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A Survival Horror Classic Returns in ‘System Shock’
Make yourself comfortable, hacker. Stay a while.
SHODAN has returned, and she’s brought us gifts. The System Shock remake has finally arrived on Kickstarter where Night Dive Studios hopes to raise $900,000 by July 28. The studio has even released a pre-alpha demo on the game’s crowdfunding page that you can play right away.
If its crowdfunding efforts pan out, System Shock will release in late 2017 for PC and Xbox One. Whether or not it will come to other platforms will depend on how successful it is. The first stretch goal ($1.1M) will add support for Mac and Linux, but there aren’t currently any plans to bring it to the PlayStation 4.
This reboot has been a long time coming. System Shock is a true survival horror classic with a legacy that’s lasted more than two decades and spawned the acclaimed BioShock series, a spiritual successor created by Irrational Games, the developer of System Shock 2. Irrational even paid tribute to their very first game in BioShock Infinite, which featured a ‘1999 Mode’ inspired by the year the game released.
The timing couldn’t be better, as we’ve seen a growing number of horror games that have eschewed the genre’s heavy reliance on unnecessarily cheap scares, excessive gore, harmful stereotypes, and recycled enemies in favor of more thoughtful storytelling, complex characters and deeply personal and even taboo themes.
System Shock laid the ground work for the horror genre as we know it today. It really couldn’t have found a better home then Night Dive Studios, which promises to “keep the new game true to the classic experience, keeping all the things you loved while giving today’s gamers the modern look and feel expected from a great game.”
Below you’ll find a sample of the game’s original soundtrack. Night Dive has been working with the Videri String Quartet, with the ultimate goal of enlisting Prague’s FILMharmonic Orchestra to record the score.
We have an exclusive first look at A Man in the Woods With an Axe, a blood-soaked, genre-twisting homage to 1980s slasher films.
Spanning four decades, A Man in the Woods With an Axe begins in the summer of 1987 before pushing into the modern era, weaving together timelines and perspectives in a way that builds both dread and intrigue.
Drawing inspiration from genre standouts like Tucker and Dale vs. Evil, Hatchet, and The Cabin in the Woods, the film blends visceral horror with moments of dark humor, creating a uniquely balanced experience that honors tradition while carving its own identity.
Writer-director Dillon Brown (Primal Darkness) aims to deliver everything fans crave from a slasher while boldly subverting expectations with a mid-film twist that redefines the story.
“This is an unapologetic love letter to the films that made me fall in love with horror,” Brown tells Bloody Disgusting. “But I didn’t just want to recreate that feeling; I wanted to challenge it. About halfway through, the film takes a turn that completely changes how you view not only this story, but the genre itself.”
Brown describes the vintage-inspired production as “far and away the bloodiest film I’ve ever made,” with practical effects helmed by Cody Ruch (The Mill, Pig Hill), an instructor at Tom Savini’s Special Make-Up Effects Program.
From Horror Dadz Productions, A Man in the Woods With an Axe is currently in production and targeting an early 2027 release.
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