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“Haunt You to the End” #1

By | June 15th, 2023
Posted in Reviews | % Comments

There’s a Stanley Kubrick quote at the beginning of this comic that goes like this:

“I think ghost stories are fundamentally optimistic, don’t you? If there are ghosts, then it means we survive death.”

Apparently this quote was said by Kubrick to Stephen King (of course) while on the set of The Shining (of course) and as someone who doesn’t believe in ghosts but appreciates a good ghost story, I can get behind this.

Let’s see how this quote translates into a story in “Haunt You to the End” #1

Cover by: Andrea Mutti
Written by Ryan Cady
Illustrated and Colored by Andrea Mutti
Lettered by Frank Cvetkovic

A GHOST STORY FOR THE END OF THE WORLD!
In a not-so-far future rife with climate disasters and worldwide instability, an eccentric billionaire and his crew-a disgraced journalist, a radical doctor, a TV demonologist, and a squad of hard-bitten military contractors-set out to prove the existence of life after death. But even if their mission is a success, the truth behind the “most haunted place on earth” may not be the comforting revelation the world is hoping for.

It’s the dawn of the 22nd century and climate change has rendered huge chunks of the world uninhabitable. Humanity is still kicking around and figuring out ways to survive, but it’s becoming harder and harder to live and people are just becoming more and more resigned to a very depressing and hopeless outlook on everything.

Enter Callum Shah, a British billionaire who is a certified spiritualist and spends most of his free time and money funding exploratory missions into the wasteland of Old Earth to find evidence of ghosts and spirits. The way he justifies it to a skeptical journalist named Matt Park, he wants to find evidence of life beyond death to give people hope for life beyond the current hellscape they’re living in.

Shah’s latest venture involves hiring Park and a ragtag team of experts to explore a haunted house on an island off the coast of Baja California named Isla Lodo, where there have been documented cases of a lot of people going crazy and killing themselves and each other. The catch? They only have four days before a massive storm wipes the island clean.

“Haunt You to the End” #1 is written by Ryan Cady, who is no stranger to horror comics and a long time writer for Top Cow, who is publishing the story. It’s very clear that “Haunt You to the End” #1 is a showcase of Cady’s chops as a writer and as someone with a deep understanding of comics and the horror genre. The first issue is the classic first act of any horror/action story: introduce the characters, set the stakes, throw the group into a dangerous situation and get ready to watch them suffer. Where Cady excels is the broader themes of the story. By adding the post apocalyptic angle to the ghost story the comic adds a layer of borderline foolish optimism to a well worn and tired genre. The characters aren’t just putting themselves in this terrible situation for a paycheck or personal glory, they’re doing this because the alternative is a slow spiral of hopelessness and depression, which is far more terrifying than any ghost. It’s an interesting twist on the genre, and definitely a welcome one.

If Cady’s script in “Haunt You to the End” #1 has any problems; it’s that the twist on the ghost story isn’t enough to really separate the book from any other ghost story or post apocalyptic thriller. It’s not a bad problem, but it does force a lot of the characters into some very traditional tropes that long time readers will recognize in a heartbeat. While this review has no intention of offering spoilers for future issues, don’t be too surprised if the tough as nails security team winds up dying in some twisted and terrible manner, that the skeptical nerd has a change of heart, or that the mysterious benefactor has some sort of ulterior motive. To be clear, if none of this winds up happening, it will be a welcome sight, but for now it just feels like cliches reign supreme.

Continued below

The artwork for “Haunt You to the End” #1 is provided by another horror comic veteran, and a collaborator with Ryan Cady: Andrea Mutti. Mutti has a very unique art style that is instantly recognizable. For the most part, the artwork is characterized by a lack of detail on character’s faces, minimalist line work, and giving each panel a color palette that feels monochromatic with splashes of color spread out on each picture to highlight important people and objects. It’s also worth mentioning that the book feels like it was painted in watercolors instead of inks. This gives the book a washed out feel and that the people aren’t drawn with pencils, but splotches of water color paint. It is a fantastic art style for a post apocalyptic ghost story since it allows the environments to feel washed out and desolate while the few instances we see alleged spirits feel hazy and unclear. It’s a very depressing story told in a very depressing world, and Mutti’s art style is perfect for it.

“Haunt You to the End” #1 is a solid introduction to a well written and well thought out horror story that provides just enough of a twist on the classic ghost story formula to be original and interesting. It’s made by a veteran creative team that has worked together in the past and loves what they do, so it will be very interesting to see what happens next.

Final Verdict: 8.5- If you like horror stories, you can probably guess what’s going to happen next, but there are some unique ideas and fresh takes that are a lot of fun.


Matthew Blair

Matthew Blair hails from Portland, Oregon by way of Attleboro, Massachusetts. He loves everything comic related, and will talk about it for hours if asked. He also writes a web comic about a family of super villains which can be found here: https://tapas.io/series/The-Secret-Lives-of-Villains

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