Editorials
Survival Horror Is Alive and in No Need of a Savior
We’ve all heard it, likely more than once. Horror games are dead and buried, waiting for the cyclical nature of the video games industry to reanimate it so the genre can claw itself from the grave for a glorious return. The problem is, horror games aren’t dead. In fact, this genre is not only alive, it’s producing some of the most exciting and innovative games we’ve ever seen.
Now, I do realize that much of this “horror is dead” opinion is aimed at AAA horror, which has been lacking in terms of quantity lately.
When you look at the state of Resident Evil, Silent Hill, and Dead Space — three horror franchises that have defined this genre for years — it’s easy to get the impression that things are bad. The reality of it is sometimes publishers lose their way.
Capcom and EA wrongfully assumed we wanted more action, when it was actually the opposite, and with the gargantuan surge of interest in indie horror games like The Forest, Routine, and Among the Sleep, among a few dozen others, the industry’s major publishers are beginning to get the message.
That message is “Horror can make you lots of $$$.”
Granted, it’s not a great message, but it is one that these publishers are more likely to listen to than they have been the outcry of their communities. It’s a message that will inspire them to change their ways and produce the kinds of quality horror games that please both their fans and their shareholders.
This can be seen in a number of upcoming releases, including Dying Light, which aims to give us the Dead Island experience fans have been clamoring for since the first game’s fantastic debut trailer. There’s also The Order: 1886, which has some very strong genre influences, Doom 4 — set to be revealed next month — and the teen slasher-inspired Until Dawn, which Sony promises hasn’t been cancelled. We also can’t forget about the promised next entries in the Resident Evil, Silent Hill, and Fatal Frame series.
All of the above is worth getting excited for, but it’s Alien: Isolation and Resident Evil creator Shinji Mikami’s The Evil Within that have the most to prove right now. If those games are successful, it could mark the beginning of a ridiculously exciting era for AAA horror. Things are already pretty great, but there’s always room for improvement.
Thankfully, we don’t have too long of a wait (Isolation on Oct 7, The Evil Within on Oct 21) to see what kind of impact, if any, that these two games will have on the genre.
Speaking of which, in case you haven’t heard, there are a lot of those to look forward to right now. Indie horror is where it’s at, currently, and my list of anticipated indies grows every day.
Besides the quality of the releases we’re seeing — a few of which have sped past ‘impressive’ in favor of something closer to ‘mind-blowing’ — some of these games are tackling themes that are dark and personal, themes that can make you uncomfortable, but not in the sick, gross-out way.
Remember when Silent Hill did that? When that series was known not just for its disturbing imagery, but for its mature storytelling? Suicide, incest, rape, infanticide — Silent Hill used to be a beacon of hope for anyone looking for a horror game for adults that didn’t involve buckets of gore or cheap jump scares.
My favorite example of this is Matt Gilgenbach’s Neverending Nightmares, a psychological horror game that was inspired by Matt’s life-long struggle with mental illness, including depression and OCD. Even Among the Sleep touched on a deeply personal topic that will very likely resonate with certain people, including myself, though I’ll refrain from shedding too much light on it, as that will almost definitely ruin the ending. And we can’t forget about Fran Bow, which may be the first game in some time to offer a less stereotypical approach to institutionalized mental illness.
We’re seeing a bit of this in bigger budget horror games too, such as Telltale’s The Walking Dead. If you haven’t played it yet, that series is an emotional roller coaster ride.
All I’m saying is horror is here, it’s stronger than ever, and it’ll only get better as we go deeper into this new and exciting generation of consoles. The next time someone tells you horror is on its way out, I invite you to give them a gentleman’s slap across their ignorant face before you bid them farewell, because who needs that kind of negativity in their life?
No one, that’s who.
(Oh, and since I’ll almost definitely get chewed out for not mentioning one of any number of equally anticipated horror games we have on the way, here are a few more that prove horror is kicking hordes of zombie ass right now (and so no one attempts to kick mine): Dead Island 2, Frogware’s Call of Cthulhu reboot, Left 4 Dead 3 — it’ll happen, just be patient — SOMA, Monstrum, Killing Floor 2, HUNT: Horrors of the Gilded Age, Bloodborne, H1Z1, White Night, The Vanishing of Ethan Carter, and so many more)
From child-eating witches to village-burning dragons, fairy tales have always had a foot in the horror genre. That’s why it makes sense that, for every The Hobbit and The Chronicles of Narnia, there are also darker and more adult-oriented stories about magical worlds inhabited by ravenous monsters and cruel villains.
