This Silent Hill- and Resident Evil-inspired indie horror game's "secret ingredient" is live-action cinematics

It is my great privilege at the dawn of this spooky season to tell you about a new, weird, and wonderful indie horror game inspired by classics like Resident Evil and Silent Hill. Tenebris Somnia is an upcoming spookfest with a nightmare-inducing monster that comes to life in live-action cinematics.

Even without the live-action component, Tenebris Somnia is incredibly compelling as a big fan of old-school horror, particularly Clock Tower. The demo currently available via Steam is a nicely polished sample in which you play as a recently heartbroken person returning their ex-partner's apartment keys only to discover something's terribly amiss. There's a persistent tension and dread in piecing together the shards of this bloody, cryptic, messed-up nightmare, and my heart pounded throughout the final confrontation.

Developers Andrés Borghi and Tobías Rusjan say Tenebris Somnia's "secret ingredient" is its cinematics, and I can attest that the one cutscene in the demo is genuinely terrifying and surprisingly integrates pretty seamlessly into the gameplay. That can be attributed to cinematic production, convincing actors, and a horrible creature that's equally frightening in live-action and gameplay sequences.

There's no release date for Tenebris Somnia quite yet, but I highly encourage you to download the demo and give it a go. Aside from some very minor typos here and there, there's virtually zero jank, and if you get nothing else from it, the novelty of an 8-bit horror game with creepy live-action scenes warrants the download alone. It even has controller support! Turn off the lights, light a pumpkin spice candle, and steep yourself in the retro Halloween vibes.

Afterward, check out the best horror games to play during this exact season.