In a dark medieval-fantasy world, a skilled group of warriors and priests from a strict religious order have been tasked with escorting a dangerous prisoner back to the “Fayral”, an untamed primal realm of perilous elemental energy.
Their sacred charge is a mercurial and mysterious princess of the fay folk and, the closer the group gets to the land that powers her magic, the more difficult it will be to complete their quest. Worse still, at each step of this perilous journey secrets will be revealed about themselves and the history of their world that may save or damn them all.
March next year sees the publication of Omen-Bound #1, a new creator-owned comic from fan-favourite Conan The Barbarian scribe 'Grim' Jim Zub. It will be released via Image Comics.
The dark fantasy series was co-created with artist Alberto Alburquerque, while Misty Coats provides the colouring and and Marshall Dillon the lettering.
In his newsletter this week, Jim Zub describes the project as follows:
"Omen-Bound is dark fantasy, mysterious and emotional with an old school Dungeons & Dragons-style ensemble party and evocative narration familiar to readers enjoying my run on Conan the Barbarian.
"To say this is a passion project for our team is an understatement. I can’t wait for you to see how far Alberto is pushing himself on every single page and, when that’s coupled with Misty’s colors and Marshall’s lettering, it really is magic."
Celebrating the 30th anniversary of Sam's iconic appearance in the delightful Halloween anthology film, Trick 'r Treat, creator Michael Dougherty has launched the Sam: The Soul of Halloween site.
A church group's Ozark retreat turns deadly when they wander into the wrong part of the wilderness and are brutally picked off one by one.
Suspicion falls on group troublemaker Ricky (Russ Vitale), but the actual threat is far worse: a terrifying, prehistoric arachnid that hunts by vibration.
Trapped in a labyrinth of webs where every step could be their last, Megan (Lyndsy Fonseca) must hold the remaining members together and get them out alive.
Don't Move will be available on digital (in the States, anyway) from October 13.
Four essential movies shaped my early Dungeons & Dragons games: namely Jason & The Argonauts from 1963; Sinbad And The Eye of The Tiger(which I saw at the cinema with my parents when it came out in 1977); Ralph Bakshi's 1978 animated (and unfinished)Lord Of The Rings; and the legendary Hawk The Slayer (from 1980).
As with my commentary on The Messenger the other week, all these movies are review-proof in my eyes, and so this isn't going to be a critical hatchet job - instead, it will read more like a hagiography.
Sinbad And The Eye Of The Tiger, being the first Dungeons &Dragons-y film I saw after discovering the game, was a major source of material.
One of my first characters was actually called 'Sinbad' and most of the ship's crew and other supporting characters from the film appeared as non-player characters at some time or other in my games.
It was also this film which inspired the epic trans-oceanic adventures that young Gublin and I mapped out on seemingly never-ending rolls of paper, making up the islands and continents as our characters' ship discovered them.
As I've already said several times on this blog, it was Ray Harryhausen's stop-motion animation in Jason & The Argonauts(and later in Clash Of The Titans) that really decided the 'look' of Dungeons & Dragons monster fighting (in my mind) for me.
But it was Hawk The Slayer that had the closest overall feel of pure Dungeons & Dragons as we actually played it, even with its micro-budget and B-movie mentality.
As much as I love the movie, I find it difficult to compare to those other three formative cinematic influences - as, to me, they are all perfect.
However, it's easy to see why Hawk The Slayer, in particular, holds a certain cachet with old school gamers.
It has everything a classic game of Dungeons & Dragons requires! The party's charismatic leader Hawk (John Terry who also happens to play Jack's dad in Lost which just adds to the geek cred of the film) has a magic sword and a feud with his one-eyed Darth Vader-like brother Voltan (Jack Palance).
He takes a mission to raise the 2,000 gold pieces needed to ransom an abbess (Victor Meldrew's wife, Annette Crosbie) back from Voltan.
