lepers escape
Shot in glorious Eastmancolor, from a hospital. An odd choice, as After last year’s 4K of the
BLU-RAY DEBUT These three newly lawyer-baiting hokum The Bat Santo’s key skill is holding people, 162-minute theatrical cut,
a new four-disc Collector’s
restored rarities, all by the same Woman mashes up the but then the real villains are Edition of AVATAR (25
director, showcase different ways Batman TV show with Creature hoodlums manipulating the lepers March) adds the Special
the Mexican wrestling film could From The Black Lagoon. Maura into carrying out robberies. Edition (171 minutes), and
be hybridised with other genres. Monti’s voluptuous crimefighter It’s very by-the-book (the lead the Collector’s Extended
The Panther Women – resplendent in a costume baddie wears a black hat), with the Cut (178 minutes). There
are a few new bonuses
foregrounds gothic horror, as considerably scantier than Adam pizza-faced lepers adding a dash too, like seven minutes of
female Satanists vow revenge on West’s – takes on a mad doctor of horror – though nobly, Santo’s “RDA Promos” – actor
descendants of the druid who who says things like “Resistance is sympathy for them never wavers. Stephen Lang talking
killed their cult’s warlock founder. futile!”. His plan: using pineal fluid Extras The Panther Women military tech, in-character.
We said: “A magnificent
A Santo-alike called Angel helps drained from wrestlers to create a has two talking heads.
technical achievement…
out, but it’s female wrestlers who remote-controlled fish-man. One discusses the wrestlers who but its beats are so
are the focus. Cat People is in the You have to admire the sheer were stunt doubles (14 minutes). predictable that it never
mix too, as the cultists sprout gall. The underwater photography A second (24 minutes) addresses goes anywhere surprising.”
comical fangs and claws – and is impressive, and the wrestling is gender representation – expect In Brandon Cronenberg’s
POSSESSOR (out now),
spy-fi, via Angel’s radio-watch! mercifully minimal. But the phrases like “normative identity”. Andrea Riseborough’s
The budget is threadbare (a endless rounds of capture and assassin uses brain-
coffin looks suspiciously plywood), escape eventually grow tedious. There’s some implant tech to inhabit the
body of someone close to
attractively the mark. But the identity
of her latest host fights
shadowy back… We said:
“Breathtakingly stylish and
cinematography gasp-inducingly pitiless.”
New bonuses for Second
Sight’s swanky Limited
The Bat Woman has Edition: a commentary,
a new interview with star Maura and director/producer/
Monti (18 minutes); a fascinating DoP interviews. In Hideo
character, who later opened a Nakata’s 2002 film DARK
cultural centre. Two talking heads WATER (out now), a
divorced mother and her
place the film in its pop culture daughter move into an
context (20 minutes) and explore apartment with an
Mexican precedents for its ominous stain on the
amphibian monster (14 minutes). ceiling, and are haunted
by a little lass in a yellow
Riders Of Terror mac. We said: “Like
presents Lepers And Sex, an export Repulsion, it triumphs by
cut which inserts six minutes of creating an atmosphere of
gratuitous softcore. In a 2009 domesticated dread.”
interview (12 minutes), the lead Bonus-wise, it’s the same
as Arrow’s old Blu-ray.
recalls that Santo wore a half-mask The same goes for Lucio
to dine in the studio restaurant! Fulci’s 1980 horror CITY
There’s also a general critical OF THE LIVING DEAD
discussion (12 minutes), and a (25 March), set in a village
where a priest’s suicide
quick canter through the director’s
opens a portal to Hell. We
filmography (eight minutes). said: “Tremendously
All three films come with expert atmospheric, plus the gore
commentaries, galleries, trailers, set-pieces are jaw-
“It was at and 80-page booklets. Ian Berriman dropping.” (Highlight:
least this big.” when a woman pukes up
her guts!) Comes with a
“No, more like Maura Monti nearly died twice filming The
fold-out poster and six
Bat Woman: once when a parachuting
this big.” scene went wrong, once when diving. lobby card reproductions.

HOME ENTERTAINMENT
DAMSEL
Unchained Elodie
goes from screaming victim to
RELEASED OUT NOW! total badass. We follow her as she
2024 | 12 | SVOD runs from dragonfire, wriggles
Director Juan Carlos Fresnadillo through tunnels, cries a bit and
Cast Millie Bobby Brown, eventually fights back… big time.
Angela Bassett, Ray Winstone Brown is on top form – even if her
Shohreh Aghdashloo posh English accent wobbles at
times – and the twists, while
NETFLIX Dragons, eh? Always obvious from the outset, are
lounging about inside mountains, satisfyingly delivered.
threatening to burn nearby towns Most of the budget seems to
to a crisp unless they get a tasty have gone into the dragon, who
tribute – which is where Elodie looks great – although the CG is
(Millie Bobby Brown) comes in. a little shonky elsewhere, it must
Elodie’s dad (Ray Winstone) be said.
needs gold to feed his starving But the film’s masterstroke is
kingdom, so he arranges to wed casting The Expanse’s Shohreh
her off to the prince of a rich land. Aghdashloo to provide its
Bad idea! One moment Elodie is distinctive voice. She’s as
smiling at her new hubby; the next magnificent as the beast’s
he’s throwing her into a pit to impressive lava-like breath.
Elodie decides appease the local murderous Meg Wilde
never to visit dragon. Such is life.
a Hollister There’s a twist to this glossy A rock-climbing scene saw Brown getting
bruised and battered after climbing “12
branch again. Netflix fairy tale, though, as Elodie hours a day for many months”.
PATRICK
He could be
in Oasis with
a unibrowed
stare like that.
Carrie On Nurse
dual love interests. Kathie’s rude
RELEASED 25 MARCH wit and unflappable self-assurance
1978 | 15 | Blu-ray (4K/standard) are attractive qualities, but do
Director Richard Franklin rather undermine the sense of
Cast Susan Penhaligon, Robert menace. On realising that Patrick
Helpmann, Rod Mullinar, Bruce Barry tried to drown someone, she
casually takes it in her stride.
BLU-RAY DEBUT While the subject The film could also be a little
matter – a man in a coma using tighter – when Kathie’s estranged
psychokinetic powers to kill – hubby goes missing, do we really
cries out for histrionic treatment, need to see her phoning around?
this mid-Atlantic example of Still, it’s a suspenseful thriller, Extras Choose between three of five interviews (62 minutes) –
“Ozsploitation” is a little more boosted by excellent supporting cuts. The Australian release (112 Penhaligon is candid, describing
restrained than you might expect. characters: Julia Blake gives good minutes) is the primary one. Dario one co-star as “always stoned”.
You can put this down to Ratched as the frosty Matron, Argento fans will want to explore Further archival interviews (36
director Richard Franklin being a while one-time Child Catcher the Italian dub (102 minutes), minutes) bring the tally of chats
devotee of Hitchcock. Mind you, Robert Helpmann is a delight as which substitutes a synth-heavy with the director or writer to five
the same is true of Brian DePalma, the acerbic Dr Roget, turning in score by prog-rockers Goblin. An – so some ground is retrodden.
and while it’s bookended by an arch performance worthy of abbreviated US cut (87 minutes) The pair are also teamed on a
(literally) shocking moments, Vincent Price or Ernest Thesiger. redubs all the cast! Madness. 2002 commentary. Plus: French
Patrick generally seems more A useful talking head by Aussie credits; trailers; TV spots; two
low-key than Carrie or The Fury. Excellent cinema expert Stephen Morgan galleries; booklet. Ian Berriman
Susan Penhaligon is Kathie, a
nurse whose interest in her patient
supporting (26 minutes) places the film in
context. 2008 Ozsploitation doc The director’s first choice to play Kathy was
results in “accidents” befalling her characters Not Quite Hollywood is the source
Jenny Agutter, but she was unavailable; it
was her who suggested Penhaligon.

