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A Fascinating Postmortem On ‘Amnesia: A Machine for Pigs’

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It truly bums me out when I see all of the unnecessary hate that surrounded Amnesia: A Machine for Pigs following its lukewarm reception last September. It’s far from perfect, but it is a solid horror game with a fantastically unsettling story that was almost immediately written off by many horror fans because it didn’t quite live up to the terrifying legacy of its predecessor.

A Machine for Pigs wasn’t disappointing, there’s no denying that. Even still, I’ve always respected what The Chinese Room accomplished with it, and I feel they deserve a bit more credit for their truly unique — and still mildly terrifying — take on the world Frictional established with The Dark Descent.

This game had the potential to be an unforgettable experience, but the questionable decision to remove two mechanics that were the source of much the tension that permeated every second of The Dark Descent — the oil lantern and sanity system — largely neutered the game’s ability to build suspense. With a lantern that never ran out of fuel and a protagonist who seemed to have a significantly tighter grip on his sanity, A Machine for Pigs lost the ability to be effective as a survival horror game.

Whether or not you’re a fan of the game, Gamasutra has a fascinating postmortem on it that sheds some light on the development process, what went wrong, and why The Chinese Room made the decisions they did. If you have some spare time, it’s a fantastic read.

And if you missed our review of A Machine for Pigs, you can watch it below. I only ask that you forgive the audio quality, I recorded it before I upgraded my recording equipment to the swanky, aurally pleasing stuff I use today.

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Gamer, writer, terrible dancer, longtime toast enthusiast. Legend has it Adam was born with a controller in one hand and the Kraken's left eye in the other. Legends are often wrong.

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Stephen King, James Wan & Osgood Perkins Horror Movie ‘The Monkey’ Wraps Filming; Meet the Cast

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The Monkey Stephen King

Three horror powerhouses are coming together for The Monkey, an adaptation of the Stephen King story that’s being produced by James Wan and directed by Osgood Perkins.

The Monkey is a short horror story that appeared in Skeleton Crew, a 1985 collection that also featured The Mist, The Jaunt, The Raft, Survivor Type, The Reach, and more.

Deadline reports today that filming on The Monkey has wrapped, and the website has revealed the full cast for the upcoming horror movie. Read on for everything you need to know.

Theo James (The White Lotus) stars alongside Tatiana Maslany (SheHulkAttorney at Law), Elijah Wood (Maniac), Christian Convery (Sweet Tooth), Colin O’Brien (Wonka), Rohan Campbell (Halloween Ends) and Sarah Levy (Schitt’s Creek).

Osgood Perkins (The Blackcoat’s Daughter, Gretel & Hansel, the upcoming Longlegs) wrote the screenplay for the feature film adaptation and he also directed the upcoming movie.

“In The Monkey, when twin brothers Hal and Bill discover their father’s old monkey toy in the attic, a series of gruesome deaths starts occurring all around them. The brothers decide to throw the monkey away and move on with their lives, growing apart over the years.

“But when the mysterious deaths begin again, the brothers must reunite to find a way to destroy the monkey for good before it takes the lives of everyone close to them.”

James Wan is producing with Atomic Monster partner Michael Clear (M3GAN), and C2 Motion Picture Group’s Jason Cloth (Joker) and Dave Caplan (Babylon).

Stephen King Monkey Elijah Wood

Elijah Wood in ‘Maniac’

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