A new story mode trailer for the giant monster brawler GigaBash was revealed as a part of Tokyo Games Show 2021. The destructive title, which is heavily inspired by the kaiju genre of films and video games, comes from Malaysia-based indie developer Passion Republic Games. GigaBash has been compared to Super Smash Bros. and Pacific Rim, with up to four players controlling unique giant monsters and duking it out across highly destructible levels.
The playable roster featured in GigaBash is quite diverse, pulling from popular kaiju franchises such as Godzilla, Gamera and Ultraman. Players can choose from gigantic robot warriors, a massive plant creature, an adorably destructive yeti, a horned rock kaiju and more. Players use their kaiju's unique moveset to clobber their gigantic adversaries, with each powerful attack also dealing inevitable damage to the surrounding environment. GigaBash appears to act as a spiritual successor to other giant monster brawlers of the past, many of them involving Godzillaand his cast of supporting characters, but Super Smash Bros. has also been a frequent comparison.
The latest trailer for GigaBash, shown at Tokyo Games Show 2021 by Passion Republic Games, gives a closer look at the title's story mode. The narrative portion of the game will consist of four distinct campaigns, each one starring a specific kaiju. The lumbering Gorogong, the long-range devastator Pipijuras, the playful yeti Woolley and the robotic warrior Thundatross will all star in their own separate campaigns. The narrative-driven single-player experience will include hand-crafted scenarios, which add variety to GigaBash's usual four-player brawls by changing objectives and adversaries.
While officially-licensed kaiju games do exist, many independent developers also strive to capture the giant monster experience themselves. Excidio The Kaiju Game is a Godzilla-inspired title which allows players to rampage through an unsuspecting city, with realistic physics immersing players in the destruction. As Excidio, gamers can use classic kaiju powers such as fire breath or tail swipes to lay waste to the city and its defenseless inhabitants. The title is still under development, with its creator continuing to work on assets and gameplay.
GigaBash appears to be a perfect love letter to classic monster brawlers such as War of the Monsters and Godzilla: Destroy All Monsters Melee. Players can choose from a colorful collection of monsters, each representing typical archetypes of the kaiju genre like robots and plant monsters. The game's hectic four-player multiplayer brawls also seem quite reminiscent of Super Smash Bros., so fans of that series may find a familiar itch being scratched. The inclusion of four dedicated narrative campaigns is also quite surprising, and the single-player experience will hopefully add variety to GigaBash while also building upon the game's world and lore.
Though it was not well received when it was first released, John Carpenter's The Thing eventually earned a reputation as one of the best horror movies ever made. It has enjoyed its more enthusiastic reception for several years now, but even after all of the praise over the years, The Thing still holds up remarkably well.
With the Halloween season approaching, horror fans will likely be revisiting this classic. Luckily, with a stellar cast, a gripping premise, and a truly iconic movie monster, The Thing still delivers nearly four decades since its release.
10 The Opening Title Sequence
The opening pre-title sequence is one of the rare missteps for the movie. It features a flying saucer that looks very cliché and not very convincing, sailing through space and heading into Earth's atmosphere. It makes the movie seem like a cheaper sci-fi story and doesn't feel necessary at all.
Thankfully, that clumsy sequence is immediately wiped from the audience's mind as the title appears. The title literally burns onto the screen like something emerging from the darkness and it is a far more fitting way to kick off this movie.
9 The Score
Right after the amazing title sequence, the movie refuses to let go of the audience's attention by hitting them with its classic score. While John Carpenter has often scored his own movies, including the iconic Halloween theme, master composer Ennio Morricone provides a brilliant piece.
While Morricone is known for Quentin Tarantino movies and Spaghetti Westerns, his score is the perfect mood-setting music for this movie. It is a foreboding and chilling score that works to put the audience on edge while being equally fitting to close out the movie.
8 The Isolated Setting
There is something about being confined to one location that works wonderfully in horror movies. Classics of the genre like The Shining deliver similar claustrophobic horror, but The Thing likely uses its setting better than any movie.
The central crew finds themselves trapped in an isolated Arctic outpost, cut off from the rest of the world. It not only means that the survivors have nowhere to run, but it also means that they are the last line of defense before this creature gets out in the world.
