Editorials
5 Cancelled Horror Games We Wish Were Made
Much like the movie industry, the video game world is fraught with risks, perils, and possible heartbreak. As much as we wish that what we get excited about will eventually fall into our hands, circumstances arise that preclude such a joyous occasion. Instead, we are left feeling cheated and empty, forever wondering what might have been.
Honestly, there aren’t many feelings that I hate worse than being shown something incredible and then it being taken away by people who are just as heartbroken as I am by the depressing development. Everyone involved wanted everyone else to see a finished product, something that people could love, hate, critique, whatever… Eventually, some would reminisce and feel nostalgia while others would trade it in and forget it ever existed. That’s the great thing about releasing a title! People form their own opinions, their own memories, and it will live on through those who refuse to let it die. Why do you think games like The 7th Guest or Phantasmagoria are spoken of with such passion? It’s because we love what we had and what we can recall.
Unfortunately, the below titles never gave us those opportunities. For one reason or another, they were never finished. So today I’m going to take a look at a few of those games that got our hopes up and then dashed them away ever so cruelly.
Demonik
Featured in the 2006 comedy Grandma’s Boy, Demonik wasn’t a fake game made for the film. Rather, it was a real title developed by Terminal Reality that was supposed to come out for the Xbox 360. Wanna hear the most interesting (and relevant) part about the game? It was written by none other than Clive Barker!
The story followed people who felt like they had been wronged by some circumstance. Instead of being normal human beings and getting over it, they summon a demon to do their dark bidding. Therefore, you, the player, would control the “bad guy” of the game. An interesting premise that is almost certainly inspired by Pumpkinhead, it seemed like it would be a great horror/action game.
After the majesty of Undying and before the disappointing Jericho, Demonik was supposed to be Barker’s second entry in the video game world. Alas, the game was dismissed by publisher Majesco and Alex’s grandmother probably never got to beat the story while JP is almost certainly still fired and speaking like a glitchy robot.
Another sad bit of news that comes from CliveBarker.info states, “Clive has confirmed that the movie and other options are unlikely now to be fulfilled…” It seems that Barker, as he likes to set up, arranged for Demonik to live outside of the video game world and enter into movies and other mediums.
Sadness
What made this game stand out was not only that it was going to be on the Nintendo Wii – which is a notoriously “family friendly” console – but that it was far more focused on psychological horror over violence. Sure, it looked like there was going to be some slashing and murder but the black-and-white presentation and the promise of a seemingly fully interactive world appealed to a great many. Additionally, there were rumored to be up to 10 different endings, which would’ve made it a highly replayable game.
In the game, “Players followed Maria Lengyel, a Victorian era aristocrat of Polish-Hungarian descent who has to protect her son Alexander after their train to Lviv derails in the countryside. Alexander, who is struck blind by the accident, begins to exhibit strange behavior that progressively worsens. The game’s scenarios and enemies, such as those based on the werewolf and the likho, are inspired by Slavic mythology. [Source]”
Sadness was announced before the Wii even had its proper name, back when it was still referred to as the Nintendo Revolution. The below trailer essentially was a proof of concept for not only the game but for the console as well, the woman showing off the controller/nunchuck combination’s uses. While the Wii went on to become a major success, news of Sadness faded away and it became almost a mockery. Sites and industry folk felt cheated – rightfully so, I might add – by not being able to see or play the game in any form, even a proof of concept demo.
It came out that developers Niblis and Frontline Studios split ways due to “artistic differences” and soon afterwards Niblis essentially ceased production on the game entirely. In mid-2014, indie developers Randy Freer and Jeremy Kleve, of HullBreach Studios and Cthulhi Games respectively, claimed to have obtained the rights to the game and that they would be releasing it for the Wii U. Alas, the very day next that information was proven wrong when Freer and Kleve stated that they had failed to obtain the rights to the game.
I guess the title is a perfect representation of how many people feel about the history of this game.
InSANE
The first game on our list to include the participation of Guillermo del Toro (Pan’s Labyrinth, Hellboy), InSANE was going to be a Lovecraft-ian action/adventure that supposedly had environments, “…that players have never been through before,” per former THQ frontman Danny Bilson.
Bilson also told VG24/7, “As much as I can tell you about it is that it was an action adventure game with really great environments, story and characters, and it was period and very Lovecraftian. I don’t wanna spoil it, in the hope that Guillermo wants to go further with it.”
The reason this game hasn’t emerged from The Nameless City (HA! Lovecraft jokes galore!) is because THQ collapsed back in 2012 and InSANE has been on the shelf ever since. Supposedly del Toro owns the rights to the game, so it might see a resurrection in the future. However, I wouldn’t hold out much hope.
Resident Evil 3.5 “Hook Man”
While Resident Evil 4 is considered to be a masterpiece in the Capcom franchise, it wasn’t always designed the way it was released.
While the game always had the intention of going through 3D environments instead of pre-rendered backgrounds, there were plenty of elements that were originally conceived that ultimately didn’t work out. In the below video, which is a demo of the game in its second potential incarnation, Leon would travel though a European castle that was owned by Spencer (of Resident Evil 1 fame), fight Wesker and his team, and ultimately get infected with the “Progenitor” virus. This disease was going to be found on an ancient corpse, which would’ve given the mythology some history and depth.
Where it went different from what we ultimately got was that the game would’ve introduced hallucination elements, such as dolls coming to life and attacking Leon. There would also be ghosts and specters, including the above named “Hook Man“. Shinji Mikami himself supposedly felt that this version was so scary that he warned people not to pee their pants when watching the demo video.
