REVIEW: 'The Nasty' #1 by John Lees, George Kambadais, Adam Cahoon, and Kurt Michael Russell

THE NASTY #1 

Writer: John Lees

Artist: George Kambadais, Adam Cahoon

Colors:  Kurt Michael Russell

Letters: Jim Campbell

Publisher: Vault Comics

Release Date: April 5, 2023

Cover Price: $4.99

"Calling all scary movie fans!

Scotland, 1994.

Eighteen-year-old Thumper Connell still has an imaginary friend: the masked killer from his favourite slasher film. Thumper is obsessed with horror and always has been. He fills his time with scary VHS rentals and hanging out with his fellow fans, The Murder Club. But everything changes when his local video shop acquires one of the notorious films known as "video nasties" - films so scary, they're the target of the British Moral Decency League's crusade to ban and burn. But it's only a movie, right? It's all just imaginary, isn't it?

A story about the perception of evil 

Score:

★★★★1/2 (4.5/5)

I wasn't sure what to expect from 'The Nasty' by John Lees, George Kambadais, Adam Cahoon, and Kurt Michael Russell. I thought it'd be a fun throwback to slasher films and there is some of that but there's also so much nuance and depth to a story told from a different time and place. There's a relatability to Graeme aka Thumper, a latch-key kid growing up in the 80s and finding his way in the 90s, that is the protagonist and his passion for horror films manifests itself in interesting ways. 

Even though the story takes place in Scotland, growing up with working parents and being left to your own devices a lot of the time, kids like Thumper formed an attachment to the entertainment they consumed like I did in the U.S. I watched tons of television and read a bunch of Stephen King novels. For Thumper, it was horror movies that captured his imagination so much that the masked killer from his favorite slasher flick became his imaginary friend. He formed friendships around a shared love of the genre and subgenres of horror but like the censorship efforts of the 90s here, Scotland had the British Moral Decency League who determined what was acceptable and what wasn't. And one of the targets was horror films deemed inappropriate or "nasty" so they would be banned. One such film finds its way to Thumper's local hangout, a video store whose presentation could help save the store from closing down. He along with his friends in The Murder Club gets more than they bargained for when something mysterious begins to happen after trying to play the tape. 

It was this carefully constructed preamble that I wasn't expecting but enjoyed thoroughly by reveling in nostalgia for VHS tapes and a world absent of social media. Lees takes readers on a journey, a great world-building exercise that subverted my expectations and took my preconceived notions, and made a wonderful coming-of-age story with a supernatural edge to it. It's Richard Linklater meets Joe Dante with a grounded and intimate tale of finding yourself, your passion, and your mutuals, before things go haywire as fiction turns to reality. 

Kambadais, Cahoon, and Michael Russell create a colorfully designed comic that is as spirited as it is soberingly poignant at times. In those stark moments, all it takes is a single panel to convey the isolation of childhood or the deterioration of the family unit and they will pierce your heart. The artists strike a balance in tone throughout, it's not all somber familial drama. There's plenty of joy found in the camaraderie of friends, the shock of a bloody movie scene, or the romantic undertones of a close friend. Whatever emotional weight is needed in a scene, the artists find the perfect composition, pace, and framing for it. 

'The Nasty' is a love letter to slasher flicks and a generation of kids who loved them. Tender, funny, surprising, endearing, with an emerging horrific twist. We had 'Faces of Death' as the taboo underground horror tape that was whispered about but it wasn't cursed. 'The Nasty' takes a fun nostalgic trip down memory lane and elevates it to a new level of horror.