Editorials
FNTASTIC’s ‘Propnight’ is a Refreshingly Lighthearted Take on Asymmetrical Horror
Picture this-you’re watching an intense slasher movie with a killer that wields a massive chainsaw. The killer is making a beeline for a seemingly helpless teenager, barreling down hallways as his victim screams out in terror. The killer gains on the teen, lifts, and revs his chainsaw, rounds a corner, and…suddenly, the teen is gone. But a random rubber ducky sits suspiciously in the middle of the hallway before slowly rolling away, later revealed to be the teen in disguise. This is the premise of FNTASTIC’s Propnight: teenagers transforming into mundane, inanimate objects to avoid being sliced and diced by murderers.
Propnight is another addition to the asymmetrical multiplayer horror space–a genre currently in its limelight with hits like Dead By Daylight and Friday The 13th: The Game, and highly anticipated titles like Saber Interactive’s Evil Dead: The Game. As the genre becomes more saturated, developers have acknowledged that it’s becoming a more difficult space to break into. Rather than take the venerated IP route, or fully pivot into the survival-horror route, Propnight took the road less taken–a lighthearted, somewhat comical route with its prop gimmick. And it works – being chased down by a killer as a trash can is surprisingly fun!
The gameplay paradigm can most closely be likened to Behaviour Interactive’s Dead By Daylight: Four players control four different teenagers on a survivor team, while one player controls one of (currently six) killers. The objective of the survivors is to repair 5 different Prop Machines to escape, while the killer’s objective is to knock each survivor down and carry them to a “Hypnochair” (think electric chair, except less scary). Where Propnight most significantly diverges is the survivors’ ability to transform into props–rocks, scarecrows, suits of armor, backpacks, you name it.
Matches take place on a randomly selected map that can range from a camp to a castle. This means that in one instance, you could be rolling around as a hotdog and in the next, a giant sword. The range of potential props to transform into is impressive: almost every single item on the map can be used as a disguise. This works in Propnight’s favor in alleviating one of the most commonly critiqued aspects of asymmetrical horror: redundancy. The maps vary significantly enough that it feels like a unique experience for each match.
Transforming into a prop has a variety of uses. If you’re playing as a survivor that was chased into a garage, you can quickly transform into a toolbox to try and blend in with your surroundings. If you’re up against The Granny, a killer with projectile weapons, you can transform into a smaller target like a soda can to avoid being hit. Or in a desperate situation with nowhere to turn, you can transform into a large item like a bale of hay to try and bonk the killer over the head to stun them. The system is as surprisingly complex as it is hilarious to watch: Propnight is the only asymmetrical horror game where a killer can get hit over the head by a player transformed into a refrigerator while you hide as a garbage bag in the corner and watch.
While playing as a survivor is where Propnight truly shines, its diverse range of killers makes the other side fun to play as well. One killer, The Imposter (clearly a spoof on Slenderman) allows you to disguise yourself as a prop or one of the survivors to stealthily ambush your prey. High-mobility killers like Igor and The Banshee cater to folks who prefer rush-down gameplay to control map objectives. While there are currently only six killers, players shouldn’t have any trouble pinpointing one that suits their murderous needs.
In addition to the prop mechanic, Propnight feels fresh from the batch of other asymmetrical horror games on the market right now because it doesn’t take itself very seriously. Where Dead By Daylight features its survivors screaming in agony as they dangle from bloody meat hooks, Propnight’s survivors will deliver melodramatic, Scooby-Doo-esque “I’m being chased!” quips – the game even allows a random fart mechanic for instances when you’re bored waiting to be rescued or trying to taunt the killer.
Propnight’s tone can easily be polarizing for those seeking a more “hardcore” survival-horror experience, but it’s a breath of relief in a genre that has otherwise felt intense and potentially alienating for folks who want a more casual experience. Not to mention that this doesn’t mean Propnight isn’t capable of being a competitive game–it had a competitive matchmaking system until a recent update (presumably being buffered out to be reimplemented in the future). Propnight fills a void that has been neglected thus far in asymmetrical horror and highlights the important fact that horror doesn’t always have to check the box of being absolutely terrifying to still fit the genre. Sometimes you just want to transform into a giant stuffed rabbit while being chased by knockoff Slenderman–Propnight is there to let you do it!
I first heard about The Mandela Catalogue through a couple of nephews who were obsessed with the ARG’s sinister mythology. It was only after watching Wendigoon’s in-depth analysis of the series that I realized just how deep this rabbit hole goes.
In fact, I’d already been exposed to the nightmarish visuals of Alex Kister’s YouTube creation for years at that point without even realizing that it was the origin of several viral “cursed images” and spooky memes that had leaked into the wider internet – with this viral element actually being a part of the Catalogue’s overarching narrative.
Flash-forward to 2026 and the unprecedented success of Kane Parsons’ Backrooms has led to Hollywood betting on horrific internet properties with existing fanbases, which means that Kister’s unique hybrid of both religious and analog horror is finally headed to the big screen with a script written by Kister himself alongside Tyler Clifton.
