Table of contents for June 2024 in SFX

TWO YEARS AGO, THE SERIES finale of DreamWorks’ animated show Jurassic World: Camp Cretaceous ended with an unexpected two-year time jump that gave audiences a look at the more grown up “Nublar Six” and their fates. Plus, the nifty coda reveal of a Brachiosaurus outside Darius’s window meant the series timeline caught up to the events of Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom. While the open-ended climax may have felt like a set up for future stories, executive producer Scott Kreamer tells Red Alert that in his mind it was unquestionably an ending to their five seasons of storytelling. He was ready to move on to new projects, until Universal and DreamWorks reached out for his thoughts on potential continuations. “I was unconvinced, because I liked the story we told,” Kreamer says…

AFTER PREVIOUSLY focusing on different aspects of its supernatural worlds in various one-shots and anthologies, Archie Comics is now unleashing its first summer crossover. Billed as the first Archie Premium Event, Judgment Day begins with Archie’s hometown Riverdale literally descending into Hell. “My prior work with Archie, Archie Vs The World, got rave reviews, but one persistent complaint we got was, ‘Why isn’t there more?’,” says writer Aubrey Sitterson. “That led [senior director of editorial] Jamie Rotante back to me, and she wanted to push the Archie characters to their absolute breaking point with a concept so outrageous: Archie as a demon hunter!” Although spookier stories such as Judgment Day are released under the Archie Horror imprint, Sitterson insists that Archie and his friends are essentially unchanged since the Riverdale…

How has your Doctor Who experience been so far? ◆ Oh, it’s been such a laugh. I’ve wanted to do Doctor Who for ages. Not particularly because I was a massive fan as a kid. I was too scared of the Daleks, the usual kind of thing. But because so many friends have been in it and have said how much fun they’ve had. Because it feels like it’s carte blanche to do whatever you want and it’s so imaginative. It’s really fun to be part of Doctor Who also because I was working with David Tennant on The Quatermass Experiment when he found out he was going to be Doctor Who, then I was working with Matt Smith when he was going to be Doctor Who, and I’m like,…

FROM A CERTAIN POINT OF VIEW. It’s a phrase that’s loomed large over Star Wars ever since Obi-Wan Kenobi tried to pretend he hadn’t fibbed about the fate of Luke Skywalker’s dad. Since then, Anakin’s whined that, from his POV, the Jedi are evil, while fandom remains torn over The Last Jedi: is it a bona fide classic or a disastrous disturbance in the Force? Now the latest Disney+ show is asking us to look at its story from multiple perspectives. The result? The next time a film studies student reminds you that George Lucas’s original Star Wars was heavily influenced by Akira Kurosawa’s The Hidden Fortress, you can instantly shoot back that The Acolyte shares elements of the Japanese director’s multiple-POV classic Rashomon. Set a century or so before…

RENNY HARLIN IS AIMING FOR your primal fears. Your poor, frazzled nerves and overloaded pulse will be collateral damage. “It’s so relatable,” says the director of The Strangers: Chapter 1, a new take on 2008’s knifey home invasion tale The Strangers. “As kids we all look under our beds or in the closet or out the window – is there some scary thing there? “Of course, as we grow up we realise that there’s no boogeyman and there are no ghosts and no monsters, no supernatural beings. But you should have been scared. Because there are other people who might be nuts, and just want the worst for you. “The premise is so simple and so scary, and that makes it enjoyable, because you can see something so scary in…

▶ RELEASED OUT NOW! 18 | 109 minutes ▶ Directors Matt Bettinelli-Olpin, Tyler Gillett ▶ Cast Melissa Barrera, Dan Stevens, Kathryn Newton, Alisha Weir Radio Silence duo Matt Bettinelli-Olpin and Tyler Gillett delivered a great, witty horror movie set in a creepy mansion with Ready Or Not before moving to Scream-land. Their latest, fang-happy tale Abigail, could serve as a perfect double bill with that breakout thriller. Set once again in a large, spooky (and in this case, locked down) house, it follows a group of criminals of varying ability and seriousness, who are gathered by a mysterious overseer (Giancarlo Esposito) for what they think should be a relatively easy payday. Their mission? Kidnap a wealthy man’s daughter. There’s just one issue: the victim is most certainly not what they…

▶ RELEASED OUT NOW! 15 | 131 minutes ▶ Director Alice Rohrwacher ▶ Cast Josh O’Connor, Isabella Rossellini, Carol Duarte, Vincenzo Nemolato The Italian director Alice Rohrwacher has a penchant for magical realism. It was there in her 2018 film Happy As Lazzaro, in which mundanity and folklore intertwined, and it is here in the wonderfully Fellini-esque La Chimera, in which an English archaeologist called Arthur (Josh O’Connor) possesses the ability to sense ancient tombs. It is not a gift he uses for study, however. Instead, he leads a band of squabbling Italian grave-robbers, who make their money by selling rare Etruscan artefacts – left as tributes for the dead – on the black market. Set in the ‘80s, the film has a dreamy, meandering quality, befitting the grieving Arthur’s…

