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Recently, Nightmarish Conjurings’ Shannon McGrew had the immense pleasure of speaking with actor Fiona Dourif, who has reprised her role as Nica Pierce. During our chat, we discussed everything from transitioning the Child’s Play franchise into the television realm to portraying a young Charles Lee Ray, and reuniting with Jennifer Tilly onscreen.

Up until now, the Child’s Play franchise has been strictly movies. How has it been transitioning into a Chucky TV series?

Fiona Dourif: It’s all the same people so it felt like we got a little bit more money and a little bit more time [and] a bigger story. I was really excited that it was centered around kids, cause I think that’s where Chucky thrives. There’s something creepier when you put him up against the innocence of a buddy in person who’s discovering who they are. I thought it was a great decision. It’s this continuation of this fun fucking rollercoaster we get to go on.

You’ve worked with your dad, Brad Dourif, and voice of Chucky, in the past on the series, “Deadwood,” as well as two of the Child’s Play films, Curse of Chucky and Cult of Chucky. How was it reuniting with him and the rest of the team for the Chucky series? 

Fiona Dourif: It’s always been a family affair. It feels like this fun lottery that was somehow put in my lap 10 years ago made by people that I trust and love, and that people end up liking. I had so much more to do this time that I couldn’t be afraid of because it was so big. I had to make really strong choices and throw myself in there. I get more confidence each time I do this, so this time sort of felt like a victory lap.

In CHUCKY, we meet a younger Charles Lee Ray and what’s funny about that is I had no idea it was you playing that character. I truly thought they found another actor that looked exactly like your dad, so my mind was blown when I realized it was you. That being said, how was it transforming into the infamous Charles Lee Ray? 

Fiona Dourif: I had some interesting moments when [the prosthetics] were first put on my face [Laughs]. My dad was really into physics when he was in his forties and fifties and used to read all these physics textbooks. And you know how you slowly become your parents in ways that you don’t realize? I remember they were putting the prosthetics on and… I listen to a lot of podcasts and I was listening to [physicist] Frank Wilczek being interviewed by Sam Harris – it’s all physics for the layman, I don’t know anything about physics. Then at the end of the [application], I looked in the mirror for the first time and they did such a good job that I looked like him. I realized I was listening to this [podcast] that my dad would have listened to and I had this crisis moment [Laughs]. I remember having to leave and I was like, who are we? Are we ever our own person? Are we actually slaves to genetics? I tried to sit down and write about it and I did but the essay ended up being a little too personal to publish. But, people have been saying [I look like him] my whole life and I don’t really see it. I feel like our bone structure is the same and from the eyes up it’s the same.

Not only do you play a younger Charles Lee Ray but you also reprise your role as Nica Pierce. We last saw Nica in Cult of Chucky, where she was possessed by Chucky’s soul and was reunited with Tiffany (Jennifer Tilly). When we first see Nica/Chucky in the new series, they’re getting pretty hot and heavy with Tiffany. What was it like to work so closely with Jennifer Tilly on these projects? 

Fiona Dourif:  So, in Cult of Chucky we kissed, which was like a few years ago, but that was filmed in Winnipeg in the dead of winter. It was negative 45 degrees when I walked out in a coat and kissed Jennifer Tilly. The team was worried that I was going to get frostbite in 10 seconds because I was walking in heels with no socks, so I don’t even remember anything [from that experience]. When we were in the bed [for our episode in CHUCKY], it sort of felt like the first time for me [Laughs]. And I was like, oh, we have chemistry. I liked kissing Jennifer Tilly. I really like her as a person. She’s generous, interesting, funny, and cool. [She’s] had this crazy life and so I wanted to make out with her, which is great.

Who doesn’t want to make out with Jennifer Tilly? That’s the real question we should be asking. As much as I hate to do this, I must wrap things up, so my last question for you is what’s the most exciting aspect of being in this series? 

Fiona Dourif: This is my favorite iteration of Chucky since the first [film]. I think it works on so many levels. You get to really care about these kids. Everybody takes a turn that I think is quite unexpected, and it just gets so fucking crazy by the end. I am deeply proud of it. I’ve also been even more proud and shocked at the response from it. It turns out that it’s quite popular. People really like it, and a lot of people are watching it. My social media has been blowing up [Laughs]. It’s just been really fun. There’s something about Chucky, there’s something about that character, he’s just having so much fun and he’s clever. That’s all Don [Mancini] man. He’s the spark behind all of it. It’s got a lot of heart and it’s got a lot of fun.

New episodes of CHUCKY arrive every Tuesday night at 10 pm ET on the SYFY and USA Network. For more on the series, check out our review here.

The post [Interview] Fiona Dourif for CHUCKY appeared first on Nightmarish Conjurings.

In his latest video, "Don't Tell Me How to Live," Kid Rock soars through the air hugging the raised middle finger of a giant bird-flipping hand while clutching a pistol. Mr. Rock also boasts of "ripping lines" while pretending to snort a substance, likens himself to David Lee Roth, Bruce Springsteen, James Dean, and Brad Pitt ("a little less pretty but I slang more dick"), and attests to "being more outrageous than the Vegas strip." — Read the rest

Night of the Moth arrives on December 8 The Fallout 76 December update is fully dated for the 8th, and...

The post Here’s a look at Fallout 76’s huge December update appeared first on Destructoid.

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

Netflix's live-action "Cowboy Bebop" adaptation took some pretty major detours away from its source material, leaving some fans frustrated, others elated, and many a little confused. The 10-episode first season followed space cowboys Spike Spiegel (John Cho), Faye Valentine (Daniella Pineda) and Jet Black (Mustafa Shakir) as they tried to catch bounty-heads and put food on the table, all while dealing with Spike's violent past, Faye's amnesia, and Jet's family problems. 

Showrunner André Nemec promised that the series "wouldn't violate the canon," though it certainly twists the canon in surprising new ways. The live-action series is something like a remix of the anime, a cover song with new bits added. Some of it works, some of it doesn't, but it's all in the service of trying to bring one of the world's greatest anime series to life. 

So let's break down that ending, cowpokes, and dig into what exactly is going on in the live-action "Bebop." Buckle up, because it's going to get a little bumpy.

Spoilers for season 1 of "Cowboy Bebop" ahead. 

Trouble At Ana's

Throughout the first nine episodes of the series, Spike has managed to hide his past and former identity from his new partner, Jet. Their partnership is built upon one rule: no lies. Unfortunately, Spike used to be a top hitman for the Red Dragon Crime Syndicate. He went by the name Fearless, and at one time was destined to possibly take over the Syndicate. Jet is a former Inter-Solar System Police officer, so Spike decided to keep the whole criminal past to himself. That comes back to bite him when Jet and Faye try to rescue him from Ana's (Tamara Tunie), thinking that he's been taken captive. Fearless's friends Ana and Gren (Mason Alexander Park) face off against Spike's friends Jet and Faye, and his two worlds finally collide. He's forced to explain his past to the Bebop crew, and Jet isn't exactly happy about it.

