A photographer’s obsession with an unsettled subject exposes two friends to a darkness that won’t be contained by frames…
The Dark House
John Boyega Wants to Be On Doctor Who — Let’s Make This Happen, Russell T. Davies!
John Boyega is no stranger to major genre franchises. He played Finn in the last three films of The Skywalker Saga, of course, and also starred in Pacific Rim: Uprising! (pictured above), and is set to play roles in other upcoming projects including Attack the Block 2, The Freshening, and The Test.
Boyega, however, is down for even more genre roles. In a recent interview, he said Ncuti Gatwa being cast as the Doctor in Doctor Who was inspiring to him, and that he’d love to make an appearance on the show in some shape, way or form.
The Worst Car Trouble: Genevieve Valentine’s “Sooner Or Later Your Wife Will Drive Home”
Welcome back to Reading the Weird, in which we get girl cooties all over weird fiction, cosmic horror, and Lovecraftiana—from its historical roots through its most recent branches.
This week, we cover Genevieve Valentine’s “Sooner or Later Your Wife Will Drive Home,” first published in Ellen Datlow’s 2021 anthology: When Things Get Dark: Stories Inspired by Shirley Jackson. Spoilers ahead!
[“A dad can kill his daughter and probably never kill again, but Bet was smart enough not to say.”]
Series: Reading the Weird
It’s Morphin’ Reunion Time! (Some of) The Original Power Rangers Are Back in a Netflix Special
If you’re a person of a certain age, the news of a Mighty Morphin Power Rangers movie might sound ridiculously wonderful. Netflix hopes that’s the case, at least, because the streamer is releasing a reunion special called Mighty Morphin Power Rangers: Once & Always that, if the trailer is any indication, will confuse/terrify actual children, but give their parents a strong dose of nostalgia.
The Mandalorian Offers Up a Shocking Cameo in “The Foundling”
Screenshot: Lucasfilm
That… was not where anyone assumed those Purge flashbacks were heading, I’ll wager. Huh.
What I’m Dying to See in Yellowjackets Season 2
Screenshot: YouTube / Showtime
Buzz! Buzz! Buzz! After Yellowjackets came out of nowhere like the best kind of jump scare in late 2021, the wait for season 2 is almost over: On March 24, we’ll get some more answers about what really happened to the girls’ soccer team stranded in the woods for 19 months in 1996, and how that has affected the adult survivors 25 years later in 2021. (But not all the answers, since the Showtime series has already been renewed for a third season, with showrunners Ashley Lyle and Bart Nickerson operating on a five-year plan.) And it all comes back to the Wilderness…
Spoilers ahead for season 1!
Nicolas Cage Vamps It Up In the Final Trailer for Renfield
If you are just here for Nicolas Cage doing his Full Nicolas Cage Thing … sure. Sure, have at it. But if you were hoping to maybe enjoy much else about Renfield, the odds of that happening seem ever less in your favor. The final trailer for the film is, somehow, exponentially less charming than the first, and relies far too heavily on Cage just being so! extremely! zany!
But maybe Nicholas Hoult’s many put-upon expressions can save this movie?
Comfort Reading With Malka Older
Photo: Benjamin Raffetseder [via Unsplash]
Sometimes I want to read like an explorer, learning something new and venturing onto every page not knowing if it might be the page where things go wrong. But there are many times when I read for comfort, and then I turn to books I know well. Books I know really well. Books I’ve read over and over and over again because they always make me feel better.
For me, this kind of comfort reading goes beyond escapism. There are lots of books that can give me a temporary escape from reality, but comfort reads give me sustenance. They remind me about the flow of friendship and the reassurance of people who understand. Not only do the characters feel like friends, but specific scenes that I like feel like friends. The jokes that I know are coming are still funny. These books refresh me and leave me smiling at the end.
Never Let Me Go Questions Our View of the Way Things Are
Screenshot: Fox Searchlight
“This is the Way.”
I have a little bit of a problem with how the producers of The Mandalorian handle this core piece of dogma. I get what they’re doing; all through the series, the titular Mandalorian, Din Djarin (Pedro Pascal), is placed into situations where he is required to act against his bedrock faith, and as a result question its tenets. Fate has a way of undermining his hardcore adherence, as in a recent episode when his attempt at a rite of absolution in the “Living Waters” of his ravaged home world is disrupted by an unexpected plunge beneath the surface.
