Editorials
Our 10 Most Anticipated Horror Games of 2016
The year’s almost over. It’s been good to us, but it’s time to leave it in the past where it can sit poolside with the other years we’re slowly forgetting, drowning its sorrows in Moscow mules until it forgets the fact that it was one Konami short of greatness.
A handful of games is what kept the last twelve months from feeling like the teaser trailer that arrives a few days before the actual trailer. We’re going to forget about it completely the moment we’re given the real thing, but there was some excitement to be had.
This was the year that gave gamers the opportunity to step into the shoes of a needy Pamela Voorhees, as we pooled our resources in order to buy our son a first-class ticket so he would finally come home to us. It also let us know about the remakes we’ll be getting sometime around 2017 of Resident Evil 2 and System Shock, because miracles exist, apparently.
Oh, and System Shock 3. You know what? Let’s talk about how great 2017 is going to be. I can’t see Resident Evil 7 until then, and if 2016 is going to kick off the virtual reality revolution, then 2017 is about when they’ll start being worth their price tag. I’m so over 2016, you guys. I’ll still do this — I just want you to know that my heart’s not going to be in it. It’ll be far too busy wondering if 2017 will also be the year that gifts us with a third Condemned game.
Allison Road is a spiritual successor, of sorts, to the game you’ve forbidden me from whining over. Or, at least that’s how it began. Now, it’s its own entity, separate from the material that inspired it. This near-photorealistic scarefest looks absolutely terrifying.
Release Date: TBA 2016 (PC)
I don’t need to sell you on this. Outlast 2 is going to be like Outlast, only better (we hope). Red Barrels has proven adept at building a stunning world with a very specific goal in mind: to test our capacity for visceral terror. All I ask is for them to drop the tired asylum setting and populate this sequel with more villains that are as memorably traumatic as The Groom.
Release Date: Fall 2016 (PC, PS4, XBO)
Lunar Software was as surprised as we were when they realized their promising roguelike-ish sci-fi horror game Routine would take significantly longer to finish than originally expected. Everything we’ve seen of the game up to this point has pointed to its being well worth the wait. Hopefully, we won’t have to wait too much longer.
Release Date: TBA 2016 (PC)
Big guns. Bigger demons. The Doom franchise has always been about what happens when the two are combined, and its latest incarnation isn’t likely to stray from that core concept. This is exactly the sort of bombastic horror game that id Software is brilliant at. The new SnapMap modding toolset that’s coming with it should go a long way in keeping players engaged, but the real question is whether or not the same can be said about its multiplayer offering.
The landscape of multiplayer gaming is as complex as it is competitive, ruled by a handful of renowned franchises like Call of Duty and Halo that have had time to perfect their craft. Doom will need to deliver something special if it’s going to compete with that.
Release Date: Spring 2016 (PC, PS4, XBO)
Technically, this spot is reserved for Telltale’s episodic series based on The Walking Dead, which is expected to grow considerably in 2016 with the arrival of two games. The first is a three episode-long spin-off titled The Walking Dead: Michonne that’s coming in the spring, and the second is the third season in the main series that’s expected to release in the fall.
And since we’re talking about it, there are two other games based on the wildly popular comic-turned-hit television series in the works, I’m just not convinced they’ll arrive before 2017. You might remember that memorably grim trailer for Overkill’s The Walking Dead that series creator Robert Kirkman seemed excited about. Then there’s Overkill’s The Walking Dead – The VR Experience, which is something different, apparently. Neither game has been given a release date, so consider them honorable mentions for now.
Release Date: TBA 2016 (PC, PS3, PS4, 360, XBO)
As much as I enjoy playing games about the walking de-err, those shambling ghouls, their proven marketability among gamers may be why so many developers have chosen to make more games that star them, rather than give us something about dinosaurs, vampires, or aliens.
The Hum: Abductions aims to tackle that last subject and from what we’ve seen, it appears to be shaping up nicely. Set in a city that’s been invaded by aliens and the head-shaped vehicles they often favor, Abductions follows a lone mother who’s determined to save her infant son from the scrawny grey bastards that probably stole her husband.
