Need an idea for a horror? How about a mysterious death in the mountains? Perfect. And it’s more perfect if it’s true. A new exploration/experience horror game, Kholat, is based on the Dyatlov Pass Incident in which several hikers mysteriously met a horrific death back in 1959. By horrific I mean hacked, bones broken, contusions, and fractured skulls. There were no signs of struggle, and no explanation was given about how they died other than death by “unknown compelling force”.
Spooky.
I didn’t know about the Dyatlov Pass Incident until I saw “Devil’s Pass”, a horror found-footage film about a college video crew who go to find out what happened. In the movie, they come across some weird alien life forms and a crazy teleporting device like in “The Fly”. That’s one explanation.
Another could be found in Kholat, which seems more like a deep introspective philosophical blah-blah-blah than a true horror. The release trailer shows glowing footprints as some mysterious alien-like creature roams through the icy caverns of what I guess are the Ural Mountains, or the Kholat Syakhl. Sean Bean does the cliche-plagued (“overwhelming darkness”, etc etc) narration.
There’s also a corpse in the trailer. It’s hanging like it was crucified. Not good.
That’s all the release trailer shows us. Could be all that, could be less. The Dyatlov Pass is intriguing, but I was very disappointed with Devil’s Pass. Hope the game interpretation of the event is a bit more satisfying.
Kholat is out on Windows October 6, 2015.