There was a time when we were told that the future of deliveries would be made by robots, both flying or rolling. That dream proved to be a little too impractical and not secure to be considered a sustainable model, especially after a few mishaps that befell these unsuspecting machines. Thats not to say that they cant become a more common sight in the distant future, leaving plenty of opportunities to refine the design of these robots.Having small robots carrying packages on the street might sound cute until you think about how a fleet of such autonomous machines might seem like a waste of space on roads if thats the only thing they can do. This concept design tries to add a new angle to this idea, offering a multi-functional robot that can follow you around, deliver your packages, and even transport you to your destination.Designers: Chaewon Lee, Jungmin ParkThe idea of a delivery robot is both interesting and worrying, providing a little more efficiency but also raising the stakes both for the security of the package as well as the human couriers they will replace. A robotic storage device that follows you around or hands off items to colleagues on the same floor, however, might be a little less daunting, offering convenience without that big of a risk. Even better if this robot can actually do chores for you, including making purchases on your behalf.movr is a concept for such a robot, but it goes beyond simply carrying stuff. At first glance, it actually looks odd for a delivery robot and looks more like a three-wheeled mobile trash can. Its side slides open to reveal a small compartment for a phone, drink holders, envelopes, and any other thing you need to be transported. Almost like a ride-hailing service, movr has an app that can let you send packages or pick some up, depending on the task you need to accomplish.Its real magic, however, is in what the robot can do when its not transporting objects. movr can also move people around, or at most one person, by transforming into a personal mobility device. Its front extends from its body and the scooters handles slide up from the front. The robots body then becomes the seat for the lone passenger, carrying the user as well as some of their things from one place to another.movr is an interesting concept, though it isnt something that can be easily implemented. Stability, battery life, speed, and intelligence will all be critical factors to consider, and theyre not something that can be easily crammed into a compact design like this. Transforming robots and vehicles, however, has long been a dream of many engineers and designers, so there might come a time in the distant future when movr transforms from idea to reality.The post Self-driving robot storage concept doubles as a personal mobility device first appeared on Yanko Design.

MacworldSo you just got a brand new iPhone 16, transferred everything from your old phone, and now youre ready to play with your shiny new toy. What do you do first? Obviously, youre going to check out the apps you already have been using on your old iPhone for so long, probably marveling at how fast they load and how smooth and responsive everything is.Then what? Here are our suggestions for the next things you should do with your iPhone 16 or iPhone 16 Pro. And since the iPhone 16 will be the first iPhone most people will have that is capable of running Apple Intelligence, theres lots of neat new stuff to try out.Update to iOS 18.2If you have an iPhone 16-series handset it came with iOS 18, and might even be updated already to iOS 18.1. But you should check if it has the latest version of iOS on it already: iOS 18.2. It arrived in mid-December and adds features mainly for iPhone 16 users like Visual Intelligence, Image Playground, Genmoji, and ChatGPT integration. Plus there are numerous bug fixes and security updates, so you should install it ASAP. To get it, open up Settings, then tap General and Software Update.Enable Apple IntelligenceYou almost certainly got a pop-up screen during setup telling you about Apple Intelligence and giving you the option to turn it on. But its easy to just hit nextnextnext on those screens and not really pay attention.If you need to enable Apple Intelligence, you can open Settings, select Apple Intelligence & Siri, and then tap Get Apple Intelligence.AppleYour iPhone will need to have its Device language and Siri language set to one of the supported languages for Apple Intelligence (as of iOS 18.2, thats English (Australia), English (Canada), English (Ireland), English (New Zealand), English (South Africa), English (UK), and English (US)).You might enter a little waiting list but that typically lasts minutes or hours rather than days. Then your iPhone will download the Apple Intelligence models, and youre be good to go in a jiff.All the Apple Intelligence features may not operate optimally until your phone has completed some background processing and indexing, so keeping it plugged in for a while while it updates is a good idea.Tweak Camera Control settingsOne of the iPhone 16s hot new features is Camera Control, that new button on the lower right side thats flush with the edge. It can launch your preferred camera app, act as a shutter button, and even adjust some camera features with swipes and taps.But its a little touchy, and with the default settings it might be more of an annoyance than a benefit. We have a guide to fixing the Camera Control button that describes the settings you can change in detail.One set of options is in Settings > Camera > Camera Control and the other is in Accessibility > Camera Control.Dip into both of those menus to tune the Camera Control button and get it operating the way you like it. It will make a big difference! And dont forgetyou can turn the whole thing off if you cant get it to work the way youd like.FoundrySet an Emergency Contact and Medical IDYou can do this on any iPhone, but many people havent yet and it could save your life one day. So setting up a new iPhone is the perfect time to open the Health app to enter important Medical ID info and set up an emergency contact. Medical ID info can display critical medical info or allergies on your lock screen to a first responder, and an emergency contact is someone who can be called in an emergency by pressing and holding the side and volume buttons.First, open theHealthapp.Then tap on yourprofile picturein the upper right.TapMedical ID.Enter any critical medical info a first responder would need to know if youre in an accident, and an emergency contact you would want to reach.Customize your Home Screen and Control CenterIf this is your first iPhone, or if you just havent spent much time with iOS 18 yet, you may not know that you can now greatly customize both your Home Screen and Control Center.You can add widgets and position them anywhere, tint icons, make icons big with no text, and more. And you can add control center controls for all kinds of third-party apps now, and resize or reorder them.Check out our guide to customizing your Home Screen or Control Center in iOS 18, and give your fresh new iPhone 16 and fresh new look and feel.FoundryTweak the new Photos appSpeaking of customizing iOS 18, the new Photos app definitely needs a few tweaks. If youre a longtime iPhone user, youll notice its completely overhauled, and if youre new to the platform you might see a lot of things you dont necessarily want.In just a few minutes you can change the Photos app to show only the categories you want, in the order you want, and you can make (and reorder) Pinned Collections that take you right where you go the most often.Our guide to customizing the Photos app tells you everything you need to know.FoundryRead the manualDid you know your iPhone actually has a manual? No, it didnt come in the boxit would never fit in there. Apple keeps it online. But its super helpful, with a nicely organized, hyperlinked guide to your iPhone hardware and iOS 15 online at the iPhone User Guide. Youd be surprised at how many useful details are in there, and how much youll learn just by reading the instructions!

