Any horror list will probably have Lovecraft on it. Basically something along the lines of, “Hey, go read Shadow over Innsmouth” or “You know, Dreams in the Witch House really holds up!” We could do that. But we’re not going to.
After the jump, Dreams in the Witch House really does hold up, but… Continue reading →
Sorry, Sleeping Dogs fans. You waited so patiently while United Front Games worked for a few years on the Triad Wars MMO boondoggle. You held your breath when the studio announced the early access microtransaction engine Smash+Grab. You bravely stayed the course, but it was all for naught. You’ll likely never get Sleeping Dogs 2 now. At least, not the one you imagined, if publisher Square-Enix ever revives the franchise and gives it to another studio. United Front Games is no more. Smash & Grab has already been de-listed from Steam and developer tweets from the Canadian studio responsible for the open-world Hong Kong brawler indicate the company has run out of time.
United Front Games was started in 2007, and besides Sleeping Dogs, they created ModNation Racers on the PlayStation 3 and worked on Halo: The Master Chief Collection on the Xbox One. You can read Tom’s thought on Sleeping Dogs here.
I met Phantasm directer Don Coscarelli once. It was an outdoor screening of the movie. While everyone was waiting for it to get dark enough to start the movie, Coscarelli got up and said a few words. Then he stood off to one side while a few people hit him up for, I dunno, autographs or whatever. I thought up what I would say and then I waited for everyone to leave. I marched up and said this:
“Mr Coscarelli, I just want to tell you how much Phantasm meant to me when I first saw it. You were an important part of my childhood.”
I don’t know if he actually gave me a funny look or if I just imagined it. Then he said, “Must have been a strange childhood.” I didn’t really have a response for that. I still don’t.
On one hand, it’s kind of depressing that the ensuing Phantasm movies have been so awful. This one is the fifth. It’s awful. But on the other hand, I kind of admire that Coscarelli and the original cast are still plugging away with what must be the same enthusiasm you’d find in any kids running around in the backyard with a camera, a bottle of ketchup for fake blood, and an affection for horror movies. To the average viewer, it will look like a bunch of bad CG and middle-aged dudes who stepped away from their desk jobs for the weekend. But there’s a simultaneous poetry and tragedy to Coscarelli and crew basically filming fan-fic cosplay of their own 1979 movie.
Phantasm: Ravager is available here on Amazon.com.
LaBeouffed isn’t a verb, but if it was, it would apply to this movie. At the 1:12 mark, be sure to turn up the volume so you can hear our discussion of whispers in movies.
Next week: Desierto
Podcast (movies): Play in new window | Download
Subscribe: RSS
“It was a dark and stormy night….” OK, stop us if you’ve read this book before. As exciting as a good scary story should be, too often horror fiction becomes predictable and formulaic. Horror is a genre rooted in folktales and archetypes, and chains itself to hidebound guidelines. We know that vampires always hate mirrors and zombies are supposed to shuffle. Horror fiction breaks these rules too rarely, but when it happens it can be spectacular.
After the jump, not the same old story. Continue reading →
Rockstar has been busy fueling fan speculation over the weekend. The developer tweeted a familiar red Rockstar logo on Sunday, then updated all of their social media sites with the above image. If that’s not a Red Dead Redemption reference, then the studio has become really enamored of HBO’s Westworld, or really liked Antoine Fuqua’s remake of The Magnificent Seven playing in theaters now. Is an announcement of a sequel finally coming?
Blizzard is also seemingly playing the hint game. One of the tchotchkes included in this year’s BlizzCon souvenir bag is a set of RPG dice. The Diablo-themed goodie includes a four-sided die, or “D4” in gamer parlance. Unlike the other dice in the kit, the D4 is unusable due to the faces being incorrectly numbered with two ones and a four, perhaps referencing the start of BlizzCon on November 4th. Adding fuel to the fire is this late Saturday tweet from David Brevik, one of the original creators of Diablo, who may or may not be working again for Blizzard in an advisory role. The post from Brevik cryptically includes an image of the constellation Libra. Is it a hint of Diablo IV or something else entirely?
For their October television recommendations, Tom Chick and Chris Hornbostel spent last week helping you let the right ones in. We’ll talk a bit more about our choices and then announce the topic for next week.
Podcast (games): Play in new window | Download
Subscribe: RSS
TV can be quite a commitment. And we’ve thrown a lot of commitment at you so far this week. But let’s get down to brass tacks. What if we were to pick just one TV series that you should watch for Halloween? What are our top recommendations?
After the jump, snow and serial killers. Continue reading →
This week, I talk with Rob in Wisconsin about how Halloween is great for terrifying children, the periodic table of elements, illicit Xbox sales, and the finer points of tennis. Then we talk about Infested Planets, one of the best RTSs that you’ve probably never heard of. And it recently got even better!
Podcast (games): Play in new window | Download
Subscribe: RSS
Lincoln Clay is wanted by the Italian mafia, his adopted family has been massacred, and he’s a black man in the southern United States during the late 1960’s. In his hometown of New Bordeaux there are businesses that proudly display “no colored allowed” signs in their windows. There are whole neighborhoods that Lincoln Clay cannot be in without getting the side-eye from white citizens while walking by. The police will always watch him, call him “boy” and will open fire on Clay if he commits any crimes in their vicinity. To everyone else, he is defined by the color of his skin; a man barely qualified to supply menial labor for his supposed betters. Despite all this, Lincoln Clay will shortly own everything in New Bordeaux because he is the star of Mafia III and whatever social commentary the game has will be lost in an open-world grind.
After the jump, all colors allowed. Continue reading →
Okay, television, you’ve got a whole mess of horror genres to play with. Slashers, ghosts, vampires, werewolves (snicker), Kardashians. Let’s see how you’re going to mix it up.
After the jump, Return of the Living Exorcist Continue reading →
Few shows in television history cast as long a shadow as Twin Peaks. It made networks more amenable to serialized TV stories. It showed that television can have cinematic production values. And it set the stage for the now familiar notion of strange, insular, isolated communities as the setting for creepy television shows. What is it about small towns? When did Mayberry get so weird?
After the jump, what do you have after a damn fine cup of coffee? Continue reading →
The Zubmariner expansion for Failbetter Games’ Sunless Sea is out today. Undersea (or “unterzee”) adventures await the crafty and resourceful captains willing to explore the depths of the Zee. More locations, more enemies, and more importantly, more stately prose comes with the expansion. The deliberately paced and difficult Sunless Sea has a lot of content regardless, but Failbetter has added a free update to the game that adds a few new quests. They don’t require the Zubmariner DLC to enjoy, but they do provide a small sample of the expansion’s mysteries.
In related news, Failbetter Games’ next chapter in the Fallen London series will be Sunless Skies.
Is there any medium as creatively bankrupt as television? Is there any genre as creatively bankrupt as horror? As a rule, of course. We’re here for the exceptions. Here are a couple of recommendations for TV horror that wears its creativity with unique visual flair.
After the jump, a cartoon and a period piece Continue reading →
If I told you what this week’s movie was about, you probably wouldn’t believe me. At the 1:07, we dive into a discussion of empty swimming pools.
Next week: American Honey
Podcast (movies): Play in new window | Download
Subscribe: RSS
