HEROES
Season 2
Volume Two: Generations
Chapter Eleven: “Powerless”
Written by Jeph Loeb
Directed by Allan Arkush
(WARNING: SPOILERS)

So this is a far more effective volume ender than last season’s Kirby Plaza showdown, but that’s getting ahead of myself…

Let’s kick off with Peter and Hiro’s face off, as they argue back and forth about whether Kensei/Adam is a goodie or a baddie, till Peter zaps Hiro unconscious.
K/A then takes his sword back…

But first…
Micah finally gets home to Niki but needs to rush back out again to save Monica. Of course, Niki being virused and all, doesn’t have her super strength at the moment, so Micah ropes her in to drive. (Though can’t he just “tell” a car to drive him wherever he wants to go?)
Using his cell phone to locate Monica’s cell, Micah and Niki track Monica down to the shop that the hoods who’ve taken her have been hired to torch. (Thus, St. Joan is about to be burned at the stake in New Orleans…)
They get there just in time for Niki to pistol whip the fleeing hood, and rush into the burning store to save Monica.
But Niki’s powerless at the moment, and though Monica gets out, the shop explodes, apparently taking Niki with it…

Back at the Company, Bob is ticked off with Elle and blames her for Claire’s decision to go whistle blower on their a$$. Bob suspends her from any more field duty, so Little Miss Sociopath turns to Mr. B in his cell.
I was never really a Veronica Mars fan, but the scene between Kristen Bell and Jack Coleman, particularly the beginning of it, with Bell’s fidgety eyes following the ball, is great.
Elle asks Mr. B to tell her what Bob did to her when she was just a little girl, and he begins to, but Bob arrives and tells Mr. B that the Company will have to do something to stop Claire from going public…

… which she’s busy preparing for, putting together all the files Mr. B amassed regarding the dastardly deeds of Bob et al.
Mrs. B tries to convince her otherwise, but Claire has her mind set. Even West tries to tell her he prefers his secrets rather than this going public deal. So Claire gives Flyboy his file, and the break up is official.
It looks like Claire’s got something new to cry about, when who should walk through the door but… Mr. B!
With the Bennets alternately relieved and confused, Mr. B drops the bomb. Claire’s plan to expose the Company’s misdeeds is “unacceptable.”
Instead, he’s made a deal: his family gets to live a quiet, normal life (the only thing he’s ever really wanted for them), and he comes back into the Company’s arms.
Mr. B doesn’t stick around for any discussion. He steps out the door, and tells Bob, “It’s done.”

And even as Mr. B leaves home, the man who shot him dead, Mo, arrives home, to find Maya cooking breakfast and Sylar powerless.
(So I’m wearing the dunce cap this time out, as I really thought Sylar was temporarily powerless due to the trauma his body underwent from the Kirby Plaza wounds. I should have suspected that the Company had actually injected him with the virus. With that turn of events though, why didn’t they just kill him when they had the chance, given how dangerous he’s proven to be… I mean, if he’s gonna die from the virus anyway, right? And actually, while on that train of thought, they should have just killed Kensei/Adam too. Just taken his blood and killed him a long time ago…)
Okay, sorry for the cold blooded digression. I should just take Bob’s job and be done with it.

Back in Mo’s apartment, it becomes all too clear to Maya that Sylar is not the Gabriel she fell for. And, having seen Mo’s data on his laptop, Sylar sees that the cure for the Shanti virus lies in Claire’s blood, and that in theory, this should give him back his powers.
So it’s off to the lab!
At the lab (which of course used to be Isaac’s loft, where Sylar ate poor Isaac’s brain), Mo discovers that Sylar’s been injected with the strain that’s killing poor Niki, and Molly helps Maya “find” Alejandro, only to realize that he’s no longer anywhere to be found, and that Sylar killed poor Alejandro.
So Maya’s about to get all black teary-eyed when Sylar shoots her. Then, before he gets injected himself, Sylar wants to see the vaccine in action, so he has Mo inject Maya first, and Claire’s blood heals her and brings her back to life, just as it did Mr. B.
Sylar takes that as his cue to scamper off with the other vial, even as Elle arrives and starts zapping.
(Elle, by the way, was snooping around Bob’s office, to find the files on her… gone. She then checks the surveillance monitors, to see Sylar terrorizing Mo. So off she goes to make Daddy proud.)
Sadly—and how many times must this happen?—Sylar escapes. With the vial meant for Niki.
Sigh.

