Hack/Slash - soon to be a major motion picture! - again

This is a follow up to this post~

Stop the presses!
Don't make any movie YET!

Now that I got your attention...

Remember my discussion about an eventual Hack/Slash movie? (link above)
Well, I changed my mind.
Alright..so you re-read/remember/checked out my previous article? Good.

So, I admit, Allison Scagliotti could make a quite good Cassie Hack.
But
She isn't what I'd call a "scream queen". (which is, an actress that makes a lot of horror movies)

So here's my all-new better suggestion.
Brea Grant (some of you might know her from Heroes mostly).

Perfect match?

Better known as a fun blonde-haired gal, since I saw her with dyed hair in a zombie parody video, I thought she could work as Cassie better than anyone else.
And she already appeard in a bunch of horror movies (including slashers!) like: You're So Dead, Midnight, Halloween II, Trance and coming out next year Ice Road Terror.

PLUS she likes the character already!
She's known to be a bit nerdy (see any of her Heroes interview!), actually read comics (though Scagliotti did too) and actually loves Cassie so much she dressed as her for this past Halloween!

 

°___O

She's perfect for the character!
Tim Seeley already saw that, from the looks of her twister.

Now, hear me out Hollywood!
Don't pick that awful bimbo current-starlette-of-the-day Megan Fox!
Use an actress that actually as some interest in the series!
Allison Scagliotti! Brea Grant! But not Fox, god no!!

CBR Hack/Slash Friday the 31st

Continuing my reviews of Horror-related stuff.
Here's more Hack/Slash!

This time featuring a crossover with Chucky, which was in fact already collected in the Omnibus I reviewed here, but wasn't part of the earlier TPB volumes (1 & 2) it collected.
Pheeew...understood?
A'right!...'nuff introduction, moving on~

Comic title: Hack/Slash Volume 3: Friday the 31st
Art by Tim Seeley, Emily Stone and Courtney Via
Story by Tim Seeley

Published by DDP
From 2007
Lineup Hack/Slash
Format: Trade paperback collecting Hack/Slash Vs. Chucky and Hack/Slash #1–4.

After the various one-shots and minis, which were collected in the first 2 trade paperbacks, it was time for Hack/Slash to get its own on-going regular series.
The series was finally getting quite popular and people started talking about it everywhere.
And it started the best way such comic about slasher/horror movies could. With a crossover and the first time the characters would find in their path and face off against a licensed monster classic.

Kiss it!! Hey, it says so on the bat itself!

But let's not get ahead of ourselves.
First, a lil' recap for newcomers.

Cassie escaped from an undead killer, a slasher, which was really her own mother.
On the run since then, she has set for goal to track down these monsters who come back to life to haunt and kill both innocent and guilty people.
In her journey, she found the enormous Vlad, first mistaken him for a slasher himself. Vlad grew up in a freezer and was tracking himself the Meatman Killer, a real slasher.

After facing several various slashers across the country, they faced Laura Lochs who was using and reanimating Father Wrath an undead priest avenger.

HERE'S CHUCKYYYY!!

Friday the 31st (great parodical title btw!) picks up where the last story left.
Cassie and Vlad are still driving across the states.
Meanwhile Laura Lochs is back. Now almost a slasher herself. She decides to have a new body, body she will take by force from Cassie or Vlad.
Laura finds the killing doll occupied by the spirit of the serial killer Charles Lee Ray, Chucky himself.
She learns and uses voodoo spells, gets Vlad body, and then...

Well, you better check it out by yourself if you already haven't.

This great crossover opens the on-going Hack/Slash series where Cassie and Vlad hunt a murderous sadistic with a nice new look on and recap of Cassie's origins.

Later on a rockstar who made a deal with devils to become successful and famous almost brings back hell on earth. And we're introduced for the first to Georgia, a stripper who sympathizes with our group of happy chaps.

Go figure.

The book is as fun as ever.
The references and allusions to the genre are many and it's quite tongue-in-cheek in dialogues and uses of horror tropes.

