The video game to film adaptation pipeline continues to slowly dominate Hollywood now that superhero movies are no longer the sure-fire hits they once were. While we wait for “Five Nights at Freddy’s 2” to deliver the animatronic scares next year, Hollywood just found its next indie horror game to adapt for the big screen.
According to a Bloody Disgusting report, Lionsgate is now working on a movie adaptation of the hugely popular horror video game “Outlast” from developer Red Barrels. Though there is no director attached just yet, Roy Lee, who produced recent horror darlings like “Barbarian,” “Late Night with the Devil,” and “Strange Darling,” will produce the movie adaptation. More exciting, however, is the news that the screenplay is being penned by J.T. Petty, who wrote the story of the original “Outlast” game, as well as its two sequels. Though that doesn’t guarantee a faithful adaptation, at the very least it is reassuring to know that the script is in the hands of someone with intricate knowledge of the world of the games and the many killers populating it.
Much like “Five Nights at Freddy’s,” the “Outlast” games have a surprising amount of lore that can make for an interesting movie. As Lee explained to Bloody Disgusting, the game’s “deep, emergent lore has provided a perfect foundation for creating a film that delves into the psychological and physical horrors at the core of the franchise.”
An Outlast movie adaptation has a fundamental issue to overcome
“Outlast” revolves around Miles Upshur, a freelance investigative journalist who understands the economy is so bad that he has to head to a psychiatric hospital deep in the Colorado mountains and overrun by homicidal patients in order to make ends meet. Inspired by found footage horror movies like “[REC]” as well as survival horror games like “Amnesia: The Dark Descent,” “Outlast” is a first-person game without combat. Part of the appeal of the game is that you can’t outfight the killers, you can only run or hide.
As you navigate the hospital, the player has to hide in lockers, behind or under desks, and generally avoid been seen by the patients to survive. The core mechanic of the game involves light. Because most of the hospital is unlit, the game has the player navigate the darkness using only the video camera the game’s protagonist is equipped with, forcing them to look through the camcorder’s night vision lens to uncover the horrors lurking in the dark — and hope the battery doesn’t run out at the worst moment.
The problem with this mechanic is that it means “Outlast” is essentially a found footage game, but also one where the player is in control of the camera. If you reverse engineer the game into a movie, it ends up being simply another found footage horror movie. Perhaps it will turn out better than that, but an “Outlast” film adaptation has a long road ahead to becoming the next video game hit.
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