Editorials
The Claustrophobic Horror of ‘Condemned: Criminal Origins’
The empowerment of arming the player has always been somewhat of a conundrum for the horror genre.
While necessary to the player’s survival, the inevitable firepower bestowed upon the player can be detrimental to the carefully crafted horror elements.
So, what happens when the player is stripped of that empowerment and trades in their gun for a lead pipe? Developer Monolith Productions wasted little time in establishing Condemned: Criminal Origins defining tone, which holds up remarkably well 16 years after the game’s release. Channeling the aesthetic and brooding atmosphere of iconic horror films such as David Fincher’s Seven, Condemned’s most distinctly unique feature is its claustrophobia.
Much like the films it emulates, the player is dropped into an unforgiving and filth-covered world. Players take on the role of FBI agent Ethan Thomas who finds himself framed for murder by the very serial killer he’s hunting. Making matters worse there is a mysterious wave of violence plaguing Metro City, somehow tied to Ethan’s case.
Monolith Productions does a terrific job of immersing players into this uncomfortably suffocating world. Ethan’s fugitive status forces him to adopt a “behind enemy lines” survivalist mentality that weaponizes his surroundings. Repurposing inconspicuous items such as 2×4’s, pipes, school desks, and even mannequin arms into instruments of death becomes his DIY means of survival. The inherently limited range of melee weapons makes combat an intimate affair as death is never more than an arm’s length away.
The result is a brutally refreshing approach to combat, as coming face to face with your attackers gives a constant, chilling spike of adrenaline. While the melee mechanics are relatively simplistic, the unpredictability of Condemned’s enemies allows it to avoid overly devolving into a mindless hack and slasher.
Crazed vagrants will feign injuries only to lash out when Ethan closes in, weaponize their environment, and retreat around corners to set up ambushes. For Ethan to survive, he must become that which hunts him.
And hunt him they will. Enemies will at times literally burst through drywall or ceiling panels in their hunt for Ethan. Emphasizing melee combat may, on the surface, seem like a gimmick when in actuality, it sustains the game’s horror aesthetic. The player is in a constant state of vulnerability, only ever as safe as a well-timed block to counter an incoming swing of a pipe.
Periodically, Ethan will stumble upon firearms though they are often anything but reliable. Most guns have less than a handful of shots or sometimes none at all. This lack of consistent ammo supply adds yet another layer of anxiety-inducing tension to combat, but more importantly, ensures the player never feels like a super-soldier.
Inversely, the unpredictable nature of firearms allows for moments of immense empowerment when the player discovers a fully loaded one. This can quickly alter the course of sticky combat situations but comes at a cost. These moments of firepower superiority, while briefly rewarding, reveal how vital melee combat is to the core of the game’s identity. Had there been more emphasis on firearms, the persistent sense of being hunted would be lost. The limited and unreliable nature of guns allows the strength of its visceral melee combat to shine.
There is also the seemingly inconsequential mechanic of ammo management. There is no continual ammo HUD display, and the player must activate a short animation to check their ammo supply manually. This animation leaves the player momentarily vulnerable and makes the already hectic dance of combat that much more so. There’s nothing quite like learning the hard way that your shotgun is empty until an enemy is charging towards you. This is yet another cinematic quality that provides a more grounded horror experience.
The close-quarters nature of combat works in tandem with Condemned’s suffocatingly claustrophobic environments. Leaving Ethan with little room to retreat or hide, the environments actively push him to face his current threat. While an abandoned school and decrepit metro station aren’t the most original horror settings, the difference is how Monolith Productions presents their vision.
The studio’s ability to inject nerve-wracking tension through subtle details, often due to exceptional sound design, exemplifies these stock horror settings. Whether it’s feet shuffling above the player or an enemy screaming incoherently from afar, Condemned’s world is an inherently volatile place.
Unfortunately, Ethan Thomas’ story would never see a proper conclusion. Despite receiving a sequel three years after its release with Condemned 2: Bloodshot, its campaign would end on a cliffhanger. The sequel was also a distinctly different game in terms of tone and gameplay focus. The focus shifted from an engrossingly grounded authentic crime atmosphere in favor of an overtly supernatural one and an increased emphasis on firearms.
What Condemned 2 did best exposed what makes the original such a timeless horror classic. Condemned’s challenging player empowerment and claustrophobic tension is interwoven into its foundation, which allows the game to hold up as well as it does, 16 years later.
Having grown up in a religious family, Christian movie night was something that happened a lot more often than I care to admit. However, back when I was a teenager, my parents showed up one night with an unusually cool-looking DVD of a movie that had been recommended to them by a church leader. Curious to see what new kind of evangelical propaganda my parents had rented this time, I proceeded to watch the film with them expecting a heavy-handed snoozefest.