Release Date: Spring 2016 (PC, PS4)
Until Dawn: Rush of Blood is an expansion to one of the best games of 2015 that’s basically doing its own thing. It’s coming from the same team that brought us Until Dawn, only it’ll be less of a cinematic, story-driven tale inspired by the slasher film genre and more of an on-rails shooter built for virtual reality — specifically PlayStation VR.
Release Date: TBA 2016 (PS4)
This is the year that Resident Evil got back on track. The Resident Evil remaster and Revelations 2 showed a side of Capcom we hadn’t seen since their passion for the horror genre became all about getting a slice of that Call of Duty money pie. 2016 can keep that momentum going, or it can bring it to a grinding halt. The former is looking more likely thanks to Resident Evil 0 HD and the far-off Resident Evil 2 remake, but those are examples of Capcom sticking to what worked in the past.
I’m more worried about any original ideas they have from now on, since that’s what got us Resident Evil 6 and the half-assed Operation Raccoon City. Unfortunately, Umbrella Corps is the only new-ish thing we know about right now. Who knows? It could be fun.
Release Date: January 19 (PC, PS3, PS4, 360, XBO)
Dying Light: The Following is another expansion that’s earned a spot on this list out of sheer ambition. Techland has done everything right with their latest open-world game about maiming the undead with the shit you built out of spare parts and a total disregard for how science works. It started with the smart decision to make Dead Island again, this time with parkour mechanics, and it continued with a year’s worth of support — much of it in the form of free content — that’s built the foundation for the game’s biggest evolution yet.
Techland is skilled at the art of making what worked well enough and making it work so much better. The Following and the ginormous patch thats coming with it are doing exactly what Dying Light did to Dead Island, only it’s not charging us $60 for the effort.
Release Date: Spring 2016 (PC, PS4, XBO)
It took a long damn time for System Shock to creep back into our lives like a malicious virus hidden inside a spam email, if that virus left you feeling woozy with anticipation. That’s a weird analogy. I’m going to try that again.
After a lengthy hiatus, SHODAN is about to burst into our lives like the Kool-Aid Man, if the Kool-Aid Man was breaking into homes so he could easily drag all those helpless children kicking and screaming into his torture room to waterboard them with tasty flavored beverages. That’s still weird, but I’ll stick with it because I like what it implies about the red liquid he’s made of.
Night Dive Studios, the new home of System Shock, did a fine job in remastering the original game. I’m sure they’ll be just as respectful with the remake they’re working on now. This series faded into obscurity long enough ago that an entire generation of gamers wouldn’t know what it is. Night Dive has been patient in their efforts to bring it back with a remaster that doubled as a reminder of what made this series so special in the late 90’s.
Oh, and we’re also getting System Shock 3, just not in 2016.
Release Date: TBA 2016 (PC, PS4, XBO)
Which upcoming horror game are you most looking forward to in 2016? And before you lambaste me for not mentioning a stab ’em up like Friday the 13th: The Game or Last Year, they didn’t make this list because that would be redundant.
Due to a complex series of anthropological mishaps, the Wayans Brothers are a huge deal in Brazil. Around these parts, White Chicks is considered a national treasure by a lot of people, so it stands to reason that Brazilian audiences would continue to accompany the Wayans’ comedic output long after North America had stopped taking them seriously as comedic titans.
This is the only reason why I originally watched Michael Tiddes and Marlon Wayans’ 2013 horror spoof A Haunted House – appropriately known as “Paranormal Inactivity” in South America – despite having abandoned this kind of movie shortly after the excellent Scary Movie 3. However, to my complete and utter amazement, I found myself mostly enjoying this unhinged parody of Found Footage films almost as much as the iconic spoofs that spear-headed the genre during the 2000s. And with Paramount having recently announced a reboot of the Scary Movie franchise, I think this is the perfect time to revisit the divisive humor of A Haunted House and maybe figure out why this kind of film hasn’t been popular in a long time.
