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Matt Reeves' 2022 film "The Batman" featured the title character in yet another rebooted continuity, this time even darker and grittier than ever before. Batman (Robert Pattinson) was seen as a pale-skinned, stoic outsider, rarely making public appearances as Bruce Wayne, preferring to use his fists to ignite fear in the hearts of the criminal underground. He didn't smile and seemed incapable of experiencing happiness. The Riddler (Paul Dano) was reimagined to resemble the real-life Zodiac Killer, and murdered people on the regular. Gotham City was more corrupt than ever, and it is tantalizingly suggested at one point that Bruce Wayne's late father might have opened the door for massive corruption to leak into the city's legislature. Sadly, that moment is walked back. 

Selina Kyle (Zoë Kravitz), meanwhile, is a stolid and bitter woman living in poverty with multiple cats and her at-risk girlfriend Annika (Hana Hrzic). Technically, the screenplay never makes it explicit that Selina and Annika are lovers, but the subtext is in place. Selina Kyle is also known as Catwoman, of course, meaning she will have to possess the outrage, the cat burglary skills, and the fighting acumen of a comic book supervillain. Like Batman, she is stoic and determined, more prone to anger and despair than happiness or contentment. Given its bleakness, it's no wonder that "The Batman" was so often compared to David Fincher's 1995 serial killer film "Se7en." 

Kravitz's fight training, as explained in a 2022 behind-the-scenes video, was something she had been doing since she was a girl. And it turns out that Robert Alonzo, a second unit director and the film's supervising stunt coordinator, had once been hired as a young Kravitz's martial arts coach when she was 10. 

Put Me In, Coach

Alonzo began working professionally as a stunt performer back in the mid-1990s, appearing on episodes of "Nash Bridges" and "Big Bad Beetleborgs." In film, he began his career working on "Swordfish," and the Jet Li film "The One." He has since appeared in dozens of high-profile Hollywood features including "Collateral Damage," "The Scorpion King," "Cradle 2 The Grave," "Spider-Man 2," "Mission: Impossible III," "Star Trek," and way too many others to list here. Most recently, he did stunts and/or fight choreography for "Once Upon a Time in ... Hollywood" and "Ad Astra." Kravitz was born in 1988, so Alonzo was already working on shows like "Charmed" and "Roswell" when he was giving private lessons to her. 

"For Zoë and myself," he said, "it was a bit of a reunion for us. I used to actually teach Zoë private lessons in martial arts when she was ten years old."

Alonzo pointed out that, while he had worked with the actress many years before, training her in 2020 was particularly difficult. "The Batman" was in the middle of filming when the world locked down because of Covid, requiring Alonzo to give most of his training remotely. He was still able to communicate what needed to be done, however, and could even recall the precise martial arts that Selina Kyle would have been trained in. Alonzo said:

"Given the required social distancing, we've implemented video training so that they can learn technique and stance work. [...]  A lot of her style is more evasive and in tune with using the style of, say, tai kwon do and capoeira and hapkido."

Staying Sharp

Kravitz, meanwhile, recalled only how difficult the training was. Because of the Covid-related lockdowns, Kravitz had to take several months off, and retaining her martial arts knowledge was difficult. She said:

"The first couple months of training was, you know, it was intense. I would hobble home. I started training in November 2019, and then we shut down in March for six months and I tried my hardest to just kind of remember everything I'd learned. [...] Rob Alonzo and his whole team are just incredible people, really dedicated to it feeling real and feeling accurate."

In addition to realistic fighting styles, Kravitz's stunt moves were also evocative of, well, a cat. The evasiveness that Alonzo mentioned above was, to the audience's eye, very much like a cat trying to avoid being picked up by its owner. "The Batman," like many of the more recent superhero fare, deliberately stays away from using the characters' colorful superhero names. As such, Catwoman's feline attitudes and themes had to remain academic, communicated either through the character's personal circumstances -- she owns cats -- or her physicality. Hence the cat-like fight moves and the black cat suit. It was only incidentally that Selina's Catwoman mask possessed a pair of pointed tips on the top, making it look vaguely like cat ears. 

"The Batman: Part II" is currently in production. It operates in the same world as the upcoming "The Penguin" TV series, but will exist outside of the ballyhooed upcoming connected DC Universe.

Read this next: Batman Movies Ranked From Worst To Best

The post Zoë Kravitz Kinda Began Catwoman Training for The Batman When She Was 10 Years Old appeared first on /Film.

The year is 2021: projects delayed by the pandemic are finally moving forward and the phrase "The Movies are Back!" has lost all meaning. But you're willing to let that go because news has just dropped that Nicolas Cage and Nicholas Hoult are set to co-star in a violent comedy as Dracula and his bug-eating assistant, Renfield. At long last, The Movies will actually be Back because that's exactly the kind of unhinged, perfect casting that will save the industry!

Except that year is now 2023, "Renfield" is tanking in theaters, and more importantly, the movie isn't even half as fun as we thought it would be.

On paper, "Renfield" has all the makings of a good time: Cage's Dracula is a scene-stealing weirdo, Hoult is anchoring the movie with as much pathos as one can muster for a bug-eating multi-century murderer, and the action is campy as hell with gore frequently splattered across our screens. So where exactly did it all go wrong?

It might have something to do with the fact that — despite the promise made by the premise — this movie only spends so much time on the relationship between Renfield and Dracula. The other half of the runtime is dedicated to an extremely thin and utterly uncompelling plotline about Awkwafina's Rebecca Quincy, a cop whose father was murdered by the mob. What does New Orleans mobster crime have to do with the story of Dracula and his souring relationship with Renfield? I've seen the movie and I'm still not sure.

But wasting time that could be dedicated to the vampiric odd couple isn't even the biggest blunder that the film makes. The real fatal flaw of "Renfield" is that it squanders the talents of proven onscreen maniac, Nicholas Hoult.

The Role He Was Born To Play

Much fanfare has been made about the fact that "Nicolas Cage as Dracula" is one of the greatest ideas ever. Because, y'know, obviously. But there hasn't been enough hype about the genius behind casting Nicholas Hoult as Renfield. A mere glance at Hoult's resume will confirm why he's perfect for the role: crazed chrome-mouthed Nux in "Mad Max: Fury Road"? The menacing yet oafish emperor of "The Great"? The scheming, powdered-wig-wearing aristocrat of "The Favourite?" Hoult is incredible at being a maniacal little weirdo, which is exactly the personality that Bram Stoker's R.M. Renfield is known for.

The deranged, fanatically devoted servant presented in "Dracula" is literally locked up in an insane asylum for the bulk of the novel. Under the thrall of the Count, he's absolutely unhinged, casually feeding on flies, spiders, and birds. It creeps out everyone in his vicinity, as does his fascination with blood and weird ramblings about his master. His gleeful, unsettling energy is the kind of energy that I can easily picture Hoult pulling off. Unfortunately, my imagination is all I have: in "Renfield," that character is essentially scrapped for something more subdued.

Of course, I don't expect this twist on the vampire classic to follow every aspect of "Dracula" to the letter — the fact that it pokes fun at the lore is half the fun. But the movie does want us to believe that this version of Renfield existed once, a long time ago. We just never get to see it for ourselves. We're told that Renfield was once fully under Dracula's thrall, and committed heinous acts for his master without thinking twice. But by the time we meet him, centuries have passed and he's reluctantly treading on in Dracula's employ until an act of heroism inspires him to change.

Let Nicholas Hoult Be Weird, Dammit!

If hiding Renfield's reprehensible side is an effort to keep him likable then all I can do is shake my head in disappointment. If anyone can pull off going from an absolute monster to a sympathetic character in 90 minutes, it's Nicholas freaking Hoult. He's been nailing it for the past 20 episodes of "The Great," where the erratic psycho Emperor Peter III has slowly become a charming (if occasionally punchable) presence. We went from rooting for his murder to dreading his inevitably dark fate. The grand scheme to make us care for him has gone ridiculously well because Hoult always has us in the palm of his hands.

Hoult uses his face like a pro: playing up his boyish charms whilst pulling off heinous or disturbing acts. When he needs to, he hams it the hell up (huzzah!), whether that be abrupt murder in "The Great," or going totally apes**t in "Fury Road." In both cases, those are characters we end up rooting for with teary eyes.

Where is any of that in "Renfield," a movie that seems like the perfect place for Hoult's particular skillset? The movie is hilarious when Ben Schwartz goes wild as the buffoonish heir to a mob empire, and impeccable when Cage is snarling through razor-sharp teeth as the sauntering, uber-entertaining Drcaula. So how is there no space for Renfield to shine too? Isn't this movie named after him?!

Only occasionally does Renfield let loose, in too brief glimmers — like swallowing an entire ant farm to attack enemies with severed arms, still actively gushing blood. That particular scene comes late in the film, a quick glance at the lunatic that could've been. Hoult knows how to swing for the fences, and it's a shame that "Renfield" doesn't grant him the chance to prove it.

Read this next: The Best Horror Movie Performances Of 2022

The post Renfield's Biggest Problem is That It Doesn't Let Nicholas Hoult Be Weird Enough appeared first on /Film.

It's genuinely surprising that the peculiar Transylvanian family residing at 1313 Mockingbird Lane was never updated for modern audiences until 2022. "The Munsters" TV show ran on CBS for only two seasons in the mid-1960s and then sat dormant for decades until Rob Zombie finally revived the series, transforming it into a Technicolor feature film that eventually landed on Netflix. The final product served as more of a prequel to the TV series that focused on the bizarre courtship between Herman (Jeff Daniel Phillips) and Lily (Sheri Moon Zombie) before settling down with Lily's grandfather The Count, their son Eddie and their niece Marilyn. 

Regardless of whether you're a fan of the 2022 film or not, (/Film's review wasn't exactly kind), Zombie felt like the perfect choice to direct. "The Munsters" was a dream project for the musician and filmmaker who had long been obsessed with the original series and subsequent TV movies featuring Fred Gwynne returning to the Frankenstein-esque role he made famous. For evidence of Zombie's passion for the material, look no further than the MTV Cribs episode showing mountains of memorabilia and an original poster of the 1966 Universal movie "Munster, Go Home!" that advertised "America's Funniest Family in their First Full-Length Feature in Technicolor."

For now, it seems that Zombie has no plans to do a follow-up to his take on "The Munsters" after being put through the wringer just to get the film financed and completed during the pandemic. Zombie has the unique opportunity to go back and forth between directing and making music, and right now he has his sights set on his upcoming summer tour with Alice Cooper and making another record, according to a new interview with Entertainment Weekly. 

Zombie's Dream Project Wasn't Ideal

Getting any movie made is always an uphill battle, and Zombie has fought hard to get his indie horror filmography in front of audiences for decades. After directing several of his own music videos, Zombie's feature film debut, "House of 1000 Corpses" is somehow celebrating its 20th anniversary with a new Blu-ray and Best Buy exclusive SteelBook from Lionsgate. In short, he's paid his dues as a filmmaker and it sounds like "The Munsters" may be his last film for the foreseeable future, telling EW:

"'The Munsters' was exhausting. That was an exhausting movie to make. It took almost five years of non-stop pushing. And then, being in a foreign country, during the height of COVID, was not as much fun as you would think! So the whole experience was very draining."

The original TV series was filmed on the backlot of Universal Studios, but due to budget restraints, Zombie and crew traveled to Budapest, Hungary to shoot their version. After numerous attempts to get "The Munsters" made, Zombie had to go through a lot of adversity in order to get his vision in front of cameras, and it doesn't sound like he has any intention right now to try and repeat that process all over again. 

With multiple films under his belt at this point, Zombie really doesn't have much else to prove, and the loyal fanbase that he's amassed over the years has plenty of his horror movies to revisit until he decides to take on directing again. His only real reason to make a sequel to "The Munsters" is to revisit the iconic characters again, a luxury he was able to enjoy with his Firefly family trilogy of "House of 1000 Corpses," "The Devil's Rejects," and "3 From Hell."

Zombie Doesn't Need To Make Another Family Film

After making his mark in mainstream franchise horror with "Halloween" and "Halloween II," and making a true backwoods horror classic in "The Devil's Rejects," Zombie seems content to rest on his laurels. He's probably thought about where he could take the Munster family next, but he's adamant about not making another "Munsters" movie:

"I won't and I don't want to. The only reason I would ever want to is because I like making sequels. You have so little time with the first movie to develop these characters. Towards the end of 'The Munsters' film you go, okay, now they're all set, you can really jump in with what they're all about."

With the Firefly trilogy, Zombie got to mold Captain Spaulding, Baby, and Otis into new horror icons, which isn't easy to do. With the "House of 1000 Corpses" 20th anniversary happening now, it's as good a time as any to recognize Zombie's impact on the horror genre. "The Munsters" fulfilled a lifelong dream for Zombie, but there's no need to revisit the characters in a sequel that probably no one is really that interested in seeing, including his diehard fans. 

Read this next: Horror Remakes That Are Better Than The Originals

The post Rob Zombie Says Making The Munsters Movie Was Exhausting, And He Won't Make Another One appeared first on /Film.

There's been so much hype around artificial intelligence lately, especially with the release of AI tools like ChatGPT, MidJourney, Chatsonic, and Google Bard, among many others.

This post contains spoilers for "Star Trek: Picard" season 3.

In the sixth episode of "Star Trek: Picard" season 3, called "The Bounty," Data (Brent Spiner) -- or an updated rendition of him -- was introduced to the cast. Raffi (Michelle Hurd), Riker (Jonathan Frakes), and Worf (Michael Dorn) were stalking about a mysterious, high-security black site called Daystrom Station, looking for what high-tech weapon might have been stolen by a shadowy cabal of wicked Changelings. The trio finds that the station's security measures have been tied into a powerful artificial intelligence that has been, bafflingly, projecting holograms that they might recognize. Eventually, they find that the AI in question is, in fact, the android brain of Data, who had been reconstructed again after two previous "deaths." 

The "Star Trek: Picard" version of Data, however, is sort of a new character. Not only does he now look like a 74-year-old man (Spiner is 74), but his brain contains several different personalities at once. Arik Soong (also Spiner) reconstructed the android to contain Data, his evil twin Lore, his daughter Lal, his creator Dr. Noonien Soong, and his prototype B-4. Later in the series, Spiner acts opposite himself in a dream-like sequence as Data and Lore abstractly fight for dominance over one body. Data wins out. 

At the end of the eighth episode of "Picard," all of the main "Star Trek: The Next Generation" cast members have finally been gathered together, and the showrunners indulged in a glory shot of Spiner, Frakes, Dorn, Patrick Stewart, Marin Sirtis, LeVar Burton, and Gates McFadden sitting around a conference table for the first time in decades. 

If you look closely at Dorn, you can tell Worf doesn't much care about Data's presence there.

According to a recent interview with Collider, showrunner Terry Matalas said that Dorn's reaction was improvised ... and weirdly appropriate for the character. 

Surely, That's Not Really Data

The reunion scene was treacly, of course, but since it took eight episodes to get there, the nostalgia was well-earned. These characters, each of them hovering around their 80s, 90s, and 100s, were permitted to feel a little sentimental about seeing their old co-workers again. Dr. Crusher and Deanna Troi get to have a moment of bonding, and Matalas insisted they sit opposite one another so they could hold hands and make eye contact. In his words: "I wish we had time to make it longer, and they could say more."

One can hope that all real-life work reunions, convened by circumstances decades after the fact, are as amenable. Indeed, it's a little odd that there is no awkwardness or resentment at this occasion. Well, except for Worf, who didn't look kindly at the 74-year-old-looking android across from him. True to his character, Worf was not sentimental. Matalas recalled Dorn's performance, and assigned it subtext, saying:

"What is interesting was that Michael Dorn had decided, in this moment of nostalgia, that he would be the only one who wasn't entirely touched that Data had returned. In his mind, he was like, 'Whatever, this isn't our Data. I don't care about the robot.' That was kind of funny. So, in that scene, as Data's talking, he's kind of like, 'All right, whatever. Let's just get to the meeting,' if you really look at it, which is funny. So, there's some road to travel with those two characters, if you ever bring them back."

Data And Worf

Worf is not a sentimental character, so his brusque ignoring of Data is wholly appropriate. Indeed, Worf, while seeing them as capable fellow crewmates, likely doesn't have a terribly warm regard for most of the characters in that room. He respects them and finds them all stalwart and honorable, but he's not the kind to hug and smile. He respects Captain Picard and Commander Riker as capable and intelligent commanders, of course. He likely sees Dr. Crusher as a respected expert in her field, as he did with Geordi La Forge. While Data and Worf were both outsiders on the Enterprise -- one was the only Klingon, the other the only android -- they never properly bonded; their conversations consisted of mutual befuddlement over human behavior. 

The only character Worf had any kind of sentimentality toward was Deanna Troi. The characters were briefly in love, and her sensitivity and knowledge of the human mind provided Worf with some much-needed inner balance. When he reunited with Troi, Worf immediately -- while they were still in the jail cell she was being sprung from -- expressed his unending gratitude for her wisdom, her empathy, and her teachings. Worf deliberately doesn't possess any kind of social tact, so he would indeed say what he felt he needed to in the moment. 

That Worf ignores Data isn't coldness or resentment, but a mere matter of his sense of propriety and practicality. 

In the season's ninth episode, "Võx," the main characters board a restored Enterprise-D, wistful to be back on the ship they served on for eight years. But Worf takes one look and says he prefers the Enterprise-E. It had a better tactical station and better weapons. The heck with nostalgia.

Read this next: 11 Reasons Why The Next Generation Is The Best Star Trek Show

The post Michael Dorn Improvised Worf's Reaction To Data's Return in Picard: Season 3 appeared first on /Film.

While movie remakes are popular across genres (Anyone remember the 2018 remake of Garry Marshall's "Overboard"?), the horror genre is especially susceptible. The genre is unique insofar as its scares endure more than most. Where comedies and action movies, for instance, are inextricably linked to their time of release, a scary movie is a scary movie. With a fresh coat of paint, what was new three decades ago can seem fresh again.

A curious contemporary trend has emerged in which relatively recent titles are remade just a few years after their original releases. Released just 14 years after the first "Cabin Fever," the remake used the exact script as the original. Recently, horror filmmaker Anthony DiBlasi released "Malum" in select theaters. "Malum," a remake of DiBlasi's 2014 indie "Last Shift," isn't quite a shot-for-shot remake so much as it is a reimagining. With more money and more experience, DiBlasi revisits his demonic fable in a new context. 

Remakes have long been unfairly maligned. Though in some cases, they're even better than the originals. While fans remained mixed on what a remake should ultimately accomplish, the broad brushstrokes are there for filmmakers to reinterpret good ideas constrained by budget or decade of release. Here, we'll be looking specifically at 10 low-budget horror movies — all great in their own right — that could benefit from a remake.

