A sort of reboot/sequel, The Grudge is directed and written by Nicolas Pesce, who has created a buzz on the horror scene with his first two features, The Eyes of My Mother (2016) and Piercing (2018). Pesce’s take on The Grudge is the first of the movies to be set in America — upstate New York, to be exact, and while it takes place in 2004 (the same year as the first American film), it goes back and forth in time as it focuses on three family units that all come into contact with the title terror....

First deployed in the early 20th century, rotoscoping is an animation technique in which artists paint over live-action footage to make the movement of animated characters appear more realistic. Deployed strategically and sparingly in films like Cinderella and Mary Poppins, director Richard Linklater revolutionized the concept in the modern era with fully digital rotoscoped feature films like Waking Life in 2001 and A Scanner Darkly in 2006. Per Prime Video, Undone is first TV series to fully utilize the technique, so naturally you’d want to ask about it when stars Rosa Salazar, Angelique Cabral, Constance Marie; creator Kate Purdy; and director Hisko Hulsings sit down at Den of Geek video studio during SXSW to discuss the upcoming second season of the show....

For those who don’t know, the Nemesis System is a unique mechanic that essentially relies on a military-like hierarchy of NPCs that can remember player actions. That system serves the plots of the Shadow games, but it’s best known for enhancing the thrill of those games’ open-world encounters by introducing the possibility that even the lowliest grunt could eventually become a “boss” who remembers their previous battle against you. Unfortunately, Warner Bros....

Judging by the new trailer for the holiday epic, Spielberg and 20th Century Studios think they have a blockbuster on their hands. Relying on much of the same visual iconography as seen in Robert Wise’s original West Side Story adaptation from 60 years ago, Spielberg is leaning into the nostalgia older generations likely have for this classic tale of love, tragedy, and Romeo and Juliet melodrama in mid-20th century Manhattan....

In Black Widow, we catch up with Natasha on the run from the US government and reliant on a host of Russian connections from her past – spies and assassins she can only trust in varying degrees – to finally complete a mission she started a long time ago. The stakes are high but the peril is low because we know that Natasha makes it through the events of the film alive and in one piece, but it’s still a hugely effective action blockbuster that feels a bit more brutal than most MCU efforts....

Microsoft made the announcement on Twitter and in a blog post this morning: Players will also be able to pay for the next-gen console in 24 monthly installments through an Xbox All Access subscription, which will also grant you access to 24 months of Xbox Game Pass Ultimate (now including EA Play) for $34.99 a month. First unveiled during the 2019 Game Awards, the Xbox Series X is touted as Microsoft’s most powerful console to date....

Nonetheless, it’s still good to be back in those old familiar places, as well as to have an ever expanding list of options to discover on streaming. Compared to last year, 2021 feels like a sunny balm, particularly now that the heaviest hitters and biggest surprises of July and the dog days of summer have landed. It’s why we typically save our “mid-year” ranking for that deep breath between the end of summer escapism and the awards season push that begins in September....

In addition to the various stage and book adaptations Baum’s Oz has inspired — we’d be remiss not to mention Gregory Maguire’s Wicked and the subsequent beloved musical adaptation — The Wizard of Oz has been a staple of cinema (and, later, TV) history from the form’s very inception. We’re taking some time to look back at some of the on-screen Oz incarnations that have defined the story’s legacy and the legacy of film and television....

Even though Allen didn’t direct all of The Poseidon Adventure (he only handled the disaster scenes, while Ronald Neame dealt with the talky bits), Allen’s larger-than-life personality, elaborately woven hair and reputation as a producer soon established him as cinema’s “master of disaster” – and the results were both critically and financial smashes. Then along came 1978’s The Swarm, and Allen’s fortunes took a bit of a nose-dive. Where The Poseidon Adventure and The Towering Inferno made fortunes, The Swarm lost money, taking less than half of its $21m budget....

Granted, back in the ‘80s, we were happy if a game just kind of looked like its box art. While the NES is still beloved for the massive steps forward it took from earlier consoles, and for introducing the world to the likes of Super Mario Bros., Metroid, and The Legend of Zelda, it’s also known for a large library that varied widely in terms of visual quality. There are reasons why you might not think of the NES when you think of the absolute best graphics gaming has ever offered....

