Hello, Internet, and welcome to Nobodies, the horror content podcast. the nitty gritty complex horror topics with the hope of making the genre more approachable for frequent flyers and newbies alike. The goal of the show is to highlight diverse voices and perspectives in horror. This is your reminder that there may be discourse on this show that will challenge the way you look at the genre. So let's get ready to get ugly.
I'm the Ghost with the Blog, and I'm joined by my substitute co-host and tonight's partner in crime. And I am Mike, a.k.a. That Horror Teacher. And I'm not really quite sure how you ended up here, Mike. I mean, I don't know how you ended up on the B squad, but we've recruited you at less than 24 hours notice. How are you feeling? Do you feel special that you've been selected or do you feel burdened?
I feel beyond special. It was very exciting, actually. And I will try to do my best, as always, not to sound dumb. so listeners you might be thinking why is mike here and the answer is the layoffs hit us hard this fiscal year. We couldn't afford Susie's talent anymore. No, I'm just kidding. How does that feel, Mike? Your talent is worth less than Susie's monetarily. I wasn't thinking that way, but thanks. So Susie is unfortunately under the weather.
I try not to do this whenever possible, but the show must go on. We are on a very tight recording schedule as we stand to the new year. And transparently, Susie dreaded this topic so much. that I have a theory she couldn't even bear showing up. So that's why I needed to find somebody who might semi enjoy the time here with me.
on this topic because I know some of you have been super excited for this episode and that is because we will be diving into the history of horror video games and the impact on the genre. So just to really keep this fully rounded and really make Mike a superstar this evening, tonight's guest was recommended by Mike. So if you have a problem with that, then you can give him a call directly, not me.
Tonight's guest is Trey Wetzone, a semi-retired podcaster who ran a podcast called Screaming Through the Ages from 2021 to 2024. which discussed everything from the history of horror movies to anime and video games trey also appeared frequently on shows like phantom galaxy and our dear friends over at the horror movie podcast
He's loved both horror movies and horror video games for over 20 years now, and he was so happy to be suggested by Mike to be on the show. So welcome, Trey. Thank you for joining us. Hey, Lonely. Hey, Mike. Thanks so much for having me on. So how did you feel joining the Skype call? suddenly Mike has appeared. It was a shock. You know, I when Mike had had reached out to me about
Um, being on this episode, um, I asked him, you know, Oh, are you going to be on it too? And he said, no. And then here I get into the Skype call and there's Mike right there. It's like, in your life. It's like Pokemon when we're in the grass, the tall grass, a wild mic has appeared. That's exactly what happened. That's right. That's the only kind of mic around.
so you know tonight we're going to be talking horror video games and like i said susie was not the the biggest fan of this topic i don't think she's much of a horror gamer but i truly am both inside and outside I wouldn't say I don't affiliate with the gamer culture. Do you gents affiliate with that? Are you... Are you on the microphone? Absolutely not. No. I like to play by myself in the basement. I don't want other people brought into the equation other than to talk about it with Trey.
So you're not on Fortnite with the youngins? No, no, absolutely not. Great, great, great. My age gap is really, really showing right now, but. Let's go farther back in time because the jury is out on what the official first horror video game was, but some sources trace it back to 1982 with the birth of Haunted House on Atari, which was similar to a maze-like game at the time.
It wouldn't really be until the 90s that we saw the rise of more prominent horror franchises that we still know today, with Resident Evil in 1996 and Silent Hill in 1998. Horror video games often follow a similar pattern of storytelling as we see in horror films, with some leaning more into gore while others lean more into a psychological scare. And along the way, research has indicated that playing horror video games is actually even scarier than watching horror films.
because it activates the same fight or flight reactions, but the rise and fall of that fight or flight is made even more dramatic as a gamer. because you get a rush of satisfaction from reaching a checkpoint or completing an objective. The mass consumption of horror gaming really began in the 2000s with the rise of PC gaming and the eventual rise of streaming culture.
This is where our Fortnite comes into play, where most people were live streaming videos of themselves, playing games and reacting in real time. Games like Amnesia, The Dark Descent, P.T., Slender, The Walking Dead, Last of Us, Until Dawn, Five Nights were the really heavy hitters of this era. This was the era we saw the most horror video game movie and TV adaptations being created.
So let's talk a little bit about our experience with gaming and especially horror video games and what our favorite one possibly is, if you can choose one. So, Trey, tell me, what has your experience been with gaming? How did it kind of leach into your horror genre? And do you have a favorite horror game? Yeah, I mean, I've been gaming probably since I was five years old or so. I have memories of playing, sitting down and playing Sega Genesis and stuff with my dad.
Horror gaming, probably the biggest ones that got me into it were... the Resident Evils and that type of stuff around that era. A little bit of Silent Hill, although I'll admit when those first came out, I was a little too afraid to actually get through some of them. But as far as a favorite... My boring answer would probably be something like Resident Evil 4, which is a game that I absolutely love.
If I wanted to go a little bit off the cuff more than that, probably my very close number two would be Dead Space, I would say, which was another game that I kind of dropped out of the first time I played it because it was just way too intense. And what about you Mike? Have you been playing just as long? Do you remember that far back? Uh, yes. Was that a, like, veiled old man joke, I think? Always, always. Yeah, as the elder statesman here, I mean, I had a Mattel in television in my house.
But the original Nintendo is where my gaming love, I would say, started back in the 80s. And I was trying to figure out the first horror game I ever played. And there was these little point-and-click games on the original Nintendo. One was called Shadowgate, and one was called The Uninvited. And they're kind of like that haunted house maze-like thing you were probably talking about where you click through.
So those are probably the first horror games I ever played. These days I'm more of an action RPG guy most of the time, but horror is definitely my second favorite genre. I think the scariest game I ever played you mentioned was Amnesia Dark Descent.
That one really messed me up. But I think if I had to pick a favorite, it's probably Silent Hill 2. i was older than trey because i am older than trey uh when i played it the first time and it scared the out of me and they just did the remake last year and it is still perfection it was awesome i've been pestering lonely to play it uh because it's so good so i would say that's probably
So I have been playing since five years old, but that is a significantly smaller set of years, I think, than you two gents. I... Was definitely a Pokemon kid, and I'm a console player. Boo, boo, I'm a console player. I've always owned Nintendo consoles, so that definitely limited my access to what games I played growing up.
As I got into my teenage years, I definitely grew up in the peak era of the YouTuber Let's Play. So I definitely got a little bit more into PC gaming at that point. And I think one of the... one of the benefits i would say of growing up in that era was you kind of saw the scariest first like you didn't You just got hit really hard with it. Like amnesia was the big thing at the time. So those jump scares that storytelling was just really forefront at the time.
My favorite horror game, I'm not sure if either of you guys have heard of it, it's Cat Lady. It's a PC game by Harvester Games. Either of you heard of it? I have not. well it is super graphic and super i think fucked up it's sort of about this It's about this woman who decides to take her own life and death decides they are not done with her. And she has to go back and sort of avenge.
some terrible things that have happened. And it's a really, really dark, very, very graphic game. I love Harvester games. I also, my second favorite is a game called Downfall by them as well. And then detention, which we'll talk a little bit about later tonight. But over the years, I would say horror gaming, it's sort of like a chicken before the egg kind of situation. What influenced what? So Trey, what would you say? Do you think horror movies had a bigger impact on the way games?
started to develop over time or do you think horror games had an impact on the genre? for film or both? Well, I think you had to have, let's talk about, I guess, when survival horror was starting with something like Resident Evil. I think it's a very complicated situation because it definitely did build on something like
Night of the Living Dead or Dawn of the Dead. But I think without Resident Evil breaking out in the mid to late 90s, you don't have kind of that resurgence of the zombie genre that we had in the 2000s. I think you definitely you definitely couldn't have just the way things timed out or lined up. I don't think you could have had horror games without the movie influences. But I do think as time's gone on.
