Horror fans and gamers are similar breeds. Sitting down enjoying some snacks and a frosty one, getting hooked on fictional worlds and losing themselves to the plot and characters, it comes as no surprise that the two tribes often overlap. Although games based on horror films are never particularly good- or any game based on a film, to be more precise- there have been a few instances in which games have taken the lore and atmosphere of horror movies, transforming a static experience into an interactive one! Here are some of our favourites.
JAWS Unleashed
Although absolute horror purists might disagree with JAWS’ designation as a horror film, its suspense, gore and fear factor definitely scream horror film! JAWS Unleashed, released in 2006 on PS2,PC and Xbox, was based on the film and saw players playing as the titular Carcharodont, enjoying gameplay that could only feasibly be described as “Grand Shark Auto”. It sounded amazing and was, to a degree; the game was rather buggy and suffered from tedious camera problems.
Alien Trilogy
Released in 1996 for PlayStation, Sega Saturn and MS-DOS, Alien Trilogy was a very well received first person shooter game based vaguely on the first three Alien films. Players generally wandered around an alien-overrun colony shooting aliens and trying to escape, and proved a hit with lovers of Sci-Fi and Horror. Alien-based games have been very popular recently. Alien: Isolation, Alien: Colonial Marines and an Aliens-based game that can be showcased through a growing online gaming promoter Red8’s where players can browse the latest offers alongside getting the fright of their lives; will we see more of these games in the future? Probably!
The Blair Witch Project
This film is a rather divisive title among horror film fans, but let’s be honest with ourselves; at least during the first viewing of this cult classic you did get spooked a fair few times! The Blair Witch Project video game series, released throughout 2000, was very well regarded among game fans and reviewers, who loved the game’s excellent use of lighting and atmosphere- this was the year 2000, after all- but found the game’s rather uninspired combat system and enemies rather tedious. The games took the form of prequels to the film, all being centred around the basement from the film within which the main characters are attacked by (what is presumed to be) the witch! Take a look at the game for yourself!
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