Meanwhile, Parkman reports to Granny P and Nathan that Victoria Pratt is dead. (So that’s where Parkman was, while Molly was left alone to be used as a bargaining chip by Sylar… Bad Parkman!)
Nathan tells Granny P that Peter’s still alive, and that he’s apparently in cahoots with Kensei/Adam, as their fingerprints were all over the crime scene. Granny P tells them that they’re after the virus and that it’s in Odessa.
She also says that she actually helped K/A once (did she sleep with him too?), but stopped before it was too late, when she realized that K/A was mad, mad, mad. (And she wasn’t for wanting to blow New York up. Hmmm…)
Before they go, Granny P shoots off a thought in Parkman’s direction: if you can’t stop Peter, you may have to kill him. Bullet in the head. Only way to be sure. (Go, Granny P!!!)

Amusingly, we see the tail end of Nathan and Parkman’s flight to Odessa, as they land, and vow never to talk about what went on, ever again. Parkman also tells Nathan what Granny P “thought” him earlier, about just maybe needing to off Peter if he should prove a stubborn handful. Nathan says, “… nothing good ever came from listening to my mother,” and “… leave my brother to me.”
Conveniently, they touch down at Primatech just in time to be met at the door by Hiro. The three then rush in to find Peter having already TK’d the vault door open. Hiro tries to stop K/A, but Peter TK’s him, slams him to the wall, and looks about to telekinetically throttle him, when Parkman arrives and does the Jedi mind trick: K/A is using you, go deal with him.
But Peter fights back with his mind, and is quite literally sweeping the floor with Parkman’s a$$ when Nathan arrives and the brothers stand face to face. Nathan (bless his soul) talks reason to Peter, asking him, “Can you really trust K/A?”

While all that psychodrama’s going on, Hiro steals into the vault and has his own face to face with K/A. Heartfelt and bitter words are exchanged, and Hiro ‘ports them both away.* But even as he does so, K/A drops the vial containing the virus (which he was holding behind his back).
Luckily, Peter arrives in time to telekinetically catch it before it hits the floor. He then incinerates it between his palms, using Ted’s nuclear power.
Standing in a vault containing a whole lot of other mysterious items, the current generation realizes they’ve had enough of cleaning up their parents’ messes. Nathan decisively announces that he’s going public, about everything (ironically, what he once argued with Simone would be the wrong thing to do). He even tells Parkman to make sure people listen to what he has to say.
Of course, a hidden surveillance camera catches this pivotal announcement…

… and at the press conference, I get the sense of what’s about to happen as Nathan gets into a weepy speech, accompanied by shots of episodes past.
Just as he’s about to say, “I can fly,” he’s shot.
In the panic, we see someone walk away, though said someone is too far away to identify. (Parkman though should have been able to catch the killer’s thoughts, right?)

Granny P then gets a call on her cell, and she replies, “It was inevitable.”
She then says, “You do realize you’ve opened Pandora’s box, don’t you?”
End of Volume Two.

We then get a tease for Volume Three, entitled “Villains.”
Sylar injects himself in some back alley, like a heroin junkie.
First, his wounds heal, then, he uses his TK to pull an empty tin of spinach across the alley into his hand.
The big, bad brain eater’s back…

* We see later on that Hiro actually ‘ported Kensei/Adam into a coffin, buried in the same cemetery Papa Sulu’s grave is found. Once again, these people leave a dangerous fellow alive…
Will they ever learn?

Parting shot: So that’s it for this volume, and as fallout courtesy of the WGA strike, that’s it for the season too; Volume Three will be with us in the fall.
I’ll be back soon with the first installment of something I’ve decided to call In-Between Seasons, where I’ll give my assessment of a TV show’s recently completed season (including my thoughts on the finale), and give my two cents on where we should go from here…

(Behind the scenes images courtesy of gregbeeman.blogspot.com.)

VEXILLE – 2077 NIPPON SAKOKU
(THE ISOLATION OF JAPAN)
(Review)

The year is 2077, and it’s been a decade since Japan’s decision to refuse regulation of their robotics technology, precipitating the country’s withdrawal from the U.N. and the rest of the world. But the manoeuvres of Daiwa Heavy Industries, Japan’s leading megacorp, will cause a squad of S.W.O.R.D. operatives led by Commander Leon Fayden (Shosuke Tanihara, from Takashi Miike’s Gokudo Sengokushi: Fudo) to infiltrate Japanese territory to discover exactly what has been taking place within their borders.
This is the basic premise of Vexille – 2077 Nippon Sakoku, and it turns out to be a solid exercise in scifi anime.

