Cinemusings - Rot Your Brain

BATTLE ROYALE: PARENT'S DAY
Review by Felix Vasquez Jr.

Fans of the film "Battle Royale" which is now being released as a special edition Blu-Ray for Arrow DVD and Cult Labs will love what writers Stefan Hutchinson and Barry Keating have to offer as a supplement with this thirty four page prologue to the original film that not only offers up its own narrative but also leads in to the film perfectly. After doing "Day of the Dead" justice with their comic book prologue for Bub entitled "Desertion," the two writing madmen are at it again this time pegging down the fantastic story entitled "Parents Day." After the suicide of a young girl before the activation of the "Battle Royale" Program, two students from the ill-fated class have caught on to the program's activation and in anticipation are fearful that their class may soon be slipped in to Battle Royale and forced in to combat.

The two students take the initiative and go on the lam from their class, evading adults all over the city who have all been alerted to the class's activation in to the mandatory survival program and have begun hunting the two students who desperately look for a way out of the city and away from the program. Along the way they come across unusual characters, all of whom are anxiously trying to bring them back to their school to be put in to the program. There's even a giant lynch mob of angry parents also hunting the pair in order to bring them in and even the odds for their own children. Little does anyone notice the frizzy orange haired young man looming in the shadows with motives that are utterly suspicious.

Writers Hutchinson and Keating have a sheer sense of continuity with this prologue writing some fantastic nods to the original film, and create some truly excellent characters, all of whom provide some easy fluid entrance in to the actual film for folks who have yet to see it. For anyone who has yet to see it, I highly suggest reading this comic book first and then entering the film as it works as a perfect compliment to the original cult classic. "Parent's Day" is just as gory and disturbing as the controversial forefather adding some foreshadowing to the sequel, but also giving us a glimpse in to this world where the children and teens are considered absolute monsters worthy of fighting to the death in this competition with their parents permissions. Steph Stamb's art work is incredible jumping between realism and anime style with pure ease while also adding a grit and much needed stark humanism that worked so well with the film. "Parent's Day" is a wicked little demon with a great introduction to the world and its primary antagonist that will be an excellent appetizer to the feast that it "Battle Royale."

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