I wasn’t sure what to expect from the follow up to Superman (2025). Milly Alcock was great in her cameo and her sassy, drunken badass persona from her cousin’s movie is on full display here I do love that we instantly know she’s nothing like Clark. I think it’s also cool her first solo movie is a space adventure. Jason Momoa looks perfectly as the main man himself, cosmic bounty hunter Lobo. I’m pretty excited to see more and dive into Kara’s story more. May the gaming gods bring you glory.
Category: Horror
Control: Resonant reveal trailer
Not going to lie, Control 2 stole the game awards for me. Alan Wake 2 was one of the best horror game experiences I’ve had since Dead Space (2023) so I was insanely pumped for this surprise. I love the nightmarish Dr Strange vibe. The combat looks sort of souls like but with the gravity, reality shattering creativity of the first Control. Visually the game looks nuts in the best way. I’m absolutely keeping an eye out on Control 2. May the gaming gods bring you glory.
Resident Evil 9 Leon trailer
So I know I’m calling his the Leon trailer, and oh boy does he steal the show, but I got a couple of stops to make along the way. We start by learning our antagonist is a dude name Victor Gideon who I got mixed feelings on. Gideon is giving me some real hard Mad Eye Moody vibes with his look but I like his voice. The graphics look incredible and I love the atmosphere. Leon looks like a total badass and I did smile seeing him return. What worries me a bit is the game might be too action focused or completely bust trying to deliver 2 different gameplay styles between Grace and Leon- last thing we need is a repeat of Resident Evil 6. In the end, the game looks great still and like many, I was pumped to see Leon return. May the gaming gods bring you glory.
28 Years Later: The Bone Temple trailer 2
I’m still in awe after such a long hiatus we’re getting 2 installments in this series. I love the apocalyptic feel. I’m also a huge fan of Ralph Fiennes and Jack O Connell. Sadly I wasn’t able to see 28 Years Later as of this posting but I am excited for the 2nd part of this horror epic. May the gaming gods bring you glory.
The Conjuring: Last Rites
The Conjuring: Last Rights is basically the perfect example of how to not make a AAA horror movie. As I do every year around my birthday, I crashed at @torstenvblog house, ordered pizza, and we watched movies. Nine this year to be exact, and I am sure you will be reading about the rest soon enough from him. This one, however, I insisted on writing about myself.
The movie itself mostly revolves around the Warren family and how Ed and Lorrain had a daughter, Judy. They had stopped their investigations for years by the time the Smurl family haunting had taken place, and they were focusing on Judy’s upcoming wedding.
This obviously has nothing to do with the Smurl house, but they did shoehorn Judy having visions and whatnot into this about the Smurl house and the demon that is haunting the family; they came from a mirror shown earlier in the movie connecting the Warrens and Smurls. This never happened in real life, by the way.
In fact, the entire movie never even bothers to make you care about the Smurl family. You spend very little time with them. The little kids are mostly shown running around, playing. The older kids scream a bit about how they can’t keep living like this, but outside of a few scenes, they never really show what this even is. We do get a couple of great scenes towards the end where one daughter finds a video from her birthday and is chased by a crazy ghost with an axe, and this is the same night we see the father molested by one. This, however, is after she screams about living like this; what was going on before then is very little that is even mentioned.
Even ignoring that I come from the same area as this Smurl house (I’ve literally driven past it more than once in my travels) and shared emails with people who lived there while working on a book and helping a friend with a podcast (decades of people who lived there have denied anything happening there, going all the way back to the 1980s) and even ignoring the fact I personally think the Warrens are probably frauds, the potental for this to be a good movie exist. The first two Conjuring movies are good. This movie, however, does everything wrong, and nobody should ever watch this pile of garbage. Best wishes, and may the gaming gods bring you glory.
Psychonauts
Hasn’t everybody wanted to be a superhero at least once in there lives? Raz has big dreams of becoming a Psychonaut, even going so far as to sneak into the Whispering Heights Camp for young Psychonauts in training. He was only a few days at the camp before his parents come for him, leaving him precious time to master his powers and uncover a dark mystery threatening the campers and instructors and maybe even the world. Will Raz rise to the occasion?