Holiday price cuts are in effect for Christmas and Hanukkah, as Apple's latest MacBook Pro with an M4 chip has plunged to $1,399.Get Apple's M4 MacBook Pro for just $1,399 - Image credit: AppleThe $1,399 price at B&H Photo and Amazon is thanks to a holiday price war between the two Apple Authorized Resellers. With the entry model now including 16GB of unified memory compared to last year's 8GB, the Late 2024 14-inch MacBook Pro offers additional value for the price.Buy for $1,399 Continue Reading on AppleInsider | Discuss on our Forums

PC gaming has come a long way, evolving by leaps and bounds over the decades. New titles came about that changed the way we thought about the medium. More powerful hardware redefined visuals and presentation, even rivaling Hollywood. However, beloved genres endured, with computer role-playing games and strategy titles continuing to be made (and seeing great success).Nailing down any one aspect of PC gaming is challenging, but its that diversity that really makes it shine. Lets check out the 30 best PC games that have stood out through the decades.Sons of the ForestThe first rule of playing Sons of the Forest is to experience the original if only to appreciate its story-telling and how things work. Then dive into the sequel and really start to grasp all the different tools that Endnight Games has offered, from solar-powered golf karts and hang-gliders (with launch pads) to an extensive range of firearms, new melee weapons, and mechanics, like AI helpers and a revamped building system. Though its narrative wont quite hook you, the sheer amount of stuff to do on the island inhumane and otherwise provides hours of fun.

Beating heavy-hitting titles like Astro Bot, Final Fantasy VII Rebirth, and Elden Ring: Shadow of the Erdtree is Silent Hill 2, GamingBolts game of the year for 2024. We havent bestowed Bloober Team with our most significant annual accolade to be contrarian though. No, Bloober Team absolutely smashed it out of the park with their careful reimagining. They preserved everything that made the original great: its pervasively noxious atmosphere, enrapturing music and sound design, and its complex characterisation whilst adding their own stamp which, given their middling track record, usurped many an expectation that theyd fluff their lines to deliver a lacklustre remake not befitting of the originals legacy. Well, rejoice horror fans: Silent Hill 2s remake is a triumph.Much noise preceded the remakes release, centred mostly on Bloober Teams track record. For every half-decent horror in their repertoire such as The Medium or Observer therere bang average titles such as Layers of Fear 2 and Blair Witch. Its fair to say Bloober hadnt yet proven themselves when the announcement came that theyd been given the keys to James Sunderlands psyche, so the wide-spread trepidation surrounding the title was understandable. However, this is a studio comprised of passionate individuals, a team hellbent on doing justice to such iconic source material.Weve already stated in prior features of the monumental task Bloober Team faced. Principally, remaking any video game is like reinterpreting memories, but with Silent Hill 2 being a game steeped in interpretation, with its fog-addled alleyways coaxing our individual anxieties into combined dread, these two-decade old memories were perhaps more nebulous than any game thats been remade before. Questions were raised: would applying a hi-res sheen dilute Silent Hill 2s dreamlike quality? Will the over-the-shoulder perspective so prevalent in modern video games hinder the games inherent claustrophobia? Will combat be over-modified to the point its transformed into something too action-orientated? Bloober needed to apply the deftest of touches, to consider every key characteristic meticulously so as not to ruin the original games immersive quality.Lets take those re-vamped graphics. Sure, aside from some blurry edges here and there, the game looks great. However, Bloober Team recognised that enhanced graphics wont contribute to selling fear on their own. Instead, higher fidelity graphics have been deployed to illustrate James decent into madness. The opaque fog, so integral to the games iconography, insulates James from the horrors lurking within the abandoned town more effectively than ever. Interiors are dank, jarringly so, and the deeper James explores the more unkempt these inside spaces become. Texture-wise, surfaces begin to show rust and decay; architecture becomes hostile. James is on a downward spiral, and the dimly lit corridors he treads through morph into illustrations of his psyche the further his mental state falls. Lighting, particularly darkness and shade, exemplify this interior hostility too, none more so than in the Toluca Prison section whereby huge portions of the time spent inside are in near-complete darkness. Sanctuary from the oppressive blackness is found in activating breaker switches, but these only lift the gloom momentarily making every trek between their locations a nerve-wrecking voyage, the fear of utter dark descending once again tarnishing any respite James may harbour in the lights moderately comforting glow.These graphical elements serve to support Silent Hill 2 Remakes newfound over-the-shoulder perspective. Yes, a broader field of view for the player risked losing the originals claustrophobic immersion, but in absorbing hostile detail and in traipsing through pitch black the over-the-shoulder perspective shines. Fixed camera positions of old wouldnt sell the dread of being entombed within the confines of a shrivelled-up apartment complex half as well.The interior levels are labyrinthine in design too, obfuscated mazes ensnaring James, demanding he shuffle back and forth in desperate search of a solution to break free. Some of these levels perhaps overstay their welcome, but arguably this was Bloober Teams intention. See, the oppressiveness James and thus us as players are experiencing in these twisted corridors is heightened by the feeling of being trapped. Theyre perpetuating mental fatigue for both us and James. Toss in the aforesaid surface texture and haphazard lighting, and the sheer relief at breaking back outside into the greyscale mist of the towns streets feels like breathing again after damn-near suffocating to death.Underscoring the suffocating oppressiveness further is Silent Hill 2 Remakes music and sound design, and this is another element Bloober Team have made significant improvements via carefully considering which aspects to preserve and which to embellish. Soundscape-wise, Silent Hill 2 is famous for its long stretches of silence, especially in moments of monster-confronting terror, and