Every once in a while, a new game will enter the scene that deviates so completely from the norm that it reinvents the rules, andScornlooks like it’s going to be one of those games. Despite a lengthy time spent in development and through Kickstarter funding,Scornwas once again seen at the Xbox and Bethesda Games Showcase this year and given an official release date.
Launching just in time for Halloween,Scornhas promised its fans and backers a macabre and morbid odyssey through a biomechanical hellscape that places its horror front and center. Unlike other horror games of its ilk, it is not just an alien world and its symbiotic creatures that will unsettle players, but the quintessential body horror experience thatScorndelivers, wherein the true horror is the perversion and corruption of the human form until it becomes so unrecognizable that it is more inhuman than anything else.
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Body Horror In Gaming
Body horror has its earliest roots in Gothic literature through the aberration, mutilation, or corruption of the human body. To that end, it’s always been one of the less seen subgenres of horror due to the graphic nature when depicted, making it difficult to market and “show” to audiences. But that hasn’t stopped audiences' morbid fascination with it, and thanks to the likes of David Cronenberg’sThe ThingandThe Flypopularizing it at the Hollywood level,a breadth of body horror movies thrive today. Since film and gaming share a hand-in-hand relationship when it comes to defining their genres, body horror made its way into the gaming scene.
Gaming thankfully has a far more relaxed and welcoming attitude when it comes to body horror, as some of gaming’s biggest and most iconic franchises fromSilent HilltoResident Evilincorporate body horror. Though the degrees to which games have employed body horror varies, it’s an inescapable fact that most if not all horror games will include it somehow. Traditionally, however, the body horror applies less to the protagonist and more to the games' antagonists. So while scenes such asDead Space 2’s infamous “eye-poke” sceneare truly gruesome for the player themselves - even when it goes right - it’s just one example of a fleeting few among all other horror games.
Speaking ofResident Evil, its most recent entries withResident Evil 7: BiohazardandResident Evil Villagehave tackled body horror in a more nuanced way. The lead protagonist, Ethan, is subject to all sorts of injuries during his romps through the bayou of Southern US tothe villages of Eastern Europe. Chief among which is Ethan consistently getting his hands bitten in half or just outright chopped off, but as players learned from Capcom, there’s a good reason for this. The developer confirmed that since Ethan himself isn’t always visible to the player, but his hands are, they are what players will see most “hurt” and why healing has him splash his hands in first aid meds. In order to convey pain and trauma, the game had scripted moments where Ethan’s hand is amputated for shock factor, ultimately factoring into the overall story as well.
Body Horror In Scorn
Though its body horror isn’t so overtly explicit,Resident Evil Villageand the reasons behind Ethan’s amputated handis what can help illuminate whyScornis going above and beyond in the body horror genre and how it’s going to exceed its competition. ForResident Evil Village, the body horror was one small part of the greater whole, and wasn’t the game’s focus.Scorn, on the other hand, is doubling down in its grotesqueness and presenting a truer, more complete body horror experience. The world, its denizens, and the player themselves, are all fresh from an H. R. Giger fever dream, andScornunashamedly revels in that fact.
While alien worlds and gruesome inhuman creatures are commonplace in gaming, the body horror becomes infinitely more horrific and pronounced when it is forced upon the player, whichScornabsolutely does. Its opening premise is that as the protagonist the player awakens in this strange techno-organic world and can only explore its labyrinthian biomes to uncover the secrets and stories hiding deep below. The means of navigating takes a leaf fromMetroidvanias, whereby interacting with the world’s creatures-come-machines opens new paths or unlocks doors, it is all done through bodily implants and biomechanical tools that function as an extension of the player’s body.
By comparing snippets of trailers to one another, it’s clear that these implants and tools will be gained along the way, meaning that the player will at some point have to subject themselves voluntarily to mutilation and augmentation, fulfilling that body horror ethos. ThoughScornadopts afirst-person perspective just likeResident Evil Village, the horror feels more pronounced, as while Ethan might still be human-looking, it’s clear that the player inScornis something else entirely.
At this stage, it’s unknown for certain whatScorn’sstory is, how the player came to find themselves in the flesh-filled nightmare, or if they could even escape, but there’s an ultimate sense of unease and dread as the player becomes more and more changed the deeper they go intoScorn’sworld. That uncomfortable feeling that these changes are irreversible is a core tenet of body horror, and its unique absolute application byScornis what will set it apart from the likes ofSilent Hill,Resident Evil,Dead Space, and beyond.
Scornis set to be released on July 30, 2025, for PC and Xbox Series X/S.
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