Editorials
25 Games That Horror Fans Should Look Forward to For the Rest of 2019
The business end of the year is upon us, and that means the steady trickle of games turns into a roaring avalanche once again. For horror fans there are plenty of reasons to be excited about the rest of 2019, (August alone is chock full). In the gaming world, it’s especially healthy in that department, with plenty of flavors of horror and horror-related titles worth investigating between now and the end of the year.
So we decided to highlight some of those titles here. Blockbuster adventures, mind-bending terror, classic cRPGs, tough as nails action, sci-fi strategy, and more await you for the rest of 2019. So what’s your particular poison?
Remnant: From the Ashes (Gunfire Games) Format: PS4, Xbox One, PC – Out: August 20
This third-person survival action shooter heads to a post-apocalyptic world (yes, another one), but rather than zombies and nuclear war, Remnant looks closer to Hell on Earth, and finds you and up to two pals battling against rock hard monsters and intimidating bosses as you try to scrape and struggle your way to survival.
The mix of challenging action RPG combat with survival mechanics is an intriguing blend, and the monster design looks pretty good too. It won’t be long until we find out just how well this mix holds together.
Control (Remedy) Format: PS4, Xbox One, PC – Out: August 27
Remedy’s trippy new title Control has grabbed the attention of the gaming community, and has shot higher and higher up the most-wanted lists of many a gamer.
It’s certainly looking like a visual spectacle, and with the team behind the beloved Alan Wake working on it, Control could well be one of the year’s standout titles. It’s looking decidedly creepy too, so that helps!
The Dark Pictures: Man of Medan (Supermassive Games) PS4, Xbox One, PC – August 30
Until Dawn is a favorite at Bloody Disgusting, so Supermassive Games returning to that formula was always going to be welcome with us, but it’s what that has become in Man of Medan that really excites us.
Firstly, Man of Medan is the opening salvo in an eight-game horror anthology series called The Dark Pictures (complete with a host linking each installment), utilizing all the gleeful interactive horror adventure goodness found in Until Dawn’s formula. Secondly, there’s multiplayer for every game, and if our time with it back in July is anything to go by, it’s going to add so much.
Blair Witch (Bloober Team) Xbox One, PC – August 30
E3 2019’s nicest horror-flavored surprise was undoubtedly that of Bloober Team (Layers of Fear, Observation) revealing it was making a game based in the world of the Blair Witch.
Bloober’s twisty-turny, mind-bending horror games show it can handle the disorientating power of getting lost in the woods, but such open environments are certainly a fresh challenge for the Polish developer. It would be great to celebrate The Blair Witch Project‘s 20th anniversary with a brand new Blair Witch game that isn’t as messy and awkward as previous attempts.
Monster Hunter World: Iceborne (Capcom) PS4, Xbox One – September 3 (PC TBA)
An expansion so gigantic that it should be hunted down and made into fetching armor like its many monsters, Iceborne is going to open up Monster Hunter World to new snowy terrain and a slew of frosty foes.
It’s cited as being almost as large as the base game, so that’s to be expected, and with that selling close to 13 million copies on its own, Iceborne could further boost the game’s enduring popularity.
Gears 5 (The Coalition) Xbox One, PC – September 10
The Coalition has the opportunity to make Gears of War relevant again, but it is admittedly a tough job given we’re at the end of a console generation and the last two entries in the series have, without being terrible, dulled enthusiasm for the series.
Still, Gears 5 does look like a bit more of a refresh than Gears of War 4 did, so maybe this can be the reset one of Microsoft’s biggest franchises needs.
Borderlands 3 (Gearbox) PS4, Xbox One, PC – September 13
It feels like forever since Borderlands 2, and the relatively short wait we now have for Borderlands 3 still feels like too long. There’s a need for more vividly-colored loot-shooting goofiness right now, and a month is way too long for that.
Games have changed a fair bit even in the seven years since the last full game in the series, so Borderlands 3 will have to offer something unique to appeal to the masses. Perhaps its strength is the fact it isn’t quite like all that many modern shooters. We shall soon see.
