Movie Adaptation – Zachary Mule

TO KILL A MOCKINGBIRD

( …AND TO REVIVE A MAGICAL EVENING WITH MARY BADHAM AND MY MOM)

Kevin with actress Mary Badham (on his left) and his mother, Annabelle, circa January 2009 (family photo)

Actress Mary Badham. The legendary film TO KILL A MOCKINGBIRD. My late mother, Annabelle, who died in 2009. The prevalence of racism and bad behavior in America today. All of these things hit me in a whole new way this past week when I accidentally stumbled across the original recording of an in-person interview I did with Ms Badham back in 2009, a piece that is no longer available online (it originally appeared on the defunct PlaybackSTL site). I’m sharing most of the complete interview here, but more importantly, the context has changed considerably, rendering this trip into the past more than a little noteworthy. Yes, TO KILL A MOCKINGBIRD is still one of my three or four all-time favorite movies, and yes, racism still exists… not just the straightforward kind that is depicted in the classic 1961 film, but a far more widespread and violent strain that makes the news somewhere almost daily. I can talk about either subject for hours. But this old interview captures transcendent moments from the last “evening out” that my mom and I enjoyed together, in January 2009. Just a few weeks after the occasion that led to this interview, a revival of TKAM at Washington University’s Edison Theatre, my mom suffered a terrible fall. She was seriously injured, and despite some promising efforts by a couple of doctors to get her to recover, it wasn’t meant to be. She slipped away in April 2009. Among many, many things that were noteworthy about my mom was her gift for cheerful understatement, and occasionally, eyebrow-raising surprise. A bombshell she dropped on her four kids one day was that she had gotten to hang out with author Harper Lee one day and see a screening of TO KILL A MOCKINGBIRD with her the year it opened, thanks to a mutual friend named Mae McCleavey. I never sat down and interviewed Mom herself, despite knowing I probably SHOULD on many an occasion. If I told most people that the reclusive author watched the movie made of her masterpiece with my own mother, I wouldn’t blame them for being skeptical. How could such a thing happen? But… this interview features a golden moment, Mom actually telling Mary Badham, the gifted actress who played Scout in the movie, that yes, she sat in a theatre with Harper Lee. Hearing her speak after all these years is more than a little emotional for me, as is virtually everything Mary had to say about the film. So yes, this one is “from the vaults” all right, but in light of the context the present day provides, it might as well be new. I’m grateful I came across this, because the disc on which it appears was not labeled accurately.

TO KILL A MOCKINGBIRD (GREGORY PECK) (publicity still)

I don’t have to repeat the praise here that I bestowed on the Gregory Peck masterpiece in my original article. TKAM is a beloved film all over the world, one of Hollywood’s most successful film adaptations ever, not to mention the historical impact of Harper Lee’s original novel (which STILL finds crackpot right-wingers trying to ban it even today cause of all that “critical race theory” stuff. Don’t get me started). But what I am happy to share is that the movie was a singularly worthy entry in the family-viewing contest I experienced growing up and beyond. Very, very few movies could meet the approval of every single member of my family – varied bunch that we were – when we would get together to watch something. TO KILL A MOCKINGBIRD stood almost alone in that regard. Both the snobbiest among us and the most open-minded among us were willing to watch the exploits of Atticus Finch, Scout and Jem (and that Boo Radley guy) for yet another time. And to a person, we were all emotional afterward… again. “What a great movie!” someone would remark. How amazing a thing, that this remark could have come from any of the six of us. That, my friends, is unprecedented. When I met the adult Mary Badham, the lady who gave what is easily one of the best performances by a child actress in history (I told her as much, which was a thrill for me), I had a chance to tell her about our family viewings of the film, how my sister would sometimes say “Hey, Boo!” when she called me up, how one of us might query the other, “What in the Sam Hill are ya DOING?,” gleefully reciting another of Scout’s great lines from the film, and how I’d written to Gregory Peck once when he was still alive, talking about my love for the film. He sent me an autographed photo, bless his heart. And upon meeting Mary Badham, I got HER autograph on a famous pose of her and Peck, meaning that I’ve got a treasured scrawl from the two main stars of a genuine movie masterpiece. Yes, I’m a fanboy for stuff like this. Can’t help it. Mary was tickled by my enthusiasm, but she’s heard these things so many, many times… as the interview makes clear. And sitting nearby, respectfully not interrupting until the very end, was my mother. The whole thing is just unbelievable to me, honestly. My last “night out” with Mom, spent in the company of “Scout”! Not bad, eh? So here’s that interview from January 2009…

TO KILL A MOCKINGBIRD (MARY BADHAM, GREGORY PECK) (publicity still)

THE MULE: What stands out the most from your time filming the movie?

