Review: Helluva Boss

 Horror fans are a special bunch. We laugh at things that make other people say "What the fuck?" and "Oh My God!" As one might expect, there's not much chance of shows like that making it on prime-time TV, or really even onto a popular streaming service. 

Thank God for YouTube. 

Helluva Boss is a YouTube cartoon series that checks all the boxes for me as a twisted horror fan. It's dark, dirty, hilarious, and at times unbelievably wholesome. 

The series follows a trio of Imps from Hell as they run and work for a business called I.M.P. (Immediate Murder Professionals). The crux of the business is that humans go to Hell, and hire them to go to Earth and extract revenge on the people who killed them, or caused them to be sent there. The characters include the owner of the business, Blitz, happy married couple Millie and Moxie, and Blitz's adopted daughter Loona, a hellhound. 

Of course, we go with them on a few missions, but we also spend a lot of time with Blitz, seeing how he got the ability to go to Earth (which he isn't supposed to do), and we cross paths with demons from his past. 

There is plenty of blood, and no shortage of innuendos and sexual themes (The antagonist of the third episode is a succubus and her crew, taking advantage of spring breakers). Also, these are demons, living in Hell, so there's lot of demonic and satanic iconography. 

The show is so much deeper than a titillating gore-fest though. 

Moxie and Millie are a happily married couple, loving and supportive of each other in a way you would never expect in such a place. Blitz also has relationships, one being the father-daughter relationship he has with Loona, and another being a sexual/semi-romantic relationship with Stolas, a demon prince. A fair part of the show revolves around these relationships, in addition to the one between Blitz and Moxie. 

The show is helped along by great animation, and just as great voice actors. You might recognize Richard Horvitz from Invader Zim voicing Moxie, and Brandon Rogers as Blitz. 

I can't wait until the second season comes out and I can't stop recommending it to all my twisted friends. 

If you haven't seen it, check it out here. That's really all there is left to say. 

Movie Review: Antlers

 I haven't forgotten about this blog. Subjects worth commenting that I haven't already done just seem to be coming in few and far between. That being said, this was a movie I was rather eagerly anticipating and was finally able to catch. 

Spoilers Below!

A Guillermo Del Toro produced horror movie, so you know it's pretty good. In addition (and this isn't a spoiler for anybody who really knows their horror monsters) it's about the Wendigo, which is one of the few creatures that really gets to me. 

The story is pretty straightforward, even if the characters it follows isn't conventional. (Though, Del Toro does have a habit of placing children as the main characters of horror movies. I'm looking at you, Pan's Labyrinth.) A couple junkies have set up a meth lab in an old mine, which ages ago was used to trap a Wendigo spirit. The men delved too greedily and too deep and the monster takes possession of one of them, killing the other and eating him. The man does manage to make it home, where he finds the will to not eat his two kids, locking himself in the attic of their house.  

The story focuses on one of the two kids as he does his best to provide for himself and making sure to keep his dad fed, while still going to school. He doesn't do a very good job (I think the kid is supposed to be 9-ish.) and his teacher is suspicious that the boy is being abused. 

That suspicion leads to people going to check on him at home, becoming a snack for his dad, and allowing the Wendigo to fully transform. All your usual monster shenanigans happens now, with the boy's teacher finally facing the creature and managing to kill it's current host. 

With Del Toro's name, and one of my favorite monsters, I was really hoping for something to blow me away. 

Now, This is a good movie. The cinematography is great, all the acting is good. I would definitely recommend this movie to any horror fan. 

I do have several issues with it though. 

The first thing I want to point out, because it stood out to me from the VERY beginning, and lingered the whole film, is that the movie is set in Oregon. The Wendigo is a creature from the Northern reaches. It's based on cannibalism, so dropping it into a state with mild winters doesn't make a lot of sense. It would be much more common in the territories of Canada, Alaska, or the Northeastern states. It's not even that being in Oregon is central to the story, the setting of the woods, the mountains, the water, the mine, all of that would actually be easier to find in Alaska. A lot of the panoramas even look like Alaska more than Oregon. 

I also want to bring up the young boy's character switch at the end of the movie. Through most of the movie, he's displaying some serious abused / Stockholm syndrome about his father, saying lines like "As long as I feed him, he'll love me." At the end, though, at the last moment he switches sides and is instrumental in defeating the creature. There's nothing in the character throughout the whole movie to justify his sudden change of heart. 

The music wasn't very memorable either, for example, as I sit here, I can't think of a single moment where I was even aware of the music or the sound. That can be a good thing or a bad thing depending on how you look at it. 

All that being said, altogether, it is a good little horror movie, but it's nothing spectacular. Worth watching while it's streaming to be sure. So turn it on, sit back for a bit, and enjoy. 

New Release! "Burrows" is out in the wild!

 It's been a while since I posted here. I've got a few drafts I've poked on, but nothing to post, but this one is easy. 

I've been talking about Burrows for a little bit, but now I'm letting ya'll know that it's out! My next Cryptid novellette is up on Amazon! 

The Gobi Desert is a treasure trove of dinosaur fossils, giving up some of the most famous and complete skeletons found in the world. Sherene Carter and her team are hoping to uncover the next big skeleton in the dunes and rocks. What they find is a legendary creature that's much less dead than the bones they're looking for. An even better prize to announce to the world, if they can survive it...

Click the cover to go see it on Amazon!

I like how well the Cryptid books do, even as short as they are, so I'm planning to do more. Eventually having a whole series and doing collections. As you can see from the pages on here, Cryptids are one of my interests.  So, I have a lot of material and knowledge to run with. 

So if Cryptids are your thing, too, go grab and check out Burrows, and the Cenote. Then hit me up on Twitter and let me know what creatures you want to see next! 

