Editorials
‘Dead Space’ Can Learn from ‘Alien: Isolation’
What Visceral Games accomplished with the Dead Space franchise is nothing short of spectacular. This series has left an indelible mark on the horror genre as well as gaming as a whole. The first introduced us to its sci-fi world, setting the foundation for a sequel that would go on to refine that winning formula to a near-perfect balance of action and horror. The third wasn’t as refreshing as its predecessors, but its optional co-op and weapon crafting were welcome additions to the series.
Horror games have a tendency to shy away from combat in favor of giving the player an empathetic, under-equipped, and sometimes even entirely helpless character, because popular games like Clock Tower, Fatal Frame and Silent Hill found success with that approach.
Dead Space didn’t shy away from combat. Instead, it gave it a name — strategic dismemberment — and built a satisfying horror game around it. The combat made sense. Isaac Clarke wasn’t a badass, at least not initially, but he was an engineer aboard a ship that was brimming with tools that were begging to be weaponized.
Similarly to Silent Hill, which has historically relied on a minimal approach to its UI so it never breaks the immersion, Dead Space introduced a fully diegetic interface that removed the clutter by moving all of the “gamey” aspects like Isaac’s health and inventory into the game world. It wasn’t the first game to do that, but I’d argue it was the first to do it well.
I’m touching on these things because this series’ has accomplished a lot, and its willingness to innovate is something that’s worth celebrating. Whether or not Alien: Isolation goes on to become the first in a new franchise of Alien games remains to be seen. It wasn’t perfect, but developer Creative Assembly showed that same willingness to push the envelope that Visceral did with Dead Space.
They’re similar games. Both follow a member of a rescue team that’s on a mission to find a missing loved one. When they arrive, things go wrong, stranding them in a place where something has gone horribly wrong. They’re separated from their team and forced to use their unique skillsets to scavenge resources from the surrounding area to build what they need to survive.
That’s just the first 20 minutes of each game, but you get the point.
One of the major differences between Alien: Isolation and Dead Space as it is today is while most of us have had years — or in the case of the former, decades — to get familiar with their monsters, every antagonist in Isolation is introduced to us in a way that makes them terrifying.
Necromorphs aren’t any less gross or unsettling to look at as they were in 2008, but they are substantially less intimidating. You can throw as many variations of the same monsters at us as you like, but we’re familiar with their bag of tricks. A fear of the unknown is what scares us, and there’s little we don’t know about Necromorphs at this point.
Unless EA’s been working on some sort of mass memory wiping device — and after disastrous launches of Sim City, Battlefield 4 and Dungeon Keeper, they may very well might — this familiarity cannot be erased.
For Necromorphs to be as intimidating as they were in the first Dead Space, they’ll need to be made new again. This means they’ll need to be presented differently, with new abilities. In past Alien games, the aliens were little more than cannon fodder. They were insects to be squashed, rather than intelligent killing machines.
Alien: Isolation remedied this by focusing on a single, exceptionally cunning xenomorph that was nothing like the things we killed by the hundreds in games like Alien: Colonial Marines and Alien vs. Predator.
Much like Necromorphs, the alien’s movements are unpredictable thanks to an impressive AI that made clever use of the Sevastopol’s liberal smattering of vents, which it could use to sneak up on an unsuspecting Ripley. Necromorphs are former humans who have been twisted into living weapons and controlled by an ancient hive mind, but there’s little to differentiate them from your average zombie in terms of behavior.
Solutions can be found outside the horror genre, too. After Halo 3, the Covenant were familiar and predictable. They spoke English and had funny voices. Then Halo: Reach came along and they looked differently and spoke in alien languages. Even the way they moved and reacted to the player were less predictable.
There comes a point in the timeline of many video game franchises when the story goes somewhere we’d rather not follow. We’ve seen it a handful of times with games like Condemned II: Bloodshot, Resident Evil 5 and Dino Crisis 3, and while there might not be a good example of a series that’s come back from this, I have a feeling Dead Space can.
