With today’s release of new content for Friday the 13th, it got us thinking – what other horror movies would make great video games. After some discussion, we settled on these eight.
Think we missed one? Tell us what it is in the forums!
Tremors
Tremors told the story of a small Nevada town that was under attack from giant underground worms that could sense movement on the surface. The video game adaptation would need to combine Mirror’s Edge-like parkour with some varied landscapes and special abilities to help escape the worms if you made a a mistake. You’d also have to rescue some NPCs that weren’t as adroit as you.
The Cabin in the Woods
The Cabin in the Woods was a 2012 film that told the tale of five friends caught in a cabin of horrors manipulated from below. In the game, you’d play as the technicians manipulating the college students in the cabin, using whatever means at your disposal to make sure the deaths are in the proper order to satisfy the Ancient Ones. Increasingly difficult scenarios and additional methods of dispatch would allow for variety in how you approach your grisly task.
The Collector
The Collector is a 2009 horror film about a man who collects one person in a household and kills the rest. The game adaptation could go one of two ways. First, you are trying to escape and survive the NPC Collector, who uses traps and other items to impede your escape. On the other hand, it could be an asymmetrical multiplayer game with one player playing as the Collector while the rest try to escape without letting the Collector get his randomly designated victim.
The Purge
The world The Purge is one where once a year, there is a 12-hour period where all crime is legal, and police, fire, and other first responders are unavailable. In the game, you would need to create a character using a point-based attribute system. You could choose to be a military man with good combat skills, a skilled orator who can talk his way out of anything, or a sneaky thief who can hide anywhere, just as a few examples. You’d then have to use your skills to forge alliances, hide out, or fight your way through the 12-hour purge and survive.
House on Haunted Hill
Although it’s been remade in theaters, House on Haunted Hill has never had a video game adaptation. The story of five people trying to earn $10,000 by spending the night in a “haunted” house is a classic, and could make for a really fun video game that would be part murder mystery, part puzzle game. You’d find clues that point to who the murderer is, solve puzzles to figure out if the ghosts in the house are real or not, and try to stay alive until morning.
Child’s Play
The 1988 horror film Child’s Play told the story of a doll that was possessed by the spirit of a serial killer. In the game adaptation, you’d play as Chuckie. While trying to take your revenge on the people that had wronged you, you’d also have to make sure that your crimes were committed in a way that made someone else look responsible. The end goal, much like the movie, would be to escape the doll and return to a human form.
The Shining
Few horror movies have been discussed more than Stanley Kubrick’s take on Stephen King’s The Shining, but it still hasn’t had a video game adaptation. This one would cast you as Danny Torrance, a young boy spending the winter with your father, who’s the caretaker of The Overlook Hotel. Using your ability to hear thoughts (called “Shining”), and your sensitivity to the supernatural, you’d need to avoid the evil spirits in the hotel, as well as heading off those trying to turn your father against you and your mother. Can you survive the winter?
Nightmare on Elm Street
Now that Jason Voorhies has his own game, and Michael Myers has appeared in Dead by Daylight it’s high time we got a game for the penultimate star of 1980’s horror / slasher films: Freddy Kreuger. Freddy didn’t stalk his victims in the real world, but in their dreams. In our imagined video game, adaptation, you’d need to research Freddy, and try to learn what you’d need to fend him off in the dream, all while fighting off sleep long enough to properly prepare. Gathering items like caffeinated drinks, caffeine pills, and more would let you stave off sleep a while longer, but eventually you’d find yourself in the dream world, where you’d confront Freddy and try to fight him off. Once you survive long enough to find everything you need to defeat him, you can take him on.
