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‘The Grandfather’ Seeks Solace in Sorrow
What do you get when two outside-the-box creative types come together to make an experimental game about sadness, isolation, and the impact a decidedly one-sided relationship can have on the mind of the abused? You get The Grandfather, an atmospheric point-and-click horror puzzler inspired, in part, by the personal life of one of its creators, Michael Patrick Rogers.
Rogers doesn’t make what one might refer to as “traditional” video games. I got to know him through The Lady, a similarly original game about a sickly woman with no arms who, if I’m remembering correctly, gets lost in a nightmarish world of psychedelic head monsters and raining glass. It plays like a dream, in that you won’t be able to make heads or tails of it, but you know you don’t want it to end because that’d mean it’s time to return to real life.
That’s but one-half of this strange and delicious Oreo. The other half belongs to Grandfather co-creator David Szymanski, the mind behind the quietly unnerving indie game Fingerbones.
Huge shout-out to the enormously talented comic book artist Stanislav Yakima, whose hand drawn art goes a long way in elevating this quirky tale of interpersonal devastation so it can be pleasing to the eyes while it methodically tears us apart from within.
I’ll share my impressions of The Grandfather as soon as I’m finished with it. But really, this is a game made by two inventive storytellers who build worlds and populate them with odd personalities that will either speak to you, or they won’t. Rogers and Szymanski are storytellers, and they’re doing some ridiculously cool — and so, so strange — things with this medium.
The Grandfather is more of this, though playing it can feel like you’re peering into the life of someone who has made art out of emotional trauma. There’s a message here that’s worth seeking out, because if you do, I think you’ll find value in what it has to say.
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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