It was explained that U.S. District Court Judge Stefan Underhill granted summary judgment in favor of Miller and against the producers, Horror, Inc. Full details were not disclosed, but Miller is said to be retaining the Friday the 13th rights in the U.S. alone, which makes it complicated to use the title.
As for Jason Voorhees, his infamous mask wasn’t introduced until Friday the 13th Part III, which means Horror Inc. can use the character without Miller’s consent.
In fact, Bloody Disgusting just obtained a statement regarding the recent Friday the 13th court ruling from franchise producer Horror, Inc.:
“We are disappointed in the court’s ruling and disagree with its conclusion. We are considering our options including an appeal. In the meantime, the court was very clear that its ruling in favor of Mr. Miller is limited to the original screenplay in which Jason’s mother is the killer and that Mr. Miller’s termination notice did not purport to terminate the separate copyright in the iconic supernatural killer who wears a hockey mask. It also does not grant any rights to Mr. Miller that would enable him to use any element of the original screenplay outside of the United States.
“Following the guidelines set down by the Court’s ruling, we intend to aggressively explore many opportunities for new projects featuring settings and characters (including the hockey mask-wearing killer) not included in Mr. Miller’s screenplay, and in fact are currently in development on new projects that are consistent with the ruling which will be announced soon.”
This is all vague and extremely unclear to me. One thing we know is that Horror, Inc. will have all international rights. It’s very hard to understand the full ramifications of the ruling, but what we gather is that Horror, Inc. plans to bring Jason Voorhees and characters from the later Friday the 13th films to life in new projects either way.
The good news here is that Jason Voorhees will find a way to be resurrected, but it sounds like this is going to be a long road to resolution. We’ll keep you posted as new details surface, and with any news on Horror Inc.’s forthcoming Friday-related projects. Watch this spot.
[Updated Oct. 1 @ 10:32 am] Headline change to reflect new info.
[Update Oct. 1 11:53 am] An earlier version of this story speculated that Victor Miller would control rights in the title “Friday the 13th“. Horror, Inc. has reached out to us to confirm that Victor Miller has not been granted any rights in the name “Friday the 13th”.
red dead redemption 2 is the new octodad. can't wait to stop hearing about it already.
The second Red Dead Redemption 2 trailer is here, and it gives us an even closer look at the gameplay for the highly anticipated video game. It shows off the different types of missions and activities available, from bank heists to train robberies to open world exploration. The number of activities you can engage in seems to be limitless, and it's all against the backdrop of a stunning environment.
full disclosure: i havent read the article, just speaking from my own experience.
In which the man from the Emerald Isle introduces a new video series, Beer Talk Tuesdays, and in the inaugural installment tastes and tackles a new beer that’s washing up on the shores of Ireland.
It’s been no secret for quite some time that the biggest issue holding up the Friday the 13th franchise is a pending lawsuit filed by director Sean Cunningham and his Horror Inc. against Victor Miller, writer of the original film. We’ve been writing about the Sean Cunningham vs. Victor Miller lawsuit for a while now, but the reality is that none of us are legal experts. This has made the developing story a tough one for us to cover, because what the hell do we know? Thankfully, Friday the 13th: Part III star Larry “Shelly” Zerner recently broke down the whole thing for us. Why Zerner, you ask? Well, as it turns out, he’s now an entertainment lawyer.
In a series of tweets recently, Zerner made sense of the messy battle…
“I’ve seen a lot of people dragging Victor [Miller] online as if this is his fault. It’s not,” Zerner began. “The Copyright Act includes a provision that states that an author can terminate any transfer he or she has made after 35 years. Congress added this provision to allow creators (writers, songwriters, etc.) who sold their rights cheap to have a second chance. In the case of Victor Miller, he was originally paid about $9,500 for the original Friday the 13th script, which turned into 12 movies, a very successful video game and lots of Jason Voorhees merchandise. This franchise Victor helped create made hundreds of millions of $$$.”
