***THIS REVIEW WAS ORIGINALLY PUBLISHED ON THE NERD BLITZ PATREON***
This here is a book I know next to nothing about.
I think good ol Fitty Man has offhandedly mentioned the movie a time or 2, I know it’s a horror movie, and I know Star Trek: Enterprise’s Manny Coto Co-Wrote and Directed the flick.
But that’s really just about it.
So let’s dive into this world of horror and see what we can dig up.
Get your affairs in order, cause this is an old fashioned ***SPOILER ALERT***
Cover by Doug Mahnke: I don’t know what the fuck I’m in for here.
This dude looks like a more deranged take on Arkham Knight’s version of Professor Pyg.
I love how bright and well lit it is, unafraid to hide the gruesomeness and gore, you don’t see that much anymore.
Everything nowadays is so dark, shadowy, and brooding.
This is very in your face and I dig it!
The only improvement I’d suggest would be to add a little bit of blood squirting from the neck stump or a vein or bone protruding from the stump.
Just something to make it catch the eye there for a second.
Otherwise, it’s pretty fuckin’ perfect.
Art by Kent Burles: The art oscillates between a shit ton of styles, over the top caricature, a sort of Mike Judge Beavis and Butthead/King Of The Hill, a squishy kind of 90s kids comic, and some sort of underground street art feel.
It’s not what I would call bad at all, more inconsistent.
I mean, it’s just so oddly different from page to page and panel to panel that I’m not quite sure what to make of it all.
Written by Steven Grant: School is out for summer, and a group of kids have decided to go to the old Rendell house, exactly 40 years to the night that police discovered ol Dr. Rendell’s work, ie chopping a shit ton of people into tiny little pieces, 4 of which were never accounted for.
Once the kids get all up in the house, the good Doctor reappears and starts terrorizing the neighborhood once again.
I must admit, I’m a bit confused.
I can’t tell if there’s a supernatural element implied to this that I’m just missing or what, and in the end that takes me out of this just a wee bit.
The Doc would have to be roughly in his 60s…ish, so I feel like it almost has to have some supernatural bent I’m missing.
There is a scene at the start that shows the Dr in a hospital like setting, but I’m not sure if that’s meant to imply he’s breaking out or not.
It just feels like something got cut out for some reason and it screws with the pacing in a big bad way.
As is, this feels a bit herky jerky and uneven, like it’s lacking some connective tissue that was ripped out to save on the page count.
But that aside, I dug this story for the most part.
If this 2 issue comic is an adaptation of the movie, then I wanna see this bitch.
I think some of the pacing issues would probably be fixed on screen.
This appears to have a bit of an Evil Dead type brutal and twisted sense of humor that I dig, and it’s gory as all hell as well.
I love the Halloween-esque small town mythology, I wish horror movies, comics, and stories in general would use the local legend trope more often.
It’s simple and effective.
Bottom line, gang, I’m glad Lord Fitticus stumbled across it and thought it could make for a good review.
I had no idea what this was going in but, after finishing this first issue, I’m incredibly interested in seeing where this goes.
I’m also interested to hear if any of you know this movie and/or have read these issues.
I hope issue 2 doesn’t shit the bed and disappoint.
Special thanks to @ACFerrell1976 for her continued editorial assistance.
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