Tag: gruesome
Remake of Gruesome Horror Classic Faces of Death Is Still On—and It Has a Cast
What’s left to remake these days in the shock-horror realm, now that Texas Chainsaw Massacre has been put through it multiple times? Until Hollywood remembers that European sleaze merchants made a lot of cannibal pictures in the 1970s, one of the most notorious mondo movies is making a comeback: Faces of Death, a…
This gruesome RPG is combining biological horror with the claustrophobic labyrinths of PC gaming’s past
Meta’s Gruesome Content Broke Him. Now He Wants It to Pay
New Dead Island 2 gameplay reveals lethal melee weapons, gruesome combat, and more
Resident Evil 4 Remake features more gruesome combat with Leon’s new degradable knife and stealth kills
I headed on over to Capcom last week and spent a little time with the beginning of the Resident Evil 4 Remake. In the short time I had with the game, which is expected to release on March 23, next year, it appears that quite a bit has changed… for the better.
I’ll start by saying that this is still inherently Resident Evil 4. Obviously, I cannot speak for the rest of the game, but as far as Leon’s first rendezvous with the horde of Los Ganados goes, Capcom has – so far – nailed the remake.
When it comes to a Resident Evil Remake, we anticipate improved graphics, evolved combat, and a lot less jank. Fortunately, my taste of REmake 4 combat left me eager for more, and here’s why.
‘Dead Space’ hands-on: Gruesome sci-fi horror has never felt so comforting
The Dead Space remake has to be better than Dead Space. The original came out 14 years ago and imploded common ideas of what a horror game should be: It decreased the power of the headshot and stripped away all on-screen icons to immerse us in the ravaged corridors of the Ishimura, where we were stalked by half-human monsters with freakishly elongated limbs. Dead Space was terrifying and thrilling and surprising, and these emotions have only made the game shine brighter in our memories. This is the version of Dead Space that the remake has to compete with — the one that lives only in our heads, filtered by nostalgia. It seems like an impossible standard to reach. But I think the Dead Space remake nails it — mostly.
Motive Studio and EA held a demo event for Dead Space last month, and I got to play the first three chapters of the remake, stopping just after Isaac restarted the centrifuge. This was the full game in pre-beta form and I played on PC with an Xbox controller. It was immediately impressive by modern standards: The metallic rooms of the Ishimura were filled with crisp, horrific details, and the health indicator running up Isaac’s spine was clearer than ever. Tense instrumentals and mechanical humming noises rose and fell as he explored the ship, and sharp audio cues kept the sense of impending doom alive. Some of the sounds tapped directly into my nostalgia neurons, particularly at the save stations and while picking up items.
The Dead Space remake has fresh voice acting, puzzles, storylines and mechanics, and an AI-driven director that maximizes the horror of each scene. This system doesn’t randomize the behavior of enemies, but it sets off environmental features like steaming pipes, harsh whispers and flickering lights. Whatever the horror director was doing during my playthrough, it worked — I was suitably scared in every setting.
In the demo, Dead Space followed a familiar cadence of dark hallways and towering necromorphs, but it also offered a handful of surprises. For one, the pulse rifle had a new alternative fire that threw out a small proximity mine, rather than a 360-degree spray. (Nothing about the plasma cutter was changed because the plasma cutter is and always has been perfect.) And then there was the revamped zero-gravity mechanic — instead of clinging to surfaces and leaping off of them in an extended jump, the Dead Space remake let me swim through the air, opening up new puzzle and exploration opportunities, especially in conjunction with the stasis and kinesis abilities. It all felt entirely natural, as if this was what developers wanted to do with Dead Space the first time around, but our 2008 hardware just couldn’t handle it.
Honestly though, today’s hardware can’t handle this version of Dead Space, at least not in its current preview form. There are no loading screens in the remake and this feature caused critical problems during my playthrough. I encountered significant and persistent framerate issues throughout the demo, particularly after walking through doorways, as background loading kicked in. My game crashed once and I voluntarily restarted it another time, after slogging through multiple scenes of stuttering animations. The framerate issues were extremely frustrating. Isaac also felt sluggish at certain points, causing me to misfire my weapons or waste time stomping on already-dead enemies. I wasn’t the only player in the room to experience these problems, though some demos seemed to run just fine from start to finish. Developers at Motive made it clear they were aware of these issues and promised they’d be resolved before release day, but my preview experience was less than seamless.
