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[Ghosts Of Gaming Past] A Review Of ‘Penumbra: Overture’
Welcome to Ghosts of Gaming Past — here we’ll be reviewing older horror games, classics and non-classics we missed when they were originally released. Have a game you’d like reviewed? Send us an email.
Written by Hayden Dingman, @haydencd
Yes, it took six years for Bloody Disgusting to review Penumbra: Overture. Criminal, right? We know you’re a discerning reader, however, and trust our opinion most. Thus you’ve undoubtedly waited six years with bated breath for us to rate whether the game is good or not.
Is Penumbra: Overture worth playing? The answer is a slightly-qualified “yes.”
Penumbra: Overture, developed by Frictional Games, is a short, somewhat rough-around-the-edges first-person horror game with a heavy focus on stealth and puzzles. The game avoids the usual “monster closets and things chasing you” dynamic, instead relying on atmosphere and sound design to do most of the work. I wouldn’t say the game is always successful, but it’s great to play in the dark with headphones on.
You play as Philip, an everyman professor who recently received a note and a pile of documents from his long-absent, presumed-dead-for-thirty-years father. The note says to absolutely, at all costs burn the enclosed documents and ask no further questions. Like any good son you ignore your father’s advice, find a marked map of Greenland in one of the notes, and charter a boat to that remote location to begin your adventure. Once at the location you get lost in a blizzard, begin to freeze to death, and break into an old mining operation to get warm. A mine that’s more than it seems, to say the least.
If it sounds ridiculous, well, it is. The story of Penumbra: Overture is thin and more than a bit convoluted, conveyed to the player in large part through book excerpts and notes from the mine’s former inhabitants. By the end you’re left with a confused pastiche of hallucinogenic spiders, a secret organization studying some sort of phenomenon below the mines, and a crazy man who calls himself Red.
Red, who you “meet” through an acquired radio around a third of the way through the game, is one part helpful mentor, one part psychopath. He’s also the best part of the story. My favorite line? “I’m sorry…Sometimes my emotions are like a disobedient pet: uncontrollable, and often rolling in shit,” spoken in Red’s weird, potentially Eastern European accent. While the rest of the story is a mess, Red is strongly written, and his promise of “answers” is a strong motivation for the player to keep progressing.
And keep progressing you shall! Deeper and deeper into the mine, creeping past demonic dogs and giant spiders while solving innumerable puzzles. Some of these puzzles are based in the aforementioned notes, while others take advantage of Penumbra’s incredible physics engine.
The game is, at heart, a point-and-click adventure game. However, most of the game’s objects behave as they would in real life, from an interaction standpoint. You don’t just click on a door and watch it open. Instead, you grab the side of the door that opens and pull the mouse back, opening it as much or as little as you’d like. The same goes for drawers, pulling boxes around the environment, or using a rock to break ice off a frozen door (as you do in the opening minutes of the game). In each situation you are controlling the movement of objects in the environment. The system feels smart, intuitive, and gives you a real sense of place.
Unfortunately, the game’s combat is rooted in the same physics system. Yes, Penumbra: Overture has combat if you’re not careful and stealthy. First of all, there’s the problem that combat introduces to all horror games: enemies are no longer inherently scary, but are something the player must defeat. If you die it’s because you did not beat the game’s obstacles, and not necessarily because the enemy is terrifying. The more you die in the game and repeat sections, the less scary that section or monster becomes.
And if you engage in combat in Penumbra: Overture you will die a lot. The game’s physics-based combat is “finicky” when I’m feeling charitable, and “broken” when I’m not. Rather than just, for instance, holding down a button to draw back your weapon and then releasing, Penumbra has you waving the mouse to swing weapons back and forth across the screen. If you’ve ever played any of the old Elder Scrolls games (Arena, Daggerfall) you’ll know the system I’m talking about. At first your utter ineptitude with all manners of weapons is kind of funny. After you die a few times it’s simply frustrating.