Especially, you know, we're getting into modern day. I feel like the adaptations are coming left and right for a lot of these horror games. I think the horror game genre had a big part in kind of. revitalizing or rejuvenating the horror genre in the 2000s at least.
Yeah, I think they kind of go hand in hand. They've probably been a little bit of give and take along the way, whereas games probably initially were more influenced by movies. Maybe it's flipping the other way now, and maybe it's because you're... the technology whatever you're able to have depth adapt more of these games and
become more narrative you know down the line like like the ones i saw before the point click ones like i don't even remember there's a story you were just going through a house but now i mean so many of these games are so cinematic it just makes sense that they would kind of borrow from each other i think Yeah, I think you're totally right, especially in the way that gaming, I mean, as technology has advanced, gaming has also become sort of a cinematic experience. So when you're thinking about
It's sort of the same way we talk about black and white films and silent films to films that we watch today. It's so hard to compare. a game like Until Dawn to the original Castlevania. It's hard to talk about what's a more successful horror game when you're thinking about the two extremes of the spectrum. And then it applies to what films come out of that as well.
to make a successful adaptation from something with maybe a bare-bones source material like the original Castlevania, as opposed to Until Dawn, which is basically, you could say it's even a movie in itself, with all the cinematic cutscenes in that. It's a weird balance that continues to feed back into itself. I think the films feed back into the games and then over time the games produce films that are kind of more telling of the current era. Let's actually talk about some films, shall we?
So we've already mentioned this a bunch of times now, but let's start with Resident Evil. The game was definitely much older, came out back in 96, but the movie came several years later. So Resident Evil came out in 2002, and it follows a special military unit. who fights a powerful, out-of-control supercomputer, and hundreds of scientists who have mutated into flesh-eating creatures after a laboratory accident. And Mike, you get to be my Vanna White this evening, so tell us about the game.
i will do that thank you uh pat i guess i don't know is that who was vanna's person yeah uh resident evil the game is also known as biohazard it is a japanese horror game series published by capcom It's a survival horror with shooter elements and actually was the first game to be dubbed survival horror. The first game was released in 1996 for PlayStation, and it is the highest grossing horror franchise, grossing $2 billion since 1996.
trey what is your experience with the movie and also the games you've mentioned a bit but you can throw them both in together here Yeah, I think I watched the movie when it first came out. As far as the games, I think I played about every mainline Resident Evil. And then recently, I don't know if you two have.
Check this out, and I hope you didn't because it wasn't very good. But the movie was actually the second attempt as a Resident Evil movie because George A. Romero, there was a documentary that came out recently. That went into him originally doing the movie and then kind of didn't work out. So it went to Paul W.S. Anderson. But. Yeah, I remember really liking the movie at the time. You know, that was definitely a time and place movie. You can feel the early 2000s, late 90s on that.
Yeah, I suppose I have a lot of experience with the series and with both the movies and games. So I had never seen this before. Really? I had never seen this film before, and I almost didn't watch it. I was on the phone with my friend leading up to this recording, and I was like, ugh, haven't watched Resident Evil yet. How mad do you think?
Mike and Trey will be if I cut it from the episode and he was like they're gonna be not happy if you do that so I watched Resident Evil and That was quite an experience.
leans really heavy into action which isn't my favorite in horror generally and I think that's one of the things that we struggle with in a lot of the horror video game to tv and film adaptations is that because these games are action-centered in nature the film ends up being action-centered so my critique of resident evil is that For 45 minutes, we're just running around. We're knocking down doors.
We have very little character development. There's not a lot happening. And we actually don't see... the the creatures or the zombies the infected whatever we want to call them in this storyline until 39 minutes in which is a pretty long time to kind of sit through the film without anything happening but what i do appreciate about this film is that it is campy And it is so video game coded. Like what the hell is our main girl wearing? Like that is so video game coded.
Like, she's got her red dress on and her tall, you know, knee-high boots, and she is just killing zombies. And I love that for her. Good for her. And the dialogue is also so video game coded. I was watching the scene, the first scene they encounter, the infected, and they do this massive kill scene, this massive kill shot. and then all of a sudden the background characters just spawn.
And they're like, wow, that was weird. Like that is so video game coded. Like after you go through a whole like fight sequence and then that background character that you've been trying to kill off for the last like three checkpoints just appears. So I wouldn't say this is a particularly strong movie, but I think it is cute for how video game coded it is. In terms of the games, I am definitely, and this is probably, again, generation showing, I'm more fan of the most recent two games.
The one with the farmhouse. Our friend Ethan. I'm a fan of Ethan and his drama and his regenerating hand. I find him quite fun. But Mike, where are your thoughts on this? So, I've actually never seen the movie, or any of the movies. Isn't there more than one? But I've not seen any of the movies. There are so many. There's like eight. Yeah, I thought so. And it's because of what you said, Lonely. The action horror movie is not...
it's going to draw me to a Resident Evil movie because that's the way I feel about the games. I was actually very late. I did not play my first Resident Evil game until whenever Biohazard came out. And I was like, all right, I'm going to try this. And since then, I've played Village, and I've played the remakes of 2 and 4. And unlike Trey, 4 is my least of the four that I've played because I felt it was more accurate.
Whereas the other three I've played, it felt like more true horror movies or horror games, I guess. But it sounds like and it looks like the game was more like that action. So I was never really drawn to the movie. But I do love the games. And like I said, I didn't dislike.
um but i am more drawn to the horror ones the creeping around the scary places and i do like the first person of the last two i think made it particularly creepy so i am not i did not see the movie i'm not inclined to see it necessarily but
Maybe I'll give it a try to see who's, is it Mila Jovovich? Is that who's in those? Yeah, and I'll warn you both that that's probably the one with the least amount of action as you get through the series. They become more ridiculous and more of action movies as you go through it. noted yeah so question for you both then so the stat is that this is the highest grossing horror franchise
That surprised me so much. I fact check that stat like six times throughout my research. So I'm like, that cannot possibly be true. But why? So if the movies are. realistically subpar the games are quite strong is that what is driving you know the sale the the gross of this what what do you think makes this such a high selling franchise this is
baffled me for a while because, yeah, I don't think the movies are particularly great. And I'm just not sure what draws people to them. I know I work with a guy that is very into these movies and watches them like every other year. I it's got to be I know the games also sell very well, but it feels like at some point there's no connection between the games and the movie. It's especially the first one.
There's like no connecting tissue there. So I don't know if it's just a perfect storm of that time. Like that's what people were looking for. But I don't even consider most of these really horror movies. I think the first one's really the only one I would consider a horror movie. Yeah, it's kind of baffling to me.
use it's the Resident Evil movies or the highest grossing horror movie franchise so the the entire franchise so the the franchise of Resident Evil which includes like the games any merch comic books the movies Which I still think is baffling because I don't know. Have you guys been to a horror con recently? The amount of shit that movies make is just insane to me. And the fact that Resident Evil is the...
is highest grossing over something like Halloween is just amazing to me. Maybe because, you know, we didn't get a Halloween video game. Maybe that's where I was going to say, they're really prolific. I mean, it's a lot of games, it's a lot of movies, so even if they do okay, I guess, you add up to 20 of them, I guess it adds up. I don't know. Yeah, and that's the other thing, is they have a ton of, like,
animated like CGI movies as well. I don't think those make very much money, I'm sure, but I know there's like five or six of those too. But we can talk about a film that I personally think should be, I think this whole franchise should be more appreciated. I don't think it gets enough attention. And that is Silent Hill. So Silent Hill movie came out in 2006.