sound was used by Bloober to usurp expectations in Remake in similar fashion. In Bloober Teams How Silence Turns Fog Into Fear dev diary video were invited by Lead Technical Sound Designer Filip Zeglen to take ten minutes to tune our ears into the eerie world around us. What is discoverable is that what initially sounds like silence is a dense menage of field recordings and foley sounds interwoven into audible tapestry; industrial scrapes, indistinct scratching, electrical buzzing and hum, distant moans, squelching footsteps, an unexpected jangling of keys. Audibly speaking, the environment is shifting and unmoving simultaneously.Akira Yamaokas incredible original soundtrack a fusion of atonal drones, trip-hop beats, and radio friendly Americana has been reinterpreted sublimely too. Akira-san, much like the rest of Remakes creation, tugged on memories of the original. He recalls familiar motifs but buries some in layers of hiss and reverb whilst re-recording others with orchestral aplomb. Bloobers audio team resampled and remixed Yamaokas new soundtrack, weaving it into soundscapes specifically tuned for surround sound and 3D audio, presenting newfound immersion from the guts of what was already there.Furthermore, character presentation was supremely well done. Harnessing cutting-edge motion capture tech, the characters in Silent Hill 2 display their emotions more readily in the expression on their faces. Through a refined script, youre now expected to read and interpret for yourself what the characters are feeling through the lines on their faces. Its a shrewd move which creates an emotional connection with them beyond their prior function as mirrors to James cracked psyche. And speaking of James, props must go to English voice performer Luke Roberts who portrayed James tenderness and vulnerability expertly. Seasoned players are already aware of Sunderlands maddening arc and the gut-punching reality nurturing his guilt, but when the reveal comes it still harbours shock value thanks to Roberts. James docile personality as portrayed by Roberts supports Remakes sluggish combat as well. See, James is an ordinary man thrust into a world he doesnt understand, stumbling upon weapons he has no experience with. His ineptitude with guns, his stumbling dodge, and his weakness when wielding melee weapons fosters yet more dread and anxiety in us.Therell be an unwavering legacy underpinning Silent Hill 2 Remake for years to come. In staying faithful to the original whilst exaggerating all that made it such an endearing, inspirational success, Bloober Team have created a remake perfect for long-time players as much as newcomers. As good as 2024s marquee games are, none come close to Silent Hill 2 Remake.

Crafting a memorable single-player experience isnt easy. Its tough enough to create a fun gameplay loop that will keep players busy for however long they want. Adding characters, a unique aesthetic with sharp visuals, an exceptional soundtrack, and a compelling story to tie it all together can seem impossible. Yet these 30 games did just that while cementing their names in history. Check out our picks for the 30 best single-player games of all time.InsideCombining atmospheric story-telling with clever puzzles, a stark aesthetic, and impeccable pacing, Playdeads Inside presented one of the best side-scrolling adventure titles of all time. Its saying something when a title of this caliber launched more than eight years ago, and nothing else in the genre has come close to matching up.

Warning: This piece contains spoilers for Nosferatu.Get your Gothic garb on and hold your crucifix close, because Nosferatu is now arriving in theaters. The Robert Eggers-directed remake of the classic 1922 film has been a long time coming, having first been announced all the way back in 2015. Clearly a passion project for the auteur filmmaker, its dropping into theaters nationwide on Christmas Day to largely stellar reviews, including a 9/10 rave from IGN.However, despite all the praise for the films performances, cinematography, and period set design, Nosferatu continues the tradition of adaptations and reworkings of the original Dracula novel messing up significant elements of the source material. This problem is so endemic that certain aspects of the book have been completely overwritten in the popular imagination by adaptational changes being echoed in version after version over the decades.So today, lets take a look at what those changes are, and why the original novel still doesnt have a definitive film adaptation.PlayAn Ancient EvilTo ensure everyones on the same page, lets start with a brief refresher: Dracula, by Irish author Bram Stoker, is a Gothic horror novel published in 1897. The book is written in epistolary format, meaning that the text takes the form of notes, letters and documents written in-universe by characters in the story. Theres little argument among literary scholars that its not the most well-known and influential work of vampire fiction ever written, with Dracula himself becoming one of the most recognizable characters in popular culture. But despite that, much of the context around the novels actual plot and characters has been obscured in the popular consciousness because of how its adaptations have warped the common perceptions of them, and this began with the earliest film and stage productions.Much of the context around the novels actual plot/characters has been obscured in the popular consciousness because of how its adaptations have warped perceptions of them.The original Nosferatu, an unlicensed German film adaptation from director F. W. Murnau in 1922, condensed and reimagined much of the plot and characters. The film moved the action from England to Germany and renamed everyone in the cast, with the most famous example being turning Count Dracula into Count Orlok. This was mostly a failed attempt to avoid copyright infringement lawsuits. The 1924 Dracula play written by Hamilton Deane (and revised into its more well-known version in 1927 by John L. Balderston) likewise condensed the plot and cast, removing all the sections outside of England and merging Mina Harker and Lucy Westenra into one character named Lucy Seward in Balderstons iteration. The play served as the basis for Universals 1931 film directed by Tod Browning, starring Bela Legosi as Dracula, a role he had previously played on stage.Some of the most prominent deviations from the source material that became the default started in these early adaptations. Vampires dying in sunlight? Not in the book. Dracula is merely weakened by sunlight, but he can walk around in it just fine. The 1922 movie introduced the idea of vampires being killed by the