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‘Alan Wake’ is Almost Definitely Coming to Xbox One
Developer Remedy has opened up about the possibility of an Xbox One port of Alan Wake, which they’re currently in talks with Microsoft to get approved. We’re a few weeks away from the game’s fifth anniversary, so the timing couldn’t be better, and despite its cult status, the game has certainly sold well enough to earn a current-gen port.
“I would love that to happen,” Remedy chief creative officer Sam Lake revealed in an interview with Polygon. “Nothing has happened yet, but we are discussing this possibility with Microsoft.”
That’s not exactly a confirmation, but if a green light from Microsoft is the only thing keeping it from happening, I’d say our chances of seeing more Alan Wake in the near future just got a lot better.
Lake went on to mention that this entirely hypothetical port doesn’t have any real chance of coming to the PS4 or Wii U, and that if it happens, those two excellent story expansions — The Signal and The Writer — would almost definitely be included. I recommend they throw in American Nightmare. That game deserves some love, too.
On the subject of Alan Wake 2, should Microsoft decide not to pick it up, Remedy is more than willing to take it to other platforms. According to Lake, the sequel “depends on many different things. I think that regardless of the platform, a good sequel — while it continues the story of the original one — it’s still something that someone who hasn’t played the original one can enjoy and jump on board and dive into the setting and the world and enjoy themselves.”
You can find the rest of the interview over at Polygon.
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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