“Hugh Dancy” hardly sounds like a menu item, but if the English actor isn’t careful, he could ultimately become a delectable delicacy in the new TV series, Hannibal. Over 13-episodes, the show will delve into the seemingly normal life of Hannibal Lecter (Mads Mikkelsen) before he emerges as a notorious murderer. Dancy plays Will Graham, a troubled special consultant recruited by the FBI to profile, and hunt down, serial killers. To help cope with the unsettling and violent crimes he comes across, Will begins to see a highly-recommended psychologist… namely Hannibal Lecter.

During a tour of the Toronto set of Hannibal in March, Dancy sat down with a handful of press to discuss Will, what makes his character tick and those inevitably squeamish sequences.      

Just to start, what was your interest in stepping into a television series? Obviously, Homeland has been a very successful endeavor for your wife, Claire Danes. Did that open a window for you?

I suppose it was there in the background. That wasn’t really part of the process for me, though. I had also worked on a TV show, one season of the Big C, a couple of years before. It wasn’t like a big light bulb went on and I thought, “Oh, I’ve got to find a TV show.” It just came up. I was doing a play in New York last year and the year before and sometimes that serves as…. People can come and see it. They think about casting TV shows and suddenly these offers started to come in, frankly is what happened. Why that would be the case, I don’t know. This particular one (Hannibal), on its own merits, seemed very interesting.

Will has an uncanny ability when it comes to piecing together crime scenes. Is he psychic at all?

I don’t think he’s psychic. He’s a detective, but a lot of it is instinctive. In the same way there’s a spectrum that we’re on, and some people further down can’t receive information from other people, there are others who are just more open to all sorts of information that is flying around that most don’t pick up on.

Can you talk about the gory elements? Do you ever get nauseous from them?

No, I don’t. The justification for the scenes is that they get us inside Will’s mind. Bryan Fuller is quite artful at using the different instances as the season progresses, other crimes and criminals, to further our understanding of Will’s state of mind, to further the relationship between Will and Hannibal, and Will and Jack and so on. I never felt that I’m just here because, “Oh, now I’m coming to stab someone so we can talk about fingerprints.” That doesn’t really hold any interest for me and I think I would have a problem with that.

With that said, there are obviously days when we are filming horrific crimes. Those are usually very technical days and that’s kind of fun. It’s a bit like filming a love scene. Any passion goes out the window because you are thinking about camera angles and props and prosthetics and special effects.

That signature device of Will re-creating some of the crimes in his mind is quite unusual. What is the main purpose of that? Is that for your justification or to show the audience how gruesome the act was, but in a calmer light?

Yes, I think all of those things. In the same way that Will is part empathic and part detective, he’s very good at his job. He’s smart in a rational way, as well as being able to pluck things out of the air. They have the same purpose, that they instruct the audience what happened and are specific to the development of the plot. But I also hope they give a sense of what Will has to carry around, what his burden is. I always felt Will would be a very difficult character to portray on screen, if you didn’t have those sequences and also if you don’t see him at home with his dogs. The two give a full balance of who he is, that he has something he holds very dear to him, which is really quite loveable and heart breaking. Will is so lonely and protects himself with his fishing rods and his dogs and his whiskey and his little house. Then he goes to work and has to deal with these absolutely horrific situations.

How would you describe Will’s relationship with his boss, Agent Jack Crawford (CSI’s Laurence Fishburne)?

Jack is a sledgehammer. He will do anything to catch these criminals and do his job. It’s very personal for him. It’s personal for all of us. The dynamic between them as it develops is a feeling from Will that he’s in danger of being broken. There’s a genuine risk to Will in what he does. He’s already taken himself out of it (consulting) to teach. Jack asks him to come back in and the next thing you know, Will is killing a man in his kitchen. And it gets worse from there. One thing that happens is Hannibal starts to lean on Will’s sense that Jack is not protecting him.

How do you and Mads Mikkelsen approach a scene and work together?

Obviously, Mads has to do his dance. He has a special dance he does before every scene. That’s not true. There are big differences in the characters we are playing. Mads has to think very carefully about what he gives away as Hannibal. He can’t be too, obviously, rubbing his hands together, because I’d see it. It’s very internal and incredibly subtle, which is one of the things Mads is so good at. Will is going through a fairly tumultuous experience, including when he is in here withHannibal. We just figure out how to make the scene work together. Bryan’s writing is so rich and complicated and you can’t just expect to come in and (say), “I’ll do my thing and you do yours.”

Who is your favorite serial killer that appears during the series?

There’s some quite extreme ones. I enjoy it when I feel they are tied into the rest of the show, which I think they are, by and large very well, either thematically or because Hannibal gets involved and it gets tied into the bigger stories.

Can you be more specific?

There’s an episode later on where Will is starting to have hallucinations. I’m hearing things. There’s somebody, who as we learn later, has a connection toHannibal via one of his patients, who has killed, in a very specific way, a member of the Baltimore Philharmonic Orchestra and used his vocal chords to create music. That obviously ties into what Will is starting to experience, this disintegration of his own mind. It ties into the plot with Hannibal and we begin to see a bit more of what Hannibal is capable of. It’s also rather disturbing and brilliant.
 

It seemed to be some sort of rule of thumb with the more iconic of horror baddies – the bigger you are then the harder and much more spectacularly you fall, usually amidst a climatic showcase of visual effects that have stretched the already limited budget of the film to near breaking point. I guess that's part of their enduring appeal. I mean, would Dracula really have been as unforgettable as he is if he was easily snuffed out by a simple baseball bat to the dome? Could you imagine watching a version of King Kong where the ape was simply put down like Old Yeller instead of being shot down from the top of the Empire State building? Some of these deaths have become as iconic as the villain themselves, complimenting the closing of the film with some final reel fireworks. Even a nameless henchman has a fighting chance for some kind of legacy by being dispatched in an adequately violent manner, properly punctuated with a snappy quip by the main protagonist of the story. Some, however, have wandered a little too far, even bordering on being downright asinine and confusing. The culprits usually stem from films of the eighties, the decade all-too-well-known for its excess.

So this list is a celebration of the many deaths of the boogeymen we all love to hate, along with the occasional pit stop to poke a playful finger at the maniacs who bought the farm with more of a whimper than a bang. Beware, for there be spoilers ahead. 

