Top 10 horror films that would make great iPhone games

The deliberately shocking Saw franchise set off at a good speed, but going out of your way to upset the censors is kinda cheap, which has robbed the franchise of its dignity.

Fortunately, the game of the film is preparing to step in and put some life back into those grizzly flicks, and what with the Festival of the Dead just around the corner we decided to give a passing thought to ten glorious, departed horror films prime for resurrection through the arcane arts of the video game.

Got any suggestions for a horror film you’d like to participate in? Write your comments in blood after the show.

Oh, and don't forget to take another look through our Top 10 iPhone Zombie Games if your hunger for virtual flesh isn't slaked by the gore-nographer's buffet below.

Hellraiser (1987) Clive Barker’s directorial debut is a sublime trip into the dark side of fantasy, where angels and demons are combined into the race of mutilatrixes called the Cenobites, led by the cult favourite now known as Pinhead.

The game potential here is huge, offering you the opportunity to take on the role of Leviathan’s foot soldiers and slice, dice and pierce to help the curious Lament Configuration tinkers achieve new levels of agony and ecstasy.

The iPhone’s touchscreen would make a superb flesh-work canvas for practising these dark arts, while the accelerometer could employ a twisted version of Zen Bound’s taught rope (with a hook on the end).

As a matter of small interest, my own Pocket Gamer profile picture was taken as I shook hands with Doug Bradley at a comic convention. That, in case you’re wondering, makes me cool by proxy.

Ichi the Killer (2001) This Japanese cult classic isn’t a traditional horror so much as a snuff film with a great comic book-style story (which is fitting given that it’s based on a manga series).

The guy on the cover isn’t actually Ichi, but a perverse sadomasochistic Yakuza enforcer called Kakihara, and it’s him, as much as the cowardly, bipolar assassin Ichi, who would make for the game’s most active protagonist.

A mysterious player is pitting two yakuza gangs against each other, which naturally lends itself to all manner of violence and mayhem as the two crime syndicates battle it out in horrific, gruesome style - while Ichi dips in and out to tip the balance in both directions in his own brutal, unique style.

I’d totally play this game, and the puritan media would promote it out of all proportion - just like good exploitation entertainment demands.

The Blob (1958/1988)

Games like Katamari and De Blob spring to mind when conjuring up the possibilities for a game based on '50s B-movie extravaganza, The Blob. But as awesome as Steve McQueen was (in his first starring role, fact fans might be interested to learn), it’s the 1988 remake that really hangs in my mind as the better inspiration.

The eponymous blob was no longer a piece of amorphous rolling tar, but a corrosive splodge of liquid, toxic, veiny flesh that devoured its victims from within (including a cameo from Baywatch’s undiscovered Erika Eleniak, no less).

Again, the touchscreen would be the perfect interface for controlling that glutinous mass of organic, people-eating, amoeba-like tissue as it terrorises Redneckville, USA.

Day of the Dead (1985)

Most people proclaim that Dawn of the Dead is the zenith of Romero’s zombie series, but it was Day that caught my attention back in 1985. My dad’s old army buddy owned our local video shop, and he was happy for a 10-year-old to rent this awesome piece of flesh eating celluloid.

What’s great about Day of the Dead is that a single zombie is a dangerous creature. In the other Romero movies, one zombie isn’t much of a threat, but in that old military silo we see exactly what our undead selves are capable of as humanity clings to survival by its last fingernail.

The film is rife with gaming possibilities, with the potential for three factions to compete against each other (dare I suggest online?) as the scientists, the army and the zombie horde engage in a blood soaked game of chess. Only with bullets.

Bagsie I'm Burb!

Carrie (1976)

“Carrie, you haven't touched your apple cake.”

Such a wonderful quote from the big screen adaptation of Stephen King’s Carrie, epitomising the surreal life of telekinetic Carrie White as her mother systematically pushes her to the brink of insanity.

You don’t need me to tell you what Carrie’s about, but its latent gaming opportunities are fertile ground for discussion. At first, you’d think there wasn’t much of a game until Carrie realises her abilities and puts them to deadly use, but King crafted such razor sharp characters there’s plenty of fodder for a tense and engaging adventure game here.

