Steven Scaife

Columbus, United States

Freelance Pop Culture Writer at Freelance

Freelance Pop Culture Writer at Slant Magazine

Writing on everything, unfortunately. Bylines at Slant, Polygon, Unwinnable, Fanbyte, Buzzfeed News, WaPo, IGN, EGM, etc. He/him. 📧 stvnscaife at gmail

Articles

Clown in a Cornfield Review - IGN

1 week ago | ign.com | Steven Scaife

Clown in a Cornfield opens in theaters May 9. Some titles let you know exactly what you’re in for, and if Clown in a Cornfield isn’t a memoir by a Midwestern comedian, then it can only be a slasher. Adapted from Adam Cesare’s acclaimed 2020 novel, it’s full of rowdy teens who drink and then die at the hands of, yes, a red-nosed madman in a maize crop.
Leaning Further into Comedy

1 week ago | slantmagazine.com | Steven Scaife

Vagabond sleuth Charlie Cale (Natasha Lyonne) may have the ability to spot any lie, but almost as uncanny is her way of entangling herself in the lives of strangers who just happen to turn up dead. We witness a murder play out in the opening third of each episode of Poker Face and then flash back to see everything from a different perspective, in the process learning how Charlie was enmeshed in the events that took place.
Soccer Fever Is in the Air

2 weeks ago | slantmagazine.com | Steven Scaife

In the summer of 2001, Ecuador is still recovering from total economic collapse. But hope is seen on television, as the country’s national soccer team is on the cusp of qualifying for the World Cup. For the people of Ecuador, the qualifying matches are as much a distraction from everyday troubles as they are a rallying cry of defiance and perseverance. These matches have a different effect on Julián, Despelote’s eight-year-old protagonist.
'Lost Records: Bloom & Rage – Tape 2' Review

3 weeks ago | slantmagazine.com | Steven Scaife

What’s most refreshing about the first installment of Don’t Nod’s Lost Records: Bloom & Rage is its focus on everyday life circa 1995. “Tape 1” has a supernatural hook, but it’s almost beside the point compared to the more important business of getting to know four girls as they form a punk band in their small Michigan hometown of Velvet Cove. Unfortunately, “Tape 2” doesn’t quite validate that observational focus.
Government Cheese Review - IGN

4 weeks ago | ign.com | Steven Scaife

The first four episodes of Government Cheese are now streaming on Apple TV+. One new episode will debut every Wednesday through May 28. It’s 1969, and God wants Hampton Chambers (David Oyelowo) to invent a self-sharpening drill. So sayeth the Lord that His loyal follower shall disrupt and innovate the field of handheld machinery—or so Hampton believes, anyway, having found religion while in prison for check fraud.
A Fiddly FTS Adventure

1 month ago | slantmagazine.com | Steven Scaife

You spend a lot of time—a lot of, given the current state of the world, cathartic time—stabbing, shooting, and blowing up Nazis in Commandos: Origins. From a top-down perspective, you issue orders to a half-dozen World War II soldiers, each one specialized in disciplines like sniping or explosives. The encampments your commandos must infiltrate are sprawling, each minimap splattered with red dots that signify the droves of enemies capable of sounding the alarm.
An Aimless Business Sim

1 month ago | slantmagazine.com | Steven Scaife

With Paradise Killer, indie developer Kaizen Game Works made waves with the electrifying stylistic brio that they brought to bear on the project. The game’s vision of a vaporwave afterlife—an occult cityscape full of trinkets to collect and clues to follow—is confident and transportive.
Flying Lotus's Atmospheric Sci-Fi Horror Thriller

1 month ago | slantmagazine.com | Steven Scaife

Compared to Kuso, Flying Lotus’s scatological debut feature, Ash is a much more conventional effort for the beatmaker turned filmmaker. Upon waking up on an isolated interstellar outpost, Riya (Eiza González) finds herself in near darkness, and with no memory of what happened to her. As she yanks a makeshift weapon free from the chest of one of her dead comrades, the film evokes countless video games that have themselves pledged allegiance to the likes of Alien, The Thing, and Event Horizon.
A Kinetic Yet Bloated Crime Novel Adaptation

2 months ago | slantmagazine.com | Steven Scaife

Apple TV’s Dope Thief, an eight-episode adaptation of Dennis Tafoya’s Philadelphia-set crime novel of the same name, is bracingly chaotic, much of its action perpetrated in the heat of the moment or by outright accident. At the same time, it’s another unfortunate example of streaming bloat. The series is exceptionally well-made, but it never lets you lose sight of the tighter, more economical story that could have been.
The Healing Power of Brewing Tea

2 months ago | slantmagazine.com | Steven Scaife

Alta is an accomplished fighter, an arena champion who’s dedicated and driven to be the best—until a string of losses throws her off her game and she’s sent searching for answers in a mysterious forest. She isn’t, in other words, the sort of person who might normally slow down long enough to work in a rustic tea shop. But that’s exactly what the warrior does in indie game developer Ivy Road’s charming Wanderstop, and not quite by choice.