Horror In The High Desert

Whether Dutch Marich's "Horror in the High Desert" gets a remake or not, it remains one of the scariest found-footage movies of the century. Structured as a faux-documentary, Marich's low-budget shocker uses several talking heads to explore the case of hiker Gary Hinge (Eric Mencis), who disappeared while hiking the Great Basin Desert. For the first hour, "Horror in the High Desert" speculates on what might have happened. Was it simply an accident? Was it foul play? Is Gary simply lost? As frightening as some of the suggested theories are, the truth is considerably more horrifying.

Unfolding in a breathless 20-minute climactic beat, Marich treats the audience to a genuinely terrifying foray into the darkness. The scares unsettle without seeming like too much, and in those moments, Marich cements himself as a horror auteur. It's in the early moments, however, where a remake could spruce things up. "Horror in the High Desert" takes a while to get going, and despite the committed work of an unknown cast, it very much feels like an indie production. The television graphics, interview staging, and true crime pantomime feel too uncanny. They're close to the real thing, but not quite. A remake could tighten the early moments, better ensuring the audience is fully invested by the time the terror arrives in earnest.

The House At The End Of Time

Alejandro Hidalgo's "The House at the End of Time" is one of the best international ghost stories of the last decade. Hidalgo channels a distinct Venezuelan lens in his merging of haunted houses and time travel, augmenting the entire enterprise with touching cultural specificity. It's unlike any haunted house movie that's come before, no doubt accounting for why it remains the highest-grossing horror movie in Venezuelan history. In 2016, New Line Cinema purchased the remake rights. However, in the years since, there's been no update on where the project stands or whether it's even going to happen at all.

A U.S. remake would no doubt dull some of Hidalgo's cultural touches, though it would expose domestic audiences to the original. Horror remakes, especially international horror remakes, are gateways for transnational cinema. They are springboards for the original release, opportunities for new audiences to discover and appreciate horrors beyond their own borders. A good story is a good story, and "The House at the End of Time" has a scary good one. It's worth giving this gem one more chance to shock audiences everywhere.

The Dorm That Dripped Blood

For the casual horror fan, "The Dorm That Dripped Blood" might simply be that movie Jamie Kennedy's Randy Meeks rattles off while on the phone with Ghostface in "Scream 2." For "Melrose Place" fans, "The Dorm That Dripped Blood" was the movie debut of Daphne Zuniga. Filmed at the University of California, Los Angeles, the film is a slasher in the purest form. Several students stay behind during the Christmas break to clear out an abandoned building, unaware that a killer is stalking the halls. "The Dorm That Dripped Blood" might not innovate, but with a meager $150,000 budget, it spills plenty of blood with style. 

Nevertheless, directors Stephen Carpenter and Jeffrey Obrow create a consistent level of tension, including a protracted chase scene late in the film. A remake with a bigger budget would fit well within the current horror landscape. Revitalized slasher series like "Scream" and "Halloween" are making big bucks at the box office, so now is as perfect a time as any to drag this overlooked slasher into the new age.

Ghostwatch

"Ghostwatch" is one of the scariest movies ever made. The infamous BBC production terrified an entire generation, prompting thousands of complaints from "traumatized viewers," some of whom were allegedly convinced the movie they were watching was real. An early iteration of the found-footage format, "Ghostwatch" splits its time between television studio and camera crew as host Michael Parkinson takes viewers through an investigation into an allegedly haunted house in Northolt.

As a precursor to the simmering scares of later subgenre entries like "The Blair Witch Project" and "The Outwaters," "Ghostwatch" might well be the granddaddy of found footage horror. It strikes a verisimilitude that's rarely been seen since, and while most of that is innate to its distribution (a Halloween night television premiere in 1992), the final moments suggest a much larger paranormal world. Contemporary filmmakers could add some money to the ghostly coffers and explore a world governed by the undead. Given the links between the antagonistic spirits and technology, a remake could easily springboard into a cautionary, modern tale.

Sole Survivor

Released in 1984, "Sole Survivor" was "Final Destination" before "Final Destination." What it lacks in budget, star power, and scale, it more than makes up for in the sheer savagery of its existential terror. Slasher fans especially hold "Sole Survivor" in high regard, but more casual audiences have likely never heard of it. That's a shame. Director Thom Eberhardt (who also directed "Night of the Comet" the same year) accomplishes a lot with an estimated $350,000 budget. However, with more money, the full thrust of his conceit could be explored.

Anita Skinner stars as Denise, a television advertising executive who survives a deadly plane crash as the film opens. As the titular sole survivor, Denise grapples with survivor's guilt and the unfortunate appearance of several specters. Something from beyond isn't happy she's survived, and it's looking to reclaim her. Part slasher, part mood piece in the vein of "Carnival of Souls," "Sole Survivor" is as terrifying as it is mysterious. Eberhardt paints a world of miraculous scale, though the budget often constrains some of his best ideas. While there's power in suggestion, a remake could easily take "Sole Survivor" to the next level.

Dog Soldiers

It's not fair to rag on Neil Marshall. This is the man responsible for "The Descent" and "Dog Soldiers," after all. Beyond his cinematic offerings, he's helmed some of the best episodes of "Game of Thrones," including the Emmy-nominated "The Watchers on the Wall." Yet, in recent years, the master of frenzied genre cinema has directed some duds. His latest movies, "The Reckoning" and "The Lair," seem inexplicably removed from the person behind them. How is "The Lair" a Neil Marshall movie? The aforementioned "Dog Soldiers," Marshall's directorial debut, is long overdue for a remake. Better still, it would get Marshall back to his roots and remind contemporary audiences why he was once the most exciting voice in horror.

"Dog Soldiers" follows a group of military men battling werewolves in the Scottish Highlands. With a £2.3 million budget, it was undoubtedly low budget, accounting for some unfortunate production constraints. At times, the action is obscured, the lighting is a bit too dark, and Marshall creatively guides the camera away when the effects aren't quite convincing. It's still a classic werewolf movie. However, with the benefit of today's technology, it could be even more. There's a dearth of good werewolf movies released lately (the last might well be 2022's "The Cursed"), and no film is better poised to bring lycanthropes back than "Dog Soldiers."

The Hallow

Horror fans are more than familiar with the indie-to-franchise pipeline. Studios poach new talent, though rather than giving them the funds needed to explore their original vision, they saddle them with IPs. After the success of "The Taking of Deborah Logan," director Adam Robitel was tapped for "Insidious: The Last Key." Lee Cronin's debut, "The Hole in the Ground," was all the executives needed to hand him "Evil Dead Rise." Corin Hardy's Sundance smash, "The Hallow," got him the gig directing "The Nun," the highest-grossing entry in "The Conjuring" universe. Arguably the most gothic entry in the franchise, "The Nun" is excellent and serves the argument that Hardy should be given another shot at "The Hallow," this time with the budget to match his vision. 

In "The Hallow," a conservationist and his family are targeted by fairies in the woods outside their rural Irish cottage. Like many indie creature features, "The Hallow" suggests more than it shows, exploiting sound design and motivated staging to imply the horror. When the action shifts to exteriors, "The Hallow" is just a little too dark — a purposeful technique to hide the low-budget monster effects. It's supremely effective, but fae horror remains an untapped well. If "The Hallow" were remade with a larger budget, it could be the incentive studios need to unleash more fae horror into the world.

The Void

When Universal Pictures scrapped the practical effects for Matthijs van Heijningen Jr.'s prequel "The Thing," effects artists Alec Gillis and Tom Woodruff Jr. took to YouTube to share some of the work they'd done — work the studio later replaced with computer-generated effects. They'd later leverage this exposure into the 2015 release "Harbinger Down," a movie meant to celebrate practical monsters in all their glory. The monsters looked great. The rest? Well, it's a low-budget horror movie. A similar fate befell Steven Kostanski and Jeremy Gillespie's "The Void." Kostanski would go on to direct the sensational "Psycho Goreman," but "The Void" remains a beguiling exercise in what could have been.

When grotesque, Lovecraftian creatures besiege a rural hospital, a ragtag band of survivors must endure a hellish, interdimensional nightmare. Like "Harbinger Down," "The Void" has great monsters — some of the best this century's seen — but the movie never coalesces into anything more than an effects reel. A remake could easily give the filmmaking duo the budget to match the story with the effects. While Kostanski and Gillespie raised $82,000 through IndieGoGo for the keystone monsters, a remake with more financial backing would not only augment the effects but also the story itself. 

Banshee Chapter

Like "The Void," "Banshee Chapter" is Lovecraftian horror in its purest form. While mainstream audiences have been given bits and nibbles of cosmic horror (Alex Garland's "Annihilation" was released theatrically, after all), the subgenre is most often relegated to the indie video-on-demand sphere. In recent years, we've seen "Color Out of Space," "Mandy" (both Nicolas Cage vehicles), and "Glorious." All were festival hits that later arrived on streaming. Cosmic horror relishes in the unknown, but sometimes, a little more budget (perhaps something akin to Guillermo del Toro's canceled "At the Mountains of Madness") would be nice.

Blair Erickson's "Banshee Chapter" is the perfect low-budget shocker to remake. Loosely inspired by Lovecraft's "From Beyond," the film follows journalist Anne (Katia Winter) as she endeavors to track down her missing friend. There are government conspiracies, unusual drugs, and entities from another dimension. "Banshee Chapter" manages a lot with a little, though there's no denying its best ideas are unfortunately relegated to off-screen moments. There isn't enough money to dive that deep into the cosmos. Nevertheless, "Banshee Chapter" is one of the best indie horror releases of this century, and if any film deserves a comeback, it's this one.

Grave Encounters

The first "Grave Encounters" cost somewhere between $120,000 and $2 million. It grossed $3.6 million worldwide. The second cost $1.4 million, grossing an estimated $8 million, though those numbers are difficult to verify. Movie accounting is strange, but there's no doubt "Grave Encounters" was a cheap little thing that made some dough (It did, after all, get a much more expensive sequel). It was one of the first found-footage horror movies to capitalize on "Paranormal Activity's" success, leveraging the burgeoning availability of streaming to generate considerable word-of-mouth. While it hasn't endured like its inspirations, it's one of the last decade's better ghost stories. If only those ghosts looked good.

Where "Paranormal Activity" never shows too much of its, well, paranormal activity, "Grave Encounters" doesn't hide anything. The early tension is strong, but the terror dissipates as soon as the CGI baddies show their faces in the latter half. They're not convincing by any stretch. Although audiences certainly know they're watching a movie, the documentary verisimilitude cultivated earlier evaporates almost entirely. These ghosts are of the YouTube scare prank variety — gray, distorted faces, all digital and blurry. Despite some missteps, "Grave Encounters" deserves credit, and were it to be remade, a little more money could go a long way in better designing its spirits. With a bigger budget, "Grave Encounters" could actualize the funhouse feel it aspires to.

Read this next: 14 Horror Movie Flops That Became Cult Classics

The post 10 Low Budget Horror Movies That Deserve Remakes appeared first on /Film.

Most fans of "True Detective" will agree that season 1 was a high point for Nic Pizzolatto's crime drama. The fastidious show creator and writer maintained tight control over the series for its first three seasons, which often caused problems for the directors — especially Cary Fukunaga. For "True Detective" season 4, Pizzolatto handed the reins to "Tigers Are Not Afraid" director Issa López, who can hopefully return the series to the standard established by its brilliant inaugural season.

That's going to be a tough feat. Season 1 of "True Detective" had so much going for it, it's hard to see how it could be matched, let alone bested. The eight episodes were helped tremendously by two career-best performances from leading men Woody Harrelson as Detective Marty Hart, and Matthew McConaughey as Detective Rust Cohle. Alongside some of the most layered yet consistently compelling storytelling seen in the age of the prestige drama, these performances helped elevate the show beyond your typical crime procedural, culminating in a thoughtful exploration of weighty philosophical topics and deep moral questions.

When it came to the brilliant-yet-troubled Rust, McConaughey faced a big challenge, not only in the sense that the man was a complex character but due to the almost two-decade-spanning scope of the show itself. The first season of "True Detective" takes place over the course of 17 years, with Rust transforming dramatically during that time span from a devoted detective to a burnout alcoholic seemingly chasing conspiracy theories. Plagued by alcoholism in the wake of his daughter's death and his resulting divorce, and burdened with a curious and brilliant mind, Rust presented an enticing challenge for McConaughey, who took some unorthodox steps to prepare.

Breaking Down Rust

"True Detective" season 1 had so much working in its favor, and the lead performances were a big part of its success. Woody Harrelson and Matthew McConaughey, who'll soon be reuniting for an Apple TV+ comedy series in which they play themselves, had an undeniable chemistry despite their characters' seemingly opposed personalities. Marty Hart was an everyman cop and family man, with an unfortunate penchant for cheating on his wife. Rust Cohle on the other hand, was a much more complex character, as McConaughey discovered during his prep for the show.

In a 2016 interview on "The Rich Eisen Show," the actor revealed how he'd actually been approached to play Marty, but asked to play Rust after reading the script, claiming the character was "arresting [him] every time [he] read something that comes out of his mouth." Once he'd secured the role, McConaughey took a meticulous approach to his preparation, particularly in relation to the scenes in the interrogation room, which within the "True Detective" timeline, occur much later on. According to the actor, he broke down the 28 pages of script for those scenes into "seven different bubbles," which helped him "understand the dialogue" before further reducing the writing into smaller "pods." According to the Oscar-winner, this helped him comprehend the long monologues Nic Pizzolatto had written for his character. And his meticulous approach didn't stop there.

The actor told Rolling Stone in 2014 that he made a "450-page graph of where Cohle was and where he was coming from." Unlike the diary Heath Ledger kept while preparing for his role as the Joker in "The Dark Knight," McConaughey's document was surprisingly organized, with the actor breaking down Rust's character development into four eras.

The Stages Of Rust Cohle

Matthew McConaughey explained to Rolling Stone how the "four stages of Rust Cohle" began with "1995 Cohle" — the earliest version of the character in the show. This era comes after Rust has spent years as an undercover agent known as "Crash," and sees the homicide detective team up with Woody Harrelson's Marty as they both work the case that eventually bonds them for life. As McConaughey saw it, at this point his character is "trying to walk the line," and needs the regimen of a homicide detective career. "He needs the case to actually survive," he explained. "One, because he's great at it. And two, because it's going to keep him from killing himself."

But, as anyone who remembers that incredible six-minute oner from episode 4 will remember, "1995 Rust" is soon forced to return to his Crash persona to infiltrate a biker gang tied to the central mystery. For McConaughey, this Rust was a "deep, narco wild-ass," who provides an excuse to "go over the edge" — something he's clearly holding himself back from prior to resuming his undercover persona. McConaughey described this version of Rust as someone who "knows he may die sooner living this life, but there's a freedom and peace in that knowledge for him."

Then, there's a less memorable but just as important iteration of Rust that comes in the form of "2002 Cohle." This Rust had found a girlfriend and, according to McConaughey, "relaxed into his way in the world," even while he still maintains a drive to solve the ongoing case he and Marty seemingly closed years before. But as the actor himself shrewdly noted, this version of Rust is only important insofar as it proves he's not cut out for the comfort of domestic life.

The Final Stage

That left one more stage of Rust Cohle to map out. This version is easily the most memed, thanks to his, "Time is a flat circle," line. "This guy lived longer than he hoped," the actor explained. "Fallen prey to his own beliefs. More cynical, angrier, he's had to endure the existence of this s***storm called life."

What's interesting about this Rust is that while he may appear to be the most cynical, he actually delivers one of the most uplifting lines of the whole season. Towards the end as he and Marty discuss "light versus dark" while pondering the star-filled night sky, Rust remarks, "Well, once there was only dark. You ask me, the light's winning." Matthew McConaughey seemingly recognized this vestige of optimism within Rust. As he told Rolling Stone, the "2012 Rust" is someone who "will not accept defeat," and who's "not going become a madman, he's not going to kill himself" — a genuine example of his character development considering he started as a cop who needed the structure of detective work to keep him from doing just that.

That final line delivery, where Rust uses the night sky as a metaphor for the light winning over darkness, not only tops off one of the best episodes of "True Detective," it's a tastefully positive way to end a run of eight episodes that, up until that point, had been concerned with some decidedly grim subject matter. McConaughey seemingly recognized the fight left in his character, even after enduring all that darkness and making it out to the other side, and the performance was all the better for it. While it may seem a little over the top to create a 450-page journal and get as analytical as McConaughey did, you can't argue with the results.

Read this next: Why These Actors Left Hit TV Shows

The post True Detective's Matthew McConaughey Wrote a 450-page Character Analysis appeared first on /Film.

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"The fact remains that Google Chrome is the arbiter of web standards," argues FSF campaigns manager Greg Farough (while adding that Firefox, "through ethical distributions like GNU IceCat and Abrowser, can weaken that stranglehold.") "Google's deprecation of the JPEG-XL image format in February in favor of its own patented AVIF format might not end the web in the grand scheme of things, but it does highlight, once again, the disturbing amount of control it has over the platform generally." Part of Google's official rationale for the deprecation is the following line: "There is not enough interest from the entire ecosystem to continue experimenting with JPEG-XL." Putting aside the problematic aspects of the term "ecosystem," let us remark that it's easy to gauge the response of the "entire ecosystem" when you yourself are by far the largest and most dangerous predator in said "ecosystem." In relation to Google's overwhelming power, the average web user might as well be a microbe. In supposedly gauging what the "ecosystem" wants, all Google is really doing is asking itself what Google wants... While we can't link to Google's issue tracker directly because of another freedom issue — its use of nonfree JavaScript — we're told that the issue regarding JPEG-XL's removal is the second-most "starred" issue in the history of the Chromium project, the nominally free basis for the Google Chrome browser. Chromium users came out of the woodwork to plead with Google not to make this decision. It made it anyway, not bothering to respond to users' concerns. We're not sure what metric it's using to gauge the interest of the "entire ecosystem," but it seems users have given JPEG-XL a strong show of support. In turn, what users will be given is yet another facet of the web that Google itself controls: the AVIF format. As the response to JPEG-XL's deprecation has shown, our rallying together and telling Google we want something isn't liable to get it to change its mind. It will keep on wanting what it wants: control; we'll keep on wanting what we want: freedom. Only, the situation isn't hopeless. At the present moment, not even Google can stop us from creating the web communities that we want to see: pages that don't run huge chunks of malicious, nonfree code on our computers. We have the power to choose what we run or do not run in our browsers. Browsers like GNU IceCat (and extensions like LibreJS and JShelter> ) help with that. Google also can't prevent us from exploring networks beyond the web like Gemini. What our community can do is rally support behind those free browsers that choose to support JPEG-XL and similar formats, letting the big G know that even if we're smaller than it, we won't be bossed around.

