Well if your Monday didn’t suck already, then prepare for more disappointment. Konami today confirmed that the highly anticipated horror game ”Silent Hills” is cancelled. Both Norman Reedus and Guillermo del Toro have tweeted that they are both heart broken by this and have left the project. Konami claims they are still in talks with Hideo Kojima, but as for now Silent Hills is dead, and that sucks big time. Konami also stated that the Silent Hill series will continue but that doesn’t give us much hope for the franchise.
This really pisses me off. I was looking forward to this game, it looked amazing and seemed like it was going to revive the silent hill series. Konami is at fault here, if they would of just given Kojima his creative freedom and let him do what he wants with his games, then this wouldn’t of happened. Now Konami has lost one of their best developers and lost great potential with Silent Hills.
From all the survival horror fans, we would like to say from the bottom of our saddened hearts is FUCK YOU Konami.
A failed filmmaker sets forth to claim is stake in fame by creating a documentary about a legendary horror director who disappeared during his latest highly anticipated masterpiece “Demonic.” The filmmaker is hellbent on finding the director and discovering the truth on why the director had a melt down during filming and stole all the film’s footage. After sitting down with various interviewees and finding the long lost director, this film has become notorious for it’s dark background of death that surrounded some of the cast and crew and their families. The notion seems to becomes evident that “Demonic” should have never been made and that some films should never be released or else more peoples’ lives would be in grave danger.
I surely wanted to believe that Cameron Romero had the same masterful skill set as his father George or also I wouldn’t have mind if Cameron went into a total opposite direction of his zombie king father and create a whole new and eloquent horror genre that puts his name on the map. “Auteur” is my first look into Cameron Romero’s work and my hopes hit the highest of ceilings and anxiousness and eagerness helped drive me to pop this disc into the player as soon as able to without interruption. Unfortunately, I found myself glancing through friends’ comment walls on Facebook and watching various PornTube videos because I was so disappointingly bored with the result of “Autuer.”
My heart knew something was amiss when Tom Sizemore headlines a movie and sure enough my heart was right and I should have been more perceptive to it’s warnings. Now, I have a soft side for Sizemore; I enjoy the man’s earlier work in Harley Davidson and the Marlboro Man, The Relic, and in Saving Private Ryan – all very great material – but Sizemore has lost his knack as of late. Also, Sizemore doesn’t really have anything to do with headlining “Auteur.” His runtime is no more than maybe 15 minutes tops and I swear he’s reading off cue cards in the restaurant scenes with actor/producer BJ Hendricks playing the documentarian who’s trying to make a documentary about “Demonic” in which Tom Sizemore stars in – got that? Sizemore is just a recognizable name to try and sell home entertainment units.
What really hurts “Auteur” is that it’s too much of a talking head movie. Basically, BJ Hendricks drives around searching for Ian Hutton’s character, the great director Charlie Buckwald, and does a number of interviews with cast and crew members along with other interviews with people who met Charlie outside the studio. Not until in the middle of Act three does the film get somewhat appealing with the levitation scene of Madeline Merritt’s character Kate Rivers. There some scare appeal there that would have been nice if implemented perhaps through the rest of the movie.
What also could be construed about “Auteur” that would compare to most of his father work is that Cameron attempts to convey some social commentary about Hollywood and their stressed out, coming to a breaking point actors and directors losing their cool and jumping off the deep end into a psychotic break abyss and that there are directors and producers out in Hollywood that would jump the wagon to try and make a easy dollar by exploiting their downfall. Cameron, hypothetically, turns the table on the exploiter making this ambulance chaser pay with the story being more sinisterly deadly. In that regard and if that has any truth what Cameron was trying to accomplish, then I applaud him on successfully mocking Tinseltown.
No one should certainly take my word on whether one should watch Cameron Romero’s “Auteur” or not, that’s up to them. I only give my humble critique and my overall impression with the film had cold heartedly, but quietly, crushed my hopes in being something I would enjoy from the next generation of Romeros. But hey, Cameron’s father had to start somewhere and build upon that and that is what I suspect Cameron will do as well. It’s great to see that Cameron did give a little nod to his father in the DVD store scene – twice. You can buy “Auteur” from MVDVisual on DVD Home Entertainment on April 21st.