MARY: Mostly just having fun. We had a ball! We really did. We played a lot, we laughed a lot… it was playtime! It wasn’t like work. Our wonderful director, Bob Mulligan, he made it so easy. He really did. All these guys had small children they were dealing with at home at that period in time. So they knew how to communicate with children. We had so much fun!

THE MULE: They had a certain way of talking to you, then?

MARY: Yeah, very easy. Real down to earth. They didn’t talk down to us. Bob Mulligan, one of the things that made him such a fabulous director… he would get down to our level, he would kneel, literally, just squat down and talk to us face to face like two adults talking. I never remember him talking down to us. It was always like, “Okay, this is the deal, this is what we’re gonna do.” And that’s what we did! It was great fun.

THE MULE: I guess you had to do multiple takes of scenes?

MARY: Oh yeah. Whenever you’re shooting a film, you wanna get different angles that you can cut together. But I had a particular problem. I not only knew MY lines, I knew everybody else’s! If I thought someone was struggling, I would sit there and mouth the lines! Bob would yell “Cut! Now, dear… this is film! We can see your mouth moving. Please don’t do that!” (Mary chuckled at this point in the interview) Poor Phillip (Alford, who plays Gem). It made him crazy! I don’t think he’s ever forgiven me for that!

THE MULE: You guys keep in touch?

MARY: Oh yeah! I’m probably closer to him than I am to my own brothers. He’s so funny! Wish he could be here tonight, but he’s on another job.

TO KILL A MOCKINGBIRD (MARY BADHAM, GREGORY PECK, PHILLIP ALFORD) (publicity still)

THE MULE: And you’ve talked elsewhere about how much you enjoyed working with Gregory Peck. Not a bad gig for a youngster!

MARY: It was wonderful. We had a fabulous relationship that lasted right up until before his death. I was up to the house just a few weeks before. His whole family has been just so lovely through the years. They’ve been a great source of comfort for me. I lost my parents very early. My mom died three weeks after I graduated from high school, and my dad died, like, two years after I got married, and I got married when I was 21. So to have that kind of a role model was wonderful. He really imprinted on me some basic things, of getting a good education, of working hard, coming to work prepared or doing your job well.

THE MULE: You absorbed a lot from him…

MARY: I mean, it was also all the years in between! It was nothing for me to pick up the phone and he’d say, ‘Hi kiddo, whatcha doing?’ When you’re living in a trailer in Loachapoka, Alabama, in the middle of a field, getting blown away by tornadoes, it’s kind of a comforting thing to have Gregory Peck call you on the phone and go, ‘How ya doing, kiddo?’ He was just so awesome.

THE MULE: His influence on the law profession is legendary, also; much has been written about that. Everyone knows about Atticus Finch.

MARY: Absolutely. When we were on the road in his one-man show, I could not tell you the number of people in the audience that said either they became a lawyer or their daughter, or their son or some member of their family became a lawyer because of his role. And they still use it in law schools. They teach TO KILL A MOCKINGBIRD. Which I think is wonderful!

THE MULE: The legacy of the film is unprecedented, honestly. Few works of art have had such a widespread influence. What has that been like for you through the years?

MARY: It’s pretty amazing. I tell people constantly, this is not just a black and white 1930s issue. This book touches on family issues, social issues, women’s issues, racial issues. The whole nine yards. And everything that’s important about the way we need to live our lives, and the way we need to think about our culture and our country, it’s all there. That’s what makes it important. Let’s face it, bigotry and racism and hatred and ignorance haven’t gone anywhere. They’ve just changed their clothes, that’s all. So it’s all things that we need to pay attention to. We need to work toward making ourselves better. Getting our education system fixed. Getting our families fixed FIRST, education second. We’ve really got to get control of all those things.

