GameStop says it accepted more than 80,000 items during this weekend's 'Trade Anything Day' event — and shared images with IGN of the weirdest items it accepted, including a bobcat, a goose, and a physical Netflix disc for the Nintendo Wii.
The chain's big trade-in event was the latest publicity stunt from the company, this time designed to highlight its trade-in program that provides customers with store credit or cash for a range of home entertainment items.
Normally, this range would not extend to taxidermied animals, road signs, or people's artwork of their pets with hair like Snoop Dogg. But this past Saturday, December 6, GameStop advertised it would provide (some) credit for (almost) anything its customers cared to bring in.
In a statement to IGN, GameStop ranked its "more memorable trades" from stores across the country as including items such as "a tiny Jesus," "a speed limit sign," Air Jordans, and tapes of Friends on VHS.
Over on social media, customers celebrated shifting various unwanted items in exchange for credit, including McDonalds Grinchmas socks, and what looked to be a replica of the United States Declaration of Independence. Another customer, seemingly joking, claimed they tried to trade-in a live pet dog, which they said had been refused.
Perhaps most bizarre of all were the taxidermied goose and bobcat — both of which appear to have seen better days. Photos of both lie above, alongside some of the other traded-in items that GameStop accepted.
Last week, GameStop hit the headlines for another trade-in story, as it paid out more than $30,000 for a rare Pokémon card. According to the retailer, that transaction was evidence its trade-in program offered fair value — though it simultaneously admitted the card had actually been worth at least $3,000 more. "Any trolls who publicly claim that GameStop trade-in values are bad are hereby factually and demonstrably incorrect," the chain stated.
James Gunn has announced that Supergirl will get its debut trailer this week, while offering a tease of what’s to come.
Hot on the heels of the reveal of the Supergirl costume at CCXP 2025 in São Paulo, Brazil, the DC Studios co-CEO confirmed the trailer release alongside a brief snippet of footage showing Kara Zor-El patiently waiting for a spaceship to land next to her. It is a sort of intergalactic bus stand? If so, where is Supergirl traveling to? Supergirl, played by Game of Thrones spin-off House of the Dragon star Milly Alcock, is seen wearing sunglasses, wind blowing her hair and coat as the spaceship lands. She doesn’t look in the best of moods. She might even be hungover from a big night.
Supergirl is heavily inspired by Tom King and Bilquis Evely's comic, Woman of Tomorrow, which features a very different Supergirl than audiences are perhaps accustomed to. In July, Gunn said the DC Universe version of Supergirl is “a total mess.”
As revealed in this summer’s DCU kickstarter Superman, Supergirl got drunk on a planet bathed in the light of a red sun (it’s impossible for Superman or any Kryptonian to get drunk on Earth due to the empowering effects of our yellow sun). But beyond this, clearly Supergirl is suffering from mental health issues that are driving her to drink, the result of a very different upbringing compared to her cousin’s.
“I mean, I think as we learn, she's had a completely different background from Superman,” Gunn continued. “A much more difficult background. He's had this wonderful upbringing by these two parents that loved him and were very healthy. And her background was much different than that. And she's ended up different than her cousin.”
“In our story, we have Superman who was sent to Earth and raised by incredibly loving parents,” Gunn has explained. “Kara was on Krypton. She was on a piece of Krypton that drifted away from the planet and she lived there for the first 14 years of her life in a horrible situation where she watched everyone around her die. So, she’s a much harsher and more f***ed up Supergirl than you’ve been used to thus far.”
Supergirl has a June 26, 2026 release date, so you'd imagine it's safe from any potential move from Netflix to release it on the streaming platform around or soon after launch.
Wesley is Director, News at IGN. Find him on Twitter at @wyp100. You can reach Wesley at wesley_yinpoole@ign.com or confidentially at wyp100@proton.me.
Shenmue developer Ys Net has threatened legal action over a widely-circulated video designed to look like leaked footage of Shenmue 4.
The footage popped up on social media last week and was promptly shared by numerous websites, even as questions regarding the video's origins and authenticity swirled.
Now, Ys Net has released a statement to confirm that the footage "has absolutely no connection" to itself and uses the company's logo without permission. Additionally, Ys Net claimed that such acts "may amount to trademark infringement and unfair competition" and therefore it was now preparing "appropriate measures" and exploring legal options.