Very strong clarifying point. We are not talking about Silent Hill Revelation tonight. So the first film follows Rosa Silva, who takes her adopted daughter, Sharon, to the sound of Silent Hill in an attempt to cure her of an ailment. After a violent car crash, Sharon disappears, and Rose begins a horrific journey to get her back. And Mike, where did this game come from?
So, Silent Hill is a Japanese horror game series, again, this time published by Konami. It's a supernatural survival horror heavily influenced by literary psychological... The first game was released in 1999 for PlayStation. But most recently, as I mentioned earlier, a remake of Silent Hill 2 was released to Critical and that horror. Trey, what's your experience with the movie, the game, both? Yeah, again, I saw this movie when it came out.
and liked it a great deal. At that point, I thought it was probably the best video game adaptation I'd seen. And as far as the games, I did dabble a little bit early on in Silent Hill 2. And I think there was another one that I played, maybe Origins or something like that. But I did play the the 2024 remake as well. And that was excellent. But yeah, I really appreciate this movie and how it leans more on like visual storytelling.
And it doesn't have, you know, a lot of the terrible dialogue that we had in the Resident Evil movie. I have to agree that this is still one of the heaviest hitting... horror video game to film adaptations out there. When I first saw this film, I definitely felt a little internal shame of liking this film so much. It is quite campy in its own way, and I think it does get a hard rap.
because a general horror audience who maybe has no exposure to the game will definitely be a little bit confused by the lore going on here. It might be a little easy to get lost in what's happening, but... At the root of it, I think the film still stays true to the horror that we see in the Silent Hill games. in a way that is still approachable to somebody who hasn't played the game. The CGI in this for the time is, I think, quite good. We have the transformation scenes of Silent Hill.
to sort of that nightmare other reality as the film progresses is really really impressive I think something that really stands out to me in this film is the way that the scenery changes with like the rust peeling off the different you know buildings the different different parts of the bathroom and I always love an Easter egg and there's a ton of Easter eggs in this film for people who have played the game. I remember talking to Susie about this film because she's a big fan of this one as well.
and you know the scenes in the bathroom or the scenes of the janitor and if you play the original silent hill you know what those things mean but as somebody who's just watching the film it kind of gives you a little mystery. And I really don't think the acting is this bad. I don't think it's bad at all. I think the cop is quite strong, Sybil. And I think the climax is absolutely insane too. I think Pyramid Head is a wonderful addition to this story.
I find the infatuation with Pyramid Head quite fascinating as we learn more about the symbolism of Pyramid Head in Silent Hill 2, but... I did not play the game so much later in life, but it definitely was something that I remember feeling like sick to my stomach after playing. But Mike, what are your thoughts on this film? And I know you're a huge fan of Silent Hill 2, the game. So this is your chance. This is your soapbox.
Thank you so much. Yeah, so I had a real experience last year with this movie because I played the games when they came out. I know I played at least two and three originally, and I remember going to see this movie and being excited. It was like an event for me to go see this movie when it came out.
But I hadn't seen it since until last year, and I was a little worried to watch it. I was like, oh, no. is it not as good as i think it is no it's better than i thought it was i had like a real experience watching this and maybe it's nostalgia i don't know but i don't there's not another video game adaptation at least in the horror realm the feeling of a game better like when i was watching the movie last year um and we in the first like sound cue or music cue hit that was from the game
me back and it was perfect and i was like holy shit they nailed this and mind you i hadn't played a remake yet so it's been a long time since i played the game but it brought me right back there to that feeling and i agree the the effects are really good for 2006. They did not take me out of it at all. And even though the story's different, it's still the basic gist of what a Silent Hill is.
uh game would be so no i think it's really really an excellent movie and honestly if you've never played the game i think it's something horror movie fans should watch and give another try um if they hadn't uh my wife's never played the game and she watched it with me when we were watching she was as blown away as i was just it's a really solid movie and like i said the games are made
super excited that it's getting like another generation here you know they remade the game they're making another movie which with the original director i believe so we can forget that one whatever the revelation one uh they're doing return to silent hill there's a new game coming out i think so it's very exciting time for us uh silent hill nerds over here like me
And this, honestly, I know some people feel differently, but I really do feel like this is a good film. It has one of my favorite lines in all of horror. And I believe... I forget who says it in the film. It's in the climax. And the line is, mother is God in the eyes of a child. And it is just. one of the best lines in any horror film because it's so like it hits you so hard especially if you follow the lore of Silent Hill and how much
that means to the storyline. It's just insane. But anything else you want to add, Trey? Yeah. What do you guys think about, and as I was following along this time, I think I noticed more stuff. This bothers me with some other adaptations, but didn't really hear. It seemed like they kind of intermixed. You know, at the beginning, it was very close to what happened in the first game. And then we got a lot of different nods to the second game. And as you mentioned, like Pyramid Head.
I think there was a nod to Angela in there with a character with a knife later on in the movie. But what do you guys think of that, how they kind of intermixed different parts and pieces of the Silent Hill movies to kind of come into one here? That's such a great question. And I think, you know, we just talked about Resident Evil, which did this very poorly. It takes like different pieces of the game to kind of plugs and plays them.
I think what makes Silent Hill a little bit unique, and Mike, I'm really interested to see what you have to say about this as well, because Silent Hill is sort of like a universe and is very successful in its world building. It seems almost easier to take people from different storylines in the games and plug them into one line, and it still makes sense. because we're still centering around like the same
dare I say, the curse, the other world that's happening here and the cult that kind of started all of this and the people who interact with the town. So I think it's successful in Silent Hill, but I think it's unique to this franchise. What do you think, Mike?
Yeah, I mean, Silent Hill's all about atmosphere, right? The game, right? The game is all about a certain... uh and that feeling is under terror and i gotta say so i used to i am you said about being a console gamer i am a console gamer almost
And this is going to make me sound really dumb, but I just very recently discovered playing in headphones. You just play on the TV. And I played Silent Hill 2 with headphones exclusively, and I can't tell you how much scary it is. And it is that... because there's so much basic atmosphere, I think you can, like you said, kind of put different pieces in together, because as long as it feels like Silent Hill, I think you're going to appeal to both horror.
movie fan in general and then the game people are gonna be okay with it and then it's just like these aren't remakes but it's almost like when you make remake uh you know halloween or whatever You want to have the parts you got to have to make it feel like a Halloween. But you also, I think, because I don't want a frame-by-frame remake. They're useless. not to step on your reframing remakes series, lonely, but I wanted to have some new things to it as well. And I think...
They did that very well. And this is not a movie, but I feel like Last of Us is another good example of that, where they took some things almost exactly from the game, but then they added some new things that were absolutely amazing. And it just kind of works, but it still felt like The Last of Us, you know? So I think that's why.
Yeah, excellent point. I think the atmosphere and even like the music and stuff that comes straight out of the games, it's just excellent here. I think that's what the film does best is just the atmosphere, the visuals, the characters are pretty cool. Yeah, this is a good one. We could go on and on and on about Silent Hill. I mean, I know I could.