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

After an unexpected week off, we're back to talk about the calm before the storm as we discuss this week's gaming news, Everspace 2, Minecraft Legends, Jedi Fallen Order, and a lot more.  This week's music:  Metallica - Too Far Gone

The Marvel Cinematic Universe has definitely taken some chances over the years by embracing some of the more cosmic, psychedelic aspects of the comic books that Jack Kirby, Stan Lee and others made famous. James Gunn's "Guardians of the Galaxy" managed to turn a sentient alien tree and a gun-toting talking raccoon into pop culture sensations, and the sequel featured a cameo by the Watchers -- the egg-headed omnipotent beings that quietly observe all the past, present and future events in the universe. Still, perhaps no MCU project to date has gone into weirder territory than Peyton Reed's "Ant-Man and The Wasp: Quantumania," a movie that featured the microscopic Quantum Realm, an infinite amount of Kangs as the villain(s), an unsettling depiction of fan favorite sidekick M.O.D.O.K., and a gelatinous pink blob named Veb (voiced by David Dastmalchian).

Inside the trippy mini-world of the Quantum Realm, quite literally anything is possible. That can be an asset to a story that can use almost any idea and make it work, but it can also lend itself to some wilder concepts that could make the "Ant-Man" universe completely lose touch with the real world. In the case of "Quantumania," there was originally a version of the film's script that saw Michael Douglas' Hank Pym meet his end in a truly peculiar way -- by passing away, yet still being capable of communicating with the living through his beloved insects. The idea is pretty far out there, admittedly, but it's also strangely romantic in a sense.

Hank Pym's Hive Mind

"Ant-Man and The Wasp: Quantumania" screenwriter Jeff Loveness has confirmed that Hank's death was absolutely considered during the writing process. In an interview with Backstory Magazine, he revealed more about how it could have happened:

"We were going to kill Hank at one point, and I was going to have him be, like, reanimated. His consciousness was going to live on through the ants, and he was going to be like mentally controlling them. Yeah, he was going to be almost like this hive mind of the ants, and I like that. [...] That didn't go too far."

"Quantumania" does, noticeably, sideline Michael Douglas' Hank Pym and his daughter Hope/Wasp (Evangeline Lily) to a certain degree, so it makes sense that his untimely demise was up for debate in at least one of the drafts of the screenplay. It seems unlikely to ever happen on screen, although it could be a way to convince Douglas to return for one more sequel.

Prior to joining the MCU, Douglas had only appeared in two sequels: "Jewel of the Nile," the follow-up to "Romancing the Stone," and Oliver Stone's "Wall Street: Money Never Sleeps," which saw the legendary actor revisit his Oscar-winning role as Gordon Gekko. For Marvel, signing Douglas on for three "Ant-Man" movies and appearing as a de-aged version of Hank Pym in other films was a huge get. The actor has previously said he would only return for "Ant-Man 4" if the film were to kill Hank off, so having his consciousness downloaded into an army of ants would certainly be one way of doing precisely that. Given the somewhat underwhelming box office of "Ant-Man and The Wasp: Quantumania," however, it's probably best not to count on "Ant-Man 4" happening anytime soon, if ever.

Read this next: Disturbing Comic Book Moments The MCU Will Never Show You

The post Ant-Man and The Wasp: Quantumania Originally Killed Hank Pym, But Let Him Live On Through His Ants appeared first on /Film.

Several government cybersecurity agencies united to urge secure-by-design and secure-by-default software. Releasing "joint guidance" for software manufactuers were two U.S. security agencies — the FBI and the NSA — joined with the U.S. Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency and the cybersecurity authorities of Australia, Canada, the United Kingdom, Germany, Netherlands, and New Zealand. "To create a future where technology and associated products are safe for customers," they wrote in a joint statement, "the authoring agencies urge manufacturers to revamp their design and development programs to permit only secure-by-design and -default products to be shipped to customers." The Washington Post reports: Software manufacturers should put an end to default passwords, write in safer programming languages and establish vulnerability disclosure programs for reporting flaws, a collection of U.S. and international government agencies said in new guidelines Thursday. [The guidelines also urge rigorous code reviews.] The "principles and approaches" document, which isn't mandatory but lays out the agencies' views on securing software, is the first major step by the Biden administration as part of its push to make software products secure as part of the design process, and to make their default settings secure as well. It's part of a potentially contentious multiyear effort that aims to shift the way software makers secure their products. It was a key feature of the administration's national cybersecurity strategy, which was released last month and emphasized shifting the burden of security from consumers — who have to manage frequent software updates — to the companies that make often insecure products... The administration has also raised the prospect of legislation on secure-by-design and secure-by-default, but officials have said it could be years away.... The [international affairs think tank] Atlantic Council's Cyber Statecraft Initiative has praised the Biden administration's desire to address economic incentives for insecurity. Right now, the costs of cyberattacks fall on users more than they do tech providers, according to many policymakers. "They're on a righteous mission," Trey Herr, director of the Atlantic Council initiative, told me. If today's guidelines are the beginning of the discussion on secure-by-design and secure-by-default, Herr said, "this is a really strong start, and an important one." "It really takes aim at security features as a profit center," which for some companies has led to a lot of financial growth, Herr said. "I do think that's going to rub people the wrong way and quick, but that's good. That's a good fight." In the statement CISA's director says consumers also have a role to play in this transition. "As software now powers the critical systems and services we collectively rely upon every day, consumers must demand that manufacturers prioritize product safety above all else." Among other things, the new guidelines say that manufacturers "are encouraged make hard tradeoffs and investments, including those that will be 'invisible' to the customers, such as migrating to programming languages that eliminate widespread vulnerabilities."

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

CIO magazine reports on "a growing number of managers and executives dropping degree requirements from job descriptions." Figures from the 2022 study The Emerging Degree Reset from The Burning Glass Institute quantify the trend, reporting that 46% of middle-skill and 31% of high-skill occupations experienced material degree resets between 2017 and 2019. Moreover, researchers calculated that 63% of those changes appear to be "'structural resets' representing a measured and potentially permanent shift in hiring practices" that could make an additional 1.4 million jobs open to workers without college degrees over the next five years. Despite such statistics and testimony from Taylor and other IT leaders, the debate around whether a college education is needed in IT isn't settled. Some say there's no need for degrees; others say degrees are still preferred or required.... IBM is among the companies whose leaders have moved away from degree requirements; Big Blue is also one of the earliest, largest, and most prominent proponents of the move, introducing the term "new collar jobs" for the growing number of positions that require specific skills but not a bachelor's degree.... Not all are convinced that dropping degree requirements is the way to go, however. Jane Zhu, CIO and senior vice president at Veritas Technologies, says she sees value in degrees, value that isn't always replicated through other channels. "Though we don't necessarily require degrees for all IT roles here at Veritas, I believe that they do help candidates demonstrate a level of formal education and commitment to the field and provide a foundation in fundamental concepts and theories of IT-related fields that may not be easily gained through self-study or on-the-job training," she says. "Through college education, candidates have usually acquired basic technical knowledge, problem-solving skills, the ability to collaborate with others, and ownership and accountability. They also often gain an understanding of the business and social impacts of their actions." The article notes an evolving trend of "more openness to skills-based hiring for many technical roles but a desire for a bachelor's degree for certain positions, including leadership." (Kelli Jordan, vice president of IBMer Growth and Development tells CIO that more than half of the job openings posted by IBM no longer require degrees.) Thanks to Slashdot reader snydeq for sharing the article.

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

Scottish actor Gerard Butler has been headlining some of Hollywood's biggest, most successful, and most talked-about blockbuster releases for three decades. If any 2000s action star has a claim to A-list status, it's him. However, it still feels like not enough people discuss his acting talents.

For most of his career, Butler has prioritized a kind of unapologetically corny and popular cinema that often skews ... controversial, to say the least. Good and campy fun is Butler's bread-and-butter -- whether it's action, romance, adventure, or a musical. The key to appreciating him as a performer is to understand this fact and fall in love with the easy-watching pleasure these movies provide. However, it's also worth noting what deeper dimensions Butler brings to these roles, too. So here's an appraisal of the 12 best Gerard Butler movies. For the unacquainted, these picks will help viewers fall in love with the man's unique brand of crowd-pleasing entertainment.

Nim's Island

What better way to start a list of the best Gerard Butler movies than with one where he plays two classic Butlerian roles? Adapted from the eponymous children's story by Wendy Orr, "Nim's Island" brings together the headline-worthy trio of Butler, Jodie Foster, and Abigail Breslin — then just two years removed from her Academy Award nomination for "Little Miss Sunshine" — for a breezy, old-fashioned adventure tale with a playful meta twist. A girl named Nim (Breslin) lives on a remote South Pacific island and swaps emails with an adventure book author (Foster), who, despite the intensity of her stories, is agoraphobic and deeply neurotic. The author gets pushed to face her fears when the girl finds herself in real-life tropical peril.

Butler plays Jack Rusoe, a widower marine biologist and father of Nim, and Alex Rover, the fictional adventurer created by Foster's Alexandra Rover. While sequestered in her house, Alexandra imagines herself having conversations with Alex. The film is a fun, family-friendly romp buoyed by its strong performances. But what makes it interesting in the context of Butler's filmography is that the dual role allows him to display two vital facets of his star persona: The buff, manly action man, and the sensitive and emotionally accessible father figure-slash-love interest.

Gamer

It takes a certain amount of willingness to properly appreciate Butler's action filmography. His work in the genre is brash, noisy, excessive, testosterone-laden, unsubtle, and, yes, fundamentally ridiculous. While that flavor of cinema can go many ways, the fact remains that, when it does deliver, it delivers handsomely. A good Butler action vehicle whisks the viewer into a realm of pure, unmitigated sensory excitement. To showcase these gloriously trashy Butler vehicles, there's no doubt which one I'd choose first. When you have Neveldine-Taylor, go for Neveldine-Taylor.

In the short but vital directorial oeuvre of the American filmmaking duo, Brian Taylor and Mark Neveldine ("Crank"), "Gamer" stands out as a brazen feat of bizarro cinema. Set in a dystopian future where nanite technology allows gamers to control humans as their avatars in video games, the film follows John "Kable" Tillman (Butler). Out of the many death row inmates using a video game, "Slayers," to gain a pardon, he's the most popular and successful. He longs to reconnect with his estranged wife, Angie (Amber Valletta), a paid actress-avatar in the "Sims"-like life simulator "Society." Conspiracies, insurrections, and sci-fi twists ensue — as well as buckets of gonzo sound, fury, and violence that only this particular star-director alignment could yield.

P.S. I Love You

Butler is not the first leading man to spend his career moving between the realms of action and romance. But he's definitely among the ones who seem uncannily made for both genres. Consider his chemistry with Hilary Swank in "P.S. I Love You:" Other actors might have been intimidated by the challenge of playing a character who provides the contextual fodder for the highly emotional performance of a two-time Best Actress Oscar winner. Yet Butler embraces the task with gusto, projecting the warmth and self-evident charm required to make the film's ludicrous premise work.

When I say "ludicrous," I do mean ludicrous. Like "Ghost" by way of a scavenger hunt, "P.S. I Love You" follows Holly Kennedy (Swank), a woman gradually healing from grieving her late husband Gerry (Butler) by ... her late husband Gerry? Before his death, he left her 10 messages to be delivered at strategic moments during her healing process. The film's uninhibited, louder-for-the-people-in-the-back sentiment was met with some resistance by critics at the time. Ultimately, it struck a winning chord with audiences, allowing it to become a worldwide hit. Like the best of Butler's work, it's a movie that understands the immense and fantastical power that a "more is more" philosophy has in popular cinema.

RocknRolla

Some directors have lanes, and Guy Ritchie decidedly has his. Following his early career success with "Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels" and "Snatch," his subpar films ventured outside of his range. But "RocknRolla" marked a return to form by Britain's quintessential director of stylish postmodern gangster flicks.

"RocknRolla" is one of the projects that allows Butler to combine his chops as a brawny action star with more substantial character work. Here he plays a wittier, more self-aware character. Even though Butler's One-Two is the film's ostensible protagonist, the cast around him offers just as much reason to give "RocknRolla" a watch: Thandiwe Newton, Tom Wilkinson, Tom Hardy, Idris Elba, Mark Strong, Toby Kebbell, and Chris "Ludacris" Bridges all lend their talents to the film's ensemble-based fun. Ritchie lets each of them take turns stealing the show from one another while Butler anchors the whole thing with impressive confidence. The plot could be described as a sort of gangster rat race, featuring a land scam that leaves millions of pounds up for the taking -- bringing London's criminal scene into a no-holds-barred fight for the gold. It's slick Ritchiean fun all the way down!

The Phantom Of The Opera

Is "The Phantom of the Opera" a good movie? Whole arias have been written in favor of and against that hypothesis. But 19 years later, the film community can't agree on an answer to that or the similarly pressing question: "Does Andrew Lloyd Webber make good musicals?" Half the people who read this list will disagree, but here we're going with a resounding YES on both counts.

Can Gerard Butler sing? His gruff, smoky, yet surprisingly melodic baritone makes a counterintuitive musical casting. But what can't be denied is that it was a memorable choice for the role. If the stage version of "The Phantom of the Opera" -- much like Webber's oeuvre -- is defined by its kitschy, operatic opulence, Butler turns out to be just the right guy to translate that into an understandable emotional language for mainstream film audiences. In Joel Schumacher's 2004 film adaptation, Butler's take on the Phantom is as simultaneously fearsome and seductive as it should be. Gaudy maximalism in the musical and the film's take on Gaston Leroux's Gothic tale of forbidden backstage romance has always made them something of an acquired taste. But those who do possess said taste should be broadly satisfied by this film. Arguably, this pick earns the distinction of being the "most over-the-top Gerard Butler movie."

Mrs Brown

In 1997, there was no such a thing as a "Gerard Butler persona" — which might explain why "Mrs Brown" finds him giving one of his most open, delightful, and least recognizable performances. Following a few early stage roles, this was Butler's big-screen debut. The John Madden-directed period drama tells the story of the famed, controversial close relationship between the recently-widowed Queen Victoria (played, for the first of two times in her film career, by Judi Dench) and her late husband's trusted Scottish servant, John Brown (Billy Connolly).

Produced by BBC and originally intended as a television movie, "Mrs Butler" was purchased and released in theaters by Miramax. Its story of friendship and kinship blossoming under the constraints of royal obligation found significant commercial success -- largely due to the typically stellar performances of Dench and Connolly. Dench received her first Oscar nomination for the film, a year before her supporting actress win for "Shakespeare in Love." But the two seasoned stars weren't the only ones who received attention for the film. Many viewers were quick to notice the handsome, fresh-faced, supernaturally charming 27-year-old actor playing John's concerned younger brother, Archie Brown. The rest, of course, is Scottish history.

Chasing Mavericks

For whatever reason, there aren't that many great surf movies out there. Outside of "Point Break" and, uh, "Surf's Up," it's hard to come up with a proper canon for that subgenre. But one movie that necessarily belongs on any list of must-see surf movies worth its saltwater is "Chasing Mavericks."

Notable as the last directorial effort of Curtis Hanson and the second-to-last directorial effort of Michael Apted -- who took over as director when Hanson's health troubles increased -- "Chasing Mavericks" tells the story of real-life surfer Jay Moriarty (Jonny Weston). At age 16, Moriarty became notable for successfully riding Mavericks -- the massive Northern Californian swell that has made the names of multiple big wave surfers. The film tells the story of how he pulled that off, aided by his trusted teacher and best friend Richard "Frosty" Hesson (Gerard Butler).

It's no secret that Butler has the gravitas and charisma required to ace a mentor role. But an even more impressive element of his performance in "Chasing Mavericks" is the degree to which he sells the surfing scenes. Per Los Angeles Times, the actor studied under big wave surfer Grant Washburn to make sure he got it right. His dedication to the role comes through fully in the film, which contains some of the most riveting (fictional) surfing sequences ever shot.

Coriolanus

Spartan king, gangster, surfer, jungle adventurer, Viking chieftain, hero pilot, and first-person shooter video game avatar? Sometimes, it feels as though Butler is deliberately collecting the Infinity Stones of pop-cinema masculinity. Thanks to "Coriolanus," we can add "Italic army commander" to that list. Talk about a guy who likes to face down powerful armies in the Classical Antiquity era.

"Coriolanus" is the strongest of the many screen adaptations of the eponymous William Shakespeare tragedy. The film makes the curious creative decision to preserve the original text while nonchalantly transposing it to a contemporary visual setting. Directed by Ralph Fiennes, the film also stars Fiennes in the role of Caius Martius Coriolanus, the Roman general banished from the city and retaliated by leading its enemies, the Volscians, in an assault against Rome. Butler plays Coriolanus' rival-turned-ally Tullus Aufidius, the commander of the Volscian army, in a performance that decisively proved he could acquit himself perfectly well as a classic thespian. After all, the film sees Butler more than hold his own while delivering Shakespearean dialogue alongside the likes of Vanessa Redgrave, Jessica Chastain, and Brian Cox. Not that his comfort with this text should be a surprise! "Coriolanus," the play, had a major role in Butler's trajectory as an actor: Per Biography.com, his first break in the London theater scene came when he got the chance to play the title role in a 1996 production directed by Steven Berkoff.

Reign Of Fire

Every superstar actor has two or three cult movies in their catalog — those controversial, initially panned films that eventually find a small but passionate audience. There's an argument to be made that, forgettable assembly-line actioners aside, Butler's career is made up of nothing but cult films. With a few exceptions, the entries on this list aren't exactly "universally acclaimed" films: They're films deeply cherished by the right viewer, on the right wavelength, with the right amount of appreciation for a certain kind of face-first genre cinema. Out of all the Butler films rejected by the critical mainstream yet treasured by specific subsets of devout fans, one stands tall as not only the cult-iest but the best: "Reign of Fire."

Although remembered for the distinction of being the first blockbuster to make "realistic" CGI dragons a feasible onscreen proposition — enough to influence everything from "Game of Thrones" to "Harry Potter" — Rob Bowman's "Reign of Fire" is no mere technical landmark. The film is one of the most rousing, satisfying, and gorgeous fantasy sagas that Hollywood made in the 2000s -- pans and underwhelming box office be damned. Its post-apoc story of human survivors in a world overtaken by dragons hits just the right spot between soothing familiarity and awe-inspiring newness ... and boasts an ideal leading man trio in Butler, Christian Bale, and Matthew McConaughey.

How To Train Your Dragon 2

Sometimes, stunt casting in animated films can be grating. Other times, it works wonders. Butler as an unfeeling Viking dad named Stoick could have gone either way, really, as could have the "How to Train Your Dragon" series as a whole. Thankfully, this was the franchise that proved DreamWorks was just as capable as Pixar of delivering earnest, visually stunning, dramatically serious CGI animated masterpieces. Fittingly, it also provided Butler with one of the best roles of his career.