Breaking News ‼️
A trailer for Shenmue IV appears to have been leaked from Sega. It is not yet verified by Sega but it seems to be real. pic.twitter.com/GMOlFFgCuw
While some fans took the lengthy "Shenmue 4" clip as too elaborate to be fake, others pointed to a handful of wonky animation effects and its fan-baiting story to suggest it was an elaborate creation made by a fan using generative AI.
While generative AI and deepfake technology are nothing new, the past few months have seen a fresh generation of tools such as Sora 2 and Google's Nano Banana Pro pump out generated content that's now increasingly difficult to distinguish from the real thing. Last week's Shenmue 4 video is, seemingly, yet another example of this.
"Ys Net Inc. has confirmed that a video has been posted on social media which uses our company logo without permission, falsely giving the impression that it is an an official 'Shenmue 4' related video produced by us," the company wrote. "This video has absolutely no connection to Ys Net. Furthermore, at this time, Ys Net has not released any trailers, footage or other promotional materials related to 'Shenmue 4.'
"We recognize that the unauthorized use of our logo, and any act that misleads viewers into believing such content is official, constitutes a serious issues that may amount to trademark infringement and unfair competition. W are currently working with relevant parties and preparing appropriate measures, including potential legal action.
"We sincerely apologize to our fans and all related parties for any confusion this may have caused. We will continue to ensure the proper and accurate dissemination of information, and we ask for your understanding and cooperation."
"Rejoining Ryo Hazuki’s quest to avenge his father is exciting, but Shenmue 3 feels like a game that has ignored the innovation and progress of the last 20 years of video game development," IGN wrote in our Shenmue 3 review, scoring the game 5/10.
Tom Phillips is IGN's News Editor. You can reach Tom at tom_phillips@ign.com or find him on Bluesky @tomphillipseg.bsky.social
Alien: Earth creator Noah Hawley has publicly stated that the TV spinoff series will not feature a crossover with Predator, ruling out an appearance from the Yautja in Season 2 and beyond.
But it seems Alien: Earth will not join the crossover party. Hawley recently confirmed he is “not coordinating” a Predator appearance in the Alien spinoff TV show with Trachtenberg, who he says he has only met once.
“No, not onto the show, I don’t think,” Hawley said of the possibility of a Predator crossover on the Smartless podcast. “I think Dan Trachtenberg, who made Prey and has made the Badlands movie — you know, I loved Prey. I think he’s doing a great job with that franchise. He clearly has a plan there. I’ve met Dan once, we’re not kind of coordinating any of that stuff. So, it’s not really my plan to do it.”
While Alien: Earth is clearly out there in the vacuum of space doing its own thing, Trachtenberg sounds full speed ahead on realizing his vision of a Predator Cinematic Universe. Trachtenberg, who directed franchise reviver Prey and the animated film Killer of Killers before the record-breaking Predator: Badlands, is clearly building towards something, with characters from previous films in the franchise popping up in cameo form across his various Predator projects. Indeed, at the end of Killer of Killers we see Arnold Schwarzenegger's iconic Predator character Dutch in stasis, just begging to be thawed for an all-star team up at some point in the future.
While Trachtenberg is keeping his cards close to his chest in terms of his next Predator movie, he told Variety in a recent interview that his intention is that each Predator movie is “a complete thought,” and has learnt a valuable lesson from the Marvel Cinematic Universe.
“It can all go out the door once we start putting pen to paper on stuff, but I’ve looked as far as I could to feel comfortable about what I’m doing,” Trachtenberg said. “Every movie is a complete thought, not that much unlike the early Marvel stuff before the first Avengers movie, where it’s like, those are great movies, and lo and behold, we’re actually setting up that things could come together in a delicious way. But they weren’t like, ‘See how everything’s interconnected like crazy all of a sudden!’ So I’m trying to learn that lesson and make sure that any of these movies that we do are awesome ideas for movies on their own.”
Variety then pressed Trachtenberg on the possible of tying all his threads together to form an Avengers-style payoff, since be brought the movie up.
“It’s hard,” he responded. “It’s fun to geek out and think, ‘Oh my god, wouldn’t it be cool if…,’ even on a movie that you’d never expect that to happen in. But it’s only cool if the journey there is equally worth taking.”