Let's go on to a film that honestly, I don't think a lot of people have seen because I hadn't heard of it. I'd heard of the games, but I had never heard of it being a film until we started the prep for this episode. And that is Fatal Frame from 2014. This follows a student at a conservative all-girls school who is trying to unravel the connection between a series of deaths and what appears to be a cursed photograph.
And Mike, tell us about the Fatal Frame franchise. So Fatal Frame's another Japanese survival horror game series published by Tecmo. The first game debuted in 2001 for the PlayStation. The series is recognized as one of the best-known horror video game franchises, and the second game in the series, Crimson Butterfly, is considered one of the scariest games ever made. so trey do you have any experience with the movie or the game fatal frame
I can attest to it being one of the scariest games that I at least played at the time. I think maybe some more modern ones have scared me a little bit more. But yeah, I've dabbled in Fatal Frame games here and there. I did see the movie for the first time. Lumi, I think you sent me a link to watch this one. And I got to say, I'm not sure it had anything to do with the actual Fatal Frame games at all. Except, you know, I don't even think a camera shows up until the very end of the movie. But.
You know, it was an interesting film, interesting watch. I don't know. It kind of lost me here and there. I think it did some cool things, but yeah, I wasn't familiar with this one at all going in. I'm curious to hear what you guys have to say on it. Yeah, you're 100% correct in that this is a very, it's one of those things like there's a whisper of the Fatal Frame game here.
camera and for listeners who maybe haven't played fatal frame the crux of the game is this basically a ghost hunting type situation where you have a paranormal camera and it helps you see the entities that are following you throughout the game and in some versions of the game it also helps you attack or defeat them basically to progress through the story so with this kind of explanation we would think oh
there's going to be cameras like sort of like a shutter situation but that is sort of not what's happening here it's definitely more of a haunted supernatural like melodrama and The core of this movie is quite good. I think the plot is good. What it's trying to do is good. I love that there was a queer subtext here. Like, hell yeah. Loved that. But the storytelling was all over the place. And I think it goes beyond...
Sometimes East Asian horror can be a little bit more challenging to follow as a Western audience, but I think it does go beyond that. I think it might just be a little loosely strung together in some places.
And there aren't a ton of scares. Like I said, it's more of a psychological melodrama. But some of the symbolism is really well thought out and stunning. You know, the reoccurring... painting of Ophelia and all of that it was really interesting and I do think it's worth watching if you have the patience it is on YouTube or at least at the time of the recording it's free on YouTube but
I haven't played any of the Fatal Frame games personally. Mike, have you played any of them or seen the film? I haven't. I'm kind of out on this one, but I'm interested. I'm very surprised it got by me if it was a PlayStation 2 game. uh in my bachelor days i played a lot of video games um so it sounds really interesting but now i'm not familiar with any of the games the movie so i'll just ask you this does this is this since it's plot wise it sounds like it wasn't very
Is there an atmosphere thing, at least, that's similar here, like in Silent Hill? Or is it like a totally different feeling between movie and game? I think it's a completely different feeling. Yeah, again, Lomi, I liked a lot what you said that I think it's worthwhile to watch this one. I liked the way it ended. I thought the ending was pretty cool.
um and the way they handled all of that and the characterization stuff but as you mentioned lonely it's not really much of a horror movie it's more of like a haunted mystery type film um with some definitely horror elements in there, but I just don't get the connection. I think around the same time. There is something to do with water in this game, and the only connection I could make was they did release the Fatal Frame game Maiden of Black Water, I think in the same year, around the same year.
So I don't know if they just read the title and was like, yeah, let's go. That's all we need to know. So the one thing I will say, I mean, so listeners, this film, again, it follows a. This all-girls school, somebody goes missing? Is she missing? Is she cursed? What is happening? And then we have this group of friends who's trying to unravel this mystery, and chaos ensues.
The one thing that I did think was very interesting about the storytelling that was very video game-like is that all of these characters have this obsession over the main girl, Aya, that they're following. It's so strange and unusual. It's like, why are they obsessing over her so much? But that is what I felt was very video game like, because in a video game, you know, you have this storyline that maybe doesn't always make sense and you are propelled.
to the goal, sometimes beyond logic. I think Resident Evil Village is a great example of this. Why the hell is Ethan here? There's no logic to that. Why doesn't he leave? And I think the logic used in Fatal Frame the movie is very similar in that. It's a really strange obsession that doesn't have a lot of logic.
There should be multiple times in this story where these girls are kind of shaken and been like, oh no, this is a horrible thing and we should stop. But it's almost like they're continually prompted as if someone is playing them as a character. I don't know. Maybe I'm stretching. I'm giving him what it's worth. No, I think you made a good point.
I will say it's very dreamlike in a way that I think a lot of only Japanese films are. I wouldn't recommend watching it late at night because it kind of does lull you into... that kind of feeling, it does feel very dreamlike. And yeah, I think that's a good point, Lonely. I think mainly it doesn't make sense, maybe their motivations or what they're doing, but yeah.
So before we go back and we move back over to some American media, I do want to touch on... a little series a little little hidden gem that my my two guests here did not watch but By damn it, I will tell you all about it and you will watch it on YouTube and you will love it or not or be traumatized by it. And that is Corpse Party, tortured souls from 2013.
And this is an anime that follows a group of friends that after performing a charm that would supposedly make them friends forever, they are teleported to a mysterious elementary school where the spirits of the school's murdered students. And Mike, I know you haven't played this game, but will you humory by telling the listeners what Corpse Party originated from? I will happily do that. Corpse Party is a supernatural survival horror game originally published by Kenix or Kenix.
The initial game was released in 1996 for the PC, and it's one of the prominent games developed on the RPG Maker software. I remember that. The series had become known as one of the most gruesome anime series in existence. and it is currently banned in Russia due to scenes of graphic violence. I am in. So Lonely, you're going to have to take this one. What can you tell us about the game, the movie? Yes. Check out first.
I'll just do a little, my little soapbox on this and editing Susie is going to be like, Jesus Lonely, why did you just talk to yourself for five minutes? But I don't care. This is a great piece of horror media, in my humble opinion.
So the game is basically an RPG maker style. So... rpg maker was pretty prominent and i would say in the early to that mid 2000s to 2010s and it follows basically a point and click type story there isn't any you know action or you know slicing and dicing it's point and click puzzle and basically your goal is to run and survive and hope for the best
And this is truly one of the most gruesome pieces of media that I've ever seen. The game is super fucking gruesome. Every trigger warning in the book that you might need exists in this game. That is still somewhat tasteful and digestible. I think, listeners, if you know my opinions on extreme media, if I'm recommending you a piece of extreme media, there is some part of it that is pretty digestible. And I think the storytelling on this is just insane.
It is a ensemble style horror, both the game and the anime. And you get attached to these characters and they have such great big personalities. And as they navigate sort of these. terribly gruesome intense body horror you can't help but look like stare at it it's like a train crash in slow motion it is so graphic and so insane and
It does portray violence against children because it follows the story of a murder at an elementary school. And you have basically these high school students now stuck in this time loop. And it is just crazy. I... There are demons, there are decapitations, there are dismemberings, blood splatters. All kinds of stuff. And the ending in particular of this anime is insane because you just sit through an hour of this massacre and you think, oh my gosh, we have a happy ending.
or do we and it is just a great game it is truly scary i re-watched it for the episode No one else did, but that's okay. And I suffered rewatching it because it was quite scary. I had to stop eating dinner because it was that scary for me 10 years later. That's my recommendation for Corpse Party. I will continue to advocate for it. At the time of recording, the entire dubbed and subtitled series is on YouTube.
