By BILL REICK
Starring John Romero, Akira Yamaoka and John Carpenter
Written and directed by Richard Moss
CreatorVC
Horror video games aren’t celebrated nearly as much as horror in other media. While the genre as a whole is often neglected, it seems like horror video games in particular are seriously overlooked when it comes to praising the scariest and spookiest stories we engage with. Though not many horror films have won Academy Awards, they are perennial box office favorites and are given the critical eye and careful documentation they deserve. Some movies are successful enough that they transcend the genre; even if you’re not a horror fan, chances are you’re still familiar with some of the iconography from Psycho and The Exorcist.
By contrast, horror games are a niche. In spite of video games growing in popularity, horror remains a subsect within that fandom. Horror video games rarely pervade pop culture unless they’re adapted into some other medium. The Last of Uswas popular among video game fans but truly caught on as a phenomenon when the story became a hit HBO series. Even the Resident Evil games, as popular as they are, didn’t break through to the mainstream until they were brought into the multiplex.
The creators of the critically acclaimed In Search of Darkness trilogy seek to right this wrong with TERRORBYTES, the ultimate exploration and celebration of horror in video games. This brand-new five-part documentary brings careful attention to some of the genre’s most incredible—and incredibly overlooked—entries. Across five-and-a-half hours, the series explores the history of scary video games and takes viewers behind-the-scenes with some of the notable creators who ushered in gaming’s greatest nightmares.
Writer/director Richard Moss, along with producer Daniel Richardson, speaks to some of the most important voices in the space. Interview subjects include filmmaker John Carpenter (The Thing), composer Akira Yamaoka (Silent Hill), writer Hubert Chardot (Alone in the Dark) and even Slipknot vocalist Corey Taylor. Together, these conversations create a compelling chronicle of terrifying console entries. Video editor Connor O’Keanne does an incredible job of weaving together disparate interviews into digestible long-form oral histories, ensuring each talking head builds toward one clear narrative. Episode titles streamline the hours of content into comprehensive storylines. Rather than look at the entire history of horror video games chronologically, the filmmakers break the series down into thematic chunks.
“Survival Horror,” the first episode, is a fascinating survey of the games most likely to be familiar to casual fans. Even folks who don’t consider themselves gamers will likely recognize titles like Silent Hill and Resident Evil. However, genre buffs are sure to learn something new from the teams who worked on these projects. This episode does a great job of not just recording the history but showing viewers the context for each release and how they all built off of what came before. Along the way, some less popular games are highlighted. Deadly Premonition is sure to be a new name for some in the audience, who may rush to dust off their PlayStation 3 in hopes of finding an old copy of the Twin Peaks-inspired game.
Episode two, titled “Lethal Licences,” illuminates some of the best (and weirdest) games based on pre-existing media. Early titles like the Atari 2600’s Halloween and Texas Chainsaw Massacre show the industry’s desire to cash in on some popular movies, with little understanding of what made them great, or how to translate that energy into a game cartridge.
TERRORBYTES shows us that as the video game industry evolves, better care is put towards adapting some of our favorite film franchises, with games like Alien: Isolation brilliantly bringing their source material to life. That title, in particular, is given some heavy praise, with industry experts and the game’s creators alike extolling its virtues as a claustrophobic, terrifying experience that brings players face-to-face with the unkillable Xenomorph. That detail, an enemy that can’t be vanquished with any amount of button-mashing, was what unlocked Alien: Isolation as a truly unique entry and a horror game that will be well-remembered for decades to come.
Three further episodes round out the series, leaving no stone unturned and no corner of the horror game space unexplored. “Narrative Nightmares” provides the inside scoop on FMV (full-motion video) gaming during its heyday in the ‘90s with titles like Phantasmagoria and Night Trap, before exploring a more recent wave, beginning with 2015’s Her Story. The third episode, titled “The Indie Revolution,” spotlights some of the genre’s greatest entries from outside of the studio system. With titles like Five Nights at Freddy’s changing how an entire generation thinks about horror games, these indie darlings take bigger risks and make bolder choices than some industry forbears shackled to giant corporations with shareholder value at stake. Finally, “Cursed and Controversial” concludes the series with a dive into all the titles that parent groups have tried to ban. Games like Doom and Manhunt are presented in tandem with the real-life contention that threatened to define their legacies. In addition, this last episode delves into some great urban legends surrounding games, and how internet rumors have led to a rise in supposedly “cursed” games.
Taken as a whole, TERRORBYTES is incredibly comprehensive. It turns a decades-long history into an easy-to-understand continuum. Crucially, it’s enjoyable for horror fans who are looking for an entryway into gaming. This is a documentary for superfans as well as folks who just haven’t been “that into” horror video games. For those reasons, and plenty of others, TERRORBYTES should be commended as an excellent, entertaining and educational documentary about a little-reported piece of horror fandom.
All five episodes of TERRORBYTES are now available for purchase.
