Welcome back to OH!CAST, the official podcast of OH!CON, for our annual Halloween spectacular! If you’re looking for the definitive Halloween Horror Media Recommendations, you’ve come to the right place. Forget the usual roster of slashers and gore-fests; hosts Cal MacD and Hereward are diving deep into the realm of the truly unsettling, offering a meticulously curated selection of media—across books, movies, and games—guaranteed to get you in the proper spooky mood.Â
Books: Atmosphere and Existential Dread
Starting with literature, the hosts shun obvious horror choices in favor of atmospheric and existentially frightening picks.
Hereward’s top choice is John Buchan’s No Man’s Land (also known as The Gap in the Curtain). It’s a novella of Scottish folk horror that taps into a deep, primal fear. Hereward praises it for its “incredibly creepy” atmosphere and the way it establishes an ancient, placid terror lurking beneath the surface of the landscape. It’s a perfect example of horror that focuses on mood and the unknown rather than overt violence, making it an ideal, unnerving read for a dark night.
Cal MacD offers a distinctly different, yet equally frightening, recommendation: George Orwell’s 1984. While not shelved in the horror section, Cal argues that its depiction of totalitarian surveillance, the psychological manipulation of doublethink, and the permanent loss of personal freedom makes it the most relevant and unnerving work of horror imaginable. The book’s terrifying vision of a world where hope is systematically extinguished provides a deep, intellectual dread that lingers long after the final page.
Movies: Found-Footage Panic and Supernatural Conspiracy
The film segment provides excellent Halloween Horror Media Recommendations from the silver screen, exploring two highly influential, yet vastly different, forms of terror. This discussion offers unique Halloween Horror Media Recommendations that challenge genre conventions.
Hereward’s movie pick is the defining found-footage phenomenon, The Blair Witch Project (1999). Hereward notes the brilliance of its low-budget authenticity and its reliance on implication rather than spectacle. He credits the film for perfectly capturing the frantic disorientation of being lost and stalked, using sound design and blurred visuals to create a powerful, enduring sense of psychological terror that feels horrifyingly real.
Cal MacD champions the often-maligned, yet passionately defended, Halloween III: Season of the Witch (1982). Cal selects this entry for being the one film in the franchise to fully embrace a supernatural conspiracy plot, abandoning the character of Michael Myers for a sinister, ancient storyline involving Stonehenge, a corporation manufacturing killer masks, and pure folk horror. Cal appreciates its distinctive tone and commitment to a bizarre, large-scale evil that makes it a unique and chilling October watch.
Games: Psychological Manipulation and High-Tension Survival
The final category, video games, explores unique mechanics that weaponize atmosphere and desperation, completing our essential list of Halloween Horror Media Recommendations for the year. This final set of Halloween Horror Media Recommendations will truly test your nerves.
Cal MacD’s choice is the GameCube cult classic, Eternal Darkness: Sanity’s Requiem (2002). Cal selects this title specifically for its revolutionary use of the “Sanity Meter” mechanic. As the player’s sanity degrades, the game begins to trick the player—playing meta-horror tricks that appear to be system errors, erasing save files, or simulating the console malfunctioning. Cal praises the game for its meta-horror that forces players to question what is real within the game and within their own gaming experience.
Hereward closes out the picks with Alien: Isolation (2014). This survival-horror title is praised for its oppressive atmosphere and high-tension gameplay, where the player is constantly hunted by a single, unpredictable Xenomorph. Hereward notes the game’s brilliant use of dynamic AI, sound design, and claustrophobic environment to create genuine, panic-inducing moments, solidifying it as one of the most stressful and successful survival-horror experiences in recent memory. as we discussed in our alien franchise deep dive.
Tune in for this tightly curated selection of media that genuinely spooked the hosts, perfect for your Halloween night.
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Full Transcript Outline (Quick Jumps)
00:00 Introduction and Halloween Special Overview
01:05 Book Recommendations for Halloween
15:10 Exploring ‘No Man’s Land’ by John Buchan
18:41 Diving into ‘1984’ by George Orwell
29:45 The Scary Impact of ‘The Blair Witch Project’
40:11 The Evolution of Horror Cinema
51:43 Exploring the World of Horror Video Games
Full Transcript
Cal MacD (00:00.322)
Good evening, afternoon, morning, whatever time it is. Welcome back to OH!CAST, the official podcast of OH!CON, the comic of the Outer Hebrides. Before I introduce my co-host, I just have to, we’ve not done this yet, but big thank you to Rod Morrison for that awesome opening introduction music that he did for us. Love you for that, Rod. So with that, my co-host as always, Hereward how you doing?
Good, I’m good. So yeah, this is our Halloween special, if I’m not mistaken.
Yes, I was thinking we really need a Halloween show and then I just First thing well, I thought about should we do a film review? but I Think I came up with quite a good idea. I don’t know. We’ll see how it goes So for this is we’re going to give you because we know not all of you want to do a movie Some of you will play a game some of you will read a book So it’s a book a game and a movie from each of us that we recommend you give a try at this Halloween to get you in the in the creepy mood or the
I was going to say festive mood, but yeah, it’s still too early for that stuff. But I carry. Yeah. I think what should we start off with? I think we’ll just go for time tested out book. I will turn this over to you. So what’s your book recommendation for Halloween?
Well, I thought for quite a lot. I’ve read a huge amount of horror and I think I pinged you some suggestions of mine a while back on Messenger, but I’ve completely changed my mind. I’ve actually decided to go pretty serious on these choices today. So I’ve chosen three things, a movie, a book and a game that have genuinely frightened me.
Hereward (01:52.62)
The first one I’m going to start with is probably my most obscure one and it’s yeah, it’s the book. So I’ve chosen a novelette, I believe it’s called or is it a novella? It’s quite short by John Buchan, who of course wrote the 39 steps and Green Mantle and various other sort of spy adventure stories.
at the turn of the 20th century. But this is actually one of his earliest published works. I think it was still, it was published whilst he was still an undergraduate student. And it’s a, as I said, a novella or a novelette, depending on how long you tend to think these things are, called No Man’s Land. I think it is a horror stroke fantasy masterpiece.
Okay.
Hereward (02:51.682)
that is not given enough attention. In fact, I’m guessing you’ve never heard of it.
I’ve heard of the title, obviously it’s in the English language, but the novel, novella, sorry, I’ve never heard of.
Yeah, so I believe it was first published actually in like 1898. I’m trying to actually find exactly when it was. can’t do it off the top of my head. oh, what was it? Was Blackwood’s Edinburgh Magazine or something like that? It was one of these magazines that would publish stories. And it is a magnificently spooky
atmospheric, I think it’s really quite powerful. And I’ll give a kind of summary of it because I think actually it doesn’t really matter. When you when you hear the summary, can you realize, hang on a second, this this sounds like every other horror story. So, it was published in Blackwood’s magazine.
