Editorials
[13 Days Of Horror] Day 6: 12 Horror Games To Look Forward To Next Year, Part 2
If I had to use a word to describe this countdown, I’d choose epic. I might also choose foamy because that’s a word I never get to use outside of Starbucks, where I like to yell “MAKE IT EXTRA FOAMY” at the barista. Yeah, I like my foam. As great as this year has been for horror fans, 2013 looks like it might be even better. That’s crazy, seeing as we’ve had three Silent Hills, three Resident Evils, two Alan Wakes (sort of), The Walking Dead, and a bunch of other games that all released with the sole purpose of making our lives just a wee bit better. Oh, and money. Actually, that was their main purpose.
Check out our epic conclusion to our countdown of the twelve horror games you should definitely have on your radar after the break.
6. Until Dawn
Horny teens? Check. Murderous masked psychopath? Check. Creepy secluded cabin surrounded by woods? Check and check. The teen slasher subgenre isn’t one that’s really made its way to our virtual world of bits and bytes, but soon, we’ll find out if there was a reason behind that. Until Dawn looks interesting enough, despite its depressing PS3 Move exclusivity. I’m not knocking the PS3 or the Move, I’m only saying that it’s a promising game that many gamers won’t check out because it’s for the Move. Still, it looks super neat-o.
5. Zwei
Oh, Shinji Mikami, you’re such a tease. First, you bring us amazing games like Resident Evil 4 and Shadows of the Damned, then you create your own studio and hint at a glorious return to the survival horror genre with a new project codenamed Zwei. After that, you tease us again with “an interest” in the open-world genre, before disappearing into wherever it is mad geniuses such as yourself go between press events and gaming expos. Come back. I need to hear more about this game, because if I don’t, my head will explode.
4. DARK
DARK is a game whose name implies a level of mystery, of horror, and most likely, a lack of illumination. I’m not a huge fan of stealth games, primarily because I’m dreadful at them, but this one has my interest. Well, it looks interesting, but when you jot down the bullet points it sounds terrifyingly similar to Vampire’s Rain. You have a stealth horror game starring vampires and lots of dudes with guns. Its super green futuristic art style looks cool, and I’m always up for a vampire stealth game redux. Hopefully, this one will surprise us all.
3. Sacrilegium
I hate this game’s name. Sacrilegium is not a fun word to say, nor is it memorable. It interests me because it’s a survival horror game, and as a fan of the aging genre I always feel the need to support a new one — but it’s also intriguing because it’s being developed by the studio behind the Two Worlds RPG series. I’d say more about it, but for the life of me, I just have no fucking clue what this thing is about. Maybe you have a lexicon with which to transcribe this bizarro synopsis: “The story follows a 20 year old woman and California college student named Alex across the world, from the misty shores of San Francisco to the fearsome and foreboding corners of the Old Continent. There Alex learns that assumptions can be lethally deceptive and that the seemingly safe modern world is but half of a chamber divided by a dark curtain… that beyond that opaque veil lies the embodiment of nightmares spawned into flesh.” It starts off simple enough, before quickly derailing into some nonsense about half a chamber that’s divided by a curtain, an opaque veil, and nightmares spawned into flesh. At least that last bit sounds like a line out of a Clive Barker novella, which I am all for.
2. Metro: Last Light
If you haven’t played Metro: 2033, you really should. It’s a fantastically creepy survival horror FPS set in a post-apocalyptic Moscow, as well as the labyrinthine subway system that lies beneath it. It’s genuinely creepy and thanks to some great source material, the story is better than your average shooter. Recognizing the series’ potential, THQ invested significantly more time and money into its sequel, Last Light, which looks to be shaping up quite nicely. I haven’t heard anything bad about it yet, but we won’t know for sure if it will live up to its predecessor until early next year.
1. Outlast
This game was only recently unveiled, but it looks great. It’s a new survival horror title that has a rather impressive creative team behind it, including some of the minds behind Assassin’s Creed, Prince of Persia, and Splinter Cell. Red Barrels Games’ co-founder Philippe Morin said “There are already a lot of great games out there about terrifying monsters that eat brains; we want Outlast’s to be scary because you’ll know the enemies you face still have them.” I’m just happy this isn’t another zombie game. I’m an avid supporter of the undead, but holy goddamn, that market has reached critical mass.