"How to Train Your Dragon 2" is not quite as phenomenal as the first film. (A tough bar to clear, to be fair.) But it's an even better showcase for Butler's voice work as Stoick the Vast, as the plot finds the mighty chieftain of Berk settling into a softer, vulnerable, and more emotionally flexible version of himself after the events of the first film. He's immediately challenged in his journey of personal growth by the reappearance of his long-lost wife, Valka (Cate Blanchett), who brings all of Stoick's repressed grief, fear, and love straight to the forefront. Even in animated form, Butler turns out to have impeccable romantic chemistry with his screen partner, and the film allows him to complete Stoick's arc beautifully.

Dear Frankie

Butler, regrettably, hasn't done a lot of small-scale indie dramas -- ones you find in the program of the Un Certain Regard section at Cannes. But "Dear Frankie" is so good that it's worth a whole career of them. Directed by Shona Auerbach from a script by Andrea Gibb, the film boasts subtlety, a sense of place, and a generous spirit -- matching the best of British working-class cinema.

The plot follows Lizzie Morrison (Emily Mortimer, also in one of her best film roles), a mother who brought her nine-year-old deaf son Frankie (Jack McElhone) to the coastal town of Greenock, Scotland to steer clear of her abusive ex-husband. Without the heart to tell Frankie the truth about his father, Lizzie claims he's working far away as a merchant seaman. Through a series of coincidences, Frankie believes that his father has finally come to see him, forcing Lizzie to enlist a man known only as The Stranger (Butler) to pretend to be Frankie's dad for one day.

Although that logline could have made for something schlocky or sensationalist, "Dear Frankie" is never less than honest and deeply-felt. This film allows Butler to sink his teeth into a stunningly understated and complex role. It's comfortably the best live-action film of his career, and a reason to hope he returns to the arthouse drama world in the future.

How To Train Your Dragon

The first place on this list couldn't be anything else. "How to Train Your Dragon" is not only one of the best American films of the 21st century, but also one of precious few mainstream movies that have taken Butler seriously: He's an imposing leading man and a platonic old-school macho figure, yes, but dammit, the man also has a heart! The film captures those two dimensions of Butler and layers them on top of one another, allowing Butler's prowess as a heartrending dramatic performer to erupt through the cracks of his — ahem — stoic persona. No single line delivery in Butler's oeuvre has ever been more gut-wrenching or unforgettable than the simple words: "I did this."

That isn't to say there isn't lots of fun to be had with Butler's performance, too. Before anything else, this is a deeply entertaining movie. Butler's wholehearted committed to the goofily serious Viking voice, so you almost forget it's him. He makes for a perfect match with Jay Baruchel's winking, modern-sounding take on Hiccup. Together, they forge a father-son bond for the ages.

Read this next: 13 Tarantino Projects We Never Saw But Wish We Could've

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As "The Mandalorian" has continued to progress and explore the war culture and complicated history of Mandalore, the Armorer has become an essential character within the overall arc of the series. Played wonderfully by actor Emily Swallow, the Armorer has emerged as a mentor and guide for Din Djarin and, now, Bo-Katan Kryze as they all work together to try and unite the scattered Mandalorian clans across the galaxy. She's steered by a greater sense of purpose that binds the Children of the Watch together and makes it seem like they're destined for greatness. Knowing the history of Mandalorian culture allows her to keep one foot in the past and one in the present, working as a kind of bridge between the ancient stories of the Old Republic and the budding possibilities of the New Republic era.

With how much of a crucial role the Armorer is playing in season 3 of "The Mandalorian," it's somewhat surprising to learn that there was quite a bit of mystery surrounding her involvement in the show beyond the first season. Every actor in "Star Wars" is kept in the dark to a certain extent to prevent any leaks or spoilers, and when Swallow first auditioned for the part, she had no idea what was in store for the character. "I sort of got the feeling that she was a little bit of an Obi-Wan to Mando, but I don't even think that idea crystallized until I sort of saw the whole season," Swallow told ScreenRant. "I don't think I got that sense from what I shot, because I wasn't in that many scenes in the first season, and I wasn't privy to the rest of the script." Thankfully for Swallow, that level of secrecy started to wane once she learned the Armorer would make her triumphant return. 

Get In Where You Fit In

Back when the Armorer was first introduced, she was a stoic, mystical leader trying to keep up the teachings of the Way while her people stayed in hiding on the planet Nevarro. After she crafted his new signet, the Mudhorn, out of beskar, she sent Din on his quest to return Grogu to his rightful parentage. On the surface, she functioned as more of a plot device that sets up Mando's mission. So, naturally, Emily Swallow assumed her part in the story would be coming to a close, telling ScreenRant:

"I didn't really know how the whole story panned out until I got to watch the season with everybody else when it was released. And then I had no idea, honestly, if I was going to come back because I wasn't in season 2. I didn't know how she would continue to fit into the story. When I got the script for the episode of 'The Book of Boba Fett,' things started to really fall into place in a more comprehensive way."

When the Armorer does make her unexpected return right in the middle of "The Book of Boba Fett," she serves a similar purpose for Din Djarin, who's now struggling to master and wield the Darksaber. It's here that the Armorer becomes more of an Arthurian character who teaches Din about the weapon and the ancient lore surrounding it. When Swallow knew she'd be returning, she made sure she understood where the Armorer fit in to the pre-existing canon. "I wanted to know, 'Okay, what of this is new information? What of it is stuff that she's revealing that had been suggested in the past, and what had been prophesied?' I wanted to make sure I was very specific about that," she explained. Now, the Armorer is becoming a very large piece of the sacred text of "Star Wars."

'Wait, I Might Have Job Security?'

The Armorer and the Darksaber are connected by the strict Mandalorian code of the Way and the prophesy that whoever possesses the ancient blade will restore Mandalore to its past greatness once again. So, it's no wonder that her character had to be a big part of the series going forward, a fact that stunned Emily Swallow when producers Jon Favreau and Dave Filoni broke the news to her (via ScreenRant):

"Then they started telling me that they were laying some of the groundwork for season 3 and things that would be coming up, which was shocking to me. Prior to this, I never found out if I was going to be part of the story until immediately before because of all the secrecy around it. So, I was like, 'Wait, I might have job security?'"

The more time that the Armorer shares with Din Djarin and Bo-Katan, the more her relationship with them mirrors the mentorship roles that have always been a part of "Star Wars," from Luke and Obi-Wan to Luke and Rey. The Way of the Mandalorian is much different that the path of the Jedi, but the Armorer is starting to take up that mantle now that she's becoming closer with both Din and Bo. "It's been really cool with 'The Book of Boba Fett' and the beginning of this season to see that she is more invested in Din," admitted Swallow. "There's a little bit of a softening there, if you can even say that with her."

The Armorer, of course, has just placed Bo-Katan and Din on their own mission to unite the Mandalorian clans, fulfilling what is likely to be her most important role for the rest of the season. But if Mandalore is restored, there's going to be a lot of beskar ore to mine, so don't expect the Armorer to be jumping ship anytime soon. 

Read this next: The Biggest Questions The Mandalorian Season 3 Needs To Answer

The post The Mandalorian: Emily Swallow Thought Season 1 Was The End For The Armorer appeared first on /Film.

According to /Film readers, the "Alien" film series is the greatest horror franchise ever. Yes, the xenomorph-starring series certainly has some strong films. However, it's not the most consistent (more on that later), so I disagree. Throughout horror history, sequels, remakes, and reboots have spawned franchises in sub-genres ranging from slashers to the paranormal. No IP is immune to a barrage of iterations. Sometimes, they work. Other times, well ... They leave much to be desired. 

Whether we're talking heavy hitters like "A Nightmare on Elm Street" and "Halloween" or offbeat series such as "The Living Dead," there's always a franchise to gnash your teeth on as a horror fan. Ghoulish monsters, vengeful witches, cannibal serial killers, and disturbed sleep demons decorate our favorite storytelling medium with nightmare fuel. But they're not all created equal.

I'm revisiting some of the biggest franchises and have compiled the 15 best ones, ranking them based on effective scares, storytelling, and direction. The usual suspects appear, including "Scream," "Friday the 13th," and "The Conjuring." But there may be a few surprises, too! Flip through my picks, and let us know how wrong -- or right -- I am!

15. Hannibal Lecter

In his 1981 novel, "Red Dragon," author Thomas Harris introduced Dr. Hannibal Lecter to the world. While 1986's "Manhunter" was the first film adaptation of Harris' book, it generated little public interest. But "The Silence of the Lambs", based on Harris' 1988 sequel novel of the same name, raked in $130 million at the domestic box office -- becoming a bonafide success. In "The Silence of the Lambs," Anthony Hopkins stars as Hannibal, alongside Jodie Foster as Agent Clarice Starling. Hopkins gave the character chilling new life, earning an Oscar for the role.

"Hannibal" picked up a decade after "The Silence of the Lambs," with Julianne Moore taking over the role of Clarice Starling -- now a disgraced FBI agent. What made the film work so well was its willingness to try something different. It made a decent bid to live up to the original. However, the film series' two prequels, "Red Dragon" (2002) and "Hannibal Rising" (2007), stand at opposite ends of the quality spectrum. The former film more faithfully adapted Thomas' 1981 book. But the latter failed to achieve anything remotely creative or interesting. Later, a popular television series, "Hannibal," starring Mads Mikkelsen, course-corrected the franchise and offered up something delectable.

The Hannibal Lecter-starring franchise offered a probing glimpse into the mind of a cannibal. While it isn't ranked high on this list, it still became a prominent staple in the horror/thriller arena, successfully incorporating crime and pulpy mystery.

14. Saw

"Saw" debuted during the 2000s' "torture porn" era. Director James Wan employed the genre's gruesome portrayal of humanity, often through graphic mutilations, to dissect wickedness in the modern world. The initial film, written by Leigh Whannell, broke new ground for horror with its primarily one-location, intricate crime-thriller web, and mind-blowing twist. Yes, the film series gets more convoluted as it continues. But each film release became an almost-yearly ritual for horror fans to see the newest entry's inventive blood splatter.

Besides the allure of its central killer, John Kramer, aka Jigsaw (Tobin Bell), audiences flocked to the theaters to see the kill sequences. Each film felt more elaborate than the last. Whether depicting someone falling into a pit of needles, a demented merry-go-round, or a barbed-wire pig pen, the set-pieces set this series apart from other extremist films of this time like "Martyrs," "Hostel," and "High Tension." Viewers thirsted after the blood, brain matter, and dismembered body parts as much as they sought to discover why these deaths were occurring.

However, the non-linear storytelling hurt and muddled the "Saw" franchise timeline. From flashbacks shoehorned into the story and sequels that marred sequences of events, the Saw franchise is a puzzling watch if you're searching for consistency. But across its nine films -- with "Saw X" in the works -- there's plenty to enjoy if "torture porn" is your cup of tea.

13. The Texas Chain Saw Massacre

With the 1974 original film, Tobe Hooper commented on the Vietnam War and its lingering effects on the boomer generation. Twelve years later, "The Texas Chain Saw Massacre" traded its socio-political grittiness for outlandish camp with "The Texas Chainsaw Massacre Part 2." The franchise never adhered to a single-family dynamic, swapping out relatives like people change their socks.

When it fully celebrated the wacky, as it did with 1995's "Texas Chainsaw Massacre: The Next Generation," starring an unhinged Matthew McConaughey, it succeeded in deconstructing its mythos. For better or worse, it made bold moves. Even Leatherface evolved throughout the series history. Sometimes, he's a senseless brute, and other times, they're a gender-busting maniac. 

With the 2022 requel, "The Texas Chainsaw Massacre," the franchise centered itself with commentary on millennial gentrifiers who travel to small-time Texas and become slaughtered. Throughout its nine films, the franchise never took itself too seriously. Don't expect to dig beneath its layers for any cultural text. Instead, enjoy the ride! Overall, it's a fun franchise -- if not a total mess -- with films perfect for midnight viewings.

12. A Nightmare On Elm Street

Wes Craven found inspiration for "A Nightmare on Elm Street" after reading a tragic story about a young teen who died in his sleep. A real-life terror begat one of the most gruesome mass murderers in horror: Freddy Krueger (Robert Englund). With a claw for a hand, Freddy haunted the dreams of Nancy Thompson (Heather Langenkamp) and her friends in the 1984 classic. While the slasher age was on its way out, the film injected the genre with an adrenaline boost. Throughout the '80s, four sequels dropped, as well as a short-lived TV series called "Freddy's Nightmares."

Freddy's reign of terror first came to an end with 1991's "Freddy's Dead: The Final Nightmare." Three years later, Craven returned to the franchise for "New Nightmare," a meta-slasher that saw Heather Langenkamp and Robert Englund play fictionalized versions of themselves. As teased at the end of "Jason Goes to Hell: The Final Friday," Freddy Krueger and Jason Voorhees eventually went toe-to-toe in an epic battle for 2003's "Freddy vs. Jason." The curtain seemed to finally close on the Freddy saga -- until a remake landed in 2010.

The franchise started off strong before it moved away from what made it so special. Freddy transformed from a menacing sleep demon in the first three films to a paper-thin caricature most known for one-liners in later entries. Even the death sequences lost their appeal. If nothing else, the series is good for a chuckle, intentional or not.

11. Halloween

"Halloween" is like a choose-your-own-adventure book. It's got twists, turns, reboots, and remakes. But to its detriment, it could never stay on course. Much like "Psycho," John Carpenter's "Halloween" cemented many tropes we've come to expect in a slasher: It brought fear into everyone's backyard. Michael Myers embodied the idea of the Boogeyman watching you from afar. It was a totally terrifying horror reinvention -- even audiences agreed. The simple formula of "Halloween" made the slasher easy to imitate and widely inspired the sub-genres boom in the '80s.

Of course, that meant that its sequels had to feature a higher body count, tons of gore, and sex (or at least the suggestion of promiscuity). Over the next four-plus decades, "Halloween" became one of the biggest box-office draws in horror history. Studios churned out 12 sequels, including the David Gordon Green reboot trilogy, which recently concluded with "Halloween Ends." Along the way, Michael Myers came under the spell of a Thorn, appeared on a reality TV show, and saw his backstory get a total "white trash" overhaul. 

A franchise that began as a transcendent mile marker, "Halloween" morphed into a trend-chasing slasher franchise with nothing interesting to say. Sadly, it left its most compelling aspects -- such as the mystique surrounding its antagonist -- on the cutting room floor. Still, "Halloween" remains a cultural phenomenon and continues to define terror for several generations of horror fans.

10. Paranormal Activity

In 2009, the axis of the horror world shifted with the release of "Paranormal Activity." Not since 1999's "The Blair Witch Project" did a found footage flick shock audiences in such an indescribable way. Fear found a new home with Katie (Katie Featherston) and Micah (Micah Sloat), and it wasn't going to take any prisoners. With its low-budget feel, the film proved that haunted houses could still be terrifying. Through the power of suggestion, it became a film that mercilessly put the audience in the front-row seat for one of the most unsettling found footage films of all time.

In the vein of "Saw," sequels and a prequel were churned out almost yearly. Each offered strong scares, especially "Paranormal Activity 3" and "The Marked Ones," which wormed beneath the fingernails. What could or could not be lurking in the darkness was the series' greatest asset: It knew human imagination is the most frightening thing. Holding the monster back is far scarier than exposing it to the light. "Paranormal Activity" lets fear run rampant and we were at the mercy of the filmmakers. We couldn't escape, but perhaps we didn't even want to try.

9. Alien

When you watch "Alien," a creeping sense of dread looms over the film -- even when the xenomorphs are off-screen. There's something magical about Ridley Scott's creation's ability to make everything feel claustrophobic and earnest. The introduction of Ripley (Sigourney Weaver) gifted horror with one of its greatest, gun-toting protagonists. Unsurprisingly, the film sparked a decent franchise. I know what you're probably thinking: "Alien" isn't exactly horror. But it has all the hallmarks: terrifying imagery, carnage candy, and an overwhelming sense of panic.

As the series progressed, starting with the much-lauded "Aliens," action sequences became a crucial component of the film series. At times, these action scenes usurped the films' horror. Through the next two sequels, "Alien 3" and "Alien: Resurrection," the story becomes mangled with too many ideas -- not to mention the bizarre presence of a Ripley clone. 

I suppose points should be given for at least trying something different -- even if those ideas were bungled in execution. Two prequels followed but they never felt like "Alien" films. The same could be said for the two "Alien vs. Predator" movies. Versus situations -- here's looking at you "Freddy vs. Jason" -- never reach their full potential and instead read like milquetoast fan fiction. Still, "Alien" is one of the most popular horror franchises. The films are action-packed and bloody, and that keeps horror fans tuning in again and again.

8. Friday The 13th

According to Victor Miller, Sean S. Cunningham sought to explicitly rip off "Halloween" with the creation of his own holiday-themed slasher. "Friday the 13th" riffed on slasher conventions laid out by its predecessor but upped the body count with way more blood. While infusing a whodunnit element, the 1980 film -- starring Betsy Palmer as the vengeful matriarch Pamela Voorhees -- became a box office juggernaut. The 1980 film jumpstarted one of the biggest horror franchises in history. 

Jason Voorhees made his first appearance in the franchise in the 1981 sequel, "Friday the 13th Part 2." The film series dominated the '80s with six more sequels. No one could slow Jason down! But his end finally came with 1993's "Jason Goes to Hell: The Final Friday," putting him to rest for eight long years.

As with "Halloween" and "A Nightmare on Elm Street," "Friday the 13th" got weirder as the franchise continued. Jason fought a young woman with telekinetic powers, took a boat to New York City, went to space, and eventually warred Freddy Kreuger post-death. The franchise was nothing if not adventurous. Following a remake in 2009, the franchise went dormant due to ongoing legal battles between Cunningham and Miller. 

However, a forthcoming prequel series titled "Crystal Lake," helmed by Bryan Fuller, promises to bring Jason Voorhees back from the dead ... again. The series' many shortcomings -- from bizarre premises to contrived storylines -- don't detract from its importance in slasher history.

7. Psycho

"Psycho" is the most underrated franchise. A proto-slasher, Alfred Hitchcock's 1960 film took terror from caves and castles into the modern era. Fear didn't manifest through ghouls, goblins, or witches but through a gentleman in a roadside motel. One scene in the film scared audiences and its star Janet Leigh from taking showers. With its slasher-setting foundation -- from the butcher's knife to blood-spatter -- "Psycho" turned horror into a tangible and unassuming threat.

It's hard to imagine a sequel living up to what the original did -- but 1983's "Psycho II" served as a natural progression to the story. Years after the first film, Norman Bates' (Anthony Perkins) prison sentence is over. He confronts his past and attempts a fresh start. "Psycho III" and "Psycho IV: The Beginning," the latter featuring "Black Christmas" star Olivia Hussey, failed to achieve the same creative achievement as the first two films. However, later films deepened Norman's character study. Where "Psycho III" regurgitated plot points from the original while dishing up some excellent kills, "Psycho IV" fascinatingly glimpsed into an aging serial killer's head. When calling into a radio show, Norman revealed insight into his childhood through flashbacks. 

