Editorials
The 7 Spookiest Video Game Ghost Ships
If nautical nonsense is something ye wish, the last six months of ghostly games have likely sent your timbers a-shiverin’.
Sorry if that lede was a little confusing. That’s pirate speak for: wow, a lot of games with haunted ships have come out lately! Earlier this year, after seeing it near the top of a few 2018 GOTY lists, I picked up The Return of the Obra Dinn, a lo-fi black-and-white detective game that casts the player as an insurance adjuster uncovering the fates of the 60 people missing from a ship that drifts, empty, into harbor.
Then, last month, I reviewed Close to the Sun and Layers of Fear 2, a pair of first-person narrative games that take place on ocean liners beset by paranormal weirdness. If we count spaceships as ships (and I’m open to the idea, just not for this list), Void Bastards — the System Shock 2-inspired roguelite with a comic book aesthetic from Blue Manchu— also tasks players with venturing onto drifting vessels where deranged aliens haunt the halls.
And, later in 2019, the creators of Until Dawn — that excellent ‘90s-horror-movie-meets-Telltale-game from Supermassive Games — are launching their Dark Pictures Anthology series with the choice-driven, ghost ship-set Man of Medan.
In short, we’re in the midst of a Flying Dutchmenaissance.
So, I set sail through gaming history with plenty of rum and restless spirits to spare in search of the best virtual ghost ships to ever haunt the seven seas. And, in my travels, I met weary wanderers, white-haired monster hunters, dead stowaways and a dude named LeChuck.
Note: Throughout this list, my definition of “ghost ship” includes any seafaring vessel inhabited by a paranormal spirit, being or creature.
7. Wrecked Ship, Resident Evil VII
While not necessarily bad, this section — which moves the player from the terrifying Baker manor to an abandoned boat, and abandons inventory management in favor of guns-a-blazin’ zombie slaying — is a weak point in an otherwise stellar game.
6. LeChuck’s Ghost Ship, The Secret of Monkey Island
Mortal Guybrush Threepwood becomes invisible when he boards the dead pirate captain LeChuck’s ghost ship. Ghostly in inky blue, the undead crew dance to a lively violin jig on the deck, while LeChuck broods in his cabin. It’s a well-realized, if underutilized, setting. Bonus points for ghost pigs.
5. The Ocean Liner, Layers of Fear 2
The first Layers of Fear tasked the player with exploring a spooky house whose walls shifted around you. Bloober Team’s first-person horror sequel retains the transient level design but moves the action to an ocean liner haunted by a shimmering monster and a horde of mannequins. While the constantly changing environment makes for effective horror, it results in a less impactful setting. The cruise ship is compelling to explore — until, that is, you realize that you’ll never actually be free to explore it.
4. HMS Prince, Assassin’s Creed IV: Black Flag
One of five legendary ships the player has the option to confront in Assassin’s Creed IV: Black Flag, the HMS Prince flies black sails and conceals itself within a ghostly fog. I say, “conceals itself” because the ship has no visible crew, a fact which spooks the crew of the Jackdaw. The legendary ship battles are one of the high points of this fan favorite Assassin’s Creed game; roving, raucous boss fights that push the player to use the full extent of the naval weaponry at their disposal. This one is just as exciting as the other four — with its hide-and-seek amid the fog and smoke and raining mortar — and helps to encapsulate the eerie mystery of the sea during the Golden Age of Pirates.
3. The Maw, Little Nightmares
While Little Nightmare’s little-kid-in-a-scary-world aesthetic earned it unfavorable comparisons to Playdead’s Inside, Tarsier’s puzzle-platformer differentiated itself with its dark, creaking setting: The Maw, a haunted, hulking ocean liner. As Six, a tiny child in a yellow rain poncho, you sneak past cannibalistic chefs, gluttonous guests and a janitor with arms like Mr. Fantastic, but if Mr. Fantastic was a mummified Freddy Krueger. A trilogy of DLC expansions fleshed out the setting further, giving glimpses of a cavernous boiler room and more.
2. The Obra Dinn, The Return of the Obra Dinn
After completing The Return of the Obra Dinn you will know its titular abandoned ship like the back of your one-bit hands. Each curve and crevice hides a secret that the protagonist — an insurance adjuster investigating the ship to discover what happened to its 60 dead or missing crew members on its mysterious voyage — must suss out using a magical compass and an ordinary notebook. The Return of the Obra Dinn eschews obscure video game logic and asks the player to use their powers of observation to solve its puzzles. And, ahoy me hearties, it is satisfying to hear the telltale ding when you lock a trio of identities into place.
1. The Last Wish, The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt
The Witcher games existing in the same timeline as Andrzej Sapkowski’s books have rarely paid off as well as it does in this climactic side quest from The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt.
