Mid90s: How Jonah Hill Avoided Leaning Too Heavily On Nostalgia
Just when you thought you were getting tired of '80s nostalgia featuring kids on bikes, neon lights, and synth-pop, along come films filled with grunge music, skating, and Nintendo games. The '90s don't feel like they were that long ago, but the wave of '90s nostalgia in movies and TV may have just arrived with Jonah Hill's Mid90s. Hill’s directorial debut, Mid90s is the story of a 13-year-old kid who finally finds friends and a sense of belonging in the rough world of skateboarding in Los Angeles in the 1990s. We had a chat with the first-time director at Fantastic Fest after the movie's US premiere, and he said despite the subject matter, he didn't want to lean too heavily on nostalgia.
The first thing you notice about the film is how true-to-life it feels. From the squared, 4:3 VHS-like look, to the '90s soundtrack, to the clothes, Mid90s doesn’t feel like a recreation, but like a lost film from that era. Despite this, it doesn’t point at its many references or shove them down your throat. “That was very intentional,” Hill said. “The rules of the film were no skate-porn and no nostalgia-porn. I didn’t want it to be that '90s movie. The idea ultimately was that if I, at the last second, decided that the film would not be set in the '90s, it would still work as a film about growing up.”
Yet there are plenty of references and Easter eggs to that decade. Shortly after the main character, Sunny, starts to become part of a group of skater kids, there’s a memorable scene in which he asks his brother for his skateboard. When the brother asks what Sunny can give in return, he offers his Nintendo games as trade, and we see Sunny’s brother going through a stack of cartridges. It’s a very small and simple scene, made special because we never see any of the games, just the sides of the cartridges. They could be any games--replace them in your imagination with whatever you grew up playing.
“I made sure that even if you don’t see the games, if you grew up at that time, you’d know which games they are,” Hill said. “Every one of those games are ones that I loved. I made sure they would place games that I’d play at that time. The wrong decision would be to punch in on it and focus on each game and make a big deal out of it. Instead, just hint at it so those who know, know they are the right games.”
This attitude of not making a big deal out of the references is key to making Mid90s feel natural. “My favorite scene in the movie is where two characters are outside a courthouse talking to a homeless guy,” Hill recalled. “That’s Del the Funky Homosapien, one of my favorite rappers, but it’s so casual you don’t really notice him. That was the point--to not make things overt.”
When it comes to the music, Mid90s has plenty of songs viewers can recognize, but you aren’t hit over the head with one hit wonders. Hill had a list of 300 songs he would write the film to, all of which made it onto the film's "soundtrack."
“We got all of the songs I listed,” he said. “Which was amazing because we didn’t really have any money for the music, so I wrote letters to like Morrissey and Nirvana’s estate and everybody. And they said yes,” Hill said. Spotify currently has a 30-song soundtrack available for streaming, and it's been reported that more will arrive in additional "waves."
Friendship and having a sense of belonging are big themes in Mid90s, and the film’s core cast of young actors, most of them first-timers, have great chemistry together. To achieve that, Jonah Hill did one simple thing. “I took everyone’s cell phones away,” he said. “That was actually my main reason to set the movie in the '90s--because there weren’t cell phones. That made the intimate conversations and friendships in the movie real.”
“Nowadays the second you feel uncomfortable, you can just take out your phone, so you don’t get intimate with people,” Hill explained. “Growing up, you were so bored you’d get into these strangely deep conversations just waiting for the bus or hanging out at the skate spot only because you didn’t have anything better to do.”
Getting the actors into the '90s vibe was obviously important to the film. Hill provided his cast with iPods with the 300 songs he wrote the music to, which he felt was important. “The most important part was getting the actors related to the feelings of the characters," he said. "The music and the clothes helped in getting them to the mindset of the '90s, but I didn’t want them to just rely on the gadgets and references. And they didn’t even need to understand them, because they are just existing as people and that’s just what’s around them. Because the film should feel like living in the '90s--we didn’t go around pointing at every single piece of contemporary pop culture, it was just part of our world. My movie should feel like that.”
Mid90s is now out in theaters.
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Get This Free Red Dead Redemption 2 Item For PS4
Rockstar's massive open-world western has arrived on PlayStation 4 and Xbox One. But if you have a PS4, whether you've bought the game or not, you can now download a free Red Dead Redemption 2 item from the PlayStation Store. It's the Red Dead Redemption 2 dynamic theme, and it decks out your PS4's dashboard with RDR 2 music and moving images.
You can add the theme to your account by clicking the link above, or by searching for it in the PlayStation Store on your PS4. Once you've downloaded it to your console, go to the PS4's Settings menu, then Theme Settings, and find the theme to apply it. Now your whole PS4 experience is drenched in Red Dead hype.
As for the game itself, it's just as enormous, detailed, and impressive as you'd expect from a premier Rockstar title. Set in 1899, it's a prequel to the previous game, showing the events that led up to the Van der Linde gang's splitting up. Instead of controlling John Marston as you did in Red Dead Redemption, you play as Arthur Morgan, one of the top men in the gang. You can read our Red Dead Redemption 2 review to find our full thoughts on the game.
We have loads of RDR2 coverage for you to check out, including whether you can play the sequel without playing the first one, how long it takes to beat, and all the cheats we've found. And in case you're wondering how the different versions of the game compare, you can take a look at it running on PS4 vs. Xbox One.