▶ RELEASED OUT NOW! PG | 91 minutes ▶ Directors Ricard Cussó, Tania Vincent ▶ Cast Sam Neill, Anna Torv, Tim Minchin, Jillian Nguyen You’d expect the message of this Australian animation (based on a 2012 videogame) to be “it’s okay to be different”, given that heroine Arkie (Jillian Nguyen) sports an eyepatch, weird stitches and tentacles. And yes, at one point she does come to terms with her strange looks… but it’s easy to miss that bit when there’s so much else going on in its absolute disaster of a screenplay. We land in a world that’s being terrorised by an evil human scientist, Dr Maybee (Sam Neill), who’s draining the sun of its light. He desperately needs the magical healing powers belonging to a giant octopus, Blister (Rob…

▶ UK/US Disney+, streaming now ▶ Creator Dave Filoni ▶ Cast Diana Lee Inosanto, Meredith Salenger, Lars Mikkelsen, Jason Isaacs EPISODES 1.01-1.06 Tales Of The Jedi’s six shorts plugged a few gaps in the backstories of Count Dooku and Ahsoka Tano. This follow-up series repeats the trick for a pair of slightly less familiar Force-wielders, and is arguably more satisfying. The first is Morgan Elsbeth, the Nightsister who helped Grand Admiral Thrawn escape his exile in Ahsoka. All set before her previous screen appearances, this is a story of good intentions turned bad amid the rise of the Empire’s. The better half of the anthology focuses on Barriss Offee, the Padawan who framed Ahsoka in The Clone Wars, and whose fate has been the subject of fevered fan speculation ever since.…

▶ RELEASED OUT NOW! 2024 | 12 | SVOD ▶ Director Zack Snyder ▶ Cast Sofia Boutella, Ed Skrein, Michiel Huisman, Elise Duffy NETFLIX The best that can be said of Zack Snyder’s pompous space opera sequel is that it’s trying not to be just more of the same. Unfortunately, it is the same in all the ways that made the first film such a joyless slog – including Snyder’s much-derided use of slow motion (and, indeed, slow motion shots that get even slower motion), which he must surely be employing out of sheer bloodymindedness by now. As everyone knows by now, Rebel Moon is basically another retelling of The Seven Samurai. Part One was the planet-hopping mission to find a bunch of rebels to fight the bad guys. Part…

▶ RELEASED 20 MAY 2024 | N/A | Download It’s 2039, and a catastrophic loss of trees and plant life has left Earth all but stripped of oxygen. A mother and daughter hold out in a fortified Brooklyn bunker, facing an even more urgent fight for survival when strangers (one played by Milla Jovovich) arrive at their door… Spike Lee protégé Stefon Bristol conjures an empty, rust-hued world that feels like genre cinema processing global lockdown. The film favours Panic Room-style thrills over more intriguing angles, but it’s anchored by its humanity.…

▶ RELEASED 27 MAY 2024 | 15 | Blu-ray A female janitor working her first night shift in a factory is terrorised by masked men in this boilerplate horror. Given that she’s a foot shorter than them and clearly runs more slowly, credibility is stretched to breaking point – snapping once she patches up a knife wound with glue and Sellotape. After a rather dull hide-and-seek start, things pick up for the final 15 minutes. But the big twist is guessable the moment you twig that the intruders are disguising their voices. + Extras Deleted scenes; out-takes; trailer.…

▶ RELEASED 21 MAY 496 pages | Hardback/ebook/audiobook ▶ Author Stephen King ▶ Publisher Hodder & Stoughton The title of this short story collection is a little misleading, unless you get the reference. And since the reference is to a relatively obscure Leonard Cohen song of the same name, chances are many people won’t. In which case you’d be forgiven for thinking that You Like It Darker is a promise of Stephen King delving further into grisly horror than ever before. Well, no. Okay, there are a couple of deliciously gruesome moments, but this collection is far from a mere scarefest, and that Cohen reference is the clue. The song’s lyrics – framed as a dialogue with God – deal with the songwriter’s acceptance of his own mortality upon turning…

▶ RELEASED OUT NOW! 464 pages | Hardback/ebook/audiobook ▶ Author John Marrs ▶ Publisher Macmillan John Marrs returns to the world of The One and The Marriage Act for his latest slice of near-future speculative fiction. This time the source of the tech-induced angst is the eponymous metaverse-based reality show, in which contestants compete for a cash prize by raising realistic virtual kids. This is a particularly chilling premise. For any parent, the idea that millions of viewers could watch – and comment upon – your child-rearing prowess in real time is the stuff of nightmares. The cost of failure in this contest is painfully high, seeing as everyone but the winners will be powerless to stop the digital child they’ve raised and loved – from infant to adulthood in…

▶ RELEASED 6 JUNE 384 pages | Hardback/ebook/audiobook ▶ Author Adrian Tchaikovsky ▶ Publisher Tor Ever wondered what Skynet, the Oracle and other intelligent machines talk about when there are no people listening in? It’s a question at the heart of this entertaining novel, which explores civilisation-ending AI with a very satirical eye. The protagonist of Service Model is Charles, a robot valet whose employment is brought to an abrupt end when he inadvertently murders his wealthy human master. Although Charles can find no record of the dastardly deed in his operating system – and reasons that things can’t be all that bad, seeing as the fatal malfunction has only occurred once – he becomes an artificial person of interest to the automated police force. He’s also befriended by an…