Zerner continued, “But Victor was not entitled to any of that money. Victor did what the Copyright Act allows him to do, he sent a notice of termination to Sean [Cunningham], giving Sean two years notice of the termination (which would occur in June 2018). The way it usually works in these cases is that the producer and the terminating writer will then have the two year period to work out a deal on how the money will be split on future projects (the termination does not affect movies already completed).”
“But Sean and Victor would need to make a deal because the termination only affects the Friday the 13th U.S. rights. Because of the quirks of copyright law, even after termination, Sean would still own the rights outside the U.S. But instead of making a deal, Sean sued Victor, claiming that the agreement that Victor signed in 1979 is not terminable. And the fact is that this is a very new area of law, so there is not a lot of guidance for judges on who is right. Both sides have very capable lawyers who are arguing the case. One of the problems is that although both sides argued motions for summary judgment last October, the judge in the case still hasn’t ruled. This has really slowed things down.”
Now that we’ve brushed you up on all that, we’ve got a HUGE update tonight, via THR. The site reports, “In a potentially big decision, Friday the 13th screenwriter Victor Miller has prevailed in a legal battle that will help determine the future fate of the franchise.”
They continue…
“U.S. District Court Judge Stefan Underhill has now granted summary judgment in favor of Miller and against the producers. Unfortunately, his full opinion is under wraps at the moment so it’s impossible to fully analyze the implications of the determination both for the Friday the 13th franchise as well as other screenwriters who may have written works in the early 1980s and may now have hopes of clawing back rights from producers. The decision has been pending for almost a year now, and the uncertainty over ownership has reportedly interfered with new sequels being made as well as derivative works like video games.”
“Miller’s victory also holds the prospect that he will control rights inside the United States while producers control rights outside the domestic market where termination recapture isn’t applied. There also could be fussing over trademarks as well as the character of “Jason.” According to the producers, Miller created a “Jason” character who died as a young boy while it was sequels that presented “Jason” as a living adult monster.”
Once again, our man Larry Zerner is here to make things a bit more clear. He tweeted tonight, “Victor Miller wins round one of the Friday the 13th lawsuit! Sean will certainly appeal but this could put pressure on Sean to settle.”
For now, this is very much still a developing story. But for better or worse, things are finally happening on the Friday the 13th front. And we hope to have more real soon.
Victor Miller wins round one of the Friday the 13th lawsuit! Sean will certainly appeal but this could put pressure on Sean to settle. https://t.co/Xhtp5ZRH00
Here’s Tom Hanks as Mr. Rogers in Marielle Heller’s untitled Fred Rogers movie. There’s not much else to say, but it seemed like the kind of light, cheery content we could all use today.
Seth Rogen and Evan Goldberg, the duo behind AMC’s “Preacher,” are bringing another comic series to the small screen with “The Boys,” based on the comics by Garth Ennis (“Preacher”) and Darick Robertson. Rogen shared the first poster art for the upcoming Amazon Prime series today, which should look mighty familiar to fans of the comic series.
“I’m thrilled to have been a part of bringing another one of my favorite comics to life. I think you will dig The Boys,” Rogen tweeted this afternoon.
Rogen and Goldberg will be directing the pilot, written by Eric Kripke.
“The Boys is set in a world where superheroes embrace the darker side of their massive celebrity and fame. It revolves around a group of vigilantes known informally as “the boys,” who set out to take down corrupt superheroes with no more than blue-collar grit and a willingness to fight dirty.”
Elisabeth Shue, Karl Urban, Jennifer Esposito, Jack Quaid, Colby Minifie, Jess Salgueiro, Brittany Allen and Bruce Novakowski are among the stars of the Amazon series.
The series comes from “Supernatural” creator and “Timeless” co-creator Eric Kripke, Goldberg and Rogen, and Sony Pictures TV.