NOW ON DIGITAL FORMATS All Of Us Strangers • Baghead (5 April) • Doctor Jekyll • The End We Start From • Poor Things
ROUND UP
CODE 8: PART II
RELEASED OUT NOW! Biggest shiny disc debut
2024 | 15 | SVOD this month: AQUAMAN
AND THE LOST KINGDOM
Director Jeff Chan (4K/Blu-ray/DVD, out
Cast Robbie Amell, Stephen Amell, now). This last bow for the
Sirena Gulamgaus, Altair Vincent DCEU pits Jason Momoa’s
hero against Black Manta,
NETFLIX The Amell Bros This is exactly who’s scouring the oceans
(Green Arrow and Firestorm how SFX’s for ancient tech that will
editor proofs bestow the power of “dark
from the Arrowverse) are back magic”. The cad! We said:
with more bargain bin X-Men: pages. “Occasionally summons
Days Of Future Past-style a pleasingly old-school
BAD BIOLOGY
shenanigans. In a world adventure film vibe… But
even Momoa’s outsized
where 4% of humans are
charisma can’t save this
superpowered (but a film underpowered swansong.”
where 99% of the characters Bonuses: eight featurettes
are, making plot twists (about an hour’s worth).
wearyingly predictable), the
“powered” are subject to
Getting their freak on In DREAM SCENARIO
(Blu-ray/DVD, out now), a
professor (Nicolas Cage)
draconian laws and farmed for relentless barrage of sexualised becomes famous after he
a drug extracted from their RELEASED OUT NOW! provocation proves a turn-off. inexplicably turns up in
spinal cords. While on paper there may be people’s dreams. We said:
2009 | 18 | Blu-ray
Garrett (Stephen Amell) is something funny about a “A pin-sharp skewering of
Director Frank Henenlotter cancel culture… One of
now in charge of harvesting and Cast Charlee Danielson, stop-motion cock worming its way Cage’s best roles in years.”
distributing the drug. He’s Anthony Sneed, Jude Angelini, along the floor, once it’s battering Bonuses: director’s
formed a dodgy pact with an Eleonore Hendricks through skirting boards to rape commentary; a 10-minute
ambitious LA cop, Sergeant five women in succession, the featurette; four deleted
BLU-RAY DEBUT A return (but
scenes. Fully deserving of
Kingston – who’s introduced target audience contracts to its five BAFTAs, Yorgos
robot police dogs to control the not to form) after a nearly 14-year-old boys and hyuk- Lanthimos’s POOR
powered – to make sure that two-decade absence for the hyuking stoners. THINGS (Blu-ray/DVD,
Kingston’s K-9s turn a blind director of Basket Case and Brain Extras A sofa-bound chat 25 March) centres on a
sensor to his shady business Damage, Frank Henenlotter’s bad between Sneed and the DoP (67 bravura performance by
Emma Stone as a young
practices. But Kingston’s attack taste body horror about two sexual minutes) is both illuminating and Victorian woman brought
dogs have a deadly secret, mutants wastes no time laying out charming. Sneed also supplies an to life through a brain
which Connor (Robbie Amell) its stall. The very first line sees amusing short (2023, 12 minutes) transplant who, from, a
discovers when he becomes photographer Jennifer (Charlee about a guy who becomes standing start, discovers
the joys of the adult
guardian to a teenage powered Danielson) declaring, “I was born obsessed with finger-sucking. world… We said: “One of
with a rare ability. with seven clits.” In the third A half-hour Making Of focuses the most fiercely inventive
While the first film was scene she shags a pick-up to death. on whether the main location was films you’ll see this year.”
a better-than-you’d-expect In the fourth, she squeezes out a haunted. Make-up effects guy Extras: a 20-minute
micro-budget SF film, this is an rapidly-gestated mutant baby. Gabe Bartalos talks through the Making Of and three
deleted scenes. Finally,
exactly-what-you’d-expect Matching her in the key gags (20 minutes). Behind- Disney’s animated musical
sequel: relentlessly plot-led, “suboptimal Tinder date” stakes the-scenes footage (32 minutes) WISH (4K/Blu-ray/DVD,
with characters who act almost is Anthony Sneed’s Batz, whose treats you to the director giving an 25 March) centres on a
exclusively as exposition attempts to revive a flaccid phallus actress detailed notes on her sorcerer king who tricks
his subjects into having
machines, fast-cut action backfired; now it’s a snake-like orgasm face... Plus: commentaries
memories of their greatest
designed to disguise basic fight 30-incher with a mind of its own. (one new, one old), both featuring desires sealed up. We said:
choreography, and off-the-shelf Best watched, if your home is Henenlotter; an eight-minute bit “Perfectly charming… But
CG effects. The Amell brothers semi-detached, with a finger on shooting Jennifer’s photos; at its core is a nebulous,
bring some charm to it, but hovering over the mute button, it music video; gallery. Ian Berriman insubstantial concept.”
Bonus highlights: a
generally Code 8: Part II is is (thanks to funding by a rapper 64-minute doc, a short
The location used for Batz’s house
competently made but woefully who roped in pals) tiresomely once belonged to Father Divine, a black celebrating Disney’s
derivative. Dave Golder heavy with homie-speak, and the preacher who claimed to be God. centennial, a deleted song.

BOOKS
on the planet’s surface begins to

alter his perspective on life, the
universe and, well, everything.
Not that it’s particularly easy to
visualise his alien encounters,
seeing as natural selection on Kiln
has come up with very different
evolutionary solutions. Indeed,
this (un)natural world is light
years from the cosy, symmetrical THE SIEGE OF
norms of Star Trek and Star Wars,
a biosphere inhabited by creatures
with legs, mouths and other
BURNING GRASS
assorted appendages in all the RELEASED OUT NOW!
wrong places. 432 pages | Hardback/ebook/
Self-confessed insect and Author Premee Mohamed
arachnid enthusiast Tchaikovsky Publisher Solaris
injects his narrative with
ALIEN CLAY
intriguing real-life analogies – did A lot of genre fiction boils
you know starfish can turn their down to Our Hero(es) versus an
stomachs inside out to envelop identifiable Big Bad. Stories
their prey? – to keep things where there isn’t a villain with
more-or-less relatable. But mostly a face you can punch, where the
he revels in Kiln’s other-ness, problem is something abstract?
A View To A Kiln leaving you feeling slightly
discombobulated, yet eager to
Those are rarer.
Neighbouring states Varkal
know more. and Med’ariz are locked in a
regimes and convicts forcibly There are definite parallels with brutal war. Each side tells a
RELEASED 28 MARCH relocated to hostile worlds are Avatar’s Pandora in the creation of different story of how the war
400 pages | Hardback/ebook/audiobook hardly radical ideas in SF. a world where organisms exist in a began; each side publicly claims
Author Adrian Tchaikovsky Nonetheless, Adrian Tchaikovsky carefully calibrated web of victory is inevitable; and each
Publisher Tor Books – an author whose CV boasts symbiosis. At the same time, it’s side is running out of bodies to
fantasy, science fiction and an hard to imagine anyone falling in throw at the war effort.
A major theme of Alien Clay Arthur C Clarke Award-winning love with Kiln’s indigenous Imprisoned Varkallian pacifist
is extraterrestrial evolution novel about sentient spiders – species, whose aggressive genetic Alefret is offered a mission
reshaping the familiar building ensures you never feel like you’re code has an unfortunate tendency impossible: infiltrate one of
blocks of life into something covering old ground. to attack outsiders on a cellular Med’ariz’s flying cities, and
strange and new. The same could The opening chapter alone is a level – there’s an undeniable body incite the anti-war resistance
be said of this brilliant, gripping masterclass in genre storytelling, a horror element to much of what there to revolt.
standalone novel, which breakneck introduction in which unfolds here. It’s a deal with the devil, and
reconstitutes numerous familiar Daghdev is rehydrated (think But Alien Clay also wonders Premee Mohamed takes us on a
SF tropes to create something human Pot Noodle), arrives on whether the locals are genuinely deep dive into Alefret’s hopes
thought-provoking, unexpected Kiln by the skin of his teeth, and the scariest thing about a world and doubts as he undertakes
and at times unsettlingly weird. realises that several of his fellow that’s (nominally) ruled by an the dangerous journey with
In a distant future, academic prisoners have become ideological commandant whose sadistic soldier Qhudur as
turned dissident Arton Daghdev “Acceptable Wastage” in transit. interest in intellectual pursuits escort. Does the chance to end
is sentenced to a one-way trip to The subsequent story is told can’t mask his penchant for the war justify working within
Imno 27g (known colloquially as from Daghdev’s point of view, and brutality. Subtexts and allegories the military machine? Is Alefret
Kiln) by a totalitarian Earth he’s a compelling focal point – not are everywhere as Daghdev and betraying the resistance by
government doing its best to an unreliable narrator, perhaps, other wannabe revolutionaries try bringing Qhudur’s violence to
stamp out free speech and but not an entirely impartial one, to work out who can be trusted, them? Which path prevents the
“heterodox” thinking. either. He’s idealistic, certainly, and find themselves transformed most suffering?
This so-called Mandate has but constantly questions his by life on another planet. Challenging and difficult in
grand designs on bending science motivations and moral courage It’s a book that asks plenty of all the best ways, Mohamed’s
to fit its narrow-minded ideology, as others on the base plot to questions, and while it doesn’t novel offers no easy answers.
even though the flora and fauna of overthrow the zealots of Kiln’s necessarily deliver the answers All intense interiority, regimes
this strange new world defy both ruling classes. He also talks like an you were expecting, it’s certainly trapped by their own
classification and any attempt to actual human being, possesses a food for the brain – or whatever propaganda, and slow-build
tame them. The Mandate would laugh-out-loud sense of humour, freaky combination of cells does tension, it’s like Franz Kafka or
also like to know who (or what) and – perhaps most importantly – the job on Kiln. Richard Edwards Ismail Kadare, except with
built the strange structures littered brings a scientist’s rigour to his bio-engineered medical wasps.
Next from the prolific Tchaikovsky: robot
over the planet’s surface. Ancient descriptions of Kiln’s bizarre servant tale Service Model in June, and
Only a rushed ending keeps it
civilisations, corrupt future ecosystem, even as extended time enviro-horror Saturation Point in August. from being perfect. Nic Clarke

