Editorials
Your Guide to the Indie Horror Games of 2015
We’re in the midst of another golden age of survival horror, folks. The proof doesn’t just lie with the sheer number of horror games that are on the way, but also in the overall quality of the games being released. I’ve spent more time playing indie games in 2014 than I ever have before, because indie devs finally have easy access to the tools and platforms, like Kickstarter and Steam Greenlight, that make it easier than ever to make games and find an audience for them.
As great as this year has been for fans of the horror genre, I have the feeling it will pale in comparison to what’s in store for us in 2015. We’ve already covered the AAA releases that are on the way, and today we’re going to dive into the indies.
Ashen Rift (PC)
After a brief hiatus, Ashen Rift has returned to Kickstarter in the hopes of raising enough money to finish what looks like an incredibly promising horror game. Set in a post-apocalyptic world that’s been overrun by monsters, the game follows a man and his dog as they struggle to survive.
Asylum (PC)
I can’t wait until Asylum finally arrives and I’m able to take it off all of these “upcoming games” lists. Its been in development for a long time, but recent looks at the current state of the game lead me to believe it isn’t that far off. It’s an ambitious title and one of the few adventure games we have to look forward to right now. I have the feeling the wait will be well worth it.
Caffeine (PC, PS4)
As intrigued as I am by the game’s plot, which follows a child who finds himself trapped on a synthetic caffeine mining vessel with some sort of dark presence, I’m not convinced Caffeine will see the light of day. Its developer has tried and failed to crowdfund it three separate times now, leaving its fate in the air for now. It’s too bad, because this game is gorgeous.
The Flock (PC)
Asymmetrical multiplayer has become an increasingly prevalent feature, especially in horror games. Evolve, Damned, Last Year and The Flock may be signs that this kind of multiplayer has a future in horror, where classic competitive modes have failed (Dead Space 2, Condemned 2: Bloodshot). The Flock revolves around a war between Carriers of light and the Flock, which hunt them. The world already has me hooked, it’s up to the developer to make sure the game is balanced and, even more importantly, fun.
Fran Bow (PC)
Fran Bow is another horror point-and-click adventure game, like Asylum, though that’s where the similarities end. It has a quirky charm about it that I find really enticing, especially when the game reveals its darker side through the pills young Fran takes. Doing so gives her a temporary look at a gruesome version of the world around her. Switching between the two worlds is fun, but it’ll also be necessary if you’re going to solve its puzzles.
Grave (PC, PS4, Xbox One)
I’ve spent quite a bit of time with Grave, a surreal horror game that, unless I’m mistaken, could be the first of its kind. This is a very strange horror game that’s still very much an enigma to me even after playing both of its demos. Light and dark play an important role in the gameplay, as light is your only weapon against the creatures who inhabit its eerie world.
The Hum (PC, PS4, Xbox One)
Aliens freak a lot of people out, yet for some reason, horror game developers haven’t exploited that universal fear that all humans have of being abducted in the middle of the night for a quick probing session. The Hum is the first game to try and make aliens scary, and judging by the footage we’ve seen of it so far, they’re on the right track.
Kholat (PC)
Based on the mysterious disappearances of nine hikers at the base of the base of Siberia’s “Death Mountain” in 1959, Kholat wants to turn a story that’s baffled scientists and unnerved the rest of us into a horror game. It’s a tragic story, but it also happens to be perfect for a video game inspired by it. The circumstanced in which those hikers were found were admittedly horrific, and since their recovery more than half a century ago folks far smarter than I have tried really hard to come up with answers. Perhaps Kholat will provide them.
Last Year (PC)
The latest addition to the burgeoning sect of asymmetrical multiplayer games is something called Last Year. It pits a group of teens against a masked murderer. The teens must work together to survive, but that won’t be easy when the killer can come from anywhere. I’ve already decided I’m going to be Nick, the nerd, when I play this game. Then I’ll get ridiculously good at the game, impressing all of nerd kind enough that they crown me the Nerd King. But before I can realize that dream, the game needs to raise some money first.
Lethe (PC)
Lethe is a physics puzzle-heavy first person horror game that follows Robert Dawn, a journalist on a mission to find the truth. His search takes him to an isolated island, and before he can use his journalist powers to uncover its dark secrets, he gets infected by a substance that gifts his hand with psychokinetic powers. It’s an attractive game, and one I’d very much like to get my hands on.
