Canister X – A.P. Fuchs: Zombie, Paranormal Romance and Superhero Novelist, Blogger, Artist, Publisher

There’s been tremendous talk lately about the traditional publishing model giving way to a digital one. Many authors either can’t sell their work or are being dropped by their publisher. A lot of these authors are considering self-publishing their work as eBooks and some are even stating they don’t want to go with a traditional publisher or agent ever again because they’re doing better on their own. Adding to the mix is the new writer who is looking at their publishing options and are thinking of bypassing the traditional process altogether in the hopes they’ll have a digital hit on their hands and go laughing all the way to the bank.

Sure, this could happen. In the weird world of entertainment, almost anything is possible. I’ve seen both.

I’ve also been around publishing long enough to know it’s just a giant gamble–a hard lesson to have learned but a true one–and some titles sell crazy amounts whereas equally as good books don’t. Just how it is. Depends what readers respond to, what’s being hyped, what, sadly, everyone else is reading as people like to go with the flow.

Yes, it’s true, the traditional publishing model is changing. I won’t argue that and I’ve previously reported here on this blog about those changes. But it also seems to me–based on the “writer talk” I’ve seen–that their abandonment of the traditional system is premature.

Here’s why:

There is still opportunity in traditional publishing for reaching readers that the typical self-publisher can’t do on their own and/or don’t have the know-how to do on their own.

Most writers are just that: writers. They aren’t business people despite being told repeatedly they need to be. Further, if they just write most of them time, they won’t garner what is important to reading a wide audience: connections.

Networking with other writers is one thing, but networking with audio rights people, foreign rights people, film rights people, etc. is another.

Usually a writer just waits until one of the above comes knocking on their door. It happens, but if this was a common occurrence, every Tom, Dick and Harry that had a book out would also have a film deal.

Traditional publishers and agents have these connections. They know who to talk to and how to put a package together to pitch to these people.

Also, certain traditional publishers have a niche or brand identity in the marketplace. They have a cult following and will buy whatever that publisher puts out no questions asked. Depending on the size of their built-in market, you have to ask if you’re going to reach that kind of readership on your own.

Look, I’m an independent author/publisher and am very much pro-do-it-yourself, but at the same time, if your traditional publisher or agent has connections you don’t, don’t cut ties with them just because your most recent book didn’t do as well as your last and you’re wanting to try the next one on your own to see if you can do better.

I’m speaking from experience as my company (Coscom Entertainment) has recently acquired ties with New York (resulting in three mass market sales for excellent sums so far) plus something as crucially important in Los Angeles, which you should be seeing a press release about in a few short days.

Connections.

I’ve said it before and I’ll say again: real self-publishing is hard work, and it’s not just “upload and go” like most recent self-publishing success stories have you believe. Fluke successes do happen, but they’re not the norm.

My prediction for the publishing industry in the coming year, maybe three, is this:

- there will be numerous independent authors and publishers out there
- the big six in New York will downsize and either become the big two or three, or even join forces and become the “big one”
- publishing will act more like Hollywood in that there will be loads of independent projects and houses out there and some titles will get picked up by major players in the industry for wider distribution
- independent houses (like Coscom Entertainment) will remain and become more like a hub of books and products and will have agents and film producers in their corners to translate those books and products into foreign market titles or other mediums

You know the saying: there’s always someone stronger.

It’s true in publishing, even now. Consider this before going it alone and expecting a windfall. In other words: look at all your options and see if the traditional house you’re considering would be a good fit for you, likewise with the agent. See what they have to offer, what their track record is, what’s on the horizon. Can you match that? If so, great. If not, consider sticking with them for the time being.

These days, they’re still important.

In other words, weigh your decisions carefully, don’t get carried away by hype, and do what’s best for your career and ultimate writing/publishing goal.

