Editorials
Hellbent Games’ ‘VHS’ Should Be On Your Radar for 2022
Asymmetrical-multiplayer survival horror (which is a mouthful that I’ll be referring to as AMSH from here on) could very well be entering its biggest year yet in 2022. Between the ongoing reign of Dead By Daylight (which will be implementing its Ringu chapter in the near future), Saber Interactive’s upcoming Evil Dead: The Game, and Gun Interactive’s recently announced Texas Chain Saw Massacre game, the roster of AMSH is looking very formidable. One game currently in its closed-beta is already causing quite a stir on social media, and upon checking it out recently, I realized that it’s for good reason: Hellbent Games’ VHS (no relation).
As the title suggests, VHS is heavily inspired by the bygone era of the 80s-90s movies whose tapes are likely collecting dust right now in your parents’ basement or attic. The 4 vs. 1 paradigm pits 4 teenagers (aptly a crew of Breakfast Club-esque archetypes like gothic Jess or jock Brett) against 1 killer that you’d expect from an 80s creature feature or slasher. From the synthy, new-wave-inspired soundtrack, to the inclusion of dance moves from Michael Jackson’s Thriller as an emote, VHS effectively rides the recent and ongoing wave of 80s nostalgia.
What sets VHS apart from other popular AMSH games is the fact that the primary objective is for both teams to eliminate each other, rather than 1 killer hunting down 4 survivors while they try to escape. While the killer uses their special abilities to pick off each teenager one-by-one, the teens’ objective is to craft special weapons throughout the map used to hunt down the killer. Each teen has a bar of health that’s worn down before they’re killed, whereas the killer has 4 weaknesses known as Stigmas: Burn, Shock, Curse, and Purify. By crafting weapons like flamethrowers, ray-guns, crucifixes, and swords, the teens can work together to strike down each Stigma to win the match.
The role of fighting back as a survivor rather than checking off objectives to escape is a refreshing change of pace for AMSH—especially since the path to winning is so non-linear. If you’d rather craft Molotov cocktails than flamethrowers to take care of the killer’s Burn stigma, or you’d rather focus on a different Stigma while your teammates handle the others, the choice is yours. On the other hand, if you prefer playing as the killer, the abilities of each killer currently available are vastly different. You can choose rush-down focused gameplay as The Werewolf, or more insidious stealthy gameplay as The Doll Master.
Similar to games like Dead By Daylight, playing as a teen is via third-person perspective, whereas playing as a monster is first-person. Stealth is an important factor in VHS as well, with the ability to hide in lockers and closets and vault over objects during chases. After two basic hits, teens will be knocked down and need to be healed by a fellow teammate in order to get back up. Crafting weapons in the most time-consuming objective during each match, taking the place of things like generators that need to be repaired, leaving teens vulnerable in the meantime.
For whichever role you prefer to play as, VHS strongly encourages you to customize your character in extensive ways. Even in its beta, the amount of ways that you can customize your character’s style, from hair color down to socks, is impressive. In addition to aesthetics, a robust perk system with perks unique to each character allows you to further craft your playstyle to fit your needs. A progression system based on leveling up is also an important feature, similar to Dead By Daylight, in obtaining new perks and in-game currency.
But while there are many similarities and inspiration from other AMSH games, VHS capitalizes on quite a bit of quality-of-life improvements that other games could take note of. For example, when knocked down as a teen, instead of being stuck in place waiting to be picked up or rescued, you’re able to project a Specter that can continue to explore the map while you wait to be healed. Teens can also communicate with each other via voice chat, pinging items or objectives that can be seen across the map, and a tracker next to each player’s HUD that indicates where each fellow survivor is at all times and what they’re working on to strategize accordingly. For example, if you see that one of your teammates is being attacked in the Chem Lab, you’ll know where to avoid.
Interestingly, in a recent update for Dead By Daylight, Behaviour Interactive announced that they’re experimenting with an extremely similar status feature that indicates what each Survivor is up to next to their player HUDs. One has to think that the positive reception to the feature in VHS may have influenced the decision to experiment with it in Dead By Daylight. This instance may be indicative of what we can expect to see more of as the AMSH space becomes more saturated—I, for one, am excited to see what kind of innovation is promoted as a result.
While an official release date hasn’t been announced, it’s a safe bet to assume that VHS will likely release sometime in 2022 based on how finished the game already feels in its beta. If you’re interested in trying out the beta, you can still sign up to receive a code on its official website—however, it may take a bit to receive it as the waitlist is apparently lengthy. If you choose to wait for the full release instead, you’ll be able to get your hands on it pretty easily: according to the developers, VHS will be free-to-play as well.
Horror was thriving so well in the 1980s that movies like Pen Densham’s The Kiss (1988) would understandably get lost in the shuffle, only to then gain their fans later on in life. Even still, this one Canadian-American curio has had a more challenging time than others, as far as contemporary reevaluations go, which is very likely due to the movie’s limited availability—at least as of this write-up.
However, the scarceness of The Kiss, while a bit annoying, makes it like catnip for ‘80s horror completists everywhere. Hopefully, a lot of them will walk away satisfied after watching this hidden gem.
Even though The Kiss was intended as the first of several horror collaborations between Astral Pictures and TriStar, as well as the first feature produced by Densham, Richard B. Lewis and John Watson’s Trilogy Entertainment Group, it ended up being the only one produced from that former union. Once the movie was released, TriStar’s distribution jitters—they opted for a regional rollout—did the $6-million flick no favors. TriStar’s cold feet toward horror releases have been well noted, but The Kiss still did a tad better than Night of the Creeps (1986), another genre outing that flopped due to its regional opening.