FREDDY'S DEATHS IN 'NIGHTMARE ON ELM STREET' PARTS 4 (1988) & 5 (1989)

After the huge effects-driven juggernaut that was Dream Warriors proved its worth both critically and commercially, the minds behind the Elm Street series leaned towards style over substance, hoping their increasingly elaborate dream sequences would buy them a few scares and draw in the fans. This was all pretty evident in the climatic Krueger demise sequences of The Dream Master and The Dream Child, sending the bastard son of a thousand maniacs off in a fashion that pretty much defied logic. From then on in the series, it appears that conjuring up a fresh new way to kill the Springwood slasher had unfortunately become something of a arduous chore. In the final few minutes of Renny Harlin's Dream Master, Alice Johnson is the final girl set with the task of vanquishing Freddy. She's the titular Dream Master, you see, yet despite absorbing all her fallen friend's survival talents she's no better off; Freddy has shrugged off everything she has thrown at him. It's down to the ghosts of the children who recite the Dream Master rhyme: “Now I lay me down to sleep. The Master of Dreams my soul will keep. In the reflection by my side...” Cue Alice, who somehow realizes that simply showing Freddy's reflection to him will invoke the spirits of the slain children to literally burst from his body.  A success for the makeup effects department, perhaps, but for everyone else who paid their admission price it is a different story. 

Freddy’s second duel with Alice Johnson in the fifth, endearingly silly installment of the series, helmed by Predator 2 director Stephen Hopkins, is just plain surreal and arguably a tad muddled. Here, all it takes is being fooled by a ten-year-old boy (Alice's unborn son, able to manifest himself in her dreams) to get Krueger to drop his guard - to what end though, I couldn't tell you. Informing the villain that “School's out,” he shoots something from his mouth, presumably turning the dream demon's own power against him, allowing the souls of Alice's friends to pull him from his very skin, leaving him in an infantile state on the floor. Before you ask, it's not any clearer on a re-watch, either. 

DWAYNE'S DEATH IN 'LOST BOYS' (1987)

Three simple words make all the difference. A horror movie monster death that seems to live on and on; the soundbite used in too many metal songs to list; even inspiring the name of a successful hardcore punk band. Getting impaled on a set of wall-mounted deer antlers? That's for pussies. Leave it to one of the lackeys to exit the film in style: shot through the chest by an arrow fired by Corey Haim and pinned to a huge amplifier to die a horrible electric death amidst a shower of sparks and the awful warbling of Rick Springfield's “We're Gonna Have A Good Time Now.” The humanity. Three simple words, one snappy quip – “Death by Stereo.”

PINHEAD'S DEATH IN HELLRAISER BLOODLINE (1996)

This is arguably the most definitive of the cenobite deaths in the entire series. After three films this is the one occasion where Doug Bradley's Pinhead isn’t sent packing to hell, but to oblivion. Surely there's no way back from that - ceasing to exist entirely? To date, if you really want to get pedantic (and you should expect this from a devout Hellraiser fanboy like me) Kevin Yagher's film still remains the ultimate fate of ol’ needle face. The film series’ time line advances no further than this.  Lured onto the space station Minos in the year 2127, Pinhead stands before Paul Merchant (Bruce Ramsay), the descendant of Phillip L'Merchant, French toymaker and creator of the Lament Configuration puzzle box. The design has evolved over the years, and it is revealed that the very structure they are standing in is a big trap to burn away the cenobites that have hounded his ancestors since the box's construction. The station folds in on itself, becoming a giant puzzle box, then triumphantly exploding. Sure, it's all a bit Death Star by way of Event Horizon, but there's something poignant about seeing the black pope of hell pinned against the wall as gravity shifts, his shark black eyes now giving way to signs of humanity. There's a look of genuine fear on his face as the fire engulfs the room leaving him time to utter his last word, “Amen,”  a response to Merchant's taunt,“Welcome to oblivion.” Merely one last sardonic quip aimed at Christianity or did the sudden introduction to mortality inspire a last minute change in faith?

DEATH OF THE SHARK IN 'JAWS' (1975)

Not only one of the finest examples of our beloved genre, but Jaws is hands-down one of cinema's purest forms of filmmaking genius. For the duration of the running time Steven Spielberg shows us very little of the titular beastie – simple lurking point-of-view shots with that John Williams score and the occasional glimpse of a shark fin are all that’s needed. The result? Pure, white knuckle terror that pays off in pure horror as the great white reveals itself for one final showdown with it's hunters. With his boat chewed to smithereens, Amity Island police chief Martin Brody (Roy Scheider)  is about to go down with the ship and into the waters with the shark. The only chance he has is that gas canister lodged in the shark's teeth. “Smile, You son of a-!” Boooom! His shot lands and the shark is obliterated in a shower of brain matter and gore. Brody can finally make that long journey home – and we all needed crowbars to remove us from the edge of our seats.

FREDDY DIES IN THREE DIMENSIONS IN 'FREDDY'S DEAD' (1991)

So after dragging out the series perhaps a little too far, this was the chapter ostensibly dedicated to laying the famous dream slayer to rest, once and for all. With a huge following of fans chomping at the bit to see how the story reaches it's conclusion, you'd think that the big wigs at New Line would be well aware that this is one crucial sequel to get right. Sadly, Rachel Talalay's film belly flopped horribly, even with the enticing lure of a 3D finale – an optimistic move, considering stereoscopic horror filmmaking hadn't really advanced much since  Friday The 13^th Part 3 in 1982. On paper, this sounded promising. Kreuger, now completely devoid of any menace, is wisecracking and quipping his way from one overblown dream sequence to the next like a homicidal Bugs Bunny. How is the iconic Kreuger vanquished once and for all? Pretty much the same way Heather Langenkamp's Nancy Thompson did in Wes Craven's original nightmare way back in 1984. Dragged from the dream world into this one by the woman revealed to be Freddy's estranged daughter, Maggie Burroughs (Lisa Zane), he is violently beaten to a pulp, then has a pipe bomb buried in his chest. He wearily sighs his last word “Kids” before exploding into a dozen miniaturized versions of himself, like the final boss in an old 16-bit beat 'em up.  I wasn’t quite of age to catch this in theatres on release so can't really comment on the ambitious use of 3D for the finale, finding myself among those who made do with a VHS transfer of the film and some shoddy glasses with red and green lenses included in the box. For many people my age, poor old Freddy Kreuger finally met a piss poor end, drowning in a vague blur of red and green.

