Editorials
Our E3 2016 Horror Game Wish List
Every year, the game developers and many of the folks who play them all gather in Los Angeles to talk about video games at the annual E3 convention. The “official” event runs from June 14-16, but that doesn’t include what often ends up being the most exciting part — sans those dull powerpoint presentations we must often endure — the pre-E3 briefings. EA and Bethesda are getting the party started this year, with conference slated for the afternoon of June 12, so in reality, E3 runs from June 12-16.
My E3 wish lists almost always go unanswered, but not this time. This time, at least some of the games I’d like to see will actually be shown. And if they’re not? Well, there’s always next year.
The recent goings on with Resident Evil 7 seems like a good place to start. The game could be revealed at the convention, and more importantly, it might finally be the “clean slate” the series so desperately needs. Capcom has big plans for the second half of the year, and I think they may have everything to do with this game.
Unfortunately, this would mean the Resident Evil 2 remake would be a no-show, since it’s presence would take considerable attention off Capcom’s next big thing. I don’t think they want that, so for now, there can be only one (at E3).
Remember State of Decay? The sequel they teased us with several years ago has to be ready for a public showing. The idea was the sequel would build on the foundation of the original game, transforming it into a zombie-themed MMO, of sorts. That was a long time ago, so the plan has probably changed a bit since then. Whatever form it takes, developer Undead Labs needs to shamble back into my life, pronto.
Continuing the zombie theme is Dead Island 2, which we’ve seen nary a screenshot or second of footage from since Yager was removed from its development. I’m eager to see what’s changed, if anything, about the game. Maybe we’ll all find out next month.
This isn’t a new release, but I am interested in hearing what Techland’s plans are for the future of Dying Light, now that we know they’re going to continue supporting it with new content through the remainder of 2016. Is the content substantial, or are we talking smaller stuff, or worse, more character skins. I can’t see my character, Techland! You’re effectively buying DLC that only your co-op partners will enjoy. I don’t get it.
And where the fuck is Left 4 Dead 3?
Moving away from zombies, we do have a few indies I’d like to see something substantial from next month, starting with Routine. Lunar Software has confirmed, multiple times now, that it’s definitely, for sure, 100% coming this year. Sounds like the same old… routine, if you ask me.
I would love to get the deets on Contagion developer Monochrome’s next project, codenamed Project Ageless. Same goes for Moonville’s mystery game. Both are little more than enigmas to us right now, and it’d be nifty if that were no longer true a month from now.
On the slasher front, there’s one stab ’em up we haven’t had the chance to get to know. We’re practically BFFs with Dead by Daylight and Friday the 13th: The Game, and it’d be nice to be able to say the same about Last Year. All three games deserve their time in the spotlight, and Last Year is long overdue for some affection.
Frictional’s making two games, y’all! Maybe we’ll see one of them in June?
Is anyone else as intrigued as I am by the Paranormal Activity VR game? I haven’t seen any of it in action, but it’s noteworthy when every other licensed IP is either going experimental (The Twilight Zone) or the safer mobile route, like the game adaptations of The Rocky Horror Picture Show and Penny Dreadful. That’s not say those games won’t be good, I’d just rather see them to aim as high as developer VRWERX is with this VR game.
And finally, we have Silent Hill. I won’t bother with a recap, we all know what happened. It’s simple: Konami either needs to shit or get off the proverbial pot, and since they’ve already shit just about everywhere, it’s time they hand the series over to a competent studio so we can all move the fuck on.
What would you like to see at E3 next month?
The penultimate season of Tales from the Crypt (1989–1996) aired its first three episodes on October 31, so it’s understandable that at least one of those three stories is set on Halloween.
Sandwiched between “Let the Punishment Fit the Crime” (Russell Mulcahy, Ron Finley) and “Whirlpool” (Mick Garris, A. L. Katz & Gilbert Adler) is the most severe episode of the bunch. Maybe the entire series? William Malone and Dick Beebe’s “Only Skin Deep” traded the show’s typical sense of fun for startling amounts of bleakness and kink.
“Only Skin Deep” is, apart from the Crypt Keeper’s intro and outro, noticeably unfunny. There are no considerable attempts at making the viewer laugh. Come to think of it, if those bookends had been replaced, and there was more of a sci-fi element in the story, HBO could have easily squeezed this tale into that successor anthology, Perversions of Science (1997). In Crypt, though, “Only Skin Deep” is much too grim for an audience that had become accustomed to campiness and levity.
What makes “Only Skin Deep” feel dark, among other things, is its protagonist. Showing up to a Halloween party where he’s not welcome, and where his former girlfriend (Diane DiLasco) is attending, Carl Schlag (Peter Onorati) first comes across as your standard bitter ex. You soon realize it’s much worse than that, once Carl threatens Linda (“You know, silly me, thinking I gave you what you deserved. If I’d have done that, I’d have killed you”). Now, I haven’t forgotten that Tales from the Crypt was teeming with vile men who did women harm. Yet Carl’s brand of misogynistic menace hits differently—it borders on being too realistic for this kind of series.
