I’m not massively superstitious, but I was given access to far too many horror films at a young age, so I think it’s understandable that I’m at least wary of the supernatural. This being said, the one thing that I’ve taken away from watching movies like Paranormal Activity, The Exorcist, and What Lies Beneath is that you should never, under any circumstances, mess with ouija boards. But unfortunately I had to suspend my most hard-and-fast rule when playing the PS1-style survival horror, Fear the Spotlight’s demo, and I’m still angry about it.
The trouble starts when the protagonist, Vivian, accompanies her more rebellious friend, Amy, into their school after hours. Amy seems to think that a ghost has been following her through the school hallways, and she decides that the best course of action is to take an ouija board that the library had on show to try to communicate with her spectral stalker.
As soon as I set eyes on that evil slab of cardboard, I knew that we were in trouble. To make matters worse, after exploring the library to try and find a possible exit, I saw a memorial to 24 kids who died in a school fire—that means there are 24 ghosts ready to jump us as soon as we lay our hands on the board.
However, following Amy’s advice and using the ouija board was the only way to progress, so I was left with no choice but to give it a go. I even tried to take my hands off the planchette (the wooden arrow), but every time I did Amy would yell at me, so I saw no progress there.
Eventually, whatever spirit that was harassing Amy in the school’s hallways reared its ugly head, destroyed the library, and possessed her (if only someone who was really clever and knew this was going to happen had said something sooner). But the horror game had to start somehow, and after being driven into a hellish other-world at the end of the demo, it seems like we’ll have to try and rescue Amy from being possessed for the rest of eternity when the updated version of the full game releases on October 22.
Ouija board aside, Fear the Spotlight’s demo was pretty fun, especially given that this was really only the prologue. There are a lot of retro horror games around, but they work for a reason, and this low poly rendition still felt scary enough to keep me on edge the entire time. I’m not ashamed to say that while I was navigating the pitch-black library with only a candle to light my way, the strange, distant rustlings and faint footsteps freaked me out so much I had to start listening to Chappell Roan to calm me down.
In the last moments of the demo, Vivian also ventures into a fiery crack in the wall to rescue Amy. I hope this means the rest of the game will take place in a strange mirror version of the school in which halls and rooms morph and change as we venture through them. This kind of psychedelic horror is what I love the most because it makes you feel small and out of control, which is exactly how I like experiencing horror games.
But even if this weren’t the case, it wouldn’t be the end of the world. The school, as it stood in the demo, is creepy enough for the rest of the game. My only frustration with the setting and the demo was the lack of “highly tactile puzzles” that the Steam description promised. I did have to figure out how to open a glass display case, but that mostly just called for walking into different rooms and opening drawers to find a key, so I hope there’ll be more complex puzzles to grapple with in the rest of the game.
But the demo was really just a tutorial, teaching you how to navigate various obstacles, like avoiding spotlights, using items, and dealing with Vivian’s asthma with an inhaler that you find lying around in the library. So it’s still early days for Fear the Spotlight, and I’m excited to progress through the rest of the story later this October.
