Callum Shah wastes no time sending a team out to explore Isla Lodo while he and Matt Park take a look at the manor. Is there something to be found amidst the ruins? Find out in Haunt You to the End #2 from Image Comics!

HAUNT YOU TO THE END #2

Writer: Ryan Cady
Artist: Andrea Mutti
Letterer: Frank Cvetkovic
Editor: Elena Salcedo and Matt Hawkins
Publisher: Image Comics
Cover Price: $3.99
Release Date: July 12, 2023

Previously in Haunt You to the End: In the setting of an environmentally damaged future, Callum Shah has grown wealthy from streaming his ghost-busting exploits. Now he wants Matt Park, a writer who is bluntly critical of Shah, to document his next big thing. Isla Lodo, off the coast of Baja, is supposedly the most haunted place on Earth. Within a week, the rising waters will engulf it. The corporation that owns the island has agreed to let Shah explore during its last days. Matt, who needs the money, ultimately agrees to go. A small team flies out to the island. Shortly before they get there, the pilot has a seizure, and Gersh, the security chief, lands the plane roughly, but safely. Is this a harbinger of things to come?

STRESS AND FATIGUE

Haunt You to the End #2 opens on the team looking around the island a little. Perhaps its most striking feature is the shell of a Victorian mansion. In those ruins, they meet Padre Domingo Sandoval, a television minister and Callum Shah’s spiritual advisor. Sandoval has already been here a few days and is certain there is an evil presence.

Their base camp is set up in tents, but they have a generous supply of equipment, including devices to help reduce carcinogens in their immediate area. Still, Shah recommends masking during exploration. Speaking of which, he wants to get started right away on the last survey, that of the derricks. There is precious little time to rest. Gersh is happy to take her team to the derricks. Matt wants to rest rather than explore in the dark. Park offers to stay behind and let Padre Sandoval go with Gersh. Even Maddi is willing to go along. While she does not agree with Shah or his methods, she might still be able to do some good.

Shah actually wants to explore the manor. This intrigues Park. Most of the deaths occurred around the derricks, but most of the purported “haunting” events happened at the manor. When Shah invites him to come along, Park reluctantly agrees. The ruins are not stable, but the survey team marked the safe areas. Park notices the local network is getting spotty, and he starts recognizing places from the background material. He turns around and Shah is no longer with him. He sees some movement and follows it and then he sees what he can only describe as a ghost.

Park is honest and admits he also saw something earlier. But his tech shorted out, and he has no proof of what he saw, if it was real and not a hallucination. They return to camp. The other team reaches the derricks, and they start exploring, but they have not yet collected any data. Shah recommends that they get some sleep.

But Park cannot sleep. He returns to the manor where he hears a voice, and he follows it deeper into the house until the floor gives way beneath him – and he awakens from the nightmare.

A FUTURISTIC GOTHIC DYSTOPIA

The limited color palette in Haunt You to the End #2 lends an impressionistic sense to the backgrounds. The air is not clear here, so the manor looms up suddenly among shadows of trees. A melancholy sense of hubris lingers, reminding us that this location has only days before it is gradually lost to exploration. To have a pastor suddenly emerge from the ruins is an eerie surprise.

When Shah and Park explore the manor, the shadows become stronger which emphasizes the feeling of exploring an abandoned house. Decay and dilapidation are the order of the day, and flashlights can only cast a narrow beam of light. When see the movement that Park sees, it is momentary and blurred, a vaguely human shape that is there only for a panel. Park does not immediately jump to any conclusions, but trudges doggedly onward. When he sees the figure that could be a ghost, he is startled, but we also see him trying to process what he might have seen.

BOTTOM LINE: SCI-FI WITH A DOSE OF CREEPINESS

The atmosphere of Haunt You to the End #2 is deeply disquieting. Exploring abandoned industrial ruins is eerie and dangerous on its own. To have something supernatural thrown into the mix makes it downright terrifying.

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