Snippets of Indie Horror

With the month of October just fast approaching, I thought go over some recent spine chillers.  Mid to big budget games are at a drip feed right now, but indie titles (as always) continue to flood the market.  Quite a few of these micro-budget, oftentimes one-man, projects are designed to be short and scary.  Most are also extremely cheap or even free.  That said, plowing through all the dross to find the good stuff can be a tedious process.  Thankfully, there are some Youtubers out there that eat up these kinds of titles like popcorn.  Two of my personal favorites are Gab Smolders and CJUGames.  While not affiliated in any way, they both have a love of horror games.  So much so, the pair almost feel like they could be a sister/brother duo.  As a sampling of their extensive video libraries I'll offer up a few of links.  Ladies first...

SPOT H9 is one of those simple premise, could happen to anyone, nightmare scenarios.  It's short and filled with jump scares, but the ending has a funny little twist that makes it standout from similarly themed games:   

The Last Cosmonaut is a mix of sci-fi and horror all wrapped into a neat little retro package.  It has a lot in common with another game I recently mentioned on this blog - Stowaway.  So, if you liked that you might enjoy this as well.  

The Well is less of a video game and more a piece of interactive art.  Even so, it has an distinct visual style that captures the source material it is based on perfectly.  The writing is also sharp and appropriately disturbing.

Made for the "Summer of Shivers" game jam, The Salvation Project is perhaps more hilarious than terrifying.  Based on the theme of a satanic panic, the game is centered around a Kermit-the-Frog lookalike character who communicates to the player via TV broadcasts.