TRUE BLOOD The Complete Fifth Season – Blu-ray review
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TRUE BLOOD The Complete Fifth Season
Creator: Alan Ball
Cast: Anna Paquin, Stephen Moyer, Alexander Skarsgård
By Brian M. Sammons
Time for some more hot, sexy, bloody, and funny vampire action with Sookie, Bill, Eric, and all the rest of the gang from the tiny little Louisiana town that just so happens to be the nexus point for all things supernatural happening in the world. Or at least, that’s how it always seems. Yes, this is now the fifth year of HBO’s fangtastic show, and the question is; is it still as good as it was, or has it succumbed to the eventual decline that almost all TV shows seem to fall into? Well I guess that depends upon who you are.
You see, True Blood has one hell of a rabid fan base and after five years you already know if you’re a fan of it or not. If you are, then rejoice because here’s some more southern gothic, supernatural romance for you to sink your teeth into. So in essence, this is one of the easiest reviews for me to do, as I’m largely preaching to the converted if you’re still reading this. But hell, I’ve got a job to do, so grab your silver chains and your favorite artificial blood beverage; we’re going way down south for some vampire goodness.
Last season was all about magic, and this one is all about faith. Faith in people when it looks like they have majorly lost their way, and faith in divine beings. Now that’s common for many shows, but what is not too common is when murderous blood-fiends find religion. Even if it’s a religion based on slaughter. To this end, the Vampire Authority, the ruling body of vampires, play a huge part in the story. Unfortunately, this shifts much of focus from a lot of the supporting characters who have been part of the show from the beginning. There are only so many minutes in an episode, after all. Season five also brings back a villain from the past, one that was just so fun, and yet here he is poorly utilized and almost neutered. Lastly, some of the main characters take some wild turns only for the sake of plot contrivance. Instead of adding anything of merit to the story, they just seem way out of place. It does end with a nice cliffhanger, so there’s hope season six will be a bit better than this one.
Season Five of True Blood is not the show at its best, in fact it might be the worst season yet, but it’s far from being truly bad. The show continues to be a silly, sexy, if only ever slightly scary good time and I do enjoy this show despite my better judgment. I’m not a fan of the sexy, misunderstood vampire thing that is so popular these days, but even despite that, I do find myself returning to True Blood again and again. It’s cotton candy for the brain with plenty of pretty for the eye. I know some serious horror fans hate this series, but I think such folks need to lighten up and just enjoy this show as the ridiculous, over the top, naughty soap opera it is. That’s how I watch it, and it never fails to give me a giggle.
Merits of the continuing adventures of Sookie and Vampire Bill aside, this new Blu-ray, DVD, and Digital Copy combo set from HBO is pretty top notch. There are five audio commentaries to be found here. Why only five? I don’t know, but they are pretty fun and informative and have a bunch of the cast and crew on them, including show-runner Alan Ball, stars Anna Paquin, Stephen Moyer, Denis O’Hare and more. In addition to the commentaries, there are a bunch of interviews about each of the episodes with all the True Blood writers. There is a group discussion with members of the cast and crew on one of the episodes (episode six), how it was made and various behind the scenes bits. There is an interactive guide showing all the relationships, past and present, and with five seasons and a cast this large, that gets quite extensive. There are several “authority confessionals” where actors playing the vampire hierarchy speak to the camera while staying in character about their shadowy organization. Character bios, flashbacks, flash-forwards, and other interactive hints and goodies round out this impressive list of bloody good extras.
So if you are waiting for the sixth season of True Blood to start up on HBO, do yourself a favor and pick up this fifth season to remind you of all the sexy supernatural shenanigans from last years. Even five years in it is still a load of fun that looks absolutely great on Blu-ray and comes packed with a gaggle of great extras. If you have yet to catch this show and want to jump on the True Blood bandwagon, this is not the season to do it. There’s too much inside baseball here for newbies. However if you’re a diehard fangbanger, you’ll still get a kick out of this season, although you have probably already seen it by now.
New Zealand Film Commission and Dark Sky Films Want to Make Your Horror Movie
posted by · CommentsHow lucky can you be? I’ve been to New Zealand. It is an absolutely wonderful place. Beautiful mountains, stunning beaches, forests…just being allowed to live there should be enough to make anyone happy. Well now, if you’re a lucky Kiwi with a good idea, it seems that you can also get your movie made. Sounds pretty cool to me.
From the press release:
Producer Ant Timpson, Greg Newman (EVP MPI/Dark Sky Films), and New Zealand Film Commission CEO Graeme Mason announced today the return of MAKE MY MOVIE, the highly successful New Zealand feature film project.
