Xbox recently announced that four of its older titles would be going multiplatform, and finally detailed which games would be making the leap earlier this week. Among the games is Hi-Fi Rush, Bethesda and Tango Gameworks’ surprising rhythm-action game that came out of nowhere early last year. However, when Hi-Fi Rush…
PLOT: Years after her sister disappeared at Arvores National Park, a young woman named Lennon gets a job as an Arvores park ranger in hopes of finding out what happened to her sibling. Unfortunately for her, she does find out.
REVIEW: Teresa Sutherland wrote the screenplay for Emma Tammi’s 2018 horror Western The Wind and was part of the writing staff on the Mike Flanagan series Midnight Mass, and now she has made her feature directorial debut with the horror film Lovely, Dark, and Deep, which she was inspired to make after hearing “real-life conspiracy theories surrounding the unusually high number of unsolved missing person cases that happen in national parks and forests”. She came up with a theory of her own… something dealing with an ancient supernatural force that still operates in these isolated places “where it still gets dark”… and delivered it in the form of a movie that has some interesting ideas, but doesn’t make for a very satisfying viewing experience.
Georgina Campbell, whose breakthrough role in the genre hit Barbarian (not to mention a BAFTA win for Murdered by My Boyfriend) has led to her landing roles in things like Bird Box Barcelona and an upcoming film directed by a Shyamalan daughter, stars in Lovely, Dark, and Deep as a young woman named Lennon, who has taken a job as a ranger at the Arvores National Park with an ulterior motive: when she was a child, her sister Jenny went missing in this park, and she intends to scour the land in hopes of figuring out what exactly happened to her sibling. When a ranger stationed in a remote location disappears, leaving behind only a note where he said he owes the land a body, Lennon gets the chance to replace him for 90 days, which she’s going to spend searching through the back country. One of the podcasts Lennon listens to at a couple different points in the movie informs us that Arvores National Park has the highest number of missing persons cases out of any place in the world, which certainly deepens the mystery she’s trying to solve. It’s an interesting set-up, and Campbell was a strong choice for the lead. She has the acting skills and the screen presence to carry the entire film on her shoulders, which is very important since she’s the only person on screen for long stretches of it.
While Campbell does a great job with the material she was given to work with, she was let down by the script a bit, as we don’t really get to know Lennon as a person. We know she’s deeply traumatized by the disappearance of her sister, she’s quiet and has such high anxiety that she’ll chew her fingernails until her fingers bleed, but I don’t feel that I know much about her beyond that. There’s nothing to go by other than her drive to find missing people.
Sutherland took the slow burn approach with this one, so we end up spending a lot of time watching Lennon quietly make her way around the forest, going about her ranger duties. This sort of build-up needs to lead to a great pay-off to be worth the time spent on it… but the movie doesn’t have that. Instead, there comes a point where it goes completely off the rails, with Lennon slipping into some different plain of existence where she’s just bombarded with trippy visuals for a stretch of 40 minutes or so. This part of the film will still work for some viewers who are more inclined to go along for the ride with something like this, but for me there are few things more irritating than when a movie turns into nothing but scene after scene of a character just bumbling their way through nightmares. Especially when there’s no Freddy Krueger around to liven things up.
Lovely, Dark, and Deep is not something I’ll ever want to watch again, but the writer/director does show promise with it. As mentioned, there are interesting ideas in the story, they just didn’t come together in a way I found to be satisfying. The concept of this film would have worked very well for a short film, but there’s not enough substance here to sustain the feature running time. Padded out beyond reason, the movie’s 87 minutes eventually start to feel interminable. When we reach the end, the destination wasn’t worth the journey, because things kind of just sputter out. But even when it’s frustrating to watch, which is for a large percentage of the time, it’s still a nice movie to look at, as Sutherland and cinematographer Rui Poças were able to capture some great images of the forest where it all takes place. (The story is set in the United States, but the filming location was Portugal.)
So we have intriguing ideas, a good lead actress, and nice cinematography, yet the movie still falls short. I think Sutherland could make an effective horror movie at some point, but Lovely, Dark, and Deep just didn’t work for me.
Lovely, Dark, and Deep is set to receive a VOD release on February 22nd.