Arcade1Up’s 3/4 sized arcade cabinets look stunning, include multiple games, and are a steal at $300, especially since they were supposed to cost $400, according to the original announcement. They’ve been mostly out of stock at Walmart for the last few months, but three of the five are available to preorder once…
Knobby and fatty, with protruding discs of marrow, oxtails turn off a good many home cooks before they even get a second look. But step right up, your new favorite fall braised dish is here.
"Texas rolls a nat 20 on a dispel magic check, defeats the wizard and investigates the item drop, finding a really heartfelt, handwritten congratulation note."
lol
Will Bill Snyder dig into his bag of alchemy for another purple spell in Manhattan?
As Gogol Bordello’s unofficial anthem of the wildcats espouses, when everyone starts wearing purple, it’s just a matter of time until all your sanity and wits will vanish. A trip to Manhattan carries with it a curse of unending apurplectic frustration. As Longhorn fans Shop-Vac hot takes and purple prose through our eyeballs after three straight wins, we are continuously reminded of the stark wasteland Manhattan has been for us, sitting in a purple haze 3 hours from Nowhere. As Herman noted in his press conference, we haven’t won there since the Great Depression and Caden Sterns was yet but a twinkle in his great grandfather’s eye. Back then everyone lived in Hoovervilles and the Oklahoma Drill was created just to divvy up rations. Bill Snyder had only coached K-State for a decade. In short, it’s been awhile. And now Snyder, the chief artist of the Purple Nurple, has us right where he wants us, again.
Given the purple patch UT finds itself in, and with the Red River Rivalry in two weeks, this has all the earmarks of a classic trap game -- not to be confused with the classic tarp games @ Baylor -- and Albus Snyderdore is lying in wait. Billy Wonka and the JuCo factory is never a golden ticket to success for the Horns. Snyder’s cottage in Carriage Cove, Daytona Beach is decorated with tasteful floral patterns and the desecrated scalps of Shane Buechele, Tyrone Swoopes, Case McCoy, Garrett Gilbert (5 INTs!), and Jevan Snead (lulz). And those are just the ones that lost in Manhattan. Our last win in Manhattan came via the Chris Simms/BJ Johnson connection (not a sex act), a 4th quarter field goal from Dusty Mangum (considered a ‘lewd and indecent’ act if performed vs Michigan), a back breaking Joe Tapenade sack, and a Marcus Tubbs blocked kick. One of those players is not actually real, but does go great on a muffaletta sandwich. My point is, it was a long time ago and Longhorns of the younger generation literally don’t know what it feels like to win in La Pequeña Manzana.
And yet, there is hope Longhorn fans. Tom Herman is 1-0 vs Bill Snyder and in case you didn’t know yet, 1-0 is kinda TH’s thing. #Branding aside, if the Longhorns can manage not to John Steinbeck our puppies to death, we have a true opportunity to exorcise yet another one-eyed, one-horned, flying purple football demon this season. If we can survive both TCU & K-State unscathed, I’m willing to give us credit for both Indigo and Violet in the Texas ROY G BIV 12, equal opportunity revenge tour.
Hook ‘em.
Better Know A Chinstrap
Bill Snyder has always been an innovator. Some argue he invented the zone read. He invented the fullback-cum-quarterback. But what he is doing with Riddell, is truly revolutionary. While the details are proprietary and guarded with far greater urgency than his Purple Boys can provide either of his QBs this year, we know that it involves growing a part of the helmet directly into the specimen — specifically the chinstrap. Exhibit A:
Better Know A Roster
Daron Bowles (R-Jr, DB) - I thought we made this clear a few weeks ago against USC -- you can’t just change a letter and try to bring back your guys, or we’ll unleash Bolt McCoy.
Jhet Burkhart (Fr, LB) - Jhet Burkhart is one of the players in the chin strap graphic above. One of the Caucasian ones!
