Podcasts
Back Into the Tunnels With ‘Metro: Last Light’ [Safe Room Podcast]
There are certain franchises whose name becomes synonymous with elements of their design that go above and beyond the status quo. Resident Evil; abstract puzzles and monstrous mutations. Silent Hill; psychological nightmares. And when it comes to the Metro series, few other horror series have crafted a world as immersive and rich with horrifying texture as 4A Games did with Metro: Last Light.
While my first post-apocalyptic survival horror love will always be S.T.A.L.K.E.R.: Shadows of Chernobyl, Metro made a name for itself in a way that the open world of S.T.A.L.K.E.R. never could. Given the intimacy of metro’s environments (made possible by the first two games linearity), 4A Games created a world reflective of the history of its unique setting. This first-person exploration of humanity’s survival in the face of nuclear annihilation was far more sobering, given the player was essentially knee-deep within the bones of the old world.
While the save the world (again) stakes of the Metro series have never interested me much, the world and those residing within it had far more engaging narratives. Going out of one’s way to explore every nook and cranny of the metro yields the reward of information, which would further the player’s understanding of the daily lives of metro citizens, the politics of the metro, and the rumors of what horrors lay waiting just outside their protective walls.
So, for Metro: Last Light‘s 10th anniversary, Neil and I further unpacked the game’s approach to world-building, the immersive sim-like quality of combat, and why linearity is imperative to retaining Metro’s signature brand of storytelling.
Safe Room is a weekly horror video game discussion podcast with new episodes every Monday on
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After kicking off July with discussions of Joe Dante’s seminal werewolf film The Howling (listen) and Ken Russell’s controversial erotic thriller Crimes of Passion (listen), we’re heading to Maine to dissect one of Stephen King‘s most misguided adaptations in Lawrence Kasdan‘s 2003 misfire Dreamcatcher!
Dreamcatcher sees friends Henry (Thomas Jane), Jonesy (Damian Lewis), Pete (Timothy Olyphant) and Beaver (Jason Lee) reunite for their annual hunting trip in Maine. Their reunion is cut short when they find themselves caught in the middle of a war between a hostile race of farty-farty aliens and an elite US military unit led by Colonel Abraham Curtis (Morgan Freeman), who has been driven mad after spending decades tracking the extraterrestrials. When Jonesy is possessed by one of the aliens, the remaining friends seek out their disabled childhood friend Duddits (Donnie Wahlberg), who they believe has powers that can save Jonesy…and the world.
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Episode 396: Dreamcatcher (2003)
Watch out for “ister gay” (oof), take some Gas-X and bite our bags because we’re talking Lawrence Kasdan’s baffling 2003 adaptation of Stephen King’s equally baffling novel Dreamcatcher.
Join us as we go all in on the farty-farty aliens populating this hilarious misfire that often feels like a bad Kevin Smith script. It’s a film filled with characters who get a single defining trait (if they’re lucky), played by respectable actors who are here for the paycheck (looking at you, Morgan Freeman).
Plus: blown-out assholes, using guns as telephones, pitying poor Donnie Wahlberg, and wondering why the hell this movie is called Dreamcatcher.
Cross out Dreamcatcher!
Coming Up Next: We’re going to be lounging around a posh Greenwich Village apartment as we check in on Jimmy Stewart and Grace Kelly in Alfred Hitchcock’s Rear Window (1954).
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