Preview: Halloween (Boss Team Games, multi-format)
FROM Evil Dead and Friday the 13th to Texas Chain Saw Massacre, it seems every golden age horror franchise has been getting the multiplayer game treatment. Now, the daddy of them all is getting in on the act: not one but two games based on John Carpenter’s Halloween are on the way, with the director of the 1978 classic “intimately involved” in development.
It’s been 40 years since Michael Myers last had the joystick treatment, when schlock VHS mongers Wizard Video released an Atari 2600 game based on Halloween. Released in October 1983, the adults-only affair contained even more gore than the film, meaning many stores refused to stock it - and those that did ensured it was strictly under-the-counter stuff.
It’s been a long time coming, but this week Boss Team Games announced a pair of titles based on the oft imitated but never equalled 1978 original, which saw Jamie Lee Curtis’ Laurie Strode taking on lumbering masked killer Michael Myers.
Developed in conjunction with the franchise producers, Carpenter will be heavily involved in one of the titles, and said, “As a huge gamer myself, I’m thrilled to help bring Michael Myers to life again in this game - my hope is to scare you silly.”
Using Unreal Engine 5, the studio teased that players will be able to “relive moments from the film and play as classic characters from one of the most iconic and important horror films of all time.” Boss Games, er, boss, Steve Harris said, “Halloween obviously holds a special place in the hearts of all horror fans, and getting to work with iconic characters like Michael Myers and build on John Carpenter’s original vision is literally a dream come true.”
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Given it’s from the publisher behind 2022′s Evil Dead, we can safely assume at least one of the games will be another asymmetrical horror multiplayer shindig, where a group of players attempt to thwart a human-controlled Boogeyman.
It’s hard to see how they can differentiate Carpenter’s effort from Friday the 13th, which was itself a Halloween rip-off. But given Friday the 13th was shut down four years ago amid licensing issues with the movie’s writer, it seems Michael Myers is finally poised to fill a Jason Voorhees-shaped void.
After 13 movies of varying quality (though I have soft spot for the hugely underrated Season of the Witch), you’d have thought the shockingly bad Halloween Ends would have taken a chef’s knife to our appetite for any more horror down Haddonfield way.
However, with a TV reboot and two games in production, you really can’t keep a good serial killer down - and as a self-confessed gaming nerd, Carpenter’s involvement will hopefully ensure Halloween is a slash above.