Granted, personality is scarce, particularly from title character Vexille (Meisa Kuroki; Chakushin Ari Final), who is little more than a cipher, and Leon, who is arguably, even less.
But this is, after all, the kind of anime where all the characters really need to do is look cool, while most of the heavy lifting is done by the high-flown scifi concepts and the visuals.
It’s to Vexille’s credit though, that an intriguing layer of humanity is injected into the plot when the current situation in Tokyo is revealed. That pocket of emotion proves enough to both fuel the narrative and balance the excellent, adrenaline-laced action. (And even when the emotional blackmail bomb—which you just know will eventually be deployed—goes off, it still bloody works.)
The presence of music tracks by the likes of The Prodigy, Underworld, DJ Shadow, and Dead Can Dance, as well as soundtrack supervisor DJ Paul Oakenfold, also manage to spike the proceedings nicely.

Armed with a great Death Star trench-inspired sequence and curious echoes of Dune and Blade Runner, Vexille is brought to us by Fumihiko Sori (Ping Pong), who was on the visual effects team of James Cameron’s Titanic (working on CG characters), and acted as producer and visual effects director on 2004’s Appleseed.
Co-writing the script with Haruka Handa, Sori manages to explore the dire consequences of a monopoly of power, and how true immortality can be found in the legacy one leaves behind.
Stumbling in a couple of spots—particularly in a pivotal climactic decision that seems to come from nowhere, and the manner in which Leon drops off the narrative’s radar for a significant section of the film—Vexille’s script nonetheless powers an anime that plays some familiar sci-fi riffs just differently enough to warrant some serious attention.

(Vexille – 2077 Nippon Sakoku OS courtesy of sgforums.com; image courtesy of tiff07.ca.)

AFTERTHOUGHTS (57)
WATCHING THE WATCHMEN

So Zack Snyder’s film adaptation of the seminal and groundbreaking deconstruction of the superhero comic, Watchmen, has wrapped and it’s all post from here on out till its release next year.
For anyone who’s looking forward to this with relish, five pics of some of the Watchmen in full costume are up at the official website.
Alternately, you can just click on the names below for the embiggened images.

The Comedian (Edward Blake) is being played by Jeffrey Dean Morgan, who horror geeks may recall as the Sheriff in Dead & Breakfast. Different sections of the TV audience may also know him from Weeds, Grey’s Anatomy, and Supernatural.

Nite Owl (Dan Dreiberg) is being played by Patrick Wilson, who came to widespread attention from the HBO adaptation of Angels in America. He subsequently appeared in the film adaptation of The Phantom of the Opera, but really impressed me with his work in David Slade’s Hard Candy and Todd Field‘s Little Children.

Ozymandias (Adrian Veidt) is being played by Matthew Goode, who I first saw in Woody Allen’s Match Point, and who was fantastic in Scott Frank‘s The Lookout.

Rorschach (Walter Kovacs) is being played by Jackie Earle Haley, reunited with his Little Children co-star, Patrick Wilson. (If you haven’t seen Little Children, I highly recommend it.)

And Silk Spectre (Laurie Juspeczyk) is being played by Malin Akerman, who played Tori on Entourage, and co-starred opposite Ben Stiller in The Heartbreak Kid.

Parting shot: A review of Zack Snyder’s 300 can be found in the Archive, along with the article “Revelations (Getting At The Truths of Apocalypse Cinema),” which discusses Snyder’s Dawn of the Dead remake.

(Images courtesy of rss.warnerbros.com/watchmen.)

IN MEMORIAM

Gary Gygax
July 27, 1938 – March 4, 2008

(Image courtesy of Associated Press and nytimes.com.)

LOST
Season 4 Episode 2
“Confirmed Dead”
Written by Drew Goddard and Brian K. Vaughan
Directed by Stephen Williams
(WARNING: SPOILERS)

So just as Season 2’s new faces were the Tailies, and Season 3’s, the Others, this season brings us the Boat People, with this episode introducing a quartet of them, who also supply the episode’s 5 flashbacks, the fifth courtesy of the still apparently dead Naomi.

