Fear The Spotlight

Platforms: PC, PS4/PS5, Xbox Series X|S

In the era of next-gen consoles and sparkly photo-real graphics, it’s curiously refreshing when a game takes a deliberately retro approach. That’s very much the case with Fear The Spotlight, a new indie horror from two-person development team Cozy Game Pals and the first toe-dip into video games from horror masters Blumhouse. Originally released on PC in 2023 — it now makes the leap to consoles with an additional chapter — this is a game which genuinely feels, graphics-wise at least, like it could have been made in 1996. For anyone who grew up on classic PS1 horrors like Resident Evil and Silent Hill, the experience is uncanny.

You play as Vivian (Khaya Fraites) and Amy (Maganda Marie), teenage friends — or more? — who break into their school at night to perform a seance with a stolen Ouija board. Wouldn’t you know it: the seance does not go well. Vivian suddenly finds herself in the school as it was in 1991, just before a fire killed multiple students. As Vivian, you must track Amy down while escaping a deadly demonic spotlight.

Appropriately for the teenage/young adult target audience, it’s low-level spooky rather than heart-attack-inducingly scary.

For gamers of a certain vintage, there’s plenty of nostalgia to be had here. The blocky, pixelated 3D character design evokes _Resident Evi_l’s Jill Valentine; even the serif font used in the menus has echoes of that game’s typeface. There are lovely retro touches everywhere, in fact: one mission involves plugging a red/yellow/white RCA cable into an old telly — ask your parents, kids — while there are conspicuous references to ‘90s horrors like Buffy (the high school is named Sunnyside High, a clear nod to Sunnydale) and The Ring.

Appropriately for the teenage/young adult target audience, it’s low-level spooky rather than heart-attack-inducingly scary. Aside from a couple of hammer-blow moments, the game prefers to luxuriate in unsettling imagery: a mannequin in a giant cage; a decapitated bird; a door that becomes locked without explanation; a scratchy old record playing of its own accord.

Some younger players, admittedly, might quibble with its old-fashioned, methodical pace. The gameplay here emphasises simple puzzles over violent action. But that straightforward approach is hugely rewarding, backed up by a sweet queer love story with an emotional payoff. (There are echoes of the celebrated Last Of Us DLC Left Behind, another teenage breaking-and-entering romance, which developer Bryan Singh previously worked on.) In parallel, conveniently-placed notes and diary pages build up a tragic Phantom Of The Opera-esque backstory for the doomed 1991 students. It all makes for an atmospheric, emotionally rich experience. You can almost hear the PS1 startup sound.