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In the Bins: Indie Horror Comic Back Issues You Can’t Miss!

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Indie Horror Comic

While the current comic horror explosion is impressive, it’s not the first time horror comics have had their moment in the sun (or rather moonlight). I’ve found some interesting indie horror comic titles in the back issue bins recently. Let’s see if they’re worth digging for.

Remains (IDW, $19.99 for the collected edition) by Steve Niles (of 30 Days of Night fame) and Kieron Dwyer opens with a nuclear catastrophe that wipes out most of the planet. Tom and Tori, two casino workers in Reno, have a tryst in a casino vault at the same time as said catastrophe, meaning they’re unaffected by the event, and when they emerge minutes later, everyone is gone. Then, to quote the story, things get worse.

All those corpses from the nuclear attack? They rise from the dead as flesh-eating zombies. While nothing comes of Tom and Tori’s romantic relationship, they stick together to fight the zombie outbreak. What follows is a freewheeling zombie romp that follows many of the traditional rules but adds enough of its own seasoning (and some clever original ideas) to make it feel fresh. The zombies here are not brainless, at least not all of them – some of them are evolving into intelligent beings and effective adversaries. The series ran five issues and can be found both as a trade paperback and single issues – I found mine in the bargain bins.

Redneck (Image, $16.99 for Volume 1) is similar to Remains in that it takes on a well-trod genre – vampires this time – but veers enough from the formula to create an interesting story. The comic centers around the Bowmans, a family of rural Texas vampires doing their best to live a quiet life, meaning “not feeding on or killing people”. Multiple generations of the family live under the same roof, from Perry, the family head to Granpa, a sinister nosferatu-esque vampire being kept in the attic.

In the first issue, three of the boys go into town to party only to court trouble and run into Father Landry, the crooked town preacher who hates the family. When they wake up the next day with a family member dead and the previous night’s activities lost to drunken stupor, the game is on. As they unravel the mystery of what happened that night it becomes clear that something big is about to go down between the Bowmans and Preacher Landry. The interpersonal relationships and family dynamics in this series are compelling and layered, and the story takes many twists and turns as events unfold over the course of the narrative.

Finally, Clive Barker’s Next Testament (Boom, $29.99 for the Omnibus) by Clive Barker, Mark Alan Miller and Haemi Jang follows Julian Demond, an archaeologist whose lifetime of research comes to a head when he discovers a massive, rare artifact in the middle of the desert that opens to reveal multi-colored god figure: Wick, the Lord of Colors.

Announcing to Julian he is the creator of earth, Wick proclaims his readiness to rediscover the planet and judge its progress. Julian is smitten and leads Wick from place to place, where we witness Wick’s omnipotence and savagery. Not to invoke the title, but Wick is a wrathful and nasty old testament-style god, one who leaves a trail of bodies in his wake. Tristan (Julian’s son) and Elspeth (his fiancé), aware of Julian’s obsession, set out to stop him only to witness what seems to be limitless power. Things escalate to cataclysmic, continent-scale theatrics and the series unfolds into a thought-provoking and violent 12-issue story as they race to stop judgement day.

In summary, all three of these books are worth your time and money, especially if you get lucky with some cheaper copies in the bins.

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Another Creepy Spider Movie Hits Shudder This Month

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Good spider films are a theme this year. First, we had Sting and then there was Infested. The former is still in theaters and the latter is coming to Shudder starting April 26.

Infested has been getting some good reviews. People are saying that it’s not only a great creature feature but also a social commentary on racism in France.

According to IMDb: Writer/director Sébastien Vanicek was looking for ideas around the discrimination faced by black and Arab-looking people in France, and that led him to spiders, which are rarely welcome in homes; whenever they’re spotted, they’re swatted. As everyone in the story (people and spiders) is treated like vermin by society, the title came to him naturally.

Shudder has become the gold standard for streaming horror content. Since 2016, the service has been offering fans an expansive library of genre movies. in 2017, they began to stream exclusive content.

Since then Shudder has become a powerhouse in the film festival circuit, buying distribution rights to movies, or just producing some of their own. Just like Netflix, they give a film a short theatrical run before adding it to their library exclusively for subscribers.

Late Night With the Devil is a great example. It was released theatrically on March 22 and will begin streaming on the platform starting April 19.

While not getting the same buzz as Late Night, Infested is a festival favorite and many have said if you suffer from arachnophobia, you might want to take heed before watching it.

Infested

According to the synopsis, our main character, Kalib is turning 30 and dealing with some family issues. “He’s fighting with his sister over an inheritance and has cut ties with his best friend. Fascinated by exotic animals, he finds a venomous spider in a shop and brings it back to his apartment. It only takes a moment for the spider to escape and reproduce, turning the whole building into a dreadful web trap. The only option for Kaleb and his friends is to find a way out and survive.”

The film will be available to watch on Shudder starting April 26.

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Part Concert, Part Horror Movie M. Night Shyamalan’s ‘Trap’ Trailer Released

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In true Shyamalan form, he sets his film Trap inside a social situation where we aren’t sure what is going on. Hopefully, there is a twist at the end. Furthermore, we hope it’s better than the one in his divisive 2021 movie Old.

The trailer seemingly gives away a lot, but, as in the past, you can’t rely on his trailers because they are often red herrings and you are being gaslit to think a certain way. For instance, his movie Knock at the Cabin was completely different than what the trailer implied and if you hadn’t read the book on which the film is based it was still like going in blind.

The plot for Trap is being dubbed an “experience” and we aren’t quite sure what that means. If we were to guess based on the trailer, it’s a concert movie wrapped around a horror mystery. There are original songs performed by Saleka, who plays Lady Raven, a kind of Taylor Swift/Lady Gaga hybrid. They have even set up a Lady Raven website to further the illusion.

Here is the fresh trailer:

According to the synopsis, a father takes his daughter to one of Lady Raven’s jam-packed concerts, “where they realize they’re at the center of a dark and sinister event.”

Written and directed by M. Night Shyamalan, Trap stars Josh Hartnett, Ariel Donoghue, Saleka Shyamalan, Hayley Mills and Allison Pill. The film is produced by Ashwin Rajan, Marc Bienstock and M. Night Shyamalan. The executive producer is Steven Schneider.

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Woman Brings Corpse Into Bank To Sign Loan Papers

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Warning: This is a disturbing story.

You have to be pretty desperate for money to do what this Brazilian woman did at the bank to get a loan. She wheeled in a fresh corpse to endorse the contract and she seemingly thought the bank employees wouldn’t notice. They did.

This weird and disturbing story comes via ScreenGeek an entertainment digital publication. They write that a woman identified as Erika de Souza Vieira Nunes pushed a man she identified as her uncle into the bank pleading with him to sign loan papers for $3,400. 

If you’re squeamish or easily triggered, be aware that the video captured of the situation is disturbing. 

Latin America’s largest commercial network, TV Globo, reported on the crime, and according to ScreenGeek this is what Nunes says in Portuguese during the attempted transaction. 

“Uncle, are you paying attention? You must sign [the loan contract]. If you don’t sign, there’s no way, as I cannot sign on your behalf!”

She then adds: “Sign so you can spare me further headaches; I can’t bear it any longer.” 

At first we thought this might be a hoax, but according to Brazilian police, the uncle, 68-year-old Paulo Roberto Braga had passed away earlier that day.

 “She attempted to feign his signature for the loan. He entered the bank already deceased,” Police Chief Fábio Luiz said in an interview with TV Globo. “Our priority is to continue investigating to identify other family members and gather more information regarding this loan.”

If convicted Nunes could be facing jail time on charges of fraud, embezzlement, and desecration of a corpse.

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