I’m just looking up at the moment as I’m talking. I first discovered it, my wife and I years back, we were in Inverness at Leakey’s Bookshop, if you’ve ever been to Leakey’s, it’s absolutely magnificent. And she saw the cover and just thought, that book looks right up his street. So she came up and said, what about this? And I’ve got it in a book called The Best Supernatural Stories of John Buchan.
Hereward (04:29.484)
And obviously, know, Buckham, he’s known for his spy thrillers and stuff, but he is a very accomplished writer of the spooky and the weird. So, yeah, the story is told from a first person perspective. And it’s that of a, we believe, English academic.
who is a specialist in Scottish history and possibly Gaelic as well, at a posh English university and he goes on his Easter break for a fishing expedition up to the Highlands. And he goes to stay in a cottage with a crofter
his sister and the crofters a very religious Fellow very I always get the impression. He’s a bit like John Laurie, you know, we’ve doomed that sort of Was that right John Laurie the the actor from dad’s It’s right yeah, yeah, so Yeah, he’s that sort of and he
Thank you much, Altshul.
Hereward (05:56.364)
goes out and does a bit of fishing and he’s sort of asking the crofter about, you know, what are the good fishing spots? And he’s basically warned by the crofter, you stay away from the scarts of the Munnaraw. And this is the term, the scarts of the Munnaraw. It’s a made up thing that’s meant to sound very highland. But of course he goes out fishing one day and finds himself lost.
and ends up stumbling along and finds himself being followed by a strange figure. He can’t quite make it out. It’s kind of making funny jabbering noises and stuff like this. And he’s obviously really spooked out by it. And he ends up
again being warned by the crofter, know, this was dangerous and stuff. basically the chap ends up getting captured. And at first you sort of think, you know, and he finds himself in this cave bound hand and foot. And you think, my goodness, you know, what kind of monster has got him? But it turns out to be a lost tribe of Picts. So it’s like a kind of, you know, the old, the old race that used to live, in the
in the highlands and stuff that have somehow survived and sort of avoided the modern world. I think kind of Buchan doesn’t describe them. You know, they’re kind of stunted and a bit hairy and stuff like this. But it’s this idea that they’re this sort of more primitive species living in the highlands and preying on the crofters and the sheep and stuff there. And yeah, the guy
Graves is his name. He manages to escape them and run away and basically gets away and goes back to England, but then is driven with this idea that no, this is a really important discovery. There’s a lost race of people living in the Highlands. And so he heads back with this intention to kind of discover them and stuff, only to discover that the Crofters sister
Hereward (08:25.772)
has been taken by these beasties and he goes to rescue her. Pretty traditional model of a, what’s it, your three act plot, it’s pretty traditional. But in terms of atmosphere, mean, one thing about Buckingham is he loved the Scottish Highlands and he wrote them so well. And I think he really captures
you know, the crofting life in that era, but also this, this sense of isolation and loneliness that you can get out on the moors, out on the high, in the highlands on your own. And yeah, it is just the most brilliantly atmospheric story. I’ve always sort of felt that it’s kind of like a 19th century, the Hills have eyes, but without the baby eating.
Cool cool.
So it is.
So it’s quite a kind of light read, know, it’s quite a doesn’t take too long to read.
Hereward (09:34.476)
No, no, you can read it pretty easily in one sitting, I think it’s your kind of perfect Halloween night story. If you’re going out trick-or-treating or guising, if you’re just staying in by the fire with a glass of scotch or something like that, this is definitely one to read by candle night whilst the wind howls around the house.
It’s a fantastically atmospheric little story. I actually was a little bit obsessed with it a few years back and had a go at doing it as a screenplay. It’s just, I kind of got to a point. Basically my idea was the way Graves communicates with this lost tribe is in their shared understanding of Gaelic because obviously the Pictish tribe
they can understand the language of their conquerors who were the people that spoke Gaelic. And so they speak a rough Gaelic and Graves as a historian speaks and academic of Scottish life, he speaks Gaelic. So that’s the medium through which he communicates and learns that they’re this lost tribe of Picts. And I started thinking this would make the most wonderful little short movie or even just a movie.
It could be a Hammer Horror style, but with GALIC, you could get the GALIC council to fund it. So I was for a while looking around people who’d be up for translating quite a lot of it into GALIC, because I don’t have the GALIC. And it would make a great little thing. Perhaps I should dig it out and get our man Fanch on it and see what we can make of it.
I would, my suggestion would be maybe make an audio drama of it.
Hereward (11:32.94)
Audio drama, there you go. What an even better idea. Look at that, yeah.
I say we’ve got the tools now, it’s quite easier to make than a film, so we all just make it from our houses, record some dialogue, there you go.
my goodness, throw a couple of sound effects in.
Yep, and where they are.
That… my goodness, is this the next ridiculous OH!CON project?
Cal MacD (11:55.406)
As if we don’t have enough ridiculous OH!CON projects in our brains all the time.
I’ve got a PhD to do dude I can’t be making an audio drama now but yeah that is a lovely idea actually yeah maybe maybe we should look into that
I’ve got a reputation for throwing all these weird ideas at it all the time, but.
I have to say that is a lovely, lovely idea. So have you got any questions to ask me about No Man’s Land?
It sounds great and I think I’m if it wasn’t for the fact that I’m gonna be busy on Halloween night I probably would watch it because we’re doing okon stuff as always. We’re making this for this is what you should do on Halloween and we’re gonna be busy in a meeting probably about the time you listen to it. Yeah I love that I’ve always kind of been a fan of the Look maybe factor in more into my movies. My movie choice has got a bit of that but that
Cal MacD (12:59.96)
you know, the remote location, the cutoff town, all that kind of stuff. I’m always well into those kind of really, I’m betting it’s quite atmospheric, this novella.
Very atmospheric and as well, mean, there’s this very strong, I mean, it’s a very strong sense of Scottishness about it as well. Although the central character is English, he’s kind of an Englishman out of his depth and certainly when I did the kind of little adaptation of it, I actually made him even more out of his depth.
because I like the idea of the stranger in a strange land, but being actually quite incapable. So he’s actually a rubbish fisherman and he’s not this outdoorsman that he thinks he is. I think there’s elements of it that’s aged badly, the fact that he has to go rescue the girl at the end of it. So again, that was something I tweaked a bit in the adaptation that it’s actually the girl that ends up rescuing him in the story.
I think it’s just such a nice tight little piece of writing and that’s one thing I’ve always thought John Buckham was really good at is I mean the 39 Steps is just such a fantastically pacey little read and you know really set the standard for I suppose action adventure novels of the 20th century.
I think without the stories of Richard Hanne, we wouldn’t have had James Bond. He’s a clear descendant of Richard Hanne. So I think John Buchan is an often overlooked writer. And certainly his supernatural stuff, his spooky stories are even more overlooked. But out of all of them, I would recommend No Man’s Land. And because it’s so old, it’s in the public domain. You can download it for free.
Hereward (15:01.518)
So there’s nothing stopping you doing it.
There’s nothing stopping us making an audio drama now that you’ve mentioned that.