Harrison Creed (R-Fr, OL) - For some reason when it’s Snyderville, I picture more of a set of 15 core doctrines laid out in the “Harrison Creed” -- even with my core instincts always leaning more Rocky/90s alternative references. It’ll Take You Higher, either way.
Jack Blumer (Fr, P) - Recruited as a QB, then Snyder Snydered him into being a punter. Leg is still developing...guess you could call him a late...developer.
Eric Gallon II (R-Jr, LB) - Erik “2 Gallon” just really won’t splurge for that 10-Gallon hat.
Mason Barta (R-Fr, FB) - This literally sounds like the way Bill Snyder has built a program in the middle of the college football hinterlands -- little beg, little steal, little Barta.
Blaise Gammon (Jr, TE) - We will never let a Blaise, Gunnar, Lynx, Jace or otherwise go without taking a moment to shame their parents. Do better, parents.
Spencer Misko (R-Fr, TE) - Misko actually commutes into Manhattan from nearby Bushwick, Kansas where he curates artisinal firewood in his woodland studio.
Around the World
Lubbcok, TX
This Saturday, it's tortilla time.
Students, make sure to get to the @texastechfb game early to claim your Tortilla Towel!
Freshman sensation Rondale Moore becomes one of two freshman since 2000 with 30+ receptions and 5+ total touchdowns in his first four games. The other? Michael Crabtree. I’m sure neither of these guys have or will ever cause a sleepless night for the Longhorn faithful.
I’ll tell you what. If nothing else, the Sooners do a good job supporting the troops. They stood at attention (with two deep safeties against a triple-option) and allowed Army to have 75% Time of Possession!
Manhattan, KS
Bill Snyder is embarrassed to coach a team that “can’t get 6 inches.” He continued “I’m 126, and I’ve got at least double that here for ya” before grabbing near the zipper region of his khakis.
Tale of the Tape: The Manhattans
Predictions
VY Pump Fake - Texas rolls a nat 20 on a dispel magic check, defeats the wizard and investigates the item drop, finding a really heartfelt, handwritten congratulation note.
Kyle Carpenter - If you take a Benjamin Button approach to this it works: Tom Herman is Olenna Tyrell handing young Joffrey Bill-ratheon a cup of wine to chase down some dry pigeon pie. Drink it up Bill...it’s Purple Wedding time. 42-14.
Parting Shot
K-State kicker Blake Lynch is 5'5". His holder is 6'1".
After playing Michael Myers in Halloween, Nick Castle made his mark as a director with space opera The Last Starfighter, released into theaters in 1984. Lance Guest starred as a teenager recruited by an alien defense force to fight in an interstellar war, and though the film may have found its audience these past 30 years, it wasn’t much of a hit when it was released.
As a result, a planned toy line from Galoob got the ax back in 1984. The unreleased toys had been teased inside the pages of toy catalogues at the time, and all these years later, website Plaid Stallions has managed to track down those original Last Starfighter prototype toys!
“This past week I got one of those emails that I just absolutely live for and that is from the owner of the hand painted set of prototype figures for the Last Star Fighter,” the site’s owner wrote in an article over the weekend, relaying the story of how the owner managed to get his hands on the extremely rare toy prototypes. You can read the whole story over on the site.
Deep learning technology, which lets you convincingly map someone’s face onto the face of any performer in any film, has some troubling consequences to say the least. But, where some see an opportunity for abuse, others see an opportunity for dumb, harmless fun centered around Hollywood’s very own walking meme,…
lineup including nine inch nails, alice in chains, godsmack, deftones, limp bizkit, ICE FUCKING CUBE, five finger death punch, breaking benjamin and shinedown...
wat
This year's Louder Than Life festival, which was scheduled to take place September 28-30 at Champions Park in Lousville, Kentucky, has been canceled.
