The Conjuring Universe Explained

Every studio wants its own shared movie universe, but building the next Marvel Cinematic Universe is no simple task. It seems like the only other studio to really figure it out so far is New Line, thanks to the Conjuring franchise. What began as an unexpectedly successful haunted house movie has ballooned into a full-fledged series with multiple sequels and spinoffs and a continuity all its own.

As we gear up for the release of The Nun later this year, now is probably a good time to brush up on your Conjuring — and Annabelle! — history and learn how all these horror films tie together to form a shared universe. Spoilers of course follow for all the films to date.

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A Series of Unfortunate Events: Season 2 Review

A Series of Unfortunate Events Season 2 starts out on the wrong foot. Even though Season 1 mixed melancholic monologues, heartwarming caretakers who met ill fates, and ridiculous yet delightful Neil Patrick Harris performances to great effect, its rinse-and-repeat formula of the Baudelaire orphans outrunning Count Olaf began to feel a little overdone by the season’s end.

Season 2’s first two episodes, based on the fifth ASOUE book, The Austere Academy, fit too much into this mold. While it’s been more than a year since I watched the first batch of episodes, a sense of familiarity immediately overcame me as the Baudelaires’ time at Prufrock Prepatory school carried on. But as the season progresses, thanks to the introduction of a few key characters and episodes that deepen the lore of the Baudelaires’ lives, overall Season 2 ends up capturing the magic of Season 1 while transforming the shape and flow of the show.

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Dark Nights: Metal’s 6 Biggest WTF Questions

DC just wrapped up the massive crossover that is Dark Nights: Metal, and while there was plenty to like about this epic storyline, there were also a few head-scratching moments over the course of the series. From Batman’s bad behavior to a questionable Sandman cameo, these are the biggest questions we have in the aftermath of Metal.

The first issue of Metal turned a lot of heads thanks to its cliffhanger, which saw Batman turning to none other than Dream of the Endless for help in his quest. Considering how rarely characters from the Sandman franchise interact with the lowly heroes of the DCU, that was a pretty big deal.

And then… nothing. We barely caught a glimpse of Dream for the rest of the series. The end result of this latest DC/Sandman crossover is that a single book went missing in Dream’s library. No doubt that loose end will pay off when DC launches the Neil Gaiman-curated Sandman imprint later this year. But in the context of Metal itself, that much ballyhooed Sandman crossover seems to have been much ado about nothing.

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The C64 Mini Review

While not having had nearly the same kind of impact on the ‘80s as the Nintendo Entertainment System, the Commodore 64 was nonetheless the 8-bit entry point to gaming for millions of players, myself included. My earliest gaming memories are of winding through demo cassettes that came Scotch-taped to the covers of British gaming magazines with names like Zzap, Crash, and various other mastheads seemingly inspired by a fight scene from Adam West’s Batman. Or using a tiny jeweller’s screwdriver to fiddle with the tape drive heads only for a game to load for five agonising minutes and then fail, forcing me to rewind, adjust the heads a half turn to the left and try again. Or typing lines of POKEs at the command prompt in order to cheat my way to infinite lives, and giggling at the word ‘POKE’ because I wasn’t yet in high school and anything vaguely sexual was hilarious.

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Taylor Swift Episode Reportedly ‘Last Straw’ for Canceled Deadpool Series

According to Stephen Glover, an episode focused on Taylor Swift was the “last straw” that led to the departure of him and his brother, Donald Glover, from the Deadpool animated TV series.

“There really was a Taylor Swift episode,” Glover wrote in a tweet, which has since been deleted, according to TheWrap. “It was HILARIOUS. And it definitely was the last straw lol.” Glover went on to say, “We definitely wanted to give Rick and Morty a run for their money and I think we would have. Proud of the gang.”

Citing creative differences, the Glover brothers, FX, and Marvel TV recently parted ways on the project.

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New Monster Hunter World Event Quest Adds Another Really Weird Helmet

A new round of Event Quests will soon be available in Monster Hunter World on PS4 and Xbox One. Among the missions players will be able to take on this time is the Egg Lovers United quest, and it gives everyone the chance to add another very unusual headpiece to their wardrobe.

The quest kicks off tonight, March 29, at 5 PM PT / 8 PM ET (12 AM UTC on March 30) and will be available in the rotation until April 12. It’s a six-star arena quest that requires a Hunter Rank of 11 or higher. The objective of this mission is seemingly straightforward, tasking players with hunting a Kulu-Ya-Ku.

