I originally started this article up with it mainly addressing my problems with the series but also discuss the finer points of battling one of horrors living infamous mad men and I just decided to say thanks for not turning Cassie Hack in to Buffy.

Why must I address this with such a sigh of relief? Mainly because the tough talking, gun wielding Cassie has just been impossible to enjoy. Her stint in the series lately has been dull and nothing worth actually emulating because this girl is supposed to be the anti-heroine; one who gets proactive when there’s a stalking lurking around the corner.

As the series went on over at "Hack/Slash" my worries were that soon enough she'd become the ultimate final girl in an ever growing series of monsters and slashers and become the tough talking Eastwood wannabe. Thankfully I’m in such a state of awe with her recent crossing with Dr. Herbert West (i.e. The Guy who Likes to Re-Animate Stuff!) that all the negativity has all but turned in to a memory and one I didn't particularly fancy.

When I look at Cassie, I look at the emo girl with Goth get up who doesn't mind cracking skulls, not a Magnum space fighter we saw in her disappointing ill-conceived crossing with Halloween Man that brought her from final girl to Trekkie. No bash on the creators of Halloween Man, but if we can combine Re-Animator with Cassie successfully, why was it so tough combining both universes?

I'm going to sound like a true dork here but that's not my Cassie Hack. My Cassie Hack fights otherworldly monsters with a blazing baseball bat and fire arm with her own sidekick slasher. This Cassie Hack I know is a vulnerable but tough warrior who could hold her own against the likes of Chucky. Or in this case one of the finest cross over’s since the clashing Norman Bates. What writer Tim Seeley did for a while scared me but we're now here with Cassie Hack coming to an end with the search for her birth dad while Herbert West is doing things with his serum that he shouldn't.

Crossing many lines and all taboos, West has a particularly liking for the slashers world and wants to take these once prime contributors to humanity and revert them back to their normal state. Then... wouldn't they be dead since slashers are undead? And what is Herbert trying to follow with his research with his current test subject, again? Aw who knows really? I'm just happy that we have a cross over that's as good as Cassie throwing down with Chucky.

Almost like a glove this struggle against good and evil has come to a grinding halt as Cassie and Vlad come across the same lab her birth father seems to be occupying and surprise, surprise, he's working with the good ol' doc and his monstrosities, all prominently displayed as trophies, hideous as they may be. As a fan of the film, Seeley and co. go through great pains to keep the integrity of the HP Lovecraft original concept of a man without borders who is determined to beat death at the punch while Cassie is the victim here in spite of her father’s obsession with her mother and West’s Maguffin of the re-agent that becomes a prominent element in the story but never too clear to be explained.

Cassie is the victim because she must face her father Jack a man barely capable of giving his will to the tempting revival potion West puts down on the table to actually acknowledge the search his daughter took part in. Cassie also has to stare down the mouth of the woman who turned to serial murder in order to protect her child from those who damned them. What we get through the course of the scenes is an immediate revelation to the reason why her mother was so insecure about their lives and what punishment it inflicted on the small ring battling to be released from death’s grip.

What we will have to face as the series goes on and the relationship between Cassie and Vlad are forming, is that there are never easy answers when it comes to reaching back in to your past. Quite often looking back can be damaging, but it’s nowhere near as painful as deciding to look on the road ahead and West has broken yet another taboo by stealing the corpses of Cassie’s mom and daring to re-introduce the aspect in her life that will come to reflect on the work she and her pal have a hard time conducting, especially when she’s still plagued with the memories of the past to this day.

And West exploits that vulnerability by showing off his wicked creation while failing yet again to note the inherent emotional baggage such as Cassie being forced to kill this monstrosity while being provoked by the worst horror villain ever created, the megalomaniac with the power of his mind that override ethics and generally good human consideration tapping on our biggest fate: Death and reincarnation.

Most important about this series’ arc is that we’re not only given closure but clear intent toward the relation with Vlad and Cassie. What is he to him? Is he the man she’s always wanted? I also enjoyed the sub-plot with Chris and Lisa, two of Cassie and Vlad’s allies who deal with the dog of the inter-dimensional beings now belonging to that of the duo. Is he there only to serve his masters or has he grown fond of them? And what of this enlisted female agent now on the hunt for Cassie and Vlad?

I think creator Tim Seeley wants us to wait a while and just chalk their friendship up to symbiosis with the gripping final scene serving as the final tug on the emotional noose where Vlad to protects Cassie with all his power as her father lies at death’s door. Meanwhile Cassie is forced to confront old demons while the weasel face, West, of the undead watches and waits for his turn with the next series of saps who don’t share his vision of violation in the name of science.

The open ended finale in the arc proves that people will always be hypocritical because though his practices are horrid, he provides what we all seek: immortality. The arc DDP has allowed us to read has been fantastic, keeping true to both series’ dignity and binding the universes to just seem logical when all is said and done, inviting for more psychos to enter the fray. I wish I could say the same for “Cassie Hack vs. Halloween Man.”

I’ll forgive the flaws to this miniseries because I just loved this meeting, I loved Emily Stone’s pitch prefect versions of these characters and I enjoyed Seeley’s usual brand of writing; I wonder what or who we’ll get to see next. My vote is for Leslie Vernon.