While this news shouldn’t be too surprising if you’ve been keeping up with the ongoing success of The Mandela Catalogue (both myself and Wendigoon having previously predicted that the series would inevitably make the jump to theaters one day), plenty of horror fans are likely confused as to why so many folks are excited for what appears to be a Hollywood adaptation of a series of creepy .jpeg images under a VHS filter.
With that in mind, today I’d like to invite fellow readers to accompany me as I explore the origins of Alex Kister’s viral hit and attempt to explain exactly why we should all be excited about the Mandela Catalogue adaptation!
From High School Writing Project to Internet Horror Phenomenon
The first seeds of The Mandela Catalogue were sown when Kister was still in high school and developed a writing project subverting religious tropes in a world where biblical history had been altered by demonic forces. A little while later, Kister came across an analog horror contest on Reddit and decided to adapt his ideas into a standalone video where he would edit a religious kids’ cartoon –The Beginner’s Bible: The Nativity, to be specific- into something far creepier. This is how the iconic Overthrone video was born, with this viral short film taking on a life of its own as fans demanded more eerie content from Kister.
Though the video was originally meant to be a one-and-done sort of affair, with Kister actually regretting some of its primitive visuals and considering the editing amateurish and “YouTube-Poop-like” when compared to his current standards, fan reaction and free time during the COVID-19 pandemic encouraged the (then) seventeen-year-old filmmaker to continue producing content set in this same world. The Mandela Catalogue name was inspired by the Mandela Effect conspiracy theory, as the series would slowly begin to explore the subtle horror of alternate histories.
Inspired by existential dread brought on by extended periods of quarantine as well as a personal crisis of faith, Kister continued to expand his alternate timeline where the rise of Christianity had been prevented by what was presumably the Devil disguised as the Archangel Gabriel. This alternate course of fictional events led to the existence of certain paranormal anomalies that had come to be accepted as “normal” by the 1990s, which is why most of the series’ supernatural horror is presented in such a matter-of-fact manner.
Most of this background information and religious lore is delivered by increasingly cryptic broadcasts and in-universe PSAs, as well as the occasional found footage video, that often have to be decoded by clever viewers. Of course, it’s the consistently disturbing imagery that made the series so popular – much of which was originally created by Kister on a smartphone!
The Alternates: Horror’s Most Unsettling Modern Monsters
The show’s early episodes mostly take place within the fictional Mandela County in Wisconsin and depict life in a world where demonic entities are capable of using media to enter our reality. This process usually involves scaring victims into killing themselves and then repurposing their bodies as horrific doppelgangers referred to as “Alternates”. This terrifying phenomenon has become so common that local police already have specialized procedures in place to deal with the issue, though this usually consists of simply ignoring calls for help so as to avoid spreading so-called “Metaphysical Awareness Disorder” any further.
Over time, Kister would expand this mythology and incorporate different kinds of Alternates into the mix, though the story never stopped deconstructing religious concepts. The series’ second volume exponentially increased both video quality and the overall narrative scope as we began to follow the lives of characters who had already grown up in this dystopian hellscape where the government is forced to prohibit religion, television, and even mirrors in the hopes of mitigating the damage done by the ongoing invasion of otherworldly entities.
The really interesting part comes into play when you realize exactly how the Alternates make use of scary media in order to spread their demonic influence, with the analog horror of it all being a diegetic part of the story and something of a memetic trap orchestrated by the false Gabriel.
I particularly appreciate how some characters begin to suspect that there’s something wrong with their version of reality and that things weren’t meant to play out this way, especially when Mark utters the haunting line “who have I been praying to all this time?” That’s why I think The Mandela Catalogue is an effective piece of religious horror even if you don’t subscribe to the Christian worldview, as the mere idea of a world where evil has already won is a universally terrifying concept in and of itself. Not only that, but the series’ uncanny analog imagery alone is already worth the price of admission, as you’ve likely already noticed by looking at the pictures accompanying this article.
Why The Feature Adaptation Could Be Horror’s Next Big Success
It’s actually been a whole year since Kister first announced that he had been working on a feature-length screenplay for a Mandela Catalogue movie since 2022, with his proposed story following an ensemble of high-school graduates who uncover a supernatural conspiracy after the mysterious disappearance of a fellow student. This premise sounds similar to narrative elements present in the series’ second volume, but I’m pretty sure that Kister is going to go the Kane Parsons route and make the movie more of a spin-off than a re-imagining of its source material.
While notable Hollywood producers like Aaron B. Koontz, Scott Stuber, and Steven Spielberg himself are backing the upcoming project, I feel like there’s no one better to adapt this deeply personal exploration of faith and the dark side of communication than the person who first came up with it. That’s why I can’t wait to see Kister’s work on the big screen, as I have a feeling that this young filmmaker is the next one on the list about to make cinematic history – especially since this is clearly a passion project that has been in the works for years at this point!
That being said, there’s always a chance that the film could end up unleashing a fresh wave of Alternate incursions, but I guess that’s just a risk we’ll have to take.
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