THE LAST MURDER ORACLE
AT THE END OF RELEASED OUT NOW!
THE WORLD 384 pages | Hardback/ebook/
audiobook
Author Thomas Olde Heuvelt
RELEASED 28 MARCH Publisher Hodderscape
352 pages | Hardback/ebook/
audiobook Most of us probably don’t
Author Stuart Turton think too much about the threat
THE MARS HOUSE

Publisher Raven Books of rising sea levels. Sure, we’re
aware there’s a problem, but it
High-concept crime writer doesn’t usually keep us up at
Stuart Turton goes for broke in night. This supernatural chiller
The Last Murder At The End Of by Dutch author Thomas Olde
The World, a post-apocalyptic
whodunnit that also delves into
Boy meets billionaire (on Mars) Heuvelt might change that.
The horror starts off feeling
questions of intelligence and relatively contained, as a couple
human nature. (no one will give him a job after of 13-year-olds stumble across
There are only 125 people left RELEASED OUT NOW! imprisonment) or undergoing an ancient ship marooned,
alive on the planet: 122 villagers 480 pages | Hardback/ebook/audiobook “naturalisation” (life-shortening impossibly, in a tulip field. One
who dutifully maintain the Author Natasha Pulley mutilation designed to assimilate of them goes inside… and
Island, and three scientists who Publisher Gollancz Earthstrong into Natural society), doesn’t come out. More
work to find a way to save January accepts Aubrey’s offer of teenagers, then parents and
humanity. But when one of The Mars House arrives in UK a political marriage. police follow her, and they don’t
these scientists, Niema, is bookshops with a point to prove. Er, what? Fake marriages are come out either. Shadowy
murdered, Abi – the AI that The author took to Twitter last a well-worn and much-loved government agents try to hush
protects the island from a year after her regular publisher romance trope: unlikely pairing things up, but only make things
deadly fog – lowers its shields. rejected the manuscript and her forced together, growing and worse – in a way that might
The only way to raise them agent struggled to sell it undeniable attraction, happily spell doom for the entire planet.
again is for Emory, one of the elsewhere. A bidding war ensued, ever after, etc. But in this case, it’s Though this is set in the
villagers, to find the killer and and now here it is. Does it live up rather like being asked to root for a same universe as Heuvelt’s 2016
coax a confession that will to the fuss? Well, sort of. romance between Nigel Farage witchy horror Hex – a couple of
satisfy the AI. Royal Opera ballet dancer and a Syrian refugee. key characters from that show
It’s a strange old plot, and January Stirling flees a flooded Aubrey backs mandatory up – it doesn’t really matter if
one that requires quite a bit of future London for Mars. Though naturalisation of all Earthstrong, you haven’t read it. Oracle, and
world-building before the story partially terraformed, Mars is not and plans to send ships of climate its ever-escalating horrors,
proper begins. Once it does, a welcoming place. As well as refugees back out into space. But stands perfectly well alone.
however, the book really moves. facing extreme cold and low the story sweeps all objections Heuvelt builds an entire
The relationship between the oxygen, “Earthstrong” newcomers aside in a quest to make them a nightmarish mythology
scientists and the villagers is must wear metal cages to offset charming-but-fragile love interest. (borrowing, with permission,
the first of several mysteries, their higher weight and strength The physical challenges of life a bit of mythological business
and while seasoned SF-readers compared with “Naturals”, people on Mars are interestingly from Neil Gaiman) without
are unlikely to be shocked by who have been on Mars for explored, and there are some ever losing sight of how
the revelations about the true generations and are genetically excellent bits involving talking horrifying even a small chunk
nature of this strange society, adapted to the low-gravity mammoths, but the parallels with of body horror can be.
these answers still raise some environment. the present overpower the story, It’s his attention to detail,
intriguing ethical questions. After a chance encounter the plotting hinges on selective as well as the thread of dark
The novel is narrated by Abi with wealthy anti-Earthstrong stupidity in January, and the glib, mischief that underscores the
and that adds a tension, as she politician Aubrey Gale goes wrong cutesy tone sits uncomfortably whole thing, that makes
is, if not quite an unreliable – January makes a joking death with the grim themes. Nic Clarke Heuvelt’s writing so
narrator, then an ambiguous threat on live television, as you do compelling. Who knew the
Pulley will be signing in Bath, Edinburgh,
one. A smart and suspenseful – he’s sentenced to prison. With Swansea, Liverpool and London this
weather forecast could be so
page-turner. Will Salmon his only options freezing to death month. See natashapulley.co.uk/events. spooky? Sarah Dobbs