Jet discovers that Vicious, Spike's former best friend turned bitterest rival, has taken his daughter Kimmie. Furious with Spike for lying, he puts him in the trunk and plans on taking him to Vicious. Faye refuses, telling Jet that Spike saved both of their lives and they owe him. Faye leaves Jet to turn Spike in on his own. When the two make it to Vicious, Jet yells for Spike to start shooting and it's clear that they're at least sort of still working together. Unfortunately, Vicious and Kimmie are holograms, and more armed guards appear to take Jet and Spike into custody the moment the gunfire stops. Things are looking pretty dire for the boys, even as Spike thanks Jet for "giving him a second chance." 

The Whole Deal With Vicious

Vicious (Alex Hassell) has some pretty good reasons for being upset with Fearless. Once upon a time, the two were best friends, growing up together as Syndicate underlings. Vicious convinced his father to take Fearless in and the two were raised as brothers, though Fearless became the favorite. When Vicious started to get out of control, the Elders in charge of the Syndicate, including Vicious' own father, commanded Fearless to kill him. Meanwhile, Fearless was having an affair with Vicious' girlfriend, Julia (Elena Satine), complicating things even further. 

Unable to kill Vicious because of their brotherly love, Fearless asked Julia to run away with him. During their attempted escape, Fearless was shot and left for dead, and Julia was taken back to Vicious. A repeat image in both the anime and the live-action series is a rose Fearless had been holding falling in the rain, and Julia has a rose tattooed on her shoulder. The series hints that Julia might have been involved in Fearless' assassination attempt, linking the tattoo and the falling rose several times. Fearless, however, believes her to be his damsel in distress, waiting to be rescued. 

Vicious gives a big, drawn-out monologue to Spike and Jet about how he had to mourn Fearless. He ties them up in the family crypt and shows Spike the sarcophagi he was supposed to be buried in, right beside Vicious'. Finally, he screams at Spike/Fearless, "you were supposed to love me!"

"I was supposed to end you," Spike tells him, finally revealing his orders from the Elders all of those years ago. Thought Spike has survived "death" once already, it's looking pretty dire when Vicious tells him, "This is where you die for the last time."

Valentine Ex Machina

Before she left Jet and Spike to their possible fates, Faye told Jet, "I won't carry that weight," referring to taking Spike to a near-certain death. It's a reference to the anime series that doesn't quite land. In the anime, the reference to the Beatles song "Carry That Weight" is a major theme, focusing on the idea that your actions have consequences. Actions in the past can lead you to "carry that weight" forever. Ultimately it's a lesson for Spike to learn, and one of the moral through-lines of the anime, where here it feels like a quick reference with little substance. 

Faye could have gone off to find her origins from the clues she found on the video cassette in episode 7, but instead she comes back to save Spike and Jet. She shows up in her con-artist adoptive mother's ship and starts blowing out the cathedral windows in a rain of gunfire. It's a Valentine ex Machina, come to rescue the boys and give Faye something to do. As she opens fire on the baddies, she yells "welcome to the ouch, motherf***ers!", and it's a joyous and fun bit of respite for the extended drama to come. 

Faye gets everyone back to her ship to escape, but Spike has unfinished business. He has to find Julia.

"I'll see you around, Valentine," he tells her, letting her take Kimmie and Jet to safety. Spike heads back into the cathedral, and the Steve Conte version of the song "Rain," a classic from the anime soundtrack, begins to play. 

Let's Talk About Julia

The biggest changes made from the "Cowboy Bebop" anime to the live-action version all revolve around Spike and Vicious' love interest, Julia. In the anime, she's a specter, a character referred to in visions and memories. She has zero agency of her own and only exists for the male characters to fight over. In the end, she dies tragically. She's an idea, not a person, and given how little agency the other women in the anime are given, it's frustrating at best. 

In the live-action series, Julia is initially a wounded, caged animal held captive by Vicious, but once she realizes Fearless is alive, something inside of her changes. She has a reason to fight again. She mocks and berates Vicious for being cuckolded by Fearless, telling him that she could never love him. She later escapes with the help of a female bodyguard, and shows up right when Vicious is about to kill Spike. 

In the anime, Spike dies. The past came back to haunt him and eventually kill him. In the live-action series, it's a little more complicated. Julia shoots Vicious and asks Spike to join her and run the Syndicate together. Vicious killed all of the Elders in a fit of rage, leaving a power vacuum ready for them to fill. Spike has left that criminal empire behind him, and he tells Julia that he doesn't want that life. 

"What about what I want?" she asks, in a moment that feels almost revelatory. Julia is on her way to becoming the series' true villain, but she's doing it of her own will and acting on her own desires. I'll take a complicated villain origin story over throwing women in refrigerators any day of the week. 

See You Later, Space Cowboy

Julia asks Spike why he didn't come back for her if he knew she was alive. She points out how horrible it was being trapped with Vicious for three years, "wondering if today is the day he tosses me from the window." When Spike tells her that he never stopped loving her, her face visibly hardens. 

"That may be, but it's clear now. You are nothing more than a dream I needed to wake up from," she says, right before shooting him in the shoulder and knocking him out of the cathedral window. Instead of Vicious shooting him and killing him, Julia shoots him and he survives. It sets up a very complicated second season, with Julia secretly at the head of the Syndicate and the Bebop crew scattered to the winds, and it also finally gives Julia something to do besides die or look pretty in flashbacks. Her fury with Spike is justified, and it further shows that he's a flawed and often selfish man who doesn't think about how his actions affect others. After all, he hasn't yet learned that he has to carry that weight, but Julia's rejection of him might be the first good hint.

The Elders of the Syndicate aren't supposed to be seen, but instead of putting Vicious in one of the elaborate masks of the previous elders, Julia simply decides to keep him locked up and pretend she's getting word from him in seclusion. Instead she will run the Syndicate, torturing the man who tortured her all the while. She even plays a little game of Russian Roulette with him, showing both Vicious and the audience that she's both ruthless and a bit damaged from all that she's endured.

Introducing Radical Edward

When Jet and Faye return to the Bebop, Kimmie's mom and stepdad are waiting. Kimmie calls her stepdad "Daddy" and runs to him from Jet, which has to seriously hurt. Faye tells Jet that she's going to go find her past, and he just lets her go. When Spike wanders up, bloodied and shot, Jet tells him that if he ever sees him again, he'll kill him. The crew of the Bebop aren't looking so good. 

Spike wanders into an alleyway and collapses from both blood loss and despair, only to be awoken by a high-pitched, excited voice begging him by name to get up. An orange-haired child with goggles, recognizable to fans of the anime as Radical Edward, or Ed, has found him and is trying to get him moving so they can go after "Volaju," referring to Vincent Volaju, the primary villain in the "Cowboy Bebop" animated movie. Ein, who disappeared a few episodes earlier after the crew discovered he had technological "improvements," is there with Ed, and probably helped Ed find Spike. (In the anime, Ed and Ein are pretty much inseparable, and the two communicate in a way no one else seems to understand.)

Ed (Eden Perkins) could help unite the crew of the Bebop and send them into new adventures in season 2. They joined the cast of the anime in episode 9, so showing up in episode 10 of the live-action series works just fine. It will be interesting to see how they make the anime's most traditionally cartoonish character into something palatable for audiences, but there's time for them to figure that out before a potential next season. 

