Editorials
6 Horror Games And The Studios That Should Make Them!
Sometimes a fresh set of eyes can bring new and interesting perspectives. When you look at the same thing for so long, it can get difficult to see its flaws, and while this can be said for many things, it’s especially true for video games. Getting a fresh perspective can be a great way to make sure a series stays engaging, to keep it from becoming stale and predictable. Franchises like Resident Evil and Silent Hill have each had games developed by studios other than the one that created them, and while the results have been a mixed bag, some of these partnerships have led to incredible games.
With this in mind, I’ve compiled a list of six game developers that I think are universally great and matched them with a horror franchise I feel they could make an incredible game for. Check out my picks after the break, and feel free to comment with your own dream matches!
Ninja Theory – Silent Hill
I wish Vatra, the studio that developed the fantastic Silent Hill: Downpour could return to the franchise, but I can’t see that happening any time soon. I also don’t see Konami picking up the reins again, so that leaves us with the only other option: a new studio. My pick? Ninja Theory, of course, and here’s why.
When you think of the staples of the Silent Hill franchise, the visuals, music, and characters are the first things that come to mind, right? If games like Heavenly Sword, Enslaved, and DmC: Devil May Cry have proven anything, it’s that these departments are areas in which Ninja Theory excels. They’ve brought us some of the most beautiful games of this generation, colorful games that aren’t afraid to be vibrant and different.
I’m also a huge fan of their ability to create emotional, realistic characters.. Nariko and Kai, Monkey and Trip, Dante and Kat — their characters are unique and the relationships are genuinely interesting to follow. Of course, a Silent Hill game isn’t a Silent Hill game at all without twisted, nightmare-inducing creatures for you to fight, or perhaps more often, to run away from. Some of the enemies from DmC look like they could’ve been starred in a SH game. There’s one boss in particular that’s essentially a giant, bulbous baby monster with its mom attached to it by an umbilical cord. It’s gross, and awesome.
Naughty Dog – Resident Evil
This was a difficult pairing to make. I mean, on one hand, I’d like to see Capcom develop a good Resident Evil game, because they’ve proven more than capable of successfully rebooting their franchise before with Resident Evil 4. Unfortunately, I don’t think Capcom understands horror as well as they did ten, or even five years ago. The “scares” in Resident Evil 6 are sloppily set up and the characters aren’t interesting enough for me to care about them.
This is why I believe Naughty Dog could very easily be the dream studio to breathe new life into Capcom’s ailing franchise. For one, as they’ve proven over and over again in the Uncharted trilogy, they understand action. They understand spectacle. They also know how to make simple characters interesting. Nathan Drake isn’t particularly deep, I mean, he’s supposed to be a likable guy, and I might’ve been able to fall for that if he didn’t spend a majority of the game murdering hundreds of men. The Uncharted games are serious, but they have a light side, and adventurous side. Resident Evil needs that.
Arkane Studios – Condemned
First off, if you haven’t played Dishonored, you should really get on that already, because once you do you won’t even need to read this to know why Arkane would make an intensely good Condemned game.
In case you didn’t know this already, Arkane already has some experience in the horror genre, as they were the studio behind the cancelled Half-Life 2: Episode 4, better known as Return to Ravenholm. When I imagine what RtR could’ve played out like, the images that come to mind are very similar to Condemned. Dark alleys, tall buildings obstructing a night sky, visceral in-your-face combat, an ear-piercing scream that comes from somewhere, but you can’t tell where… that would’ve been great, right?
Arkane made one of the best first person games of the year; they understand how your character should move, how they should fight. At its core, Condemned is a first person brawler. Whether you’re beating down crazed hobos, malevolent ink monsters, whatever — if it didn’t feel good to slam that guy/thing’s face into the wall before you curb-stomped it (for good measure), then it wouldn’t have been a good game. Dishonored has many of the same mechanics, and more than that, it had a brilliantly crafted world that was full of details and stories that only the most observant players would’ve noticed.
Grasshopper Manufacture – F.E.A.R.
Admit it, F.E.A.R. is wacky as hell. It started out serious and gruesome, but that was back in 2005, and since then, you could say it’s gone off the rails. A pregnant psychic chick whose contractions send shockwaves throughout an entire city? Your dead, superpowered brother who helps you out even though with that velvety voice of his he’s be better suited as a radio host? The weird hell monsters that enter the real world via some sort of hell dimension? The soldiers who have technology that allows them to use lightning to teleport in reinforcements? If you had listed those back in 2009 and told me they’d appear in the next F.E.A.R. game, I would’ve asked if you had F.E.A.R. confused with a Platinum Games title before burning you at the stake for being a time witch.
The whole “creepy unkillable little girl with the black hair draped over her face” bit was inspired by the Onryō, a terrifying legend taken from Japanese folklore, so why not give it to a developer that understands those legends better so we can try and make Alma scary again? Now she’s just a creepy rapist — yeah, in case you forgot or your mind tried to block it, she forces herself on you in Project Origin. Grasshopper loves making strange, yet somehow brilliant games, and they’ve even tackled the horror genre, albeit lightheartedly with Shadows of the Damned and Lollipop Chainsaw.
Telltale Games – Alone in the Dark
Telltale Games made The Walking Dead: The Game, and while I’m sure you’re well aware of this by now, I loved that game. I don’t know what they’re planning on digging into next, outside of an all-but-confirmed second season of TWD, but I’d very much like to offer an idea: how does an old-school Alone in the Dark game sound? The last game wasn’t very good, but I don’t want to see the forefather of the survival horror genre to fade into obscurity (though, sadly, I think that’s already happened) and I know a studio like Telltale would do amazing things with the series.
I imagine it’d play much like their Walking Dead game. Hell, I’d even prefer a digital-only episodic structure, the latter of which the failed reboot introduced to the series back in 2008. There wouldn’t be an emphasis on combat, it’d be more about story, survival, and exploration — all things Telltale does extraordinarily well.
Honorable Mention: A Telltale developed Clock Tower, and much like Alone in the Dark, I’m talking about the original Clock Tower. You know, the one where you’re helpless and being chased by a mad man with an horrifying pair of shears.
Remedy Entertainment – Fatal Frame
Honestly, what I want from Remedy is a sequel to Alan Wake, and I want that right now. However, I’d also take a Remedy-developed Fatal Frame. Remedy did something really interesting with its Alan Wake series by turning something as simple as light and making that the basis for a video game. Light plays an important role in every aspect of Alan Wake, from the story (light vs dark/good vs evil) to the combat (flashlights, flares, the darkness shrouded possessed townfolk, etc.). If any studio can turn Fatal Frame’s major element, the camera obscura, and make it interesting, it’s Remedy.
But seriously, Remedy: give me Alan Wake 2.
Have a question? Feel free to ever-so-gently toss Adam an email, or follow him on Twitter and Bloody Disgusting.
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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