Yeah, when you when you brought this up, because I've heard the name over the years, but I hadn't seen it. I was thinking something maybe along the lines of a Doki Doki Literature Club or something or the anime another. But it seems like it's even on another level than that as far as the violence. And I feel like some of the most disturbing stuff I've seen are. Horror anime so I can only imagine what this is like so I'm definitely gonna be checking that out
It is very intense. And like I said, every trigger warning in the book, just be mindful when you consume it. But I would say it was worth a watch. I may not be able to watch it again 10 years later, but I made it through for the episode, so I get my brownie points for that. But let's move on to a much more, much more calm media, dare I say one of my comfort medias, and that is Castlevania. So we're going to be talking specifically about Castlevania season one that is on Netflix.
which follows a vampire hunter who is fighting to save a besieged city from the army of otherworldly creatures controlled by Dracula. Mike, tell us what is the horror legacy that is Castlevania? It is a long and vast one. Castlevania is a Japanese action platformer horror game series published by Konami.
The first game was released in the United States on the Nintendo Entertainment System in 1986. I remember it well. It's one of Konami's most successful franchises and is regarded as one of the best video games ever made. with that as well trey what is your experience with this game series and the is it correct to call it anime i i have to admit i'm ignorant on anime
Yeah, I think every one that I've known is referred to it as an anime. I can't remember if it has a Japanese production staff or not. But yeah, that's what I wasn't sure about. OK. Yeah, so I have a little bit of experience with the games. I've played some of the older games, Symphony of the Night, the more of like the platforming action games.
I've also played what Lords of Shadow, which I know isn't as well regarded of Castlevania fans. But yeah, I think the and it's been a little bit since I've seen the anime, but. I was just so blown away by like what they did. And I think that first season's what four episodes or something like that. But how they just took these these Bell Belmont characters and that's really all you need in a Castlevania game is some kind of Belmont and put them in a scenario. And I.
I think it's just great what they did with the adaptation and how they kind of just went outside of the box and they weren't like, hey, I mean, you don't have a ton of story to go with on those older games. So it's kind of just taking. the lore and the characters and just saying hey let's see let's go wild with it and see what we can do with it but This is one of my favorite Netflix originals. So I, you know, revoke my horror card. I had no reference point on Castlevania until I saw this.
animated series pop up on Netflix. And I absolutely fell in love with the storytelling in season one. I don't know if I want to be Trevor Belmont, if I want to marry Trevor Belmont. I just wish he was real. He's a great, seems like a great guy. But these characters are so well written. They're so entertaining. And on the same side of the coin, This series is gruesome as hell. There is some insane gore for an animated series in this. We're seeing people get their skin ripped off.
There's blood explosions. And Dracula in this. It's freaking cool as hell. Coming off of our Nosferatu, you know, prayer circle that was that episode. I love this Dracula. Yes, he is romantic, he is gothic, and he is so freaking cool. And After seeing the Castlevania series, I actually was talking to my dad and found out that he played the original Castlevania many moons ago. And most recently I bought a...
black market video game emulator that I am staring at right now. And I have now played the original Castlevania. And dare I say it is quite hard. Or maybe it's just the emulator I'm playing. No, no, it's hard. It's impossible. It's actually impossible.
It's so, yeah, I could get into the mechanics of it, how there's only one button. But anyway, this is a great freaking series. And it's such a quick watch. I think the entire first season is about an hour and 20 minutes. So just under the length of a movie. i don't know just the way this story unfolds it's like very much you get drawn in very quickly and very fast and
I can't say enough good things about it. I've rewatched it many times, which is not something I usually do. I think the second and third seasons are worth watching if you're into the story. But I do think season one is the strongest. But Mike, what are your thoughts? Hell yeah. So let me start on the gaming side.
I love that Trey said earlier, I played some of the older Castlevania games. You don't know, old sir. I played the original Castlevania 1, 2, and 3 in the 80s, and I guess maybe 1990 when they came out on Nintendo. And yeah, the first... game is impossible that's like a known thing uh the third one i don't think i ever won first or the third one i won the second was a really weird but also, in hindsight, pretty forward-thinking video game.
um so they're really important to me as a gamer growing up for sure and i remember when the the animated series dropped i was all excited and i just never watched it i'm not a big anime guy for whatever reason i should be um but man so i took this entire confirm it's about an hour and 27 minutes because I took it in the last 24 hours and I cannot wait to watch It was amazing. I was blown away. I could not believe how dark it was.
I could not believe how violent it was, like you said. I mean, there's Lucio Fulci eye trauma in this first one involving a Belmont whip. It is something else to see. And I got to admit, the first time I heard the name Belmont and then about later the name Alucard. who's originally from Castlevania III, I got that child-like giddiness. I was like, ooh, it's from the game. It was just very exciting for me.
So, I've only seen the first season so far, but can confirm it is amazing. I look forward to watching more, even if they're not as good as the first one, because I'm totally in. And this will be the first, probably, complete anime series I watch. Obviously, like I said, it's placed my heart for the games, but it was just really, really good and really well done. And the one thing I'll add that is particularly special about season one of this is that
This is the only, I would say the only complete season of the show that focuses very specifically on Dracula as a character. The seasons beyond that focus on other characters and other parts of the Castlevania games. This also has such an interesting religious subtext because... Dracula gets himself into a situation with the church, and boy, does the church pay for it.
This first episode there, if you have no idea what's coming, there is nothing that can prepare you for that. I still get shocked, like going into the last 10 minutes of episode one. The reckoning does come to this community, and it is absolutely insane. I think it is not as graphic and gory and in your face as Corpse Party. I do find Castlevania is like very tasteful, like tasteful gore and violence. tasteful eye trauma yes tasteful very very tasteful blood rain you know also
You know, you have eye candy. Talk about eye trauma. We've got eye candy. Trevor Belmont's right there, Mike. Why didn't you just look at him instead? You had so many things to choose from. That's because I'm so old. I remember Simon Belmont. That's how I originally remember. Trevor was a newbie. And, you know, just one other comment I will give. So there's a spinoff series. Trey, have you seen Castlevania Nocturne?
No, I haven't. I've heard mixed things about it, so I wasn't sure. That's exactly how I feel as well. We get the new Belmont in the next show, and I don't know, he's not Trevor. He's got a little bit... I don't know. He's got some work to do. Yeah, he does. He truly does. He's got a chip on his shoulder and not in the cute way that Trevor does.
listeners i'll just stick a picture of trevor in the show notes so you know you see where you see the vision i have but It's time to really round this out with a less than stellar viewing experience. Slenderman 2018 in a small town in Massachusetts, a group of friends fascinated by the internet lore of Slenderman. attempt to prove that he doesn't actually exist until one of them mysteriously goes missing.
So Mike, tell us where Slenderman came from. And I'm also curious if you even knew of Slenderman's existence because this was definitely like a my childhood type thing. So tell us about Slender. Yeah, so I'll give you the background of the character first, then I'll tell you my experience.
The Slender, also known as Slender the Eight Pages, is an American first-person survival game. It was released in 2012 for the PC and went viral after several prominent YouTubers posted Let's Plays of said game, amassing millions of views. Yeah, this is, I mean, the game coming out and the phenomenon is definitely post.