THE MULE: It’s a miracle how this film seems to appeal to just about everyone… my family watched it repeatedly through the years. We all loved it!

MARY: It’s wonderful. There’s families that sit and watch this film every year. It’s an annual event that they do, like, before Christmas or during fall. Fall seems to be the choice of times when most people do it. But there are whole families that just gather around and watch it.

THE MULE: There are so many scenes imprinted on my psyche. When Scout first sees Boo Radley, and she wrinkles up her face and takes time to get out the words “Hey, Boo,” I gotta tell you, that scene brought tears to my eyes more than once. I kinda feel what you did there, it’s BEYOND acting. It’s like UBER-ACTING or something. Just transcendent.

MARY: (Mary smiles and nods at this point in our interview) The one that gets me is in the courtroom, when they say, “Jean-Louise, stand up. Your father’s passing!”

THE MULE: Oh golly, my friend Kathy has mentioned that same scene to me before, she loves it also! How did you get this part in the first place?

MARY: My mom was an actress, she was with the local town theatre. And she took me in to try out. I didn’t know anything, I was just this dumb little kid from Alabama.

THE MULE: (I express amazement that Mary had no previous acting experience. After all, she became the youngest actress ever to be nominated for an Oscar for Best Supporting Actress, for her work in the film)

MARY: You have to understand… the script and the life portrayed; everything was so close to my real life.

TO KILL A MOCKINGBIRD (GREGORY PECK, BROCK PETERS) (publicity still)

It was at this point in the interview that a couple of reps came along to alert Mary it was time for her next interview. Graciously, however, she chatted with my mother for a few more moments. Mom told her it was all true how much my family loved the movie, and how we quoted the dialogue often. I asked if she had mentioned to Mary yet about seeing the film with the author. She grinned broadly and pointed to three imaginary seats.

“I sat RIGHT here with the teacher. And Harper. And ME!”

“That’s just amazing!” Mary whispered.

ANNABELLE AND KEVIN RENICK (family photo)

Mom and I then posed for two memorable photos with Ms Badham and hugged her, before reluctantly but giddily moving on. I was emotionally moved to the point of almost being speechless. There weren’t any adequate words to sum up what I was experiencing. And now, 13 years later, there still aren’t. To paraphrase a line from the classic film itself: “I was to think of these things many times… of Mary Badham, of my enthusiastic mother, of the impact of a beautiful movie on both the world and my own heart, and how I got to sit face to face with ‘Scout,’ and tell her how grateful I was for what she’d given us.”

MARY BADHAM, currently on tour with TO KILL A MOCKINGBIRD as Mrs Henry Dubose (left photo courtesy: DKC/O&M, right photo credit: JULIETA CERVANTES)

UPDATE: Mary Badham can currently be seen as Mrs Dubose in a touring production of TO KILL A MOCKINGBIRD that also features Richard Thomas as Atticus and Melanie Moore as Scout. The production was originally supposed to hit Broadway for a spell, but one of the producers decided that would not be financially feasible. TKAM fans will have plenty of other chances to enjoy the fabled story as it comes to cities throughout the country up through June 2023. Aaron Sorkin adapted this production from Harper Lee’s novel, with Jeff Daniels earning widespread acclaim for his performance as Atticus in the initial run on Broadway. You can read more about the touring show at: tokillamockingbirdbroadway.com/tour/.

THE LIMEHOUSE GOLEM

(RLJ ENTERTAINMENT/NUMBER 9 FILMS/NEW SPARTA FILMS/LIPSYNC/HANWAY FILMS/DAY TRIPPER FILMS (109 minutes; Unrated); 2017)

If I had to come up with one word to describe THE LIMEHOUSE GOLEM, it would probably be “stylish.” However, that isn’t the way reviews work, so… let’s get to it, shall we? The film, based on the Peter Ackroyd novel, THE TRIAL OF ELIZABETH CREE (also known as DAN LEO AND THE LIMEHOUSE GOLEM), is a tightly woven murder mystery set in the Limehouse district of 1880 London. At the time, Limehouse was a dark and gritty place and, geographically, not too far from Jack the Ripper’s Whitechapel haunts of 1888. Thanks to the attention to detail by director Juan Carlos Medina, cinematographer Simon Dennis, set decorator Pilar Foy and all of the other talented individuals on the other side of the camera, the seediness and rather tawdry look and feel of the sets (especially the music hall, where much of the movie takes place) are as important to the plot as any single character.

