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inspirations

‘Weapons’ Director Zach Cregger on Aunt Gladys’ Style Inspirations

by admin September 20, 2025

Zach Cregger’s creepy Weapons is now available to watch at home, meaning folks who missed it in theaters can behold its horrors from the safety of their couch. Also, it means anyone in the midst of fashioning a Halloween costume styled after the movie’s most mysterious and memorable character can rewind and freeze-frame to get all the Aunt Gladys details just right.

Like everything in Weapons, Gladys’ looks are very carefully thought out. Her more vulnerable scenes reveal she’s a lot older than you might think—possibly even ancient—but the breakout style definitely comes through when Gladys (wonderfully played by Amy Madigan) has to make a public appearance. She’s got her red wig with the micro bangs, 1970s oversized sunglasses, a thick slash of lipstick, colorful outfits that scream “suburban eccentric,” and that all-important handbag stuffed full of sinister spell-casting tools.

Speaking to Collider, Cregger elaborated a bit on how this frightening style icon came into existence.

“She’s not based on anything I’ve experienced in real life, necessarily,” he said. “But … Gladys as an aesthetic, her aesthetic comes from Cindy Sherman and Twin Peaks and Boca Raton retirees.”

We would have guessed maybe a little Grey Gardens in there too, and perhaps The Witches, as well as hag-spolitation classic What Ever Happened to Baby Jane?

Cregger does go on to explain that Gladys, beyond her physical appearance, was influenced by aspects of his own life, something he’s previously discussed.

“Gladys, as a theme, is very autobiographical. And really, it’s about my childhood. And it’s not that there was an evil woman that came into my life, but it was more about just growing up in an alcoholic family,” he said. “And the idea of a new entity coming into your house and upending the family dynamic, and taking a safe place and turning it into a scary place, and what it does to children, and that sort of thing … But no, I never met a crazy woman with red hair.”

Want more io9 news? Check out when to expect the latest Marvel, Star Wars, and Star Trek releases, what’s next for the DC Universe on film and TV, and everything you need to know about the future of Doctor Who.

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September 20, 2025 0 comments

Product Reviews

Colman Domingo Talks Inspirations for His ‘Running Man’ Villain

by admin September 15, 2025

The upcoming Running Man remake is set in a United States where people watch contestants try to survive being hunted. Watch any game show (or reality TV in general), and the host is as important as the players themselves, and that’s where Colman Domingo comes in.

He plays Bobby Thompson in the film, who hosts the titular blood sport that’s the talk of the country. We got a little bit of the character in the trailer, and according to Domingo, playing a guy like that is like “[being] in a whole different film than anyone else.” Like he told Entertainment Weekly, Thompson’s only seen through the context of his show, where he’s “operating, manipulating, charming, not only the studio audience, but the guests as well.”

Despite not having any backstory to lean on, Domingo revealed two inspirations for Bobby: his old theater days of “being able to hold an audience” and Jerry Springer, whose reality show used to be a big deal in the mid-2000s and became a reliable time-killer for schoolkids during snow days. Domingo watched the two-part documentary on the late TV show host the night before filming his scenes and recognized Springer’s skill in “inciting and letting people…do what they need to do on a platform and really let them engage in the worst behavior and still feel like he had nothing to do with it. He’s just there moving the show along. I felt like, what an interesting strategic way to abstain from any responsibility of what happens on that set.”

Bobby’s need to keep the masses entertained also extends to his look, which Domingo said comes courtesy of writer/director Edgar Wright and costume designers keeping him looking “impeccable in every way. Maybe it made sense for Edgar to cast me because I think he knew I could possibly pull it off.” Style has always been a hallmark of Wright’s movies, and Running Man looks to keep that trend going—which, to Domingo, is a great incentive to see the film in theaters on November 14. The holidays are no stranger to event films, and he’s positive “this one is going to be a massive event in our cinemas.”

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September 15, 2025 0 comments

Game Reviews

Lost Soul Aside lacks the spirit of its inspirations – I’d rather play Devil May Cry again

by admin September 4, 2025

I’m finding it hard to take Lost Soul Aside seriously. There are a few reasons for this, but chief is the protagonist’s name is Kaser. It’s pronounced like the German word for cheese. And people thought Clive was a bad name?!

