“86 Voltz: The Dead Girl”
Written by Michael Avon Oeming and Brian J.L. Glass
Art and cover by Michael Avon Oeming
2005
A very good although ignored graphic novel that would have made for a good on-going series. It tells the story of a girl reanimated by only 86 Volts of electricity. Thus her name: 86 Volts. She awakens from death with no memories and no voice. She realizes that she is endowed with the ability to generate and manipulate vast amounts of electricity. She will need them, and help from a mysterious spirit guide, to defeat an evil supernatural menace.
The character is literally a blank slate and must find her way through the world of the living. Her origin and powers make her sort of a combination of Frank from Mike Allred’s “Madman” and the Superman villain Livewire (who like her Batman counterpart Harley Quinn crossed over from the animated TV show to the comics and the regular DC comics continuity.).
I hope that Image comics and the creative team revisit this idea and this character. It would make a great companion comic to the likes of “Hellboy”, “Madman” and “The Astounding Wolf-Man” with its mix of super hero tropes and gothic horror elements.
War of the Dead
aka Stone’s War
2011
directed by Marko Mäkilaakso
Lithuanian-Italian-US co-production.
A World War II zombie film about a Finnish, American and Russian soldiers who must band together when they encountering the hideous results of Nazi experiments in re-animation.
This is by far not a good movie, but on the other hand it does not commit the worst sin a movie can: be boring. This film never slows down and keeps you entertained all the way through. This film had a lot going for it. It is beautifully filmed, the action and horror sequences well put together, the creature and gore effects are great. This is a beautiful film.
But the down side is that this film is poorly acted. Most of the performances are wooden. The dialogue is sometimes almost painful to hear, but rebounds to be actually deep and thoughtful. And the story makes not sense historically or politically.
It is set in March 1941, long after the Winter War was over and months before the German-Soviet War/Great Patriotic War was about to begin. In the middle of this setting a team of Finnish and American soldiers are on a mission to find a hidden German bunker on the Finnish-Soviet border, while the whole time in conflict with the Red Army. To put this into historical context, the US was not involved in the war yet, and Finland was actually allied with Nazi Germany, and the US was friendly with, and eventually allied with, the Soviet Union. In the crazed world of this film it has Finland and America vs German vs the Soviet Union.
If you like films like “Hell of the Living Dead”, “Flesheater” or “Zombie 4: After Death” then you will love this! Its probably the best looking cheesy zombie movie ever made. Shot in Lithuania on a budget of about 1.3 million Euros ( or about 1.8 million US dollars) this film drips style. Its main problem is that it is style over substance, but there is a lot of style.