[But what do the convictions of a fallen warrior race have to do with organ-donor clones? Read on…]
Five Vintage SF Stories From the Asteroid Belt
Credit: NASA
Readers of James S.A. Corey’s Expanse series will be more than familiar with the Belters, who begin as plucky, oppressed victims of Mars, Earth, and the great corporations before liberating themselves and using their new-status as wisely and prudently as those who came before them. (In case it’s not clear, I’m being sarcastic.) Corey’s Belters are among the latest in a long tradition of independently-minded Belters, seeking freedom and prosperity in the Solar System’s asteroid belt, that stream of planetary leftovers found principally (but not entirely) between Jupiter and Mars.
It is no surprise that the Belt and Belters are such a popular conceit. Given the tendency of authors to favour worlds that are apparently the size of Hollywood backlots, the appeal of thousands of actual bodies the size of Hollywood backlots within comparatively easy reach of each other is obvious. Thus, the challenge here is to winnow the list down to only five vintage stories from the subgenre…
Revealing Michelle A. Barry’s Seagarden, Book Two of Plotting the Stars
Photo courtesy of Michelle A. Barry
Revolution is watered with sweat and tears...
We’re thrilled to share the cover of Michelle A. Barry’s Seagarden, available on October 3, 2023 from Pixel+Ink. The second book in the Plotting the Stars series, Seagarden blossoms with unexpected twists and heartbreaking revelations, underpinned by climate change warnings and a determination to fight against the status quo.
A Dream of Electric Mothers
We’re excited to reprint “A Dream of Electric Mothers,” the 2023 Nebula Award–nominated novelette by Wole Talabi, first published in Africa Risen: A New Era of Speculative Fiction, the NAACP Image Award–nominated anthology edited by Sheree Renée Thomas, Oghenechovwe Donald Ekpeki, and Zelda Knight.
The Escapist Fantasy of Fandom: Esther Yi’s Y/N
The premise of Esther Yi’s debut novel Y/N—a woman who plunges deep into parasocial devotion to a K-pop idol—is “blissfully stupid,” she professes. “Blissful” seems fair enough. After all, given the state of the world, who doesn’t need a little escapist fantasy? But I can’t help but wonder, for Yi, where exactly the “stupid[ity]” she speaks of resides. Is it in the unattainability of love with a celebrity? Its lack of functional purpose? The ridiculousness of a consumer culture where such impossible romance is not only marketed, but in high demand?
Or, when Yi says “stupid” does she simply mean the beautiful, quiet blankness that might spread across one’s brain when faced with the image of a flawless boy? Because, on first read, Y/N is anything but.
Blumhouse’s Five Nights At Freddy’s Adaptation Is In Production: Here’s What We Know So Far
If you’re familiar with the lore of the Five Nights at Freddy’s video game franchise, you’re no doubt intrigued by the idea of a live-action feature horror adaptation. The project has moved in fits and starts for years, but with the film now shooting in New Orleans, it looks like we’ll finally see the possessed animatronic robots (pictured above) creeping around Freddy Fazbear’s Pizza joint on the big screen in the near future. Here’s what we know about the adaptation so far, including the cast and who is writing and directing the feature.
Read an Excerpt From Court of the Undying Seasons
In becoming a vampire, I’m less than a girl. And more.
We’re thrilled to share an excerpt from YA dark fantasy Court of the Undying Seasons by A.M. Strickland, out from Feiwel & Friends on May 16.
Carnival Row Proves Being Overly Ambitious Is Better Than Playing It Safe
Screenshot: Prime Video
After nearly four years, and a second season that faced numerous Covid delays, Carnival Row has just wrapped up for a second (and final) season—one that mostly justifies its existence while still suffering from a myriad of problems that leave a slightly sour taste in one’s mouth. For those of you who missed my coverage of the first season of the series, Carnival Row is a story about colonialism and race set in a fantasy world full of fey folk that looks a lot like Victorian England. It also has the silliest fantasy names of any show—with the leads being named Rycroft Philostrate (Orlando Bloom) and Vignette Stonemoss (Cara Delevingne). If those don’t make you at least slightly uncomfortable, there is also a recurring character named Constable Cuppins who is, somehow, not played for laughs.
Below, I’ll get into a lot of spoilers, so keep that in mind as we launch into it…
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