"Psycho," as a whole, including "Bates Motel" TV series, emerged as a worthwhile trip through a maniac's psychology -- a more refined version of what the Hannibal Lecter films did. But Anthony Perkins' lead performance is far more effective. With suspenseful scares and brutal violence, this franchise leaves its peers in the rearview mirror.

6. The Conjuring

Wan earned his place among the most masterful modern directors through his agility and genre fluidity. From "Saw" to "The Conjuring," he never offers a half-baked premise or idea. He commits to the work, so it's no wonder he's been crafting many of the best horror franchises in the past two decades. With "The Conjuring," Wan created a haunted world ripped from real-life accounts of ghosts. Most of "The Conjuring" adapts the reported Perron Family haunting, following the work of paranormal investigators Ed (Patrick Wilson) and Lorraine Warren (Vera Farmiga).

Technically, "The Conjuring" doesn't stop with its main three films. Wan used the Warren characters -- and their cursed objects -- to spawn a cinematic universe, including three "Annabelle"-centric installments, "The Nun," and "The Curse of La Llorona." Sure, the quality of these films dips here and there, but that's the case for most franchises on this list. 

Overall, there are far more home runs here. With a polished mainstream appeal, the franchise delivers jump-scares that always serve the story. Sadly, jump scares get a bad rap from certain corners of the internet. But "The Conjuring" made jump scares vital. If it weren't for "The Nun" and "The Curse of La Llorona," two mediocre entries, the series would rank even higher here.

5. Final Destination

"Final Destination" retooled slasher conventions and up-ended modern horror. The killer wasn't some unknown assailant in a mask running around with a knife. Teens were running from death itself. The series totals five films so far and each entry proposes existential inquiries into what it means to die. Despite death being an inevitable part of life, we don't like to talk about it much. The franchise's willingness to get real has been part of its charm since its 2000 inception. Of course, audiences also tuned in for the elaborate kill sequences: Each entry upped the stakes and its body count. Even mundane actions could unwittingly trigger one's demise. Death by elevator, tanning bed, nail gun, and Buddha statue just scrapes the surface of the series' best setpieces.

Even at its weakest -- looking at you, "The Final Destination" -- the series outpaces most of its contemporaries. From actor appearances that include Devon Sawa, Mary Elizabeth Winstead, and Tony Todd to charming character performances, "Final Destination" earns a higher ranking on this list than you might expect. Yes, it's gruesome. But there are plenty of emotional arcs to anchor each installment's elaborate death sequences. This franchise gives us a raw peek into humans' desperation to avoid death. Above all else, it surely will make you squirm in your seat!

4. The Living Dead

In 1968, George A. Romero forever changed the horror landscape with "Night of the Living Dead." While zombie films were not a new conceit -- 1932's "White Zombie" is known as the first-ever zombie flick -- the 1968 film popularized zombies as a modern premise. Essentially, it kicked down the door to craft the massive zombie subgenre we have today. We wouldn't have things like "The Walking Dead" or "World War Z" without its monumental spin on zombie lore. But what's even more important is taking a look at how the film spun a franchise.

Across five sequels, Romero expanded the film's story. From 1978's "Dawn of the Dead," 1985's "Day of the Day," to 2007's "Diary of the Dead," each entry stands on its own two feet in terms of story and execution. The subsequent entries follow separate characters and locations amidst a zombie apocalypse. Between a shopping mall, an underground bunker, and a lavish mansion, Romero explored how different human beings reacted to and survived an outbreak. Every step of the way, the filmmaker delivered on the promise. Surprisingly, the sequels more than live up to the original film. Look, Romero was never going to outdo himself and surpass the original film. Still, his work displayed great attention to creating solid stories and characters. In the final moments of "Diary of the Dead," a character asks the audience whether humanity is worth saving: There lies Romero's franchise thesis. So, dear reader, are we worth saving?

3. Child's Play

Chucky is the MVP of killer dolls. Voiced by Brad Dourif, the pint-sized freak slashed his way into our hearts way back in 1988. "Child's Play" came way late in the slasher boom. You could argue slashers weren't even cool anymore. But like any legend, Chucky changed the game. He was as bloodthirsty as Michael Myers with Freddy Krueger-worthy-like quips. He knew how to blindside his victims and get the upper hand, quickly earning his place on the Mount Rushmore of horror icons.

It's not surprising Chucky sparked a film franchise and popular TV series. With "Child's Play 2," Chucky was given even more of a joking personality but it didn't sacrifice the film's scares. Creator Don Mancini struck a goldmine. From "Bride of Chucky," the much-maligned "Seed of Chucky," and "Curse of Chucky," Mancini perfectly sculpted a horror-comedy franchise. 

As outlandish as the films become, Mancini always poured heart into the story and got committed performances from his cast. After the release of "Cult of Chucky" in 2017, everybody's favorite plastic plaything took to SyFy for an ongoing TV series with an even higher body count and way more mayhem. Save for the 2019 remake, the series never missteps its continuity and achieves what few other franchises do: consistency.

2. The Evil Dead

"The Evil Dead" is like a box of chocolates. You just never know what you're going to get! Each installment has its unique set of spooky tricks and treats, presented in wildly different tones and approaches. If you're itching for more straightforward horror, the 1981 film will satiate you. If bloody camp is more your speed, I suggest "Evil Dead II" or "Army of Darkness" -- though the latter forged deeper into comedic territory with Ash Williams (Bruce Campbell) delivering some of his most iconic zingers. If truly grotesque is what you're seeking, the 2013 remake will shock your system. Telling the story of a young woman undergoing detox at a secluded cabin, the film paid homage to the original while carving a uniquely terrifying vision.

Regardless of your appetite, "The Evil Dead" never shortchanges the audience. There are buckets of blood, decaying bodies, and severed limbs. Reportedly, 50,000 gallons of fake blood were used in the remake. The upcoming "Evil Dead Rise" promises to continue the franchise's uproariously bloody reign with agonizing sequences. Buckle up, buttercups. "The Evil Dead" is five for five!

1. Scream

No other horror franchise is as consistent as "Scream." Loosely based on The Gainesville Ripper, the 1996 original flipped the horror genre on its head with playful meta-ness and fang-toothed teardown of genre tropes. Plus, our central protagonist Sidney Prescott (Neve Campbell) redefined what it meant to be a Final Girl. Even though he was essential in cementing horror conventions, Wes Craven knew exactly how to shatter them and remold them for a new generation.

When "Scream" became a blockbuster success, sequels were inevitable. "Scream 2" and "Scream 3" did all the things sequels should do: upped the body count, delivered more elaborate kill sequences, put the central characters in actual danger, and involved a "preponderance of exposition," as Randy (Jamie Kennedy) put it best.

The franchise then laid dormant for 11 years before returning with "Scream 4," showcasing Craven's commentary on horror's remake craze. Following his death, the franchise lay dormant until 2022. With 2022's requel "Scream," the story veered away from Sidney. Instead, it refocused attention on a new crop of characters. "Scream VI" followed a year later -- and once again delivered the goods with strong character work, more blood, and elevated (quite literally) set pieces. 

"Scream" is the rare franchise that is miles ahead of its competition -- even on its worst day. Radio Silence has met the challenge to keep Craven's legacy alive. You can't kill Ghostface, after all.

Read this next: Horror Movies That Even Horror Fans Could Hardly Finish

The post The 15 Best Horror Franchises Of All Time, Ranked appeared first on /Film.

SharewareHeroes.com recreates all the fonts and cursor you'd see after dialing up a local bulletin-board system in the early 1990s. It's to promote a new book — successfully crowdfunded by 970 backers — to chronicle "a critical yet long overlooked chapter in video game history: the rise and eventual fall of the shareware model. The book promises to explore "a hidden games publishing market" that for several years "had no powerful giants," with games instead distributed "across the nascent internet for anyone to enjoy (and, if they liked it enough, pay for)." And the site features a free excerpt from the chapter about DOOM: It seemed there was no stopping id Software. Commander Keen had given them their freedom, and Wolfenstein 3D's mega-success had earned them the financial cushion to do anything. But all they wanted was to beat the last game — to outdo both themselves and everyone else. And at the centre of that drive was a push for ever-better technology. By the time Wolfenstein 3D's commercial prequel Spear of Destiny hit retail shelves, John Carmack had already built a new engine. This one had texture-mapped floors and ceilings — not just walls. It supported diminished lighting, which meant things far away could recede into the shadows, disappearing into the distance. And it had variable-height rooms, allowing for elevated platforms where projectile-throwing enemies could hang out, and most exciting of all it allowed for non-orthogonal walls — which meant that rooms could be odd-shaped, with walls jutting out at any arbitrary angle from each other, rather than the traditional rectangular boxed design that had defined first-person-perspective games up until then. It ran at half the speed of Wolfenstein 3D's engine, but they were thinking about doing a 3D Keen game next — so that wouldn't matter. At least not until they saw it in action. Everyone but Tom Hall suddenly got excited about doing another shooter, which meant Carmack would have to optimise the hell out of his engine to restore that sense of speed. Briefly they considered a proposal from 20th Century Fox to do a licensed Aliens shooter, but they didn't like the idea of giving up their creative independence, so they considered how they could follow up Wolfenstein 3D with something new. Fighting aliens in space is old hat. This time it could be about fighting demons in space. This time it could be called DOOM. The book's title is Shareware Heroes: The Renegades Who Redefined Gaming at the Dawn of the Internet — here's a page listing the people interviewed, as well as the book's table of contents. And this chapter culminates with what happened when the first version of DOOM was finally released. "BBSs and FTP servers around America crashed under the immense load of hundreds of thousands of people clamouring to download the game on day one. "Worse for universities around the country, people were jumping straight into the multiplayer once they had the game — and they kept crashing the university networks..."

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

the Steam versions of Resident Evil 2 Remake and Resident Evil 3 Remake received new updates overnight, but from the looks of it, these updates have removed ray tracing support.

These Resident Evil games received their "next-gen" updates (alongside Resident Evil 7) last year, offering ray tracing, and boosted framerates en resolutions. These updates were made available for PC as well as the PS5 and Xbox Series versions of said games. As now being reported on Reddit by various users, however, yesterday's updates have removed the option to enable ray tracing. We've included a screenshot of the graphics options screen from Resident Evil 2 Remake (as posted by Reddit user "Kaoral") showing the lack of a ray tracing option following yesterday's patch.

Interestingly, there's been no mention of new patches for these titles, but SteamDB does list a new unnamed patch that was rolled out yesterday. This is also the case with Resident Evil 3 Remake, although there's no listing for a Resident Evil 7 patch. On Reddit, users are also reporting that ray tracing has been removed from Resident Evil 7, but we haven't seen evidence of that just yet.

Some days ago, Capcom announced that it would end support for the DX11 non-ray tracing versions of Resident Evil 2, Resident Evil 3, and Resident Evil 7 as of July. "On 7/12/2023, support will end for the DirectX 11 non-ray tracing versions (dx11_non-rt) of Resident Evil 7, Resident Evil 2, and Resident Evil 3", Capcom wrote. "After technical support has ended, we cannot guarantee compatiblity or operation when using these versions of the games."

Of course, it's not July just yet, and the removal of Ray tracing appears to be a mistake on behalf of Capcom. As such, it's likely that we'll see a new minor patch re-enabling ray tracing support on PC shortly. As always, we'll update you as soon as more information about this matter comes in.

 

An anonymous reader shares a report from KrebsOnSecurity: KrebsOnSecurity received a nice bump in traffic this week thanks to tweets from the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) and the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) about "juice jacking," a term first coined here in 2011 to describe a potential threat of data theft when one plugs their mobile device into a public charging kiosk. It remains unclear what may have prompted the alerts, but the good news is that there are some fairly basic things you can do to avoid having to worry about juice jacking. The term juice jacking crept into the collective paranoia of gadget geeks in the summer of 2011, thanks to the headline for a story here about researchers at the DEFCON hacker convention in Vegas who'd set up a mobile charging station designed to educate the unwary to the reality that many mobile devices were set up to connect to a computer and immediately sync data by default. Since then, Apple, Google and other mobile device makers have changed the way their hardware and software works so that their devices no longer automatically sync data when one plugs them into a computer with a USB charging cable. Instead, users are presented with a prompt asking if they wish to trust a connected computer before any data transfer can take place. On the other hand, the technology needed to conduct a sneaky juice jacking attack has become far more miniaturized, accessible and cheap. And there are now several products anyone can buy that are custom-built to enable juice jacking attacks. [...] How seriously should we take the recent FBI warning? An investigation by the myth-busting site Snopes suggests the FBI tweet was just a public service announcement based on a dated advisory. Snopes reached out to both the FBI and the FCC to request data about how widespread the threat of juice jacking is in 2023. "The FBI replied that its tweet was a 'standard PSA-type post' that stemmed from the FCC warning," Snopes reported. "An FCC spokesperson told Snopes that the commission wanted to make sure that their advisory on "juice-jacking," first issued in 2019 and later updated in 2021, was up-to-date so as to ensure 'the consumers have the most up-to-date information.' The official, who requested anonymity, added that they had not seen any rise in instances of consumer complaints about juice-jacking." The best way to protect yourself from juice jacking is by using your own gear to charge and transfer data from your device(s) to another. "Juice jacking isn't possible if a device is charged via a trusted AC adapter, battery backup device, or through a USB cable with only power wires and no data wires present," says security researcher Brian Krebs. "If you lack these things in a bind and still need to use a public charging kiosk or random computer, at least power your device off before plugging it in."

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

This post contains spoilers for "Yellowjackets."

I can't do cannibalism in movies or TV shows. I'm okay with the goriest horror movies, but as soon as people start chowing down on one another, I'm out. As a result, I initially gave "Yellowjackets" a wide berth until curiosity won over and I took the plunge to see what all the fuss was about.

Season 1 of the extremely watchable survival horror series became Showtime's second most-streamed TV show in the network's history after "Dexter: New Blood," proving that many viewers' fascination with the dark and macabre is evergreen. The show doesn't hold back on revealing that cannibalism will be involved, dangling that as grisly bait during the opening minutes of its premiere episode.

The show's creators, Ashley Lyle and Bart Nickerson, wisely postponed the act itself until early in the second season, by which point they had already hooked millions of viewers with a gripping and doom-laden tale of a girls' soccer team lost in the wilderness after a plane crash. There are times when they're trying to keep too many balls in the air, flipping back and forth between the past and present, dumping the teens in a dire situation that inevitably recalls "Alive" and "Lord of the Flies," and also adding potential supernatural elements and a present-day murder mystery.

The show stays on the right side of exploitation by investing in the character dynamics and developing relationships that feel authentically messy and riven with grudges, regret, and conflict. Best of all, it's great to see '90s stars Juliette Lewis, Christina Ricci, and Melanie Lynskey in juicy roles, well-matched by their teen counterparts. When the moment finally comes, it is horrific but not as graphic as it might have been. But I can still feel sympathy for the actors who almost lost their lunch playing out those scenes.

The Cannibalism Scene In Yellowjackets

The survival portion of "Yellowjackets" begins in 1996 when the titular girls' soccer team board a private flight from New Jersey to take part in a national tournament. The plane crashes in the Canadian wilderness and the surviving passengers take stock of their situation: with no sign of a rescue party and low on food and water, they discover a nearby lake and a spooky old cabin where they can hole up until help arrives. The problem is that mousy misfit Misty (Sammi Hanratty), feeling needed for the first time in her life thanks to her first aid skills, decides to extend their stay in the woods by destroying the plane's black box.

The rest of the principal characters are economically established. There is the fiercely driven team captain Taissa (Jasmin Savoy Brown); high school golden girl Jackie (Ella Purnell) and her sensible best friend Shauna (Sophie Nelisse); and moody goth Natalie (Sophie Thatcher) and her love interest Travis (Kevin Alves), the coach's eldest son who fatefully went along for the ride. Several more side characters are gradually developed as the first season unfolds, most crucially Lottie (Courtney Eaton), a girl dealing with mental health problems whose influence grows with her witchy prophecies as the situation becomes increasingly desperate.

Things come to a head after Jackie sleeps with Travis and the rest of the girls turn feral when they are accidentally spiked by Misty's stash of shrooms. After a bitter argument with Shauna, Jackie decides to sleep outside as the snow sets in and freezes to death overnight. An attempt to cremate her goes wrong when a quirk of fate -- or a dark supernatural force -- results in her corpse getting roasted instead of incinerated. Facing starvation and with the smell of freshly cooked forbidden meat in their nostrils, the team surrounds the body and starts tucking in.

The Cannibalism Scenes Made The Yellowjackets Cast Puke

Ashley Lyle and Bart Nickerson, the creators of "Yellowjackets," cite two influences: "Alive," which recounted the 1972 Andes flight disaster when the survivors resorted to eating the flesh of the deceased until rescue came, and the haunting tale of the Donner Party, the U.S. pioneers who purportedly turned to cannibalism when they became snowbound in the Sierra Nevada mountains in 1846. They explained (via Forbes):

"Cannibalism is revolting and we have a moral aversion to it. It represents the complete deconstruction of society. We all agree there isn't anything more taboo. It's the most extreme distillation of everything that it is to be a human being."

The taboo nature of cannibalism has made it a horror subgenre, from video nasties like "Cannibal Holocaust" to the multi-Oscar-winning "The Silence of the Lambs." As such, it is perhaps no surprise that "Yellowjackets" has proven so popular. Jasmin Savoy Brown described acting in the scene when the team finally succumbs to their hunger (via Pop Sugar):

"It was gross. People were throwing up. People were retching. Someone might've cried. [...] There's really not much you can do to make any of that stuff more appealing because when you're in the scene, if you're really in character, you're thinking you are eating a human."

We're spared much of the detail as we cut away from the ghoulish feast to a hokey fantasy sequence where the team dines on a lavish banquet. It's harrowing but thankfully restrained, but, with the promise of more cannibal action as the survivors split into factions and start hunting each other, is it just a starter before a more shocking main course to come?

"Yellowjackets" airs on Showtime and is streaming on Paramount+.

Read this next: The Best TV Shows Of 2022, Ranked

The post Acting Out Cannibalism Made the Yellowjackets Cast Throw Up appeared first on /Film.

There has long been a grave misunderstanding of the spoof movie, a genre that takes one movie or cinematic trend and recreates it while mocking it mercilessly. It's easy to write off comedy staples like "Airplane!" and "Spaceballs" as delivery systems for silly non-stop gags, and sure enough, they absolutely are. But at its best, the spoof genre is much more insidious.

Most great spoof movies don't just mock something popular, they mock something serious. "Top Gun" is a self-serious motion picture, one that's seemingly unaware or at least uncritical of its own artificiality and jingoism. Fans of "Top Gun" may laugh at the film's funnier moments but the film itself is not to be laughed at. That's why a film like "Hot Shots!" is such a delight. The jokes are absurd and rapid-fire, but they're all aimed at taking a movie that set itself on a pedestal down a bit and reminding us all not to fall for false idols, in real life or at the cinema.