Instead, I’ve taken to calling him NotThis, in relation to his design being a complete steal of Noctis from Final Fantasy 15: the dark spiky anime hair, the all-black goth outfit, the big sword. It stems from Lost Soul Aside’s origins as a Final Fantasy-meets-Devil May Cry fan project that now, a decade later, has finally seen a full release. But sadly it struggles to emerge from the shadow of those origins. Devil May Cry 5 has deep, stylish combat; sexy characters, and an undeniable sense of effortless cool. Lost Soul Aside, well, doesn’t.

You can still see the original trailer for Lost Soul Aside released in 2016, though its Chinese developer Bing Yang began development in 2014 as a graduate student in South Korea. I remember seeing it at the time – it was a hugely impressive project from a solo developer created in UE4 that garnered plenty of justified attention. That included some Sony execs, who soon provided funding through its China Hero Project and now, a decade later, have published the game.

First, the original Lost Soul Aside trailer…Watch on YouTube

It’s hard to tell how much has changed in that time. The original trailer features the darkly-clothed Kaser with his dragon-cum-sword companion traversing a multitude of fantasy worlds, each flourish and swing of his weapon accompanied by a distinctive electric blue glow. It’s an ambitious projection of what the final product could be, with its open worlds and extravagant attack animations, but you get the sense maybe Sony had to rein in that ambition during development. Lost Soul Aside in release-form is a linear and contained experience that plays like a character-action game from years ago, in line with the likes of Devil May Cry 5 and Bayonetta – a comparison the game’s very development invites.

…And secondly, its recent launch trailer for comparisonWatch on YouTube

That would be a refreshing change from the vast open world epics and wannabe Soulslikes of 2025 – if it worked. Unfortunately, from the first few hours, Lost Soul Aside at launch is a clunky mess.

The story is laughably bad, a load of nonsense about an evil empire and a soul stealing demonic entity that requires fragments of crystals to best, each acquired across different dimensions. The opening segment features a polluted Midgar-esque imperial city of slums and factory facilities, and introduces us to the underground terrorist group Glimmer. Except where Final Fantasy 7’s Avalanche blows up an entire reactor in the game’s opening, Glimmer’s act of rebellion is to…set off some fireworks? It’s intended to “ignite the will of the people” but it’s a flimsy impetus for what is ultimately meant to be an epic adventure.

Image credit: Square Enix

Image credit: Sony / Eurogamer
You can’t tell me these aren’t the same character

It also introduces us to NotThis – sorry, Kaser – and his harem of sexy-yet-vacuous female sidekicks. Kaser is your typical stoic hero with little to say for himself, though he does have a nice jacket (in fact, the intricate costume design throughout is a highlight). Instead, he lets his weapon do the talking – literally. When he isn’t morphing into different weapon shapes, Lord Arena (or simply “Massive Dragon” as he’s introduced), hovers around Kaser and comments on his actions. He’s actually funny though, like a grumpy old man awoken from slumber, his grand, almost operatic voicework at odds with the flat delivery from other characters.

“Massive Dragon” in action | Image credit: Sony / Eurogamer

Indeed, Lost Soul Aside is gaining attention online for all the wrong reasons. Within the first couple of minutes a child character is unceremoniously booted across the screen in a clip that’s been very unsurprisingly shared across social media, while a Big Climactic Moment in the opening that sees Kaser falling to his doom has one of the worst (best?) “noooo” screams I’ve ever heard.

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The rest of its storytelling feels held together by glue and prayers. Background music shifts suddenly between in-game action and cutscenes, while cinematics are jarringly cut together, and there are odd pauses into dialogue sections. Performance issues continue into gameplay too: framerates are choppy on a base PS5; more than once I’ve encountered bugs that wouldn’t load the next section, forcing a restart. One boss had a fancy cape that glitched and stretched across the whole screen with every whirling vault. At the least, the studio has promised rapid fixes, so performance could be imminently improved.