▶ RELEASED OUT NOW! 400 pages | Hardback ▶ Author Emma Sterner-Radley ▶ Publisher Solaris The snowy streets of 18th century Sweden provide the backdrop for Emma Sterner-Radley’s tale of squabbling assassins. The author puts her own spin on the assassin’s role in fantasy fiction, imagining them as agents of the state who discreetly eliminate threats to public security. Valour and Petrichor, lifelong rivals in the Order of Axsten, are charged with finding and killing Brandquist, leader of the criminal underworld in the city of Vinterstock. One small obstacle: no one knows who Brandquist is or what they look like. The protagonists are an archetypal odd couple: Valour is rowdy, foul-mouthed and libidinous, distracted from her mission by the charms of wealthy socialite Ingrid Rytterdahl, while Petrichor is polite, proper…

▶ RELEASED 23 MAY 386 pages | Hardback/ebook/audiobook ▶ Author Anne Corlett ▶ Publisher Black & White Publishing Immersive theatre is not everyone’s cup of tea. When done well, though – as by UK company Punchdrunk – it’s both utterly mesmerising and deeply disorientating. Anne Corlett’s second novel is set in an alternate-history London, where the Theatre District is literally a law unto itself. A self-governing borough for over 200 years, the District is essentially one big 24/7 theatrical production. To this weird and wonderful place comes orphaned Juliet, in search of the truth about the mother she never knew. The rhythms of the District are clearly inspired by Punchdrunk, with visitors handed masks as they exit the Tube, and performers given to singling out random audience members for sneak…

▶ RELEASED 23 MAY ▶ Publisher Rebellion ▶ Writer Ted Cowan ▶ Artists Ted Kearon, Mike Western COLLECTION A walking mechanical marvel with superstrength and a dazzling electronic brain, Robot Archie never felt lacking in the gimmick department. In 1968, boys’ weekly Lion gave him a fresh twist all the same, in the form of his very own time machine – disguised, for reasons that resist the tyranny of logic, as a giant chess piece. This writ-dodging TARDIS rip-off is essentially a random plot generator, a means to fling Archie and his human chums Ted and Ken across the centuries. Most of the resulting adventures are straight historical romps, pitting the “Amazing Metal Man” against knights, dinosaurs and highwaymen. “Archie kiddeth you not!” he declares, blending into Ye Olde England.…

▶ RELEASED OUT NOW! ▶ Publisher IDW Publishing ▶ Writer/artist: Patrick Horvath ISSUES 1-5 In a few months, Beneath The Trees Where Nobody Sees has gone from being just another indie comic created by a relative newcomer – writer and artist Patrick Horvath – to IDW’s biggest-selling title outside of the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles franchise. It’s easy to see why, and we suspect this book will have a long life past its initial six-issue run. Samantha is an anthropomorphic bear living in Woodbrook, a quaint town full of other talking animals. She’s also a serial killer, although she doesn’t practise her trade here, preferring to visit the big city to indulge in her crimes. Unfortunately for Sam, however, there’s another murderer in town – a situation that forces her into the…

▶ RELEASED OUT NOW! ▶ 56 minutes | Download/vinyl/CD ▶ Publisher Pocket Universe Productions AUDIO DRAMA The Lon Chaney vehicle London After Midnight (1927) is one of the most famous lost films – the last known surviving print destroyed in a fire in 1965. Chaney’s gruesome make-up for the pop-eyed, pointy-toothed and possibly vampiric Man in the Beaver Hat was one of his most iconic. This version is based on the original screenplay – which differs in some details from the final continuity script. Adapting a silent film for audio is an odd idea really, especially one where Chaney’s artistry was the main draw. It certainly wasn’t the plotting, accurately described as “incoherent” and “nonsensical” by contemporary critics. The thread becomes even harder to follow here – in the absence of…

RED ALERT HAS WOKEN UP EARLY to catch Kiah Roache-Turner on Zoom. No coffee has been drunk, but that doesn’t matter – the very first story the Australia-based filmmaker tells is terrifying enough to put even the most hardened horror fan on high alert. “This has happened to me a couple of times,” he says with a grin. “I’ll wake up in the morning and I’ll pull my curtains apart, and there’ll just be a huntsman spider on the glass right in front of my face. I scream like a little girl. They are the size of your hand, but they aren’t as bad as funnel-webs, which are these massive, hairy things that can kill you.” Gulp. No wonder Roache-Turner developed arachnophobia. Yet, rather than shy away from his fears,…