To my surprise, I was a few minutes in when Denzel Washington proceeded to dismember a band of cannibal raiders when I realized that this was in fact a real movie. My mom was horrified by the flick’s extreme violence and dark subject matter, but I instantly became a fan of the Hughes Brothers’ faith-based 2010 thriller, The Book of Eli. And with the film’s atomic apocalypse having apparently taken place in 2024, I think this is the perfect time to dive into why this grim parable might also be entertaining for horror fans.
Originally penned by gaming journalist and The Walking Dead: The Game co-writer Gary Whitta, the spec script for The Book of Eli was already making waves back in 2007 when it appeared on the coveted Blacklist. It wasn’t long before Columbia and Warner Bros. snatched up the rights to the project, hiring From Hell directors Albert and Allen Hughes while also garnering attention from industry heavyweights like Denzel Washington and Gary Oldman.
After a series of revisions by Anthony Peckham meant to make the story more consumer-friendly, the picture was finally released in January of 2010, with the finished film following Denzel as a mysterious wanderer making his way across a post-apocalyptic America while protecting a sacred book. Along the way, he encounters a run-down settlement controlled by Bill Carnegie (Gary Oldman), a man desperate to get his hands on Eli’s book so he can motivate his underlings to expand his empire. Unwilling to let this power fall into the wrong hands, Eli embarks on a dangerous journey that will test the limits of his faith.
SO WHY IS IT WORTH WATCHING?
Judging by the film’s box-office success, mainstream audiences appear to have enjoyed the Hughes’ bleak vision of a future where everything went wrong, but critics were left divided by the flick’s trope-heavy narrative and unapologetic religious elements. And while I’ll be the first to admit that The Book of Eli isn’t particularly subtle or original, I appreciate the film’s earnest execution of familiar ideas.
For starters, I’d like to address the religious elephant in the room, as I understand the hesitation that some folks (myself included) might have about watching something that sounds like Christian propaganda. Faith does indeed play a huge part in the narrative here, but I’d argue that the film is more about the power of stories than a specific religion. The entire point of Oldman’s character is that he needs a unifying narrative that he can take advantage of in order to manipulate others, while Eli ultimately chooses to deliver his gift to a community of scholars. In fact, the movie even makes a point of placing the Bible in between equally culturally important books like the Torah and Quran, which I think is pretty poignant for a flick inspired by exploitation cinema.
Sure, the film has its fair share of logical inconsistencies (ranging from the extent of Eli’s Daredevil superpowers to his impossibly small Braille Bible), but I think the film more than makes up for these nitpicks with a genuine passion for classic post-apocalyptic cinema. Several critics accused the film of being a knockoff of superior productions, but I’d argue that both Whitta and the Hughes knowingly crafted a loving pastiche of genre influences like Mad Max and A Boy and His Dog.
Lastly, it’s no surprise that the cast here absolutely kicks ass. Denzel plays the title role of a stoic badass perfectly (going so far as to train with Bruce Lee’s protégée in order to perform his own stunts) while Oldman effortlessly assumes a surprisingly subdued yet incredibly intimidating persona. Even Mila Kunis is remarkably charming here, though I wish the script had taken the time to develop these secondary characters a little further. And hey, did I mention that Tom Waits is in this?
AND WHAT MAKES IT HORROR ADJACENT?
Denzel’s very first interaction with another human being in this movie results in a gory fight scene culminating in a face-off against a masked brute wielding a chainsaw (which he presumably uses to butcher travelers before eating them), so I think it’s safe to say that this dog-eat-dog vision of America will likely appeal to horror fans.
From diseased cannibals to hyper-violent motorcycle gangs roaming the wasteland, there’s plenty of disturbing R-rated material here – which is even more impressive when you remember that this story revolves around the bible. And while there are a few too many references to sexual assault for my taste, even if it does make sense in-universe, the flick does a great job of immersing you in this post-nuclear nightmare.
The excessively depressing color palette and obvious green screen effects may take some viewers out of the experience, but the beat-up and lived-in sets and costume design do their best to bring this dead world to life – which might just be the scariest part of the experience.
Ultimately, I believe your enjoyment of The Book of Eli will largely depend on how willing you are to overlook some ham-fisted biblical references in order to enjoy some brutal post-apocalyptic shenanigans. And while I can’t really blame folks who’d rather not deal with that, I think it would be a shame to miss out on a genuinely engaging thrill-ride because of one minor detail.
With that in mind, I’m incredibly curious to see what Whitta and the Hughes Brothers have planned for the upcoming prequel series starring John Boyega…
There’s no understating the importance of a balanced media diet, and since bloody and disgusting entertainment isn’t exclusive to the horror genre, we’ve come up with Horror Adjacent – a recurring column where we recommend non-horror movies that horror fans might enjoy.
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