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How Batman: The Animated Series Created The Perfect Villains
Will there ever be a better comic book TV show than Batman: The Animated Series? Given how tough it would be to top, probably not. In many ways, it was the thing that best-defined Batman in the 1990s. Whether it was Kevin Conroy's voice as Batman, the Gotham City it created, or the adventures it sent the caped crusader on.
Of course, there's another aspect of Batman: The Animated Series that was near perfection and that's its villains. From the introduction of Harley Quinn to having Mark Hamill voice The Joker, Batman: TAS's bad guys were second to none.
Now that the show has arrived on Blu-ray, fans are getting the chance to get to know the baddies a bit more. In The Heart of Batman, a new feature-length documentary included with the Blu-ray set, the cast and crew of the show speak in-depth about a number of topics. One that's particularly interesting, though, is the villains.
In the exclusive video above, the show's creative team says what makes the baddies on Batman: TAS so special is that you can relate to them. "They found a humanness in the villains," voice director Andrea Romano said. "They found a 'why' and they let us know the 'why.'"
"How much can you feel for a character like Victor Fries?" writer Paul Dini wonders. "Can you empathize with him? Can you love a character like Harley Quinn, who makes bad decisions and still keeps going back to this maniac? Can you empathize a little bit with the Riddler and his ongoing need to try and prove himself over Batman?"
And when the episodes came to a close, they didn't always leave a smile on your face. "In our show, we were able to end something without necessarily a happy ending," director and character designer Dan Riba explained. "The villain gets his comeuppance. But because we related to the character and we felt sorry for him, it's a tragedy."
It's hard to imagine another animated series--or comic book TV or movie, for that matter--that has treated its villains the same way. Then again. that's a big part of what makes Batman: The Animated Series so special.
The Batman: The Animated Series Deluxe Limited Edition Blu-ray is available now. The set contains all 109 episodes of the series--both Batman: TAS and The New Batman Adventures--as well as the animated films Batman: Mask of the Phantasm and Batman & Mr. Freeze: Sub Zero. Besides the documentary, the special features also include a number of featurettes and episode commentaries.
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Get This Free Red Dead Redemption 2 Item For PS4
Rockstar's massive open-world western has arrived on PlayStation 4 and Xbox One. But if you have a PS4, whether you've bought the game or not, you can now download a free Red Dead Redemption 2 item from the PlayStation Store. It's the Red Dead Redemption 2 dynamic theme, and it decks out your PS4's dashboard with RDR 2 music and moving images.
You can add the theme to your account by clicking the link above, or by searching for it in the PlayStation Store on your PS4. Once you've downloaded it to your console, go to the PS4's Settings menu, then Theme Settings, and find the theme to apply it. Now your whole PS4 experience is drenched in Red Dead hype.
As for the game itself, it's just as enormous, detailed, and impressive as you'd expect from a premier Rockstar title. Set in 1899, it's a prequel to the previous game, showing the events that led up to the Van der Linde gang's splitting up. Instead of controlling John Marston as you did in Red Dead Redemption, you play as Arthur Morgan, one of the top men in the gang. You can read our Red Dead Redemption 2 review to find our full thoughts on the game.
We have loads of RDR2 coverage for you to check out, including whether you can play the sequel without playing the first one, how long it takes to beat, and all the cheats we've found. And in case you're wondering how the different versions of the game compare, you can take a look at it running on PS4 vs. Xbox One.
Child of Light and Talking Tom to be adapted for TV and film
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How Batman: The Animated Series Created The Perfect Villains
Will there ever be a better comic book TV show than Batman: The Animated Series? Given how tough it would be to top, probably not. In many ways, it was the thing that best-defined Batman in the 1990s. Whether it was Kevin Conroy's voice as Batman, the Gotham City it created, or the adventures it sent the caped crusader on.
Of course, there's another aspect of Batman: The Animated Series that was near perfection and that's its villains. From the introduction of Harley Quinn to having Mark Hamill voice The Joker, Batman: TAS's bad guys were second to none.
Now that the show has arrived on Blu-ray, fans are getting the chance to get to know the baddies a bit more. In The Heart of Batman, a new feature-length documentary included with the Blu-ray set, the cast and crew of the show speak in-depth about a number of topics. One that's particularly interesting, though, is the villains.
In the exclusive video above, the show's creative team says what makes the baddies on Batman: TAS so special is that you can relate to them. "They found a humanness in the villains," voice director Andrea Romano said. "They found a 'why' and they let us know the 'why.'"
"How much can you feel for a character like Victor Fries?" writer Paul Dini wonders. "Can you empathize with him? Can you love a character like Harley Quinn, who makes bad decisions and still keeps going back to this maniac? Can you empathize a little bit with the Riddler and his ongoing need to try and prove himself over Batman?"
And when the episodes came to a close, they didn't always leave a smile on your face. "In our show, we were able to end something without necessarily a happy ending," director and character designer Dan Riba explained. "The villain gets his comeuppance. But because we related to the character and we felt sorry for him, it's a tragedy."
It's hard to imagine another animated series--or comic book TV or movie, for that matter--that has treated its villains the same way. Then again. that's a big part of what makes Batman: The Animated Series so special.
