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Dead Pixels 20 Most Exciting Reveals of E3
This year’s Electronic Entertainment Expo wasn’t so much about big surprises as it was about things we expected. That’s not to say E3 wasn’t excited, it brought us a ton of geeky kickassery to keep most of us excited until next June, but almost all of the major reveals were things we knew were coming many moons ago (see: Wii U).
With that said, TJ and I have once again joined forces to bring you the ultimate list, filled with our twenty favorite reveals from the second nerdiest expo (beaten only by Comic Con) of the year. We’ve done practically all of the work so the only thing you have to do is take your big, beautiful eyes and slap ’em on the following words. It’s just that easy. Adam’s #10: Battlefield 3 Continues to Be More Exciting Than Modern Warfare 3
I like the Call of Duty series, I really do. Both Infinity Ward and Treyarch have continued to give us one excellent game after another but with added competition from the likes of Crysis 2, Medal of Honor, Homefront and Battlefield 3, I’ve starting losing interest in the franchise. It’s still a great series, no one can argue that, but with the insane success the series has enjoyed over the last handful of years it’s obvious that Activision is resting on their laurels. It’s main competitor, EA’s Battlefield 3, had a huge showing at this year’s E3 and with each new screenshot, trailer or piece of gameplay, I find myself getting more and more excited to play it. I think it’s time for Activision to up their game, lest they see their FPS king dethroned.
TJ’s# 9.5: Silent Hill Book of Memories
This goes in my top 10, though I am still completely skeptical about it. I mean, we know absolutely NOTHING about it. We don’t know what the story will be like, the gameplay, no screens, no videos. So, I’m still holding my breath, but excited as well.
Adam’s #9: Zombie Apocalypse 2, Seriously?
This was not a good surprise. I’m willing to give it a chance, but it’s sad when the biggest surprise from E3 is one that isn’t really welcome. It’s just that the first Zombie Apocalypse was so bad, that I’m surprised to see Konami breathing more life into what’s now become a series. Now, if this game comes out and ends up being good I’ll be the first to eat my words, but right now this is a game I’m just not all that thrilled about.
TJ’s# 8.5: Gotham City Imposters
I haven’t really heard much feedback from anyone about how they feel about this game. But I have to say so far I’m excited. It’s a Batman themed first person shooter, where you play as a bunch of thugs dressed up as Batman characters. The characters outfits look extremely customizable as well, which Is a huge bonus for me.
Adam’s #8: Silent Hill Goes Cooperative!
I’m still not sure if this is a good or a bad thing, I mean, it could be great and I’m always up for another horror game I can enjoy with my friends, but come on, we were joking about this not two months ago and now it’s a real thing. Please Konami, make it good. I want it to be good so bad.
TJ’s# 7.5: Wii U
I am incredibly excited about this. A lot of people seem incredibly skeptical. But I’m totally in. The fact that I can stop gaming in my room, and take it into the bathroom with me is amazing. As long as they deliver me some amazing games, Nintendo, you’ve stolen my heart.
Adam’s #7: Aliens: Colonial Marines Is Actually Happening
I still can’t believe it. I mean, this game was revealed back in 2006 (though we’ve waited far longer for other games, like Alan Wake and Alice: Madness Returns), but I was almost certain the game wasn’t happening. Thankfully, Gearbox looks to be a savior for games long thought to be dead (like the officially confirmed to be shit game, Duke Nukem: Forever), who are also behind this. I just hope they get the need to bring dead games back to life out of their system so they can give us Borderlands 2.
TJ’s# 6.5: Nyko Kinect Lens
I think this is INCREDIBLE. Let’s be honest, the amount of space you need to play the Kinect is brutal. This lens will allow certain individuals (i.e. Adam) to actually be able to use the Kinect in his or her apartments. I have a fairly large gaming area, but I still have to move a damn couch if I want to have the full space to play. This is a game changer.
Adam’s #6: BioShock: Infinite Continues to Excite Me
Don’t worry, by excite, I only mean sexually. I’m of the school of thought that Ken Levine (BioShock’s creator) can do no wrong, but this game only proves that idea. BioShock 2 was surprisingly great but it looks like Infinite’s sole purpose is to make us forget about that game by slathering a thick coat of 100% pure BioShock goodness all over our faces. I want this game in my pants, but sadly it looks like I’ll have to wait until next year before I can have my way with it.
