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!
Found footage movies rely on immersion and a particular kind of suspension of disbelief in order to scare viewers, so it stands to reason that playing along with the “kayfabe” of it all is necessary for these movies to be effective. However, despite being something of a purist when it comes to in-universe recordings, I’ve come to accept that traditional productions can benefit from the occasional injection of found footage thrills.
For instance, Kane Parsons’ Backrooms adaptation makes genius use of the analog gimmick in order to trap us in the titular rooms alongside our main characters before effortlessly switching back to a more cinematic language. In honor of these dynamic films that manage to combine the best of both worlds, today I’d like to share six other hybrid horror movies that successfully incorporate found footage into their scares!
For the purposes of this list, “hybrid” horror movies are defined as any flick that shifts between diegetic recordings and traditional filming techniques for a significant amount of time (or at least for pivotal scenes).
As usual, don’t forget to comment below with your own hybrid favorites if you think a particularly freaky one was missed.
With that out of the way, onto the list!
5. The Last Broadcast (1998)
Internet critics may have overstated the influence that Stefan Avalos and Lance Weiler’s The Last Broadcast had on The Blair Witch Project, but the found footage subgenre still owes a huge debt to this underrated piece of avant-garde filmmaking. However, while the movie sets itself up as a documentary about the disappearance of a group of cryptid-hunters attempting to track down the Jersey Devil, things take a darker and much more grounded turn towards the final act.
I won’t get into details in order to avoid spoilers, but suffice to say that the jarring shift in perspective actually helps to sell the idea that everything we’ve seen before the finale was an attempt at using filmmaking to manipulate the public perception of a “real” incident.
Not bad for a movie with a $900 budget!
4. Cam (2018)
When you consider just how much the internet affects our daily lives, it’s strange that we don’t see Screenlife elements pop up in more movies these days. For instance, Isa Mazzei & Daniel Goldhaber’s highly underrated Cam only works as a freaky parable about online sex-work because it masterfully balances Madeline Brewer’s intimate moments with highly immersive segments within cyberspace.
While one might argue that the entire film could have been produced as a Screenlife experience, the hybrid approach allows the filmmakers to explore our main character’s life beyond the screens – with the duality of modern human existence actually becoming a recurring theme in the story.
3. Banshee Chapter (2013)
Most of H.P. Lovecraft’s popular stories were told in the epistolary format (where the text is presented as an in-universe compilation of letters or personal notes), so it makes sense that a spiritually faithful adaptation of his work would incorporate elements from the modern-day equivalent to epistolary fiction – found footage!
That’s why Blair Erickson’s Banshee Chapter is such an effective scare-fest, as this hybrid adaptation of From Beyond -retold through a conspiratorial lens as it references MK-Ultra and even secretive numbers stations- immerses viewers in a mind-bending tapestry of Cosmic Horror that blurs the line between fiction and reality.
2. The Deep House (2019)
The underwater setting does a lot of the heavy lifting when it comes to Alexandre Bustillo and Julien Maury’s The Deep House, with the film being especially uncomfortable if you’re already scared of tight spaces and being deprived of oxygen. However, even the universally unsettling elements of the flick only work because the POV often shifts into claustrophobic footage courtesy of our main characters’ GoPro cameras.
Telling the story of a couple of YouTubers who encounter a haunted house at the bottom of an artificial lake while vacationing in France, The Deep House’s first-person exploration sequences contain some of the film’s scariest moments. In fact, I’d argue that the movie didn’t even need ghosts, as becoming trapped in the titular House already sounds like a fate worse than death.
1. Behind The Mask: The Rise of Leslie Vernon (2006)
My personal favorite instance of filmmakers successfully managing to combine traditional cinematography with POV filmmaking, Behind the Mask: The Rise of Leslie Vernon, is proof that the two formats can co-exist if the right story comes along.
After all, what better way to conclude a mockumentary all about reality getting increasingly more cinematic than by ditching the found footage gimmick altogether during the finale? Not only does this shift in presentation work on a conceptual level, but it also elevates Behind The Mask into a proper Slasher, which is probably why we’re so excited for that long-overdue sequel!
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