Editorials
6 Horror Games To Play As The World Freezes Over!
Did you hear? There’s a polar vortex sweeping across the country, The Day After Tomorrow style, and unless you’re brave enough to risk instantly freezing as soon as you step outside — like those poor helicopter pilots, they will be missed — the only escape is through video games. Or Dennis Quaid. Since we’re in for a deep freeze, with most of the country already enduring ridiculously low temperatures, I thought I’d come up with a list of horror games we can all enjoy.
Read on for my list of six horror games to play as the world freezes over!
The latest installment in Visceral’s bloody strategic dismemberment simulator wasn’t as beloved as the two that came before it, but it’s still very much worth playing. Dead Space 3 is a fantastic co-op action horror game with a decent replay factor, thanks to the return of New Game +, a bevy of modes, unlockables and all that jazz. It’s co-op is entirely optional, so if you’d rather go it alone, you can do so without being hindered by an annoying AI partner. You can also take solace in knowing that as cold as it may be for you now, Isaac has it way worse on the surface of Tau Volantis.
I have mixed opinions when it comes to Lost Planet 3. It fixes many of the issues I had with the other games, but it does so at the cost of being less fun. Lost Planet 2 was stupid, but it was stupid fun, and it certainly didn’t hurt that it had four-player co-op. This is the first to feature a genuinely interesting story and cast of characters, and I love that the RIG is treated as something you need to survive, rather than just a badass tool for tearing apart giant Akrid in two. It might not have completely reinvigorated the franchise, but it’s definitely worth a rental.
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.
You must be logged in to post a comment.