Halloween: Our Favorite Homages to our Favorite Horror Films

We’re a video game site. So when we make articles, reviews, or SG Choice lists, naturally they revolve around games (especially of the Nintendo variety). But for our annual Halloween SG Choice, we wanted to expand a bit. After all, we love plenty of things that aren’t games, and getting to connect our various interests is nice.

For this year, we’re looking not at horror games, but homages to horror films in games. Games tend to take a few pointers from horror films – the sheer number of ripoffs of or homages to Aliens is proof positive. And those aren’t always horror games that do that; games of many genres like to use it. Whether that’s Clock Tower homaging Dario Argento pictures (but not the best or the worst Dario Argento pictures) or Freddy Kreuger getting into Mortal Kombat, games love incorporating these bits of cinema. This industry loves the genre as much as we do. Here’s a few of our favorites.

Wolfman Jew: It seems like we always have to have Super Mario 64 in one of these, huh? Well, I’m happy to use it again – in fact, I’ll even kick this off with a monster I put forth three years ago: the Mad Piano. Because on top of being an intimidating monster, the Mad Piano is almost certainly a reference to the cannibal piano from the exquisite House (the Japanese film from 1977, not the also awesome in its own way 1986 horror film House where Norm from Cheers met the Greatest American Hero). It’s gotta be, right? Nintendo homaging a demented art house horror film about generational abuse seems entirely off brand, but it’s still a very angry and very toothed bit of musical furniture. It’s just gotta be a pull. Well, I’m counting it as such. Same goes for you, evil piano in Luigi’s Mansion 3 that’s probably mostly just a reference to this piano!

Wolfman: Like a lot of “walking simulators,” What Remains of Edith Finch knows the appeal of fear, unease, and anxiety. It’s a horror game, just one that threatens the player with emotional discomfort instead of Games Over. It does that with a carnival of vignettes, all with a different type of fear: sea monsters, paranoia, and several flavors of child death. They’re all cinematic, but one takes that literally with a sequence inspired by slasher movies. It’s intense and foreboding, but more to the point is that it also pipes in the actual theme to Halloween, John Carpenter’s most famous piece of music for his most famous film. Each section is great at creating a sense of time and place, but this is one of the rare times that the outside world peeks in. This is a midcentury American serial killer story, and that specificity gives it a lot of power.

Wolfman: Speaking of John Carpenter, The Thing is one of those films that manages to remake a classic (The Thing from Another World, a towering classic of 1950s science fiction, though both are adaptations of the novel Who Goes There?) and not only match it, but exceed it. It’s a terrifying mix of science fiction, mystery, and a gorgeous Arctic setting. And while the setting, the subtlety, and the Kurt Russell of it all aren’t to be found in Carrion, the 2020 reverse-horror gets at the raw appeal of playing as an Eldritch, alien monstrosity that rips through bodies, chews on human viscera, and can hide inside people. It’s a perfect fantasy simulator for all of us who may not think that Childs is a Thing, but would be excited if he was. Or if we were.

Wolfman: Of course, The Thing isn’t the only Eighties horror to remake something from the Fifties. It was common in the Me Decade – The Blob and Invaders from Mars, just off the top of my head – but it was hard to find a film as indelible as it. David Cronenberg’s The Fly managed it, turning a grotesque and fun Vincent Price sci-fi romp (which was, as with both versions of The Thing, based on a short story) into something deeply human, sexual, and all the more grotesque. And while the ominous “telepods” that fused Seth Brundle and a common housefly are referenced a lot, I’m a big fan of perhaps their least expected homage: Pokémon Red & Blue. Early in the game, your character is tasked with helping a man untangle his DNA from a Clefairy. At the time, Pokémon hadn’t fully figured out its rules or what was acceptable to easily reference. And while monster fusion would be explored further, this kind of weird, surreal side story wouldn’t be part of it outside of remakes. It’s just such an odd bit from games that were themselves pretty odd.

Wolfman: Resident Evil is basically this entire concept. It’s a war between clichés of the horror, science fiction, and cop movie varieties, in the mold of something like The X-Files. And none of is many references cut their way to my heart quite like the Baker family of Resident Evil VII, because really, they themselves are a war between points of reference. VII notably replaced the first game’s Night of the Living Dead influence with The Texas Chainsaw Massacre; there’s a nutty, evil family of Southern lunatics. But it’s also totally Evil Dead 2, between the body horror and the unkillable old people and, most importantly, the hero getting his hand chopped the hell off. More than that, though, it gets the comedy potential of both series (as well as Saw, which gets parodied at one point), and nowhere is its love for both clearer than in a chainsaw duel between hero Ethan Winters and villain Jack Baker. That’s obviously Evil Dead 2, but it’s just as obviously Texas Chainsaw 2, a rather underrated bit of comic insanity amongst those Eighties horror flicks that had a chainsaw duel of its own.

Wolfman: Of course, any discussion of this nature would have to feature Castlevania, a series that started as a modern day Universal monster movie shared universe in all but name. The Creature, the Mummy, gillmen, wolfmen, Carmilla, Medusa, to say nothing of Dracula; everyone’s invited, and it seems only the Invisible Man failed to RSVP. It’s very joyous and celebratory about all of it, and it’s hard not to get caught up in that joy. Even if you’re not a horror film aficionado, it’s hard not to find these bosses and enemies to be charming and fun.

…Oh, wait, I forgot. There is an Invisible Man.