Daniel Faraday: physicist. Headcase. (And who better to play him than Jeremy Davies, who we got a glimpse of in last episode’s cliffhanger.)
Faraday’s flashback opens the episode, as he watches TV, inexplicably moved by the underwater footage of the “discovery” of the 815 wreck in the Sunda Trench.

Miles Straume: ghost whisperer. Played by Saw‘s and X-Men: The Last Stand’s Ken Leung (who joins fellow Sawer Michael Emerson on Lost), Straum can apparently communicate with the dead, and is not above making quick money off this talent.

Charlotte Staples Lewis: anthropologist. Played by Justice‘s Rebecca Mader, Lewis discovers the skeletal remains of a polar bear. In Tunisia. Wearing a Hydra Station collar.
So I guess someone figured out teleportation… (And just maybe, time travel, if that skeleton proves to be ancient…)

Frank Lapidus: Played by The Lawnmower Man’s Jeff Fahey, Lapidus is the pilot who was supposed to have been at the controls of 815 that fateful flight, but I guess he traded with poor Greg Grunberg.
And when he sees what’s supposed to be the skeleton of Grunberg on TV, he notices that the corpse isn’t wearing a wedding ring, and it should be…

Naomi’s flashback shows her talking to creepy Abaddon about the “team,” made up of Faraday, Straum, Lewis, and Lapidus.
She objects, since these aren’t field operatives, but Abaddon overrules her. Apparently, she was the head of this team, though it strikes me as an odd thing that she went off ahead of the team she was supposed to be leading…

Back on the Island, Daniel tells Jack and Kate that he bailed out of the helicopter, and that there are 3 other members of his team (all of whom are equipped with GPS transponders, that, acting in tandem with the NaomiPhones, can indicate where the others are). Jack and Kate are also quick to note that Daniel is armed. Oh, and Daniel says rescuing the 815ers isn’t their primary mission.
When they find Miles (thanks to the handy GPS thingamabob), he pulls a gun on Jack. Apparently, Naomi sending her love to her non-existent sister was a code phrase meaning she’d gotten into trouble with whoever she was with. Miles knows she’s dead and insists they take him to her. Kate says “A man named Locke killed her, but he isn’t with us anymore.”
Miles still insists on seeing Naomi’s body.

When they reach her body, Miles does the ghost whisperer thing and apparently makes contact with her; he says they told the truth, that she was indeed killed by this Locke person.
They’re about to move on, when Sayid and Juliet arrive and turn the tables on the Boat People.
They then pick up Charlotte’s GPS device, but it turns out to be attached to good old’ Vincent. (Yay, doggie!) So they now know that Charlotte is with the man who killed Naomi…
They then spot a flare, which turns out to be Frank, who was able to land the helicopter safely. Sayid checks out the helicopter, and except for some minor damage, it’s operational.
While Juliet tends to Frank’s scrapes though, he asks her what her name is, and notes that she wasn’t on 815’s manifest, and thus, was on the Island before the crash. A “native.”
Thus, the primary mission is revealed: they’re here for Ben…

Meanwhile, over with Locke and company…
On the way to the Barracks, they make a detour, and Locke says they’re headed for the cabin. Hurley says, “But isn’t it that way?”
Locke and Ben take note of this, though Hurley covers up by saying, “Oh, I thought you meant the cabin on the plane…”
Locke explains to Sawyer that he’s headed there to talk to Walt, who helped him after Ben shot him. (Ironically, Locke points out that if he still had his other kidney, the bullet would have hit it and he’d probably have died from it.)

They then find Charlotte, but of course are suspicious of her. So they take her GPS thingamabob and send Vincent traipsing off into the jungle with it. (Damn these people! Aren’t they worried the poor doggie’ll be accosted by Smokey?)
Ben then filches Karl’s gun off the poor sap and shoots Charlotte. She is, however, wearing a flak jacket, so she’s fine.
Ben however, is not.
Locke is about to shoot him (protests lodged by Alex and Claire), but Ben tries to buy himself time by saying he’s indispensable and that he still has answers that Locke needs.
So Locke asks, “What’s the Monster?” To which Ben replies, “I don’t know.” (Naturally.)
So Locke is about to shoot him for real now, but Ben starts to rattle off Charlotte’s full name, birthplace, schools attended, etc. etc.
He then says there are 3 others with her, and what their names are.
And he says he knows this because he has a mole on the freighter…

