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Origins of Greatness: Proto Survival Horror ‘Haunted House’ at 40

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Most people think of Resident Evil when you mention the words “Survival Horror”, and rightfully so. Of course, you get old-school gamers who will also mention Capcom’s Sweet Home or Infrogrames’ Alone in the Dark. But before all of that, Atari had its own makings of the genre in 1982’s Haunted House. Being released for the Atari 2600, some today will shrug the game off due to its primitive nature when compared to other shinier, more modern games. But even at 40 years, the game is not only historically significant for sowing the seeds of Survival Horror, but an example of how the scariest things will often be conjured by your own mind.

Designed by James Andreasen, Haunted House was typical of games at the time, relying on the story in the manual to establish the setting. In the town of Spirit Bay, the curmudgeonly Zachary Graves lived a secluded life until his death, resulting in his mansion being boarded up and condemned. However, legend has it that Graves had a magic urn that was also a family heirloom of the first family of Spirit Bay. The pieces of the urn still remain in the mansion, though no one is brave enough to venture in to find them, as they say Graves’ ghost haunts the mansion. That’s where you come in: you decide to break into the mansion and find the pieces of the urn.

Gameplay consists of you having to navigate the mansion’s 24 rooms and four floors, armed only with a book of matches. The game borrows mechanics from another Atari game, Adventure, which was released in 1981. This time, the main mechanic is the darkness. You’re represented by a pair of disembodied eyes, stumbling around blind until you light a match, which illuminates items, doors, and stairways around you. You’ve got unlimited matches, but using more of them will result in a bad score (think golf, only you don’t go into the negative). Seeing as this was from the time you played to earn the best score, you can liken it to refraining from frequent uses of the typewriter to save in Resident Evil, as in doing so depletes your ink ribbons, but also would give you a bad grade at the end of the game.

Oh, and the matches also have the habit of going out in the presence of any enemies (due to the wind blowing them out), causing you to have to flee in the dark. Again, not unlike being forced to run/avoid enemies due to the scarcity of ammo in modern Survival Horror games. You can’t directly attack monsters in Haunted House, but you can obtain a scepter that grants you invisibility to them. However, Haunted House has what can be called a predecessor to Survival Horror inventory management, where you can only carry one item at a time. This means you’ll have to scout the area out with the scepter, drop it, then rush to pick up the urn piece or master key. Luckily, each urn piece you pick up will fit it into the other piece you’re already carrying.

Apart from the musical stings when you ascend/descend the stairs (or the “not really the ‘Twilight Zone’ theme” when you finish the game), there’s no music. You only have the sound of your footsteps to accompany you on your quest, with the occasional rushing wind. One could liken it to the footsteps you hear while tramping around the Spencer Mansion, and really ups the tension/scares, since the monsters will appear without warning.

Haunted House features nine different game variations, which are essentially the difficulty options. Lower types make things a bit easier for you, such as finding the master key in the first room, or having occasional lightning flashes to illuminate the floor. Higher difficulties increase the monster count, as well as having them follow you from floor to floor. The highest difficulties even punish you for losing a life if you’re holding an item, as it’ll be placed in a random room for you to find again. The game ends when you return to the main entrance of the mansion carrying the completed urn, or when all of your nine lives are lost. Again, this having to conserve your lives to better your score is akin to that ammo/item conservation we have now.

Admittedly, Haunted House today isn’t particularly deep or allows for greater replay value other than getting a better score on higher difficulty levels. However, you can see where many of the early Survival Horror mechanics came from that were adopted and fleshed out by the likes of Sweet Home, Alone in the Dark and of course, Resident Evil. It’s also still surprisingly tense to play today, particularly on the higher difficulties. It might not be as addictive or intuitive as newer titles, but historically, you can’t deny that one of the seeds of Survival Horror started here.

Thanks to AtariAge for the manual scans!

Writer/Artist/Gamer from the Great White North. I try not to be boring.

Editorials

‘Leprechaun Returns’ – The Charm of the Franchise’s Legacy Sequel

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The erratic Leprechaun franchise is not known for sticking with a single concept for too long. The namesake (originally played by Warwick Davis) has gone to L.A., Las Vegas, space, and the ‘hood (not once but twice). And after an eleven-year holiday since the Davis era ended, the character received a drastic makeover in a now-unmentionable reboot. The critical failure of said film would have implied it was time to pack away the green top hat and shillelagh, and say goodbye to the nefarious imp. Instead, the Leprechaun series tried its luck again.

The general consensus for the Leprechaun films was never positive, and the darker yet blander Leprechaun: Origins certainly did not sway opinions. Just because the 2014 installment took itself seriously did not mean viewers would. After all, creator Mark Jones conceived a gruesome horror-comedy back in the early nineties, and that format is what was expected of any future ventures. So as horror legacy sequels (“legacyquels”) became more common in the 2010s, Leprechaun Returns followed suit while also going back to what made the ‘93 film work. This eighth entry echoed Halloween (2018) by ignoring all the previous sequels as well as being a direct continuation of the original. Even ardent fans can surely understand the decision to wipe the slate clean, so to speak.

