Horror streaming platform Shudder is currently running its “Summer of Chills,” with 12 exclusive films streaming throughout the summer. July is set to bring a quartet new shockers to the platform, plus some classic catalogue tiles.
July’s line-up of new horror kicks off on July 8 with Son, in which a woman comes to terms with terrifying changes in her child after he is kidnapped. It’s directed by Ivan Kavanagh, who previously made the seriously scary 2014 horror The Canal. That’s followed on July 15 by The Call, which unites two genre veterans–Saw’s Tobin Bell and Insidious’s Lin Shaye–as a sinister old couple of who trap a group of friends in their house.
July 22 sees the release of Kandisha, the new movie from acclaimed French duo Julien Maury and Alexandre Bustillo (Inside, Livid). It’s about a woman who summons a powerful demon to exact a bloody vengeance, but soon finds that the evil entity is out-of-control. Finally, The Boy Behind the Door arrives on July 29, and focuses on a kidnapped boy who faces unimaginable terror when he attempts to rescue his friend.
There’s also a wealth of scary must-watch classic horror hitting Shudder in July. Michael Mann’s serial killer masterpiece Manhunter features Brian Cox as the first screen version of Hannibal Lector, while Kathryn Bigelow’s Near Dark is one of the ’80s best vampire movies. There’s two ’80s favorites from the legendary George Romero–Day of the Dead and Creepshow–plus Joe Dante’s much-loved 1978 creature feature Piranha. Finally, fans of weird horror should check out the bizarre and brilliant Messiah of Evil from 1973, directed by Gloria Katz and Willard Huyck, who subsequently wrote American Graffiti and Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom.
New to Shudder in July 2021
July 1
Manhunter
Near Dark
Burnt Offerings
Creepshow
Thirteen Ghosts (2001)
July 6
The Little Girl Who Lives Down the Lane
Terror Train
Death Ship
July 7
Pledge Night
Sorority House Massacre
Day of the Dead
Horsehead
July 8
July 12
Messiah of Evil
Carnival of Souls
Piranha
Straight Edge Kegger
July 13
White Girl
Separation
Everly
July 15
July 19
She’s Allergic to Cats
Here Comes Hell
Vigilante
July 20
Mass Hysteria
ROT
Etheria: The Series
They Remain
Der Bunker
July 22
July 27
July 29
The Boy Behind the Door
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One of the coolest parts about remasters and remakes of games is that the mod community is often revitalized, and Mass Effect: Legendary Edition is no exception. Not content with the third-person perspective of the trilogy, one enterprising player has created a mod that converts the exploration sections of all three games into first-person.
Called First Person Mode on NexusMods, the mod was made by user “Jade” and specifically focuses on any section of the game that doesn’t involve combat. That means that you can use this to go explore the Citadel or do anything that doesn’t require Shepard to pull out a gun. It’ll also revert to third-person perspective if you enter into a conversation, but the ability to take in the incredibly rich non-combat areas of the trilogy from Shepard’s perspective is still fantastic.
Gallery
In order to install it, you’ll need a PC copy of Mass Effect Legendary Edition as well as the ME3Tweaks Mod Manager. Then you can install the First Person Mode mod from NexusMods and get exploring. From the looks of the images on the mod’s page, it really changes the impact of the environments–not least because you won’t have Shepard cluttering up the screen. You can see some of those images in the gallery above.
“The Nexus Event” could have some major consequences for the future of the MCU.
Loki Episode 4, “The Nexus Event” unveiled some devastating truths about the TVA and its members, both for us the audience and for the characters themselves. Last week, Sylvie dropped the bombshell that the agents of the TVA are actually just brainwashed variants and this week, we explored exactly what that meant.
Of course, that didn’t happen until the whole Lamentis debacle was finally solved. If you remember from the final moments of last week’s episode, we last left Loki and Sylvie staring their own imminent demise in the face as the planet collapsed around them. Thankfully, Mobius was able to swoop in and save them in time, but only because of a powerful and confusing spike of nexus energy.
This then sparked a chain of events that left the TVA crumbling, its agents in disarray, and the fabric of reality itself–well, you get the idea here. Things are not looking good for space and time, though maybe not in the way you’d might expect. Things aren’t splintering off into a multiversal web (at least, not yet) but revelations are happening, and none of them are good.
Here are 8 important things to note in this episode, from Easter Eggs to references and nods to the MCU at large.
The Lord of the Rings Online has introduced two new servers, and they have the best, most appropriate names. The new servers are called Shadowfax and Treebeard, while developer Standing Stone Games is also rolling out new difficulty options. All of this is exclusive to VIP subscribers, so free-to-play users need to upgrade to get started.
The Shadowfax server–named after the iconic Middle-earth horse who runs like the wind–lets you level faster by offering +50% XP, legendary item XP, and mount XP, as well as +20% virtue XP. The Treebeard server–named after the very slow and deliberate Ent–is a slower-paced offering featuring -60% reduced XP.