So this installment moves along at a nice clip, and I must say most of the new faces are interesting, particularly Daniel, since I’m a big believer in Jeremy Davies. (That early scene where he’s watching the TV, and the bit where he says the light doesn’t scatter right on the Island… Small scenes, but great nonetheless.)
Actually, the only new character that doesn’t really fire me up is Charlotte, though her flashback is great, since it’s got that polar bear skeleton in it…

And when Locke asks Ben what the monster is, is it just me or did that sound more like a question the fans are dying to know the answer to, as opposed to the first question Locke would want answered? I mean, didn’t he get a good look at it way back in Season 1? Didn’t he say it was like looking into the eye of the Island, or some such mystic blather?
Somehow, I guess I imagine Locke would ask something else, like, how did my father really get here? Or, how can I be seeing a Walt that’s older than he should be, and how can I be seeing him when he’s supposed to be off the Island?
In that moment, it just seemed like Locke was more a mouthpiece of the audience than a real character.

That cliffhanger meanwhile, where Ben claims he’s got an inside man…
That seems to me like some possibly manipulative BS on Ben’s part. I mean, who’s to say that wasn’t Jacob whispering into Ben’s ear?
Of course, Ben really could have a mole (and an astoundingly accurate memory), but I guess we’ll have to see what the deal is between the Boat People and why they want Ben so badly…

COUNTDOWN: 46

(Images courtesy of ABC and aol.com.)

AFTERTHOUGHTS (56)
DREAMS OF GENIES-COME-TRUE 2008 (2)

Monday evening at the Metro Toronto Convention Centre saw the 28th Annual Genie Awards handed out, and the big winners, Away From Her (which won in 6 of the 7 categories it was nominated in; woot!) and Eastern Promises (which won 7 of its 12 noms; woot some more!).

Away From Her:
Best Motion Picture
Achievement in Direction (Sarah Polley)
Performance by an Actor in a Leading Role (Gordon Pinsent)
Performance by an Actress in a Leading Role (Julie Christie)
Performance by an Actress in a Supporting Role (Kristen Thompson)
Adapted Screenplay (Sarah Polley)

Eastern Promises:
Achievement in Cinematography (Peter Suschitzky)
Achievement in Editing (Ronald Sanders)
Achievement in Music – Original Score (Howard Shore)
Performance by an Actor in a Supporting Role (Armin Mueller-Stahl)
Achievement in Overall Sound (Stuart Wilson, Christian Cooke, Orest Sushko, Mark Zsifkovits)
Achievement in Sound Editing (Wayne Griffin, Robert Bertola, Tony Currie, Andy Malcolm, Michael O’Farrell)
Original Screenplay (Steve Knight)

Fido:
Achievement in Art Direction/Production Design (Rob Gray, James Willcock)

So the lack of love both Away From Her and Eastern Promises got at this year’s Oscars was upsetting, sure, but I figured they’d be treated right in their hometown, and they were, though not without some surprises.
Namely, Gordon Pinsent pinching the lead actor award from Viggo. Don’t get me wrong, Pinsent was amazing, and with all the awards attention Julie Christie got this past season, I honestly felt Pinsent was the unsung hero of Away From Her, so really, I’m happy he won.
I just feel badly for Viggo, who was not only constantly upstaged by Daniel Day-Lewis, but also had to get that “bridesmaid, but never the bride” feeling again, just when he was on a playing field that didn’t include Day-Lewis.
Sigh.

Still, I’m happy Kristen Thompson got the supporting actress award (she was great too), and I’m really happy for Sarah Polley, who was also honoured with this year’s Claude Jutra Award, which “recognizes outstanding achievement by a first-time feature film director.”
Go, Sarah!

To one and all, congratulations. You can download a complete list of winners here.

Parting shot: Reviews of Away From Her and Eastern Promises can be found in the Archive.

(Away From Her UK quad and Eastern Promises and Fido OS’s courtesy of impawards.com; Sarah Polley and Gordon Pinsent images courtesy of genieawards.ca.)

THE TATTOOIST
(Review)

The Samoan people believe tattooing is a gift from the gods.
He who misuses this gift brings shame upon himself and his family.
In Samoan culture, to live in shame is a fate worse than death.

