Kicking off the second season of The Dark Pictures Anthology, the recent release of Directive 8020 has seen Supermassive Games’ line of choose-your-own-adventure gorefests decamping our patch of the cosmos for the Tau Ceti system.
Alas — unlike Ryan Gosling in Project Hail Mary — when the luckless astronauts of this title arrive at the touted Goldilocks zone, they don’t end up forging life-long bromances with any of the ETs they bump into. On the contrary, their experience of first contact is decidedly more hostile, leading to a desperate fight for survival that’s equal parts Alien and The Thing.
The Dark Pictures have always flitted between different settings and themes, but this latest jump to space horror is undoubtedly their biggest pivot yet. Which raises the question: “Where can they possibly go from here?”
In the past, we’ve had a decent inkling of what’s around the corner, as each previous anthology instalment has concluded with a sneak peek teeing up the next game. Directive 8020 sort of upholds this tradition, although it takes way more effort to uncover the hidden teaser this time, and it’s not particularly revealing when you do.
All it shows is a degraded VHS tape playing on its own accord and flashing up a string of increasingly unsettling images. A startled deer. A subliminal flash of glaring eyes. A group of people hypnotically pacing around in a circle. An occult glyph is being etched onto the screen. And then, finally, a decrepit, spindly hand reaching out from a black void.
There’s not much we can glean from this preview, to be honest, other than that the next Dark Pictures entry is presumably going to have some kind of paranormal slant. So, if nothing else, it should be a good palate cleanser after all of Directive 8020’s sci-fi escapades!
The thing is, whatever form this upcoming project does take, the team at Supermassive will still have plenty of unmined ideas and juicy horror tropes left to explore. To date, they’ve flirted with slashers, torture porn, ghost stories, vampire flicks, and body horror, while also doing a weird witchcraft trials riff on that noughties road-movie Reeker (Little Hope was an odd duck).
Yet there’s so much still on the table! With that said, as The Dark Pictures heads into the promising new era of its sophomore season, now seems like the opportune moment to draw up a wishlist of which horror subgenres we’d like to see the franchise tackling next. Here are seven that we think they should prioritise!
International Horror
Back when The Dark Pictures was still in its adolescence, and sat under the publishing banner of Bandai Namco, a trilogy pack was released in Europe, bundling together the first three games in the series. This shipped with an assortment of goodies, including a nifty SteelBook case, a set of pins, and a cloth map that depicted the known world.
Dotted sporadically around the latter collectable were a handful of symbols that each corresponded to the setting of a different instalment in the anthology (as it stood at the time). A ship marooned in the Pacific denoted where our hapless vacationers got stranded in Man of Medan, while a seventeenth-century ragdoll placed in the New England territories marked the witchy happenings of Little Hope, and a crescent moon over Iraq delineated House of Ashes’ combat zone.
Although it was never made explicit, we always took this map to be a mission statement for The Dark Pictures going forward. An articulation of Supermassive’s globe-trotting aspirations for the franchise, and a sign that they hoped to one day raise their inky-black flag in each and every continent. Much like how jetsetters use those scratch maps to proudly tick off all the travel destinations they’ve been to.
Yet if this Dark Pictures atlas were to be updated now, the icons would still largely be concentrated in or around America. There’d be representation for The Devil in Me in the Chicago area, and some kind of topographical contouring that places Directive 8020 way out of the atmosphere, but nothing in Europe, the Far East, Africa, or the Antipodes.
We’d like to see the series expanding its horizons in Season 2, then, not only for the literal change of scenery, but because it would also open up tantalizing possibilities for new genre switch-ups. Just imagine an Italian giallo entry, some Aussie outback horror, or even something that boldly homages the New French Extremity (only half-serious with that last one).
J-Horror
The likeliest and most fitting candidate, however, would have to be J-horror. As a genre, it clicks super well with the interactive movie formula, given that its protagonists are often doomed by the poor choices they make (be it to watch an evil VHS tape, to answer a sinister phone call, or to trespass in a notorious murder house) and must then figure out the precise steps they need to follow in order to avert their appointment with death. Which might as well be a standardised synopsis for every single game in The Dark Pictures Anthology!