Many of the best spoof movies are now considered classics, but the less popular installments in the genre tend to get overlooked, and sometimes that's a real pity. An example of this is Bob Logan's 1990 comedy "Repossessed" which isn't just a very funny, albeit somewhat dated motion picture. Looking back, it's a refreshing send-up of both the exorcism genre and religion in the mass media, starring the original demon herself, Linda Blair, who seems to be exorcising some demons of her own.

Punnin' With The Devil

"Repossessed" stars Linda Blair, who played Regan MacNeil in William Friedkin's "The Exorcist." She doesn't technically play Regan in the spoof but she does play a woman named Nancy who was possessed as a child and now fears she's been possessed again, or "repossessed." Regan + Nancy = Nancy Reagan. On one hand, that's one of the many topical jokes in "Repossessed" that risks going over the heads of contemporary audiences, but either way, the movie is making it clear that she's the same character with a different name.

After vomiting pea soup all over her family ("Smooth or chunky?" her doctor asks), she realizes that she's got all the signs of another demonic possession. This time the devil flew into her soul while she was watching a popular TV program, "The Ernest and Fanny Miracle Hour," a not-at-all veiled mockery of the Jim and Tammy Faye Bakker televangelism movement. When she turns to a naive young priest, Father Brophy (Anthony Starke), for an exorcism, the Vatican agrees to let those televangelists — Ernest and Fanny Ray, played by Ned Beatty and Lana Schwab — perform the rites on live television, giving the devil exactly the kind of worldwide exposure they want.

In the end, it's up to Father Mayii (Leslie Nielsen), who says "You may" every time another character says his name, to come out of retirement and defeat the devil once again. This time he uses the power of rock 'n' roll, which doesn't make a lot of sense but does give spoof superstar Nielsen an opportunity to recreate music video moments from Elton John and Robert Palmer, which clearly the world needed, and needed badly.

Confession(al)s Of A Humorous Mind

When "Repossessed" is funny it is extremely funny, and sometimes the jokes are enjoyably random. There's a scene where two characters back into a driveway, ignoring a sign that warns about "severe tire damage." Dozens of tires then rain on their car from the sky. Later, during an establishing shot of the exterior of a building, a nun pops her head out the window to say the protagonist is a few windows to the right, and the camera adjusts accordingly.

But not all the jokes land, especially in the second half, and as with many old comedies with a high gag ratio, there are some really gag-worthy moments that play worse today than ever. The film doesn't rely on them, thank goodness, but you'll find some crappy gay panic jokes and racist caricatures in "Repossessed." It's not a film without flaws.

And yet, it's also not a film without intelligence. The story of "Repossessed" isn't the spoof movie standard, typically a loose remake of the original source material. By framing the film as a sequel, writer/director Bob Logan gave himself an opportunity to update the religious critiques from "The Exorcist," and highlight what a parody the modern religious zeitgeist had already become. If William Friedkin's film was fascinated by how an increasingly secular society would confront the genuinely spiritual, "Repossessed" considers how a newly supercharged but hypocritical religious movement would respond to genuine spirituality. There's a nugget of truth in the way so-called religious leaders in "Repossessed" are confused by the existence of evil because it never occurred to them that there was actual comeuppance for their hypocrisy.

That the devil infects the audience through televangelism shows and seeks to boost their ratings to corrupt more souls, isn't itself a subtle commentary. "Repossessed" doesn't just spoof "The Exorcist," it also reframes the film's original argument ... then spoofs that too for good measure.

The Blair Wit Project

The other reason why "Repossessed" feels special is that Linda Blair completely throws herself into this part. Tom Cruise didn't star in "Hot Shots!" and Neve Campbell didn't star in "Scary Movie," but Linda Blair jumped back into the role that had come to define her career, not so much for better and often much, much worse. In the process she not only cathartically exorcises that personal demon and sets it (and the film stock) on fire, but she also proves that she's a gifted comedian, in a film that by all accounts should have been a comeback.

Acting opposite Leslie Nielsen, whose deadpan comic persona revitalized his own career after the blockbuster success of "Airplane!" and the "Naked Gun" franchise, Blair demonstrates flawless comic timing through "Repossessed," even when the jokes are beneath her. The glee with which she rips through the role that once made her a household name, a role that earned her an Academy Award nomination when she was only 15 (she lost to Tatum O'Neal, who was only 10), is admirable. Her career didn't get a (much deserved) boost after "Repossessed," but looking back, it's clear that Blair completely understood the assignment.

The makers of "Repossessed" showed up to work to lampoon "The Exorcist," and mercilessly, and take a few shots at the religious themes that William Friedkin's original couldn't have seen coming, but which were also on everyone's mind in 1990. So although some of the jokes are dated, most are funny — Oliver North running his church confession by his attorney is mercilessly sharp — and the movie still works on multiple levels. 

Sure, "Repossessed" may not be one of the great spoof films, but that doesn't mean it isn't pretty great.

Read this next: How These Child Stars Feel About The Horror Movies That Put Them On The Map

The post Remembering Repossessed, the Largely Forgotten Exorcist Spoof That's Way Better Than It Should Be appeared first on /Film.

Nothing beats a good car chase in a movie. These wacky stunts are a hallmark of modern Hollywood blockbusters, but they've been around since silent films. Nowadays, car-centric flicks conjure images of "The Fast & Furious" and "Mad Max" franchises. However, action doesn't always have to be the focus.

Cars playing an integral part in developing a main character always hold more weight for me than a gonzo chase scene. We see a sense of isolation from society in movies like "Taxi Driver" and "Drive." Meanwhile, in John Carpenter's 1983 horror, "Christine," the auto becomes a ruthless death machine. The Stephen King adaptation makes for a clever metaphor about bullying, acceptance, and toxic masculinity in teens.

It would be unfair to say that a car movie can't be enjoyed without the profound social commentary of a Martin Scorsese film or the brooding touches of Nicolas Winding Refn. Sometimes, we crave high-octane thrills and what better way to get them than in a car? Let's wave a checkered flag and race down this list of 12 underrated car movies you need to see, from the meatier watches to some which are just plain enjoyable.

Holy Motors

Leos Carax's "Holy Motors" isn't for everyone. This 2012 fantasy drama deconstructs any narrative cohesion you'd expect from a modern film. We meet Monsieur Oscar (Denis Lavant), a wealthy actor chauffeured to various appointments in a limousine. Oscar assumes multiple identities in each meeting, including an older man, an assassin, a leprechaun, and a homeless woman. After each visit, our protagonist seems to learn a new lesson, but he immediately discards it for his next role.

So, what's the point of all of this? One interpretation is that it's an ode to classic cinema. With homages to surrealist auteurs such as Luis Buñuel and Jean Cocteau, "Holy Motors" takes you on a journey through filmmaking. A nod to Georges Franju's "Eyes without a Face" (one of the best French horror movies) is also evident, with Edith Scob wearing the same mask she wore in the 1960 gem.

At one point, Oscar comments that he's losing passion for his craft. "Holy Motors" might be a personal statement, since Carax's full name is Alex Oscar Christophe Dupont -- "Leos Carax" is an anagram of "Alex" and "Oscar." Keep an open mind when watching this genre-busting work. It leaves room for many interpretations, making it captivating for absurdist film fans.

Vanishing Point

1971's "Vanishing Point" is one of the most influential high-octane films ever made. Barry Newman plays Kowalski, a former professional race car driver who works for a vehicle delivery service. Kowalski heads to his drug dealer to stock up on amphetamines after receiving a task to transport a 1970 Dodge Challenger from Colorado to San Francisco. A deal is struck: The drugs are free if he gets to his destination within 15 hours. Our lead, despite various setbacks, is determined to reach his goal, even as he runs from highway police.

"Vanishing Point" is exhilarating. Its frenetic soundtrack rivals 1969's fellow road trip classic, "Easy Rider." Director Richard C. Sarafian also pushes Kowalski's mechanical steed to its limits. As the car races down the highway, cinematographer John A. Alonzo uses stunning wide-angle shots and claustrophobic POV close-ups to enhance this sense of danger. Remember, this was shot before CGI -- which is why watching the Challenger accelerate is so thrilling.

While "Vanishing Point" wasn't initially successful, it's now a cult favorite. There are several references to the movie in Quentin Tarantino's "Death Proof" (including a stunt scene in the same car). In addition, Edgar Wright has cited "Vanishing Point" as inspiration for his 2017 action flick, "Baby Driver."

Taste Of Cherry

Abbas Kiarostami explored the concept of human resilience throughout the course of his filmography. This theme is exemplified in his 1997 road trip film, "Taste of Cherry." In it, a Tehranian man, Mr. Badii (Homayoun Ershadi), is determined to die by suicide. Many characters try to talk him out of his goal as he drives around looking for someone to bury him under a cherry tree.

"Taste of Cherry" is deliberately slow, showing our protagonist's disconnect from the world. As a metaphor, Mr. Badii's car symbolizes the man's isolation, like a floating coffin searching for a burial. Kiarostami's minimalist approach works; even simple visuals like a pile of dirt on the ground convey Mr. Badii's heartbreaking longing. Whenever we're graced with dialogue, it's honest and poignant. While various people chat to our lead in his car, Kiarostami's camera takes a grounded approach, eschewing visual gimmicks. We sit in the passenger seat, watching quiet meditations about what it means to be alive.

Whenever I need some soul-searching, I reach for a film by Kiarostami. In particular, "Taste of Cherry" reminds us that despite life's normality, beauty is always hidden within it. In the end, it does not matter whether Mr. Badii achieves his goal or not. His overarching journey is significant -- a quest for the appreciation of life.

If you or anyone you know is having suicidal thoughts, please call the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline​ by dialing 988 or by calling 1-800-273-TALK (8255)​.

Duel

At 25, Steven Spielberg made his first feature-length debut on television, 1971's "Duel." As a result of the positive reception, Universal Pictures expanded its runtime and released it theatrically. "Duel" follows a mild-mannered businessman, David Mann, on a business trip. Passing a slow semi-truck, he enrages an unseen driver. His journey through the Mojave Desert is now fatal, as he runs from this psychotic enemy.

A significant source of inspiration in Spielbeg's filmography is Alfred Hitchcock. Like 1975's "Jaws," Spielberg plays with the viewer's emotions through the fear of the unknown. This is perfectly illustrated in a scene where Mann sits in a diner booth. Seeing the deadly vehicle parked outside, our hero glances at the bar, where he spots a gaggle of interchangeable truckers. The moment is terrifyingly psychological, a direct nod to the master of suspense himself.

"Duel" also tackles a theme of masculinity through its main character. In a phone call to his wife, Mann laments that he doesn't feel like the macho head of their family. At one point, we also spot his car surrounded by barbed wire -- a metaphor confirming his mental rut. As Mann races to outrun the truck, he also wants to regain his virility. "Duel" may not be perfect, but it's an outstanding testament to the young filmmaker's talent.

Dirty Mary, Crazy Larry

The 1974 film "Dirty Mary, Crazy Larry" is fast-paced, sleazy, and exhilarating. Peter Fonda stars as Larry, a washed-up NASCAR driver, while Adam Roarke plays Deke, his mechanic. In order to buy a new race car, they decide to rob a supermarket. As they run off with $150,000, Larry's one-night-stand, Mary (Susan George), weasels her way into their getaway vehicle. A high-speed chase ensues as our three heroes try to outrun the police.

I went into this expecting a run-of-the-mill '70s B-movie but was pleasantly surprised by the phenomenal chemistry between our three leads. "Dirty Mary, Crazy Larry" resembles another 1970s gem, "Vanishing Point," but it's more comedic. The dialogue is quick and snappy, while Roarke shines as the wary voice of reason among his nihilistic companions.

A quintessential carsploitation movie, "Dirty Mary, Crazy Larry," has garnered a cult following since its release. Notably, the film's fans include Quentin Tarantino. Along with shooting "Death Proof" at some of the same locations, he also thanked director John Hough in the credits. Meanwhile, in "Jackie Brown," there's a moment where Fonda's daughter, Bridget, watches a scene from "Dirty Mary, Crazy Larry" on television.

Faster, Pussycat! Kill! Kill!

Grindhouse cinema features elements that can easily be exploited. Nudity, violence, and other taboos of the late 1960s and '70s were always prevalent in these scuzzy movies. "Faster, Pussycat! Kill! Kill!" was made by one of the most iconic directors of the genre, Russ Meyer, who injected a surprising amount of feminism into it.

Three go-go dancers take joy rides in the desert and seduce and kill men in "Faster, Pussycat! Kill! Kill!" Varla (Tura Satana) is the group's aggressive leader. She dresses like a superhero in skin-tight leather, razor-sharp eyeliner, and a provocative bustline. These women are entirely in control of their bodies and fully capable of defending themselves -- an impressive stance to take for a 1960s low-budget movie. According to Roger Ebert's article in The Guardian, famous film critic of feminist and queer cinema, B. Ruby Rich, dubbed Meyer "America's first male feminist director."

Aside from its hilarious dialogue and gorgeous Mojave Desert location shots, "Faster, Pussycat! Kill! Kill!" also offers fantastic car chases. We see Meyer's love for muscle cars in close-ups that appear as sensual as our three heroines. With fast cars and fast women, it's no wonder this is a grindhouse staple.

A Taxi Driver

No, I'm not talking about Martin Scorsese's beloved 1976 film, "Taxi Driver." Instead, I want to shine a light on the 2017 South Korean drama, "A Taxi Driver," which is based on true events. During the Gwangju Uprising of May 1980, the people of South Korea (mainly college students) participated in a violent protest, fighting for democracy against the newly installed military dictator Chun Doo-hwan.

Song Kang-ho plays Man-seob, a taxi driver and single father struggling to make ends meet. An opportunity to drive a German man from Seoul to Gwangju for 100,000 won catches his attention. Little does he know how dangerous the situation is. As the duo approaches Gwangju, they encounter numerous obstacles. It also turns out that Man-seob's passenger is a reporter determined to highlight these atrocities.

"A Taxi Driver" won major acclaim from critics at the time of its release and was praised by President Moon Jae-in for portraying a significant moment in South Korean history. Director Jang Hoon weaves comedy, tenderness, and horrific violence together seamlessly. Featuring some beautiful location shots as our leads drive through the countryside, this 138-minute flick never gets boring.

Death Race 2000 (1975)

Before we fell in love with films and shows about deadly games like "Alice in Borderland" and "Battle Royale," there was "Death Race 2000." This 1975 cult classic was a pioneer of the genre, released a few months before the much more successful (and very similar) "Rollerball."

The film depicts a dystopian version of America in 2000. Despite being under a totalitarian regime, people get excitement from a televised event every year: the Transcontinental Road Race. Participants in this race are divided into five teams and drive from New York to New Los Angeles. The catch? When drivers run over pedestrians, they get bonus points.

Listen, if you're signing up to watch this one, don't overthink it. "Death Race 2000" is a stereotypical B-movie full of violence, explosions, and comical dialogue. Having said that, director Paul Bartel knows what he's doing. The film cleverly satirizes society's obsession with mass media, sports, and violence. At the very least, if none of the above sounds interesting, watch it for Sylvester Stallone. Machine Gun Joe, played by Sly the year before became synonymous with Rocky Balboa, is a major highlight.

Bullitt

​​Despite being a police procedural, 1968's "Bullitt" features one of the most famous car chase scenes ever. Don't believe me? The seven-minute high-octane chase helped win editor Frank P. Keller an Oscar for best editing.

In "Bullitt," we meet Steve McQueen's eponymous character, a too-cool-for-school cop tasked with protecting an informant from Chicago gangsters. As a neo-noir, there's plenty of double-crossing and deception. Undoubtedly, "Bullitt" delivers in the action department, but it also provides a salve for your anxiety. Argentine composer Lalo Schifrin's original jazz score instantly transports you to a much more relaxed, cool environment.

You'll want to watch "Bullitt" for its legendary car chase (duh). We get some genuinely nail-biting POV shots as the Ford Mustang and Dodge Charger literally glide down San Francisco's elevated streets. I'd be remiss if I didn't mention the airport sequence -- watching Bullitt follow his prime suspect down the runway as a Boeing 707 passes him is just as thrilling as the famous muscle car pursuit.

The Great Race

Blake Edwards' 1965 joyride, "The Great Race," includes everything you'd expect from the filmmaker of "Breakfast at Tiffany's" and "The Party." Despite his diverse filmography, Edwards was best known for his comedies, which often used elaborate visual jokes and deadpan verbal delivery. As a result, his style was similar to Laurel and Hardy's.

Tony Curtis portrays the Great Leslie, a professional daredevil. He proposes a race from New York to Paris to turn-of-the-century car makers. To promote car sales, the Webber Motor Car Company develops Leslie's vehicle, The Leslie Special. The Hannibal Twin-8" is built by our lead's rival, Professor Fate (Jack Lemmon). Also participating is a journalist and suffragette, Maggie Dubois (Natalie Wood).

"The Great Race" is just plain fun. Fate and Leslie play up hero-versus-villain stereotypes. Leslie is always clad in white, while Fate wears black and sports a thick mustache and top hat. Looney Toons-style sight gags make the comedy incredibly exaggerated. Obviously, you'll want to watch this flick for the cars, too. Over $100,000 was spent by Warner Brothers to build custom vehicles for the film -- both based on real-life cars that participated in the 1908 New York-to-Paris race (via Petersen Automotive Museum).

The Driver

The French New Wave movement heavily influenced American Neo-Noir cinema. A perfect example is Walter Hill's 1978 crime caper, "The Driver." It is fascinatingly minimal and void of much dialogue, similar to Jean-Pierre Melville's 1967 classic, "Le Samuraï." Ryan O'Neal plays an unnamed getaway driver constantly escaping capture by the police. In contrast, Bruce Dern plays a detective obsessed with catching our lead by any means necessary.

"The Driver" doesn't have a linear narrative; instead, it serves as an allegory: a warning against obsession. Each character represents a symbol rather than an individual. However, the movie is not just about an artsy atmosphere. Its 91-minute runtime is dominated by car chases, which are almost a third of the film. Hill's camera placement makes for an astonishing experience, whether mounted on windshields, beneath cars, or even on curbs. At the movie's climax, our lead plays a game of chicken. It's a hair-raising sequence, and the subsequent car explosion makes you wonder how the stuntman survived.

At the time of its release, "The Driver" received poor reviews, but it has since gained a loyal following. In 2011, Nicolas Winding Refn's "Drive" borrowed heavily from Hill's film, both thematically and visually. When asked about the similarities by Collider, Hill shared, "It's a very different movie. It has certain things, as Nic has told me, that are [homages] and that's fine. It's very complimentary."

The Headless Woman

2008 Argentine thriller "The Headless Woman" follows Verónica (María Onetto), an upper-class woman who has struck something while driving. Director Lucretia Martel throws us for a loop here. Did Verónica hit an animal? In that case, wouldn't it be in the middle of the highway? In addition, Martel includes a carefully placed handprint on the car window, suggesting a more severe accident. Indeed, our lead believes so. In any case, Verónica drives off.

