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‘Doorways: Holy Mountains of Flesh’ Early Access Review
I managed to include Doorways: Holy Mountains of Flesh in my picks for the best horror games of 2015 before this review was finished, so in a way I’m burying the lead here, but rest assured: I’ll go into more depth here about what I consider to be a superb horror-puzzle adventure game.
For my money, the Doorways franchise is kind of like Hellraiser: The Game (and not the unreleased 1990 NES title, either.) Holy Mountains of Flesh is the fourth chapter but the third game in the series, each volume of which explores the themes and the consequences of evil in a pseudo-religious context. The newest game revolves around a guy named Juan Torres and rumors of kidnapping, cannibalism, and black magic in a rural region of Argentina, which happens to be the home of the studio itself.
Like with the other games, the narrative unfolds around the main character seeking out and sort of ‘ghostbusting’ the subject, at hand. Notes and diary entries lay scattered around the environments, revealing backstory to lead exploration through the world. You will encounter puzzles, platforming, and jump scares.
The basic point is this: the new Doorways is flawed in some similar ways as the previous chapters, but Holy Mountains of Flesh shows a huge amount of potential for the future of both this series and the developer. It looks like Saibot Studios heeded the criticism of the other games and forged ahead with renewed vision, striving to make a game that was functional, entertaining and creepy.
Technically, Holy Mountains of Flesh is still in early access, since only the first Act of the game has been released, but it’s enough of a vision into what the devs have planned to be able to review. Even though the playthrough will only take a few hours, at most, the puzzles are less arcane than in Doorways 1 & 2 and propel the action taking place, rather than hindering it in some fundamentally frustrating way. Therefore, Doorways rises above the chaff of the surfeit of horror games being released on Steam right now.
First of all, the graphical fidelity in Holy Mountains of Flesh shows marked improvement from previous chapters, and not merely because they’ve upgraded to Unity 5. The art style is more distinct, less plagued by the sometimes generic look of indie Unity-developed horror games.
The textures are richer and pronounced, character movement and environmental animations are natural in a way they weren’t before, and the world is more fully realized than plenty of other games in the genre, at this point.
While the second chapter improved mightily on the first, this game reaches a new height for the series, in terms of art direction. The school just looks really good. The environments make more logistical sense, and the art style caters to them to make a mood which strikes closest to the game’s main thematic aims. The school is dark and abandoned but also carries with it an otherworldliness that is both intriguing and existentially unsettling.
The impressive visuals are ameliorated by a witty, if not novel, approach to the use of light and dark. Rather than merely use darkness as a means for creeping out the audience, Holy Mountains of Flesh incorporates it subtly into the puzzles, forcing players to think about how to progress through certain parts of the schoolhouse.
Granted, there are still places where the design is flawed. At one point, the world shifts, creating artificial barriers to player exploration that feel sort of half-assed, conceptually. Those kinds of decisions, whether budgetary in nature or intentionally designed, are what give me pause about games like Doorways.
It’s sometimes not clear whether the configuration of levels ends up the way they do because the development team made a conscious choice, or if the limitations forced them into that direction. Still, there are far fewer middling design choices here than in most indie horror games I’ve played in the past year.
Game performance is another plus for this iteration of the Doorways series. While the framerate was never a major issue in past versions, it is particularly smooth here. Also, the frame rate is markedly improved over the other games of this type, even if it still has the weird save function that causes the screen to blink to black before fading back in. I didn’t experience any major hitching or dropped frames, and the game ran smoothly throughout, which definitely sets it apart.
The mechanics remain simple. Opening doors is still the major function of gameplay, but the game introduces some new mechanics that can be used to solve puzzles and travel from section to section. Also, I have to say this: I’ve always, always hated first-person platforming in games of this type, but the jumping in Doorways: Holy Mountains of Flesh — or at least how they use it here — completely works. The platforming, rather than being an awkward means of hopping on impossible surfaces, relates to minor puzzles and actually gives the game some interesting depth.
It also isn’t a tedious pixel-hunt for hidden items, either, which made parts of the early games nearly impossible to enjoy. Perhaps that can be blamed on the popularity of Slenderman-style games at the time of the first chapter’s release, but whatever the cause, this time around, interactions with the world are more satisfying. The puzzles are well-designed, even if they are largely logistically simple, and you don’t have to fight with the mechanics in order to be able to complete them.
I’ve spent a lot of space in this review comparing Holy Mountains of Flesh to Prelude and The Underworld, so in a sense it doesn’t stand on its own as well as it probably should, as a review. I recognize that. However, what should be taken from it is the fact that these games always had potential; they just didn’t have the follow-through to make them what the devs probably had in mind. Doorways: Holy Mountains of Flesh is easily one of the best horror games I played in 2015, and the best part about it is that there will be more.
