Horror's Not Dead

RESIDENT EVIL – UMBRELLA CHRONICLES (Wii) Review. [Best Rail-Gun Shooter for the Wii]

Last Week in Horror News: 9/6 – 9/13

Theatrical Trailers and Clips

• ANTICHRIST – New trailer, now you can preview tree-of-human-limb sex in HD!
• SOLOMON KANE – Trailer for the sweet-ass looking upcoming fantasy film.  Weinberg just saw it at TIFF and dug it.
• PANDORUM – Clip

Studio News and Attachments

• FRANKENWEENIE – Tim Burton’s feature length adaptation of his re-animated dog short will be his feature film followup to ALICE IN WONDERLAND.
• TROLLHUNTERS – Guillermo del Toro will be teaming up with Disney for more mature/thrilling animated fare under the banner Double Dare You.  The first of these films will be TROLLHUNTERS, produced by del Toro and based on his own story.
• MOURNING AFTER – Remember when one of the key players in creating Lionsgate’s genre friendly identity created his own company, A BIGGER BOAT.  Well their next co-production will be about a “woman with a timeless, deadly secret.”  Real daring material there, guys.
• JEEPERS CREEPERS 3 – Victor Salva still wants to make it, but it seems people are only just now feeling confident enough to consider investing money…so, don’t expect JEEPERS CREEPERS 3: CATHEDRAL any time soon.
• HALLOWEEN 3D – According to Variety, Dimension has settled on MY BLOODY VALENTINE 3D director Patrick Lussier to direct the Rob Zombie-less sequel to Rob Zombie’s HALLOWEEN franchise.  According to the big horror sites, he’s only ‘in talks’.

Remakes

• RESIDENT EVIL – According to Bloody-Disgusting, the producers plan on the 5th entry in the RE series to be a reboot back to the premise of the first film.  Because that’s what people want.

Indie, Foreign and Random News

• HOME DELIVERY – An adaptation of Stephen King’s short story from NIGHTMARES AND DREAMSCAPES is going to be directed by MIDNIGHT MEAT TRAIN director Ryuhei Kitamura.
• Roger Corman Wins an Oscar! – Roger Corman will receive an honorary Oscar for his 60+ year career in schlocky films.
• 10 Stephen King Stories That Should Be Filmed – Good list from a new drinking pal/enabler at Film School Rejects.

Non-Theatrical Trailers and Clips

• BITTER FEAST – Teaser trailer for the upcoming chef-kills-critic film starring real chef Mario Batali!
• PLAN 9 FROM OUTER SPACE – A teaser trailer for the remake of Ed Wood’s most famous disaster.
• SLICE – A non-supernatural Thai horror movie?
• LAKE MUNGO – Trailer for that which After Dark Films just picked up for 2010′s Horrorfest.
• THE SHRINE – Teaser from the makers of JACK BROOKS: MONSTER SLAYER.

Horror Brings the Ruckus to E3.

There was quite a bit of Horror infused in E3 this year, impressing myself and horror fans in general more than I think anyone expected.  Personally, E3 had pretty much everything I wanted: New game announcements, trailers/gameplay footage of games I’ve been following and even one or two surprises.

Videos and highlights follow:

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LEFT 4 DEAD 2:

This was a shock for me. I knew Valve was displaying a new game but I thought it would be another in the Half-Life series or something completely new. I can’t complain as I still play the original and love it to death.

I love the gameplay videos that were featured. The melee weapons add a new layer of depth to the game. You can make the case this is just a feature shamelessly stolen from DEAD RISING but forgery aside it’s hard to argue that L4D2 seems to open up the game like never before; along with new enemies, weapons, maps and boss creatures. I also love the southern-theme they are going for with this entry, especially the fiddle that plays during a horde sequence.

Valve went all out show casing off several maps and quite a bit of walkthroughs. Maybe I shouldn’t have listed L4D2 first, but this was the clear winner of E3 horror.

Now after all that praise I have to say, it worried me a bit. It will be released this November making it just 13 months after the original was released. It is VERY uncharacteristic of Valve to release a sequel this quickly after a game. While LEFT 4 DEAD 2 looks to add a lot of content, it still seems like all of this could be added as an expansion or DLC.  An outright sequel? Something seems amiss, but this is Valve I am talking about. When was the last time they made a bad game?

