Tag Archives: Christian Sesma

Imaginator magazine’s CREATURE FEATURE SPECIAL EDITION!

May 28, 2025 Ken Miller Leave a comment

There is SO MUCH monster-tastic wonderfulness enclosed in this issue!

Imaginator magazine’s CREATURE FEATURE SPECIAL EDITION is available all over the world (UK, US, Netherlands, Japan, Brazil, etc) via Amazon and other fine retailers!

Amazon US:
https://a.co/d/a2xh23D

Amazon UK:
https://amzn.eu/d/5EvfVy3

Amazon Japan:
https://amzn.asia/d/hmJyIWF

Amazon Poland:
https://amzn.eu/d/7NCO08M

Amazon Ireland:
https://amzn.eu/d/cRID8wF

Amazon Netherlands:
https://amzn.eu/d/4dCL1J7

Amazon Italy:
https://amzn.eu/d/5WxXGAb

Amazon Belgium:
https://amzn.eu/d/hJoJUzC

Amazon Sweden:
https://amzn.eu/d/eMCIz4H

Amazon Brazil:
https://a.co/d/gFuhBba

Amazon Singapore:
https://amzn.asia/d/hRXpcof

INTERNATIONAL BOOK RETAILERS…

Barnes & Noble (USA):
https://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/imaginator-magazine-ken-miller/1147224598?ean=9781068444609

Blackwell’s (UK)
https://blackwells.co.uk/bookshop/product/Imaginator-Magazine-by-Ken-Miller-author-Ramsey-Campbell-contributions-Steve-Wang-contributions/9781068444616

Bokus (Sweden):
https://www.bokus.com/bok/9781068444616/imaginator-magazine/

Adlibris (Sweden)
https://www.adlibris.com/sv/bok/imaginator-magazine-9781068444616

Hugendubel (Germany)
https://www.hugendubel.de/de/taschenbuch/ken_miller-imaginator_magazine-50975382-produkt-details.html

Saxo (Denmark):
https://www.saxo.com/dk/imaginator-magazine-creature-feature-special-edition_bog_9781068444616

Better World Books (UK)
https://www.betterworldbooks.com/product/detail/imaginator-magazine-creature-feature-special-edition-9781068444616

Walmart (USA):
https://www.walmart.com/ip/Imaginator-Magazine-Creature-Feature-Special-Edition-Paperback-9781068444616/16839322212

Booktopia (Australia)
https://www.booktopia.com.au/imaginator-magazine-ken-miller/book/9781068444616.html

Or, if you’re in the UK, you can order below (at discounted price) direct from the publishers:

Buy Now

Okay… let’s check out the issue’s contents…

PREDATOR
Award-winning creature designer/creator STEVE WANG talks about designing and building one of the most iconic alien characters ever created for the screen… the original PREDATOR!

DRAGONSLAYER
Special effects & make-up effects titan CHRIS WALAS recounts what it was like helping to bring to life the greatest-looking movie dragon: Vermithrax Pejorative!

ALIEN
Actress VERONICA CARTWRIGHT is interviewed about working on the classic genre movies ALIEN, INVASION OF THE BODYSNATCHERS and THE BIRDS! She describes the day they shot the bloody Chestburster scene!

WEREWOLVES
A look at the awesome practical creature FX used in WEREWOLVES (2024)! One of the actor-producers tells us what it was like to work with Frank freakin’ Grillo!

ELDRITCH ENCOUNTERS
Horror fiction author, editor and critic RAMSEY CAMPBELL reviews two films made by the H. P. Lovecraft Historical Society!

CREATURE FEATURE REVIEWS
Noah Kneal, Simon Pritchard and Ramsey Campbell review a bunch of monster movies! Titles include BOGIEVILLE and ALIEN FROM THE ABYSS!

THE DEADLY SPAWN
JOHN DODS chats about making the gorgeously gooey, triple-headed monster star of THE DEADLY SPAWN (1983), plus he covers other pivotal moments in his career, including building creatures for SPOOKIES (1986) and NIGHTBEAST (1982)!

INTO THE DEEP
2025 is the 50th anniversary of the release of JAWS… and it is also the year that Richard (Hooper) Dreyfuss is unleashed upon the world in a brand new shark movie: INTO THE DEEP! Action director CHRISTIAN SESMA tells us all about it!

BEASTS OF BLOOD ISLAND
A dive back into the lurid, tropical, colourful world of Eddie Romero’s Filipino fright flicks!

SQUIRM
Director JEFF LIEBERMAN reminisces about his incredibly enjoyable killer bloodworms opus SQUIRM!

