#score one for the Furi fans SHE’S FINALLY GETTING AN OPENING IN AN ANIME…

[ashitomarisu]

@maestrozaverick sent me more information on this anime series Astro Note and….

AND NOW A MONTAGE OF WHAT I’M FEELING IN THE FORM OF GIFs:

[letterboxd]

The Package.

As the bonkers genre thrill-ride Shadow in the Cloud blasts into the new year, writer and director Roseanne Liang unpacks her love of Terminator 2, watching Chloë Grace Moretz’s face for hours, and the life lesson she learned from Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon’s Cheng Pei-Pei.

Roseanne Liang’s TIFF Midnight Madness winner Shadow in the Cloud landed with a blast of fresh genre energy on VOD platforms on New Year’s Day. It’s A-class action in a B-grade body, cramming plenty into its taut 83 minutes, including: a top-secret package, a freakish gremlin, a hostile bunch of Air Force dudes, outrageous stunts, dogfights and a fake wartime PSA that feels remarkably real.

Throughout, the camera is focused mostly on one face—Chloë Grace Moretz’s, playing British flight officer Maude Garrett—as she tackles all of the above from a claustrophobic ball turret hanging under a B-17 Flying Fortress, on a classified mission over the Pacific Ocean during World War II.

While the film’s tonal swings are confusing to some, schlock enthusiasts and genre lovers on Letterboxd have embraced the film’s intentionally outlandish sensibility, which “makes excellent use of its genre mash to create an unpredictable, guilty pleasure,” says Mirza. Fajar writes that “it felt like the people involved in this project knew how ridiculous it is and gave a hundred and ten percent to make it work. Someday, it will become a cult classic.” Mawbey agrees: “It really goes off the rails in all the best ways during the final third, and the last couple of shots are just perfect.”

Chloë Grace Moretz and her top-secret package in ‘Shadow in the Cloud’.

To most of the world, Liang is a so-called “emerging” director, when in fact, the mother-of-two, born in New Zealand to Chinese parents, has been at this game for the past two decades. She has helmed a documentary and a romantic drama, both based on her own marriage; a 2008 short called Take 3, which preceded Hollywood’s current conversation about representation and harassment; and Do No Harm, the splatter-tastic 2017 short in which her technical chops and fluid feel for action were on full display, and, as recorded in multiple Letterboxd reviews, established her as one to watch.

Do No Harm scored Liang valuable Hollywood representation, whereupon producer Brian Kavanaugh-Jones brought Shadow in the Cloud to her, thinking she might connect with the material. “It did connect with me on a level that is very personal,” Liang tells me. “As a woman of color, as a mother who juggles a lot.” She says Kavanaugh-Jones then went through the process of removing original writer Max Landis from the project. “He felt that Max was not a good fit for this project, or for how we like to run things. We like to be respectful and courteous and kind to each other…”

In several interviews, Liang has said she’s comfortable with film lovers choosing not to watch Shadow in the Cloud based on Landis’s early involvement. What she’s not comfortable with is her own contribution—and that of her cast and crew—being erased. While WGA rules have his name attached firmly to the project, the credit belies the reality: his thin script, reportedly stretched out to 70 pages by using a larger-than-usual font, was expanded and deepened by Liang and her collaborators.

Writer-director Roseanne Liang. / Photo by Dean O’Gorman

That team includes editor Tom Eagles, Oscar nominated for Jojo Rabbit, actor Nick Robinson (the titular Simon in Love, Simon) and Beulah Koale, a star of the Hawaii Five-Oh series. The opening newsreel was created by award-winning New Zealand animation studio Mukpuddy, after a small test audience got weirded out by the sight of a gremlin in a war film, despite well-documented WWI and WWII gremlin mythology. It’s an unnecessary but happy addition. The cartoon style was inspired by Private Snafu, a series of WWII educational cartoons scripted by none other than Dr. Seuss and directed by Looney Tunes legend Chuck Jones.

But the film ultimately hangs on Chloë Grace Moretz, who overcame cabin fever to drive home an adrenaline rush of screen craft, in which the very limits of what’s humanly possible in mid-air are tested (in ways, it must be said, that wouldn’t be questioned if it were Tom Cruise in the role). Liang would often send directions to Moretz’s ball turret via text, while her cast members delivered live dialogue from an off-set shipping container rigged with microphones. “I just never got sick of Chloë’s face and I’ve watched her hundreds, if not thousands of times. You feel her, you are her, she just engages you in a way that a huge fighting scene might not, if it’s not designed well. Giant empty spectacle is less interesting than one person in one spot, sometimes.”

Ambitious and nerdy about film in equal measure, it’s clear there’s much more to come from Liang, and I’m interested in what her most valuable lesson has been so far. Turns out, it’s a great story involving Chinese veteran Cheng Pei-Pei (Come Drink With Me’s Golden Swallow, and Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon’s Jade Fox), whose film training includes a tradition of remaining on set throughout filming.

Roseanne Liang on the set of ‘Shadow in the Cloud’.

That meant that, during filming of Liang’s My Wedding and Other Secrets, Cheng would stay on set when she wasn’t required. “In New Zealand, trailers are a luxury,” Liang explains. “I said ‘Don’t you want to go to the trailer that we arranged for you?’ ‘No, I just want to sit and watch.’ ‘Why do you want to watch it, you’ve seen it hundreds of times!’ And she said ‘I learn something new every time’. To Pei-Pei, the secret of life is constant education and curiosity and learning. Movies are her work and her craft and her life, and she never gets bored. If I can be like her, that’s the life, right?”

Speaking of which, it’s time we put Liang through our Life in Film interrogation.

What’s the film that made you want to become a filmmaker? Terminator 2: Judgment Day is the movie that is at the top of the mountain that I’m climbing. To me it’s the perfect blend of spectacle, action design, smarts and heart. It poses the theory that if a robot can learn the value of humanity then maybe there’s hope for the ships that are us. That’s perennial, and possibly even more pertinent today. It holds a very special place in my heart, along with Aliens, Mad Max: Fury Road, Die Hard, La Femme Nikita and Léon: The Professional.

What’s your earliest memory of watching a film? I have a cassette tape that my dad made for my grandma in 1981 (he’d send tapes back to his mother in Hong Kong). I was three years old and he had just taken us to see The Empire Strikes Back in the cinema. And he can’t talk to my grandma because I’m just going on and on about R2-D2. I will not shut up about R2-D2 and he’s like, “Yes, yes I’m trying to talk to your grandmother,” and I’m like, “But Dad! Dad! R2-D2!” So it’s actually an archive, but it’s become my memory.

What’s the most romantic film you’ve ever seen? Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind. It’s not the sexiest, but it’s the most romantic. That last scene, those last words where she goes “But you’re gonna be like this forever and I’m gonna be like this forever…” and he just goes “okay”. That to me is one of the most romantic scenes I’ve ever seen. It is a perfect movie.

