GREAT ESCAPE...OR IS THERE NO WAY OUT OF CREEPY BACKROOMS?

MOVIES based on games are nothing new.

- CHERYL MULLIN

In the last few months we've seen films based on Silent Hill, Super Mario Galaxy and Mortal Kombat in the cinema. And later this year there will be a new Street Fighter movie and a Resident Evil reboot on the big screen.

While films based on these huge franchises are no surprise, some directors are turning to more cult games for inspiration.

Last month saw the Western release of Exit 8, a Japanese psychological horror based on the 2023 indie walking simulator by Kotake Create.

The game has you repeatedly walking through the same subway station looking for small anomalies in the layout to reach Exit 8 or remain trapped for ever.

And last week saw the release of Backrooms, another psychological horror based on the same material as some of the most unsettling games I've ever played. The Backrooms series was inspired by the popular internet ‘creepypasta’ of the same name, which originated on 4chan in 2019. A ‘creepypasta’ is a horror-related legend that has been shared around the internet - short tales told to scare.

The Backrooms is an urban legend describing an endless maze of randomly generated office rooms and other environments accessed by exiting reality.

It's a horror lore continually shaped by the internet, with each fresh location becoming part of the terrifying world. The first game appeared just two months after the original creepypasta, a short, unsettling, atmospheric experience that left players wanting more.