This glitching cape somewhat got in the way | Image credit: Sony / Eurogamer

Really, the storytelling is superfluous to the combat, the real core of the game. Here, Lost Soul Aside is perfectly playable once you find your rhythm of last-minute dodges and perfect blocks, and initially it’s satisfying to see Kaser rapidly dashing across the screen in a flurry of spins and dodges, all with that distinctive blue hue. Build up enough energy and Kaser sprouts demonic arms and enters what I’ve dubbed Dante Mode, complete with shocking white hair.

Yet basic abilities are doled out far too slowly across the prologue, and despite multiple skill trees, after a few hours of play combat hasn’t meaningfully developed beyond a single additional weapon. There’s a loose floatiness to Kaser’s movement that’s seen him careening off platforms more times than I’d like to admit, but besides some light platforming and battling samey enemies in obviously-signposted arenas, there’s little else to do.

There are still some handsome environments, and I particularly enjoy the chibi characters on the world map | Image credit: Sony / Eurogamer

Ultimately, what lets Lost Soul Aside down is a lack of character, in every aspect. And that’s what makes Devil May Cry such an enticing game. Dante is an exceptionally cool, quippy character, his mix of sword and gunplay for juggling enemies remains iconic, and the modern-gothic world he explores is distinctive. Each time I’ve loaded up Lost Soul Aside, all I could think about was how much I’ve been meaning to play Devil May Cry 5 again since Capcom released the PS5 patch a few years ago. What a game!

Instead, I played Lost Soul Aside, with its pristine, doll-like visuals, comedy jank, and lack of anything novel to say. And a protagonist who sounds like cheese.

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September 4, 2025 0 comments

Game Updates

“History is repeating itself” The real-world inspirations of Hell is Us are as relevant today as they were 30 years ago

by admin August 28, 2025

“The true horrors of war are a very important narrative pillar of the game. We wanted to do it justice. It’s never done gratuitously, it’s never done in a grotesque way, [but] we want to depict human conflicts as realistically as possible.”

I am speaking with technical designer Simon Girard about Hell is Us, the upcoming action-adventure game from Rogue Factor. In Hell is Us, players take on the role of Rémi, who is searching for his parents in the fictional country of Hadea. However, Hadea is being ravaged by infighting and in the midst of a civil war.

This set up immediately brings to mind the current situation in Gaza, and the ongoing genocide of the Palestinian people, which begs the question: Did real world events inspire Hell is Us?

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“Our creative director Jonathan Jacques-Belletête is a huge history buff, and one of his topics of interest is armed conflict, specifically civil wars, because the nature is of neighbours-against-neighbours,” Girard says of the general civil war theme. “It’s not one country against another. It’s people who are the same, right? They’re divided amongst either geographical or cultural or religious lines, but they’re one in the same.”

So while Hadea is a fictional country and Hell is Us is telling a fictional story, Girard says this has been a topic Jacques-Belletête had been wanting to explore for some time now, and inspiration was taken from 90s wars, which is shown in the clothing. “But, in terms of answering your question, the two main themes we explore with war are the human emotions that are causing this conflict, because the exacerbation of certain emotions can lead to conflict, and the cyclical nature of violence,” Girard continues. This cyclical nature is central to Hell is Us’ overall narrative, and Girard says it is “uncanny” that 30 years later, we are once again living in a world where a civil war is at the centre of many news stories on a daily basis.

“History is repeating itself, and I think without us taking a moralising approach – that’s not what we are about – there is something that resounds with a lot of people because yes [Hell is Us] is far away, is fictional, but at the same time, it has a powerful echo in it.” He reflects on the announcement trailer for Hell is Us, which showed a female civilian executing a soldier kneeling down in front of her, saying his people killed her family. That trailer happened to come out around the time of 2022’s Crimea attacks.

“We find a big echo in our own reality.”

“The studio wanted to create this fictional story. It had no basis in modern history, had no pretence in being a mirror-like reality. It’s a fictional story in a fictional country. But then this happens, right? So, again, we find a big echo in our own reality,” Girard says. He notes Hell is Us has over 160 NPCs, and all of them have been impacted by the war going on around them, be they victims, bystanders or participants.

