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Iron Lung is one of the endless indie horror games Markiplier has enjoyed on his long-running YouTube channel. He frequently churns through five or six in a week, but David Szymanski’s submarine horror epic captured his attention to the point that he’s adapting Iron Lung into a movie. When people think about horror game adaptations, they picture Silent Hill or Resident Evil. Indie horror games could lay a path for a new age of well-received Steam sleeper hits invading the big screen.
Anatomy
Kitty Horrorshow’s Anatomy is a bitter, haunting experience built around a single concept. It’s around 30 minutes long and short on exciting gameplay. You wander around a seemingly mundane suburban home and listen to a few tapes. The draw is the horror of the familiar. Remember the feeling of turning off the lights before going to bed, and only for a moment, the home you grew up in became a nightmare? Anatomy draws that concept into a game. That might sound like a hard sell for a feature film, especially when it would need to be three times as long as the game. However, last year’s most discussed horror film was Kyle Edward Ball’s Skinamarink. Anatomy isn’t as open-ended as Ball’s analog horror hit, but it scratches the same itch and inspires the same fear.
Soma
Like Markiplier’s Iron Lung movie, Soma would be a contained horror film set deep under the sea. Frictional Games is best known for its Amnesia series, but its 2015 sci-fi classic is unfairly overlooked. The game follows Simon Jarrett after he wakes up at an undersea power center called PATHOS-II. Simon follows the usual Frictional Games gameplay structure, exploring terrifying environments and outrunning nightmarish monsters. A film adaptation of the material could delve deeper into the shocking twists and science fiction elements. Movies based on horror games are rarely intelligent, but Soma could shake that reputation.
No One Lives Under the Light House
I think the nostalgia boom for PlayStation-era 3D graphics is baffling. This was contemporary when I was a kid, but I thought we all agreed it didn’t have a strong appeal. No One Lives Under the Lighthouse is one of many early-3D psychological horror games on Steam, but it’s one of the better examples. You play a stranger stuck overseeing the titular lighthouse while the usual attendant is away. The game has no spoken dialogue, minimal UI elements, and repetitive gameplay. These elements are intentional and lull you into a false sense of security. A movie could pull off the same gimmick, depicting the protagonist slowly learning the ropes of the lighthouse as the supernatural events become clear. The Iron Lung movie might be more exciting, but everyone wants to see Robert Eggers’ The Lighthouse with Lovecraftian elements, right?
Visage
I think I speak for all horror fans when I say we’re not over the loss of Silent Hills. I’ve played P.T. at least a dozen times, usually to force squeamish friends through it. Visage is, for my money, the best game openly inspired by P.T. A horror movie would be great for the game, but a series in the Mike Flannagan mold might be better. Visage follows Dwayne Anderson in the moments after he murders his family. The plot delves into the sad lives of those who lived and died in the Anderson family home. It’s a haunting experience with a masterful grasp of building atmosphere. It’s more than a P.T. knock-off. Visage would play out brilliantly on the big screen.
NightCry
In 1985, Giallo legend Dario Argento released his fourth or fifth best-loved feature, Phenomena. Human Entertainment director Hifumi Kono developed Clock Tower with inspiration from Argento’s work and many direct homages to Phenomena. The Clock Tower franchise influenced the survival horror genre, but terrible sequels wounded interest in future installments. Decades later, Kono and some of his Human Entertainment counterparts crafted NightCry as a spiritual successor. The game is set on a cruise ship, where a trio of passengers must evade a deadly cult and a monster called the Scissor Walker. It’s a simple, classic slasher franchise with decades of history and a consistently enjoyable atmosphere. NightCry would work wonders on the big screen.
The fascinating thing about Markiplier’s Iron Lung movie is that it isn’t coming from a studio trying to make bank off name recognition. It’s a feature created by a fan who loved the original work and wants to explore it through his own perspective. These lesser-known horror games could enjoy the same treatment.
