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More Ghostbustery Alyssa Milano
Just a few days ago it was announced Alyssa Milano would be the new love interest (Dr. Ilyssa Selwyn) for Dr. Venkman in the upcoming Ghostbusters game, recently acquired by Atari.
Check out Alyssa Milano talking about the game HERE!
A little info behind Ilyssa:
Dr. Selwyn is an expert in Sumerian and pre-Sumerian cultures, and, along with the Reschler Group, is recognized as one of the world’s foremost authorities on Gozerian mythology. She is currently in New York City serving as supervisor and guest curator for the highly anticipated ‘World of Gozer’ exhibition opening Thanksgiving weekend 1991 at the Natural History Museum. Gozerian mythology has attracted a wide popular following since the still-unexplained events and attacks that occurred in the city in 1984. Ilyssa is working late at the museum the night before the opening when a potentially cataclysmic force is unleashed and summons an ancient enemy back to the city. Strange events continue to erupt around her: what secret does she know? It’s up to the Ghostbusters to help Ilyssa find the key and stop the forces of evil that threaten the world. That’s if they can keep Peter Venkman from hitting on her every three minutes.
Here is a little history behind Ilyssa:
Born to unknown parents Nov 15, 1961, Ilyssa was adopted by Jeremiah and Fabienne Selwyn, anthropologists associated with the prestigious Chicago Institute for Ancient Eastern Studies. Ilyssa spent much of her childhood accompanying her adopted parents to archaeological sites throughout Asia and Europe, and on lecture circuit tours around the world.
She attended the exclusive Selsemme Academy in Kuwait until age fifteen, when her parents were killed in a cave-in. Her academic achievements allowed her to enter the University of Illinois early, and generous scholarships awarded by Trompe Corporation, the Shandor Foundation, and the Chicago Institute funded her education.
Ilyssa earned her first Ph.D. in Anthropology from Columbia University, and her second from University of California, Berkeley in Applied Archaeological Sciences. Like her childhood, she’s spent much of her career on digs and giving lectures. The three academic journals she published went largely unread until the Gozerian craze swept New York City in the early 90’s.
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Ghostbusters is coming out June 19th coinciding with the Ghostbusters 25 year anniversary. It is being released on The Nintendo Ds, Wii, PC, Playstation 3, Xbox 360, and the Playstation 2. The game is being written by original Ghostbusters writers Dan Aykroyd and Harold Ramis, and has all 4 of the original Ghostbusters back together.
Let’s start with the good news. Lockbox looks far better than its misleading marketing materials suggest, a supernatural horror movie so darkly lit and color graded that you’ll have to squint your way through jump scares. It’s also anchored by reliable genre performers. That’s also about where the good news ends with this rote adaptation of Knifepoint Horror Podcast story “Winthrop.”
The empathetic Carla Gugino gives her all as Ellen, a saint of a woman with boundless patience who takes on life’s hard luck with a kind smile. After giving up her career as a fashion designer to become caretaker for a dying mother, she’s then forced to reinvent herself once more when her caretaker role ends. That catches us up to the events of Lockbox, where Ellen is asked to take in a cousin she hasn’t seen in quite some time who’s dealing with severe PTSD.
Just as Ellen finally establishes a real connection with Winthrop (Lou Taylor Pucci), it’s interrupted by the arrival of peculiar neighbor Vahna (Katharine Isabelle), who spells clear trouble. When Vahna shows up dead, it sets in motion a supernatural battle of possession.
Image Credit: Aura entertainment
Director Daniel Stamm (The Last Exorcism, Prey for the Devil) and screenwriter Justin Yoffe approach Lockbox in the broadest of brushstrokes, dooming it from the start with clunky storytelling and woefully underdeveloped themes of heady topics like PTSD. Winthrop is a character that comes loaded with emotional baggage and trauma that’s piled on throughout his tragic life, but much like its title, his interiority and history are treated like a tightly guarded secret meant to prolong the supernatural mystery.
The problem here, though, is that Lockbox is too sparse to sustain mystery at all, and it instead robs Winthrop of characterization. It winds up trapping the talented Pucci without anywhere to go, toggling between wounded animal and mentally disoriented.
From there, Lockbox bounds through plot developments without any sense of stakes or purpose, peppered by a smattering of haphazard paint-by-numbers jump scares. The only unwavering constant is Ellen’s resolute faith, and Stamm seems to leave it entirely to Gugino to guide confused audiences through this inconsequential story right up until its supernatural climax.
Image Credit: Aura entertainment
To give more credit, Lockbox at least injects an unconventional exorcism here; just don’t expect much in the way of explanation. When the film finally reveals the meaning behind its title, it dangles a fascinating carrot it has zero interest in delivering. More than a severe lack of fleshing out its characters beyond plot drivers or devices, this faith-based flick also seems terrified to offer any worldbuilding whatsoever.
Yoffe’s script stretches the short story beyond its means instead of fleshing it out, and Stamm fills out the gaps with cheap CGI scares and overwrought performances; Isabelle’s Vahna is beyond cartoonish in her villainy. It’s also pretty nonsensical, treating only Ellen’s faith with the utmost sincerity and largely squandering its typically reliable talent. So much so that the final imagery, pure sunkissed saccharine sentimentality, leaves you with the feeling that this horror movie might be better suited as an entry in Chicken Soup for the Soul.
Lockbox releases in select theaters on July 3, 2026.
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