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The Headlines in Horror: OMFG It’s Halloween Edition
If you hadn’t noticed already, it’s Halloween! There are things that make Halloween the kickass holiday that it is: there’s candy, crisp autumn weather, scary movies, haunted houses, and now it’s alright to walk around the house dressed as a baby, because all you have to say is it’s your Halloween costume! Or maybe that’s just me? Anyways, there is at least one more thing that makes this holiday great, and that’s all the great new announcements for fans of survival horror video games.
There have been a ton of new announcements recently including some news on the upcoming sequel to one of my favorite games of last year, Dead Space, and when we can expect to see it on retail shelves. There’s also been the possible leakage of not one but two possible DLC packs for the soon to be released Left 4 Dead 2. But that’s not all, after the jump I discuss the surprisingly unsuccessful debut of Dead Space: Extraction on the Wii, the real Mercy Hospital gets reviewed by Left 4 Dead fans, and the bizarre new Halloween-themed trailer for Army of Two: The 40th Day. Dead Space Sequel Coming in 2010?
There have been a handful of juicy Dead Space 2 rumors floating about lately, but in a recent article on Reuters they say quite clearly that “Dead Space 2 is in development for next year.” There’s really no way to misinterpret the way that’s written, so if it’s true, and I’m sure it is, gamers will finally be getting the sequel we’ve wanted since the original.
If you happened to miss the other times this game has popped up, let’s play a quick game of catch up: earlier this year Pratik Patel (the Technical Director for Dead Space) mentioned the game on his LinkedIn profile. A few months later Variety let even more drool-worthy info out by saying not only Dead Space 2, but Dead Space 3 as well are being developed simultaneously. Then, just last month Visceral Games (previously EA Redwood Shores, the makers of Dead Space) started asking around for developers to work on the Dead Space franchise on Xbox 360 and PS3.
So it’s pretty much confirmed: Dead Space 2, and possibly Dead Space 3 are on the way with the former having an admittedly wide release date of next year (though you can probably expect it to hit in the fall).
Source: Reuters.com
Dead Space is Dead to Wii Owners
Speaking of Dead Space, not everything’s roses and mutilated corpses for the franchise as its newest outing Dead Space: Extraction has failed miserably in sales, despite being totally awesome. Apparently, the game sold a whopping 9,000 copies in its first two days of release, and for those of us who aren’t terribly sales savvy: that’s not very good.
I’ve never been a big fan of horror titles on the Wii, I’ve never been able to really get into them the same way I do with horror titles on the 360 and PS3, but Extraction is definitely one of the best on the console. Unfortunately, that doesn’t seem to matter as there just isn’t a very large audience on the Wii that are into the genre. My guess is they’re too busy getting healthy with all those fitness games and wand waggling.
Left 4 Dead Fans Get Witty
There are very few times that I’m given a reason to be genuinely proud of the gaming community, primarily because it seems like fanboys and homophobic twelve year-olds make up a majority of the gaming population. This not only made me proud, but was actually quite funny: anyone who’s played Left 4 Dead knows about Mercy Hospital, which is a fictional location in the game’s No Mercy campaign. Well, it seems there’s a real Mercy Hospital located in Pittsburgh, and several gamers have exploited that fact for some witty banter. Several Left 4 Dead fans have taken the time to review the unsuspecting hospital, some of the highlights including:
Review by FrancisSilverman:
You know what I don’t hate? I don’t hate vests.
• Pros: I hate doctors!
• Cons: I’m getting tired of these damn vampires!
Review by Toshinden:
I went to this hospital to have my chronic headaches treated or at least diagnosed. Upon entering, I asked the receptionist for some help. Instead, she lept over the counter and started clawing at me. But there just happen to be some guns on the seats. I sadly had to kill her in self defense. Knowing the cops were soon to follow, I proceeded to go up. I wasn’t thinking, just going up. On the way up, I had faced many disgruntled patients and workers. One patient was polite enough to vomit all over me. While I was blinded, his posse (i am assuming he is a gang leader of sorts) started running at me and beating me. After successfully escaping, my headaches have only gotten worse. After consuming large amounts of pills, I stumbled my way onto the roof, where a man possibly being treated for a steroid overdose was waiting for me. After tossing me off the building, I almost lost my life. I was thankfully recovered by some strange African American man claiming to have his pills. I am home safe now. But no amount of pills and medpacks will cure my emotional and physical pain.
• Pros: The pills were here.
• Cons: So was the tank.
See, gamers can be awesome too when they’re not fighting over which console is the best. (I’d provide a link to the reviews, but this news isn’t terribly fresh so they’ve all been taken down.)
Multiple Left 4 Dead 2 DLC packs in the works?
A few highly sharp-eyed fans have found the names of two possible DLC packs embedded in the code of the L4D2 PC demo. Those two packs are called Apocalyptic Pack and Miracle Pack, and both sound more than a little interesting. They’re assumed to be DLC because of the error messages found in the code that get displayed when a player is booted out of a multiplayer lobby for not having the required DLC.