Devil’s Hunt (Layopi Games) PC, PS4, Xbox One, Switch – September 17 (PC Only)
It’s not exactly a novel concept. A hack n’ slash action game where good and evil fight (Devil May Cry, Bayonetta), but those games never let you fight demons in Miami so Devil’s Hunt has that going for it.
In seriousness, Devil’s Hunt could turn out pretty well. It’s pulled its story from the novel of the same name, and you’re able to choose between siding with the angels or the demons. It would be great to have such a typically Platinum Games style title come from a different developer and succeed, so here’s hoping Devil’s Hunt‘s PC release goes well.
Baldur’s Gate I, II, Siege of Dragonspear/Icewind Dale/Planescape Torment (Overhaul) PS4, Xbox One, Switch – September 24
A whole host of classic cRPGs are coming to consoles, ready to consume your spare time for the foreseeable future. In fact, there’s probably enough hours of classic goodness here to avoid the horrors of reality for the rest of the year, especially if you grab them on Switch. Tempting.
If you fancy seeing what the fuss is all about with the likes of Baldur’s Gate, Icewind Dale, and Planescape, then you’ve got a great opportunity here. The hard part will be picking which one to play first.
Code Vein (Bandai Namco) PS4, Xbox, One, PC – September 27
The ‘Dark Souls‘ model for action RPG titles is a tough one to master, and Code Vein comes in after From Software themselves reworked that model for the sublime Sekiro: Shadows Die Twice.
Luckily for Code Vein it has its own style, with a cyber-vampire anime aesthetic that helps it stand out next to its Bandai Namco stablemate. It just needs to provide something a bit different in its gameplay too and it’ll do well.
Ghostbusters: The Video Game Remastered (Saber/Mad Dog) PS4, Xbox One, PC, Switch – October 4
A surprising remaster in many ways, but a most welcome one. Ghostbusters: The Video Game is back on consoles ten years after its initial release, and has had the slime wiped off its jumpsuit, and given a nice little visual cleanup.
The most interesting thing about this is that it’s technically a sequel to the first two films, and yet it may be made non-canon by the events of the forthcoming cinematic sequel. So it’s a good chance to experience it while it still counts.
The Outer Worlds (Obsidian) PS4, Xbox One, PC – October 25 (Switch TBC)
Fallout fans who have lamented the increasing distance between what that series was and what it has become, have naturally latched onto The Outer Worlds, an RPG from Fallout: New Vegas developer Obsidian Entertainment.
You can see why. The Outer Worlds looks like the spiritual successor to the popular New Vegas, especially in how it embraces player choice. While there’s plenty of excitement for it, there’s a good chance it could be one of the surprise hits of the year.
MediEvil Remake (Other Ocean) PS4 – October 25
MediEvil was a game that had been begging to be thrust into the modern era of horror gaming. That Tim Burton-esque charm made it an underappreciated hit on the original PlayStation, and now, we are just a short while away from Other Ocean Emeryville’s remake arriving on PS4 in time for the spookiest time of the year.
It will be interesting to see how Other Ocean has rebuilt a 21-year-old title from the ground up, but hopefully, it has captured the spirit of the original in doing so.
Luigi’s Mansion 3 (Next Level) Nintendo Switch – October 31
Horror gaming doesn’t have to be all blood, guts, and torture. Family-friendly horror is just as important, and Luigi’s Mansion 3 looks set to be an endearingly spooky fun time for all.
Luigi is back hoovering up spirits, and cowering around darkened hallways, but this time on the Nintendo Switch. Here’s hoping it makes for a Halloween treat.
Death Stranding (Kojima Productions) PS4, PC (Release TBC) – November 8
By the time Hideo Kojima’s first post-Metal Gear game arrives in November, it’ll have been over four years since his exit from Konami, and for all we do know about Death Stranding, we still know very little about it.
Proof is usually in the pudding with Kojima’s titles, so if we get anything close tot he near-perfect gameplay mechanics of MGSV, and throw in the utter unbridled narrative lunacy of MGS2 then it’ll have been worth the wait.
Doom Eternal (Id Software) PS4, Xbox One, PC, Switch – November 22
Just typing the words Doom Eternal causes thuddingly loud heavy metal to start playing in my head, so playing the actual game for longer than our recent hands-on preview will probably finally deafen me into oblivion.