The main problem is that your interaction with the camera during combat becomes completely unpredictable. Sometimes you draw back your weapon and the camera locks in place, but your enemy has already moved away from where you aimed. You swing at empty air, the enemy eats your heart, and you reload. Other times you swing and the camera goes more insane than your ol’ buddy Red, leaving you staring at the ceiling in your final moments as the demon dog feasts on your heart again.
Things get even more annoying when you’re attacked by poisonous spiders. Not only are they small and fast (read: incredibly hard to aim at), the spiders can also kill you in just a few seconds. The spiders don’t show up often, but the tell-tale skitter skitter of their legs usually heralds an annoying series of trial-and-error reloads in the future.
Luckily most combat can be bypassed. The spiders are afraid of your flashlight, so just keep it trained on them whenever possible. The dogs patrol in set routes for the most part, and are easily bypassed with stealth. If you do engage in combat, it’s easier to stand on a crate where the enemies can’t reach you and swing Philip’s pickaxe like a madman rather than actually face your foes head-on. Tip-toe through the shadows, stop to hide behind the occasional crate, and you’ll be fine.
Despite its drawbacks, Penumbra: Overture decidedly proves the importance of audio in a horror game. For all the game’s problems—lackluster AI, low-res textures, muddled story, broken combat—it still manages to get in your head, primarily due to the rich sound design. Philip’s panicked breathing, the low growling of demon dogs, the metallic screech when you open a locker, the clang of a toppled fire extinguisher, and the low bass rumble of distant machinery—these sounds aren’t revolutionary, but they help the game make up for lackluster visuals. The score also plays a part, reinforcing the tense atmosphere with growling bass tones and pounding drums. Sometimes it’s a bit melodramatic, since none of the enemies are particularly scary, but on occasion it works wonderfully with the sound design to ratchet up the tension.
Again, Penumbra: Overture is destined to be played in the dark with headphones.
The Final Word: While quite obviously the work of a small developer, and despite a number of flaws, Penumbra: Overture manages to impress primarily because of its moody sound design, loveable psychopath Red, and an impressive physics system. Horror fans who can look past the occasionally ugly visuals (the graphics are bad even for a game from ye olden days of 2007) will find a game that clearly understands the importance of “atmosphere,” and though the story is convoluted and a bit absurd, it still contains a few excellent moments. Just don’t try to go Rambo on those demon dogs. It’s not worth it.
Penumbra: Overture is available on Linux and PC (reviewed).
We are now one full month into Spring 2024, which kicked off on Tuesday, March 19 and comes to an end with the start of Summer on Thursday, June 20. This year’s summer movie season has a whole bunch of exciting horror highlights, including A Quiet Place: Day One, MaXXXine, and Alien: Romulus, but let’s hold that particular thought until June rolls around.
We’re here today to talk about Spring 2024 and the many horrors we still have left before the weather gets warmer and we find ourselves in the heat of one hell of a spooky summer.
Here are 12 horror movies you don’t want to miss in Spring 2024!
STING – April 12
Two words: SPIDER HORROR. Writer/Director Kiah Roache-Turner (Wyrmwood) hopes to induce eight-legged terror with his brand new horror movie Sting, only in theaters April 12.
Of particular note, Sting features practical spider effects from 5-time Academy Award Winner Weta Workshop, with the spider in this one inspired by H.R. Giger’s Xenomorph!
In Sting, “One cold, stormy night in New York City, a mysterious object falls from the sky and smashes through the window of a rundown apartment building. It is an egg, and from this egg emerges a strange little spider. The creature is discovered by Charlotte, a rebellious 12-year-old girl obsessed with comic books. Keeping it as a secret pet, she names it Sting.
“But as Charlotte’s fascination with Sting increases, so does its size. Growing at a monstrous rate, Sting’s appetite for blood becomes insatiable.”
BLACKOUT – APRIL 12
Indie darling Larry Fessenden is back with new horror movie Blackout this Spring, Fessenden’s third movie – following Habit and Depraved – to put his own spin on classic monsters.
