Editorials
Looking Back at Prison-Based Horror Game ‘The Suffering’
The Playstation 2/Xbox/GameCube generation was one that really helped evolve the horror genre. Silent Hill 2 and Eternal Darkness were landmark games, but it was probably Resident Evil 4 that is most known for moving the genre forward. Released in 2005 and directed by the great Shinji Mikami, RE4 was praised for moving the genre away from the clunky controls of the previous generation. But there was another game that was released prior to RE4 that not only melded horror with more action-oriented movement, but also implemented several other gameplay elements that would soon become popularized.
The Suffering was developed by Surreal Software and released in the spring of 2004. The game casts the player as Torque, a death row inmate who fights to survive when the prison is attacked by horrific creatures. The game ended up selling well, over 1.5 million copies, and was credited with bringing publisher Midway back to prominence. Despite the fact that this success allowed the developers to make a sequel, The Suffering: Ties That Bind, the game remains largely forgotten by most, and the franchise has been dormant since 2005.
Resident Evil 4 certainly popularized the more actiony version of horror, but The Suffering brought faster controls to the genre almost a year earlier. It definitely had a bit of the early-console-shooter feel, but still managed to make the player more mobile than other horror games, even allowing you to play in first person mode. RE4 tried to keep some roots of older survival horror games, forcing you to stay in one place while shooting, but The Suffering did what games like Dead Space would eventually do and allowed full movement while gunning enemies down.
While the extra mobility may have taken away some of the tension that came from being forced to use tank controls, the creature design added it right back in. Since the game takes place in prison with a sinister past, all of the enemies were designed to reflect either execution methods or atrocities that happened there. The creature designs are truly iconic, which shouldn’t come as a surprise because of the involvement of Stan Winston Studios.
To aid in the combat, there was also an “Insanity Meter” that filled up with each kill. Upon filling the meter, Torque turns into a hulking monster letting you tear apart your enemies with vicious melee strikes. Attack-related meters like this ended up being very common, but it felt particularly in line with the themes of the game. Torque has a (possibly) violent past, and this monster is a very straightforward interpretation of the concept of “inner demons.” There’s also a very smart risk-reward system in your transformed state: your monster’s health bar is constantly draining as time goes on, and you don’t change back in time, you die.
One of the most highly regarded innovations in the game is a morality system. Morality was something that was not new to games, tons of CRPGs like the early Fallouts had moral choices that were far more complicated, but The Suffering was an early adopter in the mainstream console space. At the very beginning, you find out that Torque is on death row for murdering his family, a crime that he’s not even sure if he committed. As you go through the game, you’re presented with binary moral choices about how to treat NPCs. A demonic voice tries to move you to violence while your wife’s voice encourages you to show mercy. How you react ends up coloring the ending of the game, which reveals Torque’s guilt or innocence.
What this Schrodinger’s Cat-like situation creates is something that circumvents a problem seen in a lot of games: ludo-narrative dissonance. Often times in games, the character will be acting one way, but once control is given back to the player, they will make choices that contradict the character that has been set up. One of the most famous examples of this is in Uncharted, where Nathan Drake cracks wise through all the cutscenes, but murders hundreds of people during gameplay. There’s a disconnect there that doesn’t quite line up and causes problems for the player.
With The Suffering, your character intentionally remains a mystery until the game sees how you play. If the initial setup of the game established your innocence, then you made the choice to murder NPCs, this may cause that dissonance, but instead the game allows YOU to make decisions that will color the history of the character, making it all fit together tonally in the end. Silent Hill 2 had this to some extent, where it tracked how played to determine the ending, but all of the elements of The Suffering perfectly line up with this more overt version of a morality system, making for a tight, consistent package.
The direction they took with Ties that Bind ended up being very disappointing. I would have much preferred if they had made the franchise more of a thematic anthology than just following Torque to a different location. Doing something more akin to the Bioshock to Bioshock Infinite transition would have been an interesting way to explore the franchise, as the theme of testing a morally ambiguous character by running them through a psychologically intense location is a strong anchor for a franchise. Hopefully, whoever holds the rights figures out a good angle to take and brings The Suffering back in a bold way, as the mainstream horror genre has evolved into the type of game this was 15 years ago.
A new month means a new guide as titles are added (and dropped) from streaming services. Let’s unpack the most exciting titles that are available to watch on Tubi in July 2026.
New to Tubi July Horror Films
Deep Blue Sea (1999)
- Premise: Searching for a cure to Alzheimer’s disease, a group of scientists on an isolated research facility become the prey as a trio of intelligent sharks fight back.
- Why Watch It? Let’s be frank: Director Renny Harlin has made some absolute dogs in the last few years (the less said about The Strangers trilogy the better, though this year’s Deep Water was actually ok). Deep Blue Sea remains one of the Finnish director’s best contemporary efforts, though. Between the great cast (Samuel L. Jackson, Saffron Burrows, Stellan Skarsgård, Michael Rapaport, LL Cool J, Thomas Jane, and Jane’s sleeveless wetsuit), the ridiculous premise, and that damn/dumb song (“My hat is like a shark’s fin”), you basically can’t go wrong with Deep Blue Sea. It’s one of two great shark films gliding onto Tubi this month, so why not stay out of the water and watch this instead?
