Sure, the Blair Witch franchise has been dead since the first film — let’s just forget about the films that followed it, and while we’re at it, the games, too — but with the recent surge in popularity of psychological horror games that utilize the handheld cam approach (Slender, Daylight, Outlast, Huntsman: The Orphanage, The Legend, Faceless, etc.), this is a mighty fine time to bring it back.
There’s never been a better time to be in the business of found footage style horror games, and what better film to jump in now than the one that made the subgenre so popular in films?
If Blair Witch is a little too dead for you, might I suggest V/H/S? The sequel has zombies, aliens, cults and ghosts, all in one movie. I can easily imagine that as an episodic horror game in the same vein as Telltale’s The Walking Dead, since it’s already been neatly divided into a handful of self contained horrifying shorts.
The Descent is one of my all-time favorite horror movies, because it’s damn terrifying, has a strong all-female cast, and successfully plays on my fear of caves. I’m not hugely claustrophobic, but I have gone spelunking before (once, briefly), and it was one of the scariest things I’ve ever experienced. It’s one thing when your friend playfully smothers you with a pillow — that’s normal, right? — it’s another when Mother Earth is the one holding the pillow.
This takes a bit from my last idea — found footage/handheld cam gameplay — and takes it underground. This is an idea that’s only been toyed with in video games, with the recent Tomb Raider reboot which employed a few clever nods to the film, as well as the upcoming indie game, The Forest, which looks somewhat similar.
I’d love to see a horror spelunking game, because I think it’d be a difficult thing to mess up. Caves are scary places. They’re dark, infested with mysterious creatures, and there’s that whole ‘you might get lost and/or get crushed by falling rocks’ bit to worry about all the time.
Those are my ideas. Feel free to let me know which horror films you’d like to see turned into video games 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.