ALMOST 60 YEARS AGO, Japanese special effects legend/filmmaker Eiji Tsuburaya unleashed his live-action sci-fi series Ultra Q (1966) upon the world; think The X-Files meets The Twilight Zone with extra monsters. It featured a red and silver-suited alien superhero called Ultraman who battled kaiju and monsters to protect the masses. Kids adored the character and Ultraman became an instant sensation. For six decades, kaiju-loving kids (and plenty of their parents) continue to follow his evolution. There have been countless iterations of Ultraman in both live action and animated form, in manga, comic books and videogames. In 2019, Netflix debuted a new Ultraman anime series to huge success, which opened the door for the latest iteration in the animated feature film Ultraman: Rising. Director Shannon Tindle (Kubo And The Two Strings)…

BRAD PEYTON IS NO STRANGER to pushing the boundaries of reality. Consider his three films with Dwayne Johnson: Journey 2: The Mysterious Island, San Andreas and Rampage – each one a bombastic slice of pulpy cinema. Now Peyton returns with Atlas, the story of a data analyst (Jennifer Lopez) stranded on a dangerous planet after pursuing Harlan (Simu Liu), a villainous artificial intelligence terrorist. “My taste is always to do as much as I can,” the filmmaker tells Red Alert. “I want to push everything as much as possible.” We’re discussing how he designed the colourful planet that Lopez’s eponymous character Atlas Shepherd cannot escape, and how he wanted to avoid creating another Tatooine. “When I first came to Netflix and pitched this idea, they were like, ‘Well, what’s the…

“EVERYONE INVOLVED is a fan of the film,” says director Simon Barnard of Radio Four’s adaptation of The Man Who Fell To Earth. “Even though we’re making something a bit different!” First published in 1963, Walter Tevis’s novel was brought to the screen by Nicolas Roeg a decade later, gifting David Bowie his ultimate film role as exiled extraterrestrial Thomas Jerome Newton. “I read the book around a year ago and was struck by just how different it was to the film,” says Barnard, whose Bafflegab Productions are behind such acclaimed audio dramas and documentaries as Uncanny, The Battersea Poltergeist and Children Of The Stones. “The film is very abstract and surreal and the last third of it is really strange, and nothing like the book. Newton’s mission to Earth…

How are you finding being part of a British institution? ◆ Oh my gosh, it’s totally surreal and incredible. I had heard of Doctor Who, I knew what it was before Russell asked me to do it, but I hadn’t seen an episode. So he sent me six: the first one from 1963 and then several throughout the years to get educated on the institution of Doctor Who. So now that I’ve been fully educated, it means even more. We’re going to need to know which episodes he sent you… ◆ I can’t tell you. He sent me that first one. But I don’t want to blow up his spot. So what did you think of “An Unearthly Child”? ◆ I loved it. Knowing what Ncuti is bringing to this…

Is doing a period episode the biggest challenge of the series? ◆ This block is the biggest challenge, because we’ve got two episodes, both of them set in different periods. So they have to be historically accurate. But this is the biggest challenge, because we’ve got a lot of supporting cast with us who all have to look authentically turn of the century 1800s. So that has to be well planned and very well facilitated. The fact that we’re having to put wigs on the two principal cast as well and that obviously has to look impeccable. It’s very challenging, but fun. How much research would go into an episode like this? ◆ A lot! I guess the same as any of our creative departments, because we want it to…

HEN SFX CATCHES UP with Jinkx Monsoon in New York, she’s in an entirely different sci-fi state of mind – less battling a lord of time and more tackling a carnivorous alien plant… “Audrey is a character that I’ve always, always wanted to play, but just assumed no one would ask me because I’m not a cis woman,” she explains of her starring role in Little Shop Of Horrors at Manhattan’s Westside Theatre. “I thought if I ever played Audrey, it would be in an all-queer production. But when the Westside Theatre reached out, it was just an immediate yes. Everything about it has just been profoundly wonderful. It’s been a very, very affirming experience. I never dreamed that I’d be transitioning at the same time that I’m playing the…

THERE ARE FEW WRITER/directors who can boast a filmmaking career as eclectic and successful as George Miller’s. The multiple BAFTA and Academy Award winner possesses a singular CV that covers 50 years of film projects made up entirely of wild, incongruous swings. From beloved family classics like Babe (1995) and Happy Feet (2006) to the heavy drama of Lorenzo’s Oil (1992), Miller has built a career around writing characters that compelled him, crafting great films around them, and letting the naysayers be damned. The cinematic series that tops and tails the span of his career is centred on his ultimate rebel character creation: Mad Max. At 79, Miller has been making Mad Max films for more than half his life. While he took a hefty 30-year break from the franchise…

This may be a whole new take on the Strangers but one thing remains reassuringly – no, terrifyingly – constant. The trio’s masks are strictly faithful to the original movie and have lost none of their dead-eyed power to haunt your dreams. Did Harlin consider that nightmarish iconography just too sacred to change? “There was definitely a conversation between me and the producers at the very beginning, and we immediately came to a conclusion,” he tells SFX. “I said ‘This is not the Bat-suit, this isn’t something that should evolve over years or decades and become somehow different. The movie is called The Strangers and we should be absolutely faithful to the original masks, to the best of our ability, because that’s what our iconic killers are, and there’s no…

