Surgent Studios' psychological horror titleDead Takebrings players to an eerie, abandoned Hollywood Hills mansion as they search for actor Vinny Monroe, who went mysteriously missing following a party. The game’s setting is creepy and sinister yet also lush and lavish, as the mansion is filled with luxuries and relics of Hollywood history.Dead Take’sbizarre mansion exists at the intersection of the stunning and the terrifying, a balance that Creative Director Abubakar Salim felt was surprisingly simple to strike.
At an event attended by Game Rant, Salim discussed how theDead Takedevelopment team conceptualized the mansion setting as a “liminal space.” Although gameplay features a mix of escape room-inspired puzzles and splicing together live action footage, the design of the house itself adds aMetroidvania-esque element toDead Take,Salim felt. “Doors and routes unlock themselves the deeper you go,” he explained. “You discover these truths and elements and hidden corners that you didn’t know existed.”
Salim revealed thatDead Take’shousewas partially based on real mansions he had encountered in his life, where “you look at a house from the front and it looks kind of small, but when you go inside, you see how wide it is.” He felt that the house’s deceptive nature added to the horrifying atmosphere ofDead Take,as realizing that something is much larger on the inside can be unsettling.“That, in itself, is also quite terrifying and scary.”
The Mansion’s Design Represents The Nature Of Hollywood And Film
The “terrifying grandeur” ofDead Take’s mansion reflects the game’s core themes: the cutthroat nature of Hollywood, how film and recorded media can both reveal and obscure the truth, and the sometimes horrific fact that, once something has been captured on film, it is preserved forever. Salim based the game’s story on his own experiences in the industry, as well as those of the game’s cast, which includes Jane Perry,Ben Starr, Neil Newbon, and several others. He explained how the house’s design paired with the thematic heart ofDead Take:
“There is something to be said about opulence and majesty, and this beautiful kind of cleanness and grandeur, which is quite terrifying. It’s bigger than you. The idea, with film and recorded content, the fact that it will always exist, is both a beautiful aspect and a beautiful idea to take in, but also quite horrific in the fact that it will never leave you.”
InDead Take,players interact with the relics of old Hollywood by completingescape room-inspired puzzlesscattered throughout the mansion. These puzzles unlock new rooms and hidden secrets as players gradually get closer to the truth of what happened to Vinny Monroe (Ben Starr), and why he disappeared while chasing the role of a lifetime.
However, the mansion’s physical secrets and puzzles are only part of the story: along the way, players will also discover USB drives with clips from films, interviews, audition tapes, and more, a gameplay mechanic Salim compared to the2022 interactive film gameImmortality. By using an app called SPLAICE, players can combine the clips to reveal new truths about Vinny’s disappearance and his fight with Chase Lowry (Neil Newbon) for a career-defining role both men desperately wanted.
Both the opulent and horrifying design of the game’s bizarre mansion and the clips scattered within it combine to emphasize a key theme ofDead Take:once something has been filmed, it can never truly vanish, and will continue to exist - and potentially haunt those involved - for all eternity.Hollywood can be a beautiful, glittering paradise, but it can also be a terrifying nightmare that can push a person to their limits and bring their darkest secrets to light for the world to see.
