Editorials
Experiencing Horror From a Child’s Viewpoint in ‘Among the Sleep’ [What We Play in the Shadows]
For all their heinousness, most horror villains know there’s an unwritten rule that should always be observed: don’t kill the kid. Adults, sure. Horny teens? Ripe for the slaughter. The family pet? Not a crowd-pleaser, but not unprecedented. The young child though, the wee baby, that’s a line crossed. Even Michael Myers walked past the sobbing infant in Halloween (2018). So when a game not only puts a baby in danger but makes the player that defenseless little tyke, that’s a power move. Does Among the Sleep deliver a bloodcurdling pre-K experience, or will you just want to stop playing and take a nap? Let’s draw a picture…
David is a toddler who loves his mom and his teddy bear. He’s celebrating turning two, and all is right with the world. Or it was, until a stranger knocked on the door and upset mommy. After the cake, after the nap, things don’t feel right anymore. The house is too dark, the nursery is too big. Also, Teddy is alive and telling David that bad things are happening, so that’s a clue right there. He may only be two, but David is determined to keep mommy safe from the monsters. So with Teddy’s help, he escapes the crib, the nursery, the house, and eventually, reality itself.
Among the Sleep nails two things right at the start: the scale of the world, and the frustration of moving like a toddler. Everything feels big, imposing, and potentially dangerous, while David moves pretty much how you’d expect. He shambles slowly, can run for just a little while before falling down, and is best at crawling, which is crucial for navigating some tight spots later on. Teddy is by your side for most of the game, though he will occasionally get lost when you go down a slide or enter a new level. Teddy can be hugged to emit a calming and powerful light in darker areas. Norwegian developer Krillbite Studio put a lot of effort into twisting familiar locations like a parent’s bedroom or the local park into ominous, Tim Burton-esque obstacle courses. David’s small steps and miniscule height require pulling dresser drawers and moving chairs to get around some of the time.
Beyond the furniture fumbling, you’ll be searching for safe spaces to avoid the big bads. There are two unique monsters in the game, and specific levels where they’ll be searching for David. If the player is caught, they’ll be picked up, receive a chilling face-to-face scream, and then given the option to restart from the most recent checkpoint. This also occurs if David falls into a chasm or is otherwise hurt, although Krillbite wisely did not include any animations or sound effects of an injured baby. A “bad ending” that was ultimately scrapped but is included in the definitive edition reveals very bad fortunes for the player indeed, on par with the children in a Grimm fairy tale.
The sore point here is that the game is never very frightening. Whether that’s due to the concept of playing as an infant or because the developers are going for horror of a quieter sort, the scares are minimal here. The monsters are easy enough to steer clear of and the puzzles never get all that difficult. Krillbite wanted to hit harder with their story. Did they succeed? That’s a question everyone has to answer for themselves. I appreciated the tale they were telling and I know many people that have lived through a similar experience. It may be especially affecting for some.
There’s fun to be had in thinking up one-to-one philosophical ratios for all the things represented in the game -is this a deadly game of cat and mouse, or just hide-and-seek?- but ultimately, Among the Sleep excels with its environmental design more than anything else. The game itself is too easy, the scares too light. This doesn’t erase the power of its story and the inventiveness of its design, but others may want more from their horror titles. A definitive edition adds the previously mentioned alternate “bad ending” as well as a prologue DLC, with a wintry setting and a new monster. There’s also a free demo available to see what you think of David’s adventures.
Among the Sleep is available on XBOX One, PS4, Nintendo Switch, and Steam.
“Elevated Horror.” Of all the combinations in the English language, that one is the most insufferable.
It represents almost a decade of scary movies that, for the most part, took themselves too seriously. Horror responds to the moment, so its “why so serious” lean makes sense as we scuttle through the “worst of times” equation of Charles Dickens’ famous opening lines. But there’s still an opening and a need for a lighter approach; one that not only has fun with its audience but takes the piss out of a genre that is seemingly letting its newfound “respectability” go to its head.
Wes Craven believed devotees see horror films to let out their fears one primal scream at a time. At their core, these movies are roller coasters; they bring us as close to the edge as possible before pulling us back into a safety net of reality. The need for a bigger and badder coaster increases during times when the size of that net decreases.
There’s a thrill that comes from imagining being in a foot race with a madman, or outthinking the hordes of zombies on the other side of the door, plus the scavenger humans coming behind them. There’s even a rush that comes from imagining how one might deal with possession to see good triumph over evil in the end. It’s all about building tension and releasing it through catharsis. That cathartic release usually sounds like screams followed by laughter, which signals relief. Genre heavy hitters over the past 10 years offered very little of that respite when the credits rolled. Films like Hereditary, The Witch, Talk to Me, and even Smile (pick one) keep that tension going after the screen fades to black.
Hereditary
As the genre became obsessed with creating trauma metaphors, that lack of release made sense. Anyone with even a small sample size of traumatic experiences knows those emotions don’t magically resolve themselves in an allotted run time. But how much trauma can one take? Especially when there’s a mess going on outside that few of us can escape from. Movies offer that off-ramp, no matter how short.
Everything can’t be, nor should it be, “elevated.” Audiences need thoughtful explorations of life’s ills via monsters as much as they need murdering masked maniacs with kitchen knives. And no, it doesn’t have to go any deeper than that. Sometimes, a knife is just a knife, and it’s still worth our time and respect. As weird as it sounds, that simplicity is comforting not in spite of the trauma but because of it.
The worst of times should manifest more than just anguish. People need to laugh just as much as they need to think seriously about this moment in time. Even the Scream franchise forgot the meta rock upon which it built its church when the latest foray sacrificed the subtle comedy for serious drama. Scary Movie returned at the perfect moment. It provides the necessary laughs, but it’s not a cure-all.
This isn’t a call for Scary Movie imitators but a return to a mainstream landscape where Killer Klowns from Outer Space sat with The Serpent and the Rainbow, nestled neatly with the latest Nightmare on Elm Street, which took nothing away from The Vanishing.
They Live
Even They Live, John Carpenter’s horror sci-fi satire sandwich, kept its tongue firmly in cheek while discussing serious ideas still relevant in 2026. Yes, a film about aliens taking over the world through subliminal messaging only visible through coded sunglasses is, in fact, a tad silly. Carpenter understood that mainstream horror can’t become so self-important that it never looks itself in the mirror and laughs at that inherent silliness.
The thing is, horror historically excels at poking fun at itself. Most of the Scream franchise, The Cabin in the Woods, or The Blackening show adoration without kowtowing. They recognize tropes and trappings but invert them for an audience already in on the joke, but one that also finds solace in said conventions. This keeps the genre on its toes; once something gets parodied, it’s usually time to evolve. That breeds new ideas and fresh filmmakers, which not only strengthen the genre’s collective voice but also amplify it.
Get Out, as “elevated” as some critics want us to believe it is, is a cathartic, populist scary movie that spoke to an untapped audience rather than speaking down to them. Backrooms is one of the biggest horror hits in years, partially because it’s fine-tuned for modern-day teenagers instead of their parents. Movies like these tell everyone the genre is open for business; open for innovation and, yeah, open for new ways in which people can lovingly poke fun at with a wink and a nudge.
Horror needs dread as much as it needs laughter.
Catharsis is just as important as tension, and pulpy populism has the same merit as more high-brow material. Respectability shouldn’t come at the expense of an experience akin to walking through a haunted house. At a time when joy seems in short supply, horror should look to its past to map out its future, and make things just a tad brighter for audiences.
Backrooms
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