And the scariest? If it’s a horror movie, the most scared I’ve been is The Ring. I was watching it on a VHS and I was lying on a beanbag on the floor and I was paralyzed with fear. I couldn’t move, because I felt that if I moved she’d see me! Also, American Psycho just came to me this year. I caught the twentieth anniversary of that movie, which is a terrifying film, and again, possibly more relevant now than when it was made. The scariest film that’s not a horror is Joker. It scared me how much I liked it. When I came out of the movie, I was like, “I’m scared because I kind of love it, but it’s horrible. It’s so irresponsible. I don’t wanna like this movie but goddamn, I feel it.” Like, I wanted to go on the streets and rage. In a way we’re all the Joker, we’re all the Batman. That duality, that yin and yang, is inside everyone of us. It’s universal.

What is the film that slays you every time, leaving you in a heap of tears? This is a classic one, the opening sequence of Up. The first ten minutes of Up just destroy me every time. I also saw Soul a couple of days ago and I was with the whole family and I, just, if I wasn’t with the whole family I would have been ugly-sobbing. I had a real ache in my throat after the movie because I was trying to stop [myself] from sobbing.

Tell me your favorite coming-of-age film, the film that first gave you ‘teenage feelings’? Pump Up the Volume. Christian Slater! Off the back of Pump Up the Volume, I fancied myself as a prophet and wrote a theater piece called Lemmings. Obviously the main character was a person who could see through the façade, and everyone else was following norms. “No one understands me, I’m a prophet!” So clearly I have this shitty, Joker-style megalomaniac inside of me. It was the worst play, and I don’t know why my teachers agreed for us to do a staging of it!

Christian Slater and Samantha Mathis in ‘Pump Up the Volume’ (1990).

Is there a film that you and your family love to rewatch? We’ve tried to impose our taste on our children, but they’re too young. We showed them The Princess Bride—they didn’t get it. We literally showed our babies Star Wars in their cribs. That’s how obsessive Star Wars fans we were.

Name a director and/or writer that you deeply admire for their use of the artform. I have a slightly weird answer for this. Can I just give love to Every Frame a Painting by Tony Zhou and Taylor Ramos? They are my film school. I was thinking of my love of Edgar Wright, but then I thought of their video essay on Edgar Wright and how to film comedy, and his essay on Jackie Chan and the rhythm of action and then their essay on the Coen Brothers and Shot Reverse Shot. I must have watched that 30 times ahead of the TV show that I’m making now. I started out in editorial and Tony Zhou is an editor and he talks about when to make the cut: it’s an instinct, it’s a feeling, it’s a rhythm. I realized the one thing in common that I could mention about all the films I’ve loved is Every Frame a Painting. It’s their love of movies that comes bubbling out of every single essay that they made that I just wanna shout out at this part of my career.

Were there any crucial films that you turned to in your development for Shadow in the Cloud? Indiana Jones was something that Chloë brought up—she likes the spiffiness and the humor of Indiana Jones. Sarah Connor was our touchstone for the female character. For one-person-in-one-space type stories, I watched Locke quite a lot, to figure out how they shaped tension and story and [kept] us on the edge of our seats when it’s only one person in one space. In terms of superheroes, I came back to Aliens. Not Alien. Aliens. You know, there are two types of people in this world—people who prefer Alien over Aliens, and people who prefer Aliens over Alien. But actually I think I vacillate for different reasons.

Can there be a third type of person, who thinks they’re both great, but Alien³, just, no? Maybe that’s the best group to be in. We don’t need to fight about this, we can love both of them! I was having an argument with James Wan’s company about this, because there’s a rift inside the company of people who prefer Alien over Aliens.

Okay, program a triple feature with your film as one of the three. I don’t know. Ask Ant Timpson!

I’ll ask Ant Timpson. [We did, and he replied: “Well, one has to be the Twilight Zone episode with William Shatner: Nightmare at 20,000 Feet. And then either Life (2017) or Altitude (2010).”]

Thank you Ant! I used to go to his all-nighters as a university student. He is the king of programming things.

Jake Gyllenhaal in ‘Life’ (2017).

It’s strange that we never met at one of his events! Ant would make me dress up in strange outfits and do weird skits between films. (For those who don’t know, Timpson ran the Incredibly Strange Film Festival for many years—now part of the New Zealand International Film Festival—and still runs an annual 24-Hour Movie Marathon.) So what’s a film from those events that sticks in your head as the perfect genre experience with a crowd? It was a movie about a man protecting a woman who was the girlfriend of a mafia boss: A Bittersweet Life. Not only does it have one of the sexiest Korean actors, sorry, not to objectify, but also I actually screenshot a lot of that film for pitch documents. And, do you remember a crazy Japanese movie where someone’s sitting on the floor with a clear umbrella and a woman is lactating milk? Visitor Q by Takashi Miike. I remember just how fucking crazy that was.

Finally, what was the best film you saw in 2020? I haven’t seen Nomadland yet, so keep in mind that I haven’t seen all the films this year. I have three: The Invisible Man, which I thought was just amazing. I thought [writer-director] Leigh Whannell did such a great job. The Half of It by Alice Wu, a quiet movie that I simply just adored. And then the last movie I saw at the cinema was Promising Young Woman. The hype is real.

Related content

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Follow Gemma on Letterboxd

‘Shadow in the Cloud’ is available in select theaters and on video on demand now.

[davidfostercomedyblog]

The Thrill of Defeat: Remembering Dad

In his later years it was rare to get a call from Dad after 6pm, as dinner was followed up with TV and (more) wine, a formulaic pair that apparently facilitates the body’s evening intention the way coffee and eggs do its mornings, even more so with age.

It took us a while, but my brother and I both eventually learned to avoid calling him after this time, lest be reminded, via the perfect storm of decreased attention span and auditory acuity, of our father’s mortality. Dad became notorious for the abruptly terminated, 40-second phone calls, that always went something like:  

“Hey son, how ya doing? You’re good? Work’s good?”

 “Yeah, Dad, all’s pretty--“

 “Okay, gimme a call this week, I love ya, goodbye.”

“Err… what? Hello?”

So to say it came as a surprise when I saw his name pop up under “incoming” on my phone at around 10:30 one weeknight last summer would be an understatement. I looked in utter confusion at my girlfriend seated next to me on the couch.

“Who is it?” she asked, her eyes big with that classic Jewish worry, unfounded terror, which has been part of what I’ve fallen in love with, probably not so ironically.

“It’s my Dad,” I said, and relief washed over her.

“Hello?”

“Heyyy, son.”

“Hey… Dad,” the skepticism in my response as thick as if he’d walked out on us when I was six and this was the first I’m hearing from him.