As the 87-minute flick progresses, its title gains significance. Verónica doesn't use her head -- she never calls the police. Cinematographer Bárbara Álvarez cleverly cuts out our lead's head from countless frames, further promoting the movie's clever name. Water is also a repeated motif, suggesting Verónica is drowning in regret.

Most importantly, "The Headless Woman" focuses on Argentina's class divide. Watching Verónica's bourgeois companions interact with individuals of lower socioeconomic status illustrates this concept. Moreover, Verónica's closest friends dismiss the accident after she reveals her situation. In an interview with Film Comment, Martel elaborated on this, noting, "On the one hand, that is beautiful in terms of human support, but it also contains all the roots of what's evil about a social class: hiding facts, crimes even, and it leads to racism. It is the psychological basis of racism."

Read this next: 17 '80s Action Movies You Definitely Need To See

The post 12 Underrated Car Movies That You Really Need to See appeared first on /Film.

The Washington Post found a new tranche of "top-secret intelligence documents" on Discord, and based on them reported Friday that U.S. intelligence agencies were aware of at least two additional Chinese spy balloons. Based on the classified documents, the Post also reports that "questions lingered about the true capabilities of the one that flew over the continental United States in January and February." The Chinese spy balloon that flew over the United States this year, called Killeen-23 by U.S. intelligence agencies, carried a raft of sensors and antennas the U.S. government still had not identified more than a week after shooting it down, according to a document allegedly leaked to a Discord chatroom by Jack Teixeira, a member of the Massachusetts Air National Guard. Another balloon flew over a U.S. carrier strike group in a previously unreported incident, and a third crashed in the South China Sea, a second top-secret document stated, though it did not provide specific information for launch dates.... [Chinese spy balloon] Bulger-21 carried sophisticated surveillance equipment and circumnavigated the globe from December 2021 until May 2022, the NGA document states. Accardo-21 carried similar equipment as well as a "foil-lined gimbaled" sensor, it says.... Annotating what appear to be detailed photos of the balloon that flew over the United States, presumably taken from a U-2 spy plane, intelligence analysts assessed that it could generate enough power to operate "any" surveillance and reconnaissance technology, including a type of radar that can see at night and through clouds and thin materials [including tarps].... China's military has operated a vast surveillance balloon project for several years, partly out of Hainan province off China's south coast, U.S. officials have previously told The Post. But the NGA document is notable as much for what it doesn't say, reflecting the government's possible lack of insight, at least in mid-February, into the balloons' capabilities... The lack of detailed conclusions about the balloon's surveillance capabilities raises questions about the decision to let it fly over the United States before shooting it down, an action the Defense Department justified at the time as an opportunity to collect additional intelligence. The Post also reports that another leaked document (relying on intercepted communications) assessed that within the Chinese military the balloon surveillance program lacked "strong leadership" oversight.

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

Unless you have a perfectly functioning exhaust fan and ventilation system, your bathroom is probably a bit on the humid side. It’s obvious after someone showers, but even things like flushing the toilet and using the sink add moisture to the air.

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The latest This Week at Bungie is our latest update on the goings-on at the developer. Included this week is a warning of a zero-tolerance policy for the use of third-party hardware peripherals to...

1996 was, generally speaking, not a stellar year for film. The year's blockbusters were limp, containing Roland Emmerich's gloriously silly "Independence Day," Michael Bay's insufferable "The Rock," the undeniably thin "Twister," and the weirdly cold "Mission: Impossible." 1996 was also the year we had to squint and pretend that Cameron Crowe hadn't lost his mojo with "Jerry Maguire," as well as the year MTV convinced us that the terrible "Romeo + Juliet" was a good movie. On top of all that, 1996 saw the execrable "Space Jam" inflict its unholy existence upon the world. 

(Warning: Your opinions on these films may differ from this writer's. Moving right along...)

But there were a few high points, too. Kenneth Branagh's "Hamlet" may be one of the best Shakespeare-to-film adaptations ever made, while Tim Burton's "Mars Attacks!" was a breath of fresh, zany air. Olivier Assayas' "Irma Vep" is a strange film experiment, and Steven Soderbergh's "Schizopolis" is hilarious and truly unique. Finally, at the top of most cinephiles' lists of the best films of the year sits the Coen brothers' detective story, "Fargo."

"Fargo" is about the world's most pathetic man, Jerry Lundegaard (William H. Macy) who, desperate for money, hires a pair of kidnappers (Steve Buscemi, Peter Stormare) to kidnap his wife. His hope is that his father-in-law will pay the ransom, and Jerry will get a cut. As is natural in a Coen Bros. film, everything goes horribly awry. Investigating the crime is the highly capable and very pregnant Marge Gunderson (Frances McDormand), a bright-eye sheriff who, despite her affable, home-fried personality, is quite a good cop.

In a 2021 retrospective printed in The Guardian, to celebrate the film's 25th anniversary, McDormand and Joel Coen recalled an early version of the script that would have cemented Marge's political beliefs. In that draft, Marge was to attend a right-to-life rally.

Yah, You Betcha

Frances McDormand has maintained she likes to keep her personal politics, well, personal. She is, however, a staunch feminist, and has admitted that her personal politics sometimes leak into her public life in this regard. McDormand famously mentioned an inclusivity rider when she accepted her Academy Award for her performance in "Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri" in 2018. An inclusivity rider stipulates that a famous actor will refuse to appear in a studio's film unless the hired crew includes more women and minorities. It's a bargaining chip to ensure more diversity in Hollywood.

When it came to playing Marge Gunderson, McDormand didn't insist that her character project any particular political philosophy and noted only that she wanted the character to be good at her job. All of her down-home colloquialisms like "yah" and "you betcha" were written into the script, and the character was in her third trimester of pregnancy, so the temptation might have been to see her as comedic. McDormand's performance assured audiences that Marge was a competent cop and a considerate woman.

In a notable scene partway through "Fargo," Marge is invited to drive out to Minneapolis to visit an old friend Mike (Steve Park), and she ends up having the most awkward dinner imaginable. Mike ends up flirting and then breaking down crying. In an early draft of the script, however, Marge's motivation for visiting Minneapolis wasn't a dinner with Mike, but a political rally with him. McDormand, in the Guardian retrospective, pushed co-director Joel Coen -- also her husband -- into revealing details, and he merely said: "Her friend invited her to a right-to-life protest!"

Right-To-Life Protests

Tony Kaye's 2006 documentary film "Lake of Fire" traces the history of abortion debates in the United States and its parallel rise with a certain variety of intensely dogmatic Evangelical churches. The film points to the strange, fevered pitch the debate reached, and is careful to show that abortion was explicitly designed to stoke political ire and draw conservatives to the ballot box. In 1996, many "Fargo" audiences likely remembered coverage-hungry groups like Operation Rescue, a poorly organized cadre of anti-abortion protestors. Such groups would occasionally appear on the news, and many of them were backed by slick-haired televangelists.

The Coens' actual politics, like Frances McDormand's, have never been explicitly put on the record, but one can sense an undercurrent of populism in their work. Many of their main characters are insecure or put-upon working-class people who are kept beaten down by the larger strictures of the law, of politics, of gangland rules, of Hollywood screenwriting, or of religion. One might accuse them of standing up for the Working Man in a similar way that Frank Capra might have in a previous generation, perhaps even supporting a right-wing philosophy of "small government."

But the Coens' overwhemling irony and sardonic sense of humor undercuts that notion. The characters are just as trapped by their own limitations and foibles as they are put upon by outside forces. The world, it seems, exists to punish the passionate. One might, in a darker mood, even call the Coens cynics, bitter about politics on both the right and the left.

Marge Gunderson being an anti-abortion protestor certainly would have altered the audience's view of the character, as well as given the film a definite political bent. Perhaps that was too definite for the filmmakers, and they cut out Marge's protest as a result.

Read this next: The Coen Brothers Movies Ranked Worst To Best

The post One Cut Frances McDormand Fargo Scene Would Have Changed Her Character in a Major Way appeared first on /Film.

A few months ago, I discussed downgrading a modern codebase to .NET 4 and Windows XP. I managed to get the code working to the point that all functionality worked, aside from web views, given that browsers no longer support XP or Vista. The .NET 4/XP version of the application makes use of a DirectX 9 renderer and DirectShow or VLC for video playback. DirectX 9 you say? Well, I suppose I have to be more specific. So far we have only looked at the software side of things: which components, frameworks, libraries, APIs etc. are supported on Windows XP? But we worked under the assumption that the hardware had the same capabilities as the hardware that ran newer versions of Windows. Under certain circumstances, your software will also be limited by the capabilities of your hardware. This is especially true for DirectX, as it is a low-level hardware abstraction layer: it abstracts the hardware you have, but as a rule it does not emulate the hardware you don’t have.

DirectX 9, the Swiss Army Knife of graphics APIs

As said, this codebase started life around 2008, at which time shader hardware was standard, even with low-end integrated GPUs. The Aero desktop required a minimum of a DirectX 9 GPU capable of Shader Model 2.0. The codebase made use of shaders through the Direct3D Effect Framework. DirectX 9 is an interesting API as it covers a lot of ground in terms of supported hardware. While at the high-end, it supports Shader Model 3.0, with floating point pixelshading, branching and whatnot, it also supports the first generation SM1.x hardware, and even the pre-shader hardware that was designed for DirectX 7 and below, where we had a fixed function pipeline. So DirectX 9 allows you to go all the way from relatively early 3D accelerators, such as an nVidia TNT or GeForce, or the original ATi Radeon, all the way up to floating-point shader cards. Crysis is a good example of what you can do with DirectX 9 when pushed to the extreme. The original Crysis had both a DirectX 9 and a DirectX 10 backend. While the DirectX 10 rendering quality was absolutely groundbreaking at the time, its DirectX 9 mode is not even that much of a step backwards visually, and it will run on Windows XP systems as well. Earlier games, like Far Cry and Half Life 2, would use DirectX 9 to support a wide range of hardware from fixed function all the way up to SM3.0.

But can our application also support this wide range of hardware? Now, as you may recall from some of my earlier exploits with old GPUs, recent DirectX SDKs include a compiler that will output only SM2.0 code or higher, even if the source code is written for a lower shader version. This also applies to Effects. As far as I can tell, our software has always used this modern compiler, or at the least, all shaders assumed SM2.0 or higher. You need to use an older compiler if you want to use Effects on actual SM1.x or fixed function hardware, otherwise the compiler will silently promote effects to SM2.0, and will only work on SM2.0+ hardware.

We build and distribute our application with pre-compiled shaders. We use the fxc.exe shader compiler for that. I had already created some scripts that compile a set of DX9 and a set of DX11 shaders separately, as the two APIs cannot share the same shaders. So I introduced a third set here, which I called ‘dx9_legacy’. Then I grabbed the old fxc.exe compiler from the June 2010 DirectX SDK, which seems to be the last to support the older shader models and fixed function. I renamed the old fxc.exe to fxc_legacy.exe and added it to the build with a script to compile a new set of shaders from a dx9_legacy source folder and output to a dx9_legacy folder.

From there, I had to modify the application to support these alternative Effect files. That was relatively simple. Like before, I had to add the D3DXSHADER_USE_LEGACY_D3DX9_31_DLL flag when loading these legacy Effects. Or in this case, it’s actually the SharpDX equivalent: ShaderFlags.UseLegacyD3DX9_31Dll.

And I had to select the proper set of Effects. That is quite simple, really: if the hardware supports SM2.0 or higher, then you don’t need the legacy shaders, else you do. It gets somewhat more complicated if you want to support every single version of hardware (fixed function, ps1.1, ps1.3 and ps1.4). Then you may want to have a separate set for each variation. But at least in theory, I can run any kind of code on any kind of hardware supported by DirectX 9 now, as the legacy compiler can compile Effects for all possible hardware (it can also do SM2.0+, although the newer compiler will likely generate more efficient code).

More specifically, I only had to check if Pixel Shader 2 or higher was supported. Namely, first of all, the new shader compiler still supports Vertex Shader 1.1. Only pixel shaders are promoted to ps2.0. And secondly, there is the option for software vertex processing, where DirectX 9 can emulate up to vs3.0 for you. In my case, the vertex shading is relatively simple, and meshes have low polycount, so software processing is not an issue. Which is good, because that means I do not have to build a fixed function vertex processing pipeline next to the current shader-based one. All I have to do is rewrite the pixel shader code to fixed function routines, and the code should run correctly.

Or actually, there was a slight snafu. Apparently someone once built a check into the code, to see if the device supports SM2.0 at a minimum. It generates an exception if it does not, which terminates the application. So I decided to modify the check and merely log a warning if this happens. It’s purely theoretical at this point anyway. Hardware that does not support SM2.0+ has been EOL for years now, so it is unlikely that anyone will even try to run the code on such hardware, let alone that they expect it to work. But with our legacy compiler we now actually CAN make it work on that hardware.

A willing test subject

I have just the machine to test this code on. A Packard Bell iGo laptop from 2003 (which appears to be a rebadged NEC Versa M300):

It is powered by a single-core Celeron Northwood (Pentium 4 derivative) at 1.6 GHz. The video chip is an ATi Radeon 340M IGP. The display panel has a resolution of 1024×768. It originally came with 256MB of memory and a 20 GB HDD. These have been upgraded to 512MB (the maximum supported by the chipset) and a 60 GB HDD. It came with Windows XP Home preinstalled, and that installation is still on there.

The Radeon 340M IGP is an interesting contraption. It reports that it supports Vertex Shader 1.1 in hardware, but it is likely that this is emulated on the CPU in the driver. The pixel pipeline is pure DirectX 7-level: it is taken from the original Radeon, codename R100. It supports three textures per pass, and supports a large variety of texture operations. This is exactly what we like to test: Effects with a simple vertex shader, and fixed function pixel processing.

So I started by converting a single Effect to vs1.1 and fixed function. I chose the Effect that is most commonly used, for rendering text and images, among others. This will be my proof-of-concept. I first developed it on a modern Windows 11 machine, where it appeared to render more or less correctly. That is, the alphachannel wasn’t working as it is supposed to, but text and images basically appeared at the correct place on screen, and with the correct colours, aside from where they should have been alphablended.

Well, good enough for a proof-of-concept, so I decided to move over to the old laptop. Initially, it opened the application window, which is good. But then it didn’t display anything at all, which is bad. So I looked in the log files, and found that there were some null pointer exceptions regarding font access.

Interesting, as the application had been made robust against missing fonts in general. But as I looked closer, this was for the initialization of some debug overlays, where there was some special-case code. We use the Consolas font for certain debug overlays, as it is a common monospace font. However, apparently it is not THAT common. I hadn’t run into this problem on my other Windows XP machines. But as it appears, the Consolas font was not shipped with Windows XP. It could be installed by various other software though, such as recent Office applications. That might explain why the font was available on my other Windows XP machines, but not on this one. So as the application initialized the overlays on startup, it tripped over the missing font, and could not recover.

I added the font to the system, and tried again, and indeed: the application now worked, and rendered exactly the same as on the modern system. So the proof-of-concept works. For completeness I also added some checks to the code, so it will not crash on missing fonts in the future.

Success

This proof-of-concept shows that everything is in place, at least from a technical point-of-view, for the support of non-shader hardware. We can compile Effect files for non-SM2.0 hardware, and load them from our application. We can create a DirectX 9 device on the old hardware, and detect when to use the fallback for the legacy compiler and alternative legacy Effect files.

The only thing that remains is to actually write these Effect files. I will probably not convert all of them, and certain ones will not convert to fixed function anyway, as they are too advanced. But I will at least see if I can fix the alphablending and add support for video playback, and perhaps some other low-hanging fruit, so that basic stuff will display correctly.

It’s interesting how far you can stretch a single codebase, in terms of development tools, APIs, hardware and OS support. On this old laptop, the code can work fine, in theory. You now run into practical problems… For example, yes it supports video playback, with a wide range of formats. But it has very limited capabilities for hardware acceleration, especially for more modern codecs. Also, we are now back to a screen with 4:3 aspect ratio, where our content has been aimed at 16:9 for many years, and more specifically 1080p, which is far higher resolution than this system can handle. Also, we normally have 2GB of memory as the absolute minimum. This system only has 512MB, and that is shared with the IGP as well. You can configure how much of it to reserve for the IGP. By default it is set to 32MB, so you only have 480MB left for Windows and your application. That puts some limits on the fonts, images and videos you want to use, as you may run out of memory simply because your source material is too big.

But, at least in theory, the code can not only run on Windows XP, but it can actually be made to run on the hardware of that era. With the right combination of content and Effect files, you can use this laptop from 2003. So where I normally use a 1080p30 test video with H.264 encoding, in this case I had to transcode it down to 720×480 to get it playing properly. H.264 does not seem to bother the system that much, once you install something like the LAV Filters to get support in DirectShow (you need an older version that still works on XP). But decoding frames of 1920×1080 seems to push the system beyond its limits. It does not appear to have enough memory bandwidth and capacity for such resolutions. Back in 2003, HD wasn’t really a thing yet. You were happy to play your SD DVDs in fullscreen.

As I converted a few Effects down to fixed function, I concluded that it is highly unlikely that this code had ever been used on non-shader hardware before. Certain implementation details were not compatible with fixed function. For example, certain constants, such as solid colour or opacity (alphachannel) values were multiplied in the pixel shader, while the vertex shader merely copied the vertex colour. With fixed function, there are a few constant registers that you could use, but that would require setting these registers specifically in your Effect, instead of setting shader constants. But since these are constants, it makes much more sense to calculate them in the vertex shader, and just output a single diffuse colour, which can be used directly in the fixed function pipeline. It is simpler and more efficient.

In general there’s a simple rule to follow… In order from least to most instances per scene, we have:

1. The world
2. Objects
3. Meshes
4. Vertices
5. Pixels

So, you want to process everything at the highest possible stage where it is invariant. For example, the lights and camera are generally static for everything in the world for an entire frame (they are ‘global’). So you only need to set them up once. You don’t recalculate them for every object, mesh or vertex, let alone every pixel. So in general you only want to calculate things in shaders that you cannot precalc on the CPU and pass to the shaders as constants efficiently. And you don’t want to calculate things in a pixel shader that you can calculate in a vertex shader. After all, there are normally far fewer vertices in your scene than there are pixels, so the vertex shader will be executed a lot less often than the pixel shader.

Another interesting detail is that the fonts were stored in an 8-bit format. This was effectively an alphablend value. The text colour was set to an Effect constant, so that a single font could be rendered in any colour. However, the format chosen for the texture was L8 (8-bit luminance). In the pixel shader, this value was read, and then copied to the A component, while the RGB components were set to the constant colour. I couldn’t find a way to make this work with fixed function. The fixed function pipeline treats colour and alpha operations as two separate/parallel pipelines. For each stage you can calculate RGB separately from A. However, most operations will not allow you to move data from RGB to A or vice versa. And when you read an L8 texture, the value is copied to RGB, where A will always be 1, as the texture does not contain alpha information.

