Katharine Castle
Fear the Spotlight is the least scary horror game you’ll likely ever play, but there’s a tenderness to its storytelling that cannot be overstated here, even if some of it’s a bit muddled.
Why is it that games don’t draw more often from the realms of musical theatre? I’d argue they’re just as much a part of our cultural fabric as films and TV shows, but for whatever reason they very rarely manage to get a look in. Sure, they might not be the first thing that 30-something-year-old white men look for on their tapestry of pop culture references, but for a certain sub-section of the gaming population, a dialogue exchange riffing on the lyrics of Les Misérables, say (shout out to Subsurface Circular), is just as likely to elicit a delighted fist pump from me than yet another Twin Peaks reference in something like Alan Wake, for example.
I mention all this because Fear the Spotlight, the first game to be published by horror film company Blumhouse’s new games division, directly riffs on Phantom of the Opera – a realisation that brought me so much joy that it was almost enough to smooth over its slightly rougher edges elsewhere. I love Phantom of the Opera. It is one of my favourite things outside of games, and I cannot tell you how heartening it is to see it crop up in this very gentle tale of a spooky high school séance gone wrong.
Again, I realise that not everyone will react the same way to seeing broken mirrors open up to reveal hidden passageways or, indeed, peeling back plush, red velvet curtains only to find the most 90s school boiler room lair instead of a candlelit opera house grotto. But as a repeat offender of watching Phantom at the theatre, as well as the 2004 film about ten times more than is really necessary (not to mention reading the book on which it’s based), I will always have a soft spot for anything that plays with its themes of longing and secret desires – especially when the phantom figure himself gets a honking great spotlight for a head, and whose piercing gaze will cause shy teen Vivian to wheeze and become short of breath if she gets trapped inside its blinding light. Honestly, pyramid heads are so last season here.
It’s a fitting conceit for Vivian’s underlying struggle to expose and express her deeper feelings toward her best friend Amy, but steering clear of this wandering stage bulb is also how Fear the Spotlight keeps players on their toes between its brilliantly constructed Resident Evil-style puzzle segments. It’s never particularly scary – tables and overturned desks provide plenty of cover for Vivian to crouch and hide behind during the fixed and predetermined moments he shows up, and once you’ve reached a door to enter another room, you can always breathe easy. This isn’t a threat that will constantly pursue you like Mr. X, for example, and even if you do get caught, I was able to quite easily outrun him and make my escape.
It’s very generous in that sense, even if it does take the bite out of its overall horror somewhat. It’s hard to feel any lingering sense of danger when you can just put a lid on a game’s main threat like that, and it’s very easy for it to lose any kind of suspense when there’s precious little else here working to keep up the tension. Fear the Spotlight doesn’t do jump scares, you see (unless you count the creepy little gremlin lads that sometimes blink at you and shuffle about in the shadows), which will no doubt be great news for some, but it does also drain the game of any sense of dread or challenge anytime the phantom’s not on screen. It’s a horror game for people that don’t do horror games, in other words, and will likely be a bit too safe and simple for anyone else.
But Fear the Spotlight isn’t just one big Phantom of the Opera riff. There’s a second part to this tale, which has been freshly added to the game this October thanks to assistance from new publisher Blumhouse. This shows a different side of the story from the perspective of a character I’d be loath to spoil, and despite relocating the action to an altogether different setting, its mix of stealth and puzzle-fuelled exploration remains very much the same. Alas, it’s here where Fear the Spotlight begins to feel a lot more muddled for me in what it’s trying to achieve. For as we retreat into the entranced mind of the Christine Daaé stand-in in Vivian’s side of the story, it’s not the world of musical theatre we find ourselves in anymore, but that of Hideo Nakata’s 1998 film The Ring.
It’s an odd juxtaposition to say the least, but one that feels even more toothless and diluted than what came before it. Taking place across just two floors of an old house – as opposed to the much larger school of part one – its puzzles are just as cleverly constructed in this smaller and more intimate setting, but it completely misses how to make its claustrophobic, box-riddled corridors work with its main baddie – which, yep, you guessed it, is a dripping, long-haired woman who’s gone a little too far with her backcombing.
Sadly, she’s even less of a threat than old spotlight head in part one, as she doesn’t even have the good grace to chase or stalk you half the time, and is seemingly just there to be an obvious metaphor for the character’s troubled mother. It’s a shame, as the first half seemed to really understand the core themes and tenets of what makes Phantom of the Opera tick. This second part, though, just seems content to pick and choose convenient motifs from The Ring without really getting to the heart of why it’s still so damn scary all these years later. Instead, it’s the puzzles that really carry this section, and while each exhibits the same wonderful tactility of pushing and pulling levers with your mouse – twiddling dials, lifting lids and clunking big chunky buttons into place as they did in part one – its weaker story elements can’t help but like it’s undermining it all in the process.
All that said, Fear the Spotlight is still an enjoyable way to spend five hours or so, and I really do love how the shifting textures of its PS1-era visuals make each part feel just a tiny bit otherworldly despite their very mundane settings. It won’t scare you in the slightest, but there’s a very sweet and tender-hearted love story sitting at the centre of this, and the excellent voice work from its central duo of Khaya Fraites and Maganda Marie bring real warmth and empathy to this pair of nervous teenagers. There might not be much to challenge you here, but if all you’re after is the lightest of thrills then Fear the Spotlight will no doubt be music to your ears.
A copy of Fear the Spotlight was provided for review by publisher Blumhouse Games.
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