“I wanted to talk to you about something about myself, if you have a minute,” and terror washed back over my face. Dad was sensitive and loving, though in typical white man fashion, not much one for emotional communication. He’d smother us with hugs and kisses and recklessly screw up our hair with an affectionate hand, but vulnerable dialogue around self-awareness was not a usual part of his repertoire. “So what could this possibly be about… at 10pm (the Dad equivalent to 4am)?”

“I think,” he started, “and by all means tell me if I’m off here…” (I already presumed he was)… “Have you ever noticed about me… well, I think I may get a bit too affected by the outcome of ballgames, you know? Like the Yankees and Giants… I may get too upset when they lose. Have you ever noticed that about me?” 

My jaw dropped to an open grin as I turned to my girl. It was like Michael Jackson asking if he may have had too much plastic surgery; or Tony Montana in the last scene of Scarface wondering if he has a coke problem. 

After the Giants lost a heartbreaking playoff game to the 49ers in 2002 my mom at the dinner table chose to find the humor in the situation: “Well, at least the Jets are still in it,” she offered as a sarcastic silver lining, knowing full well that Dad hated the Jets even more than he did the Red Sox or Cowboys.

“How would you like a fuckin’ bottle of wine broken over your face?” Dad asked Mom, and the only reason we knew he was joking was his unblemished record of non-violence. Dad was a good man, but an even better Giants fan, with little to no sense of humor around losses and disappointment.

Mom laughed him off; Dad shook his head, smiling in Jack Nicholson-like madness.

“They give me gray hairs, I tell ya, son. They give me gray hairs. I had a full head of black hair before I started watching the Giants, you know that?”

Well, I would hope so. Before you started watching them you were 9 years old.

I have vague childhood memories of dinners taking on a different tone after bad losses, and more vivid, recent memories of Dad cursing out the television if the Yankees give up even one run with a six run lead, all while sitting pretty in first place in the middle of May. I guess if you could say anything for him it’s that he lived in the moment. No matter what was going on in the game or where we were in the season, Dad was invested. A missed free throw or a four-pitch walk, especially after the Yankees had just taken the lead, and Dad’s signature catharsis would appear, a right foot slammed into the floor concurrent with the same side hand slammed into the same side (bad) knee, accompanied of course by the expletive of the moment.

My brother once remarked: “What is that move? I’ve never seen anyone else with that move before.”

That’s Dad’s move.

Dad cared, not just about the Yankees and Giants, and (20th century) Knicks, but that much more about his family, his five kids, which is likely why his passion for the game(s) was so infectious. My friend, Nick Cobb, is a hilarious stand-up comedian, who does a great bit on how absurd it is to be emotionally invested in a sports event, and every time he recites it I’m reminded of how different he and I are; how different people are; and I’m reminded of Dad.

Nick’s absolutely right. It’s illogical and immature, a tad bit insane to feel such fury around a group of guys you’ve never met before scoring less points than another such group of guys just because the former group wear shirts that have your hometown written on them. It’s probably only a notch above the animalistic frequency that propagates slavery and war, and presently our preposterous presidential debacle. Fortunately sports are much more a source of integration and celebration, and although ultimately insignificant in the higher realms of spirituality, they serve a positive purpose, if in no other way as a superficial means towards deeper connection.

In our final meal together Dad played all his classic hits: Asking me about my career, the logistics of my upcoming week, and of course if I’d been watching the Yankees playoff games. Obviously I had, and in his final days (really his final years) sports was the only subject matter about which we seemed to still communicate on an equal plain. Because of his waning faculties coupled with a general lack of understanding of the modern business climate, I often felt unfulfilled by our dialogue around my job; like it was tedious and too surface and any time I tried to delve deeper I’d lose him, frustrated between sympathy for and impatience with my father. It looks quite difficult, growing old, but also in the words of Michael Corleone (in another of our common bonds): “It’s not easy to be a son, Fredo.”

I am my father, through and through, not just according to my mom, but also in my own moments of self-reflection. When Scott Norwood missed wide right and the Giants won Super Bowl 25 Dad spent approximately five minutes crouched over the television set giving Marv Levy the middle finger, screaming at the top of his lungs: “Fuck you, Marv! FUCK YOU!” It’s a memory most etched into my brother’s mind, who was eight at the time, presumably cowering under the living room table; and we’ve since reflected as to what the exact beef was with Marv. As far as we know, Levy was a good guy, a great coach and had never harmed any women, children or small animals. Nevertheless, you wouldn’t have known as much to watch Dad berate him through the screen on what was surely one of the best days of his life.

17 years later when Plaxico Burress caught the game-winning touchdown in Super Bowl 42 to solidify the Giants’ win and ruin the Patriots’ perfect season I sprinted out of my cousin’s bedroom (I’d been watching the final quarter in a dark room by myself while our entire family sat sanely together just ten feet away) and thrust my 180 pound frame into the air to collapse upon my unprepared loved ones on the couch. I hurt my brother’s knee, then ran into the room and destroyed my bed frame. In the days after the parade I was experiencing such severe chest pains that I had to go to the hospital. All tests were negative. I just had to calm down.

My opinion is that one of our main purposes in life is to take as much of our parents’ good as possible, and leave as much of the bad. This is a goal I think I’ve at least matured into in the realm of sports, as I still celebrate the joy of victory, but don’t as much attach myself to the agony of defeat. Whereas I once punched a gaping hole in my bedroom wall when John Starks went 3/19 in Game 7, and had to sit in silent memoriam for almost an hour when Mariano blew the save to the Diamondbacks in ‘01, I find in recent years that I have an easier time moving on.

“It’s just not worth it,” I explained to Dad on the phone. “Like, we’re so lucky to be Giants fans, and God bless us, Yankees fans - overall, we’re quite spoiled, and get the opportunity to celebrate much more often than other fans. And I have you to thank for that! So I think it’s important to keep in mind going into these games that winning is a luxury that we just can’t expect to happen the majority of the time. It’s impossible. This isn’t to be negative, but just a bit realistic in our expectations so as to better, achem… manage our emotions… you know?”

There was a long pause on the other end of the phone. Had he fallen asleep? “Dad?”

“Yeah, I think you’re right… So you have noticed that about me then?”

LOL! “Yes, I think that’s fair to say. I mean, I think it’s great, and it’s a passion you’ve passed down to me, which I appreciate, but I think it’s important to keep things in perspective. Like I may get mad at a playoff game, a win-or-the-season’s-over kind of game, but I don’t allow myself to get angry at a regular season baseball game, of which there are 162! I think that’s an important distinction.”

“Yeah, I think you’re right,” he responded. “I think that’s good advice, son. I’m gonna try to remember that,” and in characteristic fashion he told me he loved me, hung up and was gone, all before I could fully reciprocate: “I love you.”

