From now on, the film production company Blumhouse is no longer content just with supervising films: it is very interested in video games. After the Summer Game Fest revelations, we were able to try one of the flagship titles from the catalog under construction. Visually going against the grain of everything we can see, this video game shows us that indie titles have incredible potential. It’s time to come back to… Fear the Spotlight, a title that will please fans of Stranger Things, one of the biggest Netflix series.
We had already understood this but it is now a certainty: the production company Blumhouse no longer wants to laugh and intends to establish itself, globally, as the reference in terms of horrific entertainment. During the Summer Game Fest ceremony, Jason Blum and Louise Blain made an appearance on stage, time to unveil a somewhat special trailer. Instead of focusing on a single game, the duo gave us an overview of the titles they wanted to support and market under their Blumhouse Games label. Just a few hours after this announcement, we were in the aisles of Play Days looking for a very special stand, that of Fear the Spotlightand it’s time to tell you about it in more detail.
Small projects that are expensive: Blumhouse applies its film strategy to video games
If we were able to discover multiple projects supported by the video games branch of Blumhouse, the Play Days put a spotlight – it’s fair to say – on Fear the Spotlight, a title developed by a couple who already have one foot in entertainment. Bryan has worked on big budget games such as The Last of Us And Uncharted 4, while Crista was, among other things, artistic director of Animaniacs, in addition to having worked with major channels (artistic director for Nickelodeon, etc.). Almost instantly, we felt this professional baggage because Fear the Spotlight immerses us in a kind of setting that we have already seen in a teen/horror movie, brilliantly succeeding in immersing us in its universe thanks to a graphic bias. Indeed, Fear the Spotlight presents itself as a tribute to games from the 90s through its very retro aesthetic. When we play, we almost have the impression that we are facing a recent film which has undergone a demake, that is to say a deconstruction to give it a more outdated, older aspect.
Casually, the world of horror in video games is not afraid to take risks, to assume a very marked artistic side, and this is what has proven itself among certain content creators fond of this type of experience. On Twitch and YouTube, there are plenty of them (Markiplier, Jacksepticeye, GabSmolders, etc.) and these are typically the kind of titles that you could find on their channel. Here, we follow two young girls who decided to break into their school at night in search of a Ouija tablet stored in a window of the school library.. Much more driven by her friend than the instigator of this excursion, Viviane quickly finds herself in the middle of an occultism session which degenerates.
During this experience, we discovered, on the one hand, the narrative dimension of Fear the Spotlight. We wander through the empty corridors, we are caught by certain interactive elements which teach us quite important details, like this memorial plaque dedicated to the children who tragically perished following a fire at the school. Beyond this type of element which encourages exploration, the entire experience is based on this register : we arrive in a new room, we search the corners to find something to fulfill our objective and we progress in the narration. Admittedly, twenty minutes is quite short but it was enough to want to savor the overall experience with a bucket of popcorn at hand.
Don’t be fooled by appearances: this video game has all the qualities to surprise you… and scare you!
Throughout our test, we felt that the atmosphere was becoming more and more tense. If we begin our intrusion in the company of two carefree young girls, tension quickly builds when the tandem must avoid learning in the field of vision of the surveillance cameras. Even more oppressive, the occultism session quickly turns into a traumatic experience. A ghostly apparition, candles going out, complete darkness. With few means, Fear the Spotlight proves to us, once again, that a horror game can freeze our blood without using and abusing the artifices of the medium (jumpscares, hideous monsters, etc.). With matches in hand, we tremble at the thought of rekindling the flame of the candles and being confronted with what hides in the darkness.
Next to that, the game creates an anxiety-provoking atmosphere based on simple things, exacerbated by the sound design. Sounds of footsteps, falling objects, lighting effects, narrow paths… The recipe is simple but it works without forcing the point, particularly because the graphic aspect already creates a feeling of unease. The visuals seem dated, the 90s aesthetic makes us think of its old cassettes, its old games that we launched at the time. Yet, it fits completely into this current movement of horrific and independent video games which are much more surprising than certain titles with considerable budgets.”’
Really, these twenty minutes with the developers on Fear the Spotlight confirmed to us that Blumhouse has as much flair for high-potential horror films as it does for video games who have enough good ideas to be talked about. Among the memories that we will keep from this test, we must say that the last moments of the demo, where we run to escape the flames while finding the trace of our missing friend, in full emotional distress and in a state unusual trance, made us understand that we were going to have to follow this experience (very) closely, while remembering that Blumhouse has (still) more than one trick up his sleeve!