sun. Dracula being a suave aristocrat who charms his victims? First introduced in the 1924 play. In the book he starts off decrepit and repulsive, and later morphs into a less monstrous form but still isnt considered handsome or charismatic. Van Helsing being a vampire expert? Not until the 1931 film. In the novel, Van Helsing is merely an eccentric professor whos studied the occult, and hes never encountered vampires before. But most versions now depict Van Helsing as Draculas nemesis and a seasoned warrior against the supernatural, when hes really just guessing his way through it in the book.Hell, Dracula isnt even staked in the book. Hes decapitated and stabbed in the heart with a knife. But those are details. If you want to see where Dracula adaptations have truly erred, its in the depiction of the books two primary female characters: Mina Harker and Lucy Westenra.Robert Eggers' Nosferatu Trailer Stills19th Century WomenAs a story, Dracula has always been more of an ensemble piece, but if theres one character who deserves to be called the protagonist of the book, its Mina Harker. She doesnt appear for the first few chapters, but once she enters the narrative she becomes the most pivotal figure in the war against Dracula because of her intelligence, composure, and loyalty to her friends and loved ones. She doesnt physically fight Dracula, but shes instrumental to his defeat by assembling the letters and documents making up the text of the book, providing the research material the heroes need to figure out Draculas weaknesses. She helps everyone with their personal crises as they struggle to psychologically endure the situation. And although she is attacked and mind-controlled by the Count, she turns their psychic connection against him through force of will and reveals his location to her comrades, an act that directly leads to Draculas demise.Sadly, this version of Mina simply does not exist in adaptations. She often either has her role reduced, is merged or swapped with her best friend Lucy, or is altered into a helpless (or worse, willing) victim. That last one is what happens in Francis Ford Coppolas 1992 film, where Winona Ryder plays Mina. This version is a complete betrayal of the original character because instead of being defined by her intellect and moral fortitude, shes a brainless damsel who falls in love with the Count because shes apparently the reincarnation of his long lost wife. What makes this especially egregious is that in the book, Dracula forces Mina to drink his blood against her will in an unmistakable metaphor for sexual assault. This means the movie takes a character who is for all intents and purposes raped by Dracula and has her lovingly fawn over him. Its utterly reprehensible and totally misses the point of who Mina is.PlayLucy Westenra receives similar treatment. In the book shes defined by her innate goodness, a pure soul who is tragically destroyed by Dracula and turned into a vampire, forcing the three men who love her to help hunt her down and destroy her. In Coppolas film, shes reimagined as a shameless flirt who plays her suitors against each other and constantly talks in sexual innuendos. By portraying Lucy in this way, her sexuality becomes something she winds up being punished for, which she is by getting turned into a monster that must be put down. Like with Mina, its a complete misunderstanding of the characters original context and what role theyre meant to play in the storys thematic framework. Its also just bizarre to see female characters from a book published in the 1890s be less regressive than their counterparts in film adaptations released a century later. Sadly, the new take on Nosferatu doesnt do much to change this.Symphony of the LightThe new Nosferatu begins with our Mina analogue Ellen Hutter (Lily-Rose Depp) calling out into the night, only to be answered by Count Orlok (Bill Skarsgrd). The thorny and unsettling connection between the two forms the backbone of the narrative, with the movies most interesting idea being that Ellen isnt completely turned off by how monstrous and disgusting this version of the character can be. From there, the film follows much of the basic plot outline of the novel, albeit with the character names from the 1922 film used instead. However, like with Coppolas film, Ellen/Minas character traits arent kept. She mostly screams and cries through the film rather than keeping her wits about her, and she clearly betrays her husband Thomas (Nicholas Hoult) through her desire for Orlok instead of being loyal like in the book.25 Best Vampire Movies of All TimeThe movie tries to get around this by having Ellen be the character who defeats Orlok, but the way its done saps the choice of its power. Ellen sacrifices herself by inviting Orlok into her room and allowing him to feed on her, keeping him in place long enough for the sun to rise and kill him. However, the movie never shows her (or anyone else, for that matter) learning that sunlight will kill Orlok; its something the movie assumes everyone knows because of how prominent that weakness is in popular culture. Nor does Ellen forcefully hold Orlok down when sunlight pours through the windows to ensure she finishes the job, she just gently caresses him. Orloks death happening this way also just makes him seem dumb. Did he not know the sun was rising? The questions about how this ending plays out prevent it from functioning as a meaningful subversion of previous Mina adaptations. It also results in Ellens death, meaning she, like Coppolas Lucy before her, is being punished for her sexuality because she unwittingly unleashed Orlok on everyone by indulging her desires.To be fair to Eggers, its clear his interest was more in remaking Murnaus film than adapting Stokers book, but that no other filmmaker over the years has done the latter well feels like a missed opportunity. We havent even touched on how Terence Fishers 1958 film starring Christopher Lee screws over Jonathan Harker, how John Badhams 1979 film starring Frank Langella once again cuts all the scenes outside of England, or how last years The Last Voyage of the Demeter from director Andr vredal takes a great idea in adapting the boat chapter as a full film and ruins it by portraying Dracula as a generic slasher monster with almost no dialogue. Its beyond absurd how many times this story has been adapted to stage and screen without any of the major works really getting the source material. Perhaps someday well see a great version of Stokers text, but for now, that dream is as illusory as the mist Dracula can transform into.Carlos Morales writes novels, articles and Mass Effect essays. You can follow his fixations on Bluesky.