Wesley is Director, News at IGN. Find him on Twitter at @wyp100. You can reach Wesley at wesley_yinpoole@ign.com or confidentially at wyp100@proton.me.
Metal Gear Solid and Death Stranding developer Hideo Kojima says his upcoming horror game, OD, is "challenging" to develop because, unlike his prior games, this one required a change in how he makes games "from the ground up."
OD isn't the first time Kojima has dabbled in horror, of course. P.T. is his uniquely terrifying spin on the horror genre, presented via a home filled with unexpected encounters and bizarre mysteries. In the end, P.T. revealed itself to be a "Playable Trailer" for the secret project Silent Hills, which never came to fruition. For many — myself included — it's considered one of the scariest video game experiences of all time.
The mysterious game will star Dungeons & Dragons: Honor Among Thieves' Sophia Lillis, Hunters' Udo Kier, and Euphoria's Hunter Schafer, with the trailer showcasing Lillis' character in a spooky house, lighting candles before meeting a malevolent figure.
Now, talking to ananweb, as translated by Automaton, Kojima admitted that he's not entirely sure that OD "will work out," but did suggest that there are plenty of clues packed into the trailer.
"I can’t say exactly what it is yet, nor do I know if it will work out. We’ve created stealth games and delivery games which were unlike anything before, but system-wise, they were similar to other games," Kojima said. "This time, we’re trying to change the service model from the ground up, so it should be quite challenging.
"We’ve packed the trailer full of hints, so if you keep thinking about it, you might figure it out," he added.
In October, IGN reported that The Wachowskis, the writers and directors behind the Matrix movies, once asked Metal Gear creator Hideo Kojima to design a Matrix video game, but publisher Konami reportedly turned it down. "The Wachowskis were big fans of Kojima," Konami Digital Entertainment VP of licensing, Christopher Bergstresser, said at the time. "So Kazumi Kitaue, Kojima, Aki Saito (who still works with Kojima), and I were at the Konami HQ, and we got a call from the Wachowskis, who wanted to come in and meet with Kojima. So they did!"
Kojima responded to the claim just a few hours later, saying he was "surprised" to read the news, insisting: "no one ever told me such a conversation had taken place."
Vikki Blake is a reporter for IGN, as well as a critic, columnist, and consultant with 15+ years experience working with some of the world's biggest gaming sites and publications. She's also a Guardian, Spartan, Silent Hillian, Legend, and perpetually High Chaos. Find her at BlueSky.
In 2023, Blumhouse’s Five Nights at Freddy’s, which adapts the hugely popular video game series by Scott Cawthon, became the highest-grossing horror film of the year. Now, two years later, Five Nights at Freddy’s 2 has earnt a huge $109 million at the global box office during launch weekend. While that isn't as big as Five Nights at Freddy’s $160 million box office debut, it's enough to take the number one spot at the domestic box office with an impressive $63 million haul.
The box office success comes amid one of the biggest Rotten Tomatoes critic-audience score divides ever. On the review score aggregator, Five Nights at Freddy's 2 has just 12% on the Tomatometer from 84 reviews from critics, whereas it has 88% on the Popcornmeter, which tracks user review sentiment. IGN’s Five Nights at Freddy's 2 review returned a 3/10. We said: “Five Nights at Freddy's 2 gives sequels, video game adaptations, and gateway horror movies a bad name.”
But Universal Pictures said it expects continued box office momentum for the film, “fueled by strong social media buzz and word-of-mouth.”
Five Nights at Freddy's 2 secured a number of domestic box office records, including becoming the second-largest horror opening of 2025 behind only The Conjuring: Last Rites. With this debut, Blumhouse–Atomic Monster now holds four of the top 10 biggest horror openings of the year (The Conjuring: Last Rites, Five Nights At Freddy’s 2, Black Phone 2, and The Monkey).
Domestically, it’s also the highest opening weekend for a PG-13 horror film in 2025, surpassing Predator: Badlands, and it had a record-breaking post-Thanksgiving opening, now the highest ever at the domestic box office, ahead of The Last Samurai. And finally, it’s the biggest December horror opening domestically, topping Scream 2.
