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Evil Dead

evil dead

Before the one-liners, before the madness of Asliegh Williams killing Deadites in the middle ages, before the remake that took itself way too seriously and Ash vs Evil Dead (series) there was the gory, claymated wonder that was the classic Evil Dead. Like many wacky misadventures, Evil Dead is about a group of friends that go to a nice sweet little cabin in the woods. Things are fine until the basement door pops open and in the basement they find an old tape recorder and a peculiar book made of flesh and written in human blood- like we all do. On the recorder is a translation from a past victim of the book, who loudly recites the translated incantations, unleashing the Evil Dead on them. Malevolent spirits awaken, attacking and possessing the friends, turning them into disgusting demons. By the end, on the cusp of his sanity is the whimpy, meek, Ash but can he rise to the challenge?

I know I’m playing against the the gross opinion but I actually like the original Evil Dead best. I like the gritty filming and there is a good blend of WTF scenes that are funny actual horror. Linda, Ash’s girlfriend, creeped the hell out of me with her clownish make up and wide grin. The infamous tree rape scene holds up pretty well in my opinion and is still alarming. In the end, Evil Dead is a simple movie with a simple premise that is a damn awesome B movie I recommend checking out for the simple fact it is a fun horror movie of gore, slapstick, and some chills. May the gaming gods bring you glory, now it’s time to go to sleep:)

Is evil, evil?

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Below there will be spoilers for multiple movies and TV shows that I will list.

  1. Supernatural 2. Marvel Infinity war 3. final fantasy 9

 

When I was young I remember never questioning things like this. The good guys were good, the bad guys were bad. That was it. There was no in between. The character I played or the protagonist in the movie was the good guy, the people they faced off against was the bad guy and that was how I viewed things. But then I got older and things didn’t seem so simple. However in my old age I have to wonder, maybe it isn’t so simple.

Watching Supernatural I see Gordon Walker, obsessed with killing Sam who happens to be the Antichrist. Now for those that watch the show, this isn’t entirely wrong. He actually does help mess things up pretty badly. The Winchester brothers while a force for good and saving the innocent numerous times do inadvertently cause some problems, like start the end of the world. While maybe not the best way to go about it, was Gordon a bad guy? Killing Sam would stop all kinds of bad things from happening and save many lives.

Thanos is another good example in the MCU Thanos Not the Villain?    while he may not be the typical example of a hero, and he may have a messed up way of going about it, he is far from being truly evil. What he says is factually correct, and his solution will actually work.

On the flip side, many of the people we see as heroes, aren’t truly good. Captain America in the same movie in his refusal to trade lives is guilty of the same “evil” we accuse Thanos of. He took the choice as to living or dying away from countless people in both Wakanda and in the universe as well as for Vision when he refused to let him sacrifice himself. By the time Vision was allowed to make that choice, it was far to late. Both Thanos and Captain America are arguably equal on the scale of good and evil.

There was a time in video games this wasn’t very common however, it was simply a good vs evil story. There are however exceptions to the rule. Garland from Final Fantasy 9 for example, he was a bad guy but only mostly. While he is responsible for Kuja and some unsavory things he wasn’t lets destroy the world evil like Kuja.

Now I am not saying all evil characters aren’t evil and all good ones aren’t good. But as a kid the subtle things were lost on most people and as an adult going back and seeing these things is rather odd. Fun, but odd. Now there is no real reason for this, just some random thoughts. Tell me what you think or any examples you have, and may the gaming gods bring you glory.

The Exorcist (movie)

the exorcist movie

In 1973 we got a movie that changed horror forever, traumatizing thousands because of its dark as hell themes and realistic effects that hold up remarkably well today, almost 50 years later. Directer William Friedkin (Bug ) took the terrifying book by William Peter Blatty and pulled no punches.

The Exorcist follows the demonic possession of Reagan MacNeil, a 12 year old little girl and the two priests that come together to take on the daunting task. The intro to the movie we meet Father Merrin at an archaeological excavation in the Middle East, culminating in a stare down with a freaky looking statue we get a foreboding dread he has encountered before. Across the world, Reagan is with her mother, a successful actress,  as small, strange things begin to happen. Her mother doesn’t notice until a disturbing sight happens at a big party she throws, leading to sights nothing within reason can explain. Reagan turns violent, having violent seizures and physically striking at the doctors trying to help her. Enter Father Damien Karras, a priest dealing with the loss of faith after his mother’s health plummets and dies;  Chris, Reagan’s mother, reaches out to Karras who inspects Reagan and comes to the dark conclusion about her possession. Can Merrin and Karras save her soul and expel the demon?

The possession sub genre hasn’t been my favorite, for every The Exorcism of Emily Rose  there’s a The Devil Inside but the Exorcist is honestly the greatest and undeniable progenitor of the sub genre. The effects are damn good, even today when CGI has taken over film land. The acting is amazing and the characters are strong. I will say the movie is slow, with decent gaps between scares where we see the characters develop, but some modern audiences may frown upon that. Horror fans and film buffs alike, this is a must watch. May the gaming gods bring you glory.