▶ RELEASED 31 MAY 12A | 91 minutes ▶ Director Kiah Roache-Turner ▶ Cast Jermaine Fowler, Ryan Corr, Penelope Mitchell, Alyla Browne Intergalactic arachnids are having a moment. Already this year, a friendly space spider has taught Adam Sandler life lessons (Spaceman); now its unrelated cousin is webbing up New Yorkers and devouring them for dinner. In Sting’s brilliant opening five minutes, we witness the creature manipulating an elderly woman with Alzheimer’s into bringing it fresh meat by waking her up; she calls the exterminator, the spider eats the exterminator, she forgets what happened, the spider wakes her up again, repeat. It’s an amusing cold open that mixes horror and humour but one that perhaps promises too much, as the film never quite hits those heights again. Following this, writer/director…

▶ RELEASED 23 MAY 15 | 97 minutes ▶ Director Zarrar Kahn ▶ Cast Ramesha Nawal, Omar Javaid, Bakhtawar Mazhar, Adnan Shah The era of so-called elevated horror has led to an abundance of metaphors, with many of its lesser entries inserting heavy-handed messaging where the real monster is the patriarchy, the immigration policies, white supremacy etc. While it is easy to now roll your eyes when a horror film like In Flames wears its critique of gender dynamics so clearly on its sleeve, this Pakistani movie – the first to premiere at Cannes’ Directors’ Fortnight in over 40 years – has enough style and mastery of the genre to pull it off. It follows Fariha (Bakhtawar Mazhar), a widow with two children living in Karachi, struggling to make ends…

▶ RELEASED 27 MAY 2024 | 12 | Blu-ray/download ▶ Director Alexandre O Philippe Given that documentarian Alexandre O Philippe’s recent subjects include William Friedkin and David Lynch, it may seem surprising that he’s produced a feature-length portrait of William Shatner. However much sci-fi fans adore him, the man who rapped “Rocket Man” is generally not considered a serious figure. You Can Call Me Bill does its best to shift the dial on that by getting “behind the masks” of an actor who, at 93, is inescapably close to the exit – something whose proximity seems to have made him willing to show a little vulnerability. Shatner’s quasi-mystical view of the interconnectedness of all things, expounded here at some length, may raise a Spockian eyebrow – this is James T…

A man takes revenge on the doctors who separated him from his deformed conjoined twin in Frank Henenlotter’s cult 1982 horror BASKET CASE (out now). Extras-wise, this Arrow Video release (an Arrow store exclusive) is a big upgrade on Second Sight’s trilogy box set, adding a second commentary, six interview pieces, three shorts and more; it also comes with a poster and booklet. We said: “Has lost little of its raw power… A grotty low-fi gem full of bold ideas.” Ahead of the reboot’s release, why not revisit the original 1994 version of THE CROW (out now), in which a rock musician is resurrected to avenge his fiancee’s death. The one brand new bonus here is a three-part design featurette. It comes with a poster and three postcards. We said:…

▶ RELEASED 27 MAY 2023 | 18 | Blu-ray When a film’s remade, it’s usually because it was a big success – and another director takes the reins. Neither’s true of this do-over of 2014’s Last Shift. The basics are the same: a rookie cop alone in a decommissioned police station; supernatural weirdness related to a cult. Take two clearly had more money for gruesome effects, giving its jump-scares more punch. But our original verdict still applies: “One freaky thing after another, with diminishing returns.” See you in 2034 for take three? + Extras Trailers.…

▶ RELEASED 14 MAY 368 pages | Hardback/ebook/audiobook ▶ Author Kaliane Bradley ▶ Publisher Sceptre There’s a buzz about this one. Well before publication, media outlets began singing its praises, and back in February, a BBC adaptation was announced. The latter brought accusations of plagiarism from Spanish television series Ministerio del Tiempo. In reality, the two have little in common besides the idea of the titular government department. A London civil servant transfers to a top-secret new role, supporting refugees who’ve travelled to the UK not through space, but time. Using an experimental technology, the Ministry has rescued five individuals from various points in the past, in order to study how they adapt – both physically and psychologically – to displacement. Our unnamed narrator’s new housemate is one Commander Graham…

▶ RELEASED OUT NOW! 368 pages | Paperback/ebook ▶ Author Francesco Dimitri ▶ Publisher Titan Books The tricky thing about cults is that their members rarely think they’re in one until it’s far too late – if indeed they ever realise it. The Dark Side Of The Sun centres on the Bastion, a reclusive group in rural Italy that runs the Open Feast, an annual, super-exclusive party. Grieving Charlie comes fleeing the ruins of her old life, while Zoey is there for her own, more cynical reasons. It’s not long, however, before the pair discover that there’s more than just sex and drugs to the Open Feast. There’s magic here, and a desperate plan to save the world from looming disaster. Francesco Dimitri’s third English language novel is an intelligent…

▶ RELEASED OUT NOW! 432 pages | Hardback/ebook/audiobook ▶ Author John Jackson Miller ▶ Publisher Del Rey In an echo of the much-derided tax disputes that kickstarted The Phantom Menace, the catalyst for this Star Wars novel – set a year before the prequel trilogy – is Republic budget cuts. Aware that the galactic populace is getting increasingly disillusioned, all 12 members of the Jedi Council embark on a PR mission to a faded world on the edge of Hutt space. But with the criminal gangs in the region proving to be a second-rate (at best) threat, it’s like dispatching the Avengers to open a library. Alas, the likes of Depa Billaba, Eeth Koth and Oppo Rancisis aren’t household names like Iron Man, Captain America and Thor, and despite author…

