Cascade Review by Eblison Grun

Cascade

writer- Chris Canibano

artist- Larry Nadolsky

Cascade is about a young couple that returns to a family home and finds a grizzly murder scene connected to insanity, abuse, and a strange Native American curse.

This two issue story from Red Branch Publications has almost all the elements of a 1970's slasher film. In the story, Sue and Mark find out they're pregnant. Mark has been pushing to meet Sue's parents but she's pretty hesitant to return to her family home near the town of Cascade. It seems Sue's family were upset when she ran off to college and they haven't spoken since. But Mark is really persistent. If the two are going to get married and raise a family of their own, he's got to meet her parents. So, the two head back to Cascade. When the need to fill the gas tank arises, they stop at this creepy filling station that, if you watch those 70's horror films you'd know, looks like it hasn't had a customer since the late 1940's. The two meet an old boyfriend of Sue's there and he tells Mark about a curse on the town of Cascade.

“Back in the 1700's an Indian was drowned for his romance with the town Governor's daughter. He swore a curse that everyone in the town would meet the same fate and the dead would rise up, until he was reunited with his love.”

In true cult horror movie fashion, we learn that the Governor's last name was Daniels... the same as Sue's. Of course it's pouring rain outside and the curse to flood the town and kill it's residents seems to be looming.

Writer, Chris Canibano, was researching American ghost towns when he came up with the idea for this story however, it's his appreciation of the stories by Stephen King that seem to have given Cascade life. All the elements for a good horror story are there. There's the rain storm, the secluded farmhouse, the creepy tow-truck driver, and the old curse, but the thing in the book that made me smile was when they got to that old family farmhouse and found the power off and the house seemingly empty. I think Canibano has something with Cascade. The story is creepy. He knows what makes a spooky location and what it is that scares people, and he obviously appreciates classic cult horror.

I did have one or two issues with some awkward dialogue, but for the most part, the scripting isn't bad. It's the story that gives Cascade it's strength.

As for the art, Larry Nadolski is a self taught artist who has been in the industry for about 30 years. He's great at creating emotion in the faces of his characters. When the backwoods ex-boyfriend is acting creepy and psychotic, we understand that's how he is by the look on his face. Still, I think

Nadolski's strongest art on the two issue story is the work he did for the covers, and that includes the facial expressions on those depicted.

Overall, Cascade was a good read. I hope to see more from Red Branch in the future, and I look forward to seeing more from the team that worked on Cascade. They could really lay down the cult horror genre like they own it.