7 The Build-Up
While some horror movies have great effect in delivering the scares right from the first scene, The Thing takes a slower approach, building dread in the audience. The audience has enough information to know something is wrong but does not know what to expect.
Once the dog is brought into the outpost, the camera lingers on it, letting the audience know this seemingly adorable canine is more than it seems. With the added discovery of the Norwegian crew, the suspense is built up incredibly well. Even when audiences rewatch the movie and know what is coming, it is thrilling being ahead of the characters.
6 Kurt Russell As MacReady
Before Kurt Russell was a Quentin Tarantino regular, he and John Carpenter collaborated on a number of projects with The Thing being the most popular. Though there is certainly an ensemble feel to the movie, Russell takes center stage as MacReady.
MacReady is far from a perfect hero which makes him so interesting. He takes charge of the situation with Russell's badass demeanor as well as a relatable reluctance. Though The Thing is perfect as a one-off movie, it would have been fun to see Russell carry on as MacReady.
5 The Paranoia
Along with being a great monster movie, The Thing is able to add more tension with some mystery aspects. Since the alien is able to take on the form of whatever it absorbs, there is a slasher movie element as the characters try to figure out who the killer is. But unlike a slasher, this killer can keep changing.
Just as the characters start to question everyone around them, the audience is also on edge, knowing the threat could be coming from anywhere. Even when rewatching it, this element is a lot of fun as fans can try to spot where certain characters have been taken over.
4 Man Vs Man
The paranoia ultimately leads to untrusting among the survivors which adds yet another element of excitement to the story. The movie is not overly concerned with making these characters into flawless heroes, but rather shows how quickly they can turn on each other in dire situations.
MacReady, the closest thing to a hero in the movie, actually kills an innocent man at one point. Whereas most horror movies find the danger in characters being alone, these characters begin to feel the safest when no one else is around.
3 The Blood Test
As the survivors argue about which of them could be the monster, it becomes clear that if one of them is the thing, it is very good at blending in. When tensions reach a boiling point, MacReady conducts a blood test to see who he can trust.
With some of the men tied up, MacReady gradually tests each of their blood samples one by one. The scene is a brilliant bit of suspense filmmaking as the audience knows something is going to happen but isn't sure how the thing will respond to the test. The result is a great surprise followed by a wild and gory conclusion.
2 The Practical Effects
While there are amazing things that can be done with visual effects these days, there are some cases in which CGI does not match up to the practical effects. Indeed, The Thing is a prime example of that as its gruesome practical effects surpass just about anything in modern horror movies.
The scenes of the thing transforming are incredibly disturbing and terrifying with inventive designs that are the stuff of nightmares. It takes the movie from being a terrific suspense tale to a gory horror masterpiece.
1 The Ambiguous Ending
Unlike many horror movies, The Thing is filled with intelligent characters making good plans only to be thwarted by a more advanced enemy. At a certain point, there is a feeling of hopelessness in the story in that the heroes won't survive and can only hope to stop the monster.
That's what makes the ending so memorable as it is unclear if they succeeded. As MacReady and Childs are the only two remaining survivors, knowing they can't trust each other, the movie ends leaving their fates up for debate.
The animated Addams Family 2 features an ensemble cast of wonderful new and returning actors lending their voices to the beloved creepy and kooky characters. The Addams Family sequel follows the characters as Morticia and Gomez become agitated by Pugsley and Wednesday growing up by focusing too much on “scream time” and being late to family dinners. The Addams parents decide to load up the family into the camper to go on a road-trip vacation across the United States. Outside of their comfortably terrifying home, the Addams becoming involved in plenty of misadventures and run-ins with oddball characters.
The Addams Family 2 follows up from the 2019 animated film, which showed the titular clan preparing for a visit from their eccentric family members. The Addams family was also subject to trouble when a TV personality realized their mansion was getting in the way of her dream to sell all the neighborhood’s homes. Following the original 1960s TV series and the three 1990s live-action film adaptations, the computer-animated 2019 Addams Family movie was a verified success, bringing in over $200 million at the box office. Only a few days after its premiere, it was announced The Addams Family 2 was in the works for an October 2021 release.