BOOKS
SONG OF THE MYRRH

HUNTRESS RELEASED 9 APRIL
288 pages | Hardback/ebook
RELEASED 21 MARCH Author Polly Hall
408 pages | Hardback/ebook/ Publisher Titan Books
audiobook
Author Lucy Holland Themes of motherhood,
Publisher Tor identity and obsession swirl
LAKE OF SOULS
throughout this atmospheric,
There are many books, both fantasy-tinged literary thriller.
historical and fantasy, that deal Myrrh has a good
with the famous kings of British relationship with her mum and
history and mythology. Which dad, but as she grows older she
isn’t to say that women have
been completely overlooked
Say again…? begins to long for a connection
with the biological parents who
– Guinevere at least has never put her up for adoption all
wanted for attention. But it’s Revealing Leckie’s range is the wry those years ago. Getting in her
still heartening to see more RELEASED 4 APRIL “Bury The Dead”, a reflection on way is Goblin – possibly a
tales focused on the other half 448 pages | Paperback/ebook/audiobook grief, mourning and the irritations demonic force that’s taken root
of the human race. Author Ann Leckie caused by older relatives, in which in her body, more likely a
Here, Lucy Holland (who Publisher Orbit a Thanksgiving celebration is manifestation of anxiety.
presents feminist genre podcast complicated by grandpa being Elsewhere, Cayenne is
Breaking The Glass Slipper Because her stories are so a zombie… desperate for a child of her
under her real name, Lucy often full of characters with The second section is given over own, and will go to any lengths
Hounsom) tackles historical diverse and exotic identities, to a trio of stories from her to get one.
couple Ine and Æthelberg, king gender is often taken to be a Imperial Radch universe. “Night’s The way these two women
and queen of Wessex in the defining theme in Ann Leckie’s Slow Poison”, a tale of a space connect is at the heart of this
early eighth century. work. Yet when reading Lake Of voyage that takes long, dreary enigmatic novel. For the most
Battling rivals within the Souls, her first collection of short months, moves at an appropriately part the book bounces back and
court, plus rebel Saxons and fiction (named after a new stately pace before suddenly forth between their individual
native Britons without, as well novella), this quickly seems like coming into sharp focus – a neat viewpoints, though a few others
as dealing with the fractures in a misreading. trick few other authors could do occasionally interject as the
their childless marriage, they Why? Principally because, time execute. But perhaps surprisingly, shape of the mystery begins to
are attempting to keep their and time again here, there are given that Leckie’s reputation is slowly reveal itself.
kingdom united when Herla, moments where characters say primarily as an SF writer, it’s the “Slowly” is the key word
the female Lord of the Wild one thing and, whatever they seven stories set in her Raven here, however; Polly Hall’s
Hunt, enters their lives. And mean to say, find their words Tower fantasy world that linger novel is big on interiority and
now they have an even more interpreted in a different way. Set longest, as Leckie shows us a thin on plot. She wants us to
pressing problem – Gwyn ap aside gender for now, fascinating world where small and capricious feel every moment of Myrrh’s
Nudd, Lord of the Otherworld, as it is within Leckie’s work; the gods move amongst people. lonely confusion and every
is coming for them all… idea of communicating As in the oldest human stories, crack in Cayenne’s mindframe
This is an enthralling tale miscommunication runs far more a recurring plot device is that before the book takes its late tilt
that feels a little too slow for a deeply through her fiction. miscommunicating with one of into full-on horror.
little too long, but makes up for That’s most immediately these trickster deities can have That works to the benefit of
it with powerful characters and obvious in “Another Word For dire consequences. As for gender, the novel’s ominous mood, but
immersive worldbuilding. World”, a study of colonialism that it’s front and centre in “The if you’re looking for a more
Featuring sensitive exploration explores the role of translation in Snake’s Wife”, a tale of love and conventional thriller, look
of relationships and sexualities discourse: just how do people castration showing that, while the elsewhere, as this isn’t that.
against an action-filled story of connect if translations are loaded costs may be high, the gods can be Instead, it’s a well-observed
battles, betrayals and magic, it’s with political and cultural bested. Jonathan Wright and empathetic look at two
an impressive blend of British assumptions? It’s one of eight women in states of
The audiobook of Lake Of Souls is read by
history, mythology and fantasy. stories that make up the Adjoa Andoh, who played Martha Jones’s
psychological distress.
Rhian Drinkwater collection’s opening section. mum Francine in Doctor Who. Will Salmon

REISSUES
First up, a February
release that slipped under
our radar: AIRSIDE
( , out now,
Gollancz) – sadly, the final
novel by
THE LAST FLOATING HOTEL JUMPNAUTS

Christopher
Priest. It
BLOODCARVER
centres on
the mystery
RELEASED 21 MARCH RELEASED OUT NOW! of a
304 pages | Hardback/ebook/ 368 pages | Hardback/ebook Hollywood
movie star
RELEASED 21 MARCH audiobook Author Hao Jingfang who arrived in London
384 pages | Paperback/ebook/ Author Grace Curtis Publisher AdAstra in 1949 but then
audiobook Publisher Hodderscape disappeared, seemingly
Author Vanessa Le Chinese science fiction is without ever leaving the
The blurb calls this “The having a high-profile moment in airport – an incident which
Publisher Rock The Boat
Grand Budapest Hotel in space”, the sun right now, thanks to the continues to fascinate a
modern-day critic. We
Nikha is able to heal people which is both accurate (it’s a new Netflix adaptation of Cixin said: “An intricate, clever,
using the power of her mind. hotel… in space) and inaccurate: Lui’s first contact saga The mysterious and moving
You’d think that this would Wes Anderson’s patented Three-Body Problem. So it’s an slipstream novel… Written
make her some kind of exalted tweeness is only present in interesting time for Hugo in crisp prose, as pared
back and devoid of
superhero, right? Held aloft by short bursts. Award-winning Chinese SF
extraneous detail as you’ll
the public, treated with respect, The setting is the Grand author Hao Jingfang’s second find in any noir.” We also
showered with money. Well, if Abeona, a deep space cruise novel to arrive, as it takes a very highly recommend fantasy
there’s anything our real-life liner which docks at a series of different approach to tackling GODS OF THE
world has shown us recently, planets to offer a luxurious contact with an alien race. WYRDWOOD ( ,
out now, Orbit), the
it’s that society is filled with getaway for an array of rich Jumpnauts explores a opening entry
idiots. Instead of veneration, clientele. The ship has politically divided near-future, in RJ Barker’s
Nikha and her kind are definitely seen better days – its where Asian and Atlantic power Forsaken
persecuted – even dissected. super-rich guests are now just, blocs are at war, and a mysterious trilogy. The
And while they call themselves well, rich – but hotel manager alien signal sets off a race against world-
building here
“heartsooths”, everyone else, Carl is content with his lot, time. It’s up to a trio of scientists includes a
fearing that their touch can kill, working hard to please his to uncover its source, but what landscape
calls them “bloodcarvers”. customers, aided by a ragtag starts as a twisty first-contact where bloated gasmaw
Debut YA writer Vanessa Le collection of employees who thriller soon heads in a much creatures pull airships
between crumbling spires,
has spun an excellent tale here: have become like family. weirder direction, rooted in
a forest which seems to
the story of how Nikha finds Unfortunately, however, Chinese history and mythology. have a consciousness,
herself secretly working for a someone on board has been The book swiftly evolves into and warriors given
rich family who want to find sending messages that threaten a wildly unpredictable blend of superhuman powers by a
out if their father was the galaxy’s Emperor, and a relationship drama and “Ancient fungal parasite. We said:
“Will please fans of David
murdered, who are relying on witch-hunt is underway. Aliens meets Rendezvous With Gemmell. But with its
her to revive a witness to his However, this overarching Rama” space adventure that’s folk-horror vibe, it offers
death. Should she trust her new story is just a backdrop to what genuinely entertaining and something distinct. This is
employers? Should she run is essentially an anthology. The inventive for its first half. Avatar meets Dune – on
shrooms.” Our final pick is
away? Just how strong are her engineer, the new waitress, the Sadly, it also doesn’t know
Owen King’s THE
powers? And why does a swimming pool’s lifeguard, the when to stop, spending much of CURATOR ( ,
doctor’s assistant seem to know piano player in the lounge… all its latter sections getting bogged out now, Hodder &
more about her than he should? these and more get a chance to down with abrupt tonal shifts, Stoughton). It’s set in a
The intricacies of a shine in their own sections. over-elaborate concepts and Dickensian city where a
revolution has
heartsooth’s psychic healing Their stories range from seemingly endless infodumps. turned things
process are fascinating, as is the amusing to heartfelt, crossing Translated by novelist Ken Liu, upside down.
Vietnam-influenced world Le genres into spy thriller, who also translated The Through the
has built. The story does take a romance and even The X-Files. Three-Body Problem into English, eyes of
various
while to get to the romance Sure, the POV switcheroos are a Jingfang’s haphazard
characters
(because of course there’s a little jarring at first, but once mythological romp is certainly (including
romance) and loses a little you’re used to the character- not for everyone, but steer past Dora, caretaker of a dusty,
momentum when it does, hopping format you’ll be sucked the flaws and there’s plenty of abandoned museum), we
but soon finds its feet again. into the Abeona’s world on a offbeat entertainment here for see a fledgling regime
floundering. We said: “A
A satisfying finale promises sweet, surprisingly sentimental those willing to get on its curious mixture of whimsy
a gripping sequel, too. journey across the Milky Way. idiosyncratic wavelength. and grimdark... Never less
Jayne Nelson Jayne Nelson Saxon Bullock than gripping.”