Yes, yes. Tell me about your book, Callum.
Go and whatever else you want to
Cal MacD (15:16.094)
I’m just going to say one more. It does seem to have, Wickenman seems to have a lot of echoes of this book. Am I right? Yeah.
Yeah, I mean, I think it would fit into that kind of genre of folk horror. And again, know, someone, an outsider coming to a place and finding themselves out of their depth, I think is always a really interesting dynamic that writers and storytellers can play with. I think the way in which
the story is paced. It just makes it feel more like an adventure novel than a traditional horror novel. But it certainly is spooky. And I remember the first time I read it being really like, you know, there’s some genuinely creepy bits. mean, I think the bit in particular really always sticks with me is this, he’s out there and the fog’s rolling in and…
or the mist or whatever and he’s, he just can hear this chattering, this jabbering voice and he can’t quite make out what it’s saying. And it’s just this sense that, you know, that he’s being followed, he’s being hunted, he’s being stalked in this wilderness. I think, you know, the fact that he’s lost and beginning to panic and the lights beginning to fail and stuff.
It just adds to the drama. Very, very atmospheric.
Cal MacD (16:57.474)
Yeah, because it’s like, I sometimes go for weekends out on the shillings on the moor. And I just do sit there thinking, God, this is such a great setting for a horror film. My mind just rumbles, like all the great ideas you could have for horror films out in the middle of the moors here.
Yeah, I mean they’re certainly playing on it now. I there’s one coming out called midges. I don’t know if you’ve heard of that.
Yeah, it’s a kind of a satirical one, think. They’ve definitely done the trailer. Well, they’ve that trailer specifically for fundraising. The one I’ve seen with the guy with the flamethrower. Yeah. That’s just when they cobbled together just to drum up into it. And I think they have gotten funding and it is going to be filmed in the Highlands. So it’ll interesting to know what location because the Althuquishan was one of the most horrendous nights of midges I’ve experienced in my life.
You’re in the shadow of that great big dam which is just prime territory for those demons essentially.
Yeah, yeah, that’s the thing they might they might well be setting it in Scotland But will they film it in Scotland because the midges are so bad Yeah, yeah, I think certainly yeah next time you’re out on the sheelings then take a copy of this with you
Cal MacD (18:11.672)
yeah, will do. Right, so my book, it’s got a, I’ve got a difficult job here in how I describe this book because everybody knows this. And it’s not a light reads, it’s probably, you will have to spend a few weeks. It’s the one and only 1984. Again, another nice Hebridean connection to do on the show. Cause while knowing Mr. Alwell wrote this in his little, is that a shielding he had on the Isle of Jura? He gets some kind of.
I think it was a cottage, I don’t think it was a shelling.
What I almost to good it was a sheling but yeah, I don’t know it’s so difficult to add anything to the other than When people talk about this it becomes really apparent to me. They’ve not actually read it It’s had this huge impact on our language and the culture But people seem to miss the core ideas of what George Orwell’s communicating here
I think you couldn’t be more right. well, you’re saying there’s nothing you can’t say that’s already been said. But actually, there are going to be people out there who haven’t read it. And there may even be some people out there who really don’t know much about it. for the sake of just being different, give us a summary.
Cal MacD (19:41.102)
with you. is set up, it’s never, well it’s the title’s 1984 at the time that was the future but it’s like a future that could be any future really the way comes across and it’s set in the UK and there is a totalitarian party ruling the country who affect and influence every aspect of our lives. It focuses on one guy, Winston, does he have another name on it? I can’t remember.
it’s just Winston isn’t it I think that’s all he’s identified in the book I’m trying to remember now no anyway it is Winston and he works for you know the Ministry of Truth again even as I describe it a lot of you will just recognize this and his job is to edit past historical newspapers to better reflect you know the interests of the party ruling the country and then as the
story progresses he begins an illicit love affair which is against the law with this woman Julia and it’s quite interesting the physical appearances of these characters are never given in the book as well so it’s more that this these could be anybody and she is seen she is a dissident of the party but needless to say it’s found out that a lot of this is and they be sorry i’m getting muddled up here but anyway they have their affair in this little remote cottage
And essentially they’re found out and then they undergo brainwashing to make them loyal citizens of the state again. And it has the most wonderfully bleak endings and I love a downer ending. I’m a real… Yeah. That’s the gist of it. There’s so much more to get into and I’ll be here all day explaining the intricacies of this. But I think that’s a good rough explanation of the plot, isn’t it?
Yeah, 10 out of 10. I think I had my microphone muted at one point. I think his surname was Smith. And if I’m not mistaken, was like a deliberate thing to make him sound as English and as normal as possible. You know, he didn’t have this.
Cal MacD (21:52.542)
Non-dis… Non-dis… Non-dis… And yeah, like I say, the influence on our language and a lot of the concepts on this, mean, Big Brother, Ministry of Truth, Thoughtcrime, all these ideas, firmly in our culture. like, and there is one reason why I consider this a horror film, and that is when we get to Room 101 and Winston is confronted with this…
Yeah.
Cal MacD (22:19.288)
deepest fear to convert him to the party. And it’s a very powerful scene in which also that’s when he says, you can do whatever you want to my lover. Just leave me alone, which is again, what people miss. This is the core thing. It’s like saying how we are okay with totalitarianism. Like most people it’s the kind of privilege of as long as it’s not bothering me, just do what you want to anyone else. Just leave me out of it.
which is like a part of the folk amisté and also a lot of people think this is a criticism of left-wing, we’re not going to get too political here, but they think it’s a criticism of left-wing politics and it’s not, it’s a commentary on extremism of any variety.
Actually, mean Orwell was a pretty committed socialist. Not a communist, but he was a committed socialist. this idea that, yeah, I was going to say we did have to avoid politics a bit here, but you can’t really talk about 1984 because it is an inherently political idea. But this idea, and I think it’s been
We’ll tell you.
Hereward (23:35.448)
kind of a lot of the terms, know, thought crime and stuff have been co-opted and weaponized by certain political groups. And it always represents a fundamental misunderstanding of what this book is about. The book is about how vulnerable people are.
and how precious things like basic human relationships and love is when faced with an overarching highly intrusive state that wants to dominate and control everything and every aspect of the citizens lives.
Yeah, because like I say, like Orwell’s quite, he doesn’t state what the meaning of the state is, just that it’s a horrible state. And I again, that’s what you can always tell when someone has not read this, because when they start quoting it or that meme I’ve seen going around recently, this was not meant to be an instruction because in it, there’s so I can’t remember the exact word. And I say that person definitely has not read the book and just did not get the message.
It’s like, it’s just one of these, it’s so, but it is unnerving. It’s very relevant. You will, and it will, and the reason I do class us on it, just you will look around and you will just see eerie echoes of this everywhere and realize we could be on that path. I don’t think we are, you know, there are things to be afraid of, but it’s one of these, it’s just like a little warning. This could happen. So just, you know, be aware. And also like, it’s room.
