Fear of police is nothing new but it’s clear that astynomiaphobia has reached critical mass in 2015, as civilian deaths from police activity have seemingly increased even as the cop death rate is at one of its lowest points in recorded history. That inherent distrust of authority figures has a rich history in fiction, particularly […]
Compassion is a Death Machine
Sometimes, it’s dangerous to have compassion. This is so widely known that it is in fact, “a trope.” A cliche. It’s widely appreciated. But unfortunately, in our knowledge of this fact, we have forgotten to see nuance; it’s more than just a stab in our own back that we risk when we reach out to […]
Pop Rehabilitation: Feast
Not content to let their pop passions go unloved by the masses, Loser City staff have banded together to provide Pop Rehabilitation to the works that have been unjustly maligned and forgotten. In honor of Project Greenlight’s return to the airwaves after a decade long hiatus, Nick Hanover looks back at the film that emerged from the show’s […]
Fantasia Fest 2015: Bunny the Killer Thing is Quite Possibly the Dumbest Erotic Horror Film in History
Horror is a genre that tends to be pretty forgiving. Bad acting, tinny dialogue, technical difficulties and heaps of plot holes can all be overcome by the right concept or at least entertaining incompetence but the cardinal sin in horror is to be boring. So it’s a bit shocking to come out of a film […]
Meta Mercenaries: Because You Demanded It, Deadpool Kills the Marvel Universe
This week at Loser City we’re going to be discussing some meta mercenary works, commercial projects that tried to thwart their for-hire origins with some self-commentary, for better or for worse. Today we’re resurrecting and updating an essay Nick Hanover wrote for Comics Bulletin on Deadpool Kills the Marvel Universe, a miniseries by Cullen Bunn and Dalibor […]
Penny Dreadful Season Two Finale Review
S2E09 “And Hell Itself My Only Foe” “And Hell Itself My Only Foe” served as an epic set up for a season finale, filling itself with developments and cliffhangers, with the right pacing to keep the story moving forward. It also showed a marked improvement in John Logan’s pacing compared to season one. Although both […]
Wolf Like Me: Der Samurai is All Style and No Substance
As inseparable as horror and symbolism may be, it’s hard to view Till Kleinert’s stylish Der Samurai as anything other than a strenuous test of what happens when that balance is tipped a little too heavily towards the symbolic end. A dreamy tale of man versus his inner beast, Der Samurai is all style and no substance, stuffed […]
Dream Strange Dreams: It Follows is Horror at Its Finest
I have a difficult personal relationship with the horror genre. As a child I often experienced vivid nightmares that would keep me up most of the night. Consequently, I learned early on to avoid anything that might fuel my fetid imagination with frightening imagery. To this day I experience frequent and occasionally very disturbing interruptions […]
Unnatural Transformations: Wolf Moon is a Refreshing New Take on the Werewolf Genre
I’m going to go ahead and confess I went into Cullen Bunn and Jeremy Haun’s new Vertigo series Wolf Moon with a whole fleet of reservations. On the positive front, this is one of the few new pop comics without a mononymic title. But less positive are things like the inexplicable “sexy but creepy naked lady […]
Repulsive and Hilarious, The ABCS of Death 2 Breaks Beyond Genre Expectations
Does the anthology sequel and continuation of gore fueled education The ABCs of Death 2 offer anything we haven’t already come to expect? Surprisingly yes. While there are certainly some stranger entries that don’t quite hit their mark or by the book uninspired scares, its easy to forgive them knowing there will be another subsequent […]