Halloween Special: YouTube’s Horrific Halloween Shorts!

For me Halloween is not a time for gallivanting about, looking for parties and candy. No, for me Halloween is just another in the long line of excuses I use to sit on my behind watching horror movies. But what to watch? With a full day of Halloween styled movies at my disposal, sometimes it’s nice to have some filler in-between the big movies, to get some much-needed food and drink into the system before moving onto the next flick. Lucky for me YouTube has a ton of horror shorts ready for consumption. This is a short selection of some of the more interesting ones I found during my on-line travels.

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Marvel: 75th Anniversary Special, Age of Ultron Footage, & Agent Carter

Comic book fans have probably now had time to regain their sanity. DC Comics dropped a bombshell with news of their planned slate of upcoming films. Then Marvel Studios came into the picture and dropped the mic themselves by announcing their next slate of movies. The comic medium is really taking over film and television in a big way – and next up, Marvel’s ready to celebrate their 75th anniversary (it’s Batman’s 75th too!). To celebrate its three-quarter century of existence is a TV special – Marvel 75 Years: From Pulp to Pop!

This hour-long documentary will delve into Marvel’s humble beginnings in 1939, all the way up to their current reigns as media darlings. Emily VanCamp (star of Captain America: The Winter Soldier and ABC drama Revenge) will host this introspective look into the comic book entertainment juggernaut. You can expect to see plenty of archival footage, interviews with the company’s most noteworthy personalities, and a peek into the future of the brand.

Do yourself a favor and pay homage to Marvel by checking out this Tuesday night special (November 4) at 9 p.m. EST on ABC. Marvel’s Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. will have the week off, which sadly means no Adrianne Palicki in that awesome Mockingbird costume, but it should be interesting none the less.

mockingbird-palicki - Agents of SHIELD

Also coming to Marvel Tuesdays, during SHIELD‘s mid-season break, we will see Haley Atwell reprising her role from Captain America as Peggy Carter. We got our first trailer this week.

And speaking of Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D., they were set up for a nice ratings boost as the first trailer for May 2015’s Avengers: Age of Ultron was supposed to premiere during their show. However that was blown when those pesky Hydra operatives leaked it online last week. So on Tuesday night, we instead got this extra bit of sneak peek awesomeness. You gotta love the way Thor squirms as Captain America almost lifts his hammer.

Finally, as with any footage that is beloved by the internet in general – we’ve got a couple fun ones. First, the Pee Wee Herman voice over. Jimmy Fallon always finds fun stuff for his guests to do.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HTYyUTGvKB4

And in our last piece of Marvel news, check out this perfect mash-up of the 1st Avengers: Age of Ultron trailer backed by Celine Dion’s My Heart Will Go On. Yeah, that song. The theme from Titanic, the movie your Mom forced you to go see with her.

We gotta admit, though – this song gets us just a wee bit more amped than a Pinocchio song. Celine Dion – 1, Pinocchio – 0.


 Images: Marvel, ABC

Halloween Movie Tunes To Freak Out To!

Halloween represents many things to many people and, for whatever reason you choose to celebrate you can be sure others will be doing the same in their own way. If your chosen form of celebration happens to be a party, then the dressing up and horrific elements of the season take on a whole new meaning. However with every great party, you need great tunes to keep it going. Now last year I compiled a collection of some of my favourite Halloween related tunes to give you all a frightfully good night. This year I have turned to film for my inspiration. So without further ado here is a selection of some of the catchy horror tunes perfect for a good night in.

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Marvel Studios Phase Three: Civil War, Black Panther, Captain Marvel & More!

A number of the press were recently invited to a special Marvel Studios event, with very little details to go on. Today the crowd gathered in anticipation, with rumors and speculation running rampant, especially considering the recent news that Benedict Cumberbatch may take on the role of Doctor Strange. Kevin Feige took to the stage to show the new trailer for Avengers: Age of Ultron, which has been seen by over 70 million people. He was also there to make a few announcements, which he called “Comic-Con level news.” And he did not disappoint.

Following in the footsteps of the recent Warner Bros. film slate announcement, Kevin Feige and Joss Whedon announced the next 8 films from Marvel Studios, revealing titles for upcoming sequels, as well as introducing some new faces for the Marvel Cinematic Universe. After a brief recap of the first 10 films of the MCU by Joss Whedon, which made over $7 billion, the first sequel title was announced. We’re going to move pretty fast through these announcements today, with a more in-depth examination to follow.

