Editorials
Dread Notes Revisited: More of Horror Gaming’s Creepiest Collectible Documents
A while ago we compiled a list of horror gaming’s best collectible documents and explored how these underappreciated items contributed to the overall experience. From building tension to explaining mechanics and smuggling in little easter eggs, we discovered that there are no limits to what a developer can achieve when they think outside the box.
In fact, there were so many fascinating case studies that we couldn’t make room for them all and since that original article was published, there has been a slew of new releases that have found other interesting ways of exploiting the convention. With that in mind, it’s high time that we revisited the subject and saw what else collectible documents have to offer.
Providing Hints: Silent Hill 2 – “Dead Men, Dead Men”
One of the most common ways of incorporating literature into a horror game is to hide puzzle solutions within readable text. It’s unclear why this is so prominent within the genre – other than to give players respite from all the monster encounters – but there’s arguably no IP that better demonstrates the trope than Silent Hill.
An obvious highlight is the ‘’Free the Innocent Man’’ conundrum from the franchise’s sophomore installment, which challenges you with identifying the guiltless party in a room full of hanging corpses. To crack it, you’ll need to study a nearby engraving that describes each of their crimes (in rhyming couplets, as if the situation wasn’t chilling enough) and the circumstances under which they were caught.
Your job is then to match these profiles to the corresponding bodies, so that you can figure out which of them was wrongfully accused. It’s one of the medium’s greatest ever riddles, as it not only tests your deductive reasoning skills, but also plays into the psychological dread that is at the heart of Silent Hill 2. The written clue is instrumental in creating that brooding atmosphere, with its disquieting verse, haunting imagery and dark implications. Even better, the poem itself is subject to revisions – depending on which difficulty setting you have chosen – meaning that you get the opportunity to be flummoxed all over again in subsequent playthroughs.
Getting Your Bearings: The Sinking City – Letters from Oakmont
Where most open-world titles employ objective markers to orient you around, The Sinking City takes a more hands-off approach. You see, rather than having an icon miraculously appear on your compass whenever you accept a mission, this game tasks you with good-old-fashioned detective work and puts you in charge of the directions. Sometimes you might need to visit the property registry to look up a local business, whilst other times you’ll be scanning through newspaper archives to find the last-known-whereabouts of a suspect. Either way, it’s up to you to determine the right address and manually pinpoint it on the map.
This novel mechanic by far the most gratifying aspect of Frogware’s effort and it’s placed center stage in the ’Letters from Oakmont’’ quest. An early wayfinding exercise, this case kicks off with you discovering a bundle of letters that chronicle the escapades of a missing person who had been traipsing all over the flooded metropolis. If you choose to follow the breadcrumbs contained within these clues, you will be led you to all manner of spooky surprises that you would otherwise miss. Aside from nudging you in the direction of points of interest, the letters also narrate effective little ghost stories of their own, complete with vividly written prose that recalls the style of H.P Lovecraft.
Deciding the Ending: Until Dawn – 1952
The branching narrative paths in Until Dawn hinge upon a number of conditions, including the relationships that you develop between characters, the choices that you make on their behalf, and your ability to nail those finicky QTEs. One of the more interesting factors, however, is the innovative clue system that governs your avatar’s awareness of the plot.
In a nutshell, there are three overarching mysteries to solve and the more clues you find whilst navigating the levels, the greater chance you have of connecting the dots. Sounds simple enough, until you realize that many of the records are quite easy to overlook, often tucked away in unseen crevices or concealed behind environmental obstructions. Not only that, but certain pieces of information can be rendered completely inaccessible if you go down the wrong route.
The concept is best exemplified by the ‘’1952’’ thread, in which a string of evidence helps you untangle an elaborate conspiracy involving an unscrupulous mental hospital and its obscure connection to a mine cave-in. Among other things, you’ll dig up old film canisters, newspaper exposes, and an internal missive asking staff to keep ‘’snoopers’’ away. You’ll need to collect everything to get a full picture of what’s going on, but if you manage it then you will be presented with extra conversations, missable cutscenes, and brand new choices that might just save a character’s life.
Broadening Your Horizons – Pamali: A Book on Indonesian Ghosts
Pamali puts a unique spin on the horror genre by placing a distinct emphasis on cultural taboos and traditional values. Seeing as you can’t actually fight any of malevolent entities, your smartest course of action is to be respectful of local customs, learn about the origins of each spirit and, where possible, placate them by participating in sacred ceremonies. It’s a really cool premise, one that necessitates you brush up on Indonesian beliefs to have any success.
But if you hail from a Western province, you’ll likely find yourself at a disadvantage, given that many of the Asian myths here will be completely unfamiliar to you. You’ll, therefore, need to pour over every scrap of paper you can find until you’ve got a good idea of what will appease the relevant phantoms. In this sense, Pamali is more reliant on collectible documents than any other entry in this list, because you’re forced to arm yourself with knowledge instead of weaponry.
