Topic: Horror movies and video games

[Abnormal Freak]

If I or somebody made a thread like this already, I'm an idiot, but it's a continuation from some previous posts in the CV discussion forum, and it's also a thread I wanted to rescue from a Facebook group where nobody saw fit to reply. :p




What are some games where you can tell the developers were big-time horror movie fans? I wanna make a list of this stuff.

Splatterhouse is an obvious one. The first game has a lot of film references (Jason mask, Evil Dead II hand) and is just ghastly and grisly, particularly the arcade original—the TurboGrafx version was really toned down in terms of graphics.

Blood on the PC also has a lot of film references. The very first line the protagonist speaks once rising from the grave is "I live...again," a line from Army of Darkness. There's so many references in here it's hard to keep track of, like Jason and Freddy gear hanging on walls, walking hands saying "I'll swallow your soul," Jack Torrance's frozen corpse in a hedge maze, etc.

Then another one I can think of is the SNES Clock Tower which took some inspiration from Dario Argento movies, and whose protagonist is named Jennifer and looks exactly like Jennifer Connelly from her first film role in Argento's Phenomena (a.k.a. Creepers)—who, by the way, played a character named Jennifer.

Of course, there's the Castlevania series and its nods to Univeral and Hammer productions (the English credits citing "Trans Fishers" as the director and so on), and Count Orlok from the movie Nosferatu, a Symphony of Horror is found frozen in a level in the X68000 game, and being referenced later in Symphony of the Night as Olrox.

Anyway, just curious of more video games that pay homage to horror movies. Not so much in the vaguest sense of inspiration, but specifically that reference directly horror flicks. To that end, the shaking-head creatures from Silent Hill 4: The Room were totally lifted from the movie Jacob's Ladder.

[Ratty]

Well, there's your usual suspects. The Darkstalkers series takes a lot from both western and eastern horror movies. Though one of my favorite references (Talbane as a reference to Talbot and Wolf's Bane from the original "The Wolf Man") was an invention of the localization team. And you can't forget about "Zombies Ate My Neighbors!" more references than you can shake a stick at.

[Munchy]

Silent Hill, though I think it goes a little beyond just horror. A lot of the soundtrack from Full Metal Jacket sounded to me as if it could have been in one of those games, and Brad Pitt's character in 12 Monkeys was cited as inspiration for Vincent's facial movements in SH3. (And let's not forget the infamous Kindergarten Cop references.)

[C Belmont]

There is Night slashers
It's full of horror movie references and it could very nearly be a Castlevania Beat em up.

[Abnormal Freak]

It's always so weird to me that Silent Hill references Kindergarten Cop. I always forget that it does and am surprised each time I'm reminded. That's not really the focus of this thread, but I do like the scope of a horror game referencing any kind of movie, horror or not (and vice versa: horror movie reference in non-horror game). Vague or indirect inspirations are welcome, too, but I'd like the meat of this thread to be direct references to horror films.

Might even be worth going into all of the specific references for each game. I'd have to play through some of the games I mentioned to even remember them all, although there are probably sites that already list these things.


Another obvious one is the Contra series. Sure, trudging more into sci-fi territory, but the first Alien is totally a horror flick and Aliens has elements of such. There's the eggs where the Facehugger-looking creatures emerge, a lot of the backgrounds look lifted from H.R. Giger's designs, the aliens themselves looking very Xenomorph/Necronom IV, and this thing...



...damn, that's gotta be a reference to something, isn't it? Or were the people who designed that creature for the game just that talented at crafting something so bizarre?


One of my favorite movie nods is in Splatterhouse 2, the first boss. Totally lifted from The Deadly Spawn, and it's one of my favorite creature designs.



Those teeth!

This fan art is pretty badass:




Also, I'm pretty sure this mid-boss from the first game is meant to reference Jason Voorhees' appearance in Friday the 13th Part 2 with the towering figure and potato sack (and possibly some more Evil Dead II love with the chainsaw hands):



Jason vs. Jason (the hockey mask an obvious homage to Jason's more iconic look from Part 3 and onward).

[Morning star]

Great topic. Just off the top of my head? Not mentioning the ones that are clearly titled as straight from a movie..

Zombies ate my neighbors
Monster party
Uninvited
Chiller
Zombie nation
Sweet home
Resident evil

[Abnormal Freak]

Sweet Home was pretty fun when I played a translated ROM years back. Would like to play through it all someday. The movie's a trip. This fan video features footage from it.

ohGr - tRAGEk Spoken (widescreen)

[Morning star]

That's pretty wicked stuff. You made me work the google machine lol. Because... I had no idea that was a movie.

Thanks man!

[Belmont legacy]

Obviously resident evil splatter house and silent hill but also more obscure ones. Fatal frame, manhunt, rule of rose, condemned,  D, etc.  don't forget about the upcoming the evil within!!! I also found other games to have quite a bit or horror influence even though they're not really survival horror like mortal kombat.

[X]

Got a question Abnormal Freak. In the SNES game Clocktower what is the monster (mutant blob-thing) that is behind the curtain in the basement? It was based on a creature from a movie if I recall correctly. And I think there was a spoof on that monster too. Back 2003 I believe they had that same creature invite this bomeshell of a blond into 'it's' bedroom while it put on a record and invited her to do it, lol.

[Abnormal Freak]

Not sure. Phenomena had a similarly deformed boy hidden away, but he wasn't gigantic.



Would love to see that commercial, ha ha.

Perhaps scour TV Tropes and the Clock Tower wiki to see if something's been mentioned.

http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/VideoGame/ClockTower
http://clocktower.wikia.com/wiki/Clock_Tower_Wiki

[RegalSin]

Ever heard of "Black Magic M-66". You have to understand, in order for "male romance ficitonal works" to survive it eventually turned to sci-fi and horror ( which are the same genre ). While women enjoyed it too, it was made directly for men. Videogames was the last of synth era creations, that lasted beyond the 1990's. Right now it is making a comeback as Retrogaming, Independent, and other lame words, for it.
I would say videogames being the adorable things they were in the arcades during the 1970's into the 1980's, is what is really led, to "male romance ficiton, being extended. On one end we have Castlevania, on the other end we have Monster Mash/Halloween/Purin.

Another thing is the quest for the perfect monster, hey why not just make something original. Ever played/read "I have no mouth, but I want to scream" ? Same thing.

[Super Waffle]

Phenomena was the direct basis for the first Clock Tower game, which basically makes it the basis for every Japanese survival horror game ever made.  Japan is just gaga over Phenomena/Clock Tower to the point that when Fatal Frame came out, Miku was given the same voice actress as Jennifer from Clock Tower pretty much solely on the basis of being Jennifer from Clock Tower. 

[ganonfloyd]

I feel like the developers of System Shock 1 and 2 had horror films on the mind in some way during development. In my mind I like to think they were fans of Planet of the Vampires, although this is might be wishful thinking and has no evidence or correlation whatsoever.

[Abnormal Freak]

Ever heard of "Black Magic M-66".

Bought the manga and DVD for cheap but have yet to check either out, lol. Looks cool, though.