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The Ecto-1 is Coming to ‘Rocket League’ as Part of The Radical Summer Event
This really must be the year of Ghostbusters. Well, the 35th anniversary, at least.
With the upcoming remaster of the 2009 game, the cross-promotion with Planet Coaster, and of course the merchandise (lots of it), Psyonix is now getting into it with their hit, Rocket League.
Next week, the title will kick off the start of a new in-game event called Radical Summer. Beginning June 10 and running for nine weeks, the event will bring players back to the 1980s with three separate celebrations of “iconic movies, television, and culture” that includes new items, time-limited game modes, and cars.
Of course, that means the Ecto-1 is involved. From June 10 to July 1, Rocket League will feature the iconic car as part of “’80s Blockbusters”. Available to players for $2USD is the Ghostbusters Ecto-1 Car Pack, which includes the Ecto-1 Battle-Car, Ecto-1 Wheels, Proton Pack Boost, Slimer Topper, a Ghostbusters player banner and avatar, and the Stay Puft Goal Explosion.
This will also coincide with Radical Summer’s first limited-time game mode, called Ghost Hunt, which will be a 3v3 contest in which players use proton streams to capture the ball and then deposit it into the opposing team’s Containment Zone. The Blockbusters segment will also feature other big summer flicks from the day including Back to the Future, E.T., The Goonies, and Karate Kid.
Sadly, it doesn’t look like we’ll be getting a Friday The 13th or Nightmare on Elm Street-themed vehicle. Because let’s be honest: You’d want a Freddy Cadillac or Freddy Cycle, wouldn’t you?
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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