According to the Courier Journal, a combination of heavy rain and around 25,000 fans during during Saturday's Bourbon & Beyond festival turned areas of the River Road park into mud pits that were ankle-deep in spots. The city declared the park unsafe and Sunday, the second day of Bourbon & Beyond, was canceled. Both Bourbon & Beyond and Louder Than Life are produced by Danny Wimmer Presents.
Earlier today, Danny Wimmer Presents released the following statement:
"Dear Louder Than Life fans,
"It is with deep regret that we inform you that this weekend's Louder Than Life festival has been canceled due to unsafe conditions resulting from ongoing rain and flooding at the festival site — Champions Park. After carefully inspecting the grounds and infrastructure this evening, the City and we have determined that it is no longer possible to make the festival site safe in time for this weekend.
"We appreciate the outpouring of support from our fans, the numerous offers to come out and help, and the herculean efforts of the City of Louisville in trying to make the festival happen. The one thing we will never sacrifice is the safety of our fans, bands, staff and patrons.
"Before making the decision to cancel the festival, we looked at every option, from moving the event to another location to breaking the event up into smaller events in various venues. Unfortunately, it's not logistically possible, and the weather is just not cooperating. It is not safe to attempt to move equipment, and replacement equipment is not available.
"We are so proud of this year's festival experience that included incredible music, a showcase for Louisville's great food scene, and of course an unparalleled offering of Kentucky bourbon, and more. We're so disappointed to not get the chance to share all of this with you. This year's Louder Than Life was going to be the momentous experience you all deserve.
"We will be back next year even bigger and better, and look forward to continuing our relationship with our incredible fans and this great city.
"As a result of this cancelation, DWP will be offering full refunds for all ticket, official hotel and camping package purchases.
"For those who purchased via Front Gate Tickets via internet or phone, orders will be processed automatically. Please allow up to 3 weeks for charges to be processed.
"For any further questions or assistance, please email info@dwpresents.com."
The fifth installment of the Louder Than Life was scheduled to feature a wide range of music artists, including NINE INCH NAILS, ALICE IN CHAINS, GODSMACK, DEFTONES, LIMP BIZKIT, ICE CUBE, FIVE FINGER DEATH PUNCH, BREAKING BENJAMIN, SHINEDOWN and many more acts on three stages, along with award-winning bourbons, whiskey, spirits, craft beer, and the best food Louisville has to offer.
Dear Louder Than Life fans,
It is with deep regret that we inform you that this weekend’s Louder Than Life festival has...
Mr. Systrom, Instagram’s chief executive, and Mr. Krieger, the chief technical officer, notified Instagram’s leadership team and Facebook on Monday of their decision to leave, said people with direct knowledge of the matter, who spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to discuss the matter publicly.
In a press release, the pair explained their decision a little:
We’re planning on taking some time off to explore our curiosity and creativity again. Building new things requires that we step back, understand what inspires us and match that with what the world needs; that’s what we plan to do.
Facebook released a statement from CEO Mark Zuckerberg on Twitter (for some weird reason):
Kevin and Mike are extraordinary product leaders and Instagram reflects their combined creative talents. I’ve learned a lot working with them for the past six years and have really enjoyed it. I wish them all the best and I’m looking forward to seeing what they build next.
Sarah Frier’s piece at Bloomberg suggests the pair left because Zuckerberg and the mothership were meddling more and more with Instagram:
Kevin Systrom and Mike Krieger, who have been at the company since Instagram’s acquisition by Facebook in 2012, had been able to keep the brand and product independent while relying on Facebook’s infrastructure and resources to grow. Lately, they were frustrated with an uptick in day-to-day involvement by Zuckerberg, who has become more reliant on Instagram in planning for Facebook’s future, said the people, who asked not to be identified sharing internal details.
Without the founders around, Instagram is likely to become more tightly integrated with Facebook, making it more of a product division within the larger company than an independent operation, the people said.