Look, it’s more Doom, probably even better than 2016’s revival, and I’m already contemplating investing in better headphones. Safe to say this is a game I’m very excited for, and so should you be.
Phoenix Point (Snapshot Games) Xbox One, PC – December
Firaxis doesn’t appear to be so much as teasing a new XCOM game anytime soon, so original X-COM creator JUlian Gollop’s Phoenix Point has looked like filling the turn-based alien-slaying gap nicely. It looks to have deeper strategy and tactical combat than XCOM too, so Gollop could end up usurping the franchise he created in the 90s.
It suffered a delay, unfortunately, pushing back its release from September to December, so I guess it’s back to the 133rd run on XCOM 2 in the meantime.
The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt – Complete Edition (CD Projekt Red) Nintendo Switch – 2019
That The Witcher 3 is actually going to be on the Switch is pretty remarkable, and I’m sure fans wanting a portable version of what is considered a game of the generation will be willing to take a bit of a technical hit.
It remains to be seen quite how much of a hit that is, but it’s still weirdly enticing to think of having Geralt wading through a bog, dumping on foes with destructive magic while you’re on the bog, dumpi…
Those Who Remain (Camel 101)PS4, Xbox One, PC, Switch – Late 2019
This game finally nabbed a publisher recently, so the vague release window may yet come into clearer focus, and we certainly hope so because Those Who Remain has our interest.
Those Who Remain places you in an up-close, psychological horror story set in the sleepy town of Dormont – a town wrapped and warped by darkness and the deeds of its citizens. As the disturbed John Edward Turner, the player will be confronted with a test of Turner’s sanity, morality and the shadows of evil that lurks below.
Maneater (Tripwire) PC – 2019
Killing Floor 2 developer Tripwire has put blood in the waters of excitement with early impressions of its Shark RPG Maneater, and we gladly took the bait.
While no set release date is there yet, we’re still hoping to chomp our way through the game’s open-world before the year is out.
Black Mesa: Xen (Crowbar Collective) PC – 2019
Half-Life may be dead/forever dormant in Valve’s hands, but at least we’re finally getting to go back to Xen. No, wait, come back! It’s a good thing this time! Crowbar Collective’s Half-Life remake Black Mesa looks set to finally be complete with the Xen update set to appear on PC before the year is out.
The much-maligned portion of the original game is reportedly going to be much improved, and it’ll be nice to see how the whole game fits together after all this time. The beta recently arrived so there’s a glimpse at what will be if you want it.
On to Half-Life 2 after that then, hey guys? You’ll probably get Episode 3 finished before Valve announces Half-Life 3 anyway.
What games are you looking forward to for the remainder of the year? Let us know.
Of the three films that make up the Diabolical Trinity of classic religious horror films—Rosemary’s Baby (1968), The Exorcist (1973), and The Omen (1976)—The Omen is the most purely entertaining.
While Rosemary’s Baby digs into the societal shifts of the 60s and The Exorcist explores spiritual tensions between faith and doubt in an ever-shifting world, The Omen seems most interested in just telling a thrilling story. It achieves this by blending two major trends of the 1970s, the devil movie and the paranoid thriller, into one crackling adventure yarn. In the process, The Omen has sparked fear and curiosity about what could happen in the “end times” if such events are to occur.
After seeing The Exorcist, producer Harvey Bernhard contacted writer David Seltzer and said something along the lines of, “Hey, write me one of those.” Seltzer, having never read the Bible, thought it would be an interesting challenge, so, according to various interviews, he read the Bible and several commentaries in search of a story. Then he stumbled upon a passage in the book of Revelation, the image of a great Beast rising out of the sea, that sparked his imagination. In the commentaries, he found that the sea represented politics in some interpretations of the text, and he began building his story on that foundation.
Seltzer has told this story often, and I am inclined to believe him. However, from there, much of the theological-sounding lore of The Omen was created purely by Seltzer. Many of the ideas surrounding The Antichrist in the film appear to be drawn much more from the pop-eschatology sensation of the 1970s, The Late Great Planet Earth by Hal Lindsay, than any Biblical source.