Yes, while so many of us spent our years with the Game Boy line playing classics like Tetris and Pokémon, those who ventured off the beaten path may have discovered a few oddities that defied logic. Whether those games got you through long car rides and waiting rooms is something only you can answer. What I can tell you is that anyone who played some of the wildest and weirdest Game Boy games likely never forgot them....

This article is brought to you by Warner Archive. As we once again enter the Halloween season, there are more services than ever that cater to scary season programming. In fact, there are almost too many macabre programming blocks to choose from. While there are many available streams out there—and a true horror savant will utilize multiple services to consumer as much content as possible—the ever-growing Warner Archive offers up a robust lineup of material....

Affleck and Mara play a couple who live in a small, slightly ramshackle one-story house on a flat plot of land somewhere in Texas. We never even find out their names (Affleck’s character is listed as “C” in the credits while Mara’s is “M”), but we do get a few tantalizing pieces of their life together: C is a musician, and they seem to enjoy a relatively blissful existence, even though there are tensions under the surface about future plans, including moving....

Agents of SHIELD Season 5 Episode 5 When Marvel’s Agents of SHIELD premiered for its fifth season, you could hear fandom crying, “Hey, were is Fitz?!” After all, all of the agents, including Fitz’s beloved Simmons, were shunted into the far future to face down a dystopian Kree nightmare. But Fitz’s absence was obvious and palpable and you just knew there was going to be one hell of an explanation to exactly where Fitz was while his friends struggled to survive against Kree slave masters and a creepy blue chick with deadly balls....

Altered Carbon Episode 2 With more details pouring in about the seedier aspects of life in Bay City and the shadier corners of Bancroft’s existence, Altered Carbon has taken a darker turn without dimming the neon lights. Ortega is also rounded out as a character in this installment, but she’s not without a dark side either. As the investigation commences, we get more questions than answers, but the deepening picture of the characters and their surroundings makes this a successful follow-up to an excellent premiere....

Altered Carbon Episode 9 With a show like Altered Carbon, which centers itself around the concept of being able to switch bodies as necessary, playing with misdirection and mistaken identity is a no-brainer. In “Rage in Heaven,” the use of sleeves to deceive is both demoralizing and inspiring, showing that anyone can use the technology to their advantage. The caper style antics are both fun and dangerous, but the reminder of the violence and degradation that’s at the core of Head in the Clouds establishment (and by extension Reileen herself) is chilling....

April 1 sees the arrival of some sci-fi goodness, including Inception and Minority Report. Another sci-fi hit arrives later in the month with Arrival dropping on April 28. April 1A Hologram For The King (2016)Anna Karenina (2012)Art of Falling in Love (2019) (UP Faith & Family)A Simple Plan (1998)Because I Said So (2007)Bob Roberts (1992)Brüno (2009)Captain Kronos: Vampire Hunter (1974)Chato’s Land (1972)Cheech & Chong’s Still Smokin’ (1983)Cohen And Tate (1989)Devil In A Blue Dress (1995)Did You Hear About The Morgans?...

Presumably writer-director Francis Lee wishes to underscore the solitude of Anning’s work; yet it’s not clear if the filmmaker is aware that this is by far the most compelling aspect of the movie. The real-life Mary Anning was a pioneer in the burgeoning field of paleontology in the 19th century: a woman who made significant scientific advancements in our understanding of Jurassic marine life. Below the cliffs of Dorset and along the English Channel, she discovered fossils that identified the ichthyosaur and informed our understanding of the plesiosaur....

Now Scholastic is gearing up for the release of the second Animorphs graphic novel (adapting The Vistor book) and we’ve got an exclusive first look at not only the cover but four interior pages as well! First up is the cover. Right off the bat we’ve got the famous cat morph from the original novel’s cover adapted to the top banner of this graphic novel. Next up are the interior pages of the graphic novel and these are, much like the first graphic novel, very faithful to the original book....

Attack on Titan Season 4 Episode 14: Savagery “You know what I hate the most in the world? People who aren’t free. They’re no more than cattle.” ”I wanted to talk with you guys…” Those were the ominous words that Eren shared with his old comrades and new enemies at the end of Attack on Titan’s previous episode. This anime regularly features an exceptional amount of destruction courtesy of deadly powers and brutal battles, but this season’s development of Eren Jaeger is so substantial that seven words can be even more terrifying than dozens of strikes....