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[Review] Castlevania- Dracula’s Revenge

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Netflix has been building up a reputation for great and entertaining original content with their multitude of original series, and that trend continues with Castlevania. While the first season was short it is packed to the brim with interesting characters, gore, and and plenty of callbacks to the series’ video game roots. Thankfully Netflix has already announced that a second season of Castlevania is on the way, we will just have to wait for a release date though.

There were a lot of elements in this series that helped to make it the success that it was, however the biggest influence was the multiple references to the video games, specifically Castlevania 3: Dracula’s Curse and Castlevania: Symphony of the Night. Dracula’s curse however was the major influence on this season’s writing and story, though the story is still original and not a retelling of the game.

There are many elements to the story that deserve praise, but the biggest of all is definitely the voice acting. When the series was first revealed to be animated over live action, it was immediately apparent that talented voice actors would be necessary for the show to be taken seriously. Every character feels like they just stepped out of a Castlevania game, and that is fantastic especially for characters who existed previously in the franchise.

Dracula for example starts the series off by meeting his future wife, the one person in the entire world who he truly loved. Only for her to be murdered by a corrupt clergy and send Dracula on a quest for revenge against mankind. Any fan of Castlevania knows that when Dracula is attempting to end the world, only a Belmont can stop him.

Trevor Belmont is the vampire hunter present in the first season and right from his induction it is clear that he isn’t like other Belmont fans are familiar with. He is far more of a reluctant hero type rather than a vampire hunting hero. Trevor spends most of his time in the first season trying to drink his problems away and ignore the world as it burns around him, before finally breaking out vampire killer.

Netflix Castlevania

The series has a multitude of high points from great and accurate characters to the awesome and constant gore and demon slayings. But nothing is perfect, and that also applies to Castlevania. The major complaint with the first season is it’s length. At only 4 episodes and each episode being 20 minutes long, there isn’t much room for actual story to happen.

The entire first season felt like a quick role call of characters and a nice way to fill everyone in as to what is happening. Yes a second season is on the way, hopefully with more episodes, however that doesn’t change the fact that the first season felt like a crash course into the actual story to come and nothing more.

Netflix Castlevania

There was no actual story arc or real character development, everything that happens is building up to an exciting story only to be slapped in the face and told “No, you get to wait for the interesting bits.” That being said, the first season as a whole, was still entertaining and a fun time while binging it.

Castlevania, much like the titular video games, is rough around the edges but still a great time. Any fan of the games or Gothic story telling in general should give the series a watch, even for newcomers to the series it’s still entertaining and easy to follow. Hopefully the second season will add more to the story, and a focus on the characters.

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‘Evil Dead’ Film Franchise Getting TWO New Installments

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It was a risk for Fede Alvarez to reboot Sam Raimi’s horror classic The Evil Dead in 2013, but that risk paid off and so did its spiritual sequel Evil Dead Rise in 2023. Now Deadline is reporting that the series is getting, not one, but two fresh entries.

We already knew about the Sébastien Vaniček upcoming film that delves into the Deadite universe and should be a proper sequel to the latest film, but we are broadsided that Francis Galluppi and Ghost House Pictures are doing a one-off project set in Raimi’s universe based off of an idea that Galluppi pitched to Raimi himself. That concept is being kept under wraps.

Evil Dead Rise

“Francis Galluppi is a storyteller who knows when to keep us waiting in simmering tension and when to hit us with explosive violence,” Raimi told Deadline. “He is a director that shows uncommon control in his feature debut.”

That feature is titled The Last Stop In Yuma County which will release theatrically in the United States on May 4. It follows a traveling salesman, “stranded at a rural Arizona rest stop,” and “is thrust into a dire hostage situation by the arrival of two bank robbers with no qualms about using cruelty-or cold, hard steel-to protect their bloodstained fortune.”

Galluppi is an award-winning sci-fi/horror shorts director whose acclaimed works include High Desert Hell and The Gemini Project. You can view the full edit of High Desert Hell and the teaser for Gemini below:

High Desert Hell
The Gemini Project

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‘Invisible Man 2’ Is “Closer Than Its Ever Been” to Happening

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Elisabeth Moss in a very well-thought-out statement said in an interview for Happy Sad Confused that even though there have been some logistical issues for doing Invisible Man 2 there is hope on the horizon.

Podcast host Josh Horowitz asked about the follow-up and if Moss and director Leigh Whannell were any closer to cracking a solution to getting it made. “We are closer than we have ever been to cracking it,” said Moss with a huge grin. You can see her reaction at the 35:52 mark in the below video.

Happy Sad Confused

Whannell is currently in New Zealand filming another monster movie for Universal, Wolf Man, which might be the spark that ignites Universal’s troubled Dark Universe concept which hasn’t gained any momentum since Tom Cruise’s failed attempt at resurrecting The Mummy.

Also, in the podcast video, Moss says she is not in the Wolf Man film so any speculation that it’s a crossover project is left in the air.

Meanwhile, Universal Studios is in the middle of constructing a year-round haunt house in Las Vegas which will showcase some of their classic cinematic monsters. Depending on attendance, this could be the boost the studio needs to get audiences interested in their creature IPs once more and to get more films made based on them.

The Las Vegas project is set to open in 2025, coinciding with their new proper theme park in Orlando called Epic Universe.

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Jake Gyllenhaal’s Thriller ‘Presumed Innocent’ Series Gets Early Release Date

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Jake gyllenhaal presumed innocent

Jake Gyllenhaal’s limited series Presumed Innocent is dropping on AppleTV+ on June 12 instead of June 14 as originally planned. The star, whose Road House reboot has brought mixed reviews on Amazon Prime, is embracing the small screen for the first time since his appearance on Homicide: Life on the Street in 1994.

Jake Gyllenhaal’s in ‘Presumed Innocent’

Presumed Innocent is being produced by David E. Kelley, J.J. Abrams’ Bad Robot, and Warner Bros. It is an adaptation of Scott Turow’s 1990 film in which Harrison Ford plays a lawyer doing double duty as an investigator looking for the murderer of his colleague.

These types of sexy thrillers were popular in the ’90s and usually contained twist endings. Here’s the trailer for the original:

According to Deadline, Presumed Innocent doesn’t stray far from the source material: “…the Presumed Innocent series will explore obsession, sex, politics and the power and limits of love as the accused fights to hold his family and marriage together.”

Up next for Gyllenhaal is the Guy Ritchie action movie titled In the Grey scheduled for release in January 2025.

Presumed Innocent is an eight-episode limited series set to stream on AppleTV+ starting June 12.

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