HORROR QUEEN
Exploitation movie star GERETTA GERETTA chats about starring in RATS: NIGHT OF TERROR (1984) and the insanely kinetic DEMONS (1985) – plus she even reveals what the recipe is for making demonic movie drool!

MONSTROUSLY TALENTED
This interview with KEN BARTHELMEY, a mega-gifted concept designer and illustrator who focuses on Creature & Character Design work for big Hollywood movies, includes lots of very impressive concept artworks for such films as THE TOMORROW WAR, GODZILLA: KING OF THE MONSTERS and GODZILLA VS. KONG!

SHE’LL BLEED YOU DRY
MADALINA BELLARIU ION stars as a sultry and sometimes savage vampire in the impressive UK horror movie DRAINED! Here she chats about playing a vampire and playing a werewolf, and also fills us in on what it was like co-starring with Scott Adkins in a recent action flick!

NO ONE GETS OUT ALIVE
The supremely talented Creature Designer KEITH THOMPSON discusses how he conceptualised the surreal and wonderfully macabre god-monster that appears in the memorable finale of NO ONE GETS OUT ALIVE (2021), the movie adaptation of the Adam Nevill novel!

Keith Thompson creature design for No One Gets Out Alive

THE FLY
Oscar-winning creature-creator CHRIS WALAS returns with a second interview this issue! Here he talks about the amazing work he did creating Brundlefly for David Cronenberg’s utterly wonderful THE FLY!

A VVITCH – GRAPHIC NOVEL UPDATE
Artist and writer Russell Fox treats us to another sneak peek at more sumptuous-looking illustrations that’ll be appearing in his upcoming folk horror graphic novel A VVITCH! (More of his work can be viewed in issue 8 of Imaginator)

BONE KEEPER
This is a new movie, which has recently finished principal photography, about a group of friends being hunted by a malevolent monster in a cave. Director HOWARD J. FORD and creature effects VFX supervisor GIORDANO AITA talk about working together on BONE KEEPER, and they share with us some ace images of the development of the cave creature!

THE MAN WHO WAS MOLASAR
Actor Michael Carter is asked what it was like to wear the incredibly distinctive and damn cool Molasar muscle suit in THE KEEP. He also speaks about the makeup application process he underwent to become Bib Fortuna in RETURN OF THE JEDI, and he chats about playing a memorable London subway victim in the all-time 80s horror film classic AN AMERICAN WEREWOLF IN LONDON!

RADIOACTIVE REVIEWS
To finish off this issue there are a couple of non-monster movie reviews, including one for the Italian Mad Max ripoff 2020 TEXAS GLADIATORS!

Wow! So much lovely stuff is jammed inside this single issue!

LIMITED EDITION PRINTS
You can buy two Limited Edition Creature Feature Prints, signed and numbered by Imaginator’s cover artist ZillaMan, via this LINK!

Imaginator magazine’s Creature Feature Special is in the works!

April 26, 2025 Ken Miller Leave a comment

Yes, you read that correctly: issue 9 of Imaginator is going to be a CREATURE FEATURE SPECIAL…

Here’s a taster of some of the interviews that will be in this issue…

Also in this issue…

Steve Wang talks about creating the PREDATOR!

Chris Walas talks about creating his Oscar-winning makeup effects for THE FLY!

Veronica Cartwright talks about confronting the ALIEN!

There’s a chat with Michael Carter, who played Molasar in THE KEEP! The talented actor was also Bib Fortuna in RETURN OF THE JEDI and he was a very memorable victim of AN AMERICAN WEREWOLF IN LONDON!

Plus – actress Geretta Geratta is interviewed about her films DEMONS and RATS: NIGHT OF TERROR!

And there’s going to be so much more, including reviews of a bunch of monster movies, including these beauties…

Stay tuned for more updates!

The Night Crew (2015)

May 22, 2024 Ken Miller 3 Comments

There's going to be a lot of fighting in this film! — There’s going to be a lot of fighting in this film!

Starring Luke Goss, Bokeem Woodbine, Danny Trejo, Paul Sloan, Chasty Ballesteros, Luciana Faulhaber, Jason Mewes, Jacqueline Lord and Dan Swayze. Written by Paul Sloan and Christian Sesma. Directed by Christian Sesma. Produced by Ryan Noto, Christian Sesma, Elias Axume, Jack Campbell and Tony Piantedosi.