After recruiting an all-star cast for The Addams Family(2019), the sequel is keeping up the momentum as most of the performers return while a few new names were added to the ensemble. Here’s a breakdown of The Addams Family 2’s cast and characters, and what their voice actors look like.
Reprising his role from the first installment, award-winning actor Oscar Isaac voices the Addams family patriarch Gomez. Oscar Isaac was born to play Gomez Addams, proving so with a red carpet video of him lustily kissing Jessica Chastain’s arm, just as all live-action Gomez portrayals do to Morticia. While there’s still hope a live-action Addams Family movie could cast Isaac as Gomez, it’s comforting to still hear him voice the character in the animated adaptations. Isaac is most notable for his roles as Poe Dameron in the Star Wars sequels, the titular character in Inside Llewyn Davis and the titular hero in Disney+’s upcoming Moon Knight series.
Oscar-winning South African actress Charlize Theron also returned to The Addams Family 2's cast as family matriarch Morticia Addams (neé Frump). Morticia is the gothic wife of Gomez and mother to Wednesday and Pugsley, who fears her children straying from their signature kooky style. Theron is best known for her roles as Furiosa in Mad Max: Fury Road, Snow White and the Huntsman, Bombshell, and The Fate and the Furious. She also won an Academy Award for Best Actress in 2004 for her performance as serial killer Aileen Wuornos in Monster and was later nominated for her turn in North Country.
The death-obsessed daughter Wednesday Addams is voiced by Chloe Grace Moretz, who also voiced Wednesday in the first movie. Wednesday is known for her terrifying pranks on others, though strangely becomes the voice of reason in The Addams Family’s animated movies as she acknowledges the town’s other residents should be accepted for their oddities. Moretz began her career as a notable child actor, starring in movies like 2005's The Amityville Horror remake and 500 Days of Summer. She later moved into more mature roles in projects like the Carrie remake, Kick-Ass and The 5th Wave.
The Addams Family’s weapon-loving son Pugsley Addams is voiced by Javon Walton, who is most notable for his roles as Ashtray on HBO’s Euphoria or Grant Bishop on Utopia. The role of Pugsley was previously voiced by Stranger Things' Finn Wolfhard in the 2019 animated movie, with THR claiming he exited due to aging out of the role. Pugsley is the younger brother of Wednesday and the son of Gomez and Morticia, who has a proclivity for destruction in terms of the Addams family’s macabre interests.
Well-regarded for his voice acting and role as the creator of Netflix’s Big Mouth, Nick Kroll reprises his casting as the Addams family cast's Uncle Fester. The brother of Gomez and son of Grandmama Addams, Fester is typically the target of his niece and nephew’s mischief such as Wednesday attempting to shoot him with arrows or Pugsley attacking him with explosives. Kroll is also known for starring in live-action projects like his comedy series Kroll Show or FX’s The League, while typically lending his voice to movies like The Secret Life of Pets2 or Sausage Party.
The beloved Tony, Grammy, and Emmy-winning actress and singer Bette Midler returns for The Addams Family 2 to voice Grandmama Addams, the mother of Gomez and Fester. Known for her morbid sense of humor and interest in the macabre that was clearly passed down to her sons, Grandmama is just as eccentric as the rest of the clan. Bette Midler is famed for her many top-selling albums and famous songs like “The Rose,” her Broadway career in which she starred in Fiddler on the Roof, and her extensive film and television credits for projects like 1993's Hocus Pocus,The First Wives Club and Beaches.
Conrad Vernon as Lurch and Spirit of the House: Lurch is the Addams’ loyal butler who they originally found as an escaped mental institution patient. He’s voiced by The Addams Family co-director Conrad Vernon, who also directed or starred in animated films like every Shrek movie, Madagascar and Sausage Party. Vernon also voices the grumpy spirit that haunts the Addams family’s home.
Snoop Dogg as Cousin Itt: Gomez and Fester’s very hairy and short cousin is voiced by famed Grammy-nominated rapper Snoop Dogg. Snoop previously voiced Cousin Itt in the 2019 Addams Family movie cast, while also lending his voice to animated movies like Turbo and Arthur and the Invisibles.