"Cowboy Bebop" season one ends with the title card "See you Space Cowgirl, Somewhere, Someday!" which copies the title card from the episode where Ed leaves the crew of the Bebop before "The Real Folk Blues" parts one and two, which wraps up the series and kills Spike. It's another bit of evidence that this remix isn't afraid to play with the timeline, for both better and worse.

Netflix's "Cowboy Bebop" ended on a bit of a downer, much like the end of "The Empire Strikes Back," so hopefully the next season can pick things up and deliver even more strongly on their unique version of this sci-fi story. 

Read this next: 14 Remakes That Are Better Than The Original

The post Cowboy Bebop Ending Explained: She's More than Just a Pretty Face appeared first on /Film.

We are almost at the end of 2021 and things aren't looking any better for AMD Radeon & NVIDIA GeForce graphics cards in terms of GPU prices. After hitting a peak of inflation of over 300%, the graphics card market was on a course correction but recent crypto demand and shortage of tech components have led to a gradual increase in prices which now stand at 200% over MSRP & don't expect things to get any better in 2022.

AMD Radeon & NVIDIA GeForce Graphics Card Prices Are Still Bad But GPU Availability Is Slightly Better Than The Beginning of 2021

In the previous report, NVIDIA GeForce graphics cards were at 88% while AMD Radeon graphics cards were at 101% over their MSRP. However, with crypto once again picking up the pace and all recent confirmations from company execs who have said that chip shortages will last throughout 2022, the situation has gotten worse. Following is the 3DCenter chart which shows the GPU prices along with an ETH pricing histogram:

Graphics Card Prices Nov 21, 2021

Availability is still okay (no change). But prices for most cards increase again, with the exception of the 6800 non-XT. RDNA2 is now 90% over MSRP, Ampere 95% over MSRP.

PS: Chart include now ETH price https://t.co/uVZCo3PDk6 pic.twitter.com/taAt1rvf4F

— 3DCenter.org (@3DCenter_org) November 22, 2021

Compared to October, NVIDIA graphics cards are now 95% expensive (vs 88%) while AMD graphics cards are 90% expensive (vs 101%). It's a small increase but it breaks the downward trend of NVIDIA and is the largest increase in price since July 2021. This trend also puts the prices at a 6-month high and while no one can do anything to fix the current pricing situation, it looks like the overall graphics card availability was slightly better this month compared to October.

AMD Radeon RX 6000 Series Graphics Card Prices (RDNA 2 GPUs) via 3DCenter:

The Big Navi RX 6800 series also have the highest markups with prices of 117% over the MSRP. The Radeon RX 6700 XT which was aimed at the 1080p mainstream segment is also 86% over MSRP while the 6600 XT is 71% over MSRP and so is the non-XT variant which is 60% over MSRP.

Certain SKUs such as the Radeon RX 6800, Radeon RX 6800 XT, Radeon RX 6800 XT, Radeon RX 6600 XT, GeForce RTX 3070 Ti, RTX 3080 & RTX 3090 are hard to find. The AMD Radeon RX 6800 (Non-XT) is almost like they don't exist anymore since it's the hardest card to find right now.

NVIDIA GeForce RTX 30 Series Graphics Card Prices (Ampere GPUs) via 3DCenter:

It looks like the focus on the LHR series has shifted miners' attention towards the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3090 series and although the limit has been cracked through various means, the 3090 continues to offer the highest hash rate of all non-LHR GeForce cards. With that said, the GeForce RTX 3080 Ti costs 51% over its MSRP, the lowest of all NVIDIA GeForce RTX 30 series cards.

In addition to 3DCenter, HardwareUnboxed has also published a new video showing US prices of NVIDIA GeForce and AMD Radeon graphics cards. According to various retail outlets, the GeForce GPUs retail for an average of 113% over MSRP with the RTX 3080, RTX 3070, and RTX 3060 Ti being the worse contenders while the AMD Radeon GPUs retail for an average of 100% over MSRP, a 9% price hike compared to the previous month.

AMD Radeon Graphics Cards & GPU Prices - November 2021 (via Hardware Unboxed):

NVIDIA GeForce Graphics Cards & GPU Prices - November 2021 (via Hardware Unboxed):

The full breakdown of prices can be seen in the video below:

All reports now point towards normalization in 2023 so don't expect any miracles prior to that. New GPUs are planned for launch in the coming months so expect them to be priced similarly if not way higher.

The post AMD Radeon & NVIDIA GeForce Graphics Cards Are Still Twice As Expensive As Their MSRP & GPU Prices Aren’t Going To Get Better Any Time Soon by Hassan Mujtaba appeared first on Wccftech.

While most motherboard makers solved the DRM issues on Intel's Alder Lake CPUs through BIOS, Gigabyte has released a unique tool that lets you do the same without entering the BIOS. Gigabyte calls it the DRM Fix Tool and it will let you enable or disable the E-Cores to make sure that no issues occur when running games with DRM.

Gigabyte Lets You Enable DRM Compatibility Mode on Intel Alder Lake CPUs Through A Nifty Tool, No Need To Enter BIOS

Press Release: Gigabyte Technology announced today the GIGABYTE DRM Fix Tool to greatly improve the performance on certain game titles when using a 12th gen Intel processor and avoid possible issues when running those games.

Earlier this month, Intel just released the latest 12th generation processors with the advantages of new architecture and high performance to the market. However, users are aware that the E-cores in processors may trigger the DRM software to incorrectly recognize them as another system. GIGABYTE releases the new GIGABYTE DRM Fix Tool on the 600 series platform in response to this issue. With this Windows-based utility, users can easily switch on and off the E-Cores on the fly to avoid abnormal game operation due to the DRM issue.

GIGABYTE’s DRM Fix Tool requires the latest BIOS version in order to have an impact. Users can easily control the status of the E-cores through the UI of this utility without any complicated installation. GIGABYTE’s DRM Fix Tool provides a much easier solution to the DRM issue compared to other solutions which require adjusted BIOS settings, PS/2 keyboard connection, or even an exclusive button on the chassis and keyboard.

Download Gigabyte DRM Fix Tool For Intel Alder Lake CPUs Here!

GIGABYTE DRM Fix Tool and its related BIOS are ready on the GIGABYTE official site. Please visit GIGABYTE’s website and download the latest BIOS version and the GIGABYTE DRM Fix Tool.

The post Gigabyte DRM Fix Tool For Intel Alder Lake CPUs Released, Can Be Configured Within The OS by Hassan Mujtaba appeared first on Wccftech.

Stanley Kubrick's "Dr. Strangelove or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb" is still seen by many as the epitome of bleak political satire. More than 50 years after its original release in 1964, the film's absurdist portrayal of the Cold War between the U.S. and Soviet Union remains an unsettling reminder of just how easy it would be for humankind to wipe itself clean off the map through a nuclear catastrophe. And as depressing as I'm making the movie sound, "Dr. Strangelove" really is a darkly comical hoot thanks to its sharp writing, Gilbert Taylor's splendid black-and-white cinematography, and, of course, Peter Sellers' wonderfully over the top turn as Dr. Strangelove, the transparently diabolical ex-Nazi and scientific advisor to the utterly ineffectual U.S. President Merkin Muffley (also Sellers).

