Editorials
A Brilliant Nightmare In Space: Celebrating 10 Years of ‘Dead Space’
We tend to talk a lot about horror nowadays having too many jumpscares; or how so many works throughout the genre are too “in-your-face” with violence, taking away from the suspense and dread of stories. There are plenty of titles in gaming that one can find this and wave their finger at, but there are also those titles that obtain a superb balance within action-horror.
One of those games is none other than Dead Space.
The first entry of the Dead Space trilogy celebrates its 10 year anniversary today. While its sequels would become those action-horror games with a greater emphasis on the former rather than the latter, the first Dead Space is a horrifying masterpiece.
Developed by the late Visceral Studios, Dead Space puts you in the shoes of Isaac Clarke, an engineer sent with a team to answer a distress signal. Said signal is coming from the USG Ishimura, where Isaac’s girlfriend also happens to be. Shortly after docking the Ishimura all goes to hell; Isaac and crew are attacked and split up by a Necromorph, the alien lifeforms responsible for the station’s devastation. It is then up to Issac to make every effort he can to reconnect with his crew and get out alive.
In a formalistic sense, Dead Space is a “run and gun” game; Issac is able to use a variety of weapons to take on the Necromorphs as he moves from objective to objective. That said, Dead Space is a unique experience that uses its atmosphere to amplify tension throughout its formalist structure. Even from the moment you enter the Ishimura there’s an air of dread; from the damaged rooms and smeared blood trails, there’s so much to take in (and with zero understanding of the situation). Even considering the initial Necromorph attack, the creature pursues you without skipping a beat; and once you finally escape it, you’re left alone in a foreign place without your crew. It’s just you and the various hisses and hums of pipes surrounding you; nothing but the cold steel of the station’s infrastructure; nothing but the dead bodies surrounding you, and the Necromorphs trailing you from the shadows.
For action games it is common to maintain a high speed in aggression; games will provide many opportunities to throw waves of enemies at the player, allowing them to swing their sword or shoot away. And while Dead Space offers this same idea, it executes it much differently, elevating the emotion of horror. So many horror-action games allow players to feel powerful thanks to heavy weaponry; Dead Space on the other hand, provides you with the weaponry, but continuously messes with the player’s senses. Brief visual and audio cues keep them on guard, balancing out periods of running to slowly creeping down halls.
The environment surrounding Isaac is one of Dead Space’s greatest qualities. The design feeds into the game’s tension and suspense; while Dead Space moves like a “run and gun” title, the player may find themselves hesitating from time to time. There are numerous moments where a shadow will scurry by, or there will be a random scream in the distance. These elements work to slow the player down, aiding to pace out the flow of the game.
The Necromorphs cannot be easily killed; you can’t just fill them with bullets, they must be dismembered to be defeated. So when the player controlling Isaac turns a corner and hears a sound and hesitates, they may turn around to find a swarm of Necromorphs behind them. The player is then forced into a situation where they need to react as fast as possible (while making sure to be careful with ammo). These predicaments exude anxiety, the player cornered and panicking as they strive to survive.
Survival is key, for the wrong move will surely lead to horrific results. Dead Space has some of the most satisfying, grotesque gore I’ve witnessed in a video game. Not only is dismembering the Necromorphs brutal, but all of Isaac’s death sequences are explicitly detailed. Being torn apart comes with gruesome detail as ligaments and blood spew about the environment. The gore and violence make Dead Space one of the most visually provoking games in horror.
Dead Space is very much in the vein of films like Alien; the latter a masterful horror/sci-fi film with action elements, effectively pacing out its on-screen violence. Dead Space also shares many similarities to that of Event Horizon; in this case, the latter is a tremendous gem of psychological horror/sci-fi. Within Dead Space and Event Horizon there’s a focus of psychological instability, both deriving from some ancient artifact. In the second half of the game, this psychological component begins to grow over time, presenting a new anxiety and horror while battling the Necromorphs. Without going into spoilers, characters throughout Dead Space slowly begin to lose their sanity (with Isaac facing some effects as well).
There have been a few action-horror games that have captured that balance of violence and emotion like Dead Space. F.E.A.R. is a major example of course, as it’s a first person shooter that also effectively measures out suspense through its action pacing. That said, many titles continue to pursue the traditional elements found within action games, having the player pick up powerful weapons and plow their way through enemies.
In Dead Space, terrifying detail comes together with formalist gameplay to present an ominous experience capable of establishing unease within players. While its structure may appear simple at first, the more you play, you will soon realize the depths of madness the game offers. Maybe one day we’ll see a reboot or another sequel that honors the mechanics and atmosphere of the original entry; for now, Dead Space stands as a testament to how action-horror titles are capable of establishing adrenaline, anxiety, and dread.
I first heard about The Mandela Catalogue through a couple of nephews who were obsessed with the ARG’s sinister mythology. It was only after watching Wendigoon’s in-depth analysis of the series that I realized just how deep this rabbit hole goes.
In fact, I’d already been exposed to the nightmarish visuals of Alex Kister’s YouTube creation for years at that point without even realizing that it was the origin of several viral “cursed images” and spooky memes that had leaked into the wider internet – with this viral element actually being a part of the Catalogue’s overarching narrative.
