Editorials
‘Spelunky 2’ Kills Me Over and Over…and I Love It
This time, I tell myself. This time I’ll see the arrow traps before I jump into their path. This time I’ll time that step and not end up impaled on spikes. Maybe, just maybe, I’ll get through the opening stages with all hearts intact and a bag full of bombs.
Then a mole rat tunnels out of the ground and knocks me into the path of a large lizard that looks a lot like a certain Presidential figure, only a bit less abhorrent, and that then punts me into the wall over and over, my lifeless body now in some grim game of squash.
That was the 15th attempt at beating the roguelite adventure Spelunky 2 on that particular evening. I had previously scraped and clawed my way deeper into the ever-evolving moon caves, almost tasting victory. This time I’d fallen at the first hurdle, merely 20 seconds into the run. I would have to start from the top yet again. I couldn’t count how many times since the game released that I’d had to restart, but it was certainly a lot. In some cases, that would warrant a shout of angry frustration.
But I laughed.
I laughed because there’s a dark comedy to the constant, random, and almost unfair, manner in which Spelunky 2 kills you. As with the original Spelunky, you pick an adventurer, and try to get to the bottom of an increasingly difficult set of changing caves without perishing, all in the pursuit of some lifting a strange curse that afflicts anyone who sets foot in the caves. If, sorry, when you die, you come back to life at the entrance again and again until you finally escape the curse. It’s sort of like Raiders of the Lost Ark meets Happy Death Day.
The Happy Death Day comparison is especially apt as the cycle of jumping in with a bit more knowledge each time, hoping to break out of this deathloop, is similar, as are the initial results. Just when you think you have it all figured out, Spelunky 2 hits you with some absurd variation on what you know, and there’s your twitching corpse slowly sliding down a set of spikes because you didn’t see that spider drop down from the ceiling.
Never has a game had such wonderful comedic timing for my imminent failure. Sometimes it’s a surprise scorpion in an item box. Another time it could be a misunderstanding at the item shop that leads to the shopkeeper coming for murderous vengeance with his shotgun. The beauty of Spelunky 2 is that you genuinely never know what your next cause of death will be, no matter how many times you go through it. That should be a clear route to frustration and annoyance, but there’s a grisly curiosity about what fate has in store for you this time that almost matches the desire to ‘win’.
There are times it seems like Spelunky 2 can read my mind. One time, on a rather successful run, I think ‘I’ve got loads of bombs, extra life hearts, and this snazzy jetpack. I’m gonna breeze this next stage’, only for my casual jet-fueled descent to be bludgeoned coldly by a fire-breathing dog that sets off a chain reaction of calamity.
The fireball from that hellhound’s maw knocked me back, thankfully onto solid ground. I get up, and move just in time to avoid a menacing metal cudgel that drops from above on a long chain, and drives through the floor next to me. A near miss! My luck is surely in?
In a split second, I notice that there’s lava now pouring through the gap below me, covering the floor. That will make any escape to the exit tricky as just touching a dollop of it means instant death. So I move in the opposite direction, hoping to blow my way out elsewhere with my plentiful supply of bombs.
Unfortunately, I don’t see that one of the game’s neanderthal-like enemies had clocked my less than gracious landing, and is now barreling toward me like a meaty battering ram. I panic, fumble with the button input, and fling a bomb in his direction without thinking about the consequences. The bomb hits him, stunning him briefly, but it puts him and the bomb in close proximity to me. Either I risk rushing past into potentially unseen danger before I blow myself up, or I risk trying to find a way to the exit in the increasingly lava-filled floor in the other direction.
I choose the latter because there’s no time to think beyond ‘I can at least see what I’m getting myself into’ and I leap to a platform just the other side of the lava spill. That’s when the bomb explodes and sends the caveman’s corpse my way at speed. He knocks me off my perch, and onto the floor below. I lose some health from the impact and the subsequent drop, but I’m still alive and as it turns out, not far from the exit.