Nevertheless I believed him. I’d spent years trying to convince him to eat healthier, to drink less (alcohol) and more water, and really never got through. But one five-minute conversation on a random summer weeknight and I suspected it was actually transformative. It was less than two months before he passed away, and it might sound silly, but I wonder if it wasn’t one of the last lessons Dad had to learn before moving on. Everything about it was just so odd, the timing in relation to his death, the timing of the phone call and energy of his response.

Like anyone who’s lost a parent, I think about Dad often, but especially after Yankees wins, which was always the best time to catch him, in good enough spirits to occasionally generate a call doubly as long, even multiple minutes! I realize I miss sharing that with him. I miss being able to connect with him, as after certain games I still observe my mind’s kneejerk reaction: Call Dad – but I can’t anymore. I’m so lucky, so grateful, to have had the father I did for as long as I did, whose good was so good, and bad was at worst just sort of hilarious, and promise to do my best to continue to celebrate like a fool, but also to not adopt his move of the foot slam/hand into knee slam. That’s Dad’s move.

[nightmareonfilmstreet]

Happy 70th Birthday Stephen King: The 10 Best Horror Adaptations

New Post has been published on https://nofspodcast.com/happy-70th-stephen-king-heres-10-best/

Happy 70th Birthday Stephen King: The 10 Best Horror Adaptations

Today our father who art in horror Stephen King turns 70! And I for one thank Maturin, that great big turtle in the sky, every single day that Stephen was born. Just ask yourself “Where would we be without him?” In fact, what would horror be without him?

Stephen King was born in 1947 in Portland Maine. He sold his first professional short story “The Glass Floor” In 1967 while working in an industrial laundry. In 1971, King started teaching high school English, while at nights he continued to write short stories and work on his novels. In 1974 Doubleday published Carrie.  The resulting income allowed him to leave his teaching job to write full-time. Over the next 40 plus years King went on to shape the horror landscape by releasing many genre defining novels including The Shining, Cujo, IT, Salem’s Lot and many more. King has amassed sales of over 350 million books to date, and thankfully isn’t showing any signs of slowing down.

Stephen King is also responsible for some of the most horrifying and nightmare inducing movies ever made. Many of his novels have been adapted into some truly iconic and recognisable horror movies in modern cinema; The Shining, It, Carrie, Christine, and countless others. To celebrate his birthday, a sacred day on my horror calendar, lets countdown my our 10 Stephen King horror movie adaptations.

Selection Criteria

a) Only Horror Movies: – I will only be selecting Stephen’s scary sh*t, so there will be no Green Mile, Shawshank Redemption or Stand By Me. We’re a horror site.

b) The rankings are mine, and are based on how much I liked the film- Not the scope of the cinematography or the maturity of the score blah blah bah. My list. My criteria.

c) I have only ranked movies I have seen. For all I know, Children of the Corn V: Fields of Terror could be the greatest movie ever based within the King-verse, but I haven’t seen it so it’s not on the list!

And without further ado, The List!

  10 – Carrie (1976)

Hi Carrie, rough night?

Carrie White is a shy and sheltered girl, who after a particularly cruel prank unleashes her deadly telekinetic powers to get vengeance at her high school prom.

Let’s face it. This film is bleak. Sissy Spacek plays awkward so well that you grimace at her every interaction. Add to this the fact that she has clearly been systematically domineered and abused by her religious mother whom I’m pretty sure is the most evil character since Joan Crawford in Mommie Dearest. In fact the most uplifting moment in Carrie is when Mrs. White gets graphically and ironically killed; impaled on her own symbolism.

Anyway, Carrie kills everyone and lives happily ever after or something.

For me this film boils down to three scenes ranked by how much they terrified me as an 8-year-old boy.

3. The prom scene = mildly freaking out.

2. The hand out of the grave scene = big jump scare made me close my little eyes.

1. The pig murder scene = didn’t sleep for a week. Every time I closed my eyes i heard that poor piggy crying.

  9 – Secret Window (2004)

Wait, what?

Uh oh, early controversy! This probably won’t be a popular choice, but I loved this movie, and remember: My criteria.

Secret window is a psychological thriller about an author named Mort. Recently divorced, he moves to his upstate New York cabin to work on his writing. While there he meets John Shooter, who accuses him of plagiarism and proceeds to torment him seeking justice.

Johnny Depp and John Turturro are easily two of my favourite actors named John. I will eat anything these two dish up and probably ask for more. Their chemistry really carries this film and Turturro’s accent is just plain fun. The mystery aspect of this movie however is the weak point and by the time the twist is revealed, you’ve probably already guessed it. But the way it’s handled is so entertaining that I didn’t begrudge it at all.

  8 – The Dead Zone (1983)

Whoa Chris, Your sex is on fire!

5 years after a car accident leaves him in a coma, Johnny Smith (Christopher Walken) discovers he has the ability to see people’s secrets through any physical contact. With some deeply unsettling visualizations of his premonitions, we follow Johnny as he attempts to navigate his “Dead Zone” and prevent the untimely deaths of those around him.

If you need more incentive? (ahem, CHRISTOPHER WALKEN) it is also directed by David ‘freaking’ Cronenberg! Don’t even bother with the rest of this list, if you haven’t seen The Dead Zone. Cancel your plans for the evening and watch it now.

  7 – 1408 (2007)

Should’ve got the suite upgrade.

*This movie has two endings and while both versions are good, I only have eyes for the darker ending.

Mike Enslin (John Cusack), a paranormal debunker decides to stay in the Dolphin Hotel’s infamous room 1408.  Not long after checking in Mike learns that the stories surrounding room 1408 may not be as embellished as he first believed.

SPOILER ALERT! this hotel room is really f**king haunted! After he ignores the hotel manager’s (Samuel L Jackson) extremely convincing and rational speech, it doesn’t take Mike very long to realize his monumental error. This movie is tense and unnerving from start to finish. 

  6 – Christine (1983)

Dope ride bro!

A nerdy teenager (Arnie) buys a vintage car (Christine) that has supernatural abilities and a sinister, violent nature. As Arnie’s obsession with Christine develops, his friends notice that the car’s not so pleasant nature is starting to influence its owner.

John Carpenter directs a movie about a kick ass red car, that actually seems possessed by a demon, but don’t let this seemingly campy premise put you off. This movie is awesome as Christine is evil. The badass Red Plymouth Fury owns every scene it’s in with its larger than life presence, deep rumbling voice and inherent menace.

  5 – Pet Sematary (1989)

I’m never making waffles again.

Behind a family home, in Maine, there is an old cemetery that holds the secret to life and death. When Tragedy strikes the Creed family, the lure of this power becomes too tempting to ignore.

