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Game Review: ‘Silver Chains’ is Immersive, Creepy First-Person Horror

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Silver Chains

“Madness is out to get you” says the trailer forĀ Silver Chains, a new first-person horror game from game developers at Cracked Head Games and published by Headup available on PC from Steam today, and honestly they aren’t wrong.

As the game opens, a man named Peter has just run his car into a tree. As he stumbles from the wreckage, he sees an old house nearby. It looks abandoned save for one light glowing in a window upstairs. Hurt and alone, he begins to walk to the house in hopes of finding help.

Peter collapses unconscious at the back of the house, but wakes to find himself inside, and that’s where his real nightmare begins.

On the surface,Ā Silver Chains is your basic solve the mystery of the haunted house type game. Your objective is to explore the three floors of the house, piecing together the story of its former inhabitants and how you, as Peter, fit into its history.

Along the way are a host of puzzles to solve, rooms to explore, and I cannot express to you enough how important it is to pay attention to every detail you see because even the most minute detail can be important later in the game.

Then there are the ghosts themselves. Yes, this house is haunted by more than its history.

Most of the spirits you will come in contact with while playingĀ Silver Chains are harmless enough. They appear just long enough to scare the hell out of you before disappearing in a cloud of dark smoke.

Others, however, are vicious and they can and will kill you unless you can successfully hide in time to avoid their detection. Quick decisions are key in these situations so give yourself a break if you die a couple of times, but be prepared. The auto-save points in the game are spaced out in places so you might find yourself “solving” portions of puzzles you’ve already completed in order to get back to where you left off.

As in any good haunted house game, film, or story, the environment itself is its own character and the house inĀ Silver Chains is no different. Each of its three floors is beautifully rendered and textured, and filled with paintings, photographs and sculptures.

The lighting is gorgeous, though you might have to play with your brightness settings a couple of times to get them set exactly the way you need them.

Likewise, the score for the game is lush and atmospheric adding an essential layer of suspense to Peter’s investigation of the house.

Silver Chains is a relatively short game–you can easily play through it in a few hours–but it is filled with challenging puzzles, genuinely scary moments, and an intricate and sad story that will keep you on the edge of your seat from the moment Peter wakes up inside the haunted mansion.

Check out the trailer below, and downloadĀ Silver Chains from Steam today!

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Movies

Melissa Barrera Says ‘Scary Movie VI’ Would Be “Fun To Do”

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Melissa Barrera might literally get the last laugh on Spyglass thanks to a possible Scary Movie sequel. Paramount and Miramax are seeing the right opportunity to bring the satirical franchise back into the fold and announced last week one might be in production as early as this fall.

The last chapter of the Scary Movie franchise was almost a decade ago and since the series lampoons thematic horror movies and pop culture trends, it would seem they have a lot of content to draw ideas from, including the recent reboot of slasher series Scream.

Barerra, who starred as final girl Samantha in those movies was abruptly fired from the latest chapter, Scream VII, for expressing what Spyglass interpreted as “antisemitism,” after the actress came out in support of Palestine on social media.

Even though the drama wasn’t a laughing matter, Barrera might get her chance to parody Sam in Scary Movie VI. That is if the opportunity arises. In an interview with Inverse, the 33-year-old actress was asked about Scary Movie VI, and her reply was intriguing.

ā€œI always loved those movies,ā€ the actress told Inverse. ā€œWhen I saw it announced, I was like, ā€˜Oh, that would be fun. That would be so fun to do.ā€™ā€

That “fun to do” part could be construed as a passive pitch to Paramount, but that’s open to interpretation.

Just like in her franchise, Scary Movie also has a legacy cast including Anna Faris and Regina Hall. There is no word yet on if either of those actors will appear in the reboot. With or without them, Barrera is still a fan of the comedies. ā€œThey have the iconic cast that did it, so weā€™ll see what goes on with that. Iā€™m just excited to see a new one,ā€ she told the publication.

Barrera is currently celebrating the box office success of her latest horror movie Abigail.

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Thrills and Chills: Ranking ‘Radio Silence’ Films from Bloody Brilliant to Just Bloody

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Radio Silence Films

Matt Bettinelli-Olpin, Tyler Gillett, and Chad Villella are all filmmakers under the collective label called Radio Silence. Bettinelli-Olpin and Gillett are the primary directors under that moniker while Villella produces.