Mike Vosburg’s EC-style comic cover for “Only Skin Deep”, as seen in the Tales from the Crypt episode.
Despite donning a party mask for much of the episode, Carl can’t ever mask his true nature. The invitation did say “come as you are”, after all. That inability to change and be better, however, is why Carl ends up in such a karmic predicament. His outburst of anger at the party attracts the attention of one loner partygoer named Molly (Sherrie Rose, who was also in Season Four’s “On a Deadman’s Chest”). Her bone-white, featureless “mask” and body-bag costume don’t initially register as too strange, especially on a night like this. But at a party chock-full of colorful, cartoonish, and lighthearted ensembles, it does look out of place.
Darkness attracts darkness as Carl ditches the party and accompanies the mysterious Molly to her place. Which, by the way, should have been an immediate red flag. But perhaps she’s so hot, he doesn’t seem to mind the serial killer aesthetic. Resembling a warehouse that has been converted into living spaces, but never then decorated to remove the cold, industrial look, Molly’s home (or lair) is as gloomy as this whole episode feels. It’s like the set of a grungy music video, albeit a tad cleaner. The environments in a typical Crypt episode tend to be small, overfilled, and broken-in. Warm, regardless of any weird goings-on. All that empty space in Molly’s hovel, on the other hand, elicits a creepy feeling that Carl was unwise to ignore.
Tales from the Crypt featured more sex than it didn’t, but hands down, “Only Skin Deep” boasts the steamiest scene in the show’s history. Pushing it over the line, in addition to Onorati showing bare buns and the camera never turning down one of his pelvic thrusts, is the twisted dirty talk. Carl stays in the moment, whereas Molly unleashes charged lines like “the hurt, the anger, give it to me” and “take it out on my flesh like you want to”. It’s all quite kinky, as well as tied into the story’s theme of pain.
How else “Only Skin Deep” differs from other episodes is its twists. Or rather, its lack thereof. Nothing comes as a great surprise here, particularly because the deuteragonist’s ulterior motives are so obvious. By no means is Molly a wolf in sheep’s clothing; her face is a fright mask, she practically reeks of death, and she lives in what can best be described as a serial killer’s hideout. That last-act revelation of Molly’s mask really being her face is also nothing shocking. Cleverness is certainly not this episode’s strength.
A page from “…Only Skin Deep!”, as seen in EC Comics’ Tales from the Crypt.
While “Only Skin Deep” isn’t the most universally loved episode of Tales from the Crypt, it’s an interesting preview of William Malone’s future as a director. Most notably, he went on to helm House on Haunted Hill (1999) and FeardotCom (2002), the former of which was co-written by Dick Beebe, this episode’s writer. Dark Castle Entertainment, that genre house founded by Crypt producers Joel Silver, Robert Zemeckis, and Gilbert Adler, was instrumental in bringing out Malone’s gruesome, over-the-top vision in House on Haunted Hill. However, FeardotCom and Malone’s Masters of Horror episode, “Fair-Haired Child”, are the most stylistically compatible with “Only Skin Deep”.
As one might guess, this episode is nothing like its source material. The “…Only Skin Deep!” found in the pages of EC Comics is set during Mardi Gras in New Orleans, and save for its last couple of pages, is pretty sweet in nature. There, a man named Herbert is enamored with a woman he met five years prior to the present-day story. Every year, he has come down to Mardi Gras to see Suzanne, who’s always dressed as a hag-faced witch. Well, this time, Herbert plans on popping the question and marrying someone who is, for the most part, a total stranger. Suzanne accepts his proposal, but with one condition: they stay in costume until they’re officially hitched. You can probably see where this is going…
Once they are married, Suzanne remains incognito, even when she and Herbert have consummated their vows. A semi-predictive nightmare then rattles Herbert; he dreamt that Suzanne’s real face was as wizened as her mask. Finally, in his haste to find out the truth, Herbert winds up killing his new wife. Faceless and well on her way to bleeding out, the dying Suzanne manages to say she never wore a mask.
For more traditional EC-style ghastliness, your best bet is reading the comic. It’s wickedly sad. For something less conventional, as far as Tales from the Crypt goes, the role-reversing adaptation is worth watching. It’s not the best this show had to offer, although Malone’s visual style, plus the sexual abandon, does set the episode apart. If nothing else, “Only Skin Deep” leaves an impression that, even years later, shows no signs of fading.
Season Six of Tales from the Crypt can be streamed on Shudder, starting on June 5.
Tales from Tales from the Crypt celebrates the show’s Shudder premiere by singling out one episode from each season. So don’t even think about changing that dial, boys and ghouls. More spot-“frights” are to come.
Carl discovers Molly’s collection of human ‘masks’ in the Tales from the Crypt episode, “Only Skin Deep”.
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