Scream star Matthew Lillard, who plays William Afton, has already spoken about his hope that Five Nights at Freddy's 3 gets made, and with this box office success it now seems likely. “Our hope is that we get to do three films. That’s always been the plan. Everything is dependent on how the movie does in theaters,” Lillard said.
Wesley is Director, News at IGN. Find him on Twitter at @wyp100. You can reach Wesley at wesley_yinpoole@ign.com or confidentially at wyp100@proton.me.
Pirates of the Caribbean star Johnny Depp has been given a custom piece of artwork showing his fan-favorite character Captain Jack Sparrow in the style of One Piece, drawn by the anime's creator Eiichiro Oda.
Depp was presented with the artwork, printed on a Japanese door curtain, by Hiroaki Hirata — the actor who dubs Jack Sparrow in the country, and who also voices One Piece's Sanji.
During a brief appearance on stage at Tokyo Comic Convention 2025, Hirata told Depp that he had "got this designed by my comic artist friend." Grinning, Depp commented: "I just want to cover myself in it," before disappearing behind the curtain and popping back out again.
Johnny Depp made an appearance onstage today at Tokyo Comic Convention 2025. Hiroaki Hirata, the VA for Sanji and Depp’s JP dub actor, appeared, “I have a friend who draws a certain manga about pirates..,” before presenting Depp with noren curtain of Jack Sparrow drawn by Oda!!😍 pic.twitter.com/LIGJJD4lXx
Depp then wrapped up his appearance by thanking fans for their ongoing support. "I feel as though there are more of you than there are, but that could just be part of my brain or maybe I'm lying in a hospital bed ill and none of this is happening, I don't know," Depp said. "But while it's happening, while I'm experiencing seeing all of these faces out here, thank you, thank you, for your respect, your love."
After a number of years away from the spotlight following his high-profile legal issues with former wife Amber Heard, Depp has been linked to a string of projects as the actor seeks a career comeback. In October, it was reported that Depp would play Ebenezer Scrooge in a new adaptation of Charles Dickens' beloved A Christmas Carol for Paramount Pictures, due to release on November 13, 2026.
But, of course, it's Depp's iconic role as Captain Jack Sparrow in Pirates of the Caribbean which fans are most keen to whether the actor will reprise. And, as long-gestating plans for a sixth entry in the swashbuckling blockbuster series finally begin to materialize, there's fresh signs that Depp could return.
There have been encouraging words from Depp's former cast members, too. In June, Orlando Bloom, who plays blacksmith-turned-pirate Will Turner in the franchise, said: "I personally think it'd be great to get the band back together. That would be great, but there are always different ideas, and so we'll see where it lands." For now, Pirates of the Caribbean 6 currently lacks any kind of formal announcement or release date.
Image credit: Jun Sato/WireImage via Getty.
Tom Phillips is IGN's News Editor. You can reach Tom at tom_phillips@ign.com or find him on Bluesky @tomphillipseg.bsky.social
A GameStop listing for Resident Evil Requiem has stated that the game's Deluxe Edition will include costumes for a shock second character — and no, it's not who you might think.
Over the past year, the internet has been waiting for Capcom to confirm that Resident Evil hero Leon S. Kennedy is in Resident Evil Requiem as a second playable character. There have been rumors, there have been AI image leaks, and there have been increasingly cryptic teases from Capcom itself.
And it's against this backdrop that fans have been left stunned, as GameStop's Resident Evil Requiem Deluxe Edition listing has gone live and mentioned exclusive content for... Rosemary Winters.
Rosmary Winters?! The daughter of Resident Evil 7 and Village protagonist Ethan Winters, Rosemary initially appears in the latter game as a baby, though has a starring role in that game's Shadows of Rose expansion, set in the future when she is a teenager.
Her inclusion here, if GameStop's listing is indeed to be believed, is a huge curveball for Resident Evil fans — as Requiem has so far been pitched as an entry that ties the series back to its roots in Raccoon City. Indeed, Capcom has even said that it wanted the game to tie up older plot threads (such has what happened to Umbrella) rather than focus on characters from more recent games. But perhaps it sees Rosemary as an opportunity to close off those, too.