▶ RELEASED OUT NOW! 336 pages | Paperback/ebook/audiobook ▶ Author Christina Henry ▶ Publisher Titan Books You know that old saw about not meeting your heroes? Harry Adams, the hapless heroine of Christina Henry’s newest chiller, probably should’ve heeded the warning. But she’s desperate for a job to keep a roof over her head, so when a gig comes up cleaning for her favourite horror director, the reclusive Javier Castillo, she takes it. He’s a little strict, and a little too enamoured of his own genius, but the job isn’t too bad… until one of Castillo’s scarier-looking movie props starts taking an interest in Harry. Could it be haunted? Or even possessed? Throwing a horror-obsessed protagonist into a horror story is nothing new, of course, but it is initially fun…

▶ RELEASED 23 MAY 448 pages | Paperback/ebook/audiobook ▶ Author Django Wexler ▶ Publisher Orbit Books Your enjoyment of this book will depend on your tolerance for its wacky footnotes. There are millions of the flippin’ things – explaining lore, geography and titbits (pun intended) from the main character’s sexual encounters. The good news is that you can swat them away like wasps if they annoy you and it makes no difference to the plot. Our hero, Davi, is caught in a time loop in a bloodthirsty fantasy world. After being ported over somehow from our own, she’s spent centuries trying to survive by teaming up with the land’s good guys, but to no avail. So, fed up, she decides to rule the kingdom instead by assembling a horde of…

▶ RELEASED OUT NOW! ▶ Publisher Marvel Comics ▶ Writers Marc Guggenheim, Doug Moench ▶ Artists Alvaro Lopez, Alfredo Alcala, George Tuska ISSUES 1-4 While the new movie is set during the apes’ early days as dominant species on Earth, this four-parter takes place on the cusp of the 1968 film. Integrating material from 1975’s Adventures On The Planet Of The Apes, Marc Guggenheim cleverly weaves extracts from the first movie adaptation into the story: sometimes as extended dream sequences; other times incorporating a single panel into the main narrative. The original illustrations provide an earthy contrast with the cleaner linework of Alvaro Lopez’s modern-day art. Bringing together classic characters, Guggenheim impressively brings to life deaf mute Nova, who finds her voice for the first time thanks to Ivana, psychic leader…

TWENTY YEARS FROM now, in Bertrand Bonello’s vision of the future The Beast, artificial intelligence has taken control after a mysterious event changed the course of history. To remove any chance of another calamity, the robots have created a machine that helps humans live out their ancestors’ past lives. They thus become emotionally numb – and therefore stable – in the present day. The message is clear: if we’re not careful, technology will eat away at what makes us human. “It’s not that much science fiction,” the French filmmaker remarks. “It’s something we are going through now. I mean, technology, it’s a tool, and humans must be the master of a tool, not the contrary. And now it’s getting a little scary.” Bonello – known for his idiosyncratic dramas Nocturama,…

HOT ON THE HEELS OF THEIR critically acclaimed Blake’s 7 Production Diary Series A book, Cult Edge are back with a long-overdue publication. In fact, it’s been 41 years since the last edition of Blake’s 7 Magazine, so perhaps that’s another contender for “longest-running sci-fi magazine”…? This special edition – it’s a whopping 120 pages – continues the title’s penchant for Series D, with interviews, behind-the-scenes information and rare photographs. There’s a comic strip of opening episode “Rescue” and also a look at the proposed animated series from 2010, including unseen concept art. Blake’s 7 Magazine issue 24 will also benefit charity Terrence Higgins Trust. The centrepiece of the issue is an in-depth profile of actor Geoffrey Burridge, who played Dorian in “Rescue”. Burridge sadly died in 1987, aged just…

THERE AREN’T MANY TV SHOWS that can boast a following so great that its fans even have a name. Clone Club has been the label for devotees of cult Canadian drama Orphan Black since it made its small screen debut in 2013. The series – about a human clone by the name of Sarah Manning – hoovered up a host of awards during its original five-season, 50-episode run, including a Primetime Emmy and a Peabody. Now, seven years after that final episode, comes Orphan Black: Echoes, a sequel that, while it’s a distinct series in its own right, also promises to feel comfortingly familiar to old-time Clone Clubbers. “We wanted to give the fans of the original show something to sink their teeth into,” Echoes showrunner Anna Fishko – a…

◆ The BBC have released a first look at Ncuti Gatwa and Millie Gibson alongside new companion Varada Sethu from a readthrough for season two of Doctor Who. Sethu, who previously appeared in Andor, said: “I feel like the luckiest person in the world. It is such an honour to be a part of the Whoniverse, and I’m so grateful to the whole Doctor Who family – because that is what they are – for welcoming me with open arms and making me feel so at home. I couldn’t ask for a better team than Ncuti and Millie to be on this adventure with – this is so much fun!” ◆ Showrunner, executive producer and writer Russell T Davies said: “I first worked with Varada on a BBC production of…

