Living with Chucky (2022)

Living with Chucky (2022)

Dir. Kyra Elise Gardner

A documentary in which various cast and crew members from the Child's Play movies discuss their experiences of the filmmaking process and their relationship to the killer doll, Chucky.

The montage of clips near the beginning is a great reminder of why the knee-high slasher is such an iconic character; it made me want to re-watch all seven movies again. (The shitty reboot from 2009 is ignored, as it ought to be.)

For the most part, the doc follows a traditional formula, which is a collection of talking-heads clips arranged into a basic chronological narrative of the filmmaker's / editor's design, including words from actors Alex Vincent, Brad Dourif, Christine Elise, Jennifer Tilly, and Fiona Dourif. There's also input from some of the writers, producers, directors, and puppeteers.

As a Child's Play fan, I enjoyed it very much, but as a documentary it does stumble a little.

Kamen Rider Black Sun (2022)

Kamen Rider Black Sun (2022)

Dir: Kazuya Shiraishi | Script: Izumi Takahashi | 10 episodes, approx 44 mins each.

Until viewing Black Sun, the most recent Kamen Rider series that I'd watched in its entirety was the fruit-themed Gaim (2013-14), so if there's been a natural progression in how the franchise does things in the intervening years, from a production standpoint, specifically, I'm not aware of it.

Timed to coincide with Rider's 50th anniversary, Black Sun feels different because it's aimed toward an adult audience. The bright 'toy line' colours that usually adorn a Rider's suit are absent, replaced with nondescript shades of black.

Besides the longer running time per episode, there's also scenes of drug use and an elevated level of violence, including immolation, decapitation, severed limbs, etc, some of which is even perpetrated by and against children.

Ghost in the Shell: SAC_2045: Season Two (2022)

GitS: SAC_2045: Season Two (2022)

Dirs: Shinji Aramaki + Kenji Kamiyama | Eps: 12, approx 25 mins each

The good news is it's better than Season One. But that doesn't mean it's good. It's like the difference between shitting yourself while wearing shorts versus shitting yourself while wearing trousers with bicycle clips. Both stink and are best avoided.

The first episode is numbered 13, which makes sense because — even though Netflix pretend otherwise — it's clearly the second half of Season One, which they didn't bother to finish properly.

It has a new opening and new theme song that despite not being at all memorable is definitely an improvement over the last effort. (It's called Secret Ceremony, by millennium parade.) It's the kind of thing you might get if you asked a manufactured J-pop band to make a more edgy song for one of the superfluous Kingdom Hearts handheld games.

King Diamond: Abigail (2022)

King Diamond: Abigail (2022)

Author: Dan Watters | Illustrator: Damien Worm | Page Count: 120

'Perhaps it was the reduction of the world to simplistic concepts of good and evil that revolted me.'

A comic book adaptation of Danish artist King Diamond's 1987 concept album of the same name, about a couple who inherit a mansion with ghosts, wherein the influence of a stillborn child lingers, having outlived her flesh.

Sadly, there's nothing inside the covers to say how much input King actually had in its creation. Hopefully it was more than a simple nod of the head in agreement to the project being undertaken by someone else.

The credited author is Dan Watters, a British writer with various video game adaptations on his CV and the man who was chosen to helm the relaunch of DC/Vertigo's Lucifer series. All things considered, he did a fine job keeping it respectful while filling in the story's gaps.

Death Note: Manga: Black Edition Vols I-VI (2011)

Death Note: Black Edition (2011)

Author: Tsugumi Ohba  |  Illustrator: Takeshi Obata

Page Count: Approx 400 in each volume (2424 in total)

"We’re both using them as bait to lure each other out...and we’re both well aware of that…"

At its most basic level, Death Note is the story of two determined individuals, each of whom have people that support them in various ways.

The first is Light Yagami, a seventeen-year-old high school student with a high IQ, an elevated sense of superiority and a tendency to get bored easily. He wants to make the world a better place and doesn't care who he has to step on to achieve it.

The second is his nemesis, the mysteriously named L, a young, reclusive detective with a sharp, analytical and overly-suspicious mind. L never fails in anything he does but he's never been up against anyone quite as merciless as Light Yagami before.

What unfolds is a battle of skills, wills and wits between a pair of evenly matched masters of second-guessing and deductive reasoning.