GameSpot seems to have accidentally just posted more Deluxe Edition content for Resident Evil Requiem, which includes some spoilers, including Mercenaries Mode, Grace having a "FBI Visor" mechanic, & two planned story DLC for RE9. pic.twitter.com/7HoZbqTUzp
— AestheticGamer aka Dusk Golem (@AestheticGamer1) December 7, 2025
GameStop's listing states the Deluxe Edition includes a "'Morphic Visor' cosmetic filter for Rose's visor" and the "Shadow Walker' costume pack: 3 exclusive outfits for Rosemary Winters." There's also mention of two additional story scenarious and a "major" Mercenaries mode update, included in an expansion pass. None of this content is officially announced.
The listing has come as such a surprise to fans that there is some skepticism over its legitimacy — even as it sits on the website of GameStop, one of the world's biggest video game retailers. Fan speculation has run the gamut here — that the retailer has been hacked, or the entry updated by a rogue employee just to watch fans react as they are now doing. Or, alternatively, it's real — and an accident, or even yet another canny piece of marketing from the chain.
And as for Leon? Well, there's certainly no sign in GameStop's listing. What does this mean for his inclusion? Well, if GameStop's listing is accurate, simply that he's not a part of the Deluxe Edition content.
Whatever's going on, all eyes will be on Resident Evil Requiem's appearance at The Game Awards later this week, where Capcom is expected to tease fans with more on the game, now just a few months from launch. Will we see Leon? Will we see Rose? IGN will be reporting live — and in the meantime, we've contacted GameStop for comment.
Tom Phillips is IGN's News Editor. You can reach Tom at tom_phillips@ign.com or find him on Bluesky @tomphillipseg.bsky.social
Katsuhiro Harada has announced his departure from Bandai Namco having worked on the Tekken series for 30 years.
The 55-year-old Japanese video game developer legend, who worked on all the Tekken games right up until last year’s Tekken 8, said in a statement posted to social media that the loss of close friends in his personal life and the retirement or death of senior colleagues had caused him to reflect on the time he has left as a creator. Advice from Ken Kutaragi — the "father of PlayStation" — supported Harada in making the decision, he said. Harada failed to reveal what he plans to do next, but he did not say he was retiring.
Harada has had a somewhat frought relationship with the Tekken series and indeed Bandai Namco in recent years, and has spoken openly about the development difficulties he's endured while at the company. Most recently, Tekken 8 has caused a great deal of friction between players and the development team, and Harada has stepped in multiple times on social media to address fan concern.
Perhaps the most high-profile example of this came in October last year, when Harada addressed a row over the sale of a premium DLC stage for Tekken 8 after fans accused Bandai Namco of “corporate greed.” His explanation for the DLC stage basically came down to his role on Tekken within Bandai Namco, and his separation from the business side of the operation to focus on development. This structural set-up was a mistake, Harada admitted in a tweet he eventually deleted, and he confirmed plans to reorganize not only the Tekken business but his role within it to ensure community expectations were met in the future.
Here's what Harada said, at the time:
The Tekken project is divided into two companies: a game development studio and a publisher that is responsible for game sales (at the time of the development and release of Tekken 7, the development and publishing companies were not separate).
As some of you may know, I moved to the Development Studio side a few years ago, and have been focusing on maximizing the quality of the content/tech/graphics etc...
The development side and publishing side each have their own roles, and there are differences in the way they think and the responsibilities, I who should be the one to act as a bridge between the two, have not been able to properly participate in the publishing (sales) decision-making process for Tekken. As a result, I think that there were parts of the process that did not take the Tekken community's opinion into account.
I think I failed to create an organizational structure that would allow me to oversee things beyond my own position.
One of my roles was to listen to the opinions of the community and reflect them not only in the content but also in the out-game, but I was clearly becoming passive, worrying about the relationships between companies and not exercising my role.
From now on, I will review this structure and change it to one that values the community as it did in the past.
I’d like to share that I’ll be leaving Bandai Namco at the end of 2025.
With the TEKKEN series reaching its 30th anniversary—an important milestone for a project I’ve devoted much of my life to—I felt this was the most fitting moment to bring one chapter to a close.
My roots lie in the days when I supported small local tournaments in Japanese arcades and in small halls and community centers overseas.
I still remember carrying arcade cabinets by myself, encouraging people to “Please try TEKKEN,” and directly facing the players right in front of me.
The conversations and atmosphere we shared in those places became the core of who I am as a developer and game creator.
Even as the times changed, those experiences have remained at the center of my identity.
