Chicago really got a real treat as they kicked off the weekend this past Friday night with a double dose of legendary metalcore. Poison The Well and Converged stormed the city alongside Spy and Balmora packing Concord Music Hall to the very back of the venue.

Kicking off the evening was hot act Balmora. With their debut LP dropping next month and a slight lineup change the band was firing on all cylinders with their brand of hardcore infused metalcore. On the heavier side of both genres they kicked off pits letting the energy get going.

The odd band of the night was up next with Spy. Fast songs and all punk they whipped through a set fighting some mic issues along the way. It was a session in just sheer unrelenting aggression as the band showed why they’ve been making a name for themselves in the scene.

It was time though for the band that needs no introduction. Looked at as one of the pioneers of the scene and a band who has continued on for 36 years now never losing a step, Converge gave a masterclass in metalcore.

With no downtime really between their set, no talking, introductions, or anything of the sort the band blew through their set mixed with songs from both of their new albums this year as well as genre classics. Age has shown no sign of slowing Converge down but seemingly only improving them.

Closing out the night through was recently reformed Poison The Well. Going from broken up, to random years of reunion shows, to now fully back as a full time band the metalcore icons have seen their fan base reform massively. This tour even sees the band supporting ‘Peace In Place’, the bands first full length record in 17 years.

Kicking off with Botchla the crowd was every bit energetic singing the words to these classics. Blasting through a roughly one hour 15 song set that played heavily from their two classic albums mixed with some newer songs and more the band has shown their full return is here to stay. The band was visibly happy on stage getting the energy back from fans old and new that are happy to see Poison The Well in 2026.

Balmora :

Spy :

Converge :

Poison The Well :

I’m just gonna say it, this might be horrors worst trilogy ever.

We continue with our hero Maya as she stumbles around the woods of a small town that never seems to have people, or cell phone service, until random people show up like its a known place. Maya seems to have a team of people who can pinpoint her location but also not have any bit of common sense.

Our killers here are still just stumbling idiots and the story line that this film has put in OVER THREE FILMS is all still just a jumbled mess of nothingness. By the end nothing is laid out, characters aren’t explained much, and everything is left to ‘oh well maybe killers are fun’ or something along that mix.

Not even Madelaine Petsch who tried her best to save part 2 can do much here. She feels like she phoned it in reading off cue cards. Richard Brake gets more screen time but even as a generic creepy sheriff who seemingly not only knows about the strangers but made a deal with them, can’t save this.

I hated all of this. I hated this trilogy. I hated what they tried to do. All 3 parts of this were bad in their own ways but to close it out on such a terrible film truly makes me question what they wanted from the start of this even.

Score :

0.5 / 5

After the horrible outing of Chapter 1, The Strangers Chapter 2 dropped last year to almost no excitement. Only being released I feel because all 3 films were filmed at the same time for a small budget, Chapter 2 starts to forge its own story after Chapter One acted as mostly a remake of the original film.

We continue following Maya who after getting some severe wounds soon has to be on the run again as the masked men appear at the hospital shes at. Sadly this is the entire premise of this film. In our dead town, lifeless of anything worthy of seeing, we get to follow Maya run from room to room, location to location, in a near cartoonish manner as we get bored to tears.

Its just hard to care here really. Maya is rather paper thin character, no backstory really or anything, our masked strangers now come as typical slasher villains, and any other character is either boring giving bland dialog that will set up a twist for part 3 or are killed off.

What really starts to hurt this film though is the flashbacks. We start to get flashbacks done to give our masked villains some backstory from when they were first children. They are poorly done and overall pointless flashbacks that just show that these were deranged people.

Our standout here though both good and bad involves a scenes where Maya fights an animal. It is so over the top and dumb that with just how bland and boring these movies are it becomes the highlight of it.

Madelaine Petsch really tries her best here as Maya and deserves some praise for standing out in such a poorly wrote movie but she can’t save this.

With how part 1 and 2 are I can only imagine what dumb things may come for the final act in this unneeded trilogy.

Score :

1 / 5

It’s been a little over a year since Assassin’s Creed: Shadows dropped, and it definitely felt like a different kind of entry for the series. For the first time, you’re playing through the story with two protagonists—Naoe and Yasuke—who eventually cross paths and team up. The whole journey takes you across different regions of Japan, which honestly felt like a really natural and refreshing setting for Assassin’s Creed.