So instead, the font should be using an A8 format (8-bit alpha) instead. Then A will contain the value, and RGB will read as 1, because the texture does not contain colour information. That is how the shader should also have been designed, semantically. It should have read the A-component of the texture into the A-value of the output pixel, rather than reading the RGB components into the A-value.

So this once again shows that older systems/environments have limitations that can give valuable insights in the weaknesses of your codebase, and can make your codebase more efficient and more robust in ways that you might not normally explore.

I have decided to once again port back the small fixes and modifications to the current codebase. This way I can develop the legacy Effects on the current build of our software, and do not need to rely specifically on the .NET 4 version. I have decided not to actually put the legacy Effect source code and compiler into the main codebase though. Otherwise the legacy shader set would end up in production code. However, the code knows of this set, so if you manually copy it to the correct place on disk, it will automatically make use of it.

The Python Software Foundation is "concerned that proposed EU cybersecurity laws will leave open source organizations and individuals unfairly liable for distributing incorrect code," according to the Register. The PSF reviewed the EU's proposed "Cyber Resilience Act" and "Product Liability Act" and reports "issues that put the mission of our organization and the health of the open-source software community at risk." From the Register's report: "If the proposed law is enforced as currently written, the authors of open-source components might bear legal and financial responsibility for the way their components are applied in someone else's commercial product," the PSF said in a statement shared on Tuesday by executive director Deb Nicholson. "The existing language makes no differentiation between independent authors who have never been paid for the supply of software and corporate tech behemoths selling products in exchange for payments from end-users...." The PSF argues the EU lawmakers should provide clear exemptions for public software repositories that serve the public good and for organizations and developers hosting packages on public repositories. "We need it to be crystal clear who is on the hook for both the assurances and the accountability that software consumers deserve," the PSF concludes. The PSF is asking anyone who shares its concerns to convey that sentiment to an appropriate EU Member of Parliament by April 26, while amendments focused on protecting open source software are being considered. Bradley Kuhn, policy fellow at the Software Freedom Conservancy, told The Register that the free and open source (FOSS) community should think carefully about the scope of the exemptions being sought. "I'm worried that many in FOSS are falling into a trap that for-profit companies have been trying to lay for us on this issue," he said. "While it seems on the surface that a blanket exception for FOSS would be a good thing for FOSS, in fact, this an attempt for companies to get the FOSS community to help them skirt their ordinary product liability. For profit companies that deploy FOSS should have the same obligations for security and certainty for their users as proprietary software companies do." The article points out that numerous tech organizations are urging clarifications in the proposed regulations, including NLnet Labs and the Eclipse Foundation.

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

When it comes to John McTiernan's 1987 action classic "Predator," there's no shortage of unforgettable moments or images. There's the design of the titular alien, a camouflaged, green-blooded beast (Kevin Peter Hall in full makeup and prosthetics) on the hunt. There's the military unit's fraught arrival to a Central American jungle set to "Long Tall Sally." There's a shootout that seemingly borrows from Sam Peckinpah's "The Wild Bunch."

But it could be argued the most quoted and memorable moment from the whole movie comes from its opening act, where Vietnam War vets Dutch (Arnold Schwarzenegger) and Dillon (Carl Weathers) are reunited after many years. As Dutch calls his old friend a "son of a b*tch," they clasp hands, each man revealing cartoonishly massive biceps.

Both actors had gotten their start as athletes. Schwarzenegger had found fame as an Austrian bodybuilder before being rejected to play TV's Incredible Hulk and Weathers had played college football, as well as a brief professional stint as a linebacker for the Oakland Raiders. Now, years after achieving movie stardom, they would be sharing the screen with each other, competing not just to steal the scene but to show off who was more ripped.

The filming of "Predator" would end up being significantly difficult anyway, with the temperatures and rough terrain of the production's southern Mexico filming locations proving especially challenging. That didn't stop Weathers from treating the fight to look more ripped as a "competition." As he told GQ, "Nobody wanted to look any weaker than the other guy."

He was lucky that there was a gym on-site, one brought down by Schwarzenegger to maintain his bodybuilding regimen during the three-month shoot.

In The Jungle

As Roger Ebert said in his review, "'Predator' begins like 'Rambo' and ends like 'Alien,' and in today's Hollywood, that's creativity." Director John McTiernan was just happy to make what he called "an old-fashioned popcorn movie," according to the making-of movie, "If It Bleeds We Can Kill It."

The setup was classic, primal -- a group of extremely manly men set out to rescue a diplomat in a hostile Central American location. As they discretely observe their targets, a group of insurgents, they too are being watched, in infrared vision, by an alien hunter. The so-called "Predator" can't be seen on account of its cloaking device, so it blends into the jungle, making its shocking arrivals and kills even scarier. You have a group of tough guys, you've seen the damage they can unleash, and here they are, getting torn to pieces by a single alien.

In many ways, the movie was an Arnold Schwarzenegger star vehicle in a similar vein to "Commando" a few years earlier. The big difference was that this movie gave his character Dutch a team to work with (or against, as in the case of Carl Weathers' Dillon), and every death is a chip in the classic Schwarzenegger armor. As Dutch is the leader, the team's failure to put down the threat is his failure, and it's repeated over and over again until he learns the solution in time for the movie's climax. It's one of the few times a movie made Arnie out to be an underdog.

Ballerinas

But that doesn't mean Arnold Schwarzenegger was an underdog when it came to the real clash behind the scenes of "Predator." One of the many wild things that happened on set was the actors' initial confrontation with military advisor Gary Goldman, who recalled the guys looking like "a bunch of ballerinas," despite most of them being massive. Goldman's feeling on their military might was proven accurate by their inability to run in the jungle heat. "It doesn't matter how many inches your neck is," he recalled.

Regardless of their running abilities in 90-degree Central American jungles, they were big guys. If the risk of getting out-muscled by a co-star was significant, moves had to be made to offset it. Whether it was Schwarzenegger, Carl Weathers, or wrestler Jesse Ventura, the cast of "Predator" had an image to upkeep that went beyond simply looking strong. The actors had to be the toughest, the hardest, and even the hardest partying.

As Weathers told GQ, "we were all in our own way trying to one-up each other." That manifested in a multitude of ways, whether the guys were withstanding extreme heat or extreme workouts. Weathers recalled in "If It Bleeds We Can Kill It" that the men would get up as early as 3:00 AM to use Schwarzenegger's private gym. Effectively, they were bulking up before their big scenes, so the camera would capture them at their biggest. Weathers claims to have made a point to only work out when the gym was empty -- that way, his physique would look God-given.

Camaraderie

In the movie, Dutch and Dillon have a complex relationship, as complex as a monster movie on steroids like "Predator" could have. Dutch takes issue with Dillon's changes since the war, particularly his becoming a company man for the CIA. And that thread helps to carry the movie's opening act, when, by all accounts, it's still just a guerilla war movie. When Dillon comes to a sorry end before the climax, his relatively nuanced characterization and Carl Weathers' performance are missed. But the climax had to be Arnold Schwarzenegger versus the Predator, mano a mano.

Naturally, that was where the movie was headed. "Predator" was still a Schwarzenegger vehicle, and he got top billing, and seeing both the man and the creature stripped of weaponry is the most expected climax. But "Predator" as a movie needs the ensemble. It wouldn't work without the group dynamics, whether they're communicating in military jargon or low-key banter. As Carl Weathers told GQ, all of the competition and the rough-housing ended up being key to that. "What do you expect, really?" he asked, reminiscing about the Mexico shoot. 

The competition extended to scene-stealing, working out, going to nightclubs, extreme macho behavior, and Even Schwarzenegger having an accident while working out before filming. "This camaraderie, this sense of fun," Weathers said added to the movie. It wouldn't be a classic without that.

Read this next: The 12 Best Arnold Schwarzenegger Films, Ranked

The post For Carl Weathers, Predator Was A Constant Competition On And Off-Camera appeared first on /Film.

"True Detective" season 1 was one of the most enjoyably unsettling seasons of TV ever produced. Writer/Creator Nic Pizzolatto crafted a detective show like no other, mixing in elements of cosmic horror, Nietzschean philosophy, and one of the creepiest secret society plots ever conceived. But you know what the most disturbing thing about that first season was? The fact that Errol Childress (Glenn Fleshler), the serial killer who's eventually taken out by detectives Rust Cohle (Matthew McConaughey) and Marty Hart (Woody Harrelson), was just the tip of the iceberg.

Throughout the first season of "True Detective," Marty and Rust uncover an occult-worshiping, human-sacrificing abuse ring, whose members occupy high-level positions in society. And by the end of the season, it's clear Childress was a particularly sadistic part of a much more insidious whole.

Now, the trailer for the upcoming "True Detective: Night Country," suggests we might be about to delve back into the so-called Yellow King cult — so named for its members' preoccupation with the lore of Robert W. Chambers' short story collection "The King In Yellow" and the works of weird fiction it inspired. Seasons 2 and 3 of the series featured little to no references to the group, aside from a brief mention in season 3. But in the new trailer, a familiar symbol tied to the Yellow King cult can be clearly seen. Is this just an easter egg — a reference planted by the showrunners to appease fans of the show who might be upset that series creator Pizzolatto has been replaced by new showrunner, writer, director, and executive producer Issa López? Or is this a sign that we might be finally about to learn the true scope of the Yellow King cult?

The Crooked Spiral

Unveiled during the launch event for Warner Bros. Discovery's new streaming service, Max, the trailer for the upcoming fourth season of "True Detective," entitled "Night Country," provides our best look yet at the Jodie Foster-led season. The episodes are set in Ennis, Alaska, where, as the official synopsis explains, "eight men who operate the Tsalal Arctic Research Station vanish without a trace." This being "True Detective," a pair of seemingly mismatched investigators, this time in the form of Liz Danvers (Jodie Foster) and Evangeline Navarro (Kali Reis), are tasked with solving the case.

But by far the most intriguing part of the trailer is when Foster's Danvers discovers a red spiral symbol painted on the side of a storage tank. Illuminated by torchlight, the crooked motif should be very familiar to fans of the show, especially those who can't get enough of the first season.

The same spiral appeared throughout "True Detective" season 1 and represented the secret, Yellow King-worshiping pedophile ring that Rust and Marty investigated. In the very first episode of the season, it's seen carved into the back of Dora Lange, a sex worker whose body is discovered in a sugar field outside of Erath, Louisiana. As the season continues, the spiral shows up in Rust's hallucinations, in graffiti at crime scenes, and even in the freshly-mown lawn that Errol Childress traverses ominously on his riding mower. But what does it mean? And why is it showing up in season 4? At this point, nothing is certain, but it could mean the show is returning to one of the most compelling and disturbing storylines to come out of "True Detective" yet.

The Yellow King Cult

The exact meaning behind the crooked symbol hasn't yet been fully revealed. In "True Detective" season 3, documentary producer Elisa Montgomery (Sarah Gadon) shows Mahershala Ali's state police detective Wayne Hays a blue spiral and talks about it being "code for pedophiles" — chillingly enough, the symbol she shows Hays is actually part of a real FBI document that makes similar claims about the symbol.

Montgomery goes on to talk about "large-scale pedophile rings connected to people of influence" and claims, "It's been theorized that straw dolls are a sign of pedophile groups like the crooked spiral." Her inflection during that particular line reading almost suggests she's talking about a group known as "The Crooked Spiral," rather than the symbol itself. Either way, it's clear that much like the blue symbol Montgomery shows Hays, the red crooked spiral seen throughout season 1 and alluded to in season 3 relates to these "large-scale pedophile rings," and perhaps to the Yellow King cult specifically.

Back in season 1, the Yellow King cult is revealed to be behind the killings investigated by Marty Hart and Rust Cohle. Seemingly led by the powerful Tuttle family, who occupy positions of power throughout Louisiana, this insidious group is said to be widespread in the southern state. That's evidenced by a video depicting the murder of a young Louisiana girl named Marie Fontenot, which is discovered by Rust at Reverend Billy Lee Tuttle's home and which shows numerous members of the cult in attendance, their faces obscured by animal masks. None of these members are apprehended by the season's end, suggesting the ritualistic killings and child abuse remain ongoing despite Marty and Rust's triumph over Childress.

Does Season 1 Directly Tie Into Season 4?

Despite there being much more Yellow King cult story left to tell, the crooked spiral showing up in the trailer for "True Detective" season 4 could be nothing more than an easter egg for longtime fans of the series. With creator Nic Pizzolatto going off to direct his Western "Easy's Waltz," and handing the reins to Issa López for this season, there's bound to be a contingent of "True Detective" aficionados who remain skeptical about the upcoming installment. Including a nod to the first run of episodes could be a way of trying to win them over. If that's the case, the spiral might just be nothing more than a red herring. But there's plenty of reason to believe it's not.

For starters, the symbol on the tank isn't the only spiral in the trailer. Earlier, Jodie Foster's Liz Danvers sits on her apartment floor surrounded by photos of the disappeared research station workers. And the photos are, you guessed it, arranged in a spiral. There's also a potential allusion to the motif when we're shown a closeup of a camera lens early in the trailer, which at the very least recalls the "time is a flat circle" theme of the first season — that's a whole other article's worth of background. Suffice it to say the camera in question is used to film Danvers as she's interrogated by two interlocutors, à la Rust Cohle in season 1, who utters the "flat circle" line during that very interrogation.

And if you really want to get into the weeds, take a look at the background of the scene where Danvers finds the red spiral on the tank. Is that a skull? Is that a crown on its head? Could it be ... the Yellow King?

The Yellow King Returns?

In season 1, it's never actually confirmed who or what the Yellow King was. The name refers to the supernatural being in Robert W. Chambers' "The King In Yellow," which contains stories that refer to a play of the same name, centered around a hellish place known as Carcosa and overseen by a supernatural entity — the King. This short story collection influenced future weird fiction writers, including H.G. Wells, who borrowed names from the novel for use in his own Cthulu lore. And in "True Detective" season 1, it seems the cult has similarly latched on to Chambers' mythology and mapped it onto their own horrific organization.

In the show, it seems Marty Hart and Rust Cohle find the cult's version of the Yellow King in the form of Errol Childress, who's killed in the season finale — still one of the best "True Detective" episodes. But considering he's not exactly a prominent individual on the level of any of the Tuttle family, it seems unlikely the house painter living in a dilapidated home is the real brains behind the operation. That lack of clarification has led to multiple fan theories, with some suggesting Reverend Billy Lee Tuttle was the real Yellow King, while others pin it on Sam Tuttle, the patriarch of the family.

Whatever the actual explanation, it's incredibly unlikely Childress was the real Yellow King. And as Marty says in the final episode, "We ain't gonna get them all. That ain't the kind of world it is. But we got ours." Now, with all these spiral references popping up in the "True Detective: Night Country" trailer, could it be that some of the evildoers Marty and Rust didn't "get" are popping up in Alaska? Perhaps even the Yellow King himself?

Time Is A Flat Circle

At this point, all of this is speculation. We simply don't know whether the plot of "Night Country" will include any of the occult elements, cosmic horror, or Yellow King cult narrative of the first season. But, as Rust's flat circle theory — borrowed from Friedrich Nietzsche — reminds us, life is doomed to infinite recurrence. Which means there's every reason the show that popularised this piece of philosophy for the 21st century may return to its roots. And if it still sounds pretty flimsy, there are yet more links between season 1 and season 4 that hint at a potential continuation of the Yellow King cult storyline. One of the most compelling is none other than Rust Cohle himself.

In season 1, it's revealed Rust grew up in Alaska — which is, of course, where season 4 is set. The detective also claimed to have spent eight years in Alaska after seemingly solving the case from season 1, only to return to Louisiana to actually close it at the end of the season. Now, it's important to note there is absolutely nothing that suggests Matthew McConaughey or his character are involved in "Night Country." But...

This might be a stretch, but if Rust is from Alaska, and spent eight years there between the death of Reggie Ledoux (the man originally thought to be the Yellow King) and the death of Errol Childress, there's every reason he might have retired there after the events of season 1. And setting the fourth season in that state would be a neat way of a) reinforcing the expansive reach of this underground abuse ring by having members operating in a new state, and b) bringing Rust back to help finish what he started in season 1.

More Than An Easter Egg

Again, this is all speculation, but considering there were some theories that suggested Rust may have even been the true Yellow King, what if our beloved nihilist turns out to be behind the crimes in "Night Country?" That might be stretching things a little too far, but there's an obvious link here between the two seasons that the writers could very well have exploited for more than just a few easter eggs. After all, that giant spiral that almost fills the frame in the "Night Country" trailer isn't exactly a subtle nod to season 1.

While some might balk at the idea of bringing back Rust as a form of MCU-esque pandering to fan nostalgia, it's not as if the second and third seasons of "True Detective" managed to hit the same high as the first. Perhaps what this show needs, and has always needed, is Rust Cohle. Season 3 already confirmed that all these cases are taking place in the same universe, with documentary producer Elisa Montgomery showing Mahershala Ali's Wayne Hays a newspaper clipping featuring Rust and Marty's photos. So whether you like it or not, we already have a "True Detective" extended universe. Would it really be all that bad to bring back Rustin Cohle? McConaughey seemed up for more "True Detective" back in 2014 -- perhaps he got his wish.

Bring On The Cosmic Horror

Rust Cohle aside, reinserting the cosmic horror/cultish elements of season 1 could go a long way to restoring this show to its former greatness. Considering Issa López's 2017 film "Tigers Are Not Afraid" contained elements of magical realism, there's every reason to think the new showrunner would be open to exploring more of that with "Night Country."

The key, I think, to not screwing the whole thing up would be to make sure this fourth season of "True Detective," if it does reintroduce the whole Yellow King cult, doesn't offer too much in the way of closure. If the horror of cosmic horror comes from a confrontation with the unknown and incomprehensible, then the end of "True Detective" season 1 is the genre at its finest. How far does the Yellow King cult extend? Who's involved? What does their occult iconography represent? All of this remains unknown, and as cosmically terrifying as any eldritch beast from an H. G. Wells novel or Robert W. Chambers collection. If we are about to return to the nightmarish world of the Yellow King with "Night Country," let's hope Liz Danvers doesn't get too much closer to uncovering the truth than Rustin Cohle did. The occult lore that permeated the first season is part of what made those episodes great, but it's also what nearly drove Cohle to insanity.

Of course, all of this could be for nothing. López could in fact be telling a wholly original story with this upcoming season, and that wouldn't be a bad thing. But as harrowing as that first season was, I can't help but be excited at a potential return to the dim world of Carcosa.

"True Detective: Night Country" will premiere sometime later in 2023 on HBO and Max.

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The post What if That Spiral in the True Detective: Night Country Trailer Isn't Just an Easter Egg? appeared first on /Film.