Wolfman: But, as this is Halloween, a day of trickery, it wouldn’t be right without showing the worst horror homage from games and game-related content: the Hannibal Lecter Kirby from the utterly atrocious, deeply unwatchable Super Smash Bros. fan-made miniseries There Will Be Brawl. It still gives me the creeps, for all the wrong reasons. Unpleasant screams!

Yes, this is real. Yes, it’s awful. Yes, the guy who made it now plays Chrom.

Cart Boy: Slasher films are quintessential horror. Someone’s stalking you and your friends, most or all of whom gradually get offed. By the end, you’re alone, isolated, and struggling to subdue or escape your stealthy, speedy aggressor. It’s a timeless concept, one Carpenter popularized with his seminal 1978 classic Halloween, my all time favorite film. It also isn’t a concept you’d expect one of Nintendo’s colorful, cherubic mascots to explore, yet Yoshi’s Crafted World saw its titular star do just that. Eventually, you’ll hit Shadowville, whose first stage is the aptly named “Be Afraid of the Dark.” Its opening moments are benign enough, leading you to a message block. An oddly formatted warning appears upon hitting it, telling you to run if “he” finds you. A few feet later, a skreaking, ax-wielding doll breaks through a building. Then another appears ahead of Yoshi, a third hangs out near that collectable flower, and many, many more show up to antagonize the city-dwelling dinosaur. Crafted World’s subpar score is even a strength here, with the level’s melody-less theme adding to the unease. Considering Good-Feel’s pedigree, Crafted World is disappointing, a boring, slow slog. This dimly lit city, however, is its strange, almost exciting bright spot.

KawlunDram: The following paragraph is an eulogy for Friday the 13th: The Game. And I’m not referring to the LJN-published NES game. Nor the 8-bit computer title. It’s probably cheating to list an entire videogame as my homage but I feel like Friday really was an exceptionally great game. Many of you probably know the game as that weird crowdfunded licensed game that kinda looks like Dead by Daylight and existed for about a year until the recent lawsuits of the rights to the Friday the 13th films caused the developers to cease development for any future content updates thus kind of killing the game on the spot. And it really is a shame it had to end up that way. I think what sets Friday apart from Dead by Daylight and many other games based on horror licenses is simply that the developers tried their absolute darndest to make you feel like you were in one of the movies. I mean hell, the maps themselves were practically 1:1 recreations of the different campgrounds from every movie with absurd attention to detail to make sure entire buildings and cabins and locales from the movies’ sets were fully realized. Being able to walk around the Jarvis House from Part 4 or the big barn from Part 3-D is just so damned cool to me. They even got Kane Hodder, who played Jason in Parts 7, 8, 9, and X, to reprise the role and do all the mocap for Jason’s movements and kills, most of which are direct recreations of those from the movies. Probably my favorite inclusion is Thom Mathews who reprises the role of Tommy Jarvis from Part 6 (the best Friday movie) who the player can call in and help the other players try and kill Jason. Now I’m sure some of you may have seen me call the game ‘great’ and winced a bit because let’s be real, the game was also really buggy and ran poorly on every platform. But in a weird way it almost added to the game’s overall presentation since the Friday movies aren’t exactly polished either. For what the game was, it was really fuckin’ fun. Sucks it’s as dead as Jason himself is. Oh, and Illfonic’s Predator game sucks, too.

Hamada: Given its triumphant return after years of anticipation just this month, Metroid’s appearance in this lineup of homages to classic horror doesn’t come as a surprise. Ever since the beloved sci-fi saga’s inception, co-creator Yoshio Sakamoto has been fairly up-front regarding its ties to the Alien film franchise. We’ve all heard about the potential Ridley Scott (Alien director) reference our favorite Cunning God of Death’s name bears, Samus Aran has always mirrored much of what made fellow female protagonist Ellen Ripley so iconic, and the titular Metroids share more than a few similarities with the infamous Xenomorph family. You’ve got your smaller parasites in the Facehuggers and base Metroids, agile older forms in the Xenomorph and Zeta stage, and hulking queens governing their respective species that ultimately fall to the heroine on their home turf come the second installment. While I’ve always been more of a Predator fan myself, the impact both Alien and Metroid have left on their respective mediums make for a fantastic duo worth honoring every October (personally, my favorite way to celebrate these series outside their respective releases has got to be by playing as Ridley in Smash and Xenomorph in Mortal Kombat X).

The Xenomorph, and Ridley through the years (Metroid 1, Super, and his Smash Bros. amiibo).

NantenJex: It’s not a horror game but Zombies Ate my Neighbours is an entire parody of horror and monster movies alike. From classic monster movies like Dracula and Frankenstein to clear homages of Jason from Friday the 13th and a parody of the Attack of the 50 Foot Woman, it pulls from a lot of the classics. Not to mention all the Zombie references, it is in the title after all. While the game isn’t presented as being a horror game or scary, it has a very 90s kid cartoon vibe, it is very hard and that in and of itself can be quite stressful. At the end of a long run, it could even induce some fear in the player. It’s a fun, challenging, co-op arcade shooter that’s still fun to play to this day, so check it out on Switch if you haven’t!

AShadowLink: Following up on Kawlun’s entry I’d like to talk about the obvious video game homage to Friday the 13th: Splatterhouse. You look at the original design of protagonist Rick Taylor and it’s basically Jason Voorhees, the twist being that Rick is fighting monsters in an attempt to save his girlfriend rather than being a ruthless murderer. I’m not too well-versed in the horror genre, but the rest of the game has incredibly memorable monster designs and some of the toughest encounters in any side-scrolling beat-em-up. I haven’t played it in a long time, but I still look back very fondly on that first game. It had a killer soundtrack, too. I recommend it to all horror fans.