The Final Word: Even though the game is in Early Access, let’s hope that Saibot Studios will be able to continue evolving in a positive way on its original idea.
We are now one full month into Spring 2024, which kicked off on Tuesday, March 19 and comes to an end with the start of Summer on Thursday, June 20. This year’s summer movie season has a whole bunch of exciting horror highlights, including A Quiet Place: Day One, MaXXXine, and Alien: Romulus, but let’s hold that particular thought until June rolls around.
We’re here today to talk about Spring 2024 and the many horrors we still have left before the weather gets warmer and we find ourselves in the heat of one hell of a spooky summer.
Here are 12 horror movies you don’t want to miss in Spring 2024!
STING – April 12
Two words: SPIDER HORROR. Writer/Director Kiah Roache-Turner (Wyrmwood) hopes to induce eight-legged terror with his brand new horror movie Sting, only in theaters April 12.
Of particular note, Sting features practical spider effects from 5-time Academy Award Winner Weta Workshop, with the spider in this one inspired by H.R. Giger’s Xenomorph!
In Sting, “One cold, stormy night in New York City, a mysterious object falls from the sky and smashes through the window of a rundown apartment building. It is an egg, and from this egg emerges a strange little spider. The creature is discovered by Charlotte, a rebellious 12-year-old girl obsessed with comic books. Keeping it as a secret pet, she names it Sting.
“But as Charlotte’s fascination with Sting increases, so does its size. Growing at a monstrous rate, Sting’s appetite for blood becomes insatiable.”
BLACKOUT – APRIL 12
Indie darling Larry Fessenden is back with new horror movie Blackout this Spring, Fessenden’s third movie – following Habit and Depraved – to put his own spin on classic monsters.
While Habit was centered on vampires and Depraved was a fresh take on Frankenstein’s Monster, Larry Fessenden’s Blackout is the filmmaker’s contribution to werewolf cinema.
The film follows Charley, an artist whose drinking binges blur with his sneaking suspicion that he might be a werewolf. He distances himself from those he loves and sinks deeper into solitude, his flashes of memory of his nighttime grisly acts manifested through his artwork.
ARCADIAN – APRIL 12
If Nicolas Cage is covered in blood, you better believe we’re going to be watching. Cage gets his own A Quiet Place with Arcadian, a new creature feature coming to theaters April 12.
In Arcadian, which also comes to Shudder later this year, “After a catastrophic event depopulates the world, a father (Nicolas Cage) and his two sons must survive their dystopian environment while being threatened by mysterious creatures that emerge at night.”
Jaeden Martell (IT 2017) also stars in the post apocalyptic monster movie.
ABIGAIL – APRIL 19
If you’re bummed about Melissa Barrera being fired from the Scream franchise, you’ll definitely want to get out to your local theater this month to support Abigail, the new VAMPIRE BALLERINA horror movie from Scream and Scream VI directors Radio Silence.
Barrera stars alongside fellow horror favorite Kathryn Newton (Freaky) in Abigail, which is actually the latest horror movie in Universal’s relaunched Universal Monsters Universe.
In the film, “After a group of would-be criminals kidnap the 12-year-old ballerina daughter of a powerful underworld figure, all they have to do to collect a $50 million ransom is watch the girl overnight. In an isolated mansion, the captors start to dwindle, one by one, and they discover, to their mounting horror, that they’re locked inside with no normal little girl.”
LATE NIGHT WITH THE DEVIL – APRIL 19
One of the most talked about horror movies of Spring 2024 has been the Halloween 1977-set Late Night With the Devil, which has been playing in theaters since its premiere on March 22.
Late Night with the Devil will begin streaming at home on April 19, 2024, less than one month after arriving in theaters. Shudder will be the exclusive streaming home of the movie.
David Dastmalchian (Dune, The Suicide Squad) stars as the host of a late-night talk show that descends into a nightmare in Late Night with the Devil, set on Halloween 1977.
In the found footage-style film that captures a period aesthetic, “A live television broadcast in 1977 goes horribly wrong, unleashing evil into the nation’s living rooms.”
INFESTED – APRIL 26
Spring 2024 is all about SPIDERS – sorry, arachnophobes! – with the previously mentioned Sting being followed by the French creature feature Infested (Vermines) later this month.
What’s particularly exciting about Infested is that its director, Sébastien Vaniček, has been hired to direct the next installment in the Evil Dead film franchise, so this will be our first taste of what Vaniček is capable of within the genre. And the buzz for this one is strong.
In his review out of Fantastic Fest last year, for starters, Bloody Disgusting’s own critic Trace Thurman raved that Infested is “one of the best spider attack movies in years.”
In the upcoming horror film, “Fascinated by exotic animals, Kaleb finds a venomous spider in a shop and brings it back to his apartment. It only takes a moment for the spider to escape and reproduce, turning the whole building into a dreadful web trap.”