For years, Systrom and Krieger were able to amicably resist certain Facebook product initiatives that they felt went against their vision, while leaning on Facebook for resources, infrastructure and engineering talent. A new leader may not be able to keep the same balance, or may be more willing to make changes that help the overall company at the expense of some of Instagram’s unique qualities.
Instagram is my favorite app by a mile — it eclipsed Twitter some time ago in that category — and might be the best mobile-native app ever. It is also, I believe, the future of Facebook Inc., a better product with a more favorable trajectory than the sprawling (and now heavily tainted) main FB service. I think Facebook would be doing Instagram and its users a real disservice if they folded it into the mothership instead of giving Instagram room to be the best service it can be on its own terms. This is a strangely conservative move on Zuckerberg’s part, an optimization where a higher degree of freedom and experimentation is called for. I guess we’ll see how this plays out.
This is the context for whatever dispute drove Systrom and Krieger’s resignation: not only do they not actually control their own company (because they don’t control monetization), they also aren’t essential to solving the biggest issue facing their product. Instagram Stories monetization is ultimately Facebook’s problem, and in case it wasn’t clear before, it is now obvious that Facebook will provide the solution.
My take is still that FB shouldn’t lean so heavily on Instagram for monetization. Even after many years, the service still has some growth and evolving to do to develop into the heir apparent Zuckerberg & his executive team is looking for. (thx, david)
initially shared because of the baby kangaroo, but then also the dogs herding sheep, but then also that raccoon.
If you need some positivity in your newsfeed today, here’s Bradley the baby kangaroo practicing his first hops at a kangaroo sanctuary in Australia😊 pic.twitter.com/OQUfld9jzZ
My nephew works in the North Sea on a wind farm project he sent me this today -
‘Had this hawk chasing this bird around a boat yesterday. The hawk flew into the window and knocked it’s self out, the bird it was chasing then landed on the hawk. #lad ‘ pic.twitter.com/zJnrjz5Tmz
— everybird: charity t-shirts now available (@_everybird_) September 12, 2018
And lo did the ancient prophecies foretell the coming of the Chosen One, he with a giant spike on his head who will bring balance to all belugakind. https://t.co/ziv0MmH2F6
Ticketmaster has not issued any public comment, but in a statement to CBC, said that “as the world’s leading ticketing platform, representing thousands of teams, artists and venues, we believe it is our job to offer a marketplace that provides a safe and fair place for fans to shop, buy and sell tickets in both the primary and secondary markets.”
Orcas and beluga whales are among the marine animals caught up in a shadowy trade in which individual cetaceans – often caught illegally – sell for millions of dollars, they say.
Marine parks and aquariums are opening monthly in China, with more than 36 large-scale projects set to launch in the coming two years. This comes as many live animal shows in the United States and Europe are being scrapped due to widespread opposition.
There’s an old joke about the Velvet Underground: not many people ever bought one of their albums, but everyone who did immediately started their own band.
I always want to make a parallel between that and anybody who ever worked on a BioShock game. It sometimes seems like everyone who was even tangentially involved with the production of at least one of the BioShocks, up and including the caterers, went on to create an experimental indie game. Question Games, in particular, was co-founded by Jordan Thomas, a designer on BioShock, the creative director of BioShock 2, and the lead writer on BioShock Infinite. Its last game was 2015’s The Magic Circle, a critically if not financially successful game about being trapped in development hell.
Question Games’s new project is The Blackout Club, which has been in production using the Unreal Engine for around two years. It’s been on my radar for a while, if only because it’s a co-op horror game for up to four players. For a while now, cooperative horror has been one of those games-design red herrings, like fun escort missions or the forced stealth level. In theory, you need a sense of isolation before horror can really work in a video game, which means doing it in a co-op game is generally thought to be difficult, if not impossible.