Me, but it was definitely in my radar because I am a teacher and I do spend time with kids. So I remember the kids talking about this thing. So I was, and I'm aware of Creepy Pop. i know we'll get into here in a second but um yeah so i was you know peripherally aware not necessarily the specific game but the idea behind it and that people are watching videos of it that was definitely in my radar even though
You and Slendy were acquaintances. You weren't quite friends at the time. If I saw him out the window, I would know. That's not good. I know who that is. The aura would have let you know that that was not a great time and you would have been surrounded by children who could help you. And that's what matters, Mike. And that's why you teach. Isn't that right? That's right. To protect yourself. So the game, as Mike alluded to, is based on the creepypasta of the Slender Man.
a supernatural being that stalks, abducts, and traumatizes people, particularly children. He is depicted as an unnaturally tall and thin man. Well, I guess he doesn't have to be a man. He's a tall and thin entity in a suit. with a featureless face and long tentacles for arms. Slenderman has become a pop culture icon and has even been cited as the reason for a near fatal stabbing of a 12 year old girl in Wisconsin in 2012. In 2012, after reading the creepypasta.
Anissa Weiser and Morgan Geiser lured their friend Peyton Isabella Lutner into the woods and stabbed her 19 times, leaving her for dead. This was an attempt to appease Slenderman in the hopes that he would take them to their Slender mansion. Both assailants were later cited as having mental health problems with Geyser being known as psychotic and experiencing ongoing hallucinations.
Weiser was sentenced to 25 to life in a mental institution, ended up serving seven years, and was released in 2021. Geiser was sentenced to 40 years to life in a mental institution. She has currently served 11 years and is scheduled for release in 2025. So the man, the myth, the legend, Slender Man, Trey, tell us, tell us your thoughts on, did you ever play the game? And what do you think about this wonderful masterpiece of a film?
Oh, gosh. No, I had never played the games, and I thought up until recently that the games were where Slenderman had started. I am into creepypasta, but I never knew about the Slenderman creepypasta stuff. is very creepy. Honestly, obviously the real life horror that went along with that is very disturbing as well. But I was interested in this movie when it came out.
And I stayed away from it for the longest time because I heard nothing but bad things about it. And you know what? I said the other day, I'm just going to watch this so I can be educated. And I watched it and I kind of. I don't know if I regret it. It wasn't I feel like it wasn't as bad as I've heard people say, but it's it's not good at all. I agree completely. This is so I have such a qualm with this film because.
quite literally was a phenomenon. This thing, it's sort of the way the Five Nights at Freddy's is looked at by a lot of kids nowadays. It was like this all-encompassing media. It was freaking everywhere. Kids, dare I say, like adored Slenderman. This movie was a shoo-in to be something amazing, and it wasn't. And the lore behind the film is what infuriates me to this day.
This film was released in 2018, which was only a few years. It was actually in production only four years after the stabbing took place in Wisconsin. And there was a lot of feelings at the time about making this film. in what people felt was close proximity to the actual event of this crime. So what happened was, when the film was in post-production, it had done the initial screen.
people were outraged by the amount of violence that was reported in this film. And it was reported that they were required to meet a PG-13 rating after the backlash. which resulted in several scenes being cut out. And this included scenes that actually appear in the trailer. If you watch the trailer on YouTube, the scenes that you see in that trailer do not appear in the film. And it's not just like, oh, we're using this like montage for marketing.
There are full scenes, full characters that don't even exist in the film. And what you get is a narrative that makes no sense. There are several continuity issues in the final film. And I think that is just crazy because when you look at the base of this film, yeah, the writing is super trash. I'm sorry. The acting has much to be desired.
But some of the scares and the imagery in this really could have shaped up to make a scary film, dare I say, a predecessor of Smile in some ways. But the fact that this film was like absolutely massacred. Before it even hit the theaters, I think it kind of was dead on arrival. Mike, any thoughts on the film? Yeah, I echo much of what you said. I wrote that this is the definition of a 3 out of 10 movie. That's just how I felt about it. Like the first opening scene.
Every character could not be a more stereotypical archetype. Like you have the bad girl, the parents don't want your daughter to be around. You have the athletic girl, but she only plays sports to impress her dad. Then you got the other girl whose dad's always drunk. And then the guy is literally called Abercrombie Tom at one point. And I don't know if they were self-aware or not, but that's what he was supposed to be. It was just very.
That way. And then, yes, there's definitely good creepy parts. I agree. Some good images. But, you know, a person can only back up into Slender Man so many times before I'm like checking the timestamp as to what's going on here. And so I think I picked up. I didn't realize about all the, you know, the reshoot. I guess not reshoots or what they cut out of and everything. So, like, there's this one scene.
But these two girls are talking and they're looking for a third girl. And the one girl says, well, the third girl, she saw Slenderman. We only watched the video. The problem is the two previous scenes to that line are these two girls seeing Slenderman.
I was like, what the fuck are you talking about? Like, you just saw him. Like, literally, the two scenes before. So you're exactly like her. So there was, like, no rhyme or reason as to... And they tried to cover it by saying, well, anything can happen with Slender.
sometimes he does this sometimes it's it's terrible writing oh it made me really mad but thanks for making me watch it i know i appreciate it okay so it wasn't just me then because i felt like this movie made no sense in the writing it was just all over the place so Lonely, you've made it make so much more sense with all that stuff being cut out. And I remember liking the trailer, so maybe that's part of the problem.
Yeah, so there's a prominent, and I don't mean to be like, give me the violence in the horror films. Like, I'm usually not that person on this show. Like, usually it's one of the guests who is like, you guys have no taste. Like, we need more violence. We needed more violence in this film. There is a scene in the trailer that features one of the characters self-mutilating and stabbing herself in the eyeball with a scalpel in biology class.
I think that would have been stellar. Also, it's sort of like we were promised that. It was in the trailer. And there was no... scalpel ing happening the biology classroom still exists you can still see it they have a like a two-minute conversation where She's like, Tom, are you okay? And then she says nothing else. And there's like an aerial view of them cutting open a frog and that's it. And what happened to Tom?
Like something happened. You watch the video. We never find out anything about it. So his death is cut out. His death is cut out as well. You could look it up on YouTube. He jumps to his death. He jumps off a roof and goes splat off the high school. you know watching this and like watching some of the the kills that were cut out of this it really felt like a like a smile junior like this really felt like some of the the gruesome stuff that we saw in films to come like later in later years
But some of the inklings of what could have been were still here. There's a really stellar sequence that I still think is quite creepy. It's in the last 15 minutes of the film where the older sister is... She's trying to wake up her younger sister. And there's this really fucked up montage of the sister's like dismembered body in the woods.
And I was like, yeah, that's it. That's the film that we needed, that we should have gotten. And it just wasn't that. And also this film is not particularly well made when it was announced. they already were calling it a B-style Blumhouse movie. So I'm assuming the budget wasn't particularly high. But I don't know if you guys noticed this, but even when the camera was supposed to be standing still...
It was freaking shaking. I'm like, am I having a stroke? Did and I know maybe it was the version I watched or what I was watching on. But did you guys also think it was very dark where you couldn't see anything in places? OK.
I tried to turn off the brightness. I was watching on my phone, which I don't usually do. But I was trying to turn off the brightness. It's like, what is happening? Yeah, well, you can watch Slender Man on your phone. I feel like that's what this movie deserves. But I, yeah, I don't know. Then there's that voiceover at the end, but I, I, I agree with you. Like that was a great sequence, but what is this movie? Like.
