However, to do so, they’ve got to deliver something distinctly outside the box. And what better way to do so than by looking towards some of the more memorable, contemporary horror films of the past few years? They don’t have to be straight-up adaptations – though some would work better in specific cases, like 1408 – but they definitely provide great inspiration to a market tired of Resident Evil and Silent Hill. Here are our top 7 picks for horror movies that should be turned into video games. Minor spoilers ahead, for horror film fans.

1. Martyrs

Plot: Young girls are being abducted and tortured without remorse. One such girl – Lucie – managed to escape as a child but carries the trauma with her as a brutal girl seemingly haunts her through her life. She swears to slay her former captors, but as her best friend Anna learns, there’s more to the story than just that.

This is the film that defies French New Wave Extreme. Traumatised, often demented, characters; vicious amounts of realism and brutality; and a free range on gore, emphasising the real over the aesthetic. Uncovering the conspiracy to discover what lies beyond Death, and the very secret itself, could form that basis for a great adventure game.

2. The Conspiracy

Plot: Terrance may seem the normal conspiracy theory nut (and really, now normal could they be). But as Aaron and Jim, two documentarians, learn after his disappearance, there’s a big difference between crazy talk and actual insanity.

A more recent found footage film, this one takes to revelling in conspiracies of all kinds, along with the much talked about existence of a secret society or “Illuminati”. However, it provides a strong, modern world context, something that’s sorely been lacking in contemporary adventure games, with enough scares to ensure that some secrets are better left undiscovered. Of course, even a first person adventure along the lines of Amnesia would be great.

3. 1408

Plot: Mike Enslin specialises in writing travel/horror books where he explores real life locations, hunting for ghosts. So far not a single place lives up to the hype. Then he receives a mysterious postcard, telling him not to enter room 1408 at NYC’s Dolphin Hotel. What horrors await in this forbidden room?

Honestly, if this Stephen King classic doesn’t make for a Heavy Rain-esque phantasmagoria of horror-fantasy, nothing does. It’d be great experiencing the terrors endured by the story’s protagonist in as cinematic a presentation as possible. And the game doesn’t even need to look to the film for inspiration, developing it’s own nightmarish aesthetic (though admittedly, Hollywood was pretty spot on with the silver screen adaptation).

4. VHS

Plot: Four juveniles are hired to break into an old man’s house and recover a specific cassette. They enter to find the old man dead and dozens of tapes out in the open. In order to find the tape they need, they begin to watch each cassette. And yes, things turn horrific.

Another found footage film, this forms a great basis for an episodic action-adventure series. Honestly, you could have groups of miscreants entering the house forever, trying to find that one magical tape, and it’d make for compelling viewing with the amount of nightmare fuel lying around. Each short story – as viewed within the film – is like it’s own self-contained gameplay segment, which allows for different genres. And with a game, they can actually be connected enough to the main story to mean something as a whole.

5. The ABCs of Death

Plot: 26 film-makers come together to make 26 short films, each taking a letter to represent Death. Hailed as the biggest horror undertaking of the past decade, it’s equal parts hilarity, absurdity and downright horror.

A smorgasbord of carnival horrors that is equal parts missed opportunity and subliminal brilliance. How about a WarioWare-style rapid fire succession of gameplay segments, with each letter representing a different death? Judging by the number contestants in a contest to decide the 26th short film, which was for the letter T, there’s definitely tons of variety and gameplay to be had.

6. Suicide Circle

Plot: 54 Japanese schoolgirls commit mass suicide one day on the train tracks. However, this “Suicide Circle” is far from finished. Who are they, and what do they want? Are they really the bad guys or our saviours?

Majestic took an intriguing concept with it’s real-world adventure game routes and ruined it. What better movie to become the horror game melding of the real and virtual than Suicide Circle? As a social commentary on our world as it is, as we cut ourselves off from and what makes us “connected” to ourselves, there are enough angles, red herrings and false villains – plus a police investigation angle – to keep the game running for a while.

7. Cabin in the Woods

Plot: Five teens journey to a cabin in the woods, but a strange organisation is pulling the strings, ensuring their torment. For what purpose and to what end? Therein lies the overall mystery of The Cabin in the Woods.

