Movies
BLACK FRIDAY CHOPPING LIST: VIDEO GAMES
While many of us might feel nostalgic for the early days of Pong and Pac-Man, you have to admit that in the 21st century gaming has become a much richer, more dynamic experience than ever before. Screw productivity — video games are here to stay, and to tell the truth all those long-term aspirations you used to harbor were kind of stupid anyway. Which brings us to Bloody-Disgusting’s list of some of the best horror-themed video games the techno-gods have on offer for the holidays this year. This season’s list also includes a new section highlighting some of the best ghoulish iPhone apps now (or soon) available for purchase. Further proof that human contact is totally overrated — after all, your XBox360 will never leave you.
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VIDEO GAMES
The highly-anticipated sequel to the incredibly popular co-op first-person shooter/survival horror video game Left 4 Dead, Left 4 Dead 2 gives gamers a tour through the cities, swamps and cemeteries of the South, including Savannah, GA and New Orleans. Unlike the first game, this one will feature narrative-style story arcs for its four characters. Also, in an advanced version of the artificial intelligence system (A.I. Director) featured in the first game, the Director will have the capability of changing the placement of buildings and obstacles, as well as weather patterns, to make each session of play unique. It will also reward players that take more difficult/risky paths through the game by dispensing more useful equipment and weaponry. There’s been some controversy amongst L4D fans that the sequel has been rushed out by EA too quickly, but hopefully that negative buzz will subside (if it’s actually an improvement on the first game, of course) once the game is released.
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A re-imagining of the first game in the series, Silent Hill: Shattered Memories features several cool new features, including the development of a “psyche profile” that will change elements of play according to each specific player’s choices in the context of the game. The monsters, as well as the attitudes of the other characters the player encounters during the game, will vary according to the path he/she chooses. The Wii version is the most anticipated, as that system’s Remote will be used to solve puzzles and to operate the flashlight and cell phone of the main character. The prospects for this one, thankfully, seem good so far: the demo version was bestowed with three IGN awards during E3 2009 (in the Wii category), for best overall game, best adventure game, and best graphics technology.
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Based on a treatment by Zombie Studios and original franchise creators Leigh Wannell and James Wan, the storyline of the long-delayed Saw video game takes place between the first two movies (although it features traps from the first five films). Players will control the actions of Detective David Tapp, who at the beginning of the game awakes in an abandoned insane asylum rigged with Jigsaw-planted traps. Tapp soon learns that the other people trapped inside the asylum with him are actually hunting him for the key to their own games, which has been implanted in his chest. As in the films, our protagonist also comes to realize he shares a dark connection with the other characters. Saw has been developed in the third-person style of Silent Hill, with the player alternately fighting off enemies and attempting to solve the mystery behind Jigsaw’s deadly setup. The game has received mixed reviews from critics, but for players with a taste for gore, it doesn’t come much bloodier than this (players are even graced with the ability to carve open bodies to extract objects – nice!).
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This fully-immersive action/horror game, featuring amnesiac shape-shifting protagonist Alex Mercer, has been one of the best-selling video games of 2009 so far. Players are given free reign of the Manhattan setting, with numerous abilities acquired throughout the game including running up the sides of buildings, gliding through the air, and plummeting from extreme heights without injury. Perhaps the coolest power players will enjoy as Mercer is his ability to absorb the memories, biomass, appearance and powers of other characters in the game. Prototype has received good reviews from most publications, with much of the praise going to the free-ranging nature of the interactive landscape and the uniqueness of each player’s gaming experience based on the enormous magnitude of physical forms, powers and options available during play. Sure, the setup (a virus overtaking New York City) is a little predictable, but players will forget all of that once the action gets started and the mysteries of the plot begin to unravel. Guaranteed to suck up hours upon hours of your valuable time.
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With the enormous success of Apple’s iPhone (I think I’m the only person in the world who doesn’t have one at this point), a raft of video game apps have been released for it as of late that combination horror fiends/iPhone lovers just might salivate over. Here are a few that Bloody-Disgusting fans will probably enjoy:
Silent Hill: The Escape
This first-person Silent Hill entry developed specifically for the iPhone has players navigate ten levels of atmospheric horror. The game-play is pretty simple, really: slide your fingers to move, tap the screen to shoot. This one follows the successful PSP-specific Silent Hill entry, Origins, and any fans of the game series should definitely check it out.
The Relic
This top-down, Gauntlet-style multiplayer game for the iPhone has gamers focused on the destruction of the “Quinotar”, a 5-horned dragon who is able to reanimate the dead. To reach their goal, players must fight through hordes of deadly skeletons, giant spiders and zombies in a claustrophobic dungeon setting. Makes me nostalgic just thinking about it.
Dexter the Game
One of the more unusual video games to come out in many a moon, this creation based on the hit Showtime series should be a big hit with fans of the show. The storyline of this first game follows that of Season 1 of the show, with subsequent installments following the storylines of Season 2, 3, and so on. Control sociopathic blood-spatter analyst Dexter Morgan as he investigates crime scenes and uncovers evidence, all in service of his agenda to mete out a particular kind of justice. Don’t have an iPhone? No worries – the PC (and possibly a console) version is on the way.
Haunted 3D Rollercoaster Rush
This game boasts up to 40 horror-themed rollercoasters that players must navigate successfully (read: not lose too many riders along the way) to advance to the next level. The riskier the stunts you perform, the higher your score. Haunted 3D Rollercoaster Rush (which is a follow-up to the 2D Rollercoaster Rush) is blessed with great replay value too, as players have the option of two modes: Career Mode, where players attempt to pass all 40 tracks, and Challenge Race Mode, where you race against a haunted ghost train. Also available in a free three-level demo version.
Zombie Pizza
The conceit of this one is simple: race to create pizzas topped with human remains like organs, eyeballs and brains to keep the flesh-hungry zombies on the other side of the door satisfied. All of these gory accouterments whiz by on a conveyor belt, where you must keep your wits about you if you’re going to avoid becoming their next meal.
All of these titles are available for download at the iTunes Store, with the exception of “The Relic” (keep checking http://www.chillingo.com/ for updates on that).
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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