JASON DIES IN 'JASON GOES TO HELL – THE FINAL FRIDAY' (1993)

The Friday films may be deliriously silly, but many of us wouldn't have them any other way. So goes the chapter that would ostensibly see the hockey masked lunatic follow in the footsteps of a certain dream demon and finally put his teen killing days firmly behind him. Sure, after what even hardcore series fans would admit is a series low point, we get enough special effect fireworks for our buck as Kane Hodder's Jason is dragged to hell by a pack of weird muppet-looking hands, the result of having a mystical dagger buried into him by way of a roundhouse kick. It's the aftermath that puts this particular demise into legend. After the dust has settled and everyone has gone home, convinced that they have put the worst behind them, a gust of wind reveals Jason's mask, partly buried in the dirt. A very familiar razor glove punches out from the dirt, snatching the mask from sight. So began years of fevered fanboy speculation as to where exactly this image would lead. It wasn't until 2003 that we would all find out.

CHUCKY DIES IN 'CHILD'S PLAY' 1 & 2 (1988 & 1990)

Chucky may very well be a little foul-mouthed plastic doll but that doesn’t stop him from being one big pain in the ass to kill, with a tendency to rise from the grave almost as often as the Terminator. Six year old Andy (Alex Vincent) proves himself to have a knack for survival, trapping the pint-sized killer behind the fireplace in an effort to defend himself and his mother from a doll possessed by the spirit of Charles Lee Ray, known in his former life as the Lakeshore Strangler.  Chucky makes a plea for the young boy's mercy by bleating, “We're friends 'til the end, remember?” before Andy sets him alight, sending Chucky screaming around the house, engulfed in a ball of flames. Brad Dourif's superb vocal work makes the chaos all that more effective. It doesn’t stop there however, as he still finds the energy to march slowly towards Andy and his mother Karen. Even decapitation fails to halt him, his charred, disembodied head barking orders at the rest of his body to kill a police officer.  

The arguably superior sequel takes the gag and runs with it, only this time bigger and better – after the Chuckster realizes it is way too late to perform the voodoo ritual that will prevent him from being trapped forever in a Good Guy doll, all bets are off. Andy is of no use to him now and it’s a simple case of psychotic revenge, stalking Andy and his foster sister Kyle (Christine Elise) through the Good Guy doll factory. Losing his arm after trapping it in machinery, he replaces it with a razor-sharp shard of steel, making his stump a deadly weapon. Sewn to the spot on one of the conveyor belts, he is dragged into one of the machines to be painfully chewed up and spat out in a steamy heap like an old dog toy before finally being doused in boiling paint. Yet he still comes back, albeit seriously deformed in a glorious display of old-school animatronics, for one last scare. Kyle forces an air pump down the poor doll's throat that pumps him with so much air that he bursts like some kind of horrifying piñata. Poor old Charles. Back to the Good Guy club house in the sky for you.

MASS ELECTROCUTION IN 'GREMLINS 2' (1990)

Joe Dante's larger-than-life special effects laden horror comedy sequel could only really end in a huge lavish musical number - and why not? We've had a transsexual Gremlin, a flasher, one whose body is becoming a giant vegetable and even Hulk Hogan turned up to smack some common decency into the mischievous little mites (for those who managed to catch the theatrical version). The 'smart' Gremlin has now led the entire batch into the lobby for a huge rendition of Frank Sinatra's “New York, New York” to kill some time as they wait for the sun to go down, which is their chance to get out into the Big Apple and spread throughout the general population. It's down to Billy Peltzer to save the day, turning on the building sprinkler system so that he may douse the batch and unleash a Gremlin whose entire being is literally electricity. The Gremlins are all horribly electrocuted, a sequence that probably saw legendary make up effects artist Rick Baker and his team working around the clock.

DEATH OF HELENA MARKOS IN 'SUSPIRIA' (1977)

This horror villain demise gets a mention on our list just for its shit-your-pants-scary factor alone. Sure the film is perhaps more infamous for it's earlier deaths that are much more visually shocking, but for sheer dread, the killing of the head witch and founder of the dance academy was a perfect exclamation point for the film. Struggling to get to the truth behind the violent slaying of her friends, young dance student Suzy Banyon (Jessica Harper) has found in the sleeping chamber of the head witch of the coven. Her god-awful wheezing has ceased and we see only her shadow, which rises and turns to camera – to us - which still to this day chills me to the bone. Desperate to put an end to the madness, Suzy arms herself with a stabbing weapon and draws back the bed curtain to discover that the witch cannot be seen. Amused by the girl's confusion, Helena begins cackling and re-animates the corpse of Suzy's friend Sarah to attack, giving the poor girl moments to live. It's a miracle that she spots the outline of the witch on the bed and quickly stabs her, stopping the murderous corpse in its tracks and somehow sends the entire Academy into self destruct mode like an old James Bond film. A very brief , yet unforgettable final encounter none the less.

BILLY LOOMIS COMES BACK FOR ONE MORE SCARE IN 'SCREAM' (1996)

So Ghostface is unmasked – it's actually Billy Loomis (Skeet Ulrich) and his high-strung acquaintance Stu Macher (Matthew Lillard). Disposing of Stu by way of a television to the head, Sidney Prescott (Neve Campbell) is saved by over-zealous news reporter Gale Weathers (Courtney Cox). Both the killers now foiled, it seems that Kevin Williams' ground breaking script has one more post-modern gag up its sleeve before the audience gets to see the credits roll. Horror movie obsessive Randy Meeks (Jaime Kennedy) gives caution to Sidney, who goes back for one last look at Billy. “Careful. This is the moment when the supposedly-dead killer comes back to life for one last scare.” Boo! Sure enough, Loomis lunges forward, but only to be met with a bullet right between the eyes from our final girl. “Not in my movie.”

In tonight’s episode of Grimm, a death in a video game spells out death in real life. The killer enjoys a good puzzle, which is where Sgt. Wu comes in. Played by Reggie Lee, Wu is a stalwart of Grimm, but frequently underused. In tonight’s episode, “Nameless” Wu gets to shine by figuring out puzzles that help lead Portland police to the killer. We chatted with Reggie about his role in tonight’s episode, Wu’s fate in the series, a preview of the rest of the season... and dogs. We both love dogs.

In tonight’s episode, Wu gets more of a storyline than he usually does!