Come on, how could this not have all the elements of an awesome video game? Multiple horror movie creatures, a shadowy organisation pulling the strings, different “scenarios” across the world, the appeasement of the Ancients to prevent world wide calamity – it would be a great MMO. Having characters across scenarios work together as other players control the monsters, and still others play the Organisation presents more than enough variety and scope for gameplay.

What horror film do you think would make for a great video game? Let us know below in the comments.

As the years rolled by, horror began to expand as never before. Suddenly, the entire globe opened up it’s brightest and best, showcasing a new wave of horror films people couldn’t be more terrified of. Torture films, J-Horror psychological films, deceptive protagonists, utter blood baths – suddenly it seemed a more frightening world than we thought possible.

Romero and Carpenter, both at odds, tried their best to adapt this new wave. They both tried returning to their tried and true roots and failed utterly. As it stands, more people identify with the Dawn of Dead remake than they do the original. Because come on, fast moving zombies versus slow, shuffling ones? And for whatever reason, Carpenter just couldn’t recapture the magic of his previous efforts with The Ward. Either way you slice it, both directors had come to lose their way.

Which brings us to the gaming franchises in question. We’re seeing a new shift in horror games. The smaller, independent efforts are succeeding more while the big-budgeted titles seem to be falling flat. Games like Amnesia and Slender share a common tangent that separates them from the pack, both in terms of scare value and implementation. But first we have to talk about Resident Evil and Silent Hill.

Both franchises, in an attempt to avoid falling into obscurity, took to reinventing themselves in some way or another to survive. For Capcom, the shabby sales of Resident Evil Zero on the Gamecube were a sign that the old formula wasn’t going to work any more. Something new and bold had to be attempted.

Resident Evil 4 decided to do away with the shambling zombies in favour of more treacherous. By disguising these villains in the guise of normal people, it created a terrifying atmosphere wherein no area was safe. Everyone was out to get you. It was The Crazies meets gunplay. It’s still quite amazing how Capcom greatly increased the amount of firepower in RE4 without compromising on the the threat. Sheer numbers and terrifying mutations were more than enough to displace any faith one had in their firearms. And that’s not including the maniac with the chainsaw.

Konami, on the other hand, decided to stay the course and keep going back to the psychological horror well. Despite the spread into neighbouring areas with Silent Hill 4, we still got nothing but traipses into the typical landscape again and again. Here’s your protagonist, here’s their descent into Silent Hill. Lather, rinse, repeat. The key gameplay had only been expanded to allow you to beat the crap out of enemies this time, but really, would The Ring have been scarier if you could punch Samara in the face? Obviously gamers resented these changes, but as the years have gone by, the same formula has been persisting. Downpour, Origins, Homecoming…it’s like the franchise doesn’t know what to do with itself.

And now that problem appears to be plaguing Resident Evil. RE5 took cues from it’s predecessor but came off less as a horror game and more like an adventure title. It also took to introducing co-op, no doubt in order to appeal to English audiences who had their fill of Gears and Army of Two co-op and wanted more.

Resident Evil 6, however, represents the one true turning point. Our preview will tell you plenty about it’s faults. More than anything however, all horror seems to have left the series. Gunning down hordes of zombies and bio-terrors has never felt so drab. It’s like being on the set of a Resident Evil film. There’s no surprise, no terror, nothing. Simply lock and load, soldier.

Both games rely on an exorbitant amount of backstory and mythos to carry them. By that contrast, Amnesia and Slender have little to no backstory to guide them. This disconnect offers the player more of an opportunity to fill the shoes of the character they’re playing as.

More importantly, both games have a single, omniscient entity that can simply end you if you’re not careful – or, in Slender’s case, if you turn around. Terror shifts from one hour to the next, minute by minute pondering, just what will happen and whether you’ll be caught. It’s an exhilarating feeling to be sure, especially since both games tend to ramp up the tension as you go along. The Shadow of Amnesia starts appearing more often. The music becomes more grim and ominous, as your heartbeat elevates, and even if you do succeed, you can’t turn around. In both games, there is no point of return.

Should Capcom and Konami simply toss all pre-tense out the window and focus on making new, experimental horror efforts? It would certainly change up the game a little, and allow both companies to remove the shackles that their respective franchise have placed on them. And maybe they could bring some thing back from those experiences to improve the core gameplay. All we know is: As long as Resident Evil and Silent Hill continue to think bigger and better, rather than personalising their horror a lot more, they’re doomed to eventually be lost in the shuffle.