It has been over 10 years since the first Outlast (2012) horror video game took the industry by storm, forcing players trapped in a mental asylum to hide under their beds and avoid detection from murderous degenerate criminals and supernatural entities looking to make minced meat out of you. This time, scare-seekers are well on their way to experiencing a similar fear as the franchise is being adapted to the silver screen.
Lionsgate and the IP’s developer Red Barrels have horror producer Roy Lee (V/H/S Beyond, Quarantine 2) onboard the production while J.T. Petty – known for penning most of the franchise’s story and other movies like The Burrowers – will work on the film’s screenplay. According to Deadline, the film’s spirit will resemble the recent cinematic adaptation of Five Nights at Freddy’s and The Strangers: Chapter 1.
While little has been revealed about the adaptation’s plot, we can sense what it may be like. It’s easy to spot similarities between Lee’s movies and the game as Lee is known for producing claustrophobic hand-held cinematic experiences like Quarantine 2; on the other hand, the first Outlast game follows an investigative journalist who snuck into a mental asylum and is forced to run away from psycho killers while using a handheld camera to record what is seen and navigate in the dark.
Commenting on producing an Outlast film, Lee cited the “deep, emergent lore [of the story]” as a “perfect foundation” for delivering both “psychological and physical horrors”. He was positive that the Outlast adaptation would satisfy both new viewers and dedicated fans. Meanwhile, Red Barrels’ Co-Founder and Creative Director David Chateauneuf stated bringing Outlast to movie-goers was “a dream, or should [he] say, nightmare, come true”.
As we await more information on the upcoming Outlast film adaptation, gamers seeking similar bigger screams this spooky season may play the franchise’s recent The Outlast Trials to suffice for now. The game even has comics that expand on the world’s dark and morbid lore, which may be useful when the movie finally rears its ugly head.
Crack open a cold one with Joey, because the moment you approach him, he will start talking about film and video games for days. He spends his waking moments during the weekends meditating on how the latest movie he’s watched or game he’s played has impacted his worldview.
Kevin Low