Additionally, these new servers include a Landscape Difficulty option that allows players to choose how difficult or easy they want the experience to be. You can visit Berthdan near the Prancing Pony in West Bree to make a choice between normal and Deadly +6. The higher the difficulty, the more challenging enemies will become. You can change the difficulty level at any time by speaking with Berthdan, but there are rewards for sticking with it.
“If you begin a higher level difficulty prior to reaching level 11 and stick with a high level difficulty you will get rewarded for reaching levels 50 and 130,” developer Standing Stone Games said.
What’s more, players can earn new titles based on the new difficulty options. You’ll get two titles for hitting level 50 and 130 on Hard+ and two more if you reach the same levels on Deadly+. “You MUST activate your desired difficulty prior to reaching level 11, and maintain that difficulty or higher until you earn your title. A Deed can be found in-game to track your progress,” the developer said.
The Lord of the Rings Online has also added new “Eye of Sauron” effects that are meant to simulate the harsh reality of what happens when the great eye sees you.
“Once the Eye of Sauron is upon you, your progress will be hindered by several random effects for the next minute or so. Players will get an XP and Virtue XP boost for running on higher difficulties, starting at +10% XP up to +20% XP and +1% up to +5% Virtue XP,” Standing Stone said.
The Lord of the Rings Online has been operating non-stop since 2007, though development changed hands from Turbine to Standing Stone Games. It was set to get a major competitor from Amazon’s own Lord of the Rings MMO, but that game was canceled.
Smallville actor Allison Mack has been sentenced to three years in federal prison for her role in the NXIVM cult, according to Reuters. Mack was facing a minimum sentence of 15 years, according to The Hollywood Reporter.
She was one of the highest ranking members of convicted sex trafficker Keith Raniere’s cult-like group, which recruited women as sex slaves. Last fall, Raniere was sentenced to 120 years in prison.
Her and Raniere’s rulings make for a real-life coda to the HBO docuseries The Vow, which premiered in August 2020 and chronicles the emotional toll and trauma caused by self-improvement group NXIVM–which was a cover organization for a sex-slavery sorority that blackmailed, starved, and branded its members. In October, HBO renewed the series for Season 2, which was already expected to focus on Raniere’s trial while continuing to look inside his inner circle and ongoing supporters.
Mack, who has been under house arrest at her family home in Orange County for more than three years, recently asked a federal judge to forgo jail time for her crimes in connection with NXIVM.
“It is now of paramount importance for me to say, from the bottom of my heart, I am so sorry,” Mack’s letter states (via Variety). “I threw myself into the teachings of Keith Raniere with everything I had. I believed, whole-heartedly, that his mentorship was leading me to a better, more enlightened version of myself. I devoted my loyalty, my resources, and, ultimately, my life to him. This was the biggest mistake and regret of my life.”
Marvel chief Kevin Feige has confirmed that Black Panther: Wakanda Forever is now in production.
Speaking to Variety ahead of the Black Widow Global Fan Event in Los Angeles this week, Feige revealed that Black Panther: Wakanda Forever had officially entered production at Atlanta’s Pinewood Studios on Tuesday. He kept details largely under wraps, though he did promise they’re making a movie that the late Chadwick Boseman would be proud of.
“It’s clearly very emotional without Chad,” Feige said, referencing the tragic passing of Chadwick Boseman in August 2020. “But everyone is also very excited to bring the world of Wakanda back to the public and back to the fans. We’re going to do it in a way that would make Chad proud.”
Letitia Wright (Shuri), Lupita Nyong’o (Nakia), Winston Duke (M’Baku), and Angela Bassett (Ramonda) are all expected to reprise their roles, with Wright reportedly taking on a larger role in the sequel in light of Boseman’s death, while Tenoch Huerta (Narcos: Mexico, Sin Nombre) has been cast as one of the sequel’s unspecified villains.
This Kingdom of Wakanda series will be part of Disney’s five-year overall exclusive television deal with Coogler’s Proximity Media. Danai Gurira is the first actress confirmed to be starring in the series, as well as the feature film sequel. She will be reprising her role as Okoye, the Dora Milaje general.
Editor’s Note: To better explain myself, I do have to talk about the story of Doki Doki Literature Club, so if you have yet to play it and don’t want to be spoiled, this is your warning to turn back. As an additional note: If you haven’t played Doki Doki Literature Club, please read the content warnings for the game. This game is great–easily one of my favorite horror games out there–but it goes to some dark places. Just know what you’re getting into beforehand.
Doki Doki Literature Club Plus is now out, enhancing the original psychological horror game with HD visuals and adding new story content and an image gallery. The release also marks the first time you can play the game on console, as DDLC Plus is available on Xbox, PlayStation, Switch, and PC.
