Xbox Game Pass’ new horror game is like a playable John Carpenter movie

As someone who loves both gaming and cinema, I’m always excited when those two worlds connect. Sometimes that’s with great film adaptations of games or vice versa, but I’m even more interested when I can feel the influence of cinema history in a game’s DNA. Something like Until Dawn, for instance, calls back to the golden age of gory slasher flicks with memorable results. It’s rewarding for me as a fan of both mediums, letting me draw direct connections between them.

I recently got that experience thanks toStill Wakes the Deep, a new horror game from developer The Chinese Room now available on PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X/S, and PC (it’s also available on Xbox Game Pass right now). While it’s a totally original title, it feels like a playable John Carpenter film. Think The Thing on an oil rig, but significantly more Scottish. While it doesn’t fully live up to that pitch, its short runtime and immaculately gory vibes make it worth checking out.

Still Wakes the Deep is a period piece set in 1975 about an oil rig off the coast of Scotland. Players take control of worker Cameron McLeary, who quickly finds himself at the center of a nightmare when a disaster damages the rig. He’s left trying to escape the wreckage — a hard task made more difficult by the fact that he’s being stalked by some kind of supernatural flesh beast.

The John Carpenter influence is apparent the second the first monster appears. The mysterious creature takes control of other workers on the rig, turning their bodies into fleshy puppets that stalk the deteriorating ship. The Thing probably comes to mind immediately, and it should. Still Wakes the Deep captures that same sense of paranoia as Cameron watches as his colleagues are slowly infected with the plague. It’s grotesque in all the right ways.

There’s a lot to love here, though there are some missed opportunities as well. On the positive side, it’s an effective horror game filled with tense chase scenes and pulse-pounding stealth sequences. The