Editorials
The 10 Most Overlooked Horror Game Tropes!
Today’s a special day. A couple weeks ago, completely out of the blue, I was sent an excellent feature by a fellow games writer named Joe Donnelly, who currently resides at Beefjack. Tropes are all too prevalent in our favorite genre, but most of the following have flown under my radar until Mr. Donnelly sought them out and brought them into the light.
Read on for the 10 most overlooked horror game tropes!
Written by Joe Donnelly, @deaco2000
Aside from the obvious biological contradictions regarding the living dead, chemistry is grossly misrepresented in horror games. How could one possibly know the ph values of mixing unlabeled chemicals to create ‘acid’? Likewise, mixing strange green, red and blue herbs doesn’t necessarily equate to a potent healing antitoxin. I should know – I tried this at a music festival once and woke up three days later naked and confused in the middle of a field.
Main offender(s): Amnesia: The Dark Descent, Resident Evil series.
Zombie stricken towns appear to have a vast shortage of lift engineers, electricians, carpenters and plumbers as there always seems to be broken down lifts, malfunctioning garage shutters, jammed or completely broken doors, and blocked toilets/baths. Those who claim the labour market is faltering are job hunting in the wrong towns.
Main offender(s): Widespread.
Keys and key objects are always found in the strangest of places. Is it too much to ask that the keys remain in the corresponding locks, the cogs stay fitted to the correct contraptions, or the unusually lightweight stone statues are left on their matching activation tiles? Whoever keeps leaving keys in the toilet pan clogged with blood and gore can cut it out, now.
Main offender(s): Widespread.
Research facilities tend to be sensitive areas, however it isn’t unusual in horror games to find ammunition strewn throughout their grounds, alongside matching heavy-duty weaponry. Likewise, you wouldn’t necessarily expect to find a load of camcorder batteries stuffed in drawers and on shelves in such establishments. And even if you did – you certainly wouldn’t expect them all to be the size you’re looking for, would you? How many times have you found yourself turning your house upside down in search of double A’s and all you can find is AAA?
Main offender(s): Outlast, Resident Evil series.
Aside from the perpetual groans of the living dead, red handled gate valves seem to cause every corresponding mechanism to chime out the same melodic cackle: three similar creaks; two slow followed by one fast. Likewise, metal gates all seem to have locks which require oil as they laboriously hark out the same squeal. We’ve already established these towns lack reliable handymen, however, so perhaps all this is of little surprise.
Main offender(s): Widespread
The viruses and otherworldly afflictions suffered in these towns appear to affect people, animals and insects in a variety of inconsistent ways. Whereas humans and dogs largely become zombified or catatonic, some creatures seem to just get bigger. Spiders, scorpions, moths, alligators and sharks grow to approximately ten times their original size. Unfortunately, if your vocation is nursing you may notice a stretch in height, followed by extreme swelling of the hands and arms, thereafter resembling giant punchbags.
Main Offender(s): Resident Evil series, Silent Hill 4: The Room.
Although saving the world from pandemic infection appears to come second nature, inanimate objects such as IKEA flatpack cupboards, or stacked canteen dinner trolleys prove too much to overcome. Often, a complete and lengthy detour is required in order to find a way round such impassable road blocks.
Main Offenders(s): The Walking Dead, Silent Hill: Downpour, Clock Tower
Crouching in a ‘stealth’ position and tippy-toeing around like a cartoon robber apparently enables invisibility. What’s more, by acting out such caricature behaviour, enemies fail to hear the quite obvious sounds of their mates being strangled to death – even those nearby who completely rely on sound. If I were to tip-toe into my local grocer, nick a loaf of bread and tip-toe back out, I’d be in jail. Probably with a black eye courtesy of an unhappy shopkeeper.
Main offender(s): The Last of Us, Dead Space series.
