Cursed objects are a horror staple. But while a haunted mirror or a possessed doll can terrorize those who are in the same room, a cursed video game is something else. It requires consent, meaning that it doesn’t exist unless one agrees to engage.
By accepting the terms and conditions and pressing the Start button, characters voluntarily participate in the nightmare they may never come out of alive. These three horror films perfectly portray the inability to escape the downfall that characters have committed to.
Brainscan (1994)
In the 1990s, CD-ROMs were everywhere. One such object comes into possession of a troubled teenager named Michael, a horror buff living for video games. The content on the disc? Brainscan, a mysterious video game that tasks him with murdering strangers and promising an ultra-realistic experience. Its host is Trickster, a terrifying antagonist who encourages Michael to kill people like a psycho.
The plot thickens as Michael realizes that reality reflects what happens in the game. After committing his first murder, the protagonist learns that a man in his neighborhood was killed in the same way. The line between reality and gameplay further blurs when Michael seemingly kills his best friend, Kyle. At the same time, Trickster appears in real life to torment him, nudging him to kill even his love interest, Kimberly.
The movie perfectly captures the fear that technology can mess with our brain and reality if we let it get too close, quite common for the 1990s. Still, reviews upon initial release were mainly negative, often seeing the film as a guilty pleasure. Variety even qualified it as “too tame for the creature-feature fans and slasher devotees”.
Stay Alive (2006)
From a sci-fi slasher film, we move into the domain of supernatural techno horror. Again, we have a movie in which reality mirrors the cursed game with the same title. After his three friends were killed, Hutch obtains the game and starts playing it with his other friends and acquaintances. It is a multiplayer survival horror game in which players are hunted by the digital avatar of notorious Countess Elizabeth Báthory. If they die in the game, they die in real life, too.
Like Brainscan, Stay Alive was dismissed by the critics as a run-of-the-mill teen slasher. Still, it remains a cult favorite as it integrates actual gaming mechanics into the plot. If you want to take a break from these nightmarish stories and enjoy some low-stakes entertainment, you can always play Solitaire for free without fearing for your life.
Choose or Die (2022)
Although the most recent of the bunch, Choose or Die opts for a retro approach, introducing an 1980s text-based adventure game. The story follows Kayla, a college student who works as a cleaner to pay for her studies. Together with her friend Isaac, who teaches her how to code, she is trying to complete the obscure game and win a $125,000 prize.
However, the game carries a cursed code that manipulates the player’s surroundings. As for the protagonist, it forces her to make impossible choices: hurt people around her or die. While it may seem similar to Brainscan, Choose or Die doesn’t trick Kayla. It blackmails her, physically dismantling her life, thus making the horror external.
Conclusion
For any horror fans into video games, the intersection of these two worlds is fertile ground for nightmares. Although they may not be critically acclaimed, these movies deal with a real fear: will you be able to quit once you have given your consent? They show that sometimes the most dangerous thing is to press the Start button.