Outside of the framerate frustrations, the Dead Space remake was a delicious slice of old-school video game terror. The necromorphs attacked from the shadows and screamed with guttural, humanlike cries, their long blades and bloody intestines lit only by the glow of Isaac’s plasma cutter. The Dead Space rhythm of stasis, shoot, stomp still worked wonders on nearly every enemy, and headshots didn’t do much to stop the onslaught. Resource management was a crucial aspect of play and each monster took multiple hits to die, leaving infected limbs and tentacles strewn across the floor after each encounter. Some elevator rides were also conspicuously long, as was Isaac’s time on the horizontal people mover — developers told me this was all on purpose, not to cheat in extra loading time, but to give players a moment to breathe and think about the horrors ahead.
I screamed within two minutes of playing the new Dead Space. Even in the crowded demo room, surrounded by PR people, developers and other reporters, the remake sucked me in and scared the hell out of me. It didn’t matter that I’d played the original when it came out in 2008; it didn’t matter that I knew what to expect out of the necromorphs and NPCs; the first three chapters of the remake were tense and terrifying.
More impressively though, the new Dead Space made me smile. Even in its pre-beta form, the remake felt familiar but fresh, and I could’ve kept playing all day — well, if the framerate issues had abated. This problem worries me slightly, but there’s time for Motive to address it before the game hits PC, PS5 and Xbox Series consoles on January 27th, 2023. When the remake ran smoothly, its lack of a HUD was still effective as an immersive tool, the necromorphs were horrifying, and the upgraded mechanics slid smoothly into the frantic rhythm of the game. Overall, this was Dead Space, but better than I remembered.
Gruesome ‘Cryptid Canine’ Encountered in Berks County, Pennsylvania (FULL REPORT)
For the past several weeks, I have been referring to a cryptid canine case that was submitted to me by the witness ‘MH.’ Most of the particulars are included in the witness’ written report. The Phantoms & Monsters Fortean Research team and I have talked to the witness on numerous occasions:
“This sighting happened on 4/30/22 in Birdsboro, Pennsylvania in the Birdsboro Preserve. This area is just north of French Creek State Park and the forests intersect with one another. There are roughly 15 to 20 square miles of dense natural woodlands in this area. It is one of the largest forest areas in southeastern PA.
It was a crystal clear warm spring day and my 12-year-old daughter wanted to learn trout fishing. We decided to go up to Hay Creek which runs for 13 miles through French Creek State Park and through the Birdsboro Preserve. We parked at the north end of the preserve on Old Route 82, now called Hay Creek Road.
We hiked up into the old road past the still active larger quarry and continued up about a half mile past it. We found a spot where she could practice wading In the steam in a safe shallow area of the stream with semi-fast water. There were a lot of people walking hiking and horse back riding that day and not a cloud in the sky.
We fished this spot for about 2 hours or so slowly moving back down the stream. At one point while I was sitting on the bank enjoying the stream and nature while my daughter was fishing I heard a loud crash; like a tree was falling over behind us. It was a bit strange because I didn’t hear any chainsaws and this sounded like a huge tree was coming down. It was only a few hundred feet behind us and it was super loud. Being an avid extreme outdoorsman for 3+ decades you know when things seem out of place. This was totally different from a tree falling over and then silence.
This went on for about 2 minutes and I stood up and looked around in the direction the sound was coming from but saw nothing. I said to myself that was a bit strange and it just stopped.
About 30 minutes later I heard the same thing and again this went on for like 2 minutes again. Now I’m puzzled and was like what the hell is going on this is not normal. I said to my daughter lets start heading back down the stream and find another spot. I still did not see anything unusual but was on alert. I thought to myself it could be deer up in the back across the road but this sounded
Then I heard a giant crashing through the woods as it was very loud. This time it was definitely closer to us. We walked about 200 yards down the trail and we started hearing this again and it was even closer than the past 2 times. We stopped and looked up towards the quarry in the direction of the sound but still saw nothing.
