It’s fair to saySupermassivehorror games are like movies themselves. The gameplay is not your standard survival horror. You have choice-based decisionsthat result in devastating life-and-death consequences, phenomenal camera work that gives a cinematic quality, and an original character-driven story that’s unlike any other. That’s what makes these games super enjoyable and engaging.
But have you ever wondered if there’s something similar out there in the film realm to those stories that Supermassive creates? The developer is often inspired by other horror films and games in the genre when it comes to crafting its own projects, and the following movies might seem like a good match.
We decided to include more than one horror movie for each entry, as they make a perfect pairing for each Supermassive game.
We also eliminate the VR titles Until Dawn: Rush of Blood and The Dark Pictures: Switchback, as they’re retreads of the same themes and stories as their base games.
Until Dawn features themes of cannibalism, takes you to a dilapidated sanatorium in the snowy mountains, and bases its lore on the folkloric entity known as the Wendigofrom the Indigenous culture of the Algonquin people.
Wrong Turn 4 is a good starting point. It follows a group of college students on their way to a friend’s cabin during winter break, who then get lost on their snowmobiles and have to take refuge from a snowstorm inside the old Glenville Sanatorium, where they’re brutally hunted by a team of three cannibal brothers – Three Finger, Saw Tooth, and One Eye.
Starring Keri Russell and Jesse Plemons, the 2021 film Antlers features the Wendigo creature in all its glory. The setting revolves around a mine in the fictional Oregon town of Cispus Falls and weaves a supernatural story of trauma. 2001’s Wendigo is actually written and directed by Larry Fessenden, one of the writers of Until Dawn, so you can say the spirit of the Wendigo follows him.
Although set in the present-day summer camp of Hackett’s Quarry, the developers attributed their main inspirations for the setting to ’80s horror films Friday the 13th and Sleepaway Camp. While everyone might be familiar with Jason Voorhees' reign of terror at Crystal Lake, Sleepaway Camp is such an underrated gem that brings a more tragic, twisted, and realistic premise to the summer camp slasher genre.
The Quarryalso features werewolf horrorbrought on by Silas, a werewolf boy who was with the Harum Scarum traveling circus that tragically burned down, with the vengeful spirit of fortune teller Eliza Vorez pitting the characters and werewolves of the Hackett family against each other. The 2021 werewolf film The Cursed, starring Boyd Holbrook and Kelly Reilly, features werewolves similar in design and with a curse brought on by the heinous slaughter of a Romani clan for their lands in 1881 France.
The main aspects of The Casting of Frank Stone are multiple timelines,a Super 8 camera, a portal that can take you in between universes, and a cursed movie that traps the eponymous entity Frank Stone inside it. Not only will you find Sinister much scarier, but it’s a perfect companion, as it has a being called Bughuul forcing children to make Super 8 films of them killing their families, before claiming their souls.
I Saw the TV Glow isan A24 psychological horror moviethat shifts between the timelines of 1996, 2006, and 2026, similar to the way The Casting of Frank Stone is framed. This film follows two teens obsessed with a TV show called The Pink Opaque, which is a strange television series that greatly affects their lives in mysterious ways. The colors are also spot-on if you love the uses of purple, pink, and green from The Casting of Frank Stone.
Man of Medan takes its inspiration from the real-life legend ofthe WW2-era ghost ship, SS Ourang Medan. While there haven’t been any movies based on the legend, 2002 gave you Ghost Ship, which is quite similar. Its opening scene remains unforgettable, and the story follows a salvage crew who are stalked by spirits killed aboard the ship 40 years prior while trying to recover the ship’s gold.
However, if you’ve played through Man of Medan, you’ll know that the ‘Manchurian Gold,’ wasn’t really the treasure the protagonists had in mind, and it caused them to hallucinate everything. Ghosts of War is also a terrific movie with a similar subversive twist. You follow a team of soldiers during World War 2, who have to guard a seemingly haunted château, but not all is as it seems.
