About Lamentation #1
Cullen Bunn has delivered one of his most powerful horror opuses yet with Lamentation #1 – Published by Oni Press. There’s the usual sense of Cullen Bunn horror darkness elevated by otherworldly witchery thanks to artist Arjuna Susini and colorist Hilary Jenkins. While lettering scribe Simon Rowland keeps the reader’s fear in check as he guides us through each consecutive page that laments unending terror. All of these talents pooled delivers a Gothic Nightmare that tests and blues the lines of all reality.
Lamentation #1 opens with struggling actress Jennifer Simms on the phone to her mother telling her that she has an opportunity for a paying acting gig. When she arrives to audition at an old and rundown theater she witnesses the start of a play which is centers on murder which shocks her a little bit. This prompts the director, Marguerite Lansing, to welcome her and introduce her to the rest of the cast. It turns out, Marguerite is quite familiar with Jennifer’s acting credentials and thinks she’d be perfect for the lead role and so an audition isn’t necessary.
The Atmosphere in Lamentation should be Praised
Cullen Bunn gives us an awkward sense of anxiety as the atmosphere of the scene Jennifer has just walked into doesn’t feel right. This is reinforced by a curious panel that focuses on a newspaper clipping near Marguerite’s directors chair calling for a well-organised receptionist. Jennifer takes a seat and begins to go through her lines and she does these dark apparitions quietly make movements towards her. Is the theater haunted or is this old theater somehow possessed?
Despite her recent addition to the cast, Marguerite insists she get on stage with the rest of the actors and start getting to know her lines. Much to the profound disappointment of fellow actress Sarah Greenfield who feels incensed at the idea that she was passed over for the lead role (again), the scene starts and instantly transports the characters the actors are playing to the otherworldly location contained within the script. It’s in these moments that colorist Hilary Jenkin’s palette turns a corner and takes on a more gothically romantic palette.
Midway through the scene she slips on some blood on the stage which breaks her out of this fantasy. Shocked, she makes a swift exit for some air. Only to realise there are no exits to the outside world. She is trapped inside this old theater with the rest of the cast. Prompting Marguerite to reveal the truth of this place: none of them can leave until they’ve finished performing the play. But to who or what is another matter entirely.
As another rehearsal gets under way, Jennifer, Sarah and the rest of the cast get drawn into another gothic nightmare fantasy where more of the story is revealed and how one of the women the cast are portraying will marry the lord of the mansion. This of course leads onto the cast explaining to Jennifer that the woman who was originally cast as her character was able to escape the theater by killing herself.
Creepy Artwork raises the bar in this Gothic Horror
Then they get back into rehearsal mode and another reality shift takes them back to the mansion where they meet the lord, Prince Razide, who Jennifer is to marry. A dark, cloaked Phantom of the Opera archetype who feels more like a creepy apparition. Very ghoul-like thanks to the talents of Arjuna Susini.
When the fantasy is broken again, the cast have an impromptu meeting in which Jennifer demands to know who’s playing the role of Prince Razide. Cast mate and wannabe heart throb, Owen, takes her aside and explains to her a few hidden truths about the theater. One of which is that no one knows who Prince Razide is. Is he an actor that no one has seen yet or is he another evil of this rundown theater?
Needing some time alone, Jennifer begins to explore the theater, looking for answers. She comes across this old staircase and makes her way down into a room that feels like the doll scene from Blade Runner. Lots of puppets on strings, drapes, props and other sorts of eerie paraphernalia. As she’s going through what she’s found in this room she hears a sound which is sure to be revealed as a killer in the second issue when one of the final panels is the blade of a knife reflecting in the light.
Similarities which may find in Modern Media
Lamentation #1 builds on the tension and atmosphere in a gothic nightmare that feels like it should exist somewhere on a Venn diagram involving Guillermo Del Toro’s movie “Crimson Peak” and Darren Arronofsky’s movie “Black Swan.” Crimson Peak for the gothic romanticism explored as Jennifer lives out the reality of the play she’s acting and Black Swan for the lines between truth and reality being blurred as she gets further down the rabbit hole.
In typical Cullen Bunn form we’re given little bread crumbs as we follow the story while Bunn leads us down this horror filled path. Like I mentioned earlier, Lamentation is elevated by artist Arjuna Susini and colorist Hilary Jenkins, which gives us a supernatural meets unseen killer vibe. The result is an opus to the old school horror films of our youths. It’s the old school of terror being reinvigorated in a clever way by using it as a vessel to move this story forward as Jennifer lives out every fantastical scene.
Cullen Bunn is doing for the comic book industry what Stephen King did for books back in the 80s and 90s – he’s delivering us the very evils we didn’t know we needed to be afraid of.
10/10.
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