Bill Hader as Cyrus Strange: A scientist that the Addams family encounters on their cross-country road trip. Hader first rose to fame as a cast member on Saturday Night Live but is also acclaimed for his lead role in HBO’s Barry and assorted comedy films like Superbad, Forgetting Sarah Marshall, and Trainwreck. He’s also lent his voice to animated projects like Turbo, The Angry Birds Movie, and Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs.
Wallace Shawn as Rupert: The father of Cyrus, the scientist the Addams meet on their trip. Before The Addams Family 2, Shawn starred in movies like The Princess Bride and My Dinner with Andre, while also lending his memorable voice to animated movies such as Toy Story, Monsters, Inc., and The Incredibles.
Squid Game’s final episode revealed that Oh Il-nam (Oh Young-soo) is the founder and financier of the games, and there are actually several clues to this twist hidden throughout the survival drama series. As the oldest player involved in the twisted death games, the lovable Oh Il-nam is easily one of the reasons why Squid Game became the most-watched show out of Netflix’s September 2021 releases. But when Il-nam’s true identity is revealed during the final episode of Squid Game, many audience members, along with protagonist Seong Gi-hun (Lee Jung-Jae), were treated to a harsh awakening.
As the brains behind the entire Squid Game operation, Il-nam represents the billionaires in a series that digs deep into the topic of wealth inequality. Out of Squid Game’s desperate and deeply indebted players, Il-nam is the only one whose choice to participate in the games isn’t burdened by nuance. While the other players had to choose between living their lives in debt or risking their lives in Squid Game for the chance to win a fortune, Il-nam was just literally there to try and have some fun.
There are many clues that point to Il-nam being much more than he appears to be. However, the old man certainly knew how to keep his secrets until the last moment – the final game between him and Seong Gi-hun. Prior to that, he was just the lovable old man whom Squid Game used to pull audiences’ heartstrings. But on the second viewing of Squid Game, the clues about Il-nam’s true identity become much more obvious.
Il-nam’s numeric designation means that he was the first player chosen for the game. While this fact is taken for granted at the start of Squid Game, it’s slowly revealed throughout the series that the other 455 players are around the ages of 20 to 40. The fact that Il-nam is the first chosen player, despite being decades older than everyone else, was the first clue regarding his true identity.
In the first game of red light, green light, the robot designed to detect flinching Squid Game players didn’t target Il-nam at all. While everyone else’s Squid Game tracksuit had a green overlay, Il-nam and the player near him didn’t have one at all. This could indicate that the robot was programmed to spare Il-nam, which also affected those near him as Squid Game’s organizers couldn’t risk harming their founder.
The star shape is one of the easiest shapes to carve out of the honeycomb treat using a needle, and Il-nam chose this shape for himself. While the triangle shape is arguably easier to carve out, the star has even shorter lines and requires even less skill. Despite being old and slow, Il-nam easily carves out the star without using any tricks or special techniques.
When fighting breaks out in the dormitory room, every player was in danger and powerless to stop the fighting. But when Il-nam asks organizers to interfere, Squid Game workers and guards are immediately sent in by the Front Man to take back control of the room. While letting the fighting continue would be good for the games, Front Man had to interfere before Il-nam was in any real danger.
This is perhaps the most glaring clue that Il-nam is not as helpless as he seems. As revealed by Il-nam’s strategy for winning against a much stronger team, he is practically a master of tug of war. While Il-nam’s excuse of having played the game frequently as a child is believable, this actually reveals the extent to which he prepared for taking part in the games.
How Il-nam described the neighborhood setting for the marble game was dismissed by many as the mere ramblings of an old man suffering from dementia. But as Squid Game’s ending reveals, the setting was an accurate recreation of Il-nam’s old home. This could have been the Front Man’s way of making the marble game even more exciting for the founder of the games. Moreover, the geometric shapes on display in the house Il-nam identified as his home are the same shapes found on the Squid Game cards. And lastly, when the camera pans out to show the dead players after the marble game, Il-nam’s corpse was nowhere to be found.