Question Games was aware of that challenge going in. “Part of the fun about this game is being scared with friends,” Michael Kelly told me. Kelly’s a producer on Blackout Club, and another veteran of the BioShock series; he was a producer on BioShock 2 and Infinite. “We’re trying to appeal to people who are like me, where you don’t necessarily want to play a spooky game by yourself and get scared. The way we’ve tackled it is [that] a lot of the dynamic challenges of the game are about unpredictability. We have an enemy called the Shape which you can’t see unless your character closes their eyes, which means that you need to stick together and use that teamwork. One person can be the lookout while someone else is doing something.
“Because we worked on BioShock, because we’ve been on horror games in the past, we wanted to try and do horror that wasn’t blood in your face, that isn’t just gore for gore’s sake. We wanted to do something that was a little more unsettling. We love ‘Twin Peaks’ and things like that, which are just a little uncanny.”
Kelly’s elevator pitch for The Blackout Club is that it’s “Left 4 Dead meets ‘Stranger Things,’” based on a story that Thomas has been working on for around ten years. It’s set in the 2000s, in a small town in Virginia that’s located in a radio quiet zone; nobody has cable TV or Internet access, and even local phone calls can be unreliable. The only way to get information out is to physically carry it out.
Lately, people in town have developed a habit of waking up in strange places, such as in the woods or on train tracks, covered in mud or scratches with no memory of what they did the night before. Worse, the town’s adults don’t think there’s anything weird about it if they remember it at all. Only the local teenagers seem to realize this is happening, or that it’s a problem.
Events come to a head when one of the local kids, Isabella (Ashly Burch, who’s just going to be in every game from now on), disappears, right as she was about to steal a car and drive out of town with a drive full of evidence.
The night leading up to Isabella’s disappearance forms the game’s tutorial level, and I got to play it at PAX. It’s an effective sequence, all the more so because it’s not playing on jump scares at all, but instead on a slowly growing sense of unease and unreality. There’s a particular moment—no spoilers here, but you’ll know it when you see it—that hasn’t left me for a couple of weeks now, where an ordinary conversation turns into a warning bell. It’s easily one of the most effective scares I’ve seen in a recent video game.
In the rest of the game, you and your friends team up to search for Isabelle and find out what’s going on in your town, as members of the titular Blackout Club. There’s a certain twisted children’s-book feel to the whole thing, where you create a character and arm him or her in a small corrugated-steel shack, like some post-apocalyptic treehouse hideout.
Characters in The Blackout Club are all 13- to 15-year-old teenagers, and more importantly, a lot of the enemies in the game are other townspeople who are suffering through one of the blackouts. Even if you weren’t playing as a kid, there’s a good chance you’re fighting against a friend or a family member. As such, the game places a heavy focus on stealth and evasion, without any lethal defensive options.
Right now, you can equip a character with one of three “hero items,” including a taser or a crossbow loaded with tranquilizer darts, and take a special tarot card that gives you a passive buff, such as the ability to sprint for longer periods of time. There are a number of consumable items scattered throughout the world that you can pick up and deploy, such as dart traps, bandages, chocolate bars, or foam grenades.
The biggest problem you’re up against, however, is the Shape. You can only see it when your character closes their eyes (keyed to the Y button on an Xbox controller for the PAX demo), and even then, as a glowing red outline like it’s the only warm object on a thermal scan. If the Shape reaches you, your character gets dragged off to an unknown fate, and it’s almost always waiting in the wings somewhere. You can sometimes reveal it by using foam grenades, so it’s covered in suds or it’s leaving tracks in a puddle, but you can’t stop or slow it at this point. You have to run or hide, and you don’t know how effective either is unless you close your eyes and shut out everything else in the world.
The closed-eyes mechanic adds a lot to the game, as there are a lot of clues and details you can only see, paradoxically, when your character’s eyes are shut. Sometimes, it’s just flavor text; other times, it’s puzzle clues. Either way, it sets up this bizarre sort of alternate reality, where what you can’t see is just as important, if not more, than what you can.