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A year and a half ago, Get Out, Us, and Nope writer/director Jordan Peele‘s production company Monkeypaw Productions acquired the genre film pitch Goat from writers Zack Akers and Skip Bronkie, the plan being that Peele would be producing Goat as part of Monkeypaw’s overall deal with Universal Pictures. Now the sports-related horror project is finally making its way toward production, and in recent weeks we’ve learned that Justin Tipping – who made his feature directorial debut with the 2016 drama Kicks – will be directing the film, with lead roles going to Marlon Wayans (Scary Movie) and Tyriq Withers (The Game). Now Deadline reports that the female lead role has gone to Julia Fox.
Deadline also says that Fox is “best known for her New York Times best-selling book Down the Drain“, while the description for that book (you can pick up a copy HERE) says, “Julia Fox is famous for many things: her captivating acting, such as her breakout role in the film Uncut Gems; her trendsetting style, including bleached eyebrows, exaggerated eyeshadow, and cutout dresses; her mastery of social media, where she entertains and educates her millions of followers. But all these share the trait for which she is most famous: unabashedly and unapologetically being herself.” Fox made her feature acting debut with Uncut Gems, and since then has had roles in PVT CHAT, Puppet, and the Steven Soderbergh projects No Sudden Move and Presence. Details on the character she’ll be playing in Goat haven’t been revealed.
Akers and Bronkie’s script centers on a promising young athlete who is invited to train with a team’s retiring star. How exactly horror enters the picture is being kept under wraps. ComicBook.com has heard that the script centers on a rookie QB who goes to train with a retiring star QB who may hold a secret about how he has played so long at such a high level. So obviously the GOAT has been using unusual methods to achieve his success, and finding out about them are going to cause the rookie some trouble.
Wayans will be playing the titular greatest-of-all-time athlete, while Withers will be playing the promising young athlete / rookie QB.
Writers Akers and Bronkie previously created the Facebook Watch series Limetown, which starred Jessica Biel. Since making Kicks, Tipping has gone on to direct episodes of multiple TV shows, including Black Monday, The Chi, Dear White People, Dare Me, Twenties, Run the World, Flatbush Misdemeanors, and Joe vs. Carole.
Peele is producing Goat with Win Rosenfeld, Ian Cooper, and Jamal Watson. David Kern and Kate Oh serve as executive producers. Universal EVP Production Development Sara Scott and Director of Development Tony Ducret are overseeing the project for the studio.
Does Goat sound interesting to you? What do you think of Julia Fox being cast the female lead? Let us know by leaving a comment below.
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After two years on the market, FromSoftware’s magnum opus, Elden Ring, is still posting stellar sales numbers. In a recent press release following the reveal ofShadow of the Erdtree, publisher Bandai Namco Entertainment confirmed that the open-world death game has sold 23 million copies worldwide.
After two years on the market, FromSoftware’s magnum opus, Elden Ring, is still posting stellar sales numbers. In a recent press release following the reveal ofShadow of the Erdtree, publisher Bandai Namco Entertainment confirmed that the open-world death game has sold 23 million copies worldwide.
Luc Besson’s DogMan has received another trailer ahead of its release next month, capping off a journey that also saw the film competing for the Golden Lion at last year’s Venice Film Festival.
DogMan is writer/director Besson’s first film since 2019’s Anna and one that has built the most buzz in quite some time. The cast features Caleb Landry Jones, who was remarkable in 2021’s Nitram, and Jojo T. Gibbs, who appears in Past Lives, which is up for Best Picture this year. They are joined by Christopher Denham (Oppenheimer) and Clemens Shick (Star Wars series Andor).
Here is the synopsis of DogMan: “Having just been arrested, Douglas opens his heart to tell the moving story of his life. As a survivor of childhood trauma, with a violent father who forces him to live in the family kennel, he develops a bond with dogs that defies understanding. Out of this hell, he grows to discover love, theatre, and cabaret, but also the injustice and disillusionment of the human world. In a life that’s been broken a thousand times, only the love of his dogs can bring salvation.”
DogMan will open in a limited release on March 29th before going wide the next week on April 5th. Those who have been following DogMan will note that the release has actually been pushed back two weeks from when it was originally intended to hit theaters. Regardless, for Luc Besson fans, his latest will be an event.
While DogMan didn’t snag the Golden Lion, it did actually win Fanheart3’s Graffetta d’Oro for Best Film, which is awarded to a work with the “highest chance to become a cult movie: the one every fan should watch, the one people will talk about the most, the one with the cast more related to fandoms already in existence.” Based on the trailer – which shows off some of the movie’s off-kilter tone and style – we can see why it won.
What do you think of the DogMan trailer? Will you be catching it in theaters? Let us know below!
