News
Why Minecraft Is One Of The Most Terrifying Games I’ve Ever Played
In case you’ve been living under a pixilated cobblestone with no pickaxe with which to save yourself, you might not have heard about Minecraft’s recent arrival on Xbox Live Arcade. It isn’t the newest version PC players are currently enjoying, so there isn’t a hunger meter, weapon enchantment, or experience, but that doesn’t take much away from the overall experience. I’ve never touched the PC version of Minecraft, but over the months I’ve played my fair share of indie games it inspired, like Total Miner and Castle Miner Z. After a few hours with the one that started it all, I can say without a doubt that it is fucking terrifying.
Don’t let that deceptively charming world of adorable blocky animals and pixilated cubes fool you–underneath those vibrant colors lies a twisted underworld just waiting to for the sun to duck under the horizon so it can break your will to live. Just as Silent Hill becomes exponentially more dangerous once you transition into the Otherworld, Minecraft has its own terrors that come out at night. Anyone who’s played the game knows what I’m talking about. That feeling of dread that surfaces as soon as the sun starts to dip below the horizon and you realize you’ve strayed too far from the relative safety of your base.
I was going to write a list about the various reasons Minecraft could totally be classified as a survival horror game until I realized something. Lists are so last week, so why not give you a journal entry of sorts about a random adventurer’s first day in the game instead.
If you’re brave enough to read it, here are the final days of an explorer named Adam. He was a kind, delicate soul, until he was raped by Creepers and had his soul devoured by the Nether.
11:15am
I awoke in a strange land today. I’m not sure where I am, but fuck if this place isn’t adorable. I think I’ll build a cabin on the beach, facing the ocean. Then I’ll get myself a farm and live off the earth until I die an old, fulfilled man.
11:25am
Started scouting the beach for the perfect place to start working on my home. I think I’ll create a glass wall on the side of my house that faces the ocean. Yeah, that sounds nice.
11:45am
Made friends with a pig while chopping down trees. I think I’ll name him Chartreuse, the fancy pig.
11:48am
Slapped a saddle on Chartreuse and rode him off a cliff. Achievement unlocked.
1:05pm
Passed a cave on my way through a valley earlier. I considered going through it in search of some iron ore, but I think I saw something move in the shadows. I’ll skip this one and check the next instead.
1:25pm
Plucked some flowers so I could use them for dye. Now I need to find some sheep for wool.
1:45pm
Found a herd of sheep frolicking in a field of daisies next to a waterfall. I snuck up behind one and beat it with my bare fists until all I had all its wool. I dubbed him Patches and sent him on his way.
3:35pm
Fell through a hole in the ground on my way back to the beach. A shallow pool of water broke my fall. I thought I heard a moaning sound coming from a hole near me, but I could’ve just hit my head when I fell.
4:30pm
I’ve been looking for a way out of this system for an hour, my pickaxe broke and I definitely hear something coming from that hole. It sounds like it’s getting louder. I need to get out of here.
5:45pm
Finally, I punched my way out of that cave system. My knuckles are bloody, I’m exhausted, and the sun is getting low. I’ll need to find a place to stay for the night.
7:35pm
I just about made it to the beach when I saw an arrow fly by my head. My plan was to make it to the beach so I could start construction on my lavish beach condo, but then I took an arrow to the knee. Who is chasing me?
8:15pm
I found a cave system and quickly boarded up the entrance. It started raining outside and I can hear things moving outside my makeshift barricade. I think I hear whispering. Maybe I should explore deeper.
1045pm
Followed a warm light until it led me to a big room bisected by a river of lava pouring from a hole in the far wall. I can see diamonds on the other end of the room! Now I need a way across.
10:55pm
I poured some water on the lava and it cooled into Obsidian. I tried mining it but I didn’t even make a dent, so I took the diamonds instead.
11:25pm
I crafted a pickaxe from the diamonds I mined, then I used it on the Obsidian and it worked! I am the fucking MacGyver of this blocky world. I mined all the Obsidian I could find then the whispering got louder. Am I losing my mind? I should get some sleep.
2:35am
Realized the whispering was coming from my roommate who was cooing softly into my ear telling me to craft a Nether portal. I think I’ll do that.
2:36am
The Obsidian gate is done! I used some flint to activate it and immediately the center of the gate was filled with a bright purple light. I walked through.
2:38am
Immediately after I entered the hellish abyss that is The Nether, a bomb was thrown at me by a nearby Boo looking thing.
2:40am
I think I’m bleeding out, but at least I was able to deflect the creature’s second bomb back at him. I’ve dug myself into a hole, but I fear I won’t make it much longer.
2:56am
I can’t feel my legs. Everything’s going cold. TJ, if you ever read this, I just want to tell you… tell you… I…
The brave adventurer was never heard from again.