There’s a lot I liked about this one, but it’s not perfect. The biggest win for me was the return to stealth actually mattering again. In the last few games, especially once things leaned more into the RPG style, it started to feel like stealth and parkour took a backseat—even though that’s what made the series what it is. Shadows brings that feeling back. Between the different weapons and the variety of ways you can approach situations, it stays fun and doesn’t really get stale.

Another thing they nailed was the design of the castles and main strongholds. These spots actually feel like they’re built for stealth. You can’t just run in and expect to breeze through—it takes some patience and planning, and that makes clearing them way more satisfying. Combat-wise, this is probably the best Assassin’s Creed has felt since Assassin’s Creed Odyssey, especially with how well it works alongside the improved stealth mechanics.

That said, the story just didn’t fully land for me. It’s not bad, it just never really grabs you the way some of the older games did. The dual-protagonist idea is cool in theory, but it comes with some frustrating moments. Playing as Naoe feels great because of how stealth-focused she is, but then having to switch to Yasuke just to move something or brute-force a section can feel a little clunky and break the flow.

There’s definitely something there with the two-character setup, but leaning too hard into Yasuke being a straight-up combat character takes away from that classic Assassin’s Creed feel.

Overall though, if you’re a fan of the series and you’re looking for something you can sink a solid 60–80 hours into, it’s still worth checking out. The improvements to stealth and combat alone make it feel like a step in the right direction—even if the story doesn’t quite hit the same highs as some of the older titles.

Whistle might go down as one of the years best horror films that got a wide release, with almost no push for the film ahead of time, that no one saw.

Our story follows a group of high school students who after blowing into and hearing an Aztec death whistle are killed off one by one. We have Chrys, the new girl in a small town, who finds the whistle in her locker and after hanging out with her cousin and his friends get dragged into this situation.

Sure, the plot holes start early. This small town moved on from the previous owner of her locker, who died violently in school, so quickly that they never bothered to empty his locker where the whistle was. Its also somewhat easy to look past because the premise itself here works so well. We get a Final Destination esque film here where everyone within ear shot of the whistle has death chasing them where they die in the fashion and age that was set for them from birth. This leads to some incredibly graphic and rather cool kills here where we get a solid mix of practical effects and CGI.

Our cast of high school characters are paper thin and don’t keep us rooting for them enough to really care though if they die. They set themselves apart enough though to be memorable, even if their inclusion makes no sense. Our religious nut who is also a drug dealer, main character with a troubled past who is also into the popular girl, and the guy who gets friend zoned.

Really on paper, and even writing this, so much of this film doesn’t have much going for it yet it works. Its a fun, simple, and incredibly mindless horror film that gets by with a unique enough premise to it where it can have some fun.

Score :

3.5 / 5

AEW

Dynamite

March 18th, 2026

Singles Match
Will Ospreay vs. Blake Christian

Good opening match and let Will show that back from injury he isn’t slowing down. Blake got more offense than one might imagine but he came off this looking great.

3.5 / 5

Tag Team Match
Bang Bang Gang (Ace Austin & Juice Robinson) (w/Austin Gunn) vs. Death Riders (Jon Moxley & Wheeler Yuta)

This was fine. Mox is back as a heel it seems which is confusing. Ace seems to have lost all allure he had in TNA and Juice is always enjoyable to watch.

2 / 5

Coffin Match
Gabe Kidd vs. Darby Allin

Opening this with a cinematic car crash was certainly a wild idea. This as a match wasn’t good but as a spectacle was fine. Kidd was in a straightjacket most of the match and still pulled off some impressive moves. Allin has his eyes set on MJF. I assume this feud will continue on also though.

2.75 / 5

Singles Match
Mark Davis vs. Mike Bailey

These two guys came out to tear the house down. Big monster vs small agile man type match. Bailey continues to just be so impressive as does Davis who is shining as a solo guy right now.

4 / 5

No Holds Barred Match
Marina Shafir vs. Mina Shirakawa

Last minute change saw Mina get added instead of Toni. Mini isn’t typical in these matches as commentary pointed out and took a nasty spot where she completely missed the table and went head first to the outside. Otherwise this was just a typical hardcore match and nothing too special.

2.5 / 5

Six Man Tag Team Match
Jack Perry & The Young Bucks (Matt Jackson & Nick Jackson) vs. The Don Callis Family (Kazuchika Okada, Rocky Romero & Trent Beretta)

This was fun and pretty much exactly what you think it would be. Felt like Okada was just sort of there. Trent and Rocky are fun to watch and you know they can go and will eat the loss.

3.5 / 5