This article contains major spoilers for Robert Eggers Nosferatu.It is only in Nosferatus final breath that the films lighting at last appears golden, pure, and radiant to behold. There at the end of all things and inside the Hutter bedroomwhich like previous Nosferatu films is marred by the repression of its period and two separate twin beds for a newlywed couplegoodness has again won out over the dark. The morning dawn bathes a world previously defined by shadow and gloom with every shade of rose and resplendency; and a cold home glows. Somehow though, this warmth makes the final image of the movie that much more painful.There, sprawled in one of the beds, is Ellen Hutter (Lily-Rose Depp), a woman who loved her husband so much that she sought to save him by giving herself over to her literal demon. Indeed, the vile creature is wrapped around her like the husk of a felled cockroach that has shriveled before the light of day. Their bodies are entwined in a tangle of limbs and viscera, with blood soaking the pale white sheets from the carnage seeping out of the wounds in Ellens chestand elsewhere.Also, whereas the other two notable versions of this Germanic story, F.W. Murnaus original Nosferatu masterpiece of 1922, and Werner Herzogs own formidable arthouse recontextualization of the material in 1979, allowed the vampire to decouple itself from its prey before succumbing to the light in a wide shot above the bed, writer-director Robert Eggers has chosen to save that famous framing in 2024 for Willem Dafoes Professor Von Franz, a Van Helsing-like occultist who knew all too well that Ellen would sacrifice herself before the altar of the vampires lust. His complicity in that altruistic surrender only heightens the sense of melancholy permeating the scene. Von Franz stands on the spot where previous cinematic Orloks died, and while holding a cat fit for Isis and Bastet, the good doctor forlornly repeats how it was a maiden fairs sacrifice who broke the curse and freed them from the plague of Nosferatu.In Eggers film, the implications of that sacrifice are more explicit than ever, with the death throes of Count Orlok (Bill Skarsgrd) occurring simultaneously alongside Ellen in her bed. Its death by sexual climax, and in the final frames of the film, the pairs shared demise has brought something beyond just peace to Ellens face. There is also release in her final repose. At long last, she knows what it is to be fulfilled.It is a haunting final image for a film, and one that invites a richer reading about what Eggers interpretation brings to Draculas table.Yes, Nosferatu is a story weve seen before, countless times when you remember that the original 1922 film was just the first major (and infamously unofficial) adaptation of Bram Stokers Dracula novel from 1897. It would not be the last. Yet despite there being thousands of other places to draw from, Eggers previously told us theres a reason he feels a special affinity for the simplicity in Nosferatus structure.One of the things that I like about the Murnau version taking place earlier [than Dracula] is Dracula is moving to London because its one of the hubs of the Western world and hes eventually hoping for world domination, Eggers said. Whereas Orlok just seems to want Ellen. It therefore becomes a little bit more of a simple fairy tale.Nosferatu is a simpler version of the story, but Eggers, Depp, Skarsgrd, and everyone else involved with this telling have done wonders at heightening both that fairy tale quality of which Eggers speaks, as well as a psychological tragedy that has only been brushed against by other interpretations. It is true, Ellen (or Lucy as she is named in the Werzog version) sacrifices herself at the end of every Nosferatu, but more than any other film version, Nosferatu 24 belongs to the Ellen/Lucy/Mina archetype. The film begins and ends on Ellens complicated dynamic with the vampire, as announced by a prologue depicting a young, vulnerable girl inviting home a malevolent force she doesnt fully understand.While the ending of the movie is showered in flecks of gold, Eggers begins his tale in nigh total darkness. In her childhood bedroom, Ellen is depicted as a girl haunted by an unrelenting loneliness when she calls out for companionship, almost as if it were a prayer. Its a plea anyone who ever was an adolescentparticularly of a Gothic sensibilitymight recognize. But it is Ellens misfortune that a sinister voice answers, and it comes to her in the shape of a familiar shadow on her bedchamber curtains.When Orlok first reaches out to Ellen, it is in a great house of implicit wealth and power. Yet when we find her years later, she has discovered contentment, if not peace or relief, in a humbler home with her husband Thomas Hutter (Nicholas Hoult). Their cottage satisfies Ellens material needs. But the feelings of inadequacy these trappings instill in Thomas, a young man who seeks to build a more comfortable lifestyle for Ellen, betray a lack of understanding or true connection between Ellen and the bridegroom.Join our mailing listGet the best of Den of Geek delivered right to your inbox!I do think that between Ellen and Thomas, theres a real pure love thats very heartbreaking, Depp told us for Den of Geek magazine. I think that he really wants to protect her, but sadly, I dont think that he really can.Eggers relies a lot on inference in Nosferatus early scenes, as we never see Thomas and Ellens courtship, nor even get a sense of Ellens childhood upbringing beyond that aforementioned wide shot of her stately home captured during the hour of the wolf. Yet it is implied that Ellen was greatly troubledand likely shamedby her family due to what they might have viewed as a mania. (A sad reality echoed by the Harding family later in the movie.) Thomas has provided relief to Ellens loneliness, but he is no antidote. When she tries to confide in him a dream about her marrying Death himself, he tells her to never speak of these feelings again. And despite having known her as wife and