THE LIMEHOUSE GOLEM (Olivia Cooke, Douglas Booth) (photo courtesy: NICOLA DOVE)

That plot unfolds from the end, with a music hall dramatization of the murder trial of Lizzie Cree, an abused and neglected child who has grown up to be an abused and neglected young woman. Amid a frenzy of savage murders perpetrated by a sadistic slasher dubbed the Golem, Lizzie is accused of murdering her husband, John, a failed author, aspiring playwright and primary suspect for the Goelm’s grizzly work. The public, fascinated and horrified by the Golem murders, demands answers and an end to the madness; faced with the possibility of failure, the high-ranking Scotland Yard official handling the case passes the assignment off to Inspector John Kildare, a senior detective with “problems” of his own. With Kildare installed as the fall-guy, the Yard’s hierarchy sees a chance to kill two birds with one stone, so to speak: If Kildare fails to stop the killings, the top brass can save themselves a personal humiliation by laying the blame squarely at the feet of a man they don’t like and want to be rid of. And, why don’t they like Kildare? He is one of THOSE fellows – the Inspector is gay, something not well tolerated in the nineteenth century. By extension, Kildare also inherits the Cree murder case, which leads to a kind of father/daughter relationship with Lizzie. Believing her husband to be the murderous fiend terrorizing Limehouse, the Inspector seeks to prove John guilty in an effort to free Lizzie on a self-defense plea.

THE LIMEHOUSE GOLEM (Daniel Mays, Maria Valverde, Bill Nighy) (photo courtesy: NICK WALL)

As the tale continues to be told with a glance backwards, we are introduced to several characters essential to the Cree’s story, including Dan Leo, a flamboyant music hall performer and stage “narrator”; a stage director and calming presence for the music hall troupe called “Uncle”; aerialist and sexual focal point of the group, Aveline Ortega; and, in flashback fashion, perhaps the person most pivotal to Lizzie’s current woes, her mother. In the 1995 novel, Ackroyd populated his story with several historical figures; Jane Goldman’s script retains three of those luminaries for the film version, to stunning effectiveness: George Gissing, the troubled author whose first novel, WORKERS IN THE DAWN, was published in 1880; Karl Marx, the father of modern Socialism and Communism; and the aforementioned Leo. It is never an easy task to weave real personalities into a work of fiction, but the creative team responsible for THE LIMEHOUSE GOLEM have peopled the story with an entire cast of realistically believable characters that the trio of Leo, Gissing and Marx fit right into the surrounding landscape. All three lived in London during the time of THE LIMEHOUSE GOLEM, with both Marx and Gissing appearing on the suspect list (and in Kildare’s reimagining of the grizzly killings).

THE LIMEHOUSE GOLEM (María Valverde, Sam Reid, Douglas Booth, Olivia Cooke, Eddie Marsan) (photo courtesy: NICOLA DOVE)