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That said, if you haven’t played DDLC yet, I advise you to play DDLC Plus on PC for the optimal experience. The story doesn’t change–you’ll experience the same haunting narrative, juxtaposed with friendly and colorful visual novel imagery, regardless of where you play–but a bit of the horror in the game’s twist is lost on consoles. The scares just work better on PC.
For those who have not played Doki Doki Literature Club and don’t care about spoilers, let me catch you up to speed. In DDLC, you play as a teenager who joins their high school literature club at the prompting of their childhood friend, Sayori. Alongside klutzy yet cheerful Sayori, the club is composed of cute yet tough Natsuki, quiet yet passionate Yuri, and always helpful president Monika.
Monika decides every member should compose poems to share with one another so the club can grow closer. If you use words and themes for your poems that appeal to Sayori, Natsuki, or Yuri, they’ll grow romantically attracted to you. As the days go on, Monika mentions that you never spend time with her and lets slip details that she, as a video game character, shouldn’t know–like how you can save your game to preserve your progress.
After some time, Monika begins messing with Doki Doki Literature Club’s code in order to make the other characters seem less appealing. Sayori’s depression suddenly becomes full-on suicidal thoughts, Yuri’s self-deprecating nature inexplicably transforms into an insatiable cutting fetish, and Natsuki’s aggressive deposition gives way to a standoffish, verbally abusive attitude. As the girl’s new personalities influence their coded goal as video game heroines that must love the player character, they begin to pursue your affections in increasingly violent ways, forcing Monika to delete them one by one so that the game can keep going. Eventually, it’s just you and her. She then admits that she knows your character isn’t real and begins talking to you, the player, and corrupting DDLC’s code so that you can no longer restart the game. It’s just you and her now, forever staring into each other’s eyes through the screen. Creepy.
That is until you go into the game’s code and–like Monika did to Sayori, Natsuki, and Yuri–you delete Monika.
When played out, this whole experience is incredibly unnerving. At first glance, Doki Doki Literature Club looks like your standard, cutesy rom-com visual novel. The game then slowly drip feeds you clues that something is up with your fellow club members and that Monika is responsible. But nothing quite prepares you for the reveal that Monika is fully sentient, knows your real name (or, at least, your username), and has somehow reached beyond the game to corrupt your hardware so that she, a lowly side character, can find some happiness and be with you, the person she loves.
It’s a shame what Monika does to Yuri–the shy bookworm did nothing wrong.
It’s a horror that works because of its surprise. You don’t expect the game to break the fourth wall, and having it seem like Monika actually has control over the game makes her feel very much alive. It’s terrifying in the most awesome way–and it’s sold on the fact that you actually have to leave the game, open the “My Computer” folder on your desktop, go to the game’s files, scroll through until you get to the “Characters” folder, find Monika’s file, and find a way to delete it from your computer. It’s what you would do to kill an unresponsive program or app, but in the context of DDLC, you’re killing an artificial intelligence that’s holding you hostage.
Or at least, that’s how it feels on PC. Xbox, PlayStation, and Switch aren’t structured like computers. So to mirror the experience, the console versions of DDLC Plus play out on a fake PC desktop. When Monika takes over, you exit to this fake desktop, open “Files,” and then just go to Monika and delete her.
And DDLC loses a lot of its horror in this scenario. For one, it spoils a bit of its surprise right off the bat, hinting that you’ll need to use this fake PC desktop for something at some point. No such hint on PC–why would you question your own desktop that you see everyday?
Just Monika.
But more importantly, this set-up removes the feeling that Monika is taking over your life. On PC, the need to leave the game and go into the computer or Steam’s files makes it seem like Monika is actively taking over your hardware and you have to fight her to stop her from escaping–an idea planted in your head when the game flashes a strange message partway through the story that one of the programs tried to escape, but failed. I never once felt fear playing DDLC Plus on Switch, as Monika was always confined to the game. She never did anything to change Nintendo’s hardware. So the entire time, she didn’t feel alive–she was just an interesting gimmick in a psychological horror game.
Doki Doki Literature Club’s horror is effective because the game is built to take advantage of how PC hardware and software works to really sell the haunting realization of its twist. It’s an incredibly clever segment of gameplay, and an important aspect to fully appreciating the psychological horror of its story. The console versions lose something because they don’t take advantage of how Xbox, PlayStation, or Switch hardware and software each uniquely work to break the fourth wall and bring the horror into the real world. These versions instead try to emulate the PC experience, which makes it feel fake and thus less scary. So even though Doki Doki Literature Club Plus is an effective horror game wherever you play it, the full impact of its psychological twist is lost on consoles. If you’re going to pick it up, grab it on PC.
Sony has revealed that the PlayStation Plus games for July 2021 include the new PS5 version of A Plague Tale: Innocence and PS4’s Call of Duty: Black Ops 4 and WWE 2K Battlegrounds.