So, dear reader: what do you think these are? Nothing’s been confirmed yet, but if it’s true then Valve’s already got quite a bit of new content in store for L4D2 owners.
Source: Rage3d.com
Army of Two Gets All Bizarre On Your Ass.
Ok, I’m all for special Halloween-themed trailers, but I just don’t understand this new trailer for the upcoming Army of Two: The 40th Day. In it some poor, innocent kid is at his computer probably doing homework or trying to find a cure for his father who’s dying of cancer, and the two guys from Army of Two come up behind him and start asking for stuff. The kid quickly gives them all he has including his computer mouse (how’s he going to look up cures now?) and the two leave and start shooting the stuff that probably cost this kid a year’s allowance and money saved up from mowing lawns. Ok, maybe I’ve added a bit more backstory than what’s shown in the trailer, but I just don’t understand the point of this ad. More like Army of Douche, if you ask me, but watch it and decide for yourself.
So am I missing something, or are you as baffled as I am?
We are now one full month into Spring 2024, which kicked off on Tuesday, March 19 and comes to an end with the start of Summer on Thursday, June 20. This year’s summer movie season has a whole bunch of exciting horror highlights, including A Quiet Place: Day One, MaXXXine, and Alien: Romulus, but let’s hold that particular thought until June rolls around.
We’re here today to talk about Spring 2024 and the many horrors we still have left before the weather gets warmer and we find ourselves in the heat of one hell of a spooky summer.
Here are 12 horror movies you don’t want to miss in Spring 2024!
STING – April 12
Two words: SPIDER HORROR. Writer/Director Kiah Roache-Turner (Wyrmwood) hopes to induce eight-legged terror with his brand new horror movie Sting, only in theaters April 12.
Of particular note, Sting features practical spider effects from 5-time Academy Award Winner Weta Workshop, with the spider in this one inspired by H.R. Giger’s Xenomorph!
In Sting, “One cold, stormy night in New York City, a mysterious object falls from the sky and smashes through the window of a rundown apartment building. It is an egg, and from this egg emerges a strange little spider. The creature is discovered by Charlotte, a rebellious 12-year-old girl obsessed with comic books. Keeping it as a secret pet, she names it Sting.
“But as Charlotte’s fascination with Sting increases, so does its size. Growing at a monstrous rate, Sting’s appetite for blood becomes insatiable.”
BLACKOUT – APRIL 12
Indie darling Larry Fessenden is back with new horror movie Blackout this Spring, Fessenden’s third movie – following Habit and Depraved – to put his own spin on classic monsters.
While Habit was centered on vampires and Depraved was a fresh take on Frankenstein’s Monster, Larry Fessenden’s Blackout is the filmmaker’s contribution to werewolf cinema.
The film follows Charley, an artist whose drinking binges blur with his sneaking suspicion that he might be a werewolf. He distances himself from those he loves and sinks deeper into solitude, his flashes of memory of his nighttime grisly acts manifested through his artwork.
ARCADIAN – APRIL 12
If Nicolas Cage is covered in blood, you better believe we’re going to be watching. Cage gets his own A Quiet Place with Arcadian, a new creature feature coming to theaters April 12.
In Arcadian, which also comes to Shudder later this year, “After a catastrophic event depopulates the world, a father (Nicolas Cage) and his two sons must survive their dystopian environment while being threatened by mysterious creatures that emerge at night.”
Jaeden Martell (IT 2017) also stars in the post apocalyptic monster movie.
ABIGAIL – APRIL 19
If you’re bummed about Melissa Barrera being fired from the Scream franchise, you’ll definitely want to get out to your local theater this month to support Abigail, the new VAMPIRE BALLERINA horror movie from Scream and Scream VI directors Radio Silence.
Barrera stars alongside fellow horror favorite Kathryn Newton (Freaky) in Abigail, which is actually the latest horror movie in Universal’s relaunched Universal Monsters Universe.
In the film, “After a group of would-be criminals kidnap the 12-year-old ballerina daughter of a powerful underworld figure, all they have to do to collect a $50 million ransom is watch the girl overnight. In an isolated mansion, the captors start to dwindle, one by one, and they discover, to their mounting horror, that they’re locked inside with no normal little girl.”
LATE NIGHT WITH THE DEVIL – APRIL 19
One of the most talked about horror movies of Spring 2024 has been the Halloween 1977-set Late Night With the Devil, which has been playing in theaters since its premiere on March 22.
Late Night with the Devil will begin streaming at home on April 19, 2024, less than one month after arriving in theaters. Shudder will be the exclusive streaming home of the movie.
David Dastmalchian (Dune, The Suicide Squad) stars as the host of a late-night talk show that descends into a nightmare in Late Night with the Devil, set on Halloween 1977.
In the found footage-style film that captures a period aesthetic, “A live television broadcast in 1977 goes horribly wrong, unleashing evil into the nation’s living rooms.”
INFESTED – APRIL 26
Spring 2024 is all about SPIDERS – sorry, arachnophobes! – with the previously mentioned Sting being followed by the French creature feature Infested (Vermines) later this month.
