Kotaku: Horror

Gears of War Creators Are Giving the 'Dudebro' Thing a Rest With Fortnite

Pierre Bienaimé — Mon, 23 Jan 2012 16:00:00 EST

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Epic Games makes macho games that feature manly men. Gears of War, for example. But they're also making Fortnite, a game their lead game designer, Cliff Bleszinski, tells G4 should help the studio's shed the developer's "dudebro" image just a bit. More »

This Little Girl is the Key to Surviving the Horror of Amy

Mike Fahey — Thu, 03 Nov 2011 18:40:00 EDT

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When the world's population has been transformed into rampaging flesh-hungry monsters and the infection is spreading through your system a little psychic girl can make all the difference. More »

Paranoia, Madness, Suicide and Cannibalism; Who Says 16-Bit Can't Be Scary?

Mike Fahey — Mon, 31 Oct 2011 13:00:00 EDT

Nine students trapped in an otherworldly school building in which spirits are trying to kill them in grisly ways, if they don't eat each other first; we don't need high-quality 3D graphics where the downloadable PSP title Corpse Party is going. More »

When You're Too Terrified to Finish the Game

Mike Fahey — Mon, 31 Oct 2011 11:20:00 EDT

In today's spooktacular edition of Speak Up on Kotaku, commenter God Hand BrynnFlynn wonders if they're alone in being so terrified by a game that they just couldn't go on. More »

Why George Romero rejected The Walking Dead to make The Zombie Autopsies

Meredith Woerner — Wed, 19 Oct 2011 19:40:00 EDT

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We scored a few minutes with the Zombiefather George A. Romero at the kick-off to AMC's Fear Fest celebration. He shared his thoughts on undead sensation Walking Dead — and his plans for his next project, adapting The Zombie Autopsies. More »

In Your Most Terrifying Video Game Nightmares

Mike Fahey — Tue, 20 Sep 2011 12:20:00 EDT

Any activity you perform often enough has a tendency to invade your nightmares, even video games. In today's Speak Up on Kotaku, commenter GiantBoyDetective shares his Zelda-fueled nightmare, and you share your own. More »

Science Determines the Xbox 360's Scariest Video Game

Luke Plunkett — Fri, 09 Sep 2011 06:30:00 EDT

Lots of video games claim to be scary. Amnesia, Dead Space, you name it, if it's dark and things jump out of closets at you, it's "scary". Don't let video game developers tell you what's scary. Let science. More »

Angry Birds, Infinity Blade, Fruit Ninja, and Pan’s Labyrinth Converge in The Dark Meadow

Mike Fahey — Tue, 02 Aug 2011 19:30:00 EDT

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Combining the slingshot controls of Angry Birds, the swordplay of Fruit Ninja, the gorgeous Unreal Engine-powered graphics of Infinity Blade, and the dark fairytale them of the film Pan's Labyrinth, The Dark Meadow is the sort of iOS game nightmares are made of. More »

Minecraft's Creator Puts Players in Control of Their Own Terror

Mike Fahey — Fri, 29 Jul 2011 13:20:00 EDT

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Don't look away. Don't even blink. Exploring new ways to instill fear in the upcoming adventure update for Minecraft, creator Notch explores placing the responsibility for terror on the players themselves, creating a creature that's equal parts Doctor Who Weeping Angels and Super Mario's Boo. More »

Can Comic-Con save the Locke and Key TV show? The comic's creators sure hope so

Cyriaque Lamar — Fri, 22 Jul 2011 15:00:00 EDT

Friday morning at Comic-Con, the pilot episode of the supernatural horror show Locke and Key — which was not picked up by Fox for the fall season — will be screened to the public for the first time. On the eve of its unveiling, io9 caught up with series writer Joe Hill and illustrator Gabriel Rodriguez about all the keynote issues. More »

Silent Hill: Downpour Doesn't Need Pyramid Heads to be Scary

Stephen Totilo — Wed, 22 Jun 2011 17:20:00 EDT

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I liked what one of the developers of the next, creepy Silent Hill recently had to say about guns. His team's new game will have guns, but not the way most games have guns. More »

Kinect Fun Labs Does Dark and Terrible Things to My Cat

Mike Fahey — Wed, 08 Jun 2011 15:20:00 EDT

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I should never have used my cat, Rande, as a test subject in Kinect Fun Labs' Build-A-Buddy. I had a buddy already. Now all I have is the horror. Oh god the horror. More »

