TV show inspired by real-life Silent Hill picked up by NBC

Dread Centralia

Silent Hill, the setting for Konami's nerve-numbing series of survival horror games, is one of the most famous virtual towns ever created, but what a lot of people don't know is that there's an actual honest-to-goodness town out there that bears an uncanny resemblance to video gaming's spookiest suburb. Known as Centralia, this Pennsylvania town was abandoned after a fire broke out in a local coal mine. That blaze has been raging underneath Centralia's streets for over half a century, fracturing roads and blanketing the town in soupy smog. Amazingly, a handful of people still haunt Centralia's streets, refusing to relocate despite the unsettling conditions.

Fittingly, Centralia inspired the look of the '06 Silent Hill film, and now its tragic tale is fuelling another live action endeavour. As reported by Deadline, Centralia will be a dark, character-led paranormal drama that's part genre show, part soap opera. It will focus on the town's few remaining inhabitants as well as an encroaching evil bubbling away beneath Centralia's buckled streets.

The show is being spearheaded by producer Meredith Averill and will be produced by NBC. More spooky drama is always a good thing and Centralia certainly has a more intriguing premise than most.

Joe Dante enters the Labirintus

Paging David Bowie...

Joe Dante, best known for Gremlins, has signed on to direct supernatural chiller Labirintus. Although casting has yet to begin, production on the film is due to get underway early next year.

The film revolves around a paranormal investigator - hopefully one who's more Van Helsing than Derek Acorah - who teams up with a psychiatric researcher in order to chart the ruins of a shady old Soviet research facility. Lying underneath Budapest in Hungary, this subterranean labyrinth is riddled with all manner of malevolent spirits, and our dynamic duo soon find themselves questioning their very sanity.

Dante is no stranger to horror, and although Labirintus sounds like a different strain of fright flick for the veteran director, we're very curious to see how this one pans out. In the meantime, you can see Dante in action in the horror anthology Tales of Halloween, currently available on VOD.

Dragon Quest Heroes (PS4) Impressions

It's about slime...

It may have taken a while, but the West is finally getting a new Dragon Quest game. Co-developed by Tecmo Koei and Square Enix, Dragon Quest Heroes takes the series in an interesting new direction, combining elements of action RPGs, musou and, oddly enough, tower defence games. It may sound strange on paper, but after spending around a dozen hours battling beasties, spending skill points and capturing creatures, we're happy to report that DQH is a worthy spin-off, not to mention, an excellent game in its own right.

First things first, despite what you may have heard, DQH is not a musou game. Unlike the Warriors series upon which Tecmo Koei built their name, DQH isn't all about vanquishing huge armies and capturing enemy territory. While there are missions that call upon you to cut down waves of monsters, the bulk of the game is spent protecting key items/people/locations from swarms of enemies. Sometimes this will mean escorting an NPC around the map, at others defending a fixed location.

In the early stages, defending these targets is pretty straightforward, requiring players to squash portals and stem the tide of enemy forces. As the game wears on, though, things begin to get a lot more hectic. Enemies begin pouring in from all sides and it's very easy to find yourself overwhelmed. This is where the monster medal mechanic comes into play. Sometimes killing creatures will yield a monster medal which, when picked up, allows players to call a creature to their side. These monsters act like friendly towers, or traps, and can be used to bottleneck enemies or slow their progress. 

Some monsters can be used as sentries, patrolling a fixed area until their HP dries up, whereas others are a one-time thing, popping into the fray to blast enemies or buff your characters before disappearing for good. A Golem, for example, is great for protecting a small area as he'll stomp around squashing foes until he dies or is dismissed. Throw out an Imp, though, and he'll only hang around long enough to singe a path through the enemies ranks. Judicious use of monster medals is the key to winning many of the later stages, so if you want to be victorious get out there and catch 'em all.