Shot in Montreal, but set in Albany, New York, The Kiss—which was still called The Host just a few months before its October premiere—concerns an average middle-class family and their forthcoming situation. The uncanny problem in store for them was, in fact, set in motion some years earlier. As that hot and dusty flashback to the Belgian Congo shows, a familial curse was set upon the two Dunbar sisters well before Meredith Salenger’s teenage character was born.
Meredith Salenger, Nicholas Kilbertus and Mimi Kuzyk in The Kiss
The Kiss, which was based on a story by co-writer Stephen Volk (Ghostwatch) and penned by both Volk and Tom Ropelewski, has the outward appearance of The Stepfather (1987). This movie, though, is anything but a gender-flipped retread of that classic domestic disturber. For starters, The Kiss is far less grounded in reality—that much is clear from its unsettling opening scene. There, a trusting girl (Priscilla Mouzakiotis) is the victim of her own deceptive aunt (Céline Lomez); the movie’s titular act, and the story’s first shock, becomes the means of transferring an ancient evil from one host to another.
In the present day, Salenger’s role of Amy Halloran, a religious schoolgirl, is dealt a harsh blow in life once her mother, Hilary Halloran née Dunbar (Pamela Collyer), suddenly dies in a freak accident. But rather than a complete stranger sweeping the Halloran widower (Nicholas Kilbertus) off his feet some months later, Joanna Pacula’s character is that chosen temptress. Here, Pacula plays the grown-up version of the afflicted girl last seen in the movie’s opener. Since Amy’s mother is insistent about there being no reunion between estranged sisters, and she even contemplates buying a gun shortly before her tragic demise, it’s presumable that Aunt Felice poses a threat to her family.
The Kiss isn’t a movie ever too concerned about its own predictability. The audience is indeed often one step ahead of the story here, but also keep in mind how every one of those steps is loud. Take, for instance, the death of Amy’s mother; the Halloran matriarch goes out in garish, gruesome fashion, as a supernaturally commandeered truck sends Collyer’s character through a store window first, then leaves her one leg short. The directorial enthusiasm truly comes out in horrific moments such as these.
The Kiss is always sure to revel in its characters’ ills and misfortunes. So if the plot doesn’t impress, then its lurid parts should. Amy’s mother’s exit scene was proof of an eager, first-time horror director proving his worth. Then, bestie Heather (Sabrina Boudot) survives to tell the tale of a bizarre escalator mishap that, despite showing relatively less gore, spikes viewers’ empathy meter. The wilder bits of this movie, however, commence with that inevitable hookup between Felice and Amy’s bewitched father; their kitchen coitus is paralleled by Amy’s feverish classroom terror. The outcome there is a disquieting cross-cut of sex magic and a young woman’s menstrual onset plus hallucinations.
Sabrina Boudot in The Kiss
From foam appliances to bladders, that parade of special effects in The Kiss casts its own spell on the audience. Felice’s familiar, a visibly malevolent cat, was realized here with several models, some more articulate than others. Admittedly, the demon cat’s not as convincing as most of the effects here, but accepting that artifice, as opposed to fighting it, will make the whole experience way more enjoyable. As for the makeup used to manifest Felice’s inner villainy, it is more minimal and subtle than one might like; yet the work done to turn Pacula into an antithesis of herself is nonetheless compelling.
The otherworldly perils and dreadful goings-on wouldn’t work half as well as they do in The Kiss without the story’s contrast effect. Finding frights in picturesque, extremely ordinary settings was something that took off in the ‘80s, thanks to that sweeping shift to locales like the suburbs. And Amy’s home, a replica of a real Montreal suburban house, is the ideal battleground for any proper good-versus-evil story. It’s also prime real estate for this movie’s satanic panic-inspired horrors.
Because of their ostensibly similar plots, The Kiss has been compared to The Exorcist (1973). Except in Densham’s movie, the sinister, non-Christian entity targeting a teen girl lies within something less apparent and, perhaps, more devastating upon its exposure. To an outsider, Pacula’s Aunt Felice is too beautiful and unobjectionable to ever suspect of being a monster. More suspicious is how quickly she rips into the fabric of the Halloran home. Felice’s mere presence upsets the “texture of family life,” according to the director.
The demon cat in The Kiss
Taking out Amy’s mother and best friend, and distracting her father, would suggest The Kiss is playing by a different set of rules. It is initially leaving its adolescent target unsupported in a rather grim scenario. In contrast, though, this story offers up a surrogate parent who does her best to fill in the holes of Amy’s eroding home life. Mimi Kuzyk does good work as that family friend and doctor, Brenda, who guides the lost child without also steering her in any one direction; she is naturally skeptical of Amy’s accusations until it’s almost too late to do anything about them. So although The Kiss does an admirable job of undoing the main character’s support system, it never leaves her without a lifeline. This dark movie, in spite of everything that’s transpired, doesn’t deprive itself of light and hope.
The Kiss is a potent mélange of familiar ideas. If not for the director’s surprise flair for horror, though, the movie would have been less effective. What a shame that Pen Densham didn’t continue with the genre. As for Joanna Pacula, she is, too, owed credit as the wicked vixen opposite Meredith Salenger’s pitiable Amy; she never fails to be unsettling in her role. Pacula makes Aunt Felice a sexy yet intimidating character.
For horror that steadily doles out madness and menace, while also delivering a flashy and ghastly conclusion, The Kiss is certain to please. Yes, it’s cheesy all the way, but most favorably, everyone involved plays everything straight. That kind of commitment goes a long way with this movie.
The Kiss
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