Author of sci-fi/fantasy, horror and adventure/thriller fiction

HOTEL ARTEMIS (2018)

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HOTEL ARTEMIS (2018, streaming on Netflix) is a sci-fi action flick powered by a fantastic cast and equally good world-building that keep the PULP FICTION and comic-bookish stuff from getting too silly. I had fun with it.

In the year 2028, water has been privatized, and Los Angelinos are rioting over Clearwater Corporation turning off the water over much of the city. I thought this was a compelling story on its own as yeah, that’s where American capitalism is headed, but the story zeroes in on a bank robbery that goes awry. This leads the wounded robbers to the Hotel Artemis, a secret hospital set up for criminals. Here, Nurse Thomas (Jodi Foster) and her orderly Everest (Dave Bautista) treat criminals, but only if they follow the rules. The only problem is one of the guests is a deadly assassin (Sofia Boutella, who is so athletic and graceful you totally believe she could stomp an unlimited quantity of ass), the riots are closing in, and a wounded kingpin mob boss The Wolf (Jeff Goldblum being Jeff Goldblum, though we love it) is on the way. Everybody is on an explosive collision course.

The result is good fun. Between the riots and the hospital itself, the world-building is terrific. The acting is great, with the A listers leaning into their B-movie roles and having a good time. Some of the characterizations are fairly strong, such as Nurse Thomas and Everest, whom I kind of wished had been the sole focus of the movie. The rest is connect-the-dots plot stuff with comic-bookish characters, not quite phoned in but utterly familiar with the characters shoved bodily across the dots.

Overall, it’s not a super memorable movie, but I went into it with fair expectations, and I did enjoy it quite a bit for what I got. Check it out with a bowl of popcorn for some good, plain fun.

CARRIER WAVE by Robert Brockway

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Just when you think you might be jaded reading a particular genre, along comes a great book that blows you away. The latest example for me being CARRIER WAVE by Robert Brockway. It’s goddam extraordinary.

The novel is about a frequency that once heard infects you with an alien intelligence, an intelligence that wants to consume humanity. It turns you into a machine of destruction, one that can take one of several horrible forms. Once it appears, so does the black spot in the sky, a spot that grows larger with each passing day. This is the story of humanity’s destruction, desperate struggle for survival, and possible salvation. Picture THE SIGNAL (2007) or Stephen King’s CELL meets Lovecraft, and you’re in the ballpark.

It’s not so much a novel as a collection of short stories, each story having its own protagonist and dealing with a different aspect or phase of the apocalypse. This was hard for me to get used to, since as soon as I truly invested in a character, that particular story was over and it was on to the next one. The convention took some getting used to. By the end, all the surviving characters end up in the same place in the same storyline, though by then I’d forgotten some of their names. Some of the writing is indie rough, with favorite phrases like, “he fell like a puppet with its strings cut.”

But that’s pretty much my only criticism. Otherwise, I found the novel roaring fun, if you consider watching humanity flounder in its own blood to be fun, as, uh, I do. Brockway’s characters are ordinary people facing an impossible horror, and they’re all quickly likeable and people you can root for to survive. Their battles to survive are dramatic and rarely predictable. The horror element never grows stale but remains interesting and occasionally surprising to the end, particularly as the black spot and the things that inhabit it are revealed.

In the end, CARRIER WAVE accomplishes something difficult to do–carve out its own identity and stand out in a very popular and therefore packed sub-genre. It has great ideas and a terrific premise, loads of violent fun, touches of comedy, plenty of humanity, and just enough hope. I’m happy to recommend this one to apoc fiction fans.

EQUINOX (2020)

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A Danish series based on a podcast, EQUINOX (2020, streaming on Netflix) offers up a terrific and intriguing supernatural/psychological thriller based on an ancient legend. I really liked this series.

The story follows two timelines. In 1999, Astrid watches her sister leave with her graduating class on a joyride, only to learn that her sister Idea along with most of the other kids disappeared without a trace. In 2020, she is an adult living with a big psychic hole in her life. When one of Ida’s friends reaches out to her suggesting her sister is still alive, she sets out to discover the truth, leading her one step after the other into the heart of a supernatural mystery.

From the trailer, the show looks like Denmark’s answer to Germany’s thought-bending DARK, but it very quickly proves its own identity. The characters are likeable or at least sympathetic, and the ancient legend of Ostara (Easter) was intriguing and teased just enough. The past and present timelines are handled seamlessly, constantly feeding clues to Astrid or directly to the viewer, with an open question whether the supernatural element is real or the product of mental illness. The mystery kept me guessing to the end, and I found that while I could guess plot developments, I wasn’t able to discern the entire mystery until the last scene, which I enjoyed. As for the ending, there is a nice balance of giving you answers while leaving plenty for discussion. The only thing I wasn’t crazy about is Astrid herself is not always likeable, willing to hurt everybody in her life to find the truth.

Overall, I found EQUINOX a very satisfying binge watch. Check it out if you like heavy psychological dramas centered around a mystery element.