And even after the tournament scene grew much larger, many of you continued to treat me like an old friend—challenging me at venues, inviting me out for drinks at bars.
Those memories are also deeply precious to me.
In recent years, I experienced the loss of several close friends in my personal life, and in my professional life I witnessed the retirement or passing of many senior colleagues whom I deeply respect.
Those accumulated events made me reflect on the “time I have left as a creator.”
During that period, I sought advice from Ken Kutaragi—whom I respect as though he were another father—and received invaluable encouragement and guidance.
His words quietly supported me in making this decision.
Over the past four to five years, I’ve gradually handed over all of my responsibilities, as well as the stories and worldbuilding I oversaw, to the team, bringing me to the present day.
Looking back, I was fortunate to work on an extraordinary variety of projects—VR titles (such as Summer Lesson), Pokkén Tournament, the SoulCalibur series, and many others, both inside and outside the company.
Each project was full of new discoveries and learning, and every one of them became an irreplaceable experience for me.
To everyone who has supported me, to communities around the world, and to all the colleagues who have walked alongside me for so many years, I offer my deepest gratitude.
I’ll share more about my next steps at a later date.
Thank you very much for everything.
Harada joined Namco (long before the acquisition that created the Bandai Namco we know today) in the early '90s to work on Tekken's arcade versions, which always launched first before console ports were released. He spent much of his time visiting Japanese arcades to check how Tekken was being played out in the wild, essentially living at the office.
At the time, Harada was a junior member of staff, but over the course of several years he worked his way up the chain to become the director of Tekken and the face of the franchise, attending community events while wearing his trademark sunglasses and making a fist — a reference to Tekken's tagline, 'The King of Iron Fist,' — for photo opps.
1998's Tekken 3, which is considered by many to be one of the greatest fighting games of all time, was the first Harada worked on as director and a smash hit, selling at least 8.36 million PlayStation copies worldwide. It became the PS1's fifth best-selling game ever ahead of the likes of Tomb Raider, Metal Gear Solid, and Resident Evil 2.
Harada's exit comes at a crossroads for Tekken. Tekken 8 sold 3 million copies a year from release, according to Bandai Namco, which said the game was selling at a faster pace than Tekken 7. But we haven't had a sales update since January, and Bandai Namco has yet to announce new DLC characters for a potential Season 3. Will Bandai Namco release a Tekken 9 any time soon?
Photo by SIA KAMBOU/AFP via Getty Images.
Wesley is Director, News at IGN. Find him on Twitter at @wyp100. You can reach Wesley at wesley_yinpoole@ign.com or confidentially at wyp100@proton.me.
Codes for The Forge will grant you additional rerolls if RNG isn't on your side and you don't get one of the best classes on your initial rerolls. In this RPG Roblox experience, you'll be able to play as a human, goblin, dragonborn, and more. Each race has its unique perks, influencing stats such as health, damage, attack power, and more.
It's no surprise that The Forge focuses heavily on mining. The core gameplay centers around mining for ores, in the hopes of finding rare ores to forge powerful weapons and armor. You'll then throw those ores into a forge, where the blend of resources you use allows you to make items with special traits and designs.
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Codes for Roblox experiences are typically case-sensitive, so the best way to ensure you've got a working code is to directly copy it from this article. We check all codes before we upload them, so you can guarantee they're working. Just double-check that you haven't copied over an extra space!
How to Get More Codes for The Forge
We regularly check and test new codes for popular Roblox experiences, so the best way to get more codes for The Forge is to visit this article. But if you want to mine for codes yourself, then the Discord server for The Forge is the best place to go.
When Is the Next Update or Event for The Forge?
The Forge has just released in beta and is currently celebrating its Release Event. No updates have been currently announced, but the creators are teasing a Christmas Event with special rewards. As well as other planned updates later like adding guilds, guild islands, new quests, and more.
Starting Saturday, December 6 to Monday, December 8, The Forge will be running The Forge Weekend! event. During this time, you'll get an extra boost to luck and free rerolls.
Lauren Harper is an Associate Guides Editor. She loves a variety of games but is especially fond of puzzles, horrors, and point-and-click adventures.