Case in point, the ethical dilemma that our heroine is faced with at the end of Ringu — whereby they have to either accept the grim fate that’s been handed to them or otherwise pass Sadako’s curse on to a patsy — is practically gift-wrapped for this type of choose-your-own-adventure experience. If you squint next time you’re watching Hideo Nakata’s film, you can almost imagine the branching-path options loading before your very eyes. “Copy the Tape” or “Don’t Copy the Tape”.
But it’s not just J-horror’s emphasis on moral deliberation that makes it feel uniquely suited to The Dark Pictures’ whole deal. The genre also tends to have a heavy
investigatory element — as characters race against the clock to uncover the truth behind supernatural goings-on — a countdown structure that lends itself nicely to video game chapters, and some basis in real-life folklore or urban legend. All of which are prerequisites for The Dark Pictures Anthology. Like onryō spirits and poor plumbing, these two would go perfectly together.
Gothic Horror
If, on the other hand, the Surrey-based developers would prefer to make something that hits a little closer to home, they could always turn to old Blighty for inspiration. It’d make sense to honour their roots and have at least one of these games take place somewhere in the UK, what with half of the actors on their Rolodex hailing from the nation to begin with (including Will Poulter, Pip Torrens, Paul Kaye and Latasha Lynch).
And if you’re going to do something set on this quaint isle, then the most obvious route to go down would be a traditional gothic chiller, à la The Woman in Black or The Turn of the Screw. Because Christ knows England, Wales, and Scotland have got more than enough local ghost stories to pick from, whether it’s the wraiths that are said to stalk the Tower of London, the Grey Lady of Glamis Castle, or the headless Princess Gwenllian. Hell, you can barely walk ten steps down the cobbled streets of York without bumping into another purported spook site or supposedly haunted pub.
If they wanted to, Supermassive could fully embrace their heritage and commit to doing a proper period-piece set in Victorian England, switching out Little Hope’s camera-torches for kerosene lamps and Directive 8020’s spaceship decks for stately homes. It’d be a welcome change of pace after all of the series’ 21st-century scenarios, and could be an opportunity to pivot away from the blunt jump scares and gore that have defined The Dark Pictures thus far. Indeed, the developers could take the opportunity to deliver more elegant, subdued frights, adding a welcome touch of class to proceedings.
Exploitation Horror
An alternative to class, of course, is pure sleaze. The Dark Pictures have been relatively straight-laced when it comes to everything but elaborate deaths. Sure, characters are liable to meet sticky ends if you lead them astray, but the resulting kills are over-the-top and not in the least bit disturbing (unless you’re of a very sensitive disposition). Not to mention, there’s a general avoidance of taboo subject matter, upsetting themes, and even strong language. Considering that they take after infamously horny flicks like Friday the 13th, they’re remarkably chaste too.
Plunging into the grimy depths of grindhouse cinema could be a way to make the puritanical titles feel more dangerous and disreputable than they do. To be clear, we’re not advocating for some tasteless, interactive rape-revenge premise or anything, but there is scope to introduce a bit more grit into the franchise. Perhaps something along the lines of The Texas Chain Saw Massacre. You know, something that’s legitimately transgressive, brutal, and grungy. It’d be a timely move as well, given that Ti West’s X trilogy recently gave the movement a new lease on life and dragged it back into the cultural zeitgeist.
If they don’t want to go whole hog here (which is understandable, given how off-putting to general audiences this sort of thing can be), they could still gesture towards the exploitation cycle. Even if it just meant emulating the DIY aesthetic of the genre’s ‘70s heyday.
Religious Horror
Another wave of horror that was inescapable in the ’60s through the ’70s, and often cross-pollinated with exploitation cinema, is religious horror.