The recent news of mass market publisher Dorchester Publishing switching to a POD and eBook model has been the talk of the horror world. I go to the Shocklines message board daily even if I don’t always post. The big topic right now is this recent news from Dorchester because Leisure Books has kind of been “the place to go” with your horror novel aside from the small press. Now that place is no longer “the place” as they are switching to a more independent publishing model. Writers are scrambling. Many are scared. The discussions have been lively and endless.

I’m watching all this and not even batting an eye because this news doesn’t affect me. Not because I’ve never published with Leisure despite past aspirations, but because their new business model is what I’ve been doing since 2004. As I tweeted last night, mainstream publishing–both big press and medium–are rapidly transforming to digital presses in some way. The playing field is changing so fast that every day there’s news about one press or another switching things up.

This is why I’m especially proud of Coscom Entertainment and all that the company’s accomplished. Coscom Entertainment has always been a digital press. We chose to be independent from the start, march to our own drummer. Now my company and my authors are benefiting. Because of the way the company’s done business, we’ve sold three books for reprints to mass market presses, have an agent in New York to handle our subsidiary rights, and an upcoming announcement regarding Hollywood.

I can’t think of too many independent presses in my genre that have this kind of access and pull. In fact, I can only think of one other and I’m friends with the publisher.

A lot of authors are considering self-publishing their stuff in an effort to “stay in the game” because, it seems, the markets are changing and/or drying up for their work. As a result, there’s been a lot of talk about self-publishing. See, in the old days, if you brought up self-publishing amongst a group of writers, 99% of the time you were slammed for it. Nowadays, those who have done the slamming are now either self-publishing or considering it.

What you need to realize is self-publishing isn’t just a way to “stay in the game.” It really isn’t and I have six years of experience to prove it. It’s a load of hard work, time and expenses.

That said, there’s a good discussion starting up at Shocklines about self-publishing. Come by, take a look, maybe learn something, and feel free to chime in.

Self-publishing discussion at Shocklines.

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Daredevil (2003)
Review by A.P. Fuchs

4 out of 5

An A-plus report card brings young Matt Murdock to the docks to show his father. All he ever wanted was to please his dad and, as per his father’s advice, “be a doctor, be a lawyer.” Except, stumbling upon his alcoholic, washed-up ex-boxer father as a leg breaker, Matt takes off on his skateboard in a hurry, only to accidentally run into a truck with barrels of radioactive liquid that—due to the forklift that just avoided him—has sliced the barrels open, the stuff inside spraying Matt in the face, causing him to go blind. But all is not darkness because he also mysteriously inherited a strange “radar sense” that enables him to see in a sort of X-ray way because of his newfound ability to convert sound waves into sight.

Him and his father vow to fix their relationship and their life, promise to never give up and be fearless, and embark on a journey to perfect themselves and hit the comeback trail—Matt via the books and honing his senses and disciplining his body; his father to enter the ring once more. With Matt by his side, Jack “the devil” Murdock makes good on that promise, but a fateful night in the ring changes everything and Matt promises from then on to stick up for those who can’t defend themselves and watch out for the long shots like he and his father were.

Now, all grown-up, he’s a lawyer by day and masked crimefighter by night. His name: Daredevil.

And he’s not the only one who wants a piece of New York. Crime boss the Kingpin (Michael Clarke Duncan) is on the rise, as is his hired goon, Bullseye (Colin Farrell). Adding to matters, Elektra Natchios (Jennifer Garner)—a shapely martial arts master—has her sites on Daredevil (Ben Affleck) as well, leading us into a battle for New York, for vengeance, and for those who have been a victim of crime.

For some reason a lot of people didn’t like this movie. I thought it was great. I liked the overall story; the costumes (except Bullseye’s); the atmospheric New York City; the sense of darkness Matt Murdock carried within himself; Elektra’s close relationship with her father; Foggy Nelson (Jon Favreau) and his being a “come-with” guy—very enjoyable. There was a sense of humanity about this version of Daredevil that I was able to relate to on a lot of levels.

The fight scenes were nothing short of amazing, especially that barroom brawl where Daredevil clears the room. I remember seeing that in the trailer and just being absolutely stoked.

