Jake’s Guide to Nightmare Fuel
Disclaimer: Some of the entries on this list contain disturbing and potentially triggering content. We strongly advise viewer discretion with the entries on this list. Some recommendations contain violent and adult themes.
Halloween is here, and if you’re anything like me, you will be using this as an excuse to have a ridiculous horror marathon. We all know Silent Hill, Get Out and the stories of HP Lovecraft are amazing, but once you get through the ones everyone has heard of, there is a big problem. In between the hidden gems of the horror world, there is a lot of rubbish. So, whether you want to have the scariest Halloween of your life, or if you want to partake in the spooky experience without having trouble sleeping, here is my guide to the hidden gems of the horror world.
To help all of you find your optimal level of creepiness, I have split all of these into 3 categories. “Kinda Spooky” is for people who want the Halloween experience of ghosts and ghouls, but don’t want to get too scared. “Actually Scary” is for those who want a couple of scares, but don’t want to have significant trouble sleeping. “Never Sleep Again” is for those who want the sleeping patters of the teenage residents of Elm Street.
Kinda Spooky
The Darkside Detective (Game)
The Darkside Detective is a brilliant reimagination of the X-Files as comedic point and click adventure. You play as Detective McQueen, a brilliant detective who alongside his ill-witted and loveable partner Officer Dooley investigates paranormal activity in their hometown of Twin Lakes. It’s filled to the brim with hilarious dialogue, loveable characters and entertaining supernatural foes. My only complaint is that it isn’t longer.
The Addams Family (1991, Movie)
The original Addams Family film is one of the best black comedy films and one of the best kids’ films I have ever seen. It follows the Addams Family, a family obsessed with the macabre, with supernatural ties that goes against all your ideas of what a family looks like. They are constantly hoping for rainy weather, the kids are always trying to kill each other, literally, and the husband is deeply in love with the wife. It manages to capture the feel of kids’ film while having very questionable jokes for a kids’ movie and this juxtaposition makes it all the funnier than if they made it as a film for adults.
Dreams in the Witch House: Rock Opera (Music)
This is a concept album that adapts ‘Dreams in The Witch House’ by H.P. Lovecraft into a symphonic hard rock album. Although at times I get the feeling that it’s secretly a symphonic metal album with symphonic hard rock on the cover to be more commercial. Either way, the music is amazing, with strong instrumentation, vocals and storytelling. It makes some minor changes to the story such as changing the narrator, giving the witch, Keziah Mason, a sympathetic backstory and changing the ending, but it is nonetheless a very faithful retelling of the story. It’s a fun way to relive the main story. Maybe I’m biased because of my arguably unhealthy obsession with H.P. Lovecraft’s stories, but I keep on finding myself returning to this album to listen to a song or two and end up listening till the end of it without realizing.
Actually Scary
The Cabin in The Woods (Movie)
The Cabin in the Woods is a horror film like no other. It follows a group of teenagers who go on a holiday in a remote cabin where they get attacked by supernatural monsters and discover that they are unable to escape. But what makes it stand out from the countless Evil Dead rip-offs is that we see another group of people with unclear motives are orchestrating this event. As the film goes on, the characters start to realize they are pawns in a game they didn’t sign up to play, and they want to fight back. Thematically the whole film is a satire of cheap slasher films and an attempt to get filmmakers to make better horror films. For those of you out there who complain about the state of modern horror films, this is the film for you.
The Descent (Movie)
The Descent follows six women who go caving in an undiscovered cave, but then get trapped when the entrance seals. As they go deeper and deeper into the cave searching for an exit, they start to see and hear things in there with them. Before long they can’t tell if the pitch darkness is causing them to go mad, or if there is actually something lurking in the darkness that is after them. It’s a claustrophobic and brilliant adventure with a truly horrific but magnificent ending that shook me to the core.
