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‘The Dark Pictures: Man of Medan’ Takes ‘Choose Your Own Adventure’ Terror to New Heights’

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Medan

If you had told me that one day it would be possible to turn ‘Choose Your Own Adventure’ books into deeply involved, and absorbing game narratives, I would have found a way to build a frickin’ time machine in order to reach said future all the faster. The Dark Pictures: Man of Medan is that future, and accomplishes that Choose Your Own Adventure brought to life in pretty mesmerizing ways.

Supermassive Games is the team behind 2015’s sleeper hit Until Dawn. Much like Dawn’s meticulous branching story lines based on choice, Man of Medan is deeply involved and ever revolving.

Man of Medan follows a foursome and their boat captain as they head out for an underwater diving expedition to sculp a sunken WWII plane. Brothers Alex and Brad paired with Alex’s girlfriend, Julia and her brother Conrad make up the cast of main characters and are what brings the familial and relationship drama into the fold. All this while, Fliss captain’s the boat and tries to remain as neutral (but headstrong) as possible. When the crew is eventually hijacked by pirates who believe there is gold to be found, our group of characters are forced to board a WWII ghost ship that hides some terrifying secrets.

Medan

The story setup is straight out of something that is half 90s horror and half JJ Abrams. It definitely has familiar, fun b-movie tropes but it also pushes into the mysteries that would have fit in with Abrams’ Lost series.

Much like Until Dawn the dialogue and its many splitting trees are written by horror alum, Graham Reznick and Larry Fessenden. They clearly speak the genre lingo and do a great job of bringing that horror movie experience to the cast of characters in exceedingly creative and swell ways.

The voice acting is on par too and with a game so focused on the characters, it really had to be. Conrad played by Shawn Ashmore is no stranger to the world of acting in games following his starring role in Remedy’s Quantum Break. Mannerisms and mocap magic really work to create fleshed out and a believable set of characters.

The Dark Pictures Anthology clearly signifies that we are going to have many genre titles coming out of this world. The totem of the series being The Curator, a mysterious sort of guide who unfurls the story to you allowing you to make choices for the characters their in. Think of The Curator as the Rod Serling to Twilight Zone or the Crypt Keeper to Tales from The Crypt. Save for, he allows you to write the story and choose characters’ fates.

Since everything you say and certain actions you take have constant consequences, Man of Medan comes with several different endings. These endings are based on the lives you save during your play through. There is a way to have everyone survive and there is a way to have everyone meet their grisly end. Now, the goal might be to have everyone come out hunky all hunky-dory but there is significantly more fun and a lot more frights from allowing your characters to die.

Medan

Man of Medan offers you the choice to play alone to enjoy the experience via co-op. The multiplayer section breaks into playing online with other and a movie night couch party mode that allows you and your friends/family to play through using one controller. In this mode, each person selects which character(s) they will play as, when it comes to their turn a prompt comes up that lets you know to pass the controller. When I first heard about this mode, I thought it would be kind of intrusive and break the spell, but it comes off nice and organic and doesn’t interfere with gameplay at all.

Much like Until Dawn, this one is told through a variety of static third person angles. Instead of letting this format strictly be the angles we are watching a story unfold, Supermassive Games uses these angles as a way to scare the absolute soul out of you. Some of the best scares in the game take place in the periphery of those points of view. Either eluding to someone watching you, spooky things existing in foregrounds as well as backgrounds and to just throw something directly at you. On one occasion while walking through one of the ghost ships corridors I, saw a woman facing the wall in an odd spot. When I went back to look she was gone. It was an instant and could have easily been missed. But the care was there to put her there anyways. I really love how the team fully understands not all gamers are going to be looking in the same spot, so to take advantage of that they place different subtle scares throughout the game.

The Dark Pictures: Man of Medan is a great start to this anthology. It’s characters and story consumes you whole. I absolutely didn’t want to stop playing the game, like a good book, I couldn’t put it down. The team at Supermassive Games has carved out a very special niche in the genre by bridging what we all love about horror with everything we revere in gaming, all while not having any problem with keeping it weird and terrifying.

The Dark Pictures: Man of Medan is out now on PC, PS4, and Xbox One.

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News

Brad Dourif Says He’s Retiring Except For One Important Role

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Brad Dourif has been doing movies for nearly 50 years. Now it seems he is walking away from the industry at 74 to enjoy his golden years. Except, there is a caveat.