Yes! I will be live-Tweeting the East Coast feed. I rarely watch because I don’t like to watch myself. Actors tend to self-direct as they watch. You never want to self direct because then you get into your head... blah blah blah. Anyway! In tonight’s episode you find out that Wu is a bit of a gamer. Last season, when I was eating the couch stuffing, you got a peek into Wu’s apartment, and at that time we decided to design his life. Part of his life was that he was a foodie, so he cooked, and he had a cat named Samson. You didn’t see Samson, but you saw Samson’s kitty condo. Then you saw a bunch of video game consoles strewn all over the place. So that is when we found out that Wu is a gamer. I think Wu just wants to head the entire police department. So anything he can take over, he will, and that is what happens with this gaming episode. He won’t admit that, but he will think, “I can do this.”

What was funny was that there is a sudoku puzzle in this episode. When sudoku first came out, I was all over that, whenever I had spare time. But we are several years later, and [in the episode] Nick and Hank see the puzzle and say, “What’s that?” I thought, “How could you not know what sudoku is??” But we played that off. I think all Wu has in his life are his games and his cat. It’s a little sad.

Wu needs a dog.

Right?! Instead of a cat - or maybe he can get a dog in a future episode. I think that would be awesome. That would be so “Portland.” I’m going to bring this up. And we can name the dog Delilah, and I can have Samson and Delilah. I like it! You are giving me ideas! 

Wu sees a little action in this episode. Did you do your own stunts?

I did. There was one part of the stunt they wouldn’t actually let me do, where I am swinging there.... What they did with me is they harnessed me and had me hanging on, then they had me hanging on with one hand - which was almost worse! I just wanted them to swing me off - it’s faster than me dangling! But they are always really courteous and really safe when it comes to stunts. That kind of stuff is fun. And like I said, any time Wu gets the chance to do some fun stuff, I’ll take it - or rather, Wu will take it.

The only daunting part, I think, is that we did not rehearse the [first part of the stunt]. So when we got there, they said, “You’re going to go out, and swing around, then climb up and chase.” I thought, “We didn’t rehearse that part.” They said we weren’t going to rehearse that part, we were just going to shoot. I figured that would make it more real because I would be scared anyway. It was fine, but all that was in my head was a splat of Wu on the street.

I feel like Wu has been severely underused in the series thus far. Who do we talk to about that?

[Laughs] I have been getting a lot of Tweets about that. I am very grateful for Wu. I initially auditioned for the role of Hank. It came down to three of us: Russell Hornsby [who plays Hank], myself, and another guy. I was glad it went to Russell. I told him, “If I don’t get this I hope you do,” because it is a person of color and I wanted to be supportive of that. And he is wonderful in the role - I can’t see anyone else doing it. The next day, my manager called and told me that the producers really liked me and wanted to write a role for me. I had to know what the role was, but I was on board, especially because of [producers] Jim Kouf and David Greenwalt and their pedigree with the sci-fi world. I love sci-fi and I thought it would be fun. To their credit, I think they had more planned for this season. I think what took them away from it was the mythology, and how do we include [Wu] in that mythology. I think they really wanted to do a slow-burn on the show. I think with this particular show, if all the characters are “on board” [with the Wesen secret] at the same time, the show has nowhere to go. If everyone knows then we are just protecting it from the outside world. I think it is going to be a slow burn for this character in particular - and that is the reason [that Wu is underused]. They’ve definitely incorporated me more into the crimes in this second part of the season, which I am grateful for. It’s fun to do that. 

They’ve been very collaborative, asking me about any Filipino or Chinese fairy tales. I gave them outlines of a whole bunch of them, and to their credit, they are looking into all of them. We’ve got a lot coming up. The producers have used eight series regulars this season, and I think they have done a really good job incorporating all of that. Yeah, sometimes I feel underused, but it is in service of the story. Wu has a definite purpose, with the crime part. But I’m having a great time and they are serving the story very well, but all that stuff, that’s on its way. David Greenwalt himself told me it is on its way.

Can we expect that Wu will eventually learn about the Grimms and the Wesen, maybe not this season but later on?

Yeah, I think that is in the cards. I think you can only string that along for so long. Wu is so in the loop with Nick and Hank, and he’s not a stupid guy. He’s certainly book smart - maybe not so much street smart - but one day, he’s just going to say, “Why are you staring so hard at that person?”

I have been going crazy the last few weeks because I just want them to tell Juliette already!

[Laughs] I know! It’s funny how much the fans get into it. I know, and I hear you. I read a lot of stuff [about the show] - sometimes I think I shouldn’t - because it makes you go, “Darn it! Why can’t you do this with my storyline? This is what the fans are saying!” But I tell myself to stop reading it because it is different from what the writers deem important to the storyline. 

Before we go, can you tell us what we can expect from the rest of the season?

You can expect that Juliette gets more clued in. That will definitely happen. You will find some alliances form, and you will definitely find some alliances break down. Adalind definitely gets in the picture more - let’s put it that way. She causes some ruckus. Nick gets himself into some trouble. And that is just the mythology side of the story - we still have a lot of procedural stuff coming up, too. We’ve only got six episodes [after tonight’s] but the last two episodes are ridiculous. They are both written by Jim Kouf and David Greenwalt, and they are strung together. It is a lot of action. The last episode, which we are shooting right now, they have had to figure in another day to shoot because it is so much. It is so much fun, but so much work. I am tired just thinking about it.

Have you guys been picked up for a third season?

We haven’t heard anything officially. All our leases are up, so they better tell us something soon!

Ready?

Season six of True Blood premieres June 16th at 9pm. It is getting its start two weeks before Dexter's pushed-up, eigth-and-final season begins on June 30th. Sundays are going to be busy this summer.

The first promo for True Blood will premiere this Sunday, just before the premiere of Game of Thrones. Don't get HBO? We will have it here on FEARnet as soon as it premieres.

New comic book Wednesday has come and gone. The dust at your local comic shop has settled. An eerie silence descends as you finish reading your last superhero book of the week. Now it's time for something a little more sinister. Welcome to Bagged and Boarded: comic reviews of the sick, spooky, twisted and terrifying!

Witch Doctor: Mal Practice No. 5

The surly doctor of all things magical and supernatural preps for a massive showdown with the villain du jour. But first he's got to finish his telekinetic battle with a giant parasite inside his lungs. After dealing with that troubling malady, the good doctor heads off to reluctantly build a team of assistants in his war against bad magic.

