Editorials
6 Horror Games And The Studios That Should Make Them! Vol. 3
Ubisoft Montreal brought us Far Cry 3, an open-world game where your goal is to be a baddie-murdering badass. Everyone wants you dead, so it’s up to you to use guerrilla tactics and your limited arsenal to kill them before they kill you.
Manhunt is an open-world game where your goal is to be a baddie-murdering badass. Everyone wants you dead, so it’s up to you to use guerrilla tactics and your limited (mostly scavenged) arsenal to kill them before they kill you.
A match made in heaven, I think.
The original Shadows of the Damned isn’t really the type of game that is likely to see a sequel. It didn’t sell particularly well (i.e. at all) and you won’t see it on any Game of the Year lists (with the exception of mine, naturally). It was always destined to be a cult hit, one that would, sadly, even go unnoticed by many horror fans. But some stellar writing, a gorgeous art style no doubt inspired by punk rock designer Suda 51, and a fantastic score by Silent Hill series composer Akira Yamaoka all make this a game that’s worth experiencing, even if it’s a rental.
Gearbox is a developer that’s proven more than capable of dishing out hilarious writing when they aren’t busy destroying beloved franchises (Duke Nukem, Aliens). I’m sure they could also use their vast experience with shooters to fix Shadows’ clunky combat.
The games Quantic Dreams’ produces tend to polarize most people. Farenheit divided a fair share of gamers and even though Heavy Rain saw mostly positive reviews, it saw its fair share of people who hated it. I’m expecting the same reaction to this pairing, but I think it could work out.
Love ’em or hate ’em, this developer has proven adept at crafting beautiful, cinematic games that blur the lines between movies and video games. They’re skilled at building tension and they’re more than willing to think outside the box, both in terms of storytelling and gameplay. All of these traits could potentially benefit the hugely underrated Siren games. Plus, those games have never controlled terribly well, so Quantic Dreams’ seeming inability to make a game that doesn’t feature clumsy controls would fit brilliantly with this series.
Congratulations, you made it. I’ve shown you mine, now it’s your turn to show me yours. If I missed a pairing you would like to see, let me know in the comments!
Oh, and before you do, make sure I haven’t already listed your preferred pairing in PART 1 or PART 2 of this series.
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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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