It isn't the most in-depth system, but it does add a welcome layer of strategy and puts to bed any concerns we had that DQH would be too similar to recent Koei spinoffs like One Piece and Hyrule Warriors. The monster meta-game gives it a flavour that's all its own and ends up reminding me of Orcs Must Die, another game which asked players to mix brains with brawn in order to succeed.

Success, however, doesn't rest solely on the shoulders of your creature companions. Players have direct control over four party members at (almost) all times, and you're free to zip all over the battlefield hacking and slashing your way to victory. Combat is robust and satisfyingly chunky, with plenty of flashy effects accompanying every sword swing and spell. The actual combos at your disposal are quite limited, but nearly every string can be cancelled into a spell for a little extra oomph.

What's more, you can switch between characters on the fly, giving you a lot of added flexibility on the battlefield. Some characters, like Isla and Luceus, have lots of damaging AOE spells, making them great for mopping up large pockets of resistance, whereas bruisers like Alena, who can create clones of herself that allow her to hit three times as hard three times as fast, and stocky strongman Yangus, are adept at quickly bringing stronger foes to their knees.

So far, DQH is shaping up to be one of the year's most pleasant surprises. It may not be Dragon Quest as we know it, but it is a fun, fast-paced action RPG, packed with quests to conquer and monsters to mangle. 

Star Wars: The Force Awakens Character Guide

"There's been an awakening."

As the hype train for Star Wars: The Force Awakens continues to pick up steam, more and more information on the movie is finding its way out into the big wide world. Much of what makes the film tick is still being kept tightly under wraps, but between all the leaks, speculation, and official press releases, we’re beginning to build a up a better picture of the film’s main movers and shakers, as well as how they fit into the wider Star Wars universe.

If you’ve been living on a moisture farm on Tatooine for the last twelve months, don’t fear, we’ve assembled this handy character guide that brings together everything we know about each of the film’s main characters, before condensing all that info into a single article of easily-digestible, Star Wars-y goodness.

Spoiler warning: The following text may contain slight spoilers for Star Wars: The Force Awakens.

Captain Phasma

How do you make the iconic Stormtrooper look even cooler? By slathering their plastoid shells with a coat of shiny, reflective chrome, of course. Thanks to this eye-catching ensemble, Captain Phasma, or the Chrome Trooper as she was dubbed back when she first appeared, has become one of the Force Awaken’s most talked about new characters.

As with all the coolest-looking members of the Star Wars universe (c’mon, just look at that sweet cape!), Phasma bats for the Dark Side of the Force, and operates out of the Starkiller base alongside fellow neerdowells Kylo Ren and General Hux. Just in case the name wasn’t enough of a giveaway, Phasma’s a Captain in the First Order - a military faction who are picking up where the Empire left off and fighting against the Rebels Forces for control of the galaxy. She is reportedly in command of Finn, the character played by Attack the Block’s John Boyega, and spends the film running him down after he has a change of heart and abandons The First Order.

At this point, it’s unclear just how big a role Phasma will play in The Force Awakens, but rumours indicate that the silvery Stormtrooper will be present in all three films, with a character arc that spans the entire trilogy. The actor filling Phasma’s shiny chrome boots is none other than Gwendoline Christie, who is well versed in the ways of badassery thanks to her time spent playing fan-favourite character Brienne in Game of Thrones.

Although we’ve only been able to snatch glimpses of the character in action, she already has a legion of loyal of fans, not least among them Force Awakens’ director JJ Abrams. During a recent interview, he admitted that Phasma was his favourite new addition to the film, praising Christie's performance as well as the ‘trooper’s ‘undeniable’ visual design. As for that name, fans of the horror flick Phantasm will be delighted to learn that Abrams chose it because Phasma’s design immediately put him in mind of the murderous, mirrorlike sphere featured in Don Coscarelli’s cult film series.

Finn

Having played the lead role in cult Brit-flick Attack the Block, John Boyega is no stranger to the world of science fiction. Still, it’s safe to say his role in The Force Awakens will be the young actor’s biggest yet.

