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‘Alien: Isolation’ Invades ‘Aliens vs. Pinball’
In space, no one can hear you scream, but toss an active pinball cabinet in there and that’ll get the attention of whoever it is you’re trying to scream at, guaranteed. Those things are super loud. That’s why I prefer to get my pinball fix through video games, where mute will always be an option. That’s not to say you’ll need to mute Zen Pinball 2, which has ‘zen’ in the title, so you know it won’t cause a raucous. It’ll probably soothe you, because a calm player can be more easily facehugged, and that’s kind of the whole point.
If you fancy the idea of becoming the human equivalent of one of those stripper birthday cakes, then you might want to consider grabbing the Aliens vs. Pinball pack for Zen Pinball 2 when it releases later this month, if only because it combines pinball and Alien: Isolation.
The story, as it were, should be familiar to fans of Isolation, as you’re tasked with helping “Amanda Ripley survive the dangerous corridors of Sevastopol Space Station while evading a merciless Xenomorph,” while evading the “Working Joe androids and Station Security Guards, craft weaponry, and hack computers while you keep an eye out for the relentless Alien.”
Aliens vs. Pinball arrives on Alien Day, April 26, for Zen Pinball 2 and Pinball FX2.
Next up, the Predator pack. No release date for that yet. Stay tuned!
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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