"Dr. Strangelove" follows Muffley as he and the other top officials in his administration work with Royal Air Force officer Lionel Mandrake (also Sellers, again) to prevent a mentally unwell Air Force general from launching a nuclear attack on the Soviet Union and starting a nuclear war. Ultimately, however, they fail (er, spoilers?), which leads into the movie's famous ending: a montage of clips of nuclear explosions (taken from footage of real nuclear bomb tests) going off around the world set to the melancholy tune of Vera Lynn's rendition of the WWII-era song "We'll Meet Again."

... At least, that's how the movie's theatrical cut concluded. The original version Kubrick shot was, to put it mildly, quite different.

You Can't Fight In Here. This Is The War Room!

The alternate ending to "Dr. Strangelove" had Muffley and everyone else in the Pentagon's War Room abandon their efforts to stop the end of the world to engage in a massive custard pie fight. This isn't the stuff of rumor, either; official stills of the pie battle exist (see above), and the actual footage was publicly screened in 1999 at the National Film Theatre in London.

Kubrick explained his reasoning for dropping this sequence in an interview in 1969, stating, "I decided it was farce and not consistent with the satiric tone of the rest of the film." Separately, "Dr. Strangelove" co-writer Terry Southern wrote an article entitled "Notes from The War Room," where he elaborated on the thinking behind this decision:

The style and mood of the sequence should have reflected [the film's] grim circumstances. Kubrick's major goof was his failure to communicate that idea to the sixty or so pie-throwing admirals and generals, so that the prevailing atmosphere, as it came across on the film, might best be described as bacchanalian-with everyone gaily tossing pies, obviously in the highest of spirits. A disaster of, as Kubrick said, "Homeric proportions." Needless to say, the scene was cut.

The Effects Of The Kennedy Assassination

By pure, terrible coincidence, "Dr. Strangelove" was going to hold a test screening on November 22, 1963 — the day U.S. President John F. Kennedy was assassinated in Dallas, Texas. This also led to the movie's release date being delayed to late January 1964, on the assumption that audiences wouldn't be in the mood for a grim satire on the heels of such a horrific event. A line of dialogue by the B-52 commander and pilot, Slim Pickens, where he said, "A fella could have a pretty good weekend in Dallas with all that stuff," was also re-dubbed during post-production, with "Vegas" replacing "Dallas" to avoid being insensitive.

In another unpleasant accident, the film's original ending included a moment where George C. Scott's General Buck Turgidson, upon seeing President Muffley pied in the face, exclaimed, "Gentlemen! Our gallant young president has been struck down in his prime!" The film's editor, Anthony Harvey, suggested this was the real reason the pie fight was cut in an extra on the movie's 40th anniversary DVD, stating, "It would have stayed, except that Columbia Pictures were horrified, and thought it would offend [President Kennedy's] family." That said, everyone else who worked on "Dr. Strangelove" and have spoken on the matter have claimed the change occurred before Kennedy's death, so it's possible Harvey was simply mistaken.

Read this next: 13 Box Office Bombs That Are Truly Worth A Watch

The post The Dr. Strangelove Alternate Ending Few People Have Ever Seen appeared first on /Film.

Candyman made Tony Todd a legend, but it works both ways. The incredible actor — who originated the role in the 1992 film and has reprised his part in three subsequent films, including Nia DaCosta's 2021 reboot — did just as much to catapult his character into the horror zeitgeist as the character did in putting him on the map as an actor. There's no denying that simply no other actor could've truly played Candyman in the way that Todd did — nor would anything less be as satisfying. Todd played the role with swagger and calculation, not to mention despair, dread, and sorrow. His performance is one of the most nuanced and layered in horror history and it's no surprise it has withstood the test of time.

It has also afforded Todd an incredible career in the genre that has loved him and his work. Naturally, I adore "Candyman," but one of my favorite long-term roles of his was his part as Death in the "Final Destination" franchise. He is so memorable and mysterious in every role he plays that it's hard not to latch onto his part in a project, no matter how small. He most recently appeared in a great cameo spot for one of the six short films that make up "Horror Noire," the new Shudder film — based on the 2019 docuseries of the same name — that highlights Black storytelling in horror. 

He is also the focus of one of the six episodes of "Behind the Monsters," another Shudder docuseries spotlighting six of the most memorable horror villains. You guessed it: Candyman, Chucky, Michael Myers, Freddy Krueger, Pinhead, and Jason Voorhees. The character is basically horror royalty at this point — which is why I was so deeply honored to speak with Todd in honor of the releases of both of these exciting projects. He was as gracious and chill as I hoped he would be, and it was clear he still appreciates hearing how much these films mean to people (don't worry, I told him).

"It's The Society At Large And Their Perceptions Of What Is And What Isn't."

What do you think drives Candyman's victims to become his prey? There's a real sense of surrender here.

His main objective using the first one as my example is Helen. I mean it's an unrequited love. He's allowed to slip to a portal, transfer from the 1800s to the modern times, 1992, and to continue his search for the perfect person, the person that even though they were romantically involved and romantically connected, they were separated, so as an example of unrequited passion. So that's his influence. I mean he wasn't born a killer. He was made a killer, right? He was an artist first. He was lynched, castrated and now, God help us, he's back and nothing will stop him from his pursuit.

Absolutely. Kind of thinking about that, what do you think is the most common misconception about Candyman?

Well, he's not a boogeyman. I mean he's as far from a boogeyman as you can get. First of all, he's not in the woods. He's not attacking teenagers. He's not at some sleepaway camp, just to name a few. It's a modern tale and it was set in an urban landscape, which I think really resonated with people because they felt that, "Oh my God, this is something that can really occur." Particularly with the choice of being in Cabrini-Green. I have so many people that live in the Chicago area that talk to me about, particularly residents, former residents of Cabrini-Green, how they felt it was absolutely real because it was possible for the imagination.

Yeah. That's definitely, in my opinion, certainly some of the scariest parts about the film and certainly about your performance and certainly about how we almost feel, as the audience, kind of on the same side as Helen. It's just incredibly unsettling.

And then Helen represents, I think, the audience. Helen is a part of our people. And I think she, through her telling the story and through her search for the truth, is a representative for the common person.

Yeah, definitely, especially white people who have the wool over their eyes. [Todd laughs] It's for real, though. It's real.

I hear you.

That's exactly what it is. They have the wool over their eyes. They're not tapped into that and—

They're not woke. Let's just say it.

They're not, though. They're not aware and having Helen as sort of this launching point is I think a great way to ... It's almost a great equalizer in a certain way.

She goes into the mythology. She goes into the story with her eyes wide open. And I think Bernard, the pacing of his direction carefully allows you deeper and deeper into the insanity that is not within either Candyman or Helen. It's the society at large and their perceptions of what is and what isn't.

"That Led To All Kinds Of Pajama Parties And Candyman Screenings."

Certainly. And it definitely makes you think, especially as an audience member. You come out of it and you're very much analyzing your own part in something like this. You know what I mean? Because it's now part of the zeitgeist, even if it's not real, even though you're Tony Todd and not Candyman.