Pet Sematary (spelt wrong on purpose) is a movie about a family who move into a new house that’s on a surprising busy road. Soon after they lose their small child in a tragic accident. Louis (Dale Mikiff) learns of the old pet cemetery and it’s apparent ability to bring the dead back to life (yay!) but they also seem to come back a little evil (boo!). This movie is full of fantastic nightmare fuel. I still cringe every time I think of sweet little, creepy AF child, slicing open poor old Jud’s Achilles tendon.

  4 – IT (2017)

So much happiness in one place…

The newest film on the list, and it was only through sheer force of will it wasn’t number 1. For those of you who live under a rock, IT is about a group of kids called ‘The Losers Club’ who are taunted by a monster in the form of an extremely disturbing turn-of-the-century era clown.

This movie is so much fun. Sure, its full of terror. Sure, I haven’t slept in a week. But, it captures the innocence and humour of being a kid so perfectly, it almost made me wish I grew up in Derry….except, of course- for the evil clown trying to eat everyone.

  3 – The Mist (2007)

Oh God, no!

You guessed it- This one is about a strange Mist that descends on a small town (probably in, Oh I don’t know- Maine). Along with the unexplained weather pattern come terrible monsters that pick off the town folk one-by-one. No one knows where it came from or how to get rid of it.

We spend the majority of this film in a grocery store, where the monsters outside are not necessarily the biggest threat. A great creature feature, The Mist is fun, action packed and dramatic (especially that ending!). Actually, maybe you should just press stop once they drive into the mist near the end, because the last 5 minutes is so dark,  it will definitely break your heart.

  2 – Creepshow 2 (1987)

UNCONFIRMED photo of Miley Cyrus at the kids choice awards.

I’m sure this one needs no description, but Creepshow 2 is a horror anthology of tales based on Stephen King stories. The first segment follows a cigar-store Native American statue coming to life to avenge the death of the shop owner and his wife. The Raft features a group of sexy teens travel to a secluded lake to swim and have fun. Problem is there is an evil organism living in the lake that is hungry for some nubile flesh. The final installment follows a woman who hits a hitchhiker with her car and decides to flee the scene, but the victim isn’t inclined to remain dead.

This was my favourite movie growing up! A brilliant collection of twisted, and timeless vignettes. The wrap around animation is a lot of fun too, telling the story of little Billy and his bullies.

  1 – The Shining (1980)

You could’ve just knocked, Jack.

There is no other number one.

In The Shining, Jack Torrance (Jack Nicholson) takes a job as winter caretaker at the isolated Overlook Hotel in Colorado, hoping to cure his writer’s block. Psychic premonitions plague his son Danny. As Jack’s writing goes nowhere, young Danny’s visions become more intense. Jack discovers the hotel has dark secrets and he begins to unravel, terrorizing his family as he spirals downward into madness.

The pamphlet for the Overlook Hotel should just read: Overlook Hotel, where a bunch of jerk ghosts live. Poor Danny, his “Shining” ability along with a childish love of exploration, open him up to some serious spectral harassment. This movie builds tension to perfection. In fact one of my favourite characters in the film is Dick Halloran. When Dick is on-screen there is usually a slight respite from the heavy tension. 

This movie is a classic that every horror fan needs to see at least once.. no, twice.

  Honorable Mentions

Misery, Creepshow, Silver Bullet and Cujo

  Thanks for making my life more entertaining Stephen! And please, keep the nightmares coming! Let us know in the comments below your top Horror Adaptations from Stephen King!

[ethanalter]

Your Complete Guide to the 'Spider-Man: Homecoming' Easter Eggs

Tom Holland as Spider-Man in Spider-Man: Homecoming (Photo: Sony/Marvel Studios)

Beware: This story contains several Spider-Man: Homecoming plot points. Stop reading if you want to avoid spoilers.

You don’t need to be a Spider-Man expert to enjoy the web-slinger’s latest adventure, Spider-Man: Homecoming… but it helps. The first entry in the latest reboot of the 15-year-old franchise is also the first one that’s been made under the direct creative control of Marvel, and the studio has made sure to mine their signature character’s extensive comic book history in the form of fan-friendly Easter eggs. Here’s an explainer on the many shout-outs, callbacks and in-jokes hidden in plain sight throughout Homecoming.

Michael Keaton in Spider-Man: Homecoming (Credit: Sony/Marvel Studios)

What’s Your Damage? Homecoming wastes little time establishing that this new chapter for Spider-Man is part of the ongoing graphic novel known as the Marvel Cinematic Universe. The film opens directly in the wake of the Battle of New York that closed out the all-star 2012 team-up, The Avengers, with staunchly blue-collar salvage company owner Adrian Toomes (Michael Keaton) clearing away the destruction with his trusty team. That is, until a more corporate clean-up crew arrives and kicks them off the job, pink-slipping Toomes with a grievance that sets him on the road to becoming the Vulture. This group is a joint U.S. government/Stark Industries task force called the U.S. Department of Damage Control, a mainstay in Marvel’s comic book universe since the late ’80s. They’ve even scored several of their own miniseries, the first of which featured none other than your friendly neighborhood Spider-Man on the cover of issue No. 1.

Damage Control No. 1 (Photo: Marvel)

In Homecoming, Tyne Daly plays Damage Control’s head honcho, Anne Marie Hoag, a woman whose considerable forthrightness masks a mysterious past. She’s the brainchild of Dwayne McDuffie, the celebrated comic book writer and editor who passed away in 2011. In one memorable Damage Control storyline, Hoag had to turn to Nick Fury to help her company avoid financial ruin. (Someone better tell Samuel L. Jackson to warm up his eye patch again for the next Spider-Man outing.)

Tyne Daly plays Anne Marie Hoag in Spider-Man: Homecoming (Photo: Walter McBride/Getty Images)

Interesting side note: the main events of Homecoming are indicated as taking place eight years after the Battle of New York, which may lead you to assume that the citizens of the MCU are living in the distant future of 2020 even as we’re still languishing in 2017. Not so, says Marvel Studios head, Kevin Feige. “Very rarely do we ever put specific dates on our movies,” he tells Yahoo Movies. “Nowhere in The Avengers will you see it say, ‘2012.’ It more or less corresponds to the not-too-distant future. We try to keep it slightly vague as to the specific date of any single event.”

Spider-Man: Homecoming cast from left: Angourie Rice, Tony Revolori, Laura Harrier, Jacob Batalon, Zendaya, Holland (Photo: Sony)

All the Real Girls Gwen Stacy may be MIA (for now, at least), but Homecoming otherwise makes room for three of Peter Parker’s past and future flames. Laura Harrier plays Liz Allan, the popular girl that nerdy “bookworm��� Parker (played here by Tom Holland) crushed hard on in the early issues of The Amazing Spider-Man. Unlike her onscreen counterpart, comic book Liz is going steady with Flash Thompson and almost certainly wouldn’t accept Peter’s invitation to the school dance. Still, her animosity towards him thaws later on, and they graduate high school on good terms. Eventually, she marries Harry Osborn and gets sucked into his Green Goblin drama.

