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After the resounding success that was Five Nights at Freddy’s and the recent announcements of both Dead By Daylight and Until Dawn receiving live-action adaptations, it seems that the dreaded ‘video game curse’ has been lifted. Even the Sonic the Hedgehog movies failed to disappoint and will surely prove to be a well-rounded trilogy. With live-action horror on the rise, however, studios have yet to hit the mark on the most anticipated horror game makeovers.
Some indie horror titles might never see the light of day as far as a big break in Hollywood. But this isn’t to say that major production companies aren’t spoilt for choice with ample opportunities to boot. Oftentimes, all it takes is the right connections. Maybe, if we’re lucky, the following horror games will receive their much-deserved shot at blockbuster fame.
Outlast
Over a decade ago, an indie horror called Outlast silently dropped on Steam. On the surface, it might not look like much, but never judge a book by its cover. Players assume control of Miles Upshur, an investigative journalist who explores a remote psychiatric facility and encounters several unhinged and deadly patients within its walls. From the success of Outlast came a sequel, Outlast 2, and a prequel, The Outlast Trials. Needless to say, the execution for Outlast‘s gameplay is what truly sets it apart from its competitors.
Red Barrel seems to have abandoned the project for as long as seven years, so the period of down time after a lengthy hiatus leaves a live-action adaptation ripe for the taking. We’ve seen it done before with The Blair Witch Project and found footage horror has faded into the background lately. Maybe this is precisely what the medium needs to reinvigorate a long-forgotten sub-genre. So long as it refrains from making the same mistakes as Paranormal Activity, a live-action Outlast could be groundbreaking.
Amnesia: The Dark Descent
For all intents and purposes, Amnesia: The Dark Descent is first and foremost an immensely immersive experience. The graphics of 2010 aren’t the most forgiving, but what Amnesia lacks in technological advancement, it more than makes up for in storytelling and puzzle-solving. This first-person adventure horror follows Daniel, an everyman exploring a mysterious castle called Brennenburg. As he navigates the labyrinth of hallways and chambers, he must fight to retain his sanity.
Frictional Games must have done something right because Amnesia also spawned two additional games, both of which are sequels: Amnesia: Rebirth and Amnesia: The Bunker. Several reviews favorably named Amnesia as the most “successfully frightening game ever made.” While the first-person perspective isn’t overly common in the horror genre, influential low-budget movies such as Creep and REC made a lasting impact on live-action horror for their distinctive grainy and amateur feel.
Little Nightmares
Some of the themes explored in Little Nightmares could be a little too mature for queasy audiences. However, the premise has potential to be a cinematic masterpiece. The depth perception in Little Nightmares pits a tiny child named Six against humungous, gluttonous monsters aboard a deadly ship called The Maw. The narrative unfolds from the perspective of nine-year-old Six, so the world around her is large and foreboding by comparison. It would require some camera trickery and talented VFX teams, but as do most big-budget horror movies.
Out of many enjoyable horror games, Little Nightmares has one of the most intriguing stories by far. A mixture of body and psychological horror could breathe life into Supermassive Games’ brainchild. Violence against a young child might be distasteful, but there’s no denying the mark it would leave on viewers for such a bold and defiant plot. This is besides the fact that the worldbuilding is one of its biggest selling points, so a live-action version would do that crucial element justice.
Dead Space
Sci-fi horror Dead Space takes place primarily in the 26th century and centers on starship engineer Isaac Clarke as he fights back against the mutated creatures called Necromorphs that surround his mining vessel, the USG Ishimura. The game draws inspiration from another classic horror game, Resident Evil 4, as well as the films Event Horizon and Solaris. In many ways, Dead Space is largely identical to the Alien franchise. But with more limb-slicing action.
Interestingly, Halloween director John Carpenter has been teasing a Dead Space movie for years as he’s a huge fan of the games, but every time the rumors resurface, they dissolve just as quickly. The last we heard from Carpenter in 2023 was that he’s “not gonna do it” and he thinks “they already have another director involved.” Obviously, nothing has come from that claim thus far, though nothing is set in stone.
The Forest
The Forest has remained in the public eye for years since 2014, prominently due to the release of its sequel, Sons of the Forest, last year. The survival game follows player character Eric LeBlanc as he fights off cannibalistic monsters in search of his son Timmy after a devastating plane crash on a remote and heavily forested peninsula. Think Cast Away meets The Walking Dead and that’s a fairly convincing analogy. Already, the premise of a remote island and bloodthirsty mutants is any horror director’s dream scenario.
The story is multi-layered, allowing for deviations from the set plot. In fact, the concept mimics that of The Last of Us, which — as we know — made headlines for its widely successful first season. Although the zombie-mutant sub-genre has been done to death, The Forest could capitalize more so on the terrifying ordeal of fighting for survival alone as oppose to several stereotypical protagonists. A live-action adaptation could even incorporate techniques from A Quiet Place, another like-minded horror movie.