Sorry, Carrion.
Hereward (25:19.605)
No, no, you go.
And like I just said, Room 101 is, it’s so well executed in the book. is genuinely. And I got no problem with rats, but I can see why someone would be terrified of rats after that.
Hereward (25:35.31)
so it gave me the ick when I read it. You mentioned that it’s a bit of a slog, I don’t recall it being a huge slog, I have to confess I’ve only read it once and I read it in a day. I didn’t have a lot on, I think I was visiting my girlfriend who’s now my wife and she was doing her master’s degree and I
she needed to be in the library so I just went to the library with her and sat in the university library and just picked up copy and just read it cover to cover in one sitting and I couldn’t put it down. I remember she was the one that had to drag me away from the library for lunch and stuff but it gave me the ick. It made me feel really uncomfortable. It made me feel really troubled and when I’d finished it
I think, yeah, as you said, it’s got such a downer of an ending. I was angry. So it’s not a cheerful book.
Yeah, I think the main reason I kind of thought of it as slog but a heavy read was I read this when I was working night shifts in a cable TV repair shop in Kirkcaldy and it was like my one hour lunch break, well, lunch break, whatever time at about 3am, I was reading more chapters and it was over the course of a month I got it done. So maybe that’s why I think it was such a long read.
Cal MacD (27:12.59)
So I just say maybe that almost here overnight shift helped kind of my perception of book as well.
it is.
Hereward (27:19.576)
Yeah, yeah. think once you get it, I mean, I think if people pick this up, I mean, it’s science fiction, but it’s not the science, it’s not a space opera. And it’s not like a Mad Max style dystopian future, but it is a dystopian future. But as you said, it’s all written in a way when it’s hard to place exactly what the future looks like.
You know, he’s not describing flying cars zipping around. He’s not describing lots of really high tech technology stuff. So it’s hard to kind of place it. And obviously, I’ve got a problem with science fiction giving a date to anything because it always ages it. If you’re going to do that, make it like June, where it’s like 10,000, the year 10,000 or something. Way off. But yeah, 1984, when he wrote it was only
I think about 35 years ahead in the future. So it’s obviously not meant to be far-flung futuristic. It’s meant to be kind of grounded in reality. But yeah, I think people that pick it up expecting science fiction are going to be disappointed because it’s not that sort of book.
Yep and also if you pick it up expecting some hard-hitting critique or exposé of left-wing politics you’re also going to be disappointed, very disappointed.
But let’s face it, those who are looking for a hard-hitting critique of left-wing politics don’t pick up books, do they? sorry, I said I wasn’t going to get political, but I just can’t help it.
Cal MacD (29:05.09)
They do and it tends to be another nightmare of a book for totally different reasons, which I have tortured myself. I have read Atlas Shrugged.
my goodness. How would you do that to yourself? I read the first chapter and was like, nip.
I
Cal MacD (29:22.924)
Yes, in a way we’re getting political already. So with that we shall move on to I think we’ll just do an order of the media like the age of the media. So we’ll go on to the movie next the movie of our choice. Yeah books then movies and then we’ll finish off with our games of choice. So your movie of choice Edward.
Well, if I’m going with stuff that scared me, I’m going to talk about what I still feel is the scariest movie I’ve ever seen. Which I think has lost some of its impact because every other horror movie that comes out now is a found footage film. But the most scared I think I’ve ever been watching a film was watching the original Blair Witch project. So I’m going to talk about that one.
I don’t really think the Blair Witch project needs too much of an introduction. I think it’s so well known. It’s an incredibly micro budget. I think it’s still one of the most profitable films ever made, if I’m not mistaken.
$10,000 budget or something?
It’s something like that. mean, it was the smallest budget and it shows because really it’s just handheld video cameras jerking around in the woods. mean, there’s there’s there’s you don’t actually see anything at all, but it is brilliantly put together. Partially improvised script, which gives it this real sense of being quite naturalistic. The actors.
Hereward (31:04.642)
were all just unknowns. So it didn’t feel like watching Brad Pitt go into the woods.
Hereward (31:15.553)
I remember the hype around it back in 1999, it would have been, when it came out. And I was, I’ve always been into movies and I, I remember reading about it. So I knew that it wasn’t real. I knew it was a fiction, but it was just this cleverly constructed fiction. And they had their website and the website was an early bit of kind of guerrilla marketing. And I remember that.
having lots of interesting things you could click on it and it told you about what was he called? Rustin Parr and it told you about the legend of the Blair Witch and it told you a bit about the characters themselves and how old they were and it just felt like such a cleverly constructed bit of dressing to
to make it feel as real as possible. But I know very well when I went to see it and my friends when we went to see it, we knew we were watching a movie. It was just, you know, we knew it was fiction. So we weren’t kind of sucker punched by that. But the experience of watching it for the first time is genuinely unnerving. And I was a student when it came out and
bunch of my friends it was a Halloween evening 1999 and the little Odeon cinema in York that we lived maybe 20 minutes walk from was doing a special screening of it it was like the day it was released or something like that and I remember I was like right that’s that’s how we’re spending our Halloween evening come on folks so we all got that got together and we went and it was in the Odeon cinema
there in York only had two screens, one big one and one was called the screening room, which was a small one with maybe 30 or 40 seats in and it was in this small one. So it wasn’t on a massive screen. But I remember sitting there and we watched the movie. You know when a movie ends and the credits start to roll and the lights come on and everyone starts moving around and chattering and putting their coats on. I vividly remember
Hereward (33:37.986)
The movie ending and there’s no credit music in the Blair Witch project as well. There’s no music. It’s just the credits roll in silence. And the lights came on and no one moved. No one in the cinema said a word. Everyone was just sort of sat stuck in their seats. And I remember looking, sort of leaned forward and looked to my right and looked down the line of my friends all sitting there and they were all sat in exactly the same position. Their eyes fixed on the screen.
completely ashen-faced, looking completely horrified. And my friend at the other end of the line, there was about nine of us, he leaned forward and looked at me and just went, should we get a drink? We left the cinema and went straight over the road to the nearest pub and we all had to have a stiff drink. And that has, I have never been so spooked by a film as that one. And actually,
I had nightmares for weeks after that film about that, what was he called, Rustin Parr’s cottage in the woods with all the hands on the wall, hand prints on the wall. I had nightmares for weeks afterwards. That movie scared the life out of me. And yeah.
Because that’s the genius thing with this film is you don’t know if it’s genuinely supernatural or if it’s just someone messing with them. Like there’s the theory that is it Josh that he’s the one, he goes mad and kills the other two. And you don’t have a clue because you don’t, like you don’t see anything. And it’s just like noises and you’re straining your ears. What the heck is going on?
Yeah, it’s it’s a masterpiece in in kind of not showing you anything. The scariest horror movies are the ones that don’t show you the beastie. Jaws, you know, set the standard for this. You don’t see the shark until the end. And the reason is this Bruce, their animatronic shark didn’t work properly every time they put it in the water. It short circuited and malfunctioned.