The Batman: The Animated Series Deluxe Limited Edition Blu-ray is available now. The set contains all 109 episodes of the series--both Batman: TAS and The New Batman Adventures--as well as the animated films Batman: Mask of the Phantasm and Batman & Mr. Freeze: Sub Zero. Besides the documentary, the special features also include a number of featurettes and episode commentaries.
New Black Ops 4 Update Nerfs Armor And Certain Weapons; Here's The Full Patch Notes
Treyarch has released a major balancing update across all three multiplayer modes in Call of Duty: Black Ops 4. The update also makes several changes to the game's featured playlists.
For multiplayer mode, the biggest change is the addition of Gun Game to the featured playlist. A Black Ops fan favorite, the playlist spawns you with a specific set of weapons and changes said set when you kill another player. Typically a match ends whenever a player is able to cycle through every set, but Black Ops 4 is also adding a second variation of the playlist called Chaos Domination. In this updated version, players still cycle through different sets of weapons, but matches are between two teams instead of free-for-all and the winner is decided by whichever team can score 150 points first by capturing zones.
For Blackout, 100-player solo has been added to the featured playlist. The maximum player count in both duos and quads has also been set at 88. For Zombies, you'll now earn experience much more quickly when playing on Hardcore or Realistic difficulty. Also, an exploit that allowed players to keep their special weapon out indefinitely has been fixed.
The rest of the update balances the weapons, armor, and gadgets across all three modes. Plenty of items are getting nerfed, so strategies that have worked for you in the past may not be as effective now. For the entire list of changes, you can read the update's full patch notes on Treyarch's subreddit. The general changes are listed below.
Call of Duty: Black Ops 4 is available on Xbox One, PS4, and PC.
Black Ops 4 October 30 Update General Changes
Social
- Players can now invite players who are online, but not in the game, to their in-game party.
Miscellaneous
- Resolved an issue where particular weapon Camos would overlap weapon Optics.
- Resolved multiple issues with Paintjobs not showing up in-game.
- Resolved an issue where your Gun Rack would show up when inspecting other players.
- Resolved an issue where Emblems for other players would appear in lower resolution than expected in the Social menu.
- General stability fixes and performance improvements across Multiplayer, Blackout, and Zombies.
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‘Diablo III: Eternal Collection’ First Impressions – Excellent Port of a Game That Is Perfect for Switch
When Diablo III made the jump to PS3 and 360, most people were skeptical about the visuals and the controls. Thankfully, Blizzard nailed the controls with various tweaks to make the game that was built for keyboard and mouse work great on a gamepad. The game eventually became quite the couch co-op phenomenon on consoles and even saw great ports to PS4 and Xbox One. Blizzard finally brings Diablo to Switch in the Eternal Collection that has been ported by Iron Galaxy who also ported Skyrim. Read Eli’s impressions of Skyrim on Switch here.
Diablo III: Eternal Collection includes the base game, the Reaper of Souls expansion, the Rise of the Necromancer DLC, and exclusive Switch cosmetics and amiibo support. It also has the advantage of including all the fixes and additions the game saw for years on other platforms and is the most polished the release yet. When it comes to exclusive content, you get Ganondorf armor, a pet, some wings, and amiibo support in addition to what the Switch hardware offers thanks to the various gameplay and control options.
While it already is a great couch co-op game on other consoles, the Switch offers a lot more with local wireless support and even single screen single Joy-con play. It is pretty mindblowing that you can play with a friend using a single Joy-con each on the same small Switch screen in tabletop mode. Local wireless lets you team up with friends on their own Switches locally to play together. So far both the local wireless and online have been near instant to connect to someone else to play together. You still need to sadly use your own voice chat solution since the Switch doesn’t have a native solution.
I loved Skyrim on Switch but Iron Galaxy outdid that with Diablo III on the Switch. Visually, Diablo III adjusts the resolution depending on the load on screen to maintain the frame rate which is always great for action games where smoother performance is more important than visuals. The visual differences are more noticeable on TV than on the smaller screen but the best part of all of this is the framerate holds up very well so far. It is super smooth in both docked and handheld modes. You’re obviously not buying this on Switch to play on TV and the handheld mode is awesome across the board.
The biggest complaint I have so far is the inconsistency with B and A buttons where you need to press one to initiate a conversation and another to continue said conversation. Many games struggle with this on Switch because of how they handle things on other platforms. Hopefully this gets patched. The other aspect that disappointed me a bit is the lack of any touchscreen support. LA Noire did a great job of using the touchscreen and while I didn’t expect that here, being able to navigate the UI or even the map with touch would’ve been great.
Stay tuned for our full review on Friday but Diablo III is pretty fantastic on Switch so far. I just hope they fix the button inconsistency and also the homescreen icon because the one it has right now has to be a placeholder icon or a mistake. It cannot be the final icon. Blizzard’s first Nintendo platform release in years is shaping up to be the definitive version of one of the most fun games out there.
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Game Of Thrones Prequel Adds Josh Whitehouse To Cast--Report
Joshua Whitehouse is joining the cast of HBO's untitled Game of Thrones prequel, according to a report from Variety. The actor is probably best known for his turn as British aristocrat Hugh Armitage in BBC One's Poldark, which is set in the aftermath of the American Revolution.
Whitehouse joins Naomi Watts on the cast, who HBO officially announced this week as joining the show and who is reportedly playing its lead. Watts' character is said to be "a charismatic socialite hiding a dark secret."
