Editorials
10 Horror Games That Deserve Sequels!
I wish every horror game I enjoyed got a sequel. Even games like BioShock, which don’t really need sequels. If I like it, I usually want more of it, even if it’s only to see where a developer can take their series. Unfortunately, while the slate of releases might suggest otherwise (Black Ops II, Halo 4, Assassin’s Creed III, Resident Evil 6, etc.) it’s difficult for a game to get a sequel, especially in the midst of a new generation of consoles. The problem is studios need to make money, and unless the game has a substantial following or is accessible to a wide audience, potential for a sequel isn’t great.
If you’re reading this, then you’re probably a fan of the horror genre, so you’re undoubtedly aware that when it comes to accessibility, the horror genre (in video games, at least) isn’t exactly known for being welcoming to newcomers. Here are ten games that I think could actually sell well, if they’re given the second chance they deserve.
All Zombies Must Die!
All Zombies Must Die! is a top-down zombie arcade shoot ’em up that isn’t actually related to All Orcs Must Die! It’s a fun little arcade game that succeeded where Konami’s Zombie Apocalypse series failed in that it’s actually fun to play. It even has four-player co-op — the only problem is that co-op is limited to local play only. In case you haven’t noticed, zombies are huge right now and as a cheap digital release with a fun, quirky style it’s immediately more welcoming to newcomers than similar (and gorier) games like Dead Nation. If this does get a sequel, it needs online co-op.
Dead Nation
I’m a little bit surprised we haven’t heard anything about a Dead Nation 2. The first was well-received, and to my knowledge, performed well, or at least, well enough to warrant an expansion. Whereas games like All Zombies Must Die!, Burn Zombie Burn!, and Zombie Apocalypse have a more colorful take on the common zombie apocalypse formula, Dead Nation went full on gritty. It’s dark, gory, and (somewhat) realistic. There are even Resident Evil style monsters that bring with them special abilities like summoning swarms of infected to surround you. It’s a very fun game, and one the desperately deserves a follow-up.
Heavy Rain
If you have a PS3 and haven’t played Heavy Rain, I highly recommend it. It’s a gorgeous, interactive movie that plays like a spiritual successor to developer Quantic Dream’s previous project, Indigo Prophecy. It follows the lives of several people whose stories revolve around a mysterious murderer called the Origami Killer. It’s creepy, disturbing, and plays well, despite how unforgivably awkward the character movement is. They’re currently busy with Beyond: Two Souls, and they’ve said they aren’t interested in a sequel, but that won’t diminish my hope.
Lollipop Chainsaw
Okay, so this game isn’t really horror, but it does have zombies and gore, so it makes the list. For the most part, I’ve loved Suda 51’s previous work, but his latest game, the over-the-top Lollipop Chainsaw didn’t win me over when it released this past summer. It’s a fun and often funny game — my main complaints revolved around its controls and the numerous ways you could die instantly. It can be a damn frustrating game, but that doesn’t mean they can’t make a Lollipop Chainsaw 2 that fixes all that jazz.
Deadlight
This is another game that ended up being fairly underwhelming., and for many of the same reasons that kept me from warming up to Lollipop Chainsaw. It’s a gorgeous game, but it’s also intensely frustrating. That middle part that had you aimlessly wandering a sewer system, solving some crazy dude’s puzzles stood out as one of the most annoying parts of the game. So for the sequel, I suggest focusing on what that made the first third of the game so great: the thrill of exploring a zombie-infested city.
Deadly Premonition
This was a moderately polarizing game, and for good reason. On one hand, the writing is clever and humorous, there’s a lot to do in its massive world, and there were actually a few good scares. It’s many comparisons to Twin Peaks have been rightly earned. Unfortunately, it’s also a moderately ugly, clunky game that can be more than a difficult to get into. With the sequel, unless the budget matches the scope, I say we scale things down a bit. I also suggest a total overhaul of the controls, because they were bad.
Cold Fear
I am a huge supporter of Cold Fear. Sure, it was an obvious cash-in on Resident Evil 4’s popularity with one of the worst endings in recent memory, but it was still a visually impressive and often terrifying game. Not enough games take place on ghost ships, and fewer still on ghost ships lost in rough seas during particularly powerful storms. The way they used the rocking of the boat as a gameplay mechanic (where you could lose your balance, or worse, slide off the edge to an icy death). A sequel to this game could be a hit, especially if they take a page out of Dead Space’s book and set it on an even bigger sea-faring vessel (with an obligatory return to one of the ships from the original game, of course).
Clive Barker’s Jericho
After Clive Barker’s Undying, Jericho had a pretty high bar to live up to. Did it? Not really, no. I had fun when I first played it, back in 2007. I’m sure if I played the game today I wouldn’t be as fond of it’s unusual difficulty spikes and shoddy level design. Unsurprisingly, the one thing Jericho did really well was introduce to us a bunch of terrifyingly awesome monsters. Those Corpse Behemoths look as cool as their name sounds, spewing acidic blood from their gnarly, metal mouth cages. Or at least that’s how I remember them. There’s really no chance this game will ever see a sequel, but if it somehow does, I’d like it to be developed by Monolith, the team behind the F.E.A.R. and Condemned franchises.
Eternal Darkness: Sanity’s Requiem
Every year we go without an Eternal Darkness sequel is a year I desperately want to forget. Silicon Knights needs to get their shit in gear and bring us this game. There’s really nothing else that needs to be said.