Out of everything on our list, this is probably the most glaring omission from The Dark Pictures canon thus far, particularly when you consider how many bona fide classics belong in the conversation (see The Exorcist, The Omen, Rosemary’s Baby, etc.). If Supermassive truly aims to encompass everything that horror is and can be, then they’ll have to tackle this theme sooner or later.
There’s a lot of cool stuff they could do with it! Their dialogue system, for instance, could be used to ask probing questions about dogma and to test the faith of characters with different values and opposing world views (a la CBS’s “Evil“). Meanwhile, the patented “Turning Point” system could enable you to respond to supernatural phenomena— be it a possession, a miracle, or a demonic infestation — with either a cold scientific rationalism or an unwavering belief in the divine, presenting a really interesting fork in the road that could have meaningful consequences for the story.
Apocalyptic Horror
With its emphasis on stealth encounters and a Resident Evil-esque puzzle that had you mixing chemical compounds, Directive 8020 saw The Dark Pictures affording players greater agency than ever before. Should the development team want to continue down this road, tentatively adopting more interactive elements that go beyond mere QTEs, then they’ll need to pick a genre that gives them sufficient latitude for that.
There’s arguably no better option in this respect than apocalyptic horror. Because any Doomsday calamity will inevitably leave the world divided and fraught with danger, and those who linger on after the bombs / viral outbreak/ A.I. Armageddon/ sound-sensitive alien invasion (tick as appropriate) will need to forever keep their guard up.
Which means it will be really easy for Supermassive to integrate persistent, real-time threats into their story. It’s why zombie pandemics have always been the go-to scenario for survival horror games for decades, as they give you an inexhaustible supply of enemies that you can evade or gun down. Speaking of which, if Supermassive ever wanted to branch out into full-blown combat mechanics, either gun or melee-based, then doing the George A. Romero thing wouldn’t be a bad place to start.
Holiday Horror
It’s not commercially viable for myriad reasons (not least because no one in their right mind would release a AAA title that people would only want to play for one month out of the entire calendar year), but our dream scenario is for Supermassive to embrace holiday horror. Specifically, we’d go nuts for a Dark Pictures Christmas Special!
Whatever kind of story you choose to tell here — whether it’s a killer Santa murder spree, a Krampus-style take on Yuletide traditions, or just a secular creature feature that happens to unfold at the most wonderful time of the year — it’s bound to be a ton of fun. After all, ‘tis the season for petty dramas and long-repressed hostilities bubbling to the surface.
You see, we’ve always enjoyed fanning the flames of characters’ interpersonal conflicts in these games, and there’s no better time to stoke those tensions than during the holidays. You’ve got (often dysfunctional) families cooped up together for days on end, the stresses of present buying, awkwardness around the mistletoe, and people getting unwisely liquored up around those they secretly resent. It’s a powder keg ready to blow, and, as the puppet master manipulating the strings of everyone involved, you get the privilege of deciding if, when, and how it all blows up.
Even without rampaging psychopaths or bloodthirsty ghouls on the prowl, it’d be a hoot exploiting this messy dynamic. Especially since it has been sorely lacking from the last few Supermassive outings, which have all revolved around button-down professionals (are we the only ones yearning for the hormonal soap opera antics of Until Dawn?)
And then, when the horror does begin in earnest, the developers would have free rein to devise hundreds of ironic seasonal kills for players to discover — from fairy light strangulations to candy cane impalements and mangled bodies being jammed down chimneys. You’d be compelled to play it over and over again just to collect them all!
In short, cheesiness like this would play to the franchise’s strengths. Of course, the main reason we’re pushing for holiday horror is so that we can see the Curator wearing a fetching festive hat and sweater as he bookends the tale. That’d be the only gift we’d ever need!
Anyway, those are the subgenres we’d most like to see The Dark Pictures exploring next, but what about you? Would you be interested in an animal attack outing? A bit of folk horror? Some gateway horror? Or something else entirely?
Directive 8020, is out now on PlayStation 5, Xbox Series and Steam.