Monstrum (PC)
Like Grave, I’ve already spent a fair amount of time with Monstrum and I’m happy to say I’m nothing but impressed. Massive ships with labyrinthine interiors ruin what little sense of direction I possess, and because the locations of precious items are different every time you play, there’s a decent replay factor here as well as a healthy amount of scares.
Narcosis (PC)
From a ship lost at sea, we plunge to the murky depths of the ocean below. I still don’t have a clue as to what it is that poses a threat to the diver in Narcosis, you know, other than the definite possibility that Jaws will eat you. That’s assuming asphyxiation doesn’t claim you first when your limited supply of oxygen runs out. I’m sure there’s a more spine-tingling horror waiting for us in this game, but for now, I’ll worry about Jaws.
Outlast 2 (PC, PS4, Xbox One)
So the talented folks at Red Barrels are working on a sequel to Outlast. I’m not sure what else I can say about it, other than maybe we should all consider saving up for a Depends run once we know when to expect it.
Paranormal: The Town (PC)
Paranormal: The Town has been awfully quiet lately, but I imagine that’s because the developer behind it is busy working on remaking the original. If you haven’t played Paranormal yet, it’s basically Paranormal Activity: The Game, only it takes way less time for things to get interesting. The Town will take the randomized haunts that made the first to memorable out of the confined quarters of an artist’s apartment and bring them to a small town.
Quadrant (PC)
In Quadrant, we get to step into the boots of a member of a bio-hazardous waste removal crew that’s been sent into a NASA lab that’s been quarantined when a mysterious substance — possibly alien! — leaks out. Because it’s a horror game, your coworkers get murdered, likely in excruciating ways, by what looks like a giant spider. I say kill it with fire and demand your hazard pay.
ROAM (PC)
I love me some State of Decay, but it never gave me all of the tools I wanted in a game like that. I want to build bases, fortify them, gather resources to survive, and kick heaps of rotten zombie ass in the process. ROAM is a surprisingly ambitious survival game that offers exactly that, with an emphasis on building kickass anti-zombie fortresses. I’m all in.
Routine (PC)
I’m never been big into roguelike games, mostly because I’m terrible at them, but I’ll be making an exception for Routine. Ever since we were given our first glimpse of it two years ago, I’ve been practically foaming at the mouth to get my hands on it. It looks terrifying, and it’s also the type of game that doesn’t waste time holding your hand. It won’t be easy surviving against whatever horrors are lurking on that abandoned lunar base, but if Dark Souls has taught me anything, it’s that a difficult game only makes the experience more rewarding.
Scorn (PC)
Like so many before it, Scorn is a horror game that’s currently looking to find success on Kickstarter. It’s a horror adventure game that takes place in a “nightmarish universe” with a narrative that’s been made to give players the freedom to “give their own interpretation of the events, themes and their role in this universe through exploration and interaction with the game world.”
Stasis (PC)
If Dead Space experimented with a 2D style, it’d look something like Stasis. This game doesn’t just want to deliver an exciting story, it also has the lofty goal of blending AAA graphics with classic, point and click gameplay. It’s also worth noting that Stasis is being scored by Fallout series composer Mark Morgan, so you can be sure it’ll sound great.
Summer Camp (PC, PS4, Xbox One)
It took awhile to happen, but the slasher genre that so many of us have enjoyed in movies is finally gaining traction in video games. This year has seen the reveals of four slasher games — Last Year, Until Dawn, Summer Camp and Splatter Camp — and there’s a good chance we’ll see most, or possibly even all, of these games release in 2015. We don’t know much about this game yet, but the title alone should offer enough of a hint as to what Summer Camp will be about. Horny teens, a masked killer, fun in the sun cut tragically short by murder and mayhem, etc.
Splatter Camp (PC)
From the maker of Babysitter Bloodbath (formerly Halloween) comes another Friday the 13th inspired horror game about teens meeting an early end at the hands of a bad, bad man. If it’s anything like the developer’s past work, expect an awesome old school VHS aesthetic.
U55 – End of the Line (PC)
Subways are inherently creepy places, and I’m not just saying that because of the rat people who call those tunnels their home. U55 – End of the Line wants to remind us of this fact by cranking up the scare factor to 11 as it follows some poor soul who somehow managed to find themselves lost, alone and hunted in the underground.