Who cares that Kingpin was black? So what? The dude’s one of my favourite actors and it was interesting to see him play the bad guy as he’s usually the nice, innocent one, but for some reason people didn’t like the character being black in this. It doesn’t matter, folks. He did a good job.

The whole Matt Murdock-Elektra/Daredevil-Elektra relationship was well-handled, in my opinion, and I particularly enjoyed how those elements intertwined with each other throughout the film.

If I was going to criticise a few things—and while I enjoyed Daredevil’s gallivanting throughout New York—his spinning jumps and aerial movies were very similar to Spider-Man’s (who made his feature film debut the year before Daredevil came out), and some of the stuff Daredevil was able to do was pretty farfetched. I mean, I don’t care how awesome you are at acrobatic stuff or if you’re more fit than Bruce Lee on his best day, but falling face first toward a window washer’s station at lightning speed won’t get slowed down by doing a somersault in the air so you could land on your feet. You’d break your legs and die from the impact. But whatever. It’s superheroes, so I overlook most of the impossible these guys accomplish. Just goes with the understanding superheroes can do things we can’t, whether realistic or not.

That’s really my only critique. I liked everything else. Wasn’t crazy about Bulleye’s costume. Would like to have seen him as more of a stealth assassin. I also don’t read Daredevil comics so I can’t tell you if this is a faithful adaptation or not. I know Daredevil’s back story and a bit about some past adventures, but that’s about it.

I haven’t seen the director’s cut of this either, so need to get around to doing that.

Still a good movie and I’m proud to have it in my superhero movie collection.

If you like superhero flicks, you’ll like Daredevil.

Coscom Entertainment is pleased to announce that Simon and Schuster’s Gallery Books imprint (formerly Pocket Books) has acquired the rights to reprint two of its mashup novels, The War of the Worlds Plus Blood, Guts and Zombies by H.G. Wells and Eric S. Brown, as well as Adventures of Huckleberry Finn and Zombie Jim by Mark Twain and W. Bill Czolgosz.

We’re thrilled as a company to be a part of this deal as well as having the wonderful opportunity to co-brand these titles with Gallery Books.

“This is just awesome and so far everything has been great between myself, Gallery and my agent behind-the-scenes. It’s exciting because this isn’t just about reprinting a couple of books with them. This is an opportunity to now let Coscom Entertainment have a foot in the mass market scene, and I’m eager to see where the success of these upcoming books takes my writers and the company as a whole,” says Coscom Entertainment Publisher A.P. Fuchs.

Here’s to the future, and a special congrats to the authors involved. Likewise, a public thank you to Coscom’s agent, Evan Gregory of the Ethan Ellenberg Literary Agency of New York, for arranging the deal.

(As a side note, the current editions of these books will be going out of print in the next few months so if you’re a collector, now would be a good time to snag one of the original Coscom Entertainment editions while they’re still available. Thanks.)

Originally published on-line at the old Coscomment blog on November 22, 2006

Being a writer ain’t easy.

The writing aspect of it, that’s a breeze and is a most-rewarding experience. To sit down and create, to put dreams to paper, to speak one’s mind on various subjects and provide commentary on life all wrapped up in an exciting tale—that is sheer joy. There’s nothing I’d rather do. Ever since as far back as I could remember, I was always making stuff up, living in my head more than I lived in the real world. It started with superheroes and my own superheroic fantasies as Superman and Batman. When I got older, those fantasies turned into creating my own heroes (Axiom-man, for example, whom I first created the story for when I was 13) and, as I got older still, creating other stories that were non-superheroic but had more to do with life and the ups and downs thereof.

Writing is cathartic in a lot of ways. The latter part of my novel, A Stranger Dead, and the whole of my unpublished novel, For The Cause, helped me deal with some strong emotional issues I had at the time. April, my love story written as Peter Fox, was also an exercise in making a point about love and how I felt—and still feel—about the most beautiful yet complex of all human emotions. Writing those stories was sheer bliss and once I finished each tale, the sense of accomplishment was overwhelming.