There's no title for the prequel yet, the pilot of which was written by Jane Goldman (Kick-Ass), who created the series with George R. R. Martin and will serve as its showrunner when it begins filming in 2019. We know from HBO's previous description of the prequel that it'll take place thousands of years before the current Game of Thrones series, during the Age of Heroes.
That period is when some of the longstanding noble houses of Westeros--like the Lannisters and the Starks--were first founded. According to HBO, the show "chronicles the world's descent from the Golden Age of Heroes into its darkest hour."
It's tough to speculate who Whitehouse might be playing, but Game of Thrones lore and the show description suggest two potential possibilities. The first is Land the Clever, the trickster character who legend says founded House Lannister and tricked the Casterly family out of the Lannister family seat, Casterly Rock. There's also Bran the Builder, the founder of House Stark, who was responsible for the construction of the Stark castle of Winterfell according to legend, and later, the Wall.
HBO has several Game of Thrones spin-off series in the works to pick up the story of Westeros after Game of Thrones comes to an end with Season 8 in 2019. There still isn't too much information about that season available yet, thanks to HBO's intense secret-keeping efforts. The recent tie-in video game, Reigns: Game of Thrones, seems like it might have some possible story hints for the final season, though.
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Every Halloween Movie, Ranked From Awful To Amazing
A movie franchise doesn't last 40 years without being great. However, it also doesn't last 40 years without at least a few duds mixed in. If ever you needed proof of that, look no further than the Halloween films.
Some entries in the franchise that follow the psychotic killer Michael Myers are wonderful, others… not so much. After all, for every Laurie Strode, there's a Busta Rhymes, ready to roundhouse kick Michael because, evidently, the rapper is also secretly a ninja.
With Halloween headed back to theaters, I undertook the insane task of rewatching all 10 of the original films, including Rob Zombie's two remakes, to give them a definitive ranking. The new movie is even included for good measure, giving you the opportunity to see just where each entry in the Halloween franchise ranks, as far as quality is concerned.
If you're looking for even more Halloween content, make sure to check out our review of the new film, as well as an explanation of why it's ignoring all of the sequels, regardless of their quality. Additionally, you should definitely take a look at what star Jamie Lee Curtis has to say about the unsung hero on the franchise, producer and co-writer Debra Hill.
11. Halloween: Resurrection
It's the movie that killed a franchise, in a way. Halloween: Resurrection was the last stand of the original Michael Myers until the 2018 film. This movie is trash and should be regarded as such. When a Halloween movie resorts to having Michael Myers battling Kung Fu master Busta Rhymes, it's time to call it a day and move on.
There are a couple moments that might make you think there's something to this film--its focus on young people hunting for fame, or the rising obsession with reality TV, for instance--but this is just a brainless end of a once-great franchise. Trick or treat, mother f***er, indeed.
10. Halloween: The Curse of Michael Myers
There's no way around this. Halloween: The Curse of Michael Myers is bad. It's not just bad, it's awful. It's not Busta Rhymes awful, but it did make a jump to the supernatural realm by linking Michael's inability to be killed to a cult that wants to control him. Guess how well that goes?
By this point, it was overwhelmingly clear that the Halloween franchise was running on fumes. This is a film so convoluted that, if not for Myers, it would make no sense that it's set in the Halloween franchise. It makes it easy to see why the next movie retconned all of its events, along with two other films.
9. Halloween II (2009)
If Rob Zombie knows how to make anything, it's a Rob Zombie movie. His second Halloween, which picks up two years after the first, introduced the idea of Michael having visions of his mother telling him he has to kill Laurie to reunite the Myers family once and for all.
In doing so, the movie is loaded with even more grisly murders and the same dark and dirty look of the first film. It also gave Laurie the same hallucinations Michael was having, right down to their mother appearing with a white horse. Whether that means she's simply having the same psychotic visions she is or if something supernatural is at play, who knows?
The film ends with Michael dead and Laurie in a psychiatric hospital, continuing to have visions of her mother. Rob Zombie doesn't do happy endings, even if we've suffered through a truly disturbing movie that has none of the fun of a Halloween movie anywhere in sight.
8. Halloween 5: The Revenge of Michael Myers
One of the biggest sins of Halloween 5 was completely disregarding the twist at the end of the fourth movie, in which Jamie becomes a killer herself after surviving the attacks of her deranged uncle Michael Myers.
Instead, Revenge picks up a year later after Jamie has become mute and committed to a psychiatric hospital following everything that happened in the first film. She did, however, somehow gain a psychic link with Michael.
This film was the first sign, really, that the franchise was running out of steam. By 1989, the slasher subgenre was starting to dwindle, and Halloween was going with it. Granted, Michael never went to space or Manhattan like his Friday the 13th counterpart Jason Voorhees, but Revenge is just an uninspired film that doesn't really breathe any new life into the series.
7. Halloween (2007)
What is there to say about Rob Zombie's Halloween reboot? It did the only thing nobody really asked for in giving Michael Myers a lengthy backstory, explaining how he became the unstoppable killer--an abusive family, bullies, and a generally awful life for a child. This humanized Michael in a way no other movie in the franchise had, which ruins a lot of the mystique surrounding him.