friend for presumably months or years, he cannot fathom why his bride would recoil at the idea that he cut flowersthese beautiful, living thingsfor her pleasure.He does not yet comprehend, but Ellen knows all too well the allure and dread of destroying beautiful things for fleeting pleasure. It is, after all, why Orlok covets her, and much to her internalized shame and regret, it is a form of gratification she also desires.Acknowledging the potential psychological appeal of sexual danger, or really any type of vice, has long been an element of vampire stories, particularly when modern lenses are applied to the incredibly Victorian sensibilities of Stokers Dracula tale. Consider how Francis Ford Coppola and Gary Oldman turned the vampire into the ultimate bad boy in the mis-titled Bram Stokers Dracula.But while Eggers knowingly teases out the repressive elements of Victorian thinking in his Nosferatuwith the well-meaning Dr. Sievers (Ralph Ineson) prescribing Ellen a corset that looks ever so much like a straightjacket for her nightgownthis film isnt necessarily about subverting thatpatriarchal culture. Orlok is more than just the wrong kind of guy. He is Death himself in the Medieval sense; an echo of countless works of art where the Grim Reaper or other personifications of oblivion were drawn as devouring and desecrating young women with rot and pestilence. It even became a Renaissance motif, Death and the Maiden.Eggers told me Death and the Maiden was on his mind while adapting Nosferatu, as well as countless other classic tales about love being supplanted by obsession or self-annihilation, from The Daemon Lover to Wuthering Heights. They each tap into something thats primal and appealing to the filmmakers Jungian leanings about how these bits and bobs of the past are knocking around in everyones heads to some degree. All of the directors films to date operate on the idea that we culturally share a kind of subconscious in which fears, hopes, and even orgasmic relief are half-remembered and repeated.This is never more explicit than in Nosferatu, a film in which Eggers renames his Van Helsing character after real-life Jungian psychologist Marie-Louise von Franz. In fact, it is Dafoes Von Franz who muses that in pagan times Ellen might have been revered as a Priestess of Isis, celebrated in the cities of Rome or Thebes, instead of dismissed and locked away as a troubled wife by her father, her husband, and her husbands condescending friend who is the epitome of their 19th century moment.Von Franz is Eggers voice in the film, offering true pity but also admiration for Ellens plight. Unlike the literary Van Helsing, Von Franz has no delusions that he can defeat the vampire, but he knows Ellens feminine power can conquer the beast. For Ellen, the cost is succumbing to literal darkness. She is indeed wedding herself to Death made flesh. But she isnt surrendering to evil; she is recognizing the darkness that is in her own nature as we all must. She then uses it to save a husband she deeply loves, even if he can never appreciate how.I think that she really does love Thomas, Depp told me. To me that really is the love story, because she wants so badly to be what he needs and what he wants, and I think he so badly wants to be what she wants [but] she has this side to her that he cant understand, unfortunately, but I think is fulfilled in her pull to Orlok.Whereas other Dracula movies seek to turn the vampire into a romantic figure, the romance of Eggers Nosferatu comes from Ellens genuine love of Thomas. The vampire represents a different side of her nature that someone as earthly and conventional as Thomas can never fully accept, but that doesnt mean the vampire is itself romantic. Even Orlok says he is nothing but an appetite in the movie. And his appetite is to destroy and consume all in his path, including something as delicate and youthful as Ellen. Her self-actualization is thus accepting that she has the urge to be destroyed. Perhaps we all do.There was a lot of criticism at the end of the second half of the 20th century about 19th century novelists who were mostly male, but also female, needing to kill off the heroines who had sexual desire or leanings to darkness, and how misogynist that is, which is not untrue, Eggers mused about the motifs he is exploring. But I think that it was also interesting [to have this] archetype of this demonic female who was the hero of the story and the saviorthe cultural savior [who] the Victorians needed to somehow get out.Read more Ultimately, Depp and Eggers Ellen must succumb to darkness in order to defeat it in herself. While Eggers film isnt necessarily expressionistic in the traditional filmic sense, this picture still acts as physical expression of that internal struggle everyone faces, only here with the literal world around Ellen falling to despair until she admits to her darker urges, and her power over them. When she does at last confront that reality, she is able to control it, as demonstrated by literally guiding Orloks monstrous countenance back to the embrace of her bosom until that first crow of cock.She still dies, but she does so like the Priestesses of Isis of old, secure in the knowledge that she has protected her world, and made sure Amun-Ra has completed the suns journey into the sky for another morning. Its tragically romantic because it denies her and Thomas a life of equal-footing, which might have seemed faintly possible after his return from Transylvania and his own induction into the world of supernatural corruption, but her exit is entirely on Ellens own terms. Furthermore, she finally found a lover who did understand her needs.In the end, Von Franz throws more dying flowers on Ellens true grave in that final shot. Theyre yet more mementos of beautiful things that will soon rot and decay. But it is accepting the fleeting, ephemeral nature of things, and even our desire to hasten their demise, which gives them beauty in the light of day.Nosferatu is playing now only in theaters.