While I fairly well had sussed out who the killer was early into the film, I found myself second-guessing my theories – changing my mind several times as Inspector Kildare and his equally astute assistant investigator, Officer George Flood, interviewed Lizzie and her music hall compatriots and unearthed new leads. Yet, the story is so well done that, when the identity of the Golem is finally revealed, you aren’t disappointed in the least. This is a movie and a story that works so well on so many levels. At the beginning of this review, I told you about the artistic and stylistic beauty of the sets… to that beauty, we can definitely add the work of costume designer, Claire Anderson, whose slightly modern take on the wardrobes of Victorian Londoners is every bit as important to the look of THE LIMEHOUSE GOLEM as anything else. Of course, any film is ultimately based on the talents of the people on the screen and this one is stacked with actors perfect for their roles, even if one is actually a replacement for another beloved performer. Olivia Cooke (ME AND EARL AND THE DYING GIRL and the BATES MOTEL television series) is devastatingly vulnerable as Lizzie Cree, while Sam Reid is suitably smarmy as her fame-seeking husband, John; as both business man/mentor and over-the-top stage performer, Douglas Booth (JUPITER ASCENDING, as well as Reid’s co-star in THE RIOT CLUB), shines in the pivotal role of Dan Leo; Spanish beauty Maria Valverde sizzles as Aveline Ortega; in fact, each member of the supporting cast shines brightly and each is given their moment in the spotlight, including Eddie Marsan (Uncle), Keeley Forsyth and Amelia Crouch (as Lizzie’s mother and a younger Lizzie in a couple of frightening sequences that give the viewer important insight into the character) and Daniel Mays (as the rather uptight but totally professional – and loyal – George Flood). As brilliant as these cast members are, I’m not sure that this flick would have risen to the heights to which I have elevated it if it were not for the presence of Bill Nighy (Davy Jones in the PIRATES OF THE CARIBBEAN movies, Minister Rufus Scrimgeour in HARRY POTTER AND THE DEATHLY HALLOWS, PART ONE and a ton of video games and animated stuff over the last decade or so) as Inspector John Kildare; with Nighy’s understated performance, Kildare is thoughtful, vulnerable and, though set-upon (and set to fail), determined to get at the truth. Nighy was a last minute replacement for Alan Rickman, who was forced to pull out of the project due to illness (the film is dedicated to Rickman, who passed away in 2016).

THE LIMEHOUSE GOLEM (Olivia Cooke, Bill Nighy) (photo courtesy: NICK WALL)

Obviously, to divulge too many of the intricacies of the plot would be akin to telling your kids that the Tooth Fairy doesn’t exist (remember how that turned out for Dwayne Johnson in THAT movie?), so I’m just going to tell you that THE LIMEHOUSE GOLEM is worth your attention and, even if you think you have things figured out in the first twenty minutes, you won’t see the end coming. Just getting to the end is a thrilling, chilling ride through the dark underbelly of late nineteenth century London. Anyone who has ever explored, examined or theorized over the case of Jack the Ripper will certainly recognize the similarities here… that was Ackroyd’s intent with his novel. The fact that the film incorporates several of the tropes common to modern police procedural and crime scene investigation fiction keeps things fresh and allows us to play armchair detective, all the while rooting for Lizzie and Kildare; the fact that both of the main characters are fundamentally flawed (but, then, aren’t we all?) keeps us intrigued and totally invested in the story’s outcome. As always, there are certain scenes, as well as the generally violent theme of the movie that some may find objectionable and, as such, I would probably advise parents of children thirteen or younger to steer clear of THE LIMEHOUSE GOLEM while the kids are around… though I’m sure that they could possibly see far worse on an episode of LAW AND ORDER: SVU.

HEY, MA! WATCH THIS Movies Streaming Video | Darren Tracy | November 18, 2017 | Alan Rickman Amelia Crouch Bill Nighy Claire Anderson Dan Leo Daniel Mays Douglas Booth DVD/Blu-Ray Eddie Marsan George Gissing Historical Thriller Horror Jane Goldman Juan Carlos Medina Karl Marx Keeley Forsyth Maria Valverde Movie Adaptation Movie Trailer Movies Olivia Cooke Peter Ackroyd Pilar Foy Sam Reid SAN LEO AND THE LIMEHOUSE GOLEM Scotland Yard Simon Dennis Slasher Movie Streaming Video THE LIMEHOUSE GOLEM THE TRIAL OF ELIZABETH CREE Thriller Unrated Victorian London Video-On-Demand

TOKYO TRIBE

(XLRATOR MEDIA/NIKKATSU/FROM FIRST PRODUCTION COMPANY/DJANGO FILM (117 minutes; Unrated); 2015)

It is an absolutely inexplicable concept that I would even remotely enjoy a musical movie version of a violent piece of Manga (TOKYO TRIBE 2 by Santa Inoue) about rival gangs on the mean streets of Tokyo, especially one that involves reading… a lot of reading. Buuut… the music is a very appealing mish-mash of Hip-Hop grooves and rock heaviness; the characters are SO over the top that you are allowed to suspend all belief and just let the kaleidoscopic visuals – including some amazingly choreographed fight scenes, including near-comedic levels of ultra-violent acts – assault your optic nerves… in the best way possible. Yeah, sure the whole reading thing is there but, once you get into a groove with that, TOKYO TRIBE isn’t too bad.