Still, it included some creative kills and interesting moments--as well as a young boy's obsession with masks--and turned them into a movie that was so vicious that it was often hard to watch. And if you're keeping track, Zombie also worked in the plot of Michael and Laurie being siblings, first introduced in the original Halloween II.
6. Halloween H20: 20 Years Later
There's a lot to love about H20. The most important thing being the return of Jamie Lee Curtis as Laurie Strode. However, it's also the first Halloween movie to arrive after Scream changed the game and reignited the slasher subgenre's popularity. This movie features a young and popular cast--Michelle Williams, Josh Hartnett, and LL Cool J--all appear and a song by Creed pops up during the end credits. This is an incredibly late-'90s movie.
It's the return of Laurie, though, essentially erasing Halloween 4-6, that makes H20 interesting. In a way, it's a template for what the 2018 film is doing, showing the world what became of Laurie after the events of the first film. Now she's an alcoholic living under an assumed identity, waiting for the day Michael comes back.
Unfortunately, outside of Curtis, there's nothing truly remarkable about the movie. It's a fairly by-the-numbers slasher film that fixed a lot of the issues in previous franchise entries, but without bringing enough to the table that was new.
5. Halloween 4: The Return of Michael Myers
After the world was less than impressed with a Halloween movie featuring no Michael Myers--in Season of the Witch--it's hard to blame anyone for resurrecting the character. Unfortunately, the one thing working against the film was a complete lack of Jamie Lee Curtis returning as Laurie Strode.
Instead, Halloween 4 introduced a little girl named Jamie Lloyd (Danielle Harris), who was the daughter of a now-dead Laurie that had been adopted. It essentially kicked off a Halloween tale for a new generation, 10 years after the first film. And, honestly, it's not bad. Michael hunting a child as the last link to his family is an interesting hook and the movie manages to have some creative kills and truly scary moments. It was also the last bit of good Halloweens before things for bad for nearly a decade.
4. Halloween II (1981)
Halloween II is an interesting film. While it was written by John Carpenter and Debra Hill, it sometimes feels like a sequel to their movie is the last thing either of them were interested in. It's an angrier movie than the first Halloween and relies on a lot of the over-the-top gore, making it feel very out of step with the original. Halloween II also introduced an element that could go on to play a role in the nine films that followed--Laurie is Michael's sister.
Still, even though it's far more extreme in tone than the original, Halloween II feels truer to the first movie than any of the sequels that followed. That's likely due, in no small part, to Hill and Carpenter's involvement. That said, the movie seemingly blows Michael up at the end, killing him once and for all. Given how uninterested the pair were in doing a sequel, it makes sense that they'd want to finally dispatch him before a potential third Michael Myers movie was ordered--not that any of his deaths ever stopped him.
3. Halloween III: Season of the Witch
Season of the Witch is the true oddity. It's the only film that doesn't feature Michael Myers--outside of a commercial for the original Halloween seen on a TV--and instead follows the incredibly realistic story of a novelty mask company using mystic powers from Stonehenge to create masks that kill the children who wear them on Halloween.
Alright, it's an admittedly weird movie. It's the right kind of weird, though, as producers John Carpenter and Debra Hill attempted to create something entirely new with the Halloween franchise, shifting it into more of an anthology series.
Instead of a slasher like its predecessors, Season of the Witch relies on science fiction elements--yes, there are robots--and other horror elements for its scares, creating something entirely new. Without Michael Myers, though, audiences simply didn't care, which is a major disappointment. Season of the Witch is a great horror film and easily one of the Halloween franchises best entries.
2. Halloween (2018)
Don't ask us how, but they actually did it. Resurrecting a long-dead franchise should be impossible, but the new Halloween did it so well that it's actually the second best entry of the bunch. It achieves that by simply ignoring all of the bad that came in the litany of Halloween films over the years.
In the new Halloween, Michael never fought Busta Rhymes, Laurie was never his sister, the thorn mark doesn't exist, and Laurie never had a kid named Jamie--or John for that matter. This film returns the franchise to what it was, a psychopathic killer on the loose that leaves nobody safe. That is, of course, until he crosses paths with Laurie one more time, 40 years after they first met, and setting them up for quite a showdown.
The new Halloween is everything so many of us wished any of the seven original sequels would be. It's scary, true to the original film, and forwards the story in a realistic way--at least, realistic by Halloween standards. After all, while Freddy Krueger hunts his prey in the dream world and Jason Voorhees just might be an immortal who can also teleport, Michael was based in reality at first. He was simply a psychopath with a knife, and that's what the new film makes him once again.
1. Halloween (1978)
Honestly, the original Halloween gave birth to the slasher craze. It wasn't the first film in the subgenre, but it was the one that launched a million knockoffs and copycats. None of them though, not even the subsequent Halloween films, were able to match it. It introduced Laurie Strode (Jamie Lee Curtis) as a realistic teenage girl fighting against the randomness and chaos that was her attacker Michael Myers.
While the movies that followed muddied that idea by deciding Michael was Laurie's sister, what makes this movie so scary is they have no connection. Michael is simply a psychopath whose goal is to kill, and Laurie is in his way. The 1978 installment of Halloween isn't just the gold standard of the franchise, it's the gold standard of slasher cinema as a whole.