The Lovecraft Investigations (Podcast)
This is a brilliant reimagining of three of Lovecraft's best stories as a true crime podcast set in contemporary England. It follows two journalists Kennedy Fisher and Matthew Heawood researching modernised versions of some of HP Lovecraft's stories after they take place. This means the story is told in the order they discover it, building a strong mystery aspect. It features many new characters and expands on the lore of these stories. It also largely reimagines the mythos so that the stories have stronger connections with each other and enables them to have a continuing plot. Despite the fact it takes place after all the events in the books took place, there is still plenty of Lovecraftian drama such as them forcibly being made to participate in unholy rituals, witnessing beings from other dimensions and meeting Nyarlathotep. The unique spin on these classic stories makes it a great experience for veteran Lovecraft fans and newcomers to Lovecraft alike. With the new season just out, and the first season due to be removed from BBC Sounds shortly, there is no better time to dive into this podcast.
Never Sleep Again
This is where the true Nightmare Fuel resides. Play at your own risk.
Faith: The Unholy Trinity (Game)
This game is like The Exorcist on steroids. Set in 1987 in a small American town, it follows a young priest called John Ward who took part in an exorcism that went horribly wrong. Only he and the still possessed girl left the house alive. One year later, haunted by nightmares, he comes back to finish what he started. Initially there was only one part to this game, but due to public demand two more parts were made, both of which massively top the content of the last without a loss of quality. In the latter two parts we follow John trying to learn about the cult that possessed Amy and trying to stop them from summoning the Unspeakable. It very cleverly manages to make the cult the antithesis of the catholic church by using lots of clever imagery and symbolism. It also manages to take all the rumours about the activities of satanic cults and intelligently incorporate them into the lore. This strong spiritual horror with brilliant tension and truly horrifying monster designs and a compelling storyline easily makes it the best exorcism story I have seen. However, the Profane Sabbath is near, and John is just an untrained exorcist stumbling into a horrifying world of demons and satanic rituals far beyond his understanding, armed only with his faith.
Lost in Vivo (Game)
In this game you play as character in experimental therapy that forces you to face their worst nightmares. In this simulation, your service dog falls down a drain and you subsequently chase after your dog in John Wick mode. Your journey takes you into the subway, secret laboratories, hidden caves and you travel deeper and deeper underground into a hellish nightmare realm. It’s full of unique and very clever scares that put most horror games to shame. This combined with its brilliant suspense and audio design leaves you terrified as to the thought of what might be around the corner every time. This game is easily the best spiritual successor of the original Silent Hill games I have played, making it a must buy for those into psychological horror.
Event Horizon (Movie)
Seven years after an experimental spacecraft designed to exceed the speed of light disappears, it mysteriously returns. However, when a rescue crew board it to discover what had happened to it, they realize that it has been somewhere far beyond their understanding, and it’s brought something back with it. As crew start to have horrifying visions and slowly go insane, they realise they must stop it before it breaks free. This film was seen as a failure upon release due to poor sales and reviews, but it has gained a cult following since. The direction and tone of the film is brilliant, and it always kept me on edge, making it easily one of the scariest horror films I’ve ever seen.
DreadX Collection 2 (Game)
If you don’t want to commit to playing a long horror game if you have friends over, this is the game to buy. It is a collection of a bunch of small games made by some of the best indie horror developers. The game comes with a launcher that requires you to solve puzzles to unlock all the games alongside creating a storyline that justifies why you have to play all these scary games. You do get to choose what order you unlock them in too, so it isn’t restrictive. It certainly is more interesting than having to just launch the game from a menu, however if you want to jump straight into the scares there is an option to do that. The quality of the games can vary from pretty good to brilliant, so how much fun you have depends on which game you choose. Two of the games here Squirrel Stapler and Sucker for Love: Prelude both got expanded standalone versions and are so good I almost wrote two whole extra reviews dedicated to them. If you decide to get this one for Halloween night (an experience I certainly recommend), here are the best ones in the collection:
Squirrel Stapler
Sucker for Love: Prelude
Arcadletra
Undiscovered
Solipsis
The Thing in the Lake
So that’s my list of just a couple of my favourite underground horror experiences. I hope all of you have a great Halloween whether that means getting permanently psychologically scarred by a horror game or just having fun with a spooky comedy. Anyway, I need to go back to my primary way of experiencing incomprehensible terror, doing my maths homework.