This clue rushes by so quickly that very few viewers actually caught it. During episode 5 of Squid Game, police officer Hwang Jun-ho (Wi Ha-joon) infiltrates the Front Man’s inner sanctum and finds files on all the previous and current players. The massive archive of comprehensive files goes back decades, chronicling every single of one those who were unfortunate enough to be included in Squid Game’s cast of doomed characters. But when Hwang Jun-ho finds the folder for the current iteration of the games, the first page skips to Player 002. The file for Player 001 is nowhere to be found, as it is unnecessary. Apart from the fact that Il-nam was not a real player, having a file of him in the archives would be a liability – not just for the organization, but for Il-nam’s VIP clients.
Il-nam’s wide smile throughout the different death games the players are forced to play is reflective of his outlook on life, as he explained to Gi-hun. But during a second viewing of Squid Game, this smile takes on a more sinister context. Unlike every other player who is risking their life for the chance to win Squid Game’s 45.6 billion Korean won prize, he’s just there to have a bit of fun before he dies. Moreover, the fact that Il-nam used his brain tumor and impending death to justify flashing an authentic smile, as other players are eliminated around him, is quite telling of just what kind of person the Squid Game founder truly is.
The Korean character “일” or “Il” can mean day, work, or first. Meanwhile, the second character “남자” or “nam” can be translated to boy or man. This means that Il-nam’s name actually translates to “first man.” While this could refer to how Il-nam is also known as Player 001, it could also just as easily refer to the Saw-like twist in the ending, in which he is revealed to be the founder of Squid Game.
AMC is planning to screen surprise horror movies in theaters this October. With Halloween just around the corner, horror hounds will be gearing up for screenings of their favorite scary movies. 2021 has been a good year for the genre, with critical darlings like Malignant and Fear Street attracting rave reviews and juggernaut The Conjuring: The Devil Made Me Do It taking on the box office. October will also see the release of sequels Halloween Kills and the decidedly more family-friendly The Addams Family 2.
According to Comic Book, AMC will be hosting surprise horror movie screenings throughout October. The “Thrills & Chills” campaign gives fans the chance to see classic horror movies for just $5, with the catch being that the movie is a total surprise. According to an AMC statement, the films will come from a “variety of styles, budgets, genres and corners of the globe”. AMC’s schedule does allow some room for sleuthing: the run times for each film has been released. From this, Comic Book is pretty confident IT: Chapter Two and Halloween Kills are on the line-up.
This move by AMC is sure to delight horror aficionados. As fans of the genre will say, the element of the unknown is one of the most exciting parts of horror. AMC will be hoping to tempt audiences back into cinemas with the offer of cheap tickets. The COVID-19 pandemic has been a disaster for the film industry, although releases like Marvel’s Shang-Chi point to an uptick in box office receipts that has many studios confident going into the fall movie season.
Netflix isn't known for its marketing for new shows and movies, but Midnight Mass proves the streaming service's strategy can work. Created by Mike Flanagan, Midnight Massfollows an isolated community on the downtrodden Crockett Island. But, unfortunately, the sleepy life of Crockett gets upended due to the return of a disgraced man, Riley Flynn (Zach Gilford), and the arrival of a mysterious young priest named Father Paul (Hamish Linklater). Soon, unexplained miracles and phenomena become the talk of the island, reinvigorating the community's enthusiasm for the church and religion. But everything comes at a cost. The source of these miracles comes into question, and things may not be what they seem with the new arrivals.
Though Midnight Mass doesn't clearly connect to Flanagan's The Haunting of Hill House orThe Haunting of Bly Manor, the series still borrows a lot from those previous shows. Several cast members from Flanagan's TheHaunting series return, including Kate Siegel (Hill House, Bly Manor), Henry Thomas (Hill House, Bly Manor), Rahul Kohli (Bly Manor), Alex Essoe (Bly Manor), Annabeth Gish (Hill House), Robert Longstreet (Hill House), and Samantha Sloyan (Hill House). Additionally, TheHaunting series was known for its cinematography, often using framing to hide disturbing images in the background. Midnight Mass directly replicates that style.
Netflix's marketing is often lacking in new projects, but it works for Midnight Mass. The trailers for Midnight Mass give away very few details. In the trailer, Netflix even seems to acknowledge it, utilizing dialogue from Linklater's Father Paul. "We tend to dislike mysteries. We feel uncomfortable not knowing," he says. Time and time again, Netflix refused to give away any information on the series in Midnight Mass promos and trailers, and in the end, it paid off. Midnight Mass made its way near the top of Netflix's Top Ten list without ever giving away its major twist: It's a series about vampires.
