Connect with us

Entertainment

Samara Weaving Made A Subversive, Extremely R-Rated Thriller Before Her Fame

By Chris Snellgrove
| Published

Samara Weaving in her newest movie, Borderline

Steven Yeun became a horror icon thanks to The Walking Dead, and Samara Weaving became a scream queen thanks to movies like Ready or Not and The Babysitter. In 2017, these two teamed up to create the most subversive horror movie ever made: Mayhem, which is about killing your bosses in the most brutal way and getting away with it thanks to an insane legal loophole. It’s a fast, frenetic film that turns the zombie genre on its head, and you can now stream this macabre masterpiece for free on Tubi.

The premise of Mayhem is that Steven Yeun plays a lawyer with a very specific claim to fame. He helped set the legal precedent that those infected with the Red Eye virus (which removes inhibitions and morality but otherwise leaves intelligence intact) are not liable for what they do during this altered state.

Steven Yuen and Samara Weaving in Mayhem

However, he loses his job on the same day that his building is flooded with the virus, resulting in every employee being quarantined until the virus runs its course. At this point, he decides to team up with a disgruntled client (Samara Weaving) to kill his bosses, knowing full well he won’t have to face any legal repercussions for any violent mayhem he causes.

A Cast That Bleeds Pure Talent

The cast of Mayhem is lean and mean, with Steven Brand (best known for Saw X) playing the amoral boss that our plucky protagonists are determined to kill. One of our heroes is played by Samara Weaving (best known for Ready or Not), whose insanely unpredictable character serves as the film’s ultimate chaos agent. Our other protagonist is played by Steven Yeun (best known for The Walking Dead), and his character has so much charisma that it’s hard not to support his goal: getting away with murder against the worst boss you could possibly imagine.

When Mayhem came out, it impressed reviewers who were hungry for more than just another horror flick. On Rotten Tomatoes, it has a rating of 84 percent, with critics praising the movie’s stylish violence and dark humor. They particularly commended the movie for tying its bonkers fictional plot to real-world economic anxieties, which serves to elevate the film without turning everything into a preachy mess.

Violence Has Never Been Sexier

I first saw Mayhem when it appeared on The Last Drive-In, the popular Shudder program hosted by horror legend Joe Bob Briggs. As Briggs described the movie, I had a bad feeling that the Red Eye virus would be nothing more than an excuse to turn characters into mindless zombies. After watching Steven Yeun’s Glenn get violently murdered on The Walking Dead (the exact point that I walked away from the show), I wasn’t really in the mood to see the actor tangle with mindless zombies yet again.

However, I was pleasantly surprised to discover that this wasn’t really a zombie movie; instead, the Red Eye virus is just a plot MacGuffin to explain why an entire building of stuffy lawyers would suddenly transform into violent killers. They aren’t mindless, either, and the fact that everyone retains their intelligence is a big part of why this movie is so scary. Instead of transforming into slow, shambling monsters, everyone in the building becomes someone with the morality and violent appetites of movie monsters like Hannibal Lecter.

I was also impressed by the bonkers premise in which our lawyer protagonist has figured out that he can attack and even kill his employers without seeing so much as a day of jail time. In this way, Mayhem channels movies like The Purge, asking viewers to consider what they would do if they had a certain amount of time (in this case, eight hours before the virus dissipates) to commit any possible crime. Anyone watching who has ever had a crazy jerk of a boss (which is basically, well, everyone watching) will also sympathize with the plight of a protagonist fighting against a broken system of capitalism in the only way he knows how.

A Freaky Film Worth Fighting For

In addition to the great premise and tight script, the movie delivers everything a horror fan could ask for: killer action, a perfect pace, and entire buckets full of blood. Steven Yeun and Samara Weaving also make the perfect onscreen team, each of them utilizing their genre experience to bring their characters to vivid, violent life. Overall, I found Mayhem to be one of the freshest horror films of the last decade, and the biggest problem with this movie is that not enough people have seen it!

You can change that by streaming this subversive horror classic for free on Tubi. Mayhem is a great movie to watch for anyone looking for a new take on an old genre or who simply wants to see two veteran performers chew the scenery in the most captivating way. Of course, it’s also the perfect movie for another group of viewers: anyone who needs a bit of catharsis after working for a terrible boss day in and day out!


source

Continue Reading
Click to comment

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

Entertainment

Wordle today: Answer, hints for April 26, 2026

Today’s Wordle answer should be easy to solve if you’re a shining star.

If you just want to be told today’s word, you can jump to the bottom of this article for today’s Wordle solution revealed. But if you’d rather solve it yourself, keep reading for some clues, tips, and strategies to assist you.

Where did Wordle come from?

Originally created by engineer Josh Wardle as a gift for his partner, Wordle rapidly spread to become an international phenomenon, with thousands of people around the globe playing every day. Alternate Wordle versions created by fans also sprang up, including battle royale Squabble, music identification game Heardle, and variations like Dordle and Quordle that make you guess multiple words at once

Wordle eventually became so popular that it was purchased by the New York Times, and TikTok creators even livestream themselves playing.