BOOKS
ALSO OUT
There’s plenty more books
that we couldn’t fit in. In
2022, podcaster/Big
Finish writer Tom Salinsky
embarked on a mission to
watch every Star Trek
PLAY OF SHADOWS
episode, from TOS to
Enterprise. STAR TREK:
DISCOVERING THE TV
SERIES (30 March, White
RELEASED 28 MARCH Owl) documents the first
482 pages | Hardback/ebook/ part of that marathon.
Every episode gets a
audiobook write-up, with a star rating
Author Sebastien de Castell (and he’s quite hard
Publisher Jo Fletcher Books pleased – 67 get two stars
or less). Pitched as “for
Sebastien de Castell returns fans of Philip K Dick’s Ubik
THE GLASS BOX

to the world of his Greatcoats and Eternal Sunshine Of
The Spotless Mind”,
series for this high-spirited tale Nathan Tavares’s
of actors and intrigue. His hero WELCOME TO FOREVER
is Damelas Chademantaigne, (out now, Titan) focuses
who discovers quite by accident on a “memory editor” who
that he may be a Veristor – a
medium who channels the
The life of Riley wakes up in a Centre for
Memory Reconstruction,
told he’s the victim of a
spirits of the dead when terrorist bombing. Now he
performing onstage. doesn’t, in truth, demonstrate remembers nothing about
Unfortunately, the first time it much character development. his past – including his
RELEASED OUT NOW! husband. After retelling
happens, he unwittingly reveals 336 pages | Paperback/ebook Then again, as Straczynski noted the Medusa myth in 2021,
a secret that those in power Author J Michael Straczynski when talking to SFX last issue, her Rosie Hewlett tackles
would prefer to remain hidden. Publisher Titan Books job is to be a bullet fired into the another formidable female
The backdrop seems institution. It’s the way she in MEDEA (21 March,
modelled on feudal Italian The idea of rebellion against empowers others and encourages Bantam): the sorceress
who avenged her betrayal
city states, and the impressive overbearing authority runs them not to give up that really by husband Jason by
worldbuilding helps through the work of J Michael matters in the end. killing their children.
enormously, as the plot hinges Straczynski. For example, think of That’s nowhere truer than in Bernardo Esquinca’s short
on the prominence of the arts in how Babylon 5 is, in key respects, her relationship with a patient story collection THE
SECRET LIFE OF INSECTS
a society where songs and plays an argument for political dubbed Frankenstein, a disturbed (28 March, Dead Ink)
not only relive history but autonomy and democracy. Big and frightening figure who was blends horror and noir as
shape it. Damelas cuts a themes, but also ones that lend mistreated as a child. Despite it explores the legacy of
familiar figure; the sort of themselves to smaller stories, as being warned that he’s dangerous, Mexico’s blood-drenched
self-effacing hero currently in The Glass Box proves. Riley befriends Frankenstein by history; expect devils,
ghouls and old gods.
fashion with fantasy writers, Structurally, it’s a relatively reading him – what else? – Mary Turning to continuing
he must vanquish his own simple tale of the dystopian near- Shelley’s novel. series: Peter V Brett’s
insecurities before he can future. Riley Diaz is someone who Gradually, his battered and Nightfall Saga –
defeat the villains. thinks you should take a stand deeply hidden but still present set 15 years after the
conclusion of his popular
Some suspension of disbelief and, in a USA sliding towards humanity is revealed. It’s a subplot Demon Cycle – hits book
is required at the outset as de authoritarianism, joins multiple that also plays out as a homage to two with THE HIDDEN
Castell awkwardly manoeuvres demonstrations as a disciplined the Universal monster flicks of the QUEEN (out now,
the hero into joining a theatre and peaceful protester. But when ’30s and ’40s – and does so while HarperCollins). Finally,
company called The Knights Of she’s arrested, she lands not in jail finding something of the pathos of Hadeer Elsbai follows up
her Egyptian-inspired
The Curtain, but thereafter the but an American Renewal Center, the best of these films. debut The Daughters Of
plot gains strength and a new kind of institution for those All that said, The Glass Box isn’t Izdihar – centred on
momentum. The main with psychiatric conditions. a fancy novel. Though concerned two women who can
antagonist, a duellist called the There are distinct parallels here with politics, it’s essentially a magically “weave”
elements – with
Vixen, feels a little remote – her with Ken Kesey’s novel (and thriller, one written with pace, an
the second
vendetta is with Damelas’s subsequent film) One Flew Over eye for telling details and an book in the
grandparents, he’s just in the The Cuckoo’s Nest in the way Riley underlying quiet anger over the duology,
way – but this remains an never stops resisting, even when state of the world. THE
energetic adventure buoyed she’s isolated from other patients Jonathan Wright WEAVERS
OF
by a vigorous pace and some and, in effect, subjected to torture ALAMAXA
Straczynski has his own history of protest:
intriguing ideas. in a bid to break her. Despite her against the Vietnam War and in favour of (28 March,
David West central role in events, Riley the Equal Rights Amendment. Orbit).

THE SFX AUTHOR
QUESTIONNAIRE
Natasha
Pulley
She’s turned from fantasy to sci-fi –
will it be into an octopus next?
What is your daily writing under contract, so I knew there what Granny Weatherwax
routine like? was a possibility I’d finish it and would do.
I’m best in the mornings, from never be able to sell it, just like a
about 7.00am to 10.00am. I used debut novel. Which SF/fantasy book
to be a night owl: no more! I don’t published in the last year has
know how that happened. The Have you ever come up with a most impressed you?
whole thing is very distressing. good plot idea in a dream? Prophet, by Helen Macdonald
Never good plot ideas, because and Sin Blaché. I loved the idea of
Do you have any personal those usually need a good dose of an American diner just popping
mementos on your desk? logic; I’m not so great at that when into being one morning in a field
No. I’m a joyless soulless drone I’m asleep. But definitely in England. The ending really
– I could write in a cubicle office individual scenes or images. The annoyed me, which is brilliant,
with nothing in it except dust and whole of The Kingdoms is based because being annoyed is helpful:
a dead houseplant. I don’t need around the image of a man waiting then you go away and you write
stuff in order to write, just a bit of for someone on a pebble shore, something in response, and the
background noise and access to and that came from a recurring whole point of literature is that
some friendly humans once every dream. books talk to other books.
48 hours.
Were you a keen reader when What’s the best gift you’ve
How do you deal with writers’ you were a child? received from a reader?
block/the urge to procrastinate? Super keen! I grew up on Terry Someone gave me a red velvet TikTok as the Velvet Octopus.
I don’t normally get it. If I’m Pratchett and Neil Gaiman and sock puppet octopus recently, and
struggling with one piece of work, Ursula Le Guin, and even now, if I’ve been feeling a very strong urge What’s the most frustrating
I usually write something else for I’m in a bit of a moral knot, the to start doing book reviews on thing about being an author?
a week or two and then go back to best way out is normally to ask You have no control over
the other thing. Not necessarily whether your book is going to do
with fresh eyes, but at least eyes well. You could write the best
that aren’t upsettingly past their Terry Pratchett book you’ve ever written, but if the
sell-by date. and Neil publisher doesn’t push it, it will go
Gaiman: old under without a ripple. Or you
Which of your books was the reliables. could write one you genuinely feel
most difficult to write? is a bit rubbish, but for one reason
The Mars House was really or 12, the publisher will really get
difficult. I’d never done science behind it, and it will end up on the
fiction before, so research couldn’t bestseller list. It’s like being a
really shape it in the way you can gambler: all you do is keep
BETH GWINN/GETTY
rely on with historical fiction. The throwing the dice.

plot kept hurrying away from me
whenever I thought I’d got a good The Mars House is out now,
grip on it. And I wasn’t writing published by Gollancz.