Complete the quest enough times and players will earn materials to craft a Kulu-Ya-Ku helmet, which features an elongated neck and completely covers your hunter’s face, much like the popular Wiggler helm. This particular headpiece is a touch more unsettling, however, as it actually resembles the monster’s head much more closely than the Wiggler helm did. You can see it for yourself in the tweet above.

If you missed out on getting a Wiggler helm the first time around, the Wiggle Me This Event Quest will return to the rotation next week, giving you another opportunity to craft the helmet. Next week also marks the start of the Spring Blossom Fest, the first seasonal event in Monster Hunter World. That will feature daily activities and other special Event Quests, including one for the Mega Man Palico armor.

You can find the full Event Quest schedule for Monster Hunter World on its official website. Capcom recently released a big update for the game, introducing the returning monster Deviljho along with some balance adjustments to nearly every weapon type. Players also had a chance to hunt Tempered Deviljho recently as part of a very short-lived Event Quest, but that will return to the game sometime during the Spring Blossom Fest.

New Westworld Season 2 Trailer Brings The Robot Apocalypse And It’s Awesome

The trailer has arrived and the anticipation for a new season of Westworld has reached a fever pitch. HBO has released the best look yet at the new season (as well as another secret video), which reveals so much, while also conjuring up dozens of new questions about what fans of the series are going to see when it arrives.

The clip runs over two-and-a-half minutes and makes it clear that the robot uprising has arrived and nothing will ever be the same in this world. While it seems as though Westworld will still be flashing back to the conversations between Dolores (Evan Rachel Wood) and Bernard (Jeffrey Wright) before either of them realized they were artificial intelligence, so much of the trailer is set after the events of Season 1.

Dolores and Teddy (James Marsden) are traveling the west and killing humans along the way–although Teddy doesn’t seem as fond of it as his robotic love. Maeve (Thandie Newton) is in search of her daughter, and everyone else is simply trying to survive as the bodies pile up. “Up until this point the stakes were never real,” the man in black (Ed Harris) says. “But now, you and the rest of your kind are free.”

One of the most intriguing moments of the trailer, outside of the glimpses at Shogun world, is seeing William (Jimmi Simpson), before he became the man in black, going to see Dolores in the Delos labs. The look on his face isn’t entirely friendly but looks to be more plotting than anything else. Perhaps this is the moment he makes the change from the lovesick guy who has feelings for a robot to the heartless monster that caused so much chaos in the first season.

Whatever the case, there is no denying who’s in control now and it’s the hosts. “Here we are, the kind that will never know death and yet we’re fighting to live,” Dolores tells Bernard. “There is beauty in what we are.”

Westworld returns to HBO on April 22.

Westworld: There’s Another Season 2 Trailer That’s Even Creepier

You’ve likely watched the new Westworld trailer a dozen times at this point, looking for hidden messages. Well, look no further because someone on Reddit has found the secrets.

As it turns out, there’s a hidden binary code found in a single shot of the trailer, which Reddit user TheOracleOW quickly found and decoded. The result is a link to a hidden page on the Delos website, which is a commercial for the company and its theme parks–specifically Westworld. As things with this show tend to do, though, the technology is buggy and some truly haunting imagery can be seen.

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Among the things seen in his hidden video are Delos founder James Delos (Peter Mullan), who will be introduced in Season 2, cutting up his own face, a man with a noose around his neck awaiting a hanging, and a look at train tracks in which humans–or hosts–have replaced the wooden beams that serve as foundations.

Naturally, since Westworld likes to string along its viewers, the fun doesn’t end there. The end of the video flashes the word “XOMEGACH” on the screen. From there, you have to visit the Delos website. If you click login and enter XOMEGACH, you are taken to another hidden website, which includes a video with the directive “Find Peter Abernathy.”

Fans should remember is the name of Dolores’s (Evan Rachel Wood) father, played by both Louis Herthum and Bradford Tatum in Season 1. How he fits into this is anybody’s guess, but clearly, Westworld isn’t done with Peter Abernathy yet. However, that’s as far as the rabbit hole does at this point.

Westworld returns to HBO on April 22.

Harley Quinn Gets New Powers and Creative Team

This summer, fan favorite DC villain/anti-hero Harley Quinn will be getting a new look, and new powers, as a new creative team takes over the popular comic series.

Beginning with Harley Quinn issue No. 45, which will hit physical and digital shelves this July, Sam Humphries, who previously worked on Nightwing and Green Lanterns, will be the series’ new writer, according to The Washington Post. John Timms is set to illustrate the series.

According to Humphries, the upcoming run will see DC villain Granny Goodness offer Harley a spot on the Female Furies of Apokolips, and Harley’s decision will be part of the central theme of Humphries’ arc. “Harley is a wild card and a survivor,” Humphries said, “Does she

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