Toss Adam an email, or follow him on Twitter and Bloody Disgusting
We are now one full month into Spring 2024, which kicked off on Tuesday, March 19 and comes to an end with the start of Summer on Thursday, June 20. This year’s summer movie season has a whole bunch of exciting horror highlights, including A Quiet Place: Day One, MaXXXine, and Alien: Romulus, but let’s hold that particular thought until June rolls around.
We’re here today to talk about Spring 2024 and the many horrors we still have left before the weather gets warmer and we find ourselves in the heat of one hell of a spooky summer.
Here are 12 horror movies you don’t want to miss in Spring 2024!
STING – April 12
Two words: SPIDER HORROR. Writer/Director Kiah Roache-Turner (Wyrmwood) hopes to induce eight-legged terror with his brand new horror movie Sting, only in theaters April 12.
Of particular note, Sting features practical spider effects from 5-time Academy Award Winner Weta Workshop, with the spider in this one inspired by H.R. Giger’s Xenomorph!
In Sting, “One cold, stormy night in New York City, a mysterious object falls from the sky and smashes through the window of a rundown apartment building. It is an egg, and from this egg emerges a strange little spider. The creature is discovered by Charlotte, a rebellious 12-year-old girl obsessed with comic books. Keeping it as a secret pet, she names it Sting.
“But as Charlotte’s fascination with Sting increases, so does its size. Growing at a monstrous rate, Sting’s appetite for blood becomes insatiable.”
BLACKOUT – APRIL 12
Indie darling Larry Fessenden is back with new horror movie Blackout this Spring, Fessenden’s third movie – following Habit and Depraved – to put his own spin on classic monsters.
While Habit was centered on vampires and Depraved was a fresh take on Frankenstein’s Monster, Larry Fessenden’s Blackout is the filmmaker’s contribution to werewolf cinema.
The film follows Charley, an artist whose drinking binges blur with his sneaking suspicion that he might be a werewolf. He distances himself from those he loves and sinks deeper into solitude, his flashes of memory of his nighttime grisly acts manifested through his artwork.
ARCADIAN – APRIL 12
If Nicolas Cage is covered in blood, you better believe we’re going to be watching. Cage gets his own A Quiet Place with Arcadian, a new creature feature coming to theaters April 12.
In Arcadian, which also comes to Shudder later this year, “After a catastrophic event depopulates the world, a father (Nicolas Cage) and his two sons must survive their dystopian environment while being threatened by mysterious creatures that emerge at night.”
Jaeden Martell (IT 2017) also stars in the post apocalyptic monster movie.
ABIGAIL – APRIL 19
If you’re bummed about Melissa Barrera being fired from the Scream franchise, you’ll definitely want to get out to your local theater this month to support Abigail, the new VAMPIRE BALLERINA horror movie from Scream and Scream VI directors Radio Silence.
Barrera stars alongside fellow horror favorite Kathryn Newton (Freaky) in Abigail, which is actually the latest horror movie in Universal’s relaunched Universal Monsters Universe.
In the film, “After a group of would-be criminals kidnap the 12-year-old ballerina daughter of a powerful underworld figure, all they have to do to collect a $50 million ransom is watch the girl overnight. In an isolated mansion, the captors start to dwindle, one by one, and they discover, to their mounting horror, that they’re locked inside with no normal little girl.”
LATE NIGHT WITH THE DEVIL – APRIL 19
One of the most talked about horror movies of Spring 2024 has been the Halloween 1977-set Late Night With the Devil, which has been playing in theaters since its premiere on March 22.
Late Night with the Devil will begin streaming at home on April 19, 2024, less than one month after arriving in theaters. Shudder will be the exclusive streaming home of the movie.
David Dastmalchian (Dune, The Suicide Squad) stars as the host of a late-night talk show that descends into a nightmare in Late Night with the Devil, set on Halloween 1977.
In the found footage-style film that captures a period aesthetic, “A live television broadcast in 1977 goes horribly wrong, unleashing evil into the nation’s living rooms.”
INFESTED – APRIL 26
Spring 2024 is all about SPIDERS – sorry, arachnophobes! – with the previously mentioned Sting being followed by the French creature feature Infested (Vermines) later this month.
What’s particularly exciting about Infested is that its director, Sébastien Vaniček, has been hired to direct the next installment in the Evil Dead film franchise, so this will be our first taste of what Vaniček is capable of within the genre. And the buzz for this one is strong.
In his review out of Fantastic Fest last year, for starters, Bloody Disgusting’s own critic Trace Thurman raved that Infested is “one of the best spider attack movies in years.”
In the upcoming horror film, “Fascinated by exotic animals, Kaleb finds a venomous spider in a shop and brings it back to his apartment. It only takes a moment for the spider to escape and reproduce, turning the whole building into a dreadful web trap.”