GUEST REVIEW: RESIDENT EVIL 5 (XBOX 360/PS3)

Published and Developed by Capcom, 2009

It has been about four years since the near-masterpiece RESIDENT EVIL 4 hit shelves and changed the series and the entire survival horror genre (for better or worse).  Leaps and bounds were made in terms of combat and pacing, replacing most of the puzzles and backtracking with faster paced gameplay and action. RESIDENT EVIL 5 has a lot to accomplish; not only does the game have to be as good, it has to reset the bar of standards in the horror genre. At the very least it succeeds with the former.

In order to properly look at this, I feel I have to look at it from two angles: The relationship to RESIDENT EVIL 4 and then the relationship to the rest of the series. In order to first view RE4 I had to put aside my biased perception of it regarding the lack of the RE universe “feel” and judge the game for what it was. I must now put aside my favoritism of RE5 regarding the return of the “feel” and look at RE5 for what it is.  RE4’s visual style and graphics can’t hold a candle to today’s, but after four years they are still easy to look at. In the next four years the same will be said of this new entry.  The environment and aesthetics are not only some of the best of the series; RE5 is one of the best games around in terms of creating an aura of immersion.

That being said, even though the series has certainly deviated from the first four entries (the fourth being Code Veronica), RESIDENT EVIL 5 definitely has the “feel” of a Resident Evil game (my main complaint of RE4). Also, several key plot points from those first four entries are discussed and Capcom has done a moderately good job of continuity linking the entire series up to this point. As I am sure I am one of the few people who cares about the mystique and conspiracy theories of Umbrella and the T-Virus, it was certainly welcome to be playing an actual RESIDENT EVIL game once again.

Review – Resident Evil 4: Wii Edition (Video Game)

Published and Developed by Capcom. 2005

I can remember when I first saw the E3 videos for RESIDENT EVIL 4. Leon Kennedy was walking in a mansion when a humanoid apparition appeared before him, chasing him out of the room. While the first videos had their freaky moments, I still sighed. The concept of ghosts just doesn’t scream RESIDENT EVIL to me. My feelings were mirrored when this first was released. The enemies and bosses didn’t have the same feel as previous RE games.  Hell, there technically aren’t even zombies in it(!), but I must admit; the game grew on me faster than I thought it would.

The RESIDENT EVIL franchise has always been synonymous with horror in the gaming world.  Maybe nothing that has ever delivered pure terror, but horror all the same. This entry sticks with that formula, only with pacing that lends itself more in the direction of action over horror.  That’s not to say the game lacks its share of the grotesque. The grunting and murmuring of the end-game Regenerator/Iron Maiden enemies still send chills down my spine whenever I give the game another play through.

You are Leon Kennedy, a protagonist from RESIDENT EVIL 2, sent on a mission to find the President’s daughter who may (or may not) be in a small village. After you break into a house and encounter a local who then immediately turns hostile (who knew?). After that unpleasant exchange you realize that something is afoot.

Trailer Impressions: RE:WII, LEFT 4 DEAD, A VAMPIRE STORY, HOUSE OF THE DEAD, FEAR 2 and More

A couple of horror game trailers and clips have hit the scene in the last week, here are my thoughts:

RESIDENT EVIL – Wii Port

First up we have the new trailer for the (so far) Japan only release of the RESIDENT EVIL remake. It shows a trailer, which shows off nothing that we haven’t seen from the game already. It makes no mention of anything new/exclusive to the Wii. This is especially odd considering the first remake of RESIDENT EVIL was for the Gamecube…which is already backwards compatible with the Wii!

Reviews: DEAD SPACE (Video Game)

No, that is not a typo in the title, for the first time ever HND has multiple reviews for the same item.  Today we talk DEAD SPACE, a survival horror video game on 360, PS3 and PC from Electronic Arts.  I’ve always wanted to have multiple perspectives on the same thing run at the same time, so this was the perfect opportunity.  It isn’t exactly a round table discussion as there are only two people involved, but hey, gotta start somewhere.

First up is a take on the game from guest Matt Jordan.  Next up is my own take, but instead of writing an additional, typical review, I’m going to supplement Matt’s thoughts and play devil’s advocate in some regards.  Maybe down the line we’ll have a third person come in and do the same to mine.  I apologize if this results in a loonngg read, but unlike a two hour movie, I think something you’re looking to spend 10-20+ hours interacting with needs a comprehensive vetting.

Oh, and just so everyone knows, Matt and I both played DEAD SPACE on the 360; I have no reason to believe the experience will be any different on PS3 or PC.