Games that made me want a Nintendo

nintendo

Yesterday I talked a bit about Games that made want an X Box and there I mentioned how I only had a Nintendo 64 and GameCube. I have friends that absolutely swear by Nintendo through thick and thin and so I wanted to talk about some games that make me want a Nintendo. In no particular order I’ll begin with the franchise I have a little experience with..

kirby 1. Kirby-

One of my favorite N64 games was Kirby 64 and to this day, I haven’t had a gaming experience so weird but epic at the same time. I’d love to replay it again. I also want to see what else the series offers in cool power combinations and imagination.

metroid 2. Metroid –

Back in the old days, I played the demo for Metroid: Prime for GameCube and fell in love with it. I always like the Giger influences of the earlier games, plus Samus was always one of my Smash Bros. favorites.

eternal darkness 3. Eternal Darkness: Sanity’s Requiem-

I love a good horror game, and I’ve heard many tell me how much this game scared the hell out of them. I’ve heard stories about the sanity meter and how eerie the game becomes after it becomes distorted. It sounds like a game we need today.

f zero 4. F-Zero

I’m not a traditional racing fan. Cars going fast bore me. But going light speed through bright colored maps in a insanely aggressive slam-feast, hell yeah I want to play that game!

zelda  5. Legend of Zelda –

Believe it or not I never played a Zelda game in my life. I know Link, Zelda, and Ganon by name and name only. I heard rave reviews for several of the games, including Breath of the Wild. Someday I’d love to see what all the hype is about.

I hope you enjoyed my list and may the gaming gods bring you glory

 

 

I Wish I knew How to Quit You — Master Mix Movies

Brokeback Mountain should have won Best Picture instead of Crash. Honestly, which one of those movies are people gonna remember. When Brokeback Mountain first came out, people only knew it as “the gay cowboy movie.” That’s certainly how I knew the movie back in the day. Which is why I (and likely other straight men) […]

via I Wish I knew How to Quit You — Master Mix Movies

Games that made want an X Box

xbox logo

I’ve never had an X Box in my life. My gaming experience has solely been PlayStation with two turns at Nintendo with the 64 and GameCube. PlayStation was my old reliable, but even I have to admit, the backwards compatibility with X Box is extremely tempting and there are some games I’d like to try, or in one case dive deeper into, so lets begin the list with that particular series…

jedi academy 1. The Star Wars: Jedi Knight games-

I briefly played the sequel on GameCube, going straight for the lightsaber multiplayer levels which were fun as hell. Seriously, with solid FPS and sweet saber combat, how is this not on any Star Wars fan’s list, as with…

star wars kor 2. The Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic games-

These games were legendary amongst my friends and after I fell in love with the Mass Effect trilogy, the thought of Star Wars having a huge epic story like that peeked my interest hard. I’ll get to it one day.

condemned 3. Condemned: Criminal Origins-

The first game of the series, an X Box, shows up on many lists of horror greats for its freaky atmosphere and brutal melee combat. The sequel, not so much. Regardless, I always love a good horror game.

gears of war 4. Gears of War series-

I can’t lie, one thing and one thing alone utterly sold me on this series: having a chainsaw bayonet on your gun. I like monsters, I like carnage, and I love any reason I can get my hands on a chainsaw. Oh and I hear the stories are solid too…

halo 5. Halo series-

The series that pretty much defined X Box. I heard one and two have great stories but then they fell to the Mutilplayer craze, but I’d still like to see what all the hype was about.

I hope you enjoyed the list and may the gaming gods bring you glory.

The Order: 1886

order 1886

I know what you maybe thinking, why the hell am I talking about one of the PS4’s original launch games. I’ve never seen a review that called 1886 a masterpiece; mainly every review I’ve seen for this game says it was a huge disappointment. I wanted to play it as long as its been out, and because I found it on a huge sale, I had my chance. Well, I only wasted 4 bucks…We follow a secret order descended from King Arthur’s court going through England in 1886 with their steampunk weapons fighting werewolves and keeping the peace.

First and foremost, the game looks and sounds great. Good thing too, because you will be doing a lot of walking around and looking at random items you find. Primarily the game is a third person cover shooter with a lot of QTEs thrown in. 3 chapters in I found myself getting pretty pissed at the monotony of the chapters. I got to fight  the werewolves which was pretty lame; there A.I is pretty dimwitted. I noticed after they attack, they go right back to the original position and attack again. I can’t call this game truly terrible, but 3 chapters in I’m starting to believe the other reviews. May the gaming gods bring you glory.

Kings (2018) — Dan the Man’s Movie Reviews

Race-riots! Sex dreams! Oh no! Millie (Halle Berry) lives in L.A. with a bunch of homeless kids that she looks after and is just trying to do what she can to get by. But with this being April ’92, everything is about to get a lot crazier, starting with much more violence on the street. […]

via Kings (2018) — Dan the Man’s Movie Reviews

“Glass” poster

glass poster This is going to be a little unusual because there is no trailer, but a poster tells alot. I’ve never been a huge M. Night Shyamalan fan but I loved Split and wanted to check out Unbreakable after the end credits scene, which I thought was merely a set up for a sequel. But a crossover? That I wasn’t expecting. I think it’s a cool idea and don’t get me wrong, I’m seriously hyped for this movie but let’s not ignore the elephant in the room: Shyamalan doesn’t have the greatest track record. The Sixth Sense, Unbreakable, Signs- all well loved and well received movies. But we also have After Earth, The Happening, and The Last AirBender which damaged his career. I’m cautiously optimistic in that regard because while I’m a huge fan of his work, I respect that he tries doing something different, especially in a world of reboots and sequels. I have my fingers crossed and I can’t wait for the trailer. May the gaming gods bring you glory.