Fanboy Horror!!!

Few things cast terror into the hearts of the true fanboy, however the one thing that always seems to get their bat-boxers in a twist is a left-field casting decision.

You'll probably get the feeling that this isn't going to be an especially horror-centric post and you'd be right, but with huge swathes of the internet laying into the decision to cast Ben Affleck as Batman in Zack Snyder's sequel to Man of Steel, I wanted to put by own tuppence in.

First, I was surprised. No, really surprised. In all of those inevitable discussions on who should be cast as which character, Affleck never made the table once. Not just for Batman, post Daredevil I thought that wold be it. I also admit that my dislike for Daredevil was a whole lot more to do with my ambivalence for the character, than the movie itself.

Following this announcement, my mind wandered, but had a hard time getting past Daredevil in looking for evidence of how Affleck would fare in the role, after all - Mallrats and Chasing Amy weren't really in the right territory, Paycheck sees him far more hunter than hunted and everything else that came to mind just couldn't convince me. I still wasn't opposed, but I couldn't see the wisdom.

I tried to explain to my wife, but as is so often the case had to put things in context of films she is a fan of - in this case Jersey Girl. I was still no nearer to convincing myself though, but things were starting to seep through.

I was basing so much of my concern, I think, on the fact that so many of the films I was thinking about were pre Bennifer, and darn, that was a while ago now. I looked at the slew of pictures that were circulating alongside all the "OMG Affleck!" posts and thought that, hang-on, visually he's a far better Wayne/Batman than some and in fairness, he has been known to act on occasion (he was, after all, "da bomb in Phantoms").

And then, this memory came to mind...

Hold-on a moment...

Wings! Now!

Dogma!

Lets bear in mind the way that Affleck carries most of the movie as the affable but weary Bartleby, before flipping personality into someone who is dark-edged, highly-driven.

Remind you of anyone?

I'm probably not the first to point this out and am unlikely to be the last, but I think Affleck has as good a chance as any of pulling this off, as long as he doesn't channel Nic Cage's "Big Daddy" in the process.

So yeah. Affleck. Batman.

I can probably live with that.

Breathe and begin again

Well, all work on Carpe Tenebris was put on hold whilst I attended to a life-changing event. However, life has changed and all that and it is time to turn back to this.

I have a team coming together nicely, some good ideas for the website and all those other little bits and pieces coming together.

So I apologise for the break, now, back to work!

State of Decay

When it comes to video games, I tend not to be a "first day" buyer, rather I'll give it a few weeks (or occasionally months) before getting that game I've waited ages for already. This week saw me brak that pattern with the release of Undead Labs' "State of Decay" on XBox Live.

As I've been busy, I've not been able to devote as much time to it as I'd like, but it's certainly shaping up nicely and is probably closer to the spirit of The Walking Dead than the most recent tie-in.

Although I had other plans, I suspect a little in-game video of this will move up my priorites list, as will a full review.

We'll keep a welcome in the hillside.

Many moons ago, I used to live in Cardiff and attended a few science fiction and comic events, where generally we had a good time, met some great people and marvelled at the quirks of fandom (I'm just sorry that in the many moves I made I lost the "Mantis Man" sketch that artist Mark Buckingham did for a small group of us).

What there wasn't though, was a good horror event.

That seems to be being addressed now, however, as new Horror Expo, SCARdiff 2013 is scheduled for 27 October 2013 at the Mercure Holland House Hotel, Cardiff (That's Wales for those international folks). With a line up of Horror writers and actors in attendance. Not much additional info yet on screenings or other activities, but with tickets starting out at an introductory price of £6.66, before rising to £9.00, its got to be worth checking out if your in the area. Me, I'm not in the area but I've been planning to visit and catch up with friends for a while so...

Government Spooks

Japan's Prime Minister, Shinzo Abe, was elected last December and despite taking power he has, as yet, failed to move into his official residence, a move akin to the British Prime Minister refusing to move into 10 Downing Street. Why? Well officially it as nothing to do with ghosts. No sirree.

Officials in the Japanese government are currently denying that the Prime Minister is refusing to move because the place is haunted.

Whilst there have been tales of strange goings on in the house, which was subject to two notorious massacres in the 1930s, they are certainly not keeping the Prime Minister out. Honest!

Mind you, given that my experience of Japanese ghosts comes primarily from Ju On - The Grudge and Project Zero/Fatal Frame...

Odds are you'd have a hard time getting me in there either.

Still, there's some good story potential in here, so I'm going to look into this a little more.

Site news

Well, as things chug along nicely now, its time for me to devote some time to tidying up the site this weekend, so lord knows when it will be available (not that there's much there yet). If you've come here from the site, you'll know where it is, if not its at www.carpetenebris.co.uk. Simple, huh?

In addition, I'll be putting the links in to the new forum I've set up for the project, which is pretty presumptious of me considering we haven't actually released anything yet, apart from this blog. Still, its all part of a grander plan, so if you want to look for now, drop by at http://carpetenebris.lefora.com. don't be surprised if its awful quiet so far, that's only to be expected and I'm just trying to get all the infrastructure in place first.

Thursday Night at the Movies

A few years back, someone organised a fab little website devoted to movie which were good sources of inspiration for the Dark Conspiracy RPG. Well, I lost track of it ages ago, but now the fellas behind Protodimension Magazine have taken matters into their own hands and launched their own version.

It is a bit bare bones at the moment, but still reminded me of a couple of films I need to try and track down on DVD. Take a look over at Dark Conspiracy Movie Database.