News
Let’s Talk About ‘Umbrella Corps’
Today, Capcom made good on their promise to bombastify their flagship horror franchise for the Call of Duty audience with the very first trailer for Call of Evil: Umbrella Warfare Umbrella Corps.
I’m getting strong F.E.A.R. Online vibes from this bizarre new addition to the Resident Evil series. I can’t see it being that bad, but what would be the best possible outcome here? I’m also struggling to understand the reasoning behind celebrating the 20th anniversary of a survival horror series with a multiplayer shooter that has no obvious ties to the genre.
I thought we had moved pass this. So much good has happened this year, with the stellar Resident Evil remaster and surprisingly progressive Revelations 2, and that good work was to continue into 2016 and beyond with the Resident Evil 0 remaster and the Resident Evil 2 remake.
Will Capcom ever get over the creepy obsession they have for the shooter crowd?
Umbrella Corps might surprise me, and I’ll be the first to find a way to call it umbrelievably awesome in my inevitable review. It might also be dead on arrival, making it more of an Umbrella… Corpse (sorry). Either way, we’re getting a new Resident Evil. Sort of. Okay, not really.
We don’t know enough right now for me to spend too much time whining about it. I’m more interested in getting your first impressions, anyway. So, what do you think?
News
‘Jurassic Park’ Actor Sam Neill Has Passed Away at 78
Sam Neill, the New Zealand actor best known for his role in 1993’s Jurassic Park, has passed away this week at 78 years old. In a statement shared on Neill’s Instagram page this morning, the actor’s family said that his passing was “sudden and unexpected.”
Neill had been diagnosed with a rare blood cancer in 2022, but stated the following year that he was in remission. The family notes that he “remained cancer free” at the time of his passing.
The family statement reads, “It is with immense sadness that the whānau of Sam Neill share the news of his passing on Monday 13th July, in Sydney Australia. Sam was surrounded by family and passed with the dignity that has characterised his whole life. The loss was sudden and unexpected but blessed by the fact that Sam remained cancer free.
“They would like to express their deepest gratitude to the staff at St Vincent’s Private Hospital for their incredible care. More details will be shared later, but for now, on behalf of the family, we ask that you respect their privacy as they navigate this immeasurable loss.”
In addition to his iconic role as Dr. Alan Grant in the original Jurassic Park and the sequels Jurassic Park III and Jurassic World: Dominion, Sam Neill left an indelible mark on the horror genre with memorable roles in Andrzej Żuławski’s Possession, The Omen: The Final Conflict, John Carpenter’s In the Mouth of Madness, and sci-fi horror favorite Event Horizon.
Sam Neill’s vast resume in film and television began in the early 1970s and also includes the films Sleeping Dogs, Enigma, The Good Wife, A Cry in the Dark, Dead Calm, The Hunt for Red October, Memoirs of an Invisible Man, Hostage, The Jungle Book, Snow White: A Tale of Terror, The Horse Whisperer, Bicentennial Man, Daybreakers, Escape Plan, and Thor: Ragnarok.
Sam Neill is survived by his four children and eight grandchildren.
Steven Spielberg said in a statement to Variety, “I owe a debt of gratitude to Roger Donaldson, Gilliam Armstrong, Graham Baker and Phillip Noyce for casting Sam Neill in the roles in which he was so brilliant that brought him to my attention and led to his playing Dr. Alan Grant in Jurassic Park. Sam was exceptionally collaborative. It was a stretch for him to play a character who acted as though children were messy and smelly because this was the opposite of the loving father he was to his children. I adored making all the Jurassic movies with him.”
Spielberg adds, “Along with Laura Dern and Jeff Goldblum, we will always have our Jurassic family and Sam will never be forgotten by us or his many millions of fans around the world.”

Sam Neill in ‘Event Horizon’

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