COMICS
BATMAN:
CITY OF MADNESS
The Tentacled Knight BATMAN: “THE
The barrier between the two
worlds has been pierced, meaning
oversized pages of Black Label’s
“Prestige” format. There are
JOKER: YEAR ONE”
RELEASED OUT NOW!
Publisher DC/Black Label that the terrifying Batman Below inventive layouts and stunning RELEASED OUT NOW!
Writer/Artist Christian Ward has crossed over and pulled an double-page spreads, but the Publisher DC Comics
orphaned child into his bizarre boldly experimental art doesn’t Writer Chip Zdarsky
ISSUES 1-3 The question of realm, aiming to corrupt a boy always complement the more Artists Andrea Sorrentino,
wherabouts Batman sits on the who’s desperate for vengeance routine story elements. Giuseppe Camuncoli
sanity spectrum has been hotly into a nightmare version of Robin. Ward is clearly aiming for
debated in comics since the ’80s, It’s up to Batman to voyage into a sense of cosmic horror (his ISSUES 142-144 The question of
and the latest series to dig deep Gotham Below and stop this. gorgeous, tentacle-heavy design where the Joker came from has
into Bruce Wayne’s psyche is this While there are evocative and for the Batman Below is obviously haunted comics for decades.
three-issue miniseries by potentially lurid ideas at play here, influenced by HP Lovecraft), but Alan Moore and Brian Bolland’s
Christian Ward. City Of Madness rarely lives up to City Of Madness never quite pulls The Killing Joke gave us a
It has an intriguing set-up, with its attention-grabbing narrative it off. Instead of atmospheric convincing origin, but made a
Batman being informed by sinister hook. There are no weaknesses on dread, we get an over-familiar point of suggesting that the
organisation the Court of Owls the visual side – Ward is one of the (and slightly overwritten) tale of Clown Prince of Crime’s history
that there’s an otherworldly secret more distinctive comic-book Batman facing off against a “dark is deliberately “multiple
underneath Gotham – a twisted artists at work today, and his wild mirror” of himself, and way too choice”. He’s an elemental force
mirror-image of the city called approach to style and colour is in much pondering on the nature of of nature and how he became
Gotham Below. full effect here, helped by the madness and trauma. that way is beside the point.
“The Joker: Year Zero” –
Batman Below
is indeed
Rarely lives up a three-issue arc which ran
throughout the core Batman
rather batty to to its narrative comic in February – grafts some
say the least.
hook new information onto this story.
Split between the past and a
The series also takes a bizarrely possible future, it tells the story
long time – two whole issues – for of the Joker’s early days. It
Batman to even arrive in Gotham doesn’t reinvent the character,
Below, and it’s ultimately a little but it does add some hitherto
underwhelming when we finally unknown links between Bruce
do get there. There are also a Wayne and his arch-enemy.
bunch of references and They feel oddly irrelevant,
connections to the Grant though – we gain no deeper
Morrison/Dave McKean classic insight into either character.
Arkham Asylum, most of which The art, at least, is strong,
don’t do City Of Madness any split between two time periods
favours in the comparison. and two creators. Giuseppe
The story does deliver some Camuncoli handles the past
strong, emotionally compelling sections, his pencils clean and
moments, but also veers into detailed, though having him
standard Batman narrative tropes. recreate Bolland’s Joker
City Of Madness only occasionally laughing panel – up there with
embraces the inherent weirdness the most iconic moments in all
of its premise, and its visually of comics – was unwise. Gideon
dazzling elements aren’t enough Falls artist Andrea Sorrentino,
to balance the more frustrating however, excels in making the
storytelling moments. future Gotham scenes truly
Saxon Bullock nightmarish and evocative.
It’s a decent arc, just one that
Ward got to pitch the story for City
thanks to his images of the Batman Below
doesn’t have a compelling
attracting attention on Twitter. reason to exist. Will Salmon

SECRET WARS: ESSENTIAL ROGUE
BATTLEWORLD TROOPER: GENETIC
RELEASED OUT NOW! INFANTRYMAN
Publisher Marvel Comics
Writer Tom DeFalco RELEASED 27 MARCH
Artist Pat Olliffe Publisher Rebellion
From super
Writer Gerry Finley-Day
ISSUES 1-4 The latest in Marvel’s soldier to
Artists Various
line of retro series which take above-average
place within the continuity of orator. COLLECTION Given the recent
popular past storylines, the announcement of a CG movie
AVENGERS: TWILIGHT
nostalgic redundancy of this adaptation directed by Duncan
four-parter is inherent to its Jones, there’s never been a
premise; its events occur better time to leap into the
entirely between the panels of action-packed world of
a single page of 1985’s Secret classic 2000 AD adventure
Wars 12, meaning that nothing
of true significance can occur.
Fight The Powers Rogue Trooper.
A dark tale of future war, set
Having edited the original are clear: when it works, it’s an on the polluted and devastated
series, Tom DeFalco emulates RELEASED OUT NOW! engaging thriller, tapping into the Nu Earth, it concerns the last of
his predecessor Jim Shooter’s Publisher Marvel Comics politics of resistance while still the blue-skinned genetically
bombastic scripting style; the Writer Chip Zdarsky finding room for satisfying action engineered infantrymen known
main protagonists frequently Artist Daniel Acuña sequences. None of this is as “GIs”. Created to survive Nu
launch into expositional revolutionary – there are echoes of Earth’s toxic atmosphere, they
monologues, and in timeless ISSUES 1-3 Dark superhero everything from The Dark Knight were slaughtered in the Quartz
Marvel fashion initially come to futures never go out of style, but Returns to recent Catwoman Massacre; the series follows the
blows before joining forces they also need something fresh to miniseries Lonely City – but the only survivor, as he hunts down
against their adversaries. stand out from the crowd. Chip pacing is brisk, some sequences the general responsible for
While Secret Wars paved the Zdarsky’s six-issue miniseries tries pack real impact, and it’s gorgeous betraying his comrades.
way for today’s crossovers by to supply this by taking aim at to look at, thanks to the stylised, This ongoing quest for
pitting a multitude of heroes politically resonant themes, while characterful art from Daniel revenge threads together the
and villains against each other, also delivering superhero action. Acuña. episodic adventures collected
Battleworld focuses mostly on In a potential dystopian future, Unfortunately, these strengths here, resulting in plenty of
Spider-Man, while support is an ageing Steve Rogers is living a clash wildly with the goofier 2000 AD’s typical pitch-black
provided by the Human Torch quiet married life, having been moments of comic-book humour and grim violence. We
and folk such as Daredevil, stripped of his super-soldier storytelling, especially concerning also get some fantastic art
Iceman and the Falcon. powers. However, when he the villains. Any ambiguity (presented here with added
With Spidey sporting his discovers that old friends like inevitably gets thrown out of the colour), with impressive work
symbiotic alien black costume Luke Cage have formed a window when dealing with from Watchmen’s Dave
for the first time, the biggest resistance against the totalitarian one-dimensional adversaries like Gibbons, alongside eye-
revelation involves its future government, Steve chooses to once the Red Skull and Ultron, blowing catching visuals from other
evolution into Venom, while again don the mantle of Captain a hole in the attempts to tackle early 2000 AD artists like Colin
some intriguing hints are also America and fight injustice. more serious themes. Wilson and Cam Kennedy.
dropped about the Falcon’s Three issues in, and the Acuña’s art is sensational, and While these earliest Rogue
future as Captain America. strengths of Avengers: Twilight the plot makes some interesting adventures are dated and
Channelling the dynamism of twists and turns, but right now clunky at times, their pulpy
original penciller Mike Zeck, The pacing is this haphazard saga is suffering energy and bleak, ultra-British
Pat Olliffe’s impressive art from a serious case of tonal take on the horrors of war still
brings to mind Sal Buscema or brisk and some whiplash. Saxon Bullock grab the attention. The first
Ron Frenz’s neat linework. An
inconsequential but engaging
sequences pack Zdarsky’s favourite The Simpsons episode
volume in a series, this 188-page
collection is a great jumping-on
trip back in time. Stephen Jewell real impact is “You Only Move Twice”, where Homer
gets a job working for a supervillain. point. Saxon Bullock

