Editorials
NetherRealm Should Just Go Ahead and Make a Horror Icons Fighting Game
When rebooting its iconic fighting game franchise back in 2011, NetherRealm Studios laid down many new precedents in the pointedly titled Mortal Kombat. New X-Ray moves gave us gorier insights into already brutal maneuvers. A greater focus on the story offered clarity to a series timeline that had increasingly spun out of control. But one of the most surprising turns came in a stronger emphasis on guest characters.
This idea alone wasn’t anything new for the genre. After all, many people can think back fondly to the likes of Soul Calibur II, in which mainstay characters crossed swords with The Legend of Zelda’s Link in the GameCube version, Spawn on Xbox and so on. However, by 2011 NetherRealm could use its experience working with characters outside of its own universe – three years earlier in Mortal Kombat vs DC Universe – to have Scorpion, Liu Kang, and more series staples duke it out with iconic characters from other areas of celebrated fiction.
The potential for platform-exclusive heroes neatly fitting into Mortal Kombat’s oeuvre was established right from the off with the appearance of Kratos on PS3. Yet it was only via the game’s post-release DLC, when A Nightmare on Elm Street’s Freddy Krueger quite literally got his claws into the roster, when players received a small taste of what was possible when a guest fighter that was truly R-rated entered the fold. It all looked rather promising at first, until suddenly it didn’t.
You see, while it’s all well and good to release guest fighters on a game-by-game basis, it does mean that from Mortal Kombat X onwards the concept hasn’t been able to reach its full potential. This was the entry where we finally got to see The Predator and Xenomorph go toe to toe on the screen – they were even joined by Leatherface from The Texas Chainsaw Massacre and Friday the 13th’s Jason Voorhees. But if you assumed that the inclusion of the latter meant that Freddy from MK9 would be returning, you’d be wrong. And it’s a crying shame.
The nature for Mortal Kombat to follow a traditional release schedule means that we’re afforded mechanical improvements and visual upgrades, sure, yet it also causes players to miss out on what could be the ultimate fighting game crossover featuring horror icons. NeatherRealm’s inability to achieve this is no doubt a result of the strict licensing agreements for these characters that must be negotiated each time. But how is it that an asymmetrical multiplayer game like Dead by Daylight is eating Mortal Kombat’s lunch in this regard? It only stings further after seeing both the T-800 and RoboCop (another classic rivalry seen in comics) make their way into Mortal Kombat 11.
All this isn’t to say that Mortal Kombat isn’t making big strides in other areas, of course. The recent reveal of MK11’s Aftermath expansion alone proves that the series isn’t one to stand still. Narrative in fighting games is such a rarity these days, so it’s nice to see NetherRealm champion this by way of story mode DLC. I can’t help but feel, though, that by forcing players onto a new Mortal Kombat release each time, NetherRealm isn’t capitalizing on the foundation they’ve built in featuring these lauded horror guest fighters. That’s why the next natural step for the studio, and what I think this has all been building towards, is a standalone game fully dedicated to the concept.
It doesn’t seem so crazy when you realize that NetherRealm has done this before. Prior to the launch of Injustice: Gods Among Us, many were concerned about how a fighting game based entirely on DC comic book characters would work exactly. The fact that it wasn’t just a sequel to Mortal Kombat vs DC Universe also made it seem like the value proposition was suddenly halved. And yet, by seamlessly translating Mortal Kombat’s most successful core tenants – a deep story, easy-to-learn but tough-to-master fight mechanics and visually impressive special moves – to the superhero mold, NetherRealm now has another hit series on its hands.
There’s no reason why a similar treatment couldn’t be given to the likes of The Predator, Leatherface, RoboCop, and more by way of a standalone fighting game. The current boundaries that exist between Mortal Kombat entries would finally be broken, letting Freddy Krueger finally cross paths with Jason Voorhees in a game and allowing even more horror icons yet to appear to be brought in, too. What’s more, going this route would enable NetherRealm to maintain the gore factor synonymous with the studio, avoiding the need to make visual compromises that had to be made when toning down the violence for the Injustice series.
Whereas previously, before the release of Injustice 2 in 2017, one could easily look at the first game and see it as a simple skin swap of Mortal Kombat, NetherRealm has continued to make the DC fighter feel totally unique and separate. There may not be guts and viscera bandied about the screen or eye-wincing fatality kills, but its willingness to delve into the back catalog of DC’s vault, coupled with the loot-dropping “Gear System” that lets you to enhance a character’s base stats, has seen this superhero series fly. The stage is now set for a horror icon fighting game to similarly adapt the Mortal Kombat formula in a way that is less censored and makes total sense.
The only real issue that might prevent this from happening, as alluded to earlier, are those pesky licensing deals. Because while DC owning all the rights to its characters makes it easy to annualize Injustice should NetherRealm ever want to, most of the guest horror characters featured in Mortal Kombat so far are owned by entirely separate entities. 20th Century Fox (a subsidiary of Disney) would make it easy for The Predator and Xenomorph to battle against each other, but who’s to say that Paramount would be so forthcoming to have the T-800 appear again following MK11?
Still, even if it would be just for a one-off, by smartly adapting the powers and abilities of every guest horror icon featured in Mortal Kombat thus far, NetherRealm Studios has proved that a standalone fighting game entirely centered around some of cinema’s fiercest slashers could work. Never seeing it happen? Now that would be the real injustice.
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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