Hereward (35:53.166)
So the only time I think you do see Bruce is when they drag it past the orca, the first time you see the big reveal of the shark and it looks like a big rubber shark being pulled along by a rope. It looks rubbish. And I think even back in 1975, it looked rubbish, you know. But so what Spielberg did that was just such genius is just write, won’t show the shark at all. We’ll show it from the shark’s point of view. We’ll show a load of bubbles and blood and, but we won’t show the shark.
it makes it so much more scary. then of course Ridley Scott’s alien. I know I missed the chat about alien, but yeah, you don’t see the monster properly. You don’t see alien until the end. I think even at the end, when you see it, it’s still not completely, you know, when you finally do see the alien, you are, it’s a man in a suit. But, but when you can’t, when you can’t see it, when you can’t see it, when you only see a bit of it,
It makes it all the more scary and the Blair Witch Project kind of amps that up by the fact that not only do you not see it, you don’t even know what it is. Is it a serial killer? Is it a witch? Is it a supernatural force? Who knows what it is?
An unfriendly local or… Yeah. Don’t have a clue.
Yeah. I think as well that… go on.
Cal MacD (37:10.446)
Cal MacD (37:14.958)
So as my viewing experience was slightly different, I took my then girlfriend to it. It was the Odeon on Hope Street in Glasgow. You can tell when it finished, she just went, was that it? We didn’t see anything. And I was like, yeah. And now you can understand why that one didn’t last. Yeah, we were all very different tastes at that time. But like when I was like, that’s so well done. was like, you didn’t see anything. What’s the point of that?
yeah.
I think it’s a movie that requires a bit of imagination and particularly if you watch it now it really needs that suspension of disbelief that you that you get into it and you accept it for what it is. A lot of complaints about the jerkiness of the camera footage and how grainy it is and but I think that all adds to its sense of
realism and immediacy. One moment I want to talk about in particular that I think is so brilliantly done is when they’re in the cottage and you have the footage of one of them running up the stairs with the camera and I believe it’s Heather that’s holding the camera and is running up the stairs and filming all the hand prints on the wall but at the same time the sound
Yeah.
Hereward (38:43.604)
is from a different camera. It’s a different one. So it makes her screams sound really distant. She’s walking up the stairs panicking, but it’s this unbelievably disorientating effect it creates. it’s, yeah, I remember that just being like, my gosh. So yeah, the Blair Witch project, it’s only about an hour and 20 minutes long as well, which is just brilliant pacing then.
It’s genuinely weird, genuinely creepy and I’m gonna finish my talk about it. My teenager, she’s well into her horror movies and yeah, she’s always asked me, you what’s the scariest one you’ve ever seen? I’d always said it was the Blair Witch Project. So I finally caved and we watched it one night and the same thing happened. The final credits roll.
And I turned to her and look at her and she’s sitting on the sofa with one of the big cushions and her eyes peeking over the top of the cushion, absolutely wide-eyed looking at the screen. And I said, are you all right, kid? And she just went, not really. So yeah, there you go.
Just one thing to point out, because I know FocalMed, you said, did you say this was one of the first of the first fine footage, because…
It’s one of the first, no it wasn’t the first, there was what was it called? last broadcast and I think there was another one called the Lost Coast Tapes.
Cal MacD (40:11.81)
broadcast.
Cal MacD (40:18.094)
Before that, there’s cannibal holocaust as well.
gosh, don’t get me started on that. That’s a movie that shows too much, isn’t it? But yeah, it wasn’t the first one, but it was, think, first.
It’s the defining one, I think.
It’s the defining one. Yeah, it really did kick it all off. And then, you know, we’ve had stuff like, what was it called? Paranormal Activity, which I thought the first Paranormal Activity film was also a good low budget sort of on a similar kind of vein, but it didn’t have a, it wasn’t a patch on Blair Witch Project.
Just on a side note, I’ve been to see a few paranormal activity films in the cinema. They’re interesting viewing experiences where you’re more watching the audience’s behaviour, which was really fascinating to me because it’s like, you’ll know your paranormal, there’s like, stretches where they’re fast forwarding through the footage. And I noticed everyone in the cinema just start talking and then would it stop? They’d look, they’d have their jump scare, fast forward again and then they just go back to chatting. of a very interesting.
Cal MacD (41:32.088)
thing to view that. It’s it’s like kind of what I’ve called what modern horror is now just the jumpscare, got to get the jumpscares in which.
Yeah, that’s really depressing. think people that speak in cinema shouldn’t be allowed into the cinema. I’m a little hardline on this one. Just watch it at home if you want to do that. Don’t ruin it for everyone else.
Yeah. All right. Fully with you. My one is an interesting one. I think I told you already and I think it’s one you appreciate as well. A film that was hated at the time, I think it was really hardcore rejected because it was. We all know the Halloween franchise. I’m loathe to call it a franchise because it’s just one film and then they did everything they could with that.
And like all these, it became a success. They wanted to turn out another one, another Mike Myers. So they did Halloween too. Then John Carpenter quite wisely said, we can’t keep doing Mike Myers films. It gets ridiculous how we keep bringing this guy back. And he came up with this genius idea at the time that why don’t we make it an anthology of films where we get young directors in and they make a creepy film just based around Halloween in some way. Which brings us to Halloween 3 Season of the Witch.
i think you’re a fan of this one as well head or dot it
Hereward (42:55.212)
Indeed, actually think the first Halloween is my favorite in the series, but Halloween 3 is exceptionally good. Great, great movie.
Because you’ll know as well if you look through anything on this, like it was savaged at the time for not having Michael Myers and everything. But I think it is getting the love it deserves now and quite rightly so. It’s another one of some good Celtic connections as well this one. We’ve kind of kept the Celtic theme going quite well today. So basic story is small town in America somewhere.
Yeah.
Cal MacD (43:36.116)
and this company called the Silver Shamrock Novelty Company has taken over. It’s, what’s some other films that would a corporation kind of just takes over an entire town? I’m sure it’s escaping me.
It’s a common horror movie thing now, isn’t it? Certainly in Stranger Things.
Yeah, yeah, Stranger Things kind of draws on some of the elements of this. And you’ve got the Silver Shamro company, up to no good. Again, it starts off classic way, just very low key. We see just someone running in the night through the town, being chased by these guys in suits. And, you know, he’s eventually taken to the hospital. And this is a great mystery. Tom Atkins, great actor, but
Can you explain why so many directors thought he was a sexy leading man in the early eighties? They seemed to cast him in that role. I don’t know why.
This is very… Snowstache.
Cal MacD (44:33.516)
Yeah, it’s the 70s mustache. But he goes to investigate and they find it and it’s like so weird to explain it. It’s like the silver shamrock. They’ve replicant droids working for them and it’s all connected to an Irish cult who are taking pieces of Stonehenge, put them into children’s Halloween masks, which on the night of Halloween, a strobe effect will go off. The children will turn into
a mound of insects and venomous things will kill everyone nearby.