A brief moment of relief as I once again feel confident of pushing on deeper into the caves. Then another cudgel drops and obliterates me just before the exit. All that happened in seconds. I sit slack-jawed at the ridiculous nature of my brutal demise. Final Destination’s Grim Reaper couldn’t have set up a sillier set of circumstances leading up to that death.
But I hit restart almost immediately, eager to begin the cycle once more. This time I might make it all the way, but if I don’t, I know there’s a good chance I’ll be dying a very dishonorable, and likely hilarious, death. Spelunky 2’s loop means I don’t really fear death and failure. Instead, there’s a morbid fascination with what untold bastardry it will throw at me in order to prevent my escape. Strangely, the only fear is that I’m going to escape the death traps, the monsters, the cavemen, the lava, and those bloody mole rats for good one of these days, and when I do, the wonder of an unknown fate that makes me love Spelunky 2 so much might vanish.
But really, I believe my eventual victory lap will probably end up with me doing something masterfully stupid in the opening level, as the game concocts another of its devious schemes to help dispose of me in the most humiliating, but amusing, way possible.
Editorials
‘Immaculate’ – A Companion Watch Guide to the Religious Horror Movie and Its Cinematic Influences
The religious horror movie Immaculate, starring Sydney Sweeney and directed by Michael Mohan, wears its horror influences on its sleeves. NEON’s new horror movie is now available on Digital and PVOD, making it easier to catch up with the buzzy title. If you’ve already seen Immaculate, this companion watch guide highlights horror movies to pair with it.
Sweeney stars in Immaculate as Cecilia, a woman of devout faith who is offered a fulfilling new role at an illustrious Italian convent. Cecilia’s warm welcome to the picture-perfect Italian countryside gets derailed soon enough when she discovers she’s become pregnant and realizes the convent harbors disturbing secrets.
From Will Bates’ gothic score to the filming locations and even shot compositions, Immaculate owes a lot to its cinematic influences. Mohan pulls from more than just religious horror, though. While Immaculate pays tribute to the classics, the horror movie surprises for the way it leans so heavily into Italian horror and New French Extremity. Let’s dig into many of the film’s most prominent horror influences with a companion watch guide.
Warning: Immaculate spoilers ahead.
Rosemary’s Baby
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The mother of all pregnancy horror movies introduces Rosemary Woodhouse (Mia Farrow), an eager-to-please housewife who’s supportive of her husband, Guy, and thrilled he landed them a spot in the coveted Bramford apartment building. Guy proposes a romantic evening, which gives way to a hallucinogenic nightmare scenario that leaves Rosemary confused and pregnant. Rosemary’s suspicions and paranoia mount as she’s gaslit by everyone around her, all attempting to distract her from her deeply abnormal pregnancy. While Cecilia follows a similar emotional journey to Rosemary, from the confusion over her baby’s conception to being gaslit by those who claim to have her best interests in mind, Immaculate inverts the iconic final frame of Rosemary’s Baby to great effect.
The Exorcist
William Friedkin’s horror classic shook audiences to their core upon release in the ’70s, largely for its shocking imagery. A grim battle over faith is waged between demon Pazuzu and priests Damien Karras (Jason Miller) and Lankester Merrin (Max von Sydow). The battleground happens to be a 12-year-old, Regan MacNeil (Linda Blair), whose possessed form commits blasphemy often, including violently masturbating with a crucifix. Yet Friedkin captures the horrifying events with stunning cinematography; the emotional complexity and shot composition lend elegance to a film that counterbalances the horror. That balance between transgressive imagery and artful form permeates Immaculate as well.
Suspiria
Jessica Harper stars as Suzy Bannion, an American newcomer at a prestigious dance academy in Germany who uncovers a supernatural conspiracy amid a series of grisly murders. It’s a dance academy so disciplined in its art form that its students and faculty live their full time, spending nearly every waking hour there, including built-in meals and scheduled bedtimes. Like Suzy Bannion, Cecilia is a novitiate committed to learning her chosen trade, so much so that she travels to a foreign country to continue her training. Also, like Suzy, Cecilia quickly realizes the pristine façade of her new setting belies sinister secrets that mean her harm.