THE DARK AND THE WICKED (2020)

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An astoundingly dark and moody trailer made THE DARK AND THE WICKED (2020, coming to Shudder) one of my most highly anticipated horror releases. The film delivers a huge amount of dread, tension, and creep with characters who are relatable, ordinary folks, but there was something big missing for me, which in the end made it feel like heavy but empty caloric intake, a solid horror experience but ultimately one that was too nihilistic for me, similar to THE LODGE.

The film opens with an old woman living on a Texas sheep ranch. Her husband lies unconscious in bed breathing pure oxygen. Something is not right at the ranch, something she knows too well. Cut to her estranged adult children Louise and Michael. Louise left the ranch some years earlier and hasn’t kept up much with the family, while Michael has his own family that’s his main focus. Together, they try to support their mother as their father slowly dies, though she’d warned them not to come.

Things sort of go to hell from here on out. A demonic force is at work, and it will not stop until it gets what it wants.

There’s a lot to like about this film. The dark and slightly grainy 70s feel, the thickening atmosphere of dread, the accelerating creep, and the crystalizing stakes–do we stay, and possibly save ourselves, or go, and abandon our kin–are all handled almost perfectly. The characters themselves are great; we don’t learn too much about them, but they come across as real as the folks next door, and we learn plenty about who they are by seeing how they act in a crisis and the choices they make. There’s an interesting message to the film, which is sometimes, evil will do what it wants regardless of human effort, platitudes, or anything else.

For me, this last part is the film’s main flaw, though. The characters’ actions and choices ultimately don’t matter. This robbed the film of a message that wasn’t completely nihilistic and ultimately made its scares heavy on spectacle but light on substance and meaning. Nihilism itself is an interesting message if it’s handled well, but the kind of nihilism that comes from watching people brutalized without any agency or effective moral choices gets old. There was such an easy fix for an approach that was nihilistic instead of sadistic, which was to look at the primary ethical choice facing the characters and reward the “wrong” choice and punish the “right” choice, but the filmmaker didn’t take that path.

As a result, I liked THE DARK AND THE WICKED but in the end didn’t love it. While there is much to love about the film, ultimately its terrific elements didn’t pay off for me in the last act.

COBRA KAI, Season 3

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I’m a big fan of COBRA KAI and saw the early release of season 3 as a tiny speck of awesome after 2020, before 2021 went off the rails and smashed into a horrific new low for America. I thought the season started off rocky but ended with full punch and heart in an amazing finale episode.

The season starts with the aftermath of the school brawl where all its consequences had to be dealt with. The kids are in big trouble, Kreese is fighting a personal war, and Johnny and Daniel blame themselves for what happened. These early episodes were rocky for me. The writers didn’t compromise the characters, but it felt like they just wanted to get through it, and as a result so did I. Once season 3 gets rid of season 2’s story engine and discovers its own, the result is solid though a bit over the top, as the feud has reached a kinda psychotic level. But the show leans into what makes it great, which is plenty of genuinely heartwarming scenes and its ability to trade on the original movies in a way that has integrity and finds its own identity.

And then there’s that finale. Oh, man. There’s a great amount of action, excellent humor, strong resolutions, great surprises, and a solid setup for season 4. I won’t say more as it’s best to discover it for yourself. Overall, for me, season 3 of COBRA KAI proved the show still has legs and a solid kick. It’s just plain fun.

THE LODGE (2019)

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THE LODGE (2019, streaming on Netflix) left with me severely mixed reactions. On the one hand, it’s artistically very well done, and it’s great horror if you define such as breaking boundaries and taking risks. On the other hand, the big twist and reveal is so nonsensical and mean-spirited as to not so much deny willing suspension of disbelief as slap it in the face.

The film sets up a divided family, with Dad dating Grace and wanting his kids to join them for a Christmas trip to a remote lodge. Dad has to leave, a blizzard comes, and then things take a very dark turn for the strange. It’s best to set the film up as generally as possible, so you can enjoy the process of discovery for yourself. The first two acts of the film are handled really well, with plenty of tension, simmering conflicts, and some good acting, particularly by the magnetic Riley Keough.

The conceit of Dad leaving his girlfriend with his kids who clearly resent her struck me as pretty ridiculous, but I went with it, accepting it as necessary for the plot to move forward. When things get weird, the story gets pretty involving, and what’s great about it is there are multiple possible explanations for what’s going on. When the big reveal comes–suggested earlier in the film–it was a surprise to me. It was under my nose, so to speak, but I’d discounted it. The writer in me–I’m no stranger to hurting my fictional darlings–appreciated the choice, though the movie watcher in me rebelled at just how over-the-top mean-spirited and implausible it was.

The film comes in for a very dark finish that has its own twisted sense of justice to it, but the film had already half lost me by that point. So I’m at a loss how to grade this one. There was certainly a lot to appreciate, but in the end its final act resulted in the whole missing the mark for me. As always, YMMV.