If Sesame Street and Blue Peter taught me one thing, it’s that arts and crafts are bloody hard work. Yet when faced with a zombie apocalypse, artistic flair appears to come to the fore. Especially with rags. And sugar. For the record I’m fairly positive that it’s impossible to craft a manhole lifter from just a wax doll, a horseshoe and a lighter.
Main offender(s): Silent Hill 2, The Last of Us.
Who in their right mind designed these places? The Spencer Mansion, the Raccoon PD HQ, the Brennenburg Castle, the Mount Massive asylum? Aside from their perplexing layouts, the land alone must have cost a fortune! And why do they all have such absurdly spacious sewer areas? These ‘storage spaces’ must undoubtedly incur unnecessary expense as far as maintenance is concerned. Not to mention the fact these areas regularly attract infestations of giant spiders and crocodiles and moths. Opting out of maintenance results in malfunctioning elevators and clogged drains and broken doors and creaky gates and red handled gate valves in need of oil.
Main offender(s): All of the above.
Judging from the unprecedented box office success of Kane Parsons’ Backrooms adaptation, you’ve likely already seen the liminal horror hit that managed to make audiences afraid of empty hallways and bad wallpaper. And now that so many of us have already entered the yellow labyrinth (some of us more than once), the time has come to discuss the spoiler-filled details that make the movie so fascinating in the first place.
And if there’s one element here that makes the Backrooms movie stand out from any previous lore/mythology, it has to be the genius addition of the Still Life entities. Warped recreations of real people that somehow wandered into the Complex, these misremembered creatures are responsible for some of the most disturbing imagery of 2026 – as well as laugh-out-loud memes created by one of the film’s very own concept artists.
However, true to Parsons’ word that the movie would rely heavily on practical effects, each of these distorted monsters was brought to life by real actors under heavy layers of makeup and prosthetics (with the occasional splash of CGI enhancements). While Anora and If I Had Legs I’d Kick You actress Ivy Wolk wasn’t among these performers, despite what Letterboxd might have you believe, the creature cast did benefit from veteran players with plenty of genre experience.
For starters, Alien: Romulus alumni Robert Bobroczkyi (who previously brought that film’s horrific Offspring to life during its most memorable sequence) plays the flick’s main antagonist, the Still Life version of Captain Clark. And though there was some obvious CGI involved in making the character’s peg-leg and nightmarish face more believable, Bobroczkyi’s monstrous performance and his natural 7’7″ frame helped to make that final chase sequence a clear highlight among this year’s genre offerings.
The film’s Texas-Chain-Saw-inspired “dinner” scene also features a freaky collection of less-aggressive Still Life creatures in the form of the Bearded Man, the Red-Headed Woman and, strangest of them all, the cheekily named “Archibald Leland Sutter Still Life” (who earned this title among fans and crewmembers as a reference to his apparent affinity for lamps).
While this was the first major horror outing for both Patrick Baynham (The Bearded Man) and Dana Mahmood (Archibald), Rhiannon Roberts has worked as a stunt performer in everything from Yellowjackets to HBO’s The Last of Us adaptation – which is probably why The Red-Headed Woman is the most active out of Clark’s impromptu “family.” That being said, the Archibald Leland Sutter Still Life is my personal favorite of the bunch simply because his anachronistic outfit suggests that the Backrooms phenomenon might be a lot older than the Async Foundation. I also love how hard he tries to be helpful with that little light of his!
That might be it for the Still Life entities, but I think horror fans will also be pleased to hear that the film’s Found Footage prologue stars none other than Resident Evil: Welcome to Raccoon City star Avan Jogia as Naren Warne – and American Mary herself Katharine Isabelle also shows up in a blink-and-you’ll-miss-it cameo at Mary’s house party towards the middle of the story (though I have a feeling that she originally had a bigger part that was likely cut for time).
At the end of the day, Parsons’ Backrooms may have been an auteur-driven project motivated by the young director’s unique take on the classic creepypasta, but film has always been a collective artform, so it’s fun to see just how many talented performers it takes to bring this kind of supernatural nightmare to life in a way that connects with so many people.
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