His character in The Force Awakens, who goes by the name Finn, begins his adventure on the side of evil - not to say his character is evil - and can be seen in the trailers tooling around the desert in Stormtrooper armour. That’s right, Finn begins the film as a member of The First Order. For reasons unknown - other than that Finn is stranded on the planet Jakku after his unit desert him - the ex-Stormtrooper teams up with Rey and turns on his former masters.

Official descriptions peg Finn as a conflicted character, one struggling to distance himself from his past. So far, only his first name has been revealed, a move which JJ Abrams says is completely deliberate. This has lead to speculation that the character is tied in some way to a past Star Wars character. Of course, this could just be an attempt by Abrams to throw us off the scent and start making connections where there are none - a tactic the director hasn’t been shy about employing in the past.

Much to the envy of everyone’s inner twelve-year-old, Finn will get to wield a lightsaber - Luke’s lightsaber, in fact - at some point in the movie. A recent promo video shows the young warrior confronting Kylo Ren with the iconic ‘saber in hand. This would seem to confirm the rumours that Finn’s a Jedi, or at least has the potential to become a full, robe-wearing, platitude-spewing wielder of The Force.

Kylo Ren

You can't have a Star Wars movie without a man in black menacing people with a red lightsaber; the original trilogy had Darth Vader, the prequels had Darth Maul, and The Force Awakens has Kylo Ren.

Since his reveal, it’s been confirmed that this mysterious malfeasant isn’t actually a Sith - hence the lack of Darth in his name - but a member of the Knights of Ren. This shadowy sect is affiliated with The First Order and are attempting to take control of the galaxy “using the same power of the Force once used by the Galactic Empire.” It’s also where the Ren part of Kylo’s name comes from.

As you’d expect, the character’s real name remains a closely guarded secret, leading many to speculate that Kylo is related to someone from the original trilogy. Han and Leia’s wayward son? Chewbacca’s secret lovechild? Place your bets now.

Like any good student of the Force, Kylo looks to past masters for instruction, modelling his look and mannerisms on those of the dastardly Darth Vader, who the Knights of Ren hold up as a kind of “martyr” figure. Unlike Vader, however, Kylo Ren is a little rougher around the edges, less fully formed, an idea reinforced by his slightly ragged appearance and unrefined lightsaber. In stark contrast to the traditional glow sticks of doom sported by other Force users, Ren’s ‘saber spits and crackles like the flame from a blowtorch and has two extra blades, which form a sort of lightsaber crossguard.

Lawrence Kasdan, the legendary screenwriter responsible for The Empire Strikes Back, Return of the Jedi, and now Force Awakens, says Ren’s character (played by Adam Driver) brings his own unique flavour to the saga, claiming that “there’s never been a character quite like the one that Adam plays.”

Poe Dameron 

Played by Oscar Isaac, Poe Dameron is one of The Force Awakens three main leads, sharing top billing with John Boyega’s Finn and Daisy Ridley’s Rey.

Just in case the trailer, which showed the character rocking a Rebel-like uniform whilst crammed into an X-Wing fighter, wasn’t enough of a giveaway, Poe is a pilot for the Resistance. Like most pilots in pop fiction, Poe’s a bit of of a hot-shot; brash, confident and a little bit reckless. He gets the chance to test his mettle after a certain princess charges him with the completion of a mission that could change the fate of the galaxy.

Poe has strong ties to the Resistance movement having grown up on Yavin IV, a place Star Wars aficionados will recognise as the home of the Alliance base which launched the attack on the original Death Star. Unlike his fellow cast members, Isaac hasn’t shied away from talking about his character’s background and motivations. During a Lucasfilm panel, the actor floated the idea that Poe was present during the medal ceremony on Yavin IV glimpsed in the closing moments of the original Star Wars. In Isaac’s view, this event inspired in Poe a desire to get into the hero business and take up the mantle previously held by Luke, Leia and Han.