The comic book version of Liz Allen (Photo: Marvel)

With his mind consumed by thoughts of Liz, Peter doesn’t notice the other romantic possibilities in his midst, starting with Michelle Jones (Zendaya) or “M.J.” to her friends. Those initials, of course, correspond to the (second) greatest love of Peter’s life, Mary Jane Watson. Co-screenwriter John Francis Daley confirms to Yahoo Movies that he intended Michelle to “be a reinvention” of Mary Jane. “It’s not up to us, but that’s certainly how we planted the seeds in this movie. Just to make her wholly different.” Different indeed; to put it in Breakfast Club terms, Michelle is Ally Sheedy while Mary Jane is Molly Ringwald.

The comic book version of M.J. (Photo: Marvel)

Finally, who should be anchoring the student news network at Peter’s Queens high school than newshound Betty Brant? Played by the breakout young star of The Nice Guys, Angourie Rice, Betty is the future secretary of cigar-chomping Daily Bugle editor in chief — and No. 1 Spider-Man hater — J. Jonah Jameson. (Elizabeth Banks previously played Betty in Sam Raimi’s original Spidey trilogy.) She and Peter don’t share any scenes in Homecoming, but do have a brief dalliance in the comics, which Betty breaks off when she feels that he’s acting too swoony over Liz. With Parker in her rearview, she proceeds to hook up with someone her ex knows pretty well — a guy named Ned.

The comic book version of Betty Brant (Photo: Marvel)

Is There a Goblin in the House? Even lonely bookworms need friends. And fortunately, the Homecoming version of Peter Parker has a good buddy in the form of Jacob Batalon’s Ned, an amiable guy who relishes, rather than regrets, his role as the funny sidekick. His continued happiness with his role in this duo, however, may hinge on one seemingly tiny thing: his last name. See, in the comics, the main Ned in Peter’s life is Ned Leeds, a Daily Bugle reporter who vies with Parker for Betty Brant’s affections. Leeds ultimately emerges the victor in that particular battle, and even walks down the aisle with Betty.

Ned Leeds as the Hobgoblin (Photo: Marvel)

But he comes out on the losing end when he tails Roderick Kingsley, a.k.a. the Hobgoblin, in the hopes of breaking a big story, and instead winds up brainwashed and framed as the supervillain. Leeds is later killed off in Germany — the same country where the MCU’s Spider-Man made his in-costume debut in Captain America: Civil War as part of Team Iron Man. Memo to Batalon’s Ned: if your buddy ever has to go back to Germany for a rematch of that fight… stay home!

Jennifer Connelly voices K.A.R.E.N. in Spider-Man: Homecoming (Photo: Charles Sykes/Invision/AP)

K.A.R.E.N. and J.A.R.V.I.S. Sitting in a Tree As part of his initiation into Team Iron Man, Tony Stark designed a spiffy superhero suit for Peter to replace his distinctly amateur hour ensemble. As a Homecoming present, Tony updates those duds with another new Spidey costume, this one equipped with the same kind of A.I. that Stark depends on for aid and good conversation when flying around the globe. In Iron Man’s earlier, happier days, that A.I. went by the name of J.A.R.V.I.S. and spoke with lilt of British actor Paul Bettany, who entered the MCU in corporeal form in The Avengers: Age of Ultron as the Vision. Spider-Man dubs the female voice in his eye as K.A.R.E.N., and her dialogue is spoken by Oscar winner Jennifer Connelly, Bettany’s real-life wife. That’s one way to keep it all in the family.

Donald Glover plays Aaron Davis in ‘Spider-Man: Homecoming’ (Photo: Monica Schipper/WireImage)

Donald Glover is on the Prowl The Atlanta star’s presence in Homecoming provides three Easter eggs in one. For starters, Glover famously ignited a Twitter flame war in 2010 when he let it be publicly known that he wanted to sling webs in the planned franchise reboot. (Sony wound up going with Andrew Garfield instead, a choice that maybe we all regret a little; however, Glover wound up voicing an animated version.) Homecoming doesn’t hand him the Spidey suit, either, instead casting Glover as Aaron Davis, an ordinary New Yorker who is seeking to buy some of the Vulture’s high-tech toys. He flees when Spider-Man catches him in the act, only to come face-to-face with the wall-crawler later when the hero is trying to play detective and track down Toomes’s gang.

Aaron Davis with his nephew Miles Morales a.k.a. Spider-Man (Image: Marvel)

In that later encounter, Davis seems a lot less like a potential troublemaker and a lot more like a concerned citizen who wants to do something about the rising level of violence in his city. He makes a point of mentioning that he’s particularly concerned about his nephew — a kid that Marvel zombies know to be Miles Morales, who shares Spider-Man duties with Peter Parker in the comic book universe. Fans have been clamoring for Miles to make his live-action debut for years now, and Glover’s appearance, plus that line of dialogue, paves the way for that to happen.

Davis in his Prowler costume (Photo: Marvel)

But that’s not all! Aaron Davis is also one of the alter egos of The Prowler, a gadget-powered criminal who, with Spider-Man’s urging, redirects his energies towards a more positive kind of vigilantism. (It’s worth noting that Davis’s version of the Prowler appeared in the now-defunct Ultimate line of comics, where he didn’t undergo that change of heart.) So it’s not out of the realm of possibility that Glover may yet put on a costume in the MCU, which would please Homecoming helmer Jon Watts to no end. “One of the first things I said was, ‘I don’t know who he’s gonna play, but Donald Glover has to be in this movie,'” the director tells Yahoo Movies. “I’ve known Donald for a long time, so the idea that there could potentially be that kind of connection and that he has somewhere where he could go as a character is something that he thought was cool.”

Amazing Spider-Man No. 33 (Photo: Marvel)

An Amazing Spidey Pull Towards the end of Homecoming comes a scene that, for Feige, has been 17 years in the making. In it, Peter is trapped underneath a mountain of rubble in the Vulture’s since-abandoned warehouse hideout as water is rushing in. Even with his enhanced strength, he’s not able to free himself of its crushing mass. Digging deep into his energy reserves, he slowly, but surely gets to his feet, like Atlas shrugging the weight of the world off his back. It’s a sequence that comes directly out of the comic book — specifically The Amazing Spider-Man No. 33, originally published in 1966. “I’ve wanted to do [that scene] since the first time I ever set foot in the Marvel offices,” Feige says. “As we were developing the movie, I called our writers, our filmmaker and our fellow Marvel producers, and said, “This story is about a kid who becomes a man. It’s about a hero who becomes a superhero, and we’re going to do it exactly the way Steve Ditko did.”