I don’t know why you’re laughing, this is a perfectly legitimate fiendish scheme. When wearing the Halloween masks they are instructed and there’s this jingle, three more days to Halloween, Halloween, Halloween. It goes on and on and on through the film.
Stay in your head for months and that’s a horror on its own.
Yeah, in fact I’m going to ask Callum that you edit a bit of that song in here at this point. I will.
Cal MacD (45:38.046)
And I’ve just got to say the way they came up with that jingle is another one of these filmmaking like they thought we’ve got to have a jingle. then John Carpenter, was like one of the producers on the film said, run out of money. Let’s get something public domain. And they found London Bridges. They just sped it up a bit. And they said, my God, it’s perfect. It’s catchy and it’s creepy as hell when we put these lyrics to it. And it fits perfectly.
It is absolutely brilliant. It is the…
And it’s that word we’ve used already atmospheric as hell is a dark foreboding atmosphere in every frame. You know, you can feel John Carpenter’s fingerprints like classic John Carpenter. I’ve got a bit not good so much John Carpenter, but the classic John Carpenter. feels a dark foreboding and I I love bleak endings, but the good guys lose in the end. Basically, the ending is
Yeah. Yeah.
I love the ending to this, Paul Meadows.
Hereward (46:41.782)
It gets, it does get a little bit over the top, doesn’t it? With all the special effects around the magic stone and stuff, but it is, it’s just so, it’s not what you expect. It’s the Halloween film that’s the odd one out, but it shouldn’t be the odd one out because it’s the one that was genuinely trying to do something different. And John Carpenter has recently gone on record.
writing reviews of his own movies and he’s absolutely savaged Halloween 2. He calls it a piece of… and he says it’s just rubbish and he wrote the script really quickly and regrets writing it and he says it was a Halloween didn’t need a sequel and da da da da. So, you know, this one was genuinely I think his attempt to do something really different. And as we know, anthology horror is so…
popular now and and things like American Horror Story, know, which is your classic, you know, every season is is a new story. It this sort of thing. It was it was years ahead of its time. But the fact that it has such a it got absolutely savaged at the time. You’re absolutely right. And people are like, what is this? I think as well, it’s it’s it’s quite nasty.
There’s the fact that they, the good guys lose at the end. The fact that there is a whole sequence of basically kids’ heads melting into bugs and snakes and stuff. It’s pretty unpleasant. But wow. Yeah. Good choice, Callum. Good.
Yeah, and this is one it does show what’s going on, but it still creeps you out. They do just enough and also I love that beginning because it’s um if you listen to myself and Kenny talking about It’s gonna sound bizarre comparing this to Transformers 86 but that whole opening you are given so much information about what’s happening gonna come in the film and it’s not through clumsy expository dialogue, which I really grinds with you. It’s a
Cal MacD (48:46.252)
the run that guy runs up to the gas station and you just see off in the corner the TV and it mentions a piece of Stonehenge going missing not in an obvious way but it puts that seed in your head that that’s something relevant for later on
Yeah, pay attention to the first five minutes of this film. Someone with the strangest imagination could have picked together the plot. Hang on, I know what way this story’s gonna go.
But it’s like it’s giving you vital information and you don’t know it and I love that film language. really it’s like I said the Star Transformers 86 you’re told everything about Unicron with barely any dialogue. It’s done and I love that kind of stuff. A bit of a bizarre comparison. know but it’s the only one that came
that’s a good one. I think there’s a couple of other things about this movie I think we need to mention. The soundtrack, again, it’s a John Carpenter synth score and I can’t get enough of them. But the other one that I think is worth mentioning is Dan O’Hurley. Did I pronounce that right? I probably not. Folks will know him. He is the old man from RoboCop, but he plays the bad guy in this.
Yeah, an actual Irishman playing an Irishman in an American film as well. It’s no terrible Irish accent. Also, this is me a bit of trivia. The lover in this film, Stacey Melkin or Malkin, I can’t remember. But but she actually tested as Rachel in Blade Runner as a rep. Consider this. And also another. And this kind of it’s more
Hereward (50:09.752)
pretty rare but
Hereward (50:18.68)
Okay.
Hereward (50:24.526)
No. there we go.
Cal MacD (50:32.6)
weird and awkward to think of. At the hotel room when Tom and Stacey get together it cuts to the other bedroom with a middle-aged woman in it, remember this. That middle-aged woman is Tom Atkins’ wife who’s been woken up by Tom and Stacey having relations. That’s weird.
Yeah, I imagine it was in his contract like I’m only gonna be in this movie if my wife gets a role and the directors like yeah I think we got a role for her I think one other thing down here early. He is in can’t I don’t think we should ever stop mention this movie He’s Grig in the last starfighter. You probably wouldn’t recognize him because he’s covered in lizard makeup But yeah, God love the last starfighter anyhow. Yeah great choice
That’s an upcoming episode, feel. I think we’re going to do something about the last Starfighter. You seem to slide that into every oak on me in the last Starfighter.
You
Hereward (51:36.77)
Yeah, yeah, because it’s the last Starfighter. Okay, let’s talk games.
And also like it’s centered around Halloween so what better kind of movie to watch on Halloween night than this? And it’ll give you the creep as well.
Yeah, yeah, that’s a good choice. That’s a good choice.
Okay.
Bring on the games.
Hereward (51:59.692)
Well, you and Kenny did your alien special and I said to you the one thing you missed out was, in my opinion, the scariest video game ever made. Alien Isolation. I have a love-hate relationship with this game. I love it because it is just obviously a labor of love.
Yeah.
Hereward (52:29.102)
the people who made this game apparently had a video of Alien running constantly in their studio and when they finished they just rewind it and put it on again and they watched Alien over and over and over again. It is the most accurate recreation of the Alien world of these big spaceships with
either very, very white kind of sterile corridors or very, very dark, scary passages. It is so brilliantly conceived and paced and thought out. I think it’s just remarkable. It’s over 10 years old. It is 10 years old now. I didn’t play it when it first came out. I was probably about four years late to the party.
I didn’t have a console that would run it at the time it came out. Eventually I played it on PS4 and I replay it quite regularly on the Xbox and I just think it is an unbelievably brilliant game. However, I hate it because of how it makes me feel and it makes me feel terrified. I actually can only play this game
in sort of 15 minute to half an hour long bits and then I have to stop because it makes me feel so agitated and stressed out and uncomfortable. It will probably be the death of me. I think it will probably give me a heart attack one of these days. is genuinely
a stressful experience and I think what’s interesting video games are very often seen as power fantasies, know, all guns blazing, blowing the hell out of stuff. this was the first alien game that really pulled, in fact it’s not, the first alien game that actually didn’t really give you weapons was Alien on the Atari 2600, which was basically a version of Pac-Man. You did have a flamethrower that would make the alien change direction.