Lindsay’s book was the bestselling nonfiction book of the 1970s and re-popularized views of the “last days” that had been dying along with fundamentalism for decades, namely Dispensationalism, Millennialism, and the Pre-Tribulation Rapture. In dispensationalism, history is broken into several epochs of time (or dispensations) that culminate in the return of Christ and his thousand-year (millennial) reign.
Before this return, a seven-year Tribulation will occur in which the Antichrist comes to power and persecutes all who oppose him, culminating in a battle between the forces of good and evil at the valley of Megiddo, usually called Armageddon. Of course, in this worldview, the true believers in Jesus will be lifted out, or raptured, before all this takes place. Since the publication and popularity of The Late Great Planet Earth, this has been the prominent belief in Evangelical and Fundamentalist Christian circles, though Roman Catholic, Orthodox, and mainline Protestant denominations largely reject it.
Lindsay also did something unique that had not been the case even in dispensationalist circles before him—he posited that the creation of the modern state of Israel in 1948 started the countdown to Armageddon. Fans of the film will immediately realize where Seltzer ran with this idea in the first line of the poem created for the movie: “When the Jews return to Zion…”
Damien Thorn and the Creation of Horror’s “Innocent Villain”
Seltzer’s next inspiration focused on the idea of the Antichrist as a child, what he would call the film’s “innocent villain.” In watching The Omen, it is readily apparent that Damien Thorn (Harvey Stephens) does not really do anything evil beyond a bit of normal kid mischief. Even the moment in which Damien knocks Kathy Thorn (Lee Remick) over a second-floor railing can be read as an accident orchestrated by Damien’s diabolically connected nanny, Mrs. Baylock (Billie Whitelaw). The film takes this idea of the innocent villain a step further by casting Gregory Peck, best known for playing arguably the greatest father in film history, Atticus Finch in To Kill a Mockingbird (1962), as Damien’s earthly father, an element that greatly satisfied Seltzer.
The New Testament itself says very little about the Antichrist and certainly nothing about his childhood. In fact, the word antichrist is used twice (1 John 2:18 and 2 John 7 for the curious) and refers to groups of people, not a particular person. There is also a passage in 2 Thessalonians 2:1-12 in which the writer (usually attributed to Paul) discusses “The Man of Lawlessness” who will “exalt himself over everything that is called God” and “proclaim himself to be God.”
Then there is the Beast of Revelation chapter 13 with “seven heads and ten horns” that Seltzer latched onto, which has been interpreted in a multitude of ways over the centuries. Powerful people throughout history, from Charlemagne, various Popes during the Protestant Reformation era, Napoleon and Hitler, to modern politicians, including Ronald Reagan, Bill Clinton, Vladimir Putin, Barack Obama, and Donald Trump, have all had the label placed on them by various circles. Even religious leaders like Billy Graham have not escaped being called the Antichrist.
Lindsay and modern dispensationalists are certain the Antichrist will be a 21st-century individual as they are equally certain that the Rapture, Tribulation, and return of Christ are imminent, likely within their lifetime. Many scholars and theologians, however, interpret these passages as symbolic representations of the Roman Empire and the first-century Caesars who persecuted, tortured, and murdered Christians and Jews who refused to submit to Imperial rule and worship them as gods. For example, that the Beast from the sea in Revelation has seven heads is symbolic of the famous seven mountains of Rome, with the 10 horns referring to rulers and magistrates of the Empire.
But this is all really of no matter to Seltzer and the story of The Omen. Instead of being concerned with any historical or theological accuracy, he instead built his own lore, which sends Robert Thorn and photographer Keith Jennings (David Warner) on a globetrotting investigation into the nature of the Antichrist and how to stop him. Some of this lore includes the child being born of a jackal, the reaction of animals, the protective cult that arises around Damien, the daggers of Megiddo, and maybe most interesting of all, the peculiar flaws in Jennings’s photographs that presage the ways certain individuals will die.