Rise of Nightmares Will Tie You Up in a Dirty Basement and Stab You in the Eye

Mike Fahey — Tue, 07 Jun 2011 16:50:52 EDT

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You want a mature Kinect title? Sega's got your mature Kinect title in Rise of Nightmares, featured in this E3 trailer that looks like one of today's edgier horror films threw up. More »

A Compendium of Freaked-Out Reactions to Amnesia: The Dark Descent

Owen Good — Thu, 14 Apr 2011 19:30:00 EDT

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Ordinarily, you toss a video like this on YouTube, and every comment shouts it down as fake. But anyone who's played indie horror hit Amnesia: The Dark Descent knows this guy's skin-crawling, pupil-dilating, sphincter-clenching, headphone-grabbing reactions are on the level. More »

Guess Who's Coming Back For The New Silent Hill Movie?

Michael McWhertor — Tue, 15 Mar 2011 17:40:00 EDT

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I'd love to tell you that Pyramid Head is confirmed to return in Silent Hill: Revelation 3D, but the people making the next horror movie based on Konami's Silent Hill series haven't confirmed his return. Instead, three characters from the original film will join Heather Mason on her stereoscopic 3D trip to Silent Hill. More »

First Look At The New Silent Hill Movie's Leading Lady

Michael McWhertor — Mon, 07 Mar 2011 16:30:00 EST

The second Silent Hill movie—based on the third video game—is now filming, with the newly revealed Adelaide Clemens taking on the role of Heather Mason, the playable teenage daughter of Harry Mason from Silent Hill 3. More »

What Makes Zombies So Terrifying?

Mike Fahey — Tue, 15 Feb 2011 14:00:00 EST

As the entertainment world's zombie outbreak continues unabated, one of the nation's top minds seeks an answer to a pressing question: What makes humans fear these brain-hungry abominations, aside from the whole brain-eating thing. More »

Silent Hill 3 Coming To Movie Theaters In 3D

Michael McWhertor — Wed, 03 Nov 2010 17:00:00 EDT

Konami's grisly horror game franchise, Silent Hill, is coming back to movie theaters, this time with a story based on one of its best entries, Silent Hill 3. Like any movie worth watching, it will be filmed in stereoscopic 3D. More »

The Most Provocative Movie Of 2010 Is Now A Flash Game

Mike Fahey — Mon, 24 May 2010 15:20:00 EDT

The Human Centipede could be the most disgustingly appropriate movie video game ever created. Warning: Content probably not safe for anyone. More »

Talk Live To Alan Wake's Creators Right Now

Mike Fahey — Wed, 19 May 2010 13:00:00 EDT

Load your pistol and make sure you pack plenty of batteries as Kotaku Talk Radio talks with two members of Alan Wake development studio Remedy Entertainment. More »

New Resident Evil Movie Will Go IMAX

Brian Ashcraft — Thu, 13 May 2010 03:00:00 EDT

It's already going to be shown in 3D, but Sony Pictures has revealed that the upcoming horror film will also be shown in IMAX. More »

The Difference Between Scary and Horror

Owen Good — Sun, 14 Mar 2010 14:00:00 EDT

I have a fear of horror films, and by extension horror games. I'm just too attenuated to suspense and having the hell scared out of me. But what I'm really experiencing, argues one writer, is just that: scary, not horror. More »

This Lady Would Like To Be In Warcraft Movie

Brian Ashcraft — Tue, 12 Jan 2010 06:30:00 EST

Horror scream queen Michele Morrow has professed her desire to be in the upcoming Sam Raimi Warcraft film. Get in line, sister! More »

Dementium II Preview: A Metroid With Dread

Stephen Totilo — Fri, 18 Dec 2009 13:40:05 EST

They're mixing Metroid with Resident Evil again, and gamers who want to play an M-rated game like that on the DS just might have to give the makers of Dementium II some thanks. More »

Reach Out And Touch Someone Dead

Mike Fahey — Thu, 17 Dec 2009 11:40:00 EST

New screens from Hudson's Wii horror game Calling show us what happens when AT&T launches the inevitable Dead Friends and Family plan. More »

