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‘Hotline Miami’ Review: Neon Violence
Written by Jason Nawara, @JasonNawara
Last year Hotline Miami was one of the hottest indie titles on the PC. It was a perfect mix of Tarantino-esque, over-the-top violence and it delivered a bloody valentine to the top down shooters of yesteryear. I loved it when it first released, and I still love it now, but it’s not without it’s own murderous faults.
It’s important to note right away that if you’re coming into this whole Hotline Miami thing as a virgin, this is not Smash TV. Hotline Miami, at it’s core, is a puzzle game of trial and error. You could even call it a Puzzle Shooter, or a puzzling shooter, if you take into account the obtuse plot in which men wearing animal masks illuminated by a television with nothing but static on the screen ask you if you remember April the 3rd, 1989. That’s the day you received your first ‘assignment.’
Your tasks are accepted by you, the silent ‘protagonist,’ with a click of the playback button on your answering machine in your messy apartment with suspicious stains on the floor in a very.. How do I say this? A very, ‘Would you kindly’ sort of way. Each mission is is as straightforward as a blade to the throat: kill everyone, and pro tip: recklessness is rewarded. The creators of Hotline Miami want this to be an 80’s action movie set in the same universe where Alex Murphy is being turned into a Robocop a few thousand miles north in Detroit. The player is expected to solve the gruesome puzzle that boils down to you playing like a natural born killer, just like if Mickey and Mallory got an SNES port with Oliver Stone’s stamp of approval.
Each level features you infiltrating some sort of enemy compound, like an apartment building where you take someone by surprise at a urinal with a baseball bat to the back of the head. Or a cliche Miami Dance club, blow on a back table and all. It’s your job to clean the place up in the messiest way possible, with fast-paced action with an 8-bit flair. The action is fast, and your life expectancy is shorter than a ditzy camper in a horror movie. You. Will. Die. And you will kill — a lot.
Only with trial and error, and the will to perfect your runs through the seedy drug dens and hotels of your enemies will get you through this game. There is no such thing as luck in Hotline Miami. The only guarantee is blood and lots of old-school gamer frustration. Moving through a level is an exercise in patience and complete anarchy. The game wants nothing more than for you to run in and chuck pipes at the heads of your enemies, then slit their throats or bash their heads against the ground. It’s really quite glorious.
But, therein lies the huge, gaping wound its creators Jonatan Soderstrom and Dennis Wedin have built into the design of the game: wanton destruction is the heart and soul of this brutal game, and a relatively clean, efficient play-style is awarded with only average grades and scores. I get it, you want the game to be nutty, but why make the holy grail of weapons in the game a silenced pistol when stealth isn’t rewarded? The scoring system seems arbitrary, and when there is a leaderboard, and rating system in the game, I naturally want to receive a high score. So why am I getting 2,800 points for beating a guy to death an 600 for a stealth kill? Is this inverse scoring a jab at the stealth-heavy play-styles of today’s games, or is it just the product of two dudes making their first title? Probably both.
This confusing scoring system makes its way over to the games masks, which act like perks, for the Call of Duty crowd. Wear a mask of a horse while you butcher your marks for example, and you’ll have the ability to slam open doors and knock over your opponents. This is an awesome perk, and is extremely useful. Too bad you aren’t given many points for having it on, so to say. And not to mention you need high scores to unlock masks, so you have to use a certain play style to succeed.
I hate the fact that the game wants you to beat up everyone with your bare fists, and pretty much not use weapons or you face a crappy score, thus ruining your chance of unlocking more masks. It’s a vicious cycle of odd game design. Furthermore, the randomized weapon drops when a level loads hurts any type of strategy you may want to create before heading into said level. Maybe this is the anarchic development style of the game, or maybe it’s an oversight, but are you seeing a pattern in the blood here?
Hotline Miami featured a deadly efficient mouse and keyboard setup on the PC, with 360 gamepad support if you had one. On the PS3 the controls are almost exactly the same, featuring a dual analog type shooter setup that feels slightly mushy. They added a lock on button for this PS3 port, but I almost never used it unless I was dealing with a single foe. In other words, I miss the PC controls. When it really, really comes down to it, the controls won’t hinder your enjoyment of the game at all, it’s still going to be a frustrating joy to play, just… Different. I guess it’s like cracking open a skull with a baseball bat compared to a crowbar; both have the same end result, it’s just a slightly different journey to get there. This game has clearly sunk it’s teeth in me.
The sound of Hotline Miami is pretty much what you expect. The splatter of brains and slitting of throats all sound appropriately 8-bit, or 16-bit (12-bit?) and do nothing but immerse you into the game’s hectic violence. The real star however, is its thumping soundtrack.
This is simply one of the best gaming soundtracks in years, and it puts you into a violent trance in which all you can do is seek out your next victim. The house beats and blaring techno are a perfect fit for the neon lights, and you’ll be tapping your foot in a puddle of blood in no time.
The Final Word: Hotline Miami is a sum of its parts. With the music hitting your chest, your lead pipe hitting a face and the controls hitting your nerves, everything comes together in a beautiful cacophony of gore and violence that will make you want to keep playing long after the **** hits the fan and the chunks of meat hit the walls. For all of its faults and frustrations, this is a game that many of us have been waiting 25 years for: A top down shooter/puzzler that is obtuse enough in its plot to make you become a fan of the universe, and featuring gameplay wild enough to make you want to keep playing over and over again. Even if it isn’t to beat your high score.
The PS3 port sees little differences from the PC outside the lock-on button and an exclusive mask that shows the world in stark black and white, but leaves all of the blood red.
Hotline Miami was reviewed using PlayStation 3 code provided by the publisher.
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Spring 2024 Horror Preview: 12 Horror Movies You Don’t Want to Miss
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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