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E3: Bloody-Disgusting E3 Coverage: June 16th Day 2 Wrap-Up
Day two begins with a race across the massive Los Angeles Convention Center to the Konami Press Conference in the West Hall. Whew, made it just in time to grab a seat just before the lights dim.
Konami starts things off with DEF JAM RAP STAR, a spin on KARAOKE REVOLUTION where users get to jump into the world of rap stars and even compete online to try to get themselves discovered. Next up is a new wrestling game based on the ever-popular Mexican sport, LUCHALIBRE: HEROES DEL RING. A few of the wrestlers are actually on hand to flex and pretend to fight. It’s amusing and gets a nice laugh from the crowd. Apparently some Luchalibre stars will be fighting in “real” matches on the E3 show floor. There’s also some kind of Manga shooter game called OTOMEDIUS EXCELLENT. Now it’s time for the dance stuff. There’s a dance game for XBox’s new Kinect called DANCEMASTERS. And while I’m assuming there aren’t too many horror fans that also love GLEE, maybe they can at least tell their ladies about GLEE: KARAOKE REVOLUTION. They even had a bunch of tweeners come out and perform to the game for us. Yippie. This makes covering TWILIGHT last week seem downright masculine by comparison.
Okay, here’s a little something for the horror fans with SAW II. Tobin Bell is back to voice Jigsaw and, as expected, their will be plenty of new torture devices and, of course, blood o’ plenty. We’ve got a look at the game below.
Konami E3 SAW II Presentation.
We’ll have more on the SAW game tomorrow when we take a hands-on look and speak with Producer John Williamson and everyone’s favorite gamesman, Tobin Bell (aka Jigsaw).
Now they’ve got sports party games, which I won’t bother to discuss further. No big revelations there. But finally, we’ve got what we came here for, a new SILENT HILL game, the eighth in the beloved survival horror franchise. It will be available for X-Box 360 and PS3 in 2011. Have a look below.
Konami E3 SILENT HILL 8 Announcement
Konami also has a new game that should appeal to horror gamers called NEVER DEAD. The lead character can be torn into pieces, put his bits back together and go on fighting and killing his enemies. Take a look and let us know what you think.
Konami E3 NEVER DEAD Announcement
Lastly, we’ve got a new CASTLEVANIA game for DS subtitled HARMONY OF DESPAIR, another in a long line of standard 2D side-scrollers, but what we really care about is the new CASTLEVANIA for PS3 and X-Box 360, which releases this Fall. Konami finished off the press conference with a look at CASTLEVANIA: LORDS OF SHADOW.
Konami E3 CASTLEVANIA: LORDS OF SHADOW Presentation
After the Konami event, we head over to the Warner Bros. Interactive booth to sit down with horror legend John Carpenter, who is co-writing the story behind F.E.A.R. 3 with Steve Niles (30 DAYS OF NIGHT). Niles and Carpenter were on hand with one of the game’s producers to discuss the project. Carpenter, who can often be a little stand-offish with press, seemed to be in good spirits today. He and Niles both professed to being gamers. Carpenter said he first got into games playing the SONIC series with his son before eventually moving on to shooters such as DOOM and the F.E.A.R. series. We’ve got a video look at the chat below.
Part 1: How Carpenter and Niles Got Involved with F.E.A.R. 3
Part 2: Why 3D is a Gimmick
Part 3: Movies vs. Video Games and Their Favorite Games
Part 4: E3 and Sex in Video Games
And that wraps up Day 2 of our coverage from E3. We still haven’t had a whole lot of time to check out the show floor, but hopefully we’ll get a chance to browse tomorrow after a first hand look at the SAW II game.
Let’s start with the good news. Lockbox looks far better than its misleading marketing materials suggest, a supernatural horror movie so darkly lit and color graded that you’ll have to squint your way through jump scares. It’s also anchored by reliable genre performers. That’s also about where the good news ends with this rote adaptation of Knifepoint Horror Podcast story “Winthrop.”
The empathetic Carla Gugino gives her all as Ellen, a saint of a woman with boundless patience who takes on life’s hard luck with a kind smile. After giving up her career as a fashion designer to become caretaker for a dying mother, she’s then forced to reinvent herself once more when her caretaker role ends. That catches us up to the events of Lockbox, where Ellen is asked to take in a cousin she hasn’t seen in quite some time who’s dealing with severe PTSD.
Just as Ellen finally establishes a real connection with Winthrop (Lou Taylor Pucci), it’s interrupted by the arrival of peculiar neighbor Vahna (Katharine Isabelle), who spells clear trouble. When Vahna shows up dead, it sets in motion a supernatural battle of possession.
Image Credit: Aura entertainment
Director Daniel Stamm (The Last Exorcism, Prey for the Devil) and screenwriter Justin Yoffe approach Lockbox in the broadest of brushstrokes, dooming it from the start with clunky storytelling and woefully underdeveloped themes of heady topics like PTSD. Winthrop is a character that comes loaded with emotional baggage and trauma that’s piled on throughout his tragic life, but much like its title, his interiority and history are treated like a tightly guarded secret meant to prolong the supernatural mystery.
The problem here, though, is that Lockbox is too sparse to sustain mystery at all, and it instead robs Winthrop of characterization. It winds up trapping the talented Pucci without anywhere to go, toggling between wounded animal and mentally disoriented.
From there, Lockbox bounds through plot developments without any sense of stakes or purpose, peppered by a smattering of haphazard paint-by-numbers jump scares. The only unwavering constant is Ellen’s resolute faith, and Stamm seems to leave it entirely to Gugino to guide confused audiences through this inconsequential story right up until its supernatural climax.
Image Credit: Aura entertainment
To give more credit, Lockbox at least injects an unconventional exorcism here; just don’t expect much in the way of explanation. When the film finally reveals the meaning behind its title, it dangles a fascinating carrot it has zero interest in delivering. More than a severe lack of fleshing out its characters beyond plot drivers or devices, this faith-based flick also seems terrified to offer any worldbuilding whatsoever.
Yoffe’s script stretches the short story beyond its means instead of fleshing it out, and Stamm fills out the gaps with cheap CGI scares and overwrought performances; Isabelle’s Vahna is beyond cartoonish in her villainy. It’s also pretty nonsensical, treating only Ellen’s faith with the utmost sincerity and largely squandering its typically reliable talent. So much so that the final imagery, pure sunkissed saccharine sentimentality, leaves you with the feeling that this horror movie might be better suited as an entry in Chicken Soup for the Soul.
Lockbox releases in select theaters on July 3, 2026.
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