What’s the best Wordle starting word?

The best Wordle starting word is the one that speaks to you. But if you prefer to be strategic in your approach, we have a few ideas to help you pick a word that might help you find the solution faster. One tip is to select a word that includes at least two different vowels, plus some common consonants like S, T, R, or N.

What happened to the Wordle archive?

The entire archive of past Wordle puzzles was originally available for anyone to enjoy whenever they felt like it, but it was later taken down, with the website’s creator stating it was done at the request of the New York Times. However, the New York Times then rolled out its own Wordle Archive, available only to NYT Games subscribers.

Is Wordle getting harder?

It might feel like Wordle is getting harder, but it actually isn’t any more difficult than when it first began. You can turn on Wordle‘s Hard Mode if you’re after more of a challenge, though.

Here’s a subtle hint for today’s Wordle answer:

Sheen.

Does today’s Wordle answer have a double letter?

The letter S appears twice.

Mashable 101 Fan Fave: Nominate your favorite creators today

Today’s Wordle is a 5-letter word that starts with…

Today’s Wordle starts with the letter G.

The Wordle answer today is…

Get your last guesses in now, because it’s your final chance to solve today’s Wordle before we reveal the solution.

Drumroll please!

The solution to today’s Wordle is…

GLOSS

Don’t feel down if you didn’t manage to guess it this time. There will be a new Wordle for you to stretch your brain with tomorrow, and we’ll be back again to guide you with more helpful hints. Are you also playing NYT Strands? See hints and answers for today’s Strands.

Reporting by Chance Townsend, Caitlin Welsh, Sam Haysom, Amanda Yeo, Shannon Connellan, Cecily Mauran, Mike Pearl, and Adam Rosenberg contributed to this article.

If you’re looking for more puzzles, Mashable’s got games now! Check out our games hub for Mahjong, Sudoku, free crossword, and more.

Not the day you’re after? Here’s the solution to yesterday’s Wordle.

source

Continue Reading

Entertainment

Alan Ritchson's Extremely Graphic Sci-Fi Series Is The Best Show You've Never Watched

By Jonathan Klotz
| Published

Before he was Reacher, but after he was Thad, Alan Ritchson played Barbie. Not that Barbie, Arthur Bailey, the hero of SyFy’s wild series, Blood Drive. A throwback to the grindhouse cinema of the 70s, Blood Drive is the most twisted series to air on the cable channel. If you think a show about a cross-country death race in a future wrecked by environmental catastrophe and controlled by a mega corporation sounds like Death Race 2000 or Twisted Metal, well, you’re right. There’s one small difference. The cars in Blood Drive run on human blood. 

Gas Is People

Blood Drive 2017

Set years after the United States was cracked in half by earthquakes along the Mississippi river, Blood Drive’s evil corporation, Heart Enterprises, has monopolized the rare resources exposed by the massive fault. Water’s scarce, and gas is hard to come by, so of course the solution is cars that run on blood, which have helpful grinders built into the engines for sticking human bodies. Not all of them have that of course, but when you see the inside of the psychotic Grace’s (Christina Ochoa) car, you won’t soon forget it. 

Grace and Arthur, a cop trying to do the right thing, are reluctantly partnered for the cross-country race. Together, they hit one nightmare after another on the open highway, from cannibals to Amazons, with every new city and rest stop hiding a deadly secret. Every now and then, they stumble across a small town in need of a few good men. Except this is Blood Drive. There are no heroes here.

Blood Drive 2017

It’s no surprise which character ended up becoming the fan favorite: Julian Sink, the Blood Drive Master of Ceremonies. Played over the top by Stargate’s Colin Cunningham (also John Pope in TNT’s Falling Skies), no one can out dandy Sink. He’s eccentric, he might be insane, and you can’t help but be charmed by the man with personality to spare. 

Blood Drive Was Pure Grindhouse Fun

Blood Drive 2017

Alan Ritchson’s involvement in Blood Drive seems weird to everyone who only knows him from Reacher. Ritchson’s sense of humor lands right in the Grindhouse aesthetic, which is why he can deliver lines like “why are hot girls so mean,” when the Amazon Queen has him tied down. It’s an insane series that is well-served by the case-of-the-week setup. In addition to the Amazons and cannibals, there are nymphomaniacs, zombies, an asylum, a fight club, and an Asian martial arts-inspired episode. Again, this is an insane series filled with blood, guts, and sex. Thanks to the two leads, there’s something here to appeal to anyone. 

Blood Drive only lasted one season and it sort of wraps up the story. SyFy cited poor ratings, but then again, they didn’t do a whole lot of marketing for the show that sounds ridiculous at first, and remains ridiculous, but it hides a wicked sense of black humor. Blood Drive is hard to find streaming, with episodes only available for purchase from YouTube and Fandango at Home, and the Blu-Ray has been out of print for nearly a decade. 