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Gotham: The Spirit of the Goat and the Soul of Harvey Bullock

I said it before and I’ll say it again – this show is getting better.

Gotham‘s sixth episode finally gave us a little characterization to Harvey Bullock that wasn’t so one-dimensional. It supplied us with a solid, if not totally Gotham-esqe villain, and we got just enough of the Wayne stuff to not feel forced. Once again, and by a larger margin this time, best episode yet.

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Sunset Overdrive Review: Slick Parkour Meets Fun Monster Mashing

When gamers hear the name Insomniac Games, visions of several first party PlayStation exclusives come to mind. Insomniac has crafted classic franchises, such as Spyro the Dragon, Ratchet & Clank and Resistance. The year is 2014 and Insomniac has opted to lend their creative talents to Microsoft’s next-gen machine. Their major contribution to the Xbox One comes in the form of an incredible open-world shooter called Sunset Overdrive.

Sunset Overdrive’s plot exudes elements of punk attitude and going against the big wigs that hover over the free world. A massive conglomerate known as FizzCo introduces a new energy drink – OverCharge Delirium XT. Those unlucky enough to chug a whole can of this stuff turn into mutated, bloodthirsty creatures. Your custom created character comes in close contact with the anarchy that erupts as the entire city is closed off to the world, leaving you and some fellow survivors to fend off these disgusting mutants. The story here is fun to follow thanks to jokes that always hit the mark, a wide range of interesting protagonists and antagonists, and several nods to modern pop culture.

Sunset Overdrive

Sunset Overdrive takes place within a huge open world. The conveniently named Sunset City looks like a punk rock poster come to life within a sprawling metropolis, with huge parks, hundreds of apartment buildings, enormous skyscrapers and an entire network of power lines, streets and alleyways between them, all pulsing with vibrant colors and lights. But the size of Sunset City isn’t about setting alone; Moving your hero around Sunset City provides half of the fun. Your character can boost through the air, bounce off of cars, skate alongside rails and perform an impressive array of parkour stunts. The feeling of constant motion and racking up your temporary boost meter by doing tricks adds so much to an open world setting that has become more of a convention than an exciting feature in most AAA titles. If there are any barriers to jumping straight into Sunset City it’s the controls, which take some getting used to, and a wonky camera that can be a hazard while you’re careening down the street and trying to focus on a specific point of interest.

The majority of Sunset Overdrive is composed of main story missions, traversal challenges, tower defense mini games and a myriad of smaller side missions. Each task is a joy to play through, thanks to an abundance of variety to be found in each subset. One minute you’re taking down a pissed off FizzCo mascot and the next you’re using a wrecking ball to smash tons of invading mutants. The mission variety here offers hours of gameplay. The multiplayer modes are just as engaging. Defending your base against swarms of energy drink filled mutant with human allies never grows tiresome.

Sunset Overdrive

If there’s one thing we love about Insomniac Games, it has to be the developer’s creative collection of zany weaponry. Sunset Overdrive is packed with a ton of weapons that you wish you could stock up on for the zombie apocalypse, including a shotgun that shoots flame rounds, a harpoon gun that releases a pool of overcharge, a lethal bowling ball rocket launcher and a vinyl-launching machine gun. Each weapon feels distinct and fun to use, but it becomes clear pretty quickly that some guns are better than others. It’s easy to get attached to certain weapons because of their ability to down enemies more quickly. While there’s always the option to level up and upgrade each weapon, if the one you like happens to be fairly low on damage output, it’ll never match the firepower of its contemporaries.

The better implemented systems at play in this shooter are the use of amps and overdrives. These permanent boosters make your character stand out by adding special attributes to weapons and abilities. Equipping your melee weapon with the ability to send out flames, for example, mixes things up enough to make every subsequent enemy encounter feel fresh and new. The name of the game is mixing and matching different overdrives to power up your weapon classes and raise your defense against certain enemies.

Sunset Overdrive

Sunset Overdrive is one of the killer apps finally available on the Xbox One. The game’s personality-filled open world, rocking soundtrack, cool array of weaponry and never-ending variety of missoins make Sunset Overdrive a once-in-a-lifetime experience.


Images: Insomniac Games