However, Atomic Heart’s place in the discourse is not unique. The criticism that Atomic Heart will enrich Russian entities is technically accurate, due to being backed by a Russian financier. There's a lot to unpack, but it seems clear that the controversy around Atomic Heart may soon be a familiar one, as big-budget game production further globalizes in tandem with heightened tensions between global powers. Critics of the game suggest that purchasing it directly supports Russia’s war in Ukraine, that the game is a piece of Russian propaganda valorizing the Soviet Union, and that the game includes anti-Ukranian elements. These connections to Russian state-owned and state-sanctioned enterprises have led to some people questioning the game’s relationship to the Russian government and its ongoing war in Ukraine, leading to calls for a boycott. As the years went on, details about the game solidified and, following a pretty horny viral marketing campaign, the game’s release has been surprisingly successful for a new studio, and has spawned a significant amount of public discourse surrounding the game’s content and its developer's origins. ![]() The game was met with a mixed reaction upon its announcement, as the reveal featured no gameplay and it was being published by a studio that had not previously shipped a video game. ![]() You play as a soldier investigating a massive Soviet facility that has come under attack from the robots which were formerly staffing it, and are tasked with finding and stopping the person responsible for the attacks. The game is a Bioshock-esque first person shooter. This article was originally published on TODAY.Since its announcement over five years ago, controversy has followed Atomic Heart-made by Cyprus-headquartered developer Mundfish-ranging from concerns about whether or not the game was actually real upon its announcement, to questions over the developer’s relationship to the Russian government. "There are moments where I'm by myself and I'll just think about it and I'm like, 'Oh, can't think too hard or I will cry, because this is crazy.'" "To be able to have 'The Blackening' come out with the journey that it has attached it, for me, it's very inspiring to my younger self and I hope that people in similar positions can see that creating your own stuff and what can happen from it," the comedian tells. "And our parents were like, 'If you pee on yourself, you're gonna get in trouble."Īs an alum of The Second City comedy improv group in Chicago, Perkins says it's gratifying to see what began as a short comedy sketch, evolve into a full-fledged film. "I would not want to use the bathroom," he laughs. He admits that while these type of movies inspired him as a kid, they also completely freaked him out. In order to survive, they must sacrifice the least "Blackest" member of the group, or the one who appears to be the most disconnected to Black culture.Īlong with "Candyman," Perkins says his love of the genre came from watching other films like "Cabin in the Woods," "Scream," "Ready or Not" and "The Bride of Chucky." The plot revolves around a group of college friends who meet up for a weekend reunion at a cabin only to discover they're being stalked by a maniacal serial killer. "It's been so cool to expand it, to see it's journey from a stage sketch to a full feature film," says the 32-year-old comedian. It caught the eye of producer and writer, Tracy Oliver ("Girls Trip") who co-wrote the script for the movie with Perkins. ![]() Originally pitched as a sketch for a Chicago stage show, the skit eventually made it to Comedy Central in 2018, where it went viral. And that's where the premise came from," Perkins tells. "I decided that if we were to put that cast in a horror movie, that in order for the Black person to die first, we'd have to have a system to figure out who's the Blackest. In his feature, which includes the tagline "We can't all die first," Perkins cleverly puts his spin on that long-standing trope by directly questioning who dies first when all the characters in a horror film are Black. "I was thinking of a way in which I can discuss Blackness, but in a way that wasn't too on-the-nose," says Dewayne Perkins, co-writer and star of the recently-released film. Following in the footsteps of "Scream" and other horror-comedies, "The Blackening" is the latest movie to successfully mashup humor and murder, resulting in a funny new twist on the horror film trope which shows Black characters as the first to die.
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