Poe flies under the alias Black Leader and mans the controls of a sleek, modernised X-Wing starfighter, one that sports a slick orange and black paint job. His co-pilot is the adorable, snowman-shaped astro-droid BB-8, who - if the rumours are true - is holding onto the Skywalker family lightsaber for safekeeping. Is Poe’s mission to get the lightsaber into the hands of Finn or Rey? After seeing the latest footage which shows off Finn brandishing the iconic ‘saber, it certainly looks that way.

Rey

Another character whose origins are shrouded in secrecy, Rey (played by Daisy Ridley) has been described as resourceful, resilient, and not much else. We know that she calls the desert planet Jakku home and - according to a recently discovered blurb for a Rey Halloween costume - lives within the cosy confines of a decommissioned AT-AT. Although a description from the back of a costume box isn’t the most trustworthy of sources, we’re tempted to believe this, especially as it fits with what we already know about the character, namely that she’s a scavenger and has lived on Jakku all her life.

She may have strange taste in home décor, but Rey is one tough gal, a life spent amongst the cutthroats that call Jakku home preparing her for the worst the galaxy has to offer. Are these fighting skills augmented by the Force? The truth is, we don’t know, although another tidbit from that Halloween costume description certainly suggests there’s more to Rey than meets the eye. The blurb describes a sequence that sees Rey facing off against a room of ‘troopers and ‘saber-toting Ren Knights. Although she sounds hopelessly outgunned, the blurb goes on to hint that Rey’s enemies should be more scared of her than she is of them, saying: “It’s not about the strength of the weapon, but the strength of the warrior that wields it.”

Judging by the beat-up, jury rigged speeder we see Rey chugging through the desert on in the teaser trailer, she could also be a gifted mechanic, able to cobble together the junk she finds into working gadgets and gizmos. If this is the case, we fully expect her to MacGuyver her way out of a sticky situation at least once in the movie.

One of the most persistent rumours surrounding Rey is that she is the daughter of Han and Leia. Aside from a few vague hints from Ridley and Abrams, though, this remains unconfirmed. The character has also been referred to as Kira in various press materials, leading many to speculate that Rey is operating under an alias in order to hide her true origins.

Will The Incredible Hulk steal the spotlight in Thor: Ragnarok?

Puny god

Thor's world may be ending, but the Asgardian thunder-flinger isn't going down without a fight. To help him combat Loki's evil schemes (the trickster god was last seen doing a pretty mean Odin impersonation at the end of Thor: Dark World) the Odinson is forming an alliance with fellow Avenger The Incredible Hulk.

The bipolar bruiser is set to appear thanks to a deal between actor Mark Ruffalo and the good folks over at Marvel. While this is a far cry from the Planet Hulk announcement many of us have been clamouring for, we're all for seeing Bruce Banner's alter-ego get his smash on outside of the mainline Avengers movies. Plus, there are rumours that Ragnarok will feature some kind of mysterious alien planet, leading to speculation that this could be Marvel's way of prepping the pieces for a potential Planet Hulk spin-off.

Thor and Hulk have always had a great - if somewhat violent - on-screen chemistry, and seeing the two of them banding together to bring down Tom Hiddleston's Loki is sure to be fun. Could this be Marvel's stab at a buddy comedy? We know how much the studio loves to dabble with different genre tropes - Winter Soldier as a seventies style thriller, and Ant-Man as a superhero-cum-heist pic, for example - and Thor's movies have always had a rich vein of humour running alongside all the larger-than-life superheroics.

Then there's the fact Marvel are courting Taika Waititi to direct, no stranger to the world of comedy thanks to his work on Flight of the Conchords and macabre mockumentary What We Do In The Shadows.

Ragnarok will be upon us in roughly two years time.