Before we had memes and internet personalities to make fun of movie tropes for free on the internet, parody movies had been entertaining audiences with meta-humor since the very dawn of cinema. And since the genre attracted large audiences without the need for a serious budget, it made sense for studios to encourage parodies of their own productions – which is precisely what happened with Miramax when they commissioned a parody of the Scream franchise, the original Scary Movie.
The unprecedented success of the spoof (especially overseas) led to a series of sequels, spin-offs and rip-offs that came along throughout the 2000s. While some of these were still quite funny (I have a soft spot for 2008’s Superhero Movie), they ended up flooding the market much like the Guitar Hero games that plagued video game stores during that same timeframe.
You could really confuse someone by editing this scene into Paranormal Activity.
Of course, that didn’t stop Tiddes and Marlon Wayans from wanting to make another spoof meant to lampoon a sub-genre that had been mostly overlooked by the Scary Movie series – namely the second wave of Found Footage films inspired by Paranormal Activity. Wayans actually had an easier time than usual funding the picture due to the project’s Found Footage presentation, with the format allowing for a lower budget without compromising box office appeal.
In the finished film, we’re presented with supposedly real footage recovered from the home of Malcom Johnson (Wayans). The recordings themselves depict a series of unexplainable events that begin to plague his home when Kisha Davis (Essence Atkins) decides to move in, with the couple slowly realizing that the difficulties of a shared life are no match for demonic shenanigans.
In practice, this means that viewers are subjected to a series of familiar scares subverted by wacky hijinks, with the flick featuring everything from a humorous recreation of the iconic fan-camera from Paranormal Activity 3 to bizarre dance numbers replacing Katy’s late-night trances from Oren Peli’s original movie.
Your enjoyment of these antics will obviously depend on how accepting you are of Wayans’ patented brand of crass comedy. From advanced potty humor to some exaggerated racial commentary – including a clever moment where Malcom actually attempts to move out of the titular haunted house because he’s not white enough to deal with the haunting – it’s not all that surprising that the flick wound up with a 10% rating on Rotten Tomatoes despite making a killing at the box office.
However, while this isn’t my preferred kind of humor, I think the inherent limitations of Found Footage ended up curtailing the usual excesses present in this kind of parody, with the filmmakers being forced to focus on character-based comedy and a smaller scale story. This is why I mostly appreciate the love-hate rapport between Kisha and Malcom even if it wouldn’t translate to a healthy relationship in real life.
Of course, the jokes themselves can also be pretty entertaining on their own, with cartoony gags like the ghost getting high with the protagonists (complete with smoke-filled invisible lungs) and a series of silly The Exorcist homages towards the end of the movie. The major issue here is that these legitimately funny and genre-specific jokes are often accompanied by repetitive attempts at low-brow humor that you could find in any other cheap comedy.
Not a good idea.
Not only are some of these painfully drawn out “jokes” incredibly unfunny, but they can also be remarkably offensive in some cases. There are some pretty insensitive allusions to sexual assault here, as well as a collection of secondary characters defined by negative racial stereotypes (even though I chuckled heartily when the Latina maid was revealed to have been faking her poor English the entire time).
Cinephiles often claim that increasingly sloppy writing led to audiences giving up on spoof movies, but the fact is that many of the more beloved examples of the genre contain some of the same issues as later films like A Haunted House – it’s just that we as an audience have (mostly) grown up and are now demanding more from our comedy. However, this isn’t the case everywhere, as – much like the Elves from Lord of the Rings – spoof movies never really died, they simply diminished.
A Haunted House made so much money that they immediately started working on a second one that released the following year (to even worse reviews), and the same team would later collaborate once again on yet another spoof, 50 Shades of Black. This kind of film clearly still exists and still makes a lot of money (especially here in Brazil), they just don’t have the same cultural impact that they used to in a pre-social-media-humor world.
At the end of the day, A Haunted House is no comedic masterpiece, failing to live up to the laugh-out-loud thrills of films like Scary Movie 3, but it’s also not the trainwreck that most critics made it out to be back in 2013. Comedy is extremely subjective, and while the raunchy humor behind this flick definitely isn’t for everyone, I still think that this satirical romp is mostly harmless fun that might entertain Found Footage fans that don’t take themselves too seriously.
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