Until Dawn

The Cabin In The (New-Gen) Woods.

The late ’90s/early ’00s were a golden age for teen horror movies, and that period’s immediately apparent in every flickering lightbulb, clown mask and Californian accent of Until Dawn’s ‘friends meet up in a remote lodge in the woods and start getting picked off’ horror adventure. In fact, the game’s co-writers, Graham Reznick and Larry Fessenden, have three decades between them of acting, writing, directing, editing and sound department credits in horror movies. Supermassive’s interactive scarer is clearly very aware of the old clichés, to the point that Until Dawn’s corniness seems intentional – an uncomplicated, schlocky teen slasher flick that you write and direct with the DualShock 4.

Silent Hills

If you go down to the PS4 demo section today, you’re sure of a horrible surprise – and even when you think you know what’s coming, this interactive teaser for the tenth Silent Hill game, albeit this one’s from Hideo Kojima and Guillermo del Toro, will still manage to scare you half-crazy. We can’t get it out of our heads. Even after a third playthrough it’s still possibly one of the most potent slices of gaming horror we’ve endured since we first entered the realm of Pyramid Head.

The sheer simplicity of the PT experience is part of its horrific charm. Based around a simple looping corridor setup, it forces you to study the little things and, as someone wise once said, the devil really is in the details – and no one knows this better than fantasy horror auteur Guillermo del Toro. His now cancelled THQ game, Insane, never made it past pre-production and we can’t help but wonder if he’s channelling his creative horror juices straight into this

exciting slice of terror instead.

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By its very nature, technology goes forward. It advances relentlessly, through innovation, research and production. Things improve and then improvements are made on those improvements.

This constant progression works in tandem with our consumerist, capitalist culture, where the need for seemingly endless growth means companies are constantly looking for new ways to make us spend our money. That, of course, means new products.

What I haven't mentioned, however, is invention. Why?