In James Mangolds A Complete Unknown, Timothe Chalamet fingerpicks the tussle-haired troubadours guitar and stands inside Bob Dylans shoes. But those bootheels wander through a tangle of folk tales about the ambitious young singers life from 1961 to 1965 in New Yorks Greenwich Village. During the film, Dylan tells girlfriend Sylvie Russo (Elle Fanning), a pseudonym for the late Suze Rotolo (seen on the cover of Dylans Freewheelin album): People make up their past, Sylvie. They remember what they want. They forget the rest.Bob Dylan is a master of making up past histories and self-mythology. In a January 1961 interview with WBAI FMs Folksingers Choice, Dylan claimed to work the ferris wheel at a traveling carnival, starting at age 13. As the movie reiterates, Bob mentions being from Gallup, New Mexico. However, Robert Allen Zimmerman, Dylans real name, was born in Duluth, Minnesota, and grew up in Hibbing. But in 1961, the southern roots inferred a street-cred musical pedigree. The carnival was probably an allegory to the rock and roll bands Dylan played in, including backing Bobby Vee at two shows. Bob is obviously having fun in the interview.Dylan continues crafting his persona to this day, alluding in a 2005 60 Minutes interview with Ed Bradley to a bargain with the chief commander on this earth and the world we cant see. Dylans 2020 album Rough and Rowdy Ways opens with I Contain Multitudes. With a cast of six actors portraying the enigmatic songwriter, Todd Haynes 2007 biopic Im Not There features the subtitle, Inspired by the music and many lives of Bob Dylan. In the 1973 western feature film Pat Garrett and Billy the Kid, Bob plays a guy named Alias. Pressed for details, the gunslinger replies Alias is anything you want. As Dylan told Bradley, It goes back to that destiny thing.Rock star mythology is as old as the crossroads story of blues icon Robert Johnson, and Dylans image was as artistically, and creatively, curated as his songs. Dylans mythology is part of his art, something James Mangolds A Complete Unknown knowingly celebrates, often by printing the legend even when the history is sitting right thereoff-screen.Here are some legendary highlights A Complete Unknown claims to know:Consolidation and the Dramatic Importance of LegendMangold and Jay Cocks screenplay technically adapts Elijah Walds Dylan Goes Electric!: Newport, Seeger, Dylan, and The Night That Split the Sixties (2015). That nonfiction book seeks to separate the past from the musings of a restless rockstar whose memories can be interpretational. Dylans own memoir, Chronicles: Volume One (2004), contains an almost equal amount of fact and revisionist alternative. Perhaps Mangold and Cocks, like so many of Dylans fans, prefer the artists self-portrait.For A Complete Unknown, the most glaring errors come from consolidating four years of intense growth into about two hours. Changes for dramatic effect enforce the emotional bond of a cinematic telling, and are unreliable as a chronological narrative. For instance, Dylan brought Robert Sheltons The New York Times profile to his first studio session at Columbia Records backing folk singer Carolyn Hester on Sept. 29, 1961. The article was not new when Dylan recorded his first album, Bob Dylan, in November. However, rather than fact-check every scene, we think it might be most interesting to look at how the film interprets the biggest early moments and relationships in Dylans careerHow Many Roads Does It Take to Sing a Song to Woody?Dylan did not meet Woody Guthrie at Greystone Park Psychiatric Hospital in Morris Plains, New Jersey. Dylan tried to visit Guthrie where he lived, in Howard Beach, Queens. The meeting eventually occurred in Jerseys East Orange at a private home of friend Bob Gleason. Yet many readers of the rock press still learn the event transpired as it did in the film as the story even appeared in rock encyclopedias like Story of Pop (1973). Dylan didnt sing Song to Woody to Guthrie when they met either, though that is often how the story is told.Pete Seeger (Ed Norton) was also not at the meeting and never shared his couch with the young Dylan. The song Pete wakes to hear Bob beginning, Girl From the North Country, wasnt written until the end of the 1962 tour of Englandso a good deal after Dylan arrived in New York as if from smoke.Johnny Cash, Bob Dylan, and That Martin GuitarDylan and Johnny Cash (Boyd Holbrook) met at the 1964 Newport Folk Festival, but the Folsom Prison Blues singer reached out to the new face of folk through a series of appreciative and encouraging letters, which made the pair lifelong friends. The pair only officially collaborated on Dylans 1969 album Nashville Skyline but left a treasure trove of unreleased informal sessions which have been a mainstay of bootleg collectors everywhere. Dylan was featured on the debut of the TV variety show The Johnny Cash Show where they dueted on Dylans Girl from the North Country.In spite of the films grand old-fashioned soap operetta segment, Cash played before Joan Baez (Monica Barbaro) at the fateful 1964 Newport Folk Festival, on Friday, July 24. He was not sandwiched between the two headliners. Dylan, meanwhile, played July 26.Join our mailing listGet the best of Den of Geek delivered right to your inbox!While the movie certainly makes an epic moment out of Cash presenting Dylan with his Martin acoustic guitar after the folk singer went electric and burned the proverbial house down at Newport, in reality he gifted it to him after a hotel-room jam in 1964. The gift was a country artist tradition, and each favored a wide range of Martin makes. Cash wasnt at the Newport Festival in 1965. This detail is not even part of Dylans mythology. But now it is Hollywood legend.Newport Folk Festival 1965 Was Not a Free-for-All DisasterA Complete Unknown treats The Newport Folk Festival 1965 like the standoff in The Wild One (1953) with Dylan as the leather-jacketed, causeless rebel motorcycle rider. Like Marlon Brando before him. On Saturday, July 24, Dylan performed three acoustic songs, deciding to plug in for the festival closing. On a whim, he said he wanted to play electric, Newport roadie Jonathan Taplin remembers in Howard Sounes Down the Highway: The Life of Bob Dylan (2001). It was not, apparently, the premeditated assault on traditionalist sensibilities depicted onscreen.Dylan was not the first electric act at the Newport Folk Festival either. Muddy Waters floored the audience with an electric guitar, and Cashs band featured an electric lead guitarist at the festival in 1964. The controversy is, and has always been, overplayed. However, the altercation between Dylans