Writing is so powerful and seeing your ideas and dreams realized on the printed page is just as powerful.

But that’s where it stops for a lot of writers, and for those who attempt the next step—publication—that’s a whole other experience completely.

Most writers would tell you that the creative process is what keeps them going in life, the undying need to commit their thoughts and imagination to paper. We can’t help ourselves. Even if not a single story of ours got published, we’d still spend day after day typing away, emptying our full heads onto the page. Most writers, as well, will also tell you there is one thing they hate about being a writer: the business side of it.

This is a tough field. The reality is writers—and any other kind of artist—are a dime a dozen. Virtually everybody on the face of the earth has some form of creative ability. Some are better at it than others, naturally, and some have the drive and need to create more than others as well. Regardless, artists and writers alike are everywhere and if a writer is going to take the next—and final—step in the creative process, he or she is going to go up against some very stiff competition.

Last I heard, there was close to 200,000 titles published annually (fiction and non-fiction). Amazing, and there’s also no way to know how many other books are written that never see print. Using what we know, though, that means that every year, when an author puts out a book, he or she goes up against nearly 200,000 other people. 200,000! Let me ask you, out of those 200,000, how many authors can you name? A dozen? Maybe two? That’s only 24 out of 200,000 or just .012%. It’s no wonder that most authors—the ones you don’t see gracing the bestseller wall at your local bookstore—are banging their heads against the wall trying to come up with ways to get their books and names in front of readers. It’s no wonder that a lot of writers who couldn’t break into traditional print—not necessarily out of lack of talent or literary merit—are utilizing subsidy presses or are self-publishing their books.

And thus is the challenge. How does one get their title out there?

I hang out with a lot of writers, their station on the publishing industry ladder ranging from bestsellers to midlist to small pressers and self-publishers. And, like in any other industry, you’ll get a wide variety of opinions on “what’s best” for your career. Thus where a lot of writers find themselves frustrated, especially beginning ones. The newbie author has high hopes and large dreams. More than anything they’d love to see themselves as the next King or Grisham, their first book netting them a massive advance and guaranteed shelf space on bookstores worldwide. This rarely—and I mean rarely—ever happens. As mentioned above, a small, small percentage of books put out each year are by “name” authors; the rest are by guys and girls most folks haven’t even heard of.

A newbie author will often seek advice from those in the business on how to get published and in turn gets bombarded with a myriad of opinions.

If you hang out with a lot of writers, you know there are many in the what’s been dubbed “publishing elite” category. The thinking from this group is that you must get an agent then get picked up by a huge New York firm to be considered a “real” author. If you don’t, you haven’t made it yet. Others in this camp state that you have to get picked up by a firm willing to pay you an advance and print up at least 5000+ copies of your book in order to be a “real” author. Their condescending tone is unmistakable and it’s always their way or bust. No room for negotiation or second opinion. As a result, the newbie author gets frustrated when he or she can’t land an agent, can’t land a contract and ends up going the small press route or self-publishes. I admit, I’ve been there. I’ve been fooled.

Then I discovered a little secret to success in this business, and the secret is this: it’s all about the writing. That’s the only way a writer will find fulfillment. If one is stuck fighting in the trenches all the time, he or she begins to get tired of fighting and eventually gives up. That’s why a lot of would-be writers drop out of the game after receiving a boatload of rejection slips. They’ve become so blinded by the have-to-get-traditionally-published-so-I-can-be-a-real-author attitude that they’ve lost their first love, and that is the creative act itself.

Furthermore, if you are seeking publication for your work, you have to at first ask yourself what your goals are in this business and where you’d like to see yourself. From that starting point, you can easily take a pragmatic approach to your career. Do you want to be famous? Do you want loads of money? Believe it or not, a lot of authors love their day job and writing is just a thing they do on the side. Some don’t want to be famous. Some have decided to write for niche audiences only. The idea here is goal-setting.