Amazing Spider-Man No. 33 panel (Photo: Marvel)

It’s one thing to give the order to recreate that famous scene; it’s quite another to be the one tasked with bringing it to life. According to Watts, shooting the tribute to ASM No. 33 was no picnic, particularly for the movie’s star. “It was absolutely the worst day Tom had,” he reveals, pointing out that Holland was underneath a hydraulic pile of junk with actual water pouring on him. “It’s scary when you’re trapped like that, and he’s wearing that cloth mask. When that gets wet, he’s essentially being waterboarded. He has to hold his breath to pull the scene off, which was really intense and horrible for him. Hopefully it makes for an intense moment in the movie!” It’s also a moment where the characteristically chatty Peter is largely silent, which is a departure from the source material where the hero narrates his struggle. “Tom was so amazing, we just played [the moment] on his face, and he sells it,” Feige says.

Mark Bagley (Photo: Wikipedia)

Artist Alley He may not receive the Steve Ditko panel-by-panel recreation treatment, but popular Marvel artist, Mark Bagley — who has sketched Spider-Man in such series as The Amazing Spider-Man and Ultimate Spider-Man — does cameo, after a fashion, in Homecoming. His last name can be glimpsed as part of the rooftop graffiti adorns the buildings around Peter’s home base in Queens. And speaking of cameos hidden in artwork, Tony Stark’s father, Howard, is part of a mural that can be glimpsed at Peter’s high school.

Watch: ‘Spider-Man Homecoming’ Cast Offers Dramatic Reading of Classic Cartoon Theme:

Get more Spider-Man: Homecoming scoop from Yahoo Movies:

Decoding the Spider-Man: Homecoming End-Credit Scenes

Revisiting the James Cameron Spider-Man Movie That Never Was

Here’s How Spider-Man: Homecoming Fits in the Marvel Cinematic Universe

[recentanimenews]

Crunchyroll Announces "AHO-GIRL", "Elegant Yokai Apartment Life", "Netsuzou Trap -NTR-", and "Tsuredure Children" at Anime Expo

Crunchyroll has just wrapped up their Industry Panel at Anime Expo, so the time is right for an overview of the new including such titles as AHO-GIRL, Elegant Yokai Apartment Life, Netsuzou Trap -NTR-, and Tsuredure Children. Check out the info below for key art, story info, and other facts!

  AHO-GIRL

Launches: TBA

Territories: TBA

    Synopsis

  She is Hanabatake Yoshiko, and she's an idiot through and through. She loves bananas, and she loves her childhood friend Akkun. That is all! Summer 2017, Aho Girl gets its long-awaited anime! Watching it will surely cheer you up, probably?

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  Elegant Yokai Apartment Life

Launches: 7/3/2017 8:30AM PT (Monday)

Territories: Worldwide except Asia

  Synopsis

  Yushi Inaba is forced into an awkward living situation at his uncle's house after his parents pass away. He decides that when he goes to high school, he's going to live on his own, and finds an ultra-cheap apartment named Kotobuki-so. But it was a monster apartment, filled with monsters, humans, and ghosts! At first, Yuki doesn't know how to deal with these eerie monsters, but after spending time with these strange creatures his closed heart gradually begins to open...

  ----

  Netsuzou Trap -NTR-

Launches: TBA

Territories: Worldwide except Asia

    Synopsis

  Yuma, a high school second-year, is enjoying every day now that she has her first boyfriend. After she asks for relationship advice from Hotaru, her beautiful long-time friend who has had many boyfriends, Hotaru teases her for her inexperience and playfully does things to her that even her boyfriend doesn't do. Yuma and Hotaru's secret relationship continues to escalate, and Yuma finds herself unable to deny how it makes her feel. This school drama tells the story of the interwoven lives of these two girls with boyfriends.

  ----

  Tsuredure Children

Launches: TBA

Territories: TBA

  Synopsis

  To those of you out there who never could say "I love you"— This story is about ordinary highschoolers and how love makes them fired up, shaken, laugh, cry, and hurt. Whether things go well or not, this story of adolescence and romance will show you how they spend their precious youth. Every character is the main character here, and you're sure to find one you can sympathize with. Tsuredure Children's TV anime begins airing Summer 2017! Let's get our hearts racing together!

  In addition to the above titles, the following anme and manga titles will also premiere on Crunchyroll with dates and regions to be announced unless otherwise noted:

    Knight’s & Magic

A genius programmer and hardcore robot otaku are reborn into a world of knights and magic, where huge robots called Silhouette Knights roar across the land! Now reborn as Ernesti Echevalier, he uses his vast knowledge of machines and programming talents to begin to make his ultimate robot. But his actions have unexpected results...?! The dreams of a robot otaku will change the world!

  Knights & Magic’s first episode is available for premium users now.

  Kino’s Journey

"The world is not beautiful, therefore it is."

  "Kino's Journey -the Beautiful World-" is a story about Kino, who travels around the world with nothing but her guns (for protection) and talking motorcycle Hermes (for company). Kino travels to many mystical lands, each with its unique customs and people, and learns about the world through their stories, at some times conjuring humor and inspiration or other times piercing cynicism. However, Kino has her own custom, to stay no longer than three days in every town without exception, as she believes it is enough time to learn almost everything important about the place while still leaving time to explore new lands.

  Kino’s Journey will debut in the upcoming fall season.

  URAHARA

“PARK: HARAJUKU Crisis Team!” is now an anime! Top Japanese creators have partnered with the North American anime streaming site Crunchyroll to create URAHARA – a new series with a unique worldview and a striking visual style. A new era in Harajuku is dawning!

  PARK: HARAJUKU Crisis Team! started serialization on Crunchyroll Manga and Tumblr in 2015 as part of a collaboration between writer-editor Patrick Macias, artist Mugi Tanaka (aka Oplant), and the PARK store in Harajuku, Tokyo. The story concerns a trio of shop girls – Rito, Mari, and Kotoko –  that band together to battle an alien menace intent on removing famous locations and landmarks from the Earth.

  URAHARA will debut in the upcoming fall season.

  Manga

Crunchyroll also had several exciting manga announcements for the packed room on Sunday. Crunchyroll’s ebook service, currently available in the manga app, launched earlier this year with over 800 books from Kodansha Comics. Seven Seas has now joined the platform with over 400 titles that will being to be available later this month.

  Three exciting new titles are joining the manga simulpub service, available on web, iOS and Android!