Bag it or board it up? This series is a constant delight. Astral projection, references to the Jabberwocky, medical maladies, and lots of gore. I'm a big fan of any comic that can fit all that between a cover and cap it with a "To be continued…" This series constantly provides that. This is the second to last issue in this mini-series, and next month's issue is going to be insane.

Mister X: Hard Candy

Oh, Mister X, what a wonderful throwback. The old series lives on and features a bald, pale man with iconic circular sunglasses and a knack for getting to the bottom of troubles in Radiant City. The city is a sprawling mass of strange, Bauhaus architecture, and Mister X is a pseudo-detective working for hire, addicted to psychotropic drugs. When an heiress goes missing, Mister X is hired by a lovely old lady to get her back, but is everything as it seems? Is that old lady really so lovely?

Bag it or board it up? This comic has that classic Mister X feel. The artwork is a wonder to behold, and the storyline is interesting, though not revolutionary. If you looking a comic chock full of atmosphere you should really check out Mister X.

Criminal Macabre/30 Days of Night: Final Night No. 4

This is it! The climactic end to the mini-series smashing together Criminal Macabre and 30 Days of Night is here and it's not pulling any punches. Cal is hurt, bad, but he pulls himself together (sort of) to take on Eben and his vampire minions. This is the end, there are major changes here that will effect both series, and… I can't say anything more!

Bag it or board it up? This was an exciting issue. As I teased above, it will have massive ramifications on both series, and I love when comics are brave enough to actually make big changes to their status quo. The artwork in this issue is lovely; the red blood cuts a sharp swath through the darkness of this issue. Check it out, even if you're not totally up to date.

B.P.R.D. Vampire No. 1

Picking up semi-closely after the events of B.P.R.D. 1948, Vampire follows the story of a pair of sister vampires and a man named Simon. Simon's plagued with the memories of demons that have been trapped inside him, and with nothing to do but grow angry and nasty, he decides it's his mission to hunt down the vampires and take them out.

Bag it or board it up? Mike Mignola, do you ever rest? Do you just make amazing comics every hour of every day? This issue is light on dialogue and heavy on beautiful, haunting imagery. If you're a fan of fine art, this is definitely worth your time. I bet this series will provide an awesome new twist on classic vampire tropes, and this moody, quiet first issue is the proof. Check it out.

Cult Episode 106
“The Good Fight”
Written By: Megan Lynn & Wade Solomon
Directed By: Martha Coolidge
Original Airdate: 29 March 2013

In This Episode...

The day after the party, Skye is having hallucinations. This quickly leads to her collapsing in the middle of Jeff’s apartment. At the hospital, Skye is unconscious, but the doctor says her brain activity is off the charts. He doesn’t know what is wrong with her, and won’t if Jeff can’t get a sample of the drug she took. The doctor is worried that if he can’t get the drug, Skye may face permanent brain damage.

Jeff tries to get some more drug from Lexi, but she is of no help. She also doesn’t have Dustin’s contact info. Jeff has one last resort: Detective Sakelik. He enlists in EJ’s help to get Sakelik’s address, but Burt intercedes. He doesn’t want EJ wrapped up in this nonsense. Instead, Burt will get the info from his contacts, and go with Jeff. They roll up at Sakelik’s house and discover she is in the front yard, tending to her roses. Jeff is still determined to get the drug, so Burt distracts Sakelik while Jeff sneaks inside. The doctor said the drug was unstable and had to be refrigerated, so that is where Jeff looks. He hits paydirt in the freezer and escapes as Sakelik comes inside for a soda. She notices the freezer is ajar, and the back door was left open.

Jeff returns to the hospital with the drug, the docs reverse engineer it, and find a cure for Skye. Hand-cut roses are delivered to Skye... with a note that says, “Sorry to hear about your friend Burt.” Jeff goes to the ER and sees paramedics rushing Burt in, a gun shot wound to the chest. EJ is there, hysterical, saying that it was a home invasion. But Jeff sees Sakelik in her car across the street - this was a warning.

Meanwhile, in Skye’s fevered dream state, she envisions herself in the world of “Cult.” She is one of Billy’s would-be followers. He is encouraging her to “give up” and “let go.” Kelly does the same, and most distressing, Skye’s father. Clearly they want her to remain in a coma. Clearly, Skye doesn’t give in.

Dig It or Bury It?

Meh. Nothing happened in this episode. We learned nothing about the “Cult”-iverse, it was just a lot of bullshit whining disguised as a dream. Boring.

Prophecies?

Apparently Burt is dead. I think I am supposed to care about that... but I can’t muster the interest.

Grimm Episode 216
“Nameless”
Written By: Akela Cooper
Directed By: Charles Haid
Original Airdate: 29 March 2013

In This Episode...

A video game company is launching their new MMORPG title - to great success. Team leader Jenna and one of her teammates Brody sneak off to a back office to fool around. Jenna thinks she hears something and quickly dresses and leaves - their relationship is fairly secret. There certainly is something in the room with them, a gobliny Wesen with loooong, knife-like claws that drip acid. When Jenna is gone, the Wesen cuts Brody in half; the acid cauterizes the wounds. Written on the wall, in Brody’s blood, is the edict “Play my game.”

The company owner, Dominic, tells Hank and Nick that Jenna and her team created a new line of code that would allow infinitely more players onto a server, making her code immeasurably valuable. The rest of Jenna’s team - and the rest of the company - were competitive, but friendly. No one had a grudge against Brody. However, three hours before he was dead, Brody’s player in the game was killed in the same way. Another team member, Vicky, dies in the game. She dies in the same way shortly thereafter.

The killer has been leaving clues. In addition to threats left in blood and phone calls with the same, title pages from fantasy classics Alice in Wonderland, A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur’s Court, and Rage - all with similar threats. They also find a sudoku puzzle with a few blank squares highlighted.

Sergeant Wu is the puzzle master. He pieces together the fact that all the books were authored by men using pseudonyms, and the highlighted sudoku numbers yielded a time and date. Jenna fills in the blanks: she was supposed to have a date at that time with a creepy IT guy at a restaurant called Nom de Plume. She stood him up, and she can’t remember his name - something odd, that started with a T. What’s more is that the invaluable code that Jenna wrote was actually the IT work of the IT guy. Jenna gave him no credit.