Blood Drive 2017

If you can find it, Blood Drive is the perfect watch for anyone who enjoys the old-school grindhouse aesthetic, or wants something that dares to be different. The best part of the series though, the fake commercials for Grindhouse movies, the same gag used by Quentin Tarantino and Robert Rodriguez’s Grindhouse double-feature, are left off the home video releases. Still, if you want to see Alan Ritchson murder people, or Colin Cunningham have the time of his life, it’s worth hunting down a copy of SyFy’s bloodiest series ever. 


source

Continue Reading

Entertainment

How The Best Fantasy Movie Of The Decade Was Destroyed By Corporate Greed

By Jonathan Klotz
| Updated

The most successful fantasy films of all time, The Lord of the Rings trilogy and Harry Potter, have reigned at the top of the mountain for decades, yet the genre has experienced a resurgence in recent years thanks to the rise of podcasts. Actual play podcasts featuring players going through a tabletop RPG have become one of the hottest genres of the new medium, and the best of them, including Critical RoleDimension 20, and Not Another D&D Podcast, were based on Dungeons and Dragons Fifth Edition.

You’d think that 2023’s Dungeons and Dragons: Honor Among Thieves, the best fantasy movie of the last decade, would have become a hit, but instead it disappointed at the box office (ironically, thanks to the franchise owner, Wizards of the Coast, horrible timing). Now it’s finally developing a following. 

A Tabletop Adventure On The Big Screen

Dungeons and Dragons: Honor Among Thieves picks up after the adventuring party of Edvin the Bard (Chris Pine), Holga the Barbarian (Michelle Rodriguez), Simon the Sorcerer (Justice Smith), Doric the Druid (Sophia Lillis), and Forge the Thief (Hugh Grant) were betrayed by the obviously evil wizard Sofina (Daisy Head). Out for revenge, Evin and Holga get the band back together, go into an actual dungeon complete with a dragon, and pull off a fantastical heist. 

The film has everything fans of the game have wanted to see on the big screen for decades, including an aarakocra and a cameo appearance by the characters from the 80s Dungeons & Dragons Saturday morning cartoon. Actual spells from the tabletop game are used, and real mechanics were played out.

All of this helped make the rollicking adventure feel like someone’s homebrew campaign brought to life. Even for those who don’t play the tabletop game, the comedy beats all and makes it a fun fantasy adventure. 

Why Dungeons & Dragons Failed To Find A Big Theater Audience

Mere weeks before Honor Among Thieves was released, Wizards of the Coast, the company that owns Dungeons and Dragons, did something so heinous it caused a boycott by fans. For more than 20 years, the game had operated under the Open Gaming License (OGL).

That OGL let independent writers and small companies create adventures, rulebooks, podcasts, and entire businesses built around D&D without fear of being shut down. And Wizards of the Coast decided to end it all.

A leaked draft of a new license Wizards of the Coast was planning appeared online. The Open Game License was being changed so that Wizards would get a 25 percent cut of everything fans earn when a creator makes more than $750,000 from monetizing the game. Worse still, the new terms would ban all online tabletop simulators and allow Wizards of the Coast to claim sole ownership of anything created by fans.

This leak of the company’s plans sparked a firestorm in the Dungeons & Dragons community. Core fans revolted en masse. An organic, fan-driven boycott of the company and everything it was involved with began. That boycott included the movie, meaning the group of people Hollywood expected as the film’s core supporters were not only avoiding it, but actively campaigning to keep it from being seen. It worked.

The film received a favorable response from those who saw it, with a 91 percent “fresh” rating on Rotten Tomatoes from over 300 reviews by critics and a matching 92 percent from over 2,000 reviews by the public. Yet Dungeons and Dragons: Honor Among Thieves underperformed, barely squeaking by with $200 million worldwide. That failure is undeniable, but it’s not the fault of the movie. Honor Among Thieves was destroyed by the greed of the company that owns its IP.

The backlash became so intense that Wizards eventually reversed course and released key D&D rules under a Creative Commons license, making them far harder to control in the future. But that change was too late to save Dungeons and Dragons: Honor Among Thieves.

Standing On Its Own

Removed from the drama of early 2023, Dungeons and Dragons: Honor Among Thieves can now stand on its own merit. Thanks to streaming, audiences are watching and enjoying the movie.

Unfortunately, the movie’s weak performance destroyed the hope of a sequel. However, if Honor Among Thieves continues to gain a much-deserved cult following, there’s always a chance that the writer/director duo of Jonathan Goldstein and John Francis Daley (who also worked with Pine on Horrible Bosses 2) will get another chance to bring the game to life.

Whether Honor Among Thieves gets the sequel it deserves or not, thanks to streaming, fans can enjoy the funniest fantasy movie since Monty Python and the Holy Grail, and newcomers can get a taste of what it’s like to play the most popular tabletop role-playing game in the world.


source

Continue Reading