Editorials
30 Upcoming Indie Horror Games You Should Be Excited About!
Big budget, AAA horror games are so 2012. This is the year of the indies, and to prove it, I’ve gathered a couple dozen upcoming titles — all from small studios, with many being the dev’s first project — that prove you don’t need big teams and mountains of cash to make a horror game that’s worth being excited about.
Dying Light, The Evil Within and Doom 4 are all on my radar, but the following games aren’t afraid to push the envelope and be daring with their concepts, mechanics, and stories.
Read on for my list of 30 Upcoming Indie Horror Games You Should Be Excited About!
If you’d prefer a more in-depth look at five of the following thirty horror games that I, personally, am most excited about, you can get all that and more in the video below.
What makes it exciting: From Krillbite Studio, Among the Sleep follows a two year-old boy who wakes up alone in his home during a thunderstorm. A familiar setting is warped by the child’s imagination until it resembles a waking nightmare. Not many games place you in the footie pajamas of a toddler — that unique idea alone makes this worth checking out.
When you can expect it: Spring 2014
In the horror FPS game Ashen Rift, it’s you and your pitbull against a crumbling, post-apocalyptic wasteland that’s brimming with monsters. Your goal is to close something called the “Rift,” which is supposedly the cause of the Earth’s falling apart. If it was me, I’d be too busy teaching my dog how to go for the nuts on command to close any rifts. That’s probably why I’ll never be a video game hero.
Unfortunately, hordes of monsters known as Feeders stand in your way, but it’s okay, because you have man’s best friend. See this game in action after the jump.
When you can expect it: TBA
What makes it exciting: Agustín Cordes is a game designer who’s perhaps best known for his creepy horror game Scratches. His next project, the psychological horror game Asylum, takes the terror to a much larger scale, as it’s set in a massive, decaying mental institute. On top of that, it’s story is inspired by the works of H.P. Lovecraft.
When you can expect it: TBA
What makes it exciting: This one caught my attention only recently, but a series of unsettling teasers have only managed to grow my excitement for this unusual game. Like Among the Sleep, Caffeine follows a young boy who finds himself alone in an eerie environment, only this time the locale is a caffeine mining station in outer space and the horrors that hunt him are most definitely real.
When you can expect it: TBA 2014
What makes it exciting: The idea behind Claire is simple: it’s like Silent Hill, if that series was in 2D and had a gorgeous pixelated art style. If you need to be sold after that elevator pitch, I’m afraid I can’t help you.
When you can expect it: TBA 2014
What makes it exciting: From the makers of the Saw video games, the next horror game from Zombie Studios is the procedurally generated Slender-esque horror game Daylight. It follows a young woman who upon being trapped in a long-abandoned hospital realizes she might not be alone. It’s a horror game of the supernatural variety and it actually finds a novel use for the PS4’s Twitch.tv integration by allowing players to trigger in-game scares through the live-stream chat.
When you can expect it: April 8, 2014
What makes it exciting: Like Daylight, Darkwood uses procedural generation to ensure each playthrough is different from the next. Every time you dive into its creepy, desaturated world, it will be unfamiliar. It also brings with it some of the unforgiving elements of roguelikes, including permanent death.
When you can expect it: TBA 2014
What makes it exciting: What makes DreadOut exciting? If you’ve been waiting patiently for a new Fatal Frame, it’s mere existence is exciting. More than that, it looks terrifying and comes with a distinct Indonesian flavor.
When you can expect it: TBA 2014
What makes it exciting: This will be the only Slender Man game on this list, but even if you’ve grown tired of the myriad Slender clones we’ve been inundated with over the last two years, Faceless is intriguing because it introduces four-player co-op into the mix. Now you have a friend (or three) to *accidentally* trip as you run from everyone’s favorite Internet-born Cryptid.
When you can expect it: TBA
What makes it exciting: As I said in the video above, The Forest may very well be my most anticipated horror game of 2014. That’s because it looks horrifying, blends two of my favorite movies — Cannibal Holocaust and The Descent — and mixes in an element of Minecraft through base building and resource gathering. Did I mention it looks horrifying?
When you can expect it: May 22, 2014 (Alpha), Full release TBA
Editorials
‘Leprechaun Returns’ – The Charm of the Franchise’s Legacy Sequel
The erratic Leprechaun franchise is not known for sticking with a single concept for too long. The namesake (originally played by Warwick Davis) has gone to L.A., Las Vegas, space, and the ‘hood (not once but twice). And after an eleven-year holiday since the Davis era ended, the character received a drastic makeover in a now-unmentionable reboot. The critical failure of said film would have implied it was time to pack away the green top hat and shillelagh, and say goodbye to the nefarious imp. Instead, the Leprechaun series tried its luck again.