“No one is left indifferent,” he says.

Image credit: Rogue Factor

More generally, Hell is Us has “three different narrative layers”, Girard tells me. The first is Rémi’s own story and his motivations. The second is of the civil war going on in Hadea, and the third is of The Calamity, which resulted in the appearance of supernatural creatures that also inhabit the land (see image below).

“They’re all intertwined somehow, and all these layers are very important to the story, or the multiple stories that you’ll get out of this experience,” Girard says, without giving too much away for fear of spoiling something. He adds, however, there are “strong narrative and mechanical links and implications” between everything that has been teased so far, but it is up to the player to find out just what they are.

“It’s a very rich environment for us to play with and tell stories with.”

“It’s a type of game I am sure will have subreddits of people trying to [piece together] the same things,” the developer says, talking about the many different items and “information elements” players will be able to find scattered throughout Hell is Us, and which will help shape the world’s narrative. “I am sure people will go very meta outside of the game and try to draw links between some stuff, and reorder things historically or phonologically,” he says, likening it to Peter Jackson’s Lord of the Rings adaptations. “You see this three hour long movie, and it’s a full set piece from beginning to end. But, it’s based on material that’s much larger, right? There’s this whole world behind it.”

The team has built Hell is Us’ world from scratch, Girard continues, and that includes weaving in a fictional history dating back hundreds of years. This means players will be able to find out why Hadea became a hermit kingdom, and discover more about the ruins that lie among more modern settlements. “It’s a very rich environment for us to play with and tell stories with,” Girard says.

Image credit: Rogue Factor

But while Hell is Us will include plenty of lore to untangle, the developer isn’t including what some would say are video game staples – a map and quest markers. The team has instead focused on environmental cues to guide players to where they should go, and a compass to allow them to orient themselves.

“It transpires in the level design, it transpires in the environmental design.”

Girard tells me about a settlement players will come across early on in Hell is Us. At one entrance, they may come across a military captain, who mentions an outpost in the town. “But let’s say you enter the town another way, and you miss the captain, the first thing you can find is either the blacksmith shop [which is illuminated], or there are other characters you can talk to who will also have threads you can fold in that will bring you into what you need to do for your main quest,” he explains. “It’s important to give multiple entry points into the main storyline at all times… and you may even stumble into story elements organically. Your exploration and time is always rewarded in different ways, ranging from the main story, secondary quest lines or just lore elements.”

The Hell is Us team decided early on that they weren’t going to include a traditional map, with this idea being a “design philosophy” for everything else. “It transpires in the level design, it transpires in the environmental design, it gives you different vistas in the background that also represent places that catch your eye from afar that you want to go to,” Girard elaborates. “In interior dungeons that can be very maze-like, we think ‘how can we make each room stand out so you can orient yourself’. So, the frescos [in these areas] are all unique, so you are never lost as a player.”

Hell is Us also features audio cues, which players can follow to help find their way through the world. An example of this happens early in the game, and those who have played the demo will recall it – the wind chimes in the woodland area. “If you’re playing on a 5.1 or 7.1 surround sound system, you could close your eyes and just navigate using the audio at that point,” Girard says. “It’s a small segment, but it’s such a nice touch.”

Image credit: Rogue Factor

My time with Girard is coming to an end, but it is clear the developer has so much more he wishes he could share. “It’s been a labour of love and passion from our team,” he says, catching sight of the time. “We began pre-production of this before the pandemic in 2020, so it’s five and a half years in the making. We began with 35 people, we are now 55. The studio has grown, we’ve built up pools and pipelines and ways of communicating and working together which are now defining what the future of Rogue Factor will be like for us, beyond everything commercial.”

“Don’t get me wrong, the more copies we sell the happier we are,” he closes with a laugh, “but beyond that, for us to be able to say this is Rogue Factor now, this is who we are and these are the types of experiences you can expect from us going forward, that was our main driving force… to find our own space and our own identity, where we can welcome people and have something interesting to present to them.”

Hell is Us – which stars Elias Toufexis, aka Adam Jensen from the Deus Ex series, as Rémi – is set to release next week, on 4th September.

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August 28, 2025 0 comments