The developers even released a complimentary add-on book that serves as a kind of supernatural encyclopedia – cataloging 30 different types of ghost – with the accompanying backstories, illustrations, and trivia tidbits. It’s like you’re receiving a free education in folklore studies! If that sounds appealing, then you should also check out The Witcher 3 (Polish) and Home Sweet Home (Thai), which similarly use their in-game bestiaries to promote indigenous myths.
Inciting Emotions- The Last of Us: Cornered Note
Over time, Naughty Dog’s seminal masterpiece has garnered an unwarranted reputation for being a weepy tearjerker, even though it’s relatively understated for the most part. Take the story of ‘’Ish’’ for example, a tragedy that’s conveyed through prosaic notes that are effective precisely because they are so matter-of-fact.
The tale unfolds over the course of eight diary entries, relating how a commercial fisherman managed to dodge the initial Cordyceps outbreak by going out to sea and waiting for the whole thing to blow over. After a few months, he docks at Pittsburg and takes up residence in the nearby sewage system, whereupon he adopts the persona of a reclusive ‘’mole-man’’. There he lives out a paranoid and sheltered existence, until he happens across a desperate family during one of his supply runs. Against his better judgment, he invites them into his home, and they develop into a tight-knit circle: sharing communal meals; pitching in with safehouse maintenance, and generally building a better life for themselves.
Alas, the world of The Last of Us is a cruel and unforgiving place, one in which growing attached to others can be a fatal mistake. And, sure enough, the fisherman is ultimately punished for letting his guard down, when one of the residents accidentally leaves a door ajar, exposing the group to an infected horde. You have to fill in the blanks after that, but the whole affair culminates on a bleak and unsentimental cliffhanger (picture above) that’s all the more heartbreaking for its terse bluntness.
For Enjoyment’s Sake – Control: Threshold Kids
The world-building of Control is deliberately obtuse, supplying very limited exposition whilst expecting you to retain a load of hazy information and memorize about a dozen different initialisms. As such, you can easily get lost in the weeds trying to keep track of all the AWEs, HRAs, FBCs and whatever the hell ‘’resonance waveforms’’ are supposed to be.
The only surefire way to understand all the esoteric gobbledygook is to scour every corner of the Oldest House for internal correspondence. And boy does the game assign you a lot of this homework! In fact, there are over 260 collectible documents to sift through, some of which are vital for you having even the vaguest comprehension of what’s going on. Yet whilst the sheer volume of reading can be overwhelming, your toil will occasionally be rewarded with an episode of the delightful ‘Threshold Kids’.
Designed as a communication tool to help youngsters wrap their heads around the bureau’s impenetrable jargon, these VHS tapes are part of the induction process for new recruits. And because the show was cobbled together on the cheap (with staff building all the sets, recording all the footage and even providing the voices for the makeshift puppet cast), there’s a charmingly lo-fi appeal that’s hard to resist.
The amateur-hour efforts are both surreal and hilarious in equal measure, reminiscent of those weird, experimental shorts you find on Adult Swim at 2 am. The offbeat comedy mostly stems from the incongruity of watching creepy dolls explain metaphysics in the same way that Sesame Street would tackle the ABCs. But there are so many well-observed details to relish as well, like the awkwardly stilted performances, the nonsensical editing and the ominously threatening vibe that underpins much of dialogue. Top it all off with the shrill, discordant theme song and you’ve got an engrossing collectible that’s arguably more captivating than the game itself.
Underlining Themes: Bioshock – Surgery’s Picasso
Bioshock is thematically dense, raising questions about the nature of free will, addiction, class, and religion. Yet whilst it reflects on these areas with unflinching scrutiny, its biggest target is the objectivist belief that geniuses should be allowed to reach their full potential, without oversight from the rest of the world. We see the dangers of this philosophy bear out in the game’s setting, Rapture: an underwater dystopia wherein scientists, creatives and academics are given carte blanche to reach their goals by whatever means they deem necessary.
By the time you arrive, the social experiment is already a catastrophic failure. An authoritarian despot now wields total control over the city’s infrastructure (including the oxygen supply), gang warfare has broken out on the streets and the inhabitants have been driven mad by indulgent gene splicing. It turns out that unregulated power wasn’t such a good thing after all!