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Fortnite One-Time Event Happening This Weekend
Fortnite's Halloween-themed Fortnitemares event is scheduled to end on November 4, giving you only a few more days to complete its challenges and unlock the new Dark Engine Glider if you still haven't done so. That isn't the only incentive to play the game this Sunday, however; it appears a once-in-a-lifetime event is slated to unfold on that day.
On the official Fortnite Twitter account, developer Epic Games teased that a "one-time event" will take place in the game on Sunday, November 4, at 10 AM PT / 1 PM ET / 6 PM GMT--the same time that the Fortnitemares event is scheduled to conclude. The developer didn't provide any further clues as to what the event will entail, but if you want to witness it, you'll need to log into the game and be in a match at that time in order to see it.
One-time events of this nature aren't an unusual occurrence in Fortnite; in the leadup to Season 5, for example, players got to witness a rocket launch, which would ultimately result in a giant rift forming in the sky above the island. More recently, a lightning storm struck Fortnite's desert earlier this summer, leaving the mysterious purple cube in its wake.
We don't yet know what to expect from Sunday's one-time event, but it will presumably have to do with the aforementioned purple cube, which has been a recurring source of mystery since it first appeared in the game. At the start of Season 6, it lifted a chunk of land into the sky to create a floating island, and it has since been moving around the map, leaving behind strange craters.
Fortnite's 6.21 update was originally scheduled to roll out on October 31, but Epic delayed it to November 1 due to a "last minute issue." In the meantime, you can find tips for completing the Fortnitemares challenges in our roundup. You can also check out our Fortnite Season 6 challenges guide for help on completing all of the new challenges Epic has released this season to date.
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Chilling Adventures Of Sabrina: Easter Eggs: Every Tribute To Classic Horror Movies
Now that Netflix has unleashed Chilling Adventures of Sabrina on us mere mortals, introducing a wild witching world, it's clear that this is a unique take on horror. Showrunner Roberto Aguirre-Sacasa has taken everything he learned from making Riverdale--and his horror comics set in the Archie universe--to construct a timeless world that's as haunting as it is campy.
Of course, Aguirre-Sacasa and the Chilling Adventures team didn't do it alone. Everywhere you look on the series, there are nods to iconic horror films. In fact, the first episode opens with a discussion about George Romero's zombie films between Sabrina Spellman and her friends. What you might not have noticed, though, is all of the visual tributes to the horror world.
During a visit to the Chilling Adventures of Sabrina set, GameSpot and a few other outlets were lucky enough to take a tour with production designer Lisa Soper. While walking around, Soper pointed out several nods that are easy to miss if you don't know what you're looking for, from hidden posters to outright replicas of set pieces from a number of films.
Check out all of the photos we took on the tour, including one where the set from a popular horror TV show is actually reconfigured to create something new for Chilling Adventures. Then let us know what we missed! With so much horror history for the show to draw from, there's no telling where else the Chilling Adventures team hid a special homage to another film or TV show.
Chilling Adventures of Sabrina is streaming on Netflix now.
1. Original art by Clive Barker
As GameSpot previously reported, one of the biggest homages to the horror genre in Chilling Adventures isn't to any specific movie, but rather to the master of horror himself, Clive Barker. The halls of the Academy of Unseen Arts are adorned with a variety of original paintings by Barker. In all, the production has borrowed over 150 pieces from the director of Hellraiser, allowing a number of combinations to make each room in the academy feel unique.
2. Tiles from the Cotton house in Hellraiser
As one way of thanking Barker for his contributions, there are a number of Hellraiser Easter eggs scattered throughout the series--with many of them appearing in the home of Madam Satan (Michelle Gomez). In fact, they start as soon as you walk in. The tiles in the entryway of her home is a recreation of the tiles seen in the Cotton House in Hellraiser.
3. Wallpaper from the Cotton house in Hellraiser
Additionally, the wallpaper in Madam Satan's house was inspired by wallpaper seen in Hellraiser.
4. Stained glass inspired by Hellraiser
Even the stained glass windows in the main room of Madam Satan's home are a shoutout to Hellraiser. In the film, a very similar window is featured in the front door of the Cotton house and throughout the abode.
5. Doors from Suspiria
In the Academy of Unseen Arts, there is a massive nod to Suspiria, the Dario Argento classic horror film, in Father Blackwood's office. The doors to the room, while not exact replicas, were made to heavily resemble a pair of doors featured in Suspiria.
6. Accent table designed like Hellraiser puzzle cube
Meanwhile, Blackwood's office also includes another homage to Hellraiser. An accent table in the room is designed to resemble the puzzle cube from Barker's film.
7. The Spellman house is is inspired by the House of Seven Gables
The design of Sabrina's home itself is a reference to the gothic novel The House of Seven Gables--as well as the actual House of Seven Gables in Salem. Soper pointed out the red door, in particular, which is made to look like the original, but with a "Sabrina edge."
8. Stained glass ceiling inspired by Suspiria
The ceiling of the Spellman Mortuary sitting room might look a bit familiar. The massive stained glass piece is a replica of one that was crashed through in Suspiria. Hopefully, Chilling Adventures is a bit more careful with it than Suspiria was.8. Stained glass ceiling inspired by Suspiria
9. Baby Venus flytrap inspired by Little Shop of Horrors
Feed me, Seymour! In the Spellman greenhouse, there is one particular plant that should catch some eyes. Among the various flowers and greenery is a baby Venus flytrap, designed to look like Audrey II from Little Shop of Horrors.