To aid him, Hawk teams up with adventuring friends old and new including a giant (who is basically just the tall bloke from the Carry On films, Bernard Bresslaw), the coolest elf in cinema history (Crow - Ray Charleson - could whoop Legolas any day of the week with his superspeed archery), a dwarf, a one-handed fighter with a machine-gun crossbow and a magic-user called, simply, "Woman" (whose spells strongly resemble smoke, snow and wind machines, luminous ping-pong balls, silly string and assorted 70s disco lighting effects).
Set this all in a land permanently enshrouded in fog, with a funky synth music score and spaghetti western whistly bits; enough name dropping to give the impression of a full-developed country; and more than enough chewy, cheesy dialogue to satiate the diet of both a giant and a dwarf and you've got a "realistic" depiction of 99 per cent of how I viewed every fantasy roleplaying game I played back in the day.
If it isn't already compulsory for those about to start an old school Dungeons & Dragons campaign to watch this film... it should be!
DC Studios’ Clayface is a horror thriller from director James Watkins, starring Tom Rhys Harries in the title role of the cult favourite villain from Gotham’s rogues gallery.
Matt Hagen’s meteoric rise from Gotham street kid to Hollywood leading man is tragically cut short when a local crime boss’s actions leave him horribly disfigured. Abandoned by his team and with nothing left, Matt seeks out a cutting edge treatment that miraculously returns him to his former self… but also unexpectedly affects his grip on reality, spiralling him down a destructive path of all-consuming revenge.
The film also stars Naomi Ackie, David Dencik, Max Minghella and Eddie Marsan, as well as Nancy Carroll and Joshua James.
James Watkins directs from a screenplay by Mike Flanagan and Hossein Amini, story by Flanagan, based on characters from DC. The film is produced by Matt Reeves, Lynn Harris, James Gunn and Peter Safran, with Michael E. Uslan, Chantal Nong Vo, Lars P. Winther, Paul Ritchie, Rafi Crohn and Trevor Macy executive producing.
Clayface oozes into cinemas in North America on October 23, and internationally beginning 21 October.
To mark 20 years of the Tenth Doctor and Rose Tyler, experience a one-night-only movie-length screening, with previously deleted scenes restored into the story for the first time.
Doctor Who: The Satan Pit Extended Cut will be available in over 1,000 cinemas across the UK, Ireland, U.S., Canada, Australia and New Zealand.
Although the show may be currently in limbo as a new production company is sought to take it over, the BBC is celebrating Doctor Who Day (the anniversary of the first episode's airing) with a cinematic treat.
One of the finest storylines from the original RTD era is being shown on a big screen, with deleted scenes reinstated, and the two episodes - The Impossible Planet and The Satan Pit - stitched together into a single movie.
Already a fan-favourite outing for the Tenth Doctor (David Tennant) and Rose Tyler (Billie Piper), Doctor Who: The Satan Pit Extended Cut, will be a newly re-edited, movie-length cinematic cut, featuring deleted scenes, that were previously only available on DVD, now restored into the story and never-before-seen extended footage.
The story sees the TARDIS land on Sanctuary Base 6, a remote outpost on a planet orbiting a black hole.
As the base crew uncover something ancient beneath the surface, the Doctor and Rose are pulled into one of their darkest and most unforgettable adventures, facing the terrifying Ood and an evil older than time itself: the Beast.
The two-hour screening will also feature an exclusive interview with International Emmy and multiple BAFTA award-winning director and producer James Strong, reflecting on the making of one of the most celebrated stories of the modern Doctor Who era.
Deep in the Amazon, a medical mission spirals into a fight for survival when Boiúna, a colossal ancient predator, awakens to reclaim her domain. In the jungle where nature holds absolute power, she decides who lives and who dies.
Stranded after a concert scam, an all-girl heavy metal band and their vampire manager, stumble into a town ruled by a warlock and crawling with cannibals, vampires, sirens, and a monstrous werewolf.
When they encounter a pregnant woman in danger, a search for help turns into a night of supernatural chaos, ranging from Minotaur-run betting rings to brutal creature confrontations.
The band must unleash hidden powers to stay alive, blending heavy metal, dark humour, and creatures into a blood-soaked, chaotic survival ride.
