Supernatural might have taken Halloween week off, but Jensen Ackles didn’t. The actor got in on the spirit of the holiday by dressing up in costume as Batman and hitting the ‘gram to share some epic shots taken on a rooftop. And the internet took notice.
“Yeah, it was pretty cool,” Ackles told IGN this week when asked about the online reaction to his superhero look. “I mean … it’s Batman. I’m actually looking at the cowl right now. It’s, like, staring at me.”
Stanley Kubrick’s adaptation of The Shining has earned itself a special place in the pantheon of horror movies–not only for its masterful direction, acting, and cinematography, but for the way it manages to dodge conventional scares in favor of subtlety. The Shining is infamous for its ability to “get under your skin,” by avoiding typical horror fare like jump scares and gore and instead leaning heavily on things like sound design to ramp up the tension and anxiety. This is a tradition that director Mike Flanagan was eager to uphold with The Shining’s sequel, Doctor Sleep–but not always in the ways you might expect.
From the jump, fans of The Shining will recognize the more overt elements of the score and sound design repurposed for Doctor Sleep–things like the heavy, ominous chords blasting over the opening scenes and the thumping heartbeat effects during key moments.
“[The heartbeat] is one of the most genius elements in The Shining score. Genius. The reason why is that it’s a sound our minds have gotten used to tuning out,” Flanagan explained to GameSpot during the Doctor Sleep press junket in Hollywood. “We all have it and it increases or decreases in tempo based on our levels of anxiety. Because we accept it as an expression of ourselves, as an internal process, if you turn up the tempo of a heartbeat while someone listens, they become more anxious.”
He continued, “it was such a beautiful signature. I thought if we can bring that back and if we can kind of let that be one of the genetic strands that really connect that film and this film, we just have to be sure to use it properly. And to try and not only to use it the way he did, but look for new ways to do it too–ways to alter the sound, to play with it.”
Flanagan explained that there was originally a melodic score written for the movie that they eventually decided to scrap it, in favor of more ambient sounds. “We cut it all in favor of using the heartbeat because it was so effective,” he laughed. “In so many different contexts, it would just carry you.”
But the pulse of a human heart isn’t the only sonic trick at play in Doctor Sleep–during key scenes, Flanagan and his team also leaned into other, less familiar nods to The Shining to manipulate their viewers. In one particularly anxiety-ridden moment, the sound of Danny’s big wheel tires rumbling down the halls of The Overlook Hotel from the original film was overlayed onto a scene of cars rolling through a forest.
“[In that moment] the heartbeat kind of gets us into that as they pull up, but the sound of the tires of the vehicles when they go off the gravel onto the paved road in the woods…we just took the sound of the trike tires on the tile and the carpet,” Flanagan explained. “So you’re actually being reminded of the sound of that trike bouncing up and down off the carpet onto the tile. It creates anxiety…because it’s pulling you right back into one of the most kind of intense moments of The Shining and you don’t know it.”
He laughed, acknowledging that these touches probably won’t be noticed by most viewers–but they don’t need to be noticed to work their magic. “That was some of the most fun we had, was how to do these little things no one’s ever going to notice, but that if we do it right, are going to make people feel uncomfortable for reasons they can’t explain.”
Other sound effects were given the same treatment. For instance, Flanagan pointed out, the sound of the True Knot’s, the quasi-vampiric antagonists, “steam canisters”–the mysterious tech they use to store the psychic energy of the dead–opening has a disturbing origin.
“Every time they open a steam canister from the beginning of the film and you hear that hiss of the steam coming out, that is [a child’s] screams altered,” he said. “The sound of the air associated with the steam and the True Knot is all distorted versions of a child screaming.”
Doctor Sleep hits theaters on November 8.
Beat Games has announced a new music pack for its lightsaber-focused rhythm game, Beat Saber. Called Rocket League x Monstercat, the new music pack includes six songs from Psyonix’s game about supersonic acrobatic rocket-powered battle-cars.
The six new songs take place in a Rocket League-inspired environment and also transform your normally Jedi and Sith-colored lightsabers into the vibrant blue and orange of Rocket League’s default team colors. The pack includes Tokyo Machine’s “Play” and “Rock It,” Stephen Walking’s “Glide,” Slushii’ “Luv U Need U,” Dion Timmer’ “Shiawase,” and Slushii and Dion Timmer’s collaboration: “Test Me.”
DON’T PAUSE_PRESS PLAY
💥 Rocket League x Monstercat Music Pack is OUT NOW! 💥
In collaboration with @RocketLeague & @Monstercat, we’re bringing you the brand new Music Pack with 6 pumping tracks and Rocket League-inspired environment.
All petrolheads unite in Beat Saber! pic.twitter.com/j9RVtq714T— Beat Saber (@BeatSaber) November 7, 2019
The new pack is available in all versions of the game for purchase right now. You can buy the pack at the links below.
Beat Saber is a VR game where you swing lightsabers to slice through approaching blocks to the rhythm of different songs. It’s one of GameSpot’s top VR games of 2018–we love the absolute bangers that fill its ever-expanding list of tunes and that the game provides a fun way of doing a brief workout.