Hank and Nick hit the trailer and match up the MO with the fuchsteufield. In the book, the fuchsteufield comes with a long list of weird names. Nick realizes they all use the same letters, rearranged, but he doesn’t know what to do with them. Back at the precinct, Wu runs the letters through an anagram finder, then they match those names against the game users. There is one match: Trinket Lipslums. The cops set up a virtual stakeout. Jenna finds Trinket - game handle Nameless - in the game and kills him, splitting him in half lengthwise. Trinket does not take this well and decides the game is not over. He breaks into Jenna’s house, but finds it is not Jenna at the computer - it is a cop. Nick, Hank, Wu, and others swarm in, but Trinket escapes. A chase leads up to the roof via fire escape. Wu is hot on Trinket’s heels, but Trinket uses his acid drip to cut the fire escape from the building. Wu is left dangling while Nick and Hank take the regular stairs and meet Trinket on the roof. Rather than “lose,” Trinket throws himself off the roof.

Meanwhile, Juliette’s hallucinations are getting stronger and more frequent. She begs Monroe and Rosalee to come over. Though they can’t see what she sees, Juliette hopes that maybe if she describes what she sees, Monroe can help put the pieces together. It seems fairly clear that these hallucinations are Juliette’s memories coming back in bits and pieces. One of them is Nick looking over a journal. Monroe, without thinking, says it must have been Nick in Aunt Marie’s trailer. He tries to backtrack, but Juliette realizes she was about to enter the trailer when the whole “incident” hit. She is determined to go check out the trailer, but Monroe won’t take her until he talks to Nick. Juliette doesn’t want Nick to know, but Monroe holds fast. He tells Nick, who tells Monroe to keep her away. The problem is that if Juliette doesn’t get the truth soon, she is going to leave Portland and forget about Nick for good.

Also: Renard sets up a super-secret meeting with a man from Vienna. With Renard’s brother gone, the Viennese guy can meet Renard with relative safety. Unfortunately, a dude named Henri has been following Vienna-man. When Vienna and Renard meet, Renard wants to know where his brother’s influence is expanding to. Vienna says there are “cabals within cabals” and “no one knows who is controlling anything.” He passes Renard a thumb drive, which he says contains the encrypted names of the resistance. They must protect these names - it is the only way to prevent Eric from returning the Wesen to imperialism is by protecting the resistance. Renard notices Henri acting dodgy in the restaurant, then he leaves behind a briefcase. Renard acts fast, throwing the briefcase out into the street before it can explode. Henri runs, but Renard shoots him dead.

Dig It or Bury It?

Really enjoyed this episode. It had a lot of great elements. On the procedural side, we had video games and wicked kills from a wicked killer. On the mythology side, Juliette is finally knocking on the knowledge door, and we get a little more insight into the Renard debacle. 

Prophecies?

Rosalee is put on jury duty and realizes the defense attorney is using “Wesen wiles” to influence the trial. Plus, Juliette is so close to the truth....

After a horrible season four, and a mediocre season five, I had admittedly lost any verve for the upcoming season of True Blood. Well, this first teaser has actually renewed my excitement in the series. It is all tension, blood, and fighting. What isn't to like? I especially love the ode to Carrie at the end.

Okay folks, what do you think? Is True Blood heading down a better path this season?

Season six of True Blood debuts on June 16th at 9pm on HBO.

Outdoorsy supernatural events are all the rage right now, what with the zombie 5k and the horror movie campout and the like. Throw another crazy event into the mix with the Loch Ness Triathlon. Running and camping aren't enough - in this event, you must bike, run, and yes - swim - from terrifying sea creatures. Or loch creatures. Not restricted to Scotland, the Loch Ness Triathlon will start in Los Angeles and tour across the country. First stop: the Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum on June 31st. Check out the trailer for the event:

Look interesting? Fill out the application here.

Guillermo del Toro gave fans a big treat at Wondercon over the weekend when he unveiled Alex Ross’s cover art for the graphic novel Pacific Rim: Tales from the Year Zero. If you know comics at all, you probably know Alex Ross, who has worked on a number of projects with Marvel and DC Comics, and created covers for several Dynamite titles.

More on the Pacific Rim: Tales from the Year Zero:

Hitting stores June 5, PACIFIC RIM: TALES FROM YEAR ZERO serves as a prequel to the highly-anticipated motion picture -- Warner Bros. and Legendary Pictures Pacific Rim.  Chronicling the very first time Earth is menaced by incredible monsters known as Kaiju, these inhuman beasts rise from the ocean depths and threaten to extinquish all mankind! Witness the race to develop massive robot fighting machines called Jaegers, each one controlled simultaneously by two pilots whose minds are locked in a neural bridge. This action-packed book features many of the key characters from the film as we follow them in their early careers. Written by Pacific Rim screenwriter himself, Travis Beacham, and with del Toro's hands-on supervision, this volume is beautifully illustrated by Sean Chen, Yvel Guichet, and Pericles Junior; inks by Steve Bird and Mark McKenna.
 

Blood Feast (The Night of 1000 Cats) is the creation of Mexican cult director René Cardona Jr., who is best known for making the movie that inspired Jaws, Tintorera. The Night of 1000 Cats, stars the debonair Hugo Stiglitz as the helicopter-flying killer playboy Hugo. His main occupation in life is to lure unsuspecting women back to his man lair by flying around and suggestively dropping a rope ladder out the side of the 'copter in the hope they’ll climb up.

Once these ladies are back at Hugo’s lair, they are treated to drinks from gigantic goblets, some bachelor-type play, sexy interludes, and finally a beheading. All of this takes planning and organization, none of which could be done without the Hugo’s trusty right hand man and our sidekick of the week, Dorgo. At this point I am sure you are wondering where the cats come in. Well, Hugo’s a collector of sorts, and is really only interested in keeping the lovely heads of the ladies he’s murdered. So, he leaves the rest to his gang of 1000 maniacal felines where they make short work of the victims’ young and tasty flesh.

As a sidekick Dorgo exels. He’s the strong silent type, who generally keeps his mouth shut. In no way competition for the playboy looks-wise, Dorgo’s job is to make amazing meals of “special meat” for his master and his friends, make everyone feel as comfortable as possible, and keep the young ladies in line.

