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12 Oct

Pop Culture’s Least Scary Vampires

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Vampires are one of genre’s greatest creations. Undead creatures who feed on the blood of the living, they are one of our most enduring horror tropes. Used as a way to explore themes as diverse as our fear of death, the taboos of sexual desire, and the agony of aging, vampires have enjoyed a particularly robust transition into modern pop culture with the help of Anne Rice and Stephenie Meyer where they have as often been depicted as emo fuckbois as they have been horrifying creatures of the night. Honestly, we’ve been spoiled for choice when it comes to vampire…

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11 Oct

Doctor Who: Why Everybody’s Saying Lydia West is the New Doctor

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It was ever thus. Some people know. Some people think they know. Some people desperately want other people to think they know. Until the contracts are signed and the BBC makes the announcement (in a special live show presented by Rylan in a Dalek costume, or mid-interval of a Rugby League World Cup game if we’re keeping with recent tradition), nobody officially knows who’ll play the next Doctor. Not out loud. Apart, that is, from everybody saying it’s going to be Lydia West. They apparently know because of a post on Doctor Who forum Gallifrey Base alleging that West’s name was confirmed in a…

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11 Oct

How Back 4 Blood Modernizes Left 4 Dead for a New Generation

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In the late 2000s, cooperative multiplayer games that pit you and your friends against waves of AI-controlled enemies were all the rage, and Valve’s Left 4 Dead was the king of this subgenre. While PvE (player vs. environment) experiences in Halo 3: ODST, Gears of War 2, and Call of Duty: World at War manifested themselves as more straightforward horde modes where teams of four or five would hold out as long as they could on maps riddled with zombies, aliens, or monsters, developer Valve South (later re-established as Turtle Rock Studios) took things one step further. What if they…

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11 Oct

Lamb Ending Explained with Noomi Rapace

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This article contains major Lamb spoilers. Read our spoiler-free review here. Who is Ada’s father? It’s the question asked in the very first shot of Valdimar Jóhannsson’s Lamb, as an unseen person (or animal) treks through a frigid Christmas Eve snow, looking for comfort. I doubt I was the only viewer to be suspicious about the characters we meet, particularly when brother Pétur (Björn Hlynur Haraldsson) shows up on the farm unannounced later in the movie. Could he be Ada’s father? This, of course, was folly. As we soon learn, Ada’s papa is not the type to knock on doors…

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11 Oct

The Best Scary Movies on Horror Channel for October

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This article is brought to you by Horror Channel It’s October! We can wear layers again! We can have far too heated arguments about whether pumpkin spice lattes are the downfall of civilization or are literally just a drink! Kick leaves along the pavement and then stop kicking leaves because there was something wet in that pile just there! It truly is the most wonderful time of the year. But the best thing about October, we can all agree, is that it’s the time to stick some fake fangs in, open a bottle of Vimto (because “I do not drink……

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11 Oct

The Walking Dead Season 11 Episode 8’s Big Death Explained

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This Walking Dead article contains spoilers. It’s the only way the opening act of the final season of The Walking Dead could end: with the fall of one villain and the rise of another. Taking a page out of Alpha’s playbook, Maggie, Negan, and Gabriel lead a walker horde into enemy territory, while Daryl does his best to support them from within the Reapers’ walls. It’s a coordinated attack that ends up working out much better than the audience likely expected, as the heroes breach the Reaper complex and the walkers begin feasting. But the real victory in “For Blood”…

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11 Oct

The Simpsons: Treehouse of Horror XXXII Is a Gorey Affair

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This The Simpsons review contains spoilers. The Simpsons Season 33 Episode 3 Every year I wait with wonder and excitement for The Simpsons’ Halloween episode. Regardless of the season, it is always the best dark offering. The day of reckoning may be upon us, because if “Treehouse of Horror XXXII” is the high point of season 33, we are doomed. Possibly as a species. This is a recurring theme in several of the sequences, but the joke is on us, and not even over our heads. “Treehouse of Horror XXXII” proclaims to be the first of the annual episodes to…

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11 Oct

The Walking Dead Season 11 Episode 8 Ending Explained

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This article contains spoilers for The Walking Dead season 11 episode 8. The Walking Dead and loathed cliffhangers: name a more iconic combination! The first third of The Walking Dead’s 11th and final season came to a conclusion Sunday night though calling it an “ending” is a bit generous. The closing moments of “For Blood” find two of the show’s most prominent characters, Maggie and Negan, directly in the line of fire of a pretty fearsome weapon. As far as cliffhangers go, this isn’t nearly as brutal as Glenn and his magic dumpster or Negan’s lethal lineup that concluded season…

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11 Oct

The Walking Dead Season 11 Episode 8 Review: For Blood

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This The Walking Dead review contains spoilers. The Walking Dead Season 11 Episode 8 One of the things The Walking Dead does better than most shows, especially shows that lean action/adventure or horror, is scale. There’s no shortage of zombie extras on The Walking Dead, and the show never hesitates to push for larger groups and bigger action sequences so long as the budget holds up. There’s no denying that, even with CGI sweetening, “For Blood” has a lot of zombie moving parts, and a lot of relatively complicated action sequences involving multiple parties fighting side by side, against one…

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10 Oct

No Time to Die Box Office Opening Lowest for James Bond Since Casino Royale

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Those who hoped No Time to Die’s U.S. opening would sail past the $100 million milestone—a feat which hasn’t been achieved since Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker in 2019—might be sorely disappointed this morning. After more than two years of built-up anticipation and COVID-related delays, Daniel Craig’s final James Bond movie debuted in North America to a decent, if slightly muted, $56 million over three days. The gross was in line with MGM’s estimates—if on the lower side of the industry’s, which put the floor at $55 million—and the fifth highest domestic opening of 2021 thus far. However, it…