Hereward (54:56.216)
but it wasn’t a very scary game. This one is genuinely terrifying. Someone once described it as an alien death simulator. Do you want to know what it’s like to be killed by the alien? Then play this game, because you will be killed by the alien hundreds of times in multiple different ways. It is unpredictable. The AI in it, I think, is still some of the most sophisticated AI in video games. And I think they’ve actually
not bothered to make computer game bad guys as smart as this again because this game is so difficult because of how the AI develops and learns over the course of a playthrough. Yeah, it is, it’s stunning but it makes you feel powerless, it makes you feel weak.
Yep.
Hereward (55:54.912)
It makes you feel scared. There’s several levels. mean, one that always stands out in mind is where you have to go into this kind of abandoned psychiatric wing of a hospital. And it’s all very hospital-like, all very sterile and stuff. But you spend a lot of time hiding under beds. You know, the game is you’re hiding under desks and beds. And I could talk about it for hours, quite frankly. But it is genuinely… I’ve played a lot of scary games.
And I thought long and hard about what one to choose. It was a toss up between this one and some of the Dark Pictures anthology games, which I really enjoyed. this one won out because every time you play it, although the plot is the same and the missions are the same, because of the AI, it’s a different experience every time. And sometimes you can find yourself
really, really struggling, even on a relatively easy difficulty setting. It can be really, really hard. I think the, the, funniest experience with this, everyone says you got to play this game with headphones and I highly recommend that because of the immersive sound and you know, sound is a way you can tell that the aliens coming, you hear it clunking around in the ventilation ducts and stuff before it appears. So you use sound really carefully to determine where the alien is.
And when you hear it pacing towards you too close, that’s when you hide. So you wear headphones, it’s a good idea. It gives you the kind of 3D sound effects. But I was playing it and I could not understand how the alien kept finding me. I could not figure it out. I’d be hiding, I’d get into one of the lockers or the cupboards or something like this and you can close. You can peek through the thing. And I thought, no way the alien…
Every time it would come into the room, open up the cupboard, pull me out, disembowel me. And I was like, what’s going on? And it turns out the game uses your microphone. So I’d be getting into the locker and going, whoo, my goodness. Like, this is too much. And the game’s picking up on it. It uses your microphone unless you turn your microphone off. So yeah, stuff like that. it’s just genius. Over to you. You’ve not played this one, have you?
Cal MacD (58:21.92)
I have not completed it, but I was going to say for those interested, if you’ve been to OH!CON, one of our great guests Rick Carranza, he did a whole play through of it whilst wearing a heart monitor live on his Twitch. And I think the videos are up there and you can get some incredible, you can see some of his amazing reactions to the game. He is literally jumping out of his seat and screaming. And if you make, yeah, you’ll understand. It’s quite amusing to watch.
Yeah, my teenage daughter loves watching me play this game. She outright refuses to play it herself. She’s like, I can’t do that. It’s too much. It’s too much. And, you know, it makes such great use of the kind of the world of Alien, but, know, Alien, that final sequence in Alien when Ripley’s getting off the ship and all the lights are flashing and the sirens are going and the steam jets and the game does exactly the same. There is all these sequences where
All hell’s breaking loose and it’s really really noisy and there’s sirens everywhere and it’s it just puts you in that world I don’t think there are many games that are 10 years old that still have that impact I’m thrilled to hear that the the the original Director of the game has just announced that they’re making it they’re in the early stages of planning a sequel I think that’s
That’s awesome news. And I think also it’s probably a good point to mention a brilliant book that’s come out recently by a chap called Andy Kelly called Perfect Organism, an Alien Isolation Companion. It’s a absolutely brilliant deep dive into the making of the game and a walkthrough of the game. And yeah, it’s sort of everything you wanted to know about alien isolation, but we’re afraid to ask.
So yeah, and also don’t bother with Alien Romulus. Just go with this game instead. you want a direct sequel to Alien.
Hereward (01:00:26.37)
Yeah, I think any of the alien sequels, what have they been? There’s been…
Alien… Alien Resi… Resi… sorry.
No, the ones that have been more kind of direct sequels. So we had one a few years back that was kind of a follow on from Prometheus. What was that called? Covenant. Again, the first half an hour, first 40 minutes of that was just a retread of Alien and that was the good stuff in it. And then the rest of the movie was utter bobbins when they started bringing in all the stuff from Prometheus. And then Alien, what was the recent one? Romulus.
Covenant.
Hereward (01:01:10.188)
first 40 minutes to an hour were absolutely fantastic world building and then as you said it took a nose dive.
I think Kenny is going to watch Romulus very soon because it’s on digital and then we can get together and properly dissect that film because I was, I think you know when I came out you could see I was pretty, I was not happy. You were okay at first, I think your initial, and then I think the next day you came round and said hold on a second.
No, I think I liked the first hour. I thought the first hour was up there with aliens. It was great. But then, yeah, it just took such a nose-diving quality. But yeah, back to Alien Isolation. Everyone should play it and experience absolute terror playing it. Wear your brown trousers.
So think that brings me on. We’re going to finish off with my game and it’s probably one of the best games I don’t think anyone’s ever played. I’ve very rarely, yep, I’ve very rarely, but this game flopped massively. kind of, that’s got that in common with my film, but it was well received at the time, but just nobody, this game only sold half a million copies worldwide ever in its lifetime.
which is staggering to think of it. Because this is a game that sets out to mess with you directly. I’ve never seen this in a game. It breaks the fourth wall in incredible ways that, you know, there was a good few times playing this game. Well, I will mention that I had to get up and look around and say, hold on, what’s going on here? It was like, it was really making me question what was going on around me.
Cal MacD (01:03:08.536)
The of the game is Eternal Darkness Sanities Requiem. And even more for a game that messes with you, it’s a Nintendo game as well, which even more was a horror game made by Nintendo. The story is to this one, is basically you play, what’s the main character’s name? Alexandria Roivas. The Roivas is savior backwards. And she returns to her family’s estate.
and her grandfather has been found brutally murdered and you start to investigate what’s going on and she encovers essentially that her family line and basically the guardians of earth and there’s these dark forces which are it’s the planetary alignment comes into it and the story plays out over millennia and another great thing this game does is you play the same location but over the different millennia
And it’s different points of history and all these characters and the magic Even like the choice of magic you go on affects where the game goes And then the bits that mess with you is as you battle all these demons and everything you’ve got a sanity meter And as your once your sanity meter so when it goes down or when it goes up, I can’t remember which one but when it hits a certain level insanity effects kick in on the game and these range from we are chanting
to at one point the whole game shuts down and you get GameCube Fatal Error. I remember that one happening and I panicked like crazy. I can’t remember all the others, but they are so effective, these insanity effects. Like they didn’t just make it that your character is losing it, they tried to mess with you directly, which I don’t think any other game.
Yeah, I remember the screen would cut out or it would look like your AV connection is flickering and stuff and it would make the screen flicker. Or it would be, I think at one point the volume goes down and it’s like this green volume slider on the screen is like volume down, down, down, down, down. The game goes really quiet and you’re like, that’s what’s happening. It’s like you’re thinking you’re sitting on the remote or something.