I know a guy who writes fulltime and is famous. That was his goal and he achieved it. I know another who loves his day job and just writes because he has to and isn’t concerned with “getting the big contract” but publishes only in the small press. I know another who writes novels and posts them on his blog. What do these three have in common? The craft. It’s all about the craft and because each had discovered what their goals were and what worked for them in this business, each of them is fulfilled in their career as an author. And, yes, I consider them real authors. A contract doesn’t mean anything. If you’re always writing something, you’re a writer. If you’re always authoring something, you’re an author. If you’re always painting something, you’re a painter.

That’s the secret. You have to find out what works for you in this business, not what works for the big names on the bestseller lists or what works for the writing buddies you hang out with. You need to know what your goals are and pursue those goals. Then, and only then, will you be happy.

As mentioned above, I once lost sight of that. To me it became a New-York-or-die attitude and that tore me up inside because I was having a hard time “breaking in” (and these days breaking into New York isn’t easy; splitting hairs with your teeth would bring a faster return). But then I reassessed my goals and formulated my own approach to this business. I decided to put my own material and build an audience. I decided to use the small press as a stepping stone. In other words, I decided to put the writing first and the business aspect of it second. As a result, I’ve had New York doors open up to me. I can only attribute this to both God’s blessing and my willingness to pursue my goal based on what worked for me and not what others said I should do in order to become a “real” author. Many who read this will probably disagree, but then I’d have to ask you what is more important: writing something solely on the basis of what sells or writing something that’s being true to you as the creator? Writing is an honest act. Why lie about it or sell out? There’s an audience out there for anything. The issue is how much of an audience, but if you know where to reach them, how you reach them is meaningless. The point is that you do reach them.

It is my encouragement to you if you’re feeling down and out about this business to reassess your goals and find a publishing method that works for you and you alone. Resolve yourself to press on ahead despite the clamor from the publishing elite and makes roads where there are none. Your confidence and drive will take you a long way.

It’ll take you to where you want to be and you will be rewarded.

M E D I A R E L E A S E

CONTACT: Coscom Entertainment
E-mail: coscomentertainment@gmail.com
Web: www.coscomentertainment.com

For Immediate Release

Monster and Superhero Press Signs with New York Agency for Representation

Winnipeg, Manitoba—Founded 2004, Coscom Entertainment steps up its game to a new level by signing with a New York literary agency to sell titles abroad.

Coscom Entertainment publisher and author A.P. Fuchs has now taken his company out of the small press and into the big leagues by signing an agreement with the Ethan Ellenberg Literary Agency of New York. The mission: reprint the Coscom Entertainment catalog domestically and internationally and get movies made of its titles.

Originally content to sticking to the small press, Fuchs knew he had to change his game plan when producers and foreign publishers came knocking on his door asking about some of Coscom Entertainment’s titles.

“I’ve been at this publishing and writing game for a long time,” says Fuchs, an unashamed self-publisher who started Coscom Entertainment as a means to release his own material. “It’s nice to see that despite some of the cold shoulders over the years, self-publishing does indeed have its place and can be used as a launching pad for a small press and solid opportunities.”

All the hard work, thousands of hours invested, the ups and downs—it has paid off. Fuchs and his team of authors are ready to show the mainstream publishing world that there’s plenty of fresh material out there in the monster and superhero genres, two areas of interest that Fuchs made Coscom Entertainment’s focus in 2008.

“Some people say monsters and superheroes are a kind of weird combination for a press’s niche,” Fuchs says. “Then I remind them the Incredible Hulk combines those niches perfectly, and while we don’t have big green monsters running amok over here, we got plenty of zombie, werewolf, vampire and superhero fiction to satisfy a reader looking for a fun read and wanting to be entertained.”