The problem lies with the final act of Dead Space 3, which is, in a word, completely f**king bonkers.
I spent some time at Visceral working on the game every day for six months, and I still couldn’t explain what happened there. Something about Necro-Moons, a Unitologist prophecy and Convergence, an alien apocalypse, because video games.
Dead Space went full-on Resident Evil Its narrative scope got too big, and what we got an incoherent mess that didn’t fit with this series’ greatest strengths. It wasn’t a story about survival against a horrific alien menace; it was a tale of survival against multiple alien threats told on a galactic scale.
As a franchise, Aliens has an impressive fiction and scope that could be used for the foundation of hundreds of films and video games. Alien: Isolation could’ve been more narratively ambitious, but that would’ve made it less personal. When the player loses that personal connection to the character they control, they care less, making it less effective as a horror game.
Before it can scare us again, Dead Space will need to scale back. The countless hours I spent aboard the Sprawl and the USG Ishimura will stick with me considerably longer than Tau Volantis, despite my appreciation for the homage Dead Space 3 gave to The Thing.
For now, Dead Space is on hiatus. It hasn’t been canned, and EA has gone to great lengths to confirm that fact three separate times now. Isaac and Friends are taking a much-needed break, and the more time they spend finding themselves before making a triumphant return, the better.
Editorials
‘Immaculate’ – A Companion Watch Guide to the Religious Horror Movie and Its Cinematic Influences
The religious horror movie Immaculate, starring Sydney Sweeney and directed by Michael Mohan, wears its horror influences on its sleeves. NEON’s new horror movie is now available on Digital and PVOD, making it easier to catch up with the buzzy title. If you’ve already seen Immaculate, this companion watch guide highlights horror movies to pair with it.
Sweeney stars in Immaculate as Cecilia, a woman of devout faith who is offered a fulfilling new role at an illustrious Italian convent. Cecilia’s warm welcome to the picture-perfect Italian countryside gets derailed soon enough when she discovers she’s become pregnant and realizes the convent harbors disturbing secrets.
From Will Bates’ gothic score to the filming locations and even shot compositions, Immaculate owes a lot to its cinematic influences. Mohan pulls from more than just religious horror, though. While Immaculate pays tribute to the classics, the horror movie surprises for the way it leans so heavily into Italian horror and New French Extremity. Let’s dig into many of the film’s most prominent horror influences with a companion watch guide.
Warning: Immaculate spoilers ahead.
Rosemary’s Baby
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The mother of all pregnancy horror movies introduces Rosemary Woodhouse (Mia Farrow), an eager-to-please housewife who’s supportive of her husband, Guy, and thrilled he landed them a spot in the coveted Bramford apartment building. Guy proposes a romantic evening, which gives way to a hallucinogenic nightmare scenario that leaves Rosemary confused and pregnant. Rosemary’s suspicions and paranoia mount as she’s gaslit by everyone around her, all attempting to distract her from her deeply abnormal pregnancy. While Cecilia follows a similar emotional journey to Rosemary, from the confusion over her baby’s conception to being gaslit by those who claim to have her best interests in mind, Immaculate inverts the iconic final frame of Rosemary’s Baby to great effect.
The Exorcist
William Friedkin’s horror classic shook audiences to their core upon release in the ’70s, largely for its shocking imagery. A grim battle over faith is waged between demon Pazuzu and priests Damien Karras (Jason Miller) and Lankester Merrin (Max von Sydow). The battleground happens to be a 12-year-old, Regan MacNeil (Linda Blair), whose possessed form commits blasphemy often, including violently masturbating with a crucifix. Yet Friedkin captures the horrifying events with stunning cinematography; the emotional complexity and shot composition lend elegance to a film that counterbalances the horror. That balance between transgressive imagery and artful form permeates Immaculate as well.
