Movies
Funimation Condensed “Attack on Titan’s” First Season into a Feature Film!
While the live-action adaptation are two of the worst films I’ve ever seen, the original “Attack on Titan” animated series is one of the best ever. The only thing that could make them even better is if they were edited down into feature film form…
Speaking of, to prepare fans for the long awaited arrival of “Attack on Titan” Season 2, Funimation has acquired and will be releasing the “Attack on Titan” Season 1 recap movies (Part 1: “Guren no Yumiya” and Part 2: “Jiyuu no Tsubasa”) this March!
These two full length movies (120-minute run-time each) will cover the first and second half of “Attack on Titan” Season 1 respectively and will each screen for one night only. Part 1 will screen on March 27, 2017. Part 2 will screen on March 28 or 29, 2017 depending on theater location. Part 2 features a special Season 2 teaser following the film’s credits.
This limited release will be shown in 19 select Reading and Alamo Drafthouse theater locations across the U.S. Dates for each movie are dependent on theater location. Visit funimationfilms.com/attackontitan for more information.
My brother turned me on to “Attack On Titan” back in 2014. I had been quite a long time since I enjoyed some “new” Japanimation, and the eclectic mix of Ninja Scroll, Godzilla and Spider-Man was so exciting that my weekend was ruined by binge watching the adaptation of the Japanese manga series written and illustrated by Hajime Isayama.
Here’s a breakdown on the series, via IMDB:
2000 years from now, humans are nearly exterminated by titans. Titans are typically several stories tall, seem to have no intelligence, devour human beings and, worst of all, seem to do it for the pleasure rather than as a food source. A small percentage of humanity survived by walling themselves in a city protected by extremely high walls, even taller than the biggest of titans. Flash forward to the present and the city has not seen a titan in over 100 years. Teenage boy Eren and his foster sister Mikasa witness something horrific as the city walls are destroyed by a colossal titan that appears out of thin air. As the smaller titans flood the city, the two kids watch in horror as their mother is eaten alive. Eren vows that he will murder every single titan and take revenge for all of mankind.
There’s an insane amount of action, and even a pretty solid amount of gore. But what truly makes this such a special series is the storytelling. Instead of each episode being its own arc, it’s a continuous story that continues to build each and every episode – and they still manage to drop a massive cliffhanger as the end of each chapter. My personal favorite aspect of the show is that they aren’t afraid to bail on the main characters for an episode in order to spend 20 minutes developing a new character, which helps build tension throughout.
“Attack on Titan” is streaming in various places, which means you too can binge watch as giant humanoid creatures snack on the townspeople as if they were delicious candy.
Judging from the unprecedented box office success of Kane Parsons’ Backrooms adaptation, you’ve likely already seen the liminal horror hit that managed to make audiences afraid of empty hallways and bad wallpaper. And now that so many of us have already entered the yellow labyrinth (some of us more than once), the time has come to discuss the spoiler-filled details that make the movie so fascinating in the first place.
And if there’s one element here that makes the Backrooms movie stand out from any previous lore/mythology, it has to be the genius addition of the Still Life entities. Warped recreations of real people that somehow wandered into the Complex, these misremembered creatures are responsible for some of the most disturbing imagery of 2026 – as well as laugh-out-loud memes created by one of the film’s very own concept artists.
However, true to Parsons’ word that the movie would rely heavily on practical effects, each of these distorted monsters was brought to life by real actors under heavy layers of makeup and prosthetics (with the occasional splash of CGI enhancements). While Anora and If I Had Legs I’d Kick You actress Ivy Wolk wasn’t among these performers, despite what Letterboxd might have you believe, the creature cast did benefit from veteran players with plenty of genre experience.
For starters, Alien: Romulus alumni Robert Bobroczkyi (who previously brought that film’s horrific Offspring to life during its most memorable sequence) plays the flick’s main antagonist, the Still Life version of Captain Clark. And though there was some obvious CGI involved in making the character’s peg-leg and nightmarish face more believable, Bobroczkyi’s monstrous performance and his natural 7’7″ frame helped to make that final chase sequence a clear highlight among this year’s genre offerings.
The film’s Texas-Chain-Saw-inspired “dinner” scene also features a freaky collection of less-aggressive Still Life creatures in the form of the Bearded Man, the Red-Headed Woman and, strangest of them all, the cheekily named “Archibald Leland Sutter Still Life” (who earned this title among fans and crewmembers as a reference to his apparent affinity for lamps).
While this was the first major horror outing for both Patrick Baynham (The Bearded Man) and Dana Mahmood (Archibald), Rhiannon Roberts has worked as a stunt performer in everything from Yellowjackets to HBO’s The Last of Us adaptation – which is probably why The Red-Headed Woman is the most active out of Clark’s impromptu “family.” That being said, the Archibald Leland Sutter Still Life is my personal favorite of the bunch simply because his anachronistic outfit suggests that the Backrooms phenomenon might be a lot older than the Async Foundation. I also love how hard he tries to be helpful with that little light of his!
That might be it for the Still Life entities, but I think horror fans will also be pleased to hear that the film’s Found Footage prologue stars none other than Resident Evil: Welcome to Raccoon City star Avan Jogia as Naren Warne – and American Mary herself Katharine Isabelle also shows up in a blink-and-you’ll-miss-it cameo at Mary’s house party towards the middle of the story (though I have a feeling that she originally had a bigger part that was likely cut for time).
At the end of the day, Parsons’ Backrooms may have been an auteur-driven project motivated by the young director’s unique take on the classic creepypasta, but film has always been a collective artform, so it’s fun to see just how many talented performers it takes to bring this kind of supernatural nightmare to life in a way that connects with so many people.
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