Shadows of the Damned
This might actually happen, and if it does, I’ll be one happy camper. Developer Grasshopper Manufacture has already expressed interest in making this a series, even though it didn’t sell well. The ingredients are there: it’s hilarious, plays well enough (though the controls could benefit from some fine-tuning), and visually, it’s one of the coolest looking games I’ve played this generation. I need more Garcia Hotspur, and preferably sooner rather than later.
Feel free to angrily tell me what games I missed in the comments below!
Have a question? Feel free to ever-so-gently toss Adam an email, or follow him on Twitter and Bloody Disgusting.
It’s been 75 years since The Thing From Another World first warned us to “watch the skies”, and filmgoers have done just that by showing up to multiple instances of extraterrestrial contact on the big screen. This makes sense, as a recent CBS news poll estimated that 63% of Americans believe in intelligent life on other planets, and the ongoing disclosure movement aims to raise that number with each passing day.
With Steven Spielberg’s Disclosure Day leaving many genre fans hungry for more alien footage (preferably of the spooky variety), today I’d like to share a list recommending six underrated alien invasion thrillers for your viewing pleasure. After all, regardless of whether or not you believe that we’re alone in the universe, it can be fun to dream about the worst-case scenario if our cosmic neighbors ever decide to visit.
For the purposes of this list, we’ll be focusing on lesser-known invasion stories rather than the popular extraterrestrials of franchises like Alien and Close Encounters of the Third (or even Fourth) Kind. That being said, don’t forget to comment below with your own alien favorites if you think we missed a particularly thrilling movie.
While it won’t be featured in this article, I’d highly recommend checking out Dean Alioto’s UFO Abduction/The McPherson Tape if you’re up for some ufology-inspired found footage thrills.
With that out of the way, onto the list!
6. The Arrival (1996)
Not to be confused with Denis Villeneuve’s Academy Award-winning Amy Adams vehicle about learning to communicate peacefully with extraterrestrial life, David Twohy’s The Arrival is a much more straightforward (but no less entertaining) genre romp where Charlie Sheen faces a global conspiracy involving hostile alien invaders.
It’s not exactly up there with Close Encounters or even Independence Day, but Twohy’s conspiratorial thriller plays out like an exceptionally fun episode of The X-Files that I’d recommend to sci-fi/horror fans who don’t mind a little bit of wonky CGI and 90s excess alongside their alien thrills.
5. Extraterrestrial (2014)
The Vicious Brothers made a name for themselves with the success of 2011’s Grave Encounters, but that was far from the Canadian duo’s only collaboration. And while it’s not exactly a fan favorite, I always point out 2014’s Extraterrestrial as one of their most underrated projects simply because I agree with the filmmakers’ opinion that there aren’t enough ‘cool alien abduction movies’ out there.
Admittedly, the majority of the picture functions like a run-of-the-mill creature feature with paper-thin characters and familiar horror tropes, but I’d argue that the cosmically-terrifying final act elevates the experience to new and memorable heights. The movie also boasts great performances by both Michael Ironside and Emily Perkins – a combination that more than makes up for the occasionally janky CGI.
4. Alien Raiders (2008)
Director Ben Rock has gone on record lamenting how his John-Carpenter-inspired creature feature was forcefully renamed from Supermarket to the painfully obvious Alien Raiders (a change which likely resulted in many potential viewers skipping out on the experience), but the new title doesn’t change the fact that this single-location thriller is something of a hidden gem.
Taking place entirely within a supermarket, Alien Raiders tells the story of an ensemble of customers and employees who are taken hostage by a group of armed men looking for something far more dangerous than an easy payout. I won’t get into details in order to avoid spoiling the experience, but I’d highly recommend this criminally underseen flick to fans of John Carpenter and the Resident Evil games.
3. Phoenix Forgotten (2017)
You’d think that a Ridley-Scott-produced retelling of one of the most infamous real-life UFO sightings of all time would have a bigger following, but I rarely see Justin Barber’s Found Footage period piece brought up during discussions about extraterrestrial-focused horror movies.
This is a huge shame, as Phoenix Forgotten is just as spooky as it is convincing, with this well-researched dive into the Phoenix Lights incident benefiting from surprisingly believable special effects as well as an appropriately horrific finale.
2. Communion (1989)
I wouldn’t blame you for disregarding Whitley Strieber’s controversial book about his alleged close encounter as sensationalist slop, but I’d argue that Phillipe Mora’s 1989 adaptation of these events is much better than the source material. After all, the movie works as a standalone piece of speculative fiction while also benefiting from an incredible performance by the one and only Christopher Walken!
Mora’s take on Communion may not be particularly scary, but the film is still an unforgettable character study regardless of whether or not the abduction really happened. Not only that, but the flick also paved the way for plenty of future sci-fi stories where the extraterrestrial invaders aren’t as evil as they initially appear.
1. Altered (2006)
Originally envisioned as a Sam Raimi-style horror-comedy titled Probed, Eduardo Sánchez (of The Blair Witch Project fame) eventually realized that it would be much more interesting to turn the film into a serious exploration of the emotional aftermath of a traumatic abduction incident.
That’s how we got Altered, a clever inversion of the standard abduction narrative that follows a group of troubled friends as they capture and experiment on an alien in order to enact revenge for their own abduction years prior.
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