Roy Mask - Friday the 13th part 5 NECA

Over the weekend I picked up the infamous Roy doppelganger hockey mask with the blue stripes from NECA and played the new Friday the 13th game with it on.  As funny as this might seem this is the only "Jason" mask I own and I couldn't be happier.  I have avoided the cheap Friday the 13th masks in the past, honestly what's the point?  But this new mask from NECA is very screen accurate, and THICK.  I have no doubt this will stop a hockey puck flying at my face or a machete chop.  Highly recommended for the Friday the 13th collector.  I know what I am going to be this Halloween.  I think with a little work to replicate the Jason neck and mongoloid dome areas (like how Roy had in the movie) this will be good to go.

Friday the 13th THE GAME

This Memorial Day weekend there was a massacre, although you won’t read about it from any major news outlet.  Multiple bodies lay strewn across the digital frontier, many victims were horrifically claimed as Friday the 13^th the video game was finally unleashed on consoles everywhere.  The bytes will drip with blood!   It brings back memories of playing Splatterhouse in the Hills department store lobby, drop kicking the guts out of demon monsters as an over powered Uber Jason man-beast with machete in hand.  I can still smell the stale 400 year old popcorn they were peddling there.  

Slashers for the most part have had an anemic presence in video games, largely as support characters in survival horror games like Resident Evil and Silent Hill.  There was a purely slasher focused game called Camp Fire in gestation a few years back, but the publisher got cold feet and over time it seemed like the concepts driving that game was turned into Dead by Daylight.  

According to my brother Dead by Daylight is actually a pretty fun game (it definitely looks it), it has already had a long run on PC and is coming for consoles next month (June 20^th) so you know if anything is will be polished.  You can play Michael Myers in that game which immediately sold me on it, but let’s talk about the new Friday the 13^th video game experience  for a moment.

To be honest I kind of forgot the game was coming out.  I never trust video game release dates, and this was from a kick starter campaign, so I didn’t get the pain and frustration people were going through waiting for the game to come out.  I was pleasantly surprised to see the download code for the game come by email this past weekend, I had ordered a physical copy of the game and that’s all I was expecting.  It took a long time to get into my first game, about a 20 minute wait, and then it was apparent that some aspects of the game needed some polish when I finally was able to get into a game lobby.  I saw players float in space, blink in and out of frame, and other glitches that would have probably embarrassed coders from a major studio.  However the sheer amount of adrenaline pumping FUN to be had in this game far out-shadows any flaws on release, issues that I am sure will get patched as the game goes on. 

The game perfectly encapsulates the feel of being in a Friday the 13^th movie, and kind of reminded me of the old NES version of Friday the 13th.  There is definitely an emphasis on exploring as many cabins as possible to locate items to defend yourself against Jason and possibly escape the terror of the night, kind of like the old game where you spent all your time wandering the camp looking for items and protecting children before Jason callously massacres everyone.  The new game starts with a cut scene of Jason attacking campers, and then it spawns the camp counselors randomly on any one of three maps directly from Friday the 13^th, Friday the 13^th part 2, or Friday the 13^th part 3.  It filled my heart with joy to see Higgins Haven in there as well as the main cabin from part 2.  As the round progresses counselors can call the police, Tommy Jarvis, or just wait out the clock in order to escape Jason.  Whoever is lucky enough to play Jason gets more abilities and senses as the round progresses, Jason can transport around the map instantly, his senses are greatly amplified and hone in on sound and the counselors fear factor.  If a counselor is terrified the easier it is for Jason to locate him or her. 

The simple game mechanics are great and lead to some amazing moments in game for me.  One play through I was able to get in a car with someone.  As we drove around the map Jason actively chased us, until someone else tried to get in the car with us.  Unfortunately for him, it was a two-seater, so Jason stopped to kill that guy and we took off laughing into the night.  Another play through I was the “final girl”, last surviving counselor, and I made it into Jason’s shack.  I put on his mother’s sweater and when Jason came in I attacked and stunned him with a machete.  I ran outside the shack and he chased me for a while, eventually catching up to my girl to choke her to death, but what a great final girl moment.  There was one game where Jason was right on my heels when I ran to the police, when I survived I was greeted by a cacophony of greetings and sighs of relief from other players saying they were watching me game and “praying for me” to escape.  It really does get you tied up in trying to escape and helping other players (or screwing them when Jason shows up).  I’ve developed a strategy where I stick close to another player, and then when Jason chases us I throw him or her to the wolves, hitting them or slowing them down so I can make it away.  I’ve seen other players do this too haha! 

I believe over the weekend I’ve played about 20 games and have been Jason for 3 of them.  My first two outings as Jason were complete successes.  I manage to kill all the counselors but that pesky Tommy Jarvis made it through.  I think my favorite Jason kill so far was where he took his victim (in this case the yuppie kid) and bent his arms back behind a tree until they snapped off.  I much prefer to play Jason but playing as the counselor is fun as hell too.  I’ve learned quickly to barricade every door and check every cabin I am in for everything.  Communication is key, I was able to escape via car twice just by talking it through with other players, then when I drove the car someone else gave me directions off the map.  Team work really does help in this game, but beware the jabber jaws….Jason can hear you when he is close.

