The team have gotten together and teased out their favourite Film and TV titles for 2015. I’ll be following this post with one of my own. Between the two, you should find some good recommendations for viewing.

 

Joelene:

 

 

Top Movies and TV 2015

Scream Queens

I love comedy and generally adore any genre crossing so Scream Queens with its horror parody premise is right up my alley. I didn’t expect it to be as nuanced as it is though, with characters that are as crazy as the show itself.

 Mockingjay: Part 2

 This was always a given. Fantastic throughout, though I didn’t love the ending.

 Mad Max

This one I wouldn’t have even watched if it weren’t for all the MRAs saying it was awful. If they hated it that much, I thought that there must be something there. And there was. So much was built into what wasn’t said in this movie. I think you could watch it ten times and discover something new with each viewing.

Spy

This is all down to my love of genre crossing. The cast work amazingly together, and the movie is hilarious.

Jupiter Ascending

Pretty sure most people hated this one, but I really liked it. It’s stunningly beautiful and a lot of fun.

 

Stephen Dedman:

 

 

Top Film for 2015

The Martian

Inside Out

Mad Max: Fury Road

Chappie

Star Wars: The Force Awakens

(Really good 2014 movies I didn’t see until 2015 and liked even more than Star Wars were: The Imitation Game, What We Do in the Shadows, Big Hero 6)

 

Mandy Wrangles:

 

 

Top TV for 2015

The Walking Dead

Outlander

Jessica Jones

Orange is the New Black

Fear the Walking Dead (I have high hopes for series 2…)

and I’ve just discovered River, thanks to Netflix. Only a couple of episodes in, but I think I’m hooked!

 

Damian Magee:

 

 

Here are my top 5 in TV and films for 2015.

Top 5 TV Shows

Doctor Who

Poldark

New Tricks

Vera

Masters of Sex

 

Top 5 Films

Star Wars: Force Awaken

The Man From U.N.C.L.E.

Spectre

Minions

The Avengers: Age of Ultron

 

A V Mather:

 

 

Top TV for 2015

#1 (with shiny stars) Penny Dreadful

Longmire

Silicon Valley

Nashville

Veep

Also, special mention to Jonathon Strange and Mr Norrell.

 

Zombies: A Cultural History

Roger Luckhurst

224pp Reaktion Books November, 2015

Professor in Modern Literature at Birkbeck College, University of London, Roger Luckhurst has written and edited a broad range of publications on horror, film, sci-fi, pulp fiction, and gothic literature.

Comprising eight well-arranged chapters, the book kicks off with an introduction to the world of zombies, offering the reader some general context before homing in on specific aspects of their complex evolution.

The first chapter, From Zombi to Zombie, outlines the zombie’s early origins in Caribbean and particularly Haitian folklore and its conceptual migration to U.S popular culture during the final years of the Haitian colonial occupation of the late 1920s and 30s. In describing the transference of the Vodou religion from its spiritual home in Benin, Africa, to the Caribbean via the slave trade, Luckhurst acknowledges the origins of the new Haitian national identity – one which sparked the imaginations of 19^th-century travel writers and which was to become inextricably linked with the politics of race and slavery during the American Civil War. Luckhurst describes the early brand of ‘Colonial’ Gothic, firmly establishing the zombie’s place in that literary mode early on in the text and elaborating on this in subsequent chapters.

The zombie of pulp fiction is examined, including early work by HP Lovecraft, JC Henneberger’s influential Weird Tales series, and the famously melodramatic tales of Henry St Clair Whitehead, which were informed by his ethnographic background and fascination with local superstition.

Delving into the rich tradition of zombie cinema, Luckhurst presents the reader with a well-researched and judiciously condensed history and sociocultural analysis of everything from 1932’s White Zombie, Tourneau’s 1942 masterpiece, I Walked with a Zombie, and George Romero’s famous contributions, through to more recent, post-millennial offerings, such as World War Z and The Walking Dead TV series. Luckhurst draws on prominent, respected researchers to back his well-considered, lucid overview of this culturally pervasive figure.

In the final chapter, the essence of current zombie discourse is distilled into a compact summary, highlighting the trope’s multi-layered, politically charged, and significant presence in global popular culture. For anyone seeking a definitive yet succinct history of the zombie, this book is an absorbing, accessible introduction.

 

The golden age of fantasy produced some of the greatest works of fiction in a century: mighty heroes, roving barbarians, sword and sorcery, and epic quests galore. Drawing from this incredible pool of genre classics, new generations produced works that were both epic in scale and story, but also able to reflect the social changes in the real world.

Warriors of Vhast: Intimations of Evil, the debut novel by Cary J. Lenehan, is one of these incredible recent productions.

Set in a land both fantastical and familiar, Lenehan has created a world in which the sorceries of classic fantasy live side-by-side with the cultures and religions of feudal earth. Here Catholics and Christians ward themselves against undead hordes with miracles and holy writ; Hindus and Muslims battle alongside dwarves; and nomadic tribes hold true to historical traditions while venerating a mighty dragon that protects them from evil.

Intimations of Evil is a classic initial chapter in the “voyage against evil” story-type. Here the many heroes of this series are introduced to the narrative: some from noble backgrounds seeking adventure or glory, others from far humbler of origins questing only to find their place in the world. Each character is finely worked with back story, motive, and means that bring each to life and set them apart from each other. This layering of story upon story, adds wonderful depth that draws the reader to identify with their favourite protagonist.

Of course where would a sword and sorcery tale be without the great evil? Lenehan has interwoven each character masterfully into a complex narrative of prophecy and action against an evil that seems to want to draw the world into darkness. Only by combining their abilities could this seemingly random collection of heroes and zeros hope to defeat this unknown menace.

Warriors of Vhast: Intimations of Evil is fantastic proof that first-time authors have a lot to offer in terms of fresh ideas and new perspective. Cary J. Lenehan will definitely be a name to follow when it comes to great Australian fantasy fiction.