Some movies are just so beloved that you can experience them through cultural osmosis without ever sitting down to actually watch them. From loving parodies to meticulous recreations of iconic scenes, memorable filmmaking lives on even after the curtains close on the silver screen. And when it comes to horror, few films can compete with the massive impact that Stanley Kubrick’s The Shining had on popular culture as a whole.
Whether or not you think the flick is a good adaptation of Stephen King’s seminal novel, 1980’s The Shining slowly but surely grew into one of the most influential genre movies ever made, inspiring everything from surprisingly heartfelt sequels to classic episodes of The Simpsons. However, not all The Shining references are created equal, and today I’d like to shine a light on six unexpected homages to Kubrick’s iconic film.
In this list, we’ll be focusing on references and Easter eggs that either came out of the blue or came from creators that you wouldn’t expect to be fans of this classic ghost story. That being said, don’t forget to comment below with your own favorite references to the Torrance family and the Overlook Hotel if you think we missed a particularly memorable one.
With that out of the way, onto the list!
5. A Nightmare on FaceTime – South Park (2012)
Regardless of the brand’s iffy reputation among former employees, the death of Blockbuster Video was a serious blow to fans of physical media. Of course, some folks were more affected by this than others, and South Park’s Randy Marsh definitely took things a little too far in the twelfth episode of the show’s sixteenth season.
Titled A Nightmare on FaceTime, the main plot of this 2012 story is a surprisingly faithful recreation of The Shining where Randy purchases an empty Blockbuster store and begins to go mad once he realizes that his investment may not have been a very good idea due to the rise of streaming and the now-defunct RedBox storefronts.
4. The Overlook Hotel Level – Ready Player One (2018)
I was never really a fan of Ernest Cline’s Ready Player One, so I viewed Stephen Spielberg’s divisive adaptation of the novel as an improvement over the source material despite having its own narrative issues. In fact, I actually prefer how Spielberg changed the story by removing several references to his own work and replacing a lengthy Blade Runner detour with an over-the-top homage to The Shining.
A CGI-heavy recreation of the film’s most iconic moments that feels like a big-budget ghost train ride set within the Overlook Hotel, this intense sequence is more of a recreation of the freaky aesthetics of The Shining rather than its mind-bending narrative. However, it’s still fun to see Spielberg make a heartfelt tribute to a filmmaker that was once his close personal friend.
3. IKEA Singapore Halloween Ad (2014)
It makes sense that commercials don’t typically borrow from the horror genre, as it might be a bad idea to scare away potential customers, but some references are just too much fun to pass up.
That’s probably why the publicists behind this Ikea ad from Singapore were allowed to turn their commercial into a genuinely unsettling recreation of Danny’s tricycle scene from The Shining. After all, nobody cares if your store is haunted so long as it offers late-night shopping hours and a large selection of merchandise that you can become lost in forever and ever…
2. The End of ‘Bondage and Beta Male Sexuality’ – Community (2014)
Community is no stranger to recreating iconic movie moments within the show, and the series had previously tackled horror tropes in episodes like the fan-favorite Epidemiology. However, the most laugh-out-loud moment on this particular list comes from a brief gag towards the end of the season five episode ‘Bondage and Beta Male Sexuality’.
The majority of this episode has nothing to do with scary movies, but there’s a brief subplot involving supporting character Chang and a possible encounter with ghosts that leads him to question his own existence. This subplot culminates in the episode’s hilarious ending where the camera zooms in on a black-and-white photograph of Chang in period clothing at some kind of celebration, just like Jack Nicholson at the end of The Shining.
However, the picture’s subtitle eventually reveals that it’s merely a conveniently placed keepsake from the ‘Old Timey Photo Club’.
1. The Overlook Hedge Maze Sequence – Zootopia 2 (2025)
Disney movies are pretty far removed from both the gruesome horror of Stephen King and the heady filmmaking of Stanley Kubrick, so I don’t think anyone was expecting the climax of last year’s Zootopia sequel to take place in an animated version of the snowy hedge maze from The Shining.
In this unexpectedly intense sequence, friend-turned-villain Pawbert Lynxley (an unhinged lynx cat played by Andy Samberg) chases our protagonists through a creepy labyrinth in a loving recreation of Jack Nicholson’s icy demise outside the Overlook Hotel. The actual ending here might be a little more child-friendly than what’s being referenced, but it’s amazing that the filmmakers were able to push the horror elements as far as they did – especially since the scene doesn’t really have anything to do with the rest of the movie.
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