WIRE Buzz: Castlevania S3 release date, trailer; Star Wars: The Clone Wars trailer; more

Castlevania, the horror anime that was one of Netflix’s best original series in the streaming service’s early investment days, is bringing its dark video game adaptation back for a third season. Now fans of the bloody vampire drama have a new release date and trailer as their Valentine’s Day gift from Netflix.

With Dracula dead and a new vampiric threat on the horizon, how will the central trio deal with the coming threat?

Check it out:

“Evil never stays buried,” eh? Does that refer to the creature-forging, grave-raiding abilities of one of Season 2’s primary villains, Hector (Theo James)? Or perhaps to the impermanence of Dracula’s death? 

Either way, Castlevania looks to retain its voice cast (like Richard Armitage, James Callis, and Alejandra Reynoso), brutal and epic style, and grimly witty writing from Warren Ellis in its third season.

Castlevania returns to whip it — whip it good! — on March 5.

Next, another trailer has come down for Star Wars: The Clone Wars fans to revel in during the lead-up to the animated show’s seventh and final season. The first footage for the Disney+ continuation of the Dave Filoni series was all about Ahsoka Tano, but in this new trailer, it’s all about the clones.

And not just any clones: The Bad Batch. Yes, Hunter, Wrecker, Tech, and Crosshair are getting some real action as the defective (but in a good way!) Squad 99 heads into battle.

Take a look:

Some of this footage was part of the massive Bad Batch unveiling that took place at last year’s Star Wars Celebration and it’s all excellent. Fans are finally going to get the Siege of Mandalore arc they’ve been after for years and years.

Star Wars: The Clone Wars’ season seven premieres on Feb. 21.

Finally, critics have taken the first trip to Blumhouse’s Fantasy Island and their verdicts are in. Thankfully fans will have more than a handful of Yelp reviews to consider before signing up for this particular horror vacation. And, from the early buzz at least, this is one trip fans may want to skip.

Directed by Jeff Wadlow, the film — featuring Lucy Hale, Maggie Q, Portia Doubleday, Jimmy O. Yang, Michael Peña, Ryan Hansen, Austin Stowell, and Michael Rooker — currently sits at a 17 percent on Rotten Tomatoes. Let’s allow the critics to explain why, in their own words:

Michael Phillips of the Chicago Tribune had some fun coming up with alternate titles to the “four intertwining fantasies, four stories' worth of lame ideas, poorly executed.” And he wasn’t at a loss for ideas: “Call it De-Plane Crash. Call it The Island of Dr. No-Thank-You. Call it Worstworld. Call it The Butterfly Effect, with a dead butterfly and no effect.” Looks like the twisty horror wasn’t too effective for him.

The New York Times’ Glenn Kenny echoed this sentiment. “The sex and violence components, which are best served hot and lurid in exercises such as these, are here puréed into PG-13 pulp,” he writes. And the worst part? “None of it is in the least bit scary.”

Kimber Myers at the LA Times landed the finishing blow with her wish-shattering assessment: “The movie can only be classified as something truly terrible, escaping any other categorization that would make it resemble an actual film.”

Oof. Not exactly wish fulfillment for horror fans or those with Fantasy Island nostalgia. Fans can roll the dice on the film anyways if they so dare, as it hits theaters today, Feb. 14.