TOKYO TRIBE (Makoto Sakaguchi, Nana Seino) (photo courtesy: XLRATOR MEDIA)

Actually, aside from trying to figure out who was who, the flick, written and directed by the legendary Sion Sono, was pretty cool. The whole thing kicks off in a claustrophobic Bukuro Street on a hot Tokyo night that threatens not only rain, but an earthquake, as well. The narrator (played by Shota Sometani, who delivers all of his lines through raps) moves ghost-like through the throngs, introducing us to the various factions and their leaders, all the while giving us a glimpse into a very grim future. In one telling scene early in the movie, a rookie police officer is told by her partner not to get involved in what is very obviously a drug dealer dispensing his wares; when she confronts the dealer, he tears her clothes off, belittles her and, eventually, kills her. Her partner tells the police dispatcher that everything is okay… nothing going on. According to the raps, there are 23 separate tribes in the city, each working their own territory in an effort to maintain a tenuous treaty; that treaty is threatened by the Buppa gang, a violent and blood-thirsty tribe who want it all.

TOKYO TRIBE (Riki Takeuchi) (photo courtesy: XLRATOR MEDIA)

The Buppa leader, played by Riki Takeuchi, is cartoonish, a demented and crazy-eyed Wayne Newton look-alike. Bubba’s lusts and desires are fueled by the promise of total power from the High Priest Denden (played by Sion Sono mainstay Denden, the High Priest is either a guiding spirit or one of Bubba’s drug-induced hallucinations); all he has to do is return the High Priest’s daughter, Ericka. One of Bubba’s sons, Nkoi (Yosuke Kubozuka), is a sexual deviant who delights in using his victims as furniture… after, of course, they have outlived their usefulness as prostitutes; he sends a van of thugs to procure a few new chairs and end tables into another tribe’s territory, either convincing them to come to a wild party or flat-out kidnapping them. The other son, Merra (Ryohei Suzuki), is more into inflicting as pain on as many people as possible; he has some unstated beef with the leader of Musashiro Tribe, Kai Deguchi (Young Dais), who practices and preaches love, peace and understanding. Basically, all of the ensuing carnage is due to whatever problem Merra has with Kai (don’t worry… we do find out what has him so upset during the climactic battle and, if I may be so bold, it perfectly personifies the gangsta rap culture and gangs, in general). Oh, plus, Nkoi snatches the High Priest’s daughter (Nana Seino) off the street and tosses her into the Buppa brothel, setting off a completely different type of mayhem: When her picture is posted on the brothel’s website, a particularly horny member of Musashiro is off to partake, with Tera (Ryuta Sato), who is respected by all factions, attempting to stop him and, as that has failed, to keep him out of any serious trouble.

TOKYO TRIBE (Denden) (photo courtesy: XLRATOR MEDIA)

Unbeknownst to either, a trap has been set and, when Kai and the others learn of it, love and peace are out the window. Unfortunately, with 21 other tribes mobilizing, the path is neither easy nor safe. Eventually – because everybody knew it was going to happen – all of the rival gangs come together against Bubba and his hired guns, the Waru, the most vicious gang in all of Japan. The fights are wickedly fun, the choreography and staging wildly imaginative; there are tanks, cannibals, gold-plated pistols, human reading lamps, samurais, earthquakes, giant exhaust fans and… well, you get the idea. There’s even a wizened old waitress, called DJ Grandma (Hisako Ooka), spinning and rapping her doomsday commentary: “Comin’ to ya from the ass-end of Hell/Listen up. This is Hip-Hop!” There is so much that I want to tell you about TOKYO TRIBE, but if I give you any more, I’ll spoil all the fun you have in store when you watch it.