If any game deserved a modern day facelift or remake, it’s this precious gem. I absolutely love the insane mix of shockingly deep psychological storytelling and dark humor in a pretty complex and creative platformer. This game is a giant acid trip and I love it. Raz is a interesting kid amongst other weird, funny, tragic, or damn creepy characters- seriously the Milkman creeped me out more than most modern horror monsters. The worldbuilding is fantastic and I was really invested in the lore. It was so cool being able to jump into other characters brains, exploring entirely new universes, including bosses.
Unfortunately this game has some deep drawbacks. While extremely creative, that partially leads to how obtuse a lot of the goals and pathfinding are. Way to often I found myself relying on walkthroughs, scratching my head when seeing where I was supposed to go or what the hell I needed. Another big issue I had was items cost too damn much. In the Milkman section, if you don’t have a certain tool, get ready for the game to come to a stop and you have to grind to afford it. The powers are a mixed bag but when they are a blast, they are awesome.
In the end, I highly recommend it but I urge you to stay patient. Originally this game came from PS2/ original X Box era so a lot of the modern gaming comforts aren’t there, and like all platformers, there’s going to be some frustration. Stick around and you will be rewarded with a cool world of memorable characters and one of the most unique games I might’ve ever played. May the gaming gods bring you glory.
Lego Star Wars: The Skywalker Saga
So this is the 3rd go around for doing Lego Star Wars as a whole. I loved the classic PS2 games that covered both the original and newly finished prequel trilogies (damn I’m old). I never played the Clone Wars game. When they remade and added the sequel trilogy’s content, I felt nostalgia nibbling at my heels again.
The game is packed with Star Wars nostalgia and Lego’s whacky humor I found myself chuckling at a few times. The gameplay is pretty solid. I like that they added actually third person shooting mechanics as well as added some complexity to the Jedi/Sith characters. The game is full of open segments where you can explore, solve puzzles, find side quests, collectibles, or just break stuff. They made an upgrading system that breaks down by character type as well as overall upgrades that I didn’t use often but it’s not a bad way to introduce kids to RPG mechanics. Calling this game “Baby’s first RPG” isn’t too far off.
The only complaint I have is the boss fights are a tad too repetitive. They aren’t bad, and I wasn’t expecting Elden Ring by any means, but I was able to autopilot most of the boss encounters. It could be said for the game as a whole but it never got annoying or took me out of it.
In the end, Skywalker Saga is a solid Lego game worth picking up if you find it on sale. Alot of your enjoyment will come from how much you’re into Star Wars and if you like the Lego games. May the gaming gods bring you glory.
Beetlejuice Beetlejuice (2024) Review
Beetlejuice Beetlejuice (2024), the sequel to Beetlejuice (1988), is a movie I avoided for about a year. See, I have fond memories of the original, having seen it with my parents a long time ago. In fact, it is one of the first movies I remember watching with my dad that wasn’t named Godzilla. Hearing Michael Keaton say “Nice Fucking Model” while kicking over a tree will forever be etched into my head as probably the first time I heard the word in a movie. ( I laughed so hard he rewound the movie for me.)
Now I adore Jenna Ortega. I have always enjoyed her work. But I was skeptical about her playing this role because I wasn’t sure it was a role anyone could play. Winona Ryder as Lydia Deetz is such a great character. I didn’t see her having an estranged daughter driving her nuts as something that could feasibly be pulled off. Boy, was I wrong.
There were some problems with making this movie that were pulled off well. For example, how do you have a haunted house while not bringing back the characters that played those ghosts? Well, you give them a happy ending. No, not that kind, you sickos. Lydia found a loophole between movies that let them move on. Have a main cast member who shall remain nameless, convicted of horrible sex crimes? You horribly kill him and make him a running joke of the movie.
I don’t want to go into in-depth with the story; this would bring us deep into spoiler territory. But I enjoy that Lydia and her daughter, Astrid, don’t get along because Astrid quite honestly doesn’t believe in ghosts. She thinks her mother’s life’s work is a scam. Of course, her grandfather and grandmother could confirm it’s true, but Gramps is busy bird watching, and Grandma is a crazy but job artist and nobody would believe her anyway.