Suspiria
Jessica Harper stars as Suzy Bannion, an American newcomer at a prestigious dance academy in Germany who uncovers a supernatural conspiracy amid a series of grisly murders. It’s a dance academy so disciplined in its art form that its students and faculty live their full time, spending nearly every waking hour there, including built-in meals and scheduled bedtimes. Like Suzy Bannion, Cecilia is a novitiate committed to learning her chosen trade, so much so that she travels to a foreign country to continue her training. Also, like Suzy, Cecilia quickly realizes the pristine façade of her new setting belies sinister secrets that mean her harm.
What Have You Done to Solange?
This 1972 Italian horror film follows a college professor who gets embroiled in a bizarre series of murders when his mistress, a student, witnesses one taking place. The professor starts his own investigation to discover what happened to the young woman, Solange. Sex, murder, and religion course through this Giallo’s veins, which features I Spit on Your Grave’s Camille Keaton as Solange. Immaculate director Michael Mohan revealed to The Wrap that he emulated director Massimo Dallamano’s techniques, particularly in a key scene that sees Cecilia alone in a crowded room of male superiors, all interrogating her on her immaculate status.
The Red Queen Kills Seven Times
In this Giallo, two sisters inherit their family’s castle that’s also cursed. When a dark-haired, red-robed woman begins killing people around them, the sisters begin to wonder if the castle’s mysterious curse has resurfaced. Director Emilio Miraglia infuses his Giallo with vibrant style, with the titular Red Queen instantly eye-catching in design. While the killer’s design and use of red no doubt played an influential role in some of Immaculate’s nightmare imagery, its biggest inspiration in Mohan’s film is its score. Immaculate pays tribute to The Red Queen Kills Seven Times through specific music cues.
The Vanishing
Rex’s life is irrevocably changed when the love of his life is abducted from a rest stop. Three years later, he begins receiving letters from his girlfriend’s abductor. Director George Sluizer infuses his simple premise with bone-chilling dread and psychological terror as the kidnapper toys with Red. It builds to a harrowing finale you won’t forget; and neither did Mohan, who cited The Vanishing as an influence on Immaculate. Likely for its surprise closing moments, but mostly for the way Sluizer filmed from inside a coffin.
The Other Hell
This nunsploitation film begins where Immaculate ends: in the catacombs of a convent that leads to an underground laboratory. The Other Hell sees a priest investigating the seemingly paranormal activity surrounding the convent as possessed nuns get violent toward others. But is this a case of the Devil or simply nuns run amok? Immaculate opts to ground its horrors in reality, where The Other Hell leans into the supernatural, but the surprise lab setting beneath the holy grounds evokes the same sense of blasphemous shock.
Inside
During Immaculate‘s freakout climax, Cecilia sets the underground lab on fire with Father Sal Tedeschi (Álvaro Morte) locked inside. He manages to escape, though badly burned, and chases Cecilia through the catacombs. When Father Tedeschi catches Cecilia, he attempts to cut her baby out of her womb, and the stark imagery instantly calls Alexandre Bustillo and Julien Maury’s seminal French horror movie to mind. Like Tedeschi, Inside’s La Femme (Béatrice Dalle) will stop at nothing to get the baby, badly burned and all.
Burial Ground
At first glance, this Italian zombie movie bears little resemblance to Immaculate. The plot sees an eclectic group forced to band together against a wave of undead, offering no shortage of zombie gore and wild character quirks. What connects them is the setting; both employed the Villa Parisi as a filming location. The Villa Parisi happens to be a prominent filming spot for Italian horror; also pair the new horror movie with Mario Bava’s A Bay of Blood or Blood for Dracula for additional boundary-pushing horror titles shot at the Villa Parisi.
The Devils
The Devils was always intended to be incendiary. Horror, at its most depraved and sadistic, tends to make casual viewers uncomfortable. Ken Russell’s 1971 epic takes it to a whole new squeamish level with its nightmarish visuals steeped in some historical accuracy. There are the horror classics, like The Exorcist, and there are definitive transgressive horror cult classics. The Devils falls squarely in the latter, and Russell’s fearlessness in exploring taboos and wielding unholy imagery inspired Mohan’s approach to the escalating horror in Immaculate.
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