31 Days of Halloween: Dog Soldiers

Bark at the moon

No Guts No Glory

Looking for some film recommendations for Halloween? 31 Days of Halloween exhumes some of our favourite horror films, giving all you film-hungry ghouls a brief run-down of some of the most frightful film classics to shamble onto our screens. So grab some treats, fire up your cauldron, and join us as we celebrate some of the best fright flicks of all-time this Halloween.

Dog Soldiers (2002)

Yesterday we looked at one of the best zombie movies to ever grace the silver screen, today, though, we're taking a break from zombies to indulge our wild sides and get freaky under the full moon with Neil Marshal's wild werewolf film Dog Soldiers.

A boisterous mix of Predator and Night of the Living Dead, with a little bit of The Howling thrown in for good measure, Dog Soldiers takes a lot of familiar horror tropes and turns them on their heads. First off, our heroes aren't a bunch of promiscuous co-eds, but a battalion of embattled soldiers. Granted, in the end they seem to pose as little of a threat to the werewolves as your average teenybopper does to Jason Vorhees in the Friday the 13th movies, but the squaddies' presence does give the film a unique flavour that's all its own.

Their bickering and good-natured banter imbues the cast of rough and ready commandos with plenty of character, and Sean Pertwee's Sgt. Wells - who at one point seals up his ruptured guts with a tube of superglue - is a particular highlight.

While horror comedies are dime a dozen nowadays, Dog Soldiers is one of the few films in the sub-genre that completely nails the balance between scabrous humour and gruesome chills. The humour doesn't feel forced, and Marshal maintains a good balance throughout, nimbly switching gears as the werewolves come out to play and the tension begins to mount.

The way the film handles werewolves is unusual, too, with Marshal opting to keep the hulking beasts in the shadows for much of the film's runtime. Here they're much more of an external force, used in a similar way to the zombies in Night of the Living Dead. Anyone hoping for a full-on creature-feature will be disappointed, as Dog Soldiers is more about the characters, and their reaction to this bizarre situation, than the beasts themselves. That's not to say the movie skimps on the action, though, as there's plenty of blood-letting, and inventive set-pieces to keep horror-hounds happy. The films also earns a few bonus points for its old-school practical effects, as well as for giving the world the phrase "glam rock werewolves".

Just be warned, after watching Dog Soldiers there's a good chance you'll never look at sausages in the same way ever again.

Zelda: Twilight Princess HD headed to Wii U?

An enterprising fan poking around Nintendo's eShop recently uncovered an icon for Twilight Princess kicking around the store's back-end.  Cue rampant speculation the Big N is busy beavering away on a HD port of the classic Gamecube adventure.

At first, many of us believed the icon pointed towards a simple emulated job - akin to the Wii U Virtual Console releases of Super Mario Galaxy and Metroid Prime. But that was before a listing for "THE LEGEND OF ZELDA Twilight Princess HD" was found nestled in Nintendo's eShop servers. If that isn't proof that TP HD is on the way, we don't know what is.

This isn't the first time the possibility of a re-release of Twilight Princess has come up - before Wind Waker HD sailed onto shelves, series director Eiji Aonuma revealed that his dev team ran some tests on TP to see how it performed on the Wii U hardware. Perhaps they felt that Wind Waker's vibrant, toon-like art style better lent itself to a snazzy HD makeover and shelved Twilight Princess for a rainy day.

Well, with Zelda Wii U off the board this holiday, Nintendo will be looking to give hungry Zelda fans something to sink their teeth into, and a shiny new HD remaster of Twilight Princess would certainly get fans' Triforces tingling.

The title, one of the most divisive in the franchise's long history, had an earthier, darker tone than its predecessor, trading the sweetness and light of Wind Waker for a hard-bitten, high-fantasy aesthetic. A lot of gamers were turned off by the game's lengthy opening hours, which is a shame, because once TP gets going it really gets going, containing some of the series' best dungeons.

WW HD featured a few judicious nips and tucks, so it's possible Nintendo will use this HD update to address some of TP's shortcomings. In our opinion, a pacier prologue would do wonders and help TP find the audience it's always deserved.