WE’VE BEEN INVITED TO A BALL! Fancy being our guest? It’s 17 May 2023 and SFX is in South Wales – Margam Country Park, to be precise, around two miles from Port Talbot. If we turn around we can see the location used for Rattigan Academy in series four’s “The Sontaran Stratagem” and “The Poison Sky”, but today we’re at the Orangery, where they’ve only gone and custom built a Regency ballroom inside. What’s particularly exciting is it’s the first time press have been on set for the brand new global relaunch of Doctor Who. SFX is early, arriving in a park filled with trucks and lots of people in period costume outside drinking coffee. It’s a beautiful, sunny day and already there’s plenty of fans being wafted. The scale…

The symbols were changed every day. You don’t have any continuity issues then, because if the symbol is always changing, it just looks like they’re morphing scene by scene on his hands. So that every time you see them, the symbols have changed. At first we were a bit worried that we were spelling something rude in Gallifreyan – that was a genuine concern. I remember Russell saying to me, “You don’t realise how dedicated the Whovian fanbase is, they will try and read them. You’ve got to be very careful with these symbols.” So we just adapted them. We took the basic design shapes and we adapted them so they are meaningless. If they do spell something, it’s purely accidental. Every day we just put a different set of…

THE END IS NIGH FOR THE series that writer and showrunner Russell T Davies promises will have “the biggest finale ever” in “The Legend Of Ruby Sunday” and “Empire Of Death” – where they return to UNIT HQ. Are the three who rule ready? And what do they think is the message of season one? How do you feel about the finale? NG: [Expels a deep breath] I mean, if I’m completely honest with you, it’s a blur. It’s an absolute blur. I don’t know what I can tell you. Every day you had to give every single part of yourself to it. You had to rip your soul out. MG: It was an emotional ride every day in seven and eight. There’s not much humour in seven and eight,…

▶ RELEASED OUT NOW! 15 | 96 minutes ▶ Director Gabriela Cowperthwaite ▶ Cast Ariana DeBose, Chris Messina, Pilou Asbæk, Masha Mashkova Space-faring scientists dealing with a politically thorny crisis on Earth is not a new concept – see 1984’s 2010: The Year We Make Contact for just one example. Yet like that sequel, ISS arrives at a time when the warlike tendencies feel all too real. Unfortunately for the new film, nothing much else does. Ariana DeBose stars as Dr Kira Foster, a new arrival boarding the titular space station, which initially appears to be a model of cooperation and humanity reaching for something better. Foster is there to conduct experiments on rats, and unfortunate zerogravity-influenced carnage among her subjects is just one unsubtle nod at what is to…

UK/US Apple TV+, streaming now, Wednesdays ▶ Creator Blake Crouch ▶ Cast Joel Edgerton, Jennifer Connelly, Alice Braga, Jimmi Simpson EPISODES 1.01-1.09 Ever felt like you are your own worst enemy? Be grateful you’re not physics professor Jason Dessen (Joel Edgerton), for whom that is literally the case. Based on a 2016 novel by Wayward Pines creator Blake Crouch – who also acts as the lead writer here – it’s a popular thriller take on quantum mechanics. Don’t worry: once you’ve grasped the basic concept, you won’t be required to stretch your brain too much. Abducted by a masked figure, Dessen wakes up to find himself in a facility that’s home to a large cube which, once entered, can place a human in superposition – existing simultaneously in more than…

▶ RELEASED OUT NOW! 2024 | 12A | SVOD ▶ Director Weston Razooli ▶ Cast Skyler Peters, Phoebe Ferro, Charlie Stover, Lio Tipton ICON Imagine Wes Anderson tackling one of Ray Bradbury’s most sweet-natured stories and you might just grasp the spirit of this oddball indie. It’s shot on Kodak 16mm film, a statement of intent that earns its own standalone credit in the titles. Not only does this bestow a hipster-friendly aesthetic but those faded colours and grainy haze feel like a canny choice for a film intent on capturing the private universe of children, like a postcard from a half-memory. The slim, whimsical story finds three kids on a mission, searching the Wyoming countryside for a speckled egg needed for the perfect blueberry pie recipe. Along the way…

▶ RELEASED 20 MAY 2024 | N/A | Download Not a title that promises chills, is it? But explaining its grim significance would ruin this Spanish drama, centred on a bickering middle-aged couple witha newborn baby. Structurally innovative, it’s essentially one long, horribly tense wait for the revelation of a dark secret which the audience are in on from the start. This adds an extra (often bleakly comic) dimension to every conversation. Once the cat’s out of the bag, however, you can’t help feeling that writer/director Caye Casas has pulled his punches.…