What’s particularly exciting about Infested is that its director, Sébastien Vaniček, has been hired to direct the next installment in the Evil Dead film franchise, so this will be our first taste of what Vaniček is capable of within the genre. And the buzz for this one is strong.
In his review out of Fantastic Fest last year, for starters, Bloody Disgusting’s own critic Trace Thurman raved that Infested is “one of the best spider attack movies in years.”
In the upcoming horror film, “Fascinated by exotic animals, Kaleb finds a venomous spider in a shop and brings it back to his apartment. It only takes a moment for the spider to escape and reproduce, turning the whole building into a dreadful web trap.”
HUMANE – APRIL 26
The daughter of horror master David Cronenberg, Caitlin Cronenberg is making her own mark in the genre filmmaking space with IFC Films’ Humane, coming to theaters this month.
The film is described as “a dystopian satire taking place over a single day, months after a global ecological collapse has forced world leaders to reduce the earth’s population.”
The wild premise? 20% of the world’s population must VOLUNTEER TO DIE!
“In a wealthy enclave, a recently retired newsman has invited his grown children to dinner to announce his intentions to enlist in the nation’s new euthanasia program. But when the father’s plan goes horribly awry, tensions flare and chaos erupts among his children.”
I SAW THE TV GLOW – MAY 3
Fresh off the haunting and singularly creepy indie We’re All Going to the World’s Fair, Jane Schoenbrun is back with A24‘s I Saw the TV Glow, releasing only in theaters this May.
Meagan Navarro wrote in her Sundance review for BD, “I Saw the TV Glow offers a layered and authentic portrait of identity, wrapped in ’90s nostalgia and surreal imagery that embeds itself deep into your psyche.” Meagan continues, “Schoenbrun delivers a singular vision of arthouse horror that entrances for its fevered dream style and insanely cool imagery.”
In A24’s latest, “Owen is just trying to make it through life in the suburbs when his classmate introduces him to a mysterious TV show — a vision of a supernatural world beneath their own. In the pale glow of the television, Owen’s view of reality begins to crack.”
TAROT – MAY 3
Originally titled Horrorscope, a much better title if you’re asking me, Screen Gems returns to the big screen with studio horror movie Tarot this Spring, a Tarot-card themed spookshow.
When a group of friends recklessly violates the sacred rule of Tarot readings – never use someone else’s deck – they unknowingly unleash an unspeakable evil trapped within the cursed cards in the upcoming Screen Gems horror movie Tarot. One by one, they come face to face with fate and end up in a race against death to escape the future foretold in their readings.
The hook for this one? Artist Trevor Henderson designed the film’s eight monsters!
THE STRANGERS: CHAPTER 1 – MAY 17
Bryan Bertino’s 2008 home invasion classic The Strangers spawns a brand new reboot trilogy this year, with first film The Strangers: Chapter 1 kicking things off in theaters on May 17.
The Strangers: Chapter 2 is expected to follow in Fall 2024.
Madelaine Petsch is the lead of the new reboot trilogy, playing a character who drives cross-country with her longtime boyfriend to begin a new life in the Pacific Northwest.
When their car breaks down in Venus, Oregon, they’re forced to spend the night in a secluded Airbnb, where they are terrorized from dusk till dawn by three masked strangers.
IN A VIOLENT NATURE – MAY 31
Slasher fans who have been hungry for a new Friday the 13th movie won’t want to miss In a Violent Nature, which plays out like a Friday movie… entirely from Jason’s perspective!
IFC Films will release In a Violent Nature exclusively in theaters on May 31.
In the film, “When a locket is removed from a collapsed fire tower in the woods that entombs the rotting corpse of Johnny, a vengeful spirit spurred on by a horrific 60-year old crime, his body is resurrected and becomes hellbent on retrieving it. The undead golem hones in on the group of vacationing teens responsible for the theft and proceeds to methodically slaughter them one by one in his mission to get it back – along with anyone in his way.”
Meagan Navarro wrote in her Sundance review for Bloody Disgusting, “In a Violent Nature may offer slasher thrills and a delightfully gory rampage across the wilderness, but the approach captures the carnage through ambient realism. It results in a fascinating arthouse horror experiment that plays more like a minimalist slice-of-life feature with a grim twist.”
THE WATCHERS – JUNE 14
M. Night Shyamalan returns with the new thriller Trap this coming August, but the road to that film’s release will be paved by the feature debut of his daughter, Ishana Night Shyamalan.
Ishana Night directed The Watchers, in theaters from WB/New Line on June 14.
The film follows Mina, a 28-year-old artist, who gets stranded in an expansive, untouched forest in western Ireland. When Mina finds shelter, she unknowingly becomes trapped alongside three strangers who are watched and stalked by mysterious creatures each night.
Which Spring 2024 horror movies are YOU most looking forward to?
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Spring 2024 Horror Preview: 12 Horror Movies You Don’t Want to Miss
The ‘Scary Movie’ Spoof Franchise Is Getting a Reboot at Paramount!
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