GAMES & STUFF
FINAL FANTASY
quite different. For instance, the
twisting trees and cliffs of the
jungle region Gongaga become
easier to navigate once you’ve
VII REBIRTH
tamed that area’s chocobo mount. The vinyl-geek event
Side content is largely optional, returns on 20 April. Here’s
a few highlights you may
with the option to return to past deem worth queuing for
areas as you progress building a
sense of a large, connected world. THE ROCKY HORROR
Combat is better than ever, SHOW – RICHARD
Middle part remake isn’t middling returning to the real-time hack
and slash system, mixed with the
O’BRIEN
This is the
original demo
the high-tech city of Midgar. ability to slow the action to issue tape (complete
RELEASED OUT NOW! They’re hot on the heels of commands for bigger moves. with linking
Sephiroth, a robed menace Having made more allies, there’s commentary) made for
Reviewed on PS5
the Royal Court Theatre
Publisher Square Enix attempting to take advantage of not just more characters to play as,
which secured creator
the planet’s already weakened but more ways for everyone to Richard O’Brien the gig
VIDEOGAME Gaming has come a state due to unchecked come together in combat. Synergy back in 1974. Includes a
long way since 1997. What was industrialisation, in order to skills allow for instant tag-team few interesting variations,
once an abstracted RPG overworld destroy it and then rebuild in his moves, like hurling a friend into but no “Time Warp” –
presumably that hadn’t
on the PlayStation – a simple stage own twisted image. He leaves one the air to clobber some magical been written yet!
for your chibi character to run long trail for AVALANCHE to bats, or getting between you and
between towns and get into battles pursue, but each area the party an enemy to shield damage. UFO – THE BARRY GRAY
– is now rendered in extreme ventures to manages to feel While the overall story here ORCHESTRA
detail in Rebirth, the middle entry unique, dealing with the oncoming does suffer from “middle entry” In 2019, Silva
Screen brought
of this remake trilogy. catastrophe in their own ways. fatigue (it’s no The Empire Strikes out a 20-track
Not only does that mean huge The approach to the open world Back), FFVII Rebirth raises the collection of the
areas to explore as you journey shifts as you progress too, with genre’s bar for RPG open worlds, music for the Gerry
across this fantasy world, but each region designed in different combat, and characterisation – no Anderson series about
a secret organisation
greater depth to characters’ ways. While side activities come mean feat for a ’90s throwback. combatting organ-stealing
emotional journeys, and battles from the same mould (scanning Oscar Taylor-Kent aliens. This 7” single –
that are now truly epic in scale. crystals, taking on challenging pressed on “transparent
Timey-wimey bits make this remake sort violet” vinyl – has the
This part of the story sees fiends and so on), the structure of of a pseudo-sequel as well – though you
ecoterrorists AVALANCHE fleeing your journey through them can be don’t need to have played the original.
main/end titles music on
side A, with incidental
music variations of the
“Right over theme on the flip. Also
there? Ah sod available: a Stingray 7”.
this, I’m going
back to bed.” VIRUS SOUNDTRACK
You may know
this 1980 Italian
zombie horror by
alternate titles
like Zombie Creeping
Flesh. Its soundtrack
combines cues taken from
other scores by prog-
rockers Goblin with a
theme borrowed from a
1977 noir and original
compositions (largely
“tribal” percussion).
Comes on orange vinyl.
THE WICKER MAN EP

– KATY J PEARSON &
FRIENDS
If you bought
StudioCanal’s
four-disc Wicker
Man box set last
year, you’ll have this on
CD. The nine tracks
include folky versions of
soundtrack cuts like “Fire
Leap” and “Willow’s
Song”, plus a couple of
remixes. This vinyl
exclusive is limited to just
500 copies – best of luck!

BANISHERS: GHOSTS OF NEW EDEN
Till death don’t us part
know that a banisher’s calling is to If that sounds like a no-brainer, resurrection dependent on your
RELEASED OUT NOW! send spirits to the afterlife. The the result depends on decisions willingness to sacrifice the living.
Reviewed on PS5 plot thus serves up a dilemma: will you make in various haunting As intriguing as these stakes are,
Also on PC, Xbox Series X|S you attempt to resurrect Antea in cases about the region, all ethically however, the action around them
Publisher Focus Entertainment the game’s finale or let her go? thorny in their own right, with is decidedly less so. From
investigations to exploring to
VIDEOGAME Love is in the air in crafting, there’s a lot of mundane
this open-world adventure, but it legwork for Red to endure, and
soon comes crashing down to Antea’s spirit powers are little
Earth. The titular banishers, a pair more than keys to dissolve
of 17th-century ghost hunters, are blockages along the way.
also a happy couple – at least for Combat, which involves
the opening hour or so. Arriving in switching between the duo, is
New England to investigate a diverting enough but repetitive,
curse, experienced ghostbuster with similar ghouls and spectres
Antea Duarte is tragically killed, recycled ad nauseam.
and spends the rest of the game in While Red and Antea’s
spirit form, aiding her apprentice relationship remains touching to
Red McRaith. the end, then, a banisher’s work
This premise is Banishers’ main can feel somewhat lifeless.
strength, ably sold by the sharp “I see dead Jon Bailes
script and voice performances. people. Hang
Red and Antea are palpably on, I am dead Developer Dontnod sees Banishers as a
spiritual successor to 2018 game Vampyr,
desperate to stay together, but people.” where undead ethics also featured.
/22. 287 )25 285

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BlastermindThe SFX quiz
IRELAND
Hopefully you are now sufficiently recovered from St Patrick’s
Day to test your knowledge of all things Éire…
Quizmaster Ian Berriman, Deputy Editor
QUESTION 1
In which episode of a Star Trek
series did Miles O’Brien make his
first appearance?
QUESTION 2
What’s the real name of the
County Mayo-born X-Man,
Banshee?
QUESTION 3
For which YA series is the author QUESTION 4 QUESTION 8
Eoin Colfer best known?
QUESTION 4 Picture Question

Identify this Irish-set horror from
a detail of the poster.
QUESTION 5
Which Irish author wrote The
Jewel Of Seven Stars and The Lair
Of The White Worm?
QUESTION 6 QUESTION 12 QUESTION 16