HUMANE – APRIL 26
The daughter of horror master David Cronenberg, Caitlin Cronenberg is making her own mark in the genre filmmaking space with IFC Films’ Humane, coming to theaters this month.
The film is described as “a dystopian satire taking place over a single day, months after a global ecological collapse has forced world leaders to reduce the earth’s population.”
The wild premise? 20% of the world’s population must VOLUNTEER TO DIE!
“In a wealthy enclave, a recently retired newsman has invited his grown children to dinner to announce his intentions to enlist in the nation’s new euthanasia program. But when the father’s plan goes horribly awry, tensions flare and chaos erupts among his children.”
I SAW THE TV GLOW – MAY 3
Fresh off the haunting and singularly creepy indie We’re All Going to the World’s Fair, Jane Schoenbrun is back with A24‘s I Saw the TV Glow, releasing only in theaters this May.
Meagan Navarro wrote in her Sundance review for BD, “I Saw the TV Glow offers a layered and authentic portrait of identity, wrapped in ’90s nostalgia and surreal imagery that embeds itself deep into your psyche.” Meagan continues, “Schoenbrun delivers a singular vision of arthouse horror that entrances for its fevered dream style and insanely cool imagery.”
In A24’s latest, “Owen is just trying to make it through life in the suburbs when his classmate introduces him to a mysterious TV show — a vision of a supernatural world beneath their own. In the pale glow of the television, Owen’s view of reality begins to crack.”
TAROT – MAY 3
Originally titled Horrorscope, a much better title if you’re asking me, Screen Gems returns to the big screen with studio horror movie Tarot this Spring, a Tarot-card themed spookshow.
When a group of friends recklessly violates the sacred rule of Tarot readings – never use someone else’s deck – they unknowingly unleash an unspeakable evil trapped within the cursed cards in the upcoming Screen Gems horror movie Tarot. One by one, they come face to face with fate and end up in a race against death to escape the future foretold in their readings.
The hook for this one? Artist Trevor Henderson designed the film’s eight monsters!
THE STRANGERS: CHAPTER 1 – MAY 17
Bryan Bertino’s 2008 home invasion classic The Strangers spawns a brand new reboot trilogy this year, with first film The Strangers: Chapter 1 kicking things off in theaters on May 17.
The Strangers: Chapter 2 is expected to follow in Fall 2024.
Madelaine Petsch is the lead of the new reboot trilogy, playing a character who drives cross-country with her longtime boyfriend to begin a new life in the Pacific Northwest.
When their car breaks down in Venus, Oregon, they’re forced to spend the night in a secluded Airbnb, where they are terrorized from dusk till dawn by three masked strangers.
IN A VIOLENT NATURE – MAY 31
Slasher fans who have been hungry for a new Friday the 13th movie won’t want to miss In a Violent Nature, which plays out like a Friday movie… entirely from Jason’s perspective!
IFC Films will release In a Violent Nature exclusively in theaters on May 31.
In the film, “When a locket is removed from a collapsed fire tower in the woods that entombs the rotting corpse of Johnny, a vengeful spirit spurred on by a horrific 60-year old crime, his body is resurrected and becomes hellbent on retrieving it. The undead golem hones in on the group of vacationing teens responsible for the theft and proceeds to methodically slaughter them one by one in his mission to get it back – along with anyone in his way.”
Meagan Navarro wrote in her Sundance review for Bloody Disgusting, “In a Violent Nature may offer slasher thrills and a delightfully gory rampage across the wilderness, but the approach captures the carnage through ambient realism. It results in a fascinating arthouse horror experiment that plays more like a minimalist slice-of-life feature with a grim twist.”
THE WATCHERS – JUNE 14
M. Night Shyamalan returns with the new thriller Trap this coming August, but the road to that film’s release will be paved by the feature debut of his daughter, Ishana Night Shyamalan.
Ishana Night directed The Watchers, in theaters from WB/New Line on June 14.
The film follows Mina, a 28-year-old artist, who gets stranded in an expansive, untouched forest in western Ireland. When Mina finds shelter, she unknowingly becomes trapped alongside three strangers who are watched and stalked by mysterious creatures each night.
Which Spring 2024 horror movies are YOU most looking forward to?
4 New Horror Movies Releasing This Week Including ‘Late Night with the Devil’ at Home
Spring 2024 Horror Preview: 12 Horror Movies You Don’t Want to Miss
The ‘Scary Movie’ Spoof Franchise Is Getting a Reboot at Paramount!
‘Ready or Not’: Radio Silence Filmmakers Tease the “Absolute Banger” of a Sequel That’s Taking Shape
“We Built Every Creature” – ‘Alien: Romulus’ Goes Heavy on the Old School Practical Effects!
You must be logged in to post a comment.