Reviewed by Eric Switzer. “Colder: The Bad Seed” #4 is like the worst acid trip you could possibly imagine. It is twisted and shocking in a way that makes you question the potential of the creative team had they not had this kind of outlet for their madness. The horror in this series is so charming and vividly detailed it often reminds me of “Locke and Key” in its presentation. You’ve got a fair bit to catch up on if you want to get into the second series of this fantastic dark fantasy, but it is well worth the investment.
WRITTEN BY: Paul Tobin
ART BY: Juan Ferreyra
PUBLISHER: Dark Horse
PRICE: $3.99
RELEASE: January 28, 2015
The first scene of this issue depicts the creature Swivel on his usual tour of Boston harvesting fingers for his flower pot. He collects a handful by slamming the car door on a guy, then feeds them to a flock of pigeons, turning them into hideous flying finger monsters that fly through the city ripping people’s faces off and collecting their fingers before murdering themselves on the sides of buildings and under car tires. Yeah.
Meanwhile, Reese takes a jaunt through the Hungry World uncovering clues about Declan’s past as she is steadily driven insane. Eventually we discover why Swivel is doing all of this, and what he intends to do to Declan to resolve his issue. This is the penultimate issue of this arc, and builds perfect anticipation for the finale.
“Colder” is kind of like if Rob Zombie, David Lynch, Charlie Kaufman, and Eli Roth got together and did peyote. It is a book about the hidden world that feeds on madness, and seems to take depicting this as a personal challenge. Every issue is more disturbing than the last. “Colder” epitomizes what I like to call “creep horror”.
Tobin writes with a mix of confused terror and hopeless humor that embodies the insanity of it all so well. It is rendered in such pristine detail that I wonder how Ferreyra gets through it without making himself sick. It is almost inevitable that we will see a film adaptation of “Colder” before long, so if you like twisted shit with tons of shock value, this issue delivers another healthy dose of medicine, ya looney freaks.
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Eric Switzer is an aspiring filmmaker and screenplay writer living in Los Angeles. His work tends to focus on the lighter side of entropy, dystopic futures, and man’s innate struggle with his own mortality. He can be found on twitter @epicswitzer or reached via email at ericswitzerfilm@gmail.com.