Announced on PlayStation.Blog, all three of these games will be available from July 6, 2021 through August 2, 2021. Sony also has reminded subscribers that Virtua Fighter 5 Ultimate Showdown, which is part of June 2021’s PlayStation Plus games, will stay on the service until August 5.
The PS5 version of A Plague Tale: Innocence features targeted 60 FPS, “highly improved visuals,” and faster loading. Unfortunately for PS4 owners, only the PS5 version is part of this month’s selections. Even still, this will help PS5 owners get ready for the game’s sequel – A Plague Tale: Requiem – that was announced at E3 2021 with a 2022 release date.
2018’s Call of Duty: Black Ops 4 will also be available for PlayStation Plus subscribers, and brings with it an extensive multiplayer suite. However, those looking for a traditional Call of Duty campaign will be disappointed as this was the first title in the franchise without a single-player story mode.
In our review of Call of Duty: Black Ops 4, we said that it “has a few rough edges, but any of its three modes make for an enjoyable shooter experience that feel distinct and personalized.”
In our review of WWE 2K Battlegrounds, we said that it “works as a shallow party game you play for an hour, then move on to something else, and that’s it.”
The Marvel Cinematic Universe has trained us all to sit through the credits. However, most of us aren’t there to actually watch the credits. We want a little taste of what’s coming next. The same can be said for the Disney+ series Loki.
Episode 4 of Loki has a post-credit sequence you’ll want to wait around for though. After the main credits, more specifically at 44:42, this mindblowing sequence begins. It only lasts 20 seconds, but what happens in those 20 seconds is pretty fantastic, and we’ll explain what it means below.
Warning: Spoilers for Episode 4 of Loki below the video.
After Loki’s apparent death, he awakes elsewhere, in a ruined city, wondering if he’s in Hell. He’s not but he is greeted by three familiar-looking people–and one animal. They’re all Loki variants who have roots within the world of Marvel Comics.
From left to right, you have Deobia Oparei (Sex Education) as Boastful Loki, Jack Veal (The End of the F***ing World) as Kid Loki and Richard E. Grant (Gosford Park) as Classic Loki. There’s also an Alligator Loki–although that’s not credited in the credits. Check out the photo of them below.
Check out these Lokis
What’s the deal with the alligator? There’s no connection to the comics that we know of, but Marvel has plenty of moments of animals becoming superheroes, like the time Loki turned Thor into a frog–known as Throg–in Thor #363. Eventually, Throg became its own character. Maybe Thor found a way to turn Loki into an alligator?
Then there’s the character listed as Boastful Loki in the credits. This seems to be a new character–the one holding the hammer–for the MCU, as we couldn’t find a connection to the comics.
Grant takes on the role of Classic Loki, in a costume that is very similar to the villain’s first appearance in Journey into Mystery #85 from 1962. This was a time when Loki truly was the God of Mischief, a title which has been discussed on the Disney+ show, as it’s not really suited to Tom Hiddleston’s character in the MCU.
Finally, Veal plays Kid Loki. In the comics, Loki died during the Siege of Asgard, sacrificing himself to save his home–which was then floating above Oklahoma… because comics. However, he was reborn in Paris with no memories of his past life–just nightmares about past crimes. Thor restored part of his identity, but Kid Loki wasn’t a welcome sight back in Asgard. The child God of Mischief was around for some time, before he faded out of existence.
As for everything else going on here, it’s obvious that the group of Lokis are on another Earth–one where New York City was destroyed–you can see Avengers Tower on the right. Considering how much the TVA has lied to Loki throughout the series–where the agents come from, who the Time-Keepers are, etc.–it seems like there already is a multiverse and the TVA rods send you to a parallel Earth.
We’ll learn more next week when Episode 5 of Loki airs on Disney+.
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The Bowflex SeletTech 552 dumbbell set is one of the most popular items we feature on IGN Deals. You probably thought the most popular stuff was games and computers and whatnot. Well, sure. Those are massive, for obvious reasons. But among the non-tech stuff that always does well is this set of weights. It’s in-stock right now, and has been since yesterday, which is something newsworthy in and of itself. This set tends to sell out quickly, even when it’s full price.
The lockdowns and stay-at-home orders helped make these weights really popular. Now that most places allow you to move about freely, you might think they’d slack off on popularity, but you’d be wrong.
I don’t have this set, but I do keep some dumbbells near my desk. Since I work from home I can multi-task by doing commerce content and making gains. It’s win-win for everybody.
With such a range between light and heavy all in one package, this is an extremely versatile weight set with the added bonus of not taking up all the room required for individually sized dumbbells.
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Seth Macy is IGN’s Executive Editor, IGN Commerce, and just wants to be your friend. You canfollow him on Twitter.