Billy, a good church-going man, reluctantly leaves his choir to join the community theater at the request of his girlfriend Shannon. What Billy doesn’t realize is that there are all different kinds of characters who partake in the community theater – the nerdy gamers, the anti-establishment antagonizers, the gays, and, of course, Dracula. Yes, Dracula – the Prince of Darkness. The theater’s director is a satanic worshipper who feeds off the sins of his actors to resurrect Dracula and start a whole new world order of vampires. “The Sins of Dracula” film is a homage to multiple horror genre branches. Decades including the 1970s and the 1980s source the brilliantly colored and expression heavy of the Hammer horror era and combine it with the gore of video nasties marking all present and accounted for in this ode to classic horror and that’s the creative style of director Richard Griffin and his Scorpio Film Releasing company which quickly produces many independent films that hit many media platforms. My previous film experience with Griffin includes “The Disco Exorcist” that implements film stock imperfections and the hardcore porn of the 1970’s. The other Griffin film, “Murder University,” aims to create a satirical look at a murderous cult gone collegiate. Lastly, my very first Richard Griffin film was Feeding the Masses wanted to be a social political zombie following in a George A. Romero fashion. So there is no surprise here that Griffin does what he does best, but after seeing “The Disco Exorcist” and “Murder University” both which I liked in previous reviews The Disco Exorcist review here and Murder University review here, “The Sins of Dracula” warranted high hopes for Griffin to do something new and cut ties with the old, regurgitated scenes. Enough about Griffin, let’s talk about “The Sins of Dracula.” Just from reading the synopsis alone, one can conclude that this horror-comedy will come off as a bit outrageous, delving into and dissecting the sins of certain kinds of people who walk in all kinds of life and exploiting them for the sake of our good boy Scott’s heroic journey and also exploiting them to awake the evil Dracula. The story doesn’t waste any time putting to waste the sinfully deemed characters and going on a Godsend vampire hunting spree. At the end, most peoples’ personal views are made light of in a satirical fashion. Michael Thurber, a staple actor of Griffin’s, does a solid job as a Hammer horror Dracula mirroring the likes of the vampire exposed Christopher Lee. Steven O’Broin, as Lou Perdition the satanist devotee theater director, had some excellent lines and quips and made his Vincent Price-esque character enjoyable when on screen. Another of Griffin’s minions, Aaron Peaslee pranced around fairly well as a gay theater actor and his raunchy sex scene with fellow actor Johnny Sederquist was the most controversial aspect of the film. I can’t say that about the other characters. Other characters fell a bit flat and didn’t convey their characters intentions well enough to pull off a spoofy-stereotype. The fact that their characters where put to death way too early in the film doesn’t give the character a chance to make their presence more well established. The blood letting could have been, well, bloodier, but there is enough letting to super soak and saturate one’s thirst. Some of the scenes are restaged from the likes of “Fright Night” and “Buffy the Vampire Slayer” the movie. Like I was saying early in the review about the film’s originality, the lack of new material makes the likelihood of repeating a viewing of “The Sins of Dracula” very unlikely which is difficult to say about a solid homage. “The Sins of Dracula” is good for a one time single viewing and but lacks new and fresh material to really captivate attention. The MVDVisual DVD cover also doesn’t explicitly want you to go out and rent this title, but the disc art is amazingly detailed and you shouldn’t judge a film’s material by the cover. I do strongly suggest to check out “The Sins of Dracula” if you’re into the Hammer horror scene and into Griffin’s Quentin Tarantino homage style of directing.
Resident Evil. The game that has made the horror genre what it is today. A game that declared Capcom the ”masters” of survival horror. Resident Evil was the game that got me into the survival horror genre and is one of the best games of my childhood. Now years after Resident Evil 4 Capcom has put the series in a free fall, trying their best to please the shooter/actions fans. It has become obvious that ever since Shinji Mikami left them they had no idea what to do with Resident Evil and have almost destroyed the entire franchise. Well all that has changed for now and I am pleased to say that Capcom has redeemed themselves with the latest Resident Evil entry. You did it Capcom! After all these years you have FINALLY listened to your fans and have made a GOOD Resident Evil game.
Resident Evil Revelations 2 is a survival horror game developed and published by Capcom and is a direct sequel to Resident Evil Revelations.
The game takes place between the events of Resident Evil 5 and 6. You play as both Claire Redfield and Barry Burton. Who are both brought to a mysterious island that is overrun with monsters.
Being a long time fan of the series, this is by far the best Resident Evil story in a long, long time. I could tell Capcom listened to the fans and have finally revealed characters that we have only read about in lore and have been wanting to see in a game for a long time now. There were a few parts in the game where I had a total fanboy burst due to what unfolded in the story. The fact that Capcom finally brought back Barry Burton was just awesome. We have not seen Barry as a main character since the first game! Now that he is back, they have also brought his daughter into the picture, which we hear very little of her in the first game.