I don't know. And my last qualm that I will give is one of the other soapboxes that I'm known for on the internet is how passionate I am about creature actors. and particularly Javier Botet, because he is one of the most stellar creature actors and is known for his work with Guillermo del Toro. And I think it is a sin that this stellar creature actor was cast. to be slender man and they did that god awful terrible cgi
Over Slenderman. Agreed. Like you had a creature like we're talking same level creature actor that we saw in Pan's Labyrinth that we saw in Scary Stories to Tell in the Dark. in god's name happened here it was just so unfortunate and watching this film i had a revelation to myself i'm like this is how terrifier people feel
when people insult Art the Clown. Like, that is how I feel about Slenderman. I'm like, this is the wrong that has been committed on my generation, is that Slenderman did not get what he was due. I don't know. There was so much potential here. And this is one of those films. This is really honestly ranks as one of my worst horror films of all time. One of my other worst horror films of all time also features Joey King. Wish Upon, which we've talked about on the show before. Oh, no. Yeah.
She had a rough resume for a bit. hey she's in the conjuring though so that kind of i feel like even that's true that's true she did kill it in the act i will give her that she really had a redeem a redeeming moment there but do we have any um closing thoughts on slender man did one of you uh cue up the video No, I'm going to I'm going to stay out of that one. No, because I don't know what will happen. It could be any of like a thousand. He doesn't have the kids around to keep him safe. Yeah.
We also have no preparation. He could potentially show up. Also, if we watch the video, like, did we actually die or is it just when we see him? We'll never know. We'll never know because this film didn't teach us anything. It is that time of the night where we will start rounding everything down and we'll get into our worst and best from the subgenre. We will keep it riding low. Trey, tell me, what is your worst?
for a video game to film adaptation? Yeah, so my worst one is a film called Alone in the Dark from, I think, like 2003. 2005 maybe it's got christian slater in it it's it's really bad um it's a new way bull movie and um yeah probably one of the worst movies i've ever seen Mike, and if you say Slenderman, I'm going to be pissed because that's what I have. No, actually, I thought you might do what I was going to do here, and this might be a first on the Nobody's Podcast.
My worst movie has not actually been released yet, but I feel very confident it's going to be Until Dawn 2025. Oh, you're so right. As we have discussed, you and I lonely, the trailer, they have. fucked some shit up from the game and I will still go see it but I am very very worried and pretty confident that I would keep it where I'm putting it right now
Trey, are you an Until Dawn fan? I love Until Dawn. Okay, so Mike and I had a small disagreement. I feel like it's on Rami Malek and whether he should have been in the film. Yeah. My thoughts on that is I think he's priced out of whatever budget they're going for at this point. It was more of my point, but yes. What is it? Aged out? I mean, when has that stopped anyone before? I mean, there could be a 40-year-old teenager. It's fine.
I don't know. I'm a big... I'll put that man in anything. He could be... Also, he has such a unique face. You never know how old he is. you won't know but I think it is such I understand like the budget on this film probably was not what it would be needed to get the full cast that was originally on the voice acting cast But how good would that have been if we got like Rami Malek and Hayden Panettiere on this cast? Like that would have been...
And then I guess you kind of get into the territory of is it just a play-by-play? Is it just a copy of what we already know? Yeah, and you're already doing like a narrative adventure game almost. So at that point, it's like, is it just the same thing? But I have no faith in that movie adaptation, really. So I'm going to, I'll just, I won't go through my soapbox again. My worst is Slenderman. RIP Slendy. He will always have a special place in my heart. Trey, what is your best?
My best, and I don't know, this has a lot of comedy in it, so I don't know where you guys land on it, but I really enjoy Werewolves Within from a few years ago, I think. I really liked that one. I have not seen this one. Have you seen it, Mike? I don't think so. I definitely have heard of it, but I don't think I've... Very different. Very different. There's no comedy in that one, Mike, just to confirm. Yes. Yeah. What kind of like where would you put this comedy? Would you say like.
What We Do in the Shadows comedy or like Shaun of the Dead comedy. I would say it leans more to it's subtle, but it's not like I think it's more Shaun of the Dead than it would be the the drier sense of humor and what we do in the shadows. But. sell on horror comedy. I get it. Yep. But you know, there's always after some of the things we've watched this evening, we can only go up from here. So, you know, what do you have, Mike? What is your best?
but i will just throw out this is sort of a cheeks it's a tv show i i and i mentioned it earlier the last of us at least the first Not only is it an adaptation of a phenomenal game, but just truly phenomenal TV. It's one of the best shows I think HBO has put out there in quite some time. So I'll throw that out there secondary. But of the movies, for sure, Silent Hill. I would also say Silent Hill, followed behind by the show Detention, which I'll get into in a bit.
I also just want to clarify, and maybe this is just not a point that anyone else will need clarified, but the Walking Dead game was based on the show, right? Or does it not count because they're all based on the comics? What? I'm about the telltale game. Like, yeah, yeah, yeah. It was loosely based on. Yeah, I think it was its own story. But if yeah, I don't know where that one lands, but.
Because there was, you know, I always think The Walking Dead is such an interesting part of, like, the horror genre because it was one of the few times in, like, modern media consumption that horror was consumed at such an increased scale because people loved The Walking Dead.
I have no idea why it's still on. But listeners, call in. What came first? The Walking Dead chicken or the Walking Dead egg, the comic book. You know who probably knows the answers to that? Ian Irza. Ian, call me. Tell me what came first because I can't figure it out. I'm pretty sure it's comic book, TV show, then game. I think you're right. I feel pretty confident. I think the game was 2012. I know for sure the game is based on, sorry, the TV show is based on the comic.
So I think did any of you guys play the game? I played at least the first season. I think I played a couple of seasons. Yeah. Yeah. That was another one that made it during the Let's Play era, but very big. I was in the PewDiePie. I'm not going to say I'm a PewDiePie fan. I was a PewDiePie consumer before the...
The downfall. Are you guys even in that? Do you even know who I'm talking about? I know who you're talking about, and I do know about the downfall. Oh, I'm so glad. I'm so glad. The children have taught you well, Mike. They did not lead you astray. But now is time. I have to fill in for Susie. This is the section that Susie usually does. Deep cuts and surface wounds. And I have to do it all by myself. So wish me luck.
This is a section where we review some deeper cuts, some unknown media. If something has 5K or under reviews on IMDb, we call it a deep cut. If something has 6,000 to 10,000 reviews on IMDb, we call it a surface wound. I only have deep cuts tonight. I'm filling in. So I really need to shine bright here. So I've got Detention 2020. It's a series on Netflix. A tormented student uncovers unsettling secrets at her remote high school as a betrayal.
and paranormal encounters upend her life this follows dare i say the white terror um in taiwan this is an excellent series not as good as the game but it is still quite good it's got 678 reviews on imdb how how deep can we get and this is based on detention which is a taiwanese horror adventure game developed by red candle games for the pc in 2017 My next one is Blue Demon or Al Oni.
From 2014, friends go into a rumored haunted mansion on the outskirts of town. And when they get there, they get more than they expected. This has 230 reviews on IMDb. We're going deeper. And this is based on Ao Oni, a Japanese RPG maker horror puzzle game released in 2008 for the PC. It was also really prominent during the YouTube Let's Play era. Mike, have you ever played this one? Because you're an RPG maker guy.