Yeah. You'll be surprised how many people — sometimes when I'm out in public, people call me Candyman. I have to tell them my name is Tony. And yes, I can be in the toilet paper aisle. It's true.

Obviously, you've been living with this character since 1992, which by the way is the year that I was born.

Oh, congratulations.

Thank you very much.

We're the same age in a way.

And so you've been with this character for a long time. So I'm very curious: what is something that still surprises you about Candyman and his legacy?

The genuine terror that people have towards it. I do conventions and people [wait] in line only to tell me that I scared the bejesus out of them when they were kids. And that used to bother me because I went back to Bernard [Rose, director of "Candyman"]. I said, "Did we make a kids' movie?" And he says, "Tony, anybody that saw the film when they were young will remember it forever."

When did you see it first?

Oh my gosh. Sadly, I came into it late. Honestly, Tony, I've been like very scared of horror movies for the majority of my life. I started to get into horror movies when I was just out of college, so it was actually quite late. So I saw it way later. So I was scared as an adult. So I hope that's complimentary at least.

Ohhh! Well, okay. You're allowed.

Yeah. So I was a late bloomer on that front, but you're absolutely right. I mean if a kid is seeing it, it's going to stick with them forever.

I've [had] people come up to me and I said, "How old were you when you saw it?" Some people have said, "Four." And the average age is between seven and nine, and apparently that led to all kinds of pajama parties and "Candyman" screenings and daring the challenge. And I said, "Okay, that's great." My kids never saw it until they were in college as well. And that's partly because they didn't want to confuse who dad was. They heard the whispers. They heard the writings on the wall.

I wouldn't want to confuse it either. No, a little too scary for my liking. I don't need to think my dad is now going to come out of the mirror and so, no, thank you. I'm good.

No, we left them to Disney world. And for years I tried to break into a voiceover for Disney and it wasn't until they were both grown that I finally cracked the voiceover market but it's all good.

That would've been perfect. That would've completely cleared it.

Yeah, Beauty and the Beast, a little Lion King, whatever. It would've been great.

"I Had This Great Image Of A Nor'easter And Candyman, Snowing, Snowing, Snowing..."

I'm curious: Obviously we've had "Candyman" films set in Chicago, in NOLA and LA. What other cities could you see him in? Could you see him in New York? Like I'm in New York right now and I feel—

Well, I love New York.

Thank you very much. We love you. I'm just going to say it. I'm going to speak for New York and say we love you.

I spent 10 wonderful years there. I had pitched them an idea because I'm from New England originally and I'm also a teacher and I had an idea that would've taken place in an Ivy League women's college.

Yes! I did see this.

Yeah. And I had this great image of a Nor'easter and Candyman, snowing, snowing, snowing, and there he is standing on a New England road. That would be my ideal destination.

That would be really cool.

We don't want him on a cruise ship. We don't need that. We don't need him on a train.

No, no, but I think a gritty city like New York, I think it has such a similarity to Chicago in that way.

Absolutely. There's boroughs to choose from. There's subways. And just Candyman lost in Times Square if we add a little "Midnight Cowboy" element when Times Square had some character, you know, just one of those minions walking down there and maybe walking down 12th Avenue and then going into the Village and then all the nightclubs and stuff.

That would be so fun. I'm all about a Candyman in New York City movie. That would be pretty creepy. And I also just feel there's such a rich history of the Black community here and everything, and it would just be another great locale for that.

Well, just think of all the immigrants arriving and how that affected all-white neighborhoods, how the poverty always sank to the bottom and so forth.

One hundred percent. That changing of the neighborhoods and stuff like that, I think that would be very fun. You're going to have to ... I'm just saying maybe just bring it up to Nia.

I think you should submit something to Monkeypaw and see what they say.

Literally. I was just going to say. Bring it up to Nia DaCosta. I mean, just saying.

She did a fantastic job by the way.

"We'll Give Strength To The Line That Candyman Is The Whole Damn Hive."

She did. The new film was so incredible and I had such a fun time with it. My last question for you leans into both Candyman and your character with "Horror Noire." I loved that great little cameo that you had. It was so fun. It was clear that you were having a lot of fun with it. That whole segment was a ton of fun. I love Rachel True. So it was awesome to see her in that role. It was such a great little [piece] and Tananarive Due is just such an incredible writer.

She's a great writer and shout out to my boy, Malcolm Barrett, who played the newest member of my congregation.

Yes! Everyone was so fun in it. I had such a blast with it. And one of the things that I think is so fun about both Candyman and this preacher role, even though it was like a little cameo, something that I think they have in common is that the horror of them almost in a way is that they're just regular men, right? Or at least, by all appearances, they're just regular men. And that's something that can be almost more terrifying than like you guys spoke about—

Like a costume.

Right, exactly, like the original look of Candyman in the story. So my curiosity is that these are both pretty powerful characters, it's very clear. If we put them in a Coliseum of sorts, who's coming out on top?

Well, Reverend Pike uses the power of the mind and persuasion and Candyman gets right to the point. No pun intended. Just hook it, right. I mean obviously Candyman is going to win, but Reverend Pike, he'll try to form his own congregation. I guess we'll give strength to the line that Candyman is the whole damn hive. Right?

That is true. That is true. He's a one-man congregation in and of itself.

That's right. And most social packs are like that anyway.

Yeah. Maybe they team up. Maybe that's what actually happens.

There you go. Candyman needs a front person.

"Horror Noire" and "Behind the Monsters" are both available to stream on Shudder now.

Read this next: The 15 Best '90s Horror Movies Ranked

The post Tony Todd Still Thinks Candyman Is 'The Whole Damn Hive' and He's Right [Interview] appeared first on /Film.

(Welcome to ...And More, our no-frills, zero B.S. guide to when and where you can watch upcoming movies and shows, and everything else you could possibly stand to know.)

Look out for Sawtooth Jack, because "Dark Harvest" will soon be coming to a theater near you. It was first reported way back in 2007 that the horror novel would be adapted by New Regency, but after being placed in turnaround, the project has since moved to MGM. Written by Norman Partridge, the Bram Stoker Award-winning book was released in 2006 and Publisher's Weekly named it one of the "100 Best Novels" of that year. So, what do we know thus far about the movie adaptation of "Dark Harvest?"

Dark Harvest Release Date And Where To Watch It

"Dark Harvest" was initially set to release this fall, but thanks to the COVID-19 pandemic, its release date has since been pushed back to September 9, 2022. A date sometime in October might have made more sense for the Halloween-set tale, but I'm sure MGM has its reasons. If you're wondering how to watch "Dark Harvest" from the comfort of your own home, the answer might be a little complicated. Variety reported that Amazon bought MGM fairly recently, so it seems a safe bet that "Dark Harvest" will stream exclusively on Amazon Prime Video. However, much of the studio's back catalog is still streaming on other services and, according to Cnet, MGM also has a deal in place with ViacomCBS' Paramount+ that grants them access to new releases following the theatrical window. So, we'll have to see how all that shakes out next year.

What Is Dark Harvest About?