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10 Oct

Heels: Stephen Amell on the Big Season Finale and Wrestling Autenticity

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This article contains Heels spoilers. Stephen Amell is no stranger to big action roles. Having made a name for himself on Arrow as Oliver Queen, a part which required him to balance a conflicted, tortured performance with the physical demands of playing a superhero, Amell has continued to challenge himself with larger than life performances. In 2015, at the height of Arrow’s popularity, Amell took his lifelong love of professional wrestling to the ring, wrestling several times in WWE, including at SummerSlam 2015. The time spent in choreographed, scripted fights on Arrow served him well, and Amell was far more…

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10 Oct

Evil Goes Full Hereditary in a Truly Wild Finale

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This Evil review contains spoilers. Evil Season 2 Episode 13 Take this, all of you, and eat it, for this is the flesh of one of the 60 demonic families, going back generations upon generations, and doesn’t refrigerate well. You think freezer burn is bad? It’s got nothing on the hellfire of tainted meat. The team bites off a little more than it can chew in Evil season 2 episode 13 “C Is for Cannibal.” The exorcism squad is sent to investigate an infernal infestation at a college campus and get hazed by the dean of dastardly admissions, Leland Townshend…

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10 Oct

James Bond Is the Last Truly Cinematic Franchise

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Daniel Craig has been wistful throughout the No Time to Die press tour. Part of this is probably because—unlike his infamous grumpiness during Spectre’s rollout—he is promoting a very good movie. The bigger element though is that he knows it really is last call with 007. After the final interview is wrapped, and the lights are taken down, his time with the James Bond family he’s been associated with for more than 16 years is done. Perhaps that’s why he’s become much more concerned with articulating what a unique thing that family is in the modern world of blockbusters. “It’s…

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10 Oct

The Pressures of The Walking Dead’s Final Season

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Most years, when the season’s eighth episode of The Walking Dead airs, it would mark a midpoint. But not so for the eleventh season of the AMC zombie epic, which is due to roll out 24 episodes for the show’s final outing. With two-thirds of the show yet to air, and two-thirds completed on the production side, executive producer Greg Nicotero is feeling the pressure to bring it on home. The director, writer, and special makeup effects maestro tells us in a recent interview he views the final season as a marathon. Specifically the fact that shooting a 16 episode…

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09 Oct

Ghostbusters: Afterlife Review

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When I first saw the original Ghostbusters, I didn’t get it was a comedy. It might’ve been because I was a shade too young, being about five or so, but when Bill Murray said no human could “stack books like this,” I believed him. Of course they couldn’t. The movie’s sarcasm didn’t come through, but its awe sure did in that moment a proton pack was first fired, as did its shock as a translucent librarian turned into a demonic entity escaped from the mouth of hell. After watching Ghostbusters: Afterlife, I wonder if Jason Reitman had a similar experience.…

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09 Oct

Doctor Who Series 13 is Titled ‘Flux’ and Starts On Halloween

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Flux. That’s the official title of the six-episode Doctor Who series 13, which starts airing on BBC One, BBC iPlayer and BBC America right at the end of this month. In the clip below, you’ll hear the Doctor warn that “The Flux is coming” and bringing with it monsters galore. (Our first thought was ‘flux’ as in something that’s constantly changing rather than the stuff you smear around copper pipes before welding them together, though let’s keep an open mind. Maybe this series finds the TARDIS needing its systems replaced by an intergalactic plumber?) It’s a very Doctor Who-y name for a villain,…

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09 Oct

Outlander Season 6 Trailer Gets Political, Teases Release Date

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Outlander has always been, among many other things, a political show, even if fans don’t think of it in that way. While later seasons of the Starz series have (mostly uncritically) waded into scenarios in which the show’s white main characters are not the easily identifiable heroes, Season 6 is poised to bring Outlander‘s Claire and Jaime more firmly back onto the “right” side of history (or, you know, hopefully… get your act together, Jamie!) with the outbreak of the Revolutionary War in Colonial America. Starz just released the Outlander Season 6 teaser trailer as part of its NYCC celebrations.…

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09 Oct

Win Special Edition Funko POP! Figures in the eBay x Den of Geek NYCC Scavenger Hunt

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Attendees at New York Comic Con love their giveaways, but eBay has something truly special for those walking the convention floor. Rather than simply browsing vendor wares and appreciating cosplayers passing by, visitors can look for special Funko Pop display boxes hidden around the Javits Center for an extraordinary scavenger hunt that appears to be drawing in quite a few of the most competitive fans and geeks in attendance. For those on the lookout for more exclusive swag than just the posters and stickers that other booths are handing out, the special superhero-themed Funko Pop that lies at the end…

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09 Oct

No Time to Die: Should Lashana Lynch Lead the Next 007 Series?

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This article contains major No Time to Die spoilers. It was a surprise when Nomi, the new and chic MI6 agent played by Lashana Lynch, surrendered her 007 codename in No Time to Die. Before that third act moment, she’d made a point of fiercely carving out the designation as her territory. She even delighted in the way everyone at MI6 called her by that title in front of old man James Bond. If handled in a different era, or by different actors, this all might’ve played as antagonistic or unlikable, but in the case of the dynamic between Lynch…

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09 Oct

25 Most Underrated Horror Games Ever

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While it’s understandable that most conversations about the best horror games ever tend to be dominated by franchises like Resident Evil and Silent Hill, the truth is that the popularity of the top end of the genre has long meant that some of the greatest horror games ever made still don’t get the love that they deserve. Granted, there are often good reasons why some of the great “other” horror games tend not to receive mainstream love, but much like some of the greatest horror films ever, there are times when a few rough edges in horror game design can…

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