For a lot of people, the appeal of horror is being surprised and disturbed by something they've never seen before. In recent years, I've sourced this rare feeling from movies like Obsession, where the gender dynamics of that story made it feel a bit dangerous, or Speak No Evil, which has one of the most shocking and nihilistic endings that I can recall. I even find that freshness in a modern classic like Pearl, which isn't really scary, but contrasts a technicolour old Hollywood style with a singularly unsettling Mia Goth performance to great effect.

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Fear of the unknown is more valuable to me as a viewer than seeing a really good version of something I've experienced before. In games, it's largely the same—I crave new places and themes above all else. It's why Silent Hill: Townfall, Mouthwashing, Dredge, Silent Hill f, and Still Wakes The Deep all succeeded for me. They're all set in locations or timeframes I've never seen anywhere else in games. I step into those worlds not knowing exactly what I'm going to find, and come out the other side feeling exhilarated in a profoundly nasty way. That's horror, baby.

wad. Everyone who plays this Doom 2 map seems to have the same experience: they know there's something weird about this mod set in a seemingly normal suburban home, but they spiral once they start playing it and realise how many secrets are impossibly embedded within its walls.

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