Your task could be one of self-discovery, guiding Carrie through her naive school life, dealing with the cruelty of adolescence all around her, and developing the psychic powers that will ultimately exact that terrible and beautifully violent revenge at the prom. What a blood soaked, burning finale that would be.

Poltergeist (1982)

There was a brief, but wonderful trend in horror movies of the late '70s and early '80s, when directors understood the importance of building an enviably beautiful and normal life for the characters, then brutally tearing it down.

This subtle storytelling mechanic is quite ingenious in a horror film, as it attacks our refuge as we watch - hiding under the bedclothes or behind a cushion no longer worked after our homes were invaded by Halloween, The Fog, The Exorcist or Poltergeist.

Exploring the house as Carol Anne, taunting the spirits trapped by The Beast, then working to unleash - and ultimately free - them with the help of the terrifying Tangina (I know she was a good guy, but she scares the living piss out of me) would be a superb adventure game to play, alone and in the dark, on your iPhone this Halloween.

What’s especially sad about Poltergeist, of course, is the heartbreaking death of rising star Heather O’Rourke (who played Carol Anne) at the tragic age of just 12-years-old.

Battle Royale (2000)

This film adaptation of Koushun Takami’s novel is a controversial piece of cinematic history that, much like Ichi the Killer, isn’t strictly a 'monsters and gore' horror. But its violent and disturbing theme earns it a place in our Halloween list, and a well deserved one at that.

In an effort to beat some discipline back into the schools, each year, a class is selected at random to take part in the compulsory Battle Royale. The students are taken to a remote island, fitted with explosive collars and given three days to kill their classmates, or all their collars will be detonated.

This would make a superb online multiplayer, with a crowd of blood crazed iPhoners desperately searching for weapons in an effort to survive and hunt their human prey without mercy or conscience.

Controversial? Maybe. Fun? Definitely.

May (2002)

Every list like this has to have a curve ball thrown in there at the latter end, and I’ve chosen the indie hit May. The film follows the growth of meek outcast May, whose distorted image of perfection causes her to begin murdering those with a physical attribute she admires in an effort to piece together the perfect companion from all these flawless parts. Frankenstein meets MTV, if you like.

Naturally you’d have to take on the role of the self-effacing May, in something of a sandbox, choice-driven RPG in which you could either guide May back toward humanity and protect her from the dangerous people around her, or choose the darker route and seduce these associates then chop them up and put together the perfect partner for dear, sweet, unassuming serial killer May.

Slither (2006)

Written and directed by James Gunn (who was catapulted into the film industry by your hero and mine, Lloyd Kaufman), Slither is one of the best creature features of this, or any, decade.

Starring the superbly reptilian Michael “chocolate pretzel” Rooker as the violently symbiotic alien, jumping into the lovelorn shoes of Nathan Fillian’s Sheriff Bill Pardy would make for an amazingly gory and violent slapstick shooter as you spread the guts of slugs, zombies and big gross alien things all across the once quiet, peaceful town of Wheelsy.

Gunn has been pestered by the producers to create a sequel for Slither since before the first film had even been released, and a video game of the darkly humorous horror caper would make the perfect follow up.

To be quite honest, half the films above could be combined into one slime-coated shotgun-blast of a video game gore-fest and flown under the banner of a spectacular Slither game.

The Return of the Living Dead (1985)

Written and directed by Alien scribe Dan O’Bannon, The Return of the Living Dead was an unofficial, spiritual sequel to George Romero’s undead classic, and proved to be a hit that rivalled its inspiration for cult fanaticism.

Born into a time when Mary Whitehouse and her thought police were stalking the nation's video shops, The Return of the Living Dead made no apologies for giving B-movie slasher fans what they wanted - a town full of zombies biting on flesh, and then being slaughtered in the most gory, imaginative ways possible. And who can forget the awesome ‘tarman’ zombie? Classic stuff.

Canisters of zombifying gas bring a boring town to undead life, and massacring your way through the graveyards, schools, hospitals and other wonderfully clichéd settings of the once homeless screenwriter Dan O’Bannon is prime fodder for a balls-out iPhone shooter. The third one was pretty good, too.

Happy Halloween from all at Pocket Gamer, mother f*****s!