I said we will cross the stream and fish down around the bend. The spot where you cross the stream is about 30 feet wide and very slippery. We took it slow because the water was a bit high for my daughter. We were about halfway across and all hell broke loose with the sound of tree branches breaking again. It took us about 90 seconds to cross the stream and I was holding her hand to help her. The whole time this sound is still going on and I’m looking back but see nothing because we are about 20 feet below the quarry where the old bridge was. Where we crossed the stream there is about a 6 to seven-foot berm to step up to the road level.
I get up first and help my daughter get up with my hand when I see something moving in the distance out of my peripheral vision. I turn and look and see nothing at first. Then in the distance where this sound is coming from I lock onto a 40-foot pine tree at the top of the quarry swaying violently side to side at least 5 feet each way.
I pointed to my daughter and said, ‘Holy crap what the hell is that? Look! The next 40 to 50 seconds would change my life forever.
We were watching the pine tree shake for about 10 to 15 seconds. Then I saw what I thought was an arm reaching out of the tree. It grabbed a bird which I think was a turkey buzzard. All of a sudden this thing jumps from the pine tree to a big oak tree about 10 feet away and starts climbing on the outside of the canopy. It pivoted around somewhat like a spider on the top of the canopy and disappears into the branches of this large oak tree. Keep in mind the leaves are just starting to bud on the trees and we can see movement in the tree branches.
This is about 200 to 300 feet away. The whole time branches are breaking, very large branches about 2 inches thick. This goes on for about 10 or more seconds and then this thing jumps out of the tree. Now, these trees are at least 40 high. Plus it falls another 15 to 20 feet onto a 60-degree incline of rocks. So about 60 or so feet this thing fell.
I thought the thing was dead. I’ll never forget the sound of the impact. This thing hit super hard and rocks started flying down the side of this quarry incline at least 10 feet. When it fell out of the tree this creature landed on all 4s.
This thing is lying flat and is a bit dazed and or winded. Then this thing stands up bipedally on its 2 hind legs and is about 10 to 12 feet in height.
I’m thinking that this thing should be dead. I’m thinking bear, mountain lion, bigfoot? So this thing stands up. And then goes back on all 4s and jumps like a toad or a frog does. This thing clears 20 feet of ground in total, not even trying, as well as jumps in height about 8 to10 feet in one jump.
It was on all 4s again, flat like a frog and then it dropped this bird that it had in its left hand. Keep in mind the thing landed facing away from us on the right side of us with its back to us and running away parallel to our left. It then reaches out with its left hand and grabs the bird and pulls it back into its chest.
The arms on this thing are at least 6 feet plus in length. It has human-like hands and legs. The hands have at least 2 to 3-inch claws on the fingers, as well as the feet.
As it grabbed the bird it turned its head to the side and I saw the side of the head and face. This thing was bald from the neck up. It had a canine-style snout or nose with an upper jaw with an overhang with very long upper teeth like fangs on a werewolf. No joke about it.
This thing when it stood up from heel to hip was 6 to 7 feet in height, and from hip to shoulder was another 3 feet. From heel to top of its head was 10 to 13 feet easy. The head was like a human’s head but had pointed ears like a dog’s but not on top of the head. It had ears where a human has them but longer and pointed. It had fur like a deer in length, very short brown, grey, and black. The skin was grey in color. This creature was very skinny though. Like it was starving or not healthy. Very skinny except the forearms and its legs were very tone. It did not have a tail.
This thing stands up again bipedally and takes a step, like a track runner jumping a hurdle, and clearsa15 foot rock face again, easily 6 to 7 feet in height and about 15 feet in length. It took another 5 to 6 steps and it went crashing through the woods and we never saw it again.
I stood there in total disbelief and I was trying to process what the hell this thing was.
I’m a no-fear kind of guy and this thing scared the living crap out of me. I’m standing there completely frozen with fear trying to make sense of what the hell just happened. I almost lost myself with fear because I never had that type of fear ever and I had to talk myself out of it.
After about 2 minutes of sheer confusion, I snapped out of the fear factor and I was now in adrenaline survival mode. My number one concern was my daughter and us getting out of there alive because this thing ran the same way we had to walk to reach my car.
Keep in mind this was a busy day with people out from being cooped up all winter. Whatever this thing is violent and super strong to the point the right thing to do is warn people of this thing. I’ll tell you this, this thing makes a full-grown tiger look like a mouse and that is no joke. My daughter was confused about what had happened. I was very concerned for her safety.