Fallout fans, here is something really special for you today. YouTube’s ‘SODAZ’ has shared a 45-minute fan film based on the Fallout franchise, called Fallout Operation: Sunburst. Fallout Operation: Sunburst shows intense fighting in the Mojave Desert. SODAZ’s fan-made animation focuses on a tough battle for Helios One, with power armor and smart battlefield tactics. … Continue reading Fallout Operation: Sunburst Is A Must-Watch 45-Minute Fan Film→
Modder ‘XtremeV’ has released a new cool tool for Grand Theft Auto 5 Enhanced that enables large pedestrian crowds. Thanks to this mod, the city in GTA 5 will now feel more alive, dense, and in line with what you’d see in a modern-day open-world game. Going into more details, this mod provides full customization … Continue reading New GTA 5 Enhanced Mod Enables Large Pedestrian Crowds→
The Augery is upon us: hide your kids, hide your wife.
Every Pennywise cycle ends in a horrible mass casualty event and, of all of them, the burning of the Black Spot is probably the most well-known to fans thanks to its connection to the Hanlon family and prominent mentions in Andy Muschietti’s It: Chapter One. Muschietti returns to the directors’ chair this week at a critical juncture for the show and, befitting the bizarre alchemy of the show’s horror, drama, and King fan service, the stuff that works best about the first season’s penultimate episode might surprise you.
Though “The Black Spot” has last week’s cliffhanger ending to get to, the episode prologues with another substantial flashback to 1908 and the traveling circus that visited Derry, where the local kids are delighting in the stylings of one Pennywise the Dancing Clown (Bill Skarsgård). But this is not your grandpappy’s shapeshifting monster: after a very brief appearance last week, Welcome to Derry finally gives It fans their first real look at Bob Gray, the performer whose whole vibe It decided to co-opt all those years ago. And what a vibe it is.
Bill Skarsgård’s performance of the human Pennywise is a rousing high-wire balancing act unto itself, one which not only evokes the scary intensity the character’s famous for but, more impressively, modulates the form of the demonic dancing clown into a believably human, turn-of-the-century performer whose glory days are long past. Skarsgård cavorts around with Pennywise’s signature ragdoll fluidity but tones the throaty voice down, preserving the aesthetic shape of Pennywise and yet filling it with a sensibility that may still feel off-kilter, but probably no more off-kilter than some of the other clowns running around in 1908. Special mention has to go to the costume design and makeup departments, as well: Bob Gray’s Pennywise looks great. While the outfit is cleaner, it’s the ill-fitting hairpiece and lighter makeup that really sell what a reality-based Pennywise would be like.
This entire dynamic is captured as Pennywise performs an Up-style pantomime for the group of assembled children, which hints at the early death of his wife and performing partner, who went by, say it with me now, Periwinkle. Young Ingrid (Emma-Leigh Cullum) helps her dad by pulling strings behind the scenes, giving Pennywise/Bob the chance to snatch at growing flowers (some nice, clean thematic imagery right there) before tearfully saying goodbye to a floating marionette dress and collapsing in tears at his wife’s grave. You know, kid stuff! While the children are fascinated by Pennywise’s performance, they still bum rush him and try to beat the snot out of him, which does reveal Bob’s resentment towards his current circumstances.
But in perhaps the most shocking twist of the whole season… Bob Gray seems to be a genuinely loving father to Ingrid, even if he hits the bottle a little too often. Bob delights in the painted face and costume with which Ingrid presents him, awkwardly passing his late wife’s Periwinkle moniker on to her before realizing that Ingrid may want to pick her own name. But Ingrid loves this idea, excitedly taking on the mantle. The sensitivity and affection between these two gives the moment where It takes Bob a surprising sense of tragedy, as a poorly lit vagabond child leads Pennywise the Dancing Clown to his death in the western woods. As Dick Hallorann once said, “It all comes around. Ka is a wheel.”
The action moves to back to 1962, with Clint Bowers (Peter Outerbridge) leading his armed, masked lynch mob into the Black Spot demanding Hank Grogan (Stephen Rider) in return for the rest of the patrons’ safety. Though Hank’s ready to give himself up, the Black airmen here aren’t about to let these good ol’ boys take Hank without a fight… but that’s exactly what they get and it does not go their way. Chaos erupts as Bowers and his mob lock the doors and firebomb the place, giving way to stressfully choreographed long takes where Muschietti catches glimpses of airmen and their dates being shot through the windows, hit with Molotov cocktails, and succumbing to smoke inhalation. And that’s all before Pennywise enters the fray and starts to feed while the place is still in flames.