Nintendo has yet to respond to the rumour, so we'll just have to sit tight and see what the next Nintendo Direct has in store for us.

31 Days of Halloween: Dawn of the Dead

Shop 'til you drop

Looking for some film recommendations for Halloween? 31 Days of Halloween exhumes some of our favourite horror films, giving all you film-hungry ghouls a brief run-down of some of the most frightful film classics to shamble into cinemas. So grab some treats, fire up your cauldron, and join us as we celebrate some of the best fright flicks of all-time this Halloween.

Dawn of the Dead (1978)

Dawn of the Dead, George Romero's epic follow-up to Night of the Living Dead, is rightly considered to be one of -if not the- best zombie movies ever made. Mixing satire and social commentary with plenty of tense set pieces and ingenious gore (courtesy of SFX guru and part-time Sex Machine Tom Savini), it is a true horror epic. 

As with most of Romero's Dead flicks, it's the humans that take centre stage, their descent into mindless consumerism a perfect mirror for the hordes of mindless ghouls who see the mall our survivors conquer as some kind of undead Mecca. For the most part the zombies provide a sense of gnawing dread; an ever present threat that slowly undermines our survivors' new found sense of safety and security. At the end of the day, a prison, no matter how big and well-stocked, is still a prison, and the true horror horror of the film comes from our heroes' realisation that they will never truly be free while the zombies roam.

For those of you uninterested in allegory, don't fear, Dawn of the Dead still has plenty of moments of outrageous gore and fantastic action. A tense trawl through an apartment block, which soon erupts into barely controlled chaos, kicks off the film and does an excellent job of establishing this frightening new world. Then there's the finale, a furious three-way rumble between our heroes, the zombies and a mob of marauding bikers that is goofy, gory and epic all at the same time. 

In the end, the film's greatest strength lies in the fact it can be enjoyed on so many levels: whether you want a searing socio-political satire, a piece of pure escapism, or just a raw and bloody horror film, Dawn of the Dead has you covered. 

The Punisher drops by for a visit in new Daredevil Season 2 teaser

Kiss Kiss Bang Bang

The follow-up to Netflix's wildly successful first season of Daredevil is drawing near, and to celebrate, the streaming service has released a tantalising new teaser.

The new footage, which begins at around a minute and a half into the clip, sees the return of many familiar faces, as well as a few new ones. Of special interest to comics fans will be the snatched glimpses of Elektra (Elodie Yung) gearing up for war, and Jon Bernthal's Punisher, the back of whose head we get a good look at. Speaking of Frank Castle, there's another cool moment early on in the tease showing an x-ray that bears an uncanny resemblance to the Punisher's iconic skull motif.

Despite the switch in showrunners, from the looks of this footage, the second season of Daredevil is shaping up nicely. It'll interesting to see how the creative team handle Matt Murdock's transformation from shadowy vigilante into full-time superhero, as well as the absence of the Kingpin. Presumably, Punisher and Elektra will be sharing villain duties early on, with an unknown-as-yet party stepping in to make Matt Murdock's life even more miserable later on.

Expect the new series to go live sometime next April. In the meantime, Marvel fans can check in on Daredevil's fellow Defender Jessica Jones when her series releases on November 20.

Games of Thrones author joins the Skin Trade

Full Moon Door

George R.R. Martin is a very busy man, juggling writing duties on the Song of Ice and Fire series of books, HBO's sterling telly-adaptation of said books, Game of Thrones, and about a billion other projects. Anyone hoping George would take some time out of his TV projects to finish up work on the final books in the Ice and Fire series, The Winds of Winter and A Dream of Spring, will be disappointed to learn that the prolific penman is planning to tackle yet another TV project. Relax, fellas, I'm sure we'll get the books eventually. Right? RIGHT?!

The new project will be an adaptation of Martin's award-winning short, Skin Trade, a story about a collections agent - who also happens to be a werewolf on the side - that joins forces with a private detective in order to catch the perpetrator behind a series of grisly murders.