If you enjoyed Little Hope, you’ll feel right at home in Shadyside, a town that’s supposedly under a curse from a witch named Sarah Fier, who was executed in 1666 during the witchcraft trials, and where a slasher is on the loose. Like Little Hope, each movie in the Fear Street trilogy jumps between the periods 1994 (the present), 1978, and 1666 to get to the bottom of the mystery.
It’s a multi-generational fightagainst the clock to stop the evil taking root in Shadyside, which does indeed feel like a place where there’s little hope for its residents. Netflix’s Fear Street is also an adaptation of the R.L. Stine book series of the same name, so if you’re a fan of Stine and his horror literature, that would be another reason to watch these films.
House of Ashes was arguably the best installment of The Dark Pictures Anthology, and that’s because of its main twist featuring vampires from outer space that crash-landed in an ancient temple. If you want to see more space bats and vampires, look no further than 1985’s Lifeforce, directed by legendary horror filmmaker Tobe Hooper. These vamps have invaded London and will suck the life force out of you!
Although the vampires arrived in ancient Mesopotamia, House of Ashes is set primarily in 2003 Iraq during the US Invasion. 2008’s The Objective is set in Afghanistan post-9/11, specifically a region known as the Middle East’s ‘Bermuda Triangle,’ and this film explores ancient Hindu mythology out in the desert. The Objective is also helmed by Daniel Myrick, who brought you The Blair Witch Project.
H.H. Holmes and his murder hotel were the main sources of inspiration for The Devil in Me, but there wereplenty of homages to iconic horror filmsas well, especially Saw and Halloween. 2002’s Halloween: Resurrection fits the bill of this specific Dark Pictures Entry.
You follow a group living inside Michael Myers' childhood home to document their stay for the internet reality show Dangertainment, similar to the documentary film crew in the replica of H.H. Holmes' murder castle. And, like what happens to the film crew in the game, Michael Myers starts picking off the cast and crew.
The Devil in Me also features the copycat killer Du’Met, who sets up various deadly traps for the characters, with some featuring acid and saw contraptions. The fact that the killer here is also in law enforcement can’t help but feel like the Saw films played a major influence. Each Saw movie is superb in its own right andfeatures new gruesome and depraved trapsfor victims whisked into their games by the Jigsaw killer.
8A Cure For Wellness And Unsane
The Inpatient
Supermassive launched a VR prequel to Until Dawn, which is set during the 1950s in Blackwood Sanatorium, and it follows a person who’s a patient at the asylum. The first two movies that immediately come to mind for an identical experience are Gore Verbinski’s A Cure for Wellness and Steven Soderbergh’s Unsane, the former released in 2016 and the latter in 2018.
A Cure for Wellness sees a young executive at a NYC financial firm, played by Dane DeHaan, journeying to a wellness center in the Swiss Alps to recover the company’s CEO, only to find himself a patient there who seemingly can’t escape, with far sinister secrets surrounding the treatment people receive. Unsane is more of a psychological thriller, but also follows a main character forcibly held in a mental hospital; except here, she’s trapped with her stalker.
Outside of its branching narrative horror games, Supermassive also helped Tarsier Studios in developing the Enhanced Edition of the horror platforming sequel, Little Nightmares 2, and is developing the next installment, Little Nightmares 3. Two horror films that go hand-in-hand with the Little Nightmares series are It (specifically the 2017 remake) and Coraline.
The protagonist Six wears a yellow raincoat that calls back to Bill Denbrough’s brother, Georgie, from It, who sadly fell victim to Pennywise, a cosmic being taking on the form of a clown to feast on little children. Plus, Little Nightmares 2 as well as the third installment feature a duo, so the Losers Club taking on It and its various creepy manifestations will feel just right. Coraline better matches the aesthetics and the protagonist likewise deals with some monsters that want to eat her.