Paul Sloan, Bokeem Woodbine, Luke Goss and Luciana Faulhaber play bounty hunters Ronnie, Crenshaw, Wade and Rose

A small team of bounty hunters, led by Wade (Goss), succeed in apprehending their target, a woman called Mae (Ballesteros), but matters get out of hand when they find themselves under siege in an isolated, deserted motel, fighting against trigger-happy cartel killers. It also slowly becomes apparent that there’s more to Mae than meets the eye…

Okay, as this is the Monster Zone blog site, I will be upfront and reveal Mae’s secret: she’s actually a vampire! The vampire aspect of the story, though, is used more to add some mystery to the mainly action-oriented movie. Some moments hint that Mae is not just a ‘normal’ foxy asian (pole dancing) gal, but this supernatural facet of the tale remains secondary to the central tough-bounty-hunters-shooting-it-out-with-cartel-thugs siege plot line. But, hey, this is okay by me because the combat scenes are pretty intense and well-handled, with bodies getting blasted, knife fights, and rocket launchers used with relish by the combatants.

He's a cartel footsoldier! — He’s a cartel footsoldier!

Above: there's a great deal of shooting in this movie! — Above: there’s a great deal of shooting in this movie!

Rose is captured by the cartel bad guys for a while

THE NIGHT CREW is actually a modestly-budgeted production, but it benefits from director Christian Sesma’s quest to try and put every dollar he has on the screen. Sesma has said that his mindset is always to make his films as if he had a hundred million dollars (even though, with some of his projects, he often only has several hundred thousand dollars to play with!) Sesma has admitted that this attitude has been called overly ambitious a lot of times by critics, but at least he has managed to give many of his low cost movies (such as his heist film PAY DIRT) a sense of scale by shooting some of his movies near his home in the Coachella Valley, making the most of local locations like Thermal, Palm Springs and the Salton Sea, using the desert vistas, stunning blue skies and expansive palm groves to turbo-charge the visual appeal of his thrillers, revenge stories and actioners. For THE NIGHT CREW Sesma bases the movie in and around a real, derelict desert motel complex (which, in reality, was situated twenty minutes from the director’s house). With the abandoned motel location dressed up with trash bags and some of its walls spray-painted a bit, the place was made to look more dilapidated for the movie.

'The hunters become the hunted' — ‘The hunters become the hunted’

Trejo's character likes to have blood transfusions — Trejo’s character likes to have blood transfusions

Sesma also gets the best out of Luke Goss, who plays the lead bounty hunter. I think Goss, when used well (such as by Guillermo Del Toro in HELLBOY II: THE GOLDEN ARMY), delivers compelling performances, and here he takes his Wade role seriously.

Luke Goss as the stoic merc leader Wade — Luke Goss as the stoic bounty hunter Wade

Bokeem Woodbine, Paul Sloan and Luciana Faulhaber, meanwhile, are fine as the rest of Wade’s team, Danny Trejo’s baddie Aguilar is very much the kind of big, grizzled guest star thug that Trejo can play in his sleep, and Jason Mewes, as usual, finds it hard to shake off comparisons to his Jay and Silent Bob character.

Jason Mewes as a security guard — Jason Mewes as security guard Chachi

In France THE NIGHT CREW is known as BLACKWATER

After all the shootings, grapplings, stabbings, kickings, punchings and deaths, the mortally-wounded Rose and Wade (spoiler) are turned into vampires to keep them ‘alive’. Then they, along with Mae, go over to Aguilar’s place, where the cartel boss sprouts some vampire fangs of his own.

Mae turns the dying Rose into a vampire…

...and then the newly-undead Rose turns Wade into a vampire — …and then the newly-undead Rose turns the dying Wade into a vampire

These blood-sucking vampire elements only become a main part of the story at the very end of the film, and it is obvious that Sesma was hoping to springboard these characters into a more supernatural-themed sequel. I, for one, would’ve loved to have seen Luke Goss play a kick-ass vampire bounty hunter in a follow-up flick.

Vampire Mae rips out the throat of a nasty cartel villain

After Sesma sold his movie, however, he was then in the hands of the distributors, and, according to the director, a weird distributor put the movie out at a weird time – and THE NIGHT CREW just kind of fell by the wayside, meaning there was no appetite for a sequel. Which, for me, is a pity, as I think, with a bigger budget and an action-horror plot focusing on vamp bounty hunters, THE NIGHT CREW 2 would’ve been a bloody fangtastic flick!

Luciana Faulhaber and Luke Goss didn't get the chance to return as undead vampire mercenaries in a sequel. Oh well. — Luciana Faulhaber and Luke Goss didn’t get the chance to return as undead bounty hunting vampires in a sequel. Oh well.

Let’s end with a look at the Brazilan DVD cover artwork for the film…

In Brazil the movie title means THE NIGHT TEAM

Devoted to every kind of movie and TV monster, from King Kong to Godzilla, from the Blob to Alien. Plus monsters from other media too, including books and comics.