10. Haxan poster and art inspired by Friday the 13th
In addition to set pieces that look like they were pulled from a variety of films, there are also a number of horror movie posters scattered around Chilling Adventures--especially in Sabrina's room. One that pops up in a few places is for Haxan, a 1922 silent film. In this particular shot, you can also see a piece of Sabrina's original artwork, which looks a lot like Jason Voorhees from the Friday the 13th franchise. According to Soper, Sabrina has a habit of drawing haunting images on top of the photos in her room.
11. Village of the Damned poster
Sabrina's room also includes a poster from the 1960 version of Village of the Damned.
12. Wait Until Dark poster
One last horror poster in Sabrina's room is for the 1967 film Wait Until Dark, which stars Audrey Hepburn and Alan Arkin.
13. Wood reclaimed from the set of Bates Motel
It's not just replicas and posters shown in Chilling Adventures. The attic bedroom of Sabrina's cousin Ambrose is made of wood reclaimed from the set of Bates Motel, which--like Chilling Adventures--filmed in Vancouver, Canada. There's something creepy about Ambrose having a room made out of the remains of Norman Bates' home.
14. Whatever Happened to Baby Jane? poster
In his room, Ambrose pays tribute to Bette Davis and Joan Crawford with a poster of the 1962 thriller Whatever Happened To Baby Jane?
15. One Exciting Night poster
Like Sabrina, he also has a poster for a classic silent film. DW Griffith's One Exciting Night is featured on a poster.
16. Fearless Vampire Killers poster
One last poster in his room is for Fearless Vampire Killers, the Roman Polanski horror film that starred Sharon Tate.
18. A strange connection to real-life horrors
It's just not the sets and props that connect to evil, though. In the fourth episode, while trying out for the choir at the Academy of Unseen Arts, Sabrina sings a song called "I'll Never Say Never to Always." The track is originally written by none other than Charles Manson, the now-deceased former cult leader and mastermind behind the Manson Family murders in the '60s/
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Netflix Has Already Renewed Castlevania For Season 3
The second season of Castlevania may have just debuted on Netflix, but fans can already rest assured that the series isn't going anywhere. The streaming giant has confirmed to GameSpot that the show has been renewed for Season 3. The news was first reported by Deadline.
A release date for the third season has not been announced. However, Netflix says director Sam Deats and writer/executive producer Warren Ellis will return for the new season, which will consist of 10 episodes. The duo will be joined, once again, by executive producers Adi Shankar, Fred Seibert, and Kevin Kolde.
A short description of the show's return reads, "Returning to Netflix for a third season, Castlevania, inspired by the classic video game series, is a dark medieval fantasy following the last surviving member of the disgraced Belmont clan, trying to save Eastern Europe from extinction at the hand of Vlad Dracula Tepes himself. Trevor Belmont, last survivor of his house, is no longer alone, and he and his misfit comrades race to find a way to save humanity from extinction at the hands of the grief-maddened Dracula and his sinister vampire war council."
Castlevania first debuted on Netflix in July 2017, before returning for Season 2 on October 26, 2018. The animated series stars the voices of Richard Armitage, James Callis, Graham McTavish, and Theo James, among others. If you haven't checked out Season 2 yet, make sure to read GameSpot's review of the new episodes.
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12 Best Slasher Movie Killers Ever, Ranked
It's spooky movie season, which means different things to different people. Some love their psychological horror films, while others love a good zombie apocalypse. Still, there are also more than a few fans of the slasher sub-genre that somehow keep those movies successful, even decades after the end of the supposed boom.
What makes a good slasher movie, though? Of course, you can always point to the final girl, like Halloween's Laurie Strode, as a big selling point. The idea that, for the most part, someone survives whatever is trying to kill them. Beyond those figures, though, it's the killers that make slasher movies interesting.
As the years have rolled on, it's the killers, themselves, that have become pop culture icons, for better or worse. While we all love Nancy Thompson from A Nightmare on Elm Street, it's Freddy Krueger that people dress up as. Likewise, while a new Halloween movie wouldn't have happened without Jamie Lee Curtis returning as Laurie, it's impossible to imagine her going toe-to-toe with anyone other than Michael Myers.
With that in mind, we've revisited arguably too many slasher movies to figure out who the best big screen killers of all time are. Once we had the best 12 figured out, we simply ranked then on how awesome they are. Because let's be honest, the mark of a great slasher killer is how memorable they remain even years after they've left theaters.
If this somehow isn't enough horror goodness for you, make sure to check out our rankings of the Friday the 13th, Halloween, and George Romero zombie franchises.
12. Billy Chapman
First appearance: Silent Night, Deadly Night
Billy Chapman deserves more credit than he's given as a slasher killer. Silent Night, Deadly Night is a movie that is largely forgotten by modern audiences, but this film about a many who has a psychotic breakdown and takes to killing on Christmas Eve while dressed as Santa Claus is a classic. While the movie spawned a franchise--there are 4 sequels and a remake--it's Billy that made Silent Night, Deadly Night such a weird and fun thing to watch.
11. Pinhead
First appearance: Hellraiser
The thing about the Hellraiser franchise is it's mostly bad. Pinhead, the central evil in most of the films, though, is very memorable. I mean, he's a ghostly white figure with needles sticking out of his head. How do you forget that?