“I have always thought there was a TV series (or maybe a feature film) in Willie Flambeaux and Randi Wade,” said Martin. “Those of you who know the story of Doorways, my ill-fated ABC pilot from the early 90s, may even recall that it was Skin Trade that I was actually trying to sell back in 1991, when I flew out to LA for a round of pitch meetings. So we’re a few decades late…”

Martin, alongside co-producer Kalinda Vasquez (Once Upon a Time), will work on this tale of lycanthropic law and order for Cinemax.

Walking Dead creator trades zombie for demons in new Outcast trailer

Assume the possession

With NYCC '15 just wrapping up, one things we've got no shortage of this week is trailers. First up, we're taking a gander at Outcast, a creepy new series from the folks over at Fox International, Robert Kirkman and Adam Wingard. All of those names should be familiar to horror fans, especially Robert Kirkman's, the man behind ratings monster The Walking Dead, as well as Fear the Walking Dead, which - regardless of quality - recently became the single most-watched TV series in cable history.

What can we say? People just can't get enough of zombies. With that in mind, it'll be interesting to see how Outcast is received, especially as it dabbles in a more abstract, intangible corner of the occult: possession. The main thrust of the show will revolve around Barnes (Gone Girl's Patrick Fugit,) a man battling with figurative and literal demons, who returns home to get some answers and find salvation.

Judging by the trailer, what he finds instead is more demonic hoodoo, this time in the form of Joshua Austin, an eight-year-old with a very serious demon infestation. The trailer is plenty foreboding, with shadowy hints, doomy pronouncements and a lot of small-town paranoia.

Like The Walking Dead, Outcast is an adaptation of one of Kirkman's own comic books. It'll be interesting to see if this is a straight up adaptation, or if - like TWD - the TV series riffs on the material, acting more as an alternate take than a faithful retelling. I'm leaning more towards the former, especially as this was conceived as a TV show from the off, with the comic being developed in tandem with the live-action series. Still, I daresay Kirkman and co. will throw in a few twists just to keep us comic readers on our toes.

We'll know for sure when the series beams out worldwide in 2016.

31 Days of Halloween: You're Next

House party

Looking for some film recommendations for Halloween? 31 Days of Halloween exhumes some of our favourite horror films, giving all you film-hungry ghouls a brief run-down of some of the most frightful film classics to shamble into cinemas. So grab some treats, fire up your cauldron, and join us as we celebrate some of the best fright flicks of all-time this Halloween.

You're Next

Yesterday we revved up our chainsaws and dissected classic gore flick Evil Dead II, today we're fast-forwarding a few decades and placing one of favourite slasher films of recent times under the microscope, home invasion horror You're Next from director Adam Wingard.

A decidedly modern twist on a classic formula, You're Next takes the idea of the slasher film (a group of unwitting men and women being picked off from the shadows by some unscrupulous blade-wielding bogeyman), adds a heap of dysfunctional family drama and rounds the whole thing off with moments of bleak, black comedy. The main thrust of the plot revolves around the family Davison who, reunited for a family together, find themselves fighting for their lives when a pack of masked marauders descend on the family home.

So far, so stalk and slash; what sets You're Next apart from the competition is its characters, whose skeletons start peeking out of the closet as the bodies begin to pile up. There's backbiting, arguing and worse, as the family's façade of affluence begins to crumble under the masked men's gory onslaught. Wingard has a steady hand, letting the family drama simmer away in the background before letting the blood flow. His characters, too, display a surprising amount of resilience, with main character Erin discovering an unexpected talent for home defence that begins to transform the film as it enters its second-half.

Savvy, suspenseful and with plenty of surprises, You're Next is a meta-horror movie with bite, and proof that there's still some life left in the tired slasher genre.

Ghostbusters to get a feature-length animated spin-off?