Start Prepping! NaNoWriMo is coming!

 It's October, and what does that mean? 

Well, yes, ghosts, pumpkins, and other spooky things, but for writers it also means November is coming, which means, NaNoWriMo! I'm going to be making my own attempt at it this year to try and get my creative juices flowing. I haven't been idle this year, but I haven't gotten anywhere near as much done as I want. 

The Class 5 audiobook is out now. 

Hannah and Paths: Three Short Horror Stories are now available on Apple, Barnes & Noble, and Kobo ebook platforms. 

But in the grand scheme of things, that's not much. I haven't released a new work since Hannah in 2016. Now, for success in writing, a good backlog of works is one key, but somewhat regular releases is also another major aspect. I've posted short stories here and there on this blog, but that's not a new release. Also I don't make money from these posts. There are ways to monetize a blog, but I'd rather not clutter up your screen with ads. 

I do have several pieces I've started, the novelette Burrows, as I've mentioned before. I've also started on a new novel tentatively titled "Suckers" about a swarm of Chupacabra's in a casino. I'm aiming for more of a horror-comedy vibe with that one, but we'll have to see how it turns out. I also have dozens of other ideas and starts saved on my computer. 

So. NaNoWriMo is coming up, I have a plethora of ideas and starts to work with. What's the plan? 

Well, the plan is to write. To get up every morning before I go to the day job, and write. It doesn't have to have a specific word count. It doesn't even have to be on the same work as the day before. The point is to get up, and get to work. 

Mood doesn't matter. Tired doesn't matter. This is about writing. Words on a page. Editing and deciding if those words are any good comes later. 

That being said. I do have some goals I want to reach. 

1. 50,000 words down by the end of November. Whether I get any one work done or not, that's the goal. I'm hoping if I can get this down, getting up and getting some writing done will become a habit and something that continues well after the month and the challenge is over. 

2. Finish the first draft of Burrows. Honestly, I'm about 2/3rds of the way through Burrows. You'd think the finale would be pretty easy at this point. Characters are established, along with the setting and the monsters, and now it's just time to throw them all into the blender and see what comes out. Honestly I've been having a hard time with it though. Here's hoping just forcing it out will give me something to work with in the editing process. 

3. Get a solid start on a new novel. I have several ideas and starts already, but I'm talking about getting something like 10,000 - 20,000 words down. Something I can look at and know this will be my next major work to get released. As it's been said, the hardest part of writing is the beginning. The blank page where you don't have anything set. No characters, no setting, no plot. If I can get a good jump on that, maybe I'll be able to make 2021 my year with multiple new releases to pass on. 

That's it for now though. I'll be setting up more, prepping, trying to decide on which pieces to work on and so on and so forth. As long as the world doesn't explode anyway. 

Get started, and good luck! 

~ Shaun

Video Game Review: The Last of Us 2

This game has been a long time coming. Check out my review of the first game to get a good feel for the world this series takes place in. Check it out, then come back. It'll be worth it, and I'll wait. 

Okay, welcome back, but before I get into the review proper, I have to give this warning. 

SPOILERS BELOW THE IMAGE

Now, you've been warned. 

The Last of Us 2 starts almost exactly where the first game ends. Ellie and Joel are living with Joel's brother Tommy, growing up, doing their part in the little community. We meet more people, offering us glimpses into the love life of Ellie and the friends she's made since they returned. 

Of course though, the repercussions of their previous encounters comes back to haunt them. It's really rather typical gang-warfare types of stuff. "They killed our guy, we have to kill their guy in return, then they have to kill our guy in return.." and round and round we go. Not much of a surprise. There are a few plot twists, and point-of-view changes, to enhance the idea that there isn't really a right and a wrong side. I feel like that takes away some of the emotional and mental impact of some scenes though. 

Also, an expertly placed arrow-snipe on an unsuspecting enemy feels a lot worse when you're not sure your current character is a hero or not. And let's not get started on the dogs in the game.

Clickers and infected are back, giving you some enemies that are always fun to dodge and kill, but they seem to be relegated to the background and plot points more than anything. The main thing here is the story though, which doesn't revolve around the plague which has engulfed the entire world. 

For a game that has been so long in the making, almost everything is as good as you would expect. Controls are tight and accurate. Music and sound queues are beautiful and perfectly fit their scenes. Visuals are intense and beautiful as the need arises. 

Now for my most controversial opinion. 

This is not a fun game. 

This isn't a game you come back to, to replay or to collect stuff. It would be more accurate to say this isn't a game, this is an experience. Now, it is an experience worth having. It has a lot to say about the human condition, dealing with the consequences of your actions, and how life can blind-side you. It makes you do things you don't want to do, like kill your opponent's dogs before they can find and attack you. It makes you question whether the character you're playing is the hero or the villain of the story. 

None of these details are bad things, but they don't make for a fun video game experience. To be fair, the first game did tease some things along these lines, but they weren't front and center and you still always felt that you were doing the right thing, even as you stuck an arrow into another scavenger's throat. Some games encourage you to be the villain, or to just do whatever you want like the Grand Theft Auto series. But they're built around those themes so you expect it and can have fun with it. 

Playing through such a meticulously well-crafted and plotted story-based game though, and then finding out you might be the villain, does not make for a very satisfying gamer experience. 

It's disappointing, honestly. That they spent so long and so much work on the game, just to leave players feeling hollow by the end. There were so many directions they could have gone. 

It is still worth playing, just for the experience, but make sure you're prepared for how dark and grim it's going to get. I suppose that makes it a really good example of the Horror genre though. 

For all that, The Last of Us: Part 2, only gets 3 out of 5 stars.