The idea of “horror” can manifest in a lot of different ways. Sure, monsters and aliens are scary, but what about the creeping dread of a failing career? Or committing yourself so entirely to creating art that you lose everything else in life in the process? Those kinds of subtle elements can oftentimes feel more horrifying than the supernatural, because it’s something nearly everyone can identify with. Dead Take is a game that embraces those ideas, weaving a fascinating tale about the nature of art, creation, and the dark, exploitation-ridden underbelly of Hollywood. It transposes those ideas through a horror video game framework, and loops in full-motion video with some truly chilling performances from some of gaming’s best actors. It’s a game that’s a bit messy, but undoubtedly one of the most fascinating experiences of the year.
Dead Take is the second game from Surgent Studios, following last year’s debut title from the developer, the Metroidvania Tales of Kenzera: Zau. But interestingly, Dead Take is a similarly personal game for the studio’s head, Abubakar Salim, an actor best known for roles like Alyn of Hull in House of the Dragon and Bayek in Assassin’s Creed Origins. Dead Take is pretty openly billed as a game about the “dark side” of Hollywood, and it’s pretty easy to see how the personal experiences of the actors behind it have shaped the game’s narrative.
Dead Take’s contained and opulent setting feels surprisingly chilling.
Surgent Studios
But the six-hour experience ends up being so much more than a harrowing recounting of a cutthroat industry — it’s a treatise on how far we’re willing to go in the creation of art, how much of our humanity we’re willing to lose in the process. It’s a game I beat entirely in one sitting, and I haven’t been able to stop thinking about it since. The non-linear narrative is a bit puzzling to put together, but the way it’s left me with lingering questions is remarkable — how much of the game felt relatable to my own experience of being exploited in my writing career.
In Dead Take, you play as an aspiring actor named Chase Lowry (Baldur’s Gate 3’s Neil Newbon). Chase hasn’t been able to get in touch with his friend Vinny Monroe (Final Fantasy XVI’s Ben Starr) for days, and in desperation, heads to the last place he was seen — the luxurious mansion of a Hollywood mogul named Dean Cain.
This eerie mansion turns out to be the perfect setting for a horror game, a true testament to the opulence and excess of Hollywood. The hallways are filled with evocative paintings, a grand bathhouse sports a massive statue of Poseidon, and hidden pathways and surveillance rooms are trapped behind bookcases. It feels like something right out of Resident Evil, just without the zombies. But the setting actually feels perfect for a Hollywood mogul driven mad with power and suspicion — and as you progress through the mansion, you start to learn of the various ways Dean Cain has abused his position.
While Dead Take’s story is entirely grounded, the game does a great job of making Cain’s mansion feel almost supernatural.
Surgent Studios
But what makes the game truly interesting is how you dissect its narrative — through the viewpoints of different actors. There are essentially two halves to Dead Take, escape room-esque puzzles throughout the mansion and FMV videos that push forward the narrative. As you piece your way through the mansion, you’ll find flash drives that contain video clips, which you can then plug in and watch through the in-house movie theater.
These clips are often “cold takes” of actors auditioning for a role in Cain’s new film, The Last Voyage. But there are also others that helps flesh out the story around Cain, the film, and what’s really going on with Chase and Vinnie’s relationship. Both Newbon and Starr give incredible performances as the leading characters, slowly transitioning from devilishly charming to cold and unhinged. But the pair is complemented by a fantastic ensemble of bit characters, including Alan Wake and Control writer Sam Lake, Matt Mercer (Leon in Resident Evil), Jane Perry (Selene in Returnal), and Laura Bailey (Abby in The Last of Us: Part II).
There’s not a single bad performance in Dead Take, but the extra layer on top of how all these clips weave together to reveal the bigger picture. The more you see, the more you start to piece things together, and there’s even a “Splicing” system where you can combine two clips to reveal an entirely new one. There’s a real sense of discovery to how the game plays out, culminating in a truly bone-chilling reveal to close things out.
Dead Take isn’t the most complicated horror game out there; its puzzles are pretty simple, and it has a breezy six-hour runtime. But the sheer talent of its cast and the way its diverging narrative comes together is remarkably compelling. But more than anything, the way the game sits with you is its best trait. It’s one of those experiences that you continuously roll over in your mind, unpacking it piece by piece, long after you’ve finished.
The stellar performance helps Dead Take turn into something more than the sum of its parts, really driving home the game’s themes.
Surgent Studios
And the questions the game raises are legitimately important to this moment in time. Entertainment industries across the globe, from Hollywood to video games, are in a moment of great upheaval. Corporatization has hit everything, surging the cost of making entertainment, while the actors and developers at the bottom are exploited and churned through the content machine. Dead Take asks if the casualties from making “entertainment” are really worth it, and how the act of creating art is often soul-consuming.
These are questions that everyone will probably have a different answer for, but that’s exactly the point. Art is ethereal and independent, and the best art is created when those creating it are given room to thrive.