TOKYO TRIBE (Ryohei Suzuki, Young Dais) (photo courtesy: XLRATOR MEDIA)

Even though there are going to be plenty of kids sixteen and younger that are gonna wanna see this movie, be advised that it – like all of Sono’s previous films – is ultra-violent (generally, in a cartoon fashion but, there are still some fairly brutal scenes) and features quite a few scenes glorifying drug use and even more that objectify young women (though there are also several instances of those young women taking control of their situations and kicking major amounts of butt). Parents, even the trailer is too wild for us to post here so, at the very least, check that out before you decide to let your kids watch.

Comics DVD/Blu-Ray HEY, MA! WATCH THIS Movies | Darren Tracy | December 30, 2015 | Action Movie Comics Denden DVD/Blu-Ray Gangster Movie Hip-Hop Hisako Ooka Japan Manga Martial Arts Movie Movie Adaptation Movies Musical Nana Seino Rap Riki Takeuchi Ryohei Suzuki Ryuta Sato Santa Inoue Sexual Situations Shota Sometani Sion Sono TOKYO TRIBE Unrated Yakuza Yosuke Kubozuka Young Dais

PUPPET MASTER, VOLUME 1: THE OFFERING

(Shawn Gabborin/Michela Da Sacco/Yann Perrelet; 67 pages; ACTION LAB: DANGER ZONE; 2015)

I’ve never been a huge fan of Charles Band’s PUPPET MASTER movie franchise. Ever since my first viewing at age seven (yes, I watched rated R films as a seven year old child… thanks, Mom), I’ve always found the series to be overtly desperate without providing much quality to back up the undeniably ambitious plot. So, naturally when Unka D asked me to review the recent continuation of the PUPPET MASTER mythos from Action Lab’s Danger Zone mature readers imprint, my expectations were thoroughly embedded beneath the soles of my Vans sneakers. Luckily for me, I was pleasantly surprised.

PUPPET MASTER Issue 1 cover, page 3 (Written by SHAWN GABBORIN, cover and art by MICHELA DA SACCO and YANN PERRELET)

Familiarity settles in quickly as the story kicks off at the well known Bodega Bay Inn. For newbies to the series, the aforementioned lodge has become a staple setting in the ten film (yes, ten film!) franchise. After a quick intro sequence involving an unlucky vagrant who meets his untimely demise, we’re introduced to the protagonists of the tale, a group of horny college students who, in typical ’80s horror fashion, have decided to get hammered and spend the weekend at the abandoned inn.

PUPPET MASTER Issue 2 (Cover by MICHELA DA SACCO and YANN PERRELET)

Script-wise, these books are topnotch. All the recognizable puppets make their triumphant returns (Blade being my personal favorite.). The narrative is paced like a horror film, which really keeps you immersed in the overall linearity of the story. Ladened with genuinely creepy moments, the tone of the miniseries-within-a-series (this collection features the first three-issue story arc of the current ongoing series) walks the line between black humor and horror very well. The artwork, courtesy of Michela De Sacco, really captures the dark, yet kitschy vibe that is so identifiable with the franchise. Chock-full of brutal death scenes, there is more than enough blood and guts here to please the gore hounds, as well.

PUPPET MASTER Issue 3 cover, page 3 (Written by SHAWN GABBORIN, cover and art by MICHELA DA SACCO and YANN PERRELET)

Shawn Gabborin has done an admirable job of taking a brand that has been contrived (at best) for the better part of the last decade and breathing new life into it. This reviewer looks forward to seeing where the story goes from here. PUPPET MASTER, VOLUME 1: THE OFFERING is available at comic shops everywhere, as well as the usual on-line places, including digital download outlets such as ComiXology. For more on the PUPPET MASTER movie franchise, as well as signed, limited edition comics and more visit: Full Moon Direct.

Comics Graphic Novels TWO GEEKS WALK INTO A BAR | Dustin Endicott | December 11, 2015 | Action Lab Comics Charles Band Collection Comics ComiXology Danger Zone Digital Comics Fantasy Full Moon Direct Graphic Novels Horror Michela Da Sacco Movie Adaptation PUPPET MASTER Shawn Gabborin Yann Perrelet

WHAT’S INSIDE