While Habit was centered on vampires and Depraved was a fresh take on Frankenstein’s Monster, Larry Fessenden’s Blackout is the filmmaker’s contribution to werewolf cinema.
The film follows Charley, an artist whose drinking binges blur with his sneaking suspicion that he might be a werewolf. He distances himself from those he loves and sinks deeper into solitude, his flashes of memory of his nighttime grisly acts manifested through his artwork.
ARCADIAN – APRIL 12
If Nicolas Cage is covered in blood, you better believe we’re going to be watching. Cage gets his own A Quiet Place with Arcadian, a new creature feature coming to theaters April 12.
In Arcadian, which also comes to Shudder later this year, “After a catastrophic event depopulates the world, a father (Nicolas Cage) and his two sons must survive their dystopian environment while being threatened by mysterious creatures that emerge at night.”
Jaeden Martell (IT 2017) also stars in the post apocalyptic monster movie.
ABIGAIL – APRIL 19
If you’re bummed about Melissa Barrera being fired from the Scream franchise, you’ll definitely want to get out to your local theater this month to support Abigail, the new VAMPIRE BALLERINA horror movie from Scream and Scream VI directors Radio Silence.
Barrera stars alongside fellow horror favorite Kathryn Newton (Freaky) in Abigail, which is actually the latest horror movie in Universal’s relaunched Universal Monsters Universe.
In the film, “After a group of would-be criminals kidnap the 12-year-old ballerina daughter of a powerful underworld figure, all they have to do to collect a $50 million ransom is watch the girl overnight. In an isolated mansion, the captors start to dwindle, one by one, and they discover, to their mounting horror, that they’re locked inside with no normal little girl.”
LATE NIGHT WITH THE DEVIL – APRIL 19
One of the most talked about horror movies of Spring 2024 has been the Halloween 1977-set Late Night With the Devil, which has been playing in theaters since its premiere on March 22.
Late Night with the Devil will begin streaming at home on April 19, 2024, less than one month after arriving in theaters. Shudder will be the exclusive streaming home of the movie.
David Dastmalchian (Dune, The Suicide Squad) stars as the host of a late-night talk show that descends into a nightmare in Late Night with the Devil, set on Halloween 1977.
In the found footage-style film that captures a period aesthetic, “A live television broadcast in 1977 goes horribly wrong, unleashing evil into the nation’s living rooms.”
INFESTED – APRIL 26
Spring 2024 is all about SPIDERS – sorry, arachnophobes! – with the previously mentioned Sting being followed by the French creature feature Infested (Vermines) later this month.
What’s particularly exciting about Infested is that its director, Sébastien Vaniček, has been hired to direct the next installment in the Evil Dead film franchise, so this will be our first taste of what Vaniček is capable of within the genre. And the buzz for this one is strong.
In his review out of Fantastic Fest last year, for starters, Bloody Disgusting’s own critic Trace Thurman raved that Infested is “one of the best spider attack movies in years.”
In the upcoming horror film, “Fascinated by exotic animals, Kaleb finds a venomous spider in a shop and brings it back to his apartment. It only takes a moment for the spider to escape and reproduce, turning the whole building into a dreadful web trap.”
HUMANE – APRIL 26
The daughter of horror master David Cronenberg, Caitlin Cronenberg is making her own mark in the genre filmmaking space with IFC Films’ Humane, coming to theaters this month.
The film is described as “a dystopian satire taking place over a single day, months after a global ecological collapse has forced world leaders to reduce the earth’s population.”
The wild premise? 20% of the world’s population must VOLUNTEER TO DIE!
“In a wealthy enclave, a recently retired newsman has invited his grown children to dinner to announce his intentions to enlist in the nation’s new euthanasia program. But when the father’s plan goes horribly awry, tensions flare and chaos erupts among his children.”
I SAW THE TV GLOW – MAY 3
Fresh off the haunting and singularly creepy indie We’re All Going to the World’s Fair, Jane Schoenbrun is back with A24‘s I Saw the TV Glow, releasing only in theaters this May.