- Streaming: July 1
Exorcist II: Heretic (1977)
- Premise: Reagan (Linda Blair), a girl once possessed by a demon, finds that it still lurks within her. Meanwhile, Father Lamont (Richard Burton) investigates the death of the priest who performed her exorcism.
- Why Watch It? August sees the release of documentary Boorman and the Devil, which is about the troubled production of this sequel. The notoriety surrounding Heretic has undoubtedly kept plenty of horror fans away from the sequel, but this truly is a “seeing is believing” kind of film. Real talk: it’s undeniably a disaster, but the John Boorman film has also become a minor cult film. Don’t you want to see it to make up your own mind?
- Streaming: July 1
Hostel: Part III (2011)
- Premise: Four men attending a bachelor party in Las Vegas fall prey to the Elite Hunting Club, who are hosting a gruesome game show of torture.
- Why Watch It? What does Hostel look like without Eli Roth? Part III kinda answers the question. Technically Roth is still a writer, but he hands over the directorial reins to Scott Spiegel (best known for acting in Evil Dead films). The result is a film with a terrible pedigree; it’s also the first (and last) entry to skip theatres before the franchise was permanently shelved (until that TV show with Paul Giamatti shows up?). For some horror fans, however, there’s something exciting about a bad low-budget sequel. Just bear in mind that the Hostel: Part III‘s biggest star is Kip Pardue…so adjust your expectations accordingly before hitting play.
- Streaming: July 1
Insidious 1-3 (2010/2013/2015)
- Premise: A family looks to prevent evil spirits from trapping their comatose child in a realm called The Further.
- Why Watch It? It’s hard to believe that the sixth (!) Insidious movie is coming out in a month and a half, but James Wan and Leigh Whannell‘s other horror franchise has been steadily chugging along for sixteen years. It’s a shame that Tubi doesn’t have all five films available to watch, but in terms of quality, you can do far worse than the original trio. The first film is iconic, and the second is basically an extended coda (with some admittedly problematic stuff going on). I’ll go to bat for Whannell’s 2015 directorial debut, though: there’s a few banger sequences in that film that people slept on.
- Streaming: July 1
Man Finds Tape (2025)
- Premise: After finding mysterious video clips, siblings investigate the strange recordings and uncover a disturbing secret spreading through their Texas town.
- Why Watch It? Writer/directors Paul Gandersman and Peter S. Hall‘s well-received found footage film did an extensive tour of the festival circuit, so now is a great time to check out one of the most contemporary titles debuting on Tubi this month. Surely a title that hails from producers Justin Benson and Aaron Moorhead (Spring and The Endless) is worth a free look?
- Streaming: July 2
Only Lovers Left Alive (2013)
- Premise: A depressed musician Adam (Tom Hiddleston) reunites with his lover Eve (Tilda Swinton). However, their romance, which has already endured several centuries, is disrupted by the arrival of her uncontrollable younger sister Ava (Mia Wasikowska).
- Why Watch It? This beautiful, melancholy vampire film is courtesy of writer/director Jim Jarmusch, who doesn’t often dabble in genre fare. As always, some will quibble if this artsy drama qualifies as horror, but the existential ennui of an eternal life certainly qualifies (bonus: there’s also something inherently sexy about watching Hiddleston and Swinton just lay about). Plus: if Leviticus has you hankering for more Wasikowska, this is an under the radar pick.
- Streaming: July 1
The Shallows (2016)
- Premise:A mere 200 yards from shore, surfer Nancy (Blake Lively) is attacked by a great white shark, with her short journey to safety becoming the ultimate contest of wills.
- Why Watch It? What better time to watch a shark movie than July? The temperatures are soaring and the idea of escaping into the water is so tantalizing. This tight, contained thriller features a great performance by Lively (and that damn seagull!), but it’s the direction from genre fave Jaume Collet-Serra (Orphan; the House of Wax remake) that keeps the movie clicking along like clockwork. At 86 minutes, this is a perfect summer flick.
- Streaming: July 1
Vacancy (2007)
- Premise: Stranded in an isolated motel, a couple (Luke Wilson and Kate Beckinsale) become the unsuspecting subjects of a snuff film.
- Why Watch It? I’m not going to pretend that this Nimród Antal-directed home invasion film is high art, but it is a good time. You’ll likely wish there were deeper characterizations for Wilson and Beckinsale’s David and Amy in Mark L. Smith‘s screenplay, but this mid-aughts thriller is tense, exciting, and just the right amount of grimy. Plus: another short runtime, clocking in at an expeditious 85 minutes!
- Streaming: July 1
July Tubi Originals
The One Next Door (2026)
- Premise: When a mysterious stranger moves in next door to Robert and Tabitha, boundaries are tested, loyalty is questioned, and danger comes for all.
- Streaming: July 10
I Know Where You Live (2026)
- Premise: Sarah thinks she’s found “the one” until his flaws emerge. When she pulls away, chilling threats suggest he’s watching her from inside her own home.
- Streaming: July 24
What’s your favorite from the list above? Will you check out the new Original? Sound off in the comments below
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