They have gained popularity over the past 13 years and their films have become known as having a certain Radio Silence “signature.” They are bloody, usually contain monsters, and have breakneck action sequences. Their recent film Abigail exemplifies that signature and is perhaps their best film yet. They are currently working on a reboot of John Carpenter’s Escape From New York.

We thought we would go through the list of projects they have directed and rank them from high to low. None of the movies and shorts on this list are bad, they all have their merits. These rankings from top to bottom are just ones we felt showcased their talents the best.

We didn’t include movies they produced but didn’t direct.

#1. Abigail

An update to the second film on this list, Abagail is the natural progression of Radio Silence’s love of lockdown horror. It follows in pretty much the same footsteps of Ready or Not, but manages to go one better — make it about vampires.

Abigail

#2. Ready or Not

This film put Radio Silence on the map. While not as successful at the box office as some of their other films, Ready or Not proved that the team could step outside their limited anthology space and create a fun, thrilling, and bloody adventure-length film.

Ready or Not

#3. Scream (2022)

While Scream will always be a polarizing franchise, this prequel, sequel, reboot — however you want to label it showed just how much Radio Silence knew the source material. It wasn’t lazy or cash-grabby, just a good time with legendary characters we love and new ones who grew on us.

Scream (2022)

#4 Southbound (The Way Out)

Radio Silence tosses their found footage modus operandi for this anthology film. Responsible for the bookend stories, they create a terrifying world in their segment titled The Way Out, which involves strange floating beings and some sort of time loop. It’s kind of the first time we see their work without a shaky cam. If we were to rank this entire film, it would remain at this position on the list.

Southbound

#5. V/H/S (10/31/98)

The film that started it all for Radio Silence. Or should we say the segment that started it all. Even though this isn’t feature-length what they managed to do with the time they had was very good. Their chapter was titled 10/31/98, a found-footage short involving a group of friends who crash what they think is a staged exorcism only to learn not to assume things on Halloween night.

V/H/S

#6. Scream VI

Cranking up the action, moving to the big city and letting Ghostface use a shotgun, Scream VI turned the franchise on its head. Like their first one, this film played with canon and managed to win over a lot of fans in its direction, but alienated others for coloring too far outside the lines of Wes Craven’s beloved series. If any sequel was showing how the trope was going stale it was Scream VI, but it managed to squeeze some fresh blood out of this nearly three-decade mainstay.

Scream VI

#7. Devil’s Due

Fairly underrated, this, Radio Silence’s first feature-length film, is a sampler of things they took from V/H/S. It was filmed in an omnipresent found footage style, showcasing a form of possession, and features clueless men. Since this was their first bonafide major studio job it’s a wonderful touchstone to see how far they have come with their storytelling.

Devil’s Due

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Perhaps the Scariest, Most Disturbing Series of The Year

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You may have never heard of Richard Gadd, but that will probably change after this month. His mini-series Baby Reindeer just hit Netflix and it’s a terrifying deep dive into abuse, addiction, and mental illness. What is even scarier is that it’s based on Gadd’s real-life hardships.

The crux of the story is about a man named Donny Dunn played by Gadd who wants to be a stand-up comedian, but it’s not working out so well thanks to stage fright stemming from his insecurity.

One day at his day job he meets a woman named Martha, played to unhinged perfection by Jessica Gunning, who is instantly charmed by Donny’s kindness and good looks. It doesn’t take long before she nicknames him “Baby Reindeer” and begins to relentlessly stalk him. But that is just the apex of Donny’s problems, he has his own incredibly disturbing issues.

This mini-series should come with a lot of triggers, so just be warned it is not for the faint of heart. The horrors here don’t come from blood and gore, but from physical and mental abuse that go beyond any physiological thriller you may have ever seen.

ā€œItā€™s very emotionally true, obviously: I was severely stalked and severely abused,ā€ Gadd said to People, explaining why he changed some aspects of the story. ā€œBut we wanted it to exist in the sphere of art, as well as protect the people itā€™s based on.ā€

The series has gained momentum thanks to positive word-of-mouth, and Gadd is getting used to the notoriety.

ā€œItā€™s clearly struck a chord,ā€ he toldĀ The Guardian. ā€œI really did believe in it, but itā€™s taken off so quickly that I do feel a bit windswept.ā€

You can stream Baby Reindeer on Netflix right now.

If you or someone you know has been sexually assaulted, please contact the National Sexual Assault Hotline at 1-800-656-HOPE (4673) or go toĀ rainn.org.

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