Calling Preview: Ju-on, Take Two

AJ Glasser — Fri, 06 Nov 2009 21:20:00 EST

Halloween might be long gone for 2009, but Japanese horror is fashionable all year round. Or at least Hudson hopes to make it so with Calling. More »

Record Sales For Scary Games, Reuters Dates Dead Space 2

AJ Glasser — Fri, 30 Oct 2009 07:00:00 EDT

News source Reuters says scary video games are having "a record year as zombies, monsters, demons, and chain-sawing wielding psychos fight against the consoles, making video games the new home of horror for some." More »

What Makes A Video Game Scary

AJ Glasser — Mon, 12 Oct 2009 13:40:00 EDT

How can a video game be scary? Unlike horror movies where you're stuck watching some hapless victim succumb to scary stuff, video games empower players to fight back. Or at least run away. It's October. Time to identify horror-gaming's essentials. More »

Hudson Soft Dials Up The Horror With Calling

Mike Fahey — Fri, 10 Jul 2009 10:40:00 EDT

Hudson Soft takes a stab at the horror genre with Calling for the Nintendo Wii, which transforms your Wii remote into a cell phone with direct dial service to the damned. More »

CFP: 'Thinking after Dark: Welcome to the World of Horror Video Games'

Maggie Greene — Sat, 08 Nov 2008 14:30:00 EST

Totally out of my academic purview, but it's a really neat sounding conference: The research group Ludiciné (University of Montreal), the Research Group on the Creation and Formation of Cinematographic and Theatrical Institutions (GRAFICS) (also from the University of Montreal) and the NT2 Laboratory on Hypermedia Art and Literature (University of Quebec) are hosting a conference next year (in — surprise! — Montréal) on horror games. Proposals are due by January 15, 2009, and the conference will be held from April 23 to 25, 2009. So if you're incubating a great paper topic on horror games, or are sitting on a paper that you haven't had an academic outlet for, here's your chance. Sounds pretty fun! More information can be found at the website, and the full call for papers can be found beneath the jump. [via GameSetWatch] More »

Nerds Get Slaughtered In 'LAN Party Massacre'

Michael McWhertor — Wed, 06 Aug 2008 22:40:20 EDT

As a fan of the massacre film genre — I was raised on mass unsuspecting teen killing flicks like Chopping Mall, Happy Birthday To Me and Slumber Party Massacre — I may just have a soft spot for the schtick of seeing a dozen kids die in increasingly brutal yet comedic ways. That's why I'm not giving up on LAN Party Massacre, due to be released in 2009, self-described as a "comedy/horror slash film" that's a "direct parody of video game culture, but a classic slasher film at heart." More »

Siren: Blood Curse Even Scarier Moving

Mike Fahey — Fri, 16 May 2008 21:00:00 EDT

In case the screenshots of Sony's Siren: Blood Curse episodic horror adventure didn't sell you on the game, here's a trailer for the game, which wound up making the hairs on the back of my neck stand up just a little bit, especially the chanting at the end. Chanting is one of those things that is damn spooky when placed in the correct setting. That and spooky little girls. And baby carriages. More »

Requiem: Bloodymare Enters Open Beta

Mike Fahey — Fri, 16 May 2008 15:00:00 EDT

Didn't get into the Age of Conan early start event? Well here's something for you to mess about with over the weekend instead. Gravity Interactive's horror-MMO Requiem: Bloodymare couldn't have picked a better time to go into open beta. Right now you can head over to the website, register an account, download the client, and there you are, fighting evil in a rather unique little setting. I've played the game a bit myself, and while there are points where it feels a bit like your standard Korean MMO given a fresh coat of paint, the game mechanics are actually rather entertaining. The only real problem I have with it is that it is hard to maintain an atmosphere of horror after you've killed the same monster 20 times, but it definitely has a few moments. Hit up the link below to get things started!Requiem: Bloodymare Official Site [Gravity Interactive = Thanks Andthenjaredsaid!] More »

Saw Writer Talks Saw Video Game

Mike Fahey — Tue, 19 Feb 2008 11:40:29 EST

James Wan, the executive producer for the Saw series of horror films, was also responsible from writing the two best installments of the franchise, the original and Saw III, so news that he is busy writing the story for the video game is welcome news indeed. James talks about the project a bit in his latest MySpace blog post.

