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‘Hellblade’ a Big Winner at The Game Awards
So, the 2017 edition of The Game Awards was last night, and amongst the announcement of a World War Z game and the revealing trailer for Hideo Kojima’s Death Standing, there was an award show. Resident Evil VII won “Best VR Game”, but what about the rest of the genre fare?
In terms of horror, the night belonged to Ninja Theory’s Hellblade: Senua’s Sacrifice, which snagged three of the five awards for which it was nominated: “Best Audio Design”, “Best Performance” and “Games for Impact”. It lost out “Best Narrative” to another genre cohort in Giant Sparrow’s What Remains of Edith Finch, and “Best Independent Game” to StudioMDHR’s Cuphead. Meanwhile, Wolfenstein II: The New Colossus grabbed “Best Action Game”, and for the fan’s choice awards, the trailer for Naughty Dog’s The Last of Us Part II grabbed the “Most Anticipated Game”.
As for reveals, The Astronauts showed off their follow-up to The Vanishing of Ethan Carter with their fantasy FPS, Witchfire, and 10 Chambers Collective gave us more than a plain teaser for GTFO. Then there was that trailer from FromSoftware that may or may not be for Bloodborne 2, but it sure looked cool. Sadly, we didn’t get anything from Capcom regarding those rumours about Devil May Cry 5, but who knows what we’ll be getting at the PlayStation Experience, or if they’re pushing it to E3 2018.
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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