Film: The Night of 1000 Cats
    
Year: 1972


Sidekick: Dorgo (Gerardo Zepeda)

Why this Sidekick Is Better Than the Lead: A man of simple pleasures, Dorgo is actually more of a catch than Hugo and if given a chance, he could probably make a lady very happy. He cooks, cleans, and cares for those around him. He also doesn’t seem to need to collect people’s heads and isn’t at the mercy of the cats.

Moment of Glory: Mistakenly killing his master’s one true love with a pair of gardening shears and setting Hugo on the path of head collecting.

Moment of Gory:  Dorgo and Hugo sit down to a friendly game of chess that soon turns deadly. Poor Dorgo, he actually looks like he’s having fun and is winning the game. Cut to the cats. They need to be fed, and Dorgo has a lot of meat on his large frame.
 

The choice is made! The Traveller has come! And he’s wearing a t-shirt!

Gozer worshippers, rejoice. You finally have your very own secret society t-shirt to wear when conducting rituals up on the roof, bizarre rituals intended to bring about the end of the world.

The shirt can take the form of color and size you choose and boasts a cool graphic insprired by Ghostbusters.
 

$22.50 at redbubble.com

Mike Mendez (The Gravedancers) has been making horror films since before the dawn of the new millennium. He has been drawing a great deal of attention over the last couple of months with his latest addition to the genre, Big Ass Spider. FEARnet had the opportunity to check in with the man himself about Big Ass Spider. The film has garnered rave reviews through its debut at SXSW. Big Ass Spider has been getting praise for good-naturedly laughing in the face of its farcical premise but still taking itself seriously enough to provide the viewer with a fun experience.

We talked with Mendez about his struggle to get approval from the produces to call the film Big Ass Spider, how he reluctantly learned to embrace digital effects, and what kind of distribution the film is headed for.

Can you give us a brief rundown of what we can look forward to in Big Ass Spider?

Big Ass Spider is the story of a bumbling but loveable exterminator who accidentally gets roped in to trying stop a genetically engineered run away spider. It becomes a race between him and his lovable security guard sidekick Jose, and the government to see who can stop the spider first.

Big Ass Spider has been receiving rave reviews. Congratulations.

Mike Mendez: There is one terrible review out there, but I think its coming from a disturbed person. It’s kind of weird. The major problem that the critic had with the film – aside from the terrible acting, terrible direction, and terrible effects – was that we wussed out on a scene where it looked like a child was going to get impaled. They said we wimped out by not impaling the child. And I was like “What kind of f**king movie do you think this is?” (Laughs). Not that I have anything against killing children [on screen] but I do have something against killing children in a light hearted, funny movie. It wasn’t really the tone we were going for. It was one of those situations where the review is so bad that you can’t really take it seriously. But, you can’t please everybody. And I’m super thankful that we’ve managed to garner positive reviews, overall.

Last time we spoke, you were targeting Big Ass Spider for The SyFy Channel. Do you have any update on where you are at with distribution?

I have a feeling at some point it will end up on SyFy. But, the goal is to see if we can do a little better than that. These kinds of movies have kind of been dragged through the dirt because there are so many bad ones, but we wanted to give it an honest try. We wanted to see if we could do something better. Getting in to SXSW was, for me, a wonderful feeling and was very fulfilling. It was awesome to be in such a great festival. It was great to get accepted and great to see the audience react the way that they did. At this point, I’m hoping that we will have a small theatrical run with a VOD release, and then television.  I have a feeling that it will live happily on TV for a while. It’s a very clean movie. It has a lot of playability. I hope to get a lot of television play throughout the world.

Congratulations. That’s fantastic. You were targeting the film for TV and now you’ve opened it up to a whole new audience.

That’s been one of the best things about it. We will see where it goes. I wanted to give the producers at Epic Pictures something in return for trusting me with a movie. I wanted to give them something that they could sell. On a personal front, I wanted to do something that wouldn’t let down the people that like my movies. I also wanted to do something that was cool enough to get in to cool festivals and be seen by a wide audience. It looks like, God willing, we have managed to achieve that, which is really incredible. When I first picked up the script, it was called Dino Spider. The way that I pictured that going is a lot different from the way that it actually ended up.

It was originally called Dino Spider? Like dinosaur spider?

The movie is about a genetic crossbreeding between a spider and something. It was originally a cross breeding of a spider and a dinosaur. There’s a way to go with that and there’s a wacky way you could do it, but an alien spider seemed more interesting to me.  That probably has to do with my immense fandom of the Alien film franchise.

On the subject of the film’s title, it was looking like the film was going to be called Mega Spider. But you were holding out for Big Ass Spider. How did you win that battle?

It was a big struggle, to be honest. Epic Pictures, God bless them, understandably thought it would be difficult to sell a film called Big Ass Spider to foreign markets. So, for better or worse, Mega Spider was universal. Everyone understands Mega Spider. But, I had much bigger aspirations for the film, and we were really trying to elevate the film and make the best movie we could. To then give the film a really generic title felt like a disservice to the movie. That battle waged on for two years. I said in the very first meeting that I think we could take this in a good direction, but I think we should call the movie Big Ass Spider. They thought that was funny and said maybe they would consider it. But I wouldn’t let go. As we made the movie, no matter what they called it, I forevermore was going to call it Big Ass Spider. I think that is the right title for the movie. I felt it in my heart and soul. Big Ass Spider was the name that the crew and people who started to hear about the move latched on to. Everyone really liked the title, but there was still the problem of foreign sales. They came to me and said we want to call the movie Alex and Jose vs. the Giant Spider. At that point, I just blew a gasket.  I said, “look. I can’t be cool with that. That’s not the movie we worked on. That’s not the movie we made. I don’t support that. I’m not cool with that in any way.” Of course, I was going to do my job, but it didn’t feel right to me in any way. God bless Epic Pictures, because they made the right decision and changed it to Big Ass Spider. We’ve gotten in to SXSW and a whole bunch of others, and the trailer has gone viral and a lot of good things have happened. I don’t know if they will ever credit me for the title possibly being responsible for some of those things, but the bottom line is that they did the right thing and changed the title and I think we are all better for it.

I know you are a practical effects guy. Are you happy with the finished product - post effects and all?

