The horror genre has seen many transformations over the past 100 years, and horror movies of the 21st century continue to alter the genre. In addition, pop culture continues to be shaped by scary films, new and old, including the gaming industry.
Many of the most beloved and appreciated franchises, like Resident Evil and Silent Hill, would not be the game-changers they are without the inspiration of classic horror films supporting them. So while these horror games are their own entity, it’s fascinating to see how they take the best bits from their silver screen ancestors and adapt them into a brand-new format.
6 Resident Evil: Inspired By Sweet Home
Known in Japan as Biohazard, Resident Evil is often cited as the first survival horror game. Created by Shinji Mikami and Tokuro Fujiwara, the franchise centers around the antagonistic Umbrella Corporation, who develop the T-virus as part of their bioweapons research. This virus inadvertently leaks into the world, infecting humans and turning them into zombies. But the iconic Resident Evil franchise wouldn’t be what it is today without a little-known Japanese horror, Sweet Home.
Released in 1989 and directed by Kiyoshi Kurosawa, Sweet Home follows a film crew exploring an abandoned mansion haunted by a poltergeist. The spirit terrorizes the team, using its shadow to burn and dissolve bodies. A video game of the film developed by Capcom was released around the same time, designed by Fujiawara. Four years after the game’s release, Sony and Capcom were thinking about a game to bring to the PlayStation console. “Conversation turned towards the idea of launching an original franchise,” Fujiwara told Den of Geek. “The basic premise was that I’d be able to do the things that I wasn’t able to include in Sweet Home.” The game was initially designed to be a remake of the Sweet Home game, but morphed into what Resident Evil is known today, replacing poltergeists with zombies.
5 Silent Hill: Inspired by Jacob's Ladder
Silent Hill is a survival horror anthology series created by Keiichiro Toyama, with each installment following a different character. The first, released in 1999, follows Henry Mason, who comes across a cult while trying to find his adopted daughter. The 2001 followup, Silent Hill 2,follows James Sunderland, who is searching for his missing wife in the town of Silent Hill.
There are more games in the franchise, but these two games solidified the gameplay, art style, and world-building that Silent Hill is known for. Both use psychological horror as an inspiration, particularly the film Jacob’s Ladder. In Silent Hill 2, James Sutherland is based on Jacob Singer, a veteran dealing with PTSD from the Vietnam War in the film. Jacob’s Ladder was a significant inspiration for the game’s creator and Silent Hill’s lead programmer Akihiro Imamura. They even recreated the movie scene when Jacob is transported on a gurney and can’t distinguish reality through James in Silent Hill 2.
4 Outlast: Inspired By Quarantine
Released in 2013, Outlast is one of the most immersive horror games. Gamers play as Miles Upshur, an investigative journalist exploring a psychiatric hospital full of patients out to kill. Outlast is played from a first-person perspective, with no health bar or means of attack. Set entirely in the dark, players have to rely on the night vision of Miles’ camcorder, creating a creepy found footage effect like its film influences REC and Quarantine.
REC is a Spanish found footage horror film, as is its American remake, Quarantine. Both stories follow a reporter, cameraman, and firefighters entering a building whose occupants are infected with a virus that bears a violent resemblance to rabies.
3 Little Nightmares: Inspired by Spirited Away
The platforming horror game Little Nightmares sees players control Six, a nine-year-old girl wearing a yellow raincoat. The player explores tries to escape The Maw, an iron, submarine-like vessel. In Little Nightmares, Six comes across frightening creatures that she can’t attack and must sneak past, much like Outlast. The Maw is designed to be a “dream of where all the worst things in the world could be left to rot,” as Tarsier Studio’s Dave Mervik told GamingBolt.
Little Nightmares wouldn’t be the game it is without the timeless classicStudio Ghibli’s Spirited Away. The film was one of the main inspirations behind the game, as lead designer Dennis Talajic told The Hollywood Reporter. Studio Ghibli’s Spirited Away has a similar vibe to Little Nightmares, sharing many visual comparisons and story beats. Instead of trying to escape The Maw, ten-year-old Chihiro finds herself trapped in the spirit world of a bathhouse which she must escape to save her parents.
2 The Evil Within: Inspired By Inception
The Evil Within is a photo-realistic horror game released in 2014, directed by one of Resident Evil’s creators, Shinji Mikami. Gamers play as Sebastian Castellanos, a police detective sergeant investigating a mass murder at a hospital with his partner Joseph Oda, police officer Oscar Connelly, and junior detective Juli Kidman. After hearing a high-pitched noise at the hospital, the four find themselves trapped in a nightmare world and have to find a way to escape by battling disfigured creatures in an ever-increasingly confusing (and terrifying) world.
Of the many films that The Evil Within was inspired by, Mikami told IGN that Inception played a major role in the development of the first game. “For the first game, we were greatly inspired by Inception. I wanted the backgrounds to fold in on themselves drastically like they do in the film,” he explained. “But the background team felt that the idea was too hard to implement, so we dropped it.” However, players can still feel its influence in the confusion and mind-bending reality that the characters are presented within the game.
1 Until Dawn: Inspired By Psycho
Released in 2015, Until Dawn is different because the game lets players take control of eight characters stranded on a mountain. The goal of Until Dawn is to survive the night until they’re rescued at sunrise. It’s an interactive game where the player must make life-or-death choices that result in many gut-wrenching moments.
Until Dawn takes inspiration from various horror films to create a slasher movie in game format. By using a multitude of horror tropes and other ideas, the game’s director Will Byles and the development team were able to construct a playable slasher flick. A lot of the tropes explored in horror films and Until Dawn came from Alfred Hitchcock’s Psycho, which Byles argues as being the film “where modern horror began.” Byles considers Psycho to be “an early proto-slasher with many of the subsequent genre tropes being born here,” as he told PlayStation Blog.