Flash-forward to 2026 and the unprecedented success of Kane Parsons’ Backrooms has led to Hollywood betting on horrific internet properties with existing fanbases, which means that Kister’s unique hybrid of both religious and analog horror is finally headed to the big screen with a script written by Kister himself alongside Tyler Clifton.
While this news shouldn’t be too surprising if you’ve been keeping up with the ongoing success of The Mandela Catalogue (both myself and Wendigoon having previously predicted that the series would inevitably make the jump to theaters one day), plenty of horror fans are likely confused as to why so many folks are excited for what appears to be a Hollywood adaptation of a series of creepy .jpeg images under a VHS filter.
With that in mind, today I’d like to invite fellow readers to accompany me as I explore the origins of Alex Kister’s viral hit and attempt to explain exactly why we should all be excited about the Mandela Catalogue adaptation!
From High School Writing Project to Internet Horror Phenomenon
The first seeds of The Mandela Catalogue were sown when Kister was still in high school and developed a writing project subverting religious tropes in a world where biblical history had been altered by demonic forces. A little while later, Kister came across an analog horror contest on Reddit and decided to adapt his ideas into a standalone video where he would edit a religious kids’ cartoon –The Beginner’s Bible: The Nativity, to be specific- into something far creepier. This is how the iconic Overthrone video was born, with this viral short film taking on a life of its own as fans demanded more eerie content from Kister.
Though the video was originally meant to be a one-and-done sort of affair, with Kister actually regretting some of its primitive visuals and considering the editing amateurish and “YouTube-Poop-like” when compared to his current standards, fan reaction and free time during the COVID-19 pandemic encouraged the (then) seventeen-year-old filmmaker to continue producing content set in this same world. The Mandela Catalogue name was inspired by the Mandela Effect conspiracy theory, as the series would slowly begin to explore the subtle horror of alternate histories.
Inspired by existential dread brought on by extended periods of quarantine as well as a personal crisis of faith, Kister continued to expand his alternate timeline where the rise of Christianity had been prevented by what was presumably the Devil disguised as the Archangel Gabriel. This alternate course of fictional events led to the existence of certain paranormal anomalies that had come to be accepted as “normal” by the 1990s, which is why most of the series’ supernatural horror is presented in such a matter-of-fact manner.
Most of this background information and religious lore is delivered by increasingly cryptic broadcasts and in-universe PSAs, as well as the occasional found footage video, that often have to be decoded by clever viewers. Of course, it’s the consistently disturbing imagery that made the series so popular – much of which was originally created by Kister on a smartphone!
The Alternates: Horror’s Most Unsettling Modern Monsters
The show’s early episodes mostly take place within the fictional Mandela County in Wisconsin and depict life in a world where demonic entities are capable of using media to enter our reality. This process usually involves scaring victims into killing themselves and then repurposing their bodies as horrific doppelgangers referred to as “Alternates”. This terrifying phenomenon has become so common that local police already have specialized procedures in place to deal with the issue, though this usually consists of simply ignoring calls for help so as to avoid spreading so-called “Metaphysical Awareness Disorder” any further.
Over time, Kister would expand this mythology and incorporate different kinds of Alternates into the mix, though the story never stopped deconstructing religious concepts. The series’ second volume exponentially increased both video quality and the overall narrative scope as we began to follow the lives of characters who had already grown up in this dystopian hellscape where the government is forced to prohibit religion, television, and even mirrors in the hopes of mitigating the damage done by the ongoing invasion of otherworldly entities.
The really interesting part comes into play when you realize exactly how the Alternates make use of scary media in order to spread their demonic influence, with the analog horror of it all being a diegetic part of the story and something of a memetic trap orchestrated by the false Gabriel.
I particularly appreciate how some characters begin to suspect that there’s something wrong with their version of reality and that things weren’t meant to play out this way, especially when Mark utters the haunting line “who have I been praying to all this time?” That’s why I think The Mandela Catalogue is an effective piece of religious horror even if you don’t subscribe to the Christian worldview, as the mere idea of a world where evil has already won is a universally terrifying concept in and of itself. Not only that, but the series’ uncanny analog imagery alone is already worth the price of admission, as you’ve likely already noticed by looking at the pictures accompanying this article.
Why The Feature Adaptation Could Be Horror’s Next Big Success
It’s actually been a whole year since Kister first announced that he had been working on a feature-length screenplay for a Mandela Catalogue movie since 2022, with his proposed story following an ensemble of high-school graduates who uncover a supernatural conspiracy after the mysterious disappearance of a fellow student. This premise sounds similar to narrative elements present in the series’ second volume, but I’m pretty sure that Kister is going to go the Kane Parsons route and make the movie more of a spin-off than a re-imagining of its source material.
While notable Hollywood producers like Aaron B. Koontz, Scott Stuber, and Steven Spielberg himself are backing the upcoming project, I feel like there’s no one better to adapt this deeply personal exploration of faith and the dark side of communication than the person who first came up with it. That’s why I can’t wait to see Kister’s work on the big screen, as I have a feeling that this young filmmaker is the next one on the list about to make cinematic history – especially since this is clearly a passion project that has been in the works for years at this point!
That being said, there’s always a chance that the film could end up unleashing a fresh wave of Alternate incursions, but I guess that’s just a risk we’ll have to take.
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