Amidst the morass of adult patrons either dying by fire or gunfire, the kids (minus Lilly) struggle to find their way to safety and we bid farewell to Rich Santos (Arian S. Cartaya), who goes out like the brave knight he always dreamed of becoming, protecting his “fair maiden” Marge with his life. Rich uses the old “there’s enough room on the door for both of us” trick to get Marge into the only refuge left in the Black Spot - a refrigerator - as the roof starts to collapse. Their final farewell through the door where they confess their love for each other shows Cartaya and Matilda Lawler at their best, each totally unguarded and grounded in their terrifying circumstances. Now feels like as good a time as any to point out that the legacy of Rich’s sacrifice will reverberate for years to come in Derry: “Marge” being short for Margaret, Margaret being the name of Richie Tozier’s mom and all that…
It’s in the immediate aftermath of the fire that Derry’s resident nightcrawler Ingrid Kersh/Periwinkle emerges just long enough for her to introduce her “dad” to her jerk husband Stan Kersh, and for Pennywise to cut Stan’s head in half with his own cleaver. Here, the absence of that genuine love Bob showed for Ingrid finally hits home, but she comes to that realization too late to prevent herself being glamoured by Pennywise’s deadlights. Madeline Stowe plays this dawning horror just fine, but the moment doesn’t really make all that much sense in the context of how much she seems to know about It’s violent proclivities. It’s felt like Welcome to Derry has been kicking the Periwinkle can down the road all season, and, strong though “The Black Spot’s” prologue may be in its own right, Muschietti doesn’t connect the dots very well here.
There’s still some hope for Periwinkle in the finale though: that creepy, catatonic glance at Will (Blake Cameron James), Ronnie (Amanda Christine), and Marge (Matilda Lawler) as she’s being wheeled away by paramedics suggests she’s ready to get into her new family’s business. Lilly (Clara Stack) better hold that ceremonial dagger close. After all’s said and done, the Augery proves to be intensely horrific and tough-to-watch, but there’s not a lot of room in all the flame and fury for many affecting scares.
Despite the Augery now being complete and It seemingly sated, General Shaw’s (James Remar) decision to “leave the cage door open” by melting down the pillar they’ve recovered (encased in a turtle shell, no less) feels like a turn more rooted in squeezing one last big set-piece out of next week’s season finale than in maintaining the believability of Shaw’s motivations, as most of the turns of this plot thread have. Remar has been a steady hand throughout Welcome to Derry, at times the only part of the military machinery that kept this corner of the story worth revisiting, but even he can’t keep the chaos that ensues once Leroy pulls a gun on the soldiers smelting the pillar on the rails. By the time Shaw’s trying to explain why defeating “the enemy within” America by striking fear into the hearts of homegrown degenerates, it’s hard to care too much about his reasoning.
It’s hard to imagine looking back favorably on this incohesive military storyline next to the far more interesting goings on in Derry proper.
Welcome to Derry had some interesting directions to take this thread with Shaw and Rose’s (Kimberly Guerrero) shared history in town, but unless next week features a total rug-pull that completely upends Shaw’s thought process here, it’s hard to imagine looking back favorably on this incohesive military storyline next to the far more interesting goings on in Derry proper. The exception to the overall weakness of the military plot, of course, remains Chris Chalk’s Hallorann, whose brawny performance continues to transcend Hallorann’s otherwise limited role as Shaw’s pillar detector. Hallorann has an important part to play during the Black Spot fire, surviving a face-to-face encounter with Pennywise and helping Hank, Will and Ronnie escape with guidance from Sesqui’s (Morningstar Angeline) spirit. But while we get some nice imagery of the encroaching ghosts plaguing him now that his mental lockbox has been opened by Pennywise, Hallorann’s mostly in the background this week – here’s hoping Welcome to Derry puts Hallorann’s (and Chalk’s) Shine to good use in the finale.
With the pillar destroyed, Pennywise is awake for a little mid-hibernation snack, and he’s already got Will in his deadlights and on his plate. Did you know Pennywise slept in a pool of blood and viscera? I didn’t! Looks cool as hell!
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