I will always love practical effects. I grew up in the eighties. I grew up reading Fangoria. I wanted to be a makeup artist. I would spend the little money I would make buying all sorts of mold making materials to become a makeup artist. That was an expensive hobby when I was a kid, and so was filmmaking. So, I kind of focused more on filmmaking but I will always be partial to practical effects. Working with the practical side of making the effects has always been my favorite part of making a movie. With that said, this movie certainly changed me in a lot of ways. It changed a lot of my viewpoints on making films. I really learned to embrace digital technology. It can be awful if it’s done wrong, but we were very blessed to have ICE Animation. They really blew me away. I wanted to do a stop motion kind of approach. I love stop motion and I wanted to do it that way. But we were able to do a nice compromise, in doing a very photorealistic hard shell creature that looks a little like stop motion when it’s animated. But, it also gave us the flexibility that you get with CGI.  I feel like CG-effects are a tool that should be embraced, but CGI should not be relied too heavily on. There’s no way we would have been able to pull this movie off, on our budget, without heavy digital effects. I think it’s important to use the tools you have to the best of your ability. But like with anything else, a lot relies on the artists who are doing it. It could have just as easily been another company and the effects could have looked terrible. The success of digital effects relies largely on the artist.

Clare Kramer (The Gravedancers) is in the film. Was she cast based on your previous working relationship?

Clare is a good friend. I made kind of a conscious decision to try to save money. I knew that we couldn’t really afford a casting director. When you make a low budget movie there are corners you have to cut. A casting direction seemed like a corner we could cut. So, I made the decision to use what was around me. I reached out to my friends and to people I think are talented. I actually just used my Facebook friends as the pool to draw from for actors. I had the choice to either go seek out strangers or hire people that I know and trust. Greg Grunberg was kind of the only exception to that. We did not know each other and had not previously worked together. I do still consider him part of the circle though, because another director friend recommended me to Greg, so it still felt like we were keeping it in the family and sticking to my goal of casting through Facebook.

Can you give us an update on your upcoming film Overkill?

Overkill is a movie that I would very much like to do. Sadly, it’s not set up anywhere. That’s a somewhat recent development. The script is written and I have a very strong point of view for how I would like to make it. The grand question is, then, what is next? Will it be Overkill or a new project? I don’t know. I would very much like to do Overkill at some point. If I had my way, and I’m sure I won’t, I would love to stack up four or five movies in a row and just plow through them for the next three or four years. If that were the case, I would definitely want Overkill to be a part of it. The other thing I am curious to see if people would be interested in is a prequel to The Convent. That’s still in the script form, but that is another one that could potentially be out there.

 

My hat’s off to Erik Williams. If I’d had the idea for his new book Bigfoot Crank Stomp, I honestly don’t know if I would have had the guts to write it.

See, there’s these meth-heads, right? And somehow, they’ve managed to capture a Sasquatch. Yeah, as in Bigfoot. That big, ape-like creature previously seen only in grainy, out-of-focus footage and John Lithgow movies. And somehow, they’ve got him contained in the cellar of their cabin/meth lab. And rather than cash in on this potential goldmine, these geniuses decide it would be fun to get Bigfoot hooked on meth.

Yeah, like we don’t know how that’s going to work out for them.

In his dedication at the beginning of the book, Williams thanks his dad for introducing him to “the wonders of B movies.” It’s clear those flicks had a huge inspiration on Williams, at least for this book – from the title to the subject matter to the rapid-fire execution, this piece of prose has “B movie” written all over it.

When we join the story things are, as they say, already in progress. The meth-heads are working overtime in their cabin to fill a large order, and Bigfoot is down in the cellar, hurting for a fix. It seems that the creature’s tolerance has developed rather rapidly, requiring bigger and bigger amounts of product to calm him down. When the last batch proved to be too little, he ripped the arms off the guy who brought it to him. Needless to say, there’s a sense of urgency about the situation.

Meanwhile, outside, a couple more meth-heads, rival cookers and suppliers of the same product the guys in the cabin are producing, are sniffing around, looking to scare off the competition. Also in the area is an ex-Marine, a sniper, who lives in the woods and is out to do a little hunting; a woman on a solo camping trip; and a threesome spending the weekend filming a little amateur porn in the countryside. Not to mention the sheriff and his deputies who are about to get a call that will land them in the middle of the case of a lifetime.

Williams introduces all of these elements and then gives them a quick stir, bringing them all together in violent, surprising and sometimes humorous ways. One thing Williams never offers, however, is an explanation of how the meth-heads managed to capture a Sasquatch in the first place. I’m actually grateful that he doesn’t – it makes it much easier to ignore the inherent implausibility of the situation and just go along for the ride.

Bigfoot Crank Stomp is over-the-top, but with that title it has to be. The title sets up certain expectations, and Williams more than fulfills them. There is absolutely no scene involving a whacked-out, drug-craving, berserker Bigfoot that Williams is afraid to write. Not a single one. This book is everything you could possibly want in a book about a rampaging mythical creature looking for his next hit, delivered in compulsively readable style with a real cinematic eye for pacing and exciting scenes. If B movie levels of gore, black humor and action are your thing, this is the book for you.

Buy Bigfoot Crank Stomp by Erik Williams at Deadite Press.

Blu Gilliand is a freelance writer of fiction and nonfiction. He covers horror fiction at his blog, October Country, and contributes interviews to the Horror World website. Follow him on Twitter at @BluGilliand.

 

2013 is slowly shaping up to be a really solid year for horror thus far, and one of the funnest local events to kick off at the beginning of this year has been the monthly Horror Movie Trivia Night sponsored by our friends at Fangoria and Shock Till You Drop and held at the Jumpcut Cafe in Studio City. The competition (which takes place on the 3rd Thursday of the month) has built up so much buzz that all 3 months of the event have reached venue capacity in record time. And this shouldn't be surprising considering you've got hosts Ryan Turek and Rebekah McKendry, reps from two of the biggest horror entities out there, paired up with the Jumpcut Cafe (which Drew Daywalt wrote about in a recent 'School Of Fear' blog as being LA's "horror haven") as it's prime location.

Well, for those that haven't been able to make it, we thought we'd give you a front row seat to what the entire Horror Trivia experience is like! We've even included a few of the questions in our video below so you guys can participate from home! If you're on Facebook, make sure you "like" the Jumpcut Cafe Facebook page to keep on top of Horror Trivia Night, as well as other various events like the Secret Sixteen free screenings and horror boardgame night. (No, really!) Next Horror Trivia Night will be on Thursday, April 18th!