Tainted Tea Flash Fiction and Bookmark Contest

Flash Fiction

Complete a story in 1000 words or less. There is no specific subject, but all stories must either be dark, macabre, or something in the horror genre. Judging will be based on character development, plot, originality, and overall storytelling.

Prizes

The WINNER will receive Underland by Mick Farren, a novel involving vampires, Nazis, and Antarctica. The winner will also be published in the Spring 2010 issue of Tainted Tea and will receiver a free PDF.

The RUNNER-UP will be published on Tainted Tea’s blog and will receive a free PDF.

Bookmark

Create bookmark. It doesn’t matter how, just as long as the bookmark fits with Tainted Tea’s theme. Judging will be based on subject matter, composition, and overall design.

Tainted Tea cannot receive mail, so we can only accept bookmarks mailed as JPGs.

Prizes

The WINNER will receive the tea cup and saucer featured on the cover of Tainted Tea Spring 2010 issue. The winner will also be published in the Spring 2010 issue and will receive a free PDF.

The RUNNER -UP will be published on Tainted Tea’s blog and will receive a free PDF.

Please send all submissions to TaintedTea.editors@gmail.com

Deadline

All submissions must be received by April 1, 2010

Ahh Doom the movie..a classic video game made into a film that was announced almost ten years ago. There was such potential then, before the slew of terrible videogame-based movies were created (alone in the dark, house of the dead im looking at you). Of course, its almost fitting that Doom joined the list of movies that will eventually be forgotten for their good parts, and just rememebered as a terrible film based on a great game.

The characters of the film make or break it, and well, the cliche’ wastes of time they threw into the film are about as standard as apple pie being american. The Rock (Dwayne Johnson) played “Sarge”, a gung ho by the books leader of the troop that goes into the science lab. Eventually the leader becames the villian (shocking!) and fights the ever so cleverly named “reaper”, played by someone from the lord of the rings apparently. Reaper is your standard “hero who commits bad actions but for a good reason, and has morals that override his sense of duty”. Everyone else, who cares, with characters like “the kid” and “pinkie”(nicknamed after the bulldemons from doom 1/2/ultimate/master levels) you can’t be expecting much depth to them.

The monsters, arguebly the highlight of doom, were completely lackluster in their uses. The zombies, imps, a bulldemon (the doom 3 variety, not the awesome ones from the original) and i think a hell knight were the only characters who were in there, no awesome lost souls, cacodemons, revenants, or mancubus’s(mancubi?) to be seen. They were poorly implemented, and all looked rediculously similar (the imp and hell knight were virtually the same).

The plot, one of the few things I actually appreciated from the original dooms, became changed from the denizens of hell invading to a genetic experiment gone awry (some bullshit about an extra chromosome causing super human strength, speed, and intelligence, filthy). It was poorly strung together, and ended up being quite disappointing, even for an action film.

Speaking of the action, Doom had its fair share of it. The beginning of the film is made more to make you jump, but eventually it picks up, just not that well. Doom had all the makings of a moderate action film, nothing really stellar (some hilarious deaths, and one really great fight scene between a big black guy and the hell knight). It certainly was a terrible homage to the game, as theres simply no comparison between non stop slaughter in doom and the sparse, pretty spaced out action of the film. “Sarge” vs “Reaper” was an alright fight scene, nothing spectacular. The Rock did his trademark “nip up” from the ground, which was disappointing, because lets face it, the man needs to drop a peoples elbow in a film. Its not like the audience takes him seriously anyway. The one true highlight of the film was when Sarge finds the BFG 9000, which had its name changed for the film (weaksauce). He opens the door guarding it with a scientists arm that was cut off in the beginning of the film (which i’ll admit, was pretty cool) and just is fascinated by the sight of the BFG. His line states what every doom fan could ever want, “big fucking gun.” Watching him fire it was pretty cool, but nothing special. The radius of the plasma blast should have been much larger to really demonstrate its awesomeness. Oh, and Sarge slaughters a room full of scientists and children hiding from the demons as part of his job, but you don’t get to see it, which made me sad.

 Essentially, Doom is something that a fan should see, if only to laugh at the many inaccuracies throughout the film. Without the Doom license, it would be a decent stand alone action film, but as a homage to the great Doom, it was a complete failure. Avoid this film if you don’t want to waste money, or see it if you want to laugh more than at a bad comedy movie (Duplex anyone?).

Rarely do I find myself compelled by anime.  Predictable storylines, cheesy jokes and one dimensional poorly detailed characters tend to commonly pop up.  Catching Death Note on Adult Swim every once in awhile gave me the impression that this show would fall into this category, as Adult Swim hasn’t introduced me to something captivating in a while (I’ll credit it for turning me on to certain classic anime like Cowboy Bebop however).  I was completely wrong.

Death Note is a story about Light Yagami, a genius highschool student who finds a notebook called the Death Note, which allows him to kill anyone who he knows the name or face of.  Yagami uses this book to deliver his own brand of justice, killing criminals in a way that the police notice a pattern and spend the entirety of the series trying to catch him (known as Kira to the general public and police).  Shinigami (death gods), expert detectives and shifting senses of right and wrong are only a part of the captivating ongoing plot spanning 37 episodes.

I sat down with Death Note with the intention of only watching it sporadically, mixing it in with my daily routine and eventually finishing it.  After a few episodes, I found myself curious to see what was next, and eventually I changed my attitude completely from intrigued to outright obsessed.  I sat down and watched the majority of the series in under two days, madly in love with the plot and characters provided.  My interest in the series started to wane once one of the major characters died, but I continued my dedication until the very end.  The show tells you how it will end in the beginning, and it doesn’t disappoint in the journey to that eventuality.   

The animation for this show was absolutely gorgeous.  The imagery is very colorful yet very dark when necessary for mood purposes.  The soundtrack is overwhelming, offering thundering classical sounding themes when something important happens and not intruding on what’s being discussed when plot is more important than action.  The voicework was good, although I found the character Misa Amane’s voice work to be particularly annoying in pitch. 

Altogether, Death Note is an anime that I would recommend to anyone who enjoys a good, morbid detective story. The plot will keep you glued to whatever form of screen you are using, the violence is a lot tamer than I expected for something called Death Note but still effective in keeping action going, and the humor is unusually dark for anime.  If you like anime, don’t miss out on this series.