Hereward (01:05:28.61)
And the one I remember, I remember the Gamecube error one, do remember the one where it looks like it’s deleting your save file?
Yeah, remember that as well.
It’s like, and it brings up the GameCube menu and it’s like, are you sure you want to delete it? It just goes to yes. And you’re sitting there playing going, no, no, no.
You start having your controller, you’re losing. You are basically losing your mind. And I’ve never seen… This is a game that basically gaslights for entertainment. I would love to see videos of people like long playing this, like people with no idea about the game. Like it might be one for your daughter to try on her own just to see what her reactions to some of the weird messing with you effects on us.
Yeah.
Cal MacD (01:06:15.63)
But it’s like a very-
Brilliant.
a really rich storyline and when you start off you’re thinking this is a Resident Evil clone because it feels looks and plays very Resident Evil at the start you’re solving a few wee puzzles but then it goes off in these other directions and as I played it all the way through it was like over months this took me to complete it’s quite a difficult game as well
Yeah, it was tough. It was a tough one.
And this is one, and I think the environment, like this is when I lived in Oxford and I was up till three in the morning some nights and the total dark kind of complete escape. And of course that just messed with me even more because you know, you’re exhausted. And so like the insanity effects took, had an even bigger impact on you in that state.
Hereward (01:07:04.494)
Yeah, I think sometimes there were more subtle effects like enemies just glitching in and out of the screen and stuff. And yeah, you know, there’s an enemy there one minute and you go to fight it and then it disappears and you’re like, was that a glitch? Is that something wrong? Or and then you realize that’s part of the part of the game. Yeah, just absolutely brilliantly brilliant in the way it manipulates you. Yeah, I think it’s clever.
Yeah, because it’s not like they don’t go all out with the insanity. Sometimes it’s so subtle. And then other times it’s just completely met. And that’s kind of how you fall for a lot of the insanity effects on this.
Yeah.
But like I said, and it was just, I was like shot when recently when I looked up this game, because you you forget about these games are sold by GameCube. And then like, I remember this game I looked up to was only half a million physical copies ever sold. Yeah, it’s just nuts to think and it’s like one of the highest rated GameCube games ever.
Yeah, it sells it resale value. Generally, you’re looking at 30 or 40 quid for a secondhand copy of this now. I think I think Louie’s going to like the plug here. I think they have a copy in tech mobile at the moment. I think I’ve seen one in there. They certainly did fairly recently, but it is brilliant. And of course, if you’ve got an old Wii lying around, remember the Wii is backwards compatible with the GameCube. So throw it in your old Wii.
Cal MacD (01:08:36.301)
I’ve just got up on my screen all the receptions 91 % 92 % 9.4 9.5 9.6 out of 10 it all the critical acclaim but Great mystery is why this game never sold. I don’t was it just that Nintendo’s just the kids console. It’s always seen out which is really unfair at times. I think
The Gamecube had some blinding horror games. Remember the Gamecube, had Resident Evil 4. It was the original Resident Evil 4 on that. I think that’s the problem when you have big hitting games like that on it. And it’s a franchise, isn’t it, Resident Evil, but something small and unusual.
And I mean, it is a slower play. think of how fast paced Resident Evil 4 is, Eternal Darkness is a bit of a plotter, but deliberately so. You know, it’s designed to be spooky, not running around chainsawing things.
And it’s also, I always wonder, had this game been more successful, would we have got like the inevitable film? This could be a great film to make. With a clever director who knew how to incorporate the insanity effects into a film really well. It could be like one of these classic films. Like it could be a ground breaker or like comics or books that could have come out of this. we just have the game. There was the…
Guy did promise a sequel for years, but it’s never materialized. He’s never got the funding for it. I might have to track down the creator of this game for an interview, think. I’d really love to speak to him, where he came up with some of the ideas for this.
Hereward (01:10:18.318)
It’s a shame.
Hereward (01:10:27.758)
It was an absolute cracker and yeah for those into retro gaming, gosh are we even saying the Gamecube is retro? Of course it is. It’s brilliant, it’s a brilliant experience and I think the insanity effects the next time round, you it really is only going to be effective on your first playthrough but boy that, some of them absolutely are hilarious once you get it but boy do you feel frightened when they pop up.
I think I put about 10 or 12 hours in the gameplay when that was like lose your save game, know, delete your save game. was like, no, no, no.
Same state when it came up with a… It kind of green screens to GameCube Fatal Error or something, still… Yeah! …corrupted. And I was like, what? I said, I’ve only had this thing for two months, what are you talking
Yeah. Brilliant.
I’ve just got this in Star Wars Rogue Squadron and it’s breaking down. I was like really freaking out.
Hereward (01:11:29.806)
Good stuff. So there’s some good choices for Halloween,
Yep, I think take any of these. You’ll have a nice, it’ll give you some chills for the evening.
Yeah.
I don’t have many other thoughts, yeah, I like all my choices. I like your choices. The novella is the one I never heard of, so I will have to check that out. I think you knew all of mine, so there’s nothing really for you to check out on my choices.
It’s alright, it’s always good to have things validated isn’t it when you go, yeah yeah I like that one as well so that’s good.
Cal MacD (01:12:11.336)
Awesome. movie was difficult because it was a strong contest between two. The other one I was really concerned was Lake Mungo, I’ll film a love.
you’ve not heard of that one, Lake Mungo.
have heard of it but I’m, I, Is that the one with the crocodiles? no, that’s Lake Placid. I thought we were gonna, I don’t like crocodiles so I was beginning to get jittery on let’s not talk about crocodiles now. And people have tried to get me to watch Lake Placid for ages but no.
Yo.
Cal MacD (01:12:45.198)
Lake Mungo was quite unsettling and it’s again just a quick it’s an answer and all it is a lot of it is you’re just looking at photographs in it it’s like and it starts off as one kind of film and you think it ends at one point then it just goes off in another direction another kind of filmmaking style I really love is when they introduce some other kind of film in the middle of another in the middle of the one you’re watching
I will have to check that one out then. Maybe that will be my Halloween movie this year.
I definitely recommend it. Let’s say there will, I’ll just say that there’s going to be a point in it where you think, well, that’s it over now. Where can they go now? And then it takes it off in another direction. And it’s like, it’s unsettling me a lot. And it’s one of these, they just keep pitting layers and I won’t go into too much detail. We’ll just look at Australian film from the early 2000s, Lake Mungo and boys it unsettling.
Awesome. Right.
I think we can wrap it up there unless you’ve got any final thoughts Edward.
Hereward (01:13:50.346)
No, think it’s always a pleasure Callum and I think we’ve given people enough to find something spooky to entertain them over the Halloween.
So have a pleasant Halloween everyone and we’ll be back soon with more stuff. We don’t know what, but we do have stuff planned.
That’s the Okan motto, we don’t know what but we’ve got to plant. Alright, goodbye everyone.