What Have You Done to Solange?
This 1972 Italian horror film follows a college professor who gets embroiled in a bizarre series of murders when his mistress, a student, witnesses one taking place. The professor starts his own investigation to discover what happened to the young woman, Solange. Sex, murder, and religion course through this Giallo’s veins, which features I Spit on Your Grave’s Camille Keaton as Solange. Immaculate director Michael Mohan revealed to The Wrap that he emulated director Massimo Dallamano’s techniques, particularly in a key scene that sees Cecilia alone in a crowded room of male superiors, all interrogating her on her immaculate status.
The Red Queen Kills Seven Times
In this Giallo, two sisters inherit their family’s castle that’s also cursed. When a dark-haired, red-robed woman begins killing people around them, the sisters begin to wonder if the castle’s mysterious curse has resurfaced. Director Emilio Miraglia infuses his Giallo with vibrant style, with the titular Red Queen instantly eye-catching in design. While the killer’s design and use of red no doubt played an influential role in some of Immaculate’s nightmare imagery, its biggest inspiration in Mohan’s film is its score. Immaculate pays tribute to The Red Queen Kills Seven Times through specific music cues.
The Vanishing
Rex’s life is irrevocably changed when the love of his life is abducted from a rest stop. Three years later, he begins receiving letters from his girlfriend’s abductor. Director George Sluizer infuses his simple premise with bone-chilling dread and psychological terror as the kidnapper toys with Red. It builds to a harrowing finale you won’t forget; and neither did Mohan, who cited The Vanishing as an influence on Immaculate. Likely for its surprise closing moments, but mostly for the way Sluizer filmed from inside a coffin.
The Other Hell
This nunsploitation film begins where Immaculate ends: in the catacombs of a convent that leads to an underground laboratory. The Other Hell sees a priest investigating the seemingly paranormal activity surrounding the convent as possessed nuns get violent toward others. But is this a case of the Devil or simply nuns run amok? Immaculate opts to ground its horrors in reality, where The Other Hell leans into the supernatural, but the surprise lab setting beneath the holy grounds evokes the same sense of blasphemous shock.
Inside
During Immaculate‘s freakout climax, Cecilia sets the underground lab on fire with Father Sal Tedeschi (Álvaro Morte) locked inside. He manages to escape, though badly burned, and chases Cecilia through the catacombs. When Father Tedeschi catches Cecilia, he attempts to cut her baby out of her womb, and the stark imagery instantly calls Alexandre Bustillo and Julien Maury’s seminal French horror movie to mind. Like Tedeschi, Inside’s La Femme (Béatrice Dalle) will stop at nothing to get the baby, badly burned and all.
Burial Ground
At first glance, this Italian zombie movie bears little resemblance to Immaculate. The plot sees an eclectic group forced to band together against a wave of undead, offering no shortage of zombie gore and wild character quirks. What connects them is the setting; both employed the Villa Parisi as a filming location. The Villa Parisi happens to be a prominent filming spot for Italian horror; also pair the new horror movie with Mario Bava’s A Bay of Blood or Blood for Dracula for additional boundary-pushing horror titles shot at the Villa Parisi.
The Devils
The Devils was always intended to be incendiary. Horror, at its most depraved and sadistic, tends to make casual viewers uncomfortable. Ken Russell’s 1971 epic takes it to a whole new squeamish level with its nightmarish visuals steeped in some historical accuracy. There are the horror classics, like The Exorcist, and there are definitive transgressive horror cult classics. The Devils falls squarely in the latter, and Russell’s fearlessness in exploring taboos and wielding unholy imagery inspired Mohan’s approach to the escalating horror in Immaculate.
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