As we were slowly walking back I actually started to call 911 but never did because no one would believe me and think I was mad out of my mind. I saw a few people on the way back and I asked them if they had seen a big animal come down this way and they all said no.
A message for all the people out there. One thing I want to say is this, I have been in a lot of national parks and state forests and never once seen anything like this creature. Take everything I thought I knew about the wilderness and throw it right out the window and start over.
Hats off to Lon and all you people who bring these cryptids to the masses. These things are 1000% real and they are in your backyard not in some national park or some extreme remote area. They are very close to us so please be mindful of your surroundings. I’ll never step in the woods without a firearm ever again. This has changed my life and I’m on an amazing journey to find serious answers. And for all of you who have seen crazy creatures and struggle with it: YOU’RE NOT ALONE. Welcome to the CLUB OF NO RETURN. Keep an open mind and talk to good people who can help you.” MH, Boyertown, PA
NOTE: Once again, it’s difficult to imagine what we are really dealing with. The witness is an upstanding citizen in the community and very forthright. I have reached out to another local cryptid team in order to conduct a proper investigation.
At this time, none of the details of our research and investigation will be disclosed. But I do feel that it is important that the witness’ sighting report be made public. If anyone has witnessed this creature, please contact me by email – Lon
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Phantoms & Monsters Radio presents a Phantoms & Monsters Fortean Research Roundtable discussion. We will be discussing current investigations and other cryptid / unexplained incidents & sightings. Joining Lon will be James West, Chad Redding, Kit Taylor, & Bernadette McDaniel.
James West is a 2-time Dogman experiencer, has had multiple encounters with the paranormal including shadow people/creatures, suspected demons, and ghosts, and has been physically possessed on one occasion by an unknown dark entity. James is also currently in the process of writing a nonfiction book about cryptid beings in the United States, entitled “50 Cryptids in 50 States.” In addition to this, James is a member of Phantoms and Monsters Fortean Research.
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Chad M. Redding grew up in the Pigeon Hills region of western York County, Pennsylvania. A lifetime of roaming the woods, hills, and hollows led Chad to develop his passions and skills as a woodsman. Very much an avid lover of old traditional ways and old things. His love of the forests and mountains know no bounds. For he has camped, rambled, gathered, canoed, and fished. In all 4 seasons.
As a lover of local history and folklore, wanderer of forgotten places, and life-long experiencer of the strange. Chad also contributes to and works with Timothy Renner of Strange Familiars Podcast.
Chad has also given back to the community, woodsman or otherwise. For as a traditionalist, he believes that knowledge should be passed on. From demos at various festivals, his foraging walks he gives regularly, on the various charity campouts he has organized. He has sought to help others and educate them.
Chad became the proprietor of Ruck Rabbit Outdoors a company that supplies old-style crafted, curated, refurbished, and surplus gear to the woods folk community.
Chad is a member of Phantoms and Monsters Fortean Research.
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Kit Taylor is a film and Television actor, writer, producer, and documentarian. His latest work includes a short documentary on the Fayetteville Incident (the Bledsoe Family story) titled “Burden of Truth.”
Kit was an investigator for MUFON and has recently become a member of the Phantoms & Monsters Fortean Research team. Having first-hand, life-altering experiences, Kit’s approach to investigating is from an empathetic point of view and hopes to contribute positively, to the world of high strangeness.
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Bernadette McDaniel, Phantoms & Monsters Fortean Research member will co-host this episode. Bernadette will soon be hosting ‘A Paranormal Life’ on Phantoms & Monsters Radio.
Join us on Friday, September 2nd at 9PM ET / 6PM PT
PLEASE SUBSCRIBE, LIKE, & SHARE – THANKS!
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Have you had a sighting of a winged humanoid or huge bat-like creature in the Chicago, Illinois metro area / Lake Michigan region? The entity has also been referred to as the ‘Chicago Mothman’, ‘Chicago Owlman’ & ‘O’Hare Mothman.’ – Chicago / Lake Michigan Winged Humanoid Regional Interactive Map – Please feel free to contact me at lonstrickler@phantomsandmonsters.com – your anonymity is guaranteed. Our investigative group is conducting a serious examination of his phenomenon. We are merely seeking the truth and wish to determine what eyewitnesses have been encountering. Your cooperation is truly appreciated.
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