*SPOILERS FOR THE WITCHER 3 (AND “THE LAST WISH” SHORT STORY) BELOW*
The titular story in the first book of the Witcher saga, The Last Wish, tells the story of when Geralt met Yennefer while combating a djinn. After a combative start to their relationship, Geralt made a wish that forever bound the two together. In the story’s namesake quest, Yennefer asks Geralt to help her track down a different genie that was released after the man who tamed it disappeared. The witcher obliges, and the two soon find the man’s boat at the bottom of a nearby harbor — but half the ship is missing. Yennefer says that the crater surrounding the boat suggests that the other half was teleported elsewhere. In the wreckage, you find a seal, cracked in two. Yennefer uses the seal to summon a portal to the other half. Geralt and Yen soon find themselves on a snowy mountaintop, where the other half of the ship has come to rest. Geralt asks Yennefer why she’s intent on finding this djinn, and she responds that she wants to reverse Geralt’s wish; she needs to know if “magic” exists between them with the spell removed. The pair enter the ship, locate the other half of the seal and dispatch the djinn. Yen makes her wish.
The quest culminates with the pair sitting on the side of the ship, perched high in the mountains. With the spell removed, Yen asks Geralt if he still has feelings for her. As the player, you get to choose to break things off with Yennefer here or let her know that you love her.
It’s an incredibly important moment that, if you fancy Yennefer, serves as the culmination of one of the game’s most potent narrative threads. While haunted ships are frequently used to isolate the player at sea, this spooky boat brought two characters together. It marks the spot where Geralt and Yennefer finally commit to each other after a years-long on again, off again relationship (or, you know, don’t, if you prefer Triss).
I dub it the Best Video Game Ghost Ship.
Did I miss anything? Mad that the winner is romantic instead of spooky? Peeved that I included skeletons, creepy mannequins and a janitor on this list? Let me know in the comments below.
College kids, strippers and vampires—those were Donald P. Borchers’ only requirements when he approached Richard Wenk about writing and directing a movie for New World Pictures. As requested, Wenk cooked up Vamp (1986), a tailor-made blend of the decade’s teen movie craze as well as its horror boom.
Grim and earnest stories were still very much a part of the ’80s horror landscape, yet Vamp is something of a comedy. One difference between it and, say, Saturday the 14th, though, is the former avoids using schtick. Wenk’s movie proves that horror comedies also don’t have to subtract thrills from their recipes. Of course, it takes a minute before reaching that point; college antics and culture shocks preface this one macabre misadventure.
Vamp‘s initial setup is apt for a typical college-set, sex-driven comedy; to bribe their way into a fraternity house, two pledges (Chris Makepeace, Robert Rusler) go looking for some adult entertainment. Without wasting time on any further exposition, the characters embark on an all-in-one-night trip that quickly detours into terror.
To procure their elusive MacGuffin—a stripper willing to gyrate for some frat boys—Keith (Makepeace) and AJ (Rusler), plus a third wheel named Duncan (Gedee Watanabe), trade the safety of their remote college campus for the seediness of some unnamed city. The setting is recognizably L.A. by day, but as soon as night falls, downtown, along with the characters, slips into a kind of surreal universe. Director of photography Elliot Davis gave this early entry on his prolific résumé an unusual yet distinctive look; that Mario Bava-esque, magenta-green lighting is omnipresent, so much so that it’s almost its own character.
Chris Makepeace and Robert Rusler in Vamp
The faint comparisons to Martin Scorsese’s After Hours are merited, although not just because of Vamp’s distinguishing nighttime aesthetic. Save for the primary characters, the supporting roles in Wenk’s movie are also quite colorful and transactional in their behavior. The difference here, though, is the additional urge to ruin Keith and his friends at every turn. Some of that harm is humorous and tolerable enough, whereas the moment Vamp dishes out its first fatality, it’s abundantly clear how this movie qualifies as horror.
Vamp falls into that category of horror movie that reveals its genre with a scream rather than a series of whispers. The opening scene can function as a hint of what lies ahead—things are not at all what they appear to be—but otherwise, Wenk is more than happy to hold off on the horror. When that time does come, though, it catches the viewer off guard. In addition to the pure shock value is that sudden decision to upend the movie’s foremost feature. Or so it would seem.
If afraid of major spoilage, those new to Vamp would be wise to stop reading here. There’s just no skirting around the fact that the central fellowship in this buddy movie hits a serious snag when AJ is killed. That development causes the story to become more of a “long, bad night” journey for Keith and his romantic interest. So while Wenk scores points for subverting expectations, there is also a touch of sadness in his decision. Because if Vamp does anything well, it’s making the characters likable.