Ghostly going ons at Sony Pictures Animation

It would seem the head honchos over at Sony are quite keen on idea of spinning some of their biggest franchises off into animated movies. Earlier this year, we learned that the studio was giving Spider-Man the 'toon treatment, turning to directing duo Phil Lord and Chris Miller (The Lego Movie, Last Man on Earth) to put a fresh spin on mistreated Marvel property.

Now, the studio are sizing-up another much-loved movie property for an animated makeover, setting their sights on a CGI update of cult classic Ghostbusters. The news comes from The Tracking Board, who are reporting that producer Ivan Reitman and Sony Pictures Animation have struck a deal for an animated movie featuring everyone's favourite paranormal exterminators.

Whereas Paul Feig's upcoming reboot eschews tradition to put a fresh twist on the decades-old ghostbusting formula, this animated feature will cleave a little more closely to the original Ghostbusters template. Both films will feature a cadre of scientists who use crazy contraptions to battle things that go bump in the night, of course, but the rumours seem to suggest the spin-off will be closer in spirit to the eighties series.

Rather excitingly, this leaves the door open for the return of the original cast, the magic of CGI allowing them to play younger versions of themselves. Of course, this could just be wishful thinking on our part, but it would make sense for Sony; a CGI makeover would no-doubt pull in a younger audience, while the return of Murray, Aykroyd, et al, would be a big draw for those of us who grew up with the original films. Gotta hit those demographics, Sony!

Regardless, we're very interested to see how this one pans outs, and would love to see more classic properties spruced up via the magic of computer animation. Back to the Future, anyone?

31 Days of Halloween: Evil Dead II

If you go down to the woods today...

31 Days of Halloween exhumes some of our favourite horror films, giving all you film-hungry ghouls a brief run-down of some of the most frightful film classics to shamble into cinemas. So grab some treats, fire up your cauldron, and join us as we celebrate some of the best fright flicks of all-time this Halloween.

Our first pick is a film that embodies everything we love about Halloween, Evil Dead II. Shocking and silly in equal measure, Sam Raimi and Bruce Campbell's splatterpunk odyssey is one of the most gruesome, yet out-and-out enjoyable horror movies ever stitched together. Gore-hounds will relish the stomach-churning set-pieces, including a sequence in which our tortured hero Ash does battle with his own demoniacally-driven arm, and comedy fans will get a kick out of many instances of Stooges-style slapstick littered throughout the film.

Sam Raimi's second stab at the franchise also has this rare energy, a kind of mad-cap intensity, that's completely electrifying - his camera whips around like it is itself possessed, and you get the sense the whole film could shake apart at any moment. Luckily, Bruce Campbell, the chin that launched a thousand ships, is there to hold the whole together, his smarmy-store-clerk-turned-monster-slayer, Ash, the perfect foil for Raimi's increasingly lurid bouts of lunacy.

The end result is a nigh-perfect blend of hair-raising horror and knee-slapping hijinks; a film that's just a likely to raise a few laughs as it is your gorge. In short, the perfect movie to kick off this most horrible of holiday seasons.

Second teaser for Jessica Jones drops

A superhero walks into a bar...

Earlier this week we got our first look at Jessica Jones in action (well kind of) courtesy of a short teaser trailer from Netflix. Today, the streaming service is treating us to a second snippet of footage, which, in keeping with the first, is more concerned with setting the mood and tone of the show than it is with dishing the dirt on the story.

This time round, we catch up Jessica following a brutal bar fight, unwinding after a hard day's face-punching by listening to some Joan Jett and knocking back a shot of whiskey. We also get some idea of just how freakishly strong our slip of a heroine is - a simple tap of her super powered hand is enough to send that uncooperative jukebox flying. Oh, and then there's all the bar crawlers nursing their broken faces on the floor. The message is clear: this is one P.I. you don't want to get on the wrong side of.

No doubt, we'll see more unsavoury types getting their keisters kicked by Jessica Jones when the full series hits Netflix on November 20.