Meagan Navarro wrote in her Sundance review for BD, “I Saw the TV Glow offers a layered and authentic portrait of identity, wrapped in ’90s nostalgia and surreal imagery that embeds itself deep into your psyche.” Meagan continues, “Schoenbrun delivers a singular vision of arthouse horror that entrances for its fevered dream style and insanely cool imagery.”
In A24’s latest, “Owen is just trying to make it through life in the suburbs when his classmate introduces him to a mysterious TV show — a vision of a supernatural world beneath their own. In the pale glow of the television, Owen’s view of reality begins to crack.”
TAROT – MAY 3
Originally titled Horrorscope, a much better title if you’re asking me, Screen Gems returns to the big screen with studio horror movie Tarot this Spring, a Tarot-card themed spookshow.
When a group of friends recklessly violates the sacred rule of Tarot readings – never use someone else’s deck – they unknowingly unleash an unspeakable evil trapped within the cursed cards in the upcoming Screen Gems horror movie Tarot. One by one, they come face to face with fate and end up in a race against death to escape the future foretold in their readings.
The hook for this one? Artist Trevor Henderson designed the film’s eight monsters!
THE STRANGERS: CHAPTER 1 – MAY 17
Bryan Bertino’s 2008 home invasion classic The Strangers spawns a brand new reboot trilogy this year, with first film The Strangers: Chapter 1 kicking things off in theaters on May 17.
The Strangers: Chapter 2 is expected to follow in Fall 2024.
Madelaine Petsch is the lead of the new reboot trilogy, playing a character who drives cross-country with her longtime boyfriend to begin a new life in the Pacific Northwest.
When their car breaks down in Venus, Oregon, they’re forced to spend the night in a secluded Airbnb, where they are terrorized from dusk till dawn by three masked strangers.
IN A VIOLENT NATURE – MAY 31
Slasher fans who have been hungry for a new Friday the 13th movie won’t want to miss In a Violent Nature, which plays out like a Friday movie… entirely from Jason’s perspective!
IFC Films will release In a Violent Nature exclusively in theaters on May 31.
In the film, “When a locket is removed from a collapsed fire tower in the woods that entombs the rotting corpse of Johnny, a vengeful spirit spurred on by a horrific 60-year old crime, his body is resurrected and becomes hellbent on retrieving it. The undead golem hones in on the group of vacationing teens responsible for the theft and proceeds to methodically slaughter them one by one in his mission to get it back – along with anyone in his way.”
Meagan Navarro wrote in her Sundance review for Bloody Disgusting, “In a Violent Nature may offer slasher thrills and a delightfully gory rampage across the wilderness, but the approach captures the carnage through ambient realism. It results in a fascinating arthouse horror experiment that plays more like a minimalist slice-of-life feature with a grim twist.”
THE WATCHERS – JUNE 14
M. Night Shyamalan returns with the new thriller Trap this coming August, but the road to that film’s release will be paved by the feature debut of his daughter, Ishana Night Shyamalan.
Ishana Night directed The Watchers, in theaters from WB/New Line on June 14.
The film follows Mina, a 28-year-old artist, who gets stranded in an expansive, untouched forest in western Ireland. When Mina finds shelter, she unknowingly becomes trapped alongside three strangers who are watched and stalked by mysterious creatures each night.
Which Spring 2024 horror movies are YOU most looking forward to?
Spring 2024 Horror Preview: 12 Horror Movies You Don’t Want to Miss
4 New Horror Movies Releasing This Week Including ‘Late Night with the Devil’ at Home
‘Under Paris’ – A Monster Stalks Paris in What Might Be the Next Great Shark Attack Movie [Trailer]
Blumhouse and Lionsgate Join Forces for Brand New ‘The Blair Witch Project’ Movie!
The ‘Scary Movie’ Spoof Franchise Is Getting a Reboot at Paramount!
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