Devour will be available, on demand, from October 13.
If spiders decide to eat humans... we'll all be dead in 1 year.
Crawlers is a wild and terrifying thrill ride from the makers of the John Wick franchise. An apartment block in Los Angeles is plunged into lockdown after a catastrophic infestation of venomous and deadly arachnids is triggered by a resident unwittingly harbouring an evil new breed.
As the fanged creatures multiply by the second, it's up to building manager Serena (Matilda Lutz) to guide a band of misfit neighbours through wall-to-wall dread and do battle with the web-spinning colony as well as the fearful authorities trying to contain the eight-legged plague.
Starring Matilda Lutz (Red Sonja), Gregg Sulkin (Marvel's Runaways), Melina Matthews (Sanctuary), William Miller (Warrior Nun), Elena Sanz (Black Mirror), Chris Rogers (The Running Man) and Andrea Scott Méndez (The Walking Dead: Daryl Dixon).
Crawlers is written by Jayson Rothwell (Polar) and directed by Angel Gomez Hernandez (El hombre del saco).
While this won't be one for Rachel, I'm loving Crawlers already. It reminds me of those delightfully trashy "when creatures attack" paperbacks of my youth (in the 1970s) that scandalised my school and led to them being "banned"... which only made us want to read them even more.
If you think you know her story, you’re dead wrong. Carrie, a new series from Mike Flanagan, based on Stephen King’s iconic debut novel arrives October 7 on Prime Video.
A Steinbeck classic gets a fresh interpretation. East of Eden will explore the multigenerational saga of the Trask family, focusing new attention on its indelible antihero, Cathy. The limited series premieres October 1, only on Netflix.
War reduced Japan to zero, and Godzilla plunged it into minus. Two years have passed since then, and the country has faced agonizing struggles to achieve recovery and finally reclaim its daily life.
Just as humanity managed to cling to a hard-won peace, a new threat strikes, crushing hope in an instant.
Despite erroneous rumours The Uprising is not an "origin" story for Robin Hood. The star himself, Andrew Garfield, clearly states in the featurette above that it's about the 1381 Peasants' Revolt.
Robin Hood was already an existing myth at this point in history, but - of course - may have been reshaped by the events of the genuine historical Peasants' Revolt.
After a debt-collector finds a portal to hell in a washing machine at his local laundromat, he’s propositioned into feeding hell sinners to save his neighbour's soul.
Portal to Hell is written, directed and shot by Woody Bess, and stars Trey Holland, Romina D’Ugo, Richard Kind, Michael McDonald, and Keith David.
I have a good feeling about this oddity because it's giving me Gloriousvibes.
I need to keep an eye out for when Portal to Hell is going to be available over here for home viewing.
Last weekend was this year'sFrightFest horror film festival in London, which reminded me that Paul and I had attended the event back in 2010.
Of our day out and the two films we saw, I wrote the following at the time:
On Monday (August 30, 2010) Paul and I met up in Leicester Square, London, to attend our first FrightFest - having booked tickets for a couple of world premiers, namely Jake West's documentary Video Nasties: Moral Panic, Censorship and Videotape and the Ford brothers' The Dead, a zombie film set in contemporary Africa.
The atmosphere at FrightFest was incredible, and so friendly, with celebs, directors, critics and sundry other 'faces' just breezing through the crowds of fans and mingling like they were old drinking buddies (which they quite well could have been).
Video Nasties: Moral Panic, Censorship and Videotape was a superb documentary; incisive, balanced and very well researched.
It also made a hero of Professor Martin Barker (who was present for a Q&A after the screening with several other luminaries) to everyone in the auditorium, and no doubt anyone who sees this documentary.
He was the one man brave enough to challenge the right-wing Thatcher government of the 1980's on the fraudulent statistics it was using to drive its draconian censorship measures through parliament - on a tidal wave of Daily Mail-fuelled ignorance and bile.
The film is packed full of fascinating gems such as the figures of authority unable to distinguish between reality and fiction and self-appointed moral campaigner Mary Whitehouse's nonsensical assertions that she didn't need to see films to know whether they should be banned or not.