To further illustrate this point, the title makes clever use of audio-logs that reveal more about the rampant hubris that led to Rapture’s inevitable downfall. The journals of Dr. Steinman are of particular interest, as the accomplished surgeon becomes increasingly obsessed with the notion of ‘’sculpting’’ a perfect specimen from those who are unfortunate enough to fall under his knife. Freed from the shackles of conventional morality, he styles himself as a Picasso-like figure who has moved beyond the ‘’tired shapes’’ of human physiognomy and seeks to create transgressive art. In order to fulfill this ambition, he takes to rearranging the facial features of his patients, irrespective of their consent. Of course, we do eventually get to see Steinman’s gruesome handiwork, but what really sticks with you are these deranged observations and vainglorious rants. It’s truly bloodcurdling stuff.
Five decades ago, Stephen King published the story of a bullied girl with telekinetic powers and forever changed the world of horror.
Carrie follows a high school misfit who seeks revenge for a hideous prank by psychically destroying her senior prom. The name Carrie White has become synonymous with the concept of a formal dance thanks to a flawless adaptation from Brian De Palma. Now fifty years after the film’s release, Mike Flanagan is putting his own stamp on the troubling story.
Rather than a feature film, the writer/director will expand King’s relatively slim debut novel into an eight-episode miniseries for Amazon Prime set to premiere on October 7.
Flanagan is no stranger to the world of Stephen King. A long-time Constant Reader, he first made waves with his daring adaptation of Gerald’s Game (2017), a novel many fans considered un-filmable. His underrated Doctor Sleep merges the disparate plot of Stanley Kubrick’s The Shining with King’s original source material, and his 2024 genre-bending tearjerker The Life of Chuck faithfully executes one of the author’s most metaphysical novellas.
He’s currently mired in pre-production for an expansive adaptation of The Dark Tower series, keystone to King’s connected universe, and Warner Bros. recently announced that Flanagan will helm a new version of The Mist, King’s 1980 novella which sees a small Maine town overrun by otherworldly monsters.
Considering the vast array of the author’s previously unadapted material, an obvious question arises. Why reimagine Carrie in 2026? Noting the timeless nature of the content, Flanagan expressed his desire to bring the story of a bullied girl into modern times, mirroring his approach to Shirley Jackson’s The Haunting of Hill House and Edgar Allan Poe’s The Fall of the House of Usher. He explained, “The only way to approach it was to build something new out of the ingredients of Carrie. Otherwise, there’s really no purpose in trying to retread ground that’s been so beautifully walked before.”
His miniseries will maintain the novel’s bloody bookends while delivering “big surprises” along the way.
A New Prom Night Nightmare
The roughly 60-second teaser introduces Summer H. Howell as Carrie White just before the moment of catastrophe. Standing in a prom dress, she smiles at her applauding classmates with an ominous crown perched upon her head. Moments later, Carrie unleashes a rage-filled scream into the night air while promgoers rush for the exit doors. But careful examination of this scene shows Carrie wearing a different, albeit dirty dress as she seems to telekinetically punish her peers.
In an exclusive first look with Entertainment Weekly, Flanagan explains that in his version of the story, “the events of that prom are going to be completely different.” An open trunk emitting a crimson glow does hint at the pig’s blood dumped on Carrie’s head, but it’s likely Flanagan’s formal dance will be a different kind of horror altogether. Despite these changes, the series may end with the widespread destruction outlined in the source material. Unlike any previous adaptations, King’s novel ends with the near-total destruction of Chamberlain, Maine. A flaming street in Flanagan’s trailer promises similar carnage no matter what prank sparks Carrie’s deadly revenge.
The Monstrous Addition of Social Media
On the opposite end of this fiery conclusion is an extreme act of bullying that brings together the story’s main cast. King’s novel begins as Carrie gets her first period while showering in the girls’ locker room. Completely unaware of the concept of menstruation, the sheltered girl thinks she’s bleeding to death. Her classmates respond with vitriolic rage. Led by ultra-mean girl Chris Hargensen (Alison Thornton), they mock the terrified teen while pelting her with tampons. Glimpses of this disturbing event reveal that Flanagan has excised the scene’s nudity while adding a seismic update. As Carrie sobs in the shower stall, Chris and her friends film the breakdown with their phones.
Other scenes note the presence of social media, bringing King’s fifty-year-old story into the digital age.
Flanagan’s adaptation promises to explore the destructive power of social media, an often invisible entity with a potential for harm rivaling Carrie’s own powers. While King’s tormented heroine suffers in front of a small group of girls, Flanagan’s version of the incident will likely become a viral video, potentially circling the globe on social media. Similar to Katt Shea’s criminally underrated The Rage: Carrie 2, which includes elements of revenge porn exploitation, Flanagan’s modern retelling will distinguish itself by exploring the nebulous cruelty of online bullying, a force ten times more powerful than the irl pranks King first envisioned.