Though Netflix's strategy worked for Midnight Mass, the series also had a lot going for it. Flanagan's The Haunting series was incredibly successful on Netflix, earning his new show enough goodwill to create buzz without giving things away. In fact, Flanagan brings so many actors back from The Haunting series that fans were even questioning if Midnight Mass connected to it. Though it takes some cues from The Haunting series, Midnight Mass is an entirely different concept, and viewers wouldn't even know that until they are already engrossed in it. Netflix's algorithm actually spoiled the vampire twist, recommending vampire shows as similar programing to Midnight Mass. However, the marketing for the show was so vague that viewers might not make the connection before watching.
While Netflix's marketing worked for hiding Midnight Mass twists, that doesn't mean it works for every show. With Flanagan's successful history at Netflix, Midnight Mass is a unique case, getting buzz with extremely sparse marketing. Because of its unusual situation, Midnight Mass could even overcome Netflix's lack of proper homepage promotion for new shows. Sometimes new programming is completely buried among a sea of titles and doomed unless it shows up in Netflix's Top Ten list. For Midnight Mass, Netflix's marketing strategy worked, but for others, it can still be a stake through the heart.
Genshin Impact is celebrating its first anniversary today after a year of incredible success, but lackluster rewards may be indicative of a larger problem. The groundbreaking free-to-play game has had its share of events over the past year that have given a plethora of rewards to players, so there was considerable community speculation about what exciting things miHoYo had in store for the anniversary. As it turns out, not much was planned at all, and the low ebb of excitement around the first anniversary seems to point to potentially greater issues.
miHoYo planned community events for the anniversary where players could earn some rewards, but the only guaranteed reward is 100 Primogems, as the rest of the events are essentially raffles. Aside from this, players will need some artistic talent or access to cosplay materials to participate in quite a few of these events. When these community celebrations were announced, players were hoping that the in-game rewards would be announced closer to the actual day. That day is here, and no such announcement has been made, with only a Twitter post explaining how players can view their "Unforgettable Journey" and a short video going live on YouTube.
This first anniversary is one of a string of disappointments that have been hitting the Genshin Impact community recently. When Inazuma was initially added to the game, many were surprised at the content's overall feeling of quality, but there have still been some misses. One of the more notable disappointments have been the new characters. When Yoimiya was added, a significant number of players felt like she wasn’t strong enough to be a five-star, or that she might even be broken. The Raiden Shogun was well received, though the issue of her not working with Beidou still remains. Lastly, there is the divisive Kokomi, whose launch was met with quite a bit of backlash for a -100% CRIT rate. This makes her unusable to many players, as she won’t be able to match the damage output of other five-star characters. The Inazuma Archon Quest was also a disappointment, its final conflict resolved through mere conversation.
All of these complaints are relatively new, and could, in theory, be corrected in the future with buffs or additional story quests. However, these aren’t the only issues Genshin Impact has seen. There are several other characters that players have been requesting a buff for, such as Amber, Keqing, Kaeya, and Lisa. There is also the fact that the Electro reactions could use a boost (and could likely have used one since the game’s start). Players have also been asking for endgame content like randomized domains, respawnable chests, and daily content that doesn’t use resin. None of these things have, at this juncture, been substantively acknowledged by miHoYo.
Lastly, there is the issue with leaks. Starting in early September miHoYo launched a so-called Leakers Hunt Decree instead of releasing a roadmap, a more positive solution that would make leaks mostly useless. The reason players are interested in leaks is because of how little information tends to be available about upcoming content. While the community has asked for recognition and change, miHoYo has seemed largely more interested in applying its efforts toward stopping leaks.
Ultimately, the first anniversary is making some players feel like they aren’t being heard. Instead of celebrating the past year with fun prizes, artists and cosplayers have to put their time, money, and effort into a mere chance at some of these rewards. The real issue isn’t that the rewards aren’t good, it’s that the players feel underappreciated and overlooked. Genshin Impact’s first anniversary has brought up a lot of negativity, but there's still a chance that things could be turned around if miHoYo starts listening to the community a little more closely - or finds better ways to let them know that it has been.