The New Zealand Film Commission and MPI/Dark Sky Films are financing a low budget feature film scheme in which the entire budget will be given away to any individual/team who can come up with a synopsis and poster that wows the public and the in-house gurus. The first round resulted in the critically acclaimed Kiwi peeping-tom rom-com HOW TO MEET GIRLS FROM A DISTANCE. That film was conceived and delivered in less than six months; it was then sold to Madman Entertainment after a highly successful festival run in New Zealand.
This time around exec producer Timpson sought support from Newman and MPI and upped the stakes, calling it MAKE MY HORROR MOVIE with a focus entirely on the horror genre.
“Having MPI/Dark Sky on board from day one is a smart way to help us to find a project that can transcend the inherent limitations of a low budget and to select a project that can make a real dent internationally. We were all knocked out by the creativity from the first Make My Movie; we have a real chance to find the next Paranormal Activity through this process” said Timpson.
Greg Newman, EVP MPI/Dark Sky, said, “We are pleased to be involved in this unique collaboration with Ant Timpson and the New Zealand Film Commission. This furthers our commitment to developing new talent and to bringing the best in independent genre to the marketplace.”
“We were all really impressed by what the make My Movie team and How to Meet Girls from a Distance achieved last year. We’re proud to support this excellent low-budget initiative, and I can’t wait to see what Make My Horror Movie produces this time round,” added NZFC Chief Executive Graeme Mason.
The deal was structured by Tim Riley of Dominion Law with assistance from NZFC’s Naomi Wallwork. MPI will cover Worldwide Sales.
The MPI/Dark Sky Films brand includes the successful genre films The House of the Devil, Stake Land, The Innkeepers, Frankenstein’s Army, Hatchet III, Stitches, and the upcoming Late Phases.
Seeking Valhalla: A Retro Science Fiction Novel – Book Review
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Seeking Valhalla: A Retro Science Fiction Novel
Eric G. Swedin
Borgo Press, 2013
Trade paperback, $14.99
Reviewed by Michael R. Collings
It is the final days of World War II. The German military has expended nearly all of its resources: men, ammunition, ground weapons, aircraft. The Battle of Berlin, with its devastating losses on both sides, has begun. The end is in sight.
Major John Carter, aiding in the liberation of the Dachau death-camp, discovers among the unspeakable horrors that he and the other Allied forces find something so unusual, so startling, that he has no clear sense of how it fits into the realities of war: a barrack, unusually well-constructed, unusually well-heated, with beds and pillows and mattresses and blankets…and a cowering group of young, attractive, well-nourished, long-haired women.
His confusion does not last long. One of them, an Irish woman little more than a girl, tells Carter that she and the others, as well as scores more during the past four years, have all been kidnapped from their homes in lands with Nordic ancestries, for the sole purpose of becoming virgin sacrifices at the Temple of Odin.
At almost the same time, in a secluded chalet not far distant, SS Colonel Hans von Krohn puts the finishing touches on a plan to rescue the Third Reich from incipient disaster. He, his two faithful bodyguards, and one of the would-be sacrificial victims escape the ruins of German-occupied Bavaria and head north, first toward Norway, and finally toward the Arctic regions themselves, in search of the something that nearly everyone else believes exists only in myths and legends—Yggdrasil, the World-Tree, growing in the center of Valhalla, where Odin still rules. Thus begins what the book cover identifies as a “Retro Science Fiction Novel” but that might with equal precision be called a “Scientific Romance” à la Edgar Rice Burroughs. To point readers toward Burroughsian echoes is not to provide spoilers, however; Swedin clearly does not intend for readers to get very far in the action-adventure, science-fantasy that is Seeking Valhalla without noticing the links. The main character, John Carter, is named in the first sentence.
That by itself does not necessarily specify an allusion, but when, only a few pages later, the major’s sergeant is identified as one “Carson Napier”; a greenhorn soldier who dies during a firefight against the SS is known only as “Clayton” (one assumes that his first name might just be “John”); and a mysterious Colonel, who almost immediately commandeers Carter and Napier to follow him on an equally mysterious trek northward, calls himself “Edgar B. Rice”—well, to claim that the names are merely coincidental stretches credibility.
Once all of Swedin’s characters are in place—Nazi and Allied, including a cameo-like reference to an American anthropologist named “Jones”—we are ready for a roller-coaster ride of an adventure that stretches from Germany to the North Pole; that mingles Swedin’s background in military history with his knowledge of myth, legend, religion, and ancient literatures into a believable whole; and that recreates the atmosphere, the landscapes, and the texture of the Nordic sagas.