▶ RELEASED 16 MAY 448 pages | Hardback/ebook/audiobook ▶ Author Aman J Bedi ▶ Publisher Gollancz Magic, science fiction and Indian culture mingle freely in Aman J Bedi’s ambitious debut novel. His titular heroine Kavithri is a Taemu, once a feared race of berserkers, now despised, poor and brutalised under the rule of the Raayans. Seeking an escape from poverty, Kavithri dreams of passing the examinations to train as a mage – provided she doesn’t die in the attempt. An abundance of ideas competes for space in Bedi’s fast-paced adventure, and he paints his world in strong, bold colours, from evoking the dirt and humidity of the slums to the cruelty of the caste system. What’s less clear is the level of technology in this society, where gas lamps and…

▶ RELEASED OUT NOW! 304 pages | Hardback ▶ Authors Kelly Knox, ST Bende, Clayton Sandell ▶ Publisher Titan Books JW Rinzler’s exhaustive The Making Of Return Of The Jedi felt like the definitive statement, but here’s an altogether breezier behind-the-scenes account. Considerably lighter on detail it may be, but it’s still a well-researched trove of facts and images, covering everything from development to production, posters to merchandise, and even the small-screen Ewok spin-offs long consigned to the Outer Rim of Lucasfilm lore. Some items are presented as stickers, pamphlets or pull-outs: the most imaginative of these is a packet of continuity Polaroids of Rebel troopers; the most shameless a handwritten letter from a 13-year-old Warwick Davis, hoping to blag some action figures off Lucas. The tone is upbeat – Jedi…

▶ RELEASED 23 MAY 402 pages | Hardback/ebook/audiobook ▶ Author Austin Grossman ▶ Publisher Michael Joseph Having previously dabbled in the art of the superhero novel in 2008’s Soon I Shall Become Invincible, writer Austin Grossman has returned to the world of caped crusaders with his latest book. Fight Me is the tale of Alex Beekman, an ex-member of a teenage superhero team from the ’90s who’s now 40 years old and living a dull life as a college professor. However, when the man who originally gifted him his powers turns up dead, Alex tries to find out why, a search that reunites him with his similarly dysfunctional ex-teammates. Mixed with lengthy flashbacks exploring the team’s formation, Fight Me operates in a similar vein to Grossman’s previous superhero novel, blending…

▶ RELEASED OUT NOW! 668 pages | Paperback ▶ Author David Brunt ▶ Publisher Telos Publishing Here’s the hefty first entry in an ambitious, multi-volume series that aims to chart the entire behind-the-scenes history of classic Doctor Who, day by day if not quite Dalek by Dalek. Assembled from an exhaustive trawl of original paperwork held by the BBC Written Archives Centre, it’s a soberly written, detail-focused insight into the pioneering years of the programme. David Brunt – a former historian of the Doctor Who Appreciation Society – takes everything from internal memos to contract files to taxi receipts and orders it all into diary form, recounting the show’s evolution from the conceptual spark of “a senile old man in a time machine” to the arrival of Patrick Troughton (though…

▶ RELEASED OUT NOW! ▶ Publisher Image Comics ▶ Writers Ram V/Dan Watters ▶ Artists Laurence Campbell/Sumit Kumar ISSUES 1-3 Crossovers don’t have to be limited to superhero comics – they can turn up anywhere, including this pair of interlocking sci-fi thrillers from Image Comics. Crafted by two separate creative teams, but very much telling one combined story, The One Hand and The Six Fingers give us a dark futuristic thriller reminiscent of classic serial killer movie Seven. Both stories are set in the futuristic metropolis of Neo Novena. The One Hand focuses on police officer Ari, as a bizarre murder revives a decades-old serial killer case he thought was solved. As Ari investigates, his sense of reality starts fracturing. The Six Fingers makes things even stranger, following a character who…

▶ RELEASED OUT NOW! ▶ Running time 58 minutes ▶ Format Radio (now on BBC Sounds) ▶ Publisher Radio Four AUDIO DRAMA “I am not a man,” declares alien exile Thomas Jerome Newton in the opening moments of Radio Four’s adaptation of Walter Tevis’s novel. “But I am like a man.” It feels like a mission statement. Nicolas Roeg brought Newton to the screen in the suitably extraterrestrial form of David Bowie, a choice that played to the power of his star’s uncanny iconography while keeping the audience one step removed from Tevis’s strange interstellar visitor. Radio gives us an altogether more knowable and sympathetic protagonist, one who makes conspiratorial asides to the listener. A softly spoken Harry Treadaway unlocks the puzzle of Newton for us. It’s an earnest performance, vulnerable,…

▶ RELEASED 24 APRIL ▶ Reviewed on PS5 ▶ Also on Xbox Series X|S, PS4, PC ▶ Publisher Bandai Namco VIDEOGAME Blazing through a scorching desert in bikes, tanks, cars and bipedal mechs with machine guns is a truckload of fun in Sand Land, the action-RPG adaptation of Dragonball creator Akira Toriyama’s 2000 manga series, but it can only ride the high for so long. “Every match-up can be brute-forced using the tank’s superior firepower” The demon prince Beelzebub is recruited by Sheriff Rao to bring water back to the wasteland, and so we venture out into the derelict world as the former on an uncharacteristically noble quest, in which fiend and human learn to respect one another. It’s charming stuff, but after a dozen or so hours the characters…