In GameSpot’s Beat Saber review, Alessandro Barbosa wrote, “Beat Saber is an exhilarating rush and an exhausting game to play in the best way. It has great music that is more varied than you might expect, complemented by smartly designed levels that marry their complex patterns perfectly to the beat. It’s difficult to get bored of Beat Saber, especially thanks to its extensive campaign that pushes you to get better with each step up in difficulty.”
Welcome to IGN’s Daily Deals, your source for the best deals on the stuff you actually want to buy. Follow us at Twitter @igndeals. We bring you the best deals we’ve found today on video games, hardware, electronics, and a bunch of random stuff too. Updated 7 days a week, 365 days a year.
There are polarized reviews on this game. Some reviews rave that Kojima’s latest work is transcendental, others claim that it’s tedious labor. All agree, though, that this game is truly unique. My opinion? It’s still going to be massively popular and I am very excited to play it. In addition to the game itself, the Collector’s Edition includes the Steelbook Case, BB Pod Statue, Ludens Keychain, and BRIDGES Cargo Case.
Forget Tom Cruise’s Mummy fiasco — cue the Tom Cruise scream! — because we just got our first look at Universal’s new take on the classic Universal Monsters with the trailer for The Invisible Man.
The film stars Elisabeth Moss as Cecilia, a woman who escapes an abusive relationship, only to find that she is being haunted by her ex from beyond the grave… Or is she? You know, just because you’re invisible doesn’t mean you’re a ghost!
Based on the trailer, the film looks like it has the potential to be another solid entry in the Blumhouse Productions line of creepy horror flicks. Blumhouse, of course, has had great success with a range of low and mid-budget genre films like Paranormal Activity, The Purge, Get Out, and so many others.
LEGO has unveiled a new, 3,306-piece set based on the Batmobile from Tim Burton’s 1989 Batman movie. It will be released on November 29 (Black Friday).
The $250 USD set is being released in celebration of both the film’s 30th anniversary and the character’s 80th. It includes the 23-inch Batmobile, complete with “a slide-open cockpit, wraparound windshield, and two hidden machine guns with pop-up function,” as well as a rotating display stand.
The set also includes three new minifigures: Batman, equipped with a Batman 1989-inspired cape and Batarang; The Joker, equipped with a gun; and Vicki Vale, equipped with her camera.
In other Batman news, Andy Serkis and Colin Ferrell are reportedly in talks to join Matt Reeves’ The Batman, as Alfred Pennyworth and Penguin, respectively. Check out everything we know about The Batman for more.
Historically, Walmart does not mess around when it comes to Black Friday deals. In fact, over the years, its doorbuster events have risen to the level of infamy, with amazingly low prices on items designed to bring people into its stores, online or in real life.
Much like its competitors, Walmart started Black Friday early, and while it’s not officially an “early Black Friday sale” at Walmart, there are plenty of chances to bring home something now rather than during the rush.
Microsoft’s annual celebration for all things Xbox will begin next week. Taking place in London, X019 will see the announcements of brand-new “surprises,” according to an Xbox blog post. The entire event will be streamed, so you can watch it via the links below.
The Inside Xbox X019 livestream begins on November 14 at 12 PM PT / 3 PM ET / 9 PM BST, which is November 15 at 7 AM in Australia. That’s likely when most of the major reveals will occur, though X019 continues through to November 16–all of which will be streamed on Mixer.
In that aforementioned blog post, there’s mention that X019 will see the world premiere of hands-on gameplay for “the biggest and best new games.” There will also be panels featuring the “best creative minds from [Microsoft’s] Xbox Game Studio teams.” It’s nothing concrete, but X019 may see the new gameplay reveals for several games scheduled for 2020 and beyond, as well as teases for the games being made by some of the studios Microsoft acquired back in 2018.
Two hours into the stream, the Xbox Wireless Controller – DPM X019 Exclusive controller will go on sale. Only 1,000 controllers have been made, so if you want one, you may want to bookmark its product page in the Microsoft Store. The controller retails for $100 USD.
There hasn’t been much teased about the announcements expected at X019. If the event plays out anything like last year’s X018, then X019 will see new footage of upcoming games, release date reveals, and announcements of DLC or expansions for existing titles. X018 also saw Microsoft announcing additional studio acquisitions. The major highlights of last year’s event were the reveal of Crackdown 3’s release date, the announcement of 16 new games coming to Game Pass (some of which still haven’t come out yet), and Microsoft’s acquisition of InXile Entertainment (the studio behind Wasteland) and Obsidian Entertainment (the studio behind the recently-released The Outer Worlds).
Given the approach of next-gen consoles–both Microsoft’s Project Scorpio and Sony’s PS5 are scheduled to release during the holiday season in 2020–it’s possible that Microsoft will announce additional details about what it has planned for the next generation. With Sony confirming its next-gen console will be called PlayStation 5, as unsurprising as that is, maybe Microsoft will use X019 to announce the official name of Project Scorpio.