manager Albert Grossman (Dan Fogler) and Alan Lomax (Norbert Leo Butz), the steadfast keeper of traditional protest music, was reported, though the reaction was expected. Dylans new single was rising on the charts, and it was as electrifying as it was divisive.Dylans Bringing It All Back Home was released in March 1965. Side one is backed by a tight rock band, side two features Dylan on acoustic guitar. On July 20, the six-minute single Like a Rolling Stone dropped to critical acclaim, and uniformly accommodating radio station play. The 1965 Newport Folk Festival marked the first time Dylan performed the new hit in publicand the majority of the audience probably couldnt wait to hear it live. The song is strong enough to work with just an acoustic guitar, but Bob really was giving his fans what they deserved.For the July 25 closing, Dylan played his first concert with electric instruments. He was joined by pianist Barry Goldberg of the Electric Flag, bassist Jerome Arnold, and drummer Sam Lay, with two musicians who played on the radio smash: Paul Butterfield Blues Bands Mike Bloomfield on lead electric guitar, and guitarist Al Kooper fingering the organ.Legend says the opening song, Maggies Farm, drew the bulk of the ire. Footage seen in the documentary films Festival (1967), No Direction Home (2003), and The Other Side of the Mirror (2007) confirm boos and cheers greeted Maggies Farm, and squabbled for dominance throughout Like a Rolling Stone.If I had an axe, Id chop the microphone cable right now, Seeger is quoted as saying. However, listening to the archival footage, the mix sounds balanced, feedback is controlled, lead vocals are prominent. The sound balance achieves aggressive perfection by Phantom Engineer.The reason they booed is that he only played for 15 minutes when everybody else played for 45-minutes or an hour, Kooper explained in No Direction Home. They didnt give a shit about us being electric. They just wanted more.No Direction Home also captures the May 17, 1966 moment when a fan at the Free Trade Hall in Manchester, England crowd shouts Judas! at Dylan. This event did not occur at the Newport Folk Festival 1965, though it has been repeatedly reported as such. Once again A Complete Unknown printed the legend.Read more Joan Baez Diamonds and RustBorn to sing in any genre, folk guitar virtuoso steeped in rock and roll classics, Joan Baez hit the national stage with two duets in Bob Gibsons performance at the 1959 Newport Folk Festival. Dubbed the barefoot Madonna, Baez signed with Vanguard Records and made the cover of Time magazine within two years. In spite of the biopics fragmentary memory, Dylan wasnt backstage waiting to play at Gerdes Folk City while Joan let rip with a blues-infused rendition of House of the Rising Sun. Baez went to her usual Greenwich Village haunt to check out the new talent with the growing reputation. Somebody said, Oh, youve gotta come down and hear this guy, hes terrific, Baez told Rolling Stone in 1983.Dylan probably didnt write Masters of War and debut it at the Gaslight the same night he and Joan first got together, even if the evening memorably corresponds to the climax of the Cuban Missile Crisis. At that point, Dylan enjoyed a mutual flirtation with Baezs younger sister, the folk singer Mimi Baez Faria. The romance between Bob and Joan ignited later.In the Rolling Stone cover story How Timothe Chalamet Pushed the Bounds to Play Bob Dylan in A Complete Unknown, Norton revealed Mangold confided that Dylan insisted on putting at least one wildly inaccurate moment into A Complete Unknown. The actor did not reveal the detail, but when Mangold appeared concerned about the public reaction, Norton said Dylan stared at him, and explained: What do you care what other people think?To this author, the intentionally inaccurate moment seems to be the onstage antics during the 1965 East Coast tour sequence where Dylan and Baez share the stage. There is no footage, audio, or even musicians recollections of any incident where Dylan stops playing after a verse of All I Really Want to Do, tells a crowd he doesnt play requests, and leaves Baez to perform Blowin in the Wind solo. Had this happened, wed never have heard the end of it. It would add a whole chapter to the mythos.Bob Dylans self-mythology amuses him, and fans and critics are free to take part in the fun. Baez summed it up best in her exquisite Diamonds and Rust, singing Now youre telling me youre not nostalgic, then give me another word for it. You were so good with words and at keeping things vague. As the relief subsides that Mangold will not add one more anachronism to A Complete Unknowns Newport Folk Fest, adding Dylans catastrophic 1966 motorcycle crash to an overcrowded finale, it becomes clear: a little mythology keeps some records straight.A Complete Unknown is playing in theaters now.

Adam Sandlers Christmas (and Chanukah) gift to the world The return of Happy Gilmore.The first look atHappy Gilmore 2just debuted online.Almost 30 yearsafter the original film, which was one of Sandlers early movie hits, is coming to Netflix next year. And Sandler shared the first trailer for the film on X, which features Sandlers Gilmore, Julie Bowens Virginia, and, of course, Christopher McDonald as the sinister Shooter McGavin.Happy Chanukah! Merry Christmas! Happy Holidays! And Happy Gilmore to all!!!!!! Sandler tweeted, along with the first 30 second teaser.READ MORE: The Best Netflix Movies of 2024While the premise of the film hasnt been revealed yet, it clearly involves plenty of Happy Gilmore playing golf. Happy Gilmore 2also stars Margaret Qualley, Benny Safdie, Nick Swardson, AEW pro wrestler MJF, and Ben Stiller, reprising his uncredited cameo role from the firstHappy Gilmore as a cruel hospital orderly.The originalHappy Gilmore, directed by Dennis Dugan, starred Sandler as a struggling hockey player who discovers a previously unknown gift for playing golf. The sequel was directed by Kyle Newacheck and was co-written by Tim Herlihy and Sandler. (Dugan will appear in a cameo, reprising his role from the first movie.)Over a three decade career in Hollywood, Sandler has made very few sequels. He and his pals made twoGrown Ups movies, and he and Jennifer Aniston have appeared in twoMurder Mysterys on Netflix.Sandler also voiced Count Dracula in multipleHotel Transylvaniafilms.Happy Gilmore 2premieres on Netflix in 2025.Get our free mobile appEvery Adam Sandler Movie Ranked From Worst to BestAdam Sandler has been a part of our lives for more than 30 years now, and he has appeared in dozens of films. We watched and ranked every single one.Gallery Credit: Matt Singer