Some of Coscom Entertainment’s latest releases are: Robin Hood and Friar Tuck: Zombie Killers by Paul A. Freeman, Blood of the Dead by A.P. Fuchs, The Lifeless by Lorne Dixon, Alice in Zombieland by Lewis Carroll and Nickolas Cook, Don of the Dead by Nick Cato, Emma and the Werewolves by Jane Austen and Adam Rann, and Vicious Verses and Reanimated Rhymes: Zany Zombie Poetry for the Undead Head edited by A.P. Fuchs.

For more on Coscom Entertainment, please visit www.coscomentertainment.com
Coscom Entertainment Twitter: www.twitter.com/mrcoscom

# # #

Okay, so enough beating around the bush.

Here the big news, uncensored, so far as I’m allowed to talk about it.

Ready?

You sure?

Okay.

I’m pleased to announce Coscom Entertainment has signed on with the Ethan Ellenberg Literary Agency of New York in an effort to expand the company’s reach into the literary marketplace, both domestically and abroad. Likewise, this would also include efforts to secure sales to film houses and other subsidiary companies.

This is massive. This takes Coscom Entertainment (both my work and others) to a whole new level of distribution, recognition and growth.

I love the small press. I really do. I’m even more in love with self-publishing and doing your own thing. What makes the above so ideal is Coscom Entertainment is the baseline for all this. My publishing house creates the material and the product then has the opportunity to reach out on a grand scale. This is sheer awesomeness and myself and those in the know over here are very excited to see what the future will bring.

As more things develop, I’ll be sure to let you know.

Exciting and an amazing blessing!

I want to publicly thank the Lord for blessing me and my authors with this. This has been a long, long road for me. Those who are in my personal circle know the nitty gritty on some things, the sacrifices made, etc. I’ve even begun constructing a memoir on my writing journey, the goal with it to eventually post here as an encouragement to other writers and artists to keep fighting and keep pushing.

Exciting times ahead. Here we go.

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4 out of 5

It’s triple trouble for Spider-Man in this third installment in the mega franchise.

Life is good for Peter Parker (Tobey Maguire). He’s got the girl, about to propose, making bucks, the good people of New York love their Friendly Neighborhood Spider-Man like it’s their job—yeah, everything is smooth sailing.

As if.

Suddenly, a mysterious new villain shows up out of nowhere: the New Goblin (though he doesn’t refer to himself as such in the film). Quickly, we find out it’s Harry Osborne (James Franco), Peter’s once best friend out for revenge because he thinks Peter murdered his dad.

One villain Peter can handle, especially since his first altercation with the suped-up Harry Osborne ends rather quickly. But no, things quickly get worse for our favorite Wallcrawler when fugitive Flint Marko (Thomas Haden Church) gets himself trapped in a molecular blaster thingy and becomes the shape-shifting Sandman. Also adding to Peter’s troubles is ultra-hungry photographer Eddie Brock (Topher Grace), who wants nothing more than to make a name for himself in the newspaper business.

Unbeknownst to Peter, while he and Mary Jane Watson (Kirsten Dunst) are on a date in a NY park, a mysterious meteor lands from the heavens, leaking a strange black goop that follows Peter home and eventually latches onto him, transforming him into someone darker, meaner and more spider-powered than ever before. When Peter finally realizes his new black suit is slowly destroying his life and he’s alienating everyone he’s ever cared about, he manages to ditch the suit in a cool church belltower scene that screams Peter’s search for redemption, but also Eddie Brock’s search for revenge. The black goop lands on Brock, carrying a copy of Peter’s spider-powers with it, transforming Eddie into the menacing Venom.

It’s Black Spider-Man versus three villains in this web-slinging rollercoaster ride that scratches Spider-Man fans right where they itch!

The good:

The spider effects keep getting better with each installment, especially in the area of you feeling like you’re right there with Spider-Man zipping through the air. That scene where Gwen Stacy (Bryce Dallas Howard) falls off that building and Spidey has to cut through the air between falling debris to save her? Pure good.

The story had some good twists, especially building up the suspense while we waited for the black symbiote to latch itself onto Peter. Same with Peter proposing to MJ. The whole “it not working out” thing was well done.