"Dark Harvest" takes place in a dead-end Midwestern town, where groups of teens attempt to take down a terrifying killer every Halloween. He goes by many names: Sawtooth Jack, October Boy, even Ol' Hacksaw Face. Regardless of what they call him, everyone knows he will rise from the cornfields armed with a butcher knife and despite the risk, they're willing to take their shot in "an annual rite of life and death" known as the Run. 

The film follows Richie Shepard, a guy desperate enough to face this monster in the hopes of repeating the success of his older brother, who won the year prior and escaped small town life. He will team up with Kelly Haines, who also dreams of life beyond the tiny town she's grown up in. Few plot details have been revealed, so there's no way to know how much the "Dark Harvest" movie will deviate from the source material. One thing that is different is the protagonist's name (it was Pete McCormick in the book.) It's also unclear if the movie will take place in 1963, like the novel does, or if a more modern setting will be chosen.

Dark Harvest Cast And Crew

Deadline reported that the main characters of "Dark Harvest," Richie Shepard and Kelly Haines, will be played by Casey Likes and E'myri Crutchfield, respectively. Likes is best known for originating the role of William Miller in the stage production of "Almost Famous." He will also portray Kiss icon Gene Simmons in the upcoming biopic, "Spinning Gold." Crutchfield joined the cast of "Fargo" in its fourth season and has also appeared in other shows, including "True Detective." Most recently, she can be seen in Amazon Prime's "Tell Me Your Secrets."

THR broke the news that "Dark Harvest" had added Jeremy Davies, Luke Kirby, and Elizabeth Reaser to the cast. Davies is an Emmy Award-winning actor whom "Lost" fans will remember as Daniel Faraday. He boasts an extensive resume in both film and television, having shown up in everything from "Saving Private Ryan" to "Hannibal" to "Arrow." Next up, he will appear in Scott Derrickson's horror movie "The Black Phone." "Twilight" fans will recognize Reaser, who has also been featured in shows such as "Grey's Anatomy" and "The Haunting of Hill House." She played former White House volunteer Kathleen Willey in Ryan Murphy's "Impeachment: American Crime Story," which recently aired its finale. Kirby has appeared in "The Good Fight" and the recent "Gossip Girl" reboot, among other series. He won an Emmy for his excellent portrayal of Lenny Bruce in "The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel."

David Slade will direct "Dark Harvest" and has been set to helm the film since it was announced in 2007. Slade has experience with horror, having directed the vampire movie "30 Days of Night." He also helmed the third "Twilight" film, "Eclipse," as well as the Emmy Award-winning "Black Mirror: Bandersnatch." Slade has directed a lot of television as well, including episodes of "Hannibal" and "American Gods." Michael Gilio, who penned the script for "Dark Harvest," will executive produce alongside Pamela Hirsch. The film will be produced by Matt Tolmach and David Manpearl via Matt Tolmach Productions.

Look out for this spooky Halloween tale next year!

Read this next: The 14 Best '80s Halloween Movies To Watch This Spooky Season

The post Dark Harvest: Release Date, Cast, and More appeared first on /Film.

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

Appends ".jpg" to files dragged and dropped onto the saved script's icon:

@echo on
for %%I in (%*) do ren %%I "%%~nI.jpg"
pause

From Microsoft's 'for' documentation:

• Use a single percent sign (%) to carry out the for command at the command prompt. Use double percent signs (%%) to carry out the for command within a batch file.
• You can use wildcard characters (* and ?) to specify a file set.
• %~nI Expands %I to a file name only.

Simple, but perhaps a trifle cavalier, without any sanity checks or filetype awareness. By leveraging exiftool, we can improve on things a bit:

@echo on
for %%I in (%*) do exiftool.exe "-filename<$filename.$filetypeextension" -r -ext . %%I
pause

• only processes files missing an extension
• appends correct file extension to supported file types
• handles files, directories, and subdirectories properly

H/T:

• Run command with drag and drop onto batch file
• Error "The syntax of the command is incorrect" when renaming a file
• Get filename in batch for loop

An interesting development in the indie and small games scene is that there tends to be teams that try to make games like the big guys, and often make odd decisions doing that. You have Spiders sketchy record making Bioware-likes, Frogwares making glitchy adventure games and action RPGs with lots of weird ideas taking notes from Telltale and Bethesda, the storm of battle royale and hero shooter knockoffs, and so much more. It’s a weird scene where ambition meets a lack of resources, and while it’s hard not to respect what gets accomplished, the result just tends to be very flawed.

Enter Hellbound, a kickstarted game that proudly advertises itself as a 90s FPS made thirty years later, made by a team in Argentina called Saibot Studios. You may remember them for the indie fighter The Black Heart and their Doorway adventure horror series. That selling point is…sort of true? It plays like a Quake style game, absolutely nailing the speed, bunny hopping, and strafing. The guns have good feedback, the enemies gib satisfyingly, and the story is a threadbare pile of swears where a Hell barbarian goes back to Hell when humanity asks him to and kills demons so much that it eventually revives his race or something, don’t worry about it, shoot monster. Fists, “shotgun” (more an assault rifle), triple shotgun that is just wonderful, a rapid fire weapon, rocket launcher with grenade alt fire, and Big Stick for Big Hits, yeah baby.

It is fun to play, but it is quite jank, and in particular, Unreal Engine 4 jank, making use of some very familiar elements common from the early 2010s. Hellbound doesn’t have any of the 90s aesthetics graphically, just in concept art (very dark age stuff), meaning what you’re left with are goofy looking 3D models that can move with a fun, rubbery style, but they’re always…off. There’s a weird gloss over a lot of models, and some animations are worse then others, and the good ones tend to have weird timing. It’s like the team wanted to make a Doom 2016 looking game but just did not have the money for it, despite the Unreal grant it nabbed.

It also doesn’t have the level design of a Doom or Quake. It’s closer to modern throwback shooters pre-Dusk, i.e. modern shooters with a more action focus over tactical that try using modern aesthetics that tend to clash with the goofy subject matter and tone. Shadow Warrior 2013 would be the best of this style of game, while everything else enters a much more awkward territory (Serious Sam 3, RotT 2013, Duke Nukem Forever, NecroVision, etc). There is certainly a charm to that, of course, especially with that one blood effect everyone uses that Hellbound also uses, but it definitely wasn’t the feel the developers were going for.

There’s also the fact that Hellbound feels weirdly bare, the game basically being a single episode long in terms of supplied levels. The weapons work due to how different they all are, but it is a surprisingly small amount for a game with so much effort behind it graphically. That said, you can also make out the team’s limits, like how the entire game is covered in a gross fog, most likely some post processing effect, and starts with a terrible FOV you can thankfully change in the options so you can actually see enemies around you. Even the score, which definitely fits the game, is surprisingly without track variety. It’s almost entirely fast guitar and drums with little in the way of making the tracks stick out from one another, the one exception being Zardonic’s Hell & Gore, which sounds like something that be right at home in a modern Doom game soundtrack. It’s a bit more reserved and sticks out against all the basic but effective metal.