Missed a day? Check out the rest of the 13 Days of Horror:
Day 1: The 12 Best Weapons In Horror Games, Part 1
Day 2: The 12 Best Weapons In Horror Games, Part 2
Day 3: Our Premature Evaluation Of Black Ops II Zombies
Day 4: Why 2012 Has Been The Best (And Worst) Year For Horror
Day 5: 12 Horror Games To Look Forward To Next Year, Part 1
Day 7: Eight Games You Should Play This Halloween
Day 8: Dear Capcom, This Is What I Want In Resident Evil 7
Day 9: 12 Upcoming Zombie Games To Be Excited About, Part 1
Day 10: 12 Upcoming Zombie Games To Be Excited About, Part 2
Day 11: Why We Love Zombie Games
Day 11: Why We Love Zombie Games
Day 12: Comment To Win A Copy Of Resident Evil 6 And Other Awesome Swag
Day 13: Don’t Be Scared, It’s Just A Dead Pixels Halloween Podcast
Feel free to ever-so-gently toss Adam an email, or follow him on Twitter and Bloody Disgusting
Judging from the unprecedented box office success of Kane Parsons’ Backrooms adaptation, you’ve likely already seen the liminal horror hit that managed to make audiences afraid of empty hallways and bad wallpaper. And now that so many of us have already entered the yellow labyrinth (some of us more than once), the time has come to discuss the spoiler-filled details that make the movie so fascinating in the first place.
And if there’s one element here that makes the Backrooms movie stand out from any previous lore/mythology, it has to be the genius addition of the Still Life entities. Warped recreations of real people that somehow wandered into the Complex, these misremembered creatures are responsible for some of the most disturbing imagery of 2026 – as well as laugh-out-loud memes created by one of the film’s very own concept artists.
However, true to Parsons’ word that the movie would rely heavily on practical effects, each of these distorted monsters was brought to life by real actors under heavy layers of makeup and prosthetics (with the occasional splash of CGI enhancements). While Anora and If I Had Legs I’d Kick You actress Ivy Wolk wasn’t among these performers, despite what Letterboxd might have you believe, the creature cast did benefit from veteran players with plenty of genre experience.
For starters, Alien: Romulus alumni Robert Bobroczkyi (who previously brought that film’s horrific Offspring to life during its most memorable sequence) plays the flick’s main antagonist, the Still Life version of Captain Clark. And though there was some obvious CGI involved in making the character’s peg-leg and nightmarish face more believable, Bobroczkyi’s monstrous performance and his natural 7’7″ frame helped to make that final chase sequence a clear highlight among this year’s genre offerings.
The film’s Texas-Chain-Saw-inspired “dinner” scene also features a freaky collection of less-aggressive Still Life creatures in the form of the Bearded Man, the Red-Headed Woman and, strangest of them all, the cheekily named “Archibald Leland Sutter Still Life” (who earned this title among fans and crewmembers as a reference to his apparent affinity for lamps).
While this was the first major horror outing for both Patrick Baynham (The Bearded Man) and Dana Mahmood (Archibald), Rhiannon Roberts has worked as a stunt performer in everything from Yellowjackets to HBO’s The Last of Us adaptation – which is probably why The Red-Headed Woman is the most active out of Clark’s impromptu “family.” That being said, the Archibald Leland Sutter Still Life is my personal favorite of the bunch simply because his anachronistic outfit suggests that the Backrooms phenomenon might be a lot older than the Async Foundation. I also love how hard he tries to be helpful with that little light of his!
That might be it for the Still Life entities, but I think horror fans will also be pleased to hear that the film’s Found Footage prologue stars none other than Resident Evil: Welcome to Raccoon City star Avan Jogia as Naren Warne – and American Mary herself Katharine Isabelle also shows up in a blink-and-you’ll-miss-it cameo at Mary’s house party towards the middle of the story (though I have a feeling that she originally had a bigger part that was likely cut for time).
At the end of the day, Parsons’ Backrooms may have been an auteur-driven project motivated by the young director’s unique take on the classic creepypasta, but film has always been a collective artform, so it’s fun to see just how many talented performers it takes to bring this kind of supernatural nightmare to life in a way that connects with so many people.
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