Something that comes easily to Vamp—and other teen horror movies from this same era—is its ability to invent young characters worth caring about, or at the very least, are interesting and not so immediately off-putting. More impressive is how Wenk did all this without actually fleshing out those characters. Still and all, Keith and his kind are a grade above cookie-cutter, and in some cases, aren’t completely devoid of growth.
Grace Jones in Vamp
Vamp appeals with an assorted cast of characters. No two are the same, nor are they operating on the same wavelength. The cinematically extroverted AJ, whose actor conveyed charm and vulnerability in near equal amounts, comes alive when he’s at his most undead. Makepeace then makes the chronically cautious Keith a sympathetic fellow, even as he’s more and more affected by the night’s bizarre events. Meanwhile, Duncan is indeed the designated loser of the whole bunch, but Watanabe still manages to humanize him. As a bonus, the role didn’t require him to pull a Long Duk Dong.
As for Dedee Pfeiffer, she is plain adorable as the mysterious After Dark server nicknamed “Amaretto”. She spends all night fixing her dress strap while at the same time trying to get Keith to remember how he knows her. As their offbeat romance grows, it becomes another highlight of this movie. Whether or not Pfeiffer’s character is really a vampire also creates some welcome tension in the story.
Like a lot of its contemporaries, Vamp went on to become a bit of a cult classic. That current status is determined by several factors, but without a doubt, the casting of Grace Jones is the most considerable. The image of her writhing on that unique-looking chair, a Keith Haring original, springs to mind whenever this movie is brought up.
Chris Makepeace, Billy Drago and Paunita Nichols in Vamp
Prior to that first display of unequivocal horror, local vampire queen Katrina (Jones) took to the stage and delivered a strip show like no other. One would expect nothing less from that renowned model and performance artist. By now reports of Jones’ tardiness on set are no secret, yet it’s also hard to deny her commitment to the part of Katrina. It was, in fact, Jones who took charge of her character’s appearance—on top of Haring painting her body and that now-iconic chair, she had Andy Warhol handle her costuming. And not too many actors could seize a room’s attention without saying a single line of dialogue.
In 2022, Vamp received a retrospective novelization from Encyclopocalypse. This literary union of preexisting source material—Wenk’s original screenplay—and new ideas from author Christian Francis amounts to a more comprehensive visit to the After Dark Club. The basic story there is no different than what’s shown on screen; however, Francis gets creative with the characters’ origins and designs, and he enhances a number of key scenes.
The novelization expands on the urban and social decay of the main setting, and supplies a background for the After Dark Club. Sandy Baron’s character, Katrina’s emcee and familiar, is given ample motivation for sticking around; up until the fiery end, he is loyal to his friend and former business partner “Squeak”, who looks like he was “fed through a combine harvester, and left as nothing more than a heap of mangled remains”. Then there is Billy Drago’s character Snow, the leader of a street gang called The Dragons. His reason for menacing Keith and AJ is more altruistic than in the movie; he and his peers act tough to scare off any potential food for the vampires.
Lisa Lyon in Vamp
If not for all the backstories, Francis’ Vamp would be a hell of a lot shorter. Instead, this tie-in read dives into how AJ met Keith—the orphaned Anthony Joseph hailed from a broken home back in Brooklyn—and how their friendship flourished over the years. Keith’s archership is no longer just an assumed part of his entire being; it’s a confidence-building extracurricular for a boy who got picked on before coming into the protection of the new kid in town. These supplemental, in-depth looks at the protagonists, plus their close connection, are maybe unnecessary. The movie already did a fair and concise job of addressing their platonic intimacy without the need for flashbacks and insights, specifically in that scene where AJ lays it all out as he sacrifices himself.
Where the novelization gets off course is its approach to the minor characters. Intermittently backstorying the likes of Katrina’s indentured servants, Seko (Leila Hee Olsen) and Vlad (Brad Logan), ends up disturbing the flow of the writing. Was it absolutely essential that readers know Vlad was the Grand Duke of the House of Romanov, or how Snow’s accomplice Maven (Paunita Nichols) became so dentally challenged? No, not really. However, one’s mileage with these random biographies may vary.
The novelization is a more substantial experience, but for a movie like Vamp, less is more. And as plentiful as they are, it never simply coasts on its campy charms, either. The character work sits comfortably in that realm between cursory and meticulous, the script is sharper than first realized, and Greg Cannom’s vampire makeup is straightforward yet effective. Most of all, the movie didn’t squander its out-of-the-box concept. Richard Wenk made his vision of a “comic nightmare in which just about anything that can go wrong does” come true, and it is very enjoyable.
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