It's thanks to Pinhead and his fellow Cenobites--the name of his species--that so many disturbing kills were pulled off throughout the series, though the movies only get worse as time goes on.
10. Death
First appearance: Final Destination
This is a peculiar one. You can't actually see this killer, but it's perhaps the most deadly. In Final Destination, a group of teens manages to avoid dying in a horrible accident when one of them has a vision of it unfolding. However, after avoiding their fates, Death must now take them out. That premise was repeated throughout five films, and there's something fun about each one of them. Death, as it turns out, can be very creative when it wants to.
9. Norman Bates
First appearance: Psycho
It was Norman Bates that uttered the line, "We all go a little mad sometimes." While Psycho arrived long before even Halloween, this 1960 horror movie can easily be classified as a slasher. Norman, in many ways, set the stage for what slasher killers would become. He's a man who has fallen over the edge of sanity and given into the urge to kill. Of course, for him, he thinks it's his mother doing the dirty deeds. As we all know, though, she's dead and he's wearing a wig.
8. Jigsaw
First appearance: Saw
Somehow, there have been 8 Saw movies, dropping unsuspecting victims into the worst escape rooms of all time. Behind just about all of them is the Jigsaw Killer, otherwise known as John Kramer. What makes Jigsaw so good--and hard to watch--is how inventive he is. Instead of outright murdering people, he essentially challenges them to complete gruesome obstacle courses that kill them in over-the-top ways. Seriously, what mind thought up the reverse bear trap?
Sadly, though, the Saw movies are less about Jigsaw than the gore he inflicts. The franchise helped a resurgence of "torture porn" films that are far more focused on blood and guts than developing any character.
7. Chucky
First appearance: Child's Play
If you were a child of the '80s and had a My Buddy or Kid Sister doll, Child's Play was pretty much the scariest thing you could imagine. Chucky, the Good Guy doll possessed by the spirit of a serial killer, has no problem slashing down everything in his way. For seven movies, Chucky raised all kinds of hell while making jokes. Honestly, if anything takes away from the mystique of Chucky, it's all the jokes. The sillier you get, the less scary you are.
6. Mrs. Voorhees
First appearance: Friday the 13th
Sure, Jason is the more important name in slasher history, but he's nothing without his mother. While Jason didn't get his hockey mask until Friday the 13th: Part 3, he didn't even appear, as an adult, in the first film. Instead, it's revealed after several bodies have dropped that it's actually Pamela Voorhees that's murdering campers, in a twisted quest for vengeance after blaming camp counselors for her son's death. Pamela launched the Friday the 13th franchise and left an impressive trail of bodies in her wake.
5. Ghostface
First appearance: Scream
The slasher franchise was dead and buried, but just like the killers that haunted so many dreams, the genre was resurrected by Scream. Ghostface, a mantle worn by multiple people throughout the four Scream films, became the new face of slasher movies. With meta references at the ready, Ghostface patterned itself after a wide range of classic villains and kickstarted a resurgence of slasher movies. Unfortunately, titles like I Know What You Did Last Summer weren't quite as good as A Nightmare on Elm Street.
4. Leatherface
First appearance: The Texas Chainsaw Massacre
What made Leatherface so scary in the first Texas Chainsaw Massacre is that the film opened with the idea that it was based on a true story. Of course, that's not exactly true, but the idea of a cannibal killer in Texas--or even an entire family of cannibals--was downright terrifying. Arm that killer with a loud chainsaw and a mask made out of the skin of victims, and you have something special.
3. Jason Voorhees
First appearance: Friday the 13th
When slasher killers are parodied, it's usually Jason that serves as the template. While he appeared briefly in the first film, it wasn't until the sequel when he became an iconic slasher. He's a giant and menacing force wearing a mask, wielding a machete, and stalking horny teenagers at a summer camp. When you think of slasher movies, that's probably the image that first comes to mind. Of course, with 12 movies to his credit, that's not surprising.
And while they've varied in quality--never forget that Jason went to space--this killer has the most films under his belt. Now if he'd just move on from the death of his mom.
2. Freddy Krueger
First appearance: A Nightmare on Elm Street
Freddy is a nightmare come true, which is what makes him so scary. Over 9 films--if you include Freddy vs. Jason and the 2010 A Nightmare on Elm Street reboot--Freddy and his glove of knives have been haunting the dreams of kids who grew up in the '80s and '90s. The idea of a child killer who now haunts the nightmares of kids, hunting and killing them, is bone chilling. That said, there was some silliness as the Nightmare franchise went on. Freddy killing a kid using the NES Power Glove is great comedy, though not necessarily scary.
1. Michael Myers
First appearance: Halloween
It's hard to argue against Michael Myers as the best slasher killer of all time. After all, he's the one that launched the genre craze. And while it's been argued for years who deserved the honors between him, Freddy, and Jason, the answer is simple.
Michael, as introduced in the first movie and again in the 2018 film, is evil and chaos incarnate. His killing is random and doesn't really serve an ulterior motive. Yes, that was muddled in the films that followed. Thankfully, though, that piece of the Myers legacy has been retconned. Instead of a killer seeking some sort of vengeance, Michael is just demented and evil and there's nothing scarier than that.
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Don't Miss: Here They Lie and the ethics of VR horror
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