Our characters aren't as 2dimensional as what you'd think of the genre. Despite the clichés, Tim Seeley actually uses that to build his little universe and develop the characters through their relations.

For exemple we meet again Chris Krank and Lisa Elsten, victims of earlier slashers who now are starting to become full fledged Hack/Slash regulars.
Vlad and Cassie are both excellent. All the series rest on their respective shoulders.

The art, specially from new regular artist Emily Stone, is spectacular!
Not quite stereotypical "comic-ysh", nor very cartoony.
It's a good mix for horror and comedy.

Overall, another solid run from Tim Seeley's Hack Slash!
The story is only getting started with these first issues.

This is as good of a starting point as any.
The use of both Chucky (mainstream appeal) and well rehashed flashback sequences is a great way to introduce someone to the series.
Plus the on-going plots lifted from the earlier mini-series and one-shots is sure to please the fans too.

The crossover with Child's Play's horror icon marked the first official slasher crossover (previous slashers were based on classic monsters but with original make-overs).
It also spin-offed a Chucky mini-series!
(for the fans, Chucky's appearance here is supposed to take place after the last movie, Seed of Chucky)

Anyway, recommended book for horror fans and non-fans alike!

I give it:

  2,5 / 3 ManThings!

Hack/Slash - soon to be a major motion picture!

The Hack/Slash slasher horror comic has had this tagline written over its cover for so long... I was starting to think it was part of the logo...

Note the variation here: a studio was attached to the adaptation at this point!

But the story of this long overdue adaptation has been quite chaotic along the way...

I'll remember you quickly that I reviewed the beginning of this series already.
(I still wanna do the rest down the road)

First off, I'd like to point out....I'm in reality not a big fan of adaptations.
Be it the recent wave of Superhero successful adaptations or the 80s/90s ones.
The Walking Dead comics coming to TV screens.
Batman to theatres.
Classic scifi books into movies.
TV shows into full length flicks.
Movies into games.
Games into comics.
Etc..!

The original media is always the best one, the more creative one, and the only one using its medium at full potential.
But I like some of those adaptation. It doesn't mean it's bad!
Simply "less" good.
(some stories are meant to be told through a specific medium, that's all)

Anyway, Tim Seeley's Hack/Slash has always been a sort of homage to the 80s culture of Slasher/Horror flicks.
It's a movie genre!
So it's sort of natural it would come to the big screen at some point.
The question would have been: Would it be a studio project? Some corporate producers pissing on a well loved cult series just to get their share of money off it? Or a more independant project, by that people actually care about the source material?
Would it be an R-Rated horror gory movie like Friday the 13th or Nightmares on Elm Street?
Or some dumb PG-13 cash-in kid-friendly commercial stuff?

Anyway, back when the series started, it was quickly rumoured to be adapted, thanks to a cult following that started out as soon as the first couple of miniseries Hack/Slash had.

Then a Major Studio, Rogue Pictures, was announced.

Most Hack/Slash issues and trade paperbacks actually feature the tagline "soon to be a major motion picture" which has kind of become a running joke by now.

Now we're at a point where this serie is more popular than ever, it is currently being published at Image Comics. The folks over at Image have the means to adapt it themselves.

And what do we get?
Rumours about Megan Fox wanting the role.

One of these two is paid to dress like that. 
And would be actually the type of person to die first in an horror movie.

That's right.
Instead of getting a proper actress, or some fun gal who would be better suited for the role or deserve it...
Producers, being the usual... huh *stayin' rational, stayin' polite* hum.. money-fags they are want that bimbo-slut who is popular today.

I mean, that's basically saying "Heck! We know we'll screw the movie! We know it will be bad and we're not gonna invest a lot in it. So let's just take whoever is the current popular bimbo of the week!"

Anyway, those are just rumours.
But rumours like this mostly end up true.
My problem with it? Well, she looks like your stereotypical slutty-bimbo that gets killed in the first 10 minutes of a slasher!
Plus she doesn't have the brains for a smartass Cassie! >:(

 Even this girl in a "Jean Louis David" hair styling advertisment

here in Switzerland looks a helluva lot more like Cassie than Fox!