Hellbound doesn’t feel entirely finished, and while there’s a bit more meat on the bone as it goes as levels get longer, it’s not much compared to the likes of ULTRAKILL, Nightmare Reaper, HROT, Project Warlock, and countless others at this point. It has no unique hook and a lack of content, resulting in a lukewarm reception on Steam, made almost comical by the dev team’s rep regularly making posts in the kickstarter updates with censored swears (which are also on the store page). Also, Hellgore, who makes the gores in Hell, says the F@!K word a lot.

It’s weird Hellbound is like this at all. Why not explore an old school graphical style? Why not keep costs down and use low fidelity to give you more leeway in the budget to make more stuff for the game? Why was there so much focus on the graphics being this ambitious when there was no way the ambition wouldn’t be met? The answer is simple: That’s what they wanted to do because it would be cool. The core team for this game was small, with like two or three guys doing the actual design and tech work. There’s passion here, and a real love for the classics which shows in how much the game nails in the fundamentals, which makes why its like this all the more baffling due to how the boomer shooter scene zigged where Saibot Studios zagged.

This is some strange stuff, but it’s interesting, a fun variant of South American jank that is lacking, awkward, yet still works with the simple and strong foundation. A bunch of nerds in Argentina wanted to make a big boy shoot game and so they did it, without having any of the resources to polish it, and darn it, it’s hard not to respect that gumption. They saw Dave Oshry strike out with Rise of the Triad 2013, and said to themselves “yeah, make it like that!” (fitting he gets a bust in the game in his honor).

When you loot enemies and containers, you find lots of crafting components. With enough skill, these components allow you to craft meals, ammunition, healing kits, grenades, and more. The grenades in particular are important because early in the game they're way more powerful than your weapons, and they allow you to survive tough fights until you can build up your character. Crafting requires special crafting stations, but you can find them all over the place, including in all towns.

For weapons and armor, you mostly only find them being sold by merchants, which means you have to sell the stuff you loot from enemies and containers to buy the stuff you need (which isn't my favorite way of gathering equipment). Characters can wear nine items, including power armor -- oops, a "servoshell" -- and they can equip two weapons. Weapons and armor have a level. You can upgrade weapons to increase their level (using crafting components and weapon manuals) but you can only improve your armor by buying better versions. You can also equip up to five relics, but most of them have pluses and minuses and aren't worth the trouble.

Knowing how to unclog a drain is an important life skill. But what’s even better than successfully unclogging a drain? Not having to do it in the first place. The problem is, many people tend to think of a drain as a way to get rid of things—whether or not our drains are equipped to handle them.

Read more...

Last year, I made a shopping list of everything that made me happy in 2020. This year I have been trying to be less of a consumer, so I only have three things that I would recommend as gifts, and each one helps to cultivate meaning and gratitude in my life.

The Moon Lists Workbooks
The Moon List workbook ($10) is an 18-month guided journal that I previously recommended. There is now a second volume, The Moon Lists Workbook 02 ($28), which is similar in format but with a new visual flow and different prompts to inspire you to reflect, expand and discover new insights about yourself. I write in both. My favorite prompts are the ones that ask me to make lists, like what would I like to move toward and away from, or when I list recent experiences through of each of my senses: sight, smells, tastes, sounds and touch. These workbooks help to push my inner life to the forefront of my mind.

Blessing Cards ($12)
Blessings cards are less like an oracle deck and more like a tool for setting positive intentions for your day. There are 210 two-inch cards, each with a different word. All the words serve as catalysts to help guide or create meaning for your day. Some of the words I’ve pulled recently are: Yielding, Synchronicity, Excellence, Delight, Creativity, Openness, Unknown and Trust. I like to draw two at a time which adds another dimension of meaning. These cards have only benefited my life. They inspire acts of gratitude, courage, closeness and help to break me out of rigid thinking.

Wall Calendars ($15)
I love wall calendars. I keep one right by my desk. I don’t use it to log daily tasks, so some of the days are always left empty. When I look over at it, it orients me in time and serves as a visual reminder of my life’s progress. I get blissful satisfaction when I cross off the day with a permanent black marker. I keep my old wall calendars and repurpose them to make collages and hand-bound books. My favorite time of year is getting to choose what theme my next year calendar will be. 2020 was the year of Alphonse Mucha, this year was The Reading Woman, and 2022 will be about Celestial Journeys. Calendars.com is the best place to find calendars based on format, category or artwork. If you buy a calendar, Paper Mate Flair Felt Tip Pens are a must for writing on them and for getting creative.

-- Claudia Dawson

Over time, a lot can happen to your home’s windows—both inside and outside—including scratches. If you happen to notice some scratches on the glass, you may not even be sure how they got there. (Unless you just saw a toddler reach for a pair of keys and go to town scribbling on a window. If so, it’s probably that.)

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For many long-running film franchises, it's become a thing now where the latest sequel and/or soft reboot often chooses to overlook previous installments, drawing a line between its narrative and the first or second movie and skipping over everything thereafter. "Terminator: Dark Fate" did it, as did the 2018 "Halloween" (and "Halloween H20," for that matter). They were talking about doing it with Neil Blomkamp's abortive "Alien" sequel, and there are older examples, too, like "Superman Returns," where the movie tried to pretend those other movies in the series didn't happen.

The 2016 "Ghostbusters," retroactively labeled "Ghostbusters: Answers the Call," was more of a hard reboot that started things over completely, and had actors from the original movie cameoing as different characters. Since "Ghostbusters: Afterlife" is returning to the continuity of the original 1984 film, it will ignore "Answer the Call." The question is, will it ignore "Ghostbusters II"?

In an interview with Uproxx, "Ghostbusters: Afterlife" director Jason Reitman responded to a question about why the Ectomobile — which Egon Spengler (Harold Ramis) brought to Oklahoma with him — no longer features the ghost holding up two fingers, as it did in "Ghostbusters II." Is it because they're scrubbing that lesser-regarded film from the record? Reitman replied:

"No, Ghostbusters II [is] definitely canon. There are references to Ghostbusters II in Afterlife. We meet Ray working at Ray's Occult. The toaster from Ghostbusters II is in the kitchen in the farmhouse. There's actually lots of lost Ghostbusters II details but nobody knows Ghostbusters II outside of Vigo the Carpathian and the Ghostbusters II logo. So there's this assumption that it is not canon but it is definitely canon."

The Reitman Legacy

Honestly, it's not that surprising to hear Reitman say that "Ghostbusters II" is canon, since his own father, Ivan Reitman, directed it. Both Reitmans were on hand in New York recently for the dedication of the Ivan Reitman Cinema, the alternate name of Alamo Drafthouse's new Lower Manhattan location.

Paul Feig directed "Answer the Call," but otherwise, the "Ghostbusters" series is a family affair, with Ivan Reitman directing the first two films and his son, Jason, the director of "Juno" and "Up in the Air," taking the reins of "Afterlife."

Reviews of "Afterlife" have been mixed-to-positive, about on par with the ones "Answer the Call" received half a decade ago. There was no shortage of controversy surrounding that film and its women-led cast, but at least it was trying something new. With "Afterlife," the most common criticism going around seems to be that it leans too hard on nostalgia for the original in a way that some find pandering and others endearing.