Leprechaun Returns “continued the [franchise’s] trend of not being consistent by deciding to be consistent.” The retconning of Steven Kostanski and Suzanne Keilly’s film was met with little to no pushback from the fandom, who had already become accustomed to seeing something new and different with every chapter. Only now the “new and different” was familiar. With the severe route of Origins a mere speck in the rearview mirror, director Kotanski implemented a “back to basics” approach that garnered better reception than Zach Lipovsky’s own undertaking. The one-two punch of preposterous humor and grisly horror was in full force again.

LEPRECHAUN

Pictured: Linden Porco as The Leprechaun in Leprechaun Returns.

With Warwick Davis sitting this film out — his own choice — there was the foremost challenge of finding his replacement. Returns found Davis’ successor in Linden Porco, who admirably filled those blood-stained, buckled shoes. And what would a legacy sequel be without a returning character? Jennifer Aniston obviously did not reprise her final girl role of Tory Redding. So, the film did the next best thing and fetched another of Lubdan’s past victims: Ozzie, the likable oaf played by Mark Holton. Returns also created an extension of Tory’s character by giving her a teenage daughter, Lila (Taylor Spreitler).

It has been twenty-five years since the events of the ‘93 film. The incident is unknown to all but its survivors. Interested in her late mother’s history there in Devil’s Lake, North Dakota, Lila transferred to the local university and pledged a sorority — really the only one on campus — whose few members now reside in Tory Redding’s old home. The farmhouse-turned-sorority-house is still a work in progress; Lila’s fellow Alpha Epsilon sisters were in the midst of renovating the place when a ghost of the past found its way into the present.

The Psycho Goreman and The Void director’s penchant for visceral special effects is noted early on as the Leprechaun tears not only into the modern age, but also through poor Ozzie’s abdomen. The portal from 1993 to 2018 is soaked with blood and guts as the Leprechaun forces his way into the story. Davis’ iconic depiction of the wee antagonist is missed, however, Linden Porco is not simply keeping the seat warm in case his predecessor ever resumes the part. His enthusiastic performance is accentuated by a rotten-looking mug that adds to his innate menace.

LEPRECHAUN RETURNS sequel

Pictured: Taylor Spreitler, Pepi Sonuga, and Sai Bennett as Lila, Katie and Rose in Leprechaun Returns.

The obligatory fodder is mostly young this time around. Apart from one luckless postman and Ozzie — the premature passing of the latter character removed the chance of caring about anyone in the film — the Leprechaun’s potential prey are all college aged. Lila is this story’s token trauma kid with caregiver baggage; her mother thought “monsters were always trying to get her.” Lila’s habit of mentioning Tory’s mental health problem does not make a good first impression with the resident mean girl and apparent alcoholic of the sorority, Meredith (Emily Reid). Then there are the nicer but no less cursorily written of the Alpha Epsilon gals: eco-conscious and ex-obsessive Katie (Pepi Sonuga), and uptight overachiever Rose (Sai Bennett). Rounding out the main cast are a pair of destined-to-die bros (Oliver Llewellyn Jenkins, Ben McGregor). Lila and her peers range from disposable to plain irritating, so rooting for any one of them is next to impossible. Even so, their overstated personalities make their inevitable fates more satisfying.

Where Returns excels is its death sequences. Unlike Jones’ film, this one is not afraid of killing off members of the main cast. Lila, admittedly, wears too much plot armor, yet with her mother’s spirit looming over her and the whole story — comedian Heather McDonald put her bang-on Aniston impersonation to good use as well as provided a surprisingly emotional moment in the film — her immunity can be overlooked. Still, the other characters’ brutal demises make up for Lila’s imperviousness. The Leprechaun’s killer set-pieces also happen to demonstrate the time period, seeing as he uses solar panels and a drone in several supporting characters’ executions. A premortem selfie and the antagonist’s snarky mention of global warming additionally add to this film’s particular timestamp.

Critics were quick to say Leprechaun Returns did not break new ground. Sure, there is no one jetting off to space, or the wacky notion of Lubdan becoming a record producer. This reset, however, is still quite charming and entertaining despite its lack of risk-taking. And with yet another reboot in the works, who knows where the most wicked Leprechaun ever to exist will end up next.


Horror contemplates in great detail how young people handle inordinate situations and all of life’s unexpected challenges. While the genre forces characters of every age to face their fears, it is especially interested in how youths might fare in life-or-death scenarios.

The column Young Blood is dedicated to horror stories for and about teenagers, as well as other young folks on the brink of terror.

Leprechaun Returns movie

Pictured: Linden Porco as The Leprechaun in Leprechaun Returns.

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