Correction: A previous version of this story incorrectly stated that the Condemned games were developed by Rockstar. The information has been corrected.
Neon’s hit horror film Longlegs solidified for me that, when you’re in the right mood, nothing hits quite like a serial killer thriller. The Silence of the Lambs, Se7en, Zodiac, Mindhunter (notManhunter, which is also pretty good) — all great. It’s a genre that I find oddly cozy. I first watched The Silence of the Lambs the day after I botched a dress rehearsal for a play I was a lead in, and it helped me unwind enough to manage just fine for the opening performance that night. The first time I watched Zodiac was during a sick day off work, and it cheered me right up.
There’s something about watching really awful things happen to people when you’re in a dark mood that feels validating. And, simultaneously, there’s something about watching smart people work to solve the case that pulls you out of it — even if, as in David Fincher’s serial killer movies, the heroes don’t succeed in the end. I love engaging with the genre’s trappings. The late night at the library. Scrolling through microfiche. Decoding coded symbols. Arriving at the scene of the crime a moment too late. The calm before a new kill’s storm. And the quiet, miserable desperation for a clue — any clue. Most of those things aren’t pleasant, but together, they add up to a reliably fun genre.
Serial Killers Kill At The Movies, But Mostly Avoid Games
Longlegsis not, by any definition, a cozy movie. It’s unsettling as hell, and the roots feeding its serial killer narrative go deep enough to tap into some real darkness. It left me a little rattled in a way that no other horror movie this year has, and it has me thinking about how few games there are, comparatively, that focus on serial killers. We have plenty of movies about this kind of crime, and most of the dramas on network television are devoted to solving grisly murders. Paperback books and true crime podcasts aplenty center a hero’s quest to track down a mysterious killer.
But, as saturated as other artforms are with serial killer stories, in games, they’re still fairly rare. Earlier this year, I played some of theYakuzaspin-off,Judgment, which follows private investigator Yagami as he attempts to track down a killer who removes their victim’s eyes. TheDanganronpagames also play in the serial killer milieu, as do theCondemnedgames andSilent Hill 4: The Room.
Why Aren’t There Many Big Serial Killer Games?
But, none of these are marquee games. Judgment is a spin-off. Danganronpa is a niche visual novel series. Condemned is little known today, and Silent Hill 4 is far from the most beloved game in the series. We don’t really have any certified classics that focus on serial killers, whereas in film, prestigious Sight & Sound list entries like M and Night of the Hunter focus on murderers on the loose. Silence of the Lambs, one of the winningest movies in Oscar history, is about an FBI agent using a serial killer’s advice to hunt another serial killer.
That isn’t the case in games. Sony has Norse gods, zombies, talking robots, robot dinosaurs, superheroes, samurai, and other nerdy genre storytelling tropes as big parts of its slate, but it hasn’t done the same with a serial killer game. Is the subgenre too violent? I’ve played The Last of Us Part 2, I don’t buy that. Too dark? Again, seeThe Last of Us Part 2.
It’s puzzling because serial killers make for compelling stories and also fit cleanly into existing gameplay mechanics. IfOuter Wilds,Disco Elysium,Return of the Obra Dinn, and theendless games starring animal copsare any indication, players love to solve mysteries. And a serial killer story is just a mystery with really high stakes.
