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‘Alan Wake’ Alumni Returns as Character For ‘Control’
In their latest dev diary for their upcoming psychological shooter, Control, Remedy have decided to bring back a little something from their past that Alan Wake fans should find interesting.
In the video, Remedy creative director Sam Lake, together with narrative systems designer Eevi Korhonen chat it up about the main characters in Control: Jesse Faden, the new director of the Federal Bureau of Control (aka FBC, , a secretive government agency dedicated to investigating, containing, and controlling supernatural phenomena) and her predecessor, Zachariah Trench.
Trench is voiced by James McCaffrey, whom longtime Remedy fans will recognize as the voice of Max Payne. McCaffrey plays Trench as the typical hard-nosed “man of action”, and according to Lake, is not exactly the kind of person for the role of director for a government organization. “[He’s] had to make compromises, has had to make questionable choices along the way, and he’s growing tired—and clearly failing, in the sense that when we start the game, something has gone horribly, horribly wrong.”
Faden (voiced by Courtney Hope), on the other hand, seems far more suited to the role. According to Hope, Faden is “not ruthless in disregard to humanity”, which like The Thing‘s MacReady to Childs, is a little more level-headed. “She’s not just like the badass that’s like, ‘Screw you, I’m gonna kill you’—it’s like, ‘I really don’t want to do this but I know if I don’t, then the rest of humanity, it’s gonna be—it’s like a contagion, and it just spreads’.”
Of course, the big news for Alan Wake fans is at the end of the video, where Matthew Porretta, the actor who previously portrayed Alan Wake, will have a role in Control as FBC head of research Dr. Casper Darling. Porretta was mum on the details about his character, but did say that the character will play a “key role” in the game.
Control is due out in 2019.
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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