All these aspects are where the paranoid thrillers come in, as films like Blow Up (1966), Z (1969), The Conversation (1974), The Parallax View (1974), 3 Days of the Condor (1975), and All the President’s Men (1976) were all the rage at the time. Especially in the wake of the Watergate scandal, the idea of journalists (like Jennings) as ordinary heroes who could bring down the powerful, nefarious forces in the world was exactly what audiences craved. And what greater hidden evil force was there than the Devil? This is also why the device of the daggers of Megiddo is so important to a movie like this. If Damien is indeed the Antichrist, there must be a way to stop him, though in the Biblical text, the only power capable of destroying the Devil is God Himself.
The Mark of the Beast, 666, and the Film’s Most Famous Religious Symbolism
The piece of lore created for the movie with the most solid Biblical grounding is the Mark of the Beast. Revelation describes a mark on the forehead or hand of those who worship the Beast and his image. Again, this is symbolic language differentiating those who belong to the power of the Roman Empire and those who belong to Christ, who have the Mark of the Lamb. In Seltzer’s hands, the mark is very literal, a birthmark that is borne by not only the Antichrist but all his followers, meaning they are marked from before birth as belonging to Satan, and there is no escaping it. This is all rather distressing to the priest Father Brennan (Patrick Troughton), who betrays his mark by warning Thorn about Damien and pays the price by memorably being impaled by a spire that falls from a church steeple after being struck by lightning.
Why is the mark three sixes? Again, this is drawn from a passage in Revelation that states that the Beast can be identified by calculating his number. In Biblical scholarship, this is believed to be the sum of the name of a man transferred into Hebrew numerology, a practice in which each Hebrew letter also represents a number. Using this method, the number of the name Caesar Nero, which many believe to be the most logical choice, is six hundred sixty-six. In the film and elsewhere, this number is changed to three individual sixes. According to the film, this represents the Diabolical Trinity (a designation also unique to the film) made up of Satan, the Antichrist, and the False Prophet. That Damien carries this unique birthmark under his hair convinces Robert that the child is the Antichrist, and it’s up to him to destroy him.
Part of what makes The Omen great is its ambiguity. Damien could be the Antichrist, or he could be at the center of a series of coincidences. Director Richard Donner stated in interviews that he believed Robert Thorn had gone insane by the end of the film, which, to Donner, is the only explanation for why Thorn would attempt to kill an innocent child. However, that enigmatic smile in the final shot suggests that Damien does embody a spirit of great evil. The sequels, however, all but erase this ambiguity.
In audiences, The Omen sparked a renewed interest in the concept of the Antichrist and the dispensationalist interpretation of the end times that continues to echo throughout the last five decades. Around the time of the film’s release, even Elvis Presley was photographed brandishing a paperback copy of Seltzer’s novelization. Dispensationalist authors like Hal Lindsay, Tim LaHaye, and John Hagee have made millions publishing books and giving lectures about the Antichrist and the end of the world.
The Legacy of The Omen, 50 Years Later
Though A Thief in the Night (1972) preceded The Omen in initial release, it gained quite a resurgence (along with the ability to create three sequels) in the wake of the popularity of The Omen and went on to scar the psyches of Evangelical children for decades. Hal Lindsay was also able to release a film version of The Late Great Planet Earth in 1978, complete with narration and a brief onscreen appearance from Orson Welles.
In the 1990s, the Left Behind series became a cultural phenomenon, spawning twelve books in the core series, a YA spinoff series, video games, and a movie series (2000-2005) starring Kirk Cameron. A bigger studio adaptation of the first book was released in 2014, starring Nicolas Cage. 20th Century Fox and The Omen got in on the renewed “end-of-the-world” vigor by releasing a remake of the original film on June 6, 2006. The franchise was revived once again in 2024 with The First Omen, which explores ideas of the Antichrist and the motivations of those in power in our current religious, social, and political context.
But despite all the sequels, spinoffs, rip-offs, remakes, and “end times” money grabs of the last 50 years, the original version of The Omen remains untouchable. Its greatest strength is that it seeks, first and foremost, to entertain. And it does so admirably.
After half a century, its influence can be felt in horror, the culture at large, and even in various faith circles. It is a testament to the power of story and film that, consciously or unconsciously, fans of The Omen and those who have never seen it alike are, to this very day, marked by the Beast.
You must be logged in to post a comment.