Podcasts
How Well Does ‘Tormented Souls’ Capture Classic Survival Horror? [Safe Room Podcast]
Innovation isn’t always everything. For as frequently as the industry champions evolving genre standards, a portion of fanbases still frequently yearn for something familiar.
Call it rose-tinted glasses or yearning for days of yesteryears, but games that serve as a homage to more classical game design are seemingly a hot commodity these days.
And while I champion many of the modern advancements that the horror genre has made over the last decade, I still occasionally seek games evoking older ethos and eras of game design.
Old’ reliables, if you will.
While on the surface these games may seem antiquated, through proper execution aided by a developer’s understanding, and love, of the genre it can create, well, genre magic. Games such as this week’s topic Tormented Souls, which applies a modern coat of paint to a tried and true survival horror formula.
But does Tormented Souls do more than JUST capture a specific slice of horror history, or is it capitalizing on our nostalgia?
Safe Room is a weekly horror video game discussion podcast, premiering on all major platforms every Monday. Feel free to browse our LinkTree for a complete list of services here.
Safe Room – @SafeRoomPod
Neil – @Nezzko
Jay – @NotFunnyJ
On the DL.
After spending June on explicitly queer texts like Emerald Fennell’s Saltburn (listen) and William Castle’s Homicidal (listen), it’s only appropriate that Horror Queers celebrate the American holiday with a blockbuster film with a not-so-secret gay connection.
In Independence Day, an unlikely group of people come together when the human race faces extinction from a threatening alien race. After spaceships destroy every major city, pilot Steven Hiller (Will Smith) must team up with secret tech genius David Levinson (Jeff Goldblum), as well as the US President (Bill Pullman), to execute a daring plan to save the planet from annihilation.
Along for the ride are the two saviors’ romantic partners – WH Communications Director Constance (Margaret Colin) and stripper Jasmine (Vivica A. Fox) – plus eccentric scientist Dr. Okun (Brent Spiner), who is at the center of the film’s most horrific set piece.
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Episode 393: Independence Day (1996)
Today, we celebrate our Independence Day…courtesy of gay German director Roland Emmerich.
As the summer blockbuster celebrates its 30th anniversary, we’re looking back on an alien disaster film that scared young Trace (thanks to that alien autopsy scene) and turned Will Smith into a star.
Plus: the death that upsets the most; bemoaning Vivica A. Fox’s career; pondering what could have been with the casting; why Smith’s bravado and the film’s patriotism doesn’t always work for Joe; and plenty of riffing on the atrocious sequel.
Cross out Independence Day!
Coming Up Next: We’re retreating to the country for some questionable therapy courtesy of Joe Dante’s 1981 classic, The Howling!
P.S. Subscribe to our Patreon for over 503 hours of Patreon content including this month’s new episodes on Terminator 2: Judgment Day, Forbidden Fruits, Saccharine, Evil Dead Burn, an audio commentary on the utterly ridiculous sequel Howling II: Your Sister Is A Werewolf (1985), and the conclusion of our Requel Tier coverage of AMC’s The Vampire Lestat.
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