Leigh and I are very excited about this new venture. We are big gaming fans and we think it would a great opportunity to continue the SAW legacy into a different platform/medium. Keeps things fresh for us anyway. A lot of people have asked us if we would be interested in writing another SAW movie...well, we are writing another SAW story...but it's for the game. We're treating this story like the SAW movies with lots of twists and turns. We have no idea how that is going to apply to a computer game format, considering that most games are generally pretty simple in it's plotting. Maybe its a good thing that Leigh and I are naive to the video game world and that we're writing it like its a movie!

GameTap Sets Daikatana Free

Mike Fahey — Wed, 05 Dec 2007 13:20:07 EST

GameTap really hates us. Don't believe it? Just look what they've given us for Christmas. From now until December 31st, John Romero's masterpiece Daikatana is free for everyone to play.They've even posted a retrospective covering the game's history for you to giggle at. If you missed out on what some game reviewers at the time called "BWAHAHAHAHAHA", and "Is this a joke?", then now is your chance to experience all the pulse-pounding terror of robot frogs! *insert horrific violin squealing incidental music here*. Seriously though, you can't make fun of it unless you've played it, so there it is. This article is the gaming equivalent of eating something bad and going, "Ew, this is horrible! Taste this!" More »

Dead Space Looks Deadly, Spacey

Mike Fahey — Mon, 03 Dec 2007 11:20:17 EST

I have high hopes for EA's Dead Space, because space-based horror films rock. I don't know what happened to Luke as a child that he didn't like Event Horizon, but it was an excellent example of how outer space and horror can be brilliantly mixed. Look at the Alien series. Look at...um. Hellraiser: Bloodline? Jason X? Leprechaun IV - Leprechaun In Space? There was this really great episode of Doctor Who from the first season of the new series where the Doctor faces Satan in outer space. That was pretty good. *drums fingers on the table, thinking* Okay, so making good space horror is hard, but EA seems to be off to a good start. As long as they can keep the music in check and highlight the silence and isolated feeling of being stranded in space, they could very well pull an Event Horizon out of their airlock. If not, then "As Shakespeare said, shit happens. " More »

The Zombie Heads of Dead Island

Brian Ashcraft — Wed, 14 Nov 2007 23:00:03 EST

Zombies! We love 'em. Like really, really love 'em. Here's a real time peak at upcoming PC/Xbox 360 title Dead Island. The above clip isn't for the squeamish (sorry, Mom) and features real time zombie damage. The game is front the first person perspective, but isn't a FPS. Rather, it's a FPHAS, which means "First Person Hack And Slash." I just made that up. Like right now! More »

Umbrella Chronicles Files Revealed

fdemarco — Sun, 11 Nov 2007 14:00:00 EST

You know all those files, notes and missives you run across in the Resident Evil games? The ones no one ever reads except for the few obsessives who like me, enjoy reading? Well, a fellow obsessive has managed to document all one hundred and nine files from the upcoming Resident Evil: Umbrella Chronicles. So if you're interested in the backstory, but don't want to stop your zombie massacre long enough to read them in-game, treat yourself to some weekend reading and check them all out at Resident Evil Horror. While you're there, take some time to click around as RE Horror has managed to put together quite an extensive collection of RE history, time lines and stories. Good weekend reading over coffee. More »

Dead Space Trailer

fdemarco — Sat, 27 Oct 2007 11:00:00 EDT

Move over Alien, there's a new scary... alien in space. GameTrailers managed to nab a world exclusive trailer for EA's upcoming space horror game, Dead Space. I'm a big fan of the survival horror genre but usually my tastes tend towards the Silent Hill, Resident Evil end of things. I have yet, to my memory (which is admittedly poor) played a horror game in outer space much less zero gravity, so I'll be anxious to check this out when it hits next year. Definitely one for lights out... More »

Darkness Within - 'Things Man Was Not Meant To Click At'

Maggie Greene — Sun, 21 Oct 2007 21:00:00 EDT

Back in September, Fahey mentioned Lighthouse Interactive's PC adventure game Darkness Within: In Pursuit of Loath Nolder (pretty pictures included!), and now the nice people at Rock, Paper, Shotgun have taken the demo for a spin. You can get your own copy over at the official website. It doesn't sound like the demo gives a very good impression of the game, though I guess demos frequently don't: More »