A Completely Reimagined White Family
In addition to modernizing these canon events, Flanagan hints at updates to Carrie’s oppressive upbringing at the hands of her mother, Margaret White (Samantha Sloyan). Dead before the novel begins, we never meet Carrie’s domineering father Ralph, known to carry a bible alongside his gun. Flanagan’s White household will be an altogether different beast. In his version of the story, Carrie and her mother have been hidden away in the unassuming home, forced out of hiding by Ralph’s unexpected death. Perhaps we will finally meet this elusive man whose shadow hangs over his wife and child. Considering the White family’s fundamentalist lifestyle, this reimagining hints at tradwife culture and a home ruled by staunch patriarchal control.
Whereas King’s Carrie has been tormented by her classmates since Kindergarten, Flanagan’s Carrie will be a wide-eyed newcomer to public school, eager to make friends and engage with her peers. We glimpse Carrie cozying up to Chris and the equally popular Sue Snell (Siena Agudong) as she navigates a new social scene. Of course, we know this kindness is part of an elaborate plot designed to lull Carrie into a false sense of camaraderie, setting up an atrocious act of public humiliation. These brief moments of feigned compassion put Sue’s own complicity into question. Will Flanagan’s version of the character find the courage to defend Carrie from vicious bullies or will she succumb to peer pressure and join in the mob mentality?
Perhaps the biggest deviation from King’s original text is the relationship between Carrie and her mother. King’s Margaret White is a horrifically abusive religious zealot whose worldview has been hardened by internalized misogyny. She shames Carrie for menstruating, locks her in a closet to “pray,” and regrets not killing her child in infancy. She’s also responsible for Carrie’s social ostracization. Known to berate her neighbors for their “sins,” Margaret forces her daughter to live by an extreme code of conduct and disallows any potential friends lest they corrupt the girl with their worldly ways.
Flanagan’s version of the character is perhaps just as much a victim as Carrie herself. Also trapped inside her home, his Margaret is overly vigilant, her own trauma manifesting as strict control. Describing a more sympathetic depiction of the iconic villain, Flanagan explains, “Our Margaret White is a woman who fiercely loves her daughter and wants to protect her from this world … [She] doesn’t know how to do that and thinks the way to protect her is to close her off; not punitively, but to create this private utopia.”
Despite this potential softening, Sloyan’s Margaret may still have a sharp edge. Though she has appeared in many Flanagan projects, from Hush (2016) to The Fall of the House of Usher (2023), she is best known for her role as the abhorrent Bev Keane in the poignant saga Midnight Mass (2021). Perhaps inspired by King’s Margaret White, Bev is pious and sadistic, willing to punish anyone who does not adhere to her warped approximation of Catholicism.
Flanagan specifically wrote Margaret with Sloyan in mind, likely remembering the actress’s eerie ability to create deceptive empathy and shift our allegiances on a dime.
Expanding Stephen King’s Telekinetic Universe
While most of King’s story deals with an unthinkable prom night in Chamberlain, Maine, large sections of the semi-epistolary novel see experts debating the nature of telekinesis. Do Carrie’s frightening abilities represent a new phase in human evolution or is the prom night carnage merely a fluke? King settles the debate with a shocking denouement in which a young mother recounts her infant daughter’s ability to dangle her crib toys in midair. We’re left to wonder if she will become another tormented girl who surprises the world with metaphysical strength.
Flanagan plans to build out this brief scene while amplifying themes of female empowerment. After introducing our main cast of characters, episode two will open with an unrelated story in which we meet another girl with the TK gene. Each subsequent chapter will expand this world, building out a roster of telekinetic young women. Considering King’s fondness for stories about powerful kids, often described as possessing “the shining,” Constant Readers will no doubt have their eyes peeled for various Easter Eggs nodding to the author’s vast catalogue.
Giving Carrie Her Own Voice
Perhaps the most striking distinction in Flanagan’s new trailer is the extent to which we hear Carrie’s voice. The sneak peek is fully narrated by the titular prom queen as she demands accountability. “I want to know why,” she explains while detailing Chris’ elaborate plan. Aside from the aforementioned coda, King’s book essentially ends with the aftermath of the prom night tragedy, leaving little time for Carrie to reflect. His shifting narrative does bring the reader into her fragile mind, though not before she’s been cowed by relentless cruelty. We watch Carrie sink into bloodthirsty revenge, but never hear a considered desire for justice or repair.
Flanagan’s original monologue allows Carrie to voice her pain and mourn the life she could have had. We’re also treated to a mug shot-style photo of Chris with a bruised and bandaged face, implying that the mean girl will have to answer for her senseless sadism.
Flanagan is known for filling his series adaptations with heartwrenching speeches that cut to the heart of his thematic intentions, and this teaser seems to follow suit. After years of fans, critics, and scholars analyzing Carrie’s pain, perhaps his modern retelling will offer the titular anti-hero a chance to finally speak for herself.
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