You can see it this weekend, complete with Muncher and mini Stay-Puft marshmallow men, and judge for yourself. "Ghostbusters: Afterlife" stars Mckenna Grace, Finn Wolfhard, Logan Kim, Carrie Coon, and Paul Rudd, with appearances by returning cast members Bill Murray, Dan Aykroyd, Ernie Hudson, Sigourney Weaver, and Annie Potts. The movie is in theaters now.

Read this next: Top 15 Best Natural Disaster Movies

The post Ghostbusters: Afterlife Director Jason Reitman Addresses Whether Ghostbusters II is Actually Canon appeared first on /Film.

Ethan Hawke is no stranger to horror films, with roles in iconic genre entries like "The Purge" and "Sinister" proving that he's a force to be reckoned with in that cinematic vein. Now, once again he teams up with producer Jason Blum and director Scott Derrickson ("Sinister") for "The Black Phone," based on the short story by Joe Hill ("NOS4A2," "Horns," "Locke & Key"). While "The Purge" sees the actor being tormented by masked assailants, "The Black Phone" will see Hawke this time become the masked villain himself, embodying the character of a child murderer known as "The Grabber."

In the film, the Grabber captures his latest victim-to-be, young Finney Shaw (Mason Thames). Finney finds himself locked in a room with a disconnected black phone ... one that allows the Grabber's previous victims to contact young Finney from beyond the grave. Apparently Hawke's performance as the Grabber was so successfully intimidating that co-star Mason Thames had difficulties not being scared on-set, as revealed in an interview with CBR.

He Wore The Mask! He Wore A Monster Mask

In the wide-ranging interview, Thames reveals that he genuinely found Hawke to be frightening. While he reiterates that Scott Derrickson "really knows how to make his actors feel safe," nonetheless "the vision he has, and Ethan as the Grabber is so terrifying." How terrifying, you ask? So much so that Thames himself had difficulties not being afraid of Hawke on-set. He explains:

"I really had to put myself in Finney's shoes, and really feel what it'd be like to be in this. It's terrifying. I don't know what I would do. I'd probably hide in the corner the entire time. But Finney has to go through a lot in this movie. It was really easy with Scott, and everybody, and Ethan's performance. It was really not too hard to get so scared when Ethan is in the mask ... It was really fun working on it."

If that's not a ringing endorsement of the effectiveness of Hawke's villainous performance, I don't know what is. One element of the Grabber's visage that Thames found particularly unsettling wasn't performative at all, however, but part of the costume.

No One Cared Who The Grabber Was Until He Put On The Mask

In the interview, Thames was asked about the Grabber's certain-to-become-iconic mask: a frightening wide-grinned face with devil horns. When asked if he was ready to see its prominence next year (most likely on Halloween), Thames replied:

"I never really thought about that! That'd be really cool. Tom Savini did amazing on that mask. I remember reading the script and just waiting. The first thing I wanted to see was the mask. Then I got on set, and then I saw it for the first time. It was in this big box, they unclipped it, they opened it like this giant suitcase, and it was just sitting there. I just stared at it. I loved it. I just want to take it, and steal it, and runoff. It's amazing how terrifying that mask is. Terrifying."

"The Black Phone" is surely shaping up to be a frightening outing, and any film that scared its own central performer has to pack a punch in theaters. The film initially premiered September 25th at Fantastic Fest, and premieres in the U.S. February 4th, 2022.

Read this next: The 20 Best 2000s Horror Movies Ranked

The post The Black Phone Star Promises That Ethan Hawke is 'Terrifying' appeared first on /Film.

Though "Cowboy Bebop" showrunner André Nemec promised in September that "we will never take the original anime away from the purists," some fans -- let's be clear here, overwhelmingly male fans -- have called foul on the new look sported by their favorite sex object, Faye Valentine. 

Unfortunately for them, the show commits the grave sin of giving the character (who, we should emphasize, is a bounty hunter in a space western) more practical clothing beyond the itsy-bitsy teenie-weenie male gaze threads she sported in the original Japanese "Cowboy Bebop" animated series. Her shorts, which previously threatened a labial wardrobe malfunction in every other frame, are now high-waisted -- no bare navel to be seen. Faye's once-bare shoulders now don outerwear that keeps her warm and collected on her space adventures. Apparently, this is unforgivable.

Speaking to Deadline, Pineda talks about the labor-intensive fight scenes she had to train for, and how that informed the costume in a perfectly logical way:

"It was my first time training for a part. I've always liked to workout, but this is not even in the same stratosphere. I started training in Los Angeles with the 87eleven, which is the John Wick stunt team, and that was just so intense. Then we joined Allan Poppleton, our head of stunts, who's incredible. We did rolls. We did sword fighting. We did fist and footwork. It was really rewarding and really intense, and after having gone through that, I have this whole new respect for people who do action film. Thank god for my stunt double, Jayde Rutene."Having gone through the training, it makes sense why we made adjustments to the costume. I think it was everyone's intention to keep the original costume, but with that original costume, you can't hide gels and knee pads. You can't have Faye be live-action and a fighter and doing all this incredible crazy stunt work and not have a little coverage. That's the primary reason why adjustments were made to the costume."

The Material May Change, But Unhinged Fanboys Remain The Same

In the twelfth session (episode) of the original animated "Cowboy Bebop" series, "Jupiter Jazz (Part 1)," Faye disappears for a bit, telling Gren:

"They say humans are social animals; they can't live alone. But you can live pretty well by yourself. I tell you ... instead of feeling alone in a group, it's better to have real solitude all by yourself." 

Scrolling through some of the vitriol actress Daniella Pineda has received for wearing ... *checks notes* ... a cropped jacket, it's easy to see why her character rarely wanted to deal with people at all. Pineda, however, opted for Faye's spitfire snark over isolation. In August, Pineda posted a snappy response to the trolls, informing them that Faye's original naughty costume was sadly "slurped up in [her] various crevices, never to be retrieved again." Speaking again to Deadline, the actress further stands her ground:

"It was definitely my first interaction with very, very vocal trolls. Social media gives access to pretty much anyone who wants to say anything. Although I feel like some people would be disheartened, I found a way to clap back. with that video that I gave, which was very cheeky and silly. Rather than stay quiet, which is usually what everybody wants you to do, I just felt so inclined to say something. I felt like that response was definitely in the spirit of Faye. Also I got Steve Blum's blessing, the voice of Spike, who backed me up and I was like, 'All right guys, I don't care what you say, if that guy backs me up, no one can say anything.'"

Long live the new Faye.

"Cowboy Bebop" is available now on Netflix.

Read this next: 15 Must-See Horror Anime Movies

The post Why Netflix's Cowboy Bebop Changed Faye Valentine's Costume appeared first on /Film.

Rockstar has released the first post-launch patch for GTA The Trilogy – The Definitive Edition. According to the changelog, this update fixes numerous bugs, glitches and issues in all three GTA games. Going into more details, Patch 1.02 fixes multiple instances of missing or misaligned collision. It also fixes multiple instances of holes in the … Continue reading GTA The Trilogy – The Definitive Edition Update 1.02 fixes numerous issues, full patch notes →

The post GTA The Trilogy – The Definitive Edition Update 1.02 fixes numerous issues, full patch notes appeared first on DSOGaming.