Seeking Valhalla is crisply and clearly written, chapters shifting point-of-view characters freely but without any confusion. Visual imagery plays a large part in the narrative, as does sideways references to books and films; Lost Horizon (novel, 1933; film, 1937) plays a significant role in preparing us—and the characters—for what is to come. And the conclusion is handled adroitly, managing to combine a dirigible cruising over the Arctic wastes, Adam and Eve and the Fruit of the Tree of Life, Odin and the World-Ash, and Valkyries sweeping from the skies.
In all, Seeking Valhalla is exciting, interesting and informative, fun, and a creditable homage to Burroughs and his generation of fantasists.
From the Press Release:
New York City’s First Official Sci-Fi Film Festival Now Accepting Submissions And Expands To France As It Ventures Into Global Awareness
Brooklyn, N.Y. May 20, 2013 – The Philip K. Dick European Science Fiction Film Festival is taking its mission internationally as it honors one of the literary world’s most acclaimed geniuses. A three-day event will mark the first of many worldwide gatherings in the beautiful and historic Lille, France from October 25-27, 2013 at the famous L’Hybride Cinema venue. This unprecedented move will welcome an international awareness to this remarkable festival and extend its celebration of Philip K. Dick to his countless fans who continue his legacy within the genre of science fiction.
The festival is now accepting submissions in science fiction and horror features and shorts. Writers and panelists will be invited to participate in this extraordinary event which will surely be one of many overseas. As further details become available the festival anticipates a successful event in its first global outing. The first New York City festival saw record crowds of over 1,000 participants for the exclusive screening of John Alan Simon’s Radio Free Albemuth which was based on Dick’s 1985 novel posthumously published three years after his death. The weekend-long festival also held numerous film screenings and panels with Simon, esteemed professors Ronald Mallet and Enrique Ricardo Miranda, distinguished writers Angela Posada-Swafford, Walter Mosley and Dennis Paoli and science fiction experts Richard Dolan and Peter Robbins. The team behind the annual festivities will also pioneer its second annual event in December 2013 for a record five-day gathering and a spring 2014 cyberpunk festival in Tokyo.
The Philip K. Dick European Festival of Science Fiction, Science, The Fantastic, Horror and The Supernatural will delight its attendees with its entertaining and visually captivating themes which have made the event a favorable and continued success. The event will take place at L’Hybride Cinema at 18 Rue Gosselet 59000 in Lille, France. Contact the venue at http://www.lhybride.org. For film submissions, deadlines and contacts please visit www.philipkdickfilmfestival-europe.com and http://www.withoutabox.com/login/12654 and always be sure to stay informed of all ongoing announcements on the festival’s Facebook page at https://www.facebook.com/ThePhilipKDickFilmFestival and Twitter page at https://twitter.com/PhilipKDickFest.
About The Philip K. Dick Science Fiction Film Festival: The Second Philip K. Dick International Film Festival of Science, Science Fiction, Fantastic Film and the Supernatural and the first of its kind to grace the screens of New York City is organized by filmmakers who understand the difficulties and challenges of telling a unique story in a corporate environment. The year 2013 marks the second year of the festival which will expand it’s genres of films, panels and venues throughout Brooklyn and Manhattan. Guest speakers and writers that best represent the goals of the festival will attend the opening ceremonies. We look for original voices and visions in works submitted. Lastly, this is a festival by filmmakers for filmmakers.
About Philip K. Dick: “Reality is whatever refuses to go away when I stop believing in it.” – Philip K. Dick Philip K. Dick (1928-1982) was one of the 20th century’s most profound novelists and writers within the science fiction community. His exploration, analysis and beliefs led to the publishings of 44 novels and 121 short stories. Dick’s enormous library of works led to several film developments including Blade Runner (1982), Total Recall (1990), Minority Report (2002), Paycheck (2003) and most recently Radio Free Albemuth (2010), The Adjustment Bureau (2011) and the successful remake of Total Recall (2012). The film industry is also awaiting the release of King of the Elves in 2014, which will surely be yet another prosperous depiction of Dick’s literary contribution to science fiction. Dick’s enormously effective views comprised of fictional universes, virtual realities and human mutation foresaw an exaggerated version of the current state of government and contemporary life. Though he is gone in the physical form his philosophies live on in the techniques applied to modern stories and films and generate large displays of appreciation and understanding.
For more information please contact:
Daniel Abella, Festival Director Program Office: 917-362-9337
Email: info@thephilipkdickfilmfestival.com
Social Media Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/ThePhilipKDickFilmFestival
Twitter: https://twitter.com/PhilipKDickFest
Meetup: http://www.meetup.com/The-Philip-K-Dick-science-fiction-Film-Festival/
Vimeo: http://vimeo.com/philipkdickfilmfestival
Fractured Atlas Donation Page: https://www.fracturedatlas.org/site/contribute/donate/6853
The Oblivion Room: Stories of Violation





