A couple days ago my wife and I played The Night of the Scissors. Took us maybe 60 minutes to beat. The first couple of jumpscares really got us. The tension was constant.

By the time we were done playing, I said "I want to make something like this too." and my wife immediately said how exciting that would be. A lot of how Detour panned out is because of her feedback, I imagine it wouldn't be different this time.

The Night of the Scissors itself is pretty basic. It's sort of dumb, but in a good way. It's dumb like movies like Doctor Doolittle, Liar Liar or Grown Ups. Or since this game is a slasher game, maybe a better list would be Scream, I Know What You Did Last Summer and Child's Play.

Notice what's common? They're all from the 90s. Somehow over the last 30 years, horror has been intellectualized. I love Get Out and Weapons too. But the movies I watched when growing up, and the ones I saw when I started creating things on my computer feel so different.

There was a certain lack of self-awareness and innocence in the 80s and 90s. The underlying message from the film makers wasn't social commentary, sometimes it was just "We are somewhat ignorant and just want you to have fun."

Horror, elevated

You can imagine Zach Cregger talk about his 2025 film Weapons like "So dozens of parents wake up to see that their middleschooler kids have disappeared at night. There's footage of them running out. And turns out they're in the basement of a house occupied by this witch-like lady."

Depending on what inspired the movie, he might go on "So it plays with the fear of parents not really knowing what external forces are over their children. You see how parents and kids are on their phones all day? They don't really know what ideology or trend or culture is taking over their childs mind and the lady is a symbol for that."

That was just my interpretation of what the movie is about. I saw it in the theatre and loved it. The scene at night where someone gets out of the house with a pair of scissors while Julia Garner's character is sleeping in the car? I remember how the entire audience was gripped and shivers went down our spines when the door of the car opened.

Every year a couple of movies like this come out. They push the boundaries of the genre. But I also think about the film makers behind I Know What You Did Last Summer:
"So a bunch of kids are driving and they hit a homeless guy. They think he's dead and panic and just leave his dead body hoping it's all behind them. But that guy comes back to kill them and get his revenge. AND HE HAS A HOOK FOR A HAND!"

That... sounds the same kind of plot simplicity that The Night of the Scissors has. If you play the games by Puppet Combo, the vibe is quite similar.

In 2025 and 2026, I have gone to the theatre to see some truly campy movies: Sequels to Final Destination, Anaconda and Scream. They might feel more polished now and there's more VFX, but they were all fun to watch. Also, this anaconda growls in the movie which is absolutely hilarious.

Enjoying Campy

This week I also played Babbdi and Moldrise, both of which feel very smart to me. I am excited about playing Heartworm soon, which looks somewhat avant-garde too.

I, myself, don't have any elevated horror ideas. At least not right now. I sometimes think of the idea of a non violent, depressing fungal pandemic apocalypse inspired by Bea Camacho's Efface as a twist on traditional zombie horror and action. But, I don't think I'm there yet to take on something like that.

Until then? Maybe I'll make a game about an investigative journalist who has somehow found herself in an abandoned water treatment plant where a killer lurks. Maybe once I start making it I'll change the setting to a farm because there aren't any good asset packs for me to cheaply make a game set in a water treatment plant. Maybe it'll be inspired from Heavy Rain's Taxidermist DLC that I really liked.

It might be a pretty cookie-cutter game where you have to hide from a killer and solve some puzzles. Nothing too smart, very derivative. But maybe polished and good enough for a few people to play and finish the game in one sitting.

Isn't this the point of technology, skill and cost democratization?