The Blackout Club is currently in closed beta. Question Games handed out codes for the game to anybody who got a chance to play it at PAX, but it’s under an NDA for the next few weeks. (I’m also batting a perfect zero on never managing to play while the servers are actually up.) Once the beta opens up, though, I’m expecting this game to blow up in a big way. It’s sitting at the confluence point of a couple of different popular styles of horror, and it’s working on an atmosphere of slowly building dread, rather than throwing blood and jump scares all over the place. In fact, I respect the hell out of it entirely because The Blackout Club isn’t really built for the streamer horror audience; nothing will torpedo this game’s mood faster than someone mugging it up in the corner.
We cannot wait for you to see Heavy Trip this Halloween season, a black metal comedy being released by Bloody Disgusting and Doppelgänger Releasing next month. Late-night theatrical showings will be taking place in top markets on October 5, 2018, with a nationwide VOD release set for October 12, 2018. But this is one you’ll want to see with a crowd!
Ahead of the wide release, there will be a sneak preview screening of Heavy Trip in LA on Tuesday, September 25, taking place at the Ahrya Fine Arts Movie theater at 7pm. Directors Jukka Vidgren and Juuso Laatio will be on hand at the screening, which you can RSVP to through Event Brite and/or Facebook. We hope to see you there!
In the vein of Airheads – if the band were a young Dethklok from “Metalocalypse” – the Finnish comedy is about a small-town Finnish heavy metal band that blasts its way out of the quiet countryside for a big debut gig in Norway.
“Turo (Johannes Holopainen) is stuck in a small village in the Finnish countryside where his greatest passion is being the lead vocalist for the amateur metal band Impaled Rektum. The only problem is that he and his fellow headbangers have practiced for 12 years without playing a single gig. But that’s all about to change when the guys meet the promoter of a huge heavy metal music festival in Norway and decide it’s now or never. Hitting the road in a stolen van with a corpse, a coffin, and a new drummer from a local mental hospital in tow, Impaled Rektum travels across Scandinavia to make their dreams a reality.”
Helmed by first-time feature filmmakers Juuso Laatio and Jukka Vidgren, Heavy Trip is the first title scheduled for release under the new distribution deal between Doppelgänger Releasing—the genre label of Music Box Films—and Bloody Disgusting.
Here are the first theatrical dates, with more on the horizon:
– Los Angeles (Laemmle Music Hall Beverly Hills): October 5
– Austin (Alamo Drafthouse): October 5
– Chicago (Music Box Theater): October 5
Birth.Movies.Death’s Marisa Mirabal gave the horns of approval, “Heavy Trip solidifies its place among other beloved metal genre films by summoning a dark comedy that even those who aren’t familiar with Pantera, Children of Bodom, or Uruguayan grindcore can throw their horns up and enjoy.”
“Wail loud, scream proud and support this kooky exploratory import that’s worth one hell of a night with rocksteady friends, horns in the air, until the final credits roll,” added Slashfilm’s Matt Donato.
“Part let’s-get-it-together band saga and part road movie, the story arc is awfully familiar, but that doesn’t stop it being a rollicking romp,” The Hollywood Reporter declared.
Daily Dead‘s Heather Wixson writes, “Heavy Metal plays out like a mix of Airheads meets Little Miss Sunshine and it just left me with a big, goofy grin once it was over,” while Morbidly Beautiful calls it “pure cinematic joy.”
The Daily Grindhouse declared it “the best rock and roll film in at least a decade.”
didn't this already happen before? like, in the mid-nineties? i thought everyone just "secretly" knew that TM and scalpers were in cahoots. i thought that was the whole deal? this is news in 2018?
Recognizing, at long last, that their various differences shouldn’t get in the way of the shared practices that bind them so beautifully together—i.e., inflating concert prices to fuck the rest of us over when we just want to see Bruno Goddamn Mars—Ticketmaster has now been accused of entering into tacit partnerships…
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