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‘Strange Brigade’ is Supernatural Serial Adventure Done Proper

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Brigade

Rebellion Development’s latest, Strange Brigade is a charming and fun-filled surprise whose aesthetic and playful nature makes for a great time spent. Ultimately, watching the supernatural, puzzle solving and firepower take center stage is a dang joy to experience.

Rebellion Developments is the team primarily known for their Sniper Elite series as well as its Zombie Army Trilogy. While, those titles are really great and inventive in their fields, they are both voiced with a lot more serious tone. With Strange Brigade, the team seems to have exercised some of their tongue-in-cheek, fun demons, to extraordinary result.

This game is deeply rooted in the cliffhanger reliant serial adventures of the 1930s. These pictures were usually played at movie houses and were catered to kids in a double-feature format. As before mentioned, these were all reliant on cliffhanger endings that made sure audiences came back.

Both the look and charm of those serial adventures is captured carefully in Strange Brigade, right down to the bravado filled narrator and cliffhanger stapled levels.

In Strange Brigade, you take on the role of one of four adventurers (more characters available with DLC) and head out for a rip-roaring supernatural adventure in Egypt. Turns out the Witch Queen Seteki has been unleashed from her tomb and is wreaking havoc on the land with her army of monsters.

You can choose to go at it alone in single player, or team up with three other players in online co-op. It’s a lot more fun to have a go with your cast of online buddies, but single player offers just as much fun if that is your thing.

Brigade

The game offers a cast of adventurers to choose from in the form of Archeologist, Archimedes de Quincey, Marksman Frank Fairburne, Maasai warrior Nalangu Rushida, and Mechanic Gracie Braithwaite. Each character comes with special abilities that they are free to unleash when they have collected enough souls on the battlefield.

Characters each have their unique feel and approach to battle. Some focusing on brute force while others choose to roll with sorcery or marksmanship. Combining character play styles is a blast with a team, and imperative in later more difficult levels.

Levels consist of lots of shooting, some rewarding exploration and some fun puzzle solving work. The combo makes for a formula that doesn’t get stale easily.

What would all that adventuring be without a bit of treasure throw into the mix? Well, folks braving traps and going that little extra distance in solving some light brain teasers, and you will be rewarded with all kinds of treasures to either aid in your firepower or assist in leveling up your character’s special abilities.

Strange Brigade hosts a nice variety of monsters along the way too. Giant scorpions, mummies, Minotaur and more await you and your team around every turn.

The narrator is a cornerstone of the age the game captures so well. This guy not only narrates the story but also lends his voice along the way to give hints if you are stuck, and even goes so far as telling you to pause the game if you step away from the controller. He is a bit hilariously bossy at times on certain matters. It’s small special moments and additives like this that make Strange Brigade as fun as it is.

Strange Brigade is proper adventure done right. All the serial adventures it is paying homage to in scope and character is done with a playful reverence for the 1930 adventures and the offbeat silliness is a nice change of pace. Gather some friends and give this supernatural title a go.

Strange Brigade is out now on PC, PS4 and Xbox One.

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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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