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Cillian Murphy recently had some choice words for his film Red Eye (watch it HERE), a Wes Craven-directed thriller that was released back in 2005. But he wasn’t entirely negative. So that got me thinking: Is Red Eye a good film? Or is it more in the so bad it’s good category? I personally saw Red Eye in theaters and have always had a soft spot for it. But if Oppenheimer‘s own Cillian Murphy has an issue with it, maybe it’s worth a second gander. So let’s see whether it’s good, bad, or somewhere in between as we revisit Red Eye in the video embedded above!
Scripted by Carl Ellsworth, who crafted the story with Dan Foos, Red Eye has the following synopsis: In the wake of her grandmother’s funeral, hotel manager Lisa Reisert is waiting to fly back home when she meets charming Jackson Rippner at check-in. She thinks it luck that they’re seated together on the plane, but soon learns otherwise. Jackson hopes to assassinate the head of Homeland Security, but to do so, he needs Lisa to reassign the official’s room number at her hotel. As insurance, Jackson has kidnapped Lisa’s father.
Murphy is joined in the cast by Rachel McAdams, Brian Cox, Jayma Mays, Jack Scalia, Robert Pine, Teresa Press-Marx, Angela Paton, Suzie Plakson, Monica McSwain, Dane Farwell, Laura Johnson, Loren Lester, Max Kasch, Kyle Gallner, Brittany Oaks, Beth Toussaint, Colby Donaldson, Marc Macaulay, and Jenny Wade.
The Red Eye episode of Revisited was Written, Narrated, and Edited by Tyler Nichols, Produced by Tyler Nichols and John Fallon, and Executive Produced by Berge Garabedian.
What do you think of Wes Craven’s Red Eye? Do you agree with Cillian Murphy that it’s “not a good movie”, or do you find it to be an entertaining thriller? Let us know by leaving a comment below.
Two previous episodes of Revisited can be seen below. To see more of our shows, head over to the JoBlo Horror Originals channel – and subscribe while you’re at it!
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Final Fantasy VII Rebirth revels in all the extra time you can spend hanging out with the original game’s iconic cast. But it also falls victim to it in a way that not even Remake did four years ago. Square Enix’s plan to recreate Final Fantasy VII as three games seemed questionable when the company announced it back…
Final Fantasy VII Rebirth revels in all the extra time you can spend hanging out with the original game’s iconic cast. But it also falls victim to it in a way that not even Remake did four years ago. Square Enix’s plan to recreate Final Fantasy VII as three games seemed questionable when the company announced it back…
Maybe you can’t see John Cena but it’s hard to turn a blind eye to the accusations of battery and trafficking against former WWE head Vince McMahon that ultimately saw him resigning from his position at TKO. And while Cena may not be outright ignoring the alleged incidents, he is still showing his support for his former boss.
Speaking with Howard Stern this week, Cena said of the McMahon situation, “I don’t think it’s complicated to talk about…I think it’s complicated to listen to. That’s kinda why I don’t necessarily put a lot of time and equity into it. Again, there’s still a long ways to go. I can say this, I’m a big advocate of love and friendship and honesty and communication. But in the same breath, I’m also a big advocate of accountability.” Adding to this, Cena expressed his genuine love for McMahon while definitive answers remain untold. “If someone’s behavior lies so far outside your value system, that the balance shifts, of like, man, I can’t operate in a world where this works. That’s the end result of being accountable. Right now, what I’m gonna do is love the person I love, be their friend, and by that, it means like, hey, I love you. You got a hill to climb.”
While it may seem a bit concerning that John Cena hasn’t outright condemned Vince McMahon, we do have to remember that McMahon was the man who helped nurture Cena’s career as an eventual 16-champ world champ and one of the biggest pro wrestling superstars in the industry’s history, up there with Hulk Hogan and “Stone Cold” Steve Austin. Cena also saw McMahon as a father figure throughout, so it may not be terribly surprising that he doesn’t want to make a final judgment at this moment.
Cena’s statements on McMahon aren’t that far off from another WWE superstar, Randy Orton, who said he doesn’t want to believe in the accusations because of his contributions to his own career. Still, he did also add that McMahon is indeed fallible.
Outside of McMahon, Cena had some other thoughts on the squared circle, saying retirement may have him at a two-count, pointing to 50 as being perhaps the sweet spot to hang up the sweatbands. With 47 just around the corner and no WrestleMania match on the card for this year, the number of matches left for Cena is much lower than many hope.
What do you make of John Cena’s statements on Vince McMahon? Is he leaning more towards denial, support or objectivity? Give us your thoughts below.
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