News
It’s Kill Or Be Killed in ‘The Works of Mercy’
Get ready for a few sharp jabs to the gut, because that’s exactly what developer Pentacle delivers in the first gameplay video for their first-person psychological thriller The Works of Mercy.
This footage immediately brings to mind the growing number of P.T.-inspired indie horror games that have surfaced since the cancellation of Silent Hills, but the similarities begin and end with the camera perspective and clean, white interiors. There’s nothing supernatural about the monster we’ll meet in this game. He’s flesh and bone, and that makes him exponentially more terrifying.
The Works of Mercy takes the impossible decisions from a game like Telltale’s The Walking Dead and gives them a Saw-like twist, all out of an eagerness to make you feel something. Its developer seems willing to explore the full spectrum of things I’d rather not feel — grief, hatred, helplessness — with its tale of “personal tragedy and wrecked psyche.”
A handful of games have ventured into similar territory, like Heavy Rain, in which a grieving father is forced to do horrific things by his son’s kidnapper. Quantic Dream reminded me to cherish every one of my digits with that game, and they achieved it without ever getting too dark.
Now, Pentacle is going to show us how dark and twisty that premise can get.
This Unreal Engine 4-powered rollercoaster ride of psychological torment will come first to PC with support for virtual reality headsets like the Oculus Rift, followed by Mac, Linux and consoles. If and where it releases depends on where its Kickstarter campaign is in about a month.
And if you’d like to support Works of Mercy without giving it your precious cash monies, you can totally do that by voting for it on Steam Greenlight.
Movies
McDonald’s No-Clips Out of Reality with Unexpected ‘Backrooms’ Short Movie
The best part about engaging with collaborative genre fiction on the internet is that anyone can get in on the action, with worldwide accessibility often resulting in absurd story beats that wouldn’t be possible if any single person was responsible for the entire narrative. And while Kane Parsons’ Backrooms film is definitely the young filmmaker’s own unique take on the infamous creepypasta, it’s fun to see other creators join the Backrooms sandbox now that the big screen adaptation is getting ready for a record-shattering opening weekend.
As if cleverly timed releases like Puppet Combo’s The Backrooms game weren’t enough (not to mention that Scary Movie poster poking fun at Parsons’ flick), McDonald’s official social media accounts have now released an analog horror video of their own celebrating the liminal terrors of the McRooms – complete with a familiar purple surprise at the end of the footage.
While it’s funny enough to see the world’s most recognizable Fast Food giant engage with internet-borne Found Footage thrills seemingly out of the blue, the video is actually referencing a long-running gag among the Backrooms fandom where creators jokingly talk about there being a fully functional McDonald’s restaurant hidden somewhere in level 0 of the infamous liminal labyrinth.
Now, would it be too much to hope for a moist-carpet-flavored McShake to tie in with the film?
Backrooms is now playing only in theaters from A24.



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