Editorials
5 Horror Headlines I Want to See From E3 2014
Honorable Mention: Microsoft Follows Through, Wows Hardcore Gamers
This isn’t necessarily horror-related (though there’s no reason Microsoft can’t surprise us all with the reveal of a big, Xbox One horror title), but it’s important, so I felt like including it.
The Xbox One is trailing behind the PS4 by a significant margin. The latest update put detailed the Xbox One’s sales as sold-in to five million consoles (that’s sold to retailers), while the PS4 enjoys a healthy sold-through of seven million (that’s sold to customers). That’s a big deal. On top of this, Sony’s PlayStation Plus offering has consistently out-valued Microsoft’s offering. They’re beginning to up their ante with better ‘Games with Gold’ deals and a new-and-improved ‘Deals with Gold’ program that includes more discounts on digital games. They’ve also announced a cheaper Xbox One that won’t come bundled with the Kinect. It needed to be done, though as an owner of each, I’m worried about the future of my $100 peripheral.
Microsoft needs to win over “hardcore” gamers. That means they need to focus entirely on video games, including exclusives, timed-exclusives, and more proof of their courting of indie developers, because Sony has them beat there, too. They also need to make sure their messaging is clear, because last year was a mess that they cannot repeat. I hope they continue to turn it around, because I’ve enjoyed my time with my Xbox One and I’d like to know it has a bright future ahead of it.
You’ve made it through my list, now it’s your turn. Let me know in the comments below what you would like to see from this year’s E3!
The trailer for Ti West’s upcoming adaptation of A Christmas Carol raised a lot of eyebrows when it dropped earlier this week. While plenty of folks initially dismissed Ebenezer as a derivative project meant to cash in on the recent wave of unnecessary prequels that expand the backstory of beloved characters (such as 2023’s Wonka), Charles Dickens’ original novel already made a point of exploring Ebenezer Scrooge’s origins in detail – meaning that this new film is likely just a particularly faithful adaptation of the source material under a different name.
Couple that with the fact that the movie is being helmed by a genuine horror auteur and I think it’s safe to say that the latest iteration of the first modern ghost story is in good hands.
That being said, one detail that immediately jumped out at me during the brief teaser (other than a blink-and-you’ll-miss-it nod to Johnny Depp’s iconic bedroom death scene from the original A Nightmare on Elm Street) is the fact that many of Ebenezer’s ghosts appear to have been directly lifted from the iconic John Leech illustrations that accompanied the first edition of Dickens’ novel.
Here are a couple of stills from the trailer compared to the original artwork:
The Ghost of Christmas Yet to Come in ‘Ebenezer’ and ‘A Christmas Carol’
The Phantoms in ‘A Christmas Carol’ and ‘Ebenezer’
Marley’s Ghost in ‘Ebenezer’ and ‘A Christmas Carol’
Mainly working with old-school wood and steel engravings that would later be transferred to print, Leech was instrumental in crafting the iconic look of history’s most influential phantoms – especially since Dickens is said to have been deeply involved with the creation of these so-called “comic illustrations.”
And since the novel is commonly said to have popularized spiritualism in Victorian England, much of the ghostly iconography that we still see in genre media to this very day (including some of Ti West’s previous films) can be traced back to the author’s partnership with Leech.
Ebenezer won’t be the first A Christmas Carol adaptation to borrow heavily from these designs, but I can appreciate how Ti West is incorporating an important part of horror history into his latest film.
Ebenezer will be available in theaters starting November 13.
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