Monday, January 26, 2015

Bad Elements - Blood For Blood



  I was recently asked to review a book that was written by my friend, Lynn Mullican. It is called Bad Elements - Blood For Blood. Pictured above is the first novel in the Bad Elements series, titled, Crystal Dragon. I have reprinted my review for Blood For Blood below for your benefit. Please look for it when it is released later this year. I think you'll love it as much as I did!

  This is a genuine pleasure to read no matter what genre you generally prefer. At times it reminded me of the '30 Days of Night' series by Steve Niles with the intricacy of vampiric story telling. Nevertheless, Lynn has also managed to balance that with a heartfelt story of a family, reminiscent of the 'Ender's Game' series by Orson Scott Card or Tobe Hooper's 'Poltergeist'. That makes the action all the more deeply impactful in that the characters are people and not just plot devices. There are elements of mystery as well with the shrouded past of the main character. I usually pride myself in being able to figure out the ending about halfway through. I must confess, with this story, I was not able to, but I had so much fun reading it that I didn't mind and when it finally came to light, I was very pleased. The surprise at the end gave me chills and made me want to read more!

Auteur


  I just watched a screener for this movie. http://www.imdb.com/title/tt2300552/  It's a documentary of a film maker who was making a movie, then took it and disappeared. The documentary focuses on the mysterious circumstances surrounding his disappearance. He was filming a movie called 'Demonic'. The documentary interviews several of the people involved in the making of  'Demonic'. Among those interviewed are actor Tom Sizemore, and the assistant director, other actors and the producer.

  Eventually, the director is found. That is when the documentary takes a dark turn. Something happened on that set, but nobody seems to be willing to discuss it. Perhaps the documentarian should have left well enough alone. Maybe there's a good reason nobody wants to talk about it.

  My good friend, James Cullen Bressack was one of the writers of this movie. I recently got the chance to meet him in person at the Tucson Terrorfest: Horror Film Festival where he was screening his film, 'Pernicious'. That was an amazing movie, full of beautiful Thailand scenery. The horrific events depicted in it are based on actual Thai superstitions and folk lore.