And the worse part? She's already saying in every interview she would love to play two comic book characters.
Cassie.
And Fathom.

Alright she could have Fathom.
Who the heck are exactly Fathom's audience? Horny 12 years old geeky kids?

Anyway, here's my own take on an Hack/Slash movie now.

Hack/Slas's already been adapted with live actors. In a stage play, just like Evil Dead the musical. (only, with less singing)
Called Hack/Slash: Stagefright.

It perfectly embrassed its B-movie spirit and even the gory aspect.

So all you would need would be to make a real horror movie out of this content!
And simply cast a scream queen as the main character!

My favorite pick would have been Halloween's Danielle Harris.
In my eyes she's the perfect Cassie, now that she's all grown up!

Seriously, picture her with shorter black hair!

But it seems like Tim Seeley and the other artists use Asia Argento as model for Cassie.
Best known as the daughter of the horror movie master Dario Argento, and she's already appeared as a monster/zombie kickass killer a couple of times.

Specially with her Land of the Dead costume on.

But I guess producers would prefer to go with a younger actress, to portray the 20s-something Cassie from the early books (and to attract a younger crowd)...

Anyway, since the announcement of the latest rumours this year of Megan Fox playing Cassie, Hack/Slash fans have started a movement to get their own voices heard, their own favorite pick for Cassie chosen.

It all started from some little mention on the web, then it went on, the idea grew up amongst fans...
Fans want Allison Scagliotti (Claudia Donovan on SyFy's Warehouse 13) to play Cassie!

I'll give 'em that. Good pick. She could easily look the part!

That's why they started a movement this summer.
The Allisonscag4cassie

Even Tim Seeley agrees with this choice!
And joined the movement himself!
You can see the nice t-shirt they made for Allison, signed by Tim with drawings 'n' all :D

Awesome!

This summer and in September, they did their first couple of shout-outs, hoping to make the studios realize we, fans, have a voice! And we don't want them to mess with Hack/Slash!

Here's the (old) awesome campaign video they did back then:



And here's Allison's answer from her own youtube account:



This gal got the spirit!
Now all we need is for this to actually happen~

Again, check out their page: Allisonscag4cassie

I didn't talk about this earlier, because I really wanted to review an Hack/Slash comic before..and then sort of forgot about it.. My bad! :/
Anyway, I'll have a news post up when they'll do the next shout-out!

CBR Hack/Slash Omnibus

Since Halloween's coming this month...I'm gonna try having some horror-related stuff for you guys and gals.

Well, there's already my current 3 Splatterhouse reviews (and more coming up!),
but here's a comic now, truly a modern gem that still is sadly so underrated...

Comic title: Hack/Slash Omnibus (Volume 1)
Art by Tim Seeley, Stefano Caselli & various
Story by Tim Seeley

Published by DDP
From 2008 (1st issue released in 2004)
Lineup Hack/Slash
Format: Omnibus collecting the trade paperbacks Hack/Slash Vol. 1: First Cut & Hack/Slash Vol. 2: Death By Sequel (containing Hack/Slash: Euthanized, Hack/Slash: Girls Gone Dead, Hack/Slash: Comic Book Carnage, Hack/Slash Vs. Evil Ernie, Hack/Slash: The Land of Lost Toys #1–3, Hack/Slash: Trailers, Hack/Slash: Slice Hard Prequel and Hack/Slash: Slice Hard) plus Hack/Slash: Slashing Through the Snow and Hack/Slash Vs. Chucky.

Created around 2004, Hack/Slash is an indie comic written (and often drawn by) artist Tim Seeley.
It was published for most of its run done as little one-shots (as you can see from the little list above) at Devil's Due Publishing.

It's a true homage to 80s horror/slasher movies so many of us, 20-somethings, grew up on.
There's many references to the horror genre (and some "variations" of classic slasher monster, since it's difficult to get the rights for so many of these characters) and this comic series plays on the various clichés and rules of the genre.

What is Hack/Slash about?

Slashers, you now have something to fear...!!

Hack/Slash is about a girl named Cassie Hack.