It is a doozy. There is, in fact, a blue demon. He is quite large. So tell me, you know, give it a whirl and tell me how you feel. And last but not least, we have Corpse Party, the film. Facing goodbyes and graduation, Naomi Nakashima and her classmates decide to perform a ritual so they will stay friends forever, but are whisked away to a haunted graduation ceremony. and this has 555 reviews on imdb and is of course based on corpse party which we talked about earlier
And now it is time to wrap us out for the evening. So we will have some closing thoughts. And the question I have for you two gents, it is quite the doozy. I'll have you start, Mike, because I don't think I sent Trey this question, so I'll give him some time to ruminate. But if you could design a horror game, what would the premise be? And Mike, you can get us started. Oh, yeah. I'm excited about this.
make this so uh it is known i guess amongst my dozens of followers uh that the exorcist is my favorite game of all time so this is what i want i want like an exorcist style horror rp so i guess maybe the premise is either you're possessed or someone you love is possessed and you have to like travel the world unraveling the mystery and trying to figure out how to do it so just imagine you're exploring vatican crypts old castles maybe asylums but the demon knows
trying to stop you um and i can only hope there's a button in the game if i ever design it it would be the power of christ compels you button and you hit that and you get to do that command um but i would really like that like it's kind of like a mix of like indiana gem played the Indiana Jones game between that, but it's horror and it's got exorcist in it. Somebody should make that for me and I will play.
I can picture it like in my mind. It's like cute. It'd be cute. You could like play it with the fam. At least that's what I'm envisioning. it's not not scary i mean i want exorcist stuff so i mean i imagine you're in a very scary crypt in the vatican and the demons they're doing stuff to i don't know i'm workshopping it but i feel like an exorcist horror And maybe it's based on one of these Russell Crowe extras. I don't know. But something like that, you know.
Or it could just be called Father Marin versus Pazuzu. I don't know. Something like that would be pretty. It's just Mortal Kombat, and you can either play as Pazuzu or Father Baron. That's the game. Trey, what do you got for us? What would you design as a horror game? Yeah, so... I, in general, think there aren't enough really, like... So I would like to see, you know, with the Dead Space games, we got to see a lot of stuff on spaceships and things like that and settlements.
I'd like to see something down in like a, Space colony and maybe you're cut off from a lot of stuff. And I do love survival horror. So it'd probably be something survival horror themed, you know, picture maybe something like Ghost of Mars, but actually good. But I would love to see that you're kind of like.
isolated on a planet um and there's not you know it's kind of like more primitive than these high-tech space stations or something and something goes wrong hits the fan whether it's supernatural i would think but yeah that's that's about what i got On hearing that, have you played mouthwashing? No, I'm waiting on that to come. I think it's coming to PS5 soon. So I will be playing mouthwashing when it comes out. I haven't heard of that. What is that?
It's space station. There's people in space and... Chaos ensues. Yeah, I heard it's really good. It's more of a story. I think a storytelling like point and click. There's definitely not as much like action as what you would see in like a dead space. But what you were kind of talking about in terms of. But like, I don't know, it's like a little bit like Lord of the Flies in space, but it's also a little primitive. Like we're not in like Alien versus Predator spaceship. We're in like a tin can.
No, I'm excited about playing that. I think I just saw today or yesterday that it was coming to PS5 sometime this year, so I will be playing that when it comes out. So my final, this is where I've settled. is I would definitely do a survival-style horror game, but with no weapons, very similar in style to Amnesia of the Dark Descent, or... You can't fight back. You just have to get to your checkpoint and keep moving. And the premise I would have is
This is going to sound so crazy. So I have a deep affinity for the album Preacher's Daughter by Ethel Kane. And I think it has such an interesting like storyline like rooted in Southern Gothic and this like deep religious like culty feel.
So I would love to do like a story-driven horror game where you're in... this backwoods like very deep rural southern town and you need to discover you'll probably it's probably gonna be very resident evil village-esque we're looking for somebody or something and we need to get
we need to get out of there but we have no weapons i think a horror game without weapons that's driven entirely by story is the scariest in my opinion because there's nothing that you can do you like feel that fear so that would be my my little pitch it would be a southern gothic little religious moment that's where i was what i'm working with i think both those sound great and i think you're right like
Things like Outlast or Amnesia are definitely more of the scarier things I'd play. That sounds sounds great. I love that setting that you're talking about. Talk about a game that's scary as hell. Outlast. That is so scary. I have never been able to get when I first started dating my husband. He was like, you like scary things? come sit in my computer and wear my big headset and play this game. Good thing I stuck around.
eight years later and got married because that could have been a relationship ending moment because that was scary as shit. And there's no movie based on Outlast yet, right? No, no. I think they've had like three games or something, but I just can't bring myself to finish the first Outlast either. I can't even get the first 15 minutes of gameplay. The first 15 minutes is rough, though. Especially if you have a headset on. Mike, have you ever played Outlast?
I haven't, but now I'm intrigued now since I have a headset now. Yeah, now that you've got some headphones, you'll be rocking and rolling. Don't play in the dark, whatever you do. But... It is that time of the evening that we must say goodbye. It has been wonderful. It has been such a good time. I was joking before we got the recording rolling that it has been many, many moons since it was just me and two gents on the mic.
And I will say this was quite a pleasant experience compared to some of my prior soirees. So thank you so much, Trey, for joining us. Can you tell the listeners where they can find more of your work? yeah absolutely i appreciate you having me on i always am up to talk horror video games um
You can find my work at my previous podcast, Screaming Through the Ages, where there's a little bit of everything on there. I haven't put out an episode in probably about a year now. And I don't know if I will in the future or not, maybe. You can also follow me on Twitter where I post every now and then at Screaming Ages. And I do have an Instagram at the same thing, but I don't use it as much. And Mike, my savior, my bestie.
My Vanna White, you have saved this episode. And I appreciate you so much. I called Mike literally friggin' less than 24 hours before this recording, and I was like, is there any possible way you could be here? And he pulled through for me, and I really, really appreciate that. Mike where can the listeners find you?
Ah, thank you. I'm just glad you think of me to do things like this. I love it. I can never fill Susie's shoes. Who can? But it was cool to be the co-host tonight, and like I said, I appreciate you reaching out. I'm always here for you if you need me for anything, of course. And if you're looking for my work, I'm that horror teacher.
pretty much all the socials instagram twitter blue sky and i post horror movie reviews occasionally a little top fives i've started doing here recently just to switch things up i'm kind of in that first three months of the year i don't want to watch movies part of the year so i've been my output has been a little bit down but uh if you like to read little reviews and such you can find me there And if you are new to our show for any reason and you have not heard us bully Mike before.
which we bullied Mike for long hours at a time and put him through several agonizing watch lists. Actually, I would say just one agonizing watch list, right, Mike? I would say our very first one was a good watch list. Our first one was great. Ginger Snaps for the first time, Jennifer's Body. I had some great movies in that.
Yeah, then we got Amityville Toilet. So if you want to hear more from Mike and Susie and I on the show, Mike's first appearance with us is during season one, way back in time, Horror in the Halls, our schoolhouse horror episode. And Mike was also one of our special guests on our October special on the horror alphabet. So I will link both of those episodes in the show notes.
And of course, if you if you dare to if you dare to find me, you can find my horror reviews and rants for lonely souls over on Instagram at Lonely Horror Club. I try to post reviews. And I'm leaving it at that because it has not been weekly in quite some time. But I also try to cause problems on filmstagram whenever possible. You can also find my writing on my website, lonelyhorrorclub.com.
Thank you, dear internet, for tuning in to episode 51 of Nobodies. As always, sources, additional reading, and all of that fun stuff will be in our show notes. If you want to leave us a message, you can give us a call at 617-431-4322. And keep up with our antics on Instagram at Nobody's Horror Podcast. The Coroner's Report is returning. I promise it is. So keep an eye out for it. to be featured in an upcoming episode. And last but especially not least, Get your podcasts.