James Franco played the villain wonderfully. I genuinely hated him after a while, the big tip of the hat being to when he fooled Peter into thinking he was his buddy again only to screw him over bigtime later on.

Topher Grace was easily the best actor in the film. He was funny, cocky, yet at times you sincerely felt bad for him.

The fight scenes were great. The symbiote effects for the living suit were fantastic, too.

The ending with Harry Osborne—even after all he did during the film—made tears prick the corners of my eyes.

The not as good:

One would think a major lesson had been learned from Batman & Robin: too many characters is just plain stupid. Unfortunately, Spider-Man 3 didn’t take that warning to heart. The film had way too much going on. I know they had to wrap up some story threads as established in the first two movies, but when all was said and done, things just felt way too rushed and I know I’m not the only fan to think so. If it were me, I would have left it at two villains: the New Goblin and Sandman. Or just do Venom and leave it alone. (And if anyone knows the Venom story, from the comics or the 1990s Spider-Man cartoon, you know that Venom’s mythology is more than enough for a feature film.) I really felt short-changed regarding Venom. So much time was spent building up to him—the origin, Peter going dark, Eddie Brock’s character, both before and after he inherits the suit—that by the time Venom showed up, there wasn’t much time left in the movie for him to really be the bad guy fans know him to be.

There’s really not much to complain about with this movie other than it feeling very rushed and cluttered. Over all, it still was a solid flick, but my least favorite of the three.

Rumor has it that Spider-Man 4 is getting back to basics so I’m eagerly anticipating that one.

Also stars: J.K. Simmons, Bruce Campbell, Rosemary Harris, James Cromwell, Ted Raimi, Bill Nunn, Willem Dafoe, Dylan Baker, Stan Lee and others.

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4 out of 5

Based on the book by Richard Matheson, I Am Legend is the story of Robert Neville (Will Smith), sole survivor of a plague that, originally, was supposed to be a miracle cure for cancer three years before. Instead, most of the world died at the hands of the plague. Others mutated into bloodthirsty vampiric creatures; only a small percentage of humankind remained immune to the disease.

All alone in New York, virologist Neville tries to find a cure and “fix” the problem that stole the lives of everyone he knew and everyone he loved, while also trying to survive in a city infested with the infected and ferocious monsters.

Straight from the start you know you’re in for a ride.

An empty city, overgrown and broken down.

A lone guy speeding through the streets in a fancy car, weapon at his side.

Animals prowling the streets, free of their cages.

The lock up.

The screams.

The howls.

Yeah, good stuff.

The intense feeling of atmosphere was what drew me into this flick. Immediately isolation sets in right from the first frame as we see Neville trying to maintain a normal life in a dead city (renting movies, talking to mannequins, keeping a routine), his eyes washed with pain yet underscored with determination to keep on going. This is a one-man show and I haven’t seen it done so well since Cast Away (one of my favorite movies) years and years ago.

No complaints about Will Smith here and he’s done a good job over his career to make you forget about the loud-mouthed homeboy he played in Fresh Prince of Bel-Air. Plus, did you see the guy in this film? He’s ripped! Shredded. But, I guess, you’d have to be if you lived a world where vampire-zombie-human things prowled the streets and your life could be in jeopardy at the drop of a hat if you weren’t too careful.

Which brings me to the monsters in question. Overall, well done. Creepy skin, no hair, loud growls, amazing agility and intensely vicious. Yeah, killer. Obviously they were CGI so they did look a tad rubbery and there were a few moments where it felt I was looking at a cartoon. Thankfully, those moments happened so fast and the action was so intense that I quickly forgot my quibble and moved on.

My only thing was the ending. Now, I never read the book so I can’t compare, but it ended too abruptly and really lost its post-apocalyptic feel in the last five minutes or so. Sort of a Disney ending, which didn’t fit in with what was a gloomy story up until that point.

Regardless, if someone asked me what I thought of this film, I’d tell them to go see it.

It’s that good.