The Destructoid Checkpoint Spooky Edition #1 - Hey, Destructoid, whatcha scared of?

It’s that time of the year. Pumpkins light up the porch, jolly skeletons adorn the lawn. Cobwebs gather in the corner of every home, and an eerie mist falls upon our towns. Yep, we’re finally in the Halloween season. 

But funky costumes and house decorations do not make All Hallows’ Eve (or month) complete without some actually spooky scary horror, and for the duration of October, we’ll run a quirky little Newsletter every week to check in with our dear readers and see what they’re watching and playing in celebration of the most haunting period of the year. 

Now, since it’s already the seventh, stuff has already gone down a little in the Destructoid department. We’ve got a Halloween marathon going already, watching one horror flick each night to maximize the scare factor. Yes, yes, we’re a gaming media site and we should be talking video games, not movies, but let’s face it, folks: horror movies are the most quintessential Halloween thing like - ever. So that’ll be our starting point. 

What’s a Halloween without a movie marathon?

This week, Destructoid checked out Saint Maud, a dark and brooding film that took some sharp turns to the incomprehensible by the end, and left us feeling like it wasn’t meant to scare or shock us. A quick rewatch of Obsession was absolutely in order. It’s one of the best horror films of the year, if not of all time, and it truly touches that part that dreads the very notion of non-existence, which we all tend to share. The third film was Gonjiam: Haunted Asylum, a Korean found-footage flick that’ll definitely rattle your bones. It’s actually one of the best found-footage films we’ve ever seen, but since the bar is in literal Hell for that genre, that’s not the best description of its quality. But it’s pretty creepy in any case. 

Speaking of exploration, As Above So Below, also a found footage film but set in the Paris catacombs with pretty close connections to Hell overall, was our fourth Halloween movie of choice. You’ve got to see this one if you haven’t in the last 12 years or so, or never watched PewDiePie glaze it back when YouTube still had good things going for it. 

Tonight, on October 5, we’re watching Wes Craven’s New Nightmare. Because no Halloween horror marathon would ever be complete without at least one movie from the Halloween, Texas Chainsaw, and Nightmare on Elm Street franchises. It’s simply tradition at this point. 

We gotta play something, too

Getting spooked by films is all fine and dandy, but what about games? Naturally, we did not forget about what we do for a living, but we must admit that finding a proper horror game to actually scare us is increasingly, excruciatingly difficult. We tried setting up Cry of Fear a couple of times, but its archaic GoldSrc engine is scarier than most actual horror games. The thing can just decide to give up on your lobby during crucial story or spooky moments, and that’s as dreadful as they come. 

We also saw I can smell you from here, a properly modern horror title reflecting the most terrifying aspect of our contemporary reality: the dating scene. You have to lie to your date to stop them from devouring you - all resemblances to real life are accidental. 

While not a scary game by any means, Deck of Haunts is a very intriguing deck-building experience where it’s you who does the scaring. A bunch of people come to explore your haunted house, and it’s your job to either drive them mad or, well, butcher them on the spot. Pretty terrifying, but for them rather than you. 

At the end of the day, what really matters is what our dear Destructoid readers are doing this Halloween. Check out this poll and let us know what you’ve been up to and what’s been scaring you. Even if it’s a real-life event or game that you’ve played, a haunted house you checked out, or a movie or video game. It doesn’t matter, so long as you get spooked. 

Let us know what you’re playing or watching that honors the spirit of Spooktober here.