TJ’s# 5.5: Far Cry 3
I am not at all a fan of the 1st 2 Far Cry games. However the trailer for FC3 was incredible. It had me from start to finish. Having a crazy warlord trying to kill you was the icing on the cake. When you’re underwater trying to break out of those ropes and there are other dead bodies floating around you gives you this unnerving feeling of “Shit, this guy is not fucking around.”
Adam’s #5: Far Cry 3, ‘Nuff Said
I actually enjoyed the second Far Cry, though I never played the first, and it looks like Far Cry 3 will fix many of my issues with the second game (like the lack of direction, variety, or things to do). Alone, that’s enough reason to make me want this game, but that move where you can stab one guy and immediately throw the machete into his nearby friend is just another reason for me to want this game.
TJ’s# 4.5: Silent Hill: Collection
I can’t begin to tell you how happy I am that this is happening. Mainly because if you ever try to go back and play an old game on an HDTV, it looks like absolute shit.
Adam’s #4: Silent Hills 2 & 3 Get Makeovers
Dammit TJ, stop copying me. There’s a growing trend, one that I am desperately in love with, and that’s to take a classic game (or in this case, games), make them look and sound better, and give them to us again. Capcom’s doing it with Resident Evil 4 and Code Veronica, and now Konami’s jumping on the bandwagon to give us Silent Hills 2 and 3. I’m all for this.
TJ’s# 3.5: Final Fantasy XIII-2
I do whatever the fuck I want Adam D-O-Double D. (My new sexy rapper name for you) Almost anything Final Fantasy goes on my list. Doesn’t matter. But XIII was awesome (though I still have a lot more to get through) and I can only image XIII-2 is going to be and look just as good.
Adam’s# 3: My Fears About Operation Raccoon City Are Massaged, Gently
You might be saying to yourself, “But Adam, you and TJprematurely evaluated Operation Raccoon City and it sounded like you thought this game would be amazing,” and yes, it looks very good, but I still had some fears. Now that we’ve seen more gameplay, specifically in how the game looks when you play it, and learned more about the game I feel a little better about where Capcom’s taking the game.
TJ’s# 2.5: Halo 4
Maybe I should have, but I didn’t see this coming at all. Non the less, I am absolutely pumped to be playing as Master Chief again. I miss how badass he is. Being a regular soldier has its downfalls. Literally. Falling from unimaginable heights and living is one of the best things about Chief. I can only assume they will also be integrating things from Reach into Halo 4. Jet pack? Yes please.
Adam’s# 2: I’d Very Much Like to Have Mass Effect 3’s Babies
If ever there was a game I could make passionate love to, it’d be the Mass Effect series. I so rarely beat games anymore, much less go through them more than once, that my ability to play through a 40+ hour long game multiple times shows my deep affection for this series. Mass Effect 3 will give me new powers, cooler fights, more of the story and characters I love, and the option to ravage one of my unsuspecting crew mates. What more could you possibly want from a game?
TJ’s# 1.5: All Resident Evils
There is a whole hell of a lot of Resident Evil going on right now and I’m super fucking excited for all of it. Raccoon City, the HD remakes, Revelations, give it all to me and give it to me real hard and fast and all night and like you god damn mean it.
Adam’s# 1: The Lack of Surprises
It might be a little naive, but part of me really wanted a few games to be announced that weren’t, like: Condemned 3, Alan Wake 2, Half-Life 2: Episode 3, Beyond Good & Evil 2 (Ubisoft later confirmed that this game most likely won’t come out for the current generation of consoles) or even a tiny tease for Dead Space 3, though I wouldn’t expect it any sooner than holiday 2012. I wanted these games so bad that when none of them were announced, it made me a little sad.
TJ’s# 0.5: Dead Island
Do I really need to say anything? Maybe, but I’m not going to. DEAD FUCKING ISLAND.
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?
4 New Horror Movies Releasing This Week Including ‘Late Night with the Devil’ at Home
‘Ready or Not’: Radio Silence Filmmakers Tease the “Absolute Banger” of a Sequel That’s Taking Shape
‘Sting’ Review – Throwback Creature Feature Entertains With an Impressive Practical Monster
“We Built Every Creature” – ‘Alien: Romulus’ Goes Heavy on the Old School Practical Effects!
‘Terrifier 3’: Filming Has Wrapped on Damien Leone’s Christmas Slasher Sequel!
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