Photo courtesy of Puppet Combo.
John Carpenter’s
Halloween
(1978) is an iconic film that began the golden age of slasher films with boogeymen slaughtering teenagers, including
Nightmare on Elm Street
(1984) and
Friday the 13th
(1980). Of course, with every good horror film, a mediocre game adaptation is made (typically on the Atari). However, as a rare fan-inspired first, Puppet Combo’s Playstation 2 themed
Babysitter Bloodbath
(2013) revisits
Halloween
and does the spooky story justice.
The player takes on the role of Sarah, a last minute babysitter hired to watch over the young Billy while his parents are out for the evening. Suddenly, the phone rings and a mysterious caller speaks an ominously incomprehensive gibberish. In typical 80s teenager fashion, Sarah responds by inviting a cute boy from the mall, Jack, for a late night hang with scary movies and love. But before things get scandalous, the couple hears a strange noise outside the house. After a brief investigation, Jack is brutally murdered by mental asylum escapee, Neokalus Burr. Shortly afterwards, the power goes out and the killer begins his hunt. With almost no tools or weapons, the player must now evade Burr for as long as possible to escape.
Babysitter Bloodbath
is a fairly short indie game developed by Puppet Combo, formerly known as Pig Farmer Productions. Puppet Combo is well known in the indie gaming community for developing retro games that range from walking home alone at night, doing laundry in the shadiest part of town or working the night shift at a local gas station. However, what made Puppet Combo memorable was
Babysitter Bloodbath
. With a straightforward and familiar, slasher film-inspired plot and basic PS2 style gameplay, the game serves as a good scare and shot of nostalgia for any casual gamer, and a worthwhile experience for any
Halloween
fan.
Unique to
Babysitter Bloodbath
is the early 90s classic video game aesthetic which Puppet Combo heavily embraces. From the Carpenter inspired piano chords, VHS themed navigation menu, blocky characters and items, cheap animations and eerie ambience,
Babysitter Bloodbath
reimagines
Halloween
to the playstation era the Atari version failed to do. Although the retro-themed style is notably different from 21st century horror games,
Babysitter Bloodbath
is able to approach horror just as well. As a matter of fact, what made Carpenter’s
Halloween
, and even the Silent Hill series, a success was the atmosphere of walking amongst the unknown it created.
Combining a first and third person perspective, resembling games such as
Silent Hill, Clock Tower 2
or modern day horror games, this game ends up coming off as terrifying. Like the early
Silent Hill
games, there is comfort wandering around with a third-person perspective, as seeing everything keeps you safe. However, once the game transitions into a first-person perspective, your obscured vision makes you feel as if you are being watched. One minute, you are chasing Billy down the hall; suddenly, you are forced to hide and wander the halls, evading a deranged killer that might just be stalking you from around the corner.
If you are looking for a quick horror game or are simply a huge
Halloween
fan,
Babysitter Bloodbath
is worth a shot! This game is available for Windows for $2.95 USD on itch.io. The boogeyman is just around the corner. Can you escape?