HUMANE – APRIL 26
The daughter of horror master David Cronenberg, Caitlin Cronenberg is making her own mark in the genre filmmaking space with IFC Films’ Humane, coming to theaters this month.
The film is described as “a dystopian satire taking place over a single day, months after a global ecological collapse has forced world leaders to reduce the earth’s population.”
The wild premise? 20% of the world’s population must VOLUNTEER TO DIE!
“In a wealthy enclave, a recently retired newsman has invited his grown children to dinner to announce his intentions to enlist in the nation’s new euthanasia program. But when the father’s plan goes horribly awry, tensions flare and chaos erupts among his children.”
I SAW THE TV GLOW – MAY 3
Fresh off the haunting and singularly creepy indie We’re All Going to the World’s Fair, Jane Schoenbrun is back with A24‘s I Saw the TV Glow, releasing only in theaters this May.
Meagan Navarro wrote in her Sundance review for BD, “I Saw the TV Glow offers a layered and authentic portrait of identity, wrapped in ’90s nostalgia and surreal imagery that embeds itself deep into your psyche.” Meagan continues, “Schoenbrun delivers a singular vision of arthouse horror that entrances for its fevered dream style and insanely cool imagery.”
In A24’s latest, “Owen is just trying to make it through life in the suburbs when his classmate introduces him to a mysterious TV show — a vision of a supernatural world beneath their own. In the pale glow of the television, Owen’s view of reality begins to crack.”
TAROT – MAY 3
Originally titled Horrorscope, a much better title if you’re asking me, Screen Gems returns to the big screen with studio horror movie Tarot this Spring, a Tarot-card themed spookshow.
When a group of friends recklessly violates the sacred rule of Tarot readings – never use someone else’s deck – they unknowingly unleash an unspeakable evil trapped within the cursed cards in the upcoming Screen Gems horror movie Tarot. One by one, they come face to face with fate and end up in a race against death to escape the future foretold in their readings.
The hook for this one? Artist Trevor Henderson designed the film’s eight monsters!
THE STRANGERS: CHAPTER 1 – MAY 17
Bryan Bertino’s 2008 home invasion classic The Strangers spawns a brand new reboot trilogy this year, with first film The Strangers: Chapter 1 kicking things off in theaters on May 17.
The Strangers: Chapter 2 is expected to follow in Fall 2024.
Madelaine Petsch is the lead of the new reboot trilogy, playing a character who drives cross-country with her longtime boyfriend to begin a new life in the Pacific Northwest.
When their car breaks down in Venus, Oregon, they’re forced to spend the night in a secluded Airbnb, where they are terrorized from dusk till dawn by three masked strangers.
IN A VIOLENT NATURE – MAY 31
Slasher fans who have been hungry for a new Friday the 13th movie won’t want to miss In a Violent Nature, which plays out like a Friday movie… entirely from Jason’s perspective!
IFC Films will release In a Violent Nature exclusively in theaters on May 31.
In the film, “When a locket is removed from a collapsed fire tower in the woods that entombs the rotting corpse of Johnny, a vengeful spirit spurred on by a horrific 60-year old crime, his body is resurrected and becomes hellbent on retrieving it. The undead golem hones in on the group of vacationing teens responsible for the theft and proceeds to methodically slaughter them one by one in his mission to get it back – along with anyone in his way.”
Meagan Navarro wrote in her Sundance review for Bloody Disgusting, “In a Violent Nature may offer slasher thrills and a delightfully gory rampage across the wilderness, but the approach captures the carnage through ambient realism. It results in a fascinating arthouse horror experiment that plays more like a minimalist slice-of-life feature with a grim twist.”
THE WATCHERS – JUNE 14
M. Night Shyamalan returns with the new thriller Trap this coming August, but the road to that film’s release will be paved by the feature debut of his daughter, Ishana Night Shyamalan.
Ishana Night directed The Watchers, in theaters from WB/New Line on June 14.
The film follows Mina, a 28-year-old artist, who gets stranded in an expansive, untouched forest in western Ireland. When Mina finds shelter, she unknowingly becomes trapped alongside three strangers who are watched and stalked by mysterious creatures each night.
Which Spring 2024 horror movies are YOU most looking forward to?
4 New Horror Movies Releasing This Week Including ‘Late Night with the Devil’ at Home
The ‘Scary Movie’ Spoof Franchise Is Getting a Reboot at Paramount!
‘Ready or Not’: Radio Silence Filmmakers Tease the “Absolute Banger” of a Sequel That’s Taking Shape
“We Built Every Creature” – ‘Alien: Romulus’ Goes Heavy on the Old School Practical Effects!
‘Sting’ Review – Throwback Creature Feature Entertains With an Impressive Practical Monster
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