Funnily enough, these sinister tales were precisely the ones that I gravitated towards back when I was a kid, and I was reminded of this while watching Netflix’s recently released I Am Frankelda, Mexico’s first ever feature-length stop-motion animation and one hell of an entertaining parable about the intersection between fiction and reality.
In honor of this special kind of horror-adjacent fairy tale, today I’d like to share this list recommending six Dark Fantasy films that horror fans might enjoy.
For the purposes of this list, we’ll be defining Dark Fantasy as fantastical stories that don’t shy away from the more macabre elements that fuel classic fairy tales. That being said, don’t forget to comment below with your own grim favorites if you think we missed a particularly thrilling one.
With that out of the way, onto the list!
6. Hansel & Gretel: Witch Hunters (2013)
I’m fascinated by bizarre attempts at blockbuster filmmaking – especially when the resulting movies are somehow still fun despite their corporate-mandated origins. Hansel & Gretel: Witch Hunters is precisely one of these strangely compelling studio projects, as this surprisingly successful action-thriller boasts a lot of heart (and tongue-in-cheek humor) for a CGI-heavy creature feature.
Directed by Dead Snow’s Tommy Wirkola, Witch Hunters re-frames the classic fairy tale as an origin story for a duo of badass monster-slayers. Of course, it’s the flick’s anachronistic aesthetic and overall visual flair that make it stand out from other action-horror endeavors from around the same time.
5. The Wolf House (2018)
Made in the tradition of faux cursed films in the same vein as Antrum: The Deadliest Film Ever Made, the eerie backstory to 2018’s Chilean animated flick The Wolf House (La Casa Lobo in the original Spanish) already makes it a nightmarish experience before the flick even really begins.
After all, the movie is presented to us as a faux propaganda film produced by the leader of a death cult (heavily inspired by the real life Colonia Dignidad), with this hybrid animated feature using complex movie magic to simulate a single uninterrupted shot as it tells the story of a lazy young girl who runs away from an isolated colony and encounters a creepy old house in the woods.
4. The Brothers Grimm (2005)
Out of all the Monty Python alumni, Terry Gilliam has had the most interesting career outside of the original comedy group. From fascinating canceled projects (such as his scrapped adaptation of Watchmen) to dystopian parodies that feel more relevant by the minute (1985’s Brazil), even his “lesser” films are still intriguing in their own way.
2005’s The Brothers Grimm is one such project, with this peculiar movie attempting to combine the comedian-turned-filmmaker’s unique visual style with a more blockbuster-oriented plot reimagining the titular brothers as con-artists rather than mere writers. The end result isn’t exactly a masterpiece, but it’s still a legitimately fun ride with plenty of memorable monsters and wonderful performances by both the late, great Heath Ledger and Matt Damon.
3. Dante’s Inferno: An Animated Epic (2010)
2010’s Dante’s Inferno game may have a reputation as something of an unapologetic God of War clone, but I’d argue that the now-obscure game was aesthetically unique enough to deserve a bigger fanbase. However, while the title remains trapped on the seventh console generation, its highly underrated anime adaptation is a lot easier to get a hold of!
Animated by 6 different studios in order to make the 9 circles of hell feel unique from each other, this may not be a completely faithful adaptation of Dante Alighieri’s poem, but it’s still one heck of a great (not to mention gory) time that I’d highly recommend to fans of Netflix’s take on Castlevania.
2. Underworld: Rise of the Lycans (2009)
My personal favorite entry in the Underworld franchise, Rise of the Lycans, is a highly ambitious prequel that actually works better if you haven’t had the story spoiled to you by the previous Underworld films.
While the rest of the series features plenty of urban fantasy elements as the movies combine machine guns and modern environments with gothic storytelling, Patrick Tatopoulos’ prequel fully embraces its fantastical origins and tells a classic tale about a doomed romance between a werewolf and a vampire amid a medieval uprising.
And the best part is that we get a lot more Michael Sheen as the fan-favorite Lucian.
1. Solomon Kane (2011)
One of my personal favorite movies on this list, MJ Basset’s criminally underseen adaptation of Robert E. Howard’s other iconic warrior is thoroughly steeped in horror ambience and features plenty of memorable monsters. However, it’s also a classic origin story for a swashbuckling hero that wouldn’t feel out of place in a tabletop RPG.
While I’ve already written about how the film deftly combines both horror and fantasy elements without breaking the bank, I’ll never pass up an opportunity to recommend the bizarre movie where James Purefoy expertly plays a puritan John Wick.
It’s just too bad that we never got the other films in this intended trilogy.
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