Name the director of The
QUESTION 11 QUESTION 16 Picture Question
Murphy 20 2024
Company Of Wolves, Interview 17 Carmilla 18 Thermoman 19 Cillian
PICTURES © EMPIRE PICTURES, JOHN BOORMAN PRODUCTIONS LTD, FORWARD FILMS, CARTOON SALOON
With The Vampire and Byzantium. Name one of the two sci-fi series Name this Irish-set fantasy film. 15 Liam 16 The Secret Of Kells
to which TV writer Johnny Byrne
13 “Fair Haven” 14 Warwick Davis
1999/Doctor Who 12 Grabbers
QUESTION 7 contributed. QUESTION 17 officer 10 Wake Wood 11 Space:
What was the surname of the For which tale about a vampire is 7 Finnegan 8 Zardoz 9 A Garda
QUESTION 12 Picture Question
Rex 5 Bram Stoker 6 Neil Jordan
Irishman who tormented James T the Irish author Sheridan Le Fanu Cassidy 3 Artemis Fowl 4 Rawhead
Kirk with practical jokes at Name this Irish monster best known? 1 “Encounter At Farpoint” 2 Sean
Starfleet Academy? horror-comedy.
Answers
QUESTION 18
QUESTION 8 Picture Question QUESTION 13 He may be from the planet Ultron,
Name this movie, shot around What’s the title of the Star Trek: but he certainly sounds Irish…
County Wicklow. Voyager episode centred on a What’s the name of the superhero
holodeck recreation of a 19th played by Ardal O’Hanlon in ’00s
QUESTION 9 century Irish village? Clue: it’s the sitcom My Hero? How did you do?
In the Doctor Who episode name of the village.
What’s your Irishman IQ?
“Ascension Of The Cybermen”, QUESTION 19
we see the life story of Brendan, a QUESTION 14 Which Irish actor connects 0-5
Father Dougal
man abandoned as a baby. What Who played the title role in the 28 Days Later, Batman Begins and
6-10
job does he grow up to have? 1993 horror-comedy Leprechaun? A Quiet Place Part II? Jimmy Cricket
11-15
QUESTION 10 QUESTION 15 QUESTION 20 Terry Wogan
Shot in County Donegal, what was Born in 18th century Ireland, According to the Star Trek: The 16-19
WB Yeats
the first theatrical movie from Angel went by another name Next Generation episode “The
Hammer Films to go before the before he was turned into a High Ground”, in what year does 20
Robert Boyle
cameras in nearly 30 years? vampire. What was it? Irish reunification take place?

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Total Recall Personal recollections of cherished sci-fi and fantasy
Les Maîtres Du Temps

David West, freelance writer Triangle 22 race across the galaxy, hoping to collective hive mind. Laloux would return to
As a youngster, I’d watch ride a comet’s wake to reach him in time. this theme about the loss of agency in 1987’s
anything animated. Saturday But the movie just looked weird, and terrible Gandahar, and its presence here added another
mornings were for cartoons, things kept happening. French comic artist unsettling layer to the experience. Two little
particularly repeats of Hanna- Moebius served as designer, creating strange humanoids called Jad and Yula serve almost as
Barbera shows like Samson & landscapes rendered in beautiful pastel shades comic relief, but they’re psychic and constantly
Goliath, The Herculoids and Mightor. and populated by bizarre creatures. The ship’s complain about the evil thoughts of the
Something in that mould was probably what I captain, Jaffar, looks like a space version of humans around them.
was expecting when I saw Time Masters (as it Aragorn from Ralph Bakshi’s The Lord Of The Piel also encounters a friendly creature
was titled by co-producers the BBC) listed in Rings with his square jaw and muscles, yet called a Wah-Wah that allows him to ride on its
the Radio Times. A sci-fi adventure about a the script denies him the opportunity to play back, which is charming right up until the
rescue mission to save a boy stranded on a the hero. It falls to a stranger to rescue Piel moment Piel’s pal is strangled and eaten by a
strange planet sounded like perfect viewing. after Jaffar is distracted by the schemes of tentacle monster. In that instant, Les Maîtres
On a superficial level, it could be argued that Matton, a narcissistic prince on the run with a Du Temps was seared into my young brain, and
French animator René Laloux delivered a stolen fortune. has remained there ever since.
family-friendly tale. There’s a cute, mop- There’s a subplot about a planet populated
topped kid called Piel, alone and in peril on the by faceless winged beings that seek to erase all David remains forever scarred by his phobia of
planet Perdide as the crew of the ship Double individuality and absorb everyone into a tentacle monsters.
Fact Attack!
Both Les Maîtres Du Temps “Perdide” is French for lost, In addition to Bakshi’s The film belittles fascism Moebius was the
and Laloux’s 1973 film an adjective applicable to Aragorn, Jaffar’s appearance through black-clad, jack- production designer on Luc
© TFI FILMS
Fantastic Planet were adapted both the planet and Piel, too recalls the hero of the comic booted soldiers who perform Besson’s The Fifth Element,
from the works of dentist young to comprehend his Blueberry by Moebius and a Nazi-style salute, but are whose visual style seems
turned novelist Stefan Wul. predicament. Jean-Michel Charlier. easily outsmarted by Jaffar. influenced by Laloux’s films.

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SFX 377 CONTENTS

APRIL 2024 | SFX MAGAZINE | 3

IAN BERRIMAN DEPUTY EDITOR

4 | SFX MAGAZINE | APRIL 2024

APRIL 2024 | SFX MAGAZINE | 5

Then There Was Nun

6 | SFX MAGAZINE | APRIL 2024

APRIL 2024 | SFX MAGAZINE | 7

AS SEASON THREE OF RESIDENT

8 | SFX MAGAZINE | APRIL 2024

the grinder But thanks to some subterfuge by D’Arcy (Alice

APRIL 2024 | SFX MAGAZINE | 9

10 | SFX MAGAZINE | APRIL 2024

APRIL 2024 | SFX MAGAZINE | 11

WHILE THEY’RE ALREADY

WELCO ME TO THE DO LLH OUSE

12 | SFX MAGAZINE | APRIL 2024

That ’90s Comic

Tom Baker and

14 | SFX MAGAZINE | APRIL 2024

APRIL 2024 | SFX MAGAZINE | 15

THE FINAL FR ONTIER ROGBA PAYNE

WORDS: NICK SETCHFIELD

“I CAN NO LONGER TAKE A PLOT ingenious mash-up of HG Wells’s The Time

16 | SFX MAGAZINE | APRIL 2024

A YEAR’S WORTH OF ISSUES. ONE PAYMENT. SIMPLE.

£41.99 EVERY £36.99 EVERY PRINT+DIGIT

SUBSCRIBE NOW! to print!*

APRIL 2024 | SFX MAGAZINE | 17

18 | SFX MAGAZINE | APRIL 2024

APRIL 2024 | SFX MAGAZINE | 19

THEY BOLDLY WENT FROM

Why is this the ﬁnal season of Discovery?

Was that something that you were able to The crew of

20 | SFX MAGAZINE | APRIL 2024

APRIL 2024 | SFX MAGAZINE | 21

22 | SFX MAGAZINE | APRIL 2024

APRIL 2024 | SFX MAGAZINE | 23

24 | SFX MAGAZINE | APRIL 2024

Showrunner Michelle Paradise

“UNDER THE TWIN MOONS”

“FACE THE STRANGE”

Book, Mary Wiseman

APRIL 2024 | SFX MAGAZINE | 25

26 | SFX MAGAZINE | APRIL 2024

APRIL 2024 | SFX MAGAZINE | 27

KING OF THE SWING ERS

28 | SFX MAGAZINE | APRIL 2024

You ﬁlmed in a real rainforest for this. How

APRIL 2024 | SFX MAGAZINE | 29

30 | SFX MAGAZINE | APRIL 2024

KAYLEE HOTTLE is Jia

Why do you think Kong cares so deeply

APRIL 2024 | SFX MAGAZINE | 31

32 | SFX MAGAZINE | APRIL 2024

THE CREATIVE MINDS BEHIND THE LIVE-ACTION

APRIL 2024 | SFX MAGAZINE | 33

34 | SFX MAGAZINE | APRIL 2024

Lucy does the