Then there was the incredible double-standards of certain bodies (e.g. senior police officers, politicians etc) that declared while they were able to watch these films without being corrupted others (by which they usually meant "the lower classes") shouldn't be exposed to this as it would lead to the collapse of British society.
Or the case that when children were interviewed about whether they had actually seen any of these so-called 'video nasties' they were claiming to have seen films that didn't even exist!
Much was made of the lurid publicity that the small video companies used to promote their wares - almost always far exceeding the actual content of the movie concerned - and the psychological impact of the graininess of video tape that does actually add an air of 'sleazy reality' to whatever is on display.
Certainly Jake West's finest work to date, and with just enough clips from the films under discussion for most discerning viewers to realise the majority were pretty awful anyway and that - surprise, surprise - the moral majority didn't have a leg to stand on.
The Dead, on the other hand, was a major disappointment. A "dead loss", one might say.
Beautifully shot on location in the wilds of Africa, The Dead tells of the only white survivor of the last post-zompocalypse evacuation from the continent, after his plane crashes off the coast.
Rob Freeman is Lt Brian Murphy, a military engineer, who finds himself stranded in the wilderness, constantly dodging the slow, ambling, Romero-style zombies.
Eventually he teams up with Sgt Daniel Dembele (Prince David Ose), an AWOL local soldier trying to find his missing son.
Beyond the road movie/journey premise of the story, The Dead brings nothing new to the genre and every time it looks as though something interesting might happen it gets thrown away in the next scene.
Two howling - spoilerific - examples spring to mind: at one point Lt Murphy is handed a baby by a dying woman and you think: "oh my God, how's he going to cope in a world overrun with zombies, with a newborn to care for as well?" The next scene he's meeting some refugees in a lorry and handing the baby off to them.
Then a little later, Murphy's asleep in a tree (a course of action maybe he should have considered earlier in the film, given what happens to him and Dembele at one point when they make camp) and his gun slips out of his hand to the ground. And there's a zombie walking past! Obviously zombies can't climb trees, but what exciting thing is going to happen?
Cut to next scene, it's morning, the zombie's wandered off long ago and Murphy climbs down and picks up his gun.
The only moment in the film that got any reaction from the audience was, quite early on, when Murphy drives his rusty old car over the head of a zombie causing it to pop like an overripe zit. That was met with much applauding and howls of laughter.
I'm easily satisfied by straight-forward zombie films, I'm not expecting great innovations every time, but The Dead is just dull, with its few shocks well telegraphed ahead of time.
It also suffered from strange jumps in editing that compacted some sequences you thought should have been longer and at other times drew out moments that could have been dismissed in a single beat.
You couldn't help but feel a bit sorry for directors Howard and Jon Ford, who told the audience beforehand how they'd put 20 years into the film and risked life and limb filming in such a dangerous area.
I just can't see this movie attracting even a cult following.
From the mind of visionary filmmaker Zach Cregger (Weapons, Barbarian) comes a thrilling — and terrifying — reinvention of the Resident Evil franchise.
In an all-new story, Resident Evil follows Bryan (Austin Abrams), a medical courier who unwittingly finds himself in an action-packed, non-stop race for survival as one fateful, horrifying night collapses around him in chaos.
From Columbia Pictures and Constantin Film, in association with TriStar Pictures, Resident Evil hits theatres September 18.
Set in 1993, estranged Street Fighters Ryu (Andrew Koji) and Ken Masters (Noah Centineo) are thrown back into combat when the mysterious Chun-Li (Callina Liang) recruits them for the next World Warrior Tournament: a brutal clash of fists, fate, and fury.
But behind this battle royale lies a deadly conspiracy that forces them to face off against each other and the demons of their past. And if they don’t, it’s GAME OVER!
My pop culture Odyssey: a slice of super-powered geek life with heavy emphasis on pulp adventure, horror, comic books, westerns, superheroes, sci-fi, giant monsters, zombies etc