The game was cancelled for a very simple reason: money. It was deemed that the goals of the developers would cost too much to put into place and therefore the entire idea was scrapped and everything began anew. Still, you can see many elements in the video that made it to the final version, including the perspective, the red laser dot sighting, Leon being infected, and the suits of knight armor suddenly attacking Leon, as well as more.
Silent Hills
You all knew this was going to be here, right? While time has rendered the pain of this cancellation into a dull ache, it’s a disappointment that will never leave my heart. The second game on this list that would’ve bore the name of Guillermo del Toro, Silent Hills revitalized interest in a series that was slowly fading away. In fact, the response upon the reveal that P.T. was really Silent Hills was nothing short of explosive. Never before had the franchise received that much attention and interest.
Alas, a falling out between Hideo Kojima and Konami rendered this project dead in the water and all we’re left with are YouTube videos of P.T. being played and memories of sweeter, more hopeful times.
Honorable Mention: The City of Metronome
Okay, so this game isn’t exactly horror but it’s so weird and so cool that I can’t leave it off the list, especially because I’ve been wanting to play it since I first heard of it over a decade ago.
The City of Metronome, which was announced at E3 2005, thrusts players into a bizarre and incredibly surreal world where sound is the weapon of choice. By recording and playing back certain tones and sounds, the player would be able to continue their journeys. It was a fascinating concept and one that appealed to me greatly, especially since the game’s world looked like a cross between The City of Lost Children, ReCycle, and American McGee’s Alice.
Since its announcement nothing has progressed with the game, even though Tarsier Studios made a deal with Sony several years ago that many thought included The City of Metronome. Unfortunately, it seems that this wasn’t the case. The company themselves write, “…alas, Lady Publisher is a fickle mistress, and The City of Metronome continues to be our ‘little game that could’.”
Found footage movies rely on immersion and a particular kind of suspension of disbelief in order to scare viewers, so it stands to reason that playing along with the “kayfabe” of it all is necessary for these movies to be effective. However, despite being something of a purist when it comes to in-universe recordings, I’ve come to accept that traditional productions can benefit from the occasional injection of found footage thrills.
For instance, Kane Parsons’ Backrooms adaptation makes genius use of the analog gimmick in order to trap us in the titular rooms alongside our main characters before effortlessly switching back to a more cinematic language. In honor of these dynamic films that manage to combine the best of both worlds, today I’d like to share six other hybrid horror movies that successfully incorporate found footage into their scares!
For the purposes of this list, “hybrid” horror movies are defined as any flick that shifts between diegetic recordings and traditional filming techniques for a significant amount of time (or at least for pivotal scenes).
As usual, don’t forget to comment below with your own hybrid favorites if you think a particularly freaky one was missed.
With that out of the way, onto the list!
5. The Last Broadcast (1998)
Internet critics may have overstated the influence that Stefan Avalos and Lance Weiler’s The Last Broadcast had on The Blair Witch Project, but the found footage subgenre still owes a huge debt to this underrated piece of avant-garde filmmaking. However, while the movie sets itself up as a documentary about the disappearance of a group of cryptid-hunters attempting to track down the Jersey Devil, things take a darker and much more grounded turn towards the final act.
I won’t get into details in order to avoid spoilers, but suffice to say that the jarring shift in perspective actually helps to sell the idea that everything we’ve seen before the finale was an attempt at using filmmaking to manipulate the public perception of a “real” incident.
Not bad for a movie with a $900 budget!
4. Cam (2018)
When you consider just how much the internet affects our daily lives, it’s strange that we don’t see Screenlife elements pop up in more movies these days. For instance, Isa Mazzei & Daniel Goldhaber’s highly underrated Cam only works as a freaky parable about online sex-work because it masterfully balances Madeline Brewer’s intimate moments with highly immersive segments within cyberspace.
While one might argue that the entire film could have been produced as a Screenlife experience, the hybrid approach allows the filmmakers to explore our main character’s life beyond the screens – with the duality of modern human existence actually becoming a recurring theme in the story.
3. Banshee Chapter (2013)
Most of H.P. Lovecraft’s popular stories were told in the epistolary format (where the text is presented as an in-universe compilation of letters or personal notes), so it makes sense that a spiritually faithful adaptation of his work would incorporate elements from the modern-day equivalent to epistolary fiction – found footage!
That’s why Blair Erickson’s Banshee Chapter is such an effective scare-fest, as this hybrid adaptation of From Beyond -retold through a conspiratorial lens as it references MK-Ultra and even secretive numbers stations- immerses viewers in a mind-bending tapestry of Cosmic Horror that blurs the line between fiction and reality.
2. The Deep House (2019)
The underwater setting does a lot of the heavy lifting when it comes to Alexandre Bustillo and Julien Maury’s The Deep House, with the film being especially uncomfortable if you’re already scared of tight spaces and being deprived of oxygen. However, even the universally unsettling elements of the flick only work because the POV often shifts into claustrophobic footage courtesy of our main characters’ GoPro cameras.
Telling the story of a couple of YouTubers who encounter a haunted house at the bottom of an artificial lake while vacationing in France, The Deep House’s first-person exploration sequences contain some of the film’s scariest moments. In fact, I’d argue that the movie didn’t even need ghosts, as becoming trapped in the titular House already sounds like a fate worse than death.
1. Behind The Mask: The Rise of Leslie Vernon (2006)
My personal favorite instance of filmmakers successfully managing to combine traditional cinematography with POV filmmaking, Behind the Mask: The Rise of Leslie Vernon, is proof that the two formats can co-exist if the right story comes along.
After all, what better way to conclude a mockumentary all about reality getting increasingly more cinematic than by ditching the found footage gimmick altogether during the finale? Not only does this shift in presentation work on a conceptual level, but it also elevates Behind The Mask into a proper Slasher, which is probably why we’re so excited for that long-overdue sequel!
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