This brings me to Delia Deetz, the ever-amazing Cathrine O’Hara. Look, I don’t really know what this woman is on, or not on, but this woman is just fantastic. She plays crazy as well as anyone in the business. Even better, she plays not crazy just as well. I am not even sure Delia is crazy; it might just be an act to sell art. That is the beauty of Cathrine.
Bottom line is this movie is as good as the original, and I hope we get a third, and it better be called Beetlejuice Beetlejuice Beetlejuice. Best wishes, and may the gaming gods bring you glory.
The Predator
I needed something to wash the taste of Ed Gein: The Musical out of my mouth. I chose poorly. I won’t mince words, or go on a little anecdote like normal before getting to the plot and my thoughts as per usual. This movie is fucking awful. Plain and simple.
Quinn is a sniper out on a mission in Mexico wit his team when they encounter the Predator. Through dumb luck, Quinn, the sole survivor, manages to loot the Predator’s mask as well as a couple other goodies from the downed alien hunter before shit goes south. He mails the mask to his civilian home here his estranged wife and autistic son live (great parenting, right?) The hunter is swept up by Project Stargazer for standard sci-fi reasons. Quinn’s son takes the mask trick or treating, activating it, and understanding the Yautja’s language, signaling a even bigger, stronger, Yautja to come to earth. It’s up to Quinn and a ragtag group of damaged former soldiers called the Loonies to catch up to the Predators before they get Quinn’s son…
I love Predator and Predator 2 ; Predators had its moments but was pretty solid. 4 not only kills the lore of the Yautja but manages to do it in a pretty offensive way. See this movie establishes the lore bit that the whole reason Yautja collect spines isn’t for trophies but because they genetically upgrade themselves from their prey…these opposing Predators want Quinn’s son because it’s believed (paraphrased) autism is the next step of human evolution. Yes, I’m dead fucking serious… There’s also slights made with other badly portrayed disorders throughout the movie but that blew my mind.
Besides that’s bombshell, the movie is plaqued with painfully forced MCU humor, needless swearing, rough CGI and rubbery effects. The super Predator looks goofy. The classic Yautja comes off as a total bitch. All the characters are annoying, and many die in hilariously stupid ways. There’s a MCU end credit credit scene with a Predator- Iron Man suit that’s a cherry on this ass sundae. I’m going to note this was directed by Shane Black, who was in the original film and directed Iron Man 3 (2013) . Easily this movie is the worst thing to ever happen to the Predator and friends don’t let friends waste there lives lives watch this abomination. May the gaming gods bring you glory.
Ed Gein: The Musical
I can only imagine what you most be thinking, but I assure you this isn’t a joke post. This movie is real. Ed Gein is one of the infamous figures in American history and inspired dozens if not hundreds of books, documentaries, biopics, as well as being the inspiration behind The Texas Chainsaw Massacre, Silence of the Lambs, and Psycho. If you want any actual factual knowledge about Gein and his crimes, plenty of those documentaries are free on YouTube (don’t go to Netflix for the latest season of Monster; were you really expecting the dude behind AHS to give a account of Ed Gein?). Certainly don’t watch this.
So we follow Ed Gein as he’s busted after killing his final victim and through delusional songs, many parodying others such as “Luck be a Lady”, “Pure Imagination” from Willy Wonka, and “Hard Knock Life” from Annie, we uncover a very loose account of Gein’s story. I mean loose in the most sincere way possible.
I’m going to frank, this movie isn’t good. Did I laugh? Plenty, but I wasn’t feeling good about it. The whole thing is in bad taste at it’s core but its so flat, over the top, and cheap its not meant to be taken seriously, not even remotely (unlike Netflix’s Monster). The acting is porn level bad. The pacing is awful and feels way longer than it is. The musical numbers are funny and just trippy at times- like Gein arguing with a woman’s corpse over what style of lampshade she wants to be. The sheriff was great and his reactions to the whole thing were my favorite part of the whole movie. In the end, I can’t recommend this movie unless you’re already drunk or stoned off your ass. May the gaming god’s bring you glory.
Savior Gaming 