The gameplay is very similar to Resident Evil 4. Still in a thrid person, over the shoulder view but no more of that crappy run, slide, drop kick moves they put in Resident Evil 6. The gameplay is very smooth and not as stiff like 4 and 5 was. One great thing about the gameplay is that there are no more quick time events! Well there are some minor ones like tapping a button to grab something or get out of a hold. But yes there are no more annoying quick time events that were present in the last few titles. Laser sights for guns are also no longer in the game which were also in the last few games. The graphics are very decent except for the weird 2D, cutout grass that looks out of place in some areas. The CG cut scenes are very well done and so are the player models. The game’s soundtrack is very nice and fits the game perfectly. It was composed by Kota Suzuki, the same guy who did the soundtrack for Resident Evil 5 and the first Revelations.
I’m sure the biggest question here is if it’s scary. Well both yes and no, some parts of the game do have a creepy atmosphere and it mostly relies on jump scares. As for it having that feeling of fear that we got in the older games it is no longer there. Unless you have never played a horror game in your life then this may be scary to you, but for Resident Evil fans it’s acceptable.
Raid mode is a huge improvement over the first Revelations raid. It offers more customization options, challenges, and goals. There are also microtransaction that go along with raid mode. This offers players ”Red Life Crystals” which act as spawns for you if you die during a raid and do not wish to restart. Players can do daily missions to earn Blue Life Crystals, but if you are a lazy person then you can buy these crystals and go about your day.
Unlike other Resident Evil games, Revelations 2 is pretty short. It’ll take you around 5 to 6 hours on average but even shorter if you rush through it. There are a total of four episodes and two bonus episodes if you decide to purchase the disc copy.
Capcom has surprised me and I am happy that they have finally listened to their fan base. I just hope they stay the course and not fuck up Resident Evil 7. Capcom you did good here but that doesn’t give you a free pass. So my personal rating for Resident Evil Revelations 2 is a 8/10. This is a must have for Resident Evil fans and gives us hope that Capcom can fix what they have done in the pass. Let’s just hope they do.
Resident Evil Revelations 2 is available on PC, XBOX ONE, XBOX 360, Playstation 3, Playstation 4, and coming soon to Playstation Vita.
Brothers Todd and Vernon Dopple are a pair of homeless drifters in New York City. To beat the cold city weather, they take shelter in an abandoned run-down building only to stumble into a dark and dank Devil worshipping den where vicious demons, tortuous succubi, and a psychological terror have chosen the brothers in order to re-awaken the Devil.
“Awaken the Devil” is not a fast-paced, on-the-edge of your seat demonic thriller and, you know what, that’s okay. Director Daniel Falicki’s combination of live-action and overlapping animation marks some spectacular rotoscope-esque filmmaking, think “A Scanner Darkly” or “Waking Life”, that looks really cinematically neat on screen with unique visual effects especially of the hovering demonic succubi. Without the animation, I fear that “Awaken the Devil” would suffer greatly from the film’s slow, but not too terribly slow, pace as the characters do a lot of wandering around the city without any direction until the day ends and the night begins. Luckily, we’re stuck with entertaining and passionate actors.
The two main actors, Jason Roth as the wheel-chair bound mute Vernon and Matt Simpson Siegel as his drug addicted and cynical brother Todd, sold us hard on their performances. Roth delivers a powerful silent performance and uses remarkable versatile facial expressions that goes above and beyond the budget of this film. Siegel is given loads of dialogue (nature of the beast when you’re character’s brother lacks a voice box) and sometimes resembles more of a rambling rant about his historical envious and predominantly jealousness, sometimes melancholic, of his brother. However, the dialogue is much more than just words on paper and the film revolves around this dialogue between the two brothers creating an underlying layer that is deeply involved than just some mindless succubi leaching the life of two homeless souls.
Overall, I would recommend at least one viewing of this Sector 5 and Rotomation Studios film. Just beware than after the first five minutes of great introductions and musical track from The March Violets, you might want to be doing something else between then and when run-down building. Don’t be discouraged; “Awaken the Devil” is a well edited, well directed, and well animated film that is unique and certainly haunting.
Nudity Report
Audria Larsen – See-through breasts – Audria Larsen is the first succubus that enters the scene and latches itself on to Todd. Audria’s scene is brief, but as she’s floating above Todd, there is a quick glimpses of her chest through a see-thru top. She’s also involved a “ghost” sex scene with Todd where she cowboy rides him until she reveals her true self. Audria Larsen is a burlesque/circus art model for Model Mayhem under the moniker Vivacious Miss Audacious and Larsen is also fairly good at hula-hooping and suspension which she tackles on a little bit in the film. It’s a sexy scene, but there rotoscope animation makes it a bit murky to full grasp Larsen’s assets.
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