Though not entirely a successful enterprise, the premise of Peter Burger’s The Tattooist is nonetheless an interesting variation on the Asian horror film curse: Jake Sawyer (Jason Behr) is a tattoo artist who impulsively filches an ‘au, a Samoan tatau implement, at a Singapore body art expo, a reckless decision that will bring him to New Zealand, and put him at the mercy of the machinations of an unseen, sinister force.

On the plus side, this New Zealand-Singapore co-production gets a number of things right.
The script is informed by some intriguing themes—flesh as biography, as badge of tradition and honour, and sometimes, shame (a theme also seen in David Cronenberg’s Eastern Promises)—and the narrative allows the audience a closer look at Samoan culture, elements of which are integral to the film’s plot.
It’s in taking those themes and bits of cultural character and turning them into a series of events in a story though, where The Tattooist doesn’t quite hit the mark.

Save for a pivotal set piece and a number of isolated scenes and sequences, the majority of The Tattooist isn’t terribly tense or suspenseful, which a film of this sort really ought to be.
In addition, the character of Jake also isn’t a fully realized—or even a completely sympathetic—protagonist. This, despite the fact that he actually has a back story that also ties in to one of the film’s themes.
His motivation never really comes across to the audience as a solid, substantial thing, character notes (his penchant for stealing tattoo designs; his curiously mercenary view of his art) don’t quite gel together into an actual person, even his attraction to Sina (Mia Blake, from Without A Paddle) seems superficial.
Yes, Blake is certainly easy on the eyes, but what exactly does Jake see in her beyond the surface? I couldn’t really say.

On the one hand, I could fob that off on Behr’s questionable acting skills, but that would be too easy, and unfair. The script (by Matthew Grainger and Jonathan King) really doesn’t present Jake as a fully (pardon me) fleshed-out character to begin with.
We see the pivotal and traumatic event that informs Jake’s character at the very top of The Tattooist, but how that relates to the narrative is sadly only (pardon me again) skin deep. We can make amateur armchair psychologist assumptions as to how that event has shaped the adult we see on-screen, but that really isn’t dealt with in any substantial way by the script.
More so than the script’s lack of suspense, this is probably the film’s biggest let-down for me. There just seemed so much potential—thematic and psychological—that wasn’t mined properly.

Which is sad, considering The Tattooist had a lot going for it, certainly much more than your average horror movie.
Aside from all the things I’ve mentioned above, there’s also the cool urban oracle sequence (witness the awesome power of hip-hop!), and the great fake tattoos (and bloody special effects) courtesy of Christien Tinsley, who got a Sci-Tech Oscar honour this year, “for the creation of the transfer techniques for creating and applying 2D and 3D makeup known as ‘Tinsley Transfers.’ These techniques allow quick and precisely repeatable application of 2D makeup such as tattoos, bruises and birthmarks, as well as 3D prosthetic appliances ranging in size from small wounds to entire torsos. They utilize self-adhesive material that features an unprecedented combination of tissue-thin edges, resilience, flexibility and water resistance, while requiring no dangerous solvents.”
Tinsley’s work can also be seen in such high-profile films as The Passion of the Christ, Memoirs of a Geisha, and No Country For Old Men, as well as the “Conor McNamara, 2026” episode of Nip/Tuck and William Friedkin’s Bug.

So you see, I would have loved to have loved this film.
If it had been that much scarier, or more thrilling perhaps, or if the screenwriters had explored the story’s themes more fully, then I may have found myself unhesitatingly recommending The Tattooist.
As it is though, the best I can say is, in dressing the skeleton of the Asian horror template with elements of Samoan culture, Burger and company certainly attempt something more valid and vital than the ubiquitous English-language remake Hollywood is inclined to engage in.
In The Tattooist, New Zealand cinema has taken knowledge learned from the Japanese and the Koreans and applied it to a story that stems from their own heritage, something to be rightly proud of.
The fact that the film itself doesn’t quite reach the heights of the best Asian horror has to offer is unfortunate, but shouldn’t negate the effort and intent.

Parting shot: For anyone who can’t get enough of Jason Behr, reviews of Skinwalkers and D-War can be found in the Archive, where reviews of Eastern Promises, No Country For Old Men, Bug, and Abominable (which actually stars Christien Tinsley) can also be found.

(The Tattooist OS and images courtesy of bloody-disgusting.com.)