The general consensus for the Leprechaun films was never positive, and the darker yet blander Leprechaun: Origins certainly did not sway opinions. Just because the 2014 installment took itself seriously did not mean viewers would. After all, creator Mark Jones conceived a gruesome horror-comedy back in the early nineties, and that format is what was expected of any future ventures. So as horror legacy sequels (“legacyquels”) became more common in the 2010s, Leprechaun Returns followed suit while also going back to what made the ‘93 film work. This eighth entry echoed Halloween (2018) by ignoring all the previous sequels as well as being a direct continuation of the original. Even ardent fans can surely understand the decision to wipe the slate clean, so to speak.
Leprechaun Returns “continued the [franchise’s] trend of not being consistent by deciding to be consistent.” The retconning of Steven Kostanski and Suzanne Keilly’s film was met with little to no pushback from the fandom, who had already become accustomed to seeing something new and different with every chapter. Only now the “new and different” was familiar. With the severe route of Origins a mere speck in the rearview mirror, director Kotanski implemented a “back to basics” approach that garnered better reception than Zach Lipovsky’s own undertaking. The one-two punch of preposterous humor and grisly horror was in full force again.
With Warwick Davis sitting this film out — his own choice — there was the foremost challenge of finding his replacement. Returns found Davis’ successor in Linden Porco, who admirably filled those blood-stained, buckled shoes. And what would a legacy sequel be without a returning character? Jennifer Aniston obviously did not reprise her final girl role of Tory Redding. So, the film did the next best thing and fetched another of Lubdan’s past victims: Ozzie, the likable oaf played by Mark Holton. Returns also created an extension of Tory’s character by giving her a teenage daughter, Lila (Taylor Spreitler).
It has been twenty-five years since the events of the ‘93 film. The incident is unknown to all but its survivors. Interested in her late mother’s history there in Devil’s Lake, North Dakota, Lila transferred to the local university and pledged a sorority — really the only one on campus — whose few members now reside in Tory Redding’s old home. The farmhouse-turned-sorority-house is still a work in progress; Lila’s fellow Alpha Epsilon sisters were in the midst of renovating the place when a ghost of the past found its way into the present.
The Psycho Goreman and The Void director’s penchant for visceral special effects is noted early on as the Leprechaun tears not only into the modern age, but also through poor Ozzie’s abdomen. The portal from 1993 to 2018 is soaked with blood and guts as the Leprechaun forces his way into the story. Davis’ iconic depiction of the wee antagonist is missed, however, Linden Porco is not simply keeping the seat warm in case his predecessor ever resumes the part. His enthusiastic performance is accentuated by a rotten-looking mug that adds to his innate menace.
The obligatory fodder is mostly young this time around. Apart from one luckless postman and Ozzie — the premature passing of the latter character removed the chance of caring about anyone in the film — the Leprechaun’s potential prey are all college aged. Lila is this story’s token trauma kid with caregiver baggage; her mother thought “monsters were always trying to get her.” Lila’s habit of mentioning Tory’s mental health problem does not make a good first impression with the resident mean girl and apparent alcoholic of the sorority, Meredith (Emily Reid). Then there are the nicer but no less cursorily written of the Alpha Epsilon gals: eco-conscious and ex-obsessive Katie (Pepi Sonuga), and uptight overachiever Rose (Sai Bennett). Rounding out the main cast are a pair of destined-to-die bros (Oliver Llewellyn Jenkins, Ben McGregor). Lila and her peers range from disposable to plain irritating, so rooting for any one of them is next to impossible. Even so, their overstated personalities make their inevitable fates more satisfying.
Where Returns excels is its death sequences. Unlike Jones’ film, this one is not afraid of killing off members of the main cast. Lila, admittedly, wears too much plot armor, yet with her mother’s spirit looming over her and the whole story — comedian Heather McDonald put her bang-on Aniston impersonation to good use as well as provided a surprisingly emotional moment in the film — her immunity can be overlooked. Still, the other characters’ brutal demises make up for Lila’s imperviousness. The Leprechaun’s killer set-pieces also happen to demonstrate the time period, seeing as he uses solar panels and a drone in several supporting characters’ executions. A premortem selfie and the antagonist’s snarky mention of global warming additionally add to this film’s particular timestamp.
Critics were quick to say Leprechaun Returns did not break new ground. Sure, there is no one jetting off to space, or the wacky notion of Lubdan becoming a record producer. This reset, however, is still quite charming and entertaining despite its lack of risk-taking. And with yet another reboot in the works, who knows where the most wicked Leprechaun ever to exist will end up next.
Horror contemplates in great detail how young people handle inordinate situations and all of life’s unexpected challenges. While the genre forces characters of every age to face their fears, it is especially interested in how youths might fare in life-or-death scenarios.
The column Young Blood is dedicated to horror stories for and about teenagers, as well as other young folks on the brink of terror.
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