One day Cassie discovers one day supernatural killer exists. Monsters that death itself cannot stop.
They come after people, innocents, guilties, young or old alike. They often come after a certain target and cannot be destroyed or arrested through normal means.
How did she find out about this? Her own mother was one of these "slashers". She tried to kill for Cassie, to help her...
After having to kill her own mother (twice!) Cassie decides to come after these slashers instead of letting them come after her.

On her journey, she mistakes Vlad, a giant disfigured muscular mask-wearing guy, for the "Meatman Killer". But after helping her against the real slasher, they decide to team up together.

The various one-shot stories collected in this omnibus (or the first two paperbacks) shows us their early adventures.
Cassie is still discovering this very strange world. Vlad is still learning how the outside world works, since he passed most of his life in a garbage can.

Cassie Hack is on your tails now and she ain't afraid to kick your asses!

Tim Seeley is both a great artist and a very smart writer.
He crafted over this series a unique world which ties pretty well the various slashers from our past cult horror movies.

There's a big picture-sort of story, tying and explaining all these bizarre monsters coming back to life.

Cassie plays with the stereotypes of the genre.
She knows the slashers come after young girls, most of the times, who aren't respecting rules, law or moral...
They're often people who came back to life for vengeance or because of some anger they had their whole life or need to pursue an unfinished closure they never had the time to get.

On the slashers sides, since getting most copyrights for well-known slashers (Jason Voorhees, Freddy, Candyman, etc..) would have been quite difficult, specially for such an indie comic at DDP, the slashers they meet in the first stories are obviously based on some popular themes and tropes.
There's a Friday The 13th-like masked invicible killer, an unkillable preacher, possessed toys and many more...
Cassie even get an inspired rogue gallery. The Hibachi Devil, Acid Angel, Mortimer Strick, X-O, Waking Man...
There's a great fourth wall-breaking issue taking place at the San Diego Comic Con (with real life authors appearances and a "twin" monster inspired by a cult 80s horror movie).
Even the first crossovers, as soon as Tim Seeley could make those, are collected here! Evil Ernie appear in a very dark gritty story.

Vlad and Cassie hit the road to track down the various appearances of Slashers all over the places.

Over the course of the first bunch of one-shots is established most of the ground of this series!
So be sure to start from the first TPB or this Omnibus!

Along their way, Cassie and Vlad help two other important characters, Chris Krank and Doctor Lisa Elsten surviving their own slashers.
Those two recurring characters will help them on several occasions later on.

There seems to be people studying the Slashers...for real-life applications? Military?


The art is great. For the most part, Tim tries to get indie artists working on the book, so the style may vary from time to time. Sometimes cartoony, other times quite dark.
Always entertaining!
He started the series with his friend Stefano Caselli, an italian artist.
Tim Seeley draw himself a couple of issues.
And there's guest artists on some covers (and pinup pics at the end).

It's a great series that tries to tie in the various horror/slasher movies from the 80s.
It creates its own little imaginative universe and covers a lot of different stories/monsters. (comedy, horror, dream possessing monsters, maniac psychopaths, gimmick-ysh killers...)

Overall, I really dig the series!
Vlad and Cassie are well explored and developed over so few stories, Tim Seeley sure knows his stuff.
I really recommend giving this book a try~
If you like horror stories, slasher flicks, indie comics or just want to read something different from all the usual superhero mainsteam comics.

This omnibus collects more than just the 2 first TPB, it aslo has a previously unpublished one-shot and the Hack/Slash Vs. Chucky issue (that I didn't talk about here since it's also collected in the beginning of the next paperback).

Cassie origins are fully explored here, but it will. The series as an on-going plot behind the "monster of the week" formula.

The series is a great homage to the genre. Even if you're not that familiar or a fan of horror, chances are - it might introduce you to horror/slasher flicks in turn!
There's a great grindhouse-like issue called "Trailers" that proposes various future plots that might/might not happen in the future.
The comic tries many different ideas and direction.

A very fun read :'3

I give it:

  2,5 / 3 ManThings!