  Final Fantasy: Lost Stranger by Hazuki Minase

Scoring a job at Square Enix, Sasaki Shogo's dream of producing a Final Fantasy game finally seems within his grasp! But after he starts, he quickly discovers that the work has nothing to do with his favorite franchise at all… Disillusioned, his enthusiasm for FF begins waning despite his sister / co-worker Yuko’s attempts to lift his spirits. Their conversation is cut short, though, when a runaway truck suddenly careens toward the two of them…!When Shogo comes to, the first thing he sees is…a Moogle?! Wait, was that a Cure spell? And chocobos…?! Hurled into a Final Fantasy world unbound to any particular installment, how will an uber-fan like Shogo survive?!

  Final Fantasy: Lost Stranger launches on July 12.

  Knight’s & Magic by Takuji Katō

A genius programmer and hardcore robot otaku is reborn into a world of knights and magic, where huge robots called Silhouette Knights roar across the land! Now reborn as Ernesti Echevalier, he uses his vast knowledge of machines and programming talents to begin to make his ultimate robot. But his actions have unexpected results...?! The dreams of a robot otaku will change the world!

  Knight’s & Magic launches on July 5.

  Restaurant to Another World by Junpei Inuzuka and Takaaki Kugatsu

There is a certain restaurant in one corner of a shopping street near the office district. The historical restaurant, marked by a sign with a picture of a cat, is called "Western Cuisine Nekoya." This restaurant looks completely normal through the week, but on Saturdays, it opens in secret exclusively to some very unique guests. During these hours, doors in various areas of a parallel world open to allow customers of many different races and cultures into the restaurant. This "Restaurant to Another World" and its food hold an exotic charm to these highly diverse customers. This is a story of the heartwarming, once-in-a-lifetime encounters between our reality and another world, between the restaurant's customers and its owner, and the food shared among them all.

  Restaurant to Another World launches on July 2.

  Crunchyroll Expo

And finally, Crunchyroll announced its first round of guests for the inaugural Crunchyroll Expo, set for August 25-27 in Santa Clara, California!

  Yoshitaka Amano

As a Japanese artist, character designer, and illustrator, Amano also works in the grounds of scenic art and stage costumes. Hired at Tatsunoko Production at the age of 15, he has created characters for some of the most prominent TV animations in Japan. He then became an independent artist in 1982. He is most well-known for his work as a character designer, title logo designer, and image illustrator for the Final Fantasy series. Since his debut, Amano’s career as an artist has flourished, producing paintings with his unique, mysterious touch in solo shows in cities such as New York, Paris, and London.

  Crunchyroll is further excited to announce that it will work with Amano-sensei to display an exhibition of his artwork. This marks the first time Amano has exhibited in the U.S. for seven years.

  Gigguk

Gigguk is a Youtuber best known for his satirical look into the world of anime and it's culture. He has done various reviews and rants but is also known for his parody work.

Hiroshi Shimizu

A prolific Japanese animator​, Hiroshi​ Shimizu started at Ghibli studio ​working on Porco Rosso, Princess Mononoke,​ My ​Neighbor Yamada and Pompoko. After leaving Ghibli he ​went freelance​ and started to work on ​a combination of ​series​, high quality movies and OVA​, including​: JinRoh, Furi Kuri, Ghost in the Shell (Stand Alone Complex season 2), Millennium ​A​ctress, Lupin, SkyCrawler, One ​Piece (OAV)​, Naruto, Dragon Ball Z,​ and recently on the last Doraemon movie. He worked in ​several well known studio​s​ such as ​Studio Ghibli, Madhouse, Ankama Japan,​ TMS, Production IG, TOEI Animation, WIT STUDIO, Shin Ei Studio and now Yapiko-animation. His specialities are character ​designer, animator, animation supervisor and storyboarder. His most famous series as character designer is Michiko to Hachin.

  The Chocobros are Coming to CRX!

  Ray Chase

Ray Chase is best known for his versatility as a voice actor in video games and animation. Video game fans know him as the lead protagonist Noctis in the best-selling Final Fantasy XV and Edgar from Final Fantasy VI in World of Final Fantasy. Superhero fans know him as the voices of Jason Blood and Etrigan the Demon in the DC feature film Justice League Dark. He is a con fixture making appearances all over the world with his show "Loud, Annoying, and Very Annoying" (LAVA) with fellow voice actors Robbie Daymond and Max Mittelman.

  Max Mittelman

Max Mittelman is a voice actor and native of Los Angeles, CA. For most of his young life, Max had wanted to become a doctor. His parents were so proud of him. Once he realized, however, that he would need to study grown-up things like organic chemistry, he decided that he would rather make loud noises in a padded booth for a living. Max never looked back and has since had the opportunity to play lead characters in popular Anime series such as Kousei in “Your Lie in April,” Inaho in “Aldnoah.Zero,” and Saitama in “One-Punch Man.”Other notable roles include: Persona 5 (Ryuji); Fire Emblem Fates (Leo, Kaden, Forrest); Seven Deadly Sins (King); Miraculous Ladybug (Plagg); Mobile Suit Gundam: Iron-Blooded Orphans (Ein); Star Ocean 5 (Fidel); Transformers: Rescue Bots (Blurr); Mobile Suit Gundam: Thunderbolt (Io); Fallout 4 (Zeke); Star Wars: Battlefront; (Quarren); Halo 5 (Promethean Captain, Rooker); Starcraft II: Legacy of the Void (Stone); Skylanders: Superchargers (Panderghast); Durararax2 (Shijima); Sword Art Online II (Jun); Magi: The Kingdom of Magic (Yunan); Doraemon (Soby); Atelier: Escha & Logy (Logy). Max Mittelman plays as Tredd in Kingsglaive: Final Fantasy XV.Follow Max on Twitter @MaxMittelman

  Adam Croasdell

Adam Croasdell is a film, TV & voice actor who's worked with Alan Rickman on the West End. He starred as Baldur in Supernatural, Hook's father in Once Upon A Time, is Bothwell on Reign. For video games he's Torvin in Middle Earth: Shadow Of Mordor & Ignis Scientia in Final Fantasy XV.

  Chris Parson

Chris Parson is a voice actor who has voiced the title role (as well as many others) on Comedy Central's animated series Lil' Bush, and has lent his voice to episodes of Fox's popular shows Family Guy, American Dad!, The Cleveland Show, and Disney's Handy Manny.

Parson has also provided voice overs for several video games; he voiced the character Yusuf Tazim in Assassin's Creed: Revelations and has provided additional voiceover work for Red Faction: Guerrilla, Infamous 2, Mafia III, and Overwatch.Recently, he voiced the character Gladiolus Amicitia in Final Fantasy XV.

  ---

  Patrick Macias is editor in chief of Crunchyroll News & Otaku USA magazine.

He is currently serializing his latest writing project, MONDO TOKYO, on Wattpad.

By: news+feed@crunchyroll.com