Recently, digital entertainment publication JoBlo’s Tyler Nichols talked to some of the Chucky television series cast members. During the interview, Dourif made an announcement.

“Dourif said that he’s retired from acting,” says Nichols. “The only reason he came back for the show was because of his daughter Fiona and he considers Chucky creator Don Mancini to be family. But for non-Chucky stuff, he considers himself retired.”

Dourif has voiced the possessed doll since 1988 (minus the 2019 reboot). The original movie “Child’s Play” has become such a cult classic it’s at the top of some people’s best chillers of all time. Chucky himself is ingrained in pop culture history much like Frankenstein or Jason Voorhees.

While Dourif may be known for his famous voiceover, he is also an Oscar-nominated actor for his part in One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest. Another famous horror role is The Gemini Killer in William Peter Blatty’s Exorcist III. And who can forget Betazoid Lon Suder in Star Trek: Voyager?

The good news is that Don Mancini is already pitching a concept for season four of Chucky which might also include a feature-length movie with a series tie-in. So, Although Dourif says he is retiring from the industry, ironically he is Chucky’s friend till the end.

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Editorial

7 Great ‘Scream’ Fan Films & Shorts Worth a Watch

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The Scream franchise is such an iconic series, that many budding filmmakers take inspiration from it and make their own sequels or, at least, build upon the original universe created by screenwriter Kevin Williamson. YouTube is the perfect medium to showcase these talents (and budgets) with fan-made homages with their own personal twists.

The great thing about Ghostface is that he can appear anywhere, in any town, he just needs the signature mask, knife, and unhinged motive. Thanks to Fair Use laws it’s possible to expand upon Wes Craven’s creation by simply getting a group of young adults together and killing them off one by one. Oh, and don’t forget the twist. You’ll notice that Roger Jackson’s famous Ghostface voice is uncanny valley, but you get the gist.

We have gathered five fan films/shorts related to Scream that we thought were pretty good. Although they can’t possibly match the beats of a $33 million blockbuster, they get by on what they have. But who needs money? If you’re talented and motivated anything is possible as proven by these filmmakers who are well on their way to the big leagues.

Take a look at the below films and let us know what you think. And while you’re at it, leave these young filmmakers a thumbs up, or leave them a comment to encourage them to create more films. Besides, where else are you going to see Ghostface vs. a Katana all set to a hip-hop soundtrack?

Scream Live (2023)

Scream Live

Ghostface (2021)

Ghostface

Ghost Face (2023)

Ghost Face

Don’t Scream (2022)

Don’t Scream

Scream: A Fan Film (2023)

Scream: A Fan Film

The Scream (2023)

The Scream

A Scream Fan Film (2023)

A Scream Fan Film
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Movies

Another Creepy Spider Movie Hits Shudder This Month

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Good spider films are a theme this year. First, we had Sting and then there was Infested. The former is still in theaters and the latter is coming to Shudder starting April 26.

Infested has been getting some good reviews. People are saying that it’s not only a great creature feature but also a social commentary on racism in France.

According to IMDb: Writer/director Sébastien Vanicek was looking for ideas around the discrimination faced by black and Arab-looking people in France, and that led him to spiders, which are rarely welcome in homes; whenever they’re spotted, they’re swatted. As everyone in the story (people and spiders) is treated like vermin by society, the title came to him naturally.

Shudder has become the gold standard for streaming horror content. Since 2016, the service has been offering fans an expansive library of genre movies. in 2017, they began to stream exclusive content.

Since then Shudder has become a powerhouse in the film festival circuit, buying distribution rights to movies, or just producing some of their own. Just like Netflix, they give a film a short theatrical run before adding it to their library exclusively for subscribers.

Late Night With the Devil is a great example. It was released theatrically on March 22 and will begin streaming on the platform starting April 19.

While not getting the same buzz as Late Night, Infested is a festival favorite and many have said if you suffer from arachnophobia, you might want to take heed before watching it.

Infested

According to the synopsis, our main character, Kalib is turning 30 and dealing with some family issues. “He’s fighting with his sister over an inheritance and has cut ties with his best friend. Fascinated by exotic animals, he finds a venomous spider in a shop and brings it back to his apartment. It only takes a moment for the spider to escape and reproduce, turning the whole building into a dreadful web trap. The only option for Kaleb and his friends is to find a way out and survive.”

The film will be available to watch on Shudder starting April 26.

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