Jason Starr plays around with Druidic rituals in this crime drama, where cops are having an especially hard time catching a serial killer who seems to be an old woman luring men to their death. They soon learn that the grisly ways they find the body tie to Druidic worship and ever-lasting life, but their search is swayed by their own imaginations and their unwillingness to believe in a power higher than humanity.
Starr works with a fairly original plot, combining supernatural elements and cop investigations together for a slightly different take on crime drama. The Druidic elements are interesting; Starr weaves a tale of a Druidic ritual where women are born with an ability called the Chill, a sexual way of ritual sacrifice in the early years of Druidism. The Chill has been corrupted by Cormac Flaherty, though, who uses his daughter Arlana's abilities to remain youthful. The story is entertaining throughout, as both the cops and a former acquaintance with the murderers, Martin Cleary, search out the suspects and try to bring the killers to justice.
But there are a few slight problems with Starr's novel. Most of the characters feel rather two-dimensional, especially all of the secondary characters, who would much rather get a lay with a hot chick than use their heads for one second. Motivations are scarce for most of the characters; all of the victims are unbelievably tool-like frat heads, which isn't as hard to imagine as one might think - otherwise, Arlana wouldn't have too many men to kill. Yet even Joe Pavano, our main cop, has slight falterings as an investigator, falling for Arlana's woos as she pretends to be his wife to try and get him in the sack. It doesn't really make sense: Joe has heard before that the killer takes the shape of beautiful women before she kills, and one would think he'd be on the highest of alerts when his wife comes onto him with such ferocity.
There's also the level of sex and nudity in The Chill. Though sex is a large part of the plot, Starr uses quite a lot of it gratuitously in each murder scene, making the reader practically immune to it after the first few pages. I'm not saying that sex and nudity is wrong and that it shouldn't be used in the graphic novel; in fact, I think it could have been particularly effective in choice sequences in the novel. But it's used a bit too much too often, and instead of creating tense situations with the right amount of nudity, it almost comes off as a ploy to attract readers because of its edgy-ness.
Overall, though, Mick Bertilorenzi's art looks great, and he chooses experimental shots to show the characters from different perspectives that work well together. The violence is nicely detailed, most notably a gruesome shot of a dead man who fell from the top of a building.
The Chill is good as a crime graphic novel, but its tendency to focus more on sex and the reliance on weak characters to advance the plot can get a little tiresome. It's got an interesting story, but its handicapped by problems that are hard to overlook at times.
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