The soundtrack for the game was ripped straight from the movie; the musical cues are spot on.  You will actually feel your blood pressure rise when you hear the famous “ki ki ki….ma ma ma” signaling Jason is close by.  Listening to other players freak out as Jason stalks them is fun as well; even spectating the game after death is fun and worthwhile.  You never know what great off the cuff moment is going to happen; it’s like watching the movies.  And there is plenty of bonus content and Easter Eggs to sniff through for long time fans of the series.  You can play as pretty much any Jason from the movies, they even have facial models for the entries where you don’t see Jason’s face.  Tom Savini designed a unique demon Jason for the game although I have not seen it yet.  It really is a must have for any fan of the franchise.

I really hope they add some new moves for Jason to do, like the ability to place bodies after killing them would add a whole new awesome factor to the gameplay, or if he could throw bodies through windows (like he does in the movies) to raise the counselor fear level.  As it is I am happy with the product and looking forward to future patching and DLC.  My name is CPLCHUD on PS4 if anyone wants to add me.

      

Early Halloween 2018 promo art

From Bloody-Disgusting...

Let the hype begin!

Mutant AKA Forbidden World

MUTANT –

An unrepentant and  shameless Alien rip-off; raw, ugly, sleazy, cheap, all these words have been used to describe Forbidden World, AKA MUTANT to the VHS faithful.  To the gorehound elite this movie is a creature feature staple; a smothering landslide of cheese and gore and strange electronica.  Every cinema sicko worth his or her weight in slime has waded through the cesspool of Forbidden World and comes out the other end loving every dirty minute of it.

The premise is simple, Mike Cody, intergalactic troubleshooter, is hired to destroy “Subject 20” a mutated beast originally conceived to battle the galactic food crisis, now it turns people into food.  Oh the irony.  The scientist who created it wants it subdued and not terminated, but his position loses ground when he leaves the strange beast in the care of poor Jimmy, who does what anyone would do when asked to keep watch over a strange and potentially dangerous experimental mutant; he sticks his face right next to it.  Subject 20 attacks Jimmy’s dumb head, blood flies everywhere covering security cameras and painting the ceiling red as Jimmy hysterically spazzes out, smashing through beakers and lab equipment with reckless abandon.  It doesn’t make any sense but it’s fun to watch.  Soon the hunt for the mutant is on.

It’s discovered that the mutant “meta-morph” doesn’t actually kill its victims outright, but slowly dissolves their DNA into a primitive protein paste for consumption, lending some groovy flesh cocoon practical FX to the proceeding.  What Mutant lacks in plot and logic it more than makes up in boobs and gore FX.  Mike Cody takes a break from chasing the creature to bone a scientist in a rather gratuitous soft core sex scene scored by what sounds like a space flute; later the two female scientists decide to have a half-naked shower together to discuss trying to communicate with the monster.  I always come up with my best plans while washing a women’s hair in the shower, helps me think, especially if I can see their boobs.  Spoiler; their attempt to woo to the creature does not end well for them.

In the gory goo slathered pinnacle of the movie Cody defeats the mutant by ripping a cancerous liver out of one of the scientists and force feeding it to the monster.  The impromptu surgery is performed with a box cutter and without anesthesia; ouch.  The camera work is a little dicey during the final battle with the mutant, seems like Cody is just bumping into the giant rubber monster with his bare chest; a true man fights strange alien creatures from space without his shirt on.  Out of all of the shameless Alien rip offs I’ve napped though this one takes the top of the heap for me.  

Leslie Vernon comic coming 2017

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Halloween 2018 news

Per Bloody-Disgusting:

Halloween news 2018 BD

“It’s not a reboot, it’s not gonna be a rehash. It’s a continuation of Michael Myers – where we’re choosing to continue it from, you’ll have to see when the movie comes out,” McBride explained. “I’d already seen all these movies but I’ve really been studying them now, and just thinking about all the people that have been hired to make a Michael Myers movie. Just trying to avoid any mistakes that those people might’ve made. The first Halloween is scary as shit. And the second Halloween is scary, but not as scary. And then from there, it isn’t as scary. And I really think that what happens with it is that he basically becomes Frankenstein. No matter what anyone hits him with, he’s not gonna die. There’s no suspense.

McBride added, “We’re just trying to play with that. Make him real. Not make him real by giving him some crazy backstory either. Just getting back to the basics. Even the moment that they made Laurie and Michael Myers siblings – it also makes it not quite as scary. So all that kind of stuff to us… those are the things that took an amazing idea and took it somewhere it wasn’t quite as effective.”

Sounds good to me...

Creature (1985)

Creature –

“I see you like guns…what else do you like?”

I found Creature in a bin full of VHS movies at the local flea market.  I paid 5 dollars for front row tickets to a Klaus Kinski freak out fest in space. I regret nothing.    

Creature is a shameless rip off of Alien, but that doesn’t hamper Klaus Kinski’s crazy fervor on screen, which was the best thing about this movie, other than the space zombies, exploding heads, and a brief boob shot.  In the near future all  galactic resources are fought over by two major companies, one from the east, one from the west; carrying  cold war rivalry  from Earth into space beyond.  Never mind this nonsense; none of it makes a difference when a group of German researchers discover an ancient alien menagerie on Titan and one of the  creatures wakes up and begins implanting people with mind controlling parasites, creating space zombies to do its bidding.  A rescue team is sent when they receive a distress signal from the Titan outpost, discovering the only survivor of the attack is crazy Klaus Kinski who rambles on about the creature’s “collective conscious”.   The rescue team tangos with the grisly undead zombies being spawned by the creature, and when all seems lost a well-placed drop kick saves the day.  Decent blood and practical zombie gore effects, torn throats, gore; worth spending a lazy Sunday afternoon with if you’re into shameless Alien rip-offs from the 80’s.  I am.